occasion for any "Association and Agreement"--existed till the MAY-
FLOWER turned northward, late in the afternoon of Friday, November
to, the Compact was not drawn and presented for signature until the
morning of Saturday, November 11. Bradford's language, "This day,
before we came into harbour," leaves no room for doubt that it was
rather hurriedly drafted--and also signed--before noon of the 11th.
That they had time on this winter Saturday--hardly three weeks from
the shortest day in the year--to reach and encircle the harbor;
secure anchorage; get out boats; arm, equip, and land two companies
of men; make a considerable march into the land; cut firewood; and
get all aboard again before dark, indicates that they must have made
the harbor not far from noon. These facts serve also to correct
another error of traditional Pilgrim history, which has been
commonly current, and into which Davis falls (Ancient Landmarks of
Plymouth, p. 60), viz. that the Compact was signed "in the harbor
of Cape Cod." It is noticeable that the instrument itself simply
says, "Cape Cod," not "Cape Cod harbour," as later they were wont to
say. The leaders clearly did not mean to get to port till there was
a form of law and authority.]

for settlement on territory under the
protection of the patent granted in their
interest to John Pierce, by the London
Virginia Company.

[The patent granted John Pierce, one of the Merchant Adventurers,
by the London Virginia Company in the interest of the Pilgrims,
was signed February 2/12, 1619, and of course could convey no rights
to, or upon, territory not conveyed to the Company by its charter
from the King issued in 1606, and the division of territory made