Mayflower
were sick and two had already died. Still others were clamoring for a rebellion that would have meant the almost instantaneous collapse of their settlement and, most likely, their deaths. The Leideners might have looked to their military officer, Miles Standish, and ordered him to subdue the rebels. Instead, they put pen to paper and created a document that ranks with the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution as a seminal American text.
But there was one more critical decision to make. They must choose a leader. The Leideners were barely a majority, but they could be counted on to vote as a bloc, effectively guaranteeing that their leader would not be the Mayflower âs governor, Christopher Martin. â[L]et your wisdom and godliness appear,â Robinson had advised, ânot only in choosing such persons as do entirely love and will promote the common good, but also in yielding unto them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations.â
In lieu of Martin, the only other person aboard the Mayflower who had played a central role in organizing the voyage was John Carver. Unlike his fellow purchasing agent, Robert Cushman, Carver had managed to remain untainted by the controversy surrounding Westonâs last-minute reconfiguration of the agreement with the Merchant Adventurers. Whereas Cushman was passionate and impulsive in temperament, Carver was, according to one account, âa gentleman of singular piety, rare humility, and great condescendency.â He was also wealthy and had contributed much of his personal estate to the congregation in Leiden and to this voyage. He and his wife, Katherine, who had buried two children in Leiden, had brought five servants on the Mayflower, one of whom was the death-defying John Howland. John Carver, it was decided, would be their governor.
As the Pilgrims formulated their compact, Jones pointed the Mayflower north. With disease and dissension running rife among the passengers, Jones did everything he could to get every possible knot of speed out of his old ship. The Mayflower was equipped with six sails: five square sails, including a small spritsail off the bowsprit, and a lateenrigged mizzen (a triangular sail set on a diagonal spar). The three lower sailsâthe mizzen, main course, and fore courseâpossessed additional sections of canvas called bonnets that were laced to the bottoms of the sails in moderate weather to gather more wind. With her bonnets laced tight, the Mayflower charged up the back side of Cape Cod.
By nightfall, the Mayflower was nearing the tip of Cape Cod. Master Jones once again hove to. They wanted to enter Provincetown Harbor, known to them as Cape Cod Harbor, as close as possible to sunrise so that theyâd have most of the day for exploring the surrounding countryside. But before they could set foot on land, every man who was healthy enough to write his name or, if he couldnât write, scratch out an X, must sign the compact.
They awakened very early on the morning of November 11, 1620. Sunrise was at 6:55 A.M. , and the passengers probably assembled in the Mayflower âs great cabinâapproximately thirteen by seventeen feet, with two windows in the stern and one on either side. Beginning with John Carver and ending with the servant Edward Leister, a total of forty-one men signed the compact. Only nine adult males did not sign the compactâsome had been hired as seamen for only a year, while others were probably too sick to put pen to paper. In accordance with the cultural and legal norms of the times, no women signed the document. The ceremony ended with the official selection of a leader. Bradford informs us that âthey chose or rather confirmed, Mr. John Carver (a man godly and well approved amongst them) their Governor for that year.â
In the meantime, Master Jones guided the Mayflower into Provincetown Harbor, one of the largest and safest natural anchorages in New England. Tucked within the curled wrist of the Cape, the harbor is a vast watery amphitheater as many as four miles across in some sections. Jones estimated that it could accommodate at least a thousand ships.
But on the morning of November 11, they were the only vessel in the harbor. Jones found a deep spot with good holding ground hard up on what is known today as Long Point. No matter from what direction the wind blew, the Mayflower was now safely at anchor, and Jones, exhausted from two
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