[Sidenote:  The Pilgrims Compact, 1620.]

45.  The Mayflower Compact, 1620.—­All the passengers on the Mayflower were not Pilgrims.  Some of them were servants sent out by the London merchants to work for them.  These men said that as they were outside of Virginia, the leaders of the expedition would have no power over them as soon as they got on land.  This was true enough, so the Pilgrims drew up and signed a compact which obliged the signers to obey whatever was decided to be for the public good.  It gave the chosen leaders power to make the unruly obey their commands.

[Illustration:  map]

[Sidenote:  The Pilgrims explore the coast. Explorers, 319-328.]

[Sidenote:  Plymouth settled. Higginson,58-60; Eggleston, 35-38; Source-Book, 39-41.]

[Sidenote:  Sickness and death.]

46.  The First Winter at Plymouth.—­For nearly a month the Pilgrims explored the shores of Cape Cod Bay.  Finally, on December 21, 1620, a boat party landed on the mainland inside of Plymouth harbor.  They decided to found their colony on the shore at that place.  About a week later the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth harbor.  For months the Pilgrims lived on the ship while working parties built the necessary huts on shore.  It was in the midst of a cold New England winter.  The work was hard and food and clothing were not well suited to the worker’s needs.  Before the Mayflower sailed away in the spring one-half of the little band was dead.

[Sidenote:  The Pilgrims and the Indians. Explorers, 333-337.]

[Sidenote:  Success of the colony.]

[Sidenote:  New Plymouth colony.]

47.  New Plymouth Colony.—­Of all the Indians who once had lived near Plymouth only one remained.  His name was Squanto.  He came to the Pilgrims in the spring.  He taught them to grow corn and to dig clams, and thus saved them from starvation.  The Pilgrims cared for him most kindly as long as he lived.  Another and more important Indian also came to Plymouth.  He was Massasoit, chief of the strongest Indian tribe near Plymouth.  With him the Pilgrims made a treaty which both parties obeyed for more than fifty years.  Before long the Pilgrims’ life became somewhat easier.  They worked hard to raise food for themselves, they fished off the coasts, and bought furs from the Indians.  In these ways they got together enough money to pay back the London merchants.  Many of their friends joined them.  Other towns were settled near by, and Plymouth became the capital of the colony of New Plymouth.  But the colony was never very prosperous, and in the end was added to Massachusetts.

[Sidenote:  Founders of Massachusetts.]

[Sidenote:  Explorers 341-361; Source-book 45-48, 74-76.]

[Sidenote:  Settlement of Massachusetts, 1630. Higginson, 60-64; Eggleston, 39-41.]