into the “Council for the Affairs of New England.”  Goodwin is in error in saying (Pilgrim Republic, p. 62), “Neither did any other body exercise authority there;” for the Second Virginia Company under Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as noted, had been since 1606 in control of this region, and only a week before the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod (i.e. on November 3) King James had signed the patent of the Council for New England, giving them full authority over all territory north of the forty-first parallel of north latitude, as successors to the Second Virginia Company.  If the intention to land south of the forty-first parallel had been persisted in, there would, of course, have been no occasion for the Compact, as the patent to John Pierce (in their interest) from the London Virginia Company would have been in force.  The Compact became a necessity, therefore, only when they turned northward to make settlement above 41 deg. north latitude.  Hence it is plain that as no opportunity for “faction”—­and so no 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 thereunder to the Second Virginia Company.  By this division the London Company was restricted northward by the 41st parallel, as noted, while the Second Company could not claim the 38th as its southern bound, as the charter stipulated that the nearest