They accordingly obtained from the London branch of the Virginia
Company permission to settle at the mouth of the Delaware, and from
the king the promise that he would “wink at their heresy.” When all
was ready, the youngest and strongest of the Leyden congregation, with
Brewster, Bradford, Winslow, and Myles Standish at their head, repaired
to Delft Haven, where they embarked for England upon the Speedwell.
At Southampton they were joined by the Mayflower, with recruits from
London, and the two little vessels turned their prows toward the vast
waters of the Atlantic.
[Illustration: PLYMOUTH ROCK
_The granite boulder on which the Pilgrims are said to have landed in
1620._]
The Speedwell, however, soon sprang a leak, and the two vessels entered
the harbor of Plymouth in Devonshire, where as many as possible of the
Speedwell’s passengers were transferred to the Mayflower, those who
could not be there accommodated being placed ashore. As the Mayflower
glided out of the harbor on September 6, 1620, the one hundred and
two devoted souls on board waved a sad farewell to their twenty
disconsolate fellow Pilgrims who stood on the quay. As the dim outlines
of ancient Cornwall faded from their view, the hearts of flesh cried
out, but the steady voice of the Spirit gave them courage; for to the
Puritan, in spite of his faults, which were many and great, duty was
always first, and the planting of the wilderness with the choicest
seed, as he modestly called himself, was a solemn duty laid upon him by
God.
[Illustration: Copr. 1906. A. S. Burbank, Plymouth, Mass.