_Its Town Seal Reads,
“Birthplace of American Liberty”_
Millions of Americans do not know the complete story of the founding
of our nation. Many history books and most orators fail to begin at
the beginning when the pioneering of the Pilgrim Fathers is related.
Plymouth Rock is the accepted symbol and the starting point. The
important, earlier events on Cape Cod are passed up, particularly the
contribution the Pilgrim Fathers made to our form of free government
during their Cape Cod stay, before sailing across the bay to establish
their settlement at Plymouth.
If you began at the beginning of the Pilgrims’ story on this continent,
you would find that the Mayflower did not sail direct to Plymouth,
as is the common impression. She first put in at the outer end of
Cape Cod on Nov. 11, 1620, (O. S.), after a violent, 63-day voyage
from Holland, and it was on the sands of what is now Provincetown
that her weary passengers first set foot on American soil. Here they
found haven for a full month, here they signed the historic Mayflower
Compact, establishing their system of self-government. They began their
reconnoitering, found their first drinking water, their first corn and
had their first encounter with the Indians on Cape Cod.