mand of the ship; John Clarke as first mate or pilot, an experienced navigator, having crossed the Atlantic many times previously; Robert Coppin was second mate or pilot—he had been once at least on a voyage to the New World; Master Williamson, purser; Dr. Giles Heale, from discovery by the Mayflower descendants, was, doubtless, surgeon of the Mayflower.
There were on board one hundred and two souls. The ship was poorly provided with means of defense, having but three pieces of ordnance and some small arms and ammunition. But these brave souls, some of them with families, and their meagre household effects, dared to set out for a land where they hoped to secure not only religious liberty but opportunity for amassing fortunes.
Alack! with all their religious fervor and heroism "a man's a man for a' that," and it required skilful management on the part of the wisest to adjust the many difficulties and dissolve the innumerable conspiracies that were continually being formed between the zealous but unreasonable religionists and the agents of the "Merchant Adventurers" to change the plans of the leaders of the sect, whose chief object was to establish a colony of their own faith.
Floating the English Union Jack, the Mayflower was piloted by Thomas English, the helmsman of the shallop of the Mayflower, into Plymouth harbor and safely anchored on the stormy night of Sunday, December 16, 1620, thus ending the long voyage of the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, New England, in one hundred and fifty-five days. Looking back across the centuries that have intervened, it would be difficult to imagine the emotions that swelled the hearts of those devout people as they stepped upon the soil of the promised land upon which they had builded so many bright hopes. From the Log of the Mayflower, given by Dr. Azel Ames, we learn
