THE PLYMOUTH COMPANY made several attempts to explore North Virginia. Captain John Smith, already so famous in South Virginia, examined the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, drew a map of it, and called the country NEW ENGLAND. The company, stirred to action by his glowing accounts, obtained a new patent (1620) under the name of the Council for New England. This authorized them to make settlements and laws, and to carry on trade through a region reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and comprising over a million square miles. New England, however, was settled with no consent of king or council. PLYMOUTH COLONY. SETTLEMENT.--_Landing of the Pilgrims._--One stormy day in the fall of 1620, the Mayflower, with a band of a hundred pilgrims, came to anchor in Cape Cod harbor. The little company, gathering in the cabin, drew up a compact, in which they agreed to enact just and equal laws, which all should obey. One of their exploring parties landed at Plymouth, as it was called on Smith's chart, December 21. [Footnote: The exact number of the pilgrims was 102.] [Footnote: This was Dec. 11, Old Style. In 1752, eleven days were added to correct an error in the calendar, thus making this date the 22d. Only 10 days, however, should have been allowed, and therefore the correct date is the 21st, New Style.] Finding the location suitable for a settlement, they all came ashore, and amid a storm of snow and sleet commenced building their rude huts. [Footnote: They were called _Pilgrims_ because of their wanderings. About seventy years before this time the state religion of England had been changed from Catholic to Protestant; but a large number of the clergy and people were dissatisfied with what they thought to be a half-way policy on the part of the new church, and called for a more complete purification from old observances and doctrines. For this, they were called Puritans. They still believed in a state church, that is, that the _nation_ of England was the _church_ of England; and that the queen, as the head of both, could appoint church officers and prescribe the form of religious worship. They, however, wanted a change, and desired the government to make it to suit them. The government not only refused, but punished the Puritan clergy for not using the prescribed form of worship. This led some of them to question the authority of the government in religious matters. They came to believe that any body of Christians might declare themselves a church, choose their own officers, and be independent of all external authority. When they began to form these local churches, they separated themselves from the Church of England, and for this reason are called Separatists and Independents. One of these churches of Separatists was at Scrooby, in the east of England. Not being allowed to worship in peace, they fled to Holland (1608), where they lived twelve years. But evil influences surrounded their