[9]Presumably a misprint for the initials of Robert Cushman. See Introduction. [10]The writer studiously avoids mentioning the grim fact that more than half of the group who sailed on the _Mayflower_ had already died. [11]Although they were pioneer settlers in New England, the Pilgrims had not come to unknown territory. This portion of the coast had been sailed by Giovanni de Verrazzano as early as 1524; probably the first Englishman to visit the area was Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602. In 1605, George Waymouth commanded a voyage of exploration and trade, and kipnapped five Indians in Maine, of whom one, Squanto, later befriended the Pilgrims. By 1608, Samuel de Champlain had even charted the _Port du Cap de St. Louis_, which was to become Plymouth Harbor. Capt. John Smith’s map of New England, prepared on a voyage in 1614, already shows the site named “Plimouth.” Apparently two mates (or pilots?) of the _Mayflower_ had sailed the coast previously. [12]Reasons for assuming that the writer is George Morton have been discussed in the Introduction. [13]Presumably, the initials of John Robinson, pastor of the Leyden congregation. See Introduction. [14]Bradford’s _Of Plymouth Plantation_ identifies this as the Hudson River, where the New Netherlands Company had invited the Pilgrims to settle. Ten leagues appears too short a distance from Cape Cod to the Hudson: _ten_ may here be a misprint, or reference may be to the appropriate latitude rather than to the mouth of the river. [15]Presumably, Provincetown Harbor. [16]to vomit and have diarrhea [17]Members of the Leyden congregation were fearful of mutiny and other abuses by some of the many “Strangers” who had joined the group in England. The party had no patent for New England, so that they would have been a people outside the law as soon as they disembarked, and individual license could have posed a real threat. [18]The following is the earliest known text of the famous “Mayflower Compact”, the original document has never been found. John Quincy Adams overstated the case when he said that “This is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive social compact which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government.” As evidenced in the signatures, the distinction between masters and servants remained, and women had no legal voice but were still chattel. Nevertheless, it is an unusual document in which the concept of self-government emerges so sharply during a time when the divine right of kings was assumed. It is clearly modelled on the “covenants” or “combinations” which characterized most Separatist congregations, and is presaged in Rev. Robinson’s farewell letter.