They thus arrived at Cape Cod on the 11th of November, and necessity called on them to look out for a place of habitation. Having brought a large shallop with them from England, stowed in quarters in the ship, they now got her out, and set their carpenters to work to trim her up; but being much bruised and battered in the foul weather they saw she would be long mending. So a few of them volunteered to go by land and explore the neighbouring parts, whilst the shallop was put in order; particularly since, as they entered the bay, there seemed to be an opening some two or three leagues off, which the captain thought was a river. It was conceived there might be some danger in the attempt; but seeing them resolute, sixteen of them, well armed, were permitted to go, under charge of Captain Standish. They set forth on the 15th of November, being landed by the ship’s boat, and when they had marched about the space of a mile by the sea-side, they espied five or six persons with a dog coming towards them. They were savages; but they fled back into the woods, followed by the English, who wished to see if they could speak with them, and to discover if there were more lying in ambush. But the Indians, seeing themselves followed, left the woods, and ran along the sands as hard as they could, so our men could not come up with them, but followed the track of their feet several miles. Night coming on, they made their rendezvous, and set sentinels, and rested in quiet. Next morning they again pursued the Indians’ tracks, till they came to a great creek, where they had left the sands and turned into the woods. But they continued to follow them by guess, hoping to find their dwellings; but soon they lost both the Indians and themselves, and fell into such thickets that their clothes and armour were injured severely; but they suffered most from want of water. At length they found some, and refreshed themselves with the first New England water they had drunk; and in their great thirst they found it as pleasant as wine or beer had been before. Afterwards they directed their course towards the other shore, for they knew it was only a neck of land they had to cross over. At length they got to the sea-side, and marched to this supposed river, and by the way found a pond of fresh water, and shortly after a quantity of cleared ground where the Indians had formerly planted corn; and they found some of their graves. Proceeding further, they saw stubble where corn had been grown the same year, and also found a place where a house had lately been, with some planks, and a great kettle and heaps of sand newly banked, under which they found several large baskets filled with corn, some in the ear of various colours, which was a very goodly sight they having never seen any like it before. This was near the supposed river that they had come to seek. When they reached it, they found that it opened into two arms, with a high cliff of sand at the