The _Mayflower_ Pilgrims settled in Plymouth—but only after rejecting Cape Cod as unsuitable. On November 9, 1620, these emigrants from England sighted the Cape, the first land they had seen in the 2 months since they left Holland. Though they had intended to continue south and settle in the Hudson River area, they decided, because of treacherous waters off the Cape, to stay. They sailed around the northern end of the Cape, set anchor off what became known as Provincetown, and drew up the “Mayflower Compact,” an agreement by which the group of 102, a bare majority of whom were Pilgrims, would govern themselves. During the next month 3 different small groups made “discoveries” of the area. They found a freshwater spring in the Truro area, encountered a few Indians, and discovered several baskets of Indian corn buried on a hill near the Pamet River. On December 6 a group of 19 men led by Myles Standish left the _Mayflower_ in a shallop, or small boat, camped for the night in Eastham, and crossed Cape Cod Bay to the mainland. They decided this would be a good place to settle and returned to the ship. On December 16, the _Mayflower_ dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor, and the story of a new English settlement in the New World began. A few passengers and their offspring later settled in the Cape’s Eastham area. _The_ Mayflower, _a 90-foot square-rigger, left England on August 15, 1620, with a smaller vessel called the_ Speedwell. _Both vessels carried English exiles from Holland and England, but the leaky_ Speedwell _caused two aborted departures. An overcrowded_ Mayflower _finally left the docks on September 6, making the arduous Atlantic crossing in a sluggish 65 days_. _The_ Mayflower _arrived at Plymouth from Provincetown on December 16, 1620, after failing to cross December 15 because of bad weather. The Pilgrims came ashore on December 18. A few of them and their offspring later settled in the Cape’s Eastham area. Graves of_ Mayflower _passengers Constance Hopkins Snow, Giles Hopkins, and Joseph Rogers are in Eastham’s Old Cove Burying Ground_. ############################################# The Cape Cod House [Illustration: (The Cape Cod house. Chimney. The half house version. Post-and-beam construction.)]