Arrival of the Fortune.--Object of the Pilgrims in their Emigration.--Character of the New-Comers.--Mr. Winslow’s Letter.--The First Thanksgiving.--Advice to Emigrants.-- Christmas Anecdote.--Alarming Rumor.--The Narragansets.-- Curious Declaration of War.--The Defiance.--Fortifying the Village.--The Meeting in Council and the Result.--The Alarm.-- The Shallop Recalled. Early in July of this year, 1621, the Fortune, a small vessel of but fifty-five tons, which they called a ship, sailed from London for the colony. There were thirty-five passengers on board, many of whom appear to have been mere adventurers, emigrating to the New World through restlessness, curiosity, or love of gain. The men of this party outnumbered the devout Pilgrims who were still living at Plymouth. Thus an influence was introduced to the colony quite adverse to the religious element which had hitherto pervaded it. In Mr. Robert Cushman’s “Relation of the Reasons for Emigrating from England to America,” he writes: “And first, seeing we daily pray for the conversion of the heathen, we must consider whether there be not some ordinary means and course for us to take to convert them; or whether prayer for them be only referred to God’s extraordinary work from Heaven. Now it seemeth unto me that we ought also to endeavor and use the means to convert them. And the means cannot be used unless we go to them or they come to us. To us they cannot come. Our land is full. To them we may go. Their land is empty. This then is sufficient reason to prove our going thither to live, lawful.” The reckless men on board the Fortune, supposing that they should find an ample supply of everything in the New World, took with them scarcely provisions enough to last during the voyage. Contrary winds so retarded their progress that they did not clear the English channel until the end of August. It was not until the 9th of November that, in almost a famishing condition, they cast anchor in the harbor at the extremity of Cape Cod. Mr. Cushman, who had been left behind by the abandonment of the Speedwell, was with this party. The Fortune entered Plymouth harbor on the 23d of November. The Pilgrims were, of course, very happy to welcome such a re-enforcement from home. They were not then aware of the uncongenial elements of which it was composed. Mr. Bradford, in his account of this event, writes: “Most of them were lusty young men, and many of them wild enough, who little considered whither or about what they went, till they came into the harbor at Cape Cod, and there saw nothing but a naked and barren place.