“In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.” [Illustration: CAPE COD HARBOR. [This is a reduction of part of a map, which is given by Dr. H. M. Dexter in his edition of _Mourt’s Relation_. He has carefully studied the topography of the region in connection with the record, and he possessed certain advantages in such study over Dr. Young, who has similarly investigated the matter in his _Chronicles of the Pilgrims_. There were three expeditions from the ship, and Dr. Dexter’s interpretation is followed. The women were set ashore to wash at _a_, and while the carpenter was repairing their shallop, Standish and sixteen men started on the 15th November (O. S.) on the first expedition. At _b_ they saw some Indians and a dog, who disappeared in the woods at _c_, and later ran up the hill at _d_. The explorers encamped for the night at _e_, and the next day, where they turned the head of the creek, they drank their first New England water. Then at _g_ they built a fire as a signal to those on the ship. At _h_ they spent their second night; at _j_ they found plain ground fit to plough; at _k_ they opened a grave; at _l_ dug up some corn; at Pamet River they found an old palisade and saw two canoes. They then retraced their steps, and at _i_ Bradford was caught in a deer-trap. They reached the ship on the 17th. When the shallop was ready, ten days later, a party of thirty-four started in her with Jones, the captain of the “Mayflower,” as leader, and the expedition, called the second on the map, lasted from the 27th to the 30th November. The third expedition, likewise in the shallop, started on the 6th of December. Farther south than the map carries the dotted line, they landed at the modern Eastham, and had their first encounter with the natives on the 8th, and the same day reached Plymouth Harbor in the evening, as narrated in the