The _Mayflower’s_ destination was charted as the general vicinity of Hudson’s River where a beginning was to be made on selecting a suitable site for the new English plantation in Virginia. However, a landfall was made at Cape Cod and, although a course was then actually set for the mouth of the Hudson, the ship was brought about after navigation difficulties and hints of mutiny and a decision was made to plant in New England instead. This was territory well known at the time of sailing as coming under the jurisdiction of the proposed Council for New England which was about to be created as successor to Sir Ferdinando Gorges’ old Plymouth Company. Quite likely, William Bradford and other leaders of the expedition had come to have their doubts about settling in the vicinity of the Hudson River, a territory in dispute between England and Holland. But in addition it would appear that before the sailing they had received secret assurance that Gorges and the reorganized New England company would welcome a colony planted within their jurisdiction, and that a proper patent would be no more than a legal formality once the Council for New England was commissioned. Certainly the chief investor in the enterprise, Thomas Weston, favored New England. In the final days of preparation he had expressed a strong preference for New England rather than Virginia, due he said to the established fisheries and fur trade, as well as other commercial prospects there. In any event, when word reached England that the Pilgrims had settled themselves at Plymouth in New England, no one seems to have expressed the slightest surprise. Nor is there any record of an explanation coming from Plymouth--just as if none was thought to be necessary. All of which would make it appear likely that the planting at Plymouth was no accident, but premeditated to some extent by merchants of the New England company in connivance with leading partners in the adventure. Possibly there was more than a hope that some calculated incident would bring it about. If so, the navigation difficulties and threats of mutiny provided incident enough--or excuse enough to satisfy those not in on the plan! * * * * * The savages in and about Plymouth Harbor, so named by Captain John Smith some six years earlier, did not exactly welcome the _Mayflower’s_ passengers. Their experience with white men had been none too rewarding over the years and these new arrivals were proving no exception. From their hiding places the natives watched the very first exploring parties that came ashore from the ship steal caches of Indian corn and rifle the graves of the dead.