63. Why the Pilgrims wished to leave Holland and go to America.--But the Pilgrims were not contented in Holland. They saw that if they staid in that country their children would grow up to be more Dutch than English. They saw, too, that they could not hope to get land in Holland. They resolved therefore to go to America, where they could get farms for nothing, and where their children would never forget the English language or the good old English customs and laws. In the wilderness they would not only enjoy entire religious freedom, but they could build up a settlement which would be certainly their own. 64. The Pilgrims, with Captain Myles Standish, sail for England and then for America; they reach Cape Cod, and choose a governor there.--In 1620 a company of Pilgrims sailed for England on their way to America. Captain Myles Standish, an English soldier, who had fought in Holland, joined them. He did not belong to the Pilgrim church, but he had become a great friend to those who did. About a hundred of these people sailed from Plymouth,[5] England, for the New World, in the ship _Mayflower_. Many of those who went were children and young people. The Pilgrims had a long, rough passage across the Atlantic. Toward the last of November (1620) they saw land. It was Cape Cod, that narrow strip of sand, more than sixty miles long, which looks like an arm bent at the elbow, with a hand like a half-shut fist. [Illustration: Map of Cape Cod and part of New England.] Finding that it would be difficult to go further, the Pilgrims decided to land and explore the cape; so the _Mayflower_ entered Cape Cod Harbor, inside the half-shut fist, and then came to anchor. Before they landed, the Pilgrims held a meeting in the cabin, and drew up an agreement in writing for the government of the settlement. They signed the agreement, and then chose John Carver for governor. [Footnote 5: Plymouth (Plim'uth).] 65. Washing-day; what Standish and his men found on the Cape.--On the first Monday after they had reached the cape, all the women went on shore to wash, and so Monday has been kept as washing-day in New England ever since. Shortly after that, Captain Myles Standish, with a number of men, started off to see the country. They found some Indian corn buried in the sand; and a little further on a young man named William Bradford, who afterward became governor, stepped into an Indian deer-trap. It jerked him up by the leg in a way that must have made even the Pilgrims smile. [Illustration: AN INDIAN DEER-TRAP.] [Illustration: BRADFORD CAUGHT.]