The conditions upon which the Pilgrims secured their transportation to America indicate the exhausted state of their finances, and they probably never would have given their assent to the conditions imposed, if not absolutely forced to do so. The famous Captain John Smith wrote in 1624 that the Adventurers who raised the money to begin and supply the Plymouth plantation were about seventy in number, some merchants, some handicraftsmen, some risking great sums, some small, as their affection served. They dwelt mostly about London, knit together by a voluntary combination in a society, without constraint or penalty, aiming to do good and plant religion. The sad intelligence conveyed by the _Mayflower_ on her return to London of the sufferings, sickness, and death, produced a disheartening effect in the most zealous friends, and the necessary supplies required by the infant colony were refused, though they had been promised. After the Pilgrims had secured financial aid the little band (July 1620) left Leyden and sailed from Delfts-haven in Holland in the _Speedwell_, which they had bought for the purpose, to Southampton where the _Mayflower_ was awaiting them with friends. Two weeks later the _Mayflower_ and the _Speedwell_ left Southampton for America. The _Mayflower_ of one hundred and eighty tons burden (the _Queen Mary_ of today is over eighty-three thousand tons) had been chartered to transport a part of the Leyden congregation to America. Before they were out of the English Channel the _Speedwell_ began leaking badly and they ran into Dartmouth for repairs. 2 September they made a second start, but trouble developed and they returned this time to Plymouth. Here they reorganized the expedition. The _Speedwell_ was left behind, some of her passengers were taken on the _Mayflower_ and the others left in England. On 16 September 1620 the _Mayflower_ sailed again and ten weeks later, after a voyage filled with hardships and peril, having been driven far off her course, came to anchor in Cape Cod Harbor. When the Cape was sighted it was decided to sail south for a permanent home, but before the day was over they found themselves in dangerous shoals and roaring breakers and turned back to settle beyond the limits of their patent. Only about one half of the passengers on the _Mayflower_ were members of the Leyden congregation. Other motives, without thought of religious dissent or separation from the Established Church of England, had added many strangers to the company, and there arose mutterings of discontent among them. It became evident, therefore, that some means should be devised to maintain law and order as they were out of the jurisdiction of their patent. To accomplish this the members of the Pilgrim Company met in the cabin of the _Mayflower_ off the shores of Cape Cod on 21 November 1620 and banded themselves together by the now famous document known as the Mayflower Compact.