A great disaster befell the community the second year which seldom seems to be mentioned, but which would have discouraged less resolute souls. The ship _Fortune_ carrying their entire year’s yield of furs and products to England to be sold, was captured by the French as a prize. The gist of the preface of a book entitled “The Pilgrim Fathers,” by W. H. Bartlett, published in London, England, in 1853, is— “Of the many heroic emigrations from our island, which have covered the face of the earth, no one is more singular than the band of sectaries driven forth in the reign of James I. In an age when toleration was unknown, they were thrust forth from their native land, thus the harshness of the rulers became the instrument which planted on American shores a mighty republic, the proudest and most powerful offshoot of the mother country, whose institutions, as thus founded, are not without a powerful reaction upon her own. “The details of the story are unknown to the mass of English readers, while across the Atlantic they are known to almost every child, and numerous are the works published about them and many are the Americans who visit Boston, Scrooby and Leyden, but these publications and researchers are all unknown in England and therefore this continuous narrative.” THE PILGRIMS Who and what were the Pilgrims and in what way did they differ from the Puritans? They both were English and both lived in the same generation. The Pilgrims were a small band of staunch men, women and children who came to America for religious freedom. They were a part of a great movement. The Protestant Reformation, set on foot in England during the reign of Henry VIII, was finally accomplished in 1588 by the defeat of the Spanish Armada. It did not secure freedom of action or worship, however. There was no country then where such liberty was allowed; in fact, such a thing had never been thought of. The Reformation made the Sovereign, instead of the Pope, the head of the church in England, and there were changes in doctrine and ceremonials, but everyone was required to attend church whether he wished to or not and was also taxed to support it. The Bible had just been translated from Latin into English, and for the first time it was being generally circulated (1557-60). Among the Protestant reformers there were many who were not satisfied with the doctrines and ritual of the English church. They wished to simplify the government of the church and drop some of the ceremonies. This they considered purifying the church, which gave them the name of Puritans. Most of them had no thought or intention of leaving the Established Church. They wished to stay and be a part of it, but to change it according to their ideas.