Though the Mayflower must have anchored before noon on Saturday, the first full day after arrival was Sunday, and these Pilgrims strangers had an opportunity to refresh themselves and prepare their souls for the strenuous business ahead. Also throughout that initial week of life in America, the weather was mellow and open. Several weeks were required for repairing the colonists' shallop, which was a means of more delay in the already very late season. But meanwhile, on the last Wednesday of November an exploring party started out with Capt. Jones and some seamen; and in the afternoon sixteen intending settlers followed, armed and under command of Myles Standish, Masters Bradford, Hopkins and Edward Tilley "being joined to him for council." They saw Indians, whom they followed for several miles, but could not come up with them. Finding much corn buried, they brought some of it to the ship and later paid the natives for it, after using it for seed. But in this and another trip on the narrow part of the Cape, they discovered no locality which suited them for settlement. As December came in, the protracted mildness changed to a sudden and intense cold, the ground freezing to a foot's depth, wind and snow also impeding their operations, while in the boats the congealed spray on their coats looked like a covering of glass. To add to the awkwardness of the situation, Capt. Jones threatened to put ashore the whole company with their families and scanty possessions, and return to England at once because of the late season and his diminishing food supply, unless they succeeded in finding a place for habitation. At this juncture Second Mate Coppin suggested that they look for a harbor somewhere around in Cape Cod Bay, which he remembered visiting on a fishing vessel. Accordingly, when December was now half through, ten of the Pilgrims, including Bradford, went in their repaired shallop with eight mariners, in search of that location, skirting the inner shores. They camped the first night on the south of the Bay, building a barricade of logs and boughs, as a shelter also against the wind, open on one side with a fire in the centre. Their defense was useful, for unawares they had come close to a settlement of Nauset Indians, a tribe which had suffered cruelty at the hands of infamous Capt. Hunt who kidnapped some of them and sold them abroad as slaves. Intent on revenge, they approached within hearing of the English sentry, about midnight; but on his raising the alarm, they made no attack then, and the voyagers returned to their needed sleep, not being sure whether the noise was caused by man or beast.