EXCERPTS FROM WILLIAM BRADFORD’S JOURNAL “Of Plymouth.pdfVIP

EXCERPTS FROM WILLIAM BRADFORD’S JOURNAL: “Of Plymouth Plantation” Their Safe Arrival at Cape Cod But to omit other things (that I may be brief) after long beating at sea they fell with that land which is called Cape Cod; the which being made and certainly 1 known to be it, they were not a little joyful… Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element… But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor peoples present condition; and so I think will the reader, too, when he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less town to repair to, to 2 seek for succor . It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in 3 refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject-to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, fall 1they: Bradford refers to the Pilgrims in the third person, even though he is one of them 2succor:help;relief 3Itis….refreshingthem:refe