In a text that mirrors their language and thoughts, Marcia Sewall has
masterfully recreated the coming of the pilgrims to the New World, and
the daily flow of their days during the first years in the colony they
called Plimoth.
Aye, Governor Bradford calls us pilgrims. We are English and England
was our home...But our lives were ruled by King James, and for many
years it seemed as though our very hearts were in prison in
England...
September, 1620, our lives changed. We were seventy menfolk and
womenfolk, thirty-two good children, a handful of cocks and hens, and
two dogs, gathered together on a dock in Plymouth, England, ready to set
sail for America in a small ship called the Mayflower...
After an abundance of prayers and tears we made farewells at dockside
and boarded our small ship. Our voyage across the Atlantic Ocean "began
with a prosperous wind," but the sea soon became "sharp and violent" and
storms howled about us.
When the pilgrims set out for America, they brought with them a dream
for the future. Sickness, hardship, and heartache stood in the way of
that dream. But the pilgrims worked hard, keeping their dream close to
their hearts, until they were finally able to make it come true.