The wreck of a French ship on this coast four years before

From A Record of the Pilgrim Descendants who early in its History settled in Cape May County, and some of their children throughout the several States of the Union at the present time, 1921 by Paul Sturtevant Howe. Page 76. All of it is interesting. Especially the last paragraph.

The Mayflower came to anchor at what is now called Provincetown, Cape Cod, on Saturday, November 21 (11, 0. S.), 1620. On the next day the Sabbath was observed on the ship and on Monday the life in the New World began. Some, in their eagerness to land, jumped from the landing boat into the shallow surf, and contracted coughs and colds, laying the foundation for the severe mortality of the following winter. On Saturday preceding, the Compact had been signed, forming the Pilgrim band into a body politic, with authority to make and execute laws. That this coast was not the intended destination of the colonists, and the legal significance of the compact, are matters of general history, too lengthy to be discussed here. John Carver, who had been appointed governor of the ship, continued, by election, in that office.

Immediately an exploring expedition was organized, and now appears for the first time one of the most famous of the Pilgrim band, Captain Myles Standish. That, having a commission under Elizabeth, he had served in Flanders, and was of distinguished family, so much we know, but how he became associated with the Pilgrims is unknown. He was not, and never was, a member of the Pilgrim church. (Young, page 125, note.) Under the command of Standish, with Bradford, Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilley, brother of John Tilley, as advisers, the exploring party set out on Wednesday, November 25. When they had proceeded along the shore a mile, they saw five or six Indians with a dog. Seeing the party, the Indians whistled the dog after them, and ran away. The explorers followed ten miles, without overtaking them, but the next day made a discovery which saved the life of the colony, namely, a cellar of Indian corn. The ethical question involved in appropriating a part of the corn will be referred to later. A number of Indian graves were also found.

On the return the next day, Bradford became entangled in a deer trap baited with acorns. The identification of the trap by Hopkins, and his knowledge of Indian skill, confirms the belief that he had been in this part of the world before. (Goodwin, pages 76, 435.) Thomas Snell Hopkins, Esq., governor general of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, said to the author : "Hopkins was an all-round adventurer." He was a lay minister of the Church of England ; a leader of insurrection; a member of Governor Bradford's Council; a trusted ambassador to Massasoit; a tavern-keeper who more than once was fined, as shown by the colony records.

Ten days later, a large boat called the shallop had been put together, and in company with the ship 's long boat, began the second exploring expedition under the command of Jones, the captain of the ship, with nine sailors. A cold, blustering snowstorm compelled them to put in at East Harbor and wade ashore in the freezing weather. "Some of our people that are dead took the original of their death here." (Mourt.)

The following day, Tuesday, December 8, the party rejoined the shallop and sailed to the mouth of a supposed river, which they named Cold Harbor. Landing here, the party proceeded along the shore, the shallop following. (The vagueness of Bradford in writing here, "4 or 5 miles," is especially illustrated in the list of Mayflower passengers given at the end of his manuscript, page 534: "These being about a hundred sowls, came over in the first ship." He did not take the pains to add up his own figures.)

For supper that night they had three fat geese and six ducks, which they ate with "soldiers' stomachs." The next day they revisited the corn cellar, now covered with snow and ice, and Bradford notes the "spetiall providence of God and great mercie to this poore people," that the corn was discovered before the fall of snow. (Bradford, 100.)

Those who were sick from exposure were now sent back in the shallop. The remaining members, eighteen in number, made an interesting discovery the next day. A grave, covered by a board carved and painted with three tynes like a crown, containing the body of a blond-haired man and the bones of a little child, a little bow and child's trinkets. The wreck of a French ship on this coast four years before, and the probable marriage of a European and a native, seem to explain this grave. (Bradford, 119.)

I come across this a lot in reading histories of the early explorations from 1450-1750. Places where we get a first account but it references evidence of earlier, unrecorded, encounters. North America, Africa, South America, Australia - all rich with stories of the unknown early arrivers.