Henry M. Dexter, D. D., by far
the best. Where reference is made to any other edition, it is indicated,
and "Dexter's ed." is sometimes named.
AZEL AMES.
WAKEFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS,
March 1, 1901.
THE MAYFLOWER AND HER LOG
"Hail to thee, poor little ship MAY-FLOWER - of Delft Haven
- poor, common-looking ship, hired by common charter-party for
coined dollars, - caulked with mere oakum and tar, provisioned
with vulgarest biscuit and bacon, - yet what ship Argo or
miraculous epic ship, built by the sea gods, was other than a
foolish bumbarge in comparison!"
THOMAS CARLYLE
CHAPTER I
THE NAME - "MAY-FLOWER"
"Curiously enough," observes Professor Arber, "these names [MAY-FLOWER
and SPEEDWELL] do not occur either in the Bradford manuscript or in
'Mourt's Relation.'"
[A Relation, or Journal, of the Beginning and Proceedings of the
English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England, etc. G.
Mourt, London, 1622. Undoubtedly the joint product of Bradford and
Winslow, and sent to George Morton at London for publication.
Bradford says (op, cit. p. 120): "Many other smaler maters I omite,
sundrie of them having been already published, in a Jurnall made by
one of ye company," etc. From this it would appear that Mourt's
Relation was his work, which it doubtless principally was, though
Winslow performed an honorable part, as "Mourt's" introduction and
other data prove.]
He might have truthfully added that they nowhere appear in any of the
letters of the "exodus" period, whether from Carver, Robinson, Cushman,
or Weston; or in the later publications of Window; or in fact of any
contemporaneous writer.
