No New And Relevant Item Of Fact Discovered,
However Trivial In Itself, Has Failed Of Mention, If It Might Serve To
Correct, To Better Interpret, Or To Amplify The Scanty Though Priceless
Records Left Us, Of Conditions, Circumstances, And Events Which Have
Meant So Much To The World.
As properly antecedent to the story of the voyage of the MAY-FLOWER as
told by her putative "Log,
" Albeit written up long after her boned lay
bleaching on some unknown shore, some pertinent account has been given of
the ship herself and of her "consort," the SPEEDWELL; of the difficulties
attendant on securing them; of the preparations for the voyage; of the
Merchant Adventurers who had large share in sending them to sea; of their
officers and crews; of their passengers and lading; of the troubles that
assailed before they had "shaken off the land," and of the final
consolidation of the passengers and lading of both ships upon the
MAY-FLOWER, for the belated ocean passage. The wholly negative results of
careful search render it altogether probable that the original journal or
"Log" of the MAY-FLOWER (a misnomer lately applied by the British press,
and unhappily continued in that of the United States, to the recovered
original manuscript of Bradford's "History of Plimoth Plantation "), if
such journal ever existed, is now hopelessly lost.
So far as known, no previous effort has been made to bring together in
the consecutive relation of such a journal, duly attested and in their
entirety, the ascertained daily happenings of that destiny-freighted
voyage. Hence, this later volume may perhaps rightly claim to present
- and in part to be, though necessarily imperfect - the sole and a true "Log
of the MAY-FLOWER." No effort has been made, however, to reduce the
collated data to the shape and style of the ship's "Log" of recent times,
whose matter and form are largely prescribed by maritime law. While it is
not possible to give, as the original - if it existed - would have done,
the results of the navigators' observations day by day; the "Lat." and
"Long."; the variations of the wind and of the magnetic needle; the
tallies of the "lead" and "log" lines; "the daily run," etc. - in all
else the record may confidently be assumed to vary little from that
presumably kept, in some form, by Captain Jones, the competent Master of
the Pilgrim bark, and his mates, Masters Clarke and Coppin.
As the charter was for the "round voyage," all the features and incidents
of that voyage until complete, whether at sea or in port, properly find
entry in its journal, and are therefore included in this compilation,
which it is hoped may hence prove of reference value to such as take
interest in Pilgrim studies. Although the least pleasant to the author,
not the least valuable feature of the work to the reader - especially if
student or writer of Pilgrim history - will be found, it is believed, in
the numerous corrections of previously published errors which it
contains, some of which are radical and of much historical importance.
It is true that new facts and items of information which have been coming
to light, in long neglected or newly discovered documents, etc., are
correctives of earlier and natural misconceptions, and a certain
percentage of error is inevitable, but many radical and reckless errors
have been made in Pilgrim history which due study and care must have
prevented.
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