That it was "Jones River, Duxbury." As Coppin described
his putative harbor, called "Thievish Harbor," a "great navigable river
and good harbor" were in close relation, which was never true of either
the Jones River or "Cut River" localities, while any one familiar with
the region knows that what Mrs. Austin knew as "Cut River" had no
existence in the Pilgrims' early days, but was the work of man,
superseding a small river-mouth (Green Harbor River), which was so
shallow as to have its exit closed by the sand-shift of a single storm.
Young, with almost equal recklessness, says: "The other headland of the
bay," alluded to by Coppin, was Manomet Point, and the river was probably
the North River in Scituate; but there are no "great navigable river and
good harbor" in conjunction in the neighborhood of Manomet, or of the
North River, - the former having no river and the latter no harbor. If
Coppin had not declared that he had never seen the mouth of Plymouth
harbor before ("mine eyes never saw this place before"), it might readily
have been believed that Plymouth harbor was the "Thievish Harbor" of his
description, so well do they correspond.
Goodwin, the brother of Mrs. Austin, quite at variance with his sister's
conclusions, states, with every probability confirming him, that the
harbor Coppin sought "may have been Boston, Ipswich, Newburyport, or
Portsmouth."
As a result of his "relation" as to a desirable harbor, Coppin was made
the "pilot" of the "third expedition," which left the ship in the
shallop, Wednesday, December 6, and, after varying disasters and a narrow
escape from shipwreck - through Coppin's mistake - landed Friday night
after dark, in the storm, on the island previously mentioned, ever since
called "Clarke's Island," at the mouth of Plymouth harbor.
Nothing further is known of Coppin except that he returned to England
with the ship. He has passed into history only as Robert Coppin, "the
second mate" (or "pilot") of the MAY-FLOWER.
But one other officer in merchant ships of the MAY-FLOWER class in her
day was dignified by the address of "Master" (or Mister), or had rank
with the Captain and Mates as a quarter-deck officer, - except in those
instances where a surgeon or a chaplain was carried. That the MAY-FLOWER
carried no special ship's-surgeon has been supposed from the fact of Dr.
Fuller's attendance alike on her passengers and crew, and the increased
mortality of the seamen - after his removal on shore.
[The author is greatly indebted to his esteemed friend, Mr. George
Ernest Bowman, Secretary-General of the Society of MAY-FLOWER
Descendants, for information of much value upon this point. He
believes that he has discovered trustworthy evidence of the
existence of a small volume bearing upon its title-page an
inscription that would certainly indicate that the MAY-FLOWER had
her own surgeon.
