On November 9, 1620, the hardy souls aboard the Mayflower had their first site of America. On Saturday, November 21, the ship moored in what would come to be called Provincetown Harbor, in present-day Massachusetts. From their mooring they could look upon an arm of land that would be known as Cap Cod. Surely the entire company of Pilgrims rejoiced. They had safely reached the New World with only one death occurring among them.
The single death had been that of William Butten, a servant of passenger Samuel Fuller. Perhaps in compensation, a successful birth had taken place aboard the Mayflower. The infant had been appropriately named Oceanus. Now all was well with those aboard this sturdy ocean vessel, except for one major problem.
The Pilgrim’s land grant from the London Company gave them permission to settle in Virginia , far southward of where they had landed. Here, on this Northeastern coast of America they were virtually in a no man’s land, an area that was yet to be claimed by any European power. For some aboard the Mayflower, such as the rebellious and non-Puritan Billington family, the situation of not being under any form of higher authority was far more than had been dreamed of concerning the New World.
But now a decision had to be made by all concerned. Would they venture on southward to Virginia or would they stay and settle where they were? The rougher element of passengers, those that had been more familiar with the back alleys and slums of London, mutinously declared that they would stay just were they were and not be bound by the authority of the London Company.
The Pilgrim leaders quickly saw that a decision had to made at once. They decreed that here, they too, would establish their settlement. Their decision to do so may well had been determined on the certain realization that all able-bodied persons, Pilgrims and the others, would be needed to build and protect their new home.
