VI 



ON THE FIRST TRAIL OF THE 

 PILGRIMS 



Present-Day Aspects of the Route of Myles 

 Standish and his Scouts along the Tip of 

 Cape Cod 



Cape Cod reaches like a vast fishhook into the 

 sea, the tip of the hook Race Point, Long Point 

 the barb. It is as if the children of giants had 

 come down to the coast to play and had modeled 

 a hook in sand that Providence ordained should 

 remain for all time, a sign for the nations. For 

 here if anywhere has been notable fishing. On 

 a November day in 1620 this hook caught and 

 held for Massachusetts the expedition of the 

 Pilgrims that had planned to sail for the mouth 

 of Hudson River. Hence the epic which is Wil- 

 liam Bradford's account of the adventures of 

 these argonauts is a New- England epic. Had 

 not the Cape caught and held them, who knows 

 if there had been any story? 



