40 



OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



ford's graphic description. On Saturday they 

 rested on their island and dried their clothes and 

 their gunpowder. On Sunday they prayed and 

 otherwise kept the Sabbath as was their want. 

 On Monday they went ashore on the mainland, 

 found the situation desirable, and struck boldly 

 across the bay to the Mayflower inside the hook 

 of the Cape, to tell the news. 



So the first of the Forefathers set foot on Ply- 

 mouth soil on the 21st of December, according 

 to the revised calendar. But the Mayflower her- 

 self did not enter the harbor till five days later. 



"On the 15th of December,'' says Bradford 

 (on the 25th as we now reckon it, though ten 

 days before the England they had left behind 

 would celebrate Christmas), ''they weighed an- 

 chor to go to the place they had discovered,, and 

 came within two leagues of it, but were fain to 

 bear up again, but the i6th day the wind became 

 fair and they arrived safely in the harbor and 

 afterward took a better view of the place and re- 

 solved where to pitch their dwellings and the 

 25th day began to erect the first house for com- 

 mon use, to receive them and their goods. 



Forefathers' Day is rightly set, then, on the 



