PKOVINCETOWN. 
233 
near the shore by three quarters of an English mile, 
because of shallow water; which was a great prejudice 
to us; for our people going on shore were forced to 
wade a bow-shot or two in going aland, which caused 
many to get colds and coughs; for it was many times 
freezing cold weather/’ They afterwards say: It 
brought much weakness amongst us ”; and no doubt it 
led to the death of some at Plymouth. 
The harbor of Provincetown is very shallow near the 
shore, especially about the head, where the Pilgrims 
landed. When I left this place the next summer, the 
steamer could not get up to the wharf, but we were 
carried out to a large boat in a cart as much as thirty 
rods in shallow water, while a troop of little boys kept 
us company, wading around, and thence we pulled to the 
steamer by a rope. The harbor being thus shallow and 
sandy about the shore, coasters are accustomed to run in 
here to paint their vessels, which are left high and dry 
when the tide goes down. 
It chanced that the Sunday morning that we were 
there, I had joined a party of men who were smoking 
and lolling over a pile of boards on one of the wharves, 
(nihil humanum a me^ when our landlord, who was 
a sort of tithing-man, went off to stop some sailors who 
were engaged in painting their vessel. Our party was 
recruited from time to time by other citizens, who came 
rubbing their eyes as if they had just got out of bed; 
and one old man remarked to me that it was the custom 
there to lie abed very late on Sunday, it being a day of 
rest. I remarked that, as I thought, they might as well 
let the man paint, for all us. It was not noisy work, and 
would not disturb our devotions. But a young man in 
the company, taking his pipe out of his mouth, said that 
