Plymouth Rock is a deserving American shrine, but the legends surrounding it - and the so-called Pilgrims who stepped on it - are not as interesting as the facts.

Contrary to popular belief, the coast of North America was well known to Spanish, French, Dutch and other English colonists prior to the arrival of a reformist religious sect we associate with Thanksgiving.

George Weymouth explored Maine in 1605 and brought back five Indians to London. Three of them were turned over to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, harbormaster at Plymouth, England.

Contact with these pleasant and dignified Native Americans so intrigued Gorges that he spent the rest of his life promoting colonization among them.

Largely through Gorges' enthusiasm, two colonies were launched in 1607 - one at Jamestown, Virginia; the other at Sagadahoc, Maine. Jamestown survived, but Sagadahoc gave up a year later when its leader, George Popham, died.

Fishing expeditions to New England continued, however. If the haul was sparse, Indians often were kidnapped and sold in Spain as slaves. One of these was a Pawtuxit brave named Tsquantum. He was to play a decisive role in the Pilgrims survival.

It should be remembered that the religious folks we call Pilgrims today were known then as "Separatists" for their determination to break away from the Church of England. They called themselves "Gathered Saints" and their other companions "Strangers."

The name "Pilgrim" did not come into use until 1792 - 172 years later - when a local poet so termed all Plymouth Colony members whether Saints or Strangers.

Nor should Pilgrims be confused with Puritans - today's Congregationalists -- who colonized Boston in 1629. The latter were reformists of the Church of England and disdained the Gathered Saints.

Stylized paintings of New England settlers in black clothing, broad-brim hats for men and starched bonnets for women, depict Puritans. Plymouth colonists wore individual, rough dress. Just 37 members of the "Mayflower" voyagers were Gathered Saints. The other 65 were workmen seeking opportunity.

A young boy, servant to Samuel Fuller, died on the 66-day voyage across the Atlantic. However, Elizabeth Hopkins gave birth to a son; so the ship's manifest of 102 passengers was maintained.

The famous "Mayflower Compact" was signed en route only by the Saints minority to govern themselves - not to plant democracy, as is so often thought.

Pilgrims Arrive

By the time the Pilgrims landed, there were thriving colonies at St. Augustine, Fla. (1565); Jamestown, Va. (1607); Port Royal, Nova Scotia (1613); Quebec, Canada (1613); and Albany, N.Y. (1614).

The "Mayflower" voyage, sponsored by the London Company, aimed for the Hudson River that was considered to be part of the Virginia territory. However, contrary winds drove the ship to the tip of Cape Cod, now Provincetown, Mass., on Nov. 17, 1620.

Several trips ashore were made to replenish water and firewood while the Pilgrims assessed their situation.

The tangle of shoals, bad weather and discontent among the Strangers led them all to gave up their original destination and opt for immediate settlement. Eventually they replaced their unexecuted London Company charter with a new one from Gorges' New England Company.

After resting for a couple of seeks, a party of 18 men assembled a pre-fabricated boat and set out to reconnoiter. The "Mayflower" captain claimed to have visited the bay once before. He assured his passengers that good colony sites were near by.

The scouting party camped overnight on Cape Cod where it discovered several bushels of buried corn and a human skull with remnants of blond hair.

On the second day, the men beat off a dawn attack by five Indians then coasted along the shore. They were looking for a harbor which Coppin, the "Mayflower's" pilot, said he had once visited. William Bradford later recounted the search:

"After some hours' sailing, it began to snow and rain. About the middle of the afternoon, the wind increased. The sea became very rough, and we broke our rudder. It was as much as two men could do to steer our shallop with a couple of oars.

"The storm increasing, and night drawing on, we bore what sail we could while we could see. Herewith, we broke our mast in three pieces, and our sail fell overboard. Yet, by God's mercy, we recovered ourselves and struck into the harbor.

"However, the pilot was deceived in the place and said the Lord be merciful unto us, but his eyes never saw the place before; and that he and the master's mate would have run us ashore in a cove full of breakers before the wind.

"It was very dark, and rained sore. Yet, in the end, we got under the lee of a small island remained there all that night in safety.

"The next day was a fair, sun-shining day. We found ourselves to be on an island, secure from the Indians, where we might dry our stuff, fix our pieces and rest ourselves. This being the last day of the week, we prepared there to keep the Sabbath.

"On Monday, we sounded the harbor and found it fit for shipping. We marched into the land and found divers cornfields and little running brooks - a place, we supposed, fit for situation.

"At least, it was the best we could find. The season and our present necessity made us glad to accept of it. So, we returned to our ship with the news to the rest of our people, which did much comfort their hearts."

In addition to the landings on Nov. 21, there were other exploratory landings on the 28th, 29th and 30th.

Abandoned cornfields and Indian villages were found on the mainland. A smallpox epidemic and Indian warfare had wiped out the coastal Pawtuxit. This was a fateful stroke for the Pilgrims. They were too exhausted and few in number to contest hostile natives or clear forest in winter.

Upon returning to the ship, the entire company voted to build at Plymouth Harbor. The "Mayflower" weighed anchor and sailed across Massachusetts Bay.

So anxious were some of the men to get started, ten of them disembarked during the night and were waiting the next morning when the main party came ashore.

THEN the Pilgrims stepped onto the great rock at the end of a channel through the oyster flats. The date was Dec. 22, 1620.

A few women remained aboard the "Mayflower" until March 31 when the ship began the voyage home. The ship returned the following year with supplies and then sailed out of American history.

First Winter

Many Pilgrims died that first, terrible winter. Bodies were buried secretly so the Indians would not detect the plight. Survivors need not have worried. An unknown friend was restraining the nearest Indians 40 miles away.

Tsquantum, who was sold into Spanish slavery, managed to escape and make his way to Plymouth, England. There he found safety with Sir Gorges who returned him to America on a fishing vessel.

It was this Indian, called Squanto by the Pilgrims, who now sat in the lodge of the Wampanoak and advised friendship with the colonists.

The Pilgrims were alarmed in March when Squanto, Massasoit and 60 warriors lined up on a rise overlooking the colony. Imagine the colonists' surprise when Squanto hailed them: "Welcome Englishmen!"

Edward Carver, secretary of the colony, walked slowly to the entourage, his arms extended to show he carried no weapon.

Said Squanto: "Do you dare to walk among us alone?"

Carver replied, "Where there is love, there is no fear."

So began a lasting friendship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoak. Squanto made frequent visits to the colony to teach the Pilgrims how to hunt, fish, plant corn with a herring for fertilizer, make popcorn balls with maple syrup and play a dice game called hubdub.

By Fall, the Pilgrims had built homes and gathered in a "goodly" crop of corn. In gratitude, they invited Massoit and Squanto to a Thanksgiving feast. The two invited guests showed up with 60 Wampanoak braves and stayed three days.

Squanto died a year later while leading a trading trip for winter corn. He shares with Pocahontas at Jamestown the gratitude of English settlers who probably would have perished without Indian help.

Rock Symbol

Pilgrims paid little attention at first to the shore-side rock on which they finally stepped ashore. It simply was a convenience used as such for many years.

In 1741, it was decided to build a wharf at the channel. A crib-work of logs was constructed, and the landing rock covered to its top surface. There the rock formed part of a pavement to be ground down by wagons.

It was during this construction that Elder Faunce, 95, asked to be carried to the site so he could see the boulder that his father had always described to him as the "Forefathers' Rock."

A contemporary account related that the old gentleman "bedewed it with his tears and bid to it an everlasting adieu."

The emotional scene impressed the Plymouth inhabitants to such an extent the rock achieved a lasting symbolism.

"Animated by the glorious spirit of liberty," the citizens of Plymouth in 1744 determined to preserve Plymouth Rock. The great stone was lifted from its bed by jacks and 30 yoke of oxen.

In the process, the rock split. The larger, bottom part, fell back into its socket. The top was moved to the foot of a Liberty Pole in the public square.

Independence Day 1834 was celebrated at Plymouth by moving the upper rock piece to a newly built Pilgrim Hall. During the transfer, the rock fell from a wagon and broke into two pieces. It is this mended break that is visible to visitors today.

The Plymouth Society bought the old wharf in 1859 and built a marble canopy over the piece of Plymouth Rock imbedded there.

Finally, in 1880, the upper parts of the rock were cemented to the original base. The rock was once more whole - in three sections but one-third smaller from loss of fragments chipped off over the years for souvenirs. The date 1620 was carved to replace painted numerals.

The rock was moved in 1925 to its present location under a new canopy at the high-tide line. There the famous relic is once again washed by the sea twice a day.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at:

LinWms@earthlink.net

LinWms@lindseywilliams.org

Website: www.lindseywilliams.org with several hundred of Lin's Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years.

Also featured in its entirety is Lin's groundbreaking book "Boldly Onward," that critically analyzes and develops theories about the original Spanish explorers of America.

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