THE FOUNDING OF NEW ENGLAND.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sne,—Plimouth (Plymouth) was well known to sailors (as your reviewer states) before the advent of the ' Mayflower.' Usher's The Pilgrims and their History shows on Captain John Smith's map of New England, 1614, Plimouth. After the ' Mayflower ' anchored off Provincetown the sailors pointed out the mountain of Manomet as the landmark of the good harbour shown on Smith's map, which proved to be Plimouth, the name Plymouth being retained by the Pilgrims.
Again, the term " Pilgrim Fathers," first applied speci- fically to the ' Mayflower's ' emigrants or passengers in 1799, was hardly deserved. There sailed from Plymouth on September 6th, 1620, in the ' Mayflower,' one hundred and two passengers ; the adult males numbered forty-four. Two were believed to be over fifty and nine over forty years of age. During the winter of 1620-21 an epidemic of influenza or rapid consumption carried off the majority of elder men —the ages of the five remaining leaders were, respectively, thirty-one, twenty-five, thirty-two, thirty-six, and twenty-one.
Plymouth, in Bradford's words (Adams, The Founding of New England), " was the best they could find, and the season, and their presente necessitie, made them glad to accepte of
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