Elizabeth Tilley, the Young Pilgrim Girl

J OHN TILLEY was a blacksmith. He lived in London, where with plenty of work he made a home for himself and his family.

Now there were some people in England who did not like the English church and believed they had a right to worship God in their own way. John Tilley was one of them. The King of England told them they must go to his church or be sent to prison. Some of these people were really put into prison; others were driven from their homes and native land; some were even put to death.

"Let us go away," they said to one another. "Let us find a country where we can worship God as we please."

And so it came to pass that they hired a vessel, and with their women and children crossed the sea to Holland. Here they were allowed to worship as they saw fit.

John Tilley's daughter Elizabeth thought Holland was an odd country. Indeed it is. It is almost as flat as a floor. It is so low and so little above the level of the sea that the tide could flow over the land. The people of Holland built great walls, called dykes, which kept the ocean out. But there were canals which ran everywhere like great spider-webs, even through the main streets of the cities.

As the years passed by, other good people came across the sea from England, to make homes for themselves in Holland. At the end of twelve years there were about a thousand of them. They were a thrifty and hard-working people. They liked their new friends, and were liked by them. Still, it was not England; and at last they began to feel that it was not best for them to live any longer in a strange land. Their children were already learning the ways of the country and could speak Dutch as well as English.

"We are pilgrims in a strange land," murmured the good Elder Brewster.

"This will never do in the world," said Goodman Tilley to his wife one day. "Look at Elizabeth and the children she is playing with in the garden. They are talking Dutch so fast I don't know a word they are saying. It is high time for us to cross the great ocean and make a new home for ourselves in America."

"In truth, John," answered Goodwife Tilley, "we could indeed live there under the rule of King James of England and yet be free to worship as we pleased. Let us talk it over with Our good pastor, Elder Robinson, and get his advice."

Thus it came about that in the summer 1620 a little company of these people bade good-by to Holland, and sailed away to England in an old vessel called the Speed-well.

Another vessel, named the Mayflower, was waiting for them. The Speedwell, however, was found to be too old and leaky to make the voyage across the Atlantic. She was said to be as open and leaky as a sieve. After many delays a hundred people were crowded into the Mayflower and set sail from Plymouth in September, 1620, on the long voyage across the sea.

At first Elizabeth Tilley and several other young girls of her age liked to watch the waves and the strange sights about the vessel. But after a time it came on stormy, and the women and children were often sent below, where it was cold and dreary, with scarcely room enough to move about. It was a long voyage of sixty-three days. The Mayflower was a frail End leaky craft to cross the Atlantic even midsummer Storm after storm arose, and it often seemed as if the vessel would go to the bottom with all on board.

In the midst of the ocean a baby was born to Master Stephen Hopkins and his wige Elizabeth. We are told that the tiny baby was a great comfort to all on board.

"What shall we name him?" asked Elizabeth Tilley of her mother one day, when the boy was a week old.

"The poor thing was born on the ocean; and why not call him Oceanus?"

The name pleased the mother, and the baby was named Oceanus Hopkins.

"Land! land!" shouted a sailor, early one morning. Yes, there was land; but it was not Virginia or New Jersey, as the Pilgrims expected. The last storm had driven the Mayflower out of her course. They had come to what is now known as the coast of New England. The low, sandy beach before them was the tip of Cape Cod. In spite of the perilous shoals and head winds the Mayflower rounded the Cape, and soon dropped anchor in what is now the harbor of Province-town.

This was late in November, in the year 1620. How cold and bleak the icy coast of Cape Cod looked on that November day! There was not a living thing to be seen anywhere, except the gulls, as they flew with shrill cries across the harbor.

Before anybody went ashore, a writing was drawn up, and forty-one of the men signed it. They used Governor Bradford's chest for a table. In this writing they said they would defend one another and obey such laws as should be made. They also chose John Carver as governor of the colony.

Bright and early the first morning on shore the women went to washing the clothes, for they had not been able to do washing on board the Mayflower. This was on a Monday; and Monday, as we know, has ever since been used in New England as wash-day.

Meanwhile the men made three trips along the shore of Cape Cod Bay, to find a place to build their homes. The third trip was made in their frail sailboat. It was bitter cold, and the sea was rough. A snowstorm set in, and they were soon in great peril. The rudder broke, and the mast came crashing down on their heads. The men rowed toward a little cove and brought their boat ashore. This proved to be on an island well out from the mainland. It is now known as Clarke's Island. On the next day but one they rowed over to the mainland.

At last they had found a good place. This was Plymouth. They called it "a beautiful spot, with cornfields and little running brooks." They quickly sailed back to Cape Cod to carry the good news.

The Mayflower had been at anchor in Provincetown Harbor for a month. The frozen sails were now unfurled, the anchor raised, and the good ship was headed for the mainland across the great bay of Cape Cod. On Saturday, December 21, 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor, about a mile from the shore.

At last the long voyage was at an end. The Pilgrims had found a home on the bleak shore of New England.

And what about Elizabeth Tilley? John Tilley and his wife did not endure the cold and hunger of the first winter. They died early the next spring. Elizabeth married a man by the name of John Howland. This was the young man that fell overboard in mid-ocean, but was quick enough to catch hold of a trailing rope, and was pulled on board the Mayflower more dead than alive. As the records tell us, this worthy couple were still living thirty years after the landing, with a family of ten children. Elizabeth lived for sixty-seven years after reaching the Plymouth shore.