“ The breaking waves dashed high
On a stem and rock-bound coast;

And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed; —

“ And the heavy night hung dark
The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark
On wild New England's shore.''

The 9th being extremely cold, they spent the
day in drying their arms, repairing their shallop,
and exploring the island. The next day being
the Sabbath, “ they rested according to the com-
mandment ; '' and here, their company being
eighteen in number, they prayed and sang praises
for the first time on those heathen shores to Him
for whose pure faith and worship they had suf-
fered and sacrificed so much in coming to this
new world.

“ Amidst the storm they sang; —

And the stars heard, and the sea!

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang
To the anthem of the free! ''

A short distance to the left of Clark's Island,
on the Duxbury shore, there rises, directly from
the water's edge, a low and regularly-formed hill,
entirely under cultivation, which is known as
Captain's Hill; this being a portion of the
land assigned at an early period to Captain
Standish, the intrepid military leader of the
Pilgrims. Upon this farm he settled, and built a
house near where the little cluster of buildings
now stands, at a little distance from the shore, on
the S. W. side of the hill. Some ruins of this
ancient house, which was finally consumed by
fire, still remain to attract the curiosity of the
antiquarian.

Contracting now our view within the precincts
of the town itself, which lies spread out around
us, it will be easy to trace the plan of the settle-
ment, as it was first laid out and occupied by the
Pijgrims. We look directly down before us
through Leyden Street, running from the Town
Square, in front of the Gothic meeting-house, to
the water side; lying as near as may be upon the
steep margin of the stream which here flows into
the harbor from the W. It was along this street,
formerly called First Street, that on the afternoon
of the 28th of December, they proceeded to meas-
ure out their grounds, intending to build a row of
houses upon each side of the street, commencing
from what is now Town Square. “And first,''
they say, “we took notice how many families
there were: willing all single men that had no
wives to join with some family, as they thought
fit, that so we might build fewer houses; which
was done, and we reduced them to nineteen fam-
ilies. To greater families we allotted larger
plots; to every person half a pole in breadth and
three in length; and so lots were cast where every
man should lie; which was done and staked out.
We thought this proportion was large enough at
the first, for houses and gardens, to empale them
round; considering the weakness of our people,

many of them growing ill with colds,'' &c.....

“We agreed that every man should build his own
house ; thinking, by that course, men would make
more haste than working in common

They had previously completed one frame
building, about 20 feet square, which was to
serve them as a common shelter, until separate
dwellings could be erected. This, which was the
first building in the colony, was situated on the

S. side of the street, near the S. E. declivity of the
hill towards the water side.

The first meeting-house stood in the Town
Square, very nearly upon what is now the site of
the meeting-house built in 1840, by the Trinita-
rian, or Third Church, which, in honor of the
Pilgrims, has taken the name of the Church of the
Pilgrimage.

The most elevated ground which is seen on the
S. from Burying Hill, and immediately in the
rear of that part of the town which lies on the
opposite side of the stream, is known as Wat-
son's Hill. By the Fathers it was called Straw-
berry Hill. It was on the summit of this hill that
Massasoit appeared with his train of sixty men;
. and from this place hostages were exchanged be-
tween him and the Pilgrims in the town, and ne-
gotiations carried on, in consequence qf which the
first treaty of peace and friendship was established
with the Indians.

The general aspect of the landscape south of
the town is quite unique, moulded by the drift
formation, which overlies this section of the
coast, and presenting a congeries of little rounded
hillocks, which reminds one of the rolling sea
itself. This singular contour of the surface ac-
counts for a great number of beautiful ponds,
said to be about 200, within the precincts of the
town. But our limits, already much exceeded,
forbid us to point out other interesting locali-
ties. The view presented from this eminence,
embracing the harbor and the shores of the bay
for miles around, especially when clothed with
the associations of history peculiar to the spot,
is not inferior in interest and beauty to any in the
country.

Before we take leave of it, let us be reminded
again that we stand among the graves of the Pil-
grims, and of the venerated forefathers who early
joined them in their sacred enterprise. We tread
upon the ashes of those to whom we are indebted,
under Providence, for all which we hold most
valuable in our religious, civil, and social inherit-
ance as a people. Verily they have received, in
glorious measure, the recompense of the “ blessed
dead,'' who rest from their labors, and their works do
follow them.

We cannot better conclude than with an ex-
tract from the beautiful hymn of Dr. Oliver
Wendell Holmes, at the celebration of the Land
ing, in 1846 : ■—

“ The weary Pilgrim slumbers,

His resting-place unknown,

His hands were crossed, his lids were closed,

The dust was o'er him thrown ;

The drifting soil, the mouldering leaf
Along the sod were blown;

His mound has melted into earth ;

His memory lives alone.

“ So let it live unfading,

The memory of the dead,

Long as the pale anemone
Springs where their tears were shed,

Or raining in the summer's wind,

In flakes of burning red,

The wild rose sprinkles with its leaves
The turf where once they bled 1

“ Yea, when the frowning bulwarks,

That guard this holy strand,

Have sunk beneath the trampling surge,

In beds of sparkling sand,

While in the waste of ocean,

One hoary rock shall stand,

Be this its latest legend —

Here was the Pilgrim's land.''