When the Fortune Arrived

I hardly know how to set about telling you of that time when the first ship came into our harbor. It was not long after the day of thanksgiving when, early one morning, even before any of our people had begun work, some person cried out that a vessel was in sight.

It had been nearly a year since we landed on the shores of the new world, and in all that time we had seen no white people outside of our own company. Therefore you can fancy how excited we all were. Even Governor Bradford himself found it difficult to walk slowly down to the shore, while Sarah and I ran with frantic haste, as if fearing we might not be able to traverse the short distance before the vessel was come to anchor and her crew landed.

If I should try to tell you how we felt on seeing this first vessel that had visited Plymouth, believing she had on board some of our friends who had been left behind when the Mayflower  sailed, it would hardly be possible for me to write of anything else, so long would be the story. Therefore it is that I shall not try to describe how we stood at the water's edge, every man, woman and child in Plymouth, wrapped in furs until we must have looked like so many wild animals, for the day was exceeding cold and windy, watching every movement made by those on board the vessel until a boat, well laden with men and women, put off from her side.

Then we shouted boisterously, for it was well nigh impossible to remain silent, and those who recognized familiar faces among the occupants of the shallop screamed a welcome to the new world, and to our town of Plymouth, until they were hoarse from shouting.

The ship which had come was the Fortune, and she brought to us thirty-six of those who had been left behind at Leyden. During fully two days we of Plymouth did little more than give our entire attention to these welcome visitors, hearing from them news of those of our friends who were yet in Holland, and telling again and again the story of the sickness and the famine with which we had become acquainted soon after landing from the Mayflower.