42.  The Puritans.—­The New England colonies were founded by English Puritans who left England because they could not do as they wished in the home land.  All Puritans were agreed in wishing for a freer government than they had in England under the Stuart kings and in state matters were really the Liberals of their time.  In religious matters, however, they were not all of one mind.  Some of them wished to make only a few changes in the Church.  These were called Non-Conformists.  Others wished to make so many changes in religion that they could not stay in the English State Church.  These were called Separatists.  The settlers of Plymouth were Separatists; the settlers of Boston and neighboring towns were Non-Conformists.

[Sidenote:  The Scrooby Puritans. Higginson, 55-56; Eggleston, 34.]

[Sidenote:  They flee to Holland.]

[Sidenote:  They decide to emigrate to America.]

43.  The Pilgrims.—­Of all the groups of Separatists scattered over England none became so famous as those who met at Elder Brewster’s house at Scrooby.  King James decided to make all Puritans conform to the State Church or to hunt them out of the land.  The Scrooby people soon felt the weight of persecution.  After suffering great hardships and cruel treatment they fled away to Holland.  But there they found it very difficult to make a living.  They suffered so terribly that many of their English friends preferred to go to prison in England rather than lead such a life of slavery in Holland.  So the Pilgrims determined to found a colony in America.  They reasoned that they could not be worse off in America, because that would be impossible.  At all events, their children would not grow up as Dutchmen, but would still be Englishmen.  They had entire religious freedom in Holland; but they thought they would have the same in America.

[Illustration:  BREWSTER’S HOUSE AT SCROOBY.  The Pilgrims held their services in the building on the left, now used as a cow-house.]

[Sidenote:  The voyage of the Mayflower, 1620.]

[Sidenote:  The Mayflower at Cape Cod.]

44.  The Voyage across the Atlantic.—­Brewster’s old friend, Sir Edwin Sandys, was now at the head of the Virginia Company.  He easily procured land for the Pilgrims in northern Virginia, near the Dutch settlements (p. 41).  Some London merchants lent them money.  But they lent it on such harsh conditions that the Pilgrims’ early life in America was nearly as hard as their life had been in Holland.  They had a dreadful voyage across the Atlantic in the Mayflower.  At one time it seemed as if the ship would surely go down.  But the Pilgrims helped the sailors to place a heavy piece of wood under one of the deck beams and saved the vessel from going to pieces.  On November 19, 1620, they sighted land off the coast of Cape Cod.  They tried to sail around the cape to the southward, but storms drove them back, and they anchored in Provincetown harbor.