to bear such extra expense themselves; the funds of the Adventurers—­if any were on hand, which appears doubtful—­were not available for the purpose; while the evidence of some of the early writers renders it very certain that the Leyden party were not released from residence on shipboard from the time they embarked on the Speedwell at Delfshaven till the final landing in the harbor of New Plimoth.  Just who of the Leyden chiefs caused themselves to be assigned to the smaller vessel, to encourage its cowardly Master, cannot be definitely known.  It may be confidently assumed, however, that Dr. Samuel Fuller, the physician of the colonists, was transferred to the may-Flower, upon which were embarked three fourths of the entire company, including most of the women and children, with some of whom, it was evident, his services would be certainly in demand.  There is little doubt that the good Elder (William Brewster) was also transferred to the larger ship at Southampton, while it would not be a very wild guess—­in the light of Bradford’s statement—­to place Carver, Winslow, Bradford, Standish, Cooke, Howland, and Edward Tilley, and their families, among the passengers on the consort.  Just how many passengers each vessel carried when they sailed from Southampton will probably never be positively known.  Approximately, it may be said, on the authority of such contemporaneous evidence as is available, and such calculations as are possible from the data we have, that the Speedwell had thirty (30), and the may-Flower her proportionate number, ninety (90)—­a total of one hundred and twenty (120).

Captain John Smith says,

[Smith, New England’s Trials, ed. 1622, London, p. 259.  It is a singular error of the celebrated navigator that he makes the ships to have, in less than a day’s sail, got outside of Plymouth, as he indicates by his words, “the next day,” and “forced their return to Plymouth.”  He evidently intends to speak only in general terms, as he entirely omits the (first) return to Dartmouth, and numbers the passengers on the may-Flower, on her final departure, at but “one hundred.”  He also says they “discharged twenty passengers.”]

apparently without pretending to be exact, “They left the coast of England the 23 of August, with about 120 persons, but the next day [sic] the lesser ship sprung a leak that forced their return to Plymouth; where discharging her [the ship] and twenty passengers, with the great ship and a hundred persons, besides sailors, they set sail again on the 6th of September.”