What are the motifs in Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick?

Uncertainty is a recurring theme in the story. From the departure of the Mayflower to the New World to the first encounters between the Indians and the Pilgrims, uncertainty and fear must have filled both the Pilgrims and the Native Americans in the region. The Pilgrims had no idea about what to expect from this new land and neither group knew what to expect from the other. Each step in those beginning days was uncertain and hesitant as they tried to figure out what to do and who to trust.