The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621. Volume 5. Azel Ames

Pease, Pottage, Water-Gruel, Bisket, and six shilling Bear."

      "For private fresh provision you may carry with you (in case you or any of yours should be sick at sea):—

      "Conserves of Roses, Clove-Gilliflowers, Wormwood, Green-Ginger, BurntWine, English Spirits, Prunes to stew, Raisons of the Sun, Currence [currants], Sugar, Nutmeg, Mace, Cinna mon, Pepper and Ginger, White Bisket, Butter, or 'Captains biscuit,' made with wheat flour or Spanish Rusk, Eggs, Rice, Juice of Lemons, well put up to cure or prevent the Scurvy, Small Skillets, Pipkins, Porringers and small Frying Pans."

      Josselyn further gives us an estimate for:—

      "Victuals for a whole year to be carried out of England for one man and so for more after this rate." He annexed also their current prices:—

      "Eight bushels of Meal [Rye meal probably intended]

      Two bushels of Pease at 3/s

      Two bushels of Oatmeal at 4s/6d

      One Gallon of Aqua Vitae

      One Gallon of Oyl

      Two Gallons of Vinegar

      [No estimate of Beef or Pork, or of vegetables, is included.]

      A Hogshead of English Bear

      A Hogshead of Irish Bear

      A Hogshead of Vinegar

      A bushel of Mustard seed

      A Kental [Quintal] of fish, Cod or Haberdine, 112 lb."

      Edward Window, in his letter to George Morton before mentioned, advising him as to his voyage, says: "Bring juice of lemons and take it fasting. It is of good use."

      It is indeed remarkable that, totally unused to any such conditions, wet, cold, poorly fed, overcrowded, storm-tossed, bruised and beaten, anxious, and with no homes to welcome them, exposed to new hardships and dangers on landing, worn and exhausted, any of the MAY-FLOWER'S company survived. It certainly cannot be accounted strange that infectious diseases, once started among them, should have run through their ranks like fire, taking both old and young. Nor is it strange that—though more inured to hardship and the conditions of sea life—with the extreme and unusual exposure of boat service on the New England coast in mid winter, often wading in the icy water and living aboard ship in a highly infected atmosphere, the seamen should have succumbed to disease in almost equal ratio with the colonists. The author is prepared, after careful consideration, to accept and professionally indorse, with few exceptions, the conclusions as to the probable character of the decimating diseases of the passengers and crew of the MAY-FLOWER, so ably and interestingly presented by Dr. Edward E. Cornwall in the "New England Magazine" for February, 1897—From the fact that Edward Thompson, Jasper More, and Master James Chilton died within a month of the arrival at Cape Cod (and while the ship lay in that harbor), and following the axiom of vital statistics that "for each death two are constantly sick," there must have been some little (though not to say general) sickness on the MAY-FLOWER when she arrived at Cape Cod. It would, in view of the hardship of the voyage, have been very remarkable if this had not been the case. It would have been still more remarkable if the ill-conditioned, thin- blooded, town-bred "servants" and apprentices had not suffered first and most. It is significant that eight out of nine of the male "servants" should have died in the first four months. It was impossible that scurvy should not have been prevalent with both passengers and crew.

      CHAPTER VIII

      THE MAY-FLOWER'S LADING

      Beside her human freight of one hundred and thirty or more passengers and crew, the lading of the MAY-FLOWER when she sailed from Plymouth (England), September 6/16, 1620, was considerable and various. If clearing at a custom-house of to-day her manifest would excite no little interest and surprise. Taking no account of the ship's stores and supplies (necessarily large, like her crew, when bound upon such a voyage, when every possible need till her return to her home port must be provided for before sailing), the colonists' goods and chattels were many, their provisions bulky, their ordnance, arms, and stores (in the hold) heavy, and their trading-stock fairly ample. Much of the cargo originally stowed in the SPEEDWELL, a part, as we know, of her company, and a few of her crew were transferred to the MAY-FLOWER at Plymouth, and there can be no doubt that the ship was both crowded and overladen.

      It is altogether probable that the crowded condition of her spar and main decks caused the supply of live-stock taken—whether for consumption upon the voyage or for the planters' needs on shore—to be very limited as to both number and variety. It has been matter of surprise to many that no cattle (not even milch-cows) were taken, but if—as is not unlikely—it was at first proposed to take a cow or two (when both ships were to go and larger space was available), this intent was undoubtedly abandoned at Plymouth, England, when it became evident that there would be dearth of room even for passengers, none whatever for cattle or their fodder (a large and prohibitive quantity of the latter being required for so long a voyage), and that the lateness of the season and its probable hardships would endanger the lives of the animals if taken. So far as appears the only domestic live-stock aboard the MAY-FLOWER consisted of goats, swine, poultry, and dogs. It is quite possible that some few sheep, rabbits, and poultry for immediate consumption (these requiring but little forage) may have been shipped, this being customary then as now. It is also probable that some household pets—cats and caged singing-birds, the latter always numerous in both England and Holland—were carried on board by their owners, though no direct evidence of the fact is found. There is ample proof that goats, swine, poultry, and dogs were landed with the colonists at New Plymouth, and it is equally certain that they had at first neither cattle, horses, nor sheep. Of course the she-goats were their sole reliance for milk for some time, whether afloat or ashore, and goat's flesh and pork their only possibilities in the way of fresh meat for many months, save poultry (and game after landing), though we may be sure, in view of the breeding value of their goats, poultry, and swine, few were consumed for food. The "fresh meat" mentioned as placed before Massasoit' on his first visit was probably venison, though possibly kid's meat, pork, or poultry. Of swine and poultry they must have had a pretty fair supply, judging from their rapid increase, though their goats must have been few. They were wholly without beasts of draft or burden (though it seems strange that a few Spanish donkeys or English "jacks" had not been taken along, as being easily kept, hardy, and strong, and quite equal to light ploughing, hauling, carrying, etc.), and their lack was sorely felt. The space they and their forage demanded it was doubtless considered impracticable to spare. The only dogs that appear in evidence are a large mastiff bitch (the only dog of that breed probably seen on these shores since Pring's "bigge dogges" so frightened the Indians' in this region seventeen years before)