Reading in a single sitting 一口气读完这段历史

The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists , better known as the Pilgrims , from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth（普利茅斯）, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts（马萨诸塞州）, (which would become the capital of Plymouth Colony), in 1620. There were 102 passengers and a crew of 25-30.

Initially, the plan was for the voyage to be made in two vessels, the other being the smaller Speedwell, which had transported some of the Pilgrims embarking on the voyage from Delfshaven in the Netherlands to Southampton, England.

The first voyage of the ships departed Southampton, on August 5/15, 1620, but the Speedwell developed a leak , and had to be refitted at Dartmouth on August 17/27.

On the second attempt, the ships reached the Atlantic Ocean but again were forced to return to Plymouth because of the Speedwell' s leak. It would later be revealed that there was in fact nothing wrong with the Speedwell. The Pilgrims believed that the crew had, through aspects of refitting the ship, and their behavior in operating it, sabotaged the voyage in order to escape the year-long commitment of their contract.

After reorganization, the final sixty-six day voyage was made by the Mayflower alone, leaving from a site near to the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England on September 6/16. With 102 passengers plus crew, each family was allotted a very confined amount of space for personal belongings. The Mayflower stopped off at Newlyn in Cornwall to take on water.

The vessel left England on September 6, 1620 (Old Style) /September 16 (New Style), and after a grueling 66-day journey marked by disease, which claimed two lives, the ship dropped anchor inside the hook tip of Cape Cod（科德角） (Provincetown Harbor) on November 11/November 21. The Mayflower was originally destined for the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York City, at the northern edge of England' s Virginia colony, which itself was established with the 1607 Jamestown Settlement. However, the Mayflower went off course as the winter approached, and remained in Cape Cod Bay. On March 21/31, 1621, all surviving passengers, who had inhabited the ship during the winter, moved ashore at Plymouth, and on April 5/15, the Mayflower, a privately commissioned vessel, returned to England. In 1623, a year after the death of Captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was most likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London.

To establish legal order and to quell increasing strife within the ranks, the settlers wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact after the ship dropped anchor at the tip of Cape Cod on November 11/21, in what is now Provincetown Harbor.

The Mayflower has a famous place in American history as a symbol of early European colonization of the future United States. With their religion oppressed by the English Church and government, English Dissenters called Pilgrims who comprised about half of the passengers on the ship desired a life where they could practice their religion freely. This symbol of religious freedom resonates in U.S. society and the story of the Mayflower is a staple of any American history textbook. Americans whose roots are traceable back to New England often believe themselves to be descended from Mayflower passengers.

The main record for the voyage of the Mayflower and the disposition of the Plymouth Colony comes from William Bradford who was a guiding force and later the governor of the colony.

“五月花”号（英语：Mayflower）是一艘从英格兰普利茅斯前往美洲新大陆马萨诸塞的普利茅斯殖民地的搭载清教徒的客船，以运载一批分离派清教徒到北美建立普利茅斯殖民地和在该船上制定《五月花号公约》而闻名。1620年9月16日，102名清教徒登上这艘名叫五月花号的木制帆船，从英格兰出发，于11月11日在科德角附近靠岸（均按儒略历）。66天的航程中只有一人死去，且诞生了一名婴孩，所以最终仍然载着102名乘客抵达目的地。这次航行是在1607年由弗吉尼亚公司成功地建立了第一个永久性英国定居点——詹姆斯敦的鼓舞下进行的。

Key Words in History 历史关键词

1. Wlliam Brewster 威廉·布鲁斯特

Elder William Brewster was a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher born in Doncaster, England and raised in Scrooby, in north Nottinghamshire, who reached what became the Plymouth Colony in the Mayflower in 1620.

In 1620, he joined the first group of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower on the voyage to North America. When the colonists landed at Plymouth, Brewster became the senior elder of the colony, serving as its religious leader and as an adviser to Governor William Bradford.

As the only university educated member of the colony, Brewster took the part of the colony' s religious leader until a pastor, Ralph Smith, arrived in 1629. Thereafter, he continued to preach irregularly until his death in April 1644.

Brewster was granted land amongst the islands of Boston Harbor, and four of the outer islands (Great Brewster, Little Brewster, Middle Brewster and Outer Brewster) now bear his name. In 1632, Brewster received lands in nearby Duxbury and removed from Plymouth to create a farm there.

2. Puritan 清教徒

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England.

Initially, Puritans were mainly concerned with religious matters, rather than politics or social matters. They took on distinctive views on clerical dress and in opposition to the episcopal system, particularly after the 1619 conclusions of the Synod of Dort were resisted by the English bishops. They largely adopted Sabbatarian views in the 17th century, and were influenced by millennialism.

3. Mayflower Compact 《五月花号公约》

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, later together known to history as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Almost half of the colonists were part of a separatist group seeking the freedom to practice Christianity according to their own determination and not the will of the English Church. It was signed on November 11, 1620 by 41 of the ship' s one hundred and two passengers, in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod.

The Mayflower was originally bound for the mouth of the Hudson River, in land granted in a patent from the Crown to the London Virginia Company. The decision was made instead to land farther north, in what is now Massachusetts. This inspired some of the "strangers" (colonists who were not members of the congregation of religious dissenters leading the expedition) to proclaim that since the settlement would not be made in the agreed-upon Virginia territory, they "would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them.." To prevent this, many of the other colonists decided to establish a government. The Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model (even though the signers were not in the majority) and the settlers' allegiance to the king. It was in essence a social contract in which the settlers consented to follow the compact' s rules and regulations for the sake of survival.

Background Knowledge 背景知识补充

清教徒中有个叫威廉·布鲁斯特的人，计划前往北美新大陆，希望到那里找寻他们梦寐以求的宗教自由。他认识伦敦弗吉尼亚公司的财务主管桑兹爵士，通过这层关系，他们获得了在公司北方领土的定居权，并得到伦敦一位铁矿商人提供的部分经济资助。在一切准备就绪后，他们离开了尼德兰，回到英国，在此开始了奔向新大陆的历史行程。

1620年9月16日，有102人一起登上名叫“五月花号”的轮船，离开了英国的普利茅斯港。这102人里有一半是清教徒，其他则是破产的农民、工匠与渔民。“五月花号”原本是一艘往返于英国与法国之间运酒的商船，经过改装后全长27米，负载180吨。经过60多天的颠沛流离，11月19日，移民们终于看到了北美洲东海岸的科德角（Cape Cod），他们准备继续航行到哈德逊河（当时那里是弗吉尼亚公司的管辖范围），但由于遭遇海上风浪，风向改变，再加上携带的食物与淡水即将用尽，他们只得折返科德角。11月21日，他们在普利茅斯湾登上了美洲新大陆的土地。

由于没能按计划到达弗吉尼亚殖民地，他们的土地许可证在那里没有法律效力，移民们又存在着宗教信仰上的分歧，在此背景下，为有效管理与约束移民队伍，清教徒的领袖威廉·布鲁斯特与威廉·布拉德福德等人共同协商，决定为未来的定居地拟订一项管理原则，后人称为《普利茅斯联合协议》或《五月花号公约》。这份公约要求移居到新大陆的人们秉承清教徒的宗教信仰，同时宣誓表达对以英王为首的英国政府的忠诚，并决定自愿组成“公民自治团体”，拟定公正而平等之法律、规章，并保证遵守与服从。这一公约构成了美国宪政的雏形，后来的历史学家把它看成是美国历史上第一个具有政治性质的契约文件。它在美国政治与法律制度演进中具有极为重要的意义与影响。 zUiIfgmbb+U9oLQpWF8B4mlHkl5x4CMXM4hWSyhojNndnBZpnDjJ6Cx2kkS3HJk9