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The shallow was unshipped; and it was a real disas-
ter to find that it needed repairs.
The carpenter made slow work, so that sixteen or seventeen weary days elapsed, before it was ready for service.
But
Standish and
Bradford, and others, impatient of the delay, determined to explore the country by land.
‘In regard to the danger,’ the expedition ‘was rather permitted than approved.’
Much hardship was endured; but what discoveries could be made in
Truro and near the banks of Paomet Creek?
The first expedition in the shallop was likewise unsuccessful; ‘some of the people, that died that winter, took the original of their death’ in the enterprise; ‘for it snowed and did blow all the day and night, and froze withal.’
The men who were set on shore, ‘were tired with marching up and down the steep hills and deep vallies, which lay half a foot thick with snow.’
A heap of maize was discovered; and further search led to a burial-place of the Indians; but they found ‘no more corn, nor any thing else but graves.’
At length, the shallop was again sent out, with
Carver,
Bradford,
Winslow,
Standish, and others, with eight or ten seamen.
The cold was severe; the spray of the sea froze as it fell on them, and made their clothes like coats of iron.
That day they reached Billingsgate Point, at the bottom of the
Bay of Cape Cod, on the western shore of
Wellfleet harbor.
The next morning, the company divided;
those on shore find a burial-place, graves, and four or five deserted wigwams, but neither people, nor any place inviting a settlement.
Before night, the whole party met by the sea-side, and encamped on land together near Namskeket, or Great Meadow Creek.
