Tired but still searching

On Wednesday 25th November 1620, or the 15th if you’re using the dates of the time, a group of 16 Mayflower passengers set out on an exploration mission, spending Wednesday and Thursday nights under the stars. 

On their expedition, the explorers came across buried bow and arrows.

On the third morning they came across a stubbled field, previously planted with corn in relatively recent years, and their first evidence of the Native agriculture. This discovery was soon followed by what appeared to be a grave site where there were mounds of sand covered with reed mats. They started to explore the mounds, finding a bow and rotting arrows, but decided not to go down further out of respect to the local people. They returned the bow and arrows and covered them back up.

The rough route of the first exploration expedition.

​From there they continued south and came across what may have been wreckage from a French shipwreck from 1615. Later, near the river now known as the Pamet, they came across a seventeen-year-old fort built by Martin Prigg (an English Explorer from Bristol). Their next discovery was an area of flattened sand on a high shoreside hill.  They considered it to be different from the graves they had come across earlier and so three dug down while the others formed a defensive ring around them.  They soon came across a basket of woven reeds with four bushels of corn – further evidence of agriculture. They collected up some corn and returned to the ship with news of their discoveries.

Later on in the final day the explorers found a basket of woven reeds and four bushels of corn.

These scenes were built by James Pegrum and Dan Harris as part of a series of models on the voyage of the Mayflower. Follow us on  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see them first.