“But what was most sad and lamentable was, that in two or three months half of their number died, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts.”
—from William Bradford’s
Of Plymouth Plantation
Before the Mayflower left Cape Cod, and while she lay at anchor in Plymouth harbor, a violent and fatal sickness broke out among her passengers.
Confinement in their close and crowded cabin, the hardship of a long and stormy voyage, poor food, and the exposure of building their first houses on shore, caused many of the Pilgrim company to lose their lives, in sight of the promised land they had ventured so much to gain.
Hardly a family but lost one or two of its members; wives, their husbands, children, their parents; before spring came, one half of the little colony had perished and were secretly buried on this hill by the shore.
Three hundred years later, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants placed a handsome sarcophagus to honor and receive these dead from their nameless graves, which time and accident had disturbed, and the Massachusetts Tercentenary Commission set aside a park reservation on the crest of the hill, to surround the monument. It was formally dedicated September 8, 1921.
On the side facing the street, the inscription reads:
“This Monument marks the First Burying Ground in Plymouth of the Passengers of the Mayflower.
“Here under cover of darkness the fast dwindling company laid their dead, levelling the earth above them lest the Indians should know how many were the graves.
“Reader! History records no nobler venture for faith and freedom than that of this Pilgrim band.
“In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and cold they laid the foundations of a state wherein every man, through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his own way.
“May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our republic throughout the world!”
At one end of the memorial is inscribed:
“The Bones of the Pilgrims found at various times in or near this enclosure and preserved for many years in the canopy over the Rock were returned at the time of the Tercentenary celebration and are deposited within this monument.”
“Erected by the General Society of
Mayflower Descendants A.D. 1920.”
On the opposite end of the monument is:
“About a hundred sowls came over in this first ship, and began this work which God in his Goodness hath hithertoe Blessed. Let his Holy Name have ye praise.”
Bradford 1650.
On the opposite side of the monument, facing the sea, is a list of the Pilgrims who died in the first winter, as follows:
“of the hundred and four passengers these died in Plymouth during the first year:
The following died before reaching Plymouth:
Not far from the Sarcophagus stands a fine statue of the Indian Sachem Massasoit. It was modeled by the sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, and given by the National Order of Red Men. It was unveiled September 5, 1921, and dedicated in October of same year.
Massasoit, the grand sachem of the confederated tribes of Pokanoket, visited Plymouth on a fine spring day, April 1st, 1621. He was received with ceremony, a feast and gifts. A treaty of peace and friendship was drawn up and signed by him and the Pilgrims. He remained their loyal friend, and preserved peace with the colony for half a century.
Two stone seats have also been given as memorials, and placed on the hill, one near the statue of Massasoit, and the other under the great linden tree at the northern end. This was dedicated August 31st, 1921, and inscribed:
Presented by
The Pennsylvania Society
of
New England Women
To commemorate the Tercentenary
of the
Landing of the Pilgrims
1620–1920
The inscription of the other seat reads:
In Memory
of
The Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers whose
heroic idealism established the basic principles
of the government of our land.
Presented by
The Society of Daughters of Colonial Wars
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Seated here, with the wide view of harbor, Plymouth Beach, and distant ocean spread before them