Author Description

Taken from the 1901 To many people the return of the Bradford Manuscript is a fresh discovery of colonial history. By very many it has been called, incorrectly, the log of the "Mayflower." Indeed, that is the title by which it is described in the decree of the Consistorial Court of London, The fact is, however, that Governor Bradford undertook its preparation long after the arrival of the Pilgrims, and it cannot be properly considered as in any sense a log or daily journal of the voyage of the "Mayflower." It is, in point of fact, a history of the Plymouth Colony, chiefly in the form of annals, extending from the inception of the colony down to the year 1647. The matter has been in print since 1856, put forth through the public spirit of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which secured a transcript of the document from London, and printed it in the society's Collections of the above-named year. As thus presented, it had copious notes, prepared with great care by the late Charles Deane; but these are not given in the present volume, wherein only such comments as seem indispensable to a proper understanding of the story have been made, leaving whatever elaboration may seem desirable to some future private enterprise. It is a matter of regret that no picture of Governor Bradford exists. Only Edward Winslow of the Mayflower Company left an authenticated portrait; of himself, and that, painted in England, is reproduced in this volume. In those early days Plymouth would have been a poor field for portrait painters. The people were struggling for their daily bread rather than for tomorrow's fame through the transmission of their features to posterity.