The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock on December 21 in 1620. They had in hand a charter to settle in the Virginia Colony, which at that time stretched up to the mouth of the Hudson River. Bad weather had forced them off course, and they first landed on the shores of North America at Cape Cod. Because winter was imminent and sea travel was dangerous, they decided to stay where they were rather than set out again for the Virginia Colony. The problem was that their settlement contract specified Virginia. So they hastily drew up a new charter, which they called the Mayflower Compact, promising to create a “civil Body Politick” with “just and equal laws” that would be loyal to the English king. Every adult male had to sign it before he and his family were allowed to go ashore. Most people spent the winter on board the ship, while a few intrepid souls went ashore to begin building some shelter.
The settlers’ new home was not uninhabited wilderness, of course. The region was home to the Wampanoag, which means the People of the First Light. At that time, as many as 40,000 Wampanoag people lived in 67 villages in the area. Their numbers weren’t apparent to the English settlers at first, because the Wampanoag spent the winter living farther inland, in valleys and forests. In the spring, they returned closer to shore, to fish and plant crops. Over that winter of 1620, the Pilgrims occasionally glimpsed a Wampanoag person, but the two parties didn’t meet formally until March 1621. They made a treaty with Ousamequin — known to the English as Massasoit — to establish peaceful relations. One man, named Squanto, had spent some time in London as a captive, and he agreed to live with the Pilgrims and show them how to plant native crops.
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