But they feared that, if they continued there much longer, they should cease to be England, and should adopt all the manners, and ideas, and feelings of the Dutch.

For this and other reasons, in the year 1620 they embarked on board the ship Mayflower, and crossed the ocean, to the shores of Cape Cod.

There they made a settlement, and called it Plymouth, which, though now a part of Massachusetts, was for a long time a colony by itself.

And thus was formed the earliest settlement of the Puritans in America.
Meantime, those of the Puritans who remained in England continued to suffer grievous persecution on account of their religious opinions.

They began to look around them for some spot where they might worship God, not as the king and bishops thought fit, but according to the dictates of their own consciences.