Note 483 — Chapter VIII

Mourt’s Relation, p. 21. Mr. S. H. Gay has suggested (Atlantic Monthly, xlviii. 616) that this landing was not at Plymouth, but on the shore more directly west of Clark’s Island (Duxbury or Kingston), and that consequently the commemoration of a landing at Plymouth on that day rests on a false foundation; but the Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D.D., has conclusively shown (Congregationalist, Nov. 9, 1881) that the soundings must have led the explorers, unless the deep-water channels have unaccountably changed since then, directly to the neighborhood of the rock which a chain of trustworthy testimony on the spot identifies as the first landing-place of any of the “Mayflower” company within Plymouth Harbor. Tradition divides the honor of being the first to step on Plymouth Rock between John Alden and Mary Chilton, but the date of their landing must have been subsequent to December 11.