The Signal for Departure

I had hardly more than finished writing these last lines, when John, his honest face aglow with anticipation and excitement, burst into the tavern with word that the signals had been set for our departure. The gentlemen of the company are already gathering on the river bank, and I must lose no time lest my father be vexed because of my tardiness.

I shall linger only long enough to gather up the sheets on which I have written, while John puts into the traveling bag such of my belongings as have been in use while I stayed here, and then will have come, perhaps, my last moment in this land of England.

My heart should be sad, and yet it is not, for I am eager to see those brown savages, and all the other strange things to be found in the New World, where is to be my home.

I have come on board the Ark, and am in the great cabin where the gentlemen are to be housed during the voyage. John has quarters forward among the other serving men, where he will remain during the night; but at all other times, so my father commands, he is to be with me, although it seems needless thus to provide a nurse for a boy of thirteen years, who should be doing the work of a man.

There was so much to be seen during our journey down the river, that I remained on deck until the ship came to anchor off the town of Gravesend, where we are to remain until morning.

Surely it seems as if this ship of ours was overcrowded, for one can move about on deck only with difficulty; but it is possible to see that the people aboard the Dove  are stowed even more snugly, for that vessel is carrying a full third of our company of nearly three hundred, although she is but one sixth the size of the Ark.

The first night on shipboard was not pleasant. It sounded as if half a dozen people were walking to and fro on the deck just above my head all night long, and our gentlemen in the great cabin were extremely noisy, celebrating, so John declared, the beginning of the voyage.

Much to my comfort, I learned that we are to have among us three priests, Father White, Father Altham, and Brother Gervase, and John believes they will do much toward keeping the younger of our gentlemen in good behavior, for true it is that some are inclined to be overly boisterous when laying plans for the settlement of that new land of ours.