Remember the Concord

 I like Thanksgiving but am less fond of the tales about the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.

I always think the pioneers who arrived on the Concord 18 years earlier.

They sailed from Falmouth in 1602 under Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold. He was determined to explore what was then called the area north of Virginia or northern Virginia. There were 32 on board, including 20 who proposed to stay in a new colony.

Gosnold found Massachusetts, enjoyed the natural harbor at Provincetown and named Martha’s Vineyard after his daughter, who had died young. The pioneers looked over the Massachusetts coast carefully, quarreled vigorously and headed back to England.

The pilgrims were not the first. The first looked it over and had second thoughts.