[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] The Pilgrims of the "Mayflower" landed on Plymouth Rock late in the month of December, 1620, a little more than two years before the original company of Walloons came to New York Bay on the ship "New Netherlands The first British settlement in New England and the first Dutch settlement in New Netherland were thus inaugurated almost simultaneously, the former having a slight advantage as to time, and the latter a considerable one in the possession of a more o-enial climate, a less stubborn soil, and a superior natural location as also in the enjoyment of a more powerful, interested, and liberal home patronage. From the parent settlement at Plymouth, the Eng-lish not only rapidly advanced into the whole surrounding country, but in the course of a few years sent colonizing parties to quite remote THE EARLIEST SETTLERS 85 localities; and wherever an English advance colony gained a foot-