Thoroughly researched, carefully documented and engagingly written, this rewarding history describes a tragic collision of cultures with sensitivity, intelligence and considerable grace. Still, Mayflower is a splendid account of a nearly forgotten era in America's Colonial past. Benjamin Church's memoir, a dramatic recounting of his exploits during King Philip's War, seems particularly suspect, if only because it was written 40 years after the war had ended. It would also have been helpful if Philbrick had discussed the biases in the Colonial-era sources. Although Philip's followers were effectively annihilated, it is clear that many of the converts the Puritans called 'Praying Indians' were ultimately assimilated into Colonial society. Historians might argue with aspects of Philbrick's story. When Philip's head was finally mounted on the Plymouth palisade, the colony had lost 'close to eight percent of its men.' The Indian population, perhaps 20,000 before the war, was reduced through fighting, disease, enslavement or flight by more than 40 percent. Philip, a son of Massasoit, was a cowardly and indecisive leader, and the Puritans gradually separated other tribes from the Pokanokets' cause. The fighting, a bitter turbulence of raiding, arson, ambush and slaughter, lasted 14 months. They headed for a shallow harbor up the coast, a place they named Plymouth. When the natives tried to drive the marauders away with war cries and a hail of arrows, the Pilgrims decided to settle somewhere else. Then, near the crook of Cape Cod's elbow, they found Indians. They found houses and took 'some of the best things' for themselves.

They found a cache of Indian corn and took it. The immigrants immediately set about exploring. And they didn't reach Cape Cod until the middle of November 1620, just in time to face the miseries of a New England winter. The 'Merchant Adventurers' - the 17th-century venture capitalists who partially financed the expedition - forced the Pilgrims to include several non-Puritan families in the enterprise, creating a troublesome source of dissension. They were duped by the captain they hired to sail the Speedwell, the expedition's original vessel.

The colonists were naive and woefully unprepared, notes Nathaniel Philbrick in Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War.

The mayflower philbrick