Como um pequeno, mas determinado, grupo

de pessoas contibuiria, determinantemente, para o perfil cultural de uma nação a haver. Refiro-me aos chamados Pilgrim Fathers, o grupo de dissidentes da Church of England que, vindos no Mayflower, desembarcaram no Novo Mundo. Eis um excerto do diário de William Bradford, provavelmente, o mais célebre desse grupo que se auto-intitulava de "peregrinos". Reparem na analogia que ele estabelece entre a sua experiência e o Antigo Tetsamento: "What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: "Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity," etc. "Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good: and his mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way,and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them." "Let them confess before the Lord His lovingkindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men."