As we know, the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620. I believe Plymouth Colony was named after the town of Plymouth in England from which the Pilgrims originally set sail on the Mayflower.
Several years later in 1625 the Pilgrims sent two ships back to England loaded with goods like beaver skins and dried fish to trade for other supplies the colony needed. Governor William Bradford wrote about what happened next in his journal Of Plymouth Plantation. I've updated the language.
As the two ships went joyfully home together, the bigger ship towing the lesser all the way till they are shot deep into the English channel, almost within sight of Plymouth; and yet there she was unhappily taken by a Turkish man-of-war, and carried off to Sally, where the master of the ship and the men were made slaves, and many of the beaver skins were sold for four pence apiece. Thus were all their hopes dashed, and the joyful news they meant to carry home turned to heavy tidings. Some thought this a hand of God for their too great exaction of the poor plantation, but God's judgments are unsearchable, neither dare I be bold therewith; however it shows us the uncertainty of all human things, and what litle cause there is of joying in them or trusting to them.
