Read it through once

Their first year in the New World started badly. Upon arrival there had been rumblings of dissension from the “strangers” in the company, and anarchy seemed a real threat. This problem was met by framing the famous =Mayflower= Compact, which established a participatory form of government for the settlers. But even if all had been harmonious among the people, the physical hardships of establishing a colony were genuine and disturbing: using the =Mayflower= as a base of operations, work parties went ashore daily, constructing a common house and a platform for their guns, laying out house lots, and scavenging food supplies. Slowly, as the winter wore on, a small town began to grow on shore. The work was done under physical hardship, coupled with the latent threat from Indians, who appeared from time to time in the distance but never came close enough to engage in conversation. At other times smoke from the fires of unseen people appeared in the distance.