Bradford skips backward to explain the origins of the Plymouth government. The Pilgrims decide to draw up a compact in part to prevent opportunists from taking advantage of the confusion surrounding the abandoned contract with the Virginia Company. The compact, which Bradford includes in the text, states the Pilgrims' intention to establish a government as well as laws suitable to their goals as a colony, and this leads to the selection of John Carver as governor for the first year. Although this does not entirely put a stop to dissension among the settlers, it does mitigate it.

The first few months of settlement, however, also give rise to a much more immediate problem: a sickness that Bradford attributes to a combination of cold weather and the lingering effects of scurvy from the voyage. Over the course of January and February, roughly half the Pilgrims die. Those who remain well diligently care for the ill—including sailors who had previously refused to do the same for the Pilgrims—at what Bradford describes as considerable personal risk.

Meanwhile, the Pilgrims continue to sporadically encounter Native Americans, including a man named Samoset, who had learned to speak some English through contact with English fishermen.