In Chapter 1, what does their setting aside land for a cemetery and a prison reveal about the Puritans?

This reveals the priorities of the puritans. They were quite obsessed with punishment and death. It would seem that their first order of business when getting to the new land was searching out sin, punishing (usually this meant killing) and finally burying people who flirted with the Devil.

To be so pious, the Puritans were cynical people. Just as surely as they knew people would die, they also expected their neighbors to screw up.