County, Rhode Island.
[3] This name, although originally applied only to the white
beads, came, in time, to signify both white and black.
[4] See Deposition of Roger Williams.
[5] Undoubtedly much of the clay used in Pokanoket was
procured at Barrington and North Swansea.
[6] Captain Thomas Hunt. He sold the Indians, Winslow tells
us, for £20 apiece “like a wretched man that cares not what
mischief he doth for his profit.”
[7] From Handy Street to Metacom Avenue.
[8] Another name of Massasoit.
[9] Durfee, “Whatcheer.”
[10] Winthrop.
[11] Morton’s Memorial, Appendix, 463.
[12] The late Miss Annie E. Cole, who spent many years in
collecting historical data relating to Warren, believed that
the trading post occupied a central location upon the west
bank of the Kickemuit, near the “wading-place” before
mentioned.
[13] On the east shore of the river, a few yards below the
“wading-place,” could be seen less than a century ago, the
remains of an Indian “hot-house,” a cell-like chamber
constructed of stone and built into the river bank, having
in its centre, a flat bed of stone, the whole enclosure
measuring about eight feet in length. The savages made use
of the sweating-bath in sickness or to cleanse their skins
of accumulations of dirt, paint, and grease. A huge fire was
built on the rude fireplace of the “hot house,” being
removed after the chamber became thoroughly heated. The
Indians then seated themselves around the hot stones, and
remained “for an hour or more,” says Roger Williams, “taking
tobacco, discoursing and sweating together.” After thus
profusely perspiring they plunged into the water, to cool
their bodies.
[14] The Indians accounted for the serpentine course of
Kickemuit River thus. Ages ago, they said, a deluge covered
the whole face of the earth. When the waters subsided, a
certain divinity who inhabited Pokanoket, feeling hungry
sallied forth in search of food. Espying a huge eel basking
in the mud, he raised his spear aloft but the eel,
perceiving his design, began wriggling rapidly in the
opposite direction. As it twisted, first to the right then
to the left, its pursuer was obliged to also constantly turn
and turn and soon became so fatigued that the eel easily
out-distanced him and finally plunged into Mount Hope Bay.
The track left in the mud by pursued and pursuer eventually
became the bed of the Kickemuit River.
[15] See Appendix.
[16] Callender’s Historical Discourse.
[17] William White died, 1621. The actual purchasers were
his two sons, Resolved and Peregrine.
[18] The English gave the name of Mt. Hope Neck to the
peninsula formed by Sowams River and Narragansett Bay on the
west and Kickemuit River and Mt. Hope Bay on the east. It is
a tract nine miles in extent, of which one mile is in North
Swansea, three miles are in Warren and the remaining five
miles, including the hill from which the neck is named are
in Bristol.
[19] “Petronel, a kind of carabine or horseman’s pistol.”
Webster.
[20] The name of Alexander’s son is unknown.
[21] See Appendix.
[22] After the close of Philip’s war, Job Winslow erected a
“dwelling house” near the “wading-place” at Kickemuit on
what is now the farm of Mr. Edward Ennis. It is probable
that the house “broken up” by the Indians occupied this same
site.
[23] This was located in what is now Barneysville. The
bridge over Palmer’s River near its site is still generally
called “Miles’ Bridge.”
[24] Birch Swamp in the north-easterly part of Warren.
[25] See Appendix.
[26] Taunton Records.
[27] This hill is on the farm of Mr. Edward Mason, Birch
Swamp Road, Warren.
Transcriber’s Note
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
end of the book. Dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings were left
unchanged. Misspelled words were not changed. Obvious printing errors,
such as partially printed letters, were corrected. Final stops missing
at the end of sentences were added. Duplicate words at line endings
and extraneous punctuation were removed.