The Narragansetts not only coined money (wampumpeag), but manufactured
pendants and bracelets,--using shells, we presume, for these purposes.
They also made tobacco-pipes, some blue and some white, out of stone, and
furnished earthen vessels and pots for cookery and other domestic
uses,--so that they had several approximations, in these respects, to
civilization and art, not so distinctly manifested by other tribes. They
had, in fact, commercial relations with other people and distant nations,
and, it seems, were sometimes sneered at on account of their
disinclination for war,--preferring other service.
There is evidence, also, that they considered themselves--in some
respects, at least--superior to other Indians; and this is illustrated by
a very curious piece of history, said to be "the only tradition of any
sort from the ancestors of our first Indians." It seems that the oldest
Indians among the Narragansetts reported to the English, on their first
arrival, "that they had in former times a sachem called Tashtassuck, who
was incomparably greater than any in the whole land in power and state."
This great sachem--who, it would seem, had the power to elevate, and, in
some respects, enlighten his race--had only two children, a son and
daughter; and, not being able to match them according to their dignity, he
joined them together in matrimony, and they had four sons, of whom
Canonicus, who was chief sachem when the English arrived, was the eldest.
There is no reason to doubt that the marriage was a happy one, agreeable
to the parties, satisfactory to the parent, and certainly famous in its
progeny.