as a political pamphlet, 68, 322, _n._;
reference to Lake Irocoise in, 78;
where written, 78, 233, _n._;
referred to by Bradford, 79;
latest revision of, 79;
no copies of, get to New England, 79, 88;
publication of, not agreeable to Gorges, 80;
referred to by Winthrop, 86;
references to Book of Common Prayer in, 93;
ribaldry of, 94;
criticism of, 95-6;
referred to in _Hudibras_, 96;
humor in, 97;
a connecting link, 98;
bibliography of, 99-101;
titlepages of, 100;
printing of, 102;
cause of errors in, 103;
rules for present edition of, 104.
New England: emigration to, in 1634, 55;
royal policy towards, 57;
church practices in, 69;
division of, in 1635, 70;
commission for governing, in 1637, 77;
location and temperature of, 120-1;
winds not violent in, 122, 232;
plenty of, 175;
air of, 177;
beauty of, 180;
motives of settlers in, 181;
no boggy ground in, 228;
perfumed air of, 228, 231-2;
superiority of, to Virginia, 228, 229, 233, 265;
natural waters of, 229;
population of, 230;
fertility of, 231;
people of, never have colds, 232;
rainfall of, 233;
coast and harbors of, _ib._;
fecundity of women in, 265;
universities vilified in, 282. (_See_ Council for New England.)
_New English Canaan._ (_See_ _New Canaan_.)
New Hampshire, population of, in 1634, 230, _n._
Newburyport: galena found in, 219, _n._;
silver ore, 220, _n._
Newcomein, John, 216-7.
Niagara Falls, 236.
“Nick and Froth,” 328, _n._
Nilus, 240.
Niobe, 277, 281.
Nipnets, 240, 270.
_Nneesnneánna_, 193, _n._
Noddy, Doctor, 309.
_Nokehick_, 175, _n._
North Star, the Indian name of, 125, _n._
Northwest passage, interest in the, in 1632, 118, _n._, 239.
“Noses out of joint,” 94, 281.
Notes used in preaching, 322.
Nourse, H. S., on Elk in South Lancaster, Mass., 200, _n._
Nowell, Increase, 305, _n._
Nut Island, 268.
Nuttall’s _Ornithology_, cited, 194, _n._
O.
Oaks in New England, 182.
Oates, Jack, 253, _n._
Œdipus, 277, 280.
Oil, cod-liver, 222.
“Old Planters,” jealousy of Massachusetts Company, 38.
Oldham, John, 40;
at Hull, 24;
takes Morton to England, 29-32;
his promises of gain in New England, 32;
his scheme for trading, 33;
does not press matters against Morton, 33, 36;
receives grant from John Gorges, 34;
tries to organize expedition, 34;
“a jack in his mood,” 40;
his treatment at Plymouth, 262-4.
Oliver le Daim, 326.
_Om_, 124, _n._
Ordination. (_See_ Ministers.)
Otters, value of furs of, 205, _n._, 206.
Ounce, the, 206, _n._
Ovid, quoted, 217, 273.
Owls, 195.
Oysters, 227.
P.
Palfrey, J. G., quoted, 140, _n._, 148, _n._
“Pan the Shepherds’ God,” 124.
Papasiquineo. (_See_ Pasconaway.)
Parkman, Francis, quoted, 16, 17, 136, _n._, 140, _n._, 145, _n._,
158, _n._, 166, _n._, 168, _n._, 234, _n._
Partridges, 194.
Pasconaway, the sachem, 150, _n._;
his tricks and incantations, 151;
his daughter’s marriage, 154-5.
_Pascopan_, 124.
_Paskanontam_, 124, _n._
Passonagessit: description of, 9;
signification of name, 14, 276;
grave at, desecrated, 247;
Master Bubble at, 267;
revels at, 276-82;
mine host, sachem of, 289. (_See_ Mt. Wollaston.)
Pastors. (_See_ Ministers.)
Patent of Massachusetts: granted, 31;
brought over by Endicott, 305;
its case, _ib._, _n._
Paul’s Walk, 298, _n._
Pawtucket, 124.
Peabody, W. B. O., referred to, 189, 192.
Peddock, Leonard, 130, _n._
Peddock’s Island, 130, _n._
Pemaquid, 244.
Penelope, 281.
_Pennacook, the Bridal of_, 155, _n._
Pestilence among Indians in 1616-7, 11, 120, 130-4;
nature of, 133, _n._;
Squanto’s fraud about, 245.
Phaethon, 293.
Phaos box, 280, 297;
explained, 345, _n._
_Pharsalia_, May’s continuation of, quoted, 141, _n._
Pheasants, 194.
Phillips, Rev. George, 326.
Phillips Creek, Weymouth, site of Wessagusset settlement, 3.
Phlegethon, 314.
Phœbus, 293.
Phyllis 273.
Pike, 227.
Pilchers, 226.
Pillory and whetstone, 300, _n._
Pine-trees, 184.
Pipe-staves as merchandise, 182.
Piscataqua, 30;
Hiltons and Thomson at, 22, 25, 255, _n._
Plague. (_See_ Pestilence.)
Plaice, 226.
Plantations, Foreign, board of Lords Commissioners of. (_See_ Lords
Commissioners.)
Plato, Indians practise Commonwealth of, 177.
“Plough patent” in Maine, 85.
Plymouth, 30;
settlers at, in 1628, 25;
Morton carried to, 29;
Indians about destroyed by pestilence, 133, _n._;
Billington hanged at, 217, _n._;
population of, in 1634, 230, _n._;
Samoset’s appearance at, 244;
treatment of Weston at, 245-6, 255-7;
people of, at Passonagessit 247, _n._;
Morton visits, 259;
cattle at, 260;
Lyford and Oldham at, 262-4;
reordination of ministers at, 262;
no vessel arrives at, in June 1628, 289, _n._;
Christmas at, 294, _n._;
Morton arrives again at, 304;
ministers at, 325, _n._;
Book of Common Prayer at, 332, _n._
Pocahontas, “a well-featured but wanton young girl,” 145, _n._
Porcupines, 211.
Portland, Earl of, 60.
Portland Harbor, 221, _n._
Potomac, the, 236, 239.
Powahs, Indian, 139, _n._, 150, _n._, 152, _n._
Pratt, Phineas, cited, 131, _n._, 132, _n._
Praying, manner of, 334.
Priapus, 94, 205, 281.
Privy Council: petition to, against Massachusetts Company, 51;
order of, stopping emigration to New England, 56, 333, _n._
Proclamations, royal: about fire-arms, 20;
not law, 26;
violation of, punishable in Star Chamber, 35.
Procrustes, 335.
Proteus, 94, 281.
Purchase, Mr., cures himself of sciatica, 207, _n._
Purification of women, 331.
Putnam, F. W., 131, _n._, 227, _n._
Pygmalion, 315.
Pythagoras, 329, _n._
Q.
Quacksalver, punishment of, 299.
Quail, in New England, 194.
Quebec, capture of, by Kirk, 235, _n._
Quincy: seal of town of, 10;
slate in, 216, _n._
_Quo warranto_ proceedings to set aside Massachusetts Charter, 74,
77, 82, 86.
R.
Rabbits, 204, 211.
Rabelais, 94.
Raccoon, 207.
Rasdall: a partner of Wollaston, 1;
follows him to Virginia, 13;
disappears, 15.
Ratcliff, Philip: before Privy Council, 50;
thought a lunatic, 56;
promised cropping of Winthrop’s ears, 62, 64;
called Faircloath, 316, 340;
punishment of, 316-8.
Rattlesnakes, 213;
antidotes to poison of, 213, 214, _n._
Rats, 214.
Razor-shell, 227.
Readings, conjectural, 105.
Red-lead, 219.
Reordination. (_See_ Ministers.)
Reproductions, slavishness of, 104.
Reynolds, Dr. John, 331, _n._
Rhadamanthus, 293, 294, 309.
Rhode Island, Morton in, 86.
Richmond Island: Walter Bagnall at, 200, _n._, 218, _n._;
coins found on, _ib._;
whetstones at, 217;
vessels at, 221.
Rigby, Alexander, 84.
Ring, use of, in marriage, 331.
Rogers, Mr., preacher at Plymouth, 325, _n._
Running footmen, 329, _n._
Rupert, Prince, 83.
S.
Sables, value of, 205, _n._
Sal, Isle of, 116, _n._, 117, _n._, 343, _n._
Salem: suffering at, in 1629-30, 42;
a doctor made at, 298;
Dr. Fuller at, 299;
Endicott holds a court at, 306;
ordination of ministers at, 306;
Morton at, 306, 325, _n._;
church of, abused by Ratcliff, 317, _n._;
church of, vilified, 317-8;
use of Common Prayer at, 332, _n._
Salmon, 224.
Salt: abundance of, in tropics, 117;
use of, unknown among Indians, 161, 175, _n._;
given to them by Morton, 161.
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 43;
before Privy Council, 51, 61.
Samoset, 244, _n._
Samson, 281.
Sanaconquam, an Indian god, 167.
Sanderling, 191.
Sandpiper, 191.
Sargent, Professor C. S., 182, _n._
Savage, James, cited, 30, _n._
Scallops, 227.
Scent, acuteness of Indian, 166.
Sciatica, cured by raccoon grease, 207.
Scogan, John, 278;
choice of, 281.
Scotland: policy of Charles I. breaks down in, 78;
troubles of 1638 in, 82.
Scylla, 278, 280.
Sea-sickness, 298.
Sequestration, in _New Canaan_, 308.
Serat, 204.
_Sesick_, 213.
Shackles: possibly Aspinwall, 319;
whips Faircloath, 320;
fed by Morton, 321;
burns Morton’s house, 337.
Shad, 225.
Shakespeare, William, 98.
Shawmut, 12.
Shaler, Professor N. S., notes by, 215-20.
Shell-heaps: at Cotuit, 131, _n._;
origin of, 226, _n._
Ships, number of engaged in fisheries, 221.
Shoals, Isles of, 29, 289, 296, 302.
Shrimpe, Captaine. (_See_ Standish.)
Silver in New England, 220, _n._
Simpes, 191.
Skelton, Rev. Samuel, 39, 300, _n._, 325, _n._;
called Eager, 306.
Slafter, Rev. E. F., quoted, 234, _n._
Slate: in Quincy and Weymouth, 216, _n._;
at Richmond Island, 217, _n._
Smart, Captain, brings over falcons to the king, 196, _n._
Smelts, 225.
Smith, John, 95;
quoted, 1, _n._, 136, _n._, 144, _n._, 147, _n._, 150, _n._
Smith, Ralfe, 325, _n._
Snakes, 212.
Snipes, 191.
Socrates, quoted, 327.
Solomon: sayings of, quoted, 119, 127, 228;
referred to, 184.
Sommers, Will, 253.
South Lancaster, Mass., elks in, 200, _n._
South Sea, 239.
“Sparke,” 160.
Sparrow-hawks, 198.
Spruce-trees, 185.
Squanto, 271, _n._;
made use of by Chickatawbut, 164;
kidnapped, 244, _n._
Squanto’s Chappel: chalkstones at, 216;
fountain at, 229.
Squantum, 12, 216, 229;
slate at, 216, _n._
Squidraket, Sagamore, 218, _n._
Squirrels, 212.
St. Michaels, 343.
St. Paul’s Church, 298.
Stam, Jacob Frederick, 100.
Standish, Miles: kills Indians at Wessagusset, 11;
sent to arrest Morton, 27;
threatens to shoot him, 29, 296;
takes offence at Morton, in 1643, 84;
at Wessagusset, 247, _n._;
Captain Shrimpe, 285-7, 291, _n._, 296;
a quondam drummer, 286;
called Minos, 291, _n._
Star Chamber, court of, 35.
Stenography, 266.
Sterling, Earl of, 70.
Stones, chapter on, 215-20.
Strachey, Edward, quoted, 145, _n._, 147, _n._, 208, _n._,
210, _n._, 215, _n._
Strafford, Earl of, 60, 74.
Stubbs, his _Anatomy of Abuses_ cited, 18.
Students of Harvard College, whipped, 319, _n._
Sturgeon, 223.
Styx, 293, 314.
_Swan_, the, Weston’s vessel, 257, _n._
Swans, 189.
Swift, Lindsay, quoted, 328, _n._, 335, _n._, 345, _n._
T.
Tantoquineo, 152.
Tartars, supposed descent of Indians from, 125.
Tassell gentles, 196-7.
Teal, kinds of, in New England, 190.
Temperwell, Joshua. (_See_ Winthrop, John.)
Thomson, David: at Piscataqua, 24;
moves to Boston Bay, 24;
on origin of Indians, 128;
authorities concerning, 128.
“Thorough,” Gorges policy, the New England branch of, 60, 74.
Tin, in New England, 220.
_Titta_, 148.
Tithes, 333.
Tornadoes, 217.
Trade with Indians, liquor the life of, 20, 174. (_See_ Fire-arms.)
Trade: profits of in New England, 32;
regulations of Massachusetts Company, 39;
disregarded by Morton, 40, 306, 308.
Trade-winds, effect of, 118.
Traps, to take deer, 202.
Trees: effect of burning underbrush on, 172;
where to look for large, 172;
of New England, 182-7.
Triton, 281.
Trojans, supposed descent of Indians from the, 126-7, 129.
Trout, 227.
Trumbull, J. Hammond: on name of Passonagessit, 14;
notes by, on Indian words, 123, 124, 137, 148, 160, 167, 229;
his notes to _Plaine Dealing_ referred to, 322-34.
Turbot, 225.
Turkeys: garments made of feathers of, 142, 144, _n._;
hunted by Indians, 162;
wild, in New England, 192.
Turtledoves, 180.
Tuttle, C. W., 238, _n._
U.
Universities, vilified in New England, 281-2.
Uttaquatock, 216.
V.
Venice, 281.
Venus, 265, 315, 345.
Vermilion, 219.
Virgil, quoted, 217, 260, 345.
Virginia: prices of furs in, in 1650, 205, _n._;
wolves in, 208, _n._;
corn not planted in, 225;
inferiority of, to New England, 228, 229, _n._, 233, 265;
the “barren doe” of, 264, 276;
population of, 265;
execution in, 342.
W.
Walnut, the, 183.
Wampum, 157-9, 301.
Wampumpeack. (_See_ Wampum.)
Warham, Rev. John, 322, _n._, 325, _n._
Warwick, Earl of, had no influence at Court, 52.
Washburne, John, 305, _n._
Walford, Thomas: moves from Wessagusset to Mishawum, 24;
an Episcopalian, 94.
Wessagusset: plantations at, 2, 246;
Robert Gorges at, 3;
dispersion of his settlement, 4;
Indians killed at, by Standish, 11, 247, _n._;
locality of, 12;
separation of settlers at, in 1628, 24;
Morton arrested at, 27, 282, 290, _n._;
Episcopalians, 95;
those dwelling at, 162, _n._;
muscle-bank at, 227;
skirmish at, 247;
the hanging at, 249-51;
settlers killed at, 253-4;
Lyford at, 264;
Morton at, in winter, 268;
Indians compound theft at, 269;
bring Bubble’s things to, 271. (_See_ Weymouth.)
Weston, Andrew: comes to New England in _Charity_, 7;
takes an Indian boy back to England, 130, _n._;
date of his voyage, 130, _n._
Weston, Thomas: establishes a plantation at Wessagusset, 2;
account of, 245-6;
his men killed by Indians, 252;
comes to New England, 255-7;
treatment of, 257-9, 261.
Wethercock, Mr., 337, 342-3.
Weymouth, 2;
slate and limestone in, 216, _n._ (_See_ Wessagusset.)
Whetstones, 124, 216;
at Richmond Island, 217;
punishment of pillory and, 299, _n._ (_See_ _Cos_.)
Whipping-post, 274, 319, _n._
White, William and Susannah, 330, _n._
Whitney, Professor J. D., on Isle of Sal and poisonous fish, 116.
Whitney, George, quoted, 101.
Whittier, J. G., 155, _n._
Widgeon, 191.
Widow, the, 323. (_See_ Deaconess.)
Wiggin, Thomas: cited in regard to Morton, 5;
before Privy Council, 52;
quoted, 320, _n._
Wigwams, described, 134-8.
Wildrake, 92.
Williams, Edward, quoted, 182, _n._
Williams, Roger, quoted, 16, 17, 124, _n._, 125, _n._, 136, _n._,
137, _n._, 146, _n._, 149, _n._, 158, _n._, 159, _n._,
168, _n._, 171, _n._, 194, _n._, 202, _n._, 207, _n._,
221, _n._, 232, _n._
Willis, William, 218, _n._
Wilson, Rev. John, 325, _n._
Winnisimmet, 25, 30, _n._, 300, _n._, 301;
origin of name of, 229, _n._;
fountain at, 229, 265.
Winnepurkitt, the marriage of, 155.
Winslow, Governor Edward, 95;
quoted, 16, 125, _n._, 140, _n._, 145, _n._, 149, _n._;
sent to England in 1634, 64;
sails, 65;
reaches London, 67;
petitions Lords Commissioners, 68;
put in Fleet prison, 69, 322, _n._;
describes Morton at Plymouth in 1648, 84;
goes on mission to Massasoit, 136, _n._;
marriage of, 330, _n._
Winsor, Justin, 99.
Winthrop, Governor John, 43, 81, 95;
arrival of, in New England, 42, 310;
imposes sentence on Morton, 44, 311;
has warrant for Morton’s arrest, 47, 311;
criticism of, on complaint to Privy Council, 50;
rejoices over failure of complaint, 53;
“King Winthrop,” 63;
receives letter of Morton to Jeffreys, 65;
Gorges refers to patience of, 80;
excuses not sending out charter in 1638, 83;
on arrest of Morton in 1644, 86;
quoted, 91, 150, _n._, 218, _n._, 230, _n._;
absence of humor in, 98;
course towards Bagnall, 218, _n._;
called Joshua, 301;
referred to as Temperwell, 302, 310, 314, 318, 320, 335, 340;
degrades gentry, 313;
has Ratcliff whipped, 320;
responsible for wants of settlement, 321;
upon civil marriages, 330, _n._;
on Book of Common Prayer, 332, _n._;
methods of, as judge, 334-6;
course towards Sir C. Gardiner, 340.
“Without, them that are,” 316, 321, 332.
Woburn: galena found in, 219;
silver ore, 220, _n._
Wollaston, facts concerning name of, 1, _n._ (_See_ Mount Wollaston.)
Wollaston, Captain: settles at Massachusetts, 1;
composition of his company, 4;
leaves Massachusetts, 12;
sells his servants in Virginia, 13;
tradition as to death of, 15.
Wolves: deer persecuted by, 203;
black, value of furs of, 207, _n._, 209;
description of, 208-9.
_Wonder-Working Providence_, quoted, 94, 300, _n._
Wood, William, 217.
Woodcock, 191, _n._
Woodman, “Auld,” 216.
Wood’s _Prospect_: quoted, 16, 95, 129, 137, _n._, 138, _n._,
139, _n._, 140, _n._, 143, _n._, 150, _n._, 160, _n._,
168, _n._, 184, _n._, 186, _n._, 189, _n._, 191, _n._,
192, _n._, 198, _n._, 200, _n._, 206, _n._, 208, _n._,
210, _n._, 213, _n._, 223, _n._, 224, _n._, 230, _n._,
238, _n._;
referred to, 139, 141, 154, 172, 182, _n._, 184, _n._, 200, _n._,
217, 221, _n._, 233;
when written, 233.
Worcester: black-lead found in, 219, _n._;
country of Nipnets, 240, _n._
_Wotawquenauge_, 254.
Wrentham, black-lead found in, 219, _n._
Wrington, Samuel Fuller born in, 298.
_Wunanumau_, 123.
Y.
York, Archbishop of, 60.
York, Maine. (_See_ Acomenticus.)
Z.
Zones, the: New England, how placed in, 115-22;
Aristotle’s theory of, 117.
Council of the Prince Society.
1883.
EDMUND F. SLAFTER.
JOHN WARD DEAN.
WILLIAM B. TRASK.
CHARLES H. BELL.
JOHN MARSHALL BROWN.
HENRY W. FOOTE.
DAVID GREENE HASKINS, JR.
ELBRIDGE H. GOSS.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Bradford, pp. 235-6.
[2] A Captain Wolliston is mentioned by Smith (_Description of New
England_, III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 136) as the lieutenant
of “one Captain Barra, an English pirate, in a small ship, with some
twelve pieces of ordnance, about thirty men and near all starved,” whom
Smith encountered in 1615, while a captive in the hands of the French
freebooters. Though it has found a place in biographical dictionaries
on account of two eminent men of one family from Staffordshire who
bore it, the name of Wollaston is rarely met with. It is not found,
for instance, in the present directories of either Boston or New York,
and but twice in that of Philadelphia. It has been given to islands in
both the Arctic and the Antarctic oceans, but the family to which it
belonged seems to have originated in an inland English county. (Lower’s
_Patronymica Britannica_). The Captain, or Lieutenant, Wolliston,
therefore, whom Smith fell in with in 1615 may have been, and probably
was, the same who ten years later gave his name to the hill on Quincy
Bay. It is not likely that two Captain Wollastons were sea-adventurers
at the same time. That it actually was the same man is, however, matter
of pure surmise.
[3] Bradford, p. 154.
[4] _Infra_, *44, *124-127, *138.
[5] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 321.
[6] _N. E. Memorial_, p. 160.
[7] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. viii. p. 323.
[8] _Infra_, *13, *71, 343, _note_.
[9] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 401, n.
[10] Bradford, p. 236.
[11] _Infra_, *17, 130, _note_ 2, *59.
[12] Bradford, p. 118.
[13] Bradford, p. 120.
[14] Young’s _Chron. of Pl._, p. 299.
[15] _Infra_, *60.
[16] _Infra_, *113-118.
[17] Palfrey, vol. i. p 397.
[18] _Lowell Inst. Lectures_ of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1869, p. 147. Samuel
Maverick, however, writing to Lord Clarendon in the year 1661, asserts
that Morton had a patent. _Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc._ 1869, p. 40.
[19] Palfrey (vol. i. p. 222) speaks of it as “a bluff.” This is an
error. The slope from where Morton’s house stood to the water is very
gradual.
[20] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 395.
[21] _Infra_, *51, 106.
[22] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 305.
[23] This View of Mount Wollaston is taken from Rev. Dr. William P.
Lunt’s _Two Discourses on Occasion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of
the Gathering of the First Congregational Church, Quincy_, (p. 37). It
represents the place very accurately as it appeared in 1840, and as
it is supposed to have appeared from the time of the first settlement
until recently. The single tree was a lofty red-cedar, which must
have been there when Wollaston landed, as it was a large tree of a
long-lived species, and died from age about 1850. The trunk is still
(1882) standing; and, though all the bark has dropped off, it measures
some 66 inches in circumference. The central part of the above cut,
including the tree, has been adopted as a seal for the town of Quincy,
with the motto “MANET.”
[24] _Infra_, *115-18.
[25] _Infra_, *59.
[26] _Infra_, *114.
[27] Bradford, pp. 236-7.
[28] _Infra_, *103, *117.
[29] _Infra_, *141-9.
[30] Morton uniformly speaks of the place as Ma-re-Mount, and John
Adams on this point commented in his notes as follows:--“The Fathers
of Plymouth, Dorchester, Charlestown, &c., I suppose would not allow
the name to be Ma-re-Mount, but insisted upon calling it Merry-Mount,
for the same reason that the common people in England will not call
gentlemen’s ornamental grounds gardens, but insist upon calling them
pleasure-grounds, _i. e._, to excite envy and make them unpopular.”
Ma-re-Mount, however, was a characteristic bit of Latin punning on
Morton’s part, designed to tease his more austere neighbors. He himself
says (_Infra_, *132): “The inhabitants of Passonagessit, having
translated the name of their habitation from that ancient salvage name
to Ma-re-Mount ... the precise seperatists that lived at New Plimmouth
stood at defiance with the place threatening to make it a woefull mount
and not a merry mount.” (_Infra_, *134.) In view of the situation of
the place, Ma-re-Mount was a very appropriate name, but it may well be
questioned whether it was ever so called by any human being besides
Morton, or by him except in print. Bradford calls it Merie-mounte.
(p. 237.) The expression used by Morton, that they “translated the
name” from Passonagessit to Ma-re-Mount, would naturally suggest that
the Indian name might find its equivalent in the Latin one, and mean
simply “a hill by the sea.” On this point, however, J. Hammond Trumbull
writes: “Morton’s ‘Passonagessit’ has been a puzzle to me every time
it has caught my eye since I first marked it twenty years ago or more
with double (??). Morton, as he shows in chap. ii. of book I., could
not write the most simple Indian word without a blunder. What _may_
have been the name he makes ‘Passonagessit’ we cannot guess, unless
it survives in some early record. There is no trace of ‘sea,’ or
‘water,’ or ‘mount’ in it. If it stands for _Pasco-naig-és-it_, it
means ‘at [a place] near the little point,’ but I know so little of the
local topography that I hesitate to suggest this interpretation.” The
rendering here suggested by Dr. Trumbull does apply sufficiently well
to the locality. Mount Wollaston is a part of the neck which connects
the peninsulas locally known in Quincy as Germantown and Hough’s Neck
with the mainland.
[31] Bradford, p. 253.
[32] Whitney’s _Hist. of Quincy_, p. 18.
[33] _Infra_, *55.
[34] Josselyn says of the “Indesses,” as he calls them, “All of them
are of a modest demeanor, considering their savage breeding; and
indeed do shame our _English_ rusticks whose rudeness in many things
exceedeth theirs.” (_Two Voyages_, pp. 12, 45.) When the Massachusets
Indian women, in September, 1621, sold the furs from their backs to the
first party of explorers from Plymouth, Winslow, who wrote the account
of that expedition, says that they “tied boughs about them, but with
great shamefacedness, for indeed they are more modest than some of our
English women are.” (_Mourt_, p. 59.) See also, to the same effect,
Wood’s _Prospect_, (p. 82.) It suggests, indeed, a curious inquiry
as to what were the customs among the ruder classes of the British
females during the Elizabethan period, when all the writers agree in
speaking of the Indian women in this way. Roger Williams, for instance,
referring to their clothing, says: “Both men and women within doores,
leave off their beasts skin, or English cloth, and so (excepting their
little apron) are wholly naked; yet but few of the women but will keepe
their skin or cloth (though loose) neare to them, ready to gather it up
about them. Custome hath used their minds and bodies to it, and in such
a freedom from any wantonnesse that I have never seen that wantonnesse
amongst them as, (with griefe) I have heard of in Europe.” (_Key_, pp.
110-11.) And he adds, “More particular:
“Many thousand proper Men and Women,
I have seen met in one place:
Almost all naked, yet not one
Thought want of clothes disgrace.”
In Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_ (ch. iv.) there is a very
graphic account of the missionary Le Jeune’s experience among the
Algonquins, in which he describes the interior of the wigwam on a
winter’s evening. “Heated to suffocation, the sorcerer, in the closest
possible approach to nudity, lay on his back, with his right knee
planted upright and his left leg crossed on it, discoursing volubly
to the company, who, on their part, listened in postures scarcely
less remote from decency.” Le Jeune says, “Les filles et les jeunes
femmes sont à l’exterieur tres honnestement couvertes, mais entre elles
leurs discours sont puants, comme des cloaques;” and Parkman adds,
“The social manners of remote tribes of the present time correspond
perfectly with Le Jeune’s account of those of the Montagnais.” See also
_Voyages of Champlain_, Prince Soc., vol. iii. pp. 168-70.
[35] Parkman says that “chastity in women was recognized as a virtue
by many tribes.” (_Jesuits in North America_, p. xxxiv.) Of the New
England Indians Williams remarks,--“Single fornications they count no
sin, but after marriage then they count it heinous for either of them
to be false.” (_Key_, p. 138.) Judging by an incident mentioned by
Morton, however, adultery does not seem to have been looked upon as a
very grave offense among the Indians of the vicinity in which he lived.
(_Infra_, *32.) On the general subject of morality among young Indian
women, especially in the vicinity of trading-posts, see Parkman’s
_Jesuits in North America_ (pp. xxxiv, xlii) and the letter from Father
Carheil to the Intendant Champigny, in _The Old Régime in Canada_ (p.
427).
[36] _Infra_, *135.
[37] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 62.
[38] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. p. 478.
[39] Hazlitt’s _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, p. 121. See also
on this subject, Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 352.
[40] _Infra_, *132-7.
[41] Bradford, p. 237.
[42] Bradford, p. 238.
[43] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi, p. 70. See also note 202 in
Trumbull’s ed. of Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_, p. 117.
[44] Bradford, p. 240.
[45] _Infra_, *78, 218, _n._
[46] _Infra_, *137.
[47] Bradford, p. 204.
[48] _Ib._ p. 233.
[49] _Infra_, *149.
[50] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 83.
[51] _Infra_, *124.
[52] _Infra_, *181.
[53] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii, pp. 63, 64.
[54] Bradford, p. 241.
[55] XII. Coke, p. 75.
[56] _Hist. of England_ (Edition of Harper Bros.) vol. iv. p. 280.
[57] _Lives of the Chief Justices_, vol. i. p. 283. See also a paper on
“Royal Proclamations,” in Disraeli’s _Curiosities of Literature_ (ed.
1863), vol. iii., p. 371.
[58] Bradford, p. 241-2.
[59] _Infra_, *137-43.
[60] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. pp. 63-4.
[61] _Infra_, *150.
[62] _Infra_, *144, 155.
[63] The letters in full are in Bradford’s _Letter-Book_, III. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. pp. 62-4.
[64] The names of neither Maverick nor Walford appear in this list,
though in his history Bradford especially mentions Winnisimmet (p. 241)
as one of the places the settlers at which contributed to the charge.
They may, as Savage suggests, (_Winthrop_, vol. i. p. *43 n.) have
been included with Blackstone, though, considering what Maverick’s
means were, this does not seem probable. Edward Hilton lived at Dover,
eight miles above Piscataqua. (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 315.
_Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1875-6_, pp. 362-8.) Mr. Deane suggests that
Little Harbor, the place formerly occupied by Thomson, was meant by
Piscataqua. (_Ib._, 368.) The locality of Bursley and Jeffreys greatly
confused the authorities for a time, but it no longer seems open to
question. (_Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1878_, p. 198.)
[65] Hazard, vol. i. p. 243.
[66] Bradford, p. 238; _Infra_, *134. Dagon was the sea-god of the
Philistines, upon the occasion of whose feast, at Gaza, Samson pulled
down the pillars of the temple. _Judges_, xvi.
[67] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 79.
[68] Oldham’s “vast conceits of extraordinary gain of three for one”
afterwards caused “no small distraction” to the sober-minded governor
and assistants of the Massachusetts Company. Young’s _Chron. of Mass._,
p. 147.
[69] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 80.
[70] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 171; Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 6.
[71] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 147.
[72] Bradford, p. 243.
[73] _Infra_, *156.
[74] _Supra_, p. 26.
[75] XII. Coke, p. 76.
[76] Campbell’s _Chief Justices_, vol. ii. p. 42.
[77] Campbell’s _Lord Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 256.
[78] Bradford, p. 237.
[79] Bradford, p. 250.
[80] _Infra_, *157.
[81] Bradford, p. 252.
[82] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 63.
[83] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 145.
[84] _Infra_, *158-9.
[85] Hazard, vol. i. p. 252.
[86] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp. 96, 148.
[87] _Infra_, *119.
[88] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *57.
[89] _Infra_, *160.
[90] _Infra_, *161.
[91] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 311.
[92] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *30.
[93] _Records_, vol. i. p. 74.
[94] _Infra_, *163.
[95] _Records_, vol i. p. 75.
[96] _Infra_, *163.
[97] _Coll. of N. Y. Hist. Soc._ (1869), p. 42.
[98] _Infra_, *186-7.
[99] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 321; _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._,
1860-2, p. 133.
[100] Bradford, p. 253.
[101] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *57.
[102] Morton says (_Infra_, *163) “the Snare must now be used; this
instrument must not be brought by Iosua [Winthrop] in vaine.”
[103] _Mass. Hist. Soc._, Lowell Inst. Lectures (1869), p. 377.
[104] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 250.
[105] Bradford, p. 253.
[106] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 336.
[107] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *102.
[108] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 391.
[109] Bradford, pp. 251-2.
[110] Clarendon’s _Rebellion_, B. III. § 27; B. VI. § 404.
[111] Winthrop. vol. i. p. *100. Downing sent a detailed account of the
hearing, now lost, to Winthrop; see Hutchinson, vol. ii. p. 2.
[112] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 33, n.
[113] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 392.
[114] Bradford, p. 297.
[115] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *190.
[116] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 338.
[117] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 80.
[118] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 338. The reference here, as
at some other places, is to Deane’s chapter on “The Charter of King
Charles I.” As a rule, in works of this description, dealing with the
sources of history, it is not permissible to refer to contemporaneous
authorities. Mr. Deane, however, so far as New England history is
concerned, may fairly be made an exception to this rule. His knowledge
is so exhaustive and his accuracy so great that a reference to him I
consider just as good and as permissible as a reference to the original
authorities.
[119] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *56, n.
[120] Palfrey, vol. i. pp. 391-3.
[121] _Briefe Narration_, III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 82.
Hazard, vol. i. p. 390-4.
[122] _Proc. of Amer. Antiq. Soc._, 1867, p. 124. Winthrop, vol. ii. p.
233. Hazard, vol. i. p. 347.
[123] Hazard, vol. i. p. 347.
[124] William Jeffreys was one of the Robert Gorges Company. He had
contributed to the cost of arresting Morton in 1628 and sending him
to England. Morton, in writing to him, could not but have been aware
of this; but not improbably, during the time of his return to Mount
Wollaston in 1630, he had seen more of Jeffreys, and found that he
too, like the rest of the “old planters,” looked on the Massachusetts
Company with jealousy and apprehension. At that time, indeed,
Jeffreys was in active correspondence with Gorges, and outspoken in
his complaints. (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 3.) Hence the
familiarity of the address. It is apparent from the letter, however,
that Morton, when he wrote it, was so sure of his position and so
elated with a sense of his own importance that he could not contain
himself. He could not resist the desire to let his old acquaintances in
America know what an important personage he had become, and he probably
hoped they would show the letter to Winthrop and every one else. It was
a childish outbreak of delight and vanity.
[125] There is some confusion about these dates. The letter itself
is dated the 1st of May, and the commission is here said on that day
to have passed the great seal. The commissioners may have designated
Gorges as governor-general at this time, and ordered a commission
as such to be at once made out to him; but a year later the King’s
intention of appointing him was formally announced. (_Proc. of Amer.
Antiq. Soc._, 1867, p. 120.) The probability is that the business
relating to the colonies was regarded as of little moment and done in
the most careless and irregular way, hardly a record even of it being
kept. Some proceedings were thus begun and not carried out, and other
things were done twice.
[126] Morton is here quoting from the _New Canaan_, (p. *188) and its
very last page. It would seem, therefore, now to have been written,
though it was not published until three years later. (See _Infra_, pp.
78-9.)
[127] _Supra_, pp. 44-5.
[128] This letter is in Hubbard, pp. 428-30 (II. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. vi.), and in Winthrop, vol. ii. pp. *190-1. The readings do not
materially differ, but the punctuation has been corrected and the
spelling is modern.
[129] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 379, n.
[130] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *137.
[131] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *143.
[132] _Ib._, vol i. p. *102.
[133] _Autobiography of Sir Simonds D’Ewes_, vol. ii. p. 118.
[134] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *172.
[135] _Infra_, pp. *172-9.
[136] Bradford, pp. 329-30.
[137] _Supra_, p. 66. Winthrop, vol. i. p. *157.
[138] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 401 n. _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 341.
[139] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *161, *187.
[140] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 403. _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 343.
[141] In January, 1640, Richard Vines wrote to Governor Winthrop, of
Sir Ferdinando, that he was then “nere 80 yeares ould.” (IV. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 342.) This can hardly be correct, however,
as subsequently he served on the royal side in the civil wars, and
was among the prisoners taken by Fairfax when he stormed Bristol in
September, 1645. (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 342.) He must,
however, have then been a very old man, as fifty-four years before, in
1591, he had distinguished himself at the siege of Rouen, in Essex’s
English contingent. (Devereux’s _Earls of Essex_, vol. i. p. 271).
[142] _Infra_, *98.
[143] See further on this subject, Winthrop, vol. i. pp. *161, *187;
which is also referred to in the same work, vol. ii. p. *12.
[144] Hazard, vol. i. p. 400.
[145] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 127.
[146] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *231.
[147] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 330.
[148] _Infra_, *96-100.
[149] _Supra_, 62, _n._
[150] _Infra_, *98.
[151] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *137.
[152] Bradford, p. 254.
[153] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 81.
[154] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *12.
[155] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 331.
[156] Hazard, vol. i. p. 474.
[157] Hutchinson’s _State Papers_, p. 106.
[158] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *264.
[159] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *266.
[160] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *269.
[161] _Ib._, p. *298.
[162] Bradford, p. 375.
[163] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 175.
[164] _Supra_, p. 77.
[165] See Mr. Deane’s note on the “Plough patent,” in IV. _Mass. Hist.
Coll._, vol. vii. pp. 88-96. Also the note on Cleaves, _Ib._ p. 363.
D’Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, vol. iii. p. 488) gives a
singular anecdote of Rigby.
[166] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 343.
[167] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 148.
[168] Palfrey, vol. ii. p. 147, _n._
[169] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *189.
[170] _Supra_, 61-3.
[171] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *298.
[172] _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1869, p. 40.
[173] _Records_, vol. ii. p. 90.
[174] _Hist. of New England_, vol. ii. p. 225.
[175] _Infra_, *138.
[176] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *192.
[177] _New York Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1869, p. 40.
[178] “It is undeniable that Morton became an object of aversion
largely for the reason that he used the Prayer Book.” (_Mag. of Amer.
Hist._, vol. viii. p. 83.)
[179] White’s _Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church_, p. xxii.
_n._ See also Oliver’s _Puritan Commonwealth_, pp. 37-9.
[180] _Infra_, *138. See, also, *50, 332, _note_ 2.
[181] _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 89.
[182] _Wonder-Working Providence_, p. 30.
[183] “Such a rake as Morton, such an addle-headed fellow as he
represents himself to be, could not be cordial with the first people
from Leyden, or with those who came over with the patent, from
London or the West of England. I can hardly conceive that his being
a Churchman, or reading his prayers from a Book of Common Prayer,
could be any great offence. His fun, his songs and his revels were
provoking enough, no doubt. But his commerce with the Indians in arms
and ammunition, and his instructions to those savages in the use of
them, were serious and dangerous offences, which struck at the lives
of the new-comers, and threatened the utter extirpation of all the
plantations.” (_Notes of John Adams_, 1802.)
[184] _Infra_, 249-52, and _note_.
[185] _Infra_, 290, _note_.
[186] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *14.
[187] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *166.
[188] See Deane’s note to Bradford, p. 254.
[189] _Harvard Univ. Library Bulletin_, No. 10, p. 244.
[190] _Supra_, pp. 78-9.
[191] _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 94, n.
[192] Mr. DeCosta says that the titlepage of the copy in the Library of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel reads in this way. _Mag.
of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 94, n. 4.
[193] This copy was in the Adams Library for many years, and until
within a quite recent period. It cannot, however, now (1882) be found.
It would appear to have been stolen, together with many other volumes
and almost innumerable autographs, which formerly lent a peculiar value
to the John Adams Collection, given by him in 1822 to the town of
Quincy.
[194] “Mint and cumin” uniformly appears as “muit and cummin;”
“humming-bird” as “hunning-bird.”
[195] _Ante_, pp. 61-3.
[196] In regard to the Board of Lords Commissioners of 1634, see
_supra_, 57-60. The royal letter patent in the original Latin is in
Hazard, vol. i. pp. 344-7. There are translations of it in Hubbard (pp.
264-8) and in Bradford (pp. 456-8), together with notes by Harris in
his edition of the former, and by Deane in the latter.
[197] [seth.] Wherever in this edition an apparently obvious misprint
in the text of 1637 has been, as in the present case, corrected, the
misprinted word, as it appears in the original, is printed between
brackets as a foot-note.
[198] In regard to Sir Christopher Gardiner, see _infra_, *182-4 and
_note_.
[199] [_Connick._] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[200] [_stife._]
[201] [_muit._]
[202] The Isle of Sall appears on the map in the _Geography_ of Peter
Heylyn, London, 1674, as one of the Cape Verde Islands. It is called in
the text Insula Salis, and on other old maps Isle of Sal, or Ilha do
Sal. There are some ten islands in the group. Professor J. D. Whitney
writes that several islands are known by the name of Sall, and that the
one referred to by Morton is probably that off the north shore of Cuba.
“A good deal has been written about the poisonous fishes of the waters
about the island of Cuba. The disease produced by eating poisonous fish
is called _ciguatera_, and the fish itself is said to be _ciguato_.
All that is definitely known about the matter seems to be that quite
a large number of species of fish in that region are believed to be
liable to some disease, the nature and course of which is unknown; and
that those who eat the fish thus diseased are themselves liable to be
attacked by the malady called _ciguatera_.”
[203] Morton here apparently refers at second hand to Aristotle’s
_resumé_ of the ancient belief of five zones, two only of which were
habitable. _Meteorologica_, B. II. ch. v. § 11.
[204] From this passage it would appear that the Isle of Sall and the
tropical waters, which Morton in this chapter refers to as having been
visited by him, were in the neighborhood of the Western and Cape Verde
Islands. In his time the word _tornado_ had probably not been adopted
into the English language, and in writing it Morton gives to the letter
_d_ the peculiar Western Island or Portuguese pronunciation.
[205] Morton here confounds Davis with Hudson. Davis’s three voyages
were made in 1585-6-7, and it was in the first of them that he
discovered the straits which bear his name. He afterwards made five
voyages to the East Indies, in the last of which he was killed in a
fight with some Japanese on the coast of Malacca. Hudson made four
voyages between 1607 and 1610, during the last of which he passed a
winter, frozen in, near the entrance to Hudson Bay. His crew mutinied,
and turned him adrift in an open boat, on the 22d of July, 1610. He was
never heard of again; and it is his “fate,” probably, which Morton had
in mind. No other noted discoverer of the Northwest Passage was lost
prior to 1634. The discovery of that passage, however, then excited as
active an interest as it has since, or does now. In 1632 Edward Howes
sent out to Governor Winthrop a printed “Treatise of the North-West
Passage” (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 480) which is still in
the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[206] The phrase in the _Meteorologica_ (_ubi supra_, 117, _note_
1.) is, “the parts under the Bear (_i.e._, north) by cold are
uninhabitable.”
[207]
Impiger extremos curris mercator ad Indos,
Per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes.
HORACE, _Epist._ I. ll. 45-6.
[208] “18. Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun:
because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
“19. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?”
_Ecclesiastes_, ch. ii. vers. 18, 19.
[209] Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of Ashton Phillips in Somerset, has
already been frequently referred to in the introductory portions of
this volume. Of an old West Country family and pure English descent,
he was born about the year 1560 (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p.
329). He early devoted himself to a military and naval life, and in
1591 served under Essex at the siege of Rouen. Subsequently he is said
to have been wounded, either at Amiens, or during the siege of Paris
by Henry IV. In consequence of his services he was appointed by Queen
Elizabeth royal governor of Plymouth, and in 1597 was designated as
one of the staff of Essex in the Ferrol expedition, with the title of
Sergeant-Major. In 1601 he was concerned in Essex’s insurrection, and
was one of the principal witnesses against the Earl at his trial. After
a considerable period of imprisonment he was released, and, on the
accession of James I., was reappointed governor of Plymouth. In 1605 he
became interested in American discovery and colonization, and in 1607
he was one of the projectors of the Popham colony in Maine. During the
next thirteen years he was engaged in fishing and trading ventures to
New England, and indefatigable in collecting information as to America.
(Palfrey, vol. i. p. 79.) In 1620 he procured from James I. the great
patent of the Council for New England. In 1623 he sent out the Robert
Gorges expedition which settled itself at Wessagusset. (_Supra_, 2-4.)
His subsequent connection with Morton, and his intrigues against the
Massachusetts colony and charter, have been sufficiently referred to in
this volume. During the Civil War Gorges espoused the royal side, and
was made a prisoner when Fairfax captured Bristol in August 1645. He
died probably about the 10th of May 1647, as he was buried on the 14th
of that month.
In regard to Gorges, see Belknap’s _American Biography_; Folsom’s
_Catalogue of Original Documents in the English Archives relating
to the Early History of the State of Maine_; Williamson’s _Maine_;
Palfrey’s _New England_ (vol. i.); Poole’s Introduction to Johnson’s
_Wonder Working Providence_; Devereux’s _Earls of Essex_ (vol. i.); and
the _Briefe Narration_ (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 44), and
Gorges’s own letters, to Winthrop and others, in the _Winthrop Papers_.
(IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii.)
[210] That is, in 1634. See _supra_, 78.
[211] These are the Inner Harbor (Boston), so called, and Dorchester,
Quincy, and Weymouth bays. The latter includes all the inlets south and
west of Nut and Pettuck’s islands and Hull, among which is Hingham Bay.
[212] “Sleetch, _n._ The thick mud or slush lying at the bottom of
rivers.” _Webster._
[213] [iland.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[214] _Supra_, 6-7.
[215] In the letter already quoted from (_Supra_, 14), Mr. J. H.
Trumbull remarked that “Morton, as he shows in chap. ii. of book
I., could not write the most simple Indian word without a blunder.”
As respects the words which Morton believed to be Indian-Greek, Mr.
Trumbull has further kindly furnished the following notes: “_En
animia_--_Wunanumau_, as Eliot wrote it, signifies ‘he is well
disposed, or well minded toward another,’ or ‘is pleased with’ him.
There is another word, nearly related, which Morton may have had in
mind, meaning ‘to help,’ ‘do a favor to,’--_aninumeh_, ‘help me’
(Eliot), _anúnime_ (R. Williams).”
[216] “_Paskanontam_ (Eliot), ‘he suffers from hunger,’ ‘is starving.’
In Eliot’s orthography, _paskuppoo_ would signify ‘he eats hungrily,’
or ‘as if starving,’ and from this comes the verbal _Paskup-wen_ or
_Paskuppoo-en_ ‘a starving eater’--Morton’s ‘greedy gut.’”
[217] “Eliot’s _paskanontam_, as above, which is well enough translated
by ‘halfe starved.’”
[218] “I can make nothing of these words. They certainly do _not_ mean
‘set it upright.’”
[219] “An island is _munnoh_ (Eliot).”
[220] “Here Morton mistook the word. _Cos_ is, probably, _Koüs_
(Eliot), ‘sharp-pointed,’ or, from the same root, _mukqs_, (Eliot),
_mucks_ (R. Williams), ‘an awl,’ used for boring wampum, beads, &c.;
_cau-ompsk_ (R. Williams) was ‘a whetstone,’ _i. e._, a sharpening
stone.”
[221] “_Om_ (_aum_, Eliot), is fish-hook; _aumau-i_, ‘he is fishing’
(with hook and line,) R. Williams; whence _omaën_, (Eliot) ‘a
fisherman.’”
[222] “Probably misprinted for _Pantucket_--the equivalent of
_Pautucket_, meaning ‘at the fall’ of the river. (The _n_ was not
distinctly sounded, but represents the nasalization of the preceding
vowel.)”
[223] “_Mattapan_ means ‘sitting down’--or ‘a _setting_ down’--and
usually designates the end of a ‘carry’ or portage, where the canoes
were put in water again.”
[224] Winslow, in his Relations, says of the Indians: “The people
are very ingenious and observative; they keep account of time by the
moon, and winters or summers; they know divers of the stars by name;
in particular they know the north star, and call it _maske_, which
is to say, _the bear_.” (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 365-6.) See
also to the same effect, Roger Williams’s _Key_ (_Publications of the
Narragansett Club_, vol. i.) and Mr. Trumbull’s note (p. 105). Mr.
Trumbull now further adds: “The name (_maske_) was given to Ursa Major
or Charles’s Wain, not to the North Star; and by nearly all Algonkin
tribes. An interesting note on this point can be found in Hopkins’s
_Hist. Memorials of the Housatonic Indians_ (p. 11), and another in
Dawson’s _Acadian Geology_ (2d ed. p. 675), showing that the Micmacs
still know that constellation as _Mooin_, ‘the bear.’”
[225] Roger Williams, in the preface to his _Key_ (p. 23), says: “Wise
and judicious men, with whom I have discoursed, maintain their [the
Indians] original to be northward from Tartaria.” The Asiatic origin
of the North American Indians was a necessary part of the scriptural
dogma of the origin and descent of man. It is safe, however, to assert
that, first and last, every possible theory on this subject has been
carefully elaborated. It is not necessary, in connection with the _New
Canaan_, to enter into the discussion, as the views of those, from St.
Gregory to Voltaire, who have taken part in it, have been laboriously
collected by Drake in his _Book of Indians_ (ch. ii.).
[226] [muit.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[227] See _Infra_ *182-4 and _note_.
[228] David Thomson occupied the island in Boston Harbor, which still
bears his name, from some time in 1625, apparently, until his death in
1628 (_supra_, 24). He left a widow and an only son, who inherited the
island. Originally, Thomson seems to have been a messenger, or possibly
an agent, of the Council for New England. In November, 1622, a patent,
covering a considerable tract of land, was issued to him, and the next
year, he then being apparently a young man and newly married, he came
out and established himself at Piscataqua, whence he afterwards moved
to Boston Harbor. All that is known of Thomson can be found in Mr.
Deane’s _Notes to an Indenture, &c._, in the _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._,
1876 (pp. 358-81). See also, _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, 1878 (p. 204),
and _Memorial History of Boston_ (vol. i. p. 83).
[229] Morton’s attempt to trace the origin of the North American
Indians from Brutus, and the support he finds for his theory in the
resemblance of some Indian to Greek words, there being no reason to
suppose that Brutus or the Latins had any acquaintance with Greek,
reads like a humorous satire on the historical methods in vogue with
the writers of his time. Until within the last century there were two
historical events, or events assumed to be historical, to one or the
other of which it was deemed safe to refer the origin of any modern
nation. These events were the Siege of Troy and the Flood,--the profane
and the sacred beginnings of modern history. Morton wrote in 1635,
and his mind naturally had recourse to the profane theory. Fifteen
years later, Milton began his history of England, and at the outset
came in contact with Brutus. “That which we have,” he then remarks,
“of oldest seeming, hath by the greater part of judicious antiquaries
been long rejected for a modern fable.” He nevertheless “determined to
bestow the telling over even of these reputed tales, ... seeing that
ofttimes relations heretofore accounted fabulous have been after found
to contain in them many footsteps and reliques of something true; as
what we read in poets of the flood, and giants little believed, till
undoubted witnesses taught us that all was not feigned.” Then passing
on, he says: “After the flood, and the dispersing of nations, as they
journeyed leisurely from the East, Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet,
and his offspring, as by authorities, arguments and affinity of divers
names is generally believed, were the first that peopled all these
west and northern climes.” Coming down to Brutus and the whole progeny
of kings, and following Geoffrey of Monmouth, Milton then recounts
in detail the marriages, voyages, adventures and mishaps of the
descendants of Æneas until Brutus reached an “island, not yet Britain
but Albion, in a manner desert and inhospitable; kept only by a remnant
of giants, whose excessive force and tyranny had destroyed the rest.
These Brutus destroys,” and, after this, “in a chosen place, builds
Troja Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London.”
The superiority of Morton’s historical method to Milton’s, or to that
in use in Milton’s time, is obvious. Accepting the common origin, he
premises that he does _not_ find that “when Brutus did depart from
Latium his whole number went with him at once.” Accordingly, some of
them being put to sea, “_might_ encounter with a storm,” and then being
carried out of sight of land, “they _might_ sail God knoweth whether,
and so _might_ be put on this coast, as well as any other.” And hence
the author is “bold to conclude that the original of the natives of New
England may be well conjectured to be from the scattered Trojans, after
such time as Brutus departed from Latium.”
It would be easy to quote from many serious productions,
contemporaneous with the _New Canaan_ and a century after it, examples
of the same method of daring historical hypothesis; a single instance
will, however, suffice. In his history of Lynn, written in 1829, the
Rev. Alonzo Lewis says (p. 21): “The Indians are supposed by some to be
the remnants of the long lost ten tribes of Israel; and their existence
in tribes, the similarity of some of their customs, and the likeness of
many words in their language, seem to favor this opinion.”
More sensible than either Thomas Morton or Mr. Lewis, William Wood, in
writing his _New England’s Prospect_, in 1633, remarks (p. 78), that
“Some have thought they [the Indians] might be of the dispersed Jews,
because some of their words be near unto the Hebrew; but by the same
rule they may conclude them to be some of the gleanings of all nations,
because they have words which sound after the Greek, Latin, French, and
other tongues.”
There is in the _Magnalia_ (book III. part iii.) a lengthy but highly
characteristic passage, in which Mather recounts the points of
resemblance which the evangelist Eliot saw between the Indians and “the
posterity of the dispersed and rejected Israelites.”
[230] Peddock’s, or Pettick’s, Island, still so called, is one of the
largest islands in Boston Bay. It lies directly opposite to George’s
Island and Hull, from which last it is separated by a narrow channel,
and is between Weymouth and Quincy bays, on the east and west. See
Shurtleff’s _Description of Boston_, p. 557.
[231] Leonard Peddock seems to have been in the employment of the
Council for New England. In the records of the Council for the 8th of
November, 1622, is the following entry: “Mr. Thomson is ordered to
pay unto Leo: Peddock £10 towards his paynes for his last Imployments
to New England.” Subsequently, on the 19th of the same month: “It is
ordered that a Letter be written from the Counsell to Mr. Weston, to
deliver to Leonard Peddock, a boy Native of New England called papa
Whinett belonging to Abbadakest, Sachem of Massachusetts, which boy
Mr Peddock is to carry over with him” (_Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society_, April, 1867, pp. 70, 74).
Andrew Weston had returned to England in the _Charity_, leaving
Wessagussett in September, 1622 (_supra_, 7). He would seem to have
brought over the Indian boy in question with him. From the entry in the
records of the Council for New England, just quoted, it would appear
that Leonard Peddock was in New England during the summer of 1622. The
reference to him in the text is additional evidence that Morton was
there at the same time, and in company with Weston.
[232] This is undoubtedly a misprint for Auckies, which was a sailor’s
corruption for Auks. The Great Auk (_Alca impennis_) is probably
referred to. This bird, now supposed to be extinct, was formerly common
on the New England coast. Audubon, writing in 1838, says: “An old
gunner, residing on Chelsea Beach, near Boston, told me that he well
remembered the time when the Penguins were plentiful about Nahant and
some other islands in the bay.” (_Am. Ornithological Biog._, vol. iv.
p. 316.) Professor Orton, alluding to this passage, in the _American
Naturalist_ (1869, p. 540), expresses the opinion that the Razor-billed
Auk was the bird referred to; but Professor F. W. Putnam adds, in
a foot-note, that “the ‘old hunter’ was undoubtedly correct in his
statement, as we have bones of the species taken from the shell-heaps
of Marblehead, Eagle Hill in Ipswich, and Plum Island.” Dr. Jeffries
Wyman found them in the shell-heaps at Cotuit. See _Mem. Hist. of
Boston_, vol. i. p. 12.
There is an elaborate paper on the Great Auk, under the title of “The
Garefowl and its Historians,” by Professor Alfred Newton, in the
_Natural History Review_ for 1865, p. 467.
[233] Morton would seem to be mistaken in this statement. Between 1614
and 1619 two French vessels were lost on the Massachusetts coast.
One was wrecked on Cape Cod, and the crew, who succeeded in getting
on shore, were most of them killed by the savages, and the remainder
enslaved in the way described in the text. Two of these captives were
subsequently redeemed by Captain Dermer (Bradford, p. 98). The other
vessel was captured by the savages in Boston Bay, and burned. This is
the vessel referred to by Morton as riding at anchor off Peddock’s
Island. The circumstances of the capture are described in Phinehas
Pratt’s narrative (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. pp. 479, 489).
All the crew, he says, were killed, and the ship, after grounding, was
burned. Pratt’s statement is distinct, and agrees with Bradford’s,
that the captives among the Indians were the survivors from the vessel
wrecked on Cape Cod, not from that captured in Boston Bay.
[234] Pratt’s account of this survivor among the French crew is to
be found in IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. pp. 479, 489. He says
that “one of them was wont to read much in a book (some say it was the
New Testament), and that the Indians enquiring of him what his book
said, he told them it did intimate that there was a people like French
men that would come into the country and drive out the Indians.” The
account given by Mather (_Magnalia_, B. I. ch. ii. § 6) is curiously
like that in the text. After quoting the substance of Pratt’s statement
he adds: “These infidels then blasphemously replied, ‘God could not
kill them;’ which blasphemous mistake was confuted by a horrible and
unusual plague, whereby they were consumed in such vast multitudes that
our first planters found the land almost covered with their unburied
carcases; and they that were left alive were smitten into awful and
humble regards of the English by the terrors which the remembrance of
the Frenchman’s prophecy had imprinted on them.”
Pratt, whom Mather followed, claims to have derived his knowledge
of these events during the winter of 1622-3 directly from savages
concerned in them. The probability is that the tradition of the French
captive, and his book and prophecy, was a common one among the settlers
both at Plymouth and about Boston Bay. Pratt apparently had a habit, as
he grew old, of appropriating to his own account many of the earlier
and more striking incidents of colonial history. (Mather’s _Early New
England_, p. 17.)
[235] The mysterious pestilence, which in the years 1616 and 1617 swept
away the New England Indians from the Penobscot to Narragansett Bay, is
mentioned by all the earlier writers, and its character has recently
been somewhat discussed. There can be no doubt that it practically
destroyed the tribes, especially the Massachusetts and the Pokanokets,
among which it raged. The former were reduced from a powerful people,
able, it is said, to muster three thousand warriors, to a mere remnant
a few hundred strong. The Pokanokets were in some localities, notably
at Plymouth, actually exterminated, and the country left devoid of
inhabitants (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 148; Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 183). Winslow gave a description of the desolation created
by this pestilence, and of the number of the unburied dead, very like
that in the text (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 183, 206). On this
subject, see also, Bradford, pp. 102, 325; Johnson, p. 16; Wood’s
_Prospect_, p. 72; III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 57.
No definite conclusion as to the nature of this pestilence has
been reached by medical men. It has been suggested that it was the
yellow-fever (Palfrey, vol. i. p. 99, _n_). As, however, it raged
equally in the depth of the severest winter as in summer, this could
not have been the case (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 57;
Bradford, p. 325). Other modern medical authorities have inclined to
the opinion that it was a visitation of small-pox (Dr. Holmes in _Mass.
Hist. Soc._, _Low. Inst. Lect._, 1869, p. 261; Dr. Green’s _Centennial
Address before the Mass. Med. Soc._, June 7, 1881, p. 12). In support
of this hypothesis Captain Thomas Dermer is quoted, who, sailing along
the coast in 1619-20, wrote “we might perceive the sores of some that
had escaped, who described the spots of such as usually die” (Purchas,
vol. iv. p. 1778). On the other hand, none of the contemporaneous
writers who speak of the disease ever call it the small-pox, though
all of them were perfectly familiar with small-pox, and a very large
portion of them probably bore its marks. Dermer speaks of it as “the
plague.” Bradford, when the same pestilence raged on the Connecticut,
described it as “an infectious fever.” Dr. Fuller, the first New
England physician, then died of it (Bradford, p. 314). He could not but
have been familiar with the small-pox and its symptoms; and it would
seem most improbable that he should have died of that disease among his
dying neighbors, and not have known what was killing him. Moreover,
in 1633-4 the small-pox did rage among the Indians, and Bradford, in
giving a fearfully graphic account of its ravages, adds, “they [the
Indians] fear it more than the plague.” Josselyn also draws the same
distinction, saying (_Two Voyages_, p. 123): “Not long before the
English came into the country, happened a great mortality amongst [the
Indians]; especially where the English afterwards planted, the East and
Northern parts were sore smitten by the contagion; first by the plague,
afterwards, when the English came, by the small-pox.”
It would seem, therefore, that the pestilence of 1616-7 was clearly not
the small-pox. More probably it was, as Bradford says, “an infectious
fever,” or some form of malignant typhus, due to the wretched sanitary
condition of the Indian villages, which had become over-crowded, owing
to that prosperous condition of the tribes which Smith describes as
existing at the time of his visit to the coast in 1614 (III. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 109).
[236] “Their houses, which they call wigwams, are built with poles
pitcht into the ground of a round form for most part, sometimes square.
They bind down the tops of their poles, leaving a hole for smoak to go
out at, the rest they cover with the bark of trees, and line the inside
of their wigwams with mats made of rushes painted with several colors.
One good post they set up in the middle that reaches to the hole in the
top, with a staff across before it; at a convenient height, they knock
in a pin upon which they hang their kettle. Beneath that they set up a
broad stone for a back which keepeth the post from burning. Round by
the walls they spread their mats and skins where the men sleep whilst
their women dress their victuals. They have commonly two doors, one
opening to the south, the other to the north, and, according as the
wind sets, they close up one door with bark and hang a deers skin or
the like before the other. Towns they have none, being always removing
from one place to another for conveniency of food, sometimes to those
places where one sort of fish is most plentiful, other whiles where
others are. I have seen half a hundred of their wigwams together in a
piece of ground and they show prettily; within a day or two or a week
they have been all dispersed.” (Josselyn’s _Voyages_, p. 126). See also
Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 144.
[237] Giving in his _Key_ (p. 48) the Indian combination of words
signifying “let us lay on wood,” Roger Williams adds: “This they do
plentifully when they lie down to sleep winter and summer, abundance
they have and abundance they lay on: their fire is instead of our
bed-clothes. And so, themselves and any that have any occasion to lodge
with them, must be content to turn often to the fire, if the night be
cold, and they who first wake must repair the fire.” Elsewhere he says:
“God was pleased to give me a painful, patient spirit, to lodge with
them in their filthy, smoky holes.” See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I.
_Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 150.
When Stephen Hopkins and Edward Winslow were sent on their mission to
Massasoit, in June, 1621, they say of their entertainment on the night
they arrived at his lodge: “Late it grew, but victuals he offered none;
for indeed he had not any, being he came so newly home. So we desired
to go to rest: he layd us on the bed with himself and his wife, they
at the one end and we at the other, it being only planks layd a foot
from the ground, and a thin mat upon them. Two more of his chief men,
for want of room, pressed by and upon us; so that we were worse weary
of our lodging than of our journey.” (_Mourt_, p. 45). Two nights of
this entertainment sufficed for the embassadors who “feared we should
either be light-headed for want of sleep, for what with bad lodging,
the savages barbarous singing, (for they use to sing themselves
asleep,) lice and fleas within doors, and musketos without, we could
hardly sleep all the time of our being there.” (_Ib._, p. 46) Another
observer remarked of the New England Indians: “Tame cattle they have
none, excepting Lice, and Dogs of a wild breed” (Josselyn’s _Voyages_,
p. 127); and to the same effect Roger Williams notes (_Key_, p. 74):
“In middle of summer, because of the abundance of fleas, which the dust
of the house breeds, they [the Indians] will fly and remove on a sudden
to a fresh place.”
Smith, describing the Virginia Indians, says (_True Travels_, vol.
i. p. 130): “Their houses are built like our arbors, of small young
springs bowed and tyed, and so close covered with mats, or the barkes
of trees very handsomely, that nothwithstanding either winde, raine, or
weather, they are as warm as stoves, but very smoaky, yet at the toppe
of the house there is a hole made for the smoake to go into right over
the fire.
“Against the fire they lie on little hurdles of Reeds covered with
a mat, borne from the ground a foote and more by a hurdle of wood.
On these round about the house they lie heads and points, one by the
other, against the fire, some covered with mats, some with skins, and
some stark naked lie on the ground, from six to twenty in a house.”
In Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_ there is a lively account
of Le Jeune’s experience in passing the winter of 1633-4 among the
Algonquins: “Put aside the bear-skin, and enter the hut. Here, in
a space some thirteen feet square, were packed nineteen savages,
men, women and children, with their dogs, crouched, squatted,
coiled like hedge-hogs, or lying on their backs, with knees drawn
up perpendicularly to keep their feet out of the fire.... The bark
covering was full of crevices, through which the icy blasts streamed
in upon him from all sides; and the hole above, at once window and
chimney, was so large, that, as he [Le Jeune] lay, he could watch the
stars as well as in the open air. While the fire in the midst, fed
with fat pine-knots, scorched him on one side, on the other he had
much ado to keep himself from freezing. At times, however, the crowded
hut seemed heated to the temperature of an oven. But these evils were
light when compared to the intolerable plague of smoke. During a
snow-storm, and often at other times, the wigwam was filled with fumes
so dense, stifling, and acrid, that all its inmates were forced to lie
flat on their faces, breathing through mouths in contact with the cold
earth. Their throats and mouths felt as if on fire; their scorched
eyes streamed with tears.... The dogs were not an unmixed evil, for by
sleeping on and around [Le Jeune], they kept him warm at night; but, as
an offset to this good service, they walked, ran and jumped over him as
he lay” (pp. 27-8).
[238] In regard to the food of the Indians and their alternate gluttony
and abstinence, see Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, pp. 129-30; Wood’s
_Prospect_, p. 57. Wood’s account of the Indians is usually the best.
As respects eating, he says: “At home they will eate till their bellies
stand South, ready to split with fulnesse: it being their fashion, to
eate all at sometimes, and sometimes nothing at all in two or three
days, wise providence being a stranger to their wilder dayes.”
[239] “_Cattup keen?_ ‘Are you hungry?’ _Meechin_, ‘meat;’ or, as
an Indian would be more likely to say, _Meech_, ‘eat.’ In Eliot’s
orthography, _Kodtup kēn?_ _Meechum_, ‘victuals, food,’ or _meech_,
‘eat.’”--_J. H. Trumbull._
[240] In regard to the hospitality of the Indians, Wood says
(_Prospect_, p. 59): “Though they be sometimes scanted, yet are they as
free as Emperors, both to their countrymen and English, be he stranger
or mere acquaintance; counting it a great discourtesie not to eat of
their high conceited delicates, and sup of their un-oat-meal’d broth,
made thick with fishes, fowles and beasts boiled all together; some
remaining raw, the rest converted by over-much seething to a loathed
mass, not halfe so good as _Irish Boniclapper_.” See also Gookin’s
_Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 153.
So also Roger Williams (_Key_, ch. ii. and iii.): “If any stranger came
in, they presently give him to eat of what they have; many a time,
and at all times of the night (as I have fallen in travel, upon their
houses) where nothing hath been ready, have themselves and their wives,
risen to prepare me some refreshing.”
“In Summer-time I have knowne them lye abroad often themselves, to make
room for strangers, English, or others.”
“_I have known them leave their House and Mat
to lodge a friend or stranger,
Where Jewes and Christians oft have sent
Christ Jesus to the manger._”
[241] In regard to the games and removals of the Indians, see
Williams’s _Key_, chs. xi. and xxviii.; Smith’s _True Travels_, vol. i.
p. 133; Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 153; and
Wood’s _Prospect_; pp. 63, 73-5. Wood gives an excellent description
of the Indian game of foot-ball: “Their goals be a mile long placed
on the sands, which are as even as a board; their ball is no bigger
than a hand-ball, which sometimes they mount in the air with their
naked feet, sometimes it is swayed by the multitude; sometimes also
it is two days before they get a goal; then they mark the ground they
win, and begin the next day.... Though they play never so fiercely to
outward appearance, yet anger-boiling blood never streams in their
cooler veins; if any man be thrown, he laughs out his foil, there is
no seeking of revenge, no quarrelling, no bloody noses, scratched
faces, black eyes, broken shins, no bruised members or crushed ribs,
the lamentable effects of rage; but the goal being won, the goods on
the one side lost; friends they were at the foot-ball, and friends they
must meet at the kettle.” To the same effect see Strachey’s _Historie_,
p. 78.
[242] Ipsisque in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam immansueta, neque
tam fera, quæ non, etiam si ignoret qualem habere deum deceat, tamen
habendum sciat (_De Legibus_, Lib. I. § 8).
Quæ est enim gens, aut quod genus hominum, quod non habeat sine
doctrinâ anticipationem quandam deorum? (_De Natura Deorum_, Lib. I. §
16).
[243] The reference here is to Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_ (p. 70).
In regard to the time when this work was written and published, see
Mr. Deane’s preface to the edition in the publications of the Prince
Society. Morton makes numerous references to it in the _New Canaan_
(_infra_, *38, 53, 64, 84, 99). The present reference is one of the
few unintelligible passages in the book. Wood’s language, to which
Morton apparently takes exception, is as follows: “As it is natural to
all mortals to worship something, so do these people; but exactly to
describe to whom their worship is chiefly bent, is very difficult; they
acknowledge especially two, Ketan, who is their good God, to whom they
sacrifice after their garners be full with a good crop: upon this God
likewise they invocate for fair weather, for rain in time of drought,
and for the recovery of their sick; but if they do not hear them, then
they verify the old verse, _Flectere si nequeo Superes, Acheronta
movebo_, their Pow-wows betaking themselves to their exorcisms and
unromantick charms ... by God’s permission, through the Devil’s help,
their charms are of force to produce effects of wonderment.” Morton
would seem to have wished to depreciate Wood, as an authority on New
England, and so, playing upon his name and the title of his book, he
implied that he had taken a much more elevated view of the religious
development of the Indians than could be justified either by the actual
facts, or the judgment of the best informed.
Being unintelligible, the passage, from the word “neither” to the
end of the paragraph, is reproduced here in all respects, including
punctuation, as it is in the text of the original edition.
[244] There is no expression of this nature to be found anywhere in
those writings of Sir William Alexander which have come down to us and
are included in the publications of the Prince Society. He may have
used the expression quoted in conversation, or in a letter. Winslow, in
Mourt, says: “They [the savages] are a people without any religion, or
knowledge of any God” (p. 61). This statement he subsequently, however,
retracted in his _Good News_ (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 355), where
he says, “therein I erred, though we could then gather no better.”
The subject of the religion of the North American aborigines has
been treated by Parkman in the introduction to the _Jesuits in
North America_ (pp. lxvii.-lxxxix.), and he concludes that “the
primitive Indian, yielding his untutored homage to an All-pervading
grand Omnipotent Spirit, is a dream of poets, rhetoricians and
sentimentalists.” To the same effect Palfrey, at the close of his
vigorous discussion of the same subject (vol. i. p. 45), declares that
the devout Indian of the “untutored mind is as fabulous as the griffin
or the centaur.”
[245] Thomas May, better known as the historian and secretary of
the Long Parliament, was born in 1595 and died in 1650. In 1627 he
published a translation of Lucan’s _Pharsalia_, with a _supplementum_,
or continuation (1630), by himself in seven books. This continuation
he subsequently translated into Latin, and it is included in Lemaire’s
edition of the _Pharsalia_ in his _Bibliotheca Classica Latina_ (Paris,
1832). The passage to which Morton refers is in the third book of the
continuation (ll. 108-78). The following are some of the verses:--
“But in a higher kind (as some relate)
Do Elephants with men communicate.
(If you believe it) a religion
They have, and monthly do adore the Moon,
Besides the loftie Nabathæan wood,
Of vast extent, Amylo’s gentle flood,
Gliding along, the sandie mould combines.
Thither, as oft as waxing Cynthia shines
In her first borrowed light, from out the wood,
Come all the Elephants, and in the floud
Washing themselves (as if to purifie)
They prostrate fall; and when religiously
They have adored the Moon, return again
Into the woods with joy.”
[246] In his Latin poem on New England, which the Rev. William Morell
wrote during his eighteen months’ residence at Wessagusset as the
spiritual head of the Robert Gorges settlement of 1623, there is a
description of the Indian and his garments. The following is the
author’s English rendering of his more elegant Latin original:--
“Whose hayre is cut with greeces, yet a locke
Is left; the left side bound up in a knott:
Their males small labour but great pleasure know,
Who nimbly and expertly draw the bow;
Traind up to suffer cruell heat and cold,
Or what attempt so ere may make them bold;
Of body straight, tall, strong, mantled in skin
Of deare or bever, with the hayre-side in;
An otter skin their right armes doth keepe warme,
To keepe them fit for use, and free from harme;
A girdle set with formes of birds or beasts,
Begirts their waste, which gentle gives them ease.
Each one doth modestly bind up his shame,
And deare-skin start-ups reach up to the same;
A kind of _pinsen_ keeps their feet from cold,
Which after travels they put off, up-fold,
Themselves they warme, their ungirt limbes they rest
In straw, and houses, like to sties.”
I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 131.
Wood’s description of the Indian apparel is very like Morton’s. He
says, however: “The chiefe reasons they render why they will not
conforme to our English apparell are because their women cannot wash
them when they be soyled, and their meanes will not reach to buy new
when they have done with their old; and they confidently beleeve,
the English will not be so liberall as to furnish them upon gifture:
therefore they had rather goe naked than be lousie, and bring their
bodies out of their old tune, making them more tender by a new acquired
habit, which poverty would constrain them to leave.” (_Prospect_, p.
56).
The description given by Winslow (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 365)
is very similar to Morell’s. See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 152; Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, pp. 128-9, and
Williams’s _Key_, ch. xx.
Smith (_True Travels_, vol. i. p. 129) says: “For their apparell,
they are sometimes covered with the skinnes of wilde beasts, which in
winter are dressed with the hayre, but in Sommer without. The better
sort use large mantels of Deare skins, not much differing in fashion
from the Irish mantels. Some imbrodered with white beads, some with
copper, others painted after their manner. But the common sort have
scarce to cover their nakednesse, but with grasse, the leaves of trees
or such like. We have seene some use mantels made of Turkey feathers so
prettily wrought and woven with threads that nothing could be discerned
but the feathers.”
[247] _Supra_, 16, _note_.
[248] Speaking of a ceremony common to the Algonquins and the Hurons,
of propitiating their fishing-nets by formally marrying them every year
to two young girls, Parkman says: “As it was indispensable that the
brides should be virgins, mere children were chosen” (_The Jesuits in
North America_, p. lxix. _note_). The subject of female chastity among
the Indians has already been referred to (_supra_, p. 17), and it is
extremely questionable whether they had any conception of it. Winslow,
in his _Good News_ (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 364) says:--“When
a maid is taken in marriage, she first cutteth her hair, and after
weareth a covering on her head, till her hair be grown out. Their
women are diversely disposed; some as modest, as they will scarce talk
one with another in the company of men, being very chaste also; yet
others seem light, lascivious, and wanton.... Some common strumpets
there are, as well as in other places; but they are such as either
never married, or widows, or put away for adultery; for no man will
keep such an one to wife.” Strachey (_Historie_, p. 65), says of the
Virginians: “Their younger women goe not shadowed [clothed] amongst
their owne companie, until they be nigh eleaven or twelve returnes of
the leafe old, nor are they much ashamed thereof, and therefore would
the before remembered Pochahuntas, a well featured, but wanton yong
girle, Powhatan’s daughter, sometymes resorting to our fort, of the age
then of eleven or twelve yeares, get the boyes forth with her into the
markett place, and make them wheele, falling on their hands, turning up
their heeles upwards, whome she would followe, and wheele so her self,
naked as she was, all the fort over; but being over twelve yeares, they
put on a kind of semecinctum lethern apron (as doe our artificers or
handycrafts men) before their bellies, and are very shamefac’t to be
seen bare.” Ellis, in his _Red Man and White Man_ (p. 185), remarks on
this point: “The obscenity of the savages is unchecked in its revolting
and disgusting exhibitions. Sensuality seeks no covert.”
Under these circumstances it is unnecessary to say that Morton’s
statements as to the red cap and the Sachem’s privilege are pure
fiction, and what Parkman says of the Hurons is probably true of the
Massachusetts,--their women were wantons before marriage and household
drudges after it. (_Jesuits in North America_, p. xxxv).
[249] To the same effect Roger Williams says: “Most of them count it a
shame for a woman in travell to make complaint, and many of them are
scarcely heard to groane. I have often known in one quarter of an hour
a woman merry in the house, and delivered and merry again: and within
two dayes abroad, and after foure or five dayes at worke.” (_Key_, ch.
xxiii.). See also Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, p. 127. Wood’s account is
almost as comprehensive, though not quite so detailed and graphic as
Josselyn’s: “They likewise sew their husband’s shooes, and weave mats
of Turkie feathers; besides all their ordinary household drudgery which
dayly lies upon them, so that a bigge belly hinders no businesse nor
a childbirth takes much time, but the young infant being greased and
footed, wrapped in a Beaver skin, bound to his goode behaviour with his
feete up to his bumme, upon a board two foot long and one foot broade,
his face exposed to all nipping weather, this little _Pappouse_ travels
about with his bare-footed mother, to paddle in the Icie Clammbanks
after three or four daies of age have sealed his passe-board and his
mother’s recovery.” (_Prospect_, p. 82). See also Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 358.
[250] The idea that the Indian was born white was very commonly
entertained in the first half of the seventeenth century. Lechford, in
his _Plaine Dealing_, says (p. 50): “They are of complexion swarthy and
tawny; their children are borne white, but they bedaube them with oyle,
and colours, presently.” Josselyn also speaks of the Indians “dying
[their children] with a liquor of boiled Hemlock-Bark” (_Two Voyages_,
p. 128). Speaking of the Virginia women, Smith says: “To make [their
children] hardie, in the coldest mornings they them wash in the rivers,
and by paynting and oyntments so tanne their skinnes, that after a year
or two, no weather will hurt them.” (_True Travels_, vol. i. p. 131).
Strachey gives a more particular account of the supposed process: The
Indians “are generally of a cullour browne or rather tawny, which they
cast themselves into with a kind of arsenick stone, ... and of the same
hue are their women; howbeit, yt is supposed neither of them naturally
borne so discouloured; for Captain Smith (lyving somtymes amongst them)
affirmeth how they are from the womb indifferent white, but as the men,
so doe the women, dye and disguise themselves into this tawny cowler,
esteeming yt the best beauty to be neerest such a kynd of murrey as
a sodden quince is of (to liken yt to the neerest coulor I can), for
which they daily anoint both face and bodyes all over with such a kind
of fucus or unguent as can cast them into that stayne.” (_Historie_, p.
63).
[251] “If there was noticed a remarkable exemption from physical
deformities, this was probably not the effect of any peculiar
congenital force or completeness, but of circumstances which forbade
the prolongation of any imperfect life. The deaf, blind or lame child
was too burdensome to be reared, and according to a savage estimate
of usefulness and enjoyment, its prolonged life would not requite its
nurture.” Palfrey, vol. i. p. 23.
[252] Mr. Trumbull writes: “Morton’s _nan weeteo_ stands for Eliot’s
_nanwetee_ (_nanwetue_, Cotton), ‘a bastard.’ _Titta_ should be
_tatta_, a word common among Indians, which is well enough translated
by Morton. Eliot renders it ‘I know not,’ and R. Williams adds to this
meaning, ‘I cannot tell; it may be so.’
“_Cheshetue_ is unknown to me, but I am inclined to believe that Morton
heard something like it, in the connection and substantially with the
meaning he gives it,--some adjective of dispraise, qualifying _squaa_,
or, as we write it, _squaw_.”
[253] [likenesse.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[254] The observations of Roger Williams led him to a different
conclusion: “Their affections, especially to their children, are very
strong.... This extreme affection, together with want of learning,
makes their children saucie, bold and undutifull. I once came into a
house, and requested some water to drink; the father bid his sonne (of
some 8 yeeres of age) to fetch some water: the boy refused, and would
not stir; I told the father, that I would correct my child, if he
should so disobey me &c. Upon this the father took up a sticke, the boy
another, and flew at his father: upon my persuasion, the poore father
made him smart a little, throw down his stick, and run for water, and
the father confessed the benefits of correction, and the evill of their
too indulgent affections.” (_Key_, ch. v.)
To the same effect Champlain wrote (_Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 170): “The
children have great freedom among these tribes. The fathers and mothers
indulge them too much, and never punish them. Accordingly they are so
bad and of so vicious a nature, that they often strike their mothers
and others. The most vicious, when they have acquired the strength
and power, strike their fathers. They do this whenever the father or
mother does anything that does not please them. This is a sort of curse
that God inflicts upon them.” Winslow, on the other hand, in his _Good
News_, lends some support to Morton’s statement in the text. He says:
“The younger sort reverence the elder, and do all mean offices, whilst
they are together, although they be strangers.” (Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 363.)
[255] This Sachem, “the most noted powow and sorcerer of all the
country,” is better known by the name of Passaconaway. There is quite
an account of him in Drake’s _Book of the Indians_ (B. III. ch. vii).
He is the Pissacannawa mentioned by Wood in his _Prospect_ (p. 70),
of whom the savages reported that he could “make the water burn, the
rocks move, the trees dance, metamorphize himself into a flaming man.”
Morton says of the Indian conjurers, “some correspondency they have
with the Devil out of all doubt;” Wood, to the same effect, remarks
that “by God’s permission, through the Devil’s helpe, their charmes
are of force to produce effects of wonderment;” Smith declares of the
Indians, “their chiefe God they worship is the Devil” (_True Travels_,
vol. i. p. 138); Mather intimates that it was the devil who seduced the
first inhabitants of America into it (_Magnalia_, B. I. ch. i. § 3),
and Winthrop, describing the great freshet of 1638, records that the
Indians “being pawawing in this tempest, the Devil came and fetched
away five of them” (vol. i. p. *293).
See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 154;
Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 356; and Champlain’s _Voyages_, vol. iii.
p. 171. Champlain says the Indians do not worship any God; “they have,
however, some respect for the devil.”
[256] [Ingling.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[257] In regard to the Indian Powaws, priests, or medicine men, and
their methods of dealing with the sick, see the detailed account in
Champlain’s _Voyages_, vol. iii. pp. 171-8; Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_,
p. 134; Wood’s _Prospect_, p. 71; Williams’s _Key_, ch. xxxi.; Gookin’s
_Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 154; Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, pp. 317, 357; Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_, (Trumbull’s ed.) p.
117; Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_, pp. lxxxiv.-lxxxvii.; also
_Magnalia_, B. III. part. iii., where Mather says: “In most of their
dangerous distempers, it is a _powaw_ that must be sent for; that is,
a priest who has more familiarity with Satan than his neighbors; this
conjurer comes and roars and howls and uses magical ceremonies over the
sick man, and will be well paid for it when he is done; if this don’t
effect the cure, the ‘man’s time is come, and there’s an end.’” For a
summary in Indian medical practice, see further, Ellis’s _Red Man and
White Man_, pp. 127-33.
[258] Passaconoway, already referred to (_supra_, p. 150, _note_),
dwelt at a place called Pennakook, and his dominions extended over the
sachems living upon the Piscataqua and its branches. The young Sachem
of Saugus was named Winnepurkitt, and was commonly known among the
English as George Rumney-marsh. He was a son of Nanepashemet, and at
one time proprietor of Deer Island in Boston Harbor. (Drake’s _Book of
the Indians_, ed. 1851, pp. 105, 111, 278.) The incident in the text
has been made the subject of a poem, _The Bridal of Pennacook_, by
Whittier, and Drake repeats it; but as Winnepurkitt is said by Drake to
have been born in 1616, and to have succeeded Montowampate as Sachem in
1633, and as Morton, at the close of the present chapter, declares that
“the lady, when I came out of the country [in 1630], remained still
with her father,” the whole story would seem to be not only highly
inconsistent with what we know of Indian life and habits, but also at
variance with facts and dates.
[259] [not determined.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.
[260] Josselyn’s account of the Indian wampum is written, more than any
other which has come down to us, in the spirit of the _New Canaan_:
“Their Merchandize are their beads, which are their money, of these
there are two sorts, blew Beads and white Beads, the first is their
Gold, the last their Silver, these they work out of certain shells so
cunningly that neither _Jew_ nor Devil can counterfeit, they dril them
and string them, and make many curious works with them to adorn the
persons of their Sagamores and principal men and young women, as Belts,
Girdles, Tablets, Borders for their womens hair, Bracelets, Necklaces,
and links to hang in their ears. Prince _Phillip_, a little before I
came for England, coming to Boston, had a coat on and Buskins set thick
with these Beads in pleasant wild works, and a broad belt of the same;
his Accoutrements were valued at Twenty pounds. The English Merchant
giveth them ten shillings a fathom for their white, and as much more or
near upon for their blew beads.” (_Two Voyages_, pp. 142-3.)
There is a much better description of wampum in Lawson’s account of
Carolina, quoted by Drake (_Book of the Indians_, p. 328), in which
he says that wampum was current money among the Indians “all over the
continent, as far as the bay of Mexico.” Lawson’s explanation of the
fact that wampum was not counterfeited to any considerable extent is
much more natural than Morton’s. It cost more to counterfeit it than
it was worth. “To make this _Peak_ it cost the English five or ten
times as much as they could get for it; whereas it cost the Indians
nothing, because they set no value upon their time, and therefore have
no competitors to fear, or that others will take its manufacture out of
their hands.”
Roger Williams (_Key_, ch. xxvi.) devotes considerable space to this
subject, and says: “They [the Indians] hang these strings of money
about their necks and wrists; as also upon the necks and wrists of
their wives and children. They make [girdles] curiously of one, two,
three, foure and five inches thickness and more, of this money which
(sometimes to the value of ten pounds and more) they weare about their
middle and as a scarfe about their shoulders and breasts. Yea, the
Princes make rich Caps and Aprons (or small breeches) of these Beads
thus curiously strung into many formes and figures: their blacke and
white finely mixt together.” See also Trumbull’s notes in his edition
of the _Key_, and Palfrey, vol. i. p. 31. Parkman (_Jesuits in North
America_, pp. xxxi., lxi.) says of wampum: “This was at once their
currency, their ornament, their pen, ink and parchment.” He describes
the uses to which it was put among the Hurons and Iroquois, but adds:
“The art [of working it] soon fell into disuse, however; for wampum
better than their own was brought them by the traders, besides abundant
imitations in glass and porcelain.”
[261] “How have foule hands (in smoakie houses) the first handling of
these Furres which are often worne upon the hands of Queens and heads
of Princes!” (Williams’s _Key_, p. 158.)
[262] There is obviously some corruption of the original manuscript
here, but I have been unable to obtain any even plausible suggestion of
what word may have been turned into “reles” through the compositor’s
inability to decipher copy.
[263] There is not much to be said on the manufactures, utensils and
trade of the New England aborigines. Gookin (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. i. p. 151) has a comprehensive paragraph on the subject, and there
is a passage in Josselyn (_Two Voyages_, p. 143). See also Williams’s
_Key_, ch. xxv.
[264] Josselyn also speaks of “baskets, bags and mats woven with
_Sparke_.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 143.) “Spart,” Mr. Trumbull writes, “was
a northern English name for the dwarf-rush, and (as ‘spart’ in the
glossaries) for osiers, and I _guess_, Morton’s and Josselyn’s _sparke_
is another form of that name.” Gookin says (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. i. p. 151): “Some of their baskets are made of rushes; some, of
bents; others, of maize-husks; others, of a kind of silk grass; others,
of a kind of wild hemp; and some, of barks of trees.”
[265] Wood says of the Indian women: “Their corn being ripe, they
gather it, and drying it hard in the Sun, conveigh it to their barnes,
which be great holes digged in the ground in forme of a brasse pot,
seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne, covering
it from the inquisitive search of their gurmundizing husbands, who
would eate up both their allowed portion, and reserved seed, if they
knew where to finde it. But our hogges having found a way to unhindge
their barne doores, and robbe their garners, they are glad to implore
their husbands helpe to roule the bodies of trees over their holes,
to prevent these pioneers, whose theevery they as much hate as their
flesh.” (_Prospect_, p. 81.) Mather also, in enumerating the points
of resemblance between the Indians and the Israelites, (_Magnalia_,
B. III. part iii.) says: “They have, too, a great unkindness for our
_swine_; but I suppose that is because the hogs devour the clams, which
are a dainty with them.”
[266] See Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, p. 148; also, _infra_, 175,
_n._
[267] This Sachem has already been sufficiently referred to (_Supra_,
p. 11.) All that is known concerning him can be found in Drake’s _Book
of the Indians_, (ed. 1851), pp. 107-9.
[268] Morton’s neighbors at Wessaguscus were William Jeffrey, John
Bursley and such others of the Robert Gorges expedition of 1623 as
still remained there. (_Supra_, 4, 24, 30.) See also _Mass. Hist. Soc.
Proc._ 1878, p. 198.
[269] _Infra_, *77.
[270] “Frumenty, _n._ [Also _furmenty_ and _fumety_; from Lat.
_frumentum_]. Food made of wheat boiled in milk, and seasoned with
sugar, cinnamon, &c.” _Webster._
[271] Squanto. See _infra_, *104.
[272] In reference to this passage, Mr. Francis Parkman writes: “I have
searched my memory in vain for anything in the early French writers
answering to Morton’s statement. I don’t think that Cartier, Champlain,
Biard, Lescarbot or Le Jeune, the principal writers before 1635, make
the extraordinary assertions in question. In fact, as there were no
Spaniards in Canada, and likely to be none on French vessels going
there, Indians of those parts would hardly have the opportunity of
distinguishing between them by smell or otherwise. Indeed, they did not
know the existence of such a nation.”
[273] _Supra_, *27, _note_.
[274] “Kytan was an appellation of the greatest _manito_. The word
signifies ‘greatest’ or ‘pre-eminent.’ See my note (p. 207) in
Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_ (p. 120), where is mention of ‘Kitan, their
good god.’ Roger Williams in a letter to Thomas Thorowgood, 1635, names
‘their god Kuttand to the south-west’ (_Jewes in America_, 1650, p. 6)
but in his _Key_, he writes the name Cautantowit (_To the Reader_, p.
24.) i. e., _Keihte-anito_--‘greatest manito.’
“I have not met with the name _Sanaconquam_ elsewhere: at least I do
not remember seeing it except in Morton. The derivation is apparently
from a word meaning to press upon, to op-press, to crush, or the like.”
(_Manuscript Letter of J. H. Trumbull_, June 25, 1882.)
See, also, authorities referred to _supra_, p. 140, _note_, and also
Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, pp. 134-9. Morell has a passage on the
Indian’s methods of worship in his poem. (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol.
i. p. 136.)
[275] Roger Williams says: “They will relate how they have it from
their Fathers, that Kantántowwit made one man and woman of a stone,
which disliking, he broke them in pieces, and made another man and
woman of a tree, which were the Fountaines of all mankind.” (_Key_, ch.
xxi.)
“They believe that the soules of men and women goe to the Sou-west,
their great and good men and women to Cantántowwit his House, where
they have hopes (as the Turks have) of carnal Joyes: Murtherers,
theeves and Lyers, their souls (say they) wander restlesse abroad.”
(_Ib._)
Wood, enlarging on this, says: “Yet do they hold the immortality of
the never-dying soul, that it shall passe to the South-west _Elysium_,
concerning which their _Indian_ faith jumps much with the _Turkish
Alchoran_, holding it to be a kind of Paradise, wherein they shall
everlastingly abide, solacing themselves in odoriferous Gardens,
fruitfull corn-fields, green meadows, bathing their hides in the coole
streams of pleasant Rivers, and shelter themselves from heat and cold
in the sumptuous Pallaces framed by the skill of Natures curious
contrivement. Concluding that neither care nor pain shall molest them
but that Natures bounty wil administer all things with a voluntary
contribution from the overflowing storehouse of their _Elysian_
Hospital, at the portall whereof they say lies a great Dog, whose
churlish snarlings deny a _Pax intrantibus_ to unworthy intruders.”
(_Prospect_, p. 79.)
Parkman says: “The primitive Indian believed in the immortality of the
soul, but he did not always believe in a state of future reward and
punishment.” (_Jesuits in North America_, p. lxxx.) Referring to a
case in which one of the Jesuits quoted an Indian as saying “there was
no future life,” Parkman adds: “It would be difficult to find another
instance of the kind.”
The romantic view of the Indian on this point was taken by Arnold, in
his _History of Rhode Island_ (vol. i. p. 78), and the realistic view
by Palfrey, in his _New England_ (vol. i. p. 49); and, though writing
at the same time, the two seem to be controverting each other. See
Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, p. 115.
[276] _Supra_, p. 93.
[277] Roger Williams, also, in a passage just quoted (_supra_, 168,
_note_), speaks of the future punishment supposed, among the New
England Indians, to be allotted to thieves and liars. Josselyn, on the
other hand, describes them as “very fingurative or theevish” (_Two
Voyages_, p. 125); and Gookin says: “They are naturally much addicted
to lying and speaking untruth: and unto stealing, especially from the
English” (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 149). Winslow describes
the severe punishments inflicted for theft (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._,
p. 364). Dodge, in his _Wild Indians_ (pp. 63-5), explains this
discrepancy in the authorities. He says: “All these authors are both
right and wrong. In their own bands, Indians are perfectly honest....
It [theft] is the sole unpardonable crime among Indians.” He then
describes, like Winslow, the severity of the punishments inflicted for
thefts; “but,” he adds, “this wonderfully exceptional honesty extends
no further than to the members of his immediate band. To all outside of
it, the Indian is not only one of the most arrant thieves in the world,
but this quality or faculty is held in the highest estimation.”
[278] The reference is to ch. iii. of the Third Booke (_infra_,
*106-8). This passage would seem to indicate that the third book of
the _New Canaan_ was written first, and that the two other books were
prepared subsequently, probably in imitation of Wood’s _Prospect_. (See
_supra_, 78.)
[279] “Yea, I saw with mine owne eyes that at my late comming forth
of the Countrey, the chiefe and most aged peaceable Father of the
countrey, Caunoŭnicus, having buried his sonne, he burned his owne
Palace, and all his goods in it, (amongst them to a great value) in a
sollemne remembrance of his sonne, and in a kind of humble Expiation
to the Gods, who, (as they believe) had taken his sonne from him.”
(Williams’s _Key_, ch. xxxii.) In the same passage Williams says:
“Upon the Grave is spread the Mat that the party died on, the Dish he
ate in, and, sometimes, a faire Coat of skin hung upon the next tree
to the Grave, which none will touch, but suffer it there to rot with
the dead.” See also Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 142, 143, 154, 363;
Strachey’s _Historie_, p. 90.
“In times of general Mortality they omit the Ceremonies of burying,
exposing their dead Carkases to the Beasts of prey. But at other times
they dig a Pit and set the diseased therein upon his breech upright,
and, throwing in the earth, cover it with the sods and bind them
down with sticks, driving in two stakes at each end; their mournings
are somewhat like the howlings of the Irish, seldom at the grave
but in the Wigwam where the party dyed, blaming the Devil for his
hard-heartedness, and concluding with rude prayers to him to afflict
them no further.” (Josselyn, _Two Voyages_, p. 132.) There is a highly
characteristic passage to the same effect in Wood’s _Prospect_, p. 79.
[280] _Supra_, 143.
[281] The reference is to Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, p. 13;
where, also, the Indian custom of firing the country in November is
described.
[282] Gookin says: “This beastly sin of drunkenness could not be
charged upon the Indians before the English and other Christian
nations, as Dutch, French, and Spaniards, came to dwell in America:
which nations, especially the English in New-England, have cause to be
greatly humbled before God, that they have been, and are, instrumental
to cause these Indians to commit this great evil and beastly sin of
drunkenness.” (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 151.)
In regard to the peculiarities of Indian drunkenness, see Dodge’s
_Wild Indians_, pp. 333-5. What is there said of the Indians of “the
plains” is probably true of all the northern American Indians. “This
passion for intoxication amounts almost to an insanity.... To drink
liquor as a beverage, for the gratification of taste, or for the sake
of pleasurable conviviality, is something of which the Indian can form
no conception. His idea of pleasure in the use of strong drink is to
get drunk, and the quicker and more complete that effect, the better he
likes it.”
[283] “They live in a country where _we_ now have all the conveniences
of human life: but as for _them_, their _housing_ is nothing but a few
_mats_ tyed about _poles_ fastened in the earth, where a good _fire_
is their _bed-clothes_ in the coldest seasons; their _clothing_ is but
a skin of a beast, covering their _hind-parts_, their _fore-parts_
having but a little apron, where nature calls for secrecy; their _diet_
has not a greater dainty than their _Nokehick_, that is a spoonful of
their _parched meal_, with a spoonful of _water_, which will strengthen
them to travel a day to-gether; except we should mention the flesh of
_deers_, _bears_, _mose_, _rackoons_, and the like, which they have
when they can _catch_ them; as also a little _fish_, which, if they
would preserve, it was by _drying_, not by _salting_; for they had not
a grain of _salt_ in the world, I think, till we bestowed it on them.”
_Magnalia_, B. III. part iii. In his _Letters and Notes on the North
American Indians_ (_Letter No. 17_) Catlin comments on the failure
of the Indians to make any use of salt, even in localities where it
abounds. See _supra_, 161.
[284] The relations supposed to exist between the Indians and the devil
have been referred to in a previous note, _supra_, 150. It is, however,
a somewhat curious fact that the aboriginal hierarchy, suggested in
the text, had a few years before found its exact political counterpart
in the talk of the English people. “‘Who governs the land?’ it was
asked. ‘Why, the King.’ ‘And who governs the King?’ ‘Why, the Duke of
Buckingham.’ ‘And who governs the Duke?’ ‘Why, the Devil.’” (Ewald’s
_Stories from the State Papers_, vol. ii. p. 117.)
[285] “Sed quoniam, (ut præclare scriptum est a Platone) non nobis
solum nati sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria, vindicat, partem
amici.” _De Officiis_, Lib. I. § 7. The words “partem parentes” are not
in the original, but have been inserted by modern scholars as rendering
the quotation from Plato more correct.
[286] In annotating this chapter I have been indebted to Professors
Asa Gray and C. S. Sargent of Harvard University for assistance, they
having sent me several of the more technical notes. This and the five
following chapters of the _New Canaan_ have a certain interest as being
among the earliest memoranda on the trees, animals, birds, fish and
geology of Massachusetts. The only earlier publication of at all a
similar character is Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, which appeared
in 1634, and contained the result of observations made during the four
years 1629 to 1633. Morton’s acquaintance with the country was earlier
and longer than Wood’s, but the _New Canaan_ was not published until
three years after the _Prospect_, which it followed closely in its
description of the country and its products. Josselyn’s first voyage
was made in 1638, and his stay in New England covered a period of
fifteen months, July, 1638, to October, 1639. His second visit was in
1663, and lasted until 1671. The _New England’s Rarities_ was published
in 1672, and the _Two Voyages_ in 1674. Josselyn’s alone of these works
can make any pretence to a scientific character or nomenclature, but
the four taken together constitute the whole body of early New England
natural history and geology. Only occasional reference to this class of
subjects is found in other writers.
[287] The White Oake includes, no doubt, _Quercus alba_ and _bicolor_,
and the Redd Oake, _Quercus rubra_, _tinctoria_ and _coccinea_.