FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTESDedication(pp. 3-5)[1]The merchant adventurers.[2]This sentiment shows how little obnoxious the first settlers of New England were to the charge of fanaticism, which has often been alleged against them by persons alike ignorant of their spirit and their history.[3]Edward Winslowwas, according to Hutchinson, “of a very reputable family and of a very active genius”—“a gentleman of the best family of any of the Plymouth planters, his father, Edward Winslow, Esq., being a person of some figure at Droitwich, in Worcestershire,” a town seven miles from Worcester, celebrated for its salt springs. Edward was the eldest of eight children, and was born at Droitwich Oct. 19, 1595, as appears from the following extract from the records of St. Peter’s church in that place: “1595, Oct. 20, baptized Edward, son of Edward Winslow, born the previous Friday,” which was the 19th. His mother’s name was Magdalen; her surname is unknown; she was married Nov. 3, 1594. He was not one of the original band of Pilgrims who escaped to Holland in 1608, but being on his travels, fell in with them at Leyden, in 1617, as we learn from his Brief Narration, where he speaks of “living three years under Mr. Robinson’s ministry before we began the work of plantation in New England.” His name stands the third among the signers of the Compact on board the Mayflower; and his family consisted at that time of his wife, Elizabeth, George Soule, and two others, perhaps his children, Edward and John, who died young. As has already been seen, and will hereafter appear, he was one of the most energetic and trusted men in the Colony. He went to England in 1623, 1624, 1635 and 1646, as agent of the Plymouth or Massachusetts colonies; and in 1633 he was chosen governor, to which office he was reëlected in 1636 and 1644. He did not return to New England after 1646. In 1655 he was sent by Cromwell as one of three commissioners to superintend the expedition against the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, and died at sea, near Hispaniola, on the 8th of May of that year, in his 60th year. An interesting letter, written by him at Barbadoes, March 16, and addressed to Secretary Thurloe, is preserved in Thurloe’s State Papers, iii. 250. Three letters of his to Gov. Winthrop, one to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, and another to Thurloe from Barbadoes, March 30, are contained in Hutchinson’s Collection of Papers, pp. 60, 110, 153, 228, 268.In 1637 he obtained a grant of a valuable tract of land at Green’s harbour, now Marshfield, to which he gave the name of Careswell. This estate continued in the family till a few years since, when it came into possession of Daniel Webster, the late Secretary of State.Edward Winslow’s son, (2) Josiah, born at Plymouth in 1628, was governor of the Colony, from 1673 to his death in 1680, and commanded the New-England forces in Philip’s war. (3) Isaac, his only surviving son, sustainedthe chief civil and military offices in the county of Plymouth after its incorporation with Massachusetts, and was President of the Provincial Council. He died in 1738, aged 68. (4) John, his son, was a captain in the expedition against Cuba in 1740, a colonel at Louisburgh in 1744, and afterwards a major-general in the British service. He died in 1774, aged 71. His son, (5) Isaac, was a physician in Marshfield, and died in 1819, aged 80. His only son, (6) John, was an attorney, and died in 1822, aged 48. His only surviving son, (7) Isaac, and the last surviving male descendant of Gov. Edward, of the name of Winslow, born in 1813, resides in Boston, and possesses original portraits of these his illustrious ancestors. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvii. 286.Edward Winslow had four brothers, all of whom came over to New England. Their names were, John, born in April, 1597; Kenelm, born, April 29, 1599; Gilbert, born in Oct. 1600; and Josiah, born in Feb. 1605.—John came in the Fortune in 1621, married Mary Chilton, who came in the Mayflower, and removed to Boston, in 1655, where he died in 1674, aged 77. He left a numerous posterity, one of whom is Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, formerly a merchant in Boston.—Gilbert came in the Mayflower, and soon left the Colony, and it is thought went to Portsmouth, N. H. and died before 1660.—Kenelm and Josiah arrived at Plymouth before 1632, and both settled at Marshfield. The former died whilst on a visit at Salem in 1672, aged 73, and the latter in 1674, aged 69.—Edward Winslow’s sisters were Eleanor, born in April, 1598, Elizabeth, born in March, 1601, and Magdalen, born Dec. 26, 1604. Elizabeth died in Jan. 1604, and neither of the other two ever came to New England.For the copy of the record of St. Peter’s Church, Droitwich, containing the births and baptisms of Edward Winslow and his sisters and brothers, excepting Josiah, I am indebted to Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, whose son, Isaac, of New York, visited that place for this purpose in Aug. 1839. I am also indebted to Mr. Isaac Winslow, of Boston, for the loan of the family bible of the Winslows, containing on one of its covers an ancient register, corresponding nearly with the Droitwich records, with the addition of the birth and baptism of Josiah, the youngest child. See Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 187, ii. 457-460; Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 281-309; Mitchell’s Bridgewater, p. 387-390; Deane’s Scituate, p. 388-390; Thatcher’s Plymouth, p. 90-103; 139-144; Morton’s Memorial, pp. 178, 235, 259-261, 382, 415; Hazard’s Hist. Coll. i. 326.To the Reader(p. 6)[4]At Wessagusset, or Weymouth, of which an ample account will be found in the ensuing Narrative.[5]Thomas Weston.[6]Winslow returned in the ship Charity, in March, 1624. He had been absent six months, having sailed from Plymouth in the Anne, on the 10th of Sept. previous. See Bradford, in Prince, p. 221, 225.[7]This serves to confirm the statement of numerous typographical errors in the previous Narrative.Chapter 1(p. 7)[8]West had a commission as admiral of New England, to restrain such ships as came to fish and trade without license from the New England Council; but finding the fishermen stubborn fellows, and too strong for him, he sails for Virginia; and their owners complaining to Parliament, procured an order that fishing should be free. Bradford, in Prince, p. 218, and in Morton, p. 97.[9]The Damariscove islands, five or six in number, lying west by north from Monhegan, were early resorted to and occupied as fishing-stages. See Williamson’s Maine, i. 56.[10]On the 22d of March, 1622, at mid-day, the Indians, by a preconcerted plan, fell upon the English settlements in Virginia, and massacred 347 persons. A war of extermination immediately ensued. See Smith’s Virginia, ii. 64-79, and Stith, p. 208-213.[11]Opechancanough, as the name is commonly spelt.Chapter 2(pp. 8-18)[12]The Narragansetts were a numerous and powerful tribe that occupied nearly the whole of the present territory of the State of Rhode Island, including the islands in Narragansett Bay. They had escaped the pestilence which had depopulated other parts of New England, and their population at this time was estimated at thirty thousand, of whom five thousand were warriors. Roger Williams says they were so populous that a traveller would meet with a dozen Indian towns in twenty miles. They were a martial and formidable race, and were frequently at war with the Pokanokets on the east, the Pequots on the west, and the Massachusetts on the north. See Gookin in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 147; Callender in R. I. Hist. Coll. iv. 123; Potter’s Early History of Narragansett, ibid. iii. 1, and Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 457.[13]“Since the death of so many Indians, they thought to lord it over the rest, conceive we are a bar in their way, and see Massasoit already take shelter under our wings.” Bradford’s Hist. quoted by Prince, p. 200.[14]Canonicus, the great sachem of the Narragansetts, though hostile to the Plymouth colonists, probably on account of their league with his enemy, Massasoit, showed himself friendly to the first settlers of Rhode Island, who planted themselves within his territory. Roger Williams says that “when the hearts of my countrymen and friends failed me, the Most High stirred up the barbarous heart of Connonicus to love me as his son to the last gasp. Were it not for the favor that God gave me with him, none of these parts, no, not Rhode Island had been purchased or obtained; for I never gat any thing of Connonicus but by gift.” In 1636 the Massachusetts Colony sent to him “a solemn embassage,” who “observed in the sachem much state, great command over his men, and marvellous wisdom in hisanswers.” Edward Johnson, who probably accompanied the ambassadors, has given in his “Wonderworking Providence,” b. ii. ch. vi. a very minute account of their reception and entertainment. He says that “Canonicus was very discreet in his answers.” He died June 4th, 1647, according to Winthrop, “a very old man.” See his Life in Thatcher’s Indian Biography, i. 177-209, and in Drake’s Book of the Indians, b. ii. 54-57.[15]Probably Stephen Hopkins.[16]Isaac Allerton.[17]“There is a remarkable coincidence in the form of this challenge with that of the challenge given by the Scythian prince to Darius. Five arrows made a part of the present sent by his herald to the Persian king. The manner of declaring war by the Aracaunian Indians of South America, was by sending from town to town an arrow clenched in a dead man’s hand.” Holmes, Annals, i. 177. See Rollin, Anc. Hist. b. vi. s. 4; and Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 69.[18]Bradford adds, “Which are locked every night; a watch and ward kept in the day.” Prince, p. 200.[19]This was the first general muster in New England, and the embryo of our present militia system.[20]This indicates that the writer himself, Winslow, was one of the party.[21]So early was the name of Gurnet given to this remarkable feature of Plymouth harbour. It is a peninsula or promontory, connected with Marshfield by a beach about six miles long, called Salthouse beach. It contains about twenty-seven acres of excellent soil. On its southern extremity, or nose, are two light-houses. It probably received its name from some headland known to the Pilgrims in the mother country. The late Samuel Davis, of Plymouth, the accurate topographer, and faithful chronicler of the Old Colony, says, “Gurnet is the name of several places on the coast of England; in the Channel we believe there are at least two.” Connected with the Gurnet by a narrow neck, and contiguous to Clark’s island, is another headland, called Saquish, containing ten or fourteen acres. See note 2 on page 164, Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 182, 204, andThatcher’s Plymouth, p. 330.[22]The sachem of the Wampanoags.[23]The same as Coubatant or Corbitant.[24]What is now called abrave.[25]We should like to have known more about this second voyage to Boston harbour.[26]On the part of.[27]This headland is Hither Manomet Point, forming the southern boundary of Plymouth bay. Manomet is the most prominent landmark in Barnstable bay, being visible from all points of its circling shore, from Sandwich to Provincetown.[28]Brabbles, clamors.[29]The passengers in the Fortune.[30]Winslow himself had sent home too flattering an account of their condition.[31]“She brings a letter to Mr. Carver from Mr. Weston, of Jan. 17. By his letter we find he has quite deserted us, and is going to settle a plantation of his own. The boatbrings us a kind letter from Mr. John Huddleston, a captain of a ship fishing at the eastward, whose name we never heard before, to inform us of a massacre of 400 English by the Indians in Virginia, whence he came. By this boat the Governor returns a grateful answer, and with them sends Mr. Winslow in a boat of ours to get provisions of the fishing ships; whom Captain Huddleston receives kindly, and not only spares what he can, but writes to others to do the like; by which means he gets as much bread as amounts to a quarter of a pound a person per day till harvest; the Governor causing their portion to be daily given them, or some had starved. And by this voyage we not only got a present supply, but also learn the way to those parts for our future benefit.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 202. Huddleston’s letter, (or Hudston’s, as Morton calls him,) may be found in New England’s Memorial, p. 80. Seenote [10]onpage 7.[32]Seenote [9]onpage 7.[33]The burying-hill. The intelligence of the massacre in Virginia reached Plymouth in May, and was the immediate incitement to the erection of this fort. Seepage 7.“Some traces of the fort are still visible on the eminence called the burying-hill, directly above the meeting-house of the first church in Plymouth. After the fort was used as a place of worship, it is probable they began to bury their dead around it. Before that time the burial-place was on the bank, above the rock on which the landing was made.” Judge Davis’s note in Morton’s Memorial, p. 82.Chapter 3(pp. 19-30)[34]“By Mr. Weston’s ship comes a letter from Mr. John Pierce, in whose name the Plymouth patent is taken, signifying that whom the governor admits into the association, he will approve.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 204.[35]They came upon no religious design, as did the planters of Plymouth; so they were far from being Puritans. Mr. Weston in a letter owns that many of them are rude and profane fellows. Mr. Cushman in another writes, “They are no men for us, and I fear they will hardly deal so well with the savages as they should. I pray you therefore signify to Squanto that they are a distinct body from us, and we have nothing to do with them, nor must be blamed for their faults, much less can warrant their fidelity.” And Mr. John Pierce in another writes, “As for Mr. Weston’s company they are so base in condition for the most part, as in all appearance not fit for an honest man’s company. I wish they prove otherwise.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 203.[36]Boston harbour.[37]Or Wessagusset, now called Weymouth.[38]Dr. Fuller.[39]That is, the same Indians.[40]This is supposed to be the same Jones who was captain of the Mayflower.[41]Prince says, p. 205, that “Mr. Winslow seems to mistake in thinking Captain Jones was now bound for Virginia;” and Bradford states that “she was on her way from Virginia homeward, being sent out by some merchants to discover the shoals aboutCape Cod, and harbours between this and Virginia.”[42]“Of her we buy knives and beads, which is now good trade, though at cent. per cent. or more, and yet pay away coat beaver at 3s. a pound, (which a few years after yields 20s.); by which means we are fitted to trade both for corn and beaver.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 205, and in Morton’s Memorial, p. 83.[43]Isaac Allerton.[44]Chatham.[45]His disorder was a fever, accompanied with “a bleeding at the nose, which the Indians reckon a fatal symptom.” Before his death “he desired the Governor (Bradford) to pray that he might go to the Englishman’s God in heaven, bequeathing divers of his things to sundry of his English friends, as remembrances of his love; of whom we had great loss.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 206, and in Morton, p. 85. Judge Davis adds in his note, that “Governor Bradford’s pen was worthily employed in the tender notice taken of the death of this child of nature. With some aberrations, his conduct was generally irreproachable, and his useful services to the infant settlement entitle him to grateful remembrance.”[46]Aspinet.[47]The country between Barnstable and Yarmouth harbours.[48]The distance from Eastham to Plymouth by land is about fifty miles.[49]With galled feet.[50]The Swan. Seepage 20.[51]Nauset, or Eastham, abounds with creeks. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 155, 188.[52]In the original,saluting; probably a typographical error.[53]The part of Sandwich, which lies on Manomet river.[54]“It is almost incredible”, says Roger Williams, “what burthens the poor women carry of corn, of fish, of beans, of mats, and a child besides.” Gookin says, “In their removals from place to place, for their fishing and hunting, the women carry the greatest burthen.” And Wood says, “In the summer they trudge home two or three miles with a hundred weight of lobsters at their backs; in winter they are their husbands’ porters to lug home their venison.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 149, iii. 212, and Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 20.[55]This is called Manomet or Buzzard’s bay, though Winslow seems to mistake it for Narragansett bay, which is near twenty leagues to the westward. Prince, p. 208.[56]“This creek runs out easterly into Cape Cod bay at Scussett harbour; and this river runs out westerly into Manomet bay. The distance overland from bay to bay is but six miles. The creek and river nearly meet in a low ground; and this is the place, through which there has been a talk of making a canal, this forty years; which would be a vast advantage to all these countries, by saving the long and dangerous navigation round the Cape, and through the shoals adjoining.” Prince, p. 208, (A.D. 1736.) Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.[57]Oysters are still found in great excellence and plenty in Sandwich, on the shores of Buzzard’s bay. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.[58]The common clam, (mya arenaria,) or perhaps the quahaug,(venus mercenaria). The English call the former the sand-gaper, the wordclamnot being in use among them, and not to be found in their dictionaries. And yet it is mentioned by Captain Smith, in his Description of New England, printed in 1616. Johnson, whose Wonderworking Providence was published in 1654, speaks of “clambanks, a fish as big as horse-muscles.” Morton too, in his New English Canaan, (1637) mentions them, and Josselyn, (1672) in his Rarities, p. 96, speaks of “clam, or clamp, a kind of shell-fish, a white muscle.” Wood says, ch. ix. “clams or clamps is a shellfish not much unlike a cockle; it lieth under the sand. These fishes be in great plenty. In some places of the country there be clams as big as a penny white-loaf.” See Mass. Hist. Col. iii. 224, viii. 193, xiii. 125, xxvi. 121, and Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Mass. pp. 40-42, and 85,86.[59]The razor-shell, (solen,) which very much resembles a bean pod, or the haft of a razor, both in size and shape. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 192. Josselyn calls them “sheath fish, which are very plentiful, a delicate fish, as good as a prawn, covered with a thin shell like the sheath of a knife, and of the color of a muscle.” And Morton says, “razor fishesthere are.”“The animal is cylindrical, and is often used as an article of food under the name of long-clam, razor-fish, knife-handle, &c.” See Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Massachusetts, p. 29.[60]In Manomet river, as well as in Buzzard’s and Buttermilk bays, are found fish of various kinds, such as bass, sheep’s head, tautaug, scuppaug, &c. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.[61]He was the same as Cawnacome.[62]“In their gamings,” says Roger Williams, “they will sometimes stake and lose their money, clothes, house, corn, and themselves, if single persons.” Gookin says, “They are addicted to gaming, and will, in that vein, play away all they have.” And Wood adds, “They are so bewitched with these two games, that they will lose sometimes all they have, beaver, moose skins, kettles, wampompeage, mowhackies, hatchets, knives, all is confiscate by these two games.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 153, iii. 234, and Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 14.[63]Powow, a priest and medicine man.[64]It seems as if the Captain went into Scussett harbour, which goes up westward towards Manomet. Prince, p. 210.[65]In the Indian dialects.[66]Or Iyanough.[67]Seenote [54]onpage 78.[68]Or Pamet, now called Truro.Chapter 4(pp. 31-39)[69]“All their refreshing in their sickness is the visit of friends and neighbours, a poor empty visit and presence; and yet indeed this is very solemn, unless it be in infectious diseases, and then all forsake them and fly.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 236.[70]It was conjectured by Belknap, Am. Biog. ii. 229, and has since beenrepeatedly asserted as a fact by other writers, that this person was the celebrated English patriot of the same name. But this is highly improbable. Hampden, who was born in 1594, and married in 1619, was a member of the parliament which assembled in January, 1621, and was dissolved by James in 1622, under circumstances and in a juncture of affairs which rendered it certain that a new parliament must soon be called. It is not at all likely that a person in Hampden’s circumstances, a man of family, wealth and consideration, would, merely for the sake of gratifying his curiosity, have left England at this critical period, on a long voyage to another hemisphere, and run the risk of not being at home at the issuing of the writs for a new parliament. For the passage to America was at that time precarious; the vessels were few, and the voyage a long one; so that a person who undertook it could not reasonably calculate upon getting back in much less than a year. Winslow’s companion, whoever he was, must have come in the Charity, which brought Weston’s colony, unless we adopt the improbable supposition that this “gentleman of London” embarked in one of the fishing vessels that visited the Grand Bank, and took his chance of getting to Plymouth as he could. Now the Charity left London the last of April, 1622, and arrived at Plymouth the last of June. Thevisit to Massasoittook place in March, 1623, and after this no vessel sailed for England till the Anne, September 10, in which Winslow went home. Of course this “gentleman of London,” must have been absent at least eighteen months, which it is altogether improbable that Hampden would have done, running the risk of not being at home to stand for the next parliament, to which he undoubtedly expected to be returned, as we know he actually was.Besides, had this companion of Winslow been the great English patriot, the silence of the early Plymouth writers on the point is unaccountable. On publishing his “Good News from New England” immediately on his arrival in London, in 1624, one object of which was to recommend the new colony, how gladly would Winslow have appealed for the correctness of his statements to this member of parliament who had passed more than a year in their Plantation. How natural too would it have been for him to have mentioned the fact in his “Brief Narration,” published in 1646, only three years after the death of the illustrious patriot. Bradford, also, whose sympathies were all with the popular party in England, in writing an elaborate history of the Colony, would not have failed to record the long residence among them of one who, at the time he wrote, had become so distinguished as the leader of that party in the House of Commons. That his lost history contained no such passage we may be certain; for had it been there, it must have been quoted either by Prince or Morton, who make so free use of it, both of whom too mention this visit to Massasoit, and who would not have omitted a circumstance so honorable to the Colony.Again, Winslow’s companion was “a gentleman ofLondon.” Nowalthough John Hampden happened to be born in London, when his father was in parliament in 1594, he was properly of Buckinghamshire. Winslow, who was himself of Worcestershire, if he knew who Hampden was, would not have called him “a gentleman ofLondon;” and we cannot suppose that this English gentleman would have spent so many months in the Colony without making himself known to its two leading men, Winslow and Bradford.Equally unfounded is the statement that has gained so wide a currency and become incorporated with the history of those times, and is repeated in Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, that John Hampden, in company with Cromwell, Pym, and Hazelrig, had actually embarked for America on board a fleet in the Thames, in 1638, but were detained by an order from the Privy Council. Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of Charles I., ch. xiii., was the first to detect and expose this error of the historians.—For some of the views in this note I am indebted to the MS. suggestions of the learned editor of Governor Winthrop’s History of New England.[71]Probably the same which is now called Slade’s Ferry, in Swanzey. Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292.[72]Conbatant or Corbitant, was the sachem of Pocasset, and was subject to Massasoit. See Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232.[73]A neck of land in the township of Swanzey, commonly pronounced Mattapoiset, now Gardner’s neck, situated between the Shawomet and Toweset necks. See Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292, and Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232, 234.[74]“Sachimmaacommock, a prince’s house, which, according to their condition, is far different from the other house, both in capacity or receipt, and also the fineness and quality of their mats.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxii.[75]Wetu, orwigwam. See Gallatin’s Indian Vocabularies, in Am. Antiq. Soc. Coll. ii. 322.[76]“There are among them certain men and women, whom they callpowows. These are partly wizards and witches, holding familiarity with Satan, that evil one; and partly are physicians, and make use, at least in show, of herbs and roots for curing the sick and diseased. These are sent for by the sick and wounded; and by their diabolical spells, mutterings, exorcisms, they seem to do wonders. They use extraordinary strange motions of their bodies, insomuch that they will sweat until they foam; and thus continue for some hours together, stroking and hovering over the sick.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.“Powaws, priests. These do begin and order their service and invocation of their gods, and all the people follow, and join interchangeably in a laborious bodily service, unto sweating, especially of the priest, who spends himself in strange antic gestures and actions, even unto fainting. In sickness the priest comes close to the sick person, and performs many strange actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness. The poor people commonly die under their hands; for, alas, they administer nothing, but howl and roar and hollow over them, and beginthe song to the rest of the people, who all join like a choir in prayer to their gods for them.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 227, 237.“The manner of their action in their conjuration is thus. The parties that are sick are brought before them; the powow sitting down, the rest of the Indians give attentive audience to his imprecations and invocations, and after the violent expression of many a hideous bellowing and groaning, he makes a stop, and then all the auditors with one voice utter a short canto. Which done, the powow still proceeds in his invocations, sometimes roaring like a bear, other times groaning like a dying horse, foaming at the mouth like a chafed boar, smiting on his naked breast and thighs with such violence as if he were mad. Thus will he continue sometimes half a day.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12. See also Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474.[77]Wood says, ch. 18, “They pronouncelandrin our English tongue, with much difficulty, calling a lobster a nobstan.” Yet Roger Williams states, that “although some pronounce notlorr, yet it is the most proper dialect of other places, contrary to many reports;” and Eliot, in his Indian Grammar, says, “These consonants,l,n,r, have such a natural coincidence, that it is an eminent variation of their dialects. We Massachusetts pronounce then; the Nipmuk Indians pronouncel; and the Northern Indians pronouncer. As instance:We sayAnum}Nipmuck,Alum} A Dog.”Northern,Arum}See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 223, xix. 248.[78]“When they are sick, their misery appears, that they have not, but what sometimes they get from the English, a raisin or currant, or any physic, fruit, or spice, or any comfort more than their corn and water, &c. In which bleeding case, wanting all means of recovery or present refreshing, I have been constrained, to and beyond my power, to refresh them, and to save many of them from death, who I am confident perish many millions of them, in that mighty continent, for want of means.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 236.[79]The same aspinse. Seepage 13.[80]Sokones, or Succonusset, now called Falmouth.[81]Or Agawam, part of Wareham.[82]Martha’s Vineyard.[83]“Maskit, give me some physic.” Roger Williams’s Key, in R. I. Hist. Coll. i. 159.[84]“Ketanis 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.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12.Chapter 5(pp. 40-52)[85]Morton says, in his New English Canaan, ch. vii. “There are great store of oysters in the entrance of all rivers. They are not round, as those of England, but excellent fat and all good. I have seen an oyster bank a mile in length. Muscles there are infinite store. I have often gone to Wessaguseus, where were excellentmuscles to eat, (for variety,) the fish is so fat and large.”[86]The wordinclinedordisposedseems to have been accidentally omitted.[87]Morton says, “this man’s name was Phinehas Prat, who has penned the particulars of his perilous journey, and some other things relating to this tragedy.” Hubbard states that he was living in 1677, at the time he was writing his History of New England. In 1662 the General Court of Massachusetts, in answer to a petition of Phinehas Prat, then of Charlestown, which was accompanied “with a narrative of the straits and hardships that the first planters of this Colony underwent in their endeavours to plant themselves at Plymouth, and since, whereof he was one, the Court judgeth it meet to grant him 300 acres of land, where it is to be had, not hindering a plantation.” At the Court held May 3, 1665, it was ordered that land be laid out for Prat, “in the wilderness on the east of the Merrimack river, near the upper end of Nacook [Pennacook?] brook, on the southeast of it.” Prat married in 1630, at Plymouth, a daughter of Cuthbert Cuthbertson. His heirs had grants of land in Abington subsequent to 1672. Drake says that after long search he has not been able to discover Prat’s narrative. It was probably never printed. See Morton’s Memorial, p. 90; Drake’s Book of the Indians, b. ii. 35; Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 78, xvii. 122.[88]The notorious Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount, in his New English Canaan, b. iii. ch. 4, which was published in 1637, is the first writer who mentions a ludicrous fable connected with this execution, which has been made the occasion of some reproach on the first planters of New England. After relating the settlement of Weston’s colony at Weymouth, he mentions that one of them stole the corn of an Indian, and upon his complaint was brought before “a parliament of all the people” to consult what punishment should be inflicted on him. It was decided that this offence, which might have been settled by the gift of a knife or a string of beads, “was felony, and by the laws of England, punished with death; and this must be put in execution, for an example, and likewise to appease the salvage. When straightways one arose, moved as it were with some compassion, and said he could not well gainsay the former sentence, yet he had conceived within the compass of his brain an embryon, that was of special consequence to be delivered and cherished. He said that it would most aptly serve to pacify the salvage’s complaint, and save the life of one that might, if need should be, stand them in good stead, being young and strong, fit for resistance against an enemy, which might come unexpected, for any thing they knew. The oration made was like of every one, and he entreated to proceed to show the means how this may be performed. Says he, ‘You all agree that one must die; and one shall die. This young man’s clothes we will take off, and put upon one that is old and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death; such is the disease on him confirmed, that die he must. Putthe young man’s clothes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other’s stead.’ ‘Amen,’ says one, and so say many more. And this had liked to have proved their final sentence; but that one, with a ravenous voice, begun to croak and bellow for revenge, and put by that conclusive motion, alleging such deceits might be a means hereafter to exasperate the minds of the complaining salvages, and that by his death the salvages should see their zeal to justice; and therefore he should die. This was concluded;” and they “hanged him up hard by.”This story of the unscrupulous Morton furnished Butler with the materials out of which he constructed the following fable in his Hudibras, part. ii. canto ii. line 409.“Our brethren of New England useChoice malefactors to excuse,And hang the guiltless in their stead,Of whom the churches have less need;As lately happened. In a town,There lived a cobbler and but one,That out of doctrine could cut use,And mend men’s lives as well as shoes.This precious brother having slain,In times of peace, an Indian,(Not out of malice, but mere zeal,Because he was an infidel,)The mighty TottipotymoySent to our elders an envoy,Complaining sorely of the breachOf league, held forth, by brother Patch,Against the articles in forceBetween both churches, his and ours;For which he craved the saints to renderInto his hands, or hang the offender.But they, maturely having weighed,They had no more but him of the trade,A man that served them in a doubleCapacity, to teach and cobble,Resolved to spare him; yet to doThe Indian Hoghgan Moghgan, too,Impartial justice, in his stead didHang an old weaver, that was bed-rid.”It will be observed that Morton mentions this substitution merely as the suggestion of an individual, which was rejected by the company. Even had it been adopted by them, and carried into execution, it would not have implicated the Plymouth people at all, nor cast the least slur on their characters or principles. For Weston’s colony was entirely distinct from theirs, and composed of a very different set of men. Their character, as portrayed by Weston himself, and by Cushman and Pierce, before they came over, may be seen in note [35] on page 77, to which the reader is particularly requested to refer. Morton himself calls “many of them lazy persons, that would use no endeavour to take the benefit of the country.” As Belknap says, “they were a set of needy adventurers, intent only on gaining a subsistence.” They did not come over from any religious scruples, or with any religious purpose. There is no evidence that they had any church at all; they certainly were not Puritans. Neal says, in his Hist. of New England, i. 102, that Weston obtained a patent under pretence of propagating the discipline of the Church of England in America.Grahame, i. 198, falls into an error in attributing this execution to Gorges’s colony, which settled at the same place in the autumn of the sameyear; and Drake, b. ii. 34, errs in saying that Morton was one of Weston’s company. Morton did not come over till March, 1625, in company with Wollaston, and settled with him not at Weymouth, but in Quincy. See Prince, pp. 221, 231. The accurate Hutchinson, i. 6, should not have made a fact out of the careless Hubbard’s supposition, which the latter mentions as barely “possible.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 77.[89]Hansel, to use for the first time.[90]The same aspinse, onpage 13.[91]Standish is said to have been a man of short stature. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 111, and xviii, 121.[92]When the news of the first Indians being killed by Standish at Weymouth reached Mr. Robinson, their pastor, at Leyden, he wrote to the church at Plymouth, December 19, 1623, “to consider the disposition of their Captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped the Lord had sent him among them for good, if they used him right; but he doubted where there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God’s image, which was meet;” and he concludes with saying, “O how happy a thing had it been that you had converted some before you killed any!” Prince adds, “It is to be hoped that Squanto was converted.” It seems Standish was not of their church at first, and Hubbard says he had more of his education in the school of Mars than in the school of Christ. Judge Davis remarks, “These sentiments are honorable to Mr. Robinson; they indicate a generous philanthropy, which must always gain our affection, and should ever be cherished. Still the transactions of which the strictures relate, are defensible. As to Standish, Belknap places his defence on the rules of duty imposed by his character, as the military servant of the Colony. The government, it is presumed, will be considered as acting under severe necessity, and will require no apology if the reality of the conspiracy be admitted, of which there can be little doubt. It is certain that they were fully persuaded of its existence, and with the terrible example of the Virginia massacre in fresh remembrance, they had solemn duties to discharge. The existence of the whole settlement was at hazard.” See Prince, p. 226; Hutchinson’s Mass. ii. 461; Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 330; Morton’s Memorial, p. 91.[93]His bow.[94]To England.[95]“Thus this plantation is broken up in a year; and this is the end of those who being all able men, had boasted of their strength and what they would bring to pass, in comparison of the people at Plymouth, who had many women, children, and weak ones with them; and said at their first arrival, when they saw the wants at Plymouth, that they would take another course, and not fall into such a condition as this simple people were come to.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 214, and in Morton, p. 92.“Shortly after Mr. Weston’s people went to the eastward, he comes there himself with some of the fishermen, under another name and disguise of a blacksmith; where he hears the ruin of his plantation; and getting a shallop with a man or two comes onto see how things are; but in a storm is cast away in the bottom of the bay between Pascataquak and Merrimak river, and hardly escapes with his life. Afterwards he falls into the hands of the Indians, who pillage him of all he saved from the sea, and strip him of all his clothes to his shirt. At length he gets to Pascataquak, borrows a suit of clothes, finds means to come to Plymouth, and desires to borrow some beaver of us. Notwithstanding our straits, yet in consideration of his necessity, we let him have one hundred and seventy odd pounds of beaver, with which he goes to the eastward, stays his small ship and some of his men, buys provisions and fits himself, which is the foundation of his future courses; and yet never repaid us any thing save reproaches, and becomes our enemy on all occasions.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 216.[96]“This may excite in some minds an objection to the humanity of our forefathers. The reason assigned for it was that it might prove a terror to others. In matters of war and public justice, they observed the customs and laws of the English nation. As late as the year 1747, the heads of the lords who were concerned in the Scots rebellion were set up over Temple Bar, the most frequented passage between London and Westminster.” Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 326.Chapter 6(pp. 53-56)[97]The wordnoappears to be an error of the press.[98]This allotment was only for one year. In the spring of the next year, 1624, “the people requesting the Governor to have some land for continuance, and not by yearly lot, as before, he gives every person an acre of land.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 215 and 226. See this latter allotment in Hazard, i. 100, and in Morton, p. 376.[99]“But by the time our corn is planted, our victuals are spent, not knowing at night where to have a bit in the morning, and have neither bread nor corn forthree or fourmonths together, yet bear our wants with cheerfulness and rest on Providence. Having but one boat left, we divide the men into several companies, six or seven in each; who take their turns to go out with a net and fish, and return not till they get some, though they be five or six days out; knowing there is nothing at home, and to return empty would be a great discouragement. When they stay long or get but little, the rest go a digging shellfish; and thus we live the summer; only sending one or two to range the woods for deer, they now and then get one, which we divide among the company; and in the winter are helped with fowl and ground-nuts.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 216.[100]“At length we receive letters from the adventurers in England of December 22 and April 9 last, wherein they say, ‘It rejoiceth us much to hear those good reports that divers have brought home of you;’ and give an account, that last fall, a ship, the Paragon, sailed from London with passengers, for New Plymouth; being fitted out by Mr. John Pierce, in whose name our first patent was taken, his name being only used in trust; butwhen he saw we were here hopefully seated, and by the success God gave us, had obtained favor with the Council for New England, he gets another patent of a larger extent, meaning to keep it to himself, allow us only what he pleased, hold us as his tenants and sue to his courts as chief lord. But meeting with tempestuous storms in the Downs, the ship is so bruised and leaky that in fourteen days she returned to London, was forced to be put into the dock, £100 laid out to mend her, and lay six or seven weeks to December 22, before she sailed a second time; but being half way over, met with extreme tempestuous weather about the middle of February which held fourteen days, beat off the round house with all her upper works, obliged them to cut her mast and return to Portsmouth, having 109 souls aboard, with Mr. Pierce himself. Upon which great and repeated loss and disappointment, he is prevailed upon for £500 to resign his patent to the Company, which cost him but £50; and the goods with charge of passengers in this ship cost the Company £640, for which they were forced to hire another ship, namely, the Anne, of 140 tons, to transport them, namely 60 passengers with 60 tons of goods, hoping to sail by the end of April.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 217, 218.[101]This is the last time that Hobbamock’s name occurs in the history of the Colony. His services to the infant settlement had been very important, and in the allotment of the land in 1624, mention is made of “Hobbamock’s ground.” In New England’s First Fruits, published in London in 1643, he is described as follows: “As he increased in knowledge, so in affection, and also in his practice, reforming and conforming himself accordingly; and though he was much tempted by enticements, scoffs, and scorns from the Indians, yet could he never be gotten from the English, nor from seeking after their God, but died amongst them, leaving some good hopes in their hearts that his soul went to rest.”[102]David Thomson was sent over by Gorges and Mason in the spring of 1623, and commenced a settlement at a place called Little Harbour, on the west side of Piscataqua river, near its mouth. Christopher Levett says he stayed a month at Thomsons plantation in 1623. Afterwards, in 1626, or later, out of dislike of the place or his employers, Thomson removed to Boston harbour, and took possession of “a fruitful island and very desirable neck of land,” which were afterwards confirmed to him or his heirs by the government of Massachusetts. This neck of land was Squantum, in Quincy, and the island which is very near it, has ever since been called by his name. It is now the seat of the Farm School. Compare Savage’s Winthrop, i. 44, with Hubbard, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 105; and see Adams’s Annals of Portsmouth, p. 10, and Levett’s voyage into New-England, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 164.[103]So called after himself, by Captain John Smith, who discovered them in 1614. He thus describes them: “Smyth’s Isles are a heap together, none near them, against Accominticus.” They are eight in number, andare now called the Isles of Shoals. See a description and historical account of them in Mass. Hist. Coll. vii. 242-262; xxvi. 120.[104]“Governor Bradford gives no hint of this third repulse.” Prince, p. 219.[105]The following is an alphabetical list of those who came over in the Anne and Little James.Anthony Annable,Edward Bangs,Robert Bartlett,Fear Brewster,Patience Brewster,Mary Bucket,Edward Butcher,Thomas Clark,Christopher Conant,Cuthbert Cuthbertson,Anthony Dix,John Faunce,Manasseh Faunce,Goodwife Flavell,Edmund Flood,Bridget Fuller,Timothy Hatherly,William Heard,Margaret Hickes, and her children,William Hilton’s wife and two children,Edward Holman,John Jenny,Robert Long,Experience Mitchell,George Morton,Thomas Morton, jr.Ellen Newton,John Oldham,Frances Palmer,Christian Penn,Mr. Perce’s two servants,Joshua Pratt,James Rand,Robert Rattliffe,Nicholas Snow,Alice Southworth,Francis Sprague,Barbara Standish,Thomas Tilden,Stephen Tracy,Ralph Wallen.This list, as well as that of the passengers in the Fortune, is obtained from the record of the allotment of lands, in 1624, which may be found in Hazard’s State Papers, i. 101-103, and in the Appendix to Morton’s Memorial, pp. 377-380. In that list, however, Francis Cooke’s and Richard Warren’s names are repeated, although they came in the Mayflower; probably because their wives and children came in the Anne, and therefore an additional grant of land was made to them. Many others brought their families in this ship; and Bradford says that “some were the wives and children of such who came before.”Fear and Patience Brewster were daughters of Elder Brewster. John Faunce married Patience, daughter of George Morton, and was father of the venerable Elder Faunce. Thomas Clark’s gravestone is one of the oldest on the Burial hill in Plymouth. Francis Cooke’s wife, Hester, was a Walloon, and Cuthbert Cuthbertson was a Dutchman, as we learn from Winslow’s Brief Narration. Anthony Dix is mentioned in Winthrop, i. 287. Goodwife Flavell was probably the wife of Thomas, who came in the Fortune, and Bridget Fuller was thewife of Samuel, the physician. Timothy Hatherly went to England the next winter, and did not return till 1632; he settled in Scituate. Margaret Hicks, was the wife of Robert, who came in the Fortune. William Hilton had sent for his wife and children. George Morton brought his son, Nathaniel, the secretary, and four other children. Thomas Morton, jr. was probably the son of Thomas, who came in the Fortune. John Oldham afterwards became notorious in the history of the Colony. Frances Palmer was the wife of William, who came in the Fortune. Phinehas Pratt had a lot of land assigned him among those who came in the Anne; but he was undoubtedly one of Weston’s colony, as appears from page 44. Barbara Standish was the Captain’s second wife, whom he married after the arrival of the Anne. Her maiden name is unknown.Annable afterwards settled in Scituate, Mitchell in Duxbury and Bridgewater, Bangs and Snow in Eastham, and Sprague in Duxbury. John Jenny was a brewer, and in 1636 had “liberty to erect a mill for grinding and beating of corn upon the brook of Plymouth.”Those who came in the first three ships, the Mayflower, the Fortune, and the Anne, are distinctively called theold comers, or theforefathers. For further particulars concerning them, see Farmer’s Genealogical Register, Mitchell’s Bridgewater, and Deane’s Scituate.[106]“Of 140 tons, Mr. William Pierce, master.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 218 and 220.[107]“Being laden with clapboards, and all the beaver and other furs we have; with whom we send Mr. Winslow, to inform how things are and procure what we want.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 221.[108]“A fine new vessel of 44 tons Mr. Bridges, master.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 220.[109]“They bring about 60 persons, some being very useful and become good members of the body; of whom the principal are Mr. Timothy Hatherly and Mr. George Morton, who came in the Anne, and Mr. John Jenny, who came in the James. Some were the wives and children of such who came before; and some others are so bad we are forced to be at the charge to send them home next year.“By this ship R. C. [i.e. doubtless Mr. Cushman, their agent,] writes, ‘Some few of your old friends are come; they come dropping to you, and by degrees I hope ere long you shall enjoy them all, &c.’“From the general, [that is, the joint concern, the company] subscribed by thirteen, we have also a letter wherein they say, ‘Let it not be grievous to you, that you have been instruments to break the ice for others who come after with less difficulty; the honor shall be yours to the world’s end. We bear you always in our breasts, and our hearty affection is towards you all, as are the hearts of hundreds more which never saw your faces, who doubtless pray your safety as their own.’“When these passengers see our poor and low condition ashore, they are much dismayed and full of sadness;only our old friends rejoice to see us, and that it is no worse, and now hope we shall enjoy better days together. The best dish we could present them with, is a lobster, or piece of fish, without bread, or any thing else but a cup of fair spring water; and the long continuance of this diet, with our labors abroad, has somewhat abated the freshness of our complexion; but God gives us health, &c.“August 11. The fourth marriage is of Governor Bradford to Mrs. Alice Southworth, widow.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 220, 221. Her maiden name was Carpenter, as appears from the following entry in the records of the Plymouth Church: “1667. Mary Carpenter, (sister of Mrs. Alice Bradford, the wife of Governor Bradford,) a member of the church at Duxbury, died in Plymouth, March 19-20, being newly entered into the 91st year of her age. She was a godly old maid, never married.”Chapter 7(pp. 57-66)[110]The meaning of the word Kiehtan, I think, hath reference to antiquity; forChiseis an old man, andKichchisea man that exceedeth in age.—Winslow’s Note.[111]“They relate how they have it from their fathers, that Kautantowwit 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 fountains of all mankind.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxi.[112]“Kautantowwit, the great southwest God, to whose house all souls go, and from whom came their corn and beans, as they say. They believe that the souls of men and women go to the southwest; their great and good men and women to Kautantowwit’s house, where they have hopes, as the Turks have, of carnal joys; murtherers, thieves and liars, their souls, say they, wander restless abroad.” Williams’s Key, ch. xxi.[113]Wood, in his New England’s Prospect, ch. xix. spells this wordAbamacho.[114]Seepage 33,note [76].[115]Seepages 13and37.[116]Or centaury—probably thesabbatia chloroides, a plant conspicuous for its beauty, which is found in great abundance on the margin of the ponds in Plymouth. It belongs to the natural order of Gentians, one characteristic of which is an intense bitterness, residing both in the stems and roots. Thegentiana crinita, or fringed gentian, also grows in this region. See Bigelows Plants of Boston, pp. 79 and 111.“The greater centaury is that famous herb wherewith Chiron thecentaur(as the report goeth) was cured at what time as having entertained Hercules in his cabin, he would needs be handling and tampering with the weapons of his said guest so long until one of the arrows light upon his foot and wounded him dangerously.” Hollands Pliny, b. xxv. ch. 6.[117]“Their government is generally monarchical, their chief sagamore or sachem’s will being their law; but yet the sachem hath some chief men that he consults with as his special counsellors. Among some of the Indianstheir government is mixed, partly monarchical and partly aristocratical; their sagamore doing not any weighty matter without the consent of his great men or petty sagamores. Their sachems have not their men in such subjection but that very frequently their men will leave them upon distaste or harsh dealing, and go and live under other sachems that can protect them; so that their princes endeavour to carry it obligingly and lovingly unto their people, lest they should desert them, and thereby their strength, power and tribute would be diminished.” Gookin in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.[118]Seepage 31.[119]“Upon the death of the sick, the father, or husband, and all his neighbours wear black faces, and lay on soot very thick, which I have often seen clotted with their tears. This blacking and lamenting they observe in most doleful manner divers weeks and months, yea a year, if the person be great and public.—When they come to the grave, they lay the dead by the grave’s mouth, and then all sit down, and lament, that I have seen tears run down the cheeks of stoutest captains in abundance; and after the dead is laid in the grave, they have then a second lamentation.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxxii.[120]Seenote [54]onpage 25.[121]Seepage 26.[122]“The most usual custom amongst them in executing punishments, is for the sachim either to beat or whip or put to death with his own hand, to which the common sort most quietly submit; though sometimes the sachim sends a secret executioner, one of his chiefest warriors, to fetch off a head by some sudden, unexpected blow of a hatchet, when they have feared mutiny by public execution.” Roger Williamss Key, ch. xxii. See alsopage 15previous.[123]“Moskorpaukunawaw, the Great Bear, or Charles’s Wain; which words mosk or paukunawaw signifies a bear; which is so much the more observable, because in most languages that sign or constellation is called the Bear.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xii.[124]“Their powows, by their exorcisms, and necromantic charms, bring to pass strange things, if we may believe the Indians; who report of one Passaconaway, a great sagamore upon Merrimack river, and the most celebrated powow in the country, that he can make the water burn, the rocks move, the trees dance, and metamorphize himself into a flaming man. In winter, when there are no green leaves to be got, he will burn an old one to ashes, and putting these into the water, produce a new green leaf, which you shall not only see, but substantially handle and carry away; and make a dead snake’s skin a living snake, both to be seen, felt, and heard.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12; Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474; Morton’s New English Canaan, book i. ch. 9.[125]“There is a mixture of this language north and south, from the place of my abode, about 600 miles; yet within the 200 miles aforementioned, their dialects do exceedingly differ; yet not so but, within that compass, a man may converse with thousands ofnatives all over the country.” Roger Williams’s Key, Pref.“The Indians of the parts of New England, especially upon the sea-coasts, use the same sort of speech and language, only with some difference in the expressions, as they differ in several counties in England, yet so as they can well understand one another.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 149.Chapter 8(pp. 67-71)[126]In September 1609, Hudson ascended the “great river of the mountains,” now called by his name, in a small vessel called the Half-Moon, above the city of Hudson, and sent up a boat beyond Albany. Josselyn says, that Hudson “discoveredMoheganriver, in New England.” See Robert Juet’s Journal of Hudson’s third voyage, in Purchas, iii. 593, and in N. Y. Hist. Coll. i. 139, 140, and 2d series, i. 317-332; Moulton’s Hist. of New York, 213, 244-249; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii. 372; Belknap’s Am. Biog. i. 400.Postscript(p. 72)[127]The former of the works here referred to is reprinted in the Mass. Hist. Coll. xix. 1-25; the latter has been reprinted by Applewood Books asMourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

Dedication(pp. 3-5)

[1]The merchant adventurers.

[2]This sentiment shows how little obnoxious the first settlers of New England were to the charge of fanaticism, which has often been alleged against them by persons alike ignorant of their spirit and their history.

[3]Edward Winslowwas, according to Hutchinson, “of a very reputable family and of a very active genius”—“a gentleman of the best family of any of the Plymouth planters, his father, Edward Winslow, Esq., being a person of some figure at Droitwich, in Worcestershire,” a town seven miles from Worcester, celebrated for its salt springs. Edward was the eldest of eight children, and was born at Droitwich Oct. 19, 1595, as appears from the following extract from the records of St. Peter’s church in that place: “1595, Oct. 20, baptized Edward, son of Edward Winslow, born the previous Friday,” which was the 19th. His mother’s name was Magdalen; her surname is unknown; she was married Nov. 3, 1594. He was not one of the original band of Pilgrims who escaped to Holland in 1608, but being on his travels, fell in with them at Leyden, in 1617, as we learn from his Brief Narration, where he speaks of “living three years under Mr. Robinson’s ministry before we began the work of plantation in New England.” His name stands the third among the signers of the Compact on board the Mayflower; and his family consisted at that time of his wife, Elizabeth, George Soule, and two others, perhaps his children, Edward and John, who died young. As has already been seen, and will hereafter appear, he was one of the most energetic and trusted men in the Colony. He went to England in 1623, 1624, 1635 and 1646, as agent of the Plymouth or Massachusetts colonies; and in 1633 he was chosen governor, to which office he was reëlected in 1636 and 1644. He did not return to New England after 1646. In 1655 he was sent by Cromwell as one of three commissioners to superintend the expedition against the Spanish possessions in the West Indies, and died at sea, near Hispaniola, on the 8th of May of that year, in his 60th year. An interesting letter, written by him at Barbadoes, March 16, and addressed to Secretary Thurloe, is preserved in Thurloe’s State Papers, iii. 250. Three letters of his to Gov. Winthrop, one to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, and another to Thurloe from Barbadoes, March 30, are contained in Hutchinson’s Collection of Papers, pp. 60, 110, 153, 228, 268.In 1637 he obtained a grant of a valuable tract of land at Green’s harbour, now Marshfield, to which he gave the name of Careswell. This estate continued in the family till a few years since, when it came into possession of Daniel Webster, the late Secretary of State.Edward Winslow’s son, (2) Josiah, born at Plymouth in 1628, was governor of the Colony, from 1673 to his death in 1680, and commanded the New-England forces in Philip’s war. (3) Isaac, his only surviving son, sustainedthe chief civil and military offices in the county of Plymouth after its incorporation with Massachusetts, and was President of the Provincial Council. He died in 1738, aged 68. (4) John, his son, was a captain in the expedition against Cuba in 1740, a colonel at Louisburgh in 1744, and afterwards a major-general in the British service. He died in 1774, aged 71. His son, (5) Isaac, was a physician in Marshfield, and died in 1819, aged 80. His only son, (6) John, was an attorney, and died in 1822, aged 48. His only surviving son, (7) Isaac, and the last surviving male descendant of Gov. Edward, of the name of Winslow, born in 1813, resides in Boston, and possesses original portraits of these his illustrious ancestors. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvii. 286.Edward Winslow had four brothers, all of whom came over to New England. Their names were, John, born in April, 1597; Kenelm, born, April 29, 1599; Gilbert, born in Oct. 1600; and Josiah, born in Feb. 1605.—John came in the Fortune in 1621, married Mary Chilton, who came in the Mayflower, and removed to Boston, in 1655, where he died in 1674, aged 77. He left a numerous posterity, one of whom is Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, formerly a merchant in Boston.—Gilbert came in the Mayflower, and soon left the Colony, and it is thought went to Portsmouth, N. H. and died before 1660.—Kenelm and Josiah arrived at Plymouth before 1632, and both settled at Marshfield. The former died whilst on a visit at Salem in 1672, aged 73, and the latter in 1674, aged 69.—Edward Winslow’s sisters were Eleanor, born in April, 1598, Elizabeth, born in March, 1601, and Magdalen, born Dec. 26, 1604. Elizabeth died in Jan. 1604, and neither of the other two ever came to New England.For the copy of the record of St. Peter’s Church, Droitwich, containing the births and baptisms of Edward Winslow and his sisters and brothers, excepting Josiah, I am indebted to Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, whose son, Isaac, of New York, visited that place for this purpose in Aug. 1839. I am also indebted to Mr. Isaac Winslow, of Boston, for the loan of the family bible of the Winslows, containing on one of its covers an ancient register, corresponding nearly with the Droitwich records, with the addition of the birth and baptism of Josiah, the youngest child. See Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 187, ii. 457-460; Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 281-309; Mitchell’s Bridgewater, p. 387-390; Deane’s Scituate, p. 388-390; Thatcher’s Plymouth, p. 90-103; 139-144; Morton’s Memorial, pp. 178, 235, 259-261, 382, 415; Hazard’s Hist. Coll. i. 326.

In 1637 he obtained a grant of a valuable tract of land at Green’s harbour, now Marshfield, to which he gave the name of Careswell. This estate continued in the family till a few years since, when it came into possession of Daniel Webster, the late Secretary of State.

Edward Winslow’s son, (2) Josiah, born at Plymouth in 1628, was governor of the Colony, from 1673 to his death in 1680, and commanded the New-England forces in Philip’s war. (3) Isaac, his only surviving son, sustainedthe chief civil and military offices in the county of Plymouth after its incorporation with Massachusetts, and was President of the Provincial Council. He died in 1738, aged 68. (4) John, his son, was a captain in the expedition against Cuba in 1740, a colonel at Louisburgh in 1744, and afterwards a major-general in the British service. He died in 1774, aged 71. His son, (5) Isaac, was a physician in Marshfield, and died in 1819, aged 80. His only son, (6) John, was an attorney, and died in 1822, aged 48. His only surviving son, (7) Isaac, and the last surviving male descendant of Gov. Edward, of the name of Winslow, born in 1813, resides in Boston, and possesses original portraits of these his illustrious ancestors. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xxvii. 286.

Edward Winslow had four brothers, all of whom came over to New England. Their names were, John, born in April, 1597; Kenelm, born, April 29, 1599; Gilbert, born in Oct. 1600; and Josiah, born in Feb. 1605.—John came in the Fortune in 1621, married Mary Chilton, who came in the Mayflower, and removed to Boston, in 1655, where he died in 1674, aged 77. He left a numerous posterity, one of whom is Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, formerly a merchant in Boston.—Gilbert came in the Mayflower, and soon left the Colony, and it is thought went to Portsmouth, N. H. and died before 1660.—Kenelm and Josiah arrived at Plymouth before 1632, and both settled at Marshfield. The former died whilst on a visit at Salem in 1672, aged 73, and the latter in 1674, aged 69.—Edward Winslow’s sisters were Eleanor, born in April, 1598, Elizabeth, born in March, 1601, and Magdalen, born Dec. 26, 1604. Elizabeth died in Jan. 1604, and neither of the other two ever came to New England.

For the copy of the record of St. Peter’s Church, Droitwich, containing the births and baptisms of Edward Winslow and his sisters and brothers, excepting Josiah, I am indebted to Isaac Winslow, Esq., of Roxbury, whose son, Isaac, of New York, visited that place for this purpose in Aug. 1839. I am also indebted to Mr. Isaac Winslow, of Boston, for the loan of the family bible of the Winslows, containing on one of its covers an ancient register, corresponding nearly with the Droitwich records, with the addition of the birth and baptism of Josiah, the youngest child. See Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 187, ii. 457-460; Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 281-309; Mitchell’s Bridgewater, p. 387-390; Deane’s Scituate, p. 388-390; Thatcher’s Plymouth, p. 90-103; 139-144; Morton’s Memorial, pp. 178, 235, 259-261, 382, 415; Hazard’s Hist. Coll. i. 326.

To the Reader(p. 6)

[4]At Wessagusset, or Weymouth, of which an ample account will be found in the ensuing Narrative.

[5]Thomas Weston.

[6]Winslow returned in the ship Charity, in March, 1624. He had been absent six months, having sailed from Plymouth in the Anne, on the 10th of Sept. previous. See Bradford, in Prince, p. 221, 225.

[7]This serves to confirm the statement of numerous typographical errors in the previous Narrative.

Chapter 1(p. 7)

[8]West had a commission as admiral of New England, to restrain such ships as came to fish and trade without license from the New England Council; but finding the fishermen stubborn fellows, and too strong for him, he sails for Virginia; and their owners complaining to Parliament, procured an order that fishing should be free. Bradford, in Prince, p. 218, and in Morton, p. 97.

[9]The Damariscove islands, five or six in number, lying west by north from Monhegan, were early resorted to and occupied as fishing-stages. See Williamson’s Maine, i. 56.

[10]On the 22d of March, 1622, at mid-day, the Indians, by a preconcerted plan, fell upon the English settlements in Virginia, and massacred 347 persons. A war of extermination immediately ensued. See Smith’s Virginia, ii. 64-79, and Stith, p. 208-213.

[11]Opechancanough, as the name is commonly spelt.

Chapter 2(pp. 8-18)

[12]The Narragansetts were a numerous and powerful tribe that occupied nearly the whole of the present territory of the State of Rhode Island, including the islands in Narragansett Bay. They had escaped the pestilence which had depopulated other parts of New England, and their population at this time was estimated at thirty thousand, of whom five thousand were warriors. Roger Williams says they were so populous that a traveller would meet with a dozen Indian towns in twenty miles. They were a martial and formidable race, and were frequently at war with the Pokanokets on the east, the Pequots on the west, and the Massachusetts on the north. See Gookin in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 147; Callender in R. I. Hist. Coll. iv. 123; Potter’s Early History of Narragansett, ibid. iii. 1, and Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 457.

[13]“Since the death of so many Indians, they thought to lord it over the rest, conceive we are a bar in their way, and see Massasoit already take shelter under our wings.” Bradford’s Hist. quoted by Prince, p. 200.

[14]Canonicus, the great sachem of the Narragansetts, though hostile to the Plymouth colonists, probably on account of their league with his enemy, Massasoit, showed himself friendly to the first settlers of Rhode Island, who planted themselves within his territory. Roger Williams says that “when the hearts of my countrymen and friends failed me, the Most High stirred up the barbarous heart of Connonicus to love me as his son to the last gasp. Were it not for the favor that God gave me with him, none of these parts, no, not Rhode Island had been purchased or obtained; for I never gat any thing of Connonicus but by gift.” In 1636 the Massachusetts Colony sent to him “a solemn embassage,” who “observed in the sachem much state, great command over his men, and marvellous wisdom in hisanswers.” Edward Johnson, who probably accompanied the ambassadors, has given in his “Wonderworking Providence,” b. ii. ch. vi. a very minute account of their reception and entertainment. He says that “Canonicus was very discreet in his answers.” He died June 4th, 1647, according to Winthrop, “a very old man.” See his Life in Thatcher’s Indian Biography, i. 177-209, and in Drake’s Book of the Indians, b. ii. 54-57.

[15]Probably Stephen Hopkins.

[16]Isaac Allerton.

[17]“There is a remarkable coincidence in the form of this challenge with that of the challenge given by the Scythian prince to Darius. Five arrows made a part of the present sent by his herald to the Persian king. The manner of declaring war by the Aracaunian Indians of South America, was by sending from town to town an arrow clenched in a dead man’s hand.” Holmes, Annals, i. 177. See Rollin, Anc. Hist. b. vi. s. 4; and Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 69.

[18]Bradford adds, “Which are locked every night; a watch and ward kept in the day.” Prince, p. 200.

[19]This was the first general muster in New England, and the embryo of our present militia system.

[20]This indicates that the writer himself, Winslow, was one of the party.

[21]So early was the name of Gurnet given to this remarkable feature of Plymouth harbour. It is a peninsula or promontory, connected with Marshfield by a beach about six miles long, called Salthouse beach. It contains about twenty-seven acres of excellent soil. On its southern extremity, or nose, are two light-houses. It probably received its name from some headland known to the Pilgrims in the mother country. The late Samuel Davis, of Plymouth, the accurate topographer, and faithful chronicler of the Old Colony, says, “Gurnet is the name of several places on the coast of England; in the Channel we believe there are at least two.” Connected with the Gurnet by a narrow neck, and contiguous to Clark’s island, is another headland, called Saquish, containing ten or fourteen acres. See note 2 on page 164, Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 182, 204, andThatcher’s Plymouth, p. 330.

[22]The sachem of the Wampanoags.

[23]The same as Coubatant or Corbitant.

[24]What is now called abrave.

[25]We should like to have known more about this second voyage to Boston harbour.

[26]On the part of.

[27]This headland is Hither Manomet Point, forming the southern boundary of Plymouth bay. Manomet is the most prominent landmark in Barnstable bay, being visible from all points of its circling shore, from Sandwich to Provincetown.

[28]Brabbles, clamors.

[29]The passengers in the Fortune.

[30]Winslow himself had sent home too flattering an account of their condition.

[31]“She brings a letter to Mr. Carver from Mr. Weston, of Jan. 17. By his letter we find he has quite deserted us, and is going to settle a plantation of his own. The boatbrings us a kind letter from Mr. John Huddleston, a captain of a ship fishing at the eastward, whose name we never heard before, to inform us of a massacre of 400 English by the Indians in Virginia, whence he came. By this boat the Governor returns a grateful answer, and with them sends Mr. Winslow in a boat of ours to get provisions of the fishing ships; whom Captain Huddleston receives kindly, and not only spares what he can, but writes to others to do the like; by which means he gets as much bread as amounts to a quarter of a pound a person per day till harvest; the Governor causing their portion to be daily given them, or some had starved. And by this voyage we not only got a present supply, but also learn the way to those parts for our future benefit.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 202. Huddleston’s letter, (or Hudston’s, as Morton calls him,) may be found in New England’s Memorial, p. 80. Seenote [10]onpage 7.

[32]Seenote [9]onpage 7.

[33]The burying-hill. The intelligence of the massacre in Virginia reached Plymouth in May, and was the immediate incitement to the erection of this fort. Seepage 7.“Some traces of the fort are still visible on the eminence called the burying-hill, directly above the meeting-house of the first church in Plymouth. After the fort was used as a place of worship, it is probable they began to bury their dead around it. Before that time the burial-place was on the bank, above the rock on which the landing was made.” Judge Davis’s note in Morton’s Memorial, p. 82.

[33]The burying-hill. The intelligence of the massacre in Virginia reached Plymouth in May, and was the immediate incitement to the erection of this fort. Seepage 7.

“Some traces of the fort are still visible on the eminence called the burying-hill, directly above the meeting-house of the first church in Plymouth. After the fort was used as a place of worship, it is probable they began to bury their dead around it. Before that time the burial-place was on the bank, above the rock on which the landing was made.” Judge Davis’s note in Morton’s Memorial, p. 82.

Chapter 3(pp. 19-30)

[34]“By Mr. Weston’s ship comes a letter from Mr. John Pierce, in whose name the Plymouth patent is taken, signifying that whom the governor admits into the association, he will approve.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 204.

[35]They came upon no religious design, as did the planters of Plymouth; so they were far from being Puritans. Mr. Weston in a letter owns that many of them are rude and profane fellows. Mr. Cushman in another writes, “They are no men for us, and I fear they will hardly deal so well with the savages as they should. I pray you therefore signify to Squanto that they are a distinct body from us, and we have nothing to do with them, nor must be blamed for their faults, much less can warrant their fidelity.” And Mr. John Pierce in another writes, “As for Mr. Weston’s company they are so base in condition for the most part, as in all appearance not fit for an honest man’s company. I wish they prove otherwise.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 203.

[36]Boston harbour.

[37]Or Wessagusset, now called Weymouth.

[38]Dr. Fuller.

[39]That is, the same Indians.

[40]This is supposed to be the same Jones who was captain of the Mayflower.

[41]Prince says, p. 205, that “Mr. Winslow seems to mistake in thinking Captain Jones was now bound for Virginia;” and Bradford states that “she was on her way from Virginia homeward, being sent out by some merchants to discover the shoals aboutCape Cod, and harbours between this and Virginia.”

[42]“Of her we buy knives and beads, which is now good trade, though at cent. per cent. or more, and yet pay away coat beaver at 3s. a pound, (which a few years after yields 20s.); by which means we are fitted to trade both for corn and beaver.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 205, and in Morton’s Memorial, p. 83.

[43]Isaac Allerton.

[44]Chatham.

[45]His disorder was a fever, accompanied with “a bleeding at the nose, which the Indians reckon a fatal symptom.” Before his death “he desired the Governor (Bradford) to pray that he might go to the Englishman’s God in heaven, bequeathing divers of his things to sundry of his English friends, as remembrances of his love; of whom we had great loss.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 206, and in Morton, p. 85. Judge Davis adds in his note, that “Governor Bradford’s pen was worthily employed in the tender notice taken of the death of this child of nature. With some aberrations, his conduct was generally irreproachable, and his useful services to the infant settlement entitle him to grateful remembrance.”

[46]Aspinet.

[47]The country between Barnstable and Yarmouth harbours.

[48]The distance from Eastham to Plymouth by land is about fifty miles.

[49]With galled feet.

[50]The Swan. Seepage 20.

[51]Nauset, or Eastham, abounds with creeks. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 155, 188.

[52]In the original,saluting; probably a typographical error.

[53]The part of Sandwich, which lies on Manomet river.

[54]“It is almost incredible”, says Roger Williams, “what burthens the poor women carry of corn, of fish, of beans, of mats, and a child besides.” Gookin says, “In their removals from place to place, for their fishing and hunting, the women carry the greatest burthen.” And Wood says, “In the summer they trudge home two or three miles with a hundred weight of lobsters at their backs; in winter they are their husbands’ porters to lug home their venison.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 149, iii. 212, and Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 20.

[55]This is called Manomet or Buzzard’s bay, though Winslow seems to mistake it for Narragansett bay, which is near twenty leagues to the westward. Prince, p. 208.

[56]“This creek runs out easterly into Cape Cod bay at Scussett harbour; and this river runs out westerly into Manomet bay. The distance overland from bay to bay is but six miles. The creek and river nearly meet in a low ground; and this is the place, through which there has been a talk of making a canal, this forty years; which would be a vast advantage to all these countries, by saving the long and dangerous navigation round the Cape, and through the shoals adjoining.” Prince, p. 208, (A.D. 1736.) Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.

[57]Oysters are still found in great excellence and plenty in Sandwich, on the shores of Buzzard’s bay. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.

[58]The common clam, (mya arenaria,) or perhaps the quahaug,(venus mercenaria). The English call the former the sand-gaper, the wordclamnot being in use among them, and not to be found in their dictionaries. And yet it is mentioned by Captain Smith, in his Description of New England, printed in 1616. Johnson, whose Wonderworking Providence was published in 1654, speaks of “clambanks, a fish as big as horse-muscles.” Morton too, in his New English Canaan, (1637) mentions them, and Josselyn, (1672) in his Rarities, p. 96, speaks of “clam, or clamp, a kind of shell-fish, a white muscle.” Wood says, ch. ix. “clams or clamps is a shellfish not much unlike a cockle; it lieth under the sand. These fishes be in great plenty. In some places of the country there be clams as big as a penny white-loaf.” See Mass. Hist. Col. iii. 224, viii. 193, xiii. 125, xxvi. 121, and Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Mass. pp. 40-42, and 85,86.

[59]The razor-shell, (solen,) which very much resembles a bean pod, or the haft of a razor, both in size and shape. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 192. Josselyn calls them “sheath fish, which are very plentiful, a delicate fish, as good as a prawn, covered with a thin shell like the sheath of a knife, and of the color of a muscle.” And Morton says, “razor fishesthere are.”“The animal is cylindrical, and is often used as an article of food under the name of long-clam, razor-fish, knife-handle, &c.” See Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Massachusetts, p. 29.

“The animal is cylindrical, and is often used as an article of food under the name of long-clam, razor-fish, knife-handle, &c.” See Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Massachusetts, p. 29.

[60]In Manomet river, as well as in Buzzard’s and Buttermilk bays, are found fish of various kinds, such as bass, sheep’s head, tautaug, scuppaug, &c. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.

[61]He was the same as Cawnacome.

[62]“In their gamings,” says Roger Williams, “they will sometimes stake and lose their money, clothes, house, corn, and themselves, if single persons.” Gookin says, “They are addicted to gaming, and will, in that vein, play away all they have.” And Wood adds, “They are so bewitched with these two games, that they will lose sometimes all they have, beaver, moose skins, kettles, wampompeage, mowhackies, hatchets, knives, all is confiscate by these two games.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 153, iii. 234, and Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 14.

[63]Powow, a priest and medicine man.

[64]It seems as if the Captain went into Scussett harbour, which goes up westward towards Manomet. Prince, p. 210.

[65]In the Indian dialects.

[66]Or Iyanough.

[67]Seenote [54]onpage 78.

[68]Or Pamet, now called Truro.

Chapter 4(pp. 31-39)

[69]“All their refreshing in their sickness is the visit of friends and neighbours, a poor empty visit and presence; and yet indeed this is very solemn, unless it be in infectious diseases, and then all forsake them and fly.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 236.

[70]It was conjectured by Belknap, Am. Biog. ii. 229, and has since beenrepeatedly asserted as a fact by other writers, that this person was the celebrated English patriot of the same name. But this is highly improbable. Hampden, who was born in 1594, and married in 1619, was a member of the parliament which assembled in January, 1621, and was dissolved by James in 1622, under circumstances and in a juncture of affairs which rendered it certain that a new parliament must soon be called. It is not at all likely that a person in Hampden’s circumstances, a man of family, wealth and consideration, would, merely for the sake of gratifying his curiosity, have left England at this critical period, on a long voyage to another hemisphere, and run the risk of not being at home at the issuing of the writs for a new parliament. For the passage to America was at that time precarious; the vessels were few, and the voyage a long one; so that a person who undertook it could not reasonably calculate upon getting back in much less than a year. Winslow’s companion, whoever he was, must have come in the Charity, which brought Weston’s colony, unless we adopt the improbable supposition that this “gentleman of London” embarked in one of the fishing vessels that visited the Grand Bank, and took his chance of getting to Plymouth as he could. Now the Charity left London the last of April, 1622, and arrived at Plymouth the last of June. Thevisit to Massasoittook place in March, 1623, and after this no vessel sailed for England till the Anne, September 10, in which Winslow went home. Of course this “gentleman of London,” must have been absent at least eighteen months, which it is altogether improbable that Hampden would have done, running the risk of not being at home to stand for the next parliament, to which he undoubtedly expected to be returned, as we know he actually was.Besides, had this companion of Winslow been the great English patriot, the silence of the early Plymouth writers on the point is unaccountable. On publishing his “Good News from New England” immediately on his arrival in London, in 1624, one object of which was to recommend the new colony, how gladly would Winslow have appealed for the correctness of his statements to this member of parliament who had passed more than a year in their Plantation. How natural too would it have been for him to have mentioned the fact in his “Brief Narration,” published in 1646, only three years after the death of the illustrious patriot. Bradford, also, whose sympathies were all with the popular party in England, in writing an elaborate history of the Colony, would not have failed to record the long residence among them of one who, at the time he wrote, had become so distinguished as the leader of that party in the House of Commons. That his lost history contained no such passage we may be certain; for had it been there, it must have been quoted either by Prince or Morton, who make so free use of it, both of whom too mention this visit to Massasoit, and who would not have omitted a circumstance so honorable to the Colony.Again, Winslow’s companion was “a gentleman ofLondon.” Nowalthough John Hampden happened to be born in London, when his father was in parliament in 1594, he was properly of Buckinghamshire. Winslow, who was himself of Worcestershire, if he knew who Hampden was, would not have called him “a gentleman ofLondon;” and we cannot suppose that this English gentleman would have spent so many months in the Colony without making himself known to its two leading men, Winslow and Bradford.Equally unfounded is the statement that has gained so wide a currency and become incorporated with the history of those times, and is repeated in Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, that John Hampden, in company with Cromwell, Pym, and Hazelrig, had actually embarked for America on board a fleet in the Thames, in 1638, but were detained by an order from the Privy Council. Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of Charles I., ch. xiii., was the first to detect and expose this error of the historians.—For some of the views in this note I am indebted to the MS. suggestions of the learned editor of Governor Winthrop’s History of New England.

Besides, had this companion of Winslow been the great English patriot, the silence of the early Plymouth writers on the point is unaccountable. On publishing his “Good News from New England” immediately on his arrival in London, in 1624, one object of which was to recommend the new colony, how gladly would Winslow have appealed for the correctness of his statements to this member of parliament who had passed more than a year in their Plantation. How natural too would it have been for him to have mentioned the fact in his “Brief Narration,” published in 1646, only three years after the death of the illustrious patriot. Bradford, also, whose sympathies were all with the popular party in England, in writing an elaborate history of the Colony, would not have failed to record the long residence among them of one who, at the time he wrote, had become so distinguished as the leader of that party in the House of Commons. That his lost history contained no such passage we may be certain; for had it been there, it must have been quoted either by Prince or Morton, who make so free use of it, both of whom too mention this visit to Massasoit, and who would not have omitted a circumstance so honorable to the Colony.

Again, Winslow’s companion was “a gentleman ofLondon.” Nowalthough John Hampden happened to be born in London, when his father was in parliament in 1594, he was properly of Buckinghamshire. Winslow, who was himself of Worcestershire, if he knew who Hampden was, would not have called him “a gentleman ofLondon;” and we cannot suppose that this English gentleman would have spent so many months in the Colony without making himself known to its two leading men, Winslow and Bradford.

Equally unfounded is the statement that has gained so wide a currency and become incorporated with the history of those times, and is repeated in Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, that John Hampden, in company with Cromwell, Pym, and Hazelrig, had actually embarked for America on board a fleet in the Thames, in 1638, but were detained by an order from the Privy Council. Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of Charles I., ch. xiii., was the first to detect and expose this error of the historians.—For some of the views in this note I am indebted to the MS. suggestions of the learned editor of Governor Winthrop’s History of New England.

[71]Probably the same which is now called Slade’s Ferry, in Swanzey. Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292.

[72]Conbatant or Corbitant, was the sachem of Pocasset, and was subject to Massasoit. See Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232.

[73]A neck of land in the township of Swanzey, commonly pronounced Mattapoiset, now Gardner’s neck, situated between the Shawomet and Toweset necks. See Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292, and Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232, 234.

[74]“Sachimmaacommock, a prince’s house, which, according to their condition, is far different from the other house, both in capacity or receipt, and also the fineness and quality of their mats.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxii.

[75]Wetu, orwigwam. See Gallatin’s Indian Vocabularies, in Am. Antiq. Soc. Coll. ii. 322.

[76]“There are among them certain men and women, whom they callpowows. These are partly wizards and witches, holding familiarity with Satan, that evil one; and partly are physicians, and make use, at least in show, of herbs and roots for curing the sick and diseased. These are sent for by the sick and wounded; and by their diabolical spells, mutterings, exorcisms, they seem to do wonders. They use extraordinary strange motions of their bodies, insomuch that they will sweat until they foam; and thus continue for some hours together, stroking and hovering over the sick.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.“Powaws, priests. These do begin and order their service and invocation of their gods, and all the people follow, and join interchangeably in a laborious bodily service, unto sweating, especially of the priest, who spends himself in strange antic gestures and actions, even unto fainting. In sickness the priest comes close to the sick person, and performs many strange actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness. The poor people commonly die under their hands; for, alas, they administer nothing, but howl and roar and hollow over them, and beginthe song to the rest of the people, who all join like a choir in prayer to their gods for them.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 227, 237.“The manner of their action in their conjuration is thus. The parties that are sick are brought before them; the powow sitting down, the rest of the Indians give attentive audience to his imprecations and invocations, and after the violent expression of many a hideous bellowing and groaning, he makes a stop, and then all the auditors with one voice utter a short canto. Which done, the powow still proceeds in his invocations, sometimes roaring like a bear, other times groaning like a dying horse, foaming at the mouth like a chafed boar, smiting on his naked breast and thighs with such violence as if he were mad. Thus will he continue sometimes half a day.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12. See also Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474.

“Powaws, priests. These do begin and order their service and invocation of their gods, and all the people follow, and join interchangeably in a laborious bodily service, unto sweating, especially of the priest, who spends himself in strange antic gestures and actions, even unto fainting. In sickness the priest comes close to the sick person, and performs many strange actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness. The poor people commonly die under their hands; for, alas, they administer nothing, but howl and roar and hollow over them, and beginthe song to the rest of the people, who all join like a choir in prayer to their gods for them.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 227, 237.

“The manner of their action in their conjuration is thus. The parties that are sick are brought before them; the powow sitting down, the rest of the Indians give attentive audience to his imprecations and invocations, and after the violent expression of many a hideous bellowing and groaning, he makes a stop, and then all the auditors with one voice utter a short canto. Which done, the powow still proceeds in his invocations, sometimes roaring like a bear, other times groaning like a dying horse, foaming at the mouth like a chafed boar, smiting on his naked breast and thighs with such violence as if he were mad. Thus will he continue sometimes half a day.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12. See also Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474.

[77]Wood says, ch. 18, “They pronouncelandrin our English tongue, with much difficulty, calling a lobster a nobstan.” Yet Roger Williams states, that “although some pronounce notlorr, yet it is the most proper dialect of other places, contrary to many reports;” and Eliot, in his Indian Grammar, says, “These consonants,l,n,r, have such a natural coincidence, that it is an eminent variation of their dialects. We Massachusetts pronounce then; the Nipmuk Indians pronouncel; and the Northern Indians pronouncer. As instance:We sayAnum}Nipmuck,Alum} A Dog.”Northern,Arum}See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 223, xix. 248.

We sayAnum}Nipmuck,Alum} A Dog.”Northern,Arum}

See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 223, xix. 248.

[78]“When they are sick, their misery appears, that they have not, but what sometimes they get from the English, a raisin or currant, or any physic, fruit, or spice, or any comfort more than their corn and water, &c. In which bleeding case, wanting all means of recovery or present refreshing, I have been constrained, to and beyond my power, to refresh them, and to save many of them from death, who I am confident perish many millions of them, in that mighty continent, for want of means.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 236.

[79]The same aspinse. Seepage 13.

[80]Sokones, or Succonusset, now called Falmouth.

[81]Or Agawam, part of Wareham.

[82]Martha’s Vineyard.

[83]“Maskit, give me some physic.” Roger Williams’s Key, in R. I. Hist. Coll. i. 159.

[84]“Ketanis 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.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12.

Chapter 5(pp. 40-52)

[85]Morton says, in his New English Canaan, ch. vii. “There are great store of oysters in the entrance of all rivers. They are not round, as those of England, but excellent fat and all good. I have seen an oyster bank a mile in length. Muscles there are infinite store. I have often gone to Wessaguseus, where were excellentmuscles to eat, (for variety,) the fish is so fat and large.”

[86]The wordinclinedordisposedseems to have been accidentally omitted.

[87]Morton says, “this man’s name was Phinehas Prat, who has penned the particulars of his perilous journey, and some other things relating to this tragedy.” Hubbard states that he was living in 1677, at the time he was writing his History of New England. In 1662 the General Court of Massachusetts, in answer to a petition of Phinehas Prat, then of Charlestown, which was accompanied “with a narrative of the straits and hardships that the first planters of this Colony underwent in their endeavours to plant themselves at Plymouth, and since, whereof he was one, the Court judgeth it meet to grant him 300 acres of land, where it is to be had, not hindering a plantation.” At the Court held May 3, 1665, it was ordered that land be laid out for Prat, “in the wilderness on the east of the Merrimack river, near the upper end of Nacook [Pennacook?] brook, on the southeast of it.” Prat married in 1630, at Plymouth, a daughter of Cuthbert Cuthbertson. His heirs had grants of land in Abington subsequent to 1672. Drake says that after long search he has not been able to discover Prat’s narrative. It was probably never printed. See Morton’s Memorial, p. 90; Drake’s Book of the Indians, b. ii. 35; Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 78, xvii. 122.

[88]The notorious Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount, in his New English Canaan, b. iii. ch. 4, which was published in 1637, is the first writer who mentions a ludicrous fable connected with this execution, which has been made the occasion of some reproach on the first planters of New England. After relating the settlement of Weston’s colony at Weymouth, he mentions that one of them stole the corn of an Indian, and upon his complaint was brought before “a parliament of all the people” to consult what punishment should be inflicted on him. It was decided that this offence, which might have been settled by the gift of a knife or a string of beads, “was felony, and by the laws of England, punished with death; and this must be put in execution, for an example, and likewise to appease the salvage. When straightways one arose, moved as it were with some compassion, and said he could not well gainsay the former sentence, yet he had conceived within the compass of his brain an embryon, that was of special consequence to be delivered and cherished. He said that it would most aptly serve to pacify the salvage’s complaint, and save the life of one that might, if need should be, stand them in good stead, being young and strong, fit for resistance against an enemy, which might come unexpected, for any thing they knew. The oration made was like of every one, and he entreated to proceed to show the means how this may be performed. Says he, ‘You all agree that one must die; and one shall die. This young man’s clothes we will take off, and put upon one that is old and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape death; such is the disease on him confirmed, that die he must. Putthe young man’s clothes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in the other’s stead.’ ‘Amen,’ says one, and so say many more. And this had liked to have proved their final sentence; but that one, with a ravenous voice, begun to croak and bellow for revenge, and put by that conclusive motion, alleging such deceits might be a means hereafter to exasperate the minds of the complaining salvages, and that by his death the salvages should see their zeal to justice; and therefore he should die. This was concluded;” and they “hanged him up hard by.”This story of the unscrupulous Morton furnished Butler with the materials out of which he constructed the following fable in his Hudibras, part. ii. canto ii. line 409.“Our brethren of New England useChoice malefactors to excuse,And hang the guiltless in their stead,Of whom the churches have less need;As lately happened. In a town,There lived a cobbler and but one,That out of doctrine could cut use,And mend men’s lives as well as shoes.This precious brother having slain,In times of peace, an Indian,(Not out of malice, but mere zeal,Because he was an infidel,)The mighty TottipotymoySent to our elders an envoy,Complaining sorely of the breachOf league, held forth, by brother Patch,Against the articles in forceBetween both churches, his and ours;For which he craved the saints to renderInto his hands, or hang the offender.But they, maturely having weighed,They had no more but him of the trade,A man that served them in a doubleCapacity, to teach and cobble,Resolved to spare him; yet to doThe Indian Hoghgan Moghgan, too,Impartial justice, in his stead didHang an old weaver, that was bed-rid.”It will be observed that Morton mentions this substitution merely as the suggestion of an individual, which was rejected by the company. Even had it been adopted by them, and carried into execution, it would not have implicated the Plymouth people at all, nor cast the least slur on their characters or principles. For Weston’s colony was entirely distinct from theirs, and composed of a very different set of men. Their character, as portrayed by Weston himself, and by Cushman and Pierce, before they came over, may be seen in note [35] on page 77, to which the reader is particularly requested to refer. Morton himself calls “many of them lazy persons, that would use no endeavour to take the benefit of the country.” As Belknap says, “they were a set of needy adventurers, intent only on gaining a subsistence.” They did not come over from any religious scruples, or with any religious purpose. There is no evidence that they had any church at all; they certainly were not Puritans. Neal says, in his Hist. of New England, i. 102, that Weston obtained a patent under pretence of propagating the discipline of the Church of England in America.Grahame, i. 198, falls into an error in attributing this execution to Gorges’s colony, which settled at the same place in the autumn of the sameyear; and Drake, b. ii. 34, errs in saying that Morton was one of Weston’s company. Morton did not come over till March, 1625, in company with Wollaston, and settled with him not at Weymouth, but in Quincy. See Prince, pp. 221, 231. The accurate Hutchinson, i. 6, should not have made a fact out of the careless Hubbard’s supposition, which the latter mentions as barely “possible.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 77.

This story of the unscrupulous Morton furnished Butler with the materials out of which he constructed the following fable in his Hudibras, part. ii. canto ii. line 409.

“Our brethren of New England useChoice malefactors to excuse,And hang the guiltless in their stead,Of whom the churches have less need;As lately happened. In a town,There lived a cobbler and but one,That out of doctrine could cut use,And mend men’s lives as well as shoes.This precious brother having slain,In times of peace, an Indian,(Not out of malice, but mere zeal,Because he was an infidel,)The mighty TottipotymoySent to our elders an envoy,Complaining sorely of the breachOf league, held forth, by brother Patch,Against the articles in forceBetween both churches, his and ours;For which he craved the saints to renderInto his hands, or hang the offender.But they, maturely having weighed,They had no more but him of the trade,A man that served them in a doubleCapacity, to teach and cobble,Resolved to spare him; yet to doThe Indian Hoghgan Moghgan, too,Impartial justice, in his stead didHang an old weaver, that was bed-rid.”

“Our brethren of New England use

Choice malefactors to excuse,

And hang the guiltless in their stead,

Of whom the churches have less need;

As lately happened. In a town,

There lived a cobbler and but one,

That out of doctrine could cut use,

And mend men’s lives as well as shoes.

This precious brother having slain,

In times of peace, an Indian,

(Not out of malice, but mere zeal,

Because he was an infidel,)

The mighty Tottipotymoy

Sent to our elders an envoy,

Complaining sorely of the breach

Of league, held forth, by brother Patch,

Against the articles in force

Between both churches, his and ours;

For which he craved the saints to render

Into his hands, or hang the offender.

But they, maturely having weighed,

They had no more but him of the trade,

A man that served them in a double

Capacity, to teach and cobble,

Resolved to spare him; yet to do

The Indian Hoghgan Moghgan, too,

Impartial justice, in his stead did

Hang an old weaver, that was bed-rid.”

It will be observed that Morton mentions this substitution merely as the suggestion of an individual, which was rejected by the company. Even had it been adopted by them, and carried into execution, it would not have implicated the Plymouth people at all, nor cast the least slur on their characters or principles. For Weston’s colony was entirely distinct from theirs, and composed of a very different set of men. Their character, as portrayed by Weston himself, and by Cushman and Pierce, before they came over, may be seen in note [35] on page 77, to which the reader is particularly requested to refer. Morton himself calls “many of them lazy persons, that would use no endeavour to take the benefit of the country.” As Belknap says, “they were a set of needy adventurers, intent only on gaining a subsistence.” They did not come over from any religious scruples, or with any religious purpose. There is no evidence that they had any church at all; they certainly were not Puritans. Neal says, in his Hist. of New England, i. 102, that Weston obtained a patent under pretence of propagating the discipline of the Church of England in America.

Grahame, i. 198, falls into an error in attributing this execution to Gorges’s colony, which settled at the same place in the autumn of the sameyear; and Drake, b. ii. 34, errs in saying that Morton was one of Weston’s company. Morton did not come over till March, 1625, in company with Wollaston, and settled with him not at Weymouth, but in Quincy. See Prince, pp. 221, 231. The accurate Hutchinson, i. 6, should not have made a fact out of the careless Hubbard’s supposition, which the latter mentions as barely “possible.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 77.

[89]Hansel, to use for the first time.

[90]The same aspinse, onpage 13.

[91]Standish is said to have been a man of short stature. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 111, and xviii, 121.

[92]When the news of the first Indians being killed by Standish at Weymouth reached Mr. Robinson, their pastor, at Leyden, he wrote to the church at Plymouth, December 19, 1623, “to consider the disposition of their Captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped the Lord had sent him among them for good, if they used him right; but he doubted where there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after God’s image, which was meet;” and he concludes with saying, “O how happy a thing had it been that you had converted some before you killed any!” Prince adds, “It is to be hoped that Squanto was converted.” It seems Standish was not of their church at first, and Hubbard says he had more of his education in the school of Mars than in the school of Christ. Judge Davis remarks, “These sentiments are honorable to Mr. Robinson; they indicate a generous philanthropy, which must always gain our affection, and should ever be cherished. Still the transactions of which the strictures relate, are defensible. As to Standish, Belknap places his defence on the rules of duty imposed by his character, as the military servant of the Colony. The government, it is presumed, will be considered as acting under severe necessity, and will require no apology if the reality of the conspiracy be admitted, of which there can be little doubt. It is certain that they were fully persuaded of its existence, and with the terrible example of the Virginia massacre in fresh remembrance, they had solemn duties to discharge. The existence of the whole settlement was at hazard.” See Prince, p. 226; Hutchinson’s Mass. ii. 461; Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 330; Morton’s Memorial, p. 91.

[93]His bow.

[94]To England.

[95]“Thus this plantation is broken up in a year; and this is the end of those who being all able men, had boasted of their strength and what they would bring to pass, in comparison of the people at Plymouth, who had many women, children, and weak ones with them; and said at their first arrival, when they saw the wants at Plymouth, that they would take another course, and not fall into such a condition as this simple people were come to.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 214, and in Morton, p. 92.“Shortly after Mr. Weston’s people went to the eastward, he comes there himself with some of the fishermen, under another name and disguise of a blacksmith; where he hears the ruin of his plantation; and getting a shallop with a man or two comes onto see how things are; but in a storm is cast away in the bottom of the bay between Pascataquak and Merrimak river, and hardly escapes with his life. Afterwards he falls into the hands of the Indians, who pillage him of all he saved from the sea, and strip him of all his clothes to his shirt. At length he gets to Pascataquak, borrows a suit of clothes, finds means to come to Plymouth, and desires to borrow some beaver of us. Notwithstanding our straits, yet in consideration of his necessity, we let him have one hundred and seventy odd pounds of beaver, with which he goes to the eastward, stays his small ship and some of his men, buys provisions and fits himself, which is the foundation of his future courses; and yet never repaid us any thing save reproaches, and becomes our enemy on all occasions.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 216.

“Shortly after Mr. Weston’s people went to the eastward, he comes there himself with some of the fishermen, under another name and disguise of a blacksmith; where he hears the ruin of his plantation; and getting a shallop with a man or two comes onto see how things are; but in a storm is cast away in the bottom of the bay between Pascataquak and Merrimak river, and hardly escapes with his life. Afterwards he falls into the hands of the Indians, who pillage him of all he saved from the sea, and strip him of all his clothes to his shirt. At length he gets to Pascataquak, borrows a suit of clothes, finds means to come to Plymouth, and desires to borrow some beaver of us. Notwithstanding our straits, yet in consideration of his necessity, we let him have one hundred and seventy odd pounds of beaver, with which he goes to the eastward, stays his small ship and some of his men, buys provisions and fits himself, which is the foundation of his future courses; and yet never repaid us any thing save reproaches, and becomes our enemy on all occasions.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 216.

[96]“This may excite in some minds an objection to the humanity of our forefathers. The reason assigned for it was that it might prove a terror to others. In matters of war and public justice, they observed the customs and laws of the English nation. As late as the year 1747, the heads of the lords who were concerned in the Scots rebellion were set up over Temple Bar, the most frequented passage between London and Westminster.” Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 326.

Chapter 6(pp. 53-56)

[97]The wordnoappears to be an error of the press.

[98]This allotment was only for one year. In the spring of the next year, 1624, “the people requesting the Governor to have some land for continuance, and not by yearly lot, as before, he gives every person an acre of land.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 215 and 226. See this latter allotment in Hazard, i. 100, and in Morton, p. 376.

[99]“But by the time our corn is planted, our victuals are spent, not knowing at night where to have a bit in the morning, and have neither bread nor corn forthree or fourmonths together, yet bear our wants with cheerfulness and rest on Providence. Having but one boat left, we divide the men into several companies, six or seven in each; who take their turns to go out with a net and fish, and return not till they get some, though they be five or six days out; knowing there is nothing at home, and to return empty would be a great discouragement. When they stay long or get but little, the rest go a digging shellfish; and thus we live the summer; only sending one or two to range the woods for deer, they now and then get one, which we divide among the company; and in the winter are helped with fowl and ground-nuts.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 216.

[100]“At length we receive letters from the adventurers in England of December 22 and April 9 last, wherein they say, ‘It rejoiceth us much to hear those good reports that divers have brought home of you;’ and give an account, that last fall, a ship, the Paragon, sailed from London with passengers, for New Plymouth; being fitted out by Mr. John Pierce, in whose name our first patent was taken, his name being only used in trust; butwhen he saw we were here hopefully seated, and by the success God gave us, had obtained favor with the Council for New England, he gets another patent of a larger extent, meaning to keep it to himself, allow us only what he pleased, hold us as his tenants and sue to his courts as chief lord. But meeting with tempestuous storms in the Downs, the ship is so bruised and leaky that in fourteen days she returned to London, was forced to be put into the dock, £100 laid out to mend her, and lay six or seven weeks to December 22, before she sailed a second time; but being half way over, met with extreme tempestuous weather about the middle of February which held fourteen days, beat off the round house with all her upper works, obliged them to cut her mast and return to Portsmouth, having 109 souls aboard, with Mr. Pierce himself. Upon which great and repeated loss and disappointment, he is prevailed upon for £500 to resign his patent to the Company, which cost him but £50; and the goods with charge of passengers in this ship cost the Company £640, for which they were forced to hire another ship, namely, the Anne, of 140 tons, to transport them, namely 60 passengers with 60 tons of goods, hoping to sail by the end of April.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 217, 218.

[101]This is the last time that Hobbamock’s name occurs in the history of the Colony. His services to the infant settlement had been very important, and in the allotment of the land in 1624, mention is made of “Hobbamock’s ground.” In New England’s First Fruits, published in London in 1643, he is described as follows: “As he increased in knowledge, so in affection, and also in his practice, reforming and conforming himself accordingly; and though he was much tempted by enticements, scoffs, and scorns from the Indians, yet could he never be gotten from the English, nor from seeking after their God, but died amongst them, leaving some good hopes in their hearts that his soul went to rest.”

[102]David Thomson was sent over by Gorges and Mason in the spring of 1623, and commenced a settlement at a place called Little Harbour, on the west side of Piscataqua river, near its mouth. Christopher Levett says he stayed a month at Thomsons plantation in 1623. Afterwards, in 1626, or later, out of dislike of the place or his employers, Thomson removed to Boston harbour, and took possession of “a fruitful island and very desirable neck of land,” which were afterwards confirmed to him or his heirs by the government of Massachusetts. This neck of land was Squantum, in Quincy, and the island which is very near it, has ever since been called by his name. It is now the seat of the Farm School. Compare Savage’s Winthrop, i. 44, with Hubbard, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xv. 105; and see Adams’s Annals of Portsmouth, p. 10, and Levett’s voyage into New-England, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 164.

[103]So called after himself, by Captain John Smith, who discovered them in 1614. He thus describes them: “Smyth’s Isles are a heap together, none near them, against Accominticus.” They are eight in number, andare now called the Isles of Shoals. See a description and historical account of them in Mass. Hist. Coll. vii. 242-262; xxvi. 120.

[104]“Governor Bradford gives no hint of this third repulse.” Prince, p. 219.

[105]The following is an alphabetical list of those who came over in the Anne and Little James.Anthony Annable,Edward Bangs,Robert Bartlett,Fear Brewster,Patience Brewster,Mary Bucket,Edward Butcher,Thomas Clark,Christopher Conant,Cuthbert Cuthbertson,Anthony Dix,John Faunce,Manasseh Faunce,Goodwife Flavell,Edmund Flood,Bridget Fuller,Timothy Hatherly,William Heard,Margaret Hickes, and her children,William Hilton’s wife and two children,Edward Holman,John Jenny,Robert Long,Experience Mitchell,George Morton,Thomas Morton, jr.Ellen Newton,John Oldham,Frances Palmer,Christian Penn,Mr. Perce’s two servants,Joshua Pratt,James Rand,Robert Rattliffe,Nicholas Snow,Alice Southworth,Francis Sprague,Barbara Standish,Thomas Tilden,Stephen Tracy,Ralph Wallen.This list, as well as that of the passengers in the Fortune, is obtained from the record of the allotment of lands, in 1624, which may be found in Hazard’s State Papers, i. 101-103, and in the Appendix to Morton’s Memorial, pp. 377-380. In that list, however, Francis Cooke’s and Richard Warren’s names are repeated, although they came in the Mayflower; probably because their wives and children came in the Anne, and therefore an additional grant of land was made to them. Many others brought their families in this ship; and Bradford says that “some were the wives and children of such who came before.”Fear and Patience Brewster were daughters of Elder Brewster. John Faunce married Patience, daughter of George Morton, and was father of the venerable Elder Faunce. Thomas Clark’s gravestone is one of the oldest on the Burial hill in Plymouth. Francis Cooke’s wife, Hester, was a Walloon, and Cuthbert Cuthbertson was a Dutchman, as we learn from Winslow’s Brief Narration. Anthony Dix is mentioned in Winthrop, i. 287. Goodwife Flavell was probably the wife of Thomas, who came in the Fortune, and Bridget Fuller was thewife of Samuel, the physician. Timothy Hatherly went to England the next winter, and did not return till 1632; he settled in Scituate. Margaret Hicks, was the wife of Robert, who came in the Fortune. William Hilton had sent for his wife and children. George Morton brought his son, Nathaniel, the secretary, and four other children. Thomas Morton, jr. was probably the son of Thomas, who came in the Fortune. John Oldham afterwards became notorious in the history of the Colony. Frances Palmer was the wife of William, who came in the Fortune. Phinehas Pratt had a lot of land assigned him among those who came in the Anne; but he was undoubtedly one of Weston’s colony, as appears from page 44. Barbara Standish was the Captain’s second wife, whom he married after the arrival of the Anne. Her maiden name is unknown.Annable afterwards settled in Scituate, Mitchell in Duxbury and Bridgewater, Bangs and Snow in Eastham, and Sprague in Duxbury. John Jenny was a brewer, and in 1636 had “liberty to erect a mill for grinding and beating of corn upon the brook of Plymouth.”Those who came in the first three ships, the Mayflower, the Fortune, and the Anne, are distinctively called theold comers, or theforefathers. For further particulars concerning them, see Farmer’s Genealogical Register, Mitchell’s Bridgewater, and Deane’s Scituate.

[105]The following is an alphabetical list of those who came over in the Anne and Little James.

Anthony Annable,Edward Bangs,Robert Bartlett,Fear Brewster,Patience Brewster,Mary Bucket,Edward Butcher,Thomas Clark,Christopher Conant,Cuthbert Cuthbertson,Anthony Dix,John Faunce,Manasseh Faunce,Goodwife Flavell,Edmund Flood,Bridget Fuller,Timothy Hatherly,William Heard,Margaret Hickes, and her children,William Hilton’s wife and two children,Edward Holman,John Jenny,Robert Long,Experience Mitchell,George Morton,Thomas Morton, jr.Ellen Newton,John Oldham,Frances Palmer,Christian Penn,Mr. Perce’s two servants,Joshua Pratt,James Rand,Robert Rattliffe,Nicholas Snow,Alice Southworth,Francis Sprague,Barbara Standish,Thomas Tilden,Stephen Tracy,Ralph Wallen.

This list, as well as that of the passengers in the Fortune, is obtained from the record of the allotment of lands, in 1624, which may be found in Hazard’s State Papers, i. 101-103, and in the Appendix to Morton’s Memorial, pp. 377-380. In that list, however, Francis Cooke’s and Richard Warren’s names are repeated, although they came in the Mayflower; probably because their wives and children came in the Anne, and therefore an additional grant of land was made to them. Many others brought their families in this ship; and Bradford says that “some were the wives and children of such who came before.”

Fear and Patience Brewster were daughters of Elder Brewster. John Faunce married Patience, daughter of George Morton, and was father of the venerable Elder Faunce. Thomas Clark’s gravestone is one of the oldest on the Burial hill in Plymouth. Francis Cooke’s wife, Hester, was a Walloon, and Cuthbert Cuthbertson was a Dutchman, as we learn from Winslow’s Brief Narration. Anthony Dix is mentioned in Winthrop, i. 287. Goodwife Flavell was probably the wife of Thomas, who came in the Fortune, and Bridget Fuller was thewife of Samuel, the physician. Timothy Hatherly went to England the next winter, and did not return till 1632; he settled in Scituate. Margaret Hicks, was the wife of Robert, who came in the Fortune. William Hilton had sent for his wife and children. George Morton brought his son, Nathaniel, the secretary, and four other children. Thomas Morton, jr. was probably the son of Thomas, who came in the Fortune. John Oldham afterwards became notorious in the history of the Colony. Frances Palmer was the wife of William, who came in the Fortune. Phinehas Pratt had a lot of land assigned him among those who came in the Anne; but he was undoubtedly one of Weston’s colony, as appears from page 44. Barbara Standish was the Captain’s second wife, whom he married after the arrival of the Anne. Her maiden name is unknown.

Annable afterwards settled in Scituate, Mitchell in Duxbury and Bridgewater, Bangs and Snow in Eastham, and Sprague in Duxbury. John Jenny was a brewer, and in 1636 had “liberty to erect a mill for grinding and beating of corn upon the brook of Plymouth.”

Those who came in the first three ships, the Mayflower, the Fortune, and the Anne, are distinctively called theold comers, or theforefathers. For further particulars concerning them, see Farmer’s Genealogical Register, Mitchell’s Bridgewater, and Deane’s Scituate.

[106]“Of 140 tons, Mr. William Pierce, master.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 218 and 220.

[107]“Being laden with clapboards, and all the beaver and other furs we have; with whom we send Mr. Winslow, to inform how things are and procure what we want.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 221.

[108]“A fine new vessel of 44 tons Mr. Bridges, master.” Bradford, in Prince, p. 220.

[109]“They bring about 60 persons, some being very useful and become good members of the body; of whom the principal are Mr. Timothy Hatherly and Mr. George Morton, who came in the Anne, and Mr. John Jenny, who came in the James. Some were the wives and children of such who came before; and some others are so bad we are forced to be at the charge to send them home next year.“By this ship R. C. [i.e. doubtless Mr. Cushman, their agent,] writes, ‘Some few of your old friends are come; they come dropping to you, and by degrees I hope ere long you shall enjoy them all, &c.’“From the general, [that is, the joint concern, the company] subscribed by thirteen, we have also a letter wherein they say, ‘Let it not be grievous to you, that you have been instruments to break the ice for others who come after with less difficulty; the honor shall be yours to the world’s end. We bear you always in our breasts, and our hearty affection is towards you all, as are the hearts of hundreds more which never saw your faces, who doubtless pray your safety as their own.’“When these passengers see our poor and low condition ashore, they are much dismayed and full of sadness;only our old friends rejoice to see us, and that it is no worse, and now hope we shall enjoy better days together. The best dish we could present them with, is a lobster, or piece of fish, without bread, or any thing else but a cup of fair spring water; and the long continuance of this diet, with our labors abroad, has somewhat abated the freshness of our complexion; but God gives us health, &c.“August 11. The fourth marriage is of Governor Bradford to Mrs. Alice Southworth, widow.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 220, 221. Her maiden name was Carpenter, as appears from the following entry in the records of the Plymouth Church: “1667. Mary Carpenter, (sister of Mrs. Alice Bradford, the wife of Governor Bradford,) a member of the church at Duxbury, died in Plymouth, March 19-20, being newly entered into the 91st year of her age. She was a godly old maid, never married.”

“By this ship R. C. [i.e. doubtless Mr. Cushman, their agent,] writes, ‘Some few of your old friends are come; they come dropping to you, and by degrees I hope ere long you shall enjoy them all, &c.’

“From the general, [that is, the joint concern, the company] subscribed by thirteen, we have also a letter wherein they say, ‘Let it not be grievous to you, that you have been instruments to break the ice for others who come after with less difficulty; the honor shall be yours to the world’s end. We bear you always in our breasts, and our hearty affection is towards you all, as are the hearts of hundreds more which never saw your faces, who doubtless pray your safety as their own.’

“When these passengers see our poor and low condition ashore, they are much dismayed and full of sadness;only our old friends rejoice to see us, and that it is no worse, and now hope we shall enjoy better days together. The best dish we could present them with, is a lobster, or piece of fish, without bread, or any thing else but a cup of fair spring water; and the long continuance of this diet, with our labors abroad, has somewhat abated the freshness of our complexion; but God gives us health, &c.

“August 11. The fourth marriage is of Governor Bradford to Mrs. Alice Southworth, widow.” Bradford, in Prince, pp. 220, 221. Her maiden name was Carpenter, as appears from the following entry in the records of the Plymouth Church: “1667. Mary Carpenter, (sister of Mrs. Alice Bradford, the wife of Governor Bradford,) a member of the church at Duxbury, died in Plymouth, March 19-20, being newly entered into the 91st year of her age. She was a godly old maid, never married.”

Chapter 7(pp. 57-66)

[110]The meaning of the word Kiehtan, I think, hath reference to antiquity; forChiseis an old man, andKichchisea man that exceedeth in age.—Winslow’s Note.

[111]“They relate how they have it from their fathers, that Kautantowwit 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 fountains of all mankind.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxi.

[112]“Kautantowwit, the great southwest God, to whose house all souls go, and from whom came their corn and beans, as they say. They believe that the souls of men and women go to the southwest; their great and good men and women to Kautantowwit’s house, where they have hopes, as the Turks have, of carnal joys; murtherers, thieves and liars, their souls, say they, wander restless abroad.” Williams’s Key, ch. xxi.

[113]Wood, in his New England’s Prospect, ch. xix. spells this wordAbamacho.

[114]Seepage 33,note [76].

[115]Seepages 13and37.

[116]Or centaury—probably thesabbatia chloroides, a plant conspicuous for its beauty, which is found in great abundance on the margin of the ponds in Plymouth. It belongs to the natural order of Gentians, one characteristic of which is an intense bitterness, residing both in the stems and roots. Thegentiana crinita, or fringed gentian, also grows in this region. See Bigelows Plants of Boston, pp. 79 and 111.“The greater centaury is that famous herb wherewith Chiron thecentaur(as the report goeth) was cured at what time as having entertained Hercules in his cabin, he would needs be handling and tampering with the weapons of his said guest so long until one of the arrows light upon his foot and wounded him dangerously.” Hollands Pliny, b. xxv. ch. 6.

“The greater centaury is that famous herb wherewith Chiron thecentaur(as the report goeth) was cured at what time as having entertained Hercules in his cabin, he would needs be handling and tampering with the weapons of his said guest so long until one of the arrows light upon his foot and wounded him dangerously.” Hollands Pliny, b. xxv. ch. 6.

[117]“Their government is generally monarchical, their chief sagamore or sachem’s will being their law; but yet the sachem hath some chief men that he consults with as his special counsellors. Among some of the Indianstheir government is mixed, partly monarchical and partly aristocratical; their sagamore doing not any weighty matter without the consent of his great men or petty sagamores. Their sachems have not their men in such subjection but that very frequently their men will leave them upon distaste or harsh dealing, and go and live under other sachems that can protect them; so that their princes endeavour to carry it obligingly and lovingly unto their people, lest they should desert them, and thereby their strength, power and tribute would be diminished.” Gookin in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.

[118]Seepage 31.

[119]“Upon the death of the sick, the father, or husband, and all his neighbours wear black faces, and lay on soot very thick, which I have often seen clotted with their tears. This blacking and lamenting they observe in most doleful manner divers weeks and months, yea a year, if the person be great and public.—When they come to the grave, they lay the dead by the grave’s mouth, and then all sit down, and lament, that I have seen tears run down the cheeks of stoutest captains in abundance; and after the dead is laid in the grave, they have then a second lamentation.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxxii.

[120]Seenote [54]onpage 25.

[121]Seepage 26.

[122]“The most usual custom amongst them in executing punishments, is for the sachim either to beat or whip or put to death with his own hand, to which the common sort most quietly submit; though sometimes the sachim sends a secret executioner, one of his chiefest warriors, to fetch off a head by some sudden, unexpected blow of a hatchet, when they have feared mutiny by public execution.” Roger Williamss Key, ch. xxii. See alsopage 15previous.

[123]“Moskorpaukunawaw, the Great Bear, or Charles’s Wain; which words mosk or paukunawaw signifies a bear; which is so much the more observable, because in most languages that sign or constellation is called the Bear.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xii.

[124]“Their powows, by their exorcisms, and necromantic charms, bring to pass strange things, if we may believe the Indians; who report of one Passaconaway, a great sagamore upon Merrimack river, and the most celebrated powow in the country, that he can make the water burn, the rocks move, the trees dance, and metamorphize himself into a flaming man. In winter, when there are no green leaves to be got, he will burn an old one to ashes, and putting these into the water, produce a new green leaf, which you shall not only see, but substantially handle and carry away; and make a dead snake’s skin a living snake, both to be seen, felt, and heard.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12; Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474; Morton’s New English Canaan, book i. ch. 9.

[125]“There is a mixture of this language north and south, from the place of my abode, about 600 miles; yet within the 200 miles aforementioned, their dialects do exceedingly differ; yet not so but, within that compass, a man may converse with thousands ofnatives all over the country.” Roger Williams’s Key, Pref.“The Indians of the parts of New England, especially upon the sea-coasts, use the same sort of speech and language, only with some difference in the expressions, as they differ in several counties in England, yet so as they can well understand one another.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 149.

“The Indians of the parts of New England, especially upon the sea-coasts, use the same sort of speech and language, only with some difference in the expressions, as they differ in several counties in England, yet so as they can well understand one another.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 149.

Chapter 8(pp. 67-71)

[126]In September 1609, Hudson ascended the “great river of the mountains,” now called by his name, in a small vessel called the Half-Moon, above the city of Hudson, and sent up a boat beyond Albany. Josselyn says, that Hudson “discoveredMoheganriver, in New England.” See Robert Juet’s Journal of Hudson’s third voyage, in Purchas, iii. 593, and in N. Y. Hist. Coll. i. 139, 140, and 2d series, i. 317-332; Moulton’s Hist. of New York, 213, 244-249; Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiii. 372; Belknap’s Am. Biog. i. 400.

Postscript(p. 72)

[127]The former of the works here referred to is reprinted in the Mass. Hist. Coll. xix. 1-25; the latter has been reprinted by Applewood Books asMourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

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