12

IYANOUGH.-ASFINET.-DEATH OF SQUANTO.

[Book II. bestowing a knife on him, and sewise on another, that first entertained the boy, and brought him thither."

Iyanough did not accompany the expedition in their return from Nauset, but went home by land, and was ready to entertain the company on their return. From contrary winds and a want of fresh water, the voyagers were obliged to touch again at Cummaquid. "There (say they) we met again with Iyanough, and the most of his town." "He, being still willing to gratify us, took a rundlet, and led our men in the dark a great way for water, but could find none good, yet brought such as there was on his neck with them. In the meantime the women joined hand in band, singing and dancing before the shallop;* the men also showing all the kindness they could, Iyanough himself taking a bracelet from about his neck, and hanging it about one of us."

They were not able to get out of the harbor of Cummaquid from baffling winds and tides, which Iyanough seeing, the next morning he ran along the shore after them, and they took him into their shallop and returned with him, to his town, where he entertained them in a manner not inferior to what he had done before. They now succeeded in getting water, and shortly after returned home in safety.

While at Nauset, the English heard that Massasoit had been attacked and carried off by the Narragansets, which led to the expedition of Standish and Allerton against Caunbitant, as will be found related in his life.

About this time, six sachems of the neighboring country had their fidelity tested, by being called upon to sign a treaty subjecting themselves to King James, as will be found, also, in that life. But to return again to Aspinet, and other sachems of Cape Cod.

By the improvidence of a company settled at Wessaguscus, under the direction of Mr. Thomas Weston, in 1622, they had been brought to the very brink of starvation in the winter of that year. In fact, the Plimouth people were but very little better off; and but for the kindness of the Indians, the worst of consequences might have ensued to both these infant colonies.

As the winter progressed, the two colonies entered into articles of agreement to go on a trading voyage among the Indians of Cape Cod to buy corn, and whatever else might conduce to their livelihood. Squanto was pilot in this expedition, but he died before it was accomplished, and the record of his death stands thus in WINSLOW'S RELATION:

"But here, [at Manamoyk, since Chatham,] though they had determined to make a second essay, [to pass within the shoals of Cape Cod,] yet God had otherwise disposed, who struck Tisquantum with sickness, insomuch as he there died; which crossed their southward trading, and the more, because the master's sufficiency was much doubted, and the season very tempestuous, and not fit to go upon discovery, having no guide to direct them."

Thus died the famous Squanto, or Tasquantum, in December, 1622. To him the pilgrims were greatly indebted, although he often, through extreme folly and shortsightedness, gave them, as well as himself and others, a great deal of trouble, as in the life of Massasoit and Hobomok will appear.

* It was a custom with most Indian nations to dance when strangers came among them. Baron Lahontan says it was the manner of the Iroquois to dance "lorsque les étrangers passent dans leur pats, ou que leurs ennemis envoient des ambassadeurs pour faire des propositions de paix." Memoires de L'Amerique, ii. 110.

+ His disorder was a fever, "bleeding much at the nose, which the Indians reckon a fatal symptom." He desired the governor would pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God, “bequeathing his things to sundry of his English friends, as remem brances of his love; of whom we have a great loss." Prince out of Bradford.

Thus, at the commencement of the voyage, the pilot was taken away by death, and the expedition came near being abandoned. However, before Squanto died, he succeeded in introducing his friends to the sachem of Manamoick and his people, where they were received and entertained in a manner that would do honor to any people in any age. It is the more worthy of remark, as none of the English had ever been there before, and were utter strangers to them. After they had refreshed them "with store of venison and other victuals, which they brought them in great abundance," they sold them "8 hogsheads of corn and beans, though the people were but few.”"

From Manamoick they proceeded to Massachusetts, but could do nothing there, as Mr. Weston's men had ruined the market by giving "as much for a quart of corn, as we used to do for a beaver's skin."* Therefore they returned again to Cape Cod, to Nauset, "where the sachem Aspinet used the governor very kindly, and where they bought 8 or 10 hogsheads of corn and beans: also at a place called Mattachiest, where they had like kind entertainment and corn also." While here, a violent storm drove on shore, and so damaged their pinnace, that they could not get their corn on board the ship; so they made a stack of it, and secured it from the weather, by covering it with mats and sedge. Aspinet was desired to watch and keep wild animals from destroying it, until they could send for it. Also, not to suffer their boat to be concerned with; all this he faithfully did, and the governor returned home by land, ceiving great kindness from the Indians by the way."

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Some time after, Standish went to bring the corn left at Nauset, and, as usual, gets himself into difficulty with the Indians. One of Aspinet's men happening to come to one of Standish's boats, which being left entirely without guard, he took out a few trinkets, such as "beads, scissors, and other trifles," which when the English captain found out, "he took certain of his company with him, and went to the sachem, telling him what had happened, and requiring the same again, or the party that stole them," "or else he would revenge it on them before his departure," and so departed for the night, "refusing whatsoever kindness they offered." However, the next morning, Aspinet, attended by many of his men, went to the English," in a stately manner," and restored all the "trifles;" for the exposing of which the English deserved ten times as much reprehension as the man for taking them.

Squanto being the only person that escaped the great sickness at Patuxet, inquirers for an account of that calamity. will very reasonably expect to find it in a history of his life. We therefore will relate all that is known of it, not elsewhere to be noticed in our progress. The extent of its ravages, as near as we can judge, was from Narraganset Bay, to Kennebeck, or perhaps Penobscot, and was supposed to have commenced about 1617, and the length of its duration seems to have been between two and three years, as it was nearly abated in 1619. The Indians gave a frightful account of it; saying that they died so fast "that the living were not able to bury the dead." When the English arrived in the country, their bones were thick upon the ground in many places. This they looked upon as a great providence, inasmuch as it had destroyed "multitudes of the barbarous heathen to make way for the chosen people of God."

*At this time, there was a great sickness among the Massachusett Indians, "not unlike the plague, if not the same." No particulars of it are recorded.

All wars and disasters in those days were thought to be preceded by some strange natural appearance; or, as appeared to them, unnatural appearance or phenomenon; hence the appearance of a comet, in 1618, was considered by some the precursor of this pestilence.*

We will give here, from a curious work, in the language of the author, an interesting passage, relating to this melancholy period, of the history of the people of Massasoit; in which he refers to Squanto. After relating the fate of a French ship's crew among the Wampanoags, as extracted in the life of Massasoit, in continuation of the account, he proceeds thus: "But contrary wise, [the Indians having said "they were so many that God could not kill them," when one of the Frenchmen rebuked them for their "wickedness," telling them God would destroy them,] in short time after, the hand of God fell heavily upon them, with such a mortall stroake, that they died on heaps, as they lay in their houses, and the living that were able to shift for themselves, would runne away and let them dy, and let their carkases ly above the ground without buriall. For in a place, where many inhabited, there hath been but one left alive, to tell what became of the rest; the living being (as it seems) not able to bury the dead. They were left for crowes, kites, and vermine to pray upon. And the bones and skulls upon the severall places of their habitations, made such a spectacle after my comming into those parts, that as I travailed in that forrest nere the Massachussets, it seemed to me a new-found Golgotha."

Sir Ferdinando Gorges, as we have seen, was well acquainted with the coast of New England. After his design failed at Sagadahock, he tells us that he sent over a ship upon his own account, which was to leave a company under one Vines, to remain and trade in the country. These were his own servants, and he ordered "them to leave the ship and ship's company, for to follow their business in the usual place, (for I knew they would not be drawn to seek by any means,) by these, and the help of 'those natives formerly sent over, I come to be truly informed of so much as gave me assurance that in time I should want no undertakers, though as yet I was forced to hire men to stay there the winter quarter at extreme rates, and not without danger, for that the war had consumed the Bashaba, and the most of the great sagamores, with such men of action as followed them, and those that remained were sore afflicted with the plague; for that the country was in a manner left void of inhabitants. Notwithstanding, Vines, and the rest with him that lay in the cabins with those people that died, some more, some less, mightily, (blessed be God for it) not one of them ever felt their heads to ache while they stayed there." Here, although we are put in possession of several of the most important facts, yet our venerable author is deficient in one of the main particulars-I mean that of dates. Therefore we gain no further data

*The year 1618 seems to have been very fruitful in comets, " as therein no less than four were observed." I. Mather's Discourse concerning Comets, 108. Boston, 12mo. 1683. There may be seen a curious passage concerning the comet of 1618 in Rushworth's Hist. Col. of that year.

+ New English Canaan, 23, by Thomas Morton, 4to. Amsterdam, 1637.

Mr. Morton first came over in 1622. He settled near Weymouth. After great trouble and losses from those of a different religion, he was banished out of the country, and had his property sequestered, but soon after returned. He died in York, Me., 1646. If it be pretended that Morton had no religion, we say, “Judge not." He professed to have.

Mr. Richard Vines. America painted to the Life, by Ferd. Gorges, Esq. 4to. Lond. 1659.

A great war among the Indians at this time is mentioned by most of the first writers, But the particulars of it cannot be known. It seems to have been between the Tarratines and tribes to the west of Pascataqua.

as to the time or continuance of this plague among the Indians; for Sir Ferdinando adds to the above, "and this course I held some years together, but nothing to my private profit," &c.

In Capt. Smith's account of New England, published in 1631, he has a passage about the plague, which is much like that we have given above from Morton. The ship cast away, he says, was a fishing vessel, and the man that they kept a prisoner, on telling them he feared his God would destroy them, their king made him stand on the top of a hill, and collected his people about it that the man might see how numerous they were. When he had done this, he demanded of the Frenchman whether his God, that he told so much about, had so many men, and whether they could kill all those. On his assuring the king that he could, they derided him as before. Soon after, the plague carried off all of the Massachusetts, 5 or 600, leaving only 30, of whom 28 were killed by their neighbors, the other two escaping until the English came, to whom they gave their country. The English told the Indians that the disease was the plague. Capt. Smith says this account is second hand to him, and therefore begs to be excused if it be not true in all its particulars.

We have now come to one of the most interesting characters in Indian history.

MASSASOIT, chief of the Wampanoags, resided at a place called Pokanoket or Pawkunnawkut, by the Indians, which is now included in the town of Bristol, Rhode Island. He was a chief renowned more in peace than_war, and was, as long as he lived, a friend to the English, notwithstanding they committed repeated usurpations upon his lands and liberties.

This chief's name has been written with great variation, as Woosamequin, Asuhmequin, Oosamequen, Osamekin, Owsamequin, Ousamequine, Ussamequen, Wasamegin, &c.; but the name by which he is generally known in history, is that with which we commence his life.* Mr. Prince, in his Annals, says of that name, "the printed accounts generally spell him_Massasoit; Gov. Bradford writes him Massasoyt, and Massasoyet ; but I find the ancient people, from their fathers in Plimouth colony, pronounced his name Ma-sas-so-it." Still we find no inclination to change a letter in the name of an old friend, which has been so long established; for if a writer suffer the spirit of innovation in himself, he knows not where to stop, and we pronounce him no antiquary.

It has often been thought strange, that so mild a sachem as Massasoit should have possessed so great a country, and our wonder has been increased when we consider, that Indian possessions are generally obtained by prowess and great personal courage. We know of none who could boast of such extensive dominions, where all were contented to consider themselves his friends and children. Pontiac, Little-turtle, Tecumseh, and many more that we could name, have swayed many tribes, but theirs was a temporary union, in an emergency of war. That Massasoit should be able to hold so many tribes together, without constant war, required qualities belonging only to few. That he was not a warrior no one will allow, when the testimony of Annawon is so distinct. For that great chief gave Capt. Church "an account of what mighty success he had had formerly, in the wars against many nations of Indians, when he served Asuhmequin, Philip's father."

The limits of his country towards the Nipmuks, or inland Indians, are

* Some have derived the name of Massachusetts from this chief, but that conjecture is not to be heeded. If any man knew, we may be allowed to suppose that Roger Williams did. He learned from the Indians themselves, "that the Massachusetts were called so from the Blue Hills." In the vocabulary of Indian words, by Rev. John Cotton, the definition of Massachusett is, " an hill in the form of an arrow's head."

rather uncertain, but upon the east and west we are sure. It is evident, however, from the following extract, that, in 1647, the Nipmuks were rather uncertain about their sachem, and probably belonged at one time to Massasoit and at another to the Narragansets, &c., as circumstances favored. "The Nopnat [Nipnet, or Nipmuk] Indians having noe sachem of their own are at liberty; part of them, by their own choice, doe appertaine to the Narraganset sachem, and parte to the Mohegens."* And certainly, in 1660, those of Quabaog belonged to Massasoit, or Wassamegin, as he was then called, as will be evident from facts, to be found in the life of Uncas. He owned Cape Cod, and all that part of Massachusetts and Rhode Island between Narraganset and Massachusetts bays; extending inland between Pawtucket and Charles rivers, a distance not satisfactorily ascertained, as was said before, together with all the contiguous islands. It was filled with many tribes or nations, and all looking up to him, to sanction all their expeditions, and settle all their difficulties. And we may remark, further, with regard to the Nipmuks, that at one time they were his tributaries. And this seems the more probable, for in Philip's war there was a constant intercourse between them, and when any of his men made an escape, their course was directly into the country of the Nipmuks. No such intercourse subsisted between the Narragansets and either of these. But, on the contrary, when a messenger from the Narragansets arrived in the country of the Nipmuks, with the heads of some of the English, to show that they had joined in the war, he was at first fired upon, though afterwards, when two additional heads were brought, they were received.

Massasoit had several places of residence, but the principal was Mount Hope, or Pokanoket. The English early gave it the name of Mount Hope, but from what circumstance we have not learned. Some suppose the words Mount Hope corrupted from the Indian words Mon-top, but with what reason we are not informed. Since we have thus early noticed the seat of the ancient chiefs, before proceeding with the life of the first of the Wampanoags, we will give a description of it. It appears to the best advantage from the village of Fall River, in the town of Troy, Massachusetts, from which it is distant about four miles. From this place, its top very much resembles the dome of the state-house in Boston, as seen from many places in the vicinity, at four or five miles' distance. Its height by admeasurement is said to be about 200 feet. It is very steep on the side towards Pocasset, and its appearance is very regular. To its natural appearance a gentleman of Bristol has contributed to add materially, by placing upon its summit a circular summer-house, and this is a principal reason why it so much resembles the Massachusetts state-house. This mount, therefore, since some time previous to 1824, does not appear as in the days of Massasoit, and as it did to his early friends and visitors, Winslow and Hamden. It was sufficiently picturesque without such addition, as an immense stone§ originally formed its summit, and completed its domelike appearance. The octagonal summer-house being placed upon this, completes the cupola or turret. From this the view of Provi

Records of the U. Col. in Hazard, ji. 92.

+ Alden's Collection of Epitaphs, iv. 685. President Stiles, in his notes to the second edition of CHURCH'S HIST. PHILIP'S WAR, p. 7, spells it Mont-haup, but it is not so in the text of either edition. Moreover, we have not been able to discover that Mon-top is derived from Indian words, and do not hesitate to pronounce it a corruption of the two English words commonly used in naming it.

Yamoyden, 259.

By some, this has been called Philip's chair, and some modern book-makers have ventured to say it resembles that piece of furniture. We should be glad to know in what respect; having personally examined it, we can assure the reader that no such resemblance appeared to us.