18

MASSASOIT.

[Воок ІІ. "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 a name so venerable, and 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. Powhatan, 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 direct to the point. 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 not precise, 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, or others, as circumstances impelled. "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 (if he be the same), 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, he was received with them.

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

He learned from the Indian 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."

*Records of the U. Col. in Hazard, ii. 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 word or words, and do not hesitate to pronounce it a corruption of the two English words commonly used in naming it.

CHAP. II.]

MASSASOIT.

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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 Providence, Warren, Bristol, and, indeed, the whole surrounding country, is very beautiful.

This eminence was known among the Narragansets by the name Pokanoket, which signified in their language the wood or land on the other side of the water, and to the Wampanoags by the name Sowwams. And it is worthy remark here that Kuequenáku was the name of the place where Philadelphia now stands. Mr. Heckewelder says, it signified the grove of the long pine trees. There was a place in Middleborough, and another in Raynham, where he spent some part of particular seasons, perhaps the summer. The place in Raynham was near Fowling Pond, and he no doubt had many others.

Sir Francis Drake is the first, of whom we have any account, that set foot upon the shores of New England. This was in 1586, about seven years after he had taken possession, and named the same country New England or New Albion, upon the western side of the continent. It is an error of long standing, that Prince Charles named the country New England, and it even now so stands upon the pages of history. But it is very clear that Sir Francis is justly entitled to the credit of it. American historians seem to have looked no further than Prince and Robertson, and hence assert that Capt. Smith named the country New England. We will now hear Smith † on this matter. "New England is that part of America, in the Ocean sea, opposite to Noua Albion, in the South Sea, discovered by the most memorable Sir Francis Drake, in his voyage about the world, in regard whereof, this is stiled New England."

Capt. Smith, in 1614, made a survey of the coast of what is now New Eng land, and because the country was already named New England, or, which is the same, New Albion, upon its western coast, he thought it most proper to stamp it anew upon the eastern. Therefore Capt. Smith neither takes to himself the honor of naming New England, as some writers of authority assert, nor does he give it to King Charles, as Dr. Robertson and many others, copying him, have done.

The noble and generous minded Smith, unlike Americus, would not permit or suffer his respected friend and cotemporary to be deprived of any honor due to him in his day; and to which we may attribute the revival of the name New England in 1614.

It was upon some part of Cape Cod that the great circumnavigator landed. He was visited by the "king of the country," who submitted his territories to him, as Hioh had done on the western coast. After several days of mutual trade, and exchange of kindnesses, during which time the natives became greatly attached to Sir Francis, he departed for England. Whether the "king of the country" here mentioned were Massasoit, we have not the means of knowing, as our accounts do not give any name; but it was upon his dominions that this first landing was made, and we have therefore thought it proper to be thus particular, and which, we venture to predict, will not be unacceptable to our readers.‡

* Yamoyden, 259.

+ See his "Description of N. England," and the error may henceforth be dispensed with. The first authority which we found for these interesting facts, (interesting to every son of New England,) is a work entitled "Naval Biography," &c. of Great Britain, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1805, and is in these words "The first attempt towards a regular colonization of N. England, occurs in the year 1606. It will easily be recollected, that this part of the Amer ican continent was first distinguished by the captains Barlow and Amidas; that Sir Francis Drake, when he touched here on his return from the West Indies, in 1586, was the first Englishman who landed in these parts, and to whom one of the Indian kings submitted his territory;

Smith landed in many places upon the shores of Massasoit's dominions, one of which places he named Plimouth, which happened to be the same which now bears that name.

Our accounts make Capt. Bartholomew Gosnold the next visitor to the shores of Massasoit, after Sir Francis Drake. His voyage was in 1602, and he was the first who came in a direct course from Old to New England. He landed in the same place where Sir Francis did 16 years before. The route had hitherto been by the Canaries and West India Islands, and a voyage to and from New England took up nearly a year.

We can know nothing of the early times of Massasoit. Our next visitor to his country, that we shall here notice, was Capt. Thomas Dermer. This was in May, 1619. He sailed for Monhigon; thence, in that month, for Virginia, in an open pinnace; consequently was obliged to keep close in shore. He found places which had been inhabited, but at that time contained no people; and farther onward nearly all were dead, of a great sickness, which was then prevailing, but nearly abated. When he came to Plimouth, all were dead. From thence he traveled a day's journey into the country westward, to Namasket, now Middleborough. From this place he sent a messenger to visit Massasoit. In this expedition, he redeemed two Frenchmen from Massasoit's people, who had been cast away on the coast three years before.

But to be more particular with Capt. Dermer, we will hear him in his own manner, which is by a letter he wrote to Samuel Purchase, the compiler of the Pilgrimage, dated 27 Dec. 1619.

"When I arrived at my savage's [Squanto's] native country, (finding all dead,) I travelled alongst a day's journey, to a place called Nummastaquyt, where finding inhabitants, I despatched a messenger, a day's journey farther west, to Pocanokit, which bordereth on the sea; whence came to see me two kings, attended with a guard of 50 armed men, who being well satisfied with that my savage and I discoursed unto them, (being desirous of novelty,) gave me content in whatsoever I demanded; where I found that former relations were true. Here I redeemed a Frenchman, and afterwards another at Masstaand that Capt. Gosnoll, who made a little stay in the same place, gave such a report of N. England as to attract the attention of his adventurous countrymen, some of whom immediately procured a charter," &c.-Vol. I. p. 337, 338. If we could know from whence the above was taken (that is, the authority the writer of that work made use of), it might at once, perhaps, settle the question. Oldmixon, I. 25, has the same fact, though not quite so circumstantially related. Mr. Bancroft, in his I. Vol. of the Hist. United States, supposes Oidmixon, through carelessness, mistakes Drake's landing in California, in 1579, for that in N. England, in 1586, because, as we suppose, he had not seen the fact elsewhere stated. But Drake was 40 days from Virginia to Plymouth, which would give him time enough to have visited N. England. See "The Life and Dangerous Voyages of Sir Francis Drake," &c., small 12mo., London, (without date), page 133. See also Stith's Virginia, p. 16.

What is said in Blome's account of America, p. 210, is not very conclusive. His words are, "The year following (1585), Sir Richard Greenvile conveyed an English colony thither [this author mistakes the situation of the places he describes, in a wretched manner], under the government of Mr. Ralph Lane, who continued there [yet he is speaking of N. Eng.] till the next year (1586), but, upon some extraordinary occasion, returned, with Sir Francis Drake, into England, being accounted by some the first discoverer thereof." Blome's work was printed in 1687, and may have been Oldmixon's authority. In the Gent. Mag., Vol. XXV., p. 291, it is said, "Sir Francis Drake, who made a discent on the coast, continued there but a very short time, so that whatever had been known of this country was so much forgotten in 1602, that Gosnold fell in with the coast by accident, as he was pursuing another design." Forster's error about Sir Francis's being on the coast in 1585, is surprising; but it is still more surprising that any one, pretending to be an historian, should copy it. See Forster, 295, and Anspach, Newfoundland, 74. In Prince's Worthies of Devon, an account of Sir Bernard Drake's expedition to the New England seas, in 1585, may be seen; also in Purchase, v. 1882. Queen Elizabeth sent over Sir Bernard, with a naval force, to dispossess any Portuguese, or others, that he might find fishing there. He found many vessels employed in that business, some of which he captured, and dispersed the rest, and returned to England with several Portuguese prizes. Now it is not at all improbable that Elizabeth had instructed Sir Francis to coast up into these seas, when he had finished his designs in South America and Virginia, to see if there were any vessels of other nations usurping the rights of her citizens; and hence inattentive writers have confounded the names of Sir Bernard and Sir Francis, they being both distinguished admirals at that time, and both having the same surname, and originally of the same family. The expedition of Sir Bernard was the year before that of Sir Francis, and hence arose the anachronism. Several English navigators had been on this coast before 1600. Capt. George Drake made a voyage to the river St. Lawrence in 1593; but whether any of them landed in what is now New England, is at present unknown.

CHAP. II.]

MASSASOIT.

21

chusit, who three years since escaped shipwreck at the north-east of Cape Cod."

We have mentioned his interview with Massasoit, whom we suppose was one of the kings mentioned in the letter, and Quadequina was no doubt the other.

In another letter, Mr. Dermer says the Indians would have killed him at Namasket, had not Squanto entreated hard for him. "Their desire of revenge (he adds) was occasioned by an Englishman, who, having many of them on board, made great slaughter of them with their murderers and small shot, when (as they say) they offered no injury on their parts."

Mr. Thomas Morton, the author who made himself so merry at the expense of the Pilgrims of Plimouth, has the following passage concerning these Frenchmen:-"It fortuned some few yeares before the English came to inhabit at new Plimmouth in New England, that, upon some distast given in the Massachussets Bay, by Frenchmen, then trading there with the natives for beaver, they set upon the men, at such advantage, that they killed manie of them, burned their shipp, then riding at anchor by an island there, now called Peddock's Island, in memory of Leonard Peddock that landed there, (where many wilde anckies† haunted that time, which hee thought had bin tame,) distributing them unto five sachems which were lords of the severall territories adjoyning, they did keep them so long as they lived, only to sport themselves at them, and made these five Frenchmen fetch them wood and water, which is the generall worke they require of a servant. One of these five men outliving the rest, had learned so much of their language, as to rebuke them for their bloudy deede: saying that God would be angry with them for it; and that he would in his displeasure destroy them; but the salvages (it seems, boasting of their strength) replyed, and said, that they were so many that God could not kill them." This seems to be the same story, only differently told from that related above from Smith.

Dec. 11, O. S., 1620, the pilgrims had arrived at Plimouth, and possessed themselves of a portion of Massasoit's country. With the nature of their proceedings, he was at first unacquainted, and sent occasionally some of his men to observe their strange motions. Very few of these Indians, however, were seen by the pilgrims. At length he sent one of his men, who had been some time with the English fishing vessels about the country of the Kennebeck, and had learned a little of their language, to observe more strictly what was progressing among the strangers at his place of Patuxet, which these intruders now called Plimouth. This was in March, 1621.

* In his "New Canaan." 22, 23.

+ Modern naturalists do not seem to have been acquainted with this animal!

The length of a year was fixed by Julius Cæsar at 365 days and 6 hours, or 365 days. This of a day being omitted for 4 years amounted to a whole day, and was then added to the 365 in the month of February, which 4th year was called leap year, because it leaped forward one day. But by this supputation it was perceived that the year was too long, and consequently the seasons were getting out of place. Pope Gregory found, in 1582, that the vernal equinox, which at the time of the Nicene council, A. D. 325, fell on 21 March, fell now 10 days beyond it; therefore he ordered 10 days to be struck out of October, 1582; and to prevent the recurrence of the difficulty in future, decreed that 3 days should be abated in every 400 years, by restoring leap years to common years at the end of 3 successive centuries, and making leap year again at the close of every 4th century. Thus 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, &c. though divisible by 4, are common years, but 2000, 2400, 2800, &c. are leap years. This method of keeping the year is called NEW STYLE, and that before the reformation by Gregory, OLD STYLE. Even this correction does not set the year exactly right; but the error is so small that it amounts to scarce a day and a half in 5000 years, and we need not trouble ourselves about a nearer approximation.

Because this correction had a Catholic or Popish origin, Protestants would not for a long time adopt it. At length, in the year 1751, the English Parliament enacted, that the 3d of Sept. of that year should be called the 14th, thereby striking out 11 days, which their calendar at that late period required, to reduce it to the Gregorian. And hence the reason of our calling the 11 Dec. O. S., the 22 N. S. The reason also of our adding 11 days instead of 10 is obvious, because, in adopting the Catholic method 170 years after it had been introduced by Gregory, another day was gained, and therefore 10+1=11.

My venerated friend, Dr. Thacher of Plimouth, makes an error in setting it down that we should add but 10 days, owing to a wrong view taken of the matter in his Hist. of Plimouth. Among all our school-books, it is pitiful that no one explains this important

matter.

22

MASSASOIT.

[Book II. We have, in speaking of Samoset and Squanto, observed that it was through the agency of the former that a knowledge was gained by the pilgrims of Massasoit. It was upon 22 March, 1621, that they brought the welcome news to Plimouth, that their chief was near at hand;*" and they brought with them (say the Pilgrims) some few skins to truck, and some red herrings, newly taken and dried, but not salted; and signified unto us, that their great sagamore, Massasoit, was hard by, with Quadequina, his brother. They could not well express in English what they would; but after an hour the king came to the top of an hill [supposed to be that now called Watson's, on the south side of Town-brook] over against us, and had in his train 60 men, that we could well behold them, and they us. We were not willing to send our governor to them, and they unwilling to come to us: so Squanto went again unto him, who brought word that we should send one to parley with him, which we did, which was Edward Winslow, to know his mind, and to signify the mind and will of our governor, which was to have trading and peace with him. sent to the king a pair of knives, and a copper chain, with a jewel in it. To Quadequina we sent likewise a knife, and a jewel to hang in his ear, and withal a pot of strong water, a good quantity of biscuit, and some butter, which were all willingly accepted."

We

The Englishman then made a speech to him about his king's love and goodness to him and his people, and that he accepted of him as his friend and ally. "He liked well of the speech, (say the English,) and heard it attentively, though the interpreters did not well express it. After he had eaten and drunk himself, and given the rest to his company, he looked upon our messenger's sword and armor, which he had on, with intimation of his desire to buy it; but, on the other side, our messenger showed his unwillingness to part with it. In the end he left him in the custody of Quadequina, his brother, and came over the brook, and some 20 men following him. We kept six or seven as hostages for our messenger."

As Massasoit proceeded to meet the English, they met him with six soldiers, who saluted each other. Several of his men were with him, but all left their bows and arrows behind. They were conducted to a new house which was partly finished, and a green rug was spread upon the floor, and several cushions for Massasoit and his chiefs to sit down upon. Then came the English governor, followed by a drummer and trumpeter and a few soldiers, and after kissing one another, all sat down. Some strong water being brought, the governor drank to Massasoit, who in his turn "drank a great draught, that made him sweat all the while after."

They now proceeded to make a treaty, which stipulated, that neither Massasoit nor any of his people should do hurt to the English, and that if they did they should be given up to be punished by them; and that if the English did any harm to him or any of his people, they (the English) would do the like to them. That if any did unjustly war against him, the English were to aid him, and he was to do the same in his turn, and by so doing King James would esteem him his friend and ally.

"All which (they say) the king seemed to like well, and it was applauded of his followers." And they add, "All the while he sat by the governor, he trembled for fear."

At this time he is described as "a very lusty man, in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance, and spare of speech; in his attire little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck; and at it, behind his neck, hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank, and gave us to drink. His face was painted with a sad red

*Mourt's narrative is here continued from the last extract in p. 10, without any omission. +I presume that by "drinking tobacco," smoking is meant. The pilgrims were probably not acquainted with the practice of smoking at all, and hence this sort of misnomer is not strange, though it may be thought a little odd. How long smoking went by the name of drinking at Plimouth I do not learn; but in 1646 this entry is found in the Plimouth records : "Anthony Thacher and George Pole were chosen a committee to draw up an order concerning disorderly drinking of Tobacco."

Roger Williams says, in his Key, "Generally all the men throughout the country have a tobacco-bag, with a pipe in it, hanging at their back."

Dr. Thacher says, that an aged man in Plimouth, who was a great smoker, used to term