Part 8

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_, or _wigwam_. See Gallatin’s Indian Vocabularies, in Am. Antiq. Soc. Coll. ii. 322.

[76] “There are among them certain men and women, whom they call _powows_. 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 begin the 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 pronounce _l_ and _r_ in our English tongue, with much difficulty, calling a lobster a nobstan.” Yet Roger Williams states, that “although some pronounce not _l_ or _r_, 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 the _n_; the Nipmuk Indians pronounce _l_; and the Northern Indians pronounce _r_. As instance:

We say _Anum_} 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 as _pinse_. See page 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] “_Ketan_ is their good God, to whom they sacrifice after their garners be full with a good crop. Upon this God likewise they invocate for fair weather, for rain in time of drought, and for the recovery of their sick.” 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 excellent muscles to eat, (for variety,) the fish is so fat and large.”

[86] The word _inclined_ or _disposed_ seems 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. Put the 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 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 same year; 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 as _pinse_, on page 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 on to 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 word _no_ appears 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 for three or four months 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; but when 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, and are 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 the wife 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.