Part 9

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 the _old comers_, or the _forefathers_. 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; for _Chise_ is an old man, and _Kichchise_ a 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 word _Abamacho_.

[114] See page 33, note [76].

[115] See pages 13 and 37.

[116] Or centaury--probably the _sabbatia 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. The _gentiana 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 the _centaur_ (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 Indians their 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] See page 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] See note [54] on page 25.

[121] See page 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 also page 15 previous.

[123] “_Mosk_ or _paukunawaw_, 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 of natives 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 “discovered _Mohegan_ river, 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 as _Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth_.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

The term ‘salvage’ is used many times, almost as often as ‘savage’; this archaic spelling has been left unchanged.

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Frontmatter: ‘Iohn Bellamie’ replaced by ‘John Bellamie’. Pg 8: ‘not kowing what’ replaced by ‘not knowing what’. Pg 13: ‘no to undertake’ replaced by ‘not to undertake’. Pg 65: ‘for a many to cry’ replaced by ‘for a man to cry’.

Footnotes Pg 76 Fn [21]: ‘Thacher’s Plymouth’ replaced by ‘Thatcher’s Plymouth’. Pg 80 Fn [70]: ‘visit to Massassoit’ replaced by ‘visit to Massasoit’. Pg 86 Fn [99]: ‘three our four’ replaced by ‘three or four’.