MORTON WITH INTRODUCTORY MATTER AND NOTES***


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Publications of the Prince Society.


[Illustration]


THE NEW ENGLISH CANAAN.


The Publications of the Prince Society.
Established May 25th, 1858.

THE NEW ENGLISH CANAAN.


[Illustration]


Boston:
Printed for the Society,
By John Wilson and Son.
1883.

Two Hundred and Fifty Copies.



THE NEW ENGLISH CANAAN
OF
THOMAS MORTON.

WITH INTRODUCTORY MATTER AND NOTES

by

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.






Boston:
Published by the Prince Society.
1883.


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
The Prince Society,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.


Editor:
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.




[Illustration]

TABLE OF CONTENTS.


                                                                   PAGE
  PREFACE                                                          v-vi
  THOMAS MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT                                     1-98
  BIBLIOGRAPHY OF NEW ENGLISH CANAAN                             99-105
  NEW ENGLISH CANAAN                                            106-345
    Book I. The Origin of the Natives; their Manners and Customs 115-78
    Book II. A Description of the Beauty of the Country         179-242
    Book III. A Description of the People                       243-345
  TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE NEW ENGLISH CANAAN                     347-9

         *       *       *       *       *

  OFFICERS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY                                    353
  THE PRINCE SOCIETY, 1883                                        354-8
  PUBLICATIONS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY                                359
  VOLUMES IN PREPARATION BY THE PRINCE SOCIETY                      360
  INDEX                                                          361-81

[Illustration]




[Illustration]

PREFACE.


Before undertaking the present work I had no experience as an editor.
It is unnecessary for me to say, therefore, that, were I now to
undertake it, I should pursue a somewhat different course from that
which I have pursued. The _New English Canaan_ is, in many respects,
a singular book. One of its most singular features is the extent
of ground it covers. Not only is it full of obscure references to
incidents in early New England history, but it deals directly with the
aborigines, the trees, animals, fish, birds and geology of the region;
besides having constant incidental allusions to literature,--both
classic and of the author’s time,--to geography, and to then current
events. No one person can possess the knowledge necessary to thoroughly
cover so large a field. To edit properly he must have recourse to
specialists.

It was only as the labor of investigation increased on my hands that
I realized what a wealth of scientific and special knowledge was to
be reached, in the neighborhood of Boston, by any one engaged in such
multifarious inquiry. Were I again to enter upon it I should confine my
own labors chiefly to correspondence; for on every point which comes up
there is some one now in this vicinity, if he can only be found out,
who has made a study of it, and has more information than the most
laborious and skilful of editors can acquire.

In this edition of the _New Canaan_ I have not laid so many of these
specialists as I now wish, under requisition; and yet the list is a
tolerably extensive one. In every case, also, the assistance asked
for has been rendered as of course, in the true scientific spirit.
My correspondence has included Messrs. Deane, Winsor and Ellis on
events in early New England history; Professor Whitney on geographical
allusions; Professors Lane and Greenough, Dr. Everett and Mr. T.
W. Higginson, on references to the Greek and Latin classics, or
quotations from them; and the Rev. Mr. Norton on Scriptural allusions.
Mr. J. C. Gray has hunted up for me legal precedents five centuries
old, and Mr. Lindsay Swift has explained archaic expressions, to the
meaning of which I could get no clew. On the subject of trees and
herbs I called on Professors Gray and Sargent; in regard to birds,
Mr. William Brewster was indefatigable; Mr. Allen, though in very
poor health, took the chapter on animals; Professor Shaler disposed
of the geology; Messrs. Agassiz and Lyman instructed me as to fish,
and Professor Putnam as to shell-heaps. I met some allusions to early
French and other explorers, and naturally had recourse to Messrs.
Parkman and Slafter; while in regard to Indian words and names, I
have been in constant correspondence with the one authority, Mr. J.
Hammond Trumbull, who has recognized to the fullest extent the public
obligation which a mastery of a special subject imposes on him who
masters it.

In closing a pleasant editorial task, my chief regret, therefore, is
that the notes in this volume contain so much matter of my own. They
should have been even more eclectic than they are, and each from the
highest possible authority on the subject to which it relates.

  C. F. A., JR.

  QUINCY, MASS., April 4, 1883.




[Illustration]

MORTON OF MERRY-MOUNT.


In the second book of his history of Plymouth Plantation, Governor
Bradford, while dealing with the events of the year 1628 though writing
at a still later period, says:--

  “Aboute some three or four years before this time, ther came
  over one Captaine Wolastone (a man of pretie parts), and with
  him three or four more of some eminencie, who brought with them
  a great many servants, with provisions and other implaments for
  to begine a plantation; and pitched themselves in a place within
  the Massachusets, which they called, after their Captains name,
  Mount-Wollaston. Amongst whom was one Mr. Morton, who, it should
  seeme, had some small adventure (of his owne or other mens) amongst
  them.”[1]

There is no other known record of Wollaston than that contained in this
passage of Bradford.[2] His given name even is not mentioned. It may
be surmised with tolerable certainty that he was one of the numerous
traders, generally from Bristol or the West of England, who frequented
the fishing grounds and the adjacent American coast during the early
years of the seventeenth century. Nothing is actually known of him,
however, until in 1625 he appeared in Massachusetts Bay, as Boston
Harbor was then called, at the head of the expedition which Bradford
mentions.

His purpose and that of his companions was to establish a plantation
and trading-post in the country of the Massachusetts tribe of Indians.
It was the third attempt of the kind which had been made since the
settlement at Plymouth, a little more than four years before. The
first of these attempts had been that of Thomas Weston at Wessagusset,
or Weymouth, in the summer of 1622. This had resulted in a complete
failure, the story of which is told by Bradford and Winslow, and forms
one of the more striking pages in the annals of early New England.
The second attempt, and that which next preceded Wollaston’s, had
closely followed the first, being made in the summer of 1623, under
the immediate direction of the Council for New England. At the head
of it was Captain Robert Gorges, a younger son of Sir Ferdinando
Gorges. Weston’s expedition was a mere trading venture, having little
connection with anything which went before or which came after. That of
Gorges, however, was something more. As will presently be seen, it had
a distinct political and religious significance.

Robert Gorges and his party arrived in Boston Bay in 1623, during
what is now the latter part of September. They established themselves
in the buildings which had been occupied by Weston’s people during
the previous winter, and which had been deserted by them a few days
less than six months before. The site of those buildings cannot be
definitely fixed. It is supposed to have been on Phillips Creek,
a small tidal inlet of the Weymouth fore-river, a short distance
above the Quincy-Point bridge. The grant made to Robert Gorges by
the Council for New England, and upon which he probably intended to
place his party, was on the other side of the bay, covering ten miles
of sea-front and stretching thirty miles into the interior. It was
subsequently pronounced void by the lawyers on the ground of being
“loose and uncertain,” but as nearly as can now be fixed it covered the
shore between Nahant and the mouth of the Charles, and the region back
of that as far west as Concord and Sudbury, including Lynn and the most
thickly inhabited portions of the present county of Middlesex.

Reaching New England, however, late in the season, Gorges’s first
anxiety was to secure shelter for his party against the impending
winter, for the frosts had already begun. Fortunately the few savages
thereabouts had been warned by Governor Bradford not to injure the
Wessagusset buildings, and thus they afforded a welcome shelter to the
newcomers. These were people of a very different class from those
who had preceded them. Among them were men of education, and some of
them were married and had brought their wives. Their settlement proved
a permanent one. Robert Gorges, it is true, the next spring returned
to England disgusted and discouraged, taking back with him a portion
of his followers. Others of them went on to Virginia in search of a
milder climate and a more fertile soil. A few, however, remained at
Wessagusset,[3] and are repeatedly referred to by Morton in the _New
Canaan_[4] as his neighbors at that place.

When, therefore, Wollaston sailed into the bay in the early summer
of 1625, its shores were not wholly unoccupied. His party consisted
of himself and some three or four partners, with thirty or more
servants, as they were called, or men who had sold their time for a
period of years to an employer, and who stood in the relation to him
of apprentice to master. Rasdall, according to Bradford, was the name
of one of the partners, and Fitcher would seem to have been that of
another. Thomas Morton, the author of the _New English Canaan_, was a
third.

Not much more is known of Morton’s life prior to his coming to America
than of Wollaston’s. He had certainly an education of that sort which
was imparted in the schools of the Elizabethan period, for he had a
smattering knowledge of the more familiar Latin authors at least, and
was fond of classic allusion. Governor Dudley, in his letter to the
Countess of Lincoln, says that while in England he was an attorney in
“the west countries.”[5] He further intimates that he had there been
implicated in some foul misdemeanor, on account of which warrants were
out against him. Nathaniel Morton in his _Memorial_[6] says that the
crime thus referred to was the killing of a partner concerned with
him, Thomas Morton, in his first New England venture. Thomas Wiggin,
however, writing in 1632 to Sir John Cooke, one of King Charles’s
secretaries for foreign affairs and a member of the Privy Council,
states, upon the authority of Morton’s “wife’s sonne and others,” that
he had fled to New England “upon a foule suspition of murther.”[7]
While, therefore, it would seem that grave charges were in general
circulation against Morton, connecting him with some deed of violence,
it is necessary to bear in mind that considerable allowance must be
made before any accusation against him can be accepted on the word
of either the Massachusetts or the Plymouth authorities, or those in
sympathy with them. Yet Morton was a reckless man, and he lived in
a time when no great degree of sanctity attached to human life; so
that in itself there is nothing very improbable in this charge. It is
possible that before coming to America he may have put some one out
of the way. Nevertheless, as will presently be seen, though he was
subsequently arrested and in jail in England, the accusation never took
any formal shape. That he was at some time married would appear from
the letter of Wiggin already referred to, and the allusions in the _New
Canaan_ show that he had been a man passionately fond of field sports,
and a good deal of a traveller as well. He speaks, for instance, of
having been “bred in so genious a way” that in England he had the
common use of hawks in fowling; and, in another place, he alludes to
his having been so near the equator that “I have had the sun for my
zenith.”[8] On the titlepage of his book he describes himself as “of
Cliffords Inne gent.,” which of course he would not have ventured to do
had he not really been what he there claimed to be; for at the time the
_New Canaan_ was published he was living in London and apparently one
of the attorneys of the Council for New England.[9] Bradford, speaking
from memory, fell into an error, therefore, when he described him as a
“kind of petie-fogger of Furnefells Inne.”[10] That in 1625 he was a
man of some means is evident from the fact that he owned an interest in
the Wollaston venture; though here again Bradford takes pains to say
that the share he represented (“of his owne or other mens”) was small,
and that he himself had so little respect amongst the rest that he was
slighted by even the meanest servants.

In all probability this was not Morton’s first visit to Massachusetts
Bay. Indeed, he was comparatively familiar with it, having already
passed one season on its shores. His own statement, at the beginning
of the first chapter of the second book of the _Canaan_, seems to be
conclusive on this point. He there says: “In the month of June, Anno
Salutis 1622, it was my chance to arrive in the parts of New England
with thirty servants, and provision of all sorts fit for a plantation;
and, while our houses were building, I did endeavor to take a survey of
the country.”[11] There was but one ship which arrived in New England
in June, 1622, and that was the _Charity_;[12] and the _Charity_
brought out Weston’s party, which settled at Wessagusset, answering in
every respect to Morton’s description of the party he came with. Andrew
Weston, a younger brother of the chief promoter of the enterprise,
had then come in charge of it, and is described as having been “a
heady yong man and violente.”[13] After leaving Weston’s company at
Plymouth, the _Charity_ went on to Virginia, but returned from there
early in October, going it would seem directly to Boston Bay and
Wessagusset.[14] One part of the colonists had then been there three
months, and it was during those three months that Morton apparently
took the survey of the country to which he refers. As the Wessagusset
plantation was now left under the charge of Richard Greene, it would
seem that young Weston went back to England in the _Charity_, and the
inference is that Morton, who had come out as his companion, went back
with him.

In any event, the impression produced on Morton by this first visit
to New England was a strong and favorable one. It looked to him a
land of plenty, a veritable New Canaan. Accordingly, he gave vent
to his enthusiasm in the warm language of the first chapter of his
second book.[15] With the subsequent fate of Weston’s party he seems
to have had no connection. He must at the time have heard of it, and
was doubtless aware of the evil reputation that company left behind.
This would perfectly account for the fact that he never mentions his
having himself had anything to do with it. Yet it may be surmised
that he returned to England possessed with the idea of connecting
himself with some enterprise, either Weston’s or another, organized
to make a settlement on the shores of Boston Bay and there to open a
trade in furs. He had then had no experience of a New England winter;
though, for that matter, when he afterwards had repeated experiences
of it, they in no way changed his views of the country. To the last,
apparently, he thought of it as he first saw it during the summer and
early autumn of 1622, when it was a green fresh wilderness, nearly
devoid of inhabitants and literally alive with game.

News of the utter failure of Weston’s enterprise must have reached
London in the early summer of 1623. Whether Morton was in any way
personally affected thereby does not appear, though from his allusions
to Weston’s treatment by Robert Gorges at Plymouth, during the winter
of 1623-4, it is not at all improbable that he was.[16] During the
following year (1624) he is not heard of; but early in 1625 he had
evidently succeeded in effecting some sort of a combination which
resulted in the Wollaston expedition.

The partners in this enterprise would seem to have been the merest
adventurers. So far as can be ascertained, they did not even trouble
themselves to take out a patent for the land on which they proposed
to settle,[17] in this respect showing themselves even more careless
than Weston.[18] With the exception of Morton, they apparently had no
practical knowledge of the country, and their design clearly was to
establish themselves wherever they might think good, and to trade in
such way as they saw fit.

When the party reached its destination in Massachusetts Bay, they
found Wessagusset still occupied by such as were left of Robert
Gorges’s company, who had then been there nearly two years. They had
necessarily, therefore, to establish themselves elsewhere. A couple of
miles or so north of Wessagusset, on the other side of the Monatoquit,
and within the limits of what is now the town of Quincy, was a place
called by the Indians Passonagessit. The two localities were separated
from each other not only by the river, which here widens out into a
tidal estuary, but by a broad basin which filled and emptied with every
tide, while around it were extensive salt marshes intersected by many
creeks. The upland, too, was interspersed with tangled swamps lying
between gravel ridges. At Passonagessit the new-comers established
themselves, and the place is still known as Mount Wollaston.

In almost all respects Passonagessit was for their purpose a better
locality than Wessagusset. They had come there to trade. However it
may have been with the others, in Morton’s calculations at least the
plantation must have been a mere incident to the more profitable
dealing in peltry. A prominent position on the shore, in plain view of
the entrance to the bay, would be with him an important consideration.
This was found at Passonagessit. It was a spacious upland rising
gently from the beach and, a quarter of a mile or so from it, swelling
into a low hill.[19] It was not connected with the interior by any
navigable stream, but Indians coming from thence would easily find
their way to it; and, while a portion of the company could always be
there ready to trade, others of them might make excursions to all
points on the neighboring coast where furs were to be had. Looking
seaward, on the left of the hill was a considerable tidal creek; in
front of it, across a clear expanse of water a couple of miles or
so in width, lay the islands of the harbor in apparently connected
succession. Though the anchoring grounds among these islands afforded
perfect places of refuge for vessels, Passonagessit itself, as the
settlers there must soon have realized, labored, as a trading-point,
under one serious disadvantage. There was no deep water near it. Except
when the tide was at least half full, the shore could be approached
only in boats. On the other hand, so far as planting was concerned,
the conditions were favorable. The soil, though light, was very good;
and the spot, lying as it did close to “the Massachusetts fields,” had
some years before been cleared of trees by the Sachem Chickatawbut,
who had made his home there.[20] He had, however, abandoned it at the
time when the great pestilence swept away his tribe, and tradition
still points out a small savin-covered hummock, near Squantum, on the
south side of the Neponset, as his subsequent dwelling-place. Morton
says that Chickatawbut’s mother was buried at Passonagessit, and that
the Plymouth people, on one of their visits, incurred his enmity by
despoiling her grave of its bear skins.[21] So far as the natives were
concerned, however, any settlers on the shores of Boston Bay, after the
year 1623, had little cause for disquietude. They were a thoroughly
crushed and broken-spirited race. The pestilence had left only a few
hundred of the whole Massachusetts tribe, and in 1631 Chickatawbut had
but some fifty or sixty followers.[22] It was a dying race; and what
little courage the pestilence had left them was effectually and forever
crushed out by Miles Standish, when at Wessagusset, in April, 1623, he
put to death seven of the strongest and boldest of their few remaining
men.

Having selected a site, Wollaston and his party built their house
nearly in the centre of the summit of the hill, on a gentle westerly
<DW72>. It commanded towards the north and east an unbroken view of the
bay and all the entrances to it; while on the opposite or landward
side, some four or five miles away, rose the heavily-wooded Blue
Hills. Across the bay to the north lay Shawmut, beyond the intervening
peninsulas of Squantum and Mattapan. Wessagusset was to the south,
across the marshes and creeks, and hidden from view by forest and
uplands.

[Illustration: MOUNT WOLLASTON.[23]]

During their first season, the summer of 1625, Wollaston’s party must
have been fully occupied in the work of building their houses and
laying out their plantation. The winter followed. A single experience
of a winter on that shore seems to have sufficed for Captain Wollaston,
as it had before sufficed for Captain Gorges. He apparently came to
the conclusion that there was little profit and no satisfaction for
him in that region. Accordingly, during the early months of 1626, he
determined to go elsewhere. The only account of what now ensued is that
contained in Bradford; for Morton nowhere makes a single allusion to
Wollaston or any of his associates, nor does he give any account of
the origin, composition or purposes of the Wollaston enterprise. His
silence on all these points is, indeed, one of the singular features
in the _New Canaan_. Such references as he does make are always to
Weston and Weston’s attempt;[24] and he seems to take pains to confound
that attempt with Wollaston’s. Once only he mentions the number of the
party with which he landed,[25] and the fact that it was subsequently
dissolved;[26] but how it came to be dissolved he does not explain. The
inference from this is unavoidable. Morton was free enough in talking
of what he did and saw at Passonagessit, of his revels there, of how
he was arrested, and persecuted out of the country. That he says not a
word of Wollaston or his other partners must be due to the fact that
the subject was one about which he did not care to commit himself.
Nevertheless Bradford could not but have known the facts, for not only
at a later day was Morton himself for long periods of time at Plymouth,
but when the events of which he speaks occurred Bradford must have been
informed of them by the Wessagusset people, as well as by Fitcher. As
we only know what Bradford tells us, it can best be given in his own
words:--

  “Having continued there some time, and not finding things to answer
  their expectations, nor profit to arise as they looked for, Captain
  Wollaston takes a great part of the servants and transports them
  to Virginia, where he puts them off at good rates, selling their
  time to other men; and writes back to one Mr. Rasdall, one of his
  chief partners and accounted their merchant, to bring another part
  of them to Virginia likewise; intending to put them off there, as
  he had done the rest. And he, with the consent of the said Rasdall,
  appointed one Fitcher to be his Lieutenant, and govern the remains
  of the plantation till he, or Rasdall, returned to take further
  order thereabout. But this Morton, abovesaid, having more craft than
  honesty, in the others’ absence watches an opportunity, (commons
  being but hard amongst them,) and got some strong drink and other
  junkets, and made them a feast; and after they were merry, he began
  to tell them he would give them good counsel. ‘You see,’ saith he,
  ‘that many of your fellows are carried to Virginia; and if you stay
  till this Rasdall returns, you will also be carried away and sold
  for slaves with the rest. Therefore, I would advise you to thrust
  out this Lieutenant Fitcher; and I, having a part in the plantation,
  will receive you as my partners and consociates. So may you be free
  from service; and we will converse, trade, plant and live together
  as equals, and support and protect one another:’ or to like effect.
  This counsel was easily received, so they took opportunity and thrust
  Lieutenant Fitcher out a-doors, and would suffer him to come no more
  amongst them; but forced him to seek bread to eat, and other relief,
  from his neighbors, till he could get passage for England.”[27]

Wollaston’s process of depletion to Virginia had reduced the number
of servants at Passonagessit from thirty or thirty-five, as Morton
variously states it,[28] to six at most.[29] It was as the head of
these that Morton established himself in control at Merry-Mount, as he
called the place,[30] sometime, it would seem, in the summer of 1626.
He had now two distinct objects in view: one was enjoyment, the other
was profit; and apparently he was quite reckless as to the methods he
pursued in securing either the one or the other. If he was troubled by
his former partners appearing to assert their rights, as he probably
was, no mention is made of it. There were no courts to appeal to in
America, and those of Europe were far away; nor would it have been easy
or inexpensive to enforce their process in New England. Accordingly
nothing more is heard of Wollaston or Rasdall, though Bradford does say
that Morton was “vehemently suspected for the murder of a man that had
adventured moneys with him when he first came.”[31] There is a vague
tradition, referred to John Adams, that Wollaston was subsequently
lost at sea;[32] but as a full century must have elapsed between the
occurrence of the event and the birth of John Adams, this tradition is
quite as unreliable as traditions usually are.

Passionately fond of field sports, Morton found ample opportunity for
the indulgence of his tastes in New England. He loved to ramble through
the woods with his dog and gun, or sail in his boat on the bay. The
Indians, too, were his allies, and naturally enough; for not only did
he offer them an open and easy-going market for their furs, but he was
companionable with them. They shared in his revels. He denies that he
was in the habit of selling them spirits,[33] but where spirits were
as freely used as Morton’s account shows they were at Merry-Mount, the
Indians undoubtedly had their share. Nor were his relations confined
to the Indian men. The period of Elizabeth and James I. was one of
probably as much sexual incontinency as any in English history. Some
of the earlier writers on the New England Indians have spoken of the
modesty of the women,--Wood, in his _Prospect_, for instance, and
Josselyn, in the second of his _Two Voyages_.[34] Morton, however, is
significantly silent on this point, and the idea of female chastity
in the Indian mind, in the rare cases where it existed at all, seems
to have been of the vaguest possible description.[35] Morton was not
a man likely to be fastidious, and his reference to the “lasses in
beaver coats”[36] is suggestive. Merry-Mount was unquestionably, so far
as temperance and morality were concerned, by no means a commendable
place.[37]

Morton’s inclination to boisterous revelry culminated at last in that
proceeding which scandalized the Plymouth elders and has passed into
history. In the spring of 1627 he erected the May-pole of Merry-Mount.
To erect these poles seems at that time to have been a regular English
observance, which even the fishermen on the coast did not neglect.
When, for instance, the forerunners of Weston’s colony at Wessagusset
reached the Damariscove Islands, in the spring of 1622, the first thing
they saw was a May-pole, which the men belonging to the ships there had
newly set up, “and weare very mery.”[38] There is no room for question
that in England, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
May-day festivities were associated with a great deal of license. They
were so associated in the minds of Governor Bradford and his fellows.
Christmas was at least a Christian festivity. Not so May-day. That
was distinctly Pagan in its origin. It represented all there was left
of the Saturnalia and the worship of the Roman courtesan. May-day
and May-day festivities, accordingly, were things to be altogether
reformed. They were by no means the innocent, grateful welcoming of
spring which modern admirers of the so-called good old times--which, in
point of fact, were very gross and brutal times--are wont to picture to
themselves. “I have heard it credibly reported,” wrote Stubbes in his
_Anatomy of Abuses_, “(and that _viva voce_) by men of great gravitie,
credite and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred
maides goyng to the woode over night [a-Maying], there have scarcely
the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled.”[39] All this
it is necessary to now bear in mind, lest what Bradford wrote down in
his history of Morton’s doings should seem grotesque. He was speaking
of what represented in his memory a period of uncleanness, a sort of
carnival of the sexes.

Morton’s own account of the festivities at Merry-Mount on the May-day
of 1627, which came on what would now be the 11th of the month, will be
found in the fourteenth chapter of the third book of the _Canaan_.[40]
It does not need to be repeated here. Bradford’s account was very
different:

  “They allso set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it many
  days togeather, inviting the Indean women, for their consorts,
  dancing and frisking togither, (like so many fairies, or furies
  rather,) and worse practises. As if they had anew revived and
  celebrated the feasts of the Roman Goddes Flora, or the beasly
  practieses of the madd Bacchinalians. Morton likwise (to shew
  his poetrie,) composed sundry rimes and verses, some tending to
  lasciviousnes, and others to the detraction and scandall of some
  persons, which he affixed to this idle or idoll May-polle.”[41]

Morton’s verses can be found in their proper place in the _New
Canaan_, but the principal charge now to be made against them is their
incomprehensibility. Judged even by the standard of the present day,
much more by that of the day when they were written, they are not open
to criticism because of their “lasciviousnes.” They are decent enough,
though very bad and very dull. As to the “detraction and scandall of
some persons,” alleged against them,--if indeed they contained anything
of the sort,--it was so very carefully concealed that no one could
easily have understood it then, and Morton’s own efforts at explanation
fail to make it intelligible now.

The festivities around the May-pole were, however, but Morton’s
amusements. Had he confined himself to these he might, so far as the
people at Plymouth at least were concerned, to the end of his life have
lived on the shores of Boston Bay, and erected a new pole with each
recurring spring. The only resistance he would have had to overcome
would have been a remonstrance now and then, hardly less comical than
it was earnest. The business methods he pursued were a more serious
matter. He had come to New England to make money, as well as to enjoy
the license of a frontier life. He was fully alive to the profits of
the peltry trade, and in carrying on that trade he was restrained
by no scruples. The furs of course came from the interior, brought
by Indians. In his dealings with the Indians Morton adopted a policy
natural enough for one of his reckless nature, but which imperilled the
existence of every European on the coast. The two things the savages
most coveted were spirits and guns,--fire-water and fire-arms. Beads
and knives and hatchets and  cloth served very well to truck
with at first. But these very soon lost their attraction. Guns and
rum never did. For these the Indians would at any time give whatever
they possessed. The trade in fire-arms had already attained some
proportions when, in 1622, it was strictly forbidden by a proclamation
of King James, issued at the instance of the Council for New England.
The companion trade in spirits, less dangerous to the whites but more
destructive to the savages, was looked upon as scandalous, but it was
not prohibited. Morton cared equally little for either law or morals.
He had come to New England for furs, and he meant to get them.

  “Hearing what gain the French and fishermen made by trading of
  pieces, powder and shot to the Indians, he, as the head of this
  consortship, began the practice of the same in these parts. And
  first he taught them how to use them, to charge and discharge, and
  what proportion of powder to give the piece, according to the size
  and bigness of the same; and what shot to use for fowl and what for
  deer. And having thus instructed them, he employed some of them to
  hunt and fowl for him, so as they became far more active in that
  employment than any of the English, by reason of their swiftness
  of foot and nimbleness of body; being also quick sighted, and by
  continual exercise well knowing the haunts of all sorts of game. So
  as when they saw the execution that a piece would do, and the benefit
  that might come by the same, they became mad, as it were, after them,
  and would not stick to give any price they could attain to for
  them; accounting their bows and arrows but bawbles in comparison of
  them.”[42]

This was Bradford’s story, nor does Morton deny it. That he would
have denied it if he could is apparent. The practices complained of
were forbidden by a royal proclamation, issued at the instance of Sir
Ferdinando Gorges. In his speech in defence of the great patent, before
the House of Commons in Committee of the Whole, in 1621, Gorges had
emphatically dwelt on the sale of arms and ammunition to the savages
as an abuse then practised, which threatened the extinction of the New
England settlements.[43] Fifteen years later, when he wrote the _New
Canaan_, Morton was a dependent of Gorges. The fact that he had dealt
in fire-arms, in contemptuous defiance of the proclamation, was openly
charged against him. He did deny that he had sold the savages spirits.
These, he said, were the life of trade; the Indians would “pawn their
wits” for them, but these he would never let them have. In the matter
of fire-arms, however, he preserved a discreet and significant silence.
He made no more allusion to them than he did to Wollaston or his
partners at Merry-Mount.

In the whole record of the early Plymouth settlement, from the
first skirmish with the Cape Cod savages, in December, 1620, to the
Wessagusset killing, there is no mention of a gun being seen in an
Indian’s hands. On the contrary, the savages stood in mortal terror of
fire-arms. But now at last it seemed as if Morton was about not only to
put guns in their hands, but to instruct them in their use.

  “This Morton,” says Bradford, “having thus taught them the use of
  pieces, he sold them all he could spare; and he and his consorts
  determined to send for many out of England, and had by some of
  the ships sent for above a score. The which being known, and his
  neighbors meeting the Indians in the woods armed with guns in this
  sort, it was a terror unto them, who lived straglingly, and were
  of no strength in any place. And other places (though more remote)
  saw this mischief would quickly spread over all, if not prevented.
  Besides, they saw they should keep no servants, for Morton would
  entertain any, how vile soever, and all the scum of the country, or
  any discontents, would flock to him from all places, if this nest was
  not broken; and they should stand in more fear of their lives and
  goods (in short time) from this wicked and debauched crew than from
  the savages themselves.”[44]

Thus, in the only branches of trade the country then afforded, Morton
was not only pressing all the other settlers hard, but he was pressing
them in an unfair way. If the savages could exchange their furs for
guns, they would not exchange them for anything else. Those not
prepared to give guns might withdraw from the market. The business,
too, conducted in this way, was a most profitable one. Morton says that
in the course of five years one of his servants was thought to have
accumulated, in the trade in beaver skins, no less than a thousand
pounds;[45] and a thousand pounds in 1635 was more than the equivalent
of ten thousand now. This statement was undoubtedly an exaggeration;
yet it is evident that at even ten shillings a pound in England, which
Morton gives as the current price, though Bradford says he never knew
it less than fourteen, beaver skins, which cost little or nothing in
America, yielded a large profit. As Morton expressed it, his plantation
“beganne to come forward.”[46] When, in 1625, the Plymouth people
found their way up into Maine,[47] and first opened a trade with the
savages there, Morton was not slow in following them. In 1628 they
established a permanent station on the Kennebec,[48] yet apparently as
early at least as 1627, if not in 1626, Morton had forestalled them
there, and hindered them of a season’s furs.[49]

The injury done to the other settlers in a trading point of view,
however, serious as it unquestionably was, became insignificant in
comparison with the consequences which must result to them from the
presence on the coast of such a resort as Merry-Mount. The region
was vast, and in it there was no pretence of any government. It was
the yearly rendezvous of a rough and lawless class of men, only one
step removed from freebooters, who cared for nothing except immediate
gain. Once let such a gathering-place as that of which Morton was now
head become fixed and known, and soon it would develop into a nest of
pirates. Of this there could be no doubt; the Plymouth people had good
cause for the alarm which Bradford expressed. It mattered not whether
Morton realized the consequences of what he was doing, or failed to
realize them; the result would be the same.

It gradually, therefore, became apparent to all those dwelling along
the coast, from the borders of Maine to Cape Cod, that either the
growing nuisance at Merry-Mount must be abated, or they would have
to leave the country. The course to be pursued in regard to it was,
however, not equally clear. The number of the settlements along the
coast had considerably increased since Wollaston’s arrival.[50] The
Hiltons and David Thomson had established themselves at Dover Neck and
Piscataqua as early as 1623; and sometime in 1625 apparently, Thomson,
bringing with him his young wife and a servant or two, had moved down
into Boston Bay, and established himself, only a mile or two away from
Mount Wollaston, on the island which still bears his name. He had died
a little while after, and in 1628 his widow was living there alone,
with one child and some servants. In 1625 or 1626 the Wessagusset
settlement had divided. Those of Gorges’s following who remained there
had never been wholly satisfied. It was no place for trade. Accordingly
Blackstone, Maverick and Walford, the two last being married and taking
their wives with them, had moved across the bay, and established
themselves respectively at Shawmut or Boston, at Noddle’s Island or
East Boston, and at Mishawum or Charlestown. Jeffreys, Bursley and
some others had remained at Wessagusset, and were Morton’s neighbors
at that place, whom he says he was in the custom of visiting from time
to time, “to have the benefit of company.”[51] At Hull, already known
by that name,[52] there were the Grays and a few other settlers. These
had been joined by Lyford and Oldham and their friends, when the latter
were expelled from Plymouth in the spring of 1625; but the next year,
finding the place probably an uninviting one, Lyford had crossed over
to Cape Ann, and thence a year later passed on to Virginia. Oldham
still remained at Nantasket.

Such were those neighbors of Morton, the chiefs of the straggling
plantations, referred to by Bradford as being of “no strength in any
place.” Together they may possibly have numbered from fifty to an
hundred souls. The Plymouth settlement was, comparatively speaking,
organized and numerous, consisting as it did of some two hundred
persons, dwelling in about forty houses, which were protected by a
stockade of nearly half a mile in length. Nevertheless even there, by
the summer of 1627, the alarm at the increase of fire-arms in the hands
of the savages began to be very great. They had spread “both north and
south all the land over,”[53] and it was computed that the savages now
possessed at least sixty pieces. One trader alone, it was reported, had
sold them a score of guns and an hundred weight of ammunition. Bradford
thus takes up the story:--

  “So sundry of the chiefs of the straggling plantations, meeting
  together, agreed by mutual consent, to solicit those of Plymouth,
  (who were then of more strength than them all,) to join with them to
  prevent the further growth of this mischief, and suppress Morton and
  his consorts before they grew to further head and strength. Those
  that joined in this action, (and after contributed to the charge of
  sending him to England,) were from Piscataqua, Naumkeag, Winnisimmet,
  Wessagusset, Nantasket, and other places where any English were
  seated. Those of Plymouth being thus sought to by their messengers
  and letters, and weighing both their reasons and the common danger,
  were willing to afford them their help, though themselves had least
  cause of fear or hurt. So, to be short, they first resolved jointly
  to write to him, and, in a friendly and neighborly way, to admonish
  him to forbear these courses; and sent a messenger with their letters
  to bring his answer. But he was so high as he scorned all advice, and
  asked--Who had to do with him?--he had and would trade pieces with
  the Indians in despite of all: with many other scurrilous terms full
  of disdain.

  “They sent to him a second time, and bade him be better advised,
  and more temperate in his terms, for the country could not bear the
  injury he did; it was against their common safety, and against the
  King’s proclamation. He answered in high terms, as before; and that
  the King’s proclamation was no law: demanding, what penalty was
  upon it? It was answered, more than he could bear, his Majesty’s
  displeasure. But insolently he persisted, and said the King was
  dead, and his displeasure with him; and many the like things; and
  threatened, withal, that if any came to molest him, let them look to
  themselves; for he would prepare for them.”[54]

However it may have been with the position he took as a matter of
public policy, Morton at least showed himself in this dispute better
versed in the law of England than those who admonished him. On the
first of the two points made by him he was clearly right. King James’s
proclamation was not law. This had been definitely decided more than
fifteen years before, when in 1610, in a case referred to all the
judges, Lord Coke, in reporting their decision, had stated on his own
authority that “the King cannot create any offence, by his prohibition
or proclamation, which was not an offence before, for that was to
change the law, and to make an offence, which was not; for _ubi non est
lex, ibi non est transgressio_; _ergo_, that which cannot be punished
without proclamation cannot be punished with it.”[55]

In regard to the second point made by Morton, that the King’s
proclamation died with him, the same distinction between statutes and
proclamations, that the former were of perpetual obligation until
repealed and that the latter lost their force on the demise of the
crown,--this distinction was, a century and a half later, stated by
Hume[56] to have existed in James’s time. Lord Chief Justice Campbell
has, however, exclaimed against the statement as a display of ignorant
“audacity,” and declares that he was unable to find in the authorities
a trace of any such doctrine.[57] On this point, therefore, the law of
Thomas Morton was probably as bad as that of David Hume. Nevertheless
the passage in Bradford affords a curious bit of evidence that some
such distinction as that drawn by Hume, though it may not have got into
the books, did exist in both the legal and the public mind of the first
half of the seventeenth century.

Whether Morton’s law on the subject of proclamations was or was not
found mattered little however. It was not then to be debated, as the
question with the settlers was one of self-preservation. The Plymouth
magistrates had gone too far to stop. If they even hesitated, now,
there was an end to all order in New England. Morton would not be slow
to realize that he had faced them down, and his insolence would in
future know no bounds.

  “So they mutually resolved to proceed, and obtained of the Governor
  of Plymouth to send Captain Standish, and some other aid with him, to
  take Morton by force. The which accordingly was done; but they found
  him to stand stiffly in his defence, having made fast his doors,
  armed his consorts, set divers dishes of powder and bullets ready
  on the table; and, if they had not been over armed with drink, more
  hurt might have been done. They summoned him to yield, but he kept
  his house, and they could get nothing but scoffs and scorns from him;
  but at length, fearing they would do some violence to the house, he
  and some of his crew came out, but not to yield, but to shoot. But
  they were so steeled with drink as their pieces were too heavy for
  them; himself, with a carbine (overcharged and almost half filled
  with powder and shot, as was after found) had thought to have shot
  Captain Standish; but he stept to him, and put by his piece and took
  him. Neither was there any hurt done to any of either side, save that
  one was so drunk that he ran his own nose upon the point of a sword
  that one held before him as he entered the house; but he lost but a
  little of his hot blood.”[58]

Morton’s own account of “this outragious riot,” as he calls it, is
contained in the fifteenth chapter of the third book of the _New
Canaan_.[59] It differs considerably from Bradford’s, but not in
essentials. He says that the occurrence took place in June; and as
Bradford’s letters of explanation, sent with the prisoner to England,
are dated the 9th of June,[60] it must have been quite early in the
month. He further says that he was captured in the first place at
Wessagusset, “where by accident they found him;” but escaping thence
during the night, through the carelessness of those set on guard over
him, he made his way in the midst of a heavy thunder-storm to Mount
Wollaston, going up the Monatoquit until he could cross it. The whole
distance from point to point was, for a person familiar with the
country, perhaps eight miles. Getting home early the next morning he
made his preparations for resistance in the way described by Bradford.
Of the whole party at Merry-Mount more than half, four apparently,
were then absent in the interior getting furs. This fact, indeed,
was probably well known to his neighbors, who had planned the arrest
accordingly. Standish, having eight men with him, followed Morton round
to Mount Wollaston, probably by water, the morning succeeding his
escape; and what ensued seems to have been sufficiently well described
by Bradford. One at least of the Merry-Mount garrison got extremely
tipsy before the attacking party appeared, and Morton, seeing that
resistance was hopeless, surrendered, after in vain trying to make some
terms for himself.

Having been arrested he was at once carried to Plymouth, and a council
was held there to decide upon the disposition to be made of him.
According to his own account certain of the magistrates, among whom
he specially names Standish, advocated putting him to death at once,
and so ending the matter. They were not in favor of sending him to
England. Such a course as this was, however, wholly out of keeping
with the character of the Plymouth colony, and it is tolerably safe
to say that it was never really proposed. Morton imagined it; but he
also circumstantially asserts that when milder councils prevailed, and
it was decided to send him to England, Standish was so enraged that
he threatened to shoot him with his own hand, as he was put into the
boat.[61]

Either because they did not care to keep him at Plymouth until he
could be sent away, or because an outward-bound fishing-vessel was
more likely at that season to be found at the fishing-stations, Morton
was almost immediately sent to the Isles of Shoals. He remained there
a month; and of his experiences during that time he gives a wholly
unintelligible account in the _New Canaan_.[62] At last a chance
offered of sending him out in a fishing-vessel bound to old Plymouth,
England. He went under charge of John Oldham, who was chosen to
represent the associated planters in this matter, and who carried two
letters, in the nature of credentials, prepared by Governor Bradford,
the one addressed to the Council for New England and the other to
Sir Ferdinando Gorges personally.[63] In these letters Bradford set
forth in detail the nature of the offences charged against Morton, and
asked that he might be brought “to his answer before those whom it
may concern.” These letters were signed by the chiefs of the several
plantations, at whose common charge the expenses of Oldham’s mission,
as well as Standish’s arrest, were defrayed, and towards this charge
they contributed as follows, though Bradford says the total cost was
much more:--

                                   £   s
  From Plymouth,                   2  10
    „  Naumkeag,                   1  10
    „  Piscataqua,                 2  10
    „  Wessagusset,                2
    „  Nantasket,                  1  10
    „  David Thomson’s widow,         15
    „  William Blackstone,            12
    „  Edward Hilton,[64]          1
                                --------
                                 £12   7

Oldham and Morton reached Plymouth during the later summer or early
autumn of 1628. They must, therefore, have passed the outward-bound
expedition of Endicott, the forerunners of the great Puritan migration
of 1630-7, in mid-ocean, as on the 6th of September the latter reached
Naumkeag. The grant of the Massachusetts Company, which Endicott
represented, had been regularly obtained from the Council for New
England, and bore date the 19th of March, 1628. It covered the
sea-front within the space of three English miles to the northward of
the Merrimack and to the southward of the Charles, “or of any and every
part of either of these streams;” while it extended “from the Atlantick
and Western Sea and Ocean on the East Parte, to the South Sea on the
West Parte.” It also included everything lying within the space of
three miles to the southward of the southernmost part of Massachusetts,
by which was meant Boston Bay.[65] It was clear, therefore, that Mount
Wollaston was included in this grant.

Morton’s establishment was thus brought within Endicott’s government.
Its existence and character must already have been well known in
England, and it is not at all improbable that its suppression had been
there decided upon. Whether this was so or not, however, Endicott
certainly learned, as soon as he landed at Naumkeag, of the action
which had been taken three months before. It commended itself to him;
though he doubtless regretted that more condign punishment had not
been administered to Morton and his crew on the spot, and did not delay
to take such steps as were still in his power, to make good what in
this respect had been lacking. As Bradford says, “visiting those parts
[he] caused that May-polle to be cutt downe, and rebuked them for their
profannes, and admonished them to looke ther should be better walking;
so they now, or others, changed the name of their place againe, and
called it Mounte-Dagon.”[66]

Morton and Oldham, meanwhile, were in England. As Oldham bore letters
to Gorges and landed at Plymouth, of which place the latter then was
and for many years had been the royal governor, there can be no doubt
that Morton was at once brought before him. As respects New England
Gorges’s curiosity was insatiable. Any one who came from there,
whether a savage or a sea-captain, was eagerly questioned by him; and
his collection of charts, memoirs, letters, journals and memorials,
relating to the discovery of those parts, is said to have been
unequalled.[67] Oldham and Morton had lived there for years. They knew
all that was then known about the country and its resources. They both
of them had unlimited faith in its possibilities, and talked about an
hundred per cent profit within the year, as if it were a thing easily
compassed.[68] Talk of this kind Gorges liked to hear. It suited his
temperament; and it would seem not improbable that Morton soon found
this out, and bore himself accordingly.

Meanwhile it was not possible for the Council for New England and
the Massachusetts Company to long move in harmony. The former was
an association of courtiers, and the latter one of Puritans. The
Council planned to create in the New World a score or two of great
feudal domains for English noblemen; the Company proposed to itself a
commonwealth there. Accordingly difficulties between the two at once
began to crop out. The original grant to the Company of March 19, 1628,
had been made by the Council, with the assent of Gorges. The tract
already conceded to Robert Gorges, in 1622, was included in it; but
Sir Ferdinando insisted that the subsequent and larger grant was made
with a distinct saving of all rights vested under the prior one.[69]
This the Company was not prepared to admit; and, as the business of the
Council was habitually done in a careless slipshod way, the record was
by no means clear. A question of title, involving some three hundred
square miles of territory in the heart of the Company’s grant, was
therefore raised at once.

Captain Robert Gorges meanwhile had died, and the title to his grant
had passed to his brother John. It would seem that Oldham, who was a
pushing man, had come out to England with some scheme of his own for
obtaining a patent from the Council, and organizing a strong trading
company to operate under it. The result was that John Gorges now deeded
to him a portion of the Robert Gorges grant, being the whole region
lying between the Charles and the Saugus rivers, for a distance of
five miles from the coast on the former and three miles on the latter.
This deed may and probably did bear a date, January 10, 1629, similar
to that of another deed of a yet larger tract out of the same grant,
which John Gorges executed to Sir William Brereton. The lands thus
conveyed were distinctly within the limits covered by the grant to the
Massachusetts Company, and a serious question of title was raised. The
course now pursued by the Company could not but have been singularly
offensive to Gorges. They outgeneralled him in his own field of
action. They too had friends at court. Accordingly they went directly
to the throne. A royal confirmation of their grant from the Council
was solicited and obtained. On the 4th of March, 1629, King Charles’s
charter of the Massachusetts Company passed the seals.

It now became a race, for the actual possession of the disputed
territory, between the representatives of the Company on the one
side and the Gorges grantees on the other. The former, under advice
of counsel, denied the validity of the Robert Gorges grant of 1622.
It was, they claimed, void in law, being “loose and uncertain.”[70]
They instructed Endicott to hurry a party forward to effect an actual
occupation. This he at once did; and the settlement of Charlestown, in
the summer of 1629, was the result. Meanwhile Oldham, having in vain
tried to coax or browbeat the Company into an arrangement satisfactory
to himself, was endeavoring to fit out an expedition of his own.[71] He
had not the means at his disposal; and, convinced of this at last, he
gave up the contest.

At an early stage in these proceedings he would seem to have wholly
lost sight of so much of the business he had in hand as related to
Thomas Morton. Bradford’s expression, in referring to what took place,
is that Morton “foold” Oldham.[72] Morton himself, however, says[73]
that Oldham did the best he could, and tried to set the officers of
the law at work, but was advised that Morton had committed no crime of
which the English courts could take cognizance. He had at most only
disregarded a proclamation. All this seems very probable. Nevertheless,
for violating a proclamation, he could at that time have been proceeded
against in the Star Chamber. It is true that in their decision in 1610,
already referred to,[74] the twelve judges had said, “Lastly, if the
offence be not punishable in the Star Chamber, the prohibition of it
by proclamation cannot make it punishable there.”[75] This, however,
was the language of the bench in the days of James, when Coke was
Chief Justice. In 1629 the current of opinion was running strongly in
the opposite direction. Sir Nicholas Hyde, as Chief Justice, was then
“setting law and decency at defiance” in support of prerogative,[76]
and a few years later Sir John Finch was to announce “that while he
was Keeper no man should be so saucy as to dispute these orders” of
the Lords of the Council.[77] Law or no law, therefore, Morton could
easily have been held to a severe account in the Star Chamber, had
Gorges been disposed to press matters against him there. He clearly
was not so disposed. The inference, therefore, is that Morton had
succeeded in thoroughly ingratiating himself with Gorges; and Oldham,
as he was now a grantee of Gorges’s son, did not see his account in
pressing matters. Accordingly Bradford’s letters and complaints were
quietly ignored; and his “lord of misrule,” and head of New England’s
first “schoole of Athisme,”[78] escaped without, so far as could be
discovered, even a rebuke for his misdeeds.

Nor was this all. Isaac Allerton was at that time in London, as the
agent of the Plymouth colony. The most important business he had in
hand was to procure a new patent for the Plymouth people, covering by
correct bounds a grant on the Kennebec, with which region they were now
opening a promising trade. They also wanted to secure, if possible,
a royal charter for themselves like that which had just been issued
to the Massachusetts Company. In the matter of the patent, Allerton
had to deal with the Council for New England; the granting of the
charter lay at Whitehall. Altogether it was a troublesome and vexatious
business, and the agent soon found that he could make no headway except
through favor. The influence of Gorges became necessary. In the light
of subsequent events it would seem altogether probable that Morton
now made himself useful. At any rate, when Allerton returned to New
England, in 1629, with the patent but without a charter, he astonished
and scandalized the Plymouth community by bringing Morton back with
him. They apparently landed sometime in August,[79] and we have two
accounts of Morton’s reception at Plymouth; one his own, and the other
Governor Bradford’s. Both are characteristic. Morton says that

  “Being ship’d againe for the parts of New Canaan, [he] was put in
  at Plimmouth in the very faces of them, to their terrible amazement
  to see him at liberty; and [they] told him hee had not yet fully
  answered the matter they could object against him. Hee onely made
  this modest reply, that he did perceave they were willfull people,
  that would never be answered: and he derided them for their practises
  and losse of laboure.”[80]

Bradford, looking at the transaction from the other point of view,
says:--

  “Mr. Allerton gave them great and just ofence in bringing over
  this year, for base gaine, that unworthy man, and instrumente of
  mischeefe, Morton, who was sent home but the year before for his
  misdemenors. He not only brought him over, but to the towne, (as it
  were to nose them,) and lodged him at his owne house, and for a while
  used him as a scribe to doe his bussines.”[81]

In view of Morton’s escape from all punishment in England, and his
return a little later to Mount Wollaston, Bradford speaks of the
trouble and charge of his arrest as having been incurred “to little
effect.”[82] This, however, was not so. On the contrary, it is not
often that an act of government repression produces effects equally
decisive. The nuisance was abated and the danger dispelled; the fact
that there was a power on the coast, ready to assert itself in the work
of maintaining order, was established and had to be recognized; and,
finally, a wholly unscrupulous competitor was driven out of trade.
These results were well worth all that Morton’s arrest cost, and much
more.

It does not appear how long Morton now remained at Plymouth. It could
not, however, have been more than a few weeks before Allerton, who
himself went back to England the same season, was, as Bradford puts it,
“caused to pack him away.” He then returned to Mount Wollaston, where
he seems to have found a remnant of his old company,--apparently the
more modest of them and such as had looked to their better walking.
Hardly, however, had he well gotten back when he was in trouble with
Endicott. The first difficulty arose out of the jealousy which existed
between the “old planters,” as they were called, and those who belonged
to the Massachusetts Company. The old planters were the very men who
had associated themselves, eighteen months before, to bring about the
suppression of the establishment at Mount Wollaston. Now they also were
beginning to feel the pressure of authority, and they did not like
it. In their helpless anger they even spoke of themselves as “slaves”
of the new Company.[83] They could no longer plant what they chose or
trade with whom they pleased.

On these points Endicott had explicit instructions. They were contained
in the letters of Cradock of April 17 and May 28, 1629, which are to be
found in Young’s _Chronicles of Massachusetts_, and contain the policy
of the company, set forth in clear vigorous English. In pursuance
of those instructions, Endicott seems to have summoned all the old
planters dwelling within the limits of the patent to meet in a General
Court at Salem, sometime in the latter part of 1629. There he doubtless
advised them as to the policy which the Company intended to pursue; and
Morton says that he then tendered all present for signature certain
articles which he and the Rev. Samuel Skelton had drawn up together.
The essence of those articles was that in all causes, ecclesiastical as
well as political, the tenor of God’s word should be followed.[84] The
alternative was banishment.

Morton claims that he alone of those present refused to put his hand
to this paper, insisting that a proviso should first be added in these
words, “So as nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the laws of
the Kingdom of England.” These are almost the exact words of King
Charles’s charter;[85] and it would seem as though Morton, in proposing
them, sought an opportunity to display his legal acumen. Whether his
suggestion was adopted, and the articles modified accordingly, does not
appear. It probably was, though the change was not one which Endicott
would have looked upon with favor. If he assented to it he certainly
did so grimly. The matter of regulating the trade in beaver skins was
next brought up. This was intended to be a Company monopoly, to meet
the charge of providing churches and forts.[86] It was accordingly
proposed that a sort of general partnership for the term of one year
should be effected to carry it on. Morton says that on this matter
also he stood out, and it seems altogether probable that he did. It
is safe to say that he was there to make whatever trouble he could.
On the other hand it was not possible for Endicott to mistake his
instructions. They were as plain as words could make them. He was
to see to it that “none be partakers of [the Company’s] privileges
and profits, but such as be peaceable men, and of honest life and
conversation, and desirous to live amongst us, and conform themselves
to good order and government.” And further, if any factious spirit
developed itself he was enjoined “to suppress a mischief before it take
too great a head ... which, if it may be done by a temperate course, we
much desire it, though with some inconvenience, so as our government
and privileges be not brought in contempt.... But if necessity require
a more severe course, when fair means will not prevail, we pray you to
deal as in your discretions you shall think fittest.” Such instructions
as these, in Endicott’s hands to execute, boded ill for Morton.

Matters soon came to a crisis. Morton paid no regard to the Company’s
trade regulations. The presumption is that he was emboldened to take
the course he now did by the belief that he would find support in
England. He unquestionably was informed as to all the details of the
trouble between the Massachusetts Company and the Council for New
England, and knew that Oldham, whom he by the way speaks of as “a mad
Jack in his mood,”[87] held a grant from John Gorges, and was straining
every nerve to come out and take adverse possession of the territory
covered by it. He probably hoped, day by day, to see Oldham appear at
the head of a Gorges expedition. There is reason to suppose that he was
himself at this time an agent of Gorges,--that, indeed, he had come
back to New England as such, and was playing a part very much like that
of a spy. He was certainly in such correspondence with Sir Ferdinando
as the means of communication permitted, and the confidant of his
plans.[88]

When, therefore, he offered all the opposition to Endicott which he
dared, and thwarted him so far as he could, he was not acting for
himself alone. He represented, in a degree at least, what in England
was a powerful combination. Accordingly, with an over-confidence in the
result born of his sanguine faith in the power and influence of his
patron, he now seems to have gone back to the less objectionable of his
old courses. He did not renew the trade in fire-arms and ammunition,
for he probably had none to spare, and experience had taught him how
dangerous it was. He did, however, deal with the savages as he saw fit,
and on his own account, openly expressing his contempt for Endicott’s
authority, and doing all he could to excite the jealousy and discontent
of the “old planters.”[89] His own profits at this time were, he says,
six and seven fold.

This state of things could not continue. Accordingly, as the year drew
to a close, Endicott made an effort to arrest him. Morton, however,
was now on his guard. Getting wind of what was intended, he concealed
his ammunition and most necessary goods in the forest; and, when the
messengers, sent across the bay to seize him, landed on the beach at
the foot of Mount Wollaston, he was nowhere to be found. He says that
they ransacked his house, and took from it all the provender they
could find; but when they were gone he replenished his supplies with
the aid of his gun, and “did but deride Captain Littleworth, that made
his servants snap shorte in a country so much abounding with plenty of
foode for an industrious man.” This happened about Christmas, 1629.[90]

Could Endicott now have laid hands upon him there can be little room
for doubt that Morton would have been summarily dealt with; but for the
present the deputy-governor’s attention was otherwise occupied. This
was that winter of 1629-30, the famine and sickness of which came so
near to bringing the Salem settlement to a premature end. During that
struggle for existence the magistrate had no time to attend to Morton’s
case. But he was not the man to forget it.

With the following summer the great migration, which was to fix the
character of New England, began. Instead of a vessel fitted out for
Oldham under the patronage of Gorges, the _Mary & John_, chartered by
the Massachusetts Company and having on board 140 passengers from the
West of England, anchored off Hull on the 30th of May. A fortnight
later Governor Winthrop reached Salem, and on the 17th of June he also
came into Boston Harbor; and Morton, from Mount Wollaston, must have
watched his vessel with anxious eyes as, in full view from his house,
it made its way up the channel to the mouth of the Mystic. He must also
have realized that its appearance in those waters boded him no good.

In a few days more the whole fleet, numbering twelve sail in all, was
at anchor off Charlestown, and the work of discharging passengers was
going actively on. Of these there were nearly a thousand;[91] and now
the busy and fatal summer experience of 1630 was fairly entered upon.

For a few weeks longer Morton continued to live undisturbed at Mount
Wollaston. The confusion and bustle of landing, and afterwards the
terror and sense of bereavement which followed hard on pestilence,
protected him. It was not until the 23d of August, or the present
2d of September, that the magistrates held any formal session. They
then met at the great house at Charlestown,[92] as it would seem,
Winthrop, Dudley, Saltonstall, Pynchon, Bradstreet and others being
present. After some more important business had been disposed of, “It
was ordered, that Morton, of Mount Woolison, should presently be sent
for by processe.”[93] Of the circumstances of his arrest under the
warrant thus issued Morton has given no account. Apparently he felt
it was useless to try to evade the messengers, and resistance was
wholly out of the question. At the next session of the magistrates,
held two weeks later, on what would now be the 17th of September, he
was formally arraigned. In addition to those already named as being
at the earlier meeting, Endicott was now present. He had probably
come down from Salem to give his personal attention to Morton’s case.
It must from the outset have been apparent to the prisoner that the
tribunal before which he stood was one from which he had nothing to
hope. The proceedings were in fact summary. It would seem, from his
own account of them,[94] that he endeavored to humble himself, and,
that failing, he made a sort of plea to the jurisdiction of the Court.
Neither submission nor plea produced any effect. On the contrary he
was apparently cut short in his defence and his protest by impatient
exclamations, and even bidden to hold his peace and hearken to his
sentence. It appears in the records as follows:--

  “It is ordered by this present Court, that Thomas Morton, of Mount
  Walliston, shall presently be sett into the bilbowes, and after
  sent prisoner into England, by the shipp called the _Gifte_, nowe
  returning thither; that all his goods shalbe seazed upon to defray
  the charge of his transportation, payment of his debts, and to
  give satisfaction to the Indians for a cannoe hee unjustly tooke
  away from them; and that his howse, after the goods are taken out,
  shalbe burnt downe to the ground in the sight of the Indians, for
  their satisfaction, for many wrongs hee hath done them from tyme to
  tyme.”[95]

Unfortunately, Winthrop’s admonitory remarks in imposing this sentence
have not been preserved. There is, however, in the _New Canaan_, an
expression which apparently formed a part of them.[96] It is that in
which it is assigned as a reason for the destruction of the house at
Mount Wollaston, that “the habitation of the wicked should no more
appear in Israel.” In compliance with the terms of this sentence,
Morton was set in the stocks; and while there, he tells us, the savages
came and looked at him, and wondered what it all meant. He was not,
however, sent back to England in the _Gift_, as the master of that
vessel declined to carry him; for what reason does not appear. It was
not in fact until nearly four months after his arrest that a passage
was secured for him in the _Handmaid_. Even then, Maverick afterwards
stated that Morton, obdurate to the last, refused to go on board the
vessel, upon the ground that he had no call to go there, and so had to
be hoisted over her side by a tackle.[97] His house also was burned
down; but the execution of this part of his sentence, he asserts,--and
his assertion is confirmed by Maverick,--was vindictively delayed until
he was on his way into banishment, when it was executed rather in his
sight, it would seem, than in that of the savages. Of the voyage to
England there is an account in the _New Canaan_ that is rather more
rambling and incoherent than is usual even with Morton.[98]

The _Handmaid_ appears to have been unseaworthy, and insufficiently
supplied. She had a long and tempestuous passage, in the course of
which Morton came very near starving, no provision having been made for
his subsistence except a very inadequate one out of his own supplies.

The second arrest of Morton was equally defensible with the first.
According to his own account he had systematically made himself a
thorn in Endicott’s side. He had refused to enter into any covenants,
whether for trade or government, and he had openly derided the
magistrate and eluded his messengers. This could not be permitted. He
dwelt within the limits of the Massachusetts charter, and the Company
was right when it instructed Endicott that all living there “must
live under government and a like law.” It was necessary, therefore,
that Morton should either give in his adhesion, or that he should
be compelled to take himself off. This, however, was not the ground
which the magistrates took. Nothing was said in the sentence of any
disregard of authority or disobedience to regulation. No reference
was made to any illicit dealings with the Indians, or to the trade
in fire-arms. Offences of this kind would have justified the extreme
severity of a sentence which went to the length of ignominious physical
punishment, complete confiscation of property and banishment; leaving
only whipping, mutilation or death uninflicted. No such offences were
alleged. Those which were alleged, on the contrary, were of the most
trivial character. They were manifestly trumped up for the occasion.
The accused had unjustly taken away a canoe from some Indians; he had
fired a charge of shot among a troop of them who would not ferry him
across a river, wounding one and injuring the garments of another; he
was “a proud, insolent man” against whom a “multitude of complaints
were received, for injuries done by him both to the English and the
Indians.”[99] Those specified, it may be presumed, were examples of the
rest. They amount to nothing at all, and were afterwards very fitly
characterized by Maverick as mere pretences. Apparently conscious of
this, Dudley, the deputy-governor, in referring to the matter a few
months later in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, says that Morton
was sent to England “for that my Lord Chief Justice there so required,
that he might punish him capitally for fouler misdemeanors there
perpetrated.” Bradford also, in referring to the matter, states that
Morton was “vehemently suspected” of a murder, and that “a warrant was
sent from the Lord Chief Justice to apprehend him.”[100]

There can be no doubt that there was a warrant from the King’s Bench
against Morton in Winthrop’s hands,[101] but in all probability it
was nothing more nor less than a sort of English _lettre de cachet_.
Morton’s record in New England was perfectly well known in London
at the time Winthrop was making his preparations to cross. His
relations with Oldham and Gorges must often have been discussed at
the assistants’ meetings, and they were not ignorant of the fact that
he had gone back to Plymouth with Allerton. They must have suspected
that he went back as an agent or emissary of Gorges, and they may have
known that he so went back. In any event, they did not propose to have
him live within the limits of their patent. He was an undesirable
character. The warrant, therefore, was probably obtained in advance,
on some vague report or suspicion of a criminal act, to be at hand
and ready for use when needed.[102] It could not legally run into New
England, any more than it could into Scotland or Ireland.[103] Then,
and at no later time, would Winthrop have recognized it in any other
case; and, even in this case, no reference is made to it in the colony
records. Had it been so referred to, it might have been cited as a
precedent.

Moreover such a requisition, though it might have warranted the return
of Morton to England, certainly did not warrant the confiscation of
all his property and the burning of his house in advance of trial
and conviction there. In point of fact the requisition was a mere
pretext and cover. The Massachusetts magistrates, so far as Morton was
concerned, had made up their minds before he stood at their bar. He
was not only a “libertine,” as they termed it, but he was suspected
of being a spy. His presence at Mount Wollaston they did not consider
desirable, and so they proposed to purge the country of him; and if not
in one way, then in another. His case is not singular in Massachusetts
annals; it is merely the first of its kind. It established a precedent
much too often followed thereafter. Morton was one of those who, as
it was expressed in a tract of the time printed in London, “must
have elbow-roome, and cannot abide to be so pinioned with the strict
government in the Commonwealth, or discipline in the church. Now why
should such live there? As Ireland will not brooke venomous beasts, so
will not that land [New England] vile persons and loose livers.”[104]

Many times, in the years which followed, the country was purged of
other of these “vile persons and loose livers,” in much the same way
that it was now purged of Morton. It may, however, well be questioned
whether it ever derived benefit from the process. Certainly Morton’s
case was as strong as any case well could be. There was absolutely
nothing to be said in his favor. He was a lawless, reckless, immoral
adventurer. And yet, as the result will show, in sending Morton back
to England, the victim of high-handed justice, the Massachusetts
magistrates committed a serious blunder. They had much better have
left him alone under the harrow of their authority. At Mount Wollaston
he was at worst but a nuisance. They drove him away from there and sent
him back to London; and at Whitehall he became a real danger. This part
of history is now to be told.

Bradford says, and he is generally correct in his statements, that
when at last Morton reached England “he lay a good while in Exeter
jail.”[105] There is no allusion to anything of the sort in the _New
Canaan_; and it would not seem that he could have been very long a
prisoner, as the next assizes and jail-delivery must have set him free.
There could have been nothing on which to make him stand a trial.
Accordingly the following year he was at liberty and busily concerned
in Gorges’s intrigues for the overthrow of the Massachusetts charter.

The house in which Gorges lived--as formerly it had been the point
of gathering of all who had visited the American coast, or could
add anything to the stock of information concerning it--was now the
headquarters for those who had any complaint to make or charges to
prefer against the magistracy of Massachusetts. Acting in concert with
Captain John Mason, the patentee of New Hampshire, he was exerting
himself to the utmost to secure a revocation of King Charles’s
charter. The attack was made on the 19th of December, 1632, and it
was a formidable one. It assumed the shape of a petition to the Privy
Council, asking the Lords to inquire into the methods through which the
royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay had been procured, and into
the abuses which had been practised under it. Besides many injuries
inflicted on individuals in their property and persons, the Company
was also charged with seditious and rebellious designs, subversive
alike of church and of state. The various allegations were based on
the affidavits of three witnesses,--Thomas Morton, Philip Ratcliff and
Sir Christopher Gardiner. Behind these was the active and energetic
influence of Gorges and Mason.[106]

It is not necessary in this connection to go into any detailed
statement of the wrongs complained of by Ratcliff and Gardiner. They
were of the same nature, though even more pronounced than those of
Morton. The country had in fact been purged of all three of these
individuals. The original document in which they set forth their cases,
and made accusation against the magistrates, has unfortunately been
lost. In referring to it afterwards Winthrop said that it contained
“some truths misrepeated.”[107] Apart from severe judgments on alleged
wrong-doers, including whipping, branding, mutilating, banishment and
confiscation of property, the burden of the accusation lay in the
disposition to throw off allegiance to the mother country, which was
distinctly charged against the colony.

A harsh coloring was doubtless given in the petition to whatever
could be alleged. So far as casting off their allegiance to the
mother country was concerned, nothing can be more certain than that
neither the leaders nor the common people of New England entertained
at that time any thought of it; but it is quite equally certain that
the leaders at least were deeply dissatisfied with the course public
affairs were then taking in England. They were Puritans, and this was
the period of the Star Chamber and the High Commission. No parliament
had been called since 1629, and it was then publicly announced at
Court that no more parliaments were to be called. There is no reason
to suppose that the early settlers of Massachusetts were a peculiarly
reticent race. On the contrary it is well known that they were much
given to delivering themselves and bearing evidence on all occasions;
and in doing so they unquestionably railed and declaimed quite freely
against those then prominent in the council-chamber and among the
bishops. That there was a latent spirit in New England ripe for
rebellion was also, probably, asserted in the lost document. However
Winthrop might deny it, and deny it honestly, this also was true; and
subsequent events, both in Massachusetts and in England, showed it to
be so. In the light of their sympathies and sufferings, Morton and
Gardiner probably realized the drift of what they had heard said and
seen done in New England a good deal better than Winthrop.

The result of the Morton-Gardiner petition was the appointment of a
committee of twelve Lords of the Council, to whom the whole matter was
referred for investigation and report. The committee was empowered to
send for persons and papers and a long and apparently warm hearing
ensued. The friends of the Company found it necessary to at once bestir
themselves. Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey filed a written answer
to the complaint, and subsequently, at the hearing, they received
efficient aid from Emanuel Downing, Winthrop’s brother-in-law, and
Thomas Wiggin, who lived at Piscataqua, but now most opportunely
chanced to be in London.

At the Court of Charles I. everything was matter of influence or
purchase. The founders of Massachusetts were men just abreast of
their time, and not in advance of it. There is good ground on which
to suspect that they did not hesitate to have recourse to the means
then and there necessary to the attainment of their ends. It has never
been explained, for instance, how the charter of 1629 was originally
secured.[108] When Allerton, at the same time, tried to obtain a
similar charter for the Plymouth colony, he found that he had to buy
his way at every step, and Bradford complained bitterly of the “deale
of money veainly and lavishly cast away.”[109] That the original
patentees of Massachusetts bribed some courtier near the King, and
through him bought their charter, is wholly probable. Every one bribed,
and almost every one about the King took bribes. That the patentees
had powerful influence at Court is certain; exactly where it lay is
not apparent. The Earl of Warwick interested himself actively in their
behalf. It was he who secured for them their patent from the Council
for New England. But Warwick, though a powerful nobleman, was “a man
in no grace at Court;” on the contrary, he was one of those “whom his
Majesty had no esteem of, or ever purposed to trust.”[110] Winthrop
says that in the Morton-Gardiner hearing his brother-in-law, Emanuel
Downing, was especially serviceable.[111] Downing was a lawyer of the
Inner Temple.[112] There is reason to suppose that he had access to
influential persons,--possibly Lord Dorchester may have been amongst
them.[113] However this may be, whether by means of influence or
bribery, the hearing before the Committee of the Privy Council was made
to result disastrously for the complainants. Gorges took nothing by his
motion. In due time the Committee reported against any interference
with the Company at that time. Such grounds of complaint as did not
admit of explanation they laid to the “faults or fancies of particular
men,” and these, they declared, were “in due time to be inquired into.”
King Charles himself also had evidently been labored with through the
proper channels, and not without effect. Not only did he give his
approval to the report of the Committee, but he went out of his way
to further threaten with condign punishment those “who did abuse his
governor and the plantation.”

Gorges’s carefully prepared attack had thus ended in complete
failure. The danger, however, had been great, nor was its importance
underestimated in Massachusetts. This clearly appears in Winthrop’s
subsequent action; for when, four months later, in May, 1633,
information of the final action of the Council reached him, he wrote
a letter of grave jubilation to Governor Bradford, giving him the
glad news, and inviting him to join “in a day of thanksgiving to our
mercifull God, who, as he hath humbled us by his late correction, so he
hath lifted us up, by an abundante rejoysing in our deliverance out of
so desperate a danger.”[114]

Though badly defeated, and for the time being no doubt discouraged,
Gorges and Morton were not disposed to desist from their efforts. As
the latter expressed it, they had been too eager, and had “effected
the business but superficially.”[115] They had also committed the
serious mistake of underestimating the strength and influence of
their antagonists. If Gorges, however, was at home anywhere, he was
at home just where he had now received his crushing defeat,--in the
antechambers of the palace. All his life he had been working through
Court influences. Through them, after the Essex insurrection, he had
saved his neck from the block. If Court influence would have availed
to secure it, in 1623 he would have pre-empted the whole territory
about Boston Bay as the private domain of himself and his descendants.
At Whitehall he was an enemy not lightly to be disregarded; and this
Winthrop and his colleagues soon had cause to realize.

Thwarted by strong influences in one direction, Gorges went to work to
secure stronger influences in another direction. He knew the ground,
and his plan of operations was well conceived. To follow it out in
detail is not possible. Here and there a fact appears; the rest is
inference and surmise. The King was the objective point. Of him it
is not necessary here to speak at length, for his character is too
well understood. Dignified in his bearing, and in personal character
purer than his times,--a devout, well-intentioned man,--Charles was a
shallow, narrow-minded bigot, with a diseased belief in that divinity
which doth hedge a king. He would have made an ideal, average English
country gentleman. After the manner of small, obstinate men, he
believed intensely in a few things. One was his own royal supremacy
and his responsibility, not to his people but to his kingship. He
was nothing of a statesman, and as a politician he was his own worst
enemy. His idea of government was the Spanish one: the king had a
prime-minister, and that prime-minister was the king’s other and second
self. In Charles’s case Buckingham was at first prime-minister; and,
when Buckingham was assassinated, he was in due time succeeded by Laud.
Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, had not died until August 4, 1633,
and a few days later Laud was appointed to succeed him. He thus became
primate almost exactly eight months after the first attack on the
charter. It was through him that Gorges now went to work to influence
the King and to control the course of events in New England. His method
can be explained in four words: Laud hated a Puritan.

At first the secret connection of Gorges and Morton with the events
which now ensued is matter of pure surmise. There is no direct evidence
of it in the records or narratives. At a later period it becomes more
apparent. As a matter of surmise, however, based on the subsequent
development of events, it seems probable that in February, 1634, the
attention of the Archbishop, and through him that of the Privy Council,
was called to the large emigration then going on to New England of
“persons known to be ill-affected and discontented, as well with the
civil as ecclesiastical government.”[116] As Gorges himself expressed
it, “numbers of people of all sorts flocked thither in heaps.”[117]
Several vessels, already loaded with passengers and stores, were then
lying in the Thames. An Order in Council was forthwith issued staying
these vessels, and calling upon Cradock to produce the Company’s
charter. So far as the vessels were concerned it soon appeared that the
Company was still not without friends in the Council; and, “for reasons
best known to their Lordships,” they were permitted to sail.[118]
Doubtless this detention, as the subsequent more rigid restraint, was
“grounded upon the several complaints that came out of those parts of
the divers sects and schisms that were amongst them, all contemning
the public government of the ecclesiastical state.” Ratcliff was now
looked upon as a lunatic,[119] and Gardiner had disappeared. Morton
alone remained; and it is safe to surmise that he was the fountain-head
of these complaints, as Gorges was the channel which conveyed them to
Laud. As respects the charter, Cradock made reply to the order for its
production that it was not in his hands,--that Winthrop, four years
before, had taken it to New England. He was directed to send for it at
once. Here the matter rested, and to all appearances Gorges had met
with one more check. The release of the vessels was ordered on the last
day of February, 1634.

A new move on the chess-board was now made by some one. Who that
some-one was is again matter of surmise. Hitherto the few matters
which from time to time came up, relating to the colonies, had been
considered in the full Privy Council. There the Massachusetts Company
had shown itself a power. Special tribunals, however, were at this
juncture greatly in vogue at Whitehall. The Council of the North, the
Star Chamber, the Court of High Commission, were in full operation. To
them all political work was consigned, and in the two last Laud was
supreme. Up to this time, however, the need of any special tribunal
to look after the affairs of the colonies had not made itself felt.
The historians of New England have philosophized a great deal over the
considerations of state which, during the reign of Charles, dictated
the royal policy towards New England;[120] but it is more than doubtful
whether considerations of state had anything to do with that policy.
The remoteness and insignificance of early New England, so far as the
English Court was concerned, is a thing not easy now to realize. It may
be taken for certain that King and Primate rarely gave a thought to it,
much less matured a definite or rational policy. Their minds were full
of more important matters. They were intent on questions of tonnage and
poundage, on monopolies, and all possible ways and means of raising
money; they were thinking of the war with Spain, of Wentworth’s Irish
policy, of the English opposition, and the Scotch church system. So far
as New England was concerned they were mere puppets to be jerked to and
fro by the strings of Court influence,--now granting a charter at the
instance of one man, and then restraining vessels at the instance of
another,--defending “our governor” one day, and threatening to have his
ears cropped the next.

In certain quarters it seems now, however, to have been decided that
this condition of affairs was to continue no longer. A special tribunal
should be created, to take charge of all colonial matters. This move
seems to have grown out of the Order in Council of February 21, and to
have been directed almost exclusively to the management of affairs in
New England, whence complaint mainly came. Accordingly, on the 10th of
April, a commission passed the great seal establishing a board with
almost unlimited power of regulating plantations. Laud was at the head
of it. There would seem to be every reason to assume that this tribunal
was created at the suggestion of Laud, and in consequence of the
undecided course pursued by the Council as a whole, two months before,
in the matter of the detained vessels. A further inference, from what
went before and what followed, is that Laud’s action was stimulated
and shaped by Gorges. He was the active promoter of complaints and
scandals from New England. In other words, the organization of this
colonial board, through Laud’s influence and with Laud supreme in it,
was Gorges’s first move in the next and most formidable attack on the
charter of the Massachusetts Bay.

The plan now matured by Gorges was a large one. He had no idea of being
balked of the prize which it had been the dream and the effort of his
life to secure. He meant yet to grasp a government for himself, and an
inheritance for his children, in New England. So far as the settlement
of that country was concerned, what he for thirty years had been vainly
ruining himself to bring about was now accomplishing itself; but it
was accomplishing itself not only without his aid, but in a way which
gravely threatened his interests. The people who were swarming to New
England refused to recognize his title, and abused and expelled his
agents. It was clear that the Council for New England was not equal to
dealing with such a crisis. It was necessary to proceed through some
other agency. The following scheme was, therefore, step by step devised.

The territory held under the great patent of the Council for New
England extended from Maine to New Jersey. This whole region was,
by the action of the Council, to be divided in severalty among its
remaining members, and the patent was then to be surrendered to the
King, who thereupon was to confirm the division just made.[121] The
Council being thus gotten out of the way, the King was to assume
the direct government of the whole territory, and was to appoint
a governor-general for it. Sir Ferdinando Gorges was to be that
governor-general.[122] He would thus go out to his province clothed
with full royal authority; and the issue would then be, not between
the settlers of Massachusetts, acting under the King’s charter, and
that “carcass in a manner breathless,” the Council for New England,
but between a small body of disobedient subjects and the King’s own
representative. The scheme was a well-devised one. It was nothing
more nor less than the colonial or New England branch of Strafford’s
“Thorough.” It was a part, though a small part, of a great system.

The first step in carrying out the programme was to secure the
appointment of the Commission of April 10. The influence of the
Archbishop being assured, there was no difficulty in this. The board
was composed of twelve members of the Privy Council. Laud himself was
at the head of it, and with him were the Archbishop of York, the Earls
of Portland, Manchester, Arundel and Dorset, Lord Cottington, Sir
Thomas Edmunds, Sir Henry Vane, and Secretaries Cooke and Windebank.
Any five or more of these Commissioners were to constitute a _quorum_,
and their powers were of the largest description. They could revoke all
charters previously granted, remove governors and appoint others in the
places of those removed, and even break up settlements if they deemed
it best so to do. They could inflict punishment upon all offenders,
either by imprisonment, “or by loss of life or member.” It was in fact
a commission of “right divine.” It embodied the whole royal policy of
King Charles, as formulated by Wentworth and enforced by Laud. The
new Commission was not slow in proceeding to its appointed work, and
the potency of Gorges’s influence in it was shown by his immediate
designation as governor-general.[123] How close Morton then stood to
him may be inferred from the following letter, which shows also that
he was well informed as to all that was going on.[124] It was written
exactly three weeks after the appointment of the Commission, and was
addressed to William Jeffreys at Wessagusset:--

  MY VERY GOOD GOSSIP,--If I should commend myself to you, you reply
  with this proverb,--_Propria laus fordet in ore_: but to leave
  impertinent salute, and really to proceed.--You shall hereby
  understand, that, although, when I was first sent to England to make
  complaint against Ananias and the brethren, I effected the business
  but superficially, (through the brevity of time,) I have at this time
  taken more deliberation and brought the matter to a better pass. And
  it is thus brought about, that the King hath taken the business into
  his own hands. The Massachusetts Patent, by order of the council, was
  brought in view; the privileges there granted well scanned upon, and
  at the council board in public, and in the presence of Sir Richard
  Saltonstall and the rest, it was declared, for manifest abuses there
  discovered, to be void. The King hath reassumed the whole business
  into his own hands, appointed a committee of the board, and given
  order for a general governor of the whole territory to be sent over.
  The commission is passed the privy seal, I did see it, and the same
  was 1 mo. Maii sent to the Lord Keeper to have it pass the great seal
  for confirmation; and I now stay to return with the governor, by whom
  all complainants shall have relief:[125] So that now Jonas being
  set ashore may safely cry, repent you cruel separatists, repent,
  there are as yet but forty days. If Jove vouchsafe to thunder, the
  charter and kingdom of the separatists will fall asunder. Repent you
  cruel schismatics, repent.[126] These things have happened, and I
  shall see, (notwithstanding their boasting and false alarms in the
  Massachusetts, with feigned cause of thanksgiving,) their merciless
  cruelty rewarded, according to the merit of the fact, with condign
  punishment for coming into these parts, like Sampson’s foxes with
  fire-brands at their tails.[127] The King and Council are really
  possessed of their preposterous loyalty and irregular proceedings,
  and are incensed against them: and although they be so opposite to
  the catholic axioms, yet they will be compelled to perform them, or
  at leastwise, suffer them to be put in practice to their sorrow. In
  matter of restitution and satisfaction, more than mystically, it
  must be performed visibly, and in such sort as may be subject to the
  senses in a very lively image. My Lord Canterbury having, with my
  Lord Privy Seal, caused all Mr. Cradock’s letters to be viewed, and
  his apology in particular for the brethren here, protested against
  him and Mr. Humfrey, that they were a couple of imposterous knaves;
  so that, for all their great friends, they departed the council
  chamber in our view with a pair of cold shoulders. I have staid long,
  yet have not lost my labor, although the brethren have found their
  hopes frustrated; so that it follows by consequence, I shall see my
  desire upon mine enemies: and if John Grant had not betaken him to
  flight, I had taught him to sing clamavi in the Fleet before this
  time, and if he return before I depart, he will pay dear for his
  presumption. For here he finds me a second Perseus: I have uncased
  Medusa’s head, and struck the brethren into astonishment. They find,
  and will yet more to their shame, that they abuse the word and are
  to blame to presume so much,--that they are but a word and a blow to
  them that are without. Of these particulars I thought good, by so
  convenient a messenger, to give you notice, lest you should think I
  had died in obscurity, as the brethren vainly intended I should, and
  basely practised, abusing justice by their sinister practices, as by
  the whole body of the committee, _una voce_, it was concluded to be
  done, to the dishonor of his majesty. And as for Ratcliffe, he was
  comforted by their lordships with the cropping of Mr. Winthrop’s
  ears: which shows what opinion is held amongst them of King Winthrop
  with all his inventions and his Amsterdam fantastical ordinances,
  his preachings, marriages, and other abusive ceremonies, which do
  exemplify his detestation to the Church of England, and the contempt
  of his majesty’s authority and wholesome laws, which are and will be
  established in these parts, _invitâ Minervâ_. With these I thought
  fit to salute you, as a friend, by an epistle, because I am bound to
  love you, as a brother, by the gospel, resting your loving friend.

  THOMAS MORTON.[128]

  DATED 1 MO. MAII, 1634.

Morton is always confused and inaccurate in his statements, and this
letter afforded no exception to the rule. It is impossible to be quite
sure of what particular occasions he refers to in it. He may in the
same breath be speaking of different things. Whether, for instance,
the hearing to which he alludes, at which the patent “was brought in
view,” was the same or another meeting from that in which Cradock’s
letters were produced, is not clear. It would seem as though he
were speaking of the February hearing before the whole Council, and
yet he may be describing a subsequent hearing in April before the
Lords Commissioners. He speaks of the “council chamber” and of “the
whole body of the Committee,” and then alludes to the presence of
Saltonstall, Humfrey and Cradock. Now these persons were before the
Council in the hearing of 1632, and they may all of them, as Cradock
certainly was, have been before it in February 1634; but Humfrey could
hardly have appeared before the Lords Commissioners, as he seems to
have sailed for New England early in the month during which they
were appointed. The meeting which Morton describes, therefore, was
probably that of February 28, 1634; and it would seem to have savored
strongly of the Star Chamber and High Commission. Cradock and Humfrey
were apparently scolded and abused by Laud in the style for which he
was famous, and the admission by the former, that the charter had gone
to America, had led to his being called “an imposterous knave,” and
sharply told to send for it back at once. The well-known foibles of
the Primate had been skilfully played upon by accounts of Winthrop’s
“Amsterdam fantastical ordinances, his preachings, marriages, and other
abusive ceremonies;” and they had much the effect that a red flag is
known to have on a bull. Nothing was now heard of the King’s intention
of severely punishing those who abused “his governor;” but, on the
contrary, Ratcliffe was “comforted with the cropping of Mr. Winthrop’s
ears.” Gorges was governor-general, and with him Morton expected soon
to depart.

Cradock’s letter, enclosing the order of the Council for the return
of the charter, reached Boston in July. Winthrop was then no longer
governor, having been displaced by Dudley at the previous May election.
As is well known to all students of New England history, the famous
parchment, still in the office of the secretary of the Puritan
Commonwealth, was not sent back.[129] It is unnecessary, however, to
here repeat the story of the struggle over it. Presently Governor
Edward Winslow of Plymouth was despatched to England, as the joint
agent of the two colonies, to look after their endangered interests.
He reached London in the autumn of 1634, bringing with him an evasive
reply to the demand contained in Cradock’s letter.

Winslow sailed in the middle or latter part of July, and a few days
later, on the 4th of August,[130] Jeffreys came over from Wessagusset
to Boston, bringing to Winthrop the letter which he had shortly before
received from Morton. It was the first intimation the magistrates
had of the Commission and of the appointment of a governor-general.
Winthrop communicated the news to Dudley and the other members of the
Council, and to some of the ministers; and, doubtless, for a time they
all nursed an anxious hope that the exaggerations in the letter were
even greater than they really were. The General Court met on the 25th
of August. While it was still in session, vessels arrived bringing
tidings which dispelled all doubt, and confirmed everything material
that Morton had said. He whom the magistrates had so ignominiously
punished, and so contemptuously driven away, was evidently in a
position to know what those in authority intended. It began to be
evident that the Massachusetts magistrates had underestimated an
opponent.

A full copy of the Order in Council establishing the board of Lords
Commissioners of Plantations, was now received, and the colonists were
further advised, through their private letters, that ships were being
furnished, and soldiers gotten ready for embarkation in them. It was
given out that these troops and vessels were intended for Virginia,
whither a new governor was about to be sent; but Winthrop wrote that
in Massachusetts the preparation was “suspected to be against us, to
compel us by force to receive a new governor, and the discipline of the
church of England, and the laws of the commissioners.[131]”

The answer which best expressed the spirit of the colony, in reply to
Laud’s threats, was now found, not in the missive which Winslow had in
charge, but in the act of Morton’s old oppressor, Endicott, when a few
weeks later at Salem he cut the red cross from the standard. It was
an act, however, which seemed to indicate that there was more truth
than Winthrop was disposed to admit in Gardiner and Morton’s charge
that “the ministers and people did continually rail against the state,
church and bishops.”[132] Six months of great alarm and strenuous
preparation now ensued. Steps were taken to get together arms and
ammunition, and defences were ordered at Dorchester and Charlestown,
as well as at Castle Island. The magistrates were even empowered to
impress laborers for the work. In January the ministers were summoned
to Bolton, and the question formally submitted to them: “What ought we
to do if a general governor should be sent out of England?” The reply
was that “we ought not to accept him, but defend our lawful possessions
if we are able.” In April a rumor of strange vessels hovering off
Cape Ann threw the whole province into a tumult. It was supposed that
Governor-general Gorges, with Morton in his train, was at the harbor’s
mouth. It proved to be a false alarm, and after that the excitement
seems gradually to have subsided.

This was in the spring of 1635. Meanwhile Winslow had reached England
sometime early in the previous autumn. Though he had not brought the
charter with him, its production does not seem to have been again
immediately called for. He probably held out confident assurances
that it would be sent over in the next vessel, as soon as the General
Court met; but it is also probable that, in view of the course which
had now been decided upon, an examination of it was no longer deemed
necessary. The ensuing spring, that of 1635, had been fixed upon by
Gorges and Mason as the time for decisive action. The charter was then
to be vacated, and Gorges was to go out to New England with a force
sufficient to compel obedience. All this, however, implied considerable
preparation. Shipping had to be provided in the first place. A large
vessel was accordingly put upon the stocks. Rumor said, also, that the
new governor-general was to take out with him a force of no less than
one thousand soldiers.[133] Whether this was true or not, there can be
little doubt that all through the winter of 1634-5 active preparations
were on foot in England intended against the Massachusetts colony.

Besides watching these proceedings Winslow had other business in
London which required his appearance before the Lords Commissioners.
He had presented to them a petition on behalf of the two colonies
for authority to resist certain Dutch and French encroachments. This
proceeding Winthrop had not thought well advised,[134] as he very
shrewdly argued that it implied an absence of authority without such
special authorization, and might thus be drawn into a precedent.
Winslow, however, had none the less submitted the petition, and several
hearings were given upon it. Fully advised as to everything that was
going on before the Lords Commissioners, Gorges did not favor this
move. It authorized military or diplomatic action, the conduct of which
by right belonged to him as governor-general of the region within which
the action was to be taken. He accordingly went to work to circumvent
Winslow. What ensued throws a great deal of light on Morton’s standing
at the time, and the use that was made of him; and it also explains the
significance of certain things in the _New Canaan_.

Laud, it will be remembered, was the head and moving spirit of the
Lords Commissioners. His word was final in the Board. Upon him Gorges
depended to work all his results; which included not only his own
appointment as governor-general, with full power and authority as
such, but also the necessary supply of men and money to enable him to
establish his supremacy. To secure these ends it was necessary to play
continually on the Primate’s dislike of the Puritans, and his intense
zeal in behalf of all Church forms and ceremonies, including the use
of the Book of Common Prayer. The whole political and historical
significance of the _New Canaan_ lies in this fact. It was a pamphlet
designed to work a given effect in a particular quarter, and came very
near being productive of lasting results. Dedicated in form to the
Lords Commissioners, it was charged with attacks on the Separatists,
and statements of the contempt shown by them to the Book of Common
Prayer. Finally it contained one chapter on the church practices in
New England, which was clearly designed for the special enlightenment
of the Archbishop.[135] In this chapter it is set down as the first
and fundamental tenet of the New England church “that it is the
magistrate’s office absolutely, and not the minister’s, to join the
people in lawful matrimony;” next, that to make use of a ring in
marriage is a relic of popery; and then again “that the Book of Common
Prayer is an idol; and all that use it idolaters.” It now remains to
show how cunningly, when it came to questions of state, Laud was worked
upon by these statements, and what a puppet he became in the hands of
Gorges and Morton.

Winslow’s suit had prospered. He had submitted to the Lords
Commissioners a plan for accomplishing the end desired without any
charge being imposed on the royal exchequer, and he was on the point of
receiving, as he supposed, a favorable decision. Suddenly the secret
strings were pulled. Bradford best tells the story of what ensued.

  “When Mr. Winslow should have had his suit granted, (as indeed upon
  the point it was,) and should have been confirmed, the Archbishop
  put a stop upon it, and Mr. Winslow, thinking to get it freed, went
  to the Board again. But the Bishop, Sir Ferdinando and Captain Mason
  had, as it seems, procured Morton to complain. To whose complaints
  Mr. Winslow made answer to the good satisfaction of the Board,
  who checked Morton, and rebuked him sharply, and also blamed Sir
  Ferdinando Gorges and Mason for countenancing him. But the Bishop had
  a further end and use of his presence, for he now began to question
  Mr. Winslow of many things, as of teaching in the church publicly, of
  which Morton accused him and gave evidence that he had seen and heard
  him do it; to which Mr. Winslow answered that sometimes (wanting a
  minister) he did exercise his gift to help the edification of his
  brethren, when they wanted better means, which was not often. Then
  about marriage, the which he also confessed, that, having been called
  to place of magistracy, he had sometimes married some. And further
  told their lordships that marriage was a civil thing, and he found
  nowhere in the word of God that it was tied to ministry. Again they
  were necessitated so to do, having for a long time together at first
  no minister; besides, it was no new thing, for he had been so married
  himself in Holland, by the magistrates in their Stadt-House. But
  in the end, to be short, for these things the Bishop, by vehement
  importunity, got the Board at last to consent to his commitment. So
  he was committed to the Fleet, and lay there seventeen weeks, or
  thereabout, before he could get to be released. And this was the end
  of this petition and this business; only the others’ design was also
  frustrated hereby, with other things concurring, which was no small
  blessing to people here.”[136]

For the time being, however, “the others’ design,” as Bradford
describes Gorges’s scheme, so far from being frustrated, moved on
most prosperously. All the friends and agents of the colony were now
driven from the field. Cradock, Saltonstall and Humfrey had departed
the council-chamber with “a pair of cold shoulders.” Winslow was a
prisoner. Morton had demonstrated that his boast in the letter to
Jeffreys, that he would make his opponents “sing _clamavi_ in the
Fleet,” was not an idle one. He had not exaggerated his power. Gorges’s
course was now clear, and his plan developed rapidly. At a meeting
of those still members of the Council for New England, held at Lord
Gorges’s house on the 3d of February, 1635, the next step was taken.
The redivision of the seacoast was agreed upon. It was now divided into
eight parcels, instead of twenty as at the original abortive division
of 1623; and these parcels were assigned to eight several persons,
among whom were the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, and the
Earls of Arundel, Carlisle and Sterling. Arundel alone of these was
one of the Lords Commissioners. Gorges received Maine as his portion;
and Mason got New Hampshire and Cape Ann. Massachusetts, south of
Salem, was assigned to Lord Gorges.

The division thus agreed on was to take effect simultaneously with the
formal surrender by the Council of its great patent. Ten weeks later,
on the 18th of April, at another meeting at Lord Gorges’s house, a
paper was read and entered upon the records, in which the reasons for
surrendering the patent were set forth. At a subsequent meeting on
the 26th a petition to the King was approved, in which it was prayed
that separate patents might be issued securing to the associates in
severalty the domains they had assigned to each other. A declaration
from the King was also then read, in which the royal intention of
appointing Sir Ferdinando Gorges governor-general of New England was
formally announced. Speaking by the mouth of the King, the Primate did
not propose “to suffer such numbers of people to run to ruin, and to
religious intents to languish, for want of timely remedy and sovereign
assistance.” Curiously enough, also, this typically Laudian sentiment
was enunciated at Whitehall the very day, the 26th of April, 1635, upon
which, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Marblehead fishermen
had brought in word of strange vessels hovering mysteriously upon the
coast, causing the Governor and assistants to hurry to Boston and an
alarm to be spread through all the towns.[137]

Before proceeding to eject the present occupants of the New England
soil, or to force them to some compromise as an alternative thereto, it
remained for the grantees of the now defunct Council to perfect their
new titles. Proceedings to this end were not delayed. The division had
been agreed upon on the 3d of February, and on the 26th of April the
new patents had been petitioned for. Ten days later Thomas Morton was
“entertained to be solicitor for confirmation of the said deeds under
the great seal, as also to prosecute suit at law for the repealing
of the patent belonging to the Massachusetts Company. And is to have
for fee twenty shillings a term, and such further reward as those who
are interested in the affairs of New England shall think him fit to
deserve, upon the judgment given in the cause.” A month later, on the
7th of June, 1635, the formal surrender of its patent by the Council
took place.[138]

Morton, however, was not destined to land at Boston in the train of
Governor-general Gorges. The effort of 1634-5 was a mere repetition,
on a larger and more impressive scale, of the effort of 1623. The
latter had resulted in the abortive Robert Gorges expedition, and
the former now set all the courts at Westminster in solemn action.
Neither of them, however, came to anything. They both failed, also,
from the same cause,--want of money. The machinery in each case was
imposing, and there was a great deal of it. Seen from New England
it must have appeared simply overpowering. The King, the Primate,
the Lords Commissioners, the Attorney General, the Court of King’s
Bench, the Great Seal, and a governor-general representing the Duke
of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton and the Earls of Arundel, Carlisle
and Sterling, royal proprietors, were all at work together to bring
about the destruction of an infant colony. When, however, it came to
accomplishing anything in a practical way, it grew apparent by degrees
that behind all this tremendous display of machinery there was nothing
but Sir Ferdinando Gorges,--an active-minded, adventurous soldier,
skilled in Court ways, persistent and full of resource, but with small
means of his own, and no faculty of obtaining means from others. When
it became therefore a question of real action, calling for the sinews
of war, the movement flopped dead in 1635, just as it had stopped in
1623. In 1635 it is true, Gorges had the assistance of Captain John
Mason, who was an energetic man with means at his command, and it was
through him that a ship was to be provided.[139] The building of this
ship, however, without doubt strained to the utmost the resources of
all concerned; and when, in launching, it suffered a mishap, again
probably from insufficient means, they could not make the damage good.
The royal exchequer was then as empty as Gorges’s own purse. The King
was living on benevolences, and on fines levied upon the great nobles
for encroachments on the royal forests. The writs to collect ship-money
were issued in this very year. The next year public offices were sold.
Under these circumstances no assistance could for the present be looked
for from Charles or Laud. As for the noble associates, among whom the
New England coast had just been parcelled out, while perfectly willing
to accept great domains in America, they would venture nothing more to
take actual possession of them in 1635 than they had ventured in 1623.
Nothing at all was to be obtained from that quarter. Speaking of Gorges
and Mason, and the failure of their plans at this time, Winthrop wrote,
“The Lord frustrated their design.” This was the pious way of putting
it. In point of fact, however, the real safety of Massachusetts now
depended on more homely and every-day considerations. Gorges and Mason
could not raise the money absolutely necessary to carry their design
out.

Nevertheless, though this delay was disappointing, there was no
occasion for despair. Things moved slowly; that was all. Gorges
represented the New England part of that royal system which was to
stand or fall as a whole. In the spring and summer of 1635 it looked
very much as if it was destined to stand. There was then no thought of
a parliament at Court, or expectation of one among the patriots. The
crown lawyers were hunting up precedents which would enable the King to
levy taxes to suit himself. Wentworth had brought Ireland into a state
of perfect subjection. Laud was supreme in England. The prospects for
“Thorough” were never so good. If “Thorough” prevailed in England it
would in Massachusetts. There could be no doubt of that. Meanwhile,
though lack of ready means had put it out of Gorges’s power to go to
New England at once, there was no break or delay in legal proceedings.
In June, 1635, the attorney-general filed in the King’s Bench a writ of
_quo warranto_ against the Massachusetts Bay Company. This was the work
which Thomas Morton had a month before been “entertained to prosecute,”
and the promptness of the attorney-general would seem to indicate
that on Morton’s part at least there was no failure in activity. The
plan was to set the charter aside, not because of any abuse of the
powers lawfully conferred in it, but on the ground that it was void
_ab initio_. Every title to land held under it would thus be vitiated.
In answer to the summons some of the original associates came in and
pleaded, while others made default. Cradock made default. In his case,
therefore, judgment was given at the Michaelmas, or September term,
1635, and the charter was declared void, all the franchises conveyed
in it being resumed by the King.[140] This portion of the legal work
in hand, therefore, that more particularly entrusted to Morton, seems
to have been promptly and efficiently done. As respects the patents
for the domains granted under the last partition, things do not seem
to have moved so rapidly, for towards the close of November a meeting
of the associates of the now dissolved Council was held at the house
of Lord Sterling, and a vote passed that steps should be taken to
get patents to the individual patentees passed the seals as soon as
possible. Morton was in fact reminded of his duties.

A heavy blow was however impending over Gorges. He himself was now an
elderly man, verging close upon seventy years.[141] He could not have
been as active and as energetic as he once had been, and even his
sanguine disposition must have felt the usual depressing influence
of hope long deferred. Mason had of late been the mainstay of his
enterprise. Only a year before, that resolute man had sent out a large
expedition, numbering some seventy men, to Piscataqua, and he was
contemplating extensive explorations towards Lake Champlain. Morton
eulogized him as a “very good Commonwealth’s man, a true foster-father
and lover of virtue,”[142] and Winthrop referred to him as “the chief
mover in all the attempts against us.”[143] In December, 1635, Mason
died,[144] and not improbably it was the anticipation of his death
which led to that meeting of the Council at which the speedy issuing
of the individual patents was urged. However this may be, the loss of
Mason seems to have been fatal to Gorges’s hopes; it was the lopping
off of the right arm of his undertakings. From that time forward there
was obviously no source from which he could hope to get the money
necessary to enable him to effect anything, except the royal treasury.
Of this, for two or three years yet, until the Scotch troubles
destroyed the last chance of the success of the ship-money scheme,
there seemed a very good prospect. Gorges, however, could not afford to
wait. His remaining time was short. Accordingly, after Mason’s death,
little is heard of him or of the Lords Commissioners.

During the next seven years, consequently, the traces of Morton are
few. There is a passing glimpse obtained of him in March, 1636, through
a letter from Cradock to Winthrop,[145] from which it appears he was
then in London and actively scheming against the Massachusetts Company.
He would seem at this time to have been in the pay of one George
Cleaves, a man of some importance and subsequently quite prominent in
the early history of Maine. Cleaves apparently had proposed some scheme
to Cradock touching the Massachusetts Company, and Morton came to see
him about it. Thereupon Cradock says, “I having no desire to speak
with Morton alone put him off a turn or two on the exchange, till I
found Mr. Pierce,” etc. Further on in the same letter he speaks of his
“greyffe and disdayne” at the abuse heaped on the Company, and of the
“heavey burdens, there lode on me by T. M.;” and adds, “God forgive him
that is the cause of it.”

Early in 1637, and in consequence probably of the _quo warranto_
proceedings, a commission of some sort would appear to have been
granted to certain persons in New England for the government of that
country.[146] How or under what circumstances this was obtained is
nowhere told. There is a mystery about it. Gorges afterwards assured
Winthrop that he knew nothing of it,[147] and only a copy ever reached
America, the original, Winthrop says, being “staid at the seal for
want of paying the fees.” He further says that Cleaves procured this
commission, as also a sort of patent, or, as he calls it, “a protection
under the privy signet for searching out the great lake of Iracoyce.”
From all this it would appear that the whole thing was some impotent
and inconsequential move on the part of Morton; for not only does
Winthrop say that the document was “staid at the seal,” but Cradock
wrote that the matter in reference to which Morton wanted to see him,
on behalf of Cleaves, related to paying the charge “in taking out
somewhat under the seale.” Gorges speaks of Morton as being at that
time Cleaves’s agent; and in the _New Canaan_, which either had just
been published or was then in the press, there is a glowing account of
the “great lake Erocoise,” and its boundless wealth of beaver,[148]
to which apparently the imaginative author had directed Cleaves’s
attention sufficiently to induce him to take out the “protection” which
Winthrop alludes to.

The year 1637 was the turning-period in the fortunes of King Charles
and of Archbishop Laud, and consequently of Gorges and Morton.
Up to that time everything had gone sufficiently well, if not in
Massachusetts, at least in England, Ireland, and even Scotland. Now,
however, the system began to break down; giving way first, as would
naturally enough be the case, at its weakest point. This was in
Scotland, where the attempt to force Episcopacy on the people resulted
in the famous “stony Sabbath” on the 23d of July. The _New Canaan_
was probably going through the press during the deceitful period of
profound calm which preceded that eventful day. Though now published,
there is strong internal evidence that the book was written in 1634.
Not only does this appear from the extract from its last page in the
letter to Jeffreys, already referred to,[149] but in another place[150]
there is reference to the expedition of Henry Josselyn for the more
complete discovery of Lake Champlain, which is mentioned as then in
preparation. Henry Josselyn left England about the time Morton was
writing to Jeffreys, or a little earlier, and reached Piscataqua in
June, 1634.[151] Mason, on the other hand, is mentioned as then living,
and as having fitted out the expedition of Josselyn. Mason, however,
it has already been seen, died in December, 1635. Written consequently
after May, 1634, the _New Canaan_, it would seem, received no revision
later than 1635. It represented Morton’s feelings during the time when
he was most confident of an early and triumphant return to New England.
It was published just when the affairs of Charles and Laud were at
their full flood, and before the tide had begun to ebb.

No mention is found of the _New Canaan_ at the time of its publication.
It is not known, indeed, that a single copy was sent out to New
England. Though it must have caused no little comment and scandal among
the friends and correspondents of the colonists, there is no allusion
to it in their published letters or in the documents of the time, and
in 1644 Winthrop apparently had never seen it. Bradford energetically
refers to it as “an infamouse and scurillous booke against many godly
and cheefe men of the cuntrie; full of lyes and slanders, and fraight
with profane callumnies against their names and persons, and the ways
of God.”[152] A copy of it may, therefore, have been brought over to
Plymouth by one of the agents of the colony, and there passed from hand
to hand. It does not appear, however, that at the time it attracted
any general or considerable notice in America; while in England, of
course, it would have interested only a small class of persons.

There is one significant reference which would seem to indicate that
the publication of the _New Canaan_ was not agreeable to Gorges.
However much he might attack the charter of the Massachusetts Company,
Sir Ferdinando always showed himself anxious to keep on friendly
terms with the leading men of the colony. In the _Briefe Narration_
he takes pains to speak of “the patience and wisdom of Mr. Winthrop,
Mr. Humphreys, Mr. Dudley, and others their assistants;”[153] and with
Winthrop he was in correspondence, even authorizing him and others
to act for him in Maine. He deceived no one by this, for Winthrop
afterwards described him as “pretending by his letters and speeches to
seek our welfare;”[154] but he evidently had always in mind that he
was to go out some day to New England as a governor-general, and that
it would not do for him to be too openly hostile to those over whom he
proposed to rule. He regarded them as his people. When, therefore, he
had occasion to write to Winthrop in August, 1637, though he made no
reference to the _New Canaan_, which had probably been published early
in the year, he took pains to say that Morton was “wholely casheered
from intermedlinge with anie our affaires hereafter.”[155]

It is however open to question whether, in making this statement,
Gorges was not practising a little of that king-craft for which his
master, James I., had been so famous. In 1637 Morton may have been
in disgrace with him; but if so it was a passing disgrace. Four years
later, in 1641, Sir Ferdinando, as “Lord of the Province of Maine,”
indulged his passion for feudal regulation by granting a municipal
charter to the town of Acomenticus, now York. A formidable document of
great import, this momentous state paper was signed and delivered by
the Lord Paramount, much as an English sovereign might have granted
a franchise to his faithful city of London; and accordingly it was
countersigned by three witnesses, one of them a member of his own
family. First of the three witnesses to sign was Thomas Morton.[156] He
evidently was in no disgrace then.

With the exception of this signature to the Acomenticus charter, there
is no trace to be found of Morton between August 1637, when Gorges
wrote that he had “casheered” him, and the summer of 1643, when he
reappeared once more at Plymouth. During the whole of that time things
evidently went with him, as they did with Charles and Laud, from bad
to worse. Once only had the Lords Commissioners given any signs of
life. This was in the spring of 1638, when on the 4th of April the
Board met at Whitehall. The record of the meeting states that petitions
and complaints from Massachusetts, for want of a settled and orderly
government, were growing more frequent. This is very possible, for
the Antinomian Controversy was then at its height, and indeed, the
very day the Lords Commissioners met, Mrs. Hutchinson, having left
Boston in obedience to Governor Winthrop’s mandate a week before, was
on her way to join her husband and friends in Rhode Island. Under
these circumstances, calling to mind the futile order for the return
of the charter, sent to Winthrop in 1634 through Cradock, and taking
official notice of the result of the _quo warranto_ proceedings, the
Board resolved upon a more decided tone. The clerk in attendance was
instructed to send out to Massachusetts a peremptory demand for the
immediate surrender of the charter. It was to be sent back to London by
the return voyage of the vessel which carried out the missive of the
Board; “it being resolved,” so that missive ran, “that in case of any
further neglect or contempt by them shewed therein, their Lordships
will cause a strict course to be taken against them, and will move his
Majesty to reassume into his own hands the whole plantation.”[157]

If, as was probably the case, Morton was the secret mover of this
action, it proved to be his last effort. It was completely fruitless
also. When the order reached Boston, sometime in the early summer of
1638, it naturally caused no little alarm, for the apprehension of a
general governor had not yet disappeared. Indeed, on the 12th of April,
“a general fast [had been] kept through all the churches, by advice
from the Court, for seeking the Lord to prevent evil that we feared to
be intended against us from England by a general governor.”[158] With
the missive of the Lords Commissioners, however, came also tidings
of “the troubles which arose in Scotland about the Book of Common
Prayer and the canons which the King would have forced upon the Scotch
churches.”[159] The result was that in August, instead of sending out
the charter, Governor Winthrop, at the direction of the General Court,
wrote “to excuse our not sending of it; for it was resolved to be best
not to send it.”[160]

Archbishop Laud molested the colony no further. Doubtless Morton yet
endeavored more than once to stir him up to action, and the next year
he received from New England other and bitter complaints of the same
character as those which had come to him before. This time it was the
Rev. George Burdet--a disreputable clergyman, subsequently a thorn
in Gorges’s side as now in that of Winthrop--who wrote to him. The
harassed and anxious Primate could, however, only reply that “by reason
of the much business now lay upon them, [the Lords Commissioners] could
not at present ... redress such disorders as he had informed them
of.”[161] Events in England and Scotland were then moving on rapidly as
well as steadily to their outcome, and Massachusetts was bidden to take
care of itself.

Nothing more is heard of Morton until the summer of 1643. The Civil
War was then dragging along in its earlier stages, before Fairfax and
Cromwell put their hands to it. It was the summer during which Prince
Rupert took Bristol and the first battle of Newbury was fought,--the
summer made memorable by the deaths of Hampden and Falkland. Gorges had
identified himself with the Royalist side, and now Morton seems to have
been fairly starved out of England. When or how he came to Plymouth we
do not know; but, on the 11th of September, Edward Winslow, whom he
had eight years before “clapte up in the Fleete,”[162] thus wrote to
Winthrop:--

  “Concerning Morton, our Governor gave way that he should winter
  here, but begone as soon as winter breaks up. Captain Standish takes
  great offence thereat, especially that he is so near him as Duxbury,
  and goeth sometimes a fowling in his ground. He cannot procure the
  least respect amongst our people, liveth meanly at four shillings
  per week, and content to drink water, so he may diet at that price.
  But admit he hath a protection, yet it were worth the while to deal
  with him till we see it. The truth is I much question his pretended
  employment; for he hath here only showed the frame of a Common-weale
  and some old sealed commissions, but no inside known. As for Mr.
  Rigby if he be so honest, good and hopefull an instrument as report
  passeth on him, he hath good hap to light on two of the arrantest
  known knaves that ever trod on New English shore to be his agents
  east and west, as Cleaves and Morton: but I shall be jealous on him
  till I know him better, and hope others will take heed how they
  trust him who investeth such with power who have devoted themselves
  to the ruin of the country, as Morton hath. And for my part, (who
  if my heart deceive me not can pass by all the evil instrumentally
  he brought on me,) would not have this serpent stay amongst us, who
  out of doubt in time will get strength to him if he be suffered, who
  promiseth large portions of land about New Haven, Narragansett, &c.,
  to all that will go with him, but hath a promise but of one person
  who is old, weak and decrepid, a very atheist and fit companion for
  him. But, indeed, Morton is the odium of our people at present, and
  if he be suffered, (for we are diversely minded,) it will be just
  with God, who hath put him in our hands and we will foster such an
  one, that afterward we shall suffer for it.”[163]

The Rigby referred to in this letter was Mr. Alexander Rigby, an
English gentleman of wealth who, besides being a strong Puritan, was
a member of the Long Parliament, and at one time held a commission
as colonel in the army. Cleaves was the George Cleaves already
mentioned as having come out in 1637, with a protection under the
privy signet.[164] He had then appeared as an agent of Gorges, but
subsequently he had got possession in Maine of the “Plough patent,”
so called, under which the title to a large part of the province was
claimed adversely to Gorges.[165] This patent Cleaves induced Rigby to
buy, and the latter was now endeavoring to get his title recognized,
and ultimately succeeded in so doing. Cleaves, as well as Morton,
enjoyed the reputation of being “a firebrand of dissension,”[166] and
the two had long acted together. As Gorges had joined his fortunes to
the Royalist side, Morton clearly had nothing to gain by pretending
at Plymouth to be his agent or under his protection. So he seems to
have tried to pass himself off as a Commonwealth’s man, commissioned
by Rigby to act in his behalf. Winslow was probably quite right
in suspecting that this was all a pretence. Rigby’s claim was for
territory in Maine. It is not known that he ever had any interests in
Rhode Island or Connecticut. There can, in short, be little doubt that
Morton was now nothing more than a poor, broken-down, disreputable, old
impostor, with some empty envelopes and manufactured credentials in his
pocket.

At Plymouth, as would naturally be supposed, Morton made no headway.
But the province of Maine was then in an uneasy, troubled condition,
and there was reported to be a strong party for the king in the
neighborhood of Casco Bay. Thither accordingly Morton seems to have
gone in June, 1644.[167] His movements were closely watched, and
Endicott was notified that he would go by sea to Gloucester, hoping to
get a passage from thence to the eastward. A warrant for his arrest was
at once despatched, but apparently he eluded it; nor if he went there,
which, indeed, is doubtful, did Morton long remain in Maine. In August
he was in Rhode Island, and on the 5th of that month he is thus alluded
to in a letter from Coddington to Winthrop:--

  “For Morton he was [insinuating] who was for the King at his first
  coming to Portsmouth, and would report to such as he judged to be of
  his mind he was glad [to meet with] so many cavaliers; ... and he had
  lands to dispose of to his followers in each Province, and from Cape
  Ann to Cape Cod was one.... And that he had wrong in the Bay [to the]
  value of two hundred pounds, and made bitter complaints thereof. But
  Morton would let it rest till the Governor came over to right him;
  and did intimate he knew whose roast his spits and jacks turned.”[168]

Prospering in Rhode Island no more than at Plymouth, Morton is next
heard of as a prisoner in Boston. How he came within the clutches of
the Massachusetts magistrates is not known; his necessities or his
assurance may have carried him to Boston, or he may have been pounced
upon by Endicott’s officers as he was furtively passing through the
province. In whatever way it came about, he was in custody on the 9th
of September, just five weeks from the time of Coddington’s letter
to Winthrop, and the latter then made the following entry in his
Journal:[169]--

  “At the court of assistants Thomas Morton was called forth presently
  after the lecture, that the country might be satisfied of the justice
  of our proceeding against him. There was laid to his charge his
  complaint against us at the council board, which he denied. Then we
  produced the copy of the bill exhibited by Sir Christopher Gardiner,
  etc., wherein we were charged with treason, rebellion, etc., wherein
  he was named as a party or witness. He denied that he had any hand
  in the information, only was called as a witness. To convince him
  to be the principal party, it was showed: 1. That Gardiner had no
  occasion to complain against us, for he was kindly used and dismissed
  in peace, professing much engagement for the great courtesy he found
  here. 2. Morton had set forth a book against us, and had threatened
  us, and had prosecuted a _quo warranto_ against us, which he did not
  deny. 3. His letter was produced,[170] written soon after to Mr.
  Jeffreys, his old acquaintance and intimate friend.”

This passage is characteristic both of the man and of the time. The
prisoner now arraigned before the magistrates had been set in the
stocks, all his property had been confiscated, and his house had been
burned down before his eyes. He had been sent back to England, under a
warrant, to stand his trial for crimes it was alleged he had committed.
In England he had been released from imprisonment in due course of
law. Having now returned to Massachusetts, he was brought before the
magistrates, “that the country might be satisfied of the justice
of our proceeding against him.” As the result of this proceeding,
which broke down for want of proof, the alleged offender is again
imprisoned, heavily fined, and narrowly escapes a whipping. Under all
these circumstances, it becomes interesting to inquire what the exact
offence alleged against him was. It was stated by Winthrop. He had made
a “complaint against us at the council board.”

“The council board” thus referred to was the royal Privy Council. It
represented the king, the supreme power in the state, the source from
whence the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Company was derived. The
complaint, therefore, charged to have been made, was made to the common
superior, and it alleged the abuse, by an inferior, of certain powers
and privileges which that superior had granted. It would seem to have
been no easy task for the magistrates to point out, either to the
prisoner or to the country it was proposed to satisfy, any prescriptive
law, much less any penal statute, which made a criminal offence out of
a petition to the acknowledged supreme power in the state, even though
that petition set forth the alleged abuse of charter privileges.

But it is not probable that this view of the matter ever even suggested
itself to Winthrop and his associates. It does not seem even to have
been urged upon them by the prisoner. On the contrary he appears
to have accepted the inevitable, and practically admitted that a
complaint to the king was in Massachusetts, as Burdet had some years
before asserted, “accounted a perjury and treason in our general
courts,”[171] punishable at the discretion of the magistrates. Morton,
therefore, denied having made the complaint, and the magistrates were
unable to prove it against him. The most singular and unaccountable
feature in the proceedings is that the _New Canaan_ was not put in
evidence. Apparently there was no copy of it to be had. Could one
have been produced, it is scarcely possible that the avowed author of
the libellous strictures on Endicott, then himself governor, should
have escaped condign punishment of some sort from a bench of Puritan
magistrates. But Winthrop merely mentions that he had “set forth a book
against us,” and Maverick says that this was denied and could not be
proved.[172] Had a copy of the _New Canaan_ then been at hand, either
in Boston or at Plymouth, a glance at the titlepage would have proved
who “set [it] forth” beyond possibility of denial.

The only entry in the Massachusetts records relating to this proceeding
is as follows:--

  “For answer to Thomas Morton petition, the magistrates have called
  him publicly, and have laid divers things to his charge, which he
  denies; and therefore they think fit that further evidence be sent
  for into England, and that Mr Downing may have instructions to search
  out evidence against him, and he to lie in prison in the mean time,
  unless he find sufficient bail.”[173]

This entry is from the records of the General Court, held in November
1644. Among the unpublished documents in the Massachusetts archives
is yet another petition from Morton, bearing no date, but, from the
endorsement upon it, evidently submitted to the General Court of May,
1645, six months later, when Dudley was governor. This petition is as
follows:--

  _To the honored Court at Boston assembled:_

  The humble petition of Thomas Morton, prisoner.

  Your petitioner craveth the favour of this honored Court to cast back
  your eies and behould what your poore petitioner hath suffered in
  these parts.

  First, the petitioner’s house was burnt, and his goodes taken away.

  Secondly, his body clapt into Irons, and sent home in a desperat
  ship, unvittled, as if he had been a man worthy of death, which
  appeared contrary when he came there.

  Now the petitioner craves this further that you would be pleased to
  consider what is laid against him: (taking it for granted to be true)
  which is not proved: whether such a poore worme as I had not some
  cause to crawle out of this condition above mentioned.

  Thirdly, the petitioner craves this favoure of you, as to view his
  actions lately towards New England, whether they have not been
  serviceable to some gentlemen in the country; but I will not praise
  my selfe.

  Fourthly, the petitioner coming into these parts, which he loveth,
  on godly gentlemen’s imployments, and your worshipps having a former
  jelosy of him, and a late untrue intelligence of him, your petitioner
  has been imprisoned manie Moneths and laid in Irons to the decaying
  of his Limbs; Let your petitioner finde soe much favoure, as to see
  that you can passe by former offence, which finding the petitioner
  hopes he shall stand on his watch to doe you service as God shall
  enable him.

Upon this document, certainly humble enough in tone, appear the
following endorsements:--

  The house of Deputies desire the honored magistrates to return them
  a reason, wherefore the petitioner came not to his triall the last
  quarter Courte according to graunte (as they conceave) of a former
  petition presented to the Courte by him.

  ROBT. BRIDGES.

  The reason why he came not to his tryall was the not cominge of
  evidence out of England against him which we expect by the next ship.

  THO: DUDLEY _Gov^r_

  The house of Deputies have made choyce of Major Gibbons, and Captain
  Jennison to treate with the honored magistrates about this petition
  of Morton.

  ROBT. BRIDGES.

Singularly enough the Major Gibbons to whom Morton’s petition was
thus referred had, in former years, been one of his followers at
Merry-Mount. He was a man of ability and energy, the whole of whose
singular career, as traced in an interesting note of Palfrey’s, will
not bear a too close scrutiny.[174] At the time of Morton’s arrest by
Miles Standish, in 1629, Gibbons was probably one of those belonging
to the Merry-Mount company who had then “gone up into the inlands
to trade with the savages.”[175] During that summer he experienced
religion in a quite unexpected way, and now, in 1645, while his old
master was rotting in the Boston jail, Gibbons was a prosperous
merchant, a deputy to the General Court, and “chief military officer of
the train-band of the town.” Higher military honors and severe business
vicissitudes were in store for him. It nowhere appears whether under
these circumstances Major Gibbons had either the will or the ability to
be of service to his former chief, and Winthrop is the only authority
for what remains of Morton’s story. It is soon told.

  “Having been kept in prison about a year in expectation of further
  evidence out of England, he was again called before the court, and
  after some debate what to do with him, he was fined 100 pounds, and
  set at liberty. He was a charge to the country, for he had nothing,
  and we thought not fit to inflict corporal punishment upon him,
  being old and crazy, but thought better to fine him and give him his
  liberty, as if it had been to procure his fine, but indeed to leave
  him opportunity to go out of the jurisdiction, as he did soon after,
  and he went to Acomenticus, and living there poor and despised, he
  died within two years after.”[176]

Morton himself asserted that the harsh treatment he underwent in
prison, while waiting for that evidence from England which was to
convict him of some crime, broke down his health and hastened his end.
If he was indeed, as Maverick subsequently stated,[177] kept in jail
and, as he himself says, in irons, through an entire New England
winter, on the prison fare of those days, and without either fire or
bedding, this seems wholly probable.

       *       *       *       *       *

There was about Thomas Morton nothing that was remarkable. On the
contrary he was one of a class of men common enough in the days of
Elizabeth and the Stuarts to have found their way into the literature
of the period, as well as into that more modern romance which
undertakes to deal with it. It is the Alsatian Squire and Wildrake
type. Morton chanced to get out of place. He was a vulgar Royalist
libertine, thrown by accident into the midst of a Puritan community.
He was unable or unwilling to accept the situation, or to take himself
off; and hence followed his misfortunes and his notoriety. Had he in
1625, or even in 1629, gone to Virginia or to New York, he would have
lived in quiet and probably died in poverty, leaving nothing behind to
indicate that he had ever been. As it is, he will receive a mention in
every history of America.

More recently also certain investigators, who have approached the
subject from a Church of England point of view, have shown some
disposition to adopt Morton’s cause as their own, and to attribute
his persecution, not to his immoral life or illicit trade, but to his
devotion to the Book of Common Prayer.[178] It is another article in
the long impeachment of the founders of New England, and it has even
been alleged that “it still remains for Massachusetts to do justice to
Morton, who had his faults, though he was not the man his enemies, and
notably Bradford, declared him to be.”[179]

The _New English Canaan_ is the best and only conclusive evidence on
this point. In its pages Morton very clearly shows what he was, and the
nature of “his faults.” He was a born Bohemian, and as he passed on in
life he became an extremely reckless but highly amusing old debauchee
and tippler. When he was writing his book, Archbishop Laud was the
head of the board of Lords Commissioners. On the action of that board
depended all the author’s hopes. In view of this fact, there are, in
the _New Canaan_, few more delightful or characteristic passages than
that in which, describing his arrest by Standish, Morton announces that
it was “because mine host was a man that endeavored to advance the
dignity of the Church of England; which they, on the contrary part,
would labor to vilify with uncivil terms; envying against the sacred
Book of Common Prayer, and mine host that used it in a laudable manner
amongst his family as a practice of piety.”[180]

The part he was endeavoring to play when he wrote this passage was
one not very congenial to him, and he makes an awkward piece of work
of it. The sudden tone of sanctimony which he infuses into the words
quoted, hardly covers up the leer and gusto with which he had just
been describing the drunkenness and debauchery of Merry-Mount,--how
“the good liquor” had flowed to all comers, while “the lasses in
beaver-coats” had been welcome “night and day;” how “he that played
Proteus, with the help of Priapus, put their noses out of joint;” and
how that “barren doe” became fruitful, who is mysteriously alluded to
as a “goodly creature of incontinency” who had “tried a camp royal in
other parts.” Though, from the point of view before alluded to, it
has been asserted that the Massachusetts magistrates “invented ...
insinuations respecting [Morton’s] treatment of [the Indian] women,
whom, in reality, he had fought to instruct in the principles of
religion,”[181]--though this and other similar assertions have been
made with apparent gravity, yet it is impossible to read the third book
of the _New Canaan_, saturated as it is with drunkenness, ribaldry
and scoffing, without coming to the conclusion that _Don Quixote_,
_Rabelais_ and the _Decameron_ are far more likely to have been in
request at Merry-Mount than the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer.

Not that the _New Canaan_ is in itself an obscene or even a coarse
book. On the contrary, judged by the standard of its time, it is
singularly the reverse. Indeed it is almost wholly free from either
word or allusion which would offend the taste of the present day. Yet
the writer of the _New Canaan_ was none the less a scoffer, a man of
undevout mind. As to the allegation that his devotion to the Church
of England and its ritual was the cause of his arrest by the Plymouth
authorities, the answer is obvious and decisive. Blackstone was an
Episcopalian, and a devout one, retaining even in his wilderness home
the canonical coat which told of his calling.[182] Maverick and
Walford were Episcopalians; they lived and died such. The settlers
at Wessagusset were Episcopalians. In the dwellings of all these the
religious services of the times, customary among Episcopalians, were
doubtless observed, for they were all religious men. Yet not one of
them was ever in any way molested by the Plymouth people; but, on
the contrary, they one and all received aid and encouragement from
Plymouth. Episcopalians as they were, they all joined in dealing
with Morton as a common enemy and a public danger; and such he
unquestionably was. It was not, then, because he made use of the Common
Prayer that he was first driven from the Massachusetts Bay; it was
because he was a nuisance and a source of danger. That subsequently,
and by the Massachusetts authorities, he was dealt with in a way at
once high-handed and oppressive, has been sufficiently shown in these
pages. Yet it is by no means clear that, under similar circumstances,
he would not have been far more severely and summarily dealt with at a
later period, when the dangers of a frontier life had brought into use
an unwritten code, which evinced even a less regard for life than, in
Morton’s case, the Puritans evinced for property.[183]

As a literary performance the _New Canaan_, it is unnecessary to say,
has survived through no merits of its own. While it is, on the whole,
a better written book than the _Wonder-Working Providence_, it is not
so well written as Wood’s _Prospect_; and it cannot compare with what
we have from the pens of Smith or Gorges,--much less from those of
Winslow, Winthrop and, above all, Bradford. Indeed, it is amazing how
a man who knew as much as Morton knew of events and places now full of
interest, could have sat down to write about them at all, and then,
after writing so much, have told so little. Rarely stating anything
quite correctly,--the most careless and slipshod of authors,--he took a
positive pleasure in concealing what he meant to say under a cloud of
metaphor. Accordingly, when printed, the _New Canaan_ fell still-born
from the press, the only contemporaneous trace of it which can be
found in English literature being Butler’s often quoted passage in
_Hudibras_, in which the Wessagusset hanging is alluded to.[184] It
is even open to question whether this reference was due to Butler’s
having read the book. The passage referred to is in the second part
of _Hudibras_, which was not published until 1664, twenty-seven years
after the publication of the _New Canaan_. It is perfectly possible
that Butler may have known Morton; for in 1637 the future author of
_Hudibras_ was already twenty-five years old, and Morton lingered about
London for six or seven years after that. There are indications that
he knew Ben Jonson;[185] and, indeed, it is scarcely possible that
with his sense of humor and convivial tastes Morton should not often
have met the poets and playwrights of the day at the Mermaid. If he
and the author of _Hudibras_ ever did chance to meet, they must have
proved congenial spirits, for there is much that is Hudibrastic in the
_New Canaan_. Not impossibly, therefore, the idea of a vicarious New
England hanging dwelt for years in the brain of Butler, not as the
reminiscence of a passage he had read in some forgotten book, but as a
vague recollection of an amusing story which he had once heard Morton
tell.

It is, indeed, the author’s sense of humor, just alluded to, which
gives to the _New Canaan_ its only real distinction among the early
works relating to New England. In this respect it stands by itself.
In all the rest of those works, one often meets with passages of
simplicity, of pathos and of great descriptive power,--never with
anything which was both meant to raise a smile, and does it. The
writers seemed to have no sense of humor, no perception of the
ludicrous. Bradford, for instance, as a passage “rather of mirth
than of weight,” describes how he put a stop to the Christmas games
at Plymouth in 1621. There is a grim solemnity in his very chuckle.
Winthrop gives a long account of the penance of Captain John
Underhill, as he stood upon a stool in the church, “without a band,
in a foul linen cap pulled close to his eyes,” and “blubbering,”
confessed his adultery with the cooper’s wife.[186] Yet he evidently
recorded it with unbroken gravity. Then, in 1644, he mentions that
“two of our ministers’ sons, being students in the college, robbed
two dwelling-houses, in the night, of some 15 pounds. Being found
out, they were ordered by the governors of the college to be there
whipped, which was performed by the president himself--yet they were
about twenty years of age.”[187] If Morton had recorded this incident,
he could not have helped seeing a ludicrous side to it, and he would
have expressed it in some humorous, or at least in some grotesque way.
Winthrop saw the serious side of everything, and the serious side only.
In this he was like all the rest. Such solemnity, such everlasting
consciousness of responsibility to God and man, is grand and perhaps
impressive; but it grows wearisome. It is pleasant to have it broken
at last, even though that which breaks it is in some respects not to
be commended. A touch of ribaldry becomes bearable. Among what are
called _Americana_, therefore, the _New Canaan_ is and will always
remain a refreshing book. It is a connecting link. Poor as it may be,
it is yet all we have to remind us that in literature, also, Bradford
and Winthrop and Cotton were Englishmen of the time of Shakespeare and
Jonson and Butler.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

It remains only to speak of the bibliography of the _New Canaan_,
which at one time excited some discussion, and of the present edition.
Written before the close of 1635, the _New Canaan_ was printed at
Amsterdam in 1637. It has been reprinted but once,--by Force, in the
second volume of his _American Tracts_. The present is, therefore,
the second reprint, and the first annotated edition. For a number of
years it was supposed that copies of the book were in existence with
an alternative titlepage, bearing the imprint of Charles Greene, and
the date of 1632.[188] This supposition was, however, very carefully
examined into by Mr. Winsor in the _Harvard University Literary
Bulletins_ (Nos. 9 and 10, 1878-9, pp. 196, 244), and found to be
partially, at least, groundless. It was due to the fact that Force
made his reprint from a copy of the book in his collection, now in the
Library of Congress. That copy lacked a portion or the whole of the
titlepage; and the missing parts seem to have been supplied, without
mention of the fact being made, from the entry of the book under 1632
in White Kennet’s _Bibliothecæ Americanæ Primordia_. Apparently the
error originated in the following way. The _New Canaan_ was entered
for copyright in the Stationers’ Registers in London, November 18,
1633, in behalf of Charles Greene, the printer. There is no reason to
suppose that it was then completed, as it may have been entered by
its title alone. If it was, however, completed in part in 1633, the
internal evidence is conclusive that it was both revised[189] and added
to[190] as late as 1634; and, indeed, the Board of Lords Commissioners
for regulating Plantations, to which it is formally dedicated, was not
created until April 10th of that year. Greene did not print the book;
though, as will presently be seen, a certain number of copies may
possibly have been struck off for him with titlepages of their own. The
entry in the Stationers’ Registers was, however, afterwards discovered,
and seems then to have supplied by inference the date of publication,
which could not be learned from certain copies, the titlepages to which
were defective or wanting. The dates given in Lowndes’s _Manual_ would
seem to be simply incorrect.[191] Meanwhile, for reasons probably of
economy, though notice of publication had been given in London, the
book was actually printed in Holland, and the regular titlepage reads:
“Printed at Amsterdam by Jacob Frederick Stam, in the year 1637.” There
are copies, however, the titlepages of which read: “Printed for Charles
Greene, and are sold in Pauls Churchyard,” no date being given.[192] It
is not known that these copies differ in any other respect from those
bearing the usual imprint. The conclusion, therefore, would seem to
be that, as already stated, a number of copies may have been struck
off for Greene with a distinct titlepage. Properly speaking, however,
there seems to have been but one edition of the book. With the
exception of the Force titlepage, which has been shown to be erroneous,
there is no evidence of any copy being in existence bearing an earlier
date than the usual one of Amsterdam, 1637.

Copies of the _New Canaan_ are extremely rare. Savage, in his notes to
Winthrop (vol. i. p. *34), said that he had then, before 1825, never
heard of but one copy, “which was owned by his Excellency John Q.
Adams.” It is from that copy that the present edition is printed. Mr.
Adams purchased it while in Europe prior to the year 1801. It was that
copy also which was temporarily deposited in the Boston Athenæum in
1810, as mentioned in the _Monthly Anthology_ of that date (vol. viii.
p. 420), referred to in the _Harvard University Library Bulletin_,
(No. 9, p. 196). The Rev. George Whitney, in his _History of Quincy_
written in 1826, says (p. 11) that another “copy was lately presented
to the Adams Library of the town of Quincy by the Rev. Thaddeus Mason
Harris.”[193] In addition to these, some dozen or twenty other copies
in all are known to exist in various public and private collections in
America and Europe, several of which are enumerated in the _Literary
Bulletin_ just referred to.

Very many of the errors both in typography and punctuation, with
which the _New Canaan_ abounds, are obviously due to the fact that
it was printed in Amsterdam. The original manuscript it would seem
was no more legible than the manuscript of that period, as it has
come down to us, is usually found to be. At best it was not easy to
decipher. The copy of the _New Canaan_ was then put in the hands of a
compositor imperfectly, if at all, acquainted with English; and, if
the proof-sheets were ever corrected by any one, they certainly were
not corrected by the author or by a proof-reader really familiar with
his writing, or even with the tongue in which he wrote. Accordingly
pen flourishes were mistaken for punctuation marks, and these were
inserted without any regard to the context; familiar words appeared in
unintelligible shapes;[194] small letters were mistaken for capitals,
and capitals for small letters, and one letter was confounded with
another. In addition to these numerous mistakes in deciphering and
following the manuscript, ordinary typographical errors are not
uncommon; though in this respect the _New Canaan_ is less marked by
blemishes than under the circumstances would naturally be supposed.

Neither is this explanation of the curiously bad press-work of the
_New Canaan_ a mere conjecture. One other composition of Morton’s has
come down to us in the letter to Jeffreys, preserved by Winthrop.[195]
Let any one compare this letter with a chapter from the _New
Canaan_, and he will see at once that, while both are manifestly
productions from the same pen, they have been preserved under wholly
different circumstances. Take, for instance, the following identical
passages,--the one from the _New Canaan_ and the other from the letter
to Jeffreys, and they will sufficiently illustrate this point.

  NEW CANAAN.

  BOOK III. CHAPTER 31.

  And now mine Host being merrily disposed, haveing past many
  perillous adventures in that desperat Whales belly, beganne in a
  posture like Ionas, and cryed Repent you cruell Seperatists repent,
  there are as yet but 40. dayes if Iove vouchsafe to thunder,
  Charter and the Kingdome of the Seperatists will fall a sunder:
  Repent you cruell Schismaticks repent.


  LETTER TO JEFFREYS.

  SAVAGE’S WINTHROP, VOL. II. p. *190.

  So that now Jonas being set ashore may safely cry, repent you cruel
  separatists, repent, there are as yet but forty days. If Jove
  vouchsafe to thunder, the charter and kingdom of the separatists
  will fall asunder. Repent you cruel schismatics, repent.

The letter to Jeffreys is curiously characteristic of Morton. It
is written in the same inflated, metaphorical, enigmatic style as
the _New Canaan_. It is, however, perfectly intelligible and even
energetic. The reason is obvious. It was correctly copied by a man who
understood what the writer was saying. Accordingly it is as clear as
Winthrop’s own text. The _New Canaan_ would have been equally clear had
it been deciphered at the compositor’s form by a man with Winthrop’s
familiarity with English.

       *       *       *       *       *

There is some reason to think that the fancy for exact reproduction in
typography has of late years been carried to an extreme. Not only have
peculiarities of spelling, capitalization and type, which were really
characteristic of the past, been carefully followed, but abbreviations
and figures have been reproduced in type, which formerly were confined
to manuscripts, and are certainly never found in the better printed
books of the same period. It is certainly desirable in reprinting
quaint works, which it is not supposed will ever pass into the hands of
general readers, to have them appear in the dress of the time to which
they belong. Indeed they cannot be modernized in spelling, the use of
capitals, or even, altogether, in punctuation, without losing something
of their flavor. Yet, this notwithstanding, there is no good reason why
gross and manifest blunders, due to the ignorance of compositors and
the carelessness of proof-readers, should be jealously perpetuated as
if they were sacred things. This assuredly is carrying the spirit of
faithful reproduction to fanaticism. It is Chinese.

The rule followed, therefore, in the present edition has been to
reproduce the _New Canaan_ as it appeared in the Amsterdam edition of
1637, correcting only the punctuation, and such errors of the press as
are manifest and unmistakable. Very few changes have been made in the
use of capitals, and those only where it is obvious that a letter of
one kind in the copy was mistaken by the compositor for a letter of
another kind. An example of this is found at the top of page *14, where
“Captaine Davis’ fate,” in the author’s manuscript, is made to appear
as “Captain Davis Fate,” in the original text. The compositor evidently
mistook the small _f_, written with the old-fashioned flourish, for
an initial capital. The spelling has in no case been changed except
where the error, as in the case already cited of “muit” for “mint,” is
manifestly due to printers’ blunders. Mistakes of the press, such as
“legg” for “logg” (p. *77) and “vies” for “eies” (p. *152), have been
made right wherever they could be certainly detected.

No conjectural readings whatever have been inserted in the text. The
few passages, not more than four or five in number, in which, owing
probably to the failure of the compositor to decipher manuscript,
the meaning of the original is not clear, are reproduced exactly.
No liberties whatever have been taken with the original edition in
these cases, and all guesses which are indulged in as to the author’s
meaning, whether by the editor or others, are confined to the notes. In
a few places the text is obviously deficient. Words necessary to the
meaning are omitted in printing. Wherever these have been conjecturally
inserted, the inserted words are in brackets. In a very few cases,
words, which could clearly have found their way into the original only
through inadvertence, have been omitted. Attention is called in the
notes to every such omission.

The effort in the present edition has, in short, been to make it a
reproduction of the _New Canaan_; but the reproduction was to be an
intelligent, and not a servile one.

[Illustration]




  NEW ENGLISH CANAAN
  _OR_
  NEW CANAAN.

Containing an Abstract of New England,

_Composed in three Bookes_.

The first Booke setting forth the originall of the Natives, their
Manners and Customes, together with their tractable Nature and Love
towards the English.

The second Booke setting forth the naturall Indowments of the Country,
and what staple Commodities it yealdeth.

The third Booke setting forth, what people are planted there, their
prosperity, what remarkable accidents have happened since the first
planting of it, together with their Tenents and practise of their
Church.

_Written by_ Thomas Morton of Cliffords Inne gent, _upon tenne yeares
knowledge and experiment of the Country_.


[Illustration]


  Printed at AMSTERDAM,
  _By JACOB FREDERICK STAM.
  In the Yeare 1637_.




To the right honorable, the Lords and others of his Majesties most
honorable privy Councell, Commissioners, for the Government of all his
Majesties forraigne Provinces.[196]


_Right honorable_,

The zeale which I beare to the advauncement of the glory of God, the
honor of his Majesty, and the good of the weale publike hath incouraged
mee to compose this abstract, being the modell of a Rich, hopefull and
very beautifull Country worthy the Title of Natures Masterpeece, and
may be lost by too much sufferance. It is but a widowes mite, yet {4}
all that wrong and rapine hath left mee to bring from thence, where I
have indevoured my best, bound by my allegeance, to doe his Majesty
service. This in all humility I present as an offering, wherewith I
prostrate my selfe at your honorable footstoole. If you please to
vouchsafe it may receave a blessing from the Luster of your gracious
Beames, you shall make your vassaile happy, in that hee yet doth live
to shew how ready hee is, and alwayes hath bin, to sacrifice his
dearest blood, as becometh a loyall subject, for the honor of his
native Country. Being

  _your humors humble vassaile_
  THOMAS MORTON.




The Epistle to the Reader.


_GENTLE READER_,

I present to the publike view an abstract of New England, which I have
undertaken to compose by the incouragment of such genious spirits as
have been studious of the inlargment of his Majesties Territories;
being not formerly satisfied by the relations of such as, through
haste, have taken but a superficiall survey thereof: which thing time
hath enabled mee to performe more punctually to the life, and to give a
more exact accompt of what hath been required. I have therefore beene
willing to doe my indevoure to communicat the knowledge which I have
gained and collected together, by mine owne observation in the time of
my many yeares residence in those parts, to my loving Country men: For
the better information of all such as are desirous to be made partakers
of the blessings of God in that fertile Soyle, as well as those {8}
that, out of Curiosity onely, have bin inquisitive after nouelties.
And the rather for that I have observed how divers persons (not so
well affected to the weale publike in mine opinion), out of respect to
their owne private ends, have laboured to keepe both the practise of
the people there, and the Reall worth of that eminent Country concealed
from publike knowledge; both which I have abundantly in this discourse
layd open: yet if it be well accepted, I shall esteeme my selfe
sufficiently rewardded for my undertaking, and rest,

  _Your Wellwisher_.

  THOMAS MORTON.




In laudem Authoris.


  T’ Excuse the Author ere the worke be shewne
  Is accusation in it selfe alone;
  And to commend him might seeme oversight;
  So divers are th’ opinions of this age,
  So quick and apt, to taxe the moderne stage,
  That hard his taske is that must please in all:
  Example have wee from great Cæsars fall.
  But is the sonne to be dislik’d and blam’d,
  Because the mole is of his face asham’d?
  The fault is in the beast, not in the sonne;
  Give sicke mouthes sweete meates, fy! they relish none.
  But to the sound in censure, he commends
  His love unto his Country; his true ends,
  To modell out a Land of so much worth
  As untill now noe traveller setteth[197] forth;
  Faire Canaans second selfe, second to none,
  Natures rich Magazine till now unknowne.
  Then here survay what nature hath in store,
  And graunt him love for this. He craves no more.

  R. O. Gen.




Sir Christoffer Gardiner, Knight.[198]

In laudem Authoris.


  _This worke a matchles mirror is, that shewes
  The Humors of the seperatiste, and those
  So truely personated by thy pen.
  I was amaz’d to see’t; herein all men
  May plainely see, as in an inter-lude,
  Each actor figure; and the scæne well view’d
  In Comick,[199] Tragick, and in a pastorall strife,[200]
  For tyth of mint[201] and Cummin, shewes their life
  Nothing but opposition gainst the right
  Of sacred Majestie: men full of spight,
  Goodnes abuseing, turning vertue out
  Of Dores, to whipping, stocking, and full bent
  To plotting mischeife gainst the innocent,
  Burning their houses, as if ordained by fate,
  In spight of Lawe, to be made ruinate.
  This taske is well perform’d, and patience be
  Thy present comfort, and thy constancy
  Thine honor; and this glasse, where it shall come,
  Shall sing thy praises till the day of doome._

  Sir C. G.




In laudem Authoris.


  _Bvt that I rather pitty, I confesse,
  The practise of their Church, I could expresse
  Myselfe a Satyrist, whose smarting fanges
  Should strike it with a palsy, and the panges
  Beget a feare to tempt the Majesty
  Of those, or mortall Gods. Will they defie
  The Thundring Jove? Like children they desire,
  Such is their zeale, to sport themselves with fire:
  So have I seene an angry Fly presume
  To strike a burning taper, and consume
  His feeble wings. Why, in an aire so milde,
  Are they so monstrous growne up, and so vilde,
  That Salvages can of themselves espy
  Their errors, brand their names with infamy?
  What! is their zeale for blood like Cyrus thirst?
  Will they be over head and eares a curst?
  A cruell way to found a Church on! noe,
  T’is not their zeale but fury blinds them soe,
  And pricks their malice on like fier to joyne,
  And offer up the sacrifice of Kain.
  Jonas, thou hast done well to call these men
  Home to repentance, with thy painefull pen._

  F. C. Armiger.




  NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,
  _OR_
  NEW CANAAN.




_The Author’s Prologue._


  If art and industry should doe as much
  As Nature hath for Canaan, not such
  Another place, for benefit and rest,
  In all the universe can be possest.
  The more we proove it by discovery,
  The more delight each object to the eye
  Procures; as if the elements had here
  Bin reconcil’d, and pleas’d it should appeare
  Like a faire virgin, longing to be sped
  And meete her lover in a Nuptiall bed,
  Deck’d in rich ornaments t’ advaunce her state
  And excellence, being most fortunate
  When most enjoy’d: so would our Canaan be
  If well imploy’d by art and industry;
  Whose offspring now, shewes that her fruitfull wombe,
  Not being enjoy’d, is like a glorious tombe,
  Admired things producing which there dye,
  And ly fast bound in darck obscurity:
  The worth of which, in each particuler,
  Who list to know, this abstract will declare.




[Illustration]




  NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,
  OR
  NEW CANAAN.




_The first Booke._

  Containing the originall of the Natives, their manners & Customes,
  with their tractable nature and love towards the English.




CHAP. I.

  _Prooving New England the principall part of all America, and most
  commodious and fitt for habitation._


~_Vse of vegetatives._~

~_Fish poysonous about the Isle of Sall._~

The wise Creator of the universall Globe hath placed a golden meane
betwixt two extreames; I meane the temperate Zones, betwixt the hote
and cold; and every Creature, that participates of Heavens blessings
with in the Compasse of that golden meane, is made most {12} apt and
fit for man to use, who likewise by that wisedome is ordained to be
the Lord of all. This globe may be his glasse, to teach him how to use
moderation and discretion, both in his actions and intentions. The
wise man sayes, give mee neither riches nor poverty; why? Riches might
make him proud like Nebuchadnezar, and poverty despaire like Iobs wife;
but a meane betweene both. So it is likewise in the use of Vegetatives,
that which hath too much Heate or too much Colde, is said to be
venenum: so in the use of sensitives, all those Animals, of what genus
or species soever they be, if they participate of heate or cold in the
superlative are said to be _Inimica naturæ_, as in some Fishes about
the Isle of Sall, and those Ilandes adjoyninge between the Tropickes;
their participatinge of heate and cold, in the superlative, is made
most manifest, one of which poysoned a whole Ships company that eate of
it.[202] And so it is in Vipers, Toades, and Snakes, that have heate or
cold in the superlative degree.

~_Zona temperata, the Golden meane._~

~_Salt aboundeth under the Tropicks._~

~_Raine 40. dayes about August betweene Cancer and the Line._~

Therefore the Creatures that participate of heate and cold in a
meane, are best and holsomest: And so it is in the choyse of love,
the middell Zone betweene the two extreames is best, and it is
therefore called _Zona temperata_, and is in the golden meane; and
all those landes lying under that Zone, most requisite and fitt for
habitation. In Cosmography, the two extreames are called, the one
_Torrida Zona_, lying betweene the Tropickes, the other _Frigida
Zona_, lying neare the poles: all the landes lying under either of
these Zones, by reason they doe participate too {13} much of heate or
cold, are very inconvenient, and are accompanied with many evils. And
allthough I am not of opinion with Aristotle,[203] that the landes
under _Torrida Zona_ are alltogether uninhabited, I my selfe having
beene so neare the equinoctiall line that I have had the Sunn for my
Zenith and seene proofe to the contrary, yet cannot I deny but that
it is accompanied with many inconveniences, as that Fish and Flesh
both will taint in those partes, notwithstanding the use of Salt which
cannot be wanting there, ordained by natures hande-worke; And that is
a great hinderance to the settinge forth and supply of navigation, the
very Sinewes of a florishing Commonwealth. Then barrennesse, caused
through want of raines, for in most of those partes of the world it
is seldome accustomed to raine untill the time of the Tornathees (as
the Portingals[204] phrase is, who lived there) and then it will raine
about 40. dayes together, which moisture serveth to fructify the earth
for all the yeare after, duringe which time is seene no raine at all:
the heate and cold, and length of day and night, being much alike,
with little difference. And these raines are caused by the turning of
the windes, which else betweene the Tropickes doe blow Trade, that
is allwayes one way. For next the Tropicke of Cancer it is constantly
North-East, and next the Tropicke of Capricorne it is Southwest; so
that the windes comming from the Poles, do keepe the aire in those
partes coole, and make it temperate and the partes habitable, were it
not for those and other inconveniences.

~_Capt. Davis froze to death._~

~_Groene Land too cold for habitation._~

{14} This _Torrida Zona_ is good for Grashoppers: and _Zona Temperata_
for the Ant and Bee. But _Frigida Zona_ [is] good for neither, as by
lamentable experience of Captaine Davis fate is manifest, who in his
inquest of the Northwest passage for the East India trade was frozen to
death.[205] And therefore, for _Frigida Zona_, I agree with Aristotle
that it is unfit for habitation:[206] and I know by the Course of
the cælestiall globe that in Groeneland, many Degrees short of the
Pole Articke, the place is too cold, by reason of the Sunns absence
almost six monethes, and the land under the continuall power of the
frost; which thinge many more Navigators have prooved with pittifull
experience of their wintringe there, as appeareth by the history. I
thinke they will not venture to winter there againe for an India mine.

~_Sir Ferdinando Gorges the originall cause of plantinge New
England._~

And as it is found by our Nation under the Pole Articke, so it is
likewise to be found under the Antarticke Pole; yet what hazard will
not an industrious minde and couragious spirit undergoe, according to
that of the Poet: _Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos per mare
pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes._[207] And all to gett and hord
up like the Ant and the Bee; and yet, as Salomon saith,[208] he cannot
tell whether a foole or a wise man shall enjoy it. Therefore let us
leave these two extreames, with their inconveniences, and indeavour to
finde out this golden meane, so free from any one of them. Behold the
secret wisedome of allmighty God, and love unto our Salomon, to raise
a man of a lardge hart, full of worthy abilities, to be the Index or
Loadstarre, that doth point out {15} unto the English Nation with ease
and comfort how to finde it out. And this the noble minded Gentleman,
Sir Ferdinando Gorges,[209] Knight, zealous for the glory of God, the
honor of his Majesty and the benefit of the weale publicke, hath done
a great worke for the good of his Country.

~_The Salvages dyed of the plague._~

And herein this, the wondrous wisedome and love of God, is shewne,
by sending to the place his Minister, to sweepe away by heapes the
Salvages; and also giving him length of dayes to see the same performed
after his enterprise was begunne, for the propagation of the Church of
Christ.

This judicious Gentleman hath found this goulden meane to be scituated
about the middle of those two extreames, and for directions you may
proove it thus: Counting the space betweene the Line and either of
the Poles, in true proportion, you shall finde it to be 90. Degrees:
then must we finde the meane to be neare unto the Center of 90. and
that is about 45. Degrees, and then incline unto the Sotherne side of
that Center, properly for the benefit of heate, remembringe that _Sol
& <DW25> generàt hominem_; and then keepe us on that same side, and see
what Land is to be found there, and we shall easily discerne that new
England is on the South side of that Center.

~_New Engl. is placed in the golden meane._~

~_New England 10. Degrees neerer the line then old England._~

~_The Massachussets in the middel of New England._~

~_The Windes not so violent in New England._~

For that Country doth beginne her boundes at 40. Degrees of Northerne
latitude, and endes at 45. Degrees of the same latitude, and doth
participate of heate and cold indifferently, but is oppressed with
neither: and therefore may be truly sayd to be within the compasse of
that golden meane, most apt and fit {16} for habitation and generation,
being placed by Allmighty God, the great Creator, under that Zone
called _Zona temperata_; and is therefore most fitt for the generation
and habitation of our English nation, of all other, who are more neere
neighbours to the Northerne Pole, whose Land lyeth betweene 50. and
54. Degrees of the selfesame latitude: now this new England, though
it be nearer to the line then that old England by 10. Degrees of
latitude, yet doth not this exceede that other in heate or cold, by
reason of the cituation of it; for as the Coast lyeth, being circularly
Northeast and Southwest, opposite towards the Sunnes risinge, which
makes his course over the Ocean, it can have litle or no reflecting
heat of the Sun-beames, by reason of the continuall motion of the
waters makinge the aire there the cooler and the constanter; so that
for the temperature of the Climent, sweetnesse of the aire, fertility
of the Soile, and small number of the Salvages (which might seeme a
rubb in the way off an effeminate minde,) this Country of new England
is by all judicious men accounted the principall part of all America
for habitation and the commodiousnesse of the Sea, Ships there not
being subject to wormes as in Virginea and other places, and not to be
paraleld in all Christendome. The Massachussets, being the middell
part thereof, is a very beautifull Land, not mountany nor inclininge to
mountany, lyeth in 42. Degrees, and 30. minutes, and hath as yet[210]
the greatest number of inhabitants; and hath a very large bay to it
divided by Islands into 4 great bayes,[211] where shippinge may safely
ride, {17} all windes and weathers, the windes in those partes being
not so violent as in England by many Degrees: for there are no shrubbs
seene to leane from the windes, as by the Sea Coast of England I have
seene them leane, and the groundage is a sandy sleech,[212] free from
rockes to gaule Cables, but is good for anchorage: the rest of the
Planters are disperst among the Coasts betweene 41. and 44. Degrees of
Latitude, and as yet, have [made] very little way into the inland.[213]
The riches of which Country I have set forth in this abstract as in a
Landskipp, for the better information of the Travellers; which hee may
peruse and plainely perceave by the demonstration of it, that it is
nothing inferior to Canaan of Israel, but a kind of paralell to it in
all points.




CHAP. II.

  _Of the originall of the Natives._


~_The Natives have a mixed language._~

~_Pasco Pan greedy gutt._~

~_Mona an Island._~

In the yeare since the incarnation of Christ, 1622, it was my chance to
be landed in the parts of New England,[214] where I found two sortes
of people, the one Christians, the other Infidels; these I found
most full of humanity, and more friendly then the other: as shall
hereafter be made apparant in Dew-Course by their severall actions
from time to time, whilest I lived among them. After my arrivall in
those partes, I endeavoured by all the wayes and meanes that I could to
find out from what people, or nation, the Natives of {18} New England
might be conjectured originlly to proceede; and by continuance and
conversation amongst them, I attaned to so much of their language, as
by all probable conjecture may make the same manifest: for it hath
been found by divers, and those of good judgement, that the Natives
of this Country doe use very many wordes, both of Greeke and Latine,
to the same signification that the Latins and Greekes have done; as
_en animia_,[215] when an Indian expresseth that hee doth anything
with a good will; and _Pascopan_[216] signifieth gredy gut, this
being the name of an Indian that was so called of a Child, through
the greedinesse of his minde and much eating, for _Pasco_ in Latine
signifieth to feede, and _Pan_ in Greeke signifieth all; and _Pasco
nantum,[217] quasi pasco nondum_, halfe starved, or not eating, as yet;
_Equa coge_,[218] set it upright; _Mona_[219] is an Island in their
language, _quasi Monon_, that is alone, for an Island is a peece or
plott of ground standing alone, and devided from the mane Land by force
of water.

~_Cos a Whetstone._~

~_Pan the Shepheards God._~

_Cos_[220] is a Whetstone with them. _Hame_[221] an instrument to take
fish. Many places doe retaine the name of _Pan_, as Pantneket[222]
and _Matta pan_,[223] so that it may be thought that these people
heretofore have had the name of _Pan_ in great reverence and
estimation, and it may bee have worshipped _Pan_ the great God of the
Heathens: Howsoever they doe use no manner of worship at all now: and
it is most likely that the Natives of this Country are descended from
people bred upon that part of the world which is towardes {19} the
Tropicke of Cancer, for they doe still retaine the memory of some of
the Starres one that part of the Cælestiall Globe, as the North-starre,
which with them is called Maske,[224] for Maske in their Language
signifieth a Beare: and they doe divide the windes into eight partes,
and it seemes originally have had some litterature amongst them, which
time hath Cancelled and worne out of use.

~_Not to proceede from the Tartars._~

~_No part of America knowne to be neare Tartary._~

~_Why Brutus left Latium._~

~_Two nations meetinge make a mixt language._~

And whereas it hath beene the opinion of some men, which shall be
nameles, that the Natives of New-England may proceede from the race
of the Tartars, and come from Tartaria into those partes,[225] over
the frozen Sea, I see no probality for any such Conjecture; for as
much as a people once setled must be remooved by compulsion, or else
tempted thereunto in hope of better fortunes, upon commendations of the
place unto which they should be drawne to remoove: and if it may be
thought that these people came over the frozen Sea, then would it be by
compulsion? if so, then by whome, or when? or what part of this mane
continent may be thought to border upon the Country of the Tartars,
it is yet unknowne: and it is not like, that a people well enough at
ease will of their one accord undertake to travayle over a Sea of
Ice, considering how many difficulties they shall encounter with; as
first, whether there be any Land at the end of their unknowne way, no
Land beinge in view; then want of Food to sustane life in the meane
time upon that Sea of Ice; or {20} how should they doe for Fuell, to
keepe them at night from freezing to death, which will not bee had in
such a place. But it may perhaps be granted that the Natives of this
Country might originally come of the scattred Trojans: For after that
Brutus, who was the forth from Aneas, left Latium upon the conflict
had with the Latines, (where although hee gave them a great overthrow,
to the Slaughter of their grand Captaine and many other of the Heroes
of Latium, yet hee held it more safety to depart unto some other place
and people, then by staying to runne the hazard of an unquiet life or
doubtfull Conquest, which as history maketh mention hee performed,)
this people were dispersed: there is no question but the people that
lived with him, by reason of their conversation with the Græcians and
Latines, had a mixed language that participated of both, whatsoever was
that which was proper to their owne nation at first I know not: for
this is commonly seene where 2. nations traffique together, the one
indevouring to understand the others meaning makes them both many times
speak a mixed language, as is approoved by the Natives of New England,
through the coveteous desire they have to commerce with our nation and
wee with them.

~_Dædalus the first that used Sayles._~

~_Icarus the second that used Sayles._~

~_Troy destroyed about Sauls time._~

~_The Loadstone in Salomons time._~

And when Brutus did depart from Latium, we doe not finde that his whole
number went with him at once, or arrived at one place; and being put to
Sea might encounter with a storme that would carry them out of sight
of Land, and then they might sayle God knoweth whether, and so might
be put upon this {21} Coast, as well as any other. Compasse I beleeve
they had none in those dayes; Sayles they might have, (which Dædalus
the first inventor thereof left to after ages, having taught his Sonne
Icarus the use of it, who to this Cost found how dangerous it is for a
Sonne not to observe the precepts of a wise Father, so that the Icarian
Sea now retaines the memory of it to this day,) and Victuals they might
have good store, and many other things fittinge; oares without all
question they would store themselves with, in such a case; but for the
use of Compasse, there is no mention made of it at that time (which
was much about Sauls time, the first that was made King of Israell.)
Yet it is thought (and that not without good reason for it) that the
use of the Loadstone and Compasse was knowne in Salomons time, for as
much as hee sent Shippes to fetch of the gould of Ophir, to adorne and
bewtify that magnificent Temple of Hierusalem by him built for the
glory of Almighty God, and by his speciall appointment: and it is held
by Cosmographers to be 3. yeares voyage from Hierusalem to Ophir, and
it is conceaved that such a voyage could not have beene performed,
without the helpe of the Loadstone and Compasse.

And why should any man thinke the Natives of New England to be the
gleanings of all Nations, onely because by the pronunciation and
termination their words seeme to trench upon severall languages,
when time hath not furnished him with the interpretation thereof.
The thinge that must induce a man of reasonable capacity to any
maner of conjecture of {22} their originall, must be the sence and
signification of the words, principally to frame this argument by,
when hee shall drawe to any conclusion thereupon: otherwise hee shall
but runne rounde about a maze (as some of the fantasticall tribe use
to do about the tythe of mint[226] and comin.) Therefore, since I have
had the approbation of Sir Christopher Gardiner,[227] Knight, an able
gentl. that lived amongst them, and of David Tompson,[228] a Scottish
gentl. that likewise was conversant with those people, both Scollers
and Travellers that were diligent in taking notice of these things,
as men of good judgement, and that have bin in those parts any time,
besides others of lesse, now I am bold to conclude that the originall
of the Natives of New England may be well conjectured to be from the
scattered Trojans, after such time as Brutus departed from Latium.[229]




CHAP. III.

  _Of a great mortality that happened amongst the Natives of New
  England, neere about the time that the English came there to plant._


~_Five Frenchmen kept by the Salvages._~

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, {23} then riding at Anchor by an
Island there, now called Peddocks Island,[230] in memory of Leonard
Peddock[231] that landed there, (where many wilde Anckies[232] haunted
that time, which hee thought had bin tame,) distributing them unto 5.
Sachems, which were Lords of the severall territories adjoyninge: they
did keepe them so longe as they lived, onely to sport themselves at
them, and made these five Frenchmen fetch them wood and water, which is
the generall worke that they require of a servant.[233] One of these
five men, out livinge 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 hee would in his displeasure destroy
them; but the Salvages (it seemes boasting of their strenght,) replyed
and sayd, that they were so many that God could not kill them.[234]

~_The Plague fell on the Indians._~

~_The livinge not able to bury the dead._~

But contrary wise, in short time after the hand of God fell heavily
upon them, with such a mortall stroake that they died on heapes 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 there Carkases ly
above the ground without buriall. For in a place where many inhabited,
there hath been but one left a live to tell what became of the rest;
the livinge being (as it seemes) not able to bury the dead, they
were left for Crowes, Kites and vermin to pray upon. And the bones
and skulls upon the severall places of their habitations made such a
spectacle after my comming into those partes, that, as I travailed in
that Forrest nere the Massachussets, it seemed to mee a new found
Golgatha.

~_2 Sam. 24._~

{24} But otherwise, it is the custome of those Indian people to bury
their dead ceremoniously and carefully, and then to abandon that
place, because they have no desire the place should put them in minde
of mortality: and this mortality was not ended when the Brownists
of new Plimmouth were setled at Patuxet in New England: and by all
likelyhood the sicknesse that these Indians died of was the Plague,
as by conference with them since my arrivall and habitation in those
partes, I have learned.[235] And by this meanes there is as yet but
a small number of Salvages in New England, to that which hath beene
in former time, and the place is made so much the more fitt for the
English Nation to inhabit in, and erect in it Temples to the glory of
God.




CHAP. IV.

  _Of their Houses and Habitations._


The Natives of New England are accustomed to build them houses much
like the wild Irish; they gather Poles in the woodes and put the
great end of them in the ground, placinge them in forme of a circle
or circumference, and, bendinge the topps of them in forme of an
Arch, they bind them together with the Barke of Walnut trees, which
is wondrous tuffe, so that they make the same round on the Topp {25}
for the smooke of their fire to assend and passe through; these they
cover with matts, some made of reeds and some of longe flagges, or
sedge, finely sowed together with needles made of the splinter bones
of a Cranes legge, with threeds made of their Indian hempe, which
their groueth naturally, leaving severall places for dores, which are
covered with mats, which may be rowled up and let downe againe at their
pleasures, making use of the severall dores, according as the winde
sitts.[236] The fire is alwayes made in the middest of the house, with
winde fals commonly: yet some times they fell a tree that groweth neere
the house, and, by drawing in the end thereof, maintaine the fire on
both sids, burning the tree by Degrees shorter and shorter, untill it
be all consumed; for it burneth night and day. Their lodging is made
in three places of the house about the fire; they lye upon plankes,
commonly about a foote or 18. inches aboue the ground, raised upon
railes that are borne up upon forks; they lay mats under them, and
Coats of Deares skinnes, otters, beavers, Racownes, and of Beares
hides, all which they have dressed and converted into good lether,
with the haire on, for their coverings: and in this manner they lye
as warme as they desire.[237] In the night they take their rest; in
the day time, either the kettle is on with fish or flesh, by no
allowance, or else the fire is imployed in roasting of fishes, which
they delight in.[238] The aire doeth beget good stomacks, and they
feede continually, and are no niggards of their vittels; for they are
willing that any one shall eate with them. Nay, if any one that shall
come into their {26} houses and there fall a sleepe, when they see him
disposed to lye downe, they will spreade a matt for him of their owne
accord, and lay a roule of skinnes for a boulster, and let him lye.
If hee sleepe untill their meate be dished up, they will set a wooden
boule of meate by him that sleepeth, and wake him saying, Cattup keene
Meckin[239]: That is, If you be hungry, there is meat for you, where if
you will eate you may. Such is their Humanity.[240]

Likewise, when they are minded to remoove, they carry away the mats
with them; other materiales the place adjoyning will yeald. They use
not to winter and summer in one place, for that would be a reason to
make fuell scarse; but, after the manner of the gentry of Civilized
natives, remoove for their pleasures; some times to their hunting
places, where they remaine keeping good hospitality for that season;
and sometimes to their fishing places, where they abide for that season
likewise: and at the spring, when fish comes in plentifully, they have
meetinges from severall places, where they exercise themselves in
gaminge and playing of juglinge trickes and all manner of Revelles,
which they are deligted in; [so] that it is admirable to behould what
pastime they use of severall kindes, every one striving to surpasse
each other.[241] After this manner they spend their time.




{27} CHAP. V.

  _Of their Religion._


It has bin a common receaved opinion from Cicero,[242] that there
is no people so barbarous but have some worshipp or other. In this
particular, I am not of opinion therein with Tully; and, surely, if
hee had bin amongst those people so longe as I have bin, and conversed
so much with them touching this matter of Religion, hee would have
changed his opinion. Neither should we have found this error, amongst
the rest, by the helpe of that wodden prospect,[243] if it had not
been so unadvisedly built upon such highe land as that Coast (all
mens judgements in generall,) doth not yeeld, had hee but taken the
judiciall councell of Sir William Alexander, that setts this thing
forth in an exact and conclusive sentence; if hee be not too obstinate?
hee would graunt that worthy writer, that these people are _sine fide,
sine lege, & sine rege_,[244] and hee hath exemplified this thinge by
a familiar demonstration, which I have by longe experience observed to
be true.

And, me thinks, it is absurd to say they have a kinde of worship, and
not able to demonstrate whome or what it is they are accustomed to
worship. For my part I am more willing to beleeve that the Elephants
(which are reported to be the most intelligible of all beasts) doe
worship the moone, for the reasons {28} given by the author of this
report, as M^r. Thomas May, the minion of the Muses dos recite it in
his continuation of Lucans historicall poem,[245] rather then this man:
to that I must bee constrained, to conclude against him, and Cicero,
that the Natives of New England have no worship nor religion at all;
and I am sure it has been so observed by those that neede not the helpe
of a wodden prospect for the matter.




CHAP. VI.

  _Of the Indians apparrell._


The Indians in these parts do make their apparrell of the skinnes of
severall sortes of beastes, and commonly of those that doe frequent
those partes where they doe live; yet some of them, for variety, will
have the skinnes of such beasts that frequent the partes of their
neighbors, which they purchase of them by Commerce and Trade.

~_The Indians make good lether._~

~_Indians ingenious workemen for their garments._~

~_The modesty of the Indian men._~

~_Indians travaile with materials to strike fire at all
times._~

These skinnes they convert into very good lether, making the same
plume and soft. Some of these skinnes they dresse with the haire on,
and some with the haire off; the hairy side in winter time they weare
next their bodies, and in warme weather they weare the haire outwardes:
they make likewise some Coates of the Feathers of Turkies, which they
weave together with twine of their owne makinge, very prittily: these
garments they weare like mantels knit over {29} their shoulders, and
put under their arme: they have likewise another sort of mantels, made
of Mose skinnes, which beast is a great large Deere so bigge as a
horse; these skinnes they commonly dresse bare, and make them wondrous
white, and stripe them with size round about the borders, in forme like
lace set on by a Taylor, and some they stripe with size in workes of
severall fashions very curious, according to the severall fantasies of
the workemen, wherein they strive to excell one another: And Mantels
made of Beares skinnes is an usuall wearinge, among the Natives that
live where the Beares doe haunt: they make shooes of Mose skinnes,
which is the principall leather used to that purpose; and for want
of such lether (which is the strongest) they make shooes of Deeres
skinnes, very handsomly and commodious; and, of such deeres skinnes as
they dresse bare, they make stockinges that comes within their shooes,
like a stirrop stockinge, and is fastned above at their belt, which is
about their middell; Every male, after hee attaines unto the age which
they call Pubes, wereth a belt about his middell, and a broad peece of
lether that goeth betweene his leggs and is tuckt up both before and
behinde under that belt; and this they weare to hide their secreats
of nature, which by no meanes they will suffer to be seene, so much
modesty they use in that particular; those garments they allwayes put
on, when they goe a huntinge, to keepe their skinnes from the brush of
the Shrubbs: and when they have their Apparrell one they looke like
Irish in {30} their trouses, the Stockinges joyne so to their breeches.
A good well growne deere skin is of great account with them, and it
must have the tale on, or else they account it defaced; the tale being
three times as long as the tales of our English Deere, yea foure times
so longe, this when they travell is raped round about their body, and,
with a girdle of their making, bound round about their middles, to
which girdle is fastned a bagg, in which his instruments be with which
hee can strike fire upon any occasion.[246]

Thus with their bow in their left hand, and their quiuer of Arrowes at
their back, hanging one their left shoulder with the lower end of it in
their right hand, they will runne away a dogg trot untill they come to
their journey end; and, in this kinde of ornament, they doe seeme to me
to be hansomer then when they are in English apparrell, their gesture
being answerable to their one habit and not unto ours.

~_The Indians ashamed of their nakednesse._~

Their women have shooes and stockinges to weare likewise when they
please, such as the men have, but the mantle they use to cover their
nakednesse with is much longer then that which the men use; for, as the
men have one Deeres skinn, the women have two soed together at the full
lenght, and it is so lardge that it trailes after them like a great
Ladies trane; and in time I thinke they may have their Pages to beare
them up; and where the men use but one Beares skinn for a Mantle, the
women have two soed together; and if any of their women would at any
time shift one, they take that which they intend to make use of, and
{31} cast it over them round, before they shifte away the other, for
modesty, being unwilling to be seene to discover their nakednesse; and
the one being so cast over, they slip the other from under them in a
decent manner, which is to be noted in people uncivilized; therein they
seeme to have as much modesty as civilized people, and deserve to be
applauded for it.[247]




CHAP. VII.

  _Of their Child-bearing, and delivery, and what manner of persons
  they are._


~_The women big with child very laborious._~

~_Children bathed to staine the skinne._~

The women of this Country are not suffered to be used for procreation
untill the ripenesse of their age, at which time they weare a redd
cap made of lether, in forme like to our flat caps, and this they
weare for the space of 12 moneths, for all men to take notice of them
that have any minde to a wife; and then it is the custome of some of
their Sachems or Lords of the territories, to have the first say or
maidenhead of the females.[248] Very apt they are to be with childe,
and very laborious when they beare children; yea, when they are as
great as they can be: yet in that case they neither forbeare laboure,
nor travaile; I have seene them in that plight with burthens at their
backs enough to load a horse; yet doe they not miscarry, but have a
faire delivery, and a quick: their women are very good midwifes, and
the women very lusty after {32} delivery, and in a day or two will
travell or trudge about.[249] Their infants are borne with haire on
their heads, and are of complexion white as our nation; but their
mothers in their infancy make a bath of Wallnut leaves, huskes of
Walnuts, and such things as will staine their skinne for ever, wherein
they dip and washe them to make them tawny[250]; the coloure of their
haire is black, and their eyes black. These infants are carried at
their mothers backs by the help of a cradle made of a board forket at
both ends, whereon the childe is fast bound and wrapped in furres;
his knees thrust up towards his bellie, because they may be the more
usefull for them when he sitteth, which is as a dogge does on his
bumme: and this cradle surely preserues them better then the cradles
of our nation, for as much as we finde them well proportioned, not any
of them crooked backed or wry legged: and to give their charracter in
a worde, they are as proper men and women for feature and limbes as
can be found, for flesh and bloud as active: longe handed they are, (I
never sawe a clunchfisted Salvadg amongst them all in my time.)[251]
The colour of their eies being so generally black made a Salvage, that
had a younge infant whose eies were gray, shewed him to us, and said
they were English mens eies; I tould the Father that his sonne was _nan
weeteo_, which is a bastard; hee replied _titta Cheshetue squaa_,[252]
which is, hee could not tell, his wife might play the whore; and this
childe the father desired might have an English name, because of the
litenesse[253] of his eies, which his father had in admiration because
of novelty amongst their nation.




{33} CHAP. VIII.

  _Of their Reverence, and respect to age._


~_Age honoured among the Indians._~

It is a thing to be admired, and indeede made a president, that a
Nation yet uncivilizied should more respect age then some nations
civilized, since there are so many precepts both of divine and
humane writers extant to instruct more Civill Nations: in that
particular, wherein they excell, the younger are allwayes obedient
unto the elder people, and at their commaunds in every respect without
grummbling;[254] in all councels, (as therein they are circumspect
to do their acciones by advise and councell, and not rashly or
inconsiderately,) the younger mens opinion shall be heard, but the old
mens opinion and councell imbraced and followed: besides, as the elder
feede and provide for the younger in infancy, so doe the younger, after
being growne to yeares of manhood, provide for those that be aged:
and in distribution of Acctes the elder men are first served by their
dispensator; and their counsels (especially if they be powahs) are
esteemed as oracles amongst the younger Natives.

The consideration of these things, mee thinkes, should reduce some of
our irregular young people of civilized Nations, when this story shall
come to their knowledge, to better manners, and make them ashamed of
their former error in this kinde, and to {34} become hereafter more
duetyfull; which I, as a friend, (by observation having found,) have
herein recorded for that purpose.




CHAP. IX.

  _Of their pretty conjuring tricks._


If we doe not judge amisse of these Salvages in accounting them
witches, yet out of all question we may be bould to conclude them
to be but weake witches, such of them as wee call by the names of
Powahs: some correspondency they have with the Devil out of al doubt,
as by some of their accions, in which they glory, is manifested.
Papasiquineo,[255] that Sachem or Sagamore, is a Powah of greate
estimation amongst all kinde of Salvages there: hee is at their Revels
(which is the time when a great company of Salvages meete from
severall parts of the Country, in amity with their neighbours) hath
advaunced his honor in his feats or jugling tricks (as I may right
tearme them) to the admiration of the spectators, whome hee endevoured
to perswade that he would goe under water to the further side of a
river, to broade for any man to undertake with a breath, which thing
hee performed by swimming over, and deluding the company with casting a
mist before their eies that see him enter in and come out, but no part
of the way hee has bin seene: likewise by our English, in the heat of
all summer to make Ice appeare in a bowle of faire water; first, having
the water set before him, hee hath begunne his incantation according
to their usuall accustome, and before the same has bin ended a thick
Clowde has darkned the {35} aire and, on a sodane, a thunder clap hath
bin heard that has amazed the natives; in an instant hee hath shewed a
firme peece of Ice to flote in the middest of the bowle in the presence
of the vulgar people, which doubtles was done by the agility of Satan,
his consort.

And by meanes of these sleights, and such like trivial things as these,
they gaine such estimation amongst the rest of the Salvages that it is
thought a very impious matter for any man to derogate from the words
of these Powahs. In so much as hee that should slight them, is thought
to commit a crime no lesse hainous amongst them as sacriledge is with
us, as may appeare by this one passage, which I wil set forth for an
instance.

~_A Salvage entertained a factor._~

~_An Englishman cured of a swelling._~

A neighbour of mine that had entertain’d a Salvage into his service, to
be his factor for the beaver trade amongst his countrymen, delivered
unto him divers parcells of commodities fit for them to trade with;
amongst the rest there was one coate of more esteeme then any of the
other, and with this his new entertained marchant man travels amongst
his countrymen to truck them away for beaver: as our custome hath bin,
the Salvage went up into the Country amongst his neighbours for beaver,
and returned with some, but not enough answerable to his Masteers
expectation, but being called to an accompt, and especially for that
one Coate of speciall note, made answer that he had given that coate
to Tantoquineo, a Powah: to which his master in a rage cryed, what
have I to doe with Tantoquineo? The Salvage, very angry at the matter,
cryed, what you speake? you are not a very good man; wil you not give
Tantoq. a coat? whats this? as if he had offered {36} _Tantoquineo_ the
greatest indignity that could be devised: so great is the estimation
and reverence that these people have of these Iugling[256] Powahs,
who are usually sent for when any person is sicke and ill at ease to
recover them, for which they receive rewards as doe our Chirgeons
and Phisitions; and they doe make a trade of it, and boast of their
skill where they come:[257] One amongst the rest did undertake to cure
an Englishman of a swelling of his hand for a parcell of biskett,
which being delivered him hee tooke the party greived into the woods
aside from company, and with the helpe of the devill, (as may be
conjectured,) quickly recovered him of that swelling, and sent him
about his worke againe.




CHAP. X.

  _Of their duels, and the honourable estimation of victory obtained
  thereby._


~_How the Salvages performe theire duells._~

These Salvages are not apt to quarrell one with another: yet such hath
bin the occasion that a difference hath happened which hath growne to
that height that it has not bin reconciled otherwise then by combat,
which hath bin performed in this manner: the two champions prepared
for the fight, with their bowes in hand and a quiver full of arrowes
at their backs, they have entered into the field; the Challenger
and challenged have chosen two trees, standing within {37} a little
distance of each other; they have cast lotts for the cheife of the
trees, then either champion setting himselfe behinde his tree watches
an advantage to let fly his shafts, and to gall his enemy; there they
continue shooting at each other; if by chaunce they espie any part
open, they endeavour to gall the combatant in that part, and use much
agility in the performance of the taske they have in hand. Resolute
they are in the execution of their vengeance, when once they have
begunne; and will in no wise be daunted, or seeme to shrinck though
they doe catch a clap with an arrow, but fight it out in this manner
untill one or both be slaine.

~_Trees marked where they performe a duell._~

I have bin shewed the places where such duels have bin performed,
and have fuond the trees marked for a memoriall of the Combat, where
that champion hath stood that had the hap to be slaine in the duell:
and they count it the greatest honor that can be to the serviving
Cumbatant, to shew the scares of the wounds received in this kinde of
Conflict, and if it happen to be on the arme, as those parts are most
in danger in these cases, they will alwayes weare a bracelet upon that
place of the arme, as a trophy of honor to their dying day.




{38} CHAP. XI.

  _Of the maintaining of their Reputation._


Reputation is such a thing that it keepes many men in awe, even amongst
Civilized nations, and is very much stood upon: it is (as one hath
very well noted) the awe of great men and of Kings. And, since I have
observed it to be maintained amongst Salvage people, I cannot chuse
but give an instance thereof in this treatise, to confirme the common
receaved opinion thereof.

~_A marriage._~

The Sachem or Sagamore of Sagus made choise, when hee came to mans
estate, of a Lady of noble discent, Daughter to Papasiquineo, the
Sachem or Sagamore of the territories neare Merrimack River, a man of
the best note and estimation in all those parts, and (as my Countryman
M^r. Wood declares in his prospect) a great Nigromancer; this Lady the
younge Sachem with the consent and good liking of her father marries,
and takes for his wife.[258] Great entertainement hee and his receaved
in those parts at her fathers hands, where they weare fested in the
best manner that might be expected, according to the Custome of their
nation, with reveling and such other solemnities as is usuall amongst
them. The solemnity being ended, Papasiquineo causes a selected number
of his men to waite upon his Daughter home into those parts that did
properly belong to her Lord and husband; where the attendants had
entertainment by the Sachem of Sagus and his Countrymen: the solemnity
being ended, the attendants were gratified.

~_An ambassage sent from Papasiquineo to his sonne in law, a
Sachem._~

Not long after the new married Lady had a great {39} desire to see her
father and her native country, from whence shee came; her Lord willing
to pleasure her and not deny her request, amongst them thought to be
reasonable, commanded a selected number of his owne men to conduct his
Lady to her Father, wher, with great respect, they brought her; and,
having feasted there a while, returned to their owne country againe,
leaving the Lady to continue there at her owne pleasure, amongst her
friends and old acquaintance; where shee passed away the time for
a while, and in the end desired to returne to her Lord againe. Her
father, the old Papasiquineo, having notice of her intent, sent some of
his men on ambassage to the younge Sachem, his sonne in law, to let him
understand that his daughter was not willing to absent her selfe from
his company any longer, and therfore, as the messengers had in charge,
desired the younge Lord to send a convoy for her; but hee, standing
upon tearmes of honor, and the maintaining of his reputation, returned
to his father in law this answere, that, when she departed from him,
hee caused his men to waite upon her to her fathers territories, as
it did become him; but, now shee had an intent to returne, it did
become her father to send her back with a convoy of his own people; and
that it stood not with his reputation to make himself or his men so
servile, to fetch her againe. The old Sachem Papasiquineo, having this
message returned, was inraged to think that his young son in law did
not esteeme him at a higher rate then to capitulate with him about the
matter, and returne[d] him this sharpe reply; that his daughters bloud
and birth deserved more respect then to be so slighted; and, therefore,
if he would have her company, hee were best to send or come for her.

{40} The younge Sachem, not willing to under value himselfe and being a
man of a stout spirit, did not stick to say that hee should either send
her by his owne Convey, or keepe her; for hee was determined not[259]
to stoope so lowe.

So much these two Sachems stood upon tearmes of reputation with each
other, the one would not send her, and the other would not send for
her, least it should be any diminishing of honor on his part that
should seeme to comply, that the Lady (when I came out of the Country)
remained still with her father; which is a thinge worth the noting,
that Salvage people should seeke to maintaine their reputation so much
as they doe.




CHAP. XII.

  _Of their trafficke and trade one with another._


~_Beads instead of Money._~

Although these people have not the use of navigation, whereby they
may trafficke as other nations, that are civilized, use to doe, yet
doe they barter for such commodities as they have, and have a kinde
of beads, insteede of money, to buy withall such things as they
want, which they call Wampampeak: and it is of two sorts, the one is
white, the other is of a violet coloure. These are made of the shells
of fishe. The white with them is as silver with us; the other as
our gould: and for these beads they buy and sell, not onely amongst
themselves, but even with us.

~_The name of their beads Wampampeak._~

{41} We have used to sell them any of our commodities for this
Wampampeak, because we know we can have beaver againe of them for it:
and these beads are currant in all the parts of New England, from one
end of the Coast to the other.

And although some have indevoured by example to have the like made of
the same kinde of shels, yet none hath ever, as yet, attained to any
perfection in the composure of them, but that the Salvages have found
a great difference to be in the one and the other; and have knowne the
counterfett beads from those of their owne making; and have, and doe
slight them.[260]

The skinnes of beasts are sould and bartered, to such people as have
none of the same kinde in the parts where they live.[261]

Likewise they have earthen potts of divers sizes, from a quarte to a
gallon, 2. or 3. to boyle their vitels in; very stronge, though they be
thin like our Iron potts.

They have dainty wooden bowles of maple, of highe price amongst them;
and these are dispersed by bartering one with the other, and are but
in certaine parts of the Country made, where the severall trades are
appropriated to the inhabitants of those parts onely.

So likewise (at the season of the yeare) the Salvages that live by the
Sea side for trade with the inlanders for fresh water, reles curious
silver reles,[262] which are bought up of such as have them not
frequent in other places: chestnuts, and such like usefull {42} things
as one place affordeth, are sould to the inhabitants of another, where
they are a novelty accompted amongst the natives of the land.[263] And
there is no such thing to barter withall, as is their Whampampeake.




CHAP. XIII.

  _Of their Magazines or Storehowses._


~_What care they take to lay up corne for winter._~

These people are not without providence, though they be uncivilized,
but are carefull to preserve foede in store against winter; which is
the corne that they laboure and dresse in the summer. And, although
they eate freely of it, whiles it is growinge, yet have they a care
to keepe a convenient portion thereof to releeve them in the dead of
winter, (like to the Ant and the Bee,) which they put under ground.

Their barnes are holes made in the earth, that will hold a Hogshead of
corne a peece in them. In these (when their corne is out of the huske
and well dried) they lay their store in greate baskets (which they make
of Sparke[264]) with matts under, about the sides, and on the top; and
putting it into the place made for it, they cover it with earth: and
in this manner it is preserved from destruction or putrifaction; to be
used in case of necessity, and not else.[265]

{43} And I am perswaded, that if they knew the benefit of Salte[266]
(as they may in time,) and the meanes to make salte meate fresh againe,
they would endeaver to preserve fishe for winter, as well as corne;
and that if any thinge bring them to civility, it will be the use of
Salte, to have foode in store, which is a cheife benefit in a civilized
Commonwealth.

~_They begg Salte of the English._~

These people have begunne already to incline to the use of Salte. Many
of them would begge Salte of mee for to carry home with them, that had
frequented our howses and had been acquainted with our Salte meats: and
Salte I willingly gave them, although I sould them all things else,
onely because they should be delighted with the use there of, and
thinke it a commodity of no value in it selfe, allthough the benefit
was great that might be had by the use of it.




CHAP. XIV.

  _Of theire Subtilety._


These people are not, as some have thought, a dull, or slender witted
people, but very ingenious, and very subtile. I could give maine
instances to maintaine mine opinion of them in this; but I will onely
relate one, which is a passage worthy to be observed.

{44} In the Massachussets bay lived Cheecatawback,[267] the Sachem or
Sagamore of those territories, who had large dominions which hee did
appropriate to himselfe.

Into those parts came a greate company of Salvages from the territories
of Narohiganset, to the number of 100. persons; and in this Sachems
Dominions they intended to winter.

~_They trade away beavers skinnes for corne._~

~_A beaver skinne with his tayle on of great estimacion._~

When they went a hunting for turkies they spreade over such a greate
scope of ground that a Turkie could hardily escape them: Deare
they killed up in greate abundance, and feasted their bodies very
plentifully: Beavers they killed by no allowance; the skinnes of those
they traded away at Wassaguscus with my neighboures[268] for corne, and
such other commodities as they had neede of; and my neighboures had a
wonderfull great benefit by their being in those parts. Yea, sometimes
(like genious fellowes) they would present their Marchant with a fatt
beaver skinne, alwayes the tayle was not diminished, but presented full
and whole; although the tayle is a present for a Sachem,[269] and is
of such masculaine vertue that if some of our Ladies knew the benefit
thereof they would desire to have ships sent of purpose to trade for
the tayle alone: it is such a rarity, as is not more esteemed of then
reason doth require.

~_A subtile plot of a Sachem._~

But the Sachem Cheecatawbak, (on whose possessions they usurped, and
converted the commodities thereof to their owne use, contrary to his
likeing,) not being of power to resist them, practised to doe it by a
subtile stratagem. And to that end {45} gave it out amongst us, that
the cause why these other Salvages of the Narohigansets came into these
parts, was to see what strength we were of, and to watch an opportunity
to cut us off, and take that which they found in our custody usefull
for them; And added further, they would burne our howses, and that
they had caught one of his men, named Meshebro, and compelled him
to discover to them where their barnes, Magazines, or storehowses
were, and had taken away his corne; and seemed to be in a pittifull
perplexity about the matter.

And, the more to adde reputation to this tale, desires that his wifes
and children might be harbered in one of our howses. This was graunted;
and my neighbours put on corslets, headpeeces, and weapons defensive
and offensive.

This thing being knowne to Cheecatawback, hee caused some of his men to
bring the Narohigansets to trade, that they might see the preparation.
The Salvage, that was a stranger to the plott, simply comming to trade,
and findding his merchants lookes like lobsters, all cladd in harnesse,
was in a maze to thinke what would be the end of it. Haste hee made to
trade away his furres, and tooke anything for them, wishing himselfe
well rid of them and of the company in the howse.

~_A Salvage scared._~

But (as the manner has bin) hee must eate some furmety[270] before hee
goe: downe hee sits and eats, and withall had an eie on every side;
and now and then saw a sword or a dagger layd a thwart a head peece,
which hee wondered at, and asked his {46} giude whether the company
were not angry. The guide, (that was privy to his Lords plot) answered
in his language that hee could not tell. But the harmelesse Salvage,
before hee had halfe filled his belly, started up on a sodayne, and
ranne out of the howse in such hast that hee left his furmety there,
and stayed not to looke behinde him who came after: Glad hee was that
he had escaped so.

The subtile Sachem, hee playd the tragedian, and fained a feare of
being surprised; and sent to see whether the enemies (as the Messenger
termed them) were not in the howse; and comes in a by way with his
wifes and children, and stopps the chinkes of the out howse, for feare
the fire might be seene in the night, and be a meanes to direct his
enemies where to finde them.

~_A Salvage that had lived 12. Moneths in England sent for an
Ambassador._~

And, in the meane time, hee prepared for his Ambassador to his enemies
a Salvage,[271] that had lived 12. moneths in England, to the end it
might adde reputation to his ambassage. This man hee sends to those
intruding Narohigansets, to tell them that they did very great injury
to his Lord, to trench upon his prerogatives: and advised them to put
up their pipes, and begon in time: if they would not, that his Lord
would come upon them, and in his ayd his freinds the English, who were
up in armes already to take his part, and compell them by force to be
gone, if they refused to depart by faire meanes.

~_A good opportunity of traffick lost by the subtility of a
Sachem._~

This message, comming on the neck of that which {47} doubtlesse the
fearefull Salvage had before related of his escape, and what hee had
observed, caused all those hundred Narohigansets (that meant us no
hurt) to be gone with bagg, and baggage. And my neighboures were gulled
by the subtilety of this Sachem, and lost the best trade of beaver that
ever they had for the time; and in the end found theire error in this
kinde of credulity when it was too late.




CHAP. XV.

  _Of their admirable perfection, in the use of the sences._


This is a thinge not onely observed by mee and diverse of the Salvages
of New England, but, also, by the French men in Nova Francia, and
therefore I am the more incouraged to publish in this Treatice my
observation of them in the use of theire sences: which is a thinge that
I should not easily have bin induced to beleeve, if I my selfe had not
bin an eie witnesse of what I shall relate.

~_The Salvages have the sence of seeinge better then the
English._~

I have observed that the Salvages have the sence of seeing so farre
beyond any of our Nation, that one would allmost beleeve they had
intelligence of the Devill sometimes, when they have tould us of a
shipp at Sea, which they have seene {48} soener by one hower, yea, two
howers sayle, then any English man that stood by of purpose to looke
out, their sight is so excellent.

Their eies indeede are black as iett; and that coler is accounted the
strongest for sight. And as they excell us in this particular so much
noted, so I thinke they excell us in all the rest.

~_Salvages that will distinguish a Spaniard from a frenchman
by the smell of the hand._~

This I am sure I have well observed, that in the sence of smelling they
have very great perfection; which is confirmed by the opinion of the
French that are planted about Canada, who have made relation that they
are so perfect in the use of that sence, that they will distinguish
between a Spaniard and a Frenchman by the sent of the hand onely.[272]
And I am perswaded that the Author of this Relation has seene very
probable reasons that have induced him to be of that opinion; and I am
the more willing to give credit thereunto, because I have observed in
them so much as that comes to.

~_A Deare pursued by the view of the foote, hee was found and
killed._~

I have seene a Deare passe by me upon a neck of Land, and a Salvage
that has pursued him by the view. I have accompanied him in this
pursuite; and the Salvage, pricking the Deare, comes where hee findes
the view of two deares together, leading several wayes. One, hee was
sure, was fresh, but which (by the sence of seeing) hee could not
judge; therefore, with his knife, hee diggs up the earth of one; and,
by smelling, sayes, that was not of the fresh Deare: then diggs hee up
the other; and viewing and smelling to that, concludes it to be the
view of the fresh Deare, which hee had pursued; and thereby followes
the chase, and killes that {49} Deare, and I did eate part of it with
him: such is their perfection in these two sences.




CHAP. XVI.

  _Of their acknowledgment of the Creation, and immortality of the
  Soule._


~_The beleefe of the Salvages._~

Although these Salvages are found to be without Religion, Law, and King
(as Sir William Alexander hath well observed,[273]) yet are they not
altogether without the knowledge of God (historically); for they have
it amongst them by tradition that God made one man and one woman, and
bad them live together and get children, kill deare, beasts, birds,
fish and fowle, and what they would at their pleasure; and that their
posterity was full of evill, and made God so angry that hee let in the
Sea upon them, and drowned the greatest part of them, that were naughty
men, (the Lord destroyed so;) and they went to Sanaconquam, who feeds
upon them (pointing to the Center of the Earth, where they imagine is
the habitation of the Devill:) the other, (which were not destroyed,)
increased the world, and when they died (because they were good) went
to the howse of Kytan, pointing to the setting of the sonne;[274] where
they eate all manner of dainties, and never take paines (as now) to
provide it.

~_The Sonne called Kytan._~

Kytan makes provision (they say) and saves them that laboure; and there
they shall live with him forever, {50} voyd of care.[275] And they are
perswaded that Kytan is hee that makes corne growe, trees growe, and
all manner of fruits.

~_A Salvage desired to have his sonn brought up to learne the
booke of common prayer._~

And that wee that use the booke of Common prayer doo it to declare to
them, that cannot reade, what Kytan has commaunded us, and that wee doe
pray to him with the helpe of that booke;[276] and doe make so much
accompt of it, that a Salvage (who had lived in my howse before hee
had taken a wife, by whome hee had children) made this request to mee,
(knowing that I allwayes used him with much more respect than others,)
that I would let his sonne be brought up in my howse, that hee might be
taught to reade in that booke: which request of his I granted; and hee
was a very joyfull man to thinke that his sonne should thereby (as hee
said) become an Englishman; and then hee would be a good man.

I asked him who was a good man; his answere was, hee that would not
lye, nor steale.

These, with them, are all the capitall crimes that can be imagined; all
other are nothing in respect of those;[277] and hee that is free from
these must live with Kytan for ever, in all manner of pleasure.




{51} CHAP. XVII.

  _Of their Annals and funerals._


~_Their custom in burryinge._~

~_Their manner of Monuments._~

~_At burrials, they black their faces._~

These people, that have by tradition some touch of the immortality of
the soule, have likewise a custome to make some monuments over the
place where the corps is interred: But they put a greate difference
betwene persons of noble, and of ignoble, or obscure, or inferior
discent. For, indeed, in the grave of the more noble they put a planck
in the bottom for the corps to be layed upon, and on each side a
plancke, and a plancke upon the top in forme of a chest, before they
cover the place with earth. This done, they erect some thing over
the grave in forme of a hearse cloath, as was that of Cheekatawbacks
mother, which the Plimmouth planters defaced because they accounted
it an act of superstition; which did breede a brawle as hath bin
before related;[278] for they hold impious and inhumane to deface the
monuments of the dead. They themselves esteeme of it as piaculum; and
have a custome amongst them to keepe their annals and come at certaine
times to lament and bewaile the losse of their freind; and use to black
their faces, which they so weare, instead of a mourning ornament, for
a longer or a shorter time according to the dignity of the person: so
is their annals kept and observed with their accustomed solemnity.
Afterwards they absolutely abandon the place, because they suppose the
sight thereof will but renew their sorrow.[279]

{52} It was a thing very offensive to them, at our first comming
into those parts, to aske of them for any one that had bin dead; but
of later times it is not so offensively taken to renew the memory of
any deseased person, because by our example (which they are apt to
followe) it is made more familiare unto them; and they marvell to see
no monuments over our dead, and therefore thinke no great Sachem is yet
come into those parts, or not as yet deade; because they see the graves
all alike.




CHAP. XVIII.

  _Of their Custome in burning the Country, and the reason thereof._


~_The Salvages fire the Country twice a yeare._~

The Salvages are accustomed to set fire of the Country in all places
where they come, and to burne it twize a yeare, viz: at the Spring,
and the fall of the leafe. The reason that mooves them to doe so, is
because it would other wise be so overgrowne with underweedes that it
would be all a coppice wood, and the people would not be able in any
wise to passe through the Country out of a beaten path.

The meanes that they do it with, is with certaine minerall stones, that
they carry about them in baggs made for that purpose of the skinnes
of little beastes, which they convert into good lether, carrying in
the same a peece of touch wood, very excellent {53} for that purpose,
of their owne making.[280] These minerall stones they have from the
Piquenteenes, (which is to the Southward of all the plantations in New
England,) by trade and trafficke with those people.

The burning of the grasse destroyes the underwoods, and so scorcheth
the elder trees that it shrinkes them, and hinders their grouth very
much: so that hee that will looke to finde large trees and good tymber,
must not depend upon the help of a woodden prospect to finde them on
the upland ground;[281] but must seeke for them, (as I and others
have done,) in the lower grounds, where the grounds are wett, when the
Country is fired, by reason of the snow water that remaines there for a
time, untill the Sunne by continuance of that hath exhaled the vapoures
of the earth, and dried up those places where the fire, (by reason of
the moisture,) can have no power to doe them any hurt: and if he would
endevoure to finde out any goodly Cedars, hee must not seeke for them
on the higher grounds, but make his inquest for them in the vallies,
for the Salvages, by this custome of theirs, have spoiled all the rest:
for this custome hath bin continued from the beginninge.

And least their firing of the Country in this manner should be an
occasion of damnifying us, and indaingering our habitations, wee our
selves have used carefully about the same times to observe the winds,
and fire the grounds about our owne habitations; to prevent the Dammage
that might happen by any neglect thereof, if the fire should come neere
those howses in our absence.

{54} For, when the fire is once kindled, it dilates and spreads it
selfe as well against, as with the winde; burning continually night and
day, untill a shower of raine falls to quench it.

And this custome of firing the Country is the meanes to make it
passable; and by that meanes the trees growe here and there as in our
parks: and makes the Country very beautifull and commodious.




CHAP. XIX.

  _Of their inclination to Drunkennesse._


Although Drunkennesse be justly termed a vice which the Salvages are
ignorant of, yet the benefit is very great that comes to the planters
by the sale of strong liquor to the Salvages, who are much taken
with the delight of it; for they will pawne their wits, to purchase
the acquaintance of it. Yet in al the commerce that I had with them,
I never proffered them any such thing; nay, I would hardly let any
of them have a drame, unles hee were a Sachem, or a Winnaytue, that
is a rich man, or a man of estimation next in degree to a Sachem or
Sagamore. I alwayes tould them it was amongst us the Sachems drinke.
But they say if I come to the Northerne parts of the Country I shall
have no trade, if I will not supply them with lusty liquors: it is the
life of the trade in all those parts: for it so happened that thus a
Salvage desperately killed himselfe; when hee was drunke, a gunne being
charged and the cock up, hee sets the mouth to his brest, and, putting
back the tricker with his foote, shot himselfe dead.[282]




CHAP. XX. {55}

  _That the Salvages live a contended life._


A Gentleman and a traveller, that had bin in the parts of New England
for a time, when hee retorned againe, in his discourse of the Country,
wondered, (as hee said,) that the natives of the land lived so poorely
in so rich a Country, like to our Beggers in England. Surely that
Gentleman had not time or leasure whiles hee was there truely to
informe himselfe of the state of that Country, and the happy life the
Salvages would leade weare they once brought to Christianity.

~_The Salvages want the art of navigation._~

I must confesse they want the use and benefit of Navigation, (which is
the very sinnus of a flourishing Commonwealth,) yet are they supplied
with all manner of needefull things for the maintenance of life and
lifelyhood. Foode and rayment are the cheife of all that we make true
use of; and of these they finde no want, but have, and may have, them
in a most plentifull manner.[283]

If our beggers of England should, with so much ease as they, furnish
themselves with foode at all seasons, there would not be so many
starved in the streets, neither would so many gaoles be stuffed, or
gallouses furnished with poore wretches, as I have seene them.

{56} But they of this sort of our owne nation, that are fitt to goe to
this Canaan, are not able to transport themselves; and most of them
unwilling to goe from the good ale tap, which is the very loadstone of
the lande by which our English beggers steere theire Course; it is the
Northpole to which the flowre-de-luce of their compasse points. The
more is the pitty that the Commonalty of oure Land are of such leaden
capacities as to neglect so brave a Country, that doth so plentifully
feede maine lusty and a brave, able men, women and children, that have
not the meanes that a Civilized Nation hath to purchase foode and
rayment; which that Country with a little industry will yeeld a man in
a very comfortable measure, without overmuch carking.

I cannot deny but a civilized Nation hath the preheminence of an
uncivilized, by meanes of those instruments that are found to be common
amongst civile people, and the uncivile want the use of, to make
themselves masters of those ornaments that make such a glorious shew,
that will give a man occasion to cry, _sic transit gloria Mundi_.

Now since it is but foode and rayment that men that live needeth,
(though not all alike,) why should not the Natives of New England be
sayd to live richly, having no want of either? Cloaths are the badge
of sinne; and the more variety of fashions is but the greater abuse
of the Creature: the beasts of the forrest there doe serve to furnish
them at any time when they please: fish and flesh they have in greate
abundance, which they both roast and boyle.

{57} They are indeed not served in dishes of plate with variety of
Sauces to procure appetite; that needs not there. The rarity of the
aire, begot by the medicinable quality of the sweete herbes of the
Country, alwayes procures good stomakes to the inhabitants.

I must needs commend them in this particular, that, though they buy
many commodities of our Nation, yet they keepe but fewe, and those of
speciall use.

They love not to bee cumbered with many utensilles, and although every
proprietor knowes his owne, yet all things, (so long as they will
last), are used in common amongst them: A bisket cake given to one,
that one breakes it equally into so many parts as there be persons
in his company, and distributes it. Platoes Commonwealth is so much
practised by these people.

~_They leade a happy life, being voyd of care._~

According to humane reason, guided onely by the light of nature, these
people leades the more happy and freer life, being voyde of care, which
torments the mindes of so many Christians: They are not delighted in
baubles, but in usefull things.

Their naturall drinke is of the Cristall fountaine, and this they take
up in their hands, by joyning them close together. They take up a great
quantity at a time, and drinke at the wrists. It was the sight of such
a feate which made Diogenes hurle away his dishe, and, like one that
would have this principall confirmed, _Natura paucis contentat_, used
a dish no more.

~_They make use of ordinary things, one of anothers as
common._~

{58} I have observed that they will not be troubled with superfluous
commodities. Such things as they finde they are taught by necessity
to make use of, they will make choise of, and seeke to purchase with
industry. So that, in respect that their life is so voyd of care,
and they are so loving also that they make use of those things they
enjoy, (the wife onely excepted,) as common goods, and are therein so
compassionate that, rather than one should starve through want, they
would starve all. Thus doe they passe awaye the time merrily, not
regarding our pompe, (which they see dayly before their faces,) but are
better content with their owne, which some men esteeme so meanely of.

They may be rather accompted to live richly, wanting nothing that
is needefull; and to be commended for leading a contented life, the
younger being ruled by the Elder, and the Elder ruled by the Powahs,
and the Powahs are ruled by the Devill;[284] and then you may imagin
what good rule is like to be amongst them.


_FINIS._




[Illustration]




NEW ENGLISH CANAAN, {59}

OR

NEW CANAAN.

_The second Booke._

  Containing a description of the bewty of the Country with her
  naturall indowements, both in the Land and Sea; with the great Lake
  of Erocoise.




CHAP. I.

  _The generall Survey of the Country._


~_A famous Country._~

~_Their fountaines are as cleare as Cristall._~

~_Greate store of fowles, fish and turtledoves._~

In the Moneth of Iune, Anno Salutis 1622, it was my chaunce to arrive
in the parts of New England with 30. Servants, and provision of all
sorts fit for a plantation: and whiles our howses were building, I did
indeavour to take a survey of the {60} Country: The more I looked, the
more I liked it. And when I had more seriously considered of the bewty
of the place, with all her faire indowments, I did not thinke that in
all the knowne world it could be paralel’d, for so many goodly groues
of trees, dainty fine round rising hillucks, delicate faire large
plaines, sweete cristall fountaines, and cleare running streames that
twine in fine meanders through the meads, making so sweete a murmering
noise to heare as would even lull the sences with delight a sleepe, so
pleasantly doe they glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly
where they doe meete and hand in hand runne downe to Neptunes Court,
to pay the yearely tribute which they owe to him as soveraigne Lord of
all the springs. Contained within the volume of the Land, [are] Fowles
in abundance, Fish in multitude; and [I] discovered, besides, Millions
of Turtledoves one the greene boughes, which sate pecking of the full
ripe pleasant grapes that were supported by the lusty trees, whose
fruitfull loade did cause the armes to bend: [among] which here and
there dispersed, you might see Lillies and of the Daphnean-tree: which
made the Land to mee seeme paradice: for in mine eie t’was Natures
Masterpeece; Her cheifest Magazine of all where lives her store: if
this Land be not rich, then is the whole world poore.

What I had resolved on, I have really performed; and I have endeavoured
to use this abstract as an instrument, to bee the meanes to communicate
the knowledge which I have gathered, by my many yeares residence in
those parts, unto my Countrymen: {61} to the end that they may the
better perceive their error, who cannot imagine that there is any
Country in the universall world which may be compared unto our native
soyle. I will now discover unto them a Country whose indowments are
by learned men allowed to stand in a paralell with the Israelites
Canaan, which none will deny to be a land farre more excellent then Old
England, in her proper nature.

This I consider I am bound in duety (as becommeth a Christian man) to
performe for the glory of God, in the first place; next, (according to
Cicero,) to acknowledge that, _Non nobis solum nati sumus, sed partim
patria, partim parentes, partim amici vindicant_.[285]

For which cause I must approove of the indeavoures of my Country men,
that have bin studious to inlarge the territories of his Majesties
empire by planting Colonies in America.

And of all other, I must applaude the judgement of those that have
made choise of this part, (whereof I now treat,) being of all other
most absolute, as I will make it appeare hereafter by way of paralell.
Among those that have setled themselvs in new England, some have gone
for their conscience sake, (as they professe,) and I wish that they
may plant the Gospel of Iesus Christ, as becommeth them, sincerely
and without satisme or faction, whatsoever their former or present
practises are, which I intend not to justifie: howsoever, they have
deserved (in mine opinion) some commendationes, in that they have
furnished the Country so commodiously in so short a time; although
it hath bin but for their owne profit, yet posterity will taste the
sweetnes of it, and that very sodainly.

{62} And since my taske, in this part of mine abstract, is to intreat
of the naturall indowments of the Country, I will make a breife
demonstration of them in order, severally, according to their severall
qualities: and shew you what they are, and what profitable use may be
made of them by industry.




CHAP. II.

  _What trees are there and how commodious._[286]


~_1. Oake._~

Oakes are there of two sorts, white and redd;[287] excellent tymber for
the building both of howses and shipping: and they are found to be a
tymber that is more tough then the oak of England. They are excellent
for pipe-staves, and such like vessels; and pipe-staves at the Canary
Ilands are a prime commodity. I have knowne them there at 35. p. the
1000,[288] and will purchase a fraight of wines there before any
commodity in England, their onely wood being pine, of which they are
enforced also to build shippinge; of oackes there is great abundance
in the parts of New England, and they may have a prime place in the
Catalogue of commodities.

~_2. Ashe._~

Ashe[289] there is store, and very good for staves, oares or pikes; and
may have a place in the same Catalogue.

~_3. Elme._~

Elme: of this sort of trees there are some; but there hath not as yet
bin found any quantity to speake of.

~_4. Beech._~

{63} Beech there is of two sorts, redd and white;[290] very excellent
for trenchers or chaires, and also for oares; and may be accompted for
a commodity.

~_5. Walnutt._~

Wallnutt: of this sorte of wood there is infinite store, and there
are 4 sorts:[291] it is an excellent wood, for many uses approoved;
the younger trees are imployed for hoopes, and are the best for that
imployement of all other stuffe whatsoever. The Nutts serve when they
fall to feede our swine, which make them the delicatest bacon of all
other foode: and is therein a cheife commodity.

~_6. Chestnuts._~

Chestnutt: of this sorte there is very greate plenty, the tymber
whereof is excellent for building; and is a very good commodity,
especially in respect of the fruit, both for man and beast.

~_7. Pine._~

Pine: of this sorte there is infinite store in some parts of the
Country.[292] I have travelled 10. miles together where is little or
no other wood growing.[293] And of these may be made rosin, pitch and
tarre, which are such usefull commodities that if wee had them not from
other Countries in Amity with England, our Navigation would decline.
Then how great the commodity of it will be to our Nation, to have it of
our owne, let any man judge.

~_8. Cedar._~

Cedar:[294] of this sorte there is abundaunce; and this wood was such
as Salomon used for the building of that glorious Temple at Hierusalem;
and there are of these Cedars, firre trees and other materialls
necessary for the building of many faire Temples,[295] if there were
any Salomons to be at the Cost of them: and if any man be desirous to
finde out in what part of the {64} Country the best Cedars are, he
must get into the bottom grounds, and in vallies that are wet at the
spring of the yeare, where the moisture preserves them from the fire in
spring time, and not in a woodden prospect.[296] This wood cutts red,
and is good for bedsteads, tables and chests; and may be placed in the
Catalogue of Commodities.

~_9. Cypres._~

Cypres:[297] of this there is great plenty; and vulgarly this tree hath
bin taken for another sort of Cedar; but workemen put a difference
betweene this Cypres, and the Cedar, especially in the colour; for this
is white and that redd white: and likewise in the finenes of the leafe
and the smoothnes of the barque. This wood is also sweeter then Cedar,
and, (as it is in Garrets[298] herball,) a more bewtifull tree; it is
of all other, to my minde, most bewtifull, and cannot be denied to
passe for a commodity.

~_10. Spruce._~

Spruce[299]: of these there are infinite store, especially in the
Northerne parts of the Country; and they have bin approoved by workemen
in England to be more tough then those that they have out of the east
country: from whence wee have them for masts and yards of shippes.

~_The Spruce of this Country are found to be 3. & 4. fadum
aboute._~

The Spruce of this country are found to be 3. and 4. fadum about: and
are reputed able, single, to make masts for the biggest ship that
sayles on the maine Ocean, without peesing; which is more than the East
country can afford.[300] And seeing that Navigation is the very sinneus
of a flourishing Commonwealth, it is fitting to allow the Spruce tree
a principall place in the Catalogue of commodities.

~_11. Alder._~

{65} Alder: of this sorte there is plenty by rivers sides, good for
turners.

~_12. Birch._~

Birch: of this there is plenty in divers parts of the Country. Of the
barck of these the Salvages of the Northerne parts make them delicate
Canowes, so light that two men will transport one of them over Land
whither[301] they list; and yet one of them will transporte tenne or
twelffe Salvages by water at a time.

~_13. Maple._~

Mayple:[302] of those trees there is greate abundance; and these are
very excellent for bowles. The Indians use of it to that purpose; and
is to be accompted a good commodity.

~_14. Elderne._~

Elderne:[303] there is plenty in that Country; of this the Salvages
make their Arrowes, and it hath no strong unsavery sent like our Eldern
in England.

~_15. Hawthorne._~

Hawthorne: of this there is two sorts, one of which beares a well
tasting berry as bigg as ones thumbe, and lookes like little Queene
apples.

~_16. Vines._~

Vines: of this kinde of trees there are that beare grapes of three
colours: that is to say, white, black and red.[304]

The Country is so apt for vines, that, but for the fire at the spring
of the yeare, the vines would so over spreade the land that one should
not be able to passe for them;[305] the fruit is as bigg, of some, as
a musket bullet, and is excellent in taste.

~_17. Plummes._~

Plumtrees:[306] of this kinde there are many; some that beare fruit as
bigg as our ordinary bullis: others there be that doe beare fruite much
bigger than peare plummes; their colour redd, and their stones flat;
very delitious in taste.

~_18. Cherries._~

{66} Cheritrees there are abundance; but the fruit is as small as our
sloes; but if any of them were replanted and grafted, in an orchard,
they would soone be raised by meanes of such; and the like fruits.

~_19. Roses._~

There is greate abundance of Muske Roses in divers places: the water
distilled excelleth our Rosewater of England.

~_20. Sassafras and 21. Sarsaperilla._~

There is abundance of Sassafras[307] and Sarsaperilla,[308] growing in
divers places of the land; whose budds at the spring doe perfume the
aire.

Other trees there are not greatly materiall to be recited in this
abstract, as goose berries, rasberies, and other beries.

There is Hempe[309] that naturally groweth, finer then our Hempe of
England.




CHAP. III.

  _Potthearbes and other herbes for Sallets._


~_Potmarioram, Tyme, Alexander, Angellica, Pursland, Violets,
and Anniseeds._~

The Country there naturally affordeth very good pot-herbes and sallet
herbes, and those of a more maskuline vertue then any of the same
species in England; as Potmarioram, Tyme, Alexander, Angellica,
Pursland, Violets, and Anniseeds, in very great abundance: and for the
pott I gathered in summer, dried and crumbled into a bagg to preserve
for winter store.

~_Hunnisuckles and Balme._~

{67} Hunnisuckles, balme, and divers other good herbes are there, that
grow without the industry of man, that are used when occasion serveth
very commodiously.[310]




CHAP. IV.

  _Of Birds, and fethered fowles._[311]


Now that I have breifly shewed the Commodity of the trees, herbes, and
fruits, I will shew you a description of the fowles of the aire; as
most proper in ordinary course.

~_Swannes._~

And first of the Swanne,[312] because shee is the biggest of all the
fowles of that Country. There are of them in Merrimack River, and in
other parts of the country, greate store at the seasons of the yeare.

The flesh is not much desired of the inhabitants, but the skinnes may
be accompted a commodity fitt for divers uses, both for fethers and
quiles.

~_Geese, pide, white, and gray._~

~_Fethers pay for powther and shott._~

There are Geese of three sorts, vize: brant Geese[313] which are pide,
and white Geese[314] which are bigger, and gray Geese[315] which are
as bigg and bigger then the tame Geese of England, with black legges,
black bills, heads and necks black; the flesh farre more excellent then
the Geese of England, wild or tame; yet the purity of the aire is such
that the biggest is accompted but an indifferent meale for a couple of
men. There is of them great abundance. I have had often 1000. before
the mouth of my gunne. I never saw any in {68} England, for my part, so
fatt as I have killed there in those parts; the fethers of them makes
a bedd softer then any down bed that I have lyen on, and is there a
very good commodity; the fethers of the Geese, that I have killed in a
short time, have paid for all the powther and shott I have spent in a
yeare, and I have fed my doggs with as fatt Geese there as I have euer
fed upon my selfe in England.

~_Ducks pide, gray, & black._~

Ducks there are of three kindes, pide Ducks, gray Ducks, and black
Ducks in greate abundance: the most about my habitation were black
Ducks:[316] and it was a noted Custome at my howse, to have every mans
Duck upon a trencher; and then you will thinke a man was not hardly
used: they are bigger boddied then the tame Ducks of England: very fatt
and dainty flesh.

The common doggs fees were the gibletts, unlesse they were boyled now
and than for to make broath.

~_Teales, greene and blew._~

Teales there are of two sorts, greene winged, and blew winged:[317] but
a dainty bird. I have bin much delighted with a rost of these for a
second course. I had plenty in the rivers and ponds about my howse.

~_Widggens._~

Widggens[318] there are, and abundance of other water foule, some such
as I have seene, and [some] such as I have not seene else where before
I came into those parts, which are little regarded.

~_Simpes._~

Simpes[319] there are like our Simpes in all respects, with very litle
difference. I have shot at them onely to see what difference I could
finde betweene them and those of my native Country, and more I did not
regard them.

~_Sanderlings._~

{69} Sanderlings[320] are a dainty bird, more full boddied than a
Snipe; and I was much delighted to feede on them because they were fatt
and easie to come by, because I went but a stepp or to for them: and I
have killed betweene foure and five dozen at a shoot, which would loade
me home.

Their foode is at ebbing water on the sands, of small seeds that grows
on weeds there, and are very good pastime in August.

~_Cranes._~

Cranes[321] there are greate store, that ever more came there at S.
Davids day, and not before: that day they never would misse.

These sometimes eate our corne, and doe pay for their presumption
well enough; and serveth there in powther, with turnips, to supply
the place of powthered beefe, and is a goodly bird in a dishe, and no
discommodity.

~_Turkies._~

Turkies[322] there are, which divers times in great flocks have sallied
by our doores; and then a gunne, being commonly in a redinesse, salutes
them with such a courtesie, as makes them take a turne in the Cooke
roome. They daunce by the doore so well.

Of these there hath bin killed that have weighed forty eight pound a
peece.[323]

They are by mainy degrees sweeter then the tame Turkies of England,
feede them how you can.

I had a Salvage who hath taken out his boy in a morning, and they have
brought home their loades about noone.

{70} I have asked them what number they found in the woods, who have
answered Neent Metawna,[324] which is a thosand that day; the plenty of
them is such in those parts. They are easily killed at rooste, because,
the one being killed, the other sit fast neverthelesse; and this is no
bad commodity.

~_Pheisants._~

There are a kinde of fowles which are commonly called Pheisants,[325]
but whether they be pheysants or no, I will not take upon mee to
determine. They are in forme like our pheisant henne of England. Both
the male and the female are alike; but they are rough footed, and have
stareing fethers about the head and neck; the body is as bigg as the
pheysant henne of England; and are excellent white flesh, and delicate
white meate, yet we seldome bestowe a shoote at them.

~_Partridges bigger in body as those of England._~

Partridges[326] there are, much like our Partridges of England; they
are of the same plumes, but bigger in body. They have not the signe
of the horseshoe on the brest, as the Partridges of England; nor are
they  about the heads as those are. They sit on the trees, for
I have seene 40. in one tree at a time: yet at night they fall on the
ground, and sit untill morning so together; and are dainty flesh.

~_Quailes bigger in body as those in England._~

There are quailes[327] also, but bigger then the quailes in England.
They take trees also: for I have numbered 60. upon a tree at a time.
The cocks doe call at the time of the yeare, but with a different note
from the cock quailes of England.

~_The Larkes sing not._~

The Larkes[328] there are like our Larkes of England in all respects:
sauing that they do not use to sing at all.

~_Owles._~

{71} There are Owles of divers kindes: but I did never heare any of
them whop as ours doe.

~_The Crowes smell & tast of Muske in summer, but not in
winter._~

There are Crowes,[329] kights and rooks that doe differ in some
respects from those of England. The Crowes, which I have much admired
what should be the cause, both smell and taste of Muske in summer, but
not in winter.

~_Hawkes of five sorts._~

~_A Lannaret._~

There are Hawkes in New England of 5. sorts;[330] and these of all
other fether fowles I must not omitt to speake of, nor neede I to make
any Apology for my selfe concerning any trespasse that I am like to
make upon my judgement, concerning the nature of them, having bin bred
in so genious a way that I had the common use of them in England: and
at my first arrivall in those parts practised to take a Lannaret,[331]
which I reclaimed, trained and made flying in a fortnight, the same
being a passenger at Michuelmas. I found that these are most excellent
Mettell, rank winged, well conditioned, and not tickleish footed; and,
having whoods, bels, luers, and all things fitting, was desirous to
make experiment of that kinde of Hawke before any other.

And I am perswaded that Nature hath ordained them to be of a farre
better kinde then any that have bin used in England.[332] They have
neither dorre[333] nor worm to feed upon, (as in other parts of the
world,) the Country affording none; the use whereof in other parts
makes the Lannars there more bussardly[334] then they be in New England.

~_Fawcons._~

There are likewise Fawcons[335] and tassell gentles,[336] admirable
well shaped birds; and they will tower up {72} when they purpose to
pray, and, on a sodaine when they esspie their game, they will make
such a cancellere that one would admire to behold them. Some there are
more black then any that have bin used in England.

The Tassell gent, (but of the least size,[337]) is an ornament for
a person of estimation among the Indians to weare in the knot of his
lock, with the traine upright, the body dried and stretched out. They
take a great pride in the wearing of such an ornament, and give to one
of us, that shall kill them one for that purpose, so much beaver as is
worth three pounds sterling, very willingly.

These doe us but little trespas, because they pray on such birds as
are by the Sea side, and not on our Chickens. Goshawkes there are, and
Tassels.

~_Goshawkes well shaped._~

The Tassels are short trussed bussards;[338] but the Goshawkes[339]
are well shaped, but they are small; some of white male, and some redd
male, I have seene one with 8. barres in the traine. These fall on our
bigger poultry: the lesser chicken, I thinke they scorne to make their
pray of; for commonly the Cocke goes to wrack. Of these I have seene
many; and if they come to trespasse me, I lay the law to them with the
gunne, and take them dammage fesant.

~_Marlins small and greate._~

There are very many Marlins;[340] some very small, and some so large as
is the Barbary Tassell.

I have often beheld these pretty birds, how they have scoured after the
black bird, which is a small sized Choffe[341] that eateth the Indian
maisze.

~_Sparhawkes._~

Sparhawkes[342] there are also, the fairest and {73} best shaped
birds that I have ever beheld of that kinde those that are litle, no
use is made of any of them, neither are they regarded. I onely tried
conclusions with a Lannaret at first comming; and, when I found what
was in that bird, I turned him going; but, for so much as I have
observed of those birds, they may be a fitt present for a prince, and
for goodnesse too be preferred before the Barbary, or any other used in
Christendome; and especially the Lannars and Lannarets.

~_A Hunning bird, is as small as a Beetle. His bill as sharp
as a needle point, and his fethers like silke._~

There is a curious bird to see to, called a hunning bird,[343] no
bigger then a great Beetle; that out of question lives upon the Bee,
which hee eateth and catcheth amongst Flowers: For it is his Custome to
frequent those places. Flowers hee cannot feed upon by reason of his
sharp bill, which is like the poynt of a Spannish needle, but shorte.
His fethers have a glosse like silke, and, as hee stirres, they shew
to be of a chaingable coloure: and has bin, and is, admired for shape,
coloure and size.




CHAP. V.

  _Of the Beasts of the forrest._[344]


Now that I have made a rehearsall of the birds and fethered Fowles,
which participate most of aire, I will give you a description of the
beasts; and shew you what beasts are bred in those parts, and what my
experience hath gathered by observation of {74} their kinde and nature.
I begin with the most usefull and most beneficiall beast which is bredd
in those parts, which is the Deare.

~_Deare of 3. kindes._~

There are in this Country three kindes of Deare, of which there are
greate plenty, and those are very usefull.

~_Mose or red deare._~

First, therefore, I will speake of the Elke, which the Salvages call
a Mose:[345] it is a very large Deare, with a very faire head, and a
broade palme, like the palme of a fallow Deares horne, but much bigger,
and is 6. footewide betweene the tipps, which grow curbing downwards:
Hee is of the bignesse of a great horse.

~_Mose or deare greater than a horse, the height of them 18.
hand fulles._~

There have bin of them seene that has bin 18. handfulls highe: hee hath
a bunch of haire under his jawes: hee is not swifte, but stronge and
large in body, and longe legged; in somuch that hee doth use to kneele,
when hee feedeth on grasse.

~_They bringe forth three faunes at one time._~

Hee bringeth forth three faunes, or younge ones, at a time; and, being
made tame, would be good for draught, and more usefull (by reason of
their strength) then the Elke of Raushea.[346] These are found very
frequent in the northerne parts of New England: their flesh is very
good foode, and much better then our redd Deare of England.

~_They make good lether of the hides of Deare._~

Their hids are by the Salvages converted into very good lether, and
dressed as white as milke.

Of this lether the Salvages make the best shooes; and use to barter
away the skinnes to other Salvages that have none of that kinde of
bests in the parts where they live. Very good buffe may be made of the
{75} hids. I have seene a hide as large as any horse hide that can be
found. There is such abundance of them that the Salvages, at hunting
time, have killed of them so many, that they have bestowed six or
seaven at a time upon one English man whome they have borne affection
to.

~_The midling Deare or fallow Deare._~

There is a second sort of Deare[347] (lesse then the redd Deare of
England, but much bigger then the English fallow Deare) swift of foote,
but of a more darke coloure; with some griseld heares, when his coate
is full growne in the summer season; his hornes grow curving, with a
croked beame, resembling our redd Deare, not with a palme like the
fallow Deare.

These bringe 3. fawnes at a time,[348] spotted like our fallow Deares
fawnes; the Salvages say, foure; I speake of what I know to be true,
for I have killed in February a doe with three fawnes in her belly, all
heared, and ready to fall; for these Deare fall their fawnes 2. moneths
sooner then the fallow Deare of England. There is such abundance of
them that an hundred have bin found at the spring of the yeare, within
the compasse of a mile.

~_Trappes to catch the Deare._~

The Salvages take these in trappes made of their naturall Hempe, which
they place in the earth where they fell a tree for browse; and when
hee rounds the tree for the browse, if hee tread on the trapp hee is
horsed up by the legg, by meanes of a pole that starts up and catcheth
him.[349]

Their hides the Saluages use for cloathing, and will give for one hide
killed in season, 2. 3. or 4. beaver skinnes, which will yeild pounds a
peece in that Coun{76}try: so much is the Deares hide prised with them
above the beaver. I have made good merchandize of these. The flesh is
farre sweeter then the venison of England: and hee feedeth fatt and
leane together, as a swine or mutton, where as our Deare of England
feede fatt on the out side: they doe not croake at rutting time, nor
spendle shafte, nor is their flesh discoloured at rutting. Hee, that
will impale ground fitting, may be brought once in the yeare where
with bats and men hee may take so many to put into that parke, as the
hides will pay the chardge of impaleinge. If all these things be well
considered, the Deare, as well as the Mose, may have a principall place
in the catalogue of commodities.

~_The Humbles was the doggs fee._~

I for my part may be bould to tell you, that my howse was not without
the flesh of this sort of Deare winter nor summer: the humbles was ever
my dogges fee, which by the wesell[350] was hanged on the barre in the
chimney, for his diet only: for hee has brought to my stand a brace in
a morning, one after the other before sunne rising, which I have killed.

~_Roe bucks or Rayne Deare._~

There is likewise a third sorte of deare,[351] lesse then the other,
(which are a kinde of rayne deare,) to the southward of all the English
plantations: they are excellent good flesh. And these also bring three
fawnes at a time; and in this particular the Deare of those parts
excell all the knowne Deare of the whole world.

~_Wolfes pray upon Deare._~

On all these the Wolfes doe pray continually. The best meanes they
have to escape the wolfes is by swimming to Islands,[352] or necks
of land, whereby {77} they escape: for the wolfe will not presume to
follow them untill they see them over a river; then, being landed,
(they wayting on the shore,) undertake the water, and so follow with
fresh suite.

~_Beaver._~

The next in mine opinion fit to be spoaken of, is the Beaver;[353]
which is a Beast ordained for land and water both, and hath fore feete
like a cunny, her hinder feete like a goese, mouthed like a cunny, but
short eared like a Serat. [He feeds on] fishe in summer, and wood in
winter; which hee conveyes to his howse built on the water, wherein hee
sitts with his tayle hanging in the water, which else would over heate
and rot off.

~_The Beavers cut downe trees, with his fore teeth._~

Hee cuts the bodies of trees downe with his fore-teeth, which are so
long as a boares tuskes, and with the help of other beavers, (which
hold by each others tayles like a teeme of horses, the hindmost with
the logg on his shoulder stayed by one of his fore feete against his
head,) they draw the logg to the habitation appoynted, placing the
loggs in a square; and so, by pyling one uppon another, they build up
a howse, which with boghes is covered very strongly, and placed in
some pond, to which they make a damme of brush wood, like a hedge,
so stronge that I have gone on the top of it crosse the current of
that pond. The flesh of this beast is excellent foode. The fleece is
a very choise furre, which, (before the Salvages had commerce with
Christians,) they burned of the tayle: this beast is of a masculine
vertue for the advancement of Priapus,[354] and is preserved for a dish
for the Sachems, or Sagamores; who are the princes of the people, but
not Kings, (as is fondly supposed.)

~_Beaver at 10. shil. a pound._~

{78} The skinnes are the best marchantable commodity that can be found,
to cause ready money to be brought into the land, now that they are
raised to 10. shillings a pound.[355]

~_In 5 yeares one man gott together 1000 p. in good gold._~

A servant of mine in 5. yeares was thought to have a 1000. p. in ready
gold gotten by beaver when hee dyed;[356] whatsoever became of it. And
this beast may challenge preheminence in the Catalogue.

~_The Otter in winter hath a furre as black as Iett._~

The Otter[357] of those parts, in winter season, hath a furre so black
as jett; and is a furre of very highe price: a good black skinne is
worth 3. or 4. Angels of gold. The Flesh is eaten by the Salvages: but
how good it is I cannot shew, because it is not eaten by our Nation.
Yet is this a beast that ought to be placed in the number amongst the
Commodities of the Country.

~_The Luseran as bigg as a hound._~

The Luseran, or Luseret,[358] is a beast like a Catt, but so bigg
as a great hound: with a tayle shorter then a Catt. His clawes are
like a Catts. Hee will make a pray of the Deare. His Flesh is dainty
meat, like a lambe: his hide is a choise furre, and accompted a good
commodity.

~_The Martin is about the bignesse of a Fox._~

The Martin[359] is a beast about the bignes of a Foxe. His furre is
chestnutt coloure: and of those there are greate store in the Northerne
parts of the Country, and is a good commodity.

~_Racowne._~

The Racowne[360] is a beast as bigg, full out, as a Foxe, with a
Bushtayle. His Flesh excellent foode: his oyle precious for the
Syattica:[361] his furre course, but the skinnes serve the Salvages
for coats, and is with those people of more esteeme then a coate of
beaver, {79} because of the tayles that (hanging round in their order)
doe adorne the garment, and is therefore so much esteemed of them. His
fore feete are like the feete of an ape; and by the print thereof, in
the time of snow, he is followed to his hole, which is commonly in a
hollow tree; from whence hee is fiered out, and so taken.

~_The Foxes red and gray._~

The Foxes are of two coloures; the one redd, the other gray:[362] these
feede on fish, and are good furre:[363] they doe not stinke, as the
Foxes of England, but their condition for their pray is as the Foxes of
England.

~_The Wolfes of diverse coloures._~

The Wolfes are of divers coloures;[364] some sandy , some
griselled, and some black: their foode is fish, which they catch when
they passe up the rivers into the ponds to spawne, at the spring time.
The Deare are also their pray, and at summer, when they have whelpes,
the bitch will fetch a puppy dogg from our dores to feede their whelpes
with. They are fearefull Curres, and will runne away from a man, (that
meeteth them by chaunce at a banke end,) as fast as any fearefull
dogge.[365] These pray upon the Deare very much. The skinnes are used
by the Salvages, especially the skinne of the black wolfe, which is
esteemed a present for a prince there.

~_The skin of a black wolfe a present for a prince._~

When there ariseth any difference betweene prince and prince, the
prince that desires to be reconciled to his neighboring prince does
endeavour to purchase it by sending him a black wolfes skinne for
a present, and the acceptance of such a present is an assurance of
reconciliation betweene them; and the {80} Salvages will willingly
give 40. beaver skinnes for the purchase of one of these black Wolfes
skinnes:[366] and allthough the beast himselfe be a discommodity, which
other Countries of Christendome are subject unto, yet is the skinne of
the black wolfe worthy the title of a commodity, in that respect that
hath bin declared.

~_The Beares afraid of a man._~

If I should not speake something of the beare,[367] I might happily
leave a scruple in the mindes of some effeminate persone who conceaved
of more dainger in them then there is cause. Therefore, to incourage
them against all Feare and Fortifie their mindes against needles
danger, I will relate what experience hath taught mee concerning them:
they are beasts that doe no harme in those parts; they feede upon
Hurtleburies, Nuts and Fish, especially shell-fish.

The Beare is a tyrant at a Lobster, and at low water will downe to the
Rocks and groape after them with great diligence.

~_The Salvages seeing a beare chase him like a dogg and kill
him._~

Hee will runne away from a man as fast as a litle dogge. If a couple of
Salvages chaunce to espie him at his banquet, his running away will
not serve his turne, for they will coate him, and chase him betweene
them home to theire howses, where they kill him, to save a laboure in
carrying him farre. His Flesh is esteemed venison, and of a better
taste then beefe.[368]

His hide is used by the Salvages for garments, and is more commodious
then discommodious; and may passe, (with some allowance,) with the rest.

~_Muskewashe._~

The Muskewashe[369] is a beast that frequenteth the ponds. What hee
eats I cannot finde. Hee is {81} but a small beast, lesse then a Cunny,
and is indeede in those parts no other then a water Ratte; for I have
seene the suckers of them digged out of a banke, and at that age they
neither differed in shape, coloure, nor size, from one of our greate
Ratts. When hee is ould, hee is of the Beavers coloure; and hath passed
in waite with our Chapmen for Beaver.

The Male of them have stones, which the Salvages, in uncaseing of
them, leave to the skinne, which is a most delicate perfume, and may
compare with any perfume that I know for goodnesse: Then may not this
be excluded the Catalogue.

~_Porcupines._~

This Country, in the North parts thereof, hath many Porcupines,[370]
but I doe not finde the beast any way usefull or hurtfull.

~_Hedghoggs._~

There are in those Northerne parts many Hedgehoggs, of the like nature
to our English Hedghoggs.[371]

~_Conyes of severall sorts._~

Here are greate store of Conyes[372] in those parts, of divers
coloures; some white, some black, and some gray. Those towards the
Southerne parts are very small, but those to the North are as bigg
as the English Cony: their eares are very short. For meate the small
rabbit is as good as any that I have eaten of else where.

~_Squirils of three sorts._~

There are Squirils of three sorts,[373] very different in shape and
condition; one[374] is gray, and hee is as bigg as the lesser Cony, and
keepeth the woods, feeding upon nutts.

Another is red, and hee haunts our howses and will rob us of our Corne;
but the Catt many times payes him the price of his presumption.

~_A Flying Squirill._~

{82} The third is a little flying Squirill, with batlike winges, which
hee spreads when hee jumpes from tree to tree, and does no harme.

~_Snakes._~

Now because I am upon a treaty of the beasts, I will place this
creature, the snake, amongst the beasts, having my warrant from the
holy Bible; who, (though his posture in his passage be so different
from all other, being of a more subtile and aidry nature, that hee can
make his way without feete, and lifte himselfe above the superficies
of the earth, as hee glids along,) yet may hee not bee ranked with any
but the beasts, notwithstanding hee frequents the water, as well as the
land.

There are of Snakes divers and of severall kindes, as be with us in
England; but that Country hath not so many as in England have bin
knowne.[375]

The generall Salvage name of them is Ascowke.[376]

~_The rattle Snakes._~

There is one creeping beast or longe creeple, (as the name is in
Devonshire,) that hath a rattle at his tayle that does discover his
age; for so many yeares as hee hath lived, so many joynts are in that
rattle, which soundeth (when it is in motion,) like pease in a bladder;
and this beast is called a rattle Snake; but the Salvages give him the
name of Sesick,[377] which some take to be the Adder; and it may well
be so, for the Salvages are significiant in their denomination of any
thing, and [it] is no lesse hurtfull than the Adder of England, nor no
more. I have had my dogge venomed with troubling one of these, and so
swelled that I had thought it would have bin his death: but with one
Saucer of Salet oyle powred downe his throate he {83} has recovered,
and the swelling asswaged by the next day. The like experiment hath bin
made upon a boy that hath by chaunce troad upon one of these, and the
boy never the worse. Therefore it is simplicity in any one that shall
tell a bugbeare tale of horrible, or terrible Serpents, that are in
that land.[378]

~_Mise._~

Mise there are good store, and my Lady Woodbees black gray-malkin may
have pastime enough there: but for Rats, the Country by Nature is
troubled with none.[379]

~_Lyons alwaies in hot Clymats, not in cold._~

Lyons there are none in New England:[380] it is contrary to the Nature
of the beast to frequent places accustomed to snow; being like the
Catt, that will hazard the burning of her tayle rather than abide from
the fire.




CHAP. VI.

  _Of Stones and Minerals._[381]


Now, (for as much as I have in a breife abstract shewed you the
Creatures whose specificall Natures doe simpathise with the elements of
fire and aire,) I will come to speake of the Creatures that participate
of earth more then the other two, which is stones.

~_Marble._~

And first of the Marble for building; whereof there is much in those
parts, in so much there is one bay in the land that beareth the name of
Marble harber, because of the plenty of Marble there:[382] and these
{84} are usefull for building of Sumpteous Pallaces.

~_Limestone._~

And because no good building can be made permanent, or durable, without
Lime, I will let you understand that there is good Limestone neere to
the river of Monatoquinte,[383] at Uttaquatock,[384] to my knowledge;
and we hope other places too, (that I have not taken so much notice
of,) may have the like, or better: and those stones are very convenient
for building.

~_Chalk._~

Chalke stones there are neere Squantos Chappell,[385] shewed me by a
Salvage.

~_Slate._~

There is abundance of excellent Slate[386] in divers places of the
Country; and the best that ever I beheld for covering of howses: and
the inhabitants have made good use of these materials for building.

~_Whetstones._~

There is a very usefull Stone in the Land, and as yet there is found
out but one place where they may be had, in the whole Country: Ould
Woodman, (that was choaked at Plimmouth after hee had played the
unhappy Markes man when hee was pursued by a carelesse fellow that was
new come into the Land,) they say laboured to get a patent of it to
himselfe. Hee was beloved of many, and had many sonnes that had a minde
to engrosse that commodity. And I cannot spie any mention made of it
in the woodden prospect.[387]

Therefore I begin to suspect his aime, that it was for himselfe; and
therefore will I not discover it: it is the Stone so much commended by
_Ovid_, because love delighteth to make his habitation in a building of
those materials, where hee advises those that seeke for love to doe it,
_Duris in Cotibus illum_.[388]

This stone the Salvages doe call _Cos_;[389] {85} and of these, (on the
North end of Richmond Iland,) are store, and those are very excellent
good for edg’d tooles.[390] I envy not his happinesse. I have bin
there:[391] viewed the place: liked the commodity: but will not plant
so Northerly for that, nor any other commodity that is there to be had.

~_Loadstones._~

There are Loadestones[392] also in the Northerne parts of the land: and
those which were found are very good, and are a commodity worth the
noteing.

~_Ironstones._~

Iron stones[393] there are abundance: and severall sorts of them knowne.

~_Lead._~

Lead ore[394] is there likewise, and hath bin found by the breaking of
the earth, which the Frost hath made mellow.

~_Blacklead._~

Black Leade[395] I have likewise found very good, which the Salvages
use to paint their faces with.

~_Read lead._~

Red Leade[396] is there likewise in great abundance.

~_Boll._~

There is very excellent Boll Armoniack.[397]

~_Vermilion._~

There is most excellent Vermilion.[398] All these things the Salvages
make some litle use of, and doe finde them on the circumference of the
Earth.

~_Brimstone._~

Brimstone[399] mines there are likewise.

~_Tinne._~

Mines of Tinne[400] are likewise knowne to be in those parts: which
will in short time be made use of: and this cannot be accompted a meane
commodity.

~_Copper._~

Copper mines[401] are there found likewise, that will enrich the
Inhabitants. But untill theire younge Cattell be growne hardy labourers
in the yoake, that the Plough and the Wheate may be seene more
plentifully, it is a worke must be forborne.

~_Silver._~

{86} They say there is a Silver, and a gold mine[402] found by Captaine
Littleworth:[403] if hee get a patent of it to himselfe hee will surely
change his name.




CHAP. VII.

  _Of the Fishes, and what commodity they proove._[404]


Among Fishes, first I will begin with the Codd, because it is the most
commodious of all fish, as may appeare by the use which is made of them
in forraigne parts.

~_Codd._~

The Codd fishing is much used in America, (whereof New England is a
part,) in so much as 300. Sayle of shipps, from divers parts, have used
to be imployed yearely in that trade.

~_15. Shipps at one time for Codd._~

I have seene in one Harboure,[405] next Richmond Iland, 15. Sayle of
shipps at one time, that have taken in them driyed Codds for Spaine and
the Straights, and it has bin found that the Saylers have made 15. 18.
20. 22. p. share for a common man.

~_Oyle mayd of the livers of the Codd._~

The Coast aboundeth with such multitudes of Codd[406] that the
inhabitants of New England doe dunge their grounds with Codd; and it
is a commodity better than the golden mines of the Spanish Indies; for
without dried Codd the Spaniard, Portingal and Italian would not be
able to vittel of a shipp for the Sea; and I am sure at the Canaries it
is the principall commodity: which place lyeth neere New Eng{87}land,
very convenient for the vending of this commodity, one hundred of these
being at the price of 300. of New found land Codds: greate store of
traine oyle[407] is mayd of the livers of the Codd, and is a commodity
that without question will enrich the inhabitants of New England
quicly; and is therefore a principall commodity.

~_A 100 Basse sould for 5. p._~

The Basse[408] is an excellent Fish, both fresh and Salte; one hundred
whereof salted, (at a market,) have yeilded 5. p. They are so large,
the head of one will give a good eater a dinner; and for daintinesse of
diet they excell the Mary-bones of Beefe. There are such multitudes,
that I have seene stopped into the river close adjoyning to my howse,
with a sand at one tide, so many as will loade a ship of a 100. Tonnes.

Other places have greater quantities, in so much as wagers have bin
layed that one should not throw a stone in the water but that hee
should hit a fish.

I my selfe, at the turning of the tyde, have seene such multitudes
passe out of a pound, that it seemed to mee that one might goe over
their backs drishod.

These follow the bayte up the rivers, and sometimes are followed for
bayte and chased into the bayes, and shallow waters, by the grand
pise:[409] and these may have also a prime place in the Catalogue of
Commodities.

~_Mackarell are baite for Basse._~

The Mackarels are the baite for the Basse, and these have bin chased
into the shallow waters where so many thousands have shott themselves
a shore with the surfe of the Sea, that whole hogges-heads have bin
taken up on the Sands; and for length, they excell {88} any of other
parts: they have bin measured 18. and 19. inches in length and seaven
in breadth: and are taken with a drayle,[410] (as boats use to passe to
and froe at Sea on businesse,) in very greate quantities all alonge the
Coaste.

The Fish is good, salted, for store against the winter, as well as
fresh; and to be accounted a good Commodity.

~_Sturgeon._~

This Sturgeon in England is _regalis piscis_;[411] every man in New
England may catch what hee will: there are multitudes of them, and they
are much fatter then those that are brought into England from other
parts, in so much as by reason of their fatnesse they doe not looke
white, but yellow, which made a Cooke presume they were not so good as
them of Roushea: silly fellow that could not understand that it is the
nature of fish salted, or pickelled, the fatter the yellower being best
to preserve.[412]

For the taste, I have warrant of Ladies of worth, with choise pallats
for the commendations, who liked the taste so well that they esteemed
it beyond the Sturgeon of other parts, and sayd they were deceaved in
the lookes: therefore let the Sturgeon passe for a Commodity.

~_Salmon._~

Of Salmons there is greate abundance: and these may be allowed for a
Commodity, and placed in the Catallogue.

~_Herrings._~

Of Herrings there is greate store, fat and faire: and, (to my minde,)
as good as any I have seene; and these may be preserved, and made a
good commodity at the Canaries.

~_Great plenty of Eeles._~

{89} Of Eeles there is abundance, both in the Salt-waters and in the
fresh: and the fresh water Eele there, (if I may take the judgement
of a London Fishmonger,) is the best that hee hath found in his life
time. I have with 2.[413] eele potts found my howsehold, (being nine
persons, besides doggs,) with them, taking them every tide, (for 4.
moneths space,) and preserving of them for Winter store:[414] and these
may proove a good commodity.

~_Smelts._~

Of Smelts there is such abundance that the Salvages doe take them up in
the rivers with baskets, like sives.

~_Shadds or Allizes taken to dunge ground._~

There is a Fish, (by some called shadds, by some allizes,)[415] that
at the spring of the yeare passe up the rivers to spaune in the ponds;
and are taken in such multitudes in every river, that hath a pond at
the end, that the Inhabitants doung their ground with them. You may see
in one towneship a hundred acres together set with these Fish, every
acre taking 1000. of them: and an acre thus dressed will produce and
yeald so much corne as 3. acres without fish: and, least any Virginea
man would inferre hereupon that the ground of New England is barren,
because they use no fish in setting their corne, I desire them to be
remembred the cause is plaine, in Virginea they have it not to sett.
But this practise is onely for the Indian Maize, (which must be set by
hands,) not for English graine: and this is therefore a commodity there.

~_Turbut or Hallibut._~

There is a large sized fish called Hallibut, or Turbut:[416] some are
taken so bigg that two men have much a doe to hale them into the boate;
but there is {90} such plenty, that the fisher men onely eate the heads
and finnes, and throw away the bodies: such in Paris would yeeld 5. or
6. crownes a peece: and this is no discommodity.

~_Plaice._~

There are excellent Plaice,[417] and easily taken. They, (at flowing
water,) do almost come ashore, so that one may stepp but halfe a foote
deepe and prick them up on the sands and this may passe with some
allowance.

~_Hake._~

Hake[418] is a dainty white fish, and excellent vittell fresh; and may
passe with other commodities, because there are multitudes.

~_Pilchers._~

There are greate store of Pilchers:[419] at Michelmas, in many places,
I have seene the Cormorants[420] in length 3. miles feedinge upon the
Sent.

~_Lobsters._~

Lobsters are there infinite in store in all the parts of the land, and
very excellent. The most use that I made of them, in 5. yeares after I
came there, was but to baite my Hooke for to catch Basse; I had bin so
cloyed with them the first day I went a shore.

This being knowne, they shall passe for a commodity to the inhabitants;
for the Salvages will meete 500, or 1000. at a place where Lobsters
come in with the tyde, to eate, and save dried for store; abiding in
that place, feasting and sporting, a moneth or 6. weekes together.[421]

~_Oysters._~

There are greate 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 seene an Oyster banke a mile at length.

~_Mustles._~

Mustles there are infinite store; I have often gon {91} to Wassaguscus,
where were excellent Mustles, to eate for variety, the fish is so fat
and large.[422]

~_Clames._~

Clames is a shellfish, which I have seene sold in Westminster for
12. pe. the skore. These our swine feede upon, and of them there is
no want; every shore is full; it makes the swine proove exceedingly,
they will not faile at low water to be with them. The Salvages are
much taken with the delight of this fishe, and are not cloyed,
notwithstanding the plenty: for our swine we finde it a good commodity.

~_Rarer fish._~

Rarer fishes there are.

~_Freele._~

Freeles there are, Cockles and Scallopes;[423] and divers other sorts
of Shellfishe, very good foode.

Now that I have shewed you what commodities are there to be had in
the Sea, for a Market; I will shew what is in the Land, also, for the
comfort of the inhabitants, wherein it doth abound. And because my
taske is an abstract, I will discover to them the commodity thereof.

~_Fresh fish, Trouts, Carpes, Breames, Pikes, Roches,
Perches, Tenches, and Eeles._~

There are in the rivers, and ponds, very excellent Trouts, Carpes,
Breames, Pikes, Roches, Perches, Tenches, Eeles, and other fishes such
as England doth afford, and as good for variety; yea, many of them much
better; and the Natives of the inland parts doe buy hookes of us, to
catch them with: and I have knowne the time that a Trouts hooke hath
yeelded a beaver skinne, which hath bin a good commodity to those that
have bartered them away.

These things I offer to your consideration, (curteous Reader,) and
require you to shew mee the like in any part of the knowne world, if
you can.




{92} CHAP. VIII.

  _Of the goodnes of the Country and the Waters._


~_Foode and Fire._~

Now since it is a Country so infinitely blest with foode, and fire, to
roast or boyle our Flesh and Fish, why should any man feare for cold
there, in a Country warmer in the winter than some parts of France, and
neerer the Sunne: unles hee be one of those that Salomon bids goe to
the Ant and the Bee.

~_Noe Boggs._~

~_Perfumed aire with sweet herbes._~

There is no boggy ground knowne in all the Country, from whence the
Sunne may exhale unwholsom vapors: But there are divers arematicall
herbes and plants, as Sassafras, Muske Roses, Violets, Balme, Lawrell,
Hunnisuckles, and the like, that with their vapors perfume the aire;
and it has bin a thing much observed that shipps have come from
Virginea where there have bin scarce five men able to hale a rope,
untill they have come within 40. Degrees of latitude and smell the
sweet aire of the shore, where they have suddainly recovered.[424]

~_Of Waters._~

And for the water, therein it excelleth Canaan by much; for the Land
is so apt for Fountaines, a man cannot digg amisse: therefore if
the Abrahams and Lots of our times come thether, there needs be no
contention for wells.

Besides there are waters of most excellent vertues, worthy admiration.

~_The Cure of mellancolly at Maremount._~

{93} At Ma-re-Mount there was a water,[425] (by mee discovered,) that
is most excellent for the cure of Melancolly probatum.

~_The cure of Barrennesse._~

At Weenasemute is a water, the vertue whereof is to cure barrennesse.
The place taketh his name of that Fountaine which signifieth quick
spring, or quickning spring probatum.[426]

~_Water procuring a dead sleepe._~

~_New Engl. excels Canaan in fountaines._~

Neere Squantos Chappell,[427] (a place so by us called,) is a Fountaine
that causeth a dead sleepe for 48. howres to those that drinke 24.
ounces at a draught, and so proportionably. The Salvages, that are
Powahs, at set times use it, and reveale strang things to the vulgar
people by meanes of it. So that in the delicacy of waters, and the
conveniency of them, Canaan came not neere this Country.

~_Milke and Hony supplied._~

As for the Milke and Hony, which that Canaan flowed with, it is
supplyed by the plenty of birds, beasts and Fish; whereof Canaan could
not boast her selfe.

~_A plain paralell to Canaan._~

Yet never the lesse, (since the Milke came by the industry of the first
Inhabitants,) let the cattell be chereshed that are at this time in
New England, and forborne but a litle, I will aske no long time, no
more but untill the Brethren have converted one Salvage and made him
a good Christian, and I may be bold to say Butter and cheese will be
cheaper there then ever it was in Canaan. It is cheaper there then in
old England at this present; for there are store of Cowes, considering
the people, which, (as my intelligence gives,) is 12000.[428] persons:
and in gods name let the people have their desire, who write to their
freinds to come out of Sodome to the land of Canaan, a land that flowes
with Milke and Hony.

~_The Request for the Nomination of New Canaan._~

{94} And I appeale to any man of judgement, whether it be not a Land
that for her excellent indowments of Nature may passe for a plaine
paralell to Canaan of Israell, being in a more temporat Climat, this
being in 40. Degrees and that in 30.




CHAP. IX.

  _A Perspective to view the Country by._


~_The Soyle._~

As for the Soyle, I may be bould to commend the fertility thereof, and
preferre it before the Soyle of England, (our Native Country); and I
neede not to produce more then one argument for proffe thereof, because
it is so infallible.

~_The grouth of Hempe._~

Hempe is a thing by Husband men in generall ageed upon to prosper best
in the most fertile Soyle: and experience hath taught this rule, that
Hempe seede prospers so well in New England that it shewteth up to be
tenne foote high and tenne foote and a halfe, which is twice so high as
the ground in old England produceth it; which argues New England the
more fertile of the two.[429]

~_The aire._~

As for the aire, I will produce but one proffe for the maintenance of
the excellency thereof; which is so generall, as I assure myselfe it
will suffice.

~_No cold cough or murre._~

No man living there was ever knowne to be troubled with a cold, a
cough, or a murre; but many men, comming sick out of Virginea to New
Canaan have instantly recovered with the helpe of the purity {95} of
that aire;[430] no man ever surfeited himselfe either by eating or
drinking.

~_The plenty of the Land._~

As for the plenty of that Land, it is well knowne that no part of Asia,
Affrica or Europe affordeth deare that doe bring forth any more then
one single faune; and in New Canaan the Deare are accustomed to bring
forth 2. and 3. faunes at a time.[431]

Besides, there are such infinite flocks of Fowle and Multitudes of
fish, both in the fresh waters and also on the Coast, that the like
hath not else where bin discovered by any traveller.

~_Windes._~

The windes there are not so violent as in England; which is prooved
by the trees that grow in the face of the winde by the Sea Coast; for
there they doe not leane from the winde as they doe in England: as we
have heard before.[432]

~_Raine._~

The Raine is there more moderate then in England; which thing I have
noted in all the time of my residence to be so.

~_The Coast._~

The Coast is low Land, and not high Land: and hee is of a weake
capacity that conceaveth otherwise of it, because it cannot be denied
but that boats may come a ground in all places along the Coast, and
especially within the Compas of the Massachusets patent, where the
prospect is fixed.[433]

~_Harboures._~

The Harboures are not to be bettered for safety and goodnesse of
ground, for ancorage, and, (which is worthy observation,) shipping will
not there be furred; neither are they subject to wormes, as in Virginea
and other places.

~_Scituation._~

{96} Let the Scituation also of the Country be considered, (together
with the rest which is discovered in the front of this abstract,) and
then I hope no man will hold this land unworthy to be intituled by the
name of the second Canaan.

~_The Nomination._~

And, since the Seperatists are desirous to have the denomination
thereof, I am become an humble Suter on their behalfe for your
consents, (courteous Readers,) to it, before I doe shew you what Revels
they have kept in New Canaan.[434]




CHAP. X.

  _Of the Great Lake of Erocoise in New England, and the commodities
  thereof._


~_Fowle innumerable._~

Westwards from the Massachusetts bay, (which lyeth in 42. Degrees and
30. Minutes of Northerne latitude,) is scituated a very spacious Lake,
(called of the Natives the Lake of Erocoise[435]) which is farre more
excellent then the Lake of Genezereth, in the Country of Palestina,
both in respect of the greatnes and properties thereof, and likewise of
the manifould commodities it yealdeth: the circumference of which Lake
is reputed to be 240. miles at the least: and it is distant from the
Massachussetts bay 300. miles, or there abouts:[436] wherein are very
many faire Islands, where innumerable flocks of severall sorts of Fowle
doe breede, Swannes, Geese, Ducks, Widgines, Teales, and other water
Fowle.

~_Multitudes of Fish._~

~_The prime place of New Canaan._~

{97} There are also more abundance of Beavers, Deare and Turkies breed
about the parts of that lake then in any place in all the Country of
New England; and also such multitudes of fish, (which is a great part
of the foode that the Beavers live upon,) that it is a thing to be
admired at: So that about this Lake is the principallst place for a
plantation in all New Canaan, both for pleasure and proffit.

~_Canada, so named of Monsier de Cane._~

Here may very many brave Townes and Citties be erected, which may
have intercourse one with another by water, very commodiously: and it
is of many men of good judgement accounted the prime seate for the
Metropolis of New Canaan.[437] From this Lake, Northwards, is derived
the famous River of Canada, (so named of Monsier de Cane,[438] a French
Lord that first planted a Colony of French in America, there called
Nova Francia,) from whence Captaine Kerke[439] of late, by taking that
plantation, brought home in one shipp, (as a Seaman of his Company
reported in my hearing,) 25000. Beaver skinnes.[440]

~_Patomack._~

And from this Lake, Southwards, trends that goodly River, called of the
Natives Patomack, which dischardgeth herselfe in the parts of Virginea;
from whence it is navigable by shipping of great Burthen up to the
Falls, (which lieth in 41. Degrees and a halfe of North latitude,) and
from the Lake downe to the Falls by a faire current. This River is
navigable for vessels of good Burthen; and thus much hath often bin
related by the Natives, and is of late found to be certaine.[441]

~_Great heards of Beasts as bigg as Cowes._~

{98} They have also made description of great heards of well growne
beasts, that live about the parts of this Lake, such as the Christian
world, (untill this discovery,) hath not bin made acquainted with.
These beasts are of the bignesse of a Cowe; their Flesh being very
good foode, their hides good lether, their fleeces very usefull, being
a kinde of wolle as fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver; and the
Salvages doe make garments thereof.

It is tenne yeares since first the relation of these things came to the
eares of the English: at which time wee were but slender proficients in
the language of the Natives, and they, (which now have attained to more
perfection of English,) could not then make us rightly apprehend their
meaninge.[442]

Wee supposed, when they spake of Beasts thereabouts as high as men,
they have made report of men all over hairy like Beavers, in so much
as we questioned them whether they eate of the Beavers, to which they
replyed Matta,[443] (noe) saying they were almost Beavers Brothers.
This relation at that time wee concluded to be fruitles, which, since,
time hath made more apparent.

~_Henry Ioseline imployed for discovery._~

About the parts of this Lake may be made a very greate Commodity by
the trade of furres, to inrich those that shall plant there; a more
compleat discovery of those parts is, (to my knowleadge,) undertaken by
Henry Ioseline,[444] Esquier, sonne of Sir Thomas Ioseline of Kent,
Knight, by the approbation and appointement of that Heroick and very
good Common wealths man, Captaine Iohn Mason,[445] Esquier, a {99} true
foster Father and lover of vertue, (who at his owne chardge,) hath
fitted Master Ioseline and imployed him to that purpose; who no doubt
will performe as much as is expected, if the Dutch, (by gettinge into
those parts before him,) doe not frustrate his so hopefull and laudable
designes.

It is well knowne they aime at that place, and have a possibility to
attaine unto the end of their desires therein, by meanes of the River
of Mohegan, which of the English is named Hudsons River, where the
Dutch have setled two well fortified plantations already. If that River
be derived from the Lake, as our Country man in his prospect[446]
affirmes it to be, and if they get and fortifie this place also,
they will gleane away the best of the Beaver both from the French and
the English, who have hitherto lived wholely by it; and very many old
planters have gained good estates out of small beginnings by meanes
thereof.

~_The Dutch have a great trade of Beaver in Hudsons River._~

And it is well knowne to some of our Nation that have lived in the
Dutch plantation that the Dutch have gained by Beaver 20000. pound a
yeare.[447]

The Salvages make report of 3. great Rivers that issue out of this
Lake, 2. of which are to us knowne, the one to be Patomack, the other
Canada: and why may not the third be found there likewise, which they
describe to trend westward, which is conceaved to discharge herselfe
into the South Sea? The Salvages affirme that they have seene shipps in
this Lake with 4. Masts, which have taken from thence for their ladinge
earth, that is conjectured to be some minerall stuffe.

~_The passage to the East-Indies._~

~_The Country of Erocois as fertile as Delta in Ægypt._~

{100} There is probability enough for this; and it may well be thought
that so great a confluxe of waters as are there gathered together, must
be vented by some great Rivers; and that if the third River, (which
they have made mention of,) proove to be true, as the other two have
done, there is no doubt but that the passage to the East India may be
obtained without any such daingerous and fruitlesse inquest by the
Norwest, as hetherto hath bin endeavoured: And there is no Traveller of
any resonable capacity but will graunt that about this Lake must be
innumerable springes, and by that meanes many fruitfull and pleasant
pastures all about it. It hath bin observed that the inland part,
(witnes Neepnet,[448]) are more pleasant and fertile then the borders
of the Sea coaste. And the Country about Erocoise is, (not without
good cause,) compared to Delta, the most fertile parte in all Ægypt,
that aboundeth with Rivers and Rivalets derived from Nilus fruitfull
channell, like vaines from the liver; so in each respect is this famous
Lake of Erocoise.

And, therefore, it would be adjudged an irreparable oversight to
protract time, and suffer the Dutch, (who are but intruders upon his
Majesties most hopefull Country of New England,) to possesse themselves
of that so plesant and commodious Country of Erocoise before us: being,
(as appeareth,) the principall part of all New Canaan for plantation,
and not elsewhere to be paralelld in all the knowne world.

[Illustration]




{101}

NEW CANAANS GENIVS.

EPILOGVS.


  _Thou that art by Fates degree,
  Or Providence, ordain’d to see
  Natures wonder, her rich store
  Ne’-r discovered before,
  Th’ admired Lake of Erocoise
  And fertile Borders, now rejoyce.
  See what multitudes of fish
  Shee presents to fitt thy dish.
  If rich furres thou dost adore,
  And of Beaver Fleeces store,
  See the Lake where they abound,
  And what pleasures els are found.
  There chast Leda, free from fire,
  Does enjoy her hearts desire;
  Mongst the flowry bancks at ease
  Live the sporting Najades,
  Bigg lim’d Druides, whose browes
  Bewtified with greenebowes.
  See the Nimphes, how they doe make
  Fine Meanders from the Lake,
  Twining in and out, as they
  Through the pleasant groves make way,
  Weaving by the shady trees
  Curious Anastomases,
  {102} Where the harmeles Turtles breede,
  And such usefull Beasts doe feede
  As no Traveller can tell
  Els where how to paralell.
  Colcos golden Fleece reject;
  This deserveth best respect.
  In sweete Peans let thy voyce,
  Sing the praise of Erocoise,
  Peans to advaunce her name,
  New Canaans everlasting fame._

[Illustration]




[Illustration]




{103}

NEW ENGLISH CANAAN,

OR NEW CANAAN.

_The Third Booke._

  Containing a description of the People that are planted there, what
  remarkable Accidents have happened there since they were setled, what
  Tenents they hould, together with the practise of their Church.




CHAP. I.

  _Of a great League made with the Plimmouth Planters after their
  arrivall, by the Sachem of those Territories._[449]


~_A Salvage sent an Ambassador to the English at their
first-comminge._~

~_The Sachem feared the Plague._~

The Sachem of the Territories where the Planters of New England are
setled, that are the first of the now Inhabitants of New Canaan, not
knowing what they were, or whether they would be freindes or foes, and
{104} being desirous to purchase their freindship that hee might have
the better Assurance of quiet tradinge with them, (which hee conceived
would be very advantagious to him,) was desirous to prepare an
ambassador, with commission to treat on his behalfe, to that purpose;
and having one that had beene in England (taken by a worthlesse
man[450] out of other partes, and after left there by accident,) this
Salvage[451] hee instructed how to behave himselfe in the treaty of
peace; and the more to give him incouragement to adventure his person
amongst these new come inhabitants, which was a thinge hee durst not
himselfe attempt without security or hostage, promised that Salvage
freedome, who had beene detained there as theire Captive: which offer
hee accepted, and accordingly came to the Planters, salutinge them
with wellcome in the English phrase, which was of them admired to
heare a Salvage there speake in their owne language, and used him
great courtesie: to whome hee declared the cause of his comminge,
and contrived the businesse so that hee brought the Sachem and the
English together, betweene whome was a firme league concluded, which
yet continueth. After which league the Sachem, being in company with
the other whome hee had freed and suffered to live with the English,
espijnge a place where a hole had been made in the grounde, where
was their store of powder layed to be preserved from danger of fire,
(under ground,) demaunded of the Salvage what the English had hid there
under ground; who answered the plague;[452] at which hee starteled,
because of the great mortality lately {105} happened by meanes of
the plague,[453] (as it is conceaved,) and the Salvage, the more to
encrease his feare, told the Sachem if he should give offence to the
English party they would let out the plague to destroy them all, which
kept him in great awe. Not longe after, being at varience with another
Sachem borderinge upon his Territories, he came in solemne manner and
intreated the governour that he would let out the plague to destroy the
Sachem and his men who were his enemies, promising that he himselfe
and all his posterity would be their everlasting freindes, so great an
opinion he had of the English.




CHAP. II.

  _Of the entertainement of Mr. Westons people sent to settle a
  plantation there._


~_Court holy bread at Plimmouth._~

Master Thomas Weston,[454] a Merchant of London that had been at some
cost to further the Brethren of new Plimmouth in their designes for
these partes, shipped a company of Servants, fitted with provision of
all sorts, for the undertaking of a Plantation to be setled there;
with an intent to follow after them in person. These servants at first
arived at new Plimmouth, where they were entertained with court holy
bread by the Brethren: they were made very wellcome, in shew at least:
there these servants goodes were landed, with promises to be assisted
in the choise of a convenient place; and still the good cheare went
forward, and the strong liquors walked. In the meane time the Brethren
were in consultation what was best for their advantage, singing the
songe, _Frustra sapit, qui sibi non sapit_.

{106} This plantation would hinder the present practice and future
profit; and Master Weston, an able man, would want for no supplies
upon the returne of Beaver, and so might be a plantation that might
keepe them under, who had a Hope to be the greatest: besides his
people were no chosen Seperatists, but men made choice of at all
adventures, fit to have served for the furtherance of Master Westons
undertakinges: and that was as much as hee neede to care for: ayminge
at Beaver principally for the better effecting of his purpose. Now when
the Plimmouth men began to finde that Master Westons mens store of
provition grew short with feasting, then they hasted them to a place
called Wessaguscus, in a weake case, and there left them fasting.




CHAP. III.

  _Of a Battle fought at the Massachussets, between the English and the
  French._[455]


~_The Sachems Oration._~

~_A spirit mooving the Sachem to Warre._~

~_The grand Captaine makes a speech._~

~_The maine Battaile._~

~_The feild wonne by the English._~

The Planters of Plimmouth, at their last being in those parts,
having defaced the monument of the ded at Pasonagessit, (by taking
away the herse Cloath, which was two greate Beares skinnes sowed
together at full length, and propped up over the grave of Chuatawbacks
mother,[456]) the Sachem of those territories, being inraged at the
same, stirred up his men in his bee halfe to take revenge: and,
having gathered his men together, hee begins to make an oration in
this manner. When last the glorious light of all the {107} skey was
underneath this globe, and Birds grew silent, I began to settle, (as
my custome is,) to take repose; before mine eies were fast closed,
mee thought I saw a vision, (at which my spirit was much troubled,)
and, trembling at that dolefull sight, a spirit cried aloude behold,
my sonne, whom I have cherisht, see the papps that gave thee suck,
the hands that lappd thee warme and fed thee oft, canst thou forget
to take revenge of those uild people that hath my monument defaced in
despitefull manner, disdaining our ancient antiquities and honourable
Customes? See now the Sachems grave lies like unto the common people
of ignoble race, defaced; thy mother doth complaine, implores thy aide
against this theevish people new come hether; if this be suffered I
shall not rest in quiet within my everlasting habitation. This said,
the spirit vanished; and I, all in a sweat, not able scarce to speake,
began to gett some strength, and recollect my spirits that were fled:
all which I thought to let you understand, to have your Councell, and
your aide likewise; this being spoken, straight way arose the grand
Captaine and cried aloud, come, let us to Armes, it doth concerne us
all, let us bid them Battaile; so to Armes they went, and laid weight
for the Plimmouth boate; and, forceinge them to forsake their landinge
place, they seeke another best for their convenience; thither the
Salvages repaire, in hope to have the like successe; but all in vaine,
for the English Captaine warily foresaw, and, perceavinge their plot,
knew the better how to order his men fit for Battaile in that place;
hee, bouldly leading his men on, rainged about the feild to and fro,
{108} and, taking his best advantage, lets fly, and makes the Salvages
give ground: the English followed them fiercely on, and made them take
trees for their shelter, (as their custome is,) from whence their
Captaine let flie a maine; yet no man was hurt; at last, lifting up
his right arm to draw a fatall shaft, (as hee then thought to end this
difference), received a shott upon his elbow,[457] and straight way
fled; by whose example all the army followed the same way, and yealded
up the honor of the day to the English party; who were such a terror to
them after that the Salvages durst never make to a head against them
any more.




CHAP. IV.

  _Of a Parliament held at Wessaguscus, and the Actes._


~_Some lazy people._~

Master Westons Plantation beinge setled at Wessaguscus, his Servants,
many of them lazy persons that would use no endeavour to take the
benefit of the Country, some of them fell sicke and died.

~_A lusty fellow._~

One amongst the rest, an able bodied man that ranged the woodes to see
what it would afford, lighted by accident on an Indian barne, and from
thence did take a capp full of corne; the Salvage owner of it, finding
by the foote some English had bin there, came to the Plantation, and
made complaint after this manner.

~_A poore complaint. Edward Iohnson a cheife Iudge. Maide a
hainous fact._~

~_A fine device._~

~_A wise Sentence._~

~_To hange a sick man in the others steede._~

{109} The cheife Commander of the Company one this occation called a
Parliament of all his people, but those that were sicke and ill at
ease. And wisely now they must consult upon this huge complaint, that
a privy knife or stringe of beades would well enough have qualified;
and Edward Iohnson was a spetiall judge of this businesse; the fact was
there in repetition; construction made that it was fellony, and by the
Lawes of England punished with death; and this in execution must be
put for an example, and likewise to appease the Salvage: when straight
wayes one arose, mooved as it were with some compassion, and said hee
could not well gaine say the former sentence, yet hee had conceaved
within the compasse of his braine an Embrion that was of spetiall
consequence to be delivered and cherished; hee said that it would most
aptly serve to pacifie the Salvages complaint, and save the life of
one that might, (if neede should be,) stand them in some good steede,
being younge and stronge, fit for resistance against an enemy, which
might come unexspected for any thinge they knew. The Oration made was
liked of every one, and hee intreated to proceede to shew the meanes
how this may be performed: sayes hee, you all agree that one must die,
and one shall die; this younge mans cloathes we will take of, and put
upon one that is old and impotent, a sickly person that cannot escape
death, such is the disease one him confirmed that die hee must; put the
younge mans cloathes on this man, and let the sick person be hanged in
the others steede: Amen sayes one; and so sayes many more.

~_Very fit Iustice._~

~_A dangerous Attempt._~

~_Iesting turned to earnest._~

{110} And this had like to have prooved their finall sentence, and,
being there confirmed by Act of Parliament, to after ages for a
President: But that one with a ravenus voyce begunne to croake and
bellow for revenge; and put by that conclusive motion, alledging such
deceipts might be a meanes hereafter to exasperate the mindes of
the complaininge Salvages, and that by his death the Salvages should
see their zeale to Iustice; and therefore hee should die: this was
concluded; yet neverthelesse a scruple was made; now to countermaund
this act, did represent itselfe unto their mindes, which was, how
they should doe to get the mans good wil? this was indeede a spetiall
obstacle: for without that, they all agreed it would be dangerous for
any man to attempt the execution of it, lest mischeife should befall
them every man; hee was a person that in his wrath did seeme to be a
second Sampson, able to beate out their branes with the jawbone of an
Asse: therefore they called the man, and by perswation got him fast
bound in jest; and then hanged him up hard by in good earnest,[458] who
with a weapon, and at liberty, would have put all those wise judges of
this Parliament to a pittifull _non plus_, (as it hath beene credibly
reported,) and made the cheife Iudge of them all buckell to him.




{111} CHAP. V.

  _Of a Massacre made upon the Salvages at Wessaguscus._


~_Good quarters with the Salvages._~

~_A plott from Plimmouth._~

~_Salvages killed with their one weapons._~

After the end of that Parliament, some of the plantation there, about
three persons,[459] went to live with Checatawback and his company;
and had very good quarter, for all the former quarrell with the
Plimmouth planters: they are not like Will Sommers,[460] to take
one for another. There they purposed to stay untill Master Westons
arrivall: but the Plimmouth men, intendinge no good to him, (as appered
by the consequence,) came in the meane time to Wessaguscus, and there
pretended to feast the Salvages of those partes, bringing with them
Porke and thinges for the purpose, which they sett before the Salvages.
They eate thereof without suspition of any mischeife, who were taken
upon a watchword given, and with their owne knives, (hanging about
their neckes,) were by the Plimmouth planters stabd and slaine: one of
which were hanged up there, after the slaughter.[461]

~_News carried._~

~_A revenge._~

In the meane time the Sachem had knowledge of this accident, by one
that ranne to his Countrymen, at the Massachussets, and gave them
intelligence of the newes; after which time the Salvages there,
consultinge of the matter, in the night, (when the other English
feareles of danger were a sleepe,) knockt them all in the head, in
revenge of the death of their {112} Countrymen: but if the Plimmouth
Planters had really intended good to Master Weston, or those men,
why had they not kept the Salvages alive in Custody, untill they had
secured the other English? Who, by meanes of this evill mannaginge of
the businesse, lost their lives, and the whole plantation was dissolved
thereupon; as was likely, for feare of a revenge to follow, as a
relatione to this cruell antecedent; and when Master Weston came over
hee found thinges at an evill exigent, by meanes thereof: But could not
tell how it was brought about.

~_The Salvages call the English cutthroats._~

The Salvages of the Massachussets, that could not imagine from
whence these men should come, or to what end, seeing them performe
such unexpected actions; neither could tell by what name properly
to distinguish them; did from that time afterwards call the English
Planters Wotawquenange,[462] which in their language signifieth
stabbers, or Cutthroates: and this name was received by those that came
there after for good, being then unacquainted with the signification
of it, for many yeares following; untill, from a Southerly Indian
that understood English well, I was by demonstration made to conceave
the interpretation of it, and rebucked these other that it was not
forborne: The other callinge us by the name of Wotoquansawge, what that
doth signifie, hee said, hee was not able by any demonstration to
expresse; and my neighbours durst no more, in my hearinge, call us by
the name formerly used, for feare of my displeasure.




{113} CHAP. VI.

  _Of the surprizinge of a Merchants Shipp in Plimmouth harbour._


~_The Merchant with Supply._~

~_A glosse upon the false text._~

~_Where two nations meet one must rule the other must be
ruled or no quietnes._~

~_A Machivell plot._~

~_The Vaile._~

~_Shipp and goodes confiscated._~

~_When every Conspirator had his share the shipp delivered
againe._~

~_Bonds taken not to prosecute._~

~_Report Mr. Weston was mad in New England._~

~_Honest men in particular._~

This Merchant, a man of worth, arrivinge in the parts of New Canaan and
findinge that his Plantation was dissolved, some of his men slaine,
some dead with sicknes, and the rest at Plimmouth, hee was perplexed
in his minde about the matter; comminge as hee did with supply, and
meanes to have rased their fortunes and his one exceedingly: and
seeinge what had happened resolved to make some stay in the Plimmouth
harbour.[463] And this suted to their purpose; wherefore the Brethren
did congratulate with him at his safe arrivall, and their best of
entertainement for a swetning cast, deploring the disaster of his
Plantation, and glozing upon the text, alledging the mischeivous
intent of the Salvages there, which by freindly intelligence of
their neighbours was discovered before it came to be full summed: so
that they lost not all, allthough they saved not all: and this they
pretended to proceede from the Fountaine of love and zeale to him
and Christianity, and to chastise the insolency of the Salvages, of
which that part had some dangerous persons. And this, as an article
of the new creede of Canaan, would they have received of every new
commer there to inhabit, that the Salvages are a dangerous people,
subtill, secreat and mischeivous; and that it is dangerous to live
seperated, but {114} rather together: and so be under their Lee, that
none might trade for Beaver, but at their pleasure, as none doe or
shall doe there: nay they will not be reduced to any other song yet
of the Salvages to the southward of Plimmouth, because they would
have none come there, sayinge that hee that will sit downe there must
come stronge: but I have found the Massachussets Indian more full of
humanity then the Christians; and haue had much better quarter with
them; yet I observed not their humors, but they mine; althoug my great
number that I landed were dissolved, and my Company as few as might
be:[464] for I know that this falls out infallibly where two Nations
meete, one must rule and the other be ruled, before a peace can be
hoped for: and for a Christian to submit to the rule of a Salvage,
you will say, is both shame and dishonor: at least it is my opinion,
and my practice was accordingly, and I have the better quarter by
the meanes thereof. The more Salvages the better quarter, the more
Christians the worser quarter, I found; as all the indifferent minded
Planters can testifie. Now, whiles the Merchant was ruminatinge on this
mishapp, the Plimmouth Planters perceivinge that hee had furnished
himselfe with excellent Commodities, fit for the Merchandise of the
Country, (and holding it good to fish in trobled waters, and so get
a snatch unseene,) practised in secret with some other in the land,
whom they thought apt to imbrace the benefit of such a cheat, and it
was concluded and resolved upon that all this shipp and goodes should
be confiscated, for businesse done by him, the Lord knowes when, or
where:[465] {115} a letter must be framed to them, and handes unto
it, to be there warrant; this should shadow them. That is the first
practise; they will insane a man, and then pretend that Iustice must
be done. They cause the Merchant (secure) to come a shore, and then
take him in hold, shewing they are compelled unto it legally, and enter
strait abord, peruse the Cargazowne, and then deliver up the Charge
of her to their Confederates: and how much lesse this is then Piraty,
let any practise in the Admiralty be judge. The Merchant, his shipp
and goodes confiscated, himselfe a prisoner and threatned so to be
sent and conveyed to England, there to receave the somme of all that
did belonge to him a malefactor, (and a great one to); this hee, good
man, indured with patience longe time, untill the best of all his
goodes were quite dispersed, and every actor [had] his proportion;
the Merchant was [then] inlarged; his shipp, a burthen to the owner
now, his undertakinges in these partes beinge quite overthrowne, was
redelivered, and bondes of him were taken not to prosecute: hee, being
greived hereat, betakes him to drive a trade betweene that and Virginea
many yeares. The brethren, (sharpe witted,) had it spread by and by
amongst his freinds in England, that the man was mad. So thought his
wife, so thought his other freindes that had it from a Planter of the
Towne. So was it thought of those, that did not know the Brethren
could dissemble: why, thus they are all of them honest men in their
particular, and every man, beinge bound to seeke anothers good, shall
in the generall doe the best hee can to effect it, and so they may be
excused I thinke.




{116} CHAP. VII.

  _Of Thomas Mortons entertainment at Plimmouth, and castinge away upon
  an Island._[466]


~_Brave entertainement in a wildernes._~

~_The meanes._~

This man arrived in those parts, and, hearing newes of a Towne that
was much praised, he was desirous to goe thither, and see how thinges
stood; where his entertainement was their best, I dare be bould to
say: for, although they had but 3. Cowes in all,[467] yet had they
fresh butter and a sallet of egges in dainty wise, a dish not common
in a wildernes. There hee bestowed some time in the survey of this
plantation. His new come servants, in the meane time, were tane to
taske, to have their zeale appeare, and questioned what preacher was
among their company; and finding none, did seeme to condole their
estate as if undone, because no man among them had the guift to be in
Ionas steade, nor they the meanes to keepe them in that path so hard to
keepe.

~_Booke learning despised._~

Our Master, say they, reades the Bible and the word of God, and useth
the booke of common prayer: but this is not the meanes, the answere
is: the meanes, they crie, alas, poore Soules where is the meanes? you
seeme as if betrayed, to be without the meanes: how can you be stayed
from fallinge headlonge to perdition? _Facilis descensus averni_:[468]
the booke of common prayer, sayd they, what poore thinge is that, for a
man to reade in a booke? No, no, good sirs, I would you were neere us,
you might receave comfort by in{117}struction: give me a man hath the
guiftes of the spirit, not a booke in hand. I doe profess sayes one,
to live without the meanes is dangerous, the Lord doth know.

~_Villanous plots of knaves._~

~_Prevented by discretion._~

~_And discovered in drinke._~

~_The Shallop billedged._~

~_Two men of the Company cast away swim to shore upon trees._~

By these insinuations, like the Serpent, they did creepe and winde
into the good opinion of the illiterate multitude, that were desirous
to be freed and gone to them, no doubdt, (which some of them after
confessed); and little good was to be done one them after this charme
was used: now plotts and factions how they might get loose: and here
was some 35. stout knaves; and some plotted how to steale Master
Westons barque, others, exasperated knavishly to worke, would practise
how to gett theire Master to an Island, and there leave him; which hee
had notice of, and fitted him to try what would be done; and steps
aborde his shallop bound for Cape Anne, to the Massachussets, with an
Hogshead of Wine; Sugar hee tooke along, the Sailes hoist up, and one
of the Conspirators aboard to steere; who in the mid way pretended
foule weather at the harboure mouth, and therefore, for a time, hee
would put in to an Island neere, and make some stay where hee thought
to tempt his Master to walke the woods, and so be gone: but their
Master to prevent them caused the sales and oares to be brought a
shore, to make a tilt if neede should be, and kindled fire, broched
that Hogshed, and caused them fill the can with lusty liqour, Claret
sparklinge neate; which was not suffered to grow pale and flatt, but
tipled of with quick dexterity: the Master makes a shew of keepinge
round, but with close lipps did seeme {118} to make longe draughts,
knowinge the wine would make them Protestants; and so the plot was
then at large disclosed and discovered, and they made drowsie; and the
inconstant windes shiftinge at night did force the kellecke home,[469]
and billedge the boat, that they were forced to leave her so, and cut
downe trees that grew by the shore, to make Caffes: two of them went
over by helpe of a fore saile almost a mile to the maine; the other
two stayed five dayes after, till the windes would serve to fill the
sailes. The first two went to cape Ann by land, and had fowle enough,
and fowle wether by the way; the Islanders had fish enough, shel-fish
and fire to roast, and they could not perish for lacke of foode, and
wine they had to be sure; and by this you see they were not then in
any want: the wine and goodes brought thence; the boat left there so
billedgd that it was not worth the labor to be mended.




CHAP. VIII.

  _Of the Banishment of Master Iohn Layford, and Iohn Oldam from
  Plimmouth._[470]


~_A Minister required to renounce his callinge._~

Master Layford was at the Merchants chardge sent to Plimmouth
plantation to be their Pastor: But the Brethren, before they would
allow of it, would have him first renounce his calling to the office
of the Ministery, received in England, as hereticall and Papisticall,
(so hee confest,) and then to receive a new callinge from them, after
their fantasticall invention:[471] {119} which hee refused, alledging
and maintaining that his calling as it stood was lawfull, and that
hee would not renounce it; and so Iohn Oldam, his opinion was one the
affirmative; and both together did maintaine the Church of England to
be a true Church, although in some particulars, (they said,) defective;
concludinge so against the Tenents there: and by this meanes cancelled
theire good opinion amonst the number of the Seperatists, that stay
they must not, lest they should be spies: and to fall fowle on this
occation the Brethren thought it would betray their cause, and make it
fall under censure, therefore against Master Layford they had found out
some scandall to be laid on his former corse of life, to blemish that;
and so, to conclude, hee was a spotted beast, and not to be allowed
where they ordained to have the Passover kept so zealously: as for Iohn
Oldam, they could see hee would be passionate and moody, and proove
himselfe a mad Iack in his mood, and as soone mooved to be moody, and
this impatience would Minister advantage to them to be ridd of him.

~_Impatience confuted by example._~

~_New Plimmouth presse money._~

~_The Solemnity of banishment._~

Hanniball when hee had to doe with Fabius was kept in awe more by the
patience of that one enemy, then by the resolution of the whole army: A
well tempered enemy is a terrible enemy to incounter. They injoyne him
to come to their needeles watch howse in person, and for refusinge give
him a cracked Crowne for presse money, and make the blood run downe
about his eares; a poore trick, yet a good vaile, though Luscus may
see thorough it; and, for his further behaviour in the Case, proceed
to sentence {120} him with banishment, which was performed after a
solemne invention in this manner: A lane of Musketiers was made, and
hee compelled in scorne to passe along betweene, and to receave a bob
upon the bumme be every musketier; and then a board a shallop, and so
convayed to Wessaguscus shoare, and staid at Massachussets: to whome
Iohn Layford and some few more did resort; where Master Layford freely
executed his office and preached every Lords day, and yet maintained
his wife and children foure or five upon his industry there, with the
blessing of God and the plenty of the Land, without the helpe of his
auditory, in an honest and laudable manner; till hee was wearied and
made to leave the Country.[472]




CHAP. IX.

  _Of a barren doe of Virginea growne fruithfull in New Canaan._[473]


Children, and the fruit of the Wombe, are said in holy writt to be an
inheritance that commeth of the Lord; then they must be coupled in Gods
name first, and not as this, and some other, have done.

~_A great happines comes by propagation._~

They are as arrowes in the hand of a Gyant; and happy, saith David, is
the man that hath his quiver full of them; and by that rule, happy is
that Land, and blessed to, that is apt and fit for increase of children.

I have shewed you before, in the second part of the discourse, how apt
it is for the increase of Minerals, Vegetables, and sensible Creatures.

Now I will shew you how apt New Canaan is like{121}wise for the
increase of the reasonable Creatures; Children, of all riches, being
the principall: and I give you this for an instance.

This Country of New Canaan in seaven yeares time could show more
Children livinge, that have beene borne there, then in 27. yeares
could be shewen in Virginea;[474] yet here are but a handful of weomen
landed, to that of Virginea.

~_More Children in New Canaan in 7. yeares, then in Virginea
in 27._~

The Country doth afford such plenty of Lobsters and other delicate
shellfish, and Venus is said to be borne of the Sea; or else it
was some sallet herbe proper to the Climate, or the fountaine at
Weenaseemute[475] made her become teeming here that had tried a campe
royall in other partes where shee had been; and yet never the neere,
till shee came in to New Canaan.

~_Delivered neare Bussards bay._~

~_Dead and buried._~

Shee was delivered, (in a voyage to Virginea,) about Bussardes bay,
to west of Cape Cod, where shee had a Sonne borne, but died without
baptisme and was buried; and being a thinge remarkable, had this
Epitaph followinge made of purpose to memorize the worth of the persons.


EPITAPH.

  _Time, that bringes all thinges to light,
  Doth hide this thinge out of sight:
  Yet fame hath left behinde a story,
  A hopefull race to shew the glory:
  For underneath this heape of stones
  Lieth a percell of small bones;
  What hope at last can such impes have,
  That from the wombe goes to the grave._




{122} CHAP. X.[476]

  _Of a man indued with many spetiall guifts sent over to be Master of
  the Ceremonies._


~_Stenography one guift._~

This was a man approoved of the Brethren, both for his zeale and
guiftes, yet but a Bubble, and at the publike Chardge conveyed to New
England, I thinke to be Master of the Ceremonies betweene the Natives,
and the Planters: for hee applied himselfe cheifly to pen the language
downe in Stenography: But there for want of use, which hee rightly
understood not, all was losse of labor; somethinge it was when next it
came to view, but what hee could not tell.

~_Oratory another guift._~

~_A great Merchant a third guift._~

This man, Master Bubble, was in the time of Iohn Oldams absence made
the howse Chaplaine there, and every night hee made use of his guifts,
whose oratory luld his auditory fast a sleepe, as Mercuries pipes did
Argus eies: for, when hee was in, they sayd hee could not tell how to
get out; nay, hee would hardly out till hee were fired out, his zeale
was such: (one fire they say drives out another): hee would become a
great Merchant, and by any thinge that was to be sold so as hee might
have day and be trusted never so litle time: the price it seemed
hee stood not much upon, but the day: for to his freind hee shewed
commodities, so priced as caused him to blame the buyer, till the man
this Bubble did declare that it was tane up at day, {123} and did
rejoyce in the bargaine, insistinge on the day; the day, yea, marry,
quoth his friend, if you have doomesday for payment you are then well
to passe. But if he had not, it were as good hee had; they were payed
all alike.

~_His day made a common prouerbe._~

~_Trophies of honor._~

And now this Bubbles day is become a common proverbe. Hee obtained
howse roome at Passonagessit and remooved thether, because it stood
convenient for the Beaver trade: and the rather because the owner of
Passonagessit had no Corne left, and this man seemed a bigg boned man,
and therefore thought to be a good laborer, and to have store of corne;
but, contrary wise, hee had none at all, and hoped upon this freind his
host: thithere were brought the trophies of this Master Bubbles honor,
his water tankard and his Porters basket, but no provision; so that one
gunne did serve to helpe them both to meat; and now the time for fowle
was almost past.

~_His long grace made the meat cold._~

This man and his host at dinner, Bubble begins to say grace; yea, and
a long one to, till all the meate was cold; hee would not give his
host leave to say grace: belike, hee thought mine host past grace,
and further learned as many other Schollers are: but in the usage and
custome of this blinde oratory his host tooke himselfe abused, and the
whiles fell to and had halfe done before this man Bubble would open
his eies to see what stood afore him, which made him more cautius, and
learned that _brevis oratio penetrat Cælum_. Together Bubbles and hee
goes in the Canaw to Nut Island[477] for brants, and there his host
makes a shotte and breakes the winges of many: Bubble, {124} in hast
and single handed, paddels out like a Cow in a cage: his host cals back
to rowe two handed like to a pare of oares; and, before this could be
performed, the fowle had time to swimme to other flockes, and so to
escape: the best part of the pray being lost mayd his host to mutter at
him, and so to parte for that time discontended.




CHAP. XI.

  _Of a Composition made by the Sachem for a Theft committed by some of
  his men, shewinge their honest meaninge._


~_The Salvages betake the howse & take the Corne._~

~_A dishonest tricke._~

~_A consenting tricke. The Heathen more just, then the
Christians._~

The owner of Passonagessit, to have the benefit of company, left his
habitation in the Winter and reposed at Wessaguscus, (to his cost):
meane time, in the Depth of Winter, the neighbour Salvages, accustomed
to buy foode, came to the howse, (for that intent perhaps,) and
peepinge in all the windowes, (then unglased,) espied corne, but no
body to sell the same; and having company and helpe at hand did make a
shift to get into the howse, and, take out corne to serve but for the
present, left enough behinde: the Sachem having knowledge of the facte,
and being advertised likewise of the displeasure that had ben conceaved
by the Proprietor thereof at this offence, prepares a Messenger, the
Salvage that had lived in England, and sends him with commission for
the trespasse of his men, who had tenne skinnes perposed {125} for
it to bee payd by a day certaine: The Sachem, at the time appointed,
bringes the Beaver to Wessaguscus where the owner lived, but just then
was gone abroade: meane time the skinnes were by the Wessaguscus men
gelded, and the better halfe by them juggled away before the owner
came; and hee by the Actors perswaded to bee contended with the rest,
who not so pleased did draw the Sachem then to make a new agreement,
and so to pay his remnant left in hand, and tenne skinnes more by a
new day asigned, and then to bringe them to Passonagessit; but the
Wessaguscus men went the day before to the Salvages with this sayinge,
that they were sent to call upon him there for payement; and received
tenne skinnes, and tooke a Salvage there to justifie that at their
howse the owner stayed the while; hee verified this, because hee saw
the man before at Wessaguscus: the Sachem did beleive the tale, and
at that time delivered up tenne skinnes on that behalfe, in full
dischardge of all demandes against the trespasse and the trespassers,
to them; who consented to him, and them, to the owner, and kept
nine[478] to themselves, and made the Salvage take the tenth, and give
the owner all that yet was to bee had, themselves confessinge their
demaunds for him, and that there was but onely one as yet prepared: so
that by this you may easily perceive the uncivilized people are more
just than the civilized.




{126} CHAP. XII.

  _Of a voyadge made by the Master of the Ceremonies of New Canaan to
  Neepenett, from whence hee came away; and of the manifold dangers hee
  escaped._


~_Two Salvage guides conduct Iohn, to Neepenett alone._~

~_They take a note of what was in the sack._~

~_Mr. Bubble must be found againe or else they shall be
destroyed._~

This woorthy member Master Bubble, a new Master of the Ceremonies,
having a conceipt in his head that hee had hatched a new device for
the purchase of Beaver, beyond Imagination, packes up a sacke full of
odde implements, and without any company but a couple of Indians for
guides, (and therefore you may, if you please, beeleive they are so
dangerous as the Brethren of Plimmouth give it out,) hee betakes him
to his progresse into the Inlande for Beaver, with his carriadge on
his shoulders like Milo: his guides and hee in processe of time come
to the place appointed, which was about Neepenett,[479] thereabouts
being more Beavers to be had then this Milo could carry, and both his
journey men: glad hee was good man, and his guides were willing to
pleasure him: there the Salvages stay: night came on, but, before they
were inclined to sleepe, this good man Master Bubble had an evation
crept into his head, by misapplying the Salvages actions, that hee must
needs be gone in all hast, yea and without his errand: hee purposed to
doe it so cunningely that his flight should not {127} be suspected:
hee leaves his shooes in the howse, with all his other implements,
and flies: as hee was on his way, to increase his feare, suggestinge
himselfe that hee was pressed[480] by a company of Indians and that
there shafts were let fly as thick as haile at him, hee puts of his
breeches and puts them one his head, for to save him from the shafts
that flew after him so thick that no man could perceave them, and
cryinge out, avoyd Satan, what have yee to doe with mee! thus running
one his way without his breeches hee was pittifully scratched with
the brush of the underwoods, as hee wandred up and downe in unknowne
wayes: The Salvages in the meane time put up all his implements in
the sack hee left behinde and brought them to Wessaguscus, where they
thought to have found him; but, understanding hee was not returned,
were ferefull what to doe, and what would be conceaved of the English
was become of this mazed man, the Master of the Ceremonies; and were
in consultation of the matter. One of the Salvages was of opinion the
English would suppose him to be made away; fearefull hee was to come
in sight. The other, better acquainted with the English, (having lived
some time in England,[481]) was more confident, and hee perswaded his
fellow that the English would be satisfied with relation of the truth,
as having had testimony of his fidelity. So they boldly adventured to
shew what they had brougt and how the matter stood. The English, (when
the sack was opened,) did take a note in writing of all the particulers
that were in the sack; and heard what was by the Salvages related of
the acci{128}dents: but, when his shoes were showne, it was thought
hee would not have departed without his shoes; and therefore they did
conceave that Master Bubble was made away by some sinister practise of
the Salvages, who unadvisedly had bin culpable of a crime which now
they sought to excuse; and straightly chardged the Salvages to finde
him out againe, and bring him dead, or alive, else their wifes and
children should be destroyed. The poore Salvages, being in a pittifull
perplexity, caused their Countrymen to seeke out for this maz’d man;
who, being in short time found, was brought to Wessaguscus; where hee
made a discourse of his travels, and of the perrillous passages, which
did seeme to be no lesse dangerous then these of that worthy Knight
Errant, Don Quixote,[482] and how miraculously hee had bin preserved;
and, in conclusion, lamented the greate losse of his goods, whereby hee
thought himselfe undone.

~_Not any thing diminished._~

The perticuler whereof being demaunded, it appeared that the Salvages
had not diminished any part of them; no, not so much as one bit of
bread: the number being knowne, and the fragments laid together, it
appeared all the bisket was preserved, and not any diminished at all:
whereby the Master of the Ceremonies was overjoyed, and the whole
Company made themselves merry at his discourse of all his perrillous
adventures.

And by this you may observe whether the Salvage people are not full of
humanity, or whether they are a dangerous people, as Master Bubble and
the rest of his tribe would perswade you.




{129} CHAP. XIII.

  _Of a lamentable fit of Mellancolly that the Barren doe fell into,
  (after the death of her infant, seeing herselfe despised of her
  Sweete hart,) whereof shee was cured._


Whether this goodly creature of incontinency went to worke upon even
termes like Phillis, or noe, it does not appeare by any Indenture
of covenants then extant; whereby shee might legally challenge
the performance of any compleate Marriage at his hands that had
bin tradeing with her, as Demopheon here to fore had bin with his
ostis.[483]

~_Shee cannot one the sodaine resolve which dore to goe in
att._~

Neverthelesse, (for his future advantage,) shee indeavoured, (like
Phillis,) to gaine this Demopheon all to herselfe; who, (as it
seemes,) did meane nothing lesse by leaving her for the next commer,
that had any minde to coole his courage by that meanes; the whipping
post, (as it seemes,) at that time not being in publike use for such
kinde of Cony katchers; but seeing herselfe rejected, shee grew into
such a passion of Mellancolly, on a sodaine, that it was thought shee
would exhibit a petition for redresse to grim Pluto, who had set her a
worke; and knowing that the howse of fate has many entrances, shee was
pusseld to finde the neerest way. Shee could not resolve on a sodaine
which doore would soonest bring her to his presence handsomely.

{130} If shee should make way with a knife, shee thought shee might
spoyle her drinking in after ages; if by poyson, shee thought it might
prolonge her passage thether; if by drowning, shee thought Caron might
come the while with his boate, and waft her out of sight; if shee
should tie up her complaint in a halter, shee thought the Ropmakers
would take exceptions against her good speede. And in this manner shee
debated with herselfe, and demurred upon the matter: So that shee did
appeare willing enough, but a woman of small resolution.

Which thing when it was publikely knowne, made many come to comfort
her. One amongst the rest was by hir requested, on her behalfe, to
write to her late unkinde Demopheon. The Gentleman, being merrily
disposed, in steed of writing an heroicall Epistle composed this Elegi,
for a memoriall of some mirth upon the Circumstance of the matter, to
be sent unto hir, as followeth:


_CARMEN ELEGIACVM._

  _Melpomene, (at whose mischeifous love
  The screech owles voyce is heard the mandraks grove,)
  Commands my pen in an Iambick vaine
  To tell a dismall tale, that may constraine
  The hart of him to bleede, that shall discerne
  How much this foule amisse does him concerne.
  Alecto, (grim Alecto,) light thy tortch
  To thy beloved sister next the porch
  {131} That leads unto the mansion howse of fate,
  Whose farewell makes her freind more fortunate.
  A Great Squa Sachem can shee poynt to goe
  Before grim Minos; and yet no man know
  That knives and halters, ponds, and poysonous things
  Are alwayes ready, when the Divell once brings
  Such deadly sinners to a deepe remorse
  Of conscience selfe accusing, that will force
  Them to dispaire, like wicked Kain, whiles death
  Stands ready with all these to stopp their breath.
  The beare comes by that oft hath bayted ben
  By many a Satyres whelpe; unlesse you can
  Commaund your eies to drop huge milstones forth,
  In lamentation of this losse on earth
  Of her, of whome so much prayse wee may finde,
  Goe when shee will, shee’l leave none like behinde;
  Shee was too good for earth, too bad for heaven.
  Why then for hell the match is somewhat even._

After this, the water of the fountaine at Ma-re Mount was thought fit
to be applyed unto her for a remedy, shee willingly used according to
the quality thereof.

And when this Elegy came to be divulged, shee was so conscious of
her crime that shee put up her pipes, and with the next shipp shee
packt away to Virginea, (her former habitation,) quite cured of her
mellancolly, with the helpe of the water of the fountaine at Ma-re
Mount.




{132} CHAP. XIV.

  _Of the Revells of New Canaan._[484]


~_A Maypole._~

The Inhabitants of Pasonagessit, (having translated the name of their
habitation from that ancient Salvage name to Ma-re Mount,[485] and
being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after
ages,) did devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemne
manner, with Revels and merriment after the old English custome; [they]
prepared to sett up a Maypole upon the festivall day of Philip and
Iacob, and therefore brewed a barrell of excellent beare and provided a
case of bottles, to be spent, with other good cheare, for all commers
of that day. And because they would have it in a compleat forme, they
had prepared a song fitting to the time and present occasion. And upon
Mayday they brought the Maypole to the place appointed, with drumes,
gunnes, pistols and other fitting instruments, for that purpose;
and there erected it with the help of Salvages, that came thether
of purpose to see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of
80. foote longe was reared up, with a peare of buckshorns nayled one
somewhat neare unto the top of it: where it stood, as a faire sea marke
for directions how to finde out the way to mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount.

And because it should more fully appeare to what end it was placed
there, they had a poem in readines made, which was fixed to the
Maypole, to shew the new name confirmed upon that plantation; which,
allthough it were made according to the occurrents {133} of the time,
it, being Enigmattically composed, pusselled the Seperatists most
pittifully to expound it, which, (for the better information of the
reader,) I have here inserted.


THE POEM.

~_The man who brought her over was named Samson Iob._~

  _Rise Oedipeus, and, if thou canst, unfould
  What meanes Caribdis underneath the mould,
  When Scilla sollitary on the ground
  (Sitting in forme of Niobe) was found,
  Till Amphitrites Darling did acquaint
  Grim Neptune with the Tenor of her plaint,
  And causd him send forth Triton with the sound
  Of Trumpet lowd, at which the Seas were found
  So full of Protean formes that the bold shore
  Presented Scilla a new parramore
  So stronge as Sampson and so patient
  As Job himselfe, directed thus, by fate,
  To comfort Scilla so unfortunate.
  I doe professe, by Cupids beautious mother,
  Heres Scogans choise[486] for Scilla, and none other;
  Though Scilla’s sick with greife, because no signe
  Can there be found of vertue masculine.
  Esculapius come; I know right well
  His laboure’s lost when you may ring her Knell.
  The fatall sisters doome none can withstand,
  nor Cithareas powre, who poynts to land
  With proclamation that the first of May
  At Ma-re Mount shall be kept hollyday._

~_The Maypole called an Idoll the Calfe of Horeb._~

{134} The setting up of this Maypole was a lamentable spectacle to the
precise seperatists, that lived at new Plimmouth. They termed it an
Idoll; yea, they called it the Calfe of Horeb, and stood at defiance
with the place, naming it Mount Dagon; threatning to make it a woefull
mount and not a merry mount.

The Riddle, for want of Oedipus, they could not expound; onely they
made some explication of part of it, and sayd it was meant by Sampson
Iob, the carpenter of the shipp that brought over a woman to her
husband, that had bin there longe before and thrived so well that hee
sent for her and her children to come to him; where shortly after hee
died: having no reason, but because of the sound of those two words;
when as, (the truth is,) the man they applyed it to was altogether
unknowne to the Author.

There was likewise a merry song made, which, (to make their Revells
more fashionable,) was sung with a Corus, every man bearing his part;
which they performed in a daunce, hand in hand about the Maypole,
whiles one of the Company sung and filled out the good liquor, like
gammedes and Iupiter.


THE SONGE.

  _Cor.
       Drinke and be merry, merry, merry boyes;
       Let all your delight be in the Hymens ioyes;
       Jô to Hymen, now the day is come,
       About the merry Maypole take Roome.
           Make greene garlons, bring bottles out
           And fill sweet Nectar freely about.
           {135} Vncover thy head and feare no harme
           For hers good liquor to keepe it warme.
       Then drinke and be merry, &c.
       Iô to Hymen, &c.
           Nectar is a thing assign’d
           By the Deities owne minde
           To cure the hart opprest with greife,
           And of good liquors is the cheife.
       Then drinke, &c.
       Iô to Hymen, &c._

           _Give to the Mellancolly man
           A cup or two of ’t now and than;
           This physick will soone revive his bloud,
           And make him be of a merrier moode.
       Then drinke, &c.
       Iô to Hymen, &c.
           Give to the Nymphe thats free from scorne
           No Irish stuff nor Scotch over worne.
           Lasses in beaver coast come away,
           Yee shall be welcome to us night and day.
       To drinke and be merry &c.
       Jô to Hymen, &c._

This harmeles mirth made by younge men, (that lived in hope to have
wifes brought over to them, that would save them a laboure to make
a voyage to fetch any over,) was much distasted of the precise
Seperatists, that keepe much a doe about the tyth of Muit and Cummin,
troubling their braines more then reason would require about things
that are indifferent: and from that time sought occasion against my
{136} honest Host of Ma-re Mount, to overthrow his ondertakings and to
destroy his plantation quite and cleane. But because they presumed with
their imaginary gifts, (which they have out of Phaos box,[487]) they
could expound hidden misteries, to convince them of blindnes, as well
in this as in other matters of more consequence, I will illustrate the
poem, according to the true intent of the authors of these Revells, so
much distasted by those Moles.

Oedipus is generally receaved for the absolute reader of riddles, who
is invoaked: Silla and Caribdis are two dangerous places for seamen to
incounter, neere unto Vennice; and have bin by poets formerly resembled
to man and wife. The like licence the author challenged for a paire of
his nomination, the one lamenting for the losse of the other as Niobe
for her children. Amphitrite is an arme of the Sea, by which the newes
was carried up and downe of a rich widow, now to be tane up or laid
downe. By Triton is the fame spread that caused the Suters to muster,
(as it had bin to Penellope of Greece;) and, the Coast lying circuler,
all our passage to and froe is made more convenient by Sea then Land.
Many aimed at this marke; but hee that played Proteus best and could
comply with her humor must be the man that would carry her; and hee
had need have Sampsons strenght to deale with a Dallila, and as much
patience as Iob that should come there, for a thing that I did observe
in the life-time of the former.

But marriage and hanging, (they say,) comes by desteny and Scogans
choise[488] tis better [than] none at all. Hee that {137} playd
Proteus, (with the helpe of Priapus,) put their noses out of joynt, as
the Proverbe is.

And this the whole company of the Revellers at Ma-re Mount knew to
be the true sence and exposition of the riddle that was fixed to
the Maypole, which the Seperatists were at defiance with. Some of
them affirmed that the first institution thereof was in memory of a
whore;[489] not knowing that it was a Trophe erected at first in honor
of Maja, the Lady of learning which they despise, vilifying the two
universities with uncivile termes, accounting what is there obtained by
studdy is but unnecessary learning; not considering that learninge does
inable mens mindes to converse with eliments of a higher nature then is
to be found within the habitation of the Mole.




CHAP. XV.

  _Of a great Monster supposed to be at Ma-re-Mount; and the
  preparation made to destroy it._[490]


The Seperatists, envying the prosperity and hope of the Plantation at
Ma-re Mount, (which they perceaved beganne to come forward, and to
be in a good way for gaine in the Beaver trade,) conspired together
against mine Host especially, (who was the owner of that Plantation,)
and made up a party against him; and mustred up what aide they could,
accounting of him as of a great Monster.

{138} Many threatening speeches were given out both against his person
and his Habitation, which they divulged should be consumed with fire:
And taking advantage of the time when his company, (which seemed little
to regard theire threats,) were gone up into the Inlands to trade with
the Salvages for Beaver, they set upon my honest host at a place called
Wessaguscus, where, by accident, they found him. The inhabitants there
were in good hope of the subvertion of the plantation at Mare Mount,
(which they principally aymed at;) and the rather because mine host
was a man that indeavoured to advaunce the dignity of the Church of
England; which they, (on the contrary part,) would laboure to vilifie
with uncivile termes: enveying against the sacred booke of common
prayer, and mine host that used it in a laudable manner amongst his
family, as a practise of piety.

There hee would be a meanes to bringe sacks to their mill, (such is the
thirst after Beaver,) and helped the conspiratores to surprise mine
host, (who was there all alone;) and they chardged him, (because they
would seeme to have some reasonable cause against him to sett a glosse
upon their mallice,) with criminall things; which indeede had beene
done by such a person, but was of their conspiracy; mine host demaunded
of the conspirators who it was that was author of that information,
that seemed to be their ground for what they now intended. And because
they answered they would not tell him, hee as peremptorily replyed,
that hee would not say whether he had, or he had not done as they had
bin informed.

{139} The answere made no matter, (as it seemed,) whether it had bin
negatively or affirmatively made; for they had resolved what hee should
suffer, because, (as they boasted,) they were now become the greater
number: they had shaked of their shackles of servitude, and were become
Masters, and masterles people.

It appeares they were like beares whelpes in former time, when mine
hosts plantation was of as much strength as theirs, but now, (theirs
being stronger,) they, (like overgrowne beares,) seemed monsterous. In
breife, mine host must indure to be their prisoner untill they could
contrive it so that they might send him for England, (as they said,)
there to suffer according to the merrit of the fact which they intended
to father upon him; supposing, (belike,) it would proove a hainous
crime.

Much rejoycing was made that they had gotten their cappitall enemy, (as
they concluded him;) whome they purposed to hamper in such sort that
hee should not be able to uphold his plantation at Ma-re Mount.

The Conspirators sported themselves at my honest host, that meant them
no hurt, and were so joccund that they feasted their bodies, and fell
to tippeling as if they had obtained a great prize; like the Trojans
when they had the custody of Hippeus pinetree horse.

~_Mine Host got out of prison._~

Mine host fained greefe, and could not be perswaded either to eate
or drinke; because hee knew emptines would be a meanes to make him
as watchfull as the Geese kept in the Roman Cappitall: whereon, the
contrary part, the conspirators would be so drowsy that hee might have
an opportunity to give them a {140} slip, insteade of a tester. Six
persons of the conspiracy were set to watch him at Wessaguscus: But
hee kept waking; and in the dead of night, (one lying on the bed for
further suerty,) up gets mine Host and got to the second dore that
hee was to passe, which, notwithstanding the lock, hee got open, and
shut it after him with such violence that it affrighted some of the
conspirators.

The word, which was given with an alarme, was, ô he’s gon, he’s gon,
what shall wee doe, he’s gon! The rest, (halfe a sleepe,) start up in
a maze, and, like rames, ran theire heads one at another full butt in
the darke.

~_The Captain tore his clothes._~

Theire grande leader, Captaine Shrimp, tooke on most furiously and tore
his clothes for anger, to see the empty nest, and their bird gone.

The rest were eager to have torne theire haire from theire heads; but
it was so short that it would give them no hold. Now Captaine Shrimp
thought in the losse of this prize, (which hee accoumpted his Master
peece,) all his honor would be lost for ever.

~_Mine host got home to ma-re mount._~

~_Hee provides for his enemies._~

In the meane time mine Host was got home to Ma-re Mount through the
woods, eight miles round about the head of the river Monatoquit that
parted the two Plantations, finding his way by the helpe of the
lightening, (for it thundred as hee went terribly;) and there hee
prepared powther, three pounds dried, for his present imployement, and
foure good gunnes for him and the two assistants left at his howse,
with bullets of severall sizes, three hounderd or thereabouts, to be
used if the conspirators should pursue {141} him thether: and these
two persons promised theire aides in the quarrell, and confirmed that
promise with health in good rosa solis.

Now Captaine Shrimp, the first Captaine in the Land, (as hee supposed,)
must doe some new act to repaire this losse, and, to vindicate his
reputation, who had sustained blemish by this oversight, begins now to
study, how to repaire or survive his honor: in this manner, callinge of
Councell, they conclude.

Hee takes eight persons more to him, and, (like the nine Worthies of
New Canaan,) they imbarque with preparation against Ma-re-Mount, where
this Monster of a man, as theire phrase was, had his denne; the whole
number, had the rest not bin from home, being but seaven, would have
given Captaine Shrimpe, (a quondam Drummer,) such a wellcome as would
have made him wish for a Drume as bigg as Diogenes tubb, that hee might
have crept into it out of sight.

Now the nine Worthies are approached, and mine Host prepared: having
intelligence by a Salvage, that hastened in love from Wessaguscus to
give him notice of their intent.

One of mine Hosts men prooved a craven: the other had prooved his wits
to purchase a little valoure, before mine Host had observed his posture.

~_A Parly._~

{142} The nine worthies comming before the Denne of this supposed
Monster, (this seaven headed hydra, as they termed him,) and began,
like Don Quixote against the Windmill, to beate a parly, and to offer
quarter, if mine Host would yeald; for they resolved to send him for
England; and bad him lay by his armes.

But hee, (who was the Sonne of a Souldier,) having taken up armes
in his just defence, replyed that hee would not lay by those armes,
because they were so needefull at Sea, if hee should be sent over. Yet,
to save the effusion of so much worty bloud, as would haue issued out
of the vaynes of these 9. worthies of New Canaan, if mine Host should
have played upon them out at his port holes, (for they came within
danger like a flocke of wild geese, as if they had bin tayled one to
another, as coults to be sold at a faier,) mine Host was content to
yeelde upon quarter; and did capitulate with them in what manner it
should be for more certainety, because hee knew what Captaine Shrimpe
was.

~_Captaine Shrimpe promiseth that no violence should bee
offered to his person._~

Hee expressed that no violence should be offered to his person, none
to his goods, nor any of his Howsehold: but that hee should have his
armes, and what els was requisit for the voyage: which theire Herald
retornes, it was agreed upon, and should be performed.

~_The Worthies rebuked for their unworthy practises._~

But mine Host no sooner had set open the dore, and issued out, but
instantly Captaine Shrimpe and the rest of the worties stepped to him,
layd hold of his armes, and had him downe: and so eagerly was every
{143} man bent against him, (not regarding any agreement made with such
a carnall man,) that they fell upon him as if they would have eaten
him: some of them were so violent that they would have a slice with
scabbert, and all for haste; untill an old Souldier, (of the Queenes,
as the Proverbe is,) that was there by accident, clapt his gunne under
the weapons, and sharply rebuked these worthies for their unworthy
practises. So the matter was taken into more deliberate consideration.

Captaine Shrimpe, and the rest of the nine worthies, made themselves,
(by this outragious riot,) Masters of mine Hoste of Ma-re Mount, and
disposed of what hee had at his plantation.

This they knew, (in the eye of the Salvages,) would add to their glory,
and diminish the reputation of mine honest Host; whome they practised
to be ridd of upon any termes, as willingly as if hee had bin the very
Hidra of the time.




CHAP. XVI.

  _How the 9. worthies put mine Host of Ma-re-Mount into the inchaunted
  Castle at Plimmouth, and terrified him with the Monster Briareus._


The nine worthies of New Canaan having now the Law in their owne hands,
(there being no generall {144} Governour in the Land; nor none of the
Seperation that regarded the duety they owe their Soveraigne, whose
naturall borne Subjects they were, though translated out of Holland,
from whence they had learned to worke all to their owne ends, and make
a great shewe of Religion, but no humanity,) for they were now to sit
in Counsell on the cause.

And much it stood mine honest Host upon to be very circumspect, and to
take Eacus[491] to taske; for that his voyce was more allowed of then
both the other: and had not mine Host confounded all the arguments
that Eacus could make in their defence, and confuted him that swaied
the rest, they would have made him unable to drinke in such manner of
merriment any more. So that following this private counsell, given him
by one that knew who ruled the rost, the Hiracano ceased that els would
split his pinace.

~_Mine host set upon an Island without anything, to shift for
himselfe._~

A conclusion was made and sentence given that mine Host should be sent
to England a prisoner. But when hee was brought to the shipps for
that purpose, no man durst be so foole hardy as to undertake carry
him.[492] So these Worthies set mine Host upon an Island, without
gunne, powther, or shot or dogge or so much as a knife to get any
thinge to feede upon, or any other cloathes to shelter him with at
winter then a thinne suite which hee had one at that time. Home hee
could not get to Ma-re-Mount. Upon this Island hee stayed a moneth at
least, and was releeved by Salvages that tooke notice that mine Host
was a Sachem of Passonagessit, and would bringe bottles of strong
liquor to him, and unite themselves {145} into a league of brother hood
with mine Host; so full of humanity are these infidels before those
Christians.

From this place for England sailed mine Host in a Plimmouth shipp,
(that came into the Land to fish upon the Coast,) that landed him safe
in England at Plimmouth: and hee stayed in England untill the ordinary
time for shipping to set forth for these parts, and then retorned:[493]
Noe man being able to taxe him of any thinge.

But the Worthies, (in the meane time,) hoped they had bin ridd of him.




CHAP. XVII.

  _Of the Baccanall Triumphe of the nine worthies of New Canaan._


The Seperatists were not so contended, (when mine Host of Ma-re-Mount
was gone,) but they were as much discontended when hee was retorned
againe: and the rather because theire passages about him, and the
businesse, were so much derided and in songes exemplified: which, (for
better satisfaction of such as are in that kinde affected,) I have set
forth, as it was then in use by the name of the _Baccanall Triumphe_,
as followeth:


{146} THE POEM.[494]

~_Master Ben: Iohnson._~

  _I sing th’ adventures of nine worthy wights,
  And pitty ’tis I cannot call them Knights,
  Since they had brawne and braine, and were right able
  To be installed of Prince Arthures table;
  Yet all of them were Squires of low degree,
  The Magi tould of a prodigeous birth
  That shortly should be found upon the earth,
  By Archimedes art, which they misconster
  Vnto their Land would proove a hiddeous monster;
  Seaven heades it had, and twice so many feete,
  Arguing the body to be wondrous greate,
  Besides a forked taile heav’d up on highe
  As if it threaten’d battell to the skie.
  The Rumor of this fearefull prodigy
  Did cause th’ effeminate multitude to cry
  For want of great Alcides aide, and stood
  Like People that have seene Medusas head.
  Great was the greife of hart, great was the mone,
  And great the feare conceaved by every one
  Of Hydras hiddeous forme and dreadfull powre,
  Doubting in time this Monster would devoure
  All their best flocks, whose dainty wolle consorts
  It selfe with Scarlet in all Princes Courts.
  Not Iason nor the adventerous youths of Greece
  Did bring from Colcos any richer Fleece.
  In Emulation of the Gretian force
  These Worthies nine prepar’d a woodden horse,
  {147} And, prick’d with pride of like successe, divise
  How they may purchase glory by this prize;
  And, if they give to Hidreas head the fall,
  It will remaine a plat forme unto all
  Theire brave atchivements, and in time to comme,
  Per fas aut nefas, they’l erect a throne.
  Cloubs are turn’d trumps: so now the lott is cast:
  With fire and sword to Hidras den they haste,
  Mars in th’ assendant, Soll in Cancer now,
  And Lerna Lake to Plutos court must bow.
  What though they [be] rebuk’d by thundring Iove,
  Tis neither Gods nor men that can remove
  Their mindes from making this a dismall day.
  These nine will now be actors in this play
  And Sumon Hidra to appeare anon
  Before their witles Combination:
  But his undaunted spirit, nursd with meate
  Such as the Cecrops gave their babes to eate,
  Scorn’d their base accons; for with Cecrops charme
  Hee knew he could defend himselfe from harme
  Of Minos, Eacus, and Radamand,
  Princes of Limbo; who must out of hand
  Consult bout Hidra, what must now be done:
  Who, having sate in Counsell, one by one
  Retorne this answere to the Stiggean feinds;
  And first grim Minos spake: most loving freinds,
  Hidra prognosticks ruine to our state
  And that our Kingdome will grow desolate;
  But if one head from thence be tane away
  The Body and the members will decay.
  {148} To take in hand, quoth[495] Eacus, this taske,
  Is such as harebraind Phaeton did aske
  Of Phebus, to begird the world about;
  Which graunted put the Netherlands to rout;
  Presumptious fooles learne wit at too much cost,
  For life and laboure both at once hee lost.
  Sterne Radamantus, being last to speake,
  Made a great hum and thus did silence breake:
  What if, with ratling chaines or Iron bands,
  Hidra be bound either by feete or hands,
  And after, being lashd with smarting rodds,
  Hee be conveyd by Stix unto the godds
  To be accused on the upper ground
  Of Lesæ Majestatis, this crime found
  T’will be unpossible from thence, I trowe,
  Hidra shall come to trouble us belowe.
  This sentence pleasd the friends exceedingly,
  That up they tost their bonnets, and did cry,
  Long live our Court in great prosperity.
  The Sessions ended, some did straight devise
  Court Revells, antiques and a world of joyes,
  Brave Christmas gambols:[496] there was open hall
  Kept to the full, and sport, the Divell and all:
  Laboure’s despised, the loomes are laid away,
  And this proclaim’d the Stigean Holliday.
  In came grim Mino, with his motly beard,
  And brought a distillation well prepar’d;
  And Eacus, who is as suer as text,
  Came in with his preparatives the next;
  Then Radamantus, last and principall,
  Feasted the Worthies in his sumptuous hall.
  {149} There Charon Cerberous and the rout of feinds
  Had lap enough: and so their pastims ends._


THE ILLVSTRATIONS.

Now to illustrate this Poem, and make the sence more plaine, it is to
be considered that the Persons at Ma-re-Mount were seaven, and they had
seaven heads and 14. feete; these were accounted Hidra with the seaven
heads: and the Maypole, with the Hornes nailed neere the topp, was the
forked tayle of this supposed Monster, which they (for want of skill)
imposed: yet feared in time, (if they hindred not mine Host), hee would
hinder the benefit of their Beaver trade, as hee had done, (by meanes
of this helpe,) in Kynyback river finely, ere they were awares; who,
comming too late, were much dismaide to finde that mine Host his boate
had gleaned away all before they came; which Beaver is a fitt companion
for Scarlett: and I beleeve that Iasons golden Fleece was either the
same, or some other Fleece not of so much value.

This action bred a kinde of hart burning in the Plimmouth Planters, who
after sought occasion against mine Host to overthrowe his undertakings
and to destroy his Plantation; whome they accoumpted a maine enemy to
theire Church and State.

{150} Now when they had begunne with him, they thought best to
proceede: forasmuch as they thought themselves farre enough from any
controule of Iustice, and therefore resolved to be their owne carvers:
(and the rather because they presumed upon some incouragement they had
from the favourites of their Sect in England:) and with fire and sword,
nine in number, pursued mine Host, who had escaped theire hands, in
scorne of what they intended, and betooke him to his habitation in a
night of great thunder and lightening, when they durst not follow him,
as hardy as these nine worthies seemed to be.

It was in the Moneth of Iune that these Marshallists had appointed to
goe about this mischeifous project, and deale so crabbidly with mine
Host.

After a parly, hee capitulated with them about the quarter they
proffered him, if hee would consent to goe for England, there to
answere, (as they pretended,) some thing they could object against him
principall to the generall: But what it would be hee cared not, neither
was it any thing materiall.

Yet when quarter was agreed upon, they, contrary wise, abused him, and
carried him to theire towne of Plimmouth, where, (if they had thought
hee durst have gone to England,) rather then they would have bin any
more affronted by him they would have dispatched him, as Captaine
Shrimp in a rage profest that hee would doe with his Pistoll, as mine
Host should set his foote into the boate. Howsoever, the cheife Elders
voyce in that place was more powerfull than any of the rest, who
concluded {151} to send mine Host without any other thing to be done
to him. And this being the finall agreement, (contrary to Shrimpe and
others,) the nine Worthies had a great Feast made, and the furmity[497]
pott was provided for the boats gang by no allowance: and all manner of
pastime.

Captaine Shrimpe was so overjoyed in the performance of this exployt,
that they had, at that time, extraordinary merriment, (a thing not
usuall amongst those presisians); and when the winde served they tooke
mine Host into their Shallop, hoysed Saile, and carried him to the
Northern parts; where they left him upon a Island.




CHAP. XVIII.

  _Of a Doctor made at a Commencement in New Canaan._[498]


~_A Councell called._~

The Church of Plimmouth, having due regard to the weale publike and
the Brethren that were to come over, and knowing that they would
be busily imployed to make provision for the cure of Soules, and
therefore might neglect the body for that time, did hold themselves
to be in duety bound to make search for a fitting man, that might be
able, (if so neede requir’d,) to take the chardge upon him in that
place of imployment: and therefore called a Counsell of the whole
Synagoge: amongst which company, they chose out a man that long time
had bin nurst up in the tender bosome of the Church: one that had {152}
speciall gifts: hee could wright and reade; nay, more: hee had tane
the oath of abjuration, which is a speciall stepp, yea, and a maine
degree unto perferment. Him they weane, and out of Phaos boxe[499] fitt
him with speciall guifts of no lesse worth: they stile him Doctor, and
forth they send him to gaine imployement and opinion.

What luck is it I cannot hit on his name: but I will give you him by
a periphrasis, that you may know him when you meete him next.

Hee was borne at Wrington, in the County of Somerset, where hee was
bred a Butcher. Hee weares a longe beard, and a Garment like the Greeke
that beggd in Pauls Church.[500] This new made Doctor, comes to Salem
to congratulate:[501] where hee findes some are newly come from Sea,
and ill at ease.

He takes the patient, and the urinall: eies the State there; finds the
Crasis Syptomes, and the attomi natantes: and tells the patient that
his disease was winde, which hee had tane by gapeing feasting over
board[502] at Sea; but hee would quickly ease him of that greife, and
quite expell the winde. And this hee did performe, with his gifts hee
had: and then hee handled the patient so handsomely, that hee eased him
of all the winde hee had in an instant.

And yet I hope this man may be forgiven, if hee were made a fitting
Plant for Heaven.

How hee went to worke with his gifts is a question; yet hee did a great
cure for Captaine Littleworth, hee cured him of a disease called a
wife:[503] and yet I hope this man may be forgiven, if shee were made
a fitting plant for heaven.

{153} By this meanes hee was allowed 4. p. a moneth, and the chirgeon’s
chest, and made Phisition generall of Salem: where hee exercised his
gifts so well, that of full 42. that there hee tooke to cure, there is
not one has more cause to complaine, or can say black’s his eie. This
saved Captaine Littleworths credit, that had truck’d away the vittels:
though it brought forth a scandall on the Country by it: and then I
hope this man may be forgiven, if they were all made fitting plants for
Heaven.

But in mine opinion, hee deserves to be set upon a palfrey and lead
up and downe in triumph throw new Canaan, with a coller of Iurdans
about his neck, as was one of like desert in Richard the seconds time
through the streets of London, that men might know where to finde a
Quacksaluer.[504]




CHAP. XIX.

  _Of the silencing of a Minister in new Canaan._[505]


A silenced Minister, out of coveteousnesse,[506] came over into new
Canaan to play the spie: Hee pretended, out of a zealous intent to doe
the Salvages good, and to teach them. Hee brought a great Bundell of
Horne books with him, and carefull hee was, (good man,) to blott out
all the crosses of them, for feare least the people of the land should
become Idolaters. Hee was in hope, with his gifts, to prepare a great
auditory against greate Iosua should arive there.

{154} Hee applyed himselfe on the weeke dayes to the trade of Beaver,
but it was, (as might seeme,) to purchase the principall benefite of
the Lande, when the time should come; for hee had a hope to be the
Caiphas of the Country: and well hee might, for hee was higher by the
head than any of his tribe that came after him.

~_This Caiphas that condemneth Covetousnesse, and committeth
it himselfe._~

This man, it seemes, played the spie very handsomely; for in the
exercise of his guifts on the Lords day at Weenasimute,[507] hee espied
a Salvage come in with a good Beaver coate, and tooke occasion to
reproove the covetous desire of his auditory to trade for Beaver on
those dayes; which made them all use so much modesty about the matter
for the present, that hee found opportunity, the same day, to take the
Salvage a side into a corner, where (with the helpe of his Wampampeack
hee had in his pocket for that purpose in a readinesse,) hee made a
shifte to get that Beaver coate, which their mouthes watered at; and so
deceaved them all.

But shortly after, when Iosua[508] came into the Land, hee had soone
spied out Caiphas practice, and put him to silence; and either hee
must put up his pipes and be packing, or forsake Ionas posture, and
play Demas part alltogether.[509]




{155} CHAP. XX.

  _Of the Practise of the Seperatists to gett a snare to hamper mine
  Host of Ma-re-Mount._


~_The generall collection made._~

Although the nine Worthies had left mine Hoste upon an Island,[510] in
such an inhumane manner as yee heard before; yet when they understood
that hee had got shipping and was gone to England of his owne accord,
they dispatched letters of advise to an Agent they had there: and by
the next shipp sent after to have a snare made, that might hamper
mine Host so as hee might not any more trouble theire conscience:
and to that end made a generall collection of Beaver to defray the
chardge,[511] and hee was not thought a good Christian that would not
lay much out for that imployment.

Some contributed three pounds, some foure, some five pounds; and
procured a pretty quantity by that Devise, which should be given to a
cunning man that could make a snare to hamper him.

~_Noe cost spared for the getting of a skillfull man._~

The Agent, (according to his directions,) does his endeavoure, (in
the best manner hee could,) to have this instrument made: and used
no little diligence to have it effected.[512] His reputation stood
upon the taske imposed upon him against mine Host, the onely enemy
(accounted) of their Church and State.

Much inquiry was made in London, and about, for a skillfull man that
would worke the feate. Noe cost {156} was spared, for gold hee had
good store: first hee inquires of one, and then another: at the last
hee heard newes of a very famous man, one that was excellent at making
subtile instruments, such as that age had never bin acquainted with.

Hee was well knowne to be the man, that had wit and wondrous skill to
make a cunning instrument where with to save himselfe and his whole
family, if all the world besides should be drown’d; and this the best;
yea, and the best cheap too, for, no good done, the man would nothing
take.

To him this agent goes, and praies his aide: Declares his cause, and
tells the substance of his greivance, all at large, and laid before his
eies a heape of gold.

~_The heape of gold._~

When all was shewd, that could be she’d, and said, what could be said,
and all too little for to have it done, the agent then did see his gold
refused, his cause despised, and thought himselfe disgraced to leave
the worke undone: so that hee was much dismaid, yet importun’d the
cunning [man], who found no reason to take the taske in hand.

Hee thought, perhaps, mine Host, (that had the slight to escape from
the nine Worthies, to chaine Argus eies, and by inchauntment make
the doores of the watch tower fly open at an instant,) would not be
hampered, but with much a doe: and so hee was unwilling to be troubled
with that taske.

~_Mine Host arrived againe in Plimmouth._~

The agent wondring to see that his gold would doe no good, did aske the
cunning man if hee could give him no advise? who said, hee would: and
what was that, thinke you? To let mine Host alone. Who, {157} being
ship’d againe for the parts of New Canaan, was put in at Plimmouth
in the very faces of them, to their terrible amazement to see him at
liberty: and told him hee had not yet fully answered the matter they
could object against him. Hee onely made this modest reply, that hee
did perceave they were willfull people, that would never be answered:
and derided them for their practises and losse of laboure.[513]




CHAP. XXI.

  _Of Captaine Littleworth his new devise for the purchase of Beaver._


~_Charter party Treasorer._~

In the meane time, whiles these former passages were, there was a
great swelling fellow, of Littleworth, crept over to Salem, (by the
helpe of Master Charter party,[514] the Tresorer, and Master Ananias
Increase,[515] the Collector for the Company of Seperatists,) to take
upon him their imployments for a time.

Hee, resolving to make hay whiles the Sonne did shine, first pretended
himselfe to be sent over as cheife Iustice of the Massachussets Bay
and Salem, forsoth, and tooke unto him a councell; and a worthy one no
doubt, for the Cowkeeper of Salem was a prime man in those imployments;
and to ad a Majesty, (as hee thought,) to his new assumed dignity, hee
caused the Patent of the Massachussets, (new brought into the Land,) to
be carried where hee went in his progresse to and froe, as an embleme
of his authority: which {158} the vulgar people, not acquainted with,
thought it to be some instrument of Musick locked up in that covered
case,[516] and thought, (for so some said,) this man of little-worth
had bin a fidler, and the rather because hee had put into the mouthes
of poore silly things, that were sent alonge with him, what skill hee
had in Engines, and in things of quaint devise: all which prooved in
conclusion to be but impostury.

~_Warrants made by Capt. Littleworth in his name._~

This man, thinking none so worthy as himselfe, tooke upon him
infinitely: and made warrants in his owne name, (without relation
to his Majesties authority in that place,) and summoned a generall
apparance at the worshipfull towne of Salem:[517] there in open
assembly was tendered certaine Articles, devised betweene him and
theire new Pastor Master Eager,[518] (that had renounced his old
calling to the Ministry receaved in England, by warrant of Gods
word, and taken a new one there, by their fantasticall way imposed,
and conferred upon him with some speciall guifts had out of Phaos
boxe.)[519]

To these Articles every Planter, old and new, must signe, or be
expelled from any manner of aboade within the Compas of the Land
contained within that graunt then shewed: which was so large it would
suffice for Elbow roome for more then were in all the Land by 700000.
such an army might have planted them a Colony with [in] that cirquit
which hee challenged, and not contend for roome for their Cattell. But
for all that, hee that should refuse to subscribe, must pack.

The tenor of the _Articles_ were these: _That in all {159} causes, as
well Ecclesiasticall as Politicall, wee should follow the rule of Gods
word._

~_Mine Host subscribed not._~

This made a shew of a good intent, and all the assembly, (onely mine
Host replyed,) did subscribe: hee would not, unlesse they would ad
this Caution: _So as nothing be done contrary or repugnant to the
Lawes of the Kingdome of England._ These words hee knew, by former
experience, were necessary, and without these the same would proove a
very mousetrapp to catch some body by his owne consent, (which the rest
nothing suspected,) for the construction of the worde would be made
by them of the Seperation to serve their owne turnes: and if any man
should, in such a case, be accused of a crime, (though in it selfe it
were petty,) they might set it on the tenter hookes of their imaginary
gifts, and stretch it to make it seeme cappitall; which was the reason
why mine Host refused to subscribe.

~_The Patent._~

It was then agreed upon that there should be one generall trade used
within that Patent, (as hee said,) and a generall stock: and every man
to put in a parte: and every man, for his person, to have shares alike:
and for their stock, according to the ratable proportion was put in:
and this to continue for 12. moneths, and then to call an accompt.

~_All consented but mine Host._~

All were united, but mine Host refused: two truckmasters were chosen;
wages prefixed; onely mine Host put in a Caviat that the wages might
be paid out of the cleare proffit, which there in black and white was
plainely put downe.

{160} But before the end of 6. moneths, the partners in this stock,
(handled by the Truckmasters,) would have an accoumpt: some of them had
perceaved that Wampambeacke could be pocketted up, and the underlings,
(that went in the boats alonge,) would bee neere the Wiser for any
thinge, but what was trucked for Beaver onely.

~_Insteed of proffit dis-proffit._~

The accoumpt being made betweene Captaine Littleworth, and the two
Truckmasters, it was found that instead of increasing the proffit, they
had decreased it; for the principall stock, by this imployment, was
freetted so, that there was a great hole to be seene in the very middle
of it, which cost the partners afterwards one hundred markes to stopp
and make good to Captaine Littleworth.

But mine Host, that sturred not his foote at all for the matter, did
not onely save his stock from such a Cancar, but gained sixe and seaven
for one: in the meane time hee derided the Contributers for being
catch’d in that snare.




CHAP. XXII.

  _Of a Sequestration made in New Canaan._[520]


Captaine Littleworth, (that had an akeing tooth at mine Host of
Ma-re-Mount,) devised how hee might put a trick upon him, by colour
of a Sequestration; and got some persons to pretend that hee had
corne and other goods of theirs in possession; and the {161} rather
because mine Host had store of corne and hee had improvidently truckt
his store for the present gaine of Beaver; in so much that his people
under his chardge were put to short allowance, which caused some of
them to sicken with conceipt of such useage, and some of them by
the practise of the new entertained Doctor Noddy, with his Imaginary
gifts. They sent therefore to exhibit a petition to grim Minos, Eacus
and Radamant, where they wished to have the author of their greife to
be convented:[521] and they had procured it quickly, if curses would
have caused it: for good prayers would be of no validity, (as they
supposed,) in this extremity.

~_Commission for corne._~

~_Mine Hosts corne & goods carried away by violence._~

Now in this extremity Capt. Littleworth gave commission to such as
hee had found ready for such imployments to enter in the howse at
Ma-re-Mount, and, with a shallop, to bring from thence such corne and
other utensilles as in their commission hee had specified. But mine
Host, wary to prevent eminent mischeife, had conveyed his powther
and shott, (and such other things as stood him in most steed for his
present condition,) into the woods for safety: and, whiles this was put
in practise by him, the shallop was landed and the Commissioners entred
the howse, and willfully bent against mine honest Host, that loved good
hospitality. After they had feasted their bodies with that they found
there, they carried all his corne away, with some other of his goods,
contrary to the Lawes of hospitality: a smale parcell of refuse corne
onely excepted, which they left mine Host to keepe Christmas with.

{162} But when they were gone, mine Host fell to make use of his
gunne, (as one that had a good faculty in the use of that instrument,)
and feasted his body neverthelesse with fowle and venison, which hee
purchased with the helpe of that instrument, the plenty of the Country
and the commodiousnes of the place affording meanes, by the blessing
of God; and hee did but deride Captaine Littleworth, that made his
servants snap shorte in a Country so much abounding with plenty of
foode for an industrious man, with greate variety.




CHAP. XXIII.

  _Of a great Bonfire made for ioy of the arrivall of great Iosua,
  surnamed Temperwell, into the Land of Canaan._[522]


Seaven shipps set forth at once, and altogether arrived in the Land of
Canaan, to take a full possession thereof: What are all the 12. Tribes
of new Israell come? No, none but the tribe of Issacar, and some few
scattered Levites of the remnant of those that were descended of old
Elies howse.

And here comes their Iosua too among them; and they make it a more
miraculous thing for these seaven shipps to set forth together, and
arrive at New Canaan together, then it was for the Israelites to goe
over Iordan drishod: perhaps it was, because they had a wall on the
right hand and a wall on the left hand.

{163} These Seperatists suppose there was no more difficulty in the
matter then for a man to finde the way to the Counter at noone dayes,
betweene a Sergeant and his yeoman: Now you may thinke mine Host will
be hamperd or never.

~_Men that come to ridd the land of pollution._~

These are the men that come prepared to ridd the Land of all pollution.
These are more subtile then the Cunning, that did refuse a goodly heap
of gold.[523] These men have brought a very snare indeed; and now mine
Host must suffer. The book of Common Prayer, which hee used, to be
despised: and hee must not be spared.

Now they are come, his doome before hand was concluded on: they have a
warrant now: A cheife one too: and now mine Host must know hee is the
subject of their hatred: the Snare must now be used; this instrument
must not be brought by Iosua in vaine.[524]

~_A Courte called about mine Host._~

A Court is called of purpose for mine host: hee there convented, and
must heare his doome before hee goe: nor will they admitt him to
capitulate, and know wherefore they are so violent to put such things
in practise against a man they never saw before: nor will they allow of
it, though hee decline their Iurisdiction.

~_A divellish sentence against him._~

There they all with one assent put him to silence, crying out, heare
the Governour, heare the Govern: who gave this sentence against mine
Host at first sight: that he should be first put in the Billbowes,
his goods should be all confiscated, his Plantation should be burned
downe to the ground, because the habitation of the wicked should no
more appeare in Israell, and {164} his person banished from those
territories; and this put in execution with all speede.[525]

~_The Salvages reproove them._~

The harmeles Salvages, (his neighboures,) came the while, (greived,
poore silly lambes, to see what they went about,) and did reproove
these Eliphants of witt for their inhumane deede: the Lord above did
open their mouthes like Balams Asse, and made them speake in his
behalfe sentences of unexpected divinity, besides morrallity; and tould
them that god would not love them that burned this good mans howse; and
plainely sayed that they who were new come would finde the want of such
a howses in the winter: so much themselves to him confest.

~_Epictetus summa totius Philosophiæ._~

The smoake that did assend appeared to be the very Sacrifice of Kain.
Mine Host, (that a farre of abourd a ship did there behold this wofull
spectacle,) knew not what hee should doe in this extremity but beare
and forbeare, as Epictetus sayes[526]: it was bootelesse to exclaime.

Hee did consider then these transitory things are but _ludibria
fortunæ_,[527] as Cicero calls them. All was burnt downe to the
ground, and nothing did remaine but the bare ashes as an embleme of
their cruelty: and unles it could, (like to the Phenix,) rise out of
these ashes and be new againe, (to the immortall glory and renowne of
this fertile Canaan the new,) the stumpes and postes in their black
liveries will mourne; and piety it selfe will add a voyce to the bare
remnant of that Monument, and make it cry for recompence, (or else
revenge,) against the Sect of cruell Schismaticks.




{165} CHAP. XXIV.

  _Of the digrading and creating gentry in New Canaan._[528]


There was a zealous Professor in the Land of Canaan, (growne a great
Merchant in the Beaver trade,) that came over for his conscience sake,
(as other men have done,) and the meanes, (as the phrase is,) who in
his minority had bin prentice to a tombe maker; who, comming to more
ripenes of yeares, (though lesse discretion,) found a kinde of scruple
in his conscience that the trade was in parte against the second
commandement:[529] and therefore left it off wholely, and betooke
himselfe to some other imployments.

~_An Elder._~

In the end hee settled upon this course, where hee had hope of
preferrement, and become one of those things that any Iudas might hange
himselfe upon, that is an Elder.

Hee had bin a man of some recconing in his time, (as himselfe
would boast,) for hee was an officer, just under the Exchequer at
Westminster, in a place called Phlegeton: there hee was comptroller,
and conversed with noe plebeians, I tell you, but such as have angels
or their attendance, (I meane some Lawyers with appertenances, that is,
Clarks,) with whome a Iugg of Beare and a crusty rolle in the terme is
as currant as a three penny scute at Hall time.

{166} There is another place thereby, called sticks: these are two
daingerous places, by which the infernall gods doe sweare: but this of
Sticks is the more daingerous of the two, because there, (if a man be
once in,) hee cannot tell how to get out againe handsomely.

I knew an under sheriff was in unawaires, and hee laboured to be free
of it: yet hee broake his back before he got so farre as quietus
est: There is no such danger in Phlegeton, where this man of so much
recconing was comptroller.

~_Iosua displeased._~

Hee being here, waited an opportunity to be made a gentl. and now it
fell out that a gentl. newly come into the land of Canaan, (before hee
knew what ground hee stood upon,) had incurred the displeasure of great
Iosua so highly that hee must therefore be digraded.

No reconciliation could be had for him: all hopes were past for that
matter: Where upon this man of much recconing (pretending a graunt of
the approach in avoydance,) helpes the lame dogge over the stile, and
was as jocund on the matter as a Magpie over a Mutton.

~_Master Temperwell._~

Wherefore the Heralls, with Drums, and Trumpets, proclaiming in a very
solemne manner that it was the pleasure of great Iosua, (for divers
and sundry very good causes and considerations, Master Temperwell
thereunto especially mooving,) to take away the title, prerogative and
preheminence of the Delinquent, so unworthy of it, and to place the
same upon a Professor of more recconing: so that it was made {167} a
penall thing for any man after to lifte the same man againe on the top
of that stile, but that hee should stand perpetually digraded from that
prerogative. And the place by this meanes being voyde, this man, of so
much more reckoning, was receaved in like a Cypher to fill up a roome,
and was made a Gentleman of the first head; and his Coate of Armes,
blazon’d and tricked out fit for that purpose, in this Poem following.


THE POEM.

  _What ailes Pigmalion? Is it Lunacy;
        Or Doteage on his owne Imagery?
        Let him remember how hee came from Hell,
        That after ages by record may tell
  The compleate story to posterity.
  Blazon his Coate in forme of Heraldry.
        Hee beareth argent alwaies at commaund,      ~_Put it this way._~
        A barre between three crusty rolls at hand,
        And, for his crest, with froth, there does appeare
        Dextra Paw Elevant a Iugg of beare._

Now, that it may the more easily be understood, I have here endeavoured
to set it forth in these illustrations following: Pigmalion was an
Image maker, who, doteing on his owne perfection in making the Image of
Venus, grew to be a mazed man, like our Gentleman here of the first
head: and by the figure Antonomasia[530] is hee herein exemplified.

Hee was translated from a tombe maker to be the {168} tapster at hell,
(which is in Westminster, under the Ex-Chequer office,) for benefit
of the meanes hee translated himselfe into New England, where, by the
help of Beaver and the commaund of a servant or two, hee was advaunced
to the title of a gentleman; where I left him to the exercise of his
guifts.




CHAP. XXV.

  _Of the manner how the Seperatists doe pay debts to them that are
  without._[531]


~_Goode Payement._~

There was an honest man, one M^r. Innocence Fairecloath,[532] by M^r.
Mathias Charterparty sent over into New Canaan, to raise a very good
marchantable commodity for his benefit; for, whiles the man was bound
by covenant to stay for a time, and to imploy such servants as did
there belong to M^r. Charterparty,[533] hee disdained the tenents of
the Seperatists: and they also, (finding him to be none,) disdained to
be imployed by a carnall man, (as they termed him,) and fought occasion
against him, to doe him a mischeife. Intelligence was conveyed to M^r.
Charterparty that this man was a member of the Church of England, and
therefore, (in their account,) an enemy to their Church and state. And,
(to the end they might have some coloure against him,) some of them
practised to get into his debte, which hee, not mistrusting, suffered,
and gave credit for such Commodity as hee had sold at a price. When the
day of payment came, insteede of monyes, hee, being at that time sick
and weake and stood in neede of the Beaver hee had contracted for, hee
had an Epistle full of zealous exhortations to provide for the soule;
and {169} not to minde these transitory things that perished with the
body, and to bethinke himselfe whether his conscience would be so
prompt to demaund so greate a somme of Beaver as had bin contracted
for. Hee was further exhorted therein to consider hee was but a steward
for a time, and by all likely hood was going to give up an accompt of
his stewardship: and therfore perswaded the creditor not to load his
conscience with such a burthen, which hee was bound by the Gospell to
ease him of (if it were possible;) and for that cause hee had framed
this Epistle in such a freindly maner to put him in minde of it. The
perusall of this, (lap’d in the paper,) was as bad as a potion to the
creditor, to see his debtor Master Subtilety (a zealous professor as
hee thought) to deride him in this extremity, that hee could not chuse,
(in admiration of the deceipt,) but cast out these words:

Are these youre members? if they be all like these, I beleeve the
Divell was the setter of their Church.

~_Blasphemy an example for carnall men._~

This was called in question when M^r. Fairecloath least thought of
it. Capt. Littleworth must be the man must presse it against him, for
blasphemy against the Church of Salem: and to greate Iosua Temperwell
hee goes with a bitter accusation, to have Master Innocence made an
example for all carnall men to presume to speake the least word that
might tend to the dishonor of the Church of Salem; yea, the mother
Church of all that holy Land.

And hee convented was before their Synagoge, where no defence would
serve his turne; yet was there none to be seene to accuse him, save the
Court alone.

{170} The time of his sicknes, nor the urgent cause, were not allowed
to be urg’d for him; but whatsoever could be thought upon against him
was urged, seeing hee was a carnall man, of them that are without.
So that it seemes, by those proceedings there, the matter was
adjudged before he came: Hee onely brought to heare his sentence
in publicke: which was, to have his tongue bored through; his nose
slit; his face branded; his eares cut; his body to be whip’d in
every severall plantation of their Iurisdiction; and a fine of forty
pounds impos’d, with perpetuall banishment: and, (to execute this
vengeance,) Shackles,[534] (the Deacon of Charles Towne,) was as ready
as Mephostophiles, when Doctor Faustus was bent upon mischeife.

Hee is the purser generall of New Canaan, who, (with his whipp, with
knotts most terrible,) takes this man unto the Counting howse: there
capitulates with him why hee should be so hasty for payment, when
Gods deare children must pay as they are able: and hee weepes, and
sobbes, and his handkercher walkes as a signe of his sorrow for Master
Fairecloaths sinne, that hee should beare no better affection to the
Church and the Saints of New Canaan: and strips Innocence the while,
and comforts him.

~_Notable Pay._~

Though hee be made to stay for payment, hee should not thinke it
longe; the payment would be sure when it did come, and hee should have
his due to a doite; hee should not wish for a token more; And then
tould it him downe in such manner that hee made Fairecloaths Innocent
back like the picture of Rawhead and blowdy bones, and his shirte
like a {171} pudding wifes aperon. In this imployment Shackles takes
a greate felicity, and glories in the practise of it. This cruell
sentence was stoped in part by Sir Christopher Gardiner, (then present
at the execution,) by expostulating with Master Temperwell: who was
content, (with that whipping and the cutting of parte of his eares,) to
send Innocence going, with the losse of all his goods, to pay the fine
imposed, and perpetuall banishment out of their Lands of New Canaan, in
terrorem populi.

Loe this is the payment you shall get, if you be one of them they
terme, without.




CHAP. XXVI.

  _Of the Charity of the Seperatists._


Charity is sayd to be the darling of Religion, and is indeed the Marke
of a good Christian: But where we doe finde a Commission for ministring
to the necessity of the Saints, we doe not finde any prohibition
against casting our bread upon the waters, where the unsanctified, as
well as the sanctified, are in possibility to make use of it.

~_Lame charity._~

I cannot perceave that the Seperatists doe allowe of helping our poore,
though they magnify their practise in contributing to the nourishment
of their Saints; For as much as some that are of the number of those
whom they terme without, (though it were in case of sicknesse,) upon
theire landing, when a little fresh {172} victuals would have recovered
their healths, yet could they not finde any charitable assistance from
them. Nay, mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, (if hee might have had the use
of his gunne, powther and shott, and his dogg, which were denied,)
hee doubtles would have preserved such poore helples wretches as were
neglected by those that brought them over; which was so apparent, (as
it seemed,) that one of their owne tribe said, the death of them would
be required at some bodies hands one day, (meaning Master Temperwell.)

But such good must not come from a carnall man: if it come from a
member, then it is a sanctified worke; if otherwise, it is rejected as
unsanctified.

But when Shackles[535] wife, and such as had husbands, parents
or freinds, happened to bee sick, mine Hosts helpe was used, and
instruments provided for him to kill fresh vittell with, (wherein hee
was industrious,) and the persons, having fresh vittell, lived.

So doubtles might many others have bin preserved, but they were of the
number left without; neither will those precise people admit a carnall
man into their howses, though they have made use of his in the like
case; they are such antagonists to those that doe not comply with them,
and seeke to be admitted to be of their Church, that in scorne they
say, you may see what it is to be without.




CHAP. XXVII.

  _Of the practise of their Church._[536]


The Church of the Seperatists is governed by Pastors, Elders and
Deacons, and there is not {173} any of these, though hee be but a Cow
keeper, but is allowed to exercise his guifts in the publik assembly
on the Lords day,[537] so as hee doe not make use of any notes for the
helpe of his memory:[538] for such things, they say, smell of Lampe
oyle, and there must be no such unsavery perfume admitted to come into
the congregation.

These are all publike preachers. There is amongst these people a
Deakonesse, made of the sisters, that uses her guifts at home in an
assembly of her sexe, by way of repetition or exhortation:[539] such is
their practise.

The Pastor, (before hee is allowed of,) must disclaime his former
calling to the Ministry, as hereticall; and take a new calling after
their fantasticall inventions: and then hee is admitted to bee their
Pastor.

The manner of disclaimeing is, to renounce his calling with bitter
execrations, for the time that hee hath heretofore lived in it:
and after his new election, there is great joy conceaved at his
commission.[540]

And theire Pastors have this preheminence above the Civile Magistrate:
Hee must first consider of the complaint made against a member: and if
hee be disposed to give the partie complained of an admonition, there
is no more to be said: if not; Hee delivers him over to the Magistrate
to deale with him in a course of Iustice, according to theire practise
in cases of that nature.[541]

{174} Of these pastors I have not knowne many:[542] some I have
observed together with theire carriage in New Canaan, and can informe
you what opinion hath bin conceaved of theire conditions in the
perticuler. There is one who, (as they give it out there that thinke
they speake it to advaunce his worth,) has bin expected to exercise
his gifts in an assembly that stayed his comming, in the middest of
his Iorney falls into a fitt, (which they terme a zealous meditation,)
and was 4. miles past the place appointed before hee came to himselfe,
or did remember where abouts hee went. And how much these things are
different from the actions of mazed men, I leave to any indifferent man
to judge; and if I should say they are all much alike, they that have
seene and heard what I have done, will not condemne mee altogether.

Now, for as much as by the practise of theire Church every Elder or
Deacon may preach, it is not amisse to discover their practise in that
perticuler, before I part with them.[543]

~_Lewes the II. sent a Barber Embassador._~

It has bin an old saying, and a true, what is bred in the bone will not
out of the flesh, nor the stepping into the pulpit that can make the
person fitt for the imployment. The unfitnes of the person undertaking
to be the Messenger has brought a blemish upon the message, as in the
time of Lewes the Eleventh, King of France, who, (having advaunced his
Barber to place of Honor, and graced him with eminent titles), made
him so presumptuous to undertake an Embassage to treat with forraine
princes of Civile affaires.

~_The Embassage despised._~

But what was the issue? Hee behaved himselfe so {175} unworthily, (yet
as well as his breeding would give him leave,) that both the Messenger
and the message were despised; and had not hee, (being discovered,)
conveyed himselfe out of their territories, they had made him pay for
his barbarous presumption.[544]

Socrates sayes, _loquere ut te videam_. If a man observe these people
in the exercise of their gifts, hee may thereby discerne the tincture
of their proper calling, the asses eares will peepe through the lyons
hide. I am sorry they cannot discerne their owne infirmities. I will
deale fairely with them, for I will draw their pictures cap a pe, that
you may discerne them plainely from head to foote in their postures,
that so much bewitch, (as I may speake with modesty,) these illiterate
people to be so fantasticall, to take Ionas taske[545] upon them
without sufficient warrant.

~_A Grocer._~

One steps up like the Minister of Iustice with the ballance onely, not
the sword for feare of affrighting his auditory. Hee poynts at a text,
and handles it as evenly as hee can; and teaches the auditory, that the
thing hee has to deliver must be well waied, for it is a very pretious
thing, yes, much more pretious then gold or pearle: and hee will teach
them the meanes how to way things of that excellent worth; that a man
would suppose hee and his auditory were to part stakes by the scale;
and the like distribution they have used about a bag pudding.

~_A Taylor._~

Another, (of a more cutting disposition,) steps in his steed; and hee
takes a text, which hee divides into many parts: (to speake truly) as
many as hee list. The fag end of it hee pares away, as a superfluous
remnant.

{176} Hee puts his auditory in comfort, that hee will make a garment
for them, and teach them how they shall put it on; and incourages
them to be in love with it, for it is of such a fashion as doth best
become a Christian man. Hee will assuer them that it shall be armor
of proffe against all assaults of Satan. This garment, (sayes hee,)
is not composed as the garments made by a carnall man, that are sowed
with a hot needle and a burning thread; but it is a garment that shall
out last all the garments: and, if they will make use of it as hee
shall direct them, they shall be able, (like saint George,) to terrifie
the greate Dragon, error; and defend truth, which error with her wide
chaps would devoure: whose mouth shall be filled with the shredds and
parings, which hee continually gapes for under the cutting bourd.

~_A Tapster._~

A third, hee supplies the rome: and in the exercise of his guifts
begins with a text that is drawne out of a fountaine that has in it no
dreggs of popery. This shall proove unto you, (says hee,) the Cup of
repentance: it is not like unto the Cup of the Whore of Babilon, who
will make men drunk with the dreggs thereof: It is filled up to the
brim with comfortable joyce, and will proove a comfortable cordiall to
a sick soule, sayes hee. And so hee handles the matter as if hee dealt
by the pinte and the quarte, with Nic and Froth.[546]

~_A Cobler._~

An other, (a very learned man indeed,) goes another way to worke with
his auditory; and exhorts them to walke upright, in the way of their
calling, and not, (like carnall men,) tread awry. And if they should
{177} fayle in the performance of that duety, yet they should seeke
for amendement whiles it was time; and tells them it would bee to late
to seek for help when the shop windowes were shutt up: and pricks them
forward with a freindly admonition not to place theire delight in
worldly pleasures, which will not last, but in time will come to an
end; but so to handle the matter that they may be found to wax better
and better, and then they shall be doublely rewarded for theire worke:
and so closes up the matter in a comfortable manner.

~_A very patorick._~

But stay: Here is one stept up in haste, and, (being not minded to
hold his auditory in expectation of any long discourse,) hee takes
a text; and, (for brevities sake,) divides it into one part: and
then runnes so fast a fore with the matter, that his auditory cannot
follow him. Doubtles his Father was some Irish footeman;[547] by his
speede it seemes so. And it may be at the howre of death, the sonne,
being present, did participat of his Fathers nature, (according to
Pithagoras,)[548] and so the vertue of his Fathers nimble feete being
infused into his braines, might make his tongue out-runne his wit.

Well, if you marke it, these are speciall gifts indeede: which the
vulgar people are so taken with, that there is no perswading them that
it is so ridiculous.

This is the meanes, (O the meanes,) that they pursue: This that comes
without premeditation; This is the Suparlative: and hee that does not
approove of this, they say is a very reprobate.

{178} Many vnwarrantable Tenents they have likewise: some of which
being come to my knowledge I wil here set downe: one wherof, being in
publicke practise maintained, is more notorious then the rest. I will
therefore beginne with that, and convince them of manifest error by the
maintenance of it, which is this:

~_Tenent I._~

That it is the Magistrates office absolutely, (and not the Minsters,)
to joyne the people in lawfull matrimony.[549] And for this they vouch
the History of Ruth, saying Boas was married to Ruth in presence of the
Elders of the people. Herein they mistake the scope of the text.

2. That it is a relique of popery to make use of a ring in marriage:
and that it is a diabolicall circle for the Divell to daunce in.[550]

3. That the purification used for weomen after delivery is not to be
used.[551]

4. That no child shall be baptised whose parents are not receaved into
their Church first.[552]

5. That no person shall be admitted to the Sacrament of the Lords
supper that is without.[553]

6. That the booke of Common prayer is an idoll: and all that use it,
Idolaters.[554]

7. That every man is bound to beleeve a professor upon his bare
affirmation onely, before a Protestant upon oath.

8. That no person hath any right to Gods creatures, but Gods children
onely, who are themselves: and that all others are but usurpers of the
Creatures.

9. And that, for the generall good of their Church and commonwealth,
they are to neglect father, mother and all freindship.

{179} 10. Much a doe they keepe about their Church discipline, as
if that were the most essentiall part of their Religion. Tythes are
banished from thence, all except the tyth of Mint and Commin.[555]

11. They differ from us something in the creede too, for if they get
the goods of one, that is without, into their hands, hee shall be kept
without remedy for any satisfaction: and they beleeve that this is not
cosenage.[556]

12. And lastly they differ from us in the manner of praying; for they
winke[557] when they pray, because they thinke themselves so perfect in
the highe way to heaven that they can find it blindfould: so doe not
I.[558]




CHAP. XXVIII.

  _Of their Policy in publik Iustice._


Now that I have anottomized the two extreame parts of this Politique
Commonwealth, the head and the inferior members, I will shew you the
hart, and reade a short lecture over that too; which is Iustice.

I have a petition to exhibit to the highe and mighty M^r. Temperwell;
and I have my choise whether I shall make my plaint in a case of
conscience, or bring it with in the Compas of a point in law. And
because I will goe the surest way to worke, at first, I will see how
others are answered in the like kinde, whether it be with hab or nab,
as the Iudge did the Countryman.[559]

Here comes M^r. Hopewell: his petition is in a case of conscience,
(as hee sayes.) But, see, great Iosua allowes conscience to be of his
side: yet cuts him off with this answere; Law is flat against him. Well
let {180} me see another. I marry: Here comes one Master Doubt-not:
his matter depends, (I am sure,) upon a point in Law: alas, what will
it not doe, looke ye it is affirmed that Law is on his side: but
Conscience, like a blanket, over spreades it. This passage is like to
the Procustes of Roome, mee thinks; and therefore I may very well say
of them,

  _Even so, by racking out the joynts & chopping of the head,
  Procustes fitted all his guests unto his Iron bedd._

And, if these speede no better, with whome they are freinds, that
neither finde Law nor Conscience to helpe them, I doe not wonder to
see mine Host of Ma-re-Mount speede so ill, that has bin proclaimed an
enemy so many yeares in New Canaan to their Church and State.




CHAP. XXIX.

  _How mine Host was put into a whales belly._


The Seperatists, (after they had burned Ma-re-Mount they could not get
any shipp to undertake the carriage of mine Host from thence, either
by faire meanes or fowle,) they were inforced, (contrary to their
expectation,) to be troubled with his company:[560] and by that meanes
had time to consider more of the man, then they had done of the matter:
wherein at length it was discovered that they, (by meanes of their
credulity of the intelligence given them in England of the matter, and
the false Carecter of the man,) had runne themselves headlonge into an
error, and had done that on a sodaine which they repented at leasure,
but could not tell which way to help it {181} as it stood now. They
could debate upon it and especially upon two difficult points, whereof
one must be concluded upon: If they sent mine Host away by banishment,
hee is in possibility to survive, to their disgrace for the injury
done: if they suffer him to stay, and put him in _statu quo prius_, all
the vulgar people will conclude they have bin too rashe in burning a
howse that was usefull, and count them men unadvised.

So that it seemes, (by theire discourse about the matter,) they stood
betwixt Hawke and Bussard: and could not tell which hand to incline
unto. They had founded him secretly: hee was content with it, goe which
way it would. Nay Shackles[561] himselfe, (who was imployed in the
burning of the howse, and therefore feared to be caught in England,)
and others were so forward in putting mine Host _in statu quo prius_,
after they had found their error, (which was so apparent that Luceus
eies would have served to have found it out in lesse time,) that they
would contribute 40. shillings a peece towards it; and affirmed, that
every man according to his ability that had a hand in this black
designe should be taxed to a Contribution in like nature: it would be
done exactly.

Now, (whiles this was in agitation, and was well urged by some of those
partys to have bin the upshot,) unexpected, (in the depth of winter,
when all shipps were gone out of the land,) in comes M^r. Wethercock,
a proper Mariner; and, they said, he could observe the winde: blow it
high, blow it low, hee was resolved to lye at Hull[562] rather than
incounter such a storme as mine Host had met with: and this was a man
for their turne.

{182} Hee would doe any office for the brethren, if they (who hee knew
had a strong purse, and his conscience waited on the strings of it, if
all the zeale hee had) would beare him out in it: which they professed
they would. Hee undertakes to ridd them of mine Host by one meanes or
another. They gave him the best meanes they could, according to the
present condition of the worke, and letters of credence to the favoures
of that Sect in England; with which, (his busines there being done, and
his shipp cleared,) hee hoyst the Sayles and put to Sea: since which
time mine Host has not troubled the brethren, but onely at the Counsell
table: where now Sub iudice lis est.




CHAP. XXX.

  _Of Sir Christopher Gardiner Knight, and how hee spedd amongst the
  Seperatists._


Sir Christopher Gardiner,[563] (a Knight, that had bin a traveller both
by Sea and Land; a good judicious gentleman in the Mathematticke and
other Sciences usefull for Plantations, Kimistry, &c. and also being a
practicall Enginer,) came into those parts, intending discovery.

But the Seperatists love not those good parts, when they proceede from
a carnall man, (as they call every good Protestant); in shorte time
[they] had found the meanes to pick a quarrell with him. The meanes is
that they pursue to obtaine what they aime at: the word is there, the
meanes.

So that, when they finde any man like to proove an enemy to their
Church and state, then straight {183} the meanes must be used for
defence. The first precept in their Politiques is to defame the man
at whom they aime, and then hee is a holy Israelite in their opinions
who can spread that same brodest, like butter upon a loafe: no matter
how thin, it will serve for a vaile: and then this man, (who they have
thus depraved,) is a spotted uncleane leaper: hee must out, least hee
pollute the Land, and them that are cleane.

If this be one of their guifts, then Machevill[564] had as good gifts
as they. Let them raise a scandall on any, though never so innocent,
yet they know it is never wiped cleane out: the staind marks remaines;
which hath bin well observed by one in these words of his,

  _Stick Candles gainst a Virgin walls white back;
  If they’l not burne yet, at the least, they’l black._

And thus they dealt with Sir Christopher: and plotted by all the wayes
and meanes they could, to overthrow his undertakings in those parts.

And therefore I cannot chuse but conclude that these Seperatists have
speciall gifts: for they are given to envy and mallice extremely.

The knowledge of their defamacion could not please the gentleman well,
when it came to his eare; which would cause him to make some reply,
as they supposed, to take exceptions at, as they did against Faire
cloath:[565] and this would be a meanes, they thought, to blow the
coale, and so to kindle a brand that might fire him out of the Country
too, and send him after mine Host of Ma-re-Mount.

They take occasion, (some of them,) to come to his howse when hee
was gone up into the Country, and {184} (finding hee was from home,)
so went to worke that they left him neither howse nor habitation nor
servant, nor any thing to help him, if hee should retorne: but of that
they had noe hope, (as they gave it out,) for hee was gone, (as they
affirmed,) to leade a Salvage life, and for that cause tooke no company
with him: and they having considered of the matter, thought it not fit
that any such man should live in so remoate a place, within the Compas
of their patent. So they fired the place, and carried away the persons
and goods.

Sir Christopher was gone with a guide, (a Salvage,) into the inland
parts for discovery: but, before hee was returned, hee met with a
Salvage that told the guide, Sir Christopher would be killed: Master
Temperwell, (who had now found out matter against him,) would have him
dead or alive. This hee related; and would have the gentleman not to
goe to the place appointed, because of the danger that was supposed.

But Sir Christopher was nothing dismaid; hee would on, whatsoever come
of it; and so met with the Salvages: and betweene them was a terrible
skermish: But they had the worst of it, and hee scaped well enough.

The guide was glad of it, and learnd of his fellowes that they were
promised a great reward for what they should doe in this imployment.

Which thing, (when Sir Christopher understood,) hee gave thanks to God;
and after, (upon this occasion to sollace himselfe,) in his table booke
hee composed this sonnet, which I have here inserted for a memoriall.


{185} THE SONNET.

  _Wolfes in Sheeps clothing, why will ye
  Think to deceave God that doth see
  Your simulated sanctity?
  For my part, I doe wish you could
  Your owne infirmities behold,
  For then you would not be so bold.
  Like Sophists, why will you dispute
  With wisdome so? You doe confute
  None but yourselves. For shame, be mute,
    Least great Jehovah, with his powre,
  Do come upon you in a howre
  When you least think, and you devoure._

This Sonnet the Gentleman composed as a testimony of his love towards
them, that were so ill-affected towards him; from whome they might have
receaved much good, if they had bin so wise to have imbraced him in a
loving fashion.

But they despise the helpe that shall come from a carnall man, (as they
termed him,) who, after his retorne from those designes, finding how
they had used him with such disrespect, tooke shipping, and disposed of
himselfe for England; and discovered their practises in those parts
towards his Majesties true harted Subjects, which they made wery of
their aboade in those parts.




{186} CHAP. XXXI.

  _Of mine Host of Ma-re-Mount how hee played Ionas after hee had bin
  in the Whales belly for a time._


Mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, being put to Sea, had delivered him, for his
releefe by the way, (because the shipp was unvitteled, and the Seamen
put to straight allowance, which could hold out but to the Canaries,)
a part of his owne provision, being two moneths proportion; in all but
3. small peeces of porke, which made him expect to be famished before
the voyage should be ended, by all likelyhood. Yet hee thought hee
would make one good meale, before hee died: like the Colony servant in
Virginea, that, before hee should goe to the gallowes, called to his
wife to set on the loblolly pot, and let him have one good meale before
hee went; who had committed a petty crime, that in those dayes was made
a cappitall offence.

And now, mine Host being merrily disposed, on went the peeces of porke,
wherewith hee feasted his body, and cherished the poore Sailers; and
got out of them what M^r. Wethercock, their Master, purposed to doe
with him that hee had no more provision: and along they sailed from
place to place, from Iland to Iland, in a pittifull wether beaten ship,
where mine Host was in more dainger, (without all question,) then
Ionas, when hee was in the Whales belly; and it was the great mercy
of God that they had not all perished. Vittelled they were but for a
moneth, when they wayd Ancor and left the first port.

{187} They were a pray for the enemy for want of powther, if they had
met them: besides the vessell was a very slugg, and so unserviceable
that the Master called a counsell of all the company in generall, to
have theire opinions which way to goe and how to beare the helme,
who all under their hand affirmed the shipp to be unserviceable: so
that, in fine, the Master and men and all were at their wits end about
it: yet they imployed the Carpenters to search and caulke her sides,
and doe theire best whiles they were in her. Nine moneths they made
a shifte to use her, and shifted for supply of vittells at all the
Islands they touched at: though it were so poorely, that all those
helpes, and the short allowance of a bisket a day, and a few Lymons
taken in at the Canaries, served but to bring the vessell in view of
the lands end.

They were in such a desperat case, that, (if God in his greate mercy
had not favoured them, and disposed the windes faire untill the vessell
was in Plimmouth roade,) they had without question perished; for when
they let drop an Anchor, neere the Island of S. Michaels,[566] not one
bit of foode left, for all that starving allowance of this wretched
Wethercock, that, if hee would have lanched out his beaver, might have
bought more vittells in New England then he, and the whole ship with
the Cargazoun, was worth, (as the passingers hee carried who vittelled
themselves affirmed). But hee played the miserable wretch, and had
possessed his men with the contrary; who repented them of waying anchor
before they knew so much.

Mine Host of Ma-re-Mount, (after hee had bin in {188} the Whales
belly,) was set a shore, to see if hee would now play Ionas, so
metamorphosed with a longe voyage that hee looked like Lazarus in the
painted cloath.

But mine Host, (after due consideration of the premisses,) thought it
fitter for him to play Ionas in this kinde, then for the Seperatists to
play Ionas in that kinde as they doe. Hee therefore bid Wethercock tell
the Seperatists, that they would be made in due time to repent those
malitious practises, and so would hee too; for hee was a Seperatist
amongst the Seperatists, as farre as his wit would give him leave;
though when hee came in Company of basket makers, hee would doe his
indevoure to make them pinne the basket, if hee could, as I have
seene him. And now mine Host, being merrily disposed, haveing past
many perillous adventures in that desperat Whales belly, beganne in a
posture like Ionas, and cryed, Repent you cruell Seperatists, repent;
there are as yet but 40. dayes, if Iove vouchsafe to thunder, Charter
and the Kingdome of the Seperatists will fall asunder: Repent you
cruell Schismaticks, repent. And in that posture hee greeted them by
letters retorned into new Canaan; and ever, (as opportunity was fitted
for the purpose,) he was both heard and seene in the posture of Ionas
against them, crying, repent you cruel Seperatists, repent; there are
as yet but 40. dayes; if Iove vouchsafe to thunder, the Charter and
the Kingdome of the Seperatists will fall a sunder: Repent, you cruell
Schismaticks, repent. If you will heare any more of this proclamation
meete him at the next markettowne, for _Cynthius aurem vellet_.[567]

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[Illustration]




A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS

OF THE THREE BOOKES:

The Tenents of the first Booke.


  Chapters.

  1. _Prooving New England the principall part of all America, and most
        commodious and fit for a habitation and generation._

  2. _Of the originall of the Natives._

  3. _Of a great mortallity happened amongst the Natives._

  4. _Of their howses and habitations._

  5. _Of their Religion._

  6. _Of the Indians apparrell._

  7. _Of their Childbearing._

  8. _Of their reverence and respect to age._

  9. _Of their Juggelling tricks._

  10. _Of their Duelles._

  11. _Of the maintenance of their reputation._

  12. _Of their Traffick and trade one with another._

  13. _Of their Magazines and Storehowses._

  14. _Of theire Subtilety._

  15. _Of their admirable perfection in the use of their sences._

  16. _Of their acknowledgement of the creation and immortality of the
        Soule._

  17. _Of their Annalls and Funeralls._

  18. _Of their Custome in burning the Country._

  19. _Of their Inclination to drunckennes._

  20. _Of their Philosophicall life._


The Tenents of the second Booke.

  Chap.

  1. _The generall Survey of the Country._

  2. _What trees are there and how commodious._

  3. _What Potherbes are there and for Sallets._

  4. _Of the Birds of the aire and fethered Fowles._

  5. _Of the Beasts of the Forrest._

  6. _Of Stones and Mineralls._

  7. _Of the Fishes and what commodity they proove._

  8. _Of the goodnes of the Country and the Fountaines._

  9. _A Perspective to view the Country by._

  10. _Of the great Lake of Erocoise._


The Tenents of the third Booke.

  Chap.

  1. _Of a great legue made betweene the Salvages and English._

  2. _Of the entertainment of Master Westons people._

  3. _Of a great Battaile fought betweene the English and the Indians._

  4. _Of a Parliament held at Wessaguscus._

  5. _Of a Massacre made upon the Salvages._

  6. _Of the Surprizing of a Marchants Shipp._

  7. _Of Thomas Mortons Entertainement and wrack._

  8. _Of the banishment of Iohn Layford and Iohn Oldam._

  9. _Of a barren doe of Virginea growne Fruithfull._

  10. _Of the Master of the Ceremonies._

  11. _Of a Composition made for a Salvages theft._

  12. _Of a voyage made by the Master of the Ceremonies for Beaver._

  13. _A lamentable fitt of mellancolly cured._

  14. _The Revells of New Canaan._

  15. _Of a great Monster supposed to be at Ma-re-Mount._

  16. _How the nine Worthies of New Canaan put mine Host of Ma-re-Mount
        into an inchaunted Castle._

  17. _Of the baccanall Triumphe of New Canaan._

  18. _Of a Doctor made at commencement._

  19. _Of the silencing of a Minister._

  20. _Of a practise to get a snare to hamper mine host of Ma-re-Mount._

  21. _Of Captaine Littleworths devise for the purchase of Beaver._

  22. _Of a Sequestration in New Canaan._

  23. _Of a great bonfire made in New Canaan._

  24. _Of the digradinge and creatinge of Gentry._

  25. _Of the manner how the Seperatists pay their debts._

  26. _Of the Charity of the Seperatists._

  27. _Of the practise of their Church._

  28. _Of their Policy in publik Iustice._

  29. _How mine Host was put into a Whales belly._

  30. _How Sir Christopher Gardiner, Knight, speed amongst the
        Seperatists._

  31. _How mine Host of Ma-re-Mount played Jonas after hee got out
        of the Whales belly._


FINIS.




[Illustration]

THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

[Illustration]




[Illustration]




OFFICERS

OF

THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

1883.


_President._

  THE REV. EDMUND F. SLAFTER, A.M.              BOSTON, MASS.


_Vice-Presidents._

  JOHN WARD DEAN, A.M.                          BOSTON, MASS.
  WILLIAM B. TRASK, ESQ.                        BOSTON, MASS.
  THE HON. CHARLES H. BELL, LL.D.               EXETER, N.H.
  JOHN MARSHALL BROWN, A.M.                     PORTLAND, ME.


_Corresponding Secretary._

  THE REV. HENRY W. FOOTE, A.M.                 BOSTON, MASS.


_Recording Secretary._

  DAVID GREENE HASKINS, JR., A.M.               CAMBRIDGE, MASS.


_Treasurer._

  ELBRIDGE H. GOSS, ESQ.                        BOSTON, MASS.




[Illustration]




THE PRINCE SOCIETY.

1883.


  The Hon. Charles Francis Adams, LL.D.            Boston, Mass.
  Charles Francis Adams, Jr., A.B.                 Quincy, Mass.
  Thomas Coffin Amory, A.M.                        Boston, Mass.
  William Sumner Appleton, A.M.                    Boston, Mass.
  Walter T. Avery, Esq.                            New York, N.Y.
  Mr. Thomas Willing Balch                         Philadelphia, Pa.
  George L. Balcom, Esq.                           Claremont, N.H.
  Charles Candee Baldwin, M.A.                     Cleveland, Ohio.
  Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esq.                        New York, N.Y.
  James Phinney Baxter, A.M.                       Portland, Me.
  The Hon. Charles H. Bell, LL.D.                  Exeter, N.H.
  John J. Bell, A.M.                               Exeter, N.H.
  Samuel Lane Boardman, Esq.                       Boston, Mass.
  The Hon. James Ware Bradbury, LL.D.              Augusta, Me.
  J. Carson Brevoort, LL.D.                        Brooklyn, N.Y.
  The Rev. Phillips Brooks, D.D.                   Boston, Mass.
  Sidney Brooks, A.M.                              Boston, Mass.
  Horace Brown, A.B., LL.B.                        Salem, Mass.
  Mrs. John Carter Brown                           Providence, R.I.
  John Marshall Brown, A.M.                        Portland, Me.
  Joseph O. Brown, Esq.                            New York, N.Y.
  Philip Henry Brown, A.M.                         Portland, Me.
  Thomas O. H. P. Burnham, Esq.                    Boston, Mass.
  George Bement Butler, Esq.                       New York, N.Y.
  The Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, A.M.                Chelsea, Mass.
  The Hon. William Eaton Chandler, A.M.            Washington, D.C.
  George Bigelow Chafe, A.M.                       Boston, Mass.
  Clarence H. Clark, Esq.                          Philadelphia, Pa.
  Gen. John S. Clark                               Auburn, N.Y.
  The Hon. Samuel Crocker Cobb                     Boston, Mass.
  Ethan N. Coburn, Esq.                            Charlestown, Mass.
  Jeremiah Colburn, A.M.                           Boston, Mass.
  Deloraine P. Corey, Esq.                         Boston, Mass.
  Erastus Corning, Esq.                            Albany, N.Y.
  Ellery Bicknell Crane, Esq.                      Worcester, Mass.
  Abram E. Cutter, Esq.                            Charlestown, Mass.
  William M. Darlington, Esq.                      Pittsburg, Pa.
  John Ward Dean, A.M.                             Boston, Mass.
  Charles Deane, LL.D.                             Cambridge, Mass.
  Edward Denham, Esq.                              New Bedford, Mass.
  John Charles Dent, Esq.                          Toronto, Canada.
  Prof. Franklin B. Dexter, A.M.                   New Haven, Ct.
  The Rev. Henry Martyn Dexter, D.D.               Boston, Mass.
  Samuel Adams Drake, Esq.                         Melrose, Mass.
  Henry Thayer Drowne, Esq.                        New York, N.Y.
  Henry H. Edes, Esq.                              Charlestown, Mass.
  Jonathan Edwards, A.B., M.D.                     New Haven, Ct.
  William Henry Egle, A.M, M.D.                    Harrisburgh, Pa.
  Janus G. Elder, Esq.                             Lewiston, Me.
  Samuel Eliot, LL.D.                              Boston, Mass.
  Alfred Langdon Elwyn, M.D.                       Philadelphia, Pa.
  James Emott, Esq.                                New York, N.Y.
  The Hon. William M. Evarts, LL. D.               New York, N.Y.
  Joseph Story Fay, Esq.                           Woods Holl, Mass.
  John S. H. Fogg, M.D.                            Boston, Mass.
  The Rev. Henry W. Foote, A.M.                    Boston, Mass.
  Samuel P. Fowler, Esq.                           Danvers, Mass.
  James E. Gale, Esq.                              Haverhill, Mass.
  Isaac D. Garfield, Esq.                          Syracuse, N.Y.
  Marcus D. Gilman, Esq.                           Montpelier, Vt.
  The Hon. John E. Godfrey                         Bangor, Me.
  Abner C. Goodell, Jr., A.M.                      Salem, Mass.
  Elbridge H. Goss, Esq.                           Boston, Mass.
  The Hon. Justice Horace Gray, LL.D.              Boston, Mass.
  William W. Greenough, A.B.                       Boston, Mass.
  Isaac J. Greenwood, A.M.                         New York, N.Y.
  Charles H. Guild, Esq.                           Somerville, Mass.
  David Greene Haskins, Jr., A.M.                  Cambridge, Mass.
  The Hon. Francis B. Hayes, A.M.                  Boston, Mass.
  The Hon. Rutherford B. Hayes, LL.D.              Fremont, Ohio.
  Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A.M.                 Cambridge, Mass.
  W. Scott Hill, M.D.                              Augusta, Me.
  James F. Hunnewell, Esq.                         Charlestown, Mass.
  Theodore Irwin, Esq.                             Oswego, N.Y.
  The Rev. Henry Fitch Jenks, A.M.                 Lawrence, Mass.
  The Hon. Clark Jillson                           Worcester, Mass.
  Mr. Sawyer Junior                                Nashua, N.H.
  George Lamb, Esq.                                Boston, Mass.
  Edward F. De Lancey, Esq.                        New York, N.Y.
  William B. Lapham, M.D.                          Augusta, Me.
  Henry Lee, A.M.                                  Boston, Mass.
  John A. Lewis, Esq.                              Boston, Mass.
  Henry Cabot Lodge, Ph.D.                         Boston, Mass.
  Orsamus H. Marshall, Esq.                        Buffalo, N.Y.
  William T. R. Marvin, A.M.                       Boston, Mass.
  William F. Matchett, Esq.                        Boston, Mass.
  Frederic W. G. May, Esq.                         Boston, Mass.
  John Norris McClintock, A.M.                     Concord, N.H.
  The Rev. James H. Means, D.D.                    Boston, Mass.
  George H. Moore, LL.D.                           New York, N.Y.
  The Rev. James De Normandie, A.M.                Boston, Mass.
  Prof. Charles E. Norton, A.M.                    Cambridge, Mass.
  John H. Osborne, Esq.                            Auburn, N.Y.
  George T. Paine, Esq.                            Providence, R.I.
  Nathaniel Paine, Esq.                            Worcester, Mass.
  John Carver Palfrey, A.M.                        Boston, Mass.
  Daniel Parish, Jr., Esq.                         New York, N.Y.
  Francis Parkman, LL.D.                           Boston, Mass.
  Augustus T. Perkins, A.M.                        Boston, Mass.
  The Rt. Rev. William Stevens Perry, D.D., LL.D.  Davenport, Iowa.
  William Frederic Poole, LL.D.                    Chicago, Ill.
  Rear Admiral George Henry Preble, U. S. N.       Brookline, Mass.
  Samuel S. Purple, M.D.                           New York, N.Y.
  Edward Ashton Rollins, A.M.                      Philadelphia, Pa.
  The Hon. Nathaniel Foster Safford, A.M.          Milton, Mass.
  Joshua Montgomery Sears, A.B.                    Boston, Mass.
  John Gilmary Shea, LL.D.                         Elizabeth, N.J.
  The Hon. Mark Skinner                            Chicago, Ill.
  The Rev. Carlos Slafter, A.M.                    Boston, Mass.
  The Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M.                 Boston, Mass.
  Charles C. Smith, Esq.                           Boston, Mass.
  Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq.                      Boston, Mass.
  George Stevens, Esq.                             Lowell, Mass.
  George Stewart, Jr., Esq.                        Quebec, Canada.
  Russell Sturgis, A.M.                            London, Eng.
  William B. Trask, Esq.                           Boston, Mass.
  Joseph B. Walker, A.M.                           Concord, N.H.
  William Henry Wardwell, Esq.                     Boston, Mass.
  Miss Rachel Wetherill                            Philadelphia, Pa.
  Henry Wheatland, A.M., M.D.                      Salem, Mass.
  John Gardner White, A.M.                         Cambridge, Mass.
  William Adee Whitehead, A.M.                     Newark, N.J.
  William H. Whitmore, A.M.                        Boston, Mass.
  Henry Austin Whitney, A.M.                       Boston, Mass.
  The Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, Ph.D.               Boston, Mass.
  Henry Winsor, Esq.                               Philadelphia, Pa.
  The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D.               Boston, Mass.
  Charles Levi Woodbury, Esq.                      Boston, Mass.
  Ashbel Woodward, M.D.                            Franklin, Ct.
  J. Otis Woodward, Esq.                           Albany, N.Y.


LIBRARIES.

  American Antiquarian Society                     Worcester, Mass.
  Amherst College Library                          Amherst, Mass.
  Astor Library                                    New York, N.Y.
  Bibliothèque Nationale                           Paris, France
  Bodleian Library                                 Oxford, Eng.
  Boston Athenæum                                  Boston, Mass.
  Boston Library Society                           Boston, Mass.
  British Museum                                   London, Eng.
  Concord Public Library                           Concord, Mass.
  Eben Dale Sutton Reference Library               Peabody, Mass.
  Free Public Library                              Worcester, Mass.
  Free Public Library of Toronto                   Toronto, Canada.
  Gloucester Public Library                        Gloucester, Mass.
  Grosvenor Library                                Buffalo, N.Y.
  Harvard College Library                          Cambridge, Mass.
  Historical Society of Pennsylvania               Philadelphia, Pa.
  Library Company of Philadelphia                  Philadelphia, Pa.
  Library of Parliament                            Ottawa, Canada.
  Library of the State Department                  Washington, D.C.
  Literary and Historical Society of Quebec        Quebec, Canada.
  Long Island Historical Society                   Brooklyn, N.Y.
  Maine Historical Society                         Portland, Me.
  Maryland Historical Society                      Baltimore, Md.
  Massachusetts Historical Society                 Boston, Mass.
  Mercantile Library                               New York, N.Y.
  Minnesota Historical Society                     St. Paul, Minn.
  Newburyport Public Library, Peabody Fund         Newburyport, Mass.
  New England Historic Genealogical Society        Boston, Mass.
  Newton Free Library                              Newton, Mass.
  New York Society Library                         New York, N.Y.
  Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore       Baltimore, Md.
  Plymouth Public Library                          Plymouth, Mass.
  Portsmouth Athenæum                              Portsmouth, N.H.
  Public Library of Cincinnati                     Cincinnati, Ohio.
  Public Library of the City of Boston             Boston, Mass.
  Redwood Library                                  Newport, R.I.
  State Historical Society of Wisconsin            Madison, Wis.
  State Library of Massachusetts                   Boston, Mass.
  State Library of New York                        Albany, N.Y.
  State Library of Rhode Island                    Providence, R.I.
  State Library of Vermont                         Montpelier, Vt.
  Williams College Library                         Williamstown, Mass.
  Woburn Public Library                            Woburn, Mass.
  Yale College Library                             New Haven, Ct.




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PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.


NEW ENGLAND’S PROSPECT.

A true, lively and experimentall description of that part of _America_,
commonly called Nevv England: discovering the State of that Countrie,
both as it stands to our new-come _English_ Planters; and to the old
Natiue Inhabitants. By WILLIAM WOOD. London, 1634. Preface by Charles
Deane, LL.D.


THE HUTCHINSON PAPERS.

A Collection of Original Papers relative to the History of the Colony
of Massachusetts-Bay. Reprinted from the edition of 1769. Edited by
William H. Whitmore, A.M., and William S. Appleton, A.M. 2 vols.


JOHN DUNTON’S LETTERS FROM NEW ENGLAND.

Letters written from New England A.D. 1686. By John Dunton in which are
described his voyages by Sea, his travels on land, and the characters
of his friends and acquaintances. Now first published from the Original
Manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Edited by William H.
Whitmore, A.M.


THE ANDROS TRACTS.

Being a Collection of Pamphlets and Official Papers issued during
the period between the overthrow of the Andros Government and the
establishment of the second Charter of Massachusetts. Reprinted from
the original editions and manuscripts. With a Memoir of Sir Edmund
Andros, by the editor, William H. Whitmore, A.M. 3 vols.


SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER AND AMERICAN COLONIZATION.

Including three Royal Charters, issued in 1621, 1625, 1628; a Tract
entitled an Encouragement to Colonies, by Sir William Alexander, 1624;
a Patent, from the Great Council for New England, of Long Island, and a
part of the present State of Maine; a Roll of the Knights Baronets of
New Scotland; with a Memoir of Sir William Alexander, by the editor,
the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M.


JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.

Including his Fast-day Sermon, 1637; his Mercurius Americanus, 1645,
and other writings; with a paper on the genuineness of the Indian deed
of 1629, and a Memoir by the editor, Charles H. Bell, A.M.


VOYAGES OF THE NORTHMEN TO AMERICA.

Including extracts from Icelandic Sagas relating to Western voyages by
Northmen in the tenth and eleventh centuries, in an English translation
by North Ludlow Beamish; with a Synopsis of the historical evidence
and the opinion of Professor Rafn as to the places visited by the
Scandinavians on the coast of America. Edited, with an Introduction, by
the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M.


THE VOYAGES OF SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.

Including the Voyage of 1603, and all contained in the edition of 1613,
and in that of 1619; translated from the French by Charles P. Otis,
Ph.D. Edited, with a Memoir and historical illustrations, by the Rev.
Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. 3 vols.


NEW ENGLISH CANAAN, OR NEW CANAAN.

Containing an abstract of New England, composed in three books. I. The
first setting forth the Originall of the Natives, their Manners and
Customes, together with their tractable Nature and Love towards the
English. II. The Natural Indowments of the Countrie, and what Staple
Commodities it yieldeth. III. What People are planted there, their
Prosperity, what remarkable Accidents have happened since the first
planting of it, together with their Tenents and practice of their
Church. Written by Thomas Morton of Cliffords Inne, Gent, upon ten
Years Knowledge and Experiment of the Country, 1632. Edited, with an
Introduction and historical illustrations, by Charles Francis Adams,
Jr., A.B.


VOLUMES IN PREPARATION.

1. CAPTAIN JOHN MASON, the founder of New Hampshire, including his
Tract on Newfoundland, 1620, the several American Charters in which he
was a Grantee, and other papers; and a Memoir by the late Charles W.
Tuttle, Ph.D. Edited, with historical illustrations, by John Ward Dean,
A.M.

2. SIR FERDINANDO GORGES, including his Tract entitled A Brief
Narration, 1658, American Charters granted to him, and other papers;
with historical Illustrations and a Memoir by the Rev. Edmund F.
Slafter, A.M.

3. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT, including his Discourse to prove a Passage
by the North-West to Cathaia and the East Indies; his Letters Patent
to discover and possess lands in North America, granted by Queen
Elizabeth, June 11, 1578. With historical Illustrations and a Memoir.

4. SIR WALTER RALEGH AND HIS COLONY IN AMERICA. Containing the Royal
Charter of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Ralegh for discovering and
planting of new lands and countries, March 25, 1584, with letters,
discourses, and narratives of the Voyages made to Virginia at his
charges, with original descriptions of the country, commodities, and
inhabitants. Edited, with a Memoir and historical illustrations, by the
Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D.




[Illustration]

INDEX.

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[Illustration]




INDEX.


  A.

  Aberdecest, 130, _n._

  Acomenticus:
    charter granted to, by Gorges, 81;
    Morton dies at, 91.

  Adams, John:
    on name of Merry-Mount, 14, _n._;
    on fate of Wollaston, 15;
    on Thomas Morton, 95, _n._;
    injuries to library of, 101, _n._

  Adams, John Q., 101.

  Adders, 213.

  Ælianus, 345, _n._

  Air of New England, 121, 137, 177, 190.

  Alcides, 292.

  Alecto, 275.

  Alexander, Sir William, quoted, 140, 167.

  Alder, the, 186.

  Allen, J. A., notes on wild animals of New England by, 199-215.

  Allerton, Isaac:
    his course toward Morton in England, 35, 303;
    his mission to England in 1629, 36;
    carries Morton back to Plymouth, 36;
    tries to obtain charter for Plymouth, 52;
    brings over goods, 289, _n._

  Allize, 225.

  Alsatian Squire, the, 92.

  Amphitrite, 277, 281.

  Animals, wild of New England, chapter on, 199-215.

  Antinomian controversy, 81, 323, _n._

  Antonomasia, 316.

  _Anúnime_, 123, _n._

  Arbor-vitæ, 185, _n._

  Archimedes, 291.

  Argus eyes, 303.

  Aristotle, cited, 117, 118.

  Armoniack, 219.

  Arms. (_See_ Fire-arms.)

  Arthur’s Table, King, 290.

  Arundel, Earl of, 60, 70.

  _Ascowke_, 213.

  Ash, the, 183.

  Aspinwall, William, 319, _n._

  Audubon, John James, quoted, 131, _n._, 192, _n._

  Auk, the great, formerly found in Boston Bay, 131, _n._


  B.

  Bacchanal Triumph, poem, 290-4.

  Bagnall, Walter, 22, 206, _n._, 218, _n._

  Baptism, 331, _n._

  “Barren doe, the,” 94, 264-6, 272-7.

  Barrowe, Henry, on Common Prayer, 332, _n._

  Bass, 222.

  Beach, the, 183.

  Bears: used by Indians, 142-4;
    value of skins of, 205;
    description of, 209;
    Indian methods of hunting, 210;
    flesh of, 210.

  Beaver: value of skins of, 22, 205, 295;
    gain in, 32, 282;
    regulation of trade in, 39, 306;
    virtues of tails of, 162, 205;
    description of, 204;
    muskrats passed for, 211;
    Dutch trade in, 239, _n._;
    a theft compounded in, 269;
    plenty of, at Nipnet, 270;
    compared to Jason’s Fleece, 295.

  Bible, the, 94, 212, 260.

  Bibliography of _New Canaan_, 99.

  Billington, John, 217.

  Birch, the, 186.

  Birds, chapter on, 189-99.

  Black-lead, 219.

  Blackstone, William: moves from Wessagusset to Boston, 24;
    contributes to Morton’s arrest, 30;
    an Episcopalian, 94.

  Bluefish, 222.

  Bole Armoniack, 219.

  Book of Common Prayer, 22, 68, 82, 168, 260, 283, 311;
    an idol, 69, 332;
    Morton persecuted for using, 92-5.

  _Book of Sports_, 260, _n._

  Boston Bay: savages about in 1625, 11;
    settlers about in 1628, 24;
    description of in 1630, 122;
    great auks seen in, 131, _n._;
    French vessel wrecked in, 131, _n._

  Bradford, John, on Common Prayer, 332, _n._

  Bradford, Governor William: cited, 1, 6, 13, 18, 20, 22, 25, 27,
        31, 35, 36, 37, 46, 49, 52, 79, 92, 133, _n._, 205, _n._,
        217, _n._, 323, _n._, 325, _n._, 330, _n._, 332, _n._;
    letters of, on arrest of Morton, 30;
    generally correct, 49;
    literary skill of, 96;
    absence of humor in, 97, 98;
    referred to as Rhadamant, 291, _n._

  Brant, 189, 268.

  Breames, 227.

  Brereton, Sir William, grant to, from John Gorges, 34.

  Brewster, William, notes on birds by, 189-99, _n._, 226, _n._

  Briareus, 288.

  Bridges, Robert, 90.

  Bright, Rev. Francis, 300, _n._, 325, _n._

  Brimstone, 220.

  Bristol, 2.

  Brown, Peter, 214.

  Browne, Robert, 323, _n._

  Brutus, supposed descent of Indians from, 126, 127, 129.

  Bubble, 266-8, 270-3.

  Buckingham, Duke of, 178, _n._

  Burdet, Rev. George, corresponds with Laud, 83, 88.

  Burglary, 319, _n._

  Burning undergrowth: Indian custom of, 172, 184, 186;
    protection against, 173.

  Bursley, John, at Wessagusset, 24, 31, 162, _n._

  Buzzard’s Bay, 266.

  Butler, Samuel, 96, 98, 251, _n._


  C.

  Caen, William and Emery de, 235, _n._

  Caiaphas, 300, 302, _n._

  Cain, 312.

  Campbell, Lord: on royal proclamations, 26;
    cited, 35.

  Canada: derivation of name, 235;
    first conquest of, 235, _n._

  Canary Islands: as a market, 182, 222;
    Morton at, 342-3.

  Cane, 275.

  Caunoŭnicus, funeral rites of his son, 170, _n._

  Cape Ann: Lyford moves to, 24;
    Morton at, 261.

  Cape Cod, 21, 23, 226;
    French vessel wrecked on, 131, _n._

  Cape Verde Islands, 116, 117, _n._

  Carheil, Father, cited, 17.

  Caribdis, 277, 280.

  _Cattup Keen_, 137, _n._

  Carlisle, Earl of, 70.

  Casco Bay, 221;
    royalists about, 85.

  _Cau-ompsk_, 124, _n._

  Cecrops, 293.

  Cedars: at Mount Wollaston, 10;
    where to be found large, 173;
    abundance and size of, 184;
    white, 185, _n._

  Cerberus, 294.

  Chalk-stones, 216.

  Champlain, lake: protection for discovery of, 77;
    Morton on, 78;
    Josselyn’s expedition to discover, 79;
    when named, 234, _n._ (_See_ Erocoise.)

  Champlain: his _Voyages_ quoted, 149, _n._, 150, _n._;
    his map, 236, _n._

  Charity of the Separatists, 320.

  _Charity_, the, comes to New England in June, 1622, 7, 130.

  _Chauquaqock_, 254, _n._

  Charles I.: corruption of court of, 52;
    character and government of, 54;
    financial straits of, in 1635, 73;
    turning point in fortunes of, 78.

  Charlestown: settlement of, 34, 300, _n._;
    deacons of church of, 319.

  Charon, 274.

  Charter party, 304, 316, 317. (_See_ Cradock, Matthew.)

  Chastity, absence of, among Indians, 16, 17, 145, _n._

  Chelsea, 229, 300.

  _Cheshetue_, 148.

  Chestnut, the, 183.

  Chickatawbut, dwelling-place of, 11;
    cunning of, 162, _n._;
    his mother’s grave despoiled, 170, 247;
    speech of, 247-9;
    Weston’s men living with, 252.

  Chingachgook, 213, _n._

  Christmas, 18, 97;
    “brave gambols,” 294.

  Church practices in New England, 69, 260, 262, 322-34.

  Church of England: Winthrop’s detestation of, 63;
    and Morton, 92;
    and Lyford, 263;
    dignity of, advanced in New England by Morton, 283;
    Ratcliff a member of, 317.

  Churching of women, 331, _n._

  Cicero, quoted, 139, 181, 312.

  Cithyrea, 278.

  Clams, 227.

  Clarendon, Lord, cited, 52.

  Clayton’s _Virginia_, cited, 199, _n._, 208, _n._, 210, _n._,
        214, _n._

  Cleaves, George: Morton in employ of, 77;
    in employ of Rigby, 84;
    “a fire-brand of dissension,” 85.

  Clerk, Roger, 300, _n._

  Cockles, 227.

  Coddington, Governor William, writes to Winthrop about Morton, 85.

  Cod-fish, 221;
    markets for, 222;
    superiority of New England, _ib._

  Cod-liver oil, 222.

  Coins, old, found at Richmond Island, 218, _n._

  Coke, Sir Edward, on proclamations, 26, 35.

  Colchos, 292.

  Commissions, system of, in favor at court of Charles I., 57.

  Conies, 204, 210, 211.

  Common Prayer: Book of, treatment of in Massachusetts, 69;
    trouble occasioned by in Scotland, 82;
    Morton’s use of, cause of his persecution, 92, 260, 283;
    reference to in _New Canaan_, 93, 169;
    an idol, 332, _n._

  Connecticut, Blue Laws of, 252, _n._

  Copper, 220.

  Cormorants, 226.

  _Cos_, 124, 217.

  Cottington, Lord, 60.

  Cotton, John, 98.

  Council for New England: efforts of to settle the Massachusetts, 2;
    grant to Robert Gorges, 3;
    secures proclamation about sale of fire-arms to Indians, 20;
    gives patent to Company of Massachusetts Bay, 31;
    quarrel of with Massachusetts Company, 33;
    unequal to the emergency in 1634, 59;
    plan for dividing territory of, 59;
    divides New England, 70;
    surrender of patent by, 72;
    records of quoted, 130, _n._, 196, _n._;
    issues patent to Walter Bagnall, 219, _n._

  Court: held at Salem, 306;
    at Boston, to try Morton, 311.

  Cradock, Governor Matthew, 298, _n._;
    before Privy Council, 51, 56;
    “an imposterous knave,” 62;
    default of in _quo warranto_ proceedings, 75;
    on Morton, 77;
    Master Charterparty 304, _n._, 316, 317.

  Cranes, 192.

  Cromwell, Oliver, 83.

  Crows, 195.

  Crow-blackbirds, 198.

  Cupid, 278.

  Cypress-trees, 185.

  Cynthius, 345.


  D.

  Dagon, 32, _n._

  Davis, Captain John, 104, 118, _n._

  Deaconess, 323.

  Deacons, 322.

  Deane, Charles: cited, 30, 56;
    accuracy of, 56.

  _Decameron_, 94.

  De Costa, B. F.: quoted, 92-4;
    referred to, 100.

  Deer: skins of, 135, 142-3, 202;
    killed by Indians, 162;
    followed by scent, 166;
    kinds of, 200-2;
    preyed on by wolves, 204, 208;
    and luzerans, 206.

  Deer-traps, 202.

  Deer Island, 155, _n._, 204, _n._

  Delilah, 281.

  Demas, part of, 302, _n._

  Demophoön, 273.

  Dermer, Captain Thomas: redeems captives, 131, _n._;
    quoted concerning pestilence of 1616, 133, _n._

  Devil, the: estimation of among Indians, 139, _n._, 150, _n._,
        165, 167;
    rules the Powows, 178.

  Dexter, Rev. H. M., 244, _n._

  Diogenes, 178;
    tub of, 286.

  Dodge, General, cited, 169, _n._, 174, _n._

  “Doe, the barren,” 94, 264-6, 272-7.

  Dog-fish, 223, _n._

  _Don Quixote_, 94, 272, 286.

  Dorchester, Lord, 53.

  Dorset, Earl of, 60.

  Dover, N. H., Hiltons at, 30.

  Downing, Emanuel: before Privy Council, 51;
    account of, 52;
    instructed to find evidence against Morton, 88;
    on humming-bird, 198, _n._

  Drails, 223.

  Drunkenness, Indian tendency to, 174.

  Ducks: kinds of, 190;
    preyed on by luzeran, 206, _n._

  Dudley, Governor Thomas, 43, 80, 90;
    cited, 4, 46.

  Duxbury, 84.


  E.

  Eacus, 288, 293, 294, 309.

  Eager, Pastor Master. (_See_ Skelton.)

  East Indies, 239.

  Edmunds, Sir Thomas, 60.

  Eels, 224.

  Egypt, 240.

  Elder-tree, the, 186.

  Elders of church, 313, 322.

  Elephants, their supposed religion, 141, _n._

  Elias house, 310.

  Eliot, Dr. John, 326, _n._

  Eliot, John, quoted, 124, 129, _n._

  Elk, 200, _n._

  Ellis, Rev. Dr. G. E., quoted, 145, _n._

  Elm, the, 183.

  _En animia_, 123.

  Endicott, John: arrival of, at Salem, 31;
    visits Mt. Wollaston, 32;
    occupies the Gorges grant, 34;
    his instructions, 38, 40, 45;
    meets “old planters,” 39, 306;
    attempts to reärrest Morton, 43;
    derided by Morton, 45;
    mutilates royal standard, 66;
    issues warrant to arrest Morton, 86;
    governor, 88;
    libelled in _New Canaan_, 88, 304;
    called Littleworth, 220, 298-9, 304, 306, 308, 318;
    Morton’s animosity to, 220, _n._;
    cured of a wife, 298, _n._;
    sends settlers to Charlestown, 300, _n._;
    at Salem, 303-7;
    and the charter case, 305;
    fraud imputed to, 308;
    punishes Ratcliff, 316;
    second marriage of, 330, _n._

  Epictetus, 312, _n._

  Episcopalians: take up Morton’s cause, 92;
    in early Massachusetts, 95, 218, _n._

  Erocoise, lake of, 78, 234-7, 240, 241. (_See_ Champlain.)

  Esculapius, 278.

  Executions. (_See_ Hanging.)

  Exercising in church, by lay members, 262, _n._, 322-30.


  F.

  Faircloath, Innocence (_See_ Ratcliff.)

  Fairfax, Lord, 83.

  Falcons and falconry, 6, 196.

  Falkland, Lord, 83.

  Falstaff, 278, _n._

  Faustus, Dr., 319.

  Fire-arms: supplied to Indians, 20, 95;
    trade in forbidden, 21;
    in hands of Indians in 1628, 25.

  Firing the country. (_See_ Burning.)

  Fish, poisonous in the tropics, 116, _n._;
    kinds of in New England, 221-8.

  Fisheries, vessels engaged in, 221.

  Fitcher: a partner of Wollaston, 4;
    left in charge at Mt. Wollaston and expelled by Morton, 13.

  Finch, Sir John, 35.

  Flora, patroness of May-day, 19, 281.

  Flounders, 226.

  Flowers in New England, 228.

  Footmen, running, 329.

  Force’s _Tracts_, 99.

  Foxes, 206-8.

  Fox-skins, value of, 205, _n._, 207, _n._

  Franchise, the, in Massachusetts, 331, _n._

  Freeles, 227.

  French authority, on Indians’ senses, 166.

  Frenchmen, captured, among Indians, 131, _n._

  “Froth, Nick and,” 328, _n._

  Fuller, Dr. Samuel: dies of pestilence, 133, _n._;
    supposed to be alluded to as Eacus, 288, 291, _n._, 309;
    note on, 297;
    at Salem, 298.

  Furmety, 163, _n._; 296.

  Furs: profit of trade in, 22, 32;
    regulation of trade in, 39;
    Indian use of, 141-4;
    prices of, 205, _n._, 207, _n._, 209. (_See_ Beaver, Deer, Bear.)


  G.

  Galena, found in Woburn, 219, _n._

  Ganymede, 279.

  Gardiner, Sir Christopher: before Privy Council, 50, 86;
    his prefatory verses to _New English Canaan_, 112;
    on descent of Indians, 128;
    intercedes for Ratcliff, 320;
    note on, 338;
    adventures of, 338-42;
    sonnet by, 341.

  Geese: descriptions of, 189-90;
    preyed on by luzeran, 206, _n._

  Gellius, Aulus, quoted, 312, _n._

  Gentry, created and degraded by Winthrop, 313.

  Gerard’s _Herbal_, referred to, 185.

  Ghent, 236.

  Gibbons, Major Edward, 90-1.

  _Gifte_, the, 44, 289.

  Gloucester, Morton at, 86.

  Golgotha, a new-found, 133.

  Goodman, John: adventure of, with a wolf, 208, _n._;
    hears lions roar, 214, _n._

  Gookin, Daniel, quoted, 160, 174.

  Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 2, 3, 36, 47, 95;
    procures issues of proclamation on fire-arms, 21;
    his curiosity as to New England, 32;
    Morton ingratiates himself with, 36;
    in correspondence with Morton, 41, 47;
    intrigues against Massachusetts, 49;
    failure in, 53;
    works through Court influences, 54;
    renews complaints against Massachusetts, 56;
    shapes Laud’s policy to New England, 58;
    his plan, 58;
    to be governor-general, 59;
    his influence with Lords Commissioners, 60;
    represents “thorough” in New England, 60, 74;
    thought to be on the New England coast in 1635, 66;
    his plans in 1635, 67;
    circumvents Winslow, 68;
    grantee of Maine from Council for New England, 71;
    appointed by King, governor-general, 71;
    failure of, caused by want of money, 72;
    age of, 75, _n._;
    death of Mason fatal to plans of, 76;
    publication of _New Canaan_ not agreeable to, 80;
    pretends to be friendly to Massachusetts, 80;
    “casheers” Morton, 80;
    grants charter to Acomenticus, 81;
    career of, 119, _n._;
    eulogized, 189;
    Sir C. Gardiner, an agent of, 338, _n._

  Gorges, John: succeeds to R. Gorges’s grant, 33;
    deeds land to Brereton and Oldham, 34, 40.

  Gorges, Lord, 71.

  Gorges, Captain Robert, 2, 33, 143, 162;
    arrives in Boston Bay, 3;
    extent of his grant, 3;
    returns to England, 4;
    validity of grant to, denied, 34;
    arrests Weston, 257, _n._

  Goshawks, 197.

  Gover, Anna, 298.

  Grant, John, 62.

  Grapes in New England, 186.

  Gray, Professor Asa, 182, 188.

  Greek, supposed resemblance of Indian words to, 123, 126.

  Greene, Charles, 99-101.

  Greene, Richard, in charge of Wessagusset settlement, 7.

  Greenland, excessive cold of, 118.

  Grouse in New England, 194, _n._


  H.

  “Habbe or nabbe,” 335.

  Hacche, Roger atte, 300, _n._

  Hake, 226.

  Hale, Robert, 319, _n._

  Halibut, 225.

  _Hame_, 124.

  Hamilton, Marquis of, 70.

  Hampden, John, 83.

  _Handmaid_, the, Morton’s voyage in, 45, 342-5.

  Hanging: the Weymouth, 217, 249-52;
    early in Massachusetts, 217, _n._;
    in Virginia, 342.

  Hannibal, 263.

  Hares, 204.

  Harris, Rev. Thaddeus Mason, 101, _n._

  Harvard University: Library bulletin referred to, 99-100;
    students at, whipped, 319, _n._

  Hawks and falcons in New England, 195-7.

  “Hawk and buzzard,” 336.

  Hawthorn-trees, 186.

  Heath-hen, 194, _n._

  Hebrew tribes, 310;
    origin of Indians traced to, 129, _n._

  Hedgehogs, 211.

  Hemlock-trees, 185, _n._

  Hemp in New England, 187, 202, 231.

  Herbs of New England, 188, 228.

  Herons, 192.

  Herring, 224.

  Hickory, 183, _n._

  Higginson, Rev. F., quoted, 213, _n._, 221, _n._, 232, _n._, 300, _n._

  Higginson, T. W., quoted, 312, _n._

  Hiltons, the: at Piscataqua, 23;
    contribute to Morton’s arrest, 30.

  “Hippeus pine-tree horse,” 284.

  Holbein, Hans, 253, _n._

  Holland, 70, 288.

  Hollis, Sir William, 253, _n._

  Horace, quoted, 119.

  Horeb, the calf of, 278.

  Horse-mackerel, 223, _n._

  Howes, Edward, 317, _n._

  Howes, Edward, Jr., 334, _n._

  _Hudibras_, 96, 251, _n._, 339, _n._

  Hudson, Hendrick, voyages and fate of, 118, _n._

  Hudson, the, 236, _n._, 238.

  Hull, so called in 1628, 24, 337, _n._

  Hume, David, on royal proclamations, 26.

  Humfrey, John: before Privy Council, 51;
    “an imposterous knave,” 62, 64;
    goes to New England, 64;
    Gorges refers to patience of, 80.

  Humming-bird, 102, _n._, 198.

  Hunt, Captain Thomas, 244, _n._

  Hutchinson, Mrs. Ann, 81, 323, _n._

  Hyde, Sir Nicholas, 35.

  Hydra, 286, 287, 292, 293.


  I.

  Indians: Morton’s popularity with, 10;
    number in Massachusetts, 11;
    modesty of women, 16;
    desire for guns and spirits, 20;
    fire-arms among, 20, 25;
    pestilence of 1616 among, 120, 133, _n._;
    origin of, 123-9;
    language of, 123;
    descendants of Hebrew tribes, 129, _n._;
    Frenchmen captives among, 131;
    their wigwams, 134-8;
    their eating, 137, _n._;
    their hospitality, 137, _n._;
    their games and removals, 138;
    their religion, 139-41, 167;
    their dress, 141-5;
    their trade, 141, 157-9;
    their modesty, 142;
    their children born white, 147, _n._;
    their bodies well shaped, 147;
    color of their eyes, 148, 165;
    their respect to age, 148-50;
    their conjuring tricks, 150-3;
    their duels, 153-4;
    their money, 157-9;
    their manufactures, 159;
    their storehouses, 160;
    their baskets, 160;
    did not use salt, 161;
    their cunning, 161-5;
    acuteness of their senses, 165-6;
    distinguish French from Spanish by smell, 166;
    crimes among, 169;
    their funerals, 169-71;
    thievery among, 169;
    their custom of firing the country, 172;
    distant commerce of, 172, 220, _n._, 237;
    contented life of, 175;
    superiority to English beggars, 175-6;
    utensils and method of drinking, 177;
    deer-traps of, 202;
    method of hunting bears, 209-10;
    lobster-feasts of, 226;
    belied by Plymouth people, 256;
    compound theft at Wessagusset, 269;
    accompany Bubble to Nipnet, 270;
    return his property, 272;
    witness Morton’s punishment, 312;
    reprove punishment of Morton, 312. (_See_ Massachusetts.)

  Indian women: absence of chastity among, 16, 17, 145;
    Morton’s relations with, 94;
    their dress, 144;
    their modesty, 145;
    their child-bearing, 145-8;
    their care of their infants, 147.

  Ireland, no venomous beasts in, 48.

  Irocoise, the great lake. (_See_ Champlain.)

  Iron-stones, 219.

  Iroquois, 234.

  Isles of Shoals, Morton at, 29, 296, 302.

  Israelites, 310;
    origin of Indians traced to, 129, _n._, 160, _n._


  J.

  Jackals, 207, _n._, 214, _n._

  James I., 16, 35;
    sends snake-stones to Virginia, 214, _n._

  Jason, 292;
    Golden Fleece of, 295.

  Jeffreys, William: at Wessagusset, 24, 31, 162, _n._;
    corresponds with Gorges, 60, _n._;
    letters of Morton to, 61, 86;
    carries letters to Winthrop, 65;
    letters from quoted, 102.

  Jews, origin of Indians traced to, 129, _n._

  Job, 281.

  Johnson, Edward, 250.

  Jonah, 103, 302, 327, 342-5.

  Jonson, Ben, 98;
    may have met Morton, 96;
    note on “poem,” 290, 312, _n._;
    quoted, 335, _n._

  Jordan, 310.

  Josselyn, Captain John, quoted, 16, _n._, 133, _n._, 136, _n._,
        137, _n._, 147, _n._, 158, _n._, 160, _n._, 171, _n._,
        182, _n._, 185, _n._, 189, _n._, 191, _n._, 198, _n._,
        201, _n._, 205, _n._, 206, _n._, 210, _n._, 212, _n._,
        214, _n._, 217, _n._, 221, _n._, 232, _n._, 235, _n._


  Josselyn, Henry, 237;
    date of expedition of, to New Hampshire, 79, 238.

  “Jove, let, vouchsafe to thunder,” 62, 103, 113, 345.

  Jupiter, 279.


  K.

  _Kantántowwit_, 168, _n._

  Kennebec: Morton follows Plymouth people to the, 23, 295;
    Plymouth grant on the, 36.

  Kennet, White, 99.

  Kytan, an Indian god, 139, _n._, 167, _n._, 168, 169.

  Killock, 262.

  King’s Bench, warrant did not run in Massachusetts, 47.

  Kirk, David, Louis and Thomas, conquest of Canada by, 235, _n._

  _Kodtup Kēn_, 137, _n._

  _Koüs_, 124, _n._


  L.

  Laconia, 235, 238, _n._

  Lannerets, 196, 198.

  Larks, 195.

  Latin, supposed similarity with Indian tongue, 123-6.

  Laud, Archbishop William: becomes Primate, 55;
    influence of, 57;
    head of Lords Commissioners, 58, 60, 93, 322;
    played upon by Gorges, 64;
    and Morton, 68, 93, 322-34;
    New England not to be suffered to languish, 71;
    supreme in England in 1635, 74;
    his fortunes turn, 78;
    corresponds with Burdet, 83;
    orders Common Prayer to be used, 333, _n._

  Lazarus, 344.

  Lead ore, 219.

  Leadstones, 219.

  Learning, vilified in New England, 282.

  Leather, made by Indians, 142, 201.

  Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_ quoted, 147, 322-34.

  Lenox, Duke of, 70.

  Lerna, lake, 292.

  Lewis, Alonzo, quoted, 129.

  Libertines, New England will not brook, 48.

  Lime, 215.

  Limestone in Weymouth, 216, _n._

  Lions in New England, 214.

  Littleworth. (_See_ Endicott.)

  Lobsters, 209, 226, 265.

  Lords Commissioners of Plantations: appointment of board of, 58, 100;
    who composed, 60;
    powers of, 60;
    news of appointment of, in Massachusetts, 65;
    last meeting of, 81;
    Morton’s dependence on, 93;
    dedication of _New Canaan_ to, 109, 322.

  Louis XI., 326.

  Lowndes’s _Manual_, 100.

  Lucan, 141.

  Luscus, 263.

  Luzerans: description of, 206;
    value of furs of, 205, _n._

  Lyford, Rev. John:
    at Hull, 24, 264;
    moves to Cape Ann, 24;
    at Plymouth, 262-4, 332, _n._

  Lyman, Theodore, notes on fish, 221-8.


  M.

  Machiavelli, 339.

  _Macháug_, 237, _n._

  Mackerel, 223.

  Mackerel-shark, 223, _n._

  Maine: trading-stations in, 23, 218, 221;
    royalists in, 85.

  Maja, 281.

  Manchester, Earl of, 60.

  _Manittóoes_, 207, _n._

  Maple, 186.

  Marble in New England, 215.

  Marblehead, quality of stone at, 215, _n._

  Ma-re-Mount, 14. (_See_ Merry Mount.)

  Marlins, 198.

  Marriage in Massachusetts, a civil contract, 69, 330.

  Mars, 292.

  Martens: value of furs of, 205, _n._;
    described, 206.

  _Mary & John_, arrival of at Hull, 42.

  _Maske_, the North Star, 125.

  Mason, Captain John: hostile to Massachusetts, 49;
    grantee of New Hampshire from Council of New England, 71;
    builds ships to take governor-general to New England, 73;
    financial needs of, 74;
    death of, and note on, 76, 238.

  Massachusetts: latent spirit of rebellion in, in 1632, 51, 66;
    emigration to, in 1634, 55;
    panic in, in 1635, 66, 71;
    preparations against, in 1635, 67;
    church practices in, 69, 322-34;
    complaints against, in 1638, 81;
    appeals to king a misdemeanor in, 87;
    location and advantages of, 112;
    elk seen in, 200, _n._;
    population of, in 1632-7, 230;
    baptism limited to franchise in, 331, _n._;
    description of community in, 334, _n._;
    justice in, 334-6.

  Massachusetts Charter: attack on in Privy Council, in 1632, 49;
    obtained by influence, 52;
    sent for by Privy Council, 56;
    second attack on, 58, 61;
    not returned to England, 64;
    plan for vacating, 67;
    _quo warranto_ proceedings to set aside, 75;
    demand for return of, in 1638, 82.

  Massachusetts Company: grant to, 31;
    difficulty of, with Council of New England, 33;
    procures charter, 34;
    “old planters,” jealousy of, 38;
    instructions of, to Endicott, 38, 40, 45;
    policy of, to, 39;
    regulates trade in furs, 39;
    complaints against, 50;
    treasurer of, 305;
    patent-case of, 305.

  Massachusetts Indians: number of, 11;
    Weston’s men killed by, 252, _n._;
    humanity of, 256.

  Massasoit: a night in his lodge, 136, _n._;
    detains Samoset, 244, _n._

  Mather, Cotton, quoted, 129, _n._, 132, _n._, 150, _n._, 152, _n._,
        160, _n._, 175, _n._, 331, _n._

  _Matta_, 237.

  _Mattapan_, 12, 124.

  Maverick, Rev. John, 325, _n._

  Maverick, Samuel: says that Morton had a patent, 8;
    moves from Wessagusset to Noddle’s Island, 24;
    in connection with Morton’s arrest, 30;
    his assessment for charge of Morton’s arrest, 30;
    cited, 46;
    refers to Morton’s arraignment at Boston, 88;
    an Episcopalian, 94.

  May, Thomas, quoted, 141, _n._

  Mayberry, S. P., on Walter Bagnall, 218, _n._

  May-day festivities: immorality of, 18;
    at Mount Wollaston, 18, 276-82.

  May-pole, the: of Merry-Mount, 17, 270, 295;
    custom of erecting, 17;
    cut down by Endicott, 32.

  Medusa, 292.

  _Meechin_, 137.

  Melpomene, 275.

  Menhaden, 225, _n._, 226, _n._

  Mephistopheles, 319.

  Mermaid, the, 97.

  Merriam, Mr., identifies simpes as woodcock, 191, _n._

  Merry-Mount: fountain at, 276;
    Mayday at, 276-84;
    to be made a woeful mount, 278;
    monster at, 282. (_See_ Mt. Wollaston.)

  _Metawna_, 194, _n._

  Mice, 214.

  Milo, 270.

  Milton, John, quoted, 129.

  Minerals of New England, 215-21.

  Ministers: ordination of, at Plymouth, 262;
    at Salem, 300, _n._, 306;
    use of notes by, 322, _n._;
    ordination of, in New England, 324;
    superior to magistrates in New England, _ib._;
    first in New England, 325, _n._;
    absent-mindedness of a, _ib._;
    did not marry in New England, 330.

  Ministers’ sons, whipped, 319, _n._

  Minos, 275, 293, 294, 309.

  Mint and Cummin, tithes of, 102, 111, 280, 333.

  _Mittànnug_, 193, _n._

  _Mona_, 124.

  Monatoquit, 9, 28, 285;
    limestone near to, 216.

  Money, Indian. (_See_ Wampum.)

  Monsall, Ralph, 319, _n._

  _Monthly Anthology_, 101, 320.

  Moose, description and uses of, 142, 200.

  Morell, Rev. William, quoted, 143, _n._

  Morton, Nathaniel, cited, 5.

  Morton, Thomas: comes to Massachusetts with Wollaston, 1;
    suspected of murder, 2, 15, 46;
    his previous life, 4-5;
    his acquaintance with classics, 4, 345, _n._;
    his first coming to New England, 6;
    his silence about Wollaston, 13;
    inaccuracy of, 14, 63, 96, 123, _n._, 335, _n._;
    his fondness for field sports, 15;
    his treatment of Indians, 16, 256;
    relations of, with Indian women, 16;
    his verses, 19;
    supplies Indians with guns, 20;
    silence of, on subject, 21;
    trades in Maine, 23;
    visits Wessagusset, 24;
    number of his neighbors, 25;
    remonstrated with for sale of fire-arms, 25;
    on proclamations, 26;
    arrest of, by Standish, 27, 282-6;
    escape of, 28, 283;
    taken to Plymouth, 29, 296;
    sent to England, 29, 289;
    cost of arrest of, 30, 302;
    reaches England, 31;
    not proceeded against, 35, 303;
    could have been proceeded against in Star Chamber, 35;
    ingratiates himself with Gorges, 36;
    and Allerton, 36, 325;
    good results of, 37;
    returns to Plymouth, 37, 304;
    to Mount Wollaston, 38;
    refuses to sign agreement, 39, 307;
    disregards trade regulations, 40, 308;
    an agent of Gorges, 41;
    profits of, 41, 308;
    attempt to re-arrest, 41, 308;
    re-arrest of, 43;
    trial and sentence of, 44;
    sent back to England, 45;
    charges against him, 46;
    punishment of, 46-8, 311, 312;
    a warrant for his arrest from King’s Bench, 47, 311;
    a “libertine,” 48;
    driven away from Massachusetts, 49, 336-7;
    in Exeter jail, 49;
    allies himself to enemies of Massachusetts Charter, 50;
    makes complaint before Privy Council, 50;
    gives reason of failure of complaint, 54;
    forwards more complaints, 56;
    elation of, in 1634, 60;
    his letters to William Jeffreys, 61;
    crying as Jonas, 61, 103, 344;
    plays on Laud’s foibles, 64, 93, 322-34, _n._, _n._;
    has Winslow put in Fleet prison, 69;
    Solicitor of Council for New England, 72;
    promptness of, in legal proceedings, 75;
    on Captain John Mason, 76;
    Cradock on, 77;
    in pay of Cleaves, 77;
    in disgrace with Gorges, 80;
    witnesses Acomenticus charter, 81;
    starved out of England, 83;
    at Plymouth in 1643, 84;
    pretends to be a Commonwealth’s man, 85;
    goes to Maine, 85;
    to Rhode Island, 85;
    to Boston, 86;
    arraigned, 86;
    extraordinary proceedings against, 87;
    petition of, 88-90;
    imprisonment, release and death of, 91;
    a man out of place, 92;
    Episcopalian defenders of, 92;
    “his faults,” 93;
    oppressively dealt with in Massachusetts, 94;
    small literary merit of, 95;
    may have met Butler and Jonson, 96;
    sense of humor of, 97;
    style of, 103;
    at Richmond Island, 218;
    uses Common Prayer, 260, 311;
    at Cape Ann, 261;
    at Nut Island, 268;
    date of arrest, 295;
    references of, to Winthrop, 310, _n._, 321;
    gets game for settlers, 321;
    at Salem, 325, _n._;
    at Canary Islands, 342;
    his voyage to England, 342-5.

  Mount Dagon, 32, 278.

  Mount Wollaston: why so called, 1;
    character and number of settlers at, 8, 286, 294;
    description and sketch of, 9-10;
    view from, 12;
    location of, 15;
    morals at, 17;
    May-day festivities at, 18;
    a refuge of runaways, 22, 23;
    within grant to Massachusetts Company, 31;
    destruction of house at, 45;
    Common Prayer at, 94, 283;
    fountain at, 229;
    monster at, 282.

  Muskrats, 204;
    value of skins of, 205, _n._;
    description of, 210.

  Muscles, 227.

  _Munnoh_, 124, _n._


  N.

  _Nan weeteo_, 148, _n._

  Nantasket, 24, 25, 30, 325, _n._, 337, _n._

  Nanepashemet, 155.

  Naumkeag, 25, 30.

  Nebuchadnezzar, 116.

  _Necut_, 193, _n._

  _Neent_, 194, _n._

  Neptune, 277.

  Netherlands, 293.

  _New Canaan_: political significance of, 68;
    as a political pamphlet, 68, 322, _n._;
    reference to Lake Irocoise in, 78;
    where written, 78, 233, _n._;
    referred to by Bradford, 79;
    latest revision of, 79;
    no copies of, get to New England, 79, 88;
    publication of, not agreeable to Gorges, 80;
    referred to by Winthrop, 86;
    references to Book of Common Prayer in, 93;
    ribaldry of, 94;
    criticism of, 95-6;
    referred to in _Hudibras_, 96;
    humor in, 97;
    a connecting link, 98;
    bibliography of, 99-101;
    titlepages of, 100;
    printing of, 102;
    cause of errors in, 103;
    rules for present edition of, 104.

  New England: emigration to, in 1634, 55;
    royal policy towards, 57;
    church practices in, 69;
    division of, in 1635, 70;
    commission for governing, in 1637, 77;
    location and temperature of, 120-1;
    winds not violent in, 122, 232;
    plenty of, 175;
    air of, 177;
    beauty of, 180;
    motives of settlers in, 181;
    no boggy ground in, 228;
    perfumed air of, 228, 231-2;
    superiority of, to Virginia, 228, 229, 233, 265;
    natural waters of, 229;
    population of, 230;
    fertility of, 231;
    people of, never have colds, 232;
    rainfall of, 233;
    coast and harbors of, _ib._;
    fecundity of women in, 265;
    universities vilified in, 282. (_See_ Council for New England.)

  _New English Canaan._ (_See_ _New Canaan_.)

  New Hampshire, population of, in 1634, 230, _n._

  Newburyport: galena found in, 219, _n._;
    silver ore, 220, _n._

  Newcomein, John, 216-7.

  Niagara Falls, 236.

  “Nick and Froth,” 328, _n._

  Nilus, 240.

  Niobe, 277, 281.

  Nipnets, 240, 270.

  _Nneesnneánna_, 193, _n._

  Noddy, Doctor, 309.

  _Nokehick_, 175, _n._

  North Star, the Indian name of, 125, _n._

  Northwest passage, interest in the, in 1632, 118, _n._, 239.

  “Noses out of joint,” 94, 281.

  Notes used in preaching, 322.

  Nourse, H. S., on Elk in South Lancaster, Mass., 200, _n._

  Nowell, Increase, 305, _n._

  Nut Island, 268.

  Nuttall’s _Ornithology_, cited, 194, _n._


  O.

  Oaks in New England, 182.

  Oates, Jack, 253, _n._

  Œdipus, 277, 280.

  Oil, cod-liver, 222.

  “Old Planters,” jealousy of Massachusetts Company, 38.

  Oldham, John, 40;
    at Hull, 24;
    takes Morton to England, 29-32;
    his promises of gain in New England, 32;
    his scheme for trading, 33;
    does not press matters against Morton, 33, 36;
    receives grant from John Gorges, 34;
    tries to organize expedition, 34;
    “a jack in his mood,” 40;
    his treatment at Plymouth, 262-4.

  Oliver le Daim, 326.

  _Om_, 124, _n._

  Ordination. (_See_ Ministers.)

  Otters, value of furs of, 205, _n._, 206.

  Ounce, the, 206, _n._

  Ovid, quoted, 217, 273.

  Owls, 195.

  Oysters, 227.


  P.

  Palfrey, J. G., quoted, 140, _n._, 148, _n._

  “Pan the Shepherds’ God,” 124.

  Papasiquineo. (_See_ Pasconaway.)

  Parkman, Francis, quoted, 16, 17, 136, _n._, 140, _n._, 145, _n._,
        158, _n._, 166, _n._, 168, _n._, 234, _n._

  Partridges, 194.

  Pasconaway, the sachem, 150, _n._;
    his tricks and incantations, 151;
    his daughter’s marriage, 154-5.

  _Pascopan_, 124.

  _Paskanontam_, 124, _n._

  Passonagessit: description of, 9;
    signification of name, 14, 276;
    grave at, desecrated, 247;
    Master Bubble at, 267;
    revels at, 276-82;
    mine host, sachem of, 289. (_See_ Mt. Wollaston.)

  Pastors. (_See_ Ministers.)

  Patent of Massachusetts: granted, 31;
    brought over by Endicott, 305;
    its case, _ib._, _n._

  Paul’s Walk, 298, _n._

  Pawtucket, 124.

  Peabody, W. B. O., referred to, 189, 192.

  Peddock, Leonard, 130, _n._

  Peddock’s Island, 130, _n._

  Pemaquid, 244.

  Penelope, 281.

  _Pennacook, the Bridal of_, 155, _n._

  Pestilence among Indians in 1616-7, 11, 120, 130-4;
    nature of, 133, _n._;
    Squanto’s fraud about, 245.

  Phaethon, 293.

  Phaos box, 280, 297;
    explained, 345, _n._

  _Pharsalia_, May’s continuation of, quoted, 141, _n._

  Pheasants, 194.

  Phillips, Rev. George, 326.

  Phillips Creek, Weymouth, site of Wessagusset settlement, 3.

  Phlegethon, 314.

  Phœbus, 293.

  Phyllis 273.

  Pike, 227.

  Pilchers, 226.

  Pillory and whetstone, 300, _n._

  Pine-trees, 184.

  Pipe-staves as merchandise, 182.

  Piscataqua, 30;
    Hiltons and Thomson at, 22, 25, 255, _n._

  Plague. (_See_ Pestilence.)

  Plaice, 226.

  Plantations, Foreign, board of Lords Commissioners of. (_See_ Lords
        Commissioners.)

  Plato, Indians practise Commonwealth of, 177.

  “Plough patent” in Maine, 85.

  Plymouth, 30;
    settlers at, in 1628, 25;
    Morton carried to, 29;
    Indians about destroyed by pestilence, 133, _n._;
    Billington hanged at, 217, _n._;
    population of, in 1634, 230, _n._;
    Samoset’s appearance at, 244;
    treatment of Weston at, 245-6, 255-7;
    people of, at Passonagessit 247, _n._;
    Morton visits, 259;
    cattle at, 260;
    Lyford and Oldham at, 262-4;
    reordination of ministers at, 262;
    no vessel arrives at, in June 1628, 289, _n._;
    Christmas at, 294, _n._;
    Morton arrives again at, 304;
    ministers at, 325, _n._;
    Book of Common Prayer at, 332, _n._

  Pocahontas, “a well-featured but wanton young girl,” 145, _n._

  Porcupines, 211.

  Portland, Earl of, 60.

  Portland Harbor, 221, _n._

  Potomac, the, 236, 239.

  Powahs, Indian, 139, _n._, 150, _n._, 152, _n._

  Pratt, Phineas, cited, 131, _n._, 132, _n._

  Praying, manner of, 334.

  Priapus, 94, 205, 281.

  Privy Council: petition to, against Massachusetts Company, 51;
    order of, stopping emigration to New England, 56, 333, _n._

  Proclamations, royal: about fire-arms, 20;
    not law, 26;
    violation of, punishable in Star Chamber, 35.

  Procrustes, 335.

  Proteus, 94, 281.

  Purchase, Mr., cures himself of sciatica, 207, _n._

  Purification of women, 331.

  Putnam, F. W., 131, _n._, 227, _n._

  Pygmalion, 315.

  Pythagoras, 329, _n._


  Q.

  Quacksalver, punishment of, 299.

  Quail, in New England, 194.

  Quebec, capture of, by Kirk, 235, _n._

  Quincy: seal of town of, 10;
    slate in, 216, _n._

  _Quo warranto_ proceedings to set aside Massachusetts Charter, 74,
        77, 82, 86.


  R.

  Rabbits, 204, 211.

  Rabelais, 94.

  Raccoon, 207.

  Rasdall: a partner of Wollaston, 1;
    follows him to Virginia, 13;
    disappears, 15.

  Ratcliff, Philip: before Privy Council, 50;
    thought a lunatic, 56;
    promised cropping of Winthrop’s ears, 62, 64;
    called Faircloath, 316, 340;
    punishment of, 316-8.

  Rattlesnakes, 213;
    antidotes to poison of, 213, 214, _n._

  Rats, 214.

  Razor-shell, 227.

  Readings, conjectural, 105.

  Red-lead, 219.

  Reordination. (_See_ Ministers.)

  Reproductions, slavishness of, 104.

  Reynolds, Dr. John, 331, _n._

  Rhadamanthus, 293, 294, 309.

  Rhode Island, Morton in, 86.

  Richmond Island: Walter Bagnall at, 200, _n._, 218, _n._;
    coins found on, _ib._;
    whetstones at, 217;
    vessels at, 221.

  Rigby, Alexander, 84.

  Ring, use of, in marriage, 331.

  Rogers, Mr., preacher at Plymouth, 325, _n._

  Running footmen, 329, _n._

  Rupert, Prince, 83.


  S.

  Sables, value of, 205, _n._

  Sal, Isle of, 116, _n._, 117, _n._, 343, _n._

  Salem: suffering at, in 1629-30, 42;
    a doctor made at, 298;
    Dr. Fuller at, 299;
    Endicott holds a court at, 306;
    ordination of ministers at, 306;
    Morton at, 306, 325, _n._;
    church of, abused by Ratcliff, 317, _n._;
    church of, vilified, 317-8;
    use of Common Prayer at, 332, _n._

  Salmon, 224.

  Salt: abundance of, in tropics, 117;
    use of, unknown among Indians, 161, 175, _n._;
    given to them by Morton, 161.

  Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 43;
    before Privy Council, 51, 61.

  Samoset, 244, _n._

  Samson, 281.

  Sanaconquam, an Indian god, 167.

  Sanderling, 191.

  Sandpiper, 191.

  Sargent, Professor C. S., 182, _n._

  Savage, James, cited, 30, _n._

  Scallops, 227.

  Scent, acuteness of Indian, 166.

  Sciatica, cured by raccoon grease, 207.

  Scogan, John, 278;
    choice of, 281.

  Scotland: policy of Charles I. breaks down in, 78;
    troubles of 1638 in, 82.

  Scylla, 278, 280.

  Sea-sickness, 298.

  Sequestration, in _New Canaan_, 308.

  Serat, 204.

  _Sesick_, 213.

  Shackles: possibly Aspinwall, 319;
    whips Faircloath, 320;
    fed by Morton, 321;
    burns Morton’s house, 337.

  Shad, 225.

  Shakespeare, William, 98.

  Shawmut, 12.

  Shaler, Professor N. S., notes by, 215-20.

  Shell-heaps: at Cotuit, 131, _n._;
    origin of, 226, _n._

  Ships, number of engaged in fisheries, 221.

  Shoals, Isles of, 29, 289, 296, 302.

  Shrimpe, Captaine. (_See_ Standish.)

  Silver in New England, 220, _n._

  Simpes, 191.

  Skelton, Rev. Samuel, 39, 300, _n._, 325, _n._;
    called Eager, 306.

  Slafter, Rev. E. F., quoted, 234, _n._

  Slate: in Quincy and Weymouth, 216, _n._;
    at Richmond Island, 217, _n._

  Smart, Captain, brings over falcons to the king, 196, _n._

  Smelts, 225.

  Smith, John, 95;
    quoted, 1, _n._, 136, _n._, 144, _n._, 147, _n._, 150, _n._

  Smith, Ralfe, 325, _n._

  Snakes, 212.

  Snipes, 191.

  Socrates, quoted, 327.

  Solomon: sayings of, quoted, 119, 127, 228;
    referred to, 184.

  Sommers, Will, 253.

  South Lancaster, Mass., elks in, 200, _n._

  South Sea, 239.

  “Sparke,” 160.

  Sparrow-hawks, 198.

  Spruce-trees, 185.

  Squanto, 271, _n._;
    made use of by Chickatawbut, 164;
    kidnapped, 244, _n._

  Squanto’s Chappel: chalkstones at, 216;
    fountain at, 229.

  Squantum, 12, 216, 229;
    slate at, 216, _n._

  Squidraket, Sagamore, 218, _n._

  Squirrels, 212.

  St. Michaels, 343.

  St. Paul’s Church, 298.

  Stam, Jacob Frederick, 100.

  Standish, Miles: kills Indians at Wessagusset, 11;
    sent to arrest Morton, 27;
    threatens to shoot him, 29, 296;
    takes offence at Morton, in 1643, 84;
    at Wessagusset, 247, _n._;
    Captain Shrimpe, 285-7, 291, _n._, 296;
    a quondam drummer, 286;
    called Minos, 291, _n._

  Star Chamber, court of, 35.

  Stenography, 266.

  Sterling, Earl of, 70.

  Stones, chapter on, 215-20.

  Strachey, Edward, quoted, 145, _n._, 147, _n._, 208, _n._,
        210, _n._, 215, _n._

  Strafford, Earl of, 60, 74.

  Stubbs, his _Anatomy of Abuses_ cited, 18.

  Students of Harvard College, whipped, 319, _n._

  Sturgeon, 223.

  Styx, 293, 314.

  _Swan_, the, Weston’s vessel, 257, _n._

  Swans, 189.

  Swift, Lindsay, quoted, 328, _n._, 335, _n._, 345, _n._


  T.

  Tantoquineo, 152.

  Tartars, supposed descent of Indians from, 125.

  Tassell gentles, 196-7.

  Teal, kinds of, in New England, 190.

  Temperwell, Joshua. (_See_ Winthrop, John.)

  Thomson, David: at Piscataqua, 24;
    moves to Boston Bay, 24;
    on origin of Indians, 128;
    authorities concerning, 128.

  “Thorough,” Gorges policy, the New England branch of, 60, 74.

  Tin, in New England, 220.

  _Titta_, 148.

  Tithes, 333.

  Tornadoes, 217.

  Trade with Indians, liquor the life of, 20, 174. (_See_ Fire-arms.)

  Trade: profits of in New England, 32;
    regulations of Massachusetts Company, 39;
    disregarded by Morton, 40, 306, 308.

  Trade-winds, effect of, 118.

  Traps, to take deer, 202.

  Trees: effect of burning underbrush on, 172;
    where to look for large, 172;
    of New England, 182-7.

  Triton, 281.

  Trojans, supposed descent of Indians from the, 126-7, 129.

  Trout, 227.

  Trumbull, J. Hammond: on name of Passonagessit, 14;
    notes by, on Indian words, 123, 124, 137, 148, 160, 167, 229;
    his notes to _Plaine Dealing_ referred to, 322-34.

  Turbot, 225.

  Turkeys: garments made of feathers of, 142, 144, _n._;
    hunted by Indians, 162;
    wild, in New England, 192.

  Turtledoves, 180.

  Tuttle, C. W., 238, _n._


  U.

  Universities, vilified in New England, 281-2.

  Uttaquatock, 216.


  V.

  Venice, 281.

  Venus, 265, 315, 345.

  Vermilion, 219.

  Virgil, quoted, 217, 260, 345.

  Virginia: prices of furs in, in 1650, 205, _n._;
    wolves in, 208, _n._;
    corn not planted in, 225;
    inferiority of, to New England, 228, 229, _n._, 233, 265;
    the “barren doe” of, 264, 276;
    population of, 265;
    execution in, 342.


  W.

  Walnut, the, 183.

  Wampum, 157-9, 301.

  Wampumpeack. (_See_ Wampum.)

  Warham, Rev. John, 322, _n._, 325, _n._

  Warwick, Earl of, had no influence at Court, 52.

  Washburne, John, 305, _n._

  Walford, Thomas: moves from Wessagusset to Mishawum, 24;
    an Episcopalian, 94.

  Wessagusset: plantations at, 2, 246;
    Robert Gorges at, 3;
    dispersion of his settlement, 4;
    Indians killed at, by Standish, 11, 247, _n._;
    locality of, 12;
    separation of settlers at, in 1628, 24;
    Morton arrested at, 27, 282, 290, _n._;
    Episcopalians, 95;
    those dwelling at, 162, _n._;
    muscle-bank at, 227;
    skirmish at, 247;
    the hanging at, 249-51;
    settlers killed at, 253-4;
    Lyford at, 264;
    Morton at, in winter, 268;
    Indians compound theft at, 269;
    bring Bubble’s things to, 271. (_See_ Weymouth.)

  Weston, Andrew: comes to New England in _Charity_, 7;
    takes an Indian boy back to England, 130, _n._;
    date of his voyage, 130, _n._

  Weston, Thomas: establishes a plantation at Wessagusset, 2;
    account of, 245-6;
    his men killed by Indians, 252;
    comes to New England, 255-7;
    treatment of, 257-9, 261.

  Wethercock, Mr., 337, 342-3.

  Weymouth, 2;
    slate and limestone in, 216, _n._ (_See_ Wessagusset.)

  Whetstones, 124, 216;
    at Richmond Island, 217;
    punishment of pillory and, 299, _n._ (_See_ _Cos_.)

  Whipping-post, 274, 319, _n._

  White, William and Susannah, 330, _n._

  Whitney, Professor J. D., on Isle of Sal and poisonous fish, 116.

  Whitney, George, quoted, 101.

  Whittier, J. G., 155, _n._

  Widgeon, 191.

  Widow, the, 323. (_See_ Deaconess.)

  Wiggin, Thomas: cited in regard to Morton, 5;
    before Privy Council, 52;
    quoted, 320, _n._

  Wigwams, described, 134-8.

  Wildrake, 92.

  Williams, Edward, quoted, 182, _n._

  Williams, Roger, quoted, 16, 17, 124, _n._, 125, _n._, 136, _n._,
        137, _n._, 146, _n._, 149, _n._, 158, _n._, 159, _n._,
        168, _n._, 171, _n._, 194, _n._, 202, _n._, 207, _n._,
        221, _n._, 232, _n._

  Willis, William, 218, _n._

  Wilson, Rev. John, 325, _n._

  Winnisimmet, 25, 30, _n._, 300, _n._, 301;
    origin of name of, 229, _n._;
    fountain at, 229, 265.

  Winnepurkitt, the marriage of, 155.

  Winslow, Governor Edward, 95;
    quoted, 16, 125, _n._, 140, _n._, 145, _n._, 149, _n._;
    sent to England in 1634, 64;
    sails, 65;
    reaches London, 67;
    petitions Lords Commissioners, 68;
    put in Fleet prison, 69, 322, _n._;
    describes Morton at Plymouth in 1648, 84;
    goes on mission to Massasoit, 136, _n._;
    marriage of, 330, _n._

  Winsor, Justin, 99.

  Winthrop, Governor John, 43, 81, 95;
    arrival of, in New England, 42, 310;
    imposes sentence on Morton, 44, 311;
    has warrant for Morton’s arrest, 47, 311;
    criticism of, on complaint to Privy Council, 50;
    rejoices over failure of complaint, 53;
    “King Winthrop,” 63;
    receives letter of Morton to Jeffreys, 65;
    Gorges refers to patience of, 80;
    excuses not sending out charter in 1638, 83;
    on arrest of Morton in 1644, 86;
    quoted, 91, 150, _n._, 218, _n._, 230, _n._;
    absence of humor in, 98;
    course towards Bagnall, 218, _n._;
    called Joshua, 301;
    referred to as Temperwell, 302, 310, 314, 318, 320, 335, 340;
    degrades gentry, 313;
    has Ratcliff whipped, 320;
    responsible for wants of settlement, 321;
    upon civil marriages, 330, _n._;
    on Book of Common Prayer, 332, _n._;
    methods of, as judge, 334-6;
    course towards Sir C. Gardiner, 340.

  “Without, them that are,” 316, 321, 332.

  Woburn: galena found in, 219;
    silver ore, 220, _n._

  Wollaston, facts concerning name of, 1, _n._ (_See_ Mount Wollaston.)

  Wollaston, Captain: settles at Massachusetts, 1;
    composition of his company, 4;
    leaves Massachusetts, 12;
    sells his servants in Virginia, 13;
    tradition as to death of, 15.

  Wolves: deer persecuted by, 203;
    black, value of furs of, 207, _n._, 209;
    description of, 208-9.

  _Wonder-Working Providence_, quoted, 94, 300, _n._

  Wood, William, 217.

  Woodcock, 191, _n._

  Woodman, “Auld,” 216.

  Wood’s _Prospect_: quoted, 16, 95, 129, 137, _n._, 138, _n._,
        139, _n._, 140, _n._, 143, _n._, 150, _n._, 160, _n._,
        168, _n._, 184, _n._, 186, _n._, 189, _n._, 191, _n._,
        192, _n._, 198, _n._, 200, _n._, 206, _n._, 208, _n._,
        210, _n._, 213, _n._, 223, _n._, 224, _n._, 230, _n._,
        238, _n._;
    referred to, 139, 141, 154, 172, 182, _n._, 184, _n._, 200, _n._,
        217, 221, _n._, 233;
    when written, 233.

  Worcester: black-lead found in, 219, _n._;
    country of Nipnets, 240, _n._

  _Wotawquenauge_, 254.

  Wrentham, black-lead found in, 219, _n._

  Wrington, Samuel Fuller born in, 298.

  _Wunanumau_, 123.


  Y.

  York, Archbishop of, 60.

  York, Maine. (_See_ Acomenticus.)


  Z.

  Zones, the: New England, how placed in, 115-22;
    Aristotle’s theory of, 117.




Council of the Prince Society.

1883.


  EDMUND F. SLAFTER.
  JOHN WARD DEAN.
  WILLIAM B. TRASK.
  CHARLES H. BELL.
  JOHN MARSHALL BROWN.
  HENRY W. FOOTE.
  DAVID GREENE HASKINS, JR.
  ELBRIDGE H. GOSS.




FOOTNOTES

[1] Bradford, pp. 235-6.

[2] A Captain Wolliston is mentioned by Smith (_Description of New
England_, III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 136) as the lieutenant
of “one Captain Barra, an English pirate, in a small ship, with some
twelve pieces of ordnance, about thirty men and near all starved,” whom
Smith encountered in 1615, while a captive in the hands of the French
freebooters. Though it has found a place in biographical dictionaries
on account of two eminent men of one family from Staffordshire who
bore it, the name of Wollaston is rarely met with. It is not found,
for instance, in the present directories of either Boston or New York,
and but twice in that of Philadelphia. It has been given to islands in
both the Arctic and the Antarctic oceans, but the family to which it
belonged seems to have originated in an inland English county. (Lower’s
_Patronymica Britannica_). The Captain, or Lieutenant, Wolliston,
therefore, whom Smith fell in with in 1615 may have been, and probably
was, the same who ten years later gave his name to the hill on Quincy
Bay. It is not likely that two Captain Wollastons were sea-adventurers
at the same time. That it actually was the same man is, however, matter
of pure surmise.

[3] Bradford, p. 154.

[4] _Infra_, *44, *124-127, *138.

[5] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 321.

[6] _N. E. Memorial_, p. 160.

[7] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. viii. p. 323.

[8] _Infra_, *13, *71, 343, _note_.

[9] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 401, n.

[10] Bradford, p. 236.

[11] _Infra_, *17, 130, _note_ 2, *59.

[12] Bradford, p. 118.

[13] Bradford, p. 120.

[14] Young’s _Chron. of Pl._, p. 299.

[15] _Infra_, *60.

[16] _Infra_, *113-118.

[17] Palfrey, vol. i. p 397.

[18] _Lowell Inst. Lectures_ of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1869, p. 147. Samuel
Maverick, however, writing to Lord Clarendon in the year 1661, asserts
that Morton had a patent. _Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc._ 1869, p. 40.

[19] Palfrey (vol. i. p. 222) speaks of it as “a bluff.” This is an
error. The <DW72> from where Morton’s house stood to the water is very
gradual.

[20] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 395.

[21] _Infra_, *51, 106.

[22] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 305.

[23] This View of Mount Wollaston is taken from Rev. Dr. William P.
Lunt’s _Two Discourses on Occasion of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of
the Gathering of the First Congregational Church, Quincy_, (p. 37). It
represents the place very accurately as it appeared in 1840, and as
it is supposed to have appeared from the time of the first settlement
until recently. The single tree was a lofty red-cedar, which must
have been there when Wollaston landed, as it was a large tree of a
long-lived species, and died from age about 1850. The trunk is still
(1882) standing; and, though all the bark has dropped off, it measures
some 66 inches in circumference. The central part of the above cut,
including the tree, has been adopted as a seal for the town of Quincy,
with the motto “MANET.”

[24] _Infra_, *115-18.

[25] _Infra_, *59.

[26] _Infra_, *114.

[27] Bradford, pp. 236-7.

[28] _Infra_, *103, *117.

[29] _Infra_, *141-9.

[30] Morton uniformly speaks of the place as Ma-re-Mount, and John
Adams on this point commented in his notes as follows:--“The Fathers
of Plymouth, Dorchester, Charlestown, &c., I suppose would not allow
the name to be Ma-re-Mount, but insisted upon calling it Merry-Mount,
for the same reason that the common people in England will not call
gentlemen’s ornamental grounds gardens, but insist upon calling them
pleasure-grounds, _i. e._, to excite envy and make them unpopular.”

Ma-re-Mount, however, was a characteristic bit of Latin punning on
Morton’s part, designed to tease his more austere neighbors. He himself
says (_Infra_, *132): “The inhabitants of Passonagessit, having
translated the name of their habitation from that ancient salvage name
to Ma-re-Mount ... the precise seperatists that lived at New Plimmouth
stood at defiance with the place threatening to make it a woefull mount
and not a merry mount.” (_Infra_, *134.) In view of the situation of
the place, Ma-re-Mount was a very appropriate name, but it may well be
questioned whether it was ever so called by any human being besides
Morton, or by him except in print. Bradford calls it Merie-mounte.
(p. 237.) The expression used by Morton, that they “translated the
name” from Passonagessit to Ma-re-Mount, would naturally suggest that
the Indian name might find its equivalent in the Latin one, and mean
simply “a hill by the sea.” On this point, however, J. Hammond Trumbull
writes: “Morton’s ‘Passonagessit’ has been a puzzle to me every time
it has caught my eye since I first marked it twenty years ago or more
with double (??). Morton, as he shows in chap. ii. of book I., could
not write the most simple Indian word without a blunder. What _may_
have been the name he makes ‘Passonagessit’ we cannot guess, unless
it survives in some early record. There is no trace of ‘sea,’ or
‘water,’ or ‘mount’ in it. If it stands for _Pasco-naig-és-it_, it
means ‘at [a place] near the little point,’ but I know so little of the
local topography that I hesitate to suggest this interpretation.” The
rendering here suggested by Dr. Trumbull does apply sufficiently well
to the locality. Mount Wollaston is a part of the neck which connects
the peninsulas locally known in Quincy as Germantown and Hough’s Neck
with the mainland.

[31] Bradford, p. 253.

[32] Whitney’s _Hist. of Quincy_, p. 18.

[33] _Infra_, *55.

[34] Josselyn says of the “Indesses,” as he calls them, “All of them
are of a modest demeanor, considering their savage breeding; and
indeed do shame our _English_ rusticks whose rudeness in many things
exceedeth theirs.” (_Two Voyages_, pp. 12, 45.) When the Massachusets
Indian women, in September, 1621, sold the furs from their backs to the
first party of explorers from Plymouth, Winslow, who wrote the account
of that expedition, says that they “tied boughs about them, but with
great shamefacedness, for indeed they are more modest than some of our
English women are.” (_Mourt_, p. 59.) See also, to the same effect,
Wood’s _Prospect_, (p. 82.) It suggests, indeed, a curious inquiry
as to what were the customs among the ruder classes of the British
females during the Elizabethan period, when all the writers agree in
speaking of the Indian women in this way. Roger Williams, for instance,
referring to their clothing, says: “Both men and women within doores,
leave off their beasts skin, or English cloth, and so (excepting their
little apron) are wholly naked; yet but few of the women but will keepe
their skin or cloth (though loose) neare to them, ready to gather it up
about them. Custome hath used their minds and bodies to it, and in such
a freedom from any wantonnesse that I have never seen that wantonnesse
amongst them as, (with griefe) I have heard of in Europe.” (_Key_, pp.
110-11.) And he adds, “More particular:

  “Many thousand proper Men and Women,
    I have seen met in one place:
  Almost all naked, yet not one
    Thought want of clothes disgrace.”

In Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_ (ch. iv.) there is a very
graphic account of the missionary Le Jeune’s experience among the
Algonquins, in which he describes the interior of the wigwam on a
winter’s evening. “Heated to suffocation, the sorcerer, in the closest
possible approach to nudity, lay on his back, with his right knee
planted upright and his left leg crossed on it, discoursing volubly
to the company, who, on their part, listened in postures scarcely
less remote from decency.” Le Jeune says, “Les filles et les jeunes
femmes sont à l’exterieur tres honnestement couvertes, mais entre elles
leurs discours sont puants, comme des cloaques;” and Parkman adds,
“The social manners of remote tribes of the present time correspond
perfectly with Le Jeune’s account of those of the Montagnais.” See also
_Voyages of Champlain_, Prince Soc., vol. iii. pp. 168-70.

[35] Parkman says that “chastity in women was recognized as a virtue
by many tribes.” (_Jesuits in North America_, p. xxxiv.) Of the New
England Indians Williams remarks,--“Single fornications they count no
sin, but after marriage then they count it heinous for either of them
to be false.” (_Key_, p. 138.) Judging by an incident mentioned by
Morton, however, adultery does not seem to have been looked upon as a
very grave offense among the Indians of the vicinity in which he lived.
(_Infra_, *32.) On the general subject of morality among young Indian
women, especially in the vicinity of trading-posts, see Parkman’s
_Jesuits in North America_ (pp. xxxiv, xlii) and the letter from Father
Carheil to the Intendant Champigny, in _The Old Régime in Canada_ (p.
427).

[36] _Infra_, *135.

[37] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 62.

[38] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. p. 478.

[39] Hazlitt’s _Popular Antiquities of Great Britain_, p. 121. See also
on this subject, Strutt’s _Sports and Pastimes_, p. 352.

[40] _Infra_, *132-7.

[41] Bradford, p. 237.

[42] Bradford, p. 238.

[43] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi, p. 70. See also note 202 in
Trumbull’s ed. of Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_, p. 117.

[44] Bradford, p. 240.

[45] _Infra_, *78, 218, _n._

[46] _Infra_, *137.

[47] Bradford, p. 204.

[48] _Ib._ p. 233.

[49] _Infra_, *149.

[50] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 83.

[51] _Infra_, *124.

[52] _Infra_, *181.

[53] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii, pp. 63, 64.

[54] Bradford, p. 241.

[55] XII. Coke, p. 75.

[56] _Hist. of England_ (Edition of Harper Bros.) vol. iv. p. 280.

[57] _Lives of the Chief Justices_, vol. i. p. 283. See also a paper on
“Royal Proclamations,” in Disraeli’s _Curiosities of Literature_ (ed.
1863), vol. iii., p. 371.

[58] Bradford, p. 241-2.

[59] _Infra_, *137-43.

[60] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. pp. 63-4.

[61] _Infra_, *150.

[62] _Infra_, *144, 155.

[63] The letters in full are in Bradford’s _Letter-Book_, III. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. pp. 62-4.

[64] The names of neither Maverick nor Walford appear in this list,
though in his history Bradford especially mentions Winnisimmet (p. 241)
as one of the places the settlers at which contributed to the charge.
They may, as Savage suggests, (_Winthrop_, vol. i. p. *43 n.) have
been included with Blackstone, though, considering what Maverick’s
means were, this does not seem probable. Edward Hilton lived at Dover,
eight miles above Piscataqua. (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 315.
_Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1875-6_, pp. 362-8.) Mr. Deane suggests that
Little Harbor, the place formerly occupied by Thomson, was meant by
Piscataqua. (_Ib._, 368.) The locality of Bursley and Jeffreys greatly
confused the authorities for a time, but it no longer seems open to
question. (_Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc. 1878_, p. 198.)

[65] Hazard, vol. i. p. 243.

[66] Bradford, p. 238; _Infra_, *134. Dagon was the sea-god of the
Philistines, upon the occasion of whose feast, at Gaza, Samson pulled
down the pillars of the temple. _Judges_, xvi.

[67] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 79.

[68] Oldham’s “vast conceits of extraordinary gain of three for one”
afterwards caused “no small distraction” to the sober-minded governor
and assistants of the Massachusetts Company. Young’s _Chron. of Mass._,
p. 147.

[69] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 80.

[70] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 171; Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 6.

[71] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 147.

[72] Bradford, p. 243.

[73] _Infra_, *156.

[74] _Supra_, p. 26.

[75] XII. Coke, p. 76.

[76] Campbell’s _Chief Justices_, vol. ii. p. 42.

[77] Campbell’s _Lord Chancellors_, vol. iii. p. 256.

[78] Bradford, p. 237.

[79] Bradford, p. 250.

[80] _Infra_, *157.

[81] Bradford, p. 252.

[82] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 63.

[83] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 145.

[84] _Infra_, *158-9.

[85] Hazard, vol. i. p. 252.

[86] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp. 96, 148.

[87] _Infra_, *119.

[88] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *57.

[89] _Infra_, *160.

[90] _Infra_, *161.

[91] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 311.

[92] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *30.

[93] _Records_, vol. i. p. 74.

[94] _Infra_, *163.

[95] _Records_, vol i. p. 75.

[96] _Infra_, *163.

[97] _Coll. of N. Y. Hist. Soc._ (1869), p. 42.

[98] _Infra_, *186-7.

[99] Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 321; _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._,
1860-2, p. 133.

[100] Bradford, p. 253.

[101] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *57.

[102] Morton says (_Infra_, *163) “the Snare must now be used; this
instrument must not be brought by Iosua [Winthrop] in vaine.”

[103] _Mass. Hist. Soc._, Lowell Inst. Lectures (1869), p. 377.

[104] I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 250.

[105] Bradford, p. 253.

[106] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 336.

[107] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *102.

[108] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 391.

[109] Bradford, pp. 251-2.

[110] Clarendon’s _Rebellion_, B. III. § 27; B. VI. § 404.

[111] Winthrop. vol. i. p. *100. Downing sent a detailed account of the
hearing, now lost, to Winthrop; see Hutchinson, vol. ii. p. 2.

[112] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 33, n.

[113] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 392.

[114] Bradford, p. 297.

[115] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *190.

[116] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 338.

[117] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 80.

[118] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 338. The reference here, as
at some other places, is to Deane’s chapter on “The Charter of King
Charles I.” As a rule, in works of this description, dealing with the
sources of history, it is not permissible to refer to contemporaneous
authorities. Mr. Deane, however, so far as New England history is
concerned, may fairly be made an exception to this rule. His knowledge
is so exhaustive and his accuracy so great that a reference to him I
consider just as good and as permissible as a reference to the original
authorities.

[119] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *56, n.

[120] Palfrey, vol. i. pp. 391-3.

[121] _Briefe Narration_, III. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi. p. 82.
Hazard, vol. i. p. 390-4.

[122] _Proc. of Amer. Antiq. Soc._, 1867, p. 124. Winthrop, vol. ii. p.
233. Hazard, vol. i. p. 347.

[123] Hazard, vol. i. p. 347.

[124] William Jeffreys was one of the Robert Gorges Company. He had
contributed to the cost of arresting Morton in 1628 and sending him
to England. Morton, in writing to him, could not but have been aware
of this; but not improbably, during the time of his return to Mount
Wollaston in 1630, he had seen more of Jeffreys, and found that he
too, like the rest of the “old planters,” looked on the Massachusetts
Company with jealousy and apprehension. At that time, indeed,
Jeffreys was in active correspondence with Gorges, and outspoken in
his complaints. (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 3.) Hence the
familiarity of the address. It is apparent from the letter, however,
that Morton, when he wrote it, was so sure of his position and so
elated with a sense of his own importance that he could not contain
himself. He could not resist the desire to let his old acquaintances in
America know what an important personage he had become, and he probably
hoped they would show the letter to Winthrop and every one else. It was
a childish outbreak of delight and vanity.

[125] There is some confusion about these dates. The letter itself
is dated the 1st of May, and the commission is here said on that day
to have passed the great seal. The commissioners may have designated
Gorges as governor-general at this time, and ordered a commission
as such to be at once made out to him; but a year later the King’s
intention of appointing him was formally announced. (_Proc. of Amer.
Antiq. Soc._, 1867, p. 120.) The probability is that the business
relating to the colonies was regarded as of little moment and done in
the most careless and irregular way, hardly a record even of it being
kept. Some proceedings were thus begun and not carried out, and other
things were done twice.

[126] Morton is here quoting from the _New Canaan_, (p. *188) and its
very last page. It would seem, therefore, now to have been written,
though it was not published until three years later. (See _Infra_, pp.
78-9.)

[127] _Supra_, pp. 44-5.

[128] This letter is in Hubbard, pp. 428-30 (II. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. vi.), and in Winthrop, vol. ii. pp. *190-1. The readings do not
materially differ, but the punctuation has been corrected and the
spelling is modern.

[129] _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 379, n.

[130] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *137.

[131] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *143.

[132] _Ib._, vol i. p. *102.

[133] _Autobiography of Sir Simonds D’Ewes_, vol. ii. p. 118.

[134] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *172.

[135] _Infra_, pp. *172-9.

[136] Bradford, pp. 329-30.

[137] _Supra_, p. 66. Winthrop, vol. i. p. *157.

[138] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 401 n. _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 341.

[139] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *161, *187.

[140] Palfrey, vol. i. p. 403. _Mem. Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 343.

[141] In January, 1640, Richard Vines wrote to Governor Winthrop, of
Sir Ferdinando, that he was then “nere 80 yeares ould.” (IV. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 342.) This can hardly be correct, however,
as subsequently he served on the royal side in the civil wars, and
was among the prisoners taken by Fairfax when he stormed Bristol in
September, 1645. (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 342.) He must,
however, have then been a very old man, as fifty-four years before, in
1591, he had distinguished himself at the siege of Rouen, in Essex’s
English contingent. (Devereux’s _Earls of Essex_, vol. i. p. 271).

[142] _Infra_, *98.

[143] See further on this subject, Winthrop, vol. i. pp. *161, *187;
which is also referred to in the same work, vol. ii. p. *12.

[144] Hazard, vol. i. p. 400.

[145] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 127.

[146] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *231.

[147] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 330.

[148] _Infra_, *96-100.

[149] _Supra_, 62, _n._

[150] _Infra_, *98.

[151] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *137.

[152] Bradford, p. 254.

[153] III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 81.

[154] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *12.

[155] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 331.

[156] Hazard, vol. i. p. 474.

[157] Hutchinson’s _State Papers_, p. 106.

[158] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *264.

[159] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *266.

[160] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *269.

[161] _Ib._, p. *298.

[162] Bradford, p. 375.

[163] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 175.

[164] _Supra_, p. 77.

[165] See Mr. Deane’s note on the “Plough patent,” in IV. _Mass. Hist.
Coll._, vol. vii. pp. 88-96. Also the note on Cleaves, _Ib._ p. 363.
D’Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, vol. iii. p. 488) gives a
singular anecdote of Rigby.

[166] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p. 343.

[167] IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 148.

[168] Palfrey, vol. ii. p. 147, _n._

[169] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *189.

[170] _Supra_, 61-3.

[171] Winthrop, vol. i. p. *298.

[172] _N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1869, p. 40.

[173] _Records_, vol. ii. p. 90.

[174] _Hist. of New England_, vol. ii. p. 225.

[175] _Infra_, *138.

[176] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *192.

[177] _New York Hist. Soc. Coll._, 1869, p. 40.

[178] “It is undeniable that Morton became an object of aversion
largely for the reason that he used the Prayer Book.” (_Mag. of Amer.
Hist._, vol. viii. p. 83.)

[179] White’s _Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church_, p. xxii.
_n._ See also Oliver’s _Puritan Commonwealth_, pp. 37-9.

[180] _Infra_, *138. See, also, *50, 332, _note_ 2.

[181] _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 89.

[182] _Wonder-Working Providence_, p. 30.

[183] “Such a rake as Morton, such an addle-headed fellow as he
represents himself to be, could not be cordial with the first people
from Leyden, or with those who came over with the patent, from
London or the West of England. I can hardly conceive that his being
a Churchman, or reading his prayers from a Book of Common Prayer,
could be any great offence. His fun, his songs and his revels were
provoking enough, no doubt. But his commerce with the Indians in arms
and ammunition, and his instructions to those savages in the use of
them, were serious and dangerous offences, which struck at the lives
of the new-comers, and threatened the utter extirpation of all the
plantations.” (_Notes of John Adams_, 1802.)

[184] _Infra_, 249-52, and _note_.

[185] _Infra_, 290, _note_.

[186] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *14.

[187] Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *166.

[188] See Deane’s note to Bradford, p. 254.

[189] _Harvard Univ. Library Bulletin_, No. 10, p. 244.

[190] _Supra_, pp. 78-9.

[191] _Mag. of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 94, n.

[192] Mr. DeCosta says that the titlepage of the copy in the Library of
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel reads in this way. _Mag.
of Amer. Hist._, vol. viii. p. 94, n. 4.

[193] This copy was in the Adams Library for many years, and until
within a quite recent period. It cannot, however, now (1882) be found.
It would appear to have been stolen, together with many other volumes
and almost innumerable autographs, which formerly lent a peculiar value
to the John Adams Collection, given by him in 1822 to the town of
Quincy.

[194] “Mint and cumin” uniformly appears as “muit and cummin;”
“humming-bird” as “hunning-bird.”

[195] _Ante_, pp. 61-3.

[196] In regard to the Board of Lords Commissioners of 1634, see
_supra_, 57-60. The royal letter patent in the original Latin is in
Hazard, vol. i. pp. 344-7. There are translations of it in Hubbard (pp.
264-8) and in Bradford (pp. 456-8), together with notes by Harris in
his edition of the former, and by Deane in the latter.

[197] [seth.] Wherever in this edition an apparently obvious misprint
in the text of 1637 has been, as in the present case, corrected, the
misprinted word, as it appears in the original, is printed between
brackets as a foot-note.

[198] In regard to Sir Christopher Gardiner, see _infra_, *182-4 and
_note_.

[199] [_Connick._] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[200] [_stife._]

[201] [_muit._]

[202] The Isle of Sall appears on the map in the _Geography_ of Peter
Heylyn, London, 1674, as one of the Cape Verde Islands. It is called in
the text Insula Salis, and on other old maps Isle of Sal, or Ilha do
Sal. There are some ten islands in the group. Professor J. D. Whitney
writes that several islands are known by the name of Sall, and that the
one referred to by Morton is probably that off the north shore of Cuba.
“A good deal has been written about the poisonous fishes of the waters
about the island of Cuba. The disease produced by eating poisonous fish
is called _ciguatera_, and the fish itself is said to be _ciguato_.
All that is definitely known about the matter seems to be that quite
a large number of species of fish in that region are believed to be
liable to some disease, the nature and course of which is unknown; and
that those who eat the fish thus diseased are themselves liable to be
attacked by the malady called _ciguatera_.”

[203] Morton here apparently refers at second hand to Aristotle’s
_resumé_ of the ancient belief of five zones, two only of which were
habitable. _Meteorologica_, B. II. ch. v. § 11.

[204] From this passage it would appear that the Isle of Sall and the
tropical waters, which Morton in this chapter refers to as having been
visited by him, were in the neighborhood of the Western and Cape Verde
Islands. In his time the word _tornado_ had probably not been adopted
into the English language, and in writing it Morton gives to the letter
_d_ the peculiar Western Island or Portuguese pronunciation.

[205] Morton here confounds Davis with Hudson. Davis’s three voyages
were made in 1585-6-7, and it was in the first of them that he
discovered the straits which bear his name. He afterwards made five
voyages to the East Indies, in the last of which he was killed in a
fight with some Japanese on the coast of Malacca. Hudson made four
voyages between 1607 and 1610, during the last of which he passed a
winter, frozen in, near the entrance to Hudson Bay. His crew mutinied,
and turned him adrift in an open boat, on the 22d of July, 1610. He was
never heard of again; and it is his “fate,” probably, which Morton had
in mind. No other noted discoverer of the Northwest Passage was lost
prior to 1634. The discovery of that passage, however, then excited as
active an interest as it has since, or does now. In 1632 Edward Howes
sent out to Governor Winthrop a printed “Treatise of the North-West
Passage” (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 480) which is still in
the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

[206] The phrase in the _Meteorologica_ (_ubi supra_, 117, _note_
1.) is, “the parts under the Bear (_i.e._, north) by cold are
uninhabitable.”

[207]

  Impiger extremos curris mercator ad Indos,
  Per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes.

  HORACE, _Epist._ I. ll. 45-6.


[208] “18. Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun:
because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

“19. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?”

  _Ecclesiastes_, ch. ii. vers. 18, 19.


[209] Sir Ferdinando Gorges, of Ashton Phillips in Somerset, has
already been frequently referred to in the introductory portions of
this volume. Of an old West Country family and pure English descent,
he was born about the year 1560 (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii. p.
329). He early devoted himself to a military and naval life, and in
1591 served under Essex at the siege of Rouen. Subsequently he is said
to have been wounded, either at Amiens, or during the siege of Paris
by Henry IV. In consequence of his services he was appointed by Queen
Elizabeth royal governor of Plymouth, and in 1597 was designated as
one of the staff of Essex in the Ferrol expedition, with the title of
Sergeant-Major. In 1601 he was concerned in Essex’s insurrection, and
was one of the principal witnesses against the Earl at his trial. After
a considerable period of imprisonment he was released, and, on the
accession of James I., was reappointed governor of Plymouth. In 1605 he
became interested in American discovery and colonization, and in 1607
he was one of the projectors of the Popham colony in Maine. During the
next thirteen years he was engaged in fishing and trading ventures to
New England, and indefatigable in collecting information as to America.
(Palfrey, vol. i. p. 79.) In 1620 he procured from James I. the great
patent of the Council for New England. In 1623 he sent out the Robert
Gorges expedition which settled itself at Wessagusset. (_Supra_, 2-4.)
His subsequent connection with Morton, and his intrigues against the
Massachusetts colony and charter, have been sufficiently referred to in
this volume. During the Civil War Gorges espoused the royal side, and
was made a prisoner when Fairfax captured Bristol in August 1645. He
died probably about the 10th of May 1647, as he was buried on the 14th
of that month.

In regard to Gorges, see Belknap’s _American Biography_; Folsom’s
_Catalogue of Original Documents in the English Archives relating
to the Early History of the State of Maine_; Williamson’s _Maine_;
Palfrey’s _New England_ (vol. i.); Poole’s Introduction to Johnson’s
_Wonder Working Providence_; Devereux’s _Earls of Essex_ (vol. i.); and
the _Briefe Narration_ (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 44), and
Gorges’s own letters, to Winthrop and others, in the _Winthrop Papers_.
(IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vii.)

[210] That is, in 1634. See _supra_, 78.

[211] These are the Inner Harbor (Boston), so called, and Dorchester,
Quincy, and Weymouth bays. The latter includes all the inlets south and
west of Nut and Pettuck’s islands and Hull, among which is Hingham Bay.

[212] “Sleetch, _n._ The thick mud or slush lying at the bottom of
rivers.” _Webster._

[213] [iland.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[214] _Supra_, 6-7.

[215] In the letter already quoted from (_Supra_, 14), Mr. J. H.
Trumbull remarked that “Morton, as he shows in chap. ii. of book
I., could not write the most simple Indian word without a blunder.”
As respects the words which Morton believed to be Indian-Greek, Mr.
Trumbull has further kindly furnished the following notes: “_En
animia_--_Wunanumau_, as Eliot wrote it, signifies ‘he is well
disposed, or well minded toward another,’ or ‘is pleased with’ him.
There is another word, nearly related, which Morton may have had in
mind, meaning ‘to help,’ ‘do a favor to,’--_aninumeh_, ‘help me’
(Eliot), _anúnime_ (R. Williams).”

[216] “_Paskanontam_ (Eliot), ‘he suffers from hunger,’ ‘is starving.’
In Eliot’s orthography, _paskuppoo_ would signify ‘he eats hungrily,’
or ‘as if starving,’ and from this comes the verbal _Paskup-wen_ or
_Paskuppoo-en_ ‘a starving eater’--Morton’s ‘greedy gut.’”

[217] “Eliot’s _paskanontam_, as above, which is well enough translated
by ‘halfe starved.’”

[218] “I can make nothing of these words. They certainly do _not_ mean
‘set it upright.’”

[219] “An island is _munnoh_ (Eliot).”

[220] “Here Morton mistook the word. _Cos_ is, probably, _Koüs_
(Eliot), ‘sharp-pointed,’ or, from the same root, _mukqs_, (Eliot),
_mucks_ (R. Williams), ‘an awl,’ used for boring wampum, beads, &c.;
_cau-ompsk_ (R. Williams) was ‘a whetstone,’ _i. e._, a sharpening
stone.”

[221] “_Om_ (_aum_, Eliot), is fish-hook; _aumau-i_, ‘he is fishing’
(with hook and line,) R. Williams; whence _omaën_, (Eliot) ‘a
fisherman.’”

[222] “Probably misprinted for _Pantucket_--the equivalent of
_Pautucket_, meaning ‘at the fall’ of the river. (The _n_ was not
distinctly sounded, but represents the nasalization of the preceding
vowel.)”

[223] “_Mattapan_ means ‘sitting down’--or ‘a _setting_ down’--and
usually designates the end of a ‘carry’ or portage, where the canoes
were put in water again.”

[224] Winslow, in his Relations, says of the Indians: “The people
are very ingenious and observative; they keep account of time by the
moon, and winters or summers; they know divers of the stars by name;
in particular they know the north star, and call it _maske_, which
is to say, _the bear_.” (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 365-6.) See
also to the same effect, Roger Williams’s _Key_ (_Publications of the
Narragansett Club_, vol. i.) and Mr. Trumbull’s note (p. 105). Mr.
Trumbull now further adds: “The name (_maske_) was given to Ursa Major
or Charles’s Wain, not to the North Star; and by nearly all Algonkin
tribes. An interesting note on this point can be found in Hopkins’s
_Hist. Memorials of the Housatonic Indians_ (p. 11), and another in
Dawson’s _Acadian Geology_ (2d ed. p. 675), showing that the Micmacs
still know that constellation as _Mooin_, ‘the bear.’”

[225] Roger Williams, in the preface to his _Key_ (p. 23), says: “Wise
and judicious men, with whom I have discoursed, maintain their [the
Indians] original to be northward from Tartaria.” The Asiatic origin
of the North American Indians was a necessary part of the scriptural
dogma of the origin and descent of man. It is safe, however, to assert
that, first and last, every possible theory on this subject has been
carefully elaborated. It is not necessary, in connection with the _New
Canaan_, to enter into the discussion, as the views of those, from St.
Gregory to Voltaire, who have taken part in it, have been laboriously
collected by Drake in his _Book of Indians_ (ch. ii.).

[226] [muit.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[227] See _Infra_ *182-4 and _note_.

[228] David Thomson occupied the island in Boston Harbor, which still
bears his name, from some time in 1625, apparently, until his death in
1628 (_supra_, 24). He left a widow and an only son, who inherited the
island. Originally, Thomson seems to have been a messenger, or possibly
an agent, of the Council for New England. In November, 1622, a patent,
covering a considerable tract of land, was issued to him, and the next
year, he then being apparently a young man and newly married, he came
out and established himself at Piscataqua, whence he afterwards moved
to Boston Harbor. All that is known of Thomson can be found in Mr.
Deane’s _Notes to an Indenture, &c._, in the _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._,
1876 (pp. 358-81). See also, _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, 1878 (p. 204),
and _Memorial History of Boston_ (vol. i. p. 83).

[229] Morton’s attempt to trace the origin of the North American
Indians from Brutus, and the support he finds for his theory in the
resemblance of some Indian to Greek words, there being no reason to
suppose that Brutus or the Latins had any acquaintance with Greek,
reads like a humorous satire on the historical methods in vogue with
the writers of his time. Until within the last century there were two
historical events, or events assumed to be historical, to one or the
other of which it was deemed safe to refer the origin of any modern
nation. These events were the Siege of Troy and the Flood,--the profane
and the sacred beginnings of modern history. Morton wrote in 1635,
and his mind naturally had recourse to the profane theory. Fifteen
years later, Milton began his history of England, and at the outset
came in contact with Brutus. “That which we have,” he then remarks,
“of oldest seeming, hath by the greater part of judicious antiquaries
been long rejected for a modern fable.” He nevertheless “determined to
bestow the telling over even of these reputed tales, ... seeing that
ofttimes relations heretofore accounted fabulous have been after found
to contain in them many footsteps and reliques of something true; as
what we read in poets of the flood, and giants little believed, till
undoubted witnesses taught us that all was not feigned.” Then passing
on, he says: “After the flood, and the dispersing of nations, as they
journeyed leisurely from the East, Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet,
and his offspring, as by authorities, arguments and affinity of divers
names is generally believed, were the first that peopled all these
west and northern climes.” Coming down to Brutus and the whole progeny
of kings, and following Geoffrey of Monmouth, Milton then recounts
in detail the marriages, voyages, adventures and mishaps of the
descendants of Æneas until Brutus reached an “island, not yet Britain
but Albion, in a manner desert and inhospitable; kept only by a remnant
of giants, whose excessive force and tyranny had destroyed the rest.
These Brutus destroys,” and, after this, “in a chosen place, builds
Troja Nova, changed in time to Trinovantum, now London.”

The superiority of Morton’s historical method to Milton’s, or to that
in use in Milton’s time, is obvious. Accepting the common origin, he
premises that he does _not_ find that “when Brutus did depart from
Latium his whole number went with him at once.” Accordingly, some of
them being put to sea, “_might_ encounter with a storm,” and then being
carried out of sight of land, “they _might_ sail God knoweth whether,
and so _might_ be put on this coast, as well as any other.” And hence
the author is “bold to conclude that the original of the natives of New
England may be well conjectured to be from the scattered Trojans, after
such time as Brutus departed from Latium.”

It would be easy to quote from many serious productions,
contemporaneous with the _New Canaan_ and a century after it, examples
of the same method of daring historical hypothesis; a single instance
will, however, suffice. In his history of Lynn, written in 1829, the
Rev. Alonzo Lewis says (p. 21): “The Indians are supposed by some to be
the remnants of the long lost ten tribes of Israel; and their existence
in tribes, the similarity of some of their customs, and the likeness of
many words in their language, seem to favor this opinion.”

More sensible than either Thomas Morton or Mr. Lewis, William Wood, in
writing his _New England’s Prospect_, in 1633, remarks (p. 78), that
“Some have thought they [the Indians] might be of the dispersed Jews,
because some of their words be near unto the Hebrew; but by the same
rule they may conclude them to be some of the gleanings of all nations,
because they have words which sound after the Greek, Latin, French, and
other tongues.”

There is in the _Magnalia_ (book III. part iii.) a lengthy but highly
characteristic passage, in which Mather recounts the points of
resemblance which the evangelist Eliot saw between the Indians and “the
posterity of the dispersed and rejected Israelites.”

[230] Peddock’s, or Pettick’s, Island, still so called, is one of the
largest islands in Boston Bay. It lies directly opposite to George’s
Island and Hull, from which last it is separated by a narrow channel,
and is between Weymouth and Quincy bays, on the east and west. See
Shurtleff’s _Description of Boston_, p. 557.

[231] Leonard Peddock seems to have been in the employment of the
Council for New England. In the records of the Council for the 8th of
November, 1622, is the following entry: “Mr. Thomson is ordered to
pay unto Leo: Peddock £10 towards his paynes for his last Imployments
to New England.” Subsequently, on the 19th of the same month: “It is
ordered that a Letter be written from the Counsell to Mr. Weston, to
deliver to Leonard Peddock, a boy Native of New England called papa
Whinett belonging to Abbadakest, Sachem of Massachusetts, which boy
Mr Peddock is to carry over with him” (_Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society_, April, 1867, pp. 70, 74).

Andrew Weston had returned to England in the _Charity_, leaving
Wessagussett in September, 1622 (_supra_, 7). He would seem to have
brought over the Indian boy in question with him. From the entry in the
records of the Council for New England, just quoted, it would appear
that Leonard Peddock was in New England during the summer of 1622. The
reference to him in the text is additional evidence that Morton was
there at the same time, and in company with Weston.

[232] This is undoubtedly a misprint for Auckies, which was a sailor’s
corruption for Auks. The Great Auk (_Alca impennis_) is probably
referred to. This bird, now supposed to be extinct, was formerly common
on the New England coast. Audubon, writing in 1838, says: “An old
gunner, residing on Chelsea Beach, near Boston, told me that he well
remembered the time when the Penguins were plentiful about Nahant and
some other islands in the bay.” (_Am. Ornithological Biog._, vol. iv.
p. 316.) Professor Orton, alluding to this passage, in the _American
Naturalist_ (1869, p. 540), expresses the opinion that the Razor-billed
Auk was the bird referred to; but Professor F. W. Putnam adds, in
a foot-note, that “the ‘old hunter’ was undoubtedly correct in his
statement, as we have bones of the species taken from the shell-heaps
of Marblehead, Eagle Hill in Ipswich, and Plum Island.” Dr. Jeffries
Wyman found them in the shell-heaps at Cotuit. See _Mem. Hist. of
Boston_, vol. i. p. 12.

There is an elaborate paper on the Great Auk, under the title of “The
Garefowl and its Historians,” by Professor Alfred Newton, in the
_Natural History Review_ for 1865, p. 467.

[233] Morton would seem to be mistaken in this statement. Between 1614
and 1619 two French vessels were lost on the Massachusetts coast.
One was wrecked on Cape Cod, and the crew, who succeeded in getting
on shore, were most of them killed by the savages, and the remainder
enslaved in the way described in the text. Two of these captives were
subsequently redeemed by Captain Dermer (Bradford, p. 98). The other
vessel was captured by the savages in Boston Bay, and burned. This is
the vessel referred to by Morton as riding at anchor off Peddock’s
Island. The circumstances of the capture are described in Phinehas
Pratt’s narrative (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. pp. 479, 489).
All the crew, he says, were killed, and the ship, after grounding, was
burned. Pratt’s statement is distinct, and agrees with Bradford’s,
that the captives among the Indians were the survivors from the vessel
wrecked on Cape Cod, not from that captured in Boston Bay.

[234] Pratt’s account of this survivor among the French crew is to
be found in IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. pp. 479, 489. He says
that “one of them was wont to read much in a book (some say it was the
New Testament), and that the Indians enquiring of him what his book
said, he told them it did intimate that there was a people like French
men that would come into the country and drive out the Indians.” The
account given by Mather (_Magnalia_, B. I. ch. ii. § 6) is curiously
like that in the text. After quoting the substance of Pratt’s statement
he adds: “These infidels then blasphemously replied, ‘God could not
kill them;’ which blasphemous mistake was confuted by a horrible and
unusual plague, whereby they were consumed in such vast multitudes that
our first planters found the land almost covered with their unburied
carcases; and they that were left alive were smitten into awful and
humble regards of the English by the terrors which the remembrance of
the Frenchman’s prophecy had imprinted on them.”

Pratt, whom Mather followed, claims to have derived his knowledge
of these events during the winter of 1622-3 directly from savages
concerned in them. The probability is that the tradition of the French
captive, and his book and prophecy, was a common one among the settlers
both at Plymouth and about Boston Bay. Pratt apparently had a habit, as
he grew old, of appropriating to his own account many of the earlier
and more striking incidents of colonial history. (Mather’s _Early New
England_, p. 17.)

[235] The mysterious pestilence, which in the years 1616 and 1617 swept
away the New England Indians from the Penobscot to Narragansett Bay, is
mentioned by all the earlier writers, and its character has recently
been somewhat discussed. There can be no doubt that it practically
destroyed the tribes, especially the Massachusetts and the Pokanokets,
among which it raged. The former were reduced from a powerful people,
able, it is said, to muster three thousand warriors, to a mere remnant
a few hundred strong. The Pokanokets were in some localities, notably
at Plymouth, actually exterminated, and the country left devoid of
inhabitants (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 148; Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 183). Winslow gave a description of the desolation created
by this pestilence, and of the number of the unburied dead, very like
that in the text (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 183, 206). On this
subject, see also, Bradford, pp. 102, 325; Johnson, p. 16; Wood’s
_Prospect_, p. 72; III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 57.

No definite conclusion as to the nature of this pestilence has
been reached by medical men. It has been suggested that it was the
yellow-fever (Palfrey, vol. i. p. 99, _n_). As, however, it raged
equally in the depth of the severest winter as in summer, this could
not have been the case (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 57;
Bradford, p. 325). Other modern medical authorities have inclined to
the opinion that it was a visitation of small-pox (Dr. Holmes in _Mass.
Hist. Soc._, _Low. Inst. Lect._, 1869, p. 261; Dr. Green’s _Centennial
Address before the Mass. Med. Soc._, June 7, 1881, p. 12). In support
of this hypothesis Captain Thomas Dermer is quoted, who, sailing along
the coast in 1619-20, wrote “we might perceive the sores of some that
had escaped, who described the spots of such as usually die” (Purchas,
vol. iv. p. 1778). On the other hand, none of the contemporaneous
writers who speak of the disease ever call it the small-pox, though
all of them were perfectly familiar with small-pox, and a very large
portion of them probably bore its marks. Dermer speaks of it as “the
plague.” Bradford, when the same pestilence raged on the Connecticut,
described it as “an infectious fever.” Dr. Fuller, the first New
England physician, then died of it (Bradford, p. 314). He could not but
have been familiar with the small-pox and its symptoms; and it would
seem most improbable that he should have died of that disease among his
dying neighbors, and not have known what was killing him. Moreover,
in 1633-4 the small-pox did rage among the Indians, and Bradford, in
giving a fearfully graphic account of its ravages, adds, “they [the
Indians] fear it more than the plague.” Josselyn also draws the same
distinction, saying (_Two Voyages_, p. 123): “Not long before the
English came into the country, happened a great mortality amongst [the
Indians]; especially where the English afterwards planted, the East and
Northern parts were sore smitten by the contagion; first by the plague,
afterwards, when the English came, by the small-pox.”

It would seem, therefore, that the pestilence of 1616-7 was clearly not
the small-pox. More probably it was, as Bradford says, “an infectious
fever,” or some form of malignant typhus, due to the wretched sanitary
condition of the Indian villages, which had become over-crowded, owing
to that prosperous condition of the tribes which Smith describes as
existing at the time of his visit to the coast in 1614 (III. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. vi. p. 109).

[236] “Their houses, which they call wigwams, are built with poles
pitcht into the ground of a round form for most part, sometimes square.
They bind down the tops of their poles, leaving a hole for smoak to go
out at, the rest they cover with the bark of trees, and line the inside
of their wigwams with mats made of rushes painted with several colors.
One good post they set up in the middle that reaches to the hole in the
top, with a staff across before it; at a convenient height, they knock
in a pin upon which they hang their kettle. Beneath that they set up a
broad stone for a back which keepeth the post from burning. Round by
the walls they spread their mats and skins where the men sleep whilst
their women dress their victuals. They have commonly two doors, one
opening to the south, the other to the north, and, according as the
wind sets, they close up one door with bark and hang a deers skin or
the like before the other. Towns they have none, being always removing
from one place to another for conveniency of food, sometimes to those
places where one sort of fish is most plentiful, other whiles where
others are. I have seen half a hundred of their wigwams together in a
piece of ground and they show prettily; within a day or two or a week
they have been all dispersed.” (Josselyn’s _Voyages_, p. 126). See also
Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 144.

[237] Giving in his _Key_ (p. 48) the Indian combination of words
signifying “let us lay on wood,” Roger Williams adds: “This they do
plentifully when they lie down to sleep winter and summer, abundance
they have and abundance they lay on: their fire is instead of our
bed-clothes. And so, themselves and any that have any occasion to lodge
with them, must be content to turn often to the fire, if the night be
cold, and they who first wake must repair the fire.” Elsewhere he says:
“God was pleased to give me a painful, patient spirit, to lodge with
them in their filthy, smoky holes.” See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I.
_Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 150.

When Stephen Hopkins and Edward Winslow were sent on their mission to
Massasoit, in June, 1621, they say of their entertainment on the night
they arrived at his lodge: “Late it grew, but victuals he offered none;
for indeed he had not any, being he came so newly home. So we desired
to go to rest: he layd us on the bed with himself and his wife, they
at the one end and we at the other, it being only planks layd a foot
from the ground, and a thin mat upon them. Two more of his chief men,
for want of room, pressed by and upon us; so that we were worse weary
of our lodging than of our journey.” (_Mourt_, p. 45). Two nights of
this entertainment sufficed for the embassadors who “feared we should
either be light-headed for want of sleep, for what with bad lodging,
the savages barbarous singing, (for they use to sing themselves
asleep,) lice and fleas within doors, and musketos without, we could
hardly sleep all the time of our being there.” (_Ib._, p. 46) Another
observer remarked of the New England Indians: “Tame cattle they have
none, excepting Lice, and Dogs of a wild breed” (Josselyn’s _Voyages_,
p. 127); and to the same effect Roger Williams notes (_Key_, p. 74):
“In middle of summer, because of the abundance of fleas, which the dust
of the house breeds, they [the Indians] will fly and remove on a sudden
to a fresh place.”

Smith, describing the Virginia Indians, says (_True Travels_, vol.
i. p. 130): “Their houses are built like our arbors, of small young
springs bowed and tyed, and so close covered with mats, or the barkes
of trees very handsomely, that nothwithstanding either winde, raine, or
weather, they are as warm as stoves, but very smoaky, yet at the toppe
of the house there is a hole made for the smoake to go into right over
the fire.

“Against the fire they lie on little hurdles of Reeds covered with
a mat, borne from the ground a foote and more by a hurdle of wood.
On these round about the house they lie heads and points, one by the
other, against the fire, some covered with mats, some with skins, and
some stark naked lie on the ground, from six to twenty in a house.”

In Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_ there is a lively account
of Le Jeune’s experience in passing the winter of 1633-4 among the
Algonquins: “Put aside the bear-skin, and enter the hut. Here, in
a space some thirteen feet square, were packed nineteen savages,
men, women and children, with their dogs, crouched, squatted,
coiled like hedge-hogs, or lying on their backs, with knees drawn
up perpendicularly to keep their feet out of the fire.... The bark
covering was full of crevices, through which the icy blasts streamed
in upon him from all sides; and the hole above, at once window and
chimney, was so large, that, as he [Le Jeune] lay, he could watch the
stars as well as in the open air. While the fire in the midst, fed
with fat pine-knots, scorched him on one side, on the other he had
much ado to keep himself from freezing. At times, however, the crowded
hut seemed heated to the temperature of an oven. But these evils were
light when compared to the intolerable plague of smoke. During a
snow-storm, and often at other times, the wigwam was filled with fumes
so dense, stifling, and acrid, that all its inmates were forced to lie
flat on their faces, breathing through mouths in contact with the cold
earth. Their throats and mouths felt as if on fire; their scorched
eyes streamed with tears.... The dogs were not an unmixed evil, for by
sleeping on and around [Le Jeune], they kept him warm at night; but, as
an offset to this good service, they walked, ran and jumped over him as
he lay” (pp. 27-8).

[238] In regard to the food of the Indians and their alternate gluttony
and abstinence, see Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, pp. 129-30; Wood’s
_Prospect_, p. 57. Wood’s account of the Indians is usually the best.
As respects eating, he says: “At home they will eate till their bellies
stand South, ready to split with fulnesse: it being their fashion, to
eate all at sometimes, and sometimes nothing at all in two or three
days, wise providence being a stranger to their wilder dayes.”

[239] “_Cattup keen?_ ‘Are you hungry?’ _Meechin_, ‘meat;’ or, as
an Indian would be more likely to say, _Meech_, ‘eat.’ In Eliot’s
orthography, _Kodtup kēn?_ _Meechum_, ‘victuals, food,’ or _meech_,
‘eat.’”--_J. H. Trumbull._

[240] In regard to the hospitality of the Indians, Wood says
(_Prospect_, p. 59): “Though they be sometimes scanted, yet are they as
free as Emperors, both to their countrymen and English, be he stranger
or mere acquaintance; counting it a great discourtesie not to eat of
their high conceited delicates, and sup of their un-oat-meal’d broth,
made thick with fishes, fowles and beasts boiled all together; some
remaining raw, the rest converted by over-much seething to a loathed
mass, not halfe so good as _Irish Boniclapper_.” See also Gookin’s
_Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 153.

So also Roger Williams (_Key_, ch. ii. and iii.): “If any stranger came
in, they presently give him to eat of what they have; many a time,
and at all times of the night (as I have fallen in travel, upon their
houses) where nothing hath been ready, have themselves and their wives,
risen to prepare me some refreshing.”

“In Summer-time I have knowne them lye abroad often themselves, to make
room for strangers, English, or others.”

  “_I have known them leave their House and Mat
    to lodge a friend or stranger,
  Where Jewes and Christians oft have sent
    Christ Jesus to the manger._”


[241] In regard to the games and removals of the Indians, see
Williams’s _Key_, chs. xi. and xxviii.; Smith’s _True Travels_, vol. i.
p. 133; Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 153; and
Wood’s _Prospect_; pp. 63, 73-5. Wood gives an excellent description
of the Indian game of foot-ball: “Their goals be a mile long placed
on the sands, which are as even as a board; their ball is no bigger
than a hand-ball, which sometimes they mount in the air with their
naked feet, sometimes it is swayed by the multitude; sometimes also
it is two days before they get a goal; then they mark the ground they
win, and begin the next day.... Though they play never so fiercely to
outward appearance, yet anger-boiling blood never streams in their
cooler veins; if any man be thrown, he laughs out his foil, there is
no seeking of revenge, no quarrelling, no bloody noses, scratched
faces, black eyes, broken shins, no bruised members or crushed ribs,
the lamentable effects of rage; but the goal being won, the goods on
the one side lost; friends they were at the foot-ball, and friends they
must meet at the kettle.” To the same effect see Strachey’s _Historie_,
p. 78.

[242] Ipsisque in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam immansueta, neque
tam fera, quæ non, etiam si ignoret qualem habere deum deceat, tamen
habendum sciat (_De Legibus_, Lib. I. § 8).

Quæ est enim gens, aut quod genus hominum, quod non habeat sine
doctrinâ anticipationem quandam deorum? (_De Natura Deorum_, Lib. I. §
16).

[243] The reference here is to Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_ (p. 70).
In regard to the time when this work was written and published, see
Mr. Deane’s preface to the edition in the publications of the Prince
Society. Morton makes numerous references to it in the _New Canaan_
(_infra_, *38, 53, 64, 84, 99). The present reference is one of the
few unintelligible passages in the book. Wood’s language, to which
Morton apparently takes exception, is as follows: “As it is natural to
all mortals to worship something, so do these people; but exactly to
describe to whom their worship is chiefly bent, is very difficult; they
acknowledge especially two, Ketan, who 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; but if they do not hear them, then
they verify the old verse, _Flectere si nequeo Superes, Acheronta
movebo_, their Pow-wows betaking themselves to their exorcisms and
unromantick charms ... by God’s permission, through the Devil’s help,
their charms are of force to produce effects of wonderment.” Morton
would seem to have wished to depreciate Wood, as an authority on New
England, and so, playing upon his name and the title of his book, he
implied that he had taken a much more elevated view of the religious
development of the Indians than could be justified either by the actual
facts, or the judgment of the best informed.

Being unintelligible, the passage, from the word “neither” to the
end of the paragraph, is reproduced here in all respects, including
punctuation, as it is in the text of the original edition.

[244] There is no expression of this nature to be found anywhere in
those writings of Sir William Alexander which have come down to us and
are included in the publications of the Prince Society. He may have
used the expression quoted in conversation, or in a letter. Winslow, in
Mourt, says: “They [the savages] are a people without any religion, or
knowledge of any God” (p. 61). This statement he subsequently, however,
retracted in his _Good News_ (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 355), where
he says, “therein I erred, though we could then gather no better.”

The subject of the religion of the North American aborigines has
been treated by Parkman in the introduction to the _Jesuits in
North America_ (pp. lxvii.-lxxxix.), and he concludes that “the
primitive Indian, yielding his untutored homage to an All-pervading
grand Omnipotent Spirit, is a dream of poets, rhetoricians and
sentimentalists.” To the same effect Palfrey, at the close of his
vigorous discussion of the same subject (vol. i. p. 45), declares that
the devout Indian of the “untutored mind is as fabulous as the griffin
or the centaur.”

[245] Thomas May, better known as the historian and secretary of
the Long Parliament, was born in 1595 and died in 1650. In 1627 he
published a translation of Lucan’s _Pharsalia_, with a _supplementum_,
or continuation (1630), by himself in seven books. This continuation
he subsequently translated into Latin, and it is included in Lemaire’s
edition of the _Pharsalia_ in his _Bibliotheca Classica Latina_ (Paris,
1832). The passage to which Morton refers is in the third book of the
continuation (ll. 108-78). The following are some of the verses:--

  “But in a higher kind (as some relate)
  Do Elephants with men communicate.
  (If you believe it) a religion
  They have, and monthly do adore the Moon,
  Besides the loftie Nabathæan wood,
  Of vast extent, Amylo’s gentle flood,
  Gliding along, the sandie mould combines.
  Thither, as oft as waxing Cynthia shines
  In her first borrowed light, from out the wood,
  Come all the Elephants, and in the floud
  Washing themselves (as if to purifie)
  They prostrate fall; and when religiously
  They have adored the Moon, return again
  Into the woods with joy.”


[246] In his Latin poem on New England, which the Rev. William Morell
wrote during his eighteen months’ residence at Wessagusset as the
spiritual head of the Robert Gorges settlement of 1623, there is a
description of the Indian and his garments. The following is the
author’s English rendering of his more elegant Latin original:--

  “Whose hayre is cut with greeces, yet a locke
  Is left; the left side bound up in a knott:
  Their males small labour but great pleasure know,
  Who nimbly and expertly draw the bow;
  Traind up to suffer cruell heat and cold,
  Or what attempt so ere may make them bold;
  Of body straight, tall, strong, mantled in skin
  Of deare or bever, with the hayre-side in;
  An otter skin their right armes doth keepe warme,
  To keepe them fit for use, and free from harme;
  A girdle set with formes of birds or beasts,
  Begirts their waste, which gentle gives them ease.
  Each one doth modestly bind up his shame,
  And deare-skin start-ups reach up to the same;
  A kind of _pinsen_ keeps their feet from cold,
  Which after travels they put off, up-fold,
  Themselves they warme, their ungirt limbes they rest
  In straw, and houses, like to sties.”

  I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 131.

Wood’s description of the Indian apparel is very like Morton’s. He
says, however: “The chiefe reasons they render why they will not
conforme to our English apparell are because their women cannot wash
them when they be soyled, and their meanes will not reach to buy new
when they have done with their old; and they confidently beleeve,
the English will not be so liberall as to furnish them upon gifture:
therefore they had rather goe naked than be lousie, and bring their
bodies out of their old tune, making them more tender by a new acquired
habit, which poverty would constrain them to leave.” (_Prospect_, p.
56).

The description given by Winslow (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 365)
is very similar to Morell’s. See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 152; Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, pp. 128-9, and
Williams’s _Key_, ch. xx.

Smith (_True Travels_, vol. i. p. 129) says: “For their apparell,
they are sometimes covered with the skinnes of wilde beasts, which in
winter are dressed with the hayre, but in Sommer without. The better
sort use large mantels of Deare skins, not much differing in fashion
from the Irish mantels. Some imbrodered with white beads, some with
copper, others painted after their manner. But the common sort have
scarce to cover their nakednesse, but with grasse, the leaves of trees
or such like. We have seene some use mantels made of Turkey feathers so
prettily wrought and woven with threads that nothing could be discerned
but the feathers.”

[247] _Supra_, 16, _note_.

[248] Speaking of a ceremony common to the Algonquins and the Hurons,
of propitiating their fishing-nets by formally marrying them every year
to two young girls, Parkman says: “As it was indispensable that the
brides should be virgins, mere children were chosen” (_The Jesuits in
North America_, p. lxix. _note_). The subject of female chastity among
the Indians has already been referred to (_supra_, p. 17), and it is
extremely questionable whether they had any conception of it. Winslow,
in his _Good News_ (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 364) says:--“When
a maid is taken in marriage, she first cutteth her hair, and after
weareth a covering on her head, till her hair be grown out. Their
women are diversely disposed; some as modest, as they will scarce talk
one with another in the company of men, being very chaste also; yet
others seem light, lascivious, and wanton.... Some common strumpets
there are, as well as in other places; but they are such as either
never married, or widows, or put away for adultery; for no man will
keep such an one to wife.” Strachey (_Historie_, p. 65), says of the
Virginians: “Their younger women goe not shadowed [clothed] amongst
their owne companie, until they be nigh eleaven or twelve returnes of
the leafe old, nor are they much ashamed thereof, and therefore would
the before remembered Pochahuntas, a well featured, but wanton yong
girle, Powhatan’s daughter, sometymes resorting to our fort, of the age
then of eleven or twelve yeares, get the boyes forth with her into the
markett place, and make them wheele, falling on their hands, turning up
their heeles upwards, whome she would followe, and wheele so her self,
naked as she was, all the fort over; but being over twelve yeares, they
put on a kind of semecinctum lethern apron (as doe our artificers or
handycrafts men) before their bellies, and are very shamefac’t to be
seen bare.” Ellis, in his _Red Man and White Man_ (p. 185), remarks on
this point: “The obscenity of the savages is unchecked in its revolting
and disgusting exhibitions. Sensuality seeks no covert.”

Under these circumstances it is unnecessary to say that Morton’s
statements as to the red cap and the Sachem’s privilege are pure
fiction, and what Parkman says of the Hurons is probably true of the
Massachusetts,--their women were wantons before marriage and household
drudges after it. (_Jesuits in North America_, p. xxxv).

[249] To the same effect Roger Williams says: “Most of them count it a
shame for a woman in travell to make complaint, and many of them are
scarcely heard to groane. I have often known in one quarter of an hour
a woman merry in the house, and delivered and merry again: and within
two dayes abroad, and after foure or five dayes at worke.” (_Key_, ch.
xxiii.). See also Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, p. 127. Wood’s account is
almost as comprehensive, though not quite so detailed and graphic as
Josselyn’s: “They likewise sew their husband’s shooes, and weave mats
of Turkie feathers; besides all their ordinary household drudgery which
dayly lies upon them, so that a bigge belly hinders no businesse nor
a childbirth takes much time, but the young infant being greased and
footed, wrapped in a Beaver skin, bound to his goode behaviour with his
feete up to his bumme, upon a board two foot long and one foot broade,
his face exposed to all nipping weather, this little _Pappouse_ travels
about with his bare-footed mother, to paddle in the Icie Clammbanks
after three or four daies of age have sealed his passe-board and his
mother’s recovery.” (_Prospect_, p. 82). See also Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 358.

[250] The idea that the Indian was born white was very commonly
entertained in the first half of the seventeenth century. Lechford, in
his _Plaine Dealing_, says (p. 50): “They are of complexion swarthy and
tawny; their children are borne white, but they bedaube them with oyle,
and colours, presently.” Josselyn also speaks of the Indians “dying
[their children] with a liquor of boiled Hemlock-Bark” (_Two Voyages_,
p. 128). Speaking of the Virginia women, Smith says: “To make [their
children] hardie, in the coldest mornings they them wash in the rivers,
and by paynting and oyntments so tanne their skinnes, that after a year
or two, no weather will hurt them.” (_True Travels_, vol. i. p. 131).
Strachey gives a more particular account of the supposed process: The
Indians “are generally of a cullour browne or rather tawny, which they
cast themselves into with a kind of arsenick stone, ... and of the same
hue are their women; howbeit, yt is supposed neither of them naturally
borne so discouloured; for Captain Smith (lyving somtymes amongst them)
affirmeth how they are from the womb indifferent white, but as the men,
so doe the women, dye and disguise themselves into this tawny cowler,
esteeming yt the best beauty to be neerest such a kynd of murrey as
a sodden quince is of (to liken yt to the neerest coulor I can), for
which they daily anoint both face and bodyes all over with such a kind
of fucus or unguent as can cast them into that stayne.” (_Historie_, p.
63).

[251] “If there was noticed a remarkable exemption from physical
deformities, this was probably not the effect of any peculiar
congenital force or completeness, but of circumstances which forbade
the prolongation of any imperfect life. The deaf, blind or lame child
was too burdensome to be reared, and according to a savage estimate
of usefulness and enjoyment, its prolonged life would not requite its
nurture.” Palfrey, vol. i. p. 23.

[252] Mr. Trumbull writes: “Morton’s _nan weeteo_ stands for Eliot’s
_nanwetee_ (_nanwetue_, Cotton), ‘a bastard.’ _Titta_ should be
_tatta_, a word common among Indians, which is well enough translated
by Morton. Eliot renders it ‘I know not,’ and R. Williams adds to this
meaning, ‘I cannot tell; it may be so.’

“_Cheshetue_ is unknown to me, but I am inclined to believe that Morton
heard something like it, in the connection and substantially with the
meaning he gives it,--some adjective of dispraise, qualifying _squaa_,
or, as we write it, _squaw_.”

[253] [likenesse.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[254] The observations of Roger Williams led him to a different
conclusion: “Their affections, especially to their children, are very
strong.... This extreme affection, together with want of learning,
makes their children saucie, bold and undutifull. I once came into a
house, and requested some water to drink; the father bid his sonne (of
some 8 yeeres of age) to fetch some water: the boy refused, and would
not stir; I told the father, that I would correct my child, if he
should so disobey me &c. Upon this the father took up a sticke, the boy
another, and flew at his father: upon my persuasion, the poore father
made him smart a little, throw down his stick, and run for water, and
the father confessed the benefits of correction, and the evill of their
too indulgent affections.” (_Key_, ch. v.)

To the same effect Champlain wrote (_Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 170): “The
children have great freedom among these tribes. The fathers and mothers
indulge them too much, and never punish them. Accordingly they are so
bad and of so vicious a nature, that they often strike their mothers
and others. The most vicious, when they have acquired the strength
and power, strike their fathers. They do this whenever the father or
mother does anything that does not please them. This is a sort of curse
that God inflicts upon them.” Winslow, on the other hand, in his _Good
News_, lends some support to Morton’s statement in the text. He says:
“The younger sort reverence the elder, and do all mean offices, whilst
they are together, although they be strangers.” (Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 363.)

[255] This Sachem, “the most noted powow and sorcerer of all the
country,” is better known by the name of Passaconaway. There is quite
an account of him in Drake’s _Book of the Indians_ (B. III. ch. vii).
He is the Pissacannawa mentioned by Wood in his _Prospect_ (p. 70),
of whom the savages reported that he could “make the water burn, the
rocks move, the trees dance, metamorphize himself into a flaming man.”
Morton says of the Indian conjurers, “some correspondency they have
with the Devil out of all doubt;” Wood, to the same effect, remarks
that “by God’s permission, through the Devil’s helpe, their charmes
are of force to produce effects of wonderment;” Smith declares of the
Indians, “their chiefe God they worship is the Devil” (_True Travels_,
vol. i. p. 138); Mather intimates that it was the devil who seduced the
first inhabitants of America into it (_Magnalia_, B. I. ch. i. § 3),
and Winthrop, describing the great freshet of 1638, records that the
Indians “being pawawing in this tempest, the Devil came and fetched
away five of them” (vol. i. p. *293).

See also Gookin’s _Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 154;
Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 356; and Champlain’s _Voyages_, vol. iii.
p. 171. Champlain says the Indians do not worship any God; “they have,
however, some respect for the devil.”

[256] [Ingling.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[257] In regard to the Indian Powaws, priests, or medicine men, and
their methods of dealing with the sick, see the detailed account in
Champlain’s _Voyages_, vol. iii. pp. 171-8; Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_,
p. 134; Wood’s _Prospect_, p. 71; Williams’s _Key_, ch. xxxi.; Gookin’s
_Indians_, I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 154; Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, pp. 317, 357; Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_, (Trumbull’s ed.) p.
117; Parkman’s _Jesuits in North America_, pp. lxxxiv.-lxxxvii.; also
_Magnalia_, B. III. part. iii., where Mather says: “In most of their
dangerous distempers, it is a _powaw_ that must be sent for; that is,
a priest who has more familiarity with Satan than his neighbors; this
conjurer comes and roars and howls and uses magical ceremonies over the
sick man, and will be well paid for it when he is done; if this don’t
effect the cure, the ‘man’s time is come, and there’s an end.’” For a
summary in Indian medical practice, see further, Ellis’s _Red Man and
White Man_, pp. 127-33.

[258] Passaconoway, already referred to (_supra_, p. 150, _note_),
dwelt at a place called Pennakook, and his dominions extended over the
sachems living upon the Piscataqua and its branches. The young Sachem
of Saugus was named Winnepurkitt, and was commonly known among the
English as George Rumney-marsh. He was a son of Nanepashemet, and at
one time proprietor of Deer Island in Boston Harbor. (Drake’s _Book of
the Indians_, ed. 1851, pp. 105, 111, 278.) The incident in the text
has been made the subject of a poem, _The Bridal of Pennacook_, by
Whittier, and Drake repeats it; but as Winnepurkitt is said by Drake to
have been born in 1616, and to have succeeded Montowampate as Sachem in
1633, and as Morton, at the close of the present chapter, declares that
“the lady, when I came out of the country [in 1630], remained still
with her father,” the whole story would seem to be not only highly
inconsistent with what we know of Indian life and habits, but also at
variance with facts and dates.

[259] [not determined.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[260] Josselyn’s account of the Indian wampum is written, more than any
other which has come down to us, in the spirit of the _New Canaan_:
“Their Merchandize are their beads, which are their money, of these
there are two sorts, blew Beads and white Beads, the first is their
Gold, the last their Silver, these they work out of certain shells so
cunningly that neither _Jew_ nor Devil can counterfeit, they dril them
and string them, and make many curious works with them to adorn the
persons of their Sagamores and principal men and young women, as Belts,
Girdles, Tablets, Borders for their womens hair, Bracelets, Necklaces,
and links to hang in their ears. Prince _Phillip_, a little before I
came for England, coming to Boston, had a coat on and Buskins set thick
with these Beads in pleasant wild works, and a broad belt of the same;
his Accoutrements were valued at Twenty pounds. The English Merchant
giveth them ten shillings a fathom for their white, and as much more or
near upon for their blew beads.” (_Two Voyages_, pp. 142-3.)

There is a much better description of wampum in Lawson’s account of
Carolina, quoted by Drake (_Book of the Indians_, p. 328), in which
he says that wampum was current money among the Indians “all over the
continent, as far as the bay of Mexico.” Lawson’s explanation of the
fact that wampum was not counterfeited to any considerable extent is
much more natural than Morton’s. It cost more to counterfeit it than
it was worth. “To make this _Peak_ it cost the English five or ten
times as much as they could get for it; whereas it cost the Indians
nothing, because they set no value upon their time, and therefore have
no competitors to fear, or that others will take its manufacture out of
their hands.”

Roger Williams (_Key_, ch. xxvi.) devotes considerable space to this
subject, and says: “They [the Indians] hang these strings of money
about their necks and wrists; as also upon the necks and wrists of
their wives and children. They make [girdles] curiously of one, two,
three, foure and five inches thickness and more, of this money which
(sometimes to the value of ten pounds and more) they weare about their
middle and as a scarfe about their shoulders and breasts. Yea, the
Princes make rich Caps and Aprons (or small breeches) of these Beads
thus curiously strung into many formes and figures: their blacke and
white finely mixt together.” See also Trumbull’s notes in his edition
of the _Key_, and Palfrey, vol. i. p. 31. Parkman (_Jesuits in North
America_, pp. xxxi., lxi.) says of wampum: “This was at once their
currency, their ornament, their pen, ink and parchment.” He describes
the uses to which it was put among the Hurons and Iroquois, but adds:
“The art [of working it] soon fell into disuse, however; for wampum
better than their own was brought them by the traders, besides abundant
imitations in glass and porcelain.”

[261] “How have foule hands (in smoakie houses) the first handling of
these Furres which are often worne upon the hands of Queens and heads
of Princes!” (Williams’s _Key_, p. 158.)

[262] There is obviously some corruption of the original manuscript
here, but I have been unable to obtain any even plausible suggestion of
what word may have been turned into “reles” through the compositor’s
inability to decipher copy.

[263] There is not much to be said on the manufactures, utensils and
trade of the New England aborigines. Gookin (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. i. p. 151) has a comprehensive paragraph on the subject, and there
is a passage in Josselyn (_Two Voyages_, p. 143). See also Williams’s
_Key_, ch. xxv.

[264] Josselyn also speaks of “baskets, bags and mats woven with
_Sparke_.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 143.) “Spart,” Mr. Trumbull writes, “was
a northern English name for the dwarf-rush, and (as ‘spart’ in the
glossaries) for osiers, and I _guess_, Morton’s and Josselyn’s _sparke_
is another form of that name.” Gookin says (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. i. p. 151): “Some of their baskets are made of rushes; some, of
bents; others, of maize-husks; others, of a kind of silk grass; others,
of a kind of wild hemp; and some, of barks of trees.”

[265] Wood says of the Indian women: “Their corn being ripe, they
gather it, and drying it hard in the Sun, conveigh it to their barnes,
which be great holes digged in the ground in forme of a brasse pot,
seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne, covering
it from the inquisitive search of their gurmundizing husbands, who
would eate up both their allowed portion, and reserved seed, if they
knew where to finde it. But our hogges having found a way to unhindge
their barne doores, and robbe their garners, they are glad to implore
their husbands helpe to roule the bodies of trees over their holes,
to prevent these pioneers, whose theevery they as much hate as their
flesh.” (_Prospect_, p. 81.) Mather also, in enumerating the points
of resemblance between the Indians and the Israelites, (_Magnalia_,
B. III. part iii.) says: “They have, too, a great unkindness for our
_swine_; but I suppose that is because the hogs devour the clams, which
are a dainty with them.”

[266] See Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, p. 148; also, _infra_, 175,
_n._

[267] This Sachem has already been sufficiently referred to (_Supra_,
p. 11.) All that is known concerning him can be found in Drake’s _Book
of the Indians_, (ed. 1851), pp. 107-9.

[268] Morton’s neighbors at Wessaguscus were William Jeffrey, John
Bursley and such others of the Robert Gorges expedition of 1623 as
still remained there. (_Supra_, 4, 24, 30.) See also _Mass. Hist. Soc.
Proc._ 1878, p. 198.

[269] _Infra_, *77.

[270] “Frumenty, _n._ [Also _furmenty_ and _fumety_; from Lat.
_frumentum_]. Food made of wheat boiled in milk, and seasoned with
sugar, cinnamon, &c.” _Webster._

[271] Squanto. See _infra_, *104.

[272] In reference to this passage, Mr. Francis Parkman writes: “I have
searched my memory in vain for anything in the early French writers
answering to Morton’s statement. I don’t think that Cartier, Champlain,
Biard, Lescarbot or Le Jeune, the principal writers before 1635, make
the extraordinary assertions in question. In fact, as there were no
Spaniards in Canada, and likely to be none on French vessels going
there, Indians of those parts would hardly have the opportunity of
distinguishing between them by smell or otherwise. Indeed, they did not
know the existence of such a nation.”

[273] _Supra_, *27, _note_.

[274] “Kytan was an appellation of the greatest _manito_. The word
signifies ‘greatest’ or ‘pre-eminent.’ See my note (p. 207) in
Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_ (p. 120), where is mention of ‘Kitan, their
good god.’ Roger Williams in a letter to Thomas Thorowgood, 1635, names
‘their god Kuttand to the south-west’ (_Jewes in America_, 1650, p. 6)
but in his _Key_, he writes the name Cautantowit (_To the Reader_, p.
24.) i. e., _Keihte-anito_--‘greatest manito.’

“I have not met with the name _Sanaconquam_ elsewhere: at least I do
not remember seeing it except in Morton. The derivation is apparently
from a word meaning to press upon, to op-press, to crush, or the like.”
(_Manuscript Letter of J. H. Trumbull_, June 25, 1882.)

See, also, authorities referred to _supra_, p. 140, _note_, and also
Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, pp. 134-9. Morell has a passage on the
Indian’s methods of worship in his poem. (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol.
i. p. 136.)

[275] Roger Williams says: “They will relate how they have it from
their Fathers, that Kantántowwit 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 Fountaines of all mankind.” (_Key_, ch.
xxi.)

“They believe that the soules of men and women goe to the Sou-west,
their great and good men and women to Cantántowwit his House, where
they have hopes (as the Turks have) of carnal Joyes: Murtherers,
theeves and Lyers, their souls (say they) wander restlesse abroad.”
(_Ib._)

Wood, enlarging on this, says: “Yet do they hold the immortality of
the never-dying soul, that it shall passe to the South-west _Elysium_,
concerning which their _Indian_ faith jumps much with the _Turkish
Alchoran_, holding it to be a kind of Paradise, wherein they shall
everlastingly abide, solacing themselves in odoriferous Gardens,
fruitfull corn-fields, green meadows, bathing their hides in the coole
streams of pleasant Rivers, and shelter themselves from heat and cold
in the sumptuous Pallaces framed by the skill of Natures curious
contrivement. Concluding that neither care nor pain shall molest them
but that Natures bounty wil administer all things with a voluntary
contribution from the overflowing storehouse of their _Elysian_
Hospital, at the portall whereof they say lies a great Dog, whose
churlish snarlings deny a _Pax intrantibus_ to unworthy intruders.”
(_Prospect_, p. 79.)

Parkman says: “The primitive Indian believed in the immortality of the
soul, but he did not always believe in a state of future reward and
punishment.” (_Jesuits in North America_, p. lxxx.) Referring to a
case in which one of the Jesuits quoted an Indian as saying “there was
no future life,” Parkman adds: “It would be difficult to find another
instance of the kind.”

The romantic view of the Indian on this point was taken by Arnold, in
his _History of Rhode Island_ (vol. i. p. 78), and the realistic view
by Palfrey, in his _New England_ (vol. i. p. 49); and, though writing
at the same time, the two seem to be controverting each other. See
Ellis’s _Red Man and White Man_, p. 115.

[276] _Supra_, p. 93.

[277] Roger Williams, also, in a passage just quoted (_supra_, 168,
_note_), speaks of the future punishment supposed, among the New
England Indians, to be allotted to thieves and liars. Josselyn, on the
other hand, describes them as “very fingurative or theevish” (_Two
Voyages_, p. 125); and Gookin says: “They are naturally much addicted
to lying and speaking untruth: and unto stealing, especially from the
English” (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 149). Winslow describes
the severe punishments inflicted for theft (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._,
p. 364). Dodge, in his _Wild Indians_ (pp. 63-5), explains this
discrepancy in the authorities. He says: “All these authors are both
right and wrong. In their own bands, Indians are perfectly honest....
It [theft] is the sole unpardonable crime among Indians.” He then
describes, like Winslow, the severity of the punishments inflicted for
thefts; “but,” he adds, “this wonderfully exceptional honesty extends
no further than to the members of his immediate band. To all outside of
it, the Indian is not only one of the most arrant thieves in the world,
but this quality or faculty is held in the highest estimation.”

[278] The reference is to ch. iii. of the Third Booke (_infra_,
*106-8). This passage would seem to indicate that the third book of
the _New Canaan_ was written first, and that the two other books were
prepared subsequently, probably in imitation of Wood’s _Prospect_. (See
_supra_, 78.)

[279] “Yea, I saw with mine owne eyes that at my late comming forth
of the Countrey, the chiefe and most aged peaceable Father of the
countrey, Caunoŭnicus, having buried his sonne, he burned his owne
Palace, and all his goods in it, (amongst them to a great value) in a
sollemne remembrance of his sonne, and in a kind of humble Expiation
to the Gods, who, (as they believe) had taken his sonne from him.”
(Williams’s _Key_, ch. xxxii.) In the same passage Williams says:
“Upon the Grave is spread the Mat that the party died on, the Dish he
ate in, and, sometimes, a faire Coat of skin hung upon the next tree
to the Grave, which none will touch, but suffer it there to rot with
the dead.” See also Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 142, 143, 154, 363;
Strachey’s _Historie_, p. 90.

“In times of general Mortality they omit the Ceremonies of burying,
exposing their dead Carkases to the Beasts of prey. But at other times
they dig a Pit and set the diseased therein upon his breech upright,
and, throwing in the earth, cover it with the sods and bind them
down with sticks, driving in two stakes at each end; their mournings
are somewhat like the howlings of the Irish, seldom at the grave
but in the Wigwam where the party dyed, blaming the Devil for his
hard-heartedness, and concluding with rude prayers to him to afflict
them no further.” (Josselyn, _Two Voyages_, p. 132.) There is a highly
characteristic passage to the same effect in Wood’s _Prospect_, p. 79.

[280] _Supra_, 143.

[281] The reference is to Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, p. 13;
where, also, the Indian custom of firing the country in November is
described.

[282] Gookin says: “This beastly sin of drunkenness could not be
charged upon the Indians before the English and other Christian
nations, as Dutch, French, and Spaniards, came to dwell in America:
which nations, especially the English in New-England, have cause to be
greatly humbled before God, that they have been, and are, instrumental
to cause these Indians to commit this great evil and beastly sin of
drunkenness.” (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. i. p. 151.)

In regard to the peculiarities of Indian drunkenness, see Dodge’s
_Wild Indians_, pp. 333-5. What is there said of the Indians of “the
plains” is probably true of all the northern American Indians. “This
passion for intoxication amounts almost to an insanity.... To drink
liquor as a beverage, for the gratification of taste, or for the sake
of pleasurable conviviality, is something of which the Indian can form
no conception. His idea of pleasure in the use of strong drink is to
get drunk, and the quicker and more complete that effect, the better he
likes it.”

[283] “They live in a country where _we_ now have all the conveniences
of human life: but as for _them_, their _housing_ is nothing but a few
_mats_ tyed about _poles_ fastened in the earth, where a good _fire_
is their _bed-clothes_ in the coldest seasons; their _clothing_ is but
a skin of a beast, covering their _hind-parts_, their _fore-parts_
having but a little apron, where nature calls for secrecy; their _diet_
has not a greater dainty than their _Nokehick_, that is a spoonful of
their _parched meal_, with a spoonful of _water_, which will strengthen
them to travel a day to-gether; except we should mention the flesh of
_deers_, _bears_, _mose_, _rackoons_, and the like, which they have
when they can _catch_ them; as also a little _fish_, which, if they
would preserve, it was by _drying_, not by _salting_; for they had not
a grain of _salt_ in the world, I think, till we bestowed it on them.”
_Magnalia_, B. III. part iii. In his _Letters and Notes on the North
American Indians_ (_Letter No. 17_) Catlin comments on the failure
of the Indians to make any use of salt, even in localities where it
abounds. See _supra_, 161.

[284] The relations supposed to exist between the Indians and the devil
have been referred to in a previous note, _supra_, 150. It is, however,
a somewhat curious fact that the aboriginal hierarchy, suggested in
the text, had a few years before found its exact political counterpart
in the talk of the English people. “‘Who governs the land?’ it was
asked. ‘Why, the King.’ ‘And who governs the King?’ ‘Why, the Duke of
Buckingham.’ ‘And who governs the Duke?’ ‘Why, the Devil.’” (Ewald’s
_Stories from the State Papers_, vol. ii. p. 117.)

[285] “Sed quoniam, (ut præclare scriptum est a Platone) non nobis
solum nati sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria, vindicat, partem
amici.” _De Officiis_, Lib. I. § 7. The words “partem parentes” are not
in the original, but have been inserted by modern scholars as rendering
the quotation from Plato more correct.

[286] In annotating this chapter I have been indebted to Professors
Asa Gray and C. S. Sargent of Harvard University for assistance, they
having sent me several of the more technical notes. This and the five
following chapters of the _New Canaan_ have a certain interest as being
among the earliest memoranda on the trees, animals, birds, fish and
geology of Massachusetts. The only earlier publication of at all a
similar character is Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, which appeared
in 1634, and contained the result of observations made during the four
years 1629 to 1633. Morton’s acquaintance with the country was earlier
and longer than Wood’s, but the _New Canaan_ was not published until
three years after the _Prospect_, which it followed closely in its
description of the country and its products. Josselyn’s first voyage
was made in 1638, and his stay in New England covered a period of
fifteen months, July, 1638, to October, 1639. His second visit was in
1663, and lasted until 1671. The _New England’s Rarities_ was published
in 1672, and the _Two Voyages_ in 1674. Josselyn’s alone of these works
can make any pretence to a scientific character or nomenclature, but
the four taken together constitute the whole body of early New England
natural history and geology. Only occasional reference to this class of
subjects is found in other writers.

[287] The White Oake includes, no doubt, _Quercus alba_ and _bicolor_,
and the Redd Oake, _Quercus rubra_, _tinctoria_ and _coccinea_.

[288] Edward Williams, in his _Virginia_ (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No.
11. p. 14), written in 1650, says: “Nor are Pipestaves and Clapboard
a despicable commodity, of which one man may with ease make fifteen
thousand yearely, which in the countrey itselfe are sold for 4 l. in
the _Canaries_ for twenty pound the thousand, and by this means the
labour of one man will yeeld him 60 l. _per annum_, at the lowest
Market.”

[289] Probably _Fraxinus Americana_, although two other species of Ash
are common in Massachusetts, the Red and the Black Ash (_F. pubescens_
and _sambucifolia_).

[290] It is interesting to note that, at this early day, two forms of
our one species of Beech were distinguished by the color of the wood,
a distinction which has often been adopted by Botanists and is still
considered by mechanics and woodsmen.

[291] This refers, no doubt, to our different species of Hickory,
although the Butternut (_Juglans cinerea_) is common in Massachusetts.

[292] Both the White and the Pitch Pine (_Pinus strobus_, and _rigida_)
are probably referred to.

[293] “For I have seene of these stately high growne trees, ten miles
together close by the River side, from whence by shipping they might
be conveyed to any desired Port.” (Wood’s _New England’s Prospect_, p.
15.)

[294] The Red Cedar (_Juniperus virginia_).

[295] This is clearly a contemptuous reference to Wood, who in his
_Prospect_ (p. 15) had said, “The Cedar tree is a tree of no great
growth, not bearing above a foote and a halfe square at the most,
neither is it very high. I suppose they be much inferiour to the Cedars
of _Lebenon_, so much commended in holy writ.”

[296] _Supra_, 173.

[297] The White Cedar (_Chamaecyparis thyoides_); or perhaps Arbor-Vitæ
(_Thuja occindentalis_), which is the “more bewtifull tree.”

[298] A misprint for Gerard, whose _Herball, or Generall Historie of
Plants_, was published in 1597, and Johnson’s edition of it in 1633.

[299] This probably includes both the Black Spruce (_Picea nigra_) and
the Hemlock (_Truga canadensis_).

[300] “Spruce is a goodly Tree, of which they make Masts for Ships,
and Sail Yards: It is generally conceived by those that have skill in
Building of Ships, that here is absolutely the best Trees in the World,
many of them being three Fathom about, and of great length.” (Josselyn,
_Rarities_, p. 63.) “At _Pascataway_ there is now a Spruce-tree brought
down to the water-side by our Mass-men of an incredible bigness, and so
long that no Skipper durst ever yet adventure to ship it, but there it
lyes and Rots.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 67.)

[301] [whether.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[302] Probably the Sugar, Red and White Maples are intended: _Acer
saccharinum_, _rubrum_ and _dasycarpum_. It is singular that no
reference to the manufacture of maple sugar by the Indians occurs.

[303] (Elder) _Sambucus Canadensis_.

[304] Wood (_Prospect_, p. 15) says, “Two sorts, Red and White.” None
of our native Grape vines bear White grapes.

[305] _Supra_, 173.

[306] Perhaps our little Beach plum (_P. maritima_) is intended. The
wild American Plum-tree is probably not a native of Massachusetts,
although it was early cultivated by the aborigines and settlers.

[307] (_Sassafras officinale._)

[308] The Ginseng (_Aralia quinquefolia_), or the Wild Sarsaparilla
(_Aralia nudicaulis_).

[309] In Chapter IX. of this Book (_infra_, *94) Morton again refers to
the growth of hemp in New England, as evidence of the fertility of the
soil. He declares “that it shewteth up to be tenne foote high and tenne
foote and a halfe.” Thomas Wiggin, also, in writing of New England
in November, 1632, says: “As good hempe and fflax as in any parte of
the world, growes there naturally.” (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol.
viii. p. 322.) Hemp, however, is not native to New England or America.
That spoken of must have been grown from seed brought over by the
colonists. Morton may have seen it growing in garden soil at Plymouth
and Wessagusset, but that any field of it ever reached a height of ten
or ten and a half feet in eastern Massachusetts is very questionable.

[310] Professor Gray of Harvard University has furnished me the
following note on this chapter:--

“Unlike Josselyn, the author evidently was not an herbalist, and
wrote at random. His pot-marjoram, thyme and balm, though not to be
specifically identified, and none of them of the same species as in
England, must be represented by our American pennyroyal (_Hedeoma
pulegioides_), a native mint (_Mentha borealis_), wild basil
(_Pycnanthemum_), and a species of _Monarda_, sometimes called balm,
all sweet herbs of the New England coast. Alexander is hardly to
be guessed. Angelica as a genus occurs here, but not the officinal
species. Wild sarsaparilla (_Aralia nudicaulis_) was probably in view.
Purslane is interesting in this connection, adding as it does to the
probability that this plant was in the country before the settlement.
There are no Anniseeds in New England, and it is impossible to guess
what the author meant. It was probably a random statement founded
on nothing in particular. The Honeysuckles were doubtless the two
species of _Azalea_ to which the name is still applied.” Wood also says
(_Prospect_, pp. 11, 12), “There is likewise growing all manner of
Hearbes for meate and medicine, and not only in planted Gardens, but in
the woods, without either the art or helpe of man, as sweete Marjoram,
Purselane, Sorrell, Peneriall, Yarrow, Myrtle, Saxifarilla, Bayes, &c.”
See also Mr. Tuckerman’s introductory matter and notes, in his edition
of _New England’s Rarities_ [1865], and Professor Gray’s chapter (vol.
i. ch. ii.) on the Flora of Boston and vicinity, and the changes it has
undergone, in the _Memorial History of Boston_.

[311] For the greater part of the notes to this chapter, and for all
those of a technical character, I am indebted to Mr. William Brewster,
of Cambridge. To his notes I have added a few references to, and
extracts from, other early works more or less contemporaneous with the
_New Canaan_.

[312] Probably the Whistling Swan (_Cygnus Americanus_), now a rare
visitor to New England. Wood, also, in his poetical enumeration of
birds and fowls (_Prospect_, p. 23), speaks of

  “The Silver Swan that tunes her mournfull breath,
  To sing the dirge of her approaching death.”

Further on (p. 26) he says, “There be likewise many Swannes which
frequent the fresh ponds and rivers, seldome consorting themselves with
Duckes and Geese; these be very good meate, the price of one is six
shillings.” In his enumeration of birds of New England, Josselyn (_Two
Voyages_, p. 100) mentions “_Hookers_ or wild-_Swans_.” This bird is
not included in Peabody’s _Report on the Ornithol. of Massachusetts_
(1839).

[313] The Brant (_Bernicla brenta_), common at the present day.

[314] The Snow Goose (_Anser hyperboreus_), now rare in New England,
although common throughout the West.

[315] The Canada Goose (_Bernicla Canadensis_).

[316] The Black Duck (_Anas obscura_), still abundant. The identity
of the other two is doubtful: the Pide Duck may have been the Pied or
Labrador Duck (_Camptolæmus Labradorius_), a species formerly common
but now nearly if not wholly extinct; the Gray Duck is probably the
Pintail (_Dafila acuta_).

[317] The Green-winged Teal (_Querquedula Carolinensis_) and the
Blue-winged Teal (_Querquedula discors_), both noted for the delicacy
of their flesh.

[318] Probably the American Widgeon, or Baldpate (_Mareca Americana_).
The name Widgeon is sometimes applied to other species, however.

[319] Probably some species of web-footed bird, but exactly what is not
clear. Mr. Merriam, in his _Review of the Birds of Connecticut_ (pp.
104-5), identifies Morton’s Simpe as the American Woodcock (_Philohela
minor_), but in this he is doubtless in error. In the first place,
it is not likely that a keen sportsman like Morton would have shot
woodcock merely out of curiosity, and “more did not regard them;” in
the second place, Josselyn, in enumerating the different sorts of
ducks, speaks of “_Widgeons_, _Simps_, _Teal_, Blew wing’d and green
wing’d.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 101.) But for the reference in the next
paragraph in the text, and the disparaging manner in which the bird in
question is alluded to, it would be inferred that Simpes was a natural
misprint for Snipes. That, however, is clearly not the case.

[320] The Sanderling (_Calidris arenaria_), a common Sandpiper,
peculiar in lacking the usual hind toe. The context indicates that
other shore birds were included under this name. “There are little
Birds that frequent the Sea-shore in flocks called _Sanderlins_, they
are about the bigness of a _Sparrow_, and in the fall of the leaf will
be all fat; when I was first in the Countrie the _English_ cut them
into small pieces to put into their Puddings instead of suet. I have
known twelve score and above kill’d at two shots.” (Josselyn’s _Two
Voyages_, p. 102.) To precisely the same effect Wood says (_Prospect_,
p. 27), “I myselfe have killed twelve score at two shootes.”

[321] Neither the Whooping Crane (_Grus Americana_) nor the Sandhill
Crane (_Grus pratensis_) is now found in New England. The latter
is probably the species referred to here. Our large Heron (_Ardea
herodias_) is often called Crane by country people, but it does not eat
corn, and “in a dishe” would hardly be considered “a goodly bird.”

[322] The Wild Turkey (_Meleagris gallipavo Americana_) is mentioned by
all the early writers as an abundant bird; but it disappeared almost as
rapidly as the Indians, before the encroachment of the white settlers.
Peabody, writing in 1839 (_Report on the Fishes, Reptiles, and Birds of
Massachusetts_, p. 352), says: “It is still found occasionally in our
western mountains, and also on the Holyoke range, where some are taken
every year.” Its total extinction probably occurred only a few years
later.

[323] Probably an exaggeration, although Audubon mentions one that
weighed thirty-six pounds; the ordinary weight of the full-grown male
is from fifteen to twenty pounds, a gobbler weighing twenty-five pounds
being an unusually large bird. Yet Morton’s statement is fully borne
out by other contemporary authorities. Wood says, “The Turky is a very
large bird, of a blacke colour, yet white in flesh; much bigger then
our English Turky. He hath the use of his long legs so ready, that he
can runne as fast as a Dogge, and flye as well as a Goose: of these
sometimes there will be forty, three-score and an hundred of a flocke,
sometimes more and sometimes lesse; their feeding is Acorns, Hawes, and
Berries, some of them get a haunt to frequent our _English_ corne: In
Winter when the Snow covers the ground, they resort to the Sea-shore
to looke for Shrimps, and such small fishes at low tides. Such as love
Turkie hunting must follow it in Winter after a new falne Snow, when
he may follow them by their tracts; some have killed ten or a dozen
in halfe a day; if they can be found towards an evening, and watched
where they peirch, if one came about ten or eleaven of the clocke,
he may shoote as often as he will, they will sit, unlesse they be
slenderly wounded. These Turkies remain all the yeare long. The price
of a good Turkie cocke is foure shillings: and he is well worth it, for
he may be in weight forty pound; a Hen two shillings.” (_New England’s
Prospect_, p. 24.) So also Josselyn: “I have heard several credible
persons affirm, they have seen _Turkie Cocks_ that have weighed forty,
yea sixty pounds; but out of my personal experimental knowledge I
can assure you, that I have eaten my share of a _Turkie Cock_, that
when he was pull’d and garbidg’d, weighed thirty pound.” He adds,
however, that even then [1670] “the _English_ and the _Indians_ having
now destroyed the breed, so that ’tis very rare to meet with a wild
_Turkie_ in the Woods.” (_New England’s Rarities_, p. 9.) See also _Two
Voyages_, p. 99, where the same writer says: “If you would preserve the
young Chickens alive, you must give them no water, for if they come to
have their fill of water, they will drop away strangely, and you will
never be able to rear any of them.” John Clayton, in his _Letter to
the Royal Society_ [1688], says of Virginia: “There be wild Turkies
extream large; they talk of Turkies that have been kill’d, that have
weigh’d betwixt 50 and 60 Pound weight; the largest that ever I saw,
weigh’d something better than 38 Pound.” (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No.
12, p. 30.) Williams, in his _Virginia_ [1650], speaks of “infinites
of wilde Turkeyes, which have been knowne to weigh fifty pound weight,
ordinarily forty.” (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No. 11, p. 12.) See also
Strachey’s _Historie_, p. 125; Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 253.

[324] In regard to this expression Mr. Trumbull writes: “_Metawna_
is _mittànnug_ (R. Williams), _muttannunk_ (Eliot),--Englished by ‘a
thousand;’ but to the Indians less definite, ‘a great many,’ more
than he could count. _Neent_ is possibly a misprint for _necut_
(_nequt_, Eliot), ‘one,’--but, more likely, stands for ‘I have,’ or its
equivalent, ‘there is to me.’ Roger Williams (p. 164) puts the numeral
first, _nneesnneánna_, ‘I have killed two,’--_shwinneánna_, [‘I have
killed] three,’” &c.

[325] The Pheasant of Morton and other early writers has been
supposed by ornithologists to be the Prairie Hen or Pinnated Grouse
(_Cupidonia cupido_), a species which, however, has dark not “white
flesh,”--“formerly ... so common on the ancient busky site of the city
of Boston, that laboring people or servants stipulated with their
employers, not to have the _Heath-Hen_ brought to table oftener then
a few times in the week.” (Nuttall’s _Ornithology_, vol. i. p. 800.)
There is good evidence that this bird once ranged over a large part of
Southern New England; it is still found on Martha’s Vineyard, where it
is carefully protected and is not uncommon. Elsewhere it does not now
occur much to the eastward of Illinois.

[326] The Ruffed Grouse (_Bonasa umbella_).

[327] The American Partridge, Quail, or Bob White (_Ortyx Virginiana_).

[328] Of doubtful application. Our Horned Lark (_Eremophila alpestris_)
is the nearest North American ally of the English Skylark, but it is
so differently  that Morton probably had in mind some other
species, perhaps the Titlark (_Anthus ludovicianus_).

[329] Three species of Crows are found in New England: the Raven
(_Corvus carnivorus_), now confined to the northern parts of Maine,
New Hampshire, and Vermont; the Common Crow (_Corvus Americanus_);
and the Fish Crow (_Corvus ossifragus_), which occasionally wanders
to Massachusetts from its true home in the Middle and Southern
States. The latter may have been the Rook. “Kight” is a dubious
appellation, possibly referring to the Swallow-tailed Kite (_Nauclerus
furcatus_), now a rare straggler from the South, but formerly, as some
ornithologists believe, of regular occurrence in New England.

[330] The descriptions given for these Hawks are too vague to be of
much use in determining species. A clew is often furnished by familiar
terms of falconry, which, we may assume, would be naturally applied
to American representatives of Old World forms. Morton, however,
uses these terms very loosely, or, perhaps, with a regard to fine
distinctions of meaning not now understood. In such a case nothing can
be done beyond pointing out their accepted significance and probable
application.

[331] The male of _Falco lanarius_, a Falcon found in the southern
and south-eastern parts of Europe, as well as in Western Asia and the
adjoining portions of Africa. An American variety, the Prairie Falcon
(_Falco lanarius polyagrus_), has a wide range in the West, but is not
known to have occurred to the eastward of Illinois. The bird referred
to by Morton is doubtless the Duck Hawk (_Falco peregrinus_), an allied
species not uncommon in New England.

[332] In the records of the Council for New England, under date of
the 26th of November, 1635, or about the time that Morton was writing
the _New Canaan_, is the following entry: “The Hawks brought over by
Capt. Smart are to be presented to his Majesty on Saturday next, by
the Lords of those Provinces. And the said Captain to be recommended
to his Majestys service upon occasion of employments for his care and
industry used to bring them over, and for other his services done in
those parts.”

[333] The Cockchafer.

[334] _I. e._, like the Buzzard-Hawks of the genus _Buteo_, a sluggish
tribe of _Raptores_.

[335] Properly of general application to the genus _Falco_; if used
specifically here there is no clew to its precise meaning.

[336] Usually written _tercel_, and sometimes _tiercel_ or _tiërcel_.
The male of any hawk, so termed because he is a third smaller than the
female, or, as some have thought, because it was believed that every
third bird hatched was a male. The name, as used in falconry, almost
always refers to the male Goshawk (_Astur palumbarius_), while with the
addition of _gentil_, or _gentle_, it indicated the female or young of
this species. The bird alluded to here is probably the American Goshawk
(_Astur atricapillus_).

[337] The American Sparrow Hawk (_Falco sparverius_), a small and
richly  Falcon, would be likely to be used for such a purpose.

[338] If not applied to the male Goshawk (see note on “tassel
gentles”), perhaps referring to Hawks of the genus _Buteo_, represented
in New England by three species, _Buteo borealis_, _B. lineatus_ and
_B. Pennsylvanicus_.

[339] If Morton always uses _tassel_ in its commonly accepted sense
(see preceding notes), another application must be sought for the
present name. The accompanying text may relate to the Marsh Hawk
(_Circus cyaneus Hudsonius_), the adult male of which is our whitest
New England Hawk, and the young or female perhaps the reddest. The
Marsh Hawk does not prey on full-grown poultry, but it may have been
credited with depredations committed by other species, a piece of
injustice by no means uncommon at the present day.

[340] The Pigeon Hawk (_Falco columbarius_) is the New England
representative of the European Merlin (_Falco regulus_).

[341] Probably the Crow Blackbird (_Quiscalus purpureus æneus_).

[342] The Sharp-shinned Hawk (_Accipiter fuscus_), a common New England
species closely allied to the European Sparrow Hawk (_Accipiter
nisus_). Our Cooper’s Hawk (_Accipiter cooperi_) also may be referred
to under this name.

[343] The Ruby-throated Humming-bird (_Trochilus colubris_), our only
New England species. The Humming-birds are peculiar to the New World;
hence the wonder and interest with which they were regarded by the
early explorers and colonists. There is a letter from Emanuel Downing
to John Winthrop, Jr., of the 21st of November, 1632, in which is this
paragraph: “You have a litle bird in your contrie that makes a humminge
noyse, a little bigger then a bee, I pray send me one of them over,
perfect in his fethers, in a little box.” (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. vi. p. 40^e.) There are many descriptions of this bird in the
earlier writers, though none that I have found so early as Downing’s
letter. Wood says: “The Humbird is one of the wonders of the Countrey,
being no bigger than a Hornet, yet hath all the dimensions of a Bird,
as bill and wings, with quils, Spider-like legges, small clawes: For
colour, shee is glorious as the Raine-bow; as shee flies, shee makes
a little humming noise like a humble bee: wherefore she is called the
Humbird.” (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 24.) Josselyn’s description
is especially good: “The _Humming Bird_, the least of all Birds,
little bigger than a _Dor_, of variable glittering Colours, they feed
upon Honey, which they suck out of Blossoms and Flowers with their
long Needle-like Bills; they sleep all Winter, and are not to be seen
till the Spring, at which time they breed in little Nests, made up
like a bottom of soft, Silk-like matter, their Eggs no bigger than a
white Pease, they hatch three or four at a time, and are proper to
this Country.” (_New England’s Rarities_, p. 6.) See also Clayton’s
_Letter_, &c. (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No. 12, p. 33).

[344] For all the technical and scientific notes to this chapter I am
indebted to Mr. Joel A. Allen, of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy of
Harvard College. To the matter contributed by him I have merely added,
as in the immediately preceding chapters, extracts from other writers,
more or less contemporaneous with Morton, which seemed to me to be
illustrative of the text, or in the same spirit with it. This chapter
of Morton’s is more complete, though probably of less value, than
Wood’s and Josselyn’s chapters on the same subject.

[345] The _Elke_ here mentioned is the Moose (_Alces malchis_) of
American writers; it is specifically the same as the elk of Northern
Europe. From Wood’s account (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 18), it would
seem that the moose in Morton’s time ranged into eastern Massachusetts,
though not found now south of northern Maine. The moose has but a
single fawn at a birth, not three as stated in the text.

Mr. Allen then adds to the above note: “I have met with no published
record of the occurrence of the American Elk, or Wapiti Deer (_Cervus
Canadensis_), in eastern Massachusetts. Since publishing a statement
to this effect (_Mem. Hist. Boston_, vol. i. p. 10), however, I have
learned through the kindness of a correspondent (Henry S. Nourse,
Esq., of South Lancaster, Mass.,) that early in the eighteenth century
sixteen elk were seen near a brook in South Lancaster, one of which
was killed. The tradition is supported by the fact that the antlers of
the individual killed were preserved in the family of the lucky hunter
(Jonas Fairbanks) for a long period, and afterwards placed on the top
of a guide-board, where they still remain, moss-grown and weather-worn
by eighty years of sun and storm. Since the receipt of Mr. Nourse’s
letter (dated Feb. 25, 1882), his account has been corroborated by
information from another source. That the antlers mentioned belonged to
an elk and not to a moose is beyond question.”

[346] “The _English_ have some thoughts of keeping them tame, and to
accustome them to the yoake, which will be a great commoditie: First,
because they are so fruitfull, bringing forth three at a time, being
likewise very uberous. Secondly, because they will live in Winter
without any fodder. There be not many of these in the _Massachusetts
Bay_, but forty miles to the Northeast there be great store of them.”
(_New England’s Prospect_, p. 18.) There are very good descriptions of
the Moose, and the methods pursued in hunting them, in Gorges’s _Brief
Relation_ (II. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. ix. p. 18) and in Josselyn’s
_Two Voyages_, (pp. 88, 137). See, also, _New England’s Rarities_, p.
19.

[347] The common Virginian Deer (_Cariacus Virginianus_), formerly more
or less abundant throughout the eastern half of the United States.

[348] The number of fawns produced at a birth is commonly two,
sometimes one, and still more rarely three; although three is stated
to be the usual number in various seventeenth-century accounts of the
natural productions of New England, Virginia, &c.

[349] Mourt, in his _Relation_ (p. 8), records how Governor William
Bradford, of Plymouth, was caught in one of these traps, and “horsed up
by the leg,” when the first party from the _Mayflower_ was exploring
Cape Cod in November, 1620. Wood says: “An _English_ Mare being strayed
from her owner, and growne wild by her long sojourning in the woods
ranging up and down with the wild crew, stumbled into one of these
traps which stopt her speed, hanging her like _Mahomet’s_ tombe,
betwixt earth and heaven; the morning being come the _Indians_ went to
looke what good successe their Venison trapps had brought them, but
seeing such a long scutted Deere, praunce in their Meritotter, they
bade her good morrow, crying out, what cheere what cheere, _Englishmans
squaw_ horse; having no better epithete than to call her a woman horse,
but being loath to kill her, and as fearefull to approach neere the
friscadoes of her Iron heeles, they posted to the _English_ to tell
them how the case stood or hung with their squaw horse, who unhorsed
their Mare, and brought her to her former tamenesse, which since hath
brought many a good foale, and performed much good service.” (_New
England’s Prospect_, p. 75.) Williams, in his _Key_ (ch. xxvii.),
describes how the deer caught in these traps were torn and devoured
by wolves before the Indians came to secure them. See, also, Colonel
Norwood’s _Voyage to Virginia_. (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No. 10, p. 39.)

[350] _Wesil_, obsolete for _weasand_.

[351] The “third sort of Deere,” of which the author evidently had no
personal knowledge, is doubtless a myth, as the Virginia Deer is the
only species of small deer found in the United States, _south_ of New
England, east of the Mississippi River. The statement that it is “lesse
then the other” (_i. e._ Virginian Deer), together with the southern
habitat assigned it, preclude reference to the Caribou of northern New
England, which the name “rayne deare” otherwise suggests.

[352] “They desire to be neare the Sea, so that they may swimme to
the Islands when they are chased by the Woolves.” (_New England’s
Prospect_, p. 18.) Deer Island is consequently a very common name along
the New England coast; and of the island bearing that name in Boston
harbor, now the site of the city reformatory institutions, Wood says:
“This Iland is so called, because of the Deare which often swimme
thither from the Maine, when they are chased by the woolves: some have
killed sixteene Deere in a day upon this Iland.” Young’s _Chron. of
Mass._, p. 405. See, also, Shurtleff’s _Description of Boston_, p. 464.

[353] The Beaver (_Castor fiber_). The account of the way “they draw
the logg to the habitation appoynted” is a fanciful exaggeration,
hardly less ridiculous than the preceding statement about the
precaution the animal takes in winter to preserve his tail!

_Cunny_, mentioned in the first paragraph, is doubtless a
seventeenth-century barbarism for _cony_, a name at this time commonly
applied to the rabbit. The context, both here and in the account of
the _muskewashe_, seems to imply this, although the word is correctly
written _cony_ in the paragraph relating to Hares. In some of the early
accounts of Virginia, published in the first half of the seventeenth
century, _hares_ and _cunnies_ are enumerated in the lists of animals,
where the latter name evidently means _cony_ or _rabbit_. _Serat_, in
the same paragraph, is a term of much greater obscurity of application.

[354] “The tail, as I have said in another Treatise, is very fat and
of a masculine vertue, as good as _Eringo’s_ or _Satyrion_-Roots.”
(Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, p. 93.)

[355] Bradford, writing of the year 1636, gives the following prices:
“The coat beaver usualy at 20_s._ per pound, and some at 24_s._; the
skin at 15 and sometimes 16. I doe not remember any under 14. It may
be the last year might be something lower” (p. 346). In 1671 Josselyn
says: “A black Bears Skin heretofore was worth forty shillings, now you
may have one for ten.” (_Rarities_, p. 14.) The following prices were
named as ruling in Virginia in 1650; (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No. 11, p.
52.)

“Sables, from 8_s._ the payre, to 20_s._ a payre.

“Otter skins, from 3_s._ to 5_s._ a piece.

“Luzernes, from 2_s._ to 10. a piece.

“Martins the best, 4_s._ a piece.

“Fox skins, 6_d._ a piece.

“Muske Rats skins, 2_s._ a dozen.

“Bever skins that are full growne, in season, are worth 7_s._ a piece.

“Bever skins, not in season, to allow two skins for one, and of the
lesser, three for one.

“Old Bever skins in mantles, gloves or caps, the more worne the better,
so they be full of fur, the pound weight is 6_s._” See _infra_, 207,
_note_ 4, and also *80.

[356] The servant here referred to was probably Walter Bagnall, of
Richmond Island, who was killed by Indians, Oct. 3, 1631. See _infra_,
218, _note_ 1.

[357] The common Otter (_Lutra Canadensis_), now of rare occurrence in
the more settled parts of southern New England.

[358] The _Luseran_, or _Luseret_, is the Bay Lynx, or Wild-cat (_Lynx
rufus_).

“The Ounce or the wild Cat, is as big as a mungrell dogge; this
creature is by nature feirce, and more dangerous to bee met withall
than any other creature, not feering either dogge or man; he useth to
kill Deere which he thus effecteth: Knowing the Deeres tracts, he will
lie lurking in long weedes, the Deere passing by he suddenly leapes
upon his backe, from thence gets to his necke, and scratcheth out his
throate: he hath likewise a devise to get Geese, for being much of the
colour of a Goose, he will place himselfe close by the water, holding
up his bob taile, which is like a Goose necke; the Geese seeing this
counterfeiting Goose, approch nigh to visit him, who with a sudden
jerke apprehends his mistrustlesse prey.” (_New England’s Prospect_,
pp. 19, 20.) Josselyn says: “I once found six whole Ducks in the belly
of one I killed by a Pond side.” (_Rarities_, p. 16.)

[359] The _Martin_. Under this name are doubtless confounded the
Marten (_Mustela Americana_) and the Fisher (_M. Pennanti_). The size,
however, even in case the Fisher alone were referred to, is greatly
overstated.

[360] The _Racowne_ is the common well-known Raccoon (_Procyon lotor_).

[361] Josselyn says of the Raccoon: “their grease is soveraign for
wounds with bruises, aches, streins, bruises; and to anoint after
broken bones and dislocations.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 85.) A little
further on (p. 92) he notes: “One Mr. _Purchase_ cured himself of the
_Sciatica_ with _Bears_-greese, keeping some of it continually in his
groine.”

[362] The _Redd Fox_ is our common Red Fox (_Vulpes vulgaris_,
var. _Pennsylvanicus_). The _Gray Fox_ is doubtless the Virginian
or Gray Fox (_Urocyon cinereoargentatus_) of the South and West,
an animal formerly occurring in New England but long since nearly
extirpated. This is inferred from Josselyn’s account of the _Jaccal_
(_New England’s Rarities_, p. 22), rather than from any clew given
in Morton’s text. The absence of strong scent referred to relates
to the Gray Fox, a character mentioned by Josselyn in his brief but
sufficiently explicit description of his Jaccal.

[363] “The Indians say they have black foxes, which they have often
seen, but never could take any of them. They say they are Manittóoes,
that is Gods, spirits, or divine powers, as they say of every thing
which they cannot comprehend.” (Williams’s _Key_, ch. xvii.) The black
fox-skin, Josselyn says (_Rarities_, p. 21), “heretofore was wont to be
valued at fifty and sixty pound, but now you may have them for twenty
shillings; indeed there is not any in _New England_ that are perfectly
black, but silver hair’d, that is sprinkled with gray hairs.” The black
wolf’s skin, he says (_ib._ p. 16), “is worth a _Beaver_ Skin among the
_Indians_, being highly esteemed for helping old Aches in old people,
worn as a Coat.” Of the foxes Wood remarks: “Some of these be blacke;
their furre is of much esteeme.” (_Prospect_, p. 19.) Elsewhere he says
that the fur of a black wolf was “worth five or sixe pounds Sterling.”
(_Ib._ 20.)

See, also, _supra_, 205, _note_ 2.

[364] The _Wolf_ is the large Gray Wolf (_Canis lupus_), formerly
abundant throughout New England, and well known to vary in color as
mentioned by Morton.

[365] “They be made much like a Mungrell, being big boned, lanke
paunched, deepe breasted, having a thicke necke and head, pricke
eares, and long snoute, with dangerous teeth, long staring haire, and
a great bush taile.... It is observed that they have no joynts from
their head to the taile, which prevents them from leaping or sudden
turning.” (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 20.) See Josselyn’s _Rarities_,
p. 14, and _Two Voyages_, p. 83. He says: “They commonly go in routs,
a rout of Wolves is 12 or more, sometimes by couples.” Of the Virginia
species, Clayton says: “Wolves there are great store; you may hear a
Company Hunting in an Evening, and yelping like a pack of Beagles;
but they are very cowardly, and dare scarce venture on anything that
faces them; yet if hungry will pull down a good large Sheep that flies
from them. I never heard that any of them adventured to set on Man or
Child.” (III. _Force’s Tracts_, No. 12, p. 37.) According to Strachey,
these Virginia wolves were “not much bigger then English foxes.”
(_Historie_, p. 125.) Wood, however, says that the Massachusetts wolves
cared “no more for an ordinary Mastiffe, than an ordinary Mastiffe
cares for a Curre; many good dogges have been spoyled by them.” Shortly
after the landing from the _Mayflower_ at Plymouth, John Goodman,
one evening in January, “went abroad to use his lame feet, that were
pitifully ill with the cold he had got, having a little spaniel with
him. A little way from the plantation two great wolves ran after the
dog; the dog ran to him and betwixt his legs for succour. He had
nothing in his hand, but took up a stick and threw at one of them and
hit him, and they presently ran both away, but came again. He got a
pale-board in his hand; and they set both on their tails grinning at
him a good while; and went their way and left him.” (Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 178.)

[366] _Supra_, 205, _note_ 2, and 207, _note_ 4.

[367] The common Black Bear (_Ursus Americanus_).

[368] “For Beares they be common, being a great black kind of Beare,
which be most fierce in Strawberry time, at which time they have young
ones; at this time likewise they will goe upright like a man, and clime
trees, and swim to the Islands: which if the _Indians_ see, there
will be more sportful Beare bayting than Paris Garden can afford. For
seeing the Beares take water, an _Indian_ will leape after him, where
they goe to water cuffes for bloody noses, and scratched sides; in the
end the man gets the victory, riding the Beare over the watery plaine
till he can beare him no longer.” (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 17.)
“He makes his Denn amongst thick Bushes, thrusting in here and there
store of _moss_, which being covered with snow and melting in the
daytime with heat of the Sun, in the night is frozen into a thick coat
of Ice; the mouth of his Den is very narrow, here they lye single,
never two in a Den all winter. The _Indian_ as soon as he finds them,
creeps in upon all four, seizes with his left hand upon the neck of
the sleeping _Bear_, drags him to the mouth of the Den, where with a
club or small hatchet in his right hand he knocks out his brains before
he can open his eyes to see his enemy.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 91.) Wood
adds that bear’s flesh was “accounted very good meete, esteemed of
all men above Venison.” Clayton says that “their flesh is commended
for a very rich sort of Pork.” (_Virginia_, III. _Force’s Tracts_ No.
12, p. 37.) “Beares there be manie towardes the sea-coast, which the
Indians hunt most greedily; for indeed they love them above all other
their flesh, and therefore hardly sell any of them unto us, unles upon
large proffers of copper, beads and hatchetts. We have eaten of them,
and they are very toothsome sweet venison, as good to be eaten as the
flesh of a calfe of two yeares old; howbeit they are very little in
comparison of those of Muscovia and Tartaria.” (Strachey’s _Historie_,
p. 123.) See, also, Josselyn’s _New England’s Rarities_, pp. 13-14, and
_Two Voyages_, pp. 91-2.

[369] The well-known Muskrat or Musquash (_Fiber zibethicus_) of our
ponds. The “stones” are the oder glands. In respect to _Cunny_, see
_supra_ 204, _note_ 2.

[370] The _Porcupine_ is the Canadian Porcupine (_Erethizon dorsatus_).

[371] The _Hedgehogg_ is the same as the Porcupine, the author being
in error in regarding it as “of the like nature to our English
Hedgehoggs.” The English Hedgehog belongs to a very different order of
mammals, and has no representative in America.

[372] The _Conyes_ are Hares, the small ones of the “Southerne parts”
being the little Gray Hare or Wood Rabbit (_Lepus sylvaticus_) of
southern New England. Those of “the North” are the Varying Hare (_Lepus
Americanus_), or White Rabbit, which is brown in summer and white in
winter. The reference to _black_ ones is an error, wild black hares
being unknown except in cases of Melanism, which are of extremely rare
occurrence. We have no _species_ of hare which is black. Rabbit, it may
be added, is a name not strictly applicable to any indigenous mammal of
America, it being the vernacular specific designation of an Old World
species of hare.

[373] The “_Squirils_ of three sorts” are (1) the Gray Squirrel
(_Sciurus Carolinensis_); (2) the Red Squirrel, or Chickaree (_S.
Hudsonius_); (3) the Flying Squirrel (_Sciuropterus volucellus_). A
fourth kind, the Striped Squirrel, or Chipmunk (_Tamias striatus_) is
not mentioned. The “batlike winges” are of course neither batlike, nor
even wings at all, but merely a narrow furred membrane extending along
the sides of the body, from the fore to the hind limbs.

[374] [and] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[375] “1639. _May_, which fell out to be extream hot and foggie, about
the middle of _May_, I kill’d within a stones throw of our house, above
four score Snakes, some of them as big as the small of my leg, black
of colour, and three yards long, with a sharp horn on the tip of their
tail two inches in length.” (Josselyn’s _Two Voyages_, pp. 22-3.)

[376] Mr. J. H. Trumbull writes: “Morton’s _ascowke_ is Eliot’s
_askook_, R. Williams’s _askùg_, ‘a snake.’ In Zeifberger’s Delaware,
_achgook_; whence (through Heckewelder) Cooper’s _Chingachgook_, ‘the
Great Serpent,’ in the _Last of the Mohicans_.”

[377] Williams, in his _Key_, gives the name as _Sések_. See, also,
Mr. Trumbull’s note in his edition of the _Key_ (p. 130), in the
publications of the Narragansett Society. Wood gives it as _seasicke_.
(_Prospect_, p. 86.)

[378] The stories first told in Europe of the Rattlesnake (_Crotalus
durissus_) were of the most exaggerated kind. He was described as a
reptile of prodigious size, which could fly, and which poisoned by
its breath. (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 39.) The first mention of
this snake in Massachusetts is found in Higginson’s _New England’s
Plantation_ [1630]. It is as follows: “This country being very full of
woods and wildernesses, doth also much abound with snakes and serpents,
of strange colors and huge greatness. Yea, there are some serpents,
called rattlesnakes, that have rattles in their tails, that will not
fly from a man as others will, but will fly upon him and sting him so
mortally that he will die within a quarter of an hour after, except
the party stinged have about him some of the root of an herb called
snake-weed to bite on, and then he shall receive no harm.” (Young’s
_Chron. of Mass._, p. 255.) Wood gives an admirable description of the
rattlesnake (_Prospect_, pp. 38-9), and also speaks of “the Antidote
to expel the poyson, which is a root caled Snake weede, which must
be champed, the spittle swallowed, and the roote applied to the
sore.... Five or six men have been bitten by them, which by using of
snakeweede were all cured, never any yet losing his life by them.”
Josselyn, in his _Rarities_ (p. 39), says: “The _Indians_ when weary
with travelling, will take them up with their bare hands, laying hold
with one hand behind their Head, with the other taking hold of their
Tail, and with their teeth tear off the Skin of their backs, and feed
upon them alive; which they say refresheth them.” He further says that
the heart of the rattlesnake “swallowed fresh” (_Rarities_, p. 39),
or “dried and pulverized and drunk with wine or beer” (_Voyages_, p.
114), is an antidote against its poison. In Clayton’s _Virginia_ (III.
_Force’s Tracts_, No. 12, p. 39), there is a very entertaining passage,
too long to extract, on Rattlesnakes, and the use of East India
snake-stones “that were sent [to Virginia] by King _James_ the Second,
the Queen, and some of the Nobility, purposely to try their Virtue and
Efficacy,” at curing the bite of vipers, &c.

[379] The _Mice_, which our author found in “good store,” belong
chiefly to three species,--namely, the common short-tailed Meadow
Mouse (_Arvicola riparius_), the White-footed Mouse, or Deer Mouse
(_Hesperomys leucopus_), and the Long-tailed Jumping Mouse, or Kangaroo
Mouse (_Zapus Hudsonius_). The common House Mouse (_Mus musculus_)
is an exotic pest, which doubtless had not at that time made its
appearance. Morton is quite right in stating: “but for Rats, the
Country by Nature is troubled with none.” The Black Rat (_Mus rattus_)
was quite early introduced, but the Gray, Wharf, or Norway Rat (_Mus
decumanus_) probably did not make its appearance till fully a century
after Morton wrote his _New English Canaan_.

[380] Morton, as was natural for a keen sportsman who had himself been
in the tropics, was wiser on the subject of Lions than other Englishmen
in New England. From the first landing at Plymouth, when John Goodman
and Peter Browne, getting lost in the woods, heard “two lions roaring
exceedingly,” down to 1639, when Josselyn heard “of a young Lyon (not
long before) kill’d at Pascataway by an Indian,” there were vague
stories of these animals having been either seen or heard in the New
England woods. Josselyn argued on the great probability that there were
lions because there were jackals (_Rarities_, p. 21); and Wood said
that “the Virginians saw an old Lyon in their Plantation, who having
lost his Iackall, which was wont to hunt his prey, was brought so poore
that he could goe no further.” (_Prospect_, p. 17.) Strachey speaks of
having found the skins and claws of lions in the hands of the Indians.
(_Historie_, p. 124.) The animal referred to in all these cases was
doubtless the Panther or Catamount (_Felis concolor_). On this subject
see also Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 176, _note_; Tuckerman’s _New
England’s Rarities_, p. 57, _note_; and the _Mem. History of Boston_,
vol. i. p. 9.

[381] For the scientific and technical notes to this chapter I am
indebted to Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University. As in the
three preceding chapters, certain other notes of my own have been
added, which are of a wholly different character, and will readily be
distinguished from Professor Shaler’s.

[382] The marble of Marble Harbor, or Marblehead, is not, in the
present sense of the word, a marble at all, but is, in fact, a
porphyry. In the old sense of the word it designated any smooth-striped
or spotted stones, such as are found there.

[383] No limestone, good or bad, is known to exist on the Monatoquit
now; the nearest limestone is at Bear (or Bare) Hill, in Stoneham.

[384] There is a locality in East Braintree, included in the Wainwright
estate, at the foot of Wyman’s Hill and facing the Weymouth Fore-river,
into which the Monatoquit flows, where is a quarry from which stone
bearing some external resemblance to limestone was formerly taken for
ballast. This place has always been locally called the Quaw, though the
origin and meaning of the name have never been known. It would seem
that this must be the place referred to in the text, and that Quaw, or
Quor, is a corruption of the Indian Attaquatock.

[385] There are no “chalke stones” at Squanto’s Chapelle, _i.e._,
Squantum, or anywhere else in this part of the world. Morton may
possibly have mistaken pebbles of decayed felspar for chalk.

[386] There is some slate in Quincy and Weymouth that _might_ be used
for roofing, and a quarry of it was long worked for material for
gravestones, &c., on Squantum Bay, a mile or so from Mount Wollaston;
but it is slate of a very poor sort. The nearest workable slate is in
Vermont and Maine.

[387] This passage is more than usually confused, even for Morton.
It is difficult to say whether he is perpetrating a clumsy joke, or
indulging in a malicious insinuation. John Billington was hanged at
Plymouth in September, 1630, being apparently the second person so
executed in what is now Massachusetts, the first having been executed
at Weymouth during the winter of 1622-3. (_Infra_, *108-10.) The
man shot by Billington, and for whose murder he was hung, was John
New-comin (Bradford, p. 277), whence Morton’s play upon the name.
Billington had two sons, but he was by no means “beloved.” As Bradford,
writing about him as early as 1625, said, “he is a knave,” adding
prophetically “and so will live and die.” (Savage’s _Winthrop_, vol. i.
p. *36). Why Morton should have called him “Ould Woodman” is not clear.
From his immediately going on to talk of the “woodden prospect,” and
the wish of its author to secure for himself a monopoly of the Richmond
Island whetstones, which “Ould Woodman labored to get a patent of,”
it would seem as if he had intended to convey the idea that William
Wood, the author of the _New England’s Prospect_, was one of the “many
sonnes” of “Old Woodman,” who had been hanged at Plymouth. That such
was Morton’s intention, however, is not clear. The passage is muddled,
but not necessarily malicious.

[388] The words quoted are not Ovid’s, but Virgil’s. _Eclogues_, viii.
43.

[389] _Supra_, 124.

[390] Josselyn, in his _Two Voyages_ (p. 202), speaks of the “excellent
whetstones” then (1670) found at Richmond Island.

“There is a species of slate quite abundant on Richmond’s Island, and
some other Islands in Casco Bay, which has been used for oil-stones.
Josselyn, in his _Voyages_, says that ‘tables of slate could be got out
long enough for a dozen men to sit at.’” See a communication on this
passage of the _New Canaan_, signed J. P. B., in the _Portland Press_
of January 2, 1883. Professor Shaler adds: “It is interesting to note
the fact that Morton saw that whetstones could be made the basis for
trade. Stones suitable for this purpose are rare in Europe, and to-day
a New Hampshire company ships large quantities to Europe and even to
Australia.”

[391] Richmond Island lies directly south-east of Cape Elizabeth and
close to it. From what Morton says in the next chapter and elsewhere
(_infra_, *149), it would seem that before his arrest by Standish in
June, 1628,--that is, in the summer of 1627,--he had a fur station on
the coast of Maine. (_Supra_, 23.) Winthrop, writing under date of
October 22, 1631, mentions the murder of “Walter Bagnall, called Great
Watt, and one John P---- who kept with him,” by the Indians at Richmond
Island. He adds: “This Bagnall was sometimes servant to one in the bay,
and these three years had dwelt alone in the said isle, and had gotten
about £400 most in goods. He was a wicked fellow, and had much wronged
the Indians.” (Winthrop, vol. i. p. *63). Bagnall would, from this,
appear to have been one of Morton’s servants at Mount Wollaston, as he
alone in “the bay,” at that time, had any number of servants, or was
engaged in trade on the Maine coast. As Bagnall was killed in 1631, and
had then lived alone at Richmond Island three years, he seems to have
taken up his abode there in 1628, the time of the breaking up of the
company at Mount Wollaston by Standish and Endicott, and the settlement
at Richmond Island was thus the Maine offshoot of that at Merry-mount.
Bagnall was probably that one of Morton’s servants who, he says, was
reputed, when he died, to have made a thousand pounds in the fur trade
in five years, “whatsoever became of it.” (_Supra_, *78). Morton’s
expression here of “five years” agrees with Winthrop’s “three years,”
and confirms this surmise. Bagnall had died in 1631. Morton had gotten
control at Mount Wollaston in 1626. (_Supra_, 15.) Bagnall had remained
there as his servant two years, until 1628; then had been frightened
away and gone to Richmond Island, where he had lived three years more,
as Winthrop says,--making in all Morton’s five years. In his phrase
“whatsoever became of it” Morton characteristically throws out an
insinuation in regard to Bagnall’s possessions. He probably meant to
imply some underhand proceeding to get hold of them on the part of the
Massachusetts Bay people. Recently a theory has been advanced in the
Maine press, that Bagnall was an Episcopalian, and competitor in trade
of the Massachusetts Company; and that Winthrop and his associates,
not being able otherwise to get rid of him, compassed his death by
indirect means. (See a letter of S. P. Mayberry in _Portland Press_ of
Jan. 9, 1883.) Winthrop says that most of the possessions in question
were in goods. A portion would naturally be in the form of money, and
it was left for the present generation to form a most plausible surmise
as to “whatsoever became” of some of this money. On May 11, 1855, an
old stone pot was turned up by the ploughshare, on Richmond Island,
containing fifty-two coins; and Mr. Willis, the historian of Portland,
then took occasion, in a letter to the Massachusetts Historical Society
(_Proceedings_, May 1857, pp. 183-8), to “express the belief that the
money [was] connected with the fate of Walter Bagnall, who was killed
by Sagamore Squidraket and his party, Oct. 3, 1631.” There was nothing
to show that any of the coins were of a later date than 1631. A patent
for Richmond Island, together with fifteen hundred acres on the main
land, was issued to Bagnall by the Council for New England, Dec. 2,
1631, just three months after his death. (_Records of the Council_, pp.
51-2.) Morton was then in England, and unquestionably in communication
with Gorges. (_Supra_, 49.)

[392] Doubtless the magnetic iron oxides. None of these are known to me
nearer than in the mountains forming the westerly part of the Berkshire
Hills, from New York City to the Adirondacks, except in Cumberland, R.
I., where there is some iron of this nature.

[393] No ironstones are known around Massachusetts bay; the nearest
deposits are in Rhode Island.

[394] Small quantities of galena ore have been found in Woburn and that
vicinity. There are some localities near Newburyport where the savages
may have found small quantities of galena.

[395] Black leade is doubtless plumbago, or graphite; it is found in
Wrentham and in Worcester, Mass., as well as at various points in Rhode
Island.

[396] Red leade is doubtless an ochre, such as may have been found near
Cranston, R. I.

[397] Boll armoniack is the _Bolus armeniaca_ of the old apothecaries.
_Bolus_ is the prefix to several old pharmacopial names, having lost
its original special signification and come to be a given term for all
lumpy substances. Here it means a sort of reddish clay, such as may
be used for marking,--a clayey ochre such as may have come from about
Providence, R. I.

[398] Vermilion oxide of mercury is not known to occur this side of the
Rocky Mountains. It is likely that he mistook some brilliant ochre for
true vermilion. It may be, however, that the aborigines traded for it
with western tribes. Their copper implements probably came from Lake
Superior. Many evidences of almost as wide a commerce could be adduced.

[399] Brimstone, or sulphur, does not exist in its metallic state this
side of the Cordilleras. He may have seen some pyrite-bearing schists,
such as occur in Maine, which in dumping give a sulphuric smell.

[400] Tin does not occur in this region. Some localities are known in
Maine and elsewhere in New England, but they could hardly have been
found by the Savages, or known to Morton.

[401] Copper in its metallic state, the only form in which he would
have recognized it, does not occur about Massachusetts Bay. A very
little of it has been found in Cumberland, R. I., in the valley of the
Blackstone River.

[402] No silver, except when combined with lead and zinc ore, has ever
been found in this district. Some occurs in the district from Woburn to
Newburyport. Metallic silver could not have been known to the natives.
The nearest localities for metallic gold are the streams of Vermont,
New Hampshire, and western Maine, in which district placer gold occurs
in considerable quantities, and some auriferous quartz veins are known.

Professor Shaler adds to his foregoing notes: “The general impression
which I get from the writer is that he was a bad observer, but not more
untruthful than most of the seventeenth century travellers. He does not
say that gold or silver had been seen by him, and limits his hearsay
evidence to a single mine. Except for the extraordinary stuff about
the whetstones,--wherein we may perhaps see something of the _Maypole_
humor,--it is, for its time, a rather sober and reasonable story.”

[403] This is the name by which Morton invariably designates John
Endicott. For reasons which have been explained in the preliminary
matter to this edition of the _New Canaan_ (_supra_, pp. 38-42), its
author felt--and, as will be seen, never missed an opportunity to
express--a peculiar bitterness towards Endicott.

[404] For the notes to this chapter I am indebted to Theodore Lyman,
of the Massachusetts Fish Commission. Higginson, in his _New England’s
Plantation_, has a passage on Fish (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp.
248-51), and Williams, in his _Key_, devotes a chapter (xix.) to the
same subject. Wood again, in his _Prospect_ (pp. 27-31), deals with
it in his peculiar manner, and Josselyn, both in his _Voyages_ (pp.
104-15) and in his _Rarities_ (pp. 22-37), devotes a good deal of
space to the enumeration of the different kinds of New England fishes,
their peculiarities, and the methods of taking them. In editing the
_Rarities_, Mr. Tuckerman remarked that he had “little to offer in
elucidation of the list [of fishes], which, indeed, in good part,
appears sufficiently intelligible,”--a remark equally applicable to the
present chapter of the _New Canaan_.

[405] Portland Harbor. See _supra_, 218, _note_ 1.

[406] This proves that the _local_ Cod, _i. e._, those that breed close
to the shore, have much decreased; and this partly by over-fishing, and
partly by the falling-off of their food in the form of young fishes
coming to the sea from rivers and brooks.

[407] This is perhaps the first mention in America of cod-liver oil,
now so much used in medicine.

[408] The Striped Bass (_Labrax_). The Bass mentioned four paragraphs
below, as chasing mackerel “into the shallow waters,” may perhaps be
the Bluefish (_Temnodon_).

[409] This is either an expression which has wholly passed out of
use, or else a misprint. Probably the latter. It may, however, also
be surmised that Morton characteristically coined a word from the
Latin, and here meant to refer to the various large fish in New England
waters, such as the Horse Mackerel (_Thynnus secundo dorsalis_), the
Mackerel Shark (_Lamna punctata_), and the common Dogfish (_Acanthias
Americanus_), all of which follow schools of mackerel, bass, &c., into
shoal waters and prey upon them.

[410] “These Macrills are taken with drailes, which is a long small
line, with a lead and a hooke at the end of it, being baited with
a peece of a red cloath.” (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 30.) This
instrument still bears the same name and is used in the same way.

[411] When caught in the Thames, within the jurisdiction of the Lord
Mayor of London, the Sturgeon (_Acipenser_) is a royal fish reserved
for the sovereign. “The Sturgeon is a Regal fish too, I have seen of
them that have been sixteen foot in lenghth.” (Jossel., _Two Voyages_,
p. 105.)

[412] But little attention has been paid as yet in the United States to
the Sturgeon fisheries, in spite of their great abundance.

[413] [jieele.] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[414] “There be a greate store of Salt water Eeles, especially in such
places where grasse growes: for to take these there be certaine Eele
pots made of Osyers, which must be baited with a peece of Lobster,
into which the Eeles entering cannot returne backe againe; some take
a bushell in a night in this maner, eating as many as they have neede
of for the present, and salt up the rest against Winter. These Eeles
be not of so luscious a tast as they be in England, neither are they
so aguish, but are both wholsom for the body, and delightfull for the
taste.” (_New England’s Prospect_, p. 30.)

[415] Morton confounds the Shad (_Alosa præstabilis_), or Allize
(corruption of the French _Alose_), with the smaller Alewife. This,
with the Smelt and the Eel, are among the few shore fishes that are
still found in comparative plenty. The Menhaden is used in our time to
set corn.

[416] At the present time the Halibut (_Hippoglossus_) is seldom
caught near the shore or in shoal water. It is taken by the Gloucester
fishermen along the outer banks, in depths of a hundred to two hundred
fathoms. The New England Turbot (_Lophopsetta_) of our coasts is a
different fish, and rarely ventures to the north of Cape Cod. The
fishermen frequently sell our turbot as chicken-halibut.

[417] The Flounder (_Pseudopleuronectes_), whereof there are several
species.

[418] Hake (_Phycis_) are still somewhat common.

[419] Morton probably means the Menhaden (_Brevoortia_). The European
Pilchard, the adult of the Sardine, is not found on our coast.

[420] Probably the Double-crested Cormorant (_Phalacrocorax dilophus_).
The Common Cormorant (_P. carbo_) also occurs in New England, but it
is rare to the southward of Maine. Both species breed abundantly on
rocky shores about the Gulf of St. Lawrence and northward, visiting New
England waters during the autumn and winter. While with us they are
exclusively maritime, frequenting by choice the vicinity of outlying
ledges and small, rocky islands. When passing from place to place, they
often fly in large flocks, which are usually arranged in long lines or
single files. They live on fish, which they capture by diving.

[421] This paragraph, and the one on clams immediately following
it, throw considerable light on the formation of the shell-heaps, a
question which has been recently much discussed. See the paper of
Professor F. W. Putnam, read at the meeting of the Maine Historical
Society in Portland, in December, 1882, which will appear in the report
of the proceedings of that meeting in the Collections of the Society.

[422] We, in this country, have not retained the European taste for
mussels and for razor-shells (_Solen_).

[423] The eating of scallops (_Pecten_) has been revived within a few
years.

[424] A strong spirit of emulation existed in the early years of
the seventeenth century, between the advocates of New England and
those of Virginia, as sites for colonization. Morton was always a
stanch New Englander, and in this chapter, as well as in those which
immediately precede and follow it, he loses no opportunity to assert
the superiority of the Massachusetts climate and products over those
of the country further south. It is needless to point out that his
advocacy led him into ludicrously wild statements.

[425] There is no natural spring of any kind at Mount Wollaston, though
water is easily obtained by digging.

[426] Winnisimmet, the Indian name of Chelsea. Upon the significance
of the name Mr. Trumbull writes: “I have my doubts about Morton’s
Weenasemute, but am inclined to believe that his interpretation is
founded on fact. _Ashim_ (= _asim_, in local dialect) is once used by
Eliot (_Cant._ iv. 12) for ‘fountain.’ It denotes a place from which
water (for drinking) is taken. _Winn’ashim_, or _Winn’asim_, means ‘the
good fountain,’ or spring; and _Winn’asim-ut_ (or _et_) is ‘at the good
spring.’ The efficacy of the water ‘to cure barrenness’ may have been
Morton’s embellishment, but not improbably was an Indian belief.”

[427] Squantum, in Quincy.

[428] This is a gross exaggeration. Thomas Wiggin, in November,
1622, wrote: “For the plantation in Mattachusetts, the English there
being about 2000 people, yonge and old.” (III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. viii. p. 322.) Writing on May 22, 1634, about the time Morton
referred to (_Supra_, 78), Governor Winthrop says: “For the number
of our people, we never took any surveigh of them, nor doe we intend
it, except inforced throughe urgent occasion (David’s example stickes
somewhat with us) but I esteeme them to be in all about 4000: soules
and upwarde.” (_Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, Dec. 14, 1882.) So in the
_New England’s Prospect_ (p. 42), Wood speaks of the population of
Massachusetts as “foure thousand soules.” In the spring of 1634 there
may have been five hundred persons in the Plymouth colony, and as many
more in New Hampshire and Maine, making a total New England population
of five thousand at the time Morton was writing. When the _New Canaan_
was published, however, in 1637, the population undoubtedly was as
large as 12,000.

[429] _Supra_, 187, _note_ 4.

[430] This astounding proposition was in the early days of the
settlement not peculiar to Morton. Higginson, in his _New Englands
Plantation_, speaks of the “extraordinary clear and dry air, that is
of a most healing nature to all such as are of a cold, melancholy,
phlegmatic, rheumatic temper of body,” and concludes what he has to
say on the subject with his often-quoted sentiment that “a sup of
New-England’s air is better than a whole draught of Old England’s
ale.” (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp. 251-2.) Williams, too, says
in his _Key_ (ch. xiii.): “The _Nor-West_ wind (which occasioneth
_New-England_ cold) comes over the cold frozen Land, and over many
millions of Loads of Snow: and yet the pure wholesomnesse of the Aire
is wonderfull, and the warmth of the Sunne, such in the sharpest
weather, that I have often seen the Natives Children runne about starke
naked in the coldest dayes.” Again, in the pamphlet entitled _New
England’s First Fruits_, printed in London in 1643, it was stated,
in reply to the objection of extreme winter cold, that “the cold
there is no impediment to health, but very wholsome for our bodies,
insomuch that all sorts generally, weake and strong, had scarce ever
such measure of health in all their lives as there.... Men are seldome
troubled in winter with coughes and Rheumes.” (I. _Mass. Hist. Coll._,
vol. i. p. 249.) Josselyn, however, writing nearly thirty years later,
remarks: “Some of our _New-England_ writers affirm that the _English_
are never, or very rarely, heard to sneeze or cough, as ordinarily they
do in _England_, which is not true.” (_Two Voyages_, p. 184.)

[431] _Supra_, 201, _note_ 2.

[432] _Supra_, *17.

[433] Wood in his _Prospect_ (p. 2), referring to the approach to
Boston Bay from Cape Anne, had said: “The surrounding shore being high,
and showing many white Cliffes, in a most pleasant prospect.”

[434] The Second Book of the _New Canaan_, it would seem, originally
ended with this chapter. The next chapter was an afterthought of the
author, written before December, 1635, as is evident from the allusions
in it to events then taking place. (_Supra_, 78.) Wood’s _Prospect_ was
published in 1634, and the constant references to it in the first two
books of the _New Canaan_ show that they were both written subsequent
to its publication, probably during that year. In the Third Book there
are no allusions to the _Prospect_, and the reference to the Third
Book in the Second (_Supra_, *51), to which attention has already been
called, show that it must have been written before the others, and
probably during the year 1633. It would seem to have been completed in
May, 1634. There is, however, also a reference to be found in the Third
Book to the Second (_Infra_, *120), but it was probably interpolated
during a revisal of the manuscript.

[435] Now Lake Champlain. “By the Indians north of the St. Lawrence
and the Lakes, it was called the Lake of the Iroquois, as likewise the
River Richelieu, connecting it and the River St. Lawrence, they called
the River of the Iroquois. Champlain discovered the lake in 1609, and
gave it his own name. (_Voyages_, Prince Soc. ed., vol. ii. pp. 210-20;
Parkman’s _Pioneers of France_, p. 316.) On some of the early maps it
is put down ‘Lake Champlain or Irocoise.’ It is so called in Purchas’s
_Pilgrims_ (vol. iv. p. 1643). The region about the lake was sometimes
called Irocosia. The Iroquois lived on the south of the lake, and, as
their enemies on the north approached them through this lake, they
naturally called it the Lake of the Iroquois.” (_MS. letter of Rev. E.
F. Slafter._)

[436] The measurement and distance here given are very nearly correct.
Lake Champlain is 126 miles long by about 14 in width at its broadest
part. Burlington is not far from 240 miles from Boston.

[437] In regard to the imaginary attractions and advantages of Laconia
and its great lake, see Belknap’s _American Biography_, vol. i. p. 377.

[438] The two brothers, William and Emery de Caen, became prominent
in the history of Canadian settlement in 1621, and remained so for a
number of years. They did not, however, plant a colony of French in
America, nor was the name of Canada, or of its famous river, derived
from their name. On this point see Parkman’s _Pioneers of France_,
pp. 184, _note_, and 391-5. Morton’s derivation of the name Canada
is entitled to much the same weight as his derivation of the names
Pantucket and Mattapan. (_Supra_, 124.) It was not, however, peculiar
to him as, forty years later, Josselyn also speaks (_Rarities_, p. 5)
of “the River _Canada_, (so called from Monsieur _Cane_).”

[439] On the breaking out of the war between England and France
in 1627, under the influence of Buckingham, Sir William Alexander
had been instrumental in organizing an expedition to seize the
French possessions in America. At its head were three Huguenots of
Dieppe,--David, Louis and Thomas Kirk, brothers. The expedition was
successful, and on the 20th of July, 1629, Champlain surrendered Quebec
to Louis Kirk. Daniel Kirk, the admiral of the expedition, returned to
England in November of the same year; but his brother Thomas remained
in Canada and held Quebec as an English conquest until July, 1632,
when, in accordance with the conditions of the peace of April 14, 1629,
it was restored to France. See Kirke’s _First English Conquest of
Canada_, pp. 63-93; Parkman’s _Pioneers of France_, pp. 401-11; also
Mr. Deane’s note in _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._ for 1875-6, pp. 376-7.

[440] The number of beaver-skins really carried to England by Kirk was
seven thousand. (Kirke’s _First English Conquest of Canada_, p. 85.)

[441] It is unnecessary to say that Morton was here writing at random.
He confounds the Potomac with the Hudson, though, a few paragraphs
further on (_Infra_, *99), he states the facts in regard to the latter
river correctly; and the latitude he gives has no significance, being
that of Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, and Cleveland, on Lake Erie. The
Potomac nowhere flows so far north as 40°. The falls referred to are
probably those of Niagara. They had not then been discovered (Parkman’s
_Jesuits in North America_, p. 142), though vague reports concerning
them had reached the French through the Indians, and they are plainly
indicated on Champlain’s map of 1629. (_Voyages_, Prince Soc. ed.,
vol. i. p. 271, _note_.) Some loose stories in regard to the rivers,
falls, lakes and islands of the interior had been picked up by Morton,
probably in his talks with seamen and others who had taken part in
Kirk’s expedition. He certainly fell in with these in London, and it
is more than likely that at the house of Gorges he saw Champlain’s
map of 1629; though upon that the falls are placed at 43-1/2 degrees
of latitude, instead of at 41-1/2. In 1634 there was no other map. On
the strength of the information thus gathered, he made the statements
contained in this chapter. The little he knew had been obtained in
England, after his return there in 1631; for the Massachusetts Indians
can hardly have known much of the remote interior, and in 1630 no
attempts even at exploration away from the seashore had been made by
the straggling occupants of the New England coast.

[442] The stories here referred to probably came from the Indians of
Connecticut and Maine, and referred to the rivers and lakes of New
England, but were afterwards supposed to have had a wider significance.

[443] Williams (_Key_, 64) gives _Macháug_ as the Indian word for _No_,
but it really signifies _no-thing_ (_Key_, 182). _Matta_, as Morton
gives it, is the simple negative.

[444] Henry Josselyn was a brother of John Josselyn, author of _New
Englands Rarities_ and the _Two Voyages to New England_, frequently
quoted in the notes to this edition of the _New Canaan_. He came out
from England in the interest of Mason, as stated in the text, in 1634,
and passed the remainder of his life in Maine, living at Black Point
in the town of Scarborough. He died in 1683. He was deputy-governor of
the province, and one of the most active and influential men in it,
holding, through all changes of proprietorship and government, the
most important offices. See Mr. Tuckerman’s Introduction to the _New
Englands Rarities_; _Hist. of Cumberland County, Maine_, p. 362.

[445] Of Captain John Mason of New Hampshire and the Laconia
enterprise, it is not necessary to speak at length in this connection.
Mason was the most prominent character in the early history of New
Hampshire, and the loss which his death, in December 1635, entailed
on the projects of Gorges and Morton has already been referred to
(_Supra_, 76). The late Charles W. Tuttle, of Boston was at the
time of his death engaged in preparing a life of Mason, which would
unquestionably have been a valuable addition to the history of the
settlement of New England. The material he had collected is now in the
possession of his family. In regard to the Laconia Company and its
projects, see Belknap’s _American Biography_, under the title _Gorges_,
and Mr. Deane’s note in the _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, 1875-6, pp.
376-80.

[446] Wood’s statement here referred to is found on the first page of
the _Prospect_, and is as follows: “The Place whereon the _English_
have built their Colonies, is judged by those who have best skill in
discovery, either to bee an Island, surrounded on the North side with
the spacious River _Cannada_, and on the South with _Hudsons_ River, or
else a _Peninsula_, these two Rivers overlapping one another, having
their rise from the great Lakes which are not farre off one another, as
the _Indians_ doe certainly informe us.”

[447] In 1631 no less than 15,174 skins, the greater portion beaver,
were exported from the New Netherlands, valued at about £12,000.
(O’Callaghan’s _New Netherland_, p. 139.)

[448] The Nipmucks, or Nipnets, inhabited the present county of
Worcester. (_Hist. of Worcester County_, vol. i. p. 8.)

[449] This is a confused, rambling account of the familiar Indian
incidents which took place during the first year after the landing at
Plymouth. There is nothing of historical value in it, and nothing which
has not been more accurately and better told by Bradford, Winslow,
Mourt and Smith.

[450] Captain Thomas Hunt, who commanded one of the vessels of Smith’s
squadron, in his voyage of 1614. (Bradford, p. 95.)

[451] Morton, in this chapter, confounds Samoset with Squanto. It was
Squanto who was kidnapped by Hunt and had been in England, but it was
Samoset who walked into the Plymouth settlement, on the 26th of March
[N. S.], 1621, and saluted the planters with “wellcome in the English
phrase.” Squanto was a native of Plymouth, but Samoset belonged at
Pemaquid, in Maine. (Mourt, Dexter’s ed., _note_ 295, p. 83.) Hence
Morton speaks of his having been detained by Massasoit as a captive. He
apparently came to Massachusetts the year before on Captain Dermer’s
vessel, in company with Squanto. Dr. Dexter is seriously in error in
his account of Squanto in _note_ 315 of his edition of Mourt. Squanto
could not have been one of the Weymouth captives of 1605.

[452] This is the familiar anecdote of Squanto. (Bradford, p. 113;
Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 292.)

[453] See _supra_, 133, _note_.

[454] The most connected account of Thomas Weston and his abortive
plantation at Wessagusset, already referred to (_Supra_, 2), is
that contained in Adams’s _Address on the 250th Anniversary of the
Settlement of Weymouth_, pp. 5-22. Winslow in Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, Bradford, and Phinehas Pratt (IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol.
iv.) are the original authorities.

[455] This is a wholly confused and misleading account of the skirmish
which took place between the Plymouth party, under command of Miles
Standish, and the Massachusetts Indians living near Wessagusset,
immediately after the killing of Pecksuot and Wituwamat, in March,
1623. The correct account of the affair is in Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 341. Why Morton speaks of it as a battle between the English
and the French is inexplicable.

[456] See _supra_, pp. 11, 162, 170. The Plymouth people may have
despoiled the grave of Chickatawbut’s mother of its bear-skins during
some one of their earlier visits to Boston Bay. Their last visit to
those parts, prior to the “battle” spoken of in this chapter, was
in November, 1622 (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._ p. 302), when they got
little in the way of supplies, and heard nothing but complaints from
the Indians of Weston’s people, who had then been several months at
Wessagusset. It is far more probable that these latter stripped the
grave at Passonagessit. In any event there can be little doubt that
Morton himself had visited the spot while taking his “survey of the
country” during the previous summer (_Supra_, 6), and it is quite clear
that the despoiling the grave had no connection with the subsequent
“battle,” in which Chickatawbut took no part.

[457] “Insomuch as our men could have but one certain mark, and then
but the arm and half face of a notable villain, as he drew [his bow] at
Captain Standish; who, together with another both discharged at once at
him, and brake his arm.” (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 341.)

[458] This is the famous Wessagusset hanging which Butler introduced
into his poem of _Hudibras_ (Canto II. lines 409-36), in the passage
already referred to (_Supra_, 96). It is as follows:--

  “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 ’t happen’d: In a town
  There liv’d a Cobler, 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 Tottipottymoy
  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 th’ offender;
  But they maturely having weigh’d
  They had no more but him o’ th’ trade,
  (A man that served them in a double
  Capacity, to teach and cobble),
  Resolv’d to spare him; yet to do
  The Indian Hoghan Moghan too
  Impartial justice, in his stead did
  Hang an old Weaver that was bed rid.”

That a man was hung at Wessagusset, in March 1623, for stealing corn
from the Indians, there can be no doubt. There is equally little
doubt that it was the real thief who was hung. (Pratt’s _Relation_,
IV. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iv. p. 491; Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._,
p. 332; Bradford, p. 130.) I have already (_Supra_, 96) given my own
theory as to how the incident came to take the shape it did in Butler’s
poem. He wrote, I think, from a vague recollection of an amusing
traveller’s-story, which he had heard told somewhere years before.
There is no reason to suppose that he had ever seen the _New Canaan_.

It has always been assumed that Butler’s version of the affair,--the
vicarious execution version,--coming out as it did in 1664, at a period
of violent reaction against Puritanism, and when the New England
colonies were in extreme popular disfavor,--obtained a foothold in
English popular tradition; much such a foothold, in fact, as the
Connecticut Blue Laws. It was an intangible something, always at
hand to be cast as a mocking reproach in the face of a sanctimonious
community. As such it was sure to be resented and disproved; but never
by any disproof could it be exorcised from the popular mind, or finally
set at rest. This may have been the case, and the references to the
matter in Hutchinson (vol. i. p. 6, _note_), in Hubbard (p. 77), and in
Grahame (Ed. 1845, vol. i. p. 202, _note_), certainly look that way.
I do not remember, however, to have myself ever met this particular
charge among the many and singular charges, much more absurd, which
English writers have from time to time gravely advanced against
America. In Uring’s _Voyages_ (p. 116-8) there is a singular account of
a similar vicarious execution, which never could have met the eye of
the author of _Hudibras_, inasmuch as it was not published until 1726;
but it shows that either some such event did take place, or that its
having taken place was at one period a stock traveller’s-tale.

[459] Three of Weston’s company were among the Massachusetts Indians
at the time of the Wessagusset killing; one of the three had
before domesticated himself with them; the other two, disregarding
Standish’s orders, had straggled off, the day before the massacre,
to a neighboring Indian village. After the massacre the savages put
all three to death by torture. (Pratt’s _Narrative_, IV. _Mass. Hist.
Coll._, vol. iv. p. 486; Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 344.)

[460] Will Sommers was the famous jester and court fool of Henry VIII.
His witticisms are frequently met with in the plays and annals of the
period; and the portrait, said to be by Holbein and of him, looking
through a window and tapping on the glass, was formerly a prominent
feature in the gallery at Hampton Court. It is very questionable,
however, whether the story alluded to in the text belongs to Sommers.
He had been dead eighty years or more when Morton wrote, and the
stories connected with him had been gotten together by Armin, and
printed in his _Nest of Ninnies_, in 1608. This book Morton had
probably seen. In it there is a story of another famous fool, Jack
Oates, of an earlier period, which is probably the one Morton had in
mind. Oates is represented as giving an earl, the guest of his patron,
Sir William Hollis, “a sound box on the ear,” for saluting Lady Hollis,
and then excused himself on the ground of “knowing not your eare from
your hand, being so like one another.” (Doran’s _Court Fools_, p.
182.) Remembering this story in the _Nest of Ninnies_, Morton, with
his well-developed faculty for getting everything wrong, seems to have
fathered it on the most famous and popular of the occupants of the
_Nest_.

[461] For the detailed account of the Wessagusset killing, see
Winslow’s _Relation_ in Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 336-41; Adams’s
_250th Anniversary of Weymouth_, pp. 18-22.

[462] Mr. Trumbull, in a note (125) to Williams’s _Key_ (p. 59).
explains a blunder here made by Morton. The correct word is
_wotawquenauge_, which means “coat-men,” or men wearing clothes, the
_waútacone-nûaog_ of Williams. This, Morton confounded with another
name for Englishmen, _chauquaqock_, meaning, “knife- [_i. e._, sword-]
men,” which he understood to mean “cut-throats.”

[463] Weston, in 1622, got into serious trouble with the English
government, in regard to some ordnance and military stores, which he
had obtained a license to send to New England, and had then sold to
the French, with whom the English were at war. (Bradford, p. 150.)
He seems to have been in hiding in consequence of this transaction;
and early in 1623 went on board of one of the fishing-vessels in the
disguise of a blacksmith, and came out in her to the stations on the
Maine coast. There he must have learned of the extreme straits, if not
of the abandonment, of his plantation at Wessagusset, and he set out,
with a companion or two, in an open boat, for Massachusetts Bay. He was
wrecked near the mouth of the Merrimac, and barely escaped with his
life. The savages there stripped him to his shirt, and in this plight
he reached Thomson’s plantation at Piscataqua. Thence he found his way
to Plymouth, arriving there, not as Morton says, “with supply and means
to have raised [his company’s] fortunes,” but in absolute destitution.
Bradford’s account of his reception and of what ensued (pp. 133-4,
149-53) is very different from that given in the text; and, it is
hardly necessary to add, reads much more like the truth.

[464] _Supra_, 14.

[465] The incident here alluded to was the seizure of the _Swan_,
under a warrant issued by Captain Robert Gorges, acting as Lieutenant
of the Council for New England, in November, 1623. The _Swan_ was a
small vessel of 30 tons measurement, which Weston had sent out with
his expedition, in 1622. His plan was, when the larger vessel--the
_Charity_, in which his company went out--returned to England,
to have the _Swan_ remain in New England, to be used for trading
purposes. Accordingly, all through the winter of 1622-3, it had been
at Wessagusset, except when employed by the people there in obtaining
supplies in connection with the Plymouth people. When, in March, 1623,
Wessagusset was abandoned, the company went in the _Swan_ to the Maine
fishing-stations. Here Weston found the vessel in the course of the
following summer, and recovered possession of her. He then began to
trade along the coast. Meanwhile, in September, Captain Robert Gorges
arrived, and immediately set out to look for Weston, in order to
call him to account for the ordnance transactions referred to in the
preceding note, and also for the disorderly conduct of his people at
Wessagusset during the previous winter. Starting for the eastward,
he was driven into Plymouth Harbor by heavy weather, and while he
was lying there the _Swan_ made its appearance with Weston on board.
Bradford’s account of what ensued, including the seizure of the vessel,
differs _toto cœlo_ from that in the text. He says that Captain Robert
Gorges, acting as governor-general under his commission from the
Council for New England, at once organized a sort of a court,--he,
Bradford, acting as an assistant in it,--and proceeded to arraign and
try Weston. As a result of the whole proceedings Gorges threatened to
send Weston under arrest back to England. Through the intercession of
Bradford, however, he was mollified, and finally Weston was released
on his own promise to appear when called for. Gorges then went to
Wessagusset, leaving Weston with the _Swan_ at Plymouth. After a time
Gorges seems to have concluded that it would be very convenient for him
to have control of the _Swan_, at any rate for that winter. Accordingly
he sent a warrant to Plymouth for its seizure and the arrest of
Weston. Bradford, not liking this proceeding, took some exception to
the warrant, and refused to allow it to be served. At the same time
it was intimated to Weston that he had better take himself and his
vessel off. This he would not do. Apparently his crew was mutinous and
unruly, their wages being long in arrears, and the _Swan_ destitute of
supplies. He seems to have looked upon arrest and seizure as the best
way out of his difficulties. Presently a new warrant came from Gorges,
and both vessel and prisoner were removed to Wessagusset. This was
in November. There they passed the winter of 1623-4. Towards spring
Gorges went in the _Swan_ to the eastward, Weston accompanying him,
apparently as a pilot. The tidings received there led the disappointed
young Lieutenant of the Council to decide on immediately returning
to England. Accordingly he came back to Wessagusset, and thence went
probably to the fishing-stations, very possibly in the _Swan_. Before
leaving he effected some sort of a settlement with Weston,--Bradford
intimates much to the advantage of the latter,--who was released
from arrest, had his vessel restored to him, and was compensated
for whatever loss he had sustained. Weston thereupon reappeared at
Plymouth, and thence went to Virginia. He seems to have traded along
the coast for some years, but finally drifted back to England, where in
1645 he died, at Bristol, of the plague. (Bradford, pp. 140-53. Young’s
_Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 296-8, 302.)

[466] This chapter relates to incidents of no apparent consequence,
and of which there is no other record. It is not easy even to fix the
time at which they occurred, and it would seem as if Morton, in his
rambling, incoherent way, had confused the events of one year with
those of another. The only time when “35 stout knaves” were landed,
at all in the way described, at Plymouth, was in July, 1622, when the
_Charity_ brought in there Weston’s company. Yet Morton speaks of there
then being “three cows” at Plymouth, which would indicate that Morton’s
arrival, referred to in the text, was not in July 1622, but at some
time subsequent to the spring of 1624, when Winslow brought over “three
heifers and a bull, the first beginning of any cattle of that kind in
the land.” (Bradford, p. 158.) Yet Weston, again, had no “barque” at
Plymouth after 1623. The chapter seems to have been introduced simply
for the purpose of working on the church prejudices of Laud against
the Puritans. (See _supra_, 93-4.) There is in it a combination of
“the booke of common prayer” and “claret sparklinge neate,” which is
suggestive of the _Book of Sports_ as well as of “the Word of God.”

[467] Bradford, p. 158.

[468] Facilis descensus Averno. _Æneid_, vi. 127.

[469] A _killock_ is a small anchor. The phrase in the text means that
the wind caused the boat to drag her anchor, and she went ashore and
was stove in.

[470] The episode of Lyford and Oldham, in the history of the Plymouth
plantation, is told in detail by Bradford. The account in the text
differs from Bradford’s account only in that it is the other side of
the story. (See Bradford, pp. 172-88.)

[471] See _infra_, 324, _note_. Though Lyford frequently exercised in
the Plymouth church, as an elsewhere ordained brother, he was never
installed as its pastor. When admitted to it, Bradford says he made
“a large confession,” saying, among other things, “that he held not
himself a minister till he had a new calling.” (Bradford, pp. 181, 185,
188.)

[472] _Supra_, 24.

[473] This chapter and Chapter XIII. (pp. 273-6) relate to the same
matter. It is impossible to venture a surmise even as to their meaning.
It would seem clear that they have no historical value, but relate
rather to some humorous incident--having the full seventeenth-century
flavor of coarseness--which occurred in the settlement of Boston
Bay. Apparently, judging by the expressions, “this goodly creature
of incontinency” (_Infra_, *129), “that had tried a camp royal in
other parts” (*121), some English prostitute found her way out to
Mount Wollaston, in company with one of the adventurers there, and
subsequently went on to Virginia. She may have come with Wollaston, and
been left in Boston Bay when her companion went to Virginia, and then
followed him, giving birth to a child on the way. This would explain
the allusion to Phyllis and Demophoön subsequently made (p. *129). It
is, however, a mere surmise on a subject not worth puzzling over.

[474] It does not need to be said that this is one of Morton’s
preposterous statements. As the settlement of Virginia dated from 1607,
the twenty-seven years he speaks of was equivalent to saying, “up to
the time at which he was writing,” viz. 1634. Virginia was then not
only a much older settlement, but it had a population largely in excess
of that of New England.

[475] _Supra_, 229, _note_ 3.

[476] This chapter and Chapter XII. are, historically speaking, as
inexplicable as Chapters IX. and XIII. There is nothing in any of
the contemporaneous records to indicate who is referred to under the
pseudonym of Bubble.

[477] One of the smallest of the islands in Boston Bay, still called
by the same name. It lies off Mount Wollaston, and a mile or so away,
and between it and Pettuck’s Island. (See Shurtleff’s _Description of
Boston_, p. 360.)

[478] [view] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[479] Nipnet, or Worcester County; see _supra_, 240, _note_.

[480] [present] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[481] Squanto is apparently referred to here. (_Supra_, 244, _note_
2.) There is no incident in Squanto’s life--of which there is a quite
detailed account to be gathered from the early Plymouth records--which
is suggestive of the events described in the text.

[482] The first part of _Don Quixote_ was published in 1605, and the
second part in 1615. It was first translated into English by Thomas
Skelton, in 1612-20.

[483] The reference here is to the story of Demophoön and Phyllis,
told by Ovid (_Heroides_, II.) Demophoön, son of Theseus and Phædra,
accompanied the Greeks to Troy; and on his return, Phyllis, the
daughter of the Thracian king Sithon, fell in love with him, and he
consented to marry her. But before the nuptials were celebrated, he
went to Attica to settle his affairs at home, and as he tarried longer
than Phyllis had expected, she began to think that she was forgotten,
and put an end to her life. She was metamorphosed into a tree. (See
Smith’s _Dictionary_, title _Demophoön_.)

[484] _Supra_, 17-19.

[485] _Supra_, 14, _note_ 4.

[486] John Scogan was the famous court buffoon, attached to the
household of Edward IV., whose head Justice Shallow makes the youthful
Falstaff break at the court gate (_Henry IV._ Part II. act iii. sc. 2),
though Falstaff is represented as having died at least twenty years
before Scogan could have been born. In regard to him, see Doran’s
_Court Fools_, pp. 123-30. “Scogan’s choice,” in Morton’s day, seems to
have been a popular expression, signifying that a choice of some sort
is better than no power to choose at all. It was derived probably from
the story of Scogan, that he was once ordered to be hanged, but allowed
the privilege of choosing the tree. He escaped the penalty by being
unable to find a tree to his liking. Morton uses the expression again,
see _infra_, *137. But the reference here is as obscure as “the poem.”

[487] _Infra_, 348, _note_.

[488] _Supra_, 278, _note_ 1.

[489] “Ye Roman Goddes Flora.” (Bradford, p. 237.)

[490] In regard to the arrest of Morton by Standish, in June, 1628, see
_supra_, 27-9.

[491] See _infra_, 291, _note_.

[492] Morton here confounds his experience in Boston, two years later,
with that at Plymouth in 1628. In 1630 the master of the _Gift_ refused
to carry him back to England. (_Supra_, 44.) In the spring of 1628,
however, no vessel seems to have arrived at Plymouth from England,
as Allerton then brought over an assortment of goods, and came in
a fishing-vessel by way of the Maine stations. (Bradford, p. 232.)
Allerton returned to London in the course of the succeeding summer or
autumn, but it is not probable then any vessel left Plymouth in June,
1628, bound for England. (_Supra_, 29.)

[493] It was not until towards the close of the summer of the next
year that Morton returned to Massachusetts in company with Allerton.
(_Supra_, 36-7.)

[494] Morton implies above that the “Poem” which follows was written
shortly after the events to which it relates occurred, and before his
return to New England in 1629. It was then, it seems, “in use” in
London. The name of Ben Jonson appears in the margin of the original
edition, as of this reprint, and opposite the first two lines, as
above. Exactly what this signifies it is impossible now to say. Some
critics that I have consulted are inclined to think that Jonson, who
was then about fifty-five years old and at the height of his fame, may
have written all the verses. Others suggest that Morton, by putting
the name in the margin, meant to imply that Jonson wrote them all,
and that this was another of the unscrupulous tricks of the author of
the _New Canaan_. Neither explanation commends itself to my judgment.
The first five verified lines are a paraphrase of five lines at the
beginning of one of Jonson’s productions, for a poem it is not. In his
published works (Gifford’s ed. [1816], vol. viii. p. 241) they appear
as follows:--

  “I sing the brave adventure of two wights,
  And pity ’tis, I cannot call them knights:
  One was; and he for brawn and brain right able
  To have been styled of king Arthur’s table.
  The other was a squire, of fair degree.”

With the last of the foregoing lines the paraphrase stops, and the
rest of the verses in the _New Canaan_ are, it must in justice be
said, not only more cleanly, but in other respects superior to those
to be found in Jonson’s works. Indeed, where the latter are not
unintelligible, they are almost unequalled for the nastiness in which
the writer seems to revel. Gifford not too strongly remarks of them,
“I dislike the subject.” Morton, it appears to me, abandoning, at
the sixth line, the paraphrase with which he began, went on with a
production of his own, but very properly put Jonson’s name opposite the
lines he borrowed from him. The remainder is in his own style, and not
inferior to the mass of the contemporary verse. He himself explains
it. The “nine worthy wights” are Standish and his party, who were sent
to arrest him. The “prodigeous birth,” was the establishment of the
Mount Wollaston plantation. The “seven heads” were the seven persons
composing the company at Mount Wollaston at the time of the arrest. The
“forked tail” was the Maypole, with its antlered top. The fear that
the Hydra of Ma-re Mount would devour “all their best flocks” refers
to the apprehended competition in the fur trade. The “Soll in Cancer”
indicates the season; the “thundering Jove” the storm, in which Morton
made his escape from his captors at Wessagusset. The arrest at Mount
Wollaston is passed over very lightly. Then follows the discussion
among the magistrates at Plymouth, as to the disposition to be made of
the prisoner. Standish would seem to be designated under the name of
Minos. He recommends death. Eacus is more difficult to identify. In the
preceding chapter (_Supra_, 288), Morton speaks of him as being the one
whose “voice was more allowed of then both the others.” My supposition
is that, by Eacus, Morton meant Dr. Samuel Fuller, who then apparently
(Bradford, pp. 264, _note_, 306, _note_) stood, next to Standish,
at the head of the assistants. Morton says that he “confounded all
the arguments that Eacus could make;” and he afterwards, in the _New
Canaan_, refers to Fuller with peculiar bitterness. (_Infra_, 298.)
“Sterne Radamant” is clearly Bradford, “the cheif Elder.” The remainder
of the poem calls for no explanation; and the whole of it is much less
unintelligible than is usual with Morton.

[495] [what] See _supra_, 111, _note_ 1.

[496] “Brave Christmas gambols” were, it may be remarked, not greatly
in vogue in the Plymouth of 1628. (See Bradford, p. 112.)

[497] _Supra_, 163, _note_ 1.

[498] The personage referred to, in this amusing but extremely
scurrilous chapter, is Dr. Samuel Fuller. There is a notice of Dr.
Fuller in Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._ (p. 222, _note_), and in Eliot’s
_Biog. Dict._ He was one of those who came over in the _Mayflower_;
but that he was born in the County of Somerset, and bred a butcher,
appears only from the statement in the text. At Plymouth, besides
being the physician of the colony, he was a magistrate and a deacon of
the church. He died there, of an infectious fever, in 1633, and his
best possible epitaph is read in Bradford (p. 314): “A man godly, and
forward to do good, being much missed after his death.”

[499] _Infra_, 345, _note_.

[500] Paul’s Walk, as the central nave of old St. Paul’s was called,
was in the reign of Charles I. much what a business arcade is now.
There is a vivid description of it, with extracts from writers of the
time, in W. H. Ainsworth’s romance, _Old St. Paul’s_ (B. II. ch. 7).
See also, Gardiner’s _Charles I._ (vol. ii. p. 11).

[501] The visit of Dr. Fuller to Salem, referred to in the text, may
have taken place in 1628. Though he was also there in 1629; and again
in 1630, when he likewise visited Charlestown. (Young’s _Chron. of
Pilg._, p. 222, _note_.)

[502] This description of the usual effect of sea-sickness I take to be
peculiar to Morton.

[503] Endicott’s first wife was Anna Gover, a cousin of Governor
Cradock. Little is known of her. She came to New England with her
husband, and died during the very early days of the settlement, as
she seems to have been in failing health in September, 1628. Endicott
was married to his second wife August 18, 1630; on the 17th of the
following month he sat among the magistrates at Boston in judgment upon
the author of the _New Canaan_, who had been “sent for” just five days
after the marriage, which seems to have taken place at Charlestown.
(Winthrop, vol. i. p. *30; Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp. 131, 292;
_Supra_, 43-4.)

[504] This was the case of Roger Clerk, of Wandsworth, attached in the
chamber of the Guildhall of London, before the mayor and aldermen, on
the 13th of May, 1382, on a plea of deceit and falsehood as to Roger
atte Hacche. The record is to be found in Riley’s _Memorials of London
and London Life_ (pp. 464-6), and is very curious as illustrating
English manners in the time of Richard II. Morton’s reference would
indicate that the case had then been handed down as a tradition for two
hundred and fifty years. It seems that Clerk gave Hacche a bit of old
parchment, rolled up in “a piece of cloth of gold,” asserting that it
was very good for the ailments with which his wife was afflicted. Upon
being arraigned, Clerk contended that upon the parchment was written
“a good charm for fevers.” Upon examination, no word of the alleged
charm was found in the paper. The court then told the prisoner “that
a straw beneath his foot would be of just as much avail for fevers,
as this charm of his was; whereupon, he fully granted that it would
be so. And because that the same Roger Clerk was in no way a literate
man, and seeing that on the examinations aforesaid, (as well as others
afterwards made,) he was found to be an infidel, and altogether
ignorant of the art of physic or of surgery; and to the end that the
people might not be deceived and aggrieved by such ignorant persons
etc.; it was adjudged that the same Roger Clerk should be led through
the middle of the City, with trumpets and pipes, he riding on a horse
without a saddle, the said parchment and a whetstone, for his lies,
being hung about his neck, an urinal also being hung before him, and
another urinal on his back.”

The punishment of the “pillory and the whetstone,” as it was called,
was that ordinarily imposed on those telling falsehoods. In another
case in the same volume (p. 316) it is thus given in detail: “The said
John shall come out of Newgate without hood or girdle, barefoot and
unshod, with a whetstone hung by a chain from his neck, and lying on
his breast, it being marked with the words,--‘A false liar;’ and there
shall be a pair of trumpets trumpeting before him on his way to the
pillory.”

[505] The person referred to in this chapter was probably the Rev.
Francis Bright, of whom very little is known. He was one of the three
ministers sent over by the Massachusetts Company in 1629, Higginson
and Skelton being the other two. In June of that year, when Graves
and the Spragues were sent by Endicott to effect a settlement at
Charlestown, Bright accompanied them as “minister to the Company’s
servants.” (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, pp. 316, 376.) As such, he was
the Caiaphas, or high-priest, of that region, and it naturally devolved
on him to “exercise his guifts on the Lords day at Weenasimute.” Morton
further says that the person he refers to had been a silenced minister
in England. That Bright had been silenced is not known, but both
Skelton and Higginson had been (_Magnalia_, B. I. ch. iv. § 4; Neal’s
_Hist. of Puritans_, vol. ii. p. 229); and, though Hubbard intimates
that Bright was a conformist (p. 113), yet, in the Company’s letter to
Endicott, the three ministers are stated to have “declared themselves
to us to be of one judgment, and to be fully agreed on the manner how
to exercise their ministry.” (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 160.)
Winthrop, Morton adds, “spied out Caiphas practise; and he must be
packing.” Bright returned to England shortly after Winthrop’s arrival.
Johnson says (_Wonder-working Providence_, p. 20) that he “betooke him
to the Seas againe,” when he saw that “all sorts of stones would not
fit in the building.”

Samuel Skelton is referred to by Morton a few pages further on
(_Infra_, 306) as “Pastor Master Eager,” which name may be taken to
imply “covetousness” in him. But, though Skelton might be termed the
“Caiphas” of the country, he was not silenced by Winthrop. He can,
therefore, hardly be the person here aimed at.

[506] [courteousnesse] See _supra_, 111, _n._ 1.

[507] _Supra_, 229, _note_ 3, and 300, _note_ 1.

[508] Iosua Temperwell. Under this name Morton always designates
Governor John Winthrop.

[509] Caiaphas was the high-priest of the Jews; Jonas, or Jonah, was
the first Hebrew prophet sent to a heathen nation. The propriety of
these two Biblical allusions in this connection is, therefore, apparent
enough. The allusion to Demas is more obscure, as he is only mentioned
by Paul as a fellow-disciple who had forsaken him, “having loved this
present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.” (II. _Timothy_ iv.
10.)

[510] _Supra_, *144, *151.

[511] _Supra_, 30.

[512] _Supra_, 35.

[513] _Supra_, 37.

[514] By this name Morton designates Matthew Cradock, the first
Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, though he never came to
America. Cradock was a wealthy London merchant, and as such subscribed
largely to the funds of the company. In regard to him, see Dr. Young’s
note in _Chron. of Mass._ (p. 137).

[515] It is not clear who Morton may have intended to designate by
this name. John Washburne was the secretary and “collector for the
company” at the time Endicott was sent over, but of him nothing is
known. (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 55.) It would seem more probable
that Increase Nowell was the person Morton had in mind. Nowell was one
of the original patentees, contributing money to forward the purposes
of the company, serving on committees, &c. (_Ib._ p. 262.) He came
to New England with Winthrop, and was among the magistrates who were
present at the trial of Morton in September, 1630. (_Records_, vol. i.
pp. 73, 75.) He was the first ruling-elder of the Charlestown church.
He is described as having been “a worthy pious man” (Eliot); and if he
was the person intended by Morton,--which is not at all clear,--the
propriety of calling him Ananias, if it rests on anything, is not
apparent from the record.

[516] The “covered case,” in which Governor Winthrop is supposed to
have brought over the charter of 1629, is still to be seen in the
office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at the State House in
Boston; and that in which Endicott brought over the patent of 1628
was, it may be inferred from the text, similar in appearance. It very
much resembles the case for “some instrument of musick,” being a flat,
narrow box, 2 feet 10 inches long, by 3-1/2 inches wide and 3 inches
deep. It has a species of circular annex, so to speak, at its middle,
intended to contain the seal. This annex, like the box, is of wood, and
is 7 by 8 inches in surface, and the same in depth as the main case,
of which it is a part. The whole is covered with stamped leather, now
brown and mouldered with age. There are, however, some things about
this case which suggest doubts as to its having been made quite so
early as the time of Charles I.

[517] In regard to this meeting at Salem, and the action taken at it,
see _supra_, 38-40. No record or other mention of it, except that
contained in the text, has come down to us.

[518] See _supra_ 300, _note_ 1.

[519] This refers to the famous Salem ordination of Skelton and
Higginson, July 20 and August 6, 1629; in regard to which see Palfrey,
vol. i. pp. 295-6.

[520] _Supra_, 41-2.

[521] [converted] See _supra_ 111, _note_ 1.

[522] The arrival of Winthrop’s fleet in June, 1630, is here referred
to. It has already been stated that Iosua Temperwell is intended for
Governor Winthrop. It will be noticed that Morton, much as he disliked
him, always refers to Winthrop, if not with respect, yet with a certain
restraint of tone and insinuation which he did not show to others, such
as Endicott, Fuller and Standish.

[523] _Supra_, *156.

[524] _Supra_, 47. See, also, the petition of Winslow, while a prisoner
in the Fleet, to the Lords of the Council. (_Proc. of Mass. Hist. Soc._
1860-2, p. 133.)

[525] _Supra_, 43-5.

[526] T. W. Higginson, who in 1866 published a translation of
Epictetus, furnishes me the following note on this allusion: “The
phrase ‘bear and forbear’ has always been received as the formula
especially characteristic of Epictetus. It is most explicitly preserved
to us in the _Noctes Atticæ_ of Aulus Gellius (B. XVII. ch. xix. §§
5-6). Gellius says: ‘Verba duo dicebat: Ἀνέχου καὶ ἀπέχου,’ having
previously explained their meaning. There was in 1634 no English
translation of any portion of Epictetus containing the phrase; nor
was he an author then much read at the English universities. Morton
probably, therefore, got the quotation from the Latin of Aulus Gellius;
if, indeed, he did not pick it up in listening to the talk of some more
scholarly man,--possibly Ben Jonson.”

[527] Ille hæc ludibria fortunæ, ne sua quidem putavit, quæ nos
appelamus etiam bona. (_Paradoxa_, I. 1.)

[528] I am unable to suggest any explanation of the allusions contained
in this chapter. There is no apparent clew either to the “zealous
Professor” whose conscience did not permit him to cut tombstones,
or to the “gentleman newly come into the land,” who “incurred the
displeasure” of Governor Winthrop and was degraded.

[529] “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness
of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth.”

[530] “Antonomasia (_Rhet._). The use of the name of some office,
dignity, profession, science or trade, instead of the proper name
of the person; as where _his majesty_ is used for a king, or _his
lordship_ for a nobleman, or when, instead of Aristotle, we say _the
philosopher_; or, conversely, the use of a proper name instead of an
appellative, as where a wise man is called a _Cato_, or an eminent
orator a _Cicero_, the application being supported by a resemblance in
character.” (_Webster._)

[531] The phrase “them that are without [the church]” calls for no
explanation. It was common in early New England, and both Lyford and
Bradford are found using it (Bradford, pp. 184, 187) exactly as Morton
uses it, who probably picked it up at Plymouth.

[532] Innocence Fairecloath is the name under which Morton alludes to
Philip Ratcliff. This man was a servant or agent of Governor Matthew
Cradock. He got into trouble with Endicott and the members of the Salem
church, and, according to Winthrop, “being convict, _ore tenus_, of
most foul, scandalous invectives against our churches and government,
was censured to be whipped, lose his ears, and be banished the
plantation, which was presently executed.” (p. *56.) Another authority
speaks of the offence as a “most horible blasphemy.” (III. _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. viii. p. 323.) In the _Records of Massachusetts_
(p. 88), under date of June 14 (24 N. S.), 1631, the sentence read
as follows: “It is ordered, that Philip Ratcliffe shall be whipped,
have his ears cut off, fined 40 l., and banished out of the limits
of this jurisdiction, for uttering malicious and scandalous speeches
against the government and the church of Salem, &c., as appeareth by a
particular thereof, proved upon oath.” The severity of this sentence
caused much scandal in England after Ratcliff returned there, and
in April of the next year Edward Howes wrote out to John Winthrop,
Jr.: “I have heard diverse complaints against the severitie of your
Government especially Mr. Indicutts, and that he shalbe sent for over,
about cuttinge off the Lunatick mans eares, and other grievances.”
(III. _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. ix. p. 244.) In regard to Ratcliff’s
subsequent connection with the Gorges-Mason attacks on the company
before the Privy Council, see _supra_, 50-2, 62, and _Proceedings of
Mass. Hist. Soc._, vol. xx., January meeting, 1883.

[533] See _supra_ 304, _note_ 2.

[534] The first two deacons of the church at Charlestown were Robert
Hale and Ralph Monsall. The Charlestown church, however, was not
organized until November, 1632, sixteen months after Ratcliff’s
punishment. (Budington’s _First Church of Charlestown_, pp. 31, 34.)

The Boston church in June, 1631, had but one deacon, William Aspinwall
(Ellis’s _First Church of Boston_, p. 328), in regard to whom there is
a detailed note in Savage’s _Winthrop_ (p. *32). He was the deacon of
the Charlestown church at the time Morton was arraigned and punished,
and it is possible that Morton refers to him as Shackles. Aspinwall was
a man of prominence in the settlement; but it must be remembered that,
thirteen years later, “two of our ministers’ sons, being students in
the college, robbed two dwelling-houses in the night of some pounds.
Being found out, they were ordered by the gouvernours of the college
to be there whipped, which was performed by the president himself--yet
they were about 20 years of age.” (Winthrop, vol. ii. p. *166.) If the
president of the college could officiate at the whipping-post in 1644,
in a case of what Winthrop calls “burglary,” there seems no good reason
why the deacon of the church should not have officiated there in 1631
in a case which the same authority calls “foul, scandalous invectives
against our churches.”

[535] _Supra_, 319.

[536] The character of the _New Canaan_ as a political pamphlet of
the time, intended to effect a given result in a particular quarter,
has already been referred to. (_Supra_, pp. 68-9.) In this respect
the present chapter is the most significant one in the book. It was
intended to act on the well-known prejudices of Archbishop Laud, the
head and controlling spirit of that Board of Lords Commissioners of
Foreign Plantations which then had supreme authority over the colonies.
To that Board Morton dedicated his book; and at the time he was writing
it the Lords Commissioners, and especially the Archbishop, were taking
active measures to vacate the Massachusetts charter and to assume the
direct government of the colonies. It is its connection with these
facts which alone gives any great degree of historical value to the
present chapter. In itself it is not deserving of careful annotation,
as it contains nothing that is new, and the ground is much better
covered by Lechford in his _Plaine Dealing_. Like Morton, Lechford was
a lawyer; and, unlike Morton, he was by nature a devout man. A member
of the Church of England he has given in his book a remarkably vivid
and fair-minded description of the practice of the New England churches
during the earliest days of the settlement. Mr. Trumbull’s very learned
and elaborate notes to his edition of the _Plaine Dealing_, which is
the edition referred to in the notes to the present chapter, have
cleared up Lechford’s text wherever it is obscure; and they obviate
the necessity of any careful annotation of the present chapter, except
where it is desirable to call notice to the special bearing any
particular assertion made may be supposed to have had on Archbishop
Laud’s idiosyncrasies.

[537] “Teaching in the church publicly,” was, it will be remembered,
one of the offences charged against Winslow before the Lords
Commissioners at the hearing of 1634, for which, at Archbishop Laud’s
“vehement importunity,” he was committed to the Fleet. (_Supra_, 69;
_Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, 1860-2, p. 131.) On the real practice of the
New England churches in regard to the exercise of their gifts by lay
members, see _Plaine Dealing_, p. 42.

[538] “I suppose the first preacher that ever thus preached with notes
in our New-England was the Reverend Warham.” (_Magnalia_, B. III.
part 2, ch. xviii.) In regard to John Warham, first of Dorchester and
subsequently of Windsor, Connecticut, see Dr. Young’s note in _Chron.
of Mass._, p. 347.

[539] There probably never was any regularly chosen deaconess in
New England. The office was recognized as having come down from the
primitive churches (Dexter’s _Congregationalism_, p. 69); and Robert
Browne in his definitions, in the _Life and Manners of all true
Christians_, says: “The _widow_ is a person having office of God to
pray for the church, and to visit and minister to those which are
afflicted and distressed in the church; for the which she is tried and
received as meet.” (Bacon’s _Genesis of the New England Churches_,
p. 84.) Bradford in his _Dialogue_, written in 1648, speaking of
the Separatist church at Amsterdam, says, that besides the pastor,
teacher, elders and deacons, there was “one ancient widow for a
deaconess, who did them service many years, though she was sixty
years of age when she was chosen. She honored her place and was an
ornament to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient place
in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in her hand, and kept
little children in great awe from disturbing the congregation. She
did frequently visit the sick and weak, especially women, and, as
there was need, called out maids and young women to watch and do them
other helps as their necessity did require; and if they were poor, she
would gather relief for them of those that were able, or acquaint the
deacons; and she was obeyed as a mother in Israel and an officer of
Christ.” (Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 455.) It would be inferred from
the passage quoted that there had in 1648 never been a deaconess in
the Plymouth church, as in this _Dialogue_ the old men are supposed to
be describing to the young men events strange to the latter, as having
occurred long before. Lechford says, speaking of the Massachusetts
colony: “No church there has a Deaconesse, as far as I know.” (_Plaine
Dealing_, pp. 24, 40) “I have not met with an instance of [the] actual
institution [of the office of deaconess] in New England.” (Palfrey,
vol. ii. p. 37, _note_.)

It does not seem, however, to have been even theoretically one of the
functions of the deaconess “to use her gifts at home,” as Morton says,
“in an assembly of her sex, by way of repetition, or exhortation.”
This would rather have pertained to the office of teacher. Meetings of
females, such as those described, were held in the parishes during the
early days, and played an important part in the Antinomian controversy.
The deaconess did not, however, officiate at them. The character of
these meetings appears in the following passage at the trial of Mrs.
Hutchinson:

“COURT. ... What say you to your weekly public meetings? Can you find
a warrant for them?

MRS. HUTCHINSON. I will show you how I took it up. There were such
meetings in use before I came; and because I went to none of them, this
was the special reason of my taking up this course. We began it with
but five or six, and, though it grew to more in future time, yet, being
tolerated at the first, I knew not why it might not continue.

COURT. There were private meetings indeed, and are still in many
places, of some few neighbors; but not so public and frequent as yours;
and are of use for increase of love and mutual edification. But yours
are of another nature. If they had been such as yours they had been
evil, and therefore no good warrant to justify yours. But answer by
what authority or rule you uphold them?

MRS. H. By Titus ii. 3-5, where the elder women are to teach the
younger.

COURT. So we allow you to do, as the Apostle there means, privately
and upon occasion. But that gives no warrant of such set meetings for
that purpose. And, besides, you take upon you to teach many that are
older than yourself. Neither do you teach them that which the Apostle
commands, viz: to keep at home.

MRS. H. Will you please to give me a rule against it, and I will yield.

COURT. You must have a rule for it, or else you cannot do it in faith.
Yet you have a plain rule against it,--‘I suffer not a woman to teach.’
(I. Tim. ii. 12.)

MRS. H. That is meant of teaching men.”

(Weld’s _Short Story_, pp. 34-5.) See also the version to the same
effect in Hutchinson’s _Massachusetts_, vol. ii. pp. 484-7.

[540] _Supra_, 262, _note_ 3, and 306, _note_ 3. The effect such a
statement as that in the text would have upon Archbishop Laud is
apparent. The real practice of the early New England churches in the
matter of ordination can be found in the _Plaine Dealing_, pp. 13, 16,
17.

[541] “There hath been some difference about jurisdictions, or
cognizance of causes: Some have held that, in causes betweene brethren
of the Church, the matter should be first told the Church, before
they goe to the civill Magistrate, because all causes in difference
doe amount, one way or other, to a matter of offence; and that all
criminall matters concerning Church members, should be first heard by
the Church. But these opinionists are held, by the wiser sort, not to
know the dangerous issues and consequences of such tenets.” (_Plaine
Dealing_, p. 34.)

[542] There was no minister at Plymouth in the spring of 1628, when
Morton was there. William Brewster was the ruling elder in the church
and officiated in its pulpit, where, from the beginning, he had “taught
twice every sabbath, and that both powerfully and profitably, to the
great contentment of the hearers, and their comfortable edification.”
(Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, p. 467; Bradford, pp. 187-8.) In the summer
of 1628, but after Morton had been sent to England, Allerton brought
over Mr. Rogers as a preacher, who soon proved to be “crased in his
braine” (Bradford, p. 243), and the next season was sent home. In the
autumn, apparently, of 1629, and while Morton may have been at Plymouth
at Allerton’s house (_Ib._ p. 253), before his final return to Mount
Wollaston, the Rev. Ralfe Smith, who had come over with Skelton and
Higginson in the previous June (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 151),
was found at Nantasket and brought down to Plymouth. (Bradford, p.
263.) He was not, however, chosen into the ministry there until a
later time. (_Ib._) It is unlikely that Morton here refers to Plymouth
personages. He was at Salem in 1629 (_Supra_, 306), and in Boston,
where as a prisoner he was undoubtedly made regularly to attend divine
service, from early September to the end of December, 1630. (_Supra_,
45; Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 321.) At Salem he had come in contact
with Skelton and Higginson; and it has been seen (_Supra_, 300, _note_
1) that he probably knew something of Francis Bright of Charlestown.
The only other ministers then in the colony were John Warham and John
Maverick at Dorchester, George Phillips at Watertown, and John Wilson
at Boston.

[543] It is scarcely necessary to point out that the three following
pages are largely the fruit of Morton’s imaginative powers, and were
intended for the special edification of Archbishop Laud. As Plymouth
was much less well supplied with preachers than the towns of the
Massachusetts colony, it is altogether probable--as Dr. John Eliot
surmised, in his review of the _New Canaan_, in the _Monthly Anthology_
for July, 1810--the allusions to the church-practises in this chapter
found their largest basis of fact in incidents which Morton had been a
witness of in the Plymouth meeting-house. It is safe to add, however,
that he could have had no agreeable recollections of the meeting-houses
at Boston and Charlestown.

[544] Oliver Le Daim, barber of Louis XI., created by him Comte de
Meulan, and sent in 1477 on a confidential mission to Mary of Burgundy
at Ghent. The account of his experiences is to be found in the
_Memoires de Commines_, L. v. ch. xiv.

[545] _Supra_, 302, _note_ 1.

[546] I am indebted to Mr. Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library,
for the following explanation of this, to me, very perplexing allusion:
“_Nic_, or, more correctly, _nick_,--namely, ‘a raised or indented
bottom in a beer-can, by which the customers were cheated, the nick
below and the froth above filling up part of the measure.’ I take
this definition from Wright’s _Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial
English_. That the expression was a common one the following quotations
prove:--

  ‘We must be running up and downe
  With cannes of beere (malt sod in fishes broth),
  And those they say are fil’d with nick and froth.’

  (Rowland’s _Knave of Harts_.)

  ‘From the nick and froth of a penny pot-house.’

  (Fletcher.)

  ‘Our pots were full quarted,
  We were not thus thwarted
  With froth-canne and nick-pot,
  And such nimble quick shot.’

(Spurious lines added to Rand’s 1624 edition of Skelton’s _Elynour
Rummynge_.) Most of this information I have taken from Nares’s
_Glossary_ and Halliwell-Phillipp’s _Dictionary of Archaic and
Provincial Words_, second edition.”

[547] The reference here is apparently to the running footmen much
in use in the eighteenth century, and also, judging by the text, as
early as the reign of Charles I. Their duty was to run before and
alongside the cumbrous coaches then in use, to notify innkeepers of
the coming guests. They carried long poles to assist them in clearing
obstacles, and to help pry the carriages out of the sloughs in which
they frequently got stuck. (Brewer’s _Dict. of Phrase and Fable_, p.
773; Macaulay’s _England_, vol. i. pp. 374-8.)

[548] It was one of the doctrines of Pythagoras that the souls of the
dying passed into the air, and thence into the living bodies of other
men, taking controlling possession of them. That the nimbleness of the
father’s feet might thus account for the volubility of the son’s tongue
is, it is needless to say, a purely Mortonian deduction.

[549] “_May_ 12. [1621] was the first marriage in this place, which,
according to the laudable custome of the Low-Countries, in which
they had lived, was thought most requisite to be performed by the
magistrate, as being a civill thing, upon which many questions aboute
inheritances doe depende, with other things most proper to their
cognizans, and most consonante to the scripturs. Ruth 4. and no wher
found in the gospell to be layed on the ministers as a part of their
office.” (Bradford, p. 101.) The marriage here referred to was that of
Edward Winslow to Mrs. Susannah White. It took place in May, Winslow’s
wife having died seven weeks before, and Mrs. White’s husband,
William, twelve weeks before. That he had married people was, it will
be remembered, the other of the two charges advanced against Winslow
himself, at the Privy Council hearing just referred to. (_Supra_,
322, _note_ 2.) The practice of civil marriage already prevailed in
the Massachusetts colony also, as, a week before the arrest of Morton
was ordered, Governor Endicott, on August 18, 1630, was married, at
Charlestown apparently, “by the governour and Mr. Wilson.” (Winthrop,
vol. i. p. *30. See also _Plaine Dealing_, pp. 86-7.) There are few
more edifying examples of the casuistical skill of Winthrop and his
associates than is afforded by his method of dealing with the question
of civil marriages, as explained in detail in his _Journal_ (vol. i. p.
*323). “In our church discipline, and in matters of marriage, to make a
law that marriages should not be solemnized by ministers is repugnant
to the laws of England; but to bring it to a custom by practice for the
magistrates to perform it, is no law made repugnant, etc.” The charter
of 1629 empowered the General Court of the colony “to make, ordeine,
and establishe all Manner of wholesome and reasonable Orders, Lawes,
Statutes, and Ordinances, Directions, and Instructions, not contrary to
the Lawes of theis our Realme of England.” (Hazard, vol. i. p. 252.)

[550] At the conference between the Bishops and the Puritans, held in
presence of James I. at Hampton Court in January, 1603, one of the
practices of the English Church especially excepted to as a “relique
of popery” by Dr. John Reynolds, the spokesman of the Puritans, was
the ring in marriage. (Neal’s _Hist. of Puritans_, vol. ii. p. 42.)
Among the reasons urged against its use I have not elsewhere found the
“diabolical circle” argument. It seems rather to have been associated
in the Puritan mind with the Romish traditions. (Jones’s _Finger-Ring
Lore_, pp. 288-90.) This count, in Morton’s indictment, was based on
good grounds. “In the Weddings of [early] New England the ring makes
none of the ceremonies.” (Mather’s _Ratio Disciplinæ_, p. 116.)

[551] This refers to churching practice of the English Church. At the
Hampton Court conference, referred to in the preceding note, another of
the “reliques of popery,” specifically excepted to by Dr. Reynolds, was
“the churching of women by the name of _purification_.”

[552] This count in the indictment was well laid. The children of the
non-communicants in early New England could not be baptized; though
they might be if either one of the parents was a member of the church.
At a later period this became one of the leading causes of political
agitation in the colony, and is referred to in the Dr. Robert Childs
petition of 1646. In 1670 from four fifths to five sixths of the adult
male inhabitants of Massachusetts were without the franchise, as being
non-communicants. (Lechford’s _Plaine Dealing_, pp. 47, 48, 151; _Mem.
Hist. of Boston_, vol. i. p. 156; Palfrey, vol. ii. p. 8, vol. iii. p.
41.)

[553] _Supra_, 316, _note_ 2.

[554] This was the favorite epithet employed by the early reformers
in referring to the Mass. Calvin called it “an execrable idol;”
Hooper, “a wicked idol.” Bradford--not Governor William, but John,
the Smithfield martyr of Queen Mary’s time--terms it an “abominable
idol of bread;” and again, “the horriblest and most detestable
device that ever the devil brought out by man.” Bland, rector of
Adishan, repeated the familiar figure, calling it a “most blasphemous
idol;” and Latimer improved upon this by adding the words, “full of
idolatry, blasphemy, sacrilege against God and the dear sacrifice
of His Christ.” (Blunt’s _Reformation of the Church of Eng._, vol.
ii. pp. 399-402.) The derivation of the Book of Common Prayer, in
many of its parts, from the Missal was unmistakable; and naturally
the next race of religious reformers applied to the former the same
earnest epithets of theological dissent which had before been applied
to the latter. Accordingly, in Barrowe’s _Brief Discovery of the
False Church_, we find the Book of Common Prayer referred to as “a
detestable idol, ... old rotten stuff ... abstracted out of the pope’s
blasphemous mass-book, ... an abominable and loathsome sacrifice in
the sight of God, even as a dead dog.” Barrowe was one of the three
Separatist martyrs, and as such held in deepest veneration at Plymouth.
(Young’s _Chron. of Pilg._, pp. 427-34.) The Book of Common Prayer
was therefore undoubtedly looked upon and referred to at Plymouth as
Morton says. Indeed, the Lyford schism was in some degree due to its
use. (Bradford, p. 181.) That it was, in the early days, also so looked
upon and so referred to at Salem and at Boston, is not clear. It is
true that in 1629 it was again the cause of the Browne dissension at
Salem (Young’s _Chron. of Mass._, p. 287), in consequence of which
Skelton and Higginson both declared openly “that they came away from
the Common Prayer and ceremonies, ... and therefore, being in a place
where they might have their liberty, they neither could nor would use
them, because they judged the imposition of these things to be sinful
corruptions in the worship of God.” (Morton’s _Memorial_, p. 147.) The
Puritans of Boston, however, were not Separatists, and it is open to
question whether they at first felt towards the Common Prayer as the
Plymouth people felt towards it, and as Morton says. In 1640 Governor
Winthrop, it is true, noted it as a thing worthy of observation that
his son “having many books in a chamber where there was corn of divers
sorts, had among them one wherein the Greek testament, the psalms and
the common prayer were bound together. He found the common prayer eaten
with mice, every leaf of it, and not any of the two other touched, nor
any other of his books, though they were above a thousand.” (Winthrop,
vol. ii. p. *20.) When Governor Winthrop tried and sentenced Morton,
however, he was anxious to preserve his connection with the Church of
England, and it is very doubtful whether he then looked upon its Book
of Prayer as “an idol.” (_Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, vol. xviii. p. 296.)

As one count in Morton’s indictment of the people of New England, that
in the text now under consideration was not only sufficiently well
founded, but it was peculiarly calculated to excite Archbishop Laud’s
anger. It is unnecessary to say that he was the special champion of
the Church of England ritual. To enforce exact conformity to it he
regarded as his mission. When the ships loaded with emigrants for New
England were, in March, 1634, stopped in the Thames by order of the
Privy Council, they were not allowed to proceed on their voyage until
the masters bound themselves to have the Book of Common Prayer used at
morning and evening service during the voyage. (_Council Register_,
Feb. 21, 28, 1634; Gardiner’s _Charles I._, vol. ii. p. 23.) This was
Laud’s act, and it is more than probable that he was as much influenced
by Morton on that occasion as he was subsequently in the matter of
Winslow’s imprisonment for having performed the marriage ceremony.
(_Supra_, 69, 93.)

[555] “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay
tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier
matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” (_Matt._ xxiii. 23.)

“But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner
of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God.” (_Luke_ xi. 42.)

The significance of the text referred to lay, of course, in Morton’s
mind, rather in its indirect than its direct application,--more in its
denunciatory than in its contributory portions. The clergy in early
Massachusetts were supported by the voluntary contributions in Boston,
and by a regular town-tax levy outside of Boston. (_Plaine Dealing_,
pp. 48-50; _Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._, 1860-2, p. 116.)

[556] _Supra_, Ch. XXV. pp. 316-20.

[557] “_Wink_, _v. n._ 1. to shut the eyes. _obs._” (_Worcester._)

[558] Edward Howes, in writing from London to John Winthrop, Jr.,
in November, 1632, describes how, on going home at noon one day, he
met the master of a vessel which had just arrived from New England,
together with three others who had come over with him. The master
passing into the house on some matter of business, Howes had a talk
with one of the other men, whom he describes as an “egregious knave.”
The report given by this man of the Massachusetts community strikingly
resembles that given by Morton in this chapter. He would, writes Howes,
“give none of you a good word, but the governor [Winthrop]; he was a
good man and kept a good table, but all the rest were Hereticks, and
they would be more holy than all the world; they would be a peculiar
people to God, but go to the Devil; that one man with you being at
confession, as he called it, said he believed his father and mother and
ancestors went all to Hell; and that your preachers, in their public
prayers, pray for the governor before they pray for our king and state;
... that you never use the Lord’s prayer; that your ministers marry
none; that fellows which keep hogs all the week preach on the Sabbath;
that every town in your plantation is of a several religion; that you
count all men in England, yea all out of your church, in the state of
damnation. But I believe and know better things of you; but here you
may partly see how the Devil stirs up his instruments.” (IV. _Mass.
Hist. Col._, vol. vi. p. 485.)

[559] Mr. Swift (_Supra_, 328, _note_) suggests that Morton here
alludes to the scene in Ben Jonson’s _Tale of a Tub_ (act iv. sc. 1),
where Justice Preamble says:

  “And what say you now, neighbor Turfe?”

Turfe answers him:

                          “I put it
  Even to your worship’s bitterment, hab, nab.”

Here the Countryman makes the remark, and not the Justice; but a wholly
correct allusion by Morton is not to be looked for. (_Supra_, 123,
_note_ 2.) The meaning of _hab, nab_ is, of course, “hit or miss, at a
venture, at random,” and is probably derived from _habbe, nabbe_,--“to
have or not to have.” (See Nares’s _Glossary_.)

[560] _Supra_, 44-5.

[561] _Supra_, 319, _note_.

[562] By the General Court of May, 1644, it was ordered, that
“Nantascot shall be called Hull.” (_Records_, vol. ii. p. 74.) Mr.
Savage, in his notes to Winthrop (vol. ii. p. *175), and Mr. Whitmore
(_Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc._ 1871-3, p. 397), think it was so called
from Hull in Yorkshire. It would appear from the text that it had
been locally known by that name among the “old planters” before the
settlement of Boston.

[563] Sir Christopher Gardiner suddenly appeared in Massachusetts
in May, 1630, and returned to England in 1632, arriving there in
August. He is supposed to have come out as an agent, or emissary, of
Sir Ferdinando Gorges. I had begun the preparation of a note on Sir
Christopher, and “how hee spedd amongst the Seperatists,” for insertion
at this point; but the subject developed on my hands until it assumed
the shape of a study by itself. It can be found in the _Proceedings of
the Mass. Hist. Soc._ for January, 1883, vol. xx.

[564] Machiavelli died in 1527, and _The Prince_ was published in 1532.
The reputation of the man and of the book were as well established in
Morton’s day as they are now.

  “Nick Machiavel had ne’er a trick,
  (Tho’ he gave his name to our old Nick.)”

  (_Hudibras_, p. III. can. i. lines 1313-4.)

This derivation is not accepted by the authorities. See Brewer’s
_Dict._, p. 614.

[565] _Supra_, Ch. XXV. pp. 316-20.

[566] As Saint Michael is one of the Azores, it may have been during
this voyage that Morton visited the Isle of Sal and the tropics, as
mentioned in the first chapter of the _New Canaan_. (_Supra_, 117.)
If the voyage did last nine months, it was August or September, 1631,
before he got back to England.

[567]

  “Cum canerem reges et prœlia, Cynthius aurem
  Vellit, et admonuit:...”

  (Virgil, _Eclogues_, vi. 3-4.)

There are in the _New Canaan_ (_Supra_, 280, 297) two references to
certain imaginary or special gifts from “Phaos box,” which in editing
I had been unable to explain. Mr. Lindsay Swift (_Supra_, 328, _note_)
now supplies me with a reference, which, if it is indeed, as seems most
probable, the allusion which Morton had in mind, seems to indicate
that his familiarity with classic authors was greater than I have
been disposed to give him credit for. The reference is to the _Varia
Historia_ of Ælianus (lib. XII. cap. xviii.), and reads as follows:
“Phaonem, omnium hominum formosissimum, Venus in lactucis abscondit.
Alii dicunt, eum portitorem fuisse, et habuisse hoc vitæ genus.
Veniebat autem aliquando Venus, trajicere volens; ille vero, nesciens
quænam esset, libenter recepit, magnaque cura, quoquo voluerat, eam
vexit. Pro quibus meritis Dea alabastrum ei donavit, et erat in eo
unguentum, quo unctus Phaon speciosissimus hominum evasit, atque adeo
amarunt eum Mitylenensium feminæ. Tandem vero deprehensus in adulterio,
trucidatus est.”




      *      *      *      *      *      *




Transcriber's Note


The following apparent errors have been corrected:

p. 18 (note) "Strutt s" changed to "Strutt’s"

p. 23 (note) "_Infra_ *149." changed to "_Infra_, *149."

p. 83 (note) "_State Papers_.," changed to "_State Papers_,"

p. 98 "repects" changed to "respects"

p. 102 (note) "humming-bird”" changed to "“humming-bird”"

p. 130 (note) "pp, 70" changed to "pp. 70"

p. 133 (note) "1869.," changed to "1869,"

p. 137 (note) "‘eat.”" changed to "‘eat.’”"

p. 140 (note) "lxxxix" changed to "lxxxix."

p. 147 (note) "Hemlock-Bark" changed to "Hemlock-Bark”"

p. 148 (note) "_nanwetee_’" changed to "_nanwetee_"

p. 152 (note) "lxxxiv-lxxxvii" changed to "lxxxiv.-lxxxvii."

p. 158 (note) "together”" changed to "together.”"

p. 185 (sidenote) "3. & 4" changed to "3. & 4."

p. 196 (note) "linarius" changed to "lanarius"

p. 213 (note) "_Chingachgook_" changed to "_Chingachcook_"

p. 217 (note) "he got" changed to "be got"

p. 218 (note) "vol," changed to "vol."

p. 226 (note) "_Psendopleuronectes_" changed to "_Pseudopleuronectes_"

p. 269 "the rest" changed to "the rest,"

p. 314 "handsomely" changed to "handsomely."

p. 326 (sidenote) "despised" changed to "despised."

p. 348 "cured" changed to "cured."

p. 355 "N. Y." changed to "N.Y."

p. 356 "N. Y." changed to "N.Y."

p. 356 "R. I." changed to "R.I."

p. 358 "N. Y." changed to "N.Y."

p. 359 "Prospect" changed to "Prospect."

p. 359 "Whitmore, A.M" changed to "Whitmore, A.M."

p. 363 "131, _n._;" changed to "131, _n._,"

p. 365 "Canonicus" changed to "Caunoŭnicus"

p. 366 "196, _n._," changed to "196, _n._;"

p. 369 "186," changed to "186."

p. 371 "_Kantantowwit_" changed to "Kantántowwit"

p. 371 "_Kodliep Kēn_" changed to "_Kodtup Kēn_"

p. 372 "description of, 200;" changed to "description of, 206;"

p. 374 "205, _n._" changed to "205, _n._;"


Inconsistent spelling, punctuation and typography have otherwise been
left as printed.


The following possible errors have been left as printed:

p. 19 beasly

p. 123 originlly

p. 125 probality

p. 127 this Cost

p. 132 strenght

p. 144 lenght

p. 148 uncivilizied

p. 154 fuond

p. 164 giude

p. 210 oder glands

p. 219 Blacklead.

p. 223 (note) lenghth

p. 230 Mattachusetts

p. 231 ageed

p. 261 doubdt

p. 281 strenght

p. 287 worties

p. 365 Cithyrea

p. 365 fire-brand

p. 366 Colchos

p. 366 Powows

p. 366 luzerans

p. 367 Drails

p. 367 luzeran

p. 368 luzeran

p. 371 Lannerets

p. 371 Leadstones

p. 375 Newcomein

p. 376 Pawtucket

p. 376 Phlegethon

p. 376 Phœbus

p. 377 Rhadamanthus

p. 379 Chappel: chalkstones

p. 379 Stubbs

p. 380 Wampumpeack

p. 381 Auld



***