BILLINGSGATE POINT. 151 IX. Dec. and Edward Tilley had like to have sounded' with CHAP cold. The gunner also was sick unto death (but hope of trucking made him to go,) and so remained 1620. all that day and the next night. At length we got 6. clear of the sandy point, and got up our sails, and within an hour or two we got under the weather shore, and then had smoother water and better sailing. But it was very cold; for the water froze on our clothes, and made them many times like coats of iron. We sailed six or seven leagues by the shore, but saw neither river nor creek. At length we met with a tongue of land, being flat off from the shore, with a sandy point. We bore up to gain the point, and found there a fair income or road of a bay, being a league over at the narrowest, and some two or three in length; but we made right over to the land before us, and left the discovery of this income till the next day. As we drew near to the shore,' we espied some ten or twelve Indians very busy about a black thing, what it was we could not tell,- till afterwards they saw us, and ran to and fro, as if they had been carrying something away. We landed a league or two from them, and had much ado to put ashore any where, it 5 'Swooned. Nothing further is known of Edward Tilley than that he brought his wife with him, and had two other individuals in his family, probably his children, and died before the end of March. John Tilley, who was also one of this exploring party, was probably a brother of Edward. He also brought his wife and one other person, most likely a child, and died before the end of March. The name does not appear in the division of the lands in 1623, nor of the cattle in 1627. The shore of Truro. Billingsgate Point. This point then joined the land north of it; but it is now an island, having been cut off by a ditch many years since; and being constantly washed by the tide, there is now a passage for small light vessels to pass at full sea. Wellfleet bay is, as here described, a league over at the narrowest and two or thrco in length. The distance from Long Point to Billingsgate Point is seven leagues. See Mass. Hist. Coll. iv. 41. In Eastham, north of Great pond. South. 152 THE PILGRIMS IN WELLFLEET. IX. Dec. 7. CHAP. lay so full of flat sands. When we came to shore, we made us a barricado, and got firewood, and set 1620. out sentinels, and betook us to our lodging, such as it was. We saw the smoke of the fire which the savages made that night about four or five miles from us. In the morning we divided our company, some eight in the shallop, and the rest on the shore went to discover this place. But we found it only to be a bay,2 without either river or creek coming into it. Yet we deemed it to be as good a harbour as Cape Cod; for they that sounded it found a ship might ride in five fathom water. We on the land found it to be a level 3 soil, though none of the fruitfullest. We saw two becks of fresh water, which were the first running streams that we saw in the country; but one might stride over them. We found also a great fish, called a grampus, dead on the sands. They in the shallop A sandy flat, a mile wide, extends along the western shore of Eastham, from Dennis to the bounds of Wellfleet. It is left dry about three hours, and may easily be crossed by horses and carriages. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 155. Wellfleet harbour, which is large, indented within with creeks, where vessels of 70 or 80 tons may lie. Large ships may lie safe in what is called the Deep Hole, near the town. There are five and a half fathom of water in the harbour. See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 117. The land in Eastham is a level plain. was probably Cook's brook, in Eastham, three quarters of a mile south of Indian brook, or possibly Snow's brook a mile further south. See Mass Hist. Coll. iv. 41, and viii. 155. The grampus, (grand-poisson, Fr., grapois, Norm., delphinus orca,) is the largest and most remarkable species of the genus Phocana, of the cetaceous order of Mammalia. It is a large animal, half the size of the Greenland fullgrown whale, being often seen from 25 to 30 feet in length and 10 or 12 in circumference. The color is black above, suddenly giving place to white on the sides, which is continued over the abdomen. Individuals of this species are sometimes thrown ashore on the Cape, 20 feet long, and having four inches of blubber. See Jardine's Naturalist's Library, Mammalia, vi. 228 -232; Shaw's Zoology, Mammalia, vol. ii. part ii. p. 513; Jusselyn, p. 26. THE PILGRIMS IN EASTHAM. 153 IX. Dec. found two of them also in the bottom of the bay, dead CHAP. in like sort. They were cast up at high water, and could not get off for the frost and ice. They were 1620. some five or six paces long, and about two inches 7. thick of fat, and fleshed like a swine. They would have yielded a great deal of oil, if there had been time and means to have taken it. So we finding nothing for our turn, both we and our shallop returned. 2 We then directed our course along the sea sands to the place where we first saw the Indians. When we were there, we saw it was also a grampus which they were cutting up. They cut it into long rands or pieces, about an ell long and two handfull broad. We found here and there a piece scattered by the way, as it seemed for haste. This place the most were minded we should call the Grampus Bay, because we found so many of them there. We followed the track of the Indians' bare feet a good way on the sands. At length we saw where they struck into the woods by the side of a pond. As we went to view the place, one said he thought he saw an Indian house among the trees; so went up to see. And here we and the shallop lost sight one of another till night, it being now about nine or ten o'clock. So we light on a path, but saw no house, and followed a great way into the woods. At length we found where corn had been set, but not that year. Anon, we found a great burying place, one part whereof was encompassed with a large palisado, like a 1 They went back, north, towards Wellfleet harbour. Rands-strips. Great pond, in Eastham, north of which they landed. F. This pond is a quarter of a mile from the shore. A narrow neck, about forty feet wide, separates it from 154 AN INDIAN BURYING-GROUND. IX. Dec. CHAP. church-yard, with young spires,' four or five yards long, set as close one by another as they could, two or three 1620. foot in the ground. Within it was full of graves, some 7. bigger and some less. Some were also paled about; and others had like an Indian house made over them, but not matted. Those graves were more sumptuous than those at Cornhill; yet we digged none of them up, but only viewed them and went our way. Without the palisado were graves also, but not so costly. From this place we went and found more corn-ground, but not of this year. As we ranged, we light on four or five Indian houses, which had been lately dwelt in; but they were uncovered, and had no mats about them; else they were like those we found at Cornhill,3 but had not been so lately dwelt in. There was nothing old mats, and a little left but two or three pieces of We went ranging up and down till the sun began to draw low, and then we hasted out of the woods, that we might come to our shallop; which, when we were out of the woods, we espied a great way off, and called them to come unto us; the which they did as soon as they could, for it was not yet high water. They were exceeding glad to see us, for they feared 1 Spires twisted or wreathed boughs. "Over the grave of the more noble they erect something in form of a hearse-cloth." T. Morton, ch. 17. The Pilgrims, on their first visit to Massachusetts Bay, in Sept. 1621, saw the grave of Nanepashemet, the deceased king, surrounded by a palisado, and over it "the frame of a house, wherein, being dead, he lay buried." See page 142. See page 144. See note on page 145. A MIDNIGHT ALARM. 155 IX. Dec. because they had not seen us in so long a time, think- CHAP. ing we would have kept by the shore side. So being both weary and faint, for we had eaten nothing all 1020. that day, -we fell to make our rendezvous and get 7. firewood, which always costs us a great deal of labor. By that time we had done, and our shallop come to us,' it was within night; and we fed upon such victuals as we had, and betook us to our rest, after we had set out our watch. About midnight we heard a great and hideous cry; and our sentinels called, "Arm! Arm!" So we bestirred ourselves, and shot off a couple of muskets, and the noise ceased. We concluded that it was a company of wolves or foxes; for one told us he had heard such a noise in Newfoundland." It appears from Gov. Bradford's MS. History, quoted by Prince, p. 165, that the shallop coasted along the shore, south, and that towards night, the people on land met it at a creek. This Morton, in his Memorial, p. 44, conjectures to be Namskeket, which is the dividing line between Orleans and Brewster. But it may with more probability be concluded that it was Great Meadow creck, in Eastham. If the travellers had gone as far as Namskeket, they must have crossed Great Meadow creek, then, half a mile south, Boat Meadow creek, then, half a mile further south, Rock Harbour creek, and then, a mile southwest, Little Namskeket creek; or they must have passed round their heads, which, at a time when the country was covered with a forest very difficult to be penetrated, would have been no casy task. Namskeket creck was best known to the first settlers of Plymouth; and this appears to have been the cause of Morton's supposi tion. F. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 155, 188. 2 Probably either Clark or Cop- Newfoundland was not disco- |