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A JOURNEY TO THE KINGDOM OF NAMASCHET, IN DEFENCE
OF THE GREAT KING MASSASOYT AGAINST THE NARRO-
HIGGANSETS, AND TO REVENGE THE SUPPOSED DEATH
OF OUR INTERPRETER, TISQUANTUM.

XIII.

Aug.

Ar our return from Nauset we found it true that CHAP. Massasoyt was put from his country by the Narrohiggansets.1 Word also was brought unto us that Cou- 1621. batant, a petty sachim or governor under Massasoyt, whom they ever feared to be too conversant with the Narrohiggansets, was at Namaschet; who sought to draw the hearts of Massasoyt's subjects from him; speaking also disdainfully of us, storming at the peace between Nauset, Cummaquid and us, and at Tisquantum, the worker of it; also at Tokamahamon and one Hobbamock, two Indians, our allies, one of which he would treacherously have murdered a little before, being a special and trusty man of Massasoyt's. Tokamahamon went to him, but the other two would not;

1 Gov. Bradford says nothing of this, nor of Massasoit's being either seized or invaded by the Narragansetts. Prince, p. 193.

Gov. Bradford plainly writes him Corbitant. Prince, p. 194.

3

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220

THE EXPEDITION REACH NAMASKET.

CHAP. yet put their lives in their hands, privately went to see XIII. if they could hear of their king, and lodging at Nam1621. aschet were discovered to Coubatant, who set a guard

Aug.

13.

14.

to beset the house, and took Tisquantum; for he had said if he were dead, the English had lost their tongue. Hobbamock, seeing that Tisquantum was taken, and Coubatant held a knife at his breast, being a strong and stout man, brake from them and came to New Plymouth, full of fear and sorrow for Tisquantum, whom he thought to be slain.

Upon this news the company assembled together, and resolved on the morrow to send ten men armed to Namaschet, and Hobbamock for their guide, to revenge the supposed death of Tisquantum on Coubatant, our bitter enemy, and to retain Nepeof,' another sachim or governor, who was of this confederacy, till we heard what was become of our friend Massasoyt. On the morrow we set out ten men, armed, who took their journey as aforesaid; but the day proved very wet. When we supposed we were within three or four miles of Namaschet, we went out of the way, and stayed there till night; because we would not be discovered. There we consulted what to do; and thinking best to beset the house at midnight, each was appointed his task by the Captain, all men encouraging one another to the utmost of their power. By night our guide lost his way, which much discouraged our men, being we were wet, and weary of our arms. But one of our men, having been before at Namaschet, brought us into the way again.

This is the only time the name of this chief occurs in the annals

of the Colony.

ish with 14 men." Prince, p. 194.
3 Standish.
Either Winslow or Hopkins,

* Bradford says, "Captain Stand- who stopped at Namasket in going

THEY BESET THE HOUSE AT MIDNIGHT.

Not

221

XIII.

Before we came to the town, we sat down and ate CHAP. such as our knapsacks afforded. That being done, we threw them aside, and all such things as might hinder 1621. Aug. us, and so went on and beset the house, according to 14. our last resolution. Those that entered demanded if Coubatant were not there; but fear had bereft the savages of speech. We charged them not to stir; for if Coubatant were not there, we would not meddle with them. If he were, we came principally for him, to be avenged on him for the supposed death of Tisquantum, and other matters; but, howsoever, we would not at all hurt their women or children. withstanding, some of them pressed out at a private door and escaped, but with some wounds. At length, perceiving our principal ends, they told us Coubatant was returned with all his train, and that Tisquantum was yet living and in the town; offering some tobacco, other such as they had to eat. In this hurly-burly we discharged two pieces at random, which much terrified all the inhabitants, except Tisquantum and Tokamahamon; who, though they knew not our end in coming, yet assured them of our honesty, that we would not hurt them. Those boys that were in the house, seeing our care of women, often cried Neen squaes!' that is to say, I am a woman; the women also hanging upon Hobbamock, calling him towam, that is,

and returning from Pokanoket, in July. If it was Winslow, he may reasonably be considered the writer of this narrative.

This is correct Indian in the Massachusetts and Narragansett dialects. See Eliot's Indian Grammar, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xix. 253; Cotton's Vocabulary of the Massachusetts language, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxii. 156, 178; Roger Wil

liams's Key to the native language
of New England, ch. 5; Wood's
Nomenclator, at the end of his New
England's Prospect; and Gallatin's }
Indian Vocabularies, in Coll. Am.
Antiq. Soc. ii. 308, 352.

Rather, I am a girl; squaes be-
ing a diminutive, formed by adding
es to squa. See the Apostle Eliot's
Indian Grammar, in Mass. Hist.
Coll. xix. 258.

222

COUBATANT AND HIS PARTY ESCAPE.

XIII.

CHAP. friend.' But, to be short, we kept them we had, and made them make a fire, that we might see to search 1621. the house. In the mean time, Hobbamock gat on the top of the house, and called Tisquantum and Tokamahamon, which came unto us accompanied with others, some armed, and others naked. Those that had bows and arrows, we took them away, promising them again when it was day. The house we took, for our better safeguard, but released those we had taken, manifesting whom we came for and wherefore.

Aug.

15.

On the next morning, we marched into the midst of the town, and went to the house of Tisquantum to breakfast. Thither came all whose hearts were upright towards us; but all Coubatant's faction were fled away. There, in the midst of them, we manifested again our intendment, assuring them, that although Coubatant had now escaped us, yet there was no place should secure him and his from us, if he continued his threatening us, and provoking others against us, who had kindly entertained him, and never intended evil towards him till he now so justly deserved it. Moreover, if Massasoyt did not return in safety from Narrohigganset, or if hereafter he should make any insurrection against him, or offer violence to Tisquantum, Hobbamock, or any of Massasoyt's subjects, we would revenge it upon him, to the overthrow of him and his. As for those [who] were wounded, we were sorry for it, though themselves procured it in not staying in the house, at our command; yet if they would return home with us, our surgeon' should heal them.

The most common word for friend, in the Massachusetts and Narragansett dialects was netop or netomp. See Cotton, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxii. 165; Wood's Nomencla

tor; Roger Williams's Key, ch. 1, and Gallatin, in Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc. ii. 321.

2

Their surgeon and physician was Mr. SAMUEL FULLER, the eighth

THE EXPEDITION RETURN TO PLYMOUTH.

XIII.

223 At this offer, one man and a woman that were CHAP. wounded went home with us; Tisquantum and many other known friends accompanying us, and offering 1621. Aug. all help that might be by carriage of any thing we 15. had, to ease us. So that by God's good providence we safely returned home the morrow night after we set forth.

signer of the Compact. In 1628, when the scurvy and a malignant distemper broke out among the first settlers at Salem, "Mr. Endicot, understanding that there was one at Plymouth that had skill in such diseases, sent thither for him; at whose request he was sent unto them." He was there again for the same purpose in May, 1629, after the arrival of Higginson's company. We find him also at Dorchester, in June 1630, at the request of Mr. Warham, to let twenty of these people blood; again at Salem, in July, and at Charlestown, in August of the same year, after the arrival of Winthrop's colony, whence he writes, "The sad news here is that many are sick, and many are dead. I here but lose time, and long to be at home. I can do them no good, for I want drugs, and things fitting to work with. He died in 1633, of an infectious fever. In the MS. Records of Ply

66

mouth Church, vol. i. p. 42, it is
stated that "when the church came
away out of Holland, they brought
with them one deacon, Mr. Samuel
Fuller, who officiated amongst them
until his death. He was a good
man, and full of the holy spirit."
Morton says, that "he did much
good in his place, being not only
useful in his faculty, but otherwise,
as he was a godly man, and served
Christ in the office of a deacon in
the church for many years, and
forward to do good in his place,
and was much missed after God
removed him out of this world.”
His widow, Bridget, who came in
the Anne, in 1623, and his son
Samuel gave to the Plymouth
church the lot of ground on which
the parsonage now stands. See
Morton's Memorial, pp. 143 and
173; Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 66, 74—
76, xiii. 186; and Prince's Annals,
pp. 253 and 259.

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