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CHAPTER XIV.

A RELATION OF OUR

AND WHAT

VOYAGE TO THE MASSACHUSETTS,'
HAPPENED THERE.

CHAP.
XIV.

It seemed good to the company in general, that though the Massachusets had often threatened us, (as 1021. we were informed,) yet we should go amongst them, partly to see the country, partly to make peace with them, and partly to procure their truck. For these ends the governors chose ten men, fit for the purpose, and sent Tisquantum and two other salvages to bring us to speech with the people and interpret for us.

Sept.

18.

We set out about midnight, the tide then serving for us. We supposing it to be nearer than it is, thought to be there the next morning betimes; but it proved well near twenty leagues from New Plymouth. We

'The territory and tribe probably took their name from the Blue Hills in Milton, which were originally called Massachusetts Mount. Smith speaks of them as "the high mountain of Massachusit." Cotton, in his Vocabulary of the Massachusetts language, gives the following definition: "Mâssa-chusett - a hill in the form of an arrow's head." Roger Williams says, "I had learnt that the Massachusetts

was called so from the Blue Hills, a little island thereabout (in Narragansett Bay); and Connonicus's father and ancestors living in those southern parts, transferred and brought their authority and name into those northern parts." See Mass. Hist. Coll. vii." 75, xix. 1; xxvi. 120; R. I. Hist. Coll. iv. 208; and Hutchinson's Mass. i. 460.

The distance from Plymouth to Boston by water is about 40 miles.

THE FIRST LANDING IN BOSTON.

3

225

XIV.

came into the bottom of the bay;' but being late, we CHAP. anchored and lay in the shallop, not having seen any of the people. The next morning we put in for the 1621. Sept. shore. There we found many lobsters, that had been 20. gathered together by the salvages, which we made ready under a cliff. The Captain set two sentinels behind the cliff, to the landward, to secure the shallop, and taking a guide with him and four of our company, went to seek the inhabitants; where they met a woman coming for her lobsters. They told her of them, and contented her for them. She told them where the people were. Tisquantum went to them; the rest returned, having direction which way to bring the shallop to them.

He

The sachim or governor of this place is called Obbatinewat; and though he lives in the bottom of the Massachuset Bay, yet he is under Massasoyt. used us very kindly. He told us he durst not then remain in any settled place for fear of the Tarentines." Also the squa sachim,' or Massachusets queen, was an enemy to him.

By the bay is meant Boston harbour. It extends from Nantasket to Boston, and spreads from Chelsea to Hingham, containing about 75 square miles. See Snow's History of Boston, p. 113.

2 Supposed to be Copp's hill, at the north end of Boston. At the first settlement of the town, in 1630, this hill, rising to the height of about fifty feet above the sea, presented on its northwest brow an abrupt declivity, long after known as Copp's hill steeps. See Snow's History of Boston, p. 105.

3 Standish.

4 By Massachusetts Bay was formerly understood only the inner bay, from Nahant to Point Alder

ton. Thus Gov. Winthrop speaks
of going from Salem to Massachu-
setts. See Savage's Winthrop, i. 27.

The Tarrateens or Tarrenteens
resided on the Kennebec and the
other rivers in Maine, and the
country east of it. There was great
enmity between them and the In-
dians of Massachusetts Bay, who,
although they had formerly been
a great people, yet were now so
reduced that, upon alarms, they
would fly to the English houses as
to asylums, where the Tarrenteens
durst not pursue them. Hutchin-
son's Mass. i. 28, 456.

I suppose the widow of Nanepashemet, mentioned on the next page.

226

CHAP.
XIV.

THE PILGRIMS IN QUINCY.

We told him of divers sachims that had acknowledged themselves to be King James's men,' and if he also 1621. would submit himself, we would be his safeguard from his enemies; which he did, and went along with us to bring us to the squa sachim. Again we crossed the bay, which is very large, and hath at least fifty islands in it; 2 but the certain number is not known to the inhabitants. Night it was before we came to that side of the bay where this people were. On shore the salvages went, but found nobody. That night also we rid at anchor aboard the shallop.

Sept.

On the morrow we went ashore,3 all but two men, 21. and marched in arms up in the country. Having gone three miles we came to a place where corn had been newly gathered, a house pulled down, and the people gone. A mile from hence, Nancpashemet, their king, in his life-time had lived. Ilis house was not like others, but a scaffold was largely built, with poles and planks, some six foot from [the] ground, and the house upon that, being situated on the top of a hill.

Of course he could not be, as Prince supposes, the Obbatinnua who, with eight other sachems, on the 13th of the same month, seven days before, had signed a paper, professing their submission to King James; unless his name was affixed subsequently to that date. See Morton's Memorial, p. 67, and Prince's Annals, p. 196.

2 The number of islands in Boston harbour is not overstated, although several of them, such as Bird Island and Nick's Mate, have been washed away since this Journal was written. A list of them is contained in Snow's Boston, p. 114. Smith, in his Description of New England, says, "The country of the Massachusets is the paradise of all those parts; for here are

4

many isles, all planted with corn, groves, mulberries, and salvage gardens." See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 295, and xxvi. 118.

3

They probably landed at Squantum, in Quincy, which may have been so called by them at this time after their interpreter Tisquantum, who was one of the party. See note on page 191, and Mass. Hist. Coll. ix. 164.

4 Perhaps Milton Hill, or some one of the Blue Hills. "At Massachusetts, near the mouth of Charles river, there used to be a general rendezvous of Indians. That circle, which now makes the harbours of Boston and Charlestown, round by Malden, Chelsea, Nantasket, Hingham, Weymouth, Braintree, and Dorchester, was the

THE PILGRIMS IN MILTON.

XIV.

227 Not far from hence, in a bottom, we came to a fort, CHAP. built by their deceased king; the manner thus. There were poles, some thirty or forty feet long, stuck in the 1621. Sept. ground, as thick as they could be set one by another; 21. and with these they enclosed a ring some forty or fifty foot over;' a trench, breast high, was digged on each side; one way there was to go into it with a bridge. In the midst of this palisado stood the frame of a house, wherein, being dead, he lay buried.'

About a mile from hence, we came to such another, but seated on the top of a hill. Here Nanepashemet was killed, none dwelling in it since the time of his death. At this place we stayed, and sent two salvages to look [for] the inhabitants, and to inform them of our ends in coming, that they might not be fearful of us. Within a mile of this place they found the women of the place together, with their corn on heaps, whither we supposed them to be fled for fear of us; and the more, because in divers places they had newly pulled down their houses, and for haste in one place had left some of their corn covered with a mat, and nobody with it.

With much fear they entertained us at first; but seeing our gentle carriage towards them, they took heart and entertained us in the best manner they could,

capital of a great sachem, much reverenced by all the plantations of Indians round about, and to him belonged Naponset, (Milton,) Punkapog, (Stoughton,) Wessagusset, (Weymouth,) and several places on Charles river, where the natives were seated. The tradition is, that this sachem had his principal seat upon a small hill or rising upland, in the midst of a body of salt marsh in the township of Dorchester, near to a place called Squantum." Hutchinson's Mass. i. 460.

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228

XIV.

THEY DISCOVER MYSTIC RIVER.

CHAP. boiling cod and such other things as they had for us. At length, with much sending for, came one of their 1621. men, shaking and trembling for fear. But when he Sept. saw we intended them no hurt, but came to truck, he promised us his skins also. Of him we inquired for their queen; but it seemed she was far from thence;' at least we could not see her.

21.

Here Tisquantum would have had us rifle the salvage women, and taken their skins and all such things as might be serviceable for us; for, said he, they are a bad people, and have oft threatened you. But our answer was, Were they never so bad, we would not wrong them, or give them any just occasion against us. For their words, we little weighed them; but if they once attempted any thing against us, then we would deal far worse than he desired.

Having well spent the day, we returned to the shallop, almost all the women accompanying us to truck, who sold their coats from their backs, and tied boughs about them, but with great shamefacedness, for indeed they are more modest than some of our English women are. We promised them to come again to them, and they us to keep their skins.

2

Within this bay the salvages say there are two rivers; the one whereof we saw, having a fair entrance, but we had no time to discover it. Better harbours for shipping cannot be than here are. of the bay are many rocks;

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At the entrance and in all likelihood good

Shattuck's Hist. of Concord, p. 2,
and Drake's Book of the Indians, b.
ii.
P. 40.

The Mystic and the Charles, the former of which they saw.

3 The Graves and the Brewsters are the principal rocks at the en

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