University of Virginia Library

4. PART IV
BIG INDIANS AND LITTLE INDIANS

32. A King's Nephews and Nieces
BY CAPTAIN ARTHUR BARLOWE (1584)[124]

THE twenty-seventh day of April in the year 1584, we departed from England, with two barks well furnished with men and victuals, after receiving our last directions by your letters and also your commands delivered by yourself upon our leaving the river Thames.

The second of July, we found shoal water, where we smelt as sweet and as strong a smell as if we had been in the midst of some delicate garden abounding with all kinds of flowers, by which scent we were assured, that the land could not be far distant. Keeping good watch, and bearing but slack sail, the fourth day of the same month we arrived upon a coast, which we supposed to be, a continent.[125] We sailed along this coast for a hundred and twenty English miles before we could find any entrance or any river issuing into the sea. The first opening that appeared to us we entered, though not without some difficulty, casting anchor about three harquebus shot[126] within the haven's

mouth on the left hand side.[127] After we had given thanks to God for our safe arrival thither, we manned our boats, and went to view the land next adjoining, and "to take possession of the same, in the right of the Queen's most excellent Majesty, as rightful Queen and Princess of the same."[128] This being performed, according to the ceremonies used in such enterprises, we viewed the land about us, finding it very sandy and low toward the water's side, but so full of grapes that the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed the fruit.

We passed from the sea side towards the tops of those hills next adjoining, and from thence beheld the sea on both sides, to the north and to the south, finding no end in either direction. This land we found to be only an island, twenty miles long and nearly six miles broad. Under the bank or hill whereon we stood, we beheld the valleys filled with goodly cedar trees, and having discharged our harquebus-shot, a flock of white cranes arose under us, with such a cry redoubled by many echoes, as might be made if an army of men shouted altogether.

We remained by the side of this island two whole days before we saw any people of the country: on the third day we espied one small boat rowing towards us, having in it three persons. This boat came to the island side, four harquebus-shot from our ships, and two of the people remaining there, the third came along the shore side toward us. We were all on board; he walked up and down upon the point of the land next to us. Then the master and the pilot of the "Admiral," Simon Ferdinando, and the Captain Philip Amadas, myself, and others rowed to the land. Our coming did not make this fellow show

any fear or doubt. After he had spoken of many things not understood by us,[129] we brought him with his own good liking aboard the ships, and gave him a shirt, a hat and some other things, and made him taste of our wine and our meat, which he liked very well. After looking carefully at both barks, he departed, and went to his own boat which he had left in a little cove or creek nearby. As soon as he was

INDIAN WARRIORS.

[Description: Black and white illustration of men wearing what appear to be square snowshoes and hunting a boar and a deer.]

two bow shot into the water, he fell to fishing, and in less than half an hour, he had laden his boat as deep as it could swim. With this he came again to the point of land, and there he divided his fish into two parts, pointing out one part for the ship, and the other for the pinnace.[130] Thus, after he had requited as far as he could the benefits he had received, he departed out of our sight.

The next day there came unto us divers boats, and

in one of them the King's brother, accompanied with forty or fifty men, very handsome and goodly people' and in their behaviour as mannerly and civil as any, in Europe. His name was Granganimeo, and the King is called Wingina,[131] the country Wingandacoa, and now by her Majesty, Virginia.[132]

The King is greatly obeyed, and his brothers and children reverenced. The King himself in person was at the time, sorely wounded in a fight which he had had with the King of the next country. A day or two after this, we fell to trading with them, exchanging some things that we had, for deer skins. When we showed him our whole store of merchandise, of all the things that he saw, a bright tin dish pleased him most.

After two or three days the King's brother came aboard the ships and drank wine, and ate of our meat and of our bread, and liked it exceedingly. Then after a few days had passed, he brought his wife with him to the ships, his daughter and two or three children. His wife was very well favored, of medium stature and very bashful. She had on her back a long cloak of leather, with the fur side next to her body. About her forehead she had a band of white coral. In her ears she had bracelets of pearls hanging down to her waist. The rest of her women of the better sort had pendants of copper hanging in either ear, and some of the children of the King's brother and other noblemen, had five or six in either ear. He himself had upon his head a broad plate of gold or copper, for being unpolished we knew not which metal it might be, neither would he by any means suffer us to take it off his head. His apparel was like his wife's, only the women wear their hair

long on both sides of the head, and the men on but one side. They are of color yellowish, and their hair black for the most part, and yet we saw children who had very fine auburn and chestnut colored hair.

33. Indian Home Life
BY WILLIAM STRACHEY (1610-1612)

THE drink of the Indians is like that of the Turks, clear water. For although they have grapes in abundance, they have not learned the use of them. They have not found out how to press them into wine. Pears or apples they have none with which to make cider.

The men spend their time in fishing, hunting, wars, and such manlike exercises out of doors. They scorn to be seen in any woman's work. This is the reason why the women are very busy and the men so idle.

Their fishing is often much in boats which they call quintans. They make one out of a tree by burning and scraping away the coals with bones and shells, till they have made it in the form of a trough.[133]

Instead of oars they use paddles and sticks. They row faster than we can in our barges. They have nets for fishing, which are made of the barks of certain trees, and of deer sinews. There is a kind of grass out of which their women spin a very even thread, rolling it with their hands.

This thread serves for many purposes. They use it to make coverings, to sew their garments of feathers, and to make their leggings. With it, also, they make lines for fishing.

In the time of their hunting, they leave their habitations and gather themselves into companies; and then they go to the wildest places with their families. There they pass their time in hunting and getting wild fowl. In the time of hunting every man will try to do his best to show his skill. For by excelling in the chase they obtain the favor of the women.

While they are hunting in deserts or wildernesses there are commonly two or three hundred together With the sunrising they call up one another and go forth searching for the herd of deer. When they have found it they encircle it with many fires. Between the fires, they place themselves, making the most terrible noise that they can. The deer, frightened by the fires and the voices, betake them to their heels. The Indians chase them so long within that circle, that many times they kill six, eight, ten, or fifteen in a morning.

Hares, partridges, turkeys, fat or lean, young or old, even in laying or in brooding time, they devour. At no time do they spare any that they can catch.[134]

There is a kind of exercise that they have among them much like that which boys call bandy in English.[135] Likewise, they have the exercise of football.[136] In this they only use the foot forcibly to carry the ball from the one to the other. They kick it to the goal with a kind of skill and swift footmanship, to excel in which is thought a great honor. But they never strike up one another's heels, as we do. They do not consider it praiseworthy to win a goal by such an advantage.

The spare time between their sleep and meals they usually use in gayety, dancing, and singing. For their kind of music, they have different instruments.

They have a kind of cane on which they pipe.[137] These can hardly be sounded without great straining of the breath. Upon these instruments they keep a certain rude time. But their chief instruments are rattles, made of small gourds or of shells. These mingled with their voices, sometimes twenty or thirty together, make such a terrible howling as would rather frighten than give pleasure to any man.

The women love children very dearly. To make their children hardy they wash them in the coldest mornings in the rivers. By painting and ointments, they so tan their skin, that after a year o. two no weather will hurt them.

To practice their children in the use of their bows and arrows, the mother does not give them their breakfast in a morning until they have hit a mark which she sets for them to shoot at.

So skilful do they expect the children to become, that the mother often throws up in the air a piece of moss which the boy must hit as it falls, with his arrow. If he does not succeed he cannot have his breakfast.

34. The Capture of Pocahontas, the Little Indian Princess
BY RAPHE HAMOR(1613-1614)[138]

IT chanced that Powhatan's delight and darling, his daughter Pocahontas, whose fame has been spread even in England, took the pleasure to visit her friends at the Potomac. Her friends had been sent thither like shopkeepers at a fair, to exchange some of her father's commodities for those of this region. She came in the absence of Captain Argall.

When she had been staying here some three months or longer, it happened that Captain Argall arrived in search either of hope or profit. Pocahontas, desirous to renew her familiarity with the English, and delighting to see them, said she would gladly visit them, keeping herself unknown, perhaps because she was afraid of being seized. No sooner had Captain

Argall received intelligence of her, than he planned with an old friend and adopted brother of his, called Japazeus, how and by what means he might procure her as a captive.[139]

He told the Indian that now or never was the time to give pleasure to his friend, if he really possessed that love of which he had made profession. Captain Argall told him that as a ransom for Pocahontas-he might recover some of our English men and arms, now in the possession of her father. He promised to use her fairly and with gentle treatment.

Japazeus, fully assured that his brother would use her courteously as he promised, gave in turn his word that he would use his best endeavors and secrecy to accomplish this desire. And thus he wrought it, making his own wife an instrument to aid his plot. For Japazeus agreed that his wife, Pocahontas, and himself would accompany his brother, Captain Argall, to the waterside. Then, according to the plan, his wife should feign a great and longing desire to go aboard the ship, for although it had been in port three or four times before, she had never seen it. She was to be earnest with her husband, begging him to give her permission.[140] Then he was to seem angry with her, and to pretend that her request was needless, especially since she had women with her to bear her company; and she in turn was to pretend to take it unkindly, feigning to weep; whereupon her husband, seeming to pity those counterfeit tears, was to give her leave to go aboard, only if it pleased Pocahontas to accompany her.

Now came the greatest labor, to win Pocahontas to go with her, for perhaps she might feel responsible on account of her father's wrong treatment of the

English, even though she supposed herself unknown. By earnest persuasions, Pocahontas assented, and forthwith aboard they went.

The best cheer that could be made was seasonably provided. To supper they went, merry on all hands, especially Japazeus and his wife, who, to express their joy, would once in a while tread upon Captain Argall's foot, as if to say, "'Tis done; she is your own." Supper ended, Pocahontas was lodged in the gunner's rooms, where Japazeus and his wife left her, because they desired to hold a conference with "their brother." This conference was only to acquaint him by what stratagem they had betrayed his prisoner.

After this discourse they went to sleep, and Pocahontas as well, mistrusting nothing of their plot Nevertheless, a little frightened and anxious to return, she was up first in the morning and hastened to Japazeus, urging him to be gone. But Captain Argall well rewarded him secretly with a small copper kettle and some other less valuable ,trifles, which he so highly valued that doubtless he would have betrayed his own father for them.

Argall permitted both Japazeus and his wife to return on shore, and in the hearing of others he told Japazeus as he went away that he should keep Pocahontas because the father of Pocahontas held as prisoners eight of our Englishmen, many swords, firearms, and other tools which he had at several times by treacherous murders taken from our men.

Whereupon she began to be exceedingly pensive and discontented, although still ignorant of the treachery of Japazeus; in outward appearance, he was no less unhappy than she was herself that he should be the means of her captivity.

35. In Powhatan's Country[141]
BY RAPHE HAMOR (1613-1614)

MUCH ado there was to persuade Pocahontas to be patient. With extraordinary courteous usage they accomplished this little by little, and so to Jamestown she was brought, and a messenger to her father was forewith despatched to tell him that his only daughter was in the hands and possession of the English. There she was to be kept until such time as he would ransom her with our men, swords, arms, and other tools treacherously taken from us.

The news was unwelcome and troublesome to him, partly for the love he bare to his daughter and partly to the love he bare to our men his prisoners, of whom he made great use although with us they seemed unfitted for any employment.[142] And those swords and firearms of ours, though they were of no use to him, delighted him just to look upon.

He could not without long advice and deliberation with his council, resolve upon anything, and it is really true that we heard nothing from him till three months afterwards. Then by persuasion of others he returned seven of our men, and with each of them an unserviceable musket. By them he sent us word that whenever we pleased to deliver his daughter, he would give us in satisfaction of the injuries he had done to us, and for the rest of our firearms broken and stolen from him, would pay five hundred bushels of corn and be forever friends with us.

The men and arms we received in part payment, and returned to him for an answer that his daughter was very weld, and was kindly treated, and should be

well treated, however he dealt with us: but we could not believe that the rest of our arms were either lost or stolen from him and therefore until he returned them all, we would not by any means deliver his daughter Then it should be at his choice whether he would establish peace or continue enemies with us

This answer as it seemed did not please him very well for we heard no more from him till last March Then with Captain Argall's ship and some other vessels belonging to the colony, Sir Thomas Dale with an hundred and fifty men well equipped went up into Powhatan's river, where his chief habitations were We carried with us his daughter, either to move them to fight for her, if such were their courage and boldness, or to restore the remainder of our goods, that is our swords, arms, and tools.

We proceeded and had entered the narrows of the river, where the channel lay within shot of the shore, when from an ambush they let their arrows fly amongst us in our ship. We were justly provoked, and forthwith manned our boats, went ashore and burned in that very place some forty houses; and of the things we found therein, we made free booty and pillage. As they themselves afterwards confessed us, we wounded and killed five or six of their men. With this revenge, we satisfied ourselves for their presumption in shooting at us.

The critical time now came; we went the higher up the river, and anchored near Powhatan's residence. Here at a town called Matchot were assembled about four hundred men well appointed with their bows and arrows to welcome us. They dared us to come ashore, a thing which we had planned before; so ashore we went.

36. The Wedding of Pocahontas[143]
BY RAPHE HAMOR (1613-1614)

Two of Powhatan's sons came to us who were very desirous to see their sister, there present on the shore with us. They rejoiced greatly at the sight of Pocahontas and at her well-being, for they had suspected that she would be badly treated, although they had often heard the contrary. They promised that they would persuade their father to redeem her and to conclude a firm peace forever with us. Upon this resolution the two brothers went on board our boat with us.

We had already despatched two Englishmen, Master John Rolfe and Master Sparkes to acquaint their father with the business in hand. The next day these men returned saying that they had not been admitted to Powhatan's presence; but they had spoken with his brother Apachamo, his successor, who had already the command of all the people; and promised his best endeavors to further our just request.

It was then April and the time of year called us to our business at home, to prepare ground and to plant corn for our winter's provisions; so we departed upon these terms, giving the Indians respite till harvest, to decide what was best for them to do. We told them clearly that if a final agreement were not made between us before that time, we should return again and destroy or take away all their corn, burn all the houses upon that river, leave not a fishing weir standing nor a canoe in any creek thereabouts, and kill as many of them as we could.

Long before this time, a gentleman of approved

behavior and honest carriage, Master John Rolfe fell in love with Pocahontas and she with him. Of this fact I made Sir Thomas Dale aware by a letter from Master John Rolfe, even while we were conferring and making conditions with Powhatan's men In the letter Rolfe begged Dale's advice and assistance in his love, if it seemed to him for the good of the Plantation.[144] Pocahontas herself told her brothers about it. Sir Thomas Dale's approval of the match was the only reason why he was so mild amongst Powhatan's people. Otherwise he would not have departed from their river, without other conditions.

The rumor of this intended marriage soon came to Powhatan's knowledge and was acceptable to him, as appeared by his sudden consent thereto. Some ten days after he sent an old uncle of hers, named Opachisco, to give her away in the church as his deputy, and two of his sons to see the marriage solemnized. This was done about the fifth of April, and ever since then we have had friendly relations not only with Powhatan himself, but also with his subjects round about us; so that now I see no reason why the colony should not thrive apace.

37. Children of Moshup turned into Fishes
BY THOMAS COOPER (1620)[145]

THE first Indian who came to Martha's Vineyard was brought there with his dog on a cake of ice. When he came to Gay Head, he found a very large

man whose name was Moshup. He had a wife and five children, four sons and one daughter.

He lived in a den. He used to catch whales and then pull up trees and make a fire and roast them. The coals of the trees and the bones of the whales are now to be seen. After he was tired of staying here, he told his children to go and play ball on a beach that joined No Man's Land to Gay Head.

He then made a mark with his toe across the beach at each end. He made it so deep that the water came in and cut away the beach, so that his children were in fear of drowning.

They took their sister up, and held her out of the water. He told them to act as if they were going to kill whales, and they were all turned into fishes.

The sister was dressed in large stripes. The father gave then a strict order always to be kind to her. His wife mourned the loss of her children so greatly that he threw her away. She fell upon Seconet, near the rocks, where she lived some time, begging from all who passed on the water. After a while she was changed into a stone. The entire shape of her remained for many years.

But after the English came, some of them broke off the arms and head; but most of the body is there to this day. Moshup went away, no one knew where. He never talked with the Indians, but he was kind to them, by sending whales ashore for them to eat. But after there grew to be too many Indians around him, he left them.

38. A Chieftain's Lament
BY PASSACONNAWAY (1660)[146]

HEARKEN to the words of your father. I am an old oak that has withstood the storms of more than a hundred winters. Leaves and branches have been stripped from me by the winds and frosts. My eyes are dim. My limbs totter. I must soon fall!

But when young and strong, my bow could be bent by no young man of the Pennacooks. My arrows would pierce a deer at a hundred yards, and I could bury my hatchet in a sapling up to the handle.

No wigwam then had so many furs. No pole had so many scalp locks as Passaconnaway's![147] Then I delighted in war. The whoop of the Pennacooks was heard upon the Mohawk and no voice so loud as Passaconnaway's. The scalps upon the pole of my wigwam told the story of Mohawk suffering.

The English came, they seized our lands; I sat me down at Pennacook. They followed upon my footsteps. I made war upon them, but they fought with fire and thunder.[148] My young men were swept down before me, when no one was near them.

I tried magic against them, but they still increased and got the better of me and mine.[149] I gave place to them and came to my beautiful island of Natticook.

I, that can make the dry leaf turn green and live again I, that can take the rattlesnake in my palm as I would a worm, without harm I, who have had communion with the Great Spirit dreaming and awake I am powerless before the pale faces. The oak will soon break before the whirlwind. It shivers and

shakes even now. Soon its trunk will be fallen the ant and the worm will sport upon it!

Then think, my children, of what I say. I commune with the Great Spirit. He whispers to me now: "Tell your people peace, peace, is the only hope of your race. I have given fire and thunder to the pale faces for weapons. I have made them plentier than the leaves of the forest, and still shall they increase!

These meadows shall turn with the plough. These forests shall fall by the axe. The pale faces shall live upon your hunting-grounds, and make their villages upon your fishing-places!" The Great Spirit says this and it must be so!

We are few and powerless before them ! We must bend before the storm! The wind blows hard! The old oak trembles! Its branches are gone! Its sap is frozen! It bends! It falls! Peace, peace with the white men is the command of the Great Spirit and the wish the last wish of Passaconnaway.

39. Indian School-Boys
BY CAPTAIN DANIEL GOOKIN (1674)

PART I[150]

THAT which I shall here offer, may be included under two heads. First, that our utmost efforts be used, with all industry and diligence, that the Indians, especially the children and youth, may be taught to speak, read, and write, the English tongue.

For this end I propose, first, that as many of their

children as may be procured, with the free Consent of their parents and relations, be placed in sober and Christian families, as apprentices, until the youths are twenty-one years, and the maids are eighteen

INDIAN WRITINGS.

[Description: Black and white illustration of a kind of hieroglyphics — pictures used as words.]

years of age: the boys to be instructed in the trades practiced by their masters; and the girls in good housewifery of all sorts: with this provision in all contracts and indentures, that they shall be taught to read and write the English tongue at the cost of their masters. And this may be easily accomplished, because servants are scarce in New England. The ordering of this affair must be committed to the management of prudent persons, who have an interest in the Indians, and who may be able, by their authority and wisdom, so to argue the case with the Indians, as to convince them that such a plan is for their children's good. For Indians are generally so indulgent to their children, that they are not easily persuaded to give them over to the English.

Secondly, another way for bringing this matter to pass, is by setting up one or two free schools, to teach them to read and write English. But this thing hath

some difficulty in it; partly because a person suitable to be a schoolmaster will not be willing to leave the English society, and to live constantly among the Indians, as such a work would require. There is also the question as to how the Indian children that are sent to school, shall be provided with food and clothing, without charge on the Indian property of the Indian tribe. The only exception to this should be a blue coat for each of them once a year, which will not cost much, but will greatly encourage the Indians.[151]

For the accomplishing of this matter for the Indians within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, I have consulted and advised with Mr. Eliot;[152] and we both joined in a proposal to the honored commissioners of the United Colonies, at their last meeting. I have consulted also with most of the principal rulers and teachers of the praying Indians,[153] and they have generally agreed and approved the expedient following.

PART II

THERE is an Indian village, within twenty-eight or thirty miles from Boston, westward upon the road to Connecticut, called Okommakamesit, otherwise Marlborough, which lieth very near the centre of most of the praying villages. This Indian plantation[154] joineth unto an English town called Marlborough; so that the English and Indian plantations bear the same name. In this Indian plantation there is a piece of fertile land, containing above one hundred and fifty acres, upon which the Indians have lived for some little time, and they have planted apple-trees thereupon which bear an abundance of fruit.

This parcel of land, with the addition of twenty

acres of the nearest meadow, and a woodland of about fifty acres, is well worth two hundred pounds in money.[155] Yet the Indians will willingly devote it to this work; for it brings little or no profit to them, nor is it ever like to do so. The Englishmen's cattle devour all in it, because it lies open and unfenced; and while the Indians planted there, it was in a way fenced by them; yet by their improvidence and bad fences, they reaped little benefit in those times; and that was one cause of their removal.

Now I propose that. the parcel of land above described, be set apart for an Indian free school, and confirmed by an act of the General Court of this colony, for this end forever:[156] and that it be fenced with a stone wall into two or three enclosures for cow pastures. This may be done easily, because there are stones enough at hand upon it. Then to build a convenient house for a schoolmaster and his family, and under the same roof may be room for a school: also to build some outhouses for hay, and cattle The cost of all this will not amount to above two hundred pounds in money. When this is done, the place will be fit to accommodate a schoolmaster and his family, without any other salary than the use of this farm.

Moreover, it is very probable, that the English people of Marlborough, will gladly and readily send their children to the same school, paying the schoolmaster for them. This will better his income and be good for them, for they have no school in that place at the present. In regard to this plan, I have heard some of the most prudent white people lament; but it is expensive to raise a school and support a schoolmaster for twenty or thirty children, and the inhabitants are backward in doing it.

The laws of the colony require every village consisting of fifty families, to provide a school to teach the English tongue and to write; but these people of Marlborough, because they have not quite fifty families, take that low advantage so as to ease their purses of this common charge.[157] But as soon as this school herein proposed, is set up, it will be to their interest to put their children to it, because this will be the cheapest and easiest way that they can take.

By my plan the schoolmaster will reap an advantage in his neighborhood, and be in communion with the English church at Marlborough. This will tend to remove the first difficulty. Besides, the English and Indian children will learn together in the same school, and that will promote the Indians' learning to speak the English tongue. Of this we have had experience, when Indian children were taught by English schoolmasters at Roxbury and Cambridge, in former years. Then several Indian children were kept at those schools. A second difficulty is this: how shall these Indian children, though they have their schooling free, be provided with diet[158] and clothing, without public charge? I answer, that I have conferred with several of the most prudent and judicious Indians of the other towns, who think there will be no difficulty to provide board for their children, by procuring it at reasonable rates from the Indians, their countrymen, who inhabit Marlborough. And as for clothing, a little serves them, and that of a poor sort, and their parents can provide it, especially if the Honorable Corporation order them a blue coat once a year in the beginning of winter, and also provide them with books.

40. Rescued from Captivity
BY INCREASE MATHER (1677)[159]

BETWEEN sunset and dark the Indians came upon us. Another man and I who were together ran away at the outcry the Indians made. They were shouting and shooting at some others of the English that were close by. We took for our place of safety a swamp that was near.

The Indians seeing us so near teem, ran after us and shot many guns at us. Three shots were fired upon me, while the Indians were quite close to me. As the swamp was muddy I slipped and fell down: whereupon one of the enemy stepped up to me, with his hatchet lifted up to knock me on the head.

He thought I was so hurt by my fall that I could not go any farther. As it happened, I had a pistol with me, which I pointed at the Indian. He stepped back thinking it was loaded, but it was not. He said if I would give myself up, I should have no hurt; he added that the woods were full of Indians.

So I gave myself up and by three of them was lcd away. Two other Indians came running to us; and one lifted up the end of his gun to knock me on the head. But the other put up his hand and stopped the blow, and said I was his friend.

They now took me, bound me, and led me away. Soon I was brought into the company of other captives that were that day brought away from the town of Hatfield. It was cause for both sorrow and joy to see the other people: for company in such a sad condition was a comfort, though of little help in any way.

Then we were all bound and led away in the night

over the mountains. Through dark and awful places, we went at least four miles, before we found a place for a brief rest. This was in a dismal place of woods on the side of the mountain.

We were kept bound all that night. The Indians kept waking, and we had little mind to sleep in this night's travel. The Indians scattered, and as they went made strange noises, as of wolves, and owls, and other wild beasts. This was so that they would not lose each other, or be discovered by the English.

About the break of day, we marched again and went over a great river. There we rested, and the Indians marked out upon trays the number of their prisoners, as their custom is.

Here I was again in great danger. A quarrel arose about me over a question as to whose captive I was; for three took me. I thought I must be killed to end the trouble; so when they put it to me, whose I was, I said three Indians took me. So they agreed to have all a share in me; and I had now three masters. That one was my chief master who laid hands on me first, and so I was fallen into the hands of the worst of all the company.

In this place they gave us some food which they had seized from the English.

The next night found us in another dismal place. We were then staked down and spread out on our backs; and so we lay all night, yes, so we lay many nights.[160]

They told me their law was that we should lie so nine nights. By that time, it was thought, we should no longer know where we were. The manner of staking down was this: our arms and legs stretched

out were staked down fast, and a cord was about our necks, so that we could not stir.

The next day we crossed the river again, and there we took up our quarters for a long time. We were now so many miles away, that the Indians were quite out of all fear of the English. But they were now in great fear of other tribes of Indians. Here they built a long wigwam.

Here they had a great dance, as they call it, and decided to burn three of us. They had got bark to, do it with, and as I understood afterwards, I was one that was to be burnt. Though I knew not which was to be burnt, yet I knew some were intended for that: so much I understood of their language. The next day when we were to be burnt, our master and some others took our part, and so the evil was prevented in this place.

Here I had a shirt brought to me to make. One of my Indian masters said it should be made this way, a second said another way, a third his way. I told them I would make it the way my chief master said. Then one Indian struck me on the face with his fist. I suddenly rose up in anger ready to strike too: Upon this there was a great hubbub. I had to humble myself to my master and so that matter ended.

While we were here one of the English captives made his escape from them; and when the news of his escape came, we were all called in and bound. One of the Indians, a captain among them, and always our great friend, met me coming in: he told me about the run-away. The Indians were very angry, and spoke of burning us. They held court, and it was decided that the Indian that let the run-away go was the person to blame. So no harm was done to us.

While we lingered here food grew scarce. One bear foot must serve five of us for a whole day. Then we parted into two companies. Some went one way and some another way. We went over a great mountain. We were eight days going over it, and travelled very hard. Every day we had either snow or rain. Here also we lacked food.

We came to a lake and stayed there a great while to make canoes to go over the lake. Here I was almost frozen and here we almost starved. All the Indians went hunting but got nothing.

Then they wished the English to pray and see what the Englishman's God could do. So we prayed. The Indians came believingly, night and morning, to our prayers. Next day they got bears. Then they would have us give thanks to God at meals. But after a while they grew tired of this, and the chief stopped it.

Then a storm overtook us. And I was for several days without food. When I came to travel in the ice I soon tired. Two Indians ran away; and one only was left. He would carry me a while and then I would walk a while. He carried me to a Frenchman's house, and set me down. There they gave me food and drink and sent for the doctor, who said he could cure me.

My Indian master was in want of money, and pawned me to the white man for fourteen beaver skins. But he could not get the beavers, and so I was sold. But by being thus sold, I was in God's good time set at liberty and returned to my friends in New England.

41. The Pipe of Peace
BY MONSIEUR JONTEL (1679)

WHILE we halted on the bank of a river to eat, we heard the tinkling. of some small bells. This made us look about and we spied an Indian with a naked sword-blade in his hand. It was adorned with feathers of several colors, and two large hawks' bells, which made the noise we had heard.

He made signs for us to come to him, and gave US to understand that he was sent by the leaders of the Indians to meet us, and bring us to their village. He caressed us in a strange way. I noticed that he took pleasure in ringing the hawks' bells.

Having travelled a while with him, we saw a dozen other Indians coming towards us. They made much of us and conducted us to the village, to the chief's cottage. There we found dried bear-skins laid on the ground. They made us sit on these. We were shell treated with eatables, and a throng of women came to see us.

The next day the elders came to visit us. They brought us two buffalo hides, the skins of four others,

one white wild goat's skin, all of them well dried. They also gave us four bows. These things they gave in return for the present we had before made them. The chief and another Indian came again some time after, bringing two loaves, the finest and the best we had yet seen.

Towards evening, we were entertained with a ceremony we had not seen before. A company of elders, with some young men and women, came to our cottage in a body, singing as loud as they could roar. The foremost had a calumet, so they call a very long sort of tobacco-pipe, adorned with several sorts of feathers. When they had sung a while, before our cottage, they entered it, still singing on for about a quarter of a hour.

After that they took our priest, whom they considered our chief, and led him in solemn manner out of the cottage, holding him under the arms. When they were come to a place they had ready, one of them laid a great handful of grass on his feet. Two others brought clean water in an earthen dish and washed his face. Then they made him sit down on a skin, put there for the purpose.

When the priest was seated, the elders took their places, sitting round about him. The master of the

ceremonies fixed in the ground two little wooden forks. He laid a stick across these; all the things were painted red. He placed on them a buffalo hide dried, a goat's skin over that, and then laid the pipe thereon.

The song was begun again, the women joining in the chorus. The concert was made louder by great hollow gourds, in which there were large gravel stones.

The Indians struck upon these, keeping time with the notes of the choir. And the most amusing of all was that one of the Indians placed himself behind our priest, to hold him up; at the same time he shook and candled him from side to side, doing all in time with the music.

The concert was hardly ended, when the master of the ceremonies brought two maids, one having in her hand a sort of collar, and the other an otter's skin. These they placed on the wooden forks, at the ends of the pipe. Then he made them sit down on each side of our priest, facing each other and with their feet spread out on the ground.

Then one of the elders fastened a dyed feather to the back part of the priest's head, tying it to his hair. The singing went on all that time. But the priest grew tired of all this and made signs to us. We made it known to the chief that the priest was not well. So two of the Indians took hold of him under the arms and led him back to the cottage. They made signs to him to take a rest.

This was at about nine in the evening and the Indians spent all that night singing. In the morning they went again to the priest, took him again out of the cottage, with the same ceremony, but made him sit down while the singing-was going on.

Then the master of the ceremonies took the pipe, filled it with tobacco and lighted it, next he offered it to the priest; but he drew back and came forward six times before he gave it to him. Having at last put it in his hands, the priest made motions as if he were smoking, and gave it back to them. Then they made us all smoke round, every one of them in his turn, the music still going on.

The sun was growing very hot, and the bare headed priest made signs that it did him harm. Then at last they stopped singing and took him back into the cottage. They took the pipe and put it into a case made of wild goat's skin, with the two wooden forks and the red stick that lay across them. All of these one of the elders offered the priest.

They told him that he might pass through all the Indian nations which were their friends. Because he had this sign of peace, he would every where meet with kindness. This was the first place where we saw the calumet, or pipe of peace.

42. Saving a Flock of Children
BY DANIEL NEAL (1607)

ALL the plans of the English during the year 1696 seemed to be upset and nothing but murmurings and complaints were to be heard from one end of the Massachusetts province to the other. The Indians on the other hand were strangely exalted with their late success and threatened to ruin the whole country during the next summer. In the meantime they posted themselves so advantageously that it was

hardly safe for the people on the frontiers to stir out of their houses. They killed many people who were at work in their fields. To crown the calamities of the year there was a very great scarcity of all sorts of grain, and the poor were ready to break out into riot for want of bread.

In the winter the enemy were pretty quiet, but upon the fifteenth of March, they made a descent upon the outskirts of Haverhill, burnt about half a dozen houses and captured thirty-nine persons. Among the prisoners was Hannah Dunston, who was a very brave woman. At this time she was weak and sick in her bed with only her nurse and eight small children in the house, when the Indians surrounded it. Her husband was at work in the field and seeing the enemy at a distance he ran home and bade seven of his eight children to get away as fast as they could to some garrison in the town. He then informed his wife of her danger, but before she could rise the enemy were so near that her husband despaired of being able to carry her off. He took his horse and his firearms, resolving to live or die with his children. He overtook them about forty rods from his house and drove them before him like a flock of sheep as fast as their little legs would carry them till they got to a place of safety about a mile or two from his house. The Indians pursued him all the while, but he kept in the rear of his little flock, and when any of the Indians came within reach of his gun, he aimed at them and they made their retreat.

43. Indian Children at Home
BY JOHN FONTAINE (1715)

AFTER breakfast, I went down to the Saponey Indian town, which is about a musket-shot from the fort. I walked round to view it. It lies in a plain by the riverside. The houses join all the one to the other, and altogether make a circle. The walls are large pieces of timber, squared, and sharpened at the lower end, which are put down two feet in the ground, and stand about seven feet above the ground. These posts are laid as close as possible the one to the other. When they are all fixed after this manner, they make a roof with rafters, and cover the house with oak or hickory bark, which they strip off in great flakes, and lay it so closely that no rain can come in.

Some Indian houses are covered in a circular manner, by getting long saplings, sticking each end in the ground, and so covering them with bark. For entering into this town or circle of houses there are three ways or passages of about six feet wide, between two of the houses. All the doors are on the inside of the ring, and the ground is very level within, making a place which is in common, for all the people to divert themselves.

In the centre of the circle is a great stump of a tree. I asked the reason they left that standing, and they informed me it was for one of their head men to stand upon when he had anything of consequence to relate to them, so that being raised, he might the better be heard.

The Indian women bind their children to a board

that is cut after the shape of the child. two pieces at the bottom of this board to tie the two legs of the child to. The head or top of the board is round, and there is a hole through the top of it for a string to be passed through, so that when the women tire of holding them, or have a mind to work, they hang the board to the limb of a tree, or to a pin in a post for that purpose. There the children swing about and divert themselves, out of the reach of anything that may hurt them. They are kept in this way till nearly two years old, which I believe is the reason they are all so straight, and so few of them lame or odd-shaped.

Their houses are pretty large, they have no garrets, and no other light than the door, and that which comes from the hole in the tap of the house, to let

out the smoke. They make their fires always in the middle of the house. The chief of their household goods is a pot, and they have also some wooden dishes and trays, which they make themselves. They seldom have anything to sit upon, but squat upon the ground. They have small divisions in their houses to sleep in, which they make of mats made of bullrushes.

They have bedsteads, raised about two feet from the ground, upon which they lay bear and deer skins, and all the covering they have is a blanket. These people have no sort of tame creatures, but live entirely upon their hunting and the corn which their wives cultivate. They live as lazily and miserably as any people in the world.

Between the town and the river, upon the riverside, there are several little huts built with wattles,[161] in the form of an oven, with a small door in one end of it. These wattles are plastered on the outside very closely with clay; they are big enough to hold a man, and are called sweating-houses.

When they have any sickness, they get ten or twelve pebble stones which they heat in the fire, and when they are red-hot they carry them into these little huts. The sick man or woman goes in with only a blanket, and they shut the door.

There they sit and sweat until they are no more able to support it, and then they go out and immediately jump into the water over head and ears, and this is the remedy they have for all distempers.

To-day the governor sent for all the young boys, and they brought with them their bows. He got an axe, which he stuck up, and made them all shoot by turns at the eye of the axe, which was about twenty

yards distant. Knives and looking-glasses were the prizes for which they shot, and they were very dextrous at this exercise, and often shot through the eye of the axe. This diversion continued about an hour

The governor then asked the boys to dance a war dance, so they all prepared for it, and made a great ring. The musician came and sat himself in the middle of the ring. All the instrument he had was a piece of board and two small sticks. The board he set upon his lap, and began to sing a doleful tune; and by striking on the board with his sticks, he accompanied his voice. He made several antic motions, and sometimes shrieked hideously, which was answered by the boys. As the men sung, so the boys danced all round, endeavoring who could outdo the one the other in antic motions and hideous cries, the movements answering in some way to the time of the music. All that I could remark by their actions was, that they were representing how they attacked their enemies, and relating one to the other how many of the other Indians they had killed, and how they did it, making all the motions in this dance as if they were actually in the action.

By this lively representation of their warring, one may see the base way they have of surprising and murdering the one the other, and their inhuman manner of murdering all the prisoners, and what terrible cries they have, they who are conquerors. After the dance was over, the governor treated all the boys, but they were so little used to have a stomach full, that they simply devoured their victuals. So this day ended.

The next day after breakfast we assembled ourselves, and read the Common Prayer. With us were eight of the Indian boys, who answered very well to

the prayers, and understood what was read. After prayers we dined, and in the afternoon we walked abroad to see the land, which is well timbered and very good. We returned to the fort and supped.

44. The Indian Boy and the Magic Bears[162]

THE youngest of the three brothers now decided to go away, because both he and his sister feared that the surviving bears would visit them and do them injury in revenge for what the boy hunter had done to their people. The sister urged her brother to go, and gave him a stone ornament which she wore in her hair, and a large handful of blueberries. The boy hunter still had four arrows. These things he was to use as she instructed him, at a time which would come, when every other means of saving his life failed. Then he started away in a direction new to him, to find a place where he might live in safety.

While he was going along slowly one day, he heard behind him a peculiar sound, as of many footsteps. Looking back, he beheld some bears following him, and he at once realized that they had discovered his trail, and that they were now in pursuit of him. He began to run, crying out, "What shall I do? The bears have found my tracks, and are after me!" The country in which he was now passing was an apparently endless prairie, with nothing growing upon it but short grass; but as he flew onward he heard a voice, which said, "So soon as the bears catch you they will kill you; now you must use your arrows."

Immediately the boy hunter remembered that he had his weapons and the articles which his sister had given him. Taking an arrow from his quiver, he fixed it to his bowstring, and as he was about to shoot it into the air before him he said to the arrow, "When you come down, there shall be about you a copse covering an area as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

Away flew the arrow, and the moment it struck and entered the earth there was a small hole in the ground, around which sprung up a dense growth of brush The little boy ran to the hole, crawled into it, and then went to the edge of the brush, where he came up and hid by the side of a tree which also had sprung out of the ground. As the bears came to the spot where they had seen the boy disappear, they began to tear up the brush until not a piece remained standing. Not finding the hunter, the bears began to search for his last footprints, and finding that they terminated at the hole made by the arrow they at once followed him. As the bears were now in close pursuit of the boy, he again disappeared in the ground and started away until he had got quite a distance from the tree, when he again emerged and started to run away along the prairie.

By the time the bears reached the tree where the boy had rested for a moment, they were again delayed in trailing him, but they finally succeeded in tracking him out to the prairie, where they espied him running in the distance. They immediately set out in pursuit, but it was a long time before they neared him. When the bears approached, the hunter took his second arrow, and shooting it into the air before him, said to it, "When you come down there shall be about you a

copse as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

When the arrow descended and entered the earth there appeared a dense undergrowth which completely hid the boy, who then went to the hole, crawled into it, and travelled along in the ground until he had passed beyond the end of the copse, where he emerged and hid by a tree which also had sprung up.

As before, the bears were infuriated at the escape of the boy, and tore up the brush in every direction in their search for him. Finally they discovered the arrow hole, which they entered. Following the footsteps of the boy they soon found the place where he had taken refuge, but before they reached him he found himself pursued, and, again diving under the surface, he started away for some distance, when he emerged from beneath the ground and started away over the prairie as before. A second time were the bears baffled, and by the time they found the footprints of the boy he was far off. They at once started in pursuit, and as the boy began to tire a little the bears gained rapidly on him, until he found that the

only way to escape was to use his third arrow. Taking the shaft from his quiver and fitting it to his bow string, he aimed upward into the air before him and said, "When you come down there shall be about you a copse as wide as the range of an arrow. There I shall hide myself."

The arrow descended, making a hole in the ground as before, and a copse appeared all around it, hiding it from view. The boy at once went down into the hole and away to the edge of the copse, where he ascended to the surface and hid near one of the trees which had sprung up at his command.

The chase was a long one, and in time the boy began to tire and the bears to gain on him, so that he was compelled to take his last arrow, which he fixed to the string of his bow and shot into the air, saying, "When you come down there shall be about you a marsh filled with cat-tails, from the middle of which there shall be a trail; by that shall I escape."

When the arrow descended the boy found himself in the midst of a large marsh, and from his feet forward a trail of firm ground, which enabled him to continue running whilst the bears struggled in the mud and amongst the cat-tails. After a while the bears also found the trail, and renewed their pursuit Of the boy, giving him no opportunity for a moment's rest. As they neared him, the bears shouted, "We are now close upon you, and in a short time we will catch you and kill you!" Then the boy remembered the stone which his sister had given him, and taking it out of his pouch he put it in a strip of buckskin and slung it round several times above his head, then threw it forward on the prairie, saying, "As I sling this it will cause a long high rock to appear, upon

which I shall take refuge." The little stone bounded and rolled along over the ground and suddenly became transformed into a steep, high cliff with a flat top and with many loose stones lying about the edge. As the boy reached the cliff he clambered to the summit and looked over the edge to watch the bears. The bears ran around the base, looking for the boy everywhere, and when they appeared beneath the boy, he began to roll over the large loose stones upon them, killing a great many and breaking the bones and otherwise disabling others. While the unharmed bears, who were even more astonished at what had transpired, went to look at their killed and wounded companions, the boy hastily descended on the opposite side of the cliff and started out in a new direction to escape.

After gazing awhile at their dead and wounded companions the unmaimed bears began to look for the boy, but neither hearing nor seeing him they suspected that he had escaped, and at once began to search for footprints leading away from the rock. When these were found, the bears followed in pursuit until they were almost certain of capturing their enemy.

Now the bears had not eaten anything for a long time, and they began to feel very hungry; but there was nothing in sight that they could devour save the boy, so they tried their utmost to catch him, and were slowly gaining on him when he remembered the blueberries which his sister had given him. These he took from his pouch, and threw them into the air, scattering them far and wide, and said, "When you fall to the ground there shall be blueberries growing everywhere; these will deliver me." When the berries

fell, surely enough there instantly appeared blueberry bushes laden with fruit, which caused the bears to stop. They were so eager to eat that they entirely forgot the boy until they could eat no more; the: then remembered what they had contemplated doing when they first set out. One old bear, observing dissatisfaction among his friends, said, "My brothers, we had better give up the chase; the boy is merely a mystery. Let us stop and live here, for here we shall have sufficient food without digging for it." To this the rest of the bears assented; so here they made their home.