History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 3

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292

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A regular union between husband and wife was universal, but a chief of sufficient ability to support such a luxury married, often, more than one wife. . The ceremony of marriage was very simple, and differed in minor details in different tribes.

The education of the young warrior was in athletic exercises, to enable him to endure hunger and fatigue, and to use arms efficiently. In some families certain young were impressed with the tradition of their people, which task devolved upon the old, who in turn had received their knowledge from preceding ones.

The weapons were rude-stone hatchets, clubs, bows, arrows and spears. War was their delight, and their cruelties to enemies when death was decreed were only equalled by their kindness when they turned their tribal affection to the adopted ones.

They had a religion, primitive though it seems, that closely resem- bled that of civilized nations. They believed in a great spirit, and reverenced him; believed he was everywhere present, knew their wants, and aided and loved those who obeyed him. They had no temples nor idols. They believed the warrior hastened to the happy hunting grounds. They also had an evil spirit, which good Indians should shun. The graves of their fathers were held in reverence, and were defended with great bravery. To the restraints of civilization

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

they long showed an aversion, and were remarkably attached to their simple modes of life.

Whether the differences in complexion, stature, features, customis, religions, or any peculiarities, were caused by climate or any latitud- inal separations, one thing seems conceded by historians-that they were of one origin. Doctor Mather regarded them as forlorn and wretched heathen ever since they first landed here; and "though we know not when or how they first became inhabitants of this mighty .continent, yet we may guess that probably the devil decoyed them hither, hoping the gospel would never reach them to disturb or destroy his absolute empire over them."

There were several tribes on the Cape, and all evidence from the colony records, from the time they were first visited by Europeans, points to their remarkable friendliness to the whites and to each other.

An early instance of the white man's abuse of their confidence is the shameless record of Thomas Hunt, who in 1615, as a subordinate left in command of Captain John Smith's ship, kidnapped twenty- seven of the natives, including seven from Nauset, to sell as slaves. This act was not without precedent, and after it had been avenged four years later upon some of the same crew, the Indian sense of just- ice seems to have been satisfied. In their subsequent intercourse with the pilgrims they performed acts of mercy that could only be expected of true Christian disciples.

The Indians of the Cape, made up of several small tribes, were among the thirty of New England yielding allegiance to Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, and after his death in 1662 to his son, Metacomet. known in history as King Philip, or Philip of Pokanoket.

Of these the Nausets occupied the most prominent position, dwel- ling on the territory now Eastham, their country including also Brewster (Sauquatucket), Chatham (Monomoyick), Harwich (Potanum- aquut), Orleans (Pochet), the neck in Orleans (Tonset), Wellfleet (Po. nonakanet), Truro (Pamet), part of Truro and Provincetown (Mee- shawn) and North Dennis (Nobscusset). The Nausets were also at Namskaket, now Orleans, and about the cove that separates Orleans from Eastham. In the northwest part of Yarmouth and around Barn- stable harbor were Mattacheese and Mattacheeset; the south part of the east precinct in Barnstable. Weequakut ; between Sandwich and Barn- stable, Skanton ; Falmouth, Succonesset; in Bourne, near Buzzards bay, Manomet ; on Buzzards bay, Cataumet ; near Sandwich, Herring pond, Comassakumkanit ; Pocasset, Pokesit; Mashpee, Massipee-and this last body of Indians has long been the principal tribe of the county, and once included Cotuit, the southwest part of Barnstable ; Santuit; Wakoquoet, part of Falmouth; Ashumet, in Falmouth, on west line of Mashpee ; and Weesquobs, Great neck. The Indians on Nan-

MAP OF

BEFORE 1620.

Burying Hill, Bournedale.

Tashmuil

DESIGNED

DRAWN FOR

THIS BOOK.

Ancient Graves.

PLYMOUTH. CO.

COMASSAKUM;KANIT 0

Scusset

MANOMET

CAPE

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POKESIT

NAMSHAK

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SHAUME

SKANTON

CUMMADRID HARROD

LOBECUSSET. Suet

QUATYCKET

wakcree

MATTACHEESET

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SAUQU

BUZZARDS BAY

Malyagansea

Ashumet

quoet.

Mistic

Chequaker.

chapoquit

SOUTH SEA

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Toteket

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hawkuts

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NORISQUE

Popponessey.

Bay

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S.L.DEVO, 1890.

MEESHAWN

PAMET

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(2) lyonough's Grave.

(3) Indian Cemetery.

Indian Monument.

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PONONAKANET i

USET

Wenaumet

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RONSET Pocket

NAMEQ

MATTACHEESE

POTANUMAQUUX

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MASSIPEE

INDIANS

ETT

SUCCONESSETI

Santult

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waysquobs

REFERENCES.

(AND)

INDIAN HISTORY.

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

tucket, Martha's Vineyard and Elizabeth islands were separate tribes, in constant communication with the tribes on the Cape, and had their own sachems. All these tribes had their sacheins or sagamores. and though owing fealty to the Wampanoags they could not be induced by King Philip to join in the wars of 1675. The tribe at Manomet, after their adhesion to the English, proved a defense and were faithful to their friendship.

As an evidence of the friendship and hospitality of the Cape Indians, it is said that when the ship Fortune in 1621 touched at Cape Cod, the Indians carried word of her approach to the settlers at Ply- mouth.

In 1622 the colonists were compelled to go to the Cape Indians for corn. They sailed around the Cape, along southerly, anchoring in a harbor at Chatham, and obtained eight hogsheads of corn and beans. During that and subsequent years corn was obtained of the Indians at Sagamore hill, Mattacheese, and other places on the north side.

For these purchases the Indians received trinkets and clothes. Various facts are given that show a friendship beyond the hope of gain. In 1630, when an English vessel was shipwrecked on the Cape. those passengers who died from exposure were carefully buried in the frozen earth to keep the bodies from wild beasts, the sick were nursed to health and the survivors were conducted to Plymouth. The incident of the lost boy-strayed from Plymouth and found among the Nausets-when Iyanough with his warriors assisted in the search. and the Nauset sachem, Aspinet, so promptly delivered the boy to the English, is another proof of their friendliness. The various kind offices of Iyanough upon the departure of the whites-the festival. the filling of their rundlets with fresh water, and the taking the brace- let from his neck and placing it upon the leader of the party-are mat- ters of record in the pilgrim history.

Some of the natives were possessed of such an inherent love of tinsel display that the bounds of Captain Standish's strict doctrines were sometimes overstepped. In 1623, while the captain and his men were at Mattacheese purchasing corn, they were forced to lodge in the wigwams of the natives. Missing a few beads in the morning. he ranged his men around the sachem's cabin and threatened to fall upon the inmates unless the beads were returned. The offender was dis- covered, restitution made, and a penalty for the offense was paid with more corn.

In 1637, when the whites commenced the purchase of lands from the Indians on the Cape, satisfaction was given by full returns of beads, hoes, hatchets, coats and kettles; but years later, as the number of the Indians was diminished from various causes and the increase of the whites was rapid, the natives could not see their best plantation

INDIAN HISTORY.

lands appropriated by others without a protest. Writing of this in its relation to Yarmouth, Hon. C. F. Swift says: "The claims of the Indians were paid in articles which, though of no great commercial value, seemed to be prized by them. The Indians soon became pain- fully aware that their transfer of the soil carried with it a degree of vassalage far from agreeable to their ideas of personal independence. In 1656, Mashantampaigne, a sagamore, was brought before the court on a charge of having stolen a gun. The court held the opinion that the gun was his. He was also accused of having a chest full of tools stolen from the English, and proudly delivered up his keys to Mr. Prince, so that he might search his chest. Complaint was made by John Darby that this sachem's dogs 'did him wrong among his cattle, and did much hurt one of them.' These proceedings are interesting as showing that the Indians, sixteen years after the settle- ment, were completely under subjection to the colonial laws."

Would it be considered foolish in a poor Indian, whose sachem had bargained and given possession to the lands of the tribe, if, when he saw his hunting grounds trespassed upon, he should claim that he had not been paid sufficiently for them? This claim was often made, of which one instance is referred to in our chapter of charters and deeds.

The colonial laws, made soon after the settlement of the Cape, had much to do with restraining the dissatisfaction or desire .of revenge in the breasts of those evil disposed. Fire arms were kept from them and other enactments for mutual preservation were made by the court at Plymouth. The parliament of the mother country afterward, in 1649, passed acts for "promoting and propagating the Gospel among the Indians;" but even the Indians asked "how it happened that Christianity was so important, and for six and twenty years the English had said nothing to them about it?" The Indians were gradually brought under the white man's laws. In 1668, Francis, sachem of Nauset, was fined £10 " for uncivil and inhuman words to Captain Allen, at Cape Cod, when cast away." In 1673 the laws were enforced to the extent that natives were worked for debt, drunken ones fined and whipped, idle Indians bound out to labor, and for theft were compelled to pay fourfold. While the poor Indians were taught to heed the laws and religion of the colonists they were restricted in their freedom-forbidden to visit Plymouth during court time, no white was allowed to lend them silver money, and they were placed under many other, to them, humiliating restrictions.

After the dawn of the last century their decrease was rapid. In 1685 Governor Hinckley reported nearly one thousand praying Indians within the limits of Barnstable county, distributed as follows: At Pamet, Billingsgate and Nauset, 264; at Monomoyick, 115; at Satucket

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

and Nobscusset, 121; at Mattacheese, 70; at Skanton, 51; at Mashpee, 141; at Manomet, 110; and at Succonesset, 72. He also says that be- sides these there were boys and girls under twelve years of age, three times as many. In 1698 the commissioners appointed to enu- merate the Indians reported in the territory of the original Plymouth colony -- and all told-1,290, and in 1763 but 905, of which Barnstable county had 515; and in 1798 few lingered, except in Mashpee. The last squaw of Yarmouth is well remembered by the oldest inhabitants there as dwelling on the west bank of Bass river, on a portion of what was once, in the better days of the tribe, the last reservation.

In 1889 Mr. Swift, in writing of Yarmouth, says: There are few memorials or evidences existing of the former occupants of the soil, save the shell heaps near the sea shore and the arrow-heads and stone utensils thrown up by the passing plowshare of the husbandman, giv- ing evidence of their numbers before the advent of the white man on these shores. Occasionally portions of an Indian skeleton are also found here, but not in sufficient numbers to give evidence of any con- siderable burial place. The last of these who died in considerable numbers, about the time of the revolutionary war, were interred on the eastern borders of Long pond in South Yarmouth, and a pile of unhewn stone marks the spot, on one of which is chiseled this inscrip- tion:

ON THIS SLOPE LIE BURIED THE LAST OF THE NATIVE INDIANS OF YARMOUTH.

Their burial places, of which there are several others on the Cape, have been preserved with a commendable degree of respect by the people of the towns wherein they are located. Over the trail of the swift-footed runner of that departed race now speeds the iron horse, and their hunting grounds are now the sites of flourishing villages.

Their beautiful legends yet linger in the written pages of the white man's lore, and the recurrence of the changes in nature is an index to the unwritten traditions of the Indians. As the fogs creep up from the sound, who can forget their explanation of the phenom- enon? The Mattacheeset idea was that a great many moons ago a bird of monstrous size visited the south shore of the Cape, carrying off pappooses, and even the larger children, to the southward. An Indian giant named Maushop residing in those parts, in his rage at the havoc, pursued the bird, wading across the sound to an hitherto unknown island, where he found the bones of children in heaps around the trunk and under the shade of a great tree. Wishing to smoke on his way back, and finding he had no tobacco, he filled his pipe with poke-a weed used afterward by the Indians when tobacco failed-and started across the sound to his home. From this mem-

INDIAN HISTORY.

orable event the frequent fogs in Nantucket and on and around Vine- yard sound came; and when the Indians saw a fog rising they would say in their own tongue, which rendered was, "There comes old Mau- shop's smoke."

The Indians about Santuit pond had a legend that a great trout in the South sea wished to visit that pond, and on his way plowed up the land. He turned and wound along, avoiding the large trees and high lands, and arrived at the pond. The water of the sea followed him and formed the present river. After a rest in the pond he tried to return to the sea, but died from exhaustion, and the Indians cov- ered the trout with earth. It has been called Trout Grave since, and is yet so known in the neighborhood. The river yet flows, and the mound where the legendary trout was covered is still plainly visible on the bank of the river, just west of the residence of Simeon L. Ames of Cotuit.

The Indians had no faithful records of their own times to portray the virtues of their race; but if we look back to the period when the white man's firewater was unknown, when the proud independence which formed the main pillar of their moral fabric was unbroken, then they were a people with as generous impulses, as lofty purposes and as chivalrous deeds as paler men; but an irresistible power seems to have decreed that another people-weaker, yet stronger -- should develop on their soil a higher civilization.

CHAPTER III.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

Early Discovery of the Cape .- Explorations by Gosnold and Dermer .- The Pilgrims .- The Mayflower in Cape Cod Harbor .- Explorations by the Pilgrims .- Compact Signed .- Plymouth .- The Lost Boy .- Post at Manomet .- Great Storm .- Declaration of Rights .- First Settlement of the Cape by the Whites .- Sandwich, Barnstable, Yarmouth and Nauset .- Erection of County.

T HE history of Barnstable county, if made complete, is of more interest than any other in the Bay state; for Cape Cod was first discovered and first explored, and has sustained its prominence from that early period to the present time. From public records and the most authentic documents, with the carefulness that the import- ance of the work demands, have been compiled the facts of the dis- covery, exploration and settlement of Cape Cod.

The discovery of the Western Continent in 1492 was the most important event of modern times, and to Columbus and others who followed him the historical monuments already erected will endure as long as the earth itself. Traditions have credited Madoc, a prince of Wales, with a prior discovery, in the Twelfth century; and several historians have discussed the Norwegian claim to its discovery. Eric emigrated from Iceland to Greenland, where he formed a set- tlement in 986. In the year 1000, Lief, a son of Eric, with a crew of men, sailed to the southwest, discovered land, explored the coast south ward, entered a bay where he remained during the winter, and called it Vinland. In 1007 Thorfinn sailed from Greenland to Vin- land, and the account of his voyage is still extant. From the evidence of this voyage and others that followed, antiquarians have no hesi- tancy in pronouncing this Vinland as the head of Narragansett bay. This is the first tangible evidence of the coasting of the white man along the shores of Cape Cod.

The first discovery by a European of which history can be given, was by Bartholomew Gosnold, an intrepid mariner of the west of England, who, on the 26th of March, 1602, sailed from Falmouth, in Cornwall, in a small bark, with thirty-two men, for a coast called at that time North Virginia. On the 14th of May he made land on the eastern coast of Massachusetts, north of Cape Cod, and sailing south

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

on the 15th, soon found himself "embayed with a mighty headland.") which appeared "like an island by reason of the large sound that lay between it and the main." This sound he called Shioal Hope, and } near this cape, within a league of land, he came to anchor in fifteen fathoms, and his crew took a great quantity of cod fish, from which 1 circumstance he named the land Cape Cod. The captain with four others went on shore here, where they were met in a friendly way by Indians. This, Bancroft confidently asserts, was the first, spot in New / England ever trod by Englishmen.

May 16, 1602, Gosnold and his crew coasted southerly until he came to a point where, in attempting to double, he found the water very shoal. To this point he gave the name of Point Care; it is now called Sandy point, and is the extreme southeastern part of Barnstable county. Breakers were seen off Point Gammon, the southern point of Yarmouth.

On the 19th of May Gosnold sailed along the coast westward, sight- ing the high lands of Barnstable and Yarmouth, and discovered and named Martha's Vineyard. From off this island he sailed about the 24th of May, and spent some three weeks in cruising about Buzzards bay. It has been believed that he and his men took up their abode on Cuttyhunk, traded and held friendly relations w.th Indians; but it must have been very brief, for on the 18th of June he sailed from Buzzards bay by the passage through which he entered, and arrived at Exmouth, England, July 23, 1602.

In 1603 De Monts prepared for a voyage, and in 1604 arrived on these western shores, exploring from the St. Lawrence river to Cape Cod and southward.

In 1607 a settlement was attempted at Kennebeck by the Plymouth Company, but the winter of 1607-8 being severe, and many dis- couragements interposing, the survivors returned to England in the following spring.

In 1614 Captain John Smith, the celebrated navigator, quitted the colony of South Virginia and sailed along the coast, exploring between Cape Cod and Kennebeck. He made a fine map # of the country, which, upon his return to England, he presented to King Charles, who was so well pleased with the resemblance to his own England that he at once named it "New England." At this time the new possessions were supposed to be an island. The same year Cap- tain Smith returned to London, leaving a ship for Thomas Hunt to command and load with fish for Spain.

In 1619 Sir Fernando Gorges sent Mr. Thomas Dermer to New England. He found a pestilence had swept over the Indian popula-

* The celebrated Varazano map of 1513 is sufficiently noticed in the chapter on Provincetown where its author mentions other early navigators .- ED.

HISTORY OF BARNSTABLE COUNTY.

tion, and some villages were utterly depopulated. At Monomoyick (Chatham) Dermer was recognized by an Indian who had been abducted by Hunt, only escaping after receiving fourteen wounds at the hands of the Indians, and after nearly all his boat's crew had been killed -- the result of the perfidy of Hunt and others.

While Walter Raleigh and his people made at Jamestown the first permanent settlement in Virginia, and while the Dutch, following Hudson's discovery of 1609, gained a foothold at New. Amsterdam, it seemed to be reserved to the religious exiles at Leyden to establish the first permanent settlement in New England and lay the foundations on which should be built the greatest nation of modern times. In 1608 they fled from England to Amsterdam, and thence to Leyden, whence they finally embarked for the Western world.

In 1617 they meditated what was afterward accomplished, but not until two years later were necessary preparations completed, and not until July, 1620, was the first company of these 120 resolute emi- grants in waiting to embark, August sixth, in the two small ships -- the Mayflower and Speedwell-at Southampton. The Speedwel/ proved unseaworthy and was abandoned, thus reducing the number to 101 on board the Mayflower, which, after many delays, left Plymouth, England, September 6, 1620. They intended to go to what was known as Virginia, at or near the Hudson river, of which, and the surrounding country, Henry Hudson had given a glowing description. After many boisterous storms, on November ninth they reached Cape Cod and as their record said, "The which being made, and certainly known to be it, we were not a little joyful." They bore south, but encounter- ing the same shoals that had turned Gosnold, they returned north- ward and doubled the Cape where now is Provincetown.

On the 11th of November, 1620, after a voyage of sixty-six days, they found that neither their compass nor bible had failed them, and they anchored within the kindly shelter of New England's great right arm, where many storm-tossed mariners have since sought refuge. There, within the very palm of the hand, they recognized the hand of Providence and kept as pilgrim Christians their first Sabbath in the New World. The day they anchored, sixteen men, headed by Captain Miles Standish, all well armed, went on shore to procure wood and re- connoitre; and repairs upon their shallop were at once commenced, that other and more extensive explorations might be made. The store of fowl in the harbor was very great, and almost daily they saw whales. "The bay is so round and circling, that before we could come to anchor, we went round all the points of the compass." Their nar- rative continues: " We could not come near the shore by three-quarters of an English mile, because of shallow water, which was a great preju- dice to us; for our people were forced to wade * * for it was many times freezing weather."

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATIONS.

After solemnly thanking God, it was proposed that the forty-one males who were of age should subscribe a compact, which was to be the basis of their government. Had all the company been members of the Leyden congregation they could have relied on each other without imposing restraint; but there were inany servants, and insub- ordination had manifested itself the day before the Mayflower anchored in the harbor.

Hon. Francis Baylies, in his history of New Plymouth, says that this compact adopted in the cabin of the Mayflower "established a most important principle, a principle which is the foundation of all the democratic institutions of America, and is the basis of the republic." At that dark day of despotism no pen dare write, or tongue assert, that the majority should govern; but these primitive, discarded Christians, relying upon their Maker for strength and guid- ance, discovered a truth in the science of government which had been dormant for ages; and the principles given and implied in the com- pact unanimously adopted by this little band of Christians-on a bleak shore, in the midst of desolation and wintry blasts-to-day, in all the complications and ramifications of our many branches of fed- eral and state governments, are the happiest and leading character- istics. The following is an exact copy of the compact:

"In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, defender of the faith &c., having undertaken for the glory of God, and advance- ment of the christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voy- age to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and further- ance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and con- venient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

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History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1890, Part 3

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed Publication date: 1890 Publisher: New York : Blake Number of Pages: 1292

Author: Deyo, Simeon L., ed
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: New York : Blake
Number of Pages: 1292