History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 196

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 196

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

June 24, 1497, John Cabot discovered the coast of Labrador, but saw no inhabitants.

In 1502, or about ten years after the discovery made by Columbus, the island of Newfoundland was visited by Sebastian Cabot, who captured and carried away three of the native inhabitants that as curiosi- ties he presented to Henry VII. These people of Newfoundland were clothed with the skins of beasts, and are said to have lived upon raw flesh, but were so far advanced in the mechanic art as to construct ornaments of tools from copper metal. These were the first Indians ever seen in England, and, as said an early historian, they were brought to the English court "in their country habit," and " spoke a lan- guage never heard before out of their own country." But two years later, these Indians, having assumed the garb of Englishinen, when seen abroad, could scarcely be discerned from Englishmen.

The French discovered the Saint Lawrence River in 1508, and following the bad example set by the English, the French stole and forcibly carried away several of the Indians of that locality, which were the first of that race cver seen in France. Thomas Auburt was the name of the commander of that vessel wherein was made the discovery of the Saint Lawrence River, and he it was who discovered such brutality of disposition. and conduct as to tear fromn

their homes, kindred, and friends those unoffending natives to gratify the curiosity of sight-seers in the city of Paris.

In 1524, John Verazzini, being in the service of France, sailed along the American coast, landing at several places, one of which is thought to have been in what is now the State of Connecticut.

The preserved account says of this expedition and landing, " 20 of his men landed, and went about two leagues up into the country. The inhabitants fled before them, but they caught an old woman who had hid herself in the high grass, with a young woman about 18 years of age.

" The old woman carried a child on her back, and had besides two little boys with her.

" The young woman, too, carried three children of her own sex.

"Seeing themselves discovered, they began to shriek, and the old one gave them to understand by signs that the men were fled to the woods.

" They offered her something to eat, which she ac- cepted, but the maiden refused it. This girl, who was tall and well-shaped, they were desirous of taking along with them, but as she made a violent outcry, they contented themselves with taking a boy away with them."

Beside thus driving from house and home the men of that Connecticut tribe, frightening the women, te. and robbing them of one of their children, the ball Frenchmen at that time added to their cruelties the fart vanity of naming North America NEW FRANCE. Tone

Thus far John Verazzini and his heartless followers had done unchecked all these uncalled-for injuries to the unoffending and unresisting natives, who, when fal John visited them again, were better prepared to give Th him a proper reception, and thus they in turn became captors, and he, in his turn, became a captive. The Indians wished greatly to learn what John was made of, and so they killed and ate him.

In 1535 an Indian chief who resided near the bigy St. Croix River, kindly received and generously en- flere

938

th ri

Co of

sta Kit Fa

Tea

seal

Loth

939

HISTORY OF MIDDLEBORO'.

tertained a sea-voyager named James Cartier, who in return. " partly by stratagem and partly by force," carried Donacono. the chief, to France, where the latter soon after died.

" In 1605. George Waymouth," so said the old narrative, " happened into a river on the coast of America called Pemmaquid, from whence he brought five of the natives. They were all of one nation, but of several parties and several families."

Sir Fernando Gorges, in speaking of those natives, , natures, so as they suddenly became familiar friends, said. "After I had those people some time in my custody. I observed in them an inclination to follow the example of the better sort, and in all their car- In 1611, Edward Harlow, as master of a vessel, attempted to discover an island supposed to be near Cape Cod, but ascertained that the supposed island was, in fact, a part of Cape Cod, and at Monhigon Island. Harlow captured three Indians, named Pechmo, Monopet, and Pekenimne, " but Peckmo leapt overboard and got away ; and not long after, with his consorts, cut their Boat from their sterne, got her on shore, and so filled her with sand and guarded her with bowes and arrowes, the English lost her." riages manifest shows of great civility, far from the rudeness of our common people. And the longer I conversed with them the better hope they gave me of those parts where they did inhabit as proper for our uses, especially when I found what goodly rivers, stately islands, and safe harbors those parts abounded with, being the special marks I levelcd at as the only want our nation met with in all their navigations along that coast. And having kept them full three years, I made them able to set me down what great rivers ran up into the land, what men of note were Harlow next proceeded to an island called by the Indians Nohono, where he captured an Indian, called Sakaweston, that he succeeded in carrying to England, where, after residing many years, this Indian enlisted as a soldier and participated in the wars of Bohemia. seated on them, what power they were of, how allied, what enemies they had," etc. The names of those five natives from whom Sir Fernando Gorges was able to derive so much information were Squanto, Manida, Skettwarroes, Dehamda, and Asscumet.

Sir Fernando Gorges fitted out a ship for a voyage to America, placing the vessel under the command of Mr. Henry Challoung, with whom he sent the Indians, Manida and Asscumet, but this ship was captured by Spanish fleet and carried to Spain (and Gorges adds), 'where the ship and goods were confiscated, them- elves made prisoners, the voyage overthrown, and oth my natives lost." But Asscumet was afterwards ecovered.

The Lord Chief Justice Popham, at about the same ate, sent out a vessel to aid that commanded by "halloung, and Popham's vessel was commanded by Iartin Prim, and sailed from Bristol, in England. Concerning Henry Challoung and ship the old narra- ive continues : " But not hearing by any means what ecame of him, after he had made a perfect discovery f all those rivers and harbors, brings with him the .ost exact discovery of that coast," etc.

The Indians, Dehamda and Skettwarroes, are sought to have been with Prim on that very suc- essful voyage of discovery.

In 1607 two Indians piloted a colony of European oigrants to the mouth of the Sagadahock River, terward: Kennebeck, Me.

That company left England May 30th, and arrived on the 8th of August. The old chronicler wrote : " As soon as the president had taken notice of the place, and given order for landing the provisions, he dispatched away Capt. Gilbert, with Skitwarres, his guide, for the thorough discovery of the rivers and habitations of the natives, by whom he was brought to several of them, where he found civil entertain- ment and kind respects far from brutish or savage especially by the means of Dehamda and Skit- warres."

Harlow's voyage of discovery, that had been turned into one of depredation and disgraccd by the cruelty of man-stealing, was now procecded in, when they came to what was then called Capoge or Capawick (now known as Martha's Vineyard), where he indulged in more man-stealing by the capture of two Indians, named Conecomem and Epenow, and then, with five captive Indians, returned to England.

Concerning this brutal and disgraceful affair Sir Fernando Gorges wrote,-

" While I was laboring by what means I might best continue life in my languishing hopes, there come one unto me bringing with him a native of the Island of Capawick, a place seated on the southward of Cape Cod, whose name was Epenewe, a person of goodly stature, strong, and well proportioned.

" This man was taken upon the main by force, with some twenty others, by a ship of London, that endeavored to sell them for slaves in Spain, but being understood that they were Americans, and being found to be unapt for their uses, they would not med- dle with them ; this being one of them they refused, wherein they exprest more worth than those that brought them to the market, who could not but know that our nation was at that time in travel for settling of Christian colonies upon that continent, it being an act much tending to our prejudice when we came into that part of the countries.

" He was a goodly man, of a brave aspect, stout, and soher in his demeanor, and had learned so much English as to hid those that wondered at him 'welcome,' 'welcome.' "

940

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

Thomas Hunt, as master of a ship, came to the North American coast in 1614, of whom the noted John Smith wrote as follows :

" Thomas Hunt, the master of this ship, when I was gone, thinking to prevent that intent I had to make there a plantation, thereby to keep this abound- ing country still in obscurity, that only he and some few merchants more might enjoy wholly the benefit of the trade and profits of this country, betrayed four- and-twenty of those poor salvages aboard his ship, and most dishonestly and inhumanly, for their kind usage of me and our men, carried them with him to Malaga, and there for a little private gain sold these silly sal- vages for rials of eight, but this vile act kept him ever after from any more employment to those parts."

Some time in 1619, Capt. Thomas Dermer, in the employ of Sir Fernando Gorges, came with a ship to Martha's Vineyard, where he found the Indian Epcnow, who had recently escaped from his captivity among the English. Some of the ship's crew being on shore, a fight ensued between the sailors and some Indians headed by Epenow, in which encounter some of the natives were slain, but suececded in killing all the sailors on shore, the one who remained in the boat only escaping. Capt. Dermer went on shore and, as it appears, was glad to escape with his life, for the ancient record of that event says "the eaptain himself got on board very sore wounded, and they had cut off his head upon the cuddy of the boat had not his man rescued him with his sword, and so they got away." Thus narrowly escaped with his life Capt. Thomas Dermer, the first white man who set his foot within the limits of what became the township of Middleboro'. Thus, perhaps at the expense of weary- ing our readers, have we minutely detailed the prin- cipal occurrences upon the New England coast from the date of the discovery of the New World by Co- lumbus, in 1492, till near the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620, so far as those occurrences par- ticularly concerned the aborigines of this country, and were calculated to influence them in their conduct towards their European visitors from far over the sea.

Of Capt. Thomas Dermer one ancient record says that in this encounter he received fourteen wounds, and adds, " But he being a brave, stout gentleman, drew his sword and freed himself." "This disaster forced him to make all possible haste to Virginia to be cured of his wounds ;" as it will be recollected that this being in 1619, a European settlement had then cxisted at Jamestown, in Virginia, twelve years, but none as yet had been permanently located in any part of New England, and wounds received in what after- wards became Massachusetts were therefore forced to

seek an English cure in Virginia, that then being the nearest place at which such healing assistance could be found. The Indian Squanto, alias Tisquantum, some writers have conjectured, was with Capt. Thomas Dermer in his perilous encounter and narrow escape just described, and if so, Squanto or Tisquantum may have been, and probably was, the person alluded to by the ancient writer who, describing the event, said " his man rescued him with a sword, and so got him away." Squanto, alias Tisquantum, it may be advis- able to recall to the minds of our readers, was one of the five Indians that George Waymouth seized and forcibly carried away from Pemaquid in 1605, or four- teen years before Capt. Dermer's encounter with the natives at Martha's Vineyard, and it is highly prob- able that Squanto, alias Tisquantum, accompanied Capt. Dermer in his voyage to Virginia, when the latter there sought to be cured of the wounds he had received from the Indians at Martha's Vineyard.

At what time in 1619 this fight between the sca- men under Capt. Thomas Dermer and the Indians at Martha's Vineyard occurred, it is now diffieult, if not, in fact, impossible with certainty to determine, but some time during that year Capt. Dermer went to Patuxet (now Plymouth), from whence he traveled a day's journey westward into the country, to a place called Nemasket (now Middleboro'). We are fortunate enough to be able to give an account of many of the particulars which characterized that journey of Capt. Thomas Dermer to Nemasket (now Middleboro'), and among which we will first notice its principal object.

A few years before 1619 a fishing-vessel was cast away upon or near Cape Cod, and those of the crew who escaped a watery grave became prisoners to the Indians. Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount celebrity, in writing of that matter, said, "It fortuned some few years before the English came to inhabit at new Plimmouth, in New England, that upon some distast given in the Massachussets Bay by Frenchmen then trading there with the natives for beaver, they set upon the men at such advantage that they killed many of them, and burned their shipp, then riding at anchor by an island there, now called Peddock's Island, in memory of Leonard Peddock, that landed there, dis- tributing them unto five sachems, which were lords of the severall territorics adjoyning. They did keep them as long as they lived, only to sport themselves at them, and made these five Frenchmen fetch them wood and water, which is the generall worke they require of a servant.

"One of these five men outliving the rest, had learned so much of their language as to rebuke them for their bloudy deede, saying God would be angry

at D

Den

BÊty

941

HISTORY OF MIDDLEBORO'.

with them for it, and that he would. in his dis- pleasure, distroy them ; but the salvages replyed, and said that they were so many that God could not kill them."

The same story was differently told by the noted and justly-distinguished Capt. John Smith, of Vir- ginia. He informed that a fishing-vessel was cast away, and a sailor, whose life was saved, was captured by the Indians, and while their prisoner, told them that he feared his God would destroy them. Smith said that the prisoner was a Frenchman, and he con- tinued that the Indian king made the prisoner stand upon the top of a hill, and collected all his people about it. that the man might see how numerous they were. When the Indian king had done this he de- manded of the Frenchman whether his God, that he told so much about, had so many men, and whether they could kill all thesc. On his assuring the Indian king that he could, they derided him as before.

It was some time in the year 1619, and probably in the month of May, that Capt. Thomas Dermer, in some kind of water craft, came to what was then known in the Indian tongue as Patuxet (now Plym- outh), and if in May, his coming to that place was at least one year and a half earlier than the landing at the same point of the Pilgrims, which occurred in December, 1620.

That visit of Capt. Dermer was principally, and largely, if not, in fact, wholly, with the object, desire, and intent to find and rescue from captivity one or both of the Frenchmen alluded to in these narratives of Thomas Morton, of Merry Mount (now Quincy), Mass., and Capt. John Smith, of Jamestown, Va.

At Patuxet (now Plymouth), it is said that Capt. Dermer fell into the company of the Indian Squanto, alins Tisquantum ; but what probably would be much nearer the truth would be to say that the Indian came with Capt. Dermer to Patuxet, and the firm adhesion and faithfulness of Squanto, alias Tisquantum, to Capt. Dermer may have been just what led him to deem it the proper time, when thus attended or ac- companied, to attempt the liberation of those captives, and to rely so implicitly, as the sequel showed, that Dermer did upon this Indian's powers of diplomacy. Concerning that visit and its results, Capt. Dermer, under date of Dec. 27, 1619, wrote as follows :

" Here I redeemed a Frenchman, and afterwards another at Masstachusit, who three years sinee escaped shipwreck at the northeast of Cape Cod."

When Capt. Dermer came so near being slain by the natives at Martha's Vineyard, the ancient historic account of that event ended with the words, " his man rescued him with his sword, and so they got away;" and that rescuer, it is believed, was the Indian Squanto, alias Tisquantum; and whether so or not, this Indian did save the life of Capt. Dermer at Nemasket,-for the latter in another letter dis- tinctly said that the Indians would have killed him at Nemasket had not Squanto entreated hard for him ; and Dermer added, " their desire for revenge was oc- casioned by au Englishman who, having many of them on board, made great slaughter of them when they offered no injury on their parts,"-and the con- stancy with which such brutal acts were being com- mitted by the representatives of nations deemed civil- ized upon and against people regarded as barbarous, would naturally lead one to deem the kindness of the red heathen almost or quite miraculous that they ever allowed a white Christian to escape death when in their power. Of the two kings who came to visit Capt. Dermer at Nemasket (now Middleboro') in 1619, one doubtless was Massasoit, and the other was perhaps Quadequena, his brother. This was the first instance in which a native king of this section of the country was " interviewed" by the representative of a European power, the conference with Deriner being within the limits and upon the soil of what still con- tinues to be the ancient and time-honored town of Middleboro', and as near as can be ascertained oc- curred in May, 1619, while that of Massasoit with Governor Carver, at Plymouth, was not until the 22d of March, 1621, or almost two years later. It is seriously to be regretted that some measure was not taken to perpetuate a knowledge of the precise spot where that conference between Massasoit and Capt. Thomas Dermer occurred, and we hope that it is not too late even now to revive or renew that knowledge which long-continued neglect has permitted to sink into oblivion, and covered by the shades of forgetful- ness. Facts equally as much lost to sight and to mind are frequently by one cause or another, as if sometimes by pure accident, unearthed and resurrected that were thought long since to have gone to accom- pany the lost arts, and let us hope that this very de- sirable evidence may in its discovery be equally for- tunate, that the sons and daughters of Middleboro' with commendable pride may be able to point uner- ringly to the spot where the chief ruler of this land, nearly two years before the landing of the Pilgrims

"When I arrived at my savage's native country I travelled along a day's journey to a place called Naminastaquet, where finding inhabitants I dispatched a messenger a day's journey farther west to Pocanoket, which bordereth upon the sea; whence came to see me two kings, attended with a guard of fifty armed men, who being well satisfied with that, my savage and I discoursed unto them, gave me content in whatever I de- manded, where I found that former relations were true.

942

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

at Plymonth, gave official audience to a representa- tive of the French government, and listened to the petition of a European people.

Mr. Drake's book concerning the Indians says,- " One of the most renowned captains within the do- mains of Massasoit was Caunbitant, whose residence was at a place called Mettapoiset, in the present town of Swansey."

It may not be amiss here to add that what was the Indian Mettapoiset is now familiarly and generally known as " Gardener's Neck."

Mr. Drake continues, in speaking of Caunbitant,-

" His character was much the same as that of the famous Metacomet. The English were always viewed by him as in- truders and enemies of his race, and there is little doubt but he intended to wrest the county out of their hands on the first opportunity.

" In August, 1621, Caunbitant was supposed to be in the in- terest of the Narragansets, and plotting with them to overthrow Massasoit ; and being at Nemasket, seeking to draw the hearts of Massasoit's subjects from him, speaking also disdainfully of us (the English), storming at the peace between Nauset Cumma- quid and us, and at Tisquantum, the worker of it; also at To- kamhamon and one Hobomok.

"Tokambamon went to him, but the other two would not; yet put their lives in their hands, privately went to see if they could hear of their king, and, lodging at Nemasket, were dis- covered to Caunhitant, who set a guard to beset the house and took Tisquantum, for he had said if he were dead the English had lost their tongue.

" Hobbomok seeing that Tisquantum was taken and Caunbi- tant holding a knife at his breast, being a strong and stout man, broke from them and eame to New Plimouth, full of fear and sorrow for Tisquantum, whom he thought to be slain."

No time was lost by the Plymouthians in sending out a military force, under Capt. Miles Standish, to regulate matters at Nemasket. Of how many men that force consisted it is at this date difficult, if not in fact impossible, to determine. One ancient author- ity says that only ten men were sent, and another swells the number to fourteen, and this courageous body of citizen soldiers, with the undaunted Standish as captain, and the Indian Hobbomok as guide, started to revenge the supposed death of Tisquantum, and, after a toilsome march, came to Nemasket (now Middleboro').

An early narrator of this transaction thus dis- coursed :

" Before we camo to the town (i.e., tho Indian settlement at Nemasket) we sat down and eat such as our knapsacks afforded ; that being dono wo threw them aside, and all such things as might hinder us, and so went on and beset the house, according to our last resolution.

" Those that entered demanded if Cannbitant woro not there ; but fear had bereft the savages of speoeh.

" We charged them not to stir, for if Caunbitant were not thero we would not moddlo with them ; if he wore, wo camo principally for him, to bo avenged on him for the supposed

death of Tisquantum, and other matters; but, howsoever, we would hot at all hurt their women or children.

"Notwithstanding, some of them pressed out at a private door and escaped, but with some wounds.

" At length, porceiving our principal ends, they told us Caun- hitant was returned home with all his train, and that Tisquan- tum was yet living and in the town ; thon offering some tobaceo and other such as they had to eat."

In this scene of confusion or " hurley burley," as the early writer called it, two guns were fired by the English at random, but to the great terror of the Indians generally. and the Indian boys seeing that the squaws were protected, lustily cried out, " Neens- quacs ! Neensquaes !" which signified I am a squaw ! I am a squaw ! and the Indian women sought protec- tion from the friendly Indian, Hobbomok.

Mr. Drake, in his excellent book concerning the Indians, says,-

" This attack upon a defenceless house was made at midnight, and must have been terrible in an inconceivable degree to its inmates, especially the sound of the English guns, which few, if any of them, had ever heard before."

The ancient narrator added, " But to be short, we kept them; we had and made them make a fire that we might see to search the house ; in the mean time Hobbomok gat upon the top of the house, and called Tisquantum and Tokamahamon, and those Indians soon came together, with several other natives, some of whom were armed, and others so disconcerted by this nocturnal visit as to put in their appearance entirely naked."

The English quickly seized and appropriated the bows and arrows of those Indians that came armed, promising, however, to return these arms to the own- ers the next morning. At daylight the English re- leased the Indian prisoners, and then repaired to the wigwam of Tisquantum, who appears then to have been a resident of Nemasket (now Middleboro'), where the soldiers took breakfast and then held a court-mar- tial, a report of the proceedings in which has come down to us in the words following :

"Thither eame all wbose hearts wero upright towards us, but all Counbitant's faction were fled away.

"Thero in the midst of them we manifested again our in- tendment, assuring them that, although Counbitant had now escaped ns, yet there was no place should secure him and his from us if he continued his threatening us and provoking others against us, who had kindly entertained him, and nevor intended evil towards him till he now so justly deserved it.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 196

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706