USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 7
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The great respect and veneration of the Indians for the dead would cause them to hold everything found as sacred. All the other articles are such as they bury with their own dead. The Indians understood something of the art of embalming. The red powder was made from roots and bark, largely hemlock, which has well known preserving qualities.
Two of the sailors who had returned with the shallop that morning as agreed, discovered two Indian wigwams without occupants. The houses are described as being framed with long sapling trees, bent something like an ox-bow, both ends being driven into the ground, making an arbor-shaped roof. They were covered to the ground on the outside "with thick and well-wrought mats;" on the inside they were also cov- ered, or hung (the Indian women called them hangings) with new and richly colored mats. Some of their mats were beau- tifully embroidered with feathers, porcupine quills dyed in gorgeous colors, and other ornaments of rare beauty, rivalling the famed mats and hangings of the East. The mat entered
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THE PILGRIMS IN TRURO.
largely into the domestic life of the native Indian, and seems almost the boundry line between barbarism and civilization everywhere. The door was a mat secured at the top, so that without hinges, springs or latch, it need never be left open. A mat covered the chimney, which was a hole left in the roof, and to complete the outfit, the mat was also their bed and winding-sheet.
They found in the wigwams wooden bowls, trays, dishes, earthen pots, hand-baskets made of crab shells and ingen- iously fastened with unseen sinews, and a great variety of other baskets, some very prettily wrought. Many of the baskets were ornamented with pictures of birds, beasts, fish and flowers, in high colors. Taking some of the best, the tide ebbing and night coming on, they hastened to the shallop, and that night returned to the ship. " We intended to have brought some beads and other things to have left in their homes in sign of peace, and that we meant to truck with them, but it was not done ; but so soon as we can meet con- veniently with them, we will give them full satisfaction."
Having returned from what they call " Our Second Dis- covery," they held a council as to settling there. Many reasons were urged in favor, and some thought it best to go there at once. First, there was a convenient harbor for boats, though not for ships. Secondly, good corn ground, ready to our hands, which we saw by experience in the goodly corn it yielded. Thirdly, Cape Cod was like to be a place of good fishing, for we saw daily great whales of the best kind for oil and bone, came close about our ship, etc. Fourthly, the place was likely to be healthful, secure, and defensible. But the last and especial reason was that now the heart of winter and unseasonable weather was come upon us, preventing other discovery without great risk. Also, cold and wet lodging, so that scarce any of our people were free from vehement coughs, endangering the lives of many.
The objections were: First, there were other places of which they had heard, which were excellent harbor for ships, better ground and better fishing. Secondly, for anything we knew, there might be hard by us, a far better place. Thirdly.
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the water was but in ponds, and it was thought there would be none in summer, or very little. Fourthly, the water must be fetched up a steep hill, etc. Dr. Young says: "I suppose they anticipated building their town for protection against the Indians, on the high bank called old Tom's Hill, near the entrance of Pamet River." The bank of this hill is steep ; at the foot, and near where now runs the railway track, there used to be a well of pure water, from which for THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET. many years the fisher- men filled their store. The Pilgrims wells, but depended brooks. But all those seemed to know little of upon ponds, or running who know the ease with which wells are constructed, and the availability of water in Truro, will smile at the thirdly and fourthly of the re- port. The water springs are never dry. The creeks, and all surface water, drains into the bay. With neither silicious, or calcareous, and very little vegetable matter, the water of Truro filtered through a gravel rift, is pure as any under the canopy. I have never seen better.
How sweet from the cool mossy bank to receive it, As poised on the curb it inclined to my lips.
In three things the Cape abounds : pure water, pure air and pure sand, and enough of them. During the delibera- tion, Robert Coffin, the pilot who had before been on the coast, told them of a great river and good harbor on the head- land, over against Cape Cod, about eight leagues distant, and a company was chosen to go upon a third discovery.
So narrowly escaped Truro from being the Plymouth of the New World, and Old Tom's Hill from becoming hal- lowed ground.
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THE PILGRIMS IN TRURO.
" This day it pleased God that Mistress White was brought abed of a son, which was called Peregrine." This was the first native New Englander, the original Yankee if not the original native American. He married Mary Basset, and set- tled in Marshfield ; was representative to the General Court in 1660 and 1673; died July 20, 1704, vigorous and comely to the last. He left six children. A few years ago his home- stead was owned by John A. White, a descendant of the sixth generation. The father of Peregrine died soon after landing in Plymouth. " Mistress White" was married to Edward Winslow May 13, 1621.
Bradford, Allerton, Standish and Winslow lost their wives in a few weeks, and as many Pilgrim wives mourned their brave husbands. In the solitudes of the wilderness and their forlorn condition, they looked to each other for sympa- thy and waived conventionalities. Practically, they said -
Let the dead past bury the dead. Act, act in the living present -
Like the old Jews, the Pilgrims and Puritans had a provi- dential way of naming their children from local surroundings, or events of time and place. Thus "Peregrine," travelling from one country ; "Oceanus," a boy born to Stephen Hop- kins, on the ocean ; " Reliance," Governor Hinkley's daugh- ter, the wife of Nathaniel Stone, second minister of Boston, born on the day when the English whipped the Narragan- setts ; was so named by Rev. Mr. Russell as a token of Divine favor, and became a popular name not extinct to this day on the Cape. "Love," "Fear," "Patience," and " Wrest- ling," were some of the names of Elder Brewster's children.
"Seaborn " was a son of Rev. John Cotton, born on the passage. He married a daughter of Governor Bradford. "Resolved," "Humility," "Remember," " Shining," Desire," and " Faith," were other female names.
"Armemaryvetta," born 1714, was the name of an accom- plished daughter of the schoolmaster, Mr. John Rogers, of Sandwich. Scripture names were their delight and duty ; the longer and harder, the more religious. "Mahershallal-
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hashbaz" (Isaiah viii. I.), son of William Dyar, born in New- port, 1661.
An old lady who lived in Provincetown, born in Truro, used to thank the Lord that all her family had Scripture names. This was the way she told them : -
Hezekiah, Jedediah, Shebnah, and Eliakim, Sarah and Mary, Hannah and Penina.
While the shallop was being made ready for the proposed trip, the Mayflower narrowly escaped being blown up by young Billington, who shot off a fowling piece in the cabin where was an open keg of powder; "yet by God's mercy, no harm was done." This said Billington had a precious knack of getting into scrapes. He was the same that was lost, and found among the Nauset Indians sometime after. Bradford says of Billington, " he came from London, and I know not by what friends shuffled into our company." They seem to have been bad stock and were a source of trouble. The father was hanged in 1630 for the murder of John Newcomer.
THE THIRD DISCOVERY.
On the sixth of December ten men started in the shallop. The weather was cold, the water froze their clothes "and made them many times like coats of iron." Some of the men fainted with the cold. The wind was evidently northeast, so they got under the weather shore soon as possible, and sailed up to Billingsgate Point and into Wellfleet Harbor, which they called "Grampus Bay," as here they saw three gram- puses and the Indians cutting the blubber from one of them.
They thought well of the harbor "that a ship might ride in five fathoms of water; but the soil none of the fruitfullest." They saw two brooks of fresh water, the first streams they had seen in the country, also in Eastham a great burying place with the graves "more sumptuous than those at Corn- hill." The next morning after prayers they heard the cry of " Indians ! Indians !" and the arrows came flying among them. Captain Miles Standish let fly his snap-lock, and after him
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THE PILGRIMS IN TRURO.
another fired. The cry of the Indians was dreadful, and they were ready to meet the Pilgrims.
After a few musket shots, the Indians having discharged a shower of arrows, took to their heels. Their number was estimated no less than thirty or forty, perhaps many more, 1 it still being quite dark they could not well see them, though the Indians could plainly see the white men by their great fire, and thought to take them by surprise - their favorite mode of warfare. But they reckoned without their host. The wily Standish was not to be caught napping - " a man not of words but of actions." After the skirmish eighteen arrows, some headed with brass, some with deer horns, and some with eagle claws, were picked up, which Captain Jones carried to England ; many others could not be found in the leaves. Some of the coats hung up in the barricade were shot through and through, "yet by the especial providence of God," none of them either hit or hurt us, though many came close by us, and on every side of us. So after we had given God thanks for our deliverance, we took our shallop and went on our journey, and called this place The First Encounter. The spot located by Mr. Dexter for this encounter is in Orleans, near the mouth of Great Meadow Creek. They coasted around the bay, but seeing no promising opening, kept on to their objective point, with Coffin for their pilot.
A gale with snow and rain came upon them, breaking the rudder and splitting the mast in three pieces, and nearly casting away the shallop. Fortunately, at this crisis the harbor opened and they passed the Gurnet, entering Plymouth harbor in safety.
After a thorough examination which occupied a few days, they returned to the ship with good news, which greatly com- forted them. Saturday, the sixteenth, they left Cape Cod and anchored safely in the harbor across the bay. And now hav. ing followed the Pilgrims through varied experiences to their new home in Plymouth, we take our affectionate leave,
7
CHAPTER V.
1670-SETTLEMENT AT PAMET OR PAOMET - 1709.
Indian Spelling. The Old-comers. Settlers of Eastham. The Old South Meeting. House. Nauset. Pamet Lands. Proprietors. Purchases. Drift Fish. Indian Lands. Tom Paine. Earlier Settlers. Cape Cod. Indian Fidelity. Governor Hinckley. Marshpee Deacon. Removal. Provision for a Minister. Nathaniel Ells. Commonage. Star Island. Protection to Trees. New England Ministry. High Commissioners' Court. Hannah North. New Lights. The Declaration. Enoch Pratt. Records of 1703. Drift Highway. Tashmuit. Hog's Back. Min- isterial Lands. Mr. Theophilus Cotton. Indian Shell Beds. Rev. Samuel Treat. Calvinism. Awakenings. The Great Snow. The First Clerk. A Colonial Charter.
T HE Indian name of Truro was Pamet, from the Indian tribe Pamets, sometimes Pawmits, Payomets and Pamoits. The first seems to be the accepted name, but from a study of the words, I incline to the opinion that Payomet is the more rightful and better name.
The Indians had no written language. There was no authority for correct orthography till Mayhew, Eliot and others from the chaos of guttural sounds constructed an acceptable language. Before Indian words were spelt with as many variations as writers.
It has also been observed that otherwise scholarly men of that period paid little attention to spelling, sometimes taking considerable latitude, even to the extent of occasionally vary- ing their own names. The journal of Mr. John Lathrop, the first minister of Scituate and Barnstable, is a marked instance of wide liberty. In 1640, the "Old-comers " (those who came by the three first ships, the Mayflower, the Anne, and the Fortune) obtained of the Court a grant of land on the
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Cape, with reference to removing there, but no settlement was begun. In 1643, they selected Nauset, and made a pur- chase of the Indians. Finding it too limited to accommodate the whole society, much less for further increase, they con- cluded that part of their number might remain. In 1644, the following grant was made :
The Court doth grant to the Church of New Plymouth, or those that go to dwell at Nauset, all that tract of land lying between sea and sea from the pur- chaser's bounds at Namskeket, to the Herring Brook at Billingsgate, with the said Herring Brook and all the meadows on both sides of said brook, with great Bass Pond there, and all the meadows and islands within said tract.
All north of Herring Brook was Pamet, owned and occupied by the Pamets. The same year of the grant, the following seven families removed from Plymouth : Governor Thomas Prince or Prance, John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josias Cook, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs. The old record read, "Divers of the considerablest of the Church and town removed." Thoreau says : "Some of the most respectable of the inhabitants of Plymouth removed to Eastham." Governor Prince's farm embraced about two hundred acres and extended from the Bay to the Atlantic. Some of the bounds, and the old pear-tree brought from England and planted by Governor Prince could be seen not many years ago.
Thomas Prince, the leader in the settlement at Eastham, was born in Gloucestershire, England, 1600, came to Ply- mouth 1621 in the Fortune. His first wife was Patience, daughter of Elder Brewster. While residing in Eastham, he was three times elected Governor. The law required that the Governor should live in Plymouth, but a dispensation was granted in his favor. Mr. Prince died in a good old age, and was buried at Plymouth.
The first meeting-house, built soon after the settlement, was twenty feet square, with thatched roof, and portholes, through which muskets could be turned upon the savage foe. It was the house that replaced this, known as "the old Congregational Church in Eastham," 1718-1827, of which Heman Doane, the Eastham poet, wrote : -
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The Old South meeting-house, time-worn and gray, 'That stood fronting east by the " King's highway, That goeth to Billingsgate " - so runs the phrase, In the quaint old records of olden days.
I have seen splendid temples with lofty steeples, With soft cushioned seats, filled with fashionable peoples, But none in the tablet of memory will stay Like the old gray church by the King's highway.
Nauset was incorporated in 1646. The court ordered 1651, that the town of Nauset be henceforth known by the name of Eastham. In 1674 the court ordered that Mayomoyick, Paomet and Satucket be included in the town of Eastham. The first reference to a settlement at Pamet in the town records, is the following :-
Ordered by the proprietors of Pamet lands, that henceforth there be no cord- wood or timber cut upon any of the common or undivided land belonging to Pamet, to be carried off from said land, under penalty of fifteen shillings fine for every cord of wood, or proportionable for other timber.cut upon said land ; which to be paid to any of the proprietors of said land, that shall sue for and recover the same before any court of record to try the same within the country. Dated in Eastham June 30, 1696. The persons' names hereunto subscribed were subscribers to the original. Jonathan Paine, Thomas Paine, Stephen Snow, Caleb Hopkins, Ephraim Doane, John Savage and Israel Cole. Recorded June 18, 1701. Thomas Paine, clerk to said proprietors.
The original records have not been found, but previous records are hereafter made, indicating that no transcript was kept till after they moved to Pamet.
The next record antedates the first seven years, and is the oldest reference of the proprietors to a purchase of land at Pamet. That these were not originally on their records, is evident by the order of entry. It will also be noticed that among these names are several that do not appear with that of 1696, " as subscribers to the original." A record of sev- eral divisions of upland and meadow settled by the propri- etors of the land belonging to Pamet, May 22, 1689 :-
The western boundary of these lots is the top of the cliff by the bay. The first and northerly lot is the lot of Ensign Jonathan Bangs on the southerly side of the pond, commonly called Eastern Harbor Pond. The second lot is the lot of William Twining, and is bounded on the northerly side by said Bangs.
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SETTLEMENT AT PAMET.
The third lot is the lot of Constant Freeman, and is bounded on the northerly side by said Twining. The fourth lot is the lot of Israel Cole, and is bounded on the northerly side by said Freeman. The fifth lot is the lot of Thomas Paine, and is bounded on the northerly side by said Cole. The sixth lot is the lot of Thomas Clark, and is bounded on the northerly side by said Paine. The seventh lot is the lot of Lieut. Joseph Rogers, deceased, and is bounded on the northerly side by the lot of said Clark. The eighth lot is the lot of John Snow, and is bounded on the northerly side by the lot of said Rogers. The ninth lot is the lot of Thomas Paine, and is bounded on the northerly side by the lot of said John Snow. The tenth lot is the lot of Caleb Hopkins, and is bounded on the northerly side by the lot of Thomas Paine.
An Eastham record of 1697, says "the settlers of Eastham made purchases of land of the Indians at Pamet, preparing for a settlement. The next and third record of the proprietors refers to the purchases.
July 24, 1697. An agreement and final settlement of the bounds and ranges between the lands now possessed by the English, from Bound Brook to the fresh water ponds on the westerly side of Pamet and next Eastern Harbor ; and the land from said pond to the Eastern Harbor, which is as follows, viz: The de- scription is here given.
A compact with the Indians, referring to drift fish, follows :
And it is agreed upon, that the privilege of the shore belonging to the lands from the pond aforesaid, to Eastern Harbor, on both sides, referring to drift fish, shall be as formerly; that is to say, the English proprietors to have one eight part of all such fish,
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands.
Witnesses, THOMAS SMITH, ) The names of the persons underwritten were THOMAS PAINE Jr. > subscribers to the original. Attest, THO: PAINE, Clerk.
His JOSHUA × ANTHONY Mark
DAVID PETER
His
JEDEDIAH Y. Mark His JOSEPH × TOUAMATON Mark JEREMY ANTHONY
JONATHAN BANGS CONSTANT FREEMAN THOMAS PAINE THOMAS ROGERS
His CALEB × HOPKINS Mark JOHN SAVAGE ISRAEL COLE JONATHAN VICKERY His EPHRAIM S. (worn off) Mark
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The records indicate that while the proprietors did not purchase all the land for sale by the Indians, they wished to control the same and to prevent individual members of the proprietors from purchasing on their own account. The above also throws some light on the "original."
Some of the Indians who signed the above agreement claimed some connection of rights through John Quason, son of the Monomoiett Sagamore.
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet, February 4, 1694, Thomas Smith made a proposition to said proprietor concerning the difference that arose be- tween said proprietors and said Smith, about a parcel of land and meadow, which said Smith had bought, and had taken deeds for, of Joshua, Antony and Jeremy, wherein said Smith proffered said proprietors' money for their right of purchase ; whereupon it was concluded by said parties, that said Smith and said parties, should bid for said right, and he that should bid most for it should have it.
Methods being agreed upon, the candle was lighted, and money bid, but said Smith outdid the proprietors, he bidding thirty pounds for said right, whereupon it was agreed that the instrument should be drawn against the next day - and the next day said proprietors met again and chose Lieut. Jonathan Paine and Israel Cole to be their agents, in their name and behalf to receive the money from, and give conveyance of said purchase right to Thomas Smith in the name and behalf of the whole proprietie. Attest, THO: PAINE.
Clerk to said Proprietors.
June 4, 1700, the proprietors made their first formal dec- laration on record, to remove to Pamet, by the following : -
At a meeting of the proprietors of Pamet lands June 4th 1700, it was agreed on that what land at Pamet might be conveniently divided, should be divided ; and that they would go thither (God willing) on the last Monday of October next ensuing, and divide accordingly. At the same meeting it was agreed on and voted by said proprietors, that if the neighbors at Pamet or any of them will make a fence below Eastern Harbor Pond, sufficient to stop the sand and keep the tide out of said pond, they shall have five and twenty shillings for his or their pains.
Attest, THO: PAINE. Clerk.
At the same meeting, " the proprietors being deeply sensi- ble of the inconveniency of having many persons in their com- pany buying of lands of the Indians for inconsiderable pay to their great damage, for the preventing of the same did by their major vote nominate and appoint Thomas Paine their
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agent, to buy all such lands of the Indians as they shall be minded to sell." Full instructions were given their agent and money pledged as a fund. Mr. Paine served them in this capacity till May 15, 1705, when " he declared to the proprietors that he would no longer serve them as their agent about buying land of the Indians."
The last record, June 4, 1700, was the last made by the proprietors previous to their removal to Pamet. There- after all records of the proprietors were duly recorded. Their first record as we have shown, is May 22, 1689.
February 1, 1679, " Sampson," a Nauset Indian of some note, sold Pamet lands about Howe's Point, and Lovell's Creek to the proprietors.
Several of the names recorded are not again mentioned. From other sources, principally the Plymouth records, we learn that as early as 1670, Thomas Paine of Eastham, the water bayle, bought a large tract at Pamet of Governor Prince, lying between Bound Brook (Indian name Sapoanist) and Eastern Harbor, or Lovell's Creek, for which he paid twenty pounds.
He made in 1673 another purchase, upland and meadow, of Jabez Howland, for fifteen pounds, all his right purchased or unpurchased in the same vicinity. All these lands he sold his son Thomas, March 30, 1690.
It must not be understood, according to previous history, that the Eastham purchasers were the first English settlers at Pamet. With them began the regular form of municipal government, and from them we receive the first records. But from these records and a vast amount of direct and indirect history, it is evident enough that settlements were made long before this time, and in connection with the fisheries of Cape Cod before the settlement of Eastham or any others on the Cape.
The local nomenclature, geography, and typography of both Cape Cod (Provincetown) and Pamet were well estab- lished at an early day substantially as now. The records of the proprietors are conclusive evidence on this point. They constantly refer to fences, roads, gates, try works, " try-house
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lot," "the antient bounds," the old way where Mr. Gold's cellar was, to the neighbors, and many other things that denote a well-settled community. That the neighbors were not a few must be inferred from the record of June 4th, 1700: " That if the neighbors at Pamet, or any of them, will make a fence below Eastern Harbour Pond sufficient to stop the sand and keep the tide out, they shall have five and twenty shillings for his or their pains."
Who these neighbors were may be determined in part. All the names of the proprietors, or subscribers to the original, are given. Also all that thereafter, by purchase or otherwise, were allowed citizens, or admitted as inhabitants, etc. All well-known inhabitants, or citizens, not thus mentioned must have been the old neighbors.
Jedediah Lombard, who owned the "great lot" often referred to, Thomas Lombard, Dr. William Dyer, Benjamin Smalley, Thomas Newcomb, Isaac Snow, Jonathan Collins and Nathaniel Harding, were among this number that we readily recall. These names, as a rule, were not from East- ham, but from Barnstable, another evidence that they were not associated with the proprietors. We have no way of telling how long these people had been there. In the history of the Newcomb family, it will be seen that Captain Thomas Lombard moved to Truro in 1699, but others had been there many years. Reverend Jeremiah Cushing, graduate of Har- vard College, 1676, was a minister at Cape Cod for several years before 1700. Son Ezekiel born there 1698. The last item proves that Provincetown was of sufficient importance to sustain a learned minister with a family before the East- ham settlers moved to Pamet.
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