USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Barrington > A history of Barrington, Rhode Island > Part 3
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In 1524, the Florentine discoverer, Verrazzano, under French patronage, made his second voyage, westward, in search of the Orient. Touching the Madeiras, on his route, and then the main land of the Carolinas, he coasted north-
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
ward, explored the mouth of the Hudson River, which he called the Grand River (una grandissima riviera), sailed along the shores of Long Island, and discovered Block Island, using it as a refuge during a storm, calling it Luisa or Claude, in honor of the mother or wife of Francis I of France. Sailing northeasterly from Block Island, the ex- plorer reached the coast of Rhode Island, and anchored the Dauphine in Narragansett Bay, (Refugio). As Verrazzano wrote the first description of our bay and the Indians dwell- ing on its shores, we give our readers his own interesting story :
"We proceeded to another place fifteen leagues distant from the island, where we found a very excellent harbor. Before entering it we saw about twenty small boats filled with people, who came to the ship with various cries and wonderment. But they would not approach nearer than fifty paces. Stopping, they looked at the structure of the ship our persons, and dress. Afterward they all cried out loudly together, signifying that they were delighted. By imitating their signs we inspired them with a measure of confidence, so that they came near enough for us to toss them some little bells and glasses and many toys, which they took and looked at laughing, and then came on board with- out fear. Among them were two kings, more attractive in form and stature than can be described. One was about forty years old and the other about twenty-four, and they were dressed in the following fashion :
"The elder king had the skin of a deer wrapped around his nude body, artificially made with various embroideries to decorate it. His head was bare. His hair was bound be- hind with various bands, and around his neck he wore a large chain ornamented with many stones of different colors. The younger king was like him in appearance. This was the finest looking people and the handsomest in their cos- tumes that we found in our voyage. They exceed us in size, and are of a very fair complexion (sono di colore bianchis- simo); some of them incline more to a white, and others to
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DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIANS.
a tawny color. Their faces are sharp ; their hair is long and black, on the adornment of which they bestow great care. Their eyes are black and keen ; their demeanor is gentle and attractive, very much like that of the ancients. I say noth- ing to your majesty of the other parts of the body that are all in good proportion as belong to well-formed men.
"The women resemble them in size, and are very grace- ful and handsome, and quite attractive in dress and manners. They had no other clothing except a deer skin, ornamented as were the skins worn by the men. Some had very rich lynx-skins upon their arms, and wore various ornaments upon their heads, braided in their hair, which hung down upon their breasts. Others wore different ornaments, such as those of the women of Egypt and Syria. The older and the married people, both men and women, wore many orna- ments in their ears, hanging down in oriental fashion.
" We saw on them pieces of wrought copper, which is more esteemed by them than gold, the latter being deemed the most ordinary of metals, yellow being a color much dis- liked by them. Blue and red are the colors which they value most highly. Of the things which we gave them, they preferred the bells, azure crystals, and other toys, which they hung in their ears and about their necks. They do not value or desire to have silk or gold-drapery, or other kinds of cloth, nor implements of steel or iron. When we showed them our weapons, they expressed no admiration, and only asked how they were made. The same indifference was manifested when they were given the looking-glasses, which they with smiles returned to us as soon as they had looked at them. They are very generous, giving away whatever they have.
"We formed a great friendship with them, and one day we entered into port with our ship, having before rode at the distance of a league from the shore, as the weather was un- favorable. They came to the ship with a number of their little boats, with their faces painted with different colors, manifesting real signs of joy, bringing us of their provisions,
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
and signifying to us where we could best ride in safety with our ship, and keeping with us until we had cast anchor.
" We remained among them fifteen days to provide our- selves with many things of which we were in want, during which time they came every day to see our ship, bringing with them their wives, of whom they were very careful, for, although they came on board themselves, and remained a long while, they made their wives stay in the boats, nor could we ever get them on board by any solicitations or any presents we could make them. One of the two kings, how- ever, often came with his queen and many attendants to see us for his amusement. But he always stopped on land at the distance of about two hundred paces from us, and sent a boat to announce his intended visit, saying they would come and see our ship. This was done for safety, and as soon as they had received our answer they came and remained some time to look around. On hearing the annoying cries of the sailors, the king sent the queen, with her attendants, in a very light boat to wait near an island, a quarter of a league distant, while he remained a long time on board, talking with us by signs, and expressing his fanciful notions about everything in the ship and asking the use of all. After imi- tating our modes of salutation, and tasting our food, he cour- teously took leave of us. Once, when our men remained two or three days on a small island near the ship for their various necessities, as sailors are wont to do, he came with seven or eight of his attendants to inquire about our move- ments, often asking us if we intended to remain there long, and offering us everything at his command. Sometimes he would shoot with his bow, and run up and down with his people, making great sport for us. We often went five or six leagues into the interior, and found the country as pleas- ant as can be conceived, adapted to cultivation of every kind, whether of corn, wine, or oil .. There are open plains twenty- five and thirty leagues in length, entirely free from trees or other obstructions, and so fertile that whatever is sown there will yield an excellent crop. On entering the woods we ob-
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INDIAN DWELLINGS.
served that they might all be traversed by any large army. The trees in them were oaks, cypresses, and others unknown in Europe. We found, also, apples, plums, filberts, and many other fruits, but of a different kind from ours. The animals, which are in great numbers, stags, deer, lynx, and many other kinds, are taken with snares and by bows ; the latter is the principal weapon of the natives. Their arrows are beautifully made. For points they use emery, jasper, hard marble, and other sharp stones instead of iron. They also use the same kind of sharp stones in cutting down trees, and with them construct their boats of single logs, hollowed out with admirable skill, and sufficiently commodious to seat ten or twelve persons. Their oars are short, with broad blades, and are rowed by the force of the arms, with the greatest care and as rapidly as they wish.
"We saw their dwellings, which are circular in form, about ten or twelve paces in circumference, made of logs split in half, without any regularity of architecture, and cov- ered with roofs of straw, nicely put on, which protect them from wind and rain. There is no doubt that they would build stately edifices if they had workmen as skillful as ours, for the whole sea-coast abounds with shining stones, crys- tals, and alabaster, and on this account it has dens and re- treats for animals. They change their habitations from place to place, as circumstances of situation and season may require. This is easily done, for they have only to take with them their mats, and they have other houses immedi- ately prepared.
"The father and the whole family dwell together in one house. In some of their houses we saw twenty-five or thirty persons. Their food is pulse, as that of the other people, which is here better than elsewhere, and more carefully cul- tivated. In the time of sowing they are governed by the moon, which they think effects the sprouting of the grain. They have many other ancient customs. They live by hunt- ing and fishing, and they are long lived. If they fall sick they cure themselves without medicine, with the heat of
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fire. Death comes to them at last from extreme old age. We judged them to be very affectionate and charitable toward their relatives, for they make loud lamentations in their adversity, and in their misery call to remembrance all their good deeds. When they die their relations mutually join in weeping mingled with singing for a long while. That is all that we could learn of them.
"This region is situated on the parallel of Rome, in 41 2-3 degrees, as I shall narrate hereafter to your serene majesty. At present I shall describe the situation of this place. At its south end its channel is narrow and a half league wide. It extends, between east (south?), and north, twelve leagues. Then it enlarges and forms a very spacious bay twenty leagues in circuit, in which are five small islands, very fertile and attractive, and covered with high trees. The bay is so spacious that between these islands any number of vessels might ride at ease without fear of tempests and other dangers. At the entrance of the bay, farther south, there are very attractive hills on both sides of the channel, and many streams of clear water flow from these eminences into the sea. In the middle of the mouth there is a rock of free- stone (uno scoglio di viva pietra), formed by nature and suitable for the construction of any kind of machine or bul- wark for the defence of the haven."
Verrazzano's description of Narragansett Bay, named Port du Refugio on Gastaldi's map of 1553, is so accurate that without any other information it would be easy to determine the situation of the place where for fifteen days, ending the sixth of May, he and his crew held familiar intercourse with the friendly Indians, inhabiting the islands and the main- land in the vicinity of the anchorage of the Dauphine. The latitude of the bay given by Verrazzano cannot be gainsaid, but he has left us no record as to where he landed, and it is wholly a matter of conjecture whether he trod our soil or not. . That he made a survey of our bay, islands, and the main, is all that can be affirmed.
Verrazzano sailed from Port du Refugio, probably New-
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INDIAN RELIGION.
port, on the sixth of May, in a southeasterly course, past the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, where he found the coast to trend toward the north, which he followed until he cast anchor off the shores of Maine, in the forty- third parallel. The natives here did not please the discov- erers as did those of Narragansett Bay, whom he said, "we had found kind and gentle." "They, the Maine Indians, were so rude and barbarous that we were unable by any signs we could make, to hold any communication with them. No regard was paid to our courtesies. When we had noth- ing left to exchange with them, the men, at our departure, made the most brutal signs of disdain and contempt possible. Against their will, we penetrated two or three leagues into the interior with twenty-five men. When we came to the shore, they shot at us with their arrows, uttering the most horrible cries and afterwards fleeing to the woods."
Concluding his account of the new country and its people, Verrazzano remarks. "As to the religious faith of all these tribes, not understanding their language, we could not learn either by signs or gestures, anything certain. It seemed to us that they had no religion, nor laws, nor any knowledge of a first Cause or Mover, -that they worshipped neither the heavens, stars, sun, moon, nor the planets. We could not learn if they were given to any kind of idolatry, or offered any sacrifices or supplications, or if they have temples or houses of prayer in their villages ; our conclusion was that they had no religion, but lived without any. This seems to be the result of ignorance, for they are very easily persuaded, and imitated us with earnestness and fervor, in all that they saw us do as Christians in our acts of devotion."
CHAPTER IV
THE WAMPANOAGS
The Pilgrims find a deserted Indian Country - Visit of Samoset - Visit of Massassoit - Treaty between Pilgrims and Massassoit - The Pokanokets - Pokanoket - The Wampanoags -Villages - Modes of Life - Rumstick - Massassoit - Other Sagamores - Agriculture - Hunting and Fishing - Homes and Customs.
O N the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1620, most fortunately they found their lot cast within the limits of a deserted Indian country. Of the name of the tribe which inhabited that section, its history, or the cause of its depart- ure, they knew absolutely nothing. Three months after landing, on the 16th of March, 1621, an Indian named Sam- oset came among the settlers and addressed them in English with "Welcome, English ! Welcome, English !" He in- formed them that the Indian name of the place was Patuxet, and that the tribe which had occupied the lands had been ·swept off by a plague, so severe that it spared neither man, woman nor child, and there were none who could claim the lands or rightfully molest them. Samoset also informed the whites that the territory to the west was known as Pokano- ket, inhabited by a family of tribes, known as the Pokano- kets ; that these associated tribes were the Wampanoags of the west, the tribe of Massassoit, who was then chief sachem of the Pokanokets; the Pocassetts, the Saconets, the Nemas- kets, the Nausites, the Mattachees, the Monamoys, the Sau- katuckets, and the Nobsquassetts, to which, to complete the family, should be added the Patuxets of Plymouth, which had been destroyed by the plague. "These people," says Gen. Gookin, " were sorely smitten by the hand of God, but what the disease was that so generally and mortally swept
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VISIT OF MASSASSOIT.
away, not only these but other Indians, their neighbors, I cannot well learn. I have discoursed with some old Indians, that were then youths, who say that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow, (describing it by a yellow garment they showed me), both before they died and afterwards."
On the following day, March 17, 1621, they dismissed Samoset, the sagamore of a tribe "lying hence a day's sail by a great wind and five days by land," giving him presents and requesting him "to return with some of Massassoit's men with beaver skins for traffic." On the 22d of March, Samoset returned, accompanied by Squanto, the sole remain- ing native of Patuxet, who informed Gov. Carver that the great sachem, Massassoit, and sixty of his warriors were near " from their place called Sowams, about 40 miles off to the westward." Edward Winslow and Miles Standish re- ceived Massassoit, with all the honors due to royalty, in the common house at Plymouth, and, after a feast, the governor proposed the following treaty which was agreed to by the chief :
I. "That neither he, nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of their people.
2. That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the offender that they might punish him.
3. That if anything were taken away from any of theirs he should cause it to be restored ; and that they should do the like to his.
4. That if any did unjustly war against him, they would aid him ; and if any did war against them, he should aid them.
5. That he should send to his neighbor confederates, to inform them of this, that they might not wrong them, but might likewise be comprised in the conditions of peace.
6. That when his men came to them upon any occasion, they should leave their bows and arrows behind them.
7. That so doing, their sovereign lord, King James, would esteem him as his friend and ally."
This was the first interview between the Indians, the lords
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of the soil, and the English at New Plymouth, resulting in the interchange of friendly salutations, and the ratification of a treaty which was faithfully observed for over half a cen- tury by both parties. Massassoit acknowledged "himself content' to become the subject of our sovereign lord the King aforesaid, his heirs and successors ; and give unto them all the lands adjacent, to them and their heirs for- ever."
This treaty of peace and trade was equally beneficial to the Pokanokets and to the settlers of Plymouth. To the former it offered the opportunity of an exchange of furs and the products of the chase for the implements of husbandry and hunting and other articles of civilized life. This friend- ship also served as a protection to the Wampanoags against their powerful neighbors, the Narragansetts, who cherished an unfriendly spirit and showed frequent signs of hostility toward the warriors of Pokanoket. It was a shield of strength also to the weak-handed, though stout-hearted Pil- grims, and when Gov. Bradford received from Canonchet the savage challenge of the rattle-snake skin filled with poisoned arrows, he returned it more boldly, filled with powder and shot, since Massassoit and his tribe had sworn to be their faithful protectors. Still further, the fertile peninsulas ex- tending into Mt. Hope and Narragansett Bays were more attractive to the sagacious eyes of Standish, Winslow, Brown, Willett, and Bradford, than the sandy deserts of Cape Cod, and as soon as comfortable homes had been raised at Plymouth Bay, the spirit of western emigration filled the hearts of these earliest pioneers to explore and settle the wilds along the Sowams, the Titicut and Paw- tucket Rivers.
The territory of the Pokanokets, of whom Massassoit was the chief sachem, originally extended, as we have stated, from Cape Cod on the east, to the Narragansett Bay on the west, and from the Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the south to the southern boundary of the Massa- chusetts, the tribe which occupied the territory to the south
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POKANOKET.
and west of Boston. The Pokanokets, who formerly num- bered about three thousand warriors, were divided into sev- eral minor tribes or villages, each under the rule of a petty chief or sachem. Their nearest neighbors were the Massa- chusetts, on the north, under Chickataubut as king, with three thousand warriors ; and the Narragansetts on the west of Narragansett Bay, who, under their grand sachem, Canonicus, mustered more than five thousand warriors.
Later, the territory was more limited, and the name Poka- noket was applied to the lands on the west of the Taunton River, over which Massassoit's local jurisdiction extended, namely, the present towns of Raynham, Norton, Attle- borough, Cumberland, Pawtucket, East Providence, Seekonk, Dighton, Rehoboth, a part of Taunton, Somerset, Swansea, Warren, Barrington, and Bristol.
In a more limited sense the word Pokanoket embraced the towns of Bristol, Warren, and Barrington, with parts of Swansea, Rehoboth, Seekonk and East Providence. The residence of the chief was also called Pokanoket or Sowams. Governor Winslow in describing his visit to Massassoit, says : "At length we came to Mattapuyst, and went to the cachimo comaco, for so they called the sachem's place, though they call an ordinary house witeo; but Conbatant, the sachem, was not at home, but at Puckanokick, which was some five miles off. The squa-sachem, for so they called the sachem's wife, gave us friendly entertainment. Here we inquired again concerning Massassoit ; they thought him dead, but knew no certainty ; whereupon I hired one to go with all expedition to Puckanokick, that we might know the certainty thereof, and withal to acquaint Conbatant with our there being."
Within the narrow limits of Pokanoket, dwelt the Wam- panoags, under Massassoit. This tribe had been reduced in numbers by the plague that had wiped out the Patuxets, an associate tribe at Plymouth. Winslow, on this first visit to Massassoit in 1621, referring to the Taunton River, says : "Upon it, (the river), are and have been many towns, it 3
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THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON.
being a good length. Thousands of men have lived there which died in a great plague, not long since."
The land of this western section of Pokanoket has a southerly slope towards the bay, somewhat hilly in the east- ern part, toward the Taunton River, but nearly level in the central and western parts. Originally it was heavily wooded with oak, walnut, cedar, and pine forests, with the exception of the borders of the several rivers, on the margins of which were unequal widths, as now, of fresh and salt meadows, with various clearings on the uplands adjoining these water courses, which afforded the Indians an opportunity to culti- vate the soil in their rude and simple style. Game of all kinds abounded in the woods and fish were plenty in the streams, and waters of the bays. An attractive country, surely, for any people, and especially so to these lords of the soil, who so easily obtained from land and sea all they thought needful for their subsistence and happiness.
As we are dealing with a nomadic people, our ideas of town and village life have little in common with those of the Wampanoags. Where the conditions of life were the most comfortable and supplies of food the easiest, there was the Indian's home. During the season of shad and aleswives at Palmer's and Taunton Rivers, the people sought these resorts. The bays could be always depended on for shell and fin fish, in summer or in winter. In winter, the bear, the deer, the fox, the wolf, the panther, the rabbit, the partridge, the quail, and other game, taken for food or cloth- ing, led them to the forests, to the north and east. We may suppose, however, that the main portion of the time of the tribe, especially of the women and children, was spent in some fixed localities on or near Narragansett Bay. Mr. W. J. Miller in his story of the Wampanoags locates two per- manent villages on Bristol territory, one at Mount Hope, and a second at Kickemuit.
As Barrington has so long a salt water boundary on the bay and navigable rivers, it is a matter of certainty that the Indians made it a favorite dwelling place, and that villages
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INDIAN VILLAGES.
of Indians dwelt at Nayatt, Chachapacassett, Chachacust, . Sowams, Wannamoisett, and Annawomscutt.
The evidences which exist, to determine the sites of their principal villages and camping places, are numerous. They are marked, not as ours, by their proximity to centres of trade, and by piles of brick and mortar, but by their nearness to the places where fish and fowl congregated, and by heaps of shells taken from the rivers. The burial grounds of the tribes were near their villages. Their implements of hus- bandry and domestic life, of war and of the chase, of fowling and of fishing, in the form of stone or iron, have been found in large numbers, in various localities, between the Titicut and Patuckquet Rivers, and the farmer's ploughshare often unwittingly disturbs the resting-place of the first proprietors of the soil. At Mattapoyset, Touisit, Montop, Kickemuit, Sowams, and Wannamoiset, vast quantities of oyster, clam, and quahaug shells, either in heaps or scattered throughout the soil, not only mark their homes, but indicate the antiq- uity of these favorite resorts. These are the last material vestiges and memorials of the brave old tribe of the Wampa- noags. While time is consuming these, would it not be fitting to restore and preserve the historic and ofttimes eu- phonious titles of the localities, from which they have been removed, by the extinction of the tribes themselves ?1
The Wampanoags have left us several Indian names of localities which we do well to locate carefully and preserve. Which brief reference has already been made to the whole, a fuller description is of importance in this chapter.
Sowams or Sowamset was the territory of Barrington with parts of East Providence, Seekonk, and Swansea. For a full discussion of this locality, the reader is referred to Sowams and Barrington.
Sowams River. - Both branches of Warren River, the Barrington and Palmers. 1565705
1 The Barrington Historical Society has already made a valuable collection of Indian instruments and wares, and to it the people will add their individual relics, as a safe method of preservation, for the benefit of the public.
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