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It is obvious to remark, how much more satisfactory this course must have been to him, than the more violent mode of doing themselves justice, would have been, which was pursued by many English authorities on most occasions of a similar description. It was dealing with him, as they wished to be dealt with; which policy, whether under the circumstances required by strict justice or not, was unquestionably best calculated to effect the end proposed in each particular case, as well as to secure the general affection and respect of the Indians. It may be remarked here, without impropriety, that the conduct of the Massachusetts Government towards Chickatabot is no more than a just specimen of the course they usually pursued towards his countrymen. The exceptions are few and far between.

It is specially worthy of notice, that Chickatabot was never called to account for the part which he took in the combination of the Indians against Master Weston's infamous settlement at Weymouth, of which we shall presently have occasion to make further mention. And yet, there was not only some reason for suspecting him, on account of his vicinity to the residence of the chief ringleaders; but it appears clearly, that he was known to be engaged, and that to such an extent, as to be considered by some the instigator and manager of the whole business. Witness, for example, the following extract from a letter written by Governor Dudley to the Countess of Lincoln, in England, and bearing date at Boston, March 12th, 1630:

"There was about the same time, one Mr. Weston, an English merchant, who sent divers men to plant and trade who sate down by the river of Wesaguscus; but these coming not for so good ends as those of Plymouth, sped not so well; for the most of them dying and languishing away, they who survived were

which the common sort most quietly submit." KEY TO Tax IN LANGUAGES

rescued by those of Plymouth out of the hands of CHICK ATALBOTT, and his Indians, who oppressed those weak English, and intended to have destroyed them,"* &c. The writer then goes on to mention a settlement soon after attempted near the same place by one Wollaston, and a company of some thirty men, whose history may be profitably noticed very briefly, for the purpose of comparing the Plymouth with the Massachusetts policy.

One of the Wollaston crew, mentioned by Prince, in 1625, as having been a kind of pettifogger in England, was Thomas Morton. This person became a notable disturber of the peace; cheating the Indians in trade, and spending the profits with his companions in rioting; drinking, as the annalist just cited specifies, "ten pound worth of wine and spirits in the morning," besides setting up a may-pole for the Indian women to drink and dance about, "with worser practices."

But although Thomas changed the name of Wollaston to Merry Mount, his jollity was not to last forever. Mr. Endecott, of the Massachusetts Company, who landed at Salem in the summer of 1628, visited Master Morton within two months from his arrival, and changing Merry Mount to Mount Dagon, took active measures for correcting that riotous settlement. These were not entirely successful, and even when Morton was at length arrested and sent to England for punishment, he was not only liberated, but sent back again: 'upon which," as Prince writes, "he goes to his old nest at Merry Mount." This was in 1629. In the summer of the next year, the Massachusetts colonists came over with Winthrop and Dudley; and as early as September of that season, we find the following order taken upon Master Morton's case by the Court of Assistants :—

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"Ordered, that Master Thomas Morton of Mount Wollaston shall presently be set in the bilbows, and

*Mass. His. Coll. † Prince's Annals, 1625.

after sent prisoner to England by the ship called the Gift; that all his goods be seized to defray the charge of his transportation, payments of his debts, and to give satisfaction to the Indians for a canoe he took unjustly from them; and that his house be burnt down to the ground in sight of the Indians, for their satisfaction for many wrongs he has done them."

If this summary course had been taken with Weston and his banditti, there might have been, as we shall see, the saving of the lives of many innocent men. If it could not be taken by the English, who were appealed to, some allowance at least might have been made for those who were finally compelled to assume the administration of justice.

In the case of Chickatabot, though not in all, such allowance was made. It also appears, that no evil consequences arose from this policy, but much the reverse. The sachem was uniformly the more ready to give all the satisfaction in his power, and no doubt partly because it was rather requested of him than required. When the Indians were said to be plotting against the English in 1632, and much apprehension was excited in consequence," the three next Sagamores were sent for," says Winthrop, "who came presently to the Governor," and this is the last we hear of the matter. Chickatabot must have been one of them, and he explained away the causes of suspicions at once. Pursuing this course, the Massachusetts Government continued upon good terms with him until his death, which was occasioned by the prevalent epidemic, in the latter part of 1633.

His descendants, to the third generation at least, several of whom were persons of note, followed his own peaceful and friendly example. Among the Suffolk records, there is still to be seen, a quitclaim deed from his grandson JOSIAS,-of Boston, the islands in the harbor, &c. "to the proprietated inhabitants of Boston."

CHAPTER II.

Farther account of Master Weston's settlement, and the movements of the Indians against him-ASPINET, the Nauset, supposed to be engaged in that affair-His tribe and power-Provocations from the EnglishMagnanimous revenge of the Sachem-His hospitality and kindness-Friendly intercourse with PlymouthIs visited by governor Bradford-By captain Standish -Is suspected of hostility by Plymouth, and pursued by Standish-His death-Career and character of IrANOUGH, the 'Courteous Sachem of Cummaquid'-Is suspected and pursued-His death.

Having necessarily, in the course of justice to some individuals heretofore noticed, animadverted on the early Indian policy of Plymouth, we shall devote this chapter to the further consideration of certain facts bearing upon that subject, and especially as connected with the case of Weston. These facts cannot be better set forth, than they are in the lives of two among the most remarkable natives who held intercourse with the Government in question.

One of them was ASPINET, the first open enemy, as the Pokanoket Sachem was the first ally, whom the Plymouth settlement had the fortune to meet with. He ruled over a number of petty tribes, settled in various parts of what is now the county of Barnstable, all of whom are said to have been ultimately subject, or at least subsidiary, to Massasoit. The principal among them were the Nausets, at Namskeket,* within the present limits of Orleans, and round about

*A spot chosen with the usual sagacity of the Indians, and which at some period probably subsisted a large population with its immense stores of the sickishuog, or clam. A thousand barrels annually are said to have been taken there in modern times, merely for fish-bait Mass. His. Coll.

the cove which separates that town from Eastham With this tribe Aspinet had his residence.

Aspinet, we have observed, was the first open enemy of the colonists; and it will be admitted, that his hostility was not without cause. Of the twenty-four Indians kidnapped by Hunt, in 1614, twenty belonged to Patuxet, (or Plymouth,) and the residue were the subjects of the Nauset chieftain. When the Pilgrims came over, six years after this abominable outrage, it happened, that upon landing in the harbor of Cape Cod, before reaching Plymouth, they sent out a small party in a shallop, to discover a proper place for a settlement. These men went ashore a little north of the Great-Pond, in Eastham, and there they were suddenly attacked by the Nausets. The assailants were repulsed, but the English retreated in great haste.

Unquestionably, these men acted in obedience to the orders of Aspinet, instigated, as he must have been, by the remembrance of Hunt's perfidy. Winslow, in his Relation, gives an affecting incident which occurred subsequently at this place, going to illustrate, very forcibly, the effect of such atrocious conduct on the disposition of the natives. "One thing," he says, 66 was grievous unto us at this place. There was an old woman, whom we judged to be no less than a hundred years old, which came to see us, because she never saw English; yet could not behold us without breaking forth into great passion, weeping and crying excessively. We demanding the reason of it; they told us she had three sons, who, when Master Hunt was in these parts, went aboard his ship to trade with him, and he carried them captives into Spain, by which means she was deprived of the comfort of her children in her old age!" The English made what explanation they could of the affair, and gave her a few "small trifles, which somewhat appeased her."

The expedition alluded to in this case, which took place in the summer of 1621, was occasioned by the absence of an English boy, who had strayed away

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