182 PRAYING INDIANS.-HIACOOMES. [Book IL aesit; but by former appointment, calleth here, together with some others." Captain Tom was among Tukapewillin's company, that went off with the enemy, as in speaking of him we have made mention. In that company there were about 200, men, women and children. The enemy, being about 300 strong, obliged the praying Indians to go off with, or be killed by them. There were, however, many who doubtless preferred their company to that of their friends on Deer Island. This was about the beginning of December, 1675. Captain Tom afterwards fell into the hands of the English, and, being tried and condemned as a rebel, was, on 26 June, 1676, executed at Boston; much to the grief of such excellent men as Gookin and Eliot. Although something had been done towards Christianizing the Indians in Plimouth colony, about a year before Mr. Eliot's first visit to Nonantum, yet for some years after, Massachusetts was considerably in advance in this respect. Some of the principal congregations or praying towns follow :— At Meeshawn, since Provincetown or Truro, and Punonakanit, since Billingsgate, were 72 persons; at Potanumaquut, or Nauset, in Eastham, 44; at Monamoyik, since Chatham, 71; at Sawkattukett, in Harwich; Nobsqassit, in Yarmouth; at Matakees, in Barnstable and Yarmouth; and Weequakut, in Barnstable, 122; at Satuit, Pawpoesit, Coatuit, in Barnstable, Mashpee, Wakoquet, near Mashpee, 95; at Codtanmut, in Mashpee, Ashimuit, on the west line of Mashpee, Weesquobs, in Sandwich, 22; Pispogutt, Wawayoutat, in Wareham, Sokones, in Falmouth, 36. In all these places were 462 souls; 142 of whom could read, and 72 write Indian, and 9 could read English. This account was furnished Major Gookin in 1674, by the Rev. Richard Bourne of Sandwich. Philip's war broke up many of these communities, but the work continued long after it dwindled to almost nothing in Massachusetts. In 1685 there were 1439 considered as Christian Indians in Plimouth colony. Mr. Thomas Mayhew Jr. settled in Martha's Vineyard, called by the Indians Nope, in 1642. He was accompanied by a few English families, who made him their minister; but not being satisfied with so limited usefulness, he learned the Indian language, and began to preach to them. His first convert was Hiacoomes, in 1643, a man of small repute among his own people, whose residence was at Great Harbor, near where the English first settled. He was regularly ordained 22 August, 1670, but he began to preach in 1646. John Tokinosh was at the same time ordained teacher. His residence was at Numpang, on the east end of the island. He died 22 January, 1684, and Hiacoomes preached his funeral sermon. For some years before his death Hiacoomes was nable to preach. He was supposed to have been about 80 years old at the time of his death, which happened about 1690. Pahkehpunnassoo, sachein of Chappequiddik, was a great opposer of the gospel, and at one time beat Hiacoomes for professing a belief of it. Not long after, as himself and another were at work upon a chimney of their cabin, they were both knocked down by lightning, and the latter killed. Pahkehpunnassoo fell partly in the fire, and but for his friends would have perished. Whether this escape awakened him, is not mentioned; but he soon after became a Christian, and Mr. Mayhew aptly observes that "at last he was a brand plucked out of the fire." Miohqsoo, or Myoxeo, was another noted Indian of Nope. He was a convert of Hiacoomes, whom he had sent for to inquire of him about his God. He asked Hiacoomes how many gods he had, and on being told but ONE, immediately reckoned up 37 of his, and desired to know whether he should throw them all away for one. On being told by Hiacoomes that he had thrown away all those and many more, and was better off by so doing, Miohqsoo said, he would forthwith throw away his, which he did, and became one of the most eminent of the Indian converts. One of his children, a son, sailed for England in 1657, with Mr. Thomas Mayhew Jr., in a ship commanded by Captain James Garrett, and was never heard of after. The time of the death of Miohqsoo is unknown, but he lived to a great age. Among the Mohegans and Narragansets nothing of any account was effected, in the way of Christianizing them, for a long time. The chief sachems of those nations were determined and fixed against it, and though it was from time to time urged upon them, yet very little was ever done. SAMPSON OCCUм, or, as his name is spelt in a sermon* of his, Occon, was a Mohegan, of the family of Benoni Occum, who resided near New London, in Connecticut. He was the first of that tribe who was conspicuous in religion, if not the only one. He was born in 1723, and becoming attached to the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, the minister of Lebanon in Connecticut, in 1741 he became a Christian. Possessing talents and great piety, Mr. Wheelock entertained sanguine hopes that he would be able to effect much among his countrymen as a preacher of the gospel. He went to England in 1765 to procure aid for the keeping up of a school for the instruction of Indian children, which was begun by Mr. Wheelock, and furthered by a Mr. Moore, by a donation of a school house and land, about 1763. While in England he was introduced to Lord Dartmouth, and other eminent persons. He preached there to crowds of people, and returned to America in September, 1768, having landed at Boston on his return. It is said he was the first Indian that preached in England. He was ordained, in 1759, a preacher to the Montauks on L. Island. About this time he visited the Cherokees. He finally settled among the Oneida Indians, with many of his Mohegan brethren, about 1768; they having been invited by the Oneidas. He died in July, 1792, at N. Stockbridge, N. York, aged 69. Tituba is noticed in the annals of New England, from her participation in the witch tragedies acted here in 1691. In a valuable work giving a history of that horrible delusion, § mention is thus made of her. "It was the latter end of February, 1691, when divers young persons belonging to [Rev.] Mr. Parris' || family, and one more of the neighborhood, began to act after a strange and unusual manner, viz., as by getting into holes, and creeping under chairs and stools, and to use other sundry odd postures, and antic gestures, uttering foolish, ridiculous speeches, which neither they themselves nor any others could make sense of." "March the 11th, Mr. Parris invited several neighboring ministers to join with him in keeping a solemn day of prayer at his own house; the time of the exercise those persons were, for the most part, silent, out after any one prayer was ended, they would act and speak strangely, and ridiculously, yet were such as had been well educated and of good behavior, the one a girl of 11 or 12 years old, would sometimes seem to be in a convulsion fit, her limbs being twisted several ways, and very stiff, but presently her fit would be over. A few days before this solemn day of prayer, Mr. Parris' Indian man and woman, made a cake of rye meal, with the children's water, and baked it in the ashes, and, as it is said, gave to the dog; this was done as a means to discover witchcraft. Soon after which those ill-affected or afflicted persons named several that they said they saw, when in their fits, afflicting of them. The first complained of, was the said Indian woman, named Tituba. She confessed that the devil urged her to sign a book, which he presented to her, and also to work mischief to the children, &c. She was afterwards committed to prison, and lay there till sold for her fees. The account she since gives of it is, that her master did beat her, and otherwise abuse her, to make her confess and accuse (such as he called) her sister witches; and that whatsoever she said by way of confessing or accusing others, was the effect of such usage; her master refused to pay her fees, unless she would stand to what she had said." We are able to add to our information of Tituba from another old and curious work,¶ as follows:-That when she was examined she "confessed the making a cake, as is above mentioned, and said her mistress in her own country was a witch, and had taught her some means to be used for the discovery of a witch and for the prevention of being bewitched, &c., but said "that she herself was not a witch." The children who accused her said "that she did pinch, prick, and grievously torment them; and that they saw her here At the execution of Moses Paul, for murder, at New Haven, 2 September, 1772. To his letter to Mr. Keen, his name is Occum. His Letter to Mr. Keen, in Life Wheelock, 175. + Life Dr. Wheelock, 16. Wonders of the Invisible World, by R. Calef, 90, 91, 4to. London, 1700. "Samuel Paris, pastor of the church in Salem-village." Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, by John Hale, pastor of the church in Beverly, p. 23, 16mo. Boston, 1702. ¶ Modest Enquiry, &c. 25. 184 TITUBA-WITCHCRAFT. [BOOK IL and there, where nobody else could. Yea, they could tell where she was, and what she did, when out of their human sight." Whether the author was a witness to this he does not say; but probably he was not. Go through the whole of our early writers, and you will scarce find one who witnessed such matters: (Dr. Cotton Mather is nearest to an exception.) But they generally preface such marvellous accounts by observing, "I am slow to believe rumors of this nature, nevertheless, some things I have had certain information of."* The Rev. Mr. Felt gives the following extract from the "Quarterly Court Papers." "March 1st. Sarah Osborn, Sarah and Dorothy Good, Tituba, servant of Mr. Parris, Martha Cory, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Cloyce, John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth, all of Salem village, are committed to Boston jail on charge of witchcraft." The other servant of Mr. Parris was the husband of Tituba, whose name was John. It was a charge against them that they had tried means to discover witches. But there is little probability that these ignorant and simple Indians would ever have thought of "trying a project" for the detection of witches, had they not learned it from some more miserably superstitious white persons. We have the very record to justify this stricture. Take the words. "Mary Sibly having confessed, that she innocently counselled John, the Indian, to attempt a discovery of witches, is permitted to commune with Mr. Parris' church. She had been previously disciplined for such counsel and appeared well." We are not told who disciplined her for the examination. Was it Mr. Parris ? This is the only instance I have met with of Indians being implicated in white witchcraft. * I. Mather's Brief Hist. Philip's War, 34. † In his valuable Annals of Salem, 303. Danvers Records, published by the author last cited. END OF BOOK SECOND. |