when they had found a tree to their purpose, to fell it they made a fire at the root, and kept burning it and cutting it with their stone axe, until it fell: then they kindled a fire at such a distance from the butt as they chose, and burned it off again. By burning and working with their axe, and scraping with sharp stones and shells, they made it hollow and smooth. In the same manner they shaped the ends, and finished it to their wishes.

They constructed nets, twenty and thirty feet in length, for fishing; especially for the purpose of catching sturgeon: these were wrought with cords of Indian hemp, twisted by the hands of the women. They had also hooks, made of flexible bones, which they used for fishing.

With respect to religion and morals, the Indians in New-England were in the most deplorable condition. They believed that there was a great SPIRIT, or GOD, whom they called KITCHTAN. They imagined that he dwelt far away in the southwest, and that he was a good GOD. But they worshipped a great variety of gods. They paid homage to the fire and water, thunder and lightning, and to whatever they imagined to be superior to themselves, or capable of doing them an injury. They paid their principal homage to Hobbamocko. They imagined that he was an evil spirit and did them mischief; and so, from fear, they worshipped him, to keep him in good humour. They appeared to have no idea of a sabbath, and not to regard any particular day more than another. But in times of uncommon distress, by reason of pestilence, war, or famine, and upon occasion of great victories and triumph, and after the ingathering of the fruits, they assembled in great numbers, for the celebration of their superstitious rites. The whole country, men, women and children, came together upon these solemnities. The manner of their devotion was, to kindle large fires in their wigwams, or more commonly in the open fields, and to sing and dance round them in a wild and violent manner. Sometimes they would all shout aloud, with the most antic and hideous notes. They made rattles of shells, which they shook, in a wild and violent manner, to fill up the confused noise. After the English settled in Connecticut, and they could purchase kettles of brass, they used to strain skins over them, and beat upon them, to augment their wretched music. They often continued these wild and tumultuous exercises incessantly, for four or five hours, until they were worn down and spent with fatigue. Their priests, or powaws, led in these exercises. They were dressed in the most odd and surprising manner, with skins of odious and frightful creatures about their heads, faces, arms, and bodies. They painted themselves in the most ugly forms which could be devised. They sometimes sang, and then broke forth into strong invocations, with starts, 1 Magnalia, b. iii. p. 192. * Ibid.

and strange motions and passions. When these paused, the other Indians groaned, making wild and doleful sounds. At these times, they sacrificed their skins, Indian money, and the best of their treasures. These were taken by the powaws, and all cast into the fires and consumed together. After the English came into the country, and they had hatchets and kettles, they sacrificed these in the same manner. The English were also persuaded, that they, sometimes, sacrificed their children, as well as their most valuable commodities. No Indians in Connecticut were more noted for these superstitions than those of Wopowage and Machemoodus. Milford people observing an Indian child, nearly at one of these times of their devotion, dressed in an extraordinary manner, with all kinds of Indian finery, had the curiosity to inquire what could be the reason. The Indians answered, that it was to be sacrificed, and the people supposed that it was given to the devil. The evil spirit, which the New-England Indians called Hobbamocko, the Virginia Indians called Okee. So deluded were these unhappy people, that they believed these barbarous sacrifices to be absolutely necessary. They imagined that, unless they appeased and conciliated their gods in this manner, they would neither suffer them to have peace, nor harvests, fish, venison, fat bears, nor turkeys; but would visit them with a general destruction.

With respect to morals, they were indeed miserably depraved. Mr. Williams and Mr. Callender, who, at an early period, were acquainted with the Indians in Rhode-Island, Mr. Hooker, and others, have represented them as sunk into the lowest state of moral turpitude, and as the very dregs of human nature.1 Though the character which they gave them was, in some respects, exaggerated and absurd, yet it cannot be denied, that they were worshippers of evil spirits, liars, thieves, and murderers. They certainly were insidious and revengeful, almost without a parallel; and they wallowed in all the filth of wantonness. Great pains were taken with the Narraganset and Connecticut Indians, to civilize them, and teach them christianity; but the sachems rejected the gospel with indignation and contempt. They would not suffer it to be preached to their subjects. Indeed, both made it a public interest to oppose its propagation among them. Their policy, religion, and manners, were directly opposed to its pure doctrines and morals.

The manner of their courtship and marriages manifested their impurity. When a young Indian wished for marriage, he presented the girl with whom he was enamoured, with bracelets, belts, and chains of wampum. If she received his presents, they cohabited together for a time, upon trial. If they pleased each other, they were joined in marriage; but if, after a few weeks, ' Williams' manuscripts, and Mr. Callender's sermon.

they were not suited, the man, leaving his presents, quitted the girl, and sought another mistress, and she another lover. In this manner they courted, until two met who were agreeable to each other. Before marriage the consent of the sachem was obtained, and he always joined the hands of the young pair in wedlock.

The Indians in general kept many concubines, and never thought they had too many women. This especially was the case with their sachems. They chose their concubines agreeably to their fancy, and put them away at pleasure. When a sachem grew weary of any of his women, he bestowed them upon some of his favourites, or chief men. The Indians, however, had one wife, who was the governess of the family, and whom they generally kept during life. In cases of adultery, the husband either put away the guilty wife, or satisfied himself by the infliction of some severe punishment. Husbands and wives, parents and children, lived together in the same wigwams, without any different apartment, and made no great privacy of such actions as the chaster animals keep from open view.

The Indian government, generally, was absolute monarchy. The will of the sachem was his law. The lives and interests of his subjects were at his disposal. But in all-important affairs, he consulted his counsellors. When they had given their opinions, they deferred the decision of every matter to him. Whatever his determinations were, they applauded his wisdom, and without hesitation obeyed his commands. In council, the deportment of the sachems was grave and majestic to admiration. They appeared to be men of great discernment and policy. Their speeches were cautious and politic. The conduct of their counsellors and servants was profoundly respectful and submissive.

The counsellors of the Indian kings in New-England, were termed the paniese. These were not only the wisest, but largest and bravest men to be found among their subjects. They were the immediate guard of their respective sachems, who made neither war nor peace, nor attempted any weighty affair, without their advice. In war, and all great enterprises, dangers, and sufferings, these discovered a boldness and firmness of mind exceeding all the other warriors.

To preserve this order among the Indians, great pains were taken. The stoutest and most promising boys were chosen, and trained up with peculiar care, in the observation of certain Indian rites and customs. They were kept from all delicious meats, trained to coarse fare, and made to drink the juice of bitter herbs, until it occasioned violent vomitings. They were beaten over their legs and shins with sticks, and made to run through brambles and thickets, to make them hardy, and, as the Indians said, to render them more acceptable to Hobbamocko.

1 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 461, 462.

'Neal's Hist. N. E. p. 38, 39.

These paniese, or ministers of state, were in league with the priests, or powaws. To keep the people in awe, they pretended, as well as the priests, to have converse with the invisible world, and that Hobbamocko often appeared to them.

Among the Connecticut Indians, and among all the Indians in New-England, the crown was hereditary, always descending to the eldest son. When there was no male issue, the crown descended to the female. The blood royal was held in such veneration, that no one was considered as heir to the crown, but such as were royally descended on both sides. When a female acceded to the crown, she was called the sunk squaw, or queen squaw. There were many petty sachems, tributary to other princes, on whom they were dependent for protection, and without whose consent they made neither peace, war, nor alliances with other nations.

The revenues of the crown consisted in the contributions of the people. They carried corn, and the first fruits of their harvest. of all kinds, beans, squashes, roots, berries, and nuts, and presented them to their sachem. They made him presents of flesh, fish, fowl, moose, bear, deer, beaver and other skins. One of the paniese was commonly appointed to receive the tribute. When the Indians brought it, he gave notice to his sachem, who went out to them, and by good words and some small gifts, expressed his gratitude. By these contributions, his table was supplied; so that he kept open house for all strangers and travellers. Besides, the prince claimed an absolute sovereignty over the seas within his dominion. Whatever was stranded on the coast, all wrecks and whales floating on the sea, and taken, were his.1 In war, the spoils of the enemy, and all the women and royalties of the prince conquered, belonged to him who made the conquest.

The sachem was not only examiner, judge, and executioner, in all criminal cases, but in all matters of justice between one man and another. In cases of dishonesty, the Indians proportioned the punishment to the number of times in which the delinquent had been found guilty. For the first offence, he was reproached for his villainy in the most disgraceful manner; for the second, he was beaten with a cudgel upon his naked back. If he still persisted in his dishonest practices, and was found guilty a third time, he was sure, besides a sound drubbing, to have his nose slit, that all men might know and avoid him. Murder was, in all cases, punished with death. The sachem whipped the delinquent, and slit his nose, in cases which required these punishments; and he killed the murderer, unless he were at a great distance. In this case, in which execution could not be done with his own hands, he sent his knife, by which it was effected. The Indians would not receive any punishment which was not capital, from the hands 1 1 Magnalia, B. VI. p. 51.

of any except their sachems. They would neither be beaten, whipped, nor slit by an officer: but their prince might inflict these punishments to the greatest extremity, and they would neither run, cry, nor flinch. Indeed, neither the crimes nor the punishments are esteemed so infamous, among the Indians, as to groan or shrink under suffering. The sachems were so absolute in their government, that they contemned the limited authority of the English governors.

The Indians had no kind of coin; but they had a sort of money, which they called wampum, or wampumpeag. It consisted of small beads, most curiously wrought out of shells, and perforated in the centre, so that they might be strung on belts, in chains and bracelets. These were of several sorts. The Indians in Connecticut, and in New-England in general, made black, blue and white wampum. Six of the white beads passed for a penny, and three of the black or blue ones for the same. The five nations made another sort, which were of a purple colour. The white beads. were wrought out of the inside of the great conchs, and the purple out of the inside of the muscle shell. They were made perfectly smooth, and the perforation was done in the neatest manner. Indeed, considering that the Indians had neither knife, drill, nor any steel or iron instrument, the workmanship was admirable. After the English settled in Connecticut, the Indians strung these beads on belts of cloth, in a very curious manner. The squaws made caps of cloth, rising to a peak over the top of the head, and the fore part was beautified with wampum, curiously wrought upon them. The six nations now weave and string them in broad belts, which they give in their treaties, as a confirmation of their speeches and the seals of their friendship.1

The Indians of Connecticut and New-England, although consisting of a great number of different nations and clans, appear all to have spoken radically the same language. From Piscataqua to Connecticut, it was so nearly the same, that the different tribes could converse tolerably together." The Moheagan or Pequot language was essentially that of all the Indians in New-England, and of a great part of the Indians in the United States. The word Moheagans, is a corruption of Muhhekaneew, in the singular, or of Muhhekaneok in the plural number. Not only the natives of New-England, but the Penobscots, bordering on Nova-Scotia, the Indians of St. Francis, in Canada, the Delawares, in Pennsylvania, the Shawanese, on the Ohio, and the Chippewaus, at the westward of lake Huron, all spoke the same radical language. The same appears evident also with respect to the Ottowaus, Nanticooks, Munsees, Menomonees, Missifaugas, Saukies, Otta

1 Colden's history, vol. i. p. 3, 4, 71, 72.

2 Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 479.

3 Dr. Edwards' observations on the language of the Muhhekaneew Indians.