2

plants and insects. The quail and the red-breasted thrush (commonly known as the robin) make their nests in the uplands. The woodcock and the ruffed-grouse, or partridge, hide in the copses. Various species of the plover and of other birds of passage haunt the meadows and the marshes. The wild turkey, now rarely seen, throve on berries in the woods.1 Of all the feathered tribes, the tiny humming-bird of New England displays the most delicate beauty; few are more gorgeous than the oriole, or golden robin, which comes from the Chesapeake to pass its summer in this region; the bluebird, the goldenwinged woodpecker, the rose-breasted grosbeak, are among the birds conspicuous for their brilliant plumage. The oriole asserts equally his eminence in music. The hermitthrush, or mavis, charms the woods at nightfall. The song-sparrow pours out its joyous melody all day long. The American starling, or meadow-lark, is pronounced by Wilson to be "far superior to the skylark in sweetness of voice, though not equal to it in compass and power." From its close retreat the whippoorwill sends to a long distance its wild and plaintive song. The hawk and horned owl are formidable to poultry-yards. The blue-jay, the crow, and the blackbird annoy the husbandman by their inroads upon the just planted and just ripening grain, which they have defended against more destructive enemies.

Insects.

The moist heat of the region favors an exuberance of some kinds of insect life. The short summer campaign of the canker-worm leaves devastation behind in the orchards and on the most prized of the ornamental trees within the narrow limits which it infests; cut-worms and other caterpillars ravage the grain-fields; borers and other beetles deform the gardens. To the higher animals the insects are for the most part harmless, though during the heats of summer, especially at the

1 Higginson, New England's Plantation, in Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 121.

Reptiles.

close of the day, and in moist places, the presence of the mosquito perpetually detracts from the comfort of man; and he has to take care not to disturb the wasp and hornet, which build their nests about his dwelling. The larger kinds of reptiles native to the soil have been disappearing with the increase of population. Of those sometimes still seen are the harmless black snake, six or seven feet in length, and the rattlesnake, whose bite, popularly esteemed to be surely fatal, has in fact been known to cause death when meeting with a morbid predisposition in the patient.

Quadrupeds.

The native quadrupeds of New England, as generally of all America, are of types inferior to those of the other hemisphere. The bear, the wolf, the catamount, and the lynx or wild-cat, were the most formidable. The moose, which has disappeared except from the secluded portions of New Hampshire and Maine, was the largest, measuring five feet and a third in height, and nearly seven feet in the length of the body. The fallow deer, not quite exterminated at this day, was abundant in the woods. Of fur-bearing animals there were the beaver, the otter, the ermine, the raccoon, the musquash, the mink, the sable, and the martin, besides the fox and the squirrel, and others less prized.

In such a territory and amid such circumstances dwelt, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, a few tens of thousands of men.

Observa

The nearest approximation to a knowledge of these people in their primitive condition is of course to be gained from such journals as exist of the early European voyages. These supply only superficial information. The natives, when first

2

1 Guyot, Earth and Man, 193. 2 “These records of the past, like the stern-lights of a departing ship,"

tions of the gers on the

first voya

natives.

show “the last glimmers of savage life, as it becomes absorbed, or recedes before the tide of civilization." (Ludewig's

1

seen, were observed to be "of tall stature, comely proportion, strong, active, and, as it should seem, very healthful." They were "in color swart, their hair long, their bodies painted." They had clothing of skins of the deer and the seal, with ornaments of quills, feathers, and plates of copper, and collars and ear-rings of that metal and of bones and marine shells. They were armed with bows and arrows. They stole at the first opportunity which offered itself, but were easily frightened into making restitution. The women and children were "clean and straight bodied, with countenance sweet and pleasant," and behavior modest and coy. The first English visitor had reason to be satisfied with his reception, when "there presented unto him men, women, and children, who with all courteous kindness entertained him, giving him certain skins of wild beasts, tobacco, turtles, hemp, artificial strings colored, chains, and such like things as at the present they had about them." But within a fortnight they shot at two of the strangers who had strayed from their company, and gave other proofs of unfriendliness.2 Their way of obtaining fire was to strike two stones together, and catch the spark upon touchwood. They had "strings and cords of flax." That they were "very witty" was thought to be indicated by "sundry toys of theirs cunningly wrought."3

These were dwellers about Massachusetts Bay and the Vineyard Sound. Observations made shortly after on the maritime country further east tended to show an identity of appearance and habits among the different tribes of New England. Some official persons (such they appeared to be) among the Indians about the Penobscot or the Kennebec affected a style of decoration more gaudy

Literature of American Aboriginal Languages, xi.)

1 Gosnold in his letter to his father, in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVIII. 71.

2 Gabriel Archer, Relation of Captain Gosnold's Voyage, Ibid., 73 73-76.

3 John Brereton, Brief and True Relation, Ibid., 88–93.

than that of their western neighbors, painting their faces "very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes of excellent blue over their upper lips, nose, and chin," and wearing "the white-feathered skins of some fowl round about their head, jewels in their ears, and bracelets of little white round bone, fastened together upon a leather string." 1

The earliest French visitor to the Massachusetts Indians did not secure among them the usual welcome to his nation,, but found occasion to report, "They are traitors and thieves, and one has need to take care of them."2 Captain John Smith saw more of them than his predecessors, and with a more discerning eye, if with some propensity towards a too favorable representation; and readers of the present day regret that in this respect he has provided so little satisfaction for their curiosity. "The country of the Massachusetts," he says, "is the paradise of all those parts." "The sea-coast, as you pass, shows you all along large cornfields, and great troops of wellproportioned people." "We found the people in those parts very kind, but in their fury no less valiant."3

In attempting some delineation of the aboriginal inhabitants of New England, it is necessary to anticipate the observations of later years, when Europeans had become established in their neighborhood. And in using such authorities, it is essential to remember that, from step to step, while the opportunities for maturing an acquaintance with the Indian character and habits were extended, the character and habits were themselves becoming modified by the presence of the strangers; while the lineaments were subjected to study, the lineaments were effaced or changed, and the fidelity of the likeness to the prototype was rendered questionable.

1 George Waymouth, True Relation, Ibid., 146.

2 L'Escarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, II. 498.

3 Smith, Description of New England, 26 (edit. 1616).

The Amer

a separate

family of mankind.

Few American animals, if indeed any one, whether inhabiting the earth, the air, or the inland waters, ican Indians can be referred to species known in the other hemisphere. Without entering into the question of an original diversity of human races, it is safe to say that superficial indications extend the rule from the inferior sorts to "the paragon of animals." Of the five families into which, according to the most current classification, physiologists distribute mankind, the NorthAmerican Esquimaux, who occupy the Arctic region as far down as the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude, are of the Mongolian type; the same which, most widely dif fused of all, covers far the greater part of Asia on the one side, and through Greenland touches the confines of Europe on the other. But leaving the region of the Esquimaux, we find the American continent from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn to be the native home of races differing indeed more or less from one another, but still with an agreement in generic characters, which distinguish them not less from the Mongolian family than from the Caucasian, the African, and the Malay. The symmetrical frame, the cinnamon color of the skin, the long, black, coarse hair, the scant beard, the high cheek-bones, the depressed and square forehead set upon a triangular conformation of the lower features, the small, deep-set, shining, snaky eyes, the protuberant lips, the broad nose, the small skull with its feeble frontal development,1 make a combination which the scientific observer of some of these marks in the skeleton, and the unlearned eye turned upon the living subject, equally recognize as unlike what is seen in other regions of the globe.

2

Of the seven groups of natives which, at the time of

1 The contents of the Caucasian cranium have an average measurement of ninety-three cubic inches; those of the cranium of the North-American Indian, but eighty-four.

2 "No other race of man maintains such a striking analogy through all its subdivisions, and amidst all its variety of physical circumstances." (Morton, Crania Americana, 63.)