46 MASCONONOMO OF AGAWAM. [BOOK II attacked them in a defile, and a great fight ensued. Finally the Mohawks were put to flight by the extraordinary bravery and prowess of Chikataubut and his captains. But what was most calamitous in this disastrous expedition, was, the loss of the great chief Chikataubut, who, after performing prodigies of valor, was killed in repelling the Mohawks in their last attack, with almost all his captains, in number about 50, as was supposed.* This was a severe stroke to these Indians, and they suffered much from chagrin on their return home. The Mohawks considered themselves their masters, and although a peace was brought about between them, by the mediation of the English and Dutch on each side, yet the Massachusetts and others often suffered from their incursions. A chief of much the same importance as Chikataubut and his sons, was Mascononomo, or Masconomo, sachem of Agawam, since called Ipswich. When the fleet which brought over the colony that settled Boston, in 1630, anchored near Cape Ann, he welcomed them to his shores, and spent some time on board one of the ships.† On the 28th June, 1638, Mascononomet + executed a deed of "all his lands in Ipswich," to John Winthrop, jr., for the sum of £20. § At a court in July, 1631, it was ordered, that "the sagamore of Agawam is banished from coming into any Englishman's house for a year, under penalty of ten beaver-skins." This was probably done in retaliation for his having committed acts of violence on the Tarratines, who soon after came out with great force against Mascononomo; he having, "as was usually said, treacherously killed some of those Tarratine familics."¶ It would seem that he expected an attack, and had therefore called to his aid some of the sachems near Boston; for it so happened that Montowampate and Wonchaquaham were at Agawam when the Tarratines made an attack, but whether by concert or accident is not clear. To the number of 100 men, in three canoes, the Tarratines came out on this enterprise, on the 8 August following. They attacked Mascononomo and his guests in his wigwam in the night, killed seven men, wounded Mascononomo himself, and Montowampate, aud Wonohaquaham, and several others who afterwards died. They took the wife of Montowampate captive, but it so happened that Abraham Shurd of Pemmaquid ransomed her, and sent her home, where she arrived on the 17 September the same autumn.** From Mr. Cobbet's account, it appears that they came against the English, who, but for an Indian, named Robin, would have been cut off, as the able men at this time, belonging to Ipswich, did not exceed 30; and most of these were from home on the day the attack was to have been made. Robin, having by some means found out their intentions, went to John Perkins,†† and told him that on such a day four Tarratines would come and invite the English to trade, “and draw them down the hill to the water side," when 40 canoes full of armed Indians would be ready, under "the brow of the hill," to fall upon them. It turned out as Robin had reported; but the Indians were frightened off by a false show of numbers, an old drum, and a few guns, without effecting their object.‡‡ We hear no more of him until 1644, March 8, when, at a court held in Boston, "Cutshamekin and Squaw-Sachem, Masconomo, Nashacowam and Wassamagin, two sachems near the great hill to the west, called Wachusett, came into the court, and, according to their former tender to the governor, desired to be received under our protection§§ and government, upon the same terms * 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. i. 167. + Hist. N. England. This is doubtless the most correct spelling of his name. It is scarce spelt twice alike in the MS. records. Records of Gen. Court, v. 381. Hubbard's N. E. 145. || Prince, 357. **Winthrop's Jour.-Lewis's Hist. Lynn, 39, 40.-Felt's Hist. Ipswich, 3. tt Quarter-master, "living then in a little hut upon his father's island on this side of Jeofry's Neck." MS. Narrative. #Cobbet's MS. Narrative. They desired this from their great fear of the Mohawks, it is said. CHAP. III.] MONTOWAMPATE.-WONOHAQUAHAM. 47 that Pumham and Sacononoco were. So we causing them to understand the articles, and all the ten commandments of God, and they freely assenting to all, they were solemnly received, and then presented the court with twentysix fathom of wampum, and the court gave each of them a coat of two yards of cloth, and their dinner; and to them and their men, every one of them, a cup of sac at their departure; so they took leave, and went away very joyful."† In the Town Records of Ipswich, under date 18 June 1658, a grant is made to the widow of Mascononomo, of "that parcel of land which her husband had fenced in," so long as she should remain a widow. Her husband was the last of the sachems of Agawam, and with him, says Mr. Felt, descended “his feble and broken scepter to the grave." He died on the 6 March, 1658, and was buried on Sagamore Hill, now within the bounds of Hamilton. His gun and other valuable implements were interred with him. "Idle curiosity, wanton, sacrilegious sport, prompted an individual to dig up the remains of this chief, and to carry his scull on a pole through Ipswich streets. Such an act of barbarity was severely frowned upon, and speedily visited with retributive civil justice." MONTOWAMPATE, sagamore of Lynn and Marblehead, was known more generally among the whites as Sagamore James. He was son of Nanepashemet, and brother of Wonohaquaham and Winnepurkitt.§ He died in 1633, of the small-pox, "with most of his people. It is said that these two promised, if ever they recovered, to live with the English, and serve their God."|| Montowampate, having been defrauded of 20 beaver-skins, by a man named Watts, who had since gone to England, he went to Gov. Winthrop on the 26 March, 1631, to know how he should obtain recompense. The governor gave him a letter to Emanuel Downing, Esq. of London, from which circumstance it would seem that the chief determined to go there; and it is said that he actually visited England and received his due. The histories of those times give a melancholy picture of the distresses caused by the small-pox among the "wretched natives." "There are," says Mather, "some old planters surviving to this day, who helped to bury the dead Indians; even whole families of them all dead at once. In one of the wigwams they found a poor infant sucking at the breast of the dead mother." The same author observes that, before the disease began, the Indians had begun to quarrel with the English about the bounds of their lands, "but God ended the controversy by sending the small-pox among the Indians at Saugus, who were before that time exceedingly numerous." We have mentioned another of the family of Nanepashemet, also a sachem. This was Wonohaquaham, called by the English Sagamore John, of Winisimet. His residence was at what was then called Rumneymarsh, part of which is now in Chelsea and part in Saugus. As early as 1631, he had cause to complain that some of the English settlers had burnt two of his wigwams. Which wigwams," says Governor Dudley, "were not inhabited, but stood in a place convenient for their shelter, when, upon occasion, they should travel that way." The court, upon examination, found that a servant of Sir R. Saltonstall had been the means of the mischief, whose master was ordered to make satisfaction, "which he did by seven yards of cloth, and that his servant pay him, at the end of his time, fifty shillings sterling." Sagamore John died at Winisimet, in 1633, of the small-pox. He desired to become acquainted with the Englishmen's God, in his sickness, and requested them to take his two sons and instruct them in Christianity, which they did.|||| Winnepurkitt,¶¶ who married a daughter of Passaconaway, makes considerable figure also in our Indian annals. He was born about 1816, and succeeded Montowampate at his death, in 1633. The English called him George Rumney The articles which they subscribed, will be seen at large when the Manuscript Hist. of the Praying Indians, by Daniel Gookin, shall be published. They do not read precisely as rendered by Winthrop Winthrop's Journal. Hist. of New England, 195. Hist. Ipswich, 5. History of Lynn, 38. Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, 25, edition 1696. Prince's Chronology. Lewis's Hist. Lynn, 16, 17. ** Relation, &c. 23. go History of New England, 195, 650. T1 Spelt also Winnaperket. 48 MANATAHQUA.—NATTAHATTAWANTS. [BOOK IL marsh, and at one time he was proprietor of Deer Island, in Boston harbor. "In the latter part of his life, he went to Barbadoes. It is supposed that he was carried there with the prisoners who were sold for slaves, at the end of Philip's war. He died soon after his return, in 1684, at the house of Muminquash, aged 68 years." Ahawayetsquaine, daughter of Poquanum, is also mentioned as his wife, by whom he had several children.* Manatahqua, called also Black-william, was a sachem, and proprietor of Nahant, when the adjacent country was settled by the whites. His father lived at Swampscot, and was also a sagamore, but probably was dead before the English settled in the country. A traveller in this then wilderness world, thus notices William, and his possessing Nahant. "One Black-william, an Indian Duke, out of his generosity gave this place in general to the plantation of Saugus, so that no other can appropriate it to himself." He was a great friend to the whites, but his friendship was repaid, as was that of many others of that and even much later times. There was a man by the name of Walter Bagnall, nicknamed Great Wot, "a wicked fellow," who had much wronged the Indians, killed near the mouth of Saco River, probably by some of those whom he had defrauded. This was in October, 1631. As some vessels were upon the eastern coast in search of pirates, in January, 1633, they put in at Richmond's Island, where they fell in with Black-william. This was the place where Bagnall had been killed about two years before; but whether he had any thing to do with it, does not appear, nor do I find that any one, even his murderers, pretended he was any way implicated; but, out of revenge for Bagnall's death, these pirate-hunters hanged Black-william. On the contrary, it was particularly mentioned || that Bagnall was killed by Squidrayset and his men, some Indians belonging to that part of the country. This Squidrayset, or Scitterygusset, for whose act Manatahqua suffered, was the first sachem who deeded land in Falmouth, Maine. A creek near the mouth of Presumpscot River perpetuates his name to this day. Mr. Willis supposes he was sachem of the Aucocisco tribe, who inhabited between the Androscoggin and Saco rivers; and that from Aucocisco comes Casco.¶ There can be but little doubt that Bagnall deserved his fate,** if any descrve such; but the other was the act of white men, and we leave the reader to draw the parallel between the two: perhaps he will inquire, Were the murderers of MANATAHQUA brought to justice? All we can answer is, The records are silent. Perhaps it was considered an offset to the murder of Bagnall. Nattahattawants, in the year 1642, sold to Simon Willard, in behalf of “Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Dudley, Mr. Nowell, and Mr. Alden," a large tract of land upon both sides Concord River. "Mr. Winthrop, our present governor, 1260 acres, Mr. Dudley, 1500 acres, on the S. E. side of the river, Mr. Nowell, 500 acres, and Mr. Allen, 500 acres, on the N. E. side of the river, and in consideration hereof the said Simon giueth to the said Nattahatlawants six fadom of waompampege, one wastcoat, and one breeches, and the said Nattahattawants doth covenant and bind himself, that hee nor any other Indians shall set traps within this ground, so as any cattle might recieve hurt thereby, and what cattle shall receive hurt by this meanes, hee shall be lyable to make it good." [In the deed, Nattahattawants is called sachem of that land.] Witnessed by three whites. The mark of NATAHATTAWANTS. WINNIPIN, an Indian that traded for him.t The name of this chief, as appears from documents copied by Mr. Shattuck,‡‡ was understood Tahattawin, Tahattawants, Att van, Atlawanee, and Ahatawanee. He was sachem of Musketaquid, since Concord, and a supporter and *Hist. Lynn. 1633. William Wood, author of New Eng. Prospect. Winthrop's Journal, i. 62, 63. Col. Maine Hist. Soc. i. 68. + Hist. N. Eng. [| Winthrop, ib. **He had, in about three years, by extortion, as we infer from Winthrop, accumulated about £400 from among the Indians. See Journal ut supra. tt Suffolk Records of Deeds, vol. i. No. 34. Hist. Concord, Mass. passim chap. i. CHAP. III.] WAHGUMACUT.-JACK-STRAW. 49 propagator of Christianity among his people, and an honest and upright man. The celebrated Waban married his eldest daughter. John Tahattawan was his son, who lived at Nashoba, where he was chief ruler of the praying Indians— a deserving Indian. He died about 1670. His widow was daughter of John, sagamore of Patucket, upon the Merrimack, who married Oonamog, another ruler of the praying Indians, of Marlborough. Her only son by Tahattawan * was killed by some white ruffians, who came upon them while in their wigwams, and his mother was badly wounded at the same time. Of this affair we shall have occasion elsewhere to be more particular. Naanashquaw, another daughter, married Naanishcow, called John Thomas, who died at Natick, aged 110 years. We know very little of a sachem of the name of Wahgumacut,† except that he lived upon Connecticut River, and came to Boston in 1631, with a request to the governor "to have some English to plant in his country;" and as an inducement, said he would “find them corn, and give them, yearly, 80 skins of beaver." The governor, however, dismissed him without giving him any encouragement; doubting, it seems, the reality of his friendship. But it is more probable that he was sincere, as he was at this time in great fear of the Pequots, and judged that if some of the English would reside with him, he should be able to maintain his country. There accompanied Wahgumacut to Boston an Indian named Jackstraw,‡ who was his interpreter, and Sagamore John. We have labored to find some further particulars of him, but all that we can ascertain with certainty, is, that he had lived some time in England with Sir Walter Ralegh.§ How Sir Walter *Mr. Gookin writes this name Tohatooner, that of the father Tahattawarre. Praying Indians, 105. MS. Hist. + Wahginnacut, according to Mr. Savage's reading of Winthrop. Our text is according to Prince, who also used Winthrop in MS. It is truly diverting to see how the author of Tales of the Indians has displayed his invention upon the passage in Winthrop's Journal bringing to our knowledge this chief. We will give the passage of Winthrop, that the reader may judge whether great ignorance, or misrepresentation "of set purpose" be chargeable to him. He [Gov. Winthrop] discovered after [Wahginnacut was gone], that the said sagamore is a very treacherous man, and at war with the Pekouth (a far greater sagamore.") Now, every child that has read about the Indians, it seems to us, ought to know that the meaning of Pekouth was mistaken by the governor, and no more meant a chief than the Massasoits meant what the Plimouth people first supposed it to mean. In the one case, the name of a tribe was mistaken for that of a chief, and in the other the chief for the tribe. Mistakes of this kind were not uncommon before our fathers became acquainted with the country. Winthrop says, too, the Mohawks was a great sachem. Now, who ever thought there was a chief of that name? Probably so named from the Maidstone minister, who flourished in Wat Tyler's rebellion, and whose real name was John Ball, but afterwards nick-named Jack Straw. He became chaplain to Wat's army, they having let him out of prison. A text which he made great use of in preaching to his liberators was this: When Adam dalfe and Eve span, This we apprehend was construed, Down with the nobility! Sec Rapin's Eng. i. 457. In Kennet, i. 247, John Wraw is called Jack Straw. He was beheaded. The imputation of the first bringing in of tobacco into England lies on this heroic knight." Winstanley's Worthies, 259. "Besides the consumption of the purse, and impairing of our inward parts, the immoderate, vain and phantastical abuse of the hellish weed, corrupteth the natural sweetness of the breath, stupifieth the brain; and indeed is so prejudicial to the general esteem of our country." Ibid. 211. Whether Jack-straw were the servant who acted a part in the often-told anecdote of Sir Walter Ralegh's smoking tobacco, on its first being taken to England, we shall not presume to assert; but, for the sake of the anecdote, we will admit the fact; it is variously related, but is said to be, in substance, as follows. At one time, it was so very unpopular to use tobacco in any way in England, that many who had got attached to it, used it only privately. Sir Walter was smoking in his study, at a certain time, and, being thirsty, called to his servant to bring him a tankard of beer. Jack hastily obeyed the summons, and Sir Walter, forgetting to cease smoking, was in the act of spouting a volume of smoke from his mouth when his servant entered. Jack, seeing his master smoking prodigiously at the mouth, thought no other but he was all on fire inside, having never seen such a phenomenon in all England before; dashed the quart of liquor at once in his face, and ran out screaming, "Massa's a fire! Massa's a fire!" his master. Having dismissed the servant, every one might reasonably expect a few words concerning Sir Walter Ralegh may truly be said to have lived in an age fruitful in great and worthy characters. Captain John Smith comes to our notice through his agency, and the 50 JAMES-PRINTER, OR JAMES-THE-PRINTER. [Воок п came by him, does not satisfactorily appear. Captains Amidas and Barlow sailed to America in his employ, and on their return carried over two natives from Virginia, whose names were Wanchese and Manteo.* It is barely possible that one of these was afterwards Jack-straw. A Nipmuck Indian, of no small note in his time, it may in the next place be proper to notice. James Printer, or James-the-printer, was the son of Naoas, brother of Tukapewillin and Anaweakin. When a child, he was instructed at the Indian charity school, at Cambridge. In 1659, he was put apprentice to Samuel Green, to learn the printer's business; and he is spoken of as having run away from his master in 1675. If, after an apprenticeship of 16 years, one could not leave his master without the charge of absconding, at least, both the master and apprentice should be pitied. In relation to this matter, Mr. Hub renowned first English circumnavigator was his contemporary. He, like the last named, was born in the county of Devonshire, in 1552, in the parish of Budley. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, so well known in our annals, was his half-brother, his father having married Sir Humphrey's mother, a widow, by whom he had Walter, a fourth son. The great successes and discoveries of the celebrated admiral Sir Francis Drake gave a new impetus to the English nation in maritime affairs, and consequent thereupon was the settlement of North America; as great an era, to say the least, as was ever recorded in history. No one shone more conspicuous in those undertakings than Sir Walter Ralegh. After persevering a long time, he established a colony in Virginia, in 1607. He was a man of great valor and address, and a favorite with the great Queen Elizabeth, the promoter of his undertakings, one of whose "maids of honor" he married. In this affair some charge him with having first dishonored that lady, and was for a time under the queen's displeasure in consequence, but marrying her restored him to favor. The city of Ralegh in Virginia was so named by his direction. He was conspicuous with Drake and Howard in the destruction of the Spanish armada in 1588. On the death of the queen, he was imprisoned almost 13 years in the tower of London, upon the charge of treason. It was during his imprisonment that he wrote his great and learned work, the History of the World. The alleged crime of treason has long since been viewed by all the world as without foundation, and the punishment of Ralegh reflects all its blackness upon the character of James I. The ground of the charge was, that Ralegh and others were in a conspiracy against the king, and were designing to place on the throne Arabella Stewart, He was never pardoned, although the king set him at liberty, and permitted him to go on an expedition to South America in search of a gold mine of which he had gained some intimations in a previous visit to those countries. His attempt to find gold failed, but he took the town of St. Thomas, and established in it a garrison. This was a depredation, as Spain and England were then at peace, but Ralegh had the king's commission. The Spanish ambassador complained loudly against the transaction, and the miserable James, to extricate himself, and appease the Spanish king, ordered Ralegh to be seized on his return, who, upon the old charge of treason, was sentenced to be beheaded, which was executed upon him 29th Oct. 1618. "I shall only hint," says Dr. Polchele,|| "that the execution of this great man, whom James was advised to sacrifice to the advancement of the peace with Spain, hath left an indelible stain on the memory of that misguided monarch." It appears from another account ¶ that Sir Walter, on arriving at the mouth of the Oronoko, was taken "desperately sick,” and sent forward a company under one of his captains in search of the gold mine. That they were met by the Spaniards, who attacked them, and that this was the cause of their assaultmg St. Thomas, and being obliged to descend the river without effecting the object they were upon. The following circumstance respecting the celebrated History of the World, not being generally known, cannot but be acceptable to the reader. The first volume (which is what we have of it) was published before he was imprisoned the last time. Just before his execu tion, he sent for the publisher of it. When he came, Sir Walter took him by the hand, and, "after some discourse, askt him how that work of his sold. Mr. Burre [the name of the publisher] returned this answer, that it had sold so slowly that it had undone him. At which words of his, Sir Walter Ralegh, stepping to his desk, reaches his other part of his history to Mr. Burre, which he had brought down to the times he lived in; clapping his hand on his breast, he took the other unprinted part of his works into his hand, with a sigh, saying, Ah, my friend, hath the first part undone thee, the second volume shall undo no more; this ungrateful world is unworthy of it.' When, immediately going to the fire-side, threw it in and set his foot on it till it was consumed."** *See Cayley's Life Sir W. Ralegh, i. 70. ed. Lond. 1816, 2 vols. 8vo. + Some author of Indian tales might delight himself for a long time in ringing changes on this Indian preacher's name, without inventing any new ones; for it is not, as I remember, spelt twice alike in our authorities. *"Of Otho Gilbert, of Compton, Esq." Hist. Devonshire, i. 259. Thomas, Hist. Printing. Polwhele's Hist. Devon, ii. 219. |