Governor rather urged that they might be permitted to stay. He, and the other two who remained, tarried until afternoon of the next day but one. As he had before this time accustomed himself to wear English clothes, we are informed that "the Governor set him at his own table, where he behaved himself as soberly as an Englishman." His host gave him at parting, "cheese and pease, and a mug and some other things;"* and no doubt he returned to Neponset exceedingly gratified with the well-timed munificence of his new friend.

Accordingly, he made his appearance again within a month, on which occasion he requested Mr. Winthrop to negotiate with some tailor, on his behalf, for a suit of English clothes. The Governor civilly gave him to understand, that English Sagamores were not accustomed to truck in this way-but he called his own tailor, and directed him to make the proposed suit. Chickatabot presented his host with two large skins of coat-beaver, so called, paid the proper honours to a dinner prepared for him and his attendants, and took his leave, promising to return for his clothes in three days. This was the 13th of April. On the 15th he came again, and the Governor then arrayed him in the new suit, which had been promptly made ready for his use, and also entertained him at dinner. If the Sachem had behaved soberly on his first visit, he deserves still higher praise for the improvement which is evident in his manners since that time. He would not eat now-savage as he was at the hospitable board of his Christian host, until the latter had craved the customary blessing which attended his own meals; and, after meat, he desired him to do the like, and so departed. '

Nor did Chickatabot receive only compliments and new clothes from his Boston ally. Substantial justice was rendered to him and his subjects, whenever emergency required; and an Englishman was pun

* Winthrop.

ished, at least as promptly and severely for a trespass upon him or them, as an Indian would have been expected to be punished for the same offence against the whites. To illustrate by an instance,-in the latter part of 1631, Chickatabot appeared in Court at Boston, and complained of one Josias Plastowe, for stealing a quantity of his corn. Evidence of the charge having been produced, sufficient to convict the offender, the Court gave judgment as follows:

"It is ordered, that Josias Plastowe shall, for stealing four baskets of corn from the Indians, return them eight baskets again, be fined five pounds, and hereafter be called by the name of Josias, and not Mr. as formerly as he used to be; and that William Buckland and Thomas Andrew, [servants] shall be whipped for being accessary to the same offence."

Chicatabot knew how to value this honorable policy of the Government, and was grateful for it. But even earlier than the date of the transaction last referred to, he had himself set the example which that Government, so far as regarded him, did but follow. The following single paragraph, taken from the same authority which records the sentence of Plastowe, is among the evidence to this effect:

"At a Court, John Sagamore and Chickatabot, being told at last Court of some injuries that their men did to our cattle, and giving consent to make satisfaction, &c. now one of their men was complained of for shooting a pig, &c. for which Chickatabot was ordered to pay a small skin of beaver, which he presently paid." So in August of the next year, two of the Sachem's men having been proved guilty of assaulting some of the settlers at Dorchester in their houses, were detained in the bilboes, until Chickatabot could be notified of the fact, and requested to beat them, which he did."*

* The most usuall custome amongst them," says Roger Williams, of the Indians, "is for the Sachim either to beate, or whip, or put to death with his owne hand, to

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 THE IND. LANGUAGES.

rescued by those of Plymouth out of the hands of CHICKATALBOTT, 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 :

"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."