[CHAPTER II.]
Farther account of Master Weston's settlement, and the movements of the Indians against him—Aspinet, the Nauset, supposed to be engaged in that affair—His tribe and power—Provocations from the English—Magnanimous revenge of the Sachem—His hospitality and kindness—Friendly intercourse with Plymouth—Is visited by governor Bradford—By captain Standish—Is suspected of hostility by Plymouth, and pursued by Standish—His death—Career and character of Iranough, the "Courteous Sachem of Cummaquid"—Is suspected and pursued—His death.
Having necessarily, in the course of justice to some individuals heretofore noticed, animadverted on the early Indian policy of Plymouth, we shall devote this chapter to the further consideration of certain facts bearing upon that subject, and especially as connected with the case of Weston. These facts cannot be better set forth, than they are in the lives of two among the most remarkable natives who held intercourse with the Government in question.
One of them was Aspinet, the first open enemy, as the Pokanoket Sachem was the first ally, whom the Plymouth settlement had the fortune to meet with. He ruled over a number of petty tribes, settled in various parts of what is now the county of Barnstable, all of whom are said to have been ultimately subject, or at least subsidiary, to Massasoit. The principal among them were the Nausets, at Namskeket, [FN] within the present limits of Orleans, and round about the cove which separates that town from Eastham. With this tribe Aspinet had his residence.
[FN] A spot chosen with the usual sagacity of the Indians, and which at some period probably subsisted a large population with its immense stores of the sickishuog, or clam. A thousand barrels annually are said to have been taken there in modern times, merely for fish-bait. Mass. His. Coll.
Aspinet, we have observed, was the first open enemy of the colonists; and it will be admitted, that his hostility was not without cause. Of the twenty-four Indians kidnapped by Hunt, in 1614, twenty belonged to Patuxet, (or Plymouth,) and the residue were the subjects of the Nauset chieftain. When the Pilgrims came over, six years after this abominable outrage, it happened, that upon landing in the harbor of Cape Cod, before reaching Plymouth, they sent out a small party in a shallop, to discover a proper place for a settlement. These men went ashore a little north of the Great-Pond, in Eastham, and there they were suddenly attacked by the Nausets. The assailants were repulsed, but the English retreated in great haste.
Unquestionably, these men acted in obedience to the orders of Aspinet, instigated, as he must have been, by the remembrance of Hunt's perfidy. Winslow, in his Relation, gives an affecting incident which occurred subsequently at this place, going to illustrate, very forcibly, the effect of such atrocious conduct on the disposition of the natives. "One thing," he says, "was grievous unto us at this place. There was an old woman, whom we judged to be no less than a hundred years old, which came to see us, because she never saw English; yet could not behold us without breaking forth into great passion, weeping and crying excessively. We demanding the reason of it; they told us she had three sons, who, when Master Hunt was in these parts, went aboard his ship to trade with him, and he carried them captives into Spain, by which means she was deprived of the comfort of her children in her old age!" The English made what explanation they could of the affair, and gave her a few "small trifles, which somewhat appeased her."
The expedition alluded to in this case, which took place in the summer of 1621, was occasioned by the absence of an English boy, who had strayed away from the colony at Plymouth, and was understood to have fallen into Aspinet's hands. The accident gave that sachem an opportunity of gratifying his revenge, which to him might have appeared providential. But he was too intelligent a man to confound the innocent with the guilty; and too noble to avail himself of a misfortune, even for humbling the pride of an enemy. When, therefore, the English party, on this occasion, having landed on his coast, sent Squanto to inform him amicably of the purpose for which they had come,—and with instructions perhaps to appeal to his better feelings,—he threw down his enmity at once with his arms. "After sun-set,"—is the minute but touching description given of this singular scene:—"Aspinet came with a great train, and brought the boy with him, one bearing him through the water. He had not less than an hundred with him, the half whereof came to the shallop-side unarmed with him; the other stood aloof with their bows and arrows. There he delivered up the boy, behung with beads, and made peace with us, we bestowing a knife on him; and likewise on another that first entertained the boy, and brought him thither. So they departed from us." [FN] It was indeed a magnanimous revenge.