[55] This is called Manomet or Buzzard’s bay, though Winslow seems to mistake it for Narragansett bay, which is near twenty leagues to the westward. Prince, p. 208.
[56] “This creek runs out easterly into Cape Cod bay at Scussett harbour; and this river runs out westerly into Manomet bay. The distance overland from bay to bay is but six miles. The creek and river nearly meet in a low ground; and this is the place, through which there has been a talk of making a canal, this forty years; which would be a vast advantage to all these countries, by saving the long and dangerous navigation round the Cape, and through the shoals adjoining.” Prince, p. 208, (A.D. 1736.) Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.
[57] Oysters are still found in great excellence and plenty in Sandwich, on the shores of Buzzard’s bay. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.
[58] The common clam, (mya arenaria,) or perhaps the quahaug, (venus mercenaria). The English call the former the sand-gaper, the word clam not being in use among them, and not to be found in their dictionaries. And yet it is mentioned by Captain Smith, in his Description of New England, printed in 1616. Johnson, whose Wonderworking Providence was published in 1654, speaks of “clambanks, a fish as big as horse-muscles.” Morton too, in his New English Canaan, (1637) mentions them, and Josselyn, (1672) in his Rarities, p. 96, speaks of “clam, or clamp, a kind of shell-fish, a white muscle.” Wood says, ch. ix. “clams or clamps is a shellfish not much unlike a cockle; it lieth under the sand. These fishes be in great plenty. In some places of the country there be clams as big as a penny white-loaf.” See Mass. Hist. Col. iii. 224, viii. 193, xiii. 125, xxvi. 121, and Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Mass. pp. 40-42, and 85,86.
[59] The razor-shell, (solen,) which very much resembles a bean pod, or the haft of a razor, both in size and shape. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 192. Josselyn calls them “sheath fish, which are very plentiful, a delicate fish, as good as a prawn, covered with a thin shell like the sheath of a knife, and of the color of a muscle.” And Morton says, “razor fishes there are.”
“The animal is cylindrical, and is often used as an article of food under the name of long-clam, razor-fish, knife-handle, &c.” See Dr. Gould’s Report on the Mollusca of Massachusetts, p. 29.
[60] In Manomet river, as well as in Buzzard’s and Buttermilk bays, are found fish of various kinds, such as bass, sheep’s head, tautaug, scuppaug, &c. See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 122.
[61] He was the same as Cawnacome.
[62] “In their gamings,” says Roger Williams, “they will sometimes stake and lose their money, clothes, house, corn, and themselves, if single persons.” Gookin says, “They are addicted to gaming, and will, in that vein, play away all they have.” And Wood adds, “They are so bewitched with these two games, that they will lose sometimes all they have, beaver, moose skins, kettles, wampompeage, mowhackies, hatchets, knives, all is confiscate by these two games.” See Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 153, iii. 234, and Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 14.
[63] Powow, a priest and medicine man.