Equally unfounded is the statement that has gained so wide a currency and become incorporated with the history of those times, and is repeated in Lord Nugent’s Life of Hampden, that John Hampden, in company with Cromwell, Pym, and Hazelrig, had actually embarked for America on board a fleet in the Thames, in 1638, but were detained by an order from the Privy Council. Miss Aikin, in her Memoirs of Charles I., ch. xiii., was the first to detect and expose this error of the historians.—For some of the views in this note I am indebted to the MS. suggestions of the learned editor of Governor Winthrop’s History of New England.
[71] Probably the same which is now called Slade’s Ferry, in Swanzey. Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292.
[72] Conbatant or Corbitant, was the sachem of Pocasset, and was subject to Massasoit. See Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232.
[73] A neck of land in the township of Swanzey, commonly pronounced Mattapoiset, now Gardner’s neck, situated between the Shawomet and Toweset necks. See Belknap’s Am. Biog. ii. 292, and Baylies’ Plymouth, ii. 232, 234.
[74] “Sachimmaacommock, a prince’s house, which, according to their condition, is far different from the other house, both in capacity or receipt, and also the fineness and quality of their mats.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxii.
[75] Wetu, or wigwam. See Gallatin’s Indian Vocabularies, in Am. Antiq. Soc. Coll. ii. 322.
[76] “There are among them certain men and women, whom they call powows. These are partly wizards and witches, holding familiarity with Satan, that evil one; and partly are physicians, and make use, at least in show, of herbs and roots for curing the sick and diseased. These are sent for by the sick and wounded; and by their diabolical spells, mutterings, exorcisms, they seem to do wonders. They use extraordinary strange motions of their bodies, insomuch that they will sweat until they foam; and thus continue for some hours together, stroking and hovering over the sick.” Gookin, in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.
“Powaws, priests. These do begin and order their service and invocation of their gods, and all the people follow, and join interchangeably in a laborious bodily service, unto sweating, especially of the priest, who spends himself in strange antic gestures and actions, even unto fainting. In sickness the priest comes close to the sick person, and performs many strange actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness. The poor people commonly die under their hands; for, alas, they administer nothing, but howl and roar and hollow over them, and begin the song to the rest of the people, who all join like a choir in prayer to their gods for them.” Roger Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 227, 237.
“The manner of their action in their conjuration is thus. The parties that are sick are brought before them; the powow sitting down, the rest of the Indians give attentive audience to his imprecations and invocations, and after the violent expression of many a hideous bellowing and groaning, he makes a stop, and then all the auditors with one voice utter a short canto. Which done, the powow still proceeds in his invocations, sometimes roaring like a bear, other times groaning like a dying horse, foaming at the mouth like a chafed boar, smiting on his naked breast and thighs with such violence as if he were mad. Thus will he continue sometimes half a day.” Wood’s New England’s Prospect, part ii. ch. 12. See also Hutchinson’s Mass. i. 474.
[77] Wood says, ch. 18, “They pronounce l and r in our English tongue, with much difficulty, calling a lobster a nobstan.” Yet Roger Williams states, that “although some pronounce not l or r, yet it is the most proper dialect of other places, contrary to many reports;” and Eliot, in his Indian Grammar, says, “These consonants, l, n, r, have such a natural coincidence, that it is an eminent variation of their dialects. We Massachusetts pronounce the n; the Nipmuk Indians pronounce l; and the Northern Indians pronounce r. As instance: