[145] In Belknap’s Biography we have a more particular account of this pestilence, as it is called, and which, if the relations there given are to be credited, certainly determines the disease in question to have been the yellow fever. The account is to the following purpose: Lord Arundel, of Wardour, had employed a captain Weymouth to search for a N. W. passage to India. In this he failed, but falling in with a river, supposed to be either the Kennebeck or Penobscot, he brought from thence five of the natives, with whom he landed at Plymouth in July 1605. Three of the Indians were taken into the family of Sir Ferdinando Gorges; and from these many particulars were obtained respecting their country, which being eagerly attended to by Gorges, he formed a plan of advancing his fortune by a thorough discovery of the country. Two vessels were accordingly fitted out; one of which failed, but the other brought such information as gave encouragement to attempt the founding of a colony. Two of the natives who had been brought to England were sent back, and 45 persons were left on the continent to begin the settlement; but these, having undergone great hardships, quitted the place in 1608. Gorges, however was not discouraged. He sent out one of his servants, by name Richard Vines, and some others, whom he hired to stay in the country all winter.
“Mr. Vines and his companions were received by the Indians with great hospitality, though their residence among them was rendered hazardous; both by a war which raged among them, and by a pestilence which accompanied or succeeded it.
“This war and pestilence are frequently spoken of by the historians of New England, as remarkable events, in the course of Providence, which prepared the way for the establishment of an European colony. Concerning the war, we know nothing more than this, that it was begun by the Tarratenes, a nation who resided eastward of Penobscot. These formidable people surprised the bashaba, or chief sachem, at his head quarters, and destroyed him with all his family; upon which all the other sachems who were subordinate to him quarrelled among themselves for the sovereignty; and in these dissensions many of them as well as of their unhappy people perished. Of what particular kind the pestilence was, we have no certain[146] information, but it seems to have been a disorder peculiar to the Indians, for Mr. Vines and his companions, who were intimately conversant with them, and frequently lodged in their wigwams, were not in the least degree affected by it, though it swept off the Indians at such a prodigious rate that the living were not able to bury the dead, and their bones were found several years after, lying about the villages where they had resided. The extent of this pestilence was between Penobscot in the east, and Narraganset in the west. These two tribes escaped, whilst the intermediate people were wasted and destroyed.”
This distemper appears to have raged among the Indians in the year 1616. The following particulars are further given in Belknap’s Biography, vol. ii, p. 208: “Hitherto they (the English colonists) had not seen any of the natives at this place. The mortal pestilence which raged through the country, four years before, had almost depopulated it. One remarkable circumstance attending this pestilence was not known till after this settlement was made. A French ship had been wrecked on Cape Cod. The men were saved, with their provisions and goods. The natives kept their eye on them, till they found an opportunity to kill all but three or four, and divide their goods. The captives were sent from one tribe to another, as slaves. One of them learned so much of their language, as to tell them that God was angry with them for their cruelty, and would destroy them, and give their country to another people. They answered that they were too many for God to kill. He replied, that if they were ever so many, God had many ways to kill them, of which they were then ignorant. When the pestilence came among them (a new disease, probably the yellow fever) they remembered the Frenchman’s words; and when the Plymouth settlers arrived at Cape Cod, the few survivors imagined that the other part of his prediction would soon be accomplished. Soon after their arrival, the Indian priests or powows convened, and performed their incantations in a dark swamp three days successively, with a view to curse and destroy the new comers. Had they known the mortality which raged among them, they would doubtless have rejoiced in the success of their endeavours, and might very easily have taken advantage of their weakness to exterminate them. But none of them were seen till after the sickness had abated; though some tools, which had been left in the woods, were missing, which they had stolen in the night.”
[146] “The Pawkunnawkutts were a great people heretofore. They lived to the east and northeast of the Narragansitts, and their chief sachem held dominion over divers other petty sagamores; as the sagamores upon the island of Nantuckett, and Nope, or Martha’s Vineyard, of Nawsett, of Mannamoyk, of Sawkattukett, Nobsquasitt, Matakees, and several others, and some of the Nipmucks. Their country, for the most part, falls within the jurisdiction of New Plymouth colony. This people were a potent nation in former times, and could raise, as the most credible and ancient Indians affirm, about three thousand men. They held war with the Narragansitts, and often joined the Massachusetts as friends and confederates against the Narragansitts. This nation, a very great number of them, were swept away by an epidemical and unwonted sickness, an. 1612 and 1613, about seven or eight years before the English first arrived in those parts to settle the colony of New Plymouth. Thereby Divine Providence made way for the quiet and peaceable settlement of the English in those nations. What this disease was, that so generally and mortally swept away, not only these but other Indians, their neighbours, I cannot well learn. Doubtless it was some pestilential disease. I have discoursed with some old Indians, that were then youths, who say, that the bodies all over were exceeding yellow (describing it by a yellow garment they showed me) both before they died, and afterward.
“The Massachusetts, being the next great people northward, inhabited principally about that place in Massachusetts bay, where the body of the English now dwell. These were a numerous and great people. Their chief sachem held dominion over many other petty governors; as those of Weechagaskas, Neponsitt, Punkapaog, Nonantum, Nashaway, some of the Nipmuck people, as far as Pocomtacuke, as the old men of Massachusetts affirmed. This people could, in former times, arm for war about three thousand men, as the old Indians declare. They were in hostility very often with the Narragansitts, but held amity for the most part with the Pawkunnawcutts, who lived on the south border, and with the Pawtucketts, who inhabited on their north and northeast limits. In an. 1612 and 1613 these people were also sorely smitten by the hand of God with the same disease before mentioned; which destroyed the most of them, and made room for the English people of Massachusetts colony, which people this country, and the next called Pawtuckett. There are not of this people left at this day above three hundred men, besides women and children.
“Pawtuckett is the fifth and last great sachemship of Indians. Their country lieth north and northeast from the Massachusetts, whose dominion reacheth so far as the English jurisdiction, or colony of the Massachusetts, doth now extend, and had under them several other smaller sagamores; as the Pennakoaks, Agawomes, Naamkeeks, Pascatawayes, Accomintas, and others. They were also a considerable people heretofore, about three thousand men, and held amity with the people of Massachusetts. But these also were almost totally destroyed by the great sickness before mentioned; so that at this day they are not above two hundred and fifty men, besides women and children. This country is now inhabited by the English under the government of Massachusetts.” (Gookin’s Historical Collections of the Indians in New England.)
The following was communicated to Benjamin Basset, esq. of Chilmark, by Thomas Cooper, a half blooded Indian, of Gay Head, aged about sixty years; and which, he says, he obtained of his grandmother, who, to use his own expression, was a stout girl when the English came to the island: “Before the English came among the Indians, there were two disorders of which they generally died, viz. the consumption and the yellow fever. The latter they could always lay in the following manner: After it had raged and swept off a number, those who were well, met to lay it. The rich, that is, such as had a canoe, skins, axes, &c. brought them; They took their seat in a circle, and all the poor sat around without. The richest then proposed to begin to lay the sickness; and, having in his hand something in shape resembling his canoe, skin, or whatever his riches were, he threw it up in the air; and whoever of the poor without could take it, the property it was intended to resemble became for ever transferred to him or her. After the rich had thus given away all their moveable property to the poor, they looked out the handsomest and most sprightly young man in the assembly, and put him into an entire new wigwam, built of every thing new for that purpose. They then formed into two files at a small distance from each other; one standing in the space at each end put fire to the bottom of the wigwam on all parts, and fell to singing and dancing. Presently the youth would leap out of the flames, and fall down to appearance dead. Him they committed to the care of five virgins, prepared for that purpose, to restore to life again. The term required for this would be uncertain, from six to forty-eight hours, during which time the dance must be kept up. When he was restored he would tell, that he had been carried in a large thing high up in the air, where he came to a great company of white people, with whom he had interceded hard to have the distemper laid, and generally, after much persuasion, would obtain a promise, or answer of peace, which never failed of laying the distemper.”
The following is extracted from Prince’s Chronological History of New England, p. 46: “This winter (1617) and the spring ensuing, a great plague befals the natives in New England, which wasteth them exceedingly; and so many thousands of them die, that the living are not able to bury them, and their skulls and bones remain above ground at the places of their habitations for several years after.
“By Capt. Dermer’s letter of Dec. 27, 1619, in Purchas, and of June 30, 1620, in Gov. Bradford, compared with Gov. Bradford’s own account, it seems that the Narragansitts in the west, and Penobscots in the east, escaped this plague, or that it raged only in the countries lying between them, and prepared the way for another people.”