[224] Captain David Smith and Captain Gamaliel Collins.
[225] In old times a decoction of checker-berry leaves was given to lambs poisoned by eating the young leaves of the laurel in spring.
[226] There is an authentic account of ice being found here on the 4th of July, 1741.
[227] When the English first settled upon the Cape there was an island off Chatham, three leagues distant, called Webb's Island. It contained twenty acres, covered with red-cedar or savin. The Nantucket people resorted to it for fire-wood. In 1792, as Dr. Morse relates, it had ceased to exist for nearly a century. "A large rock," he says, "that was upon the island, and which settled as the earth washed away, now marks the place."
[228] Amos Otis, in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," 1865.
[229] Purchas, iv.; reprinted in "Massachusetts Historical Collections," iii., viii. I can not give space to those points that confirm my view, but they make a strong presumptive case. It has been alleged that De Poutrincourt landed here after his conflict with the Indians of Cape Cod. So far from landing on the island they saw, Champlain says they named it "La Soupçonneuse," from the doubts they had of it. Lescarbot adds that "they saw an island, six or seven leagues in length, which they were not able to reach, and so called 'Ile Douteuse.'" The land, it is probable, was the Vineyard.
[230] By Sir F. Gorges.
[231] Nantasket, Namasket, Naushon, Sawtuckett, are Indian.
[232] In 1602 by the colony of Bartholomew Gosnold, already so often mentioned in these pages.
[233] Better known as Holmes's Hole.