[388] The words quoted are not Ovid’s, but Virgil’s. Eclogues, viii. 43.
[390] Josselyn, in his Two Voyages (p. 202), speaks of the “excellent whetstones” then (1670) found at Richmond Island.
“There is a species of slate quite abundant on Richmond’s Island, and some other Islands in Casco Bay, which has been used for oil-stones. Josselyn, in his Voyages, says that ‘tables of slate could be got out long enough for a dozen men to sit at.’” See a communication on this passage of the New Canaan, signed J. P. B., in the Portland Press of January 2, 1883. Professor Shaler adds: “It is interesting to note the fact that Morton saw that whetstones could be made the basis for trade. Stones suitable for this purpose are rare in Europe, and to-day a New Hampshire company ships large quantities to Europe and even to Australia.”
[391] Richmond Island lies directly south-east of Cape Elizabeth and close to it. From what Morton says in the next chapter and elsewhere (infra, [*149]), it would seem that before his arrest by Standish in June, 1628,—that is, in the summer of 1627,—he had a fur station on the coast of Maine. (Supra, [23].) Winthrop, writing under date of October 22, 1631, mentions the murder of “Walter Bagnall, called Great Watt, and one John P—— who kept with him,” by the Indians at Richmond Island. He adds: “This Bagnall was sometimes servant to one in the bay, and these three years had dwelt alone in the said isle, and had gotten about £400 most in goods. He was a wicked fellow, and had much wronged the Indians.” (Winthrop, vol. i. p. *63). Bagnall would, from this, appear to have been one of Morton’s servants at Mount Wollaston, as he alone in “the bay,” at that time, had any number of servants, or was engaged in trade on the Maine coast. As Bagnall was killed in 1631, and had then lived alone at Richmond Island three years, he seems to have taken up his abode there in 1628, the time of the breaking up of the company at Mount Wollaston by Standish and Endicott, and the settlement at Richmond Island was thus the Maine offshoot of that at Merry-mount. Bagnall was probably that one of Morton’s servants who, he says, was reputed, when he died, to have made a thousand pounds in the fur trade in five years, “whatsoever became of it.” (Supra, [*78]). Morton’s expression here of “five years” agrees with Winthrop’s “three years,” and confirms this surmise. Bagnall had died in 1631. Morton had gotten control at Mount Wollaston in 1626. (Supra, [15].) Bagnall had remained there as his servant two years, until 1628; then had been frightened away and gone to Richmond Island, where he had lived three years more, as Winthrop says,—making in all Morton’s five years. In his phrase “whatsoever became of it” Morton characteristically throws out an insinuation in regard to Bagnall’s possessions. He probably meant to imply some underhand proceeding to get hold of them on the part of the Massachusetts Bay people. Recently a theory has been advanced in the Maine press, that Bagnall was an Episcopalian, and competitor in trade of the Massachusetts Company; and that Winthrop and his associates, not being able otherwise to get rid of him, compassed his death by indirect means. (See a letter of S. P. Mayberry in Portland Press of Jan. 9, 1883.) Winthrop says that most of the possessions in question were in goods. A portion would naturally be in the form of money, and it was left for the present generation to form a most plausible surmise as to “whatsoever became” of some of this money. On May 11, 1855, an old stone pot was turned up by the ploughshare, on Richmond Island, containing fifty-two coins; and Mr. Willis, the historian of Portland, then took occasion, in a letter to the Massachusetts Historical Society (Proceedings, May 1857, pp. 183-8), to “express the belief that the money [was] connected with the fate of Walter Bagnall, who was killed by Sagamore Squidraket and his party, Oct. 3, 1631.” There was nothing to show that any of the coins were of a later date than 1631. A patent for Richmond Island, together with fifteen hundred acres on the main land, was issued to Bagnall by the Council for New England, Dec. 2, 1631, just three months after his death. (Records of the Council, pp. 51-2.) Morton was then in England, and unquestionably in communication with Gorges. (Supra, [49].)
[392] Doubtless the magnetic iron oxides. None of these are known to me nearer than in the mountains forming the westerly part of the Berkshire Hills, from New York City to the Adirondacks, except in Cumberland, R. I., where there is some iron of this nature.
[393] No ironstones are known around Massachusetts bay; the nearest deposits are in Rhode Island.
[394] Small quantities of galena ore have been found in Woburn and that vicinity. There are some localities near Newburyport where the savages may have found small quantities of galena.
[395] Black leade is doubtless plumbago, or graphite; it is found in Wrentham and in Worcester, Mass., as well as at various points in Rhode Island.
[396] Red leade is doubtless an ochre, such as may have been found near Cranston, R. I.