ing in 1622, "some of them would willingly forget me; but I am not the first they have deceived."

One can hardly withhold sympathy from Smith, especially as he was fitted above any man of his time to lead in the work of colonization. But for an unfortunate head wind he would have gone to New England in 1617, and undertaken a permanent work. Possibly he might have selected Plymouth or "Massachusetts " as the site of a colony and thus made the country essentially unlike what it proved to be.

The next person known to have appeared at Plymouth was Captain Thomas Dermer, engaged in the services of the North Virginia Company. In 1619, having finished the business he had undertaken at Monhegan, Dermer embarked in his pinnace to explore the coast, putting his surplus provisions on board the "Samson," a Virginia fishing vessel about to sail for the Southern Colony. At the end of forty leagues, near Nahant, the pinnace was beached in a storm; but, getting off with the loss of many much-needed supplies, and leaving behind his Indian guide, he sailed around Cape Cod, where, at "Sutcleffe's Inlet," he was taken prisoner but miraculously escaped. At Martha's Vineyard he met the crafty Epenow, with whom he conversed, and thence sailed through Long Island Sound and passed Hell Gate, called a "dangerous cataract," where the savages saluted him with showers of arrows. In New York Bay the natives were peaceable, and undertook to show him a strait to the West, but he was baffled by the wind and sailed southward, missing Delaware Bay, and anchoring in the Chesapeake. When the weather changed he sailed to Virginia and there passed the winter. He made a map of the coast, which he would not "part with for fear of danger." The most important act performed was the peace made with the Indians. This is not mentioned in Dermer's letter, given in the New York Collections (s. 1., vol. i., p. 350), but it was alluded to in his report made to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, which report was referred to in the "Briefe Relation in Purchas" (iv., 1831), and likewise in Bradford's "History.” The latter says (p. 95), speaking of the year 1620: "This Mr Dermer was hear the same year that these people came, as apears by a relation written by him bearing date June 30, An°: 1620." Bradford quotes this relation as saying: "I will first begine wth that place from whence Squanto, or Tisquantem, was taken away; wch in Cap. Smith's Mape is called Plimoth: and I would that Plimoth had ye like comodities. I would that the first plantation might hear be seated, if ther come to the number of 50 persons, or upward. Otherwise at Charlton, because ther ye savages are lese to be feared." Charlton appears on Smith's map as near the present Charles River, and the Indian Squanto, who belonged at Plymouth, had been car

ried away, as Bradford says, "with diverce others by one Hunt, a m' of a ship," but was returned "hither in to these parts by one Mr Dermer, a gentleman imployed by Sr Ferdinando Gorges and others, for discovery, and other designes in these parts." Whether or not Hunt visited Plymouth Harbor we cannot say. Bradford further says in the "Relation" it is mentioned that "he made ye peace betweene ye Salvages of these parts and ye English; of which this plantation, as it is intimated, had ye benefite. But," he adds, unwilling that Dermer should have any credit, "what a peace it was may apeare by what befell him and his men." The "Briefe Relation" says of Dermer, " after he had made the peace betweene vs and the Sauages, that so much abhorred our Nation for the wrongs done them by others, as you haue heard: but the fruit of his labour in that behalfe wee as yet receiue to our great commoditie, who haue a peaceable Plantation yet at this present among them, where our people both prosper and liue in good liking, and assurednesse of their neighbors, that had beene formerly so much exasperated against vs, as will more at large appeare hereafter."

This was the testimony put on record in 1622 respecting the value of Dermer's work at Plymouth; but to show that the peace was of no value at Plymouth, or rather, "what a peace it was," Bradford refers to an attack made upon Dermer by the Indians in another part of the country; while Nathaniel Norton, in his "New England's Memorial," taking the hint from Bradford, also tries in the same fashion to undervalue Dermer's work. It will nevertheless be admitted by all candid minds, that any treatment ignoring Dermer must be regarded as unhistorical.

B. F. DE COSTA

'In Dexter's edition of Mourt's Relation, which is the edition generally referred to in THE MAGAZINE, we read at page 75: "They trauailed againe, passing by many lakes and brookes and woods, and in one place where the Salvages had burnt the space of 5. myles in length, which is a fine Champion Countrey, and even." Dr. Dexter says: "This very accurately describes the characteristics of the country for several miles around Great South Pond as a centre, four or five miles S. of Plymouth Rock."

The Relation says, page 76: "In the after-noone, it pleased God from an high Hill they discovered the two Iles in the Bay." Dr. Dexter suggests "Pinnacle Hill," west of South Pond, as the "high Hill." With such references as these to the two islands in the bay, it seems idle to confound them with Saquish Head.

SAMOSET AND NEW ENGLAND COLONIZAT

A full and accurate narrative of the planting of the Leyden Pilgrims on the shore of New England would show that the well known Indian Chief "Samoset" of Plymouth was the "Sa-maa-set" of Maine. The latter was the spelling and pronunciation of the name as it appears in the earliest records of the Pemaquid country.

One day in the month of March, 1621, Samoset appeared suddenly among the few huts that then stood on the shore of Plymouth, saluting the Pilgrims in English, bidding them "Welcome." He is described as "starke naked, onely a leather about his wast, with a fringe about a span long, or little more; he had a bow and 2 arrowes, the one headed and the other vnheaded; he was a tall straight man, the haire of his head blacke, long behind, onely short before, none on his face at all."

According to Mourt's "Relation," in which narrative the foregoing picture is found, this Samoset, whose appearance at Plymouth caused so much unfounded alarm, was a savage lord of the eastern coast, distant "a dayes sayle with a great wind, and fiue dayes by land," near "Monchiggon," or Monhegan. This isle of Monhegan fixes the place of Samoset's home in the Pemaquid Country. The eastern Indians called this island "Men-ahan-k-egan," meaning "island of the sea coast." The French embodied the Indian sounds as expressed in "Emtinic," of the Indian word "Men-ahan" island, and "auk," place, which soon, by later French writers, was transformed into "Pem-cuit," and by the English hardened into "Pemaquid;" the island thereby giving a name to its nearest main-land point, which, stretching out into the sea toward it, in a narrow peninsula, four or five miles, showed to the voyager, touching at this notable landmark, the nearest shore shelter on the main. The base of the Pemaquid peninsula on the east shore is carved into headlands and harbors of refuge, and affords outlets for streams from the interior fur-bearing fresh waters. One of these interior waters is a pond, called by the Indians "Mus-congus," near which is a remarkable land-locked basin called "Round Pond," and near New Harbor of Pemaquid, in the town of Bristol, Maine.

Across its mouth, half a mile distant, and parallel to the coast, is an island, long and narrow, of triangular shape. Its northern extremity forms a sand spit, which, by the washings of Muscongus Bay, is shown to have been an ancient Indian burial-ground; and, on the main opposite, is a little,

sheltered, sunny cove, with overlooking headlands, still a way station for the Penobscot Indians travelling west, and by them, and in tradition, known and called "Sa-maa-sets" Cove. The island in early records is "Samasits," or "Sommarset" Island, and sometimes Muscongus. There is a deed extant, discovered by the late J. Wingate Thornton, signed in 1653, in which "Sommarset" records himself as of Muscongus. Here, then, under Monhegan, near the Ponds of Pemaquid, Samoset had his home, and here, too, settlements and commerce of the English race, in 1621, had been established.

The incident we have noted in opening was an unexpected greeting. Only a foothold at Plymouth had as yet been obtained. The wild and inhospitable surroundings had rendered it most uncertain ground. The explorers who threaded the shores of Cape Cod in search of a restingplace had been greeted with "a great and hideous cry" from among the hills and out of the thickets, supplemented by a cloud of arrows. Pilgrim fire-locks answered back. The drama was thus opened, and after ninety days of adventure the Pilgrims of Plymouth still stood in the midst of inauspicious surroundings, notwithstanding the work of Captain Dermer, who, as well known, visited Plymouth in 1619 and made a peace with the Indians. Everything goes to prove that they were fickle at times. Now, therefore, they were far from being safe, and in this emergency a welcome came from the wilds of Pemaquid in the person of this tall, straight chief. The forlorn strangers were revived by this welcome. "Free in speech," as well as "of a seemely carriage," Samoset described the new country, enumerated the several chieftains, and showed their strength and prowess in

war.

Won by his address, and moved to pity by his destitution, the Pilgrims gave him "a horseman's coat." Familiar with the English beverage, he asked for "some beere." They gave him “ strong water and biskit and butter and cheese and pudding and a piece of a mallard." He liked it all. Doubtless he had eaten and learned to relish English beer, at English tables, at Popham's Port, in "ye easterne partes." They found him able to give the names of the most of the ship-masters and commanders on the coast of Maine. He also warned the colonists of the hostility of the neighboring tribes, telling them that eight months ago they had killed three Englishmen who were of "Sir Ferdinando Gorge his men," and that two others had barely escaped with their lives to Monhegan.

He himself had been in the Cape Cod country "eight months." He must then have left Monhegan with Dermer, who landed him at the Cape. This fact gives us the thread unravelling the mystery of his presence at Plymouth. He came with Thomas Dermer, the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges' estab

lishment at Monhegan, in his search for the recreant Rocraft, who had abused his trusts and abandoned Gorges' interests there, having illegally seized a French trader and started on a coast voyage in her.

Having informed his new-made friends of everything necessary to their welfare, Samoset wore out the day, and also determined to spend the night. Distrustful of the chief, the Pilgrims yielded with reluctance, and would have quartered him in the hold of the Mayflower, which still lay at anchor in the bay, but actually lodged him under guard in the house of Stephen Hopkins.

The next day at early dawn he departed, and within forty-eight hours returned with five other Indians. Friendly greetings were interchanged, and the five savages were sent to bring their king. Samoset remained for three days longer the guest of the Pilgrims, and received a "hat, stockings, and shoes, and a shirt." Massasoit, the King of Plymouth, at length came in while Samoset was with the Pilgrims. He tendered his good offices in negotiating a treaty of amity and peace, which was concluded between Massasoit and the colonists. The king with sixty braves was received by Governor Carver, Captain Miles Standish, Mr. Williamson, and six musketeers, heralded with drum and trumpet.

The conclusion of the negotiations was celebrated in "kissing, drinking, and feasting," his majesty trembling and sweating under draughts of "strong-water." The repose and success of the Plymouth colonial adventure having thus been assured, Samoset, in the climax of a successful and beneficent agency in shaping the incidents of the embryo life and infancy of a new commonwealth, passes forever from Plymouth scenes, leaving the Pilgrims well informed of the country, their environments of danger, and especially of the eastern coast, where he lived. No incident could have diffused greater joy than the intervention of Samoset at this juncture in Plymouth affairs.

Thirteen years prior to these events portions of the coast of Maine had become points to which English commerce and industry had been directed, and there Providence seems to have prepared Samoset for the very work he did at Plymouth for the Pilgrims in March, 1621. Popham's Port and ships had there a business growth of more than seven years.

Samoset, at his own home, had enjoyed opportunities of English association, hearing English speech and observing the courtesies of life with the English race, and the form, force, and effect of an English welcome. However broken may have been that welcome by him extended to the Pilgrims, it was alike honorable, generous, and fortunate. Thereafter Samoset appears only in Maine at and near Pemaquid.