MORE INDIAN TALK N the previous chapter we have considered oral dis IN course chiefly, and most of our examples have been of a conversational sort. There are also, of course, a good many written documents of a more or less formal character. These are generally the work of some converted native who had been taught to read and write in the Indian schools established under Eliot's influence. Sometimes the scribe is known, and usually his identity is not beyond a reasonable guess. An undated letter from King Philip to Governor Prince may head the list. The authorship is usually credited to John Sassamon, the praying Indian who at one time acted as Philip's secretary and whose tragic fate (told elsewhere in this book) was the signal for the outbreak of hostilities.1 The exact date of the epistle is unknown. The irregularities are chiefly syntactical; the spelling is quite as good as that of most records of the time and throws little light on the peculiarities of pronunciation. To the much honered governer mr. thomas prince, dwelling at plimouth honered sir, King philip desire to let you understand that he could not come to the court, for tom his interpreter has a pain in his back that he could not travil so far, and philips sister is verey sik. Philip would intreat that faver of you and aney of the maiestrats, if aney english or engians speak about aney land he pray you to give them no ansewer at all. the last sumer he maid that 1 See p. 76, above. promis with you that he would not sell no land in 7 years time for that he would have no english trouble him before that time he has not forgat that you promis him he will come asune as possible he can to speak with you and so I rest your very loving frind philip dweling at mount hope nek.1 Another document of Philip's, dated 1666, also concerns the vital question of selling land to the settlers. It amounts to a power of attorney appointing two Indians his general agents in such matters. It begins with great decorum but soon runs off into unconventionality: — Know all men by these presents, that Philip haue giuen power vnto Watuchpoo and Sampson and theire brethren to hold and make sale of to whom they will by my consent, and they shall not haue itt without they be willing to lett it goe it shal be sol by my consent, but without my knowledge they cannot safely to: but with my consent there is none that can lay claime to that land which they haue marked out, it is theires foreuer, soe therefore none can safely purchase any otherwise but by Watuchpoo and Sampson and their bretheren. PHILIP 1666.2 In April, 1676, Tom Dublet, alias Nepanet, one of the friendly Natick Indians who were then confined on Deer Island, was despatched to King Philip's quarters to negotiate for the release of Mrs. Rowlandson, wife of the minister of Lancaster, and other captives who had been taken at the sack of that town. Tom soon returned with a written reply: We no give answer by this one man, but if you like my answer sent one more man besides this one Tom Nepanet, and send with all true heart and with all your mind by two men; because you 1 The Massachusetts Magazine, for May, 1789, I, 276. The copy in Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., 1793, II, 40, varies slightly. 2 Drake, Book of the Indians, 8th ed., Boston, 1841, bk. iii, p. 14. know and we know your heart great sorrowful with crying for your lost many many hundred man and all your house and all your land and woman child and cattle as all your thing that you have lost and on your backside stand. SAM, Sachem, QUANOHIT, Sagamores. Mr. Rowlandson, your wife and all your child is well but one dye. Your sister is well and her 3 child. John Kittell, your wife and all your child is all well, and all them prisoners taken at Nashua is all well. Mr. Rowlandson, se your loving sister his hand C Hanah. Brother Rowlandson, pray send thre pound of Tobacco for me, if you can my loving husband pray send thre pound of tobacco for me. This writing by your enemies - Samuel Uskattuhgun and Gunrashit, two Indian sagamores.1 The confused postscript may need a word of explanation. It was intended to convince the Council that the prisoners were alive and well. Mr. Rowlandson's sister-in-law, Hannah Divoll, signs with her mark. The tobacco which Mrs. Rowlandson asks her husband to send her was of course to be used in mollifying her captors. Subsequently, when Mr. John Hoar went to negotiate for the release of the captives, he carried Mrs. Rowlandson a pound of tobacco, which she immediately sold to the Indians for "nine shillings in mony." "For many of the Indians," she tells us, "for want of Tobacco, smoaked Hemlock, and Ground-Ivy." There follows the remark, somewhat startling to us nowadays: "It was a great mistake in any, 1 The same, bk. iii, p. 90, apparently from the MS., which cannot now be found. Most of the letter is given by Gookin, Historical Account, Coll. Am. Antiq. Soc., II, 508. who thought I sent for Tobacco: for through the favour of God, that desire was overcome."1 We must remember, however, that the habit of smoking was by no means rare amongst women in the seventeenth and even in the eighteenth century. Earlier in her narrative Mrs. Rowlandson confesses to the seductiveness of a couple of pipes: "Then I went to see King Philip, he bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke it (a usual Complement now adayes amongst Saints and Sinners) but this no way suited me. For though I had formerly used Tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a Bait, the Devil layes to make men loose their precious time: I remember with shame, how formerly, when I had taken two or three pipes, I was presently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it is: But I thank God, he has now given me power over it: surely there are many who may be better imployed than to ly sucking a stinking Tobacco-pipe." 2 Peter Jethro, who acted as scribe on this occasion, was the son of a Natick Indian called Jethro or Tantamous. Old Jethro had escaped when the friendly Indians were being conducted to Deer Island for safe keeping, and was now, like his son, in the ranks of the enemy. Later, it appears, Peter went back to the whites and was employed as a spy. It is to him that Mrs. Rowlandson refers when she says, "There was another Praying-Indian, who when he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own Father into the English hands, thereby to purchase his own life." His epitaph is an emphatic utterance of Increase Mather: "That abominable Indian Peter Jethro betrayed his own Father, and other Indians of his special acquaintance, unto Death."4 1 Narrative, 1682, p. 56 (Nourse and Thayer's facsimile). 4 An Historical Discourse concerning the Prevalency of Prayer 1677, p. 6, ed. Drake, Early History of New England, 1864, pp. 257–8. Another Indian letter concerning the same negotiations, though unsigned, is thought to be the work of James Printer, a native who has an honorable name in the history of American typography. He had been apprenticed to Samuel Green of Cambridge in 1659, but had joined his countrymen when the war broke out. Soon after the date of this letter, he gave himself up, was pardoned, and returned to his trade. He was Eliot's mainstay in setting up and correcting the second edition of the Indian Bible (published in 1685), and in 1709 his name is joined with Green's in the imprint of an English and Indian Psalter.1 James Printer's letter is preserved among the Hutchinson Papers. It was written at Philip's headquarters at Wachusett, and runs as follows: For the Governor and the Council at Boston The Indians, Tom Nepennomp and Peter Tatatiqunea hath brought us letter from you about the English Captives, especially for Mrs Rolanson; the answer is I am sorrow that I haue don much wrong to you and yet I say the falte is lay upon you, for when we began quarel at first with Plimouth men I did not think that you should haue so much truble as now is therefore I am willing to hear your desire about the Captives. Therefore we desire you to sent Mr Rolanson and goodman Kettel: (for their wives) and these Indians Tom and Peter to redeem their wives, they shall come and goe very safely: Whereupon we ask Mrs Rolanson, how much your husband willing to giue for you she gaue an answer 20 pound in goodes but John Kittels wife could not till. and the rest captives may be spoken of hereafter. The descendants of James Printer did not follow in the steps of their ancestor so far as learning is concerned. In 1728, when the Indian proprietors of Hassanamisco 1 See Drake, Book of the Indians, 8th ed., bk. ii, pp. 50–51; Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, Washington, 1891, p. 348. 2 II, 282. Here from Nourse and Thayer's edition of Mrs. Rowlandson's Narrative, Lancaster, 1903, pp. 97-98. |