In the height of this distress, tne governor received from Canonicus, sachem of Narraganset, a threatening message, in the emblematic style of the ancient Scythians, a bundle of arrows bound with the skin of a serpent. The governor sent an answer in the same style, the skin of the serpent filled with powder and ball. The Narragansets, afraid of its contents, sent it back unopened, and here the correspondence ended.

It was now judged proper to fortify the town. Accordingly, it was surrounded with a stockade and four flankarts; a guard was kept by day and night, the company being divided into four squadrons. A select number were appointed, in case of accidental fire, to mount guard with their backs to the fire, to prevent a surprise from the Indians. Within the stockade was enclosed the top of the hill, under which the town was built, and a sufficiency of land for a garden to each family. The works were begun in February, and finished in March.

At this time the famine was very severe. Fish and spring-water were the only provision on which the people subsisted. The want of bread reduced their flesh; yet they had so much health and spirit, that, on hear

ing of the massacre in Virginia, they erected an additional fort on the top of the hill, with a flat roof, on which the guns were mounted; the lower story served them for a place of worship. Sixty acres of ground were planted with corn; and their gardens were sown with the seeds of other esculent vegetables in great plenty.

The arrival of two ships* with a new colony, sent out by Thomas Weston, but without provisions, was an additional misfortune. Some of these people, being sick, were lodg ed in the hospital at Plymouth till they were so far recovered as to join their companions, who seated themselves at Wessa gusset, since called Weymouth.

The first supply of provision was obtained from the fishing vessels, of which thirty-five came this spring from England to the coast. In August two shipst arrived with trading

* [The Charity, of one hundred tons, and the Swan, of thirty. The Charity, having gone on to Virginia, returned to Weymouth, and thence to England. The Swan remained at Weymouth for the use of the colonists.-H.]

+ [The Sparrow, Mr. Weston's, sent out on a fishing voyage, and the Discovery, on an expedition to explore the coast from Cape Cod to Virginia, and now homeward bound. "This ship," says Morton (p. 83), speaking of the latter, "had store of English beads (which were then good trade) and some knives, but would sell none but at dear rates, and also a good quantity

goods, which the planters bought at a great disadvantage, giving beaver in exchange. The summer being dry, and the harvest short, it became necessary to make excursions among the natives to procure corn and beans with the goods purchased from the ships. Governor Bradford undertook this service,* having Squanto for his guide and interpreter, who was taken ill on the passage, and died at Manamoik. Before his death, he requested the governor to pray for him, "that he might go to the Englishman's GOD."

In these excursions Mr. Bradford was treated by the natives with great respect, and the trade was conducted on both parts with justice and confidence. At Nauset, the shallop being stranded, it was necessary to put the corn which had been purchased in stack, and to leave it, covered with mats and sedge,

together; yet they (the planters) were glad of the occasion, and fain to buy at any rate; they were fain to give after the rate of cent. per cent., if not more, and yet pay away coat beaver at three shillings per pound,' ," "which a few years after yields twenty shillings a pound.' -Prince, 205.-H.]

* [This was in November, and was the first attempt to go round the cape outside to the southward. He found no passage through the shoal at the southern extremity of it, and put in at Manamoik, now Chatham. After the death of Squanto Bradford sailed to Massachusetts, and thence to Nauset, now called Eastham.-H.]

in the care of the Indians, while the govern or and his party came home, fifty miles, on foot. It remained there from November to January, and, when another shallop was sent, it was found in perfect safety, and the stranded shallop was recovered.*

At Namasket [Middleborough], an inland place, he bought another quantity, which was brought home, partly by the people of the colony and partly by the Indian women, their men disdaining to bear burdens.

At Manomet [Sandwich] he bargained for more, which he was obliged to leave till March, when Captain Standish went and fetched it home, the Indian women bringing it down to the shallop. The whole quantity thus purchased amounted to twenty-eight hogsheads of corn and beans, of which Weston's people had a share, as they had joined in the purchase.

In the spring (1623) the governor received a message from Massasoit that he was sick, on which occasion it is usual for all the friends of the Indians to visit them or send them presents. Mr. Winslow again went to visit the sachem, accompanied by Mr. John Hampden,t and they had Hobbamock for * Winslow, in Purchas, iv., 1858.

In Winslow's Journal, Mr. Hampden is said to be “a gen

their guide and interpreter. The visit was very consolatory to their sick friend, and the more so as Winslow carried him some cordials, and made him broth after the English mode, which contributed to his recovery. In return for this friendly attention, Massasoit communicated to Hobbamock intelligence of a dangerous conspiracy, then in agitation among the Indians, in which he had been solicited tleman of London, who then wintered with us, and desired much to see the country." I suppose this to be the same person who distinguished himself by his opposition to the illegal and arbitrary demands of King Charles I. He had previously (1637) embarked for New-England with Oliver Cromwell, Sir Arthur Haslerig, and others; but they were prevented from coming by the king's "proclamation against disorderly transporting his majesty's subjects to the plantations in America." Hampden was born in 1594, and was 29 years old at the time of his being at Plymouth in 1623.-See Neal's Hist. N. E., vol. i., 151. Hazard's State Papers, vol. i., 421. Northouck's Biographical Dictionary, H A M.*

[I can hardly believe that John Hampden ever came to America. His late biographer, Lord Nugent, does not allude to it, which is a strong negative proof. The narrative in the text is the only early New-England writing in which it is mentioned. Yet, when Hampden's fame became great in England, would not those whose solitude he had shared have sometimes referred to it in thankfulness, if not in boasting? He could have come only in some fishing vessel, and would he have chosen such a conveyance? He had but just entered on public life in Parliament, and why should he have left his ambition and his new-made home for a winter's sojourn in a desert?-H.]