them, in the midst of them were foure little trunches knockt into the ground, and small stickes laid over, on which they hung their Pots and what they had to seeth; round about the fire they lay on matts, which are their beds. The houses were double matted, for as they were matted without, so were they within, with newer & fairer matts. In the houses we found wooden Boules, Trayes and Dishes, Earthen Pots, Hand baskets made of Crab shells, wrought together; Also an English Paile or Bucket, it wanted a bayle, but it had two Iron ears: there were also Baskets of sundry sorts, bigger and some lesser, finer and some coarser : some were curiously wrought with blacke and white in pretie works, and sundry other of their household stuffe: we found also two or three Deeres heads, one whereof had bin newly killed, for it was still fresh; there was also a company of Deeres feete stuck up in the houses, Harts horns, and Eagles clawes — and sundry such like things there was; also two or three Baskets full of parched Acornes, peeces of fish and a peece of broyled Hering. We found also a little silke grasse and a little Tobacco seed, with some other seeds which wee knew not; without were sundry bundles of Flags, Sedge, Bullrushes and other stuffe to make matts. PERMANENCY OF VILLAGES The members of each tribe or community were the recognized proprietors of certain hunting, fishing, and agricultural lands, held generally in common. According to Williams they were "very exact and punctuall in the bounds of their Lands belonging to this or that Prince or People (even to a River, Brooke &c.). And I have knowne them to make bargaine and sale amongst themselves for a small piece or quantity of Ground." 1 Good agricultural lands and good hunting and fishing grounds were necessary for the well-being of every community. In some regions these were combined in a comparatively small area and the village was in a measure permanent. In other localities they were widely separated, and the village or groups of people belonging to the community rotated from place to place according to the season. The winter villages were usually situated in warm, thickly wooded valleys near some lake or river. In the early spring the people moved to their fishing places, and when planting season arrived they sought their summer fields. During the latter season they would often remove from one part of Williams, op. cit., p. 89. their fields to a fresh place "because of the abundance of fleas which the dust of their house breeds." During the intervals between planting, cultivating, and gathering their corn and vegetables, groups and families made excursions to their clam-beds or other localities in search of food. After the harvest was gathered they sometimes removed to a hunting house, "and forsake it not until Snow lie thick, and then will travell home, Men, women and children thorow the snow, thirtie, yea, fiftie or sixtie miles; but their great remove is from their Summer fields to warm and thicke woodie bottomes where they winter." Lodge frames were sometimes left standing ready for the portable mats if the owners returned to the same spot. The Indians were very expeditious at their removals. "They are quicke; in halfe a day, yea, sometimes at a few houres warning to be gone and the house up elsewhere, especially if they have stakes ready pitcht for their Mats." Josselyn writes: "I have seen half a hundred of their Wigwams together in a piece of ground, and they show prettily, within a day or two or a week they have been all dispersed." 3 FORTS Most communities had as their headquarters one or more fortified enclosures, where the people dwelt at certain seasons, or into which they moved in time of danger. The larger forts consisted of more or less permanent villages of a score or more of cabins enclosed by a high palisade. The smaller ones were forty or fifty feet in diameter and contained a single cabin. The construction of the fortifications was practically the same whether they contained one or fifty houses. Some were rectangular, others circular. The smaller ones had but one entrance, while the larger had two, one on each side. In constructing a fort all the people joined in the work. A circular or rectangular plot of ground was marked off and surrounded by a narrow trench about three feet deep. Into this were set close together in a single row "young trees and half trees as thick as a man's thigh or the calf of his leg. Ten or twelve feet 1 Williams, op. cit., p. 56. 2 Ibid. 3 Josselyn, op. cit., p. 98. high they are above the ground and within [the ground] rammed three foot deep with undermining." A trench breast high was usually dug both within and without, the earth being thrown up against the palisades for the "better shelter against the enemies dischargements." Sometimes the outer trench was omitted. The entrance to the fort was formed by overlapping the ends of the rows of palisades, leaving a narrow passage between them. When occasion required this passage was stopped with boughs and brush. The outer trench was spanned by a bridge or a log which led to the entrance.3 The palisades were set close together, but open spaces between logs not perfectly straight were unavoidable. Such openings were used as loop holes. Underhill says the palisades of the Pequot fort were fastened close one to another. Other authorities do not refer to the joining of the palisades. The fort of the Penobscot Indians was seventy feet long and fifty feet broad. Within were twenty-three well finished wigwams.5 There were two forts on the Kennebec, one at Taconock (Winslow), the other at Norridgewock. Both of these contained several cabins. The fort seen by Champlain at Chouacoit (Saco) river was nearly square (fig. 11, d). He writes: "The savages dwell permanently in this place and have a large cabin surrounded by palisades made of rather large trees placed by the side of each other, in which they take refuge when their enemies make war upon them." The two circular forts visited by the Pilgrims in eastern Massachusetts were forty or fifty feet in diameter. They each contained a single cabin. The fort at Natick was also circular. That of the Pequots in southeastern Connecticut enclosed about an acre of ground and contained sixty or seventy wigwams.10 It was circular, 1 Vincent's Narrative, Orr's repr., in History of the Pequot War, p. 105. Mourt, op. cit., p. 90. 3 Drake, History of Philip's War, p. 58. Mourt, op. cit., p. 90. ♦ Underhill's Narrative, Orr's repr., in History of the Pequot War, p. 78. with two entrances. The ground-plan is well shown in the engraving in the original edition of Underhill.1 This drawing, however, is in many respects misleading. The forts in the southern half of New England were probably not all circular, for Wood writes that some are forty or fifty feet square." Numerous other fortifications are noted by New England writers. These defences were frequently situated upon a hill top. Philip's fort was on elevated ground three or four acres in extent in the middle of a hideous swamp. The writer recently examined the remains of a circular fort on the top of a hill near Salem, Massachusetts. The earthwork was about fifty feet in diameter with a trench on the inner side only. GARDENS Agriculture was universal among the New England tribes. Much of the coast region south of the Saco river, Maine, was under tillage. The high, rocky shores of the central and eastern portion of Maine were not suitable for agriculture, but the fertile river valleys of the interior of this state and throughout New England generally had their well cultivated gardens wherein were grown corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, artichokes, and tobacco.2 According to Williams "The women of a family will commonly raise two or three heaps [of corn] of twelve, fifteene or twentie bushells a heap, which they drie in round broad heaps; and if she have helpe of her children or friends, much more. 3 Therefore a family would commonly raise from twenty-four to sixty bushels of unshelled corn. This apparently does not include the amount of green corn consumed, which was considerable. Judging by the average yield of the ordinary field of the New England farmer of today, which is but a reproduction of an Indian garden, and taking into consideration the somewhat larger yield of modern varieties of corn, it seems probable that the amount of land ordinarily under cultivation by a single Indian family would 1 News from America, London, 1638. 2 Champlain, op. cit., pp. 64, 82. Williams, op. cit., p. 93. be from half an acre to about one and a half acres, or, in other words, a plot of ground from one hundred and fifty feet to two hundred and fifty feet square. This estimate is corroborated by Gookin, who says the Indian fields at Wabquissit yielded forty bushels of corn to the acre. The Indians taught the colonists their native agriculture-to "cull out the finest seede, to observe fittest season, to keep distance for holes and fit measure for hills, to worme it and weed it; to prune it, and dress it, as occasion shall require." 1 Wood also says that the Indians exceed the English husbandmen in the care of their fields, keeping them clear with their clamshell hoes, not suffering a weed to "advance his audacious head above their infant corn, or an undermining worm to spoile his spurnes." 2 When a field was to be broken up they had a "loving sociable speedy way to despatch it; all the neighbors men and women, fortie, fiftie, &c. joyne and came in to helpe freely." In preparing new land the trees were cut off about three feet from the ground and the branches piled against the trunk and burned. Corn was planted between the stumps and in course of time the stumps and roots were torn up. Each family had its garden, which was usually near the summer cabin, although sometimes a family had gardens a mile or two or several miles apart, and when the work of one field was over they would remove their cabin to the other.' In many places along the coast from the Saco to Cape Malabar, Champlain saw well-kept gardens with their accompanying cabins. He describes Nauset Harbor as three or four leagues in circuit, "entirely surrounded by little houses around each one of which there was as much land as the occupant needed for his support." 5 "6 Planting time arrived when the leaves of the white oak were as large as a mouse's ear. On land already cleared the weeds were burned and the ground worked over with instruments of very hard 1 Wood, op. cit., p. 74. 2 Williams, op. cit., p. 92. 5 Near Eastham. Champlain, op. cit., p. 81. 7 Belknap, History of New Hampshire, ed. of 1792, vol. III, p. 93. AM ANTH., N. S.. 8-9. |
