These Were The People With Whom I Was To Spend A Few Months;
And Who, With The Exception Of The Officer, Nicholas The Frenchman,
And The Boy, Made The Whole Population Of The Beach.
I ought,
perhaps, to except the dogs, for they were an important part of our
settlement.
Some of the first vessels brought dogs out with them,
who, for convenience, were left ashore, and there multiplied,
until they came to be a great people. While I was on the beach,
the average number was about forty, and probably an equal, or
greater number are drowned, or killed in some other way, every year.
They are very useful in guarding the beach, the Indians being afraid
to come down at night; for it was impossible for any one to get within
half a mile of the hide-houses without a general alarm. The father
of the colony, old Sachem, so called from the ship in which he was
brought out, died while I was there, full of years, and was honorably
buried. Hogs, and a few chickens, were the rest of the animal tribe,
and formed, like the dogs, a common company, though they were all
known and marked, and usually fed at the houses to which they
belonged.
I had been but a few hours on the beach, and the Pilgrim was
hardly out of sight, when the cry of "Sail ho!" was raised, and a
small hermaphrodite brig rounded the point, bore up into the harbor,
and came to anchor.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 223 of 618
Words from 61032 to 61285
of 170236
