Before The Arrival Of The Europeans, They
Lived On The Fish Of Their Shores; And It Was From The Same
Resources The First Settlers Were Compelled To Draw Their First
Subsistence.
It is uncertain whether the original right of the Earl
of Sterling, or that of the Duke of York,
Was founded on a fair
purchase of the soil or not; whatever injustice might have been
committed in that respect, cannot be charged to the account of those
Friends who purchased from others who no doubt founded their right
on Indian grants: and if their numbers are now so decreased, it must
not be attributed either to tyranny or violence, but to some of
those causes, which have uninterruptedly produced the same effects
from one end of the continent to the other, wherever both nations
have been mixed. This insignificant spot, like the sea-shores of the
great peninsula, was filled with these people; the great plenty of
clams, oysters, and other fish, on which they lived, and which they
easily catched, had prodigiously increased their numbers. History
does not inform us what particular nation the aborigines of
Nantucket were of; it is however very probable that they anciently
emigrated from the opposite coast, perhaps from the Hyannees, which
is but twenty-seven miles distant. As they then spoke and still
speak the Nattick, it is reasonable to suppose that they must have
had some affinity with that nation; or else that the Nattick, like
the Huron, in the north-western parts of this continent, must have
been the most prevailing one in this region.
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