As In My Way Back To Falmouth On The Main, I Visited This
Sister Island, Permit Me To Give You
As concisely as I can, a short
but true description of it; I am not so limited in the principal
Object of this journey, as to wish to confine myself to the single
spot of Nantucket.
LETTER VI
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD; AND OF THE WHALE
FISHERY
This island is twenty miles in length, and from seven to eight miles
in breadth. It lies nine miles from the continent, and with the
Elizabeth Islands forms one of the counties of Massachusetts Bay,
known by the name of Duke's County. Those latter, which are six in
number, are about nine miles distant from the Vineyard, and are all
famous for excellent dairies. A good ferry is established between
the Edgar Town, and Falmouth on the main, the distance being nine
miles. Martha's Vineyard is divided into three townships, viz.
Edgar, Chilmark, and Tisbury; the number of inhabitants is computed
at about 4000, 300 of which are Indians. Edgar is the best seaport,
and the shire town, and as its soil is light and sandy, many of its
inhabitants follow the example of the people of Nantucket. The town
of Chilmark has no good harbour, but the land is excellent and no
way inferior to any on the continent: it contains excellent
pastures, convenient brooks for mills, stone for fencing, etc. The
town of Tisbury is remarkable for the excellence of its timber, and
has a harbour where the water is deep enough for ships of the line.
The stock of the island is 20,000 sheep, 2000 neat cattle, beside
horses and goats; they have also some deer, and abundance of sea-
fowls. This has been from the beginning, and is to this day, the
principal seminary of the Indians; they live on that part of the
island which is called Chapoquidick, and were very early
christianised by the respectable family of the Mahews, the first
proprietors of it. The first settler of that name conveyed by will
to a favourite daughter a certain part of it, on which there grew
many wild vines; thence it was called Martha's Vineyard, after her
name, which in process of time extended to the whole island. The
posterity of the ancient Aborigines remain here to this day, on
lands which their forefathers reserved for themselves, and which are
religiously kept from any encroachments. The New England people are
remarkable for the honesty with which they have fulfilled, all over
that province, those ancient covenants which in many others have
been disregarded, to the scandal of those governments. The Indians
there appeared, by the decency of their manners, their industry, and
neatness, to be wholly Europeans, and nowise inferior to many of the
inhabitants. Like them they are sober, laborious, and religious,
which are the principal characteristics of the four New England
provinces. They often go, like the young men of the Vineyard, to
Nantucket, and hire themselves for whalemen or fishermen; and indeed
their skill and dexterity in all sea affairs is nothing inferior to
that of the whites.
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