Forenoon on New Seas 179 



No one in the gig was ever able to give any clear account of what 

 actually happened thereafter during the remaining seven hours of 

 daylight. Those on shore agreed that the boat covered at least 

 fifteen miles about the inlet, mostly out near the narrows. Every 

 canoe was said to have been capsized at least twice more, but it 

 was noted by both the colonists on shore and the Indians that the 

 gig did not founder. And it was the gig that at last came alongside 

 the great bulk of the whale just about sundown, and it was from 

 it that Makatoqua and three young tribesmen drove their longest 

 lances and smith Harvey's sharpest iron into the base of the great 

 animal's neck — if such it could be called. Thereafter, nothing much 

 happened because the huge bulk of the beast slowly sank just below 

 the surface and remained still, while blood flooded the whole har- 

 bor and formed a scum on the stones of the beach. The gig came 

 drifting inshore, the men resting on their oars in utter exhaustion, 

 while the canoes of the Indians scudded away one by one into the 

 dusk, and the whole community ashore gathered on the jetty. A 

 strange silence fell upon everybody, so that even when the gig slid 

 alongside, and Joshua Pomferoy climbed ashore, nobody spoke. 



Meanwhile, old Makatoqua had landed at the settlement, and now 

 came walking along the stony beach, accompanied by a group of 

 other Indians. Arrived at the jetty, one of their number raised his 

 hand in greeting, and stepped forward to address the white men. 



"Makatoqua say," he began, "man make great fire to this side" — 

 and he indicated the settlement — "so that all men may see to pull 

 the bedagi to beach." 



Then he turned about and, accompanied by his brethren, started 

 back along the foreshore. And it was only after they had gone that 

 the settlers raised a great, spontaneous shout of satisfaction and 

 excitement. Then one and all started running after the Indians to 

 lend a hand. 



In the earliest days of the settlement of our eastern seaboard, 

 scenes such as this occurred everywhere along the coast wherever 

 white colonists took up residence near an Amerindian community. 

 To read this today may be rather startling because we have been 

 dehberately conditioned for so long to think of the indigenous 



