WAMPANOAG INDIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 879 



New England a fair knowledge of the Wampanoag tribe, to which the 

 Indians of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket belonged. 

 The practice of the writer has been, after finding alone the site of 

 some Indian town, and obtaining all the information available from 

 the farmers and others living in the vicinity, to turn to the volumes of 

 the Massachusetts Historical Society's works and Barber's Historical 

 Collections, " a general collection of interesting facts, traditions, bio- 

 graphical sketches, anecdotes, &c, relating to the history and antiqui- 

 ties of every town in Massachusetts," aud learn what is there said 

 of the Indians once living there. This information was sometimes 

 very satisfactory, but until recently went ahead of the explorations, 

 and there are still a few important additions to be made to the map of 

 Indian settlements on Cape Cod. In the rambles in search of arrow- 

 heads, stone hatchets, &c, little of the history of their former owners 

 could be learned from persons now living near by, the usual information 

 being to the effect that "when the oldest inhabitant was a boy," an old 

 Indian or squaw lived near the spot where the arrows or shell heaps 

 exist. In a few other places, as at Mashpee and Gay Head, the mixed 

 descendants of the Indians may still be seen; but, with the exception 

 of a few names, like Pocknet and Attaquin, their names are English, 

 aud their hair inclined to curl, owing to their frequent intermarriage 

 with the negroes. A friend who has given the matter some attention 

 writes that there are now probably none of unmixed blood among the 

 Indians of Mashpee, though many of the people have a strongly marked 

 Indian appearance. Neither these Indians nor some of the same sort 

 at Gay Head could give any exact information in regard to the sites of 

 old Indian towns, and the conclusion is inevitable that they know less 

 About such things than some small white boys living near by, who are 

 <n the habit of collecting arrow-heads. At several places on Cape Cod, 

 Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket people are becoming interested in 

 Indian relics, and it is frequently impossible to buy a stone hatchet 

 (which the owner may have thought worthless), because he heard 

 that another man had sold such a grooved stone for a great price. 

 Several boys have collections of arrow-heads amounting to two 

 or three hundred; and middle-aged men have said that in certain 

 places they could once find all the arrow-heads they wished, and have 

 been surprised when there were found only one or two, perhaps not 

 one. Old men say that it was the habit of the farmers to plow up most 

 regularly all those fields which had been already cleared by the natives, 

 for these always gave the best crops, owing to the rich black soil that 

 was usually found there. On the east side of Bass River, aud on In- 

 dian Neck, near Wellfleet Harbor, may be seen the wisdom of this 

 practice; for at these places the most thrifty vegetables in the fields 

 were those growing in the dark earth and scattered shell-heaps. But 

 by this practice the most lasting monuments of the Indians have been 

 erased, their graves levelled, their shell heaps scattered, and their weap- 



