WAMPANOAG INDIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 88D 



seven or eight, some of whom are mixed. An Indian territory, called 

 Herring Pond, in the neighborhood of Sandwich, about 5 miles north- 

 west from this village, and so extending thence along shore to Monu- 

 ment Ponds, all included within the township of Plymouth, I am told 

 by Joseph Nye, esq., one of their guardians, contains about a hundred 

 and twenty souls, one-half of whom are mixed. The Indian name of 

 this territory I never could learn. They appear to have been considered 

 as a distinct tribe, now known by the name of the Herring Pond In- 

 dians. Might not this place be Comassakunikanit?" (See Gookin's 

 Hist. Collection, p. 108.) 



The same Mr. Nye, who is guardian also to the Mashpee tribe, says 

 that there are about two hundred and eighty souls iu that place, of whom 

 at least two thirds are mixed. I suppose the Indians have diminished 

 siuce 1785, but the mixed race may be increased, as many negroes and 

 mulattoes from abroad have, since that period, settled there. I know 

 of none below Barnstable upou the Cape, except at Potanumaquut, a 

 part of Harwich, and there, I believe, there may be six or seven souls 

 only. The Rev. Mr. Damon thinks there is one in Truro. Wakoquet, 

 Weequakut, or Coquit (see Gookin's Mist. Collect., pp. 197-200), prob- 

 ably may be Wawquoit. The latter seems as like the sound as either, 

 but as the first is associated with Satuit, Pawpossit, Coatuit, and Mash- 

 pee, it is most likely to be that. Then the second may be what is now 

 called Chequocket, or by some Shequocket, which is in the southwest 

 part of the east parish in Barnstable, where there is an inlet called 

 Lewis's Harbor, not the same as Lewis's Bay, which is more easterly. 

 Or if it comport better with the history, it may be a place and pond 

 near Howland's Ferry, Tiverton, E. I., called Quaket, or Quaket Poud. 

 There is a place in Mashpee called Popponessit. This may be Pawpoe- 

 sit. Weesquobs cannot be located. Great neck in Mashpee is a place 

 famous for eels. The Indians, when they go in a canoe, with a torch, 

 to catch eels in the night, call it Weequash, or, anglicized, weequash- 

 ing. There was a great number of Indians formerly on this ueck, and 

 it seems now the metropolis of Mashpee. Whether any supposed affin- 

 ity between Weesquobs and Weequash will justify a conjecture is hard 

 to say. Codtaumut may be Canaumut Neck, in Mashpee. Kitteaumut 

 is probably Cataumut in Holland's chart. Shumuit, which I suppose 

 to be Ashimuit, is about equidistant from Cataumut, ou Buzzard's Bay, 

 and Canaumut Neck; rather nearest the latter. It might be associated 

 with either in Gookin's Historical Collections. But if we suppose Wees- 

 quobs to be Whakapee, a pond in Mashpee, then, most likely, Codtau- 

 mut and Canaumut must be the same. If we associate Cataumut, Shu- 

 muit, and Great Neck (for Weesquobs) together, there would then be 

 other places not contiguous. Wawayontat is said to be Wareham. 

 There are two rivers which pass through Wareham into the bay. That 

 through the town is called Agawam, and the Indians generally call 

 Wareham by that name. The other, which is near the west end of 



