906 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



would necessitate entering on the almost equally interesting traditions 

 of the Indians of Nantucket and Cape Cod. 



Mr. Treat wrote that there were in 1G93 under his care in Eastham, 

 which then included Wellileet and Orleans, four Indian villages where 

 he was in tbe habit of visiting the natives in their wigwams. At this 

 time there were five hundred adult persons in the villages; but notwith- 

 standing every exertion made for the benefit of the Indians, they wasted 

 away by fatal diseases and other causes, so that in 1764 they were re- 

 duced to four individuals only. 



One reason why so few traces of settlement can now be found on the 

 sites of these old Indian villages is undoubtedly owing to the fact that 

 the civilized Indians persistently kept up the custom of living in wig- 

 wams until they had become wholly extinct or had mixed with other 

 races. As late as the year 1779 there was a cluster of wigwams about 

 a mile from the mouth of Bass River, probably at the spot where the 

 shell heaps and arrow-heads are so abundant. About this time the small- 

 pox was prevalent and most of them died. 



In 1745 thirteen Indians from this company on Bass River and the 

 immediate vicinity accompanied the Cape Breton expedition. The con- 

 dition of their embarking was that Mr. Thacher, of Yarmouth, should 

 be their captain. Of these thirteen only three lived to return, two 

 being killed by the enemj 7 , and eight dying of disease. One of Thach- 

 er's Indians, hired by Colonel Vaughan for a bottleof brandy, was the first 

 of the provincials who entered the grand battery at Louisburg. He 

 crawled in at an embrasure and opened the gate, which Vaughan imme- 

 diately entered, the enemy having withdrawn from this battery, though 

 at the time this circumstance was not known. This information is from 

 an extract made from "Alden's Collection," on page 60 of Barber's His- 

 torical Collections, and it adds several other interesting stories of the 

 Indians of this vicinity. 



Very little interesting information exists about the Indians of Cen- 

 treville and Buttermilk Bay, where the shell heaps would indicate a 

 population nearly as great as that at Bass River and Wellfleet Bay. 



Until the breast-plate of the Skeleton in Armor is found, and a 

 thorough investigation can be made, the history of this warrior must 

 remain a mystery, and we may regard him as a very ordinary and vain 

 Indian, buried in his finery, or we may think of him as a successful 

 warrior safely returned from a secret participation in King Philip's 

 war, and afterwards buried in the spoils which he had stripped from a 

 fallen foe. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT. 



Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. — Vol. I. — 1792. His- 

 torical Collections of Indians. By Daniel Gookin. [Contains much 

 valuable information on the subject; Indian inscription on a grave-stone 

 at Gay Head.] 



Vol. ii. — 1793. P. 40 [Letter from King Phillip to Governor Prince]. 



Vol. hi.— 1794. P. 1 : Description of Middleborough. P. 15 : A Top- 



