THE " QC/0JVA//ASS/7'" PIONEERS. 



95 



murderous ledges, past Scituate and Marshfield, anchoring 

 for the night not far from Brant Rock.* 



It is quite obvious that the obscure and rock-fringed 

 harbor of Cohasset would not be discovered until some 

 explorer in a rowboat might venture in between the 

 uncharted rocks. 



This deed was reserved for Captain John Smith, the ver- 

 satile and brilliant hero of the Virginia Colony. 



It was in the summer of 



I'j^l-IPy- 



1614 that Smith's two ves- 

 sels lay at Monhigan Island, 

 off the coast of Maine, tak- 

 ing cargoes offish. "Whilest 

 the sailers fished," says 

 Smith, " my selfe, with eight 

 or nine others of them that 

 might best bee spared, rang- 

 ing the coast in a small boat, 

 wee got for trifles neer 1 100 

 Bever skinnes, 100 martins 

 and neer as many Otters." 

 He drew a very creditable 

 map of the coast line, the 

 first really good one, from 

 Maine to the bottom of 

 Cape Cod, 



He visited about forty 

 Indian villages, and gave the 

 names of about twenty 



different tribes. One of them is spelled Ouonahassit, 

 and it is perhaps the most interesting word to us in all 

 of Captain Smith's "Description of New England." 



It is immediately recognized as the original name from 

 which Cohasset has come. It was the Indians' own name 



CJH' '"■ •'•cLmu ihxtfu^ ,ky Tacc.l.-t A.-f 



rrhaifuw thy Ora.CC and Cflory; hr,Aur hcc 

 cry l^irc-DfcoutrU, and rovTlc. - Ovirrkn^a 



Of Salva^Ci.mucK CivMizJ. ty the 

 .■^tfijluii/ tfy Sjirit.atid a it Clory r.^^JtC , 

 ^ St.'/wu art Braf?e wi.-iciut.iu^ ^olrii MTithtn/lS 



Captain John Smith. 

 The Discoverer of Cohasset. 



* Champlain's Voyages, Chap. VII, Prince Publication. 

 neers of France in the New World, p. 254. 



Cf. Parkman's Pio- 



