MAY. 131 



Such an island as this was an invaluable plantation to 

 the Indians in days gone by. Did they lend a hand in 

 planting this, or was it Nature's unaided handiwork ? It 

 is certain that the Indians introduced this plant into 

 spring-ponds far away from running streams, where it 

 has continued to flourish unto this day; and if the 

 mud-flat or marshy island here is some two centuries old 

 or older, which is not improbable, there is nothing very 

 startling in the suggestion that it was originally a " Taw- 

 kee " field. 



" The American Indian, at the time of the discovery 

 of the continent and its early settlement, was a savage, liv- 

 ing upon the game and fish he captured," etc. ; so runs 

 the average statement of oar school geographies and out- 

 line histories, and a greater error never crept into print. 



It will be difficult, if it is possible at this late day, to 

 change the current of opinion ; but the statement is abso- 

 lutely false. Let him who doubts read Carr's history of 

 the Indian as an agriculturist. It was not a mere matter 

 of a melon patch and a little field of maize, but hun- 

 dreds of well-tilled acres and orchards containing thou- 

 sands of trees. 



A third landing was at one of those garden spots that 

 no one loving a flower can pass by unheeded. The bluff 

 was wooded to the very brink, and everywhere among the 

 scrubby oaks and dwarf pines grew rock-rose, Hudsonia, 

 lambkill, and viburnum; masses of white, yellow, and 

 pink. With it all were birds of many kinds and one 

 great mystery. The familiar song of the marsh wren was 

 frequently heard, yet it was not a locality where an orni- 

 thologist would expect to find that bird. This piqued my 

 curiosity, and I searched for the bird most carefully. 

 Presently a gray lizard appeared upon a pine tree before 

 me, and while stooping down to catch it a yellow-breasted 



