and the Maritime Provinces. 199 



1854. In 1763 there were 358 of them, of whom 222 were swept off by 

 plague the same year, leaving only 136. It took fifty-nine years after that 

 to run the race out ; yet once they were of such numerical strength that 

 King Phillip thought it worth his while to visit the island to enlist their 

 services on his side. There were three wigwams standing in 1795. 



There are at least one hundred fishing vessels, chiefly sloops and 

 catboats, engaged in mackerel fishing during the season, making diurnal 

 trips out and in from the schooling grounds ; and if the novice wishes to 

 take a hand in, he has only to walk down to the wharf and pick out the 

 skipper he likes best, and arrange to be aboard at three o'clock in the 

 morning. Anyone of them will be pleased to have help to handle the 

 fishing lines, and will charge nothing. The trip, however, involves a rusty 

 suit of clothes, or, better yet, an " ile suit" ; for fishing is wet and some- 

 what dirty work. When the mackerel bite lively one has all he can do to 

 tend three or four lines and " slat " the fish off over the " crotch irons," 

 as they come inboard, and much sea water comes up with the lines into 

 the sleeves. The early rising before daybreak, the unwonted phenomena 

 of the roseate dawn, the exhilarating salt sea breeze, the run out into the 

 broad ocean, and the continuous " bait, heave and haul," as the metal 

 jigs go out and the mackerel come in, comprise the ordinary experiences 

 of the trip. Punctually at noon each day the vessels appear in the offing 

 on their return, and usually they run into harbor by three o 'clock, with a 

 fair wind and a rap full ; and it is inspiring to see so many white-winged 

 craft bunched up together and swooping into port like a flock of gulls, 

 with their canvas flashing in the sunlight. Sometimes they bring in a 

 swordfish, and perhaps a sawfish, each mighty with its armature, which 

 have been harpooned from the surface of the deep when the sea was 

 smooth, and the lookout spied them from the mast head, or his cradle on 

 the jib-boom. Strangers, as well as friends, are always interested to 

 inspect such goodly commercial prizes whenever they are landed on the 

 fish-house wharf. It is quite the fad for the hotel guests to fish off the 

 wharf in the running tide with cut bait and hand-line, and many plaice, or 

 flounders, are caught of twelve pounds' weight. One don't mind the gore 

 and slime when good luck attends. 



Few places, indeed, afford a greater variety of landscapes, or more 

 novel pastimes than Martha's Vineyard, even to those who come at the 

 " eleventh hour." These are as sure to get well paid as those who have 

 borne the heat and burden of the day. And as for sea food, the fare is 

 incomparable. The antiquity of the island, too, is charming. Gosnold, 

 the navigator, discovered it eighteen years before the Mayflower came. 

 Nine generations have succeeded since Rev. Thomas Mayhew took formal 

 possession of it under a grant from Lord Sterling, in 1614, and assumed a 

 suzerainty over the resident Indians. The American Tract Society has 



