604 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [eth..4xn.18 



God hatli consumed the natives \\ith a uiiiaculous iilague, whereby the greater part 

 of the countrey is left voide of inhabitants. 4tlily, We shall come in with the good 

 leave of the natives.' 



We are iuformed that tlie colouy in the first year of its existence 

 made an order tbat no person should trade with the Indians or hire one 

 as a servant without license. But it is doubtful whether this would 

 have been construed as referring to land purchases, as colonial laws 

 prohibiting '-trade" or "traffic" were not generally understood as 

 relating to lands, though doubtless a trade in land would have been 

 considered a violation of the law. But the point made here is that tlie 

 colonists, in making this law, did not have land purchases in view, 

 and that no inference can be drawn from it that purchases of land had 

 taken jilace. 



The following are some of the transactions with the Indians in ref- 

 erence to lauds, mentioned by the old records which have been pub- 

 lished. However, the towns referred to by Mr Oliver as having 

 disregarded the Indian title are not all thereby cleared from this 

 charge. How far this charge holds good as to "other places" can 

 only be inferred from what is hereafter presented. The records of 

 Dorchester, one of the towns mentioned, contains the following entry: 



Whereas there was a plantation given by the town of Dorchester unto the Indians 

 at Ponkipog it was voted at a general town meeting the seventh of December, Ki.^T, 

 that the Indians shall not alienate or sell their plantation, or any part tbereof, unto 

 any English upon the loss or forfeiture of the plantation. 



The same day it was voted that the honored Major Atherton, Lieutenant Clap, 

 Ensign Foster, and William Summer, are desired and empowered to lay out the Indian 

 plantation at Ponkipog, not exceeding six thousand acres of land. 



It is stated by Reverend T. M. Harris, in his account of Dorchester,^ 

 that the first settlers were kindly received by the aborigines, who 

 granted them liberty to settle; "but at the same time they were care- 

 ful to purchase the territory of the Indians;" also that "for a valuable 

 consideration they bought a tract of land from what is now called Eox- 

 bury brook on the west to Neponset river on the south, and on the 

 other .sides bounded by the sea." A deed was also obtained from 

 Kitclimakin, "sa(!liem of Massachusetts," for an addition as far as the 

 "Great Blue Hill." lu 1G37 the general court made a secoiul grant to 

 the town "extending to the Plymouth line,"' called "thel^ew Grant," 

 but the purchase from the Indians was not completed until 1006, and 

 deed obtained in 1671. The amount paid for this last purchase was 

 $140 (£28). If this writer, who adds, "These are pleasing evidences 

 of the precaution used by the early settlers to make regular purchases 



I There is considerable difference between the various copies of this paper. The second para^aph, 

 as given in the " Old South LeatJets," (12th series, number 3) is as follows: " We sh.iU come in w**" 

 the good leave of the Natives, who linde benefitt already by our neighbourhood & learne of us to 

 improve pt to more use, then before they could doe the whole, & by this meanes wee come in by valu- 

 able purchase : for they liav of us that ^s■^^ will yeild them more l)eneiitt then all the land w^}^ wee 

 have from them." In the copy given above, this is found in the fourth paragraph, abbreviated thus: 

 *' We shall come in with the ^ood leave of the natives.*' 



^ Collections Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. ix, first series, pp. 159. 160. 



