THOMAS] Massachusetts' policy toward the Indians HOT 



unusual or cxtraoidiiiaiy cases, or in dispiited cases which could not 

 otherwise be settled. 



Reverend Peres Forbes, in liis description of the town of Jtaynhani 

 (1703), says that lauds (8 by ih miles) orijiinally known by the name 

 Cohanat, "in the colony of New Plymouth," were purchased of Mas- 

 sasoit by Elizabeth Pool and her associates. 



According to Drake,' the following purchases were made of King 

 Philip: " In 10(15, he sold the country about Acushena ^uow New Bed- 

 ford,) and Coaxet, (now in Compton.) Philip's father having i)reviously 

 sold some of the same, £10 was now given him to prevent any claim 

 from him, and to pay for his marking out the same." In 1002 Wrentham 

 was purchased of him by the English of Dcdham. lu 1009 an addi- 

 tional purchase was made by Dedbam. In 1007 he sold to Constant 

 Southworth and others all the meadow lands "from Dartmouth to 

 Matapoisctt;" also to Thomas Willet and others "all that tract of land 

 lying between the Riuer Wanascottaquett and Cawatoquissett, being 

 two miles long and one broad." 



lie sold and quitclaimed several other tracts, viz, "eight miles S(iuare," 

 including the town of Kehoboth; an island near Nokatay; "a consider- 

 able tract of land in Middleborougli;" land lying "near Acashewah in 

 Dartmouth;" a tract "twelve miles square" south of Taunton, and a 

 few days later "four miles square more." 



These examples are sufficient to show that to some extent at least 

 the lauds as occupied bj- the colonists were purchased from the Indians; 

 yet the lack of evidence, absence of records, and even want of tradi- 

 tion in regard to some of the towns lead to the inference that posses- 

 sion of the lands was otherwise gained, as at Boston, Salem, and other 

 places. 



In 1613 an act was passed by the Plymouth colony prohibiting all 

 traffic in land with the Indians; and in 1657 and 1602 the general court 

 took measures to protect the natives' fields and grounds from the stray 

 cattle and swine of the English. 



Among the articles of the confederation or alliance of 1043 between 

 the four colonies — Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New 

 Haven — was the following: 



It is also by these confederates agreed, that tho charge of all just wars, whether 

 ofl'ensivc or defensive, (upon what part or member of this confederation soever they 

 shall fall,) shall both in nieu and provisions, and all other disbursements, be borne 

 by all the parts of this confederation, in dift'ereut proportions, according to their 

 ditierent abilities, in manner following, viz. That the commissioners for each juris- 

 diction, from time to time, as there shall be occasion, bring account and number of 

 all the males in each plantation, or any way belonging to or under their several 

 jurisdictions, of what quality or condition soever they be, from sixteen years old to 

 sixty, being inh.abitants there; and that according to the different numbers, which 

 from time to time shall be found in each jurisdiction, upon a true and just account, 

 the service of men, and all charges of the war be borne by the poll. Each jurisdic- 



' Indians of North America (1833), Ijk. 3, cbaji. 2, p. 14. 



