816 



MASPETH MASSACHUSET 



[b. a. h. 



of a ridge near Rio Bavispe, n. w. Chi- 

 huahua, Mex. The walls, which stand 

 3 to 5 ft high, consist of felsite blocks 

 averaging 6 by 12 in., laid in gypsifer- 

 ous clay mortar and coated with white 

 plaster. The structure is ascribed to the 

 Opata. 



Maspeth. A small Algonquian tribe 

 or band, a branch of the Rockaway, 

 formerly living in a village about the 

 site of the present Maspeth, between 

 Brooklyn and Flushing, Long Island, 

 N. Y. The name occurs as early as 1638. 

 Ruttenber speaks of Mespath as a con- 

 sideral)le Canarsee village, attacked by 

 the Dutch in 164-1. (j. m.) 



Maspeth.— Thompson, Long Id., 410, 1839 (tribe). 

 Mespacht.— Tieiilioven (1050) in N. Y. Doc. Col. 

 Hist.. I. I'Jii, is,-,c,. Mespadt.— Ruyven (1666) , ibid., 

 II, 473, is.'is. Mespaetches. — Doc. of 1638quoted by 

 Flint, Early Long Id., 162, 1896 ("Mespaetches 

 Swamp"). Mespat. — Conncil of war (1673) in 

 N. Y. Doe. Col. Hist., ll, .591, 1858. Mespath.— 

 Ruttenber, Tribes Hudson R., 114, 1872 (village). 

 Mespath's Kill.— Council of 1673 in N. Y. Doc. Col. 

 Hist., II, 661, 1858. Mespat Kil,— Ibid., 586. Mes- 

 pats-kil. — Stuyvesant (1663), ibid., 448. Metsepe. — 

 Flint, op. cit., 162 (given as Indian form). 



Masque allonge, Masquinonge, Masqui- 

 nongy. See MaKlinoiige. 



Massachuset (}[assa-adchu-es-et, 'at or 

 about the great hill ' ; from massa 'great', 

 wadchu 'hill or mountain', es 'small', et 

 the locative. — Trumbull. In composition 

 wadcha becomes adcJni and adds ash for 

 the plural. The name refers to the Blue 

 Hills of Milton. Williams substitutes 

 euk for et in forming the tribal designa- 

 tion, and uses the other as the local 

 form. Cotton in 1708 translated the 

 word 'a hill in the form of an arrow- 

 head ' ) . An important Algonquian tribe 

 that occupied the country about Massa- 

 chusetts bay in e. Massachusetts, the 

 territory claimed extending along the 

 coast from Plymouth northward to Salem 

 and possibly to the Merrimac, including 

 the entire basin of Neponset and Charles 

 rs. The group should perhaps be de- 

 scribed as a confederacy rather than as a 

 tribe, as it appears to have included sev- 

 eral minor bodies. Johnson described 

 the group as formerly having "three 

 kingdoms or sagamoreships having imder 

 them seven dukedoms or petty saga- 

 mores." They seem to have held an im- 

 portant place among the tribes of s. New 

 England prior to the coming of the whites, 

 their strength being estimated as high as 

 3,000 warriors, although it is more likely 

 that the total population did not exceed 

 that number. Capt. John Smith (1614) 

 mentions 11 of their villages on the coast 

 and says they had more than 20. In 

 consequence of war with the Tarratine 

 and the pestilence of 1617 in which they 

 suffered more than any other tribe, the 

 English colonists who arrived a few years 

 later found them reduced to a mere rem- 

 nant and most of the villages mentioned 



by Smith depopulated. In 1631 they 

 numbered only about 500, and 2 years 

 later were still further reduced by 

 sinrllpox, which carried off their chief, 

 Chickatabot. Soon thereafter they were 

 gathered, with other converts, into the 

 villages of the "Praying Indians, "chiefly 

 at Natick, Nonantum, and Ponkapog, and 

 ceased to have a separate tribal existence. 

 As they played no important role in the 

 struggles between the settlers and natives, 

 the chief interest that attaches to them is 

 the fact that they owned and occupied the 

 site of Boston and its suburbs and the im- 

 mediately surrounding territory when the 

 whites first settled there. In 1621, when 

 Standish and his crew from Plymouth 

 visited this region, they found the'lndians 

 but few, unsettled, and fearful, moving 

 from place to place to avoid the attacks 

 of their enemies the Tarratine. 



Although the Algonquian Indians of 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 

 Island, taken as a whole, formed a some- 

 what homogeneous group, yet there were 

 linguistic differences which seem to justify 

 De Forest (Indians Conn., 1853) in doubt- 

 ing Gookin's statement that the languages 

 were so much alike that the people of the 

 different tribes could easily understand 

 one another. The Massachuset were more 

 closely allied to the Narraganset than to 

 any other of the surrounding tribes whose 

 languages are known, the people of the 

 two V)eing able to understand each other 

 without difficulty. For their customs, 

 beliefs, etc., see Algonquian Family. 



Following are the villages of the Massa- 

 chuset Indians so far as known, some of 

 them being more or less conjectural: 

 Conohasset, Cowate, Magaehnak, Massa- 

 chuset, Mishawum, Mystic (Middlesex 

 CO.), Nahapassumkeck, Nasnocomacack, 

 Natick, Naumkeag (Essex co. ), Nei:)onset, 

 Nonantum, Patuxet, Pequimmit, Poca- 

 pawmet, Punkapog, Sagoquas, Saugus, 

 Seecasaw, Titicut, Topeent, Tot ant, 

 Totheet, AVessagus.«et, Winnisimmet, 

 and Wonasquani. (.t. m. c. t. ) 



Macachusetts.— Writer ca. 1690 in Mass. Hist. Soc. 

 Coll., 3d s.. I, 212, 182.5. Macetuchets.- Underbill 

 (1640), ibid., 4th s., vii, ISO. 1865. Macetusetes.— 

 Underbill (1639), ibid., 178. Mantachusets.— 

 Writer ca. 1648 in Proud, Pa., i, 115, 1797. Masa- 

 thulets.— Higgeson (1630) in Mass. Htst. Soc. 

 Coll., 1st s., I, 123, 1806. Masetusets.— Underbill, 

 (1647), ibid., 4th s., vii, 181, 1S65. Masichew- 

 setts. — Hooke (1637), ibid., 195. Massachewset. — 

 Smith (1616), ibid., 3d s., vi, 119,1837. Massachi- 

 sans.— Gorges (1658) in Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., ll, 62, 

 1847. Massachuselts.— Dee in Smith (1629), Vir- 

 ginia, II, 263, re7)r. 1819 (misprint). Massachu- 

 sets,— Smith (1616) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3d s., 

 VI, 119, 1837. Massachuseuks.— Mourt (1622),. 

 ibid., Ists., VIII, 241, 1802. Massachusiack.— .Tosse- 

 Ivn (1675), ibid., 3d s., ill, 343, 1833. Massachus- 

 sets.— Dermer (1620). ibid., 4th s., iii, 97, 18.56. 

 Massachusuks. — Morton, New Eng. Memorial, 305, 

 1855. Massadzosek, — .lesuit Rel., lli, inde.x, 1858. 

 Massajosets. — Maurault, .\bcnakis, iii, 1866. Mas- 

 sathusets.— Allvn (1666) in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 

 3d , X, 63, 1849. Massatuchets.— Doc. of 1636, 

 ibid., Ill, 129, 1833. Massatusitts.— Records (1662) 



