HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 181 



Sustained. (Were old Chaucer alive, he might possibly 

 make some of our modem scholars squirm a little.) 



If it be conceded that Thomas Macy, Tristram Coffin, 

 and Peter Folger were not ignorant or uneducated 

 men, as it must be from the evidence, then it must also 

 be conceded that their associates were not; from the 

 fact that such men as those above mentioned would not 

 be likely, under the circumstances, to seek other than 

 congenial spirits. Men of intelligence and education 

 do not usually seek the companionship of the low and 

 ignorant. There is nothing whatever to substantiate 

 the assertion that Peter Folger was the only educated 

 man amongst the settlers. He was doubtless a fairly 

 capable man, and was perhaps better acquainted with 

 the Indian dialect than his associates; but it appears to 

 the compiler that if he were possessed of such a vast 

 amount of knowledge, he certainly exhibited a great 

 degree of self-denial by requiring for his own and his 

 sons' valuable services so small a compensation as two 

 quarts of corn for each bushel ground, and half a share 

 of land. 



According to Macy's History, " This Peter Folger 

 was an inhabitant of Martha's Vineyard. He was in- 

 vited to remove with his family to Nantucket to offi- 

 ciate as miller, weaver, and interpreter of the Indian 

 language. His son, Eleazer, was to act as shoemaker; 

 and as a proper encouragement to these several occupa- 

 tions, a grant of one half of a share of land, with all 

 the accommodations thereunto belonging, was made to 

 the father. He accepted the invitation, and in 1663 

 removed thither. In 1667 he took charge of the mill. 

 Besides laboring in the callings above mentioned, he 



