FOOTING IT ACROSS THE CAPE 83 



presents itself, is only a headland of hills of sand, 

 overgrown with scrubby pines, hurts and such 

 trash, but an excellent harbor in all weathers. 

 The Cape is made of the main sea on one side, 

 and a great bay on the other in the form of a 

 sickle. On it doth inhabit the people of Paw- 

 met, and in the bottom of the Bay those of 

 Chawum." 



The bottom of the bay means the region of 

 Barnstable and west, and the people of "Cha- 

 wum" were the Indians of that region. The 

 word sounds dangerous and suggests cannibals, 

 which I do not believe the Indians were, even in 

 those days. Perhaps it refers to their chief, who 

 may well have been an aboriginal Dr. Fletcher. 

 The word "hurts" is more difficult to dispose of 

 but I find it was just his way — and indeed the 

 way of the English of his time — of saying huckle- 

 berry. That delectable fruit which is so com- 

 mon on the Cape ought to have a name more sig- 

 nificant of its delectability, but perhaps the orig- 

 inal sponsors ate it before it was ripe, or too 

 much. Hurts is short for hurtleberry, which is 

 another way of writing whortleberry, the correct 

 old English form which we have since corrupted 



