THE PLAINS OF NAUSET. 
43 
and is the most suitable, or rather unsuitable, for this 
purpose of any that I saw on the Cape. It is fenced, 
and the frames of the tents are, at all times, to be seen 
interspersed among the oaks. They have an oven and 
a pump, and keep all their kitchen utensils and tent 
coverings and furniture in a permanent building on the 
spot. They select a time for their meetings when the 
moon is full. A man is appointed to clear out the pump 
a week beforehand, while the ministers are clearing their 
throats ; but, probably, the latter do not always deliver 
as pure a stream as the former. I saw the heaps of 
clam-shells left under the tables, where they had feasted 
in previous summers, and supposed, of course, that that 
was the work of the unconverted, or the backsliders and 
scoffers. It looked as if a camp-meeting must be a sin¬ 
gular combination of a prayer-meeting and a picnic. 
The first minister settled here was the Rev. Samuel 
Treat, in 1672, a gentleman who is said to be “ entitled 
to a distinguished rank among the evangelists of New 
England.” He converted many Indians, as well as 
white men, in his day, and translated the Confession of 
Faith into the Nauset lan^ua^e. These were the In- 
dians concerning whom their first teacher, Richard 
Bourne, wrote to Gookin, in 1674, that he had been to 
see one who was sick, “ and there came from him very 
savory and heavenly expressions,” but, with regard to 
the mass of them, he says, “the truth is, that many 
of them are very loose in their course, to my heart¬ 
breaking sorrow.” Mr. Treat is described as a Calvinist 
of the strictest kind, not one of those who, by giving up 
or explaining away, become like a porcupine disarmed 
of its quills, but a consistent Calvinist, who can dart his 
quills to a distance and crurageously defend himself 
