THE PLAINS OF NAUSET. 
38 
fhem, since they commonly have their origin on the shore, 
“ The sand in some places/’ says the historian of East- 
ham, ‘^lodging against the beach-grass, has been raised 
into hills fifty feet high, where twenty-fiA^e years ago no 
hills existed. In others it has filled up small valleys, 
and swamps. Where a strong rooted bush stood, the 
appearance is singular : a mass of earth and sand ad¬ 
heres to it, resembling a small toAver. In several places, 
rocks, which were formerly covered with soil, are dis¬ 
closed, and being lashed by the sand, driven against them 
by the wind, look as if they were recently dug from a 
quarry.” 
We were surprised to hear of the great crops of corn 
which are still raised in Eastham, notwithstanding the 
real and apparent barrenness. Our landlord in Orleans 
had told us that he raised three or four hundred bushels 
of corn annually, and also of the great number of pigs 
A\diich he fattened. In Champlain’s “ Voyages,” there 
is a plate representing the Indian cornfields hereabouts, 
with their wigwams in the midst, as they appeared in 
1605, and it was here that the Pilgrims, to quote their 
OAvn words, “ bought eight or ten hogsheads of corn and 
beans” of the Nauset Indians, in 1622, to keep them¬ 
selves from starving.^ “ In 1667 the town [of Eastham] 
^ They touched after this at a place called Mattachiest, where they 
got more corn 3 but their shallop being cast away in a storm, the 
Governor was obliged to return to Plymouth on foot, fifty miles 
through the woods. According to Mourt’s Eelation, “ he came safely 
home, though weary and surbated^''' that is, foot-sore. (Ital. sobaitere^ 
Lat. sub or solea batter to bruise the soles of the feet ; v. Die. 
Not “ from acerbatus^ embittered or aggrieA’^ed,” as one commentator 
on this passage supposes.) This word is of very rare occurrence, 
being applied only to goA^ernors and persons of like description, who 
are in that predicament; though such generally have considerable 
mileage allowed them, and might save their soles if they cared. 
2* O 
