eral Court, observing to his judges that though some had dissuaded him, assuring him that the English would put him to death, or keep him in prison, yet, he being innocent of any ill intention against the English, he knew them to be so just that they would do him no wrong.' He offered to meet his great adversary, the sachem Onkus, at Boston, and prove to his face his treachery against the English. He urged much, that those might be punished who had raised this slander, and put it to our consideration what damage it had been to him, in that he was forced to keep his men at home, and not suffer them to go hunting till he had given the English satisfaction.' These reasonable requests were disregarded, but after passing two days at Boston, he established his innocence to the satisfaction of his judges, and was dismissed in peace. The following year proved with how much foundation he had calculated on the justice and liberality of his English allies. In July, 1643, his relative, Sequasson, was attacked by Onkus. Miantunnomoh complained to the English, and requested permission to avenge his kinsman's wrongs. This permission was granted in the fullest and most unequivocal language. Miantunnomoh accordingly attacked Onkus with a superior force, but was defeated, and afterwards delivered up to his rival, by two of his officers. When brought before Onkus he preserved total silence. Onkus demanded the reason. 'Had you taken me,' said he 'I would have besought you for my life. This the captive chieftain disdained to do. Gorton, of Rhode Island, and his associates then interfered in behalf of Miantunnomoh, their early friend and protector, and demanded his liberation. Onkus carried his captive to Hartford to take the advice of the magistrates there, and Miantunnomoh was delivered, at his own request, into their hands. What follows cannot be better related than in the words of Mr Savage.

'It cannot be doubted, I presume, that the captive, having in vain pressed the conqueror to put him to death, expected friendship from the English, to which his former services and recent deference gave him no slight claim. The Narragansetts made presents to Onkus; by one party these gifts are represented as a reward for delivering his prisoner to the English, by the other, as a ransom for the life of their sovereign. See governor Hayne's letter to Winthrop, 3 Hist. Coll. I. 229. Perhaps the conqueror was persuaded to surrender his prey at Hartford through the influence of Gorton and his associates, for it was at first reported,

that "they sent their letters in the name of the governor of Massachusetts;" but as this clause was afterwards struck out by Winthrop, it was probably a false report. Such a deception, for a benevolent purpose, might not be a heavy aggravation of the errors of ignorance, under which those heretics sank. Whatever influence, however, moved Onkus, it seems hardly possible, that he could have anticipated the joyful result of the policy of his teachers in civilization, the deliberation of pious statesmen, by which his captive was restored to his hands, with an injunction to put him to death.

A judicial investigation of the case of this sachem should not have been undertaken; but as it was, we may look at the grounds of judgment. Trumbull, I. 130, makes part of his offence "without consulting the English according to agreement." Our author's narrative ought to have silenced such a pretence. Little importance need be attached to another allegation, "that he had promised us in the open court to send to Onkus the Pequod, who had shot him in the arm, yet in his way homeward he killed him;" nor indeed to any other part of the doubtful story about the traitorous slave of the Moheagan. By the acts of the commissioners, Haz. II. 8, we learn, that it was fully proved, from the Pequod's own mouth, that he was guilty, and therefore Miantunnomoh, if innocent, as our people, before his misfortunes, thought him, might believe his royal promise satisfactorily performed by putting to death the assassin, instead of returning him to his master. Perhaps his promise to the English, on this matter, was less distinctly understood than it might have been between contracting parties of the same language. If Onkus were, however, free from all blame, and the Narragansett chargeable with treachery, and every other vice of kings, our rulers had no cognizance of the cause, and their advice to the successful warrior was cruel; but their conduct to Miantunnomoh, who had so few years before been their ally against the Pequods, can hardly be regarded as less than a betraying of innocent blood. In the congress of the united colonies, whose doings in this behalf are briefly, but fairly, told by our author, its president, and may be seen at large in Haz. II. 11-13, it was too hastily, I think, resolved, "that it would not be safe to set him at liberty;" and as death was the alternative, in their want of counsel and confidence to come to such a shocking result, against an unarmed prisoner, who was in amity with them, advice was asked, yet of only five among fifty assembled, of the ministers of religion. The fate of Agag followed of course.'

With profound regret I am compelled to express a suspicion, that means of sufficient influence would easily have been found

for the security of themselves, the pacifying of Onkus, and the preservation of Miantunnomoh, had he not encouraged the sale of Shaomet, and Patuxet to Gorton and his heterodox associates. This idea had been unwillingly entertained years before I knew the comment of Governor Stephen Hopkins, 2 Hist. Coll. IX. 202, with which I close this unhappy subject. "The savage soul of Uncas doubted, whether he ought to take away the life of a great king, who had fallen into his hands by misfortune; and to resolve this doubt, he applied to the Christian commissioners of the four united colonies, who met at Hartford,* in September, 1644. They were less scrupulous, and ordered Uncas to carry Myantonomo out of their jurisdiction, and slay him; but kindly added, that he should not be tortured; they sent some persons to see execution done, who had the satisfaction to see the captive king murdered in cold blood. This was the end of Myantonomo, the most potent Indian prince the people of New England had ever any concern with; and this was the reward he received for assisting them seven years before, in their wars with the Pequots. Surely a Rhode Island man may be permitted to mourn his unhappy fate, and drop a tear on the ashes of Myantonomo, who, with his uncle Conanicus, were the best friends and greatest benefactors the colony ever had. They kindly received, fed, and protected the first settlers of it, when they were in distress, and were strangers and exiles, and all mankind else were their enemies; and by this kindness to them, drew upon themselves the resentment of the neighboring colonies, and hastened the untimely end of the young king.' ." Vol. 11. pp. 132-134, note.

Every one will regret that so few accounts now exist of the domestic customs and modes of living of our ancestors; a fact which results from the obvious circumstance, that every historian writes in the first place for his contemporaries, and therefore passes over such topics, as too familiar to be noticed. There was no Espriella among our forefathers, to admit us into their dwellings, and seat us at their firesides, and give us a complete view of the routine of their daily occupations and recreations. On these subjects we must be contented with scanty and incidental hints, a few of which may be gleaned from the work before us. The houses of the first settlers of Boston were generally, as might be expected from the circumstances of the country, extremely simple and unadorned. Wooden chimneys

* 'It should be Boston, 1643, Trumbull, I. 133, hastily says, the commissioners for Plymouth are not on record this year. Their names are signed to the acts.'

were common for many years, and a wainscot of clapboards in the house of the deputy governor was considered a highly censurable piece of extravagance. The house of the ladye Moodye' at Salem, a person of high consideration, seems to have closely resembled one of our smallest dwellings, being nine feet high, with a chimney in the centre. The furniture of the early colonists was of a rather different quality. Much of it was brought from England and was of considerable value, forming a strong contrast in this respect to the humble sheds in which it was often deposited. In an inventory of the effects of Mrs. Martha Coytemore, Governor Winthrop's fourth wife, dated in 1647, we find silk curtains, brass andirons, cheny plates and saucers, and Turkey carpets.

Some estimate may be formed of the ordinary expenses of living from a remark in Governor Winthrop's account, dated

1634.

'I was first chosen Governor,' he observes, 'without my seeking or expectation, there being divers other gentlemen, who for their abilities every way were far more fit. Being chosen, I furnished myself with servants, and provisions accordingly, in a far greater proportion than I would have done, had I come as a private man or as an assistant only. In this office I continued four years and near a half, although I earnestly desired at every election to have been freed. In this time I have spent above £500 per annum, of which 200 per annum would have maintained my family in a private condition.'

There seems to have been no want of luxuries for the table. The country furnished fish and game in abundance, and though, says the Governor, in a letter dated, November the twentyninth, 1630, we have not beef and mutton, yet, God be praised, we want them not, our Indian corn answers for all,' an opinion in which, notwithstanding our regard for that highly useful vegetable, we find it difficult to follow him. Groceries were soon brought over in abundance from England, though it will be recollected that our two most valued articles of that description, tea and coffee, were not then used in Europe. We are told that at a military muster of twelve hundred men in 1641, there was not a man drunk, though wine and strong beer abounded in Boston; and we find that in 1630 the Governor began to discourage the practice of drinking toasts at table. Had he succeeded in abolishing it, what racking of invention and rummaging of memory for

extemporaneous sentiments might have been spared the present generation.

The attempts of our ancestors to restrain luxury in dress were altogether unavailing. It is stated, September the eighteenth, 1634, that many laws were made against tobacco, and immodest fashions, and costly apparel; but though such laws were frequently made, we do not recollect that Governor Winthrop mentions any instance in which they were enforced. Our ancestors endeavored to regulate the spirit of gain, as well as of expense, and with the same eventual success. The prices of labor and of commodities were fixed repeatedly by positive laws, but experience soon proved the utter futility of the project, though not until these laws had been executed in a few instances, especially in the case of Captain Robert Keaine, who was compelled to pay eighty pounds for taking a profit of sixpence and eightpence in the shilling, and in some small instances two for one. The state of morals among our forefathers, and the degeneracy of succeeding generations, have been subjects respectively of eulogy and lamentation from their day to ours; and we recollect a sermon of Mr Stoughton, published about the middle of the seventeenth century, in which he exclaims with great vehemence, 'our wine is mixed with water.' A close examination of this Journal may satisfy a candid reader, that such remarks are dictated in some degree by that veneration for antiquity, and discontent with the world around us, which are found in all countries and generations. The first colonists of Massachusetts were unquestionably, on the whole, a highly respectable community. Many of them, like the author of this work, were men partaking, like all human beings, of the errors and defects of the age in which they lived, and the society which surrounded them, but men of whom any country would be justly proud. They were among the best specimens of what was then and is now the best class of society in Great Britain, its well educated commoners; men superior perhaps to any of their successors in deep and extensive learning, and second to none for fervent piety, for stern integrity, and disinterested patriotism. But that all the early settlers of New England were of this description, is a supposition, which, though it sometimes seems to have been taken for granted, is manifestly absurd. There were several of the same stamp with those who find a place in every new country, needy and desperate adventurers, who hoped to find in a remote settlement, the subsistence which they were unwilling to procure by