Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, November, 1878Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 22, November, 1878
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
on the peninsula and the nearest villages, selling berries. The queen's
mother and the rest of the tribe are basket-makers. The second of
David's children is Maggie Arabella, a pleasant-faced girl with
thick-set figure; the third and fourth are bright-eyed boys, Samuel
Powhattan and Ebenezer Tecumseh; and the fifth is a child of about six
months, Sarah Pocahontas. Besides these there are the present king,
Stephen, and his son Samuel. King Sylvester preceded David, so that we
are in possession of the likenesses of three of the line of sachems.
Ephraim Fowler, a son of Sylvester, also survives. Of the other family
of Fowlers, there are the husband and wife and their four children,
three sons and a daughter. Such, so far as I know, is a complete census
of the tribe of Montauketts. Their possessions are small and their way
of living rude. Ichabod! Ichabod!
[Illustration: STEPHEN, KING _IN POSSE_.]
Returning to the hill overlooking Fort Pond, we are almost due south of
Point Culloden. When Montauk throws off entirely its old character and
fully assumes the inevitable new, the bay to the west of Culloden will
probably be converted by a breakwater into a harbor, and to the north of
where we stand it is not unlikely that the snort of the locomotive may
yet be heard. Already there are rumors of impending change. With the
railroad brought through from Sag Harbor, Fort Pond Bay will be the
point of arrival and departure of steamers plying between the island and
the New England shore. It is even suggested that the Transatlantic
steamers might make it a stopping-place to land mails and passengers.
The bay is so deep that vessels of any tonnage could enter it, and it
would moreover prove an excellent refuge in stormy weather. When thus
brought into more speedy communication with the western part of the
island, the lonely grandeur of Montauk will be modified by the inroads
of traffic and the things that tell of the far-distant city and its
seething mass of jaded humanity. The tens who now seek it will be
exchanged for hundreds in quest of the health and vigor that are inhaled
with every breath of the fresh salt air. There is, it must be admitted,
a certain amount of resignation in our view of such a transformation. We
wish for no change in Montauk--would not even ask for the iron road to
span the waste of Neapeague. All around is beauty--of the sky, of the
sea, of lake and land--beauty of wavy outline and delicious color. There
is a deep pleasure also in the feeling that we are here away from the
world. Care went riding down the wind into the marshes of the Water
Land, and we are emancipated from drudgery and routine. The workshop has
receded so far from its usual prominence that it is almost out of
memory, a thousand miles away. Why should it be brought nearer and
Montauk be made a portion of the old, every-day world?
[Illustration: MONTAUK LIGHTHOUSE.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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