Nooks and Corners of the New England CoastDrake, Samuel Adams
History
Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast
Drake, Samuel Adams
New England -- Description and travel
On the map of Cyprian Southack a thoroughfare is delineated from
Massachusetts Bay to the ocean at Eastham, near Sandy Point. His words
are: "The place where I came through with a whale-boat, April 26th,
1717, to look after Bellame the pirate." I have never seen this map,
which Douglass pronounces "a false and pernicious sea-chart."
From its barring their farther progress, Cape Cod was well known to the
discoverers of the early part of the seventeenth century. According to
Lescarbot, Poutrincourt spent fifteen days in a port on the south side.
It had been formally taken possession of in the name of the French king.
The first conflict between the whites and natives occurred there; and in
its sands were interred the remains of the first Christian who died
within the ancient limits of New England.[218]
The assault of the natives on De Poutrincourt is believed to have
occurred at Chatham, ironically named by the French Port Fortuné, in
remembrance of their mishaps there. It was the very first collision
recorded between Europeans and savages in New England. Five of De
Poutrincourt's men having slept on shore contrary to orders, and without
keeping any watch, the Indians fell on them at day-break, October 15th,
1606, killing two outright. The rest, who were shot through and through
with arrows, ran down to the shore, crying out, "Help! they are
murdering us!" the savages pursuing with frightful whoopings.
Hearing these outcries and the appeal for help, the sentinel on board
the bark gave the alarm: "_Aux armes!_ they are killing our people!"
Roused by the signal, those on board seized their arms, and ran on deck,
without taking time to dress themselves. Fifteen or sixteen threw
themselves into the shallop, without stopping to light their matches,
and pushed for the shore. Finding they could not reach it on account of
an intervening sand-bank, they leaped into the water and waded a
musket-shot to land. De Poutrincourt, Champlain, Daniel Hay, Robert
Gravé the younger, son of Du Pont Gravé, and the younger Poutrincourt,
with their trumpeter and apothecary, were of the party that rushed
pell-mell, almost stark naked, upon the savages.
The Indians, perceiving the rescuing band within a bow-shot of them,
took to flight. It was idle to pursue those nimble-footed savages; so
the Frenchmen brought their dead companions to the foot of the cross
they had erected on the preceding day, and there buried them. While
chanting the funeral prayers and orisons of the Church, the natives,
from a safe distance, shouted derisively and danced to celebrate their
treason. After their funeral rites were ended the French voyagers
silently returned on board.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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