I do not say that alcohol was at the bottom of all these cases, but that it made the natives excitable, litigious and dissatisfied I avow, without any reference to the misconduct and crime which it often prompted, and which frequently resulted from its influence. In many cases they found that the Courts decided against them, and they became discouraged. Moreover, they were astounded at the fastly-increasing number of whites on the island (so that offensive measures were out of the question), and as a matter of fact they never could be made to understand that the execution of a sale-deed of their property involved its absolute surrender to the purchaser, however many attempts they made to regain their land. Mr. Thomas Macy wrote a forceful letter to the Governor, in May, 1676, as to the pernicious effects of drink upon the natives, but every effort made to mitigate the evil by legislative measures failed; the natives who craved for it would sacrifice all they possessed, and one way and another, they generally found means of obtaining it. Fines and whipping were the modes inflicted for drunkenness and misdemeanors, but the death-penalty was never exacted except in cases of deliberate murder. It is recorded that, between 1704 and 1769, ten natives were executed for capital crimes.[15] On the other hand it has been stated that Quibby—who murdered Harry Gardner—was the first and only Indian executed in Nantucket since its settlement by the whites. Macy’s instances, however, seem well substantiated.[16] [15] Obed Macy; =opus cit.= [16] “Miriam Coffin.” In thus alluding to the misconduct of the natives I am merely mentioning facts which I should have preferred to pass over, but in justice to their memory it must be said that perhaps the majority of them were exemplary in their lives—many of them pious—and good steady husbandmen and craftsmen. As a race they have been much misrepresented, and if revengeful, it was only when their subduers had treated them cruelly or unjustly. Spirited efforts had been made to introduce Christianity among the natives, and the results on Nantucket were probably more successful than in any other section of New England. Thus, Barber (in his =Historical Collections=, page 448) says: “Soon after the English had settled on the island, attempts were made to convert the Indians to the faith of the Gospel, and, in course of years, all of them became nominal Christians.” Soon after 1680, all the old Sachems, who were alive when the English arrived had passed away, and their successors reigned in their stead.