222. "Their houses, or wigwams," says Gookin, "are built with small poles fixed in the ground, bent and fastened together with barks of trees, oval or arborwise on the top. The best sort of their houses are covered very neatly, tight, and warm with the bark of trees, stripped from their bodies at such seasons when the sap is up; and made into great flakes with pressures of weighty timbers, when they are green; and so becoming dry, they will retain a form suitable for the use they prepare them for. The meaner sort of wigwams are covered with mats they make of a kind of bulrush, which are also indifferent tight and warm, but not so good as the former."--_Vide Historical Collections_, 1674, Boston, 1792, p. 9. 223. The construction of the Indian couch, or bed, at a much later period may be seen by the following excerpts: "So we desired to goe to rest: he layd us on the bed with himselfe and his wife, they at one end and we at the other, it being only plancks layd a foot from the ground, and a thin mat upon them."--_Mourt's Relation_, London. 1622, Dexter's ed., pp. 107, 108. "In their wigwams, they make a kind of couch or mattresses, firm and strong, raised about a foot high from the earth; first covered with boards that they split out of trees; and upon the boards they spread mats generally, and sometimes bear skins and deer skins. These are large enough for three or four persons to lodge upon: and one may either draw nearer or keep at a more distance from the heat of the fire, as they please; for their mattresses are six or eight feet broad."--_Gookin's Historical Collections_, 1674, Boston, 1792, p. 10. 224. This exploration appears to have extended about as far as Point Gammon, where, being "near the land," their Indian guide left them, as stated in the text. 225. On the map of Port Fortuné, or Chatham, the course of one of these excursions is marked by a dotted line, to which the reader is referred.--_Vide_ notes on the map of Port Fortuné. 226. _Port Fortuné_, perhaps here used, to signify the port of chance or hazard; referring particularly to the dangers they encountered in passing round Monomoy to reach it. The latitude of Stage Harbor in Chatham is 41° 40'. The distance from Mallebarre or Nauset to Port Fortuné, or Stage Harbor, by water round the Southern point of Monomoy is at the present time about nine leagues. The distance may possibly have been greater in 1606, or Champlain may have increased the distance by giving a wide berth to Monomoy in passing round it. CHAPTER XV. THE INCLEMENCY OF THE WEATHER NOT PERMITTING US AT THAT TIME TO CONTINUE OUR DISCOVERIES, WE RESOLVED TO RETURN TO OUR SETTLEMENT. WHAT HAPPENED TO US UNTIL WE REACHED IT.