Connors, Donald F. “The Children of the Forest.” In Thomas Morton, pp. 36-57. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1969.

[In the following excerpt from his full-length study of Morton, Connors evaluates Morton's depiction of Native Americans in New English Canaan.]

Morton's subject—the Indians of the New England region—in the first of the three books that comprise the New English Canaan was a favorite one with reporters of his time. Nineteen of the twenty short chapters in Book I are filled with speculations about their language and their ancestors, tales of their powwows and chieftains, and observations on their beliefs, their way of life, and their tractable nature. It is a warm, interested, and compassionate report of them. A distinguishing note in this division of Morton's work is his insistence on the simple, contented life of the natives and on their basic goodness and humanity.

Morton tells us that his experiences in New England taught him that two sorts of people lived there: “the one Christians, the other Infidels; these [the “Infidels,” or Indians] I found most full of humanity, and more friendly than the other” (123). The humanity of the natives is a theme which he employs again in the third book of the New English Canaan to show, as he says at one point, that “the uncivilized people are more just than the civilized” (270). In Book I, however, he appears to be engrossed in the study of a primitive but tractable people and their curious ways. His attitude in this book is observant, relaxed, and quietly enthusiastic; there is little of the tension that is so much in evidence in Book III. If Morton had any ulterior motives in mind when painting his idyllic picture of Indian life, they seem to have been outweighed by his genuine admiration of the rich life of the American savage and his firm belief that people of civilized nations might take to heart some lessons from the Indian's generous, honest nature.

This concept of Morton's caught the attention of Washington Irving. Near the end of his treatment of Indian life in the first book of the New English Canaan, Morton writes of the happy life of the savages: “their life is so voyd of care, and they are so loving also that they make use of those things they enjoy, (the wife onely excepted,) as common goods, and are therein so compassionate that, rather then one should starve through want, they would starve all. Thus doe they passe awaye the time merrily, not regarding our pompe, (which they see dayly before their faces,) but are better content with their owne, which some men esteeme so meanely of” (178). The passage is quoted by Irving, almost word for word, in “Traits of Indian Character,” in The Sketch Book.¹ Both the celebrated nineteenth-century author and Morton—identified by Irving, not by name, but merely as “an old historian of New England”—found deep satisfaction in contemplating the life led by the children of the forest.

I. TALES OF CHEECATAWBACK AND PAPASIQUINEO

The detailed, pictorial, and meditative nature of Morton's report of the Indians, together with the strange tales that he relates of their manners and customs, kindled the interest of later American writers, who used certain information contained in his book or quoted from it as points of beginning for creative works in prose and verse. An example of this is a story which Irving tells in The Sketch Book of Cheecatawback, an Indian sachem who appears a number of times in the New English Canaan.

Cheecatawback was one of the nine native chieftains who, in 1621, acknowledged themselves loyal subjects of King James.² Ten years later, this Sachem appeared several times at Boston. Once he came with his braves and squaws to present the governor with a hogshead of Indian corn. He remained overnight, and conducted himself properly at table, Governor Winthrop reports. A few weeks later, he arrived again in the town to pick up a fine suit of clothes that had been tailored for him. On this occasion, Winthrop writes, he would not eat the meat that was set before him until the governor had given thanks for it. In two months' time he was back once more, to pay a fine because one of his men had shot a pig belonging to the English.³ But there may have been darker episodes in the life of this savage. In one of the exciting narratives in Book III of the New English Canaan, Morton tells why three Wessaguscus planters living at the camp of Cheecatawback were slain by the natives (252-55). But Morton's is the only report in which Cheecatawback's name is linked with this episode, and it is not certain that he or his people were involved in the massacre of the three Englishmen.⁴

In showing that the Indians were not dull-witted people, Morton devotes an entire chapter of his book to the subtlety of this Sachem (161-65). He says that once, when a powerful company of Narragansetts invaded the territories of Cheecatawback and began to kill the turkeys, deer, and other game, he handled the matter with the skill of a born dramatist. First, he told the English that the strange savages had come into the area, not to winter there, but to spy upon the planters and watch for an opportunity to destroy them. Then he pleaded that his wives and children be taken into the homes of the English for protection. When this was done, he invited one of the Narragansett band to come to trade at the plantation. When the stranger arrived, however, he found the English girded in corselets and headpieces and looking, Morton says, “like lobsters, all cladd in harnesse.” Swords and daggers were clanked suggestively, and the harmless savage soon fled in terror back to his friends in the forest.

Then Cheecatawback sent a message to the intruders saying that, if they did not put up their pipes and withdraw from his dominions, his friends, the English, would compel them to do so. Morton ends his story in the following wry manner: “This message, comming on the neck of that which doubtlesse the fearefull Salvage had before related of his escape, and what hee had observed, caused all those hundred Narohigansets (that meant us no hurt) to be gone with bagg, and baggage. And my neighboures were gulled by the subtilety of this Sachem, and lost the best trade of beaver that ever they had for the time; and in the end found theire error in this kinde of credulity when it was too late” (165).

This account of Cheecatawback's resourceful mind is matched in interest by another tale, one in which Morton tells of the fruitless efforts of the same Sachem to punish the Plymouth planters for desecrating his mother's grave. Two bear skins, which the Indians had sewn together and propped over it as a monument, had been removed by these settlers, Morton says (247-49).⁵ In the story, related in full in Book III of the New English Canaan, Morton charges the planters of Plymouth with inhumanity; but he also mentions it earlier, in Book I, while speaking of the Indians' belief in the immortality of the soul and their rites in honor of the dead (169-71). The most dramatic part of this narrative is Morton's account of Cheecatawback's efforts to stir his men to revenge. The Sachem addressed them as follows, Morton reports:

When last the glorious light of all the skey was underneath this globe, and Birds grew silent, I began to settle, (as my custome is,) to take repose; before mine eies were fast closed, mee thought I saw a vision, (at which my spirit was much troubled,) and, trembling at that dolefull sight, a spirit cried aloude behold, my sonne, whom I have cherisht, see the papps that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warme and fed thee oft, canst thou forget to take revenge of those uild people that hath my monument defaced in despitefull manner, disdaining our ancient antiquities and honourable Customes? See how the Sachems grave lies like unto the common people of ignoble race, defaced; thy mother doth complaine, implores thy aide against this theevish people new come hether; if this be suffered I shall not rest in quiet within my everlasting habitation. This said, the spirit vanished; and I, all in a sweat, not able scarce to speake, began to gett some strength, and recollect my spirits that were fled; all which I thought to let you understand, to have your Councell, and your aide likewise.

(247-48)

It is impossible to say how much of Cheecatawback's oratorical power is his own and how much of it is the product of Morton's retentive and inventive mind. The Sachem's speech is strangely reminiscent of certain lines in Hamlet and in Shakespeare's sonnets, and it is not unlike those passages in Virgil's epic in which Aeneas receives the orders of Jupiter at Carthage and in which the hero observes the Sibyl in her cave. Nevertheless, the imaginative power of the ideas and language in this speech drew the interest of Washington Irving, who repeated it, with only slight changes, in The Sketch Book.⁶ In “Traits of Indian Character,” Irving calls the harangue of the outraged Sachem “a curious specimen of Indian eloquence, and an affecting instance of filial piety in a savage.”⁷

Irving does not mention Morton's book by name in The Sketch Book; he identifies the source of his information merely as “an old record of the early settlement of Massachusetts.” In leading up to the Sachem's speech, Irving tells of the desecration of the grave at Passonagessit (a place-name also employed by Morton), of the reverence shown by the natives for the monuments of their dead, and of the gathering of the Sachem's men to hear his address—the same details Morton presents in Chapter XVII of the first book and Chapter III of the third book of the New English Canaan.

Commenting on this anecdote, Irving says “it tends to show how these sudden acts of hostility, which have been attributed to caprice and perfidy, may often arise from deep and generous motives, which our inattention to Indian character and customs prevents our properly appreciating.” This insight Irving probably gained from Morton's remarks on the incident in Book I of the New English Canaan: the Plymouth planters defaced the grave, Morton says, “because they accounted it an act of superstition”; but the Indians hold it “impious and inhumane to deface the monuments of the dead. They themselves esteeme of it as piaculum; and have a custome amongst them to keep their annals and come at certaine times to lament and bewaile the losse of their friend. … Afterwards they absolutely abandon the place, because they suppose the sight thereof will but renew their sorrow” (170).

In this passage, Morton is referring to a totemistic-shamanistic custom and belief of the Indians of a certain clan in the region. This is evident when the details of his story, as given in Book III of the New English Canaan, are considered. The two bear skins propped over the grave, Cheecatawback's vision of his mother's returning from the spirit world and calling for revenge, and the Sachem's cry to his followers, in which they are reminded of the obligations of close blood ties—“let us to Armes, it [the desecration of the grave] doth concerne us all” (248)—show that Morton was a close observer of Indian character and customs.

Another example of the influence of Morton's book on the work of a later American writer is seen in John Greenleaf Whittier's verse narrative “The Bridal of Pennacook.”⁸ In this poem, Whittier relates a story of the Indians which Morton includes in the first book of the New English Canaan (154-57). This is the tale of the marriage of the young Sachem of Saugus (or Sagus, as Morton spells his name) to the daughter of Papasiquineo, a famous powwow and the Sachem of territory near the Merrimac River.⁹ Papasiquineo appears also in Chapter IX of the first book of the New English Canaan (150-51). There Morton tells of his skill as a conjurer, and adds that some of the powwow's amazing tricks were performed “by the agility of Satan, his consort.” Morton says that, soon after the couple were married, the bride expressed a longing to visit her father. Her husband, wishing to please her, complied with this request and sent her to Papasiquineo in the company of some of his braves. When the bride desired to return to her spouse, however, her father asked the youthful husband to send an escort for her. But the Sachem of Saugus refused this request, maintaining that it was more fitting that her father should return her “with a convoy of his own people”; and, in the end, neither Sachem would capitulate. Morton, as he concludes his story, comments that “the Lady (when I came out of the Country) remained still with her father; which is a thinge worth the noting, that Salvage people should seeke to maintaine their reputation so much as they doe.”

Whittier relates the story in “The Bridal of Pennacook” at much greater length than Morton, and his handling of characters and events is strikingly different. He portrays the young Sachem as cold and imperious, but he draws a moving picture of the tender-hearted Indian bride and child of the forest, Weetamoo. Near the end of the story, as it is told by Whittier, Weetamoo tries by her own efforts to return to her husband. She dies, however, when her canoe overturns in the swollen, turbulent river waters. There is no romantic interest like this in Morton's version of the events. From Whittier's notes to the poem, as well as from certain statements and details in it, it is obvious that Whittier drew the inspiration for his legend of Indian life from many sources and also from the inspiring circumstances under which he wrote it.¹⁰ One important source, however, seems to have been Morton's book; for, at the end of his introductory note to “The Bridal of Pennacook,” Whittier says, “Vide Morton's New Canaan.”¹¹

II. INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

It is easily seen why writers of fiction have been stirred by the imaginative quality of Morton's work and especially by his strange tales of the Indians. Examined as a document of historical importance, however, his account of life in early New England has been the subject of considerable debate and controversy. Concerning the reliability of the first book of the New English Canaan as a report of Indian life, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., vouches for the accuracy of some of the statements but questions others. As historical criteria he frequently cites passages from the writings of other early reporters and from the notes made by scholars of a later time. For example, Adams says that Morton's story of the Sachem of Saugus and his bride “would seem to be not only highly inconsistent with what we know of Indian life and habits, but also at variance with facts and dates”;¹² and he also terms two statements made by Morton about the customs prevalent among the Indians when a female reached puberty “pure fiction.”¹³

In view of the remote nature of the subject that Morton treats, it is not easy to test the validity of each bit of information that he provides on the Indians. Nevertheless, no matter what conclusions one may reach about the accuracy, objectivity, and completeness of his reporting in any particular passage in Book I of the New English Canaan, there seems to be an authentic note in the overall picture of Indian life that Morton paints. What is more, as will be seen presently, much of the information that he supplies can be verified in other reports of the same period.

The concrete examples and the wide range of information contained in Morton's treatise enable the reader to accept him as a competent observer and reporter of the wilderness country. As he describes the strange manners and customs of the Indians, one imagines him paddling up the rivers with the natives, sleeping on deerskin mats in their smoky lodges, talking with their Sachems, witnessing the rituals of their powwows, listening with rapt attention to their tales of the abundance of fish and game in the region of “the Great Lake of Erocoise” (Lake Champlain), and noting their customs with respect to marriage, childbearing, and the burial of their dead. One is impressed with the number of details Morton gives of Indian life and the vivid pictures he paints. Their lodges and their hospitality he describes as follows:

The Natives of New England are accustomed to build them houses much like the wild Irish; they gather Poles in the woodes and put the great end of them in the ground, placing them in forme of a circle or circumference, and, bendinge the topps of them in forme of an Arch, they bind them together with the Barke of Walnut trees, which is wondrous tuffe, so that they make the same round on the Topp for the smooke of their fire to assend and passe through; these they cover with matts, some made of reeds and some of longe flagges, or sedge, finely sowed together with needles made of the splinter bones of a Cranes legge, with threads made of their Indian hempe, which their groueth naturally, leaving severall places for dores, which are covered with mats, which may be rowled up and let downe againe at their pleasures, making use of the severall dores, according as the winde sitts. The fire is alwayes made in the middest of the house, with winde sals commonly: yet some times they fell a tree that groweth neere the house, and, by drawing in the end thereof, maintaine the fire on both sids, burning the tree by Degrees shorter and shorter, untill it be all consumed; for it burneth night and day. Their lodging is made in three places of the house about the fire; they lye upon plankes, commonly about a foote or 18. inches aboue the ground, raised upon railes that are borne up upon forks; they lay mats under them, and Coats of Deares skinnes, otters, beavers, Racownes, and of Beares hides, all of which they have dressed and converted into good lether, with the hair on, for their coverings: and in this manner they lye as warme as they desire. In the night they take their rest; in the day time, either the kettle is on with fish or flesh, by no allowance, or else the fire is imployed in roasting of fishes, which they delight in. The aire doeth beget good stomacks, and they feede continually, and are no niggards of their vittels; for they are willing that any one shall eate with them. Nay, if any one that shall come into their houses and there fall a sleepe, when they see him disposed to lye downe, they will spreade a matt for him of their owne accord, and lay a roule of skinnes for a boulster, and let him lye. If hee sleepe untill their meate be dished up, they will set a wooden boule of meate by him that sleepeth, and wake him saying, Cattup keene Meckin: That is, If you be hungry, there is meat for you, where if you will eate you may. Such is their Humanity.

(134-37)

Morton, of course, is not the only reporter of the period to provide such details about the habits of the Indians. Adams shows, by lengthy quotations from accounts of the New World written before and after the appearance of Morton's work—John Josselyn's Two Voyages, Roger Williams' Key, “Mourt's” Relation, John Smith's True Travels, William Wood's Prospect, Francis Parkman's Jesuits in North America, and other works—how the Indians built their lodges, the kind of furnishings they contained, what inconveniences were suffered by white men who spent a night with them, and the kind of food they served. Adams also includes a note by J. H. Trumbull which appears to verify Morton's use of the Indian language in the passage on their houses and their hospitality that is quoted above. Trumbull's note reads as follows: “Cattup keen? ‘Are you hungry?’ Meechin, ‘meat;’ or, as an Indian would be more likely to say, Meech, ‘eat.’ In Eliot's orthography, Kodtup kēn? Meechum, ‘victuals, food,’ or meech, ‘eat.[’]”¹⁴

Like other New England writers, Morton describes the means used by the natives to store their corn: “Their barnes are holes made in the earth, that will hold a Hogshead of corn a peece in them. In these (when their corne is out of the huske and well dried) they lay their store in greate baskets (which they make of Sparke [rushes? tree bark?]) with matts under, about the sides, and on the top; and putting it into the place made for it, they cover it with earth; and in this manner it is preserved from destruction or putrifaction; to be used in case of necessity, and not else” (160). He adds that he willingly gave them salt—to preserve their fish and meat—“although I sould them all things else”—in order that “they should be delighted with the use there of, and thinke it a commodity of no value in it selfe, although the benefit was great that might be had by the use of it” (161).

Quite naturally, Morton was not an eyewitness to every detail of Indian life that he reports in his book, nor could he verify all his information. A certain incident, he says, involved a neighbor (151-52); and his conjecture that the natives may be descendants of the Trojans he supports merely by the approbation of “men of good judgement” (128-29).¹⁵ He describes the fierce duels, with bows and arrows, that were sometimes fought by two natives “until one or both be slaine”; but he leaves us wondering whether he had ever witnessed such a combat, or whether he had merely seen the scars and bracelets of honor on the arm of the victor or been shown, as he says, “the places where such duels have bin performed” (153-54).

At other points in his discourse, however—for example, as he describes the custom of the Indians to fire the countryside each spring and fall to clear it of weeds and undergrowth, and as he explains the measures taken by the settlers to prevent damage to their houses as a result of those fires (172-73)—we realize that his knowledge has been gained by years of experience in the country. The same explanation holds true for his familiarity with the attire of the Indians and their colorful appearance. He must have seen them innumerable times, in the settlements and in the interior, garbed in the skins of animals and wearing mantles of turkey feathers, or running through the forest at a dog trot, as he says, “with their bow in their left hand, and their quiuer of Arrowes at their back.”¹⁶

On occasion, Morton says outright that he was a spectator to some unusual Indian power or skill. For instance, as he describes the native hunter tracking his quarry, his words reveal his proximity to the scene of the action and his close attention to all that was going on:

I have seene a Deare passe by me upon a neck of Land, and a Salvage that has pursued him by the view. I have accompanied him in this pursuite; and the Salvage, pricking the Deare, comes where hee findes the view of two deares together, leading several wayes. One, hee was sure, was fresh, but which (by the sence of seeing) hee could not judge; therefore, with his knife, hee diggs up the earth of one; and, by smelling, sayes, that was not of the fresh Deare: then diggs hee up the other; and viewing and smelling to that, concludes it to be the view of the fresh Deare, which hee had pursued; and thereby followes the chase, and killes that Deare, and I did eate part of it with him: such is their perfection in these two sences.

(166)¹⁷

Graphic passages like this lend credence and interest to Morton's account of the Indians.

Other parts of his narrative, however, are less detailed and vivid. For example, in speaking of the respect which he says was shown toward the aged men of the tribe, he presents his information in the following impersonal way:

the younger [natives] are allwayes obedient unto the elder people, and at their commaunde in every respect without grummbling; in all councels, (as therein they are circumspect to do their acciones by advise and councell, and not rashly or inconsiderately,) the younger mens opinion shall be heard, but the old mens opinion and councell imbraced and followed: besides, as the elder feede and provide for the younger in infancy, so doe the younger, after being growne to yeares of manhood, provide for those that be aged: and in distribution of Acctes the elder men are first served by their dispensator; and their counsels (especially if they be powahs) are esteemed as oracles amongst the younger Natives.

(149)

Although Morton does not reveal the particular circumstances under which he gained his information, other than that it was by “observation,” it is worth noting that Edward Winslow also speaks of the reverence and care given to the older Indians by the younger ones.¹⁸ One difference between Morton's remarks on this subject and Winslow's is the emphasis put upon the civility of the natives by Morton and his terse comment that Europeans might well take an object lesson from them: “The consideration of these things, mee thinkes, should reduce some of our irregular young people of civilized Nations, when this story shall come to their knowledge, to better manners, and make them ashamed of their former error in this kinde, and to become hereafter more duetyfull; which I, as a friend, (by observation having found,) have herein recorded for that purpose” (149-50). In statements such as these it is evident that Morton's praise of the Indians is earnest and is in no way intended as a sly aspersion on the Puritan character.

Among the several reports of life in early New England, one in particular seems to be of special interest and significance in the evaluation of Morton's work: William Wood's New England's Prospect (1634), a book which Morton refers to a number of times in the New English Canaan and nearly always in a censorious way. For example, in the midst of telling how the Indians fired the underbrush in the spring and fall of each year, Morton warns the reader not to “depend upon the help of a woodden prospect” when looking for information as to where good timber may be found (172-73).¹⁹ Morton's interest in Wood's book and an explanation for his critical attitude toward it have already been briefly noted;²⁰ but the parallel subject matter of the two writers invites closer attention.

Adams says that a certain passage in Morton's text “would seem to indicate that the third book of the New Canaan was written first, and that the two other books were prepared subsequently, probably in imitation of Wood's Prospect.”²¹ Whether this be so or not, the fact is that Wood's report appeared in print first; and there are many points of resemblance between it and the first and second books of the New English Canaan. In the second part of his work, which deals with the Indians, Wood tells of the natives' hospitality, their willingness to share all their belongings except their wives, their grief at the death of friends, the fame of their conjurers,²² the origins of their language,²³ and other matters which Morton mentions in the first division of his work.

But there are also certain touches in these two reports of the Indians that serve to distinguish one from the other. First, Wood's humor is of a more quiet sort than Morton's. In speaking of the inferior role played by the Indian wives at mealtime, he says that they must wait while the men help themselves from the kettle and “dance a Spaniell-like attendance at their backes for their bony fragments.”²⁴ This sort of dry wit is also present in his amusing story of a certain mare—or “Englishman's squaw horse,” as the Indians called her—that ran wild in the woods. Stumbling into a deer trap which the natives had set, Wood says she was hung, “like Mahomets tombe, betwixt earth and heaven.”²⁵ Morton's humor is usually sharper and more contrived than this, as may be seen in his tales of Cheecatawback and other Indians and in his satirical sketches of the Puritans.

Second, a striking difference in the works of the two men is the attention paid to details. Wood is a much closer observer, generally, than Morton; and one suspects that Wood is anxious to provide any settler about to venture into the wilderness country with as much useful information as possible since practicality is everywhere present in his book. For example, in describing the Indian tribes that live around the borders of Massachusetts, he gives a detailed account of the cannibalism and fighting spirit of the cruel “Mowhacks,” who live to the west.²⁶ He also provides careful descriptions of the canoes which the natives made and handled so dexterously.²⁷ Sometimes Wood's concrete language matches the particularity of his information, as when he writes that the natives in hunting their game have “no swift foote Grayhounds, to let slippe at the sight of the Deere, no deep mouthed hounds, or senting beagles, to find out their desired prey; themselves are all this.”²⁸

A third difference between Wood and Morton is the effort made by the former writer to appeal to female interests: Wood devotes an entire chapter of his book to an account of the Indian squaws. There is nothing in the New English Canaan to match Wood's shrewd design to “satisfie the curious eye of women-readers, who otherwise might thinke their sex forgotten, or not worthy a record.”²⁹ Wood's dry wit is evident in this statement, as well as in his description of the efforts of the squaws to gather food for their kettles. In all kinds of weather, he says, “they must dive sometimes over head and eares for a Lobster, which often shakes them by their hands with a churlish nip, and bids them adiew.”³⁰ In describing the Indian squaws, Wood speaks of their civility, their friendliness toward the English women, and their modesty and industry; he also paints this unforgettable picture of their hardiness:

They likewise sew their husbands shooes, and weave coates of Turkie feathers, besides all their ordinary household drudgerie which daily lies upon them, so that a big bellie [pregnancy] hinders no businesse, nor a childbirth takes much time, but the young Infant being greased and footed, wrapt in a Beaver skin, bound to his good behaviour with his feete up to his bumme [bottom], upon a board two foote long and one foote broade, his face exposed to all nipping weather; this little Pappouse travells about with his bare footed mother to paddle in the Icie Clammbankes after three or foure days of age.³¹

Where Morton speaks of these matters (146-47), he is concerned with the physical fitness of the Indians. Wood, on the other hand, keeping in mind the interests of his women readers and the concern which they may have about venturing to such a primitive land, assures them that “the women finde there as much love, respect, and ease, as here in old England.”³² Any gossip to the contrary, he says, is “nothing, but the rancorous venome of some that beare no good will to the plantation.”³³

It seems clear, then, that despite the similarity of the subject matter and many of the details in the second half of Wood's Prospect and the first book of Morton's New English Canaan, there are also certain differences of style and treatment which make these two accounts of Indian life different. These differences probably can be accounted for by the interests, personalities, and intentions of the two writers. Both reports are interesting, but Wood's is clearer and more complete. Morton's, on the other hand, is more dramatic and arresting because of the intensity of his language, the action that he introduces into his stories, the characters that he develops, and the sense of conflict that lies beneath the surface of some of his remarks. Wood specializes in exposition; Morton, in dramatic narrative. A distinguishing feature of the first book of the New English Canaan is, therefore, the manner in which Indian life is presented.

III. OF KYTAN AND THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

In examining Morton's report of the Indians, it is important to note the interest that he shows in the moral character of the natives and the advantages they would gain by conversion to Christianity. One point which he emphasizes is the sense of decency in dress shown by both the men and women:³⁴ “therein they seeme to have as much modesty as civilized people, and deserve to be applauded for it” (145). His comment seems to throw a little light on his own moral standards, as well as on those of the natives; however, unlike some other writers about Indian life, Morton has almost nothing to say directly about the standards of chastity observed by them.³⁵ The few references which he makes to this subject in the first book of the New English Canaan are incidental to other matters. For example, his statement that “it is the custome of some of their Sachems or Lords of the territories, to have the first say or maidenhead of the females” occurs at the beginning of a chapter in which he discusses the rites followed by the Indian women preparing for marriage, the hardiness shown by the squaws during their periods of pregnancy, the appearance of the children which they deliver, and the care that they give them as infants (145-48).³⁶ It is worth noting that, while this chapter reveals the primitive life of the savages, there is nothing in it which is at odds with Morton's contention in the first division of his book: that there is a good deal of natural good in these people, which may be strengthened and developed by religious instruction conducted along lines formally approved by the Church of England.

The story of a child of mixed blood, which Morton relates at the end of the same chapter, does not weaken his argument but, if anything, lends weight to it. What is more, contrary to the opinion commonly held that any mention of the Indian women by Morton is of a suggestive nature, there are no leering overtones in this one or in any other passage in this chapter:

The colour of their [the Indians'] eies being so generally black made a Salvage, that had a young infant whose eies were gray, shewed [come and show] him to us, and said they were English mens eies; I tould the Father that his sonne was nan weeteo, which is a bastard; hee replied titta Cheshetue squaa, which is, hee could not tell, his wife might play the whore; and this childe the father desired might have an English name, because of the litenesse of his eies, which his father had in admiration because of novelty amongst their nation.

(148)³⁷

There is sympathetic understanding in Morton's recital of this pathetic incident.

In discussing the beliefs and customs of the natives, Morton speaks of “Pan the great God of the Heathens,” whom he thinks they may have worshiped at some time in the past (124); of the efforts of the Indian powwows to perform certain feats of magic and to cure the sick by the aid, Morton guesses, of the Devil (150-53); of their code of ethics; and of their belief in a system of rewards and punishments in the life hereafter. Some of his notions about the Indians are obviously the result of pure speculation; but most of them he seems to have gathered either by personal experience or by conversation with other men familiar with the country. For example, he tells us that he once asked an Indian to define “a good man.” “His answere was,” says Morton, “hee that would not lye, nor steale.” In the next paragraph Morton informs us that “These, with them, are all the capitall crimes that can be imagined; all other are nothing in respect of those; and hee that is free from these must live with Kytan for ever, in all manner of pleasure” (169).³⁸

Putting aside for the moment the question of how accurate or truthful such reporting may be, or what significance it may have historically, it is important to note that Morton employs the manners, customs, and folklore of the Indians in the development of a dramatic narrative about them. And, like other Renaissance writers, he enhances and intensifies the treatment of his subject by alluding to Classical mythology and to Biblical history. As a consequence, his account of the natives takes on the appearance of a legend, while remaining a report of historical interest.

It seems clear that a similar process of association went on in the mind of a twentieth-century poet who created a fable about Merry Mount. In the Preface to his dramatic poem of that name, Richard L. Stokes acknowledges his indebtedness to a number of authors—Morton among others—for the episodes, ideas, and language contained in his work. But his employment of source material for a fresh purpose is clearly seen in the following statement: “I trust it may be needless to add that the purpose of this volume is not to record history, but to conscript one of its incidents as a point of departure for the imagination.”³⁹ It is evident that Morton, too, allowed his imagination to play freely in certain portions of his report of Indian life.

Despite the fusion of disparate elements and purposes in his writing, it would be a mistake to think of Morton's account of the natives as nothing more than a leisurely compilation of unique pieces of invention about them. There is, to be sure, a curious mixture of fact, fiction, and forensic force in Morton's book. History, drama, poetry, and propaganda are so closely joined together that it is often difficult to distinguish one element from another. Nevertheless, the first division of the New English Canaan is clearly a serious and purposeful discussion of the Indians. In mentioning their friendliness, their generosity and hospitality, their respect for the aged, and like matters, and in pointing out that, due to the plague which killed so many of the Indians, there are now “but a small number of Salvages in New England, to that which hath beene in former time,” Morton is demonstrating that the Massachusetts region is, as he says early in Book I, a place “fitt for the English Nation to inhabit in, and erect in it Temples to the glory of God” (133-34).

As we begin to see the propaganda in the first book of the New English Canaan, it appears to be of two sorts. In the first place, by emphasizing the small number of savages in the area and their tractable nature, Morton seems to be trying to persuade other planters and traders to go without fear into that region. In the second place, in pointing out that the natives have many natural virtues but that they are without worship or religion, he is probably appealing to leaders of the Church of England who would be concerned about the spiritual state of the savages and about their conversion to Christianity. Minor Wallace Major discusses both points in the course of developing his argument that Morton's chief purpose in publishing the New English Canaan was to induce men with habits, tastes, and interests like his own to settle in New England.⁴⁰

Morton goes out of his way to emphasize the point that the natives lacked religion. He begins Chapter V of Book I with this statement: “It has bin a common receaved opinion from Cicero, that there is no people so barbarous but have some worshipp or other. In this particular, I am not of opinion therein with Tully; and, surely, if hee had bin amongst those people so longe as I have bin, and conversed so much with them touching this matter of Religion, hee would have changed his opinion” (139). In the remainder of this very brief chapter, Morton charges that William Wood was in error in this matter and was unable to demonstrate in his book “whome or what it is they [the Indians] are accustomed to worship.” Morton says that for his part he is more willing to believe that elephants worship the moon. He ends his chapter by saying that “the Natives of New England have no worship nor religion at all; and I am sure it has been so observed by those that neede not the helpe of a wodden prospect for the matter” (140-41). The section in the Prospect to which Morton refers apparently is the one in which Wood begins as follows: “As it is naturall to all mortals to worship something, so doe these people, but exactly to describe to whom their worship is chiefly bent, is very difficult. …”⁴¹

In asserting that the natives were without worship or religion, Morton is offering an opinion different from that of other reporters; moreover, he does not explain in his book how he reached this conclusion. But what led him to it may be better understood when the details of Indian worship given by Wood and other reporters are examined closely. William Morrell, for instance, writes that the Indians worshiped some unknown God. But they kept no feasts nor Sabbath, he adds, and they “doe nothing know / Of God aright.”⁴² Roger Williams names many of the thirty-seven gods whom he says the natives invoked “in their solemne Worships.”⁴³ Edward Winslow tells of a discussion he had with the natives about God's works, the Ten Commandments, thanksgiving, and other matters, and of the Indians' statement that “they believed almost all the same things: and that the same Power that we called God, they called Kietitan.”

Referring to a letter which he had written three years earlier, Winslow states that he was mistaken when he said that the Indians were “a people without any religion, or knowledge of any God.” In correcting himself, he tells of “Kiehtan,” whom the natives believe to be the maker of heaven, earth, gods, and men. Winslow says that the old men among the Indians tell stories of this good “Power” and that they charge their children “to teach their posterities the same, and lay the like charge on them.” He also relates that the Indians supplicate Kiehtan and offer thanks to this power in their songs and dances. But he also speaks of their worship of another power, “Hobbamock,” whom he takes to be the Devil.⁴⁴

Reading several reports, it seems clear that the customs and beliefs of the Indians varied, from tribe to tribe, and from time to time. For example, Winslow remarks that the Narragansetts were most active “in their blind devotion,” but he also observes that the worship of Kiehtan by other natives is no longer so fervent as it once was.⁴⁵ Writing, very likely, of another group of Indians, Josselyn says that the natives “acknowledge a God who they call Squantum but worship him they do not.” They worship the Devil, he says.⁴⁶ The differences in the religious points of view of the writers also enter into this matter. For example, both Williams and Josselyn employ the word “priests” in speaking of the Indian powwows.⁴⁷ Morton, however, describes them merely as conjurers and medicine men. What is more, like Winslow and other reporters, Morton suspects that they invoked the Devil in their strange offices (150-53).⁴⁸

From this examination of Indian faith and worship it may be seen that Morton's information about the beliefs and ceremonies of the natives is not in disagreement with that of other reporters. It is the interpretations that he makes that are different. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XVII of the first book of the New English Canaan, he writes as follows: “These people, that have by tradition some touch of the immortality of the soule, have likewise a custome to make some monuments over the place where the corps is interred” (169-70). So far as the details are concerned, this same information is contained in other reports. But Morton's language may indicate that, in his mind, the Indians' knowledge and practice of religion was so incomplete that it really was no religion at all; and an example would seem to be the totemism and shamanism in the incident of the desecrated Indian grave.

Moreover, Morton's loyalty to the Church of England could provide some clues to his chain of reasoning. In an age in which there were so many bitter disputes about theology, the forms of worship, and Church polity, Morton's disagreement with Wood—and, by inference, with any reporter who might say that he had found worship and religion among the natives—would not have been regarded merely as a matter of semantics. Morton, writing as an Anglican, evidently believed that the facts of Indian life warranted a different conclusion. Adams, who takes a different view of this matter, believes that Morton's purpose in attacking Wood's statement about the religion of the natives was “to depreciate Wood, as an authority on New England.”⁴⁹ Although this interpretation probably is valid, it also seems likely that Morton had a sincere difference of opinion with Wood.

A similar problem of interpretation is posed in Morton's mention of the use of the Book of Common Prayer in the religious instruction of the natives (168-69). Adams, who is quite skeptical about Morton's moral integrity, suspects a tone of sanctimony in one reference which Morton makes to this book in the third division of the New English Canaan (283).⁵⁰ He also views a charge against the Separatists which Morton makes in the same portion of his work—namely, that they held the official prayer book of the Church of England in contempt—as propaganda designed to arouse the indignation of Archbishop William Laud and to enlist his aid in the struggle for control of the New England plantations.⁵¹ It is quite evident that Morton wrote his book with the expectation that it would provide damaging testimony against the chief men in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay settlements. The charges that he makes in the third division of the New English Canaan, in particular, were certain to provoke resentment in High Church circles in England. But it does not necessarily follow that his sole reason, or even his chief reason, for upholding the Book of Common Prayer was dictated by political expediency.

If there is propaganda in Morton's mention of the use of the Book of Common Prayer as a means of instructing the natives in religious matters, not only is it free of the challenging intent that he shows when speaking of the Separatists' attitude toward it, but it is also consistent with his opinion of the Indians' morals and their lack of religion and worship. The passage occurs in Chapter XVI, where Morton is speaking of the Indians' understanding of Creation and the immortality of the soul. “Although these Salvages are found to be without Religion, Law, and King,” he writes, “yet are they not altogether without the knowledge of God (historically).” He then goes on to show that they have by “tradition” a knowledge of Creation, Original Sin, the Flood, the Devil and Hell, God (Kytan) and Heaven; and he adds that “they are perswaded that Kytan is hee that makes corne growe, trees growe, and all manner of fruits” (167-68). Following this sentence, Morton introduces, in a new paragraph, the subject of the Book of Common Prayer:

And that wee that use the booke of Common prayer doo it to declare to them, that cannot reade, what Kytan has commaunded us, and that wee doe pray to him with the help of that booke; and doe make so much accompt of it, that a Salvage (who had lived in my howse before hee had taken a wife, by whome hee had children) made this request to mee, (knowing that I allwayes used him with much more respect than others,) that I would let his sonne be brought up in my howse, that hee might be taught to reade in that book: which request of his I granted; and hee was a very joyfull man to thinke that his sonne should thereby (as hee said) become an Englishman; and then hee would be a good man.

(168-69)

It is immediately after this statement that Morton asks the Indian to define for him “a good man.”

There is a kind of propaganda, then, in Book I of the New English Canaan—it may be detected in Morton's implicit insistence on active faith and formal worship, and in his mention of the use made of the Book of Common Prayer; it may also be perceived beneath the surface of his attacks upon Wood's book. But the term “propaganda” need not be used in a derogatory sense; for there appears to be a great deal of truth and sincerity in Morton's comments on Indian manners and customs.

One last indication of this veracity may be found in the final chapter of Book I. As he approaches his summary of the rich and contented life led by the natives, Morton challenges the statement made by a visitor to New England who had declared that the natives lived like beggars: “Surely that Gentleman had not time or leasure whiles hee was there truely to informe himselfe of the state of that Country, and the happy life the Salvages would leade weare they once brought to Christianity” (175). Although such a remark may have been intended for Laud's attention and approval, it would also appear—unless we are distrustful of anything that Morton might say—to be a sincere and logical conclusion drawn by him after long and careful deliberation about the natives. John Smith spoke of the challenge offered in converting the Indians to Christianity as early as 1616 and as late as 1631, the year in which he died. In A Description of New England (1616) he asks what can one do “more agreeable to God, then to seeke to conuert those poore Saluages to know Christ … ?” And in the dedicatory epistle of his Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England (1631), which he addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York, Smith again speaks of converting the savages of that region.⁵² Morton's faith in prelacy, religious ritual, and prescribed forms of prayer does not disturb the oneness of his narrative; it is a part of the meaning found in Book I of the New English Canaan.

Morton probably had several intentions in mind as he wrote his work. The tone of the New English Canaan is not constant throughout; it changes from book to book, very likely as one intention or another was uppermost in the mind of its author. Nevertheless, there is a subtle interrelationship of parts in Morton's rambling account of Indian legends, habits, and morals that reflects his intense desire to paint the wilderness scene as he found it. He did not choose to present the facts of Indian life in an impersonal and purely expository way. Instead, he employed all four forms of discourse—exposition, argumentation, description, and narration—in an effort to give a credible account of the natives that would offer both pleasure and profit to the reader. Because of this intent and method of narration, Book I of the New English Canaan is an attractive piece of early American literature, as well as a report of historical interest.

The impression conveyed by Morton's treatment of Indian manners and customs draws varied responses from different readers. What thoughts about the natives it helped to induce in the mind of Washington Irving may be seen in The Sketch Book. In the opening sentence of “Traits of Indian Character,” Irving writes: “There is something in the character and habits of the North American savage, taken in connection with the scenery over which he is accustomed to range, its vast lakes, boundless forests, majestic rivers, and trackless plains, that is, to my mind, wonderfully striking and sublime.”⁵³ As Irving allows his mind to move back into the past and to dwell upon the natives' state of life nearly two hundred years earlier, his sketch takes on a meaning not unlike that found in Book I of the New English Canaan. It is the forceful impact of Morton's treatment of Indian life upon the whole mind of the reader that is the best proof of its charm and power.

Notes

1. The Sketch Book, p. 393, in The Works of Washington Irving, II (New York, 1880). Hereafter cited as The Sketch Book.

2. Bradford, History, ed. Ford, I, 227n.

3. Winthrop's Journal, ed. Hosmer, I, 59, 62, 64.

4. See Note 8, Chapter 5—especially the reference to Winslow's Good News, pp. 569-74, where a sachem named “Obtakiest” appears in the story—and pp. 86-87, 88-89 of this study.

5. Adams says that the bear skins may have been stripped from the grave by the Plymouth planters, but he thinks it more probable that this was done by the people living at Wessaguscus. (See Adams, ed., NEC, p. 247n.)

6. The Sketch Book, pp. 395-96.

7. Ibid.

8. See The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (Boston, 1892), I, 79-107.

9. Whittier, following the spelling used by other early reporters, refers to this Indian as “Passaconaway.” In an introductory note to “The Bridal of Pennacook,” he says that the marriage of Passaconaway's daughter to “George, Sachem of Saugus,” took place in 1662. (Works, I, 79.) The date, obviously, is incorrect. In Francis S. Drake (ed.), The Indian Tribes of the United States: their history, antiquities, customs, religion, arts, language, traditions, oral legends, and myths (Philadelphia, 1884), I, 272, it is said that the daughter of Passaconaway married the Saugus chieftain prior to 1628. In Samuel G. Drake, Biography and History of the Indians of North America, from its First Discovery (11th ed.; Boston, 1851), p. 278, it is said that this marriage occurred in 1629. In earlier editions of his work, however, Samuel Drake says that the marriage took place in the year 1662, the same date that Whittier uses. See, for example, Samuel G. Drake, The Book of the Indians (9th ed.; 1845), Book III, p. 94.

10. In his notes to “The Bridal of Pennacook” (Works, I, 429-30), Whittier quotes from the work of a writer by the name of Hubbard (probably William Hubbard, the seventeenth-century New England historian) for details about Passaconaway's skill and fame as a sorcerer; he also refers to the writings of Edward Winslow and Roger Williams for several bits of information concerning the Indians, their gods, and their language. Judging from several passages in his poem, it appears that Whittier's treatment of the legend was affected by “the rough northern country” of New England, through which he and four companions had traveled, and by the suggestions made by the daughter of one member of the party—who, he says, “bade us verify / The legend, and with ready pencil sketched / Its plan and outlines. …” “The associations of time, scene, and audience,” to employ another line in the poem, evidently influenced Whittier in his development of the story. (Ibid., pp. 80, 82, 84, 85.)

11. Ibid., p. 80. In the poem itself (ibid., p. 84), Whittier also speaks of certain books that he had been reading. One of these, he says, was “an old chronicle of border wars / And Indian history.” This may be a reference to Morton's book; or it could be another early report of the country, or one of Hubbard's books.

12. Adams, ed., NEC, p. 155n.

13. Ibid., p. 146n.

14. Ibid., pp. 135-38nn. Earlier in his work, however, Adams offers the following comment by Trumbull on Morton's attempts to transcribe the Indian language: “Morton, as he shows in chap. ii. of book I., could not write the most simple Indian word without a blunder.” (Ibid., p. 14n.)

15. The “men of good judgement” referred to were David Tompson and Sir Christopher Gardiner; both were neighbors of Morton's in the Boston Bay area. An entire chapter in the third book of the New English Canaan is devoted to the story of Gardiner's difficulties in New England (338-42). Morton's theory that the Indians are descended from the Trojans is based, in part, upon his belief that the natives “use very many wordes, both of Greeke and Latine, to the same signification that the Latins and Greekes have done” (123-24, 126-27).

16. In Chapter VI of the first book of the New English Canaan, Morton speaks at length of the apparel worn by the natives and how they fashioned it from animal skins and turkey feathers; he also tells of the sense of modesty which they displayed about their attire (141-45).

17. The Indians' unusual power of sight is described by Morton as follows: “I have observed that the Salvages have the sence of seeing so farre beyond any of our Nation, that one would allmost beleeve they had intelligence of the Devill sometimes, when they have tould us of a shipp at Sea, which they have seene sooner by one hower, yea, two howers sayle, then any English man that stood by of purpose to looke out, their sight is so excellent” (165).

18. See E. W. [Edward Winslow], Good News from New England: or a true Relation of things very remarkable at the Plantation of Plymouth in New England (London, 1624), in The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606-1623 A.D.; as told by Themselves, their Friends, and their Enemies, ed. Edward Arber (London and Boston, 1897), p. 589. Hereafter this edition is cited as Winslow, Good News, ed. Arber.

19. Morton apparently is referring to information contained in Part I, Chapter V of Wood's book, in which the trees of the country are described. Wood also mentions the Indian custom of burning the woods in the fall to clear away the underbrush. See William Wood, New England's Prospect (London, 1634), Prince Society edition (Boston, 1865), pp. 16-20. Hereafter this edition is cited as Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed. Morton's point seems to be that, contrary to what Wood says in his book, the best trees are those which grow in the lowlands of the country. It is not altogether certain, however, that Wood's information is opposite to this.

20. See p. 23 of this study.

21. Adams, ed., NEC, p. 170n. The passage referred to by Adams is the one in which the desecration of the grave of Cheecatawback's mother and the brawl that followed it are mentioned by Morton. The order in which the three divisions of the New English Canaan were written has already been discussed. (See pp. 33-35 of this study.)

22. Speaking of the Indian powwows, Wood refers to one in particular—Pissacannawa. He says that the natives report “that hee can make the water burne, the rocks move, the trees dance, [and] metamorphize himself into a flaming man.” (Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed., p. 92.) This is the same powwow that Morton calls “Papasiquineo.” It is not clear whether Morton is saying that he actually witnessed some of the feats of this conjurer, or whether he is merely repeating the tales told about him by the English and the Indians (150-51); the latter is probably the case. Wood's identification of him as a “most noted Nigromancer” (Prospect, Prince Society ed., [p. 116] is acknowledged by Morton in the New English Canaan (154-55).

23. Concerning the Indians and their language, Wood writes: “Some have thought they might be of the dispersed Iewes, because some of their words be neare unto the Hebrew; but by the same rule they may conclude them to be some of the gleanings of all Nations, because they have words which found after the Greeke, Latine, French, and other tongues.” (See Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed., pp. 102-3.) After the final chapter of the second part of his book, Wood inserts what he describes as “a small Nomenclator, with the Names of their chiefe Kings, Rivers, Moneths, and dayes, whereby such as have in-sight into the Tongues, may know to what Language it is most inclining; and such as desire it as an unknowne Language onely, may reape delight, if they can get no profit.” (Ibid., [pp. 111-16.]) There is no extensive list of Indian names, words, and phrases such as this in Morton's book.

24. Ibid., p. 76.

25. Ibid., pp. 99-100.

26. Ibid., pp. 63-67.

27. Ibid., p. 102. The passage in Wood's book which tells how the Indians fashioned their canoes is surely one of the earliest accounts on this subject to come out of the New England area.

28. Ibid., p. 98.

29. Ibid., p. 105.

30. Ibid., p. 107.

31. Ibid., p. 108.

32. Ibid., p. 109.

33. Ibid., p. 110. It is evident from several passages in his book that Wood was a Massachusetts Bay man.

34. On this matter, see the references to the writings of Josselyn, Winslow, Williams, and other reporters cited in Adams, ed., NEC, p. 16n. For a brief reference to the sense of decency in dress shown by the Indian men, see [William Morrell], New-England; or a Briefe Enarration of the Ayre, Earth, Water, Fish and Fowles of that Country, with a Description of the Natures, Orders, Habits, and Religion of the Natiues; in Latine and English Verse (London, 1625), The Club of Odd Volumes edition (Boston, 1895), p. 18. Hereafter this edition is cited as Morrell, New-England. Odd Volumes ed. Roger Williams makes the following observation, in verse, on the matter of decency in dress: “The best clad English-man, / Not cloth'd with Christ, more naked is: / Then naked Indian.” See Roger Williams, A Key Into the Language of America: or, an help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America, called New-England (London, 1643), ed. J. Hammond Trumbull, in Publications of the Narragansett Club, 1st series, I (Providence, 1866), 146. Hereafter this work is cited as Williams, Key, ed. Trumbull.

35. Quotations from the writings of Winslow and Strachey touching on the wanton habits of some of the natives may be seen in Adams, ed., NEC, pp. 145-46nn. In Winslow, Good News, ed. Arber, we read that the Indians had many wives; but all, except the first wife, were regarded as “concubines or servants,” and were put away “at their pleasure” (p. 587). Winslow also says that some of the Indian women were very modest and chaste, but others were “lascivious, and wanton” (p. 589). He also says: “For adultery, the husband will beat his wife; and put her away, if he please” (p. 590).

    The following information, supplied by Roger Williams, is also helpful in arriving at an understanding of the moral code of the natives: “Single fornications they count no sin, but after Marriage … then they count it hainous for either of them to be false.” (Williams, Key, ed. Trumbull, p. 168.) In speaking of the view which the natives took toward adultery, William Wood tells the story of an Indian who caught his wife with her lover and proceeded to mete out punishment to both. (Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed., pp. 91-92.)

    But another reporter asserts that most of the Indian women were of “modest deportment.” See John Josselyn, New-Englands Rarities Discovered: in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country (London, 1672), with an introduction and notes by Edward Tuckerman, in Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, IV (1860), 231.

36. Morton's statement about the sachem's privilege is called “pure fiction” in Adams, ed., NEC, p. 146n. Adams also makes the following comment: “What Parkman says of the Hurons is probably true of the Massachusetts,—their women were wantons before marriage and household drudges after it.” (Ibid.) It is worth pointing out, however, that the customs of the Indians seem to have varied from tribe to tribe.

37. A somewhat similar observation is made by Wood. Commenting on the fact that the natives did not permit hair to grow on their faces, Wood says: “they call him an English mans bastard that hath but the appearance of a beard.” (Prospect, Prince Society ed., p. 72.)

38. The punishment meted out by the Indians for repeated acts of thievery is described by Winslow, in Good News, ed. Arber, p. 590.

39. Richard L. Stokes, Merry Mount: a dramatic poem for music in three acts of six scenes (New York, 1932), p. ix. Working in collaboration with Howard Hanson, who wrote the music for it, Stokes later recast his poem into the form of a libretto for an opera performed by a company of the Metropolitan Opera Association, in New York, on the evening of March 6, 1934.

40. See Major, “Thomas Morton and His New English Canaan,” pp. 96, 102-8, 121-24. Major does not rule out the possibility that Morton may have been a Roman Catholic.

41. Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed., p. 92.

42. Morrell, New-England, Odd Volumes ed., pp. 22-23.

43. Williams, Key, ed. Trumbull, pp. 148-50.

44. Winslow, Good News, ed. Arber, pp. 557-58, 581-83.

45. Ibid., p. 585.

46. John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England (2nd ed.; London, 1675), in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd series, III (1833), 300-1.

47. See Williams, Key, ed. Trumbull, pp. 151-52, and Josselyn, Two Voyages in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3rd series, III, 301.

48. See the following reports: Winslow, Good News, ed. Arber, pp. 583-84; Wood, Prospect, Prince Society ed., pp. 93-94; Williams, Key, ed. Trumbull, p. 152; Josselyn, Two Voyages, in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., 3rd series, III, 301.

49. Adams, ed., NEC, pp. 139-40nn.

50. Ibid., p. 93.

51. See pp. 24-25 of this study.

52. Travels and Works of Captain John Smith, edited by Edward Arber, a new edition, with a biographical and critical introduction, by A. G. Bradley (Edinburgh, 1910), I, 208, 217; II, 920.

53. The Sketch Book, p. 389.

Selected Bibliography

Primary Sources

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. (ed.). The New English Canaan of Thomas Morton. Boston: Published by the Prince Society, 1883.

Force, Peter (ed.). New English Canaan; Or, New Canaan, containing an abstract of New England, in Tracts and Other Papers, Relating Principally to the Origin, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in North America, from the Discovery of the Country to the Year 1776. Vol. II, No. V. Reprinted under the auspices of the Out-of-Print Books Committee of the American Library Association. New York: Peter Smith, 1947.

Major, Minor Wallace. “Thomas Morton and His New English Canaan.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, 1957. (Microfilmed. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan: L. C. Card no. Mic. 58-1224.)

Manners and Customs of the Indians. Old South Leaflets, No. 87. Boston: The Old South Association, n.d. Extracts from Book I of Morton's New English Canaan. The order of the chapters is changed, and some are omitted.

Morton, Thomas. New English Canaan or New Canaan. Amsterdam: Stam, 1637.

Secondary Sources

A. About Morton and the New English Canaan.

Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647. Edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford. 2 vols. Boston: Published for the Massachusetts Historical Society by Houghton Mifflin Co., 1912. The text, the maps, and the notes in this edition of Bradford's book are indispensable in any study of Morton's role in New England history.

———. Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647. The complete text, with an introduction and notes by Samuel Eliot Morison. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952. New information is provided in this edition of Bradford's book.

Winthrop's Journal: “History of New England,” 1630-1649. Edited by James Kendall Hosmer. 2 vols. (“Original Narratives of Early American History.”) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908. Contains entries relating to Morton, Sir Christopher Gardiner, and other figures of the times.

B. Background Information

Drake, Francis S. (ed.). The Indian Tribes of the United States: their history, antiquities, customs, religion, arts, language, traditions, oral legends, and myths. Vol. I. Philadelphia: J. P. Lippincott & Co., 1884.

Drake, Samuel G. Biography and History of the Indians of North America, from its First Discovery. 11th ed. Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey & Co., 1851.

———. The Book of the Indians; or, Biography and History of the Indians of North America, from its First Discovery to the Year 1841. 9th ed. Boston: Benjamin B. Mussey, 1845.

Josselyn, John. An Account of Two Voyages to New-England (2nd ed.; London, 1675), in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 3rd series, III (1833), 211-354.

———. New Englands Rarities Discovered: in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of that Country (London, 1672). With an introduction and notes, by Edward Tuckerman. Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society, IV (1860), 105-238.

[Morrell, William.] New-England; or a Briefe Enarration of the Ayre, Earth, Water, Fish and Fowles of that Country, with a Description of the Natures, Orders, Habits, and Religion of the Natiues; in Latine and English Verse (London, 1625). The Club of Odd Volumes edition (“II., Early American Poetry.”) Boston: The Club of Odd Volumes, 1895.

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