The Indian Remnant in New England. dian blood there remains only one person, an aged woman. Negro blood is the prin cipal intermixture. The town has produced persons of good abilities, and sometimes furnishes the representative to legislature for the group of towns in which Gay Head is classed. After existing many years as a "District," the place was incorporated as a town on April 30, 1870; and a month later, the legislature granted an act of incorpora tion for the only other exclusively In dian town in New England, Mashpee. This lies near the western extremity of Cape Cod, extending from the middle lati tude southward to the sea. In the year 1660, Mr. Richard Bourne, then recently from England, purchased from the Wampanoag sachem, Quachatisset, and other Indians, the tract of land which constitutes the MASHPEE township of Mashpee, for the occupa tion and use of the so-called "South Sea Indians." He had become acquainted with the needs of the Indians dwelling on the south side of the Cape, and established them on his purchase as a permanent home. The deed was so drawn that no part nor parcel of the lands could be bought by or sold to any white person without the consent of all the Indians having right in the territory, not even by consent of the General Court. The place was incorporated as the Plantation of Mashpee, on June 14, 1763. Between this time and the date of its establishment as a
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town (1870), inclusive of both, there were not less than twelve changes of its political condition either from the expiration of legis lative acts or from new ones. Mr. Bourne was both investor and evangelist; and in 1670 he was ordained pastor of a religious society of Indians in this town, which had been formed from his own converts. He died about the year 1685, leaving a good property to his family in various excellent land in vestments. An In dian named Simon Popmonet succeeded him in his pastoral office. After about forty years of service the latter was succeeded by .Rev. Joseph Bourne, a grandson of the pioneer. Shearjashab, son of the latter, secured the ratification by the Plymouth Colony court of the original deed of Mashpee,— having inherited his father's property in INDIANS. that place, where he pursued the business of a trader. At his death, about 1719, he was succeeded by his son Ezra, who be came president of the sessions and first justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the county. Several of the family in the next generation attained to eminent positions in several States. The remnant of the Wampanoags, outside of these two Indian towns, has probably been absorbed by the Narragansetts. The affairs of the latter tribe have been mostly under the control of the government of Rhode Island, since it ceased to be a colonv
