dain. The courts were compelled to yield to the wishes of the panic-stricken whites.
Those who have read in detail the history of these melancholy years in Massachusetts cannot but muse sadly as they pass the present site of the United States Arsenal in Watertown, formerly called “The Pines,” in Cambridge, over a scene that was presented there in the autumn of 1675. The magistrates had reluctantly ordered the removal of the Natick Indians to Deer Island, which was then largely covered with forest trees, and used for the grazing of sheep. The owner, Samuel Shrimpton, allowed this use of his island, with a covenant that the trees should not be cut down nor the sheep molested. A friendly person, Captain Thomas Prentiss of Cambridge, was charged with the removal of the Indians. With a party of horse and six carts, to transport a few movables and the sick and lame, he brought about two hundred of them away from their ripened crops, their rude homes, and all the associations which had become dear and sacred to them, to camp temporarily at the Pines. Good Mr. Eliot and some sympathizing English met them there, and were deeply moved by their submissive patience. He prayed with, comforted, and assured them. At midnight, the tide serving, on October 30, they were shipped in three vessels for the island. Their numbers were increased before the end of December to about five hundred, by the Punkapoag or Stoughton Indians. Eliot then went down to cheer and encourage them. He writes of them: —
“I observed in all my visits to them that they carried themselves
patiently, humbly, and piously, without murmuring or complaining
against the English for their sufferings (which were not few), for
they lived chiefly upon clams and shellfish, that they digged out
of the sand at low water. The Island was bleak and cold, and
their wigwams poor and mean, their clothes few and thin. Some
little corn they had of their own which the Council ordered to be
fetched from their plantations and conveyed to them by little and
little. Also, a boat and man was appointed to look after them.”
