[73]
On the morrow (Sept. 21, 1621), we went ashore, all but two men, and marched in arms up in tile country. Having gone three miles, we came to a place where corn had been newly gathered, a house pulled down, and the people gone. A mile from hence, Nanepashemit, their king, in his lifetime, had lived. His house was not like others; but a scaffold was largely built, with poles and planks, some six foot from the ground, and the house upon that, being situated on the top of a hill. Not far from hence, in a bottom, we came to a fort, built by their deceased king; the manner thus: There were poles, some thirty or forty feet long, stuck in the ground as thick as they could be set, one by another; and with them they enclosed a ring some forty or fifty feet over; a trench, breast-high, was digged on each side; one way there was to go into it with a bridge. In the midst of this palisado, stood the frame of a house, wherein, being dead, he lay buried. About a mile from hence, we came to such another, but seated on the top of a hill. Here Nanepashemit was killed, none dwelling in it since the time of his death.The histories represent him living in Medford, not far from the river, not far from the pond, and on the tops of hills. This eminent Grand Sachem was the father of Sagamore John of Mystick, Sagamore James of Lynn, and Sagamore George of Salem. George finally became Sachem of the Pawtucketts. After the death of Nanepashemit, his wife, as Queen and Squa Sachem, reigned. She married Webcowit, the physician of the tribe, “its powwow, priest, witch, sorcerer, and chirurgeon.” In 1637, the Squa Sachem deeded a tract of land in Musketaquid (Concord). In 1639, she deeded a tract to Charlestown (now Somerville); also another tract to Jotham Gibbon, of Boston. This last deed is as follows:--
