1627.]

THE "SPARROWHAWK.”

313

the magistrates, but as there was nothing to rebut their firm denial, they were discharged. Soon, however, finding that self-conviction was at hand, and fearing the pitiless scourge, they fled in a small boat, hoping to find a Virginia vessel at Cape Ann. Not succeeding, and narrowly saving their lives in a storm near Boston Harbor, they returned to Plymouth. No penalty seems to have been inflicted on them, but it was contrived to hustle Fells and his following off to Virginia some time in advance of their comrades.

Late in the summer two vessels came from Virginia and took away the remainder of the company. Their fine corncrop was bought by the Colony, and for the supplies which they received beyond that amount, they paid from their large stock of clothing, shoes, hose," perpetuanes," etc. They had received whatever hospitality the narrow means of the place permitted, and the resulting traffic had been of much mutual benefit. So they sailed away with much kind feeling; and many years after, from their home in the then "foreign parts" of Virginia, warm expressions of gratitude occasionally reached Plymouth.

In 1782, as Governor Bradford's descendants of the fifth generation were listening to the last sounds of the American Revolution, the sands of Cape Cod made an unwonted movement, and the old "Sparrowhawk" presented herself to "incurious eyes; " but was soon hidden again by the sand-drift. Two generations later, few people remembered the history of the wreck, and fewer still imagined that beneath the sands of "The Old Ship" any trace of the vessel could have survived decay; but in May, 1863, when the land was shaken by another great war, the sand once more withdrew its veil, and again the "Sparrowhawk" saw the sun.

Fortunately Amos Otis, the learned antiquary of Yarmouth, was then able to examine the craft. She lay rather below the surface of the meadow formed after the closing of the

1 Mr. Otis, who was descended from the great patriot Otis of the Revolution, died 1875, aged 74; his wife was of the Governor Hinckley lineage. For Mr. Otis's observations on this wreck, see N. E. Gen. Reg., xviii. 37.

original inlet from the sea, and over which the sand had drifted. She was well built of oak, still wholly undecayed, the corners of her timbers being as sharp as when new. Yet every particle of iron had disappeared, except as rust stains in the surrounding earth. The ancient repairs on the craft were evident, as several of her "tree-nails" had been split with a chisel and tightened by wedging. The deck and bows were wanting, her upper works having been burned away. In the hold were found beef and mutton bones, some shoesoles, a small metallic box, and a pipe-bowl like a modern opium-smoker's. She was perhaps of seventy tons' burden when complete; her mid-ship section was a decided semicircle, showing capacity and stability, while her stern had a remarkable length of dead-wood, like a modern steamer, indicating speed. Her ribs were pieced-up, or built upon, in a way which had been thought of modern device. Her keel showed but one step for a mast; but there was probably a small mast with a lateen sail mounted at her stern, making the then-common rig of a ketch.

In a few weeks the wreck was again buried by the changing sand, but this time it was not forgotten. In 1865 it was

1 In 1844, in an Indian burial-place near High Cliff, 11⁄2 miles north of Plymouth Rock, a similar pipe was found. This burial-place must have been disused some years before the Pilgrims landed; and the pipe-bowl, being European, is probably due to the visit of Pring, Champlain, or Smith. It is now in the possession of W. T. Davis, of Plymouth.

2 The "Somerset," a British blockading frigate, was wrecked at Provincetown, 1776, and her well-preserved hull is still exposed and buried by turns, as the sand shifts at intervals of a few years. The following recent paragraph probably refers to the "Somerset."

"The entire back shore of Cape Cod changed more the past winter than for many years. It is estimated that an average of a hundred feet of shore has been washed away between Race Point and High Head. Four miles east of Race Point Light a bluff forty feet high has disappeared, showing the outlines of an ancient vessel. About sixty feet of the hull can be traced. The wreck lies embedded in sand, her stern under the bluff. She was apparently 35-foot beam. Her upper works have been cut away or burned to the lower deck. The planking is five-inch hewn live oak, and ceilings the same thickness. The tim bers are 12 inches square. A 20-foot draught mark can be seen on her stern, which is 14 inches through, and 3 feet 2 inches from wood-ends to cut-water. The planking was sawed to fit the curve of the bow. Her style of planking and fastening is peculiar, and shows a style of carpentry beyond the remembrance of

1627.)

THE WRECK OF THE "SPARROWHAWK."

315 raised and placed for exhibition on Boston Common, where many persons inspected it. The same year it was removed to Providence, where it is said to be still preserved; 1 but its rudder is in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.

With this interesting story ends the record of 1627. If 1623 was a year especially momentous in Plymouth history, 1627 may contest its claim to importance.

the present generation. She is evidently a relic of Revolutionary days, probably an old English war-ship."— Newspaper of 1886.

1 As far as we can learn (1883) its last owner was Charles W. Livermore, of Providence. In Orleans, when disinterred, the wreck was owned by Leander Crosby, of Orleans, and during its Boston exhibition, by C. P. Knowles and C. W. Livermore.

Hon. Jonathan Higgins, of Orleans, has kindly interested himself in connec tion with this subject.

CHAPTER XXXII.

MORTON OF MERRY MOUNT.

N 1628 Plymouth once more appeared as the protector of

Captain Wollaston,1 with some partners and about thirty indentured servants, began a plantation at the present Quincy, on a mount a hundred feet high, near the sea, commanding a fine view of Boston Harbor. Two miles to the east was Old Spain, the scene of Standish's fearful contest in 1623, and there some of Robert Gorges' colonists still lived.

Discouraged by a year's trial, Wollaston went to Virginia with a few of the servants, and found ready sale for their remaining service-due. He then sent for his assistant, Rasdall, to come with more of the servants, leaving Lieutenant Fitcher in charge at this mount, then called Mount Wollaston. There were only nine or ten servants left at the latter place; but with them was one Thomas Morton, a former London attorney of some education, who had come over with Weston's men in 1622, and was now one of Wollaston's partners. Morton soon gave these servants a feast; and when they had

1 A man of pretty parts. — Bradford.

2 "Livetenante " is Bradford's first quaint spelling of his title.

Bradford describes Morton's standing and movement thus: "One Mr. Morton, who, it should seeme, had some small adventure (of his owne or other mens) amongst them; but had litle respecte amongst them, and was cleghted by yê meanest servants. . . . But this Morton abovesaid, haveing more craft then honestie, (who had been a kind of petie-fogger, of Furnefells Inne,) in ye others ab. sence, watches an oppertunitie (commons being but hard amongst them,) and gott some strong drinck & other junkats, & made them a feast."

1628.]

MORTON'S REVELS AND MISDEMEANORS.

317 become excited with liquor, he told them that their fellows had been sold as slaves in Virginia, as they themselves would be in turn; but he, as one of the principals in the plantation, would not only cancel their indentures, but would make them his equal partners in it, if they would first drive out Fitcher. They gladly complied, and poor Fitcher was obliged to decamp.1

The reign of equality and fraternity at once began at Mount Wollaston, now re-named Merry Mount. A profitable trade was kept up with the natives; but the time not given to business was spent in drunkenness and licentiousness. With the profits, rum was bought on a large scale; dissolute Indian squaws were domesticated; a May-pole was erected, upon which were posted wanton verses from Morton's muse, and around it the planters and squaws joined in dances and mad revels. Yet Morton maintained a pre-eminence, and was Lord of Misrule. As he welcomed accessions to this commercial and bacchantal commune, a fear soon arose among his neighbors that fugitive servants and culprits would in time find their way to him, and render Merry Mount both an Alsatia and an Algiers, full of danger to the whole line of settlements.

Morton next proceeded to employ Indian hunters, whom he made expert with fire-arms. The adjacent savages began to despise their bows and arrows, and make desperate efforts to get guns, regardless of cost. Morton sold all he could spare, sending to England for more. Before long the other Colonists began in all directions to meet savages armed with guns, in whose use, having nothing else to attend to, they were excelling the whites in skilfulness, and becoming expert at repairing and choosing the weapons. The safety of the latter had been due chiefly to their superior arms. At First Encounter or at Wessagusset, Standish's party would have had small chance of survival if the Indians had been trained sharpshooters, with guns in their hands; nor could any of

So they took oppertunitie, and thrust Levetenante Fitcher out a dores.Bradford Mms.