Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/62

38 shores of which furnished quantities of shell fish, and the cove and bay were literally alive with fish. Captain Thomas Willet and John Brown, John Viall, and families dwelt at Wannamoisett and their graves are with us at Little Neck even to this day.

In every tribe of Indians there was a chief or head-man or head-woman to whom the rest paid deference on account of age, stature, strength, or prowess. Among the Wampanoags, the chief sachem at the time of the arrival of the Plymouth settlers was Osamequin or Woosamequin, better known as Massassoit. He died in 1661, according to the judgment of the settlers at nearly eighty years of age, as "he was a man in his best years" in 1621. Morton says of him: "In his person he is a very lusty man, in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance and spare of speech; in his attire little or nothing differing from the rest of his followers, only in a great chain of white bone beads about his neck; and at it, behind his neck, hangs a little bag of tobacco, which he drank and gave us to drink. His face was painted with a sad red like murrey; and oiled both head and face, that he looked greasily. All his followers likewise were, in their faces in part or in whole, painted, some black, some red, some yellow, and some white; some with crosses and other antick works; some had skins on them and some naked; all strong, tall men in appearance. The king had in his bosom, hanging in a string, a great, long knife."

For some time before his death, "good old Massassoit," as he was known to the whites, became quite inactive and his oldest son, Wamsutta or Mooanam, took upon himself the governmental affairs of the tribe. On his father's death he and his brother, Metacom, requested the Governor of Plymouth to give them English names. Governor Prince complied with their request and gave Wamsutta the name Alexander, and Metacom the name Philip, after the great Macedonian conquerors, at which they were much pleased. Alexander, the eldest son, was chief sachem for only two