Page:Massasoit's town Sowams in Pokanoket, its history, legends and traditions (IA massasoitstownso00bake).pdf/28

22 to "sell his birthright," is a question more easily asked than answered; gratitude probably influenced him, in part. He never forgot that he owed his life to his English allies. Possibly, too, the wise statesman, realizing the superiority of the white man's civilization, believed his people would be benefitted by closer relationship with them. He is said to have warned his sons that if they ever engaged in war against the English they would meet with defeat.

The Sowams proprietors did not immediately enter into possession of their entire purchase. By a clause in the "Grand Deed of Saile," they were restrained from occupying "the neck" (i. e. Mount Hope Neck ) until such time as the Indians should remove therefrom, the term "neck" as used, however, really signifying only the "uplands," or central portion of what now constitutes Warren and Bristol. The meadows (i. e. marshes) on either side the "great river," (Sowams River), Kickemuit River, and in and about Poppasquash and Chachacust were the only portions of the territory which actually passed into their hands at the date of sale. These they at once proceeded to divide. The boundaries of the several "lots" are plainly described in the "Records of Sowams and Parts Adjacent" and may be easily traced on a map of Bristol County, R. I. The lots apportioned within the limits of Indian and English Sowams fell to the share of Captain Miles Standish, Experience Mitchell, Resolved and Peregrine White, Thomas Willett, John Adams, Thomas Prince, and John and Josiah Winslow.

The lot of Captain Standish included the marshes on both sides of Kickemuit River from the source of the stream to "the passage where they have usually gone over with canoes"