Page:Massasoit's town Sowams in Pokanoket, its history, legends and traditions (IA massasoitstownso00bake).pdf/38

32 bank of Kickemuit River the soldiers discovered the "heads, hands, and scalps" of eight Englishmen, murdered at Mattapoisett, "stuck up on poles near the highway," close by the spot which must have been pressed by the feet of Winslow and Hopkins when, journeying from Plymouth to Pokanoket in 1621, they crossed the " wacling-place" at Kickemuit and entered Sowams for the purpose of continuing the "league of peace and friendship" with Massasoit, and of securing from the savage chief the supply of seed corn which the feeble colony of Plymouth then stood sorely in need of.

The site of English Sowams remained desolate from that eventful June day until some time after the close of the war which soon followed the death of King Philip in August, 1676. About 1678, settlers began to rebuild along the Kickemuit, and the old "ways" and "bridal paths" laid out "long since" by the Sowams' colonists were re-surveyed, descriptions of them being carefully recorded. Most of these ancient highways are in use at the present day. There being no Indians left on Mount Hope Neck, the territory now occupied by the town of Bristol and the compact part of Warren, passed into the possession of the successors of the original Sowams' proprietors, by virtue of the deed executed by Massasoit and Wamsutta in 1653. By an arbitrary act, King Charles transferred the site of Bristol to Plymouth, but that of Warren became a part of Swansea. As early as 1671, the last mentioned district was known by the name of "Brooks' Pasture," undoubtedly from some right of ownership in it possessed by Timothy Brooks. What that right was the writer has been, thus far, unable to discover, though a careful and diligent search of the early records has been made in the hope of solving the mystery. At different periods, between 1681 and 1725, Brooks' Pasture —with the exception of the meadows or marshes divided in 1653 between Thomas Prince