Page:What cheer, or, Roger Williams in banishment (1896).pdf/208

 STANZA XXII.

"'Tis not the peag," said the Sagamore, "Nor knives, nor guns, nor garments red as blood, That buy the lands I hold dominion o'er— Lands that were fashioned by the red man's God; But to my friend I give." Williams says the Indians were very shy and jealous of selling their lands to any, and chose rather to make a grant of them to such as they affected; but at the same time expected such gratuities and rewards as made an Indian gift often times a very dear bargain. Of Peag there were two sorts—the white and black. The former was called Wampom or Wampum, the latter Suckauhock. The first was wrought from the white, the last from the black or purple part of a shell. STANZA LXI. Westward till now his course did Waban draw; He shunned Weybosset, the accustomed ford. I am informed that Weybosset, in the Indian language, signified a ford, or crossing place. It is now the name of a street in Providence, extending southwesterly from the place in the river so designated by the Indians. STANZA LXII.. And fast doth Indian town to town succeed, Some large, some small, in populous array. "In the Narraganset country (which is the chief people in the land) a man shall come to many townes, some bigger, some lesser, it may be a dozen in 20 miles travell."—Williams' Key.