Page:What cheer, or, Roger Williams in banishment (1896).pdf/210

 STANZA XXI.

The Neyhom's mantle did his shoulders grace.

"Neyhomaushunck, a coat or mantle curiously made of the fairest plumes of the Neyhommauog, or turkies, which commonly their old men make, and is with them as velvet with us."—Williams' Key.

STANZA XXXIII.

''Yes, ere he came, Pocasset's martial band Did at our bidding come to fight the foe, And the tall warriors of the Nipnet land Rushed with soft foot to bend our battle bow; And e'en the dog of Haup did cringing stand Beside our wigwam, and his tribute show.''

The reader will not expect in the text minute historical accuracy, yet it has been the wish of the author, throughout, not to violate historical truth; and the following facts, he thinks, give something more than mere probability to the presumption, that Massasoit was, before the arrival of the whites, in some sense, one of the subject sachems of the Narraganset chiefs. The following extract of a deposition of Williams, dated at Narraganset, the 18th of June, A. D. 1682, will shew that Canonicus had authority of some sort over Massasoit, and that the latter had claims, subordinate to those of Canonicus, to certain lands which Williams procured of the last named chief. In this deposition Williams says, "I desire posterity to see the most gracious hand of the Most High, (in whose hands are all things,) that when the hearts of my countrymen and friends and brethren failed me, his infinite wisdom and merits stirred up the barbarous heart of Canonicus to love me as his own son to the last gasp, by which I had not only Miantonomi and all the Coweset sachems my friends, but Ousamequin also, who, because of my great friendship for him at Plymouth, and the authority of Canonicus, consented freely, (being also well gratified by me,) to the Governor Winthrop's and my enjoyment of Prudence, yea of Providence itself, and