850
if they have no acquaintances there, and are treated with as much sewan as is allowed for that purpose; therefore the Sackimas generally have three or four wives, each of whom has to furnish her own seed.
The Sackima has his fixed fine of sewan for fighting and causing blood to flow.
When any are—[here four pages, at least, are missing in the original manuscript.']
Coming out of the river Nassau,* you sail east-and-by-north about fourteen miles, along the coast, a half a mile from the shore, and you then come to " Frenchman's Point,"f at a small river where those of PatucxetJ have a house made of hewn oak planks, called Aptucxet,§, where they keep two men, winter and summer, in order to maintain the trade and possession. Where also they have built a shallop, in order to go and look after the trade in sewan, in Sloup's Bay|| and thereabouts, because they are afraid to pass Cape Mallabaer, and in order to avoid the length of the way; which I have prevented for this year by selling them fifty fathoms of sewan,1f because the seeking after sewan by them is prejudicial to us, inasmuch as they would, by so doing, discover the trade in furs ; which if they were to find out, it would be a great trouble for us to maintain, for they already dare to threaten that if we will not leave off dealing with that people, they will be obliged to use other means; if they do. that now, while they are yet ignorant how the case stands, what will they do when they do get a notion of it ?
From Aptucxet the English can come in six hours, through the woods, passing several little rivulets of fresh water, to New Plymouth, the principal place in the county Patucxet, so called in their " Octroye" from His Majesty in England.
New Plymouth lies in a large bay to the north of Cape Cod, or Mallabaer, east and west from the said [north] point of the cape, which can be easily seen in clear weather. Directly before the commenced town lies a sand bank, about twenty places broad, whereon the sea breaks violently with
• Narraganset Bay.
tDe Rasieres dates his letter to Gov. Bradford, of 4th October, 1627, from " aboard the barque Nassau," off this point. [See Coll. N. Y. His. Soc. Vol. I. new series, p. 362.1
I The Indian name for New Plymouth.
§ See Bradford's description of Manomet, in Prince, p. 67.; and see also Coll. N. Y. His. Soc.  Vol. I., new series, p. 357-358.
|| The western entrance to Narragansett Bay.
IT See also Bradford's account of this transaction in Coll. N. Y. His. Soc. Vol. I., new aeries, p. 357.