of Stockbridge, Fuller of Springfield, and
Lewis of Pepperell, of the House. Benjamin F. Hallett, Esq. appeared
as Counsel for the Indians.

Lemuel Ewer, Esq. of South Sandwich, was a witness, and the only white
one who was in favor of the Indians. The Indian witnesses were Deacon
Coombs, Daniel B. Amos, Ebenezer Attaquin, Joseph B. Amos, and William
Apes.

On the other side appeared Kilburn Whitman, Esq. of Pembroke, as
Counsel for the Overseers; Messrs. J.J. Fiske of Wrentham, and Elijah
Swift of Falmouth, both of the Governor's Council; the Rev. Phineas
Fish, the Marshpee missionary, sent by Harvard College; Judge Marston,
Nathaniel Hinckley and Charles Marston, all of Barnstable; Gideon
Hawley of South Sandwich, Judge Whitman of Boston, and two Indians,
Nathan Pocknet and William Amos, by name. It was a notable piece of
policy on the part of the Overseers, to make a few friends among the
Indians, in order to use them for their own purposes. Thus do pigeon
trappers use to set up a decoy. When the bird flutters, the flock
settle round him, the net is sprung, and they are in fast hands. Judge
Whitman, however, could not make his two decoy birds flutter to his
satisfaction, and so he got no chance to spring his net. He had just
told the Indians that they might as well think to move the rock of
Gibraltar from its base, as to heave the heavy load of guardianship
from their shoulders; and, when he first came before the committee, he
said he did not care a snap of his finger about the matter, one way or
the other. But he altered his mind before he got through the business,
and began to say that he should be ruined if the bill passed for the
relief of the Indians, and was, moreover, sure that Apes would reign,
king of Marshpee. The old gentleman, indeed, made several perilous
thrusts at me in his plea; but, when he came to cross-examination,
he was so pleased with the correctness of my testimony, that he had
nothing more to say to me. I shall now leave him, to attend to his
friend Judge Marston.

This gentleman swore in court that he thought Indians an inferior race
of men; and, of course, were incapable of managing their own affairs.

The testimony of the two decoy pigeons was, that they had liberty
enough; more than they knew what to do with. They showed plainly
enough that they knew nothing of the law they lived under. The
testimony of the Rev. Mr. Fish was more directly against us. Some may
think I do wrong to ment