e been at some
pains to collect and offer the required proofs.

INTRODUCTION.

I was born within twelve miles of a principal tribe of Indians, within
two miles of a small band, and within six miles of two other small bands,
of that tribe. They were a remnant of the Pawkunnawkuts, who, at the
first settlement of the country, were a very numerous, powerful, and
warlike nation, but at the time of my birth had dwindled in numbers to
about five hundred souls, and were restricted in territory to some
six or seven thousand acres. They then, and at present, sank their
primitive appellation in the less poetic name of Gayheads, which was
given them by the white people with reference to the little elbow or
promontory of land where they lived. Though the manners and customs of
the Whites had made sad inroads on the primitive Indian character,
there yet remained, at the time of my birth, enough to make them
objects of ardent and profitable interest.

The recollections of my earliest childhood are of Indians. My
grandfather had an old Indian woman in his house for the greater part
of the first fifteen years of my life. Our house-servants and
field-labourers were chiefly Indians. It was my grandfather's custom,
and had been that of his ancestors, ever since their settlement, a
hundred and fifty years ago, in the vicinity of the tribe, to take
Indian boys at the age of four or five years, and keep them until they
had attained their majority, when they usually left us, chiefly to
become sailors--an employment in which their services were specially
valued. During my minority we had three of these little foresters in our
house, and these drew around them their fathers, and mothers, and
sisters, and brothers: very frequently our house was an "Indian Camp"
indeed. From the boys I learned the sports and pastimes of Indian
childhood, and, from the aged, their traditional history and wild
legends of supernatural horrors. So thoroughly has my mind become imbued
with their superstitions, that at times I find difficulty in reconciling
myself to the plain matter-of-fact narratives of the men of my own creed
and colour. I have to pinch myself like one awaking from an unpleasant
dream, and to say to the wild creations of Indian fancy, "Ye are shadows
all."

It is quite impossible that any one, who has not been among and "of"
the North American Indians, should be able to form even a tolerable idea
of the extent to which they are acted up