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From: Bobbie Hall <>
Subject: [MABARNST] Cape Cod Pilot, Ch. 7, part 2
Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2002 12:18:59 -0600
References: <200112191104.fBJB48Q10270@lists2.rootsweb.com>


======================================================================
Cape Cod Pilot, by Jeremiah Diggs, American Guide Series, published by
Modern Pilgrim Press, Provincetown, MA, 1937. This was a work
underwritten by the Federal Writers Project, Works Project
Administration (WPA) for the State of Massachusetts.
======================================================================

Chapter VII - ORLEANS [part 2]

Orleans, until 1797, was the South Precinct of the mother town of
Eastham. Why she was given the name of Orleans nobody knows. The
historians have puzzled over it and given up, except one who cites a
local tradition that the town was named after Louis Philippe, Duke of
Orleans, who became King of France in 1830.

That explanation is possible, because, just a month before Orleans
became a town, the Duke came to this country to join his two brothers,
who had been imprisoned since the Terror.

Here, at the inner crook of the Cape's elbow, you enter what was once
the country of the Nausets, tribe of Sachem ASPINET, who gave aid to
the shipwrecked company of the "Sparrowhawk" in 1627, and in a number
of other ways showed friendliness to the English. It was here too,
that Sachem IYANNOUGH led Miles STANDISH in search of the lad
BILLINGTON, who had gone astray. STANDISH, with ten heavily armed men,
anchored off Rock Harbor.

"The savages here came very thick amongst us, and were earnest with us
to bring in our boat; but we neither well could; nor yet desired to do
it, because we had less cause to trust them ... After sunset, Aspinet
came, with a great train; and brought the boy with him, one bearing
him through the water. He had not less than a hundred with him; the
half whereof came to the shallop side unarmed with him; the other half
stood aloof with their bows and arrows. There he delivered us the boy,
behung with beads; and made peace with us; we bestowing a knife on
him; and likewise on another that first entertained the boy, and
brought him hither. So they departed from us."

Shortly afterward STANDISH came again in a shallop to this place, and
while here made a prize fool of himself over the theft of "certain
beads, scissors and other trifles," which ASPINET recovered from the
Indian who had taken them, after STANDISH had rattled his sword and
threatened to "revenge it on them before his departure."

Sachem ASPINET, like IYANNOUGH, was driven into the swamp lands by
STANDISH in 1623, there to die of disease.

But the Nausets were a forbearinig people. In the winter of 1627 the
"Sparrowhawk," bound for Virginia, lost her course "either by ye
insufficiencie of ye maister, or his ilnes; for he was sick and lame
of ye scurvie, so that he could be lye in ye cabin dore, and give
direction."

The vessel, her nose knocked about in a driving winter storm, struck a
bar near the entrance to Nauset Harbor. The great waves swept her
inside, where the "many passengers and sundrie goods" were saved, but
the vessel herself could not be floated again. The Indians met the
little company, and addressed them in English, offering "to bring them
to ye English houses, or carry their letters." They guided two of the
men to Plymouth, with a message for Governor BRADFORD, who set sail to
bring them aid.

"It was noe season of ye year to goe without [outside] ye Cape, but
understanding where ye ship lay, he went into ye bottom of ye bay, on
the inside, and put into a crick called Naumskachett [Namskaket] wher
it is not much above 2 mile over land to ye bay where they were."

While the crew of the "Sparrowhawk" were trying to mend their vessel,
another fierce storm broke over her, tore her away again, and pounded
her into a hopeless wreck. She was abandoned then, and the sands piled
over her in storms through the years. She disappeared from view and
almost from memory until 1782, more than a century and a half later,
when a lashing gale swept the sand away to bring her to light again.

Nobody did anything about her, so Father Neptune tucked her back in
the sand and kept her there for almost another century. Then, in 1863,
when she once more emerged, she was examined, and it was reported that
she was "well built of oak, still wholly undecayed, the corners of her
timbers being sharp as when new." Two years later she was dug out and
taken to Boston, where she was exhibited on the Common, and her rudder
was then sent to Pilgrim Memorial Hall, in Plymouth, where it is still
on display. The dune on Nauset Beach under which the "Sparrowhawk" lay
is still known as "Old Ship."

[more to come]
transcribed by and all errors attributed to
Bobbie Hall








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