half of the time, four; and half, three. One course of Natural History is by Professor Blumenbach. This is a very aged man of eighty-four, and he has lectured uninterruptedly now for fifty-three years. He has always been distinguished, and is now well known in Europe, and is honored with knighthood. He speaks English pretty well, and is tolerably familiar with our country. He is an exceedingly humorous man, and though so old he keeps the lecture-room in a continual roar. Indeed I have never seen a man who possessed so fully the art of presenting abstract remarks in an interesting and pleasant manner. The principal attraction of his lectures is his Cabinet, which he has been collecting during his whole life. It has been bought for the University at 40,000 rix-dollars. It contains a wonderful variety of natural curiosities from every clime.

"My second course is on the modern history of Europe by Professor Heeren, the most distinguished living historian in Germany. He possesses great simplicity, which is his ruling trait of character, and is combined at the same time with true dignity. He is about sixty-eight years of age, and has lectured for forty years without any interruption from ill health. He is also honored with knighthood. These two professors are the most eminent in Göttingen.

"Then my third course is by a Professor Ewald, a young man of twenty-five, who lectures on the Psalms. He is a prodigy. He has obtained a very excellent knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, and kindred Oriental languages, and will go to Paris next month to study Chinese! He published a Hebrew Grammar about two years since, which has made him extensively known." 1

Mr. DEANE presented a paper for the Proceedings, and before reading it made the following explanatory statement:

1 It is interesting to read this allusion to Professor Ewald, who was then beginning his remarkable career, and afterwards became one of the most distinguished philologists of his time. He was a prodigy of learning. The Hebrew Grammar which is here mentioned grew under his hands into an exhaustive treatise, comprising, in its eighth edition, more than nine hundred closely printed pages. His "History of the People of Israel," in seven volumes, has been translated and is well known. Besides these he published commentaries on all the principal books of the Old and New Testaments; he carried on a Biblical Review for twelve years almost alone; he wrote innumerable articles for other periodicals; and he gave instruction in Persian, Ethiopic, Assyrian, Sanscrit, and other languages. In 1837 he was one of the famous seven Göttingen professors who protested against the overthrow of the Constitution of Hanover by the king, for which act he was dismissed from the University, though he was recalled in 1848. In 1867 he was elected a representative to the German Parliament in Berlin; and in 1874 he was arrested and sentenced to three weeks' imprisonment because he could not tolerate the despotic policy of Bismark. He died in 1875, at the age of seventy-two years. - EDS.

Persons familiar with the accounts of the early voyages along the coast of Maine will remember that Captain George Waymouth, on his visit here in 1605, entered the river Pemmaquid, and kidnapped thence five of the natives, whom he carried to England. Their names, as given by James Rosier, who wrote an account of Waymouth's voyage, were Tahánedo, Amóret, Skicowáros, Maneddo, and Sassacomoit.1

66

Sir Ferdinando Gorges relates that Waymouth, after he had arrived in England on his return from this voyage, put into the harbor of Plymouth, where Sir Ferdinando commanded, and that he himself there seized upon three of these savages, whose names were Manida, Skettwarroes, and Tasquantum.2 They were all of one nation," he says, "but of several parts and several families. This accident," he continues, "must be acknowledged the means under God of putting on foot, and giving life to all our plantations." Gorges kept these natives in his custody for some time, until they began to show signs of civility, and he could communicate intelligibly with them; his purpose being to learn from them all he could concerning the country whence they came. "The longer I conversed with them," he says, "the better hope they gave me of those parts where they did inhabit, as proper for our uses, especially when I found what goodly rivers, stately islands, and safe harbors those parts abounded with, being the special marks I levelled at as the only want our nation met with in all their navigations along that coast, and having kept them full three years, I made them able to set me down what great rivers ran up into the land, what men of note were seated on them, what power they were of, how allied, what enemies they had, and the like of which in his proper place."

Gorges wrote his interesting and valuable narrative many years after the events which he here records took place; and

1 A True Relation of Captain George Waymouth, etc., in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. viii. p. 157.

2 Waymouth sailed from Dartmouth the last of March, upon Easter day, and returning arrived on the coast of England the 16th of July, when he “made Scylly; from whence," says Rosier, "hindered with calms and small winds, upon Thursday, the 18th July, about four o'clock afternoon, we came into Dartmouth, which haven we made our last and first harbor in England." (3 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. viii. pp. 129, 155.) There is no mention here of putting into Plymouth, which harbor they passed by, and came to Dartmouth, “the first harbor in England." His visit to Plymouth with his five natives, of whom Gorges took three, must have taken place afterwards.

...

it abounds with errors, some of which may be typographical, some editorial. In saying that the name of one of these three natives was "" Tasquantum," he errs.1 Tasquantum was not among the five whom Waymouth captured at Pemmaquid. Gorges's third Indian was named "Assacumet Assacumet" (by Rosier spelled "Sassacomoit "). This is confirmed by various accounts, by Gorges himself in a later part of his narrative, and by the early manuscript here communicated for publication. Gorges also errs in saying that he kept these men in custody "full three years." The inference from his narrative is that the three years had expired before the sending away of Captain Challong. Gorges kept them only from July, 1605, until August, 1606, in which last month he sent away two of them, Mannido and Assacomet, with Captain Challong, "in a ship furnished with men and all necessaries, provisions, convenient for the service," with instructions to proceed to the coast whence the natives had been taken.2 The remaining Indian, Skettwarroes, Gorges despatched, the last of May, 1607, with the Popham colonists.3

The voyage of Challong, referred to, was unsuccessful. Owing to the illness of the captain, the vessel, instead of keeping the "northerly gage," according to instructions, made a southerly course, and on the 10th of November was captured by a Spanish fleet from the Havannah, and carried to Spain. "Their ship and goods," says Gorges, "were confiscate," the ship's company of twenty-nine Englishmen "made prisoners, the voyage overthrown, and both my natives lost."4

And here comes in the paper mentioned at the beginning of these remarks. It is a letter from Captain John Barlee to Levinus Moncke, one of the secretaries of the Earl of Salisbury, soliciting his aid in the liberation of the English prisoners

1 See Gorges's Briefe Narration, original edition, p. 3, London, 1658, or 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. vi. p. 51. Gorges was familiar with the name of Tasquantum, as the native who bore that name was, at a later period, in his custody; but his memory was at fault concerning him. He was one of those twenty-four captives taken from the neighborhood of Plymouth by Hunt in 1614, and carried away to Spain; thence he found his way to England, to Newfoundland, and finally to Plymouth, where he long and faithfully served the colony. Bradford uniformly calls him "Squanto." See index to his History under that name; also Briefe Relation, London, 1622, or 2 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. ix. pp. 7, 8.

2 See 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. vi. pp. 51, 52; Purchas, vol. i. 1832.

3 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. vi.

p. 54.

4 Ibid. p. 54.

at Seville in Spain, and particularly for "the recovering of the two Savages, Manedo and Sasacomett, for that the adventurers do hold them of great prize, and to be used to their great avail for many purposes," etc.

Who Captain Barlee was, and why Gorges did not personally apply for the aid of the Government for the recovery of the prisoners, and what success attended this application in behalf of the adventurers, we have no means of knowing; but Gorges informs us of the recovery of "Assacumet," of the two savages who went with Challong, and whom he subsequently, in 1614, sent to the coast with Captain Hobson.

N° 35.

State Papers, Dom. Jas: I. Vol. 28.

WORTHY S I have in this inclosed1 p'sented vnto you the names of all those that are prisoners in Spaine, the thinge that I wold most especially have entreated att yo! hands (more then this paper will informe you) is this that you will commend to yo! care the recov❜ing the two Salvages Manedo and Sasacomett, for that the adventurers do hold them of great prize, & to be vsed to ther great availe for many purposes, so beseeching yow to be as willing to furder yt as you were ready of yo! owne accorde to looke into the buysines (wherof I have no dowbte) & God will reward yo! charitable devise & the p'soners shalbe ppetually bound to you who shall pcure them this favour from my ho: good lo: of Salisbury: & for my selfe I rest ready to do you all office & thinke my selfe in my owne harte obliged vnto you as well for my pticuler freinds as for so noble & publique a service: & so I comend my respecte to you & you to Gods favour & remaine

yo: freind as you wilbe-pleased to use.

Dr. CHANNING called attention to the "Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts." It contains, among other things, abstracts and extracts from the manuscripts now in the possession of a descendant of the first Viscount Sackville. Many of them relate to American affairs, and are of considerable interest and value. These "Reports" have no tables of contents, and the indexes to them, while large, do not indicate with sufficient accuracy the letters and papers bearing on America. The Blue Books," too, are taken by but few libraries in this country, and are very difficult to use when obtainable. It is to be hoped, therefore, that either those portions of the "Reports" which relate to America will be reprinted, or that, at least, a table indicating the contents of the more important documents may be compiled and published.

Dr. EVERETT desired to bring up the somewhat hackneyed subject of the motto of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He asked if there was anything known of its origin beyond its having been written by Algernon Sidney in an album in Holland, and whether it could be traced beyond Sidney to any Latin poet, ancient or recent. It had occurred to him that it could not be classical, on account of a mistaken use of words in "Ense petit quietem," which are unquestionably intended to mean "seeks to obtain peace by the sword," but in a classical writer could only mean "attacks peace with the sword." The following translation would give a double meaning of peto,

"The tyrants' foe, this hand Aims at calm peace in freedom with its brand," where the usage of the Latin poets could only give aims at a hostile sense.

Dr. EVERETT also spoke of the spelling of the peculiar proper name Alablaster, which occurs in many documents of the seventeenth century, and is familiar to the readers of the "Life of John Winthrop." In this book and most modern histories it is changed to Alabaster, to conform to the spelling of the name of the mineral. But the second l appears in the original works, -as, for instance, in Anthony à Wood's "Athenæ," passim, -and has been retained in Nuttall's "Fuller's Worthies," vol. iii. p. 185, in Sandford's "Studies of the Great Rebellion," p. 229, and other careful works. Moreover, the mineral is not