These were the people with whom I was to spend a few months; and
who, with the exception of the officer, Nicholas the Frenchman, and
the boy, made the whole population of the beach. I ought, perhaps,
to except the dogs, for they were an important part of our settlement.
Some of the first vessels brought dogs out with them, who, for
convenience, were left ashore, and there multiplied, until they came
to be a great people. While I was on the beach, the average number was
about forty, and probably an equal, or greater number are drowned,
or killed in some other way, every year. They are very useful in
guarding the beach, the Indians being afraid to come down at night;
for it was impossible for any one to get within half a mile of the
hide-houses without a general alarm. The father of the colony, old
Sachem, so called from the ship in which he was brought out, died
while I was there, full of years, and was honorably buried. Hogs,
and a few chickens, were the rest of the animal tribe, and formed,
like the dogs, a common company, though they were an known and marked,
and usually fed at the houses to which they belonged.
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