Books: Letters from an American Farmer

H >> Hector St. John de Crevecoeur >> Letters from an American Farmer

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From this first sketch, I hope that my partiality to this island
will be justified. Perhaps you hardly know that such an one exists
in the neighbourhood of Cape Cod. What has happened here, has and
will happen everywhere else. Give mankind the full rewards of their
industry, allow them to enjoy the fruit of their labour under the
peaceable shade of their vines and fig-trees, leave their native
activity unshackled and free, like a fair stream without dams or
other obstacles; the first will fertilise the very sand on which
they tread, the other exhibit a navigable river, spreading plenty
and cheerfulness wherever the declivity of the ground leads it. If
these people are not famous for tracing the fragrant furrow on the
plain, they plough the rougher ocean, they gather from its surface,
at an immense distance, and with Herculean labours, the riches it
affords; they go to hunt and catch that huge fish which by its
strength and velocity one would imagine ought to be beyond the reach
of man. This island has nothing deserving of notice but its
inhabitants; here you meet with neither ancient monuments, spacious
halls, solemn temples, nor elegant dwellings; not a citadel, nor any
kind of fortification, not even a battery to rend the air with its
loud peals on any solemn occasion. As for their rural improvements,
they are many, but all of the most simple and useful kind.

The island of Nantucket lies in latitude 41 degrees 10 minutes. 60
miles S. from Cape Cod; 27 S. from Hyanes or Barnstable, a town on
the most contiguous part of the great peninsula; 21 miles E. by S.
from Cape Pog, on the vineyard; 50 E. by S. from Wood's Hole, on
Elizabeth Island; 80 miles S. from Boston; 120 from Rhode Island;
800 N. from Bermudas. Sherborn is the only town on the island, which
consists of about 530 houses, that have been framed on the main;
they are lathed and plastered within, handsomely painted and boarded
without; each has a cellar underneath, built with stones fetched
also from the main: they are all of a similar construction and
appearance; plain, and entirely devoid of exterior or interior
ornament. I observed but one which was built of bricks, belonging to
Mr.----, but like the rest it is unadorned. The town stands on a
rising sandbank, on the west side of the harbour, which is very safe
from all winds. There are two places of worship, one for the society
of Friends, the other for that of Presbyterians; and in the middle
of the town, near the market-place, stands a simple building, which
is the county court-house. The town regularly ascends toward the
country, and in its vicinage they have several small fields and
gardens yearly manured with the dung of their cows, and the soil of
their streets. There are a good many cherry and peach trees planted
in their streets and in many other places; the apple tree does not
thrive well, they have therefore planted but few. The island
contains no mountains, yet is very uneven, and the many rising
grounds and eminences with which it is filled, have formed in the
several valleys a great variety of swamps, where the Indian grass
and the blue bent, peculiar to such soils, grow with tolerable
luxuriancy. Some of the swamps abound with peat, which serves the
poor instead of firewood. There are fourteen ponds on this island,
all extremely useful, some lying transversely, almost across it,
which greatly helps to divide it into partitions for the use of
their cattle; others abound with peculiar fish and sea fowls. Their
streets are not paved, but this is attended with little
inconvenience, as it is never crowded with country carriages; and
those they have in the town are seldom made use of but in the time
of the coming in and before the sailing of their fleets. At my first
landing I was much surprised at the disagreeable smell which struck
me in many parts of the town; it is caused by the whale oil, and is
unavoidable; the neatness peculiar to these people can neither
remove nor prevent it. There are near the wharfs a great many
storehouses, where their staple commodity is deposited, as well as
the innumerable materials which are always wanted to repair and fit
out so many whalemen. They have three docks, each three hundred feet
long, and extremely convenient; at the head of which there are ten
feet of water. These docks are built like those in Boston, of logs
fetched from the continent, filled with stones, and covered with
sand. Between these docks and the town, there is room sufficient for
the landing of goods and for the passage of their numerous carts;
for almost every man here has one: the wharfs to the north and south
of the docks, are built of the same materials, and give a stranger,
at his first landing, an high idea of the prosperity of these
people; and there is room around these three docks for 300 sail of
vessels. When their fleets have been successful, the bustle and
hurry of business on this spot for some days after their arrival,
would make you imagine, that Sherborn is the capital of a very
opulent and large province. On that point of land, which forms the
west side of the harbour, stands a very neat lighthouse; the
opposite peninsula, called Coitou, secures it from the most
dangerous winds. There are but few gardens and arable fields in the
neighbourhood of the town, for nothing can be more sterile and sandy
than this part of the island; they have, however, with unwearied
perseverance, by bringing a variety of manure, and by cow-penning,
enriched several spots where they raise Indian corn, potatoes,
pumpkins, turnips, etc. On the highest part of this sandy eminence,
four windmills grind the grain they raise or import; and contiguous
to them their rope walk is to be seen, where full half of their
cordage is manufactured. Between the shores of the harbour, the
docks, and the town, there is a most excellent piece of meadow,
inclosed and manured with such cost and pains as show how necessary
and precious grass is at Nantucket. Towards the point of Shemah, the
island is more level and the soil better; and there they have
considerable lots well fenced and richly manured, where they
diligently raise their yearly crops. There are but very few farms on
this island, because there are but very few spots that will admit of
cultivation without the assistance of dung and other manure; which
is very expensive to fetch from the main. This island was patented
in the year 1671, by twenty-seven proprietors, under the province of
New York; which then claimed all the islands from the Neway Sink to
Cape Cod. They found it so universally barren and so unfit for
cultivation, that they mutually agreed not to divide it, as each
could neither live on, nor improve that lot which might fall to his
share. They then cast their eyes on the sea, and finding themselves
obliged to become fishermen, they looked for a harbour, and having
found one, they determined to build a town in its neighbourhood and
to dwell together. For that purpose they surveyed as much ground as
would afford to each what is generally called here a home lot. Forty
acres were thought sufficient to answer this double purpose; for to
what end should they covet more land than they could improve, or
even inclose; not being possessed of a single tree, in the whole
extent of their new dominion. This was all the territorial property
they allotted; the rest they agreed to hold in common, and seeing
that the scanty grass of the island might feed sheep, they agreed
that each proprietor should be entitled to feed on it if he pleased
560 sheep. By this agreement, the national flock was to consist of
15,120; that is the undivided part of the island was by such means
ideally divisible into as many parts or shares; to which
nevertheless no certain determinate quantity of land was affixed;
for they knew not how much the island contained, nor could the most
judicious surveyor fix this small quota as to quality and quantity.
Further they agreed, in case the grass should grow better by
feeding, that then four sheep should represent a cow, and two cows a
horse: such was the method this wise people took to enjoy in common
their new settlement; such was the mode of their first
establishment, which may be truly and literally called a pastoral
one. Several hundred of sheep-pasture titles have since been divided
on those different tracts, which are now cultivated; the rest by
inheritance and intermarriages have been so subdivided that it is
very common for a girl to have no other portion but her outset and
four sheep pastures or the privilege of feeding a cow. But as this
privilege is founded on an ideal, though real title to some unknown
piece of land, which one day or another may be ascertained; these
sheep-pasture titles should convey to your imagination, something
more valuable and of greater credit than the mere advantage arising
from the benefit of a cow, which in that case would be no more than
a right of commonage. Whereas, here as labour grows cheaper, as
misfortunes from their sea adventures may happen, each person
possessed of a sufficient number of these sheep-pasture titles may
one day realise them on some peculiar spot, such as shall be
adjudged by the council of the proprietors to be adequate to their
value; and this is the reason that these people very unwillingly
sell those small rights, and esteem them more than you would
imagine. They are the representation of a future freehold, they
cherish in the mind of the possessor a latent, though distant, hope,
that by his success in his next whale season, he may be able to
pitch on some predilected spot, and there build himself a home, to
which he may retire, and spend the latter end of his days in peace.
A council of proprietors always exists in this island, who decide
their territorial differences; their titles are recorded in the
books of the county, which this town represents, as well as every
conveyance of lands and other sales.

This island furnishes the naturalist with few or no objects worthy
observation: it appears to be the uneven summit of a sandy submarine
mountain, covered here and there with sorrel, grass, a few cedar
bushes, and scrubby oaks; their swamps are much more valuable for
the peat they contain, than for the trifling pasture of their
surface; those declining grounds which lead to the seashores abound
with beach grass, a light fodder when cut and cured, but very good
when fed green. On the east side of the island they have several
tracts of salt grasses, which being carefully fenced, yield a
considerable quantity of that wholesome fodder. Among the many ponds
or lakes with which this island abounds, there are some which have
been made by the intrusion of the sea, such as Wiwidiah, the Long,
the Narrow, and several others; consequently those are salt and the
others fresh. The former answer two considerable purposes, first by
enabling them to fence the island with greater facility; at peculiar
high tides a great number of fish enter into them, where they feed
and grow large, and at some known seasons of the year the
inhabitants assemble and cut down the small bars which the waves
always throw up. By these easy means the waters of the pond are let
out, and as the fish follow their native element, the inhabitants
with proper nets catch as many as they want, in their way out,
without any other trouble. Those which are most common, are the
streaked bass, the blue fish, the tom-cod, the mackerel, the tew-
tag, the herring, the flounder, eel, etc. Fishing is one of the
greatest diversions the island affords. At the west end lies the
harbour of Mardiket, formed by Smith Point on the south-west, by Eel
Point on the north, and Tuckanut Island on the north-west; but it is
neither so safe nor has it so good anchoring ground, as that near
which the town stands. Three small creeks run into it, which yield
the bitterest eels I have ever tasted. Between the lots of Palpus on
the east, Barry's Valley and Miacomet pond on the south, and the
narrow pond on the west, not far from Shemah Point, they have a
considerable tract of even ground, being the least sandy, and the
best on the island. It is divided into seven fields, one of which is
planted by that part of the community which are entitled to it. This
is called the common plantation, a simple but useful expedient, for
was each holder of this track to fence his property, it would
require a prodigious quantity of posts and rails, which you must
remember are to be purchased and fetched from the main. Instead of
those private subdivisions each man's allotment of land is thrown
into the general field which is fenced at the expense of the
parties; within it every one does with his own portion of the ground
whatever he pleases. This apparent community saves a very material
expense, a great deal of labour, and perhaps raises a sort of
emulation among them, which urges every one to fertilise his share
with the greatest care and attention. Thus every seven years the
whole of this tract is under cultivation, and enriched by manure and
ploughing yields afterwards excellent pasture; to which the town
cows, amounting to 500 are daily led by the town shepherd, and as
regularly drove back in the evening. There each animal easily finds
the house to which it belongs, where they are sure to be well
rewarded for the milk they give, by a present of bran, grain, or
some farinaceous preparation; their economy being very great in that
respect. These are commonly called Tetoukemah lots. You must not
imagine that every person on the island is either a landholder, or
concerned in rural operations; no, the greater part are at sea;
busily employed in their different fisheries; others are mere
strangers, who come to settle as handicrafts, mechanics, etc., and
even among the natives few are possessed of determinate shares of
land: for engaged in sea affairs, or trade, they are satisfied with
possessing a few sheep pastures, by means of which they may have
perhaps one or two cows. Many have but one, for the great number of
children they have, has caused such sub-divisions of the original
proprietorship as is sometimes puzzling to trace; and several of the
most fortunate at sea, have purchased and realised a great number of
these original pasture titles. The best land on the island is at
Palpus, remarkable for nothing but a house of entertainment. Quayes
is a small but valuable track, long since purchased by Mr. Coffin,
where he has erected the best house on the island. By long
attention, proximity of the sea, etc., this fertile spot has been
well manured, and is now the garden of Nantucket. Adjoining to it on
the west side there is a small stream, on which they have erected a
fulling mill; on the east is the lot, known by the name of Squam,
watered likewise by a small rivulet, on which stands another fulling
mill. Here is fine loamy soil, producing excellent clover, which is
mowed twice a year. These mills prepare all the cloth which is made
here: you may easily suppose that having so large a flock of sheep,
they abound in wool; part of this they export, and the rest is spun
by their industrious wives and converted into substantial garments.
To the south-east is a great division of the island, fenced by
itself, known by the name of Siasconcet lot. It is a very uneven
track of ground, abounding with swamps; here they turn in their fat
cattle, or such as they intend to stall-feed, for their winter's
provisions. It is on the shores of this part of the island, near
Pochick Rip, where they catch their best fish, such as sea bass,
tew-tag, or black fish, cod, smelt, perch, shadine, pike, etc. They
have erected a few fishing houses on this shore, as well as at
Sankate's Head, and Suffakatche Beach, where the fishermen dwell in
the fishing season. Many red cedar bushes and beach grass grow on
the peninsula of Coitou; the soil is light and sandy, and serves as
a receptacle for rabbits. It is here that their sheep find shelter
in the snow storms of the winter. At the north end of Nantucket,
there is a long point of land, projecting far into the sea, called
Sandy Point; nothing grows on it but plain grass; and this is the
place from whence they often catch porpoises and sharks, by a very
ingenious method. On this point they commonly drive their horses in
the spring of the year, in order to feed on the grass it bears,
which is useless when arrived at maturity. Between that point and
the main island they have a valuable salt meadow, called Croskaty,
with a pond of the same name famous for black ducks. Hence we must
return to Squam, which abounds in clover and herds grass; those who
possess it follow no maritime occupation, and therefore neglect
nothing that can render it fertile and profitable. The rest of the
undescribed part of the island is open, and serves as a common
pasture for their sheep. To the west of the island is that of
Tackanuck, where in the spring their young cattle are driven to
feed; it has a few oak bushes and two fresh-water ponds, abounding
with teals, brandts, and many other sea fowls, brought to this
island by the proximity of their sand banks and shallows; where
thousands are seen feeding at low water. Here they have neither
wolves nor foxes; those inhabitants therefore who live out of town,
raise with all security as much poultry as they want; their turkeys
are very large and excellent. In summer this climate is extremely
pleasant; they are not exposed to the scorching sun of the
continent, the heats being tempered by the sea breezes, with which
they are perpetually refreshed. In the winter, however, they pay
severely for those advantages; it is extremely cold; the northwest
wind, the tyrant of this country, after having escaped from our
mountains and forests, free from all impediment in its short
passage, blows with redoubled force and renders this island bleak
and uncomfortable. On the other hand, the goodness of their houses,
the social hospitality of their firesides, and their good cheer,
make them ample amends for the severity of the season; nor are the
snows so deep as on the main. The necessary and unavoidable
inactivity of that season, combined with the vegetative rest of
nature, force mankind to suspend their toils: often at this season
more than half the inhabitants of the island are at sea, fishing in
milder latitudes.

This island, as has been already hinted, appears to be the summit of
some huge sandy mountain, affording some acres of dry land for the
habitation of man; other submarine ones lie to the southward of
this, at different depths and different distances. This dangerous
region is well known to the mariners by the name of Nantucket
Shoals: these are the bulwarks which so powerfully defend this
island from the impulse of the mighty ocean, and repel the force of
its waves; which, but for the accumulated barriers, would ere now
have dissolved its foundations, and torn it in pieces. These are the
banks which afforded to the first inhabitants of Nantucket their
daily subsistence, as it was from these shoals that they drew the
origin of that wealth which they now possess; and was the school
where they first learned how to venture farther, as the fish of
their coast receded. The shores of this island abound with the soft-
shelled, the hard-shelled, and the great sea clams, a most
nutritious shell-fish. Their sands, their shallows are covered with
them; they multiply so fast, that they are a never-failing resource.
These and the great variety of fish they catch, constitute the
principal food of the inhabitants. It was likewise that of the
aborigines, whom the first settlers found here; the posterity of
whom still live together in decent houses along the shores of
Miacomet pond, on the south side of the island. They are an
industrious, harmless race, as expert and as fond of a seafaring
life as their fellow inhabitants the whites. Long before their
arrival they had been engaged in petty wars against one another; the
latter brought them peace, for it was in quest of peace that they
abandoned the main. This island was then supposed to be under the
jurisdiction of New York, as well as the islands of the Vineyard,
Elizabeth's, etc., but have been since adjudged to be a part of the
province of Massachusetts Bay. This change of jurisdiction procured
them that peace they wanted, and which their brethren had so long
refused them in the days of their religious frenzy: thus have
enthusiasm and persecution both in Europe as well as here, been the
cause of the most arduous undertakings, and the means of those rapid
settlements which have been made along these extended sea-shores.
This island, having been since incorporated with the neighbouring
province, is become one of its counties, known by the name of
Nantucket, as well as the island of the Vineyard, by that of Duke's
County. They enjoy here the same municipal establishment in common
with the rest; and therefore every requisite officer, such as
sheriff, justice of the peace, supervisors, assessors, constables,
overseer of the poor, etc. Their taxes are proportioned to those of
the metropolis, they are levied as with us by valuations, agreed on
and fixed, according to the laws of the province; and by assessments
formed by the assessors, who are yearly chosen by the people, and
whose office obliges them to take either an oath or an affirmation.
Two thirds of the magistrates they have here are of the society of
Friends.

Before I enter into the further detail of this people's government,
industry, mode of living, etc., I think it accessary to give you a
short sketch of the political state the natives had been in, a few
years preceding the arrival of the whites among them. They are
hastening towards a total annihilation, and this may be perhaps the
last compliment that will ever be paid them by any traveller. They
were not extirpated by fraud, violence, or injustice, as hath been
the case in so many provinces; on the contrary, they have been
treated by these people as brethren; the peculiar genius of their
sect inspiring them with the same spirit of moderation which was
exhibited at Pennsylvania. Before the arrival of the Europeans, they
lived on the fish of their shores; and it was from the same
resources the first settlers were compelled to draw their first
subsistence. It is uncertain whether the original right of the Earl
of Sterling, or that of the Duke of York, was founded on a fair
purchase of the soil or not; whatever injustice might have been
committed in that respect, cannot be charged to the account of those
Friends who purchased from others who no doubt founded their right
on Indian grants: and if their numbers are now so decreased, it must
not be attributed either to tyranny or violence, but to some of
those causes, which have uninterruptedly produced the same effects
from one end of the continent to the other, wherever both nations
have been mixed. This insignificant spot, like the sea-shores of the
great peninsula, was filled with these people; the great plenty of
clams, oysters, and other fish, on which they lived, and which they
easily catched, had prodigiously increased their numbers. History
does not inform us what particular nation the aborigines of
Nantucket were of; it is however very probable that they anciently
emigrated from the opposite coast, perhaps from the Hyannees, which
is but twenty-seven miles distant. As they then spoke and still
speak the Nattick, it is reasonable to suppose that they must have
had some affinity with that nation; or else that the Nattick, like
the Huron, in the north-western parts of this continent, must have
been the most prevailing one in this region. Mr. Elliot, an eminent
New England divine, and one of the first founders of that great
colony, translated the Bible into this language, in the year 1666,
which was printed soon after at Cambridge, near Boston; he
translated also the catechism, and many other useful books, which
are still very common on this island, and are daily made use of by
those Indians who are taught to read. The young Europeans learn it
with the same facility as their own tongues; and ever after speak it
both with ease and fluency. Whether the present Indians are the
decendants of the ancient natives of the island, or whether they are
the remains of the many different nations which once inhabited the
regions of Mashpe and Nobscusset, in the peninsula now known by the
name of Cape Cod, no one can positively tell, not even themselves.
The last opinion seems to be that of the most sensible people of the
island. So prevailing is the disposition of man to quarrel, and shed
blood; so prone is he to divisions and parties; that even the
ancient natives of this little spot were separated into two
communities, inveterately waging war against each other, like the
more powerful tribes of the continent. What do you imagine was the
cause of this national quarrel? All the coast of their island
equally abounded with the same quantity of fish and clams; in that
instance there could be no jealousy, no motives to anger; the
country afforded them no game; one would think this ought to have
been the country of harmony and peace. But behold the singular
destiny of the human kind, ever inferior, in many instances, to the
more certain instinct of animals; among which the individuals of the
same species are always friends, though reared in different
climates: they understand the same language, they shed not each
other's blood, they eat not each other's flesh. That part of these
rude people who lived on the eastern shores of the island, had from
time immemorial tried to destroy those who lived on the west; those
latter inspired with the same evil genius, had not been behind hand
in retaliating: thus was a perpetual war subsisting between these
people, founded on no other reason, but the adventitious place of
their nativity and residence. In process of time both parties became
so thin and depopulated, that the few who remained, fearing lest
their race should become totally extinct, fortunately thought of an
expedient which prevented their entire annihilation. Some years
before the Europeans came, they mutually agreed to settle a
partition line which should divide the island from north to south;
the people of the west agreed not to kill those of the east, except
they were found transgressing over the western part of the line;
those of the last entered into a reciprocal agreement. By these
simple means peace was established among them, and this is the only
record which seems to entitle them to the denomination of men. This
happy settlement put a stop to their sanguinary depredations, none
fell afterward but a few rash imprudent individuals; on the
contrary, they multiplied greatly. But another misfortune awaited
them; when the Europeans came they caught the smallpox, and their
improper treatment of that disorder swept away great numbers: this
calamity was succeeded by the use of rum; and these are the two
principal causes which so much diminished their numbers, not only
here but all over the continent. In some places whole nations have
disappeared. Some years ago three Indian canoes, on their return to
Detroit from the falls of Niagara, unluckily got the smallpox from
the Europeans with whom they had traded. It broke out near the long
point on Lake Erie, there they all perished; their canoes, and their
goods, were afterwards found by some travellers journeying the same
way; their dogs were still alive. Besides the smallpox, and the use
of spirituous liquors, the two greatest curses they have received
from us, there is a sort of physical antipathy, which is equally
powerful from one end of the continent to the other. Wherever they
happen to be mixed, or even to live in the neighbourhood of the
Europeans, they become exposed to a variety of accidents and
misfortunes to which they always fall victims: such are particular
fevers, to which they were strangers before, and sinking into a
singular sort of indolence and sloth. This has been invariably the
case wherever the same association has taken place; as at Nattick,
Mashpe, Soccanoket in the bounds of Falmouth, Nobscusset,
Houratonick, Monhauset, and the Vineyard. Even the Mohawks
themselves, who were once so populous, and such renowned warriors,
are now reduced to less than 200 since the European settlements have
circumscribed the territories which their ancestors had reserved.
Three years before the arrival of the Europeans at Cape Cod, a
frightful distemper had swept away a great many along its coasts,
which made the landing and intrusion of our forefathers much easier
than it otherwise might have been. In the year 1763, above half of
the Indians of this island perished by a strange fever, which the
Europeans who nursed them never caught; they appear to be a race
doomed to recede and disappear before the superior genius of the
Europeans. The only ancient custom of these people that is
remembered is, that in their mutual exchanges, forty sun-dried
clams, strung on a string, passed for the value of what might be
called a copper. They were strangers to the use and value of wampum,
so well known to those of the main. The few families now remaining
are meek and harmless; their ancient ferocity is gone: they were
early christianised by the New England missionaries, as well as
those of the Vineyard, and of several other parts of Massachusetts;
and to this day they remain strict observers of the laws and customs
of that religion, being carefully taught while young. Their
sedentary life has led them to this degree of civilisation much more
effectually, than if they had still remained hunters. They are fond
of the sea, and expert mariners. They have learned from the Quakers
the art of catching both the cod and whale, in consequence of which,
five of them always make part of the complement of men requisite to
fit out a whaleboat. Many have removed hither from the Vineyard, on
which account they are more numerous on Nantucket, than anywhere
else.

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