At the time appointed, we met the Counsellor, and he appeared to enjoy himself very well among us.  When the meeting had been called to order, it was observed that the Overseers were not present, and it was proposed to send for them, that they might have fair play and hear of what faults they were accused.  They came, accompanied by the High Sheriff of Barnstable County, the Hon. J. Reed of Yarmouth, and several other whites, who were invited to take seats among us.  The excitement which pervaded Cape Cod had brought these people to our council, and they now heard such preaching in our meeting-house as they had never heard there before; the bitter complainings of the Indians of the wrongs they had suffered.  Every charge was separately investigated by our people, who gave the entire day to the work.  The white persons present seemed very uneasy; often getting up, going out and returning, as if apprehensive of some danger.  The ground work of their fears, if they had any, was this:  Three of our people, who had been out in the morning, hunting deer, had brought their guns into the meeting house, and this circumstance was thought, or pretended to be thought by a few of our neighbors to portend violence and murder.  Also the Counsellor had brought a letter from the Governor, indicating that he had been led, by wrong reports, to believe that something of the kind was likely to take place.[2]

This letter was read to the people, and was to them as a provocation and a stimulus.  They thought it grievous that the Governor should think they had put him in mind of his oath of office, to secure the Commonwealth from danger, and given him cause to call out perhaps fifty or sixty thousand militia; especially when the great strength and power of the Marshpee tribe was considered.  To this supposed great demonstration of military power they might, possibly, have opposed a hundred fighting men and fifteen or twenty rusty guns.  But it is written, “One shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight;” so there might have been some reason for persons who believe the Bible to fear us.  Who can say that little Marshpee might not have discomfitted great Massachusetts.  Nevertheless, the birth place of American freedom was spared so great a disgrace; for the governor, very wisely, remained at home.

Toward the close of the day Mr. Fiske desired the Hon. Mr. Reed to explain to the Indians the laws, as they then stood, and the consequences of violating them.  He told us that merely declaring a law to be oppressive could not abrogate it; and that it would become us, as good citizens whom the government was disposed to treat well, to wait for the session of the Legislature, and then apply for relief.[3] “He went fully,” says one reporter, whose name it may be well to omit, “into the situation of the tribe, in a very forcible and feeling manner, warning them against the rash measures they had already taken or adopted.”