To begin—­the Indians owe nothing to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or to the inhabitants of New England generally, for religious instruction, excepting a single appropriation of four hundred dollars, made in 1816 or 1818, for repairing their Meeting-house.  Four hundred dollars more were appropriated in 1831, for the purposes of erecting two school houses; but not one cent for a teacher.[6]

The way the Marshpees have supported a school hitherto, has been this.  Some of them have lived abroad among the whites, and have learned to read and write, with perhaps some small smattering of arithmetic.  On returning to the tribe, they have taught others what they knew themselves; receiving pay from those who had the means, and teaching the rest gratuitously.  At the same time they have been compelled to support a preacher whom they did not wish to hear, and to pay, in one way or other, to the amount of four hundred dollars per annum to white officers, for doing them injury and not good.  Thus then, in one hundred and forty years they have paid fifty-six thousand dollars to the whites, out of their own funds, in obedience to the laws of the Commonwealth.  In return, the whites have given them one thousand in labor and money.  Truly the Commonwealth must make haste, or it will hardly be able to pay us the interest of our money.  The principal we never expect to get.

Thus, though it is manifest that we have cost the government absolutely much less than nothing, we have been called State paupers, and as such treated.  Those are strange paupers who maintain themselves, and pay large sums to others into the bargain.  Heigho! it is a fine thing to be an Indian.  One might almost as well be a slave.

To return to the proceedings of the court at Cotuet:  When supper time was past, the Cotueter’s were anxious to draw something out of me, by questioning.  They said they knew more about the matter than I did; that I had gotten myself into difficulty, and that Mr. Fish was a good man, and had gained twenty members over to his church in twenty-five years.  They might have added that these were infants, who became members merely by undergoing the rite of baptism.  Perhaps they were very good members, when they grew up—­perhaps not.

Mr. Fish, alluding to the charge that but eight or ten of the Indians heard him preach, stated, in his memorial to the Legislature, that more than twice ten were upon his Sabbath School list.  That might be true; but it was no answer to the charge.  There may well have been on his list the names of so many persons, who attended neither his meeting nor his school.  Nor had he denied the statements of the Indians in the least.  I said to the gentlemen who were rejoicing over my supposed downfall, that I was glad they had taken me into custody, as it would lead to an investigation of the whole ground in dispute.  Mr. Ewer presently arrived; his bail was accepted, and I and my friends returned home.