Transcriber's Note
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COCKENOE-DE-LONG ISLAND
Edition Limited
To 215 Copies.
No. 169.
INDIAN GRAVES ON FORT HILL, MONTAUKJOHN ELIOT'S
First Indian Teacher and
Interpreter
COCKENOE-DE-LONG ISLAND
AND
The Story of His Career from the Early Records
BY
WILLIAM WALLACE TOOKER
Member of the Long Island Historical Society, Anthropological
Society of Washington, etc., etc.
✠
"He was the first that I made use of to teach me words
and to be my interpreter."—Eliot's Letter, 2, 12, 1648.
✠
LONDON:
HENRY STEVENS' SON and STILES.
1896
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE OFFICERS AND MEMBERS
OF THE SUFFOLK COUNTY (N. Y.) HISTORICAL
SOCIETY BY YOUR FELLOW MEMBER
WILLIAM WALLACE TOOKER.
INTRODUCTION.
This little work is a brief résumé of the career of an Indian of LongIsland, who, from his exceptional knowledge of the English language,his traits of character, and strong personality, was recognized as avaluable coadjutor and interpreter by many of our first Englishsettlers. These personal attributes were also known and appreciated bythe inhabitants of some parts of Connecticut and Massachusetts, by theCommissioners of the United Colonies of New England, and by theGovernor of the Colony of New York, all of whom found occasion for hisservices in their transactions with the Indians. The facts which Ishall present in their chronological order, and the strongcircumstantial evidence adduced therefrom, will indicate the reasonswhy I have unraveled the threads of this Indian's life from the weft[Pg viii]of the past, and why the recital of his career should be the theme ofa special essay, and worthy of a distinctive chapter in theaboriginal, as well as in the Colonial, history of Long Island.
Sag Harbor, L. I., March, 1896.
COCKENOE-DE-LONG ISLAND.
The victory of Captain John Mason and Captain John Underhill over thePequots on the hills of Mystic, in 1637, in its results was fargreater than that of Wellington on the field of Waterloo. This factwill impress itself in indelible characters on the minds of those whodelve into the historical truths connected with the genesis of oursettlements, so wide spreading were the fruits of this victory. As thenative inhabitants of the eastern part of Long Island and the ad