under thirty years of age. Of the females, who died between the ages of ten and thirty, the greatest number perished by consumptions. Not one young man has died of this disease since the year 1785. The annual number of births, during the past twenty years, has been about thirty-three. The whole number of marriages in twenty-six years and a half is two hundred and forty one: one third of the marriages of the women, during this period, have been with men who were not inhabiitants of the town.

Died in Chilmark from Jan. 1st. 1788, to Dec. 31st. 1806.

were the causes of the deaths, 26 were consumptions; 4, pleurisy; 3, dropsy; 2, apoplexy; 2, palsy; 5, dysentery; 5, bilious fevers; 2, yellow fever; 1, atrophy; 1, mortification in the bowels; 1, diabetes: the rest are unknown. Beside the above, fifteen young men were ost at sea, or died abroad of contagious diseases. The number of births, during this period of nineteen years, is 152 males, 150 females, 29 sex unknown; total 331. The number of marriages during the same period, is 88. 49 of the married couples have removed from the town. Of the children, born within this period, 50 have died, and 99 removed from the town. About 80 other per

sons have also migrated from the town, and about 20 come in to it.

As Martha's Vineyard receives not many accessions of inhabitants from abroad, the names of its families, which have sprung from the original settlers of the island, are few in number. Thirty-two names comprehend three quarters of the population. The following Table exhibits these names, and the number of families belonging to each.

Of these names the most distinguished is Mayhew. Thomas Mayhew, the founder of the family, deserves to be ranked with Bradford, Winthrop, and the other worthies, who established or governed the first English colonies in North America. The little band of adventurers, whom he boldly placed on an island, amidst numerous bodies of savages, have not become a large and flourishing people; his fame consequently is less; but his toils, his zeal, his courage were equally great. In prudence and benevolence he stands pre-eminent. Whilst on his part he abstained from all acts of violence and fraud against the Indians, he gained such an ascendency over their minds, that they on their part never did him or his people the least injury, or joined in any of the wars, which their countrymen on the main land waged against the English. He seemed to come among them, not like a robber to dispossess them of their lands, not like a conqueror to reduce them to slavery, but like a father, to impart to them the comforts of civilized life, and the

blessings of the gospel of peace. Perhaps he had little success in this benevolent attempt: but his merit is the same; nor is he to be censured as extravagant for an undertaking, which the experience of almost two centuries has hardly yet convinced his successors is fruitless.-His son, Thomas Mayhew junior, was a young gentleman of liberal education, a good classical scholar, and eminent for his talents and knowledge. He was the first person who undertook to convert the Indians to the christian religion. In this pious work he laboured diligently a number of years; but in 1657 he was lost at sea, when he was only in the thirty-seventh year of his age. The writers of that period speak of him with great respect, and lament his death as a publick calamity.-Thomas Mayhew junior left three sons, Matthew, Thomas, and John. Matthew, the eldest, upon his grandfather, the governour's death, in the year 1681, succeeded him in his civil and military honours. In 1694, he published a small book, entitled A Brief Narrative of the success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians of Martha's Vineyard, &c. This work, which was written in the age of the Mathers, has much of the spirit of credulity, for which that renowned family was so remarkable. It contains however several facts; and those parts of it, which are fictitious, are at least amusing. The following extract is given as a specimen. "I can also inform of an Indian powaw, who, although he was not accounted religious, yet said he was a christian; who being questioned by some English of such matters reported of him, acknowledged, that designing to kill by witchcraft a certain Indian, who accidentally lodged in the house with him and his brother, while he went out to enchant a hair, his brother, who before lay from, now contrary to his knowledge lay next to, the fire, it being their then custom to lie bareback to the fire; he, when he came in, nothing doubting but that it was his enemy, directed the enchanted hair to the back of his supposed enemy, which immediately entering his body, killed him; but in the morning it proved to be his brother. The thing was well known; and this powaw seemed with great re

morse and sorrow to acknowledge the same to such of our English, who inquired of him concerning that matter."* This Matthew Mayhew, who was a preacher to the Indianst as well as a magistrate, died in 1710.‡ Thomas, his brother, was one of the justices of the court of common pleas, and died at Martha's Vineyard in the year 1715.1-John, the youngest brother, applied himself entirely to the work of the ministry. He was a man of great prudence and an excellent understanding; and he preached not only to the English at Tisbury, but to the Indians in various parts of the island. After labouring among them fifteen years, he died Feb. 3d. 1689, in the thirty-seventh year of his age.-Experience Mayhew, son of John, in the year 1694, began to preach to the Indians. He was a man of superiour endowments of mind; and was so perfectly acquainted with the Indian lan guage, that he was employed by the commissioners of the society for the propagation of the Gospel, to make a new version of the Psalms and the Gospel of John: he executed the work in collateral columns, English and Indian, with great accuracy, in 1709. In 1727 he published his Indian Converts; to which is added some Account of English Ministers on Martha's Vineyard, by Mr. Prince. The Indian Converts is a well-written and entertaining book; but to those who are acquainted with the present state of morals and religion among the Indians on the island, or who remember what they have been during the past fifty years, it will appear a strange work; and they will think that the author is either describing the natives of some other place, or that the character of their own Indians has entirely changed since the days of their fathers. Accordingly the Indian Converts is by several inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard viewed, not as a piece of history, but as a work of the imagination. One gentleman, great grandson of Matthew Mayhew mentioned above, and who is esteemed for his intelligence and candour, speaks of it in these terms: "Experience Mayhew's Indian Converts gained

Matth. Mayhew's Nar. 44.

* Prince's Account of English Ministers. p. 502.

- Gookin. Hist. Coll. IX. 4.

|| Id. p. 305. Id. p. 307.

him considerable celebrity abroad; but [the accounts contained in it] were considered by his cotemporaries on the Vineyard as greatly exaggerated." But in vindication of the book and character of Mr. Mayhew it may be alleged, that he himself makes the highest claims to veracity. "The first thing I shall assert, says he in his preface, is my own fidelity and concern for truth in this performance. I know well that no lie of mine can be necessary for the honour of God, or the manifestation of his grace; and I can truly say, that I have not in this history imposed on others any thing, which I do not myself believe." It may also be alleged, that the united ministers of Boston bear witness to the truth of the history, in their attestation prefixed to the volume. Among other things they say: "The author of this history is a person of incontestable veracity.” And further: "We again say, his truth may be relied on, his fidelity is irreproachable." This attestation is given by men of respectable characters and stations in society, who well knew that they were responsible for their testimony, and who lived at the time when the book was published. In 1744, Experience Mayhew printed another book, entitled Grace Defended, which has been highly commended by those who have read it. He died in the year 1756. His sons were many.-Joseph was graduated at Harvard College in 1730, and was chosen tutor in 1739. He was a man of superiour abilities and learning.-Nathan was graduated in 1731. Jonathan was graduated in 1744. This is the great Dr. Mayhew, a man whose splendid abilities would adorn any age, or any country.-Zechariah, another of his sons, was a missionary, and continued to preach among the Indians till within a few years of his death, which took place March 6th. 1806.-Another member of this illustrious family was the late Dr. Matthew Mayhew, grandson of the first Matthew, a gentleman of uncommon powers of mind and of exquisite wit and humour. He was in all respects an excellent man ; and he sustained the highest offices in the county.-The family has been almost as much distinguished for longevity, as for talents. The first Thomas Mayhew died at