The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

6 HISTORY OF DORCHESTER.
they found the deserted residence of the deceased
sachem, Nampashemet, his grave, and a palisadoed
fort-soon after newly gathered corn, and shortly
the women of the Neponset tribe, the men being
absent. These women entertained them with boiled
cod and parched corn, and traded with them, exchanging what furs they were possessed of for other
articles. They engaged the Indians to plant extra
corn the next spring, promising to be their purchasers the following year. The Indians spoke of
two rivers within the bay, the one whereof (doubtless the Neponset), says Winslow, we saw. They
returned to Plymouth after an absence of four days,
with a considerable quantity of beaver, and a good
report of the place, wishing they had been seated
there.*
* The oft-repeated error of the anchoring of the Plymouth shallop, in
1621, under Copps Hill, originated with Belknap (vol. 2, p. 224). The
relation of Winslow expressly states that the chief which they met with
was Obbetinewat, one of Massasoit's sachems. No place in Boston
harbor was subject to Massasoit, the Old Colony chief. This Obbetinewat, whom they met, was only temporarily at Nantasket, and the probable cause of the hostility alluded to between him and the Massachusetts queen, was his intrusion into her premises for the purpose of catching fish. It is certain that the Pilgrims were at Squantum, and the only
river which they saw was the Neponset. If they had gone to Copps
Hill, they would have seen two other rivers-the Charles and the
Mystic.