Narragansett Bay

“ Verrazzano's description of Narragansett Bay, named Port du Refugio on Gastaldi's map of 1553, is so accurate that without any other information it would be easy to determine the situation of the place where for fifteen days, ending the sixth of May, he and his crew held familiar intercourse with the friendly Indians, inhabiting the islands and the mainland in the vicinity of the anchorage of the Dauphine. The latitude of the bay given by Verrazzano cannot be gainsaid, but he has left us no record as to where he landed, and it is wholly a matter of conjecture whether he trod our soil or not. ”

“ The waters of those old rivers, like the coming and passing of singing humanity, have long since slipped into the distant seas, but still other waters flow on and are known by the ancient Indian names. The Seekonk river winds through Providence and throws its liquid mass into Narragansett Bay. From Cranston Heights you can see the exquisite scenery that is characteristic of the neighbourhood of Providence; across the valleys the hills fade before the eyes into dreamy distances as sunset floods the horizon. ”

“ Small wonder that Ida came to know every rock in the bay, and was able to steer her boat safely in and out among the many obstructions which were a peril to less intelligent mariners.
Towering over all neighboring buildings, the Lime Rock Light stood on its rocky ledge, clearly seen by men on vessels entering or leaving Narragansett Bay, and by officers and men at Fort Adams, as well as by those who lived within sight of the light, and it came to be a daily word, "Watch for the girl," for Ida sturdily rowed across the bay, no matter how furious the storm, how dense the fog. ”

“ In sailing up Narragansett Bay, one is struck with 107 the universality of the prolific crop of these waters,—the clam. Many of the inhabitants seem to spend much of their time gathering them; men and boys in boats are dredging all the coves and shallows for the clams, seizing enormous numbers by the skillful use of their handy double rakes. These people are proud of their home institution, the Rhode Island "clam-bake," which is a main-stay of all the shore resorts, and is considered a connecting link, binding them to the Narragansetts, who originated it. ”

“ The great preponderance in numbers and value of pleasure-vessels in the United States, and in the number of clubs and club-members, is due not only to our large population and long coast-line, but to the great extent of inland waters furnished by our rivers and interior lakes, and to the prevalence of bays or protected lagoons, such as Narragansett Bay, the Great South Bay of Long Island, New York harbor, Delaware and Chesapeake bays, and the long series of “sounds” that border the southern Atlantic coast from Barnegat to Biscayne. ”

“ Smuggling and evasion were the rule in Narragansett Bay, and nocturnal landings of illicit cargoes were continuous commonplaces. But Weeden, night after night, following the lighters or small sloops which he saw steal off from the Curwen warehouses at the Town Street docks, soon felt assured that it was not merely His Majesty's armed ships which the sinister skulker was anxious to avoid. Prior to the change in 1766 these boats had for the most part contained chained Negroes, who were carried down and across the bay and landed at an obscure point on the shore just north of Pawtuxet ”

“ Of the many emigrants who, filled with the hope of reaching a land of freedom and plenty, had crowded the vessel at the beginning of the voyage, but seventeen feeble, emaciated, almost dying creatures were left when, one cold winter morning, about Christmas time, the now dismasted hulk of the good ship Palatine drifted into Narragansett Bay and struck on Sandy Point, Rhode Island. ”

“ And now the course was changed, and the Dauphine sailed east through Long Island Sound until Narragansett Bay was entered, and then a northerly course was taken, and the harbor of Newport reached. Verrazano describes the country as very fair and pleasant, and indeed it must have appeared so, with its fields of blossoming trees and miles of stately forests. Before the boat touched the shore, the natives flocked down to the beach, and thirty canoes surrounded the vessel, all filled with the wondering Indians. ”

“ The principal rivers are the Pawtucket, navigable as far as Pawtucket, where it changes its name to Blackstone, the Pawcatuck, forming part of the boundary between Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the Pawtuxet, flowing across the central part of the State, and emptying into the Providence river, an arm of the Narragansett Bay. There are numerous coves and bays branching off from Narragansett; among them being Greenwich bay, Sexonnet river, Mount Hope bay, and Providence river. Block Island, 10 miles from the coast, belongs to the State. ”

“ The Elizabeth group is a range of sixteen islands, stretching in a long line from the Cape Cod shore for eighteen miles southwest to the extremity of Cuttyhunk. It makes the southeastern boundary of Buzzard's Bay, with Martha's Vineyard beyond, there being between them the long and rather narrow channel of Vineyard Sound. The mariner going eastward out of Long Island Sound passes Sakonnet Point at the eastern verge of Narragansett Bay, and finds in front a chain of beacons posted across the route. ”

“ Lime Rock Light, the "Ida Lewis" light, as it came to be known in later years, and the girl's home was no longer to be on terra firma, but on the rock-ribbed island where the lighthouse stood, whose beacon-light cast strong, steady rays across Baker's Bay, to the greater Narragansett Bay, of which it is only an arm. ”

“ Since the uplift and stream dissection a slight depression has allowed the sea to invade the lower portions of the river valleys, forming the bays known as Narragansett Bay, Providence “river,” Sakonnet “river,” &c. Glaciation has disturbed the river systems, causing the formation of numerous lakes and of the waterfalls which determined the situation of many of the manufacturing cities of the state.
In the N.W. is Durfee Hill, which attains an elevation of 805 ft., and is the highest point within Rhode Island. The mean elevation for the entire state is 200 ft. ”

“ Narragansett Bay, which occupies the southeastern quarter of the state, contains a number of beautiful islands, on the largest of which, named Rhode Island, is Newport, a famous summer-resort, formerly one of the two capitals. The country is hilly, and the soil rough and stony, being chiefly devoted to pasturage and orchards. ”

“ Lilburn inquiringly, at a pause in the conversation.
"Yes and no," returned Captain Raymond in playful tones, "I hardly expect to stop again until we reach Narragansett Bay; but there we expect to visit Newport, and Paradise Valley, a few miles out of it, on the same island. We have some cousins summering there now, who are most urgent with us to come and take temporary possession of a vacant cottage very near the one occupied by them; and we have decided to do so, should nothing interfere. ”

“ Warren is situated midway between Barrington and Bristol, on an arm of Narragansett Bay, and is bounded on the north and east by the State of Massachusetts. A glance at the map of Rhode Island will show the reader that, at Warren, which is farther inland than either of its sister towns, the Wampanoags were, in a great measure, protected from the danger of sudden attack by their enemies, the Narragansetts who dwelt upon the opposite shore of the bay, [2] and that, in case of hostile invasion, they were easily able to retire to less exposed portions of their domains. ”

“ Its rounded summit is a mass of quartzite rock, almost covered by grass. It is hardly three hundred feet high, but being the most elevated spot anywhere around, has a grand outlook, every town in Rhode Island being visible from it, and all the islands of Narragansett Bay, while far to the southward, upon distant Aquidneck, Newport gleams in the sunlight. Eastward, across Mount Hope Bay, the city of Fall River, with its rising terraces of huge granite mills, is built apparently into the sloping side of a ledge of rocks. ”

“ It is supposed that the Gulf Stream, that prolonged current of the Mississippi River, which sweeps with its warmer temperature through mid ocean carrying a genial atmosphere and fertilizing showers to the otherwise arid shores of France and England, changes its course yearly, approaching our coast and sending its swarms of living creatures among the rocks of Narragansett Bay, or withdrawing so as to leave us desolate and to increase the severity of our winters. We all know that our cold seasons differ greatly in intensity, and bass fishermen know that success in fishing varies equally ”

“ In the state of Rhode Island there is a bay called Narragansett, so named after a powerful tribe of Indians, which formerly dwelt on its banks. Accident, or one of those unaccountable freaks which nature sometimes plays in the animal world, gave rise to a breed of horses which were once well known in America, and distinguished by their habit of pacing. ”

“ Narragansett Pier, within the township, has a fine bathing beach, which extends along the indented coast between the village and the mouth of the Pattaquamscutt river; the force of the surf is somewhat broken by Point Judith, about 5 m. S. (also in the township) , on which there, is a lighthouse. On a ridge overlooking the ocean and commanding a fine view is the Point Judith Country Club, with golf courses, tennis courts and a polo-held, on which is held a horse show at the close of each season. ”

“ It is a lonely cross-roads, even in days of summer, though Weaver Rose’s cheerful home is near it; but it is picturesque and beautiful in its extended view, its overreach of splendid locust-trees, and the tangle of wild flowers fringing the roadside and rioting along the stone walls. There is no monument or stone, nothing to mark the special tradition of this corner, as Squaw Rock at Indian Corner, half a mile farther on the road, a sinister rock with dark, blood-red veins and splashes, a rock whereon were dashed the brains of a Narragansett squaw by her drunken brave of a husband. ”

“ Thousands of them died, until the living were not able to bury the dead, and their skulls and bones were found in many places lying still above ground, where their houses and dwelling places had been,—a very sad spectacle. But they brought word that the Narragansetts lived just on the other side of the great bay, and were a strong, populous tribe living close together, and had not been attacked by this wasting plague. ”

“ The chief disadvantage experienced by those who are sent to Norfolk Island, is the want of a good landing place. The bay which has been used for this purpose is inclosed by a reef of coral rock, through which there is a passage only for a boat; and during the tide of flood, when the wind is westerly, the landing is rather dangerous. In one of the debarkations a midshipman, who was ordered to lie within the reef, that he might attend the boats coming to shore, imprudently suffered his own boat to drive into the surf, and was lost, with four men. ”

“ We lived remote, a dour, harborless coast on whose length lie the bones of vessels—they call it the graveyard of the Atlantic—separating us from the Vineyard Sound and our sister towns. When the Cape Cod Canal joined our bay to Buzzard's Bay as with a silver wire, it made New Bedford our neighbor, Nantucket and Edgartown accessible, and our cruise became a reality. ”

“ Only the larger, heavier steamers and the sea-going tugs still kept on their way. On either shore of the bay the houses began to dwindle, giving place to open fields, brown and sear under the scudding sea-fog, for now a wind was building up from out the east, and the surface of the bay had begun to ruffle.
Half a mile farther on the slow, huge, groundswells began to come in; a lighthouse was passed. Full in view, on ahead, stretched the open, empty waste of ocean. Another steamer turned back, then another, then another, then the last of the newspaper tugs. ”

“ If they sailed from Narraganset bay, or Buzzard's bay, or from any harbor on that coast, east of Long Island, they would in the course of twenty leagues at the furthest, in an easterly direction, have reached the easterly extremity of the peninsula of Cape Cod, and keeping close to the shore would have been forced for one hundred and fifty miles, in a northerly and west of north direction, and thence along the coast of Maine northeasterly a further distance of one hundred and fifty miles, and been finally locked in the bay of Fundy. ”

“ In 1631, the Earl of Warwick granted to Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, "the territory between Narragansett River and southwest towards New York for 120 miles and west to the Pacific Ocean, or, according to the words of President Clap of Yale College, 'from Point Judith to New York, and from thence a west line to the South Sea, and if we take Narragansett River in its whole length the tract will extend as far north as Worcester. ”

“ Those who know the beauty of sunny Narragansett in early June, when the roads [Pg 20] are everywhere overhung with the graceful, sweet-scented blossoms of slender locust-trees, when the roadsides are one luxuriant, blooming garden of lovely wild flowers, and the fields are sweet with rich clover, can feel the strong and painful contrast which the sad figure of the dying girl must have formed to the glowing life around. ”