Here  they  caught  their  shad,  tom-cod,  alewives,  and
eels  in  abundance.  Their  canoes  took  them  readily
to  the  creeks,  where  bass  was  abundant,  and  to  the
clam  banks  that  never  failed  to  discount  in  bank
hours.  Their  planting  ground  was  at  the  Massachu-
setts Fields,  now  Billings's  Plains,  in  Quincy,  but
which  was  formerly  a  part  of  Dorchester.  Their
trapping  grounds  were  in  the  meadows  that  sur-
rounded the  tributaries  of  the  Neponset.  Their  bu-
rial place  was  upon  the  hill  in  Quincy,  near  the
river,  known  as  Mount  Hope,  where  skeletons,  beads,
and  Indian  utensils,  are  now  frequently  found.
Located  at  Unquety,  their  canoes  readily  trans-
ported them  to  their  planting  and  fishing  grounds
below  them,  and  by  a  short  carriage  around  the  falls
brought  them  to  the  highway  to  their  hunting
and  trapping  grounds  in  the  interior.
At  this  point  the  Indian  loved  to  linger,  even  after
the  rapids  had  become  a  water-fall  and  the  sound  of
the  mill-wheel  of  the  white  man  sounded  its  warn-
ings for  their  departure  by  driving  off  their  game.
Here  the  apostle  Eliot  preached  to  the  natives  at  the
wigwam  of  Kitchmakin.  Here  the  process  of  civili-
zation began.  The  Indians  still  lingered  near  the
graves  of  their  ancestors  until  the  apostle  Eliot  pre-
vailed upon  the  town  of  Dorchester,  in  1657,  to  ap-
propriate a  tract  of  land  for  their  exclusive  use.
This  tract  of  about  6000  acres  was  located  around
Punkapoag  Pond,  now  in  Canton  and  Stoughton,
then  in  Dorchester,  to  which  the  Indians  were  in-
duced to  remove,  and  there  took  the  name  of  the
66


582  HISTORY   OF   DORCHESTER.
