HISTORY OF ORANGE
one had engaged Polly to make the cake for a party. The man of the house thought he would be especially helpful, so brought home granulated sugar; but Polly pushed it aside disdainfully. "You get me C sugar if you want me to make your cake; I won't touch that fancy kind."
Sue Fanchus was one of the Indians who used to wander around the town. Some charitable woman made her a present of a blanket as a needed protection against the winter's cold. Whereupon Sue cut a circular hole in the center and passed her head through the opening; and thus by a single stroke of genius, converted it into a convenient article of wearing apparel.
One of the last survivors of the Indians was Elizabeth Roberts, who was a mixture of Indian and African blood. She had the nomad instinct of the Indian and could not be depended on to stay very long in one place. She was a very good worker when the spirit moved her to be industrious.
Mr. Scranton says, "As far as I am acquainted, the causes of their diminution are debility arising from idleness, general and excessive use of spirituous liquors by both males and females, and scanty or irregular diet. Many of them died of a pulmonary consumption."
The Milford Indians were considered for the most part as friendly to their white neighbors. Although there is no record of any bodily injury or any great property damage having been done by the Indians, still there was always that fear; and for the first fifty years, the settlers lived within the protection of the palisades. The men would go out to their out-lying property to work in the fields during the daytime, returning to their homes and the shelter of the palisades at night.
That the Indians roamed up and down the Wepawaug River is very plainly indicated by the hundreds of arrow-heads, scrapers, tomahawks, or other utensils found along its banks. Near the place where the Race Brook joins the Wepawaug would seem to have been a favorite spot for camp-fires or pow-wows, because of the great quantities of specimens unearthed there. In the "Song of
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