USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > A history of the town of Greenwich, Fairfield County, Conn., with many important statistics > Part 2
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The Indians, during their visits to the European settlements, after having tasted the foreign fire-water, gave full displays of their roguish inclinations, and were never scrupulous in their bargains, frequently taking goods without stopping to pay for them ; and in many instances they robbed and murdered the in- habitants. Returning to their own country, they there, with a feeling of safety, often boasted of their deeds in this line. And these boasts were duly reported to the governor by those straggling settlers who chanced to hear them.
On the other hand, the traders, before bar- gaining for furs, so befuddled the owners of them as to get valuable articles for little or no consideration, and not unfrequently having made their victim well drunken, stole his richest furs. Such a state of things could but create strong feelings of animosity, and ripen a spirit of hatred, already arisen, into open war, whenever a conspicuous deed committed by either party should rouse the anger of the other.
Before the arrival of Keift, and as soon as 1626, an aged Indian was murdered, and his furs stolen, by a company of traders, to whom
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he had offered his skins for sale. They secreted the body, not observing his little nephew, who, hidden amid the bushes, had witnessed in silence the horrid deed, and secretly vowed eternal vengeance against the murderers of his uncle. He was one of the tribe of Weeck- quesqueecks, living north of Mamaroneck. When a full-grown Indian, still bent on his purpose, he watched anxiously the faces of the various traders, that he might discern the countenances of those upon whom he hoped for full vengeance. As a result of his constant search he fell in with one whom he recognized -one Claes Corneliz Smitz, now become an old man. On him he revenged his uncle's death by a like punishment, and then fled. This was the open act, out of which grew more open and extensive hostility. A prompt demand was made on his tribe for the mur- derer. They replied that he had escaped to Sioascock, and that they could not give him up. Demand after demand brought but the same reply.
The governor now resolved to punish the whole tribe for the crime of the one who had escaped. He then appointed the " twelve men," with whom it was left to punish the Indians
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as they saw fit and proper. After mature consideration it was resolved to make two distinct expeditions against the Indians ; one against the tribe to which the Indian belonged, on the east bank of the Hudson, and the other against Petuquapaen, whither he was sup- posed to have fled. Both these expeditions were, however, delayed for a considerable time by a difficulty which arose between Keift and "The Twelve Men." Such was the im- patience and haste of the former, that the latter refused to comply with all his requisi- tions. And the expedition, as then planned against Petuquapaen, was never carried out at all, owing partly to this delay, but more to the total want of success which attended the other. This, Keift undertook on his own authority, and ordered Ensign Van Dyck to collect and equip eighty men, and immediately proceed against the Indians and inflict upon them summary punishment.
The governor felt sure of complete success, as this Hendrick Van Dyck had been in the service of the colony for years, and was well trained in Indian warfare. To make success still more certain, a trusty guide had been employed to conduct the party. They moved
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forward at the edge of the evening of a dark and cloudy night, early in March, 1642. An injudicious halt was made by Van Dyck, during which the darkness came on so thick and fast that the guide was quite unable to point out the way. The leader, thus dis- appointed, and angry at his own foolishness, led his men back to New Amsterdam, dis- heartened at not having seen a single enemy.
Thus both these expeditions failed.
But another opportunity was soon offered to the Dutch to take signal vengeance on their enemies. Some traders from Staten Island came up the Sound to trade with the Indians, and barter rum for furs. Having treated until they had made him well drunken, they robbed him of all his furs, and left him in a helpless condition. Afterwards, becoming sober, and fully aware of the treatment to which he had been subjected, the enraged Indian swore vengeance against the first " Swannekin" whom he should meet. And true to his oath, he killed one Dutchman and an Englishman, whom he chanced to meet together. The murderer fled to the Tankitekes, a tribe of which Paeham, who was favorable to the Dutch, was Sachem. They knew full well
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that cruel measures were now likely to be adopted against them. They therefore ex- postulated with the Dutch for selling to their people the "cussed firewater," laying to its charge all their troubles, and claiming that they had been more wronged than the traders.
But Keift turned a deaf ear to all their entreaties, and was fully bent on their blood- shed and destruction. It was but a few days after this, in February, 1643, that the power- ful tribe of Mohawks came down upon the tribes dwelling about New Netherlands in great numbers, demanding a tribute, which, being the stronger tribe, they were accustomed yearly to exact from their weaker neighbors. These Indians, now forgetting every thing but their intense fear for the dreaded Mohawks, fled in hundreds to the settlements of Manhattan for protection. They were received with pre- tended kindness and hospitality. But with fiendish design, Keift secretly planned a strata- gem to punish many for the crime of one. The settlers, having received them into their in- closures, and having prayed God to favor their cruel purpose, commenced a terrible massacre, thus graphically described by an eye-witness,
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in O'Callaghan's History of the New Nether- lands :-
I remained that night at the Director's, and took a seat in the kitchen near the fire. At midnight I heard loud shrieks, and went out upon the parapet of the fort, and looked toward Pavonia. I saw nothing but the flashing of guns. I heard no more cries of the Indians : they had been butchered in their sleep.
The horrors of this night cause one's flesh to creep, when we ponder over them even now, long after their occurrence. Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia, and thirty at Corlear's Hook, while sunk in repose. Sucklings were torn from their mothers' breasts, butchered before their parents' eyes, and their mangled limbs thrown quivering into the river or the flames. Babes were hacked to pieces while fastened on their little boards-their primitive cradles ! Others were thrown alive into the river, and when parents instinctively rushed in to save them, the cruel soldiers prevented their land- ing, and both parent and offspring were sunk into a watery grave. Children of half a dozen years, de- crepit men of three score and ten, shared like fates. Those who escaped and next morning begged for shelter, were killed in cold blood, or thrown into the river. Some came running to us from the country, having both hands cut off ; some lost both legs and
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arms ; some were supporting their entrails with their hands, while some were mangled in other horrid ways, too horrid to be conceived.
And this massacre was conducted by the governor so secretly, and with so much stra- tegy, that the Indians for a long time laid the cold-blooded deed to the Mohawks. Many of the Dutch, even, were so deceived. But after some days, during which the Mohawks had departed, the truth became evident ; and the Indians on the eastern bank of the Hudson, and on both shores of the Sound, rose with one accord to demand blood for blood. And if ever revenge can be justified, and rightfully pursued, surely these poor, hunted Indians may be justified in revenging this act, a more barbarous one than which was never recorded on the pages of history. They made their first attacks with such rage and fury, that the question of the continuance of the Dutch at the mouth of the Hudson was an extremely critical one. They were soon forced from Long Island, and on the main land all their settlers withdrew to the fort on Manhattan Island. The few who were in Greenwich also with- drew, leaving the English to take care of them- selves as best they might.
3
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But once more fortune turned against the Indians, and they were driven back in turn. Reinforcements having arrived from Holland, the colony were able not only to defend them- selves, but also to drive their enemies far back from their settlement. Great numbers of these having hitherto lived on the northern coast of the Sound, between Greenwich and Manhat- tan, now retired to Petuquapaen and Betuck- quapock, in Greenwich. Driven here from their former homes, they became desperate, and gave full vent to their native cruelty.
Among their acts, which are but very vaguely described by history, was the murder of the unfortunate Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, and her son-in-law, Mr. Collins, with sixteen others who lived in the wilderness somewhere in Greenwich, near the present boundaries of Greenwich and Stamford, by a party of In- dians from Petuquapaen. Of this affair, De- forest, in his Indians of Connecticut, says,-
The Indians desolated the Connecticut coast as far east as Stamford, killing not only Dutch, but En- glish ; for the English in this quarter were but few in number, and had been compelled to submit to the government of New Amsterdam. The pretended pro- phetess, Anne Hutchinson, who had taken refuge here
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from her persecutors in Massachusetts, was among the victims. Until the last moment, the Indians came to the house in their usual friendly manner ; then the hatchet fell, and the unfortunate woman perished, with sixteen others, in the massacre. To close the scene, the horses and cattle were driven into their barns, the barns set on fire, and the help- less animals roasted to death in the flames.
Nor was Capt. Patrick safe from the attacks of the Indians. Mayn Mayano, a tall, stout Indian chief of Petuquapaen, sought to distin- guish himself by proving untrue the boast of the whites, that one of them was equal to several Indians. In fact, he wanted to reverse the statement. Accordingly, Capt. Patrick and two others of the settlers, were attacked one day by this single brave. And though they were armed, Mayn Mayano had killed one and felled the other to the ground with his tomahawk, before Patrick, the survivor, could shoot him dead. He showed a wily courage and daring, although he failed so en- tirely of success.
One other tradition - the following, being told in many different ways; of which we ac- cept the simplest, as being, probably, the nearest to the truth. A rough old Dutchman named Cornelis Labden, was riding away from
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the settlement in Old Greenwich on horseback, when he discovered that he was pursued by three Indians on foot. They could pass more nimbly through the forest than he, and unless he could free himself by some desperate at- tempt, he well knew the destruction that awaited him. In this strait he bethought him of that steep precipice which still bears the name of Labden's Rock, and resolved rather to die by plunging down its depths than by the torturing hand of the red man. Just as his pursuers were about overtaking him, he dashed over the steep, and they, too eager on their pursuit, went headlong after him. Of the whole mass of mangled flesh, Labden only lived to tell the story, and that with his two legs broken. This Rock still presents much of its old appearance, and is visited by many of the curious. The story in itself is too sim- ple to suit all; for many love the marvelous. For the sake of such, we give a version of this very tradition, as it appeared in 1854, in the Stamford Advocate, under the initials of C. L. B. We will not stop to point out the glaring inconsistencies, or to ask how, when all so fearfully perished, the story became known. Here it is in the writer's best style, without any further comments of ours :-
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THE LEGEND.
BY C. L. B.
Soon after the settlement of New York by the Dutch, a few English families emigrated to the eastern part of Greenwich, and began a settlement upon an eminence commanding an extensive view of Long Island Sound. The names of these families are now forgotten, with the exception of that of Laddin (?) who, with his wife and daughter, a lovely girl of sixteen summers, located himself a short distance in an easterly direction from the main settlement. The little hamlet for some time con- tinued to enjoy the blessings of peace and security, but its grateful quietude was soon to be disturbed by its hostile neighbors, who were stimulated by the Dutch traders to deeds of violence and revenge against the English.
While Laddin (?) was one day occupied in his usual occupation of clearing and cultivating his farm, he was surprised at discovering the humble dwellings of his neighbors enveloped in dense clouds of smoke. Knowing full well the merciless foes would next proceed to his own cottage, and would complete their fiendish work of devastation and slaughter, he hurried thither with the utmost speed, and prepared to defend it and his family to the last extremity. Scarcely had he barricaded the doors, and loaded his trusty musket, when the savages with their passions whetted by the previous
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massacre, surrounded the house, yelling terrifically, and expecting to witness its speedy ruin with appa- rent delight. But, stop! Laddin stands at the window with his trusty weapon ; his resolute deter- mination surprises them ; they deliberate for a moment, then advances one (?) of the fiercest war- riors with lighted torch in hand ; he approaches within a few feet of the house, and falls the victim of unerring marksmanship ; they are not thus to be repulsed and deprived of their satisfaction, at be- holding the hated pale faces writhing in the flames. At the word of command on steps another (?) and rolls back upon his former comrade with a heavy groan ; another and another advance and share the same fate ; then, with unearthly yells they rush upon the house, en masse. They try to break down the well-barred doors, hoping to capture and consign the poor settlers to a more lingering torture, as vengeance for their fallen brethren.
In this confusion, Laddin's wife and daughter begged him to leave them to the mercy of the Indians, and secure his own safety ; he steadily re- fuses, determined to meet death with them and for them ; but by earnest entreaties and solemn assu- rances that life without him would be made worse than death, he is at length moved to make the at- tempt, with faint hopes that the foe would have some respect for their sex and spare them. The front door begins to open-all rush to enter, and thus the back door is left unguarded. Now is the time; the heroic wife and daughter brace the door
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against the savages, while with extreme reluctance, the despairing man softly makes his escape in the rear. Scarcely has he done this, when the door gives way ; his beloved wife and daughter are dragged from the house by the hair, tomahawked and scalped before his eyes. Assistance to them was impossible. He mounts his horse, which he had concealed a short distance off, under a thick copse of alder bushes. He knows not whither to flee ; death is before and behind him ; the savages behold him, and pursue. With despair stamped on his manly countenance, he suddenly turns his horse's head toward the well-known precipice, resolved not to fall into the hands of inhuman victors. On came his pursuers, and reached the summit of the barren rock, to hear him cry out with a voice of thunder,- " Come on, ye foul fiends, I go to join your victims!" A crash-and all is hushed. The rider and his faith- ful steed shall here mingle their dust together.
Such is the tradition as increased by a fertile imagination. And here we leave him to ruralize in some other place, to conjure up new ideas for the edification of the people; while we continue our chronicles.
A NEW EXPEDITION.
These attacks following one another rapidly, were duly revealed by Captain Patrick, the
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patroon, to Governor Keift; and he resolved not only to punish those outrages, but if pos- sible, to exterminate the whole race. Indeed, the actual settlers claimed this, as full protection had been promised in the agreement of the 9th of April, by which the town had been ceded to the Dutch. It was supposed that this object could be accomplished by a force of soldiers acting in unison with the settlers them- selves, and that the Indians of Petuquapaen would be cut off at a single blow.
Hence, not far from the 1st of January, 1644, a privateer, with two smaller vessels, having been well armed and fitted out, left New Amsterdam with a force of a hundred and twenty men. They were under the command of Captain Blauvelt, Capt. Joachim Pieterson Kuyter, Lieut. Baxter, and Sergeant Peter Cock. On Saturday, toward evening, they landed on Greenwich Point (Monakewego). And so great was their desire to surprise the Indians, and such their haste to consummate the object of their expedition, that their com- . mander thought it advisable to march 'imme- diately against the encampment. Accordingly, having received instructions as to their way from Capt. Patrick, who for some reason did not
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accompany them, the whole body set out. But after proceeding some distance, it became evi- dent that they had missed their way, and wan- dered too far back into the country. Thus they wandered about all night, and became wearied and dispirited ; and they returned without hav- ing found a clue to the object of their search. Furthermore, they had doubtless given to the scouts of the enemy a knowledge of their ap- proach. They encamped next day near the house of Capt. John Underhill, highly enraged at their want of success.
On the following day, which was the Sab- bath, the Dutch commandant met Capt. Patrick at the house of Underhill, and an alter- cation ensued. The soldier charged him with deceit and treachery ; that he purposely misled them, and finally called him a liar. To resent this the Englishman, who had hitherto re- mained silent, spat in the Dutchman's face and turning directly back, walked away. The other, in turn, drew a pistol and fired a ball through his head. For this homicide the sol- dier was arraigned, but never punished. And thus died Daniel Patrick, the pioneer settler of Greenwich. He left a wife and one son. The wife's name before marriage was Annetje 3*
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Van Beyeren. As her name indicates, she was a Dutch woman; and she afterwards married one Tobias Feeck, sheriff of Flushing, Long Island.
In a day or two, this company of soldiers went off on another wild-goose chase into the country ; when they met with but little better success than before. True, they fell in with a few old men, women, and children, whom they mostly killed, saving a few who were made slaves. Disappointed and vexed, they soon after went back to New Amsterdam.
After this, John Underhill went to New- York, joined the company and was made com- mander. Having first led his company against the Indians of "Hemestede" on Long Island, where the enemies were easily routed, he was ordered to Greenwich. Meantime Keift had sent scouts, to learn if the Indians were still congregated about Petuquapaen. It was re- ported that they were collected there in still greater numbers, and that the greater part of the women and children had been sent back into the country. Underhill was glad to take the command of this expedition for two rea- sons ; first, because it was necessary for the protection and safety of his family, and the
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preservation of his property that the enemy should be dislodged from their stronghold, so near his plantation in Greenwich; and secondly, that he might prove to the Dutch that he was in no way connected with their former failure and disgrace.
THE SUCCESSFUL ATTACK.
Accordingly, in February of the same year, 1644, Capt. Underhill and Ensign Van Dyck, with a complement of a hundred and thirty men, embarked at Fort Amsterdam for Green- wich Point. They landed safely, just as a ter- rible snow-storm was commencing. The snow continued to fall throughout the whole day and succeeding night. It had been their design to proceed, as in their other expeditions, by night, and take their enemies by surprise ; but the continuance of the storm prevented the accomplishment of their purpose for that night at least. But on the following day the storm cleared away, leaving between two and three feet of snow upon the ground. However, they immediately set out for Petuquapaen, advanc- ing as fast as the deep snow would permit. As had been intended, they reached the Myanos at
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about eight o'clock. They then halted for two hours on the eastern bank of this stream. Many had become quite fatigued, and they now had ample time for rest. At ten o'clock they resumed their march, and descending the steep bank, they crossed the river, as they say in their own report, where it " was about two hundred feet wide and three feet deep." And as the just-risen moon was brightening the white snow with its light, they ascended the western bank, and then " passing a steep ridge" were afforded a beautiful view of the plain below. In the distance, on the other side of the plain, they could see the fires in and about the village; while between it and them, the trees of the forest had been felled, that the In- dian women might raise their only grain, the Indian corn. The much-dreaded and long- sought-for Petuquapaen is at last found. As they advance still nearer with quickened step, they discover that the village consists of "more than a hundred permanent huts arranged in three rows, partially defended by a sort of palisades," with many wigwams collected about and scattering along under a "high bluff sheltering them from the chilling northwest winds."
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The inhabitants were on the alert, and by no means unprepared to meet their assailants. Their women had been sent back to the old fort Betuckquapock, near the present village of Dumpling Pond. None but the painted braves were left, and they were fully prepared for the desperate struggle. They betook them- selves to the trees on the slight rise of ground now occupied by J. K. Stearns, Esq., on the western bank of the Strickland brook. From this cover they showered their arrows upon the advancing foe. The soldiers then divided into two parties, and from different directions poured their deadly fire upon the Indians, who, when thus attacked, found the trees an insufficient protection. The brave Sinawoys fought long and desperately; but the arrow and the toma- hawk, of necessity, yielded to the bullet, bayo- net, and broadsword. More than once the Indians made gallant charges, hoping to break the lines of their enemies. But the incessant firing thinned their numbers, and they at last retired, leaving between one and two hundred braves dead on the scene of the first terrible struggle. At the more permanent inclosure of the village they rallied, hoping there more effectually to defend themselves, and resolved
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there to make their final, desperate struggle for victory. Sheltered by the light palisades, if so they may be called, they once more poured forth incessant flights of arrows upon the Dutch. The latter now advanced from the northeast and the southeast in two divisions.
Fire was the enemy of the Indians, as often as it was their familiar weapon in destroying the habitations of the whites. And Under- hill had learned its utility by his experience at the celebrated Pequot fort. To cast a fire- brand upon the row of dry bark huts and wig- wams, was but the work of a moment; and a most terrible destruction now awaited them. Roasted and tortured to agony by the fire, they darted out here and there from the flames only to be brought to the ground by the unerring aim of the soldiery, who were on the alert for the poor victims. Finally their horrid moans and cries were hushed, and the flames and the hissing of the boiling pools of blood died away, leaving hundreds of crisped bodies on the blood-stained snow.
And thus miserably perished from six hun- dred to a thousand Sinawoy Indians, variously enumerated by different authors. And of the whole number of warriors that had been
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gathered at the ancient village, only eight escaped. All, besides these and twelve who were taken prisoners at the first conflict on the knoll, were cut off in battle. These prisoners were sold as slaves, some to the English and some to the Dutch ; for prisoners were then the spoils of war.
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