USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume I > Part 7
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In the middle of October 1635, sixty persons, including women and children, left the settlement at Newtown and began their wearisome journey through the forests, to their new home in the western wilds of Connecticut. Their pro- gress was delayed, encumbered as they were with such mov- able property as horses, cows, and swine; the winter season was pressing hard upon them when they reached the banks of the Connecticut. Most of the party settled upon the site where Hartford now stands, giving it the name of Newtown.
In the fall of this year the fort at the mouth of the Con-
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necticut River had been established. The winter of 1635- 6 began early, the Connecticut was frozen in the middle of November; the planters had arrived late in the fall, and had not had time to prepare themselves for the inclement weath- er; provisions became scarce, and destitution and starvation faced the pioneers. Driven to desperation by the pangs of famine, they fled back to the Massachusetts settlements in small parties, regardless of all other dangers. Some waded through the snow; others descended the river to the fort, looking for ships containing their household goods, and find- ing they had been delayed, seized a vessel and returned with difficulty to Boston. Those who stayed subsisted on the wild game of the forests, or dug acorns and ground nuts from beneath the snow. The settlers feared that the Indians, al- though hospitable, might at any time become vindictive; to them the vast wilderness was a familiar home, to the white man it was frowning with bewilderment.
These early settlers of Connecticut were patient and God- fearing, and their Puritanic faith in the Deity upheld them through all their trials. April came; as harbingers of spring, the birds sang again, nature donned her green vestments, and tight-bound buds burst into blossom. Those driven from the plantations by the severity of winter returned, and brought others with them, throughout the month of May.
In the early part of June Mr. Hooker and his assistant Mr. Stone, with a company of about one hundred men, wom- en, and children began a two-weeks' journey through the swamps, vales, and forests, they must traverse to reach their future home. The coming of this party assured the perma- nent settlement of Connecticut by the English. The priva- tions and hardships contingent upon all pioneering had been met and vanquished. And with Mr. Hooker came a union
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From an old print.
THE EMIGRATION TO CONNECTICUT
CONNECTICUT AS A COLONY
of firm belief in democratic society, and of sagacity in choos- ing the means for its beneficial embodiment, which has made Connecticut what it is.
As it was in the genesis of Connecticut, so was to be her future : ministers were to lead their chosen flocks into new pastures; and on lofty elevations, and in fertile valleys, churches were erected, while, clustered about them, sprang up the habitations of their members. The three river plantations formed the nucleus of settlements reaching to the limits of her boundaries. Her colonists were largely of the well-to-do English farming class, who left their native country at the time when Puritanism was strong and militant, and waxing ready to assert itself in civil warfare. There were no convicted felons amongst her emigrants, negro sla- very was confined to a few cases of domestic service, and there were only a few indentured white servants known as "redemptioners." The Colonists were homogeneous in blood, and eminent statisticians have estimated that ninety-eight per cent. of the original settlers of New England could trace their origin to the mother country. In the words of William Stoughton, "God sifted a whole nation that He might send choice grains into the wilderness."
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CHAPTER VI
THE PEQUOT WAR
T HE early English navigators to the New Eng- land coast had created in the minds of the Indians, by their violence, greed, and duplic- ity, a distrust of the white man as a very formidable animal of their own stripe; but this was largely counteracted by the prudent and upright conduct of the members of the Plymouth Colony towards Massasoit and other neighboring Sachems, resulting in a friendship and alliance that was of mutual benefit. As the emigration of the whites increased, the Indians became dis- satisfied, as they saw the effect of inclosure in driving away the game.
In the spring of 1630 a great conspiracy to exterminate the English was formed among the Indians, the leaders being the tribe of Narragansetts. This plot failed through its dis- closure by a friendly Indian; but it warned the settlers of Massachusetts of the dangers encompassing them, and was the cause of the erection of forts, and the maintenance of guards to protect them from fatal sacrifices in the future.
Of the tribes located in Connecticut the Pequots were the strongest, the most aggressive, and the most unfriendly to- wards the whites. The death of their Grand Sachem, soon after the first settlements by the English, caused dissensions between Sassacus, his son, and Uncas, a Sagamore of the Mohegans, who asserted his right to the succession, on the grounds of his own "royal" descent and that of his squaw. These claims were successfully opposed by Sassacus; and the dispute breaking into open rebellion, Uncas was defeated and forced to seek refuge among the Narragansetts.
Sassacus was a representative type of the New England Indians; he was intractable and proud, noted for his prowess in war and wisdom in council; and as he was opposed to the
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settlement of the country by the whites, he early began to de- vise means for their destruction. He was at one time in su- preme command of twenty-six Sachems, his headquarters be- ing in the present towns of Groton and New London. The members of his tribes lived on the coast, occupying the ter- ritory for thirty miles into the interior. Sassacus had com- mand of the harbors at the mouth of the Mystic and Pequot (now Thames) Rivers, and his two principal forts were lo- cated upon elevations, a few miles apart, in the country be- tween these two streams. The largest of these was so situ- ated that it commanded a view of the indented shore of the Atlantic; here was the home of Sassacus, who with regal authority administered justice, punished rebels, and sent his ambassadors scores of miles demanding tribute; in the ex- pressive language of those that feared him, he was "all one God."
About the time of the difficulties between the Dutch and the Pequots to which we have already referred, the Narragan- setts, becoming more independent, resisted those demands of the Pequots to which they had hitherto acceded; the Ne- hantics wrested from them the sovereignty of Block Island, and the Indians of the upper valley of the Connecticut, en- couraged no doubt by Dutch and English traders, no longer yielded to their authority. These difficulties, with the rebel- lion of Uncas and the war with the Dutch, which cost them the lives of a number of their warriors, together with the in- terruption of their trade, were the forerunners of their sub- sequent defeat and extermination.
Sassacus viewed with a distrustful eye the incoming of the white settlers; and as their log cabins appeared in the wil- derness, indicating the permanency of their occupation, he sought means of retaliation against these intruders, at first
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looked upon with disdain as tillers of the soil fit only to as- sociate with his own female drudges. The summer of 1633 saw their first open hostility towards the English. Captain Stone, a dissolute and intemperate man, lately arrived from Virginia in some disgrace, left Boston in a small trading ves- sel, accompanied by Captain Norton and a crew of seven men, for the Connecticut River. On his arrival at the mouth of the river, trade was opened with the Indians, and Stone sent three of his men ashore to procure wild game. The Indians appeared friendly, and came aboard the vessel, where they were allowed to loiter at their case. This over- confidence on the part of Captain Stone, doubtless caused by a too liberal supply of fire-water, proved his undoing; for retiring to his cabin he fell asleep, and was promptly mur- dered by the Sachem at the head of the party. The three hunters were likewise killed, and an attempt was made to slay the rest of the crew; but the Indians, frightened by their firearms, leaped overboard. In the confusion a quantity of powder was ignited, and the vessel almost wholly demol- ished; whereupon the Indians returned to the wreck, slaugh- tered those found alive, and rifled the cargo. The savages engaged in this depredation belonged to the Pequots, al- though it may have been possible that some of their number came from the Western Nehantics.
The following year, the Pequots being still engaged in war with the Dutch, Sassacus made overtures to the English, desir- ing to obtain for his people the advantage of trade. A repre- sentative was sent to the Massachusetts Colony, to promise skins and wampum in exchange for a league between his peo- ple and the paleface. The officials of Massachusetts Bay de- clined to treat with his messenger, as he was not of the "blood royal,"-the early settlers transferred their own customs to
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the savages, every Sachem was a "King," his squaws "queens," and his naked pappooses "princes" and "prin- cesses"-and the sending of an ambassador of such low rank was considered a discourtesy to the English. On the return of his courier, Sassacus sent two Pequot Sagamores, who con- tained enough of the blue blood of "royalty" to overcome the objections of the Massachusetts authorities, and negotiations were opened. While the English desired peace, they would consent to no treaty that did not provide for the surrender of the murderers of Captain Stone, and the payment of dam- ages for the destruction of his vessel. The Indians denied any participation in the murder, and claimed that it had been provoked by Captain Stone's holding two Indians as unwil- ling captives; that the Sachem in command of the rescue party had been subsequently killed by the Dutch, and that all other participants in the tragedy had died of small-pox, save two who would be surrendered to the English if found guilty. On the strength of these promises a treaty was made, by which it was agreed that the English were to have all the lands they needed, provided they settled the same, and that they were to receive all possible assistance from the Pequots. The English, in addition to the two guilty Indians, were to receive forty beaver skins, thirty otter skins, and four hun- dred fathoms of wampum; they were to have all the trade of the Red Men, being allowed to send vessels into their territory for the purpose of barter only.
The wampum to be paid to the English by Sassacus was for the purpose of procuring a treaty with the Narragan- setts as he was too proud to deal directly with his hereditary foes. The Narragansetts were not averse to peace; and the English, by promising to pay some wampum, concluded a treaty between the two tribes which lasted about two years.
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Now while the English, in thus creating an alliance between two powerful tribes, may have erected a barrier to their own advancement, it must be remembered that they were numer- ically weak and that peace was to be obtained at all hazards, that emigration might be encouraged, and thus an influx of money and settlers place them in a position to resist those Indian outbreaks which to a far-seeing mind were inevitable.
The treaty between the Massachusetts colony and the Pe- quots was fulfilled on neither side, save that the English made some settlements which received no opposition from the Indians ; Sassacus never paid the wampum called for, nor surrendered the murderers of Captain Stone; and no vessels were sent from the colony to trade with the Pequots. There was no change of affairs for two years, when an event took place that aroused the colonists to a consideration of the ob- ligations of their putative allies.
John Oldham, one of the first pioneers of Connecticut, with a crew of two boys and two Narragansett Indians, sailed from Massachusetts in compliance with the Pequot treaty; Oldham finished his trading in peace, but on his return was murdered at Block Island. The crime was discovered and its perpetrators punished by another trader, John Gallop by name, who, with a crew consisting of only three men and two boys, killed more than a dozen Indians. The Massachusetts colony after this massacre was visited by three Narragansett Indians, two of whom had been with Oldham; they came as messengers from Canonicus, their head Sachem, denying all participation in the crime by any of the members of his tribe. The Indians who had not been with Oldham confessed to the authorities that the Narragansett Sachems, excepting Cano- nicus and Miantonimo, were cognizant of the murder, and that his two companions were accomplices in the crime. The
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authorities allowed the messengers to return, but demanded that the two boys who were with Oldham should be surren- dered, and that punishment be inflicted upon the guilty island- ers. The boys were returned to Boston, and the government then accused the Pequots of harboring the murderers of Old- ham, and of being guilty of participation in the crime. The only reason seems to have been that they had harbored other murderers. The Massachusetts Colony, collecting a com- pany of ninety men, placed John Endicott in command, and instructed him, first to land on Block Island, and after put- ting all the men to the sword, to proceed to the Pequot coun- try, obtain the murderers, and demand one thousand fathoms of wampum; to guarantee the faithful performance of these conditions, Endicott was to return with the children of the Indians as hostages.
To execute these instructions Endicott set sail from Bos- ton, arriving on the shores of Block Island at the close of day. The island appeared to be deserted, but the first at- tempt of the English to effect a landing was answered by a volley from fifty warriors. In spite of this, Endicott and his company spent two days in exploring; but so effectually had the Indians secreted themselves that only a small number of them were even seen; although to those familiar with the Block Island of today, it would seem impossible for a com- pany of ninety soldiers to spend forty-eight hours in pur- suit of any foes, without at least catching more than a momen- tary glimpse of them. However, one Indian was killed, two villages of about sixty wigwams were destroyed by fire, sev- eral dogs were shot, and two hundred acres of corn laid waste.
After completing his work of devastation, Endicott re- embarked his small army, and set sail for the fort at the
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mouth of the Connecticut. They were delayed four days at Saybrook on account of bad weather; and after being re- inforced by Lieutenant Gardener, the commander of the fort, -who disapproved of the expedition but could not refuse help to his own,-with twenty men, they glided along the coast towards the Pequots' country and anchored in the Thames. The next morning the expedition was visited by a Pequot Sagamore asking the object of their visit. Endicott in replying demanded the surrender of Captain Stone's murder- ers, the payment of one thousand fathoms of wampum, and as hostage for the fulfillment of these stipulations, twenty of the children of their chieftains. The Sagamore, after presenting his side of the question, was permitted to return to communi- cate further with his people. His request that the English should not land until further conferences had been taken was ignored by Endicott, who speedily disembarked his troops and formed them in military order on the shore. The same Sagamore requested them not to advance further into the country, but this was likewise disregarded through fear of an ambuscade; and a position was taken on a summit over- looking the surrounding territory.
Here three hundred Indians surrounded them, nearly all being unarmed; and some, recognizing certain of the troops from Saybrook, entered into conversation with them. The English were informed that owing to the absence of Sassacus at that time on Long Island, they could conduct no national business. Endicott threatened that if some Sachem did not appear to arbitrate their differences, he would begin hostili- ties at once. The Indians still made excuses, but commenced the removal of their non-combatants and chattels to a place of safety. Endicott's patience finally becoming exhausted, he brought the parley to an end, saying to the Pequots sur-
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rounding him :- "Begone, begone, you have dared the Eng- lish to fight you, and now we are ready." At these words the Indians retreated, and Endicott marched in pursuit, for- bidding his soldiers to fire upon the enemy. The Indians, laughing scornfully, discharged a few arrows at the whites, who retaliated with a volley that resulted in the death of one of their opponents.
Endicott ravaged both banks of the Thames, burning wig- wams, wasting corn, destroying canoes, and, in fact, doing all in his power to exasperate the Pequots. After having accomplished nothing he was instructed to perform by the colonial government, except the destruction of the property of the Indians, Endicott re-embarked his army for Narra- gansett Bay, and arrived at Boston without the loss of a single man. The Saybrook contingent, having secured bags, remained to fill them with corn; but while they were en- gaged in this occupation the original owners returned and gave battle, and although the whites finally effected their es- cape, they carried away only a portion of their plunder.
This expedition is perhaps not too severely judged by some historians as criminal folly. It was criminal because it was managed with such incompetence. The one thing which could have excused it was success, or rather an energy and skill which reasonably merited success; bungling it was the unpardonable sin. The punitive expedition in itself, though so far as the Pequots were concerned it had no in- stant provocation, was quite in accordance with their point of view, and it would not have been possible to make them understand the moral objections to it raised by their enemies' descendants ; nor, had it struck hard, would it have left them with any feeling of injustice, or any other one worse than anxiety to placate such redoubtable foes. But the men of
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Massachusetts had no business ( as Lion Gardener told them ) to rouse this hornets' nest, of which the Connecticut brethren would feel the chief stings, without being morally sure of quelling it. To strike weakly or awkwardly was to incur both the opposite evils, the wrath of a powerful enemy and the contempt of a ferocious one. It should have been the policy of John Mason or that of Roger Williams, unmixed. Mason would have cowed them with a crushing blow ; Wil- liams might possibly have kept them in bounds for a few years, till their lands were too much hemmed in. But to be as fierce as Mason in attempt and as innocuous as Williams in action could have but one outcome,-the Pequots were irri- tated to vengeance and heartened out of any hesitation. Ma- son's war of extermination was made necessary by this fumb- ling bravado, and better lives than the Pequots' were sacri- ficed by it. At the same time, something is to be allowed in excuse of Massachusetts for ignorance of how to deal with Indians. Winthrop says the only object was to "bring the Pequots to a parley"-that is, alarm them into willingness to make a treaty, like the Narragansetts. With a civilized race, a mere show of force like this might have been effective- though so gingerly a treatment as Endicott's could hardly have frightened any people of spirit, and it is not credita- ble to the Massachusetts officials' intelligence that they were so ignorant of what people all around them knew that with Indians nothing but proved and crushing force would an- swer. The Massachusetts men had not learned this lesson, which Philip of Pokanoket was to teach them later.
The first move of the Pequots was to strengthen their po- sition by forming an alliance with their neighbors the Narra- gansetts ; and Sassacus despatched two Sachems to induce that tribe to bury their past differences, and to unite in tak-
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ing up the tomahawk against the English. This embassy coming to the knowledge of the Massachusetts officials, they besought the intercession of Roger Williams to counteract the influence of the Pequot messengers. Williams at the risk of his life accomplished the mission assigned to him, and was enabled to form a league between the Narragansetts and the English colonies. By this, firm and perpetual peace was es- tablished; no compact was to be made with the Pequots without the consent of both parties to the agreement; the Narragansetts were to surrender fugitive servants and mur- derers to the English, and to be notified of the commencement of hostilities, when they were to furnish guides for the ex- pedition. This treaty was to continue in force for an in- definite period, the fulfillment of its condition descending to prosperity. But although the Pequots were thus left entirely to their own resources, deserted by all of their race, and ham- pered by the rebellion of Uncas and his followers, Sassacus would listen to no proposals of peace. He had gauged, as he thought, their measure, and was willing to fight any num- ber of Endicotts single-handed. Surely 600 Pequot warriors could stalk any probable force of whites. Sassacus was not a mere reckless child; he knew the superiority of English arms, but he knew that faint hearts can make no use of any arms, and his Indians had their dark untrodden forests for intrenchments. The Pequots had always been successful in past wars, owing to their superior force and bravery-quite probably in origin they were a picked band of warriors who thought their main tribe too sedentary; the English were a new and untried foe, widely scattered, apparently unable to place in the field a force more than a small fraction of that of the Pequots, and seemingly inferior enough in courage to off- set any superiority in arms.
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The Pequots began hostilities by attacking the English stragglers from the Saybrook fort. They captured two of the garrison while on a hunting expedition, and tortured them to death; another captive was roasted alive. The winter of 1636-7 was passed by the occupants of the fort in a state of siege; outhouses and stacks of hay were burned by the In- dians, cattle were killed, and a trading captain and one of his crew savagely murdered. The captain was flayed alive and burning coals stuck in his raw flesh, as part of the torments under which he slowly expired. It is not claimed that any of the white men's wrongs to the Indians had included these amenities, and not easy to see which ones had justified them. Early in the spring of 1637 the Pequots drew the English into an ambuscade, where they killed two soldiers and se- verely wounded two others.
Until this time the Pequots had confined operations to the neighborhood of Saybrook; but Wethersfield became drawn into conflict in the following manner. The original settlers of this town had purchased from a Sachem named Sequin or Sowheag a large tract of land, with the proviso that he might still live upon the land, under their protection. The white settlers, however, subsequently quarreled with the chief and drove him from their neighborhood. Sequin made a suc- cessful appeal to the Pequots to avenge his wrongs; that tribe promptly organized a war party in April 1637, sur- prised the settlers of Wethersfield, killing three women and six men, carried away two females into captivity, and slaugh- tered twenty cows, besides doing an immense amount of other damage. The news of this disaster became known at Say- brook two days after its occurrence, and the successful war- riors with their captives were seen on their return trip; no
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resistance, however, was made to their progress save the harmless firing of a cannon.
The settlers of the Connecticut Valley, as a whole, had taken no action to repress these Indian atrocities until two months previous to the Wethersfield massacre; when a court was convened at Newtown, which addressed letters to the governor of Massachusetts, deprecating the evil results of Endicott's expedition, and calling for men and ammunition to prosecute a vigorous war against the Pequots. The up- per river plantations soon after this sent Captain John Ma- son-a resident of Windsor, who had been bred to arms in the Netherlands-with twenty men to reinforce the garrison at Saybrook. This force remained at the fort until the arrival from Massachusetts of a company of nineteen soldiers, un- der the command of Captain John Underhill who had served with Endicott; whereupon Mason and his followers proceeded up the river.
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