USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 4
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But Trumbull, the worthy historian of Connecticut, yielding to the strong current of local tradition, in and around Norwich, assigns a very different place for the scene of this tragedy.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
According to this authority, Uncas conducted his captive to the very spot where he had taken him prisoner: that is, to the border of the She- tucket river, about forty miles in a southeasterly direction from Hartford, and there executed the awful sentence; a blow upon the head with a hatchet by one of the attendants of Uncas dispatching him at a single stroke. The historian adds :
"Uncas cut out a large piece of his shoulder, and ate it in savage triumph. He said, It was the sweetest meat he ever ate : it made his heart strong."
We know that many of the Indian tribes, even those not accounted cannibals, had the custom of tasting the flesh or blood of a slaughtered foe, believing that thereby the strength and valor of the deceased was infused into their own souls. This part of the tradition is not wholly improbable. Whether the chief was slaughtered in the nameless wilds above Hartford, or on the banks of the Shetucket, Uncas may have grat- ified his revenge and honored a savage practice by tasting the flesh of his fallen enemy. The incident, however, rests wholly on tradition, and is not countenanced by any thing that we know of the customs and charac- ter of the Mohegans. On the contrary, it has the vague and exaggerative features of fiction.
The historian further relates that the Mohegans, by order of Uncas, buried the victim at the place of his execution, and erected a great heap or pillar upon his grave ; adding that this memorable event gave to the place the name of Sachem's Plain.
This narrative coincides with current tradition. Sachem's Plain is on the western bank of the Shetucket, north of the present village of Green- ville, and here for a long course of years the monumental heap was to be seen, apparently giving solemn evidence of the verity of the statement. Nevertheless the Records of the Commissioners, and the Journal of Win- throp, being written at the time, and with such manifest attention to minute accuracy, must be accepted as more reliable than tradition .*
And indeed, considering the nature of the route, without reference either to history or tradition, it is scarcely credible that Uncas would have taken that long journey with his manacled captive, through the wilderness, where the chances of escape or recapture were so imminent, and he might reasonably expect his course to be watched and his path ambushed by the enemy, when the terms of his engagement could be fulfilled and his em- barrassments ended at a much nearer point. For it is evident that the
* The authority quoted by Trumbull is a manuscript of Richard Hyde, Esq., (now in the Library of Yale College,) which is dated Oct. 9, 1769. It is undoubtedly what it claims to be, a faithful narrative of the traditions of ancient men in the vicinity ; but in the course of 126 years it would be very easy for an error to slide into tradition, which should blend the place of the sachem's execution with that of his capture.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Commissioners designed that Miantonomoh should be removed from life with expedition, and the phrase, next part of his own government, used in reference to the jurisdiction of Uncas, points to the Mohegan territory on the Podunk, and not to the Mohegan territory on the Shetucket .*
This view of the subject by no means destroys the interest attached to the monumental heap, and the commemorative name, Sachem's Plain. They were memorials of the capture, if not of the slaughter, of the chief- tain. Here the first blow was given, that ended in the bloody execution. Here the great Narragansett was arrested in his flight. Here he sate upon the stone, and his captors came around with taunts and mockery, and shouts of joy and triumph. Here they bound his arms with withs, and led him away like a captured lion to Mohegan.
The heap of stones was doubtless in its origin a Mohegan pile,-a mar- tial trophy erected upon the spot where the tribe had been victorious. But the place of sacrifice in the woods of Windsor,-the spot where the helpless chief received the fatal blow,-was left unmarked and unvisited. There, perchance, the carrion fowls fed upon his flesh, and his bones were left to bleach and decay. No tradition designates the spot, and it must forever remain unknown.
The rude tumulus on Sachem's Plain, which was at first, perhaps, but three or four stones rolled together, grew at last to a memorable heap. Being near an Indian route often traveled, it was visited by scouting par- ties of different tribes, and additions made to it alike by exultant foes and bewailing friends. All true-hearted Narragansetts who passed that way, renewed their lamentations at the heap, and cast a few more stones upon it, consecrating them with doleful cries and frantic gestures. Tradition, therefore, might naturally be drawn into the mistake of supposing this the tomb of the chieftain. The English who settled on the tract, seeing this artificial mound, this Gilgal or heap of memorial stones reared in the wil- derness, and observing that every Mohegan, when he came within sight of it, broke into loud exultation and bravado, and every Narragansett uttered his dismal howl of lamentation, while each paused to cast upon it another stone of defiance or of honor, would easily credit the report, however vague its authority, that here lay the remains of the great Miantonomoh.
A late citizen of Norwich, N. L. Shipman, Esq., who deceased in 1853, at the age of eighty, remembered this tumulus in his youth,-a rude stone heap, between two solitary oak trees, about sixteen rods east of the old Providence road, and nearly in a line with that part of the river where the great dam has been built.
* In the former edition of this work, the author, swayed by a belief entertained from childhood,-a belief current and unquestioned in the neighborhood of Norwich, and sanctioned by Trumbull and other historians,-expressed a different opinion. It was an opinion, however, based upon tradition rather than coeval testimony. Subsequent inquiries have led to a different conclusion.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
At length the owner of the land, who was perhaps ignorant of the design of the stones, removed the greater part of them to use in the undersetting of a barn he was erecting in the neighborhood. The remain- der, in the clearing up of the ground, gradually disappeared. In the process of time the old oak trees also vanished, and nothing was left to designate the spot where the flying chieftain yielded to his foe, until the 4th of July, 1841. At that time a monument was erected, by a few citi- zens of Norwich, as nearly upon the site of the old tumulus as could be ascertained .* It consists of a block or cube of granite, five feet square at the base, placed on a pedestal that raises the whole eight feet above the surface, and bearing the simple inscription-
MIANTONOMO. 1643.
This is the Sachem's monument. The place where it stands has long been known as Sachem's Plain, or Sachem's Point : a small stream which here flows into the Shetucket, is Sachem's Brook; and a living spring near by, is Sachem's Spring. In fact, the whole neighborhood is overshadowed and engraven with the name and fame of the great Narragansett chief.
This granite block was dedicated in the presence of a concourse of people, young and old, from the neighborhood, the ceremony being con- nected with a festival of children from the village of Greeneville. It was consecrated by prayer, and libations of pure water from the Sachem's spring, where doubtless he had slaked his thirst and cooled his heated brow in his marches through the wilderness.
Another question may be worthy of some consideration. What was the precise date of the execution of Miantonomoh ?
A note in the Massachusetts Historical Collection says :
" The Indian Prince was murdered, as appears from Governor Winthrop's MS. His- tory, the 28th of September, 1643."t
Winthrop's History, since published, fails to verify this statement, the date of the tragedy not being there given. Nevertheless, the time desig- nated may be correct.
The Commissioners met at Boston on the 17th of September. It was agreed that the proceedings should be kept secret until after the members from Hartford and New Haven should return home. Uneas was then to be sent for, and the execution committed to his hands.
* Erected principally through the influence and exertions of Wm. C. Gilman, Esq. To identify the spot, the party relied upon the accuracy of Judge Shipman, who was present at the dedication, and rehearsed the traditions connected with the place.
+ Vol. 7 of Series 2, p. 47.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The Commissioners probably reached Hartford by the 22d. Uncas might have been summoned so as to arrive on the 26th or 27th, and the execution would naturally follow without unavoidable delay.
The General Court met at Hartford on the 12th of October, and passed a resolve to send eight soldiers to remain a while with Uncas to protect him from the anticipated vengeance of the Narragansetts .* The same day the message of Pessacus, the brother of Miantonomoh, arrived in Boston, avowing his intention to avenge the death of the chief. All these dates and attendant circumstances concur in assigning the sachem's death to one of the last days of September; and probably it occurred on the 28th.
The sentence of Miantonomoh is one of the most flagrant acts of injust- ice and ingratitude that stands recorded against the English settlers. He had shown many acts of kindness towards the whites; in all his intercourse with them had evinced a noble and magnanimous spirit ; had been the uniform friend and assistant of the first settlers of Rhode Island; and only seven years before his death, had received into the bosom of his country, Mason and his little band of soldiers from Hartford, and greatly assisted them in their conquest of the Pequots.
The Narragansetts were determined to avenge the death of their chief. They were particularly exasperated with Uncas, as he had entered into treaty with them for the release of the sachem, and had already received, as they averred, a large quantity of wampum in part payment of his ran- som. The Mohegans, on their part, denied that any wampum or other goods had been received by them, except small parcels which Miantono- moh himself had bestowed, as gratuities, upon their captains and counsel- ors, or given to " Uncas and his squaw, for preserving his life so long and using him courteously during his imprisonment."
A harrassing and inveterate system of hostility between the two tribes ensued. The Narragansetts were double in number to the Mohegans, but the latter were shielded by the protecting care of the English, so that a balance was preserved between the two nations, otherwise unequal. The war was carried on by sudden skirmishes, and a system of scouting and ambushment, creating constant alarm and irritation, but yielding small results.
During the spring of 1645, the Narragansetts invaded the Mohegan country with a large force, committed great devastation, and finally drove Uncas to his strongest fort and besieged him there. According to tradi- tion this fort was on Shantok Point, a rough projection by the side of the Thames, nearly opposite Pocquetannok. The English had assisted Uncas in fortifying this spot. There is still a fine spring of water by the bank.
* Col. Rec. Conn., 1, 96. New Haven also sent six by a resolve of Oct. 14. Col. Rec. N. H., p. 110.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The position was easily defended, and the Narragansetts had no hope of taking it by assault. Many of the women and children had fled to the other side of the river, with a part of the canoes, but of the remainder the Narragansetts had taken possession, so as to cut off retreat on the water side, and thus enclosing them on this point of land, they hoped to subdue them by famine. How long the siege continued is not known ; but one night a messenger dispatched by Uncas left the fort without being discov- ered by the besiegers, and creeping along the margin of the river very cautiously till without the range of the enemy's scouts, he crossed the country with Indian speed, and arrived the next day at Saybrook, the nearest English settlement, where he made known the desperate situation of the Mohegans. Or perhaps Trumbull's account may be more correct : that he fell in with a scouting party from the fort, and communicated to them the message with which he was charged by Uncas.
Measures were immediately taken at Saybrook for the relief of the beleaguered sachem. This was before the appointment of Mason to the command of the fort, and the supplies sent are supposed to have been for- warded by private enterprise. No later investigations either enlarge or vary the account given by the venerable historian of Connecticut.
" Upon this intelligence, one Thomas Leffingwell, an ensign at Saybrook, an enter- prising, bold man, loaded a canoe with beef, corn and pease, and under cover of the night paddled from Saybrook into the Thames; and had the address to get the whole into the fort."*
It is probable that Leffingwell had often been on trading excursions to Mohegan, and was well acquainted with Pequot river, and the position of Shantok fort. We know in general that the people of Saybrook were in the habit of coming into the river to trade with the Indians, and that Trading Cove, which afterwards became the southern boundary of Nor- wich, was a name bestowed by them long anterior to the settlement.
A fanciful legend has in later times been connected with this adventure. It would be difficult now to ascertain what degree of truth belongs to it. It is said that the expected relief from Saybrook was delayed much longer than the hungry and impatient Mohegans had anticipated ; and that each night Uneas left the fort and crept along the bank of the river, skulking by the water's edge, till he came to a rocky and precipitous point, which juts into the stream, a little above Massapeag Cove. Here, under shelter of the rock, the sachem remained till nearly day-light, with his sleepless eyes upon the river, and his ear intent to eateh the lightest sound of a falling oar, and it was not till the second or third night of his watch that
* Trumbull's Conn. : Ch. xi. Leffingwell was not an ensign at that period. He was chosen ensign of the train band in Norwich, long afterward.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Leffingwell arrived. The ledge of rock on which the sachem sat in his midnight watch has since obtained the name of Uncas' Chair.
No sooner was this timely supply of provisions safely lodged in the for- tress, than loud shouts of exultation were uttered by the besieged, to the astonishment of the Narragansetts, who were unable to divine the cause of this midnight triumph. At the dawn of day, however, the secret was disclosed ; the Mohegans elevated a large piece of beef on a pole, and thus gave notice of the relief they had obtained. The Narragansetts dared not assail either the persons or property of the English, but we can readily believe that they beheld the boat lying by the shore with bitter feelings of exasperation, and poured out a torrent of threats and invectives against its officious owners. That they saw Leffingwell, and knew it was he that brought the supplies, is evident from Leffingwell's own testimony, as will soon appear. Finding that there was no chance of reducing the Mohegans while they were thus supported, the Narragansetts abandoned the seige and returned home.
It may be thought that the year 1645 is too early for the date of that particular irruption of the Narragansetts from which Uncas was relieved by Leffingwell. The sachem was so often, after the death of Miantono- moh, assailed by his enemies, that it is not easy to determine where this incident belongs. Trumbull uses the vague phraseology, "during the wars between Uncas and the Narragansetts," which would apply to any year between 1642 and 1660. A later historian of the State places it without question in 1657,* but this date can not be sustained. Uncas was indeed closely besieged in 1657, but in a fortress that stood near the head of Niantick river, west of New London, and the siege was raised not by virtue of beef and corn from Saybrook, but by the presence of Lieut. Avery, Jonathan Brewster, and other inhabitants of New London, who hastened to the fort and spread their protecting Ægis over the sachem.
It might be the safest course to leave the period of this incident indefi- nite ; yet there appears to be sufficient historic evidence to justify us in assigning it definitely to May or June, 1645, that being the period when the Mohegans were reduced to the greatest extremity.
It was in the year 1645 that the younger Winthrop and his party com- menced that settlement in the conquered Pequot territory, which soon grew into the town of New London. This was but seven or eight miles below the principal fort of Uncas, and it may be fairly inferred that the siege, in which the sachem was brought to the verge of destruction by his enemies, was before this English settlement had taken the form of a regu- lar plantation. Otherwise, Uncas would have been likely to apply for aid to his nearer neighbor, Winthrop, instead of sending his scouts to Say-
* Hollister's Hist. Conn., 1 : 199.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
brook for assistance. He would, at least, have informed Mr. Winthrop of his situation, and implored the interference of the English. Moreover, the summer of 1645 was a critical period in the history of Uneas. The regular meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies was to take place in September, but on account of the hostile bearing of the Narra- gansetts, and the consequent danger of Uneas, they assembled in an extra session at Boston, on the 28th of July. From their proceedings at this time, we learn that the Mohegan sachem had already been "divers times assaulted in his fort by a great army of the Narrohigansetts."
In the regular sequence of events, "about or before planting time," Tantaqueison, the Mohegan warrior that captured Miantonomoh, was assaulted and dangerously wounded by a lurking foe, that erept stealthily into his wigwam, as he lay asleep.
After this, and before the meeting of the Commissioners, in July, the Narragansetts "at several times openly invaded Uneas," and the colonies of New Haven and Connecticut sent a few soldiers to Mohegan for his defenee. Again, before the 11th of August, the Commissioners say that the enemy have made "a new assault upon Uneas, and have done him mueh hurt."
In another irruption made by Pessacus, the same year, the force of the Narragansetts, when compared with that of Uncas, was so overwhelming in point of numbers, that it is difficult to understand why the Mohegans were not entirely annihilated. Making a show of only forty men at a time, they drew the warriors of Uneas into an ambush, then suddenly rising, pursued them with arrows and bullets to the cover of their forts. But here the latter rallied, repulsed their assailants, and in the end drove them from their territory.
It was during this season, and while these sanguinary confliets were raging at Mohegan, that Winthrop, with his associate, Mr. Thomas Peters, arrived at Pequot harbor with a pioneer band, to lay out a plantation and make preparations for an immediate settlement. In the midst of their work, learning, probably from the fear-stricken fugitives that came down through the forests from Mohegan, that the Narragansetts were devasta- ting the fair fields of Uneas, they east aside the woodman's axe and the surveyor's chain, and hastened to the assistance of the sachem.
A letter from Mr. Peters to the elder Winthrop, at Boston, giving a brief but spirited description of the condition in which they found the Mohegans, has been preserved.
"I with your son were at Uncus fort where I dressed seventeen men and left plas- ters to dresse seventeen more who were wounded in Uncus brother's wigwam before we came. Two captains and one common soldier were buried, and since we came thence two captains and one common man more are dead also, most of which were wounded with bullets. Uncas and his brother told me, the Narragansetts had thirty guns which won them the day else they would not care a rush for them.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
They drew Uncus forces out by a wile, of forty appearing only, but one thousand in ambush, who pursued Uncns men into their own land where the battle was fought vario marte, till God put fresh spirit into the Moheagues, and so drave the Narragan- setts back again."*
It is evident that amid the multiplicity of attacks and sieges, and the numerous invasions of Mohegan during the long wars of Uncas and the Narragansetts, it would be a vain attempt to determine with nice precision the time when the adventurous Leffingwell appeared with his boat load of nutriment. It tallies best, however, as we have seen, with other historical facts to give it a place in this eventful year, and at an early period of the campaign, before Winthrop and Peters were well established at New London.
It is probable that Leffingwell was paid for his exploit, as far as expense was incurred, in the usual way of Indian traffic, with skins and wampum. Trumbull says, "For this service Uncas gave said Leffingwell a deed of great part if not the whole town of Norwich." There is, however, no such deed on record, and no allusion to any such deed in subsequent transactions ; nor does it appear afterwards, upon the settlement of the town, that Leffingwell received or claimed any larger share than the other proprietors.
In 1667 he petitioned the General Court to confirm to him a grant of land which Uncas had proffered him in recompense for services that he had rendered. His petition implies that he had heretofore received no special gratuity from the sachem. He says :
"Its not unknown to him and others what damage in my outward estate I have suf- fered by his men, and yet notwithstanding, when he and his people were famishing, being besieged by many enemies, I did afford him provition for their relief, although it was to the hazard of all my outward comforts, the enemy knowing what supply I had and did afford him ; upon these and such like reasons, Uncas hath several times offered me some land for my recompense and just satisfaction, and hath expressed the same to the Major, who is acquainted with the truth of these things, but order requireth me to propound the matter to your worshipful consideration, desiring your approbation of the way Uncas hath propounded for my satisfaction."t
The petition of Leffingwell was considered by the General Court, jointly with an application for land by Thomas Tracy, and a grant was made to the two of 400 acres, to be laid out on the "east side of Show- tuckett river," and equally divided between them. The land taken up by them in virtue of this grant lay beyond the bounds of Norwich.}
* Appendix to Savage's Winthrop, Vol. 2.
t Col. Rec. Conn., 2, 74.
# From the fact that Tracy shared with Leffingwell in this grant, the idea originated that he had been a partner with him in the relief of Uncas. But the inference is not necessary. Tracy was much employed in public affairs, and might obtain the grant in recompense for other services.
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HISTORY OF NORWICH.
This is all that has been found on record concerning the claim and compensation of Leffingwell. There is no evidence that he ever obtained from Uncas a deed of the town of Norwich, or a promise of it. What he did obtain in remuneration for certain services, was granted more than twenty years afterwards, and instead of being a sufficiency for a town, it was only 200 acres, and not even within the bounds of the Nine-miles- square. It was through the influence and agency of Mason, and not of Leffingwell, that the cession of Norwich was obtained of the Indian sachems.
For a period of fourteen years after these desperate fights at Mohegan, the mutual enmity of the Narragansetts and Mohegans continued without abatement, and other Indian tribes of less note, Podunks, Pecomticks, Nehanticks, were drawn into the quarrel. The results indeed were tri- fling. It was a system of marauding, skulking and assassination, rather than of legitimate warfare, but such a state of things rendered it hazard- ous for the English to advance the frontier and attempt new settlements in the Indian country. The utmost vigilance, prudence and bravery were for several years necessary to defend the points they had already assumed.
Through all this long succession of disputes and contests, the English of Connecticut, though ostensibly neutral, were the favorers and protectors of Uncas. Their timely assistance and the dread of their power alone prevented him and his tribe from falling a prey to the exasperation of their enemies. The plans of the Narragansetts were repeatedly discov- ered and their designs defeated by the planters in the neighborhood of the Mohegan villages. Mr. Jonathan Brewster had erected a trading-house in 1650, at Poquetannock on the east side of the river, opposite the prin- cipal settlement of the Mohegans, and in all the subsequent inroads of the Narragansetts, and of their allies, the Podunks and other Indians of Con- necticut river, he was the constant friend and adviser, though not the open ally and defender, of Uncas, the English neutrality forbidding any overt act of championship.
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