USA > Connecticut > New London County > Stonington > History of the town of Stonington, county of New London, Connecticut, from its first settlement in 1649 to 1900 with a genealogical register of stonington families > Part 18
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From Broadhead's Dutch history of New York, vol. i, page 238, we learn that the Dutch projected a trading-house to be located on the Connecticut River, in 1623, but it was not built till 1633, when the Dutch General Van Twiller dispatched John Van Culer, one of his commissaries, with six others, to finish the long projected fort on the Connecticut River and to obtain a formal deed of the tract of land previously selected by the Dutch for a fort and trading-house. One clan of the Mohegan tribe of Indians that migrated to Connecticut from the Hudson River adhered to the original tribal name of Mohegan, and at the time of the first settlement of this State was, under the sachemdom of a powerful leader, known as Uncas, who repeat- edly revolted against the power of the Pequot sachems,
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Wopigwooit and his son Sassacus, but could not release himself and clan from their authority.
His tribal lands were situated in what is now Montville, Conn., where his central wigwam village was located, the site of which still exists. The site of the fort purchased by Van Culer of the sachem of the Pequots, by the general consent of the Sequeen clan, was situated on the west bank of the Connecticut River, within the present limits of the city of Hartford, Conn., adjoining Little River on the north and the Connecticut River on the east. There was a condition in the agreement with the Pequots in the purchase of the land for the fort and trading-house, which appears in the deed of the same as follows: "That the said purchase was made with the free will and consent of the inhab- itants there; that the ceded territory, Sicajoock, should always be a central ground, where all the Indian tribes might resort for purposes of trade, and where no war should ever be waged." With the consent of the Pequot sachem and Magasitinne, chief of "Sloops Bay," it was also arranged that the chief of the Sequeens should thereafter live with the Dutch. This land was bought of the Pequots, as conquerors, with the good will and assent of the Sequeens. This deed was dated June 8th, 1633, and the trading-house and fort erected thereon was called "Good Hope."
Previous to the erection of the fort and trading-house, and as early as 1631, an Indian sachem visited the governors of Mas- sachusetts and Plymouth Colonies in the guise of a suppliant, calling himself Waquimacut, and described his tribal lands as a rich and beautiful valley occupied by his and kindred tribes, abounding in corn and game of all kinds and divided by a river called Connecticut. The governors gave him a courteous re- ception, but declined to enter into any arrangement with him relative to his assumed dominions. This sachem was doubtless a Tunxis Indian, who belonged to one of the clans of the original tribe of the Mohegans, and before the invasion of the Pequots occupied the territory now known as Windsor, Conn., from which he had been driven by the Pequots.
Whether the governors of Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies were aware of the successful invasions of the Con- necticut River valley by the Pequots does not appear. Be that as it may, Governor Winslow of the Plymouth Colony became
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interested in the story of the Tunxis sachem and sent some men to explore the Connecticut River region to learn the condition of the alluvial deposits on each side of the river, which are now known to be some of the richest meadows in New England. Governor Winslow was so well pleased with their explorations of the Connecticut valley that under the sanction of his Colonial magistrates, he decided to establish and build a trading-house near the mouth of the Tunxis River, in what is now known as Windsor, Conn., in defiance of the Dutch at Fort "Good Hope," some six miles below the site of the contemplated Plymouth trading-house.
In October, 1633, Gov. Winslow selected William Holmes to build the Plymouth trading-house at Windsor. So with the frame of this trading-house and all the requisite materials for its erection and with his commission in his pocket, Holmes set sail for the Connecticut River, which he entered and ascended without meeting with any opposition until he arrived at the Dutch fort at Hartford, when he was threatened with dire vengeance by them, which he disregarded and sailed on to his destination, where he erected his trading-house and palisaded it.
The Tunxis sachem, who had visited Massachusetts and Plymouth with some of the chiefs of the river clans, had been driven away from their tribal lands by the Pequots. It appears that Holmes had brought back to Windsor with him in his vessel some of the chiefs of these river clans, of whom he pur- chased such land as he found requisite for carrying out his plans. This aggravated and enraged the Pequot sachems, inciting them to acts of violence against the English traders.
Capt. Stone, one of the fur traders on our New England coast, on his way from Boston to Virginia in 1634, entered the mouth of the Connecticut River, for the purpose of trading at the Dutch fort, and while on his way up the river was treach- erously murdered by the Pequots.
The massacre of Capt. Stone and his comrades was followed soon afterward by the killing of some friendly Sequeen Indians, who had come to the Dutch fort to trade, relying on the conditional covenants of the Pequot deed of the Dutch Good Hope trading fort.
This massacre was ordered done by Wopigwooit, the chief sachem of the Pequots at the time. Commissary Van Culer
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with his soldiers punished the treacherous savages by slaying the old Sachem Wopigwooit, alias Wapyquart, and several of his associate assassins.
This excited and angered the Pequots to such an extent that they commenced and prosecuted an unrelenting war with the Dutch, and all pale faces that they caught in their assumed dominions.
At first they sought an alliance with the English of the Massachusetts Colony, for the purpose of diverting all the fur trade of the New England coast from the Dutch and giving it to the English traders .. To effect their purpose they negotiated a treaty with the Governor and Magistrates of Massachusetts, by which the Pequots agreed to surrender the murderers of Capt. Stone and his party, giving them also all of their right and title in the Connecticut River and adjoining valley, on condition that they would give all their trade to the Pequots. This treaty was in direct contravention with the claims of the Dutch, derived from their assumed discoveries and conveyances from the Pequots. To recover which, the Dutch sent a strong force to dislodge Capt. Holmes and his men from their trading-house at Windsor, Conn.
Meeting with unexpected resistance, the Dutch force did not attempt to reduce the palisaded fort there, and thus ended all of their efforts to hold by force any trading place on the Con- necticut River.
But Capt. Holmes soon found difficulties beginning to thicken around him. The sachems of the river tribes, who had been driven away from their territories by the Pequots, and had been brought by him in his vessel and of whom he had purchased such land as he found requisite for carrying out his enterprise, enraged the Pequots, who claimed that such sachems and their clans were tributary to them and were being restored by the English to their former tribal lands on the Connecticut River, which incited them to acts of violence against the English traders. The Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies generally regarded the treaty with the Pequots as opening up the rich and fertile valley of the Connecticut alluvial lands to their migration and settlement there. Some of the colonists, however, doubted the validity of their title and appealed to the English courts for a solution of the matter.
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Pending the consideration thereof, the Pequots, doubtless apprehending the motives of the English and treacherously disregarding their treaty obligations with the colonists, com- menced the massacre of the English and Dutch indiscriminately, and when reminded of their treaty obligations responded by saying that they could not tell the difference between the Dutch and English, as they were all pale faces.
During the years of 1634 and 1635, the Pequots sought every available opportunity to murder every Englishman whom they could find alone or so situated as to be unable to defend himself.
In 1635 the migration overland of the English colonists from Dorchester, Mass., to Windsor, Conn., took place. The towns of Hartford and Wethersfield were settled about the same time.
The atrocious and inhuman murder of the English by the Pequots aroused the Massachusetts and Plymouth authorities to a sense of their duty, as well as their own safety, to put a stop by force to such atrocities and inflict if possible adequate punishment upon the assassins.
So in 1636, they sent General Endicott with ninety men with full power and authority to deal with the Pequots as their treacherous and inhuman conduct demanded. Endicott's ex- pedition resulted in the destruction of a good deal of the property of the Indians, but no decisive results as to the protection of the English from the murderous assaults of the Pequots was attained or secured thereby. The settlement of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, with a General Court organized and acting independent of Massachusetts authority, with deputies thereto elected by said towns, and so terrible and ferocious had the Pequots become and the victims of their atrocities so numerous that the Connecticut General Court when assembled in May, 1637, declared war against the Pequots, and passed an act to raise ninety men, forty-two from Hartford, thirty from Windsor and eighteen from Wethersfield, and appointed Capt. John Mason, of Windsor, commander of the expedition.
The soldiers were enlisted, equipped and provisioned in ten days, and sailed from Hartford May 10th, 1637, accompanied by Uncas and seventy friendly Mohegan Indians. The fleet con- sisted of three vessels and the English being unacquainted with the navigation of the river ran their vessel aground several times, and after five days they reached Saybrook fort. Capt. Underhill
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with his detachment of Massachusetts soldiers then at the fort, tendered his services with nineteen men for the expedition, on condition that Capt. Lyon Gardner, the commander of the fort, would consent, which was readily granted.
Capt. Mason then sent back twenty of his men to guard the well nigh defenseless settlements during his absence. After some delay, caused by adverse winds, and after a council of war, Capt. Mason says: "On Friday morning we set sail for Narragansett Bay, and on Saturday towards evening we arrived at our desired port ; then we kept the Sabbath. On the Monday following the wind blew so hard at the northwest that we could not go on shore, so also on Tuesday until sunset," at which time Mason landed and marched up to the place of the chief sachem's residence and told him that "we had not an opportunity to acquaint him with our coming around into his country sooner, yet not doubting but it would be well accepted by him, there being love between himself and us, well knowing also that the Pequots and themselves were enemies, and that he could not be acquainted with those intolerable wrongs and injuries that the Pequots had lately done unto the English, and that we were now come, God assisting us, to avenge ourselves upon them, and that we did only desire free passage through his country." He returned us this answer, "That he did accept of our coming and did approve of our design, only he thought our numbers were too weak to deal with the enemy, who were great captains and men skilled in war, thus he spoke somewhat slightingly of us."
Canonicus' wigwam was situated near Wickford harbor or landing place in Rhode Island, and he was the chief sachem of the Narragansett Indians at the time. This was the opinion of the late Hon. Elisha R. Potter, who in his day was the best in- formed Indian historian of Rhode Island. Mason was undoubt- edly piloted to or as near Canonicus' residence as he could go with his fleet by Uncas, with whom Mason desired an interview to explain his coming with armed men into his dominions, as it might be regarded by him as a cause for war, unexplained.
Mason adds to his history of the Pequot war the following : "On Wednesday morning we marched from Canonicus' resi- dence to a place called Niantic, it being about eighteen or twenty miles distant, where another of these Narragansett
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sachems lived in a fort, it being a frontier of the Pequots. They did not carry themselves very friendly towards us, not per- mitting any of us to come into their fort. We beholding their carriage, and the falsehood of Indians, and fearing lest they might discover us to the enemy, especially they having many times some of their near relations among their greatest foes, we therefore caused a strong guard to be set about their fort, giving charge that no Indian should be suffered to pass in or out. We also informed the Indians that none of them should stir out of the fort, upon peril of their lives, so as we would not suffer any of them to go out of the fort." Continuing, Capt. Mason says: "That we quartered that night, the Indians not offering to stir out all the while. In the morning there came to us several of Miantonomo's men, who told us they had come to assist us in our expedition, which encouraged diverse Indians of that place to engage also, who suddenly gathering into a ring one by one, making solemn protestations how gallantly they would demean themselves and how many men they would kill. On Thursday about eight of the clock in the morning, we marched thence towards Pequot, with about five hundred In- dians. But, through the heat of the weather and want of provisions some of our men fainted, and having marched about twelve miles came to Pawcatuck River at a ford where our Indians told us the Pequots did usually fish ; there making a halt we stayed some small time."
An affidavit on our old Stonington land records shows that Miantonomo and Ninigret, sachems of the Narragansett and Niantic tribes, were with Capt. Mason and his friendly Mohegans when they reached Wecapaug, five miles east of Pawcatuck River. But evidently these sachems with a large part of the Indian allies, left Capt. Mason before he reached Pawcatuck River. Uncas renewed his friendship and assurances of assist- ance to Capt. Mason, and faithfully kept his declarations. After Mason and his soldiers and friendly Indians had refreshed them- selves with their rations, they marched to Westerly, about three miles, and came to a field which had lately been planted with Indian corn, where he made another halt and called his council of war, supposing that they drew near the enemy. Mason in his narrative says :
"And being informed by the Indians that the enemy had two
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forts almost impregnable, but we were not at all discouraged, but rather animated in so much that we were resolved to assault both forts at once. But understanding that one of them was so remote that we could not come up with it before midnight, though we marched hard, whereat we were much grieved, chiefly because the greatest and bloodiest sachem there resided, whose name was Sassacus, we were constrained, being exceedingly spent in our march with extreme heat and want of necessaries, to accept the nearest." Continuing, Mason says :
"We then marching on in a silent manner, the Indians that remained fell all into the rear, who formerly kept the van (being possessed with great fear), we continued our march till about one hour in the night and coming to a little swamp between two hills, there we pitched our little camp, much wearied with hard travel, keeping great silence, supposing we were very near the fort, as our Indians informed us, which proved otherwise. The rocks (now known as 'Porter's Rocks') were our pillows, yet rest was pleasant, the night proved comfortable, being clear and moonlight. We appointed our guard and placed our sen- tinels at some distance, who heard the enemy singing at the fort, who continued that strain until midnight with great in- sulting and rejoicing as we were afterwards informed; they seeing our pinnaces sail by them some days before, concluded we were afraid of them, and durst not come near them, the burthen of their song tending to that purpose. In the morning, we awaking, and seeing it very light, supposing it had been day, and so we might have lost our opportunity, having purposed to make our assault before day, roused the men with all ex- pedition and briefly commending ourselves and designs to God, thinking immediately to go to the assault, the Indians showing us a path, told us that it led directly to the fort. We held on our march about two miles, wondering that we came not to the fort, and fearing we might be deluded, but seeing corn newly planted at the foot of a great hill, supposing the fort was not far off, a champion country being round about us, there making a stand, gave the word for some of the Indians to come up.
"At length Uncas and one Wequash appeared. We demanded of them where was the fort? They answered: 'On the top of that hill.' Then we demanded: 'Where was the rest of the In- dians?' They answered: 'Behind, exceedingly afraid.' We wished them to tell the rest of their fellows that they should
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by no means fly, but stand at what distance they pleased and see whether Englishmen would now fight or not.
"Then Capt. Underhill came up, who marched in the rear and commending ourselves to God, divided our men. There being two entrances into the fort, intending to enter both at once, Capt. Mason leading up to that on the northeast side, who, approaching within one rod, heard a dog bark and an Indian crying out 'Owanox,' Owanox,' which is Englishmen, Englishmen. We called up our forces with all expedition and gave fire upon them through the palisades, the Indians being in a dead, indeed their last sleep. Then wheeling off, fell upon the main entrance, which was blocked up with bushes about breast high, over which Capt. Mason passed, intending to make good the entrance, encouraging the rest to follow.
"Lieut. Seeley endeavored to enter, but being encumbered somewhat, stepped back and pulled out the bushes, and so en- tered with sixteen men. We had formerly concluded to destroy them by the sword and save the plunder, whereupon Capt, Mason, seeing no Indians, entered a wigwam, when he was beset with many Indians, watching an opportunity to lay hands on him, but could not prevail. At length William Hayden, espying the breach in the wigwam, supposing some English might be there, entered, but on his entrance fell over a dead Indian, but speedily recovering himself; some of the Indians fled, others crept under their beds. The captain, going out of the wigwam, saw some Indians in the lane or streets and he marching towards them they fled and were pursued to the end of the lane, where they were met by Edward Pattison, Thomas Barber and some others, when seven of them were slain as they said. The captain, facing about, marched at a slow pace up the lane. He came down feeling himself very much out of breath and coming to the other end, near the place where he first entered, saw two soldiers, standing close to the palisades with their swords pointing to the ground. The captain said that we should never kill them after that manner, but said we must burn them and immediately stepping into the wigwam, where he had been before, brought out a fire-brand and putting it into the mats with which the wigwams were covered set them on fire. Lieut. Thomas Bull and Nicholas Olmstead, beholding, came up and when it was thoroughly kindled the Indians ran
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as men most dreadfully amazed. And indeed such a dreadful terror did the Almighty let fall upon their spirits that they would fly from us and run into the very flames, where many of them perished, and when the fort was thoroughly fired, command was given that all should fall off and surround the fort, which was readily attended by all, only one, Arthur Smith, being so wounded that he could not move out of the place, but he was happily espied by Lieut. Bull and by him removed and rescued.
"The fire was kindled on the northeast side to windward, which did swiftly overrun the fort to the extreme amazement of the enemy and great enjoyment of ourselves, some of them climbing to the top of the palisades, others of them running into the very flames, many of them gathering to windward, lay pelting at us with their arrows, and we repaid them with small shot. Others of the stoutest issued forth as we did guess to the number of forty, who perished by the sword. What I have formerly said is according to my own knowledge, there being sufficient living testimony to every particular. But in reference to Capt. Underhill, and his party acting in the assault, I can only intimate as we were informed by some of themselves.
"Immediately after the fight, then they marching up to the entrance on the southwest side of the fort, there made some pause, a valiant, resolute gentleman, one Mr. Hedge, stepping towards the gate, saying, 'If we may not enter, whereupon came we here,' and immediately endeavored to enter, but was opposed by a sturdy Indian who did impede his entrance, but the Indian being slain by himself and Sergeant Davis, Mr. Hedge then entered the fort with some others, but the fort being on fire the smoke and flames were so violent that they were constrained to desert the fort."
Capt. Mason in his history of the fight says nothing of the size of the fort, which has been described by some others as containing from ten to fifteen acres of land. G. H. Hollister, in his history of Connecticut, estimates the area of the fort at twenty acres within the palisades surrounding it. This esti- mate is far too great, for the charcoal of the palisades that were burned, did not assimilate with the soil in which they stood, and when the site of the fort was plowed up and cultivated by the colonists, the charcoal appeared very plain, showing that
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the fort was round, and did not contain over one and one-half acres of land.
Mr. Hollister also says: "That the area of the fort was suf- ficient to afford room for a large Indian village with more than twenty houses with adequate lanes and streets." He and several other historians claim that the houses in the fort were the homes for all the women and children of the Indians who gar- risoned it, all of whom perished in the conflagration that destroyed the fort. Mason does not say anything about women or children in the fort, nor is it probable, when we consider the size of the fort and the number of Indians that it contained and the purpose for which it was built, that any of their women and children made it their home, nor does Mason in his history thereof say anything about the houses it contained. He speaks of a wigwam which he entered at first and later to get a fire- brand to burn their wigwams, which as he says was covered with mats. His object in burning their wigwams doubtless was to drive the Indians from their hiding places in and about their wigwams, so as to bring them out into a fair open hand to hand fight. Mr. Hollister in his history greatly overestimates the area of the fort and the number of the Indians there.
The Pequots had two wigwam villages, which were known to the New England colonists before the Pequot war. Their fort was not built for the purpose of enclosing and protecting an Indian wigwam village, nor was the Pequot fort on Groton hill, where Sassacus and some of his warriors bivouacked at the time when the fort on Mystic hill was destroyed, built for any such purpose. They were evidently built by the Pequots to enable them to resist and prevent the Narragansetts and Niantics from invading their tribal lands, from which the Pequots had previously driven them for the purpose of regaining possession thereof. The wigwams of which Mason speaks were mainly designed for barracks for the Indians to occupy when they occupied the fort for its defense. Mason also says in his history of the Pequot war, that the Pequots knew of his contemplated invasion of their tribal lands and had seen his vessels when they sailed by for Narragansett Bay, and felt assured that the English were afraid of them. Doubtless being apprehensive of an attack from the east, they gathered all of their warriors into their forts so as to resist and defeat the English if they attempted to attack
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them there, showing conclusively that these forts were built for war purposes and not for the protection of their wigwam vil- lages. Wigwams for Indian families to occupy were not generally clustered into villages, but were more frequently erected near their cultivated lands for the convenience of their women, who did all the work of cultivation of all sorts, while the men were roaming on hunting excursions, or training and drilling as warriors for war purposes. Mason gives the casual- ties of the Pequot fight as follows: "There were two of his soldiers killed outright and about twenty wounded," adding that some fainted by reason of the sharpness of the weather and small comforts and necessaries as were needful in such a case, especially his surgeon was much needed, whom he had left with his bark in Narragansett Bay, who had orders there to remain until the night before the intended assault, adding that thereupon grew many difficulties : "Our provisions and munitions of war were spent, we were in the enemies' country, who did far exceed our numbers, being much enraged and nearly all of our Indians, except Uncas, deserting us; our pinnaces at a great distance from us and when they would come we were uncertain. But as we were consulting what course to take it pleased God to dis- cover our vessels to us before a fair gale of wind, sailing into Pequot Harbor to our great rejoicing. We had no sooner dis- covered our vessels, but immediately came up the enemy from the other fort, three hundred or more as we conceived. The cap- tain led a file or two of men to skirmish with them, chiefly to try what temper they were of, who put them to a standstill, we being much encouraged thereat, whereupon we presently prepared to march towards our vessels. Four or five of our men were so severely wounded that they had to be carried by our men, we being also faint, were constrained to put four of our men to each one of the four or five men who were dangerously wounded, so that we had not above forty men free. At length we hired several of our friendly Indians to carry our disabled wounded men, which eased us of that burthen and after marching about one quarter of a mile, the enemy coming up to the place where the fort was and beholding what was done there stamped and tore the hair from their heads and after a little space came mounting down the hill upon us in a full career as if they would run over us, but when they came within shot, the rear faced
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