USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from its earliest settlement to the present time. Ed. by W. H. Carpenter and T. S. Arthur > Part 4
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CANNIBALISM.
1637.]
striving to form an Indian confederation against the whites, they voted for the raising of ninety men to attack them in their strongholds. To this undertaking Hartford contributed forty- two men, Windsor twenty, and Wethersfield eighteen. Stone was appointed chaplain of the expedition ; and John Mason, a trained and ex- perienced soldier, received from Hooker, with solemn ceremony and prayer, the staff of com- mand.
After spending the previous night in religious exercises, on the morning of Wednesday, the 11th of May, the little army, joined by sixty Mohegans under Uncas, embarked at Hartford in three vessels, and dropped slowly down the river to Fort Saybrook, where they arrived on the Monday following. Much anxiety was now entertained as to the faithfulness of their Indian allies, who, weary of the voyage from Hartford, had been set ashore at their own request. But all fears on this point were presently dispelled, by the Mohegans coming in with five Pequod scalps and a prisoner. This prisoner Un insisted upon sacrificing, according to the custom of his tribe; and, though loath to do so, the English were compelled by policy to yield to his demand. A horrible scene of cruelty and can- nibalism now ensued. Torn limb from limb, the miserable savage was devoured piecemeal by his captors.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1637.
Detained at Saybrook by contrary winds, the leaders of the expedition discussed meanwhile the proper plan of attack. Mason was for taking a circuitous route through the Narraganset country, and thus falling upon the Pequods from an unexpected quarter ; but most of his officers thought it best to follow their instructions, and proceed directly to the mouth of the Thames. According to the custom of the times, Stone, at the request of the friends of both plans, passed nearly all Thursday night in prayer, importuning God for direction. On the following morning Mason's officers yielded ; and, a fair wind offer- ing, the troops embarked for Narraganset Bay, with Underhill and his twenty men in company.
Sunday was spent at Wickford harbour in re- ligious services. On Monday, the 22d, the cap- tains of the expedition repaired to the court of Canonicus ; with whom, and the young chief Miantonimo, a council was held, at which two hundred Narraganset warriors attended. «Your design is good," said Miantonimo ; "but your numbers are too weak to brave the Pequods, who have mighty chieftains, and are skilful in battle." Nearly two hundred of his warriors, however, subsequently joined the expedition ; and these, with others who presently enlisted with the English, swelled the number of Mason's Indian allies to about five hundred.
Directing his little fleet to repair to the
57
ATTACK ON FORT MISTIC.
1637.]
Thames, Mason, guided by a friendly Pequod, urged his march across the wilderness toward the enemy's strongholds. There were two forts, or stockaded villages, a short distance east of the Thames. Having arrived within nine miles of the principal fort, which Sassacus, the great sachem, commanded in person, Mason signified his intention to assault both villages at once. Panic-stricken, one-third of his auxiliaries imme- diately withdrew from the enterprise. Thus de- serted, and finding his men wellnigh wearied out with marching, the English captain changed his plan, and proceeded to the nearest fort at Mistic, situated on a commanding eminence not far from the seashore.
Woquash, the guide, proved faithful. About dusk in the evening of May the 25th, the Eng- lish pitched their camp in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the Indian stockade. Having seen Mason's fleet sail by a few days previous, the Pequods, supposing that he did not dare to assail them, had given themselves up to feasts and re- joicings. Their songs of exultation were dis- tinctly heard during the night. Toward morn- ing, however, the sound of these died away. The unsuspecting savages were buried in profound sleep.
An hour or so before dawn, favoured by the light of an unclouded moon, the English, led by Mason and Underhill, and followed reluctantly
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
[1637.
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. by their auxiliaries, marched in two divisions to the assault. As Mason was about entering the fort, a dog barked. Immediately an Indian cried out, "English ! English !" Rallying in an in- stant, the startled savages sought to repel their assailants by pouring upon them through the palisades a continuous discharge of arrows ; but the deadly fire of the English musketry soon drove them back into the shelter of their enclosed wigwams. Pausing a moment for breath, the assailants rushed in. A fierce hand to hand conflict ensued. With despairing valour, the Pequods strove to repel the steel-clad men of Connecticut; but their clubs and arrows were of little avail. Yet their numbers and courage retarded victory. Seeing some of his men fall wounded, and knowing that the rest were faint with fatigue, Mason, to shorten the fight, seized a burning brand and threw it among the light mats with which the Indian cabins were covered. While, with inconceivable rapidity, the flames spread from wigwam to wigwam, the assailants, forming in two lines around the devoted fort, prepared to put all to death who might attempt to escape. Pierced with bullets as they essayed to clamber over the palisades, and hacked to pieces, when they succeeded, by the broadswords of those without, the despairing Pequods would rush madly into their burning wigwams and there perish miserably.
59
SLAUGHTER OF THE PEQUODS.
1637.]
X
For more than an hour the work of massacre went on without cessation. No mercy was shown ; not even to the old men, to the women, or to the little children. At length, as day was dawning, the roar of the conflagration and the horrid shrieks and yells of the savages, growing faint and fainter, finally ceased, and the victors entered the fortress they had filled with carnage and desolation. "Great and doleful," writes Underhill-« great and doleful was the bloody sight, to see so many souls lie gasping on the ground, so thick you could hardly pass along." Of six hundred Indians, men, women, and chil- dren, but seven escaped, and but seven were made prisoners.
Of the English, only two were killed. Some twenty, however-a fourth part of their number -had received wounds more or less severe. Exhausted, without water, and in the midst of an alarmed and hostile country, their position was one of peril. Three hundred Pequod warriors were already marching upon them, from the village of Sassacus. But, as the sun uprose, Mason's anxiety was relieved; for at a distance he descried his own vessels, with that bearing Patrick and the Massachusetts men, entering the Thames. Sending his wounded forward to the fleet, he prepared to follow. As he left the scene of victory, the Pequods came in sight. Fearful was the outburst of their horror and
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
[1637.
rage, when they beheld the blackening embers of their village, and the disfigured, half-consumed bodies of so many of their kindred. Stamping upon the ground, rending their hair, and yelling hideously, they rushed after the destroyers, blind to every thing but vengeance. Driving back their furious onslaught with successive and deadly volleys of musketry, Mason conducted a safe re- treat to the river. Placing his wounded on ship- board, he himself, with twenty men, crossed the wilderness to Saybrook, where he was "nobly entertained with many great guns."
Having burned their remaining fortress, the Pequods fled to the shelter of tangled thickets and almost inaccessible swamps. But, late in June, Captain Stoughton arrived with the main body of the Massachusetts forces. The colonists had determined to cut off completely a people, who, in the quaint language of the day, " were thorns in their eyes, and slashing scourges in their sides." In prosecuting this work, Stough- ton, being joined by forty Connecticut men under Mason, surrounded about a hundred savages in a swamp, and captured them. The males, thirty in number, were slain ; of the remaining women and children, some were given to the Narraganset auxiliaries, and not a few distributed as slaves among the Massachusetts colonists.
Two sachems, however, had been saved from slaughter, to act as guides in the pursuit of
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1637.] PURSUIT OF THE PEQUODS.
Sassacus, who, with many warriors, was endea- vouring to escape to the Hudson. But, during the march, finding that no information could be obtained from these chiefs, Stoughton had them beheaded at a place since called Sachem-Head, in the present town of Guilford. Soon afterward, about three hundred of the flying Pequods were discovered in a swamp, at no great distance from what is now the city of New Haven. Here they were surrounded, and attacked as vigorously as the tangled and miry condition of the ground would permit. Many friendly Indians having fled panic-stricken into the swamp, a parley was presently had, and life offered to all "whose hands were not in English blood." Some two hundred, mostly old men, women, and children, tremblingly accepted of this offer ; but nearly a hundred warriors boldly declared that they would die fighting, rather than surrender and be slaves. The battle then commenced again, and lasted until nightfall; the English meanwhile gradu- ally narrowing the circle in which they had enclosed the enemy. At dark they set their watches, and prepared to end the fight early the next day. But toward morning a dense fog arose, under cover of which the Pequod warriors, falling in a mass upon a weak part of the assail- ing line, broke through, and of about ninety all, excepting eighteen slain in the struggle, effected their escape.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1637.
With this event the war virtually closed. Sassacus, the Pequod king, being presently killed by the Mohawks, to whose protection he had fled, most of the troops were disbanded. During the fall, however, the work of extermina- tion was prosecuted diligently by the Indian auxiliaries, who followed, like bloodhounds, upon the track of the scattered remnants of the un- fortunate Pequods. The heads and hands of numbers thus hunted out and killed, were brought into Hartford and Windsor. Many were taken prisoners, and sent to the West Indies to be sold as slaves. Thus harassed, most of the survivors, about two hundred, exclusive of women and children, came in their despair to Hartford, and surrendered themselves to the pleasure of the colonists. Being incorporated with the Narra- gansets and Mohegans, they were forbidden to inhabit their own country, or to call themselves Pequods, and subjected, besides, to an annual tribute. Nationally, and almost individually, a people once numerous and powerful had ceased to exist.
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63
EFFECTS OF THE WAR.
1637.]
CHAPTER IV.
Effect of the war on the Indians-Subsequent distress of the colonists-First public tax levied-Settlement of New Haven as an independent colony-Plantation covenant-Lands purchased from the natives-City of New Haven laid out- Planters of Connecticut frame a constitution-Its liberal character-First assembly meets-John Haynes governor- Primary code of laws enacted-Town of Saybrook founded -Proceedings of the constitutional convention of New Haven-Scriptural character of the constitution framed by it-Eaton governor of New Haven-Davenport's charge to the governor-New towns planted-Connecticut colony's difficulty with Sequeen, sachem of the River Indians-Singu- lar decision of the Massachusetts elders-Expedition against the Pequods-Hopkins governor-New towns planted-Go- vernor of New Netherlands complains of English encroach- ments-New Haven sends out colonists to the Delaware- They commence settlements there-Dutch governor protests -Sends troops to destroy the new plantations-Complete success of the expedition-New Haven remonstrates-Second code of laws in Connecticut.
Two years after the close of the war with the Pequods, when some three hundred members of that tribe, having ventured to re-enter their ancient hunting-grounds, were confronted by a small party of Connecticut people, under Mason, they declared that they would not fight the Eng- lish-" for they were not men, but spirits." Such was the feeling of superstitious terror with which not only the Pequods, but all the savages of New
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
[1638.
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England, had been inspired by the fierce energy and stern daring exhibited by the colonists in the late brief but sanguinary contest. It was owing to the prevalence of this feeling, that, for so many years afterward, no serious Indian war disturbed the quiet of the settlements. In the prospect of such a period of peace, the New England churches set apart a day for general thanksgiving.
The winter following was one of extreme se- verity. From the first of November until the last of March the country was covered with snow-in many places to the thickness of three and four feet. During this hard season, the Con- necticut settlers experienced the most serious evil that resulted from the war. So many of them having been called away during the plant- ing season, their crops fell short. Corn became scarce, and the price of it rose to an extraordi- nary height. But having struggled through the winter, the colonists, early in the spring of 1638, were relieved from their distress by obtaining fifty canoe loads of corn from the Indians inha- biting what is now the town of Deerfield in Massachusetts. Previous to this, early in Febru- ary, the general court levied the first public tax -five hundred and fifty pounds-to defray the expenses of the war. Reorganizing the militia, they presently appointed Mason major-general, with a salary of forty pounds a year. Laws
65
QUINNIPIACK SETTLED.
1638.]
were also enacted to punish all persons who should in any way infringe upon the rights of the Indians.
In the mean time preparations had been made to establish a second colony in Connecticut. The numerous and opulent company engaged in this undertaking had arrived at Boston, in the summer of 1637, under the chief direction of Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, both persons of worth and ability, and possessed of extensive means. John Davenport, a Puritan divine of London, eminent for sanctity and learning, accompanied the emigrants as their spiritual guide.
Hoping to retain in their midst a company so pious and wealthy, the Massachusetts people offered them very advantageous settlements there. But, liking not the heterodox opinions at this time rife in Massachusetts, Davenport and his flock determined to remove by themselves, and plant an independent colony.
Accordingly, having selected, during the pre- vious fall, a place for settlement at Quinnipiack, near the head of a large bay on the coast west of the Connecticut, where a few of their number spent the winter, Eaton and his friends, late in March, 1638, embarked thither, and, after a fortnight's voyage, safely reached the scene of their contemplated labours. On the Sabbath following, April the 18th, Davenport preached
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1638.
his first sermon under the still leafless branches of a spreading oak. Soon afterward a day of fasting and prayer was set apart, at the close of which the colonists formed what they called a " plantation covenant ;" binding themselves "to be ordered," in civil as well as in religious mat- ters, "by the rules which the Scriptures held forth to them."
After a wet and gloomy spring, during which their corn had to be planted two, and, in some instances, three times, a delightful summer shone upon the labours of the Quinnipiack colonists, freeing them, as well as their neighbours on the Connecticut, from serious apprehensions of a winter of scarcity.
Late in November a council was held with : Momauquin, sachem of the few resident Indians. Having "tasted the protection of the English" during the previous autumn, when sorely pressed by the Mohawks and Pequods, Momauquin be- stowed upon Eaton and his company all the lands of Quinnipiack ; covenanting, at the same time, not to disturb the colonists, and to keep true faith with them in every respect. On their part, the English promised the Indians their further protection, and lands enough for them to plant on at Quinnipiack; and, "by way of free and thankful retribution," they presented Momauquin, and the warriors his attendants, with twelve English coats, "twelve alchymy
67
NEW HAVEN SETTLED.
1639.]
spoons," a number of hoes and hatchets, and four cases of French cutlery. A few days after- ward, a second tract, north of Quinnipiack, and containing one hundred and thirty square miles, was bought for thirteen coats ; the Indians being allowed planting-grounds, and liberty to hunt upon the lands.
Having thus secured a considerable territory, the colonists proceeded to lay out, in regular and spacious squares, the ground-plan of the present beautiful city of New Haven.
Finding themselves without the limits of the Massachusetts patent, the free planters of the three Connecticut towns assembled at Hartford, on the 14th of January, 1639, and adopted a written constitution, of unexampled liberality, and one which their descendants have as yet de- viated from in no essential particular. All re- sidents of good character, whether church mem- bers or not, might be admitted freemen. A governor, with six assistants or magistrates, and a house of deputies, were to compose the general court or assembly, with power to enact laws for the government of the colony, and to make ju- dicial decisions. This court was to meet annual- ly in September ; but, if there was urgent occa- sion, it might be summoned oftener by the governor and magistrates, or even by the town constables, if the governor and magistrates re- fused to convoke it in compliance with the wishes
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1639
of the colonists. Upon the house of deputies, which was clothed with the full voice and author- ity of all the freemen, devolved the election of the governor, the magistrates, and other colonial officers. For this purpose the house was to meet annually, in April. The governor, who had a casting vote, was to be chosen from among the magistrates, could not be elected for two years in succession, and was required to be a church member. The number of deputies from each town was to be in proportion to its population. Taxes could be levied only by committees, nu- merically equal, from all of the towns.
In April, the first house of deputies under this constitution assembled at Hartford. John Haynes was chosen governor. Ludlow, one of the six magistrates elected at the same time, acted as deputy-governor ; while Hopkins, who had settled at Hartford, and was also a magis- trate, received the post of colonial secretary. All these officers appear to have served gratui- tously ; and it was not until 1648, that a law was passed granting the governor and his deputy a yearly salary of thirty pounds each.
Having assembled in October following, the general court enacted a code of laws, any de- ficiencies in which were to be supplied " by some clear and plain rule of the word of God." Du- ring this session, each town was vested with au- thority to create two courts ; one for the decision
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NEW TOWNS LAID OUT.
1639.]
of minor cases of debt and trespass, and the other, called the " particular court," was to have a jurisdiction similar to that of the present county and superior courts, though with rather extensive discretionary powers.
Meanwhile two new towns had been planted under the jurisdiction of Connecticut: Fairfield, by eight or ten families from Windsor, headed by the restless Ludlow, who had become ac- quainted with the country while pursuing the Pequods ; and Stratford, by a number of settlers from Roxbury and Concord in Massachusetts.
Fort Saybrook, and the lands in its vicinity, still remained with the English proprietors, some of whom yet contemplated removing there, and founding a colony. With this design, about midsummer, arrived George Fenwick and his amiable wife, accompanied by their own family and several others. By these the town of Saybrook was laid out, with regular streets and extensive squares, as for a great commercial city.
In the mean time, having received large acces- sions, the free planters of New Haven deter- mined to model a more perfect form of go- vernment than the plantation covenant, under which they had lived for more than a year. Aş- sembling for this purpose in a large barn at Quinnipiack, on the 4th of June, 1639, they were addressed by Davenport in a sermon, on
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1639.
the text from Proverbs : " Wisdom has builded her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars." The church, which is the house of God-such was the pith of the preacher's remarks-should rest upon seven pillars, or principal brethren, and to these must all succeeding members be added. Solemn prayer followed the sermon. Then, having directed their attention to the greatness and importance of their undertaking, Davenport propounded to the assembly many questions, upon which were framed resolutions-
" That the Scriptures are a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men.
" That, as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, so, likewise, in all concerning civil order, they would be go- verned by that rule.
" That all those who had desired to settle in the plantation as freemen, had done so with the purpose and desire that they might be admitted into church fellowship.
" That all the free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves and their pos- terity.
" That church members only should be free burgesses ; and that they only should choose magistrates among themselves, to have power of
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4
EATON ELECTED GOVERNOR.
1639.]
transacting all the public civil affairs of the plantation."
It now became necessary to organize a church, . without which there could be neither freemen nor magistrates. Proceeding with great care, the assembly selected a committee of twelve, with power to designate seven of their own num- ber as the pillars of the congregation. These seven were to be intrusted with the sole author- ity to admit others to church membership.
After mature deliberation, Eaton, Davenport, and five others, were designated by the com- mittee. Convening on the 25th of October, after solemn prayer, the " seven pillars" declar- ed every previous executive trust to be utterly abrogated. All church members were then ad- mitted into the court.
A body of freemen being thus provided, Da- venport expounded to them, "from the sacred oracles," the character of civil magistrates. Then followed an election for governor and ma- gistrates ; Eaton being chosen for the former office, to which he was annually re-elected till his death, in 1657.
After the elections were concluded, Davenport, rising up in open court, turned toward the new governor, and charged him in the words of Moses to Israel :-
" Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. [1639.
brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great : ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it."
After this a court of election was established, to meet annually in the last week of October. Then it was decreed « that God's word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of govern- ment in the commonwealth." There being no authority for it in the Scriptures, trial by jury was not sanctioned.
To the new commonwealth thus constituted, two new towns were added during the year. Driven away by discords in the church, several Wethersfield families came down to the seacoast, where they bought lands from the natives, and planted the town of Milford; which, as the In- dians were numerous in that neighbourhood, they encircled with nearly a mile of palisades. About the same time, a large company of farmers, from Surrey and Kent counties in England, began to build up the town of Guilford, on the extensive meadows halfway between New Haven and the Connecticut. In both these settlements the form of government was modelled after that of New Haven.
While the two Connecticut colonies were thus
73
CURIOUS DECISION.
1640.7
prospering, their people had not been without occasions for anxiety. With Sequeen, the sa- chem who had brought the Pequods upon We- thersfield, a difficulty arose in regard to that affair, which nearly led to a war with the River Indians. But the case being referred to the elders and magistrates of Massachusetts, they decided that the Indian, having been first wrong- ed, was justified, by the law of nations, in right- ing himself either by force or fraud. This singu- lar decision was perfectly in accordance with the policy which had led to the destruction of the Pequods for the injuries done to a few indi- viduals. In obedience to it, and in consequence of the intercessions of the New Haven people, the dispute was suffered to rest.
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