A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 8

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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Commenting sagely on this, Dr. Prime observed :

If the rights of the aborigines in every part of the country had been as sacredly respected and the same means had been used to secure and preserve their friendship, the horrors of Indian aggressions and the bloody measures of retaliation which disgrace the early annals of our country would have been greatly dimin- ished, if not entirely prevented.

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

With this Pecksniffian testimony as to the treatment of the Indians in our minds, we will examine a few instances of the rights so sa- credly respected, keeping in view the fact that the land and the sea were the sources whence the Indians derived their sustenance, and ob- tained it thence directly. All men, of course, derive their sustenance from the land or sea, but the farmer, the hunter and the fisherman do so directly, while the engineer, the carpen- ter, the trader, the lawyer, the physician and the like do not.

In 1649 what is now the town of East- hampton was settled by some thirty families from Massachusetts, under the direction, it would seem, of the Connecticut government, and the settlement was located in the western part of what is now the township. The new- comers took up their abode and entered into possession of a tract of 30,000 acres of land as a result of a bargain effected in the pre- vious year with the Indian owners. The agreement read as follows :

April the 29th, 1648. This present wright- ing testyfieth an agreement betwixt the Wor- shipful Theophilus Eaton, Esq., Governor of the Colony of New Haven, the Worshipful Edward Hopkins, Esq., Governor of the Col- ony of Connecticut, their associates on the one parte ; Poygratasuck, Sachem of Manhasset ; Wyandanch, Sachem of Mountacutt, Momo- metou, Sachem of Chorchake; and Nowedo- nah, Sachem of Shinecock, and their associ- ates, the other party.

The said Sachems having sould into the aforesaid Th. Eaton and Ed. Hopkins, with their associates all the land lying within the bounds of the inhabitants of Southampton unto the east side of Mountacutt high land, with the whole breadth from sea to sea, not intrenching upon any in length or breadth which the inhabitants of Southampton have and does possess, as they by lawful right shall make appeare for a consideration of

Twenty coates, twenty-four hatchets, twenty-four knives, twenty looking-glasses, one hundred muxes,

already received by us, the aforesaid sachems for ourselves and our associates ; and in con- sideration thereof we give upp unto the said purchasers all our right and interest in said land, to them and their heirs, whether our or other nation whatsoever that doe or may hereafter challenge interest therein. Alsoe we, the said Sachems, have covenanted to have libertie for ourselves to ffish in any or all of the creeks and ponds, and hunting upp and downe in the woods, without molestation; they giving to the English inhabytants noe just offence or injurie to their goods and chat- tels. Alsoe, they are to have the ffynnes and tayles of all such whales as shall be cast upp, as to their proper right, and desire they may be friendly dealt with in the other parte. Alsoe they reserve libertie to ffish in conven- ient places ffor shells to make wampum. Alsoe, Indyans hunting any deare they should chase into the water, and the English should kill them, the English shall have the body and the Sachems the skin. And in testymony of our well performance hereof we have set our hands the day and year above written.

Signed: In presence of Richard Wood- hull, Thomas Stanton, Robert Bond, and Job Sayre.

Poygratasuck, x. Wyandanch, x. Momometou, x. Nowedonah, x.

The value of the goods given the Indians in this transaction amounted to £30 4s. 8d. It was not long before the natives were so har- assed by the incursions of the Narragansetts that they were obliged to move from the lands they held east to Montauk Point and seek the aid and protection of the English settlers. As an acknowledgment of this assistance they made over to their protectors the remaining lands of the Montauk territory, saying in the conveyances, drawn up, of course, by the beneficiaries :

Whereas of late years there has been sore distresses and calamities befallen us by reason of the cruel opposition and violence of our deadly enemy Ninnecraft, Sachem of Narra- gansett, whose cruelty hath proceeded so far as to take away the lives of many of our dear friends and relations, so that we were forced to fly from Montaukett for shelter to our be- loved friends and neighbors of Easthampton,

THE INDIANS AND THEIR LANDS.

whom we found to be friendly in our dis- tresses, and whom we must ever own and ac- knowledge, under God, for the preservation of our lives, and the lives of our wives and chil- dren to this day, and of the lands of Montau- kett from the hands of our enemies ; and since our coming among them the relieving us in our extremities from time to time.

For all this the Indians in the rest of the document make over to the white men their lands-their entire earthly possessions in fact -reserving only the right of using such por- tions of the soil as might be necessary to en- able them to live. In commenting on this transaction Benjamin F. Thompson said : .

In the preamble to this conveyance, allu- sion is made to the cruel and perfidious mas- sacre of the Sachem and many of his best war- riors a few years before at Block Island, for being there on some important occasion they were surprised in the night by a party of the Narragansett Indians ; but were promised their lives should be spared upon laying down their arms, which they had no sooner done than they were set upon and murdered in a most barbarous manner, only one of the whole num- her escaping to relate the horrid deed. The Sachem himself was reserved for further cru- elty, and being conveyed to the Narragansett country was there tortured to death by being compelled to walk naked over flat rocks heated to the utmost by fires built upon them. Nini- gret, the chief of that powerful tribe, had a violent hatred of the Montauks for not only refusing on a former occasion to unite with him in destroying the white people, but for having discovered the plot to the English, by which his design was frustrated and the in- habitants saved from destruction. The words of Captain Gardiner are: "Wyandanch, the Long Island Sachem, told me that as all the plots of the Narragansetts had been discov- ered, they now concluded to let the English alone until they had destroyed Uncas, the Mo- hegan chief, and himself; then, with the as- sistance of the Mohawks and Indians beyond the Dutch, they could easily destroy us, every man and mother's son." Indeed, it seems sus- picions were generally entertained that the Dutch not only countenanced the Indians in their hostility to the English, but had also se- cretly supplied them with arms. Several In-

dian Sagamores residing near the Dutch re- ported that the Dutch Governor had urged them to cut off the English, and it was well known that Ninigret had spent the winter of 1652-3 among the Dutch. In consequence a special meeting of the Commissioners was con- vened at Boston in April, 1653, but several In- dian Sachems, who were examined, denied any agreement with the Dutch to make war upon the English. Ninigret declared that he went to New Amsterdam to be cured of some dis- ease by a French physician; that he carried thirty fathoms of wampum, of which he gave the doctor ten and the governor fifteen, in ex- change for which the Governor gave him some coats with sleeves, but not one gun. On the first day of August, 1660, and after the death of Sachem Wyandanch, his widow, called the Squa-Sachem, and her son united in a deed of confirmation to the original purchasers for the lands of Montauk and described by them as extending from sea to sea and from the easternmost parts thereof to the bounds of Easthampton.

Finally a patent confirming those Indian grants to the inhabitants was signed by Gov- ernor Nicolls March 13, 1666.

To take another instance, we extract an Indian deed for the surrender of Barren Island in 1664 from Stiles's "History of Kings County :"

Know all men, etc., that we, Wawmatt Tappa and Kackawashke, the right and true proprietors of a certain island called by the Indians Equendito, and by the English Broken Lands, in consideration of two coats, one ket- tel, one gun, one new trooper-coat, ten fath- oms of wampum prage, three shirts, six pounds of powder, six barrs of lead and a quantity of Brandie wine, already paid unto us by John Tilton, sen., and Samuel Spicer, of Gravesend, L. I., Do, &c., sell, &c., the said Island called

* * Equendito, &c., with all our right *

both of upland and marshes any way belonging thereto, as the Straun Beach or Beaches, as namely that running out more westerly, with the Island adjoining, and is at the same time by the ocean sea wholly inclosed, called Hoop- aninak and Shanscomacocke and macutteris, as also all the harbors, &c., to the said John Tilton and Samuel Spicer * * * except- ing only to ourselves the one-half of all such

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

whale-fish that shall by wind and storms be cast upon the said Island. In witness whereof we have set our hands this 13 day of the 3 month, called May, Anno, 1664.

A much better-known instance, and one with which we will close our investigation here into this branch of our subject, is the manner in which the Gardiner family acquired its ex- tensive lands on Long Island. The founder of the family in this county, Lion Gardiner, was a native of England, a military engineer by profession. He crossed the Atlantic in 1635, arriving at Boston November 28 in that year, and was employed by a land company to lay out a tract of land at the mouth of the Connecticut River, of which the town of Say-

ON SHINNECOCK HILLS.

brook, so named by him, is still a pleasant reminder. He remained in the service of the company some four years, and, it is said, at first intended to return to England when his employment ended. Still his family was with him, he saw many brilliant opportunities await- ing him in the New Land, and he seemed to possess from the beginning the happy art of winning and retaining the good graces of the Indians, so that he probably changed his mind about returning to the old land as soon as he saw enough of the country to become aware of its possibilities.

While at Saybrook a son was born to him, April 29, 1636, the first white child born in

Connecticut, and a daughter, Elizabeth, after- ward born at what is now known as Gardi- ner's Island, is said to have been the first white child born in Suffolk county.

In 1639 Gardiner purchased from the In- dians the island known to them as Mancho- nock, or Manchonat, and by the English as the Isle of Wight. The island is about nine miles long and a mile and a half wide, and contains about 3,300 acres of land, including the beaches and fish-ponds. The soil was and is generally of good quality. The price paid to the Indians for this piece of property was, we are told by tradition, which generally ex- aggerates rather than underestimates, a large black dog, a gun with some ammunition, a quantity of rum, and several Dutch blankets. To make his title more secure Gardiner re- ceived a conveyance of the island from James . Farret, agent for the Earl of Stirling, in which he agreed to pay a yearly "acknowledgment" of £5 "(if demanded) of lawfull money of England or such commoditys as shall at that time pass for money in that country, the first payment to begin on the last of October, 1643, the three former years being advanced for the use of said James Farret."

Reference has already been made to the gift of most of the land now comprised in the town of Smithtown to Lion Gardiner by Wy- andanch, Sachem of the Montauks, in grati- tude for the former's regaining the Indian chief's daughter from captivity among the Narragansetts in 1659. Gardiner, to make his gift the more secure, had his deed confirmed or indorsed in 1662 by the Nesaquake tribe, who occupied the lands in question and had the whole made thoroughly legal and binding from a white man's point of view, obtaining a patent for the land from Governor Nicolls. Having thus perfected his title in every possi- ble way, Gardiner in 1663 sold the property in question to Richard Smith, the common an- cestor of the Suffolk county Smiths, who at once added to it by a further purchase of Indian lands and the procurance of a fresh pat- ent from Governor Nicolls in 1663. A vague-

THE INDIANS AND THEIR LANDS.

ness in the wording of this patent led to a legal controversy with the town of Hunting- ton, the knotty points in. which were won by Smith, and in 1675 his ownership was con- firmed in a new patent, issued by Governor Andros, the "acknowledgment or quit rent" being "one good fatt lamb unto such office or officers as shall be empowered to receive the same."

These instances of the manner in which the Indians parted with their lands must suffice for this place. Several others will come before us in recording the story of the townships. The transferences we have recorded were all, in the eyes of writers like Prime and Thomp- son, honest, generous and just, yet they were, each of them, simply a modern version of the Biblical story of Esau and the mess of pottage. Of course in all these cases something was paid, or given in exchange, enough appar- ently to satisfy the rebukes of conscience. But, judging them by what took place else- where, it is to be admitted that the early Long Island settlers deserve credit for even observ- ing to the extent they did the proprieties of civilized life in these land-grabbing transac- tions, for most of such transfers from the aborigines were made in keeping with

"The good old rule,-the simple plan

That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can."

The most objectionable feature to readers nowadays is the sanctimonious manner in which the transactions were sweetly glossed over by the historians of the island and held up for our admiration. The natives, as it were, received sugar-coated pills, and we are asked to consider the sugar and forget the gall and wormwood, the acritude, the bitter- ness, of the stuff within. The Indians, being a weaker race, had to go when the white man determined to settle on his lands. The transi- tion, as has been said, was in accordance with the inexorable doctrine of the survival of the fittest, and in fulfillment of its cruel but nec- essary requirements the aborigine had to be crushed; but why, in this twentieth century, continue to treat the matter hypocritically, shed crocodile tears over the various incidents of the change, and assert that a few beads, a gun or two, some cheap, often cast-off, cloth- ing and tools-to say nothing of, now and then, a modicum of rum-sanctified the pro- ceedings attendant upon the despoliation of the Indian ?

JOSEPH BRANT.

CHAPTER III.

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

F THE government, manners and cus- toms of the Long Island Indians we know little that is authentic, although surmises and suppositions have been plentiful, and these surmises and suppositions have often been made to appear as veritable history. Within recent years, however, the patient industry and thoughtful and intelligent investigation of Dr. W. Wallace Tooker, of Sag Harbor, has added greatly to our knowl- edge of the Long Island Indians and brought to light many details which enable us to gain some knowledge of their importance, their ideas, their language and their habits.

The Montauk Indians seem to have been by far the most numerous, and next to them in point of members the Shinnecocks have been placed. But the strength of the Mon- tauks was such that their Sachem was gen- erally if not always acknowledged as the Grand Sachem of Paumanacke (Long Island). Prime says that the tribes "under their re- spective Sagamores or chiefs, as if an em- blem of the future government of the whole country, were once united in a grand con- federacy under one great and powerful chief ;" but so far as we have been able to learn there is no exact authority for this statement. Dr. Prime also tells us:

The Manhasset and the Montauk tribes, though occupying the smallest and most re- mote territorial limits, were the depositories of supreme power. Montauk was, in fact, the royal tribe, and Wyandanch, its powerful chief, was the Grand Sachem of whom the

whites purchased their lands throughout near- ly the whole extent of the island. While his elder brother, Poggatacut, the Sachem of Manhasset, lived, he was indeed regarded as the supreme chief, but probably from his age and not from any superior claim of the tribe over which he presided. When he paid the debt of nature Wyandanch was regarded as the Grand Sachem, without a rival, Nowe- dinah, the chief of the Shinnecock tribe, was also a brother of Wyandanch.

Besides, Montauk bore evident marks, many of which are not yet obliterated, of being the seat of royal authority and the citadel of power. Here were the largest and best forti- fications, of purely Indian construction, that can be found in any part of our extended country. The fort in the north side of Fort Pond, erected on what is now called Fort Hill, was about one hundred feet square, and its remains are still visible.

The rampart and parapet (say the "Chron- icles of Easthampton") were of earth with a ditch at the foot of the glacis and probably palisadoed with the trunks of fallen trees. At each angle there was apparently a round tower of earth and stone, and the whole would probably have held from three hundred to five hundred men. The pond on the south afforded a safe and convenient harbor for canoes, under the immediate protection of the fort. Its contiguity to the pond yielded also an abundant supply of fresh water, on a side where communication was easily kept up by the facility of protection. The location was one of decided advantage for protection and defense, and must have been sufficient against any attack which Indian tactics could have brought to bear upon it.

This territory [to quote again from Prime] was also remarkable as the depository of the dead. Here are several of the largest bury-

THE DECADENCE OF THE ABORIGINES.

ing places known on the island, where hun- dreds and perhaps thousands of these poor be- nighted pagans were committed to their mother earth, amid the lamentations and howl- ings of their surviving friends. The remains of Poggatacut were brought (1651) from Shelter Island, the great part of the way on men's shoulders, to be deposited with the royal family at the citadel of the empire.

In speaking of the removal of the body of Poggatacut the "Chronicles of Easthampton" relates a curious bit of information :

In removing the body the bearers rested their bier by the side of the road leading fron Sag Harbor to Easthampton near the third ( fourth) milestone, where a small excavation was made to designate the spot. From that time to the present, more than one hundred and ninety years, this memorial has remained, às fresh, seemingly, as if but lately made. Neither leaf nor any other thing has been suf- fered to remain in it. The Montaukett tribe, although reduced to a beggarly number of some ten or fifteen drunken and degraded beings, have retained to this day the memory of the events, and no one individual of theni now passes the spot in his wanderings without removing whatever may have fallen into it. The place is to them holy ground, and the exhibition of this pious act does honor to the finest feelings of the human heart. The ex- cavation is about twelve inches in depth and eighteen inches in diameter, in the form of a niortar.

To this Prime adds his testimony, saying :

The reader may be assured this is no humbug. The writer has been acquainted with the fact for nearly forty years, and he has examined the hole within the present year [1845] and found it in its original form and freshness, as above described.

Gabriel Furman tells us of another chief of the Montauks:

Canoe Place (Shinnecock Bay) on the south side of Long Island derives its name from the fact that more than two centuries ago a canal was made there by the Indians for the purpose of passing their canoes from one bay to the other, that is, across the island from Mecox Bay to Peconic Bay. Although

the trench has been in a great measure filled up, yet its remains are still visible and partly overflowed at high water. It was constructed by Mongotucksee (or Long Knife), who then reigned over the nation of Montauk. Al- though that nation has now ( 1827) dwindled to a few miserable remnants of a powerful race, who still linger on the lands which were once the seat of their proud dominion, yet their traditional history is replete with all those tragical incidents which usually accom- pany the fall of power. It informs us that their chief was of gigantic form, proud and despotic in peace, and terrible in war. But though a tyrant of his people, yet he pro- tected them from their enemies and cont- manded their respect for his savage virtues. The praises of Mongotucksee are still chanted in aboriginal verse to the winds that howl around the eastern extremity of this island. The Narragansetts and the Mohawks yielded to his prowess and the ancestors of the last of the Mohicans trembled at the expression of his anger. He sustained his power not less by the resources of his mind than by the vigor of his arm. An ever watchful policy guided his counsels. Prepared for every ex- igency, not even aboriginal sagacity could sur- prise his caution. To facilitate communication around the seat of his dominion for the pur- pose not only of defense but of annoyance, he constructed this canal, which remains a monu- ment of his genius, while other traces of his skill and prowess are lost in oblivion, and even the nation whose valor he led may soon furnish for our country a topic in contemplat- ing the fallen greatness of the last of the Montauks. After his death the Montauks were subjugated by the Iroquois or Five Na- tions and became their tributaries, as did all the tribes on the island.

The passages quoted relating to this hero and to Wyandanch may give us an idea of the importance of the Montauk tribe in pre- European times, and leave no doubt as to the truth of the legend that their Sachem was, at intervals at least, when a worthy and war- like chief appeared, recognized as the leader of all the tribes on the island, and that the house of Montauk was indeed in a sense en- titled to the appellation of "royal," which so many writers have bestowed upon it. What has been held as legal confirmatory evidence

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

of this claim to supremacy is found in the fact that on July 4, 1647, when a deed con- firming a title to land at Hempstead was given by the Indians to the white settlers, it was mentioned that the Montauk Sachem was pres- ent. In 1658 another Hempstead deed, after the signature of the local chiefs, was also sub- scribed by Wacombound, the ( 1660) Montauk Sachem.

It would be frivolous and unnecessary to gather up in this place all the legends which have come down to us concerning Indian his- tory prior to the arrival of the white man on Long Island. Enough has been presented to show that they were, as Indian economy went, well governed, happy, prosperous and numer- ous ; that they were of a higher degree of in- telligence than many of those on the main land; that they were brave and warlike and accepted victory or defeat with the sublime stoicism of their race; and one is even in- clined to believe they would have lived on amicable terms with the white man had that been possible. Probably this desire the white pioneer to a certain extent reciprocated, al- though it never entered his brain to treat the redskin as a man and brother. But no matter how well intentioned both races were, there could be no deep or lasting love between them, for the possession of the land was the real, the ever present issue between them. The white man wanted the land, the Indian needed the land, and in the struggle for possession one or the other had to be crushed.

From the very beginning almost of the white man's settlement, then, the Indian race began to fade away. The following passage, which I quote from Gabriel Furman's "An- tiquities," shows that the Indians themselves were thoroughly aware of this :

The Long Island Indians possessed all that peculiar eloquence which has so long dis- tinguished the aborigines of the west; and it was mainly from them that the Europeans first obtained their ideas of Indian oratory and of the story and bold imagery which characterize the Indian speeches. The aborigines of this

island have all that singular tact which still marks the Indian of discovering at once, in their intercourse with white men, who are really the men of power and who are not; and to the former they pay their respects, taking no notice of the others. The follow- ing official report of an interview which took place at Flatlands, between Governor Slough- ter and a Long Island Indian Sachem and his sons, will afford an instance of their eloquence and their sagacity. They saw that Leisler, however powerful he might have been a few weeks previous, was then a fallen man, with- out power and at the mercy of his inveterate enemies. This extraordinary interview took place on the 2d of April, 1691, between the Governor of New York and a Sachem of Long Island, attended by two of his sons and twenty other Indians.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 8

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188