USA > New York > The natural, statistical, and civil history of the state of New-York, v. 2 > Part 27
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STATE OF NEW-YORK.
We shall commence by giving an extract from Mather, which he has prefaced to his narrative of this war. 1 309
"Two colonies of churches being brought forth, and a third con- ceived within the bounds of New England, by the year 1636, it was time for the devil to take the alarm, and make some attempt in opposition to the possession which the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have of the utmost parts of the earth. These parts were then covered with nations of barbarous Indians and infidels, in whom the prince of the air did work as a spirit ; nor could it be expected that nations of wretches whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil worship, should not be acte'd by the devil to engage in some early and bloody action for the extinction of a plantation so contra- ry to his interests as that of New England." +
In the year 1634 a Captain Stone, and a Captain Norton, with six men, were killed in the river Thames by the Pequods. Short- ly after a Mr. Oldham was killed on the borders of the country of the Pequods by some Narragansetts. The planters of Massachu- setts bay required that the murderers should be given up, and re- paration made. These requisitions could not easily be carried into effect. The leading men among them had no power to enforce a law, or deprive an individual of his liberty. Every one did as he pleased ; obedience was voluntary. The chief men of the Pequods, however, had a meeting, where it was determined to send a depu- tation to Massachusetts bay, with gifts to the English, to deprecate the evils which hung over their country. To this end, a deputa- tion consisting of upwards of twenty persons went to Massachusetts towards the end of the year ; but on their arrival they were dismiss- ed without an answer. Upon their return a second deputation was dispatched thither, with much wampum and beaver. The presents had, in part, the desired effect. The governor and council conde- scended to receive and give audience to the deputies. Several conferences were had. In these the deputies alleged that Captain Stone, and the others, had been killed in a quarrel with some of their people, and that Norton had been blown up by powder in the vessel, which had accidentally caught fire. They farther alleged that Stone and his men were the aggressors .* This relation has
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* See Hubbard and Mather.
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every appearance of being true. Stone and his men had ascended the Thames, a river in the country of the Pequods, in a bark to traffic. - A dispute arose, in which it is probable that Stone used violence, when a contest ensued, in which he and his men were slain. Whether any of the Pequods fell or not we are uninformed; but when we take into consideration that these traders were well armed, we can hardly believe that they could have been overcome without considerable loss to the enemy. How far the Pequuds, or traders were justifiable, or whether either party were justifiable. cannot be ascertained at this day. The taking of life is not autho- rized by natural or divine law, unless it be in self-defence.
After divers conferences, which lasted for many days, peace and friendship were concluded upon these conditions-
First. "That the Pequods should deliver up to the English those persons amongst them that were guilty of Stone's death, and the rest that were with him."
Second. " That if the English desired to plant in Connecticut, the Pequods should give up their right to them."
Third. " That the English should henceforth trade with them as their friends." -- Hubbard.
: The second article of this treaty does not appear reasonable, or even probable. The Pequods had ideas of property ; they claim- ed title, and exercised the same kind of jurisdiction over the lands within their territory, which other hunting nations of America did. Now is it to be credited, that a people possessed of these ideas should give up their lands to strangers, without any equivalent? We say not.
"The deputies besought the English to use their best offices with the Narragansetts, their neighbors, with whom they were then at war, and to mediate a peace for them.
"The proffered mediation having been accepted, and peace be- ing concluded between the English and Pequods, the deputies re- turned home to their country.
" The planters of Massachusetts not long after sent a barque thither for trade; but they found that no advantage was to be had by any commerce with them, inasmuch as they took up a resolu- tion never more to have to do with them."*
*See Hubbard and Mather.
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From this circumstance' it is obvious that the Pequods had, in their intercourse with the Dutch and English, acquired information in relation to the value of commodities offered them, which render- ed the gains of the adventurers too small to be objects worth seek- ing after.
The Indians, in their early intercourse with the Dutch and Eng- lish, were altogether, ignorant of the value of such things as were offered to them in exchange for furs, &c. Hence they paid enor- mous prices for small articles which had little or no intrinsic value. The band or foot was a pound, and this might be depressed ac- cording to the consciences of the traders. In some instances the hand or foot weighed one hundred pounds. The Dutch traders at Orange, (Albany,) and Schenectady, at a very early period, intro- duced the hand or foot, as might best suit their interest, for a stan- dard weight in the purchase of furs, &c. The English traders did the same. The practice continued a long time at Albany and Schenectady after the surrender in 1664. Such weights were very convenient to the traders.
In 1636, when the planters from Massachusetts began to settle at Good Hope, now Hartford, and other places on Connecticut ri- ver, the Pequods surprised several persons, some of whom they killed. In April, 1637, nine men were slain about Weathersfield. The whole number that fell in the different settlements on the river, were about thirty. Besides these they put some captives to death. These hostile acts excited great fears, and no small degree of in- dignation. The communication between Hartford and the other plantations on Connecticut river, was greatly obstructed by the enemies small parties.
We have before remarked, that the agent of Lords Say and Brook had erected a small fort at the mouth of Connecticut river, in the year 1635, in the vicinity of the Dutch fort. A lieutenant Gardner was stationed there with about twenty men. All the win- ter of 1636 the garrison was beset by the Pequods. Several at- tacks were made on parties who occasionally went out, and two or three men were killed.
The governor and council of Massachusetts, on the twenty-fifth of August, 1636, sent a Captain Endicott, with eighty or ninety
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men, or, according to another account, with one hundred and twee- ty, to the country of the Pequods, with commission to demand the murderers of Captain Stone, and his companions. Endicott pro- ceeded by water, and upon his arrival dispatched an interpreter to them, with a message to demand the persons who had perpetrated the murders, but they'refused to give them up; whereupon a skir- mish ensued, in which, after the death of one of their men, the Pe- quods fled. Endicott pursued them, and destroyed their habita- tions and corn, and then retired.
Aware of the storm that was gathering, the Pequods deputed messengers to the Narragansetts, with whom they were then at war, with offers of peace. The messengers proposed to that people a union, and confederation of all the Indian tribes in those parts against the English. Several conferences were had between them. In these conferences the messengers of the Pequods told the Narragan- - setts that the English were strangers, and that they had began to over- spread the country, which would soon be possessed by them, to the depriving of the ancient inhabitants of their right, if they were not timely prevented ; and that the Narragansetts would but make way for their own ruin by helping to destroy the Pequods, who were members of the same nation, although under a distinct government; for, after themselves were subdued, it would not be long before the Narragansetts themselves would, in the next place, be rooted out likewise ; that now was the time for the widely extended tribes of the Moheakanneews to unite against the English ; that they might , easily destroy them, or force them to leave the country. Such were the reasonings and proffers of this politic people. They ap- pear to have been the only people at this early period who foresaw the extirpation and ruin of the ancient inhabitants. With them a union of the Moheakanneews was the great desideratum, since by it the strangers might be expelled the country. But the Narragan- setts, like other savages, refused to come into the measure, or even to make peace. Stimulated with revenge, they concluded that this would be a favorable occasion to to gratify it, and ingratiate them- selves into the favors of the people of Massachusetts ; they, there- fore, deputed an embassy to the English. Miantonimo, one of the chief men at this time among them, was placed at the head of the
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embassy. Ou arriving at Massachusetts bay, he informed the go- vernor and council of the propositions which the Pequods had made to them, of a union and confederation of all the Moheakanneew states, in order to drive the English out of the country. A com- pact or treaty was concluded between the English and Narragan- setts, which was of infinite advantage to the planters. The con- tracting powers bound themselves not to make peace with the Pe- quods, except by mutual consent , not to harbor any of the Pequods; to put to death, or deliver up, any of the murderers of the English ; to return fugitives. The planters of Plymouth and Massachusetts were to give the Narragansetts notice when they went out to the war against the Pequods, in order that the latter might furnish guides, and send their warriors. The Narragansetts agreed not to come near the English plantations during the war, without first ob- taining the planters permission.
About this time the colonies of Massachusetts bay, Plymouth, and Hartford, entered into a confederacy in order to resist the In- dians in case they should combine, and in order to strengthen their positions on the American continent. The immediate object, how- ever, was the war against the Pequods. Massachusetts furnished one hundred and sixty men, Plymouth fifty, and Hartford ninety. The campaign was opened early in the spring. Captain Stough- ton commanded the united forces of the colonies. Forty men were sent from Massachusetts to Hartford, under Captain Patrick, before hostilities were began. On the tenth of May Captain Mason, with ninety men, and a party of Mohegans, who acted as auxiliaries, sailed from Saybrook, for the state of the Pequods. Forty of the Mohegans were to proceed by land. . Before the latter, however, set out, they went out, and falling in with seven Pequods and Ne- banticks, they killed five and took one a prisoner, whom they brought into fort Saybrook, where he was barbarously murdered by Cap- tain Underhill, the commander. . No excuse is offered by either Hubbard or Mather for this act.
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Mason, instead of landing in the state of the Pequods, proceed- ed to the country of the Narragansetts, where he debarked his men. Here he was joined by Miantonimo, the chief of the Narragansetts, with two hundred warriors, as some say, or five hundred, as others
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say. The whole force under Mason now amounted to three hun- -dred and fifty men, according to the lowest account, and six hun- dred and fifty according to the highest. With this force he began .his march for the principal castle of the Pequods. The Mobeak- anneew and Huron tribes had castles in their chief settlements, to which the men, women, and children retired on particular emer- gencies. In time of war, when the warriors were out on expedi- tions, it was customary for the old men, women, and children, to repair to these places in order to guard against surprise of the enemy.
· Captain John Smith speaks of castles or enclosures. He visited one of these on the east side of Chesapeake bay, not far from the mouth of the Susquehanna. It belonged to the Tockwhoghs, as be calls them, (probably a band of the Nanticokes). It was filled with men, women, and children. A party of the Massawomecks had been foiled in an attempt to take it a day or two before.
The Pequods at the time of the invasion, had several castles. . The principal one was about twenty-one miles distant from the place of debarkation. Mason began his march, and proceeded the first day about eight miles, and then. encamped for the night. About two hours before day, he resumed his march, and came in sight of the castle, about the time it began to grow light.
Finding that the Pequods were asleep, and nnapprised of his ap- proach, Mason divided his men into several parties, and gave orders to attack the castle on all sides, at one and the same time. The castle, according to the account, consisted of a small space of ground, enclosed with stakes driven into the earth.
A considerable body of the Pequods were encamped in it, with their women and children. Sassacus, the chief of the tribe was there. ' Every thing being arranged, and adjusted, Mason gave the signal for the assault. The several parties rushed forward, and reached the defences before they were discovered. These they easily passed, and entered the enclosure with - loud shouts. The enemy being surprised, and confounded, ran to and fro in order to make their escape : but they were every where met, and driven back. An indiscriminate slaughter was commenced, and of six hundred individuals, only five or, six escaped. Among these, was
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Sassacus the commander." Mason had but two men killed, and sixteen wounded. Immediately after the capture of the fortress, and the butchering of the Pequods, Mason retired to the borders of the ocean near by, and re-embarked his men.
A few days after, Captain Stoughton arrived with the Massa- chusetts and Plymouth forces. Mason joined him with his men, and the Narragansetts. Shortly after this, word was brought to Captain Stoughton, by some of the Narragansetts, that a band of · their warriors had surrounded a large number of the Pequods. Upon the reception of this intelligence, Stoughton set out forthwith for that place with all his men. On reaching it, the enemy amount- ing to several hundred, surrendered. The men, Captain Stoughton inhumanly put to death : but lie spared the women and children. The following account which we copy, is given by Mr. Hubbard, in his narrative of the Indian wars of New England. Cotton Ma- ther, in his magnalia, gives the same account. "The men were turned prisoners into Charon's ferry boat, under the command of Skipper Gallop, who dispatched them a little without the harbor : the females and children were disposed of according to the will of the conquerors."
Opposition to the progress of the colonists now ceased. The country of the Pequods was traversed by small parties of the colo- nists, and Narragansetts, and devastated. Most of the warriors had been killed in the preceding affairs. The wretched remains of the tribe dispersed and fled. Some sought refuge in the woods, while others betook themselves to the Mohiccons, and other Indians, living westwardly of Connecticut river. `Sassacus their chief, with twenty or thirty men, retired beyond the mountains to the Mo- hawks.
Cotton Mather calls the Mohawks " a fierce generation of men eaters."
. Captain Stoughton detached parties in all directions, in search of the flying Pequods. Captain Patrick, who commanded one of these, consisting of about one hundred men, proceeded westwardly as far as where Fairfield in Connecticut, now stands. Here he discovered a considerable number in a swamp, with some other fugitive Indians. These he either killed, or took prisoners, little or
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· no resistance being made. Most of the males he slaughtered, or disposed of as slaves, while the females were divided between the . planters, and their allies.
The few stragglers who yet remained, were hunted like wild beasts, and taken and put to death. or sold without pity or remorse. Few wars were ever carried on with more deadly animosity. It was a war of extermination.
The affair at the swamp in Fairfield, Mr. Hubbard in his over- heated zeal, calls " the slaughter at the swamp." The Pequods were mostly butchered after they had surrendered.
On the termination of the war with the Pequods, the planters of Connecticut enjoyed a long repose. The horrors of this war, and its successful issue, inspired the natives with fear and respect for the English,
The English colonists on Connecticut river, still continued to en- croach upon the Dutch. New adventurers were annually arriving from Plymouth, and Massachusetts. The settlements were extended on every side.
In 1638, Governor Kieft caused a prohibition to be issued, for- biding the English to trade at Good Hope. Shortly after, on complaint of the insolence of the English, an order of council was made, for sending more forces there to maintain the Dutch territories. But the weakness of the New Netherlands, prevented him from carrying the order into effect.
Soon after the English had planted themselves at New Haven, Guilford, Milford, Stamford, and Brainford, some of the planters passed over to those parts of Long Island, which are adjacent, and seated themselves there.
In 1640, the Rev. Abraham Pierson, of Lynn in Massachusetts, removed with nearly one hundred families, to the west end of Long Island ; but the Dutch gave him so much disturbance, that he was obliged to retire to Southampton, towards the east end of the island. This town adjoins the other places settled from New Haven, and the contiguous towns. With respect to the place where Pierson with his colony settled, there is some uncertainty. Mather says, it was at the west end of the Island. In Smith's his- tory, we find the following passage, which leads us to think that it
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must have been at Oyster bay, in the north-easterly part of Queen's county.
" In 1640," he says, " the English who had overspread the eastern part of Long Island, advanced to Oyster bay." " Kieft broke up their settlement in 1642, and fitted out two sloops to drive the English out of Schuykill, of which the Marylanders had lately possessed themselves.".
The following extracts are taken from a Sketch of the first settlement of Long-Island, by the Hon. Silas Wood.
The state of the Country ..
At the time of the first settlement of Long-Island, it appears that the western part of it, if not the whole, was in a great measure bare of timber.
The Indians here, as every where else where they were settled, annually burnt over the woods, in order to clear the lands, to pro- vide food for the deer, and other game.
There are numerous facts to prove, that, at the time of the first settlement of the island, the woods were destitute of underbrush, and that the large trees were so scarce that it was deemed neces- sary to take measures for their preservation.
The first settlers in every town commenced their improvements without any previous clearing. They generally enclosed large tracts of land by a common fence, for planting, and also for pastur- ing such part of their stock as they did not wish to run at large. In 1646 the people of the town of Gravesend, by a vote at the first town meeting held in the town, ordered every inhabitant to make twenty poles of fence to enclose a common field for corn; and in 1648, voted in like manner to make a common pasture for their calves.
Similar regulations were made in Newtown, in Hempstead, in Huntington, and probably in most, if not all the towns on the island. In 1654 the town of Southold passed a resolution that no person should cut trees or sell wood from their common lands, for pipe staves, or heading, or other purposes, to any person not being a
Wood's Sketch of Long Island, D. 3.
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towosman, "without the town's liberty." In 1659 the town of Huntington, by a vote of town meeting, resolved, that no timber should be cut for sale within three miles of the settlement, under the penalty of five shillings for every tree .- In 1660 they made an exception of oak timber, for pipe staves; but in 1668 the magis- trates, after stating their apprehensions that the town was in danger of being ruined by the destruction of its timber, ordered that no tim- ber should be cut, for transportation, within three miles of the set- tlement, under the penalty of five shillings for every tree ; and for- bid strangers cutting any timber within the limits of the town, under the like penalty.
In 1660 the town of Oysterbay passed a similar resolution.
In 1664 the town of Southampton voted that no timber should be made into pipe staves, to be carried out of the town, under the penalty of twenty shillings a tree.
In 1668 the town of Newtown voted that no one should carry any timber to the water side for transportation, under the penalty of -ten shillings a load.
The trees in the woods were so thin and sparse that they abound- ed with feed, and the settlers depended on them for pasture, for such cattle as were not needed for domestic purposes.
By neglecting the Indian practice of annual burnings, in a few years young timber and underbrush increased so as to injure the feed in the woods.
It appears that the pine plains were also at the time of the first settlement of the island, in a great measure unincumbered with un- derbrush.
This state of the country was of immense advantage to the first settlers. Had they been obliged to encounter thick forests of large timber, and to wait the tardy returns of heavy clearings, the first emigrants would probably have perished by famine. The open- ness of the country-the quantity of land left unoccupied by the sparseness of the Indian population, and the rapid growth and nu- tritive quality of the corn found among the Indians, contributed es- sentially to the preservation, growth, and prosperity, of the first set- tlers on Long-Island.
Wood's Sketch of Long Island. pp. 4 & 5.
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Of the interfering claims of the English and the Dutch to Long- Island. 4
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The English and the Dutch both claimed Long-Island, on the ground of prior discovery.
In 1607 the London company commenced a settlement in Vir- ginia. ,
In 1609 the king granted a separate patent to the first company, extending from Point Comfort two hundred miles each way, and in length from sea to sea.
In 1620 the same king granted a separate patent to the second company, by the name of " the council established at Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, and governing of New England, in America," for all that part of the continent lying be- tween forty and forty-eight degrees of north latitude, and extend- ing from sea to sea. In virtue of this charter, which is usually called the New England patent, the council of Plymouth issued all the subordinate patents of the several colonies which were granted before it was surrendered to the crown, to wit : the Plymouth pa- tent in 1623, that of Massachusetts in 1628, and that of Connecti- cut, 1631.
The same company, by order of Charles the first, on the twen- ty-second of April, in the eleventh year of his reign, issued letters patent to William, Earl of Stirling, "Secretary of the kingdom of Scotland," for the whole of Long-Island.
April 20, in the twelfth year of Charles I. the Earl of Stirling executed a power of attorney to James Farret, to sell and dispose of lands on the island, and the earliest purchases made by the Eng- lish on the island, were made or confirmed by authority derived from him.
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The first purchase of the Indians on Long-Island, that has been discovered, was in 1635, and the earliest deed for land to individu- als, is a patent from governor Van Twiller, to Andries Hedden, and Wolphert Garitsen, for a tract of land in Amersfort, or Flatlands, bearing date of sixth June, 1636.
Wood's Sketch of Long Island, pp. 5,6, & 7.
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In 1643, governor Kieft states that the Dutch settlements, at that time, only extended ten miles east and west, and seven miles north and south.
Of the settlement of the Island.
Both powers endeavored to strengthen their respective claims to the island, by extending their settlements there.
The two extremities of the island were first settled ; the west end under the Dutch, and the east end under the English.
The several settlements under the two powers were nearly co- temporary, and were all commenced within the compass of forty years.
Both the Dutch and English territories on Long-Island were set- tled by villages or towns, nor was there any combination of these into counties before the conquest of the English in 1664.
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