USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 4
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THE MANISSEANS.
It is impossible to give as full an account of them as is desirable. As they did not differ, however, from other Indians, materially, what is known of other aborigines may be taken, for the most part, as a knowledge of those of Block Island. The few scattered fragments of inform- ation here put together have been gathered from various sources, but in all cases are authentic. If it should seem to any that these Indians were more mild and peaceful than those on the main-land, since they committed less violence upon the early settlers, and that too while they were so greatly in the majority that they could have mas- sacred every white person any day, during a considerable period of years, such should consider the restraining influences which compelled these Indians to be peaceful.
Twenty-five years before the sixteen families came to Block Island a terrible lesson was taught the Manisseans by the white people of Massachusetts for the killing of Captain Oldham, a trader here. Then they learned, as never before, the superiority of white men, as a few with fire-arms overpowered the whole Island, armed with bows and arrows. Endicott's slaughter of their warriors, de- struction of their year's harvest of corn, burning of their mats and wigwams, and the very daring of the settlers, struck a terror to the natives of the Island.
Moreover, at this time, Ninicraft, the Narragansett
49
THE MANISSEANS.
chief of the Manisseans, was closely flanked by two for- midable powers. On the one side were the fierce Pequots, " a powerful nation that had, by their conquests and cru- elties, struck terror to all the nations of Indians round about them." They had formed alliances sufficient to resolve to exterminate the English. Ninicraft, a nearer neighbor to the English, knew the power of the English better than did the Pequots. He dared not become an ally of Sassacus, the great Pequot Sachem, said to be "a god that nobody could kill," for two reasons, viz .: the fear of subjugation to the Pequots, and the danger of destruction from the English. He became an ally to the latter against the former, and when he had seen the pow- erful Pequots humbled by the slaughter of one thousand warriors before a handful of Englishmen who lost but two lives in the battle led on by Captain Mason, he well knew what consequences to expect from any hostilities of his men upon Block Island. It was not, therefore, a lack of hostile feelings and savage ferocity that restrained the Manisseans from destroying the early settlers, but self interest and the force of circumstances. And yet, enough of their nature was exhibited at times to cause great alarms in the little insular colony.
The first information which we gain of these Indians is obtained from the French navigator, Verrazzano, in his report to Francis I, king of France, in 1524. In speaking of Block Island he said : " It was full of hilles, covered with trees, well peopled, for we saw fires all along the coaste." He probably sailed along the west shore, between the Island and Montauk, as he was bound north along the coast from the Carolinas. From the west side he rounded Sandy Point, and thus obtained a view of the northerly and easterly shores of the Island, enabling him to judge of its size and population without landing. A little effort of the imagination furnishes a view of the 5
50
HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
Island then, three hundred and fifty years ago, when the aboriginal lords of the soil, never disturbed by the face of a white man, with their squaws and papooses, sat around their summer evening fires, eating their succotash, hominy, clams, fish, and wild game, braiding mats and baskets, and repeating the traditions of their fore- fathers, or in their wild war-dances, with painted faces, with demon yells and grimaces and horrid threats, cele- brating their victories over invaders from the Mohegans of Montauk, or the Pequots from the main-land.
Of their personal appearance no better description can be given, perhaps, than that which is furnished of their neighbors by Mr. P. Vincent, in his account of the Pequot war. He says : "Only art and grace have given us that perfection which they want, but may perhaps be as ca- pable thereof as we. They are of person straight and tall, of limbs big and strong, seldom seem violent or extreme in any passion. Naked they go, except a skin about their waist, and sometimes a mantle about their shoulders. Armed they are with bows and arrows, clubs, javelins, etc."
OLDHAM'S MURDER.
The second assault upon the English by the Indians in New England, was made by the Manisseans in the year 1636. Mr. Niles, born upon Block Island, in 1674, in his youth conversed freely with the old natives, as well as read and conversed with the best informed on the main- land concerning the Indians. He, in the main, is good authority. This assault, he says, was made upon Captain Oldham, a trader from Boston, whom the Indians killed, " with all his company, how many is uncertain. He went thither on a friendly trading voyage with the natives there ; but, as it was said, they fell into an unhappy quarrel which issued in the abovesaid slaughter." Mr. Niles, probably, got his information principally from the
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OLDHAM'S MURDER.
Islanders, for of this assault, and of Captain Endicott's expedition to punish the offenders, he says: "We have no particular account." He had not read the history of said expedition written by one of Endicott's officers, Cap- tain Underhill, who says : "The cause of our war against the Block Islanders was for taking away the life of one Master John Oldham, who made it his common course to trade among the Indians. He coming to Block Island to drive trade with them, the Islanders came into his boat, and having got a full view of commodities which gave them full content, consulted how they might destroy him and his company, to the end they might clothe their bloody flesh with his lawful garments. The Indians hav- ing laid the plot, into the boat they came to trade, as they pretended ; watching their opportunities, knocked him on the head, and martyred him most barbarously, to the great grief of his poor distressed servants which by the provi- dence of God were saved." Niles says he was killed with all his company. Underhill says the Indians "consulted how they might destroy him and his company," and to this adds that Mr. Oldham's poor distressed servants were saved. As Niles had a personal acquaintance with natives who were doubtless eye-witnesses of the tragedy, his statement that Oldham " with all his company" was killed seems to be the more reliable. A different version is given else- where.
The principal points of the retribution from Massa- chusetts for the killing of Captain Oldham are contained in the following extracts from Captain Underhill's account of the expedition against the Manisseans.
" This Island lying in the, roadway to Lord Sey and the Lord Brooke's plantation, a certain seaman called John Gallup, master of the small navigation standing along to the Mathethusis Bay, and seeing a boat under sail close aboard the Island, and perceiving the sails to be
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
unskillfully managed, bred in him a jealousy whether that the Island Indians had not boldly taken the life of our countryman and made themselves masters of their goods. Suspecting this, he bore up to them, and approaching near them was confirmed that his jealousy was just. See- ing Indians in the boat, and knowing her to be the vessel of Master Oldham, and not seeing him there, gave fire upon them and slew some; others leaped overboard, besides two of the number which he preserved alive and brought to the Bay.
THEIR SUBJUGATION.
The blood of the innocent called for vengeance. God stirred up the heart of the honored Governor, Master Henry Vane, and the rest of the worthy magistrates to send forth a hundred well-appointed soldiers, under the conduct of Captain John Endicott, and in company with him that had command, Capt. John Underhill, Capt. Nathan Turner, Capt. Wm. Jenningson, besides other inferior officers."
Here it may be well to remark that these officers and soldiers seem to have protected themselves against the arrows of the enemy by wearing helmets, thick, stiff collars, and breastplates. Captain Underhill breaks the thread of his narrative to express his obligation to his wife for inducing him to take his helmet contrary to his intention. He says : "Let no man despise advice and counsel of his wife, though she be a woman."
"Coming to an anchor before the Island, we espied an . Indian walking by the shore in a desolate manner, as though he had received intelligence of our coming. [Probably on the bathing-beach.] Which Indian gave just ground to some to conclude that the body of the people had deserted the Island. But some knowing them to be a warlike nation, a people that spend most of their
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THEIR SUBJUGATION.
time in the study of warlike policy, were not persuaded that they would upon so slender terms forsake the Island, but rather suspected they might lie behind a bank [the present sand-hills, then a continuous bank], much like the form of a barricado. Myself with others rode with a shallop, made towards the shore, having in the boat a dozen armed soldiers. Drawing near to the place of land- ing, the number that rose from behind the barricado were between fifty or sixty able fighting-men, men as straight as arrows, very tall, and of active bodies, having their arrows notched. They drew near to the water's side, and let fly at the soldiers, as though they had meant to have made an end of us all in a moment. They shot a young . gentleman in the neck through a collar, for stiffness as if it had been an oaken board, and entered his flesh a good depth. Myself received an arrow through my coat-sleeve, a second against my helmet on the forehead ; so as if God in his providence had not moved the heart of my wife to persuade me to carry it along with me I had been slain." [The Captain did not seem to consider that the hearts and arrows of the Indians were as easily "moved " as the heart of his wife.]
" The arrows flying thick about us, we made haste to the shore ; but the surf of the sea being great hindered us, so as we could scarce discharge a musket, but were forced to make haste to land. Drawing near the shore through the strength of wind, and the hollowness of the sea, we durst not venture to run ashore, but were forced to wade up to the middle ; but having once got up off our legs, we gave fire upon them. They finding our bullets to outreach their arrows, fled before us. In the mean- while Colonel Endicott made to the shore, and some of this number also repulsed him at his landing, but hurt none. We thought they would stand it out with us, but they perceiving that we were in earnest, fled, and left 5*
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
their wigwams, or houses, and provision to the use of our soldiers. Having set forth our sentinels, and laid out our pardues, we betook ourselves to the guard, expecting hourly they would fall upon us, but they observed the old rule, ' T'is good sleeping in a whole skin,' and left us free from an alarm.
"The next day we set upon our march, the Indians being retired into swamps, so as we could not find them. We burnt and spoiled both houses and corn in great abundance, but they kept themselves in obscurity. Cap- tain Turner stepping aside to a swamp met with some few Indians, and charged upon them, changing some few bul- lets for arrows. Himself received a shot upon the breast of his corselet, as if it had been pushed with a pike, and if he had not had it on he had lost his life.
" A pretty passage worthy of observation. We had an Indian with us that was an interpreter ; being in English clothes, and a gun in his hand, was spied by the Islanders, which called out to him : 'What are you, an Indian or an Englishman ?' 'Come hither,' said he, 'and I will tell you.' He pulls up his cock and let fly at one of them, and without question was the death of him.
"Having spent that day in burning and spoiling the Island, we took up the quarter for that night. About midnight myself went out with ten men about two miles from our quarter, and discovered the most eminent plan- tation they had on the Island, where was much corn, many wigwams, and great heaps of mats; but fearing lest we should make an alarm by setting fire on them, we left them as we found them, and peaceably departed to our quarter ; and the next morning with forty men, marched up to the same plantation, burnt their houses, cut down their corn, destroyed some of their dogs instead of men, which they left in their wigwams.
"Passing on towards the water's side to embark our
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THEIR SUBJUGATION.
soldiers, we met with several famous wigwams, with great heaps of pleasant corn ready shelled, but not able to bring it away, we did throw their mats upon it, and set fire and burnt it. Many well-wrought mats our soldiers brought from thence, and several delightful baskets. We being divided into two parts, the rest of the body met with no less, I suppose, than ourselves did. The Indians playing least in sight, we spent our time, and could no more advantage ourselves than we had already done, and hav- ing slain some fourteen, and maimed others, we embarked ourselves, and set sail for Seasbrooke fort."
There are local reasons for believing the above spoils were made upon the northerly part of the Island, as that was distinguished, in the early days of the first settlers, for its great products of corn, and then was known by the name of the "Corne Neck." It is now called The Neck. The Indians probably fled to the southerly and westerly parts of the Island. They were not conquered, but only punished by Endicott's expedition, until a second attack made by Israel Stoughton, in consequence of which the foundation was laid for Massachusetts to claim the Island by right of conquest, and accordingly its chief, Mianti- nomo, was induced to acknowledge the claim.
The habits of the Manisseans may be gathered from Capt. Underhill's account. Their abundance of corn, and numerous, comfortable wigwams indicated their industry. Their " well-wrought mats," and their " delightful baskets," evinced their skill, as did also their powerful bows and fatal arrows. Their hostile manœuvers were evidence of their practice in the tactics of war. Had they suc- ceeded in drawing the English after them to some por- tions of the Island, as they once entrapped the Mohegans, Capt. Underhill and Col. Endicott might not have re- turned to their boats so cheerfully. Of their warlike habits Mr. Niles gives us the following account :
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
WARS AMONG THEMSELVES.
" They were perpetually engaged in wars one with another, long before the English settled on Block Island, and perhaps before any English settlements were made in this land, according to the Indians' relation, as some of the old men among them informed me when I was young."
" The Indians on this Island had war with the Mohegan Indians, although the Island lies in the ocean and open seas, four leagues from the nearest main-land, and much farther distant from any Island, and from the nearest place of landing to the Mohegan country forty miles, I suppose at least, through a hideous wilderness, as it then was, besides the difficulty of two large rivers. To prose- cute their designed hostilities each party furnished them- selves with a large fleet of canoes, furnished with bows and arrows.
"It happened at the same time the Mohegans were coming here in their fleet to invade the Block Islanders, they were going with their fleet to make spoil on the Mohegans. Both being on the seas, it being in the night and moonshine, and by the advantage of it the Block Islanders discovered the Mohegans, but they saw not the Islanders. Upon which these turned back to their own shore, and hauled their canoes out of sight, and waylaid their enemies until they landed, and marched up in the Island, and then stove all their [the Mohegans'] canoes, and drove them to the opposite part of the Island, where, I suppose, the cliffs next the sea are near, if not more than two hundred feet high, and in a manner perpendicu- lar, or rather near the top hanging over, and at the bot- tom near the sea shore very full of rocks. [Near the new light-house.] They could escape no farther. Here these poor creatures were confined, having nothing over them but the heavens to shelter or cover them, no food to sup-
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WARS AMONG THEMSELVES.
port them, no water to quench their thirst. Thus they were kept destitute of every comfort of life, until they all pined away and perished in a most miserable manner, without any compassion in the least degree shown to them. They had indeed by some means dug a trench around them toward the land to defend them from the arrows of their enemies, which I have seen, and it is called the Mohegan Fort to this day." [1760.]
That fort, probably, has long since sloughed off into the sea by the action of frosts and rains upon the bluffs for more than a century. All personal knowledge of it has also faded away from the Islanders.
Of the Block Island Indians after the immigration of the English we have but a few outlines, bold indeed at first, but gradually fading to almost invisibility. In 1662 their warriors numbered about three hundred. The shores of the Great Pond were evidently the most thickly settled by the Indians. About it Roger Williams dis- covered the wigwams of several petty sachems. Thither they resorted for fish, clams, oysters, and scallops, as large deposits of shells now occasionally opened testify. We can easily imagine their lordly bearing, as several of these chiefs looked upon the vessel of Oldham anchored upon their shores, and as they laid the plot to seize his goods and take his life. The ringleader's name was Audsah, and he struck the fatal blows-fatal not only to Mr. Oldham, but also to the Indian life on Block Island. The fatal seed he then planted yielded him and his fellow- Islanders a fearful harvest. Audsah, like Cain, became a fugitive, was hunted from tribe to tribe, and at one time was sheltered on the main by one Wequashcuck, a petty sachem. They had a fort on Fort Island, a description of them there, and their declining to fight the seventeen Englishmen is given in the sketch of Thomas Terry. At that time, Mr. Niles says, "Their arrows were pointed
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
with hard stones somewhat resembling flint. They had hatchets and axes of stone, with a round head wrought curiously, standing considerably above a groove made round it, to hold the handle of the axe or hatchet, which was bent in the middle and brought the extreme parts and bound them fast together, which were their handles to hold by and do execution with these, their weapons of war." This description corresponds with the shape of a stone axe found many years ago on Mr. John Ball's land, by his father, Isaiah Ball, and presented by the former to the writer.
The "dogs" of Block Island belonging to the Manis- seans before the English came have their descendants here still, it is believed. They are not numerous, but peculiar, differing materially from all the species which we have noticed on the main-land, both in figure and dis- position. They are below a medium size, with short legs but powerful, broad breasts, heavy quarters, massive head unlike the bull dog, the terrier, the hound, the mastiff, but resembling mostly the last ; with a fierce disposition that in some makes but little distinction between friend and foe. In Jan., 1719, by an act of the town, the In- dians were not allowed to keep dogs.
In 1860, a visitor on the Island wrote : "There are not one-fourth as many sheep here as there ought to be, and as there would be, if it were not for that crying nuisance, the multiplicity of dogs. The farmers dare not risk the dangers from canine depredations which, at the present time, are full as great as when wolves howled over the ancient hills of the Island." Query : Did the Island ever have wolves? The dogs then were very numerous, and wanted a change from fish diet. They also killed geese, a large flock in one instance, and buried them, as a future supply of fresh meat. The dogs now are more civilized, perhaps better fed.
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HOT-HOUSES.
HOT-HOUSES.
The Hot-Houses, or Russian Baths, were an institution of the aboriginal Block Islanders. Mr. Niles has left us the following description of them.
" They were made as a vault, partly under ground, and in the form of a large oven, where two or three persons might on occasion sit together, and it was placed near some depth of water; and their method was to heat some stones very hot in the fire, and put them into the hot- house, and when the person was in, to shut it close up, with only so much air as was necessary for respiration, or that they within might freely draw their breath. And being thus closely pent up, the heat of the stones occa- sioned them to sweat in a prodigious manner, streaming as it were from every part of the body ; and when they had continued there as long as they could well endure it, their method was to rush out and plunge themselves into the water. By this means they pretend a cure of all pains and numbness in their joints, and many other maladies."
At one time, while Ninicraft, chief of the Narragan- setts, was on the Island visiting his subjects, a quarrel arose between a few settlers and a few Indians, and fists and clubs were playing pretty lively, until the chief was called out of one of these hot-houses by a runner, and hastened to the turmoil and stopped it by rushing among them with a red coat in his hand, crying-"King Charles! King Charles !"
But one spot is now known to exhibit any of the remains of those hot-houses. It has been filled up so nearly that but a slight indentation in the ground remains, and may be seen at the south end of the Great Pond, in the bank near the water, and on the west side of a stone- wall that runs nearly in a line from Mr. Simon Ball's house to the pond.
-
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
ENSLAVED.
The relation of the Indians to the settlers on the Island soon became that of slaves to masters, as seen in the case of Thomas Terry, in 1669, soliciting aid from Governor Lovelace, of New York, and from the governor of Rhode Island, in recapturing six of his Indian slaves. The same relation is demonstrated, too, by the town records, as in the following instances.
In October, 1675, the town council of Block Island made a law "That no Indian whatsoever shall keep any gun in his custody, but shall be brought to his master's house, in whose ground he lives, every night, and give notice to his master, and return the gun again the night of the same day hereafter, or forfeit his gun." In 1680 an ordinance was passed prohibiting the sale of rum to an Indian.
In 1690, Trugo, an Indian, was sold into bondage, by his brothers and sisters, to Joshua Raymond for a term of thirteen years for thirteen gallons of rum and four cloth coats, the rum to be paid in annual installments of one gallon each. Trugo was to have his board and clothing, and two suits of apparel at the expiration of his bondage.
In 1693, several Indians were arrested and fined for sheep-stealing, and from the record we see the existence of slavery. It seems very strange that the fines were no heavier.
"Harry,-Old Ned's son, 0 50
Samson, Thomas Mitchell's man, 0 1 0
Jeffrey, Joshua Raymond's man, 0
1 0
Big George, Mr. Sands' servant, Ned's son, 0 5 0"
Judging from the fines we must conclude that "Old Ned's " sons were five times as guilty as the others were. They were all arrested on suspicion, and circumstantial evidence was so close as to extort their confession.
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ENSLAVED.
It is evident from the following law of the Island en- acted in 1709, that both Indian and Negro slaves were troublesome. It reads thus : "No Indian nor Negro cervants shall walk abroad After nine A Clock at night without his master or mistries leave, and if said servants or slaves shall be found or taken from home after nine A Clock at night by the Constable or any freeholder of sd Town and brought to the Wardens or Warden shall be taken and stript and receive ten laches on his or hurs naked back."
From this we learn that Indian and Negro slaves were treated alike, to some extent, on the Island. It should be borne in mind, too, that this stringency was at a time when slavery was popular, and slave-ships were frequently seen in the American waters. This act was in harmony also with another promulgated by the state of Rhode Island in 1667, viz .: "That if in Rhode Island, or in any other towns, any Indian shall be taken walking in the night-time, he shall be seized by the watch and kept in custody till morning, and brought before some magistrate, which said magistrate shall deal with him according to his discretion, and the demerit of the said person so offending."
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