USA > Rhode Island > A history of Block Island : from its discovery, in 1514, to the present time, 1876 > Part 5
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The Block Island Indians were protected by many acts of humanity on the part of the early settlers. Some had lands under their own management, as seen in the peti- tion of Simon Ray to the town in behalf of the heirs of Penewess, a petty chief, who died and left land on the Island from which "his countrymen " were entitled to rent. This protection was evinced by the following act :
"At a quartur Cort held for the town of New Shore- ham at the hewes of mr. Robert Gutterig the second tewseday In July 1675 It dead evidently apere that mr. gorges [George's] negro rathy [Wrathy] and John drum- ers sone [Drummer's son] was gilty of staling fish from 6
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
Steven the Indian for the which wee ordur each of them to be whiped with 12 stripes or pay 6 shelens In mony or the true valu and that sd rathe [Wrathy] is not here- after to be absent from his masters hews after sun set without leave from his sd mastur on penalty of the acoused [accused] being whiped with 12 lashes."
The Indians, as well as the English, were protected against the evil of intemperance. That there were un- principled men who would sell them rum, regardless of consequences, is seen in the stratagem of Thomas Terry in destroying their supply furnished by a Mr. Arnold, a trader on Block Island. This Arnold, like others, prob- ably drank like the Indians and brought on a fatal attack of delirium tremens, or the "horrors." The record of him is this :- " Samuel Arnold, one of his Majesty's sub- jects being sick and outt of frame, not being in his right sences, Departed his house. [In the night.] The next morning Sarch was made for him and was found dead." The jury of inquest on Mr. Arnold's body gave the fol- lowing verdict :
" The Jury being sollemly Ingaged came into the wood whare the sd Sam'l arnall's corps Lay and haveing strictly vewed sª corps do unonnimasly agree that he being griped with the pains of death ran from his house, being out of his sences, to this wood, and Dyed a natural death."
As a protection against Indian intemperance the town enacted, in 1692, the following:
"Voted that if any person shall sell any rum, wine, cider, or any strong drink to Indian or Indians upon the Lord's day, being the first day of the week, for any strong drink as aforesaid sold at such time, or delivered to any Indian upon barter or otherwise whereby to be a means to cause said Indian to be drunk on the Lord's day, every such inhabitant so doing shall pay into the public stock in
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DISAPPEARING.
money or equivalent in current specie the sum of forty shillings to be paid forthwith upon conviction."
In June, 1693, Capt. William Hancock, for violating the above ordinance by selling rum to an Indian on the Sabbath, was fined twenty shillings. During this year an Indian boy was thrown from a cart and killed. In the Coroner's report it is said :- " The cart-wheel came against a stump, and suddenly overturned the Ingen lad."
DISAPPEARING.
The disappearing of the Indians from Block Island was rapid and easily explained. Up to the year 1700 they numbered about 300. As these were mentioned by Niles in contrast with the sixteen men and a boy who chal- lenged them to an open field-fight, it may be inferred that they were men, warriors. If this inference be cor- rect, then we may put down their original number, at the time of settlement by the English in 1662, to be nearly 1000, including the women and children. From a "Mem- orandum of Block Island, or Manisses, A. D. 1762, by Dr. Stiles," we learn to how small a number they had dwindled during the first century of occupancy of the Island by the English. He says that in 1756 there were " few Indians, but no wigwams." From the same volume in which this statement is contained we learn that in 1774 the Indians of Block Island were reduced to fifty-one.
Their disappearance from the Island may be attributed mainly to three causes ; first, the loss of their lands ; secondly, their subjugation to slavery, and thirdly, the need of them by Ninicraft, their chief, on the main-land. As instances of their running away it is sufficient to refer to the six who left Mr. Thomas Terry ; to Chagum, after whom Chagum Pond is supposed to have been named, who ran away with a canoe, was recaptured, and re-en- slaved. (See Chagum Pond.) That they were not exter-
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
minated by wars is certain, for we have no account of any killing of Indians on Block Island after Col. Endicott's expedition against the Manisseans in 1636. A single remnant of the old aboriginal stock is living on the Island.
CHURCH FAMILY.
Peter Church, a full-blood Indian, fought for the Eng- lish, in the old French War, on the main-land, and after- wards returned to his native Island where he spent some years before his death. His grave is in the colored burial ground.
Mary Church, daughter of Peter, was born upon Block Island, and worked in different families. She had three sons, and three daughters whose names were Hearty N. Church, Sally, and Thankful. The sons' names were Titus, Solomon, and Isaac. All are dead except Isaac. They left children, now widely scattered. Two of them, very respectable half-breeds, females, from Stonington, visited the Island in the summer of 1876.
Aaron Church, son of the above-named Titus, from his connection with the pirate Gibbs, has left a reputation that indicates his descent from the murderers of Capt. Oldham. In the year 1830 he shipped on board the brig Vineyard, early in November, at New Orleans, for Phila- delphia. William Thornby was captain, and William Roberts, mate. After the vessel had been several days at sea Charles Gibbs, Thomas J. Wansley, and Aaron Church -desperate characters, especially the first-named, entered into a conspiracy to capture the vessel, which contained a cargo of sugar, molasses, and also $54,000 in specie. On the 23d of Nov. they executed their piratical purpose, in the night, by killing Captain Thornby and his mate, Wil- liam Roberts, with a "pump-break," and threw their bodies overboard. Others of the crew, to save their lives, became feigned accessories, until they reached the shore
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CHURCH FAMILY.
and could expose the pirates with safety. Wansley was the steward, and a negro. Church was part Indian, and Gibbs, a native of Rhode Island, was a notorious villain, who probably led his accomplices into this their last crime.
When about fifteen miles from Long Island, having divided the money, which belonged to Stephen Girard, Gibbs took the long boat, and Church the jolly boat, shar- ing the money between them. One Atwell was with Church. Gibbs landed on Long Island, was arrested, tried, and with Wansley executed in New York April 22, 1831. Church started, it is said, for Block Island, with sails set in his jolly boat, in a rough sea, and was foundered, and drowned with his companions in sight of Gibbs and Wansley who "saw them clinging to the masts." Thus the pirate Aaron Church went down with his ill-gotten gain.
Isaac Church, the uncle of Aaron, is still living, at the age of eighty-eight, as he informs the writer. He can give but little information of his ancestry-does not know who was his father, but remembers well his mother who was more easily identfied. If his father were not an Indian his mother was surely a full-breed, and vice versa, for his hair and features are thoroughly Manissean. As he is older than the rest of the Islanders it is useless to question them about his parentage. They all, however, speak well of " Uncle Isaac Church," and his comfortable home is proof of his temperance and industry in former days. He has obtained distinction in a peculiar way that will long be remembered, viz. : Attendance at funerals. It is a common remark that " he has been to more fune- rals than any other person on the Island," and that "he goes to all funerals." It is easy to predict that many will be at his, and that many a tender recollection of " Uncle Isaac " will be cherished by the children now living, who in maturer years will speak of him as the last and worthy 6*
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
representative of the ancient Manissean lords of the soil, . who will soon be known only in history.
The descendants of Isaac Church are too far removed from aboriginal blood to be classed with Indians.
THEIR RELIGION.
Of the religion of the Block Island Indians no infor- mation of much account is attainable. That the natives of New England generally had some notions of a super- human Being is well understood. The Pequots evinced this when they regarded their Chief Sassacus as " a god that nobody could kill," extolling him as superhuman because of his supposed immortality. Whatever he may have been, back of him in the minds of his warriors we see the fundamental notion of religion-the notion of supremacy. That notion was in the minds of the Manis- seans, and they have left a record of it in the beautiful name of their Island. For it is said by very good author- ity that " Manisses," when interpreted, means, " The Little God," or the "Island of the Little God." This perhaps, had reference to some ancient petty sachem, while the great sachem of the Narragansetts was near Westerly, R. I., as Mr. Niles says he there viewed " the remains of Ninicraft's fort." But all is gone but the fame of their fierceness.
It is with feelings shaded with sadness that we take leave of this subject, as we look out upon the hundreds of little hills reflected from intervening waters, where the arrows of the Red men secured food from the innumerable fowls that rested here in their fall and spring journeys south and north, where the lights of their wigwams cheered the lonely voyager-lights around which were told the strange legends of antiquity and the war-songs of victory were wildly chanted, and young men and maidens courted, and where even savage hearts quailed, as the
1
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THEIR RELIGION.
howling of the tempest and the crashing thunders com- mingled with "the sound of many waters," while the darkness of night at intervals was banished by the light- nings which for an instant lighted up the green hills, their great and little mirrors of water, and the foaming sea around, all preaching to the Indian of the Great Spirit as directly, perhaps, as did the prophet to the more civil- ized when he said : " Will ye not tremble at my presence,
" Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it ;
And though the waters thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail ;
Though they roar, yet can they not pass over it ? "
JER. V, 22.
So He has set bounds to nations as well as to individ- uals, and instead of boasting of a superiority over the savage tribes, the last of which are fading away, it is well to remember the old and demonstrated saying: " We all do fade as a leaf."
The " life and immortality bought to light " to us, were darkly seen by the Manisseans, as shown by their mode of burial. One of many instances may here suffice. On the farm now owned by Mr. Simon Ball, at the south end of the Great Pond, a few years ago there was a small land-slide which left standing in the bank in full view an Indian skeleton, very large, with a rude earthen jar at his feet well packed with scallop shells. From their known custom of burying eatables with the dead to supply them with food on their journey to another world, it is evident that this earthen pot of shell-fish was there buried with the Indian in a walking posture for the same purpose. By this custom they have left good proof of their belief in a future life. About all, therefore, that can be attri- buted to them of a religious character is : 1. A belief in the existence and power of the Great Spirit. 2. A belief
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
in a conscious future state ; and 3. Their dim view of the soul's immortality.
Indian Head Neck, the old Indian burial ground, has disclosed many human bones, and many shells which indi- cate the religious rite of burying food with the dead. In contrast with these, two heads of Indians, for some crime, were anciently placed upon the tops of stakes in said burial-ground, and from that circumstance the first settlers named that narrow bluff Indian Head Neck.
BLOCK ISLAND HOSTILITIES.
Although no distinguished battles have been fought either on, or near Block Island, yet it has always shared in the great national hostilities in which our country from time to time has been involved. Of conflicts here between the Indians our knowledge is only traditionary. This knowledge, however, is sufficient to leave the conviction that from "time out of mind," this Island was a bone of contention between neighboring tribes upon the main-land. As it lies nearest to the territory occupied by the Narra- gansetts it naturally came under the rule of their Chiefs, Ninicraft, Miantinomo, Canonicus, and other more remote sachems in past ages. Still, it was within reach of the eagle eyed Sassacus and his warlike Pequots, and even the more distant Mohegans beyond the Connecticut river coveted the fertile plantations and productive fishing grounds of Manisses. Tradition points to their savage fleet of bark canoes launched beyond " two large rivers," and made to skim over the briny deep by the force of paddles flashing in the moonlight until they were silently dipped at midnight along the Island's shores at Cooney- mus, or at Grace's Cove. It tells us too of the Mohegan dashes from Montauk, their shortest distance to row to Manisses. The Mohegan Bluffs will ever remain as a monument of the Narragansetts' victory over the Mohe- gans, and the friendship of Ninicraft their chief with the English will also immortalize his strategy in maintaining his grounds against the more warlike Pequots. Had he not done this the fate, too, of the little colony of sixteen
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
families, far from the main-land, might have been very different from what it was ; for then Sassacus might have weakened the Narragansetts, captured Manisses, and with his fierce Pequots annihilated the little colony. But Nini- craft's alliance with the English kept his Block Island subjects from hostilities with the early settlers, and also from feuds among themselves which are said to have arisen previously between the Indians of the west side and those of the east side of the Island.
WITH THE INDIANS.
The first act of hostility on Block Island in which white men participated was the killing of Capt. John Oldham by the Indians in 1636, an account of which is given in the article on Indians.
The second act of hostility was that of Col. John En- dicott in 1636, in his expedition to "do justice unto the Indians for the murder of Mr. Oldham," and to take pos- session of their Island. His officers were Capt. John Underhill, Capt. Nathaniel Turner, Ensigns Jennison and . Davenport. He had ninety soldiers. Winthrop says,- " They were embarked in three pinnaces, and carried two shallops and two Indians with them. They had commis- sion to put to death the men of Block Island, but to spare the women and children, and to bring them [men] away, and to take possession of the Island." (See article on Indians.)
This commission was not to kill all " the men," but rather to kill only men, and not women and children, and Endi- cott acted accordingly, killing only a sufficient number for a severe retribution and for the capture of the Island. Had the commission meant all, it would have said so, and Endicott would have obeyed.
. The Court and Council of Massachusetts sent out this expedition to Block Island on the 25th of Sept., 1636. It
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WITH THE INDIANS.
is probable that Endicott, on his way to the Island, con- ferred with the Chief of the Narragansetts, Miantinomo, and perhaps with the Pequots, for one of his soldiers wrote back to a friend as follows :
" We are now in readiness for Block Island, only we wait for a fair wind. We are informed of many Indians there, so we expect the toughest work we have had yet." " 2d day of the 6th week of our warfare.
ISRAEL STOUGHTON."
In Winthrop's History of New England it is said : " They arrived at Block Island the last of August. The wind blowing hard at N. E., there went so great a surf as they had much to do to land ; and about forty Indians were ready upon the shore to entertain them with their arrows which they shot off at our men ; but being armed with corslets they had no hurt, only one was lightly hurt upon his neck, and another near his foot. So soon as one man leaped on shore, they all fled. The Island is about ten miles long, and four broad, full of small hills, and all overgrown with brush-wood of oak,-no good timber on it,-so as they could not march but in one file and in the narrow paths. There were two plantations, three miles in sunder, and about sixty wigwams,-some very large and fair,-and about two hundred acres of corn, some gathered and laid on heaps, and the rest standing. When they had spent two days searching the Island, and could not find the Indians, they burnt their wigwams and all their mats, and some corn, and staved seven canoes, and departed. They could not tell what men they killed, but some were wounded and carried away by their fellows."
Endicott did not very thoroughly search the Island, or he would have found the Indians, and the heavy timber then standing, abundant in 1662.
The full punishment and subjugation of the Manisseans
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
were not completed by Col. Endicott until a second land- ing, in 1637, by the above-named Stoughton, of whom Winthrop (then governor of Mass.) says : "Mr. Stough- ton sailed with some of his company from Pequod to Block Island. They came hither in the night, yet were discovered, and our men having killed one or two of them, and burnt some of their wigwams, etc., they came to parley, and, submitting themselves to become tributa- ries in one hundred fathom wampum peague [beads] and to deliver any that should be found to have any hand in Mr. Oldham's death, they were all received and no more harm done them."
This conclusion of the Oldham hostilities clearly shows how unjust a reflection has been cast upon Massachusetts by those who have construed Endicott's commission to mean that "the whole male population of the Island must be exterminated," and that "the women and children were to be brought off as captives." (Narragansett Weekly, for Aug. 30, 1860. Also foot note "4," of Winthrop, I, p. 229.) By misconstruction the language of said commis- sion which meant gentleness, in killing only men, and only enough to subdue the Island, and to bring some away as hostages, wholly sparing the women and children, has been made to mean cruelty, with much injustice to Gov. Vane and his Council, and " the rest of the magistrates and ministers," all of whom were together at the special session to consider the course to be taken in the case of the death of Mr. Oldham. They could not have been ignorant of the great number of Indians on the Island, and of the impossibility of exporting in Endicott's little vessels the women and children, for Roger Williams was then in constant communication with the great chiefs of the Island and with the Massachusetts authorities. More- over, Endicott's commission required him to proceed direct .
from Block Island "to the Pequods," to make war, if
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WITH THE INDIANS.
necessary with them ; but how could he do this with his vessels loaded down with the women and children of said Island ? No. Endicott's commission simply meant,-kill men, but spare women and children ; capture the Island ; bring away a few natives as hostages, and kill only as many men as necessary to accomplish this end; "thence go to the Pequods, &c.," and he complied with this com- mission.
The hostile feelings of the Block Island Indians towards the white settlers were latent rather than manifest, as in other parts of the colonies. On one or two occasions they were on the verge of an outbreak, as in the squabble between a few of them and a few settlers, and at the time the Indians assembled on Fort Island for a pitched battle, as related in the biographical sketches of James Sands, and of Thomas Terry.
That the Indians of Block Island were very dangerous in the estimation of the settlers is evident from the acts passed at various times to keep them from violence. For there were traders then, as now, who, regardless of the peace and interests of society, for " filthy lucre," endan- gered the lives of all by selling to the natives fire-arms and fire-water. In 1675, the vigilance of the citizens required the disarming of every Indian at sundown. Their guns were then delivered up to their masters, and returned to them in the morning. They were about twenty times as numerous as the English. In 1675, too, a " squadron " of soldiers for self defense, was maintained by the Islanders. It was kept up by each citizen serving
in rotation. The house of Robert Gutterig was their rendezvous. There they met, according to their turns, before the sun was an hour high, upon failure of which each delinquent was obliged to pay the penalty of "five shillings, and that to be kept in the hands of the treasurer for a common stock for ammunition." There was one 7
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HISTORY OF BLOCK ISLAND.
excuse, however, then, the force of which is felt even now. In case the easterly wind blew strongly, accompa- nied by rain or snow, the soldier was excused from leaving · home and repairing to the garrison that day, unless it cleared up before twelve o'clock. Flint locks and wet powder were then common, the latter in rainy weather. At this time, so far as we can learn, there was no protec- tion from the main-land for the infant colony. The near- est intimation of it is the fact that in May, 1664, Messrs. James Sands and Joseph Kent petitioned the General Assembly, and in response Roger Williams, Thomas Ol- ney, and Joseph Torrey were appointed a committee to consider said petition and report on it in reference to the " preservation of His Majesty's peace there," on Block Island.
In this perilous time, 1676, the Islanders passed the following ordinance, viz .: " Voted that every male from the age of sixteen years old and upwards, shall provide himself with a sufficient fire-lock gun and two pounds of powder and four pounds of shot and lead at or before the last of March next ensuing, upon the penalty of twenty shillings for such neglect." At the same time the sale of strong drink in smaller quantities than a gallon was prohibited under the penalty of twenty shillings, ex- cept where license was given. Rum then, as now, fired the savage feelings, which threatened the extermination of the little colony of Islanders, and up to the year 1693 we find stringent laws enforced to restrain unprincipled venders on the Lord's day, fining them forty shillings for selling to an Indian, "rum, wine, cider, or any strong drink " to make him intoxicated. About this time King Philip's war was in progress, and other sachems were plotting the extermination of the New England colonies. The Islanders, therefore, must have been more or less than human, if they were not filled with alarm by the
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WITH THE INDIANS.
rumors of white men, women, and children on the main slaughtered, and tortured to death by savages, while the same uncivilized spirits, far outnumbering themselves, were lurking day and night about their scattered homes. It was then that the wisdom of the high-toned civilian, James Sands; the calm, religious faith of the pious Simon Ray; and the heroism of the fearless Thomas Terry were frequently taxed to their utmost and combined in councils of defense and even offense. It was then that the cot- tages and wigwams of Block Island were filled with anxious minds plotting, talking, and dreaming of blood- shed. It was then that a clear insight into the weakness accompanying the Red Man's consciousness of his inferi- ority, and a rational view of the comparative dangers of timidity and defiance on the part of the few settlers, that the latter, commending themselves to the God of their Pilgrim fathers, put their wives and children into a feeble garrison, and challenged their hostile neighbors to face them on the field of battle. To no scene of sublimer faith and heroism can the historian point than was exhib- ited on Block Island when, at Fort Island, the little band of sixteen men and a boy marched to the music of a single drum beaten for dear life by Mr. Kent, until they faced the frowning fort of twenty times their number, standing there within gunshot of the enemy armed with guns, bows and arrows, clubs and scalping knives. Was a braver challenge ever given ? A little handful of less · than tens virtually saying to hundreds, " We stand within the reach of your savage weapons- strike the first blow if you dare, and we will send you all to-to the hunting grounds of your dead men."
The victory thus won was so complete, without the dis- charge of a gun or an arrow that from that day to the present, when but one Indian remains (Uncle Isaac Church), an unbroken friendship has continued between
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