USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Vol. I > Part 35
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1 Northampton, Springfield, Chelmsford, Groton, Sudbury, and Marlbo- rough.
409
BURNING OF PROVIDENCE .- NAVAL DEFENCE.
King of England will supply their place as fast as they CHAP. fall." " Well, let them come," was the reply, "we are X. 1 67 6. March. ready for them. But as for you, brother Williams, you are a good man ; you have been kind to us many years ; not a hair of your head shall be touched."' The savages were true to their ancient friend. He was not harmed, but the town was nearly destroyed. Fifty-four houses were burned .? The records were saved by throwing them 29. from the burning house of John Smith, the miller, then town clerk, into his mill-pond. It was the north part of the town that was consumed, Within the memory of aged persons but recently deceased, the cellar walls of some of these houses were still standing, on the east side of the road just south of Harrington's lane, or North street, the northern limit of the city."3
At an adjourned meeting of the Assembly, a flotilla of gun-boats was ordered for the defence of the island. There were to be four boats manned by five or six men each, the force to be increased if necessary. These were employed in constantly sailing round the island to prevent invasion from the mainland. Of the size of these boats we have no certain knowledge, except that some of them were sloops.4 This is the first instance, in the history of the
1 Knowles, 346, and references in the note.
2 Accounts vary as to the number. Some say twenty-nine, others thirty, and fifty-four. The largest number is probably nearest the fact. The dis- crepancy may arise from a distinction made but not stated, between dwellings and buildings. There is a difference of one day also in the date of this as- sault. The 29th and 30th of March are both assigned by different writers.
3 The venerable John Ilowland, late President of the Rhode Island His- torical Society, who died Nov. 5th, 1854, aged ninety-seven years, has often pointed out this spot to the writer, and told him that when he was a boy the foundation walls of several of these buildings were visible.
4 A petition from Wm. Clarke in 1679, recites that he was " commander of one of the sloops in 1676," which was taken from him by the government, and for which he now asks indemnity. By a letter of Roger Williams in the archives of Connecticut, dated 27th June, 1675, it would appear that this naval force was composed of sloops, and that it was sent out nearly a year before it appears npon our records. Conn. MSS. vol. i. p. 200, in R. I. Hist.
April 4.
410
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
X. 1676. April
CHAP. colonies, where a naval armament was relied upon for de- fence. It was the germ of a future Rhode Island squad- ron, one century later, and of an ultimate American navy.
4.
A classified census of all the people on the island was ordered, English, negroes, and Indians, with those also who had taken refuge there, and the amount of corn and arms possessed by each, to be reported in detail to the Assem- bly. The record of these interesting statistics cannot be found. Two heavy cannon were mounted at Portsmouth. Sixteen " of the most juditious inhabitants " of the colony were desired to attend the sittings of the Assembly, to ad- vise with that body "in these troublesome times."
On the very day these proceedings were had, an event took place that contributed more than anything which had yet occurred to put an end to the war. The capture of Canonchet, the leader of the Narragansets, next to that of Philip himself, was the most decisive blow. It was he who had defeated Capt. Peirse, nine days before, and had cut off his entire command. This terrible defeat roused the United Colonies to more vigorous action. Four com- panies of Connecticut volunteers, with three of friendly Indians, immediately marched to attack Canonchet. Capt. George Denison of Stonington, who led one of the compa- nies, was conspicuous for his zeal and bravery. This force surprised Canonchet near the scene of Peirse's massacre at Pawtucket, and a rout ensued. The Sachem fled, but having slipped in wading the river, was overtaken on the opposite bank by a Pequot and surrendered without re- sistance. The first Englishman who came up to him was a young man named Robert Stanton, who put some ques- tions to the royal captive. " You much child ! No under- stand matters of war ! Let your brother or chief come.
Soc. The same appears from Holden and Greene's petition in reply to the Massachusetts agents. "The colony of Rhode Island and Providence, did, at the request of the other colonies, assist them with several sloops well manned, when the war was begun in Plymouth colony, to the utmost they could do, and to the great damage of the enemy." Br. S. P. O. N. Eng., vol. iii. p. 26.
411
DEATH OF CANONCHET.
Him I will answer !" was the contemptuous reply after re- CHAP. garding the youth for a moment in silence. His life was
X. offered him on condition of the submission of his tribe. 1676. He treated the offer with calm disdain, and when it was April. urged upon him, desired " to hear no more about it." He was sent in charge of Capt. Denison to Stonington, where a council of war condemned him to be shot. When inform- ed that he must die, he made this memorable answer, which may challenge the loftiest sentiment recorded in classic or modern history. "I like it well ; I shall dic before my heart is soft, or I have said any thing unworthy of myself." His conduct on this occasion has been justly compared with that of Regulus before the Roman Senate, than which the chronicles of time present but one sublimer scene. A higher type of manly character, more loftiness of spirit, or dignity of action, the qualities that make heroes of men, and once made demigods of heroes, than are found in this western savage, may be sought in vain among the records of pagan heroism or of Christian fortitude. To ensure the fidelity of the friendly tribes, by committing them to a deed that would for ever deter the Narragansets from seeking their alliance, it was arranged that each of them should take a part in the execution. Accordingly the Pequots shot him, the Mohegans cut off his head and quartered him, and the Niantics, who under Ninigret had joined the English, burned his body, and sent his head as " a token of love " and loyalty to the commissioners at Hartford. Thus perished the foremost of Philip's cap- tains, and the last great Sachem of the Narragansets !
The death of Governor Winthrop of Connecticut was a severe loss to New England. Rhode Island had good rea- son to mourn his decease, for his inflexible justice would not assent to the spurious claims set up by his own colony in the Narraganset country, even while he was their chief magistrate. His personal qualities had endeared him in his youth to the people of Rhode Island, so that he was urged
5.
412
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
1676. April.
CHAP. to move hither and become the governor. The conduct of X. his later years had served to confirm the esteem in which he was held, and now his death left Rhode Island without an influential friend in the councils of her ambitious neighbor.
20.
Within a few days a still heavier loss befell Rhode Island. The two men who had been so long rivals in their public life, as agents of their respective colonies, but who had always maintained a mutual friendship, passed from the world almost together. Dr. John Clarke expired two weeks after Governor Winthrop, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. To him Rhode Island was chiefly indebted for the extension of her territory on each side of the bay, as well as for the royal charter. He was a ripe scholar, learned in the practice of two professions, besides having had large experience in diplomatic and political life. He was always in public life under the old patent, as commis- sioner and as general treasurer, from the first election of commissioners held under it, until sent to England, where he was employed as agent of the colony for twelve years. On his return, he served as a deputy in the Assembly from the first election under the charter till he was made deputy governor, to which position he was three times elected, and served twice, closing his public life with that office, five years before his death. With all these public pursuits, he continued the practice of his original profes- sion as a physician, and also retained the pastoral charge of his church, as its records show. His life was devoted to the good of others. He was a patriot, a scholar, and a Christian. The purity of his character is conspicuous in many trying scenes, and his blameless, self-sacrificing life disarmed detraction and left him without an enemy. He was three times married but left no children. The colony was largely indebted to him for advances made in securing the charter, and this debt was not extinguished till many years after his decease.1
" He had mortgaged his Newport estate in July, 1663, to Capt. Richard
413
OFFICE OF MAJOR-GENERAL CREATED.
The General Assembly having provided for the naval defence of the island, adjourned one week and then created the office of Major-General. They elected Captain John Cranston, with the title of Major, to command all the militia of the colony. The commission is signed by Gov. Coddington, whose religious tenets were compelled, in this case, to succumb to the popular will under the stimulus of pressing danger. Providence was in ruins ; but as the time for planting was near, the handful of men who re- mained there again applied to the governor for aid in maintaining a garrison. Deputy governor Clarke replied, agreeing to sustain ten men at the colony's expense, until the next session of Assembly, when a committee was sent to Providence upon that business, and further action was postponed for another month.
At the general election, deputy governor Walter Clarke was chosen governor, and Major John Cranston deputy governor. Ten barrels of powder and a ton of lead were ordered to be bought.
For two months after the capture of Canonchet, there were no events of importance in the war. The Indians had gone north, and thither the Connecticut troops under Ma- jor Talcot pursued them. Their march to Brookfield and Northampton was a long and weary one, known, to this day, as " the hungry march," from the sufferings of the soldiers for want of food. They came in good time, for only four days after their arrival at the latter place, a force of seven hundred Indians made a furious assault upon Hadley, now for the third time attacked. It was then that the sudden appearance of Goffe,1 the regicide, who
Dean, of London. The last payment was not made till Sept. 5th, 1699, when £115 was paid to the heirs of Capt. Dean, and the mortgage was lifted. Backns's Hist. of the Baptists.
! The tradition that Goffe and Whaley were at one time concealed in Nar- raganset, is strengthened by the suspicions of the royal Commissioners to that effect. In a letter from Fort James, New York, 31st Oct., 1666, to Mr. Rich- ards, a constable in Kings Province, they, at his request, authorize him to
CHAP. X. 1676. April 11.
12. May 3.
June. 5.
12.
414
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. unkown to the people was concealed near the town, served X. to rally the terrified inhabitants to battle until the troops 1676. June from Northampton came to the rescue. His venerable as- 12. pect, mysterious appearance, and as sudden departure, so bewildered the population of Hadley, that they ascribed their deliverance to the interposition of an angel, so super- natural, in their minds, was the whole transaction. At this time, Col. Church concluded a treaty with Awashonks, queen of Seaconnet, by which her tribe was detached from the cause of Philip, and soon after united in the expedition under Church, that terminated the war. The daring dis- played by Church in this negotiation, was equal to his skill in effecting the result.1 Awashonks sent a messenger to Rhode Island, whose safe conduct was provided for by 14. the Assembly. The Providence petition was granted by establishing a garrison of eight men, with two more, to be found by the owner of the garrison house at his own cost. Roger Williams, Arthur Fenner, William Harris, and George Lawton were appointed to select, from the garri- sons already existing in Providence, the one best suited 19. for the purpose, which was to be called the king's garrison. Captain Arthur Fenner was placed in command and duly commissioned. The Assembly had a series of adjourn- ments all through this year, sitting every few weeks, as the exigencies of the time required. The army in pass- ing through Providence, after the great swamp fight, had left there certain hostages or prisoners in charge of Roger William's, who sent them for safe keeping to Newport.
30. The Assembly ordered them to be returned to Providence, "judging they properly belong to Plymouth colony." It should be noted that the army left no garrison at Provi-
retain the cattle in his custody, giving security in the sum of £100 to the Governor of Rhode Island, for the surrender of said cattle when required, " as it appears to us by several testimonies and circumstances that the cattle are truly belonging to them," Goffe and Whaley. Br. S. P. O., New Eng. vol. i. p. 357.
1 Church's History, 35-44.
415
DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS NEAR WARWICK.
dence, although, by the act of the confederates, the de- CHAP. fenceless towns of Rhode Island were exposed to the mer- .Y. ciless savages, who could not be expected, after the de- 1676. struction of their fort by the English, to distinguish friend June. from foe among the whites. In fact every house between Providence and Stonington, except the stone one at War- wick, was burned, and every fertile field laid waste. The Assembly repealed the law exempting Quakers from bear- ing arms or paying military fines, and now required every citizen to do his part in personally defending the State. The exemption act was restored when the war was ended.
After the repulse at Hadley the Indians deserted that part of the country, and resumed their ravages to some extent in Plymouth. The English army marched to the south, and surprised them in a cedar swamp near War- wick. A great slaughter ensued. Magnus, the old queen of Narraganset, a sister of Ninigret, was taken, and with ninety other captives put to the sword. One hundred and seventy-one Indians fell in this massacre without the loss of a single man of the English. Thence they scoured the country between Providence and Warwick, killing many more. The effect of these repeated reverses was soon visible. The Indians were divided in their councils, and many sued for peace. Many came to Conanicut isl- and, and submitted to the government of Rhode Island, and large numbers surrendered at discretion to the Eng- lish forces. Others fled westward, and were chased from swamp to swamp. The main body of these were over- taken near the Housatonic river, by Major Taleot, and cut to pieces. Still Philip maintained his ground with a band of trusty followers. He had said that he would not live till he had no country, and the time was drawing nigh when his word would be redeemed.
Capt. Church was commissioned by Gov. Winslow to proceed with a volunteer force of two hundred men, chiefly Indians, to attack Philip in his retreats near Mount Hope.
July 3.
24.
416
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. X. 1676. Aug. 1.
7.
For several days they pursued the Indians from place to place, killing many and taking a large number prisoners, among whom were Philip's wife and only son. The sa- chem himself narrowly escaped being shot. Still his in- domitable spirit sustained him. Two Rhode Island com- panies under Lieut. Richmond and Capt. Edmonds, brought in forty-two captives. These and all other pris- oners were ordered to be sold into service in the colony for the term of nine years, one-half the proceeds to go to the captors and the rest to the treasury. No Indians were permitted to be brought into the island, or to be sent out of it without permission of the magistrates, un- der a penalty of five pounds.
Church closely followed up his successes, and in three days had captured over one hundred and seventy of Phil- ip's followers. The sachem was driven to a swamp near Mount Hope, where one of his followers, advising him to sue for peace, was slain on the spot by the indignant chief. This indiscreet act hastened his own death. Al- derman, a brother of the murdered man, deserted to Church, and guided the enemy to the place where Philip was concealed. The thicket was surrounded. Capt. Roger Goulding of Rhode Island went into the swamp to drive out the Indians. Philip in attempting to escape was shot through the heart by Alderman himself, thus singularly fulfilling the prophecy of the powaws at the beginning of the war, that Metacomet should never fall by English hands. The body was dragged out of the swamp, beheaded and quartered by an Indian. The head was sent to Plymouth, where it was set up on a gibbet for twenty years ; one hand was sent to Boston as a trophy, and the other, which had a well-known scar, was given to Alderman, who made money by exhibiting it. The mangled body was hung upon four trees, a monument of the barbarity of the age. The great chieftain of the
12.
417
CLOSING INCIDENTS OF THE WAR.
aborigines fell by a traitor's arm, and was denied the rite of Christian burial by his vindictive foes !
CHAP. X. -
Among those who fell in this attack was the Indian 1676. who. had fired the first gun in the war. An idea was cur- Aug. rent in those days that whichever side began the war would be defeated, which may account for the report that Philip wept when he heard of the massacre at Swanzey. When we consider these two events, the manner of Phil- ip's death, and the fall, at the same moment, of the In- dian who commenced the war, and recall the two prophe- cies or traditions which contemporary writers record, the whole tragedy of the war assumes the air of an acted drama. The coincidences certainly could not be more re- markable in a written tragedy.
Most of the Indians escaped from the swamp guided by old Annawon, a noted warrior under Massasoit, and the chief counsellor of Metacomet. He was a wary sav- age, and none but a master of the art of Indian warfare, like Church, could have taken him alive. This was ac- complished by Church a few nights after the death of Philip. Church wished to spare his life, but, in his ab- sence, the Plymouth authorities ordered him to be shot. The most renowned captives met a similar fate. Quina- pin, a cousin of Canonchet, and next to him in command at the great swamp fight, was sentenced to death by a council of war at Newport, and he with his brother were shot the next day. Pumham had already effaced the stain of a servile life by a manly death.' The friends of Philip were all executed, or met a fate worse than death in being sold away into perpetual slavery. Such was the fate of the young Metacomet, the only son of Philip, and hundreds of other captives were shipped to Spain and the West Indies.
One thing should be said to the lasting honor of the red
1 He fell on the 25th July at the head of his warriors, in a battle near Dedham. Drake, Book iii. p. 75.
VOL. I .- 27
24.
25.
418
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. man. X. Aug. The treatment of their prisoners was generally hu- mane, more so than was that of their Christian conquerors. 1676. Some of the soldiers, it is true, were tortured, but only a few, while the captives taken by the English were mostly butchered in cold blood, or sent into Spanish slavery. The English women were uniformly treated with respect. In not a single instance was violence offered to their per- sons during their captivity. The chivalric honor of the savage was the inviolable protection of his female captive. This is the unvarying testimony of many women, of all ages and conditions, who were carried away in the sacking of the towns.1
The war was ended. Desolation reigned over New England, and destiny had placed the seal of annihilation upon the Indian race. Victors and vanquished were alike exhausted. Thirteen English towns were in utter ruin, and except in Connecticut, which altogether escaped, scarcely one remained unscathed. The rural districts were everywhere laid waste. One-eleventh of the avail- able militia of the country had fallen in battle, and a still larger proportion of buildings were destroyed .? A heavy debt weighed upon the United Colonies, 3 while Rhode Island, excluded from the league and always opposed to the war, had suffered most severely of all. Her mainland had become a desert, her islands fortresses for defence and cities of refuge. We have already adverted to the sad fate of the captive Indians. A few of the foremost in the war were condemned to death, but the greater part,
See Mrs. Rowlandson's narrative of her captivity.
2 Trumbull's Connecticut, 350, note.
3 Edward Randolph in his report to the Board of Trade, Oct. 12th, 1676, states the cost of the war at £150,000, that about twelve hundred houses were burnt, over eight thousand head of cattle destroyed, besides thousands of bushels of grain. The English loss he puts at six hundred, with twelve captains, and the Indians at more than three thousand. The original report is in the British S. P. O. N. England papers, vol. ii. p. 93-100. See also Davis's Morton's Memorial, p. 458, Appendix, and Thatcher's Indian Biogra- phy, vol. i. p. 162.
419
DISPOSAL OF THE CAPTIVES.
in the other colonies, were sent abroad and sold into hope- less slavery. The conduct of Rhode Island was more hu- mane, and her legislation on this subject, when we con- sider the spirit of the age and the example of her neigh- bors, was more enlightened. The act of March, to which we before referred, declared " that no Indian in this col- ony be a slave, but only to pay their debts, or for their bringing up, or custody they have received, or to perform covenant as if they had been countrymen and not taken in war." This was in fact a true apprenticeship system, whose terms were strictly carried out, such as generally existed until a recent day among the white population everywhere, differing only in the fact that one was volun- tary while the other was not. It was not slavery either as it is recognized now or as it existed then ; and writers who have wasted regrets over the part that Roger Wil- liams had in the final disposition of the Rhode Island captives, might have spared their words had they more carefully examined the nature of the transaction, or taken into account the spirit of the age and the conduct of the other colonies. At a town-meeting held in Providence upon this subject, a committee of five, of whom Williams was chairman, reported a scale by which the proceeds of the sale of Indians was to be divided among the towns- men. The inhabitants were to be supplied at the rate current on the island. All captives under five years of age were " to serve till thirty ; above five and under ten, till twenty-eight ; above ten to fifteen, till twenty-seven ; above fifteen to twenty, till twenty-six ; from twenty to thirty shall serve eight years ; all above thirty, seven years." 1 An Indian named Chuff, who had been a ring- leader in the assaults on Providence, was condemned by the council of war and shot. Still it was necessary to preserve a strict watch over the natives. A warrant was
1 An extract from an account of sales at this time, and showing the value of Indian service, is given in Judge Staple's Annals, 171.
CHAP. X. 1676. Aug.
14
25.
420
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND.
CHAP. X. issued to stop all the canoes on Prudence Island, and not to permit any Indian to leave the island till further 1676. orders. Care was also taken to prevent their obtaining Aug. any arms or ammunition.1 The refugees began now to return from Newport. Mrs. Williams was brought up in a sloop belonging to her son Providence, who on the same 29. day carried away all the Indian prisoners to be sold at Newport. The eastern Indians, instigated by the French, continued for some years longer to harass the frontiers, and Col. Church was repeatedly sent against them. But the death of Metacomet closed the war in the settled por- tions of New England.
This war was the last struggle of an expiring nation. Before taking leave of the subject we may be allowed to present a few reflections suggested by the results. The Wampanoags and the Narragansets suffered the fate of the Pequots, and successive tribes, however powerful or warlike, have in their turn followed the same path to death. All history points to an inevitable law controlling the occupancy of the earth. Three races, and probably four, perhaps even more, have occupied this continent, but two of which remain, and one of these is fast retiring before the onward progress of the other. A century hence there will scarcely be a vestige of the Indian race upon this continent. They will have utterly disappeared, and, unlike their predecessors whose western tumuli and Aztec monuments survive the knowledge of their builders, and attest the existence of two successive races anterior to the Indians, they will not leave a proof upon the earth that they ever have existed. What is the law by which race after race of humanity succeed each other, each one continuing for untold ages, and then giving place to another utterly dissimilar to its predecessor ? The ques- tion involves the very mystery of creation, and can never
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