USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Westerly > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Charlestown > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Hopkinton > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 4
USA > Rhode Island > Washington County > Richmond > Westerly (Rhode Island) and its witnesses : for two hundred and fifty years, 1626-1876 : including Charlestown, Hopkinton, and Richmond until their separate organization, with the principal points of their subsequent history > Part 4
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Currying Stones. - There is a sin- gular specimen of this tool or instru- ment. It is shaped much like the foot of a horse, from the top of the fetlock down. The bottom has a perfect polish, and is concave in one direction, as though it had been used in rubbing hides stretched over a log.
Combs. - These were fan-shaped, made by tying splints that were di- minished near the top. They were used less for combing the hair, than
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WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
for holding it up from the top of the ; were mainly of elder wood; some head in the form of a crest.
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Ilammers. - In smoothing down the seams of their raw skins made into garments and moccasins, the na- tive tailors and shoemakers some- times used stones that had heads or faces. These implements were chan- neled around the middle to accept a small withe handle. There is one hammer perforated to receive handle, and diminished to a small face on one side and to a point on the other side. It was evidently em- ployed in some light and careful work.
1 were of reeds. These were tipped in front with stone and trimmed in rear with feathers.
War Clubs. - The progress of civil- : i i ization may be readily traced in the history of instruments of war. And certainly no instrument more fully reveals the savage than his war club. This evinces alike his spirit and his. skill. Two kinds of clubs were found among the aborigines of New England. The more common were plain, smooth, hard-wood sticks, from three to four feet in length, hardened by fire, and the largest at the stroke Standard Tops. - As a badge of au- thority, rank, or command, a staff was tipped or crowned with a thin, heart-shaped, fine-grained stone, per- forated lengthwise, and diminished . from the line of the perforation to a fair edge. They averaged 3} inches in length by 23 in width. They were bored with sand and stick. end, like the ball player's bat. These were wrought with comparative ease. They also had a more elaborate and barbarous instrument, combining the club proper with points for penetra- tion and laceration. On the side of the stroke end of the club were in- serted, and bound by strings, pieces. of edged and pointed stones, like ar- Bows. - Only here and there, in antiquarian museums, may now be found specimens of the bows of the ancient warriors. These barbaric weapons naturally followed the fate of the swarthy arms that wronght and bent them. They were, how- ever, not unlike those found to-day in the hands of the waning tribes of red men on the western border of the row-heads and spear-heads. These cutters, like daggers or knives, would penetrate the skull and lacerate the limbs of an enemy. A more bar- baric and ernel instrument could not be conceived. It was a perfect em- bodiment of savageness and blood- thirst. Fortunately it was rare, be- cause difficult and expensive in con- struction. Indian sloth usually con- Mississippi valley. The arrow shafts . tented itself with less costly arms.
In the writer's cabinet are a few specimens of Indian art that challenge interpretation. Various conjectures have been offered, but none of them are perfectly satisfactory.
The kinds of stone represented in this cabinet are, granite, green- stone, hornstone, flint, jasper, porphyry, sandstone, slate, steatite, quartz, syenite, and trap-rock.
CHAPTER V.
THE FIRST WHITES.
SINCE the red men failed to fulfil the commission given to man- kind to subdue and cultivate the earth, and make it a theatre of moral culture, Providence determined to supplant them, and give the vineyard to another people who should bring forth fruits thereof. Considering the greatness of the change, and the established laws of human nature, the expulsion and replanting have been rapidly pro- gressing and are nearly accomplished.
The Florentine navigator, John Verrazzani, under the authority of the French monarch, Francis I, in voyaging along the American coast from North Carolina to Nova Scotia, in April, 1524, entered the harbor of Newport. He described the natives as the "goodliest people " he had found in the country. They were friendly and gen- erous ; "yet so ignorant, that, though instruments of steel and iron were often exhibited, they did not form a conception of their use nor learn to covet their possession."
The first whites that visited the shores of Westerly were Dutch trad- ers in quest of furs, for which they exchanged cloth and instruments of metal. They, however, built here no trading-houses; their clumsy . pinnaces entered the mouth of the river, and their marts were on the open shores. The coast was first explored in 1614 by the bold and famous Capt. Adrian Block, in honor of whom the island on the coast received its present name. He made his voyage in a small craft, 443 feet in length and 113 in width, built on the Hudson, and named the "Restless." The first map of the coast was sketched by the Dutch geographer, De Laet, in 1616, from the journal of Cap- tain Block, in which the Pawcatuck is denominated East River, the mouth of which Block mentions as "a crooked point, in the shape of a sickle, behind which is a small stream or inlet." The Dutch evidently ascended the Pawcatuck in their explorations as far as Pawcatuck Rock, as their map testifies. Block Island, called Manisses by the Indians, of whom Jacquontee was the sachem in 1637, was at first included in the jurisdiction of Massachusetts; it became a part of Rhode Island by the charter granted to the colony
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WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
in 1663. Its Indian alliances had usually belonged to this region. Ninigret favored the Dutch traffic ; and for gain and protection he formed a temporary compact with the Dutch of New Netherlands, now New York. This alliance was in existence in 1650. Some of the Dutch keels entered a harbor that anciently existed on the shore east of Watch Hill, and which is now known as Quonocontaug Pond. The harbor mouth became filled with sand by the pressure of gales. As late as 1794, it was proposed to divert the Pawcatuck by a canal into this pond, to reopen and keep in condition the ancient harbor, and the colony offered to defray two thirds of the expense. It is also evident that the Pawcatuck once debouched into the ocean near Watch Hill Point, instead of winding away to the westward, as. at present towards Stonington Borough .. The old channel still termi- nates abruptly at the Watch Hill landing. This change in the river's mouth occurred before the coast was possessed by the whites, yet a breach through the sand ridge remained till the beginning of the present century. Other changes have been wrought by waves and storms in the sandy coast line.
The first really historic band of Europeans that trod the ancient wilderness here was the military force of Capt. John Mason, on their hazardous march to the attack upon the Pequot fort at Mystic .. On the 24th of May, 1637, the second night before the fiery battle, the hero band, having marched from Narragansett Bay, halted and spent the night by the side of Ninigret's fort, now Fort Neck. At first Ninigret hesitated to approve the perilous expedition, but in the morning he gave to Captain Mason a detachment of his bowmen. A Christian minister, Rev. Samuel Stone, accompanied the expedi- tion and served with remarkable efficiency. Hence from the bivouac of the soldier arose to heaven probably the first incense of intelligent prayer ever publicly offered on this soil to the living and true God. When the armed force left the encampment among the Niantics on the morning of May 25, it consisted of seventy-seven whites, sixty Mohegan and Connecticut River Indians, about two hundred Nar- ragansetts, and nearly an equal number of Niantics, a body of a lit- tle more than five hundred men. The day being warm, they made a halt at the ford of the Pawcatuck to refresh themselves. This ford was the old Indian trail that crossed the river just below the present bridge, at the head of tide-water. The trusty guide of the expedi- tion was Wequash, a revolted Pequot captain. Stealthily they moved through the wilderness, and on the evening of the 25th halted between the famous Portal Rocks, near the tide-water head of Mys- tie River. With the break of day on the 20th occurred the terrible onset, with muskets, sword, and flame, that swept down six hundred Pequots, demolished the fort, and broke the life of the nation. Mason's victory made his name imperishable.
In Hubbard's Narrative of the Indian Wars, we find that, " On
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THE FIRST WHITES.
the 12th of July, 1637, one Aganemo, a sachem of the Niantic In- dians (who were then allies of the Narragansetts), came to Boston with seventeen of his own men. He made divers propositions to the English, which they took into consideration, and promised to give him an answer the next day. But finding that he had rescued divers of the Pequots, submitting to him since the last defeat, they first demanded the delivery of them, which he sticking at, they refused further conference with him. But the next morning he came and offered what they desired. So the governor referred him to the cap- tains at the Pequot country, and writ instructions to them how to deal with him. So, receiving his ten fathom of wampum, they friendly dismissed him." This Aganemo was Ninigret, who also had the better-spelled alias, Juanemo.
The conquerors of the Pequots divided the subject tribe into rem- nants, under the care of the friendly Mohegans, Niantics, and Nar- ragansetts. These, however, at last suffered portions of their wards to settle in two bands,- one at Noank in Groton, and one at Wecca- paug and Pawcatuck; but these were to pay to Connecticut an annual assessment of wampum. By the Pawcatuck and Weecapaug band this tribute was neglected. Of the consequences of this refu- sal or neglect, Trumbull, in his History of Connecticut, Vol. I, pp. 112, 113, thus speaks : -
" As the Pequots had violated their covenant. and planted at Pawcatuck, in the Pequot country, the court dispatched Major (John) Mason, with forty men, to drive them off, burn their wigwams, and bring away their corn. Uncas, with one hundred men and twenty canoes, assisted in the enterprise. When they arrived at Pawcatuck Bay, Major Mason met with three of the Pequot Indians, and sent them to inform the others of the design of his coming, and what he should do unless they would peaceably desert the place. They promised to give him an immediate answer, but never re- turned.
"The major sailed up a small river, landed, and beset the wigwams so . suddenly that the Indians were unable to carry off either their corn or their treasures. Some of the old men had not time to make their escape. As it was now Indian harvest, he found a great plenty of corn. While Uncas's In- dians were plundering the wigwams, about sixty others came rushing down a hill towards them. The Mohegans stood perfectly still, and spoke not a. word, until they came within about thirty yards of them; then shouting and yelling, in their terrible manner, they ran to meet them, and fell upon them, striking with bows, and cutting with knives and hatchets, in their mode of fighting. Indeed, it scarcely deserves the name of fighting. It, however, afforded something new and amusing to the English, as they were now spectators of an Indian fight. The major made a movement to cut off their retreat, which they perceived, and instantly fled. As it was not desired to kill, or irritate the Indians more than was abso- lutely necessary, the English made no fire upon them. Seven Indians were taken. They behaved so outrageously that it was designed to take off their heads; but one Otash, a Narragansett sachem, brother to Miantonomi, pleaded that they might be spared because they were his brother's men, who was a friend to the English. He offered to deliver the heads of so many
.
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WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
murderers in lieu of them. The English, considering that no blood had been shed, and that the proposal tended both to mercy and peace, granted the request. The Indians were committed to the care of Uncas, until the conditions should be performed.
"The light of the next morning no sooner appeared, than the English discovered three hundred Indians in arms, on the opposite side of the creek in which they lay. Upon this, the soldiers immediately stood to their arms. The Indians were alarmed at the appearance of the English; some fled, and others secreted themselves behind rocks and trees, so that a man of theni could not be seen. The English called to them, representing their desire of speaking with them. Numbers of them rose up, and Major Mason ac- quainted them with the Pequots' breach of covenant with the English, as they were not to settle or plant in any part of their country. The Indians replied, that the Pequots were good men, and that they would fight for them, and protect them. Major Mason told them it was not far to the head of the creek; that he would meet thein there, and they might try what they could do at fighting. The Indians replied. they would not fight with Englishmen, for they were spirits: but they would fight with Uncas. The major assured them, that he should spend the day in burning wigwams, and carrying off the corn, and they might fight when they had an opportunity. The English beat up their drum, and fired their wigwams, but they dared not to engage them. The English loaded their barks with Indian corn, and the Indians the twenty canoes in which they passed to Pawcatuck, and thirty more, which they took from the Indians there. with kettles, trays, mats, and other Indian luggage, and returned in safety."
This affair occured in 1639. In 1683 this remnant of Pequots was removed to a reservation of land near Lantern Hill, in North Stonington.
Tradition reports that John Babcock came from Plymouth, Mass., to Aquidneck (island of Rhode Island), and engaged to labor for Thomas Lawton, in Newport, then a hamlet. Mr. Lawton's daugh- ter Mary shared the heart and fortunes of John, as recited in the accompanying ballad. Thus John and Mary became, says the story, the first white settlers in Westerly, R. I., a region then known by its Indian name, Misquamicut (signifying salmon).
The forest retreat of John and Mary, noar Mastuxet Brook, re- mained for a time unknown to their relatives.
The story may appropriately be recited in a ballad, and entitled :
THE PIONEERS.
I.
II.
How oft the scenes of humble suit, In native beauty bound, Remind us of the golden fruit Set forth on silver ground.
'Tis thus tradition, by her care, Has fondly handed down The story of a loving pair, - The founders of a town.
Of genuine love, the mystic bar, - Since all our hearts are kin, -- By setting golden gates ajar, Lets pleasing visions in ;
In summer evenings wont to meet, They oft were seen to stray Where Newport's half-cleared single street Led downward to the bay.
As shell on margin of the mere Will wake a broad refrain, Recalling on the listening car The music of the main.
Delightful trysts they held about Aquidneck's ancient treos, And oak-browed headlands reaching out To drink the ocean breeze.
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THE FIRST WHITES.
By spray-wet cliff they sauntered long, Or round the clm-clad hill Their thoughts accordant with the song Of wooing whip-poor-will.
The outer like the inner calin, All nature joined their song ; And every object swelled the psahn Their hearts would fain prolong.
Sweet thoughts had they they dared not speak ; As flowers by dews caressed. So moistened was a blooming cheek By lover's lips impressed.
E'en cominon scenes to eyes of love As blissful visions rise ; All things their forms of beanty prove, And speak in sweet surprise.
As thus they talked, the mystic tie, Deep felt by all mankind. Warm in the bond of destiny Their hearts together twined.
How wonderfully blind is love To think itself concealed, Meanwhile in every look and move The passion is revealed.
But blinder they who do not know It never makes its trade By what men's hands alone bestow, In scales of traffic weighed.
Nor yet decides from qualities Of face or voice or eye, But by such hid affinities As hearts alone descry.
In the divine economy What secret laws combine, In happy mystic harmony, To answer ends divine.
III.
The guardians of the gentle maid Dissuasive logie tried, And, finding this for nothing weighed, The legal bans denied.
The sire averred. " Except with gain, With ample deeds of land, And noble name, 'tis worse than vain To seek my daughter's hand.
"Let lowly men retain their place, Nor think to rise, in pride. To those whom fortune by her grace Has nobler rank supplied."
IV. But otherwise had Heaven decreed, That guides the sparrow's fall : The twain would no decision heed Except love's perfect thrall.
" My all I pledge," said John, " for thee ; No price I count too great.
That we henceforth as one may be, -- Ourselves our rich estate;
--
" Nor lordly name, nor castles fair, Can life's best dower control ; God's will requires us but to share The gift of soul for sonl." #
V.
As face is mirrored true to face In placid lakelet's breast, So answered Mary in her grace, And both were doubly blest.
VI. The bans were said spite legal bar ; When, harshly shnt from home, They planned their love-lit way afar, Nor recked of storm or gloom.
The pinnace sped the bay-shore down, The rock-fringed isles were passed, While on the gables of the town A final look was cast.
By oar and sail, in due relief, They braved Point Judith's waves, On-gliding fearless by the reefs The wild Atlantie laves,
The bark rode on the ocean lone, And precious was the freight, - Two loving souls transfused in one With bounding hope elate.
The sea-gull, curving in her flight, Lent her approving lay ; The porpoise, gallant as a knight, Advanced to mark the way.
To southward, swelling billows o'er, The noonday sunbeams flashed ; To northward, on the beaten shore, The sonnding breakers dashed.
As beauteous as Calyso's isle. Manisses' strand appeared. Whose green banks on them cast a surile, As westward still they steered.
Superior to the waves they met, They rode the billowy sea. Till, doubling Cape Misquamicut, They hailed a land-locked lea.
The plaeid harbor quite unfamed Till oped to voyager's ken By Adrian Bloc, who saw and named It Oester Riviertjen.
VII. Adown the heavens the weary sun Was bowing to his rest : Along the hills the splendor shone, The evening's golden crest.
As sentinels against alarms The hoary forests stood, Wide stretching out their leafy arms To shade the tranquil flood.
Far winding down from hill and lea, From glen and mountain-side. The Paweatuck here gave the sea Its sweet and laughing tide.
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WESTERLY AND ITS WITNESSES.
The fearless eagles sailing high Above the peaceful bay, Beheld with predatory eye The nimble salmon play.
Amid the rocks that graeed the marge, The otter looked amazed ; Upon the bank a stag moose large His antlered forehead raised.
VIII.
Upon the stream the wanderers move Past cape and bluff and rock, Attracted to a sheltered cove That drank Mastuxet Brook ;
Where rounded knoll and curving vale And winding currents meet, - Delightful scene of stream and dale, - The red man's fond retreat ;
The safe and famous rendezvous Red warriors chose of yore, - Fit harbor for the war canoes When battle days were o'er.
IX.
The painted wild men on the strand, Alive to love's soft charm, Extend the hospitable hand, Allaying all alarm.
"Stay, friends," says the Niantic chief; " Free to our valley come : My wigwam offers you relief, Nor think to farther roam.
" Here rear your hut, here bend your bow, Here join us in the chase ;
My tribe will only kindness show The bride of pallid face."
" Your welcome we accept," said John ; " We happy here would stay ;
For what of favor you have shown, With hooks and beads we pay. .
"Alike your words are kind and brave, A solace to the ear ; Your heart is kin to him who gave To Roger Williams cheer."
x.
This rest the wanderers obtained From royal Ninigret, Whose steadfast service ne'er profaned The sacred calumet.
Along the hills the aged wood Bowed to the settler's stroke. And forth a rude log cabin stood That upward curled its smoke.
Down mid the cedars, winding slow, 'Neath cooling canopy. Round roots and rocks, the brook hummed low Its soothing minstrelsy.
At hand the native eglantine And lily breathed perfume ; While o'er the door the fruitful vine Put forth its virgin bloom.
Beneath the caves the swallow hung Her moss-lined house of clay ; The robin on the maple sung The rosy peep of day.
Clad in the robes the wild beasts wore, Stern bowmen left their trail To wondering view the cabin door That smiled upon the vale.
XI.
Thus lengthened months rolled by, while not The voice of kin or friend Was heard to cheer the lonely eot, Or Christian counsel lend.
At last the sire dim understood, Through hunters of the moose, Of strangers in the distant wood " Who had a white papoose";
When. hastening with an Indian brave Aeross the wilderness, He to his exiled daughter gave A reconciling kiss.
"Forgive the harsh, imperious speech That drove you from my door ; May Heaven your love-lit honse eurich With blessings evermore."
XII.
Though not in pride of outward view, Or inward pomp arrayed.
The smiles of Heaven the eabin knew, And children round it played.
Though in a wild, the child-songs sweet Made every season bright ; The patter of the little feet Made every labor light.
When winter wrapped the woods in snow, Log fires lit up the walls, To cheeks imparting healthier glow Than known in royal halls.
Secure from the marauding feet Of panther and of bear, The trap and firelock gave them meat That barons prond would share.
They borrowed hoods of beavers warm, While wolf and fox supplied Such robes as met the driving storm, And biting frosts defied.
At eve and Sabbath hours, by choice The Book of Books was read : With humble trust was heard the voice The Present Spirit said.
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THE FIRST WHITES.
XIII.
New settlers dared the wild to break, And build on neighboring height,
Whose glowing hearth-fires joined to make The pagan region light.
But all a suited deference bore Before the pioneers, Who proved that bonds of heart are more Than overmatch for fears;
That love can make a desert bloom, And ever win its way, From every spot dispelling gloom By its enkindling ray.
XIV.
So Heaven upon the lovers smiled, Far in their forest home, -
The first to plant the savage wild, And bid the desert bloom.
From service true in humblest place What consequences flow,
To give the world new life and grace, The toilers may not know.
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The fields of life the sowers tread With open, trustful hand ;
In season due the sced will spread Its harvests o'er the land ..
XV.
Two hundred years have sped apace,
And wrought in man's behoof ;
And thousands now their lineage trace To John and Mary's roof.
What though no marbles greet our eyes To speak in their behalf,
The hand of history supplies Their shining epitaph.
Through patient trust and toilsome care Earth's highest prize is gained ; Amid the labors that we bear Is virtue's strength attained.
To sandaled or unsandaled feet Life's every path will prove
Both smooth and bright, if warmly beat Within us hearts of love.
They were of the right stock for the goodly planting of a land. Their son James was the first white child born within the town's limits.
The poetic license taken with this tradition will, we trust, be readily pardoned by even the most severe historian. The material was only too tempting to the balladist, who confesses that, while the story, so distinctly preserved in many of the families of the town and cherished with a peculiar pride, may from the passing genera- tions have received some colorings from fancy, he has doubtless added his full share to these adornments. Since the exact dates of the story are indeterminable, we can greatly respect the doubt of our worthy friend, Hon. Richard A. Wheeler, of Stonington, Conn., who so delights in historical certainties ; but he is too good a histo- .rian to wish to slay the poets.
The name Misquamicut was given by the aborigines to the neck of land near the mouth of the river, embracing Watch Hill and the Naps, but afterwards extended to the country to the north and east.
As soon as Misquamicut began to be occupied by whites, its juris- diction fell into dispute. One ground of the disputes dated back to the Indian wars. The Pequots claimed possession on the east side of the Pawcatuck. Massachusetts claimed the Pequot country by right of conquest, and in erecting the township of Southerton (now Stonington), embraced a section of Misquamicut within its limits. This was as early as 1649. Some of the Southerton settlers occu- pied tracts of land on the east of the Pawcatuck. When Souther- ton was given up to Connecticut, and named Stonington, Connecticut maintained not only the old claim of conquest from Massachu- setts, and the further claim of actual occupation, but, taking advan-
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