CHAPTER V.

The war with the Pequots. The origin of it. The murder of captains Stone and Norton; of Mr. Oldham and others. Mr. Endicot's expedition against them. The Pequots kill a number of the garrison at the mouth of the river, and besiege the fort. Captain Mason is sent down from Connecticut with a reinforcement. The enemy make a descent on Weathersfield; torture and mock the English. The court at Connecticut declares war against them, Captain Mason takes Mistic fort. Sassacus destroys his royal fortress, and flees to the westward. A second expedition is undertaken against the Pequots conjointly, by Massachusetts and Connecticut. The great swamp fight. The Pequots subdued. Sassacus, flying to the Mohawks, was beheaded. The captivated and surviving Pequots, after the war, were given to the Moheagans, and Narragansets, and their name extinguished.

THE

HE Indians in general, were ever jealous of the English, from the first settlement of New-England, and wished to drive them from the country. Various circumstances however, combined to frustrate their designs. The English, on their first settlement at New-Plymouth, entered into such friendly treaties with some of the principal tribes, and conducted themselves with such justice, prudence and magnanimity towards them and the Indians in general, as had the most happy influence to preserve the peace of the country. The animosities of the Indians among themselves, and their implacable hatred of each other, with their various separate interests, contributed to the same purpose. Some of them wished for the friendship and neighbourhood of the English, to guard them from one enemy, and others of them to protect them from another. All wished for the benefit of their trade; and it is proba ble, that they had no apprehensions, at first, that a handful of people would ever overrun, and fill the country. It was therefore nearly sixteen years before they commenced open hostilities upon their English neighbours. But no sooner had they begun to trade and make settlements at Connecticut, than that great, spirited, and warlike nation, the Pequots, began to murder and plunder them, and to wound and kill their cattle.

BOOK I.

1636.

Murder of

captains In 1634, a number of Indians, who were not native Pe- Stone and quots, but in confederacy with them, murdered captain Norton,

1634.

BOOK I. Stone and captain Norton, with their whole crew, consisting of eight men: they then plundered and sunk the 1634. vessel. Captain Stone was from St. Christopher's, in the West-Indies, and came into Connecticut river, with a view of trading at the Dutch house. After he had entered the river, he engaged a number of Indians to pilot two of his men up the river, to the Dutch: but night coming on, they went to sleep, and were both murdered by their Indian guides. The vessel, at night, was laid up to the shore, Twelve of those Indians, who had several times before been trading with the captain, apparently in an amicable manner, were on board. Watching their opportunity, when he was asleep, and several of the crew on. shore, they murdered him secretly in his cabin, and cast a covering over him, to conceal it from his men: they then fell upon them, and soon killed the whole company, except captain Norton. He had taken the cook room, and for a long time made a most brave and resolute defence. That he might load and fire with the greatest expedition, he had placed powder in an open vessel, just at hand, which, in the hurry of the action, took fire, and so burned and blinded him, that he could make no further resistance. Thus, after all his gallantry, he fell with his hapless companions. Part of the plunder was received by the Pequots, and another part by the eastern Nehanticks. Sassacus and

The Pe

sire peace.

Ninigret, the sachems of those Indians, were both privy to the affair, and shared in the goods and articles taken from the vessel. It was supposed that the Indians had pre-concerted this massacre.*

The November following, the Pequots sent a messenger to Boston, to desire peace with the English. He made an quots de- offer of a great quantity of beaver skins and wampumpeag, to persuade the governor to enter into a league with them. The governor answered the messenger, that the Pequots must send men of greater quality than he was; and that he would then treat with them. The Pequots then sent two messengers to the governor, carrying a present, and earnestly soliciting peace. The governor assured them, that the English were willing to be at peace with them; but insisted, that, as they had murdered captain Stone and his men, they must deliver up the murderers, and make full compensation. The messengers pretended, that captain Stone had used the Indians ill, and provoked them to kill him that their sachem, who was concerned in the affair, had been killed by the Dutch, and that the Indians who perpetrated the murder, were all dead but two; and that, *Mason's history, and Hubbard's narrative.

if they were guilty, they would desire their sachem to de- Book I. liver them up to justice. They offered to concede all their right at Connecticut river, if the English should desire to 1635. settle there; and engaged to assist them as far as was in Treaty their power, in making their settlements. They also with the promised that they would give the English four hundred Pequots. fathoms of wampum, forty beaver, and thirty otter skins. After long and mature deliberation, the governor and his council entered into a treaty with them, on the conditions which they had proposed. The English were to send a vessel with cloths, to trade with them fairly, as with friends. and allies.*

The reasons of their so earnestly soliciting peace, at this time, were, that the Narragansets were making war furiously upon them; and the Dutch, to revenge the injuries done them, had killed one of their sachems, with several of their men, and captivated a number more. They wished not, at this critical time, to increase the number of their enemies. They artfully suggested to their new allies, the governor and council of Massachusetts, their desire, that they would be mediators between them and the Narragansets. They also intimated their willingness, that part of the present which they were to send, might be given to them, for the purpose of obtaining a reconciliation. Such was the pride and stoutness of their spirits, and so much did they stand upon a point of honour, that though they wished for peace with their enemy, yet they would not directly offer any thing for that purpose. This treaty was signed by the parties, but hostages were not taken to secure the performance of the articles, and the Pequots never performed one of them. Whatever their designs were at that time, they afterwards became more and more mischievous, hostile and bloody.

The next year, John Oldham, who had been fairly trading at Connecticut, was murdered near Block Island. He had with him only two boys and two Narraganset Indians. These were taken and carried off. One John Gallup, as he was going from Connecticut to Boston, discovered Mr. Oldham's vessel full of Indians, and he saw a canoe, having Indians on board, go from her, laden with goods. Suspecting that they had murdered Mr. Oldham, he hailed them, but received no answer. Gallup was a bold man, and though he had with him but one man and two boys, he immediately bore down upon them, and fired duck shot so thick among them, that he soon cleared the deck. The

*Winthrop's Journal, p. 75, compared with Hubbard's narrative, p. 15, 16, 17.

BOOK I. Indiáns all got under the hatches. He then stood off, and running down upon her quarter with a brisk gale, nearly 1636. overset her; and so frightened the Indians, that six of them leaped into the sea, and were drowned. He then steered off again, and running down upon her a second time, bored her with his anchor, and raked her fore and aft with his shot. But the Indians kept themselves so close, that he got loose from her; and running down a third time upon the vessel, he gave her such a shock, that five more leaped overboard, and perished, as the former had done. He then boarded the vessel, and took two of the Indians, and bound them. Two or three others, armed with swords, in a little room below, could not be driven from their retreat. Mr. Oldham's corpse was found on board; the head split, and the body mangled in a barbarous manner. He was a Dorchester man, one of Mr. Warham's congregation. In these circumstances, Gallup, fearing that the Indians whom he had taken might get loose, especially if they were kept together, and having no place where he could keep them apart, threw one of them overboard. Gallup and his company then, as decently as circumstances would permit, put the corpse into the sea. They stripped the vessel, and took her rigging, and the goods which had not been carried off, on board their own. She was then taken in tow, with a view to carry her in; but the night coming on, and the wind rising, Gallup was obliged to let her go adrift, and she was lost. The Indians who perpetrated the murder were principally the Block-Islanders, with a number of the Narragansets, to whom these Indians, at this time, were subject. Several of the Narraganset sachems were in the plot, and it was supposed that the Indians whom Oldham had with him, were in the conspiracy. Several of the murderers fled to the Pequots, and were protected by them. They were, therefore, considered as abettors of the murder.

Mr. Endi

cott's expedition.

The governor and council of Massachusetts, therefore, the next year, dispatched captain Endicott, with ninety volunteers, to avenge these murders, unless the Indians should deliver up the murderers, and make reparation for the injuries which they had done. The Narraganset sachems sent home Mr. Oldham's two boys, and made such satisfaction, and gave such assurances of their good conduct, for the future, as the English accepted; but the other Indians made no compensation. Captain Endicott was, therefore, instructed to proceed to Block-Island, put the men to the sword, and take possession of the island. The women and children were to be spared. Thence he was

to sail to the Pequot country, and demand of the Pequots Book L the murderers of captains Stone and Norton, and of the other Englishmen who were of their company. He was 1636. also to demand a thousand fathoms of wampum for dama ges, and a number of their children for hostages, until the murderers should be delivered, and satisfaction made. If they refused to comply with these terms, he was directed to take it by force of arms. He had under him captains John Underhill and Nathaniel Turner. They sailed from Boston on the 25th of August. When he arrived at Block- Aug. 25. Island, forty or fifty Indians appeared on the shore, and opposed his landing; but his men soon landed, and, after a little skirmishing, the Indians fled to the woods. The Indians secreted themselves in swamps, thickets, and fastnesses, where they could not be found. There were two plantations on the island, containing about sixty wigwams, some of which were very large and fair. The Indians had, also, about two hundred acres of corn. After the English had spent two days on the island, burning the wigwams, destroying their corn, and staving their canoes, they sailed for the Pequot country. When they had arrived in Pequot harbour, captain Endicott acquainted the Pequots with the design of his coming, demanded satisfaction for the murders which they had committed against the English, and compensation for the damages which they had done them. In a few hours, nearly three hundred of the Pequots collected upon the shore; but soon after they were fully informed of his business, they began to withdraw into the woods, and, instead of treating, answered him with their arrows, from the adjacent rocks and fastnesses. He landed his men on both sides of the harbour, burnt their wigwams, and destroyed their canoes, but made no spirited attack upon them, nor pursuit after them. As their corn was standing, no pains were taken for its destruction. They killed an Indian or two, and then returned to Boston. They all arrived on the 14th of September, unharmed ei- Sept. 14. ther by sickness or the sword.* Enough, indeed, had been done to exasperate, but nothing to subdue a haughty and warlike enemy.

Sassacus.

Sassacus and his captains were men of great and inde- Views and pendent spirits; they had conquered and governed the na- feelings of tions around them without controul. They viewed the English as strangers and mere intruders, who had no right to the country, nor to controul its original proprietors, independent princes and sovereigns. They had made settlements in Connecticut without their consent, and brought * Winthrop's Journal, p. 105, 106, 107.

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