ill w-iiiini&i 
 
 H 
 

UNC AS 
 
 AND 
 
 MIANTONOMOH. 
 
UNCAS 
 
 AND 
 
 MIANTONOMOH; 
 
 mSTORICAL DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 AT NORWICH, (CONN.,) ON THE FOURTH DAY OF JULY, 1842, ON THE 
 OCCASION OF THE ERECTION OF A MONUMENT 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 UNCAS, 
 
 THE WHITE MAN S FRIEND, AND FIRST CHIEF OF THE MOHEGANS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM L. STONE, 
 
 Author of the " Life of Brant," " Life and Times of Red Jacket," &c. &c. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY DAYTON & NEWMAN. 
 199 Broadwuy. - 
 
 1842. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by 
 DAYTON AND NEWMAN, 
 
 in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, for 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 . W. BENEDICT, PRINT. 
 
TO 
 THE LADIES OF THE CITY OF NORWICH, 
 
 THIS DISCOU RSE IS 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THEIR FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTH OR. 
 
 M193682 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE Indian name of UNCAS ig far more familiar to the 
 readers of fiction, than to those of veritable history, or 
 even to the student of the early chronicles of New 
 England. Its original possessor, so far as history in 
 forms us, was the bold and warlike chief of a powerful 
 community of Indians, occupying a large portion of the 
 territory now forming the State of Connecticut, when 
 the Pilgrims began to plant themselves in that region. 
 He was the white man s friend, at a period when the 
 friendship even of savage royalty was most welcome. 
 To his fidelity the early planters of Connecticut were 
 brought under obligations that have been but ill-requited 
 to his house and his race. 
 
 For upward of one hundred and sixty years, his remains 
 have been reposing in what has been called " the royal 
 burying-ground" of the Mohegans, situated upon the 
 western margin of the plain upon which stands the old 
 town of Norwich. The locality of this burying-ground, 
 which was appropriated exclusively to the Uncas family 
 by the Indians, and retained for that purpose in subse 
 quent sales of their territory, is romantic and beautiful ; 
 evincing both the taste and sentiment of those who se- 
 
V1H PREFACE. 
 
 ected and consecrated it for that object. It overlooks, 
 at an elevation of some two hundred feet, the sweet basin 
 of the Yantic river, at the distance of a mile, perhaps, 
 above the junction of that stream with the Shetucket, 
 and but a short distance from the falls of the former. 
 
 A grove of wild forest trees, by its deep foliage, im 
 parts a subdued and pensive mellowness to the light, and 
 a deep ravine descending to the river discloses the path 
 by which the Mohegans, after paddling their canoes 
 across the bright waters of the bay, in solemn state as 
 cended with their dead to the place of sepulture. The 
 falls or cataract just referred to, being a remarkably wild 
 and curious conformation of rocks, through a narrow 
 chasm of which the stream rushes in a succession of 
 impetuous leaps, now falling in an unbroken torrent, 
 and now dashing into foam in its descent over fragments 
 of pointed rocks, adds essentially to the interest of the 
 landscape. In the immediate vicinity of the falls the 
 scenery is sublime ; and when the stream is swollen by 
 dissolving snows or protracted rains, the sound of its 
 waters is heard in the burying-ground like the subdued 
 bass of the ocean. 
 
 Such is a description, though brief and inadequate, of 
 the royal burying-ground of the house of Uncas. It has 
 been safely guarded from the woodman s axe, from the 
 day when the colony was first planted until the present ; 
 and by none with more watchful care than by the late 
 possessor of the estate to which it has long been attached 
 the Hon. CALVIN GODDAED. 
 
 In view of the character of Uncas, and the important 
 services which he rendered to the first generation of the 
 planters of Norwich, the idea has long been entertained 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 of marking the romantic spot in which he sleeps, by a 
 monument that should perpetuate his name. The first 
 step toward the accomplishment of the object was taken 
 in the summer of 1833, during a visit to Norwich by 
 General Andrew Jackson, then President of the United 
 States, who assisted in laying a corner stone. On that 
 occasion an address was pronounced extemporaneously 
 by General Cass, Secretary at War. There being, how 
 ever, no funds provided for the immediate prosecution of 
 the work, nothing farther was done until the autumn of 
 the year 1840, when the ladies of Norwich, with a spirit 
 of generous patriotism characteristic of the sex, took the 
 matter in hand, raised the necessary funds, and, on the 
 4th day of July, 1842, caused a granite obelisk, of re- 
 -spectable height and proportions, to be reared upon the 
 chieftain s grave, bearing the simple inscription, in 
 relief, UNCAS. 
 
 In anticipation of the ceremony of raising this mcau- 
 ment, the ladies engaged in the undertaking did me the 
 honor to request the delivery of a discourse upon the 
 occasion. The desire of the ladies was first made known 
 to me by Judge Goddard clarum et venerabile nomen ! 
 but little did I imagine, when acceding to the request, 
 that my excellent friend would himself be sleeping in 
 kindred dust with Uncas, before the execution of my 
 task! 
 
 In bringing these remarks to a close, it is proper to 
 observe that the author had no idea, when he accepted 
 the appointment, that the essay he might attempt would 
 extend to the dimensions even of a pocket volume. At 
 most, he meditated nothing farther than a historical 
 sketch of half or three quarters of an hour. But, OR 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 entering upon the preliminary work of research, he soon 
 discovered that he was exploring a mine rich both in 
 historical and biographical incident, and the labor was 
 pursued as a pleasant relaxation from the business hours 
 of an arduous profession, until the following sheets were 
 written. 
 
 Exclusive of the notes and appendix, the greater por 
 tion of the discourse was delivered at the monument, at 
 the time designated, to a large concourse of people. 
 Many of those who heard it have urged its publication ; 
 and there may, perhaps, be others desirous of reviewing 
 their studies of that era of the early history of New 
 England presented in the following pages, as well as of 
 becoming acquainted with the life and character of the 
 real Uncas. 
 
 W. L. S. 
 
 New York, September, 1842. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 "WHAT song the Sirens sang, or what 
 name Achilles assumed when he hid himself 
 among women, though puzzling questions, 
 are not beyond all conjecture. What time 
 the persons of these ossuaries entered the fa 
 mous nations of the dead, and slept with 
 princes and counsellors, might admit a w T ide 
 solution. But who were the proprietors of 
 these bones, or what bodies these ashes made 
 up, were a question above antiquarism, not 
 to be resolved by man, nor easily, perhaps, by 
 spirits." Thus discoursed Sir Thomas Browne, 
 who has been designated "the laureate of the 
 King of Terrors," in the sublime and fearful 
 essay upon " Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial," 
 which he was inspired to write by the disco 
 very of the celebrated Urns, " in a field of 
 Old Walsingham," more than two hundred 
 years ago. Fortunately for the day and the 
 occasion, no such mystery hangs over the 
 
OF U.NCA&, 
 
 bones so quietly reposing in yonder humble 
 chambers of the house of ages. That ro 
 mantic spot is consecrated ground. We may 
 there tread upon the dust of kings. How 
 long was their line we cannot tell, or what 
 were their earlier deeds, or their triumphs. 
 Farther back than two hundred and fifty 
 years, even the Muse of History has no scroll 
 to unroll. Beyond that land-mark of time, 
 America herself " was one great antiquity," 
 buried in the darkness of more than five thou 
 sand years. 
 
 I have said that we were treading upon the 
 ashes of kings. True indeed it is, that the 
 royal title was unknown in their own imper 
 fect nomenclature. But in their rank, their 
 order of descent, the character of the office, 
 and the manner of exercising their power, 
 they were SOVEREIGNS ; and their chief Sa 
 chems, to all intents and purposes, KINGS. 
 And thus they were styled by the writers 
 nearest their own times. Rude kings they 
 were, it is true, kings who revelled not in 
 voluptuousness, nor wasted their time amidst 
 the delights of the harem, like a Moslem 
 Prince; nor degraded their manhood by ply- 
 
LIFE OF UNCAS. 1 3 
 
 ing the bobbin, or wielding the distaff, like 
 Sardanapalus. Nor yet. were they of those 
 who sought immortality by rearing cities, and 
 palaces, and massive walls, and solemn tem 
 ples, like those of Thebes, and Babylon, and 
 Alexandria. " They affected not the graves 
 of giants, under hilly and heavy coverings," 
 nor yet sought to mark the age of their glory 
 by the stupendous pyramid, or the costly mau 
 soleum. But of a far different race were the 
 sons of the forests, where now stand the 
 bright cities and villages of New England. 
 They were not of the common order of men, 
 but a race, proud and haughty, whose per 
 sons and characteristics were of mingled 
 grandeur and gloom, and who, like the Fai 
 ries and Fates of the Greek mythology, seem 
 ed born amid the convulsion of the elements, 
 of cloud and storm. And yet, their lives of 
 turbulence ended, they were content that 
 their bones should lie soft beneath the sod, in 
 calm seclusion upon the sweet bank of their 
 own Yantic, as though lulled to repose by the 
 ceaseless music of the neighboring waterfall.* 
 
 * The Falls of the Yantic, briefly described in the 
 Preface, are so near that when the flood is high 3 the 
 sound can be distinctly heard from the Monument. 
 2 
 
14* LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 To honor the memory of one of these we 
 have this day assembled. " The custom of 
 showing respect to the dead by funeral so 
 lemnities and sepulchral honors, is the growth 
 of no particular country, confined to no age : 
 it has prevailed as far as the human race ex 
 tended, and may be traced through every suc 
 ceeding period of the history of man. If it 
 had its origin in the simplicity and rudeness 
 of primitive times, it is dignified in its matu 
 rity by the practice of the most polished na 
 tions. Nor has it been admitted only as an 
 inoffensive relic of ancient superstition ; but 
 has long been avowedly sanctioned by the 
 legislative power, and adopted as the most 
 suitable medium for the expression of public 
 gratitude."* But the bestowment of such 
 honors to the departed, to those who have 
 been long retired " beyond the reach of oblo 
 quy or applause" has been regarded, I know, 
 " as an idle pageantry, unworthy of a culti 
 vated age, and suited only to the childish sen 
 sibilities of uncivilized life," even by those 
 who would not object to assigning like honors 
 to the recently dead. The objection is nei- 
 
 * Oxford Prize Essays 1st Essay, vol. iii. 
 
LIFE OF UNO AS. 15 
 
 ther sound nor philosophical. On the con 
 trary, the rearing of monuments, in honor of 
 the illustrious dead of years long past, is hal 
 lowed by the example of all civilized nations 
 in all antecedent time, and justified by every 
 impulse of patriotism, as it is also sanc 
 tioned by the yet holier feelings of the human 
 breast. True, indeed, it may be asked, as was 
 long ago demanded by Sir Thomas Browne, 
 " Who cares to submit like Hippocrates s pa 
 tients, or Achilles horses in Homer, under 
 naked nominations, without deserts, or noble 
 acts, which are the balsam of our memories, 
 and the soul of our subsistences ?" ^ et it may 
 be asked in reply, Who so poor in spirit as not 
 to desire to live in the memory of his friends, 
 if not of his country, after he shall have 
 "shuffled off this mortal coil?" And who, 
 on the bed of death, that does not dwell with 
 melancholy pleasure upon the thought that he 
 may not only be wept but honored by the 
 sympathising friends whom he may leave be 
 hind ? At the same time, in the language of 
 my favorite Sir Thomas Browne, notwith 
 standing this universal desire for after-remem 
 brance, " it is vain that individuals hope for 
 
16 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 immortality, or any patent from oblivion, 
 in preservations below the moon. The great 
 er part must be content to be as though they 
 had not been, to be found in the register of 
 God, not in the record of man. Twenty-se 
 ven names make up the story of the world 
 before the flood, and the recorded names eve 
 since contain not one living century." That 
 number, however, has been largely increased 
 since the noble treatise thus again quoted was 
 written ; and among the names which a just 
 American historian cannot sfttfer to be lost, is 
 that of UNCAS.* And although with the race 
 to which he*- belonged it is now too late to 
 
 * There is often a difficulty in fixing the orthography 
 of Indian names. This difficulty arises from several caus 
 es. The Indian Sachems were in the habit of chang 
 ing their names, at their dances and festivals, on special 
 occasions. Having no written language themselves, 
 different writers respecting them, often wrote their 
 names differently, according to the sounds they caught- 
 Again the same writers, from carelessness, not unfre- 
 quently designated the same chiefs differently at differ 
 ent times. Hence the name of Uncas has been writ 
 ten variously as follows : Okase, Onkos, Onkus, Oko- 
 ko, Vncas, Unkuss, Unkowa, Poquiam, Unquase, Unkas, 
 UNCAS. I have chosen the latter form, as predomi 
 nating in history. 
 
LIFE OF UNCAS. 17 
 
 excite the emulation either of his courage or 
 his fidelity, by the shaft of granite \ve are 
 about to rear; yet ere it crumbles away be 
 neath the hand of that fell destroyer which 
 " makes pyramids pillars of snow, and all 
 that s past a moment," the youth of many 
 generations, even of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 may find it not unprofitable to spend an oc 
 casional hour in contemplating those high 
 qualities which prompted their mothers to 
 provide this monument in honor of a savage 
 chieftain whose name has thus been rescued 
 from " the iniquity of oblivion." 
 
 How little thought the poor Indian, who, 
 in the singleness of his heart, and the innate 
 benevolence of his nature, met the famishing 
 Pilgrims at Plymouth, with the proffer of an ear 
 of corn the greatest luxury of his lodge 
 of the mighty influence which the presence 
 of the shivering stranger was to exert upon 
 the destiny of his own proud race 1 How 
 little, in the spring of 1621, when Samoset 
 and Squanto, or Ti-squantum, in the broken 
 dialect which they had previously acquired 
 from some straggling mariners who had been 
 shipwrecked upon the coast while engaged in 
 
18 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 fishing, saluted a small party of the enfeebled 
 planters with the cheering words, "Wel 
 come, Englishmen !" how little, I repeat, did 
 those children of the forest suppose that the 
 years were drawing nigh, when the multitu 
 dinous nations of their own people were to 
 disappear before the descendants of that little 
 group, wasted by famine and reduced to a 
 handful by pestilence, which stood like a 
 company of living skeletons before them ; 
 and that the entire extirpation of their race, 
 would so shortly afford " a subject of affect 
 ing contemplation to the man of feeling, and 
 of curious investigation to the philosopher ?" 
 But such has been the design of an all- wise 
 Providence a design which the strong faith 
 of the Puritans enabled them to foresee. 
 Looking upon themselves as the peculiar peo 
 ple, the chosen of God, driven as it were 
 from another Egypt the new world rose be 
 fore them as the land of promise, to which 
 the blazing star that illumined the western 
 sky in the year 1619 was sent to guide 
 them, like another pillar of fire.* The 
 
 * " The disappearing of the blazing star in the west, 
 in the year 1619, the observation of which toward the 
 
LIFE OF UJNCAS. 19 
 
 eye of faith also enabled them to discover oth 
 er sources of encouragement, after their land 
 ing, from what they esteemed the particu 
 lar interpositions of Providence in their behalf. 
 Their original destination had been for the 
 shores of the Hudson River, in the interior of 
 what was then an infant colony of the Dutch. 
 Their landing at Plymouth was caused by 
 accident, and a stress of weather.* Few, 
 
 west made Mr. Brigges, that famous mathematician, 
 conclude that some notable event was like to ensue, 
 betokening the death of the natives in those parts." 
 Hubbard. The Brigges here referred to was probably 
 the Savilian professor at Oxford, in 1619 the author of 
 many treatises upon mathematical subjects, and also of 
 the Arithmetica Logarithmetica. 
 
 * Cotton Mather attributes the landing at Plymouth 
 instead of on the shores of the Hudson, to design on the 
 part of the Hollanders. " Some of the neighbors [of the 
 Puritans] in Holland, having a mind themselves to set 
 tle a plantation there, secretly and sinfully contracted 
 with the master of the ship employed to transport the 
 English exiles, by taking a more northerly course to put 
 a trick upon them. 5 Twas in pursuance of this plot that 
 not only the goods, but also the lives of all on board 
 were hazarded by the ship s falling among the shoals 
 of Cape Cod, where they were so dangerously entangled 
 among the breakers, thus late in the year, that the 
 company broke off their intentions of going any fur 
 ther." Magnalia Christi Americana. 
 
20 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 feeble, and destitute as they were for many 
 months after their landing, they could but ill 
 have sustained themselves against the fierce 
 and warlike Iroquois, had they attempted a 
 plantation in their vicinity ; whereas Provi 
 dence had prepared for their reception in New 
 England, by sweeping off the nations in the 
 region round about their landing place by a 
 strange mortality, unknown among them until 
 the previous year. So great had been the 
 loss of the Indians by the pestilence, that not 
 one in ten of their number had survived not 
 enough even to bury their dead, the bones of 
 whom were bleaching upon the ground when 
 the pilgrims landed.* This fatal malady was 
 regarded as a special infliction of divine ven 
 geance upon the heathen ; and connecting it 
 
 * Hubbard. " The Indians in these parts had newly, 
 even about a year before, been visited by such a prodi 
 gious pestilence, as carried away, not a tenth, but nine 
 parts out of ten, (yea, tis said, nineteen of twenty, 
 among them : so that the woods were almost cleared of 
 those pernicious creatures, to make room for a better 
 growth. 35 Magnolia Christi Americana. " This pes 
 tilence was accompanied or preceded by a comet, which 
 the Indians superstitiously considered as the cause of 
 the disease." Potter s Narragansetts. 
 
LIFE OF UN CAS. 21 
 
 with various other providences, the Pilgrims 
 regarded it as a second fulfilment of God s 
 promise to the people of Israel, when direct 
 ing their course through the wilderness to 
 ward the land of Canaan, in which " he en 
 gaged to them concerning the Canaanite and 
 the Hittite, that he would by little and little 
 drive them out from before his people, till 
 they were increased and did inherit the land." 
 There was yet another passage in the history 
 of the ancient chosen, affording strong Scrip 
 tural encouragement to the modern. Like 
 the King of Moab, on the approach of the 
 children of Israel to his borders, the Indians 
 took counsel with Balaam in regard to the 
 Pilgrims, and with similar results. In other 
 words, before the neighboring Indians deter 
 mined to cultivate the relations of peace with 
 the strangers, they held a pow-wow in a dis 
 mal swamp, which was continued several days 
 without intermission. All the great conjurors 
 and medicine-men were assembled on the oc 
 casion, and practised their incantations against 
 the English to the utmost of their skill. But 
 the conjurors could not succeed in arraying 
 their Manitto against the strangers. Another 
 
22 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 attempt to procure a curse upon them by a 
 pow-wow was made by a noted Sachem on 
 the Merrimack, but entirely without success. 
 In consequence of this failure, the Sachem 
 charged his son and successor " never to quar 
 rel with the English, lest thereby they came 
 to be destroyed utterly, and rooted out of the 
 country." Accustomed as much to draw 
 their illustrations from the Scriptures as they 
 were to seek counsel therein, nothing could 
 have been more natural than that, in regard 
 to the failures of those pow-wows, the pilgrims 
 should apply to their own case the words of 
 the great necromancer of Midian ; " Surely 
 there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor 
 divination against Israel. 5 * 
 
 With such principles as the Pilgrims 
 brought with them such perseverance in 
 times of difficulty, and such courage in the 
 hour of danger with such minds to resolve, 
 and such arms to strike and above all, with 
 such an exalted and unwavering religious 
 faith to sustain them in every trial there 
 need be no marvel at the degree of success 
 which crowned their enterprise and which 
 was in all respects equal to their fortitude. 
 
 * Hubbard s New-England, p. 60. 
 
MASSASOIT. 23 
 
 But the depopulation of the country by 
 sickness had not extended to the tribes inha 
 biting the territories from which were subse 
 quently formed the Colonies of Rhode Island 
 and Connecticut ;* and the Pokanokets, Nar- 
 ragansetts, Pequods and Mohegans were yet 
 powerful in comparison with the strength of 
 the colonists, and continued so for nearly half 
 a century thereafter. Of these the Pokano 
 kets, a valiant nation, numbering a thousand 
 warriors, were in the nearest proximity to the 
 infant colony. But their chief, Massasoit, a 
 man of noble character and bearing, exerting 
 great influence over the nations, was per 
 suaded by Ti-squantum to make a visit to the 
 strangers in person. He came, attended by a 
 party of his friends and chiefest counsellors, 
 and with open arms bade them welcome to 
 his country. The authority of Massasoit ex 
 tended from the Narragansett to Massachu 
 setts Bay, including Nantucket, Martha s 
 Vineyard, and a part of Cape Cod. The seat of 
 
 * "The pestilence extended as far west as Narragan 
 sett Bay, and included the Wampanoags in its ravages. 
 The Narragansetts were entirely free from this afflic 
 tion. 33 Potter Rhode Island Hist. Coll. vol. iii. 
 
24 LIFE OF UNO AS. 
 
 his power was at Sowamset, in the neighbor 
 hood of Mon-Top, or Mount Hope, or Haup, 
 after the English corruption subsequently 
 memorable as the citadel of King Philip. 
 Massasoit, being not upon friendly terms 
 with Canonicus, chief of the Narragansetts, 
 was glad to strengthen himself by an alliance 
 with the strangers ; and a treaty of amity, 
 offensive and defensive, was formed between 
 them, which was faithfully observed by him 
 self and his people for upward of half a cen 
 tury. Directly west of the Pokanokets were 
 the Narragansetts, also a powerful nation, 
 numbering its thousand braves for the war 
 path ; or, according to some authorities, from 
 three to five thousand a number, by the way, 
 altogether too large, unless the warriors of 
 minor and tributary chieftains are included.* 
 
 * The estimates of the early writers were often very 
 wide of the truth as to the numbers of the Indians. 
 Callender, in his Centennial Discourse, estimates the 
 Narragansett warriors, on the authority of Roger Wil 
 liams, at five thousand. Hutchinson says they were 
 the most numerous of all the tribes between Boston and 
 the Hudson River. Brinley says they numbered thirty 
 thousand. Hubbard estimated them at two thousand on 
 the breaking out of Philip s war, by which they were 
 reduced to " but a hundred or two. ?? Roger Williams 
 
CANONICUS. 25 
 
 Their territory lay between the bay bearing 
 their name and the Pawcatuck river, the pre 
 sent eastern boundary of Connecticut. They 
 also held dominion over Aquetnet,* on 
 Rhode Island, and over a portion likewise of 
 Long Island. Two years after the landing 
 of the Pilgrims, Canonicus sent them a chal 
 lenge, consisting of a quiver of arrows tied 
 together with the skin of a serpent. The 
 belligerent message was understood, and the 
 reply was equally significant : the snake-skin 
 was returned to Canonicus filled with powder 
 and ball.f But the Pokanokets served par 
 tially as a line of defence to the Colonists, 
 and peace was preserved. 
 
 Next westward of the Narragansetts, occu 
 pying the territory between their boundary on 
 
 said " In the Narragansett country a man shall come 
 to many towns, some bigger, some lesser ; it may be a 
 dozen in thirty miles travel/ 5 
 
 * Some of the old documents spell the name Aqued- 
 neck. 
 
 f Prince, in his Chronology, questions whether the 
 message was intended as a challenge, and thinks that 
 the Governor was deceived by the messenger who bore 
 it. A more intimate knowledge of Indian customs 
 would have taught this venerable author better. 
 3 
 
26 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 that side and the Connecticut river, were the 
 Pequods and Mohegans. These tribes have 
 generally been considered by historians, 
 though erroneously, as distinct peoples. They 
 doubtless constituted, originally, one and the 
 same nation, and became divided only by 
 civil wars. At the time when the English 
 Colonists commenced the planting of Con 
 necticut, it is true that the seat of power of 
 the Pequods lay within the territorial bounda 
 ries of what now form the towns of New 
 London, Groton, and Stonington.* They 
 
 * The laborious historian of Connecticut attempted 
 yet more distinctly to define the Pequod country as fol 
 lows : From a large rock in Connecticut river, near 
 Eight Mile Island, in the bounds of Lyme, eastward 
 through Lyme, New-London and Groton to Ah-yo-sup- 
 suck, a pond in the northeastern part of Stonington ; on 
 the east, from this pond northward, to another pond 
 called Mah-man-suck ; thence to Egunk-sank-a-poug, 
 or the Whetstone hills j thence to the Man-hum- 
 squeeg, in the Whetstone country ; thence southwest a 
 few miles to Acquiunk, the upper falls in the Quinebaug 
 river. Thence the line ran a little north of west 
 through Pomfret, Ashford, Willington and Tolland, to 
 Mo-she-nup-suck, the notch in Bolton Mountain. From 
 thence the line ran southerly through Bolton, Hebron 
 and East Haddam, to the first mentioned bounds." Af_ 
 ter the subjugation of the Pequods, however, the Mohe- 
 
THE PEQUODS. 27 
 
 were the most warlike and powerful of the 
 New England Indians. Their chief Sachem, 
 Sassacus, held dominion over many subordi 
 nate Mohegan chiefs, at the North, along the 
 course of the Connecticut River, and over a 
 portion of Long Island.* The Nipmuck 
 country, about Quinebaug, was also held in 
 subjection by him. The residence of the 
 chief was at Pequod, now New London.f 
 " Their principal fort was on a beautiful and 
 commanding eminence in the town of Groton, 
 a few miles south-easterly from Fort Gris- 
 wold. Sassacus had another fort near the 
 Mystic, a few miles farther to the eastward, 
 which took its name from that river.J It 
 was said that the Pequods could at that day 
 
 gans claimed this entire territory, with the exception of 
 the three first-mentioned towns of Lyme, New-London 
 and Groton, as their own country by inheritance. The 
 Mohegans also claimed the Wabbequasset country yet 
 farther north, by virtue of conquest. 
 
 * According to Winthrop, the name of the Chief Sa 
 chem of the Pequods, in 1620, was Pekoath, and he had 
 at that time four thousand bowmen. Drake, however, 
 insists that Pekoath was not the name of a chief, but 
 a corruption of Pequod. Sassacus became Chief of the 
 Pequods about the year 1632. 
 
 t Gookin s Historical Collections. J Trumbull. 
 
28 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 raise four thousand warriors. But this esti 
 mate must likewise have been an exaggera 
 tion, unless the Mohegans east of the Con 
 necticut river, and along its valley, were all 
 included. 
 
 But the affinity between the Pequods and 
 Mohegans was not sufficiently strong to pre 
 vent a disruption. When in 1635 or 5 36, in 
 compliance with an invitation from Wahqui- 
 macut, a Sachem of one of the smaller Mohe- 
 gan tribes inhabiting the valley of the Con 
 necticut, the colonists of Plymouth com 
 menced their settlements at Mattaneaug, 
 which they called Windsor, the Mohegans 
 and Pequods were engaged in civil strife \ 
 and it is in connexion with this contest that 
 the name of the illustrious UNCAS first ap 
 pears as an actor in the march of history. 
 From the day when the Pilgrim fathers planted 
 their feet on the soil of Connecticut, this no 
 ble chieftain became their friend, and such he 
 remained until the day of his death, involving 
 a period of nearly half a century. I have no 
 means of ascertaining the age of Uncas at 
 the time of the settlement of Connecticut; 
 but from the length of his subsequent life, he 
 
SASSACUS. 29 
 
 could not have been an old man, while his 
 antecedent career had been such as to forbid 
 the idea of his being very young. He was 
 a Pequod by birth, and of the royal line both 
 by his father and mother ; and his wife was a 
 daughter of Tatoban, one of the Pequod Sa 
 chems, and a near relative of Sassacus.* 
 Thus descended and connected, Uncas was 
 himself a Pequod Chief, though not, accord 
 ing to the old authors of any considerable 
 rank. Probably he was one of the six and 
 twenty war-captains mentioned by Trumbull, 
 as being subordinate to Sassacus, " The Pe 
 quod King," as he is called by many early 
 writers. But great and terrible as was the 
 name of this Chieftain, before whose arms 
 the Narragansetts alone of the Indians in that 
 region had been able to sustain themselves, 
 he found a greater than himself in Uncas. 
 Some misunderstanding arising between them, 
 Uncas raised the standard of revolt ; but his 
 power and influence not being great at first, 
 his rebellion was crushed, and he was igno- 
 miniously expelled his country by the haugh 
 ty victor. Retiring among the Mohegan 
 
 * Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. ix. 
 
 3* 
 
30 LIFE OF UNCAS 
 
 clans farther in the interior clans which en 
 tertained greater fear of the power of Sassa- 
 cus than affection for his person, and smart 
 ing under a sense of his degradation, if not 
 suffering from positive w T rong, Uncas was 
 not long in illustrating his own genius, and 
 manifesting his power. It was no difficult 
 undertaking to foment disaffection to a 
 tyrannical chief like Sassacus, especially 
 among tribes brought under his sway by con 
 quest. This work having been artfully ac 
 complished, Uncas next had the address to 
 combine various clans of the Mohegans in 
 a rebellion against the Pequod King, and 
 place himself at their head. The conspiracy 
 was successful, and resulted in the dis 
 memberment of the Pequod territory, the 
 Pequods themselves being confined to the 
 narrow district upon the sea-board, heretofore 
 described, while the Mohegans, establishing 
 their own independent sovereignty, possessed 
 the residue of the Connecticut territory East 
 of the central river. Thus successful in arms, 
 the warriors whom Uncas led to independence 
 submitted to his sway, and the highest as 
 pirations of his vaulting ambition were re- 
 
LIFE OF UNCAS. 31 
 
 alized, while the imperious Sassacus was 
 humbled by the loss of territory and subjects, 
 though not subdued. The glare of military 
 splendor is equally dazzling to civilized and 
 savage man ; and although the victor used 
 his power with a heavy hand, he nevertheless 
 had the address to grasp the sovereignty 
 over the Mohegans leagued under his stand 
 ard, and the ability to fix it in his family. It 
 was the closing struggle of this rebellion in 
 which the Pequods and Mohegans were en 
 gaged on the arrival of the first colonists in 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The colonization of Connecticut, by the 
 English Pilgrims, was begun, as already men 
 tioned, in the year 1635, at the invitation of 
 the Indians residing in the river country them 
 selves. These Indians were at that time nu 
 merous swarming not only along the Con 
 necticut, but also through the vallies of its 
 tributaries, such as the Podunk, the Tunxis, 
 and other considerable intersecting streams. 
 The Podunks resided upon the lands now 
 comprised in the town of East Hartford. At 
 Mattehesick, now Middletown, was the pow 
 erful Sachemdom of Sowheag. The clans in 
 the territory now covered by the towns of 
 
32 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 East Haddam, Chatham, Wethersfield, East 
 Hartford, Windsor, and Suffield, were nume 
 rous and strong. Below the Sowheags were 
 the Mackmoodus Indians, great in their pow 
 wows and famous for their worhip of evil spi 
 rits.* In the territory now composing the town 
 of Lyme, resided the West Nahantics,f who 
 were confederates of the Pequods. It is be 
 lieved that the Indians of the river country 
 numbered from fifteen to twenty thousand 
 bow-men upon the war-path. In Windsor, 
 for example, forty years after the settlement 
 by the whites, the Indians outnumbered them 
 as nineteen to one. They were divided into 
 small clans, having different names, and li- 
 
 * Massachusetts Hist. Coll. vol. ix. 
 
 f The orthography of the name of this clan of the 
 Narragansetts, has been various; it generally being writ 
 ten, by New Englanders, either Man tics, Nih antics, or 
 Nehantics. The Indians themselves, however, as I have 
 discovered by the correspondence of Sir William John 
 son, when they came to the use of letters, wrote Na- 
 hantics. The Rev. Matthew Graves, moreover, Mis 
 sionary among this people, a century ago, who wrote 
 with scholarship and elegance, spelt their name 
 NAHANTICS. I have therefore adopted his orthography, 
 as the most likely to be correct and as an Indian 
 would be most likely to sound it. 
 
LIFE OF UNCAS. 33 
 
 ving under their own Sachems. But they 
 were, nevertlielesss, all Mohegans, and with 
 the exception of the Nah antics, if not under 
 the immediate government of Uncas, greatly 
 subject to his influence. 
 
 The Dutch from Manhattan Island had al 
 ready established a small trading-post at the 
 junction of the Little River with the Con 
 necticut, where now stands the city of 
 Hartford, between which and the Indians 
 the most amicable relations existed ; and the 
 friendship of Uncas secured for the English a 
 welcome reception from all the Indians north 
 of the circumscribed territory of the Pequods. 
 The first house in the colony was erected 
 by the Plymouth traders, at or near the junc 
 tion of the Tunxis river with the Connecticut, 
 in Windsor, in the summer of 1633. But no 
 formal settlement by numbers was begun un 
 til two or three years afterward. Meantime 
 the movements of the English were looked 
 upon by the Pequods with suspicion. The 
 approach, even, of trading-parties, was viewed 
 with an evil eye ; and their feelings broke out 
 into open hostility in the following year, when 
 Captains Stone and Norton, from Massachu 
 setts, entering the river in a small bark for 
 
34 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 a trading expedition, were treacherously mur 
 dered, together with the crew of the vessel.* 
 The Indians who committed these murders 
 had been engaged by Captain Stone as guides ; 
 and it has been questioned by some of the 
 early writers whether they were in reality 
 Pequods. Be this as it may, they were in 
 close intercourse with them ; and the Sa 
 chems, both of the Pequods, and of their con 
 federates, the Nahantics, shared in the spoils 
 of the vessel, which after having been plun 
 dered was sunk in the river.f There is rea 
 son to believe, moreover, that Sassacus had al 
 ready, in anticipation of hostilities with the 
 English, been placing his country in the best 
 posture of defence permitted by the means 
 and skill of his people. Still the murder of 
 Stone and his crew was disclaimed, and an 
 embassy of peace was sent by Sassacus to 
 Boston. The ambassadors stated that the 
 murders had been perpetrated by a few va 
 grant Indians who had fled to the Dutch ; and 
 such were their apparent sincerity, and the 
 plausibility of their story, that the outrage 
 was overlooked, and terms of peace were con- 
 
 * Holmes s Annals. f Hutchinson. 
 
THE PEQUODS. 35 
 
 eluded. Upon the faith of this treaty, no lon 
 ger doubting the integrity of the Pequods, a 
 Mr. John Oldham proceeded with a freight 
 ed bark into the waters of their neighborhood 
 upon a trading expedition. His particular 
 destination, however, was Block Island, which 
 belonged to the Narragansetts. While lying 
 quietly at anchor near the Island, the bark was 
 boarded by a cloud of Indians, and Oldham 
 himself murdered with horrible cruelty. His 
 brains were dashed out by a war-club, and 
 his limbs hacked off. It was subsequently 
 ascertained that this outrage was committed 
 by a party of the Block Island Indians, aid 
 ed by a number of the Narragansetts. The 
 act was disclaimed by the latter, and the per 
 petrators fled to the Pequods, by whom they 
 were received and protected.* Oldham had 
 fifty pounds of gold coins upon his person 
 when he was killed, which the murderers 
 took, and according to the testimony of Lion 
 
 * Winthrop states that although Canonicus sent a 
 message to the Governor of Massachusetts, disclaiming 
 the murder, and asserting that Miantonomoh had gone 
 in pursuit of the murderers with seventeen canoes and 
 two hundred men, yet that all the Sachems of the Nar 
 ragansetts, except Miantonomoh, were the contrivers of 
 the murder, in revenge for his trading with the Pequods. 
 
36 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 Gardiner,* after punching holes through the 
 pieces, they suspended them upon their necks 
 for ornaments. The Pequods likewise com 
 mitted divers other outrages upon those En 
 glish who were now engaged in the com 
 merce and colonization of the river country. 
 This second act of treachery and blood for 
 Stone and Norton had been murdered while 
 asleep roused the Massachusetts colonists to 
 action, and a detachment of eighty men was 
 despatched against the Pequods, under Cap- 
 
 * Lion Gardiner was the founder of Saybrook. He 
 had served in the Low Countries under General Fair 
 fax, and being a skilful engineer, was sent out by Lord 
 Say-and-Seal, and Lord Brook, to construct a fort at 
 the mouth of the Connecticut river, about the year 
 1633 or 1634. He continued in command of that post 
 several years, and ultimately removed to Gardiner s Isl 
 and, which he obtained from the Indians, with whom, 
 especially those of Long Island, he had much inter 
 course. He was the ancestor of the Gardiners, who 
 have remained in possession of that island to this day. 
 It has been an entailed estate, until it fell to the late 
 Jonathan Gardiner, deceased, at whose death the entail 
 was broken. There is a tradition that the Island was 
 conveyed to Gardiner by Waiandance, in consequence 
 of his (Gardiner s) exertions to ransom the chieftain s 
 daughter, who had been made prisoner by Ninegrate, 
 during a war between the Nahantics and the Long Isl 
 and Indians. 
 
ENDICOTT S EXPEDITION. 37 
 
 tain Endicott, with instructions first to pro 
 ceed to Block Island and put the offenders to 
 the sword, but to spare the women and child 
 ren. Having ravaged the Island and aveng 
 ed the death of Oldham, by burning their 
 wigwams, sixty in number, and destroying 
 their corn, Endicott was next to proceed to 
 the Pequod country, and demand the murder 
 ers of Stone and Norton. The demand not 
 being complied with, instant hostilities were 
 to follow. The instructions with regard to 
 Block Island were literally executed. The Isl 
 and was subjugated after a slender resistance^ 
 and ravaged by fire and sword. The com 
 mander next proceeded to the territory of the 
 Pequods ; but shortly after landing a large 
 number of the Indians appeared in his front 
 and attempted to open a parley with him 
 speaking by an interpreter, yet maintaining a 
 respectful distance. But on being made ac 
 quainted with the terms dictated by the in 
 vaders, they fled to the woods and disappear 
 ed. Winter was now approaching, and En 
 dicott, instead of obeying his instructions, re 
 turned home, for the alleged purpose of making 
 preparations for a more formidable expedition 
 
38 LIFE OF UNO AS. 
 
 than he had brought into the field. He was 
 severely censured for his conduct, in not pur 
 suing and attacking the enemy at the time. 
 Yet when he came to view the numbers, the 
 preparations, and the temper of the Indians, 
 it is possible that his retreat was not an in 
 defensible measure. After leaving Block 
 Island, and before entering the Pequod coun 
 try, Endicott had landed at Saybrook, and 
 made that place hisrendevous, to the no small 
 grief and displeasure of Lieutenant Gardiner. 
 The latter had previously had some trouble 
 with the Pequods ; and in his own simple and 
 straight-forward narrative of the Pequod 
 Wars, he says of Endicott, " You have now 
 come hither to raise these wasps about my 
 ears, and then you will take wing and flee 
 away." Gardiner remonstrated against the 
 expedition, but nevertheless sent some of his 
 own men with them, for the purpose, it would 
 seem, of sharing in the expected plunder of 
 corn his little fort being short of provisions. 
 On the retreat of Endicott, his men reached 
 their boats and embarked first, having pre 
 viously burnt several wigwams, and destroyed 
 a quantity of corn. Gardiner s men remain 
 ing behind, the Indians reappeared and a 
 
I 
 
 "*;? 
 
 PEQUODS AND NARRAGANSETTS. 39 
 
 skirmish ensued, in which two of the former 
 were w r ounded, and one of the Indians killed 
 by a Sachem friendly to Gardiner. "And 
 thus/ says the latter, " began the war be 
 tween the Indians and us in those parts."* 
 
 The Pequods and Narragansetts had long 
 been at war, and were regarded almost as he 
 reditary enemies. Justly anticipating that 
 a storm would break upon them in the Spring 
 or Summer ensuing, the former now attempt 
 ed to open negociations with the latter, not 
 only for peace between themselves, but for 
 the purpose of an alliance, offensive and de 
 fensive, against the English, with whom the 
 Narragansetts had lived upon amicable terms 
 ever since their "war message" had been 
 so promptly returned " in kind " by the co 
 lonists of Plymouth. Sassacus saw that seve 
 ral of the chiefs who had been conquered and 
 desposed by him, had been restored to their 
 dominions and authority by the English in 
 truders. He saw new stations occupied by 
 them in rapid succession; and by their in 
 creasing numbers and military demonstrations, 
 it was obvious that if not repelled at the out- 
 
 * Vide Mass. Hist, Coll. vol. iii., 3d series. 
 
40 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 set, these strangers would plant themselves 
 down too firmly to be easily uprooted. A 
 man of half the sagacity of Sassacus would 
 have reasoned as he did. He saw that the 
 weak would inevitably fall before the strong ; 
 and that the settlements of the pale-faces 
 must be extirpated in their infancy, or his 
 own people and their kindred nations would 
 be crushed. 
 
 The arguments of the Pequods to the Nar- 
 ragansetts were more than plausible ; they 
 were sagacious and politic. " Although," says 
 Hutchinson, " they had never heard the story 
 of Polypheme and Ulysses, yet they artfully 
 urged that the English were come to dispos 
 sess them of their country, and that all the 
 Narragansetts could hope for from their friend 
 ship was the favour of being the last devour 
 ed ; whereas if the Indians would unite they 
 might easily destroy the English, or force 
 them to leave the country." For a brief pe 
 riod the Narragansetts listened to the warn 
 ings of their Pequod neighbors with apparent 
 favour ; but the emnity between the two na 
 tions was alike bitter and inveterate a cir 
 cumstance of which the rulers of Massachu- 
 
PEQUODS AND NARRAGANSETTS. 41 
 
 setts lost not the advantage. Canonicus,* the 
 chief Sachem of the Narragansetfs, on the 
 first arrival of the colonists at Plymouth, a 
 very wise and able man, was now old ; and 
 his nephew, Miantonomoh,t the son of his 
 youngest brother, and his destined successor, 
 during that year had been associated with 
 him in the government ; a practice not un- 
 frequent among the New England Indians, 
 and common in the ancient Hebrew Monar- 
 chy.f Anticipating that Sassacus might at- 
 
 * Of the parentage of Canonicus, Hutchinson gives 
 the following tradition : " The ancient Indians among 
 the Narragansetts reported when the English first ar 
 rived, that they had in former times a sachem called 
 Tashtassuk, incomparably greater than any in the 
 whole land, in power and state. He had only two chil 
 dren, a son and a daughter, and not being able to match 
 them according to their dignity, he joined them together 
 in matrimony, and that they had four sons, of whom 
 Canonicus, who was Sachem when the English came, 
 was the eldest." This, adds the historian, is the only 
 piece of Indian history or tradition, of any sort, from 
 the ancestors of our Indians, I have ever met with. 
 
 f The name of this Chief has also been written in 
 different ways. Roger Williams writes it indifferently, 
 Meantinomy and Miantunnimoh. 
 
 i " Meantinomy, because of his youth, was his Mar- 
 
 4* 
 
42 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 tempt a reconciliation and an alliance with 
 Canonicus and Miantonomoh, and fearing 
 lest the effort to that end might be successful , 
 the Governor of Massachusetts sent a solemn 
 embassage to the Narragansett Court, which 
 " was most royally received." After the 
 message had been delivered, Miantonomoh 
 replied that he willingly embraced peace with 
 the English, but added that from the near 
 ness of the Pequods, he thought it expedient 
 to hold amity with both.* Still the Narra- 
 gansetts were reluctant to lose an opportunity 
 
 shal and Executioner. When the Sachems had con 
 demned any one to be punished, they very often execu 
 ted the sentence themselves ; sometimes, however, one 
 of the Chief Warriors was made the Executioner. 33 
 Roger Williams. 
 
 * Winthrop s Journal, Holmes, and Johnson s " Won 
 der- Workynge Providence." The latter thus records 
 the reception. " They were entertained royally, 
 in the Indian manner. Boiled chestnuts is their white 
 bread, and because they would be extraordinary in their 
 feasting, they strove for variety after the English man 
 ner, boiling pudding made of Indian corn, putting 
 therein great store of blackberries, something like cur 
 rants. Having thus nobly feasted them, they gave them 
 audience in a state-house, round, about fifty feet wide, 
 made of long poles stuck in the ground, covered with 
 mats." 
 
MISSION TO BOSTON. 43 
 
 of avenging themselves against their an 
 cient enemy, and the Massachusetts em- 
 bassage was shortly reciprocated by a visit 
 from Miantonomoh in person, with a retinue of 
 twenty chiefs. They were received in Bos 
 ton with much stateliness and ceremony by 
 the Governor. The magistrates and clergy 
 were convened for the occasion, and the 
 chiefs were conducted into the town from 
 Roxbury by a military escort. But if Mian 
 tonomoh had for a moment felt a friendly emo 
 tion toward the Pequods, as he had so lately 
 declared to the Boston messengers, all the 
 vengeance of his soul had now kindled afresh. 
 His propositions to the governor contemplated 
 the entire destruction of that people, and he 
 expressly desired that by the compact to be 
 concluded, neither the English nor the Indians 
 should make peace until the work should be 
 accomplished. " The Governor, for form s 
 sake," ingenuously confesses the historian, 
 " took time until the next morning to give an 
 answer." Accordingly early on the following 
 day, a treaty was concluded, by which neither 
 party was to make peace with the Pequods 
 without the consent of the other.* 
 * Hutchiuson. 
 
44 LIFE OF UN CAS. 
 
 The counsels of Sassacus to Miantonomoh 
 had been those of wisdom. But the course of 
 the latter resulted in the gratification of pre 
 sent revenge, at the cost of his own ultimate 
 destruction. 
 
 During the progress of these negociations, 
 the Pequods continued their hostilities against 
 the settlers of Connecticut by frequent mur 
 ders laboring withal to rouse all the Indian 
 nations under their influence to join them in 
 the contest, notwithstanding their ill-success 
 in the effort to provoke the Narragansetts to 
 unite with them in what should have been a 
 common cause. The continued inroads of 
 the pale faces fired the bosom of Sassacus 
 with indignation, and the flame burned with 
 corresponding intensity in the bosoms of 
 his people. Insensible to fear as the pan 
 thers of their own forests, both chief and 
 people resolved to make red their paths with 
 the blood of the intruders, and either drive 
 them from the country or perish in the con 
 test. Several murders were committed in the 
 autumn of 1636, and the Fort at Saybrook 
 was little better than in a state of siege during 
 the whole of the winter following. Every 
 
OUTRAGES OF THE PEQJJODS. 45 
 
 motion of the garrison was narrowly watched, 
 and the navigation of the river seriously im 
 peded by the wily foe lurking in every co 
 vert upon its banks. In February, 1637, a 
 Lieutenant Gardiner, having left the fort with 
 a party of ten, to work upon the marshes, was 
 attacked and driven in with the loss of seve 
 ral of his men, himself being wounded. Soon 
 afterward a vessel descending the river, man 
 ned by three men, was attacked by the 
 Indians in their canoes. One of the naviga 
 tors was shot through the head with an arrow, 
 and the others were taken and put to death 
 by the most frightful tortures ; their mangled 
 corpses being hung upon trees by the river 
 side, as a spectacle of terror to the English in 
 passing by. The settlement of Weathers- 
 field was attacked shortly thereafter, and six 
 men and three women killed, two young wo 
 men being taken prisoners. These bloody 
 acts had been immediately provoked by the 
 expedition of Captain Endicott the Pequods 
 avenging the invasion of Massachusetts upon 
 the settlers of Connecticut. The dissatisfac 
 tion of the latter in regard to that expedition 
 was expressed by the General Court, and a 
 
46 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 request preferred that Massachusetts should 
 prosecute the war with greater vigor. The 
 fort at Saybrook had been so severely pressed, 
 that Captain Mason was sent thither from 
 Hartford with a reinforcement of twenty men. 
 But he was shortly relieved by a detachment 
 of the same number of " lusty" men from 
 Massachusetts, sent thither by Sir Henry 
 Vane, then for a brief period governor of that 
 colony, under Captain Underbill, " one of 
 the forwardest of the Boston enthusiasts." In 
 all, during the spring of this year, the Con 
 necticut colonists lost about thirty of their 
 number by the arms of the Pequods ; and as 
 the latter were lurking about the confines of 
 every settlement, the whole colony was in a 
 very distressed condition.* 
 
 * "/The Pequods lay skulking about almost continu 
 ally ; by which means divers of the English lost their 
 lives, and some that were seized by the Indians going 
 on the river, were most horribly tortured by them, and 
 roasted alive ; and afterwards the Tawnies would with 
 derision in the English hearing, imitate the doleful 
 ejaculations and invocations of the poor victims that had 
 perished under their cruel tortures, and add infinite 
 blasphemies thereunto. So that the infant colonies of 
 New-England were necessitated to the crushing of the 
 serpents, while they were but yet in the cradle." Mag- 
 nalia Christi Americana. 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 47 
 
 Under these circumstances, it was determin 
 ed by the three colonies of Plymouth, Mas 
 sachusetts, and Connecticut, to unite their 
 military strength in a well concerted effort to 
 crush the power of Sassacus, and extinguish 
 his nation. Miantonomoh rejoiced in the 
 prospect of seeing the terrible enemy of his 
 people struck down, and promised the assist 
 ance of his warriors ; while Uncas, whose 
 friendship for the English never wavered, was 
 equally gratified by an invitation to take arms 
 once more against the Chief from whom he 
 had revolted, but who was yet to the sur 
 rounding Indians powerful. 
 
 A General Court was summoned at Hart 
 ford, on the first of May, to take measures for 
 the expedition, in which the three towns of 
 Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield, by 
 which the war was to be prosecuted, were 
 fully represented. It was resolved that a 
 body of ninety men should be raised, forty- 
 two of whom were to be taken from Hartford, 
 thirty from Windsor, and eighteen from 
 Weathersfield. The whole were to be com 
 manded by Major John Mason. The people 
 were few and poor ; but the necessary sup- 
 
48 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 plies were raised with alacrity, and every dis 
 position promptly made for the vigorous pro 
 secution of the war.* Meantime the colonists 
 of Massachusetts and Plymouth, alive to the 
 sufferings and perilous situation of their friends 
 in Connecticut, determined to render prompt 
 and efficient aid in the emergency. One hun- 
 red and sixty men were raised by the former 
 colony, under the command of Captain 
 Stoughton, and forty by the latter. Of the 
 Massachusetts division forty were sent forward 
 in advance, under Captain Patrick-! 
 
 Major John Mason, the officer entrusted 
 with the command of the Connecticut forces, 
 was an Englishman, then in the prime of life, 
 being thirty-seven years old. He was bred 
 to arms, and had served with credit in the 
 Netherlands, under Sir Thomas Fairfax. He 
 was one of the dauntless men who led the first 
 colonists from Dorchester to Windsor, and the 
 vigor and ability with which he exercised his 
 military trusts, showed that they could not 
 have been confided to more competent hands. 
 His little command of ninety men embarked 
 
 * Trumbull. f Hutchinson. 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 49 
 
 in three small vessels at Hartford, on the 10th 
 of May, having been joined by Uncas with 
 seventy of his Mohegan warriors with a fleet 
 of canoes. The descent of the river was te 
 dious ; the vessels were several times aground ; 
 and the Indians, becoming impatient of the 
 delay, obtained permission to go ashore and 
 proceed to Saybrook by land. On their way, 
 and at no great distance from the Fort, they 
 .fell in with a party of forty Pequods. A brisk 
 skirmish ensued, which resulted in the defeat 
 of the latter, with the loss of seven of their 
 warriors killed, and one taken prisoner. Un 
 important as this little engagement was, in 
 itself considered, its consequence was not in 
 considerable in another respect, as it served to 
 assure the colonists of the fidelity of the Mo- 
 hegans, who, with their chief, had been some 
 what, though most unjustly, distrusted. This 
 prisoner had been an inmate of the fort at 
 Saybrook ; but on the breaking out of the 
 war he had absconded and joined his people. 
 His acquaintance with the English and a 
 good knowledge of their language enabled 
 him to act as a spy, in which service he was 
 employed by Sassacus. The Mohegans were 
 
50 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 so highly incensed against him that they de 
 termined to put him to death by torture, after 
 their own customs ; " and the English," as the 
 laborious Trumbull naively remarks, " in the 
 circumstances in which they were, did not 
 -judge it prudent to interpose." A large fire 
 was accordingly kindled, before which he 
 was roasted, and his body torn limb from 
 limb, cut in pieces, and eaten while yet the 
 flesh was quivering between their teeth. 
 This I believe is the first if not the only record 
 of actual cannibalism found in the annals of 
 New-England. The fidelity of Uncas was yet 
 farther tested by Lieutenant Gardiner, after 
 his arrival at Saybrook. " I called for Un 
 cas," says Gardiner, " and said to him, You 
 say you will help Major Mason, but I will 
 first see it ; therefore send you now twenty 
 men to the Bass River, for there went yester 
 day night six Indians in a canoe thither ; 
 fetch them now, dead or alive, and then you 
 shall go with Major Mason, else not. So 
 he sent his men, who killed four, brought one, 
 a traitor, to us alive, and one ran away." 
 
 Mason arrived at Saybrook on the 15th, 
 and the slender garrison of that place was 
 
THE PEQTJOD WAR. 51 
 
 added to his little army. Being detained seve 
 ral days by contrary winds, some dissensions 
 arose as to the point where the Pequod coun 
 try should be invaded. The Court had in 
 structed Mason to land at Pequod Harbor, 
 and march thence directly upon the Indian 
 forts, and the subordinate officers and soldiers 
 were for a literal execution of their orders. 
 But it was well known that the natural de 
 fences of the harbor were formidable, and it 
 was ascertained that the Pequods were there 
 in force, armed in part, as it was reported, 
 with muskets, those 
 
 " Tools pregnant with infernal flame," 
 which had thus far, in a good degree, been 
 kept from the hands of the Indians. Thus 
 prepared, the Pequods were watching day 
 and night for the approach of the invaders. 
 Mason was therefore of the opinion that it 
 would be best to sail past the Pequod Harbor 
 into the Narragansett Bay, there to land, and 
 thence take the enemy by surprise from an 
 unexpected direction. The chaplain of the 
 expedition was the Rev. Samuel Stone, the 
 colleague of Hooker at Hartford ; and a man 
 of great wit, learning, and piety. As the 
 
52 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 Pilgrims, in all important undertakings, were 
 accustomed to ask wisdom from above, Mr. 
 Stone was desired to make the question in dis 
 pute the subject of special prayer. He ac 
 cordingly spent nearly the whole of the fol 
 lowing night in anxious supplications to the 
 Almighty for wisdom to direct them in their 
 course. On joining the officers in the morn 
 ing, Mr. Stone expressed his concurrence in 
 the views of their commander, and thereupon 
 they were acceded to without a murmur. 
 This deviation from the instructions of the 
 Court was doubtless the course of wisdom. 
 General Courts, and legislative bodies, and 
 councils at a distance from the scene of ac 
 tion, are but poor directors of military move 
 ments, where everything depends upon cir 
 cumstances ever-varying, as well as upon the 
 skill and promptness with which they can be 
 turned to account by the commander on the 
 spot. 
 
 Before Mason s departure from Saybrook, 
 twenty inefficient men from Hartford were 
 sent home, and their places supplied from the 
 garrison of Lieutenant Gardiner, under the 
 command of Captain Underbill, from Massa- 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 53 
 
 chusetts. The expedition sailed on Friday, 
 the 19th of May, arriving in the Narragan- 
 sett Bay on the 20th. The day following 
 being the Christian Sabbath, no attempt was 
 made to land ; and on Monday access to the 
 shore was prevented by a north-western gale 
 which continued until Tuesday afternoon ; at 
 sunset on the evening of which day Major 
 Mason effected a landing, and marched up to 
 the lodge of Canonicus, the aged chief of the 
 Narragansetts, and the uncle of Miantonomoh? 
 whose guardian he had been during his mi 
 nority, and who was now his chief executive 
 officer, the regal authority having in fact been 
 committed to his hands several years before. 
 Mason having made known to Canonicus the 
 reason why, unbidden, he had thus appeared 
 in arms in his territory, the aged Chief ap 
 proved cordially of the object of the expedi 
 tion, and sent for Miantonomoh for farther 
 counsel. Obedient to the summons Mianto 
 nomoh joined his uncle with alacrity, attended 
 by two hundred of his chiefs and warriors. 
 The young prince likewise approved warmly 
 of the enterprise, but considered the numbers 
 of the English and Mohegans altogether too 
 
54 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 small to march against so fierce and compara- 
 ively numerous a people as the Pequods. He 
 therefore volunteered the services of two hun 
 dred of his Narragansett braves, but did not 
 go forth himself as their leader.* On the 
 same evening a runner came in from the plan 
 tation of Roger Williams, at Providence, with 
 a letter from Captain Patrick, who, with his 
 forty men, was hastening to join the forces of 
 Mason and his allies, and urging them not to 
 move forward until his arrival. But the 
 white troops of Mason were anxious to exe 
 cute the purpose of their expedition and return 
 for the protection of their families, attacks 
 upon whom might be made from other direc 
 tions ; while it was apprehended that their 
 Indian allies might question their prowess if 
 they delayed any longer. Indeed their dusky 
 allies had already begun to laugh at their ex 
 pense, saying that " Englishmen talked much 
 but would not fight." Another evil conse 
 quence of a longer delay, would probably be 
 
 * " The great body of the Narragansetts were very 
 desirous of revenge against the Pequods ; but the old 
 Sachems were desirous of remaining neutral." Callen- 
 der s Centennial Sermon. 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 55 
 
 that the Pequods would hear of their approach 
 from this hitherto unexpected quarter. It was 
 therefore determined not to wait for the acces 
 sion of Patrick s company, but to push forward 
 for the Pequod country on the morning of the 
 24th. Mason s forces now numbered no 
 more than seventy-seven Englishmen, sixty 
 Mohegans, and about two hundred Narragan- 
 setts. They reached the eastern Nah antic, 
 bordering the Pequod territory, at nightfall, 
 and encamped near the castle of a subordi 
 nate Narragansett sachem, the site of the 
 present town of Westerly, whose carriage 
 was so haughty and sullen that it was judged 
 prudent to place a guard around his fortress, 
 to prevent any nocturnal communication be 
 tween his people and the enemy.* But on 
 
 * The site of the present town of Westerly." Thus 
 it would appear by some authorities. Potter, however, 
 in his compilation of Narragansett history, (Coll. Rhode 
 Island Hist. Society, vol. iii.) thinks the place of this 
 night s encampment was at Fort Neck, twelve miles 
 from the Pawcatuck river. He says, <( there are now 
 the remains of an old fort there, with traces of ditches, 
 and a wall of stone and earth. It is on a point of 
 land, projecting into a pond, with steep banks. Near it 
 is an ancient burial place of the Nehantic Sachems." 
 
56 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 the following morning a portion of these Na- 
 hantics joined the expedition, and numbers 
 more of the Narragansett people overtook 
 them in the course of the day thus increas 
 ing the Indian forces to about five hundred ; 
 all loud in proclaiming their own valor, and 
 boasting of the deeds they were to perform in 
 the coming encounter. 
 
 It had been ascertained that the great ma 
 jority of the Pequbd warriors were in two 
 forts, or inclosures of pallisadoes, of which 
 mention has already been made, so large as 
 to embrace a considerable number of their 
 wigwams, occupied by their old men, their 
 women and children. One of these fortresses, 
 or stockades, was commanded by Sassacus 
 in person, and both had been rendered as 
 strong as the means and martial science of 
 the Indians would allow. They were indeed 
 thought by them, both within and without, 
 to be impregnable. It had been the design 
 of Captain Mason to attack both these defen 
 ces at the same time, but on arriving at the 
 Pawcatuck river, after a march of twelve 
 miles, information was received from We- 
 quash, a petty Pequod sachem, who had re- 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 57 
 
 volted from Sassacus to the Narragansetts, 
 that induced the captain to change his pur 
 pose.* The forts were situated at too great 
 a distance apart to allow a division of the 
 English forces; for it was on them that the 
 chief reliance must be placed in the opera 
 tion of storming the works. Thus circum 
 stanced, it was now determined that the first 
 attack should be made upon the fort at Mis- 
 tick, upon which the march was immediately 
 directed. But the name of Sassacus was yet 
 so terrible to the Indians, that notwithstanding 
 their previous vauntings, their hearts failed 
 them as they advanced in the direction of his 
 strong holds. The project of attacking the 
 great chieftain in his fort argued, in their ap 
 prehension, a degree of temerity worse than 
 madness. " Sassacus," they said, " was all 
 one God, and could not be killed." At first 
 they endeavored to dissuade the English 
 leader from any such rashness as to attack 
 
 * " This Wequash was by birth a Pequod. He was a 
 sachem, residing where Sassacus lived; but upon some 
 disgust received, he went from the Pequods to the Nar 
 ragansetts,, and became a chief captain under Miantono- 
 moh." Increase Mather. 
 
58 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 him ; but finding their arguments of no avail, 
 about a hundred of the Narragansetts with 
 drew from the army, and retreated back to 
 Providence, reporting as they went, that the 
 English had all fallen before the fury of the 
 Pequods. The rumor spread to Boston, where 
 it was received with deep anxiety. Uncas in 
 deed had predicted that the Narragansetts 
 would leave them, as Major Mason declares 
 in his own history of the campaign. " But as 
 for himself," adds the Major, Uncas declar 
 ed " that he would never leave us, and so it 
 proved : for which expressions, and some 
 other speeches of his, I shall never forget him- 
 Indeed he was a great friend, and did great 
 service." 
 
 Meantime Major Mason pressed forward up 
 on Mistick, being guided thither by Wequash, 
 who was a native of that place, and whose 
 hostility to Sassacus had now become so bit 
 ter as to prompt him to lead an enemy to the 
 destruction not only of his own people, but of 
 his own relations. The weather was exceed 
 ingly hot, and the march through the tangled 
 wilderness so embarrassing, that all the 
 English were severe sufferers, and some of 
 
THE PEQUOD WAR. 59 
 
 them sank down disabled from service. But 
 however much their limbs failed, their hearts 
 faltered not, and just at the close of the day 
 they found themselves, as they supposed, in the 
 immediate vicinity of Mistick fort ; although 
 it subsequently appeared that they were not 
 so near by two or three miles as they had 
 been led to believe. Repose and refreshment 
 being needed by all, before going into action, 
 they bivouacked for the night near certain 
 rocks yet marking the place in Groton, now 
 known as Porter s rocks.* The men soon 
 sought rest in sleep, pillowing their heads as 
 Jacob did at Bethel, and trusting, with a faith 
 as strong as his, upon the same unseen though 
 Almighty power for protection. In the course 
 of the evening Wequash was sent forward to 
 reconnoitre the situation of the enemy, and his 
 report, on returning to the camp, imparted 
 strong encouragement. He ascertained that 
 the Pequods were in a high feast and carou 
 sal. They had seen the transport vessels 
 passing round from Say brook toward Narra- 
 gansett bay, and as no attempt had been 
 made to land at Pequod harbor, they were im- 
 * Trumbull. 
 
60 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 pressed with the idea that through fear Mason 
 had relinquished the enterprise. Having more 
 over had great success in fishing the previous 
 day, they were holding a feast, and celebrat 
 ing by song and dance the departure of their 
 enemy, not dreaming that he was even then 
 within sound of their revelry. Their festival 
 closed about midnight, and the revellers gave 
 themselves up to a slumber, rendered more 
 than ordinarily profound by reason of their 
 exertions and their orgies. The night was 
 serene, and toward morning the moon arose 
 to spread her silver mantle over the wild land 
 scape. The little army of the English was 
 then aroused from sleep, and the necessary dis 
 positions were made for advancing to the attack. 
 Having commended themselves to the care of 
 the great Ruler of armies, they proceeded 
 about two miles, when, supposing the fort 
 could not be far distant, Major Mason sent 
 for the Indians, now in the rear, to advance. 
 But, instead of the main body, Uncas and We- 
 quash, only, came forward to the commander. 
 They stated that their warriors were reluctant 
 to proceed in the van, as they had done 
 in the preceding marches ; whereupon per- 
 
STORMING OF FORT MISTICK. 61 
 
 mission was given them to remain in the 
 rear, with a charge not to flee away, but to 
 form a circle round the fortress, now discerned 
 upon the crest of a hill in front, " and see 
 whether Englishmen would fight." All things 
 being in readiness for the assault, Wequash 
 piloted Major Mason to the north-eastern, 
 and Captain Underbill, with his command, to 
 the north-western entrance. It was yet an 
 hour before day-break, but the moon gave suf 
 ficient light for the purposes of the assailants. 
 The Pequod sentinel in front of Mason had 
 left his post for a few moments to light his 
 pipe, so that a faithful dog was first to give 
 the alarm to the slumbering garrison. The 
 barking of the dog was quickly succeeded by 
 the exclamation of the returning sentinel, 
 " Owannux !" Owannux !" English 
 men!" "Englishmen!" The alarm caused 
 an instant rallying of the garrison, though in 
 in a state of confusion that gave the assailants, 
 now pressing forward with great vigor, a 
 decided advantage in the outset. The timbers 
 forming the pallisadoes were not placed close 
 enough together to prevent the assailants from 
 firing between them, which they did with 
 
62 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 great effect ; and the roar of musketry ? 
 mingled with the yells of the Indians within, 
 which were answered by the war-whoops of 
 those without, formed together a horrible din 
 of discordant sounds, such as had never before 
 disturbed the repose of the Pequod country. 
 After a few discharges of their arms in this 
 manner, Mason directed his attention to the 
 principal entrance, which was soon forced, and 
 his troops rushed forward sw r ord in hand. Then 
 followed a struggle of death. The Pequods 
 were none of them supplied with fire-arms, 
 and were obliged to fight only with bows and 
 arrows, war-clubs and tomahawks, while the 
 fire-arms of the English gave them an advan 
 tage more than counterbalancing their infe 
 riority of numbers. The Pequods nevertheless 
 made a manly and desperate resistance, 
 hand to hand and foot to foot ; but the Eng 
 lish pressing steadily forward compelled them 
 to retreat through the principal avenue of 
 their walled village toward the western side 
 of the fortress, which having been entered in 
 that direction by Underbill and his division, 
 just in time, they found themselves between 
 two fires. Their only refuge then was to at- 
 
STORMING OF FORT MISTICK. 63 
 
 tain their wigwams, which they entered in 
 squads, and determined to defend. Many 
 severe conflicts of small parties ensued, in 
 which the combatants fought with equal des 
 peration. In the spirited lines of Dr. Dwight, 
 whose muse wept over the destruction of 
 these people : 
 
 " Undaunted on their foes they fiercely flew ; 
 As fierce the dusky warriors crowd the fight ; 
 Despair inspires ; to combat s face they glue ; 
 With groans and shouts they rage, unknowing flight. 
 And close their sullen eyes in shades of endless night." 
 
 In these separate onslaughts the Pequods were 
 slain in large numbers, and several of the 
 English fell dead, while many others were 
 wounded. For a few moments the conflict 
 seemed doubtful ; when Mason boldly entered 
 one of the wigwams, and snatching a blazing 
 brand from the fire, applied it to the dry and 
 inflammable materials with which it was 
 covered. While the leader was thus engag 
 ed, an Indian would have transfixed his head 
 with an arrow, but for the interposition of one 
 of his subordinate officers, who observing the 
 action, promptly sprang forward and cut the 
 string of the bow with his sword. The expe- 
 
64 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 dient of Mason was as successful as it was fatal 
 to the doomed Pequods. The flames spread from 
 hut to hut in rapid succession until the whole 
 seventy within the enclosure were in a living 
 blaze ; the English retiring without the walls 
 as they extended. Then followed a scene of 
 wild confusion and distress seldom paralleled 
 in a community of no greater numbers. Tak 
 ing courage from the example before them, 
 the Mohegans of Uncas, and such of the Nar- 
 ragansetts as remained, came up to the works 
 and formed a circular line close to the rear of 
 the English, who were near the base of the 
 pallisadoes. It does not appear that Uncas 
 participated in the timidity of his followers. 
 On the contrary, he exerted himself to ani 
 mate them to the battle, and acquitted himself 
 like a brave and fearless man sustaining the 
 evidence afterward given in his behalf by 
 Major Mason. The crackling of the flames, 
 mingling with the wails of distress from those 
 perishing in the conflagration, with the fatal 
 discharges of the English musketry upon the 
 poor wretches who were attempting to escape 
 by leaping from the parapet, presented, alto 
 gether, a scene of appalling and terrific gran- 
 
THE CONFLAGRATION. 65 
 
 deur.* The area within the walls was like a 
 sea of fire ; and as the sun had not yet risen, 
 the dimness of the morning twilight was 
 dissipated by the lurid light of the flames. 
 It was the history of this conflagration, pro 
 bably, that suggested the spirited description 
 of a similar, though an imaginary scene, in 
 the beautiful poem of" YAMOYDEN,"! the sub 
 ject of which was the wars of King Philip : 
 
 " Swift o er the structure climbs the fire ; 
 In serpent course its streams aspire ; 
 Entwined about their crackling prey, 
 Aloft they shoot with spiral way ; 
 Wreathing and flashing fiercely round 
 Their glittering net was mingling wound 
 O er all the pile; but soon they blended ; 
 One mighty volume then ascended, 
 
 * " The fire, by the advantage of the wind, carried 
 all before it ; and such horrible confusion overwhelmed 
 the salvages, that many of them were broiled to death in 
 the revenging flames ; many of them climbing to the 
 top of the pallizadozy were a fair mark for the mortife- 
 rous bullets there ; and many of them that had the re 
 solution to issue forth, were slain by the English that 
 stood ready to bid em welcome." Magnalia Christi 
 jUmericana. 
 
 t By the late Rev. James W. Eastburn, and his 
 friend the late Robert C. Sands. 
 6* 
 
66 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 A column dense of mounting flame ; 
 
 Blacker the shrouded heaven became, 
 
 And like substantial darkness frowned 
 
 O er the red atmosphere ; around 
 
 The fields gave back the unnatural glare ; 
 
 Lifting their ghostly arms in air. 
 
 Were seen those trunks all bleak and bare ; 
 
 At distance rose the giant pine. 
 
 Kindling as if by power divine, 
 
 Of fire a living tree ; 
 
 While, where the circling forests sweep, 
 
 Each varying hue of bright or deep, 
 
 Shone as if raised o er nature s sleep, 
 
 By magic s witchery ! 
 
 Around the slaughtered, in their hold, 
 
 Stifling in vain their warriors bold, 
 
 Each blazing sconce in fury sought, 
 
 Pour d on their foe their deadly shot ; 
 
 Or, in mad leaps of torture broke, 
 
 Through sulphurous fire and volumed smoke ; 
 
 While uproar, flame, and deafening yell, 
 
 Made the scene seem the vault of hell, 
 
 Where, writhing wild in penance dire, 
 
 Fiends danced mid pyramids of fire !" 
 
 Many of the Pequods attempted to force their 
 way through the gates ; but if their flight was 
 not intercepted by the English, they were for 
 the most part fallen upon by Uncas and his 
 Mohegans, while numbers were driven back 
 
THE SLAUGHTER. 67 
 
 to perish miserably in their " burning cells."* 
 The battle was ended ere the sun arose, and 
 never since his beams were arrested by the as 
 cending smoke of the cities of the plain, did the 
 orb of light shine upon a scene of more com 
 plete desolation. From six to eight hundred 
 Indians, old men and young, women and child 
 ren, were either slain by the sword, or con 
 sumed in the flames.f Seven only escaped, 
 and the same number were made prisoners by 
 the English. Eighteen prisoners, of whom 
 ten were males, and eight females, were taken 
 by the Mohegan and Narragansett Indians. 
 Four of the males were disposed of to as many 
 
 * It almost chills the blood, at this distant day, to 
 contemplate the feelings with which the early or contem 
 porary New-England writers, in their religious hatred 
 of the Indians, viewed and spoke of scenes like this. 
 " At this time it was a fearful sight to see them thus 
 frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching 
 the same, and horrible was the scent thereof; but the 
 victory seemed a great sacrifice, and they gave the 
 praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully 
 for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands." 
 Morton s Memorial. 
 
 t "In a little more than one hour five or six hundred 
 of these barbarians were dismissed from a world that 
 was burdened with them. 5 * Cotton Mather. 
 
68 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 sachems, the other six were slain. Of the 
 females, four were taken to Saybrook and 
 left in the fort. The other four were carried 
 to one of the settlements, where, being chal 
 lenged by the Indians as their property, they 
 were executed to end the dispute. " The 
 policy as well as the morality of this proceed 
 ing," says Hutchinson, with great simplicity, 
 " may well be questioned !" I should think 
 as much. 
 
 Such was the result of the first action, of 
 note fought between the pilgrim colonists and 
 the American aboriginals. But the victors 
 were in no enviable condition after the battle. 
 It is true that but two of the English were 
 killed outright ; but twenty of their number 
 were wounded, several of them severely, 
 the heads of the Indian arrows sticking in 
 their flesh, and causing great agony. Num 
 bers of the Mohegans were also wounded. 
 They were without medical assistance both 
 surgeon and supplies having remained on 
 board the vessels.* But providentially the lit- 
 
 * " Sampson was not in much greater distress by 
 thirst, after his exploit upon the Philistines, than our 
 friends the day after this exploit upon the Pequods." 
 Cotton Mather. 
 
THE RETURN. 69 
 
 tie fleet hove in sight within an hour after the 
 engagement Yet to gain it they had to 
 march a distance of six miles, through an en 
 emy s country, bearing their wounded upon 
 litters. They had moved no great distance 
 before a body of three hundred, sent out by 
 Sassacus to succor the garrison at Mistick, 
 appeared in their front. To oppose these 
 Mason had but about forty effective men at 
 his disposition. But the boldness of his 
 movements, and the spirit of his attack, com 
 pelled them to fall back. They next pro 
 ceeded to the ruins of the fort, on beholding 
 which they stamped, and tore their hair, and 
 raised the most dismal howls.* Then leap 
 ing down the hill with the fury of demons, 
 they pursued after the English, and would 
 have overrun them but for the warm recep 
 tion they met with from Captain Underbill, 
 
 * When they came to see the ashes of their friends 
 mingled with the ashes of the fort, and the bodies of 
 many of their countrymen so terribly barbikew d, where 
 the English had been doing a good morning s work, 
 they howl d, they roarM, they stamp d, and were the 
 pictures of so many devils in desperation." Cotton 
 Mather. 
 
70 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 who with a small party had been detached to 
 cover the inarch to the vessels. Still the 
 straggling Pequods were lying in wait at ev 
 ery convenient place, and annoyed their 
 progress not a little, although none of the 
 white troops were killed ; while the Pequods 
 themselves lost a number of warriors in these 
 affairs, whose heads were immediately brought 
 in by the flying forces of Uncas. In the end 
 Mason and his party, including his Indian al 
 lies, who dared not remain in the Pequod 
 country, were safely embarked on board their 
 transports ; and in three weeks from the time 
 of their departure from Hartford the expedi 
 tion returned in triumph, having indeed ac 
 complished measures of great importance to 
 the colonies, and considering the smallness of 
 the force employed, and the numbers and fe 
 rocious courage of the enemy, achieved a vic 
 tory not a little creditable both to the skill and 
 bravery of the citizen soldiers. Their welcome 
 was as earnest as brave men desire after a 
 hazardous enterprise, and their arrival was 
 celebrated by public thanks to that Provi 
 dence which had preserved the lives of so 
 many and crowned their arms with success. 
 In consideration of his good conduct in this 
 
FALL OF SASSACUS. 71 
 
 battle, his majesty King Charles I. sent Uncas 
 " a Bible to show him the way to Heaven, and 
 a sword to defend him from his enemies.*" 
 
 The destruction of the Mistick Fort, and 
 the slaughter of its garrison, were the prelude 
 to the fall of Sassacus. On the return of the 
 
 * MS. letter from Colonel Joseph Tracy, of Nor 
 wich, to Sir William Johnson, in the author s pos 
 session. Mr. Tracy added, that " the Mohegans had 
 the keeping of them until this day." In regard to 
 Wequash, who appears to have stood firm during the 
 fight, Cotton Mather makes the following interesting 
 record : " E er we pass any further, we will take this 
 place to commemorate famous Wequash. Know, reader ? 
 that after this battel Wequash had his mind wonder 
 fully struck with great apprehensions about the Eng 
 lishman s God ; and he went about the colony of Con. 
 necticut with bitter lamentations, that he did not know 
 Jesus Christy until the good people there instructed him. 
 When he had understood and embraced the Christian 
 religion, he made a most exemplary profession of it. 
 He reformed all his former ways of sin and lust, and 
 with prodigious patience bore a thousand injuries from 
 the other Indians for his profession, while he went up 
 and down preaching Christ. At last the Indians mur 
 dered him, and poisoned him for his religion." " We 
 quash, the famous Indian at the river s mouthy is dead, 
 and certainly in Heaven. Gloriously did the grace of 
 Christ shine forth in his conversation a year and a half 
 before his death," &c. Shepherd, 
 
72 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 three hundred to the royal fortress, they up 
 braided their master for his misconduct, and 
 charged this great calamity upon his haughty 
 carriage and injustice. Indeed, but for the 
 intercession of personal friends among his 
 chiefs and warriors, his accusers would have 
 taken his life. The blow had been as severe 
 as it was unexpected ; and so greatly had the 
 nation been weakened by the slaughter, that 
 upon consultation it was believed that they 
 would not be able to retain their country 
 against the arms of the English. Sassacus 
 accordingly broke down his remaining fort, 
 burned the wig-warns of his towns, and chiefs 
 and people resolved to flee from their homes, 
 and the graves of their ancestors, and seek 
 for new abodes toward the west. The im 
 perious Sassacus himself, with his favorite 
 Sachem Mononotto, and seventy or eighty 
 chiefs and warriors, directed his course to 
 ward the Hudson river, with a view of find 
 ing a home among the Mohawks. The 
 goods carried off by them were estimated, 
 according to the journal of Governor Win-" 
 throp, at five hundred pounds value. So 
 large a prize awakened the cupidity of the 
 Mohawks, and the great Pequod Sachem was 
 
DEATH OF SASSACUS. 73 
 
 treacherously murdered by them, with twenty 
 of his followers.* 
 
 * Drake quotes the following spirited lines from the 
 poem of " Yamoyden," on the flight and death of 
 Ssssacus: 
 
 i( And Sassa-co-us, now no more. 
 
 Lord of a thousand bowmen fled ; 
 
 And all the chiefs, his boast before, 
 
 Were mingled with theunhonored dead. 
 
 Sannup and Sagamore were slain, 
 
 On Mystic s banks, in one red night ; 
 
 The once far-dreaded King in vain 
 
 Sought safety in inglorious flight ; 
 
 And reft of all his regal pride 
 
 By the fierce Maqua s hand he died." 
 The Mohawks were called ( Maquas by the Dutch. 
 Some writers have questioned the fact whether Sassa- 
 cus was murdered at all, expressing a belief that he 
 obtained a residence among the Mohawks ; but Win- 
 throp s Journal, under date of August 5, 1637, settles 
 that point. " Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone came, with 
 Mr. Wilson, from Connecticut, by Providence ; and the 
 same day Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Pincheon, and about 
 twelve more, came by land from Connecticut, and 
 brought with them a part of the skin, and a lock of 
 hair of Sassacus, and his brother, and five other Pe- 
 quod Sachems, who, having fled for shelter to the 
 Mohawks, were by them surprised and slain, with 
 twenty of their best men." Cotton Mather suggests 
 that the Mohawks were induced to murder Sassacus 
 by the Narragansetts. 
 7 
 
74- LIFE OF TJNCAS. 
 
 In the preceding narrative of the conquest 
 of the Pequod territory, Massachusetts and her 
 forces have almost been forgotten. Captain 
 Patrick, " with his forty," was left at Provi 
 dence, eager to join the forces of Mason ; but 
 being delayed by contrary winds in descend 
 ing the Providence river, he did not reach the 
 town of Canonicus until it was altogether too 
 late to take part in the campaign. Placing 
 his men on board of Mason s vessels, how 
 ever, Patrick joined that officer on his em 
 barkation from the destruction of Mistick. 
 But his behavior toward Mason was offensive? 
 and he was sent back, with the few Narra- 
 gansetts who had not previously deserted, to 
 Miantonomoh. This wayward chief, who, 
 it has already been observed, went not upon 
 the war-path with Mason, now that the Pe- 
 quods had been vanquished in the pride of 
 their strength, and the spirits of those that re 
 mained crushed, immediately united with Pat 
 rick, and they together swept through the 
 Pequod country to Saybrook. Meantime 
 the news of Mason s victory created the most 
 lively joy on its arrival at Boston ; and the 
 0-overnment of Massachusetts immediatelv 
 
THE PRISONERS. 75 
 
 sent forward a detachment of one hundred 
 and twenty men, under Captain Stoughton. 
 Arriving at Pequod harbor toward the close 
 of June, Stoughton, aided by the Narragan- 
 setts, was enabled to surround a considerable 
 body of the Pequods who had sought refuge 
 in a swamp. Eighty captives were taken, of 
 whom thirty were men. These latter, with 
 the exception of two Sachems, who promised 
 to conduct the English to Sassacus, were 
 killed ; the women and children were spared.* 
 
 * Drake quotes from the archives of Massachusetts, 
 a manuscript letter from Stoughton to Governor Win- 
 throp, written at this time from Pequocl river, thus : 
 " By this pinnace you shall receive forty-eight or fifty 
 women and children, unless there stay any here to be 
 helpful, &c. Concerning which there is one I formerly 
 mentioned, that is the fairest and the largest that I 
 saw amongst them, to whom I have given a coate to 
 cloathe her. It is my desire to have her for a servant, 
 if it may stand with your good liking, else not. There 
 is a little squaw that Steward Colicut desireth, to 
 whom he hath given a coate. Lieutenant Davenport 
 also desireth one to wit, a small one, that hath three 
 strokes upon her stomach, thus 111+. He desireth 
 her, if it will stand with your good liking. Sosomon, 
 the Indian, desireth a young little squaw, which I 
 know not." 
 
76 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 On reaching Saybrook, Stoughton s forces 
 were joined by Major Mason with forty 
 men from Hartford, and it was determined to 
 push forward coastwise in pursuit of the fugi 
 tive Pequods. The Massachusetts and Con 
 necticut troops went round to Quinnipiack, 
 (New Haven,) by water, while Uncas with 
 his Mohegans scoured the shores, and drove 
 such bands of the enemy as were lurking 
 about the bays and inlets, from place to 
 place.* He overtook a small party of them 
 at Menunkatuck, (Guilford,) at no great dis 
 tance from what has since been called Sa 
 chem s Head harbor. The eastern side of 
 the harbor is formed by a long narrow point 
 of land, upon which the Pequods were driven 
 in the pursuit that ensued instantly on their 
 discovery. Upon the eastern side of the point 
 is a little basin or cove, into which the Pe 
 quods, the pursuit being very close, plunged, 
 in the hope of making their escape ; but Un 
 cas had anticipated the movement, and they 
 were taken as they landed on the other side 
 
 * " There was yet work for them to do/ says Cotton 
 Mather of this pursuit. " We have sometimes read of 
 a gleaning as good as a vintage." 
 
THE PURSUIT. 77 
 
 the narrow entrance of the cove, and instant 
 ly put to death their bodies being cast into 
 the water from which circumstance the 
 place is called " the bloody cove" to this day. 
 The Sachem of the hapless fugitives being 
 taken, he was condemned to death, and Uncas 
 himself executed the sentence, by shooting 
 him with an arrow. Striking off the deceased 
 chieftain s head, Uncas placed it high in the 
 crotch of an oak tree near the harbor, where 
 the skull remained many years. Hence the 
 name of " SACHEM S HEAD."* 
 
 On their arrival at Quinnipiack, Mason 
 and Stoughton ascertained that the Pequods, 
 to the number of nearly three hundred, with 
 some two or three hundred other Indians, col 
 lected from different tribes and clans, had 
 taken refuge in a swamp in Fairfield, called 
 Sasco. Thither they were pursued, and vari 
 ous efforts made to dislodge them from their 
 tangled retreat; but the swamp was so 
 miry, and the slough so deep, that the Eng- 
 
 * MS. History of Guilford, written by the Rev. Tho 
 mas Ruggles, D. D. in 1765, in the author s posses 
 sion. A part of this history, and only a part, has been 
 published in the Massachusetts Historical Collections. 
 
 7* 
 
78 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 lish could not enter it without imminent ha 
 zard and great difficulty. A party attempting 
 to enter the swamp, under Lieutenant Daven 
 port, was repulsed with loss. A cordon was 
 then drawn around the swamp so as to pre 
 vent ingress or egress, whereupon the Indians 
 desired a parley, which was granted. Un 
 willing to shed the blood of those who had 
 not previously participated in the war, life 
 was offered to all who had not fought against 
 the English. Under this proposition the Sa 
 chem of the place, with his men, women, and 
 children, to the number of two hundred, came 
 forth and all were spared. But the Pequods, 
 true to their haughty character, refused to sur 
 render, declaring that they would fight to the 
 end. Hostilities were thereupon renewed ; 
 but owing to some dissensions among the as 
 sailants as to the best mode of attack, many 
 of the Indians succeeded in effecting their es 
 cape. Toward night, by cutting a passage 
 across a narrow peninsula, the circumference 
 occupied by the Indians was greatly dimin 
 ished, and it was hoped on the following day 
 to carry the place , but early on the next 
 morning, a thick fog came on, operating 
 
BATTLE OF THE SWAMP. 79 
 
 greatly to the advantage of the besieged. 
 Availing themselves of this misty covering, 
 they made a desperate attempt to cut their 
 way through the troops of Captain Patrick, 
 yelling hideously, and dealing their blows 
 thick and fast. Mason hastened to the as 
 sistance of Patrick, and the savages were 
 driven back ; but their assaults were renewed 
 at other points with so much vigor that sixty 
 or seventy of their bravest warriors succeeded 
 in effecting their escape. Twenty were 
 killed, and one hundred and eighty taken 
 prisoners.* 
 
 Thus closed the regular campaign against 
 the fiercest nation of the New England In- 
 
 * Heaven so smiled upon the English hunting of 
 them, that here and there whole companies of them 
 were by the intimations of the other Indians tre 
 panned into the hunters hands; particularly at one 
 time, several hundreds of them were surprised by Cap 
 tain Stoughton with little opposition, who, sending 
 away the females and children as captives, put the men 
 on board a vessel of one Skipper Gallop, which proved 
 a Charon s ferry boat unto them, for it was found the 
 quickest way to feed the fishes with 5 em." Magnolia 
 Christi Americana. Hubbard states that the number 
 that Stoughton caused to be drowned thus, " a little 
 without the harbour," was thirty-seven. 
 
80 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 dians. Yet the Mohegans and Narragansetts 
 continued to fall upon such of their scatter 
 ing parties as were discovered, the heads of 
 whom were sent in to the civil authorities at 
 Hartford and Windsor. Indeed the poor Pe- 
 quods, as Major Mason remarks in his own 
 history, " now became a prey to all Indians : 
 happy were they that could bring in the., 
 heads to the English !" A few of them were 
 hunted to such extremities, that they came 
 forth to the settlements and threw themselves 
 upon the mercy of the colonists. The female 
 prisoners and children were divided among 
 the soldiers, and numbers of them were sent 
 to the West Indies and sold as slaves.* 
 Among the prisoners were the wife and 
 children of Mononotto, the chief next in rank 
 to Sassacus. This woman was noted for her 
 modesty and humanity ; and in consideration 
 of some former acts of kindness extended by 
 her to certain white female prisoners in the 
 hands of her people, she was sent to Gover 
 nor Wmthrop, in Boston, by whom she was 
 
 * (< We sent fifteen boys and two women to Bermu 
 da by Mr. Pierce ; but he missing it, carried them to 
 [New] Providence Isle." Winthrop s Journal. 
 
THE FUGITIVES. 81 
 
 treated with great tenderness.* About two 
 hundred of the Pequods were yet prisoners 
 among the Mohegans and Narragansetts. 
 At the request of the Magistrates Uncas and 
 Miantonomoh repaired with these unfortunate 
 people to Hartford, where they were appor- 
 + : ~ned, one hundred to Uncas, eighty to Mi 
 antonomoh, and twenty to Ninigret, chief of 
 the Nahantics. The design was that they 
 should be merged in the tribes of those chief 
 tains respectively. They were forbidden 
 ever after to appropriate to themselves the 
 name of Pequods, or to reside in their own 
 country. Such, at least, according to Ma 
 jor Mason, and also the laborious and gen 
 erally accurate Trumbull, was the disposi 
 tion made of the Pequod remnants, and such 
 
 * Mononotto fled to the Mohawks with Sassacus, and 
 was wounded in the battle between that people and 
 the fugitives, by whom his chieftain was slain. Escap 
 ing, wounded thus from t the Mohawks, Drake suppos 
 es he was afterward put to death by English hands. 
 The authority for this supposition I have not seen. 
 The name of Mononotto s wife was Wincumwane, and 
 it is related of her that she saved one of the colonists, 
 while the Indians were preparing to take her life, in a 
 manner as disinterested, if not heroic, as that of Poca- 
 hontas, when she interposed to save the life of Captain 
 Smith. 
 
82 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 the decree respecting them. And yet no lit 
 tle difficulty is encountered in attempting to 
 reconcile the statements, as to this point of 
 history, put forth by contemporaneous writ 
 ers. By some it was asserted that both Un- 
 cas and Miantonomoh exerted themselves at 
 the close of the war, to befriend the fugitives, 
 and " to screen them from their more vin 
 dictive enemies." Drake conjectures that 
 " when Uncas saw them vanquished, he pro 
 bably began to relent his unprovoked severi 
 ty toward his countrymen, many of whom 
 were his near relations." At all events, it 
 appears that early in the Spring succeeding 
 the war, Uncas had in some way given um 
 brage to the Massachusetts government, in 
 connection with these Pequod remnants, for 
 the explanation or adjustment of which diffi 
 culty he proceeded to Boston, accompanied 
 by Mr. Haynes, one of the leading men of 
 Hartford 3 and thirty-seven Mohegan warri 
 ors. Winthrop s journal contains the follow 
 ing entry upon the subject : " He tendered 
 the Governor a present of twenty fathoms of 
 wampum. This was at court, and it was 
 thought fit by the council to refuse it, till he 
 
VISITS BOSTON. / 83 
 
 had given satisfaction about the Pequods he 
 kept, &c. Upon this he was much dejected, 
 and made an account we would have killed 
 him ; but, two days afterward, having receiv 
 ed good satisfaction of his innocency, &c., 
 and he promising to submit to the order of 
 the English touching the Pequods he had, 
 and the difference between the Narragansetts 
 and him, we accepted his present. About 
 half an hour after he carne to the Governor, 
 and laying his hand upon his breast, made 
 the following speech : 
 
 " c This heart is not mine, but yours. I 
 have no men : they are all yours. Com 
 mand me any difficult thing, I will do it. I 
 will not believe any Indian s word against 
 the English. If any man shall kill an Eng 
 lishman, I will put him to death were he ever 
 so dear to me. 
 
 Whatever might have been the difficulty 
 between the parties, and its precise nature 
 does not appear, the matter was amicably 
 adjusted. Uncas was furnished with " a fair 
 red coat," and after he and his warriors had 
 been liberally regaled, they departed " very 
 joyful." Beyond doubt the remaining Pequods 
 
84* LIKE OF UNCAS. 
 
 were disposed of in some manner among the 
 Mohegans and Narragansetts. Their nation 
 was extinguished, or directed to be extin 
 guished, by law; even the name of their 
 beautiful river, it was decided by the council 
 of the pale-faces, should be changed from 
 Pequod to Thames; and the town of Pequod, 
 where Sassacus held his dusky court, was 
 called New-London, the new name being 
 conferred as a testimony of the love the colo 
 nists bore their parent country. Such, more 
 over, was the terror with which their fate 
 inspired the other Indian nations, that the 
 colonies, as between themselves and those 
 people, enjoyed peace for nearly forty years. 
 Nevertheless, the rule of the Mohegans over 
 the Pequod fugitives does not appear to have 
 been of the mildest character ; nor did the 
 captives become speedily interblended with 
 their conquerors. On the contrary it appears 
 that within two years afterward, a conside 
 rable number of them, in direct contravention 
 of the stipulations at Hartford, had collected 
 and replanted themselves in the country late 
 their own, in such numbers as to require 
 another military demonstration to dislodge 
 
SKIRMISH WITH THE PEQUODS. 85 
 
 them. Their settlement was at Pawcatuck 
 Bay,* and in 1639, Captain, or rather Major 
 Mason, was sent against them at the head of 
 forty men, with instructions " to drive them 
 away, burn their wigwams, and bring off* 
 their corn." Uncas, with one hundred of his 
 Mohegans, and twenty canoes, assisted in the 
 enterprise. The doomed Pequods were taken by 
 surprise, and fled with such precipitation as to 
 be unable to carry away either goods or corn. 
 They however attempted to rally and make 
 a descent upon Uncas and his warriors, while 
 the latter were engaged in plundering their 
 tenements. A smart skirmish ensued between 
 the two Indian parties, from which the Eng 
 lish stood entirely aloof. It was, however, a 
 drawn battle, or rather melee, the affair not 
 aspiring to the dignity of a battle, in which, 
 although several were wounded, no lives 
 were lost. Seven prisoners were taken ; but 
 these were released at the intercession of 
 Otash, a Narragansett chief, and brother of 
 Miantonomoh. On the following morning a 
 force of some three hundred Indians appeared, 
 to espouse the cause of the Pequods; but 
 * Now Stonington. 
 
86 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 after a few threats, a parley ensued, which 
 ended in the retirement of the Indians. 
 Mason then completed the work of destruc 
 tion upon which he was commissioned, and 
 returned to Hartford. 
 
 The subjugation of the Pequods and the 
 part borne by Uncas during the war 
 added much to his importance. Being, as 
 has been already said, a Pequod himself, 
 and of the royal lineage, he laid claim 
 to their country by right of conquest. This 
 claim was recognized by the English, and 
 the lands were accordingly added to his ter 
 ritory. Other clans and tribes, moreover, 
 gathered round him, and his numerical 
 strength was increased in proportion to the 
 augmentation of his dominions. The fall of 
 the Pequods likewise wrought other changes 
 in the Indian relations of the country, since 
 the Sachems, who had been tributaries to 
 Sassacus, released from the thrall of that 
 haughty chief, now asserted their rights as 
 independent sovereigns ; and the colonists, 
 desiring to deal justly and truly with the 
 natives, felt themselves obliged not only to 
 purchase the lands they proposed to occupy, 
 of Uncas, but also, in many instances, to buy 
 
TREATY AT HARTFORD. 87 
 
 them a second time, of the minor Sachems 
 claiming particular localities. Hence in the 
 early records of Connecticut involving pur 
 chases of land, the name of Uncas is of 
 frequent occurrence.* In the year after the 
 Pequod war, he was at Hartford, and entered 
 into articles of agreement with the colony, 
 by virtue of which all disputes between him 
 self and other Indian nations were in the first 
 instance to be submitted to the consideration 
 of the Colonial Council. Two years after 
 ward, viz. in 1640, a treaty was negotiated 
 with him at Colchester, granting to the Gov 
 ernor and Magistrates of the colony on the 
 Connecticut river, all his lands, called by 
 
 * It was ever the desire of the colony of Connecti 
 cut to deal with the Indians with justice and humanity* 
 notwithstanding the apparent harshness of feeling ma 
 nifested toward them by the early writers, as has been 
 seen in the preceding notes. The following entry in 
 Winthrop s Journal, Oct. 16, 1640, illustrates the as 
 sertion- 1 have made : " The General Court of Mas 
 sachusetts received a letter from the Magistrates of 
 Connecticut, New-Haven and Aquidneck, (Rhode Isl 
 and,) wherein they declared their dislike of such as 
 would have the Indians rooted out, as being the cursed 
 race of Ham ; and their desire of our mutual accord, in 
 seeking to gain them by justice and kindness." 
 
88 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 whatever name, reserving only the ground 
 then planted by him, for himself and the 
 Mohegans. In the year following he con 
 cluded another treaty with William Leete 
 and his associates, the planters of Guilford, 
 conveying to them the region of territory be 
 tween Hammonasset and the East river, now 
 forming the town of Madison, but known 
 until within the last twenty years as East 
 Guilford.* His admitted right to convey this 
 territory shows that he had extended his 
 conquests over a considerable section of the 
 country west of the Connecticut river ; as far 
 as the present town of Branford, according 
 some to authorities. 
 
 As the colonists were now rapidly increas 
 ing in numbers, and their settlements extend 
 ing f a\ greater and yet greater distances from 
 each other, a confederation of the several 
 colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New- 
 Haven and Plymouth, for the purposes of 
 mutual counsel and defence, was suggested 
 as early as the year 1638. Restlessness 
 among the Indians gave occasional uneasiness 
 to the people of all the colonies, while those 
 
 * MS. History of Guilford, by Rev. Dr. Ruggles. 
 
UNION OF THE COLONIES. 89 
 
 of Connecticut, in particular, found additional 
 cause of concern in the conduct of the Dutch 
 authorities of New-Amsterdam, who had 
 early established a fortified trading-post at 
 Hartford, and were preferring claims to ter 
 ritory in that region which could not be re 
 cognized by the English settlers. Hence for 
 their mutual protection against enemies native 
 or foreign, as well as for the prevention of 
 jealousies among each other, " a bond of 
 amity and peace" was judged advisable; but 
 the articles were not definitively agreed upon 
 until the spring of 1643.* This union w T as 
 not formed a moment too soon : for by this 
 time strong reasons existed for believing that 
 Miantonomoh, the heir apparent of the Nar- 
 ragansetts, who had held the reins of govern 
 ment during the declining years of Canonicus, 
 his uncle, was conspiring as Powhatan had 
 done in Virginia thirty-three years before, 
 and as Philip did in New-England thirty 
 years afterward, to compass the extermina- 
 
 * " They refused to admit Rhode Island into the con 
 federacy, most probably at the instigation of Massa 
 chusetts, between whom and Rhode Island there was 
 continual jealousy." Potter Rhode Island Hist. Coll. 
 
 8* 
 
90 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 tion of the English colonies. Miantonomoh 
 was a chief of noble appearance, great in 
 stature, stern in his aspect, and as subtle in 
 his designs as he was haughty in his carriage 
 and cruel in his disposition.* It must be re 
 membered that the early impulses of Canoni- 
 cus were for making war upon the infant 
 colony of Plymouth, he having been deterred 
 only by the resolute answer returned to his 
 belligerent message. It now appeared that 
 notwithstanding his alliance with the colo 
 nists against the Pequods, he had only hated 
 the latter more than he did the former ; since 
 information was received in Boston, in the 
 autumn of 1642, from several sources almost 
 simultaneously, that he was then combining 
 the Indians in a general league for the extir 
 pation by massacre of all the English settle 
 ments. The design was not to make open 
 war ; but by a well-concerted arrangement, 
 the Indians in sufficient numbers were to in 
 troduce themselves into every English settle 
 ment and plantation, under the pretext of 
 
 * " Stern and cruel, causing all his nobility and at. 
 tendants to tremble at his presence. 35 Johnson s Won- 
 der-Workynge Providence. 
 
CONSPIRACY OF MIANTONOMOH. 91 
 
 trading with the people, and, at a given sig 
 nal, all the whites were to have been put to 
 death. The like intelligence was conveyed 
 to the civil authorities of Plymouth, New- 
 Haven, and Connecticut, and so certain were 
 they of its truth, that they urged it upon 
 Massachusetts to anticipate the movement 
 by making immediate war upon the Narra- 
 gansetts, promising that the Massachusetts 
 forces should be joined at Saybrook by a 
 proportionate number from Hartford. The 
 General Court of Massachusetts was convened 
 upon the occasion, and the Indians nearest 
 their settlements, who in their traffic with 
 English traders in the East, with the French 
 in Canada, and with the Dutch of the New- 
 Netherlands, had by this time very generally 
 furnished themselves with fire-arms, were dis 
 armed. " A constant watch was ordered to 
 be kept from sun-set to sun-rising, and a 
 place of retreat to be provided in each plan 
 tation, for the women and children, and for 
 the security of ammunition. Beacons were 
 erected and ordered to be fired upon an alarm, 
 and every smith was required to lay aside all 
 other business until the arms in the colony 
 
92 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 were put into good order."* Mlantonomoh 
 was moreover ordered to Boston, to undergo 
 an examination in relation to the charges. 
 He obeyed the summons promptly, accompa 
 nied by a retinue of his chiefs. But if at that 
 time guilty, and subsequent disclosures left 
 no doubt of the fact upon the minds of the 
 Commissioners of the United Colonies, he 
 had nevertheless concerted his measures so 
 discreetly, and he demeaned himself so wisely 
 on his examination, as to leave the Massa 
 chusetts authorities no sufficient excuse for 
 his detention. He denied the charges in toto, 
 and demanded to be confronted face to face 
 with his accusers. " He was very deliberate 
 in his answers," says Hubbard, " showing a 
 good understanding in the principles of just 
 ice and equity, as well as a seeming inge 
 nuity withal. But though his words were 
 smoother than oil, yet, as many conceived, in 
 his heart were drawn swords. It was observ 
 ed also that he would never speak but when 
 some of his counsellors were present, that they 
 might, as he said, bear witness of all his 
 speeches at their return home." The charges 
 * Hutchinson. 
 
PLOTS OF MIANTONOMOH. 93 
 
 not being sustained with sufficient certainty 
 to warrant the shedding of blood, the chief 
 was dismissed ; and he returned to his own 
 home.* Yet the people of Connecticut were 
 by no means satisfied with the result of the 
 examination ; they put little confidence in his 
 protestations ; and it was only with difficulty 
 that Massachusetts was enabled to restrain 
 them from making war against the Narragan- 
 setts on their own account, independently of 
 the league. 
 
 Connected with these embryo movements 
 of Miantonomoh were transactions of yet 
 greater importance, considered in their bear 
 ing upon the life of Uncas, and in regard to 
 which there has been no small degree of con 
 troversy ; conducted, for the most part, with 
 a design to disparage the character of this 
 
 * " On dismissing the complaint, the arms of the In 
 dians, taken from them as stated in a preceding page, 
 were restored. "Although we saw that it was very 
 dangerous to us that they should have guns, &c., yet 
 we saw not in justice how we could take them away, 
 seeing they came lawfully by them, by trade with the 
 French and Dutch. Therefore we thought it better to 
 trust God with our safety, than to save ourselves by un 
 righteousness." Winthrop s Journal. 
 
94 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 extraordinary man, and unjustly to exalt that 
 of his rival. These transactions are now ap 
 proached in the regular order of history. If, 
 as the weight of historical testimony satisfac 
 torily proves, Miantonomoh was plotting the 
 destruction of the colonies, the fast and un 
 compromising friendship of Uncas for the lat 
 ter was a formidable obstacle in his way. 
 Indeed according to the evidence of Lion 
 Gardiner, during one of Miantonomoh s treas 
 onable visits to the Indians of Long Island 
 he avowed the intention of letting the Eng 
 lish alone only until he had destroyed Uncas. 
 The testimony of Gardiner is explicit upon 
 the subject of the conspiracy; and the de 
 tails which he has recorded, derived from the 
 great Long Island Sachem, Waiandance, 
 are so ample, particular, and consistent, that 
 it would seem impossible for a doubt upon 
 the subject to remain with any fair-minded 
 man, after an examination of the testimony.* 
 After the close of the Pequod war, in 1638, 
 among other matters adjusted at Hartford was 
 the formation of a league, or covenant, of 
 
 * Gardiner s Pequod Warres, Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. 
 iii., Third Series. 
 
TREACHERY OF MIANTONOMOH. 90 
 
 perpetual peace between Miantonomoh and 
 Uncas 3 and their respective Indians. It was 
 agreed " that all past injuries should be re 
 mitted and for ever buried ;" and in the event 
 of any future injuries, committed by either 
 party, it was stipulated that instead of taking 
 the work of vengeance into their own hands, 
 they should refer the questions in dispute to 
 the English, by whose decisions they were 
 mutually bound to abide. But this league of 
 friendship was of little virtue in the estima 
 tion of Miantonomoh. 
 
 Independently of his conspiracy against 
 the English, now that the Pequods, who had 
 previously held the Narragansetts in check, 
 and indeed in perpetual terror, were no lon 
 ger a nation, the bosom of Miantonomoh was 
 fired by the ambition of becoming the uni 
 versal Sovereign, or Emperor, of all the In 
 dians in New England. But a consummation 
 which he so devoutly wished was not attain 
 able, at least so long as Uncas stood at the 
 head of the Mohegans. Independently, 
 moreover, of this consideration, Miantonomoh 
 was doubtless jealous of the increasing power 
 and importance of the Mohegan Chief, He 
 
96 LIFE OF IWCAS. 
 
 therefore resolved to rid himself of such a 
 formidable obstruction in the path of his pro 
 jected aggrandizement, by procuring his as 
 sassination. An instrument for the execution 
 of this treacherous purpose was found in the 
 person of a young Pequod, who, as Uncas 
 was passing unattended from a neighbouring 
 wigwam to his own house, shot him in the 
 twilight through the arm with an arrow. 
 Uncas saw not whence it came ; but gaining 
 his " palace," as his lodge is called by one of 
 the old writers, the arrow was drawn from 
 the wound, which was cured in a short time. 
 Believing, however, that his aim had been 
 fatal, the Pequod fled to the Narragansett 
 country, reporting to his employer and to his 
 people that his hated victim was dead. 
 Nevertheless, when it was ascertained that 
 Uncas had only been wounded, in order to 
 relieve themselves from the odium of the 
 transaction Miantonomoh and his partizans 
 caused it to be reported that the whole affair 
 was a device on the part of Uncas, to seek 
 occasion for a quarrel with a rival whom he 
 feared, and that he had in fact wounded him 
 self by an incision in his arm with a sharp 
 
TREACHERY OF MIANTONOMOH. 97 
 
 flint. Information of the affair having reached 
 Boston, the Narragansett Chief, with his 
 Pequod traitor, was summoned to Boston, for 
 examination before the Governor of Massa 
 chusetts. The result was a conviction of the 
 Pequod s guilt, from his own testimony, and 
 the Governor was at one moment on the 
 point of remanding him to Uncas himself for 
 punishment. Miantonomoh had of course 
 protested his own innocence; and he now 
 pleaded in behalf of the Pequod that he 
 might not be sent to Uncas in the manner 
 proposed, promising to conduct him back to 
 his own country, and send him to Uncas for 
 examination and punishment himself. Still, 
 so far from fulfilling this promise was the dis 
 sembling Narragansett, that during his jour 
 ney homeward, he struck off the Pequod s 
 head with his own hands, upon the principle, 
 doubtless, that being dead he could tell no 
 more tales. Nor did the attempts upon the 
 life of Uncas, the constant and distinguished 
 friend of the English colonists, end here. The 
 strength of poison and the arts of sorcery 
 were both put in requisition by his enemies, 
 yet without success. It is not in evidence 
 
98 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 that Miantonomoh was the instigator of these 
 practices, although from what had previously 
 taken place, as well as from subsequent tran 
 sactions, such an inference is not a very long 
 one. There was a sachem of considerable 
 power residing with his tribe at Mattabeseck, 
 on the Connecticut river, ten miles below 
 Hartford, named Sequasson. He was closely 
 allied to Miantonomoh, both by relationship 
 and feeling; and during the year, (1642) in 
 which the attempts already mentioned were 
 made upon the life of Uncas, Sequasson and 
 his people assumed a hostile bearing toward 
 the Mohegans, several of whom were killed, 
 one of the number being a high and favorite 
 chief in the councils of the sovereign. In 
 conformity with the covenant heretofore men 
 tioned, Uncas, instead of avenging himself, 
 made his complaint in regard to all these out 
 rages, to the Governor of Connecticut. He 
 had demanded of Sequasson the surrender of 
 six of his people as an atonement for his own 
 murdered chief and friend, because he was 
 " a great man." Sequasson declined the 
 surrender of so large a number ; and finally, 
 at the mediation of the English, Uncas agreed 
 
WAR WITH SEQUESSON. 99 
 
 to accept of one victim for execution. But 
 Sequasson refused to abide by the terms 
 of even this compromise, and appealed to 
 arms, depending, as he declared, upon the 
 assistance of Miantonomoh. That assistance, 
 however, was not vouchsafed by the Narra- 
 gansett, and Sequasson was vanquished by 
 the Mohegans; a number of his warriors 
 were slain, and his town destroyed by fire.* 
 In the progress of these troubles with Sequas 
 son, and before the open war between him 
 and Uncas, the latter had a narrow escape 
 from assassination attempted in another form. 
 While descending the river in a canoe, he 
 was waylaid by a party of Sequasson s Indi 
 ans, and a shower of arrows shot at him. 
 Fortunately the barbed missiles hurtled past 
 his head without effect. 
 
 Unwearied efforts were made by the Magis- 
 
 * Winthrop states that seven or eight of Sequasson s 
 warriors were killed and thirteen wounded. His town 
 ravaged and burnt. Miantonomoh complained of Un 
 cas in this matter, both to the Governors of Connecti 
 cut and Massachusetts. But as the English had no 
 agency in the affair, it was determined to leave them 
 to take their own course. 
 
100 LIFE OF UNO AS. 
 
 trates and Government of Connecticut, to heal 
 the difficulties between Uncas and Miantono 
 moh, but without success. On the contrary, 
 the feelings of the aspiring Narragansett be 
 came more and more embittered, until reject 
 ing every overture of mediation, he resolved 
 upon open war upon the Mohegan. To this 
 course it is believed he was instigated by the 
 noted schismatic Samuel Gorton, who, for 
 what one of the orthodox writers of that day 
 calls his " damnable errors," had been ban 
 ished from both Massachusetts and Plymouth. 
 Gorton had the preceding year purchased from 
 Miantonomoh a tract of land at Shawomet, 
 where he planted the town of Warwick, and 
 where he was then living on terms of close inti 
 macy with the Narragansetts.* The motive of 
 
 * There was a controversy with Gorton in respect to the 
 lands in question. The Rhode Island historians hold that 
 Massachusetts was ever jealous of the growth and pros 
 perity of their colony ; and Potter asserts the readiness of 
 the government of Massachusetts to oppose Gorton s pur 
 chases at Pautuxet and Warwick, on account of their 
 religious hostility to him. But it must be borne in 
 mind that the chiefs of whom Gorton purchased, Sacon- 
 onoco and Pomham, repaired to Boston, and declared to 
 the government that Miantonomoh had forced one of 
 
WAR UPON UNCAS. 101 
 
 his interference to foment the quarrel between 
 Miantonomoh and Uncas does not appear, al 
 though the fact is stated by all, or nearly all, 
 the contemporaneous writers. But let that be 
 as it may, immediately after his return from 
 Boston, having assassinated his own assassin 
 by the way, as already related, Miantono 
 moh, without consulting the English as he 
 was bound to do by the tripartite conven 
 tion of Hartford, without proclaiming war, or 
 giving Uncas the slightest intimation of a bel 
 ligerent intention, suddenly invaded his terri- 
 
 them to sign the deed of sale. They also threw them 
 selves upon the protection of Massachusetts. Gorton 
 was afterward seized and taken to Boston, where he 
 was tried and convicted of blasphemy, for which he 
 came near being put to death. The milder punishment 
 of imprisonment, however, was resorted to, but the dis 
 satisfaction of the people even at this measure of se 
 curity, was such, that the sentence was at length com 
 muted to banishment. He then went to England, where 
 through the influence of the Earl of Warwick, he ob 
 tained a grant of the disputed land at Shawomet, 
 which he thenceforward called Warwick, in honor of 
 the Earl. He was a self-taught preacher, well versed 
 in the Hebrew and Greek languages ; and on his trials 
 for his heresies, greatly embarrassed his judges by his 
 talents and ingenuity. 
 
102. LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 tory with an army of a thousand warriors. It 
 was not until the invaders had actually crossed 
 the Yantic river, at the ford above the falls, and 
 were thus actually within the territory of the 
 chief town of his dominions, that Uncas was 
 apprised by some of his runners of his enemy s 
 advance. For once, though an Indian, he 
 was taken by surprise. But his heart faltered 
 not. His reply to the messenger was, that 
 Miantonomoh must not be allowed to reach 
 his town , and hastily collecting four or five 
 hundred of his bravest warriors, not half the 
 number of his enemy, he boldly marched 
 forth to the unequal conflict. Having pro 
 ceeded three or four miles, Miantonomoh and 
 his forces were met upon the plain, distant 
 a mile or two west of the falls ; and here the 
 Mohegan chieftain signalized himself by an 
 act worthy of the proudest hero whose name 
 has ever yet been written by the muse of his 
 tory. The opposing forces had approached 
 within bow r -shot of each other, when Uncas 
 courageously advanced some distance in front 
 of his braves, and desired a parley, which was 
 granted. Having approached within speak 
 ing distance, Uncas addressed his invader to 
 
BATTLE WITH MIANTONOMOH. f 03 
 
 the following effect : " You have a number 
 of brave warriors with you, and so have I with 
 me. It is a pity that our warriors should be 
 killed in a private quarrel between their 
 chiefs. Step forward, like a brave man, as 
 you profess to be, and let us fight the battle 
 ourselves. If I fall, the Mohegans shall serve 
 the Narragansetts. But if Uncas kills Mian- 
 tonomoh, the Narragansetts shall be mine !"* 
 The proposition was not met in a correspond 
 ing spirit. " My braves," said Miantonomoh, 
 " came here to fight, and they shall fight." 
 Uncas had doubtless prepared his warriors 
 for the crisis. On the rejection of his propo 
 sition, he instantly fell flat upon the ground, 
 at which signal his warriors sprang forward 
 with the fury of the chafed panther. Dis 
 charging a single shower of arrows, they 
 rushed upon the ranks of Miantonomoh with 
 
 * The unlettered Mohegan knew nothing of the 
 classics, or of the ancients. Else it might have been 
 imputed to him that he borrowed the notion of this pro 
 position from the speech of Fuffetius, the Alban com 
 mander, to Tullius Hostilius, King of Rome: "Let 
 us hit upon some expedient by which it may be deter 
 mined which nation shall command the other, without 
 much slaughter or effusion of blood on both sides." 
 
104 LIFE OF UNO AS. 
 
 a degree of boldness and impetuosity which 
 the latter could not resist. They broke at 
 the first shock, and a flight ensued, attended by 
 the hideous yells and screams incident to 
 Indian warfare. The Narragansetts were pur 
 sued down rocks and precipices, to the river, 
 and such was the panic produced by the sud 
 denness and energy of the onslaught, and so 
 hot and close was the pursuit, that numbers of 
 them, cut off from the fording-place above, 
 were driven headlong down the precipice that 
 beetles over the cataract. The greater num 
 ber, however, crossing the river, were driven 
 before the conquerors like a herd of deer be 
 fore the huntsmen, across the plain where the 
 old town of Norwich now stands, over the 
 rocky ridge on the eastern side, and thence 
 across Sachem s Plain, upon which the battle 
 was ended by the capture of the chief. Mi- 
 antonomoh had been furnished with a suit of 
 armor by Gorton, which, less wise than the 
 Hebrew shepherd boy, he assumed for the 
 protection of his person " before he had prov 
 ed it." This armor, instead of doing him any 
 good, so impeded his flight as to secure his 
 capture. Some of the fleetest of the Mohe- 
 
MIANTONOMOH S DEFEAT. J 105 
 
 gans overtook, and seizing him by/nis attire, 
 drew him back, in order that on coming up 
 Uncas might have the honor of capturing him 
 himself. It was but an instant before the 
 gallant Mohegan leaped forward and grasped 
 his enemy by the shoulder. The appropriate 
 war-whoop brought a number of his braves to 
 his assistance, and the illustrious prisoner was 
 secured. The battle was then ended. Thirty 
 of the Narragansett warriors were killed, and 
 a much larger number wounded. Among the 
 latter were two sons of the venerable Canon- 
 icus, and a brother of Miantonomoh. This 
 brother had likewise been encumbered with a 
 coat of armor furnished by the same Gorton, 
 contributing also to his capture. According to 
 several accounts, he was brought to Uncas by 
 two of Miantonomoh s captains, traitors to 
 the Mohegans, who had joined the Narragan- 
 setts, and now hoped to propitiate the 
 victorious chief, whom they had betrayed, by 
 bringing him so distinguished a captive. But 
 Uncas served them as David did the young 
 Amalekite, who falsely boasted of having 
 killed King Saul at Gilboa. He struck off 
 their heads. 
 
106 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 The vanquished chief bore his discomfiture 
 and captivity with little philosophy. He sat 
 down sullenly, and refused to utter a word. 
 " Why don t you speak ?" inquired the more 
 ingenuous victor. " Had you taken me, I 
 should have besought you for my life." But 
 the scornful Narragansett disdained to reply. 
 Still Uncas spared his life, and returned in 
 triumph from the campaign of a day to his 
 capital.* 
 
 Faithful to his engagements to submit 
 every question of difficulty arising between 
 himself and the Narragansetts to the advice, 
 if not the arbitrament of the English, Uncas 
 determined to take his prisoner to Hartford, to 
 consult with the colonial authorities as to the 
 disposition proper to be made of him. His 
 resolution to this effect was doubtless hastened 
 by the interference of Gorton and his adhe 
 rents in Rhode Island, who demanded his re 
 lease under a threat of vengeance. The de 
 mand and the threat were alike unheeded ; 
 
 * Winthrop imputes this invasion of the Mohegans 
 expressly to the affair between Uncas and Miantono- 
 moh s relative, Sequasson. Potter echoes the same 
 opinion. 
 
TRIAL OF MIANTONOMOH. 107 
 
 and the Mohegan chief carried the prisoner 
 in triumph to Hartford. But under all the 
 circumstances of the case, the Connecticut 
 magistracy deemed it improper for them to 
 interfere. The war in which the Narragan- 
 sett chief had been taken, was a measure of 
 his own. It was confined to the Narragan- 
 setts and Mohegans, toward both of whom 
 the English occupied the position of neutrals ; 
 and they therefore declined deciding the case. 
 Miantonomoh, however, although he had with 
 stubborn hauteur refused to ask for terms of 
 Uncas, was no longer speechless, and he now 
 earnestly pleaded that he might not be de 
 livered back to that chieftain, preferring to 
 be retained in the custody of the colonists. 
 In the end, therefore, it was concluded that 
 he should remain at Hartford, in custody, as 
 the prisoner of Uncas, who would relinquish 
 his claim to him as such, until the whole case 
 could be submitted for advisement to the 
 Commissioners of the United Colonies. A 
 meeting of those Commissioners was held in 
 Boston in the following September, over the 
 deliberations of which Governor Winthrop 
 was called to preside. The whole case was 
 
108 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 deliberately examined, and all the charges 
 previously alleged by Uncas against the pri 
 soner were investigated and substantially 
 proved ; while the evidence in regard to some 
 of them, considered doubtful before, was ma 
 terially strengthened, if not rendered clear 
 and unequivocal. It was proved that Mian- 
 tonomoh had been the instigator of the seve 
 ral attempts upon the life of Uncas heretofore 
 mentioned : and that after having stipulated 
 to deliver the Pequod assassin to Uncas, he 
 had murdered him with his own hands, on the 
 road from Boston to Narragansett. More 
 than all, his own immediate agency in stirring 
 up the Indians to a general conspiracy for 
 cutting off all the English colonies and plan 
 tations was fully established ; and farther, 
 that at his invitation the Mohawks had alrea 
 dy arrived within a day s journey of the Eng 
 lish settlements to participate in the feast of 
 blood ; having been deterred from advancing 
 nearer only by intelligence of the victory of 
 Uncas, and the capture of his enemy. It was 
 also ascertained upon this point, that these 
 Mohawks were, at the very time of the trial, 
 waiting only for the release of Miantonomoh, 
 
TRIAL OF MIANTONOMOH. 109 
 
 which event was to be the signal for falling 
 either upon the white settlements, or upon 
 Uncas, or upon both, as might be judged ex 
 pedient.* 
 
 * Those historians who have espoused the cause of 
 Miantonomoh against Uncas, and have condemned the 
 proceedings of the Commissioners in this investigation, 
 seem, generally, to have overlooked this important 
 feature of the case. Yet few historical facts are better 
 established than that of this conspiracy. The visits of 
 Miantonomoh to Long Island were frequent while he 
 was arranging his plans ; and he exerted all his elo 
 quence and subtlety, to bring the Indians there into 
 the conspiracy. He called the Indians in the sachem 
 dom of Waiandance together, gave them gifts, and 
 called them brethren ; " for so are we all Indians, as 
 the English are," he added. "We must be one as 
 they are, otherwise we shall all be gone shortly, for you 
 know our fathers had plenty of deer skins ; our plains 
 were full of deer, as also our woods, and of turkies, and 
 our lakes full of fish and fowl. But these English, hav 
 ing gotten our land, they with scythes cut down the 
 grass, and with axes fell the trees. Their cows and 
 horses eat the grass, and their hogs destroy our clam- 
 banks, and we shall all be starved. Then it is best for 
 you to do as we, for we are all the sachems from east 
 to west, both Moquakoes and Mohawks, joining with 
 us, and we are all resolved to fall upon them all at one 
 appointed day." After communicating his designs and 
 preparations for them, he gave them the signal for ac 
 tion : " When you see the three fires that will be made 
 10 
 
110 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 With such proofs before them, it was evi 
 dent to the Commissioners that there could 
 be little hope of peace between the Colonists 
 and the Indians, while such a subtle and tur 
 bulent spirit as Miantonomoh should be suf 
 fered to live. It was equally evident that 
 there could be no safety for Uncas in the 
 event of his rival s liberation ; " but that, 
 either by secret treachery or open force, his 
 life would be in continual danger." Yet with 
 all the proofs before them, the Commission 
 ers desired not to make a final disposition of 
 the case without the soundest advice that 
 could be obtained. They therefore submit 
 ted the matter to five of the most judicious 
 elders, and six of the principal ministers of 
 Massachusetts. These gave their opinion 
 that he ought to be put to death. Thus 
 supported, knowing that it would not be 
 safe to set him at liberty, yet feeling that 
 there was not sufficient ground for the co 
 lonial authorities to order his execution be- 
 
 forty days hence, in a clear night, then do as we, and the 
 next day fall on and kill men, women and children, but 
 no cows, for they will serve to eat till our deer be in 
 creased again. 55 Gardiner s Pequot Warres. 
 
OPINION OF THE COUNCIL. Ill 
 
 cause of his offences against them, the Com 
 missioners finally resolved that Uncas " MIGHT 
 
 JUSTLY PUT SUCH A FALSE AND BLOOD-THIRSTY 
 
 ENEMY TO DEATH." But they at the same 
 time directed that his execution should not 
 take place within the boundaries of any of 
 the English plantations, or without his own 
 proper jurisdiction. They likewise farther 
 advised " that he should forbear to exercise 
 any barbarous cruelty toward him, as their 
 manner is." In the event of a refusal by 
 Uncas to carry the recommendation into 
 execution, then the Commissioners decided 
 " that Miantonomoh should be sent in a pin 
 nace to Boston, there to be kept until farther 
 consideration."* 
 
 * Winthrop. Mr. Savage, in his edition of Win- 
 throp s Journal, appends a long and very extraordinary 
 note to the Governor s account of these proceedings, 
 from which it is very evident that the annotator had not 
 thoroughly studied the case, or else that his perceptions 
 had been clouded by the writings of those who have 
 favored the side of Gorton and the Narragansetts. Mr. 
 Savage assumes that in his recent invasion of the Mo- 
 hegans, Miantonomoh was only attempting to take ven 
 geance of Uncas for despoiling the town of Sequasson 
 forgetting that in the quarrel between Uncas and the 
 
112 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 It does not appear that previous to this 
 decision of the Commissioners, it had been 
 the purpose of Uncas to put his prisoner to 
 death. Had he been thus inclined, he might, 
 agreeably to the usages of savage war, have 
 struck him down upon the field of his capture ; 
 or he might have taken yet deeper vengeance 
 by putting him to the torture without the 
 trouble of a journey to Hartford. He was 
 not even present at the meeting of the Com 
 missioners in Boston. But their decision 
 governed his own ; and the residue of the 
 story of Miantonomoh is soon told. On the 
 
 latter, it was the latter who was the aggressor. The 
 annotator also forgets a yet more important feature of 
 the transaction the conspiracy of Miantonomoh to cut 
 off the whole English population. Mr. Savage ends his 
 note by a quotation from Stephen Hopkins, Governor of 
 Rhode Island, who denounces the Commissioners bit 
 terly for authorising an act from which he says " the 
 savage soul" of Uncas revolted. Governor Hopkins 
 also held that the execution was an act of ingratitude, 
 inasmuch as Miantonomoh some years before had as 
 sisted the colonists against the Pequods. But the 
 assistance rendered by him on that occasion, I have 
 before proven to have been reluctant and inefficient, if 
 not equivocal and doubtful. Potter quotes the same 
 passage from Hopkins with approbation. 
 
EXECUTION OF MIANTONOMOH. 113 
 
 return of the Connecticut and New-Haven 
 Commissioners they dispatched messengers to 
 Uncas, requesting him to meet them at Hart 
 ford, with a competent number of his most 
 trusty warriors. The determination of the 
 Commissioners having been communicated to 
 him, Miantonomoh was surrendered into his 
 custody, and marched back to the country of 
 the Mohegans, and to the field of his own 
 humiliation. Being conducted to the very 
 spot upon which he had been taken, a warrior 
 designated for that purpose, and by some au 
 thorities said to have been a brother of Uncas, 
 struck him from behind with a tomahawk, 
 and laid him dead at a single blow. A 
 knowledge of his doom had probably been 
 withholden from him in mercy, and it was 
 believed he knew not by what means he fell. 
 According to the instructions of his white coun 
 sellors, it was provided that some " discreet 
 and faithful persons of the English should 
 accompany Uncas and see the execution, for 
 the more full satisfaction of the Commis 
 sioners ; the English not being allowed to 
 meddle with the head or body at all." 
 Whether this direction was complied with 
 
1 14 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 is not known. The place of this summary 
 execution is said to have been upon " Sach 
 em s Plain/ in the eastern part of Norwich. 
 He was buried upon the spot, by the order 
 of Uncas, and a heap of stones was piled upon 
 his grave. In process of time the heap grew 
 into a considerable mound, from the well- 
 known custom of the race of adding to a 
 monumental pile of the dead whenever they 
 pass it. This mound remained undisturbed 
 until nearly the close of the last century, 
 when some of the neighboring inhabitants 
 illustrated their feelings of veneration by re 
 moving the memorial,* and converting the 
 
 * Letter from William T. Williams, Esq., prefixed to 
 " Lion Gardiner s Pequot Warres," published in the 
 Massachusetts Historical Collections. On the Anni 
 versary of American Independence, in 1841, the inhab 
 itants of the neighboring village of Greenville paraded 
 upon the plain, and erected on the spot where the chief 
 tain, fell and was buried, a neat granite monument, bear 
 ing the simple and appropriate inscription in capitals 
 MIANTONOMOH. 
 
 1643. 
 
 The monument consists of a single oblong block of stone, 
 about eight feet by five, and perhaps five in thickness 
 resting upon a little mound raised for that purpose. An 
 address was delivered on the occasion, by Mr. Gilman. 
 of Norwich. 
 
CHARACTER OF MIANTONOMOH. 115 
 
 sacred materials into a section of stone wall. 
 A traditionary letter, written by the Rev. 
 Richard Hyde, in 1769, and cited authorita 
 tively by Trumbull, states that after Mianto- 
 nomoh was slain, Uncas cut a large slice of 
 flesh from his shoulder, roasted and ate it ; 
 remarking that " it was the sweetest meat he 
 ever ate, and made him feel strong at the 
 heart" But the truth of this incident may w r ell 
 be questioned. It comports not with the cha 
 racter of the man, savage though he was. 
 
 There is little for commendation in the 
 character of Miantonomoh. He was proba 
 bly never a real friend to the English, except 
 ing, perhaps, to Roger Williams, and the 
 original planters of Rhode Island. Yet 
 because of his greater hatred of the Pequods 
 he could aid the English in their extermina 
 tion. His form was noble and commanding, 
 and he was endowed with a full share of the 
 bravery incident to his race. His age is not 
 known ; but he was probably in the prime 
 and vigor of manhood at the time of his 
 death, since he had been taken into the joint 
 government of his people by his uncle Ca- 
 nonicus about ten years before. Their agree- 
 
116 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 ment in the government, was remarkable. 
 "The old Sachem will not be offended at 
 what the young Sachem doth ; and the 
 young Sachem will not do what he conceives 
 will displease his Uncle," says Roger Wil 
 liams. Still Miantonomoh was a dissembler, 
 and a treacherous friend ; and he fell a vic 
 tim to his unchastened and reckless ambition. 
 But although tyrannical to his vassals, and in 
 his bearing haughty and imperious to all, he 
 was nevertheless popular among his people, 
 who would have revenged his death had it 
 not been for the alliance, offensive and defen 
 sive, between the United Colonies and Uncas- 
 The venenerable Canonicus, his head silvered 
 with the snows of almost a hundred winters? 
 was yet living to mourn the loss of his favor 
 ite ; young Pessacus, now just turned of 
 twenty, as bold as his brother who had fallen, 
 panted for an opportunity to make red his 
 hatchet in Mohegan blood ; and in a word, 
 the smothered fire of vengeance was ready to 
 break forth, in every Narragansett bosom. 
 Nor were the Narragansetts proper alone in 
 their resentment. The Nahantics, who have 
 heretofore been mentioned as a powerful 
 people living on the eastern side of the Paw- 
 
H 
 
 RAGE OF THE NARRAGANSETTS. 117 
 
 catuck, were in fact a clan of the Narragan- 
 setts. Ninigret, their chief Sachem., or king, 
 was a cousin to, or as some authors have 
 said, an uncle of Miantonomoh ; and the 
 people were closely allied to the Narragan- 
 setts by intermarriages ; so that, to quote the 
 words of Miantonomoh himself in a speech 
 to Governor "Winthrop, " they were as his 
 own flesh." By these people, therefore, the 
 death of Miantonomoh was deeply felt, and 
 as they brooded darkly over it, their first 
 impulse w r as revenge upon the Mohegan 
 chief. 
 
 Anticipating that Miantonomoh s execu 
 tion might arouse feelings like those just de 
 scribed, and well knowing that the Narra- 
 gansetts, even without the Nahantics, were 
 more powerful than the Mohegans, the Gov 
 ernment at Hartford had very properly given 
 an assurance to Uncas of protection in the 
 event of another outbreak against him. Mes 
 sengers were also despatched to the Narra- 
 gansett Sachems, Canonicus and Pessacus, 
 both from Hartford and Boston, rehearsing 
 the perfidious conduct of Miantonomoh, and 
 justifying the act of putting him to death. 
 Peace and safety were tendered them, but 
 
118 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 only on condition that Uncas and his people 
 should not be molested. The act was declar 
 ed to have been one of imperative necessity, 
 just in itself, and agreeable to the practice of 
 the Indians themselves under similar circum 
 stances. In a word, the Narragansetts were 
 given distinctly to understand that, if assailed, 
 Uncas should be defended by the colonists to 
 the extent of their power ; and as an earnest 
 of this determination a detachment of soldiers 
 was despatched forthwith to the Mohegan 
 country. 
 
 Yet these precautions were not altogether 
 sufficient for the maintenance of peace ; but 
 Uncas was perpetually harassed by the Nar 
 ragansetts and Nahantics for the two succeed 
 ing years.* Immediately on the death of 
 
 * " In the year 1644, " two days after the Court 
 was broken up, Pomham sent two men to Boston, to tell 
 us that the Narragansetts had taken and killed six of 
 Uncas s men, and five women, and had sent him two 
 hands and a foot to engage him in the war, but he had 
 refused to receive them, and sent to us for counsel." 
 Winthrop. [This Pomham was afterward killed near 
 Dedham, Massachusetts. He is spoken of by Hubbard 
 as " a bloody and barbarous Indian. 5 He had a son 
 taken captive at the same time, " a very likely youth, 
 whose countenance would have bespoken favor for him 
 but for his father."] 
 
RAGE OF THE NARRAG-ANSETTS. 119 
 
 Miantonomoh they had indeed despatched 
 messengers to Governor Winthrop, in Bos 
 ton, with a present of wampum, in the hope 
 of purchasing the neutrality of Massachusetts 
 in the war which they were at once bent on 
 waging against Uncas. But the mission was 
 unsuccessful, and their belt and present were 
 returned. Still, fired with indignation, they 
 persisted in their belligerent purpose, de 
 claring in reply to a message from the 
 Commissioners of the United Colonies, 
 "that they would kill the cattle of the Eng 
 lish and pile them in heaps ; that an Eng 
 lishman should no sooner step out at his 
 doors, than the Indians would kill him ; and 
 that, let who will have begun the war, we 
 will continue it until we have the head of 
 Uncas."* Pursuant to this resolution, the 
 
 * The evidence was very conclusive, that the Narra- 
 gansetts were stimulated to this course by Gorton and 
 his associates, who wrote their messages to the Governor 
 of Massachusetts for them. In order more effectually 
 to dissuade Canonicus and Passacus from their purpose^ 
 an embassy was sent to them from Boston. But the 
 messengers were not treated with their wonted respect. 
 They kept them for the night in an ordinary lodge, and 
 made " forward speeches" to them. <e Their answers 
 were witty, and full to the questions, and their conclu- 
 
120 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 ohegan territory was repeatedly invaded 
 by the Narragansetts during the years 1644 
 and 1645, in which incursions several of the 
 people of Uncas were slain, and others taken 
 captive. In the last mentioned year, Tanta- 
 quesan, the Mohegan Chief who had first ar 
 rested Miantonomoh in his attempted flight 
 from the battle of Sachem s Plain, was dan 
 gerously and treacherously wounded while 
 asleep in his wigwam. This act was com 
 mitted by two Narragansetts who had been 
 led thither and introduced into his domicil by 
 some cunning squaws. Tantaquesan being 
 awaked from his sleep by the first blow of the 
 hatchet, which fortunately fell upon his 
 breast instead of his head, he was indebted to 
 his own presence of mind and bravery for his 
 life. Other acts of hostility, both open and 
 secret, were committed ; the property of the 
 Mohegans was greatly damaged ; their corn 
 fields ravaged; canoes destroyed, &c. &c., 
 
 sion was that they would soon go to war upon Uncas, 
 but not in such manner as Miantonomoh had done, by a 
 great army, but by sending out parties of thirty or more 
 or less, to catch his men, and keep them from getting a 
 living." Winthrop. 
 
THE MOHAWKS. 121 
 
 in addition to all which, another plot was 
 detected for bringing the Mohawks down 
 upon Uucas and his people. This second at 
 tempt of the perfidious Narragansetts was 
 stoutly denied by Pessacus, and also by a son 
 of Canonicus, who called upon " the English 
 man s God" to witness the truth of his deni 
 al. But the historical evidence to the con 
 trary is too strong to be resisted. The Mo 
 hawks and the Pocomtock Indians had both 
 been hired to assist in the subjugation of Un- 
 cas, and the total destruction of his nation. 
 The Pocomtocks made their preparations, 
 and actually assembled for the purpose, while 
 to the same end the Narragansetts and Na- 
 hantics removed their old men, women and 
 children into swamps and fastnesses for their 
 security, and had a force of eight hundred 
 warriors in readiness to join their expected 
 allies.* 
 
 In the progress of these troubles, there was 
 
 * "The Narragansetts/ says Cotton Mather, "hir 
 ing the Maquas to assist them in their prosecution 
 against Uncas, were again upon the very point of com 
 mitting outrages upon the English, too; but a merciful 
 Providence of Heaven overruled it. * 
 11 
 
122 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 at least one formidable invasion, in which 
 Uncas must have fought at great disadvan 
 tage, though with his wonted bravery. The 
 strength of the Narragansetts and Nahantics 
 having been combined against him, he was 
 compelled for a season to confine himself and 
 his warriors to his fort, but from which he 
 was at length drawn by stratagem. A body 
 of only forty Narragansetts having shown 
 themselves before the fort, Uncas incautiously 
 sallied forth in pursuit, until at length he was 
 drawn into an ambuscade of a thousand war 
 riors. A bloody conflict ensued, in the out 
 set of which the Mohegans were discomfitted. 
 The Narragansetts had the use of more fire 
 arms than were possessed by the Mohegans, 
 and the latter were compelled to fly a consi 
 derable distance within their own territory. 
 Here their numbers must have been greatly 
 increased, inasmuch as they rallied with fresh 
 spirit, and drove the Narragansetts back again 
 in turn. How many were killed in this en 
 gagement, on either side, is not known. 
 Thomas Peters, who visited Uncas at his fort 
 immediately after the battle, in company with 
 John Winthrop, a son of Governor Winthrop 
 
ANOTHER BATTLE. 123 
 
 of Massachusetts, in a letter to the latter, 
 speaks of dressing seventeen of the wounded 
 Mohegans and leaving plasters to dress the 
 wounds of seventeen more. Peters also speaks 
 of the death of four of Uncas s captains, killed 
 by fire-arms ; and Uncas attributed his re 
 pulse in the early part of the battle to the use 
 of those weapons against him. It was Peters 
 who dressed the wounds of Tantaquesan, 
 whom the Narragansetts had attempted to 
 assassinate. 
 
 These troubles between the two nations 
 continuing, the English were obliged fre 
 quently to interpose in favor of Uncas, until 
 at length it was determined to put an end to 
 them by striking a signal blow at the ag 
 gressors, the Narragansetts and Nahantics. 
 At a meeting of the Commisssioners of the 
 United Colonies, held in Boston in June, 
 1645, they went into a full investigation of 
 the whole controversy. A declaration was 
 put forth, in which the entire history of the 
 quarrel between the Mohegans and Narra 
 gansetts was recapitulated ; and in view of 
 all the facts of the case, the Commissioners 
 resolved that "it clearly appeared, on weigh- 
 
124? LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 ing the premises, that God called the Colo 
 nists to war against the enemies of Uncas," 
 for whose safety it was their duty to provide. 
 Messengers, of peace, however, were yet 
 again sent to both the Narragansetts and 
 Mohegans ; but the chiefs of the former again 
 declared that they were " determined to have 
 no peace without the head of Uncas." Vigor 
 ous efforts were immediately made by the 
 colonists for the invasion of the Narragansett 
 country. Meantime the Narragansett and 
 Nahantic chiefs were again invited to Boston, 
 that another effort for the restoration of peace 
 might be made. Pessacus, and two other Nar 
 ragansetts, and Ninigret, the Nahantic chief, 
 with a numerous train, complied with the in 
 vitation. Finding, on their arrival in Boston, 
 that the English were in earnest, and that 
 some of their forces had already gone against 
 the Indian country, the chiefs, on the 30th of 
 August, 1645, came to the terms of the Com 
 missioners, and signed an agreement of peace, 
 stipulating for a restoration of prisoners to 
 Uncas, and reparation for the damage they 
 had done to the Mohegans in their hostile 
 incursions. They also agreed to pay the 
 
NAHANTICS AND NARRAGANSETTS. 125 
 
 English two thousand fathoms of wampum, 
 as a reimbursement to the Colonies of the ex 
 penses incurred by their warlike demonstra 
 tions. Furthermore they were required to 
 leave some of their number as hostages for 
 the faithful performance of the stipulations. 
 
 The wampum not being paid by the Narra- 
 gansetts with the promptitude that was 
 deemed requisite, Pessacus was summoned to 
 appear in Boston for explanations in 1646. 
 This summons not being complied with, it 
 was repeated in the following year, when, 
 under the plea of sickness, Ninigret, the Na- 
 hantic chief, was sent in his room Pessacus 
 protesting against the payment of the whole 
 amount, because, as he alledged, he had 
 signed the treaty under constraint, being " in 
 fear of the army which he saw." Ninigret 
 interposed various pretexts, and resorted to 
 divers subterfuges and evasions, for the pur 
 pose of avoiding the payment. The plea 
 advanced was that of poverty, declaring the 
 inability of the Indians to satisfy the demand ; 
 but the bearing of the Commissioners was 
 such as to induce him to send back messen 
 gers, who procured two hundred fathoms, 
 11* 
 
126 LIFE OF UN CAS. 
 
 which were received and credited as an in 
 stalment. Farther payments were subse 
 quently made at different times ; but the 
 whole amount was not received until two 
 years afterward, when its payment was co 
 erced by a military demonstration under Cap 
 tain Atherton. Although the Captain had 
 no more than twenty soldiers with him, he 
 nevertheless marched boldly to the Court of 
 the chief, and demanded immediate payment. 
 Pessacus had assembled several hundreds of 
 his warriors, by whom he was surrounded 
 when Atherton arrived. He at first refused 
 an interview, and evaded the demand where 
 upon Atherton entered his lodge alone, seized 
 the chief by the hair of his head with one hand, 
 and holding a pistol in the other, drew him 
 from the midst of his guards into the circle 
 of his own men, who w T ere without.* Amazed 
 at his dauntless bearing, the residue of the 
 tribute was paid upon the spot, and without 
 the show of resistance. 
 
 The venerable Canonicus died in June, 
 1648, at a very advanced age, leaving the 
 
 * Magnalia Christi Americana. 
 
DEATH OF CANONICUS. 127 
 
 government of the Narragansetts to Pessacus, 
 upon whom was also detailed the hereditary 
 quarrel with the Mohegans, and especially 
 with Uncas, against whom they still persisted 
 in their murderous designs.* Indeed, a bolder 
 attempt was made upon his life, by assassina- 
 
 * It is but just to say of Canonicus, that in his ex 
 treme old age, he appears not to have been cognizant of 
 the actions and designs of his nephew, Miantonomoh. 
 " He seems, in his latter days/ says Potter, " to have 
 had many gloomy fears and forebodings as to the future 
 fate of his nation, wishing, but yet doubting that the 
 English, whom he had cherished until they had now 
 grown strong, might return to his posterity the kindness 
 he so generously bestowed upon them in their feeble 
 state." Roger Williams speaks of him as " the old 
 high sachem, or wise and peaceful prince," and recites 
 what he terms a " solemn oration" made by Canonicus, 
 in which he expressed his apprehensions as to the good 
 faith of the English and the fate of his people. " If the 
 English speak true, if he mean truly, then shall I goe to 
 my grave in peace, and hope that the English and my 
 posterity shall live in love and peace together." I 
 replied that he had no cause, as I hoped, to question 
 Englishmen s faithfulnesse, he having had long experi 
 ence of their friendlinesse and trustinesse. He tooke a 
 sticke, and broke it into ten pieces, and related ten in 
 stances, (laying down a sticke to every instance,) which 
 gave him cause thus to feare and say." Roger Wil~ 
 Hams s Key. 
 
128 ^ LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 tion, in the following year, than any of the 
 preceding ones. While descending the 
 Thames, or Pequod river, in a vessel, it was 
 boarded by an Indian hired by the Narragan- 
 setts and Nahantics to slay him. Taking him 
 thus by surprise, the assassin succeeded in 
 thrusting the chief through the breast with a 
 sword. The wound, though severe, was not 
 mortal ; and on his recovery, Uncas again 
 laid his complaints against his assailants be 
 fore the Commissioners. He likewise com 
 plained that the Narragansetts had not ful 
 filled the stipulations of the treaty made four 
 years previously, in regard to the return of 
 prisoners, the restoration of property, &c. 
 The Indian who had wounded Uncas, declared 
 that he had been employed to perpetrate the 
 act by Ninigret and Pessacus, the former of 
 whom, being summoned before the Commis 
 sioners, endeavoured to make a defence, but 
 it w^as considered very lame and unsatisfac 
 tory. 
 
 There were again indications of a general 
 rising among the Indians against the colo 
 nies, and Ninigret was inculpated. Some of 
 the Mohawks confessed that they had been 
 
PEQUOD REMNANTS. 129 
 
 hired against Uncas. Additional alarm was 
 also caused by the fact that the Pequods who 
 had been living under the government of 
 Uncas, had revolted, and were again cluster 
 ing together as a nation, under a brother or a 
 son of Sassacus, who was about to marry a 
 daughter of Ninigret. Shortly afterward, it 
 was reported that Ninigret had employed a 
 man to compass the death of Uncas by poi 
 son 5 but the attempt failed, and the man was 
 put to death.* Under all these circumstances, 
 as well for the protection of themselves as 
 for the defence of Uncas, preparations were 
 once more made by the Colonists for the in 
 vasion and effectual chastisement of the trea 
 cherous authors of these continuous troubles. 
 Ninigret appeared now to be a more formida 
 ble leader than Pessacus ; but a squadron of 
 cavalry, sent into his country by Massa 
 chusetts, under Captain Davis, moved with 
 such spirit and celerity as to create a general 
 panic among chiefs and people, and a paci 
 fication was the result, which lasted several 
 years. 
 
 The fidelity of Uncas toward the English 
 
 * Hubbard, Holmes. 
 
130 \ LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 received a fresh illustration in the year 1645, 
 which had the effect of involving him in diffi 
 culty wilh a strong body of Indians other 
 than the Narragansetts. It was in this year 
 that a complicated piece of treachery was 
 concerted by Sequasson, yet the bitter enemy 
 of Uncas, who had conspired the death, by 
 assassination, of Governors Hopkins and 
 Haynes, and also of Mr. Whiting, one of the 
 magistrates of Connecticut, for the doubly 
 infamous purpose of avenging himself upon 
 those distinguished men, because of their friend 
 ship for Uncas, and then of charging the mur 
 ders upon the latter.* Success in this nefa 
 rious plot would not only have deprived the 
 colonists of three of their conscript fathers, 
 but would of course have worked the ruin of 
 the great enemy of the Narragansetts and 
 their confederates. The agent employed for 
 this work of assassination, was an Indian of 
 the Waronoke tribe, living in the district of 
 country now comprised in the town of West- 
 field, (Mass.) The Indian had already re 
 ceived his price; but his heart failed him in 
 the undertaking. He had seen that an Indian 
 
 * Hubbard, Holmes. 
 
FIDELITY OF UNCAS. 131 
 
 had just been executed at New-Haven for 
 attempting to kill a woman at Stamford, and 
 the hazard of " murdering English Sachems," 
 appeared too great. He therefore not only 
 declined the fulfilment of his contract, but 
 disclosed the conspiracy. Sequasson was 
 thereupon summoned forthwith to appear 
 before the Commissioners of the Colonies 
 at New-Haven ; but instead of complying 
 with the order, he took refuge with the 
 Indians at Pocompheake, where Uncas under 
 took to arrest and bring him in. Being una 
 ble to do it by force, he surprised him in the 
 night, captured, and brought him to Hartford, 
 where he was imprisoned for several months. 
 Yet in the end he was released for want of 
 sufficient evidence to justify his execution.* 
 The friends of Sequasson took the matter of 
 his imprisonment in high dudgeon ; and being 
 encouraged to hostilities by the Narragansetts, 
 they raised a thousand warriors to go against 
 Uncas, three hundred of whom were armed 
 with muskets, and were only restrained from 
 their purpose by a message from the magis- 
 
 *I have followed Trumbull in this relation. Cotton 
 Mather dates it a year later 1646. 
 
132 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 trates of Hartford, that Uncas would be de 
 fended by them. 
 
 In the year 1648, Uncas again evinced his 
 friendly activity in serving the English. Mr. 
 John Whittemore, of Stamford, a man of re 
 pute and a member of the General Court at 
 New-Haven, was murdered by the Indians 
 while seeking for cattle in the woods. An 
 Indian youth, son of a Sachem, carried the 
 news of the murder to the settlers ; but the 
 body of the deceased could not be found, 
 neither could the murderers be discovered, 
 although the young Indian himself was sus 
 pected as an accomplice. 
 
 Two months afterward Uncas repaired to 
 Stamford with a body of his men, and by the 
 aid of the Sachem s son, and another suspect 
 ed Indian, named Kehoran, discovered the 
 remains of the murdered man, and also elicit 
 ed satisfactory proofs that they two were, in 
 fact, themselves the murderers. Uncas 
 thereupon seized both, and brought them to 
 the civil authorities ; but while preparations 
 were making for their trial, they effected 
 their escape. 
 
 In the course of the year 1647, and indeed 
 
CHARGES AGAINST UNCAS. 133 
 
 at times during ten years thereafter, Uncas 
 was arraigned before the Commissioners, 
 upon various charges preferred against him 
 by the Narragansetts, and also by the frag 
 ment of the Pequods, who had been assigned 
 to him after the subjugation of that nation, 
 in 1637. It appears quite evident that he 
 had treated the remains of this people with 
 undue severity ; and they now prayed for the 
 protection of the Colonial Government from 
 his tyrrany. Yet, for the most part, the 
 charges then and afterward preferred, were 
 of a trivial character, and rather vexatious 
 than important. Among other matters it 
 was alledged that his exactions of tribute 
 were oppressive ; and that in their games, 
 when the Pequods won of the Mohegans, 
 Uncas countenanced the latter in refusing 
 payment, " carrying it partial to the Mohe 
 gans and threatening the Pequods." No 
 great heed was given to these charges by the 
 Commissioners, and others of a like trivial 
 character. But it was not so with all. 
 There was, in some cases, evidence of oppres 
 sion ; and it was clearly proved, or rather 
 
 the charge was not denied, that Uncas had 
 12 
 
134 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 taken the wife of Obachickaquid, one of the 
 surviving Pequod chiefs. But it appeared, 
 in extenuation of this offence, that Uncas had 
 not in fact either taken the woman away 
 from her husband, or kept her from him. 
 On the other hand, Obachickaquid had with 
 drawn himself with other Pequods from the 
 jurisdiction of Uncas, and his wife not choos 
 ing to accompany him, had remained behind, 
 and been taken to wife, by Uncas, as was 
 usual among the Indians in cases when a 
 wife desires to depart from her lord. Never 
 theless the Commissioners chose not to sanc 
 tion such a degree of latitude in the conju 
 gal relations, and Uncas was directed to re 
 turn the Pequod his wife. He was also 
 mulcted in a fine of one hundred fathoms of 
 wampum. The Pequods had prayed to be 
 allowed to withdraw altogether from among 
 the Mohegans. But this proposition was not 
 favorably received by the Commissioners. 
 Still they gave licenses to some of the Pe 
 quods to move back to their native territory, 
 yet " to live under the dominion of Uncas." 
 But the carriage of the Chief was not uni 
 formly harsh toward these Pequod remnants. 
 
. ^ p^ . .^ ,, 
 
 ANOTHER WAR. 135 
 
 In the year 1651, he appeared in their be 
 half, when they were summoned before the 
 Commissioners to account for the arrearages 
 of the tribute imposed upon them at the close 
 of the war in 1637, and effected a compro 
 mise greatly to their satisfaction. 
 
 The year 1654 must have been one of 
 great activity for Uncas. He was not only 
 engaged in a controversy with the inhabit 
 ants of New London, upon a boundary ques 
 tion, a controversy so serious as to involve 
 a temporary occupancy of his forts and town 
 by his white assailants, and rendering the 
 interposition of the colonial government 
 necessary to a pacification, but he had a 
 war upon his hands, with a nation of his 
 own race. According to a memoir of Un 
 cas published by the Massachusetts Histori 
 cal Society in 1804, it was during this year 
 that he had a dispute with Arr-ha-ma-met, 
 Sachem of Mussauco, now Simsbury, which 
 brought on hostilities. Uncas sent one of 
 his warriors to burn an out-wigwam belong 
 ing to Arr-ha-ma-met, in the night; to kill 
 whatever or whoever might be found alive, 
 and leave such a trail as would be mistak- 
 
136 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 en for the foot-steps of the Mohawks. The 
 orders were executed, and the stratagem was 
 successful ; for instead of surmising the real 
 authors of the mischief, Arr-ha-ma-met dis 
 covering among other marks some Mohawk 
 weapons that had been purposely dropped, 
 ascribed it to the Mohawks, and went to the 
 north-west in pursuit of them. Meantime 
 Uncas was enabled to prepare his warriors- 
 for a regular invasion of Mussauco, which 
 was subdued, and in connection with Podunk, 
 an Indian town farther south, was ever aftej* 
 held tributary by him.* The cause of this r 
 stratagem of the Mohegan against the Sa 
 chem of Mussauco is not given ; and we can 
 only judge of the propriety of the conduct of 
 Uncas from his general character, which, 
 making due allowances for circumstances, 
 seems to have been eminently frank and 
 just.f 
 
 * The Podunk Indians, in the time of Philip s war, 
 numbered between two and three hundred men. They 
 went into the contest with Philip, and were never heard 
 of afte rward. 
 
 f President Dwight in his travels, has fallen into sev 
 eral gross mistakes in regard to this affair with Arr-ha- 
 m-met. He substitutes the Podunks for the Massau- 
 
POWERS OF UNCAS. 137 
 
 Within the two years next ensuing, the 
 Mohegan Chief appears to have experienced 
 some reverses, for in 1656, he was again in 
 volved in active hostilities with the Narra- 
 gansetts, who, leagued, with several other 
 nations pressed him so hard that the Con 
 necticut colony was obliged once more to 
 send a body of troops to aid in his defence. 
 A temporary peace ensued, at the command 
 of the Commissioners of the United Colonies ; 
 or rather an armistice, for it could have 
 * heen no more, since very shortly afterward, 
 he is found again besieged in his fort upon 
 the bank of the Thames by the implacable 
 Narragansetts. It was in this emergency 
 that an incident occurred which must ever 
 be regarded as important by every inhabitant 
 of the romantic and beautiful town of Nor 
 wich. So close and effectual was the prose 
 cution of the siege, that the chief and his 
 
 cos ; confounds the quarrel stated here in the text with 
 one which Uncas had had ten or twelve years before with 
 Sequasson ; makes the quarrel to originate between Ton- 
 tonimo, sachem of the Podunks, and Sequasson ; and to 
 crown all, represents Uncas, in this matter, as espous 
 ing the cause, and acting in alliance with Sequasson his 
 bitterest enemy. 
 
 12* 
 
138 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 faithful braves were in danger of starvation. 
 The assailants were too numerous to justify a 
 sortie, and the danger of perishing either by 
 famine or the tomahawk was becoming im 
 minent, when Uncas found means of convey 
 ing information of his distressed condition to 
 the garrison of the colonial fort at Saybrook. 
 His request for relief was enforced by a cau 
 tion of the danger that would result to the 
 white settlements, should their friends the 
 Mohegans be cut off. In consequence of this 
 message, Mr. Thomas Leffingwell, an inhabi 
 tant of Saybrook, an ensign in the militia, 
 and a bold enterprising man, laded a canoe 
 with provisions, and proceeding round into 
 the Thames in the night, succeeded in throw 
 ing these, necessary supplies into the fort. 
 Finding that the forces of Uncas had been 
 thus relieved, the Narragansetts raised the 
 siege and departed. In consideration of this 
 timely relief, Uncas made a voluntary grant 
 of the lands upon the Yantic and Shetucket 
 rivers now forming the town of Norwich. A 
 more formal deed of conveyance was execu 
 ted soon afterward by Uncas and his two 
 sons Oneco and Attawanpoad, to Mr. Leffing- 
 
PLANTING OF NORWICH. 139 
 
 well, John Mason, the Rev. James Fitch, and 
 their associates, then of Saybrook, who im 
 mediately thereafter removed to the new ter 
 ritory, and planted this ever beautiful town.* 
 Nor did the friendship of Uncas and his peo 
 ple for the planters of Norwich end w T ith the 
 transfer of the territory. For many years 
 afterward the most amicable relations were 
 preserved ; and in seasons of peril and alarm, 
 the faithful Mohegans were always upon the 
 alert, giving prompt information of every 
 approach of danger, and even removing their 
 wigwams to the skirts of the town, when it 
 was supposed that their services might be 
 necessary in repelling the dusky invaders in 
 stigated to the work of burning and massa 
 cre by the terrible Philip of Pokonoket.f 
 
 * Soon after the Pequod War, Mason removed from 
 Windsor to Saybrook. He was appointed Major General 
 of all the forces of the colony, and was afterward sev 
 eral years Deputy Governor. 
 
 f It is related that at one time the enemy came so 
 near said town on the Sabbath day, as to view said 
 town from an eminence, and seeing the said Moheag s 
 dwellings, were intimidated, and went off without doing 
 any damage. And further they were of great service in 
 watching and spying. So that it happened that there 
 
140 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 How fitting is it that the daughters of moth 
 ers thus protected by the brave and true Mo- 
 hegans, should rear a memorial to the chief 
 from whose example they were taught their 
 rude lessons of fidelity and valor ! 
 
 Uncas lived many years after the occuren- 
 ces just related ; but as the colonists were at 
 peace with the Indians from the close of the 
 difficulties with the Narragansetts till the 
 breaking out of Philip s war in 1675, his 
 name does not appear in subsequent history 
 in connection with any public event of im 
 portance. There is indeed a letter published 
 in ^Mlsixth volume of the Massachusetts His 
 torical Collections, dated June 24th, 1675, 
 stating as a report, that Uncas was at that 
 time in communication with Philip, and upon 
 certain conditions had proffered him the sup 
 port of " all the Indians in the country 
 against the English." But this report was 
 unquestionably without the slightest founda 
 tion/ in truth. Uncas was now very old ; and 
 for years previous the cares of the Mohegan 
 
 were never but two men killed in said town by the In 
 dian enemies, and one boy carried away captive, who 
 soon was returned by the help of a friendly Indian." 
 
. 
 
 MIANTONOMOH S SON. 141 
 
 government are believed to have devolved 
 upon Oneco his son. And besides, the fact 
 is well known, that while the Narragansetts, 
 under Na-nunt-te-noo, or Canonchet, the 
 son of Miantonomoh, and as bloody and, 
 cruel as he was fearless, eagerly espoused the 
 cause of King Philip, the Mohegans held fast 
 to the chain of friendship with the colonists.* 
 
 * There was something in the character and bearing 
 of Canonchet, albeit inheriting the pride, and insolence, 
 and hatred toward the English, of his father, that com 
 mands our admiration. In March, 1676, he had aided 
 in cutting off Captain Pierce, of the Plymouth colony, 
 with fifty Englishmen and twenty friendly Indians, who 
 were driven into an ambuscade and slain. The chief 
 was afterward surprised somewhere upon the Black- 
 stone river, by Captain Denniston and his party, and an 
 agile Pequod under Denniston, went up and captured 
 him. Although a man " of goodly stature, and of great 
 strength and courage, he made no resistance after being 
 taken." A young man named Robert Stanton, was the 
 first Englishman who approached him. He commenced 
 asking him questions, whereupon " the haughty sachem 
 looking with disdain upon his youthful countenance, 
 replied in broken English, ( You too much child ; no 
 understand war; let your captain come; him I will 
 answer. 553 His life was offered him on condition of 
 making peace with the English ; but he spurned the 
 proposition ; nor would he even send one of his coun- 
 
142 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 During the first year of that war, two hun 
 dred of the Mohegan braves, led by Oneco, 
 accompanied Major Talcott in his expedition 
 to Brookfield and Northampton. Talcott 
 had but two hundred and fifty white soldiers ; 
 yet with these and the Mohegans, aided by 
 the intrepid regicide Goffe, who appeared 
 like a spirit to direct the battle, and vanish 
 ed like a spirit the moment it was over, 
 seven hundred Indians were defeated atHad- 
 ley, and the town saved. In the following 
 year, 1676, Oneco was engaged with a band 
 of Mohegans, in conjunction with Major 
 Palms, and Captains Denniston, Avery and 
 Stanton, in scouring the Narragansett coun 
 try.* The consequence of this fidelity of the 
 
 sellers to the English upon a pacific message. When 
 informed that he was to be put to death, he said " I 
 like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft, and be 
 fore I have spoken a word unworthy of Canonchet !" 
 He was shot by Oneco, and the Indians with him, at 
 Stonington. Hubbard remarks of the refusal of Conon- 
 chet to ask for peace, that he " acted therein as if by a 
 Pythagorean metempsychosis some old Roman Ghost 
 had the body of this western Pagan like Attilius 
 Regulus. 
 
 * "Pessacus was killed by a party of Mohawks, in 
 this year (1676,) about thirty miles above Piscataqua, 
 and was buried by order of Major Waldron." Potter. 
 
VINDICATION OF UNCAS. 143 
 
 Mohegans was, that while the border towns 
 of Massachusetts were ravaged by scores, 
 the darkness of their nights illumined by the 
 blaze of their dwellings, and their streams 
 made to flow in crimsoned torrents, not a 
 drop of English blood was shed upon the soil 
 of Connecticut. The imputation upon Uncas, 
 therefore, of having abetted the cause of Phi 
 lip, falls to the ground. The circumstances 
 in which he was placed in regard to his then 
 recent revolt from the Pequods, induced him 
 to cultivate the friendship of the English on 
 their first arrival in Connecticut ; and the 
 alliance then formed was maintained with 
 unwavering fidelity to the end. 
 
 Thus much for the public career of this 
 great Indian benefactor to the Pilgrim Fathers 
 of Connecticut. It was a career full of dan 
 ger and vicissitude, remarkable, withal, con 
 sidering the peculiar and trying circumstances 
 in which he was placed, and the character of 
 the race whence he sprung, for its consist 
 ency. It remains to pass in review, a duty 
 which must be rapidly performed, a few pas 
 sages of his life, and to dwell for a short time, 
 upon some of the leading features of his 
 
144 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 character ; in doing which I trust I shall.be 
 able to relieve his fame from the dark shades 
 which several historians, moved by prejudice, 
 or writing without due investigation, have 
 cast upon it. 
 
 I have just said that the circumstances in 
 which Uncas was placed at the commence 
 ment of the colony of Connecticut, induced 
 him rather to court than to avoid an alliance 
 with the strangers. Allied to the formidable 
 sachem of the Pequods, the warlike Sas- 
 sacus", both by parentage and marriage, the 
 tyranny of that haughty chieftain had pro 
 voked his revolt at the head of those clans 
 and dependents of the Pequods who thencefor 
 ward constituted the Mohegan nation. From 
 the war attending this revolt he had just emerg 
 ed on the arrival of the colonists ; and was 
 even then perhaps only exercising a doubtful 
 sovereignty, by reason of the hereditary hostil 
 ity existing between the Pequods and the Nar- 
 ragarisetts, the latter, it is but just to sup 
 pose, so far holding the Pequods in check as 
 to restrain Sassacus from directing the whole 
 of his power against his refractory kinsman. 
 There is no evidence of previous, or indeed of 
 
VINDICATION OF HIS CHARACTER. H5 
 
 any friendship between the newly founded do 
 minion of Uncas and the Narragansetts. 
 Hence it was but natural on the arrival of the 
 Anglo-Saxon emigrants, that Uncas should 
 seek to strengthen himself by their alliance, 
 against the positive hostility of the Pequods, 
 and the more than doubtful friendship of the 
 Narragansetts. Nor is it likely that he lacked 
 sagacity to perceive, by the arms, the vigor 
 ous frames, and the general bearing of the 
 strangers, that in their friendship he would be 
 likely to find a power on which it would be 
 safest to rely in the hour of need. 
 
 In regard to the relations between Uncas 
 and Miantonomoh, the latter has been extrav 
 agantly lauded for various exalted qualities, 
 and his execution by the former, as has been 
 seen, denounced as an act alike treacherous 
 and cruel. But such cannot be the judg 
 ment of impartial history. How treacherous ? 
 There is no evidence that they were ever 
 friends, the chiefs themselves or their people. 
 True, a portion of the Narragansetts marched 
 with Mason and Uncas against the Pequods ; 
 but Miantonomoh himself went not with them. 
 
 Uncas has been condemned in connexon with" 
 13 
 
146 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 the Pequod war, for bearing arms in alliance 
 with the invaders, against his own race. But 
 ought not Miantonomoh to be held in the 
 same condemnation ? Or rather, was not his 
 conduct the more censurable, inasmuch as he 
 was in every sense a volunteer, in sending his 
 warriors upon that expedition, while Uncas 
 was only prosecuting a w r ar actually existing 
 as between himself and the Pequods ? It is the 
 habit, I know, of the Rhode Island historians, 
 to eulogise the character of Miantonomoh, be 
 cause of his alledged friendship for the whites. 
 But was he, in fact, ever their friend ? It is 
 readily granted that he was upon the most 
 amicable terms with Roger Williams, and the 
 schismatics Gorton, Randall, Holden, and their 
 associates ; and that they were indebted to 
 him and his aged uncle, for the grants of the 
 lands they obtained. Yet may not the fact of 
 his general hostility to the whites, have been 
 the cause of his friendship for those men ? It 
 is known that Canonicus, at the first, was 
 only a friend to the Plymouth and Massachu 
 setts colonists upon compulsion ; and may not 
 the friendship of the old chief and Miantono 
 moh for Williams and Gorton, have arisen from 
 
LIFE OF UNCAS. 147 
 
 the other fact, important at least in this in 
 quiry, that those distinguished men were 
 both in a state of banishment, exiles from 
 Massachusetts and Plymouth, and conse 
 quently not likely to be much more friendly 
 to their persecutors than were the Narragan- 
 setts themselves?* 
 
 Williams, it is true, after his exile, main 
 tained friendly relations with Winthrop, and 
 other distinguished individuals, his personal 
 friends, and he had acted an important part 
 at the court of Canonicus, in persuading 
 him to engage in the war of extermination 
 against the Pequods. But the circumstances 
 of his banishment were nevertheless riot for 
 gotten ; while the yet severer treatment 
 experienced at the hands of the Massachu 
 setts government by Gorton, had created 
 feelings of hostility that rankled in his bosom 
 to the last. But, aside from these considera 
 tions, and the original hostility of Canonicus 
 to the English, the conspiracies of Miantono- 
 moh had shown that the Narragansetts were 
 
 * Winslow, at an early day, spoke in his journal of 
 Canonicus and the Narragansetts as " supposed ene 
 mies 35 of the English. 
 
148 LIFE OF UN CAS. 
 
 not at heart friends of the colonists. The infer 
 ence, therefore, is entirely warrantable, that 
 the apparent friendship of their chiefs for the 
 original planters of Rhode Island arose from 
 their greater hatred of the older colonies. In 
 other words, by aiding in the establishment of 
 the colony of Rhode Island, Canonicus and 
 Miantonomoh probably supposed they were 
 acquiring an ally against Massachusetts and 
 Plymouth.* The encomiums that have been 
 
 * Mr. Potter, in his history of the Narragan setts, 
 Rhode Island Hist. Coll. vol. iii., assists materially in 
 the illustration of this position. " Roger Williams was 
 obliged," he says, " to flee from Massachusetts on ac 
 count of his religious creed, and came, in 1636, into the 
 territory of the Narragansetts, who received him with 
 open arms. Williams cultivated the friendship of the 
 Indians, as they had no power wherewith to oppose 
 them in case of war." ****. The Colonists and the 
 Narraganseits being thus on the most friendly terms 
 with each other, the enmity felt by the Puritans toward 
 Roger Williams was easily transferred to the Indians 
 who had protected and supported him under his afflic 
 tions and persecutions, and both were viewed with 
 equal dislike ; they were, one perhaps as much as the 
 other, considered heathen, and looked upon as the ene 
 mies of the Lord and his church." Gorton, and his as 
 sociates, were for a long while in a state of actual hos 
 tility with Massachusetts. 
 
VINDICATION OF UN CAS. 149 
 
 lavished on Miantonomoh for his peculiar 
 affection for his own race, while Uncas has 
 been charged with a lack of patriotism in that 
 respect, find a sufficient answer in the circum 
 stances of his embarking in the Pequod war. 
 
 But, I ask again, in what respect was* 
 Uncas treacherous to Miantonomoh ? Far 
 otherwise was the fact. Almost from the 
 hour of the first battle with the Pequods? 
 Miantonomoh was seeking the life of his 
 Mohegan rival, stirring up enemies against 
 him in one direction, and stealthily plotting 
 his destruction by assassination in another. 
 In the very battle nvwhich he was so inglo- 
 riously conquered, and taken prisoner, he 
 had stolen upon the territory of Uncas in 
 arms, in an hour of peace. And while, dur 
 ing the whole intervening period of six years 
 after the fall of the Pequods, Uncas, with few 
 and trifling exceptions, had been faithful to 
 the stipulations of the tripartite treaty between 
 the Cololonists, the Mohegans and the Narra- 
 gansetts, Miantonomoh, so far at least as 
 Uncas was concerned, had been false to all. 
 In a word, the whole conduct of Miantono 
 moh afforded conclusive evidence that while 
 13* 
 
150 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 he lived, the life of Uncas must have been in 
 imminent peril. Under such circumstances? 
 the laws of civilized man, even, would have 
 fully justified Uncas in taking effectual means 
 for his own personal safety. The marvel is 
 that he did not strike his treacherous antago 
 nist dead when first made a prisoner, or put 
 him at once to the torture, after the manner 
 of their common race. The fact that he did 
 not, shows his generosity ; his reference of 
 the case to the decision of the civil authorities 
 and the improved jurisprudence of the colo 
 nial governments, proves the good faith with 
 which he observed the stipulations of the 
 treaty, and also illustrates his desire to be 
 governed by the principles of justice ; while, 
 in my humble opinion, the manner of his ex 
 ecution, when compared with the usages of 
 his people, in which usages he had been edu 
 cated, illustrates his humanity. It was indeed 
 charged against Uncas, by the Narragansetts, 
 that the latter had paid him a ransom for his 
 life, and yet that he had perfidiously executed 
 his prisoner, in disregard of the compact. 
 But the charge, though revived some ten 
 years ago in a historical account of Provi- 
 
VINDICATION OF UNCAS. 151 
 
 dence published in the Massachusetts collec 
 tions, has no foundation in truth. It was fully 
 investigated by the Commissioners of the 
 Colonies, when first preferred against the 
 Mohegan chief, and most conclusively re 
 futed.* The wampum said to have been 
 
 * The only composition of Governor Haynes, of Con 
 necticut, extant, is a letter written by him to Governor 
 Winthrop, in December, 1643, upon the subject of the 
 conduct of Uncas toward Miantonomoh. In regard to 
 the accusation that Uncas had appropriated to his own 
 use goods and wampum intended for the ransom of Mi. 
 antonomoh, Governor Haynes discredits it entirely. He 
 adds : ee This I also know, that Onkus and his brother, 
 with many of their men. were at that place when Myan- 
 tonimo was committed, myself and Captain Mason 
 then present also. Onkos desired him to speak before 
 us all ; and this Myantonimo did then utter and confess 
 that the Mohegan sachems had dealt nobly with him in 
 sparing his life when they took him, and performing 
 their promise in bringing him to the English, (a thing 
 the like he never knew or heard of, that so great a sa 
 chem should be so dealt withal,) although he himself 
 pressed it upon them, again and again, (as they all could 
 witness,) to slay him. But they said no, but you shall 
 be carried to the English ; which therefore, should it 
 prove other upon due trial I should marvel much ; for 
 his own confession, I should think, goes far in the 
 case." [Mr. Haynes was governor of Massachusetts 
 in 1635, before his removal to Connecticut. His letter 
 
152 LIFE OF UttCAS. 
 
 contributed for his ransom, was all expended 
 by Miantonomoh himself, for the supply of 
 his wants while in confinement at Hartford. 
 There was not even a stipulation for the pay 
 ment of ransom, 
 
 On the whole, therefore, after a careful 
 examination of the case, I am fully persuaded 
 that the execution of Miantonomoh was as 
 just as it certainly was expedient. In regard 
 to the character of Miantonomoh, I am frank 
 to say, that aside from the common attribute 
 of mere animal courage, he possessed not one 
 redeeming quality. The only act of his life 
 deserving especial commendation, was his 
 reported order to those of his warriors who 
 went against the Pequods, to spare the 
 women and children. There was no neces 
 sity for this order, since his " braves" mostly 
 ran away before they reached the field of 
 danger. His ambition, perhaps, might have 
 been laudable ; but the chief characteristics 
 
 cited above touches upon several other important points ; 
 the disquietude of the Narragansetts ; the invitation of 
 the Mohawks against Uncas, the murder of a sachem 
 squaw of Uncas s, &c. &e.] See Trumbull MSS., 
 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i., 3d series. 
 
COURAGE OF UNCAS. 153 
 
 of his disposition were those of dissimulation, 
 blood-thirstiness, and treachery. 
 
 Uncas, beyond all question, was a man of 
 great personal courage. not merely animal 
 courage, for that, as just remarked in connec 
 tion with the name of Miantonomoh, was 
 common to his race, if riot, as a general rule, 
 to the whole family of man. But his cour 
 age was of a lofty and chivalrous character. 
 History presents not a nobler instance of 
 courage united with magnanimity, and a hu 
 mane desire to avoid the unnecessary shed 
 ding of blood, than was exhibited by him at 
 the battle ending upon Sachem s Plain, when 
 he stepped boldly in advance of his braves 
 and proposed to Miantonomoh that the war 
 should be decided by themselves, by single 
 combat. The lion-hearted Richard, of Eng 
 land, has been commended by Lord Coke, for 
 his reply to Philip of France, who had pro 
 posed that the differences of the two mon- 
 archs should be decided by five champions 
 entering the lists upon either side. Richard 
 accepted the offer upon condition that the 
 Kings themselves should be of the number to 
 
154 LIFE OF UKCAS. 
 
 enter the lists. Edward III. in the sixteenth 
 year of his reign, proposed that the contro 
 versy between himself and the French King, 
 should be decided by themselves in single 
 combat ; and Richard II. of England, having 
 also a controversy with Charles the King of 
 France, respecting the title to the Crown of 
 the latter, for the saving of guiltless Christian 
 blood, and to put an end to a bloody and 
 lingering war, made a like proposition. 
 Upon which Coke remarks that " these and 
 the like offers, proceeded from high courage, 
 and greatness of mind."* The unlettered 
 mind of Uncas had no knowledge of these 
 illustrious examples ; but he was moved to 
 the proposition by the same high courage and 
 greatness of soul ; and he as richly deserves 
 the meed of praise from the historian, as 
 though he had occupied the throne of the 
 Norman Conqueror, or, instead of a panther s 
 
 * In the year 667 before Christ, the Romans and Al- 
 bans, contending for superiority, agreed to choose three 
 champions, on each part, to decide it. The three 
 Horatii, Roman knights, and the three Curatii, Albans, 
 being selected by their respective countries, engaged 
 in that celebrated combat, which, by the victory of the 
 Horatii, subjected and united Alba to Rome. 
 
HIS PRIVATE CHARACTER. 155 
 
 skin, had worn the purple robes of Charle 
 magne. 
 
 The private life of Uncas was probably 
 less exemplary than could be desired, 
 though not deserving of severer condemna 
 tion than might have been awarded to his 
 race in general. Gookin denounced him as 
 a drunkard; but love of the fire-waters has 
 ever been the bane of his ill-fated people. 
 Would to heaven that the charge of intem 
 perance could be brought against great men 
 of that people only ! He has been charged 
 with tyranny against the conquered Pequods 
 living as his vassals. Other military chief 
 tains, of our own complexion^ in later and 
 more enlightened days, who have rendered 
 great services to their country, have been 
 subjected to the same accusation. But he 
 took away the wife of another. Her case 
 was not one of aggravation ; nor will I extend 
 Ihe parallel by citing cases of other military 
 chieftains, who could not plead Indian usage 
 in extenuation. Let me not, however, be 
 understood as justifying the moral delinquen 
 cies to which I refer. I mean only to assert, 
 that others besides Indians, have had their 
 
156 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 imperfections, great men, great patriots, 
 great benefactors to their country, statesmen 
 whose names will shine in the pages of his 
 tory in all time; and farther, to assert, 
 that in the application of the rules of right 
 and wrong, regard must be had to time and 
 circumstance, and the measure of light and 
 
 7 O 
 
 knowledge enjoyed by those upon whose 
 characters we are called to sit in judgment. 
 Tried by a standard thus adjusted, the histo 
 rians of Uncas have done great wrong to his 
 memory. 
 
 It has been predicated of Uncas that he 
 was a bitter enemy to Christianity ; and the 
 evidence is strong that he was such, at least 
 until a very late period of his life, and per 
 haps to the time of his death. But in this 
 respect also, great allowances are to be made 
 in regard to the Indians of New England. 
 In the first place, strange as the fact may ap 
 pear, notwithstanding the eminent piety, and 
 the burning zeal of the Puritans, the preach 
 ing of the Gospel to the Indians was not 
 thought of until many years after the com 
 mencement of the plantations, both in Mas 
 sachusetts and Connecticut. Far from this. 
 

 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 157 
 
 the poor Indians seem to have been consid 
 ered as children of AzazeP heathens past 
 hope, possibly without souls, certainly be 
 yond the reach of mercy, who, like the 
 Amalekites, were to be uprooted and extir 
 pated by the chosen people. Their spiritual 
 condition was therefore entirely neglected 
 for twenty-six years after the landing at Ply 
 mouth, until Eliot, the great apostle of the 
 Indians, <c whose benevolence," to quote the 
 words of Bancroft, " almost amounted to the 
 inspiration of genius," and whose " uncon 
 trollable charity welled out in a perpetual 
 fountain," commenced his labours of love 
 among them. This was in 1646. But there 
 
 * The Hebrew word rendered scape-goat in the re 
 ceived version of the Pentateuch. Some think it 
 denotes a horrid precipice over which the goat, on the 
 great fast of the expiation, was thrown headlong. 
 " Witsius, Coccecius, and others/ says the learned 
 John Brown, a will have it to signify Satan, to whom 
 they say this goat was abandoned in the wilderness, as 
 a type of Christ led by the Spirit into the desert, to be 
 tempted by the devil ; or led by Pilate and the Jews, to 
 have his heel bruised." Be this as it may, the Puri 
 tans, in the early days of New-England, were wont to 
 speak of Azazel, as an evil spirit. 
 14 
 
158 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 is no evidence that any attempts for the con 
 version of Uncas to Christianity were made un 
 til many long years after the first sermon of 
 Eliot to the Indians at Nonatum (Newtown). 
 The earliest notices that I have found touching 
 the feelings of Uncas in respect to Christian 
 ity, are contained in Gookin s Historical Col 
 lections of the Indians, in which he recorded 
 a missions *y visit of Eliot and himself to 
 Wabquissit, an Indian town lying north of 
 Norwich, upon the Mohegan river, four or 
 five miles within the border of Massachusetts. 
 The record of Gookin is in these words : 
 " We being at Wabquissit, at the sagamore s 
 wigwam, divers of the principal people that 
 were at home came to us, with whom we 
 spent a good part of the night in prayer, 
 singing psalms, and exhortations. There 
 was a person among them, who sitting mute 
 a great space, at last spoke to this effect : 
 That he was the agent of Uncas, Sachem of 
 Mohegan, who challenged right to, and do 
 minion over, the people of Wabquissit. And, 
 said he, Uncas is not well pleased that the 
 English should pass over Mohegan river, to 
 call the Indians to pray to God. 33 This was 
 
HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 159 
 
 in May, 1674, nearly fifty years after Uncas 
 had become acquainted with the English. 
 The second notice upon the subject is con 
 tained in a letter to Mr. Gookin, from the 
 Rev. James Fitch, the first minister in Nor 
 wich, and one of its founders. He speaks of 
 having preached to the Indians at Mohegan, 
 where Uncas and his son, and Wanuho, the 
 sachems, " at first carried themselves teacha- 
 bly and tractably." But these sachems 
 soon fell away, and exerted themselves 
 strongly against the propagation of Chris 
 tianity. This letter is dated in Novem 
 ber of the same year, and toward its close 
 Mr. Fitch says, " At this time Uncas 
 and his sons seem as if they would come on 
 again to attend upon the ministry of the 
 word of God." Still, the good minister 
 doubted his sincerity, questioning whether he 
 was not moved thereto by some sinister ob 
 jects which he indicates. 
 
 But it would seem that long before these 
 efforts were made, either in Connecticut or 
 Massachusetts, the Indians had imbibed 
 strong prejudices against the religion of the 
 colonists ; and Massasoit, the father of Phi- 
 
160 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 lip of Pokonoket, " he who had welcomed 
 the Pilgrims to the soil of New England, and 
 had opened his cabin to shelter the founder 
 of Rhode Island, had desired to insert in a 
 treaty that the English should never attempt 
 to convert the warriors of his tribe from the 
 religion of their race. * The Christian sys 
 tem was so far beyond their comprehension 
 that whenever they pondered it, their dark 
 ened minds were " in wandering mazes lost." 
 The Indians were themselves struck with the 
 long neglect of the Christians to attempt 
 their conversion. How happened it, they ask 
 ed, if Christianity is of such importance, that 
 for six and twenty years together, the Eng 
 lish had said nothing to them about it? 
 They were perplexed in their own minds at 
 the problems of the Christian Theology, and 
 as often perplexed their teachers by their 
 questions. " What is a spirit ?" said the In 
 dians of Massachusetts to their great apostle. 
 " Can the soul be enclosed in iron so that it 
 cannot escape ?" " When Christ arose, 
 whence came his soul ?" " Shall I know 
 you in heaven ?" said an inquiring red 
 
 * Bancroft s History of the United States. 
 
DARK VIEWS OF THE INDIANS 161 
 
 man. " Our little children have not sinned ; 
 when they die, whither do they go ?" " Do 
 they in Heaven dwell in houses, and what 
 do they do ?" " Do they know things done 
 here on earth ?" " Why did not God give 
 all men good hearts ?" " Since God is all- 
 powerful, why did he not kill the Devil, that 
 made men so bad ?" " Doth God know who 
 shall repent and believe, and who not?" 
 An Indian, after twelve or fourteen years 
 instruction, heard a sermon from the words 
 " Save yourselves from this untoward gener 
 ation." He remarked that in another text 
 the Bible said " We can do nothing of our 
 selves." " How," he asked, " can those be 
 reconciled?" "You say the word is the 
 sword of the Spirit by which their hearts 
 were pricked : How shall I take and use the 
 sword of the Spirit to prick my heart ?" 
 " What was the sin of Judas, or how did he 
 sin in betraying Christ, seeing it was what 
 God had appointed 1" The answer was 
 " Repent, and be baptized :" " But ye do 
 not suffer us to be baptized, therefore I fear 
 that none of the Indians sins are forgiven, 
 
 and my heart is weary with that fear, for it 
 14* 
 
162 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 is said by Matthew, whose sins ye bind on 
 earth are bound in Heaven. " " Suppose a 
 man, before he knew God," inquired a con 
 vert, " hath had two wives ; the first child 
 less, the second bearing him many sweet 
 children, whom he exceedingly loves ; which 
 of these two wives is he to put away ?" 
 " Suppose a squaw desert and flee from her 
 husband, and live with another distant Indi 
 an, till, hearing the word, she repents and 
 desires to come again to her husband, who 
 remains still unmarried ; shall the husband, 
 upon her repentance, receive her again ?"* 
 
 * This array of questions has, for the most part, been 
 taken from Bancroft, by whom they were compiled from 
 the Journal of Winthrop, the writings of Roger Wil 
 liams, of Eliot, and others. John Dunton, a bookseller 
 and copious writer, who travelled in New-England in 
 1686, speaks of having heard a minister who under 
 stood the Indian language preach upon the existence of 
 a God. The Indians appeared well satisfied with his 
 discourse, his account of the creation, &e. " When he 
 had finished, there was an Indian that addressed him 
 self to a sachem who was present, and told him that 
 spirits went up to heaven and down to hell, though our 
 fathers have informed us that they go to the south 
 west. The sachem asked him whether he had seen 
 some souls go either to heaven or hell The Indian 
 

 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 163 
 
 Many other curious questions, evincing the 
 perplexities of their minds, might be cited, 
 but these are sufficient to show the difficul 
 ties encountered by the missionaries in teach 
 ing the new religion, and by the neophytes 
 in receiving it. 
 
 In regard to the case of Uncas, there is 
 reason for doubt as to what was the exact 
 state of his mind, or the amount of his belief 
 in his latter days. It has been seen by the 
 preceding reference to the letter of Mr. Fitch, 
 that some appearances of respect to the 
 Christian ministry were manifested by him 
 in 1674. Yet, two years afterward, an event, 
 regarded as evidently providential, occurred, 
 which revived the hopes of the good minis 
 ter, as to Uncas s conviction of the truth of 
 
 answered " The minister hain t seen em, and yet he 
 affirms it." " Perhaps so," replied the sachem," but 
 he has books and writings, and one which God himself 
 made, which treats concerning men s souls ; and we 
 have none, you know, but must take all upon trust." 
 We left em discoursing matters over thus amongst 
 themselves." See also a long catalogue of curious and 
 perplexing questions put by the Indians to their teach 
 ers, as recorded by Eliot, Mass, Hist. Coll. vol. iv., third 
 series. 
 
164< LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 Christianity, if not as to his actual conver 
 sion. The incident referred to is recorded 
 by Hubbard, on the authority of Mr. Fitch 
 himself. It appears that the summer of 
 1676 was marked by a very severe drought at 
 Mohegan, and in the circumjacent country. 
 So scorching was the heat that in August 
 the corn was dried up, while the fruit and 
 leaves of the trees fell as if it were autumn. 
 Some of the trees indeed seemed to be actu 
 ally dead. The Indians felt the drought with 
 intensity, and resorted to the incantations of 
 their conjurors and medicine-men to procure 
 rain. But neither conjurations nor pow 
 wows would shake the skies, which contin 
 ued as of brass, while the earth was heated 
 like iron. In despair of their own invoca 
 tions they came to Norwich, and besought 
 Mr. Fitch to implore the blessing of rain 
 from the white man s God. Mr. Fitch ap 
 pointed a day of fasting and prayer for the 
 occasion. The day proved clear; but at 
 the close of the religious services, toward 
 night-fall, some clouds were observed to be 
 darkening the western horizon. The next 
 day being cloudy, Uncas, with a large 
 
REMARKABLE PROVIDENCE. 165 
 
 number of Indians, repaired to the house of 
 Mr. Fitch, still lamenting the want of rain. 
 " If God shall send you rain/ said the min 
 ister, " will you not attribute it to your pow 
 wows ?" " No," replied Uncas, " for we 
 have done our utmost, but all in vain." " If 
 you will declare it before all these Indians, 
 rejoined Mr. Fitch, " you shall see what God 
 will do for us;" remarking, at the same 
 time, the frequent and unfailing reception of 
 rain by the Pilgrims, in answer to fasting 
 and prayer. Uncas thereupon made a speech 
 to the Indians, confessing that if God should 
 now send them rain, it could not be ascribed 
 to their pow-wowing, but must be acknowl 
 edged to be an answer to the Englishman s 
 prayer. On that very day the clouds gath 
 ered with increasing volume and density ; 
 and on the next there was such a copious 
 rain, that their river rose more than two 
 feet in height. 
 
 The event was calculated to make a deep 
 impression upon the minds of the Indians ; 
 and Mr. Hubbard records that Uncas was so 
 wrought upon thereby that he solemnly con 
 fessed the truth of the Christian Religion, 
 
166 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 and the vanity of his own. Whether he 
 died in that belief is unknown. In the year 
 1679 Uncas and his son Oneco made a 
 grant of six hundred acres of land to the coun 
 ty, for rebuilding the jail. In 1680 the Gene 
 ral Court gave its consent that Uncas should 
 deed his lands to Oneco ; and there is an in 
 strument in existence, dated in 1682, by vir 
 tue of which some relief was granted by the 
 town of Norwich, " TO THEIR OLD FRIEND UN 
 CAS."* This is the last record of him, al 
 though tradition says he was yet living four 
 years afterward. He was, however, then a 
 very old man ; and it is a source of gratifica 
 tion to those who honor his memory in oth 
 er respects, to know that the last written 
 passage of his history contains a devout 
 acknowledgment of the Christian s God, and 
 records an act of homage to the Saviour of 
 Man. 
 
 Mohegan, the chief town of Uncas, was 
 situated in the section of country now form 
 ing the adjoining town of Montville, upon 
 the western side of the river, four miles below 
 Norwich. Upon the crest of a hill, half a mile 
 
 * See papers in the Appendix. 
 
. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF UNCAS. 167 
 
 back from the river, are the ruins of what is 
 supposed to have been his citadel. I have 
 been told that in the neighborhood of the 
 citadel, near the water s side, there is a rude 
 recess, environed by rocks, which still re 
 tains the name of u THE CHAIR OF UNCAS." 
 The position is said to be excellent as a 
 point of observation, commanding a distant 
 prospect upon the river. Here, according to 
 the traditions of the place, the chief was 
 wont to sit for hours, either for pleasure, or 
 with his eagle gaze to guard against sur 
 prise. It is also said that Leffingwell land 
 ed the supplies of which I have spoken, 
 which he brought for the chieftain s re 
 lief from Saybrook, at this point. Several 
 years ago a gifted son of song, probably 
 the lamented Brainerd, wrote a poem upon 
 the tradition of this " chair," which was 
 published in the Connecticut Mirror. The 
 following verses, quoted by Drake, are very 
 spirited and beautiful : 
 
 " The monarch sat on his rocky throne, 
 
 Before him the waters lay ; 
 His guards were shapeless columns of stone. 
 Their lofty helmets with moss o ergrown, 
 
 And their spears of the bracken gray. 
 
168 LIFE OF UNCAS. 
 
 <( His lamps were the fickle stars, that beamed 
 
 Through the veil of their midnight shroud ; 
 And the reddening flashes that fitfully gleamed 
 When the distant fires of the war-dance streamed, 
 Where his foes in frantic revel screamed, 
 Neath their canopy of cloud," &e. 
 
 In tracing the history of the man in honor 
 of whose memory we are this day assem 
 bled, we have seen that in his character were 
 mingled, with some of the vices of the sav 
 age, elements of goodness and of greatness, 
 which, had his lot been cast in another land, 
 where he would have possessed the means 
 that civilization gives of acquiring fame, 
 w r ould have ranked him among the fore 
 most of heroes at least, if not of those great 
 men whose renown far transcends the re 
 nown of heroes. In a different hemisphere ? 
 and belonging to another race, he might 
 have been at least a Turenne, a Marlborough 
 or a Wellington, if not a Gustavus, a Kosci- 
 usko or a Washington. But he was only a 
 red man; and the great powers of mind and 
 noble qualities of heart with which his Ma 
 ker had endowed him, limited in their action 
 by the narrow boundaries of savage life, 
 
CLOSING REFLECTIONS. 169 
 
 found room and occasion for such exercise 
 alone as was afforded by the petty but fero 
 cious warfare of tribe against tribe, and for 
 such cultivation only as might be serviceable 
 in the rudest condition of society, where 
 strength, and craft, and courage, are the most 
 available, and therefore the most admired 
 qualities. 
 
 l?et we must not forget that while our ad 
 miration is justly qualified by this inferior 
 manifestation of great elements, it is equally- 
 just to make every allowance for the circum 
 stances which caused that inferiority; and 
 that if we discover much of evil in the cha 
 racter and conduct of the red man, we must 
 also award him higher praise than would be 
 merited by one of our own race, for displays 
 of grandeur in mind or disposition. While 
 we shudder at his ferocity, or pity his limited 
 range of understanding and of knowledge, 
 we must also hold him in greater honor for 
 those exhibitions of generosity, of forbear 
 ance and magnanimity, which, as we have 
 seen, were by no means wanting in his ca 
 reer. And there is no derogation from the 
 
 superiority of our race in the honors that have 
 lo 
 
170 LIFE OF UK CAS. 
 
 been this day paid to the memory and fame 
 of a red chief and warrior. He was a great 
 man, not only among his people, but among 
 the sons of men. Wise in council, brave in 
 battle, prudent as a ruler, his were the quali 
 ties which command admiration in all time 
 and from all people ; qualities which a man 
 honors himself by respecting, and to which 
 woman willingly pays the higher tribute of 
 her admiration. I read it in the sparkling 
 eyes and pleased expression of the lovely 
 faces by which I am surrounded ; and I will 
 venture to repeat, too, that the memory of 
 Uncas has a peculiar claim upon the fair 
 daughters of Norwich; for, as we have 
 seen, it was by his generosity and good faith 
 that, in its infancy, their native place was 
 saved from rapine and destruction. Perhaps 
 there are, among those whom I have now the 
 honor of addressing, some descendants of 
 Fitch, and Mason, and Leffingwell ; and if 
 any such are here, they must surely behold 
 with peculiar satisfaction this late but richly 
 merited award of honors to the name of one 
 in whom their ancestors found so true a friend, 
 so faithful a protector. 
 
CLOSING REFLECTIONS. 171 
 
 With what emotions, then, might the spirit 
 of Uncas be supposed to look upon this scene, 
 if we could imagine it now hovering around 
 the spot where the body it once animated was 
 laid down for its last and long repose ! The 
 spirit of the red man had beheld with anguish 
 the gradual extinction of his race, the occu 
 pation of his forests and his broad hunting- 
 grounds by the dwellings of the pale faces, 
 the triumph of that civilization which he ab 
 horred, over the wide domain which once 
 owned him for its lord : but the spirit of the 
 hero would rejoice in knowing that his great 
 ness was recognised and honored, and in see 
 ing his renown perpetuated, even by the hated 
 and dreaded white man, in whose advance 
 w r as written the destiny of the Indian to perish. 
 
 And we may imagine, too, that the shades 
 of the extinguished tribes, who once roamed 
 in freedom and dominion over this whole re 
 gion, are gathered round us at this moment, 
 in dim but close array, watching with eager 
 curiosity the proceedings in which we are en 
 gaged. The scowl of hatred is on their dusky 
 brows ; the fire of revenge is gleaming in 
 their fixed and angry eyes; the sense of in- 
 
172 LIFE OF UNO AS. 
 
 jury and wrong is burning in their vindictive 
 hearts; but, mingled with these dark pas 
 sions there is a grim delight in the honors 
 paid to a great man of their race; and as 
 they gaze upon the stone that bears the name 
 of UNCAS, they feel as if they could almost 
 forgive the detested pale-faces, who so well 
 know how to appreciate and exalt the noble 
 qualities of their brother. 
 
 One only stands aloof, with a deeper scowl 
 upon his brow, and a more malignant expres 
 sion in his half averted eyes. It is Mianton- 
 omoh, the rival and the enemy of Uncas the 
 victim of his justice. Even in the world of 
 spirits the sense of defeat is rankling at his 
 heart, and a keener pang is added to all that 
 he has endured, in the knowledge that the 
 granite which the white man rears is a tribute 
 to the fame of Miantonomoh s Conqueror ; 
 that it tells the glory of him, before whose 
 better fortune the star of Miantonomoh paled 
 that it .bears the name of UNCAS. . 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 15* 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 OF THE NEW-ENGLAND INDIANS IN 
 GENERAL. 
 
 ACCORDING to Doctor Jonathan Edwards, the dis 
 tinguished President of Union College, and son 
 of the yet more distinguished metaphysician of 
 that name, the term Mohegan was a corruption, by 
 the Anglo-Americans, of Muh-he-ka-neew, the true 
 name of the aborigines to whom it was applied, 
 the plural of which is Muh-he-ka-neok. Doctor 
 Edwards, shortly before his death, an event which 
 occurred in the year 1801, wrote a valuable trea 
 tise upon the Muh-he-ka-neew language, for 
 which he was well qualified by his early training. 
 Mr. Heckewelder asserts the true name of the 
 Mohegans to be Mahicanna. The Dutch called 
 them Mahickanders : the English, Mohiccons, Mo- 
 huccans, Muhhekaneew, Schaticooks, River-Indians. 
 The various clans of these Indians, or rather the 
 fragments of the Mohegans, Narragan setts, &c. 
 &c. were collected together at Stockbridge, in 
 the year 1736, under the care of the Rev. John 
 Sargeant, their former laborious and faithful mis- 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 sitinary. While his father was residing at Stock- 
 bridge, as a missionary to the Muhhekaneok thus 
 gathered there, young Edwards, a child, was 
 at school with the Indian children; and so inti 
 mate was his association with them, that he ac 
 quired their language with greater accuracy and 
 freedom than his own. He thought in Indian, 
 and spoke in Indian. His father having de 
 signed him for a missionary to the aboriginals, he 
 was sent to a settlement of the Six Nations upon 
 the Susquehanna, to acquire their language, which 
 he did. Becoming in subsequent years a thorough 
 classical scholar, he was abundantly qualified to 
 write the treatise upon Indian languages with 
 which, a few years before his decease, in the very 
 prime of his life, he favored the world. 
 
 With us, the history of the Muhhekaneok, or 
 Mohegans, commences with the life and exploits 
 of Uncas, as written in the preceding discourse. 
 
 It was an observation of the early American 
 writers (says the Editor of the tenth volume of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Collections), that there 
 was but one principal Indian language through 
 out all New-England, and even in territories beyond 
 it. This observation is believed to be in accord 
 ance with the opinions of the later writers, who 
 have taken a more extended view of the various 
 dialects than was practicable at the first settle 
 ment of the country. In support of this fact, refer 
 ence has been made to the opinions of the Rev. Dr. 
 Edwards, and to the Rev. Mr. Heckewelder; both 
 
APPENDIX, 177 
 
 of whom have expressed their agreement in the 
 facts as stated by the old writers, and only differed 
 from each other in this circumstance, that each of 
 them considered the particular dialect with which 
 he happened to he most familiar, as the principal 
 standard or language, and the rest as branches or 
 dialects of it. Dr. Edwards, therefore, spoke of the 
 Mohegan as the principal or fundamental language 
 spoken by all the Indians of New-England; while 
 Mr. Heckewelder, on the other hand, considered 
 the Delaware (more properly the Lenni Lenape, 
 or, according to the earlier writers, the Lene 
 Lenoppes,) as the common stock of the same dia 
 lects ; observing that this is the most widely ex 
 tended language of any of those that are spoken on 
 this side of the Mississippi. It prevails, he adds 
 in the extensive regions of Canada, from the coast 
 of Labrador to the mouth of Albany River, 
 which falls into the farthermost part of Hudson s 
 Bay, and thence to the Lake of the Woods, 
 which forms the Northwestern boundary of the 
 United States. It appears to be the language of 
 all the Indians of that extensive country, except 
 those of the Iroquois stock, which are by far the 
 least numerous.* 
 
 Of course every tribe or nation, as for example, 
 the Pequods, Narragansetts, Pokanokets, the Farm- 
 
 * Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. x,, second series copied in 
 part, however, from the very language of Hecke 
 welder. 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 ington Indians, &c. &c., had their different dialects; 
 but the language of all was radically the same. 
 So also the language of the Dela wares, and all 
 their kindred tribes south to the country of the 
 Choctaws, and west to the Mississippi, and north 
 west to the Chippewas beyond lake Huron, 
 the Ottawas, Messisaugas, the Algonquins, Win- 
 nebagoes, &c. &c. of the same root. The parent 
 stock of all, however, is held, by modern investiga 
 tors, as I have already remarked, not to have been 
 the Mohegan, but the Delaware, which people, 
 if the traditions of the Indians are to be received, 
 originally came from the West, and spread them 
 selves over the whole country from the Mississippi 
 to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence.* Of all the dia 
 lects, when Edwards wrote, the Chippewa was 
 held by the Indians to be the most perfect and 
 elegant, and was indeed the court language 
 among v all the nations, tribes and subdivisions, 
 spreading over the vast territory which the Indians 
 held to have been peopled by the Lenni Lenape, 
 as the French language is in Europe. The Stock- 
 bridge Indians, as already stated, are in fact Muh- 
 
 * Heckewelder expresses this opinion ; and Mr. 
 Sargeant, a descendant of the ancient missionary to 
 this people, who has himself been much in the Indian, 
 service, in a conversation with the author a few years 
 ago, avowed his concurrence in the theory of the learn 
 ed Moravian, making the Delawares the parent peo 
 ple, and their language of course the parent stock. 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 he-ka-neew, their community having been remo 
 deled, for the most part, from various tribes of the 
 New-England Indians, fleeing before the Anglo- 
 Saxons, and brought together, like the remnants of 
 what are called " The Seven Nations on the Sea- 
 Coast," known at a later day in the State of New- 
 York as the Brotherton Indians, by a common 
 cause, if not calamity. The Choctaw language 
 was totally different from the Mohegan; and the 
 language of the Six Nations, radically different, 
 from either and all. North of the Choctaws* 
 after full investigation, Dr. Edwards held that 
 there were in all North America but two original 
 languages " The Mohegan and that of the Six 
 Nations." Heckewelder, Du Ponceau, and Mr. 
 Gallatin, believing the Lenni Lenape to be the 
 primitive, would of course classify the Mohegan 
 as a derivative branch. 
 
 OF THE NAHANTICS. 
 
 It cannot be expected of me, in the few addenda 
 which I propose making to the preceding discourse, 
 to give a particular history of the Mohegans, or of 
 the Narragansetts and Nahantics, subsequent to 
 the death of the first Uncas. Indeed, this prince 
 in fact all but outlived his mortal enemies as a na 
 tion ;* for, having joined in Philip s war against 
 the colonies, but about two hundred of the Narra- 
 gansett warriors survived that conflict. The Na- 
 
 * " He is alive and well, and may probably live to 
 see all his enemies buried before him." Hubbard 
 1680. 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 hantics, a powerful branch of the Narragansetts, 
 wisely kept aloof from that war, and were not 
 molested. Indeed, after the death of Philip, and 
 the close of the war, the Narragansetts that re 
 mained by degrees merged themselves with the 
 Nahantics, and by their own name were in a meas 
 ure lost; while the Nahantics themselves continued 
 a considerable tribe, governed by the descendants 
 of Ninigret, bearing the same name, for three 
 quarters of a century after the death of Uncas. It 
 was rather remarkable that notwithstanding the 
 relationship between the Nahantics and Narragan 
 setts, and notwithstanding also that Ninigret and 
 Miantonomoh were near relatives, the Nahantics 
 seem rarely to have been involved in the Narragan- 
 sett war with the Mohegans ; while on the other 
 hand Uncas was once at least in alliance with 
 Ninigret in a war against the Indians of Long 
 Island. 
 
 This Ninigret died soon after Philip s war, at an 
 advanced age. By one wife he had a daughter, 
 and by another a son, named Ninigret, and two 
 daughters. On the death of old Ninigret, the first 
 mentioned daughter succeeded to the sachemdom, 
 and was inaugurated with all the pomp and cere 
 mony of which the Indians were masters. On her 
 death she was succeeded by her half brother, Ni 
 nigret, who, in 1709, according to documents I 
 have discovered among the Johnson manuscripts, 
 made a grant of a large portion of the lands of his 
 people to the colony of Rhode Island which grant 
 
APPENDIX. 181 
 
 gave great, trouble to the Indians fifty years after 
 ward. This chief died about the year 1722, leav 
 ing two sons, Charles Augustus and George. The 
 former succeeded to the government ; but dying soon, 
 left an infant son 7 who was acknowledged sachem 
 by a portion of the tribe, while another and greater 
 portion adhered to George, his uncle, as being of 
 the pure royal blood. The dispute was encouraged 
 by the white people, who wished to obtain more of 
 their lands, and was ended only by the death of 
 the young chief, when the usurping uncle was 
 acknowledged by all, about the year 1735. He 
 dying, left three children, Thomas, George, and 
 Esther. Thomas succeeded to the " throne " in 
 1746, being ten years old, It was during his sway 
 that the troubles already referred to arose in regard 
 to their lands. This Thomas Ninigret made 
 farther sales of the Nahantic lands to Rhode Island, 
 which act gave great dissatisfaction to a portion of 
 his people. The malcontents proceeded to depose 
 him ; yet, according to the documents forwarded 
 to Sir William Johnson, to whom, as General Su 
 perintendent of the Indians, an appeal was made 
 in 1763, a majority of the tribe adhered to the sa 
 chem.* His opponents denied that he was their 
 
 * A memorial against Thomas Ninigret and his pro 
 ceedings, which I have found among the Johnson pa 
 pers, contains the names of fifty-five persons. The 
 counter-memorial, sustaining Ninigret, contains one 
 hundred and fifty-two. Another document among these 
 16 
 
182 APPENDIX. 
 
 legitimate ruler ; in reply to which the memorial 
 to Sir William sets forth " that he was not only 
 the legal heir according to the course of descents, 
 but as one who had the voice of the tribe upon the 
 decease of his father." The rnemorialists against 
 the sachem set forth that the lands he had sold 
 were necessary for the support of the wives and 
 children of many who had lost their lives in the 
 king s service in the late war (the old French war 
 of 1754 1761.) In one of their letters to Sir 
 William, in answer to an objection that had been 
 stated, that the Indians had no power to depose a 
 sachem, they say : " It has always been a custom 
 among us Indians to crown our sachem upon con 
 dition of his strictly bearing to the good of the 
 nation, and the advice of his friends; and by break 
 ing any of the laws or customs of the nation, he 
 forfeits his saehemship. In former times sachems 
 have been deposed for breaking the laws and cus 
 toms of the nation ; and we have gone according 
 to the laws and customs of our nation in dethroning 
 this our sachem. As it was in the power of the 
 nation to put him in, we think it is in the power of 
 the same to turn him out." The controversy was 
 continued, and also the correspondence with Sir 
 William, for several years ; but the baronet, though 
 evidently inclining to the side of the sachem, con- 
 papers, is a curious letter addressed to " Mr. Ninigrett," 
 informing him of his deposition, and setting forth the 
 reasons for the act. This paper has the names of one 
 hundred and fifty-six persons. 
 
APPENDIX. 183 
 
 tinually declined to interfere ; and the Rhode 
 Islanders ultimately obtained the lands. This 
 Ninigret must have been a man of considerable 
 means. In one of his letters to Sir William, in 
 which he certainly made a good case for himself, 
 he speaks of having paid the sum of five hundred 
 pounds sterling to a subordinate chief, when going 
 to the war, for the quit-claim of his land. This 
 money was intended for the support of the war 
 rior s mother in the event of his fall. The Indians, 
 many of them, greatly dissatisfied and discouraged, 
 (according to Potter), emigrated to New York- 
 Ninigret, dying, left a son, also named George, who 
 was killed by the fall of a tree, about two years 
 afterward. But little impression was ever made 
 upon the Narragansetts or Nahantics by the efforts 
 of their Christian teachers, from Roger Williams 
 down. Williams spoke with discouragement upon 
 the subject. When Mayhew requested Ninigret 
 to allow him to preach to his people, the chief bade 
 him " Go and make the English good first." A 
 small remnant of the Nahantics were living in 
 Rhode Island in 1812. 
 
 OF THE MOHEGANS. 
 
 In regard to the Mohegans, although never en 
 gaged in war against the Anglo-Saxons, they, too, 
 in obedience to what seems to be the design of an 
 inscrutable Providence, dooming the entire race to 
 annihilation, have dwindled away to a mere hand- 
 
.184 APPENDIX. 
 
 ful of souls, the wreck of what they must once 
 have been. We have no data by which to com 
 pute what was even their probable strength in the 
 days of Uncas. At the time of his battle with 
 Miantonomoh, he had with him in the field between 
 four and five hundred warriors. From this fact, 
 the writer of a memoir in the Massachusetts Histo 
 rical Collections, assuming the proportion of war 
 riors to the whole number of the people as three to 
 ten, makes the whole number of the Mohegan po 
 pulation from 1500 to 1700 souls. But that cannot 
 be a just computation. It must be remembered 
 that Uncas was summoned to the war-path on a 
 sudden, and had time to collect only the warriors 
 immediately about him Mohegans proper, in the 
 chief town. He had. at that time, many subordi 
 nate sachems under him. But whatever might 
 have been their entire numbers then, as has uni 
 formly been the case with the Indians brought into 
 contact with the white man, the Mohegans have 
 dwindled rapidly away. 
 
 Very early in the last century they were involved 
 in difficulties with the Colonial government, in re 
 gard to their lands, and appeals were made by them 
 to the king for redress. il After the death of 
 Uncas," says the Rev. Samuel Peters, " his eldest 
 son, Oneco, became king of Mohegan, who refused 
 to grant any deeds of lands to the colony; where 
 upon, vexed at his wisdom and honor, they declar 
 ed him an incestuous son, deposed him, and pro- 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 claimed his natural brother, Abimelech, to be Sa 
 chem of the Mohegans." I have seen no other 
 authority for this statement ; and the unsupported 
 testimony of this reverend historian is not to be re 
 ceived. Nevertheless, there is abundant evidence 
 that difficulties respecting their lands did arise dur 
 ing the Sachemship of Oneco, which were not ad 
 justed until many years afterward. It appears 
 that in 1704 Oneco claimed certain lands, his title 
 to which was contested. " The Masons, and 
 others, on this occasion, preferred a complaint to 
 Queen Anne, in favor of the Indians. The Masons 
 claimed the lands purchased by their ancestor, the 
 hero of the Pequod war, in virtue of a deed given 
 to him by Uncas in 1659, while he acted as agent 
 of the colony, and denied the legality of his surren 
 der of them to the colony, in the General Assembly, 
 the next year. They insisted that it respected 
 nothing more than the right of jurisdiction, and that 
 the title to the soil was vested in their family as 
 guardians or overseers of the Mohegans."* The 
 case was kept in agitation nearly seventy years, 
 toward the close of which period the Indians ap 
 pealed to Sir William Johnson for his assistance. 
 Colonel Joseph Tracy, a descendant of one of the 
 original planters of Norwich, wrote a history of the 
 nature and origin of the dispute to Sir William 
 too complicated in its details to be easily under 
 stood. The result, after several missions to Eng- 
 
 * Memoir Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. ix. 
 16* 
 
186 APPENDIX. 
 
 land, was, that the case was decided by the King 
 in Council, just before the war of the revolution, 
 against the Indians. Their lands were therefore 
 gradually narrowed down to about two thousand 
 eight hundred acres. In 1705 the Mohegans are 
 said to have " consisted of a hundred and fifty war 
 riors, one hundred of whom had been in the actual 
 service of the country that very year." 4 It also ap 
 pears that there was about the same number of 
 fighting men in 1725. f In the year 1774 there 
 were one thousand three hundred and sixty-three 
 Indians within the colony of Connecticut, eight 
 hundred and forty-two of whom were within the 
 county of New London. How many of them were 
 Mohegans does not appear. Probably, however, 
 the greater number of them were such, the residue 
 consisting of Nahantics and Pequods. 
 
 Until the year 1790 their lands were held in 
 common by the remains of the nation ; but in that 
 year they were divided by the legislature to each 
 family, upon a principle of equity. A comfortable 
 school-house was, at the same time, directed to be 
 built by the legislature. The richest man of the 
 tribe, at that time, was John Cooper, who possessed 
 a yoke of oxen and two cows. He was, moreover, 
 their religious teacher. There were then " not more 
 than eighty persons of the tribe remaining; and 
 with all their advantages of improvement in agri 
 culture and other useful knowledge, they were 
 
 * Trumbull. f Dr. Stiles s Itinerary. 
 
APPENDIX. 187 
 
 then still distinguished by the characteristic indo 
 lence, intemperance, and improvidence of Indians."* 
 In the year 1799 a census of all the Mohegan fami 
 lies was taken, and their number was eighty-four 
 persons. I was informed by one of them on the 
 5th of July, 1842, that their present number is be 
 tween seventy and eighty ; but a recent publication 
 in Norwich states that the number of families now 
 remaining is only thirteen, numbering between six 
 ty and seventy individuals. Their social condition, 
 moreover, has been greatly improved within the last 
 thirty years. They all reside in comfortable dwell 
 ings, and some of the families appear to be in a 
 good condition for small farmers. The oldest per 
 son now living in the tribe is John Uncas, a Revo 
 lutionary pensioner, supposed to be between eighty 
 and ninety. Their secular affairs are managed by 
 an agent appointed by the county court, to whom 
 he is accountable for a just distribution of the avails 
 of their lands. The royal blood is not extinct, and 
 they have yet among them a female of the ancient 
 regeime, whom they call their Queen. 
 
 " Although," says Mr. Holmes, in the memoir al 
 ready cited, " several tribes of Indians in the colo 
 nies of Plymouth and Massachusetts had attended 
 to the gospel, and a number of churches had been 
 gathered and maintained among them for nearly a 
 century, yet a very small impression was made 
 
 * Letter and Memoir of A. Holmes, Mass. Hist. Coll. 
 vol. ix. First Series. 
 
188 APPENDIX. 
 
 upon the Mohegans until about the year 1799; 
 though great pains had before been taken to win 
 them to the gospel." The zealous but erratic Mr. 
 Davenport at that time directed his zeal toward 
 their conversion ; and the pains which he took " to 
 incline them to receive instruction" are said to have 
 been eminently blessed. To the converts gained at 
 this time it is supposed Trumbull refers when 
 he says, " some few of the Mohegans have 
 professed Christianity, and been admitted to full 
 communion in the North Church in New-London." 
 It was about the period referred to above by 
 Holmes and Trumbuli, that the celebrated Indian 
 missionary, Samson Occum, began his religious 
 teaching among them. He was a Mohegan him 
 self, born about the year 1723. His parents, like 
 the other Indians, led a wandering life, depend 
 ing chiefly upon hunting and fishing for sub 
 sistence. Not one of them cultivated the land, 
 and all dwelt in wigwams. None of them could 
 read when Occum was a boy. Mr. Jewett, 
 the minister of New-London, was accustomed 
 to preach once a fortnight at Mohegan. One 
 man went among the Indians to teach them to 
 read. During the religious excitement about 
 1739 and 1740, several ministers visited these 
 Indians, and persuaded them to repair to the 
 neighboring churches. Occum at this period 
 became the subject of religious impressions, and 
 was in distress of mind for six months. He then 
 
APPENDIX. 189 
 
 found consolation. From this time he was desir 
 ous of becoming the teacher of his tribe. He could 
 read ly spelling, and in a year or two learned to 
 read the Bible. At the age of 19 he went to the 
 Indian school of Mr. Wheelock of Lebanon, and 
 remained with him four years. He afterward, 
 in 1748, kept a school in New-London; but soon 
 went to Montauk, on Long Island, where he taught 
 a school among the Indians ten or eleven years, at 
 the same time being a religious teacher of the In 
 dians in their own language, and preaching also to 
 the Skenecock or Yenecock Indians, distant thirty 
 miles. During a revival among the Montauks many 
 became Christians. He lived in a house covered with 
 mats, changing his abode twice a year, to be near 
 the planting ground in the summer and the wood 
 in the winter. Among his various toils for sub 
 sistence, he was expert with his fish-hook and 
 gun ; he bound old books for the East Hampton 
 people, made wooden spoons, stocked guns, and 
 made cedar pails, piggins and churns. He was 
 ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery, August 29, 
 1759, and was from this time a regular member of 
 the Presbytery. 
 
 In 1766 Mr. Wheelock sent him to England with 
 Mr. Whitaker, the minister of Norwich, to pro 
 mote the interests of Moor s Indian charity-school. 
 He was the first Indian preacher who visited Eng 
 land. The houses in which he preached were 
 thronged. Between Feb. 16, 1766, and July 22, 
 1767, he preached, in various parts of the kingdom, 
 
190 APPENDIX* 
 
 between 300 and 400 sermons. At the solicitation 
 of the Earl of Dartmouth, the king made a dona 
 tion of about $1000; and in a short time there was 
 collected, in England and Scotland, about $50,000, 
 for the support and enlargement of the Indian 
 School ; and it was soon transplanted to Hanover, 
 N. H., and connected with the Dartmouth College. 
 After his return Occum sometimes resided at 
 Mohegan, and was often employed in missionary 
 labors among distant Indians. In 1786 he removed 
 to Brotherton, in the Oneida country, some twenty- 
 five miles from their principal castle. The Bro 
 therton Indians were, like the Stockbridge, a mix 
 ed community, made up of the Muhhekeneok, of 
 various clans, but chiefly from Mohegan, and from 
 Long Island. This Brotherton clan was located in. 
 the immediate neighbourhood of those from Stock- 
 bridge, to whom the Oneidas had previously as 
 signed " seats " in their country. These last had 
 previously been under the instruction of Mr. Ed 
 wards and Mr. Sargeant. Mr. Occum was accom 
 panied by a number of the Mohegans ; and other 
 Indians of Connecticut, Long Island, and Rhode 
 Island, removed about the same time. In the last 
 years of his life he resided with the Indians at New 
 Stockbridge, where he did in 1792, aged 69. The 
 funeral sermon on the occasion was preached by 
 the so-long famous missionary among the Six Na 
 tions, the Rev. Samuel Kirkland. Upward of 300 
 Indians attended his funeral. The flattering atten 
 tions which he received in England might have 
 
APPENDIX. 191 
 
 awakened some emotions of pride, and occasioned 
 some discontent with his previous narrow circum 
 stances. In a few instances he was betrayed into 
 excess and intemperance ; but then he humbled 
 himself and reformed. He did not, like many 
 white men, destroy himself with strong drink. Dr. 
 Dwight says, "I heard Mr. Occum twice, His 
 discourses, though not proofs of superior talents, 
 were decent, and his utterance, in some degree, 
 eloquent. His character, at times, labored under 
 some imputations. Yet there is good reason to be 
 lieve that most, if not all of them, were unfounded ; 
 and there is satisfactory evidence that he was a 
 man of piety." * 
 
 Another Mohegan Indian, whose talents, life, 
 and character were an honor to his race, was Jo 
 seph Johnson, who was born at Mohegan about 
 1750. He was the son of Capt. Joseph Johnson, 
 who served near Lake George in the French war 
 of 1757, and who was a man cf piety. After being 
 educated at Mr. Wheelock s school, at Lebanon, 
 he was sent, at the age of fifteen, as a schoolmas 
 ter, to the Six Nations of Indians in New York, and 
 was thus employed two years. Afterward u he 
 wandered up and down in this delusive world." 
 Returning from a whaling voyage, in 1771, he re 
 paired to his farm at Mohegan, and there, in a time 
 of sickness brought on by his vices, became a Chris- 
 
 * This account of Occum is chiefly from Allen s Bio 
 graphy. 
 
192 APPENDIX. 
 
 tian convert by reading the New Testament and 
 Baxter s Saints Rest. It would seem, from his 
 journal, which is still preserved, that he experi 
 enced the deepest conviction of sin. Afterward 
 he was licensed to preach, and was for years a 
 missionary in the State of New York. Being among 
 the Six Nations in 1776, he received a letter from 
 Washington, dated at Cambridge, Feb. 20th, say 
 ing, " Tell them that we don t want them to take 
 up the hatchet for us, except they choose it ; we 
 only desire that they will not fight against us. 
 We want that the chain of friendship should al 
 ways remain bright between our friends of the Six 
 Nations and us, We recommend you to them, 
 and hope, by your spreading the truths of the gos 
 pel among them, it will keep the chain bright. 
 His manuscript journal and sermons display his 
 talents and acquaintance with theology.* He was, 
 if I mistake not, son-in-law to Occum ; and some 
 of his love-letters curious specimens of an ama 
 tory correspondence are yet in existence. 
 
 Yet another name is worthy of preservation in 
 this connection, Lucy Tantequiggen,f an Indian, 
 the widow of John T., who died at Mohegan, in 
 June, 1830, aged 97. She was the sister of Sam- 
 
 * Allen s Biography. 
 
 t This is the orthography of Allen s Biography ; but 
 in a manuscript among the Johnson papers, written, be 
 yond doubt, by Samson Occum himself, the name of her 
 husband is written John Tantuiquechen." 
 
APPENDIX. 193 
 
 son Occum, and a descendant, by her mother, from 
 Uncas. She was regarded as a pious woman ; in 
 her last days she expressed her willingness to die, 
 that " she might go where she should sin no 
 more." In more modern times, until after the 
 death of Lucy Tantequiggen, but little systema 
 tic effort had been made for the religious and so 
 cial improvement of their Indians. After her 
 death, a Sunday School was opened in her house, 
 where three or four generations of her descen 
 dants lived ; and this commencement of benevo 
 lent effort in behalf of a once powerful race, has 
 been " perseveringly continued among them, by 
 one whose name is now extensively known and 
 honored, but is nowhere regarded with more per 
 fect veneration, than in this scene of her early mis 
 sionary labors. I refer to Sarah L. Huntington, 
 afterward known as Mrs. Smith, of the Syria mis 
 sion. She was indefatigable in her personal la 
 bors among the Mohegans, and in her well-judged 
 efforts to obtain aid for them from abroad. 
 Through her instrumentality, a church and school 
 house were built by the liberality of individuals ; 
 the eloquent appeals from her pen obtained from 
 the Domestic Missionary Society of Connecticut 
 aid in support of a minister ; and a share in the ap 
 propriations of the general Government for the in 
 struction of the Indians, was secured for the main 
 tenance of a school among them. 
 
 The settlement of Rev. Anson Gleasori, former" 
 ly of the Choctaw mission, as their present pastor 
 17 
 
194? APPENDIX. 
 
 and teacher, with a female assistant, has proved 
 an epoch in Mohegan history. At that time, one 
 aged woman had been for years the only professor 
 of religion in their settlement. Now the church 
 numbers more than sixty native and white mem 
 bers. Industry and sobriety, those virtues so hard 
 to engraft upon an Indian stock, are putting forth 
 fruits and buds of promise. About twenty chil 
 dren are under daily instruction. 
 
 INSCRIPTIONS UPON THE HEAD STONES IN THE 
 UNCAS BURYING GROUND. 
 
 Among the inscriptions upon the grave-stones 
 in the Uncas Burying Ground, the following have 
 been preserved : 
 
 Here lies the body of Sunseeto, 
 
 Own son to Uncas, grandson to Oneco. 
 
 Who were the famous Sachems of Mohegan, 
 
 But now they are all dead, I think it is Weerheegan.* 
 
 The next in date is the inscription of a contem 
 porary, and probably a brother of the preceding ; It 
 will be seen that the term " weerheegan" is here 
 repeated in a sense somewhat different from the 
 translation of President Stiles. 
 
 " Here lies Sam Uncas, the second and beloved 
 son of his father, John Uncas, who was the grand- 
 
 * The meaning of this word, according to Doctor 
 Stiles, is All is well," or " Good news." 
 
APPENDIX. 195 
 
 son of Uncas Grand Sachem. He died July 31st, 
 1741, in the 28 year of his age. 
 
 For beauty, wit for sterling sense, 
 
 For temper mild, for eloquence, 
 
 For courage bold, for things waureegan, 
 
 He was the glory of Mohegan 
 
 Whose death hath caused great lamentation, 
 
 Both to y e English and y 9 Indian nation." 
 
 This epithaph is said to have been written by 
 Colonel, or Doctor Joseph Tracy, to whom I have 
 already had occasion to refer. A writer in Barber s 
 Historical Collections, says Weerheegan signifies 
 costly clothes or household furniture. 
 
 In his letter to Sir William Johnson, heretofore 
 quoted, Mr. Tracy speaks of Benjamin Uncas, as 
 a Sachem of doubtful right to the succession. 
 That is, it appears the Indians were not disposed 
 to acknowledge him ; and the white people, in the 
 course of the land disputes heretofore noticed, 
 threatened to bring the Mohawks upon them, and 
 destroy them, unless they received the said Ben 
 jamin Uncas as their Sachem. The Mohegans 
 were alarmed at the threat, and commenced build 
 ing a fort for their defence, until, finding that the 
 threat was idle, they desisted from their work, 
 It is probable that Benjamin succeeded in his am 
 bitious designs. At least I judge so from the next 
 inscriptions : 
 
196 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Here lies y c body of Pompi Uncas, son of Benja 
 min and Ann Uncas, and of y e royal blood, who 
 died May y e 1, 1740, in y c 21 year of his age. 
 
 Here lies the body of {wo infant children of Ben 
 jamin Uncas, Ivn., and Ann Uncas, of royal blood 
 died November y e 8, 1738, y e other December 
 the 10th, 1741. 
 
 In memory of young Seasar Jonus, who died 
 April 30, 1749, in the 28 year of his age. And he 
 was couzin to Uncas. 
 
 In memory of Elizabeth Joquib, the daughter of 
 Mohomet, great grand-children to y e first Uncas, 
 Sachem of Mohegan, who died July the 3, 1756, 
 aged 33. 
 
 In memory of Elizabeth Begneck, great grand 
 child of Uncas Sachem of Mohegan, who died Oc 
 tober 20, A. D. 1761, aged 14 years. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. John Lathrop, of Boston, about the 
 beginning of the present century, gave Dr. Holmes, 
 the Annalist, some information respecting Jacob 
 Uncas, who had been his, (Lathrop s) pupil while 
 he was an assistant in Dr. Wheelock s Indian Chari 
 ty School, at Lebanon. The Doctor said he was a 
 fat fellow, of dull intellectual parts, as was his 
 father before him, whom also the Doctor well re 
 membered. 
 
 The following interesting account of another of 
 the Uncas family, is from the Auto-biography of 
 the veneral Colonel John Trumbull, published in 
 1841: 
 
 " About the year 1776 a circumstance occurred, 
 which deserves to be written on adamant. In the 
 wars of New-England with the Aborigines, the 
 Mohegan tribe of Indians early became the friends 
 of the English. Their favorite ground was on the 
 
APPENDIX. 197 
 
 banks of the river (now the Thames,) between 
 New London and Norwich. A small remnant of 
 theMohegans still exist, and they are sacredly pro 
 tected in the pessession of their favorite domain on 
 the banks of the Thames. The government of 
 this tribe had become hereditary in the family of 
 the celebrated Uncas. During the time of my 
 father s mercantile prosperity, he had employed 
 several Indians of this tribe in hunting animals, 
 whose skins were valuable for their fur. Among 
 these hunters was one named Zachary, of the royal 
 race, an excellent hunter, but as drunken and 
 worthless an Indian as ever lived. When he had 
 somewhere passed the age of fifty, several mem 
 bers of the royal family who stood between Zacha 
 ry and the throne of his tribe, died, and he found 
 himself with only one life between him and the 
 empire. In this moment his better genius resumed 
 its sway, and he reflected seriously. u How can 
 such a drunken wretch as I am aspire to to be the 
 chief of this honorable race? What will my peo 
 ple say ? and how will the shades of my noble an 
 cestors look down indignant upon such a base suc 
 cessor ? Can I succeed to the great Uncas ? I will 
 drink no more !" He solemnly resolved never again 
 to taste any drink but water, and he kept his resolu 
 tion. 
 
 I had heard this story and did not entirely be 
 lieve it ; for young as I was, I already partook in 
 the prevailing contempt for Indians. In the be 
 ginning of May, the annual election of the principal 
 officers of the (then) colony was held at Hartford, 
 the capital. My father attended officially, and it 
 was customary for the chief of the Mohegans also 
 to attend. Zachary had succeeded to the rule of 
 his tribe. My father s house was situated about 
 midway on the road between Mohegan and Hart 
 ford, and the old chief was in the habit of coming 
 17* 
 
198 APPENDIX. 
 
 a few days before the election, and dining with his 
 brother governor. One day the mischievous thought 
 struck me, to try the sincerity of the old man s 
 temperance. The family were seated at dinner, 
 and there was excellent home-brewed beer on the 
 table. I addressed the old chief " Zachary, this 
 beer is excellent; will you taste it?" The old 
 man dropped his knife and fork leaned forward 
 with a stern intensity of expression; his black eye 
 sparkling with indignation was fixed fipon me. 
 "John," said he, "you do not know what you are 
 doing. You are serving the devil, boy ! Do you 
 know that I am an Indian ? I tell you that I am, 
 and that, if I should but taste your beer, I could 
 not stop until I got to rum, and become again the 
 drunken, contemptible wretch your father remem 
 bers me to have been. John, while you live, 
 never again tempt any man to break a good resolu 
 tion." 
 
 Socrates never uttered a more valuable precept. 
 Demosthenes could not have given it in more 
 solemn tones of eloquence. I was thunderstruck. 
 My parents were deeply affected. They looked at 
 each other, at me, and at the venerable old Indian, 
 with deep feelings of awe and respect. They af 
 terwards frequently reminded me of the scene, and 
 charged me never to forget it Zachary lived to 
 pass the age of eighty, and sacredly kept his res 
 olution. He lies buried in the royal burial place 
 of his tribe, near the beautiful falls of the Yantic, 
 the western branch of the Thames, in Norwich, on 
 land now occupied by my friend, Calvin Goddard, 
 Esq. I visited the grave of the old chief lately, 
 and repeated to myself his inestimable lesson." 
 
 Two other members of the family, Noah and 
 John Uncas, are spoken of by Allen as living in 
 1800, but I have heard nothing of their career. In 
 
APPENDIX. 199 
 
 1826, a descendant of Uncas, named Ezekiel 
 Mazeon, aged twenty-seven, was buried in the royal 
 burying ground. The funeral was attended by the 
 Rev. William Palmer, who made a short and ap 
 propriate address to the remnant of the tribe as 
 sembled on that occasion. After the funeral rites 
 were over, Mrs. Goddard, the lady of the late Hon. 
 
 Calvin Goddard, entertained the tribe with a colla 
 tion. 
 
 None but the descendants of the royal family 
 were ever allowed to be interred in this place of 
 burial ; and in all their land-sales or gifts to the 
 colonists, the Indians were ever careful to re 
 serve the use of this beautiful spot. Hence in 
 1661, and also in later years, the records declare 
 that " the Indians are to have the liberty to pass 
 and repass from the Cove, up the hollow, and not 
 to be molested." 
 
 UNCAS S DEED OF NORWICH. 
 
 Deed from ONKOS, and his Sons, ONECO and AT- 
 TAWANHOOD, Sachems of Mohegan, of a Tract of 
 Land nine miles square, for the settlement of the 
 town of Norwich Anno Domini 1659. 
 
 Know All men that Onkos, Owanecco and At- 
 tawanhood, Sachems of Mohegan, have bargained, 
 sold and passed over, and doe by these presents sell 
 and pass over unto the Town and Inhabitants of 
 Norwich, nine miles square of land, lyeing and be 
 ing at Mohegan and the parts thereunto adjoyning 
 with all ponds, Rivers, woods, quaries, mines, with 
 all Royalties, privileges and appurtenances there 
 unto belonging, to them the said Inhabitants of 
 
200 APPENDIX. 
 
 Norwich, their heirs and successors forever, the sd 
 lands are to be bounded as followeth, viz,, to the 
 southward on the west side of the Great River ye 
 line is to be Gin at the Brooke falling into the head 
 of Trading cove, and soe to run west norwest seven 
 miles ; from thence the line to run nor northeast 
 nine miles; and on the East side the aforesaid 
 River to the southward, the line is to joyne into the 
 New Lowndon Bounds as it is now laid out, and 
 soe to run east Two miles from the forsed River, 
 and so from thence the line is to Run nor noreast 
 nine miles, and from thence to Run nor norwest 
 nine miles to meet with the western line. In con 
 sideration thereof the said Onkos, Owanecco, and 
 Attawanhood, doe acknowledge to have received of 
 the parties aforesaid, the full and just sum of seven 
 ty pounds, and doe promise and engage ourselves, 
 heirs and successors to warrant the sd Bargen and 
 sale to the aforesd parties, to their heirs and suc 
 cessors and them to Defend from all claimes and 
 molestation from any whatsoever. In witness 
 whereof wee have hereunto set to our hands this 
 sixth day of June Anno 1659. 
 
 ONKOS, 
 
 OWANECO, 
 
 ATTAWANHOOD, 
 
 Witness hereunto, 
 John Mason. 
 Thomas Tracy. 
 
 This Deed is Recorded in the County Booke 
 August 20th, 1663 : as Ateste, 
 
 JOHN ALLYN, Sec y- 
 
APPENDIX. 201 
 
 LAST DAYS OF UNCAS. 
 [Before his death Uncas must have been greatly 
 reduced, both in the extent of his dominions, and 
 in his other property, as the following account bears 
 record :~j 
 
 Whereas Uncas, Sachem of Mohegan, hath of 
 late made application to the Town of Norwich for 
 some Releife with Reference to a small Tract of 
 Land which fell oufto be within the bounds of the 
 Town, on the south Bounds, over the Traiding 
 Cove Brook. This Town, Considering of his Re 
 quest and of him as an OLD FRIEND, see Cause to 
 Gratify him with the said Land as a Gift to him & 
 his heirs forever, and Whereas the sd Uncas doth 
 also Recon upon three pounds yet due to him as 
 arrears of the payment of the purchas of Norwich 
 Township, though there is nothing appearing how 
 the said money is due, neither by written nor any 
 other Evidence Yet nothwi:hstanding the Town 
 have Granted his desire as not willing to dissatisfie 
 an OLD FRIEND in such a small matter, and the 
 said Uncas Also Declaring himself to be in some 
 fears Respecting his Posterity, whether they may 
 not be infringed of their Liberty of Fishing and 
 making use of the liivers & other Royalties by 
 some English; that" being the Reason why he 
 Gave place at the first that we should Run the 
 Line of the Two miles on the East side of the 
 Great River, Beginning at the River: We also 
 satisfie him in this writing about it, that he and his 
 successors shall from Time to Time, and at all 
 times have full and free Liberty to make use of the 
 Rivers and ponds, with other Royalties as above- 
 said, not debaring Ourselves, and having thus done, 
 we whose names are subscribed being appointed 
 by the Town of Norwich to treat with him the 
 
202 APPENDIX. 
 
 said Uncas upon the premises, or any thing Ebe 
 that might Conduce to mutual satisfaction, we 
 asked him whether now he was fully satisfied as 
 to the former, so Concerning any thing Elce de 
 pending between him and us, and he hath declared 
 himself: as witness by his hand that he is FULLY 
 SATISFIED with us as concerning the premises, so 
 Respecting all our Bounds and boundaries, and 
 particularly Concerning the Running of the Line 
 on the East side of the River, and Concerning the 
 beginning of the said Line at the River, and the 
 end of said Line to a Tree marked near the D wel- 
 linghouse of Robert Allen : Dated at Norwich, 
 September 1st, 1622: 
 
 the mark f.XJJ of UNCAS. 
 
 Thomas Leffingwell. "| 
 William Backus. ! Entered in Lib r the se- 
 John Birchard. [ cond folio 1 st , Obtober 18th, 
 
 John Tracy. j 1682. 
 
 By me ; CHRISTOPHER HUNTINGTON, Recorder. 
 
 DEED FROM ONECO, SON OF UNCAS, 
 TO THE MOHEGANS. 
 
 Knowe All whom it Doth or may Concerne, that 
 i, Oneco, Sach m of Mohegan, have and doe by these 
 presents pass over my righte of all that tracte of 
 land between Newlondon Towne lands and trading 
 Cove Brooke, unto the Moheagen Indians for theire 
 use to plant, that neither i nor my son nor any un 
 der him shall at any time make seale of any part 
 thereof, and that the track of land shall be and re- 
 maine forever for the use of the Mohegans and my 
 self, and mine to occipy and emprove for our mu- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 203 
 
 tuall advantage for ever, as witness my seale and 
 marke, this the 6th of March, 16934- 
 
 his 
 
 ONECO. 
 
 Seale. 
 
 Witness, 
 
 THOMAS SLUMAN, 
 JONATHAN FOWLER. 
 
 Signed and acknowledged before me, March the 
 6th, 16934. 
 
 JAMES FITCH, Assis t. 
 
 MAWHOMOTT. 
 
 Att a Generall Court Held at Hartford, October 
 13 th , 1692 : This Court upon Request of Owanecoe 
 doe fully approve of those Lands of Uncas, which 
 were by him given to Josiah, who is since deceased, 
 be and belong to Mawhomott for the future, and 
 doe declare that Mawhomott is and ought to be 
 the next Rightfull Sachem of Mowheeg after 
 Owanecoe. 
 
 And whereas Owanecoe bath desired that his 
 fathers Lands Recorded to him, may be Confirmed 
 to him and his Son Mawhomott, and that they 
 may not pass it away to any, without it be by the 
 Consent of Capt. Sam L Mason, and be acknowl 
 edged before him, which this Court allows of. 
 
 A true Copy of the Record. Test. 
 
 CALEB STANLY, Sec y- 
 
204 APPENDIX. 
 
 OF THE PEQUODS. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that notwithstanding the 
 pains taken by the early colonists to extirpate the 
 Pequods, or to extinguish their name, a remnant of 
 the race, and the name also, were preserved in their 
 ancient country for more than a century after the 
 enactments directed to that end. Among the John 
 son papers, there is a letter to the Baronet, written 
 in 1764, from the town of Lyme, signed by 
 a dozen Pequods, acting probably, as a committee. 
 In a letter to the Publishing Committee of the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society, by William T. 
 Williams, Esq. of Lebanon, dated July, 1832, he 
 says : " There is a remnant of the Pequods still 
 existing. They live in the town of Groton, and 
 amount to about forty souls, in all, or perhaps a 
 few more, or less, but they have about eleven hun- 
 dr 1 acres of poor land reserved to them in Groton, 
 on which they live. They are more mixed than 
 the Mohegans with negro and white blood, yet are 
 a distinct tribe, and still retain a hatred to the Mo 
 hegans. A short time since I had an opportunity 
 of seeing most of the tribe together. They are 
 more vicious, and not so decent or good-looking a 
 people as the Mohegans. This, however, may be 
 owing to their being more mixed with other blood. 
 It is very rare that there are any intermarriages 
 with either of the tribes to each other ; they still, 
 so far as circumstances admit, retaining the ancient 
 grudge. The most common family name among 
 them is Meazen. Nearly half of the survivors call 
 hemselves by that name. " 
 
APPENDIX. 205 
 
 SASSACUS. 
 
 Shall no memorial in the land 
 Remain of Sassacus ? Like sand 
 Beat by the sea, shall every trace 
 Of the Great Spirit of his race 
 Be swept away ? 
 
 Once, on yon mount* the Pequot stood. 
 And gazed o er all the world of wood, 
 Eyed the blue Sound, and scann d the bays, 
 Distinct in evening s mellow rays. 
 Like a green map lay all below, 
 With glittering veins where rivers flow. 
 The distance stretched in haze away, 
 As from his Mount by Mystic bay, 
 Whence, as the calumet went round, 
 His eyes could measure all the Sound, 
 Or in the boundless ocean find 
 Delight for his untutored mind. 
 Eastward he turns his glistening eye, 
 There, where his throne, his people lie, 
 Lie prostrate subjects, children, power, 
 All, all extinguished in an hour. 
 
 The heart-wrung savage turns aside 
 But no tear stained a Pequot s pride ; 
 The dark hand spread upon his breast, 
 Only, the wampum grasped, and pressed ; 
 He turned he stooped took one last view 
 And then, like Regulus, withdrew. 
 These mountains, rivers, woods and plain, 
 Ne er saw the Pequot King again ; 
 Far in the regions of the west, 
 The Mohawk sent him to his rest. 
 
 HILLHOUSE. 
 
 * Groton Heights. 
 18 
 
206 APPENDIX. 
 
 CAPTAIN UNDERBILL, 
 
 One of the indomitable heroes of the Pequod War, 
 declared by an early writers to have been one of the 
 chief of the Boston enthusiasts, (see page 46 of 
 the present volume,) seems to have been a very 
 brave man, but his career was remarkable. It ap 
 pears from a long entry in Governor Winthrop s 
 Journal, in 1640, that Underbill, for many grievous 
 sins, one of which was adultery, had been excom 
 municated from the church, and banished. After 
 sore and apparently sincere repentance, he had safe 
 conduct from the Governor to come back, and 
 shrive himself, clad like a penitent, before the 
 whole church. He did so, in the most humble, 
 full and penitent manner weeping so as almost to 
 choke his utterance. He afterward removed to 
 Stamford, Connecticut, and in 1643, was a delegate 
 to the General Court, and an Assistant Justice of 
 the Peace. He had served as a British officer in 
 the Low Countries, in Ireland and in Cadiz. In 
 the year last mentioned he was sent for by the 
 Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam, to command 
 in the war against the Indians, which was closed 
 by the battle at Horse Neck, in 1640. After the 
 war he settled at Flushing, L. I. Afterward he 
 was a member of Nicholl s s Assembly, at Hemp- 
 stead, from Oyster Bay, and was subsequently Un- 
 der-Sheriff for Queens County. He died at Oyster 
 Bay, in 1672, 
 
APPENDIX. 207 
 
 OF LYON GARDINER. 
 
 The following extract respecting Lyon Gardiner, 
 the builder and first commander of the fort at Say- 
 brook, and the head of the family of Gardiner s 
 Island, is copied from Barber s Historical Col 
 lections, in the account given therein of the city of 
 Hartford :~ 
 
 "The following epitaphs and inscriptions are 
 copied from a monument in the ancient burying- 
 ground in the rear of the Centre Church in the city 
 of Hartford. 
 
 " Here lyeth the body of Mr. David Gardiner, of 
 Gardener s Island, deceased July 10, 1689, in the 
 fifty-fovrth year of his age. Well sick dead, in 
 one hovres space. 
 
 " c Engrave the remembrance of death on mine heart. 
 When as thov dost see how swiftly hovrs depart. " 
 
 " The above inscription is on a plain slab of red 
 sand stone, a little north of the central part of the 
 yard. David Gardiner, whose death it records, was 
 the first white child born in Connecticut. He re 
 moved, it appears, with his father, Lyon Gardener, 
 to Gardener s Island, and coming to Hartford, 
 probably on a public business, died suddenly. The 
 stone is placed horizontally on his grave, and hav 
 ing been partly embedded in the earth, the inscrip 
 tion was with some difficulty decyphered. John G. 
 Gardiner, Esq., the present proprietor of Gardiner s 
 
208 APPENDIX. 
 
 Island, states that his father erected a monument 
 to the memory of his ancestors on the island, in 
 June, 1806, on which monument it is stated that 
 Lyon Gardiner died in 1663. * David, his son, born 
 at Saybrook, April 29, 1636, the first white child 
 born in Connecticut, died 16 . Mary, his wife 
 whom he married at Westminster, (England) died 
 16. It appears by this that the Mr. Gardiner 
 who erected the monument, did not know at what 
 time or at what place his ancestor died. It was at 
 that time supposed by the family, the monument 
 at Hartford not having been discovered then 
 that he was buried somewhere on Gardi 
 ner s Island. The present Mr. Gardiner, in a let 
 ter to Mr. Barber, says : "We have an old Bible 
 in the house, which belonged to Lyon Gardiner, 
 upon a blank leaf of which the following is writ 
 ten :-- 
 
 "In the year of our Lord 1635, the 10th day of 
 July, came I, Lyon Gardiner and Mary my wife, 
 from Worden, a town in Holland, where my wife 
 was born, being the daughter of one Diricke 
 Willemson Deureant ; her mother s name was 
 Hachin, and her aunt, sister of her mother, was 
 the wife of Wouter Leanerdson, an old burgomas 
 ter, dwelling in the hostrade, over against the 
 Bruxer, in the Unicorn s head ; her brother s name 
 was Punce Garretson, also an old burgomaster. 
 We came from Worden to London, and from 
 thence to New-England, and dwelt at Saybrook 
 fort four years, it is at the mouth of Connecticut 
 
APPENDIX. 209 
 
 river, of which I was commander, and there 
 was born unto me a son, named David, 1635, the 
 29th of April, the first-born in that place, and 1638 
 a daughter was born, named Mary, 30th of Aug 
 ust ; and then I went to an island of my own, 
 which I had bought and purchased of the Indians, 
 called by them Monchonack, by us the Isle of 
 Wight, and there was born another daughter, 
 named Elizabeth, the 14th of September, 1641, 
 she being the first child of English parents born 
 there. !" 
 

 
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