HI-CENTENARY OF THE BURNING OF PROVIDENCE l\ 1676, 
 
 DEFENCE 
 
 RHODE ISLAND SYSTEM 
 
 ^ 
 
 liuil and |lelijjous JKkrtg, 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THB RHODE ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 APRIL 10TH, 1876, 
 
 ZACHAKIAH ALLEN, LL. D. 
 
 PROVIDENCE: 
 
 PROVIDEXCE PRESS CO., PRINTERS TO THE STATE AND CITV. 
 
 1870.
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 SUCCESSIVE centuries, as they pass away, serve as epochs 
 of human progress. 
 
 They seem like mile stones, reminding travelers on the 
 journey of life to look back on the past for instruction, and 
 forward to the future for improvement. 
 
 Two centuries ago this day, our forefathers beheld the 
 heavens reddened by the blaze of their dwellings, kindled by 
 the natives, who had been their friends. We assemble now 
 to consider the causes of this calamity. 
 
 Our forefathers, their joys and their sorrows, have 
 passed away. It remains for us to trace out and record the 
 history of their lives ; to profit by avoiding their errors, and 
 by copying their virtues. 
 
 The question is now vividly brought up, what were the 
 wrongs that converted the once friendly Indians, who so 
 hospitably received and protected the founder and early set- 
 tlers of Rhode Island, into hostile foes? This fad-centennial 
 celebration is a fit time and occasion to investigate this 
 question, which involves most important principles for 
 human government. 
 
 In morals, as in mechanics, every reaction is preceded by 
 an action. What was the action, what the wrongs, that 
 brought about the hostility of the Indians to the settlers of 
 Rhode Island ; the burning of Providence, and the war, that 
 finally swept away a once powerful people from the shores
 
 4 EARLY AGGRESSIONS OX THE INDIANS. 
 
 of Narragausett bay ; the name of which will forever remain 
 a memorial of their existence. 
 
 In tracing out the cause of these events, principles, not 
 men, will be considered, as gleaned from the records of 
 history ; with the desire ' ' to extenuate nothing to set down 
 naught in malice." We shall confine our attention to 
 extracts from authentic historical publications, specially 
 relating to the conduct of the original settlers of New Eng- 
 land toward the aboriginal inhabitants. 
 
 The first notice of the native Indians by the emigrants, 
 who landed in Plymouth, as recorded in Morton's New Eng- 
 land Memorial, is an account of the lauding of an exploring 
 party. "The party found some fair baskets of corn and 
 beans, which they brought away without paying for." 
 
 This act of plunder excited the Indians to defend their 
 property for self-preservation. Consequently, the next ex- 
 ploring party of emigrants ' ' were assailed with arrows by 
 the Indians ;" who were ever afterward considered and desig- 
 nated enemies. The place was also named " First Encoun- 
 ter." 
 
 These statements show that the first act of the newly 
 arrived emigrants at Plymouth was robbery of the Indians, 
 and the first meeting with them a fight. 
 
 In consequence of these aggressions, the Indians kept out 
 of sight until the Spring following. Then an Indian named 
 Squauto, in company with another, came into Plymouth. 
 They spoke the English language. As stated by Morton, 
 they were two of eleven Indians, who had been kidnapped 
 by an English captain of a vessel, to be sold as slaves in the 
 West Indies. These two found their way to London, where 
 Fernando Gorges obtained from them the information that 
 originally led to the formation of a Joint Stock Company in 
 London, for obtaining a royal Patent for the possession of 
 the Indian lands, and the fisheries on the New England sea 
 coasts. These interpreters stated that the country west of 
 Plymouth was occupied by a tribe of Indians called Pokano-
 
 HOSTILE DEMONSTRATIONS. 5 
 
 kets ; that "they were intent on revenge for the carrying 
 away of many of their people by the English, without any 
 cause of injury committed." 
 
 In the autumn, nine of the neighboring Sachems came in, 
 and made a treaty of peace, and agreed to become subjects 
 of the King of Great Britain. This compact entitled them 
 to be treated as fellow subjects. 
 
 The principal Sachem, named Massasoit, lived about forty 
 miles west of Plymouth ; where the town of Warren now is. 
 This region was called "Massasoit's country;" and finally the 
 whole surrounding country was called Massachusetts, after 
 his name. If fame be an offset to wrongs, this old chief is 
 remunerated by affixing his name to one of the present 
 United States of North America. 
 
 The Sachem of the powerful tribe of Xarragansett Indians, 
 Oanouicus, who afterward proved so kind to the exiles in 
 Rhode Island, defying the injustice of the English Colony at 
 Plymouth, expressed his determination of resistance to ag- 
 gressions, by the diplomatic missive of a bundle of arrows, 
 bound together by the skin of a rattlesnake. 
 
 The Plymouth people reciprocated the hostile demonstra- 
 tion by returning the skin filled with gunpowder and bullets. 
 This served as an interchange of visiting cards, as on com- 
 mencing an acquaintance. 
 
 The cupidity of the London Joint Stock Company soon 
 induced them to grant a license to another party of emigrants, 
 under Mr. AVeston. They made a settlement at Weymouth. 
 Morton states : The Indians loudly complained of them 
 for stealing their corn, and that they care not for the rule of 
 right. They hired themselves to the Indians and ended in 
 robbing them. Governor Bradford wrote to the Manager of 
 the Wcston Colony, warning him against such doings. 
 "Early in Spring, Governor Bradford received informa- 
 tion that the exasperated Indians had formed a conspiracy to 
 drive away the base men of the Weston Colony." 
 
 The Governor and Council, instead of checking and pun-
 
 6 ASSASSINATION OF INDIANS BY MILES STANDISH. 
 
 ishing the offenders, declared war against the Indians, and 
 commenced immediate hostilities. It is stated: "Twas a 
 sad business ; for they knew that Weston's men were in the 
 wrong in provoking resistance. Without notifying the In- 
 dians of the declaration of war, Miles Standish, the military 
 commander, with four others, inveigled some of the Sachems 
 into a wigwam, sprang suddenly upon them and plunged their 
 knives into the bosoms of the unsuspecting natives." The 
 historian narrates : "The Indians died hard, after receiving 
 many wounds." "Miles Standish returned to Plymouth with 
 the head of Wetenomut, which was set up on a pole in the 
 fort." Their good old minister, Mr. Robinson, rebuked this 
 proceeding in a letter written from Holland, saying : "How 
 happy it would have been, had you converted an Indian 
 before you killed one." 
 
 Such a massacre of Sachems, who had signed a treaty of 
 peace, and submitted to become British subjects, is revolting 
 to humanity. A subsequent flagrant injustice in killing the 
 Sachems who had come into Plymouth under a promise of 
 protection, made by Captain Church, during the war with 
 King Philip, manifested a disregard not only of Christian 
 principles, but even of the laws of civilization. This was the 
 general system pursued in settling the shores of the New 
 World. Columbus deemed the planting of the Spanish flag 
 on the sea shore a fee simple title to vast regions of the 
 American continent, and a title to ownership of the owners 
 of the soil as slaves. 
 
 To this general practice the French appear not to have so 
 commonly conformed, as they intermarried with the Indians 
 in Canada, while their priests self-deny ingly explored the 
 interior as missionaries for converting the Indians to Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 In Rhode Island and Pennsylvania the lands were pur- 
 chased of the natives, and consequently harmony and good 
 will prevailed. 
 
 A recent Massachusetts historian comments on the con-
 
 ADVENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 7 
 
 duct of the Plymouth Pilgrims, by saying : " It is to be re- 
 gretted that they did not compel Weston's colony to live 
 decently among them, or exterminate them, rather than to 
 have sanctioned their acts, and thereby excited the hatred 
 of the Indians against all Christian white men."* 
 
 The massacre of the Indian sachems near Plymouth in- 
 spired such terror, that several of them fled with their 
 families to the swamps and distant forests, where they per- 
 ished by exposure.! 
 
 A few years after this practical execution of the cruel 
 doctrine of the extermination of the heathen, the advent of a 
 missionary of the opposite Christian doctrine of " peace and 
 good will to men," was destined to show the contrast between 
 the two precepts for the practical government of mankind. 
 Roger Williams came to Plymouth soon after, and while 
 officiating as a minister there, extended his missionary la- 
 bors to the adjacent tribes of Indians. He studied their 
 language to communicate with them kindly and beneficently. 
 In this way he won the friendship of Massasoit, on whom he 
 
 * On meeting the Indians to make a treaty for the purchase of lands for plant- 
 ing, William Penn addressed them as follows :' Our object is not to destroy, 
 but to do good. We are here met together on the broad pathway of good will, 
 for mutual benefit, so that no advantage shall be taken on either side; as in 
 brotherhood and love." 
 
 " I will not compare the friendship now sought to be established, to a chain ; 
 for this might be broken. We will esteem the Indians as of the same flesh and 
 blood with the Christians." 
 
 The Indians, after a time, appealed to the white men in the following words 
 of one of their chiefs : ' You know that when the white people first came here, 
 they were poor. Now they have our lands and are become rich ; and we are pcor. 
 What little we received for the land was soon used up; but you have the lands 
 forever." The result was, that a double payment was finally made, and grate- 
 fully received by the satisfied natives. 
 
 The following law was established by the original proprietors of Pennsyl- 
 vania : 
 
 " Section XIII. Xo man shall l^nny ways or means, by word or deed, affront 
 or wrong any Indian, without suffering the same penalty of the law as if the 
 offence were committed against his fellow planters." 
 
 The deeds of transfer of their lands by the Indians in Rhode Island are 
 recorded, with the signatures of the sachems appended in the form of their 
 attested marks of a bow, an arrow, tomahawks and other devices, significant of 
 a sign manual. It is recorded that, to satisfy the Indians, in some cases, the 
 Providence settlers paid them extra allowances, as stated of the Pennsylvania 
 planters. 
 
 t(Winslow. -Chronicles of the Pilgrims.)
 
 8 DOCTRINE OF JUSTICE TO THE INDIANS. 
 
 was afterward forced to rely for shelter from persecution by 
 the Puritans in and around Boston. 
 
 Banished by his fellow countrymen in midwinter, for four- 
 teen weeks he found a home with his friend Massasoit, where, 
 as quaintly narrated by Williams, "he was sorely tossed, 
 and knew not what bread and bed did mean." As truly stated, 
 ' ' he fled from the savage Christians of Massachusetts Bay to 
 the Christian savages of Narragansett Bay." 
 
 By carrying out the principles of beneficence and justice 
 to the Indians in the new State he subsequently founded, 
 there never was a " First Encounter" therein with natives, 
 until the adjacent colonies extended their injustice beyond 
 their borders, into the otherwise ever peaceful borders of 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 Manifestly this remarkable contrast between the recipro- 
 cations of friendly intercourse, and of hostile encounters, is 
 ascribable to the difference between his practice of the benefi- 
 cent principles of the Christian doctrine of " peace and good 
 will to men," and their practice of those opposite doctrines 
 which, as the Puritans supposed, sanctioned the extermina- 
 tion of people of different religious faiths. 
 
 It is certainly one of the most remarkable events recorded 
 in history, that an attempt ever should have been made to 
 introduce and establish a Jewish code and system of com- 
 bined ecclesiastical and civil laws for the government of man- 
 kind in the " new world," the abolishment of whk;h in the 
 Old World, was among the objects of our Saviour's mission 
 upon earth. 
 
 The strenuous efforts still persistently continued for main- 
 taining ecclesiastical domination and infallibility by physical 
 force by combining the powers or church and state, is a 
 very strong proof of the necessity of more thoroughly teach- 
 ing the true doctrines of Christian humility. 
 
 The claim that " the earth is the Lord's and the inheri- 
 tance of His saints," and that they were the saints, suggested 
 not only the seizure of the lands of the Indians by the Massa-
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL DOCTRINES OF THE PURITANS. 9 
 
 chusctts Puritans, but also the treating of all non-comformists 
 to their ideas of orthodoxy, the Baptists, Episcopalians and 
 Quakers, as having no rights which they were bound to 
 respect. 
 
 The same struggle is still going on between dominating 
 ecclesiastics and scientific men. The latter claim the same 
 liberty to study the revelations of the Divine will in the 
 physical laws established for the government of the material 
 world, as ecclesiastical students claim for freely studying the 
 revelations of the same Divine will in the Holy Scriptures, 
 for the government of the intellectual world. "The dark 
 ages" of Europe were the results of the prohibition by eccle- 
 siastics of scientific investigations. Imprisonments, tortures 
 and deatii were inflicted on innumerable philosophers. 
 
 The present discussions about the dubious theories of ma- 
 terialism and evolution would excite little public notice, were 
 they not blended with ecclesiastical controversy. Whether 
 these theories be right or wrong, the privilege of a free dis- 
 cussion of them is justly claimed. 
 
 Even manifest physical facts are controverted by meta- 
 physical ecclesiastics. Galileo was imprisoned for affirming 
 that the earth revolves around the sun ; and w r as compelled, 
 before an altar, with bended knee and tearful eyes, to abjure 
 this truth, revealed to those eyes. "With these facts before 
 us, we may well believe, that the doctrine taught by Roger 
 Williams was as unwelcome as the fact of science taught by 
 Galileo. 
 
 It was the mission of Roger Williams in New England to 
 carry out practically the Christian doctrine of peace and 
 good will to men, not only to the Indians, but to all his fel- 
 low men on earth. This he labored to do, and this he suc- 
 cessfully accomplished, by founding the first civil government 
 on earth on the basis of a complete separation of church and 
 state, for perfect religious freedom. 
 
 The two chief priests of the Puritans in Boston, Mr. Hig- 
 ginsoii and Mr. Skelton, early established and directed the 
 2
 
 10 THE CODE OF JEWISH LAWS ADOPTED. 
 
 course of training in the public schools ; and the ' ' New 
 England Primer " continues to exhibit the medley of relig- 
 ious and secular education adapted to their creed. 
 
 Under the system of these two ministers, who wielded the 
 supremacy of Moses and Aaron, the government of the 
 Massachusetts Puritans was a religious despotism, under 
 which there was no safety for " life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness " by the people. As stated by the historian, 
 Elliot, (page 164,) '' John Winthrop, with his accustomed 
 pliancy, yielded too much, by assenting to the persecutions 
 of Roger Williams, Mrs. Hutchinson, Mrs. Wheelwright 
 and others. These ministers changed at times from kindly 
 men to bloody persecutors ; who imbrued their hands in the 
 blood of the Quakers, and of the poor women accused of 
 witchcraft in Salem." These are the frank words of a Massa- 
 chusetts historian. 
 
 The evils of the Jewish code, carried out by the Puritans 
 of Massachusetts, and the barbarous cruelties practised by 
 them not only toward the Indians, but toward all fellow 
 men of different creeds, by whipping the naked backs of 
 women and hanging them for religious opinions, and by seiz- 
 ing the lands of neighboring people for their inheritance as 
 saints, were so revolting to modern civilization and refine- 
 ment, that a general shudder was produced in England at the 
 recitals of such conduct ; and the interference of kingly power 
 was invoked to put a stop to it. As authentically stated, 
 King Charles, a Catholic at heart, was moved to grant a 
 royal charter to the colonists of Rhode Island, as a place of 
 refuge for Catholics and Protestants alike, against persecu- 
 tions. By attempting to carry out the Jewish code of union 
 of Church and State, the Indians were practically treated 
 by the Puritans as heathens ; and a system of seizing an,d 
 selling them as slaves, or of exterminating them as enemies, 
 was commenced by those who first landed on the shores at 
 Plymouth, as has been narrated. Although the opposite doc- 
 trines were taught by Roger Williams, yet so forcibly were
 
 TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE PURITANS. 11 
 
 they opposed, that he and the colonists of Rhode Island 
 were involved in the consequences of the injustice of the 
 other white men composing the Xew England colonies. 
 
 It was the struggle for self-preservation against injustice 
 and exterminating cruelty, which excited the peaceful Narra- 
 gansett Indians to attack their friends in Providence without 
 distinction, as being the white men. Assured of the friend- 
 ship of the Indians, whom he knew personally, Williams 
 crossed the ford of the Moshassic river, where the screw 
 factories now are, and was met by a sachem while advancing 
 up the adjacent bluif. This bluff long retained the name of 
 " Camp-hill," as having been the place of the Indian encamp- 
 ment ; and was opposite to the stamping mill for pounding 
 corn ; the street leading to which still retains the name of 
 " Stamper street." He was told to go back, " that he was 
 a good man, and not a hair of his head would be hurt ; but 
 it was now too late, the warriors could be restrained no 
 longer." 
 
 That the Indians had been restrained until their treatment 
 had become unendurable, is officially testified to in a mes- 
 sage sent to Gov. Winthrop in Connecticut, by the Legisla- 
 ture of Rhode Island, dated October 20, 1076, and certified 
 at Xcwport by the Secretary of State, in the following 
 words : 
 
 "We believe that if matters come to a just inquiry 
 concerning the cause of the Indian War, that our Narragan- 
 set Sachems were subjects to his Majesty, and by his com- 
 missioners were taken under his protection, and put under 
 our government. They manifested to us their submission by 
 appearing whenever sent for." 
 
 " Neither was there any manifestation of war against us 
 from them; but always the contrary, until the United Colo- 
 nies forced them to war, or to such submissions as it seems 
 they could not submit to. The United Colonies, (Ply- 
 mouth, Massachusetts and Connecticut), thus involved us in 
 these hazards, charges and losses, to our outer Plantations."
 
 12 CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. 
 
 This official document is a verdict of acquittal of the In- 
 dians of all blame for the war, one consequence of which was 
 the burning of Providence. When it is considered that this 
 address was written only a few months after that catastrophe, 
 and while smarting under the losses incurred, the truthful- 
 ness of this verdict must be admitted as conclusive. 
 
 The details of King Philip's war have so recently been 
 recited to you, here in this room, that it is unnecessary to 
 repeat them, even if our limited time permitted. I will 
 read, however, a testimonial of an esteemed American 
 historian, Washington Irving, which exhibits to the world a 
 very different view of the character of King Philip, from 
 that we listened to last summer from the Rev. H. M. Dexter, 
 D. I)., at our meeting on the spot at Mount Hope, where 
 Philip was killed. Mr. Dexter, in representing the Puritan 
 side of the question of the treatment of the Indians, summa- 
 rily characterized the whole life of the sachem as briefly por- 
 trayed in the words of Captain Church's description of him, 
 as his body appeared, after beiug drawn out of the miry 
 swamp: "He was a doleful great naked dirty beast." 
 Irving sketches the life of Metacomet, popularly known as 
 " King Philip," in the following words : 
 
 " Persecuted while living, dishonored and slandered when 
 dead, even the accounts published by his enemies exhibit 
 traits of lofty character, sufficient to awaken sympathy for 
 his fate, and respect for his memory." 
 
 " We find that amidst all the harassing cares and fero- 
 cious passions of constant warfare, he was alive to the kind- 
 est feelings of connubial affection and paternal tenderness ; 
 and to the exercise of generous sentiments of friendship. 
 The capture of his beloved wife and only son is mentioned 
 with exultation by their captors as causing him poignant 
 misery. The death of each dear friend is triumphantly re- 
 corded, as a painful blow on his sensibilities. The final de- 
 sertion and treachery of many of his followers, in whose 
 affections and faithfulness he had confided, is said to have
 
 BENEFICENT DOCTRINES OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 13 
 
 ' desolated his heart, and bereaved him of his last hope and 
 comfort.'" 
 
 " He was a patriot, ardently attached to his beautiful na- 
 tive land ; a Prince true to his subjects, and indignant at 
 their wrongs ; a daring warrior in battle firm of purpose 
 in adversity, patient of fatigue, of hunger, of bodily suffer- 
 ing, and ready to die in the cause of his country. He dis- 
 played the heroic qualities that would have graced a civilized 
 warrior. His bold achievements have rendered him the 
 theme of the poet and historian. He continued a wanderer 
 and a fugitive in his native land ; and finally sunk down like 
 a lonely bark foundering amid darkness and tempest, where 
 there was no pitying eye to weep over his fall, and no 
 friendly hand to record his fate." 
 
 Having briefly glanced at the beneficent principles . which 
 produce the most important results in human affairs, we now 
 return to the practical working and carrying out of these 
 principles in the treatment of the natives of New England, 
 verified by records of history. 
 
 When the Puritans continued to practice the Jewish code 
 toward the Indians, Roger Williams came forward, not to 
 argue the question of ecclesiastical infallibility, but simply 
 to state the material advantages of just and kindly treat- 
 ment. In his address to them he uses the following argu- 
 ments : 
 
 " I never was against the righteous use of the civil sword 
 by men or nations. All desire to consider their wars justi- 
 fiably defensive. I humbly pray your consideration, wheth- 
 er it be not only possible but preferable, to live and die in 
 peace with the natives of this country." 
 
 "For are not all the English of this land, generally, a 
 persecuted people, exiles from their native soil? And 
 hath not the God of peace and Father of mercies made these 
 natives more friendly to us in their country, than our fellow 
 countrymen in our native land? Have they not entered into 
 leagues with us of peace, and to this day continued a peace-
 
 14 HARMLESS CONDUCT OF THE NATIVES. 
 
 able commerce with us ? Are not our families grown up in 
 peace among them ?" 
 
 ' ' I humbly ask how it can suit with Christian kindness to 
 take hold of some seeming occasions for their destruction, 
 which, though only the chiefs are aimed at, yet all experi- 
 ence tells us, falls on the bodies of the innocent?'' 
 
 He finally concludes this admirably benevolent letter as 
 follows : 
 
 ' ' I cannot learn that the Narragan setts have ever stained 
 their hands with any English blood, either in open hostili- 
 ties or secret murders. It is true that they are barbarians ; 
 but their greatest offences against the English have been 
 matters of money, or petty revengings of themselves on 
 other Indians, upon extreme provocations ; but God kept 
 them clear of our blood." 
 
 " Many hundreds of English people have experimentally 
 found the Indian people to be inclined to peace and love. 
 Their late famous king, Canonicus, long lived, and died in 
 the same most honorable manner ; and was buried with the 
 same solemnity (in their way), as you laid to sleep your 
 prudent peace-maker, Mr. Winthrop. So did they honor 
 their prudent and peaceable prince. llis son, Mexham, 
 inherits his spirit. Yea, through all their towns and 
 countries, how frequently does many a solitary Englishman 
 travel alone with safety and loving kindness." 
 
 " Honored sirs, I know it is said the Bay Island Indians 
 are subjects ; but I have heard this questioned ; and, indeed, 
 1 question whether any Indians Jn this country, remaining 
 barbarous and pagan, may with truth and honor be called 
 English subjects." 
 
 "All Indians are extremely treacherous, in their own 
 nations, for private ends revolting to strangers. What acts 
 will they commit upon the sound of one defeat of the Eng- 
 lish? The trade of stealing English cattle and persons, and 
 plunder, will most certainly ensue, if any considerable party 
 escape alive."
 
 MILITARY POWERS OF THE INDIANS. 15 
 
 " I beseech you not to forget, that although we are apt to 
 play at this plague of war, to seriously consider how won- 
 derfully fickle are the results. Heretofore, not having liberty 
 to enter your jurisdiction to take ship, I was forced to repair 
 unto the Dutch (in New York) ; where mine eyes did see 
 the first breaking forth of that Indian War, which the Dutch 
 began on the slaughter of some Dutch by the Indians ; and 
 which they questioned to finish in a few days. But before 
 we weighed anchor, their boweries were in flames, and both 
 Dutch and English slain. Mine eyes saw the flames of their 
 town, and the flights and hurries of men, women and chil- 
 dren, the pressing removal of all they could, for Holland. 
 After vast expense and mutual slaughter of Dutch, English, 
 and Indians, after four years of warfare, the Dutch were 
 forced to make an unworthy and dishonorable peace with 
 the Indians, to save their plantations from ruin." 
 
 " The Narragansetts and Mohawks are the two greatest 
 nations of Indians in this country. They have been confed- 
 erates, and are both, as yet, friendly and peaceably disposed 
 to the English. I do humbly conceive, in case of unavoida- 
 ble war with either of them, to make sure of the one as a 
 friend." 
 
 " The Narragansetts have ever continued friendly from the 
 first, and they have been true to you in the Pequot War, 
 and induced the Mohegans to come in. Then ensued the 
 downfall of the Pequots." 
 
 Edward Winslow states in a letter to a friend in England : 
 " We have found the Indians very faithful to their covenants 
 of peace with us, very loving and ready to pleasure us. 
 We go with them, in some cases, fifty miles into the country ; 
 and walk as safely and peaceably in the woods, as in the 
 highways of England. We entertain them familiarly in our 
 houses ; and they are friendly in bestowing their venison 
 upon us. They area people without religion; yet very 
 trusty, quick of apprehension, humorous and just." 
 
 Cushnian writes : " To us they have been like lambs, so
 
 16 LOCATIONS OF INDIAN NATIONS. 
 
 kind, so trusty and so submissive, that many Christians are 
 not so kind and sincere." 
 
 Chicatabot, a sachem visiting Boston in 1631, it is stated : 
 "Being in English clothes, the governor set him at his own 
 table, where he behaved himself as an English gentleman." 
 
 The nation of Narragansett Indians occupied the country 
 on the west side of Narragansett bay, which still bears their 
 name, extending northwardly to include the valleys of the 
 rivers Moshassic, Wonasquatucket, Pawtuxet and Pawca- 
 tuck, and also all the islands in the bay. 
 
 The adjacent tribe of Pequots dwelt on the lands between 
 the Pawcatuck and Thames. The Mohegans occupied the 
 valley qf the Niantic river, the Nipmucs the Quinebaug val- 
 ley and eastwardly. 
 
 The east side of Narragansett bay was inhabited by the 
 Wampanoags, (who were next in power to the Narragan- 
 setts,) on the broad regions of country extending to Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, Cape Cod and Nantucket. 
 
 The most powerful sachem of the Wampanoags, at the 
 time of the arrival of the Plymouth settlers, was Massasoit, 
 also called Osemequin. His two sons and successors, were 
 Wamsutta, called by the English name of A-lexander, and 
 Metacomet, known as King Philip. Canonicus was the first 
 Narragansett sachem known to the English people, and Mi- 
 antinomt), Pessa<fds atid Canonchet succeeded him. 
 
 From Massasoit, Roger Williams obtained permission to 
 occupy the lands in Seekonk, from which he removed across 
 the Blackstone river to the valley of the Moshassic ; the 
 purchase of which was made of Mismtinomo, including "all 
 the lands and meadows on the two fresh water rivers called 
 the Moshassic and the Pawtuxet rivers." 
 
 The conflicting claims of Massasoit and Miantinomo to 
 some part of these tracts were satisfactorily settled for by 
 the Providence colonists. 
 
 In a letter to Major Mason, Roger Williams gives an im- 
 pressive statement of his services to the colonies of Massa- 
 chusetts and Plymouth, in regard to the Indians, as follows :
 
 ROGER WILLIAMS' INTERVENTION BESOUGHT. 17 
 
 "In accordance with letters received from the Governor 
 and Council of Boston, requesting me to use my utmosi and 
 speediest endeavors to break and hinder the league labored 
 for by the Pequots and the Mohegans against the English, 
 the Lord helped me immediately to take my life in my 
 hand, and scarcely acquainting my Avife, to ship myself all 
 alone in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind and 
 great seas, every minute in hazard of my life, to the 
 sachem's home." 
 
 "Three days and nights my mission forced me to lodge 
 and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors ; whose hands, 
 methought, reeked with the blood of countrymen massacred 
 on Connecticut river. I could not but nightly look for their 
 bloody knives at my own throat likewise." 
 
 "God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to defeat 
 the Pequot's negotiation and designs, and to promote and 
 finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with 
 the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequots. 
 When the English forces marched through the Xarragansett 
 country, against the Pequots, I gladly entertained at my 
 house in Providence, General Stoughton and his officers/' 
 
 The Pequot war, to which Williams refers in the preced- 
 ing statement, was another case of the reckless injustice of 
 the Massachusetts colonists. 
 
 It appears that a trader named Oldham, was found killed 
 in his boat at Block Island, and "probably deserved it," as 
 a writer states in describing the event, and as the following 
 account, copied from Morton's New England Memorial, 
 renders probable. 
 
 "John Oldham was a man of unruly passions, beyond the 
 limits of reason. All reproof of him was like adding oil to 
 fire. After much trouble with him, he was finally put under 
 a guard of musketeers, with orders to punish him by every 
 one giving him a blow on the hinder part with the butt end of 
 their muskets, and by then sending him in a boat with these 
 farewell words : ' Go, and mend your manners.' ' 
 3
 
 18 CASE OF JOHN OLDHAM. 
 
 After his expulsion from Plymouth, it appears that this 
 licentious man went in his boat to Block Island in the year 
 1636, where he did not "mend his manners;" and the 
 Indians, in turn, bade him farewell, with "a blow of a 
 hatchet on his head," which finally put an end to his evil 
 doings. 
 
 It appears that Captain John Gallup, commanding a small 
 vessel of twenty tons, in sailing near Block Island in 1636, 
 met a pinnace containing several Indians, who suspicious- 
 ly bore away. He gave chase, and endeavored to run the 
 pinnace down by directing the bow of his vessel against 
 its frail side. Captain Gallup with one man and two boys 
 then began to assail the Indians from guns loaded with 
 duck shot, and from pistols. This caused the Indians to 
 jump overboard into the sea, and then the pinnace was 
 taken posession of by Captain Gallup. On searching the 
 boat, the body of John Oldham was found under an old 
 seine, with his head cleft by a hatchet. He threw the body 
 into the sea, stripped the pinnace of the goods and sails, and 
 left it adrift. 
 
 This was certainly a very bold and summary way of de- 
 spatching twelve Indians, as stated by Captain Gallup, on 
 suspicion of something wrong and before realizing it. 
 
 These facts were communicated to the governor of Massa- 
 chusetts ; who made representation to Miantinomo of the oc- 
 currence. He sent seventeen canoes with men to discover the 
 offenders ; and to obtain the two boys who were with Oldham. 
 He endeavored to prevail on the Pequots to make retribution, 
 as he had successfully done two years before in the case of 
 killing Captain Stone, a similar trader on the coast of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 The governor and council of Massachusetts decided thatpun- 
 ishment should be inflicted ; not for any regard for Oldham, 
 but as an example. John Endicott was sent with ninety vol- 
 unteers, under orders to put to death all the Indians found on 
 the island. The Indians having escaped from the island,
 
 RASH PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENGLISH. 19 
 
 Endicott proceeded to burn their wigwams. But he did not 
 stop here, and probably transcended his orders by pursuing 
 the Indians to the shore on the mainland ; where he began to 
 kill all the people he could find, and to destroy their towns. 
 This rash procedure at once involved the Connecticut col- 
 ony in an Indian war, without their consent, or any notice 
 from the Massachusetts colony. Governor Winthrop, of 
 Connecticut, remonstrated against this conduct of Endicott ; 
 and the commander of the fort at Saybrook severely con- 
 demned the act. The governor of Plymouth also remon- 
 strated against it as "needlessly provoking a war." 
 
 Captain Church states in his history of Philip's war, that a 
 similar sudden aggression was made by the Plymouth peo- 
 ple, by commencing hostilities with the tribe of Indians 
 near Dartmouth. "About ei-ht score (160) of the Indians 
 surrendered under the promise that if they would come in, 
 they should be fairly treated. Without any regard to the 
 promise made to them on their surrendering themselves, 
 they were carried to Plymouth, and sold as slaves to be 
 transported out of the country." Captain Church states : 
 " This action was so hateful, that I opposed it, to the loss of 
 the good will and respect of some that were previously my 
 best friends." Church says: "Had their promise to the 
 Indians been fairly kept, it is probable that most, if not all 
 the Indians in these parts would have followed the example 
 of those who came in ; which would have been a good step 
 toward finishing the war." 
 
 Endicott's ruthless invasion led the Pequots to send ambas- 
 sadors to Miantinomo and make a common cause and extermi- 
 nate the English. They commenced immediately killing the 
 English settlers in Connecticut. Consternation, sufferings 
 and losses for a time desolated the new colony. 
 
 The war was now begun in earnest, and no other course 
 was left than to raise a force to subdue the Pequots. An 
 expedition of 116 men was sent from Hartford, May 26, 
 1637 ; which succeeded in capturing the Pequot fort, and
 
 20 CHARACTER OF ENDICOTT. 
 
 destroying about 300 men, women and children, and cap- 
 turing nearly as many more. Miantinomo aided the English. 
 
 Winthrop states : " It was a fearful destruction and 
 extermination of an ojd nation." He adds : "Fifteen of the 
 boys and two of the girls were sent to Massachusetts, and 
 from thence shipped by the rulers to the island of New 
 Providence, to be sold as slaves." 
 
 "The extermination of an old nation," the reduction of 
 some to slavery, the destruction of many lives, and the deso- 
 lation of the colony of Connecticut, appear by the pre- 
 ceding statements to have been caused by the rash conduct 
 of a few reckless men. 
 
 The impulsive character of Governor Endicott was first 
 manifested by his cutting the red cross from the British flag 
 at Salem ; for which he was temporarily deposed by the 
 influence of the ministers Higginson and Skelton ; who pre- 
 ferred to uphold this emblematic union of church and state. 
 His passionate temper is recorded in his apologetic letter to 
 Governor Winthrop for assaulting " good man Dexter " ; 
 for which offence the pugnacious Endicott was fined forty 
 shillings : 
 
 " SIR : I acknowledge I was too rash in striking him ; 
 after I found that it is not lawful for a Justice of the Peace 
 to strike. But if you had seen the manner of his carriage, 
 with such daring of me, with his arms in kimbow, it would 
 have provoked a very patient man." 
 
 "And further, he hath given out, that if I had a purse, he 
 would make me empty it; and if he cannot have justice 
 here, he would do wonders in England ; and if he cannot 
 prevail there, he will try it out with me here at blows. If 
 it was lawful to try it out with blows, and he a fit person for 
 me to deal with, you should not hear me complain." 
 
 The writer of a Review of Palfrey's History of New 
 England comments on this letter as " a curious exemplifica- 
 tion of the struggle of 'the old Adam' and the Puritan spirit."
 
 TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE PURITANS. 21 
 
 It may excite a smile to read the confession of his having 
 been too rash in striking good man Dexter, after ascertain- 
 ing by a fine of forty shillings that "it is not lawful for a 
 Justice of the Peace to strike." But it is sad to find by 
 historical records, that into the hands of a man of such 
 ungovernable temper and hasty action, was consigned 
 the execution of both the ecclesiastical and civil decrees of 
 the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. The merciless con- 
 duct of this violent man, in the trials and executions of 
 the Quakers, is recorded by the historian Sewell, as follows : 
 
 "John Endicott, seeing the division of the jury, and their 
 hesitation to bring in a verdict against the prisoner, Wen- 
 lock Christison, exclaimed : ' I could find in my heart to go 
 home,' at the same time throwing something furiously on 
 the table. Then Wenlock said : 'It were better for thee to 
 be at home than here, about this bloody work.' 
 
 " Then Governor Endicott stood up and said : ' You that 
 will not convict, record it. I thank God I am not afraid to 
 give judgment.' And seeing them still backward to vote, 
 he took silence for consent ; and precipitately pronounced 
 judgment ; and ordered him to listen to his sentence of death 
 by hanging, until he was dead, dead, dead." 
 
 Mr. Sewell states that the execution of the Quakeress, 
 Mrs Dyer, was urged on by Gov. Endicott. 
 
 Mr. George E. Ellis describes his refusal to show her mer- 
 cy, in his published address before the Lowell Institute, in 
 the following words : 
 
 "I have before me as I write, the sorrowful autograph let- 
 ter of the husband of Mary Dyer, addressed to Gov. Endi- 
 cott, by ' his most humble suppliant, W. Dyer, dated Ports- 
 mouth, R. I., May 3d, 1G69 : ' 
 
 "HONORED SIR. My supplications to yourself and the 
 Honorable Assembly of the General Court, is to beg affec- 
 tionately the life of my dear wife." 
 
 " I cannot tell how she was moved by her spirit agaiu to
 
 22 TREATMENT OF THE QUAKERS BY THE PURITANS. 
 
 run so great a hazard to herself, and trouble to me and 
 her children, and to all her friends and well wishers. So 
 it is, that from Shelter Island, Narragansett, she secretly 
 and speedily journeyed to your jurisdiction. Unhappy 
 journey, may I say, and occasion of grief and trouble to 
 those that desire to remain quiet, by hazarding life for an 
 object, I know not to what end or purpose." 
 
 "If her zeal be so great as thus to adventure, oh, let your 
 pity surmount it, and spare her life. Let not your compas- 
 sion be conquered by her inconsiderate madness, but con- 
 quering ; to the spread of your renowne." 
 
 " You are sensible of my condition ; oh, let Mercy's wings 
 once more soar above Justice's balance, and I will exalt your 
 goodness all my life ; which otherwise will be languishing 
 in sorrow : yea, so great, that I would rather suffer the 
 blow of death at once." 
 
 " I will forbear to trouble your Honors' with words, which 
 cannot express my feelings and distress. Yourselves may 
 be husbands to wives ; I am one to a most dearly beloved. 
 O do not deprive me of her ; I pray you to save her to me : 
 and I shall be so much obliged to you, that thanks will be 
 ever uttered to render your mercy and honor renowned." 
 
 "Pity me : I beg it with tears." 
 
 Mr. Ellis concludes with these words : " The record of 
 these tears are still on the paper which I have before me 
 while I write ; a sadly stained autograph." 
 
 The execution of the Sachem Miantinomo, to which we 
 shall have occasion to revert, bears no comparison in merci- 
 less cruelty to the execution of Mary Dyer, after such an 
 appeal to the sympathies of humanity. 
 
 It is historically instructive to learn how the character of 
 a whole people is stamped by the leading and determining 
 influence of a few headstrong and unyielding men. To 
 John Endicott, more than to any other political leader, un- 
 der the dictation of the Puritan ministers in Boston, appears
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL PRACTICES OF THE PURITANS. 23 
 
 to be due the violent proceedings that finally aroused the 
 attention and re-action, which resulted in the legal establish- 
 ment of religious freedom in Rhode Island, as indispensably 
 necessary for preventing a recurrence of such evils. 
 
 These few brief historical statements show that the fate of 
 a nation depends on the conduct of a few leaders, who may 
 precipitately involve the gentle and the just in the commis- 
 sion of and responsibility for wrong doings. It appears that 
 the most intelligent and just men of the Massachusetts Colony, 
 timorously submitted to an inquisitional church tyranny, 
 originating and exercised in night meetings of the brothers 
 and sisters of congregations, under the direction of in- 
 triguing ministers, and thus prepared to be legally carried 
 out by day light in a legislative assembly and jury of church 
 members. 
 
 Under such a system, it is not surprising that good men 
 like Winthrop, Salstonstall, Winslow, Bradford and others, 
 should have shrunk back from open opposition to such an 
 organized control of religious and civil power, enforced even 
 by domestic female influences. An inadvertent word or act 
 at any time might seriously involve the best person in diffi- 
 culties of church discipline, and in a trial before zealous in- 
 terpreters of a Jewish code of laws. Imprisonments, bor- 
 ing the tongue with hot irons, cutting oft* the ears, banish- 
 ment into the surrounding wilderness, then occupied only by 
 Indians, and death on a gallows, were all held up in bold 
 relief to terrify every one into ready submission to the will 
 of the ruling ecclesiastics.* 
 
 The wonderful credulity involved in the Puritan acceptance 
 of the popular superstitious of that age unsettled the estab- 
 lished belief in the material and natural laws of the uni- 
 
 *.'t appears that in executing the decree of banishment of the Quakeresses, 
 the penalty was added, of whipping their naked backs with ten lashes, in 
 each successive town, while tied on the cart, in which they were transported to 
 the bordtr of the Colony. The present town of Dedham appears to have been 
 the legal frontier of the Christian civilization, blessed with exhibiting the benign 
 spectacle of the naked backs of women, bleeding under the lashes of au execu- 
 tioner.
 
 24 SUPERSTITION OF THE PURITANS. 
 
 verse. It was deemed as sacrilegious to disbelieve the exist- 
 ence of witches, as for Galileo to disbelieve that the sun 
 revolved around the earth. 
 
 The testimony of children from ten to fifteen years of age 
 was considered by Cotton Mather and other ministers in 
 Salem, sufficient proof to hang nineteen old women and one 
 man on " Gallows Hill," in Salem. There was no safety for 
 life or liberty ; they were condemned without reference to 
 the legal proofs required in courts of civil laws. History 
 states that women were stripped naked, and subjected to ex- 
 amination by experts, to discover "Devil's teats" ; and even 
 pimples and flea bites were subjects of examination and dis- 
 cussion. To avoid such public trials, nearly an hundred 
 terror stricken persons, on being accused, confessed them- 
 selves to be witches. 
 
 The popular common sense was finally aroused for self 
 protection, to put a stop to these terrific ecclesiastical pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 After the excitement was over, the accusers came out pub- 
 licly to acknowledge their deceptions. It is stated " the 
 boys in the street hooted after the reverend Cotton Mather, 
 and threw stones at him." 
 
 Even the respected Winthrop, in common with others, is 
 recorded to have been imbued with superstitious ideas ; 
 as appears by his statement that " In his son's room was a 
 book containing the Greek Testament, Psalms ant] 'the Com- 
 mon Prayer,' (Episcopal,) out of which the mice ate every 
 leaf of the Common Prayer, but none of the other parts 
 of the book."* 
 
 There was no chance of reformation of this ecclesiastical 
 domination, until it produced a popular revolt, by becoming 
 too intolerable to be endured; for only one-third of the men, 
 (none but church members,) as stated by Judge Story, were 
 qualified to vote. 
 
 *Elliott's History, page 414 and 416. The publication of such a singular state- 
 ment apparently leads to the inference that mice instinctively knew the 
 difference between orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
 
 CUPIDITY FOR INDIAN LANDS. 25 
 
 The predominance of the ecclesiastical over the civil power 
 is strikingly illustrated in the trial and condemnation to 
 death of the Sachem Miantinoino, in Boston. 
 
 This Narragansett chief rendered himself very obnoxious 
 to the other colonists by his kindness and concessions of 
 land to the exiled Rhode Island colony. Being beyond 
 their charter limits, there was no way of reaching him ex- 
 cept by the pretence of fears of hostility, when the law^of 
 self-preservation might warrant a forcible seizure of his 
 territory. The border settlers in Connecticut coveted the 
 beautiful shores of Narragansett B;iy, and an adjacent Sa- 
 chem, Uncas, desired the downfall of a rival chief, and the 
 division of a portion of the spoils with the border settlers : 
 while Massachusetts actually seized lands at Pawtuxet, which 
 place, Winthrop said, "was likely to be of use as an outlet 
 to Xarragansett Bay." 
 
 The colonists of Rhode Island, who were the most exposed 
 to Indian hostilities, had no fears of, but on the contraiy, the 
 kindest intercourse with the Narragansetts. 
 
 The seizure of the Indian lands, is rebuked by Roger 
 Williams, as follows : 
 
 " In the sight of God, you will find the question at bottom 
 to be, First a depraved appetite after the great vanities, 
 dreams and shadows of this vanishing life, the acquisitions 
 of great portions of laud in this wilderness ; as if men were 
 in a great necessity and danger for want of great portions of 
 land, like the poor, thirsty and hungry seamen, on a long, 
 starving passage. This is one of the gods of Xew England ; 
 for which the Most High will punish the transgressors." 
 
 " Secondly An unneighborly and unchristian intrusion 
 upon us, as being the weaker, although contrary to your, 
 laws, as well as ours, concerning the purchase of lands, I 
 refused all their proffers of shares in lauds, and even to 
 interpret for them with the sachems." 
 
 The title to the territory between the Thames and the 
 Pawcatuck rivers, appears to have been investigated by a 
 4
 
 26 CHARACTER OF UNCAS. 
 
 Committee appointed by the Commissioners of the United 
 Colonies in 1663 ; who made the following report : * 
 
 "Five Sachems, occupying the lands near Norwich, being 
 brothers, grew so great and proud, that while on a hunting 
 expedition, they quarrelled with the Pequots living east- 
 wardly ; at which the great Pequot Sachem made war upon 
 them, and conquered their country. Then they fled to the 
 Narragansetts, leaving their country and people to the con- 
 queror." 
 
 "Therefore the Indians affirm, that all their lands, includ- 
 ing tineas' lands, according to their customs and manners, 
 were Pequot lands, as being by them conquered ; and now 
 are the true right of the English, who have conquered the 
 Pequots." 
 
 "The father of Uncas having married into the royal Pequot 
 family, acquired by this alliance a right to a certain tract of 
 land on the west side of Pequot river, since known as Mohe- 
 gan proper." f 
 
 The following notice of the character of Uncas explains 
 his subserviency in carrying out the designs of the Puritan 
 Colonists : 
 
 "Uncas was exceedingly restless and ambitious. Five times, 
 the Indians say, he rebelled against his superiors, and was 
 defeated by Sassacus. Then he retired to the territory near 
 the present town of Windsor. This brought him into prox- 
 imity with the English settlers at Hartford, and to an ac- 
 quaintance with Captain Mason, by whom he was employed, 
 with seventy Mohegans, in the extermination of Sassacus and 
 the Pequot nation, in May, 1637. He was thenceforth pro- 
 tected and fostered by the English, who conceded to him 
 large tracts of land, and also many captives taken by them. 
 
 *Conn. Colonial Records, 3; 479. 
 
 tin the excellent history of Norwich, Connecticut, written by Frances M. Caul- 
 kins, are contained several notices of the Indians who once occupied the region 
 where Uncas lived, which have not been previously published. From this work 
 the reader may obtain interesting information of the tribes of Indians who lived 
 on the present Eastern borders of Connecticut, adjacent to the Narragansett 
 country.
 
 MIANTIXOMO SUMMONED TO BOSTOX. 27 
 
 He thereby became powerful, and, in the words of other 
 Indians, 'the English made him high.' 
 
 " The Narragansetts and Mohegaus were rival tribes ; Nor- 
 wich was then the Mohegau frontier, the battle ground and 
 lurking place of the hostile tribes." 
 
 These two powerful tribes were annoying to the frontier 
 settlers at Hartford and New Haven ; and as their lands were 
 coveted by them, it was manifestly for their interest to allow 
 a war between these tribes, that they might weaken each 
 other. 
 
 To prevent these two tribes from making warlike prepara- 
 tions, which might suddenly be turned against the adjacent 
 colonies, Miantinomo and Uncas were prevailed, upon by the 
 English to agree "not to make war upon one another without 
 first notifying the English." 
 
 This agreement was in favor of the security of the Con- 
 necticut frontier colonists against the Narragansetts. An 
 easy acquiesence, if not encouragement, was given to Uncas 
 to assail the Narragansetts. 
 
 He first attempted to excite the fears of the English set- 
 tlers in Connecticut and Massachusetts, by reports of the 
 plotting of the Narragansetts and Mohawks. He next 
 affirmed that the Narragausett chief had employed an Indian 
 to assassinate him, as a reason for hostilities. "Of this, 
 however, no proof was adduced." 
 
 " Miantinomo indignantly denied this charge and showed 
 that Uucas cut his arm with a flint, and then accused him of 
 employing an Indian to attempt to kill him." 
 
 Still, the apprehensions of the colonists were not entirely 
 removed. Rumors of a coalition between the various Indian 
 tribes, looking to a general insurrection, floated in the air. 
 
 On alleged fears of hostility from the Narragansetts, 
 the Massachusetts rulers sent for Miantinomo to come to 
 Boston and exculpate himself. 
 
 "He obeyed the summons, and appeared before the Com- 
 missioners of the four Colonies ; and demanded that his ac- 
 cusers should meet him, face to face.
 
 28 INNOCENCE OF MIANTINOMO. 
 
 " He said he was willing to meet Uncas in Boston, or to 
 go and settle with him elsewhere. He then put his hand in- 
 to that of the Governor, with an expression of honesty, that 
 was satisfactory." 
 
 " But Miantinomo went back indignant at the treatment 
 he received as a culprit, and at the refusal to him of a seat." 
 
 " Much dissatisfaction had been excited by taking away 
 the fire arms from the Pokonoket Indians, who had bought 
 and paid for them." 
 
 Conscious of the injustice and numerous wrongs done to 
 the Indians, the Puritan colonists anticipated resistance to 
 such continued aggressions, and were in constant expecta- 
 tion of some -sudden outbreak. "A man could not halloo at 
 night, without exciting a general alarm of an onslaught of 
 "-the Indians ;" as stated by Elliott. 
 
 How surely "conscience doth make cowards of us all." 
 
 The attempt to convict Miantinomo of hostile intentions 
 or actions against the English having failed, Uncas next 
 appears to have been encouraged, by the support of the fron- 
 tier settlers, to act aggressively against the Narragan setts, 
 and provoke Miantinomo to commence a war. 
 
 Accordingly he assailed a kinsman of Miantinomo, Se- 
 quasson, living within the present borders of Connecticut, 
 and killed several of his people. The Narragansett chief 
 gave notice to the governor of Massachusetts of these 
 wrongs and the necessity for resistance. 
 
 It appears that the governor assented to the proposal of 
 Miantinomo to settle the affront he had received from Uncas, 
 "elsewhere" than in Boston. It would be profitable any way, 
 to have the tribes weaken each other. 
 
 In 1643, hostilities were commenced between the adja- 
 cent Sachem Uncas, and the border Narragausett Indians. 
 Miantinomo invaded the territory of Uncas. The crafty 
 Mohegan proposed a conference for a private settlement of 
 the difficulty, while the hostile tribes were arrayed against 
 each other ; and when Miantinomo went out to meet him,
 
 MIANTINOMO A PRISONER OF WAR. 29 
 
 with no suspicions of treachery, the Mohegan warriors sud- 
 denly sprang forward, and seized him, aided by two of Mian- 
 tinoiiio's men ; and succeeded in bearing him off as a cap- 
 tive. To cover up the treachery, Uncas killed the two trait- 
 ors on the spot ; for " Dead men tell no tales." 
 
 The haughty chief stood silent before his captors, until 
 asked by Uncas, "Do you beg for life?" then he replied, 
 "Kill me; I fear not." 
 
 But well knowing the desire of the united colonists to dis- 
 pose of the Narragansett chief advantagously both to them- 
 selves and to himself, Uncas carried the prisoner to Hartford 
 to be disposed of as the colonial rulers saw fit. 
 
 The rulers in Hartford, having no cause of complaint 
 against the Xarragansett chief, " advised that the whole affair 
 should be referred to the Commissioners of the United Col- 
 onies, at their meeting," as there was no law for keeping him 
 a prisoner. In this way the Commissioners of the four Colo- 
 nies obtained possession of Miantinomo as a prisoner of 
 war ; and they assembled in Boston, on the 16th of Septem- 
 ber, 1643, to dispose of him. 
 
 The Commissioners having no criminal allegations against 
 the captive, reported a decision, "that nothing worthy of 
 death had been done by Miaritinonio, but it might not be 
 safe to set him free." 
 
 Then they turned him over to be dealt with by the ten- 
 der mercies of a convocation of numerous ministers, who 
 happened to be then assembled in Boston ; to be disposed of 
 under some of their constructions of the Jewish code of laws. 
 
 The Commissioners thus shifted all legal responsibility 
 from themselves upon the chief priests of the colony in Bos- 
 ton, precisely as the Roman governor, Pilate, shifted his le- 
 gal responsibility iipon the chief priests in Jerusalem. A 
 similar speedy response of a sentence of death was returned 
 from the chief priests in Boston. 
 
 They also justified their sentence of death in the same
 
 30 MIANTINOMO CONDEMNED TO DEATH. 
 
 way, by saying "they had a law, whereby he was worthy of 
 death;" quoting "the Jewish precedents in slaying Agag and 
 others. 
 
 Accordingly the clerical decree, endorsed by the Commis- 
 sioners, was sent to the custodians in Hartford, to deliver 
 over Miantinomo to Uncas to be killed. 
 
 To see that the bloody work was duly executed, two white 
 men were sent with Uncas, with special directions to kill 
 Miantinomo beyond their precincts. 
 
 The account of the death of this chieftain, as given in 
 Winthrop's Journal, states: "Taking Miantinomo along 
 with them, on the way between Hartford and Windsor, where 
 the people of Uncas dwelt, the brother of Uncas followed 
 after Miantinomo, and clove his head with a hatchet." 
 
 As suggested in the History of Norwich : " The Commis- 
 sioners probably had in view Uncas' domain, adjacent to 
 Hartford, when they made their decree, directing Uncas to 
 ' carry the captive into the next part of your own govern- 
 ment, and there put him to death.' Accordingly the locality 
 of the execution of the Narragansett Sachem must have been 
 somewhere between East Hartford and Windsor; and there, 
 in an unknown grave, his remains rest beneath the forest 
 shades." 
 
 The brutality of the barbarous agent, Uncas, is narrated 
 by Trumbull, the historian, who states : "Uncas cut a piece 
 of flesh from the shoulder of the captive, and ate it in savage 
 triumph." 
 
 The place of capture is still known as Sachem's Plains, 
 near Norwich ; and an adjacent spring as Sachem's Spring. 
 
 It is narrated that the Mohegans made a pile of stones on 
 the spot, like a cairn on ancient battle fields. " Every Indian 
 passing by added a stone to the pile ; the Mohegans with a 
 shout of triumph, and the Narragansetts with a moan of 
 lamentation." 
 
 "In the course of agricultural improvements the cairn 
 gradually disappeared. But on the 4th of July, 1841, a
 
 MONUMENT TO MIANTINOMO. 31 
 
 granite monument was erected on the spot, principally 
 through the influence and exertions of William C. Gilman, 
 Esq., aided by citizens of Norwich. It is made of a block 
 of granite five fret square at the base, placed on a pedestal. 
 It bears the simple inscription : 
 
 MIANTINOMO. 
 
 1643. 
 
 In a hostile land a monument has been reared magnani- 
 mously to this chief; but on his native shores no monumental 
 inscription, as yet, records his name. 
 
 After having been instrumental in exciting Uncas to de- 
 stroy the Narragansett chief, the Colonial Commissioners 
 felt bound to protect their agent from the vengeance of the 
 Narragansetts, and accordingly they furnished a body guard 
 of fifteen men for his safety, as the Colonial Kecords testify. 
 
 When a Narragansetl army invaded the territory of Uncas 
 in 1644, and drove him into a strong fort built for him by 
 the English, and besieged him therein, Connecticut colonists 
 rallied to aid him. Uncas liberally paid them for their ser- 
 vices by signing title deeds to Pequot lands. Trumbull says : 
 " Mr. Leflmgwell received from Uncas a conveyance of nearly 
 the whole town of Norwich for his services." Indeed, some 
 of the English served as mercenary soldiers under the brutal 
 Indian chief, and received their pay in lauds. 
 
 On several occasions the Narragansetts would have pun- 
 ished Uncas for his treachery, but were opposed by the sur- 
 rounding settlers, whom they would not attack, and aban- 
 doned their expeditions in despair. 
 
 This fact is referred to in the history of Norwich as follows : 
 " Through all the long-continued contests of the Narragansetts 
 with Uncas, the English of Connecticut, though ostensibly 
 neutral, always protected Uncas."
 
 32 HONOR TO THE NAME OF MIANTINOMO. 
 
 The character of this man, so useful an ally to the Connec- 
 ticut settlers, is depicted in a few words by General Gookins 
 and the Rev. Asa Fitch: "Uncas, an old and willfully 
 wicked man, a drunkard, and every way vicious, hath 
 always been an opposer and despiser of God." 
 
 What an impressive contrast is this character of Uncas 
 to that of Canonicus and Miantinomo, given by Roger 
 Williams, as previously described ! 
 
 The list of crimes of the agent .who killed Miantinomo 
 fills two pages of the history of Connecticut. 
 
 In commenting on the execution of Miantinomo, an able 
 Massachusetts historian, Judge Savage, sadly avows : "I 
 'regret to acknowledge the belief is forced upon me, that 
 Miantinomo was condemned because he favored Gorton and 
 his heterodox associates by the sale of his lands at Shawo- 
 met and Pawtuxet." 
 
 Elliott's New England History refers to the execution of 
 Miantinomo, as "a wicked, w T anton and cruel deed, uusus- 
 tained by any excuse. It was specially advised by a com- 
 mittee of five ministers, and sanctioned by some of the 
 leading and best rulers, such as Wiuthrop, Winslow, Fen- 
 wick and Eaton." 
 
 The gentle historian of Norwich yields to impulses of 
 justice and humanity, in the following expressions :^ 
 
 " The sentence of Miantinomo is one of the most flagrant 
 acts of injustice recorded against the English settlers. He 
 had shown many acts of kindness tothe whites, and evinced 
 a noble and magnanimous spirit in receiving into the bosom 
 of his country, Mason and his little band of soldiers from 
 Hartford ; and greatly assisted them in the conquest of the 
 Pequots." 
 
 " I would gladly come to a different conclusion," says Mr. 
 Hollister, in his history of Connecticut, " and joyfully admit 
 the extenuation of excited fears, of false testimonies, and 
 blinding prejudices ; but never to justify this deed." 
 
 In extenuation of the sentence of death passed on the
 
 APPRECIATION OF INDIAN CHARACTER. 33 
 
 Narragansett Chief, an apologist for the conduct of the 
 Massachusetts Puritans, Reverend J. G. Palfrey, says : 
 
 " The advice of the five ministers of religion to put Mian- 
 tinomo to death, has been thought to add a painful feature 
 to this case. But if this act had not been approved by 
 Christian ministers, it should not have been done at all. 
 The ministers were the guardians of the fold against all 
 wolves. They were not dumb dogs." 
 
 Thus was put to death a faithful, noble-hearted Indian 
 chief, respected and beloved by the Rhode Island people for 
 his many kindnesses to them, and for sterling virtues, that 
 would have adorned the ruler of a Christian nation. 
 
 But goodness and virtue in human character are not sunk 
 and lost in the dust of an obscure grave beneath a dark 
 forest shade, or beneath the ocean waves, where the material 
 body disappears. How unexpectedly is this illustrated in 
 the case of this unjustly sacrificed Narragansett chief; for 
 as if by an unaccountable impulse, our Great Republic has 
 been moved to honor the name of " MIANTINOMO," by affix- 
 ing it to their grandest war steamer ; which was sent forth 
 for exhibition in Europe, as the proudest specimen of Ameri- 
 can art and power. This served to spread the glory of the 
 old chief's name throughout the world. 
 
 To be remembered and honored in after ages is the object 
 of human ambition. All history shows that the practice 
 of the beneficent Christian precept, of " Peace and good 
 will to men," is the surest means to accomplish this object, 
 even by the patient endurance of wrongs, and by returning 
 good for evil ; for 
 
 " The sweet remembrance of the just 
 Shall nourish when they sleep in dust." 
 
 As graphically portrayed by an estimable Connecticut 
 poetess, Mrs L. H. Sigourney, the red men will never be 
 forgotten, while so many of our States, bays, lakes and 
 rivers, are indelibly stamped with their names : 
 
 5
 
 34: PERMANENCE OF INDIAN NAMES. 
 
 "Ye say they all have passed away, 
 That ancient race and brave ; 
 That their light canoes have vanished 
 From off the crested wave : 
 That 'mid the forests, where they roamed, 
 There rings no hunter's shont. 
 But their names are on your waters, 
 Ye may not wash them out : 
 
 Their memory lingers on your hills, 
 Their baptism on your shore ; 
 Your everlasting rivers speak 
 Their dialect of yore. 
 Old Massachusets wears it, 
 Within her lordly crown, 
 And broad Ohio bears it, 
 Mid all her young renown. 
 
 Connecticut hath wreathed it 
 Where her quiet foliage waves, 
 And bold Kentucky breathed it, 
 Through all her ancient caves. 
 Monadnoc, on his forehead hoar, 
 Upholds the sacred trust ; 
 The mountains are their monuments, 
 Though ye destroy their dust. 
 
 Think ye the Eternal's ear is dull, 
 His sleepless vision dim? 
 Think ye He'll fail injustice full, 
 To the wronged who call on Him? "
 
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