CHAPTER VIII. SETTLEMENT OF CONNECTICUT-PEQUOT WAR-EXPEDITION OF MASON- THE first English settlement of Connecticut is due to the enterprise of the little colony of Plymouth. The more powerful government of Massachusetts, deterred by many alarming rumors, had obstinately refused to undertake it. In October, 1633, William Holmes, with the frame of a house, and a small company of men, was dispatched in a vessel from Plymouth, to establish a trading-post on the Connecticut river. He passed the Dutch fort at Hartford, despite the threats of the garrison, and built his house in what is now Windsor, a little below the junction of the Farmington with the Connecticut. Emigration from Massachusetts rapidly followed, and by the end of the year 1636, about eight hundred emigrants were settled in various stations on the Connecticut. An Indian war, ere long, menaced the destruction of the new plantation. The Pequots, some years earlier, had committed several murders, and injurious reprisals had lately been made by an expedition dispatched from Massachusetts. The severest consequences of the hostility thus kindled fell upon the latelyplanted colony; the Indians, being ever on the alert to surprise stragglers from the settlements, and often putting their * "Two colonies of churches being brought forth, and a third conceived, within the bounds of New England, it was time," says Cotton Mather, "for the devil to take the alarum, and make some attempt in opposition to the possession which the Lord Jesus Christ was going to have of these utmost parts of the earth. These parts were then covered with nations of barbarous indians and infidels, in whom the prince of the power of the air did work as a spirit; nor could it be expected that nations of wretches, whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil-worship, should not be acted by the devil to engage in some early and bloody action, for the extinction of a plantation so contrary to his interests, as that of New England was.”—Magnalia Christi Americana. captives to death with cruel tortures. A small fort, erected by the English at Saybrook, was in a state of constant siege. Sassacus, the chief sachem of the Pequots, with a policy far more common in civilized than savage warfare, now made every effort to secure an alliance with his old enemies, the Narragansetts, for the extirpation of the hated strangers. He dispatched ambassadors to Canonicus and Miantonimo, urging every motive for the relinquishment of their ancient enmity, and the union of their forces against the common enemy. To counteract this mission, the Massachusetts authorities requested Roger Williams, whom they had so lately driven from their jurisdiction, to undertake the difficult and hazardous task of gaining over the Narragansetts to the English interests. Readily overlooking his own wrongs, in zeal for the public good, the exiled minister at once set forth alone in his canoe, "cutting through a stormy wind and great seas, every minute in hazard of life," to the dwelling of the two sachems. There he remained three days, mingling freely with the Pequot ambassadors, still reeking with the blood of the slaughtered settlers, and "from whom he nightly looked for their bloody knives at his throat also." His influence, combined with ancient enmity, outweighed all the eloquence of the Pequots. The aged Canonicus, ("morosus æque ac barbarus senex")* as he calls him, was softened by his persuasions, and entered into league with the English. Throughout the war which ensued, his authority, and the information which he afforded, were of great service to the settlers. In April, 1637, an attack was made by the Pequots on Wethersfield, and nine people were killed—an alarming outrage, which roused the colonists into immediate and energetic action. Ninety men, under Captain John Mason, a bold and active soldier, were equipped, and the Rev. Mr. Stone, who had led his people through the wilderness to Hartford, was appointed their chaplain. A party of seventy Mohegan Indians, led by the famous or notorious Uncas, then in rebellion * "An ancient alike savage and morose." against his kinsman Sassacus, were likewise induced to join the expedition. Letters, entreating assistance, were also sent to Massachusetts, and a body of men, under command of Daniel Patrick, was dispatched from that colony, to raise a force of Narragansetts, and then to join the party of Mason. Early in May, the latter proceeded down the river, and Uncas, with his people, being set on shore, defeated a party of the enemy, killing seven and taking one prisoner. This captive, to the disgrace of the whites, they were permitted to torture to death. From Saybrook, the expedition set sail for the Narragansett country, intending thus to take the Pequots by surprise. From thence Mason, attended by a considerable body of native allies, at once marched westward, unwilling, by waiting for the approaching forces of Patrick, to risk his chance of surprising the enemy in their quarters. He was apprehensive that the Indians, if advised of his coming, would fly "to a swamp, some three or four miles back of them, a inarvellous great and secure swamp, which they call Ohomowauke, which signifies Owl's nest." A little before day-light, on the 5th of June, he led his forces up the "Pequot Hill,”* on which their strongest fortress was situated. The Indians, though taken entirely by surprise, fought well with their rude weapons, and for some time maintained an uncertain contest. At last, Mason, wearied out, cried, "We must burn them!" and, catching a brand, set fire to the mats in one of the wigwams. The flame, urged by a high wind, rapidly spread through the whole fort, and a terrible scene ensued. The warriors, fighting till their bow-strings were snapped by the heat, perished in the burning wigwams, or were shot down as they vainly attempted to escape over the palisades. A great number of women, children, and aged people, were also victims to the same horrible fate. In all at least four hundred perished, and possibly many more. "It was supposed," says Dr. Increase Mather, "that no less *In Groton. It still retains the name. than 500 or 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day."* Others have said that the number of the victims was nearer eight hundred. "It was a fearful sight," says old Morton, "to see them thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same; and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies into their hands," &c. The distress of the friends of the slaughtered garrison is described by Cotton Mather, as usual, with unfeeling exultation. They had hastened to the scene on the following day, in great numbers "but when they came to see the ashes of their friends mingled with the ashes of the fort, and the bodies of their countrymen so terribly barbikew'd, where the English had been doing a good morning's work, they howl'd, they roar'd, they stamp'd, they tore their hair; and though they did not swear, (for they knew not how,) yet they curs'd, and were the pictures of so many devils in desparation." The complete destruction or subjection of the tribe maturally ensued. The Pequots, separated into small bodies, were easily cut off, in detail, by the forces of the English, and slain or carried into slavery. On one occasion, several hundred were taken in the Narragansett country, and, to use the language of the Rev. William Hubbard, "the men among them, to the number of 30, were turned presently into Charon's ferry boat, under the command of Skipper Gallop, who dispatched them a little without the harbour." "Twas found," says Cotton Mather, "the quickest way to feed the fishes with 'em." The women and children were enslaved or given to the Narragansetts. The worthy doctor seems to have taken especial delight in contemplating the uncomfortable future of his foes. Elsewhere he says, "we have heard of two and twenty Indian captains, slain all of them, and brought down to hell in one day." Again, he tells us of a certain chief, who sneered at the religion of the English, and "withal, added a hideous blasphemy, immediately upon which, a bullet took him in the head, and dashed out his brains, sending his cursed soul in a moment amongst the devils and blasphemers, in hell forever."-" Prevalency of Prayer," page 7. Sassacus and a small body of his followers took refuge among the Mohawks, by whom, however, they were speedily put to death; and the remainder of his tribe, thinned by massacre and transportation, remained in complete subjection to the English. In reading accounts like these, it seems hard to determine which is the savage and which the child of civilization-and the hasty conclusion would be that, except in the possession of fire-arms to defeat the Indians, and of letters to record their destruction, the authors and approvers of such deeds were but little in advance of the unhappy race, whose extermination left room for their increase and prosperity. But until our own day is free from the disgrace of scenes parallel in cruelty, enacted by those who have had the advantage of two centuries of civilization, it ill becomes us to question with too great severity the deeds of men struggling for existence, in the wilderness, not only with a savage foe, but with all those hardships and uncertainties which render the heart of man fierce, callous, and unscrupulous in the means of self-preservation. The most disagreeable part of the whole business, as we have remarked before, is the fiendish exultation of the learned historians, who, sitting in their arm-chairs at Boston and Ipswich, record, with godless sneers and chuckles, the defeat and suf ferings of the savage patriots of the soil. These gentlemen, possessed with a happy conviction of their own righteousness, appear to have thought that the Lord, as a matter of course, was on their side, and that only the Adversary, or his agents, could be arrayed against them. A long course of ecclesiastical dictation had made them, in their "conceit," as infallible as so many popes; and a constant handling of Jewish scripture had supplied them with a vast number of historical texts, all susceptible of excellent application in behalf of their position. These were the wars of the Lord; the extirpation of the uncircumcised occupants of the Promised Land; crusades against Edomites, Philistines, and Og, king of Bashan; and any severity to the vanquished, or any |