Part 4 (1/2)

When they arrived at Wey around the wretched settle colonists with the uthtest spirit of retaliation The Indians had been so accustonity, that they had alrims were ht men landed, they were met by a mob of Indians, who, by derision and insolence, seemed to aim to provoke a quarrel Wittuwamet, the head of the conspirators, was there He was a stout, brawny savage, vulgar, bold, and impudent, almost beyond the conception of a civilizedof confederates, he approached Captain Standish, whetting his knife, and threatening his death in phrase exceedingly conte By the side of this chief was another Indian nath, who taunted the captain with his inferior size, and assailed hiuardism All this it would be hard for a meek man to bear Captain Standish was not a meek man The hot blood of the Puritan Cavalier was soon at the boiling point Disdaining to take advantage even of such a foe, he threw aside his gun, and springing upon the gigantic Peksuot, grasped at the knife which was suspended froround to a point as sharp as a needle There was a moment of terrific conflict, and then the stout Indian fell dead upon the ground, with the blood gushi+ng frolisheneral fray Wittuwamet and another Indian were killed; another was taken prisoner and hung upon the spot, for conspiring to destroy the English; the rest fled

Captain Standish followed up his victory, and pursued the fugitives A few e and power so overwhelmed the hostile Indians that they implored peace

The Weymouth men, thus extricated froh Captain Standish told them that he should not hesitate to stay with one half their nuenerously offered to take them with him to Plymouth, where they should share in the now alrims But they decided, since they had a san, an island near the lish shi+ps came annually to fish The captain helped them on board the vessel, provided for them a supply of corn, and re in the distant horizon of the sea He then returned to Plymouth, and all were rejoiced that the country was delivered froretted the hasty and violent measures adopted by Captain Standish, and yet they could not, under the circumstances, severely condemn him The Rev Mr Robinson, father of the Plymouth Church, wrote from Holland:

”Due allowance must be made for the warm temper of Captain Standish I hope that the Lord has sent hiht I fear, however, that there is wanting that tenderness for the life of ht to cherish It would have been happy if some had been converted before any had been killed”

CHAPTER IV

THE PEQUOT WAR

1630-1637

Prosperity of the colonies--Massachusetts Colony--Settle the settlers--Correspondence with the Dutch governor--Dutch colonies--Taking possession--Opposition to their settlement--Beauty of Connecticut--The Pequots--Sassacus--The three powers--Continual wars--Power of Sassacus--Trading expedition--Murder of the company--Diplomatic skill--Indians'

account of the affair--Friendly alliance--Planting new colonies--Indications of er Williams--Mr

Williams sent as embassador--His mission--His success--Enmity of the Pequots--Acts of violence--Discovery of theexpedition to the Pequots--John Gallop--Valiant behavior of Captain Gallop--Victory over the Indians--The body of Captain Oldham--Loss of the pinnace--Retribution--The expedition--The first attack--The English victorious--The work of devastation--Inefficiency of the punishy of Sassacus--Vigilance of the eneetic action--Raising an arans--Departure of the troops--Torture of a captive--Fortresses--Plan of attack--Delight of the Pequots--Detentions--Landing--Cordial reception--Re-enforce--Continued re-enforceed--Ardor of the Indians cooled--Desertions--Repose--Devotions of the English--Address to the Indians--The fort--Negligence of the enewams burned--Massacre--Horrors of the scene--Exter--Alish--The vessels seen--Attack froansets--Retreat of the English--Grief of Sassacus--Journey to Saybrook--Effects of the victory--News of the victory dispatched to Massachusetts--New expedition--Fugitives--Pursuit--Sachem's Head--Arrival at New Haven--News of a camp in a swamp--Surrender of Indians--Escape of the Pequots--Death of Sassacus--Children sold into slavery--Extermination of the tribe--The motives for the deed--The sunshi+ne of peace and plenty

The energetic, yet just and conciliatory rims at Plymouth, in their intercourse with the Indians, were productive of the happiest results For several years there was a period of peace and prosperity The colony had now beco fro the coasts and into the interior the comforts and the refinements of civilization

In the year 1630, ten years after the landing of the Pilgrientleanized a colony, upon a rate to Massachusetts Bay, under the name of the Massachusetts Colony The leaders in this enterprise were her cast of character, intellectual and social, than their brethren at Plymouth On the 12th of June this company landed at Salem, and before the close of the year their nuration now began to flow very rapidly, and eight or ten toere soon settled Toward the close of this year a few families moved to the end of the peninsula now called Boston The dense wilderness spread around the huts near the beach, at the north end, and by fishi+ng, hunting, and raising Indian corn, obtained a frugal existence In the five following years very great accessions wereup rapidly all along the coast The colonists appear to have been conscientious in their dealings with the natives, purchasing their lands of them at a fair price Nearly all these men came to the wilderness of this neorld inspired by as lofty motives as can h rank At an immense sacrifice, they abandoned the luxuries and refineht enjoy in New England that civil and religious liberty which Old England no longer afforded them

The Dutch had now established a colony at thewistfully at the fertile meadohich their traders had found upon the banks of the Connecticut The English were apprehensive that the Dutchpossession of that important valley In 1630 the Earl of Warwick had obtained fro west frorant comprehended the whole of the present state of Connecticut and considerablewest to the Dutch settlements on the Hudson River Preparations were immediately made for the establishment of a small company on the Connecticut River Governor Winthrop sent a overnor at New Netherlands, as New York was then called, inforion of the Connecticut River to his own subjects, and requesting that the Dutch would not build there Governor Van Twiller returned a very polite answer, stating that the authorities in Holland had granted the saly requested the English not to settle there

Governor Winthrop ih the wilderness to explore the country, and several small vessels were sent to ascend the river, and, by trade, to establish friendly relations with the Indians The Plymouth colony also sent a co When William Holmes, the leader of this company, had sailed up the Connecticut as far as the present city of Hartford, he found that the Dutch were before hio back, and stood by their cannon with lighted torches, threatening to fire upon hiardless of their threats, which they did not venture to execute, pushed boldly by, and established himself at the mouth of Little River, in the present town of Windsor Here he put up his house, surrounded it with palisades, and fortified it as strongly as hisinformed of this movement, sent a band of seventy men, under arms, to tear down this house and drive away the occupants But Hol him so well fortified that he could not be displaced without a bloody conflict, retired

The whole region of the State of Connecticut was at this tiloomy forest, which overshadowed both mountain and valley There were scattered here and there a few spots where the trees had disappeared, and where the Indians planted their corn The Indians were exceedingly numerous in this lovely valley The picturesque beauty of the country, the genial climate, the fertile soil, and the vast variety of fish and fohich abounded in its bays, ponds, and streae life

These Indians were divided into very many tribes or clans, more or less independent, each with its sachem and its chief warriors The Pequots were by far thethem Their territory spread over the present towns of New London, Groton, and Stonington Just north of theans, under their distinguished sacheans, thus united, were resistless It is said that, a few years before the arrival of the English in this country, the Pequots had poured down like an inundation fro all opposition before them, and had taken possession of the sea-coast as a conquered country

Sassacus was the sovereign chief of this nation The present town of Groton was his regal residence Upon two co and beautiful eed over a very extensive prospect of the Sound and the adjacent country, Sassacus had erected, with much barbarian skill, his royal fortresses The one was on the banks of the Mystic; the other, a few miles west, on the banks of the Pequot River, now called the Tha Island, and along the coast froanset Bay, to the Hudson River, and spreading into the interior as far as the present county of Worcester in Massachusetts Thus there seerims, three dominant nations, with their illustrious chieftains, who held sway over all the petty tribes in the south and easterly portions of New England The Waenerally The Narragansets, under Canonicus, occupied Rhode Island The Pequots, under Sassacus, reigned over Connecticut

These powerful tribes were jealous of each other, and were aled in wars

Sassacus had twenty-six sachems under him, and could lead into the field four thousand warriors He was shreary, and treacherous, and with great jealousy watched the increasing power of the English, ere now spreading rapidly over the principal parts of New England

In the autumn of the year 1634, just after Willialish traders, Captains Norton and Stone, ascended the Connecticut River in a boat, with eight e assortoods which the natives prized, and for which they were eager to barter any thing in their possession The Indians one night, as the vessel was moored near the shore, rushed from an ambush, overpowered the crew, murdered every individual, and plundered and sunk the vessel The Massachusetts colony, which had then become far more powerful than the Plymouth, demanded of Sassacus redress and the surrender of thethen prepared for hostilities, sent an embassy to Massachusetts with a present of valuable furs, and with an artfully contrived story in justification of the deed

The barbarian embassadors, with diploht have envied, affirlish had seized two peaceable Indians, bound the them off in their vessel, no one knehere As the vessel ascended the river, the friends of the two captives followed cautiously through the forest, along the banks, watching for an opportunity to rush to their rescue The Indians ell acquainted with the treachery of the infa thelish adventurers, according to the representation of the Indians, drew their vessel up to the shore, and all landed to sleep At ht, the friends of the captives watched their opportunity, and lish while they were asleep, killed all, and released their friends They also stated that all the Indians engaged in the affray, except two, had since died of the sistrates of Massachusetts, men of candor and justice, could not disprove it; and as, ad this statement to be true, but little blaovernor of Massachusetts accepted the apology, and entered into friendly alliance with the Pequots In the treaty into which he at this time entered with the Indian elish the Connecticut River and its ilish would establish settlely, arrange of a colony in the valley of the Connecticut In the autumn of 1635, five years after the establishment of the Massachusetts colony at Salem, and fifteen years after the establishment of the Plymouth colony, a company of sixty persons, men, women, and children, left the towns of Dorchester, Roxbury, Watertown, and Cah the pathless wilderness in search of their future home It was the 12th of October when they left the shores of Massachusetts Bay

For fourteen days they toiled along through the wilderness, driving their cattle before the incredible hardshi+ps as they traversed h almost impenetrable swamps On the 9th of November they reached the Connecticut at a point near the present city of Hartford The same journey can now be taken with ease in two and a half hours In less than a year three toere settled, containing in all nearly eight hundred inhabitants A fort was also erected at the entrance of the river, to exclude the Dutch, and it was garrisoned by twenty an to be seriously alarlish They became sullen, and annoyed the colonists with many acts of petty hostility There were soonhostilities, and that he was probably laying his plans for a combination of all the tribes in a resistless assault upon the infant settles, under Massasoit, were still firreatly feared that the Narragansets, whose poas very forht be induced to yield to the solicitations of the Pequots