Part 5 (1/2)
At the mouth of the Connecticut River the fort of Saybrook had been erected It was built strongly of timber, to resist the approaches of the Dutch as well as of the Indians, and was garrisoned by about fifty men As this point commanded the entrance of the river, it was deemed of essential importance that it should be effectually fortified But the Pequots were now so earrison in a state of siege They burned every house in the vicinity, razed all the out-houses of the fort, and burned every stack of hay and every useful thing which was not within reach of the guns of the fortress The cattle were all killed, and no person could venture outside of the fort The Indians, keeping beyond the reach of gun-shot, danced with insulting and defiant gestures, challenging the English to coroans and pious invocations which they had extorted from their victims of torture
This awful state of affairs rendered it necessary to prosecute the ith a degree of energy which should insure decisive results The story of Indian atrocities caused every ear in the three colonies to tingle, and all united to punish the common enemy Plymouth furnished a vessel, well armed and provisioned, and manned by fifty soldiers under efficient officers Massachusetts raised two hundred men to send promptly to the theatre of conflict Connecticut furnished ninety men from the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield This was an imans dwelt in the interior of the country, and were consequently nearer the English settlements Their sachem, Uncas, had his royal residence in the present town of Norwich He was a stern, recklessindependence of Sassacus, with his powerful section of the tribe The Mohegans, Pequots, and Narragansets all spoke the saans, with apparent eagerness, united with the English The Narragansets also continued fired friendshi+p to the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonists, and promised a liberal supply of warriors to aid thehty Pequots Sassacus had now raised a storht dread The doom of his tribe was sealed
On Wednesday, the 10th of May, 1637, the Connecticut troops, consisting of ninety Englishans, embarked at Hartford in three vessels, and sailed down the river to the fort at Saybrook The expedition was coan sachem, led the Indian warriors When they arrived near the mouth of the river, the Indians desired to be set on shore, that they ht advance by land to the fort, and attack the Pequots by surprise The English were very apprehensive that their unreliable allies were about to prove treacherous, and to desert to the Pequots
But, as it was desirable to test them before the hour of battle arrived, they were perans, however, proved faithful On their way to the fort they fell in with forty Pequots, who killed seven of their number, and taken one a captive Their wretched prisoner they bound to a stake, and put to death with every barbarity which deest
The two parties ly intrenched, about twenty miles east of them, in two forts, or, rather, fortified towns These Pequot fortresses were about fivehills, one on the banks of the Thainal plan to sail directly into the mouth of the Thae foe in his concentrated strength But these fortresses were so situated as to command an extensive view of the ocean, as well as of the adjacent country The vessels, consequently, could not enter Pequot Harbor without being seen by the Indians, and thus giving the and anxious deliberation, the chaplain of the expedition, Rev Mr Stone, having been requested to pass the night in prayer for Divine guidance, it was decided to sail directly by thethe shore to Narraganset Bay Here they hoped to meet with the troops dispatched from Plymouth and Massachusetts They could thenthe Pequot forts in the night and through the forest, could attack them by surprise
On Friday, the 19th of May, the expedition sailed froh their runners, kept themselves informed of every , they felt that the decisive hour had come, and prepared for battle But when they saw the vessels pass directly by without entering the harbor, they were exceedingly elated, supposing the English were afraid to attack them They shouted, and danced, and clashed their weapons, and assailed their foes with all the artillery of barbarian derision But the colonists, unconscious of the ridicule to which they were exposed, continued their course, and caht of Saturday evening was darkening into night It was too late then to land, and the next day being the Sabbath, they all remained on board their vessels, in the sacred observance of the day All of Monday, and until late in the afternoon of Tuesday, a fearful gale swept the ocean, so that no boat could pass to the shore Tuesday evening, however, Captain Mason landed, and had an intervieith Miantunnoh in rank, who seeovernhty chiefs--one cautious, wise, and old; One young, and strong, and terrible in fight-- All Narraganset and Coweset hold; One lodge they build, one council-fire they light”
The fiery-spirited young sacheht with thelish, cordially received Captain Mason, granted hih his country, and immediately called out a re-enforceht an Indian runner arrived in the camp, and informed Captain Mason that Captain Patrick, with forty men, who had been sent in advance of the Massachusetts and Plyer Willia to meet him Desirable as this junction was deemed, after mature deliberation, it was decided not to wait for Captain Patrick, as it was very iansets stood in great dread of the Pequots, and it was feared that their zeal row cold It was also feared that if they did not proceed is of their approach
The little ar, Wednesday, May 24th, colishansets were great braggarts They lorious boasts, and, with the estures, declared that they would no the English how to fight Guided by Indians through the forest, they pressed along rapidly through the day, and at night, having traversed about twenty miles, bivouacked upon the banks of a s they resu the stream, approached the territory of the Pequots As they had advanced, large nuanset warriors had flocked to join thees in the advance leading them on
The day was intensely hot, and, in their rapid march, several of the troops fainted by the way But, conscious thatthe Pequots by surprise, Captain Mason urged his men forward, and about noon reached the banks of the Pawcatuck River, about twelve ht's encampment The Indians led them to a point in the river where they could pass it by a ford They halted here for an hour, and refreshed themselves, and then moved on with much caution, as they were now almost in the country of their foe It was but twelve miles from the ford to the first Pequot fort on the banks of the Mystic
It had been the intention to attack both the forts, the Mystic and the Pequot, at once; but Wequash, a Pequot sachem, who had revolted frouide, here gave theth of these fortresses as induced them to alter their resolution, and to decide to ansets found that Captain Mason was actually intending to march directly up to the very palisades of the fort, and assail those fierce and terrible warriors in their strongholds, they were filled with amazeanset All who relish now found that their Indian allies could render thereat odds against which they would have to contend, they pressed vigorously and silently on, followed by a vagabond train of two or three hundred savages The sun had gone down, and the shades of night were descending upon the forest when they reached the banks of the Mystic
They were noithin three reat Pequot forts, on what is still called Pequot Hill, in the present town of Groton
Crossing the stream, here narrow and shallow, by a ford, they crept cautiously along, in the deepening darkness, until they cay bluffs now called Porter's Rocks
The troops, excessively fatigued by travel and the heat of the sultry day, threw the to advance and make the attack upon the fort just before the break of day The night was serene and cloudless, and a brilliant moon illumined the couch of the weary soldiers They were now so near the fort that they could hear the shouts of the savages in their barbaric carousals A few ht they were all aroused from their sleep to march to the perilous assault Devoutly these Christian heroes gathered around their chaplain, the Reverend Mr
Stone, and, with uncovered heads, united with him in fervent prayer that God would bless their enterprise They were not going into the battle inspired by aain They were contending only to protect their wives and their children froansets, now that the stern hour of trial had coathered them around him and said,
”We ask no aid from you You may stand at any distance you please, and look on, and see how Englishht”
The fort was on the sue of seventy ams, surrounded by a palisade These palisades consisted of posts planted side by side, and so high that they could not be climbed over The warriors stationed behind them were safe apparently froh the posts There were but two entrances to the fort, one on the northeastern and the other on the southwestern side Between six and seven hundred Indians ithin the fort
The English troops were divided into two parties, one headed by Captain Mason, and the other by Captain Underhill, who had been in command of the fort at Saybrook They decided to h the ht as day, yet the Indians, unsuspicious of danger and soundly asleep, gave not the slightest indication of alarm until the two parties had each silently approached within a rod of the entrances A dog was then heard to bark, and ilishlishmen!” The entrances were h The assailants instantly poured a volley of bullets in upon their sleeping foes, and, sword in hand, rushed over the feeble barriers Notwithstanding the surprise and the appalling thunder of the guns, the Pequots sprang to arms andfro thefearful slaughter of their foes They speedily swept the street clear of all opposition The savages, however, who still vastly outnuwae of every covert, allish with a shower of arrows and javelins The conflict was now fierce in the extreme, and for a time the issue was very doubtful
Several of the colonists were already killed, and hs and bark of trees, and covered with mats, were as dry as powder Captain Mason, at this critical wams”
Torches were immediately applied; the flames leaped froe was as a furnace of roaring, crackling fla-places, presented a sure mark for the bullet, and they were shot down and cut doithout ht, but a massacre The Indians, bewildered with terror, thren their arms, and rushed to and fro in vain attempts to escape Soet for innu flas For a molowing furnace, and then they fell as crisped embers
The heat soon becalish were compelled to retire outside of the fort But they surrounded the fla fortress, and every Indian who attempted to escape was shot In one short hour the awful deed was accomplished
The whole interior of the fort was in ashes, and all the inmates were destroyed with the exception of seven only who escaped, and seven ere taken captives The English knew that at a short distance from them there was another fort filled with Pequot warriors It consequently was not safe to burden their little band with prisoners whouard nor feed They also wished to strike a blohich would appall the savages and prevent all future outrages
Death was, therefore, the dooansets, who had tilish, and who had not ventured into the fort of the dreaded Pequots, stood tre with dis was cold, and a strong wind swept the bleak hills The little arons could accoh the wilderness