Читать книгу The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans: An A to Z of Tribes, Culture, and History - Adele Nozedar - Страница 91

A chief of the Narragansett, Canonicus would have been born around the 1560s.

When the Pilgrim Fathers first landed at Plymouth, Canonicus was one of the first Native American chiefs they had any dealings with. By all accounts Canonicus was not at first impressed with the immigrants, treating them with disdain. However, after the incident for which he became best known, he would reverse his opinion.

Canonicus is remembered as the chief who challenged the head of the new colony, William Bradford, by sending him a bundle of arrows tied together with the skin of a snake. As a riposte, Bradford sent a parcel back to Canonicus: the “gift” was a bundle of lead shot and gunpowder.

This small package was passed among the Narragansett with an increasing amount of awe and reverence, until it eventually acquired an almost magical superstitious relevance. The gunpowder and shot were finally returned to Bradford, this time as a symbol of peace, and in 1636 Canonicus signed over part of the tribe’s territory to the white settlers without any recourse to war.