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Table of Contents

Territory of the Narragansets—Canonicus their sachem—His mode of challenging the English to War—Union proposed between the Pequods and Narragansets—How defeated—Haughty bearing of Miantonimoh—Accused of a conspiracy against the English—Accusations repelled—Peace concluded between him and Massachusetts—War between Uncas and Miantonimoh—The latter captured and delivered to the English—How disposed of—Troubles with the Narragansets under Ninigret—Expedition against him—Issue of it.

The Narragansets were considered a great nation among the Indians. The territory of their sachem extended about thirty or forty miles from Sekunk river and Narraganset bay, including Rhode Island and other islands in that bay. Pawcatuck river separated it from the Pequods. Under the rule of Canonicus, in 1642, this nation was at the height of its greatness, and was supposed to embrace a population of thirty thousand inhabitants. He was sachem of the tribe at the time of the landing of the fathers on the shores of New England, and continued in this capacity to the time of his death, in 1647. He died, it is believed, at a very advanced age. At the period of the settlement of Plymouth, the Wampanoags were in great fear of the Narragansets, and at one time war actually existed. During its continuance, Massasoit fled before Canonicus, and sought the protection of the English.

The Narragansets, at an early period, were not disinclined to seek a quarrel with the English. In view of the weakness of the latter, they began to utter threats, although the summer preceding they had desired and obtained peace. They deemed it a favorable opportunity for their purpose, as the English had just received an addition to their numbers, but not to their arms or provisions—a circumstance of which the Indians were advised. Their desire, or intention, was definitely made known by the following significant circumstance: In February, 1622, Canonicus sent a man, accompanied by one Tokamahamon, a friendly Indian, into Plymouth, bringing with him a bundle of arrows, bound with a rattle-snake's skin, and, leaving them there, immediately left the place. When Squanto was made acquainted with the incident, he informed the English that it was a challenge for war. The governor (Bradford) taking the rattle-snake's skin, and filling it with powder and shot, returned it to Canonicus. At the same time, he instructed the messenger to bid him defiance, and dare him to the combat. This had the desired effect upon the Indian sachem. He refused to receive the skin, as also the other chiefs, until it was at last returned to Plymouth. Canonicus was evidently awed by the hostile bearing and threat of the English.

Governor Bradford and the Snake-skin.

Not long after this affair, the Pequods proposed to the Narragansets to join them in rooting out the English: on the ground that if the Pequods were once destroyed, the ruin of the Narragansets was sure to follow. The English would want their lands. They were spreading fast. But a timely combination would save both tribes and their inheritance. On these politic representations, the historian Hubbard cleverly remarks that, "Machiavel himself, if he had sat in council with them, could not have insinuated stronger reasons to have persuaded them to a peace." It is said that the Narragansets felt the force of them, and were almost persuaded to accede to the proposal, and to join with the others against the English; but when they considered what an advantage they had put in their hands, by the power and favor of the English, to take full revenge of all their former injuries upon their inveterate enemies, the thought of that was so sweet, that it decided their hesitating minds.

The governor of Massachusetts, in order to prevent a union between these savage nations, and to strengthen the bands of peace between the Narraganset Indians and the colony, sent for Miantonimoh, who was their sachem in connection with Canonicus, inviting him to come to Boston. Upon this, Miantonimoh, together with two of the sons of Canonicus, another sachem, and a number of their men, went to Boston, and entered into a treaty to the following effect: That there should be a firm peace between them and the English and their posterity—that neither party should make peace with the Pequods without the consent of the other—that they should not harbor the Pequods—and that they should return all fugitive servants, and deliver over to the English, or put to death, all murderers. The English were to give them notice when they went out against the Pequods, and they were to furnish them with guides. It was also stipulated that a free trade should be maintained between the parties.

These articles were indifferently well observed by the Narragansets till their enemies, the Pequods, were totally subdued; but after that event, they began to grow insolent and treacherous, especially Miantonimoh himself. The English seem always to have been more favorably disposed towards other tribes than to the Narragansets, as appears from the interest they took in the wars between them and their enemies. As long as the other tribes succeeded against them, the English took no part in the contests; but whenever the Narragansets prevailed, they were ready to intercede.

After the period of the Pequod war, in 1637, the Narragansets were the most numerous and powerful of the Indian tribes in this part of the country. Conscious of their power, and discontented that the whole sovereignty over the rest of the Indians was not adjudged to belong to them, or envious that Uncas, the chief sachem of the Mohegans, had gained the favor of the English more than themselves, they constantly sought occasions of disagreement with the Mohegans. This was in contravention of an agreement made between the English and the Narragansets, in the year 1637, when they had helped to destroy the Pequods, and also the triple league between the English, Mohegans, and Narragansets, entered into at Hartford in 1638. The Narragansets seemed to owe a special spite against Uncas and the Mohegans, from the time of the distribution of the Pequods after the termination of the war. They had probably expected the whole management of that affair for themselves. They therefore found occasions of quarrel with Uncas, and were hardly kept from making open war with him, when they saw all other attempts to destroy him by treachery, poison, and sorcery had failed. The Mohegans, though a less numerous and powerful people than the Narragansets, were yet more warlike in character and more politic in their intercourse with the whites.

The disposition of Miantonimoh was haughty and aspiring, and he seemed to infuse the same spirit into the minds of his people. He possessed a fine figure, was tall of stature, and was a master of cunning and subtlely. It was strongly suspected that, in the year 1642, he had contrived to draw all the Indians throughout the country into a general conspiracy against the English. Letters from Connecticut, received at Boston, had announced the existence of such a conspiracy, and even the details of it were given. The time appointed for the assault was said to be after harvest—the manner, to be by several companies entering into the houses of the principal men, professedly for the purposes of trade, and then to kill them there; one company seizing their arms, and others being at hand to prosecute the massacre. It was urged on the part of Connecticut, that war should be begun with them, and that if Massachusetts would send one hundred and twenty men to Saybrook, at the mouth of the river, they would meet them with a proportionable number. Though there was a probability in the stories afloat, respecting the Narragansets, yet the general court of Massachusetts did not think the information to be a sufficient ground for commencing a war. The court, however, ordered that the Indians within their jurisdiction should be disarmed, and to this they willingly assented. The sachem of the Narragansets was, moreover, sent for to Boston, and, by his readiness to appear, confirmed the English in the opinion that nothing had as yet occurred which could be construed into a justifiable cause of war. The sachem's quarrel with the Mohegans would very naturally render them a subject of such a report, whether there was a foundation for it or not.

Miantonimoh very consistently urged before the court, that his accusers should be confronted to him, and their allegations sifted, so that the truth might be ascertained—that if they could not prove their charges, they might receive the punishment which was their due, and which would have been inflicted on himself if found guilty, that is, death—and that as the English must have believed the report, because they ordered the disarming of the Indians, so equity required that they who accused him, should be punished according to the offence charged upon his own person. He, moreover, engaged to prove that the report was raised by Uncas himself, or some of his people. On the part of English, the disarming of the Indians was excused on the ground that Englishmen's houses had been robbed in several instances by the Indians, which was a consideration that somewhat satisfied the chief. The Connecticut people yielded, though with reluctance, to the decision of the Massachusetts court.

They spent two days in making a treaty of peace, the delay being occasioned by the difficulty of obtaining Miantonimoh's consent to a portion of the stipulations. It was, however, effected to the satisfaction of the English. Indian hostages were given for its performance, and, excepting a company stationed in the Mohegan country for the protection of Uncas, the whites laid aside warlike preparations.

In the year 1643, Miantonimoh invaded the Mohegans with nine hundred of his warriors; Uncas met him at the head of five hundred of his men, on a large plain; both prepared for action, and advanced within bow-shot. Before the conflict commenced, Uncas advanced singly, and thus addressed his antagonist: "You have a number of men with you, and so have I with me. It is a pity that such brave warriors should be killed in a private quarrel between us. Come like a man, as you profess to be, and let us fight it out. If you kill me, my men shall be yours; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine." Miantonimoh replied: "My men came to fight, and they shall fight." Uncas had before told his men, that if his enemy should refuse to fight with him personally, he would fall down, and then they were to discharge their missiles on the Narragansets, and fall upon them as fast as they could. This was accordingly done. Uncas instantly fell upon the ground, and his men poured a shower of arrows upon Miantonimoh's army, and with a horrible yell advanced rapidly upon them, and put them to flight. Uncas and his men pressed on, driving them down ledges of rock, and scattering them in every direction. Miantonimoh was overtaken and seized by Uncas, who, by a shout, called back his furious warriors. About thirty Narragansets were slain, among whom were several noted chiefs. Finding himself in the hands of his implacable enemy, Miantonimoh remained silent, nor could Uncas, by any art, force him to break his sullen mood. "Had you taken me," said the conqueror, "I should have asked you for my life." No reply was made by the indignant chief, and he submitted without a murmur to his humiliating condition. He was afterwards conducted to Hartford, by his conqueror, and delivered to the English, by whom he was held in duress until his fate should be determined by the commissioners of the colonies. After an examination of his case, the commissioners resolved, "that as it was evident that Uncas could not be safe while Miantonimoh lived, but either by secret treachery or open force his life would be constantly in danger, he might justly put such a false and blood-thirsty enemy to death; but this was to be done out of the English jurisdiction, and without cruelty or torture." Miantonimoh was delivered to Uncas, and by a number of his trusty men was marched to the spot where he was captured, attended by two Englishmen to see that no torture was inflicted, and the moment he arrived at the fatal place, one of Uncas' men came up behind, and with his hatchet split the skull of the unfortunate chief. The body was buried on the spot, and a heap of stones piled upon the grave. The place since that time has been known by the name of Sachem's plain, and is situated in the town of Norwich, in Connecticut.[20]

The Narragansets, as was to be expected, ever afterwards bore an implacable malice against Uncas and all the Mohegans, and also for their sakes secretly against the English, so far as they dared to discover it. But the death of Miantonimoh, and the preparation for the invasion of the Narraganset country by the English which had been made, put an end to hostilities for a period in the eastern part of Connecticut.

In continuing the Narraganset history, Ninigret now properly comes into view. As already mentioned, he was sachem of the Nianticks, a tribe of the Narragansets. In 1644, the Narragansets and Ninigret's men united against the Mohegans, and for some time obliged Uncas to confine himself and men to his fort. The Indians, however, afraid of the English, abandoned the siege, and came in to Boston to sue for peace. This was granted; but a short time after, it became necessary to again terrify them. With twenty men, Captain Atherton marched to the wigwam of Ninigret, entering which, he seized the chief, and threatened his life. This step had the desired effect. The Indians begged for life, and promised submission.