Читать книгу Great Events in the History of North and South America - Charles A. Goodrich - Страница 28

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Territory of the Pequods—Their Character—Sassacus—His hatred of the English—Cruelties practised towards them—War declared by Connecticut—Expedition of Captain Mason—Surprise and destruction of the fort—Further prosecution of the war—Happy consequences resulting from it.

The Pequods are supposed to have emigrated from the interior parts of the country, towards the sea-shore of Connecticut. They inhabited more or less of the territory now constituting that state, as well as a part of Rhode Island, and New York as far west as the Hudson river. At what time this emigration took place, is not known. Being a fierce, cruel, and warlike people, they made all the other tribes stand in awe of them, though they were fewer in number than their neighbors, the Narragansets. The principal seat of the Pequod sagamores was near the mouth of the Pequod river, now the Thames, where New London is built. There was said to be one principal sagamore, or sachem, over the rest. He who sustained this distinction, at the time of the English settlements in Connecticut, was Sassacus. His name alone was a terror to all the neighboring tribes of Indians. At the height of his power, he had twenty sachems under him.

Sassacus ever regarded the English with feelings of jealousy and hatred. As he considered them, intruders on his domains, he was determined to expel them, if possible. Fired with rage, he breathed nothing but war and revenge. The utmost effort and art were employed by him to produce a combination of Indian power against them. The Narragansets, as related in another place, barely escaped the snare. But though unable to effect any extensive union, Sassacus was firm in himself, and inspired all the Indians under his influence with the resentment that burned in his own bosom.

Finding war with this powerful and exasperated chief unavoidable, the Connecticut people prepared for it with such means and resources as they could command. A court was summoned to meet at Hartford on the 1st day of May, 1637, at which it was resolved, that an offensive war should be immediately commenced against the Pequods. Ninety men were ordered to be raised from the three towns on Connecticut river, and Captain John Mason was appointed to command an expedition into the heart of the Pequod country. At the same time, the report of the slaughter and horrid cruelties, committed by this savage tribe against the people of Connecticut, roused the other colonies to exertions against the common enemy. Massachusetts resolved to send two hundred men, and Plymouth forty, to assist the sister-colony in prosecuting the war. Captains Stoughton, Trask, and Patrick, were appointed their commanders.

The troops embarked at Hartford on the 10th of May, and sailed down the river to Saybrook. They consisted of ninety Englishmen, and about seventy Mohegans and river Indians. While at Saybrook, forty of the Indians under Mason, being out at some distance from the place, fell in with about forty of the enemy, killed seven and captured one, who was brought to the fort, and executed by the English. Here the little army was joined by Captain Underhill with nineteen men, who had some months before been sent by the governor of Massachusetts to strengthen the garrison at Saybrook. This accession to his forces permitted Mason to send back twenty of his original number for the protection of the infant settlements on the river, which were peculiarly exposed at this crisis. The whole force, including the Indians, was embodied and directed by Mason. After remaining several days at Saybrook to complete his arrangements, he sailed, with his Connecticut forces, for Narraganset bay, where he arrived on the 19th of May. At this place, two hundred of Miantonimoh's warriors were engaged to accompany the English forces on the expedition. Information was now received from Captain Patrick, that he had arrived at Providence with forty Massachusetts' men, under orders to join the troops of Connecticut. For various reasons, but chiefly from an apprehension that the Pequods might gain intelligence of the expedition, Mason commenced his march, without waiting for Patrick's company, and soon reached Nehantick, the seat of the Narraganset sachems. Here he was joined by an additional company of Indians—the whole army, including the English, amounting to more than five hundred.

Here they staid over night, and learning that the Pequods held two forts, one at Mystic river and the other about three miles west of that, they resolved, contrary to their original plan of attacking both together, to make a united attack on the Mystic fort, and accordingly commenced their march. After a march of twelve miles, through forests and over hills and morasses, Mason reached the Pawcatuck. The day was very hot, and the men, through the great heat and a scarcity of provisions, began to faint. Here he halted for some time, and refreshed the troops. In the meanwhile, the Indians, who had previously boasted how they would fight, when they learned that the forts were to be actually attacked, and the dreaded Sassacus to be met, were overcome by their fears, and many of them returned home to Narraganset. But the intrepid Mason, resolving to advance, despatched a faithful Indian to reconnoitre the fort, who soon returned with information that the Pequods were unapprised of their danger, and appeared to be resting in entire security. The march was immediately rëcommenced towards Mystic river, and on the night of the 26th, the whole body encamped about three miles from the fort.

"The important crisis was now come when the very existence of Connecticut, under Providence, was to be determined by the sword in a single action, by the good conduct of less than eighty men." They proved themselves, as the event shows, worthy of the occasion, and properly conscious of the interest at stake. To God they looked for aid and courage, at an hour when the decision was to be made, whether all that they held dear in life should be secured, or wrenched from them for ever.

Captain Mason and his Party attacking the Pequod Fort in the Swamp.

Two hours before day, the troops were in motion for the assault. At this juncture, Mason's Indians entirely lost their resolution, and began to fall back. The captain bid them not to fly, but to surround the fort at any distance they pleased, and there remain witnesses of the courage of the English. Without delay, the fort was approached on two opposite sides, the Pequods having just before been aroused from sleep by the cry of one of their number, "Owanux, Owanux!"—Englishmen, Englishmen! He had, at that instant, been awakened by the barking of a dog. While the Pequods were rallying, Mason's troops advanced, and poured in a fire through the openings of the palisades, and wheeling off to a side barricaded only with brush, rushed into the fort, sword in hand. Notwithstanding the suddenness of the attack, and their great confusion, the enemy made a desperate resistance. Concealing themselves in and behind their wigwams, they maintained their ground stoutly against the English, who, advancing in different directions, cut down every Indian they met. But the victory was not certain—it had not been achieved. Mason felt it to be an awful moment. Happily it occurred to him to burn the Indian wigwams. The shout was immediately uttered, "We must burn them!" It was done. In a few moments the mats, with which their dwellings were covered, were in a blaze, and the flames spread in every direction. As the fire increased, the English retired without the fort, and environed it on every side. The Indians now recovering courage, formed another circle exterior to that of the English.

The amazed Pequods, driven from their covert by fire, climbed the palisades, and presenting themselves in full view, more than one hundred were shot down. Others, sallying forth from their burning cells, were shot, or cut in pieces with the sword. In the mean time, many perished in the flames within the fort. The battle, in this locality, continued about an hour, and the scene of terror and blood is hardly to be described. Seventy wigwams were consumed, and between five and six hundred of the enemy, of all descriptions, strewed the ground, or were involved in the burning pile. This victory was achieved with the loss only of two men killed and twenty wounded.

In the course of the attack, in the interior of the fort, Captain Mason's life was in immediate danger. As he was entering a wigwam to procure a firebrand, a Pequod, perceiving him, drew his arrow to the head, with a view to pierce the captain's body. At this critical moment, a resolute sergeant entering in, rescued his commander from imminent peril by cutting the bow-string with his cutlass.

Although the result of the engagement was the complete overthrow of the Pequod camp, yet the situation of the Connecticut army was extremely dangerous and distressing. Two of their troops were killed, and at least one-fourth wounded; the remainder were faint with fatigue and want of food; they were in the midst of an enemy's country, many miles from their vessels, and their ammunition was nearly expended. The principal fortress of their enemy was but three miles distant, where there was a fresh army, which they knew would be filled with rage, on learning the fate of their comrades. In this perilous condition, while they were consulting on the course to be pursued, their vessels, as if guided by the visible hand of Providence, appeared in sight, steering with a fair wind into the harbor. The little band, however, were not permitted to reach Pequod harbor without additional fighting. For no sooner had the vessels been discovered, than three hundred Indians came from the other fort, and were disposed to attack Captain Mason's party. He, however, so disposed of his few available men, assisted by the Indians with him, who carried the wounded English, that the Pequods were prevented from coming so near as to do any mischief. But the balls of the English muskets took effect on several of their number; and though, when the enemy came in sight of the demolished fort, they raved, and tore their hair from their heads, and rushed forward with the utmost fury to demolish the English, they were taught to repent their rashness. Finding all attempts in vain, to break in upon the little army, they left the victors to pursue the remainder of their way to Pequod harbor unmolested. They entered it with their colors flying, and were received on board the vessels with every demonstration of joy and gratitude.

The troops employed on this expedition, reached their homes in about three weeks from the time they embarked at Hartford. They were received with the greatest exultation. Benisons were poured forth on them from all lips. But to God, especially, as the helper of his people in their fearful trial, did the anthem of praise ascend from the domestic altar and the solemn assembly.

The Pequods, on the departure of Captain Mason, burned their wigwams, destroyed their principal fort, and were with difficulty restrained from putting their own chief, Sassacus, to death, as they looked upon him as the author of their calamity. They scattered themselves throughout the country, Sassacus, Mononotto, and seventy or eighty of their chief counsellors and warriors, taking their route over Hudson river. In the mean time, Massachusetts, hearing of the success of Mason, despatched a body of one hundred and twenty men under Captain Stoughton, to follow up the victory. Arriving in the enemy's country, the Massachusetts army, finding a body of that tribe in a swamp, made an assault upon them, with the aid of the Narragansets. Some twenty-eight were killed and a larger number taken prisoners.

The court at Connecticut ordered that forty men should be raised forthwith, for the further prosecution of the war, under the same commander. These troops formed a junction with the party under command of Stoughton at Pequod, and the conclusion was immediately to march in pursuit of Sassacus. They proceeded on their way as far as Quinnipiac (New Haven), where, after staying several days, they received intelligence that the enemy was at a considerable distance, in a great swamp to the westward. Here the Indians were met, and an engagement took place, under circumstances of great difficulty to the English, many of whom were nearly mired, but it was nevertheless attended with success. The fighting was of a most desperate character, the assailants finding it nearly impossible to master or dislodge the foe. Under the cover of a fog, after having been watched through the night, Sassacus and sixty or seventy of his bravest warriors broke through the English ranks, and escaped. About twenty Indians were killed, and one hundred and eighty were taken prisoners. The Pequods, who remained in the territory, amounting to some two hundred, besides women and children, were at length divided among the Narragansets and Mohegans, and the nation became extinct.

The character of this war, from the boldness and vigor with which it had been prosecuted, seemed to belong to the age of romance. It is replete with thrilling incident and daring adventure. Yet the sober, religious spirit and convictions of duty, which accompanied the pilgrims to battle, turn its chivalrous aspect into the features of stern reality and unavoidable necessity. It involved the fate of an infant republic and the interests of posterity. The conquest of the Pequods, while it was so fatal to one party, was productive of the most happy consequences to the other. It struck the Indians throughout New England with such a salutary terror, that they were contented to remain at peace nearly forty years.