Whatever was the disposition of the Pequots previous to this date, there is no question about them ever afterwards. They determined to extirpate the whites from the limits of Connecticut; and to that great object Sassacus now devoted the whole force of his dominions and the entire energies of his soul. The forts and settlements were assaulted in every direction. In October, five of the Saybrook garrison were surprised, as they were carrying home their hay. A week afterwards, the master of a small English vessel was taken and tortured; and several others within the same month. The garrison just mentioned were so pressed before winter, (1636-7) that they were obliged to keep almost wholly within reach of their guns. Their out-houses were razed, and their stacks of hay burned; and so many of the cattle as were not killed, often came in at night with the arrows of the enemy sticking in them. In March, they killed four of the garrison, and at the same time surrounding the fort on all sides, challenged the English to come out and fight, mocked them with the groans and prayers of their dying friends whom they had captured, and boasted they could kill Englishmen "all one flies." Nothing but a cannon loaded with grape-shot, could keep them from beating the very gates down with their clubs.
Three persons were next killed on Connecticut river, and nine at Wethersfield. No boat could now pass up or down the river with safety. The roads and fields were everywhere beset. The settlers could neither hunt, fish, nor cultivate the land, nor travel at home or abroad, but at the peril of life. A constant watch was kept night and day. People went armed to their daily labors, and to public worship; and the church was guarded during divine service. Probably no portion of the first colonists of New England ever suffered so horribly from an Indian warfare, as the Connecticut settlers at this gloomy and fearful period.
Nor was the employment of his own subjects the only measure adopted by Sassacus against his civilized enemy. He knew them too well to despise, however much he detested them. He saw there was need of all the ingenuity of the politician, as well as the prowess of the warrior, to be exercised upon his part; and he therefore entered upon a trial of the arts of diplomacy with the same cunning and courage which were the confidence of his followers in the field of battle. The proposal of alliance offensive and defensive which he made to his ancient rival and foe, the chief sachem of the Narraghansetts, was a conception worthy of a great and noble soul. And such was the profound skill with which he supported the reasonableness of that policy, that, (as we have heretofore seen,) Miantonomo himself wavered in his high-minded fidelity to the English cause. But for the presence and influence of Roger Williams, [FN] the consummate address of the Pequot must have carried his point.
[FN] That gentleman, in one of his letters preserved on the Mass. Records, writes—"That in ye Pequt Wars it pleased your honoured Government to employ me in ye hazardous and waighty Service of negotiating a League between Yourselves and the Narigansetts; when ye Pequt messengers (who sought ye Narigansett's league against the English) had almost ended yt my worck and life together."
The measures taken by the other colonies, in consequence of the state of things we have been describing, and the minutiæ of the famous expedition of Mason, are too well known to be repeated at length. The contest was not long continued, but it required the most serious efforts on the part of the English; and not only did Massachusetts and Plymouth feel themselves under the necessity of aiding Connecticut in the suppression of this common and terrible foe, but many of the Narraghansetts also were called on to aid, with the Nianticks, the Mohegans and other tribes upon the river.
Sassacus must have felt, that the day of restitution and reparation was indeed come upon him for all his ancient victories and spoils. Every people in his neighborhood who had suffered, or expected to suffer, from his pride or his power, now gladly witnessed the onset of a new enemy against him; and large numbers availed themselves of the opportunity to do personal service. Not less than five hundred Indians of various tribes accompanied Mason in his march against the great Pequot fortress. Not a few of them, without doubt, remembered old times as well as Miantonomo himself; though they acted very differently in consequence.
These gallant allies were so eager to go against the Pequots, that nothing but the van of the army could satisfy them for their own station. "We hope," said they, (—or something, no doubt, to that purpose—)
"We hope it will offend not you nor yours The chiefest post of honor should be ours."
Upon which