It had been Mason's intention to fall upon both the principal forts of the enemy at once; and finding it impossible, he says, "we were much grieved, chiefly because the greatest and bloodiest sachem there resided, whose name was Sassacus." The execution of this design would have saved him much subsequent loss and labor. That great warrior was so little discouraged by the horrible havoc already made among his subjects, that immediately on receiving the intelligence he despatched, perhaps led on in person, a reinforcement of three hundred warriors, who pursued the English very closely for a distance of six miles, on their march towards Pequot harbor.
But the reception which this body met with from the English, drove them to desperation. The whole remaining force of the nation repaired to the strong-hold of Sassacus, and vented all their complaints and grievances upon his head. In their fury they even threatened to destroy him and his family; and perhaps nothing but the entreaties of his chief counsellors, who still adhered to him in his misfortunes, prevented his being massacred by his own subjects in his own fort. A large number deserted him, as it was, and took refuge among the Indians of New York. The fort was then destroyed, and Sassacus himself, with seventy or eighty of his best men, retreated towards the river Hudson.
To kill or capture him, was now the main object of the war; and the Pequots were pursued westward, two captured sachems having had their lives spared on condition of guiding the English in the surprisal of their royal master. The enemy were at last overtaken, and a great battle took place in a swamp in Fairfield, where nearly two hundred Pequots were taken prisoners, besides killed and wounded. Seven hundred, it was computed, had now been destroyed in the course of the war. As Mason expresses himself, they were become "a prey to all Indians; and happy were they that could bring in their heads to the English—of which there came almost daily to Windsor or Hartford." So Winthrop writes late in the summer of 1637-"The Indians about still send in many Pequots' heads and hands from Long Island and other places." &c. [FN]
[FN] Journal, Vol. I.
But Sassacus was not destined to fall by the hands of the English, although thirteen of his war-captains had already been slain, and he was himself driven from swamp to swamp, by night and day, until life was hardly worthy of an effort to preserve it. Even his own men were seeking his life, to such extremities were they compelled by fear of the English. One Pequot, whose liberty was granted him on condition of finding and betraying Sassacus, finally succeeded in the search. He came up with him in one of his solitary retreats; but finding his design suspected, and wanting the courage necessary for attacking a warrior whom even his Narraghansett enemies had described as "all one God," [FN] he left him in the night, and returned to the English.
[FN] Mason's History.
The sachem was at last obliged to abandon his country. Taking with him five hundred pounds of Wampum, and attended by several of his best war-captains and bravest men, he sought a refuge among the Mohawks. These savages wanted the magnanimity to shelter, or even spare, a formidable rival, now brought within their power by his misfortunes. He was surprised and slain by a party of them, and most of the faithful companions who still followed his solitary wanderings, were partakers with him of the same miserable fate. The scalp of Sassacus was sent to Connecticut in the fall; and a lock of it soon after carried to Boston, "as a rare sight," (says Trumbull,) and a sure demonstration of the death of a mortal enemy.
Thus perished the last great sachem of the Pequots; and thus was that proud and warlike nation itself, with the exception of a small remnant, swept from the face of the earth. The case requires but brief comment. However this tribe and their chieftain might have been predisposed to treat the English, and however they did treat their Indian neighbors, they commenced their intercourse with the whites, ostensibly at least, in a manner as friendly and honorable as it was independent. Previous to the treaty, indeed, complaints had grown out of the murder of Stone; but the English had no evidence at all in that case, while the evidence of the Pequots was, according to their own acknowledgement, cogent if not conclusive, in support of their innocence.