History of the United States, Volume 1

by Elisha Benjamin Andrews

New Amsterdam in the middle of the Seventeenth Century.

The Duke of York, afterwards James II.
[1664]
But the Dutch sway in their little part of the New World was about to
end. The English had never given over their claim to the country by
virtue of their first discovery of the North American continent. The New
Netherlanders, tired of arbitrary rule, sighed for the larger freedom of
their New England neighbors. Therefore, when in 1664 Charles II. granted
to his brother, the Duke of York, the territory which the Dutch were
occupying, and sent a fleet to demand its submission, the English
invader was welcomed.

The Tomb of Stuyvesant. "In this Vault lies buried PETRUS
STUYVESANT late Captain Genral & Governor in Chief of Amsterdam, In New
Netherland now called New York and the Dutch West India Islands. Died
A.D. 1672 Aged 80 years."
Almost the only resistance came from the stout-hearted governor, who
could hardly be dissuaded from fighting the English single-handed, and
who signed the agreement to surrender only when his magistrates had, in
spite of him, agreed to the proposed terms. But the founders of the
Empire State have left an indelible impress upon the Union, which their
descendants have helped to strengthen and perpetuate. They were honest,
thrifty, devout, tolerant of the opinions of others. As Holland
sheltered the English Puritans from ecclesiastical intolerance, so New
Netherland welcomed within her borders the victims of New England
bigotry and narrowness.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FIRST INDIAN WARS
[1637]
Troubles between the Indians and the whites arose so early as 1636. John
Oldham was murdered on Block Island by a party of Pequot Indians. Vane
of Massachusetts sent Endicott to inflict punishment. The Pequots in
turn attacked the fort at Saybrook, and in 1637 threatened Wethersfield.
They were planning a union with the Narragansets for the destruction of
the English, when Roger Williams informed the Massachusetts colony of
their designs and, at the urgent request of the governor and council,
hastened to the chief of the Narragansets and dissuaded him from
entering into the alliance.
The moment was critical. Captain Mason with about ninety English and
seventy Mohegans, under their sachem, Uncas (a sub chief, who with his
district, Mohegan, had rebelled against the Pequot sachem, Sassacus),
was sent from Hartford down the Connecticut River. Entering the Sound,
he sailed past the mouth of the Thames and anchored in Narragansett Bay,
at the foot of Tower Hill, near Point Judith. He knew that keen-eyed
scouts from the Pequot stronghold on the west bank of the Mystic River,
near Groton, had, as his three little ships skirted the shore, been
watching him, to give warning of his approach. He therefore resolved to
come upon the enemy from an unlooked-for quarter. This plan was directly
contrary to his instructions, which required him to land at the mouth of
the Thames and attack the fort from the west side. He hoped, marching
westward across the country, to take the enemy by surprise on their
unprotected rear, while the Indians, trusting in the strength of their
fort, as it fronted the west, should believe themselves secure.

Attack on the Fort of the Pequots on the Mystic River
"The figure of the Indians fort or Palizado in NEW ENGLAND And the maner
of the destroying It by Captayne Underhill and Captayne Manson"
Thirteen men had been sent back to the Thames with the vessels. Two
hundred Narragansets had joined the expedition, though their sachem,
Miantonomoh, thought the English too weak to fight the dreaded Pequots.
Mason's enterprise was admirably planned, and he was as fortunate as he
was bold and skilful. He divided his men into two parties. One, led by
Underhill, climbed the steep ascent on the south side of the Indian
village; the other, directed by Mason himself, mounted the northern
slope. The garrison was buried in slumber, made more profound by
carousals the preceding night. One Indian was heard to cry out
"Englishmen" before the volley of musketry from the attacking force told
that the white enemy had come. Mason entered a wigwam and fought, as did
the others, hand-to-hand with the now awakened and desperate foe. Coming
out with a firebrand and exclaiming "We must burn them," he set fire to
the wigwam. The flames were quickly carried through the fort by the
northeast wind. Underhill from his side applied powder. So rapidly did
the flames spread that the English had difficulty in making good their
escape, while the Pequots who escaped the sword were doomed to perish by
fire. In an hour's time from four hundred to six hundred had fallen,
more than half of them women and children. Of the Englishmen two were
killed and about twenty wounded. In this dreadful slaughter the
Narragansets had little share, for they had shown such fear that Mason
had said to Uncas, "Tell them not to fly, but stand at what distance
they please and see whether Englishmen will now fight or not."

Attack on the Pequot Fort.
With the approach of day three hundred Pequots advanced from a second
fort intending to fight, but they were struck with horror at the sight
of their dead fellow-warriors. Keeping the enemy at bay, the English
marched to the vessels, which had arrived at Pequot Harbor, and, placing
the wounded on board, continued their march to Saybrook. The remnant of
the Pequots sought to escape from the country, moving westward along the
Sound. Captain Stoughton, sent with one hundred and twenty Massachusetts
men, was guided by the Narragansets to a swamp in which a little band of
those hostile savages had hidden. The men were slain, offering little
resistance. The women and children were divided among the Indian allies
or sold into slavery by the colonists of Massachusetts Bay.
Mason and Stoughton together sailed from Saybrook along the shore, while
Uncas with his men tracked the fugitives by land. At Guilford a Pequot
sachem was entrapped, shot, and his head thrust into the crotch of an
oak-tree near the harbor, giving the place the name of Sachem's Head.
Near the town of Fairfield a last stand was made by the hunted redskins,
in a swamp, to which the English were guided by a renegade Pequot. The
tribe with whom the Pequots had taken shelter, also the women and
children, were allowed to give themselves up. The men were shot down or
broke through and escaped. The wife of Mononotto fell into the hands of
the English. This Indian squaw had once shown kindness to two captive
girls, and by Winthrop's orders she was kindly treated in return. The
Pequots, once so powerful, were well-nigh exterminated. Those taken
prisoners were spared only to be held in bondage, Mononotto's wife with
the rest. Some were absorbed by the Narragansets, others by the
Mohegans, while the settlers of Connecticut, upon whom the war had
fallen so heavily, came into possession of the Pequot land.
[l638]
For nearly forty years the New England colonies were not again molested,
the merciless vigor with which they had fought making a lasting
impression upon their blood-thirsty foes. The cruel slavery to which the
surviving natives were subjected, the English justified by the example
of the Jews in their treatment of the Canaanites.