Connecticut Historical Collections

The following account of the destruction of the Pequots is princi- pally taken from the account written by Capt. IMason, the conunander of the expedition, entitled " A Brief History of the Pequot War." ike. published in Boston in 1736. The soldiers from Connecticut, ninety in number, arrived at Saybrook on W^ednesday, where they lay wind- bound till Friday, Pith of lAlay, 1637. There was a dilference of opinion between Capt. IMason and his o/Iicers, whether to sail directly to Pequot (now Thames) river, or go on beyond and land his men at Narragansett. The instructions were to land the men at Pequot river. " But Capt. Mason, appieliL'iuliiig- an exceediiit,' <,Mi'at lia/anl in so doini,', Cor the reasons fore meulioned, as also some oilier wliicli 1 shall lurbear to tionbie you with, dirt therelbre earnestly dcsiio j\'lr. .Stone that he would commend our condition to tiie Lord that night, to direct how, and in what manuer we should demean ourselves iit thai Respect; he being our Chaplin and lying aboard our Pnik, the Cuptaiu on bhoar. <; 11 O T O N , 313 In the mornii)g very early Mr. Stone came ashoar to the Captain's chamber, and told liim he had done as he desired, and was fnliy satisfied to sail for Narrnganseit : onr council was then called, and the several reasons alledj^ed; in fine we all airreed with one accord to sail for Narraganselt, which the next morning, (May i-Jih,) we put iii execution. " [The little army arrived at Narragansett bay on Saturday towards evening, where ihey kept tlie Salibaih. On account of the wind they were not able to go on shore till sunset on Tuesday, when Capi Mason landed and' went to the chief sachem's resi- dence and desired a free passage througli his country, which was granted. The next day, Wednesday, they arrived at a place called ymjantic, eighteen or twenty miles distant, where resided another IVairagansett sachem, who lived in a fort. As they would not sutler any of the English to go into their fori, C.-ipt. Wasc)n set a guard aroimd it, and would not suffer any of the Indians to go out ami give mlurmalioii to the Pequots of their approach.) " On Thursday, about eight of the clock in the morning, we marched thence to- wards Pequot, with about live hundred Indians; but througli the heat of the weather, and want of provisions, some of our men fainted, and alter having marched about twelve miles we came Xo Pawcatnck v'wkt, at a Ford where our Indians told us the Pequots did usually fish; there making an Alta, we stayed some small time; the Nar- ragansctt Indians manifesting great fear, insomuch that many of them returned, although they had frequently despised us saying, 7'Aa/ u^e durst not Ionic vpon a I-'cqun/, but themselves would perform great things; though we had often told them that we came on purpose and were resolved, God assisting, to .see the Pequots, and to fight with them before we returned, though we perished. I then enquired ol Onkos, (Un- cas,) what bethought the Indians would do? who said the Narragansctis would all leave us, but as for himself, he would never leave us; and so it proved ; for which ex- pression, and some other speeches of his, I shall nevtr forget him. Indeed he was ii great friend, and did great service." South vitw of ror(er''s Rocks, Groion. [The above is a southern view of Porter's Rocks, on the shore of Mystic river, in Groton, where Ciipt. Mason and his little army lay on the niuht previous to l)is attackin-;^ the Pequot fort, which was about two miles to the southwest. These rocks are situated about half a mile south of the house of Daniel Eldrid^^^c, Esq. and about the same distance from the village in Stonini^ton at the head of Mystic. From the top of the ledge, Fortersville and the ocean can be seen.] " And after we had refreslied ourselves with our mean commons, we marched about three miles, and came to u tichi which had lately been planted with Indian corn: there we made another Alf, and calh-d uiu- council, supposing we drew near to tlie enemy: and being inb.iincd by the Indians that the enemy had two forts almost impregnable; but we were noi at all discouraged, but rather animated, in.somuch that we were re- solved to assault both tiieir forts at once. But undeisianding that one olthem was so 40 314 G 11 O T 0 N . remote lli:U we could not come up with it befure midnight, thougli we marched hard : whereat we were miicli grieved, chieriy because the greatest and bloodiest sacheni there resided, whose name was Sassacous: We weie then constrained, being exceed- ingly spent in our. march with extreme heat and want ol" necessaries, to accept the nearest." " We then marching on in a silent manner, tlie Indians that remained fell all into the rear, who formerly kept the van, (being possfssetl with great fear;) wc continued our march till about one hour in the night: and coming lo a little sicawp between tionki/ts, we pitched our litilecamp; much v/earied with hard travel, Iceeping great MJiMc, supposing we were very near the fort as our Indians informed us, which proved otherwise. The rocks were our pillow;;; yet rest was pleasant. The night pio'/ed comfortable, being clear and moonlight. We appointed our guards, and pla- c'.' I our sentinels at some distance; who heard the enemy singing ut the fort, who cjiilmucd their .strain till midnight, with great exulting and rejoicing as we were af- terwards informed. They seeing our piaiKLrcsu'ddby ihem some days before, conclu- ded u'c were afraid of them, aud durst not come near ihem, the burthen of their song tending to that purpo>e." " In the morning, (b'riday, 2lllh of May,) we awaking and seeing it very light, sup- ptjsing it had been day, ami so we might iiave lost our opportunity, having i)iirposeil to make our assault hei'ore day, roused ihe men w iih all expedition, and brie/ly com- memled ourselves ami design to God, thinking immediately to go lo the assault. The Indians showed us a path, and told us ihat it led directly to the fori. AVe held on our maich about two miles, wondering that we came not to the fort, and fearing we might he tleluded; but seeing corn newly planted at the toot of a great hill, su|)posing the iort wa.^ not far oil', a champion counlry being round about us; then making a stand, gave the word for some of the Indians to come uji; at length Unkcs and one WnjuosU appeared. We demanded of them. Where was the fort ? They answered on the lop of thai hill. Then we demanded, Where were llie rest of the Indians? 'I'hey an- swered behind, exceedingly afraid. We wished them to tell the rest of their fellows, that they should by no means llv Ijul stand ut what distance they jdeased, and see whether Englishuieu would now fight or not. Then Captain Underbill came up, who marched in the rear; and commending ourselves lo God, we divided our men, there l)^•ing two entrances into the fori, intending to enter both at once — Captain Mason leading up to that on the northca.st side, who approached within one rod, lieard a dog hark, and an Indian crying Owaauxl Owoiiux! which is Englishmen ! Eng- lishmen ! We called up our forces with all expedition, gave fire upon them through III.' pallizado, ihe Indians being in a dead, indeed their last sleep. Then we wheeling oil', lell upon the main entrance, which was blocked up with bushes about breast high, over which the Captain passeil, intending to make good th(? entrance, encouraging the rest to follow. Lieuienant Seeley endeavored lo enter ; but being somewhat cumber- ed, stepped back and pulled out ihe bushc's and so entered, and with him about sixteen men. We had formerly concluded to destroy them by the swoul and save the plun- der." '' Whereupon r:i|)iuiii Mason seeing no Indians, entered a wigwam, where he was liijsei with many Iiuii.ins, waiting all oppiirtuniiics to lay hamls on hiin, but could nut prevail. At leiigih MV///rtw ////(/i^/i, espying ihe breach in the wigwam, supposing some English might be there, entered; but iii his entrance fell over a dead Indian; but speedily recovering himself, ihe Indians some lied, others crept untier iheir beds. The Caplaiii going out of the wigwam, saw many Indians in the lane or street; he making towards them, they lied, were pursued lo the end of the lane, where they were meihy I'^dward PaHhiin,' Vhoinan /if/Arr, with some others; where seven oi' them were slain as they said. The Captain faciiigahoul, marched a slow pace up the lane; he came down, perceiving himself very much out of breath, and coming lo the other end, near the place where he first entered, saw two sohlieis standing close lo Ihe pali- sado, with their swords pointcil to the giound ; ihe Captain told them that we should never kill them after this manner. The Cafitain also said, We must burn, them ; and immediately stepping into the wigwam, where he had been before, brought out a fire brand, and putting it into the mat^ wiih which they were covered, set the wigwams on lire. Lieutenant 'J'lwmit^i JJuil aud yicha/ns Omstal beholding, came up; and when il was tlioroimhiv Icindled, the Indians ran as men most dreadliilly amazed." " And md.'cd such a'dieadful terror did the Almighty let fall upon their spirits, that they would llv funn us ;ind run into the very llanies, where many of ihem perished. And when the fort was thoroughly fired, command was given that all should fall off ami surround the fort ; wlii(di was readily attended by all, only one, Arthur Smith, be- ing so wounded thnt he could not move out of the place, who was happily espied by Lieutenant Bull, and by him rescued. The fire was kindled on the nnriheast side to the windward ; which did swiftly overrun the furt, lo the extreme amazement of the enemy, and great lejoicing of ourselves. Some of ihcm climbing lo ilie top of (; U O T O N 315 the palizado: others of them running,' into llie very flames; many of ihcni phlheiing to the windward, lay pelting at us with tlieir arrows; and we repaid them witli onr small shot ; otlicrs of the stoutest issued lorlh, as we did guess, to the number ol lorty, who perished by the sword."