In a subsequent Indian war, 1643,--brought about, it is said, by
Connecticut, between the Narragansetts and the Mohegans,--Miantonomo, by
some strange accident, fell into the hands of Uncas, who, for fear of
retaliation, instead of taking his life, sent him to Hartford. The
Connecticut people, in their turn, sent him to Boston, to be judged by the
Commissioners of the United Colonies; and these commissioners, "although
they had no jurisdiction in the case, nor any just ground of complaint
against the sachem," came to the conclusion "that Uncas would not be safe
if he were suffered to live." Drake says, "Strange as it may seem, it was
with the advice of the Elders of the Churches" (Winthrop says five of the
most judicious elders) that it was determined Uncas might put Miantonomo
to death,--a piece of barbarism and injustice hardly matched by any
conduct of the Indians. He was taken back to Uncas "with a guard of
English soldiers," and Uncas readily undertook the execution of his
victim. When he arrived at a place appointed, a brother of Uncas "clave
his head with a hatchet." "Thus inhumanly and unjustly perished the
greatest Indian chief of whom any account is found in New England's
annals." Canonicus, it is said, was greatly affected by the death of his
nephew, in whom he always had the utmost confidence, and regarded him with
the fondness of a father. Canonicus died in 1647. After the death of
Miantonomo, the Narragansetts were never on very good terms with the
English, who had suspected them once or twice unjustly. Hutchinson says,
"The Narragansetts are said to have kept to the treaty until the Pequods
were destroyed, and then they grew insolent and treacherous." It certainly
appears that they were not well used by the English settlers, and it is
not surprising that they should grow "insolent and treacherous;" for the
treachery appears to have been first against them.