The two Indian chiefs of whom we hear most in the early history
of Connecticut were Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, and Miantonomo,
sachem of the Narragansetts. A great Indian battle called the
"Battle of the Plain" took place once, near Norwich, between these
rival tribes led by these two rival chieftains.
The Mohegans were a part of the Pequot tribe, and the Pequots, or
"Gray Foxes," were the fiercest, most cruel, and warlike of all
the Indians who roamed through the forests of Connecticut before
the English came. The white settlers soon had trouble with them,
and when the Pequot War, which was a war between the settlers and
the Indians, began, in 1637, Uncas came with some of his Mohegan
warriors and offered to guide the English troops through the
woods to the Pequot fort.
Now Uncas was himself a Pequot by birth and belonged to the royal
family, and it seems strange that he should not take part with
his own people. But not long before this he had rebelled against
the chief sachem, Sassacus, and had tried to make himself
independent. "He grew proud and treacherous to the Pequot
sachem," says the old chronicle, "and the Pequot sachem was very
angry and sent up some soldiers and drove him out of his
country." Afterward, when "he humbled himself to the Pequot
sachem, he received permission to live in his own country again."
But he was restless and dissatisfied. He was said to be of great
size and very strong; he was brave too, and had a good deal of
influence among the Indians. The settlers needed his help, yet
they were half afraid to trust him, knowing that he would be
"faithful to them as the jackal is faithful to the lion, not
because it loves the lion, but because it gains something by
remaining in his company." Before he would accept him as a guide,
Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, commander of the fort at Saybrook, said
to him, "You say you will help Captain Mason, but I will first
see it; therefore send twenty men to Bass River, for there went
six Indians there in a canoe, fetch them, dead or alive; and you
shall go with Mason or else you shall not."
Uncas went off with his men and found these Indians. He killed
four of them and brought back another as a prisoner, and the
colonists, feeling more certain of his fidelity, took him with
them on their expedition.
Miantonomo, the Narragansett sachem, did not go himself, but he
sent one hundred of his warriors, for he, too, hated the Pequots,
who had lately overrun the country and made themselves a terror
to their neighbors. The Narragansetts lived near them, just over
the Rhode Island border. They were a larger tribe than the
Pequots and more peaceful and civilized, and their chief,
Miantonomo, was friendly to the English settlers and had been
generous in his dealings with them. He and his uncle Canonicus,
who was at this time an old man over eighty, governed the
Narragansetts together and were on the best of terms with each
other. "The old sachem will not be offended at what the young
sachem doth," says the English record, "and the young sachem will
not do what he conceives will displease his uncle."
The Pequot War was soon over, for the bows and arrows of the
Indians had no chance against the guns of the English. Most of
the Pequot warriors were killed, their fort and wigwams were
burned, and many of their women and children perished in the
flames. It is a pitiful story, because the settlers felt it
necessary for their own safety to put an end to the Pequot tribe.
The few poor Pequots who escaped this terrible destruction were
scattered among other tribes. The Narragansetts took some, but
more went to the Mohegans because they were related to them. In
this way the tribe of the Mohegans grew larger and stronger and
Uncas became an important chief. He showed great skill in
building up his tribe and he remained faithful to the English all
through his life, while they, on their side, protected him as a
reward for his services. As his power increased, however, his
jealous and quarrelsome disposition showed itself more plainly,
and the Indians complained that "the English had made him high"
and that he robbed and oppressed them. When the colonists
demanded that he should give up to them any fugitive Pequots who
had murdered white settlers, Uncas put off complying on one
pretext or another, because he did not wish to weaken his tribe,
which was still much smaller than that of the Narragansetts.
The year after the war he went to Boston with thirty-seven of his
warriors carrying a present of wampum for the governor. But the
governor would not accept the present until Uncas had given
satisfaction about the Pequots he was hiding. Uncas seemed "much
dejected" by this reception, and at first he denied that he had
any Pequots, but after two days he admitted the fact and promised
to do whatever the council demanded. Half an hour later he came
to the governor and made the following speech. Laying his hand on
his breast, he said:--
"This heart is not mine, but yours; I have no men, they are all
yours; command me any difficult thing, I will do it; I will not
believe any Indian's word against the English. If any man shall
kill an Englishman I will put him to death were he never so dear
to me."
The governor in response "gave him a fair red coat, and defrayed
his and his men's diet, and gave them corn to relieve them
homeward, and a letter of protection to all men, and he departed
very joyful."
Uncas had now become a dangerous rival of Miantonomo, and the
jealousy between them soon grew so great that it threatened to
break out in open war. In 1638 they were both called to Hartford
by the Connecticut authorities to settle the differences between
them.
Miantonomo obeyed this summons at once and set out with a great
company, "a guard of upwards of one hundred and fifty men and
many sachems and his wife and children," and traveled through the
forests that lay between the villages of the Narragansetts in
Rhode Island and the English settlements in the Connecticut
valley. On the way he heard that the Mohegans had planned to
attack him, that they had laid an ambush for him, and had
threatened to "boil him in a kettle." Some Indians of a friendly
tribe met him and told him that a band of Mohegans had fallen
upon them and robbed them two days before, and had destroyed
twenty-three fields of their corn. Miantonomo had already come
about halfway, and, after holding a council with his chiefs, he
decided to push on. "No man shall turn back," he said; "we will
all rather die."
He reached Hartford in safety, but Uncas was not there. Uncas had
sent word by a messenger that he was lame and could not come. The
Governor of Connecticut "observed that it was a lame excuse and
sent for him to come without delay." So Uncas decided that it was
safer for him, on the whole, to get well quickly and to go to
Hartford.
In the council that followed, each chieftain stated his
grievances and made complaint against the other, and the English
tried to reconcile them. At last a treaty of peace was signed,
and then Miantonomo stepped forward and held out his hand to
Uncas and invited him to a feast. But Uncas would not eat with
him, and the two chiefs parted no better friends than before.
Not long after this, Miantonomo was accused of trying to unite
all the Indian tribes against the English settlers. It was said
that he had made a speech to the Long Island Indians in these
words:--
"Brothers, we must be one as the English are, or we shall soon
all be destroyed. You know our fathers had plenty of deer and
skins, and our plains were full of deer and of turkeys, and our
coves and rivers were full of fish. But, brothers, since these
English have seized upon our country, they cut down the grass
with scythes, and the trees with axes. Their cows and horses eat
up the grass, and their hogs spoil our beds of clams; and finally
we shall starve to death. Therefore, I beseech you to act like
men. All the sachems both to the east and west have joined with
us and we are resolved to fall upon them."
The English were much alarmed on hearing this. It was quite true
that the Indians had sold their lands without realizing that the
settlers would use them for anything else than for hunting
grounds and for fishing places, as they themselves had done. They
could not know that the forests would be cleared, that farms
would spread over the countryside, and towns grow up along the
river courses, and they themselves be driven farther and farther
back into the wilderness. But Miantonomo denied that he had
planned a united attack on the settlements. He told the
messengers who were sent to him from Boston that all such reports
came from Uncas, and he agreed to go to Boston and appear before
the court of Massachusetts. He said, too, that he would like to
meet his accusers face to face and prove their treachery.
Miantonomo was a tall, fine-looking chief with serious and
stately manners, and he made a favorable impression in Boston on
the magistrates who were not very well disposed toward him. "When
he came in, the court was assembled and he was set down at the
lower end of the table over against the governor." A Pequot
interpreter was given him. Now, in his own country he had refused
to make use of a Pequot as interpreter because he was not on good
terms with that tribe and could not trust them, but here,
"surrounded by armed men," he could not help himself. He
protested, however, saying gravely, "When your people come to me,
they are permitted to use their own fashions and I expect the
same liberty when I come to you."
The sessions of the court lasted for two days, and every one was
astonished at the wisdom and dignity of the great sachem of the
Narragansetts. He answered all the questions put to him
deliberately, and would not speak at all unless some of his
councilors were present as witnesses. At meal-times, when a
separate table was set for him, he was not pleased and refused to
eat until some food was brought to him from the governor's table.
In the end he convinced the council of his innocence and he
returned in peace to his own country.
Meanwhile, Uncas, who was both feared and hated for his sudden
rise to power, had several narrow escapes from death. One of the
captured Pequots in his own tribe shot an arrow at him and
wounded him in the arm. Uncas complained to the English that
Miantonomo had engaged this Pequot to kill him, and Miantonomo
retorted that Uncas had cut his own arm with a flint to make it
appear that he had been wounded, and no one knew where the truth
lay. Soon after this an attempt was made to poison him. Then, at
last, one day as he was paddling down the Connecticut River in a
canoe, some Indians who were friends of the Narragansetts sent a
shower of arrows at him from the bank. He at once made a raid
into their country, killed seven or eight of their warriors,
burned their wigwams and carried off the booty.
This brought matters to a climax, for their chief, Sequassen, was
related to Miantonomo and Miantonomo took up his quarrel. The
trouble, which had so long been smouldering between the Mohegans
and the Narragansetts, broke out in earnest. Miantonomo collected
all the Narragansett warriors and led them swiftly and secretly
through the forests toward the land of the Mohegans, which lay
along the banks of the Pequot, or Thames, River. He hoped in this
way to fall upon Uncas while he was unprepared.
But Uncas was on his guard. His watchmen on the hills caught
sight of the Narragansetts as they came out of the woods by the
fords of the Shetucket River,--above the present city of Norwich.
Uncas had a fort five miles below on the Pequot River, which was
his headquarters, and the old story says:--
"Being warned by his spies of the approach of the Narragansetts
toward his seat, Uncas called his warriors together, stout, hard
men, light of foot and skilled in the use of bow and arrow, and
upon a conference he told them that it would not do to let the
Narragansetts come to their town, but that they must go and meet
them. Accordingly they marched about three miles, and on a large
plain the armies met, and both halted within bowshot. A parley
was sounded, and Uncas proposed a conference with the Narragansett
sachem, who agreed. And being met, Uncas saith to his enemy words
to this effect:--
"'You have a number of brave men and so have I. It is a pity that
such brave men should be killed for a quarrel between you and me.
Only come like a man, as you pretend to be, and we will fight it
out. If you kill me, my men shall be yours, but if I kill you,
your men shall be mine.'
"Upon which the Narragansett sachem replied,
"'My men came to fight and they shall fight.'"
Now, Uncas knew well that his army, being much smaller, had no
chance against the army of the Narragansetts in a fair fight, and
before he met the Narragansett sachem he had planned a stratagem
with his own men.
As soon as Miantonomo had spoken Uncas threw himself face down on
the ground and his men drew their bows and shot their arrows over
his head and rushed "like lions" upon their astonished enemies.
The Narragansetts broke in terror and confusion. They did not
stop to fight, but turned and fled panic-stricken, through woods
and swamps and over rocks and hills, by the way they had come,
back to the river fords. The Mohegans pursued them, killing a
number of them and wounding more. They drove them headlong, like
sheep, before them, and the pursuit lasted for five or six miles.
Some of the Narragansetts lost their way and came upon the Yantic
River near its falls and were driven over the steep rocks on the
banks and drowned in the water. Others were taken prisoners.
"Long afterwards, some old Mohegans were heard to boast of having
found a poor Narragansett struggling and panting in a thicket
that bordered the river, and so frantic with fear and excitement
as to suppose himself in the water and actually attempting to
swim among the bushes."
Miantonomo was strong and a swift runner, but that day he wore
for protection a coat of mail which an Englishman had given him
and the heavy garment impeded his flight. The Mohegans recognized
him by it and followed him eagerly. He kept his distance until he
had nearly reached the river, but there, "the foremost of Uncas's
men got ahead of him." They threw themselves against him and
prevented his escape. They did not kill him or try to take him
prisoner, but they ran beside him until Uncas came up, when they
dropped back and gave their chieftain the "opportunity to take
him."
"At a place since called 'Sachem's Plain,' Uncas took him by the
shoulder and Miantonomo sat down, knowing Uncas. Uncas then gave
a whoop and his men returned to him." But Miantonomo sat silent.
At last Uncas spoke to him and said, "If you had taken me I would
have besought you for my life."
Now it was against the Indian's code of honor to ask for mercy.
An Indian brave must never complain, no matter how hard his fate.
If he were put to torture, if he were even burned at the stake,
he must let no sound of pain escape him. He might boast of his
own exploits and tell how many of his enemies he had killed, but
he must never admit defeat. Courage and endurance were the great
Indian virtues. Therefore Miantonomo made no reply to the taunts
of Uncas and his men; he kept silence, as befitted a great sachem
and a brave warrior, "choosing rather to die than to make
supplication for his life."
Uncas had the right, according to Indian custom, to put his
prisoner to death at once, but he had agreed to consult the
English in all important matters, so he carried him to Hartford.
This was late in the summer of 1643. In September the commissioners
of the United Colonies met in Boston and the case of Miantonomo
came before them. The commissioners were afraid to take the
responsibility of setting the Narragansett sachem free, because
they had promised to protect Uncas and they felt that Uncas would
not be safe while Miantonomo lived, yet they had no reason to put
him to death. At last, after long deliberation, they decided that
he should be given back to Uncas and that Uncas, if he chose,
might put him to death; but he must do it in his own land, not
in the English settlements, and there must be no torture.
[Illustration: MIANTONOMO'S MONUMENT
Courtesy of the Cranston Co., Norwich, Conn.]
So Uncas came to Hartford "with some considerable number of his
best and trustiest men," and having received his prisoner, he set
out with him on the fatal journey. The English sent two of their
own men with him to see that the sentence was duly executed. They
went through the forests until they had passed the English
boundaries and had come upon land that belonged to the Mohegans,
and, therein the wilderness, the brother of Uncas, who walked
behind Miantonomo, lifted his hatchet and silently drove it
through the captive chieftain's head.
On Sachem's Plain a great heap of stones soon marked the spot
where Miantonomo had been overtaken, for each Mohegan warrior who
passed the place cast a stone on the pile with a shout of
triumph, and each Narragansett added to it with cries of sorrow
and lamentation for the loss of a noble leader. In after years
the stones disappeared, and a monument was erected on the spot in
1841, in honor of the Narragansett sachem. It is a large, square
block of granite with the name and the date carved upon it,
"MIANTONOMO, 1643." It can be seen to-day in Greeneville, two
miles from Norwich.
Uncas lived on for many years and was a very old man before he
died; "old and wicked and wilful," one account describes him. He
quarreled with his neighbors and gave much trouble to his
friends, the English. The Narragansetts attacked him after the
death of Miantonomo, to avenge the death of their chief, and they
drove him into one of his forts on the Pequot River. The
colonists had helped him to build this fort on a point of land
running out into the water, and it was too strong for the Indians
to take it by assault. They took possession of the Mohegan's
canoes, however, and they sat down patiently before the fort, on
the land side, to starve out Uncas and his warriors.
But the story says that one night Uncas sent out a swift runner,
who got safely past his enemies and carried the news to the
English. Thomas Leffingwell, one of the settlers at Saybrook, "an
enterprizing, bold man, loaded a canoe with beef, corn, and peas,
and under cover of night paddled from Saybrook" around into the
mouth of the Thames, or Pequot, River and succeeded in getting
the provisions into the fort without the knowledge of the
Narragansetts. The next morning there was great rejoicing among
the Mohegans and they lifted a large piece of beef on a pole to
show the besiegers that they had plenty to eat. The Narragansetts,
finding that the English had once more come to the rescue of Uncas,
gave up the siege in despair and melted away into the forest.
There is an old legend which says that each night while he was
waiting for relief, Uncas himself secretly left the fort and
crept along through the shadows on the river-bank until he came
to a ledge of rocks from which he could look down the stream;
that he sat there stern and motionless until morning watching and
hoping for help from the strange, new owners of the lands which
had belonged to his fathers. These rocks afterward went by the
name of "Uncas's Chair."
Uncas was buried in the royal burying-ground of the Mohegans near
the falls of the Yantic River. His monument is there now in the
heart of the city of Norwich.