The region back of Point Judith and around Narragansett Bay was the
home of the Narragansett Indians, who were early made, by Roger
Williams, the friends of the white man. When the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, there were said to be thirty thousand of them, but they were
afterwards wasted by pestilence, and when Williams fled to Providence
and was received by them, he said they had twelve towns within twenty
miles, and five thousand warriors. They fought the Pequots, to the
westward, but were friendly with the tribes of Massachusetts, to which
they really gave the name, for, living in a comparatively flat
country, they described these tribes as belonging "near the great
hills or mountains," which is the literal meaning of the word, they
telling Williams it meant the many hills of that State, including the
"blue hills of Milton." Canonicus and Miantonomoh were the great
chiefs of the Narragansetts, described by the early colonists as wise,
brave and magnanimous. The former made the grant of the lands at
Providence to Roger Williams, and was his firm friend. The latter, the
nephew and successor of Canonicus, joined the Puritans under Mason at
Pequot Hill in the attack and defeat of the Pequots. In their original
theology they looked forward to a mystic realm in the far southwest
where the gods and pure spirits dwelt, while the souls of murderers,
thieves and liars were doomed forever to wander abroad. Their
friendship with the whites ended in 1675, however, when King Philip
incited them to join in his war, and the colonists attacked them on a
hill in a pine and cedar swamp near Kingston, west of Narragansett
Bay, where scanty remains still exist of their fortifications. It was
in December, amid the winter snows, and after a furious struggle their
wigwams were fired, and in the most blinding confusion a band of
warriors dashed out and covered the retreat of fully three thousand of
their people, leaving the whites in possession. Both sides had heavy
losses, but the result was the scattering and final annihilation of
the tribe. This was the famous "Fort Fight in Narragansett," of which
the memorial of the Connecticut Legislature says, "The bitter cold,
the tarled swamp, the tedious march, the strong fort, the numerous and
stubborn enemy they contended with for their God, King and country,
be their trophies over death."
To the westward, beyond the Rhode Island border, lived Uncas, the
enemy of Miantonomoh. His domain extended to the river Thames, and he
had been a chief of the Pequots, who revolted in 1634 against the
Sachem Sassacus and joined the Mohicans, being chosen their chief
sachem. He was friendly to the colonists, and by sagacious alliances
with them increased the power of his tribe, which had previously been
in a relatively subordinate position. He helped defeat the Pequots,
and became so strong that he was described as the "most powerful and
prosperous prince in New England." He sold the shores of the Thames
River to the whites, reserving a small tract on the river bank, and in
1660 disposed of the present site of Norwich, Connecticut, to a
nomadic church from Saybrook, for £70. He held his people friendly to
the colonists, even in King Philip's war, frequently visited their
capitals at Hartford and Boston, and after reigning nearly fifty
years, died in 1683. He is described as crafty, cruel and rapacious,
but, as the head of a savage people, far-sighted and sagacious;
skillful and fearless as a military leader. His holding aloof from the
Indian alliances adverse to the colonists and fighting with the whites
against the powerful hostile tribes, are regarded as having really
saved colonial New England. His quarrel with Miantonomoh resulted in
the battle of Sachem's Plain, on the outskirts of Norwich, in 1643.
This was then a Mohican village, and Miantonomoh marched to attack it
with nine hundred Narragansetts, Uncas defending with five hundred
warriors. By a preconcerted plan, Uncas invited him to a parley, and
while it was going on, and the Narragansetts were off their guard, the
Mohicans made a sudden onslaught, defeating and pursuing them for a
long distance. Hundreds of the Narragansetts were slain, and
Miantonomoh, being captured, was taken prisoner to the English at
Hartford. He was ultimately surrendered back to Uncas, who took him
again to the Sachem's Plain, where he was put to death, the historian
says, "by the advice and consent of the English magistrates and
elders." A monument marks the place of execution, inscribed
"Miantonomoh, 1643." His son, Nanunteno, who succeeded, led the tribe
into King Philip's war, as he hated the colonists, and being captured,
he declined to treat with them for a pardon, saying, when threatened
with death, "I like it well; I shall die before my heart is soft or I
have spoken anything unworthy of myself," whereupon he was shot. He
was "acting herein," says old Cotton Mather, "as if, by a Pythagorean
metempsychosis, some old Roman ghost had possessed the body of this
Western Pagan, like Attilius Regulus."
A few miles south of Norwich is the ancient fortress of Uncas on a
hill, and a handful of weak half-breeds are all that remain of his
famous people. In the city, on Sachem Street, near the Yantic Falls,
is a little cemetery in a cluster of pine trees. This, centuries ago,
was the burial-place of the Mohican chiefs, and the whole line of
sachems is here interred, down to the last of them, Mazeen, buried in
1826 in the presence of a small remnant of the tribe. Ancient stones
mark their graves, and in the centre is an obelisk in memory of Uncas,
of which President Andrew Jackson laid the foundation-stone. The
Yantic and Shetucket Rivers unite at Norwich to form the Thames, and
the town has arisen around their admirable water-powers, which serve
many mills. The city has about twenty thousand people, being in a
beautiful situation between and on the acclivities adjoining the two
rivers. The praises of the Yantic Falls were sung by Mrs. Sigourney
and others, but their glory has departed, for the stream has been
diverted into another channel, leaving a deep cutting in the hard
rock, the bottom filled with curiously-piled and water-worn boulders.