THE SQUAW SACHEM OF POCASSET (1675-1676)]
AND CANONCHET OF THE BIG HEART
When King Philip had planned his war, he well knew that he might depend
upon Wetamoo, the squaw sachem of Pocasset.
After the death of the luckless Alexander, Wetamoo married a Pocasset
Indian named Petananuit. He was called by the English "Peter Nunnuit."
This Peter Nunnuit appears to have been a poor sort of a husband, for
he early deserted to the enemy, leaving his wife to fight alone.
Wetamoo was not old. She was in the prime of life, and as an Indian
was beautiful. Not counting her faithless husband, only one of her
Pocassets had abandoned her. He was that same Alderman who betrayed
and killed King Philip.
In the beginning Queen Wetamoo had mustered three hundred warriors.
She stuck close to King Philip, and fought in his ranks. She probably
was in the fatal Narragansett fort when it was stormed and taken, on
December 19, 1675. The English much desired to seize her, for her
lands of Pocasset "would more than pay all the charge" of the war. She
was considered as being "next unto Philip in respect to the mischief
that hath been done."
But she was not taken in the fort among the Narragansetts. She fled
with King Philip her brother-in-law, and warred that winter and spring,
as he did, against the settlements in Massachusetts.
Truly a warrior queen she was, and so she remained to the last, ever
loyal to the losing cause of her grand sachem, and to the memory of
Alexander.
With Philip she was driven southward, back toward her home of Pocasset,
east of Mount Hope. By the first week in August of 1676, she had only
twenty-six men left, out of her three hundred.
Then there came to the colonists at Taunton, which lay up the river
Taunton from Pocasset, another deserter, with word that he could lead
them to the little Wetamoo camp, not far southward.
Twenty armed English descended upon her, August 6, and easily overcame
her camp. She alone escaped, in flight. She had no thought of
surrendering herself into slavery.
In making her way to Pocasset, she "attempted," reads the tale, "to get
over a river or arm of the sea near by, upon a raft, or some pieces of
broken wood; but whether tired and spent with swimming, or starved with
cold and hunger, she was found stark naked in Metapoiset [near present
Swansea of southern Massachusetts, at the Rhode Island line], not far
from the water side, which made some think she was first half drowned;
and so ended her wretched life."
No respect was paid to her. Her head was cut off and hoisted upon a
pole in the town of Taunton, as revenge for the similar beheading of
some English bodies, earlier in the war. When, in Taunton, the
Pocasset captives saw the head--"They made a most horrid and diabolical
lamentation, crying out that it was their queen's head."
Here let us close the melancholy story of the warrior queen Wetamoo,
who as the companion-in-arms of her sachem sought to avenge her
husband's death, as well as to save her country from the foreigner.
However, Wetamoo and Philip together dragged the once mighty
Narragansetts down. This brings to the surface the tale of Canonchet,
the big-hearted.
The Narragansetts were a large and warlike people, and hard fighters.
Their country covered nearly all present Rhode Island; the city of
Providence was founded in their midst, when the great preacher Roger
Williams sought refuge among them. They conquered other tribes to the
north and west. When King Philip rose in 1675 they numbered, of
themselves, five thousand people, and could put into the field two
thousand warriors.
In the beginning, under their noble sachem Can-on-i-cus, they were
friendly to the English colonists. While Roger Williams lived among
them they stayed friendly. They agreed to a peace with Sachem
Massasoit's Pokanokets, who occupied the rest of Rhode Island, east
across Narragansett Bay. They marched with the English and the
Mohegans to wipe out the hostile Pequots.
Canonicus died, and Mi-an-to-no-mah, his nephew, who had helped him
rule, became chief sachem. Miantonomah was famed in council and in
war. The colonies suspected him, as they did Alexander, son of
Massasoit. They favored the Mohegans of the crafty sachem Uncas. When
Miantonomah had been taken prisoner by Uncas, at the battle of Sachem's
Plain in Connecticut, 1643, the United Colonies of Connecticut,
Massachusetts and Plymouth directed that the Mohegans put him to death,
as a treaty breaker.
Accordingly Uncas ordered him killed by the hatchet, and ate a piece of
his shoulder.
Possibly Miantonomah deserved to die, but the hearts of the
Narragansetts grew very sore.
It is scarcely to be wondered at that they favored the Pokanokets
rather than the English, when King Philip, who also had suffered,
called upon them to aid in cleaning the land of the white enemy.
"Brothers, we must be as one, as the English are, or we shall soon all
be destroyed," had said Miantonomah, in a speech to a distant tribe;
and that looked to be so.
Ca-non-chet, whose name in Indian was Qua-non-chet (pronounced the
same), and Nan-un-te-noo, was son of the celebrated Miantonomah. He
was now chief sachem of the Narragansetts, and the friend of King
Philip.
He was a tall, strongly built man, and accused by the English of being
haughty and insolent. Why not? He was of proud Narragansett blood,
from the veins of a long line of great chiefs, and the English had
given his father into the eager hands of the enemy.
Presently, he was asked to sign treaties that would make him false to
the memory of Miantonomah and double-hearted toward the hopeful King
Philip.
The papers engaged the Narragansetts not to harbor any of King Philip's
people, nor to help them in any way against the English, nor to enter a
war without the permission of the English. He was to deliver the
Philip and Wetamoo people, when they came to him.
Canonchet was not that kind of a man. He had no idea of betraying
people who may have fled to him for shelter from a common enemy. A few
of his men feared. It was suggested to him that he yield to the
colonies, lest the Narragansetts be swallowed up by the English. He
replied like a chief, and the son of Miantonomah.
"Deliver the Indians of Philip? Never! Not a Wampanoag will I ever
give up! No! Not the paring of a Wampanoag's nail!"
The venerable Roger Williams, his friend, the friend of his father and
the friend of the long-dead Canonicus, had advised him to stay out of
the war.
"Massachusetts," said Roger Williams, "can raise thousands of men at
this moment; and if you kill them, the king of England will supply
their place as fast as they fall."
"It is well," replied Canonchet. "Let them come. We are ready for
them. But as for you, Brother Williams, you are a good man; you have
been kind to us many years. We shall burn the English in their houses,
but not a hair of your head shall be touched."
The colonies did not wait for Canonchet to surrender the King Philip
people. The treaty had been signed on October 28, and on November 2 an
army from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Plymouth was ordered out, to
march against the Narragansetts, and seize King Philip and Queen
Wetamoo, and punish Canonchet.
It was known that Queen Wetamoo was with Canonchet, but not certainly
that King Philip had "kenneled" there. At any rate, down marched the
English, their Mohegan and Pequot allies, all piloted by one Peter who
might have been the husband of Wetamoo herself, but who probably was a
Narragansett traitor.
Canonchet stood firm. To his notion, he was not obliged to surrender
anybody, while the English held his brother and three other
Narragansetts. Besides--"Deliver the Indians of Philip? No! Not the
paring of a Wampanoag's nail!"
On the afternoon of December 19, this year 1675, the bold English and
their allies struck the great fortified village at Sunke-Squaw. Out
from the heat and smudge of the blazing wigwams fled Philip and Wetamoo
and Canonchet, with their shrieking people, into the wintry swamp where
the snowy branches of the cedars and hemlocks were their only refuge.
Canonchet had lost a third of his nation; large numbers surrendered to
the English; but, like his friend Philip, with his warriors who
remained true he carried the war to the English themselves. And a
terrible war it was.
In March Captain William Peirse was sent out with seventy stout men to
march from Plymouth and head off the raging Narragansetts. Plymouth
had heard that the haughty young sachem Canonchet was on his way to
Plymouth, at the van of three hundred warriors.
Captain Peirse made his will and marched southward, to the Pawtucket
River not far above Providence. Canonchet's spies had marked him, and
Canonchet was ready.
On March 26, which was a Sunday, Captain Peirse saw upon the other side
of the river a party of Indians limping as if worn out and trying to
get away. Therefore he crossed, near the Pawtucket Falls, in glad
pursuit--and "no sooner was he upon the western side, than the warriors
of Nanuntenoo, like an avalanche from a mountain, rushed down upon him;
nor striving for coverts from which to fight, more than their foes,
fought them face to face with the most determined bravery!"
There were Narragansetts still upon the east side of the river, also,
to cut off retreat. The captain, fighting desperately, with his men
ranged in two ranks back to back, sent a runner to Providence, only six
or eight miles, for assistance; but so quickly was the work done, by
Canonchet, that of all the English force, only one Englishman escaped,
and not above a dozen of the scouts.
"Captain Peirse was slain, and forty and nine English with him, and
eight (or more) Indians who did assist the English."
Canonchet lost one hundred and forty, but it was a great victory, well
planned and well executed. Captain Peirse had been a leader in the
storming of the Narragansett fort at Sunke-Squaw, the last winter; that
is one reason why the Canonchet warriors fought so ravenously, to take
revenge.
On the day after the dreadful battle, from Connecticut, southwest,
there marched a larger force of English and friendly Indians, to close
the red trail of the Sachem Canonchet. He was feared as much as King
Philip was feared.
Canonchet did not proceed against Plymouth. With thirty volunteers he
had set out south for the Mount Hope region itself, in order to gather
seed corn. The abandoned fields of the English along the Connecticut
River waited. They ought to be planted to Indian corn.
On his way back to the Connecticut River with his seed corn, near the
close of the first week in April he made camp almost upon the very
battle ground above Providence, where yet the soil was stained by the
blood of March 26.
He did not know that now the enemy were upon his trail indeed; but at
the moment a company of fifty English under Captain George Denison of
Southerton, Connecticut, and eighty Indians--the Mohegans led by Chief
Oneka, son of Uncas, the Pequots by Cas-sa-sin-na-mon, the Niantics
(formerly allies of the Narragansetts) by Cat-a-pa-zet--were drawing
near.
Three other companies were in the neighborhood.
This day Canonchet was lying in his blanket, telling to a party of
seven warriors the story of the battleground. The other warriors were
scattered through the forest. Two sentries had been placed upon a hill.
Not far away the Captain Denison party already had killed one warrior,
and had seized two old squaws. The squaws confessed that Nanuntenoo
was yonder, the Indian scouts picked up the fresh trail, the Denison
men hastened at best speed.
In the midst of his story, Canonchet saw his two sentinels dash
headlong past the wigwam, "as if they wanted for time to tell what they
had seen." At once he sent a third man, to report upon what was the
matter. This third man likewise suddenly made off at full pace,
without a word. Then two more he sent; of these, one, returning
breathless, paused long enough to say that "all the English army was
upon him!"
"Whereupon, having no time to consult, and but little time to attempt
an escape, and no means to defend himself, he began to fly with all
speed. Running with great swiftness around the hill, to get out of
sight upon the opposite side, he was distinguished by his wary
pursuers," and they were hot after him.
In fact, running hard around the hill, Canonchet wellnigh ran into the
Niantics of Chief Catapazet, who were coming down right over the hill.
He swerved, at the view-halloo, and lengthened his stride. Some of the
English had joined the chase. Canonchet tore like a deer for the river.
They had not recognized him, for he was wearing his blanket. But so
hotly they pressed him, that he needs must cast aside his blanket.
This revealed to them his fine lace-embroidered coat, which had been
given to him as a bribe, at Boston last October. Now they knew that he
was a chief, and a personage, and they yelled louder, and ran faster.
Presently Canonchet stripped off his lacy coat, and dropped it. And
soon loosening his belt of wampum, he dropped that also. By this
chief's belt they knew that he was the great Canonchet, and faster
still they ran.
However, he was out-footing all except one Indian. That Indian was a
Pequot named Monopoide--the best runner of all, and better than
Canonchet himself.
With only a single pursuer to be feared, Canonchet turned sharply and
leaped into the river, to cross by a strange trail. As he splashed
through, wading find plunging, seeing escape close before him if he
could gain the opposite bank, he stumbled upon a stone. Falling
forward he not only lost valuable time but soused his gun.
"At that accident," he afterward said, "my heart and bowels turned
within me so that I became like a rotten stick, void of strength."
Before he might stand straight and fix his useless gun, with a whoop of
triumph the lucky Pequot, Monopoide, was upon him; grabbed him by his
shoulder within thirty rods of the shore.
The Pequot was not a large man, nor a strong warrior. Canonchet was
both, and might yet have fought loose, to liberty. But he had made up
his mind to quit. He offered no trouble; the guns of the pursuing
party were covering him again, and he obeyed the orders.
He did not break his silence until young Robert Staunton, first of the
English to reach him, asked him questions. This was contrary to Indian
usage. Canonchet looked upon him disdainfully.
"You much child. No understand matters of war, Let your brother or
chief come; him I will answer."
Robert's brother, John Staunton, was captain of one of the Connecticut
companies that had been sent out to find the Narragansetts; but
Canonchet was now turned over to Captain Denison.
He was offered his life if he would help the English. This brought
from him a glare of rebuke.
He was offered his life if he would send orders to his people to make
peace.
"Say no more about that," he replied. "I will not talk of peace. I do
not care to talk at all. I was born a sachem. If sachems come to
speak with me, I will answer; but none present being such, I am
obliged, in honor to myself, to hold my tongue."
"If you do not accept the terms offered to you, you will be put to
death."
"Killing me will not end the war. There are two thousand men who will
revenge me."
"You richly deserve death. You can expect no mercy. You have said
that you would burn the English in their houses. You have boasted that
you would not deliver up a single Wampanoag, nor the paring of a
Wampanoag's nail."
"I desire to hear no more about it," replied Canonchet. "Others were
as eager in the war as myself, and many will be found of the same mind.
Have not the English burned my people in their houses? Did you ever
deliver up to the Narragansetts any of the Narragansetts' enemies? Why
then should I deliver up to them the Wampanoags? I would rather die
than remain prisoner. You have one of equal rank here with myself. He
is Oneka, son of Uncas. His father killed my father. Let Oneka kill
me. He is a sachem."
"You must die."
"I like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft, or I have said
anything of which Canonchet shall be ashamed."
Even his enemies admired him. The English compared him to some old
Roman.
He was not killed here. Forty-three of his people, men and women, had
been taken by the troops and scouts; a number of these were given over
to death by the scout Indians. But Canonchet was borne in triumph to
Stonington, Connecticut.
In order to reward the friendly Indians, the Pequots were permitted to
shoot him, the Mohegans to behead and to quarter him, the Niantics to
burn him. As a return favor, the Indians presented the head of
Canonchet, or Nanuntenoo, to the English council at Hartford,
Connecticut.
In the above fashion perished, without a plea, "in the prime of his
manhood," Canonchet of the Big Heart, last Grand Sachem of the
Narragansetts. Presently only the name of his nation remained.