The river Thames, coming down out of the hills and receiving the
Quinnebaug, flows into the Sound twenty miles east of the Connecticut,
and here is the pleasant city of New London, with about fifteen
thousand people. Thus the early settlers renewed in the New England
colony the names of old London and Father Thames, replacing the
original Indian titles of Pequot for the town and Mohegan for the
river. New London is built on a hillside, famous for comfortable old
mansions and noble trees on the hilly streets, running down the
declivity to the harbor, in the upper part of which is a navy yard. On
either side of the harbor entrance are the gray walls and grassy
mounds of the ancient defensive works, Forts Griswold and Trumbull,
which got their chief scars during the Revolution. The most sacred New
London memory is of Nathan Hale, who lived there, his little house
being preserved as a relic. The Thames is a fine estuary, and upon it
are sailed the great Yale and Harvard boat-races. New London was the
headquarters of the Connecticut navy during the Revolution, a fleet of
twenty-six vessels. After Arnold's treason, he came in September,
1780, with ships and a large force of troops, captured Fort Trumbull
and burnt the town. Afterwards they attacked Fort Griswold across the
river, losing large numbers in storming it, and when the garrison had
surrendered they were massacred. A fine granite Obelisk contains the
names of the slain, and bears the inscription: "Zebulon and Naphtali
were a people that jeoparded their lives till death in the high places
of the Lord." The people of New London go down to the Sound for
recreation and clam-bakes, the wide-spreading beaches having numerous
hotels and summer cottages. All this region in the early times was the
home of the Niantic Indians, a clan of the Narragansetts, their sachem
being Ninigret, the brother of Canonicus and uncle of Miantonomoh,
whose names are preserved in powerful American warships.
Beyond the Thames is Groton, known as the home of Silas Deane, the
early American diplomatist, a hilly township, with little good soil.
On its verge are Fort Hill, where Sassacus, the sachem of the Pequots,
had his royal fortress, and Mystic, with the popular resort of Mystic
Island just off shore. To the northward of Mystic is Pequot Hill,
where Colonel Mason attacked that tribe in May, 1637. He had marched
out of Rhode Island with ninety English and over four hundred Mohicans
and Narragansetts under the sachems Uncas and Miantonomoh, but when
they arrived at the Pequot stronghold, the Indian allies were afraid
to attack and drew off. Nothing daunted, Mason and his colonial
soldiers prepared to do the work alone, and as a preliminary knelt
down in prayer. At the sight of this, another sachem, Wequash, who had
been their guide, was amazed and asked an explanation, and when he
understood it, became so impressed that he was converted, afterwards
preaching throughout New England. Mason and his men assaulted the
stronghold in the darkness, and got inside the palisades, but being
overwhelmed by the superior numbers, fell back after setting fire to
the wigwams. The fire compelled the Pequots to flee, and then the
English and friendly Indians surrounded the hill and shot down the
fugitives, there being six hundred Pequots shot or burnt, this being
the death-blow to the tribe. Old Cotton Mather, who recorded it,
wrote: "It was a fearful sight to see them frying in the fire, and the
streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and
scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave
the praise thereof to God." Sassacus, from Fort Hill, sent
reinforcements, but they were too late, although they harassed Mason's
retreat, and Sassacus was soon forced also to flee, the remnant of the
Pequot tribe being killed or captured in Sasco Swamp.
This region was Pawcatuck, and its chief town now is Stonington, built
on a fine harbor, near the Rhode Island boundary, which is protected
by the protruding arm of Watch Hill Point, the whole coast thereabout
being filled with summer hotels and cottages. Stonington is on a
narrow rocky peninsula, and of this town, in the early part of the
nineteenth century, President Dwight of Yale College wrote, referring
to its reputation, that "Stonington and all its vicinity suffers in
religion from the nearness of Rhode Island." The place was bombarded
for three days, in 1814, by a British fleet, but all attempts to land
were successfully repulsed. Watch Hill Point is a high bold
promontory, with sand beaches stretching both ways and hooking around
westward so as to enclose Stonington harbor. To the eastward is
Westerly on the Pawcatuck River, noted for its fine granite quarries
and textile factories.