(Part 2)
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 125
would give him two horses that had been there a great while. So I
sent the Shallop, with Mr. Steven Winthrop, Sergeant Tille
[Tilly], (whom we called afterward Sergeant Kettle, because he
put the kettle on his head,) and Thomas Hurlbut and three men
more, charging them that they should ride in the middle of the
river, and not go ashore until they had done all their trade, and
that Mr. Steven Winthrop should stand in the hold of the boat,
having their guns by them, and swords by their sides, the other
four to be, two in the fore cuddie, and two in aft, being armed
in like manner, that so they out of the loop-holes might clear
the boat, if they were by the Pequits assaulted; and that they
should let but one canoe come aboard at once, with no more but
four Indians in her, and when she had traded then another, and
that they should lie no longer there than one day, and at night
to go out of the river; and if they brought the two horses, to
take them in at a clear piece of land at the mouth of the River,
two of them go ashore to help the horses in, and the rest stand
ready with their guns in their hands, if need were, to defend
them from the Pequits, for I durst not trust them. So they went
and found but little trade, and they having forgotten what I
charged them, Thomas Hurlbut and one more went ashore to boil the
kettle, and Thomas Hurlbut stepping into the Sachem's wigwam, not
far from the shore, enquiring for the horses, the Indians went
out of the wigwam, and Wincumbone, his mother's sister, was then
the great Pequit Sachem's wife, who made signs to him that he
should be gone, for they would cut off his head; which, when he
perceived, he drew his sword
126 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
and ran to the others, and got aboard, and immediately came
abundance of Indians to the water-side and called them to come
ashore, but they immediately set sail and came home, and this
caused me to keep watch and ward, for I saw they plotted our
destruction. And suddenly after came Capt. Endecott, Capt.
Turner, and Capt. Undrill [Underhill], with a company of
soldiers, well fitted, to Seabrook and made that place their
rendezvous or seat of war, and that to my great grief, for, said
I, you come hither to raise these wasps about my ears, and then
you will take wing and flee away; but when I had seen their
commission I wondered, and made many allegations against the
manner of it, but go they did to Pequit, and as they came without
acquainting any of us in the River with it, so they went against
our will, for I knew that I should lose our corn-field; then I
entreated them to hear what I would say to them, which was this:
Sirs, Seeing you will go, I pray you, if you don't load your
Barks with Pequits, load them with corn, for that is now gathered
with them, and dry, ready to put into their barns, and both you
and we have need of it, and I will send my shallop and hire this
Dutchman's boat, there present, to go with you, and if you cannot
attain your end of the Pequits, yet you may load your barks with
corn, which will be welcome to Boston and to me: But they said
they had no bags to load them with, then said I, here is three
dozen of new bags, you shall have thirty of them, and my shallop
to carry them, and six of them my men shall use themselves, for I
will with the Dutchmen send twelve men well provided; and I de-
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 127
sired them to divide the men into three parts, viz. two parts to
stand without the corn, and to defend the other one third part,
that carried the corn to the water-side, till they have loaded
what they can. And the men there in arms, when the rest are
aboard, shall in order go aboard, the rest that are aboard shall
with their arms clear the shore, if the Pequits do assault them
in the rear, and then, when the General shall display his
colours, all to set sail together. To this motion they all
agreed, and I put the three dozen of bags aboard my shallop, and
away they went, and demanded the Pequit Sachem to come into
parley. But it was returned for answer, that he was from home,
'but within three hours he would come; and so from three to six,
and thence to nine, there came none. But the Indians came without
arms to our men, in great numbers, and they talked with my men,
whom they knew; but in the end, at a word given, they all on a
sudden ran away from our men, as they stood in rank and file, and
not an Indian more was to be seen: and all this while before,
they carried all their stuff away, and thus was that great parley
ended. Then they displayed their colours, and beat their drums,
burnt some wigwams and some heaps of corn, and my men carried as
much aboard as they could, but the army went aboard, leaving my
men ashore, which ought to have marched aboard first. But they
all set sail, and my men were pursued by the Indians, and they
hurt some of the Indians, and two of them came home wounded. The
Bay-men killed not a man, save that one Kichomiquim
[Cutshamequin], an Indian Sachem of the Bay, killed a Pequit; and
thus began the war be-
128 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
tween the Indians and us in these parts. So my men being come
home, and having brought a pretty quantity of corn with them,
they informed me (both Dutch and English) of all passages. I was
glad of the corn. After this I immediately took men and went to
our corn-field, to gather our corn, appointing others to come
about with the shallop and fetch it, and left five lusty men in
the strong-house, with long guns, which house I had built for the
defence of the corn. Now these men not regarding the charge I had
given them, three of them went a mile from the house a fowling;
and having loaded themselves with fowl they returned. But the
Pequits let them pass first, till they had loaded themselves, but
at their return they arose out of their ambush, and shot them all
three; one of them escaped through the corn, shot through the
leg, the other two they tormented. Then the next day I sent the
shallop to fetch the five men, and the rest of the corn that was
broken down, and they found but three, as is above said, and when
they had gotten that they left the rest; and as soon as they were
gone a little way from shore, they saw the house on fire. Now so
soon as the boat came home, and brought us this bad news, old Mr.
Michell was very urgent with me to lend him the boat to fetch hay
home from the Six-mile Island, but I told him they were too few
men, for his four men could but carry the hay aboard, and one
must stand in the boat to defend them, and they must have two
more at the foot of the Rock with their guns, to keep the Indians
from running down upon them. And in the first place, before they
carry any of the cocks of hay, to scour the meadow with
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 129
their three dogs,-to march all abreast from the lower end up to
the Rock and if they found the meadow clear, then to load their
hay; but this was also neglected, for they all went ashore and
fell to carrying off their hay, and the Indians presently rose
out of the long grass, and killed three, and took the brother of
Mr. Michell, who is the minister of Cambridge, and roasted him
alive; and so they served a shallop of his, coming down the river
in the Spring, having two men, one whereof they killed at
Six-mile Island, the other came down drowned to us ashore at our
doors, with an arrow shot into his eye through his head.
In the 22d of February, I went out with ten men, and three dogs,
half a mile from the house, to burn the weeds, leaves and reeds,
upon the neck of land, because we had felled twenty timber-trees,
which we were to roll to the water-side to bring home, every man
carrying a length of match with brimstone-matches with him to
kindle the fire withal. But when we came to the small of the
Neck, the weeds burning, I having before this set two sentinels
on the small of the Neck, I called to the men that were burning
the reeds to come away, but they would not until they had burnt
up the rest of their matches. Presently there starts up four
Indians out of the fiery reeds, but ran away, I calling to the
rest of our men to come away out of the marsh. Then Robert
Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, being sentinels, called to me, saying
there came a number of Indians out of the other side of the
marsh. Then I went to stop them, that they should not get the
wood-land; but Thomas Hurlbut cried out to me that some of the
men did not follow me, for
130 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
Thomas Rumble and Arthur Branch, threw down their two guns and
ran away; then the Indians shot two of them that were in the
reeds, and sought to get between us and home, but durst not come
before us, but kept us in a half-moon, we retreating and
exchanging many a shot, so that Thomas Hurlbut was shot almost
through the thigh, John Spencer in the back, into his kidneys,
myself into the thigh, two more were shot dead. But in our
retreat I kept Hurlbut and Spencer still before us, we defending
ourselves with our naked swords, or else they had taken us all
alive, so that the two sore wounded men, by our slow retreat, got
home with their guns, when our two sound men ran away and left
their guns behind them. But when I saw the cowards that left us,
I resolved to let them draw lots which of them should be hanged,
for the articles did hang up in the hall for them to read, and
they knew they had been published long before. But at the
intercession of old Mr. Michell, Mr. Higgisson [Higginson], and
Mr. Pell, I did forbear. Within a few days after, when I had
cured myself of my wound, I went out with eight men to get some
fowl for our relief, and found the guns that were thrown away,
and the body of one man shot through, the arrow going in at the
right side, the head sticking fast, half through a rib on the
left side, which I took out and cleansed it, and presumed to send
to the Bay, because they had said that the arrows of the Indians
were of no force.
Anthony Dike, master of a bark, having his bark at Rhode-Island
in the winter, was sent by Mr. Vane, then Governor. Anthony came
to Rhode-Island by land, and from thence he came with his bark to
me
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 131
with a letter, wherein was desired that I should consider and
prescribe the best way I could to quell these Pequits, which I
also did, and with my letter sent the man's rib as a token. A few
days after, came Thomas Stanton down the River, and staying for a
wind, while he was there came a troop of Indians within musket
shot, laying themselves and their arms down behind a little
rising hill and two great trees; which I perceiving, called the
carpenter whom I had shewed how to charge and level a gun, and
that he should put two cartridges of musket bullets into two
sakers guns that lay about; and we levelled them against the
place, and I told him that he must look towards me, and when he
saw me wave my hat above my head he should give fire to both the
guns; then presently came three Indians, creeping out and calling
to us to speak with us: and I was glad that Thomas Stanton was
there, and I sent six men down by the Garden Pales to look that
none should come under the hill behind us; and having placed the
rest in places convenient closely, Thomas and I with my sword,
pistol and carbine, went ten or twelve pole without the gate to
parley with them. And when the six men came to the Garden Pales,
at the corner, they found a great number of Indians creeping
behind the fort, or betwixt us and home, but they ran away. Now I
had said to Thomas Stanton, Whatsoever they say to you, tell me
first, for we will not answer them directly to any thing, for I
know not the mind of the rest of the English. So they came forth,
calling us nearer to them, and we them nearer to us. But I would
not let Thomas go any further than the great stump of a tree, and
I stood by him;
132 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
then they asked who we were, and he answered, Thomas and
Lieutenant. But they said he lied, for I was shot with many
arrows; and so I was, but my buff coat preserved me, only one
hurt me. But when I spake to them they knew my voice, for one of
them had dwelt three months with us, but ran away when the
Bay-men came first. Then they asked us if we would fight with
Niantecut Indians, or they were our friends and came to trade
with us. We said we knew not the Indians one from another, and
therefore would trade with none. Then they said, Have you fought
enough? We said we knew not yet. Then they asked if we did use to
kill women and children? We said they should see that hereafter.
So they were silent a small space, and then they said, We are
Pequits, and have killed Englishmen, and can kill them as
mosquetoes, and we will go to Conectecott and kill men, women,
and children, and we will take away the horses, cows and hogs.
When Thomas Stanton had told me this, he prayed me to shoot that
rogue, for, said he, he hath an Englishman's coat on, and saith
that he hath killed three, and these other four have their
cloathes on their backs. I said, No, it is not the manner of a
parley, but have patience and I shall fit them ere they go. Nay,
now or never, said he; so when he could get no other answer but
this last, I bid him tell them that they should not go to
Conectecott, for if they did kill all the men, and take all the
rest as they said, it would do them no good, but hurt, for
English women are lazy, and can't do their work; horses and cows
will spoil your corn-fields, and the hogs their clam-banks, and
so undo them: then I pointed to our great house,
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 133
and bid him tell them there lay twenty pieces of trucking cloth,
of Mr. Pincheon's, with hoes, hatchets, and all manner of trade,
they were better fight still with us, and so get all that, and
then go up the river after they had killed all us. Having heard
this, they were mad as dogs, and ran away; then when they came to
the place from whence they came, I waved my hat about my head,
and the two great guns went off, so that there was a great hubbub
amongst them. Then two days after, came down Capt. Mason, and
Sergeant Seely, with five men more, to see how it was with us;
and whilst they were there, came down a Dutch boat, telling us
the Indians had killed fourteen English, for by that boat I had
sent up letters to Conectecott, what I heard, and what I thought,
and how to prevent that threatened danger, and received back
again rather a scoff, than any thanks, for my care and pains. But
as I wrote, so it fell out to my great grief and theirs, for the
next, or second day after, (as Major Mason well knows,) came down
a great many canoes, going down the creek beyond the marsh,
before the fort, many of them having white shirts; then I
commanded the carpenter whom I had shewed to level great guns, to
put in two round shot into the two sackers, and we levelled them
at a certain place, and I stood to bid him give fire, when I
thought the canoe would meet the bullet, and one of them took off
the nose of a great canoe wherein the two maids were, that were
taken by the Indians, whom I redeemed and clothed, for the
Dutchmen, whom I sent to fetch them, brought them away almost
naked from Pequit, they putting on their own linen jackets to
cover their nakedness; and
134 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
though the redemption cost me ten pounds, I am yet to have thanks
for my care and charge about them: these things are known to
Major Mason.
Then came from the Bay Mr. Tille, with a permit to go up to
Harford [Hartford], and coming ashore he saw a paper nailed up
over the gate, whereon was written, that no boat or bark should
pass the fort, but that they come to an anchor first, that I
might see whether they were armed and manned sufficiently, and
they were not to land any where after they passed the fort till
they came to Wethersfield; and this I did because Mr. Mitchel had
lost a shallop before coming down from Wethersfield, with three
men well armed. This Mr. Tille gave me ill language for my
presumption, (as he called it), with other expressions too long
here to write. When he had done, I bid him go to his warehouse,
which he had built before I come, to fetch his goods from thence,
for I would watch no longer over it. So he, knowing nothing, went
and found his house burnt, and one of Mr. Plum's with others, and
he told me to my face that I had caused it to be done; but Mr.
Higgisson, Mr. Pell, Thomas Hurlbut and John Green can witness
that the same day that our house was burnt at Cornfield-point I
went with Mr. Higgisson, Mr. Pell, and four men more, broke open
a door and took a note of all that was in the house and gave it
to Mr. Higgisson to keep, and so brought all the goods to our
house, and delivered it all to them again when they came for it,
without any penny of charge. Now the very next day after I had
taken the goods out, before the sun was quite down, and we all
together in the great hall, all them
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 135
houses were on fire in one instant. The Indians ran away, but I
would not follow them. Now when Mr. Tille had received all his
goods I said unto him, I thought I had deserved for my honest
care both for their bodies and goods of those that passed by
here, at the least better language, and am resolved to order such
malepert persons as you are; therefore I wish you and also charge
you to observe that which you have read at the gate, 'tis my duty
to God, my masters, and my love I bear to you all which is the
ground of this, had you but eyes to see it; but you will not till
you feel it. So he went up the river, and when he came down again
to his place, which I called Tille's folly, now called Tille's
point, in our sight in despite, having a fair wind he came to an
anchor, and with one man more went ashore, discharged his gun,
and the Indians fell upon him, and killed the other, and carried
him alive over the river in our sight, before my shallop could
come to them; for immediately I sent seven men to fetch the Pink
down, or else it had been taken and three men more. So they
brought her down, and I sent Mr. Higgisson and Mr. Pell aboard to
take an invoice of all that was in the vessel, that nothing might
be lost. Two days after came to me, as I had written to Sir
Henerie Vane, then Governor of the Bay, I say came to me Capt.
Undrill [Underhill], with twenty lusty men, well armed, to stay
with me two months, or 'till something should be done about the
Pequits. He came at the charge of my masters. Soon after came
down from Harford Maj. Mason, Lieut. Seely, accompanied with Mr.
Stone and eighty Englishmen, and eighty Indians, with a
commission
136 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
from Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Steel, and some others; these came to go
fight with the Pequits. But when Capt. Undrill [Underhill] and I
had seen their commission, we both said they were not fitted for
such a design, and we said to Maj. Mason we wondered he would
venture himself, being no better fitted; and he said the
Magistrates could not or would not send better; then we said that
none of our men should go with them, neither should they go
unless we, that were bred soldiers from our youth, could see some
likelihood to do better than the Bay-men with their strong
commission last year. Then I asked them how they durst trust the
Mohegin [Mohegan] Indians, who had but that year come from the
Pequits. They said they would trust them, for they could not well
go without them for want of guides. Yea, said I, but I will try
them before a man of ours shall go with you or them; and I called
for Uncas and said unto him, You say you will help Maj. Mason,
but I will first see it, therefore send you now twenty men to the
Bass river, for there went yesternight six Indians in a canoe
thither; fetch them now dead or alive, and then you shall go with
Maj. Mason, else not. So he sent his men who killed four, brought
one a traitor to us alive, whose name was Kiswas, and one ran
away. And I gave him fifteen yards of trading cloth on my own
charge, to give unto his men according to their desert. And
having staid there five or six days before we could agree, at
last we old soldiers agreed about the way and act, and took
twenty insufficient men from the eighty that came from Harford
[Hartford] and sent them up again in a shallop, and Capt. Undrill
[Under-
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 137
hill] with twenty of the lustiest of our men went in their room,
and I furnished them with such things as they wanted, and sent
Mr. Pell, the sergeon, with them; and the Lord God blessed their
design and way, so that they returned with victory to the glory
of God, and honour of our nation, having slain three hundred,
burnt their fort, and taken many prisoners. Then came to me an
Indian called Wequash, and I by Mr. Higgisson inquired of him,
how many of the Pequits were yet alive that had helped to kill
Englishmen; and he declared them to Mr. Higgisson, and he writ
them down, as may appear by his own hand here enclosed, and I did
as therein is written. Then three days after the fight came
Waiandance, next brother to the old Sachem of Long Island, and
having been recommended to me by Maj. Gibbons, he came to know if
we were angry with all Indians. I answered No, but only with such
as had killed Englishmen. He asked me whether they that lived
upon Long-Island might come to trade with us. I said No, nor we
with them, for if I should send my boat to trade for corn, and
you have Pequits with you, and if my boat should come into some
creek by reason of bad weather, they might kill my men, and I
shall think that you of Long Island have done it, and so we may
kill all you for the Pequits; but if you will kill all the
Pequits that come to you, and send me their heads, then I will
give to you as to Weakwash [Wequash], and you shall have trade
with us. Then, said he, I will go to my brother, for he is the
great Sachem of all Long Island, and if we may have peace and
trade with you, we will give you tribute, as we
138 HISTORY OF THE PEQUOT WAR.
did the Pequits. Then I said, If you have any Indians that have
killed English, you must bring their heads also. He answered, not
any one, and said that Gibbons, my brother, would have told you
if it had been so; so he went away and did as I had said, and
sent me five heads, three and four heads for which I paid them
that brought them as I had promised.
Then came Capt. Stoten [Stoughton] with an army of 300 men, from
the Bay, to kill the Pequits; but they were fled beyond New Haven
to a swamp. I sent Wequash after them, who went by night to spy
them out, and the army followed him, and found them at the great
swamp, who killed some and took others, and the rest fled to the
Mowhakues [Mohawks], with their Sachem. Then the Mohawks cut off
his head and sent it to Hartford, for then they all feared us,
but now it is otherwise, for they say to our faces that our
Commissioners meeting once a year, and speak a great deal, or
write a letter, and there's all, for they dare not fight. But
before they went to the Great Swamp they sent Thomas Stanton over
to Long Island and Shelter Island to find Pequits there, but
there was none, for the Sachem Waiandance, that was at Plimoth
when the Commissioners were there, and set there last, I say, he
had killed so many of the Pequits, and sent their heads to me,
that they durst not come there; and he and his men went with the
English to the Swamp, and thus the Pequits were quelled at that
time. But there was like to be a great broil between Miantenomie
[Miantunnomoh] and Unchus [Uncas] who should have the rest of the
Pequits, but we meditated between them and pacified them; also
Unchus
GARDENER'S NARRATIVE. 139
challenged the Narraganset Sachem out to a single combat, but he
would not fight without all his men; but they were pacified,
though the old grudge remained still, as it doth appear. Thus far
I had written in a book, that all men and posterity might know
how and why so many honest men had their blood shed, yea, and
some flayed alive, others cut in pieces, and some roasted alive,
only because Kichamokin [Cutshamequin], a Bay Indian, killed one
Pequit; and thus far of the Pequit war, which was but a comedy in
comparison of the tragedies which hath been here threatened
since, and may yet come, if God do not open the eyes, ears, and
hearts of some that I think are wilfully deaf and blind, and
think because there is no change that the vision fails, and put
the evil-threatened day far off, for say they, We are now twenty
to one to what we were then, and none dare meddle with us. Oh! wo
be to the pride and security which hath been the ruin of many
nations, as woful experience has proved.
But I wonder, and so doth many more with me, that the Bay doth no
better revenge the murdering of Mr. Oldham, an honest man of
their own, seeing they were at such cost for a Virginian. The
Narragansets that were at Block-Island killed him, and had, £50
of gold of his, for I saw it when he had five pieces of me, and
put it up into a clout and tied it up all together, when he went
away from me to Block Island; but the Narragansets had it and
punched holes into it, and put it about their necks for jewels;
and afterwards I saw the Dutch have some of it, which they had of
the Narragansets at a small rate.
And now I find that to be true which our friend
This page last updated August 9, 2000.