Columbus and Other Heroes of American DiscoveryD'Anvers, N.
History
Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery
D'Anvers, N.
America -- Discovery and exploration; North America -- Discovery and exploration
At the end of the three days Williams had effected his purpose, and,
instead of an alliance with the Pequods, the Narragansetts had made
a new treaty with the English. The Mohegans followed their example,
and, their forces augmented by many a dusky warrior, the white men of
Connecticut, under Captain John Mason, shortly sallied forth once more
against the common foe, their destination this time being the chief
stronghold of the Pequods, a fort near the present town of Stringbow,
on the Pawcatuk River. The fort was surprised at night, and though the
Indians fought with desperate courage, and at one time seemed likely
to be victorious, they were finally overwhelmed. Their wigwams were
then set on fire, and six hundred men, women, and children perished in
the flames. The morning broke on a scene of terrible misery; yet the
cup of Pequod disaster was not yet full. As the English, who had again
lost but two men, were resting from their horrible night’s work, six
hundred native warriors were seen advancing proudly toward the ruins
of their homes.
Arrived within sight of their desolate village, the unhappy Pequods
are said to have paused for one moment in silent agony, and then, with
a yell of rage and despair, to have swept down upon the invaders, many
of whom were slain in the first onslaught, though the final result
to the Pequods was but a repetition of previous struggles. All but
a little remnant were slain without mercy, and, returning red-handed
to Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, the victors were joined
by a number of recruits from Massachusetts, whose arrival had been
delayed by the excitement caused in the parent colony by the expulsion
of Anne Hutchinson for heresy.
Thus reënforced, the Connecticut settlers hunted the survivors of the
original owners of the soil down like beasts of prey. Their chief,
Sassacus, fled in his despair to the Mohawks, who betrayed his trust
by murdering him, and sending his scalp to the English; and in July,
1637, five months after the beginning of the war, the last scene of
the long tragedy took place in a swamp where stands the modern town
of Fairfield. Three hundred Pequod warriors were there surrounded,
and while many were slain and some few escaped, two hundred were taken
prisoners alive. In spite of their eager entreaties for death, the
unhappy men were sent, some of them to the Bermudas as slaves, and
the remainder dispersed among the Mohegans and Narragansetts, to be
to them “hewers of wood and drawers of water.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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