The earliest of the slave-producing wars in New England was that with the Pequot in 1637. The war consisted of two battles: the Mistick Fight, and the Swamp Fight. In the first of these two events, but seven captives were taken.[435] In the second, the Swamp Fight, about one hundred and eighty captives were taken.[436] Two of the sachems taken in the Swamp Fight were spared, on promise that they guide the English to the retreat of Sassacus. The other men captives, some twenty or thirty in number, were put to death.[437] The remaining captives, consisting of about eighty women and children, were divided. Some were given to the soldiers, whether gratis or for pay does not appear. Thirty were given to the Narraganset who were allies of the English, forty-eight were sent to Massachusetts and the remainder were assigned to Connecticut.[438] The women and girls of the Massachusetts captives were distributed among the towns.[439] It seems probable that Connecticut made a similar disposition of its share of the captives regardless of sex.[440] The male children among the Massachusetts captives were ordered by the Massachusetts general court, 1637, to be carried to the Bermudas by William Pierce, and sold there as slaves.[441] The shipload of Indians, however, consisting of fifteen boys and two women was taken by Captain Pierce to the West Indies., instead of to the Bermudas, and disposed of at the island of Providence.[442] One Pequot seized near Block Island was sent to England.[443] It is possible that this single cargo of women and children was not the only one sent to the islands at this time. A letter from the Company of Providence Islands, replying from London, July 3, 1638, to letters from authorities on the island, and directing that special care be taken of the “cannibal negroes brought from New England,”[444] and a second letter written in 1639, when the company, fearing the danger that might arise from too large a number of negroes on the island, suggested that the negroes be sold or sent to New England or Virginia,[445] may possibly have been called forth by a further purchase of Indians, or by an exchange of negroes for them.