Once Upon a Time in ConnecticutNewton, Caroline Clifford
History
Once Upon a Time in Connecticut
Newton, Caroline Clifford
Connecticut -- History
The governor in response "gave him a fair red coat, and defrayed
his and his men's diet, and gave them corn to relieve them
homeward, and a letter of protection to all men, and he departed
very joyful."
Uncas had now become a dangerous rival of Miantonomo, and the
jealousy between them soon grew so great that it threatened to
break out in open war. In 1638 they were both called to Hartford
by the Connecticut authorities to settle the differences between
them.
Miantonomo obeyed this summons at once and set out with a great
company, "a guard of upwards of one hundred and fifty men and
many sachems and his wife and children," and traveled through the
forests that lay between the villages of the Narragansetts in
Rhode Island and the English settlements in the Connecticut
valley. On the way he heard that the Mohegans had planned to
attack him, that they had laid an ambush for him, and had
threatened to "boil him in a kettle." Some Indians of a friendly
tribe met him and told him that a band of Mohegans had fallen
upon them and robbed them two days before, and had destroyed
twenty-three fields of their corn. Miantonomo had already come
about halfway, and, after holding a council with his chiefs, he
decided to push on. "No man shall turn back," he said; "we will
all rather die."
He reached Hartford in safety, but Uncas was not there. Uncas had
sent word by a messenger that he was lame and could not come. The
Governor of Connecticut "observed that it was a lame excuse and
sent for him to come without delay." So Uncas decided that it was
safer for him, on the whole, to get well quickly and to go to
Hartford.
In the council that followed, each chieftain stated his
grievances and made complaint against the other, and the English
tried to reconcile them. At last a treaty of peace was signed,
and then Miantonomo stepped forward and held out his hand to
Uncas and invited him to a feast. But Uncas would not eat with
him, and the two chiefs parted no better friends than before.
Not long after this, Miantonomo was accused of trying to unite
all the Indian tribes against the English settlers. It was said
that he had made a speech to the Long Island Indians in these
words:--
"Brothers, we must be one as the English are, or we shall soon
all be destroyed. You know our fathers had plenty of deer and
skins, and our plains were full of deer and of turkeys, and our
coves and rivers were full of fish. But, brothers, since these
English have seized upon our country, they cut down the grass
with scythes, and the trees with axes. Their cows and horses eat
up the grass, and their hogs spoil our beds of clams; and finally
we shall starve to death. Therefore, I beseech you to act like
men. All the sachems both to the east and west have joined with
us and we are resolved to fall upon them."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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