the sachems to present themselves at Boston; but to add, that "deputies would not now serve, nor might the preparations in hand be now stayed." Williams attended the messengers as interpreter, and probably made himself useful, though the Commissioners blamed their agents for employing him.1 The chiefs were brought to reconsider their rash decision; and Pessacus and Mixan, Narragansett sachems, with Ninigret, sachem of their Nyantic allies, and attendants upon each, appeared at Boston, where in a few days they made a treaty of "firm Treaty of and perpetual peace, both with all the English peace. United Colonies and their successors, and with Uncas, the Mohegan sachem, and his men, with Ousamequin, Pomham, Sacononoco, ..... and all other Indian sagamores and their companies, who were in friendship with, or subject to, any of the English." They agreed to reimburse the charges of the expedition against them to the amount of "two thousand fathom of good white wampum" in four instalments, and to leave four children of their chiefs as hostages for their execution of the compact. the treaty. The instalment due in the following spring was not paid. This default was not so important in itself, as for the reviving insubordination which it betokened; Breach of and, when it still continued after more than a year had passed, the Commissioners feared that intelligence which reached them afforded the explanation of it. They were "informed credibly," that the Narragansetts had been plotting, and by presents of wampum engaging the Indians round about to combine with them. against the English Colonies in war." At a special meeting held at Boston, they resolved to send to Pes- 1647. sacus, and require his immediate presence before July 26. them, with the usual promise of freedom to return. The 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 36- the town of Westerly, in Rhode Island. See Vol. I. 24. 38. 2 VOL. II. Ninigret's seat was in what is now 3 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 38-43. messengers brought back his answer, to the effect, 1. that he acknowledged to "have broken his covenant these two years, and that it was, and had been, the constant grief of his spirit;" 2. that he was prevented by illness (which, however, the messengers said they saw no signs of) from presenting himself to the Commissioners; 3. that he sent Ninigret, with full powers to act for him; 4. that "when he made his covenant, he did it in fear of the army that he did see.” Ninigret appeared, and argued the question anew. "He first pretended ignorance, as if he had not known what covenants had been made." Then he "asked, for what the Narragansetts should pay so much wampum.' The ground having been patiently gone over again with him, he professed that he "was resolved to give the Colonies due satisfaction in all things," and sent away some of his followers to collect the wampum which remained due. They returned in two or three weeks with only a small portion of it. Ninigret alleged that this deficiency was owing to his absence. The Commissioners took him at his word, and dismissed him with the threat, that, "if they brought not a thousand fathom more within twenty days, the Commissioners would send no more messengers, but take course to right themselves, as they saw cause, in their own time." They then set the hostages at liberty.1 Aug. 16. Whether or not the savages were hoping and scheming for an opportunity to settle their account by an exterminating war, another year passed, and the account still remained unsettled, while the colonists continued to receive alarming intelligence of attempts of the Narragansetts to engage the powerful and mercenary Mohawks in the service of their revenge.2 For three years longer, 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 76- Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 105-107. 80, 96. The Narragansetts, it seems, did not now even spare their old friends at War Winthrop, II. 333, 334; comp. 1650. Sept. 5. a repetition of remonstrances and menaces by the English obtained nothing more than an uncertain and anxious peace. A Narragansett Indian, seized in an attempt to assassinate their ally, Uncas, affirmed that he had been bribed to the deed by the chiefs of his tribe.1 The Commissioners became apprehensive of the effect of further delaying to bring to an issue the question of power; and they "thought meet, and agreed, to keep the Colonies from contempt among the Indians, and to prevent their improving the said wampum to hire other Indians to join with themselves, ... that twenty men well armed should be sent out of the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts to Pessacus, to demand the said wampum, and, upon refusal or delay, to take the same, or the value thereof, in the best and most suitable goods they could find." "If other means were wanting," the officer was instructed, "with as little hurt as might be," to "seize and bring away either Pessacus the Narraor his children.” 2 Captain Atherton, accordingly, led twenty men through the woods to the sachem's wigwam. Leaving them at the entrance, he went in, and announced the purpose of his visit. The savage would have begun another conference; but Atherton, seizing him by the hair, led him out with one hand, while, with a cocked pistol in the other, he overawed his attendants. This demonstration was decisive. The wampum was paid on the spot, and for the present the machinations of the Narragansetts seemed to be disconcerted. Decisive ac tion against gansetts. In New Haven and Connecticut, where the Indians near the towns were more numerous than in Massachu wick. (Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 135.) Probably they were incensed against Gorton (who had lately returned from England) when they found how illusory were those promises of his, of protection from the King, by accepting which they had offended the other Colonies. 1 Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 129 – 131. 2 Ibid., 151, 152. I relate this episode after Mather (Magnalia, Book VII. Chap. VI. § 4). Valeat quantum. — Atherton was understood to know the Narragansetts well. See above, pp. 132, 226; below, p. 329. Indian troubles in New Haven and Connecticut. setts and Plymouth, they were also more bold and troublesome. They were especially annoying near the western border, where the vicinity of the Dutch at once kept them in a state of constant irritation, and afforded them some security against the resentment of the English. A party of them murdered an Englishman near Fairfield. It was reported that the crew of a shipwrecked vessel had been killed by the savages on Long Island. A native went into a house at Stamford, and with a hammer inflicted blows on a woman's head, which permanently destroyed her reason. He was taken and executed, but not till his friends had made such hostile demonstrations as had occasioned aid to be summoned from New Haven and the river towns.2 An Indian declared that Sequasson, sachem of Sicaiog (Hartford), had offered him a bribe to murder Mr. Haynes, Mr. Hopkins, and Mr. Whiting, Magistrates of Connecticut.3 Fires were set by some savages in Windsor and in Milford; and, when one of them was caught, his comrades rescued him.* At Stamford also, and at Southampton, they gratified their sanguinary instincts.5 Underhill had been hunting them in the service of the Dutch, and their resentment did not distinguish between the races of foreigners. The people of Connecticut and New Haven had to keep perpetual watch and ward. 1646. 1648, 1649. New settlements in The new settlement of Branford, a few miles east of New Haven, and that of Farmington, a short distance from Hartford to the west, increased the number of the towns in the Colonies of New Haven and Connecticut respectively. Branford the western 1 N. H. Rec., I. 134; Records, &c., missioners, however, do not appear to in Hazard, II. 128. 2 Winthrop, II. 188, 189; Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 23. * Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 59-61; comp. Winthrop, 332, 333. The Com have, on reflection, believed this story. * Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 6264; Trumbull, I. 160. 129. Records, &c., in Hazard, II. 127 – was established by a junction of two companies; of which one came from Southampton, on Long Island, the other was composed of Wethersfield men who were dissatisfied with some ecclesiastical proceedings in that place. Among the planters at Farmington were some of the most esteemed citizens of Hartford. A more important extension of the settlements of Connecticut was made in the opposite direction, under the auspices of a man who brought to her a large accession of means and of character. John Winthrop, the younger, returning from England to Massachusetts, "brought with him a thousand pounds stock, and divers work- 1643. men, to begin an iron-work." He formed a jointstock company; the General Court encouraged the enterprise, as "much conducing to the good of the country," by voting them land, a monopoly of the article for twentyone years, and "freedom from public charges, trainings, &c. ;" and a beginning was made at Braintree. Plantation the younger at Pequot River. 1646. For a time the project excited great expectation; but the prime mover in it must be supposed to have been disappointed; for, after three years, we find him to have transferred his attention to another ob- of Winthrop ject. By him and "Mr. Thomas Peter, a minister, brother to Mr. Peter of Salem," "a plantation was begun at Pequot River;" and the General Court of Massachusetts gave authority "to them two for ordering and governing the plantation till further order." It was known that Connecticut, on some grounds not yet considered, made a claim to the territory. But “it mattered not to which jurisdiction it did belong, seeing the confederation made all as one; but it was of great concernment to have it planted, to be a curb to the Indians, &c." It was at the very doors of Uncas, who, with all 1 See Vol. I. 613; comp. Winthrop, &c., in Hazard, II. 71. Pequot harIL. 212, 213, App. A. 69. bor and the lands adjoining" had early 2 Winthrop, II. 266; comp. Records, been had in view as an advantageous |