Chapter XXVIII: "The winds of March o'er Narraganset's Bay (2)

Early in the summer of 1779 the Marquis de La Fayette obtained leave of absence for one year, and returned to France. But this absence was not a season of idleness among his old associates, or of forgetfulness of the Americans on the part of La Fayette. On the contrary, the chief design of his visit to his native country was to enlist the sympathies of his people and government more warmly in the cause of the Americans, and to procure for them more substantial aid than they had hitherto received. After passing a few days with his beautiful and much loved wife, he addressed a long letter to the Count de Vergennes, one of the French ministers, on the subject of furnishing an army, well-appointed in every particular, to fight in America. In making such a request, a soul less ardent and hopeful than the youthful general's would not have perceived the least probability of success. He was acting without instructions from the American Congress, or even its sanction or the full approval of Washington. It seemed but too recently that French and American troops were battling in opposition in the Western World, to hope that they would freely commingle, though Britons were still the foes of the French. La Fayette, however, understood French character better than Washington and Congress did, and he knew that success would attend the measure. "He had that interior conviction which no argument or authority could subdue, that the proposed expedition was practicable and' expedient, and he succeeded in imparting his enthusiasm to the ministers." * He was only twenty-two years old, and held a subordinate rank in the army of his king; he, therefore, had no expectation of being commander of any force that might be sent; his efforts were disinterested. ** Nothing could divert him from his object, and, with a joyful heart, he returned to America the following spring, bearing to the patriots the glad tidings that a French squadron, with an May, 1780 army of more than four thousand men, admirably officered and equipped, and conveying money for the United States Treasury, was about to sail for our shores. The marquis also brought a commission from Louis XVI. for Washington, appointing him lieutenant general of the armies of France, and vice-admiral of its fleets. This was a wise measure, and operated, as intended, to prevent difficulties that might arise respecting official etiquette. It was stipulated that the French should be considered as auxiliaries, and always cede the post of honor to the Americans. Lieutenant-general the Count de Rochambeau, the commander of the French expedition, was to place himself under the American commander-inchief, and on all occasions the authority of Washington was to be respected as supreme. This arrangement secured the best understanding between the two armies while the allies remained in America. ***

* Everett's Eulogy on La Fayette.

** At the request of Count de Vergennes, La Fayette drew up a statement containing a detailed plan of the proposed expedition. It is a paper of great interest, and exhibits genius of the highest order, of which a general of threescore might be proud. The number and disposition of the troops, the character of the officers proper to accompany them, the appointments of the fleet and army, the time of embarkation, proper place for landing, and the probable service to which the fleet and army would be called, were all laid out with a minuteness and clearness of detail which seemed to indicate almost an intuitive knowledge of the future. The whole expedition was arranged in accordance with the plan of the marquis.

*** This arrangement was conceived by La Fayette, and he made it a fundamental point. Not content with soliciting troops for America, La Fayette requested large supplies of clothing, guns, and ammunition for the Republican army. They were promised, but only a part were sent. Such was the importunity of La Fayette, and such the disinterested enthusiasm with which he represented the wants and claims of his Republican friends, that the old Count Maurepas, who was then prime minister, said one day in the Council,

"It is fortunate for the king that La Fayette does not take it into his head to strip Versailles of its furniture, to send to his dear Americans, as his majesty would be unable to refuse it." La Fayette purchased, on his own account, a large quantity of swords and other military equipages, which he brought with him and presented to the officers of the light infantry whom he commanded during the campaign.-- See Appendix to vol. vii. of Sparks's Life and Writings of Washington, where will be found interesting documents relating to this expedition.

Good Tidings brought by La Fayette.--Their effect.--Arrival of the Allies.--Encampment at Newport.

655Great was the joy of the American Congress produced by the tidings brought by La Fayette, and assurance possessed the minds of that assembly that the next campaign would secure peace and independence to the States. Although policy forbade giving publicity to the fact that aid from abroad was near at hand, sufficient information leaked out to diffuse among the people pleasant hopes for the future. The return of La Fayette was hailed with delight. Congress, by resolution, (a) testified their satisfaction at his return, and a May 15,1780 accepted with pleasure a tender of the further services of so gallant and meritorious an officer. * Three days afterward Congress resolved that bills be immediately drawn on Dr. Franklin for twenty-five thousand dollars, and on Mr. Jay for the same amount, payable at sixty days' sight; and that the money be applied solely to the bringing of the army into the field, and forwarding them supplies in such a manner as the exigency and nature of the service shall require. Also, that the States of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, and New Hampshire, he most earnestly called upon to pay into the Continental treasury, within thirty days, ten millions of dollars. It was also resolved that the Legislatures, from New Hampshire to Virginia, be requested to invest their executive authority, or some other persons, with such powers as would enable them, on the application of the committee at the head-quarters of the army, to draw forth the resources of the state. ** The Carolinas and Georgia were exempt from the requisition, because they were then bearing the heavy burden of an active campaign within their own limits. Congress thus began to prepare for the most energetic co-operation with the allies when they should arrive.

The French fleet, under the command of Admiral de Ternay, sailed from Brest early in April, and appeared off the coast of Virginia on the 4th of July. ** On the evening of the 10th it entered Newport harbor, on which occasion the town was brilliantly illuminated, and every demonstration of joy was made by the inhabitants. General Heath, then in command on Rhode Island, was present to receive Rochambeau and his troops on landing, and to put them in possession of the batteries upon the island. On the 24th, the General Assembly, then in session, presented complimentary addresses to Rochambeau and Ternay; and General Washington, having heard of their arrival, recommended, in general orders at his camp in the Hudson Highlands, to the officers of the American army, to wear cockades of black and white--the ground being of the first color, and the relief of the second--as a compliment to, and a symbol of friendship and affection for their allies. **** The American cockade, at that time, was black; the French white.

As soon as intelligence was received of the arrival of the allies, La Fayette set out for Newport, under instructions from Washington, to concert measures with Rochambeau for future operations. The French troops were pleasantly encamped southeast of Newport, but they were not suffered to remain quiet. When intelligence of the sailing of Ternay from Brest reached the British cabinet, they dispatched Admiral Graves, with six ships of the line, to re-enforce Admiral Arbuthnot, the successor of Byron, then commanding the squadron on the American coast. Graves arrived at New York three days after Ternay entered New-1780.

* Journals of Congress, vi., 49. While in France, La Fayette was presented with an elegant sword, prepared there under the directions of Franklin, by order of Congress. Franklin sent it to the marquis from Passy, by his grandson. An account of this sword, and drawings will be found on page 119, vol. ii.

** Journals of Congress, vi., 50, 51.

*** The fleet consisted of two ships of eighty guns each, one of seventy-four, four of sixty-four, two frigates cf forty, a cutter of twenty, a hospital-ship, pierced for sixty-four, a bomb-ship, and thirty-two transports. The land forces consisted of four regiments, a battalion of artillery, and the legion of the Duke de Lauzun, amounting in all to about six thousand men.

**** Thacher, p. 200. Gordon, iii., 65.

British Blockade of Narraganset Bay.--Clinton's Expedition.--Death of Temay.--Washington in Newport

July 13, 1780656port harbor. The English fleet, now stronger than the French, proceeded immediately to attempt a blockade of the latter in Narraganset Bay. On the 19th, four British ships, the advance sail of the fleet rendezvousing at Block Island, appeared off Newport. The next morning, as soon as the wind would permit, three French frigates went in pursuit of them, but, falling in with nine or ten ships of the enemy that were approaching, made sail for the harbor, under full chase.

Intelligence was received that General Clinton, lately returned to New York from the South, was preparing to proceed in person, with a large part of his army, to attack Rhode Island. Menaced by sea and land, General Heath called earnestly upon Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut for troops, and his requisition was promptly complied with, so promptly, that, before any enemy appeared, the allied forces felt quite competent to oppose the largest army that Clinton could possibly bring into the field. Sir Henry actually sailed from New York with eight thousand troops, but proceeded no further than Huntington Bay, in Long Island Sound. Informed there of the fortified position of the French at Newport, the rapid gathering of the militia, and the approach of Washington toward New York City, Clinton abandoned the expedition and returned to his head-quarters.

While these events were taking place on our coast, the French and English fleets were striving for the mastery in the West Indies. The former was commanded by Admiral de Guichen, the latter by Admiral Rodney. It was the understanding when Ternay and Rochambeau left France, that they were to be joined at Rhode Island by the squadron of De Guichen. Events unforeseen prevented this junction. The arrival of Rodney at St. Lucie, and subsequent maneuvers and encounters, detained De Guichen in the West Indies until July; and five days before Ternay arrived at Newport, De Guichen left St. Domingo July 5 for Europe his ships having suffered greatly in the engagements, and the land troops which they carried having been terribly diminished by sickness. The failure of this co-operation, the great number of invalids among the French troops at Newport, and the expectation of an attack there, or an attempt to blockade the squadron, made it inexpedient to break up the encampment on Rhode Island and attempt any operations at a distance. It was concluded to pass the winter there. Lauzun and his legion, as we have seen, were cantoned at Lebanon, in Connecticut. Three thousand five hundred militia were kept under arms at Newport, to assist in guarding the French squadron, and the allies became a burden, rather than an aid, to the Americans. The conference between Washington and Rochambeau, and the final departure of the French troops in 1781, to form a junction with the American army on the Hudson, have been noticed on page 436.

The Chevalier de Ternay died at Newport soon after the arrival of the fleet, and was buried with distinguished honors in Trinity Church-yard, where a slab was afterward erected March, 1781 to his memory. Admiral de Barras succeeded him in command early in the following Spring, about which time Washington arrived at Newport, and held a conference with Rochambeau. The town was illuminated on the occasion of his visit, and from that time until the departure of the allies, quiet prevailed on Rhode Island. Active military operations ceased there, and, until the close of the war, the people were undisturbed, except by occasional menaces from English vessels in pursuit of American privateers, of which a large number hailed from Narraganset Bay, or made its waters their place of refuge when in danger upon the coast. * Newport suffered terribly during the war. Its population of eleven thousand in 1774, was reduced to about six thousand in 1782; and, according to an

* It is believed that Newport furnished more seamen for the naval service of the United States during the Revolution than any other port on the continent, except Boston. At least one thousand men were shipped for service in the navy from that port, one half of whom fell into the hands of the enemy and died in prison-ships. The naval commanders in the war who belonged to Rhode Island were John Grimes, Benjamin Pierce, Joseph Gardiner, William Dennis, James Godfred, Remembrance Simmons, Thomas Stacy, Oliver Read, Captain Bently, Samuel Jeffers, John Coggeshall, William Finch, Captain Jaques, James Phillips, Ezekiel Burroughs, John Murphy, Isaac Frabor, William Ladd, Joseph Sheffield, and Captain Gazzec. These either sailed from Newport previous to its possession by the enemy, or subsequently from other ports of New England.--Ross, page 62. Silas Talbot, also, belonged to Rhode Island.

Property destroyed in Newport.--Ride to Butte's Hill.--Hospitality.-- Fort on Butts's Hill.--View of the Battle-ground.

657estimate of a committee of the General Assembly, appointed for the purpose, the value of private property destroyed was six hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars, silver money.

The sun has gone down behind Conannicut and the hills of the Narraganset country; the broad sails of the wind-mills are still; the voices of the milkers come up from the neighboring farm-yard, and twilight is spreading its mysterious veil over the bay, the islands, and the ocean. Let us descend from our observatory on the hill of Miantonômoh and return to the city, and in the morning visit the places hallowed by events just viewed in the speculum of history.

The morning of the 23d was cold and blustering; the ground was hard frozen; October, 1848 ice covered the surface of the pools, and the north wind was as keen as the breath of December. I started early in a light rockaway for the battle-ground at the north end of the island, making a brief call on the way (or, rather, out of the way) upon Mr. Nathaniel Greene, a grandson of the eminent general of the Revolution who bore that name. He resides about three miles above Newport, and kindly furnished me with explicit directions respecting the localities I was about to visit. About a mile north of his estate I came to the head- quarters of Prescott, printed on page 76, which I sketched in haste, for my fingers were too soon benumbed with cold to hold the pencil expertly. Twelve miles from Newport I came to the residence of Mr. Anthony, which is, I believe, the "Brindley House" in the picture on page 83. An introductory line from his brother, David Anthony, Esq., was a key to his generous hospitality; and after accompanying me to the top of Butts's Hill, and pointing out the places of interest included in the view from its summit, he kindly invited me to dine with him when my sketching should be finished, an invitation heartily accepted, for a ride of twelve miles in the cold morning air was a whetstone to my usually good appetite.

The remains of the old fort on Butts's Hill, the embankments and fosse, with traces of the hastily-constructed ravelins, are well preserved. Even the ruts made by the carriage-wheels of the cannons, at the embrasures (for the ordnance was composed of field-pieces), were visible. The banks, in some places, are twenty feet high, measuring from the bottom of the fossé. Fortunately for the antiquary, the works were constructed chiefly upon a rocky ledge, and the plow can win no treasure there; the banks were earth, and afford no quarry for wall builders, and so the elements alone have lowered the ramparts and filled the ditches. Southward from this eminence, I had a fine view of Quaker and Turkey Hills--indeed, of the whole battle-ground. Sitting upon the exterior slope of the southern parapet, and sheltered from the wind by a clump of bushes and the remains of one of the bastions, I sketched the above view, which includes all the essential portions of the field of conflict. The eminence in the center, on which stands a 'wind-mill, is Quaker Hill; that on the right is Turkey Hill, on the northern slope of which is seen the west road. In the hollow at the foot of these hills the hottest of the battle was waged. On the left is seen the little village of Newton, beyond which is the Eastern or Seaconet Channel, stretching away to the ocean, and bounded on the left by the cultivated slopes of Little Compton. The undulations in the foreground are the embankments of the fort.

North View from Butts's Hill.--The Narraganset Country.--Masaasoit and his Sons.--King Philip.

658Northward the view is more extensive, and in some respects more interesting. The houses near the center of the picture mark the site of the old Bristol ferry, over which the Americans, under Sullivan, retreated to the main land.

A little to the left, lying upon the cast shore of the Narraganset, was Bristol; beyond was a glimpse of Warren; and in the far distance, directly over the steam-boat seen in the picture, the church spires of Providence were visible. On the right the high promontory of Mount Hope loomed up; and turning eastward, beyond the limits of the sketch, stood Tiverton and its old stone bridge, already mentioned. I could find no sheltered nook in making the sketch; upon the bleak summit of the hill I plied the pencil, until I could hold it no longer; but the drawing was finished.

From this eminence the vision takes in some of the most interesting portions of the Narraganset country and of the domains of Massasoit, the fast friend of the English. There were old Pocasset and Pokanoket, and, more conspicuous and interesting than all, was Mount Hope, the royal seat of King Philip, the last of the Wampanoags. It is too cold to turn the leaves of the chronicle here; let us wrap our cloaks around us, and, while gazing upon the beautiful land over which that great sachem held sway, read the records upon the tablets of memory, brief but interesting, concerning "King Philip's War."

"'Tis good to muse on nations pass'd away

Forever from the land we call our own;

Nations as proud and mighty in their day,

Who deem'd that everlasting was their throne.

An age went by, and they no more were known!

Sublimer sadness will the mind control,

Listening time's deep and melancholy moan;

And meaner griefs will less disturb the soul;

And human pride falls low at human grandeur's goal."

Robert C. Sands.

We have observed how Massasoit, the sagamore of the Wampanoags, whose dominions extended from Narraganset Bay to that of Massachusetts, presenting the hand of friendship and protection to the white settlers, remained faithful while he lived. His residence was near Warren, on the east side of the Narraganset; and so greatly was his friendship prized by the Pilgrim Fathers, that Winslow and others made a long journey to visit him when a March, 1623 dangerously ill. (a ) Recovering, he entered into a solemn league of friendship with the whites, and faithfully observed it until his death, which occurred thirty-two b 1655 years afterward. (b) Alexander, his eldest son, succeeded him, and gave promise of equal attachment to the whites; but his rule was short; he died two years after the death of his father, and his brother * Pometacom or Metacomet, better known as King Philip, became the head of his nation. He was a bold, powerful-minded warrior, and al-

* Bancroft and Hildreth say nephew. Earlier historians disagree. Prince and Trumbull say he was grandson to Massasoit, and Hutchinson and Belknap call him his son. Governor Prince, it is said, named Alexander and Philip after the great Macedonians, in compliment to Massasoit, indicating his idea of their character as warriors. They were doubtless sons of Massasoit.

Jealousy of King Philip.--Treaties with the Whites.--Curtailment of his Domains.--His chief Captains.--John Eliot.

1662.659ready his keen perception gave him uneasiness respecting the fate of his race.

Year after year the progress of settlement had curtailed the broad domains of the Wampanoags, until now they possessed little more than the narrow tongues of land at Pocanoket and Poeas-set, now Bristol and Tiverton yet Philip renewed the treaties made with Massasoit, and kept them faithfully a dozen years; but spreading settlements, reducing his domains acre by acre, breaking up his hunting-grounds, diminishing the abundance of his fisheries, and menacing his nation with the fate of the landless, stirred up his savage patriotism, and made him resolve to sever the ties that bound him, with fatal alliance, to his enemies. His residence was at Mount Hope; and there, in the solitude of the primeval forest, he ealled his warriors around him and planned with consummate skill, an alliance of all the New England tribes against the European intruders. *

For years the pious Eliot *** had been preaching the gospel among the New England tribes;

* The number of Indians in New England at that time has been variously estimated. Dr. Trumbull, in his History of the United States (i., 36), supposes that there were thirty-six thousand in all, one third of whom were warriors. Hutchinson (i., 406) estimates the fighting men of the Narragansets alone at two thousand. Hinckley says the number of Indians in Plymouth county in 1685, ten years after Philip's war, was four thousand. Church, in his History of King Philip's War, published in Boston in 1716, estimated the number of Indian warriors in New England, in the commencement of that war, at ten thousand. Bancroft (ii., 94) says there were probably fifty thousand whites and hardly twenty-five thousand Indians in New England, west of the Piscataqua; while east of that stream, in Maine, were about four thousand whites and more than that number of red men.

** I copied this and the annexed marks of Philip's chief captains, from an original mortgage given by the sachem, to Constant Southworth, on land four miles square, lying south of Taunton. The mortgage is dated October 1, 1672. It was drawn up by Thomas Leonard, and is signed by himself, Constant Southworth, and Hugh Cole. It was acknowledged before, and signed by, John Alden. * This interesting document is in the possession of that intelligent antiquary, S. G. Drake, Esq., of Boston, to whose kindness I am indebted for these signatures. No. 1 is the sign of Munashum, alias Nimrod; No. 2, of Wonckom-pawhan; No. 3, of Captain Annawan, the "next man to Philip," or his chief warrior.

*** John Eliot, usually called the Apostle of the Indians, was minister of Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was born in Essex county, England, in 1604, and came to America in 1631. Educated thoroughly at Cambridge University, he soon obtained great influence among the settlers. Touched by the ignorance of the Indians respecting spiritual things, his heart yearned to do them good, and for many years he labored assiduously among them, with great success. He founded, at Natick, the first Indian church in America, in 1660. The next year he published the New Testament in the Indian language, and in a few years the whole Bible and other books. He died May 20th, 1690, aged about eighty-six. The venerable apostle was buried in the Ministers' Tomb ** in the first burying-ground at Roxbury, which is situated on the east side of the great avenue across the Neck to Boston. The residence of Eliot was opposite the house of Governor Thomas Dudley, on the other side of the brook. Dudley's mansion was taken down in 1775, and a redoubt was erected upon the spot. The site is now occupied by the Universalist church. Reverend Dr. Putnam, of Roxbury, is the fifth pastoral successor of the apostle in the first church. The remains of his predecessors all lie in the Ministers' Tomb. The commissioners of the Forest Hills Cemetery have designated the heights on its western border as the Eliot Hills, and there the citizens of Roxbury are about to erect a beautiful monument to the memory of the apostle, Daniel Gookin, whose signature is given above, was the friend of, and a zealous co-worker with, Mr. Eliot. He came to Virginia, from England, in 1621. He went to Massachusetts with his family in 1644, and settled in Cambridge. He was soon called to fill civil and military offices, and in 1652 was appointed superintendent of the Indians. This office he held until his death, in 1687, at the age of seventy-five years. Gookin wrote an historical account of the New England Indians, and was the firm friend of the red man through life. His remains are in the old burying-ground at Cambridge. Lieutenant Gookin of our Revolutionary army was his lineal descendant.

* Alden was a passenger in the May Flower, and one of the immortal forty-one who signed the instrument of civil government, given on pages 437 and 438, vol. I, of this work, where also is the signature of Southworth.

** In 1724-5, a citizen of Roxbury, named William Bowen, was made prisoner by the Turks. The people of his town raised a sum of money sufficient for his ransom. Before it could be applied they received intelligence of his det±. The money was then appropriated to the building of a tomb for the ministers of the church.

Enlightenment of the Indians.--Sassamon.--Rising of the New England Tribes.--Daniel Gookin.

660no pains were spared to teach them to read and write; and in a short time a larger proportion of the Massachusetts Indians could do so than, recently, of the inhabitants of "Russia. * Churches were gathered among the natives; and when Philip lifted the hatchet, there were four hundred "praying Indians," as the converts were called, who were firmly attached to the whites; yet Christianity hardly spread beyond the Indians on Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, and the seven feeble villages around Boston. Philip, like Red Jacket of our days, opposed meddling with the religion of his fathers, and, two years before the war, boldly and openly, at the head of seven hundred warriors, boasted of his own and their attachment to the ancient belief.

A "praying Indian" named John Sassamon, who had been educated at Cambridge, and employed as a teacher, had fled to Philip on account of some misdemeanor, and became a sort of secretary to the sachem. Being persuaded to return to the whites, he accused Philip of meditated treason. For this he was waylaid by the savages, and slain. Three of Philip's men, suspected of the murder, were tried by a jury of half English and half Indians, convicted, and hanged. The evidence on which they were convicted was slender, and the Wampanoags were greatly irritated. Philip was cautious; his warriors were impetuous. Overruled by their importunities, and goaded by a remembrance of the wrongs and humiliations he had suffered from the English, ** he trampled solemn treaties beneath his feet, and lighted the flame of war. Messengers were sent to other tribes, to arouse them to co-operation, and, with all the power of Indian eloquence, Metacomet exhorted his followers to curse the white men, and swear eternal hostility to the pale faces.

"Away! away! I will not hear

Of aught but death or vengeance now;

By the eternal skies I swear

My knee shall never learn to bow!

I will not hear a word of peace,

Nor clasp in friendly grasp a hand

Link'd to the pale-brow'd stranger race,

That work the ruin of our land.

* Bancroft, ii., 94.

** In 1671, Philip was suspected of secret plottings against the English, and, notwithstanding his asseverations to the contrary, was ordered to give up his fire-arms to the whites. This was a fortunate occurrence for the English; for, had the Indians possessed those arms in the war that ensued, their defeat would have been doubtful.

Philip's Appeal.--Condition of the Indians.--Commencement of Hostilities.--Canonchet.--Mather's Magnalia.

661

"Before their coming, we had ranged

Our forests and our uplands free;

Still let us keep unsold, unchanged,

The heritage of Liberty.

As free as roll the chainless streams,

Still let us roam our ancient woods;

As free as break the morning beams,

That light our mountain solitudes.

"Touch not the hand they stretch to you;

The falsely-profferd cup put by;

Will you believe a coward true?

Or taste the poison'd draught, to die?

Their friendship is a lurking snare;

Their honor but an idle breath;

Their smile the smile that traitors wear;

Their love is hate, their life is death.

"And till your last white foe shall kneel,

And in his coward pangs expire--

Sleep--but to dream of brand and steel;

Wake--but to deal in blood and fire."

C. Sherry.

Although fierce and determined when once aroused, no doubt Philip was hurried into this war against his best judgment and feelings, for his sagacity must have forewarned him of failure. The English were well armed and provisioned; the Indians had few guns, and their subsistence was precarious. "Phrensy prompted their rising. It was but the storm in which the ancient inhabitants of the land were to vanish away. They rose without hope, and therefore they fought without mercy. For them as a nation there was no to-morrow."

Bancroft has given a condensed, yet perspicuous and brilliant narrative of this war. "The minds of the English," he says, "were appalled by the horrors of the impending conflict, and superstition indulged in its wild inventions. At the time of the eclipse of the moon, you might have seen the figure of an Indian scalp imprinted on the center of its disk. The perfect form of an Indian bow appeared in the sky. The sighing of the wind was like the whistling of bullets. Some distinctly heard invisible troops of horses gallop through the air, while others formed the prophecy of calamities in the howling of the wolves. **

"At the very beginning of danger, the colonists exerted their wonted energy. Volunteers from Massachusetts joined the troops from Plymouth, and, within a week from the commencement of hostilities, the insulated Pokanokets were driven from Mount Hope, and January 29, 1675 in less than a month Philip was a fugitive among the Nipmucks, the interior tribes of Massachusetts. The little army of the colonists then entered the territory of the Narragansets, and from the reluctant tribe extorted a treaty of neutrality, with a promise to give up every hostile Indian. Victory seemed promptly assured; but it was only the commencement of horrors. Canonchet, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, was the son of Miantonômoh; and could he forget his father's wrongs? And would the tribes of New England permit the nation that had first given a welcome to the English to perish unavenged? Desolation extended along the whole frontier. Banished from his patrimony,

* Bancroft, ii., 101.

** Cotton Mather, in his Magnalia, ii., 486, says, "Yea, and now we speak of things ominous, we may add, some time before this [the execution of three Indians for the murder of Sassamon], in a clear, still, sunshiny morning, there were divers persons who heard in the air, on the southeast of them, a great gun go off, and presently thereupon the report of small guns, like musket shot, very thick discharging, as if there had been a battle. This was at a time when there was nothing visible done in any part of the colony to occasion such noises; but that which most of all astonished them was the flying of bullets, which came singing over their heads [beetles? See page 574, vol. i.], and seemed very near to them; after which the sound of drums, passing along westward, was very audible; and on the same day, in Plymouth colony, in several places, invisible troops of horse were heard riding to and fro." No credence is to be attached to this book of Mather's.

Indian Method of Warfare.--Destruction of New England Villages.-- Terrible Retaliation by the Whites.

662where the Pilgrims found a friend, and from his cabin, which had sheltered the exiles, Philip and his warriors spread through the country, arousing their brethren to a warfare of extermination.

"The war, on the part of the Indians, was one of ambush and surprise. They never once met the English in open field; but always, even if eight-fold in number, fled timorously before infantry. But they were secret as beasts of prey, skillful marksmen, and in part provided with fire-arms, fleet of foot, conversant with all the paths of the forest, patient of fatigue, mad with passion for rapine, vengeance, and destruction, retreating into swamps for their fastnesses, or hiding in the green-wood thickets, where the leaves muffled the eyes of the pursuers. By the rapidity of their descent, they seemed omnipotent among the scattered villages, which they ravaged like a passing storm; and for a full year they kept all New England in a state of terror and excitement. The exploring party was waylaid and cut off, and the mangled carcasses and disjointed limbs of the dead were hung upon the trees to terrify pursuers. The laborer in the field, the reapers as they went forth to harvest, men as they went to mill, the shepherd's boy among the sheep, were shot down by skulking foes, whose approach was invisible. Who can tell the heavy hours of woman? The mother, if left alone in the house, feared the tomahawk for herself and children; on the sudden attack, the husband would fly with one child, the wife with another, and perhaps only one escape; the village cavalcade, making its way to meeting on Sunday, in files on horseback, the farmer holding the bridle in one hand and a child in the other, his wife seated on a pillion. behind him, it may be with a child in her lap, as was the fashion of those days, could not proceed safely; but, at the moment when least expected, bullets would whiz among them, discharged with fatal aim from an ambuscade by the wayside. The red men hung upon the skirts of the English villages 'like the lightning on the edge of the clouds.'

"What need of repeating the same tale of horrors? Brookfield was set on a August 12 fire, (a) rescued only to be abandoned. Deerfield was burned. (b) Hadley b September 11 surprised during a time of religious service, * was saved only by the daring of Goffe, the regicide, now bowed with years, a heavenly messenger of rescue, who darted from his hiding-place, rallied the disheartened, and, having achieved a safe defense, sank away in his retirement, to be no more seen. The plains of Northfield were wet with the blood of a September 23 Beers (a) and twenty of his valiant associates. Lathrop's company of young men, the very flower of Essex, culled out of the towns of that county, were b September 28. butchered; (b) hardly a white man escaped; and the little stream whose channel became red with their life currents, is called Bloody Brook to this day."

The Narragansets played false to the white men, and in winter sheltered the foe that wasted their settlements. It was resolved to treat them as enemies, and through the deep snows of December, a thousand men, levied by the united colonies, marched to the great fort of the tribe. ** Its feeble palisades quickly yielded, and fire and sword soon "swept away the humble glories of the Narragansets. Their winter stores, their wigwams, and all the little comforts of savage life, were destroyed; and more, their old men, their women, their babes, perished by hundreds in the fire." ** It was a terrible blow for the Indians. Cold, hunger, and disease followed, and were the powerful allies of the English in the decimation of the tribe. Yet Canonchet did not despair, and he fought gallantly, until, being taken prisoner by the English, he was put to death.

In the spring, the spirit of revenge and retaliation began its work. Weymouth, Groton, Medfield, Lancaster, and Marlborough, in Massachusetts, were laid in ashes;

* See page 420, of this vol.

** The fort was situated upon an island containing four or five acres, imbosomed in a swamp. The island was encompassed by high and strong palisades, with abatis outside, and there three thousand of the Narragansets were collected to pass the winter. This swamp is a short distance southwest of Kingston village, in the township of Kingston, Washington county, Rhode Island. The Stonington and Providence rail-way passes along the northern verge of the swamp.

*** Bancroft, ii., 105.

Decimation of the Indians.--Strifes among them.--Philip a Fugitive.--His Death.--His Son.--Captain Church.

663Warwick and Providence, in Rhode Island, were burned; and every where the isolated dwellings of adventurous settlers were laid waste. But as the season advanced, and more remote tribes came not to re-enforce them, the Indians, wasted and dispirited, abandoned all hopes of success. Strifes arose among them. The Connecticut Indians charged their misfortunes upon Philip, and so did the Narragansets. The cords of alliance were severed. Some surrendered to avoid starvation; other tribes wandered off and joined those of Canada; while Captain Church, the most famous of the English partisan warriors, went out to hunt and destroy the fugitives. * During the year, between two and three thousand Indians were killed or submitted. Philip was chased from one hiding- place to another; and although he had vainly sought the aid of the Mohawks, and knew that hope was at an end, his proud spirit would not listen to words of peace; he cleft the head of a warrior who ventured to propose it. At length, after an absence of a year, he resolved, as it were, to meet his destiny. He returned to the beautiful land where his forefathers slept, the cradle of August, 1676 his infancy, and the nestling-place of his tribe. Once be escaped narrowly, leaving his wife and only son prisoners. This bereavement crushed him. "My heart breaks," cried the chieftain, in the agony of his grief; "now I am ready to die." His own followers now began to plot against him, to make better terms for themselves. In a few days he was shot by a faithless Indian, and Captain Church cut off his head with his own sword. The captive orphan was transported to an island of the ocean. So perished the princes of the Pokanokets. Sad to them had been their acquaintance with civilization. The first ship that came on their coast kidnapped men of their kindred; and now the harmless boy, who had been cherished as an only child and the future sachem of their tribes--the last of the family of Massasoit--was sold into bondage, to toil as a slave under the suns of Bermuda. ** Of the once prosperous Narragansets of old, the chief tribe of New England, hardly one hundred remained. The sword, famine, fire, and sickness had swept them from the earth. "During the whole war the Mohegans remained faithful to the English, and not a drop of blood was shed on the happy soil of Connecticut. So much the greater was the loss in the adjacent colonies. Twelve or thirteen towns were destroyed. The disbursements and losses equaled in value half a million of dollars- -an enormous sum for the few of that day. More than six hundred men, chiefly young men, the flower of the country, of whom any mother might have been proud, perished in the field. As many as six hundred houses were burned. Of the able-bodied men in the colony, one in twenty had fallen; and one family in twenty had been burned out. The loss of lives and property was, in proportion

* Benjamin Church was born at Duxbury, in 1639. He was the first white settler at Seaconnet, or Little Compton. He was the most active and noted combatant of the Indians during King Philip's war, and when Philip was slain, Church cut off his head with his own hands. The sword with which he performed the act is in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society (see page 562, ante). In 1689, Church was commissioned by President Hinckley, of Plymouth, and the governors of Maine and Massachusetts, commander-in-chief of a force sent against the Eastern Indians. He continued making expeditions against them until 1704. In his old age he was corpulent. A fall from his horse was the cause of his death, which occurred at Little Compton, January 17, 1718, at the age of seventy-seven years. Under his direction his son prepared a history of the Indian wars, which was published in 1716.

** The disposal of this child was a subject of much deliberation. Several of the elders were urgent to put him to death. It was finally resolved to be merciful, and send him to Bermuda, to be sold into slavery. Such was the fate of many Indians, a fate to them worse than death. During the war the government of Plymouth gave thirty shillings for every head of an Indian killed in battle, and Philip's brought the same price. Their living bodies brought a high price in Bermuda, and probably more living Indian heads went thither than dead ones to the market at Plymouth. Witamo, the squaw sachem of Pocasset, shared in the disasters of Philip. She was drowned while crossing a river in her flight. Her body was recovered, and the head cut off and stuck upon a pole at Taunton, amid the jeers of the whites and the tears of the captive Indians. The body of Philip was beheaded and quartered, according to the sentence of the English law against traitors. One of his hands was given to the Indian who had shot him, and on the day appointed for a public thanksgiving, his head was carried in triumph into Plymouth. What a mockery of Christianity! Men, guilty of gross injustice to a race that had befriended them, lifting their hands toward heaven reeking with the blood of those they had injured, and singing Te Deum Laudamus, or praising God for his providential care! No Providence for the poor Indian, because he had neither cunning, skill, nor gunpowder!

Sufferings of the Colonists.--A Happy Change.--Capture of the Pigot by Talbot

664to numbers, as distressing as in the Revolutionary war. There was scarce a family from which Death had not selected a victim." * Thus ended the first general Indian war in New England. Righteousness, sitting upon the throne of judgment, has long since decided the question of equity; and we, viewing the scene at a distance, can not fail to discern the true verdict against the avaricious white man.

Those dark days of distress and crime are passed away forever. The splendors of an October sun, which then shed a radiance over the forests and the waters, beautiful as now, no longer light up the ambuscade of the red men, or the hiding-places of the pale-faces lurking for blood. From the bald eminence on which I stand, the land of Philip and Canonchet, of Witamo and Miantonômoh, and the broad waters where they sported in peace, are spread out to the eye beautiful as the "Happy Valley," and upon the whole domain rest the beneficent influences of love, harmony, righteousness, and peace. Let us, then, endeavor to forget the gloomy past, and leave upon memory only the bright vision of the present.

The vision was bright indeed, but it was the sheen of the glacier. The unclouded sun and the uncurbed north wind wrestled for the mastery. The latter was the victor, and, until I was warmed at the table of Mr. Anthony, I could not fully comprehend the charms which I had beheld while half frozen among the mounds of the old fortress on the hill.

I returned to Newport by the way of Vaucluse, on the eastern road, where I sketched the great sycamore pictured on page 653, which is standing upon the bank of the Seaconnet or Eastern Channel. Near the mouth of this passage, a little below Vaucluse, occurred one of those events, characterized by skill and personal bravery, which make up a large portion of the history of our war for independence. In order to close up this channel, when the French fleet appeared off Newport, the British converted a strong vessel of two hundred tuns into a galley, and named it _Pigot_, in honor of the commander on Rhode Island. Its upper deck was removed, and on its lower deck were placed twelve eight-pounders, which belonged to the Flora, that was sunk in Newport harbor, and also ten swivels. Thus armed, she was a formidable floating battery. Major Silas Talbot, whose exploits had already won the expressed approbation of Congress, proposed an expedition to capture or destroy this vessel, for it effectually broke up the local trade of that section. General Sullivan regarded his scheme as impracticable, but finally consented to give Talbot permission to make the attempt. A draft of men for the purpose was allowed, and with sixty resolute, patriots, Talbot sailed from Providence in a coasting sloop called the _Hawk_, which he had fitted out for the purpose. Armed with only three three-pounders, besides the small arms of his men, he sailed by the British forts at Bristol Ferry, and anchored within a few miles of the _Pigot_. Procuring a horse on shore, he rode down the east bank and reconnoitered. The galley presented a formidable appearance, yet the major was not daunted. At nine o'clock in the evening, favored with a fair wind, and accompanied by Lieutenant Helm, of Rhode Island, and a small re- enforcement, Talbot hoisted the anchor of the _Hawk_ and with a kedge- anchor lashed to the jib-boom to tear the nettings of the _Pigot_, he bore down upon 1778 that vessel. It was a very dark night in October. Under bare poles he drifted past Fogland Ferry fort without being discovered, when he hoisted sail and ran partly under the stem of the galley. The sentinels hailed him, but, returning no answer, a volley of musketry was discharged at the _Hawk_ without effect. The anchor tore the nettings and grappled the fore-shrouds of the _Pigot,_ enabling the assailants to make a free passage to her deck. With loud shouts, the Americans poured from the _Hawk_, and drove every man of the _Pigot_ into the hold, except the commander, who fought desperately alone, with no other mail than shirt and drawers, until he perceived that resistance was useless. The _Pigot_ was surrendered, with the officers and crew. Her cables were coiled over the hatchways, to secure the prisoners below, and, weighing anchor, Talbot, with his prize, entered the harbor of Stonington the next day. This bold adventure was greatly applauded, and, on the 14th of November following, Congress complimented Talbot and his men, and presented him with

* Bancroft, ii., 108, 109.

Promotion of Talbot.--Departure from Newport.--Adieu to New England.-- Halleck's "Connecticut."

665a commission of lieutenant colonel in the army of the United States. * He was afterward transferred to the navy, in which service we shall meet him again.

I reached Newport at four o'clock, and at sunset was on board the _Empire State_, a noble Sound steam-boat (which was partially destroyed by fire a few weeks afterward), bound for New York.

We passed old Fort Canonicut and Fort Adams, and out of the harbor at twilight; and at dark, leaving the Beaver-tail light behind, we were breasting the moon-lit waves of the ocean toward Point Judith. I now bade a final adieu to New England, to visit other scenes hallowed by the struggle of our fathers for liberty.

Often since has the recollection of my visit there come up in memory like a pleasant dream; and never can I forget the universal kindness which I received during my brief tarry among the people of the East.

"They love their land because it is their own,

And scorn to give aught other reason why;

Would shake hands with a king upon his throne,

And think it kindness to his majesty;

A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none.

Such are they nurtured, such they live and die,

All, but a few apostates, who are meddling

With merchandise, pounds, shillings, pence, and peddling;

"Or, wandering through the Southern countries, teaching

The ABC from Webster's spelling-book;

Gallant and godly, making love and preaching,

And gaining, by what they call 'hook and crook,'

And what the moralists call overreaching,

A decent living. The Virginians look

Upon them with as favorable eyes

As Gabriel on the Devil in Paradise.

"But these are but their outcasts. View them near,

At home, where all their worth and pride are placed;

And there their hospitable fires burn clear,

And there the lowliest farm-house hearth is graced

With manly hearts; in piety sincere;

Faithful in love, in honor stern and chaste,

In friendship warm and true, in danger brave,

Beloved in life, and sainted in the grave."

Halleck's "Connecticut."

* See Tuckerman's Life of Talbot; Journals of Congress, iv., 471.

The Hudson Highlands.--Newburgh.--The Indian Summer.--Its character

666