CHAPTER II.

INDIAN HISTORY.

WHO WERE THE INDIANS; THEIR CHARACTER; COMPARISON WITH MODERN NATIONS; MILITARY ENACTMENTS; WATCHES; DEFINITIONS OF INDIAN NAMES; NONNEWAUG'S GRAVE; POMPERAUG'S GRAVE; LEGEND OF BETHEL ROCK; ANECDOTES; REFLEO

TIONS.

HE history of the aboriginal occupants of our hills, and vales and waters, in New England, will always be one of sad though pleasing interest to the thoughtful and truthful historian. It is now a long time since their "light went out on the shore," and the white actors on the stage of life, in the early days, in the order of nature, also passed away with them, and we can now form a true estimate of their character, and the right and wrong of their conduct, since all passion and prejudice have long since been buried in the grave of years. Still, there is yet great diversity in the views of writers upon this theme, shaded and tinged, perhaps, by the savage enormities, ever recurring between our people and the powerful tribes in our western borders. But in New England, the bitterness of the early days has passed away, and historians, and, educated people generally, take a kindly interest in each faintest trace of authentic history of the former wild children of the forest.

And

it speaks well for our common human

ity, and for our advance in knowledge aud true civilization.

A very full history of the Indians of Woodbury was contained

in the former edition of this work, but the interest that will ever linger around all that pertains to the dim and shadowy days, in which the red man was sole "monarch of all he surveyed," will warrant the record here of the remaining fragments, that have come to hand since the former issue. In a letter received by the writer from the late most gifted poetess of Connecticut, who has done so much for humanity, and for the honor of her native State, Mrs. Lydia H. Sigourney, of Hartford, referring to the chapter on Indian History in the former edition, she writes:

"I was particularly pleased with the space and spirit you have devoted to our aborigines, who, in my earlier days, seemed subjects of romance,-as in later ones, they have been of sympathy." This thought touches the key-note of the subject in our hearts. The wasting away, and final extinction of the race within our borders, is a meet subject for sympathetic contemplation.

And who were the strange people that occupied these pleasant dwelling places in the woods, when the white man reached these shores? They were, indeed, a strange race, beginning in mystery and ending in annihilation. Their origin and mission on earth seem to be one of the secrets of the Great Creator. The race found inhabiting these new regions, did not live in comfortable dwellings, surrounded by verdant fields, which they cultivated, but semi-nude, or clad in the skins of wild beasts, they wandered in small clans, in the dense forests, among the lofty mountains, by the murmuring streams, and along the meandering rivers. They were destitute of the arts of civilized life; had strange rites, and unheard-of customs. They engaged in fierce conflicts and exterminating wars. They were men of iron will, who knew no fear, had strongest fortitude, and whom severest tortures could not move. They never forgot a kindness, nor forgave an injury. They were idolaters, and, on our now peaceful and happy plains, they offered human sacrifices to appease the God of evil, created by their own superstitious imaginations. This rude and barbarous people was scattered all over our extended continent, and yet they had hitherto been unknown-insulated from the rest of the world. Our fathers tried to civilize and Christianize them with little success, though they granted them the privilege of attending their schools and religious assemblies. Some of them, indeed, profited by these privileges, gained the rudiments of knowledge, put themselves under the care of the ministers, and became approved members of the churches. But the great majority adhered to their

dark and cheerless faith, and cruel rites, believed and practiced by their forefathers. Let it be taken for granted, then, as many have asserted, that the Indian was fierce, vindictive, cruel, immoral, uncultivated, and untamable, copying the vices rather than the virtues of our people; yet with all his faults and failings, he stood erect, in the midst of nature's leafy temple, God's original freeman! He believed in the existence of the Great Spirit. He could never be enslaved. No superior intelligence, or cunning, could make him wear the bondsman's chain!

But the great complaint of those who denounce the character of the Indian, is his cruelty, and relentless ferocity. Now nothing can be said in favor of this habit in the red man-scarcely any. thing by way of mitigation of judgment, save the ignorance with which he had been enveloped-the legacy of long, dark ages. But should not we, who live in the nineteenth century, and boast loudly of our civilization, our progress, our intelligence, our Christianity and our humanity, hide our faces in very shame in the light of recent events, instead of casting odium, or sharp criticism upon the memory of the poor, departed denizen of the forest? In what page of authentic history do we read of the Indians of this land being guilty of deeds so dark, cruel, malignant and damning, as the horrors inflicted by the white men of the south, in the late civil war, upon their brethren of the north-who were bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Talk you of tortures? What torture was ever inflicted by the Indians upon their enemies that could, for a moment, compare with the slow, malignant - tortues of filth, starvation, disease and death, inflicted by those who claimed to be of the highest chivalry of civilization, education and refinement, in those loathsome, open sepulcres, the prison. pens of Belle Isle, Salisbury and Andersonville? Too inhuman. to be content with the swift vengeance of the Indian-the running of the gauntlet, the poisoned arrow, the scalping, or flaying process, or death at the stake, all of which brought speedy death and the end of their torments, the heroes of our boasted civilization, in these latter, effulgent days, could be satisfied with nothing less than the tortures of demons, long drawn out before their gloating eyes and remorseless hearts. And what are we now beholding, as these pages are passing through the press, in these pleasant, May days, in the face of the world, under the eye of Heaven, in the vaunted metropolis of the world, which pride itself on the perfection of its civilization, refinement, reason and hu

manity-in Paris? Churches, dedicated to the worship of God, are sacked, their sacred implements taken away or destroyed, and the officiating priests, bishops and arch-bishops are slain at the altar, or shot like dogs in the courts, and carried away to Potter's field in carts. Not content with the carnage produced by the most ingenious, effective and deadly of modern weapons of war in legalized combat, prisoners are collected by the thousand, and either shot on sight, or gathered in groups, and mowed down by revolving cannon, or cast into prison pens, that vie in horrers with our Andersonville. Splendid works of art, that have been for long years the pride of the nation, are ruthlessly thrown down and destroyed. The palaces and public buildings are burned to the ground. Furious, mad men and women ply the torch everywhere, indiscriminately. A city of two and a half millions of souls is in flames-mined and fired by the most deadly, explosive, and destructive of substances. Friendship has fled the earth. No man trusts his brother. Life is utterly insecure, and society seems dissolving into utter chaos. Less religious and reverent than the Indian, in addition to these untold horrors, they say in their hearts, as well as by their acts, there is no God! Henceforth, let there be no prating about the ferocity and cruelty of the Indian. In comparison with such acts of the two foremost civilized nations, the character of the benighted red man, in his native forests, stands redeemed!

So far as the Indians of Woodbury were concerned, they were always the friends of our fathers, and maintained with them a a perpetual peace. None ever kept the faith of treaties better than they. There were some Indian conflicts here, but they arose from the incursions of the Mohawks, who, previous to the arrival of the settlers, held the Indians of this territory as tributaries, by superior prowess. As early as 1675, during King Philip's war, they made a treaty with the pioneers in these valleys, in which they covenanted to continue in "friendship with the white settlers, and be enemies to their enemies, and discover them timely, or destroy them." This treaty was ever kept, as a perpetual league, with entire good faith, by both the contracting parties, and many were the mutual offices of kindness they performed for each other.

Notwithstanding this treaty, and the aid of the native Indians, our fathers were not able to maintain their settlement during King Philip's war, but were driven back to Stratford, as we have seen, on pages 46-47, and were kept there for some two years, or

until King Philip's death. In all the subsequent. Indian and French wars, Woodbury, as a frontier town, far removed from succor, was exposed to continued dangers. It was obliged to maintain pallisaded, or fortified houses, for more than fifty years after the first settlement. These, be it remembered, were not erected for fear of the native Indians, but for fear of the French and their Indian allies, at times, and of the Mohaws, at all times, on their own account, as long as they existed as a tribe. In 1690 there was another war alarm, and it was enacted by the General Court, "For the better maintenance of the military watches throughout this Colony in times of danger, which is of so great importance, this Court doe order, that all male persons whatsoever, except negroes and Indians, upwards of sixteen years of age, shall serve and doe duty equally on the military watch, whoe are resident on the place where such watches are to be kept, and that all male persons aforesaid, inhabiting in this Colony, being absent at sea, or elsewhere, shall, by those of their family left at home, provide a person to watch, instead of the absent person, or persons, and also that all widowes whose estates in the publique list

ounteth to fifty pounds, shall each of them provide a man to watch in their steads, and, if there be any old or impotent men, that by such disability cannot watch, if there estates in the publique list amounteth to fifty pounds, they shall find a man to watch in their steads, provided this order shall not extend to the Assistants, nor ministers, nor such impotent men as the respective com- ' mission officers of the sayd town judg incapable of it, and who have not estate of fifty pounds in the publique list, and that all defects on these military watches, shall be punishable by the commission officers, or any one of them, in the same measure and manner, as is by law provided in the constable watches, and the commission officers in the exercise of their offices by commission are by this order freed from watching."

"This Court appoynts the commission officers in each towne to list and appoynt every seventh man in each company to be a flying army of dragoons, to be listed under the officers appoynted by this Court in each county, to lead them forth against the enimie, if any occasion shall be. Derby, Danbury, Woodbury, Waterbury and Simsbury, are exempted from this order."

We cannot, at this day, in our peaceful communities, picture to

'Conn. Col. Rec., 4 vol. 18.