age and sagacity. If the savages drove in the inhabitants of a frontier town, the central towns were placed in still greater jeopardy. Accordingly, these officers were held in high esteem, and military offices, even of the grade of corporal, were sought with great avidity. Only the most deserving could obtain any military position, even the lowest.

During all these troubled years of Indian wars and depredations, the first forty after the outbreak of King Philip's war in 1675, the officers bearing the military offices, the heavy burdens and responsibilities of the times, were, first and foremost, Capt. John Minor, who held the office more than thirty years, his successor, Hon. John Sherman, having heen appointed in 1711. Joseph Judson was Minor's 1st Lieutenant, till Israel Curtiss was appointed to the place, in 1690, with Samuel Stiles as ensign. Stiles was promoted 1st lieutenant in 1705, with John Mitchell as ensign. Titus Hinman was appointed lieutenant in 1710, and promoted Captain in 1714. Joseph Minor was appointed ensign in 1710, lieutenant 1714, with John Curtiss as ensign, and was promoted rapidly, for those days, through the regular grades, till he rose to the dignity and importance of a Colonel, in 1728.

In the preceding chapter a large number of Indian names of local objects were given. They are beautiful in themselves, and worthy of the preservation which they have received for their intrinsic value, as proper names. But there is a still greater interest attached to them from another circumstance. They are all words of the language, possessing a definition and meaning applicable to the objects to which they are attached. In the English language, such is not the case. "A proper name has been defined to be, a mere mark put upon an individual, and of which it is the characteristic property, to be destitute of meaning. But the "Indian languages" tolerated no such mere marks.' Every name described the locality to which it is affixed. The description was sometimes topographical; sometimes historical, preserving the memory of a battle, a feast, the dwelling place of a great sachem, or the like; sometimes it indicates one of the natural products of the place, or of the animals which resorted to it; occasionally, its position or direction from a place previously known, or from the territory of the nation by which the name was given." So that each of the aboriginal names of places in these regions

1 Vol. 2 Collections of Conn. Hist. Soc.

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had a definite meaning, such as seemed called for by the object named, or the circumstances surrounding it. As the Indians had no written language, and our fathers had to learn the names by the sounds, and represent them by our characters, each according to his own fancy, or the way in which he caught the sound, and as the same words sounded differently to different ears, nobody at that day caring what they meant, it is a matter of great difficulty to give even an approximate translation to the Indian names still preserved in our territory. But after giving the known meaning of certain words, sounds, or particles, we shall hazard a translation of our local names, which may at least suffice to engage our curiosity and interest, till some more authoritative interpretation shall come to hand.

OHKE, AUKE, signifies LAND, PLACE, country.

TUK, denotes a river, whose waters are driven in waves by tides and rivers. This may be the origin of the name of the river Naugatuck, and others, though not tidal rivers.

PAUG, POG, BOG, denote water at rest. But in New England, in some instances, it is applied to brooks, rivers, and running

streams.

AMAUG, denotes a fishing place.

QUSSUK, means rock, stone, or stony.

PонQUI, means open, clear, and in connection with—

OнKE, cleared land, or an open space.

PAHKE, means clear, pure.

PEMI, PEEME, means sloping, aslant, twisted.

From these partieles, and others, out of which the local names of our territory were constructed, as well as from local tradition, we may, perhaps, translate our Indian appellations as follows:POMPERAUG, the great or noble river.

SHEPAUG, the rocky river.

PAQUEBAUG, the clear or pure water place.

WERAUMAUG, the crooked fishing place.

QUASSAPAUG, the beautiful clear water, or rocky pond.

KISSEWAUG, the laughing water.

QUANOPAUG, the roaring water.

NONNEWAUG, the fresh pond or fresh fishing place.
WEEKEEPEEMEE, or WECUPPEME, the twisted river.

ORENAUG, the sunny place.

Such were the names given to the rivers, hills, and lakes of the territory we now inhabit. Such were the appellations so fitly ap

plied by the uncultivated mind of the children of nature. Wild rovers of Pootatuck, Wyantenuck, Pomperaug, Weraumaug, Bantam; ye have passed away! Your lights have gone out on the shore! Your thin smokes Lo longer curl faintly amid the thick woods! Well do we love your good old Indian names, and would that more of them, almost the sole relic of your once powerful people, had been adopted by our fathers to designate the places where your lights went out forever!

A few relics of the departed race are occasionally found,to tell us that here a former people flourished, scarce sufficient, so transient is their nature, to arrest our attention. Arrowheads, stone-chisels, hatchets, axes, gouges, knives, mortars and pestles, are found in the ancient territory. One of these localities is on Mr. Anthony Strong's land, where they had a hunting village, and another very prolific one on Mr. Frederick M. Minor's land, in Transylvania, a few rods in the rear of his dwelling house. All these are more particularly described on page 109. Some very perfect specimens of these relics are now the property of the author. He has a large quantity of arrowheads, of various sizes, of flint, quartz, and other kinds of stone, showing a widely different degree of skill in the workmanship. He has a chisel from near Frederick S. Atwood's, another from near Stephen S. Galpin's, and a very excellent specimen from near F. M. Minor's; a

[Chisel, 1-4 size.]

slate knife for skinning wild animals; a very fine specimen of gouge from near Quassapaug lake; a slate chopping-knife, or

"cleaver," found at Jack's Brook, in Roxbury, in 1852; a very skillfully wrought tomahawk, made of serpentine rock, found

while digging a ditch, near the factory of the American Shear Co., at Hotchkissville; and an Indian axe, of the size of a common axe of the present day, only more blunt. This was also made of serpentine rock, and may be said to have been imported by the Indians, if such a word is allowable in this connection, as there is no rock of this kind in all these regions. But by far the most curious and interesting relic that has been found in the ancient territory, is

also in the writer's possession. It is no less than an Indian idol or charm, artistically cut from a piece of rock, which appears to have been originally a piece of petrified walnut wood. It was found in 1860, on the lot near F. M. Minor's, before mentioned as the place where the most perfect specimens have been found. It was discovered while hoeing corn. It evidently represents some animal, but it is difficult to divine what. It has a pretty well formed head and body, with large, round ears, and holes for the insertion of four legs, but the latter are missing. It looks as much like the representative of an enormous lizard, as any thing. It can hardly represent the Good Spirit. It is not of a sufficiently attractive conception for that. It may, therefore, be presumed to be the likeness of Hobbamocko, or their Spirit of Evil, whom they feared, and worshipped more assiduously than the Good Spirit, whom they supposed lived quite at his ease, caring little for the actions or affairs of his red children, after having given them their corn, beans and squash, and taught them the mode of their cultivation. Some of these relics our artist has endeavored to make plain to the "mind's eye."

It is not known when Pomperaug, from whom this valley was named, became sachem of the Pootatucks. At the date of the set