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Updated: May 10, 2025
But although Lion Gardiner was left without enough workmen and with few supplies, he made the most of his resources, and his little fort, built under such difficulties, soon became an important place because of the protection it gave to the planters against the Indians. He was scarcely established at Saybrook before trouble broke out with the Pequots, a large and powerful tribe of Indians.
And it had a glacis and a ditch outside. When it was completed, the Early Settlers, leaving the women in the schoolhouse, a prey to the Indians, used to retire into it, and await the attack of the Pequots. There was only a handful of the garrison, while the Indians were many, and also barbarous. It was agreed that they should be barbarous.
The first important conflict between the English and the Indians was the Pequot War , when the English, helped by the Narragansetts, who were under the influence of Roger Williams, crushed the Pequots, who were a dangerous tribe.
The Settlers had the advantage of position, but they were sometimes overpowered by numbers, and would often have had to surrender but for the ringing of the school-bell. The Pequots were in great fear of the school-bell.
The Mohegans, however, proved faithful. On their way to the fort they fell in with forty Pequots, whom they attacked fiercely and put to rout, after having killed seven of their number, and taken one a captive. Their wretched prisoner they bound to a stake, and put to death with every barbarity which demoniac malice could suggest. The two parties met at Fort Saybrook.
In July, 1636, John Oldham, who had been appointed collector of the tribute from the Pequots, was killed off Block Island by some of the Indians of the island who were subject to the Narragansett tribe. Although the Pequots had nothing whatever to do with this affair, the Massachusetts government, under Harry Vane, sent a force against them, commanded by John Endicott.
The attack upon the Pequots, whether necessary or not, must have produced an unfavorable impression upon the neighboring tribes; but the death of Miantonomo was the cause of the undying hostility of the Narragansets, and made Canonchet the ready coadjutor of King Philip, and without Canonchet Philip could never have been formidable to the English.
Guided by Indians through the forest, they pressed along rapidly through the day, and at night, having traversed about twenty miles, bivouacked upon the banks of a small stream. The next morning they resumed their march, and, crossing the stream, approached the territory of the Pequots.
Fred bent over him for his voice was weak. Yet the Indian struggled bravely to finish his speech. "He -scout -kill me. Pequots come soon. Flee." These were his last words. Exhausted by the terrific loss of blood, his heart failed, and he died peacefully without even a trace of agony. Agnes wept bitterly, as she pressed the guide's hand.
Desertion of the Narragansets. Retreat of the English. Grief of Sassacus. Journey to Saybrook. Effects of the victory. News of the victory dispatched to Massachusetts. New expedition. Fugitives. Pursuit. Sachem's Head. Arrival at New Haven. News of a camp in a swamp. Surrender of Indians. Escape of the Pequots. Death of Sassacus. Children sold into slavery. Extermination of the tribe.
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