W

HEN, in 1636, Roger Williams and his associates founded the settlement at Providence, the Narragansett tribe of Indians occupied nearly all the lands now composing the state of Rhode Island. Their number has been estimated by historians at thirty thousand.* Roger Williams stated that they could raise five thousand fighting men, and Hutchinson that they were the largest of all the tribes between Boston and the Hudson River. At this period the adjoining tribes, viz., the Wampanoags, the Nipmucs and the Nyantics, were subservient to the Narragansetts, while the Pequots, occupying lands on the Connecticut shore of Long Island Sound, with their principal homes and forts near the mouth of the river Thames, were their deadly enemies. Previously a fierce battle had occurred between the Pequots and the Narragansetts in which the latter were victorious. There is ground for belief that the hardest of the fight took place on the lands we are especially to consider.

In 1637, on May 26, the Pequots were attacked in their forts at daybreak by the white colonists, and about six hundred were killed. From this disaster they never recovered, and

*Brinley's History of Narragansett in Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections.

the few survivors affiliated with other tribes. Only two Englishmen had fallen in the encounter, and but sixteen were wounded.

*In October, 1636, news reached Providence that the Pequots were trying to induce the Narragansetts, as well as the Mohegans, who occupied lands north of the Pequot country, to unite in a general rising and sweep the English from the soil. Although Roger Williams had been banished from Massachusetts, he received letters from the authorities of that colony requesting his speediest endeavors to prevent the league. Alone, in a poor canoe, he hastened to the home of Canonicus, chief sachem of the Narragansetts, and his nephew, Miantonomi, where he found the Pequot ambassadors. For three days and nights his business compelled him to live and to lodge with them, in constant danger of assassination; but he succeeded in averting the conspiracy, and after the destruction of the Pequot tribe peace reigned for thirtyeight years. This achievement of Williams is regarded as the greatest triumph of diplomacy in relation to Indian affairs that ever occurred in New England and perhaps in North America.

The Narragansetts were in advance *Arnold's History of R. I., Vol. I, p. 90.

of other tribes as regarded civilization. Besides hunting and fishing, they carried on some rudimentary farming. Their lands for eight or ten miles from shore were cleared of wood and used for raising Indian corn, which was furnished to the white settlers in liberal quantities. They were more courteous than other tribes toward the whites, and their chief sachems lived in friendship with Williams, receiving satisfactory payment for the lands which he bought of them. After a residence of six years among them had given him an intimate acquaintance with their characteristics, he wrote:* "I could never discern that excess of scandalous sins among them which Europe aboundeth with.

Drunkenness and gluttony, they knew not what sins they be, and though they have not so much to restrain them as the English have, yet a man never hears of such crimes among them as robberies, murders, adulteries, etc."

Canonicus and Miantonomi considerably reduced their possessions by selling land, to Williams at Providence, in 1636; to Coddington, in 1638, the island of Rhode Island on which he settled at Portsmouth; to Richard Smith at Wickford in 1639; and to Gorton at Warwick in 1642. Roger Williams made the following statement in 1679: "Mr. Richard Smith, senior, . . . put up in the thickest of the barbarians the first English house among them. I humbly testify that about forty years (from this date)

Updike's History of the Narragansett Church, p. 13. † Updike's History of the Narragansett Church, p. 15.

he kept possession, coming and going himself, children, and servants, and had quiet possession of his houses, lands and meadow." This would carry Smith's settlement back to 1639.

By 1644,* eight years after the founding of Providence, the colonists had so gained the confidence and respect of the Narragansetts that the tribe, with the sanction of the chief sachems, placed itself under the guardianship of the whites. In 1650f the General Sessions at Newport passed an act restricting slavery in the colony to the term of ten years. It is stated with authority that during King Philip's war in 1676, "except in the single case of the conquered Pequot territory, they [the colonists] scrupulously paid for every rood of ground on which they settled and so far as possible they extended to the Indians the protection of the law."

In 1677, after East Greenwich had been conveyed and erected into a township, the Narragansett country was limited to Washington County. When the Indians had become much decimated, three tribes, viz., the Narragansetts, the Nyantics and the Nipmucs, united to form the Narragansett nation.

The brave Miantonomi, always friendly to the white people, left a son, Canonchet, who commanded the Indians at the Great Swamp Fight in 1675, and soon after paid the penalty with his life. Thus perished the last chief of the Narragansetts, and with Canonchet the nation was extinguished forever. Ninegret was the sachem of the Nyantics who, with his tribe, joined the remaining Narragansetts and afterwards occupied their tribal lands in Narragansett County.

The General Assembly of Rhode Island, in 1757, passed an acts exonerating the tribe of Indians in Charles

*R. I. Colonial Records, Vol. I, p. 134.

+ The same, p. 243.

The Beginnings of New England, by John Fiske,

town from taxes which the town had by a vote assessed.

The Church of England sent as a missionary to Narragansett the Rev. James McSparran, who arrived on April 28, 1721, and assumed charge of St. Paul's parish. He proved a most worthy and acceptable minister for thirty-six years, and on December 6, 1757, was buried under the communion table of the church in which he had so zealously labored.* This church, built in 1707, was located south of Wickford, on an Indian trail leading from Connecticut to the salt water, and was afterward removed to Wickford where it now stands.

Mr. Updike, in his history of the Narragansett Church, gives the following extract from the parish records: "September 6th, Thursday, 1750. The bans of marriage being duly published at the church of Saint Paul's in Narragansett, no objections being made, John Anthony, an Indian man, was married to Sarah George, an Indian woman, the widow and Dowager Queen of George Augustus Ninegret, deceased, by Dr. McSparran."

George Augustus Ninegret had been acknowledged as sachem in 1735. The last principal sachem was familiarly called "King Tom Ninegret." His tribe sent him to England to be educated, where he acquired indolent and expensive habits. On his return he built a house for his residence on the post road, nearly a mile west of Cross's Mills, the post village of the town. That the frame of the house was prepared in Newport and taken across the water was probably due to the fact already noted, that the lands along the Narragansett coast had been

Updike's Narragansett Church, pp. 62 and 260.

cleared of timber in order to plant grain.

"King Tom's" expensive habits brought his people nearly to financial ruin. After his death, which occurred about 1770, his house was sold to pay his debts. Purchased by a resident of the town, it still remains in the family of a descendant, a prominent merchant of Providence, who occupies it as a summer residence.

In 1879 leading men of the tribe petitioned the legislature to end all tribal relations by removing the state's long existing guardianship and elevating the Indians to citizenship. The state had annually appropriated money for the tribe which was used for the support of the aged and infirm, and for the maintenance of an Indian school. The petition was referred to the legislature of the following year. When the sun went down on April 30, 1880, it set forever on the fair lands of the once powerful Narragansett tribe-lands dear to them which they had long tenaciously held, but now relinquished of their own free will, never to be restored to men of Indian blood. Who after the Anglo-Saxons will be the next race or people to occupy this noble domain, none can dare predict. The petition was granted, the act passed.*

The march of civilization has been rapid. Where the proud Indian hunted with his bow and arrow wild game on which to feed his wife and children, the whistle of the locomotive is now heard at short intervals. Fourteen trains in a day stop at Wood River Junction, passing near these lands on the north, and the Sea View electric railroad between Wickford

*Public Laws passed at the January Session, 1880, State of Rhode Island, Chapter 800.

and Westerly-now in operation from the former place as far as Narragansett Pier, and promised to be completed next year-will sweep near them on the south. The journey which in colonial times required several days by stagecoach and packet between Boston and New York is now made in six hours. Thus Wood River Junction is but about two hours from Boston, four and a half from New York and one from Providence.

Perhaps the fairest tract in all this region is that known as Watchaug Heights, extending from the Champlin road to Watchaug Pond, on which it borders for about five eighths of a mile, and for the most part under stately oaks a hundred and fifty years old. By the road, at an elevation of one hundred and forty feet from the sea, is a plateau of fifteen or twenty acres, half of which is covered by a grove of thirty or forty years' growth, that serves as protection from north and east winds.

Watchaug Pond, if it were not already named, might fairly claim the title of lake, for its circumference is rated at three miles, and its water, clear and deep, fed from springs, has considerable outflow that finds a way to the ocean through the Pawcatuck River. It is navigable for steam or sailing craft.

The Watchaug lands are separated by a narrow strip from the Champlin stock farm of 700 acres, which retains its name from the early proprietors of more than a century ago. This farm, now owned by a gentleman of wealth, extends to the ocean, and from it in colonial years were shipped to the West Indies quantities of cheese, oats and other products employing a large number of hands, both women and

men.

In 1745 George Ninegret, then chief sachem of the Narragansetts, conveyed to Colonel Christopher Champlin and others forty acres of land on the post road adjoining the Champlin farm for a church which was built

U. S. Geodetic Survey

there and in which Dr. McSparran at times preached.*

Like Plato, the Narragansetts believed in the immortality of the soul, and this belief they affirmed came down from their ancestors. It could in no other way be accounted for, since they had had no acquaintance with civilized nations, and were thus ignorant of revelation,

Probably there was never a prouder and more sensitive race of primitive people than the advanced tribes of North American Indians. The willingness with which a majority of the New England tribes yielded their lands to the white colonists has hardly been explained.

In the reservation of ten miles square, as adjusted in 1709, is included Shumunkaug Hill, an elevation averaging two hundred feet above the sea level, and at some points reaching two hundred and twenty-three.

History does not tell us for how many years or how many hundred years this was one of the localities most favored by the Narragansetts. It is about a mile south of Wood River Junction in the direction of the sea. The views from its heights are still interesting, although some of them have been temporarily obscured by the growth of wood.

The decidedly health-giving qualities of this reservation are attributed to several causes. Its elevation above most fogs, whether of land or sea, gives it a pure, dry atmosphere; its drinking waters are excellent; indeed, there is such an absence of contaminating influences that the visitor must applaud the choice by which this district was retained to the last as the home of the aborigines.

Fortunately no Narragansetts of pure blood survived to witness the transfer of their favorite lands from the red man to the white. A careful estimate places less than fifty persons in the township, who claim any descent from the once dominant Narragansett tribe.

* History of the Episcopal Church in Narragansett, p. 512. † Arnold's History of the State of Rhode Island, Vol. I, p. 78.

A truly monumental work, evidently to be happily executed, was planned by Richard Herndon -whose success with the several volumes of Men of Progress of the different New England states was such a satisfaction to us as its publishers-in "Universities and their Sons," the first volume of which is now ready. Four more are to follow. If they equal this one, with its seven hundred and fifty pages, four hundred illustrations, and luxurious paper and printing, we doubt if any similar set of subscription books can compare with this one. It occupies a new field in university literature, being at once historical and biographical. Recognizing the place and influence of the higher institutions of learning in the development of national life and character, it records the struggles, sacrifices, and triumphs of the men who founded and developed these institutions. It shows what Higher Education has contributed to uplift mankind and advance civilization, and illustrates, by studies of the lives of University Sons, how the university training has borne fruit in the practical affairs of life. The editorial staff consists of General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL. D.. editor-in-chief; William R. Thayer, A. M. (Harvard, '81); Professor Charles H. Smith, LL. D. (Yale, '65); Professor John DeWitt, D. D., LL. D. (Princeton, '61); Professor J. Howard Van Amringe, Ph. D., L. H. D., LL. D. (Columbia, 60); Charles E. L. Wingate, A. B. (Harvard, '83); Albert Lee, B. A. (Yale, '91); Jesse Lynch Williams, A. M. (Princeton, '92); Henry G. Paine, A. B. (Columbia, '80). These names at once place a value on the books quite exceptional in the annals of subscription publishing, and provide for the treatment of each division of the work by the most competent hand available. General Eaton, ex-commissioner of education in the United States, sends a prefatory letter of commendation, while the introduction is by his successor, Hon. William T. Harris, Ph. D., LL. D. treats of higher education in the United States, comparing American and European standards and showing statistically the preeminence of the college graduate, the peculiar function of the classics in education, and the advantages of the college graduate over the self-educated man.

In it he

A general article, on "Universities of Learning," follows by the editor-in-chief, General J. L. Chamberlain, ex-president of Bowdoin College, and ex-governor of Maine; showing how these institutions originated from the natural desire of the human mind for knowledge, and a corresponding impulse to preserve its acquisitions and communicate them to other minds by the founding of some organized means; tracing the passage and quickening of the torch of learning from its earliest fitful gleams in the dark ages down through the medieval schools and modern universities of Europe, to the American university

of the present day. Then comes the "History and Customs of Harvard University," by William Roscoe Thayer, A. M. (Harvard, '81), editor of the Harvard Graduates' Magazine, author of "The Dawn of Italian Independence," "Poems, New and Old," etc.; an ably-written article of one hundred and seventy-five pages (in fact, a book in itself), giving a most interesting account of the founding and growth of the institution, and describing the progress of education and the student life there.

After this we have a "History of Yale University," by Professor Charles Henry Smith, LL. D., professor of American History at Yale; a scholarly but none the less vividly interesting sketch of two hundred pages, treating of the origin of the college, and its progress under successive administrations, the departments of the university, and the voluntary undergraduate activities.

Next appears a "History of Princeton University," comprising sketches of "Princeton College," by Professor John DeWitt, D. D., LL. D. (Princeton, '61), professor of Church History in Princeton Theological Seminary; and "Princeton University," by Jesse Lynch Williams, A. M. (Princeton, '92), author of "Princeton Stories." "The Freshman," etc., and member of the editorial staff of Scribner's Magazine. The first of these articles starts with the beginnings of university life in America, narrates in detail the circumstances and conditions under which Princeton College was originated and founded, and records its progress and development through the successive administrations of its twelve presidents down to the present time. The second is descriptive of the Princeton University of to-day-its buildings and equipment, courses of study, social system, undergraduate interests and activities.

Perhaps most interesting of all is the "History of Columbia University," by Professor J. Howard Van Amringe, Ph. D., L. H. D., LL. D., Dean of Columbia College and Professor of Mathematics in the University, chairman of the Columbia University Alumni Council, etc.; embracing an historical sketch of King's College from the granting of the royal charter in 1754, to its reorganization and change of name to Columbia in 1784, an account of the development of Columbia College under its several presidents, its removal to 49th Street and the enlargement of its curriculum, its transformation into a university with the accession of President Low, and its final removal to the new site and magnificent buildings on Morningside Heights.

These various chapters are illustrated by nearly four hundred engravings, from photographs taken expressly for this work, including views of buildings, personages and scenes interesting in themselves or endeared by associations; the portraits of early presidents and others being photo