and, if necessary, taking hostages. He might at the same time arrange that the Indians should buy the necessaries of life from the English, but not arms nor ammunition. If they fled to the woods he might occupy their country with one or more small forts. Submission of the Narragansetts. The news of these preparations seems to have struck terror into the Narragansetts. They sent messengers to Boston with a present of wampum. Winthrop, on behalf of the colony, refused to accept it. The messengers thereupon asked to leave the wampum at Boston, while they returned and consulted their chiefs. It was then determined that the present should be formally sent back, as a decisive proof that the English were resolved to defend Uncas. At the same time the messengers who took back the wampum were to tell the Narragansett chiefs that if they would themselves come to Boston, and restrain their people from all attacks upon Uncas, they might yet obtain peace. The two envoys, Harding and Welborn, went even beyond the pacific purpose of their instructions, and incurred blame from their government by writing to Mason to stay his hand, as there were hopes of a peaceful issue. The show of firmness had produced the desired effect. The chief men of the Narragansetts came to Boston, accompanied by one of the Nyantics, to ask for peace on behalf of both tribes. In August a formal treaty was signed.1 The Narragansett chiefs undertook to submit their disputes with Uncas to the arbitration of the English, and to deliver up all fugitive slaves, together with all those who had done any injury to the settlers. They were also to pay a heavy tribute in wampum, and to give hostages for the execution of these articles, and for the future preservation of the peace. 1 Gibbons' instructions, the subsequent proceedings, and the treaty are all fully reported in the Acts of Commissioners, vol. i. pp. 38-48. 1646-7 FURTHER DISPUTES WITH NARRAGANSETTS. 389 gansetts their In spite of this settlement disputes again broke out next year. The tribute of wampum was not duly paid, The Narra- and it was said that the chiefs who had proviolate mised to send their own children as hostages agreement. substituted others of lower rank. Moreover, Sequasson, a kinsman and ally of Miantonomo, was charged with a scheme for murdering some of the leading settlers in Connecticut, and for shifting the blame of the attempt upon Uncas.2 The conduct of the settlers was just and forbearing. The Federal Commissioners summoned the two chiefs, Pessacus and Ninigret, who were held mainly responsible for the disturbances and for the non-payment of the tribute, to appear at Boston. Pessacus professed that he was sick and could not come, and intrusted the defence of his case to Ninigret. The latter freely confessed that his ally had failed to carry out the agreement. He at once induced his countrymen to pay a part of the arrears of their tribute, and promised to make them fulfil the rest of the treaty. The Commissioners professed themselves satisfied, and suffered Ninigret to return to his own country. In 1648 fresh charges were brought against Ninigret and Sequasson. It was said that the wampum which should have been paid as tribute to the English had been sent to the Mohawks, to buy their help against Uncas, and there was even a rumour that a small tribe, the Nancotics, in the neighbourhood of Springfield, were dependent on the Mohawks, and had presumed on that alliance to harass the English." 1 Acts of Commissioners, vol. i. p. 75. These charges are also stated by Winslow (Hypocrisy Unmasked, p. 86). Acts of Commissioners, vol. i. p. 66. 3 Ib. pp. 86-9. 4 Ib. P. 116. 5 This is stated in a letter from William Pyncheon to Winthrop, written from Springfield, July 5, 1648. The letter is given by Mr. Savage (vol. ii. Appendix P). There is a tradition that the settlers had by singular good fortune won the friendship of the Mohawks. A small party of that tribe had made a raid on the natives near Newhaven. The Mohawks were outnumbered and defeated. One of their chiefs was taken prisoner, and exposed, bound and naked, in a swamp swarming with mosquitoes. The settlers mercifully rescued him, and it is not unlikely that the incident may have helped to lay the foundation of that lasting and invaluable friendship which united the Mohawks to the English.1 The intrigues of the Nyantics and Narragansetts with the Mohawks were reported to the Commissioners by Mason and Williams. They said that the two tribes had sent their women and children to places of safety, and were only waiting for a party from the Mohawks to fall upon Uncas. The Federal Commissioners at once sent a message of remonstrance.2 Apparently the mere knowledge that the plot was discovered was sufficient to deter the Indians from going further. The Mohawk force was delayed by hostilities with the French and with their allies the Hurons, and the Narragansetts and Nyantics seem thereupon to have abandoned their designs against the Mohicans. Disputes with the The dread of an Indian attack was now supplemented by danger from another quarter. In 1646 the continued encroachments of Newhaven called forth Dutch. a remonstrance from the Dutch Governor. Certain Newhaven merchants bought a tract of land from the Indians near the mouth of the Housatonic, and set up a trading house on it. Kieft thereupon wrote to Eaton, threatening that if the trespassers did not withdraw they should be put out by force. The 1 The incident is told by Trumbull (vol. i. p. 160). 1646-7 DISPUTES WITH THE DUTCH. 391 Court of Newhaven sent a somewhat quibbling answer, cavilling at the local names used by Kieft, and proposing with shameless unfairness that the matter should be referred for arbitration to the King or Parliament of Great Britain.1 This was not the only ground of dispute. The English at Hartford now lodged various complaints against their Dutch neighbours with the Federal Commissioners. A Dutchman was charged with having carried off an Indian woman, the slave of an English settler, to make her either his wife or his mistress. The Federal Commissioners wrote to Kieft, complaining of this and other petty misdeeds.2 In the following year Kieft was replaced by a Governor of a widely different stamp, Peter Stuyvesant, a bold and plain-spoken soldier. Scarcely had he been installed as Governor, when in a formal letter to Winthrop he asserted the Dutch claim to all the land between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and proposed a conference at which the matter might be discussed. Winthrop laid the letter before the Federal Commissioners, who expressed themselves willing to meet Stuyvesant. For the present, however, they abstained from entering on the question of territorial rights.3 Before any definite arrangements could be made for a conference fresh sources of dispute sprang up. Stuyvesant's officers seized a Dutch ship which was trading without a permit from the New Netherlands Company in Newhaven harbour. Soon after the government of Newhaven refused to give up certain runaway servants claimed by Stuyvesant. He therefore retaliated in kind. At the same time he wrote to the 1 The protest and answer are in the Newhaven Records (vol. i. p. 265). Governors of some of the other English colonies, explaining that he disapproved of such conduct on principle, but that he was driven to it in self-defence. An angry correspondence followed. In one letter Stuyvesant somewhat petulantly asserts the territorial rights of his country, by addressing the Governor of Newhaven, in New Netherlands.' But with that exception his tone is sober and dignified, and contrasts favourably with that of his opponents. Further the Narra gansetts. The prompt measures adopted by the settlers in 1648 had restrained the Narragansetts and Nyantics for the moment, but in the next year the danger danger from revived. Ninigret still failed to pay the tribute required of him, and Uncas complained, as before, that his life was endangered by the intrigues of his enemies. Ninigret was therefore summoned to Boston to attend before the Federal Commissioners. After his arrival the settlers were further alarmed by a rumour that his daughter was to be married to the representative of Sasacus, and that an attempt was to be made to restore the power of the Pequods. Ninigret seems to have given no satisfactory answer to the charges brought against him. He was dismissed with a caution, and the governments of the various colonies were warned to be on their guard against an attack.2 Early in 1649 an event took place which must for a while have turned aside the thoughts of Massachusetts, and one may well believe of all the New England colonies, from their disputes. On Winthrop the twenty-sixth of March John Winthrop died. He was but sixty-three, and neither in speech nor writ Death and character of John I The letters are given in the Appendix to the Newhaven Records (vol. i.). The previous proceedings are fully told by Winthrop (vol. ii. pp. 314, 315). 2 These proceedings are fully recorded in the Acts of Commissioners (vol. i. pp. 143–5). |