History of the Indians of Connecticut from the earliest known period to 1850 etc

Front matter

HISTORY OF THE INDIANS OF CONNECTICUT FROM THE EARLIEST KNOWN PERIOD TO 1850. By JOHN W. De FOREST. PUBLISHED WITH THE SANCTION OF THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY. " Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. The elders have ceaBed from the gate, the young men from their music. The joy of our hearts is ceased ; our dance is turned into mourning." — Lamentations, Chafteb V. HARTFORD: WM. JAS. HAMERSLEY. 1851. Entered, according to Act of Congress in the year 1850, By J. W. De FOREST, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. Stereotyped by J. H. BENHAM, New Haven, Conn. TESTIMONIAL FROM THE CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY. This work having been submitted in manuscript to the Historical Society of Connecticut, for their scrutiny and sanction, it was referred by the Society in February last, to a Committee consisting of Prof. James L. Kingsley, Rev. Leonard Bacon and Mr. Edward C. Herrick.

At a meeting held September 3d, 1850, the Committee presented the following report, and the recommendations therein contained were adopted by the Society. The Committee appointed February 5th, 1850, by the Con necticut Historical Society, to examine a manuscript history of the Indian tribes of Connecticut, prepared by Mr. John W. De Forest, and to give an opinion whether it should be pub lished under the patronage of the Society, would respectfully report : That they have read the manuscript referred to, with as much attention as time and circumstances would allow, and find in it abundant evidence of labor and research, and a collection of facts which they think highly important for a full elucidation of the history of the State. They have not thought it necessary to look at the authorities on which Mr. De Forest relies for his statements, as it is understood that he wishes to be considered alone responsible for the facts and opinions detailed in his work.

The Committee recommend that the Society should en courage Mr. De Forest's undertaking, and permit his work to be published under their patronage. J. L. KINGSLEY, LEONARD BACON, E. C. HERRICK. New Haven, Conn., March 22d, 1850.

Preface

. The advice of friends whose judgment I highly respect induces me to give a brief account of my course of investigations with regard to the subject treated in the present volume, and of the authorities upon which the narrative principally relies. It was no intention of becoming an author, but a real love of the subject, which first led me to pay attention to the story of the aborigines of Connecticut. As was natural, therefore, I first read for infor mation those works, which, being the most common, were most likely to fall in my way. The most important of these were, Trumbull's History of Connecticut, Barber's Historical Collec tions of Connecticut, and Thatcher's Indian Biographies. When, however, I had once formed the resolution of writing upon tho subject, I could not, of course, be satisfied, without going back to the sources from whence these authors drew their narrations.

A large portion of these sources were kindly opened to me in the Library of Yale College ; and, with my writing materials con stantly before me, I commenced availing myself of their contents. Having gone through with the printed matter which I found there, having read Winthrop and Hazard and their host of associate worthies as closely as seemed to be necessary, I proceeded to Hartford and commenced with the shelves full of manuscript volumes preserved in the office of the Secretary of State. The Colonial Records, the State Records, the Papers on Indians, on Towns and Lands and on Ecclesiastical Affairs, although they occupied me a long time, were at last finished. Next followed a 1* VI

PREFACE.

. series of journeys, in which, visiting the primitive townships of the State, I made extracts or abstracts of whatever existed in their records pertaining to the aborigines. This having been accomplished, I considered every source of information exhausted ; and from the materials now lying before me began to arrange and write out my history. Many new examinations and additions, however, were made after I had commenced my narrative ; and, on the whole, the labor of collection, although it may not have equalled, has fallen not far behind, the labor of composition. It is upon the foundation laid in this manner that the superstructure contained in the present volume has been erected. It may be interesting, however, to students of Connecticut history, to receive a more particular account of the scope and value of the various works whose authority on this subject is of the most importance.

The Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, now amounting to thirty volumes, is the first which I shall notice. This admirable repository, the best of its kind in the United States, consists, to a considerable extent, of reprints of old and rare his torical works relating to the early ages of our country, and par ticularly of New England. In this precious library of antiques are to be found, New England's Plantation, and Roger Williams' Key into the Indian Languages, from which I have drawn my brief account of the ancient appearance and productions of Connecticut. In the Key also, and in Gookin's Historical Col lections of the Indians of New England, likewise preserved in the same repository, may be found most of my materials for the sketch of the people, their customs, language and institutions.

The position and relative importance of the various tribes is too apparent from the whole course of Connecticut history to need much citation of authorities ; yet do I think that I have discovered a number of new facts with regard to these subjects by an exami nation of the ancient records of the towns. For my account of the intercourse, whether peaceable or hostile between the Indians of Connecticut and the Dutch, I am indebted

PREFACE.

. VII to O'Callaghan's minute and admirable History of the Colony of New Netherland. For the early dealings between the Indians and the English, the principal and the best authority is the well known Journal of John Winthrop, as presented in the admirable edition of Savage. Winthrop carries us from 1630 to 1649, with general accuracy, and with the impartial spirit of a Christian gentleman. The Pequot war is related by Winthrop, who was a cotemporary, and by John Mason, John Underhill, P. Vincent and Lyon Gardiner, who were all actors in the struggle. Of these narrations, Mason's, especially when taken in conjunction with Prince's introduction to it, is by far the fullest, the best written and the most satisfactory. Leaving the Pequot war we depend once more principally upon Winthrop, until the second volume of Hazard's Collection of State Papers takes us up in 1643, and does not fairly set us down until 1678.

Potter's Early History of Nar ragansett, also, is not to be forgotten, as affording, especially in its appendix, much interesting matter concerning the Indians- After the period when Hazard closes, the printed materials for aboriginal history become much less voluminous, and, in their nature, much more fragmentary, than before. Those of which I have most availed myself are, Trumbull's History of Connecticut, Barber's Historical Collections of Connecticut, Miss Caulkin's History of Norwich, M'Clure's Life of Wheelock and the Memoirs of Mrs. Sarah L. Smith. To these may be added Morse's Re port on the Indian Tribes, Dwight's Travels, Tracy's History of American Missions, Allen's Biographical Dictionary, the American Archives and the printed volumes of Executive Docu ments issued by the general government.

Although I have hitherto hardly alluded to the manuscript materials which exist, yet are they deserving of the most serious attention. The only private authority of this kind worthy of note is the Itinerary, and some of the other papers, of President Stiles of Yale College, all of which are now preserved in the library of that institution of which he was once the chief officer. That part 1*

PREFACE.

. which is the result of the President's own observations is accurate and valuable ; but the remainder is far from reliable, as depending too much on the reminiscences of aged men and women, unac customed to making statements for publication, and within whose recollections the slender numbers of the Indians multiplied as wonderfully as the two buckram men of Falstaff. Of public papers the records of the ancient towns are highly important ; not only as determining the positions and connections of the tribes, but as narrating the time and manner of the sales by which they parted with their lands. Another set of papers, of considerable importance, is a number of Indian petitions and a Defense of the Colony, referring to the long law suit between the Mohegans and Connecticut, and lately brought from England and deposited in the Yale College Library.

But by far the most extensive and important range of manu scripts is to be found in the office of the Secretary of State at Hartford. The Colonial Records, consisting of eleven volumes, and extending from 1636 to 1676, contain a large quantity of matter. The twenty-seven volumes of State Records present a smaller amount, and of a less interesting nature. Various deeds given by the Indians may be found in the ten volumes of papers on Towns and Lands ; and, thinly scattered through the fifteen volumes on Ecclesiastical Affairs, are notices of efforts made for their civil improvement and conversion. Lastly, but more important than any of the others, come two volumes of papers relating to the Indians alone ; containing nearly six hun dred documents, and stretching in a series of letters, petitions and reports of committees, from 1647 down to 1799.

From the manuscripts thus named is drawn a very large portion of my history ; and to the reading, though not to the antiquarian, public this portion will be almost entirely new. And thus closes a brief review of the principal materials, chiefly, it will be observed, cotemporary, on which the subsequent narrative is founded. My dates, for the sake of uniformity, I have reduced entirely to

PREFACE.

. IX the mode of notation now in use. The difference between the old and new styles is at present twelve days ; but as we go back ward in time this difference gradually diminishes, until, at the Council of Nice in 325, it ceases altogether. Consequently, from all dates in my authorities previous to 1710, I have retrenched ten days ; and from all subsequent to that, but previous to Sep tember, 1752, when the change to new style was effected in England, eleven days. Thus, the first Court of Connecticut in 1636 was held, by old style, on the twenty-sixth of April ; by new style on the sixth of May. Thus, also, the second Commissioners' Court on the disputed lands of the Mohegans in 1738 was opened, by old style, on the twenty-fourth of May ; by new style on the fourth of June. Respecting the map which precedes the work a few words will suffice.

It was meant to be a sketch of the political divisions of Connecticut previous to its settlement by Europeans ; and it is my belief that the positions of the tribes which then existed are laid down with correctness. This was my chief object ; and for any thing further than this I have made no great research, and lay claim to no extraordinary accuracy. It is pretty certain that some of the " Indian names" of our ponds and streams are not the names which the Indians themselves applied to them. Thus, Naugatuc was not anciently the name of the river to which it is now attached, but of a place on the banks of that river. The same assertion is probably true of the Mattabesett, a stream which empties into the Connecticut near Middletown. The largest river in the western part of our State is now invariably known as the Housatonic ; but, if we may believe the early records of Stratford, it was in ancient times " commonly called the Paugussett."

There is a small stream in New Milford styled the Aspetuck, or Ash petuck, which I have little doubt was named thus after the Aspe tuck in the ancient township of Fairfield. In like manner, the Mystic between Groton and Stonington was so designated by emigrants who came from the banks of that Mystic which empties X

PREFACE.

. into Massachusetts Bay. To this stream it will be observed that I have restored the ancient name of Sickenames, or Siccahams, which is applied to it in the early maps and relations of the Dutch. From these circumstances it will justly be inferred, that, to con struct a correct catalogue of the ancient nomenclatures of our rivers, ponds and mountains, would be not simply difficult, but absolutely impossible. The four landscape illustrations in the volume are copied, it will be observed, from Barber's Historical Collections of Connecticut. The original of the likeness of Occom is a very defaced portrait of him, taken while he was in England, and found by Miss Sarah L. Huntington in 1830, at Mohegan. Miss Huntington having placed it in the care of Col. John Trumbull, the distinguished Connecticut painter, he laid it before Miss Murray, a benevolent lady of New York, who had two hundred and fifty lithograph copies of it struck, to be sold for the benefit of the tribe.

It was from one of these copies, furnished me by the aged and now deceased mother of Miss Huntington, that the engraving presented to the reader was designed. Of the merit of the five fancy pieces by Darley, an artist known and admired in Europe as well as in America, it is unnecessary to speak. It may be observed, however, tha". the costumes are imitated from cotemporary pictures of the dress of our colonial period ; and that the designs are thus, not only spirited and ex pressive, but, in a true sense, illustrations. J. W. De F. New Haven, October, 1850. CONTENTS.

Introduction

.

— THE COUNTRY. — MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, INSTITUTIONS AND LANGUAGE. Page. Introduction, 1 Appearance and condition of Conn, when inhabited by its aborigines, ... 2 Appearance and physical qualities of the Indians, 3 Agriculture, 4 Hunting, 5 Fishing, 8 Clothing and ornaments, 9 Houses and furniture, 12 Food 13 Wandering habits of the Indians, 14 Fortified villages, 15 The public square, 15 Dances, 16 Gaming, 16 The family, 17 Courtship and marriage, 17 Morals and character, 18 Diseases, 20 Treatment of them, 20 Funeral ceremonies, 21 Religion •;... 23 Kiehtan, the Good Spirit, : 23 Hobbamocko, the Evil Spirit, 24 Inferior Gods, 24 No images, 25 Ideas of the creation, 25 Belief in a daily providence, 26 Idea9 of futurity CONTENT? Pabe Names for the soul, "' The powwows, or priesthood, Religious dances, *"5 Grades of society, "" The sachem and his councilors, 30 Hereditary nature of the sachemship, 30 Power of the sachem, 31 The sagamores, or inferior chiefs, 31 Revenues of the sachem, > 32 His duties, 3J Love of the Indians for war, 33 Ceremonies before commencing it, 34 Mode of conducting it, 35 Sea fights, 37 Fate of prisoners, 37 General resemblance between the aboriginal languages of New England, 38 Their differences, 38 The Lord's Prayer in the Pequot tongue, 39 In the Massachusetts tongue, 39 Indian vocabularies, 40 Capacities of the Indian languages, 41 Their power of combining words, 41 Observations on these languages, 42 Observations on the subject of the chapter, 43

Chapter II

Names, numbers, positions and political relations of the DiFFERrNT tribes. Usual estimates of the aboriginal population of Connecticut exaggerated, 45 Observations on Trumbull's estimates, 45 Proofs of the paucity of the population 47 Small clans along the western part of the coast 49 Paugussetts and Wepawaugs the same people, 49 Their territory, numbers and fortresses 50 The Potatucks of Newtown and Woodbury 51 The northwestern part of the State a desert, 51 The Quinnipiacs of New Haven, Branford and Guilford, 52 The Hammonassetts of Killingworth and Saybrook, 52 The Tunxis of Farmington contents. xiii Paob. Close connection among the Connecticut River tribes, 53 The Windsor Indians, 53 The great sachem of the Connecticut valley, 54 The Wangunks of Middletown and Chatham, 54 Identity of their sachem, Sowheag, with Sequin, sachem at Wethersfield, 54 Sachemdom of Montowese, son of Sowheag, 55 The Podunks of East Hartford and East Windsor, 55 The Machemoodus of East Haddam, 55 The " Moodus noises," 56 The western Nehantics 57 The Nipmucks, 57 The Pequots, 58 Observations on their numbers, 58 The Mohegans a clan of the Pequots 59 Pequots descended from the Mohegans of New York, 59 Other tribes of Connecticut related to the Narragansetts, 60 Settlement of the Pequots in Connecticut 60 Their wars and conquests, 61 Their constant enmity with the Narragansetts 62 Numbers of the Narragansetts, 62 Their character, 64 The western tribes of Connecticut oppressed by the Iroquois 65 Character and conquests of the Iroquois, 65 Early sachems of the Pequots, 66 Relation of Uncas, sagamore of Mohegan, with the royal line of the Pequots, 66 Important place of this man in the subsequent narrative, 67 Observations on the decline of the Indians, 67

Chapter III

From the first discovery of Connecticut in 1614 to the expedition against the Pequots in 1637. The Dutch discover and explore the coast of Connecticut, 69 Establish a large trade there, 70 Purchase at the mouth of the Connecticut, 71 Purchase land at Hartford, 71 Make war with the Pequots, 73 The English settlements on Massachusetts Bay 73 Waghinacut urges the English to settle in the Connecticut valley, 73 English adventurers explore Connecticut 74 CONTENTS. Page English found a trading house at Windsor, 75 Give cautte of complaint to the Pequots, 76 Pequots murder Stone, 77 Pequot affairs on the wane, "8 They send to Boston for peace, 79 Make a treaty with Massachusetts, 80 With the Narragansetts, 81 English found settlements in Connecticut, 82 Sequassen sells a large tract, 83 Windsor Indians sell land, 83 Uncas rebels against Sassacus, the Pequot sachem, 84 He is defeated and banished 84 Person and character of Uncas, 86 Treaty ill observed by both English and Pequots, 86 Oldham killed by the Bicck Islanders, 87 Gallop revenges him, 87 Endicott's expedition, 90 English ravage Block Island, 91 Go to the Pequot country 93 Skirmish with the Pequots, 99 Pequots endeavor to form a league with ihe Narragansetts, 101 Roger Williams prevents it, 103 League between the English arjd Narragansetts, 104 Pequots waylay and kill numbers of English, 106 They parley with Gardiner, commander of the fort at Saybrook Ill Quarrel of the Wethersfield peuple with Sowheag, 113 Pequots attack Wethersfield, 113 Reflections, 115

Chapter IV

The overthrow of the Pequots. Sufferings of the Connecticut colonists by the war, 117 Meeting of the General Court, jjq War declared against the Pequots 119 John Mason, the commander-in-chief, _ j 19 Uncas joins the English _ jjg Massachusetts and Plymouth raise troops for the war, 120 Mason sets sail down the Connecticut, _ ioq CONTENTS. XV Page. Uncas defeats two parties of Pequots, 120, 121 Mohegans torture a prisoner, 121 The Dutch ransom two English girls from the Pequots, 121 Mason sails from Saybrook to Narragansctt 125 Begins his march against the Pequots 126 Is joined by numbers of Nehantics and Narragansetts, 12G Attacks a Pequot fort, 131 Massacre of the Pequots 132 English retreat, with difficulty, to Saybrook, 134 Reflections on this enterprise 138 Pequots disperse, . . . '. 140 Main body retreats to Sasco or Fairfield swamp, 141 Capture and massacre of Pequot warriors, 143 English pursue the refugees, '. . . 144 Sachem's Head, 145 Jack Etow's exploit, 146 Pequots overtaken and defeated at Fairfield, 147 Death of Sassacus, 151 The wife of Mononotto, 151 Pequots seek refuge with other tribes, 152 Massachusetts reproaches Ninigret with harboring Pequots, 153 Quarrels with Uncas for the same reason 153 Duplicity of Uncas, 154 The Pequot remnant surrenders 155 Growing hostility between Uncas and Miantinomo, 156 Tripartite treaty between Connecticut, Mohegans and Narragansetts, . . 159

Chapter V

From the division of the Pequots rx 1638 to the death of Miantinomo in 1643. English prosecute their settlements in Connecticut, ] C! Indians receive them willingly lsil Quinnipiacs sell, 162 Montowese sells 165 Wepawaugs sell part of Milford, 166 Fairfield Indians sell 167 Guilford Indians sell 167 Difficulties with Sowheag 168 Difficulties with the Pequots Xvi CONTENTS. Pass. Nepaupuck, a Pequot sagamore, tried and executed, 172 Tunxis sell Farmington, '75 Law against private purchases from the Indians, 1 '6 Norwalk and Stamford Indians sell, 177 Observations on these early purchases, 177 Death of Wequash, the first Indian convert, 178 Increasing power of Uncas, 181 Sells ihe country of the Hammonassetts, 182 His deed to the English in 1C40, 183 He is hated by Sequassen and the Narragansett sachems, 184 Accusations against Miantinomo by the Mohegans, 184 He clears himself, 185 Narragansetts attempt to murder Uncas, 185 Miantinomo carries the would-be assassin to Boston, 186 Kills him on the way home 187 Sequassen attacks Uncas, 187 Uncas invades and defeats him, 188 Miantinomo obtains permission to make war on Uncas, 188 Invades the Mohegan country, 1 89 Is defeated and taken, 191 Uncas places him in the hands of the Connecticut people, 193 He is tried by the Commissioners of New England 194 Is condemned, 195 Uncas puts him to death, 197 Observations on the transaction, 198 Message to the Narragansetts, 199

Chapter VI

From the execution of Miantinomo in 1643 to the re-establishment of the Pequots in 16j5. Laws of Connecticut concerning the Indians, 201 War between the Indians and the Dutch, _ 204 Gallantry and death of the sachem Mayn Mayano 205 Fruitless expedition against his tribe, 005 Expedition of the Dutch against a village near Stamford, 207 Destruction of the village and massacre of its inhabitants, 208 Peace made, onq A Fairfield or Stamford Indian murders an Englishman 209 Difficulties in consequence, opo CONTENTS. Page.

Crime and execution of Busheag, 210 Narragansetts attack Uncas and the English defend him 211 Narragansetts and Mohegans before the Commissioners' Court, 212 Narragansetts agree to a truce, 212 Break it and re-commence the war, 213 Uncas besieged 213 Thomas Leffingwell relieves him, 214 Narragansetts defeat the Mohegans, 215 English resolve on war against the Narragansetts, 216 The latter obtain peace oa hard conditions, 217 Strange conspiracy of Sequassen 218 He is imprisoned by the English, 222 Allowed to return to his country, 222 Wepawaugs disturb the people of Milford 2.'2 Defeat a party of Mohawks 223 John Whitmore, of Stamford, murdered by the Indians 224 Useless investigations concerning the outrage, 224 Tyrannical conduct of Uncas, 225 Two bands of Pequots collect in their ancient country 226 Uncas beats and abuses Pequots who were hunting for the English 2J7 Commissioners investigate the case, 228 Other complaints against Uncas 228 Pequots fly from his authority 2«0 Petition to be delivered from his rule, 231 Foxon's defense of Uncas, 23 1 Uncas fined 233 Pequots resolute in disobeying him, 233 Narragansetts, Pocomtocks and Mohawks league against him 234 English interfere and the coalition breaks up, 235 Narragansetts attempt to assassinate Uncas, 236 Proceedings of the Commissioners on the case 236 Uncas quarrels with a Long Island sachem 237 Why Uncas was hated by the other sachems 238 Uncas complains that Ninigret and the Dim h are conspiring against him, 239 Rumors of a Dutch and Indian league ngnittst the English 240 Second agreement of the Farmington people with the Tunxis 240 Pequots petition to be governed by Uie English 242 Pay tribute 213 The English quarrel with, and invade, the Nehantics, 244 Pequots leave the Nehantics and place ilrur.selves under the English,... 245 o# CONTENTS.

Page. Petition again to be under the English, and are received, 246 Indian governors are commissioned for them 246 Laws for their regulation enacted by the Commissioners, 247

Chapter VII

From the re-union of the Pequots in 1Cj5 to the death of Uncas in 1683. Quarrel of Uncas and Sequassen with the Podunks 249 John Eliot preaches to the Podunks, 252 Narragansetts defeated by the Mohegans 253 Pocomtocks, Tunxis and Narragansetts invade the Mohegans, 254 Invaders fined by the Commissioners, 255 Mohegans kill some Indians subject to Massachusetts, 256 Plunder some subjects of Massasoit, 256 Quarrel of Uncas with Arramament, 257 Will of Arramament, 258 Pequots begin to desert their governors, 259 Pequot tributes in 1658 and 1663, 260 Pequots quarrel with the Momauks, 261 Overseers appointed for the Pequots, 261 New London Pequots settled at Mushantuxet, 262 Tunxis fined for a murder, 263 Their reservation confirmed to them 263 Golden Hill set off to the Paugussetts, 264 Wangunks sell a large tract 264 Nassahegon sells in Windsor, _ 265 Wangunks sell in Middletown and Chatham ; confirm the sale 265 Wethersfield Indians sell _ 265 Chapeto sells sixty-four square miles on the Connecticut 266 The same tract sold five years after by Captain Sannup, 266 Nipmucks sell at Plainfield, 266 War between the Nipmucks and the Narragansetts, . 267 Waterbury Indians sell, ogg Various sales by the Stratford and Milford Indians 269 Reservation for them in Huntington, 079 Acts concerning the Indians, c>- ■ Society formed in England " for propagating the gospel in New England," 272 Missionary labors of Pierson, 9-0 Fitch preaches to the Mohegans, 0-4 His success ;,-,- CONTENTS.

XIX Pagk. Uncas opposes the missionaries 275 Religious character of Uncas, 276 Philip's war opens, 279 Uncas gives hostages to the English 280 Pequots and Mohegans assist the English, 280 Overthrow of the Narragansetts 281 Death of their sachem, Canonchet, 283 English, Mohegans and Pequots ravage the Narragansett country, 283 Howible torture scene 284 A Pequot Achilles, 285 Death of Philip and end of the war, 287 Singular tradition 287 Lands on the Shetucket assigned to the captive Indians 287 Will of Attawanhood 288 Mohawks invade Mohegan, 289 Continual sales of Mohegan lands, 290 Oweneco trustees his land, 290 View of Mohegan land affairs from 1640 to 1683, 291—296 Uncas dies, 296 Situation of the Mohegans at this time 297 Of the Stonington Pequots 297 Of the New London Pequots 298 Of other tribes 298 Physical and moral condition of the Indians 299 Observations on the numbers of the Indians, 301

Chapter VIII

Hmtory of the Mohegans from the death of Uncas in 1683 to the close of the court on their disputid lands in 1743. Division of the remainder of the narrative, 303 Remarks on the decline of the Indians, 303 Oweneco becomes sachem of the Mohegans 304 Confirms a large tract to the tribe, 305 Trustees his land to the Masons 305 Continues to sell land 306 James Fitch attempts to usurp the Shetucket reservation, 306 The General Court grants a large tract of Mohegan territory to 1 yme,. . 307 Oweneco deeds away various extensive tracts, 307 Mohegans quarrel with the people of Colchester and New London XX CONTENTS. Page.

Hallam carries the Mohegan complaints before the crown, 309 Commission granted for trial of the case, 310 Dudley's corutt, 310 Decision against the colony 311 Connecticut appeals, 312 Commission of review granted, 312 Mason resigns his guardianship, 313 Protest, &c, of Ben Uncas and others, 313 Oweneco's death ; anecdotes of him, 314 Succeeded by his son, Cesar, 315 A committee decides the land disputes in favor of the whites, 315 Mohegans assist the colonists in the French war 315 Their numbers in 1704, 316 Enactments for their benefit, 316 Death of Cesar, 318 Sachemship usurped by Ben Uncas 318 John Mason petitions to be repaid the costs of Dudley's court, 319 Becomes school teacher among the Mohegans, 320 Petitions again, 320 Ben Uncas dies and is succeeded by his son Ben Uncas, 321 Mason forms a party among the Mohegans adverse to the colony, 321 Goes to England to appeal to the crown 323 Takes with him Mamohet, the rightful sachem 323 Mason and Mahomet die in England, , 303 Commission of review granted, 325 Preparations of the colony, _ 325 The court opens at Norwich ; its strange proceedings, 327 331 Decision in favor of the colony, 33 j Remarks upon the proceedings, 332 Items in the costs for the colony, 333 The Masons appeal, oqj New commission granted, •)•> , Court opens at Norwich, 03- The Commissioners no- The arguments for the colony, 000 For the Mohegans, 007 A majority of the Court decide for the colony 33g Morris and Horsmanden give their opinions 340 The Mason party appeals to the king's privy council, 34j Close of the case „ ._ CONTENTS. XXI Page. Laws concerning the Mohegans from 1722 to 1743, 342 Efforts for their education and conversion, 343 Their condition in 1743, 346

Chapter IX

History of the primitive tribes in the western and northern parts of the State from 1683 to 1849. Subject of the chapter, 347 Features of this period, 347 Of the diminution of the Indians, 348 A messenger belt, 349 Restrictions withdrawn from the Indians, 349 Contribution for their benefit 350 Mohawk hunting party in Connecticut, 350 Indian census of 1 774, 350 Regulations concerning overseers, 351 Potatucks sell, 351 Their situation in 1710, 352 Great powwowing among them, 352 Appropriation made for them by the colony, 353 Their numbers in 1761 and 1774, 354 Death of Konckapotanauh, sachem of the Paugussetts, 354 Number of the Milford Indians in 1774, 354 Number of the Golden Hill Indians in 1765, 355 Aggressions upon them, 355 Receive relief, 355 Milford Indians complain 356 Their present situation, 356 Present situation of the Golden Hill Indians, 357 The Woodbridge Indians 357 History of the sagamore Chickens, 358 Indians of Greenwich, Stamford and Norwalk, 359 Ridgefield Indians sell 359 New Fairfield Indians sell, 360 The Quinnipiacs, 360 Their reservation, 360 Their last sachem, 360 Their numbers about 1730, 361 Quinnipiacs remove to Farmington, CONTENTS.