The early history of Narragansett;

Front matter

Gc M L.

974,5

RHYNOLD5=^ HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

Introduction

There are three sources to which we are to look for our information respecting the early history of Narragansett. These are the printed or manuscript works of writers living at the same time with, or soon after the events they describe; the records of the state and towns; and tradition.

We have much about the early history of Narragansett, scattered here and there, through a large number of volumes, but even with all the hints we can collect from them, it still remains very incomplete. No one, it is to be observed, has written professedly on this subject, but it is only introduced when connected with the history of Plymouth, Connecticut or Massachusetts.— True indeed, from their very first settlement, the English were almost constantly negotiating or at war with the Narragansett Indians: still we have to lament the want of material for a perfect and connected history.

One very important thing to be kept in remembrance while we are reading the history of Narragansett in these old authors is, that we are reading only one side of the question. We not only have no history written by any of the native Indians or first colonists of Rhode-Island, but we have none even by their friends. The histories we have are chiefly from inhabitants of the neighborino- colonies, and some of them, persons whose bigotry and superstition disgraced an otherwise glorious era in American history.* It will be well to look at some of the causes which have originated and kept alive a

* To what extent the pilgrims and their immediate descendants were carried by superstition and bigotry, may be seen in the following from Hubb. N. E. 26, being the opinion of a Mr. Mede, on the manner in which America was peopled: " Mr. Mede's opinion about tbe pasfjage of the natives into this remote region carries the greatest probability of truth. His conceit isjthat when the Devil was put out of his throne in the other parts of the world, and that the mouth of all his oracles were stopped in Europe, Asia and Africa, he seduced a company of silly witches to follow his conduct into this unknown part of the world, where he might be hid, and not be disturbed in the idolatry and abominable service he expected frost his followers. For here arc no footsteps of any religion before tbe English came, but merely diabolic.d."— [Hubbard's N. E. 26.]

X continued state of ill feeling between the old Puritan settlers of Masssachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut on the one part, and the Indians and the fu'st settlers of Rhode-Island on the other.

Coming, as the Puritans d'li, into an Indian country, introducing an entire new mode of life, and soon increasing in numbers and power, so as to drive before them the original lords of the soil, it could not but happen that the most bitter feelings of jealousy and hatred should soon arise between the colonists and the natives. The Indians, who had just suffered under a tremendous pestilence, and now saw this new race prevailing around them, cuttmg down their hunting forests, defeating them battle after battle, could not look on their destroyers with favor. The English, on the other hand, could never expect to enjoy their possessions in peace while the red men remained powerful. And it seems to have been a constant policy with them to weaken the Indians by confederating them against each other. •

When one man undertakes to convert another to his own opinions and fails of success, it is generally with no very friendly feelings towards liis intended convert that he gives up his purpose. His inconvertible friend seems to be a sort of standing reproach upon his own powers of argument and persuasion. It was so in the case we are considering. The good old Puritans tried hard to convert the Indians to their own faith, no doubt piously believing that no one could be saved out of the pale of their own communion. — But the Indians were not so easily wrought upon. To them, whose principles, though never displayed in books or pompously proclaimed before others, were yet written deeply in their hearts and influenced their whole character and practice,* it appeared an insuperable objection that the faith the white man preached was seldom shown forth except in words. " It will be time enough for you to christianize us when you have first christianized yourselves." The Indians, therefore, were not converted; the zealots were of course very much offended, and having done all in their power to save the souls of the poor natives, could now with a clear conscience quitclaim them to the Devil and his burning lake of brimstone, as incorrigible heretics.

This was one and a powerful cause which excited the minds of the Puritans, and more especially of the clergy, to which order many of the historians belonged, against the Indians.

The disposition of the English of Massachusetts towards the first settlers of Rhode-Island and the Indians, was not rendered at all more favorable by the events which took place on the settlement of the latter colony.

*For their general good conduct we have the testimony of Roger WiUiams.

xi

The Puritans had fled from England to escape persecution for opinion's sake; but as soon as they arrived in this country, they set up for themselves and began to persecute all who differed from them. Among' the latter, Roger Williams was obliged to flee from Massachusetts on account of his religious creed, and came, in 1636, into the territory of the Narragansetts, who received him with open arms. Williams cultivated the friendship of the Indians, and always denied the right of any foreign power to give away their lands without their consent. It was a matter of pmdence as well as of principle with the first settlers of Rhode-Island, to cultivate the good \^ill of the Indians, as they had no military power wherewith to oppose them in case of war, and could procure ammunition only from Boston, and that, the jealousy of the sister colony seldom allowed them to do. But that it was prudence alone which induced them, is refuted ^by the whole conduct of Williams and the first settlers. The colonists and the Narragansetts, being thus on the most friendly terms with each other, the enmity felt by the Puritans towards Roger Williams was easily transferred to the Indians who had protected and supported him under his afflictions and persecutions, and both were viewed with equal dislike; they were, oue perhaps as much as the other, considered heathen and looked upon as the enemies of the Lord and his church.

Another circumstance on which it appears to me sufficient stress has not been laid in accounting for the enmity between our ancestors and the natives, was the difference of their notions as to property.* The latter had not yet reached that state of society in which property is apportioned out to individuals and made descendible to their heirs. On the contrary, they were but little advanced beyond a primitive state. They ordinarily held their property in common, subsisting chiefly by the chase and fishing and partially by agriculture. They could form no idea of any piece of land becoming BO entirely the property of any individual as to make it a crime for another to trespass upon it. Thus two different people in two different and almost hostile states of social progress were brought in contact and of course friendship could not be expected as the result.

It is doubtful whether in many of the early grants the Indians made, they

* Roger Williams says the Indians were very particular in the boundaries between different tribes : " The natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their lands, belonging to this or that Prince or People, (even to a River, Brooke,) &c. And I have known them make bargain and sale amongst themselves for a small piece or quantity of ground." (Key, 89.) But the division of land among individuals was not common.

Xll intended to transfer more than a present usufructuary right, and that by no means an exclusive one. They probably had no idea of yielding up to the whites for themselves and their heirs forever, the sole and exclusive ownership of the land.

We have Roger Williams' testimony that the common Indians held their lands according to the will of the Sachems, and removed themselves whenever required,

We shall have occasion several times in the course of this work, to mention instances of disagreements arising from bargains being differently understood by the English and the Indians, and that too, although they had been made with great care and solemnity. Indeed, it would have been very improbable that it should turn out otherwise. Few of the English understood well the Indian language, so that all treaties and other arrangements were to be made through an interpreter, whose honesty the contracting parties could not be sure of, and whose dishonesty they had seldom the means of detecting.

This was not the only cause of offence between the two nations. The English settlers, as before observed, belonged to an advanced state (tf society, and inculcated, if they did not always practice, the rules of a severe and rigid morality. The taking of another's property was with them a high crime. The Indians also seemed to have abstained from theft among thenown tribe, as would appear from Roger Williams,* but they do not seem to have been able to keep their people from committing depredations on the property of the whites. The whites traded the Indians out of their property, and the Indians sometimes stole from the whites; and one with about as much fairness as the other.

These considerations necessarily lead us to be cautious as to the degree of credit we attach to the accounts of the native English historians. We have seen that ciicumstanced as they were, and almost always at variance with the Indians and the first settlers of Rhode-Island, it was hardly possible they should be sufficiently disinterested or unprejudiced to give an impartial account of their opponents. Whenever they relate a simple fact and upon apparently sufficient evidence, we cannot refuse our assent. But in their relation of the manner in which an event took place, and the share

*" Commonly they never shut their doors day nor night: and 'tis rare that any iiurt is done." (Key, 50.) " If any robbery fall out in travel between joersons of divers states, the offended state sends for justice. If no justice be granted and recompense made, they grant out a kind of letter of mart to take satisfaction themselves, yet they are careful not to exceed in taking from others, beyond the proportion of their own lots." [Key, 76.]

xiii which the English and the Indians had in bringing it about, and in their ac^ counts of the Indian character, &c. we should always look upon them with suspicion. For instance, when they tell us that the great Narraganset war happened in 1675-6, we must believe them, but when they relate the events and the manner in which it arose, and endeavor to throw al! the blame upon the Indians, they are by no means entitled to the same degree of credit. But wherever they confess or admit any thing which makes against the reputation and honor of their own side, we yield them implicit confidence. Nothing but th^ impossibility of denial would make some of those bigotted old writers admit any thing of this sort.

Notwithstanding the prejudice and partiality of these historians, we find often here and there a line which the writer seems to have forgotten to erase, which serves to let in a little light on the dark labyrinth of Narragansett history.

Whoever has read much in these old historians, need not be informed that the art of puffing is no invention of modern times. Is a man on "our side" in religion and politics, — if a warrior, he is a brave and valiant captain — if a divine, he is learned and pious and every thing that is good. But be he not our side, no language seems to have been too violent to express their contempt and abhorrence of him.

Prince's N. E. Chronology seems not to have been very popular in his own time, because he did not join in the vulgar prejudices of his day. Winthrop seems to be very fair, and to have written with more honest intentions than many of them. But we would suggest a distinction £.s to the accounts we have from Winthrop which seems to us of some consequence. Whenever he relates any thing as happening in his own presence, this is one thing. Whenever he relates any thing which he must have heard from other sources, it is a different case. Winthrop was for a long time Governor of Massachusetts, many of his accounts were derived from the information he officially received from his subordinate officers. Such accounts from inferiors to their government, generally represent only one side of the matter.

Tradition and the state and town records are also considerable sources of information. We cannot expect from records the same sort of knowledge we look for from cotemporary historians, but the mere statement of a fact oflen gives us a clue to find out the state of the country at the time, and by comparing our inferences with our knowledge from other sources, may serve to throw light on many things which would otherwise be obscure.

A thorough examination of the Records of Connecticut is indispensable to a complete history of Narragansett.

xiv

When the ancient acts of the Rhode-Island Legislature are referred to, it should be recollected that those acts were in all probability often drawn out by the clerks after the rising of the Assembly, when they had agreed upon the substance. This practice was continued down to a late day.

The records of those settlers in the Narragansett country who were associated with Major Humphrey Atherton, generally called Fones^ Records, from the name of the clerk or recorder who kept them, are preserved in the Secretary's office, but are not open to inspection. Owing to the unsettled state of land titles in the beginning of the 18th century, the General Assembly ordered these records to be closed, and they were generall}' kept by the Governor for the time being until about the time of the Revolution. This book has always been a great bug- bear, and terrible consequences have been predicted from its being laid open. Many of the most important papers in it, however, are now printed in the Massachusetts Historical Collections. As the persons concerned mostly belonged to the neighboring colonies, the greater part of the deeds were also recorded in Boston or Connecticut, as well as in these records. Certified copies of many of them are now on file in the Clerk's offices of the several courts, taken before the book was closed. It is believed there is not a single deed or paper of any consequence in these records, which is not accessible in one of the ways beforementioned.

There are no files of papers in the Secretary's office earlier than 1728, and for several years after that time, they appear to be incomplete.

Among the difficulties to be encountered in searching our old records, &c. is the variety of dates, old and new style, &c. Perhaps some errors may be found in this work from this source.

Another difficulty is the variety of names by which we find the same person designated at different times. Hubbard (t. W. 128) says the Indian sachems used to frequently change their names at their great dances or festivals. King Philip's Indian name was Metacom or Pumetacomb. (L. E. 1, 272.) Alexander the brother of Philip's names were Wamsitta, Sepawquit and Mooanam. (M. M. 1639. L. E. 295.) Massassoit father of Philip was also called Oosamequin. Uncas was also known by the name of Poquin. (Appendix, 177.) Other instances will be mentioned in the Appendix. The word now commonly written Narragansett, was often by Roger Williams and others in older time written Nantygansett, Nanhiggonset and Nahiggonsik.

We sometimes find the Indian chiefs called sachems, sometimes sagamores. These words were of like meaning, but the latter was more used by the Indians to the northward of the Narragansetts. [Hubb. N. E. 60.]

XV

Some may object that the greater part of the present work is merely a book of annals, and that there is but little continued narrative. To have made it otherwise would have interfered with the object in view which was to collect together all that could be collected relative to the subject, much of which, relating to a great variety of topics, could not be better digested. Considerable genealogical information kindly communicated by individuals, or extracted from former publications, may be found in the latter part of the volume.

In the Appendix are printed some extracts from Peter's History of Connecticut. These were inserted not with a view of casting any reproach upon a neighboring state, but as suggesting subjects for future historical investigation.

The letters of Roger Williams in the Appendix were copied for the sake of convenience from Knowles' Life of Roger Williams. The same letters are found in the printed Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

It will be observed that there is no continuous description of the antiquities of the Narragansett country in any part of the work. Many of them are alluded to however in the proper places in the history. Besides those there mentioned, there is a very ancient Indian burying ground in Charlestown about one mile north of Gen. Joseph Stanton's. It is on a pleasant elevation commanding an extensive view of the ocean and surrounding country. The collection of graves is very large and covers considerable space. There is one row raised above the next, where by tradition their sachems, great men and their families were buried. Many of the graves are of great length. The hill is now covered with wood. The burying ground on Fort Neck is of more modern date. There is also a very ancient burying ground near White Pond in the Hills m South-Kingstown.

Table Of Contents

Extent, &c. of the Narragansett Country, 1 Pestilence, small pox, &c., - - - - - - 2, 14

Roger Williams' Deposition, ----- 3

Coddington^s Deposition, _--_---5 Number and character of the tribe, - - - - 6, 16