Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/93

 peril from the hostility of the neighboring Indians.

The Pequod war was, perhaps, the inevitable result of the suspicions and fears of the Indians, and the apprehensions of the colonists of sudden attack and massacre similar to that to which the settlers in Virginia had been subjected. It was but natural that the natives should dislike the progress of the white men's settlements, and meditate, at least, upon measures for arresting their advance; on the other hand, the colonists were constantly on their guard, and determined to punish relentlessly the first symptoms of aggression. The Pequods were, at this date, the most powerful confederacy in the neighborhood of Narragansett Bay, and held authority over twenty-six petty tribes. A band of them had murdered one Stone, a drunken and dissolute master of a Virginia trading vessel, which, exciting some alarm in Massachusetts, the Pequods sent to Boston and stated that the deed had been hastily committed, in revenge for some provocation on the part of Stone and his crew. Beside offering to give up the murderers, they begged the intervention of the magistrates to effect a reconciliation with their enemies the Narragansetts, and desired to open a traffic. The apology was accepted, and the mediation asked for accomplished; but the murderers, from inability or some other cause, were not delivered up. Not long after, an old settler on Block Island, named Oldham, was murdered by a party of Indians, probably In revenge for his opening a trade with the Pequods. Canoicus, the sachem of the Narragansetts, offered ample apology for a crime committed without his knowledge ; but the magistrates and ministers thought something further was required at their hands. Accordingly, an expedition, under command of Endicott, consisting of ninety men, was sent to punish the Block Islanders, and thence to go to the Pequods to demand the delivery of the murderers of Stone, and a thousand fathoms of wampum for damages—equivalent to from three to five thousand dollars. After burning the wigwams, and destroying the standing corn of the Indians on Block Island, Endicott sailed to Fort Saybrook, and marched thence to the Pequod River. The Indians refusing his demands, he burned their villages, both there and on the Connecticut, and returned to Boston without the loss of a single man.

The Pequods, enraged at what they deemed an unprovoked attack, retaliated in every way in their power, killing, during the winter, about thirty in all, and endeavored to engage the Narragansetts in an alliance to cut off every white man from the soil. Happily, through the intervention of Roger Williams, who had sent timely information to the Massachusetts magistrates, this dreaded coalition was prevented, and the good will, or at least, the neutrality, of the Narragansetts was secured.

At a special session of the General Court, held early in December, 1636, the militia were organized into three regiments, and officers were appointed in the respective grades. Watches