.

I.

Indians.

The Tarrenteens waged perpetual war with the CHAP. Massachusett Indians, and were not less terrible to them, than the Mohawks were to the other Indians in New-England

In the winter and spring of 1617, the plague,or some Mortality other mortal disease, broke out among the Indians,be.inding the tween the Narragansetts and Penobscot, and almost en. 1617. tirely depopulated that whole tract of country. Somany thousands of them died that the living could not bury them. Their skulls and bones for several years after, were to be seen above ground at the principal places of their residence. * This so weakened them, that for the future they could make little or no resistance against their enemy. After the English settled in the country, they often fled to their houses for protection. They reported, that the Tarrenteens, when they had taken them, tied them to trees and ate the flesh off from their bones. Through the influence of French neighbourhood, they early imbibed prejudices against the English, which never could be eradicated. They were the first Indians, in America, who used fire arms. With these, and ammuni. tion, they were supplied by the French. They were a sore scourge to the province of Main and New Hampshire. Charlevoix calls them Abenaquies. The remains of them fled from the coasts of New England and settled in Canada on the banks of St. Francis.

The Indians on Long Island, and from the Wampanoags westward as far as the we tern line of Connecticut appear to have had the general name of the southern Indians. The principal tribes in this general division, were the Narragansetts, Pequots, Mohegans, the river Indians, and the Meilowacks, or Long Island Indians.

The Narragansetts were situated along the sea coast, Their situ. round point Judith, on Narragansett bay, and nearly, Rhode Islas far westward as Stonington. They consisted of and.

CHAP. six or seven principalities, under the great sachem I.

Miantonomo. Wood represents them as the most numerous Indian nation in New England. They were the most rich and industrious. They were the most curious operators of the Wampumpeage, and the general mart of all kinds of wild merchandize. The northern, eastern, and western Indians procured all their corn from those southern mint-masters. *

The principal seat of the Pequots was at New London and Groton. According to tradition, they were originally an inland tribe, but came down from the country, and by their

their prowess, seated themselves along the sea coast, over that fine tract of country, ex. tending from about the western boundary of New London, to the eastern line of Connecticut. They were the most warlike Indians in New England. They had extended their conquests over a great part of Connecticut. More than twenty Indian kings, were either

their tributaries, or subject to their control. La Connect. The Mohegans lay north of the Pequots. Their icut.

chief seat was at Mohegan, between New-London and Norwich. These two tribes spread over the princi. pal part of the country contained in the three counties of New London, Windham, and Tolland.

The river Indians were those settled on Connecti. eut river. Of these the Windsor Indians were the most numerous. Between thirty and forty years af

. ter the settlement of the town, the proportion between the Indians and white people was estimated at nineteen to one. At Hartford, Weathersfield, Middletown, and East-Haddam were considerable bodies of Indians. In the towns of Farmington and Symsbury they were numerous. In the county of New Haven were four considerable clans. There were not less in the county of Fairfield. In almost every town in Connecticut there were scattering settlements

• Wood's New-England's prospect, chap. iii. p. 72.

of the natives. Most of the towns in the state have CHAP.

I. deeds from the Aborigines by which their lands are holden.

The Indians west of Connecticut were generally termed by the people of New England, the western Indians. Among the Indians of Connecticut they were termed Mohawks. Agreeably to Roger Williams, this name imports cannibals, and is derived from the Indian word moho, to eat. This seems to have been a general name, sometimes given to the five nations. They probably were thus named from the Mohawks, who formerly were the principal, and the most warlike tribe among them. They were exceedingly terrible and troublesome to the Indians in the western parts of Connecticut. They ran upon them with this dreadful yell, Hadree, hadree, succomce, succomce, We come, we come to suck your blood. Wood relates that they delighted in human flesh and sometimes ate their prisoners. * As these formidable enemies came from the westward it seems to have been a general name for all the western Indians. The five nations were known among

the English by the names of Mohawks, Oneydas, Onondagoes, Cayugas, and Senekas. The French called them Iroquois. Each of these nations was subdivided into three tribes or families. They distinguished themselves, by three different ensigns, the Tortoise, the Bear, and the Wolf. Whenever the sachems, or any of the old men, signed any public paper, they put on it the mark of their family.

The country of the Mohawks was on the Mohawk Situation of river. One of their principal castles was about eigh- the live teen miles west of Schenectada. The Oneydas were settled on the east side of Oneida lake and head branches of Susquehanna. The situation of the Onondagoes was upon and eastward of the lake Onondago. The Cayugas were settled near the north branch of the Cayuga lake. The Senekas were sit

I.

CHAP. uated on the southern banks of lake Ontario, on the

Chenessee, and extended southward as far as the head waters of Susquehanna and the Ohio. They extended westward beyond the falls of Niagara.* The five nations took this situation before the commence. ment of the English settlements. Their original seat however, was on and about the island of Montreal. But the Adirondacks, who then inhabited nearly three hundred miles above the three rivers, gave them so much trouble, that about the beginning of the seventeenth century, they removed thence, and driving off the Satanas, settled on the ground which they have since occupied. The Satanas Aed to the

banks of Missisippi, and are the people whom the Their con- French call Shaovonons. The five nations conquerquests.

ed the Adarondacks and finally drove them from their country. They are called by the French Algonquins. They were one of the most numerous and warlike of all the Indian nations in North America; but were nearly extirpated by the five nationst. One part of the remains of them now inhabit near Trois Rivieres, and another part of them towards the heads of the Outawais river. The Hurons joined with the Adirondaks in the war with the five nations and suffered no less than the latter. The five nations conquered all the country west of lake Ontario as far as lake Huron. They carried their conquests as far southward as lake Erie. Charlevoix represents, that had it not been for the interposition of the French, the five nations would have not only destroyed those but all the other nations in Canada, who ventured to oppose them. He says they set all Canada on fire. He mentions the Abenaquies, as the only people to whose country they had not given disturbance. I

Within the limits of the United States, they conquered the whole territory of the Lenopies, obliged them to put themselves under their protection, de

• Colden's map, in his history of the five nations, vol. i. + Colden, vol. i.p. 23 and 29.

# Vol. i. p. 308, 309.

I.

prived them of the power of making war, and con- CHAP. fined them to raising corn, hunting, and fishing for subsistence. This the Indians termed reducing their enemies to the state of women. This was the state of those Indians when the English began the settlement of the Jersies and Pennsylvania. The five nations had spread their conquests over all the back parts of Virginia, and penetrated nearly as far down as the mouth of the Ohio. They had carried their conquests eastward nearly as far as Connecticut river. The Indians on Long island, Hudson's river, and in the western parts of Connecticut paid them an annual tribute. * Their limits were from the mouth of the Sorel, at the north end of lake Champlain to the south side of the lakes Erie and Ontario, and on both sides of the Ohio, till it falls into the Missisippi. On the north of those lakes they claimed the whole country south of the river Outawais, as far west as lake Huron ; and even beyond the streights between that and lake Erie.t All this last mentioned exten- Cession to

king Willsive country, south of the river Outawais, the Five iam: 1701. Nations ceded to king William, June 19th, seventeen hundred and one. By virtue of this cession, and the alliance of the five nations with Great Britain, the French settlements within this territory, or any part of their country were considered as encroachments on the English or their allies.

The war, in which the Five Nations made those Long wars. conquests, was long and bloody. They seem to have continued it, with very little intermission, either with the Indian nations or with the French, and sometimes with both, for considerably more than half a century. They not only in a manner extirpated the nations round them, but greatly diminished themselves. Their enemies, sometimes, gave them terrible defeats. It was only by the policy of adopting

. their captives, whole clans, and sometimes whole na

• Smith's hist. N. York, p. 134, 135.

† Ibid, p. 135, 136, 137.

Vol. I.

7