1634 - 1638
Lion Gardiner in the Pequot War from a Charles Stanley Reinhart drawing circa 1890 fro m Wikipedia |
The Boston company’s arrival at Fort Saybrook
coincides with that of the Mohegan chief, Uncas, and sixty warriors. The
Pequots were known as the Mohegan, when they originally invaded southern New
England. The Algonquin gave them the name, Pequot, which means “Destroyer.” In
1636, a splinter group under Uncas broke away from Sassacus, great sachem of
the Pequots, and set themselves up as the re-formed Mohegans.
When the English question their loyalty, Uncas and
his warriors demonstrate their good faith by exterminating a party of Pequots
and presenting their allies with four decapitated heads. They also deliver a
spy of Chief Sassacus to Fort Saybrook. One of the man’s legs is tied to a
post, a rope is secured to the other, and the man is torn limb from limb by
English soldiers. As the Pequot’s screams rend the air, Nat demands that
Underhill stop the atrocity. The captain’s weapon misfires. Nat raises his own
pistol and shoots the prisoner.
A 19th-century engraving depicting an incident in the Pequot War from Wikipedia Commons |
Away from the war zone, Thomas is in the battle
lines at Newtowne on Election Day, May 17, 1637. So fierce is the contest
between the Winthrop-Vane factions that Thomas and several rivals come to
blows. Henry Vane is ousted before the Wheelwright petition can be submitted.
Winthrop is elected governor, with Dudley as his deputy. Their first move is to
pass an alien exclusion act aimed at Boston and the Hutchinsonians, forbidding
the landing of “any persons as might be dangerous to the commonwealth.”
Adam and Jacques Petit witness the Pequots’ last
stand in a swamp near New Haven. Two hundred old men, women and children are
taken prisoner. Chief Sassacus and twenty followers escape to the west seeking
refuge with the Mohawks. Awed by the violence of the Cut-Throats, no tribe will
offer Sassacus sanctuary. Instead, the Pequot chief and his bodyguards are
butchered. Sassacus’ head and the forty hands of his followers are delivered to
John Wilson, serving as army chaplain. The zealot carries the trophies back to
Boston.
Scores of captive Pequot men, women and children
are placed in holding pens next to Frog Pond. Most will be distributed among
English settlers as farm laborers and house servants. Fifteen men, three boys
and a girl who begs not to be separated from her brother are chosen for
transportation. – Nat Steele is appointed factor in a ship sailing to the
Caribbean, where the cargo of Pequots will be sold as slaves.
In the dark of night, Jacques Petit hurries across
Boston Common, moving as stealthily as when he was a boy taking food to William
Blaxton, only now his mission is personal. In the inferno at Mystic, Jacques
pulls a Pequot girl out of a blazing wigwam. Sixteen-year-old Tanawaka, Little
Cloud, is the lone female held in the slave pen with her brother, Mikweh, The
Squirrel.
Jacques and Little Cloud come to love each other, a
love growing desperate with each hour that brings the girl closer to perpetual
banishment. Jacques goes to the only people who can help him. When Adam and
Recompense hear his impassioned appeal, they don’t hesitate. “I’ve thirty
shillings from a saint of Plymouth,” declares Recompense. “It’s enough to buy
one little Pequot devil!” When Nat sails for the Caribbean, Adam also arranges
for the girl’s brother to stay behind.
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