Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1830-05-26
MISCELLANIES.
From the Boston Evening Gazette.
THE LAST OF THE PEQUOTs.
TALE OF oLDEN TIME.

"Where has the true born child Of nature gone,
Who once was seen on every hill and glade,
Who Aeetly bounded o'er the verdant lawn,
Or through the thick-set forests lonely shade!"
Tradition and the voice Of truth reply
"The white man forced him far from home to die. "
cit is well, Sons of the Salt Lake, that
we should depart far to the north Of our
white neighbors-for the Great Spirit
who has left the print Of his foot on the
rocks Of the Narragansett has frowned
upon our race. Let us go-I have spo-
ken," said the chief warrior Of the Pc
quot tribe, as he raised from the ground
his hunting pack and rifle. His exam
pie was Immediately followed without a
murmur, by the remnant Of that mighty
tribe who were once the most powerful
in the region now known as New-En-
gland, and as the sun sank slowly be-
hind the trees of the forest, they reached
the last burying place Of their fathers !;
here they set down and offered up their
prayers to the Great Spirit, and left as
they supposed, plentiful supply ofparch-
ed corn and powder, for their brothers in
the fair hunting grounds of paradise.
The hour of separation from almost all
that they held dear arrived,-they look
ed at the silvery mountain stream as it
fell from crag to crag until it was lost in
the vale below, and the Chief sighed, for
the thoughts of many years come over his
Imagination.
"There, yes there" said he, did / find
a white man, many moons ago, faint and
ready to die;-I gave him food and took
him to my wigwam, he gave me in return
the fire-water, drink and become his
fool. Hunting ground after hunting
ground, passed from me, yet l satisfied
myself saying, my white brothers are
few, they want land, there is more than
my people want, let them have it. But
10! they increased like a swarm of wild
bees Oh the boughs Of the wild cherry
tree. The mountain, the valley, and the
rivers brink teemed with them-the
graves Of the great sagamores felt their
plough irons-and the Great Spirit was
turned from his red children for suffering
the pale faces, when they were weak
and few, to become strong and numerous
as the leaves of the forest. They are
mighty-my people are few and weak
yet few and weak as they are, our white
brothers cannot spare them corner Of
their. broad possessions. Our homes
hereafter must be in the land of stran-
gers: let us quick begone. Ihave spok-
en-"
But now a follower moved; the little
brook was seen where they had often
fished for the speckled trout and the
leaping salmon, while the night wind
howled mournfully through the dark for
est, where often the deer and the part
ridge had fallen before their unerring
aim. The veins ofthe Pequots swelled
with rage and grief as they looked once
more towards those familiar objects, while
the faint twilight rendered them visible,
and then with half smothered impreca-
tons they begun their march in a single
file towards the northern lakes. In the
course of two weeks they reach the
shores of the Huron, and soon after join
ed FIVE other tribes which afterwards
took the name of the Six Nations.
Twenty years afterwards, as white
men was journeying from Old Plymouth
to fort situated on high hill, now in
Thompson, Conn. he was struck on the
head by tall Indian, who scalped him
and left him for dead. A party of set
tiers who were passing by that day, how
ever, found him and carried him to the
fort, where after great attention he re-
covered. e,upon being asked whattribe
the Indian belong to, answered positively
that he was a Pequot Chief The colo
nists would not however believe it, for
they had long considered that race to
have become extinct; they however could
not account for the injury he had received,
and were for some days in a state Of
alarm, but no further trace having been
discovered Of the savage, they conclud-
ed he was straggler from some war par
| ty, whose nation were at variance with
the whites, and who had Immediately af.
ter committing the deed departed in quest
Of his companions. But in a few days
this reasoning proved incorrect.
1t was lovely morning in the begin
ming of the Indian summer; the black
birds sang sweetly from the verdant
lawns, while the meadow-lark's shrill
though melodious notes came up from
the neighboring marshes, the sky was
clear, and the rays ofthe sun gave to the
tops Of the dark green pines upon which
the dew drops stood, silvery hue. The
fog that had enveloped the "Five Mile
River" began slowly to disappear, while
the faint roar of its fall gave to the sur
rounGing inhabitants the assurance of
pleasant day. At this moment there
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