The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05
CURSE OF cuPPAcoMMocK.

Among the papers of the late Miss
Polly Stoddard of the Mast Swamp
country, was found manuscript re-
lating the tradition of the famous
locality. This superb flower is profuse-
ly abundant and covers many square
miles of the historic and extensive
swamp in eastern Connecticut, which,
since the white mans time and up to
and including the last war. furnished
the masts for most of the seabQing YES
sells built in Connecticut. The Mast
Swamp rhododendron is a TALL scraggy
laurel, with leathery tropical foliage,
which differs from the ordinary
rhododendron in that it's magnificent
pink and purple blossoms have dark
crimson heart that seems to drip with
blood, so rich is it's coloring, instead of
being conferred with the original
splashes of gold usually seen. The
Mast Swamp flower is accordingly
widely sought after during it's season
of poisoning, which is in the early
part of the summer The treacherous
morasses of the swamp are at that
time visited by hundreds of daring
rhododendron hunters.
The swamp. while in the height Of its
floral glory, is commonly called Led
yards Flower Garden" from the rug
ged township in which it lies.
Miss Stoddard's manuscript was
written as a result of many conversa-
tons held by herself onits subject with
remnants Of the Pequot tribe of In
dians on the Indiantown reservation in
North Stonington, over sixty years ogo.
The tradition of the bloody-hearted
laurels was one of the very few that
came down with the last of the Pc
quots to anything like the present time
Miss Stoddard's paper is entitled, "The
Curse of Cuppacommock, and shows
that Mast Swamp was first known to
the white man invading this territory
early in the seventeenth century as a
place of refuge for the Pequot Indians.
The Indians called the place Ohomo-
on her back and thrust her arms and
legs about to the no small danger of
those around her. Then becoming
comparatively quiet and supine she
would culver all over, while her eye
lids trembled with great rapidity.
This state perhaps would be followed
by general convulsive movements in
which she would put herself into the
wauke, or the owls Nest" from the
great number of owls which took shell
ter in its dark recesses, and also Cup
pacommock, or THE Hiding Place. .
from its remoteness and inaccessibility.
! Until the white man came, the Pequot
| who was fortunate enough to reach the
shelter of Cuppacommock always sue
| ceeded in eluding his pursuers in its
| mazes, and very likely managed to
STAY his would-be destroyer.
The curse of Cuppacommock was the
| direct result of the destruction of the
| Mystic fort of the Pequots by Major
| Mason in the early colonial days. A
| ragged remnant of this original tribe,
| under the leadership of Puttaquaponk,
| after being pursued for some time,
took refuge within Cuppacommock' $
! borders, entering the swamps by means
of serpentine path which was then
unknown to the whites, but which Is
| still in existence. There late in June,
| 1887, just as the rhododendrous were
sending forth their glorious clusters of
| flowers, the Pequots were surrounded
| by 100 soldiers from the Massachusetts
colony under Captain Stoughton and
| guided by Yotash. a Narragansett
| cheftain, and his band. The miserable
and enfeebled fugitives We're told they
need expect no quarter, and that they
| would be examined sooner or later,
whether they surrendered or not. With
| the true Indian spirit they held out,
however, until their women and chill
dren were nearly dead from starvation.
Then they sued for mercy. Over 100
prisoners were taken. OF these nearly
eighty women and children were
placed in bondage under the white, and
the men, thirty in number, were bound
and placed on a sloop commanded by
one Gallup, carried down the Thames
river to the mouth of New London
harbor, where they were made to walk
plank overheard, one after the other
and left to drown.
Miss Stoddards story says that the
life of Puttaquaponk had been tenn
porarily spared by Stoughton, on his
promise to aid the whites in unearth-
ing some of the other enemies of the
invading English, but when the Pequot
learned of the fate of his little band OF
warriors he refused to act further with
the whites, and was himself shot. The
shooting took place in Cuppacommock
where Puttaquaponk, held as prison.
err, was lying on his back bound with
whites under the great boughs Of
blossoms of the rhododendrons. Before
he was slain, the tradition says, he
gave utterance to a curse upon Cuppa'
commock for compelling him to surren
der because of starvation, and upon the
white men for so blood thirstily taking
the lives of the warriors of his band
He declared that the golden hearts Of
the Cuppacommock rhododendrou!
would utrn to blood as perpetual re-
proach to the invading English for the
mercilessness of Stoughton and Gallup
And ever since that time the Cuppa
commock laurels, until then fleckeC
with yellow, have blossomed will
hearts of blood. The Pequots as ma
ton were quickly subdued, and thei
few remaining descendants have Ions
ago passed away. But the Cuppaeom
mock laurels by their ed-heartet
blossoms every succeeding year keel
alive the meory of the curse.
1t is supposed that some property o
the soil of Cuppacommock gives thes'
flowers their peculiar coloring, for thu
Indians of the Indiantown reservation
to the last one, always declared tina
when root of the laurel was trans
planted to another soil its blossoms
would speedily revert to the golden
hearted beauty of the former days.