Putnam patriot., 1920-10-15

When Thomas Stanton an inleF- preter at Saybrook, talked with some of the Indians, one of them said proudly. "We are Pequots and have killed English men and can kill them | like mosquitoes. and we will go up the Connecticut and kill men, women, and children. and carry away the horses, cows and hogs"
 All up and down the river they be- gan to carry out their threats. At Wethersfield they killed nine men and seized two girls whom they carried away as captives. The settlers saw that they must fight for their lives. On the first day of May. 1887. the General Court met at Hartford to de eide what must be done. There were fifteen men in this court and they represented not quite three hundred persons who were waiting at home to learn what they could do.
 They voted, That there should be an offensive war against the Pequots, an dthere shall be ninety men levied, from the plantations at Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor. Hartford was to furnish forty-two. Windsor thirty and Wethersfield eighteen.
 In ten days this little army, headed by Captain John Mason of Windsor, was ready for war. It met at Hart ford. Seventy Mohegan Indians un- der the command of their Chief Un- cas. joined Captain Mason and offered to help fight their enemies, the Pe- ouots. In their vessels these one hun dred and sixty men sailed down the river. At Saybrook Captain John un- derhill and nineteen men joined the army. whereupon Captain Mason sent back twenty of his own men to help protect the settlers at home. They were now ready to sail for the Pe- ouots' forts near the mouth of the Thames River, but there was so httie wind that they could not sail for two days. This delay was very dangerous for them because there were Pequot warriors in the woods near Sayerook watching for an opportunity to kill the white men. If the Indians discov- cred the white men they would cer- tainly hurry home to tell their chiet that the English were coming. Two days would give them plenty of tune in which to prepare for the fght.
 What was to be doneg
 Captain Mason had hoped to land near their fort and take them by sur prise. Now this would be impossible and he knew that there were so many of the Indians that it would be impos- sible to land if they were on the shofe prepared to fight.
 Captain Mason called his wisest men together to decide what they should do. After many hours of plan ninq it was decided that when the wind should blow they would sal Tor the home of the Narragansetts near Point Judith and get permission rom these Indians to march back thfoueil their country. In this way they hoped to outwit the Pequots and reach thelr wiewams before being discovered.
 At last the wind began to blow and they were able to sail past the Indian fort and on to Point Judith. When they reached this point they ianoeo and found Miantonomo, the chief oi ,be Narrapansetts. They told nm why tbey had come and asked permis' sion to march through his country to npnisb the Pequots, who were enc. mics of both the Narragansetts anu the English.
 Although this news pleased Man tonono. he realized at once that the numbers of the English were too 1e" to punish so many Pequots for they were "very great captains ana mef skilled in war
 Captain Mason and his men, how ! ayer were not the kind to become | frightened or to turn back. They de te,mined to start for the Pequot fort the very next day. During the nlgh' an Indian messenger came to tell then that some Massachusetts men were al Providence on their way to help them | He advised the Connecticut men tc wait for them to reach Point Judith hut Captain Mason was ready to SC and would not change his plans. Two hundred Narragansetts went with nm and together they marched twenty miles that day. They camped for the night near a fort belonging to the Mantle Indians. Fearing that these Indians might be friendly to the Pc. ouots Captain Mason set guard to watch the fort so that none of the Niantics could come out during the night to attack them or give warning O the Pequots.
 The next morning more than two hundred of the Niantics came to tell Captain Mason that they were ene' mics of the Pequots and wished to jon his army. The following evening Tn company with five hundred Indians the English settlers reached Mystic Some of the Pequots were in small fort two miles away. The others re mained in larger fort, the home of their chief Sassacus, at Groton. That night the English slept on the ground under the open sky in order to be I ready for battle in the morning. The sky was clear and the moon shone brightly on the tired soldiers who were glad to rest though they had only rocks for pillows. In their fort