The First Settlers of New-England Author:Lydia Maria Francis Child Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CONQUEST THE PEQUODS. Mother. Having concluded what I had to relate of our Southern Indians, I will now give you some account of those who inhabited this p... more »art of the country when it was first visited by our ancestors. The Pequods, a powerful and intelligent people, who dwelt on the river Thames in Connecticut, had declined all intercourse with the English, as they were engaged in commerce with the Dutch, by whose instigation it was supposed the Pequods were forbidden to bring any of the English into their territory. These people were all destroyed in revenge of the death of captains Stone and Norton. Stone, the principal, had been guilty of the most atrocious offences, he had been imprisoned and ordered to leave the colony; nor is it probable that Norton was superior to Stone, or he would not have been his associate. It cannot be doubted that these men were the aggressors, from their subsequent conduct : we must therefore admit the testimony of the Pequods, in reference to the cause and manner of their disaster and death. The Pequods sent messengers of peace, with gifts, to the Massachusetts, explaining the cause of Stone's death, and alleged that he had been justly slain for having seized some of their men, and compelled them to show him the way up their river ; and that the Pequods slew Stone and two others, who had come on shore, to rescue their own men. They also stated, that afterward the bark had been suddenly blown up by the explosion of gunpowder, which had been set in an open vessel to be more ready for use. This account does not appear to have been credited readily by the English, though it could not be denied, as none of the company belonging to the bark escaped the conflagration. After a conference, which lasted many days, the governor and council concluded...« less