"But she is dead to him, to all;
Her lute hangs silent on the wall,
And on the stairs, and at the door,
Her fairy step is heard no more."
Rogers.
The kind and disinterested manner in which you have furnished thematerials of the following tale, merits a public acknowledgment. Asyour reluctance to appear before the world, however, imposes arestraint, you must receive such evidence of gratitude, as your ownprohibition will allow.
Notwithstanding there are so many striking and deeply interesting eventsin the early history of those from whom you derive your being, yet arethere hundreds of other families in this country, whose traditions, thoughless accurately and minutely preserved than the little narrative you havesubmitted to my inspection, would supply the materials of many movingtales. You have every reason to exult in your descent, for, surely, if anyman may claim to be a citizen and a proprietor in the Union, it is one,that, like yourself, can point to a line of ancestors whose origin islost in the obscurity of time. You are truly an American. In your eyes, weof a brief century or two, must appear as little more than denizens quiterecently admitted to the privilege of a residence. That you may continueto enjoy peace and happiness, in that land where your fathers so longflourished, is the sincere wish of your obliged friend,
The Author
At this distant period, when Indian traditions are listened to with theinterest that we lend to the events of a dark age, it is not easy toconvey a vivid image of the dangers and privations that our ancestorsencountered, in preparing the land we enjoy for its present state ofsecurity and abundance. It is the humble object of the tale that will befound in the succeeding pages, to perpetuate the recollection of some ofthe practices and events peculiar to the early days of our history.
The general character of the warfare pursued by the natives is too wellknown to require any preliminary observations; but it may be advisable todirect the attention of the reader, for a few moments, to those leadingcircumstances in the history of the times, that may have some connexionwith the principal business of the legend.
The territory which now composes the three states of Massachusetts,Connecticut and Rhode-Island, is said, by the best-informed of ourannalists, to have been formerly occupied by four great nations ofIndians, who were, as usual, subdivided into numberless dependent tribes.Of these people, the Massachusetts possessed a large portion of the landwhich now composes the state of that name; the Wampanoags dwelt in whatwas once the Colony of Plymouth, and in the northern districts of theProvidence Plantations; the Narragansetts held the well-known islands ofthe beautiful bay which receives its name from their nation, and the moresouthern counties of the Plantations; while the Pequots, or as it isordinarily written and pronounced, the Pequods, were masters of a broadregion that lay along the western boundaries of the three other districts.
There is great obscurity thrown around the polity of the Indians, whousually occupied the country lying near the sea.
The Europeans, accustomed to despotic governments, very naturally supposedthat the chiefs, found in possession of power, were monarchs to whomauthority had been transmitted in virtue of their birth-rights. Theyconsequently gave them the name of kings.
How far this opinion of the governments of the aborigines was true remainsa question, though there is certainly reason to think it less erroneous inrespect to the tribe