e flames spread that the English had difficulty in making good their
escape, while the Pequots who escaped the sword were doomed to perish by
fire. In an hour's time from four hundred to six hundred had fallen,
more than half of them women and children. Of the Englishmen two were
killed and about twenty wounded. In this dreadful slaughter the
Narragansets had little share, for they had shown such fear that Mason
had said to Uncas, "Tell them not to fly, but stand at what distance
they please and see whether Englishmen will now fight or not."

[Illustration: Attack on the Pequot Fort.]

With the approach of day three hundred Pequots advanced from a second
fort intending to fight, but they were struck with horror at the sight
of their dead fellow-warriors. Keeping the enemy at bay, the English
marched to the vessels, which had arrived at Pequot Harbor, and, placing
the wounded on board, continued their march to Saybrook. The remnant of
the Pequots sought to escape from the country, moving westward along the
Sound. Captain Stoughton, sent with one hundred and twenty Massachusetts
men, was guided by the Narragansets to a swamp in which a little band of
those hostile savages had hidden. The men were slain, offering little
resistance. The women and children were divided among the Indian allies
or sold into slavery by the colonists of Massachusetts Bay.

Mason and Stoughton together sailed from Saybrook along the shore, while
Uncas with his men tracked the fugitives by land. At Guilford a Pequot
sachem was entrapped, shot, and his head thrust into the crotch of an
oak-tree near the harbor, giving the place the name of Sachem's Head.
Near the town of Fairfield a last stand was made by the hunted redskins,
in a swamp, to which the English were guided by a renegade Pequot. The
tribe with whom the Pequots had taken shelter, also the women and
children, were allowed to give themselves up. The men were shot down or
broke through and escaped. The wife of Mononotto fell into the hands of
the English. This Indian squaw had once shown kindness to two captive
girls, and by Winthrop's orders she was kindly treated in return. The
Pequots, once so powerful, were well-nigh exterminated. Those taken
prisoners were spared only to be held in bondage, Mononotto's wife with
the rest. Some were absorbed by the Narragansets, others by the
Mohegans, while the settlers of Connecticut, upon whom the war had
fallen so heavily, came into possession of