the Pequot land.

[l638]

For nearly forty years the New England colonies were not again molested,
the merciless vigor with which they had fought making a lasting
impression upon their blood-thirsty foes. The cruel slavery to which the
surviving natives were subjected, the English justified by the example
of the Jews in their treatment of the Canaanites.

[Illustration: Signature of Miantonomoh.]

[1642]

The Narraganset chief, Miantonomoh, had become the friend and ally of
the English by a treaty ratified in 1636, mainly through the good
offices of Roger Williams, In 1638, after the destruction of the
Pequots, there was a new treaty, embracing Uncas with his bold Mohegans,
and stipulating that any quarrel between Miantonomoh and Uncas should be
referred to the English. In 1642 Miantonomoh was accused of plotting
against the English, and summoned before the General Court at Boston.
Though acquitted he vowed revenge upon Uncas as the instigator of the
charge. His friendship for Roger Williams, as also for Samuel Gorton,
the purchaser of Shawomet, or Warwick, R. I., which was claimed by
Massachusetts, had perhaps created a prejudice against him. At any rate,
when a quarrel arose between Uncas and Sequasson, Miantonomoh's friend
and ally, while the latter naturally sided with Sequasson, the
sympathies of the English were with Uncas, who had aided them against
the Pequots. With the consent of Connecticut and Massachusetts
Miantonomoh took the field against Uncas, who had attacked Sequasson. He
was defeated and taken prisoner. Carried to Hartford he was held to
await the decision of the Commissioners of the United Colonies at
Boston. They would not release him, yet had no valid ground for putting
him to death. The case was referred to five clergymen, and they voted
for his execution. For this purpose the commissioners gave orders to
turn the brave warrior over to Uncas, English witnesses to be present
and see that no cruelty was perpetrated. The sentence was carried into
effect near Norwich. Cutting a piece of flesh from the shoulder of his
murdered enemy, Uncas ate it with savage relish, declaring it to be the
sweetest meat he had ever tasted.

[Illustration: The Grave of Miantonomoh.]

[1640-1643]

The Dutch, too, as we have to some extent seen already, felt the horrors
of Indian warfare. Kieft, the Dutch director-general, a man cruel,
avaricious, and obstinate, angered the red men by demanding tribute from
them