CONNECTICUT PAUGAUSSETT INDIANS

THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD

Golden Hill Indians
The Housatonic
The Wepawaug
Cupheags and Pequannock
Weantinock
Goodyear's Island
Indian Slaves
Indian Remnants
Indian Troubles
New Indian Papers

THE HISTORY OF STRATFORD

Wm. Howard Wilcoxson

Stratford Indians

Trouble with the Indians

Establishing Title to the Land

Indian Deeds and Relics

White Hills Purchase

FORREST MORGAN

Lifestyles, Government, Religion and War

Indian Titles and Mohegan Land Troubles

Sowheag, Uncas, and Miantonomo

Owenoco, the Son of Uncas

THE HOUSATONIC

CHARD POWERS SMITH

The Promised Land
Heathen in the Land
The Lord's Scouts

The Land and The Lord

The Next Seven Tribes

ALEXANDER JOHNSTON

Connecticut Indian History

The Pequot War

A STORY
OF
Pequot Swamp
AND
AN INCIDENT OF MILL RIVER (NOW SOUTHPORT)
IN "YE OLDEN TIME."
BY P.D. RIDGE

To Mary the blow was overwhelming. To be deprived of her husband and her daughter, and she in a strange land, an exile from the home of her kindred; it was well nigh insupportable. The sympathy of the little community was aroused, and not only their sympathy, but their anger. It seemed to be the one opinion among the Indians, that Esther had been carried off to the Mohegans. The Sachem was indignant that a sneaking Pequot should dare to steal his pale faced daughter, as he regarded her. Wampeag and Catoonah offered to go in disguise to the Mohegan country, and if they found her, one of them was to return for help to assist in the rescue, and the other to remain near, to shield her, as far as possible, from harm. They started on their hazardous journey, but with little hope of success. The anguish and excitement of the last few days was too much for the not over robust Josiah. The Pequots in their secure retreat were gloating over the prospect of revenge their captive they treated kindly in their rude way, not being ready to take her life--the final satiation of their hate. They knew the value of their prize, for, unperceived, they had often been near the dwelling of Enoch, before the capture of Esther, and knew the high esteem in which she was held. The torturing--the death of one such pale face, was to them an equivalent to the torturing and death of scores of red men. During the day they did not venture far from their hiding place, except to fish on the thickly wooded banks of the Sasco. They avoided the friendly Indians, and if seen, being dressed like them, they escaped detection. At night, leaving one or two in charge of their prisoner, the others would travel miles away to gather clams, oysters, and other food. Esther had become almost a stoic. Sorrow had benumbed her faculties. She did not dread death; to her it would be a relief. The past happy life was like a dream. The few weeks that she had been imprisoned seemed an age. Where she was she knew not. The islands to which she was taken immediately after her capture, she was familiar with, having often visited them with her parents and Josiah; but before they returned, the Pequots had blindfolded her. She little thought that not a mile intervened between her and her home.