Pequot War, 1636-37, image 12 of 13
The signature of Captain John Mason, Officer during The Pequot War
“Whether the fault was in the method by which the Puritans sought to bring the Indians to a knowledge of the true faith, or whether these people are by nature incapable of being anything but savages, all attempts at their Christianization and civilization were, in the main, futile. They had undoubtedly fewer vices and more virtures when the country was first occupied by Europeans than they have ever had since; but after fifty years of labor with them under these most favorable circumstances, of all the thousands of the New England tribes, less than fifteen hundred, with their wives and children, were numbered among the ‘Praying Indians.’ Many more than that number had meanwhile been destroyed in two Indian wars. The work of killing was far more successful than that of converting, and their utter extinction, though gradual, was certain.”
“But there was an interval of forty years between those wars. That with the Pequots was so sharp and decisive a lesson that a generation passed away, and there were none left to bear the Pequot totem, ere the jealousy of the English overcame the memory of ther prowess, and led the Indians to venture upon another attempt at extermination. That interval of repose was of the last importance to the colonists. Without it, the history of the permanent settlement of New England might have dated some scores of years later. Whether Endicott’s expedition to Block Island, reckless and inconsiderate, as most of the acts of that precipitate and hot-headed Puritan usually were, was justifiable or not, when considered in the light of its possible, and even probably, immediate consequences, it had only a happy result. It provoked a war at a time when the Indians, foolishly divided among themselves, were easily subdued by the destruction of the most powerful and dangerous tribe among them, while the weaker, who had blindly helped in that destruction, could never again muster the courage or the strength to attempt, till it was too late, to drive the invaders back to the sea whence they came. That the result should be recognized as a signal evidence of the goodness of God was only in accordance with the Puritan faith that they were peculiarly under the devine protection. ‘The Lord was pleased,’ exclaims Captain Mason, with more force than elegance, at the close of his narrative – ‘the Lord was pleased to smite our Enemies in the hinder Parts, and to give us their Land for an Inheritance.’ ”