Pequot War, 1636-37, image 1 of 13
Off Block Island, Block Island Sound
“John Oldham had been in New England from the first settlement of Plymouth. After his ignominious expulsion from that colony, we hear of his apparent restoration to favor among that people; of his attempts to found colonies of his own in Maine and Boston harbor, so far, at least as to procure patents to that end; of his trading along the coast; of his disputing with the Council of the Massachusetts Bay Company their title to the lands which they held under the hand and seal of the king. Restless, energetic, always engaged in some enterprise, he certainly was; and there is no evidence that there was anything more amiss in him than belongs almost inevitable to a man of violent temper, removed in a great degree from the restrains of civilization, leading a life of adventure, associating and trading with the Indians till he had acquired, perhaps, as such men are apt to do, something of the habits and almost the nature of an Indian.”
“In 1636 he was trading in a vessel of his own, along the Connecticut River. What encounter there may have been between him and the Indians, that led to the final catastrophe, is not known – whether his vessel was boarded by them merely for plunder, or whether some aggression on his part provoked retaliation. But off Block Island, a Massachusetts fisherman, John Gallop, descried the vessel drifting helplessly out to sea, crowded with Indians who could handle neither helm nor sail. Gallop, who had only one man and two boys with him, without hesitation attacked the vessel and then boarded her, assaulting the Indians with such weapons as he had at hand. It must have been a gallant naval battle, for the brave fisherman and his brave companions drove the Indians before them, some diving into the hold for safety, some throwing themselves into the sea, till none were left upon the vessel but the dying and the dead. Upon the deck lay the body of Oldham, still bleeding from recent wounds where he had fallen with his crew in defense of his vessel.”
“This death of Oldham was the signal for war. The government of Massachusetts Bay, the people who had already come, and the people who were coming into the Connecticut valley, saw that peace with the Pequots was no longer to be purchased by attempts at conciliation. Immediate measures were taken to punish this outrage; the Indians put themselves both on the defensive and the offensive, and the colonies of New England were for the first time engaged in serious war.”
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