The first of three chronologically arranged volumes, Volume 1 begins with a description of the Indian tribes of New England, discusses the early settlers and their relations with the Indians, and covers the Pequod War and the wars of the Mohegans. The Indians are described in general terms regarding religion, art, language, agriculture, etc., as well as by specific tribe. The early settlers, the Pilgrims and the Puritans, had friends among the Indians (Massasoit and Squanto, for instance) but, in the main, relations were bloody between natives and newcomers. The lengthy section on the Pequod War begins with the rising tensions caused by Dutch and English encroachment onto Pequod lands, and covers the ensuing fighting, the tribe's fall from power and influence in the 1630s, and the final dispersal of the few remaining members into other tribes. The section on the wars of the Mohegans, in the 1630s and 1640s, focuses mainly on the conflicts between that tribe and the Narragansetts but it also covers the increasing conflicts between the Mohegans and the white settlers. Well-written and heavily footnoted, this book is an informative narrative of the Indian wars of New England.
Herbert Milton Sylvester
(1910), 2008, 5½x8½, paper, index, 530 pp.
ISBN: 9780788410413
101-S1041
