speck] 



A MOHEGAX-PEQUOT DIARY 207 



Pequot, and Nehantic remaining in Connecticut, nor any Scatticook 

 in the \s-estern part .of the same State, remembered anything of their 

 native tongues. That he was not correctly informed on these 

 interesting vitalities of aboriginal life appeared evident when, through 

 patience and fortunate circumstances, matter was described and 

 published concerning the language, while some indications appeared 

 of a latent knowledge of old customs and beliefs illustrated by actual 

 ethnological specimens. At Mohsgan there lived at this time at 

 least one who, as we have shown, had some systematic knowledge of 

 a New England Indian language. A body of other information on 

 customs could then, and some still can be, harvested from the de- 

 scendants of these same interesting groups. 



First appearing as an organized tribe under the celebrated leader, 

 Uncas, the Mohegan gradually assumed the prominence of a great 

 political factor in southern New England. Although the name 

 Morhicans (Mohegan) is given a place on a map of the region dating 

 from 1614 (pi. 15), their ancestry was chiefly Pequot, evidenced bj^ 

 many sources, Uncas himself having been one of the sachems of that 

 nation. How they gradually developed a separate nationality, which 

 was emphasized by the part they took in aiding the English to accom- 

 plish the extermination of the Pequot and later the Narragansett, is 

 generally well known. They absorbed control of the Nipmuck north 

 of them and the Tunxis and other tribes westward across the Con- 

 necticut River.' Only one tribe, the Nehantic (Niantic), their 

 neighbors on the shores of Long Island Sound between the Niantic 

 and the Connecticut Rivers, was, it seems, affected favorably by the 

 Mohegan expansion. They became finally absorbed by the latter 

 sometime after 1850. The composite character of the historic 

 Mohegan is well shown by a review of the descent of the various 

 families constituting the tribe, which shows that practically all of the 

 tribes in the surrounding territory contributed more or less to the 

 growth of the Mohegan community. It naturally follows that the 

 material and mental life of the Mohegan should be regarded as some- 

 thing of a blend of the minor ethnological types represented among 

 the peoples inhabiting this immediate region. 



The Pequot should undoubtedly be classed as the nation contrib- 

 uting most in blood to the composition of the Mohegan, since their 

 language remained the mother speech. After the tragic extermina- 

 tion of this tribe in 1036 the exiles were distributed more or less as 

 slaves among the Mohegan and Narragansett. De Forest has com- 

 piled the references in colonial documents showing the large number 

 of those which came into the hands of Uncas. This increase aug- 



' De Forest. History of the Indians of Connecticut, 1851, pp. 182,254-258. and 376, gives an account of the 

 expansion of the ^fobegan under I'ncas, covering the territories of the Nipraucli, Tun.xis, and namnion- 

 asset. The Tunxis residing at Farmington on Connecticut River and the narnnionasset on the western 

 shore of the mouth of the river were by early authors assigned to the Mattabesec (Wappinger) group. 



