SPECKI A MOHEGAN-PEQUOT DIARY 217 



memory of Lemuel Fielding, a Mohegan, whose father had it from his 

 father and grandfatiier, whose lives together cover a span of almost 

 a century and a half. It asserts that the people came eastward over 

 a desert, then traversed "the great fresh water," and finally, driven 

 by the attacks of the Mohawk, crossed to the eastern side of the 

 Connecticut, where they made their homes. We might admit that, 

 collectively and in conjunction with the other evidence, there is some 

 little weight in the force of this testimony. 



The question arises in one's mind, whence came the Mohegan and 

 Pequot invaders into the region where they were found in 1614? A 

 glance at the distribution map shows another aspect of the situation 

 favorable to the assumption of an irruptive tribal movement, coming 

 from the north and dividing the Nehantic on Long Island Sound 

 coast into the well-kuown eastern and western bands. Historians in 

 general seem to accept this explanation,^ since it was given by the 

 Narragansett and Nehantic as the cause of their constant hostility 

 toward the Pecjuot during the seventeenth century. 



Our reasons for considering the Nehantic and Narragansett as 

 being closely related come from several sources. The geographical 

 contiguity and political relationships of the two groups argue some- 

 thing positive toward the idea that these two people were original 

 occupants of the coastwise strip of territory before the incursion of 

 the Mohegan and Pequot. Several references in early documents 

 mention the Nehantic as having formerly possessed the coast from 

 Connecticut River eastward to the Wecapaug, and extending inland 

 some 25 miles. The two bands of Nehantic in later times were con- 

 sequently the divided portions of the original body. As inhabitants 

 of the coast contiguous on the east with the Narragansett, their 

 dialectic and culture status may be assumed to have closely resembled 

 that of the Narragansett. The few Nehantic culture survivals and 

 native terms do not furnish denial but a mild affirmative of the matter. 

 Politically their early unity is betrayed by the knowledge that they 

 had chiefs in common, and are frequently mentioned together as 

 combined units whose fortunes were affected by their common aggres- 

 sors, the Pequot.'* Later the eastern Nehantic became incorporated 

 with the Narragansett, acquiring even a seemingly dominant position 



' Substantially accepted hy De Forest as authentic (De Forest, op. cit., pp. 60-61). 



* Xinigret (N^enekunat, as Roger Williams wrote it) was primarily sachem of the Xehantic, whom Drake 

 refers to as "a tribe of the N^arragansetts whose principal residence was at Wekapaug, now Westerly, in 

 Rhode Island." (S. O. Drake, Biography and History of the Indians of North America, 1837, Book II, 

 p. 67.) Hubbard also stated that the Xehantic were an offshoot of the Narragansett (Hubbard, op. cit., 

 p. 49). Miantonomoh in 1642 also referred to the Xehantic as of "his own flesh and blood, being allied by 

 continual intermarriages." The two tribes were united in their hostility to the Mohegan in 1644. In 

 1647 (ibid. p. 70) the two are again mentioned as one body. The successors of Xinigret, who inherited the 

 chieftaincy of the Narragansett down to about 1812, when George Ninigret, "the last crowned King," died, 

 were constantly recorded as Nehantic chiefs. (Drake, op. cit., p. 83, quoting Hazard, 11, 152. Some of 

 Drake's information (1837) was obtained from unpublished manuscript of Rev. Wm. Ely. He also reUes 

 upon Collections of Mass. Hist. Soc.,IX,83.) 



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