fPECKl A MOHEGAN-PEQUOT DIARY 259 



A few days later Colonel Leffingwell, fioni Saybrook Fort, effected 

 an entrance by night, bringing the carcass of a steer to the starving 

 Mohegan. The following morning they stuck the quarters up on 

 poles and waved them in derision where the enemy could see them 

 and know that succor had arrived. Then the relief party on the 

 heels of LefFmgwell appeared on the river and the Narragansett were 

 dispersed. 



No. 10. Sandy Desert. — A legend of an encounter with some in- 

 vading tribe is associated with a barren sandy zone running westward 

 from the river about half a mile toward the Mohegan road. The 

 place, which has the appearance of being an outlying extension of 

 the coastal plain, is clothed with a growth of pitch pine and other 

 sand-barrens vegetation. The legend," which I recorded some years 

 ago, is given: 



"It was not such a place as it is now, but fertile and pleasant. 

 The tribe was on friendly relations with the Mohegan, but before 

 long some disease came among them and killed them off like sheep. 

 Ever since that time this valley, where their settlement was, has 

 never grown any grass. Then- bones are often unearthed." 



This relation was by James Rogers. The contradiction between 

 the two statements regarding the hostile attitude of the strange 

 tribe is probably due to an error of memory on his part, for at the 

 time he ipoke he was a very old Indian. We have examined the 

 tract for surface indications, but found nothing more than a few 

 scattered stone implements. 



No. 11. Cutchegun Rod". — At this spot on the map is located a 

 massive bowlder near Stony Brook, known as Cutchegmi Rock, 

 reported in several geological records to be the largest detached 

 bowlder in New England. Here in colonial times dwelt a Mohegan 

 named Caleb Cutchegun, whose home was made in a cavity on the 

 under side of the rock. Here, likewise, Mohegan tradition mentions 

 a resort of Uncas. On top of the rock he is said to have held his 

 council meetings, seated upon a flat stone for a bench, surroimded 

 by some seven other flat stones for his councilmen. These stones, 

 however, have within a few years been rolled off the crown of the 

 rock by vandals. 



A^o. 12. Paul's Burying Ground. — At a spot near where the 

 figure 12 appears on the map is the evidence of early sepulture. 

 Tradition asserts that here in colonial times an Englishman named 

 Paul and his daughter were buried. They had become lost and were 

 saved by the Indians, who gave them refuge. Later, it is said, 

 they died of some contagious disease, which carried off many of the 

 Indians themselves. 



• Quotad from Speck, ref. i (1909), p. 187. 



