History of the Pequot War: The Contemporary Accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent, and Gardener, Reprinted from the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, with Additional Notes and an Introduction

xx, 149 pp. Coral cloth, black titles, top edge gilt. Frontispiece map of colonial era Connecticut, with tribal territories and sites of four important battles labeled. 1897 reissue of four original colonial imprints, with a new introduction and notes by Charles Orr. Includes: A Brief History of The Pequot War: Especially of the Memorable Taking of Their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637; Nevves from America; or, A New and Experimentall Discoverie of New England; Containing a Trve Relation of Their War-like Proceedings These Two Yeares Last Past, with a Figure of the Indian Fort, or Palizado.; A Trve Relation of the Late Battell Fought in New-England, between the English and the Pequet Salvages. In which were slaine and taken prisoners about 700 of the Salvages, and those which escaped, had their heads cut off by the Mohocks.; Leift Lion Gardener his relation of the Pequot Warres. The following sources treat the original editions of which this is a collection of reissues: Sabin 45454: "Major Mason was one of the first settlers of Dorchester, in 1630. From that place he removed about the year 1635, and assisted in laying the foundation of a new colony. After the Pequot War, in which he took a prominent part, he was appointed the Governor of Connecticut, Major-General of all their forces, which office he continued to hold till his death." Howes M-369: "Written by a leading participant; most reliable contemporary account." Evans 4033. Church 924: "This is the contemporaneous account written (at the request of the General Court) by one of the principal actors in the events which it describes, and is the best of them all. 'I may add here that there were other narratives of the Pequot War written by actors in it. A narrative by Major John Mason, the commander of the Connecticut forces, was left by him on his death, in manuscript, and was communicated by his grandson to the Rev. Thomas Prince, who published it in 1736. It is the best account of the affair written. Some two or three years after the death of Mason, Mr. Allyn, the Secretary of the colony of Connecticut, sent a narrative of the Pequot War to Increase Mather, who published it in his Relation of the Troubles, etc., 1677 [our No. 654], as of Allyn's composition. Having no preface or titlepage, Mather did not know that it was written by Major Mason, as was afterward fully explained by Prince, who had the entire manuscript from Mason's grandson.'---WINSOR. Mason, after saying that he had no thought of this work coming to the press, and that he had been overpersuaded by friends, says: 'This with some other Reasons have been Motives to excite me to the enterprizing hereof; no Man that I know of having as yet undertaken to write a general History or Relation; so that there is no Commemoration of Matters respecting this War; how they began, how carried on, and continued nor what Success they had'; to which Prince adds this note: 'The Author Died before the Reverend Mr. William Hubbard and Mr. Increase Mather Published their Accounts of the Pequot War.'" Sabin 97733. Church 441: "The first serious trouble which the settlers of New England had with the Indians resulted in the Pequot War, in 1637, in which that tribe was overthrown by Captain Underhill, who was the commander of the Massachusetts forces in this war and led the storming of the fort. He prefaces his account with a description of the country and of the origin of the troubles with the Pequots." Sabin 99760. Church 443.