In the early times of this nation, some of the English inhabitants learned from the old Indians, that they had, previous to their arrival, a sachem, Tashtassuck. Tashtassuck had but two children, a son and a daughter, those he joined in marriage, because he could find none worthy of them out of his family. The product of this marriage was four sons, of whom Canonicus was the oldest.

Canonicus was the Grand Sachem of the Narragansetts, when the whites settled at Plymouth. He died in 1647.

The Narragansetts subsisted by hunting, fishing and, partially, by agriculture. Their lands, for eight or ten miles distant from the sea-shore, were cleared of wood, and on these prairies they raised Indian corn in abundance and furnished the early settlers of Plymouth and Massachusetts with large quantities for subsistence. They were a strong, generous and brave race. They were always more civil and courteous to the English than any of the other Indians. Their kind and hospitable treatment of the emigrants to Rhode Island and the welcome they gave our persecuted ancestors should endear their name to us all.

Canonicus, the sachem of the Narragansetts, whose territory had escaped the ravages of the pestilence, at first desired to treat of peace; in 1622, a bundle of arrows, wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake, was his message of hostility. But, when Bradford sent back the skin stuffed with powder and shot, his courage quailed, and he sued for amity.

Canonicus, now chief of the Narragansetts, had given his allegiance to the king and was at peace with the colonists. The Rhode Island colony had received its charter from the king, and were taking no part in the war. In spite of all this, the united Colonies formed an army to attack a peaceful tribe of Indians located outside their jurisdiction. This army formed in Boston, marched through Providence and Warwick on their way to the Great Swamp.

Not until their territory was actually invaded did the Narragansetts offer resistance.

The government of the Narraganssetts appears to have been a patriarchal despotism. Miantenomi was the nephew of Canonicus, son of his brother Mascus. Canonicus, in his advanced age, admitted Miantenomi into the government, and they administered the sachemdom jointly. The different small tribes, under the separate sub-sachems, composed the great Narragansett nation. The succession to chief authority was generally preserved in the same family. The sub-sachems occupied the soil and were moved from it at the will and pleasure of their chiefs.

In the war between the Narragansetts and Mohegans, in 1643, Miantenomi was captured by Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegans, and executed. Pessecus, the brother of Miantenomi, was then admitted sachem with Canonicus. He was put to death by the Mohawks, in 1676.

Canonchet, the son of the brave but unfortunate Miantenomi, was the last sachem of the race. He commanded the Indians at the Great Swamp Fight, in 1675. This battle exterminated the Narragansetts as a nation. He was captured near the Blackstone river, after the war, and executed for the crime of defending his country and refusing to surrender the territories of his ancestors by a treaty of peace. It was glory enough for a nation to have expired with such a chief. The coolness, fortitude, and heroism of his fall stands without a parallel in ancient or modern times. He was offered life, upon the condition that he would treat for the submission of his subjects; his untamed spirit indignantly rejected the ignominious proposition. When the sentence was announced to him that then he must die, he said, "I like it well, that I shall die before my heart grows soft, or that I have said anything unworthy of myself." Thus ended the last chief of the Narragansetts, and with Canonchet the nation was extinguished forever.

Chief Canonicus was my 11th g-grandfather. It is through his g-granddaughter, Mary Hyanno, who married in 1639, Augustine Bearse, that I descend. The book "Bearse-Bears-Barss Family, Genealogy of Augustine Bearse and Princess Mary Hyanno", tells of the Vikings coming to the Wampanoag area about 1001-1016. They were fierce, red haired, pale faced men who came, to what is now Massachusetts, mixed their blood with the Wampanoag Indians and went back to the endless waters and were never seen no more.


Sources:

History of the United States
The House of Carr--A Historical Sketch of the Carr Family from 1450 to 1926 by W.L. Watson.
The History of Massachusetts Bay
Bearse-Bears-Barss Family, Genealogy of Augustine Bearse and Princess Mary Hyanno by Franklin Bearse

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