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13 January, 2012
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A Brief History of the Pequot War
To The Honourable The General Court of Connecticut.
by Mason, Captain John
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Honoured Gentlemen,
You Well know how
often I have been requested by yourselves to write something in reference to the
Subject of the ensuing Treatise (who have power to Command) and how backward I
have been, as being conscious to my own unfitness; accounting it not so proper,
I being a Chief Actor therein myself. Yet considering that little hath been done
to keep the memory of such a special Providence alive, though I could heartily
have wished that some other who had been less interested and better qualified
might have undertaken the Task, for I am not unacquainted with my own Weakness;
yet I shall endeavour in plainness and faithfulness impartially to declare the
Matter, not taking the Crown from the Head of one and putting it upon another.
There are several who have Wrote and also Printed at random on this Subject,
greatly missing the Mark in many Things as I conceive. 5 [5
Mason refers, no doubt, to
the accounts by Underhill and Vincent, which had then been printed.] I shall not exempt my self from
frailties, yet from material Faults I presume you may pronounce it not Guilty,
and do assure you that if I should see or by any be convinced of an Error, I
shall at once confess and amend it.
I thought it my Duty
in the Entrance to relate the first Grounds upon which the English took up Arms
against the Pequots; for the Beginning is the Moiety of the Whole; and not to
mention some Passages at
Rovers, as others
have done, and not demonstrate the Cause. Judge of me as you please; I shall not
climb after Applause, nor do I much fear a Censure; there being many Testimonies
to what I shall say. 'Tis possible some may think no better can be expected in
these distracting Times; it being so hard to please a few, impossible to please
all: I shall therefore content myself that I have attended my rule: You may
please to improve some others who were Actors in the Service to give in their
Apprehensions, that so the severals being compared, you may enlarge or diminish
as you shall see meet. I desire my Name may be sparingly mentioned: My principal
Aim is that God may have his due
praise.
By your unworthy
Servant,
JOHN MASON.
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