A Brief History of the Pequot War: Especially of the memorable Taking of their Fort at Mistick in Connecticut in 1637.

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vi, ix, [1], 20, [8] pp. 1869 reissue of 1736 original. Red leather spine and corners, marbled boards and endpapers, gilt titles. Howes M-369: "Written by a leading participant; mo st 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.'" Show more