Canonicus , Chief

From ["A History of The Episcopal Church In Narragansett, Rhode Island", by Wilkins Updike, Boston: Printed & Published by D.B. Updike; The Merrymount Press, 1907, Chapter X, p.252,253, reprinted at members.aol.com/MaryARoots/Indians.index.html]: "Canonicus was the Grand Sachem of the Narragansetts, when the whites settled at Plymouth. History gives no account of his predecessors. It commences with him. He died in 1647. Miantenomi was his nephew, son of his brother Mascus. Canonicus, in his advanced age, admitted Miantenomi into the government, and they administered the sachemdom jointly. In the war between the Narragansetts and Mohegans, in 1643, Miantenomi was captured by the 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. ... [p.8-11]: 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 wit 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. The Narrangasetts, as a civilation, were far in advance of their neighbors. Hutchinson says that 'They were the most curious coiners of Wampumpeag and supplied other nations with their pendants and bracelets and, also, with tobacco pipes of stone, some blue and some white. They furnished the earthen vessels and pots for cookery and other domestic uses. The government of teh Narraganssetts appears to have been a patriarchal despotism. On the arrival of the English, there were two chief sachems, Canonicus and Miantinomi, and under them several subordinate ones. 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.