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Arrival at site

Pilot, FN Brown (vowvclvr@syspac.com)
Tue, 8 Oct 1996 14:16:29 +0100

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THE VOYAGE OF WAVE CLEAVER

Vinland's Hop: Developing proofs

As obscure as the name Pettaquamscutt is, it transpires that
it has a history - and one which should be much better known
among American historians. A noted battle occurred there in
our colonial past in which a fortified farmstead was
attacked and overwhelmed in 1676 - very early in New England
settlement. Moreover, the ruins of this farmhouse still
existed and were observable so late as 1917 when they were
archaeologically surveyed and reported to the Rhode Island
Legislature. The findings have some significance to us. The
structure was quite advanced for the day when those at the
Plymouth colony were still primitive. About 65 feet long and
thirty wide, it was massively built of moderate size
boulders - of which the area has a plethora - was at least
partially mortared, had leaded glass windows and a huge
central fireplace with a stairwell alongside. It is
recorded to have been built in 1663.

The owner, one Jirah Bull, had been absent when the attack
occurred and rebuilt another structure immediately adjacent,
smaller, but also documented. Now the location of these
ruins are significant, for topography, access to water,
social organizations, and also channels in the lake below
more or less dictate favorable building sites and this one
happens to be the most favorable, being high, overlooking
the work areas, and a bit lower than the apex of the hill to
ease exposure to prevailing winter weather patterns. My
reasoning is that if this area had earlier been built by
Leif Ericson or Thorfinn Karlseffni, they would also have
been influenced by the same factors. And, lo, the 1917
archeologists discovered traces of two sequentially older
structures than the 1663 building and did not or could not
explain their origins. One was as substantial as the first
and about the same size while the other had been a much
smaller structure a bit west of the site. They were
mystified in 1917 at the lack of a well and that the nearest
spring was 75 yards distant. But there is a spring there
now which drains in a small rivulet right through the old
site, so that it seems that this spring must be intermittent
and existed in the late 1600's and likely did a thousand
years ago.

I must admit that I have not spent much time at the higher
levels inclusive of this site, realizing that my skills are
insufficient for any worthwhile discovery of traces and any
found by me would be immediately suspect. But I did make one
unescorted foray along the hillside (very bloody from the
tangled briars) and several visits escorted by several
property owners who have been most interested and
cooperative in my investigations. I have determined,
however, that I can figuratively relate all the saga factors
stated and the existing topography, biological comparisons
and plausible activities of the approaching natives as well.
The barrier to the west is explained by the existence - even
now and more severe in olden times - of an extended boggy
swamp in that direction which handicaps travel even today.
There is a town there now upon part of it - Wakefield -known
to have been systematically developed on fill.

It is known in high probability about where the natives
lived, at least in winter, in that era a thousand years ago,
being as constrained by natural food supply as Vikings and
Englishmen were by their ships, farms, and social structure.
This would be, in early spring, at yet another swamp some
five miles west. Traffic between the two areas is and always
has been difficult so that if one wishes to go from one area
to the other one has to go miles north or cross a waterway
to the southward; the highway through Wakefield (original
colonial post road) excepted. Saga accounts say that the
natives came by water and departed after their limited
victory "--south around the point." (--from the overlook.
It is a notable feature of the shoreline of Pettaquamscutt.)

Battles are dictated by terrain as well as by numbers and
power, as any military analyst knows. Comparisons between
the two battles are most interesting. Defenses of the
overcome blockhouse of 1676 seem to have omitted attention
to possibilities of attack from the west. The fortified
section of it faced east - downslope - as if any attack must
come from the river. Moreover, when relief forces reached
the place a few days too late, they came from Connecticut
Militia groups who must necessarily have come by sea; not
from Rhode Island or Massachusetts groups who were nearer,
but also engaged elsewhere. When the blockhouse was
eventually fired and destroyed 15 people were killed inside
but two brothers succeeded in escape and this escape, just
like the Hop panicked retreat, was due north along the river
and the hilltop. One of these men turned on a pursuer and
killed him at a place called "Indian Run Brook" which flows
just above and courses near but not toward Pettaquamscutt
Rock - perhaps the very place through some quirk of
topography or limit of endurance where Freydis overawed her
own pursuers in her unique fashion.

We can determine quite a bit more from the history of the
place and this history commenced quite early. Famed
Giovanni da Verrazano entered Narragansett Bay in 1524 and
recorded numerous factors observed and with many other
implied mysteries. It is my belief that he remarked a
"Norman Villa", thought by some to be the ancient and still
existing stone tower in Newport. Analysts for this and other
reasons place part of his stay in that now busy harbor but
observers of Southack's 1717 map may see - and I can
demonstrate - that Verrazano's original entry was more
likely along the so-called west channel of Narragansett Bay
and not the east (factually the central). This has him
passing close by Pettaquamscutt and likely making his
difficult and "Indian" assisted landing nearer to the
headwaters of the same inland waterway since his
descriptions compare with that area more than Newport. His
courses describe explorations to the north and roundabout
intervening Conanicut (Jamestown) Island, but is more
probable from west to east rather than the reverse. In
either case many or most of the natives he met, visited, and
described were Narragansetts, perhaps some from
Pettaquamscutt itself.

This introduces us to another name given and extracted from
this tribe to an area, a township, and a great fjord
misnamed a "bay". I will show that this name has great
significance to ONN'ers but for now will only give a general
description of it. One peculiarity of it is the fact that
geographers and local people alike do not know just where it
is. It seems to be one of those places that is "just around
the corner" with investigators never quite arriving at an
anticipated destination. It is, of course, an identifying
feature of the Native Tribe and sometimes is defined as
"people of the small point" but actually is found to be a
small, hummocked island somewhere inside one of the
waterways of the district - but historians are not agreed on
which one it may have been! There is no Narragansett as a
place to be visited. The closest thing to it is
Narragansett Pier, a well known resort town on the coast
just south of Pettaquamscutt. Pettaquamscutt is within the
township of Narragansett and within sight and short walk of
the "Pier". This name Narragansett will recur in this study
with surprising connotations.

The Narragansett tribe dwelt in a rather restricted area of
some 20 miles NS and 15 miles EW orientation. They had two
"cousin" tribes just to their west who spoke the same
language and were actually so much alike that they must have
been really the same - Nipmucs directly west and Niantics to
the NW. A census made of the group near 1650 yielded a very
high and dense count of some 20,000 who could field an army
of some 5,000 armed warriors and were much feared by the
colonists for that reason, but also that they were a most
advanced and warlike family in themselves. In fact this may
be landmark information as they were accepted as allied
troops in an earlier assault and pyrrhic victory over the
Pequots of Connecticut. This may be the original use of
aborigine allies in the long history of warfare that
characterizes American expansion. Their advancements
resulted from a distinct and unique hierarchal social
structure just like that identified at Marthas Vinyard. So
advanced, in fact, that they drew attention to themselves
not only by Verrazano but by their 110 year following
recorder.

This man, Roger Williams, was a graduate of Cambridge
University who, upon arrival in Salem Massachusetts at age
28 immediately fell foul of despotic authorities there,
removed to Plymouth Colony but soon felt obliged to remove
to the new colony at Rhode Island, then isolated near
Newport on the island called Aquidneck (now Rhode). He
crossed the bay and visited the Narragansetts - legend says
at Pettaquamscutt Rock itself - and was welcomed with the
opportunity to set up a trading post at Wickford, some eight
miles north of Pettaquamscutt. This was about 1635 or so and
in the meantime another trading post was coming into or was
already in existence some 12 miles SW at a place now known
as Fort Ninegret and this post was under auspices of Dutch
interests from New Amsterdam (now New York). By this time
the Narragansetts were assimilating gradually, dressed
commonly in English clothes, becoming artisans and
stonemasons serving some of the new colonist outside their
territory, possessed muskets acquired from French outposts
to the north, and were acquiring tastes for English food,
especially pork. They maintained full and respected
suzerainty of their territory until 1677 although near 1660
they sold much land to colonists such as Jirah Bull.

Roger Williams dwelt among them for many years, becoming
their friend, benefactor, and patron. He attempted to avert
these sales of land but otherwise is revered in Rhode Island
history as the founder of the state, traveled to England in
1643 for the charter and wrote a dictionary of the
Narragansett language, "Keys to the Indian Language",
published in London in 1643. I have seen and studied what
I believe is an original or at least a very early edition of
this work. It is important to our quest.

Viewing history is productive in analysis but at the same
time I made it my business to obtain satellite photos of
Pettaquamscut. While I am inexpert in analyses' of these I
was quite amazed at observing anomalies in the very first
one I obtained. (An experience that has occurred with some
regularity in this study. Books casually scanned fall open
to the most interesting information, volumes entirely
unrelated found to have crucial information within.) These
anomalies appeared to me to be outlines of fields that could
not be seen at ground level. An advertisement I placed in a
professional journal was responded to by an annalist at the
University of Texas who also was struck - as were several
colleagues there - by the appearance of what they termed
"ghost fields". They only show up on this single very
bluish tint satellite photo exposed in 1974 and no others
that I have seen. Since there has been considerable farming
in the area since colonial times this is indeterminate, but
I have also tried to trace property lines for comparisons
and this most distinct field does not fit. A short
description of the clearest trace might be interesting.

It is about 50 yards wide and 200 yards long oriented EW and
on a slope facing the lake of some 10 percent - rather
steep. The upper end is disturbed as if it had been entirely
structured and a good sized and permanent brook crosses
diagonally into the NW corner and down the field. The lower
end is also disturbed by what looks like run-off soil,
sediment, or debris. This seems to match European,
especially Scandinavian, styles of farming/pasturage, but
I cannot certify to this authoritatively. It is about 200
yards to the south of the area of the Bull homestead.

I was somewhat startled to find that I was not the only
analyst to theorize New England and later to find that I was
not even the first to theorize Pettaquamscutt - Frederick
Pohl thought it a waystop of Karlseffni on his way to some
further destination. This came about from an obscure study
by one James E. Clausen, a high school teacher in the
vicinity. What happened is this: in 1889 workmen accidently
unearthed an artifact along the bayfront about opposite the
headwaters of inland Pettaquamscutt River. It was an iron
ax of some strange configuration and mystery. Eventually it
found its way into the possession and knowledge of teacher
Clausen, apparently contacted by the workmen so discovering.

They seem to have thought it quite odd, and while it is
sometimes dismissed as an ordinary "broadaxe" for timber
hewing, it must have been something else, for broadaxes have
certain distinctions and were commonly in use in 1889, hence
the inquiry to James Clausen; high school teachers being
respected to reverence in those days when few advanced
beyond grade school.

Clausen eventually determined in his own mind that it was an
ancient Viking battle ax and spent the rest of his life in
analysis of it which included correspondence to Scandinavia.
But he soon encountered that curious reluctance (which I at
one time shared) to consideration of Vikings in New England
and was severely ridiculed and near disowned even by his own
family. He wrote a book on it but seems to have died before
it was published. The ax was donated to a "Metropolitan
Museum" but which one is not known and the artifact seems to
be lost. All that is known is that it was large, weighed ten
pounds, was eleven inches along the edge and eleven inches
from the edge to the haft hole. Just what other aspect of
it made Mr. Clausen believe it was a Viking battle ax is
lost to history and his unpublished book. His nearest
relatives have removed to Maine and seem to be still
infected with the belief that his quest was quixotic. He was
interviewed in a radio program in the 1930's and insisted
then and to his dying day that what was found was a genuine
Viking battle ax. Site of discovery is precisely known to
within yards, being about four miles from Pettaquamscutt.

The decade past was a period of more than passing interest
in the place. Not only did my own study and findings occur
in this period, a number of other more formal observations
were directed there. It seems that most fortunately this
river complex is distinct among all other rivers in New
England for study of aborigine estuarine campsites. Because
of the unique geomorphology of the river mouth this is the
only place in southern New England where such sites might be
expected to be found, all others being "drowned" by
subsidence (apparent sea level rise) of the land. A major
study was performed and published from the viewpoint only of
this expected "Indian" observations. Such Native American
sites were indeed found, but much to the surprise of the
archeologists, much more was found as well and this is to
our interests specifically. Quotes will serve better than
discussion (source noted in citations below);

"But in process of modifying our original expectations--"
(resulting from discoveries differing from normal Indian
lifestyles, etc.) "--we revealed an even more remarkable
pattern of pre-historic land use that suggests a series of
sharply discontinuous episodes in where and how people
exploited natural resources in the past." "Major cultural
changes have been explained by wholesale migrations or
diffusion of styles and technologies from outside the
region. Our findings show that southern New England was a
much more dynamic place than many archeologists believed."
"---the area was unoccupied prior to 4000 BP (1954) and
probably (unoccupied) between 3000 and 1000 years ago. (Note
well that dating.) These distributions are remarkable. They
are unlike any observed or predicted patterns in other
coastal rivers of southern New England - including our own
earlier predictions for the Narrow River (sic. probably both
descriptive of Pettaquamscutt and name of the shorter exit
river)". This survey, by the way, utilised advanced methods
of archeology inclusive of excavations, C14 dating, and
pollen core analysis. So it may be noted that an event took
place in the rift some thousand years ago when occupation
took place by someone anthropologically distinct and who
lived and utilized resources in a different manner than
those residing somewhat inland. They lived by the sea as
"Indians" seldom or never did, for in order to so dwell, a
culture must have both nautical and military abilities to
extract food from sea waters and defend from landward
attacks.

The evidence is by no means ambiguous; someone then, took up
residence in or utilized Pettaquamscutt river rift about a
thousand years ago, just about the time when more than 200
souls departed Greenland and Iceland in search of lands of
their own and whose literature describes a place very much
like Pettaquamscutt.

A thousand years is not all that great for human development
and we might assume that these people were the progenitors
of the Native Tribe discovered in 1524, the Narragansetts.
As we will see, this group is of great mystery and note.
Their origins were of considerable inquiry and remark in our
colonial past, their history now near lost to modern
scholars and this nearby schoolboy who never once suspected
or was informed of such remarkable information as will
follow concerning them. They were dissonant by far from what
we ordinarily think of as northeast forest dwellers of the
Algonquin group. Let us take a closer look at these people,
for if our evidence is to be believed then the conclusions
are astounding - contact between Vikings and Aborigines was
much more intimate than heretofore believed. Evidence
demonstrates, I believe conclusively, that some of those
many who came out of the northlands a thousand years ago
remained and never returned to their homelands. And when we
think of it, why should that be so strange?

********************

Bibliography/Citations (partial):

AN ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT SURVEY OF THE PETTAQUAMSCUTT
RIVER BASIN, by Deborah Cox, Peter F. Thorbahn, Alan
Leveillee. Published by the Public Archeological Laboratory,
Pawtucket, RI. Its description of anthropological
distinctions between "Indians" and Europeans is worth while
reading in itself.

KEYS TO THE INDIAN LANGUAGE; Roger Williams. Pub. London,
England, 1643. Prolific author and letter writer. An be
accessed in many libraries.

COTTON MATHER; prolific Massachusetts colonial writer noted
in many volumes and references.

ALGONQUIN LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND; Charles G. Leland

FREDERICK J. POHL, authored numerous publications pertaining
to his Vinland thesis'.

JAMES EARL CLAUSEN; References and radio interview reported
in Providence (RI) "Evening Bulletin" 1936.

CONTACT BETWEEN NATIVE NORTH AMERICANS AND THE MEDIEVAL
NORSE: A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE; Robert McGhee, 1984.
National Museum of Man, Ottowa, Canada.

GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS; US GOVT.
Printing Office. 1980-0-314-745. Robert N. Oldale, US Dept.
Interior/Geological Survey.

SIDNEY SMITH RIDER: Respected Rhode Island Historian of the
last century. Many articles and books incl. "The Lands of
Rhode Island, as they were known to Caunounicus and
MIantunnomu, when Roger Williams came in 1636" Others.

"NEW ENGLAND'S VIKING AND INDIAN WARS" Robert Ellis Cahill.

"KING PHILLIP'S WAR" Michael Phillip Powell. Magazine
"America's Combat History" Winter, 1992.

The report concerning the Bull homestead is in the public
domain and preserved in Rhode Island Archives. The land
where the fortification stood is owned by the Rhode Island
Historical Society and because of its historical sensitivity
and liability to vandalism the policy of the Society, to
which I voluntarily concur, is to defer information
concerning the site removed from widespread public
attention. There is a marker by the roadside below the site.
Again, visitors are alerted to the interests of local
property owners, including the Rhode island Historical
Society, who discourage trespassing as best they can.


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FNBrown, Pilot
.

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