Thomas Leffingwell: The Connecticut Pioneer Who Rescued Chief Uncas and the Mohegans (Paperback or Softback)

Thomas Leffingwell (1624-1714). In 1637 there appeared among the forests of Connecticut a young hunter calling himself Thomas Leffingwell, a teenager without family or fortune. When his friend Chief Uncas and the Mohegans were surrounded by enemies, he risked his life and came to their rescue, more than once. He was an English immigrant, an early settler of Saybrook and a co-founder of Norwich, a Puritan, a family man, a farmer, a soldier in the Pequot and King Philip’s wars, and a surveyor of the wilderness. He was a long time member of the legislature and was present when the colonial charter was hidden in an oak tree to save it from the despot Governor Andros. His adventurous life, he said, had “the hint of providence.”It has been said that Thomas Leffingwell may have been the living inspiration for the fictional character Hawkeye in the story "The Last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper. Leffingwell lived in the forests and among the Mohegans, spoke their language, and was a friend of the real person Uncas. He was daring and fearless in the face of danger, adept at rowing a canoe in the rivers, and silently escaping Indian adversaries. Some have said that his wife, Mary, was a daughter or sister of Uncas. He was beyond all doubt a true friend of the Mohegans. Leffingwell also was instrumental in establishing a permanent homeland for the Eastern Pequot Tribe in 1683, which still exists today.