One of the most
successful of these hunters was a sachem by the name of Zachary.
But Zachary was a drunkard, and persisted in his intemperate habits till
he reached the age of fifty. By whose means I am unable to say, but at
that time he was induced utterly to abandon the use of intoxicating
drinks. His life was extended to eighty years, but he was never known
after the above reformation, although often under powerful temptation,
to taste in a single instance of the "accursed thing."
In his history of the Indians of Connecticut, De Forest has given us an
account of the manful resistance of Zachary on one occasion of an artful
temptation to violate his temperance principles, spread before him by
John Trumbull, at his father's house. He says, "In those days the annual
ceremony of election was a matter of more consequence than it is now;
and the Indians, especially, used to come in considerable numbers to
Hartford and New Haven to stare at the governor, and the soldiers, and
the crowds of citizens, as they entered those cities, Jonathan
Trumbull's house was about half-way between Mohegan and Hartford, and
Zachary was in the habit of stopping, on his way to election, to dine
with his old employer.
"John Trumbull, then about ten years old, had heard of the reformation
of Zachary, and, partaking of the common contempt for the intemperate
and worthless character of the Indians, did not entirely credit it.
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