[FN] Winthrop, Vol. II. pp. 251. and 317.
Hence the measures occasionally adopted subsequent to the submission, for affording Pomham the promised relief; a policy which certainly accorded better with their stipulations to him, than with their relations to some other parties. The Gortonists harassed him beyond measure, but they were at length subdued. The Narraghansetts, (after Miantonomo's death,) threatened and frightened him still more. In April 1645, "that it might really appear that the Massachusetts did own and would protect him," which would seem to have been heretofore doubted, an order was taken for sending men and an officer to Shaomet, to stay there a few days, and act on the defensive against the Narraghansetts. [FN] These men being volunteers, however, refused to go, unless they were each paid ten shillings a week, furnished with arms and ammunition, and allowed such booty as they might be able to collect in case of fighting. Whereupon the Court, not choosing to establish such a precedent, sent word to Pomham, that the required force would be at his disposal, whenever he should forward sufficient funds to enable then to perform. On the earnest importunity of the Sachem, early in May, his request was finally granted; and, with the aid of the English, he erected a fort upon his lands.
[FN] Winthrop.
This was in 1646. But Pomham and Saconoco were not destined quietly to enjoy their possessions, as the following detail from Mr. Winthrop's records for 1647, will abundantly illustrate. The Gortonists had at that period returned to Shaomet, which they now named Warwick; and, as the Sachems alleged before the Commissioners of the United Colonies, manifested a decided disposition "for eating up all their corn, with their cattle," &c. These functionaries hereupon wrote to certain persons in the vicinity of the premises, to view the damages, and require satisfaction; which process, however, had scarcely been commenced; when Justice Coggleshall and others from Rhode Island came to Shaomet, claimed jurisdiction for that colony over the land in question, and forbade the appraisers to proceed. Upon this, the latter returned home. Another warrant was issued, with the same result. Pomham was reduced to extremities; but still undiscouraged, he renewed his complaints once more. Massachusetts now sent three special messengers, to demand satisfaction of the trespassers, and to warn them to leave the territory. The application did no good; and therefore, "as we could do no more at present," writes Mr. Winthrop, "we procured the Indians some corn in the mean time." The measures subsequently taken for redress, it would be alike tedious and needless to enumerate.
As to Pomham, with whom we have chiefly to do, it must be confessed, that his character assumes, but little dignity throughout this proceeding. In after times, his career was occasionally more independent, while at the same time it gave evidence that his early attachment to the English was by no means, one of indissoluble affection, or of principle sacred in his own eyes. It is not a little remarkable, that after all the trouble and expense taken and incurred by and between the colonies, and especially by Massachusetts, for his protection; and notwithstanding the authorities of the latter government fondly an we trust sincerely represented his submission as the fruit of their prayers, and the first fruit of their hopes, in the great process of civilizing and Christianizing the natives; [FN] this incorrigible savage not only loosened his connexion with the English, but engaged against them, with his whole force and influence, in the great war of King Philip.
[FN] Winthrop.
That course, fatal as it was to himself and his, interests, was upon the whole the most creditable passage of his life. And once adopted, he pursued it with an energy that altogether sets aside any doubts which his former course might suggest, in regard to his real temperament and genius. Even Philip was scarcely more feared than Pomham. Historians universally, while they now call him a Narraghansett, as evidently he had determined to consider himself, place him in the highest rank among the Sachems of that warlike and powerful tribe. He did not even pretend to neutrality in the early part of the war, as they did. He did not sign either the treaty of July, (1675) negotiated at the point of the English bayonet in his own territory, or the submission executed in October following at Boston, although upon the latter occasion one of his fellow-chieftains affected to sign for him. This, at best, like every other part and circumstance of the compromise, was a mere artifice, meant to divert the Government by a show of satisfaction and amity.
During Philip's war the territory of Pomham was ravaged far and wide, and one hundred and fifty wigwams destroyed by fire at one time, in December, 1675. Whether this chief was in the decisive and bloody battle of the 19th, or in what other engagements he was during the war, history does not determine. He was finally slain in July, 1676, a few weeks previous to the death of Philip, and the consequent close of that contest, the most critical and the most furious ever waged between the red man and the white. Great was the exultation of the conquerors over this first success, so encouraging to themselves, and so disastrous to their savage and terrible foes. The event took place in the neighborhood of Dedham, (in Massachusetts) where Pomham, with a small band of faithful warriors, half-starved and desperate, were still roaming the woods in the close vicinity of the English settlements. About fifty Indians were captured; and the Sachem seems to have been the only man of the company who would not be taken alive. "That which increased the victory," says Mr. Hubbard, "was the slaughter of Pomham, which was one of the Stoutest Sachems that belonged to the Narraghansetts." [FN]