We have observed how Massasoit, the sagamore of the Wampanoags, whose dominions extended from Narraganset Bay to that of Massachusetts, presenting the hand of friendship and protection to the white settlers, remained faithful while he lived. His residence was near Warren, on the east side of the Narraganset; and so greatly was his friendship prized by the Pilgrim Fathers, that Winslow and others made a long journey to visit him when a March, 1623 dangerously ill. (a ) Recovering, he entered into a solemn league of friendship with the whites, and faithfully observed it until his death, which occurred thirty-two b 1655 years afterward. (b) Alexander, his eldest son, succeeded him, and gave promise of equal attachment to the whites; but his rule was short; he died two years after the death of his father, and his brother * Pometacom or Metacomet, better known as King Philip, became the head of his nation. He was a bold, powerful-minded warrior, and al-
* Bancroft and Hildreth say nephew. Earlier historians disagree. Prince and Trumbull say he was grandson to Massasoit, and Hutchinson and Belknap call him his son. Governor Prince, it is said, named Alexander and Philip after the great Macedonians, in compliment to Massasoit, indicating his idea of their character as warriors. They were doubtless sons of Massasoit.
Jealousy of King Philip.—Treaties with the Whites.—Curtailment of his Domains.—His chief Captains.—John Eliot.
1662.ready his keen perception gave him uneasiness respecting the fate of his race.
Year after year the progress of settlement had curtailed the broad domains of the Wampanoags, until now they possessed little more than the narrow tongues of land at Pocanoket and Poeas-set, now Bristol and Tiverton yet Philip renewed the treaties made with Massasoit, and kept them faithfully a dozen years; but spreading settlements, reducing his domains acre by acre, breaking up his hunting-grounds, diminishing the abundance of his fisheries, and menacing his nation with the fate of the landless, stirred up his savage patriotism, and made him resolve to sever the ties that bound him, with fatal alliance, to his enemies. His residence was at Mount Hope; and there, in the solitude of the primeval forest, he ealled his warriors around him and planned with consummate skill, an alliance of all the New England tribes against the European intruders. *
