Harvard College in 1770.
CHAPTER XIII.
Massachusetts.—War and Witchcraft.
THE old king Massasoit died in 1662. His son, Alexander, now became chief of the nation, but died within the year; and the chieftainship descended to the younger brother, Philip of Mount Hope. It was the fate of this brave man to lead his people in a final struggle against the whites. Causes of war already existed, and the time had come for the conflict.
King Philip's War.
2. The natives of New England had sold their lands. The English were the purchasers; the chiefs had signed the deeds; the price had been fairly paid. There were at this time in the country east of the Hudson about twenty-five thousand Indians and fifty thousand English. The young warriors could not understand the validity of land-titles. They sighed for the freedom of their fathers' hunting-grounds. The Wampanoags had nothing left but the peninsulas of Bristol and Tiverton. There were personal grievances also. King Alexander had been arrested, tried by an English jury, and imprisoned. He had caught his death-fever in a Boston jail. On the 24th of June, 1675, the village of Swanzey was attacked, and eight Englishmen were killed.
3. Within a week the militia of Plymouth, joined by volunteers from Boston, entered the enemy's country. A few Indians were overtaken and killed. The troops marched into the peninsula of Bristol, and compelled Philip to fly for his life. A general Indian war broke out. The hatred of the savages was easily kindled into hostility. For a whole year the settlements on the frontier became a scene of burning and massacre.
4. King Canonchet of the Narragansetts first made a treaty of peace with the English, but later violated it and chose to share the fate of Philip. But after much desperate fighting and heavy losses on both sides, the resources of the savages were exhausted and their numbers daily grew less. In April, 1676, Canonchet was captured on the banks of the Blackstone. Refusing to make a treaty, the haughty chieftain was put to death. Philip's company had dwindled to a handful. His wife and son were made prisoners; the latter was sold as a slave, and ended his life in the Bermudas. The savage monarch cared no longer to live. A company of soldiers surrounded him near his old home at Mount Hope. A treacherous Indian took a deadly aim at the breast of his chieftain. The report of a musket rang through the woods, and the king of the Wampanoags sprang forward and fell dead.