King Philip
inviolate so long as he lived. He died in 1661, at the age of about eighty years, leaving two sons whom the English called, respectively, Alexander and Philip. The former did not long survive his father, when Philip became chief sachem and warrior of the Wampanoags, with his royal residence on Mount Hope, not far from Bristol, Rhode Island. He was called King Philip. He resumed the covenants with the English made by his father, and observed them faithfully for a dozen years.
It had become painfully evident to Massasoit before his death that the spreading colonies would soon deprive his people of their land and nationality, and that the Indians would become vassals of the pale race. The more warlike Philip pondered these possibilities with deep bitterness of feeling, until he resolved to strike an exterminating blow against the English in defence of his country and his race. His resolution was natural and patriotic. His unaided warriors would be inadequate to the work; so, in the primeval forest at Mount Hope, surrounded by seven hundred fighting men, he planned a confederacy of the New England tribes, which might have numbered about twenty-five thousand souls. It was a difficult task, the power of so many being overshadowed by that of the English, weakening and dividing them. Before any actual conspiracy was effected, Philip found himself compelled to declare war and lift the hatchet.
At that time there were many Christian converts among the Indians, who were firmly attached to the English. The Wampanoags had always discouraged the spread of Christianity among themselves, but there were many "praying Indians" there. One of these--John Sassamon, who had been educated at Cambridge, where John Harvard had established a college--was a sort of secretary to Philip. Becoming acquainted with the plans of the sachem, he revealed them to the authorities at Plymouth. For this treachery he was murdered, and three Wampanoags, who were convicted of the crime on very slender testimony, were hanged. The anger of the tribe was fiercely kindled by the event, and they were clamorous for war. The cautious Philip hesitated, for he knew his weakness. His young warriors would not listen to reason. They taunted him with causing the wrongs which his people endured because of his unwillingness to fight. Then they pointed to the humiliation and disgrace of his people when, a few years before, their firearms were taken from them by the jealous white men. His eyes kindled with rage. He had never forgotten nor forgiven that injury. The reminder excited his fiercest wrath. Springing from his seat he snatched up a bow and quiver, a gleaming hatchet and a keen knife, and vowed that none of these weapons should sleep whilst a pale-face remained in New England. He sent his women and children to the Narragansets for protection; and yielding his judgment to passion, he trampled upon solemn treaties and kindled the flames of war. Swift runners were dispatched to other tribes to arouse them to co-operation, and he required all of his followers to curse the white man and to swear eternal hostility to his race. It was but a foolish rushing to destruction. It has been well said: "Frenzy prompted their rising. It was but the storm in which the ancient inhabitants of the land were to vanish away. They rose without hope, and therefore they fought without mercy. To them, as a nation, there was no to-morrow."
Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, twenty-five miles southwest from Plymouth. It was on the 4th of July, 1675. Expecting hostilities, the people had been to the house of worship to engage in fasting and prayer. As they were returning-men, women and children-the savages fell upon them furiously, slaying and capturing many, while others fled to the surrounding settlements. The country was aroused. Armed men from Plymouth, Boston, and other places near, joined, and making a forced march toward Mount Hope, besieged the Wampanoags in a swamp several days. Philip escaped with most of his followers, and took refuge with the Nipmucs in the interior of Massachusetts, who espoused his cause. At the head of fifteen hundred warriors he pressed through the forests to the beautiful valley of the Connecticut to lay waste the settlements there.
Meanwhile the armed white men entered the country of the Narragan-sets, and compelled Canonchet, son of Miantonomah, then chief sachem of that people, to make a treaty of friendship with the English. When Philip heard of this he was amazed. His stout heart almost failed. But reflecting upon the perilous nature of his enterprise and his position, and that everything depended upon vigorous action, he aroused other tribes to join him in exterminating the pale-faces by the methods of treachery, ambush, and surprise. The scourge that now appeared was terrible. Men in the fields,families in their beds at midnight, and congregations in houses of worship, were murdered. The English settlements cast of the Hudson then numbered about fifty thousand souls, and, at one time, it seemed probable that few of them would escape the fury of the savages, who hung upon and enveloped the parties like a consuming fire.