a place in the list of our early military heroes, had moved from Duxbury into the unsettled country of the Sogkonates only the year before, and was busily and laboriously engaged, at this time, in building, and in the numerous cares attendant upon a new settlement. He was a man of courage and fortitude unsurpassed: bold and energetic; but with all the rough qualities of a soldier, possessing a heart so open to kindly emotions and the gentler feelings of humanity as to excite our surprise, when we consider the stern age in which he lived, and the scenes of savage conflict in which he bore so conspicuous a part.

True courage is generally combined with generosity and magnanimity. The brave man seldom oppresses a fallen foe; a fact strikingly exemplified in Church's treatment of his prisoners. He seems to have harbored none of those feelings of bitterness and revenge which led the colonists to acts of perfidy and cruelty hardly surpassed by the savages themselves. The manner in which he was able to conciliate the good-will of the Indians, known as he was among them for their most dangerous foe, is truly astonishing. It was his custom to select from his captives such as took his fancy, and attach them to himself, and never was officer attended by a more enthusiastic and faithful guard than they proved. His son tells us that "if he perceived they looked surly, and his Indian soldiers called them treacherous dogs, as some of them would sometimes do, all the notice he would take of it would only be to clap them on the back, and tell them, 'Come, come, you look wild and surly, and mutter, but that signifies nothing; these, my best soldiers, were, a little while ago, as wild and surly as you are now; by the time you have been but one day with me, you will love me too, and be as brisk as any of them.' And it proved so, for there was none of them but, after they had been a little while with him, and seen his behavior and how cheerful and successful his men

were, would be as ready to pilot him to any place where the Indians dwelt or haunted, though their own fathers or nearest relations should be among them, or to fight for him, as any of his own men."

Captain Church was in high favor and confidence with Awoshonks and her tribe; he therefore accepted her invitation to attend at the dance, and started for the camp, accompanied by a son of his tenant, who spoke the Indian language.

He found the queen leading the dance, " in a muck of sweat," surrounded by a great body of her subjects. She received her visitor hospitably, told him of Philip's threats, and inquired concerning the purposes of the English. Church told her that no injuries had been meditated by the whites, as Philip averred, but that the sachem was the aggressor. He advised her to keep upon good terms with the English, asking her whether it was a probable thing that he should have come down into the wilderness to settle, if there were warlike preparations in progress among his people; and silenced the six Mount Hope ambassadors by recommending that they should be knocked on the head. A stormy discussion ensued among the Indians, and one Little Eyes, a man of importance, endeavored to draw Church aside to despatch him quietly; but the captain was unmoved, and upbraided the Mount Hopes for their bloody intention, assuring them that, if they would have war, he would prove a thorn in their sides. Awoshonks inclined to his advice, and, having appointed two men to guard his house during his absence, desired him to go to Plymouth, and make known her good faith to the colonies.

Church started on his mission, and, on the way, gained further information concerning Philip's movements from Peter Nunnuit, the husband of Weetamore, queen of Pocasset, now Tiverton. Philip, it seems, had been holding a protracted dance for a number of weeks, rousing a mar

tial spirit in the minds of the young warriors who were gathered about him from far and near. He had finally promised them that, on the succeeding Sabbath, they might plunder the English settlements, while the people were engaged in religious services.

We may here mention a circumstance which was considered, by Hubbard and others, as having an important bearing upon the premature commencement of hostilities on the part of Philip: this was the murder of John Sassamon, and the subsequent execution of the guilty parties. Sassamon was one of the few Indians who, at that time, had received the rudiments of an English education. He was a professor of Christianity, and had been employed among his people in the capacities of schoolmaster, preacher, and royal secretary. In 1662, he occupied this latter post under Philip, to whom he was subject, although born a Massachusett and specimens of his imperfect communications with the colonies, in behalf of his sachem, are still preserved.

Becoming aware of the dangerous conspiracy fomented by Philip, he disclosed the whole plot to the officers of the colony; and, not long after, his body was found in Assawomsett pond, with the neck broken, and presenting other marks of violence. His gun and hat were so disposed as to give the impression that he had accidentally fallen through the ice, and been drowned. The matter was

strictly inquired into, and three Indians, of Philip's party, falling under suspicion, were regularly tried before a jury, in part at least of their peers, as it was composed of whites and Indians. The culprits were convicted and executed, two of them upon what would appear to us as very insufficient evidence. Mather speaks of the blood oozing from the murdered body on the approach of the accused; but whether this circumstance made a part of the evidence before the court does not appear.

Philip himself did not come forward to attempt to clear himself of the charge of being concerned in this murder, but kept his warriors in preparation for battle, receiving and entertaining all the roving and unsettled Indians who would resort to him, and "marching up and down" continually during the pendency of the trial.

CHAPTER V.

ATTACK ON SWANSEY.-COLLECTION OF TROOPS. — FIGHT AT MILES' BRIDGE. — PHILIP DRIVEN FROM THE NECK.— CHURCH AT PUNKATESE.-DESTRUCTION of Brookfield.

Ir was on the 24th of June, 1675, that the first open attack was made upon the colonies. The small village of Swansey lay within a few miles of Mount Hope, and here the first blood was shed. Some days previous, a party of the natives had committed a few slight depredations at this place, and conducted themselves with insolence, evidently desirous of provoking a quarrel.

The squaws and children of Philip's active force were sent, for safety, to the country of the Narragansetts, before any open demonstration of hostilities.

Some little discrepancy occurs in the early accounts of the first fatal attack, but it is certain that, on the day above mentioned, eight or nine men were killed in different parts of Swansey. A company returning from religious excrcises, "in a way of humiliation," were fired upon with fatal effect, one being killed and several wounded. Two more, who had started in quest of a surgeon, were slain, scalped and mangled; and six men were killed at a dwelling-house situated in another part of the settlement.

From this period all was terror and confusion. Swan

sey was deserted by its inhabitants, and mostly reduced to ashes by the Indians. Deputations were sent to Boston, to lay the case before the Massachusetts authorities, and to solicit some prompt and efficient protection in this terrible emergency.

A party of horse and foot were at once despatched in the direction of Mount Hope, under the command of Captains Henchman and Prentice. Samuel Mosely, a bold and martial character, who had pursued the calling of a privateer, raised a volunteer company of one hundred and ten soldiers, and joined the expedition. He was, it is said, accompanied by several buccaneers of his own class, with a number of dogs; and the feats performed by them, upon divers occasions, savor rather of the marvellous.

The head-quarters of the united forces were at the house of a minister of Swansey, named Miles, and hard by was a bridge, affording convenient access to the domains of Philip.

Captain Church, with the Plymouth troops under Major Cutworth, were now acting in concert with the men from Massachusetts. The Indians lay concealed or skulking about the garrison, and succeeded in killing a number by shots from covert, but showed themselves wary of coming to open combat.

A detachment of Prentice's men, led by a Mr. Gill and one Belcher, made an attempt upon the enemy in their own quarters, but, upon crossing Miles' bridge, were fired upon by some of the Indians lying in ambush, and one of their number was killed. Gill was struck by a ball, which would have proved mortal but for a singular species of defensive armor, viz. : a quantity of thick brown paper which he had inserted under his clothes. The troops retreated, leaving Church, Gill, and another to bring off the dead man; which, being accomplished, Church pursued and regained his horse, under the full fire of the enemy.

The next day the bridge was crossed by a larger force,