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Being compelled, at last, to retreat across Charles river, the Indians burned the bridge behind them, and left a paper, written by some of their number who had received education from the English, to the following effect: Know, by this paper, that the Indians whom thou hast provoked to wrath and anger, will war this 21 years if you will. There are many Indians yet. We come 300 at this time. You must consider the Indians lose nothing but their life you must lose your fair houses and cattle."

One account states that Philip himself was seen at this action, "riding upon a black horse, leaping over fences, and exulting in the havoc he was making."

Through the months of February and March, the savages met with signal success. Seekonk, Groton, and Warwick were destroyed; Northampton was assaulted; one house was burned in the very town of Plymouth, and a number of buildings at Weymouth, only eleven miles from Boston, shared a similar fate. Thirty houses were burned at Providence. Captain Pierce, of Scituate, who had been sent with a party of fifty whites and a number of friendly Indians on an excursion against the enemy, was slain, with the entire company of English. Only a few of the Indian allies escaped.

On the same day, Marlborough was destroyed, with the exception of the houses which had been garrisoned. This attack was probably made by Philip himself, with the Nipmuck and Narragansett Indians. Continuing their march, they did much damage at Sudbury, and "met and swallowed up valiant Captain Wadsworth and his company," consisting of fifty men, with whom he was hastening to the relief of the town.

One of the first severe reverses experienced by Philip, was the capture and execution of the younger Canonicus or Canonchet, the noblest and most influential of the Narragansett sachems. This was accomplished by a party

led by Captain Dennison, from Connecticut, consisting of English, Nehantic Indians, subject to Ninigret, and Mohegans, under the command of Owenoco, son of Uncas. Canonchet, with a small band of warriors, came to Narragansett early in April, for the purpose of procuring seedcorn for his people in the western settlements. Dennison, having heard from a captive squaw, of the sachem's proximity, pursued and took him.

The proud chief, upon his capture, being addressed by a young man of the party, according to Hubbard, "looking, with a little neglect upon his youthful face, replied in broken English: you much child: no understand matters of war; let your brother or your chief come:' acting herein. as if, by a Pythagorean metempsychosis, some old Roman ghost had possessed the body of this western Pagan." He was carried to Stonington, and there shot: his head was sent to Hartford as a trophy. He approved his sentence, saying that "he should die before his heart was soft, and before he had spoken any thing unworthy of himself." He had been Philip's faithful ally to the last, and ever refused to "deliver up a Wampanoag, or the paring of a Wampanoag's nail," to the English. Dennison and his men afterwards made further spoil of the enemy, killing and capturing a large number of the Narragansetts.

During the months of April and May, twenty or thirty buildings were burned in Plymouth; Taunton and Scituate were attacked, and Bridgewater sustained no small injury from an assault by three hundred Indians, under the sachem Tisguogen.

Great numbers of hostile Indians having congregated at the falls of the Connecticut, during the month of May, for the purpose of fishing, a strong force of soldiers and inhabitants of the towns on the river, under the command of Captains Holyoke and Turner, made a descent upon them. The Indians were encamped in careless security, and, the

attack being made in the night, some two hundred were killed, or drowned in attempting to escape across the river. In the midst of this success it was reported to the English, by an Indian, that Philip in person, with an immense force, was coming upon them. Commencing a retreat, upon this news, the Indians recovered from their panic, and pursuing the party from which they had so recently fled in confusion, killed from thirty to forty of their number.

On the 30th of May, six hundred Indians attacked Hatfield, and burned many buildings, but the place was bravely defended, and the enemy was driven off. A still larger number, about a fortnight later, assaulted Hadley, but, by the assistance of troops from Connecticut, the inhabitants successfully repelled them.

CHAPTER VII.

PHILIP'S RETURN TO POKANOKET. — MAJOR TALCOTT'S SUCCESSES.— CHURCH COMMISSIONED BY THE COURT AT PLYMOUTH. HIS INTERVIEW WITH AWOSHONKS; WITH THE SOGKONATES AT SANDWICH. HIS CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE INDIANS. — PHILIP SEEN: HIS WIFE AND SON TAKEN.. - DEATH OF WEETAMORE, QUEEN OF POCASSET.-DEATH OF PHILIP.

PHILIP's power was now upon the decline: his forces were discontented, and in separate bodies wandered about the country, undergoing much hardship and privation. Losing influence with the river Indians, and unable to concentrate the various tribes, with effect, he returned to his old quarters in the vicinity of Narragansett bay, accompanied by the trusty warriors who still adhered to him.

Major Talcott, from Connecticut, with a body of mounted men, accompanied by many Mohegans and Pequots, sig

nalized himself during the month of June, by several incursions into Narragansett. On a single occasion, he killed a great number of the enemy, and took from one to two hundred prisoners. To the everlasting disgrace of the whites of this company, they allowed their Mohegan allies, upon one occasion, to torture to death a young warrior who was made prisoner. "The English," says Hubbard, "at this time were not unwilling to gratify their humor, lest, by a denial, they might disoblige their Indian friends-partly, also, that they might have an ocular demonstration of the savage, barbarous cruelty of the heathen." This young warrior had killed, as he averred, many Englishmen, and now, the narrative procceds, "this monster is fallen into the hands of those that will repay him seven-fold."

The Mohegans cut round the joints of his fingers and toes successively, and then "broke them off, as was formerly the custom to do with a slaughtered beast." The victim bore all unflinchingly; replying to their taunts, with asseverations that he "liked the war well, and found it as sweet as the Englishmen do their sugar." They compelled him to dance and sing in this condition, till he had "wearied himself and them," and then broke his legs. Sinking, in silence, on the ground, he sat till they finished. his miseries by a blow. Meanwhile, the English stood by, and, although the sight brought tears into the eyes of some of them, none offered to interfere.

Famine, disease, and exposure had, by this time, begun to do their work upon the miserable outcasts who had so long kept New England in terror.

A large body fled westward, pursued by troops from Connecticut, and, after sustaining considerable loss, succeeded in joining the Mohicans of the Hudson, with whom they united, and formed thereafter a portion of that tribe. The colonial authorities now offered terms of peace to

the enemy, promising good treatment to all who should surrender and deliver up their arms, with the exception of notorious offenders. Within a few weeks from this proclamation, five or six hundred of the Indians came in and submitted to the English. Some of their chiefs, and noted warriors, and those who had been chiefly concerned. in the outrages upon the settlements, were put to death; the others had lands assigned them; were disarmed, and kept under the surveillance of overseers.

As Church took so prominent a part in the final reduction of Philip and his chief sachems, we will now briefly review his proceedings during this summer until the death of Philip and the close of the war. He had been summoned to Plymouth in the spring, to assist at the council of war, and, at that time, proffered advice, which, if approved by his associates, might have saved much havoc and bloodshed. His plan was to "make a business of the war, as the enemy did; " to employ large forces; to enlist all the friendly Indians who were available, and to pursue their opponents into their own country, and fight them in their own manner. Not being able to persuade the authorities to his views, he remained inactive, with his family, at Duxbury and on Rhode Island, until early in June, when he again betook himself to Plymouth, where he was gladly welcomed by the general court, then in session. The members "told him they were glad to see him alive. He replied, he was as glad to see them alive, for he had seen so many fires and smokes towards their side of the country, since he left them, that he could scarce eat or sleep with any comfort, for fear they had all been destroyed. For all travelling was stopped, and no news had passed for a long time together."

The court had now concluded, according to Church's plan, to raise a large force of English and Indians, and eagerly accepted the captain's offer of coöperation. He