sessing in an eminent degree that address in negotiation which enabled him to persuade those who were hostile towards each other heartily to unite in a common cause; that he saw the colonists increasing daily in power, and that their establishing themselves upon his native shores would eventually prove fatal to the independence of his countrymen. Under this conviction, he began to adopt such measures as he thought might prevent the evils which he dreaded. "With the peculiar secresy,' says Dwight, "which characterizes this people, he dispatched his runners, first to the neighbouring tribes, and then to those which were more distant. To all he represented, in strong terms, the numbers, the power, the increase, and the unfriendly designs of the colonists, and the danger with which they threatened all the original inhabitants. In various instances, he pleaded the cause in person, and, by himself and his emissaries, made a deeper and more general impression than could easily have been believed, or than some discreet inhabitants of this country can even now be persuaded to admit."*

Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massachussets, observes: "Philip was a man of high spirits, and could not bear to see the English of New Plymouth extending their settlements over the dominions of his ancestors; and although his

* Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. ii., lett. 50.

father had, at one time or other, conveyed to them all they were possessed of, yet he had sense enough to distinguish a free voluntary covenant from one made under a sort of duress, and he could never rest until he brought on the war which ended in his destruction." *

Previous to the commencement of this war, it appears that Philip had been long preparing his extensive plans for asserting the independence, and restoring the power, of his countrymen. The more iminediate occasion, however, of the rupture between him and the English, is pointed out in a work, already referred to, which was written by a person who resided in that colony during the troubles in question. "About five or six years since, there was brought up, amongst others, at the college at Cambridge (Massachussets), an Indian named Sosoman, who, after some time he had spent in preaching the Gospel to Uncas, a Sagamore Christian in his territories, was, by the authority of New Plimouth, sent to preach in like manner to King Philip and his Indians. But King Philip (heathen-like), instead of receiving the Gospel, would immediately have killed this Sosoman; but, by the persuasion of some about him, did not do it, but sent him by the hands of three men to prison, who, as he was going to prison, exhorted and taught them in the Christian religion.

*

Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachussets, ch. 2.

They, not liking his discourse, immediately murthered him after a most barbarous manner. They returning to King Philip, acquainted him with what they had done. About two or three months after, this murther being discovered to the authority of New Plimouth, Josiah Winslow being then governor of that colony, care was taken to find out the murtherers, who upon search were found and apprehended, and, after a fair trial, were all hanged. This so exasperated King Philip, that from that day after, he studied to be revenged on the English, judging that the English authority had nothing to do to hang an Indian for killing another."

Hubbard also states, in his Narrative, that Sosoman was well acquainted with the English language, had been confidentially employed by Philip, and had betrayed his master's secret plans to the enemy. He then went back to the English, by whom he was baptized, and employed to preach to the Indians. But it appears that he again "had occasion to be much in the company of Philip's Indians, and of Philip himself, by which means he discovered, by several circumstances, that the Indians were plotting anew against us; the which, out of faithfulness to the English, the said Sausamon informed the governor of: adding also, that if it were known that

* Present State of New England, p. 3. 1675.

L

he revealed it, he knew they would presently kill him.'

Philip was probably not fully prepared for the war he was going to undertake, nor had he yet attached to his cause all those separate tribes whom he expected to support him. His influence among the Indians, however, must have been very great; and the simultaneous attacks made by various bands upon the distant and dispersed New England settlements, evidently shew-although the circumstance is disputed by several of the American authors that his plan of operations must have been ably directed. The Narragansets, however, notwithstanding all his persuasions, refused to join him; and this determination only tended to hasten the ruin of that powerful nation, as shall be presently noticed.

The war against Philip and his numerous allies raged throughout New England with great fury, but with various success. The settlements were every where laid waste; the cattle destroyed; the farm-houses, villages, and towns reduced to ashes; many of the inhabitants, English and Indian, put to death without mercy, and the whole country involved in one general desolation. In the spring of 1676, however, the fortunes of Philip began to assume an

* Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 14 and 15.

unfavourable aspect, and the superior force and means possessed by his enemy induced many of the Indians to desert from him. In the course of that year he was driven from place to place, unable to make any regular stand against the colonists. "The next news we heard of Philip," says Hubbard,

was that he had gotten back to Mount Hope, now like to become Mount Misery to him and his vagabond crew :" and, soon after, "Philip, like a salvage wild beast, having been hunted by the English through the woods above one hundred miles backward and forward, at last was driven to his den upon Mount Hope, with a few of his best friends, into a swamp, which proved but a prison to keep him fast till the messenger of death came to execute vengeance upon him, which was thus accomplished." The account then states that, having been driven into the swamp, Philip was attacked by the English forces and their Indian allies, and when endeavouring to escape, he was shot by a renegado of his own nation, "the bullet passing directly through his heart, where Joab thrust his darts into rebellious Absalom :"† or, as Dr. Mather describes it, "through his venomous and mur. derous heart; and in that very place where he first contrived and commenced his mischief, was this Agag now cut into quarters, which were then hanged

* Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 96 and 103. + Ibid. p. 105.