NEW England, after the termination of her hostilities with the Pequots and Narragansets, remained for many years at peace; but at length "those coals of discention which had a long time layn hid under the ashes of a secret envy, contracted by the heathen against the English and Christian natives of that countrey, brake out in June 1675."* It was then that the sanguinary contest, commonly known by the name of King Philip's War, began. This renowned chieftain, whose Indian name was Metacom, generally had his head-quarters at a spot called Mount Hope, now within the state of Rhode Island. Philip was a son of the celebrated Massasoit, and succeeded to the command after the death of his elder brother Wamsutta, from whom he inherited a secret and deep-rooted enmity against the English colonists. This heathen sovereign

* News from New England, being a true and last Account of the present bloody Wars with the Infidels. London, 1676.

+ When Massasoit's two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom,

seldom paid much attention to the treaties entered into with his Christian neighbours: he smoked the pipe of peace when he thought fit, and raised the hatchet when it suited his convenience. Philip of Mount Hope, like his royal brother of Macedon, appears to have been a politic but troublesome prince; and perhaps he has found in the Reverend Mr. Hubbard as stern a composer of Philippics, as did the Macedonian monarch in the celebrated orator of Athens: "The devil, who was a murderer from the beginning, had so filled the heart of this salvage miscreant with envy and malice against the English, that he was ready to break out into open war against the inhabitants of Plimouth, pretending some petite injuries done to him in planting land," &c. And again: "Yet did this treacherous and perfidious caitiff still harbour the same, or more mischievous thoughts against them than ever before; and hath been, since that time, plotting with all the Indians round about, to make a general insurrection against the English."*

Dr. Dwight, in his Travels through New England, has presented us with a more favourable view of the character of this Indian sovereign. He states that Philip was sagacious and politic, pos

were at Plymouth, the governor gave them the names of Alexander and Philip.-Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusset's Bay, p. 276.

* Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 11 and 13.

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 immediate 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.

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