"their barbarous way of triumph." Then there was a good bit of skirmishing in which many were killed on both sides and many houses were burnt, so that we "have reason to suspect that this is a general insurrection. among the Indians." Six months after this, Governor Leverett reported to the Secretary of State the state of the plantations in New England, "by reason of the Indian natives rising up in hostility." He explained that our taking to arms was not a matter of choice, but necessitated for defence of the King's rights, upholding authority in the government and defending the rights of the subjects against the barbarous rage and inhumanity of the pagans who "have not assigned any cause of their acting." Their most dangerous enemies are the Narragansetts who supply Philip with men, and entertain his men, women, and children. The English have lost about 300 men, 200 in battle, "the rest by their skulking upon travellers or labouring men." Their ranging has been as in a crescent from Mounthope, where they first rose, westward and northward to Connecticut, northward and eastward to Kennebec, through the country about 300 miles. The county of York, called the Province of Maine, is much wasted; in the whole, seven villages have been wasted, and houses, corn, and cattle destroyed. Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth, had advanced from Boston with nigh 600 men to the rendezvous in the Narragansett country where he will make up complete 1,000 men "under his control." With this letter, Governor Leverett enclosed a "Proclamation of the Massachusetts, setting "forth the reasons of the war against the Indians" (745 1.). In continuation of this account Samuel Symonds, Deputy Governor of Massachusetts, "by order of the Council," informed Secretary Williamson that he had hoped to have given a better account" of the war with the pagan natives 66 .. but our calamities since that time have been much "augmented." He relates how, in the depth of winter, Governor Leverett marched into the Narragansett country after much hardship, and assaulted them at their headquarters in a rude fort made in a great swamp where many hundreds were slain, their wigwams destroyed, and they driven forty miles up into the Nipnet country, towards Connecticut river, whither they were pursued and many slain. The English had 70 killed, and twice as many wounded. They have been out in pursuit more than 100 miles to the westward, and over Connecticut river, but cannot meet with any body of them; they leave their women and children in hideous swamps and inaccessible places, and themselves disperse in small parties all over the country, and by ambuscades and secret skulkings so infest the highways that many travellers have been cut off; then on a sudden, multitudes gathering together, fall on the out towns which lie dispersed a great distance from one another. Then having fired the deserted houses, barns, &c., they as suddenly disappear before any relief can come, so that many country towns and farms are destroyed in Plymouth, Connecticut, and Maine. Since the beginning of the war above 500 of the King's subjects have been slain, towns and villages ruined, houses not to be numbered burnt, people much distracted, husbandry and trading obstructed, and scarcity of bread, corn, and provisions to be feared. Forty years since, adds the Deputy Governor, the Indians had no guns and there was a strict law against selling them powder; but in a short time they were furnished by the French and Dutch, and many affirm the Indians are encouraged by the French in Canada and by the Dutch from Fort Albany (876). Three months after the date of this letter Governor Leverett, on 15th June 1676, again reported the state of affairs to Secretary Williamson. He takes up the narrative from his previous letter which is more fully related by the Deputy Governor in his letter, and goes on to say that the forces of the Colonies marched forth taking prisoners and killing many, some of their principal sachems, amongst others Quananshit, the chief sachem of the Narragansetts. Philip assailed the western towns on Connecticut river, but was repulsed, and "this last week about 100 slain." The eastern parts are quiet, and many come in and are coming in professing a desire to "be at peace. The hand of God has been heavy on the "Colonies by an epidemical distemper of colds, and thereby putrid fevers . . . yet resolved to prosecute "the war to the utmost, and hope in His good time to give an account of the Lord's delivery of them." Since December, by the nearest computation, they have had slain and taken captives about 340, forty being captives of whom twenty redeemed (952). 66 66 (6 William Harris also, in five closely written pages, writes Secretary Williamson in the following August a very full account of the insurrection, in which the Indians killed his son and a negro, burned his house, drove away his cattle, and burned fifty loads of hay. He gives many details of the war not in the Governor's or Deputy Governor's letters. In the spring, 1,300 English marched up the country and slew about sixty, "but could not come up with the nimblest enemy." After this the Indians did many mischiefs to the towns of Massachusetts, and Captain Pierce fell into an ambush of 1,000 of them at Blakstones river near Rehoboth, and his ammunition being spent, all his men save a few were killed. The thousand Indians went to Rehoboth and Providence where they burned houses and killed cattle and stragglers. The Connecticut forces took the greatest man of the Narragansetts, Nau-naun-ta-nute, whom they gave over to Uncas' son to slay, Uncas himself having thirty years since slain Nau-naun-ta-nute's father. The news from every quarter is that the English prevail. Within a few months 700 Indians have been slain, taken, and come in, and they have little provision and ammunition and are lean and dismayed, and pray that they may live. Philip is supposed to be with about 1,000 men in the swamp where the first fight was near Mounthope. "The English are supposed to have lost 1,000 souls in the war." He acknowledges the power of God in punishing the blasphemies of the Indians "as fig leaves," he says, "could not cover shame or sin, so the green leaves of the wilderness could not "cover our unjust enemy." News has been brought from Virginia of destruction done by the Indians, which shows that the contrivance of the war went far. "Our little 66 66 boys cry to go out against the Indians, and run on "them without fear." And he concludes in a postscript: Since the capture of the great man of Narragansett the war has gone against the Indians. Between March and August 2,000 have been killed, taken, come in, and it is supposed 1,500 before, and a thousand or fifteen hundred English slain from the first. Great loss among the Indians by sickness; from all causes they have lost about seven thousand. Before the war the Indians lived with more ease than poor labouring men and tradesmen in England. News has come this 12th August that Philip was slain in a swamp a mile from Mounthope, being set upon by Captain Church of Plymouth and Captain Sandford of Rhode Island, each with 40 men. Philip was shot through the heart by an Indian, and his head and hands are now on Rhode Island (1021). Governor Berkeley said the Indians had destroyed divers towns in New The Northern Colonies will not recover in 20 years. Leading men in New England. Account of New England. 66 England, killed more than a thousand fighting men, 64 66 66 66 66 66 We learn from his petitions to the King (585-8) that the William Harris above-mentioned had been "a weary traveller for the space of almost forty years in the "wilderness of New England, and was one of the first Englishmen that purchased land, called Patuxet, of the "most superior Indians in the Narragansett Bay, until persons from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Plymouth, under pretence of other purchases, entered it." He knew most of the leading men in New England, the Governor of Connecticut, Winthrop a prudent moderate man, Deputy Governor Leet, and some of the assistants, wise men and devout for their churches, the Governor of New Plymouth, Winslow, a very wise moderate man, the Governor of Massachusetts Leveret, their Deputy Symonds, and Assistants, very devout men for their churches, the Governor of Rhode Island, Coddington, the Deputy Easton, and Assistants, some of them called Quakers, some called Generals (531). In another paper Harris gives a graphic account of New England. Ther were between 7,000 and 8,000 foot, and 8 or 10 troop of orse, |