USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 1 > Part 49
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It would be hard to overpraise the work that Eliot did in spite of its loss with the dying out of the Indians. It was thoroughly constructive and intelligent, not merely pious and categorical. It involved the expending of tre- mendous energy in unremitting labor. And it resulted in love and complete trust of the teacher by his follow- ers. It earned him, justly, his title.
PRAYING INDIANS (1670-1674)
Apparently there was a suspicion that a confession of faith did not as readily make a true Christian of an In- dian as it did of white man. In any event, the not very committal term of "praying Indians" was adopted for
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WUTTESTAMENTUM
NUL -LORDUMUN
S 26
JESUS CHRIST
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CAMBRIDGE: Printed by Samuel Green and Marmaduke Fohnfont MDCLXI.
From the Harvard University Library
INDIAN TITLE PAGE OF JOHN ELIOT'S NEW TESTAMENT
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those who professed to worship in the English fashion, to distinguish them from their heathen brethren who either had conscientious scruples against christianity or failed to perceive the advantages of at least formal com- pliance.
No very certain figures are to be had; but several careful estimators conclude that earnest missionary work, which affected only the small tribes along the shore and never reached the larger, more powerful ones inland, had by 1674 accomplished some four thousand converts with- in the limits of Massachusetts and Plymouth and the islands to the south. These seem to be divided, about 1,100 in Massachusetts, 1,500 or more in Plymouth, and the remainder in Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the smaller adjacent islands.
Whatever the uncertainty as to just what advantages the Indians enjoyed in the hereafter, as a result, the evi- dence is abundant that the English more than once reaped the immediate, very practical advantage of staunch and fierce military allies who knew the ropes. More than once the "fidelity and courage" of such forces "was testified by their captains." Their use was handicapped, however, by a general distrust of all Indians when trou- ble was brewing. Even Eliot's orderly colony of pray- ing Indians at Natick was deported to Deer Island, in Boston Harbor, when the war broke out with Philip. The enemy considered that their religious professions made them allies of the English, and the colonists, on the other hand, viewed them with distrust because they were Indians.
Some hostile Indians burned a barn in Chelmsford (1675) and the inhabitants promptly visited the nearest settlement of praying Indians, at Wamesit, called them out, and killed a boy and wounded five women and chil- dren. "The murderers were arrested and tried, but un- der the influence of popular exasperation they were ac- quitted." The Indians fled their settlement, and to urg- ings that they return replied, "We are not sorry for what we leave behind; but we are sorry, that the English have driven us from our praying to God, and from our
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teacher. We did begin to understand a little of praying to God."
It is altogether probable that the apparent success in teaching the praying Indians was due, not so much to religious conviction that they ought to love their neighbors, as the friendship resulting from the work of gentle, kindly, sincere teachers. It was a politi- cal and religious error that the colonists failed to sustain and justify, as a body, the faith which the work of the best of their members had kindled among their native neighbors.
MUTUAL FAILURE OF FAITH (1665-1674.)
Massasoit, faithful friend of the colonists of Plymouth, at length died (1661), and was succeeded by his elder son, known to the English as Alexander. The gradual exten- sion of the colonies had led to increased friction where Indian and white claims conflicted. Irresponsible and avar- icious individuals of both races were guilty of misconduct which was charged up to the general account and distrust grew. Unprincipled white men cheated and mistreated the Indians. "A hungry savage was as ready to shoot a heifer in the pasture as a deer in the forest, if he could do so and escape detection." Either event was likely to stir a spirit of retaliation.
Finally a report came from individuals who had been called to the Narraganset country on business, that Alexander was making ready for war and was trying to get the Narragansets to join him in destroying the Eng- lish settlements. Governor Prince of Plymouth asked Alexander to come to the next court at Plymouth and explain the situation and the chief replied that he would do so, adding that the hateful Narragansets were evi- dently telling stories again. Then he failed to turn up as he had promised, and it was reported that he was conferring with his supposed enemies. Major Winslow went out to bring him in, met him on a hunting excur- sion, surprised the party, delivered his ultimatum to Alexander and led him off to Plymouth in great excite- ment. At Duxbury they rested for a few days. Alex-
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ander was taken ill and, with a promise of sending his son as a hostage, his retinue was allowed to start home with him to Mount Hope. He died on the way, and some of the Indians at least were convinced that he had been poisoned. Distrust was still further fomented.
Alexander was succeeded by his brother Philip, a man of unusual intelligence and ability. Philip saw that con- tinued encroachment of the white settlements must spell eventual disaster for the Indians and there is reason to believe that he reconciled himself to the eventuality of war long before particular circumstances forced its be- ginning.
Probably no better view of the Indian attitude is rec- orded than that of John Easton, a Rhode Island Quaker, who had a part in several negotiations with the Indians, and thus reported an interview with Philip:
"We said we knew the English said the Indians ronged them, and the Indians said the English ronged them, but our Desier was the Quarrell might be rightly desided, in the best Way, and not as Dogs desided their Quarrels. The Indians owned yt fighting was the worst Way; then they propounded how Right might take Place. We said, by Arbitration. They said that all English agreed against them, and so by Arbitration they had had much Rong; mani Miles square of Land so taken from them, for English would have English Arbitrators; and once they were persuaded to give in their Armes, yt thereby Jealousy might be removed, and the English hav- ing their Arms wold not deliver them as they had prom- ised, untill they consented to pay a 100 pound, and now they had not so much Sum or Muny; yt thay wear as good be kiled as leave all their Liueflyhode." Further discussion followed, and the English assured the Indians of the justice of English courts.
"But Philip charged it to be dishonestly in us to put of the Hering to iust Complaints, therefore we consented to hear them. Thay said thay had bine the first in do- ing Good to the English, and the English the first in doing Rong; said when the English first came, their King's Father was as a great Man, and the English as
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a littell Child; he constrained other Indians from rong- ing the English, and gave them Corn and shewed them how to plant, and was free to do them ani Good, and had let them have a 100 Times more land than now the King had for his own Peopell. ... And another Greavance was, if 20 of there onest Indians testified that a English man had dun them Rong, it was as nothing; and if but one of their worst Indians testified against any Indian or ther King, when it pleased the English it was sufi- tiant. Another Grievance was, when their King sold Land, the English wold say, it was more than they agreed to, and a Writing must be prove against them all, and sum of their Kings had dun Rong to sell so much. He left his Peopell none, and sum being given to Drunk- nes the English made them drunk and then cheated them in Bargains. "
Probably all of these grievances were substantially genuine. The English came with their own system of laws respecting the sale of goods and the transfer of land, and since high ethics were not at that time a part of trade, any English conscience was satisfied by com- pliance with the letter, without regard to the spirit. The natives, of course, had no conception of the Common Law, much less of its mystery and majesty. When they made their marks or otherwise indicated assent to a writ- ten proposition, they assumed that they were confirm- ing what they had agreed to in speech; and the English assumed that, the matter having been reduced to writing, that writing controlled all statements of spoken decisions. In a word, the English took advantage of the fact that, in dealings with the natives, their collective conscience permitted them to assume that all such games were played according to heriditary English rules; but that if the other party was ignorant of this detail, there was no obligation to explain.
KING PHILIP'S POLICY (1675)
There are writers who credit King Philip, otherwise Pometacom, chief of the Wampanoags, with a lifetime of sinister plotting against the English invaders, and a
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Machiavellian ingenuity in organizing his designs. This is only a partial truth. Philip possessed outstanding abil- ity among his race: he perceived if any of them did, the eventual prospect of the gradual encroachment of the colonies on the Indian lands. He could anticipate with alarm the prospect of the conversion of his people from the traditions of their fathers to the teachings of Christi- anity. He opposed the efforts of missionaries as his father, Massasoit, had done. John Eliot describes Philip as grasping a button on his coat and saying, "Mr. Eliot, I care no more for the Gospel of Jesus Christ than I do for that button."
Aside from a disposition and capacity to think in terms of the future of his race, Philip had immediate grievances against the English. At first sustained by the friendship of Massasoit, the colonists had established themselves, gained confidence with strength, and at length presump- tion with power. The Pequods had been wiped out in retaliation for the supposed outrages of individuals. In- dian captives had been sold into slavery. The English, possessing very superior weapons were showing the na- tives the advantages of firearms, but arbitrarily refused to sell powder to them, beyond specified minute quanti- ties; and this refusal more than once exposed friendly tribes to loss and even starvation when they were un- able to defend their lands and crops against native ene- mies.
Another thorn in Philip's flesh was the English dispo- sition to insist on administering English justice, not only in all cases involving white men and Indians, but even in many where the only parties were natives. This ex- pressed the ideal that there could be but one standard of justice, and that where Englishmen lived, their system must prevail. To the Indians it seemed an unwarrant- able interference, with their rights and customs, as indeed it was.
If, therefore, Philip did not from his coming into power attempt to execute a widespread project for the exterm- ination of the English, it is at least evident that they had given him abundant ground of resentment, such as would
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excite even a patient man to self defense or retaliation.
In the words of Easton: "The English wear iealous that there was a generall Plot of all the Indians against Eng- lish; and the Indians wear in like Manner iealous of the English. I think it was generall, yt they wear unwilling to be ronged, and yt the Indians did iudg the English partiall against them, and among all a philthy Crue did desire and endever for War; and those of any Solidety wear against it, and indevered to prevent the War."
The atmosphere grew so tense that every rumour was a cause of renewed warlike preparation. Plymouth, be- ing nearest to Phillip, was in intermittent excitement for years. When reports came in 1671 that the Wampano- ags were making ready for hostilities, the English sent to Philip "an imperious command . to come to Taunton and explain his conduct." Made wary by grow- ing experience of English dealings, Philip came cautiously and with a considerable retinue, detained English emmi- saries as hostages at his camp outside of Taunton, and then advanced with his advisers to the meeting house.
Three commissioners from Massachusetts were wait- ing there to try to promote conciliation between Philip and Plymouth. Perhaps because more remote from the scene of possible carnage they were disposed to believe Philip's protestations that his preparations were against the Narragansets, and to give weight to his counter charges against his English neighbors; but there was no evidence that he was not then on very friendly terms with the Narragansets. The contemporary chronicles do not present the Indian side of this conference in as favor- able a light as it probably deserved, but say merely that Philip was at last confounded, admitted his unworthy de- signs, protested a change of heart, apologized, and signed this statement, the purport of which he may or may not have understood :
"Taunton, Apr. 10th, 1671.
Whereas my Father, my Brother and my self have formerly submitted our selves and our people unto the Kings Majesty of England, and to this Colony of New-Plymouth, by solemn Covenant under our Hand, but I having of late through my
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indiscretion, and the naughtiness of my heart violated and broken this my Covenant with my friends by taking up Armes, with evill intent against them, and that groundlessly; I being now deeply sensible of my unfaithfulness and folly, do desire at this time solemnly to renew my Covenant with my ancient Friends, and my Fathers friends above mentioned; and doe desire this may testifie to the world against me, if ever I shall again fail in my faithfulness towards them (that I have now and at all times found so kind to me) or any other of the English Colonyes; and as a reall Pledge of my true Intentions for the future to be faithfull and friendly, I doe freely ingage to resign up unto the Government of New Plymouth, all my English Armes to be kept by them for their security, so long as they shall see reason. For true performance of the Premi- ses I have hereunto set my hand together with the rest of my Council."
Mere words! Both parties protesting high ideals and friendship. Complete trust, only the English must take charge of any weapons the Wampanoags might have, other than bows and arrows and tomahawks. Philip ready to sign anything to get out of a most unpleasant situation. His immediate party turned over their guns, and he promised to send in those of the rest of his people Of course they never came. Inevitably there was fresh smarting in the Indian camps.
Philip went home and continued preparations for any war that might come. Failure of the promised guns to arrive worried the Plymouth people, and they sent a new summons to Philip in September, 1671 threatening to bring him in if he failed to come. Communications to Rhode Island and Massachusetts at the same time asked help in the hostilities that were feared. Philip went at once to Boston and appeared before the authorities who were, by the terms of his understanding with Plymouth, to arbitrate any difficulties. This rather made him the "law and order" party, and gained the following letter to Plymouth from the Massachusetts umpires :
"We do not understand how Philip hath subjected himself to you. But the treatment you have given him, and your proceedings toward him, do not render him
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such a subject as that, if there be not a present answer- ing to summons, there should presently be a proceeding to hostilities. The sword once drawn and dipped in blood, may make him as independent upon you as you are upon him."
By the end of 1674, however, even the Massachusetts colony had begun to worry, and sent a representative to Philip to ask what he was doing and to get a fresh treaty. Philip said he would treat with King Charles but not with his subjects.
TIME TO STRIKE (1675)
The colonists of course did not desire war; they merely wanted the Indians to accept them as natural superiors. They were troubled by reports of Philip's designs, but were unable to verify them and unwilling to risk acting on the interpretation which they suspected.
Then one John Sassamon, an educated and Christian Indian who had done missionary service and had also been a kind of secretary for Philip, came to Plymouth with a confidential report of Philip's concealed plan in all its detail. Sassamon was subsequently found murd- ered, as he was said to have feared, and three Indians of Philip's council were arrested, tried and found guilty at Plymouth with the circumstantial evidence, reported by Cotton Mather, who seems to have expected such supernatural signs, "that one Tobias. .approaching to the dead it would still fall a bleeding afresh, as if it had newly been slain ; albeit he had been deceased and interred for a considerable while before." Indians had some part in the jury, but reports differ as to their number.
The Wampanoags resented this summary execution, especially as it concerned a matter which they considered did not touch the English at all. The young men became increasingly difficult to control, and depredations grew general. It is presumed that Philip did not intend to strike until the spring of 1676, but that his hand was forced by the insistence of his people and he at last con- sented to their provoking the English to the shedding of
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the first blood, in the belief that the party which did this would be the eventual losers.
On June 20, 1675 most provocative assaults were made at Swanzey, and a colonist wounded one of the Indians who attempted to plunder his house. Four days later, ten of the English were shot by an Indian raiding party, and the war was on.
Both sides sought allies at once. Messengers went to Plymouth and Boston for aid, and within three hours after their arrival Boston started a force of 120 men to attack Philip's headquarters at Mount Hope. Philip sent "embassadors" to enlist the aid of Awashonks, squaw-sachem of the Soykonates, but Captain Benjamin Church prevailed on her to cast her lot with the English. He made a similar arrangement with Wetamoo, widow of Alexander, who had returned to and ruled her father's tribe, the Pocassets. However, when Philip's men seemed to have thrown the settlements into complete terror, and burning and pillage were going on both Awashonks and Wetamoo proved unable to restrain their people from following what seemed to be the tide of victory.
Philip had sent his women and children to neighboring tribes and abandoned his home, which was located on a peninsula where he might easily be cut off from retreat. The force from Boston consequently did not find him at Mount Hope, but established a garrison there, whence Capt. Church went out to see what he could do to Wet- amoo. Learning that the town of Dartmouth was beset, he hurried there and pursued the Indians into the forset where 160 of them presently surrendered under a prom- ise of amnesty. The Plymouth authorities later sold them into slavery in Spain, again staining English honor.
The English, having learned by bitter experience the risk of encountering hidden enemies in the forest, a force of several hundred men from Plymouth and Taunton cautiously surrounded the swamp where Philip was hiding and under took to starve him out. He contrived to build canoes and rafts enough to move some 200 war- riors across the river, however, and fled westward with a small party, late in July.
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FRONTIER OUTRAGES AND RESISTANCE (1675-1676)
An attempt was made to assure the continuation of friendly relations between the Nipmucks and the colonists, by a conference agreed to be held near Brookfield, Aug- ust 2, 1675. The small English party that appeared for this purpose was ambushed, and fled to Brookfield where with some 80 inhabitants they resisted a siege of two days, in which fire-arrows and a flaming cart of hay and pitch-pine were some of the Indian weapons. Another military party from Boston was near Lancaster, about 40 miles from Brookfield; when their commander learned of the attack he marched 30 miles through the forest in a single day, and arrived just as the fort burst into flames. A rescue of the survivors was effected but the town had been destroyed.
Deerfield, Northfield and Hadley were subjected to terrifying attacks in the autumn. On October 19, Philip himself led about 800 warriors in an attack on Hatfield, where they were repulsed after effecting considerable damage. His next course is uncertain. He is presumed to have spent some time in an effort to arouse the West- ern Indians, including those along the Hudson, to attack not only the English but the Dutch settlements. In any event, he found time to establish winter quarters among the Naragansets on an island in the midst of a great swamp near what is now South Kensington, Rhode Isl- and. Substantial buildings were erected, and a palisade. Help was had from the Narragansets, on whom another meaningless treaty had been forced by the English but a short time before.
The English forces thus far had been such as the im- periled towns could raise for their own defense, and the thousand men called in September, 1675, under the au- thority of the New England Confederation [See Chapter IX]. There was an utter want of organization in mili- tary control and the men of each colony's contingent fought under their own officers, supposedly subject to direction by the military head of the colony where the fighting took place. In November a second force of a
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thousand men was raised, also in the proportion previ- ously agreed upon: 527 from Massachusetts, 158 from Plymouth, and 315 from Connecticut. For a few months until his illness, Josiah Winslow acted as commander-in- chief of this force under direction of the Council of the Confederation. The Council struggled with the problem of seeing that casualties were replaced and the forces kept up to strength, and that essential equipment was supplied. Within the respective colonies, quotas of men and arms were apportioned to the various towns. What mechanism of enforcement existed does not appear, but the system was effective where the pay and bonuses to volunteers were insufficient to induce enlistment.
The second "presse"-in modern terms, a "draft"- was intended to destroy the power of the Narragansets by an attack on the fortified island where Philip was passing the winter. On December 19, 1675, an Indian deserter guided this force to their objective, where about 3,000 Indians were encamped. In the fierce battle that followed, Philip's fort was fired; the Indian casualties are said to have exceeded a thousand, and 80 colonial soldiers were killed and 150 wounded. An unknown number of non-combatants of Philip's party were shot down or destroyed in the burning of the village-women children and old men-the slaughter recalling the mas- sacre of the Pequods in 1637. The leader himself escaped with a few companions.
The next frontier attack was at Lancaster, February 10, 1676. A force of about 1,500 Indians attacked the village at dawn, fired most of the buildings, and had a glorious slaughter with a barbecue afterward. It was on this occasion that Mrs. Rowlandson was taken whose captivity has provided such an interesting chapter of frontier history. Although the Indians went in for mur- der, arson, pillage and a variety of brutal torture, it is worth observing that in only two or three isolated and unauthenticated instances were they charged in contempo- rary accounts with having "defiled women." Their wo- men prisoners seem always to have been treated with
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respect, beyond the fact that they were considered pris- oners, and were expected to work for their captors.
At dawn on February 21, 1676 a similar bloodthirsty attack was made on Medfield, only 17 miles from Boston but most of the inhabitants were in the garrisoned post which resisted successfully ; half the town was burnt. On March 13, Groton was destroyed except for the post, from which an Indian ruse had drawn many of the de- fenders into an ambush. Warwick, Rhode Island, was all but destroyed on March 17, and Marlborough on March 26. A small party attacked Bridgewater on April 9. Taunton is supposed to have been spared under ord- ers from Philip, because of his friendship for the Leonard family of that place. A part of Sudbury was fired, April 18, and of Scituate, April 20. A severe attack was re- pelled at Bridgewater May 8. On the Connecticut, Hat- field was attacked in May and Hadley in June, the de- fense of the latter place being directed by Goffe, one of the judges who had sentenced Charles I and had been in hiding in the colony for many years.
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