USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume III > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
# The "Boston Islanders" were the praying Indians around Boston who were recruited by Major Gookin. A company of some fifty Indians was sent from Boston to Mount Hope under the com- mand of Captain Isaac Johnson to serve with the Massachusetts Expeditionary Forces. Of these Indians, only seventeen remained in service in Plymouth Colony under Captain Henchman on 31 July 1675; these accompanied him in his pursuit of Philip after his escape from Pocasset Swamp. § The "Cape Cod" Indians were the Plymouth Colony allies throughout the war.
|| The "Monhegan" Indians were those under the sachem Uncas. Some fifty of them marched from Rehoboth as allies of the English in the pursuit of Philip and in the later skirmish at Smithfield, R. I., on 1 Aug. 1675, proved themselves faithful to the English and excellent fighters.
T Deacon Walker appears to have been stumped in finding the right word to rhyme with "Mon- hegon". However, his knowledge of the Indian language seems to have saved the day, for in the Narragansett Indian word Wunêgin, meaning "well or good", he had a word that would not only rhyme (the way he spelled it) but also had just the right meaning [Roger Williams' Key into the Lan- guage of America (1643)].
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Deacon Philip Walker, Poet
[3] If with ther help god give to us Suckses wee may to them Ingage & not transgres Thay shal bee regant of ther nation here weel them defend If any els apere/
ffor thers a proverb not beyond belefe Imploy a wily Roªg to cach a thefe The Cas becas in good & bad thers simpathe[e] as Contry Cases Caes Antipothee
Iff this bee dun thay miht with great discretion yt ye Comand & staf be in our nation./ by such a prudent politick Contrivanc wee may Expectt the varments ferst Conivanc
Call fforth our Burgers lett them now goea out Such as ar manly wise discrett & stout for tis a shame the hethen Cananit Should know Sum people are in such a fright
That Law nor reson neither Curig Can prevail to Face a hethen bruttish man Its known there now none can be safe securd How Er Suplyd within owr owne Imurd [The above two lines are crossed out; similar lines appear on p. 2 of the MS.]
Wods good Turn ought as thay by threat to hold us ffor dayly news and every voyce doth call us Whear garisons * are mand leave two or three ner toun Lett all the rest goea fight ye Enemee
[4] for prudent Surgons Spread ther Salf quit r[ound] acording to the greatnis of the wound:/ God only knows to what this war Portends ffelt most by us yt Loose owr dearest ffrinds
Thes murthros Rooges like wild Arabians thay Lurk heare & there of every thing make pr[ey] all Lives Estats in Cruill wise thay take throuout the Cuntry dredfull havok t make
So by degres a Lingring death wee dy į If wee dont Study how to bee as sly in owr surprisals to find them in ther ne[st] ffor all Advantages with enimis is best
* Although located right in the center of the Indian war territory, Rehoboth had to shift largely for itself, for strangely enough Plymouth Colony failed to furnish troops to help protect the town. The result was that for many months after the outbreak of the war the male inhabitants holed up in the garrison houses and remained there. Deacon Walker thought that this was all wrong and that only two or three should remain in a garrison-house and that the rest of the men should go out and fight.
John Kingsley in his letter (ante, p. 20) written as late as May 1676 to his honored friend, a preacher of the gospel at Hartford, Conn., says that he is "ill of fever or ague and is not able to bear the sad stories of our woeful days when the Lord made over wolfish heathern to be our lords, to fire our towne, shout & Holow, to cal us to com out of our garisons . . . we are shut up in our garisons & doe not dare to go abroad".
t The best contemporaneous account we have, in fact the only account of the destruction com- mitted by the Indians in Rehoboth, is contained in John Kingsley's letter in which he says the Indians "set fire to our towne, burnt our milles, break the stones, ye, our grinding stones, & what was hid in the earth they found, corne & fowles, kild catel & took the hind quarters & left the rest . . they burnt cartes wheels, drive away our catel, ships [sheep], horses", etc.
# After the burning of Rehoboth the danger of starvation stared the survivors in the face. John Kingsley in his letter to Connecticut, asking for help, says that "every rod of grond neare garison is
38
Early Rehoboth
Doughtles twer best ffor all owr soulderee that hunt thes wolves to march a nights to S[ee] Wheare they Pirado in ther Randevos And so slaught them with our pouder new
In som new ffiguer Artiliris never Sho[ws] That way is best yt bangs them with most b[lows] & all the Indians Living neare Improvd wee are Concernd & mightily beehoved
Ther wifs & Childern as Hostigis retayn that Men may faithfull be ye Case remai[n] ffor tis ther Alys give to us this trobl Therfor ther obligations more then dubl
Who cant but judg whot ffancy melancoly Wont deale to ffooles acording to ther ffoly no stone unturnd no strattagem thay leave Like helish Saters boath us & ours bereve
[5] Off all our Cumforts in this presant world to ffyer and sword our Carkases are hurld affter abusd to Savig bests a pray thay doea & will doea thus from day to day
Tis very Just to doea the best wee Can to yous all mens by Sword or poysned dram * to Send Such Souls to ther own place mor fitt If God Sucksed & say amen to It:/
ffor thers no sister of the musis nine t with Ovids pen nether Tertulas witt No Homer in hes Trogan warr define a Cruil actt so as thes Rooges actt it
The inosent will now ofendid bee to her reprof for the Indulgancee So much declald to brutes so like ye divel which chariti it self would count an Evill
And thos that have had pure & Zelos ends must rest Content with labor for ther payns Where ends were reall to cas blind souls to se Ther benifacttors Shall rewarded bee
By him yt knows and serches harts and trisce The hole Creatione & Its Secricye
broken vp & where house & barne stood now put in beanes & squashes; but alase, what will doe against famin ... famine stares vs in the face .. . I heare you have store of corne . . . It is better to die by sord than famen. Therefore I beg in my Lordes name to send Us some meal . . . I doe not beg for money to bild houses . . . If any will send meale, pray let deacon [Philip] Walker distribit it. I knowe no man like minded". See ante, p. 20.
As a result of this letter, the Colony of Connecticut collected 600 bushels of wheat to be sent to Boston and Seekonk (Rehoboth). On 30 May 1676 it was recommended (ante, p. 23) that "Deacon Walker, of Seaconk, receive and distribute what shall be sent to Seaconck".
* This suggestion of poisoning the Indians' liquor was a novel idea. At the time the Indians burned the houses in Rehoboth they undoubtedly first rolled all the barrels of cider out of the cellars before putting the torch to the houses. Had this cider been poisoned there might not have been enough live Indians left the following day to burn the town of Providence.
+ The nine goddesses-Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polymnia or Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania-who presided over poetry, art, and science.
39
Deacon Philip Walker, Poet
Deacon Walker's only known prose, entitled "The Stragamen of the Indians", is in the form of a proclamation from Satan to his servants the Powwahs or Indian priests, as follows:
[6]
The St[ra]gam[e]n
off the Indians
As a corupt tre brings forth Evill frugh[t] & a corupt ffountayne corupt & noysom stre[mes] So doath owr hethen Enimis being Corupt in the ffountayne and rate of the mater streme forth Poysned waters of death as Cayne the first Murtherer as Nero, Diocletian, and Domitio, Thos Hethen murthring Em- perours yt wear such monsters of nature whos mad rage agaynst the Chris- tians, as out of Hell fomd out ther veno[m] So that Som of them Commanding themselves to be worshipt as gods misrably tormenting the Chri[stians] with new devised various torments dayly that som of them put a hundred to death Every day [of] The weeke throuout ye yeare Except ther own bearth day which t[hey] Cept and Comanded ye peopl so to doea to ador ther I[ ] gods & to Joak ffrolik & Satisfy ther Insatiabl [lust?] By the Comand of thes monster wear most of the ap[ostles] & antiant Champions For fayth Zeal & holines pu[t] [to] death : as you may read in the history of ye Church [and the] Book of marters, Folio: 46 Section. 70 & 1 bok plage . .] Like thes mons- terus beasts are our presant Enem[ies] who atend only an evil Speritt sugested by Satan The princ yt ruls in this world whos regiment is the Children of disobedianc him thay only adore and ser[ve] and he by ther powas as bale prests proscribs t[hem] to his Law will and plesur declaring to them he [ ] The princ of darknes and profound hevines; but l[ike] a sutl Serpant in a Sophistik way So bewitc[hes] Them yt he perswads them darknes is Light and evil is good : as he did ye woman : bewiching Her with whot great things he can doea for them:/
That he is sole Eperour of the Kingdom of Acro the Mis[ter] Captayn of the great dungin Eurebos King of hell and Controuler of the Infernall ffier[s] Teling them his Corts being without Suters begins to howle and yt ther Captayn Jenerall no Longer indure therfor ses he wee now ma[ke] to you our Suplicatione. Yt ye Comit all cind [of] Cruilty [ ] you [ ]
that your multiduds fflock dayly at the gates of our dungin ffor owr In- satiabl Chayos soe hee with his thousand ravinous Jawes is abl to Entertayne an Infinight Number of such Soules seing owr Intres and Magniphiset King- dom is by you suported & upheld. wherfor Wee Comend you & give you harty thanks for your former servis & advis you to Continu [to] goea on as you have begon and doea your Indevors To have & purchas the place which wee have prepared for you under the most wiked foundatione off owr dweling place: far ye well. Wishing you such Philisity which wee desyer & intend ffinaly to reward & recompenc you with this Charter.
Given at the Senter of the earth in yt owr darke Place wheare all the rabl- ment of Divels for This purpos wos Caled into owr most Doloros Court and Consistory under the Carector off owr [t]erabl Seale. ffor the Confermatione of the [ ] premises:/ Far weell owr ffrind Powwah:/*
The founding of New England and its development in a religious way is the theme of Deacon Philip Walker's second poem, entitled "The first smile of god in this land". This poem contains some of his most colorful verse and considerable new historical data on the Indian war.
*"Powwaw" is the Narragansett Indian name for their priest. Roger Williams says: "These Priests and Conjurers (like Simon Magus) doe bewitch the People, and not onely take their Money, but doe most certainly (by the helpe of the Divell) worke great Cures, though most certaine it is that the greatest part of their Priests doe merely abuse them and get their Money, in the times of their sicknesse, and to my knowledge long for sick times; and to that end the poore people store up Money, and spend both Money and goods on the Powwaws, or Priests in these times, the poore people commonly dye their hands, for alas, they administer nothing but howle and roar, and hollow over them, and begin the song to the rest of the people about them, who all joyne (like a Quire) in Prayer to their Gods for them" [Roger Williams' Key into the Language of America (1643)].
[7]
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Early Rehoboth
The ffirst smile of god in this land
[a]s Sinthias Beuty in Aurora bright [ff]rom Estern orison bursts forth hir light [w]hen Sabl darknes had Conseld hir hed washing hir tresses in hir Liquid bed
Expeles the dark outvise the twinkling tapors Whos Scorching beames exhayle unholsom vapors [ff]rom Earth corupted from the watri scy [ff]or want of heat naturs great Enimy
[So] has our Light from Sixtenehundred twenty * [Th]rou gods permitanc shind gloriosly and plenty [Wha]ts ers the cas she now eclipst we see [And] loer [plunged down in] misire
[8] The souls yt first from Urope Came To trase ould Neptuns Thetes Streme ffrom Germain Banks & Nether Lands to gitt out of the Prelats hands
Playnly declard thay Came for zeale to practis whot god did reveale by grace & Sprit from holy writ Not as Sir John Comandid it
A great atempt to seeke strang Lands in peopl pore twos heavens hands y sperited ther minds and hartts and Led them safe to desartt parts
It was not hoapes of presant worly tresur off Ginayes Gould or Canans Ease & plesur of India Silke Erabias Spice Invited No. no ye hasard shows yt grace Exited
Wee Came to wild America whos native brood to divels pray a savig race. for blud yt thirst off all ye nations most acurst
ffrom ffamin, Scurvi, feare thay past and yit for all god did at last as he in wisdom most devine purg ther dros from purer Coyne
Knowing an advers State is best to bring Elected Souls to rest god hee of earth man made a Hectter his grace & Sperit ther directer
Ther daring aspectts more afrights then Joshua did the Cananits owr newfound neibours of the land twas not in them twas hevens hand
[9] To thee bee praysd o god Eternall Though Hell thay raysd the Sprits Infernall thou Layds them all gaves us Sucksetion But sinc weef made a great degretione
There is som Secritt way unknowne [T]hat maks our land & peopl grone [ffr]om Acans sin or som transgretione In the levite ministratione
* Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620.
41
Deacon Philip Walker, Poet
[So]m Judas or som Ananias [T]he hand of heven now will try us [S]om Like Gahasa raking for [T]hat which pur justis doth abhor
[Th]es things Examin Now whil weef lesur [Wh]il thayr a spoyling of our Tresur [Our] los yt great our goods & Lands [and] many lives by Cruil hands:
[I]n this our great Advercitee [le]t us Consider what may bee [th]e Case owr glorious angry god [how] hevi on us Lays his rod
[Im] shure wee our Arant have forgott yt makes us ffeele the hethens shot [ ] not a Scurg gods raysd to bee [wh]o equalis our Cruiltee
Consider
[W]hat was our Arant heare & what was not [Wh]at wee atendid have whot weef fforgot [Ju]stis and mercy doea & fear our god our hartt not word alon to shape his rod:/
[10] Not to be proud nor yit the world atend yt to to much is Each mans hyest End Which to ayne under a pious Cloke has Casd owr god in this most dredfull Stroke
To shew if wee of godlines make gayne hel punish Sinn with Sinn & wont mayntayn Profesing peopel in a way not good thou maskt within a pharasaik Hudd:
To streme the deepes so many thousan Mils to have such ffavours and Inioy Such Smiles off hevens bounty in our hemisphere To rays Such Stocks & Flocks and have such chere
To Inioy Such oracls under a mercy Seate & give his holy things to dayes a monstrous Cheat Which holy Justis cant Indur to See and not reveng Such greate Hipocrice
If wee Intend to rays Estats & glory
In Such a hudwinkt hipocrittik Story God will Consum us & our Eys Shall See No mor Such hevens bounty given thee
Has not a ffilthy Averritious mind Cropt & Debucht thi beutious virgin hew Like crawling Ivi ever more Inclind: to metamorphis * statly tres in vew
As many sums being adid up together as many Clouds Combining mak foul wether So many Sinns the productts Punishment Yit Som ther are yt are mor Eminent
[11] And cry to heven with a louder Call For som ther is yt are mor Capitall
* Metamorphosis-To change or pass from one form or shape into another; transformation with or without change of nature.
42
Early Rehoboth
Sinc Sivel Laws has drawn a grand Protest a gaynst Each Sinn in open vew to man That he yt hath agaynst the Law transgrest Shall sufer then who rationaly Cann
But Judg thay are Som Secritt Hidn Crimes Handed a Long by great or Small or all That doea predominat in thes our tims yt doea for Justis at Bar of Judgment Call
When ould Roomes teachers ffelt the Smak of riches non ther could Stand but of ther dabing Creaturs & Still the substanc of the world bewitches Lik blasting Comits or prodigious meturs
All such as Leafe religion pure for welth or any other bace or by regard how ever here in great Estate & helth Shall by ther maker have their Just reward
Lett us not slight owr felow neibours then yt doea desent from us in Aprihention who cary singuler Like honest men Seem not to make like us so great declention
If thay in som things Ear we Er in others The proudist hartts the wildest hart Im schure Lett pratting pharisie deny ther brothers Tent what we say but what god ses is pure
Hant wee had charity love & respectt To thes abominabl Swinish Bruts Letts now upon Such willy frams reflectt
Beefor to Late with Shame make our recruts
Letts not Justifi the wikid and Condem page cut ] tis dredful
] The [ ]
[12] Thers many aspects bears a fface devine belovd of god & pretious in his sight hantt we adord Dianos horid Schrine To prop our Caling or our Crafty Slight
Ther was an actt to all our Land prodigious tent to bee thought the ffounder was Perfidious Wittingly in yt for he is judgd to be on ffearing god & Indevring good yit hee
and many others are to bould and Laarg To give proud Ignorant Sottes such seriaus Charge
To send a ffelow of so low degre yt woss Subservil as wee know was hee put ffrom his master upon Jelose To prate and preach give lawes & teach to men above his spher & reach
That he had given ofenc unto befor now Sent to such a Cru this dirful Commet Clerly schous ffrom whenc wee see a Torent flows
Thou god by Just & righteous hand Shoud pour was bound to clear the land of gilti blud confest by hee that hanged last * was of the three
* On 8 June 1675 Tobias and his son Mattashunannamo were hanged for the murder of John
43
Deacon Philip Walker, Poet
That Sasaman * has & may Saes bee it has bin well his Patron & hee had gon to Roome Or other partts had went When hee a preest to Asawome t was sent
Sassamon, the educated Indian who had been secretary to King Philip. When the third Indian, Wampapaquan, was hanged he "broke the halter", as stated by both Roger Williams and Gov. John Easton. He was reprieved and later shot and is said to have confessed that he and the other two Indians had killed John Sassamon.
* In 1676 Rev. William Hubbard wrote that "The Occasion of Philips so sudden taking up arms the last Year, was this: There was one John Sausaman, a very cunning and plausable Indian, well skilled in the English Language and bred up in the Profession of Christian Religion, imployed as a Schoolmaster at Natick, the Indian Town, who upon some Misdemeanour fled from his place to Philip by whom he was entertained in the Room and Office of Secretary and his Chief Councellor whom he trusted with all his Affairs and secret Counsels.
"Later he had Occasion to be much in the Company of Philips Indians and of Philip himself: by which means he discerned . . . that the Indians were plotting anew against us; the which out of Faithfulness to the English . . . [he] informed the Governor [Winslow of Plymouth], adding also that if it were known that he revealed it, he knew they would presently kill him . . . Philip there- fore soon after contrived the said Sausamans Death, which was strangely discovered notwithstand- ing it was so cunningly effected, for they had murdered him [29 Jan. 1674/5], met him upon the Ice on the great Pond [Assowomset (Middleborough) about 15 miles southeast of Rehoboth], and presently after they had knocked him down, put him under the Ice, yet leaving his Gun and his Hat [ducks] upon the Ice that it might be thought he fell in accidently through the Ice and was drowned; but being missed by his Friend, who finding his Hat [ducks] and Gun, they were thereby led to the Place where his Body was found under the Ice.
"When they took it up to bury him, some of his Friends, specially one David, observed some Bruises about his Head, which made them suspect he was first knocked down before he was put in the water; however, they buried him near about the Place where he was found, without making any further Inquiry at present: nevertheless David his Friend [a Sogkonate Indian named Chowohumma], reported these Things to some English at Taunton . .. occasioned the Governor to inquire further into the Business, wisely considering, that as Sausaman had told him, If it were known that he re- vealed any of their Plots, they would murder him . . . wherefore by special warrant the Body of Sausaman being digged again out of his Grave, it was very apparent that he had been killed and not drowned, and by a strange Providence an Indian was found that by Accident was standing unseen upon a Hill, had seen them murther the said Sausaman, but durst never reveal it for fear of losing his own Life likewise, until he was called to the Court at Plimouth . . . where he plainly confessed what he had seen" [Hubbard's Narrative (Drake Ed., 1865), vol. I, pp. 60-63].
At a Court held at Plymouth 1 June 1675, "Tobias [alias Poggapanoffoo, one of Philip's Councel- lors] & Wampapaquan his son and Mattashanamo" were charged "that they did with joint con- sent upon the 29 Jan. 1674/5 at a place called Assowamsett Pond, wilfully and of sett purpose, and of Mallice fore thought, and by force and armes, murder John Sassamon, an other Indian, by laying violent hands on him and striking him, or twisting his necke, until hee was dead; and to hide and conseale this their said murder . . . did cast his dead body through a hole of the iyce into the said pond . .. wee, of the jury, one and all, both English and Indians doe joyntly and with one consent agree upon a verdict . . . that the prisoners [above named] are guilty of the blood of John Sassa- mon, and were the murderers of him according to the bill of inditement. The verdict of the jury being accepted by the court, the sentence of death was pronounced against them . . . to be hanged by the head untill theire bodies are dead . . . executed the 8 June 1675, on Tobias and Mattashu- nannamo. On some considerations [the rope broke in hanging] Wampaquam was repiued for a month . . . but shot to death within the said month" [Plymouth Colony Records, vol. V, p. 167].
In 1675, John Easton, the Quaker Governor of Rhode Island, wrote a "Relation" of what he knew of the beginning of the war. His ideas differ from those of Mather and Hubbard as will be seen by the following extract:
"In the Winter in the Year 1674, an Indian was found dead, and by a Coroner's Inquest of Pli- mouth Colony judged murdered. He was found dead in a Hole thro Ice broken in a Pond with his Gun and sum Foulls by him. Sum English suposes him thrown in, sum Indians yt I judged intele- gabell and impartiall in ye Case did think he fell in and was so drouned, and that the Ies did hurt his Throat, as the English said it was cut; but acnoledge yt sumetimes naty Indians wold kill others but not as euer they herd to obscuer as if the dead Indian was not murdered. The dead Indian was caled Sansimum and a Christian yt could read and write. Report was he was a bad Man, yt King Philip got him to write his Will, and he made the Writing for a great Part of the Land to be his, but read as if it had bin as Philip wrote; But it came to be known, and then he run away from him.
"Now one Indian informed that three Indians had murdered him, and sheued a Coat yt he said thay gave him to conseall them. The Indians report yt the Informer had playd away his Coate, and these Men sent him ye Coate, and after demanded Pay, and he not to pay, so acused them, and knoing that it wold pleas the English so to think him a beter Christian, and the Reporte came yt the three Indians had confesed and acused Philip so to imploy them, and yt ye English wold hang Philip; so the Indians wear afraid, and reported yt the English had flatred them (or by threats) to
44
Early Rehoboth
ffor by relation thou hes layd in grave wos Litl better then a sutl Knave or els was wrongd by Coman fams reportting as much as any with his truls was Sportting
[13] But in the mode demur with his Confessor much Like a Sutl Secrit fols transgreser So was his master Philip found in print Now drawinge own reportt in blud not Ink
bely Philip yt thay might kill him to have his Land, and yt if Philip had dun it, it was ther Law so to execute whome ther Kings judged deserved it, yt he had no Case to hide it.
. "So Philip kept his Men in Armes. Plimoth Gouerner required him to disband his Men, and in- formed him his Jealousy was falce. Philip answered he would do no Harm, and thanked the Governer for his Information.
"The three Indians wer hunge, to the last denied the Fact; but one broke the Halter as it is re- ported, then desired to be saved, and so was a littel while, then confessed they three had dun the Fact; and then he was hanged [shot]. And it was reported Sausimun before his death had informed of the Indian Plot, and yt if the Indians knew it they wold kill him, and that the Hethen might destroy the English for their Wickedness, as God had permitted the Heathen to destroy the Israel- lites of olde.
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