USA > Rhode Island > The "Old Stone Bank" history of Rhode Island, Vol. III > Part 12
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Thus we see that, in the beginning, the Indians met kindness with kindness and were disposed to live in peace and har- mony with the strangers who had sud- denly come into their midst. As this portion of our narrative develops it will be observed that Massasoit, not the strongest sachem in New England in a political sense, but the most powerful in respect to the safety of the white man, re- mained constant in his friendship through- out his career. It seems ironical that all of the enmity between his people and the white men finally centered about this noble character's own offspring.
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THE SON OF MASSASOIT
I 'T HAS been observed that the Indians who resided in New England at the time of the coming of the white man were inclined toward peace and friendliness. Especially in the case of Massasoit, the Wampanoag chieftain, do we find count- less instances of his wholehearted desire to establish and maintain friendly rela- tions with those who had come from afar to dwell in the lands which his and neighbor tribes had possessed, probably for centuries. It was Massasoit who greeted, officially, the ocean-weary, be- wildered Pilgrims at Plymouth, and who for more than forty years remained as a staunch friend of the " Mayflower's " " pas- sengers and their children, and of all those who came thereafter to these shores during his lifetime. This noble character ruled his people wisely and fairly, and proved to be a good diplomat in his contacts with those whom he must have realized would completely usurp, sooner or later, the fields, shores, lakes and forests that had been given him by his fathers.
When the white men came to his aid in sickness and distress, he was everlastingly grateful; when his English friends needed food and clothing, Massasoit accommo- dated them with generous gifts of corn and skins. When the friend of all the Indians, Roger Williams, was driven from his Salem cottage and forced into the frozen wilderness by bigoted enemies among his own people, the cold and hungry wanderer found shelter, food and hospitality in the wigwam of Massasoit who then lived at Sowams (Warren, Rhode Island) or at Mount Hope in Bristol. Some historians have intimated that Massasoit may have been over- anxious to ally himself with the English because his tribe had long since been reduced in size and strength by a devas- tating plague, and that, forced by circum- stances to subject himself and his tribes- men to political control by the powerful, nearby Narragansetts, he hoped to regain his lost prestige through the help of the white man. This may have been true.
Whether or not his motives were purely selfish, from the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620 until his death in 1661 or 1662, Massasoit maintained his valuable rela- tionships with the English, and not once did he entertain any proposals by other native sachems to unite with them in opposition to the rapidly increasing groups of settlers. In fact, when Massasoit once learned of a conspiracy against the whites, he gave them warning, after having disregarded suggestions that he be a party to the plot. By this act of kindness the English were enabled to nip the uprising in the bud and kill the treacherous ring- leader. This constant interchange of courtesies between Massasoit and the English helped the Wampanoags politi- cally, and the time finally arrived when even the strong and influential Narragan- setts were forced to acknowledge the power of their neighbors down the Bay, and recognize the Wampanoags as a sepa- rate and independent tribe.
If, as some historians think, Massasoit planned all this, then he should be put down in history as a far-sighted politician. As he grew older and older, he saw his people growing stronger and stronger in numbers and in influence. And he also saw that white domination in New Eng- land would come at an early date; at the same time, he observed, with regret, that these white neighbors often failed to live up to their treaties and agreements made in good faith with representatives of his race. For example, when Squanto, who served as guide and interpreter for the Pilgrims, turned traitor and attempted to dethrone Massasoit because of the latter's growing power, the English failed in their agreement to turn the traitor over to the red men for punishment. This was a distinct reversal of the procedure which invariably occurred when an Englishman was found guilty of an act punishable by death. In such cases, the whites had demanded that the duty of administering punishment was theirs alone. The Indians always returned white offenders to the settlers for justice, and, in the case of
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Squanto, the red men naturally expected the same privilege.
This instance of white inconsistency took place not many years after the land- ing at Plymouth, when one observes that the English took sides with a certain New England tribe engaged in war. The women and children of that tribe went over to Block Island for safety and there they were cruelly massacred by the very ones who were supposed to be their allies. Likewise, in an earlier chapter of this continued account we learned of the shocking murder of Miantonomi, co-sachem of the Narragansetts. This chieftain had always regarded his word as binding, and he lived up to his treaty with the English, in fact he was a British sub- ject, to the very moment when he was captured by two of his own men. These men, acting for the settlers, and by sanc- tion of the Church council at Boston, delivered Miantonomi to his enemy Uncas, for a cowardly execution. Such instances, and there were many more, and the realization that the white men were rapidly acquiring their lands, were the underlying causes of the war between the two races, a war in which the friendly and peaceable Massasoit took no part.
Three years after the founding of Providence in 1636, Massasoit brought his eldest son Mooanam, otherwise called Wamsutta, to the court at Plymouth and solemnly renewed his former league of peace and amity with the colony. This stalwart Wampanoag prince and his younger brother Metacomet thereafter grew to manhood in an era of peace and also of encroachment upon Indian lands, when the whites were forcing the red men farther and farther back into their hunt- ing grounds. Besides, they shared their father's disillusionment in respect to the white strangers' failure to keep treaties and compacts. Upon the death of Massa- soit these sons continued their professions of goodwill toward the English. Wam- sutta, the successor to the office of sachem, presented himself before the Plymouth court and, by his own request, received the English name of Alexander. His younger brother did likewise and was denominated Philip. In the year 1662, or thereabouts, Alexander, youthful sachem
of the Wampanoags, was suspected of being engaged with the Narragansetts in a plot to unite the scattered, disorganized tribes in New England; he was taken by surprise and forcibly carried to Plymouth. There he was forced to undergo severe questioning and other indignities which, according to history, threw him into a fever, of which he died shortly thereafter. Some annalists have openly accused the English of poisoning the suspected Alex- ander, and if they did commit such an unprovoked act, it was a decidedly foolish measure since the death proved to be the turning point in affairs that led to untold suffering and tragedy. Philip then be- came sachem and upon the occasion of assuming the dignity of ruler over the Wampanoags there was a great collection of sachems and warriors from all parts of the country, to unite in a feast of rejoicing at Mount Hope, near Bristol.
This young, ambitious chieftain, the mention of whose name at a later period struck terror into the hearts of the col- onists, ruled for nine years without any outward signs of hostility. He began his reign by renewing the treaty with the English made by his father and later ratified by his brother. But, he harbored feelings that were destined to be the cause of war. He must have been angered at the circumstances of his brother's death, and he held sympathy for the Narragansetts, apparently the chief losers in the rapid rise of white supremacy. For nearly a decade this brooding, resentful ruler contem- plated the spread of the whites, observed their infidelity and finally made grievous complaints of trespasses upon the planting lands of his people. The matter was settled for the time being and in April 1671, a meeting was brought about in Taunton between Philip, accompanied by a party of his warriors, and the commis- sioners from Massachusetts. The warriors present came in war paint and with full fighting equipment, and it was evident that Philip had war in his mind, but the meeting ended with complete understand- ing on both sides. Philip acknowledged himself in the wrong, he admitted that he was responsible for the attempt at re- bellion, renewed his submission to the King of England, and agreed to surrender
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all of his English arms to the government at Plymouth.
However, this demonstration alarmed the colonists throughout New England and an attempt was made to deprive all tribesmen of arms and ammunition and to prohibit all trade in these articles with the natives. Philip gave up no arms except those left by request of the commissioners at the meeting in Taunton. Philip was called to Boston and there he was forced to sign certain articles of agreement and to pay indemnities for his failure to de- liver over all of his munitions. He signed these articles and agreements but there is no doubt that he secretly plotted to exterminate the whites at the first oppor- tunity. Subsequent events proved that this was his intention. To rouse a widely scattered people to such a desperate strug- gle, to reconcile clannish animosities, and to point out the danger of allowing the colonies to continue their spread, required a master-spirit. The Wampanoag chief- tain proved himself qualified for the under- taking; he gained the alliance and coopera- tion of the Narragansetts, and he quickly extended his league of rebellion far to the westward, among the tribes near the Con- necticut River and elsewhere, and he sent diplomatic emissaries in every direction.
In 1675, six of his warriors went down into Little Compton to talk with Awa- shonks, queen sachem of the Sogkonate tribe that lived in the area along the east- ern shores of Narragansett Bay. Philip wanted this leader as an ally in his pro- posed uprising. She arranged a great dance in honor of the visitors, but she also sent word of the proceeding to her friend, Captain Benjamin Church, the only white settler then residing in that part of the
country. He attended the affair, took part in the discussion and convinced Awashonks, in the presence of the guests from Mount Hope, that she should have no part in the plans of Philip. Following this historic conference somewhere in what is now Little Compton, and which must have been an uncomfortable one for the lone white representative, the latter started for Plymouth to warn the authori- ties of the danger that threatened the entire white civilization in New England. On the way he picked up more information about Philip's plans and movements.
Additional information concerning the war clouds that hovered over New Eng- land was given the colonial authorities by a John Sassamon, one of the few Indians who, at the time, had received the rudi- ments of an English education.
John Sassamon acted as a sort of pro- fessor of Christianity and had been em- ployed among his people in the capacities of schoolmaster, preacher and royal sec- retary. He acted in this capacity under Philip shortly after the latter became sachem, although this converted Indian was a Massachusett and not a Wampa- noag. John Sassamon did not live long after the delivery of warnings to his white friends - his corpse was found in a pond, with the neck broken and presenting other marks of violence. Three of Philip's men were accused of the murder and executed, while Philip did not come forward to clear himself of the charge of being concerned in the affair. He kept busy with his plans to have his warriors prepared for battle, and spent much of his time receiving and entertaining, at Mount Hope, all of the roving and unsettled Indians who would agree to fight in his cause.
KING PHILIP'S WAR
W THEN the first open attack was made upon the colonists by the Indians, the native forces were fairly well organ- ized under the leadership of Philip, the son of Massasoit, the kindly Wampanoag sachem. Philip, who ruled his own tribe and directed the fighting activities of all
the natives who had joined with him, from Mount Hope near Bristol, proved to be a clever and resourceful commander. The colonists were not well-organized for fighting although trouble with the Indians had been anticipated for a long period. Small companies and bands of white
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NIGHT ILLUMINATION OF THE PROVIDENCE INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS. MAIN OFFICE, 86 SOUTH MAIN STREET, PROVIDENCE, R. I.
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soldiers were hurriedly assembled here and there and each individual unit chose its own leader, but it remained for one who then made his home in Rhode Island to emerge as the leader of all the white forces, and it seems appropriate to say something of him at this point in our story.
Benjamin Church was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1639, three years after the founding of Providence; he was a carpenter by trade and he found business prosperous in that locality. In 1674, a few years after he married Alice Southworth, he moved away from Duxbury and started a farm in what is now Little Compton, Rhode Island, where he had the distinc- tion of being the first white person to settle in that locality. He had little time to develop his farm since he had gone to his new home at the time when Philip was busy in his plans to organize the Indians for the long-talked-of uprising. Hardly had he begun to hew logs for his home- stead, and to turn over the top-soil for the planting when several Wampanoag emis- saries arrived at the camp of Awashonks to talk of an alliance in the proposed union of all tribes under Philip of Mount Hope. Fortunately, Benjamin Church
had already established friendly relations with his Indian neighbors, particularly with their queen sachem, and therefore he was able to persuade the latter to reject the proposition of joining forces with the Indian allies and to submit to the Plym- outh colony.
Convinced that Awashonks and lier tribe would remain loyal, and provided with considerable information regarding Philip's war plans, he hurried to Plymouth to warn the colonists and to advise them in regard to strategy. This information was corroborated by John Sassamon, an Indian convert, who soon paid with his life for imparting secrets, but certain disastrous events were destined to take place before the white forces came to realize that Church was the best fitted man among them to act as their military leader.
First blood was shed on June 24, 1675, in the village of Swansea not a great dis- tance from Mount Hope. Several men were killed by the Indians, Swansea was
deserted by its inhabitants, and the dwell- ings burned. Messengers were dispatched to Boston to lay the case before the Massachusetts authorities, and a strong plea was made there to provide immediate protection in the emergency. From this point on all was terror and confusion throughout New England. A party of Massachusetts horsemen and foot soldiers started at once in the direction of Mount Hope under the command of Captains Henchman and Prentice, and Samuel Mosely, formerly a privateer, raised a volunteer company of one hundred and ten soldiers and joined the expedition. Captain Church, with the Plymouth troops under Major Cutworth, then entered upon his illustrious career as an Indian fighter.
The English quickly pushed their way from the vicinity of Swansea across to Mount Hope, but all they found was Philip's deserted wigwam and the remains of some of the whites who had been cap- tured and killed. Completely disregarding Church's advice to pursue Philip and possibly bring an early climax to the war by capturing the Indian leader, valuable time was lost when the English decided to tarry at Mount Hope and build a fort; thereby securing ground already gained. As it happened, Philip gathered all of his forces across the Bay in the Pocasset country (or Tiverton) and spread death and conflagration in all directions. After considerable delay, the English saw the wisdom of Church's counsel, and they left Mount Hope to pursue Philip and his men. Following a period of skirmishing, Philip became cornered in a swamp prob- ably not far from present Fall River, near the mouth of the Taunton River, but he managed to escape. Crossing this river on rafts, on the night of the last day in July, he fled north with the principal part of his forces, losing several of his braves in the flight.
Then came one of the turning points in the struggle, one that unnecessarily in- volved Rhode Island, one section of New England that had little to do with the whole affair up to this point. True it was that Philip's home happened to be in Rhode Island; and Benjamin Church, the future chief antagonist of the natives, was
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then living in the Seaconnet lands, but none of the Rhode Island settlements or individual colony leaders had any part in the events that led to open warfare. Roger Williams was still looked upon by the Indians as a friend, and he had been kept busy all this while trying to promote peace through arbitration. Immediately following the outbreak of hostilities, all of the old men, women and children and the wounded and feeble of the tribes whose warriors had entered the field under Philip poured into Rhode Island seeking protection and shelter from the Narragan- sett chiefs and their people. These home- less unfortunates were fed, clothed and treated with kindness, the sick were nursed and the wounds of the disabled warriors were tenderly bound up by the Narragansett squaws. But, when the commissioners of the United Colonies learned that Narragansett in Rhode Island was the place of refuge for the old and helpless, the ill and the wounded belonging to the Wampanoags and other enemy tribes, an armed force was sent into the country with instructions to demand of the Narragansett chieftains delivery of all fugitives. As a result, a senseless and futile treaty was concluded with certain Narragansetts claiming to be the spokes- men for the chiefs by which the Narragan- setts were bound to hand over all of Philip's subjects found in their country. The price was two coats for every prisoner, one coat for every head ; furthermore, this agreement required all Narragansetts to carry on active war against the enemies of the whites. Up to this point the Narragan- setts had remained practically neutral, although it is quite possible that many of these people, especially the young warri- ors, had been attracted to Philip and the thrill of warfare and had left home for adventure and excitement. But, this forced, unofficial agreement to deliver over all Wampanoag casualties and dependents, originally made in July and confirmed under pressure by the Narra- gansett Chieftain Canonchet, in Boston, on October 18, 1675, simply prolonged the war and eventually increased the strength and heightened the fury of the white man's enemy. Roger Williams saw the danger and appealed to Canonchet to
maintain his neutrality, following the latter's visit to Boston, where he received a coat trimmed with silver to commem- orate the meeting and his approval of the treaty. It was Roger Williams who took Canonchet across Narragansett Bay in a canoe when the humiliated chieftain re- turned to his home and people, and it was Williams who gave Canonchet a glass of wine and a bushel of apples as a token of friendship.
Forced participation in the war turned the Narragansetts away from their life- long white friends in Rhode Island and elsewhere, and placed them on the side of the fighting tribes. The report soon spread that no more Wampanoag refugees would be given up by the Narragansetts, and it was at this point in the narrative that Canonchet, the recog- nized head of the Narragansetts, made his famous reply when asked if any more of Philip's people would be turned over to the English. He said: "No, not a Wam- panoag, nor the paring of a Wampanoag's nail." The United Colonies of New Eng- land declared war against the Narragan- setts on November 2, 1675, charging them with failure to live up to their agreements in respect to enemy refugees. One thou- sand men were ordered into the Narragan- sett country to punish a tribe whose people had done nothing more than to act humanely, and, in the extreme, to show sympathy for their own race whose rights were then being defended by a neighbor tribe.
In the meantime Philip had not been inactive. Following his hasty flight from Pocasset (or Tiverton) earlier in the sum- mer, he had gone up into the country of the Nipmucks, a large tribe inhabiting the northeastern portion of present Connecti- cut and the adjoining Massachusetts districts. Although guerilla warfare pre- vailed most of the time, with the Indians firing upon the whites from the cover of underbrush, often the Indian forces would descend upon a small village, kill the inhabitants, men and women, young and old, plunder the dwellings and leave the place in ashes. Mendon was destroyed in July and Brookfield became a scene of a vicious, relentless attack the following month. It was in Brookfield that a timely
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shower of rain saved the inhabitants from complete annihilation when the frail stockade in which the white survivors were sheltered had been ignited by flaming arrows and by a blazing wagon that had been pushed against the structure with long poles bound together.
On September 1, Hadley and Deerfield were fiercely assaulted, and, at the latter place, suddenly appeared an old man, with a long flowing beard and strange clothing, who took command of the panic-stricken people and frightened the enemy into flight. Shortly after, ten men were killed in Northfield; Springfield then suffered and on October 19th, several hundred of Philip's men made an attempt upon Hat- field. With the approach of winter most of the warriors returned to the Narragan- sett country, where their wives and chil- dren were being protected, and it is believed that Philip remained in hiding for a while and then wandered over near the Hudson River, where he may have
attempted to secure more allies. In spite of victories here and there in this bloody period of skirmishes and open attacks, the Indian forces suffered most severely and they were reduced to miserable conditions, living as they were upon animal food and ill-protected from the rigors of the weather.
The whole of New England was aroused to a fighting pitch and the final chapter in the story of an ancient race was about to be enacted. A powerful force of Colonists was on its way into the Narragansett country to exterminate that tribe; Philip's fighting forces were scattered and the leader himself was far away from the scene of action. Captain Benjamin Church was experiencing great successes in his campaigns against the small Indian strongholds in southern New England. Roger Williams continued to exert super- human efforts to protect his own people and to save his Indian friends from certain destruction.
"THE LAST OF THE NARRAGANSETTS"
TN THE Spring of 1675, the Wampanoags began hostilities, with King Philip, son of Massasoit, the leader of all Indian forces and the center of inspiration to the allies who joined their fortunes with his tribe in a final drive to preserve what the Colonists were determined to acquire - control over the lands which they had come to a little more than a half century before. Throughout that summer, New England was the scene of many bloody conflicts with both sides claiming victories and suffering tragic defeats. With the approach of cold weather many of Philip's fighters drifted back to Rhode Island, where many Indian women and children and aged dependents were being harbored by the Narragansetts, a tribe that sym- pathized with the cause of the natives but one that had not actively participated in the conflict. Philip had made his way over into regions in the vicinity of the Hudson River, where he probably hoped to secure additional allies. The Colonists, driven to desperation by what had already
happened and terrified by the prospect of more clashes with the maddened natives, then turned their attention to what is now South County in Rhode Island, where hundreds of refugees were congregating under the protection of the Narragansetts.
Charging them principally with "reliev- ing and succoring Wampanoag women and children and wounded men" the United Colonies of New England declared war against the Narragansetts on November 2, 1675, and about the middle of the follow- ing month, one thousand well-armed white troops reached the village of Wickford, Rhode Island, bent on seeking out the Indian stronghold somewhere in that vicinity. Massachusetts had sent 527 men, Connecticut furnished 300, and Plymouth 177, with Governor Winslow of the latter Colony in supreme command. It is refreshing to note that all known records do not reveal a single Rhode Islander enrolled in this historic expedi- tion. Shortly after the arrival at Wick- ford, Captain Prentice, with a small group
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