CAUSES of Philip's War--Character of Philip--General spirit of hostility among the Indians--Outbreak at Swansey--Expedition under General Savage--Expedition under Captain Church--Perilous situation of this latter party--Timely arrival of Captain Hutchinson--Second expedition of Captain Church--Critical situation of Philip--Effects his escape--Annoys the back settlements of Massachusetts--Treachery of the Nipmucks--Attack on Brookfield--Bloody affair at Muddy Brook--Attack on Springfield--Attack on Hatfield--Outrages at Northampton--Large force raised by Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, against the Narragansets--Philip's fortress at Kingston, Rhode Island--Destruction of it--Lancaster destroyed--Other towns burned--Fatal affair at Pawtuxet river, Rhode Island--Stratagem of Cape Cod Indians--Attacks on Rehoboth, Chelmsford, Sudbury, &c.--Expedition of Connecticut troops--Conanchet captured--Long Meadow attacked--Hadley--Fortunes of Philip on the wane--Successful expedition against the Indians at Connecticut river falls--Attack on Hatfield--On Hadley--Remarkable interposition of a stranger at Hadley, supposed to be Goffe--Decline of Philip's power--Pursued by Captain Church--Death of Philip--Disastrous effects of the war--Philip's warriors--Annawon--Reflections. To communities and nations, crises arrive, in which, through danger and sufferings, they are either overcome and extirpated, or spring forward to an improved condition after the first hurtful effect of the trial is passed away. The war with Philip constituted such a crisis to the New England colonies. Their danger was imminent--their sufferings were fearful, and the immediate consequences were lamentation, and weakness, and indebtedness. But their recuperative energies soon rëappeared, and a wide door thus became open to extended settlement and population. The causes of the war lay partly in the condition of the colonies, and partly in the character of Philip. The English settlements were extending far into the wilderness, the home of the Indian, and were rapidly increasing in strength. The natives viewed them as intruders, and considered the probability that, at no distant day, they would be dispossessed of the heritage of their fathers. They were jealous of the designs of the English, and impatient under the encroachments already made. They viewed themselves as the proper lords of the forest, and they now saw that their hunting grounds were abridged, and the wild animals on which they depended for subsistence, were disappearing, as the white man felled the trees, and cultivated the soil, and reared his dwellings.