3. Within a week the militia of Plymouth, joined by volunteers from
Boston, entered the enemy's country. A few Indians were overtaken and
killed. The troops marched into the peninsula of Bristol, and compelled
Philip to fly for his life. A general Indian war broke out. The hatred
of the savages was easily kindled into hostility. For a whole year the
settlements on the frontier became a scene of burning and massacre.
4. King Canonchet of the Narragansetts first made a treaty of peace
with the English, but later violated it and chose to share the fate of
Philip. But after much desperate fighting and heavy losses on both
sides, the resources of the savages were exhausted and their numbers
daily grew less. In April, 1676, Canonchet was captured on the banks
of the Blackstone. Refusing to make a treaty, the haughty chieftain
was put to death. Philip's company had dwindled to a handful. His wife
and son were made prisoners; the latter was sold as a slave, and ended
his life in the Bermudas. The savage monarch cared no longer to live.
A company of soldiers surrounded him near his old home at Mount Hope.
A treacherous Indian took a deadly aim at the breast of his chieftain.
The report of a musket rang through the woods, and the king of the
Wampanoags sprang forward and fell dead.
5. New England suffered terribly in this war. The losses of the war
amounted to five hundred thousand dollars. Thirteen towns and six
hundred dwellings lay in ashes. Six hundred men had fallen in the
field. Gray-haired sire, mother and babe had sunk together under
the blow of the Red man's tomahawk. Now there was peace again. The
Indian race had been swept out of New England. The tribes beyond the
Connecticut came and pleaded for their lives. The colonists returned to
their farms and villages, to build new homes in the ashes of old ruins.
[Sidenote: =The Province of Maine.=]
6. The next trouble was concerning the province of Maine. Sir Ferdinand
Gorges, the old proprietor, was now dead; but his heirs still claimed
the territory. The people of Maine had put themselves under the
authority of Massachusetts; but the heirs of Gorges carried the matter
before the English council, and in 1677 a decision was given in their
favor. The Boston government then made a proposition to the Gorges
family to purchase their claims; this was accepted, and for the sum
of twelve hundred and fifty pounds the province was transferred to
Massachusetts.
[Sidenote: =Province of New Hampshire.=]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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