As they proceeded on they began to shoot the cattle in the fields, encountering no resistance as nearly all the settlers were in attendance at public worship. At length they reached a house whose owner was not at church. They killed his cattle, then entered the house and demanded liquor, which being refused they attempted to seize by violence. The Englishman infuriated, snatched up his gun and fired, seriously injuring one of the savages. The Indians immediately retired, bearing the wounded warrior with them, and breathing threats of vengeance. Back through Sowams they swiftly wended their way to their own territory. Tradition says that at Kickemuit Spring they met Philip, who wept when he heard their story, and there seems little reason to doubt the truth of the tradition. Though he had long meditated war, the sachem was not yet fully prepared for it. Events unforeseen had, however, hastened the crisis. He found it impossible to curb the impatience and fury of his younger warriors, and though he had failed to complete his cherished scheme for a general uprising of the red men, he could no longer delay open battle with the enemy. Perhaps a prophetic foreboding of defeat forced the tears from his eyes. The raid upon Sowams was the beginning of a reign of terror that extended over every portion of Swansea. The Plymouth government, upon being notified of the condition of affairs, immediately dispatched companies of militia to the assistance of the distressed township. On June 22d, six men were killed or mortally wounded at Mattapoiset. Thursday, June 24th, was appointed a day of fasting and prayer, and as some of the colonists were returning from church they were fired upon by the Indians with the result that one man was killed and another wounded. During the same day “six men were killed in another part of the town.” On the 28th, William Hammond was killed and “one Corporal Belcher” wounded while scouring the “enemy’s territory” between Miles’ garrison[23] at North Swansea and the Sowams’ settlement. On the 29th, a party of Indians who had shown themselves near the garrison were pursued by the English towards Sowams but made their escape into a nearby swamp.[24] That night Philip, fearful of capture, abandoned Mt. Hope Neck retreating across the bay to Pocasset, now Tiverton. One of the last acts performed by the savages ere quitting the home of their ancestors, was the final destruction of Sowams. Hubbard tells us that on the following day the entire English force (which had concentrated at North Swansea) marched from Miles’ garrison towards Mt. Hope. At a point about a mile and a half below the bridge near the garrison they “passed by some houses newly burned” and “not far off one of them they found a Bible newly torn and the leaves scattered about by the enemy.” These charred ruins and torn and scattered leaves were all that remained of English Sowams, ill-fated Sowams, strangely destined to be