Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada
[Footnote 343: "During the war with Philip, the Indians took some
English alive, and set them upright in the ground, with this sarcasm:
'You English, since you came into this country, have grown considerably
above ground; let us now see how you will grow when planted into the
ground.'"--_Narrative of the Wars in New England_, 1675.-_Harleian
Miscellany_, vol. v., p. 400.]
[Footnote 344: "The Pequods were a powerful nation on the Connecticut
border, who could muster a thousand warriors. The English might have
found it difficult to withstand them but for an alliance with the second
most powerful people, the Narragansets, whose ancient enmity to the
Pequods for a time prevailed over their jealousy of the foreigners. But
at length, when the Pequods were nearly exterminated, the Narragansets,
seeing the power of the strangers paramount, began to side with their
enemies. The Indian chiefs began to imitate the English mode of
fighting, and even to assume English names, with some characteristic
epithet. One-eyed John, Stone-wall John, and Sagamore Sam, kept the
colony in perpetual alarm. But their most deadly and formidable enemy
was Philip, sachem of the Wampanoags. No Indian was ever more dreaded by
civilized man. A century and a half has now elapsed since this hero of
Pokanoket fell a victim to his own race, but even to this day his name
is respected, and the last object supposed to have been touched by him
in his lifetime is considered by every American as a valuable relic.
This extraordinary man, whose real name was Metacom, succeeded his
brother in the government of the Wampanoags. The wrongs and grievances
suffered by this brother, added to those which he had himself
experienced from the English colonists, induced him to engage in a war
against them. The issue might, perhaps, have been less doubtful, had not
one of his followers defeated his plans by a premature explosion before
he had time to summon and concentrate his warriors and allies. From this
time no smiles were seen on his face. But though he soon perceived that
the great enterprise he had formed was likely to be frustrated, he never
lost that elevation of soul which distinguished him to the last moments
of his life. By his exertions and energy, all the Indian nations
occupying the territory between Maine and the River Connecticut, a
distance of nearly 200 miles, took up arms. Every where the name of King
Philip was the signal for massacre and flames. But fraud and treason
soon accomplished what open warfare could not effect; his followers gave
way to numbers; his nearest relations and friends forsook him, and a
treacherous ball at last struck his heart. His head was carried round
the country in triumph, and exposed as that of a traitor; but posterity
has done him justice. Patriotism was his only crime, and his death was
that of a hero."--Arfwedson, vol. i., p. 229.]
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