wading in deep snow, and attacked the fort of the enemy. The Narragansets were furnished with muskets, and made havoc with the assailants, especially among the officers who first entered the fort, most of whom were killed. Six captains and eighty men were killed; one hundred and fifty were wounded; and all suffered incredibly from frozen limbs and other hardships. But the success was complete; two or three hundred of the Indians were slain, all their huts burnt, and the country ravaged.

270. Progress of the war in 1676. About the 10th of February, a party of savages burnt Lancaster, and killed or took prisoners forty of the inhabitants, among which was the family of the minister, Mr. Rowlandson. Ten days after, they attacked Medfield, early in the morning, and so suddenly, that, although garrisoned, they burnt nearly one half of the town, and slew many of the inhabitants. On the 26th of March, captain Pierce, and fifty men from Plymouth, were slain near Pautuxet. A great part of Marlborough was burnt on the same day, and Warwick was laid in ashes on the 17th of the same month. About forty houses and thirty barns were burnt on the 28th following, in Rehoboth; and the next day, Providence was attacked, and thirty houses burnt. Many other places suffered in a less degree.

271. Success of the English. The tide of victory now began to turn. In April, captain Denison, af Stonington, collected forty-seven volunteers and a party of friendly Indians, attacked the savages, and took their sachem prisoner, and killed forty-five, without the loss of a man. This sachem, called Cononchet, was the son of Miantinomo, an insolent chief of the Narragansets, and was an unrelenting enemy. He was beheaded at Stonington. Captain Denison repeated his expeditions and killed many savages. The latter, however, continued to kill and destroy, wherever they came; and many towns suffered a loss of people and property. Captain Wadsworth, with fifty men, between Sudbury and Marlborough, was decoyed into a wood, and slain with almost all his men. But the English were very

active in hunting them, and finally drove Philip to his former residence at mount Hope, where he was killed by a shot from a friendly Indian under captain Church on the 12th of August, 1676. This fortunate event put an end to the war,

Six

272. Effects of this war. The colonies in New England, in the year 1675, contained from thirty-five to forty thousand inhabitants, and their militia between seven and eight thousand men. Of these, about six hundred fell in the war, besides many women and children. Twelve or thirteen towns were destroyed, and many others lost a part of their buildings. hundred buildings, mostly dwelling houses, were consumed, many cattle killed, and a heavy debt contracted. Connecticut suffered less than the other colonies, and it is remarkable that the Mohegans, from the first settlement of the colony, remained in friendship with the English, and were very useful to them in their wars. In consequence of their fidelity, they have been protected by the government; their property has been secured to them, and is still in possession of the tribe.

273. War in king William's reign. On the access of William, prince of Orange, to the throne of England, a war broke out between England and France; and as Canada then belonged to France, the French instigated the Indians to hostilities against the colonies. A body of French and Indians, from Montreal, attacked Schenectady, in the night of February 8, 1690, when the unsuspecting inhabitants were at rest, killed sixty, and took twenty prisoners. They also set fire to the houses, killed most of the cattle and horses, and marched off with the remainder of the horses laden with plunder. Those of the people who escaped, fled naked towards Albany, amidst the snow, in a severe night, twenty of whom lost their limbs by the frost. The horror and sufferings of the inhabitants were beyond the powers of description.

274. Indian depredations in New Hampshire and Maine. The inhabitants in the eastern part of New England had suffered greatly in Philip's war, but were severely harrassed and desolated from the year 1690 to 1698. The brave and venerable major Waldron, and twenty-two others, were taken by surprise and slain, and their houses burnt. The plantation at Salmon Falls, in New Hampshire, was surprised and burnt on the 18th of March, 1690; thirty men were slain, and the women and children were made captives. The fort and settlement at Casco were destroyed in May following. Continual murders of the people, and destruction of buildings, alarms and distresses, induced the inhabitants to abandon the most defenseless parts of the country, and retire to garrisoned towns. Nor did these calamities cease, till the peace between France and England, in 1698, when Frontenac, the French commander in Canada, ceased to instigate the savages.

275. War in queen Ann's reign. In 1702, war was proclaimed between England and France, and the American colonies were again exposed to Indian ravages. Deerfield was surprised and burnt, and most of the inhabitants carried captive, February 28, 1704. New Hampshire, and especially Maine, was exposed to the inroads of ferocious savages, who continued every year

to alarm or massacre the people, and burn their dwellings. The peace of Utrecht, signed March 30, 1713, put an end to these calamities, and from that time the growing population of New England secured the inhabitants from similar distresses. Wonderful was the patience, fortitude, self-denial, and bravery, of our ancestors, in settling, cultivating, and defending this goodly heritage which we enjoy !

276. Title of our ancestors to the soil of this country. The inhabitants which our fathers found in America, though savage tribes, which subsisted principally by hunting and fishing, were considered as the rightful owners of the soil, and treated as such. Although the English first landed on their territory without their consent, yet they were careful to acquire a just title to the lands by fair purchase from the possessors. Our ancestors bought almost all the lands for a valuable consideration, though generally small; and the deeds are registered among the records of the colonies. Had it not been for the French in Canada, who, during the wars between England and France, instigated the savages to seek the blood and property of the English, it is probable our forefathers would have escaped most of the wars with the Indians, and their distressing consequences. The power of the French, in Canada, to injure the colonies, was happily destroyed by the reduction of Quebec, by the forces under general Wolfe, in 1758, and the conquest of the whole province of Canada,

277. Division among the different tribes. When this country was first planted, the Indians, like other nations, were often at war among themselves. The Pequots were terrible to their neighbors; and the Mohegans and Narragansets joyfully assisted the English to exterminate them. In Philip's war, the English were assisted also by a number of friendly Indians. The five nations west of Albany were very useful in aiding the settlers to check the incursions of the Canada tribes under French influence. The first settlements in Carolina, which might have been easily destroyed, were secured and left to thrive, by means of a bloody

war between the two neighboring tribes, which nearly extinguished both. While we may rejoice at such divisions which were favorable to our ancestors, in the infant state of the colonies, yet we are to learn from them the great danger to a people from disunion. Nothing renders the conquest of a country so easy, as disunion and controversies among the inhabitants.

278. War against the Tuscaroras. In the year 1712, the Tuscaroras, a considerable nation of Indians on the frontiers of North Carolina, with some other tribes, made war on the infant settlements in that colony, and threatened it with extirpation. Their first inroad was kept so secret, that they fell on the unsuspecting planters by surprise, killing all without mercy. About Roanoke, one hundred and thirty-seven persons were slain in one night, among whom were most of the Germans, who had then lately arrived. Governor Craven, of South Carolina, as soon as he heard of this plot, sent colonel Barnwell against the savages, at the head of six hundred men, and a body of Indians of other tribes. Marching through a wilderness, colonel Barnwell surrounded the Indians in their own town, slew many of them, and compelled the remainder to ask for peace. Such of the Tuscaroras as escaped, abandoned their country, settled among the Five Nations; and added a sixth tribe, so that they afterwards were called the Six Nations.

279. Conspiracy of the Yamasees. The southern border of South Carolina, along the Savannah, was inhabited by a numerous and powerful tribe of Indians, called Yamasees. These lived, for many years, in friendship with the Carolinians; but in 1715, instigated, it was believed, by the Spaniards of Florida, they formed a general conspiracy of all the neighboring tribes, to destroy the English settlements. Not less than six or seven thousand warriors of the Congarees, Catawbas, Cherokees, Yamasees, and other tribes, were engaged in this plot. On the 15th of April, at daybreak, they began their horrid work of massacre and torture, and ninety persons, who went to Pocotaglio, one of their towns, to trade, or were in the neighboring