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played a happy combination of savage fortitude and Christian submission. All who witnessed her last moments, were affected by the lively and edifying picture of piety and virtue which her language and demeanor exhibited at the approach of the fatal hour. Her infant son, Thomas Rolfe, was left at Plymouth with Sir Lewis Steukly, who took charge of his maintenance and education. He returned afterwards to Virginia, and became a man of fortune and eminence there. His descendants, at the present day, form a very numerous and highly respectable progeny.

The name of Pocahontas adorns the brightest page in the history of the natives of America. In whatever light we view her character, either as a maiden, a wife, or a mother, she is equally entitled to our respect and admiration. Heroic and amiable, constant and courageous, humane, generous, discreet and pious, she combined in an extraordinary manner the virtues and perfections of both savage and civilized The union of so many qualities honorable to the female sex and to the human species, should never be forgotten, in forming our estimate of the American race.

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PHILIP.

MASSASOIT, the sachem of the tribe of Indians who dwelt in the neighborhood of Boston, and who gave his name to the state of Massachusetts, had two sons, whom the English named Alexander and Philip. Massasóit was the friend of the English as long as he lived. At the period of his death, in 1661, the settlements had extended inland beyond Connecticut river, and the white population of New England probably amounted to forty thousand souls. The Indians, at the same period, might have numbered thirty thousand; but the whites were continually increasing, and the Indians diminishing. The latter became jealous and distrustful as they saw the former encroaching on their territories, and themselves cooped up in narrow precincts, where their neighbors could watch them and keep them in subjection. It is true these encroachments were always made by purchase, and the prices were duly paid, but the Indians commonly repented of their bargains, or forgot them, and saw nothing but injustice and usurpation in the gradual extension of the English settlements over the country of which they had formerly held undisturbed possession.

Alexander, the elder son, inherited the authority of Massasoit, but died after a reign of a few months. Philip succeeded him in 1662. His Indian name was Metacom. Hubbard, the old historian of New

England, informs us that, "for his ambitious and haughty spirit, he was nicknamed king Philip." He was chief of the Pokanokets, or Wampanoags, a tribe of the Narragansets, who dwelt around the bay of Rhode Island. Philip's chief seat was at Mount Hope, now Bristol. He appears to have nourished hostile feelings against the English at a very early period. Immediately after his accession to the command, rumors of plots and treacheries began to alarm the settlers. At the court of Plymouth, on the 6th of August, 1662, Philip made his appearance to clear himself of the charges made against him. We are unable to say whether he had any settled plan of hostilities at this period. The accusation of plotting to cut off the English, he utterly denied, and earnestly requested the continuance of the friendship which had subsisted between them and his father. A treaty was accordingly drawn up, signed by Philip and his uncle, and witnessed by other Indian sachems. This seems to have quieted the fears of the Plymouth people, and we hear little more of Philip's designs for eight or nine years.

During this period, the Pokanokets increased in numbers, and acquired additional strength by obtaining fire-arms from the English. Their ancient bows and arrows were now thrown aside. Philip was active in studying the condition of the settlers, and making himself acquainted with their strength, policy and designs. Historians have given him credit for a grand scheme, conceived with deep foresight, and carried on with the most crafty and persevering dissimulation a scheme to lull the suspicions of the

whites by a constant show of friendship, till a general combination of all the Indian tribes could be formed to extirpate them at a single blow. There was probably less systematic plotting and precise calculation' in the Indian politics, than is commonly imagined. The savages, irascible, vindictive, reckless and impetuous, could not avoid collisions with their neighbors. Threats of hostility were uttered from time to time, and the fears of the colonists magnified these explosions of an angry temper into an organized scheme of resistance. All we know with certainty, is, that the broils with the Indians continued to multiply, till the English were fully persuaded that a plot was going on for their destruction. They felt that something must be done to meet the coming storm, or dissipate it before it should burst on their heads.

In April, 1671, Philip was discovered to be making warlike preparations. The English summoned him to a conference with the Plymouth government at Taunton, to which place he came with a band of warriors, attired, painted and armed as for battle. A council was held in the meeting-house, one side of which was occupied by the Indians, and the other by the English. Philip charged the whites with depredations upon his cornfields, and declared that he was arming not against the English, but against the Narragansets. This was contradicted by such proofs that Philip was utterly confounded and driven to a confession of the whole plot, declaring "that it was the naughtiness of his own heart that put him upon that rebellion, and nothing of any provocation from the English." He signed a submission, with four of

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