alluded to was a fable, "Certain it is," writes Mr. Hubbard, in his History of New England,

ཎྞཾ

Justice gives sentence many times
On one man for another's crimes.
Our brethren of New England use
Choice malefactors to excuse,
And hang the guiltless in their stead,

Of whom the churches have less need:

As lately happened. In a towndonín, avita quod

ad but o

There lived a cobbler, and
one, bude doiske
That out of doctrine could cut use,
And mend men's lives as well as shoes:
This precious brother having slain,
In time of peace, an Indian,
(Not out of malice, but mere zeal,
Because he was an Infidel,)
The mighty Tottipottimoyait
Sent to our elders an envoy,
Complaining sorely of the breach

300 of league, held forth by brother Patch, et mivil to Against the articles in force osob deom odwr mid Between both churches, his and ours; bega

For which he craved the Saints to render

Into his hands, or hang the offender.
But they maturely having weighed,
They had no more but him o' the trade,
(A man that served them in a double
Capacity, to teach and cobble,)
Resolved to spare him: yet, to do
The Indian Hoghan-Moghan too
Impartial justice-in his stead did
Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid."

Hudibras. Part II. canto 2.

"that the Indians were so provoked with their filching and stealing, that they threatened them, as the Philistines did Sampson's father-in-law after the loss of their corn; insomuch that Weston's company, as some report, pretended in way of satisfaction to punish him that did the theft; but in his stead hanged a poor decrepit old man, that was unserviceable to the company, and burthensome to keep alive, which was the ground of the story with which the merry gentleman that wrote the poem called Hudibras did, in his poetical fancy, make so much sport. Yet the inhabitants of Plimouth tell the story much otherwise, as if the person hanged was really guilty of stealing, as may be were many of the rest; and if they were driven by necessity to content the Indians at that time, to do justice, there being some of Mr. Weston's company then living, it is possible it might be executed, not on him who most deserved, but on him that could be best spared, or who was not like to live long if he had been let alone."*

Hubbard's General History of New England, ch. 13.

NEW England, after the termination of her hostilities with the Pequots and Narragansets, remained for many years at peace; but at length "those coals of discention which had a long time layn hid under the ashes of a secret envy, contracted by the heathen against the English and Christian natives of that countrey, brake out in June 1675."* It was then that the sanguinary contest, commonly known by the name of King Philip's War, began. This renowned chieftain, whose Indian name was Metacom, generally had his head-quarters at a spot called Mount Hope, now within the state of Rhode Island. Philip was a son of the celebrated Massasoit, and succeeded to the command after the death of his elder brother Wamsutta, from whom he inherited a secret and deep-rooted enmity against the English colonists. This heathen sovereign

* News from New England, being a true and last Account of the present bloody Wars with the Infidels. London, 1676.

+ When Massasoit's two sons, Wamsutta and Metacom,

seldom paid much attention to the treaties entered into with his Christian neighbours: he smoked the pipe of peace when he thought fit, and raised the hatchet when it suited his convenience. Philip of Mount Hope, like his royal brother of Macedon, appears to have been a politic but troublesome prince; and perhaps he has found in the Reverend Mr. Hubbard as stern a composer of Philippics, as did the Macedonian monarch in the celebrated orator of Athens: "The devil, who was a murderer from the beginning, had so filled the heart of this salvage miscreant with envy and malice against the English, that he was ready to break out into open war against the inhabitants of Plimouth, pretending some petite injuries done to him in planting land," &c. And again: "Yet did this treacherous and perfidious caitiff still harbour the same, or more mischievous thoughts against them than ever before; and hath been, since that time, plotting with all the Indians round about, to make a general insurrection against the English."*

Dr. Dwight, in his Travels through New England, has presented us with a more favourable view of the character of this Indian sovereign. He states that Philip was sagacious and politic, pos

were at Plymouth, the governor gave them the names of Alexander and Philip.-Hutchinson's Hist. of Massachusset's Bay, p. 276.

Hubbard's Narrative, pp. 11 and 13.

sessing in an eminent degree that address in negotiation which enabled him to persuade those who were hostile towards each other heartily to unite in a common cause; that he saw the colonists increasing daily in power, and that their establishing themselves upon his native shores would eventually prove fatal to the independence of his countrymen. Under this conviction, he began to adopt such measures as he thought might prevent the evils which he dreaded. "With the peculiar secresy," says Dwight, "which characterizes this people, he dispatched his runners, first to the neighbouring tribes, and then to those which were more distant. To all he represented, in strong terms, the numbers, the power, the increase, and the unfriendly designs of the colonists, and the danger with which they threatened all the original inhabitants. In various instances, he pleaded the cause in person, and, by himself and his emissaries, made a deeper and more general, impression than could easily have been believed, or than some discreet inhabitants of this country can even now be persuaded to admit."

Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massachussets, observes: "Philip was a man of high spirits, and could not bear to see the English of New Plymouth extending their settlements over the dominions of his ancestors; and although his

*

Dwight's Travels in New England, vol. ii., lett. 50.