第26章 THE SKETCH BOOK(3)

Philip and several of his subjects submitted to be examined, butnothing was proved against them. The settlers, however, had now gonetoo far to retract; they had previously determined that Philip was adangerous neighbor; they had publicly evinced their distrust; andhad done enough to insure his hostility; according, therefore, tothe usual mode of reasoning in these cases, his destruction had becomenecessary to their security. Sausaman, the treacherous informer, wasshortly afterwards found dead, in a pond, having fallen a victim tothe vengeance of his tribe. Three Indians, one of whom was a friendand counsellor of Philip, were apprehended and tried, and, on thetestimony of one very questionable witness, were condemned andexecuted as murderers.

This treatment of his subjects, and ignominious punishment of hisfriend, outraged the pride and exasperated the passions of Philip. Thebolt which had fallen thus at his very feet awakened him to thegathering storm, and he determined to trust himself no longer in thepower of the white men. The fate of his insulted and broken-heartedbrother still rankled in his mind; and he had a further warning in thetragical story of Miantonimo, a great Sachem of the Narragansetts,who, after manfully facing his accusers before a tribunal of thecolonists, exculpating himself from a charge of conspiracy, andreceiving assurances of amity, had been perfidiously despatched attheir instigation. Philip, therefore, gathered his fighting menabout him; persuaded all strangers that he could, to join his cause;sent the women and children to the Narragansetts for safety; andwherever he appeared, was continually surrounded by armed warriors.

When the two parties were thus in a state of distrust andirritation, the least spark was sufficient to set them in a flame. TheIndians, having weapons in their hands, grew mischievous, andcommitted various petty depredations. In one of their maraudings awarrior was fired on and killed by a settler. This was the signalfor open hostilities; the Indians pressed to revenge the death oftheir comrade, and the alarm of war resounded through the Plymouthcolony.

In the early chronicles of these dark and melancholy times we meetwith many indications of the diseased state of the public mind. Thegloom of religious abstraction, and the wildness of their situation,among trackless forests and savage tribes, had disposed thecolonists to superstitious fancies, and had filled theirimaginations with the frightful chimeras of witchcraft andspectrology. They were much given also to a belief in omens. Thetroubles with Philip and his Indians were preceded, we are told, bya variety of those awful warnings which forerun great and publiccalamities. The perfect form of an Indian bow appeared in the air atNew Plymouth, which was looked upon by the inhabitants as a"prodigious apparition." At Hadley, Northampton, and other towns intheir neighborhood, "was heard the report of a great piece ofordnance, with a shaking of the earth and a considerable echo.* Otherswere alarmed on a still, sunshiny morning by the discharge of guns andmuskets; bullets seemed to whistle past them, and the noise of drumsresounded in the air, seeming to pass away to the westward; othersfancied that they heard the galloping of horses over their heads;and certain monstrous births, which took place about the time,filled the superstitious in some towns with doleful forebodings.

Many of these portentous sights and sounds may be ascribed tonatural phenomena: to the northern lights which occur vividly in thoselatitudes; the meteors which explode in the air; the casual rushing ofa blast through the top branches of the forest; the crash of fallentrees or disrupted rocks; and to those other uncouth sounds and echoeswhich will sometimes strike the ear so strangely amidst the profoundstillness of woodland solitudes. These may have startled somemelancholy imaginations, may have been exaggerated by the love for themarvellous, and listened to with that avidity with which we devourwhatever is fearful and mysterious. The universal currency of thesesuperstitious fancies, and the grave record made of them by one of thelearned men of the day, are strongly characteristic of the times.

* The Rev. Increase Mather's History.

The nature of the contest that ensued was such as too oftendistinguishes the warfare between civilized men and savages. On thepart of the whites it was conducted with superior skill and success;but with a wastefulness of the blood, and a disregard of the naturalrights of their antagonists: on the part of the Indians it was wagedwith the desperation of men fearless of death, and who had nothingto expect from peace, but humiliation, dependence, and decay.

The events of the war are transmitted to us by a worthy clergyman ofthe time; who dwells with horror and indignation on every hostileact of the Indians, however justifiable, whilst he mentions withapplause the most sanguinary atrocities of the whites. Philip isreviled as a murderer and a traitor; without considering that he was atrue born prince, gallantly fighting at the head of his subjects toavenge the wrongs of his family; to retrieve the tottering power ofhis line; and to deliver his native land from the oppression ofusurping strangers.

The project of a wide and simultaneous revolt, if such had reallybeen formed, was worthy of a capacious mind, and, had it not beenprematurely discovered, might have been overwhelming in itsconsequences. The war that actually broke out was but a war of detail,a mere succession of casual exploits and unconnected enterprises.