had been once more present in spirit with fat Jack | sympathies and affections than are usually ascribed Falstaff, and his contemporaries, from the august to him. Justice Shallow, down to the gentle Master Slender, and the sweet Anne Page. Ten thousand honours and blessings on the bard who has thus gilded the dull realities of life with innocent illusions; who has spread exquisite and unbought pleasures in my chequered path; and beguiled my spirit in many a lonely hour, with all the cordial and cheerful sympathies of social life! It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of America, in the early periods of colonization, to be doubly wronged by the white men. They have been dispossessed of their hereditary possessions, by mercenary and frequently wanton warfare; and their characters have been traduced by bigoted and interested writers. The colonist has often treated them like beasts of the forest; and the author has endeafound it easier to exterminate than to civilize-the latter to vilify than to discriminate. The appellations of savage and pagan were deemed sufficient to sanction the hostilities of both; and thus the poor wanderers of the forest were persecuted and defamed, not because they were guilty, but because they were ignorant. In As I crossed the bridge over the Avon on my re-voured to justify him in his outrages. The former turn, I paused to contemplate the distant church in which the poet lies buried, and could not but exult in the malediction which has kept his ashes undisturbed in its quiet and hallowed vaults. What honour could his name have derived from being mingled in dusty companionship with the epitaphs and escutcheons and venal eulogiums of a titled multitude? What would a crowded corner in West- The rights of the savage have seldom been propminster Abbey have been, compared with this rev-erly appreciated or respected by the white man. erend pile, which seems to stand in beautiful loneli- peace, he has too often been the dupe of artful traffic; ness as his sole mausoleum! The solicitude about | in war, he has been regarded as a ferocious animal, the grave may be but the offspring of an overwrought whose life or death was a question of mere precausensibility; but human nature is made up of foibles tion and convenience. Man is cruelly wasteful of and prejudices; and its best and tenderest affections are mingled with these factitious feelings. He who has sought renown about the world, and has reaped a full harvest of worldly favour, will find, after all, that there is no love, no admiration, no applause, so sweet to the soul as that which springs up in his native place. It is there that he seeks to be gathered in peace and honour, among his kindred and his early friends. And when the weary heart and failing head begin to warn him that the evening of life is drawing on, he turns as fondly as does the infant to the mother's arms, to sink to sleep in the bosom of the scene of his childhood. How would it have cheered the spirit of the youthful bard, when, wandering forth in disgrace upon a doubtful world, he cast back a heavy look upon his paternal home, could he have foreseen that, before many years, he should return to it covered with renown; that his name should become the boast and glory of his native place; that his ashes should be religiously guarded as its most precious treasure; and that its lessening spire, on which his eyes were fixed in tearful contemplation, should one day become the beacon, towering amidst the gentle landscape, to guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his tomb! life when his own safety is endangered, and he is sheltered by impunity; and little mercy is to be expected from him when he feels the sting of the reptile, and is conscious of the power to destroy. The same prejudices which were indulged thus early, exist in common circulation at the present day. Certain learned societies have, it is true, with laudable diligence, endeavoured to investigate and record the real characters and manners of the Indian tribes; the American government, too, has wisely and humanely exerted itself to inculcate a friendly and forbearing spirit towards them, and to protect them from fraud and injustice.* The current opinion of the Indian character, however, is too apt to be formed from the miserable hordes which infest the frontiers, and hang on the skirts of the settlements. These are too commonly composed of degenerate beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the vices of society, without being benefited by its civilization. That proud independence, which formed the main pillar of savage virtue, has been shaken down, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are humiliated and debased by a sense of inferiority, and their native courage cowed and daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their enlightened neighbours. Society has advanced upon them like one of those withering airs that will sometimes breathe desolation over a whole region of fertility. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their diseases, and superinduced upon their original barbarity the low vices of artificial life. It has given them a thousand superfluous wants, whilst it has diminished their means of mere existence. It has driven before it the animals of the chase, who fly from the sound of the axe and the smoke of the settlement, and seek refuge in the depths of remoter forests and yet unTHERE is something in the character and habits trodden wilds Thus do we too often find the Indians of the North American savage, taken in connexion on our frontiers to be mere wrecks and remnants of with the scenery over which he is accustomed to once powerful tribes, who have lingered in the virange, its vast lakes, boundless forests, majestic cinity of the settlements, and sunk into precarious and rivers, and trackless plains, that is, to my mind, vagabond existence. Poverty, repining and hopeless wonderfully striking and sublime. He is formed for poverty, a canker of the mind unknown in savage the wilderness, as the Arab is for the desert. His life, corrodes their spirits and blights every free and nature is stern, simple, and enduring; fitted to grap-noble quality of their natures. They become drunken, ple with difficulties, and to support privations. There seems but little soil in his heart for the growth of the kindly virtues; and yet, if we would but take the trouble to penetrate through that proud stoicism and habitual taciturnity, which look up his character from casual observation, we should find him linked to his fellow man of civilized life by more of those TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER. "I appeal to any white man if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not to eat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not."-Speech of an Indian Chief. The American government has been indefatigable in its exertions to meliorate the situation of the Indians, and to introduce among them the arts of civilization, and civil and religious knowledge. To protect them from the frauds of the white traders, no purchase of land from them by individuals is permitted; nor is any person allowed to receive lands from them as a present, without strictly enforced. the express sanction of government. These precautions are indolent, feeble, thievish, and pusillanimous. They minds of the warriors. The orator awakens their loiter like vagrants about the settlements among martial ardour, and they are wrought up to a kind spacious dwellings, replete with elaborate comforts, of religious desperation, by the visions of the prophet which only render them sensible of the comparative and the dreamer. wretchedness of their own condition. Luxury spreads An instance of one of those sudden exasperations, its ample board before their eyes; but they are ex- arising from a motive peculiar to the Indian charac cluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over the ter, is extant in an old record of the early settlefields; but they are starving in the midst of its ment of Massachusetts. The planters of Plymouth abundance: the whole wilderness has blossomed had defaced the monuments of the dead at Passoninto a garden; but they feel as reptiles that infest it. agessit, and had plundered the grave of the SaHow different was their state, while yet the un-chem's mother of some skins with which it had disputed lords of the soil! Their wants were few, been decorated. The Indians are remarkable for and the means of gratification within their reach. the reverence which they entertain for the sepulchres They saw every one round them sharing the same of their kindred. Tribes that have passed generalot, enduring the same hardships, feeding on the tions exiled from the abodes of their ancestors, when same aliments, arrayed in the same rude garments. by chance they have been travelling in the vicinity, No roof then rose, but was open to the homeless have been known to turn aside from the highway, stranger; no smoke curled among the trees, but he and, guided by wonderfully accurate tradition, have was welcome to sit down by its fire and join the crossed the country for miles to some tumulus, hunter in his repast. For," says an old historian buried perhaps in woods, where the bones of their of New-England, "their life is so void of care, and tribe were anciently deposited; and there have they are so loving also, that they make use of those passed hours in silent meditation. Influenced by things they enjoy as common goods, and are therein this sublime and holy feeling, the Sachem, whose so compassionate, that rather than one should starve mother's tomb had been violated, gathered his men through want, they would starve all; thus do they together, and addressed them in the following beaupass their time merrily, not regarding our pomp, but tifully simple and pathetic harangue; a curious speciare better content with their own, which some men men of Indian eloquence, and an affecting instance esteem so meanly of." Such were the Indians, of filial piety in a savage. whilst in the pride and energy of their primitive natures; they resemble those wild plants which thrive best in the shades of the forest, but shrink from the hand of cultivation, and perish beneath the influence of the sun. In discussing the savage character, writers have been too prone to indulge in vulgar prejudice and passionate exaggeration, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently considered the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar principles under which they have been educated. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws that govern him are, to be sure, but few; but then he conforms to them all ;-the white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners, but how many does he violate! "When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath this globe, and birds grew silent, I began to settle, as my custom is, to take repose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, methought I saw a vision, at which my spirit was much troubled; and trembling at that doleful sight, a spirit cried aloud, Behold, my son, whom I have cherished, see the breasts that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm, and fed thee oft. Canst thou forget to take revenge of those wild people, who have defaced my monument in a despiteful manner, disdaining our antiquities and honourable customs? See, now, the Sachem's grave lies like the common people, defaced by an ignoble race. Thy mother doth complain, and implores thy aid against this thievish people, who have newly intruded on our land. If this be suffered, I shall not rest quiet in my everlasting habitation.' This said, the spirit vanished, and I, all in a sweat, not able scarce to speak, began to get some strength, and recollected my spirits that were fled, and determined to demand your counsel and assistance." I have adduced this anecdote at some length, as tends to show how these sudden acts of hostility, which have been attributed to caprice and perfidy, may often arise from deep and generous motives, which our inattention to Indian character and customs prevents our properly appreciating. A frequent ground of accusation against the Indians is their disregard of treaties, and the treachery and wantonness with which, in time of apparent peace, they will suddenly fly to hostilities. The intercourse of the white men with the Indians, how-it ever, is too apt to be cold, distrustful, oppressive, and insulting. They seldom treat them with that confidence and frankness which are indispensable to real friendship; nor is sufficient caution observed not to offend against those feelings of pride or super- Another ground of violent outcry against the Instition, which often prompt the Indian to hostility dians, is their barbarity to the vanquished. This quicker than mere considerations of interest. The had its origin partly in policy and partly in superstisolitary savage feels silently, but acutely. His sen- tion. The tribes, though sometimes called nations, sibilities are not diffused over so wide a surface as were never so formidable in their numbers, but that those of the white man; but they run in steadier the loss of several warriors was sensibly felt; this and deeper channels. His pride, his affections, his was particularly the case when they had been fresuperstitions, are all directed towards fewer objects; quently engaged in warfare; and many an instance but the wounds inflicted on them are proportiona- occurs in Indian history, where a tribe, that had bly severe, and furnish motives of hostility which long been formidable to its neighbours, has been we cannot sufficiently appreciate. Where a com- broken up and driven away, by the capture and munity is also limited in number, and forms one massacre of its principal fighting men. There was great patriarchal family, as in an Indian tribe, the a strong temptation, therefore, to the victor to be injury of an individual is the injury of the whole; merciless; not so much to gratify any cruel revenge, and the sentiment of vengeance is almost instan- as to provide for future security. The Indians had taneously diffused. One council-fire is sufficient for also the superstitious belief, frequent among barthe discussion and arrangement of a plan of hostili-barous nations, and prevalent also among the antics. Here all the fighting men and sages assemble. cients, that the manes of their friends who had Eloquence and superstition combine to inflame the fallen in battle, were soothed by the blood of the captives. The prisoners, however, who are not thus the human character, and swell the tide of huma sacrificed, are adopted into their families in the place happiness. of the slain, and are treated with the confidence and affection of relatives and friends; nay, so hospitable and tender is their entertainment, that when the alternative is offered them, they will often prefer to remain with their adopted brethren, rather than return to the home and the friends of their youth. But if courage intrinsically consists in the defiance of danger and pain, the life of the Indian is a continual exhibition of t. He lives in a state of perpetual hostility and risk. Peril and adventure are congenial to his nature; or rather seem necessary to arouse his faculties and to give an interest to his The cruelty of the Indians towards their prisoners existence. Surrounded by hostile tribes, whose mode has been heightened since the colonization of the of warfare is by ambush and surprisal, he is always whites. What was formerly a compliance with policy prepared for fight, and lives with his weapons in his and superstition, has been exasperated into a gratifi- hands. As the ship careers in fearful singleness cation of vengeance. They cannot but be sensible through the solitudes of ocean, as the bird mingles that the white men are the usurpers of their ancient among clouds and storms, and wings its way, a mere dominion, the cause of their degradation, and the speck, across the pathless fields of air; so the Indian gradual destroyers of their race. They go forth to holds his course, silent, solitary, but undaunted, battle, smarting with injuries and indignities which through the boundless bosom of the wilderness. they have individually suffered, and they are driven His expeditions may vie in distance and danger with to madness and despair by the wide-spreading deso- the pilgrimage of the devotee, or the crusade of the lation, and the overwhelming ruin of European war-knight-errant. He traverses vast forests, exposed fare. The whites have too frequently set them an to the hazards of lonely sickness, of lurking enemies, example of violence, by burning their villages and and pining famine. Stormy lakes, those great inlaying waste their slender means of subsistence; and land seas, are no obstacles to his wanderings: in yet they wonder that savages do not show modera- his light canoe of bark, he sports like a feather on tion and magnanimity towards those who have left their waves, and darts with the swiftness of an arrow them nothing but mere existence and wretchedness. down the roaring rapids of the rivers. His very We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and subsistence is snatched from the midst of toil and treacherous, because they use stratagem in warfare, peril. He gains his food by the hardships and in preference to open force; but in this they are fully dangers of the chase; he wraps himself in the spoils justified by their rude code of honour. They are of the bear, the panther, and the buffaloe; and sleeps early taught that stratagem is praiseworthy: the among the thunders of the cataract. bravest warrior thinks it no disgrace to lurk in No hero of ancient or modern days can surpass silence, and take every advantage of his foe: he the Indian in his lofty contempt cf death, and the triumphs in the superior craft and sagacity by which fortitude with which he sustains its cruelest affliche has been enabled to surprise and destroy an tion. Indeed, we here behold him rising superior enemy. Indeed, man is naturally more prone to to the white man, in consequence of his peculiar subtilty than open valour, owing to his physical education. The latter rushes to glorious death at weakness in comparison with other animals. They the cannon's mouth; the former calmly contemplates are endowed with natural weapons of defence: with its approach, and triumphantly endures it, amidst horns, with tusks, with hoofs, and talons; but man the varied torments of surrounding foes, and the has to depend on his superior sagacity. In all his protracted agonies of fire. He even takes a pride encounters with these, his proper enemies, he resorts in taunting his persecutors, and provoking their to stratagem; and when he perversely turns his ingenuity of torture; and as the devouring flames hostility against his fellow man, he at first continues prey on his very vitals, and the flesh shrinks from the same subtle mode of warfare. the sinews, he raises his last song of triumph, breathing the defiance of an unconquered heart, and invoking the spirits of his fathers to witness that he dies without a groan. The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy, with the least harm to ourselves; and this of course is to be effected by stratagem. That chivalrous courage which induces us to despise the suggestions of prudence, and to rush in the face of certain danger, is the offspring of society, and produced by education. It is honourable, because it is in fact the triumph of lofty sentiment over an instinctive repugnance to pain, and over those yearnings after personal ease and security, which society has condemned as ignoble. It is kept alive by pride and the fear of shame; and thus the dread of real evil is overcome by the superior dread of an evil which exists but in the imagination. It has been cherished and stimulated also by various means. It has been the theme of spirit-stirring song and chivalrous story. The poet and minstrel have delighted to shed round it the splendours of fiction; and even the historian has forgotten the sober gravity of narration, and broken forth into enthusiasm and rhapsody in its praise. Triumphs and gorgeous pageants have been its reward: monuments, on which art has exhausted its skill, and opulence its treasures, have been erected to perpetuate a nation's gratitude and admiration. Thus artificially excited, courage has risen to an extraordinary and factitious degree of heroism; and, arrayed in all the glorious "pomp and circumstance of war," this turbulent quality has even been able to eclipse many of those quiet, but invaluable virtues, which silently ennoble Notwithstanding the obloquy with which the early historians have overshadowed the characters of the unfortunate natives, some bright gleams occasionally break through, which throw a degree of melancholy lustre on their memories. Facts are occasionally to be met with in the rude annals of the eastern provinces, which, though recorded with the colouring of prejudice and bigotry, yet speak for themselves; and will be dwelt on with applause and sympathy, when prejudice shall have passed away. In one of the homely narratives of the Indian wars in New-England, there is a touching account of the desolation carried into the tribe of the Pequod Indians. Humanity shrinks from the cold-blooded detail of indiscriminate butchery. In one place we read of the surprisal of an Indian fort in the night, when the wigwams were wrapped in flames, and the miserable inhabitants shot down and slain in attempting to escape, all being despatched and ended in the course of an hour." After a series of similar transactions, "our soldiers," as the historian piously observes, "being resolved by God's assistance to make a final destruction of them," the unhappy savages being hunted from their homes and fortresses, and pursued with fire and sword, a scanty but gallant band, the sad remnant of the Pequod warriors, with their wives and children, took refuge in a swamp. Burning with indignation, and rendered sullen by despair; with hearts bursting with grief at the destruction of their tribe, and spirits galled and sore at the fancied ignominy of their defeat, they refused to ask their lives at the hands of an insulting foe, and preferred death to submission. As the night drew on, they were surrounded in their dismal retreat, so as to render escape impracticable. Thus situated, their enemy "plied them with shot all the time, by which means many were killed and buried in the mire." In the darkness and fog that preceded the dawn of day, some few broke through the besiegers and escaped into the woods: "the rest were left to the conquerors, of which many were killed in the swamp, like sullen dogs who would rather, in their self-willedness and madness, sit still and be shot through, or cut to pieces," than implore for mercy. When the day broke upon this handfull of forlorn but dauntless spirits, the soldiers, we are told, entering the swamp, "saw several heaps of them sitting close together, upon whom they discharged their pieces, laden with ten or twelve pistolbullets at a time; putting the muzzles of the pieces under the boughs, within a few yards of them; so as, besides those that were found dead, many more were killed and sunk into the mire, and never were minded more by friend or foe." their native abodes and the sepulchres of their fathers; hunted like wild beasts about the earth; and sent down with violence and butchery to the grave-posterity will either turn with horror and incredulity from the tale, or blush with indignation at the inhumanity of their forefathers." We are driven back," said an old warrior, "until we can retreat no farther-our hatchets are broken, our bows are snapped, our fires are nearly extinguished -a little longer and the white man will cease to persecute us-for we shall cease to exist." PHILIP OF POKANOKET. AN INDIAN MEMOIR. As monumental bronze unchanged his look: IT is to be regretted that those early writers who Can any one read this plain unvarnished tale, treated of the discovery and settlement of America, without admiring the stern resolution, the unbend- have not given us more particular and candid acing pride, the loftiness of spirit, that seemed to nerve counts of the remarkable characters that flourished the hearts of these self-taught heroes, and to raise in savage life. The scanty anecdotes which have them above the instinctive feelings of human nature? reached us are full of peculiarity and interest; they When the Gauls laid waste the city of Rome, they furnish us with nearer glimpses of human nature, found the senators clothed in their robes and seated and show what man is in a comparatively primitive with stern tranquillity in their curule chairs; in this state, and what he owes to civilization. There is manner they suffered death without resistance or something of the charm of discovery in lighting upon even supplication. Such conduct was, in them, ap- these wild and unexplored tracts of human nature; plauded as noble and magnanimous-in the hapless in witnessing, as it were, the native growth of moral Indians, it was reviled as obstinate and sullen. How sentiment; and perceiving those generous and rotruly are we the dupes of show and circumstance! mantic qualities which have been artificially cultiHow different is virtue, clothed in purple and en-vated by society, vegetating in spontaneous hardihood throned in state, from virtue naked and destitute, and and rude magnificence. perishing obscurely in a wilderness ! In civilized life, where the happiness, and indeed almost the existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his fellow men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold and peculiar traits of native character are refined away, or softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed good breeding; and he practises so many petty deceptions, and affects so many generous sentiments, for the purposes of popularity, that it is difficult to distinguish his real, from his artificial character. The Indian, on the contrary, free from the restraints and refinements of polished life, and, in a great degree, a solitary and independent being, obeys the impulses of his inclination or the dictates of his judgment; and thus the attributes of his nature, being freely indulged, grow singly great and striking. Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface; he, however, who would study Nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice. But I forbear to dwell on these gloomy pictures. The eastern tribes have long since disappeared; the forests that sheltered them have been laid low, and scarce any traces remain of them in the thickly-settled states of New-England, excepting here and there the Indian name of a village or a stream. And such must sooner or later be the fate of those other tribes which skirt the frontiers, and have occasionally been inveigled from their forests to mingle in the wars of white men. In a little while, and they will go the way that their brethren have gone before. The few hordes which still linger about the shores of Huron and Superior, and the tributary streams of the Mississippi, will share the fate of those tribes that once spread over Massachusetts and Connecticut, and lorded it along the proud banks of the Hudson; of that gigantic race said to have existed on the borders of the Susquehanna; and of those various nations that flourished about the Potowmac and the Rappahanoc, and that peopled the forests of the vast valley of Shenandoah. They will vanish like a vapour from the face of the earth; their very history will be lost in forgetful- These reflections arose on casually looking through ness; and "the places that now know them will a volume of early colonial history, wherein are reknow them no more for ever." Or if, perchance, corded, with great bitterness, the outrages of the Insome dubious memorial of them should survive, it dians, and their wars with the settlers of New-Enmay be in the romantic dreams of the poet, to people gland. It is painful to perceive, even from these parin imagination his glades and groves, like the fauns tial narratives, how the footsteps of civilization may and satyrs and sylvan deities of antiquity. But be traced in the blood of the aborigines; how easily should he venture upon the dark story of their the colonists were moved to hostility by the lust of wrongs and wretchedness; should he tell how they conquest; how merciless and exterminating was were invaded, corrupted, despoiled; driven from their warfare. The imagination shrinks at the idea, how many intellectual beings were hunted from the mained behind to experience the ingratitude of white earth- how many brave and noble hearts, of Nat-men. ure's sterling coinage, were broken down and trampled in the dust! He His eldest son, Alexander, succeeded him. was of a quick and impetuous temper, and proudly Such was the fate of PHILIP OF POKANOKET, tenacious of his hereditary rights and dignity. The an Indian warrior, whose name was once a terror intrusive policy and dictatorial conduct of the throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut. He strangers, excited his indignation; and he beheld was the most distinguished of a number of cotem-with uneasiness their exterminating wars with the porary Sachems, who reigned over the Pequods, the neighbouring tribes. He was doomed soon to incur Narrhagansets, the Wampanoags, and the other their hostility, being accused of plotting with the eastern tribes, at the time of the first settlement of New-England: a band of native untaught heroes; who made the most generous struggle of which human nature is capable; fighting to the last gasp in the cause of their country, without a hope of victory or a thought of renown. Worthy of an age of poetry, and fit subjects for local story and romantic fiction, they have left scarcely any authentic traces on the page of history, but stalk, like gigantic shadows, in the dim twilight of tradition.* Narrhagansets to rise against the English and drive them from the land. It is impossible to say whether this accusation was warranted by facts, or was grounded on mere suspicions. It is evident, however, by the violent and overbearing measures of the settiers, that they had by this time begun to feel conscious of the rapid increase of their power, and to grow harsh and inconsiderate in their treatment of the natives. They despatched an armed force to seize upon Alexander, and to bring him before their When the pilgrims, as the Plymouth settlers are court. He was traced to his woodland haunts, and called by their descendants, first took refuge on the surprised at a hunting house, where he was reposing shores of the New World, from the religious persecu- with a band of his followers, unarmed, after the toils tions of the Old, their situation was to the last de- of the chase. The suddenness of his arrest, and the gree gloomy and disheartening. Few in number, outrage offered to his sovereign dignity, so preyed and that number rapidly perishing away through upon the irascible feelings of this proud savage, as sickness and hardships; surrounded by a howling to throw him into a raging fever; he was permitted wilderness and savage tribes; exposed to the rigours to return home on condition of sending his son as a of an almost arctic winter, and the vicissitudes of an pledge for his re-appearance; but the blow he had ever-shifting climate; their minds were filled with received was fatal, and before he reached his home doleful forebodings, and nothing preserved them he fell a victim to the agonies of a wounded spirit. from sinking into despondency but the strong excite- The successor of Alexander was Metamocet, or ment of religious enthusiasm. In this forlorn situa- King Philip, as he was called by the settlers, on action they were visited by Massasoit, chief Sagamore count of his lofty spirit and ambitious temper. of the Wampanoags, a powerful chief, who reigned These, together with his well-known energy and over a great extent of country. Instead of taking enterprise, had rendered him an object of great jealadvantage of the scanty number of the strangers, ousy and apprehension, and he was accused of havand expelling them from his territories into which ing always cherished a secret and implacable hostilthey had intruded, he seemed at once to conceive ity towards the whites. Such may very probably, for them a generous friendship, and extended to- and very naturally, have been the case. He considwards them the rites of primitive hospitality. He ered them as originally but mere intruders into the came early in the spring to their settlement of New-country, who had presumed upon indulgence, and Plymouth, attended by a mere handfull of followers; were extending an influence baneful to savage life. entered into a solemn league of peace and amity; sold He saw the whole race of his countrymen melting them a portion of the soil, and promised to secure before them from the face of the earth; their terrifor them the good-will of his savage allies. What- tories slipping from their hands, and their tribes beever may be said of Indian perfidy, it is certain that coming feeble, scattered, and dependent. It may be the integrity and good faith of Massasoit have never said that the soil was originally purchased by the been impeached. He continued a firm and magnan- settlers; but who does not know the nature of Inimous friend of the white men; suffering them to dian purchases, in the early periods of colonization? extend their possessions, and to strengthen them- The Europeans always made thrifty bargains, selves in the land; and betraying no jealousy of their through their superior adroitness in traffic; and increasing power and prosperity. Shortly before his they gained vast accessions of territory, by easilydeath, he came once more to New-Plymouth, with provoked hostilities. An uncultivated savage is his son Alexander, for the purpose of renewing the never a nice inquirer into the refinements of law, covenant of peace, and of securing it to his posterity. by which an injury may be gradually and legally inAt this conference, he endeavoured to protect the flicted. Leading facts are all by which he judges; religion of his forefathers from the encroaching zeal and it was enough for Philip to know, that before of the missionaries; and stipulated that no farther the intrusion of the Europeans his countrymen were attempt should be made to draw off his people from lords of the soil, and that now they were becoming their ancient faith; but, finding the English obsti- vagabonds in the land of their fathers. nately opposed to any such condition, he mildly relinquished the demand. Almost the last act of his life was to bring his two sons, Alexander and Philip (as they had been named by the English) to the residence of a principal settler, recommending mutual kindness and confidence; and entreating that the same love and amity which had existed between the white men and himself, might be continued afterwards with his children. The good old Sachem died in peace, and was happily gathered to his fathers before sorrow came upon his tribe; his children re While correcting the proof-sheets of this article, the author is informed, that a celebrated English poet has nearly finished a heroic poem on the story of Philip of Pokanoket. But whatever may have been his feelings of general hostility, and his particular indignation at the treatment of his brother, he suppressed them for the present; renewed the contract with the settlers; and resided peaceably for many years at Pokanoket, or, as it was called by the English, Mount Hope, the ancient seat of dominion of his tribe. Suspicions, however, which were at first but vague and indefinite, began to acquire form and substance; and he was at length charged with attempting to instigate the various eastern tribes to rise at once, and, by a simultaneous effort, to throw off the yoke of their * Now Bristol, Rhode Island. |