Mayflower (53 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN-
In a Strange Way

James Quanapohit provides a detailed account of Philip’s meeting with the French in his January 24, 1676, testimony; all quotes ascribed to the French diplomat are from that testimony reprinted in Temple’s
History of North Brookfield,
pp. 115–16. Increase Mather in
HKPW
writes, “[A] French man that came from Canady had been amongst [the Indians], animating them against the English, promising a supply of ammunition, and that they would come next summer and assist them,” p. 177. Before his execution, Joshua Tefft claimed that “Philip hath sent [the Narragansetts] word that he will furnish them [powder] from the French. He saith they have carried New England money to the French for ammunition, but the money he will not take but beaver or wampum. [Tefft] said the French have sent Philip a present viz. a brass gun and bandoliers suitable,”
Correspondence of Roger Williams,
vol. 2, p. 712. New York governor Andros writes that “Philip and 3 or 400 North Indians, fighting men, were come within 40 or 50 miles of Albany northerly” in a January 6, 1676, letter in Colonial Connecticut Records (CCR), vol. 2, p. 397. On February 25, 1675, Thomas Warner, a former prisoner with the Indians, testified that “he saw 2,100 Indians, all fighting men, [of] which 5 or 600 [were] French Indians, with straws in their noses,” in
A Narrative of…King Philip’s War,
edited by Franklin Hough, p. 145. According to Neal Salisbury in a personal communication, “Mohawk enmity with the French and their Indian allies dated back to at least 1609 and possibly earlier.” Increase Mather’s account of Philip’s failed attempt to win the Mohawks’ support is in
HKPW,
where he writes, “Thus hath he conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood; he made a pit and digged, and is fallen into the ditch which he hath made, his mischief shall return upon his own head,” pp. 168–69. On March 4, 1676, Andros wrote from Albany that “about three hundred Mohawk soldiers…returned the evening afore from the pursuit of Philip and a party of five hundred with him, whom they had beaten, having some prisoners and the crowns, or hair and skin of the head, of others they had killed,” in
Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York,
edited by John Brodhead, vol. 3, p. 255. Stephen Webb provides an excellent account of Philip’s winter in New York in 1676
: The End of American Independence,
pp. 367–71.

James Quanapohit’s testimony in which he describes his and Job Kattenanit’s spy mission is reprinted in J. H. Temple’s
History of North Brookfield,
pp. 112–18. Daniel Gookin tells of how Job’s arrival at his home in Cambridge on the night of February 9 triggered the attempt to save Lancaster in
Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians,
pp. 488–91. All quotations from Mary Rowlandson come from
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God,
edited by Neal Salisbury, pp. 63–112. For information on Rowlandson and her family, I have depended on Salisbury’s introduction, pp. 7–20. Hubbard in
HIWNE
quotes the message left by James the Printer at Medfield, p. 171. Francis Jennings in
The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest
refers to an August 8, 1675, letter from Richard Smith to Connecticut officials in which Smith claims that Weetamoo and a hundred men, women, and children had been delivered to him by a Narragansett sachem, p. 311, n. 36. On a woman’s pocket in seventeenth-century New England, see Laurel Ulrich’s
Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England:
“a woman’s pocket was not attached to her clothing, but tied around her waist with a string or tape…. A pocket could be a mended and patched pouch of plain homespunor a rich personal ornament boldly embroidered in crewel,” p. 34. Ulrich also writes revealingly of Rowlandson’s captivity, pp. 226–34. On the meeting between Philip and Canonchet on March 9, 1676, see Temple’s
History of North Brookfield,
pp. 127–28. Richard Scott’s rant against Daniel Gookin appears in Simon Willard’s March 4, 1676, “Deposition of Elizabeth Belcher, Martha Remington, and Mary Mitchell,” at MHS. Jenny Pulsipher points out that Scott had served under Captain Moseley in
Subjects unto the Same King,
p. 155. Gookin writes of the threatened attack on the Praying Indians on Deer Island in
Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians,
p. 494.

The court order requiring all of Nemasket’s Praying Indians to relocate to Clark’s Island is in
PCR,
vol. 5, p. 187. All quotations from Benjamin Church are from
EPRPW,
pp. 66–71. My account of the Pierce massacre is based primarily on Hubbard’s
HIWNE,
pp. 172–77; Leonard Bliss’s
History of Rehoboth,
pp. 88–95; Harris,
A Rhode Islander Reports,
edited by Douglas Leach, pp. 41–43; and Increase Mather in
HKPW,
pp. 125–27. In an April 19, 1676, letter the Rehoboth minister Noah Newman writes, “The burial of the slain [from Pierce’s Fight] took us three days,” Curwen Papers, AAS. In a letter written in early April 1676, John Kingsley describes the attack on Rehoboth: “They burnt our mills, wreck the stones, yea, our grinding stones; and what was hid in the earth they found, corn and fowls, killed cattle and took the hind quarters and left the rest,” CCR, vol. 2, p. 446; he refers to the resident who was killed with the Bible in his hands as a “silly man.” Roger Williams describes the attack on Providence and his meeting with the Indians in an April 1, 1676, letter to his brother Robert Williams living on Aquidneck Island in
Correspondence,
vol. 2, pp. 720–24. Increase Mather in
HKPW
writes of the “sore and (doubtless) malignant colds prevailing everywhere. I cannot hear of one family in New England that hath wholly escaped the distemper…. We in Boston have seen…coffins meetingone another, and three or four put into their graves in one day,” pp. 153–54. Most of the quotations describing the capture and execution of Canonchet are from volume 2 of Hubbard’s
HIWNE,
pp. 55–60. Saltonstall in
OIC
tells how the Pequots, Mohegans, and Niantics “shared in the glory of destroying so great a prince,” p. 232. The Nipmuck sachems’ scornful response to possible negotiations on April 12, 1676, is cited by Dennis Connole in
The Indians of the Nipmuck Country in Southern New England,
p. 200. On groundnuts going to seed in early summer, see Howard Russell’s
Indian New England before the
Mayflower, p. 156. The much more conciliatory letter from the Nipmuck Sagamore Sam is also cited by Connole, p. 201.

Samuel Moseley’s belated request for “fifty or sixty apt or other trusty Indians, to be armed at the country’s charge,” is in the May 5, 1676, minutes of the Massachusetts General Court in
Records of Massachusetts-Bay,
edited by Nathaniel Shurtleff, vol. 5, p. 95. Gookin describes the return of the Praying Indians from Deer Island as “a jubilee” in
Doings and Sufferings,
p. 517. On the battle at Turner’s Falls, see Hubbard’s
HIWNE,
pp. 229–34. Sagamore Sam refers to how the attacks by Turner and Captain Henchman “destroyed those Indians” and how Philip and Quinnapin “went away to their own country again” in a June letter to Governor Leverett; see
OIC,
p. 272.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN-
The Better Side of the Hedge

All quotations from Benjamin Church are from
EPRPW,
pp. 71–182. For more information on Awashonks, see Ann Marie Plane’s “Putting a Face on Colonization: Factionalism and Gender Politics in the Life History of Awashunkes, the ‘Squaw Sachem’ of Saconet,” in
Northeastern Indian Lives,
1632–1816. edited by Robert Grumet, pp. 140–65. Increase Mather writes of the attack on Swansea on June 16, 1676, in
HKPW,
p. 162. Hubbard in
HIWNE
details the June 26 killing and beheading of Hezekiah Willett, p. 242. In his diary, Samuel Sewall writes about how the Pokanokets mourned Willett’s death, p. 25; Sewall also reports that Willett’s black servant “related Philip to be sound and well, about 1,000 Indians (all sorts) with him, but sickly: three died while he was there,” p. 25. The June 28, 1676, testimony of Awashonks’s son Peter and some other Sakonnet Indians appears in
PCR,
vol. 5, pp. 200–203. In locating the beach where Church and the Sakonnets finally found each other, I am indebted to Maurice Robbins’s
The Sandwich Path: Church Searches for Awashonks,
cited in Schultz and Tougias’s
King Philip’s War,
pp. 119–20. According to John Callender in
An Historical Discourse on…Rhode Island,
“The Powwows had foretold Philip, no Englishman should ever kill him, which accordingly proved true; he was shot by an Indian,” p. 73. Hubbard in
HIWNE
tells how the defection of the Sakonnets “broke Philip’s heart,” p. 272. Talcott refers to the Narragansett woman sachem as “that old piece of venom” in a July 4, 1676, letter in CCR, vol. 2, pp. 458–59. Hubbard describes the torture of the Narragansett captive in excruciating detail in
HIWNE,
vol. 2, pp. 62–64. William Harris in
A Rhode Islander Reports,
edited by Douglas Leach, writes of Talcott’s company: “These Connecticut men capture very many Indians, and kill all they capture except some boys and girls. This so frightens the Indians that they hasten to surrender themselves to Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island, where their lives are spared, excepting known notorious murderers,” p. 77. James Drake compares the level of violence in the English civil war to that of King Philip’s War and how a “victor’s justice” began to assert itself at the end of both conflicts in “Restraining Atrocity: The Conduct of King Philip’s War,”
New England Quarterly,
vol. 70, 1997, pp. 37–38; he also speaks of the lack of rape in King Philip’s War, pp. 49–50, and how many Puritans looked to slavery as a humane alternative: “Slavery, in this particular historical context, seemed to many colonists an especially benevolent, and rewarding, alternative to execution,” p. 55. Almon Lauber in
Indian Slavery in Colonial Times
cites John Eliot’s June 13, 1675, letter to the Massachusetts-Bay governor in which he objects to enslaving the Indians, p. 305.

Daniel Gookin in
Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians
tells of the Indians’ insistence on “a deep silence in their marches and motions” and how they refused to tolerate the sounds made by English shoes and leather pants, p. 442.
New England Begins,
edited by Jonathan Fairbanks and Robert Trent, compares Church’s sword (at the MHS) to the weapons of “buccaneers in the Caribbean,” pp. 55–56. In his introduction to Church’s narrative in
So Dreadfull a Judgment,
Richard Slotkin writes of the nautical aspects of Church’s vocabulary: “terms like ‘pilot’ come more naturally to him then ‘guide’ or ‘scout,’ and he speaks of Indians ‘tacking about’ in battle. Natty Bumppo, who in some ways resembles Church, is wholly a creature of the land and woods; Church still has the smack of salt water,” p. 372. Cotton Mather’s comparison of Church’s accomplishments to “the silly old romances, where the knights do conquer so many giants” is in
HKPW,
p. 197. A transcription of William Bradford’s July 24, 1676, letter to John Cotton appears in the January 15, 1876, issue of the
Providence Journal.
Hubbard in
HIWNE
writes of the July 31, 1676, encounter between the Bridgewater militia and the Indians and adds, “’[T]is said that [Philip] had newly cut off his hair, that he might not be known,” p. 261. Hubbard also writes of the Indians being forced to kill their own children, p. 276; William Harris in
A Rhode Islander Reports,
edited by Douglas Leach, writes, “The Indians frequently kill their children, partly because they lack food for them. Also the Indians give a reward to a cruel woman among them to kill their children,” p. 61. Saltonstall in
OIC
tells of the Indians’ arms shaking so badly that they could not fire their weapons, p. 281. In a note to
EPRPW,
Henry Dexter lists Thomas Lucas’s long record of public drunkenness, p. 135. Increase Mather in
HKPW
writes of Weetamoo’s death and the “diabolical lamentation” of her people when they saw her dissevered head, p. 191. Mather in
HKPW
writes of Sagamore John’s execution of Matoonas, p. 185. Samuel Sewall records the hanging deaths of the Nipmuck sachems on Boston Common in his diary, p. 27. The description of Totoson’s death is from Church. According to a personal communication from Ella Sekatau, Totoson survived and escaped to Connecticut, and his descendants include Sekatau.

George Langdon in
Pilgrim Colony
compares the percentage casualty rate in World War II to that of Plymouth Colony in King Philip’s War, pp. 181–82; my thanks to Michael Hill for providing me with the casualty rate for the Civil War. Sherburne Cook in “Interracial Warfare and Population Decline among the New England Indians,”
Ethnohistory,
vol. 20, Winter 1973, provides the statistics concerning the Native American losses during King Philip’s War, p. 22. Stephen Webb in 1676
: The End of American Independence
writes that “the Anglo-Iroquoian attack on Philip’s forces in February 1675/6 had been the decisive action in the war,” p. 370. Philip was ahead of his time in recognizing the importance of having a European ally in a war against the English. In
The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America,
Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton write, “By the 1720s, nothing could have been clearer than that any [Native] people who wished to defend its autonomy needed a European ally and arms-supplier to do so. In every clash between colonists and natives, from Metacom’s War to the destruction of the Yamassees, what weighed decisively in favor of the English colonies was not the martial skill of the militia—which was mostly negligible—but rather that the colonists had the ability to replenish exhausted stocks of arms, ammunition, and food while the Indians—except for those who had a European ally to supply them—did not,” p. 88. Increase Mather in
HKPW
claims that during his final night Philip “dreamed that he was fallen into the hands of the English,” p. 194. My account of the workings of a flintlock musket are based on the description provided by Patrick Malone in
The Skulking Way of War,
p. 34. The drawing and quartering of notorious rebels was expected in seventeenth-century England; soon after the Restoration, Oliver Cromwell’s body was exhumed and then drawn and quartered. The account of how the Plymouth church reaffirmed its covenant on July 18 and Church’s arrival with Philip’s head on the day of Thanksgiving on August 17 are in
Plymouth Church Records,
vol. 1, pp. 151, 152–53. In his
Magnalia,
Cotton Mather writes of his strange, and telling, response to seeing Philip’s head at Plymouth: “[U]pon a certain occasion [I] took off the jaw from the exposed skull of that blasphemous leviathan,” p. 197; according to Jill Lepore in
The Name of War,
“By stealing Philip’s jawbone, his
mouth,
[Mather] put an end to Philip’s blasphemy (literally, his evil utterances),” pp. 174–75. Schultz and Tougias in
King Philip’s War
describe the building of the palisade fort at Plymouth during the war and write, “It was on this palisade that Philip’s head was set after his death,” pp. 125–26. Ebenezer Peirce, who was commissioned by Zerviah Mitchell, a descendant of Massasoit’s, to write
Indian History, Biography, and Genealogy,
accuses Benjamin Church of exaggerating his accomplishments in the war, especially when it came to the descent down the rock face prior to capturing Annawon, pp. 207–8. While Annawon’s Rock, located in Rehoboth and marked by a plaque (see Schultz and Tougias’s
King Philip’s War,
p. 131), may not be as steep as Church suggests, an observer only has to imagine the circumstances under which he attempted the descent to appreciate the daring it required. Hubbard in
HIWNE
writes of Annawon’s reference to the Praying Indians and the young warriors being the primary causes of the war, as well as his views about “a Great God that overruled all,” pp. 277–78. In June 1677, Josiah Winslow sent most of Philip’s royalties as a gift to the king of England; in the accompanying letter, he described them as “these few Indian rarities, being the best of the spoils, and best of the ornaments and treasure of sachem Philip the grand rebel, the most of them taken from him by Capt. Benjamin Church (a person of great loyalty and the most successful of our commanders) when he was slain by him; being his crown, his gorge, and two belts of their own making of their gold and silver,” in MHS
Proceedings,
1863–64, p. 481. As Schultz and Tougias relate in
King Philip’s War,
the royalties and letter were sent via Winslow’s brother-in-law in Essex, England, who appears never to have delivered them to the king. Where the artifacts are now “remains a mystery,” p. 140. Hubbard in
HIWNE
claims that Church and his men brought in seven hundred Indians between June and the end of October 1676, and that another three hundred had “come in voluntarily,” pp. 272–73.