These were for distinction's sake called the old praying Indian towns, for there were five or six small villages of the Nipmuck Indians that had some people in them inclining to entertain the Gospel, therefore were called, the new praying towns. But those latter being but raw and lately initiated into the Christian profession, most of them fell off from the English and joined the enemy in the war, some few excepted, whose hearts God had turned, that came in to Okkokonimesit, or Marlborough, and lived among the praying Indians; they were drawn together there until such time as the one and other were driven and drawn away among the enemy, as shall afterward (God willing) be declared. I am therefore principally to speak of the Christian Indians belonging to the old praying towns above mentioned.

The situation of those towns was such, that the Indians in them might have been improved as a wall of defence about the greatest part of the colony of Massachusetts; for the first named of those villages bordered upon the Merrimack river, and the rest in order about twelve or fourteen miles asunder, including most of the frontiers. And had the suggestions and importunate solicitations of some persons, who had knowledge and experience of the fidelity and integrity of the praying Indians been attended and practised in the beginning of the war, many and great mischiefs might have been (according to reason) prevented; for most of the praying towns, in the beginning of the war, had put themselves into a posture of defence, and had made forts for their security against the common enemy; and it was suggested and proposed to the authority of the country, that some English men, about one third part, might have been joined with those Christian Indians in each fort, which the praying Indians greatly desired, that thereby their fidelity might have been better demonstrated, and that with the assistance and company of some of those English soldiers, they might daily scout or range the woods from town to town, in their several assigned stations, and hereby might have been as a living wall to guard the English frontiers, and consequently the greatest part of the Jurisdiction, which, with the blessing of God, might have prevented the desolations and devastations that afterward ensued. This was not only the suggestion of some English, but the earnest desire of some of the most prudent of the Christian Indians, who in all their actions declared that they were greatly ambitious to give demonstration to the English of their fidelity and good affection to them and the interest of the Christian re

ligion, and to endeavour all that in them lay to abate and take off the animosity and displeasure that they perceived was enkindled in some English against them; and hence it was that they were always found ready to comply cheerfully with all commands of the English authority. But such was the unhappiness of their affairs, or rather the displeasure of God in the case, that those counsels were rejected, and on the contrary a spirit of enmity and hatred conceived by many against those poor Christian Indians, as I apprehend without cause, so far as I could ever understand, which was, according to the operation of second causes, a very great occasion of many distressing calamities that befell both one and the other.

The great God who overruleth and ordereth all counsels and actions for the bringing to pass his own purpose and desire, was pleased to darken this counsel from such as had the power to put it in practice; and although there was a demonstration, near hand, in the colony of Connecticut for the benefit of such a course as was before proposed and desired, in keeping a fair correspondence with their neighbour Indians, the Mohegans and Pequods, who were not only improved by the English in all their expeditions, but were a guard to the frontiers, whereby those Indians, upon the account of their own interest (for they had no principles of Christianity to fix them to the English), proved very faithful and serviceable to the English, and under God were instrumental for the preservation of that Colony which had but one small deserted village burnt in this war,* and very little of their other substance destroyed by the enemy. I have often considered this matter and come to this result, in my own thoughts, that the most holy and righteous God hath overruled all counsels and affairs in this, and other things relating to this war, for such wise, just, and holy ends as these;

1st. To make a rod of the barbarous heathen to chastise and punish the English for their sins. The Lord had, as our faithful minister often declared, applied more gentle chastisements (gradually) to his New England people; but those proving in great measure ineffectual to produce effectual humiliation and reformation, hence the righteous and holy Lord is necessitated to draw forth this smarting rod of the vile and brutish heathen,

*“All the buildings in Narraganset, from Providence to Stonington, a tract of about 50 miles, were burned, or otherwise destroyed.”—Trumbull, Hist. Con. I. 351, note. The place destroyed was doubtless included in this tract, but its name is not given.

who indeed have been a very scourge unto New England, especially unto the Jurisdiction of Massachusetts.

2dly. To teach war to the young generation of New England, who had never been acquainted with it; and especially to teach old and young how little confidence is to be put in an arm of flesh; and to let them see if God give commission to a few (comparatively) of naked men to execute any work of God, how insignificant nothings are numbers of men well armed and provided, and endowed with courage and valor, to oppose and conquer the enemy, until God turn the balance. It was observed by some judicious, that, at the beginning of the war, the English soldiers made a nothing of the Indians, and many spake words to this effect, that one Englishman was sufficient to chase ten Indians; ** many reckoned it was no other but Veni, vidi, vici. Surely the Lord well knew, that if he should have given his people victory, before they were in some measure corrected of this sin of trusting in arm of flesh, that little glory would accrue to his name by such a deliverance.

3dly. The purging and trying the faith and patience of the Godly English and Christian Indians, certainly was another end God aimed at in this chastisement. And the discovery of hypocrisy and wickedness in some that were ready to cry "Aha!" at the sore calamity upon the English people in this war, and as much as in them lay to overthrow God's work in Gospelizing the poor Indians.

4thly. Doubtless one great end God aimed at was the punishment and destruction of many of the wicked heathen, whose iniquities were now full; the last period whereof was their malignant opposition to the offers of the Gospel, for the Paka

* This was no doubt true; and no remark on the contempt, in which the poor Indians were held by men on so many accounts to be venerated, can be more appropriate than the following note by Governor Hutchinson. "It seems strange," says he, "that men, who professed to believe, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, should so early and upon every occasion, take care to preserve this distinction. Perhaps nothing has more effectually defeated the endeavours for Christianizing the Indians. It seems to have done more to have sunk their spirits, led them to intemperance, and extirpated the whole race."- Col. Papers, 151. This remark was made upon a passage in Major Gibbon's instructions, on being sent against the Narragansets in 1645, in these words: "You are to have due regard to the distance which is to be observed betwixt Christians and Barbarians, as well in wars as in other negotiations."

nahats* and the Narragansetts, those two great nations upon whom the dint of war hath most especially fallen, (for they are almost totally destroyed,) had once and again the Gospel offered to them. But their chief Sachems malignantly rejected and opposed it, and consequently the people followed their examples. And notwithstanding they were very conversant among the English, especially the Narragansetts, and commendable for their industry and labor among the English, yet had the most of them no hearing ears unto the glad tidings of salvation offered in the Gospel, and very few of them delighted in communion with the Christian Indians. And here I shall insert a matter of remark. After the war began with Philip, the English, having cause to be suspicious of the Narragansetts, sent some soldiers to Mr. Smith's, of Wickford, that lived near them, designing thereby to put upon them a necessity to declare themselves friends or enemies, and to push upon them the performances of former articles of agreement between the English and them, at which time, being in July, 1675, they complied to a treaty of continuing in peace and friendship with the English. But among other articles, the Narragansetts, by their agent Potuche, urged that the English should not send any among them to preach the Gospel or call upon them to pray to God. But, the English refusing to concede to such an article, it was withdrawn, and a peace concluded for that time. In this act they declared what their hearts were, viz. to reject Christ and his grace offered to them before. But the Lord Jesus, before the expiration of 18 months, destroyed the body of the Narragansett nation, that would not have him to reign over them, particularly all their chief Sachems and this Potuche, a chief Counsellor and subtle fellow, who was taken at Rhode Island, coming voluntarily there, and afterward sent to Boston and there executed.||

* Pokanokets, Philip's people.

+ When Mr. Eliot tried to engage Philip's attention to religion, the Sachem, taking hold of a button on the good man's coat, said, he cared no more for his religion than for that button. - Mather's Magnalia. Mr. Mayhew requested of Ninigret, chief of the Narragansets, liberty to preach to his people; but the chief bid him go and make the English good first, and in effect added, that so long as the English could not agree among themselves what religion was, it ill became them to teach others. See Life of Ninigret in Drake's Book of the Indians.

To be seen in Hubbard's Narrative and Hutchinson's History. § Potok.

Potok appears to have been a stern warrior chief. We can add but

5thly. And lastly, to mention no more, this doubtless was another end the God of Heaven aimed at in this war, that he might magnify his rich and free grace, in saving and delivering his poor New England people at last, and destroying the greater part of the enemy, and subduing others under them; and this was by his own hand chiefly done, thereby magnifying his grace in answering the incessant prayers of the people of God in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as in New England. But I shall forbear to add any more of this kind, and proceed now to declare matter of fact.

In April, 1675,before the war broke forth above two months, there being, the March preceding, some agitations between the Government of Plymouth, and Philip, Sachem of Mount Hope, concerning the murder of one John Sasamand, one of the Christian Indians belonging to Massachusetts; but at that time he lived in Plymouth Colony, near Taunton,† and was a minister to some Christian Indians thereabouts. And Philip was vehemently suspected to be the contriver of this murder, though executed by others; the story whereof is more particularly set down by Mr. Mather and Mr. Wm. Hubbard, in their histories of the war, which has spared me the labor to recite it in this place; only thus much I may say, pertinent to my purpose, that this John Sasamand was the first Christian martyr of the Indians; for it is evident he suffered death upon the account of his Christian profession, and fidelity to the English. I say, about this time, the beginning of April, Waban,‡ the principal

little to the facts concerning him, in The Book of the Indians. It would seem, according to the author of "Letters to London," that he had been taken prisoner by the forces under Major Talcot; for, after saying that they had killed the old Queen, Quaiapen, and Stone-wall John, the writer goes on, "Likewise Potucke, the great Indian counsellor, (a man, considering his education, of a wonderful subtlety,) was brought prisoner into Rhode Island." His residence was near Point Judith, in 1661. A complaint, signed by him and several others, to the government of Massachusetts, is on file in the State-House.

Usually written Sassamon. In The Book of the Indians will be found a full account of this singular Indian; as, besides the facts in Hubbard's and Mather's histories, the author has given from MS. records all the circumstances relating to the trial and execution of his alleged murderers.

In Middleborough, near Assawomset Pond. The old chief Tuspequin, whose daughter he married, gave him lands to settle upon, and he preached for a time to his people.

Written at first Wauban, whose name signified a wind. He was the first chief to profess Christianity, and entertained Mr. Eliot in his wigwam, at his first going among the Nipmucks as a preacher in their own language, 28 October, 1648.