History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

30 History of Swansea
settled at Manhattan, (New York) in 1614; the English^
were at Jamestown in 1607. The Northmen may have win-
tered in Mount Hope Bay, and were known in the traditions ;.
of the Pokanoket tribes. French and Spanish explorers may
have visited Narragansett Bay, and were talked of in the wigwams
of the natives.
It was fortunate for the Pilgrims that they came when
they did. We may regard it as Providential. Massasoit's
warriors were few, the tribes having been greatly reduced by
pestilence. And the Wampanoags must have been in mortal
fear of their old enemies, the Narragansetts. Massasoit was
a wise and good Indian statesman. He was glad perhaps to
have the English as his friends. He willingly declared himself
a subject and ally of the King of Great Britain. He
appreciated the evident advantages of firearms, of better im- .
plements of agriculture, and of the simple con,veniences of
civiHzed life. He did not take to the rehgion of the Christian
people ; but I believe that he had the foresightand conviction
that his people would sooner or later give place to the white
man who would gain the possession of their lands.
Metacom, (Metacomet,) second son of Massasoit, 1661-2,
generally known as King Phihp, the name given him by the
Enghsh, was perhaps the most remarkable of all the Indians of
New England. Like his father he acknowledged himself as
loyal to the Enghsh Sovereign, and freely sold his lands to the
white settlers. But he was not in sympathy with his father's
policy toward the English, and secretly plotted against them
as intruders and enemies. Notwithstanding that Massasoit
and King Philip had submitted to the King of Great Britain;
and had sold their lands to the white men; and had signed
treaties of peace and perpetual friendship, war was inevitable.
The Indians would not, or could not submit and comforn to
the English. They did not understand evidently what the
sale of their lands meant to those who bought them. They
expected to continue to live as before—to hunt and fish and
occupy at will. And as it has been said; it takes a thousand
acres of land to support one Indian as a savage. The conflict
came in 1675-6, with great losses to the whites and the practical
extermination of the red men. And it seems quite
probable that but for the treachery of some of the natives, the
colonists could not have been saved from extinction.
Massasoit
Morton says of him : " In his person he is a very lusty man,
in his best years, an able body, grave of countenance and
,