When the Pilgrims first came to New England, they found that the nearest tribe of American Indians, the Wam-pa-no'-ags of which Massasoit was chief, had been much reduced in number by a dreadful sickness. The bones of the dead lay bleaching on the ground.

The next neighbors to the Wampanoags were the Narragansetts. The Narragansetts had not been visited by the great sickness but were as numerous and strong as ever. Massasoit was, therefore, very glad to have the English, with their superior guns and long swords, near him, to protect his people from the Narragansetts.

The two sons of Massasoit remained friendly to the settlers for some time after their father's death. But many things made the Wampanoags discontented. They sold their lands to the colonists for blankets, hatchets, and such like things. The ground was all covered with woods, and, as they only used it for hunting, didn't perceive what it meant to "sell" the land. But when the Wampanoags realized what selling their land entailed, they wished to be paid more.

Many of this tribe of Indians became Christians through the preaching of John Eliot, who was called "The Apostle to the Indians." These were called "praying Indians." They settled in villages, though they continued to dwell in bark-houses, because they found that the easiest way to clean house was to leave the old one and build a new. They no longer followed their chiefs or respected the charms of the medicine men. It made the great men among the Wampanoags angry to see their people leave them.

The young Wampanoag chief, Wamsutta, or King Alexander, began to show ill-feeling toward the colonists. The rulers of Plymouth Colony retaliated with harsh measures against him. They sent some soldiers to detain him and brought him to Plymouth. When the Wampanoag chief saw himself arrested and degraded in this way he felt it bitterly. He was taken sick at Plymouth and died soon after he got home.

The Wampanoags suspected that King Alexander had died of poison given him by the colonists. Sometime afterward the colonists heard that King Alexander's brother, the new Wampanoag chief, Metacomet, now called King Philip, was sharpening hatchets and knives. The colonists immediately sent for the chief and forced him and his men to give up the seventy guns they had brought with them. They also made Philip promise to send in all the other guns his men had.

When the colonists first came, the Wampanoags had nothing to shoot with but bows and arrows. In Philip's time they had given up bows, finding guns much better for killing game. So once Philip once got away from the colonists, he did not send in the guns. But he wisely hid his anger and waited for a more opportune chance to strike.

As Wampanoag chief, Philip had a coat made of shell-beads, or wampum. These beads were made by breaking and polishing little bits of hard-clam shells, and then boring a hole through them with a stone awl, as you see in the picture. Wampum was used for money among the Indians, and even among the colonists at that time. Such a coat as Philip's was very valuable. Philip dressed himself, also, in a red blanket; he wore a belt of wampum about his head and another long belt of wampum around his neck, the ends of which dangled nearly to the ground.

The quarrel between the colonists and the Wampanoags grew more bitter. A Wampanoag, who had told the colonists of Philip's plans, was put to death for his treachery. The colonists retaliated by hanging the Wampanoags who had killed their informant.

The Wampanoags under Philip were now resolved on war. But their medicine men, or priests, consulted their spirits and told them that whichever side should shed the first blood would be beaten in the war. The Wampanoags burned houses and robbed farms, but they took pains not to kill anybody, until a colonist had wounded a Wampanoag. Then, when blood had been shed, the Wampanoags began to kill the colonists.

War between the Wampanoags and the colonists broke out in 1675. The New England people lived at that time in villages, most of them not very far from the sea. The more exposed towns were struck first. The colonists took refuge in strong houses, which were built to resist attacks. But everywhere colonists who moved about were killed.

The colonists sent out troops, but the Wampanoags strategically waylaid the soldiers and killed them. Philip cut up his fine wampum coat and sent the bead money of which it was made to neighboring chiefs to persuade them to join him. Soon other tribes, entered the fight against the colonists.

As the Wampanoags grew bolder, they attacked the colonists in their forts or block-houses. At Brookfield they shot burning arrows on the roof of the block-house, but the colonists tore off the shingles and put out the fire. Then the Wampanoags crept up and lighted a fire under one corner of the house; but the men inside made a dash and put the fire out. Then the Wampanoags made a cart with a barrel for a wheel. They loaded this with straw and lighted it, and backed the blazing mass up against the house, sheltering themselves behind it. Luckily for the colonists, a shower came up at that moment and put out the fire.

A very curious thing happened at Hatfield. An old gentleman named Colonel Goffe was hid away in a house in that town. He was one of the judges that had condemned Charles I to death twenty-six years before. When the son of King Charles I came to be king he put to death the people were gone to such of these judges as he could find, and Goffe had to flee from England and hide. Nobody in the village knew that Goffe was there, except those who entertained him. While the people were gone to church one Sunday, the old colonel ventured to look out of the window, which he did not dare to do at other times. He saw the Wampanoags coming to attack the town. He rushed out and gave the alarm, and, with long white hair and beard streaming in the wind, the old soldier took command of the villagers and saved the town. But when the fight was over, the people could not find the old man who had led them, nor did they know who he was or where he came from. They said that a messenger had been sent from heaven to deliver them.

The powerful tribe of the Narragansetts promised remain peaceable, but some of the Narragansetts joined Philip, and their great fort was a respite for Philip's men. In retaliation, the colonists resolved to strike against the Narragansett town while it was yet winter. A thousand men from Massachusetts and Connecticut assaulted the Narragansett town by night, which was inside a fortification having but one entrance, and that by a bridge. Nearly two hundred of the colonists were killed in this fight, and many hundreds of Narragansett people were slain, and their fort and all their provisions were burned.

After the colonists burned their town, the Narragansetts joined Philip at once. The colonists in armor could not catch the nimble Indians, who attacked one village only to disappear and strike another village far away.