dignity which
pertained to his imperial state, disdained to receive any other name
but the one which he proudly bore as his ancestral legacy. A few years
before his death, however, he brought his two sons, Wamsutta and
Pometacom, to Plymouth, and requested the governor, in token of
friendship, to give them English names. They were very bright,
attractive young men, of the finest physical development. The governor
related to Massasoit the history of the renowned kings of Macedon,
Philip and Alexander, and gave to Wamsutta, the oldest, the name of
Alexander, the great warrior of Asia, and to Pometacom, the younger,
the less renowned name of Philip. These two young men had married
sisters, the daughters of the sachem of Pocasset. The name of the wife
of Alexander was Wetamoo, an unfortunate princess who became quite
illustrious in subsequent scenes. The wife of Philip had the
euphonious name of Wootonekanuske.

Upon the death of Massasoit, his eldest son Alexander was invested
with the chieftainship. The lands of the Indians were now very rapidly
passing away from the native proprietors to the new-comers, and
English settlements were every where springing up in the wilderness.
The Indian power was evidently declining, while that of the white man
was on the increase. With prosperity came avarice. Unprincipled men
flocked to the colonies; the Indians were despised, and often harshly
treated; and the forbearance which marked the early intercourse of the
Pilgrims with the natives was forgotten. The colonists had generally
become exasperated with the outrages of lawless vagabond savages, whom
the sachems could not restrain, and who ranged the country, shooting
their cattle, pillaging their houses, and often committing murder. A
hungry savage was as ready to shoot a heifer in the pasture as a deer
in the forest, if he could do so and escape detection. There thus very
naturally grew up, upon both sides, a spirit of alienation and
suspicion.

Alexander kept aloof from the English, and was cold and reserved
whenever he met them. Rumors began to float through the air that the
Wampanoags were meditating hostilities. Some of the colonists, who had
been called by business to Narraganset, wrote to Governor Prince, at
Plymouth, that Alexander was making preparations for war, and that he
was endeavoring to persuade the Narragansets to unite with him in a
general assault upon the English settlements. Governor Prince
immediately sent a m