d wherever he
could be found. But Sassamon had been so much with the English, and
had been for years so intimately connected with them as their friend
and agent, that it was feared that they would espouse his cause, and
endeavor to avenge his death. It was, therefore, thought best that
Indian justice should be secretly executed.

Early in the spring of 1675 Sassamon was suddenly missing. At length
his hat and gun were found upon the ice of Assawompset Pond, near a
hole. Soon after his body was found beneath the ice. There had been an
evident endeavor to leave the impression that he had committed
suicide; but wounds upon his body conclusively showed that he had been
murdered. The English promptly decided that this was a crime which
came under the cognizance of their laws. Three Indians were arrested
under suspicion of being his murderers. These Indians were all men of
note, connected with the council of Philip. An Indian testified that
he happened to be upon a distant hill, and saw the murder committed.
For some time he had concealed the knowledge thus obtained, but at
length was induced to disclose the crime. The evidence against Tobias,
one of the three, is thus stated by Dr. Increase Mather:

"When Tobias came near the dead body, it fell a bleeding on fresh, as if
it had been newly slain, albeit it was buried a considerable time before
that." In those days of darkness it was supposed that the body of a
murdered man would bleed on the approach of his murderer.

The prisoners were tried at Plymouth in June, and were all adjudged
guilty, and sentenced to death. The jury consisted of twelve
Englishmen and four Indians. The condemned were all executed, two of
them contending to the last that they were entirely innocent, and knew
nothing of the deed. One of them, it is said, when upon the point of
death, confessed that he was a spectator of the murder, which was
committed by the other two.

The summary execution of three of Philip's subjects enraged and
alarmed the Wampanoags exceedingly. As the death of Sassamon had been
undeniably ordered by Philip, he was apprehensive that he also might
be kidnapped and hung. The young Wampanoag warriors were roused to
phrensy, and immediately commenced a series of the most intolerable
annoyances, shooting the cattle, frightening the women and children,
and insulting wayfarers wherever they could find them. The Indians had
imbibed the superstitious notion, which had probably been tau