Mile River, which tavern he was
enjoined by the court to "keep in good order, that no unruliness or
ribaldry be permitted there." He was a man of some consequence,
energetic, reckless, and not very scrupulous in regard to the rights
of the Indians. An Indian owed him some money. As Woodcock could not
collect the debt, he paid himself by going into the Indian's house and
taking his child and some goods. For this crime he was sentenced to
sit in the stocks at Rehoboth during a training day, and to pay a fine
of forty shillings.

At this garrison house the troops encamped for the night, and the next
day they advanced to Seekonk, and were ferried across the river to
Providence. On the morning of the twelfth they resumed their march,
and followed down the western shore of the bay until they arrived at
the garrison house of Mr. Smith, in the present town of Wickford,
which was appointed as their head-quarters. Here, in the course of a
few days, the Connecticut companies, marching from Stonington, and the
Plymouth companies were united with them. As the troops were
assembling, several small parties had skirmishes with roving bands of
Indians, in which a few were slain on both sides. A few settlers had
reared their huts along the western shores of the bay, but the
Indians, aware of the approach of their enemies, had burned their
houses, and the inhabitants were either killed or dispersed. Nearly
the whole region was now a wilderness.

The Indians, three thousand in number, were strongly intrenched, as we
have before mentioned, in a swamp, which was in South Kingston, about
eighteen miles distant from the encampment of the colonists. It is
uncertain whether Philip was in the fort or not; the testimony upon
that point is contradictory. The probability, however, is that he was
present, sharing in the sanguinary scene which ensued.

The swamp was of immense extent and quite impenetrable, except through
two or three paths known only to the Indians. In the centre of the
swamp there were three or four acres of dry land, a few feet higher
than the surrounding morass. Here Philip had erected his houses, five
hundred in number, and had built them of materials far more solid and
durable than the Indians were accustomed to use, so that they were
quite bullet-proof. They were all surrounded by a high palisade. In
this strong encampment, in friendly alliance with the Narragansets,
Philip and his exultant warriors had been maturing their p