rieks and cries of the
women and children, and the yells of the warriors, exhibited
a most horrible and affecting scene, so that it greatly
moved some of the soldiers. They were in much doubt then,
and often very seriously inquired whether burning their
enemies alive could be consistent with humanity and the
benevolent principles of the Gospel."

The Narragansets, who were associated with the warriors of Philip in
this conflict, and in whose territory the battle had been fought, were
exceedingly disheartened. This experience of the terrible power and
vengeance of the English appalled them, and they were quite disposed
to abandon Philip. But the great Wampanoag chief was not a man to
yield to adversity. This calamity only nerved him to more undying
resolution and to deeds of more desperate daring. He had still about
two thousand warriors around him, but, being almost entirely destitute
of provisions, they for a time suffered incredibly.

To gain time, Philip sent deputies to the English commander-in-chief
to treat of peace. The colonists met these advances with the utmost
cordiality, for there was nothing which they more earnestly desired
than to live on friendly terms with the Indians. War was to them only
impoverishment and woe. They had nothing to gain by strife. It was,
however, soon manifest that Philip was but trifling, and that he had
no idea of burying the hatchet. While the wary chieftain was occupying
the colonists with all the delays of diplomacy, he was energetically
constructing another fort in a swamp about twenty miles distant, where
he was again collecting his forces, and all the materials of barbarian
warfare. In this fortress, within the territorial limits of the
Nipmuck Indians, he also assembled a feeble train of women and
children, the fragments of his slaughtered families. The Nipmuck
tribe, then quite powerful, occupied the region now included in the
southeast corner of Worcester county.

Hardly a ray of civilization had penetrated this portion of the
country. The gloomy wilderness frowned every where around, pathless
and savage. From the tangled morass in which he reared his wigwams he
dispatched runners in all directions, to give impulse to the torrent
of conflagration and blood with which he intended to sweep the
settlements in the spring.

It was now manifest that there could be no hope of peace. An army of a
thousand men, early in January, was dispatched from