difficult place to reach. It was built of the trunks of
trees set upright in the ground. It was so strong that the savages
felt quite safe.

Starting very early in the morning, the attacking party waded fifteen
miles through deep snow. Many of them had their hands and feet badly
frozen. One of the chief men in leading the attack was Captain
Benjamin Church of Plymouth; he was a very brave soldier, and knew
all about Indian life and Indian fighting. In the battle, he was
struck by two bullets, and so badly wounded that he could not move
a step further; but he made one of his men hold him up, and he shouted
to his soldiers to go ahead. The fight was a desperate one, but at
length the fort was taken. The attacking party lost more than two
hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded; the Indians lost as many
as a thousand.

After the battle was over, Captain Church begged the men not to burn
the wigwams inside the fort, for there were a great number of old
men and women and little Indian children in the wigwams. But the men
were very mad against the savages, and would not listen to him. They
set the wigwams on fire, and burned many of these poor creatures to
death.

Canonchet, the chief of the tribe, was taken prisoner. The settlers
told him they would spare his life if he would try to make peace.
"No," said he, "we will all fight to the last man rather than become
slaves to the white men." He was then told that he must be shot. "I
like it well," said he. "I wish to die before my heart becomes soft,
or I say anything unworthy of myself."

[Footnote 9: Canonchet (Ka-non'chet).]

[Footnote 10: See map in paragraph 90.]

94. Philip's wife and son are taken prisoners; Philip is shot; end
of the war.--The next summer Captain Church, with a lot of "brisk
Bridgewater lads" chased King Philip and his men, and took many of
the Indians prisoners. Among those then taken captive were King
Philip's wife and his little boy. When Philip heard of it, he cried
out, "My heart breaks; now I am ready to die." He had good reason
for saying so. It was the custom in England to sell such prisoners
of war as slaves. Following this custom, the settlers here took this
boy, the grandson of that Massasoit[11] who had helped them when they
were poor and weak, and sold him with his mother. They were sent to
the Bermuda Islands,[12] and there worked to death under the hot sun
and the lash of the slave-driver's whip.

Not long after that, King