policy and favor, to discover, pursue and encounter, and by the help
of God to vanquish and subdue the cruel, barbarous and treacherous
enemy, whether Philip Sachem and his Wampanoags, or the Narraganset
and his undoubted allies, or any other their friends and abettors."

Canonchet, son of Miantonomo and grand nephew of Canonicus, was chief
of the Narragansets. When the colonists first became acquainted with
this tribe, Canonicus was their sachem, but his nephew Miantonomo was
associated with him in the government. This sachem was never a friend
to the English, and he early sent to Plymouth a bundle of arrows bound
in a rattle-snake's skin as a war challenge. Miantonomo was less
hostile, but Canonchet manifested the spirit of his grand uncle.
Immediately after hostilities commenced with Philip the English
demanded of Canonchet the surrender of certain Pokanokets alleged to be
within his dominions. This was his reply: "Deliver the Indians of
Philip! Never. Not a Wampanoag will I ever give up. No. Not the
paring of a Wampanoag's nail."

He was of course charged with being in alliance with Philip. A force
of a thousand men with such Indian allies as could be mustered, was
marched immediately into his country. This was the force engaged on
the 19th of December in the famous Swamp Fight, the most sanguinary
battle of Philip's War. Six hundred warriors were slain, six hundred
wigwams were burned, and an unknown number of women, children and old
men perished in the flames. The English loss exceeded two hundred,
among whom were several brave officers. From this moment the fortunes
of Canonchet were identified with Philip's, and he is supposed to have
commanded in many of the attacks upon the frontier towns. About the
last of March, 1676, he visited the Connecticut River to urge, if not
to superintend the planting of corn. Finding his people destitute of
seed, he returned to obtain a supply, but was arrested at Seekonk and
executed at Stonington. His death was a sad blow to Philip, and the
occasion of a great joy in the colonies. When told that he must die,
he said:

"It is well. I shall die before my heart is soft. I will speak
nothing which Canonchet should be ashamed to speak. It is well."

Thus fell Canonchet, the last great chief of the Narragansets. A man
so noble and chivalric in his spirit that his life and death commanded
the admiration of his worst enemies. They vainly imagined that some
dise