to a crisis. The red men lacked
resources. The whites had learned the secrets of savage warfare. They
could no longer be led into ambush, while their foe at no time during
the war ventured to engage them in open field. Large parties of Indians
began to surrender; many roving bands were captured. Hostilities
continued still many months in Maine, the whites more and more uniformly
successful, till the Treaty of Casco, April 12, 1678, at last terminated
the war.

Hunted by the English backward and forward, Philip was at last driven to
his old home upon Mount Hope. Here Captain Church, one of the most
practised of Indian fighters, surprised him on the morning of August 12,
1676, encamped upon a little upland, which it is believed has been
exactly identified near a swamp at the foot of the mountain. By
residents in the neighborhood it is known as Little Guinea. At the first
firing Philip, but partially dressed, seized gun and powder-horn and
made for the swamp, Captain Church's ambush was directly in his front.
An Englishman's piece missed fire, but an Indian sent a bullet through
the Great Sachem's heart.

In this fearful war at least six hundred of the English inhabitants
either fell in battle or were murdered by the enemy, A dozen or more
towns were utterly destroyed, others greatly damaged, Some six hundred
buildings, chiefly dwelling-houses, were consumed by fire, and over a
hundred thousand pounds of colonial money expended, to say nothing of
the immense losses in goods and cattle.

Not without propriety has the Pokanoket chief been denominated a king.
If not a Charlemagne or a Louis XIV., he yet possessed elements of true
greatness. While he lived his mind evidently guided, as his will
dominated and prolonged, the war. This is saying much, for the Indian's
disinclination to all strenuous or continuous exertion was pronounced
and proverbial. Philip's treatment of Mrs. Rowlandson must be declared
magnanimous, especially as, of course, he was but a savage king, who
might reasonably request us not to measure him by our rules. The other
party to the war we have a right to judge more rigidly, and just
sentence in their case must be severe. Philip's sorrowing, innocent wife
and son were brought prisoners to Plymouth, and their lot referred to
the ministers. After long deliberation and prayer it was decided that
they should be sold into slavery, and this was their fate.

CHAPTER III.

THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT

[1675