Chapter 21

"Be certain what you do, sir; lest your justice
Prove violence."

Winter's Tale.

The designs of the celebrated Metacom had been betrayed to the Colonists,
by the treachery of a subordinate warrior, named Sausaman. The punishment
of this treason led to inquiries, which terminated in accusations against
the great Sachem of the Wampanoags. Scorning to vindicate himself before
enemies that he hated, and perhaps distrusting their clemency, Metacom no
longer endeavored to cloak his proceedings; but, throwing aside the
emblems of peace he openly appeared with an armed hand.

The tragedy had commenced about a year before the period at which the tale
has now arrived. A scene, not unlike that detailed in the foregoing pages,
took place; the brand, the knife, and the tomahawk, doing their work of
destruction, without pity and without remorse. But, unlike the inroad of
the Wish-Ton-Wish, this expedition was immediately followed by others,
until the whole of New-England was engaged in the celebrated war, to which
we have before referred.

The entire white population of the Colonies of New-England had shortly
before been estimated at one hundred and twenty thousand souls. Of this
number, it was thought that sixteen thousand men were capable of bearing
arms. Had time been given for the maturity of the plans of Metacom, he
might have readily assembled bands of warriors who, aided by their
familiarity with the woods, and accustomed to the privations of such a
warfare, would have threatened serious danger to the growing strength of
the whites. But the ordinary and selfish feelings of man were as active,
among these wild tribes, as they are known to be in more artificial
communities. The indefatigable Metacom, like that Indian hero of our own
times, Tecumthè, had passed years in endeavoring to appease ancient
enmities and to lull jealousies, in order that all of red blood might
unite in crushing a foe that promised, should he be longer undisturbed in
his march to power, soon to be too formidable for their united efforts to
subdue. The premature explosion in some measure averted the danger. It
gave the English time to strike several severe blows against the tribe of
their great enemy, before his allies had determined to make common cause
in his design. The summer and autumn of 1675 had been passed in active
hostilities between the English and Wampanoags, without openly drawing any
other nation into the contest. Some of the Pequots, with their dependent
tribes, even took sides with the whites: and we read of the Mohegans being
actively employed in harassing the Sachem, on his well-known retreat from
that neck of land, where he had been hemmed in by the English, with the
expectation that he might