The forest was broken up,
commerce was increased, agriculture flourished, new settlements were
made, confidence was created, men saw before them a future in which
they had hope. As our fathers passed from war to peace they forgot
not their religious duties, and the 29th of June in Massachusetts, and
the 17th of August in Plymouth, were set part as days of public
thanksgiving and praise. Days of sadness, too, they must have been;
days of woe as well as of triumph. The colonies were bereaved in the
loss of brave and valuable men,--families were bereaved in the loss of
homes,--and all were bereaved in the fall or captivity of kindred and
friends. And could our ancestor have seen that this was the first
great step in the red man's solemn march to the grave, a tear of
sympathy would have fallen in behalf of a noble and heroic race.
The war was brief; its operations were rapid. In the space of less
than fourteen months the Indians were exterminated and the whites
reduced to the condition I have faintly portrayed. Yet, until the
19th of December, 1675, when the colonists made a most destructive
attack upon the Indians at what is now South Kingston, the war had
been confined chiefly to the valley of the Connecticut. But from that
moment Philip was like a hungry tiger goaded in confinement, suddenly
let loose upon his prey.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245