" And in
a second letter of the 28th of May following, the same injunction is
imposed upon the settlers. Attempts were made to pursue the course
pointed out by the company, and a penalty of five pounds per acre was
imposed upon any person who should receive an Indian title without the
consent of the government. Governor Winslow, in 1676, writes thus: "I
think I can clearly say, that before the present trouble broke out, the
English did not possess one foot of land in this colony but what was
fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprietors."
It is no doubt true that for the most part the lands were purchased,
and, according to the idea of the English, honorably purchased, yet the
natives could not fail to foresee the result of these cessions of
territory. There were English settlements at Bridgewater, Middleboro',
Taunton, Rehoboth, Seekonk, and Swanzey, all within the ancient
jurisdiction of Massasoit. And as a perpetual monitor to Philip of
his limited domains, though in obedience to a different and highly
honorable motive, the people erected a fence quite across the neck of
land on the south of Swanzey, and thus confined the Pokanokets by metes
and bounds.
That Philip was annoyed by applications for land is evident from his
letter, without date, addressed to Governor Prince of Plymouth:
"Philip would intreat that favor of you, and any of the magistrates,
if any English or Indians speak about any land, he pray to give them no
answer at all.
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