The Huguenots in the Nipmuck Country; or, Oxford prior to 1713 ... With an introduction by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Introduction

BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and heroical works.— Bacon BOSTON ESTES & LAURIAT COPYRIGHT J By GEORGE F. DANIELS, ■ 879. PRESS OF NOYES, SNOW & CO., Editiox Limited. Worcester, Mass.

Preface

. Every fact relating to the Huguenots, however slight, has a notable interest. It has been well said that they gave a lustre and a glory to every place and to every thing they touched. The history, therefore, of their sojourn in the " Nipmuck Country," while it is the first chapter in the history of the Town of Oxford, is in itself, independently, a story which will be appreciated by many in our country who have no special interest in the locality. It has been the design in this memoir to bring together all the facts referring to the Oxford Colonies, from every available source, and to arrange them, so far as possible, in such a manner as might best set forth the course of events, adding only such legitimate inferences and comments as would seem to be demanded to complete the narrative.

PREFACE.

. Special thanks are here tendered to Rev. Chas. W. Baird, D. D., of Rye, N. Y., who has given very essential aid in the preparation of this volume, by the contribution of important facts, and of original documents, both English and French in translation, these having been collected by him during his extensive researches for mate rials for his "History of the Huguenot Emigra tion to America," soon to be published. If the result of the publication of this little volume shall be to awaken in the people of Oxford a deeper interest in the history of the town, and to move them to take action for the continuance of the work of its preparation by a more competent hand, the writer will feel that his labors have not been in vain. CONTENTS

Chapter I

The Nipmuck Country, 17. — Its native inhabitants, iS. — Efforts to Christianize them, 19. — Praying towns, 21. — Philip's influence, 23. — Destruction of towns in Worcester County, 24. — Treatment of the Indians by the English, 27. — Closing of Philip's war, 28. — Disastrous results of the war to the Nipmucks. — Indignation of the people, 29.

Chapter II

, First movement toward a settlement in the Nipmuck country. — Its failure, 31. — Intentions of Dudley and Stoughton to make a settlement. — Authorized to treat with Indians for land, 32. — Reports to General Court, 33. — Approval of Court, and grant of land for services, 34. — Deeds of purchase and confirmation of them. — Description of lands conveyed, 35. — Reservation for the Indians. — Thompson associated with Dudley and Stoughton, 38. — Grant to Thompson for services, 39. — Dudley's efficiency in public affairs. — Cox, Blackwell and Freak associated with Dudley and Stoughton, 40. — Prospects of the colony for success. — Obstacles to progress, 41.

Chapter III

Grant for Oxford. — Survey by Mr. Gore, 43. — Description of the plat, 44. — Part of the grant given for a Village. — Division of VI CONTENTS. remainder. — Village line, 46. — Dudley sole manager for the proprietors. — Deed of division, 47. — Augutteback pond, 49.

Chapter IV

Advantages of the location for settlement, 50. — Plains. — Its early reputation as a corn growing country. — Meadows, 51. — Streams. — Fish and game, 52. — Bay Path, 54. — Connecticut path. — New Roxbury and New Oxford, 55. — Dudley's agency in both, 56. — Communication between the two colonies. — The Chandlers, 57.

Chapter V

Extension of time for settlement of New Oxford. — The Huguenots. — Sketch of the French reformation, 59. — Massacre of St. Bartholomew. — Promulgation and revocation of the Edict of Nantes. — Suffering of the Protestants under Louis XIV., 61. — Their flight from the country. — Character of these people. — Skill as artisans and agriculturists, 62. — Their settlement in London, Holland, Brazil and North America. — Influence upon our institutions. — This country early looked to as a place of refuge, 64. — Gabriel Bernon introduced to Thompson in London. — Contract to settle thirty families on the Oxford grant. — Grant to Du Tuffeau as agent of Bernon. — Bernon comes to Boston. — Receives an additional grant, 65.

Chapter VI

Lack of documentary evidence in reference to the Huguenots who came to New Oxford, 66. — Arrival of emigrants in Boston. — Time of the beginning of the settlement, 67. — Choice of location CONTENTS. VII for headquarters. — Fort. — Great house. — Church, 68. — Burying ground and small fort. — Mills, 69. — Plantations. — Beauty of the plan, 70.

Chapter VII

Papers referring to colony. — Letter of French refugee in Boston. — Quantity of land to each family. — The two plantations, inland and on the seaboard, 72. — Vandenbosch, pastor of the Boston colony, 73. — Wagons as means of conveyance, 74. — Deed of Dudley and company to Bernon. — Deed of division. — Probable settlement of the required thirty families in the spring of 1688, 75. — Contract for building a mill, between Bernon and Church. — Mill built in 1689. — Bondet's representations and petition in reference to the Indians, 76. — Petition of the Selectmen ot Woodstock, 77. — Daniel Allen chosen representative, 78. — Andrew Sigourney's representations and petition. — Disasters to the colony. — Desertion by prominent men, 80. — Dread of the Indians. — The colony reaches the height of its prosperity, 81. — The people garrisoned for three months. — Bondet's desertion of the settlement, S2. — Johnson massacre, 83. — Dismay of the people at the attack. — Desertion of the settlement in haste. — Scene at their departure, 85.

Chapter VIII

Re-occupation. — Petition of the inhabitants by James Laborie, their minister. — Complaint against Bondet, 88. — Rum the cause of all disturbance in the colony. — Petition to have its sale prohibited.— Transportation of meat out of the plantation, 89. — Laborie's letter to the Earl of Bellomont, 90. — The Indians leaving for Pennacook. — Earl of Bellomont to the Lords of Trade. — Jesuit priests and the Indians, 91. — Petition of French Protestants in CONTENTS. Boston. — They have assisted those who returned to New Oxford, 92. — Gov. Dudley's letter to Bernon commissioning him as cap tain, 93. — The fraternal spirit and benevolence of the Huguenots, 94. — Soldiers stationed at Oxford in 1703, 95. — Laborie called to New York. — Final abandonment. 96.

Chapter IX

Dudley and Bernon's continued interest in the plantation. — Bernon retaining possession. — Dudley's letter to Bernon censuring his agents, 97. — Agreement between Bernon and Oliver and Nathanael Coller, 98. — Bernon's letter to Dudley complaining of Mr. Hagburn, 99. — Bernon's tenants remain. — His reliance upon possession, 100. — His inability to hold the old mill. — His presentation of the stones and irons to Daniel Elliot, 101. — Dudley's letter of thanks for the same. — Bernon's reply, 102. — Letter of Bernon to the son of Gov. Dudley asking assistance, 103. — Losses by his tenants, and drowning of his servant. — His financial difficulties, 104. — Bernon's application to Gov. Shute for reimbursement. — Certificates of his friends, 106. — Peculiar condition of Bernon's claim. — Squatters occupy his lands. — Oxford recognizes his rights. — Complication of the case, 107. — The tract occupied by him not included in his conveyance. — The "Bernon line," 10S. — Bernon administrator of Du Tuffeau's estate. — Sale of his land, 109. — Action of Oxford proprietors, no. — Report of a committee to settle the lines. — Mayo and Davis, in. — Deed from Dudley to Bernon, 112. — Sale to Bowdoin, 113.

Chapter X

Bernon papers. — His antecedents, 114. — His obituary notice. — His success as a business man, 115. — His business undertakings — Manufacture of ship stores, and petition to the king of England, CONTENTS. IX 116. — Removal to Newport, Narragansett and Providence. — Zeal for Episcopacy. — Daniel Bondet, 117. — Noble descent. — Letter to Increase Mather, 1 iS. — Letter to Lord Cornbury, 1 20. — Labors at New Rochelle. — His death. — His memory perpetuated in Oxford. — Andrew Sigourney, 122. — His family. — Prof. Butler's sketch, 123 — Du Tuffeau. — Goes to New Rochelle, 124. — Laborie. — Goes to New York. — Will of Jean Martin, 125.

Chapter XI

The industries of the place. — Bernon's manufacture of glove or wash leather, 127. — The wash leather mill. — Dea. Humphrey on Bourdille, 128. — Return of two members of the Sigourney family. — The Shumway family, 129. — Origin of the name. — Petition of Peter Shumway, 130. — Huguenot relics, 131. — Orchards. — Sites of Huguenot houses. — Chimney stone of the Johnson house, 132. — Ruins of the fort. — Their present appearance, 133. — Site of the upper mills. — Work of the Huguenots now standing, 136. — Names of Huguenot families settled in Oxford, 137. — Proclamation of the Proprietors, 13S. — The coming in of the English settlers, 139. INTRODUCTORY. (OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, To GEORGE F. DANIELS. My dear Sir : — I have read carefully, and with great interest, but not critically, the manuscript you sent me.

I say not critically, because it would be a work of much labor to follow you through your long and pains-taking investigations, and this I cannot pre tend to have done. I am sure, however, that your memoir is a true labor of love, performed conscientiously, for its own sake, and a valuable contribution to our local history. Of all my father's historical studies, none ever interested me so much as his " Memoir of the French Protestants who settled at Oxford, in Massachusetts, A. D. MDCLXXXVI." All the circumstances connected with that second Colony of Pilgrim Fathers are such as to invest it with singular attractions for the student of history, the INTRODUCTORY. XI antiquary, the genealogist. It carries us back to the memories of the Massacre of Saint Bartholo mew, to the generous Edict of Nantes and the gallant soldierking who issued it; to the days of the Grand Monarque, and the cruel Act of Revocation which drove into exile hundreds of thousands of the best subjects of France — among them the little band which was planted in our Massachusetts half tamed wilderness.

It leads the explorer who loves to linger around the places consecrated by human enterprise, efforts, trials, triumphs, sufferings, to localities still marked with the fading traces of the strangers who there found a refuge for a few brief years, and then wandered forth to know their homes no more. It tells the lover of family history where the un-English names which he is constantly meet ing with — Bowdoin, Faneuil, Sigourney — found their origin, and under what skies was moulded the type of lineaments, unlike those of Anglo- Saxon parentage, which he finds among certain of his acquaintance, and it may be in his own family or himself. INTRODUCTORY. And what romance can be fuller of interest than the story of this hunted handful of Protest ants leaving, some of them at an hour's warning, all that was dear to them, and voluntarily wrecking themselves, as it were, on this shore, where the savage and the wolf were waiting ready to dispute possession with the feeble intruders ?

They came with their trained skill to a region where trees were to be felled, wild beasts to be slain, the soil to be subdued to furnish them bread, the whole fabric of social order established under new conditions. They came from the sunny skies of France to the capricious climate where the summers were fierce and the winters terrible with winds and snows. They left the polished amenities of an old civiliza tion, for the homely ways of rude settlers of another race and language. Their lips, which had shaped themselves to the harmonies of a refined language, — which had been used to speak ing such names as Rochefort and Beauvoir and Angouleme, — had to distort themselves into the utterance of words like Manchaug and Wabquasset INTRODUCTORY. XIII and Chaubunagungamaug. The short and simple annals of this brave and gentle company of emigrants are full of trials and troubles, and ended with a bloody catastrophe.

The Indians to whom " rome was sold without order and measure" were complained of as getting " so furious with drunkness that they fought like bears." They fell upon, and dangerously if not fatally wounded one of the preachers sent among them. At length the massacre of four of a family of five persons by the savages, broke up the settlement, and though some few of the original colonists returned for a season, the place was soon finally deserted. My father visited the site of the little colony in 1 8 19 and 1825. He traced the lines of the fort, and was " regaled with the perfumes of the shrub bery and the grapes then hanging in clusters on the vines planted by the Huguenots above a century before." I visited the place between twenty and thirty years ago, and found many traces of the old settlement.

After Plymouth ; I do not think there is any locality in New Eng- INTRODUCTORY. land more interesting. This little band of French families, transported from the shore of the Bay of Biscay to the wilds of our New England interior, reminds me of the isolated group of magnolias which we find surrounded by the ordi nary forest trees in our Massachusetts town of Manchester. It is a surprise to meet with them, and we wonder how they came there, but they glorify the scenery with their tropical flowers, and sweeten it with their fragrance. Such a pleasing surprise is the effect of coming upon this small and transitory abiding -place of the men and women who left their beloved and beautiful land for the sake of their religion. The lines of their fort may become obliterated, " the perfumes of the shrubbery " may no longer be perceived, but the ground they hallowed by their footsteps is sacred, and the air around their old Oxford home is sweet with their memory.

Boston, June, 1879. " The savage arrow scathed them, and dark clouds Involv'd their infant Zion, yet they bore Toil and affliction with unwavering eye Fixed on the heavens, and firm in hope sublime Sank to their last repose. Full many a son Among the noblest of our land looks back Through Time's long vista, and exulting claims These as his Sires." — L. H. S., Holmes' Mem. 83.

Chapter I. The Nipmucks

THEIR COURSE IN PHILIP'S WAR. DISASTROUS RESULTS. The Town of Oxford has its site near the middle of a large territory lying mainly in the southern central part of Massachusetts, known at the time of the settlement of Boston, in 1630, as the " Nipmuck Country." Its bounds were very indefinite, but it extended from the vicinity of Natick, westerly to the Connecticut river, and from the vicinity of Worcester, southerly some twenty-five or thirty miles, down the Quinebaug valley, into what is now Connecticut. The first mention we have in history of this locality, occurs in the record of an excursion of John Win throp and a few friends, in 1632. Wishing to spy out this region, then almost unknown, they ascended the Charles river so far, that from a high position they overlooked, as they reported, the whole Nip muck Country, and " saw a very high hill, due west."

Three years later a company of sixty settlers from THE NIPMUCKS UNDER THE POKANOKETS. Watertown, being desirous of possessing more land than that place could afford them, took their way over the Indian trails westward, bound for the rich inter vals of the Connecticut valley, and " seized a brave piece of meadow " at Wethersfield. Doubtless they passed near the site of this village, and probably were the first white men who trod the soil of this region. At that time the westerly part of this tract was wild hunting ground, and the eastern portion was quite thinly inhabited by the Nipmuck Indians in scattered villages, their numbers having been greatly reduced by recent wars with western tribes, and by fatal disease.1 The name " Nipmuck," or " Nipnet," which signi fies "fresh water," was given to all the dwellers upon this large inland tract, to distinguish them from the more numerous and powerful tribes which lived upon the sea coast.2 They were an inferior people, who appear to have owed some fealty to the Pokanokets.5 Miss Larned, in her History of Brigham's Centennial Add., Grafton, 1835. 2 This name, in its original signification, was applied to other tribes in New England, but it came to have a special application to the inhabitants of this central Massachusetts region.

Dif ferent branches of this tribe assumed the names of the particular localities in which they lived. 3 Palfrey Hist. New Eng., I. 24. FIRST EFFORTS TO CHRISTIANIZE THEM. 19 Windham County, well describes them thus : " They were subject clans, of little spirit or distinc tive character. Their number was small. A few families occupied the favorable localities, while large sections were left vacant and desolate. Their dwellings were poor, their weapons and utensils rude and scanty. They raised corn and beans, and wove mats and baskets. Their lives were chiefly spent in hunting, fishing and idling." They did not exhibit the enterprise and intelli gence of the neighboring tribes, but seemed more peaceful and inclined to assimilate with the whites as they came to have intercourse with them ; and, as did other tribes in the Colony, early showed a disposition to become civilized and to have the institutions of religion established among them.

The General Court of Massachusetts, wishing to meet these wants, passed an order Nov. 19th, 1644, inaugurating measures looking toward their Christ ianization and improvement, ' thus becoming, as Palfrey says, " the first missionary society in the history of Protestant Christendom."- In 1646, John Eliot, known as the "Apostle to the Indians," having been for fourteen years teacher of the Roxbury Church, and through the instrumentality of a native ■ Palfrey, II. 188. * Ibid., 189. THE LABORS OF ELIOT. 20 servant, having learned the rudiments of the Indian language, began his labors in Nonantum, a part of Newton.1 In 165 1 he removed the headquarters of his operations to Natick, and while still retaining his pastorate at Roxbury, for nearly twenty-five years, until interrupted by Philip's war, he and his co-laborers traveled, preached, taught and advised in matters civil and religious, establishing schools, founding churches, and installing native teachers and pastors among many tribes in the province, including this far off and humble people of the Nipmuck Country. - 1 Palfrey, II. 190. - " The " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," whose headquarters were in London, entered upon its work with considerable efficiency.

So far as practicable it co-operated with Eliot, who was encouraged in his labors by an annual "honorarium" paid by the society, he receiving at first fifteen pounds, then twenty, [Gookin.] and afterward fifty. [Hazard, II. 378.] He did not, however, always act harmo niously with the commissioners of the Society, but differed with them as to ways and means, and thus incurred the censure of its managers, who characterized his proceedings as "turbulent and clamorous," but still retained his services and ordered his salary to be increased. [Hazard, II. 332.] These commissioners selected native young men to be educated at Cambridge as teachers, and had authority from the Society to erect there a building "thirty feet in length and twenty feet in width," for THE "PRAYING TOWNS." 21 To a considerable extent success attended their labors, especially in those villages which were near the English settlements on the eastern coast.

Seven communities were established from Hassanamesit — now Grafton — eastward, and were called "praying towns," and later, from that place to Wabquasset, now Woodstock, were established five others, which were called "new praying towns." ' native pupils. They encouraged education by giving bounties, they printed catechisms in the native language, and furnished books for teachers. [Palfrey, II. 333.] In 1658 Eliot's native teachers were paid ten pounds each, and he received two pounds for Bibles, spectacles and primers for the natives. The outlay of the Society in this, the eighth year of its operations, was five hundred and twenty pounds, chiefly in salaries to teachers, and the sustaining of pupils in the schools at Cam bridge. [Ibid.] Mr. Eliot's efforts were put forth for the civilization as well as the Chri6tianization of the people.

He encouraged the building of frame houses, and the making of homes for separate families, the planting of gardens and orchards, the raising and utilizing of flax and hemp, and at Natick, under his direction, a bridge eighty feet long was built across the river, and a hall fifty by twenty-five feet was erected for public worship. [Ibid. II. 336, 337.] 1 The seven "old praying towns" were these: — Natick, Pakemitt, now Stoughton, — Ockoocangansett, now Marl borough, — Wamesitt, now Lowell, — Hassanamesit, now Graf ton, — Nashobah, now Littleton, — Magunkook, now Hopkin- ELIOT AND GOOKIN HOPEFUL. 22 Hassanamesit became the centre of influence in this circle of praying communities. It was the dwelling place of Wattascompanum, chief ruler of the tribe, a professed convert to Christianity, who was an effi cient aid to the English magistrate in managing the civil affairs of the Indians, and who exerted a controlling influence among his own people.

A flourishing school was established there, from which native teachers went out to neighboring villages, ' the forms of civil government were to some extent adopted, the Bible in their native language was within reach of all, and was taught them by native teachers in every village, and notwithstanding many things which remained unpromising, Eliot and his companion in labor, Daniel Gookin,2 who from 1656 had been "betrusted and employed for the civil government and conduct of the Indians in Massa chusetts Colony," were encouraged to believe that ton. Gookin, in his account of a visit with Eliot to the Nipmucks in 1674, gives the names of the "new praying towns," beginning with Manchaug, now Oxford, twelve families, — Chau bunagungamaug, now Webster, five miles southerly, nine families, — Maanexit on the Quinebaug river, four or five miles further south,— Quantisset, now Thompson Hill and Wab quasset, now Woodstock.

Brigham's Add. - Palfrey, II. 338. THEIR HOPES DISAPPOINTED. 23 these people were to become Christianized, and thus made the friends and helpers of the settlers who were to come among them. Yet, underneath all this fair and promising exterior there lay the peculiar Indian character. The test came when "Philip of Pokanoket" rallied all his allies to make his grand assault upon the English colonies in 1675. Then those instincts which have shown themselves in most of the native tribes of our country, appeared in the Nipmucks in all their malignity, and when once aroused, these appar ently quiet and inoffensive men did not shrink from the commission of deeds most shocking and barbarous. There were, indeed, exceptions, for in the new praying towns a few, and in the old praying towns many, adhered to their alliance with the English ; but the more remote branches of the tribe from Hassanamesit westward, to use the language of Gookin, " being raw, and lately initiated in the Christian profession, most of them fell off from the English and joined the enemy." ' Apparently their alliance with the settlers had been founded on a basis of justice, and their better judgment doubtless 1 "The Wabquassets did not join Philip, but fled southward and placed themselves under the protection of Uncas, at Mohegan."

Miss Larned, Hist. Wind. Co., I. 10. THE NIPMUCKS JOIN PHILIP. 24 4 would have held them firmly to the whites as their true friends, but Philip plied them with argument and solicitation, possibly also urging his claims to their support as subjects, until they yielded. In the words of Palfrey, — " A taste for havoc was established between heathen Wampanoag and half converted Nipmuck. Without provocation, and without warning, they gave full sway to the inhuman passions of their savage nature, and broke into a wild riot of pillage, arson and massacre." During that disastrous time, the summer, autumn and winter of 1675, they pursued their deadly work among the colonists, not only of this region but also of the Connecticut valley, and throughout the interior of the state, ruin and disaster prevailed.

Mendon, Lancaster, Brookfield and Worcester, the only settlements in this county, were burned, and more or less of savage cruelty attended their destruction. Capt. Wheeler, with twenty men sent from headquarters as an escort to Mr. Edward Hutchinson, who came on a peaceful errand to the Nipmucks, was drawn by them into an ambush near Brookfield, on the 2d of August 1675, and he and three others were wounded, and eight men killed.1 One day previous to this attack, Philip being hard pressed by his pursuers, Palfrey, III. 159. WATTASCOMPANUM AND MATOONAS. 25 came up from his refuge near the coast, and with his forty attendants was received and sheltered here. ' Wattascompanum became one of Philip's most pliant aids, and was very efficient in seducing the praying Indians from their fidelity.2 Gookin says, he was "a prudent, and I believe a pious man, and had given good demonstration of it for many years.

This man yielded to the enemy's arguments, and by his example drew most of the rest." Matoonas, another chief, also gave the English much trouble. He made some pretence to religion, and in 1674 was appointed constable at Pakachoag. * But he had a grudge against the whites because of the execution of his son for murder in 1671, and when the war broke out he was ripe for revenge. He became one of the foremost of the assailants, led in their dances, and in the attack, on Mendon was at their head, and killed four or five persons himself. A writer of the time called him "an old, malicious villain."4 Increase Mather says, "Matoonas was the first Indian that treacherously shed Eng lish blood in the Massachusetts colony. He some years before pretended to something of religion, being a professor in general ■ Palfrey, III. 1 59- 2 Ibid.

III. 220. 3 Gookin speaks of him as "that grave and sober Indian." 4 Drake, Am. Ind. "JAMES THE PRINTER." (though never baptized nor of the in-churched Indians) that he might more covertly manage the hellish designs of revenge that were harbored in his devilish heart." ' "James the printer," a promising young man of Hassanamesit, joined Philip, and led a company of warriors against the colonists. 2 " Frequently the marauders in the Nipmuck Coun- 1 Drake, App. 2 "James the Printer" seems to have been one of the most interesting Indian characters mentioned in the accounts of those early times. When a child he was taken into the Indian school at Cambridge, and was afterward apprenticed — probably to Mr. Green — for sixteen years, to learn the art of printing, but ran away before his time expired.

He was Eliot's most valuable assistant in printing the Indian Bible. In 1683 this worthy man wrote thus to a friend in London, in reference to a revised edition of this book, — "I desire to see it done before I die, and I am so deep in years that I cannot expect to live long ; besides, we have but one man, viz., the Indian printer, that is able to compose the sheets and correct the press with understanding." James was sometime teacher, both at Hassanamesit and Chaubunagungamaug, and worked at printing after the war, and, in company with Mr. Green, printed the Indian Psalter in 1709. "Printer" became the surname of the family, and his reputed descendants have lived in Grafton, until within a very few years past. Pierce, Hist. Grafton. ORDERS FOR THE RESTRAINT OF THE TRIBE. 27 try were recognized as professors of Christianity, nor in that region was it found that any community, or any considerable number of natives could be relied on as allies." • Yet, though the Nipmucks acted a prominent part in this tragedy, they did not receive the retribution which their deeds would have seemed to demand.

We find recorded no war-like movement against them as a tribe, except the occasional coming among them of small foraging parties for corn and swine, and the expedition of Capt. Gorham, with one hundred men, from Plymouth, in October, 1675, who burned their corn-fields and a few wigwams and mats. - In June, 1676, Maj. Talcott and four hundred and fifty men, English and Indians, were marching from Norwich to join the Massachusetts troops at Brookfield, on their way to the Connecticut valley. At Wabquasset they destroyed a deserted fort and the growing corn, and at Chaubunagungamaug killed and captured fifty-two Indians.3 But rigid civil restraint was resorted to. The authorities issued special orders, requiring the tribe to come together in five places which were named, and there build wigwams in compact settlements, and not to go more than a mile away from 1 Palfrey, III. 199. 2 Gookin. 3 Conn.

Rec, II. 453. DEATH OF PHILIP CLOSE OF THE WAR. them unless accompanied by an Englishman, under the penalty of imprisonment or death. Extending hospitalities to other Indians was also forbidden. ' In the midsummer of 1676 the tide of affairs began to turn in favor of the colonists. Wattas companum was captured, taken to Boston, tried, and executed June 26th. 2 On the first of July, "James the printer," and a hundred and forty fol lowers, under a promise of pardon, surrendered themselves, 3 and on the 25th, the Sagamore John, and one hundred and eighty followers also laid down their arms. 4 Matoonas was also taken, and shot on Boston common July 28th,5 and three other Nip muck chiefs were hanged in Boston soon after the death of Philip. si The energy and tact of Capt. Church, who was ably seconded by Maj. Talcott, succeeded in defeat ing and demoralizing Philip's forces, so that August found him back again in his old retreat at Mount Hope, shorn of his strength, but still defiant. ?