the sufferings of the colonists in New England were calculated to excite, it will be found, even from their own accounts, that their conduct towards their Indian opponents savoured but too much of that spirit of persecution which they had themselves so heavily experienced in Europe.

The unprincipled conduct of a British trader, a few years before the landing of the settlers at New Plymouth, proved sufficient of itself to instil into the minds of the Indians in that part of North America, the strongest feeling of hostility towards their European visitants. Captain Smith (the same able and meritorious officer who had supported the English colony in Virginia) having been sent out in 1614 for the purpose of establishing a settlement and trade in New England, left behind him, on returning to Europe, one of the ships he had commanded. Hunt, the captain of this vessel, after procuring a cargo of fish upon the American coast, set sail to dispose of it in the Mediterranean, having previously enticed on board upwards of twenty Indians, whom he carried across the Atlantic to be sold at Malaga as slaves. “A most wicked shipmaster," writes Dr. Cotton Mather, "being on this coast a few years before, had wickedly spirited away more than twenty Indians, whom, having enticed them aboard, he presently stowed them under hatches, and carried them away to the Streights, where he sold as many

This avaricious foundation of

of them as he could for slaves. and pernicious felony laid the grievous annoyances to all English endeavours of settlements, especially in the northern parts of the land, for several years ensuing. The Indians would never forget or forgive this injury, but when the English afterwards came upon this coast in their fishing voyages, they were still assaulted in an hostile manner, to the killing and wounding of many poor men by the angry natives, in revenge of the wrong that had been done them; and some intended plantations here were entirely nipt in the bud."*

According to the account given by Hubbard, it appears that the Spaniards would not purchase the Indians who had been thus trepanned; and one of them found his way to England, from whence, after residing two years in London, he was sent back to his native country. The kindness he had experienced from the English induced him afterwards to prevail with many of his countrymen to assist the early New England settlers. In this he was aided by another Indian, who had in some measure become acquainted with the English language. These two men were of the greatest use to the

*Mather's Magnalia Christi Americana, or Ecclesiastical History of New England, b. i. ch. 2. Fol. ed. London, 1702.

new settlers: they taught them how to plant Indian corn, and obtain such game and other provisions as the country afforded. They also informed them of the state and number of the Indians in their neighbourhood, and were the means of bringing the celebrated Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Narragansets, to give them a cordial welcome to his country.

The Europeans, however, soon quarrelled with some of the neighbouring Indian nations. "Of these," says Dr. Mather, "there was none more fierce, more warlike, more potent, or of a greater terror unto their neighbours, than that of the Pequots." And he then proceeds to point out, as forming a ground for the subsequent hostilities with that people, several successive aggressions alleged to have been committed by them: but the imputed murder of an English trader, of the name of Oldham, appears to have been the immediate cause of this sanguinary war with the Pequots nation,

*Hubbard's General History of New England, ch. viii. Dr. Boudinot quotes a passage from a sermon that was preached, soon after the landing of the settlers in New England, by the Rev. Mr. Cushman: "The Indians are said to be most cruel and treacherous in these parts, even like lions; but to us they have been like lambs, so kind, so submissive, and trusty, as a man may truly say many Christians are not so kind or sincere."-Star in the West, ch. 5. ↑ Mather's Magnalia, book vii. ch. 6.

and its unfortunate consequences. The following are the circumstances stated by Hubbard to have taken place upon that occasion.

An Englishman, named Gallop, when sailing across the sound from Connecticut to Long Island, perceived a pinnace which had belonged to Oldham, in the possession of some Indians, who were standing upon the deck armed. When hailed by the other vessel, they gave no answer; upon which, says Hubbard," John Gallop, a man of stout courage, let fly among them, and so galled them that they got all down under hatches; and then they stood off again, and returning with a good gale, they stemmed her upon the quarter, and almost overset her, which so affrightened the Indians, as six of them leaped overboard, and were drowned. Yet they durst not board her, but stood off again, and fitted their anchor so, as stemming her the second time, they bored her through with their anchor, and sticking fast to her they made divers shot through the sides of her, and so raked her fore and aft (being but inch board) as they must needs kill or hurt some of the Indians; but seeing none of them come forth, they got loose from her, and then stood off again. Then four or five more of the Indians leaped into the sea, and were likewise drowned. Whereupon there being but four left in her, they boarded her; whereupon an Indian came up and yielded him they bound,

and put him into the hold. Then another yielded : him they also bound; but John Gallop, being well acquainted with their skill to unloose one another, if they lay near together, and having no place to keep them asunder, flung him bound into the sea."* The English then discovered the body of Oldham under one of the sails. Two of the Indians still remained in a cabin below resolved to defend themselves; the vessel was then taken in tow; but the wind freshening, she was turned off, and drifted to the Narraganset shore.

It does not seem very clear why, or even by whom, Oldham was thus put to death; nor is it, perhaps, material now to inquire whether he had imprudently given offence to the Indians, or if they had killed him without cause. The Pequots said it was done by their enemies the Narragansets, and the Narragansets by the Pequots. At all events it must be allowed, that upon this occasion, the "stout John Gallop" took enough of the law into his own hands; and as the lives of a dozen Indians had thus been sacrificed to avenge the death of one Englishman, the vengeance of New England might have been propitiated, and the account between the parties finally balanced. This, however, was not the case. The English wished that the two survivors of the Indian party should be delivered

* Hubbard's History of New England, ch. 34.