24 CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA.

“It was whispered about among the English that Philip was
holding war-dances, and that Wetamoo and her warriors were
attending them; yet Philip had just concluded a treaty of peace
with the English, and Wetamoo
professed to be a friend to the ee ar

     
  
 

Colony.

“War came on the following
summer, stealthily at first. Eng-
lishmen were found murdered
mysteriously in the towns near
Mount Hope. Then came
the killing of the people
in Swansea as they were
going home from church,
about which all the his-
tories of the Colonies tell;
then the open war.

“Philip flashed like a meteor
from place to place, murdering the
people and burning their houses.
No one could tell where he would
next appear, or who would be his
next victim. Every colonist during the year 1675, wherever
he might be, lived in terror of lurking foes. There were
dreadful cruelties everywhere, and towns and farm-houses
vanished in smoke.

“Wetamoo joined Philip. She had some six hundred warriors.
Philip had made her believe that the English had poisoned her
husband Alexander, who was also his brother, and who had
succeeded the good Massasoit. Alexander had died suddenly
while returning from Plymouth on the Taunton River. The
mysterious lights on the bay were now explained.