There were, between the two civilizations, occasions enough for quarreling. Dishonest settlers were sure to cheat the American Indians, and the violent among the American Indians were as sure to revenge themselves. Both sides took vengeance on their enemy's men, women, elderly, and children. We have seen how suddenly the American Indians massacred the Virginians in 1622. This led to a long war, with many treacheries and cruel surprises on both sides. After some years the American Indians were subdued by the Virginians, under the lead of William Claiborne.

But in 1644 the old chief Opechankano, who had led in the first massacre, planned a second. He was so old that he could not walk without assistance, and could not see, except when his eyelids were held open. He was carried to the scene of bloodshed. The American Indians had by this time secured guns. By a sudden surprise they killed about five hundred settlers in a single day. But they paid dearly for their victory, for the colony had grown strong enough to ultimately defeat them. They were driven away from their villages. Opechankano was taken prisoner, and, while a captive, was suddenly killed by an infuriated soldier.

The Pe'-quot war in Connecticut grew out of the differences between the Dutch and the English settlers. The English brought back the American Indians whom the Pequot tribe had just driven away. The Pequots began the war by killing some English traders. The attempts of the English colonists to conquer the Pequots were at first of no avail. The American Indians were fast runners and escaped from the colonists wearing their heavy armor. They continued to seize and torture to death such English as they could catch.

In 1637, John Mason, a trained soldier, at the head of a company of Connecticut men, with some from Massachusetts, marched into the Pequot country. At Mystic, Connecticut, just before daybreak, the Connecticut men surrounded the palisaded Pequot village of Sassacus. In the first onset Mason set the village on fire. A horrible slaughter followed. American Indian men, women, and children, to the number of five or six hundred, were shot down or burned in the village, or in trying to escape. In the war which followed this attack, the whole Pequot tribe was broken up, and New England had peace for many years after.

About the same time cruel wars raged between the Dutch of New Netherland (now New York) and the American Indians in their neighborhood. At one time the Dutch colony was almost overthrown. There was also a war between the Marylanders and the Sus-quehan'-nah tribe. In 1656 the Virginians suffered a bitter defeat in a battle with the American Indians at the place where Richmond now stands. The brook at this place got the name of Bloody Run.

In 1675 there broke out in New England the terrible war known ever since as King Philip's War. Philip was the son of Massasoit, the American Indian chief who had been long a friend to the Plymouth settlers. Philip was a proud man, and thought that he was not treated with enough respect by the rulers of Plymouth Colony, who acted with imprudent boldness in their dealings with him. He was also irritated because large numbers of his people were converted to the Christian religion, through the labors of John Eliot. These converted people, or "praying Indians," formed themselves into villages, and lived under the government of the Massachusetts colony.

Philip won some successes at first, and American Indians of other tribes came to his assistance. Many New England towns were laid in ashes, and hundreds of people were killed or carried away into captivity. The powerful tribe of Narragansetts gave Philip secret aid, and in the winter the colonists boldly attacked their stronghold. This was always known as the "Swamp Fight." Hundreds of American Indians were slain, and their village burned. The colonists also lost two hundred men in this battle, and the Narragansetts took a terrible revenge by burning houses and killing people in every direction.

But after a while the colonists learned how to fight the American Indians. By degrees Philip's power was broken, as his men were most of them killed or captured. Captain Benjamin Church was the most famous fighter against the American Indians in this war. Church's men surrounded Philip in a swamp and killed him. The rest of the American Indians were soon subdued. Most of the captive American Indians were cruelly sold into slavery in Barbados.

About the time of Philip's war the Doegs and Susquehannahs were ravaging the Virginia frontier, while the governor of that colony refused to allow anyone to march against them. But Nathaniel Bacon, a young man of great spirit, was chosen by the people to lead them, which he did in opposition to the governor's orders. This disobedience led to "Bacon's Rebellion," as it is called, the story of which is told in Chapter 26.

All the colonies waged war with the American Indians. The infant settlement in South Carolina was almost ruined by a war with the American Indians called Wes'-toes, ten years after the arrival of the first settlers, and in the very year that Charleston was settled; that is, in 1680. In 1711 the Tuscaroras [tus-ca-ro'-rahs] ravaged the scattered settlements of North Carolina, putting people to death by horrible tortures. It was only by the help of the Virginians and South Carolinians, and the Yam-as-see' Indians, that the settlers, after two years, finally defeated the Tuscaroras, capturing and sending many hundreds of them to be sold as slaves in the West India Islands.

But in 1715, two years after the close of this war, the Yamassees, who had helped the settlers to defeat the Tuscaroras, joined with the Spaniards in Florida, and with all the other American Indians from Florida to Cape Fear, in an attempt to destroy the colony of South Carolina. There were six or seven thousand American Indian warriors in this league, while South Carolina could only muster fifteen hundred colonists and two hundred black slaves. Governor Craven knew that a single defeat would ruin the colony, so he marched with the utmost caution until he brought on a great battle, and overthrew the American Indians. The war lasted about three years.



BENJAMIN CHURCH

Benjamin Church was one of the first of the fighters to adopt the techniques of the American Indian. He knew how to manage men, and had great influence over them. He would even persuade captive American Indians to join his band and lead him to the haunts of their friends. It was one of these American Indians who shot Philip. Church let him take Philip's scarred hand for a trophy. This he carried about the country, making money by showing it. Captain Church was tireless, fearless, and full of expedients. He first taught the Englishmen to practice the arts of the American Indians in war. When Philip was dead, only old Annawon, Philip's head-man, remained in the field with a party. When Church at last found him, he was sheltered under some cliffs. Church had but half a dozen men with him; Annawon ten times that number of resolute braves. But by creeping down the cliffs, while an American Indian woman was making a noise by pounding corn in a mortar, Church succeeded in capturing the guns of the American Indians, which were stacked at Annawon's feet. Seeing his boldness, the Indians thought that Church had surrounded them with a great many men, and they therefore surrendered. Church also performed many famous exploits in the war with the American Indians of Maine.



EUROPEAN EVANGELISM

Some of the colonists desired convert the American Indians to Christianity and school them in European ways. Schools for the education of Indian children were set up in Virginia and in New England. Catholic missionaries attempted to convert the American Indians of Maryland to Catholicsm. John Eliot of Massachusetts preached to thousands of American Indians and translated the Christian Bible into their language. He was called the "Apostle to the American Indians." However, by trying to subvert the American Indian's traditional culture, the colonists offended them. The chiefs and medicine men of the American Indians did not like to see their ancient customs treated with contempt and their traditions and beliefs destroyed by the new religion and culture.