The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish | Page 2

to whom authority had been transmitted in virtue of their birth-rights.
They consequently gave them the name of kings.

How far this opinion of the governments of the aborigines was true
remains a question, though there is certainly reason to think it less
erroneous in respect to the tribes of the Atlantic states, than to those
who have since been found further west, where, it is sufficiently known,
that institutions exist which approach much nearer to republics than to
monarchies. It may, however, have readily happened that the son,
profiting by the advantages of his situation, often succeeded to the
authority of the father, by the aid of influence, when the established
regulations of the tribe acknowledged no hereditary claim. Let the
principle of the descent of power be what it would, it is certain the
experience of our ancestors proves, that, in very many instances, the
child was seen to occupy the station formerly filled by the father; and,
that in most of those situations of emergency, in which a people so
violent were often placed, the authority he exercised was as summary
as it was general. The appellation of Incas came, like those of the
Cæsars and Pharoahs, to be a sort of synonyme for chief with the
Mohegans, a tribe of the Pequods, among whom several warriors of
this name were known to govern in due succession. The renowned
Metacom, or, as he is better known to the whites, King Philip, was
certainly the son of Massassoit, the Sachem of the Wampanoags that
the emigrants found in authority when they landed on the rock of
Plymouth. Miantonimoh, the daring but hapless rival of that Uncas who
ruled the whole of the Pequod nation, was succeeded in authority,
among the Narragansetts, by his not less heroic and enterprising son,
Conanchet; and, even at a much later day, we find instances of this
transmission of power, which furnish strong reasons for believing that
the order of succession was in the direct line of blood.
The early annals of our history are not wanting in touching and noble
examples of savage heroism. Virginia has its legend of the powerful
Powhatan and his magnanimous daughter, the ill-requited Pocahontas;
and the chronicles of New-England are filled with the bold designs and
daring enterprises of Miantonimoh, of Metacom, and of Conanchet. All
the last-named warriors proved themselves worthy of better fates, dying
in a cause and in a manner, that, had it been their fortunes to have lived
in a more advanced state of society, would have enrolled their names
among the worthies of the age.
The first serious war, to which the settlers of New-England were

exposed, was the struggle with the Pequods. This people was subdued
after a fierce conflict; and from being enemies, all, who were not either
slain or sent into distant slavery, were glad to become the auxiliaries of
their conquerors. This contest occurred within less than twenty years
after the Puritans had sought refuge in America.
There is reason to believe that Metacom foresaw the fate of his own
people, in the humbled fortunes of the Pequods. Though his father had
been the earliest and constant friend of the whites, it is probable that the
Puritans owed some portion of this amity to a dire necessity. We are
told that a terrible malady had raged among the Wampanoags but a
short time before the arrival of the emigrants, and that their numbers
had been fearfully reduced by its ravages. Some authors have hinted at
the probability of this disease having been the yellow fever, whose
visitations are known to be at uncertain, and, apparently, at very distant
intervals. Whatever might have been the cause of this destruction of his
people, Massassoit is believed to have been induced, by the
consequences, to cultivate the alliance of a nation, who could protect
him against the attacks of his ancient and less afflicted foes. But the son
appears to have viewed the increasing influence of the whites with eyes
more jealous than those of the father. He passed the morning of his life
in maturing his great plan for the destruction of the strange race, and
his later years were spent in abortive attempts to put this bold design in
execution. His restless activity in plotting the confederation against the
English, his fierce and ruthless manner of waging the war, his defeat,
and his death, are too well known to require repetition.
There is also a wild and romantic interest thrown about the obscure
history of a Frenchman of that period. This man is said to have been an
officer of rank in the service of his king, and to have belonged to the
privileged class which then monopolized all the dignities and
emoluments of the kingdom of France. The traditions, and