WAMPANOAG INDIANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 883 



to exist between the rulers of the Wampanoags, Wainsutta and Phillip, 

 and their praying Indians upon Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and 

 Nantucket. Very early Massasoit saw that the English were acquiring 

 a dangerous ascendancy over the minds of his Indians, and begged the 

 English to stop trying to change the religion of his Wampanoags, for 

 they were apt to become poor subjects to him. It is a suggestive fact 

 that in two noted cases in which King Philip sought to administer 

 justice in accordance with Indian law, that of John Gibbs, at Nantucket, 

 for speaking evil of Philip's father, Massasoit, and that of John Sassa- 

 mon, at Assawamsett Pond, for revealing Phillip's plans to the English, 

 the offenders were preachers of the Gospel to the praying Indians. 

 The English tried to alienate still further the praying Indians from 

 their allegiance to Philip by adding to their list of jurors at the trial 

 of Sessamon's executioners " six of the indifferentest, granest, and sage 

 Indians," that, by their concurrence with the white jurors, the Indians 

 of the praying towns might be committed to the cause of the whites. 

 To make the conviction of the culprits sure, however, they had the full 

 number of twelve white men before adding the six Indians to the jury. 

 The execution of these three Indians by the English was the immediate 

 cause of the Indian war, threatened for some time, but purposely de- 

 layed by Philip until he could get the aid of the Narragansetts. The 

 names of Elliot and Williams will ever be associated with the conver- 

 sion of the Indians under their charge near the Massachusetts and 

 Providence Plantations ; but to the less celebrated efforts of the May- 

 hews, on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and of Mr. Treat, Mr. 

 Bourne, and Mr. Cotton, on Cape Cod, are chiefly due the conversion 

 of the Indians in those places, and the friendly attitude taken by these 

 Indians during the war that devastated the region lying just west of 

 them. The following quotation in reference to the labors of the May- 

 hews states very well the effect of their labors, and sets forth the tract- 

 able nature of the Indians of Martha's Vineyard, which, it may be 

 added, were shared by those on Nantucket and Cape Cod : 



"Atthetimeof the settlement (Martha's Vineyard, in 1042) the Indians 

 were very numerous in this town (Edgartowu), perhaps more so than in 

 other parts of the island. The Indians of Martha's Viueyard were hos- 

 pitable, and more tractable than those on the main. Governor Mayhew 

 and his son, as soon as they became settled, attempted to civilize them 

 and introduce the Gospel among them, and their success surprised and 

 delighted the pious of that age. The younger Mayhew labored in this 

 benevolent work with diligence and fervor till his death, in 1057, when 

 it was assumed by his father, and in a few years by his son, and it was 

 carried on by some member of the family till the beginning of the pres- 

 ent century. Nearly all the Indians on the island became professed 

 Christians. At first they were called 'catechumens,' but were formed 

 into a church in 1G50, and from this another church arose in 1G70. The 

 English found most essential advantages from the ascendancy which 



