HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



that he directed or approved those hostilities about Mount 

 Hope with which the war began; that his movements im- 

 mediately after indicated a much keener anxiety for his 

 own personal safety than for the extinction of the colonists; 

 that there is nothing to show that he directed the out- 

 breaks which followed, and no evidence that he was per- 

 sonally present and active in any particular fight ; that 

 there was no manifestation of savage wisdom on the part 

 of anybody in the management of the war; that attacks 

 upon particular, much -exposed localities were delayed 

 for weeks and months, which, if any such general conspi- 

 racy existed as has been claimed, it is incredible should 

 not have been simultaneous, or nearly so, when they would 

 have been overwhelming; that, instead of hastening to 

 join his waning fortunes with the Eastern Indians, when 

 misfortune pressed him in his ancient haunts, — as he could 

 have done in two days' easy march, — Philip retreated to 

 the den whence he had originally gone forth, and there 

 was shot ingloriously, while, unattended, he was attempting 

 to run away; and that the war was waged at the Eastward, 

 after his death, with more vigor than during his life, for 

 nearly two whole years. In short, Dr. Palfrey makes it 

 out, — and, as it would seem, on the best evidence, — that, 

 instead of being a far-reaching, well-organized campaign, 

 what we commonly call " Philip's War " was merely a 

 succession of unconsidered and indiscriminate murders 



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