Soldiers in King Philip's war. Containing lists of the soldiers of ...

162
had been regarded by the General Court as a point of military advantage
and a fort had been built, and a small garrison was kept there.
Upon the outbreak of Philip's War, the retreat of Philip and his
followers to the Nipmucks, and the consequent disturbance of the
neighboring tribes, the people of Marlborough, under the lead of
their minister, met early in October, and adopted measures of defence
in addition to that afforded by the garrison which was under
the command of Lieut. John Ruddock, of whose conduct of their
military affairs, his townsmen, it seems, were jealous ; and the peo-
ple, as was the case generally, were averse to the presence of the
soldiers in their houses. After hostilities began, the Praying
Indians, who had lived so long beside the settlers, became objects of
suspicion and, in many instances, of unreasoning persecutions, in
spite of the constant remonstrances of their friends Rev. John Eliot,
Major Gookin and the magistrates and leading men generally.
Philip used all his powers of persuasion and intimidation to draw
these Praying or Christian Indians to his side ; but in spite of his
arts, and the bitter popular prejudices of the English, and although
forced to suffer great injustice and hardships, they were nearly all
faithful to their engagements with the Colonists. The "new pray-
ing villages," which under Mr. Eliot's efforts were established, in the
way of missionary stations, in the vicinity of several neighboring
tribes, were broken up by the "rumors of war," and the real
converts came with their families into the older villages under the
protection of the Colony. The Indian village at Marlborough was
increased to about forty men besides women and children, and under
the direction of the English they built a fort of considerable strength
for themselves, and were furnished with ammunition and some with
arms by the government, and others had suitable arms of their own.
There is no doubt that these Indians were well disposed and faithful
with very few exceptions, and might have been of very great help in
all the subsequent movements of the war, if the headstrong preju-
dices of the people had not frightened and antagonized them in
manifold ways. The hostile Indians sought to fix the stigma of
their own depredations, often committed for that very purpose, upon
the Christian Indians ; and the attack upon Lancaster, Aug. 22,
1675, in which seven persons were killed, was attributed to them by
"Indian David," who was tied up to a tree and forced to implicate
somebody, himself having fallen under suspicion of shooting the
Irish shepherd boy at Marlborough just before this. Those whom
David particularly accused were the Hassanemesit Indians, now
gathered into the Indian fort at Marlborough ; and the popular
clamor was so loud against them that Lieut. John Ruddock, in
command of the garrison at Marlborough, demanded the arms and
ammunition of the whole body of Indians to be given up. This
demand was quietly acceded to, although there was no evidence
against the Indians, and the act was entirely without the sanction of