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

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Wamesit, included in old Chelmsford, but now the city of Lowell.
Nashobah, within the present town of Littleton.
Okkokonimesit, or Marlborough.
Hassannamesit, or Grafton.
Makunkokoag, now Hopkinton.
Natick, which has preserved its name to the present.
Punkapog or Pakomit, which is now partly in Canton, Mass.
These were the " Old Praying " villages, so-called, in distinction
from some half dozen villages among the Nipmucks called the " New
Praying Towns," which latter however were just beginning, and soon
fell off from the English when their tribes joined in the war.
A few of these only came to Marlborough and joined the Christian
Indians there, and remained until forced away by their tribes in
hostility. These "Praying towns" were so located that they might
have formed a line of defence for the greater part of the Massachusetts
towns upon the frontier ; and it was proposed and urged by
those who knew most about these Christian Indians, that the forts,
which in most cases they had built for themselves under the direction
of the English, should now be garrisoned by them, with English
officers and about one third of the garrison English soldiers ; and
that these should be improved in scouting and guarding the frontiers.
There is little doubt that this course would have saved most of the
destruction and bloodshed which took place in Massachusetts during
the war ; but there was a furious popular prejudice against all Indians,
and the majority of the population had no confidence in any
attempt to employ Indians in military movements.
The Mohegans and Pequods, under Uncas, were in alliance with
the English, and were bound to them by their hostility to the Narragansets,
and though not Christian Indians, serve to illustrate the
wisdom of the plan proposed in Massachusetts by Gen. Gookin.
For the hostile Indians never dared to invade the Connecticut Colony
to any notable extent, and burned only one small (and already
deserted) village, during the whole war.
In the beginning of the war, in the campaign at Mount Hope, we
have seen that the Mohegans with a few of the Christian Indians
from Natick did all the execution which was wrought upon Philip
in his retreat.
But to begin properly. John Sassamon, whom Gen. Gookin
calls the first martyr of the Christian Indians, was a Wampanoag,
but, Increase Mather says, was born in Dorchester, and his parents
both lived there and died as Christian Indians. He had come under
the influence and instruction of Mr. Eliot, who knew him from a
child, and he was evidently one of the brightest and ablest of the
Christian Indians. He could read and write well, and had translated
poi-tions of the Bible into the Indian language. He had been
employed as a teacher of the Christian Indians at the Natick village.
But this method of life seems to have been somewhat monotonous to