Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: kept the arrows, but returned the snake-skin stuffed with powder and shot. " Your governor is only a subject of King Charles ; I shall treat only with the king, my brother. When Charles of England comes I am ready," was King Philip's reply to the governor's messenger. The cruelty of the Indians was for real or imaginary RETURNING THE SNAKE-SKIN. wrongs. It was their boast that they scalped only their enemies. History regards the Pequots as the most bloodthirsty tribe in New England ; but as fair a man as Governor Win- throp said, "The Pequots had done Massachusetts no harm." Judge Potter charges the English with being responsible for the Pequot War. But the judge fans his indignation on the Puritans, to better defend the Quakers whom history has nobly honored. Comparatively little is known about the Pamets ; but itbecomes our history not to pass unnoticed the original inheritors of our homes. They lived in the same sunny valleys ; the smoke of their wigwams curled in the same sky ; they drank from the same springs ; they planted their corn, beans and pumpkins in the same fields, fished in the same waters, and were buried in the same mother earth. It is doubtful if they were ever as populous in the country as has been generally believed. The Indians knew nothing of calculating numbers. They discoursed in figurative language, and were inclined to cultivate the wonderful. A few score of warriors were more than the leaves of the forest or the fish in the sea. It is not possible to make a complete connection of the Cape tribes with the Wampannogs or 'Pawkunnawkutts, which embraced them, and of whom Massassoit was king. History is conflicting touching the jurisdiction and authority of the great sachem, and exceedingly vague as to the fealty of the petty chiefs. Comp...