[figure description] Page 025.[end figure description]

After a long and anxious suspense, the company around
the Meeting-House were again aroused by the renewed ringing
of the bell and the beating of the distant drum, this time pealing
out and rattling so loud and intermittingly, that all felt there
was now little danger of another disappointment. And in a few
minutes, as they had anticipated, the head of the procession
consisting of the embodiment of Church and State, with
their proposed Indian victims, jurors, witnesses, and others,
hove in sight. Preceded by the Sheriff on a black horse,
and a drummer and fife, came the Governor and his Secretary,
walking side by side, next his assistants, who were to act as
civil magistrates, and then the minister and elder of the Church,
who were to make up the Ecclesiastic part of the court, formed
after the fashion of the times for the trial of all important cases.
And next to these came the jurors and witnesses headed by a
constable, and then the three Indian prisoners, in their scanty
native garbs, dejectedly, but firmly walking in Indian file, and
enclosed before, behind, and on each side, in the hollow square
of their well armed military guard. Immediately after these
last, came waddling along, with an air of mingled meekness and
wisdom, the thick-set, mealy, rough-visaged, and pig-eyed
Deacon Mudgridge, the important personage, who has already
been once or twice alluded to, and who was the volunteer manager
of the forth-coming trial, on the part of the prosecution.
By his side strode the long, never failing Shadow, who, as the

[figure description] Page 026.[end figure description]

minister was to sit on the trial, had been, on account of his gifts
for prayer and impromptu, selected as a sort of Chaplain on
the occasion. And last of all, followed a long line of citizens,
summoned into the ranks, to swell the retinue and give it the
most imposing effect.

This was a political or state trial, or at least made such by
its assumed connection with the public question, by which
the community, as before stated, were, at this time, peculiarly
agitated, and it was expected by all, therefore, that it would
be conducted with considerable ceremony. But the authorities,
not content with the usual ceremonies of such occasions,
had been at very extraordinary pains to have all the proceedings
of this trial marked throughout with unusual parade and
great show of stern solemnity; for one of the principal objects
they had in view, in instituting the measure, was to strike a
dread upon the natives, and overawe their proud chief, the
feared and hated Metacom of Montaup.* The whole affair
therefore, from the first—the marching of the procession,
the entrance into the Meeting House, the place appointed
for the trial, as the one most likely to be attended by Indian
spectators, and the seating of the authorities, with all others,
had been conducted with all possible pomp, and was thus
made to resemble, in appearance, some military trial and
execution, rather than the quiet proceedings of a court of
justice, exercising only the functions of civil authority. And
thus nearly an hour was spent in the march of an hundred
rods, and in arranging matters for the opening of the court.
At length, however, all this had been accomplished, to the
apparent satisfaction of those in control, every thing had become
settled down into quiet in the Meeting House, and the
anxious audience sat with keenly expectant looks, awaiting
the commencement of the important business of the day.

[figure description] Page 027.[end figure description]

At this juncture, the attention of the audience was attracted
by the quiet entrance of an elderly gentleman, whose
unobtrusive, yet firm and free deportment, intelligent look,
and native dignity of manner, seemed at once to impress all
classes of the mingled assemblage, as their enquiring gaze
was turned towards him, with the involuntary feeling that
they were favored with the presence of more than an ordinary
man. Notwithstanding the snows of the seventy winters that
had thickly powdered his high and noble head, and converted
his once raven locks into the silver wreath that now entwined
itself around his thin, rectilinear features and strikingly
intellectual countenance, his step was firm and elastic; and
little or nothing could be detected in his general appearance
indicating any abatement of physical vigor. With a composed,
self-possessed air, and an occasional quick, sharp
glance around him, he advanced directly towards the platform
on which the civil and church dignitaries had become seated,
with the jury, prisoners, guards, and officers arranged below
and along in front of them. Though evidently a stranger to
most of the audience, he yet seemed soon to be recognized,
and that, too, with manifestations of displeasure, by several
of the older part of the assembly; and quickly the name and
epithets, Old Roger Williams! Williams, the banished
heretic! and the half Quaker, half infidel Roger Williams!
was audibly whispered and buzzed from mouth to mouth,
among the now continuing crowd. But without appearing to
hear or notice these irreverent and unfriendly demonstrations,
he proceeded deliberately along the aisle, until he reached the
further end of the bench on which the Indian prisoners were
seated, where he paused, and made some slight motion to
attract their attention. They looked up, and while the
twinkle of a smile lighted up, for the instant, their gloomy,
saturnine visages, they simultaneously uttered a low, guttural
exclamation of gratified feeling.

[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]

Williams, for the stranger was indeed no other than the
persecuted and banished man, who was thereafter to become
known as the first great champion of religious liberty in
America, and who had now volunteered to come from his new
home and freshly planted colony at Providence, to defend
those from whose hospitable tribe he had once received protection
and friendship. Williams then turned, firmly confronted
the court, and stood silent, as if waiting to hear what
they might have to say at his appearance before them.

“What may be your desire, sir?” at length, coldly asked
the stern and severe looking Governor Winslow, affecting to
have forgotten the other, or being unwilling to speak his
name. “Have you some favor to crave at the hands of the
court?”

“Nay, your Excellency,” replied Williams, in a deep, firm,
and musical voice. “Nay, not a favor; yet I deemed it but
proper, with a fitting opportunity of speech, to apprise the
court that I appear here before them as the friend and
counsel of these prisoners; not to defeat the ends of justice,
but only to guard against its perversion to the detriment of
their rights, as well as of the safety and good name of your
colony.”

A frown was seen instantly to gather on the warty visage
of Deacon Mudgridge, at the remarks, and a fidgety movement
seemed to agitate the whole of his fat, dumpy person, as,
alternately glancing at the speaker and the court, he did his
best to look his aversion to the man, and his objections to the
part he had proposed to act in the trial.

“Do you wish,” resumed the governor, after a hesitating
pause, “do you wish me, sir, to put it to vote with the
court, whether you shall be admitted as counsel of the
prisoners?”

“Nay; again I have to say, nay, your Excellency,”
calmly responded the other. “The constitution and laws of

[figure description] Page 029.[end figure description]

England, and of this colony, of course, have always guaranteed,
even to the worst of criminals, the right of being heard
by counsel, and I will not so far question the intelligence and
impartiality of this court, as to intimate any necessity of
asking such a thing of them. I only wait for the trial to proceed.”

After a short, whispered consultation among the grave
personages of the court, which seemed to result in some perplexity
and difference of opinion, respecting the admission of
Williams to act in the capacity claimed by him, the governor,
as the presiding judge, with much the air of one who finds
himself compelled to tolerate some nuisance which he lacks
the power to abate, at last turned to Deacon Mudgridge, and
suggested that, on the whole, it were better perhaps to let the
matter pass as it was, and proceed with the trial.

The Shadow, or Dummer, the deacon candidate, being then
called on for the purpose, made a long, loud and zealous
prayer, beginning with the fall of Adam, following the history
of the Church to the time when God's chosen Israel, in the
persons of the Plymouth colonists, began to antagonize with
the accursed Canaanites of the American forests, and ending
with praying every heathen savage out of the land, and King
Philip to an especial perdition.

When this introductory performance was at length brought
to a close, and the audience became composed, Deacon Mudgridge
slowly rose from the conspicuous seat he had taken on
the right, but a little in front of the court, and, with an air
of exceeding solemnity, and a countenance big with the conscious
importance of the trust devolving on him in the double
capacity of chosen captain of the church militant of the
colony, and the champion of its civil authority, began, by way
of a preliminary speech for suitably impressing the court, jury,
and all others with the right frame of mind before entering
on their duties, to dilate on the very great importance of the

[figure description] Page 030.[end figure description]

case which had now come up for the solemn and prayerful
consideration of the court and jury. This trial would involve,
he believed, a most momentous crisis to God's favored people,
whom he had planted with his own right hand in this wilderness
country, wherein to erect his tabernacles, convert or
drive out the idolatrous heathen, and make it a vineyard for
his elected heritage. And he could not forbear, he said, to
warn the court and jury, in advance, against the great danger
of falling into the fatal error of Saul, and also that of Achan,
the weak follower of Joshua, who brought sore judgments on
Israel by sparing some of the enemy, and being seduced by
the love of spoils, (to which our desire to gain the traffic of
the Indians might be likened,) and so fear to take decided
steps against the heathen prisoners; when the righteous
example of Samuel, who hewed the wicked Agag to pieces,
and moreover that of Joshua, who ordered the stoning to
death of the disobedient Achan—when these wholesome examples
were still standing as beacon lights, whereby to avoid
incurring the guilt of any like offences.

He then read the indictment, setting forth, in substance,
that the prisoners, one Tobias, a leading man of the Wampanoogs,
and called by them Poggapanosso, one Wampaquan,
son of said Tobias, and one other Indian, instigated by the
devil and King Philip, did, on a certain day of March preceding,
waylay, murder, and conceal in a hole cut through the
ice on the great pond bordering said King Philip's territory,
one John Sassamon, a praying Indian, with malice prepense,
and to the great displeasure of Heaven.

The deacon next read over his list of witnesses, whom he
divided into two classes: one to show what he termed the
necessary circumstantial matters bearing on the case, and the
other to give direct evidence of the murder. The first class
consisted of the more intimate white acquaintances of Sassamon,
and the last of two Indians, Dick Swain, and the zealot,

[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]

Dummer. The witnesses embraced in the first division being
then brought on to the stand and sworn, proceeded to give in
their testimony, the aggregate amount of which was that the
deceased Sassamon, formerly a Wampanoog, had been reclaimed,
in the first place, from the devilish influences of his
idolatrous tribe, became a praying Indian, and afterwards
showed himself so apt at learning as soon to be able to read
and write quite readily. But, after living several years with
the whites, and receiving many favors from them, he suddenly
disappeared, and was next heard of among his tribe, by whom
he was again taken into full fellowship, and among whom he
turned his knowledge and cunning to so good an account, that
he soon was promoted to the post of confidential secretary to
King Philip. This place he held many years, and until he
appeared to have completely gained the confidence of Philip
and his councillors; when, having committed some crime
which by their laws was punishable with death, he fled for his
life, and came back once more among his old white Christian
brethren, who, moved by his loud lamentations for his late
apostasy, and his earnest professions of renewed religious
experiences, again received him into favor, and sent him to
teach and preach among the praying Indians of Middleboro'.
But, not content here with the exercise of his new calling,
nor with the peaceable occupation of the land and house which
his white friends had purchased for him, he at once began to
play the spy on the movements of his old master, King
Philip, when he soon appeared to become so burdened with
the discoveries he pretended to have made of that chief's
secret designs against the colonists, that he could rest no
longer. He therefore repaired to Plymouth, sought a private
interview with the governor, and, under the injunction of the
strictest secrecy, made the startling disclosure that King Philip
was actively preparing for a war of extermination against the
colony—a fact which he pretended to have at first learned

[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]

when he was the chief's secretary, and which was fully confirmed
by his recent discoveries. Having made these revelations,
he again earnestly besought the governor not to let his
secret go beyond himself and council; for should a knowledge
of the disclosure reach the ears of Metacom, his life would be
sure to pay the forfeit. But it was not to be supposed that so
alarming a secret could long be confined to the court. It
soon passed from the governor and his consulting friends, and
spread, with the rapidity of the wind, over the whole colony,
and in a few weeks the luckless Sassamon was suddenly
missing.

This part of the testimony having been at length brought
to a close, the other class of witnesses, relied on for the
direct testimony, were then called on to the stand. And the
Indian who went by the name of David, among the whites,
and who was announced by Deacon Mudgridge, as “the faithful
Christian friend of the late lamented Sassamon, and the
first discoverer of this hell-invented murder,” was now directed
to stand forward and relate the particulars of what
was understood to be his story about the affair. Accordingly
David, a small, demure, peaceful looking Indian, then moved
himself along a little, and quietly proceeded:

“Find Sassamon gone, one day, and no come back. Much
'fraid him must be killed; so go look all round in the woods;
but no find him nowhere. Then go on Assawompset, big
pond. Little way, see hat on the ice. Go there, find him
Sassamon hat. See hole in the ice, get pole, feel him soon,
and bring him up, pull him out, find where club strike him
head. Then go fetch white men, tell 'em Sassamon killed.
They no believe, say him drown himself, and carry him off
and bury him. Then me go and tell governor Sassamon
killed, sartin. Governor look like believe some, order Sassamon
dig up. Me there, show them, more time again, where
club strike Sassamon head. They believe this time, think

[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]

Indian tell right, and say Philip men did it, sartin, 'cause
Sassamon break Indian law. Me know Sassamon 'fraid him
be killed, long time. But me no tell, me no know who did
it, 'cause me no see it. Can't tell lie—that make him bad
Indian. Good book say God roast um liars.”

All present being convinced that David had testified honestly,
no questions were asked him on either side; and Patuckson,
the other Indian witness, who was the only person
pretending to have seen the deed committed, was then called
on to testify. He was evidently an Indian of a very different
character from that of David, being bolder, more forward, and
exhibiting, both in countenance and manner, many indications
of cunning and calculation. He commenced like one
ready for his part, and glibly went on—

“Hoh! me know all about Tobias and this two tother Indian
kill Sassamon. Me go among Indians self, and find out.
Metacom come home from long journey, hear how Sassamon
been spying round there, and then hear how he tell governor
bad story. He no like it, and tell him warrior Sassamon
traitor, dog-spy; come round there to carry lie to white men.
Metacom much mad, say him sorry Sassamon not killed for
that tother thing, 'fore him run away; and so he call meeting
of old men, at Montaup. Meeting all say Sassamon die this
time; catch him, kill him. Tobias there, talk loud, say all
good Indian watch him, kill him always. Me go off, watch
too, for see what done. So, one day on hill near big pond,
see Sassamon go across ice, and three Indians coming. Hide
and soon see Tobias and this two tother Indian run fast, catch
Sassamon, strike club hard, kill him; then cut hole in ice,
put him in, then run away quick. Me no tell then; but
when white men dig up Sassamon me tell all; show 'em
where Tobias and this two tother Indian had camp, catch fish
on tother end great pond; so they go, catch 'em all.”

Deacon Mudgridge then, with the view of placing the

[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]

testimony of the witness in the strongest light possible, asked
sundry leading questions, which were so worded as to elicit
positive assertions of what were before left as matters of inference,
and which were answered as he had anticipated and
wished; the court taking no notice of this violation of the
rules of conducting an examination, and no objection to the
course being interposed by Williams, who, from some policy
of his own, kept silence. The latter, however, evidently distrusted
the truth and honesty of the witness, and resolved on
subjecting him to a close cross-examination. And in this he
was soon to be materially aided from an unexpected quarter.
Vane Willis, who knew something of the witness, and was
perfectly familiar with the localities of the murder, now
worked himself along through the crowd, took a seat directly
behind Williams, and whispered to him a few suggestions, of
which he might take advantage.

“You say, sir,” carelessly commenced Williams, addressing
the witness, of whom, he told the court, he would ask a
few questions by way of his privileged cross-examination—
“You say you saw Tobias coming over the ice, and I suppose
Tobias saw you, at the same time, didn't he?”

“Can't no tell,” replied the witness, looking inquiringly to
Deacon Mudgridge, who, suspecting the question was put to
bring out an affirmative answer, which was to be used as some
trap, soon succeeded by his looks and motions in making the
former understand that he must answer in the negative.

“Can't you tell? don't you know he saw you?” again
asked Williams rather sternly.

“No; me don't know that—me think he no see me—me
know he no see me at all,” answered the witness, fast growing
confident.

“How,” persisted the former—“how do you know but
what Tobias saw you?”

“Know Tobias no see me,” now positively affirmed the

[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]

latter, impatiently; “me know him couldn't, 'cause me hid a
great way off on the hill.”

“Oh, not a great way I suspect,” returned Williams. “But
really, how far was it?”

“Can't tell,” replied the witness; “but great way—as far
as here to where governor house be.”

“That, to be sure, is over a quarter of a mile,” said the
questioner. “But then Tobias and the others when you saw
them were sometimes close to the shore, were they not?”

“No!” exclaimed the witness, “him great way out on the
pond—more further from the shore than me back on the
hill.”

“That,” now remarked Williams, glancing at the court,
“would make the distance from the witness to the nearest point
at which he swears he saw the prisoner under examination,
over half a mile, and, as he says Sassamon ran some distance
before he was overtaken, the distance to the spot where the
deed was alleged to have been done, could not have been less
than three quarters of a mile. And yet he positively swears
not only to the commission of the murder but to the identity
of the perpetrator! Enough of such a witness as that! I
have done with him.”

For the first time, both the witness and the prompting
Deacon now saw the object of Williams' well managed maneuver
to draw from the former the admission of the truth that
he was at too great a distance from the scene to be able to
swear safely to any thing. And the Deacon, seeing at once
that it would not do to leave the testimony in this shape,
leaped up and vehemently protested against the use of the
cunning arts and devices of the godless lawyers of the secular
and unsanctified courts, which his opponent had probably
learned in the old world, where he learned his other heresies,
and which he had now brought here, and put in practice to
confuse and lead astray a simple minded native, and a truthful,

[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]

honest witness as there was in the world. And then turning
to the witness, he sternly demanded of him, if he did not mean
to swear positively that he clearly saw the murder committed,
and that he knew it was Tobias, and the other prisoners, who
did it.'

“Ya-ya-yas—me know—me swear,” responded the witness,
at first hesitating, but soon evidently becoming alarmed for his
own personal interests from what he read in the looks of the
Deacon—“yas, me swear—me swear hard—me swear two
times, again! There! guess me get pay now, sartin.”

“Pay?” exclaimed Williams significantly. “Then he was
to be paid for swearing in a particular manner, and to have
no pay without so doing, was he? The court and jury will
please remember this.”

“Wo unto him that perverteth testimony!” cried the visibly
disturbed Deacon in what he intended should pass for a scriptural
denunciation of his opponent. “But, peradventure, it is
no wonder that one who deserted the true church for damnable
heresies should resort to such means to shield the heathen,
with whom he has so long consorted. No doubt he hopes to
make out the identity of the prisoners to be a doubtful matter.
But he will not prevail. The expectation of the wicked
shall perish. I will now introduce evidence, which, coming,
as I may say it does, directly from the ordering of Providence
for the detection of the guilty, he will hardly dare to impeach.
Brother Dummer, will you step forward and state what you
saw, with your own eyes, at the time Sassamon's body was
exhumed for examination, and the prisoner, Tobias, was
brought in to undergo the test then and there prescribed for
him?”

“I did verily,” said the Shadow, throwing his eyes around
and upward with an air of peculiar reverence and solemnity—
“I did verily witness, on that solemn occasion, a very great
marvel, touching the matter whereof I am now called to testify.

[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]

And I do affirm and say, that, when this child of Sathan, the
prisoner Tobias here, was brought in where the dead body lay,
to undergo the ordeal of confronting and touching it with his
bare hand, he was forthwith smitten with the fear and trembling
of conscious guilt, and could hardly be got near the
body, much less be persuaded to touch any part of it. Whereupon,
the young man, Richard Swain, then and there also
present, being moved thereto with the rest of us, but more
prompt unto the duty of seeing the ordeal perfected, speedily
seized the forefinger of the prisoner, and thrust it on to the
naked body; when, lo! the mysterious and God-ordered result!
Fresh blood, which had started out at the touch of the guilty
member, was plainly seen standing on the place of contact!”*

The now exulting Deacon next called Dick Swain, but, at
the same time, remarked that he wished merely to ask him
whether he agreed with the last witness and could confirm his
statement.

“O, yes, be sure; I saw the same blood he did,” somewhat
hurriedly responded Dick, rising, but manifesting no inclination
to go into particulars.

“Very well, that is all,” said the Deacon motioning the
other back to his seat.

“Not quite all,” interposed Williams, again acting on the
whispered suggestions of the shrewd prompter behind him.
“Were you sent by any one to be present at the examination
in question?”

“Sent?—no, not in particular, as I know of,” answered
Dick, glancing around doubtfully.

“Well, sir, did you not go wholly for the purpose of witnessing
the examination?”

“I may say not—that is, not wholly so; but hearing about
it, and feeling some curiosity about the matter, I thought I

[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]

would skirt the woods along in that direction, with my gun,
on the look-out for game, and stop there to see what was
going on.”

“Did you kill anything?”

“No, nothing of any account; merely one gray squirrel.”

“Did you kill the squirrel with shot, or with a bullet?”

“With a bullet. I generally go into the woods with my
gun loaded with a bullet, these days, as there are murderous
Indians about.”

“Yes, but what part of the squirrel did the bullet strike?”

“Well, it went right through his throat, seeing you are so
particular to know.”

“It was a long time, wasn't it, after you shot the animal
before you reached the place where they were examining the
body?”

“No it wasn't any such thing, sir,” replied Dick, with an
air that seemed to say, `you can't catch me in it that way.'
“It wasn't twenty minutes.”

“Oh, well, but you had the squirrel in your hand when you
took hold of the prisoner's finger and thrust it upon the dead
body?”

“No, sir, I did not; I know I did not, for I had just
hurled the animal into the corner of the room where I had
set up my gun.”

“Well, you said you saw the blood on the spot which was
touched by the prisoner's finger?”

“Yes, I did, and will still swear to it. I saw it as soon as
his hand was taken away, same as all the rest did. I know
there was blood there.”

“I don't dispute at all, that a bloody mark then became
visible there; but,” continued the speaker, suddenly turning
a stern gaze upon the face of the quailing witness, while he
raised his voice to a pitch of startling loudness, “but, Richard
Swain, tell me, before God, who put that blood there? Who,

[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]

sir, while his right hand was bearing the reluctant finger of
the prisoner to the dead body? Who drew the fingers of his
left hand, first purposely made bloody in the fresh wound of
his game, slyly over the spot of the coming contact? Ay, sir,
who put that blood there with the sole object of making
evidence against this poor Indian prisoner?”

“Blasphemy! rank blasphemy!” cried the enraged
Deacon. “He is trying to turn the miraculous intervention
of God for the detecting of an awful crime into mockery!
Are the sanctified Elders of the Church of Christ, who have
vowed to guard his authority against reproach, and our civil
rulers who bear not the sword in vain, to sit here and listen
to all this? For one, I do protest against such doings. The
witness swore distinctly to the seeing the blood follow in consequence
of the touch. So did brother Dummer, whose word
none can question. This is enough; and I do most earnestly
object to this, or any other witness answering such entangling,
hell-devised questions, put to defeat the ends of heaven's own
justice. Yea, as I said, the evidence is abundantly enough
to ensure a conviction; but lest my opponent should claim
anything savoring doubt, or the weakening of the testimony
of the last witness by means of his ungodly arts, I will call
others who were present on that remarkable occasion of the
visible doings of Providence, and see what they will say.”

So saying, the Deacon, to prevent Williams from pressing
his last questions further on the discomfited Dick, hurriedly
called on two more witnesses of the Dummer stamp, who, as
might be expected, unhesitatingly swore to the same thing;
when, with an air of defiant exultation, he announced to the
court that he was through with the testimony, and that the
case was ready for argument.

There was now by common, tacit consent, a short pause in
the proceedings, which was made use of by the assembly, as
usual among congregated bodies after a tedious sitting, in

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

shifting positions, rising and moving from one place to another,
or passing in and out the house. This naturally produced sufficient
bustle and confusion to afford the active friends of the
prosecution an opportunity for wire pulling, which they were
not slow to improve. The Deacon was seen conversing earnestly
with the different members of the court, whom he successively
beckoned aside for the purpose. The Shadow evidently
had considerable business along the seats occupied by
the white jurymen; while Dick Swain, on pretense of hunting
for some lost article, might have been seen hustling about
among the Indian jurors, and slyly passing something much
resembling small bottles under their blankets. The audience
however soon settled down into their former quietness
and listening attitudes; when the Governor intimated to
the Deacon, that he was now expected to commence the opening
argument.

“Man is weak, and full of short-comings. Strength and
wisdom are of the Lord. Let us invoke the Divine blessing,”
said the Deacon, suddenly throwing up his hands, and entering,
with peculiar unction, upon a prayer especially devised for the
occasion. After concluding his prayer, or rather his set of instructions
to the Almighty how to influence the mind of the court
and jury, and how to order the result of their deliberations, all
disguised in the form of prayer, he cleared his throat anew, and
commenced his great and long studied effort. But having already
given several specimens of his mode of treating the
case in hand, on religious grounds—a mode which appears to
have been fully sanctioned in the colonial courts of the day, we
will not follow him through his long, tedious, Scriptural argument,
but only take notice of his speech, when he got round,
as he at length did, to the alleged origin of the difficulties
between the Indians and the favored people, who had been
sent to this land, as he affirmed, to possess and improve it as
their Heaven-bestowed heritage.

[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]

“These heathen salvages,” he then went on to say, “after
their lives had been mercifully spared—against the will of
Heaven, I greatly fear—at length became perverse and stubborn,
utterly refusing to hearken to the Gospel truths and beginning
to harbor evil designs against our chosen people.
This evil-minded, and rebellious spirit was first especially
made manifest in that untoward Sachem, called Alexander,
who, as his excellency here, then an actor in the affair, can
bear witness, was signally chastised, and in a manner unmistakably
showing the displeasure of Heaven at his perverse and
wicked conduct. But Philip, the subtle and treacherous Sachem
who succeeded him, instead of being warned by the rebuke
he might have read in the fate of his brother, soon became
guilty of still more untoward and heinous conduct.
Encouraged in his audacious courses by our mistaken forbearance,
doubt-less he hath gone on from year to year, in open
violation of his solemn treaties, multiplying his offenses, by
stirring up his tribe of Sathanic malignants to hostility against
us, plotting with other tribes to join him, in his deeply meditated
onslaught on the colony, and lastly by instigating the
foul murder, now under investigation. And thus hath he
careered it in his wickedness, until he hath at length reached
that pitch of devilish doing and intent, wherein all have been
brought to see that the public peace and safety loudly demand
that he should receive a chastisement at our hands,
which shall at once put a stop to his wicked and dangerous
career, and serve as a lesson to all his heathen followers.
Hence the present prosecution, and hence, also, the imperious
necessity of a result, whereby such check and such lesson may
be publicly given. And such result, since the guilt of prisoners
stands clearly proved and established by the most indubitable
testimony, in spite of all attempted perversions thereof by
heretical sympathizers—such result, I say, I now, in the

[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]

performance of my God-bounden duty, confidently urge and demand
at the hands of this court and jury.”

Having thus delivered himself, the heated Deacon dropped
puffing and panting into his seat; when Williams, heeding
neither the sneering whispers of the crowd, nor the cold and
frowning looks of the court, calmly rose and entered on his
speech for the defense.

“I do not deem it either meet or necessary,” he said, “for
me to follow the opposing speaker through that part of his
discourse pertaining to the duties and mission of the church,
which, he says, God has planted here to become his special
heritage, and to act as his commissioned instruments in
driving out the unbelieving heathen, or reduce them to
obedience and belief in its behests and doctrines. I devoutly
hope the church here is of God's planting, and that its
waterings may be such as not only to bring it increase, but
give it the light and grace to permit all, whether white or
red, to believe and worship in accordance with the dictates of
conscience, and not make the exercise of their rightful soulliberty,
a matter of accusation against them. But with all
this I have nothing to do, and shall only begin on that part
of his argument grounded on the alleged offenses of the red
men, which first manifested themselves, he asserts, in the
conduct of that hapless young chief, Alexander, (about whose
fate it would have been better wisdom to have said nothing,)
and to have been continually kept up by his successor, Philip,
to the present time, in all sorts of misdemeanors and crimes, the
last of which was the instigation of the alleged murder now
under consideration. The existence of continued dissensions
between the red men and the colonists, I fully admit; but as
fully deny that the causes assigned for these dissensions are
the true ones, or that they have any special bearing on this
case. Of the origin and continuance of our difficulties with
the Indians, my opponent has drawn one picture in colors

[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

wrought up from rumor, suspicion, and prejudice. I will
draw another by the lights of certain knowledge, and in the
spirit of even handed justice.

“Nearly forty years ago, a youngerly man, banished from
his home in the neighboring colony for his advocacy of religious
liberty, and becoming thereby a houseless, hunted outcast,
who had not where to lay his head, nor wherewith to
sustain life, at length found his only refuge among the children
of the forest, and was especially taken in hand by the
very tribe of whom we have just heard such sweeping denunciations.
Here, finding a home and a welcome, the more
cordially proffered for the very reasons which made him an
exile, he studied the ways and characters of the red men,
noted their virtues, and learned to make allowance for their
errors. Being then in the family of the peaceful and honest
old Massasoit, he could not but regard with interest the heirs
apparent to this powerful Sachemdom, the old chief's two
sons, Alexander and Philip, who have been branded in this
presence as the great instigators of all the offenses of that
branded tribe. They were then in the flower of their young
manhood, and the exile thought them, as he looked upon their
goodly persons, and noted their manly conduct and surprising
intelligence, two young men of whom any monarch might
well be proud, as successors to his throne.

“After a while, the exile made himself a new home, but
maintained his relations and intercourse with these young
chiefs, and was cognizant of all the events subsequently happening
to each—of their movements and motives—of the
accession of Alexander to the throne, and of his prompt
repairing, with his brother Philip, to the court of Plymouth
to declare their wish and intention to maintain inviolate the
treaty of their father with the whites—of his then resting in
entire confidence of their faith and fair dealing—of his deep
surprise in being summoned to Plymouth to answer charges

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

of meditating a violation of the treaty, confessedly founded on
mere rumor, and of his still greater surprise at being soon
after seized in his peaceful employments by a band of armed
white men, and marched off a prisoner for trial, like some
felon subject, instead of the independent sovereign their own
treaty had acknowledged him. The exile also speedily
became apprised of the young chief's strangely befalling sickness,
while under arrest, and of his delivery to his friends on
pledge for his return, if he recovered, that his degradation
might be completed.

“Yes, the exile learned this, and with lively concern was
hastening to the scene to avert the anticipated consequences
of the outrage, when he met the weeping train, just landing
from the river with their sick and dying chief. Here he
stood by with deeply moved feelings, and silently witnessed the
mournful scene. From minute to minute he noted the slower
and slower heaving bosom, and the feebler and feebler groans
of the departing sufferer, that rose low murmuring on the
hushed wilderness, till his unstained spirit escaped to a land
where persecution ceases, and love and forgiveness, with conscious
rectitude of purpose, makes heaven for the red man as
well as the white. The exile noted all this, and then the
brief, awful silence that followed, the wild frenzied wail of
anguish that the next moment burst from the convulsed lips
of the bereaved young queen, the dark, but comely Wetamoo,
then the low, ominous muttering of the old men, as they
thought of the authors of this, their great sorrow and calamity,
and then the fierce outcries of the up-leaping young warriors
demanding to be led on to avenge the death of their
idolized chieftain.

“And why were they not led on to execute their fearful
purpose? They had good cause of war, and, as they believed,
of a war of bloody, terrible retribution; for the Indians, who
are the most unerring guessers of any class of people I have

[figure description] Page 045.[end figure description]

ever met with in the old world or new, then fully believed,
and have ever since believed, that Alexander came to his
death by the foul hand of the white poisoner!”

“Damnable falsehood! libel! treason! yea, rank treason!”
shouted the here interrupting deacon, leaping to his feet, with
a countenance blazing with holy wrath and indignation.
“Was it not Major Josiah Winslow, who, in pursuance of
bounden duty, bravely captured and brought home that vile
Sachem, Alexander? And was it not at his own house that
the captured wretch was seized with the fever, brought on by
his heathen ragings? And, moreover, was not that duty-doing
Major Winslow the same person who is now here presiding as
our honored governor?”

“The gentleman forgets that I, myself, made no accusation
against any body,” resumed Williams, taking advantage of
the first pause in the deacon's furious outburst. “I was
merely naming the belief of the Indians respecting the cause
of their chief's singular death. They did so believe, and
repeated their conviction, in despite the rebuking words of the
exile, who told them, as has just been intimated, that he must
have died of the fever of passion, or grief and chagrin, though
his suggestions met no other response than fiercely shaking
heads, and the impatient question, `Did ever Indian catch
fever and die of that complaint before?'

“But I willingly pass over that page of our history, which I
only wish we had never been compelled to place there; for I
gladly, Oh! gladly,

`Would tear that leaf—would blot it with a tear.'

[figure description] Page 046.[end figure description]

with whom they were in treaty, would not instantly pronounce
it a war-warranting outrage? Not one. Yes, there was cause
of war; and, as I before asked, why did not war follow? I
will now tell you why. The exile—yea, the despised exile
and outcast—earnestly interceded for his old white persecutors;
and Philip, the still more despised and hated Philip, then becoming
king, soon joined him in appeasing the wrath of the
red men. Such, at that dangerous crisis, was the course taken
by the forbearing Metacom, who then, as afterwards, honestly
tried to avoid war, the consequences of which, to both sides,
his far-reaching sagacity has ever fully appreciated. And he
not only quelled the hostile feelings of his followers, but soon
personally notified the court of Plymouth of the wish, on his
part, of still maintaining the treaty of his father, and of his
brother, notwithstanding his own deep sense of injury at what
had transpired.

“After this notification, Philip supposed, as his luckless brother
had done, that this was sufficient, without paying attendance,
like a vassal, at the court of Plymouth. But, like his
brother, he was mistaken about the double requirement of
that court, that would have him an independent sovereign
long enough to bind himself in treaty, and all the rest of the
time become the frequent homage-paying courtier, so that he
could be kept in subjection. Though not at first understanding
this, yet he was soon made to know it. In a short time,
he, too, was summoned to Plymouth on charges founded on
suspicion, or the false representations of the runagate Indians
whom they had tempted by rewards for such communications.
He concluded, however, to heed the arrogant summons, for by
this time he had many just complaints of his own to make
known against the whites, for their inroads on his lands, and
for defrauding his people. But, warned by the fate of his
brother, he went with an armed escort, and held parley with
the court in the open air, but was, notwithstanding, entrapped

[figure description] Page 047.[end figure description]

into the signing of a new treaty, which entirely passed over
his own grievances, they being no part of the object of the
astute framers, and by which he was unwittingly made to
acknowledge offenses never committed, and, as a punishment
therefor, to promise to deliver up the arms of his tribe to the
court. Nor was this all. At the very hour when he was
being detained by this one-sided and fraudulent negotiation,
the men of Plymouth were secretly mustering an armed force
to overpower his attendants, and seize him as a prisoner; and
they were only prevented from the execution of their design
by the remonstrances of the more conscientious pacificators,
then present from the sister colony. And this was but the
beginning of the indignities he was doomed to suffer. Within
a short period, he was again summoned to appear before the
court of Plymouth, under threat of war, for the violation of
the last so claimed treaty, that he had not been permitted but
partially to understand, the charge this time being that he had
not delivered up the guns of his people, which they depended
on for their daily subsistence, and which he had no power to
compel them to surrender; and being still anxious to avoid
war, he consented to another conference, and met the court
again, but with a force of warriors sufficient for his personal
protection, well understanding the disgraceful plan which had
been started for capturing him at the previous meeting. But
the presence of warriors is but a poor shield against the
over-reaching of designing treaty-makers; and this time, another
of those extraordinary documents was drawn up for the
occasion, by which Philip was made not only to consent to be
heavily fined for his alleged disobedience, but relinquish his
sovereignty, and submit himself and his people to the government
of the colony! And the whole gist of all the complaints
since made against him, have been, not that he has committed
any acts of hostility, but that he has been suspected of meditating
them, and of making preparations for defending himself

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

and people, in disregard of those one-sided, fraudulent, and
therefore void compacts, which, as if in insulting mockery,
are now claimed as solemn and mutually ratified treaties!

“Such is that other picture, which I proposed to draw, to
contrast with the one drawn by my opponent, and the exile I
have named as furnishing the materials is here, in the person
of him now speaking, to vouch for its truth and accuracy.

“Now, admitting that Philip, in view of the wrongs and indignities
that have been heaped upon him and his hapless
predecessor, together with the well-warranted belief that they
were but the first steps of a policy to be pursued till he and
his nation should be entirely subjugated; admitting he has
been making military preparations, and courting alliances with
other tribes, for maintaining his sovereignty and defending
his people, does that very natural precaution place him in the
wrong? Had he not a perfect right to do all this? Would
not you, if a colony of strangers, with habits and notions repugnant
to your own, should plant themselves near you, begin
to aggress on your rights, and manifest a disposition to reduce
you to subjection—would not you do it yourselves? You
know you would. Then ponder it, ye rulers of Plymouth, who
profess to be governed by the golden rule of doing as you
would be done by, ponder it well before you further denounce
Metacom of Montaup for what he may have done, or rather
what he has been suspected of doing, and pause before you have
taken another step in your mistaken and indefensible policy
which shall make his cup of bitterness to overflow, and plunge
these colonies into the horrors of a savage warfare.

“Having thus disposed of the question of the true origin of
these difficulties with Philip and his people, and shown on
which side impartial justice would impute the greater blame
I now come to the present case which so manifestly grew out
of them, and which could not for a moment be of doubtful
issue but for the blinding mists of prejudice, and that most

[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]

reprehensible policy of retaliating anticipated wrongs in order
to prevent their occurrence.

“The case is a plain and simple one, requiring but two points
in the defense, either of which should be sufficient to secure
the acquittal of the prisoners.

“First, in that, I wholly deny the jurisdiction and right of
this court to seize and try these prisoners, for the crime
alleged against them. Sassamon, by his own confession, was
a spy and a traitor. And it also appears he had previously
committed some capital offence. And for these double crimes
he was probably tried by Philip's Council, and voted an outlaw,
whom it was the patriotic duty of every man of the tribe
to try to seize and destroy. And that he was so seized and
destroyed, may be equally probable. But the destroyers were
only commissioned executioners of the law of an independent
sovereignty, not murderers. And you have no right by the
law of nations, or by treaty, to interfere with the execution;
and especially so, as the deed was committed within the unceded
jurisdiction of their government.

“Second, Provided that you had the right and jurisdiction
you claim, and that Sassamon was slain by some of Philip's
tribe, you cannot convict these prisoners without clearly
identifying them as the perpetrators of the deed. Have you
done so? Do you honestly believe, that your only professed
witness of the act could identify them when standing more
than a half mile distant from the scene? Would you hang a
white man on such an identification? Let the consciences of
the jurors answer, and direct them accordingly in the making
up of their verdict. And what of the only other part of the
evidence relied on—the so called ordeal of touching the corpse,
and the claimed interposition of Heaven, in causing blood to
issue from the already putrid body? Will you look to the
agency of Heaven for the appearance of that blood, after
noting the admissions and suspicious manner of that juggling

[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]

witness, Dick Swain; or will you believe it came there through
an altogether different agency? Again let the consciences of
the tryers answer. This ends the case. I have done, and will
only add, let the jury beware how they render a verdict which
will this day be recorded in the books of Heaven, to be forever
open to the sleepless eyes of avenging justice, as well as
among the records of earth, too often the habitation of blind
prejudice and wilful error.”

Great was the displeasure of the court functionaries and
their supporters, at Williams' triumphant vindication of King
Philip, the great Diabolus of their prejudice, fear, and hatred;
at his fearless unmasking of their disguised policy for the
subjugation of the Indians, and especially at his ungracious
exposure of the weakness of their testimony against the already
death-doomed prisoners. All this was abundantly manifested
in the shocked and excited looks of the audience, and
the vexed and angry appearance of the court, as all eyes were
turned expectantly to Deacon Mudgridge, as the almost Heaven-commissioned
champion who would now rush to the rescue
of their endangered case. Nor were they disappointed. The
Deacon with a countenance ominous of the total annihilation
of his opponent, was instantly on his feet, hotly pouring forth
a flood of denials, criminations, and anathemas, alternately on
the head of “the heretical Sathan-siding Williams,” and on
that of “the wicked and God-accursed Sachem Philip, and his
guilty instruments, the prisoners at the bar.” But having
pretty much exhausted his fund of these peculiar resources,
in his opening speeches, he accomplished little more than
travel again over his old ground; which he did with entire
persistency and keeping to the end, and concluded with once
more vehemently demanding the conviction of the prisoners.
And the sympathizing and ready court, in a short charge
much in the spirit of the Deacon's argument, submitted the
case to the jury, who, in their turn, after a brief consultation

[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]

among the white portion of them, and a hurried question or
two to the maudlin and stupefied Indians of the panel, voted
a verdict of guilty on the spot; when the court promptly pronounced
the sentence, and, as if fearful their victims might
escape by the usual delay, ordered that the prisoners all be
immediately taken hence to the place of execution, and hanged,
till dead, dead!

p719-057

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