The wants of one the other shall supply, COLMAN.* YAMOYDEN, or a Tale of the Wars of King Philip," is a poem founded on the manners, customs, and achievements of the North American Indians, at the period when the settlers from Great Britain, having established their colony in New England, began a war of extermination with the native tribes. At this unhappy crisis, the most powerful chieftain among the Indian warriors, was Meta *With some slight alteration. comet, Sachem of the Wampanoags, or, as he afterwards termed himself, from the ancient seat of his dominion, and from the name which, in early life, and with the consent of his father, he had received from the English colonists, PHILIP SACHEM OF POKANOKET. Philip, who, in consequence of his ambitious views and statesman-like talents, was usually denominated King Philip by the European settlers, succeeded his brother Alexander, as the ruler of his tribe, in the year 1662. His father, Massasoit, had been Sachem of the district when the colony of New Plymouth was first planted in 1620, and had contrived to preserve the relations of amity and peace with the English until his death in 1656, when his successor, the brother of Philip, having excited the jealousy of the colonists, was surprised and captured by them whilst on a hunting excursion an outrage which preyed so deeply on his spirits that he very shortly afterwards died of a broken heart. To the indignation and thirst of revenge which this treatment of Alexander had excited in the bosom of Philip, was added the hourly vexation and sense of wrong which sprang from beholding the perpetual encroachments of the settlers on the soil and possessions of the native tribes, usurpations which were about to render himself and his allies dependants and even slaves in the very land of their birth. He remained, however, an unoffending resident at Pokanoket, or Mount Hope, a lofty and beautiful rise of land in the eastern part of what is now called Bristol, Rhode Island, for nearly nine years after his ascent to power, when, in 1671, he was unfortunately driven into a war with the colonists, which terminated in a still further reduction of his dominions and independency, and led even to well founded apprehensions for the personal safety of himself and family. In this disastrous situation he found it necessary, as the only means of preserving what was dearer to him than life itself, the liberties of his tribe, to make one great and simultaneous effort with his allies against the government of New England. He endeavoured, therefore, to collect and unite in one extensive system of warfare, all the neighbouring Indian na tions; and, had it not been for the treachery of an individual, who had formerly been his secretary, and who in 1674 informed the Governor of Plymouth that Philip was confederating with all the Indian tribes, against the colonists, the blow had been unexpected and overwhelming. The discovery almost necessarily led to a premature commencement of hostilities on the part of the natives, and what had been intended for a general and closely concerted movement, degenerated into a war of desultory and unconpected enterprize. All, however, that could be achieved by undaunted courage, by fertility of expedient, and unconquerable firmness of mind, was carried into execution by the heroic Sachem of Pokanoket-but in vain! He was driven from his paternal seat at Mount Hope, pursued with unrelenting fury wherever he sought refuge or assistance, and ultimately compelled to take shelter with his followers in the vast and almost interminable forests which formed, as it were, a natural boundary to the settlements. From these issuing at various times and places, and when least ex pected, he contrived to carry on a war of almost unparalleled desolation; till, at length, having made several desperate but unavailing attempts to retrieve his affairs, having witnessed the destruction of his most faithful friends and warriors, and the death or captivity of all his relatives, including a wife to whom he was tenderly attached, and an only son, he returned to Mount Hope, determined, as he found himself destined for slaughter, to perish near the throne of his fathers. And here, having been betrayed to the enemy by the brother of one whom he had recently put to death for proposing peace, he was, in the act of rushing from his place of concealment, shot by a Pocasset Indian, on the 12th of August 1676. To this slight outline of the life and fortunes of Philip of Pokanoket, it may be interesting to add what is now thought of his character by an historian from among the descendants of those who fought against him. "The death of Philip, in retrospect," says Holmes, in his American Annals, "makes different impressions from what were made at the time of the event. It was then considered as the ex |