the hundred years’ war between early colonists and the indians

european history makes much of the “seven years’ war” and the “thirty years’ war”; and when we think of a continuous national contest for even the least of those periods, there is something terrible in the picture. but the feeble english colonies in america, besides all the difficulties of pioneer life, had to sustain a warfare that lasted, with few intermissions, for about a hundred years. it was, moreover, a warfare against the most savage and stealthy enemies, gradually trained and reinforced by the most formidable military skill of europe. without counting the early feuds, such as the pequot war, there elapsed almost precisely a century from the accession of king philip, in 1662, to the peace of paris, which nominally ended the last french and indian war in 1763. during this whole period, with pacific intervals that sometimes lasted for years, the same essential contest went on; the real question being, for the greater part of the time, whether france or england should control the continent. the description of this prolonged war may, therefore, well precede any general account of the colonial or provincial life in america.

the early explorers of the atlantic coast usually testify that they found the indians a gentle, not a ferocious, people. they were as ready as could be expected to accept the friendship of the white race. in almost every case of quarrel the white men were the immediate aggressors,15 and where they were attacked without seeming cause—as when smith’s virginian colony was assailed by the indians in the first fortnight of its existence—there is good reason to think that the act of the indians was in revenge for wrongs elsewhere. one of the first impulses of the early explorers was to kidnap natives for exhibition in europe, in order to excite the curiosity of kings or the zeal of priests; and even where these captives were restored unharmed, the distrust could not be removed. add to this the acts of plunder, lust, or violence, and there was plenty of provocation given from the very outset.

distribution of american indians about 1500 by linguistic stocks (full size)

the disposition to cheat and defraud the indians has been much exaggerated, at least as regards the english settlers. the early spanish invaders made no pretence of buying one foot of land from the indians, whereas the english often went through the form of purchase, and very commonly put in practice the reality. the pilgrims, at the very beginning, took baskets of corn from an indian grave to be used as seed, and paid for it afterward. the year after the massachusetts colony was founded the court decreed: “it is ordered that josias plastowe shall (for stealing four baskets of corne from the indians) returne them eight baskets againe, be fined five pounds, and hereafter called by the name of josias, and not mr., as formerly he used to be.” as a mere matter of policy, it was the general disposition of the english settlers to obtain lands by honest purchase; indeed, governor josiah winslow, of plymouth, declared, in reference to king philip’s war, that “before these present troubles broke out the english did not possess one foot of land in this colony but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the indian proprietors.” this policy was quite general. captain west, in 1610, bought the site of what is now richmond, virginia, for some copper. the dutch governor minuit bought the island of manhattan, in 1626, for sixty gilders. lord baltimore’s company purchased land for cloth, tools, and trinkets; the swedes obtained the site of16 christiania for a kettle; roger williams bought the island of rhode island for forty fathoms of white beads; and new haven was sold to the whites, in 1638, for “twelve coats of english cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hoes, twelve hatchets, twelve porringers, twenty-four knives, and twenty-four cases of french knives and spoons.” many other such purchases will be found recorded by doctor ellis. and though the price paid might often seem ludicrously small, yet we must remember that a knife or a hatchet was really worth more to an indian than many square miles of wild land; while even the beads were a substitute for wampum, or wompom, which was their circulating medium in dealing with each other and with the whites, and was worth, in 1660, five shillings a fathom.

so far as the mere bargaining went, the indians were not individually the sufferers in the early days; but we must remember that behind all these transactions there often lay a theory which was as merciless as that of the spanish “requisition,”20 and which would, if logically carried out, have made all these bargainings quite superfluous. increase mather begins his history of king philip’s war with this phrase, “that the heathen people amongst whom we live, and whose land the lord god of our fathers hath given to us for a rightful possession”; and it was this attitude of hostile superiority that gave the sting to all the relations of the two races. if a quarrel rose, it was apt to be the white man’s fault; and after it had arisen, even the humaner englishmen usually sided with their race, as when the peaceful plymouth men went to war in defence of the weymouth reprobates. this fact, and the vague feeling that an irresistible pressure was displacing them, caused most of the early indian outbreaks. and when hostilities had once arisen, it was very rare for a white man of english birth to be found fighting against his own people,18 although it grew more and more common to find indians on both sides.

as time went on each party learned from the other. in the early explorations, as of champlain and smith, we see the indians terrified by their first sight of firearms, but soon becoming skilled in the use of them. “the king, with fortie bowmen to guard me,” says capt. john smith, in 1608, “entreated me to discharge my pistoll, which they there presented to me, with a mark at six-score to strike therewith; but to spoil the practise i broke the cocke, whereat they were much discontented.” but writing more than twenty years later, in 1631, he says of the virginia settlers, “the loving salvages their kinde friends they trained up so well to shoot in a peace [fowling-piece] to hunt and kill them fowle, they became more expert than our own countrymen.” la hontan, writing in 1703, says of the successors of those against whom champlain had first used firearms, “the strength of the iroquese lies in engaging with fire arms in a forrest, for they shoot very dexterously.” they learned also to make more skilful fortifications, and to keep a regular watch at night, which in the time of the early explorers they had omitted. the same la hontan says of the iroquois, “they are as negligent in the night-time as they are vigilant in the day.”

but it is equally true that the english colonists learned much in the way of forest warfare from the indians. the french carried their imitation so far that they often disguised themselves to resemble their allies, with paint, feathers, and all; it was sometimes impossible to tell in an attacking party which warriors were french and which were indians. without often going so far as this, the english colonists still modified their tactics. at first they seemed almost irresistible because of their armor and weapons. in the very first year of the plymouth settlement, when report was brought that their friend massasoit had been attacked by the narrangansets, and a friendly19 indian had been killed, the colony sent ten armed men, including miles standish, to the indian town of namasket (now middleborough) to rescue or revenge their friend; and they succeeded in their enterprise, surrounding the chief’s house and frightening every one in a large indian village by two discharges of their muskets.

but the heavy armor gradually proved a doubtful advantage against a stealthy and light-footed foe. in spite of the superior physical strength of the englishman, he could not travel long distances through the woods or along the sands without lightening his weight. he learned also to fight from behind a tree, to follow a trail, to cover his body with hemlock boughs for disguise when scouting. captain church states in his own narrative that he learned from his indian soldiers to march his men “thin and scattering” through the woods; that the english had previously, according to the indians, “kept in a heap together, so that it was as easy to hit them as to hit a house.” even the advantage of firearms involved the risk of being without ammunition, so that the rhode island colony, by the code of laws adopted in 1647, required that every man between seventeen and seventy should have a bow with four arrows, and exercise with them; and that each father should furnish every son from seven to seventeen years old with a bow, two arrows, and shafts, and should bring them up to shooting. if this statute was violated a fine was imposed, which the father must pay for the son, the master for the servant, deducting it in the latter case from his wages.

less satisfactory was the change by which the taking of scalps came to be a recognized part of colonial warfare. hannah dustin, who escaped from indian captivity in 1698, took ten scalps with her own hand, and was paid for them. captain church, undertaking his expedition against the eastern indians, in 1705, after the deerfield massacre, announced that he had not hitherto permitted the scalping of “canada men,” but should thenceforth20 allow it. in 1722, when the massachusetts colony sent an expedition against the village of “praying indians,” founded by father rasle, they offered for each scalp a bounty of ￡15, afterward increased to ￡100; and this inhumanity was so far carried out that the french priest himself was one of the victims. jeremiah bumstead, of boston, made this entry in his almanac in the same year: “aug. 22, 28 indian scalps brought to boston, one of which was bombazen’s [an indian chief] and one fryer raile’s.” two years after, the celebrated but inappropriately named captain lovewell, the foremost indian fighter of his region, came upon ten indians asleep round a pond. he and his men killed and scalped them all, and entered dover, new hampshire, bearing the ten scalps stretched on hoops and elevated on poles. after receiving an ovation in dover they went by water to boston, and were paid a thousand pounds for their scalps. yet lovewell’s party was always accompanied by a chaplain, and had prayers every morning and evening.

from a drawing by howard pyle

indians on the warpath

the most painful aspect of the whole practice lies in the fact that it was not confined to those actually engaged in fighting, but that the colonial authorities actually established a tariff of prices for scalps, including even non-combatants—so much for a man’s, so much for a woman’s, so much for a child’s. doctor ellis has lately pointed out the striking circumstance that whereas william penn had declared the person of an indian to be “sacred,” his grandson, in 1764, offered $134 for the scalp of an indian man, $130 for that of a boy under ten, and $50 for that of a woman or girl. the habit doubtless began in the fury of retaliation, and was continued in order to conciliate indian allies; and when bounties were offered to them, the white volunteers naturally claimed a share. but there is no doubt that puritan theology helped the adoption of the practice. it was partly because the indian was held to be something worse than a beast that he was treated with very little mercy. the21 truth is that he was viewed as a fiend, and there could not be much scruple about using inhumanities against a demon. cotton mather calls satan “the old landlord” of the american wilderness, and says in his magnalia: “these parts were then covered with nations of barbarous indians and infidels, in whom the prince of the power of the air did work as a spirit; nor could it be expected that nations of wretches whose whole religion was the most explicit sort of devil-worship should not be acted by the devil to engage in some early and bloody action for the extinction of a plantation so contrary to his interests as that of new england was.”

before the french influence began to be felt there was very little union on the part of the indians, and each colony adjusted its own relations with them. at the time of the frightful indian massacre in the virginia colony (march 22, 1622), when three hundred and forty-seven men, women, and children were murdered, the plymouth colony was living in entire peace with its savage neighbors. “we have found the indians,” wrote governor winslow, “very faithful to their covenants of peace with us, very loving and willing to pleasure us. we go with them in some cases fifty miles into the country, and walk as safely and peacefully in the woods as in the highways of england.” the treaty with massasoit lasted for more than fifty years, and the first bloodshed between the plymouth men and the indians was incurred in the protection of the colony of weymouth, which had brought trouble on itself in 1623. the connecticut settlements had far more difficulty with the indians than those in massachusetts, but the severe punishment inflicted on the pequots in 1637 quieted the savages for a long time. in that fight a village of seventy wigwams was destroyed by a force of ninety white men and several hundred friendly indians; and captain underhill, the second in command, has left a quaint delineation of the attack.

there was a period resembling peace in the eastern22 colonies for nearly forty years after the pequot war, while in virginia there were renewed massacres in 1644 and 1656. but the first organized indian outbreak began with the conspiracy of king philip in 1675, although the seeds had been sown before that chief succeeded to power in 1662. in that year wamsutta, or alexander, philip’s brother—both being sons of massasoit—having fallen under some suspicion, was either compelled or persuaded by major josiah winslow, afterwards the first native-born governor of plymouth, to visit that settlement. the indian came with his whole train of warriors and women, including his queen, the celebrated “squaw sachem” weetamo, and they stayed at winslow’s house. here the chief fell ill. the day was very hot, and though winslow offered his horse to the chief, it was refused, because there was none for his squaw or the other women. he was sent home because of illness, and died before he got half-way there. this is the story as told by hubbard, but not altogether confirmed by other authorities. if true, it is interesting as confirming the theory of that careful student, lucien carr, that the early position of women among the indians was higher than has been generally believed. it is pretty certain, at any rate, that alexander’s widow, weetamo, believed her husband to have been poisoned by the english, and she ultimately sided with philip when the war broke out, and apparently led him and other indians to the same view as to the poisoning. it is evident that from the time of philip’s accession to authority, whatever he may have claimed, his mind was turned more and more against the english.

it is now doubted whether the war known as king philip’s war was the result of such deliberate and organized action as was formerly supposed, but about the formidable strength of the outbreak there can be no question. it began in june, 1675; philip was killed august 12, 1676, and the war was prolonged at the eastward for nearly two years after his death. ten or twelve puritan23 towns were utterly destroyed, many more damaged, and five or six hundred men were killed or missing. the war cost the colonists ￡100,000, and the plymouth colony was left under a debt exceeding the whole valuation of its property—a debt ultimately paid, both principal and interest. on the other hand, the war tested and cemented the league founded in 1643 between four colonies—massachusetts, plymouth, new haven, and connecticut—against the indians and dutch, while this prepared the way more and more for the extensive combinations that came after. in this early war, as the indians had no french allies, so the english had few indian allies, and it was less complex than the later contests, and so far less formidable. but it was the first real experience on the part of the eastern colonists of all the peculiar horrors of indian warfare—the stealthy approach, the abused hospitality, the early morning assault, the maimed cattle, tortured prisoners, slain infants. all the terrors that lately attached to a frontier attack of apaches or comanches belonged to the daily life of settlers in new england and virginia for many years, with one vast difference, arising from the total absence in those early days of any personal violence or insult to women. by the general agreement of witnesses from all nations, including the women captives themselves, this crowning crime was then wholly absent. the once famous “white woman,” mary jemison, who was taken prisoner by the senecas at ten years old, in 1743—who lived in that tribe all her life, survived two indian husbands, and at last died at ninety—always testified that she had never received an insult from an indian, and had never known of a captive’s receiving any. she added that she had known few instances in the tribe of conjugal immorality, although she lived to see it demoralized and ruined by strong drink.

the english colonists seem never to have inflicted on the indians any cruelty resulting from sensual vices, but24 of barbarity of another kind there was plenty, for it was a cruel age. when the narraganset fort was taken by the english, december 19, 1675, the wigwams within the fort were all set on fire, against the earnest entreaty of captain church; and it was thought that more than one-half the english loss—which amounted to several hundred—might have been saved had there been any shelter for their own wounded on that cold night. this, however, was a question of military necessity; but the true spirit of the age was seen in the punishments inflicted after the war was over. the heads of philip’s chief followers were cut off, though captain church, their captor, had promised to spare their lives; and philip himself was beheaded and quartered by church’s order, since he was regarded, curiously enough, as a rebel against charles the second, and this was the state punishment for treason. another avowed reason was, that “as he had caused many an englishman’s body to lye unburied,” not one of his bones should be placed under ground. the head was set upon a pole in plymouth, where it remained for more than twenty-four years. yet when we remember that the heads of alleged traitors were exposed in london at temple bar for nearly a century longer—till 1772 at least—it is unjust to infer from this course any such fiendish cruelty as it would now imply. it is necessary to extend the same charity, however hard it may be, to the selling of philip’s wife and little son into slavery at the bermudas; and here, as has been seen, the clergy were consulted and the old testament called into requisition.

while these events were passing in the eastern settlements there were indian outbreaks in virginia, resulting in war among the white settlers themselves. the colony was, for various reasons, discontented; it was greatly oppressed, and a series of indian murders brought the troubles to a climax. the policy pursued against the indians was severe, and yet there was no proper protection afforded by the government; war was declared25 against them in 1676, and then the forces sent out were suddenly disbanded by the governor, berkeley. at last there was a popular rebellion, which included almost all the civil and military officers of the colony, and the rebellious party put nathaniel bacon, jr., a recently arrived but very popular planter, at their head. he marched with five hundred men against the indians, but was proclaimed a traitor by the governor, whom bacon proclaimed a traitor in return. the war with the savages became by degrees quite secondary to the internal contests among the english, in the course of which bacon took and burned jamestown, beginning, it is said, with his own house; but he died soon after. the insurrection was suppressed, and the indians were finally quieted by a treaty.

into all the indian wars after king philip’s death two nationalities besides the indian and english entered in an important way. these were the dutch and the french. it was the dutch who, soon after 1614, first sold firearms to the indians in defiance of their own laws, and by this means greatly increased the horrors of the indian warfare. on the other hand, the dutch, because of the close friendship they established with the five nations, commonly called the iroquois, did to the english colonists, though unintentionally, a service so great that the whole issue of the prolonged war may have turned upon it. these tribes, the cayugas, mohawks, oneidas, onondagas, and senecas—afterward joined by the tuscaroras—held the key to the continent. occupying the greater part of what is now the state of new york, they virtually ruled the country from the atlantic to the mississippi and from the great lakes to the savannah river. they were from the first treated with great consideration by the dutch, and they remained, with brief intervals of war, their firm friends. one war, indeed, there was under the injudicious management of governor kieft, lasting from 1640 to 1643; and this came near involving the english colonies,26 while it caused the death of sixteen hundred indians, first or last, seven hundred of these being massacred under the borrowed puritan leader captain underhill. but this made no permanent interruption to the alliance between the iroquois and the dutch.

when new netherlands yielded to the english, the same alliance was retained, and to this we probably owe the preservation of the colonies, their union against england, and the very existence of the present american nation. yet the first english governor, colden, has left on record the complaint of an indian chief, who said that they very soon felt the difference between the two alliances. “when the dutch held this country,” he said, “we lay in our houses, but the english have always made us lie out-of-doors.”

but if the dutch were thus an important factor in the indian wars, the french became almost the controlling influence on the other side. except for the strip of english colonies along the sea-shore, the north american continent north of mexico was french. this was not the result of accident or of the greater energy of that nation, but of a systematic policy, beginning with champlain and never abandoned by his successors. this plan was, as admirably stated by parkman, “to influence indian counsels, to hold the balance of power between adverse tribes, to envelop in the net-work of french power and diplomacy the remotest hordes of the wilderness.” with this was combined a love of exploration so great that it was hard to say which assisted the most in spreading their dominion—religion, the love of adventure, diplomatic skill, or military talent. these between them gave the interior of the continent to the french. one of the new york governors wrote home that if the french were to hold all that they had discovered, england would not have a hundred miles from the sea anywhere.

27

champlain’s battle with the iroquois

by reuben gold thwaites, ll.d.

from the time of the restoration of new france (1632) till the final catastrophe of 1759, canada remained uninterruptedly french; and from the tide-water of the st. lawrence as a base, french traders, soldiers, and settlers (habitants) spread westward, northward, and eventually southward. in the year of the restoration probably not over a hundred and eighty of its inhabitants might properly be called settlers, with perhaps a few score military men, seafarers, and visiting commercial adventurers. the majority of residents, of course, centred at quebec, with a few at the outlying trading-posts of tadoussac on the east, three rivers on the west, and the intervening hamlets of beaupré, beauport, and isle d’orleans. at the same time the english and dutch settlements in virginia, the middle colonies, and massachusetts had probably amassed an aggregate population of twenty-five thousand—for between the years 1627 and 1637 upward of twenty thousand settlers emigrated thither from europe. while the english government was engaged in efforts to repress the migration toward its own colonies, the utmost endeavors of the powerful french companies, their arguments reinforced by bounties, could not induce more than a few home-loving frenchmen to try their fortunes amid the rigors of the new world.

with all his tact, champlain had committed one act of indiscretion, the effects of which were left as an ill-fated legacy to the little colony which he otherwise nursed so well. seeking to please his algonquian neighbors upon the st. lawrence, and at the time eager to explore the country, the commandant, with two of his men-at-arms, accompanied (1609) one of their frequent war-parties against the confederated iroquois, who lived,28 for the most part, in new york state and northeastern pennsylvania. meeting a hostile band of two hundred and fifty warriors near where fort ticonderoga was afterward constructed, champlain and his white attendants easily routed the enemy by means of firearms, with which the interior savages were as yet unacquainted.21 his success in this direction was, through the unfortunate importunity of his allies, repeated in 1610; but five years later, when he invaded the iroquois cantonments in the company of a large body of huron, whose country to the east of lake huron he had been visiting that summer, the tribesmen to the southeast of lake ontario were found to have lost much of their fear for white men’s weapons, and the invaders retreated in some disorder.

champlain’s attack on an iroquois fort

(from an old print)

the results were highly disastrous both to the huron and the french. the former were year by year mercilessly harried by the bloodthirsty iroquois, until in 164929 they were driven from their homes, and in the frenzy of fear fled first to the islands of lake huron, then to mackinac and sault ste. marie, finally to the southern shores of lake superior, and deep within the dark pine forests of northern wisconsin. in the destruction of huronia, several jesuit missionaries suffered torture and death.

as for the squalid little french settlements at three rivers, quebec, and tadoussac, they soon felt the wrath of the iroquois, who were the fiercest and best-trained fighters among the savages of north america. almost annually the war-parties of this dread foe raided the lands of the king, not infrequently appearing in force before the sharp-pointed palisades of new france, over which were waged bloody battles for supremacy. fortunately logs could turn back a primitive enemy unarmed with cannon; but not infrequently outlying parties of frenchmen had sorry experiences with the stealthy foe, of whose approach through the tangled forest they had no warning. champlain’s closing years were much saddened by these merciless assaults which he had unwittingly invited; in the decade after his death the operations of his successors were largely hampered thereby. montreal, founded by religious enthusiasts in 1642, during its earliest years served as a buffer colony, in the direction of the avenging tribesmen, and supped to the dregs the cup of border turmoil.

not only were frenchmen obliged to huddle within their defences, but far and near their indian allies were swept from the earth. the iroquois practically destroyed the algonquin tribes between quebec and the saguenay, as well as the algonquins of the ottawa, the huron, and the petun and neutrals of the niagara district. the fur-trade of new france was for a long period almost wholly destroyed; english and dutch rivals to the south were friendly to the iroquois, furnished them cheap goods and abundant firearms and ammunition, and egged them on30 in their northern forays; while toward the mississippi, and south of the great lakes, iroquois raiders terrorized those tribes which dared to entertain trade relations with the french.

in 1646, however, the blood-stained confederates, after nearly a half-century of opposition, consented to a peace which lasted spasmodically for almost twenty years; until in 1665 the french government found itself strong enough to threaten the chastisement of the new york tribesmen, and thereafter the iroquois opposition, while not altogether quelled, was of a far less threatening character.

synopsis of the principal events, chiefly

military, between champlain’s battle

with the iroquois, 1609, and

the conquest of the

pequots, 1637

1609. henry hudson ascends the hudson river.

1610. henry hudson explores hudson bay.

1614. the dutch erect a fort on manhattan island.

1619. a colonial assembly is convened at jamestown. negro slavery is introduced into virginia.

1620. landing of the pilgrims at plymouth.

1622. the dutch west india company take possession of new netherlands. indian massacre in virginia.

1623. settlement of new hampshire.

1624. dissolution of the london company. virginia becomes a crown colony.

1626. the dutch purchase manhattan island from the indians.

1628. settlement of salem by the massachusetts bay company.

1629. the english take quebec.

1630. foundation of boston.

31 1631. settlement of maryland by clayborne.

1632. canada is restored to france by england. lord baltimore receives a charter for a colony in maryland.

1634. settlement of st. mary’s, maryland, by calvert.

1634–36. settlement of connecticut by the english. settlement of rhode island by roger williams.

1636. foundation of harvard college.

1637. conquest of the pequots by the new england colonists.