Rhine, the Danube, the Po; in the meadows of Holland; on the plains of
Germany; amid the vineyards of Italy; in the wilderness of North
America; on the Penobscot, Piscataqua, Merrimac, and Mohawk.

All through the years Jesuit priests had been laboring to convert the
Indians of Canada to Christianity, and had made them the allies of
France. When the war broke out, all the Indians in Maine and New
Hampshire sided with the French.

The English, especially the men who bought furs of the Indians, had not
always treated them justly.

The traders cheated them when buying their beaver skins. They would put
the furs on one side of the balance, and bear down the other with their
hands, saying a man's hand weighed a pound. The Dutch fur-traders on the
Hudson used their feet instead of their hands. The simple-hearted red
men, knowing nothing of balances and weights, could only look on in
astonishment, wondering at the lightness of the skins. The Indians of
Maine and New Hampshire had a grudge against Major Waldron, who lived at
Dover, New Hampshire.

"His hand weighs too much," they said.

But they had another and greater grievance. To understand it we must go
back a little.

In 1675, Philip, who lived on a hill overlooking the peaceful waters of
Narragansett Bay, begun war upon the English, which lasted nearly two
years, during which the New Hampshire Indians murdered some of the
settlers. The Governor of Massachusetts sent Captain Sill and Captain
Hathorn, with their two companies of soldiers, to seize all the Indians,
although only a few had taken any part in the murders. Major Waldron
invited the Indians to come to Dover; and they, regarding him as their
friend, came from their wigwams along the lakes and rivers, to see what
he wanted.

"Let us have a sham fight," he said.

The Indians agreed to it. They ranged themselves on one side, their guns
loaded with powder only, and the white men on the other.

"You fire first," said Major Waldron.

The Indians fired their guns in the air, and the next moment found
themselves surrounded by the white men, who made them prisoners, taking
away their guns, putting them on board a vessel, sending them to Boston,
and selling two hundred of them into slavery.

One Indian made his escape from the soldiers, ran into Elizabeth Heard's
house, and the good woman secreted him in the cellar, and saved him from
being sold into slavery.

The war between England and France began. The Jes