of their western
enemies. This was doubtless considered a special interposition of
Providence in behalf the projected settlement, and a manifestation of
Divine indignation against the heathen, who were popularly considered
subjects of the devil, seeking to establish his kingdom "in these
uttermost parts of the earth." However this may be, the first English
settlers here found the power of native rule broken, and a remnant of
the Pocomtucks gathered for protection near the centre of a triangle
formed by the settlements at Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton.

The early comers had no fear of the natives, and danger there was none.
They were welcomed by the crushed tribe as another bulwark against the
Mohawks. There is no hint of any hostile feeling on the part of the red
men, or of any anticipation of it on the part of the whites, until the
breaking out of Philip's War. The primal cause of this outbreak is not
far to seek. Whenever and wherever, on our shifting frontier, our
so-called civilization has come in contact with the barbarism of the
aborigines, similar results have followed. And nowhere was this effect
more certain than when our Puritan ancestors, with their inflexible
ideas of duty, confronted the New England savage in his native wilds.

It should have been early apparent to our rulers that these two races,
essentially so different, could not live side by side in fellowship and
harmony, and subject to the same rules and regulations. Eliot realized
this, and planned the isolated community at Natick, which, as we have
seen, resulted in the English settlement at Pocomtuck.

The policy of the whites was, by fair means or foul, to induce the
natives, as soon as possible, to acknowledge allegiance to the English;
this being accomplished, the laws of the Puritans were strictly enforced
upon these free children of the forest, and their violation punished by
fine, imprisonment, and stripes. It does not appear that any particular
effort was made in the Connecticut Valley to teach the savages the
precepts of Christ, but they were held accountable to the laws of Moses,
as interpreted by the rulers, even to being punished for travelling on
Sunday.

Such oppressive acts by narrow-minded good men were supplemented by the
knavery of unscrupulous bad men. The Indian trader, in accordance with
the teachings of the times, not only looked upon the savages as the
offspring of Satan, but also as fair objects of spoil; consequently