felling trees, and clearing the soil, and the trappers
and traders invaded the Indian hunting-grounds, carrying with them
firearms and liquor, the Indian menace became serious.

To meet the Indian peril, all the colonies made provision for a supply
of arms and for the drilling of the citizen body in militia companies or
train-bands. But in equipment, discipline, and morale the fighting force
of New England was very imperfect. The troops had no uniforms; there was
a very inadequate commissariat; and alarums, whether by beacon,
drum-beat, or discharge of guns, were slow and unreliable. Weapons were
crude, and the method of handling them was exceedingly awkward and
cumbersome. The pike was early abandoned and the matchlock soon gave
way to the flintlock--both heavy and unwieldy instruments of war--and
carbines and pistols were also used. Cavalry or mounted infantry, though
expensive because of horse and outfit, were introduced whenever
possible. In 1675, Plymouth had fourteen companies of infantry and
cavalry; Massachusetts had six regiments, including the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery; and Maine and New Hampshire had one each.
Connecticut had four train-bands in 1662 and nine in 1668, a troop of
dragoneers, and a troop of horse, but no regiments until the next
century. For coast defense there were forts, very inadequately supplied
with ordnance, of which that on Castle Island in Boston harbor was the
most conspicuous, and, for the frontier, there were garrison-houses and
stockades.

Though Massachusetts had twice put herself in readiness to repel
attempts at coercion from England, and though both Connecticut and New
Haven seemed on several occasions in danger from the Dutch, particularly
after the recapture of New Amsterdam in 1673, New England's chief danger
was always from the Indians. Both French and Dutch were believed to be
instrumental in inciting Indian warfare, one along the southwestern
border, the other at various points in the north, notably in New
Hampshire and Maine. But, except for occasional Indian forays and for
house-burnings and scalpings in the more remote districts, there were
only two serious wars in the seventeenth century--that against the
Pequots in 1637 and the great War of King Philip in 1675-1676.

The Pequot War, which was carried on by Connecticut with a few men from
Massachusetts and a number of Mohegan allies, ended in the complete
overthrow of the Pequot nation and the extermination of