upposed, a clear title of ownership, though
there can be no doubt that what the Indian thought he sold was not the
actual soil but only the right to occupy the land in common with
himself. As the years wore on, the problems of reservations, trade, and
the sale of firearms and liquor engaged the attention of the authorities
and led to the passage of many laws. The conversion of the Indians to
Christianity became the object of many pious efforts, and in
Massachusetts and Plymouth resulted in communities of "Praying Indians,"
estimated in 1675 at about four thousand individuals. In contact with
the white man the Indian tended to deteriorate. He frequented the
settlements often to the annoyance of the men and the dread of the women
and children; he got into debt, was incurably slothful and idle, and
developed an uncontrollable desire to drink and steal. Where the Indians
were not a menace, they were a nuisance, and the colonies passed many
laws concerning the Indians which were designed to meet the one
condition as well as the other.

But the real danger to New England came not from those Indians who
occupied reservations and hung around the settlements, but from those
who, with savage spirit unbroken, were slowly being driven from their
hunting-grounds and nurtured an implacable hatred against the aggressive
and relentless pioneers. The New Englanders numbered at this time some
80,000 individuals, with an adult and fighting population of perhaps
16,000; while the number of the Indians altogether may have reached as
high as 12,000, with the Narragansetts, the strongest of all, mustering
4,000. The final struggle for possession of the main part of central and
southern New England territory came in 1675, in what is known as King
Philip's War.

Scarcely had the fears aroused by the arrival of a Dutch fleet at New
York and the capture of that city been allayed by the peace of
Westminster in 1674, when rumors of Indian unrest began to spread
through the settlements, and the dread of Indian outbreaks began to
arouse new apprehensions in the hearts of the people. Hitherto no Indian
chieftain had proved himself a born leader of his people. Neither
Sessaquem, Sassacus, Pumham, Uncas, nor Miantonomo had been able to
quiet tribal jealousies and draw to his standard against the English
others than his own immediate followers. But now appeared a sachem who
was the equal of any in hatred of the white man and the superior of all
in gene