Lancaster was followed by a shocking massacre at Medfield.
They sacked and destroyed the towns of Worcester, Marlborough, Mendon,
and Groton, and even burned some houses in Weymouth, within a dozen
miles of Boston. Murderous attacks were made upon Sudbury, Chelmsford,
Springfield, Hatfield, Hadley, Northampton, Wrentham, Andover,
Bridgewater, Scituate, and Middleborough. On the 18th of April Captain
Wadsworth, with 70 men, was drawn into an ambush near Sudbury,
surrounded by 500 Nipmucks, and killed with 50 of his men; six
unfortunate captives were burned alive over slow fires. But Wadsworth's
party made the enemy pay dearly for his victory; that afternoon 120
Nipmucks bit the dust. In such wise, by killing two or three for one,
did the English wear out and annihilate their adversaries. Just one
month from that day Captain Turner surprised and slaughtered 300 of
these warriors near the falls of the Connecticut river which have
since borne his name, and this blow at last broke the strength of
the Nipmucks. [Sidenote: Virtual exterminations of the Indians,
February--August, 1676]

Meanwhile the Narragansetts and Wampanoags had burned the towns of
Warwick and Providence. After the wholesale ruin of the great "swamp
fight," Canonchet had still some 600 or 700 warriors left, and with
these, on the 26th of March, in the neighbourhood of Pawtuxet, he
surprised a company of 50 Plymouth men under Captain Pierce and slew
them all, but not until he had lost 140 of his best warriors. Ten days
later Captain Denison, with his Connecticut company, defeated and
captured Canonchet, and the proud son of Miantonomo met the same fate
as his father. He was handed over to the Mohegans and tomahawked. The
Narragansett sachem had shown such bravery that it seemed, says the
chronicler Hubbard, as if "some old Roman ghost had possessed the body
of this western pagan." But next moment this pious clergyman, as if
ashamed of the classical eulogy just bestowed upon the hated redskin,
alludes to him as a "damned wretch." [Sidenote: Death of Canonchet]

The fall of Canonchet marked the beginning of the end. In four sharp
fights in the last week of June, Major Talcott, of Hartford, slew
from 300 to 400 warriors, being nearly all that were left of the
Narragansetts; and during the month of July Captain Church patrolled the
country about Taunton, making prisoners of the Wampanoags. Once more
King Philip, shorn of his prestige, comes upon the scene. We