mong the captives
was a son of Philip, the little swarthy lad of nine years for whom Mrs.
Rowlandson had made a cap, and the question as to what was to be done
with him occasioned as much debate as if he had been a Jesse Pomeroy
[34] or a Chicago anarchist. The opinions of the clergy were, of course,
eagerly sought and freely vouchsafed. One minister somewhat doubtfully
urged that "although a precept in Deuteronomy explicitly forbids killing
the child for the father's sin," yet after all "the children of Saul and
Achan perished with their parents, though too young to have shared their
guilt." Thus curiously did this English reverence for precedent, with a
sort of grim conscientiousness colouring its gloomy wrath, search for
guidance among the ancient records of the children of Israel. Commenting
upon the truculent suggestion, Increase Mather, soon to be president of
Harvard, observed that, "though David had spared the infant Hadad, yet
it might have been better for his people if he had been less merciful."
These bloodthirsty counsels did not prevail, but the course that was
adopted did not lack in harshness. Among the sachems a dozen leading
spirits were hanged or shot, and hundreds of captives were shipped off
to the West Indies to be sold into slavery; among these was Philip's
little son. The rough soldier Church and the apostle Eliot were among
the few who disapproved of this policy. Church feared it might goad such
Indians as were still at large to acts of desperation. Eliot, in an
earnest letter to the Federal Commissioners, observed: "To sell souls
for money seemeth to me dangerous merchandise." But the plan of
exporting the captives was adhered to. As slaves they were understood to
be of little or no value, and sometimes for want of purchasers they were
set ashore on strange coasts and abandoned. A few were even carried to
one of the foulest of mediaeval slave-marts, Morocco, where their fate
was doubtless wretched enough. [Sidenote: Indians sold into slavery]

In spite of Church's doubts as to the wisdom of this harsh treatment,
it did not prevent the beaten and starving savages from surrendering
themselves in considerable numbers. To some the Federal Commissioners
offered amnesty, and the promise was faithfully fulfilled. Among those
who laid down arms in reliance upon it were 140 Christian Indians, with
their leader known as James the Printer, because he had been employed at
Cambridge in setting up the type for