the colonists did.

Some tribes had failed to help. The Mohegans under Uncas enlisted with
the English, which was expected. The "praying Indians," as the
Christianized Pokanokets were known, also either stayed aloof, or else
were used as scouts against their people. The New Hampshire Indians
refused to take up the hatchet, and the Narragansetts still hung back.

King Philip's own home of Pokanoket or Mount Hope had of course early
been seized by the English troops. They had planned to keep him from
escaping to the mainland in the north. But he easily moved his men
out, by way of the narrow neck that connected with the mainland.

Now he was a roamer, until in this winter of 1675 he decided to stay
among the Narragansetts, in southern Rhode Island, and renew his league.

To compel the Narragansetts to deliver over the King Philip people, an
army of fifteen hundred was raised by Massachusetts, Plymouth and
Connecticut colonies.

South Rhode Island was then an Indian wilderness, heavily timbered and
deep with swamps. Near present South Kingston, in the Narragansett
country, upon a meadow upland amidst a dense swamp Philip had built a
fort containing five hundred wigwams. He had built well.

The only entrance from the swamp was defended by a high log fence or
series of palisades. In addition, around a space of five acres he had
laid a thick hedge of felled trees. A single log bridged the water
separating the fort from the drier land beyond. The wigwams were made
bullet-proof by great stores of supplies piled against their walls,
inside.

It was reported that he had three thousand persons in the fort--these
being his Pokanokets, and many Narragansett men, women and children.
The place was called Sunke-Squaw.

Treachery it was that broke the power of King Philip. An Indian named
Peter sought the English and offered to show them how to get in. After
a long march amidst bitter cold and driving snow, they arrived at one
o'clock in the afternoon of December 19. They were short of
provisions, and very weary. For a time matters went ill with them.
Again and again their attacking parties were swept from the single log
that Peter the traitor had showed to them. A number of officers and
men had fallen, before, pressing hard, with night at hand, a party
succeeded in entering the fort.

Here the hot fight passed from wigwam to wigwam. Some of the English
were killed by balls from their own soldiers. Through al