o the English notion, these hostile
Indians were rebels against the government and deserved no mercy.
Other captives, especially women and children, were sent to the West
Indies as slaves.

Soon King Philip's allies began to desert him. They saw no hope of
lasting victory; they accused King Philip of persuading them into a
useless war, and either scattered or went over to the English.

Among the deserters was Queen Awashonks, squaw sachem of the Sogkonate
tribe of the Pokanoket league. Her country lay in the southeast corner
of Rhode Island. When Philip had heard that the Sog-ko-nates were
helping Captain Church to trail him down, he is said to have smiled
never again.

Chief Canonchet, great leader of the Narragansetts, was captured and
executed. Thus another nail was driven into King Philip's fate.

Of Queen Wetamoo's three hundred warriors, twenty-six remained; they
were betrayed by one of their own number, and captured, and Wetamoo was
drowned in flight.

These deaths saddened Philip, but the many desertions blackened his
horizon and he knew that he was doomed.

By midsummer he was fleeing from spot to spot, with Captain Church hard
after. He had only a handful of Pokanokets and scarcely more
Narragansetts with him. Although frequently attacking, he himself was
never sighted. The English accused him of hiding in cowardly fashion,
but he well knew that with his death or capture the war would be ended.
Only the name King Philip supported it still.

Toward the close of July he had been forced south, to his own Wampanoag
country of Mount Hope and Pocasset. In a sally north into southern
Massachusetts he was surprised, on Sunday, July 30, and his uncle
killed and his sister taken prisoner.

The next morning there came in haste from Plymouth the doughty Captain
Church, aided by Queen Awashonks's men. Where a tree had been felled
for a bridge of escape across the Taunton River thirty miles south of
Boston, he espied, on the opposite bank, an Indian sitting alone upon a
stump.

The captain aimed and would have fired, but his Indian companion said:
"No. I think him one of our own men." The Indian upon the stump
slowly turned his head; the captain saw that he was King Philip with
his hair cut short.

At the fall of the gun hammer King Philip leaped from the stump, and
plunging down a steep bank, was gone.

Captain Church crossed the river in pursuit, but did not catch him.

The next day he came upon