A Christian Indian, named John Sausaman, discovered to the English the mischiefs he was plotting against them. Philip, burning with rage that his plan should be revealed, caused Sausaman to be murdered. The English detected the murderers, apprehended them, and after a trial, in which their guilt was sufficiently apparent, executed them. This still further incited Philip to revenge. On the 20th of June, he commenced open hostilities on the town of Swansey, near his territory.
The torch of war, thus lighted, continued to rage over the whole extent of New England, for several years, with unabated fury. Its details would fill a volume. Philip,[8] who was the master spirit of the league against the whites, displayed a courage, sagacity, and perseverance, worthy of a king and a patriot. Nor was he ill seconded by the tribes whom he drew into the conspiracy by his eloquence and his intrigues. Though often defeated, he was never discouraged, and, while his foe seemed about to trample him to the earth, he frequently arose with renewed vigor and more desperate resolution. He was at length slain, and, though the struggle was maintained for some time longer, it at last resulted in a general defeat of the Indians, from which they never recovered. The war had extended from Rhode Island to Maine, and, throughout the whole extent of this region, the smoke of the dwellings and the cries of the victims were seen and heard on every hand. Many of the most flourishing English villages were laid in ashes. The struggle was not finished till the spring of 1678. Six hundred of the flower of the colonists perished, and three hundred houses were consumed. The Mohegans and a few other tribes remained friendly, but the rest shared in the war and its fatal consequences.
The next efforts of the Indians against the New England colonies took place during the long and bloody wars between the French and English, called the wars of William and Queen Anne. In June, 1689, instigated by the French, they surprised Cocheco, part of the town of Dover, New Hampshire, and killed and took captive about fifty of the inhabitants. They began depredations, also, in various parts of Maine, plundering, burning, and carrying off captives, wherever they were able. For ten years the provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts were subjected to the fury of the savages. Deerfield, on the Connecticut River, was surprised and burnt, forty persons were killed, and nearly a hundred men, women, and children led away captive. The eastern settlements, also, were again ravaged and depopulated. A treaty was at last concluded in the year 1699. From time to time, however, the war was renewed, as the French often succeeded in engaging the Indians in their plans. In 1713, a peace having been agreed upon between the French and English, the Eastern Indians, who had again been involved in hostilities with the colonists, sent a flag, desiring peace. A general pacification ensued, to the great joy of all parties.