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Rh taking them into captivity: and that unless their hand was stayed they would send them  across the great water as slaves. Then he told of battles fought; of how Philip had  met with and defeated many Englishmen  at Pocasset, of the battle in the swamp beside the Taunton River where countless of  the enemy had been slain, of his attack on  Mendon and the ambush at Quaboag. According to the narrator, King Philip had been everywhere victorious and the English were  in terror and in all places falling back on  their forts. Before the leaves were off the trees, declared Wissataumkin, not one white  man would be left. The Narragansetts and the Nipmucks to the south had joined with  the Great Sachem Philip. Woosonametipom and his people were also Nipmucks, and now  Philip bade them choose whether they would  fight with him or against him. Soon the war would come to their country, and those who  were not with Philip would be considered  against him. What word should he carry back to his chief?

When Wissataumkin had ceased, Metipom, who had listened gravely and in silence, spoke. “What you say may be true, O Wissataumkin, but we have heard other tales.