Page:Massasoit's town Sowams in Pokanoket, its history, legends and traditions (IA massasoitstownso00bake).pdf/34

28 sett and Parts Adjacent" were incorporated as a township under the name of Swansea. The charter granted it described the township as "all such lands that lyeth betwixt the salt water Bay and coming up Taunton River all the land between the salt water and river and the bounds of Taunton and Rehoboth." It will readily be seen that the site of Warren was included within the bounds of this extensive territory. The history of Sowams thus became merged in that of Swansea, less than a score of years after its commencement, and from the annals of Swansea the chronicler must glean the facts that make up its final chapters.

It is not within the province of this sketch to discuss at length the causes which led to that mighty struggle between savagery and civilization known is history as King Philip's War. For some years after he became sachem, Philip maintained an outward show of fealty to the English. But as time went on the relations of red men and white became strained. The Indian saw the forests rapidly vanishing beneath the colonist's axe, and realized that the game on which he depended for sustenance would, also, soon disappear. He was forced to sell his lands for the necessities of life, and he complained bitterly, and too often with reason, of wrongs inflicted upon him by his white brother. Moreover, he was fast becoming debased by the vices of civilization. Philip was a statesman and a patriot. He loved his country and his people. In the increasing power of the English he saw presaged the downfall of his race. He resolved to attempt the extermination of the usurpers. His fertile brain evolved a scheme for a union of the various native tribes against the common foe. The English suspected his designs, yet he many times adroitly baffled their watchfulness. The fates, however, were against him, and he was destined never to work out the salvation of his people.