PHILIP, KING ( A famous Indian chief. son of Massasoit : called by the English King Philip, though his Indian name was Meta comet. He became sachem of the Wampanoags, who were settled in the Rhode Island Country in 1662. and in the same year went to Plymouth and promised to maintain friendly relations with the English colonists and not to cede any territory without their knowledge. About 1670 his friend ly intentions began to be suspected on account of frequent meetings of the tribes and many mur ders of white settlers. In view of these sus picions, Philip and the principal tribesmen were summoned to meet the whites and explain their movements. This they did, and also agreed to surrender their arms; but it was only a truce, and preparations for war were still secretly car ried on by the Indians. An Indian convert named Sausamon revealed to the colonists the prepara tions made by Philip, and was murdered by the Indians. In revenge for the execution of his'mur derers by the whites, the Indians killed eight or nine colonists, and open hostilities were begun in .June, 1675. The Indians did not venture to meet the colonists in battle, but burned or attacked a number of their settlements. including Swansea, Brookfield. Deerfield, and Hadley, and laid am buscades for the settlers. In December. 1675, Governor Josiah Winslow led a force of 1000 men against the Narragansets. with whom Philip had formed an alliance, took by storm a fort said to have contained 4000 Indians, near the present location of Kingston, R. 1.. destroyed
their village of 500 wigwams, and put to death 500 of their warriors and twice as many Indian women and children. The war went on for the first six months of 1676, and was marked by burning; and massacres at 'Weymouth. Groton, Medfield. and Lancaster, Mass.. and at Warwick and Providence, R. 1. But the increased efforts of the colonists scion struck demoralization into the rank, of the Indians. A substantial reward was offered by the Government for every Indian killed in battle, and many Indian women and children were captured and sold into slavery. A force under the command of the great Indian fighter Capt. Benjamin Church (q.v.) hunted Philip from place to place. at last locating him through the aid of a friendly Indian in a swamp near Mount Hope, where he was killed by an other Indian while trying to escape. His body was quartered, on a Thanksgiving Day especially appointed, and his head was sent to Plymouth, where it was long kept on a gibbet. During this war some 600 colonists were killed. 600 buildings burned, and 13 towns destroyed, but of the two once powerful Indian tribes it is said that less than 200 individuals were left. The cost of the war was estimated at $1,000,000. Consult: Fiske, The Beginnings of New England (Boston, 1850) ; Palfrey, History of New England (ib., IS64) ; and Doyle, The English Colonies in Amer ica, vol. iii. (New York, 1SS9).