Hardly a family throughout the land but was
in mourning. The war-debt of Plymouth was reckoned to exceed the total
amount of personal property in the colony; yet although it pinched every
household for many a year, it was paid to the uttermost farthing; nor
in this respect were Massachusetts and Connecticut at all behind-hand.
[Sidenote: Destructiveness of the war]
But while King Philip's War wrought such fearful damage to the English,
it was for the Indians themselves utter destruction. Most of the
warriors were slain, and to the survivors, as we have seen, the
conquerors showed but scant mercy. The Puritan, who conned his Bible so
earnestly, had taken his hint from the wars of the Jews, and swept
his New English Canaan with a broom that was pitiless and searching.
Henceforth the red man figures no more in the history of New England,
except as an ally of the French in bloody raids upon the frontier. In
that capacity he does mischief enough for yet a half-century more, but
from central and southern New England, as an element of disturbance or a
power to be reckoned with, he disappears forever.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TYRANNY OF ANDROS.
The beginnings of New England were made in the full daylight of modern
history. It was an age of town records, of registered deeds, of
contemporary memoirs, of diplomatic correspondence, of controversial
pamphlets, funeral sermons, political diatribes, specific instructions,
official reports, and private letters.
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