Author Description

This is a contemporary account of one of the first major conflicts (known as "King Philip's War") between the early European colonists and the Indians in New England. Named after the Indian leader (who appropriated the European-sounding name), the brutal struggle ended in the total defeat of the Amerinds and their near extinction in the colony. Mather, writing from a devoutly Puritan perspective, argued that the Indian Wars were a "scourge" sent by God to punish the colonists. This gripping account provides not only an insight into the defensive war which the United Colonies (Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut) waged against a treacherous enemy who attacked and murdered their settlements without provocation but also of the religious fanaticism which drove the early European pioneers in North America.