He was hai^ded over to the Mohegans and toma- Death of
hawked. The Narragansett sachem had shown Canonchet
such bravery that it seemed, says the chronicler Hubbard,
as if " some old Roman ghost had possessed the body of this
western pagan." But next moment this pious clergyman, as
if ashamed of the classical eulogy just bestowed upon the
hated redskin, alludes to him as a "damned wretch."

The fall of Canonchet marked the beginning of the end.
In four sharp fights in the last week of June, Major John
Talcott, of Hartford, slew from 300 to 400 warriors, being
nearly all that were left of the Narragansetts ;• and during
the month of July Captain Church patrolled the country
about Taunton, making prisoners of the Wampanoags. Once
more King Philip, shorn of his prestige, comes upon the
scene. We have seen that his agency in these cruel events
had been at the outset a potent one. Whatever else it may
have been, it was at
least the agency of the
match that explodes the
powder-cask. Under
the conditions of that savage society, organized leadership
was not to be looked for. In the irregular and disorderly
series of murdering raids Philip may have been often pre-
sent, but except for Mrs. Rowlandson's narrative we should
have known nothing of him since the Brookfield fight.
