of this war comparatively; for the English that dwell upon those Islands have held a good correspondency with those Indians all the time of the war, as they did before the war began. The only sufferings of these Christian Indians was of their coming up in the summer, during the war, to work for the English in the Massachusetts Colony, whither many scores of them did usually repair to work, whereby they and their families were accommodated with necessary clothing, which is scarce and dear upon those Islands. Besides, several of those Indians belonging to the Islands, being at work at some of the English towns when the war began in the summer, 1675, were not permitted to stay in the Colonies, but were forced to pack away to their own habitations to their great loss, because the English were so jealous, and filled with animosity against all Indians without exception. Hereby they tasted but little of the effects of the war, and therefore they will not so properly fall under our consideration.
2dly. Another considerable number of Christian Indians live within the Jurisdiction of New Plymouth, called the Cape Indians; these also (through God's favor) have enjoyed much peace and quiet by their English neighbours, and several of them have served the English in the war, especially in the heat of the war, and did acquit themselves courageously and faithfully. Indeed, at the beginning of the war, the English of that colony were suspicious of them, and slow to improve any of them in the war, though divers of those Christian Indians manifested themselves ready and willing to engage with the English against their enemies; and this is so much the more remarkable that those Indians proved so faithful to the English interest, considering the war first began in the Colony of Plymouth, by the rashness and folly of Philip, Chief Sachem of the Indians in those parts, unto whom, or to some of his people doubtless, these praying Indians were allied by affinity or consanguinity. Therefore good reason it is, to attribute it to the grace and favor of God, and to the efficacy of religion upon their hearts, that they carried it so well in this war; the greatest sufferings these underwent was, being impeded by the war to come and work in harvest among the English, whereby they had a good helper to
Islands, see the Rev. Matthew Mayhew's Brief Narrative, &c. 12mo. Boston, 1694; and Experience Mayhew's Indian Converts, 8vo. London, 1727. In 1694, Mr. M. Mayhew reckoned there were "about three thousand "Christian Indians on Martha's Vineyard and the Islands adjacent.
