Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/137

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SEQUANAWAH’S FRIENDSHIP
123

acts of the “wicked-hearted Pometacom.” That the sachem had already received definite and fairly full information of the Wampanoags’ insurrection was evident from the questions put. What Metipom and his counselors seemed most wishful of knowing was whether the Narragansett tribe would join Philip or the English. To this David truthfully answered that the Narragansetts had given their promise to remain neutral. The sachem then asked if the Quaboags had not cast in their lot with Pometacom. This David could not answer. He was asked about various other small tribes; the Nausets, the Pegans, and Niantics, and still more whose names he now heard for the first time. Of the Pegans he said that they were friends of the English and would remain so, having Monapikot’s word for it. The Niantics he supposed to be of the Narragansett people, and they would take no part. As to the Nausets he knew nothing. His answers were discussed at length by the chief and his counselors, but whether they agreed or no with what information they already held David could not guess. In the end he was sent away courteously enough, leaving the assemblage still squatting about the wigwam.