in New England and to write the story of the raid at Deerfield.

It may be that there were men in New England and New York capable
of similar barbarities. It is true that the savage allies of the
English, when at their worst, knew no restraint. There is nothing
in the French raids on a scale as great as that of the murderous
raid by the Iroquois on the French village of Lachine. But the
Puritans of New England, while they were ready to hew down
savages, did not like and rarely took part in the massacre of
Europeans.

As the outrages went on year after year the temper of New England
towards the savages grew more ruthless. The General Court, the
Legislature of Massachusetts, offered forty pounds for every
Indian scalp brought in. Indians, like wolves, were vermin to be
destroyed. The anger of New England was further kindled by what
was happening on the sea. Privateers from Port Royal, in Acadia,
attacked New England commerce and New England fishermen and made
unsafe the approaches to Boston. This was to touch a commercial
community on its most tender spot; and a deep resolve was formed
that Canada should be conquered and the menace ended once for
all.

It was only an occasional spirit in Massachusetts who made
comprehensive political plans. One of these was Samuel Vetch, a
man somewhat different from the usual type of New England leader,
for he was not of English but of Scottish origin, of the
Covenanter strain. Vetch, himself an adventurous trader, had
taken a leading part in the ill-fated Scottish attempt to found
on the Isthmus of Panama a colony, which, in easy touch with both