The Indians

Massasoit and Metacomet:

The two New England Wampanoag Indian chiefs Massasoit (c. 1580-1661) and Metacomet (c. 1640-1676), known as King Philip, were father and son. But the family unity did not extend to their relations with the early English setters. While the leadership of Massasoit was characterized by amity and unbroken peace, the rule of Metacomet erupted into the most devastating Indian war in New England history.

When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massasoit, or "Yellow Feather", already was familiar with Europeans. The territory under Massasoit's control apparently extended  from Massachusetts Bay to Narragansett Bay, including Cape Cod and encompassing much of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Massasoit's willingness to seek friendship with the Pilgrims possibly was motivated by the weak condition of his tribe due to a recent epidemic and the continuing hostilities with the Narragansett Indians. In the following years, Massasoit and the Massachusetts settlers visited back and forth frequently. Massasoit was invited to share the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving dinner; Massasoit returned a lost settler; the colonists cured Massasoit of a serious illness; Massasoit warned the settlers of a planned Indian attach against the Weston plantation; Massasoit sought refuge in Plymouth from the Narragansett Indians and Massasoit visited Boston twice to be entertained by Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop.

After Massasoit's death, his son Metacomet succeeded to the leadership of the Wampanoag Indians. Sardonically called King Philip by the colonists because of his haughty and aristocratic manner, as well as for his claim of equality with his "brother" King Charles II of England, Metacomet feared that the unchecked territorial expansion of the British settlers in New England was making the Indian a stranger in his own land. Although his attempted alliance of the New England Indian tribes to oppose and eject the colonists was never entirely successful the relatively brief conflict known as King Philip's War was relentlessly bloody. When the war ended with the killing of Metacomet, nearly half of the English settlements had been destroyed. The colonists had Metacomet's body beheaded, drawn and quartered; and as befitting a traitor, Metacomet's head was displayed in Plymouth for a number of years.

Source:  The Almanac of American History, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Fortified House:

A fortified house is a garrison, fort or community. A fortified house might have walls reinforced with "nogging" loose rubble or bricks. Its walls or the building itself constructed to defend and strengthen a place against attack.