[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1872)] were in no humor to attack so formidable a foe as the Abenaquis. Their last conflict had been at. least a drawn battle, and having formed a peace with them as well as with the governor of Canada, whose allies they were, they declined, as they did in 1704, to reopen a conflict which might involve their own existence. The name of Mohawk if it once had terror 2 for the fugitive Pequot, upon whose head a price was set, had none for those who boasted that they received the first kiss of the morning sun — the tribute which they paid was not to the Iroquois. The record of the years immediately subsequent is but a disconnected detail of migrations and reorganizations among the Indian tribes. In 1 726, two of the sachems of the Pennacooks, at Schaticook, being dead, Governor Burnet appointed Wawiachech in their place. Instead of increasing in numbers^as^they had 1 Colonial History, v, 723, 725. 2 This is one of the fables of history, which is quoted by almost "every writer. 194 THE INDIAN TRIBES anticipated, they steadily decreased by desertions to Canada. These desertions were explained, by those who remained, as being caused by debts which they had incurred and were unable to pay, or the payment of which they wished to escape.1 While this explanation was not without some truth, the overtures made by the French, and the entreaties of their relatives, were pro bably the predominant impelling motives.