Providence Plantations, settled by Roger Williams in 1636, were connected with the island of Rhode Island, settled by John Clarke in 1638 after its purchase from the Indians and originally called Aquidneck. On the nearby shores of Mount Hope lived the Wampanoag chief King Philip, whose father Massasoit had been a friend of the Pilgrims. From here were planned the Indian attacks that in 1675 and 1676 devastated the towns of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and here at length King Philip fell, shot by one of his own tribe. With his death, the power of the Indians was broken and the inhabitants of southern New England were forever freed from the horrors of savage warfare. At this location the Bristol Ferry was established by the first settlers in 1680, connecting Newport and Portsmouth with Providence and Boston. For many years postriders carrying His Majesty's mail from New York to Boston crossed here, and across these waters were ferried Generals Washington, LaFayette, Pochambeau, and Sullivan, among many others honored in America.