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against whom, says our captive, "the judgment of God did not long slumber; for by sun-rising he received a mortal shot from my next neighbor's house." This, though not a garrison, and containing but seven men, withstood the efforts of the 300 French and Indians which now beset them. That house remains to this day, bearing upon its front door the marks of the hatchet.* After about two hours the enemy took up their march from the town, having plundered and burnt it, and put 47 persons to death, including those killed in making defence. Mrs. Williams having lately lain in, was feeble, which, without the scene now acting before her, rendered her case hopeless; but to this was added the most shocking murders in her presence-two of her children were taken to the door and killed, also a black woman belonging to the family.

"About sun an hour high," continues the redeemed captive, "we were all carried out of the house for a march, and saw many of the houses of my neighbors in flames, perceiving the whole fort, one house excepted, to be taken!" "We were carried over the river, to the foot of the mountain, about a mile from my house, where we found a great number of our christian neighbors, men, women, and children, to the number of 100; nineteen of whom were afterward murdered by the way, and two starved to death near Coos, in a time of great scarcity, or famine, the savages underwent there. When we came to the foot of our mountain, they took away our shoes, and gave us Indian shoes, to prepare us for our journey." The army had left their packs at this place, and while they were getting ready to decamp, the few English that had escaped at the town, and a few from Hatfield, who had been notified of the fate of Deerfield by one or two, who had escaped there, pursued, and in a meadow between the town and the main body, met a party of the enemy, and a sharp fight ensued. The small band of Englishmen did not retreat until the main body under Rouville were about to encircle them, and then they left nine of their number slain. Such was the success of the English in the beginning of the fight, that, fearing a defeat, Rouville had ordered the captives to be put to death; but, fortunately, the bearer of the fatal message was killed by the way.

Three hundred miles of a trackless wilderness was now to be traversed, and that too at a season of all others the most to be dreaded; boughs of trees formed the beds of enceinte women and little children for 40 days, which was the time taken for the journey. The first day's journey was but about four miles, and although one child was killed, in general the children were treated well; probably, the historians say, that by delivering them at Canada, the Indians would receive a valuable ransom for them. Mr. Williams proceeds: "God made the heathen so to pity our children, that though they had several wounded persons of their own to carry upon their shoulders, for 30 miles before they came to the river, [the Connecticut 30 miles above Deerfield,] yet they carried our children, uncapable of traveling, in their arms, and upon their shouldiers."

At the first encampment some of the Indians got drunk with liquor they found at Deerfield, and in their rage killed Mr. Williams's negro man, and caused the escape of a Mr. Alexander. In the morning Mr. Williams was ordered before the commander-in-chief, (he considering him the principal of the captives,) and ordered to inform the other captives, that if any more attempted to escape, the rest should be put to death. In the second day's march occurred the death of Mrs. Williams, the affecting account of which we will give nearly in the language of her husband. At the upper part of Deerfield meadow it became necessary to cross Green River. The Indian that captured Mr. Williams was unwilling that he should speak to the other captives; but on the morning of the second day, that Indian captain being appointed to command in the rear, he had another master put over him, who not only allowed him to speak to others, but to walk with his wife, and assist her along. This was their last meeting, and she very calmly told him that her strength was failing fast, and that he would soon lose her. She spoke no discoura

*See Col. Hoyt's Ant. Resear. which, we are glad to observe, is the best volume of New England Indian wars that has yet appeared.

ging words, or complained of the hardness of her fortune. The company soon came to a halt, and Mr. Williams's old master resumed his former station, and ordered him into the van, and his wife was obliged to travel unaided. They had now arrived at Green River, as we have related. This they passed by wading, although the current was very rapid, (which was the cause, no doubt, of its not being frozen over,) and about two feet in depth. After passing this river, they had to ascend a steep mountain. "No sooner," says Mr. Williams, "had I overcome the difficulty of that ascent, but I was permitted to sit down, and be unburthened of my pack. I sat pitying those who were behind, and intreated my master to let me go down and help my wife; but he refused. I asked each of the prisoners, as they passed by me, after her, and heard, that passing through the above said river, she fell down and was plunged all over in the water; after which she travelled not far, for at the foot of that mountain, the cruel and bloodthirsty savage who took her slew her with his hatchet at one stroke." The historians have left us no record of the character of this lady, but from the account left us by her husband, she was a most amiable companion. She was the only daughter of Reverend Eleazer Mather, minister of Northampton, by his wife Esther, daughter of Reverend John Warham, who came from England in 1630.

The second night was spent at an encampment in the northerly part of what is now Bernardstown, and in the course of the preceding day a young woman and child were killed and scalped. At this camp a council was held upon the propriety of putting Mr. Williams to death, but his master prevailed on the rest to save his life; for the reason, no doubt, that he should receive a high price for his ransom. The fourth day brought them to Connecticut River, about 30 miles above Deerfield. Here the wounded, children and baggage were put into a kind of sleigh, and passed with facility upon the river. Every day ended the suffering and captivity of one or more of the prisoners. The case of a young woman named Mary Brooks, was one to excite excessive pity, and it is believed, that had the Indians been the sole directors of the captives, such cases could hardly have occurred. This young woman, being enceinte, and walking upon the ice in the river, often fell down upon it, probably with a burthen upon her; which caused premature labor the following night. Being now unfitted for the journey, her master deliberately told her she must be put to death. With great composure she got liberty of him to go and take leave of her minister. She told him she was not afraid of death, and after some consoling conversation, she returned and was executed! This was March 8.

At the mouth of a river since known as Williams's River, upon a Sunday, the captives were permitted to assemble around their minister, and he preached a sermon to them from Lam. i. 18. At the mouth of White River Rouville divided his force into several parties, and they took different routes to the St. Lawrence. In a few instances the captives were purchased of the Indians, by the French, and the others were at the different lodges of the Indians.

During his captivity, Mr. Williams visited various places on the St. Lawrence. At Montreal he was humanely treated by Governor Vaudreuil. In his interviews with the French Jesuits he uniformly found them using every endeavor to convert him and others to their religion. However, most of the captives remained steady in the Protestant faith. And in 1706, fifty-seven of them were by a flag-ship conveyed to Boston. A considerable number remained in Canada, and never returned, among whom was Eunice Williams, daughter of the minister. She became a firm catholic, married an Indian, by whom she had several children, and spent her days in a wigwam. She visited Deerfield with her Indian husband, dressed in Indian style, and was kindly received by her friends. All attempts to regain her were ineffectual. Reverend Eleazer Williams, late a missionary to the Greenbay Indians, is a descendant. He was educated by the friends of missions in New England. In the History of Canada by Charlevoir, the incursions undertaken by the French and Indians are generally minutely recorded; but this against Deerfield he has unaccountably summed up in a dozen lines of his work. The following is the whole passage:

In the end of autumn, 1703, the English, despairing of securing the In

dians, made several excursions into their country, and massacred all such as they could surprise. Upon this, the chiefs demanded aid of M. de Vaudreuil, and he sent them during the winter 250 men under the command of the Sieur Hertel de Rouville, a reformed lieutenant, who took the place of his already renowned father, whose age and infirmities prevented his undertaking such great expeditions. Four others of his children accompanied Rouville, who in their tour surprised the English, killed many of them, and made 140 of them prisoners. The French lost but three soldiers, and some savages, but Rouville was himself wounded.*

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CHAPTER XII.

Various incidents in the history of the New England Indians, embracing several important events, with a sequel to some previous memoirs.

He felt his life's blood freezing fast;

He grasped his bow, his lance, and steel;

He was of Wampanoag's last.

To die were easy-not to yield.
His eyes were fixed upon the sky;

He gasped as on the ground he fell;
None but his foes to see him die-

None but his foes his death to tell.

THE performances of one Cornelius, "the Dutchman," in Philip's war, are very obscurely noticed in the histories of the times, none of them giving us even his surname; and we have, in a former chapter, given the amount of what has before been published. I am now able to add concerning him, that his name was Cornelius Consert; that the last time he went out against the Indians, he served about six weeks; was captain of the forlorn hope in the Quabaog expedition, in the autumn of the first year of Philip's war; marched also to Groton and Chelmsford, and was discharged from service, "being ready to depart the country," October 13, 1675. It was probably in his Quabaog expedition that he committed the barbarous exploit upon "an old Indian," the account of which has been given; it was doubtless during the same expedition, which appears to have terminated in September, that "he brought round five Indians to Boston," who, being cast into prison, were afterwards "delivered to Mr. Samuel Shrimpton, to be under his employ on Noddle's Island," subject "to the order of the council." I shall here pass to some further account of the money of the Indians.

We have quoted the comical account of the money of the Indians of New England, by John Josselyn, and will now quote the graphic and sensible one given by the unfortunate John Lawson, in his account of Carolina, of the money in use among the southern Indians. "Their money," he says, "is of different sorts, but all made of shells, which are found on the coast of Carolina, being very large and hard, and difficult to cut. Some English smiths have tried to drill this sort of shell money, and thereby thought to get an advantage, but it proved so hard that nothing could be gained;" and Morton, in his New English Canaan, says that, although some of the English in New England have tried "by example to make the like, yet none hath ever attained to any perfection in the composure of them, so but that the salvages have found a great difference to be in the one and the other; and have known the counterfeit beads from those of their own making; and have, and doe slight them" Hence the conclusion of Josselyn, before extracted, namely, that “neither Jew nor devil could counterfeit the money of the Indians." Mr. Lawson continues: "The Indians often make, of the same kind of shells as those of which their money is made, a sort of gorget, which they wear about

* Histoire Generale de la Nouv. France, ii. 290.

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