and bold in the assault, whom at that time they deemed to be Simon, the arch villain and incendiary of all the eastward Indians, but proved to be one almost as good as himself, who was called Mogg, that had been an author of much mischief the year before. The slaughter of him much damped the courage of all his companions, so as they soon after quitted the siege, flying away in eleven canoes towards the eastward; yet five paddled their canoes down towards York, where they killed six of the English and took one captive, May 19 following; and May 23, four days after, one was killed at Wells, and one taken by them betwixt York and Wells; amongst whom was the eldest son of Lieut. Smith forementioned: his younger brother was slain in the same town not long before; so as their father might well mourn, as Ephraim did of old, for the evil that befel his house, the memorial of which was signalized by the name Beriah, in remembrance thereof, given his next succeeding child.

May 28, six Indians that were of the English side, having drunk too much strong liquor, made them sottish and also careless of their lives, so as that next morning they were taken prisoners by the enemy Indians, who carried them twenty miles up into the woods, where they let them loose again, for fear of the Mohawks, whose very name is a terrour and dread to them.

Yet still their malice against us being implacable, they ranged from one town to another, observing where they could do any further mischief, for June 13, two men upon a surprize were suddenly shot down, that belonged to Hampton, above two miles distant from the town, for two sprightly young men of the place, hearing guns, mounted their horses and presently made to that place, to see what the matter was, but not looking about them so carefully as they should, were both mortally wounded, whereof one was called Edward Colcot, a sober and well disposed young man, much lamented at his death by all that knew him. He died soon after, if not the next day, of his wounds.

The Indians thus making daily inroads upon these weak

unfenced places, the governour and council resolved to raise new forces, and having had good experience of the faithfulness and valour of the christian Indians about Natick, armed two hundred of them and sent them, together with forty English, to prosecute the quarrel against those eastward Indians to the full; but not judging aright of the number of the enemy, they much underdid their business, for besides that the number they sent of English was a great deal too small, those that were chosen this bout, to take their turns in the service abroad, were many of them young, raw, and unexperienced soldiers, who were not able to look danger, much less death, in the face, in cool blood, by which means it came to pass that the enterprize succeeded so ill; for Capt. Swett, with Lieut. Richardson, that was sent with him to command the friendly Indians, coming to Blackpoint June 28th, he began to try the valour and courage of his company before he had disciplined them, or had any experience of their ability to fight. The very next morning after he had landed his men, understanding by his scouts that many of the enemies were up and down upon the place, he made too much haste to fall upon them, and not mistrusting their number, while he was marching upon the edge of an hill with one party and his lieutenant with another, the Indians that had hid themselves in the swamp on each side of the hill, suddenly fired upon the English on both sides, which not a little discouraged his young and undisciplined company, so as they could not or did not keep their ranks; but while some were ready to run and shift for themselves, the captain strived to keep them together to bring off the dead and wounded men, so long that he brought himself and all the company in danger of an utter overthrow, which soon after took place, for the poor unskilful soldiers being scattered were shifting for them. selves, while a few resolute men of courage bore the brunt of the service till they were in a manner all knocked down. The lieutenant was killed soon after the first onset, the captain having received near twenty wounds, yet still held out, 'defending and encouraging of his men, till he was surrounded with more of his enemies than he was able to

grapple with, and so was at the last barbarously murder. ed by them within a little of the garrison house. There were slain at this time somewhat above forty of the English and twelve of the friendly Indians that assisted, very few escaping but were either killed right out or danger. ously wounded. Thus was another summer spent in calamities and miserable occurrents amongst the eastern parts; yet was not this all the miseries that the poor English had to endure this year; for after the poor husband. men and planters had drunk their full share of the cup of affliction, that the other sort who trade by sea, and use to follow fishing upon those eastern parts might not take themselves to be secure, or think better of themselves than their brethren, who had suffered all the calamities forementioned, July 15 news came of several ketches that were surprised, as they lay secure in the harbours, whither they used to turn in upon every occasion as they were making their fishing voyages. There were near twenty of those fishing ketches thus surprised first and last, most of which carried five or six men apiece, but they being many of them a dull and heavy moulded sort of people, that had not either skill or courage to kill any thing but fish, were easily taken, and had not heart enough either to make resistance when first attacked, nor afterward to make any attempt for an escape to free themselves, as some did, and so delivered themselves, with the slaughter of them that held them prisoners aboard their own vessels, when some others, that had more courage and spirit than the rest, were sadly destroyed for want of courage in them that were in their yessels, to stand by them while they were attempting to deliver themselves, which was the case of one or two of the vessels, whose companions were all cut off by that

means.

But the Indians finding their inability to manage such kind of vessels, much too heavy for them to wield with paddles, grew soon after weary of that sport, and were pretty willing to return the vessels to the English, after they had pillaged out of them what was for their turn. The merchants about Salem, to whom the said ketches

principally belonged, fitted up a vessel in the nature of a man of war, which they had furnished with several resolute, stout hands, but they were strangely disappointed of coming up with any of the Indian mariners, so as they were forced to return without doing any considerable execution upon them.

During these troubles, Maj. Andros, the governour of New York, being willing to secure the interest of his highness the duke of York in those parts, lest in the absence of the English, some foreign nation should take the advantage of possessing themselves of any part of the dominions belonging to our nation, timely sent a sloop with a considerable number of soldiers to the parts about Pemaquid, which, when the Indians that had all this while been up in rebellion, understood, they were at the last willing to fall into a kind of amity and friendship. In the beginning of August, news of this overture came to the Massachusetts, the comfort of which was not a little augmented by the certain information that came soon after of fifteen English captives returned to the soldiers of Maj. Andros, and hopes of a general peace; and the confirmation thereof was more increased by the news of the return of the rest of the vessels, that were taken by the enemy, into the hands of the English. In which posture were things left in those parts in the beginning of winter, and nothing of another nature was discoursed in the end of February following, nor yet in the end of June that next ensued.

But the tragical sufferings of the poor English are not as yet all accomplished in other parts of the country, for about September the 19th following, forty or fifty river Indians fell suddenly upon the town of Hatfield, about Connecticut, who were a little too secure, and too ready to say the bitterness of death was past, because they had neither seen nor heard of any enemy in those parts for half a year before, But at this time, as a considerable number of the inhabitants of that small village were employed in raising the frame of an house without the palisadoes, that defended their houses from any sudden incursions of the enemy, they were violently and sudden

ly assaulted by forty or fifty Indians, when they were in no capacity to resist or defend themselves, so as several were shot down from the top of the house which they were raising, and sundry were carried away captive, to the number of twenty or more, which was made up twenty four with them they carried away the same or the next day from Deerfield, whither some of the inhabit ants had unadvisedly too soon returned. One of the company escaped out of their hands two or three days after, who informed that they had passed with their poor captives two or three times over the river of Connecticut to prevent being pursued. It was said, also, that about a fortnight after, the same Indians attempted to take a mill at Hadley, two miles from the town, and missing their end pretended a kind of parley, and promised to return those they had captivated a little before; but it proved but one of their usual deceits, whereby they were wont to abuse the English; for where, or in what condition, those captives are at present, must be the subject of the reader's prayers rather than of the author's story.

Yet, since the writing of the premises, Benjamin Wait and Stephen Jennings, two men of Hatfield, whose wives were amongst the number of the forementioned captives, having obtained a commission from the govern ment of the Massachusetts, pursued after them in the depth of winter, (though not with such a number as those with which Abram pursued after the army that carried captive his kinsman, Lot,) and overtook them about Canada, and by the help of the French there seated, recovered their wives, with other captives, which they brought back by way of ransom, and not by force of

arms.

Their adventure being attended with so many difficulties and dangers, in the depth of winter, not to be paralleled with any attempt of that nature since the English came into those parts, wherein they were surely led along by a divine nutus, as well as by the innate love to their wives, (which would have afforded matter for a large fiction to some of the ancient poets,) is as followeth from their own mouths. On the 24th of October, 1677, they