60

PLAN OF ATTACK.

[1637. that the officers requested their chaplain to pray to God earnestly for direction in the difficult circumstances; and he spent the greater part of Thursday night in prayer. In the morning the officers expressed their concurrence with Mason; and, as the wind permitted, on Friday, the 19th of May, the vessels sailed for Narraganset. Captain Mason, however, had sent twenty men back to guard the towns, and received in their places Captain Underhill and nineteen men from the fort.

Passing by Pequod harbour, the expedition reach. ed the Narraganset country on the 20th; and Mason and Underhill, landing with a guard, marched to the plantation of Canonicus, one of the sachems, who sent for Miantonimoh. That chief held a council with the English, and promised aid; but advised them to wait for Captain Patrick, of whose arrival an Indian runner or messenger apprized them while assembled in council. But the Connecticut men were very impatient to accomplish the objects of the enterprise, that they might return. The troops therefore set off, accompanied by many Narragansets; and a considerable number of Eastern Nehantics joined them when they had reached their country. Captain Mason was so fortunate as to procure a faithful Pequod guide. This was a man

named Wequash, who had lived among the Narragansets for some time, and was acquainted with the country and situation of the enemy.

The first plan was to divide into two detachments, and attack both the Pequod forts at once: but the weariness of the men, the distance of Sas. sacus's fort, the difficulties of the way, and the desertion of many of the Indians, inclined the English

to follow the advice of their guide, and march in a body for the nearer fort at Mystic. They reached a marsh between two hills at twilight, and encamped by two rocks, now called Porter's Rocks, where they slept on the bare ground. Some of the sentinels were near enough to the fort to hear the shouts of the savages, who were rejoicing at what they supposed to be the timidity of the English: for, having seen their vessels sail by a few days before, they thought they had not courage enough to attack them. They spent most of the night in feasting and dancing, and then sunk into a deep sleep.

On the morning of the 28th of May, the troops were ordered out about two hours before daylight; and, after addressing prayers to God for guidance and success, they marched silently on, in the light of a clear moon: the Indians who remained with them falling behind with strong marks of fear. Wequash having informed the captain that the fort was on the top of the hill before them, he proceeded to the northeastern side, while Captain Underhill marched to assail the western. As Mason approached within a rod or two of the fort, a dog began to bark, and an Indian cried out, "Owanux ! Owanux!" (English! English!), and some of the savages immediately appeared and endeavoured to repel them. But they received a general volley from their assailants through the poles or palisades with which the fort was surrounded; and, a moment after, the English rushed in at the gate sword in hand. The Indians made a resolute stand at first, but were soon driven back through the principal street of the village which their fortifications enF

62

RETURN OF THE TROOPS.

[1637.

closed. Some of Underhill's party soon fell on them in that direction, and they were obliged to seek shelter in their wigwams, but still kept up a desperate resistance. It proved impossible to dislodge them from these by force: for, when an Englishman entered a wigwam, he was set upon by several Indians at once. Numbers having been killed and the others being weary, Mason cried out, "We must burn them;" and, taking a firebrand from a wigwam, he set it in a flame, and the whole village was soon in a blaze. Mason had been educated in Europe as a soldier; and even the Puritans retained too much of harsh feeling towards enemies. The English then formed a circle round the fort, and the friendly Indians another behind them, to prevent the escape of the Pequods; and thus, with most unjustifiable cruelty, they killed six or seven hundred men, women, and children in the course of one short hour: only seven escaping, and seven being captured. The others were shot as fast as they climbed up the palisades or ran out of the fort to avoid the fire. The English had two killed and twenty wounded.

In about an hour after the destruction of the fort, the three vessels were seen entering Mystic harbour. At the welcome and unexpected sight, the troops marched towards the shore to embark, followed by three hundred Pequods, who had come from Sassacus's fort on seeing the light of the fire. A constant skirmish was kept up, in which several Pequods were killed, but none of the English. They re-embarked and sailed for Connecticut; and thus the expedition was terminated, and the troops reached home again in about three weeks after its sailing,

In the mean time, the other and principal fort of the Pequods also was burned; not by an enemy, but by themselves: for the Indians threatened to kill their sachem, Sassacus, for having by his pride drawn on the nation the vengeance of the English. His chiefs, however, interceded for him; and, after destroying their fort and village, they all fled in different directions: Sassacus, Mononotto, and seventy or eighty chief counsellers marching for Hudson River, intending to seek refuge among the Mohawks. The others, by the secrecy and caution for which the Indians are so remarkable, long avoided discovery, and eluded their enemies who went in pursuit of them.

Late in June, Mr. Stoughton arrived at Pequod harbour from Boston with 120 men; and, having captured eighty Pequods in a swamp, killed all the men except two sachems, who promised to guide them to Sassacus. Forty men soon joined the Massachusetts troops at Pequod harbour; and, with the advice of Mr. Ludlow, who was with them, the army pursued the fugitives westward. They found the places where they had encamped every night, and observed that they travelled slowly, and had to dig clams and search the woods for food. On reaching Menunkatuck (now Guilford), they found that they could not, obtain information from their two captives, and beheaded them.

64 REFLECTIONS ON THE EXPEDITION. [1637.

CHAPTER VII.

Reflections on the Expedition against the Pequods.-Captain Stoughton, with troops from Boston, pursues the Pequods.The Swamp Fight at Fairfield.-Mononotto's Wife.--Severe treatment of Prisoners.-The Colonies suffer from scarcity of Food.-Military Arrangements in Connecticut.

THE enemy had now been dislodged, and their country was open to the colonists: but many of the Indians were wandering in the wilderness, and likely to fall upon some of the little scattering towns, which might probably have been overwhelmed as easily as their own had been. And it is not to be wondered at that the people should have been extremely apprehensive: for they had melancholy experience in their own feelings and conduct of the horrible influence of war. Though they had been educated as Christians, and wished to be guided by the laws of God, some of them had just destroyed by fire and sword many innocent persons, including women and children, with a few guilty ones; and what made this proceeding the more blameworthy was, that the sufferers were poor ignorant savages, who had never been taught the duty of man or the nature of God. They might, therefore, well imagine what the Pequods would do if allowed to recover from their panic or to assemble in great numbers; and they thought that their own safety required the entire reduction of their enemies, as plainly as it had before demanded the bloody attack they had made upon them.