among whom was the wife of Michael Webber, who being big with child, they knocked her on the head, and ripped open her womb, and took a part of her child out ;-an awful spectacle, and proof of uncommon barbarity.

Casco, which was the utmost frontier of that part which Major March had the command of, but had not heard of the spoil the Indians had so lately done in several places, was saluted by Moxus, Wanungonet, and Assacombuit, three of their most puissant sachems. They gradually advanced, with a flag of truce, and sent one before them to acquaint him that they had matter of moment to impart to him. He at first slighted the motion; but on further thoughts he went out to them. They seemed to him but few in number, and unarmed. However, he ordered two sentinels to be ready to assist in case of danger. They no sooner saluted him, but with hatchets under their clothes they assaulted him. But being a man of uncommon strength, activity and courage, he wrested a hatchet from one of them, with which he did good execution. They shot down one of his guards, by some that lay in ambush near them; yet if Sergeant Hook had not with a file of ten men rescued him, they had in all probability overpowered him. However, they killed two more, viz. one Phippeny, and Kent, who were advanced, and soon fell by their hands. This was such an act of perfidious treachery as none but the French and Indians would pursue or applaud. They were then commanded by Mons. Bobassar, a Frenchman.

The Indians and French being defeated in their design against the fort, fell to firing the cottages round about, so that fire and smoke filled the country; upon which the Major rallied his men, and sent them out in three companies, twelve in a company, and relieved them every two hours,by means whereof the Indians retired. But this continued for six days and nights, in a manner without any intermission. Bobassar, their commander, having laid all the English settlements waste, and having taken and plundered two sloops and a shallop, flushed with success, attempted to undermine the fort, beginning at the bank by the side of the river. In this they made considerable progress, and were likely to accomplish their purpose, had not the providence of God prevented, by the arrival of Captain Southack, who retook the shallop, and greatly shattered their navy, which

consisted of 200 canoes, and raised the siege, after they had labored two days and two nights in endeavoring to storm the fort by undermining it. The French and Indians in the actions here related were 500.

Soon after this, one Captain Tom, with 30 Indians, made a descent on Hampton village, where they slew five persons; among which was one Mussey, a widow woman, who had been esteemed a famous preacher among the people called Quakers, and, by them especially, greatly lamented.

By this time, Captain Summersby was ordered with his troop to Portsmouth, and Captain Wadley, with the like number of men, to Wells, as it was concluded that the eastern parts would be the seat of war. However, there was advice quickly brought from Deerfield, that the Indians had carried from thence two persons captive to Canada; which made it the more surprising to find that the frontiers were infested by the Indians 200 miles or more. So that on September 26, the Governor ordered 360 men to Pigwacket, one of the Indian head-quarters. But, whether by reason of the difficulty of the passage or unskilfulness of the guides, they returned without making any discovery of the enemy, as did Captain Davis in going with his company up to the ponds; for the Indians, it seemed, had shifted their quarters and were gone eastward. For on the 6th of October, Captain Hunnewell, with 19 men, as they were going to work in their meadows at Black Point, were all cut off, or taken prisoners, except one man, as Job's messenger, escaped to tell the melancholy tidings. They attacked the fort, where only six men were left, under the command of Lieutenant Wyat, which they valiantly defended for some time, being encouraged by Captain Willard and Captain Wells, who were there in two sloops; but were at last dispirited and got on board Captain Wells's sloop. The Indians then came and burnt the deserted garrison.

Another party of Indians, under the command of one Captain Sampson, probably some strong gigantic-like fellow, fell upon York, and killed the wife of Arthur Brandon, and five children, and carried the widow Parsons and her daughter captive.

The former attempt against Pigwacket proving unsuccessful, as was said, Colonel March went the second time with a good number of men, and killed six Indians, and took the

same number prisoners,-the first reprisal on the enemy. He also took some plunder; upon which the Indians dispersed themselves into small parties, and did mischief; so that there was no safety to him that went or came in, but wars and bloodshed on every side.

At Berwick, they ambushed five; and as the store-ship was coming to Casco, they unexpectedly fired a volley, and killed the master and three more, and wounded two in the boat.

The Assembly of the Province promised £40 for every Indian scalp that should be brought in. Captain Tyng was the first that embraced the tender; who in the depth of winter went to their head-quarters, and brought away five, for which he received £200. Major Hilton and Captain Stevens, with their men, made the like essay, but only with the reward of being returned in safety. At Berwick they killed one, and wounded another, and burnt two houses; after which they assaulted Andrew Neal's garrison, but were vigorously repulsed by Captain Brown, who slew nine of them on the spot, and wounded many more; which enraged these monsters of cruelty to that degree, that in their return they executed their revenge on one Joseph Ring, a captive, then in their hands. They tied him to a stake, and burnt him alive; rejoicing, as their manner is, the more at his bitter heart-piercing cries and lamentations.

February 8, Joseph Bradley's garrison of Haverhill was unhappily surprised by a small scout, that were lurking about and within sight; observing the gates to be open and no sentinel, rushed in violently, and became suddenly masters thereof. The housewife being boiling soap, threw some of it on them and scalded one of the Indians to death. The sentinel was slain, and she, with several others, were carried away. This was the second time of her captivity; and her calamity was greatly aggravated, being then big with child, travelling in the snow, and carrying a heavy burden on her back. However, God upheld her under this her miserable condition, and granted her safe deliverance. She and her child were under hopeful appearances, but then having nothing to eat except a few bits of skin, ground-nuts, bark of trees, wild onions, and lily roots, she was wonderfully supported for a time. But as she had no proper nourishment for herself or child, the babe soon languished. This,

together with the heathen's barbarity, who were wont, when it cried, to throw hot embers into its mouth, quickly finished the child's life. The mother, after a year's bondage, was sold to the French, and in some time after redeemed by her husband.

The seat of war and bloodshed having for some time subsisted mostly in the eastern parts of the Province, was probably a means to render those in the western parts too secure, which doubtless the enemy were acquainted with; therefore took the opportunity to fall upon Deerfield, then an out settlement in the county of Hampshire. On February 29, 1703, the enemy, not long before break of day, came in like a flood upon the town, the watch being unfaithful, and surprized the people, to their horror and astonishment, when under profound security. They came in the beginning of the onset to the house of the reverend Mr. Williams, the worthy pastor of the town, and awakened him out of his sleep by the noise of axes and hatchets, staving open his doors. He essayed to fire at the Indian that was next to him, clapping his pistol to his breast; but it missed fire, which probably was a means of sparing his life. The enemy instantly disarmed him, and bound him in his shirt, in which condition he continued about an hour. It was not long after, that one of those three that bound him, received his death-wound from a neighboring ungarrisoned house, which was defended with only seven men, against 300 French and Indians. Mrs. Williams was at this time in a weak and poor state of health, having lain in but a few weeks before. However, these barbarous Indians gave her leave to dress herself, and Mr. Williams himself had the like liberty. But others, of more cruel and barbarous dispositions, carried two of his children and his negro woman to the door, and murdered them there. After they had rifled the house in every room, and taken what plunder they pleased, they ordered the prisoners out of the house in order to march, the sun then being about an hour high, and then set the house on fire, as they did most of the houses in the town, which were then all in a flame in every quarter. They were carried over the river to the foot of a mountain about a mile distant from the town or river, where were an hundred prisoners. Nineteen of them were murdered by the way, and two were, starved to death. At Cowass, they

killed a sucking child of the English. They killed in this town 38, and 9 of other towns,-soldiers it is likely. Their journey was 300 miles to Quebec, over mountains and other difficult places, as rivers and swamps, the snow being knee deep. Mr. Williams was pinioned, and bound down every night whilst he was in the army. Though these Indians in general are of such a cruel and salvage temper, yet some of them were so compass ate towards the English children that were unable to travel, as sometimes to carry them on their backs or in their arms. Some of the Indians had brought strong drink from the town, of which they drank freely, and in their drunken frolic they killed Mr. Williams's negro man, and soon after his wife, with whom he had portunity but once to speak after their captivity. She was after found by some of the English scouts, carried back to the town, and decently buried. They killed also a young woman, counted very pious, who had a short opportunity to converse with Mr. Williams a little before she was murdered. They killed a woman (near her travail), and several English children; four women at one time, and two at another, because they were tired and could not travel. These were some of the nineteen, before mentioned, that were killed by the way as they were led in their captivity.

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As to what further account there is of Mr. Williams's travels, and the hardships he and the other prisoners with him underwent in their captivity, I shall refer my reader to his own Narrative, published under the title of The Redeemed Captive returning to Zion.

Colonel Church, of whom frequent mention is made before, (whose warlike achievements and successes against the Indians in Plymouth and the Massachusetts governments are known, and whose name and memory ought to be embalmed in the New-England annals), when tidings came of the devastation and surprising destruction and slaughter the Indians, with the French, their accomplices and abettors in cruelty and barbarism, had made on Deerfield, as above ist noted, was fired with a truly gallant and heroic zeal, if possible, to suppress the rage of these our insulting adversaries. Therefore resolves (under the guidance of Divine providence) to engage in a fifth expedition in the eastward parts of the country, where he had been four times before, under prin