Part 12 (1/2)
On the Sabbath of the 26th of March, as the people of Marlborough were asse cry was shouted in at the door, ”The Indians! the Indians!” An indescribable scene of confusion instantly ensued, as the whole congregation rushed out to seek shelter in their garrison The terror and confusion were awfully increased by a volley of bullets, which the Indians, as they ca like deation Fortunately, the savages were at such a distance that none ounded excepting one ed and infirm woman His ar the garrison house, which was near at hand The -houses were burned The orchards were cut down, and all other ruin perpetrated which savage ingenuity could devise
The Indians, exultant with success, encah, and kept the forest aith the uproar of their barbarian wassail The colonists immediately assembled a small band of brave men, fell upon them by surprise in the midst of their carousals, shot forty and dispersed the rest
On the sah was destroyed, a very disastrous defeat befell a party of soldiers belonging to the old Plymouth colony Nanuntenoo, son of the renowned Miantunnoansets He was fired with a terrible spirit of revenge against the English, and could not forget the swaht in which so many of his bravest warriors had perished, and where hundreds of his women and children had been cut to pieces and burned to ashes in their aht, and with difficulty escaped This chieftain, a athered a force of nearly two thousand Indians upon the banks of the Pawtucket River, within the li for an overwhel attack upon the town of Plymouth
The colonists, by no means aware of the formidableness of the force assembled, dispatched Captain Pierce frolish and twenty Indians, to break up the encaes Nanuntenoo, inforetic skill to e portion of his force in ambush on the western side of the river; another body of warriors he secreted in the forest on the eastern banks As Captain Pierce approached the stream, a small party of Indians, as a decoy, showed themselves on the western side, and immediately retreated, as if surprised and alarerly crossed the streae was thus perfectly successful The colonists had advanced but a few rods from the banks, near Pawtucket Falls, when the Indians, several hundreds in number, rose from their ambush, and rushed like an avalanche upon them With bravery alht no covert, but rushed upon their foes in the open field face to face They knew that the colonists were non into a trap from which there was no possible escape As soon as the battle commenced, the Indians ere in the rear, on the eastern bank of the narrow strea the shore, cut off all hope of retreat, and commenced a heavy fire upon their foe Utter defeat was now certain
The only choice was between instantaneous death by the bullet or death by lingering torture Captain Pierce was a valiant man, and instantly adopted his heroic resolve He formed his men in a circle, back to back, and with a feords inspired them with his own determination to sell his life as dearly as possible Thus they continued the fight until nearly every one of the colonial party was slain But one white acity of one of the friendly Indians
Captain Pierce soon fell, having his thigh bone shattered by a bullet
A noble Indian by the name of A and firing, while his comrades fell thickly around him When nearly all his friends had fallen, and the survivors were ht, he observed that all the hostile Indians had painted their faces black Wetting sounpowder, he smeared his own face so as to reselishman, he pretended to pursue hiun and fled, but a few steps in advance of his pursuer The Narragansets, seeing that the Indian could not fail to overtake and dispatch the unaritive, did not interfere Thus they entered the forest, and both escaped
A friendly Indian, pursued by one of Nanuntenoo's men, took shelter behind the roots of a fallen tree The Indian who had pursued hiitive to start again fro that he would not dare to re, when hundreds of Indians were al hie quantity of adhering earth, which entirely covered the fugitive froh the earth, took deliberate aim at his pursuer, shot him down, and then escaped
Another of the Indian allies, in his flight, took refuge behind a large rock This was a perfect shelter for a moment, but certain death awaited him in the end His pursuer, with loaded ain In this deplorable condition the beleaguered Indian thought of the following shrewd expedient Putting his cap upon his gun, he raised it very gradually above the rock, as if he were endeavoring to peep over to discover the situation of his eneun and sent a bullet through the cap, and, as he supposed, through the head of his foe The fugitive sprang fro toward his unarmed enemy, shot him dead Thus was escape effected With the exception of one Englishman and five or six friendly Indians, all the rest were cut down The wounded were reserved for the horrible dooly elated by this signal victory, and their shouts of exultation were loud and long-repeated The next , with yells of triumph, they crossed the river, s The next day they stormed Providence, and burned thirty houses These devastations, however, were not accompanied with much bloodshed, as most of the inhabitants of Providence and of Seekonk had previously fled to the island of Rhode Island for protection
The heroic Roger Williams, however, remained in Providence He had ever been the firm friend of the Indians, and ell acquainted with the leading chiefs in this war-party The Indians, while setting fire to the rest of the town, left his person and property unharmed
Flushed with success, they assured him that they were confident of the entire conquest of the country, and of the utter exterlish Mr Williams reproached them with their cruelties, and told them that Massachusetts could raise ten thousand men, and that even were the Indians to destroy theland could send over an equal number every year until the Indians were conquered
Nanuntenoo proudly and generously replied,
”We shall be ready for them But you, Mr Williaood man, and have been kind to us”
Nanuntenoo had about fifteen hundred warriors under his colish were very effectually driven froion of Seekonk, he very imprudently took but thirtyto obtain some seed-corn to plant the fields upon the Connecticut frolish, alar in this region, sent a force consisting of forty-seven Englishhty Indians to scour the country Most of the Indians were Mohegans, under the command of Oneco, a son of Uncas
As this force was approaching Seekonk they encountered two Indians with their squaws They instantly shot the Indians and took the squaws captive Their prisoners inforwam at a short distance, with but seven Indians around him His hut was erected at the bottom of a hill, upon the brohich he had stationed two sentinels These cowardly savages, when they saw the English approaching in such force, precipitately fled, without giving their chieftain any warning The sacheht, and sent a third man to the hill-top to ascertain the cause
As soon as he arrived upon the brow of the hill he saw the glittering array of more than a hundred ht, he also fled like his predecessors Nanuntenoo, amazed by this conduct, dispatched two more to solve the mystery These last provedback in breathless haste, shouting, ”_The English are upon you_”
Not a moment was to be lost in deliberation The enewaround in a hopeless attelish and Indians, like hounds in full cry, eagerly pressed the chase
With a the bank of the river, seeking a place to ford the streaht he threw off his blanket, his silver-laced coat, and his belt of wa remained to obstruct his sinewy and finely-an Indian was in advance of all the rest of the coed into the narrow stream to cross
His foot slipped upon a stone, and he fell, iun in the water This calath His swift-footed pursuer, Monopoide, was irasped him almost as soon as he reached the opposite shore
The naked and unarmed chief could make no resistance, and, with stoicism characteristic of his race, submitted to his fate
Nanuntenoo was aas lofty as if he had been trained in the lish Monopoide, was the first one who ca Staunton, in the pert spirit of Young Aansets
Nanuntenoo, looking disdainfully upon his youthful face, after a short silence, said,
”You are too much of a child--you do not understand matters of war
Let your chief come; him I will answer”