Part 13 (1/2)

An aiven--Preparation for a surprise--Sudden attack--The Indians vanquished--Escape of two boys--A surprise party--Its perfect success--Slaughter of the Indians--Burning the ams--Refreshment after battle--Alarm of the party--Terrible peril--Bravery of Captain Holyoke--Heroic action--Dawn of hope--Escape--Rage of the Indians--assault upon Hatfield--Unexpected assistance--Heroism--Attack upon Hadley--A sudden appearance--Superstition--General Goffe--Old tradition--Union of forces--Phillip's strategem--It recoils--Hostility of the Mohawks--Turn of the tide--Dismay of the Indians--Extract fro Philip--An intervieith the Indians--The Indians desire peace--Intervieith the Governor--Captain Church visits Awashonks--A perilous interview--Rage of a warrior--Proposals for an alliance--Eovernor--The journey interrupted--Awashonks visits Major Bradford--Proposals for an alliance--Search for Philip--Cordial reception--Indian festivities--Sagacious care--Captain Church to visit the queen--A luxurious feast--Bill of fare--A huge bonfire--Indian dance--Oath of fidelity--Selection of warriors--Grief of Philip--Undying resolution--Capture of Indians--Continued success--Approach of Philip's arewater lads--Narrow escape of Philip--His wife and child captured--The Saconets continue the pursuit--Treachery of the Indians--The reconnoitering parties--Description by Captain Church--Captain Church's adventures--Capture of prisoners--The captivesthis terrible war there were e performed which merit record A man by the name of Rocket, in the town of Wrentha for his horse Much to his alarm, he discovered, far off in the forest, a band of forty-two Indians, in single file, silently and noiselessly passing along, apparently seeking a place of concealhly armed Mr Rocket without difficulty eluded their observation, and then, at some distance behind, cautiously followed in their trail It was late in the afternoon, and, just before twilight was fading into darkness, the Indians found a spot which they deemed safe, but a short distance froe flat rock, upon the brow of a steep hill, where they were quite surrounded by al marked the place well, hastened back to the town It was then near ht The inhabitants were immediately aroused, informed of their peril, and the woarrison house, and a sarh the forest, guided by Rocket, and arrived an hour before the break of day at the encampment of the Indians With the utmost caution, step by step, they crept withinfoes Every le out his victiun should be fired until the Indians should coive the colonists fair aim

An hour of breathless and moveless silence passed away In the earliest dawn of thethe eastern horizon, the Indians, as if by one volition, sprang froh the forest, and thirteen bullets pierced as many bodies

Appalled by so sudden an attack and such terrible slaughter, the survivors, unaware of the feebleness of the force by which they were assailed, plunged down the precipitous hill, tu the rocks The adventurous band eagerly pursued theh the forest Many more thus fell One keen hty rods, breaking his thigh bone In this short encounter twenty-four of the Indians were slain The remainder escaped into the depths of the forest The heroes of this adventure all returned in safety to their ho been injured It was undoubtedly the intention of this prowling band to have attacked and fired the town as soon as the inhabitants had been scattered in thein their fields at work

Soon after this, two English boys, who had been captured by the Indians and taken to the upper waters of the Connecticut, escaped, and, following down the river, succeeded in reaching the settlee numbers, were encamped upon the banks of the river, just above the present site of Deerfield Supposing that all the energies of the colonists were e place in the towns nearer the seaboard, they were indulging in careless security

The inhabitants of Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton promptly raised a force of one hundred and fifty ht of the 18th of May they left Hadley, and, traveling as fast as they could about twenty ht, arrived a little after ht in the vicinity of the Indian enca trees, and then cautiously crept through the forest about half a , they di theht to reveal their foes The Indians were in a very dead sleep fro the early part of the night The night had been warwaed upon the slumberers, and a storwams Many were instantly killed, and many wounded The survivors, in a terrible panic, round and rushed to the river, atte to escape to the other shore

They were just above so Numbers attempted to swim across the strea into canoes and pushed from the shore They presented but a fair , and whirled by the eddies, they were dashed against the rocks, and perishedthe rocks upon the shore Captain Holyoke killed five with his own hand under a bank About three hundred Indians were slain or drowned in the awful tuht hours Several of the most conspicuous of the Indian chiefs were killed Only one white waht was illu flames, the dark billows of smoke, the rattle of musketry, the shouts of the assailants, the shrieks of woe warriors, presented a picture of earthly hich neither the pen nor the pencil can portray

At last thedawned The sun of a serene and beautiful May day rose over the spectacle of s ruins and blood The victors, weary of sleeplessness, of their night'sbrands and amid the bodies of the slain to seek refreshment and repose in this exultant hour of victory

But disaster, all unanticipated, came upon them with the sweep of the ind It so happened that Philip himself was near with a thousand warriors A captured Indian inforreat panic They were but one hundred and fifty in nuh the woods of e warriors, roused to the highest pitch of exasperation, and led by the terrible King Philip, were expected itives, who had scattered through the woods, would speedily cos of the attack to Philip's band

The colonists, in much confusion, immediately commenced a precipitate retreat They had hardly es, like fas, ca upon them The peril was so terrible that there seeies like the energies of despair Every man resolved, in the calmness of the absolute certainty of death, to sell his life as dearly as possible

Captain Holyoke was a ency, and every member of his heroic little band had perfect confidence in his courage and his skill Silently, sternly, sublimely, in a mass as compact as possible, they moved slowly on Every eye was on the alert; every uns were heavily loaded, that the balls reat distance Not an Indian could expose his body but that he fell before the unerring aim of these keen er in front, on the flanks, and in the rear His own lion-like energy was infused into the spirit of his ious exertions His horse was at one time shot, and fell beneath hilement, a band of Indians threw themselves upon him Two of them he shot doith his pistols, and then with his sword cut his way through the rest, aided by a single soldier who ca, pursued by the infuriate foe and harassed by a merciless fire, many ounded, and every few round The survivors could do nothing to help the dead or the dying Hour after hour passed, and at length unexpected hope began to dawn upon the the Indians at bay Could they continue thus for a few hours longer, they would be so near the settlements that the Indians, in their turn, would be coh it was evident that their loss reat, there was now hope that the majority would escape Thus ani lost about forty by the way, they ees dared to pursue thee, the discomfited Indians returned to their forest fastnesses, and the heroic band, having lost about one third of their number, and with nearly all of the survivors exhausted, wounded, and bleeding, were received by their friends with throbbing hearts, and with blended tears of bliss and woe Those hile still living, fell into the hands of the Indians, were put to death by tortures too horrible to be described

A fortnight after this, on the 30th of May, the , as usual, established a careful watch to guard against surprise All the houses in the centre of the toere surrounded by a palisade, but there were several at a distance which could not be included One old ate

Suddenly a band of Indians, between six and seven hundred in nued into the town between the palisades and the party at work in the fields, thus effectually cutting off the retreat of the colonists to their fortress They immediately coet at the women, the children, and the booty The people of Hadley, on the opposite side of the river, witnessed the assault Twenty-five young men of Hadley promptly crossed the river, threw themselves unexpectedly and like a thunderbolt upon the band of seven hundred savages, cut their way through the lost but five of their number Where has history recorded a deed of nobler heroism? In their impetuous rush they cut doenty-five of their foes The Indians, inti an act, feared to approach the palisades thus garrisoned, and sullenly retired The es spread themselves over the meadows, drove off all the oxen, cows, and sheep, and burned twelve houses and barns which were beyond the reach of protection

On the 12th of June, the Indians, seven hundred in number, made an attack upon Hadley, and hid themselves in the bushes at its southern extre party around to nal, when the first light of theappeared, with their accustomed yells, they leaped from their conceallish, undised for soreat fury

In the midst of this scene of tulish, there suddenly appeared a ray hairs and venerable aspect, and dressed in antique apparel, ith the voice and manner of one accustomed to command, took at once the direction of affairs There was such an air of authority in his words and gestures, the directions he gave were so manifestly wise, and he seemed so perfectly familiar with all military tactics, that, by instinctive assent, all yielded to his command Those were days of superstition, and the aspect of the stranger was so singular, and his sudden appearance so inexplicable and providential, that it was generally supposed that God had sent a guardian angel for the salvation of the settleer disappeared, and nothing further was heard of hies who had condemned Charles I to the block After the restoration, these judges were condemned to death Great efforts were made to arrest them Two of them, Generals Goffe and Whalley, fled to this country They were both at this time secreted in Hadley, in the house of the Rev Mr

Russell Mr Whalley was aged and infire in imminent peril, left his concealment, joined the inhabitants, and took a very active part in the defense It was not until after the lapse of fifteen years that these facts were disclosed The tradition is that both of these men died in their concealment, and that they were secretly buried in the minister's cellar Their bodies were afterward privately conveyed to New Haven

It so happened that the Connecticut colony had just raised a standing aran Indians, and had sent them to Northampton, but a few miles from Hadley, for the protection of the river towns A force of several hundred men also marched from Boston to co-operate with the Connecticut troops The settlements upon the river were thus so effectually protected that Philip saw that it would be in vain for him to attempt any farther assaults

He therefore sentthe sea-coast It is generally reported that, about this time, Philip took a party of warriors and traversed the unbroken wilderness extending between the Connecticut and the Hudson He went as far as the present site of Albany, and endeavored to rouse the Mohawks, a powerful tribe in that vicinity, to unite with hie is not sustained by any very conclusive evidence, that Philip, in order to elish, attacked a party of Mohaarriors, and, as he supposed, killed theed matters to convince the Mohawks that their countrylish But one of the Mohaas supposed to be killed, revived, and, covered with blood and wounds, succeeded in reaching his friends The story he told roused the tribe to rage, and, allying thelish, they fell fiercely upon Philip

Whether the above narrative be true or not, it is certain that about this ti Philip, and fell upon hireat fury

And now suddenly, and almost miraculously, the tide of events seelish It is very difficult to account for the wonderful change which a feeeks introduced The Massachusetts Indians, for son of the Wa seduced the even more misery than they created All the Indians in the vicinity of the English settlerounds, and were now in a faence to foresee that absolute starvation was their inevitable doo winter At the saious, swept fearful desolation through their aarded this as evidence that the God of the white ainst them The colonial forces in the valley of the Connecticut penetrated the forest in every direction, carrying utter ruin into the homes of the natives

In this horrible warfare but little lish did not torture their foes, but they generally massacred them without mercy

This sudden accumulation of disasters appalled Philip and all his partisans They were thrown into a very surprising state of confusion and dis of this constant terror which bewildered the with a hornet They ran they knew not whither, they knew not wherefore They were under such consternation that the English did even what they would upon thehting sort of fellow, one of their generals, used unto the English after they had captured hi upon his breast, 'but the Englishman's God made us afraid here'”

The latter part of July, Captain Church, the General Putnam of these Indian wars, was placed in command of a force to search for Philip, ith a sion of Mount Hope Captain Church went froed two friendly Indians to paddle hi the shore to Rhode Island As he was rounding the neck of land called Saconet Point, he saw a nu that these Indians were in heart attached to the English, and that they had been forced to unite with Philip, he resolved to make efforts to detach them from the confederacy The Indians on the shore seens invited them to land Captain Church, as as prudent as he was intrepid, called to two of the Indians to go down upon a point of cleared land where there was no roo one of the Indians to take care of the canoe, and the other to act as a sentinel, advanced to e, could speak English perfectly well He told Captain Church that his tribe eary of the war; that they were in a state of great suffering, and that they were very anxious to return to a state of friendly alliance with the English He said that if the past could be pardoned, his tribe was ready not only to relinquish all acts of hostility, but to take up ar Philip Captain Church proain in two days at Rich neck of land He then hastened to Rhode Island, procured an intervieith the governor, and endeavored to obtain authority to enter into a treaty with these Indians The governor would not give his consent, affir that it was an act ofthe Saconets Nevertheless, Church, true to his engage in a canoe, reached the spot at the appointed time

Here he found Awashonks, the queen of the tribe, with several of her followers As his canoe touched the shore, she advanced to meet him, and, with a smile of apparent friendliness, extended her hand They walked together a short distance froe party of Indians, painted and decorated in warlike array, and arrass, and surrounded thenantly,