The occasion (as I thought) of their moving at this time was the English
army, it being near and following them. For they went as if they had
gone for their lives, for some considerable way, and then they made a
stop, and chose some of their stoutest men, and sent them back to hold
the English army in play whilst the rest escaped. And then, like Jehu,
they marched on furiously, with their old and with their young: some
carried their old decrepit mothers, some carried one, and some another.
Four of them carried a great Indian upon a bier; but going through
a thick wood with him, they were hindered, and could make no haste,
whereupon they took him upon their backs, and carried him, one at a
time, till they came to Banquaug river. Upon a Friday, a little after
noon, we came to this river. When all the company was come up, and were
gathered together, I thought to count the number of them, but they were
so many, and being somewhat in motion, it was beyond my skill. In
this travel, because of my wound, I was somewhat favored in my load; I
carried only my knitting work and two quarts of parched meal. Being very
faint I asked my mistress to give me one spoonful of the meal, but she
would not give me a taste. They quickly fell to cutting dry trees, to
make rafts to carry them over the river: and soon my turn came to go
over. By the advantage of some brush which they had laid upon the raft
to sit upon, I did not wet my foot (which many of themselves at the
other end were mid-leg deep) which cannot but be acknowledged as a favor
of God to my weakened body, it being a very cold time. I was not before
acquainted with such kind of doings or dangers. "When thou passeth
through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they
shall not overflow thee" (Isaiah 43.2). A certain number of us got over
the river that night, but it was the night after the Sabbath before all
the company was got over. On the Saturday they boiled an old horse's
leg which they had got, and so we drank of the broth, as soon as they
thought it was ready, and when it was almost all gone, they filled it up
again.
The first week of my being among them I hardly ate any thing; the second
week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet
it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week,
though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this
or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet
they were sweet and savory to my taste. I was at this time knitting a
pair of white cotton stockings for my mistress; and had not yet wrought
upon a Sabbath day. When the Sabbath came they bade me go to work. I
told them it was the Sabbath day, and desired them to let me rest, and
told them I would do as much more tomorrow; to which they answered
me they would break my face. And here I cannot but take notice of the
strange providence of God in preserving the heathen. They were many
hundreds, old and young, some sick, and some lame; many had papooses at
their backs. The greatest number at this time with us were squaws, and
they traveled with all they had, bag and baggage, and yet they got over
this river aforesaid; and on Monday they set their wigwams on fire, and
away they went. On that very day came the English army after them to
this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a
stop to them. God did not give them courage or activity to go over after
us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance.
If we had been God would have found out a way for the English to have
passed this river, as well as for the Indians with their squaws and
children, and all their luggage. "Oh that my people had hearkened to
me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their
enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries" (Psalm 81.13-14).