They said, when we went out, that we must travel to Wachusett this day.
But a bitter weary day I had of it, traveling now three days together,
without resting any day between. At last, after many weary steps, I
saw Wachusett hills, but many miles off. Then we came to a great swamp,
through which we traveled, up to the knees in mud and water, which was
heavy going to one tired before. Being almost spent, I thought I should
have sunk down at last, and never got out; but I may say, as in Psalm
94.18, "When my foot slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." Going
along, having indeed my life, but little spirit, Philip, who was in the
company, came up and took me by the hand, and said, two weeks more and
you shall be mistress again. I asked him, if he spake true? He answered,
"Yes, and quickly you shall come to your master again; who had been gone
from us three weeks." After many weary steps we came to Wachusett, where
he was: and glad I was to see him. He asked me, when I washed me? I told
him not this month. Then he fetched me some water himself, and bid me
wash, and gave me the glass to see how I looked; and bid his squaw give
me something to eat. So she gave me a mess of beans and meat, and a
little ground nut cake. I was wonderfully revived with this favor showed
me: "He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them
captives" (Psalm 106.46).
My master had three squaws, living sometimes with one, and sometimes
with another one, this old squaw, at whose wigwam I was, and with whom
my master had been those three weeks. Another was Wattimore [Weetamoo]
with whom I had lived and served all this while. A severe and proud dame
she was, bestowing every day in dressing herself neat as much time as
any of the gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her
face, going with necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon
her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of
wampum and beads. The third squaw was a younger one, by whom he had two
papooses. By the time I was refreshed by the old squaw, with whom
my master was, Weetamoo's maid came to call me home, at which I fell
aweeping. Then the old squaw told me, to encourage me, that if I wanted
victuals, I should come to her, and that I should lie there in her
wigwam. Then I went with the maid, and quickly came again and lodged
there. The squaw laid a mat under me, and a good rug over me; the first
time I had any such kindness showed me. I understood that Weetamoo
thought that if she should let me go and serve with the old squaw, she
would be in danger to lose not only my service, but the redemption pay
also. And I was not a little glad to hear this; being by it raised in
my hopes, that in God's due time there would be an end of this sorrowful
hour. Then came an Indian, and asked me to knit him three pair of
stockings, for which I had a hat, and a silk handkerchief. Then another
asked me to make her a shift, for which she gave me an apron.
Then came Tom and Peter, with the second letter from the council, about
the captives. Though they were Indians, I got them by the hand, and
burst out into tears. My heart was so full that I could not speak to
them; but recovering myself, I asked them how my husband did, and all
my friends and acquaintance? They said, "They are all very well but
melancholy." They brought me two biscuits, and a pound of tobacco. The
tobacco I quickly gave away. When it was all gone, one asked me to give
him a pipe of tobacco. I told him it was all gone. Then began he to rant
and threaten. I told him when my husband came I would give him some.
Hang him rogue (says he) I will knock out his brains, if he comes here.
And then again, in the same breath they would say that if there should
come an hundred without guns, they would do them no hurt. So unstable
and like madmen they were. So that fearing the worst, I durst not send
to my husband, though there were some thoughts of his coming to redeem
and fetch me, not knowing what might follow. For there was little more
trust to them than to the master they served. When the letter was come,
the Sagamores met to consult about the captives, and called me to them
to inquire how much my husband would give to redeem me. When I came I
sat down among them, as I was wont to do, as their manner is. Then they
bade me stand up, and said they were the General Court. They bid me
speak what I thought he would give. Now knowing that all we had was
destroyed by the Indians, I was in a great strait. I thought if I should
speak of but a little it would be slighted, and hinder the matter; if of
a great sum, I knew not where it would be procured. Yet at a venture I
said "Twenty pounds," yet desired them to take less. But they would not
hear of that, but sent that message to Boston, that for twenty pounds I
should be redeemed. It was a Praying Indian that wrote their letter
for them. There was another Praying Indian, who told me, that he had
a brother, that would not eat horse; his conscience was so tender
and scrupulous (though as large as hell, for the destruction of poor
Christians). Then he said, he read that Scripture to him, "There was a
famine in Samaria, and behold they besieged it, until an ass's head was
sold for four-score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of
dove's dung for five pieces of silver" (2 Kings 6.25). He expounded this
place to his brother, and showed him that it was lawful to eat that in a
famine which is not at another time. And now, says he, he will eat horse
with any Indian of them all. There was another Praying Indian, who when
he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own father into
the English hands, thereby to purchase his own life. Another Praying
Indian was at Sudbury fight, though, as he deserved, he was afterward
hanged for it. There was another Praying Indian, so wicked and cruel,
as to wear a string about his neck, strung with Christians' fingers.
Another Praying Indian, when they went to Sudbury fight, went with them,
and his squaw also with him, with her papoose at her back. Before they
went to that fight they got a company together to pow-wow. The manner
was as followeth: there was one that kneeled upon a deerskin, with the
company round him in a ring who kneeled, and striking upon the ground
with their hands, and with sticks, and muttering or humming with their
mouths. Besides him who kneeled in the ring, there also stood one with
a gun in his hand. Then he on the deerskin made a speech, and all
manifested assent to it; and so they did many times together. Then they
bade him with the gun go out of the ring, which he did. But when he was
out, they called him in again; but he seemed to make a stand; then they
called the more earnestly, till he returned again. Then they all sang.
Then they gave him two guns, in either hand one. And so he on the
deerskin began again; and at the end of every sentence in his speaking,
they all assented, humming or muttering with their mouths, and striking
upon the ground with their hands. Then they bade him with the two guns
go out of the ring again; which he did, a little way. Then they called
him in again, but he made a stand. So they called him with greater
earnestness; but he stood reeling and wavering as if he knew not whither
he should stand or fall, or which way to go. Then they called him with
exceeding great vehemency, all of them, one and another. After a little
while he turned in, staggering as he went, with his arms stretched out,
in either hand a gun. As soon as he came in they all sang and rejoiced
exceedingly a while. And then he upon the deerskin, made another speech
unto which they all assented in a rejoicing manner. And so they ended
their business, and forthwith went to Sudbury fight. To my thinking they
went without any scruple, but that they should prosper, and gain the
victory. And they went out not so rejoicing, but they came home with as
great a victory. For they said they had killed two captains and almost
an hundred men. One Englishman they brought along with them: and he
said, it was too true, for they had made sad work at Sudbury, as indeed
it proved. Yet they came home without that rejoicing and triumphing over
their victory which they were wont to show at other times; but rather
like dogs (as they say) which have lost their ears. Yet I could not
perceive that it was for their own loss of men. They said they had not
lost above five or six; and I missed none, except in one wigwam. When
they went, they acted as if the devil had told them that they should
gain the victory; and now they acted as if the devil had told them they
should have a fall. Whither it were so or no, I cannot tell, but so it
proved, for quickly they began to fall, and so held on that summer, till
they came to utter ruin. They came home on a Sabbath day, and the Powaw
that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as
black as the devil. When my master came home, he came to me and bid me
make a shirt for his papoose, of a holland-laced pillowbere. About that
time there came an Indian to me and bid me come to his wigwam at night,
and he would give me some pork and ground nuts. Which I did, and as I
was eating, another Indian said to me, he seems to be your good friend,
but he killed two Englishmen at Sudbury, and there lie their clothes
behind you: I looked behind me, and there I saw bloody clothes, with
bullet-holes in them. Yet the Lord suffered not this wretch to do me
any hurt. Yea, instead of that, he many times refreshed me; five or six
times did he and his squaw refresh my feeble carcass. If I went to their
wigwam at any time, they would always give me something, and yet they
were strangers that I never saw before. Another squaw gave me a piece of
fresh pork, and a little salt with it, and lent me her pan to fry it in;
and I cannot but remember what a sweet, pleasant and delightful relish
that bit had to me, to this day. So little do we prize common mercies
when we have them to the full.