PECKSUOT'S KNIFE.
The next morning as the village sat at breakfast, two men at half an
hour's interval passed hastily down the forest trail, and entering the
town sought the governor's house.
The first was Wassapinewat, brother of Obtakiest, chief of the
Neponsets, who, having suffered both wounds and terror in Corbitant's
attempted rebellion, now hastened to turn State's evidence, and while
warning the white men of his brother's intended attack wash his hands of
any share in it.
The other visitor was a long lank Caucasian, Phineas Pratt by name,
carpenter by trade, Weymouth settler by position. This man half dead
with suffering of various sorts, footsore and weary, came stumbling down
the King's Highway just as Bradford came out of his own door followed by
Wassapinewat, at sight of whom Phineas started and trembled, then
pointing a finger at him shrieked,--
"Have a care, Governor! 'T is one of the bloody salvages sworn to take
all our lives!"
"Nay, friend Pratt, for I remember thee well, 't is a penitent robber
now, come to warn us of danger. Methinks thine errand may be the same.
Come in, and after due refreshment tell us the truth of this matter."
But weary as he was, the excited fugitive would pause for neither rest
nor refreshment until he had poured out his story of the wrongs, the
insults, the threats with which the Neponsets had harassed the Weymouth
men in their weakness, in part revenging the foul wrongs they while
strong had put upon the savages, until in an Indian council of the day
before, it had been formally resolved to wait only for two days' more
work upon the boats which Phineas and another were finishing, and then
to inaugurate the massacre.
Both Pratt and Wassapinewat had by different channels learned the result
of this council, and each had resolved to not only save himself from the
explosion of this mine, but to warn the Plymouth colonists of their
danger, and each had set out by a slightly different route from the
other and made the journey in ignorance of the other's movements.
It was afterward discovered, however, that Pratt's flight was at once
discovered, and an Indian dispatched to overtake and kill him, a
catastrophe averted by the carpenter's straying from the path in the
darkness, so that his pursuer reached Plymouth, and went on to Manomet
before the village was astir.
These two confirmatory reports were very welcome to Bradford, upon whom
the nominal responsibility of the expedition rested, and to the elder
whose reverend face was very pale and grave in these days.
Standish, however, as he had felt no doubts, now felt no added impulse,
but went quietly on, seeing his command and his stores embarked, and
examining personally the arms of his eight soldiers.
At last all was ready, the men seated each at his post, Hobomok in the
bow, and Standish at the stern, the men and boys who stayed behind
grouped upon the shore, while a vague cloud of skirts and kirtles
hovered upon the brow of Cole's Hill, when Elder Brewster, baring his
white head, stepped upon the Rock, and raising his hands to heaven
prayed loud and fervently that the God of battles, the God of victory,
the God of their fathers, would bless, protect, and prosper those who
went forth in His name to do battle for His Right; and as the old man's
voice rose clear and sonorous in its impassioned appeal, the first
breath of a favoring wind came out of the South, and the lapping waves
of the incoming tide answered melodiously to the deep diapason of the
Amen sent up from fifty bearded throats.
"And now we may go home and make our mourning weeds," said Priscilla
with a petulant half-sob, half-laugh, as she and Mary Chilton turned
away from the wheatfield on the hill.
"Nay, John Alden will come home safe, I'm sure on 't," said Mary gently,
but her vivacious friend turned sharply upon her.
"And if he comes not at all, I'd liefer know him dead in honor, than
lingering here among the women like some others."
"Gilbert Winslow, or his brother John if you mean him, would have gone
as gladly as any man had the captain chosen him," replied Mary
composedly, if coldly, and Priscilla turned and clipped her in a sharp
embrace, crying out that indeed her friend were no more than right to
beat her for a froward child.
The prosperous wind lasted all the way, and before noon the shallop lay
at anchor close beside the Swan, a small craft owned by the Weymouth
men, and intended for their use in trading and fishing. Standish's
first visit was to her, and much to his surprise he found her both
undefended and deserted. Landing with four of his men he next proceeded
to the plantation, as it was called, where some ten or twelve
substantial buildings surrounded with a stockade established a very
defensible position, but here again neglect and suicidal folly stared
him in the face.
The settlers were dispersed in every direction: three had that very
morning gone to live among the Indians; many were roaming the woods and
shore in search of food; one poor fellow going to dig clams on the
previous day had stuck fast in the mud by reason of weakness, and though
the Indians stood upon the shore watching him with shouts of derisive
laughter, not one put out a hand to help him, and he perished miserably
at the flow of the tide.
The master of the Swan, stricken with the folly of strong drink, met all
Standish's expostulations with a fatuous laugh, and the declaration that
there was no danger,--no danger whatever; that he and the Indians were
such friends that he carried no arms, and never closed the gates of the
stockade; that all the stories reaching Plymouth were lies or blunders;
and that although they were short of provisions, and especially of
strong waters, they asked nothing more of the Plymouth people than some
fresh supplies to last until Sanders, the head of the colony, should
return from Monhegan on the coast of Maine, whither he had gone for
corn.
Leaving the drunken captain in disgust, Standish at once took the
command of the post upon himself, and dispatched Hobomok and two of the
settlers who came to place themselves under his orders, to bring in all
of the others whom they could reach, sending word that he would feed
them. Many of them, including Sanders' lieutenant named Manning, came at
the summons, and before night all who would were safe within the
stockade, and were served each man with a pint of shelled corn, all that
could be spared, for it was taken from the Pilgrims' stock of seed-corn.
Then in a brief and vigorous address Standish told the colonists why he
had come, and repeated to them the assurance given him by Hobomok that
the day but one after his arrival was the day fixed upon for the
massacre, the boats needing but the one day's work to complete them.
Furthermore, he assured them that he needed nor would accept any help
from them in his punishment of the savages, the danger and the
responsibility being no more than Plymouth could endure, and, as he
significantly added, "The savages were not like to flee before men who
had so often fled before them."
Hardly was the harangue ended when a Neponset bringing a few hastily
collected furs entered the stockade, and warily approaching the captain
offered them for sale. Standish controlling all appearance of
indignation parleyed with him and paid a fair price for the furs, but as
the Indian turned toward one of the houses, he called him back, and
dismissed him somewhat peremptorily.
"To spy out the land hath he come," remarked he to Alden. "And I will
not have him glean our purpose." But the savage had already learned
something, and went back to his comrades to report that
The-Sword-of-the-White-Men "spoke smoothly, but his eyes showed that
there was anger in his heart."
The second morning so soon as the gates were opened several Indians
entered together. One of them named Pecksuot, a pniese of great
celebrity, greeted Hobomok jeeringly, and told him that he supposed his
master had come to kill all the Neponsets including himself, and
added,--
"Tell him to begin if he dare; we are not afraid of him, nor shall we
run away and hide. Let him begin unless he is afraid. Is he afraid?"
Hobomok repeated the message word for word, but Standish only replied,--
"Tell the pniese I would speak with his sachem, Obtakiest."
"Obtakiest is busy, or he is feasting, or he is sleeping," replied
Pecksuot disdainfully. "He does not trouble himself to run about after
any little fellow who sends for him."
Again Hobomok translated the insult, but added in a low voice,--
"Obtakiest is waiting for some of his braves who are gone to the
Shawmuts for help. When they return he will attack the white men."
"So! Then we will not wait for them, but so soon as we can gather the
heads in one place we will return some of their courtly challenges." And
Standish ground his strong teeth together in the pain of self-restraint
under insult.
Perceiving that he did not mean to act, some of the Indians who had
lingered a little behind at first, now came forward, hopping and dancing
around Standish, whetting their knives upon their palms, making
insulting gestures, and shouting all sorts of jeers and taunts at him
and the white men generally.
Then Wituwamat came forward and in his own tongue cried out,--
"The Captain Sword-of-the-White-Men escaped the knife I carried to
Canacum for him, but he will not escape this." And he showed a dagger
hung around his neck by a deer's sinew, on whose wooden handle a woman's
face was not inartistically carved.
"This is Wituwamat's squaw-knife," declared he. "At home he has another
with a man's face upon it which has already killed both French and
English; by and by they will marry, and there shall be a knife ready for
every white man's heart; they can see, they can eat, and they make no
childish noise like the white man's weapons. But the squaw knife is
enough for the white pniese."
"Hm! Methinks I cannot much longer keep Gideon in his scabbard--he will
fly out of his own accord," muttered Standish, a deadly pallor showing
beneath the bronze of his skin. Pecksuot saw it, and mistook it for the
hue of fear. With a savage smile he approached and stood close beside
the Captain, towering above his head, for he was a giant in stature and
strength.
"The Sword-of-the-White-Men may be a great pniese, but he is a very
little man," said he contemptuously. "Now I am a pniese as well as he,
and I am besides a very big man, and a very brave warrior. The Sword had
better run away before I devour him."
Without reply Standish turned and walked into the principal house of the
village, and looked around the large lower room.
"It will do as well as another place," said he briefly. "Alden and
Howland remove me this great table to the side of the room, and pitch
out this settle and the stools. Now John Alden get you gone and send me
Hopkins and Billington. Tarry you with Cooke and Browne at the gate;
bid Soule and Eaton stand on guard, and if they hear me cry Rescue! make
in to my help. Let no more of the salvages into the stockade until we
have settled with these. Hobomok, tell Pecksuot, Kamuso, whom I saw
behind the rest, Wituwamat, and that notorious ruffian his brother, that
I fain would speak with them in this place."
"Four to four," remarked Billington with grewsome relish.
"Ay. Take you Wituwamat; Hopkins, I leave you to deal with Kamuso;
Howland, take the young fellow, and I will deal with Pecksuot, for in
truth he is a bigger man than I, but we will see if he is a better."
What story Hobomok may have invented to bring the four ringleaders into
the house we know not, but as five white men remained outside with at
least an equal number of Indians, they could not fear being overmatched,
and presently came stalking impudently in, exchanging jeers and laughter
of the most irritating nature.
Hobomok followed, and closing the door stood with his back against it,
calmly observing the scene, but taking no part in it.
Then at last the captain loosed the reins of the fiery spirit struggling
and chafing beneath the curb so long, and fixing his eyes red with the
blaze of anger upon Pecksuot, he cried,--
"On guard, O Pecksuot!" and sprang upon him, seizing the squaw-knife,
which was sharpened at the back as well as at the front, and ground at
the tip to a needle point. With a coarse laugh Pecksuot snatched at the
captain's throat with his left hand, while his right closed like iron
over the captain's grasp of the hilt and tried to turn it against him.
But the rebound from his forced inaction had strung the soldier's
muscles like steel and thrilled along his nerves like fire. A roar like
that of a lion broke from his panting chest, and with one mighty effort
he wrung the knife from the grasp of the giant, and turning its point
drove it deep into the heart of the boaster. A wild cry of death and
defeat rung through the room as he fell headlong, and Wituwamat turning
his head to look, gave Billington his chance and received his own mortal
wound; while Kamuso fighting with the silent courage of a great warrior
only succumbed at last beneath a dozen wounds from Hopkins's short
sword, and Howland having disarmed and wounded his opponent presented
him as prisoner under Standish's orders.
"Should'st have slain him in the heat of the onset, Howland," panted the
captain, wiping his hands and looking around him. "Now--take him out,
Billington, and hang him to the tree in the middle of the parade. We
shall leave him there as an example for the others. Open the door,
Hobomok."
Hobomok did as he was bid, but then advancing with slow step to the side
of the fallen Pecksuot he placed a foot upon his chest and softly
said,--
"Yes, my brother, thou wast a very big man, but I have seen a little man
bring thee low."
It was the giant's funeral elegy.
"I have notched my sword on yon villain's skull," exclaimed Hopkins
wiping and examining his blade, and the Captain smiling shrewdly said,--
"I risked not Gideon in such ignoble warfare, though he clattered in his
scabbord. Savage weapons for savage hearts, say I."
"Ha! There's fighting without!" cried Hopkins, rushing to the door,
where in effect Soule and Browne had shot down two stout savages, who
hearing Pecksuot's death cry had tried to avenge him; while another
rushing upon Alden with uplifted knife was caught in mid career by a
bullet from the captain's snaphance snatched up at Hopkins's warning.
So fell seven of the savages, who would if they could have barbarously
murdered seventy white men, women, and children, and thus did the
Captain of the Pilgrim forces teach the red men a lesson that lasted in
vivid force until the men of that generation had given way to those of
poor weak Sachem Philip's day.
That night one of the three colonists who had gone to live among the
Indians returned to the village bringing news that in the evening a
runner had arrived at the place where he was, and had delivered a "short
and sad" message to his hosts, probably the news of Pecksuot's and
Wituwamat's death. The Indians had begun at once to collect and arm, and
he foreboding evil had slunk away after vainly trying to persuade his
comrades to do the same.
"They will be slain out of revenge," declared Hobomok in his own tongue,
and the event proved him a true prophet.
In the early gray of morning the watch reported a file of Indians
emerging from the forest, and Standish with four of his own men, and two
settlers who implored permission to join him, went to meet them. A bushy
hillock lay midway between the two parties, and the Indians were making
for its shelter, when the Pilgrims breaking into a double run
forestalled them, and reached the summit where, as Standish declared, he
was ready to welcome the whole Neponset tribe.
The Indians at once fell behind each man his tree, and a flight of
arrows aimed chiefly at Standish and Hobomok ensued.
"Let no man shoot until he hath a fair mark," ordered the Captain.
"'T is useless to waste ammunition upon tree-trunks."
"Both their pnieses are dead, and Obtakiest himself is none!" suddenly
declared Hobomok. "I alone can drive them!" and throwing off his coat,
leaving his chest with its gleaming "totem" bare, he extended wide his
arms and rushed down the hill shouting at the top of his voice,--
"Hobomok the pniese! Hobomok the devil! Hobomok is awake! Hobomok has
come!"
"The fool will be shot! Hath he gone mad!" shouted Billington, but
Hopkins grasped his arm.
"Let be, let be! He knows what he is about. Himself told me that his
name Hobomok answereth to our word Devil, and that while every pniese
through fasting and self-torture gains much power over demons and is
greatly feared by all who are not pnieses, he having taken the foul
fiend's name, had gained double the power of the rest, and could when
put to it summon Sathanas and all his brood to aid him. Those others
know it, and--lo, you now, see them scatter, see them fly!" and with a
loud laugh he pointed to the savage crew, who panic stricken were
fleeing before the pniese like a flock of frightened sheep.
"Have after them! Follow me, men!" shouted Standish rushing down the
hill, the others following as fast as they could, but not fast enough,
for before they came within shot, the party was halted by Hobomok's
return, who half glorious, half laughing, reported the enemy hidden in a
swamp, whither he led his friends.
"We will slay no more if we can help it," declared the captain. "Alden,
show a flag of truce. Haply they will understand it."
But although as Standish drew near the thicket, Alden carrying the white
flag beside him, the savages refrained from firing, his invitation to
parley was received with a volley of abuse and defiance renewed at every
attempt of his to speak.
"Obtakiest is there. I know his voice," declared Hobomok who had crept
up behind. "He will not show himself lest I curse him."
"Obtakiest! Sachem! Art thou there?" demanded Standish. "Come forth then
like a man, and we two will fight it out here in the midst. I challenge
thee, sachem!"
A hoarse laugh and a volley of obscene abuse was the reply, and Standish
indignantly cried,--
"Dost not know how base and cowardly it is to hide there and tongue it
like an angry woman! Thou 'rt not fit to be called a man!"
A shower of arrows was the only response to this, and presently the
movement of the bushes showed that the Indians were retreating to a
deeper fastness, and Standish deeply disgusted marched his own men back
to the village, the only casualty on either side being the broken arm of
the powah or priest, who with Wituwamat and Pecksuot were really the
heart of the conspiracy; for Obtakiest after a while sent a squaw to
Plymouth abjectly begging for peace, and declaring that he had since
Standish's visit changed his camp every night for fear of receiving
another one.
"And now, Master Manning, and you, master of the Swan and friend of the
Neponsets," demanded Standish, as he arrayed the Weymouth men before
him, and declared his success in their quarrel, "what shall I do more
for your comfort or safety before my return to Plymouth? For myself, I
should never fear to remain in this plantation had I the half of your
men, but for yourselves ye must judge. Only I will add that I am charged
by Governor Bradford to say that any who will come to settle in Plymouth
and abide by its laws and governance shall be kindly welcomed."
The settlers debated the matter among themselves for a while, and
although a few and those of the best, decided to accept the invitation
to Plymouth albeit somewhat coldly given, the majority decided to desert
the post where they had suffered so much, and to join some other of
Weston's men at Monhegan. The Pilgrims cheerfully lent their help, and
before night the settlers had loaded all their portable property into
the Swan, Standish had seen the gates of the stockade securely bolted
and barred, and Hobomok with some red paint had traced upon each a
hideous emblem, which he assured the white men would frighten away any
predatory Indian.
Standish only laughed, but Hopkins nodded sagely.
"The rogue is right--I know the symbol, and have seen the terror it
carries," said he; and true it is that whether from superstitious or
from martial terrors, that stockade and the houses it enclosed, and the
body of the savage left swinging from the tree in their midst, were
never molested or apparently visited by the red men again. As the heavy
laden Swan weltered out of the harbor, victualed with all that remained
of Standish's seed corn except a scanty ration apiece to his own men,
the pinnace bore gallantly up for Plymouth, and in due course joyfully
arrived there bringing home all her crew victorious and unscathed.
With them came Wituwamat's head to be set on a pike over the gateway of
the Fort, for these our Fathers were not of our day or thought in such
matters; and these Englishmen did but follow the usage of England, when
so lately as 1747 the heads of the unhappy Pretender's more unhappy
followers defiled the air of London's busiest street.
Standish for one never doubted of the justice of his course either in
the slaying of the colony's avowed enemies, or the exposure of the
ringleader's head; not even when a year or so later Bradford sorrowfully
placed in his hands a letter just received from his revered Pastor
Robinson at Leyden, who in commenting on the death of the Indians
said,--
"Oh how happy a thing it had been had you converted some before you had
killed any. Let me be bold to exhort you seriously to consider of the
disposition of your captain, whom I love;--but there is cause to fear
that by occasion, especially of provocation, there may be wanting in him
that tenderness of the life of man made after God's image, that is
meet."
Standish read the letter, and returning it without a word went out from
his friend's presence, nor did he ever after allude to it, but a blow
had been struck upon that loyal loving heart from which it never in this
life recovered.
Thirty years later as the hero set his house in order, his failing hand
wrote these words,--
"I give 3£. to Mercy Robinson whom I tenderly love for her grandfather's
sake."
And that was his revenge.