THE FOURTH REMOVE
And now I must part with that little
company I had. Here I parted from my daughter Mary (whom I never saw again till
I saw her in Dorchester, returned from captivity), and from four little cousins
and neighbors, some of which I never saw afterward: the Lord only knows the end
of them. Amongst them also was that poor woman before mentioned, who came to a
sad end, as some of the company told me in my travel: she having much grief
upon her spirit about her miserable condition, being so near her time, she
would be often asking the Indians to let her go home; they not being willing to
that, and yet vexed with her importunity, gathered a great company together
about her and stripped her naked, and set her in the midst of them, and when
they had sung and danced about her (in their hellish manner) as long as they
pleased they knocked her on head, and the child in her arms with her. When they
had done that they made a fire and put them both into it, and told the other
children that were with them that if they attempted to go home, they would
serve them in like manner. The children said she did not shed one tear, but
prayed all the while. But to return to my own journey, we traveled about half a
day or little more, and came to a desolate place in the wilderness, where there
were no wigwams or inhabitants before; we came about the middle of the
afternoon to this place, cold and wet, and snowy, and hungry, and weary, and no
refreshing for man but the cold ground to sit on, and our poor Indian cheer.
Heart-aching thoughts here I had about my
poor children, who were scattered up and down among the wild beasts of the
forest. My head was light and dizzy (either through hunger or hard lodging, or
trouble or all together), my knees feeble, my body raw by sitting double night
and day, that I cannot express to man the affliction that lay upon my spirit,
but the Lord helped me at that time to express it to Himself. I opened my Bible
to read, and the Lord brought that precious Scripture to me. "Thus saith
the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy
work shall be rewarded, and they shall come again from the land of the
enemy" (Jeremiah 31.16). This was a sweet cordial to me when I was ready
to faint; many and many a time have I sat down and wept sweetly over this
Scripture. At this place we continued about four days.
THE FIFTH REMOVE
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).
