Excerpts From Lion Gardiner's Journal

 

Found on the Internet at   
http://www.newsday.com/history/vault/hs307a1v.htm

	'In the year 1635, I, Lion Gardener, Engineer and Master of works
 of Fortification in the legers of the Prince of Orange, in the Low
 Countries, through the persuasion of Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Hugh
 Peters with some other well-affected Englishmen of Rotterdam, I made an
 agreement with the forenamed Mr. Peters for L-100 per annum, for four
 years, to serve the company of patentees, namely, the Lord Say, the
 Lord Brooks [Brook,] Sir Arthur Hazilrig, Sir Mathew Bonnington
 [Bonighton?], Sir Richard Saltingstone [Saltonstall], Esquire Fenwick,
 and the rest of their company, [I say] I was to serve them only in the
 drawing, ordering and making of a city, towns or forts  of defence. 

	And so I came from Holland to London, and from thence to  New-
 England, where I was appointed to attend such orders as Mr. John 
 Winthrop, Esquire, the present Governor of Conectecott, was to 
 appoint, whether at Pequit [Pequot] river, Or Conectecott, and that  we
 should choose a place both for the convenience of a good harbour,  and
 also for capableness and fitness for fortification. But I  landing at
 Boston the latter end of November, the aforesaid Mr.  Winthrop had sent
 before one Lieut. Gibbons, Sergeant Willard, with  some carpenters, to
 take possession of the River's mouth, where they  began to build houses
 against the Spring.

	We were expecting, according to  promise, that there would have
 come from England to us 300 able men,  whereof 200 should attend
 fortification, 50 to till the ground, and  50 to build houses. But our
 great excpectation at the River's mouth,  came only to two men, viz.
 Mr. Fenwick, and his man, who came with  Mr. Hugh Peters, and Mr.
 Oldham and Thomas Stanton, bringing with  them some Otter-skin coats,
 and Beaver, and skeins of wampum, which  the Pequits [Pequots] had sent
 for a present.  This was becaue the English had  required those Pequits
 [Pequots] that had killed a Virginean  [Virginian], one Capt. Stone,
 with his Bark's crew, in Conectecott  River, for they said they would
 have their lives and not their  presents. Then I answered, "Seeing you
 will takie Mr. Winthrop to the  Bay to see his wife, newly brought to
 bed of her first child, and  though you say he shall return, yet I know
 if you make war with  these Pequits, he will not come hither again, for
 I know you will  keep yourselves safe, as you think, in the Bay, but
 myself, with  these few, you will leave at the stake to be roasted, or
 for hunger  to be starved, for Indian corn is now 12s. per bushel, and
 we have  but three acres planted, and if they will now make war for a 
 Virginian and expose us to the Indians, whose mercies are cruelties". 
 "They", I say, "love the Virginians better than us: for, have they 
 stayed these four or five years, and will they begin now, we being  so
 few in the River, and have scarce holes to put our heads in?" 

	I  pray ask the Magistrates in the Bay if they have forgot what I
 said  to them when I returned from Salem? For Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Haines, 
 Mr. Dudley, Mr. Ludlow, Mr. Humfry, Mr. Belingam [Bellingham], Mr. 
 Coddington, and Mr. Nowell; _ these entreated me to go with Mr.  Humfry
 and Mr. Peters to view the country, to see how fit it was for 
 fortification. And I told them that Nature had done more than half  the
 work already, and I thought no foreign potent enemy would do  them any
 hurt, but one that was near. They asked me who that was,  and I said it
 was Capt. Hunger that threatened them most, for, (said  I,) War is like
 a three-footed Stool, want one foot and down comes  all; and these
 three feet are men, victuals, and munition.  Therefore, seeing in peace
 you are like to be famished, what will or  can be done if war?
 Therefore I think, said I, it will be best only  to fight against Capt.
 Hunger, and let fortification alone awhile;  and if need hereafter
 require it, I can come to do you any service. They all liked my saying
 well. Entreat them to rest awhile, till  we get more strength here
 about us, and that we hear where the seat  of the war will be, may
 approve of it, and provide for it.

	 I had  but twenty-four in all, men, women, and boys and girls,
 and not food  for them for two months, unless we saved our corn-field,
 which could  not possibly be if they came to war, for it is two miles
 from our  home. Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Fenwick, and Mr. Peters promised me
 that  they would do their utmost endeavour to persuade the Bay-men to 
 desist from war a year or two, till we could be better provided for 
 it; and then the Pequit Sachem was sent for, and the present  returned,
 but full sore against my will. 

	So they three returned to  Boston, and two or three days after
 came an Indian from Pequit,  whose name was Cocommithus, who had lived
 at Plimoth, and could speak  good English. He desired that Mr. Steven
 [Stephen] Winthrop would go  to Pequit with an 100 worth of trucking
 cloth and all other trading  ware, for they knew that we had a great
 cargo of goods of Mr.  Pincheon's, and Mr. Steven Winthrop had the
 disposing of it. And he  said that if he would come he might put off
 all his goods, and the  Pequit Sachem would give him two horses that
 had been there a great  while. 

	So I sent the Shallop, with Mr. Steven Winthrop, Sergeant  Tille
 [Tilly], (whom we called afterward Sergeant Kettle, because he  put the
 kettle on his head,) and Thomas Hurlbut and three men more,  charging
 them that they should ride in the middle of the river, and  not go
 ashore until they had done all their trade, and that Mr.  Steven
 Winthrop should stand in the hold of the boat, having their  guns by
 them, and swords by their sides, the other four to be, two  in the fore
 cuddie, and two in the aft, being armed in like manner,  that so they
 out of the loop-holes might clear the boat.  If they  were by the
 Pequits assaulted; and that they should let but one  canoe come aboard
 at once, with no more but four Indians in her, and  when she had traded
 then another. They should lie no longer  there than one day, and at
 night to go out of the river; and if they  brought the two horses, to
 take them in at a clear piece of land at  the mouth of the River, two
 of them go ashore to help the horses in. The rest should stand ready
 with their guns in their hands, if need  were, to defend them from the
 Pequits, for I durst not trust them.  

	So they went and found but little trade, and they having forgotten 
 what I charged them, Thomas Hurlbut and one more went ashore to boil 
 the kettle, and Thomas Hurlbut stepping into the Sachem's wigwam,  not
 far from the shore, enquiring for the horses. The Indians went  out of
 the wigwam, and Wincumbone, his mother's sister, was then the  great
 Pequit Sachem's wife, who made signs to him that he should be  gone,
 for they would cut off his head. Which, when he perceived, he  drew his
 sword and ran to the others, and got aboard.  Immediately came
 abundance of Indians to the water-side and called  them to come ashore,
 but they immediately set sail and came home,  and this caused me to
 keep watch and ward, for I saw they plotted  our destruction. 

	And suddenly after came Capt. Endecott, Capt.  Turner, and Capt.
 Undrill [Underhill], with a company of soldiers,  well fitted, to
 Seabrook, and made that place their rendezvous or  seat of war.  That
 to my great grief, for, said I, you come  hither to raise these wasps
 about my ears, and then you will take  wing and flee away. But when I
 had seen their commission I wondered,  and made many allegations
 against the manner of it. But go they did  to Pequit, and as they came
 without acquainting any of us in the  River with it, so they went
 against our will, for I knew that I  should lose our corn-field. 

	Then I entreated them to hear what I  would say to them, which was
 this: Sirs, Seeing you will go, I pray  you, if you don't load your
 Barks with Pequits, load them with corn,  for that is now gathered with
 them, and dry, ready to put into their  barns. Both you and we have
 need of it, and I will send my  shallop and hire this Dutchman's boat,
 there present, to go with  you, and if you cannot attain your end of
 the Pequits, yet you may  load your barks with corn, which will be
 welcome to Boston and to  me. But they said they had no bags to load
 them with. Then said I,  here is three dozen of new bags, you shall
 have thirty of them, and  my shallop to carry them, and six of them my
 men shall use  themselves, for I will with the Dutchmen send twelve men
 well  provided. I desired them to divide the men into three parts, 
 viz. two parts to stand without the corn, and to defend the other  one
 third part, that carried the corn to the water-side, till they  have
 loaded what they can. And the men there in arms, when the rest  are
 aboard, shall in order to aboard, the rest that are aboard shall  with
 their arms clear the shore, if the Pequits do assault them in  the
 rear, and then, when the General shall display his colours, all  to set
 sail together. To this motion they all agreed, and I put the  three
 dozen of bags aboard my shallop, and away they went.

	They  demanded the Pequit Sachem to come into parley. But it was
 returned  for answer, that he was from home, but within three hours he
 would  come. And so from three to six, and thence to nine, there came
 none.  But the Indians came without arms to our men, in great numbers,
 and  they talked with my men, whom they knew. But in the end, at a word 
 given, they all on a sudden ran away from our men, as they stood in 
 rank and file, and not an Indian more was to be seen. All this  while
 before, they carried all their stuff away, and thus was that  great
 parley ended. Then they displayed their colours, and beat  their drums,
 burnt some wigwams and some heaps of corn. My men  carried as much
 aboard as they could, but the army went aboard,  leaving my men ashore,
 which ought to have marched aboard first. But  they all set sail, and
 my men were pursued by the Indians, and they  hurt some of the Indians,
 and two of them came home wounded. The  Bay-men killed not a man, save
 that one Kichomiquim [Cutshamequin],  an Indian Sachem of the Bay,
 killed a Pequit. 

	And thus began the war  between the Indians and us in these parts.
 So my men being come  home, and having brought a pretty quantity of
 corn with them, they  informed me (both Dutch and English) of all
 passages. I was glad of  the corn. After this I immediately took men
 and went to our  corn-field, to gather our corn, appointing others to
 come about with  the shallop and fetch it, and left five lusty men in
 the  strong-house, with long guns, which house I had built for the 
 defence of the corn. Now these men not regarding the charge I had 
 given them, three of them went a mile from the house a fowling; and 
 having loaded themselves with fowl they returned. But the Pequits  let
 them pass first, till they had loaded themselves, but at their  return
 they arose out of their ambush, and shot them all three; one  of them
 escaped through the corn, shot through the leg, the other  two they
 tormented. 

	Then the next day I sent the shallop to fetch  the five men, and
 the rest of the corn that was broken down, and  they found but three,
 as is above said, and when they had gotten  that they left the rest;
 and as soon as they were gone a little way  from shore, they saw the
 house on fire. Now so soon as the boat came  home, and brought us this
 bad news, old Mr. Michell was very urgent  with me to lend him the boat
 to fetch hay home from the Six-mile  Island, but I told him they were
 too few men. His four men could  but carry the hay aboard, and one must
 stand in the boat to defend  them, and they must have two more at the
 foot of the Rock, with  their guns, to keep the Indians from running
 down upon them. And in  the first place, before they carry any of the
 cocks of hay, to scour  the meadow with their there dogs, -- to march
 all breast from the  lower end up to the Rock. If  they found the
 meadow clear, then  to load their hay. 

	But this was also neglected, for they all went  ashore and fell to
 carrying off their hay, and the Indians presently  rose out of the long
 grass, and killed three, and took the brother  of Mr. Michell, who is
 the minister of Cambridge, and roasted him  alive. And so they served a
 shallop of his, coming down the river in  the Spring, having two men,
 one whereof they killed at Six-mile  Island, the other came down
 drowned to us ashore at our doors, with  an arrow shot into his eye
 through his head.   

	In the 22d of February, I went out with ten men, and three dogs, 
 half a mile from the house, to burn the weeds, leaves and reeds, upon 
 the neck of land, because we had felled twenty timber-trees, which  we
 were to roll to the water-side to bring home. Every man was carrying  a
 length of match with brimstone-matches with him to kindle the fire 
 withal. But when we came to the small of the Neck, the weeds  burning,
 I having before this set two sentinels on the small of the  Neck. I
 called to the men that were burning the reeds to come away,  but they
 would not until they had burnt up the rest of their  matches. Presently
 there starts up four Indians out of the fiery  reeds, but ran away, I
 calling to the rest of our men to come away  out of the marsh. Then
 Robert Chapman and Thomas Hurlbut, being  sentinels, called to me,
 saying there came a number of Indians out  of the other side of the
 marsh. Then I went to stop them, that they  should not get the
 woodland; but Thomas Hurlbut cried out to me that  some of the men did
 not follow me.  Thomas Rumble and Arthur  Branch, threw down their two
 guns and ran away. Then the Indians  shot two of them that were in the
 reeds, and sought to get between us  and home. They durst not come
 before us, but kept us in a half-moon,  we retreating and exchanging
 many a shot, so that Thomas Hurlbut was  shot almost through the thigh,
 John Spencer in the back, into his  kidneys, myself in the thigh, two
 more were shot dead. But in our  retreat I kept Hurlbut and Spencer
 still before us, we defending  ourselves with our naked swords, or else
 they had taken us all  alive. So that the two sore wounded men, by our
 slow retreat, got  home with their guns, when our two sound men ran
 away and left their  guns behind them. But when I saw the cowards that
 left us, I  resolved to let them draw lots which of them should be
 hanged, for  the articles did hang up in the hall for them to read, and
 they knew  they had been published long before. But at the intercession
 of old  Mr. Michell, Mr. Higgisson [Higginson], and Mr. Pell, I did
 forbear.  

	Within a few days after, when I had cured myself of my wound, I
 went  out with eight men to get some fowl for our relief, and found the 
 guns that were thrown away, and the body of one man shot through, the 
 arrow going in at the right side, the head sticking fast, half  through
 a rib on the left side, which I took out and cleansed I presumed to
 send to the Bay, because they had said that the  arrows of the Indians
 were of no force.   

	Anthony Dike, master of a bark, having his bark at Rhode-Island in 
 the winter, was sent by Mr. Vane, then Governor. Anthony came to  Rhode
 Island by land, and from thence he came with his bark to me  with a
 letter, wherein was desired that I should consider and  prescribe the
 best way I could to quell these Pequits, which I also  did, and with my
 letter sent the man's rib as a token. 

	A few days  after, came Thomas Stanton down the River, and staying
 for a wind,  while he was there came a troop of Indians within musket
 shot,  laying themselves and their arms down behind a little rising
 hill  and two great trees; which I perceiving, called the carpenter
 whom I  had shewed how to charge and level a gun, and that he should
 put two  cartridges of musket bullets into two sakers guns that lay
 about;  and we levelled them against the place, and I told him that he
 must  look towards me, and when he saw me wave my hat above my head he 
 should give fire to both the guns; then presently came three  Indians,
 creeping out and calling to us to speak with us: and I was  glad that
 Thomas Stanton was there, and I sent six men down by the  Garden Pales
 to look at none should come under the hill behind us;  and having
 placed the rest in places convenient closely, Thomas and  I with my
 sword, pistol and carbine, went ten or twelve pole without  the gate to
 parley with them. And when the six men came to the  Garden Pales, at
 the corner, they found a great number of Indians  creeping behind the
 Fort, or betwixt us and home, but they ran away.  Now I had said to
 Thomas Stanton, Whatsoever they say to you, tell  me first, for we will
 not answer them directly to any thing, for we  will not answer them
 directly to any thing, for I know not the mind  of the rest of the
 English. So they came forth, calling us nearer to  them, and we them
 nearer to us. But I would not let Thomas go any  further than the great
 stump of a tree, and I stood by him; then  they asked who we were, and
 he answered, Thoms and Lieutenant. But  they said he lied, for I was
 shot with many arrows; and so I was,  but my buff coat preserved me,
 only one hurt me. But when I spake to  them they knew my voice, for one
 of them had dwelt three months with  us, but ran away when the Bay-men
 came first. Then they asked us if  we would fight with Niantecut
 Indians, for they were our friends and  came to trade with us. We said
 we knew not the Indians one from  another, and therefore would trade
 with none. Then they said, Have  you fought enough? We said we knew not
 yet. Then they asked if we  did use to kill women and children? We said
 they shold see that  hereafter. So they were silent a small space, and
 then they said, We  are Pequits, and have killed Englishmen, and can
 kill them as  mosquetoes, and we will go to Conectecott and kill men,
 women, and  children, and we will take away the horses, cows and hogs.
 When  Thomas Stanton had told me this, he prayed me to shoot that
 rogue,  for, said he, he hath an Englishman's coat on, and saith that
 he  hath killed three, and these other four have their cloathes on
 their  backs. I said, No, it is to the manner of a parley, but have 
 patience and I shall fit them ere they go. Nay, now or never, said  he;
 so when he could get no other answer but this last, I bid him  tell
 them that they should not go to Conectecott, for if they did  kill all
 the men, and take all the rest as they said, it would do  them no good,
 but hurt, for English women are lazy, and can't do  their work; horses
 and cows will spoil your cornfields, and the hogs  their clam-banks,
 and so undo them: then I pointed to ur great  house, and bid him tell
 them there lay twenty pieces of trucking  cloth, of Mr. Pincheon's,
 with hoes, hatchets, and all manner of  trade, they were better fight
 still with us, and so get all that,  and then go up the river after
 they had killed all us. Having heard  this, they were mad as dogs, and
 ran away; then when they came to  the place from whence they came, I
 waved my hat about my head, and  the two great guns went off, so that
 there was a great hubbub  amongst them. 

	Then two days after, came down Capt. Mason, and  Sergeant Seely,
 with five men more, to see how it was with us; and  whilst they were
 there, came down a Dutch boat, telling us the  Indians had killed
 fourteen English, for by that boat I had sent up  letters to
 Conectecott, what I heard, and what I thought, and how to  prevent that
 threatened danger, and received back again rather a  scoff, than any
 thanks, for my care and pains. But as I wrote, so it  fell out to my
 great grief and theirs, for the next, or second day  after, (as Major
 Mason well knows), came down a great many canoes,  going down the creek
 beyond the marsh, efore the fort, many of them  having white shirts;
 then I commanded the carpenter whom I had  shewed to level great guns,
 to put in two round shot into the two  sackers, and we levelled them at
 a certain place, and I stood to bid  him give fire, when I thought the
 canoe would meet the bullet, and  one of them took off the nose of a
 great canoe wherein the two maids  were, that were taken by the
 Indians, whom I redeemed and clothed,  for the Dutchmen, whom I sent to
 fetch them, brought them away  almost naked from Pequit, they putting
 on their own linen jackets to  cover their nakedness; and though the
 redemption cost me ten pounds,  I am yet to have thanks for my care and
 charge about them: these  things are known to Major Mason.   

	Then came from the Bay Mr. Tille, with a permit to go up to
 Harford  [Hartford], and coming ashore he saw a paper nailed up over
 the  gate, whereon was written that no boat or bark should pass the
 fort,  but that they came to an anchor first, that I might see whethr
 they  were armed and manned sufficiently, and they were not to land any 
 where after they passed the fort till they came to Wethersfield; and 
 this I did because Mr. Michel had lost a shallop before coming down 
 from Wethersfield, with three men well larmed. This Mr. Tille gave  me
 ill language for my presumption, (as he called it,) with other 
 expressions too long here to write. When he had done, I bid him go  to
 his warehouse, which he had built would watch no longer over it.  So
 he, knowing nothing, went and found his house burnt, and one of  Mr.
 Plum's with others, and he told me to my face that I had caused  it to
 e done; but Mr. Higgisson, Mr. Pell, Thomas Hurlbut and John  Green can
 witness that the same day that our house was burnt at  Cornfield-point
 I went with Mr. Higgisson, Mr. Pell, and four men  more, broke open a
 door and took a note of all that was in the house  and gave it to Mr.
 Higgisson to keep, and so brought all the goods  to our house, and
 delivered it all to them again when they came for  it, without any
 penny of charge. Now the very next day after I had  taken the goods
 out, before the sun was quite down, and we all  together in the great
 hall, all them houses were on fire in one  instant. The Indians ran
 away, but I would not follow them. Now when  Mr.tille had received all
 his goods I said unto him, I thought I had  deserved for my honest care
 both for their bodies and goods of those  that passed by here, at the
 least better language, and am resolved  to order such malepert persons
 as you are; therefore I wish you and  also charge you to observe that
 which you have read at the gate,  'tis my duty to God, my masters, and
 my love I bear to you all which  is the ground of this, had you but
 eyes to see it; but you will not  till you feel it. So he went up the
 river, and when he came down  again to his place, which I called
 Tille's folly, now called Tille's  point, in oursight in despite,
 having a fair wind he came to an  anchor, and with one man more went
 ashore, discharged his gun, and  the Indians fell upon him, and killed
 the other, and carried him  alive over the river in our sight, before
 my shallop could come to  them; for immediately I sent seven men to
 fetch the Pink down, or  else it had been takenand three men more. So
 they brought her down,  and I sent Mr. Higgisson and Mr. Pell aboard to
 take an invoiceof  all that was in the vessel, that nothing might be
 lost. 

	Two days  after came to me, as I had written to Sir Henerie Vane,
 then  Governor of the Bay, I say come tome Capt. Undrill [Underhill],
 with  twenty lusty men, well armed, to stay with me two months, or
 'till  something should be done about the Pequits. He came at the
 charge of  my masters. Soon after came down from Harford Maj. Mason,
 Lieut.  Seely, accompanied with Mr. Stone and eighty Englishmen, and
 eighty  Indians, with a commission from Mr. Ludlow and Mr. Steel, and
 some  others; these came to go fight with the Pequits. But when Capt. 
 Undrill [Underhill] and I had seen their commission, we both said  they
 were not fitted for such a design, and we said to Maj. Mason  we
 wondered he wold venture himself, being no better fitted; and he  said
 the Magistrates could not or would not send better; then we said  that
 none of our men should go with them, neighter should they go  unless
 we, that were bred soldiers from our youth, could see some  likelihood
 to do etter than the Bay-men with their strong commission  last year. 

	Then I asked them how they durst trust the Mohegin  [Mohegan]
 Indians, who had but that year come from the Pequits. They  said they
 would trust them, for they could not well go without them  for want of
 guides. Yea, said I, but I will try them before a man of  ours shall go
 with you or them; and I called for Uneas and said unto  him, You say
 you will help Maj. Mason, but I will first see it,  threfore send you
 now twenty men to the Bass river, for there went  yesternight six
 Indians in a canoe thither; fetch them now dead or  alive, and then you
 shall go with Maj. Mason, else not. So he sent  his men who killed
 four, brought one a traitor to us alive, whose  name was Kiswas, and
 one ran away. And I gave him fifteen yards of  trading cloth on my own
 charge, to give unto his men according to  their desert. And having
 staid there five or six days before we  could agree, at last we old
 soldiers agreed aboutthe way and act,  and took twenty insufficient men
 from the eighty that came from  Harford [Hartford] and sent them up
 again in a shallop, and Capt.  Undrill [Underhill] with twenty of the
 lustiest of our men went in  their room, and I furnished them with such
 things as they wanted,  and sent Mr. Pell, the surgeon, with them; and
 the Lord God blessed  their design and way.

	So that they returned with victory to the  glory of God, and
 honour of our nation, having slain three hundred,  burnt their fort,
 and taken many prisoners. Then came to me an  Indian called Wequash,
 and I by Mr. Higgisson inquired of him, how  many of the Pequits were
 yet alive that had helped to kill  Englishmen; and he declared them to
 Mr. Higgisson, and he writ them  down, as may appear by his own hand
 here enclosed, and I did as  therein is written. 

	Then three days after the fight came Waiandance,  next brother to
 the old Sachem of Long Island, and having been  recommended to me by
 Maj. Gibbons, he came to know if we were angry  with all Indians. I
 answered No, but only with such as had killed  Englishmen. He asked me
 whether they that lived upon Long Island  might come to trade with us.
 I said No, nor we with them, for if I  should send my boat to trade for
 corn, and you have Pequits with  you, and if my boat should come into
 some creek by reason of bad  weather, they might kill my men, and I
 shall think that you of Long  Island have done it, and so we may kill
 all you for the Pequits; but  if you will kill all the Pequits that
 come to you, and send me their  heads, then I will give to you as to
 Weakwash [Wequash], and you  shall have trade with us. Then, said he, I
 will go to my brother,  for he is the great Sachem of all Long Island,
 and if we may have  peace and trade with you, we will give you tribute,
 as we did the  Pequits. Then I said, If you have any Indians that have
 killed  English, you must bring their heads also. He answered, not
 anyone,  and said that Gibbons, my brother, would have told youif it
 had een  so; so he went away and did as I had said, and sent me five
 heads,  three and four heads for which I paid them that brought them as
 I  had promised.   

	Then came Capt. Stoten [Stoughton] with an army of 300 men, from
 the  Bay, to kill the Pequits; but they were fled beyond New Haven to a 
 swamp. I sent Wequash after them, who went by night to spy them out, 
 and the army followed him, and found them at the great swamp, who 
 killed some and took others, and the rest fled to the Mowhakues 
 [Mohawks], with their Sachem. Then the Mohawks cut off his head and 
 sent it to Harford, for then they all feared us, but now it is 
 otherwise, for they say to our faces that our Commissioners meeting 
 once a year, and speak a great deal, or write a letter, and there's 
 all, for they dare not fight. But before they went to the Great  Swamp
 they sent Thomas Stanton over to Long Island and Shelter  Island to
 find Peqits there, but there was none, for the Sachem  Waiandance, that
 was at Plimoth when the Commissioners were there,  and set there last,
 I say, he had killed so many of the Pequits, and  sent their heads to
 me, that they durst not come there; and he and  his men went with the
 English to the Swamp, and thus the Pequits were  quelled at that time. 

	But there was like to be a great broil between  Miantenomic
 [Miantunnomoh] and Unchus [Uncas] who should have the  rest of the
 Pequits, but we mediated between them and pacified them.  Also Unchus
 challenged the Narraganset Sachem out to a single  combat, but he would
 not fight without all his men; but they were  pacified, though the old
 grudge remained still, as it doth appear.  

	Thus far I had written in a book, that all men and posterity might 
 know how and why so many honest men had their blood shed, yea, and 
 some flayed alive, others cut in pieces, and some roasted alive,  only
 becuse Kichamokin [Cutshamequin], a Bay Indian, killed one  Pequit; and
 thus far of the Pequit war, which was but a comedy in  comparison of
 the tragedies which hath been here threatened since,  and may yet come,
 if God do not open the eyes, ears, and hearts of  some that I think are
 willfully deaf and blind,and think because  there is no change that the
 vision fails, and put the  evil-threatened day far off, for say they, 

	We are now twenty to one  to what we were then, and none dare
 meddle with us. Oh! woe be to the  pride and security which hath been
 the ruin of many nations, as  would experience has proved.   But I
 wonder, and so doth many more with me, that the Bay doth no  better
 revenge the murdering of Mr. Oldham, an honest man of their  own,
 seeing they were at such cost for a Virginian. The Narragansets  that
 were at Block-Island killed him, and had £50 of gold of his, for I saw
 it when he had five pieces of me, and  put it up into a clout and tied
 it up all togehter, when he went  away from me to Block Island; but the
 Narragansets had it and  punched holes into it, and put it about their
 necks for jewels; and  afterwards I saw the Dutch have some of it,
 which they had of the  Narragansets at a small rate.   

	And now I find that to be true which our friend Waiandance told me 
 many years ago, and that was this: that seeing all the plots of the 
 Narragansets were always discovered, he said they would let us alone 
 'till they had destroyed Uncas, and him, and then they, with the 
 Mowquakes and Mowhakues and the Indians beyong the Dutch, and all  the
 Northern and Eastern Indians, would easily destroy us, man and 
 mother's son. This have I informed the Governors of these parts, but 
 all in vain, for I see they have done as those of Wethersfield, not 
 regarding till they were impelled to it by blood; and thus we may be 
 sure of the fattest of the flock are like to go first, if not 
 altogehter, and then it will be too late to read Jer. xxv. -- for 
 drink we shall if the Lord be not the more merciful to us for our 
 extreme pride and base security, which cannot but stink before the 
 Lord. 

	We may expect this, that if there should be war again  between
 England and Holland, our friends at the Dutch and our Dutch  Englishmen
 would prove as true to us now, as they were when the  fleet came out of
 England; but no more of that, a word to the wise  is enough.   And now
 I am old, I would fain die a natural death or like a soldier  in the
 field, with honor, and not to have a sharp stake set in the  ground,
 and thrust into my fundament, and to have my skin flayed off  by piece
-meal, and cut in pieces and bits, and my flesh roasted and  thrust down
 my throat, as these people have done, and I know will be  done to the
 chiefest in the country by hundreds, if God should  deliver us into
 their hands as justly he may for our sins. 

	I going  over to Meantacut, upon the eastern end of Long Island,
 upon some  occasion that I had there, I found four Narragansets there
 talking  with the Sachem and his old counsellors. I asked an Indian
 what they  were? He said that they were Narragansets, and that one was
 Miannemo  [Miantunnomoh], a Sachem. What came they for? said I. He said
 he  knew not, for they talked secretly; so I departed to another
 wigwam.  Shortly after came the Sachem Waiandance to me and said, Do
 you know  what these came for? No, said I; then he said, They say I
 must give  no more wampum to the English, for they are no Sachems, nor
 none of  their children shall be in their place if they die; and they
 have no  tribute given them; there is but one king in England, whom is
 over  them all, and if you would send him 100,000 fathom of wampum, he 
 sould not give you a knife for it, nor thank you. And I said to  them,
 Then they will come and kill us all, as they did the Pequits;  then
 they said No, the Pequits gave them wampum and beaver, which  they
 loved so well, but they sent it them again, and killed them  because
 they had killed an Englishman; but you have killed none,  therefore
 give them nothing. Now friend, tell me what I shall say to  them, for
 one of them is a great man. Then said I, Tell them that  you must go
 first to the farther end of Long-Island, and speak with  all the rest,
 and a month hence you will give them an answer. Mean  time you may go
 to Mr. Haines, and he will tell you what to do, and  I will write all
 this now in my book that I have here; and so he  did, and the
 Narragansets departed, and this Sachem came to me at my  house, and I
 wrote this matter to Mr. Haines, and he went up with it  to Mr. Haines,
 who forbid him to give any thing to the Narraganset,  and writ to me
 so. -- 

	And when they came again they came by my  Island, and I knew them
 to be the same men; and I told them they  might go home again, and I
 gave them Mr. Haynes his letter for Mr.  Williams to read to the
 Sachem. So they returned back again, for I  had said to them, that if
 they would go to Mantacut I would go  likewise with them, and that
 Long-Island must not give wampum to  Narraganset.   

	A while after this came Miantenomie from Block-Island to Mantacut 
 with a troop of men, Waiandance being not at home; and instead of 
 receiving presents, which they used to do in their progress, he gave 
 them gifts, calling them brethren and friends, for so are we all 
 Indians as the English are, and say brother to one another; so must  we
 be one as they are, otherwise we shall be all gone shortly, for  you
 know our fathers had plenty of deer and skins, our plains were  full of
 deer, as also our woods, and of turkies, and our coves full  of fish
 and fowl. But these English having gotten our land, they  with seythes
 cut down the grass, and with axes fell the trees; their  cows and
 horses eat the grass, and their hogs spoil our clam banks,  and we
 shall all be starved; therefore it is best for you to do as  we, for we
 are all the Sachems from east to west, both Moquakues and  Mohawks
 joining with us, and we are all resolved to fall upon them  all, at one
 appointed day; and therefore I am come to you privately  first, because
 you can persuade the Indians and Sachem to what you  will, and I will
 send over fifty Indians to Block-Island, and thirty  to you from
 thence, and take an hundred of Southampton Indians with  an hundred of
 your own here; and when you see the three firest that  will be made
 forty days hence, in a clear night, then do as we, and  the next day
 fall on and kill men, women and children, but no cows,  for they will
 serve to eat till our deer be increased again. -- And  our old men
 thought it was well. 

	So the Sachem came home and had but  little talk with them, yet he
 was told there had been a secret  consultation between the old men and
 Miantenomie, but they told him  nothing in three days. So he came over
 to me and acquainted me with  the manner of the Narragansets being
 there with his men, and asked  me what I thought of it; and I told him
 that the Narraganset Sachem  was naught to talk with his men secretly
 in his absence, and I bid  him go home, and told him a way how he might
 know all, and then he  should come and tell me; and so he did, and
 found all out as is  above written, and I sent intelligence of it over
 to Mr. Haynes and  Mr. Eaton; but because my boat was gone from home it
 was fifteen  days before they had any letter, and Miantenomic was
 gotten home  before they had news of it. And the old men, when they saw
 how I and  the Sachem had beguiled them, and that he was come over to
 me, they  sent secretly a canoe over, in a moon-shine night, to
 Narraganset to  tell them all was discovered; so the plot failed,
 blessed be God,  and the plotter, next Spring after, did as Ahab did at
 Ramoth-Gilead  -- So he to Mohegin, and there had his fall.   

	Two years after this, Ninechrat sent over a captain of his, who 
 acted in every point as the former; him the Sachem took and bound  and
 brought him to me, and I wrote the same to Governor Eaton, and  sent an
 Indian that was my servant and had lived four years with me;  him, with
 nine more, I sent to carry him to New-Haven, and gave them  food for
 ten days. But the wind hindered them at Plum-Island; then  they were to
 Shelter-Island, where the old Sachem dwelt _  Waiandance's elder
 brother, and in the night they let him go, only  my letter they sent to
 New Haven, and thus these two plots was  discovered; but now my friend
 and brother is gone, who will now do  the like?   

	But if the premises be not sufficient to prove Waiandance a true 
 friend to the English, for some may say he did all this out of  malice
 to the Pequits and Narragansets; now I shall prove the like  with
 respect to the Long-Islanders, his own men. For I being at  Meantacut,
 it happened that for an old grudge of a Pequit, who was  put to death
 at Southampton, being known to be a murderer, and for  this his friends
 bear a spite against the English. 

	So as it came to  pass at that day I was at Mantacut, a good
 honest woman was killed  by them at Southampton, but it was not known
 then who did this  murder. And the brother of this Sachem was Shinacock
 Sachem could or  would not find it out. At that time Mr. Gosmore and
 Mr. Howell,  being magistrates, sent an Indian to fetch the Sachem
 thither; and  it being in the night, I was laid down when he came, and
 being a  great cry amongst them, upon which all the men gathered
 together,  and the story being told, all of them said the Sachem should
 not go,  for, said they, they will either bind you or kill you, and
 then us,  both men, women and children; therefore let your brother find
 it  out, or let them kill you and us, we will live and die together. So 
 there was a great silence for a while, and then the Sachem said, No 
 you have all done I will hear what my friend will say, for [he]  knows
 what they will do. So they wakened me as they thought, but I  was not
 asleep, and told me the story, but I made strange of the  matter, and
 said, If the magistrates have sent for you why do you  not go? They
 will bind me or kill me, saith he. I think so, said I,  if you have
 killed the woman, or known of it, and did not reveal it;  but you were
 here and did it not. But was any of your Mantauket  Indians there to
-day? They all answered, Not a man these two days,  for we have inquired
 concerning that already. Then said I, Did none  of you ever hear any
 Indian say he would kill English? _ No, said  they all; then I said, I
 shall not go home 'till tomorrow, though I  thought to have been gone
 so soon as the moon was up, but I will  stay here till you all know it
 is well with your Sachem; if they  bind him, bind me, and if they kill
 him, kill me. But then you must  find out him that did the murder, and
 all that know of it, them  they will have an no more. Then they with a
 great cry thanked me,  and I wrote a small note with the Sachem, that
 they should not stay  him long in their houses, but let him eat and
 drink and be gone, for  he had his way before him. So they did, and
 that night he found out  four that were consenters to it, and knew of
 it, and brought them to  them at Southampton, and they were all hanged
 at Harford, whereof  one of these was a great man among them, commonly
 called the Blue  Sachem.   

	A further instance of his faithfulness is this; about the Pequit
 war  time was William Hamman [Hammond], of the Bay, killed by a  giant
-like Indian towards the Dutch. I heard of it, and told  Waiandance that
 he must kill him or bring him to me; but he said it  was not his
 brother's mind, and he is the great Sachem of all  Long-Island,
 likewise the Indian is a mighty great man, and no man  durst meddle
 with him, and hath many friends. So this rested until  he had killed
 another, one Thomas Farrington. After this the old  Sachem died, and I
 spake to this Sachem again about it, and he  answered, He is so
 cunning, that when he hears that I come that way  a hunting, that his
 friends tell him, and then he is gone. -- But I  will go at some time
 when nobody knows of it, and then I will kill  him; and so he did -
 and this was the last act which he did for us,  for in the time of a
 great mortality among them he died, but it was  by poison; also two
 thirds of the Indians upon Long-Island died,  else the Narragansets had
 not made such havoc here as they have, and  might not help them. 

* And this I have written chiefly for our own  good, that we
*  might consider what danger we are all in, and also to  declare
*  to the country that we had found an heathen, yea an Indian, 
*  in this respect to parallel the Jewish Mordecai. But now I am
*  at a  stand, for all we English would be thought and called
*  Christians;  yet, though I have seen this before spoken,
*  having been these  twenty-four years in the mouth of the
*  premises, yet I know not where  to find, or whose name to
*  insert, to parallel Ahasuerus lying on his  bed and could not
*  sleep, and called for the Chronicles to be read;  and when he
*  heard Mordecai named, said, What hath been done for him?  But
*  who will say as he said, or do answerable to what he did? 

	But  our New-England twelve-penny Chronicle is stuffed with a
 catalogue  of the names of some, as if they had deserved immortal fame;
 but the  right New-England military worthies are left out for want of
 room,  as Maj. Mason, Capt. Undrill [Underhill], Lieut. Siclly [Seely], 
 &c., who undertook the desperate way and design to Mistick Fort, and 
 killed three hundred, burnt the fort and took many prisoners, though 
 they are not once named. But honest Abraham thought it no shame to 
 name the confederates that helped him to war when he redeemed his 
 brother Lot; but Uncas of Mistick, and Waiandance, at the Great  Swamp
 and ever since your trusty friend, is forgotten, and for our  sakes
 persecuted to this day with fire and sword, and Ahasuerus of  New
-England is still asleep, and if there be any like to Ahasuerus,  let
 him remember what glory to God and honor to our nation hath  followed
 their wisdom and valor. 

	Awake! awake Ahasuerus, if there be  any of thy seed or spirit
 here, and let not Haman destroy us as he  hath done our Mordecai! And
 although there hath been much blood shed  here in these parts among us,
 God and we know it came not by us. But  if all must drink of this cup
 that is threatened, then shortly the  kind of Sheshack shall drink
 last, and tremble and fall when our  pain will be past. 

* that I were in the countries again, that in  their but twelve
*  years truce, repaired cities and towns, made strong  forts,
*  and prepared all things needful against a time of war like 
*  Solomon. I think the soil hath almost infected me, but what
*  they or  our enemies will do hereafter I know not. I hope I
*  shall not live so  long to hear or see it, for I am old and
*  out of date, else I might  be in fear to see and hear that I
*  think ere long will come upon us.   

	Thus for our tragical story, now to the comedy. When we were all
 at  supper in the great hall, they (the Pequits) gave us alarm to draw 
 us out three times before we could finish our short supper, for we  had
 but little to eat, but you know that I would not go out; the  reasons
 you know.   2ndly. You Robert Chapman, you know that when you and John
 Bagley  were beating samp at the Garden Pales, the sentinels called you
 to  run in, for there was a number of Pequits creeping to you to catch 
 you; I hearing it went up in the Redouct and put two cross-bar shot 
 into the two guns that lay above, and levelled them at the trees in 
 the middle of the limbs and boughs, and gave order to John Frend and 
 his man to stand with hand-spikes to turn them this or that way, as 
 they should hear the Indians shout, for they should know my shout  from
 theirs for it should be very short. Then I called six men, and  the
 dogs, and went out, running to the place, and keeping all  abreast, in
 sight, close together. And when I saw my time I said,  Stand! And
 called all to me saying, Look at me; and when I hold up  my hand, then
 shout as loud as you can, and when I hold down my  hand, then leave;
 and so they did. Then the Indians began a long  shout, and then went
 off the two great guns and tore the limbs of  the trees about their
 ears, so that divers of them were hurt, as may  yet appear, for you
 told me when I was up at Harford this present  year, '60, in the month
 of September, that there is one of them  lyeth above Harford, that is
 fain to creep on all four, and we  shouted once or twice more; but they
 would not answer us again, so  we returned home laughing. 

	Another pretty prank we had with three  great doors of ten feet
 long and four feet broad, being bored full  of holes and driven full of
 long nails, as sharp as awl blades,  sharpened to Thomas Hurlbut. -
 These we placed in certain places  where they should come, fearing lest
 they should come in the night  and fire our redoubt or battery, and all
 the place, for we had seen  their footing, where they had been in the
 night, when they shot at  our sentinels, but could not hit them for the
 boards; and in a dry  time and a dark night they came as they did
 before, and found the  way a little too sharp for them; and as they
 skipped from one they  trod upon another, and left the nails and doors
 dyed with their  blood, which you know we saw the next morning,
 laughing at it. --  And this I write that young men may learn, if they
 should meet with  such trials as we met with there, and have not
 opportunity to cut  off their enemies; yet they may, with such pretty
 pranks, preserve  themselves from danger, -- for policy is needful in
 wars as well as  strength.