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John Winthrop to William Bradford ìWORTHY Sr: I received your loving letter, and am much provoked to express my affections towards you, but straitnes of time forbids me; for my desire is to acquaint you with ye Lords greate mercies towards us, in our prevailing against his and our enimies, that you may rejoice & praise his name with us. About 80. of our men, having costed along towards ye Dutch Plantation, (sometimes by water but most by land,) mett hear & ther with some Pequoens whom they slew or tooke prisoners. 2. sachems they took and beheaded; and not hearing of Sassacous, (the cheefe sachem,) they gave a prisoner his life to goe and find him out: He wente and brought them word where he was, but Sassacous suspecting him to be a spie, after he was gone, fled away with some 20. more to ye Mohawks, so our men missed of him; yet deviding them selves and ranging up and down as ye providence of God guided them (for the Indeans were all gone, save 3. or 4. and they knew not whither to guid them, or els would not), upon ye 13. of this month, they light upon a great company of them, viz. 80. strong men, & 200. women & children, in a small Indean towne, fast by a hideous swamp, which they all slipped into, before our men could gett to them. Our Captains were not then come together; but there was Mr. Ludlow & Captaine Mason, with some 10. of their men, Captaine Patrick, with some 20. or more of his, who, shooting at ye Indeans, Captaine Trask, with 50. more, came soon in at ye noyse. Then they gave order to surround the swamp, it being about a mile round; but Levtenante Davenport, & some 12. more, not hearing that command fell into the swamp among the Indians. The swamp was so thicke with shrubswoode & so boggy withal, that some stuck fast & received many shott. Levetenant Davenport was dangerously wounded aboute his armehole, and another shott in ye head, so as fainting, they were in great danger to have been taken by ye Indeans; but Sargante Rigges, & Jeffery, and 2. or 3. more, rescued them & slew diverse of yeIndeans with their swords. After they were drawne out, the Indeans desired parley. & were offered (by Thomas Stanton, our interpretour) that, if they would come out & yeeld them selves, they should have their lives, all that had not their hand in ye English blood. Whereupon ye sachem of ye place came forth, and an old man or 2., & their wives and children, and after that some other women & children, and so they spake 2. howers, till it was night. Then Thomas Stanton was sente into them againe, to call them forth; but they said they would selle their lives their; and so shott at him so thicke, as if he had not cried out, and been presently rescued, they had slaine him. Then our men cutt of a place of ye swampe with their swords, and cooped up the Indeans into so narrow a compass, as they could easier kill them throw ye thickets. So they continued all ye night, standing about 12. foote one from an other, and ye Indeans coming up close to our men, shot their arrows so thicke, as they pierced their hatte brims, & their sleeves & stockings, & other parts of their cloaths, yet so miraculously did the Lord preserve them, as not one of them was wounded, save those 3. who rashly went into ye swampe as aforesaid. When it was nere day, it grue very darke, so as those of them which were left, dropt away, betweene our men, thought they stood but 12. or 14. foote assunder; but were presently discovered, & some killed in ye pursute. Upon searching of ye swampe ye next morning, they found 9. slaine, & some they pulled up, whom ye Indeans had buried in ye mire; so as they doe think that of all their company not 20. did escape, for they after found some who dyed in their flight, of their wounds received. The prisoners were divided, some to those of ye river, & the rest to us. Of these we send ye male children to Bermuda1 by Mr. William Pierce, & yewomen & maid children are disposed about in ye towns. There have been now slaine & taken, in all, about 700. hundred. The rest are dispersed, and the Indeans in all quarters so terrified as all their friends are afraid to receive them. 2. of ye sachems of Long Island came to Mr. Stoughton, tendered them selves to be tributaries under our protection. And 2. of ye Neepnett sachems have been with me to seeke our friendship. Amonge the prisoners we have ye wife & children of Mononotto, a woman of very modest countenance & behaviour. It was by her mediation, that 2. English maids were spared from death, & were kindly used by her. One of her first requests was, that the English would not abuse her body, & that her children might not be taken from her. Those which were wounded we fetched of soone by John Gallop, who came with his shalop in a happie houre, to bring them victuals, & to carrie their wounded men to ye pinnass, where our cheefe surgeon was, wth Mr. Wilson, being aboute 8.leagues off. Our people are all in health. (ye Lord be praised,) and although they had marched in their armes all ye day, and had been in fight all ye night, yet they professed they found them selves so fresh as they could willingly have gone to another such bussines. This is ye substance of that which I received, though I am forced to omit many considerable circomstances. So being in much straitness of time, (the ships being to depart within this 4. days and in them the Lord Lee and Mr. Vane,) I hear breake of, and with harty saluts to, &c., I rest
1 ì But they were carried to the West IndiesîóNote of Bradford, in Deaneís edition of the History of Plymouth Plantation, p. 360. Life and Letters of John Winthrop by Robert C. Winthrop Vol. II Second Edition, 1869 pps. 197-200 |