Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
As soon as this transaction was known, Opechancanough demanded
satisfaction; but being answered that the retaliation was just, he
formed a plan for a general massacre of the English, and appointed
Friday, the twenty-second day of March, for its execution; but he
dissembled his resentment to the last moment. Parties of Indians were
distributed through the Colony, to attack every plantation, at the same
hour of the day, when the men should be abroad and at work. On the
evening before, and on the morning of that fatal day, the Indians came
as usual to the houses of the English, bringing game and fish to sell,
and sat down with them to breakfast. So general was the combination,
and so deep the plot, that about one hour before noon, they fell on the
people in the fields and houses; and, with their own tools and weapons,
killed, indiscriminately, persons of all ages, sexes and characters;
inhumanly mangling their dead bodies, and triumphing over them, with
all the expressions of frantic joy.
Where any resistance was made, it was generally successful. Several
houses were defended, and some few of the assailants slain. One of
Captain Smith’s old soldiers, Nathaniel Causie, though wounded, split
the skull of an Indian, and put his whole party to flight. Several
other parties were dispersed by the firing of a single gun, or by the
presenting of a gun, even in the hands of a woman.
James-Town was preserved by the fidelity of Chanco, a young Indian
convert, who lived with Richard Pace, and was treated by him as a son.
The brother of this Indian came to lie with him, the night before the
massacre, and revealed to him the plot, urging him to kill his master,
as he intended to do by his own. As soon as he was gone in the morning,
Chanco gave notice of what was intended, to his master; who, having
secured his own house, gave the alarm to his neighbours, and sent an
express to James-Town. Three hundred and forty-nine people fell in this
general massacre; of which number, six were members of the Council.
EXPLOIT OF CAPTAIN STANDISH.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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