Captives among the Indians : $b first-hand narratives of Indian wars, customs, tortures, and habits of life in colonial timesRowlandson, Mary White
History
Captives among the Indians : $b first-hand narratives of Indian wars, customs, tortures, and habits of life in colonial times
Rowlandson, Mary White
Indian captivities -- Northeastern States
We at last reached the first village of this nation, and here our
reception resembled the first, but was still more cruel. Besides blows
from their fists, and other blows, which I received in the most
sensitive parts of my body, they a second time slit open my left hand,
between the middle finger and the fore finger, and the bastinade was
such that I fell half dead on the ground. I thought I would lose my
right eye forever. As I did not rise, because I was unable to do so,
they continued to beat me, especially on the breast and head. I should
surely have expired beneath their blows had not a captain caused me to
be dragged by main strength upon a stage made, like the former one, of
bark. There they soon after cut off the thumb and mangled the fore
finger of my left hand. Meanwhile a great rain came, with thunder and
lightning, and they went away, leaving us exposed naked to the storm,
till some one, I know not who, took pity on us, and in the evening took
us into his cabin.
Here we were tormented with more cruelty and impudence than ever,
without leaving a moment's rest. They forced me to eat filth, and
burned some of my fingers and the rest of my nails. They dislocated my
toes, and ran a firebrand through one of them. I know not what they did
not do to me another time, when I pretended to faint, so as to seem not
to see an indecent action.
After glutting their cruelty here, they sent us into another village,
nine or ten miles further. Here they added to the torments of which I
have spoken that of hanging me up by my feet, either with cords or with
chains, which they had taken from the Dutch. By night I lay stretched
on the ground, naked and bound, according to their custom, to several
stakes, by the feet, hands, and neck. The torments which I had to
suffer in this state, for six or seven nights, were in such places, and
of such nature, that it is not lawful to describe them, nor could they
be read without blushing. I seldom closed my eyes those nights, which,
though the shortest of the year, seemed to me most long. "My God, what
will purgatory be?" This thought lightened my pains not a little.
In this way of living I had become so fetid and horrible that every one
drove me away like a thing of carrion, and they never came near me save
to torment me. Scarcely anyone would feed me, although I had not the
use of my hands, as they were extraordinarily swollen and putrid. Thus
I was still further tormented by hunger, which led me to eat Indian
corn raw, not without concern for my health, and made me find a relish
in chewing clay, although I could not easily swallow it.
I was covered with loathsome vermin, and could neither get rid of them
nor defend myself from them. In my wounds worms were born; more than
four fell out of one finger in one day....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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