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
THE FIFTH REMOVE.--The occasion, as I thought, of their removing at
this time was the English army's being near and following them; for
they went as if they had gone for their lives for some considerable
way. Then they made a stop, and chose out some of their stoutest men,
and sent them back to hold the English army in play while the rest
escaped; and then, like Jehu, they marched on furiously with their old
and 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 we came to Baquaug River.
Upon 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 on, I did not wet my foot,
while 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. 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 eat anything; 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 pleasant and savory to my taste.
I was at this time knitting a pair of cotton stockings for my mistress,
and I had not yet wrought upon the Sabbath day. When the Sabbath came
they bid me go to work. I told them it was Sabbath day, and desired
them to let me rest, and told them I would do as much more work
to-morrow; to which they answered me they would break my face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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