Not far from this time a fatal affair occurred at Pawtuxet river, in Rhode Island. Captain Pierce, of Scituate, with fifty men, and twenty Cape Cod Indians, having passed the river, unexpectedly met with a large body of Indians. Perceiving that their numbers rendered an attack upon them hopeless, he fell back, and took a position so as to be sheltered by the bank. In this situation, the company was not long secure. Part of the Indians crossed the river, and attacked them from the opposite bank, while the remainder encircled them on the side of the river, where they had sought protection, and poured in upon them a most destructive fire. Hemmed in so effectually, there was no possibility of escape, and nothing was left them but to sell their lives as dearly as possible. This was accordingly done, and before the unfortunate men were nearly all cut off, more than a hundred of the enemy are said to have fallen by the desperate valor of the English. The Christian Cape Cod Indians showed their faithfulness and courage in this melancholy affair, as also their dexterity and foresight. Four of them effected their escape, and one of these aided the escape of the only Englishman that survived the encounter. One of them, whose name was Amos, after Captain Pierce was disabled by a wound, would not leave him, so long as there was a prospect of rendering him service, but loaded and fired his piece several times. At length, to save himself, he adroitly adopted the plan of painting his face black, as he perceived the enemy had done to their faces. In this disguise he ran among them, and pretended to join them in the fight; but watching his opportunity, he soon escaped into the woods. Of another it is reported, that being pursued by one of the enemy, he sought the shelter of a large rock. While in that situation, he perceived that his foe lay ready with his gun on the opposite side, to fire upon him as soon as he stirred. A stratagem only saved his life. Raising carefully his hat upon a pole, he seemed to the person lying in wait, to have exposed himself to a shot. A ball was instantly sent through the hat, but one was returned in earnest against the head of the enemy. Thus the Christian Indian, through his address, found the means of escape from his singular peril. A similar subtle device was used by another of these Indians, who was pursued as he attempted to cross the river. Hiding himself behind a mass of earth turned up with the roots of a tree, he was watched by the enemy, in the expectation that he would soon be obliged to change his position. But, instead of doing this, the Cape Cod Indian, perforating his breastwork, made a convenient loophole, and shot his enemy before he had time to notice the artifice. The fourth Cape Cod Indian who escaped, effected his object by affecting to be in pursuit of an Englishman with his upraised hatchet. This ingenious feint, of course, was the means of saving the white man at the same time.