"John Oldham, who had been fairly trading at Connecticut, was murdered near Block island. He had with him only two boys and two Narraganset Indians. These were taken and carried off. One John Gallop, as he was going from Connecticut to Boston, discovered Mr. Oldham's vessel full of Indians, and he saw a canoe full of Indians on board, go from her laden with goods. Suspecting that they had murdered Mr. Oldham, he hailed them, but received no answer. Gallop was a bold man, and though he had with him but one man and two boys, he immediately bore down upon them, and fired duck-shot so thick among them, that he soon cleared the deck. The Indians all got under the hatches. He then stood off; and, running down upon her quarter with a brisk gale, nearly overset them, and so frighted the Indians, that six of them leaped into the sea, and were drowned. He then steered off again; and, running down upon her a second time, bored her with his anchor, and raked her fore and aft with his shot. But the Indians kept themselves so close, he got loose from her; and, running down a third time upon the vessel, he gave her such a shock, that five more leaped overboard, and perished, as the former had done. He then boarded the vessel, and took two of the Indians, and bound them. Two or three others, armed with swords, in a little room below, could not be driven from their retreat. Mr. Oldham's corse was found on board, the head split and the body mangled in a barbarous manner. He was a Dorchester man, one of Mr. Warham's congregation. In these circumstances, Gallop, fearing that the Indians whom he had taken might get loose, especially if they were kept together, and having no place where he could keep them apart, threw one of them overboard. Gallop and his company then, as decently as circumstances would permit, put the corse into the sea. They stripped the vessel, and took the rigging and the goods which had not been carried off on board their own. She was taken in tow, with a view to carry her in; but the night coming on and the wind rising, Gallop was obliged to let her go adrift, and she was lost." At the termination of the Pequot war, there was a great scarcity of provisions in Connecticut, and fearful apprehensions were felt on the part of the settlers. With all their efforts, they had not been able to raise a sufficiency of provisions, and these became at length very costly. Corn rose to the extraordinary price of twelve shillings by the bushel. The debt contracted by the war was paid with difficulty. Nothing saved the colony from a famine but a providential supply of corn, which they were enabled to purchase from the natives, at an Indian settlement called Pocomptock (Deerfield).