This so frightened them, that, besides the howling noise they made in
the tree, our men heard a strange clutter of them in the body of the
tree, from whence they concluded they had made the tree hollow, and were
got to hide themselves there. Now, had this been the case, they were
secure enough from our men, for it was impossible any of our men could
get up the tree on the outside, there being no branches to climb by;
and, to shoot at the tree, that they tried several times to no purpose,
for the tree was so thick that no shot would enter it. They made no
doubt, however, but that they had their enemies in a trap, and that a
small siege would either bring them down, tree and all, or starve them
out; so they resolved to keep their post, and send to us for
help. Accordingly, two of them came away to us for more hands, and
particularly desired that some of our carpenters might come with tools,
to help to cut down the tree, or at least to cut down other wood and set
fire to it; and that, they concluded, would not fail to bring them out.
Accordingly, our men went like a little army, and with mighty
preparations for an enterprise, the like of which has scarce been ever
heard, to form the siege of a great tree. However, when they came there,
they found the task difficult enough, for the old trunk was indeed a
very great one, and very tall, being at least two-and-twenty feet high,
with seven old limbs standing out every way from the top, but decayed,
and very few leaves, if any, left on it.
William the Quaker, whose curiosity led him to go among the rest,
proposed that they should make a ladder, and get upon the top, and then
throw wild-fire into the tree, and smoke them out. Others proposed going
back, and getting a great gun out of the ship, which would split the
tree in pieces with the iron bullets; others, that they should cut down
a great deal of wood, and pile it up round the tree, and set it on fire,
and burn the tree, and the Indians in it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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