 | CHAPTER XI. The doomed chief, or, Two hundred years ago |  |
11. CHAPTER XI.
To draw the figure of New England's urn,
New England's hour of passion is at hand;
No power, except divine, can it withstand.”
Benjamin Thompson, poet of 1675.
After the last described impotent and despicable attempt
to detain, and, at least, disgrace the patriotic young captain,
made by the malicious and bigoted schemers, who had, unfortunately
for the public interests at this time, obtained a controlling
influence over the court of Plymouth, no further molestation
was offered him, and he led his company triumphantly
out of town, followed by his intrepid friend, Captain Mosely,
who still claimed the honor of covering the rear till they
reached the spot where his own company had halted.
“Well, Captain Willis,” said Mosely, now spurring his
old horse forward, with a look of grave humor, “for this important
and dangerous service, in bringing you so handsomely
out of your battle with deacons and dunderpates, I shall
expect to be remembered by you, and your fine fellows here,
when you may see me and mine in close quarters with the red
devils of the woods.”
“Ay, ay, Captain Mosely,” responded the other in the
same spirit. “There shall be no backwardness on my part;
and if I rightly read the looks of our boys here, I can answer
for them also. What say you, my lads,” he added, beginning
to twirl his cap as a signal, “have you a cheer for the gallant
captain and his company?”
The cheer was given and several times repeated in a queerly
blended tone of fun and earnest, which more significantly told
the state of feeling which the late scene, and its half ludicrous
termination, had created among the men, than a whole page
of description.
“Will you take the lead, Captain Mosely?” asked Willis,
observing his Indian scouts now coming forward from the
bushes, and falling into his rear in readiness to march.
“No,” replied Mosely, laughingly; “there's no knowing
what will happen to you, till you get a little further out of the
shadow of the august court of Plymouth. No, move ahead,
and we will follow. But hold on a few minutes, till I have
mustered my men. I'll be hanged if I won't tell them this
cussed droll flareup we just had. There's nothing like a
good laugh for a soldier before going to battle.”
In spite of the remonstrances of Willis, Mosely rode off,
arrayed his company, and was soon heard relating to them,
with his own peculiar coloring, what had transpired to give
rise to the demonstrations, of which, standing at too great a
distance to understand the words exchanged on the occasion,
they had been the wondering witnesses.
A loud laugh simultaneously burst from the lips of the
rough captain's hundred congenial followers, as he concluded
his humorous description; and this, at his instance, was followed
up by three lively cheers for Captain Willis and his
company. And with this odd introduction to each other, the
two forces were both immediately put in motion for their destination.
Much of the road now ran over dry pine barrens, making,
with the sand yielding under their feet, and the clouds of suffocating
dust continually rising to the heads of the soldiery,
the most toilsome and disagreeable marching which an army
can be called on to encounter. And yet so vigorously did
these hardy men push forward through the day, that by sunset
ponds lying about half way between Plymouth and the northern
heads of Narraganset bay, which had been appointed for
their rendezvous. Here they encamped for the night. But
the rising sun of the next morning looked down again upon a
rapid march for the scene of action.
As they drew near the localities of the outbreak, on this
day's march they began to see evidence going clearly to show,
that the reports of the alleged outrages, which had been
spread abroad, were not, as many had hoped and believed
them to be, either false or exaggerated. The indications of
the perilous situation of the inhabitants all along the southern
borders of the colony, thickened with every mile of their progress.
And soon spectacles were often encountered on the
road, well calculated to bring these melancholy convictions
home to the bosoms of the men, to arouse their spirit, and
make them eager to press forward for retributive vengeance
on the authors of the havoc and desolation, which had so evidently
been spread, and which was still being spread, in almost
every direction over the country. Now they were met by a
fast speeding horseman riding to announce the massacre of a
single family residing in some secluded location, and now by
others bringing the tidings of the devastation of whole neighborhoods.
Now they encountered on the road a bleeding
fugitive, who perhaps the only survivor of his family was
fleeing for safety, and now scattering companies of wailing
women and children, recently escaped from scenes of slaughter,
and hurrying towards the older settlements for places of
refuge; while far and wide, over the low-lying country around
were every hour seen shooting up at different points, slender
columns of vapor, denoting the yet unannounced destruction
of solitary dwellings, or broader clouds of smoke, showing the
conflagration of freshly assaulted villages or hamlets. It
seemed indeed as if every piece of forest concealed within its
day and hour somewhere bursting from their fastnesses upon
the unsuspecting inhabitants, spreading death and destruction
over one place, and then disappearing, as suddenly as they
came, to repeat the same awful tragedy in another.
All discerning men could now see before them, the consequences
of the blind policy which had been pursued by the
court of Plymouth—a policy founded in self-exaltation over
the despised Indian—in a misapprehension of his character
and intellect—in a careless disregard of his rights, and in a
but too illy disguised desire for his subjection. They could
see that this policy, with the acts of injustice and oppression
which it indirectly sanctioned, or at least very naturally led
to, had driven the red men to take that final stand from which
there would be no receding, till either they or their opponents
should be swept from the land. They saw all this; but they
saw at the same time, that the hour for regrets and criminations
had now passed by, and that it was the duty of all to
unite in the common defence of the imperiled colonies.
At a seasonable hour that evening, all the Massachusetts'
forces together with the hardy little band of Captain Willis,
reached the late scene of carnage at Swansey, and at once
united themselves with the Plymouth troops at the garrison
house near a bridge leading over a slender arm of the bay into
King Philip's dominions. Here they were welcomed with
great rejoicings by the alarmed garrison, who had already lost
several sentinels by the fire of the Indians everywhere beleaguering
them from coverts in the forests around, and with
wild war whoops and other demonstrations of rage and defiance,
threatening a general assault. Nothing, however, but a little
ineffectual skirmishing, or rather alarms, on the part of the
pickets, and the empty, though terrific demonstrations of the
besieging hordes of the invisible foe, occurred to call the
troops from their repose, at any time during the night. But
armed with musket, tomakawk, and scalping knife, boldly
crossed the bridge in open view of the garrison, and with
menacing gestures and loud yells of defiance, stood for some
time, challenging the hesitating troops to come out and meet
them in combat.
“I am not a-going to stand that, by a jug-full!” impatiently
exclaimed Captain Mosely, who, with Cudworth, now promoted
to the post of commander of the united forces, had been
witnessing the impudent bravado of the Indians. “If but
twenty men of my company, or those of any other, will join
me for a sally, I swear, it shall be made before I am half an
hour older.”
“Why,—your life, and the lives of half your men, would
pay the forfeit of your rashness, captain,” responded the timid
and overcautious general, with a look of blank surprise.
“Well, general, suppose it should be so, wouldn't an equal
number of the enemy be likely to share the same fate? And
even if they did not, do you think our lives, so sold, would go
for nothing? I, who count myself considerably better than a
green one in matters of war, have always noticed that ten
lives lost in a bold dash will often, by intimidating the enemy,
save a hundred in the general results of a campaign. It
will probably be so here; and I think this is just the time to
make a push on those red, vaunting devils, which will show
them a specimen of the mettle we are made of.”
“Yes, but for so perilous a step as that, Captain Mosely,—
really, sir, as the commander here, I hardly dare incur the
responsibility of”—
“Never mind, general, don't fret your gizzard about that,
in the least. When the court of Plymouth haul you for it,
just say to them that the lawless old Captain Mosely insisted
on shouldering the whole responsibility of the affair. I shall
go,—good morning, sir. Ho! there, my merry volunteers!”
shaking his fist significantly towards the enemy, do you hear
and see that yelping litter of hell yonder, daring us to our
teeth? Now, how many of you will follow me to give them
a lesson which shall show them the difference between our
cold lead and their empty bragging?”
“All! all! shouted fifty resolute fellows, seizing their guns
and rushing forward.
“Just what I expected of you, my hearties!” exclaimed the
gratified officer, with a proud glance at his followers. “Now
all you that are in earnest about this business, take ten minutes
to equip yourselves; and, at the end of that time appear
here on the ground, with your guns all well primed and loaded,
knives where you can lay your hands on them for instant use,
and powder and ball enough for a day's battle. I never heard
of a soldier who came off any the worse for being well provided.”
“Aha! how is this, Captain Mosely?” cried Willis, who,
having perceived what was going forward, from a little distance,
now came hurrying to the spot,—“How is this, sir?
are you a-going to be exclusive towards your friends, in this
movement?”
“O no,—the more the merrier: but I did not know that
you and your boys would crave the honor of facing the pokerish
prospect.”
“Well, we do, sir. We had just been hatching up something
of the kind ourselves; and would all gladly participate.”
“Really?”
“Yes, give us a chance, and —”
“You shall have it, sir! Your very offer shows you deserve
it. And it shows, also, I have not been at all mistaken
in you, Vane Willis.”
For the ardent young officer to fly to his own company,
obtain their eager response for a participation, see them set
about their preparations, and return to the side of his intrepid
friend, Mosely—occupied him but a few minutes. The two
congenial spirits then together went to a loop-hole which commanded
the whole ground, and speedily arranged a plan of
attack, and the different parts which each of their companies
should take in carrying it into execution.
The new movement, by this time, had been noised through
the whole garrison; and all those who were not to be participants
crowded to the loop-holes and every other spot which
might answer for a look-out, and with intense interest awaited
in silence the appearance of the expected sortie, the exact
plan of which yet remained a secret with the projectors.
Presently, Captain Mosely and his men, gliding noiselessly
into the yard in front, and with trailed arms, and in irregular,
broken, and seemingly confused lines, made their way rapidly
to a partially screening hedge about half way from the garrison
house to the water, and within short musket shot of the
enemy. To the wonder of the spectators, Mosely's men were
suffered to gain the hedge, and throw themselves down beneath
it, without receiving a single shot from the enemy, whose attention
seemed suddenly to have been drawn to the right and
the left. The secret, however, was the next moment disclosed.
Captain Willis, having divided his band and placed the two
divisions at the different ends of the enclosure, had sallied
out at the head of one of them, while Noel led the other, and
come into open view of the enemy before Mosely and his men
made their appearance. And these two flanking parties, who
had at first struck out laterally some distance in opposite directions,
to divert the attention of the Indians from the force
advancing in front, were now seen bounding forward from
stump to stump in converging lines towards the bridge, occasionally
now aroused enemy in return.
At that juncture, a sudden movement was seen along the
hedge, and the next moment the stentorian voice of Captain
Mosely was heard—
“Front line prepare to fire!—rear line to charge by, with
loaded pieces! Fire! Charge!—in the name of God,
charge!”
The explosive crash of fifty blazing muskets instantly followed,
and the next moment Captain Mosely, with his rear
line, leaving the front one to re-load and come on, leaped the
hedge, charged furiously forward, and disappeared in the
smoke, which, rolling down the hill, completely screened them
in their course from the aim of the astonished foe. Then
rose, from under the drifting smoke cloud, the commingling
shouts and yells of the combatants, and the reports of rapidly
discharging musketry, showing the fury of the conflict that
now ensued. But before the startled spectators at the garrison
could realize the scene that had so suddenly burst upon
their view, the brunt of the battle was over, and the fate of
the field decided. With the lifting of the sulphurous veil
that had shrouded the spot, the now uniting forces of Willis
and Mosely were seen hotly pursuing the terror-stricken
savages, who, like a herd of wild horses, were rushing pell
mell over the bridge to gain the coverts of the bushy plain
beyond.
Shout after shout of exultation now burst from the elated
troops of the garrison, on beholding so complete a rout of an
enemy from whom, ten minutes before, nothing but the destruction
of half the numbers of their assailing friends was
expected. And they suddenly grew valorous, formed in front
of the garrison house, and began to move towards the bridge;
while a still more elated squad of fifteen or twenty troopers,
formed from the cavalry of Captain Prentiss, mounted their
the road and went thundering over the bridge to join in pursuit
of the now despised enemy.
“Now, Captain Mosely,” said Willis, coming up, after
having halted his men at a point in the road where the woods
were becoming thick enough to afford places of concealment
for the Indians—“now, captain, I would not dictate, but
would certainly advise you to adopt a different mode of
pursuit. We have left a number of the foe on the field, but
thus far, providentially, have not lost a man ourselves.”
“No, thank God; and so have fully made good what I
told that quivering old granny of a general, at the outset.
But do you think the scared devils, that have made such good
use of their legs to get out of our reach, will muster courage
enough to make another stand?”
“Not on the road, openly, nor in a united band anywhere,
probably.”
“How then, or in what places? There is not now even a
shadow of the whelps anywhere to be seen.”
“And therein lies the greatest of our dangers. You see
those scattered little thickets, with bushy hillocks, and an occasional
old log, which begin to skirt the road on either side,
two or three hundred yards ahead, don't you?”
“Yes, but the road is clear for four times that distance.”
“That may be true, and yet behind every one of those dark
objects may, and probably does, lie an Indian with cocked
musket, waiting for us to approach near enough along the
road, to enable him to make sure of the victim he shall single
out for his murderous aim.”
“Aha! That is their game, is it? Well, Vane, I have
all along told you, I should have to knuckle to you in the
mysteries of the bush fight. So, now for the plan you would
propose, what is it?”
“Simply for every one now to become his own keeper, and
into the woods on both sides of the road, and advance, in
something like a general line, perhaps, but rods apart; so that
each, keeping a tree or some object between him and all suspicious
looking coverts, can, while taking care of himself, be
in the way of doing effectual service in killing or routing out the
foe from his lurking places. It is their fashion of fighting, and
the only one for us to adopt, if we would conquer, or even
successfully resist them.”
“What say you, boys?” said Mosely, turning to his company.
“Captain Willis, here, though young in years, is an
old scholar in the matters of which he speaks, and probably
knows better how to circumvent the red sarpents we have now
to deal with, than any man in the army. Perhaps we had
better follow his advice. So, break ranks, and be on the
move.”
“Let your men take the centre, then, Captain Mosely,”
rejoined Willis. “Noel and myself will again divide our
command, and move a little ahead of you, on your flanks,
leaving you to deal with such game as we may drive into your
beat.”
As the men of both companies were about to betake themselves
separately to the woods in accordance with this politic
arrangement, the squad of cavalry, whose new-born zeal had
fired them to join in the pursuit, came furiously galloping
along the road, and, in spite of the timely warnings of Captain
Willis and others, dashed heedlessly onward to overtake
the foe, who, as they still persisted in believing, must be, like
other beaten enemies, flying in the open road, some distance
ahead. And being confirmed in this impression by the fact,
that nothing was to be seen in the way, as far as the first
reach extended, they rode on in conscious security, and with
increasing speed, till they arrived at a sudden turn in the
road; when pulling up to cast forward for new objects, they
looking wildly around them, in the greatest seeming
agitation and terror, and ostensibly hurrying away to escape
the threatened pursuit.
“Charge! charge upon the skulking rascals!” exclaimed the
officer in command, drawing a pistol and fiercely waving his
sword for the onset.
It was the last word he was destined ever to utter. At
that instant, a scattering volley, streaming out from a dozen
coverts in the forest around, was poured upon them by the
invisible foe. The officer reeled in his seat, dropped the reins,
and in the flouncing and turning of his unchecked horse,
soon came to the ground, writhing in the agonies of death.
Several of the men were also severely wounded, but being able to
keep their saddles, all turned and fled in wild dismay from the
fatal scene.
“Hold!” sharply exclaimed Captain Willis, who anticipating
the result of this rash and heedless advance, and far outstripping
his companions in the woods to keep as near the
endangered party as possible, now burst suddenly into the
road,—“hold! Would you leave your dying leader to be
scalped and tomahawked in the road? Come back, if ye be
men! Come back, some of you, and help me bring him
away!”
But the panic struck troopers paid no other heed to the
humane appeal, than by spurring their horses to greater speed
in escaping from the vicinity of danger. The heroic young
captain, however, whom no sense of personal peril could deter
from the performance of any duty which he believed humanity
demanded at his hands, hesitated not a moment, but
ran to the speechless and gasping sufferer, raised him from
the ground, clasped him round the chest, and bore him, regardless
of the fresh shower of hostile bullets which were directed
towards the spot, resolutely back to a place of safety.
“That was a brave deed of yours, Captain Willis,” said
Mosely, now seen hastening to the spot, where the former had
laid down his charge, and was searching for the fatal wound.
“Yes,” he continued looking down with an air of deep commiseration
on the last struggles of the expiring victim,—
“yes, a brave, but, as far as life is concerned, a useless effort.
See! the poor fellow is gone!”
“I see he is. Shame on the cowards who deserted him,
with a wound from which for aught they knew he might recover;
but I am resolved to see, before I give over the chase,
if his death cannot be revenged.”
“You are right, my brave friend. It will never do to leave
the murderous hounds with the idea that they have repulsed
us. We will leave the body of this luckless man to be taken
by his friends, who, as we pass on, will doubtless come to
look for it. We will leave the dead in spirit, to bury their
dead in the flesh, and fall into our places with our men, who
are now getting abreast of us. This ambush and mishap,
Vane, have made me a full convert to your notions of fighting
Indians; and, as bad as I hate skulking, I shall hereafter unhesitatingly
adopt them for my men.”
“And yourself, too, captain,—much more strictly than I
have perceived you to be doing, since we entered the bush.
And particularly cautious must you, and all of us, now become,
as the enemy are lying concealed, doubtless, at no great
distance in front.”
“Well, the nearer the better;—I am aching to get my eyes
on the infernal scamps.”
The two officers then hastened away to their respective
lines of advance. Mosely repairing, with deliberate step, to
take the lead, a little in front of the centre of his extended
line, and Willis, swiftly threading the woods to the head
of his slow and stealthily-moving flanking party on the
right.
Leaving his men to move directly on without altering their
pace or relaxing the caution, which he knew was now especially
needed, Captain Willis took a wide, outward sweep,
but with a speed sufficient still to keep him considerably in
advance of the foremost of his men; and then tacking short
to the left, soon gained a thickly covered elevation, which
overlooked all the principal coverts that shielded the enemy
in their fatal assault upon the discomfited troopers. Creeping
cautiously along to the edge of the thicket on the brow
of the elevation, he fell to inspecting, one after another, every
dark spot and depression in the ground, within the reach of
his vision, where any of the foe could possibly lie concealed.
At first he ran his eye successively over all such objects and
places, without discovering anything calculated to excite the
least suspicion. No motion was anywhere perceptible, and
no object anywhere in sight presented other than a perfectly
natural appearance. Presently the sharp cracking of a dry
limb under some heavy tread, away to the left, reached his
ear, and almost at the same instant, a slight, quick movement
of something somewhere within the area which had just undergone
his fruitless inspection, flitted indistinctly across his
half averted vision. He therefore again closely bent his gaze
in the direction; but for some time with no better success
than before. At length, however, he detected what appeared
like two small humps or hummock, ranging in a line, one
before the other, standing up just in sight out of a little hollow
so thickly fringed, on the side next to Mosely's advancing
line, with low, leafy shrubs, as to afford a perfect concealment
of what might be lying in the hollow behind them. Feeling
very confident that those hump-like appearances, though
seemingly as immovable as the ground itself, were not there
at his previous inspection, he taxed his vision to the uttermost
to see if he could detect anything there which had
effected the change, when he soon discerned something which
exactly corresponding sections, seen through the interstices
of the leaves, clearly indicated, from the forward hump,
through to the other side of the bushes. And the next moment
the truth came like a flash to the mind of the startled
officer. The two humps were the upraised shoulders and
head of a crouching Indian, and the rod, his gun, leveled at
some one of the approaching line of white men, and its fire
but delayed for a fairer exposure of the marked victim, or the
lessening of the intervening distance, to make more certain
the result of the shot. As Willis cast his eye in the direction
indicated by the suspicious tube, his heart leaped to his
mouth on descrying the stalwart Mosely advancing in the
same range, not more than thirty rods from the concealed foe,
using little or no precaution, and evidently unconscious of the
proximity of danger. Although his own stand was even
more distant from the savage, he hesitated not an instant to
bring his rifle to an aim, and lay, with his finger on the trigger,
awaiting the first movement of the foe, to breathe a
prayer for the success of his bullet, and send it on its destination.
Not long had he to wait for the critical moment. The
hitherto motionless foremost hump now gradually rose into the
distinct proportions of a human head, and the next instant
the sharp report of the young officer's rifle rang through the
forest; while the brawny object of its deadly aim was seen
leaping high into the air, and then pitching heavily forward
to the earth. It was a shot which none but a marksman
could have made, and it not only destroyed a dangerous foeman,
but was the means of deciding the fortunes of the day;
for, with the report of the rifle, and the death screech of its
victim, a dozen painted warriors, alarmed at this unexpected
attack on their flank, and its fatal result on one of their leading
braves, leaped quickly from their seemingly impossible
concealments around, and in their surprise and dismay, stood
themselves as fair marks for the fire of Mosely's line, who were
now drawing near, and who, but for the timely shot of Willis,
must have been, for all their supposed vigilance, very
soon, and to a fearful extent, perhaps, fatally surprised. And
the opportunity was not suffered to go unimproved. All of
that line within sight poured in their volleys upon the bewildered
savages; and the alarm being thus communicated to
others, who were lurking further within the woods, and who
were started out from their coverts in the same manner, the
firing spread rapidly along the whole line of the assailants,
and ended only with the last man of the other flanking party
led on by the resolute Noel. The effect was instantaneous
and decisive. The Indians, surprised at finding themselves
thus assailed in front and flank, and what was equally unexpected,
in their own fashion of fighting, fired a few shots in
return, and fled into the remote recesses of the forest.
Captains Mosely and Willis, now seeing the uselessness of
further pursuit, called in their men; when finding none to be
missing, and but two wounded, and those only very slightly,
the two companies marched back to the garrison, with that
keen sense of inward exultation which men usually feel, when
they have done a proud deed without the aid, and against the
warnings and discouragements, of those who claim to be their
superiors.
The army at the garrison house, who, from the alarming
accounts brought in by the discomfited little band of troopers,
had expected nothing less than that the two companies who
had gone in pursuit of the Indians into the fastnesses of the
woods, would be cut to pieces or destroyed, again became
brave and jubilant, on beholding them all returned in safety,
and especially so, when they learned that the enemy had
been put to flight and driven entirely from the vicinity.
“I congratulate you, Captain Mosely,” said the general,
victors, “I heartily congratulate you on your successes. Your
escape from the enemy, with so little damage to yourself and
men, seems little less than miraculous, and would appear like
a direct answer to the earnest prayers we put up, after you
went forth into the peril, for your safety and deliverance.”
“Your prayers were all well enough, general, doubtless,”
bluntly replied Mosely. “But to my notion, they would have
been quite as likely to be answered, if they had been made on
the field of battle. St. James says, faith without works is
dead. And I am free to say I am a good deal of his opinion.”
“The captain speaks plainly, but not without force,” interposed
Parson Miles, a patriotic Baptist minister, who owned
the garrison house, and who had shown great resolution in
defending it on the late assault on the town. “I cannot but
think that those who would look for blessings on their prayers,
should not themselves shrink from actions corresponding to
their petitions.”
“Give us your hand, friend,” warmly responded Mosely.
“You are the parson for me. I hope for your better acquaintance,
sir.”
The general, not pretending to understand the rebuke which
one of the last speakers had intentionally, and the other unwittingly,
given him, made some general remark, and retired
after notifying all the officers present, that a council of war
would be holden that evening, to decide on a plan of
operations for the next movement to be made against the
enemy.
Both the officers and men of the little army having become
assured, and confident of future triumphs, from the successes
of the day, insignificant as the Indians themselves, who
came there only for the purposes of espionage and intimidation,
probably considered them; the council of war, who
push at once directly into the heart of King Philip's dominions.
Accordingly, the next morning, General Cudworth mustered
the troops, and, with the exception of a small force left to man
the garrison house, put them all immediately in motion for
Pokanoket, as was then called the whole of that romantic little
peninsula, which from time immemorial had been considered
peculiarly the seat of empire, and the fatherland of the
proud and powerful Wampanoogs. This sea-girt territory,
which, though but little larger than an ordinary township,
now embraces a numerous and thriving population, including
its chief port, the beautiful village of Bristol, was then an unbroken
wilderness, except the southern thousand acres which
the successive chiefs of the Wampanoogs had mostly divested
of forest, and converted into cornfields.
The army in the course of their difficult and toilsome march
through the woods, encountered many a windfall of tangled
trees lying upon the ground, and many a dark, jungly thicket,
which were all their wily foe might have desired for surprises
and ambuscades, and which the troops approached with no
small fear and trepidation. But none of their apprehensions
were realized. No signs of any ambuscades were discovered;
nor did an enemy, through the whole of their forest march,
anywhere make his appearance.
“The whole Indian army must be concentrated around
Mount Hope, the home of their hell hound leader, the accursed
author of all this mischief,” remarked General Cudworth to
Captain Prentiss and the other officers he had exclusively made
his military counsellors, as the dignified bevy were riding
along at a safe distance from the front of the advancing
column. “We shall be sure to find them there, all prepared
to meet us, and full of their heathenish confidence, no
doubt, that they shall be able to defeat us.”
“Nathless, they will soon be taught, I trust,” responded
Prentiss, “the difference between the power of our God, and
their God, who, I make no doubt, is no other than Sathan
himself.”
“Truly, captain,” rejoined the former, “and it is a most
comforting reflection to feel and know that the Lord Omnipotent
is on our side.”
“Yea, even so, general,” said the warmly consenting captain.
“And we must not, for a moment, harbor a single doubt
or misgiving, that our arms will signally triumph in this
righteous war, which these red sons of Belial have stirred up
against an innocent and God-chosen people. But see! we are
coming out into the open country, and cannot now be but a
mile or two from the stronghold of the enemy. I must ride
to the head of my troop to be in readiness to take my place
in the line of battle.”
The officers now parted to repair to their respective posts;
and the troops pushed forward with quickened steps and beating
hearts, in full expectation of emerging from the woods but
to see a long line of the savage foe drawn up to dispute their
further passage to Mount Hope, at which their last desperate
stand, it was thought probable, would be made round the home
of their present great leader, and the honored graves of his
royal predecessors.
To their agreeable disappointment, and the great relief of
many a trembling neophyte of the bloody Mars, they beheld,
on entering the opening, instead of the anticipated host of
painted savages yelling out their rage and defiance, only broad
fields of green corn waving in the breeze, and stretching away
as far as the eye could reach in every direction, over the rolling
country that intervened between them and the dreaded
Mount Hope, now seen rising in the distance.
Here halting and forming in two columns, the troops continued
their march through the corn fields, still expecting to
formidable array of their foes ready to greet their first appearance
with a storm of fire and death. Swell after swell
succeeded, however, as they went trampling over the growing
maize, and yet no enemy was encountered. Presently the
numerous wigwams of the royal village, spreading along the
green slopes of Montaup, rose distinctly upon the view.
Here, at least, the enemy must be found; and, though not a
wigwam in sight exhibited any indications of the presence of
either open or concealed foes, yet the army was again brought
to a halt, and carefully formed into an extended line of battle
by the astute commander. The line then slowly advanced till
within two hundred yards of the village, when a general
charge was ordered, and the troops, with leveled and cocked
muskets, made a desperate rush upon the whole range of
wigwams, which they reached only to find them every where
silent and deserted! Nothing being found here, detachments
of infantry and cavalry were then despatched to scour every
nook and corner of the promontory, all round the borders of
the water, from east to west, in search of concealed enemies.
But they all in a short time returned with the same story,
reporting that not an Indian—young or old, sick or well—
was to be found, nor even the trace of one any where to be
detected, in all that end of the peninsula. It seemed to have
been a preconcerted national exodus, and not an implement of
peace or war was left behind to indicate an intention of any
future return. But the valorous general was not to be balked
in this manner; and, for lack of living foes on which to
expend his martial energies, he employed the troops for the
remainder of the day in beating down and trampling into the
earth the growing corn of King Philip's extensive plantation,
the whole thousand acres of which, before sun-down, was
utterly ruined or destroyed. The army was then recalled.
encamp for the night.
In the estimation of General Cudworth and most of his
officers, the Indians, frightened by the military array brought
into the vicinity, had scattered and fled into the distant
wilderness, to return no more—in short, that the war was
now over. Others, however, were of a different opinion; and,
as a compromise between the two parties, it was decided, at
a general consultation the next morning, that a small force
should be left at Mount Hope to build a fort, and, for the
present, hold the station, while the rest should return to
Swansey. Among those who wholly dissented from the
opinion of the general and others that the war was over,
was Captain Willis, who believed that the war, instead of
being over, was as yet but hardly begun, and that Philip,
justly believing that Mount Hope would be untenable, had
crossed over to the extensive forests on the east side of the
bay, and was now there concealed with all his forces; and he
petitioned the general for liberty to lead his own company—
strengthened by the force proposed to be left at Mount Hope,
who could be of no use there—round into that part of the
country, to ferret out and engage with the enemy. The
obstinate general, however, though at length he reluctantly
gave Captain Willis permission to take his own company on a
scouting expedition, would not allow any other force to
accompany him. Thankful even for this permission, Willis
at once decided to avail himself of it, and lost no time in
making his preparation for starting on the hazardous enterprise,
whither it will best suit the objects of our story to
accompany him and the gallant little band of which he was
the idolized leader.
| CHAPTER XI. The doomed chief, or, Two hundred years ago | |