USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Dunstable > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Tyngsborough > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Litchfield > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashville > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Merrimack > History of the old township of Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and Merrimac, N. H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass > Part 3
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About 1675, during the war with King Philip, he left Wamesit, and resided in Canada and va- rious other places, lest he should be drawn into the contest. During these wanderings he warn- ed the whites of many intended attacks and avert- ed others. When Wannalancet returned to Paw- tucket, after the death of Philip, he called upon Rev. Mr. Fiske, of Chelmsford, and inquired what disasters had befallen the town during the
(1.) Wicasuck is the small island in Merrimac river, near Wicas- see falls, in Tyngsborough.
(2.) Assembly Records, Mass., 1665, page 106.
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war. Mr. Fiske replied that they had been high- ly favored, for which he desired " to thank God." " Me next," said the shrewd Sagamore, who claimed his share of the merit. Thus providen- tially was all this region freed from hostile Indi- ans, and the way opened for the coming of our fathers in comparative safety.
The valleys of the Naticook, of Salmon brook and the Nashua, (or Watananock as it is called in the Court Records, ) especially near their mouths, were favorite resorts and abodes of the Indians. There, memorials of their residence have often been discovered. Such spots, com- bining a rich and easily wrought alluvial soil with productive fisheries, were always chosen ; and the choice was a wise and beautiful one. The Indian was the child of Nature, and gazed upon her charms with filial admiration. With a true sense of the sublime, to him " the mountains were God's altars," and he looked up to their cloud-capped summits with deep awe, as the dwelling place of " the Great Spirit."
With a sense of the beautiful equally true, their homes were grouped together in some shel- tered valley, girt round with bills, and woods, and water falls; or by the border of some quiet lake, or upon the rich alluvium of the river; but whether for convenience or beauty, they were ev- er by the water-side. And truly, when these spots were covered with the grand old woods, their primal vesture, when the white man's steps had not yet profaned the solitude, few scenes could have been found more lovely than the val- leys of the Merrimac, of Salmon brook, and the Nashua.
The Chiefs who dwelt in those valleys did not generally live in a style of much greater magnifi-
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cence than their subjects, though they enjoyed greater abundance. Their confederacy was a great democracy, where danger, conflict and toil and privation were shared alike by all, the lead- er being distinguished only by greater exertions and braver daring. But on great occasions they exhibited a rude splendor and profusion befitting the dignity of the tribe and its rulers, Sachems, and to which all contributed. Whittier, in his " Bridal ot Penacook," has given us a graphic picture of a wedding and dance given by Passa- conaway on the marriage of his daughter, Weta- moo, to Winnepurkit, Sachem of Saugus, Maine.
He has most beautifully and happily introduced the sweet and flowing Indian names, (how bar -- barous the taste which substituted most of our modern ones !) which abound along the Merrimac and its tributaries, and the whole scene is de- lightful as a specimen of Indian domestic life. For this reason, and as a portion of the luxuries were furnished by our own streams and hillsides, it is thought that its insertion here will not be inappropriate :---
THE BASHABA'S (1.) FEAST.
" With pipes of peace and bows unstrung, Glowing with paint, came old and young, In wampum, and furs and feathers arrayed, To the cance and feast Bashaba made.
Bird of the air and beast of the field, All which the woods and waters yield, On dishes of birch and hemlock piled, Garnished and graced that banquet wild.
Steaks of the brown bear fat and large, From the rocky slopes of the Kearsarge ; Delicate trout from Babboosuck brook, And salmon spear'd in the Contoocook ;
(1.) The name given to two or three principal chiefs.
3
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Squirrels which fed where nuts fell thick, In the gravelly bed of the Otternic, And small wild hens in reed-snares caught, From the banks of Sondagardee brought.
Pike and perch from the Suncook taken, Nuts from the trees of the Black Hills shaken, Cranberries picked in the Squamscot bog, And grapes from the vines of Piscataquog.
And drawn from that great stone vase which stands In the river scooped by a spirit's hands, (1.) In white parched pile, or thick suppawn, Stood the birchen dishes of smoking corn.
Thus bird of the air and beast of the field, All which the woods and water yield, Furnished in that olden day,
The bridal feast of the Bashaba.
And merrily when that feast was done, On the fire-lit green, the dance begun ; With the squaws' shrill stave, and deeper hum Of old men beating the Indian drum.
Painted and plumed, with scalp locks flowing, And red arms tossing, and black eyes glowing ; Now in the light and now in the shade, Around the fires the dancers played.
The step was quicker, the song more shrill, And the beat of the small drums louder still, Whenever within the circle drew, The Saugus Sachem and Weetamoo."
Among the first settlers of Dunstable we find the names of Rev. Mr. Thomas Weld, Joseph Wheeler, John Blanchard. Jonathan Tyng, Cor- nelius Waldo, Samuel Warner, Obadiah Perry, Samuel French, Robert Parris, Thomas Cum- mings, Isaac Cummings, Joseph Hassell, Chris- tophier Temple, John Goold, Samuel Goold, John Lollendine, Christopher Reed, Thomas Lund,
(1.) There are rocks in the river at the Falls of Amoskeag, in the cavities of which, tradition says, the Indians formerly stored and concealed their corn.
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Daniel Waldo, Andrew Cook, Samuel Whiting, John Lovewell, John Acres, John Waldo, Wil- liam Beale, Samuel Beale, John Cummings, Rob- ert Usher, Henry Farwell, Robert Proctor, Jo- seph Lovewell, John Lovewell, jr. The earliest compact settlements were made near the mouth of Salmon brook, between its mouth and the main road, and so down the Merrimac, upon the spots deserted by the Indians.
The land which lay between Salmon brook and the Merrimac was called "The Neck," and for greater security the " housne-lotts " (house lots) of the first settlers were laid out adjoining each other, and " within the neck." The lots which lay nearest Salmon brook ran from Salmon brook to the Merrimac, and were generally from thirty to forty rods in width upon each stream. After the first six or eight lots, the west line of the lots was bounded upon " Long Hill." In the rear of the school house in the Harbor district in Nashua, and the north and east edges of the Mill Pond, several cellar holes are still visible, and within a few years an ancient well was open. Apple trees are there standing, hollow, splintered, covered with moss and almost entirely decayed, bearing marks of very great antiquity. The ear- ly settlers came from the south eastern part of England, where cider and perry were manufac- tured in great quantities, and they brought with them the same tastes and habits. Orchards are spoken of in our town records as early as 1675, and these shattered relics of an age that is past may possibly have been the original stock, or at least their immediate descendants.
About fifty rods north east of the school house, near a small cluster of oaks, stood the "OLD FORT," or garrison, in which the inhabitants dwelt in seasons of imminent danger, and to
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which they often retired at night. There was a well in the fort which was open until within a few years. South of this spot, on the north bank of Salmon brook, and just in rear of the house of Miss Allds, were the houses of Hassell, Temple, and Perry, the cellar holes of which are still vis- ible. The field adjoining was owned by Perry, and is still known as the " Perry Field."
After the Charter was obtained in 1673, the inhabitants increased rapidly. The proprietors made liberal grants to actual settlers, and upon the following conditions, which have been select- ed from their articles of agreement drawn up Oct. 15, 1673.
" Every one yt (1.) is received (as an inhabitant,) shall have 10 acres for his person, and one acre more added thereto for every £20 estate, and none shall have above 30 acres in yr house lotts, nor none under 10 acres, and yt all after divisions of land shall be proportioned according to their home lotts, and so shall all yr public charges be, both as to church and town.
" All ye inhabitants yt are received into this town shall make improvements of ye lotts yt they take up, by build- ing upon them, by fencing and by breaking up land, by the time prefixed by the General Court, wh. is by Oct. 1076, and they shall live, each inhabitant upon his own lott, or else put such inhabitant upon it as the town accepts.
" To the intent yt we may live in love and peace togeth- er we do agree, yt whatever fence we do make, either about cornfields, orchards or gardens, shall be a sufficient four rail fence, or yt which is equivalent, whether hedge, ditch, or stone wall, or of loggs, and if any person sustain damage through the deficiency of their own fences not being according to order, he shall bear his own damage .- And if any man's cattle be unruly he shall do his best en- deavour to restrain them from doing himself or his neigh- bour (any harm.)"
These conditions, which evince much foresight, combined with the local advantages, were readi-
(1.) I have preserved the original spelling, in which yr, yt, ye, are written for their, that, and the.
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ly accepted, for May 11th, 1674, a meeting was holden at "the house of Lt. Joseph Wheeler," and a written agreement made between the pro- prietors and settlers. In this agreement it is pro- vided, that "the meeting house which is to be erected shall stand between Salmon brook and the house of Lt. Wheeler, as convenient as may be for the accommodation of both." As a meet- ing house in those perilous times, when men toil- ed and worshipped with their rifles by their side, would not be very likely to be erected beyond the settlement, we may reasonably suppose that the settlement at Salmon brook had already com- menced, and that at that date there were a con- siderable number of inhabitants.
CHAPTER IL.
THE INDIAN WAR OF 1675.
IN the summer of 1675 the war with Philip, the powerful and wily Sachem of the Wampano- ags, commenced, which involved nearly all the Indians in New England. It was not without a bitter struggle that the red men left their pleas- ant valleys, where they had roamed in child- hood, and where the bones of their fathers rested. Township after township had been occupied by the white men, and they had been crowded from their ancient hunting fields and fishing stations. At length they were surrounded by settlements, and mutual aggressions and heart-burnings en- sued. The red man and the white man could not longer live together, and the annihilation of one party or the other seemed the only alterna- tive. The Indians combined for a war of exter - mination, and all throughout New England were burning and massacre and devastation. Lan- caster, Groton and Chelmsford were destroyed, and hundreds killed or carried into captivity.
At such a period, with a war of extermination raging all around them, the settlers of Dunstable were indeed in a perilous situation. Scarcely as yet were the forests cleared away, and their dwel- lings erected. Even their meeting-house was not yet finished. To increase their alarm, Wanna- lancet withdrew from Wamesit, and surprise mag-
=
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nified it into a proof of hostility. When the news of the first bloodshed came to Dunstable, in 1675, "seven Indians, belonging to Narragansett, Long Island and Pequod, who had been at work for seven weeks with one Mr. Jonathan Tyng, of Dunstable, on Merrimac river, hearing of the war, they reckoned with their master, and getting their wages, conveyed themselves away without his privity, and being afraid, marched secretly through the woods, designing to go to their own country. (1.) At Quaboag, (now Brookfield, Mass., ) however, they were discovered by some friendly Indians, arrested and sent to Boston, where they were confined for a considerable time, but nothing being proved against them, they were at length discharged."
The settlers petitioned for relief from the Col- ony, in their distresses, and Capt. Samuel Mose- ly, just on his march to the fight at Bloody Brook, thus writes : "Nasawok, alias Lancaster, August 18, 1678. According to my orders from Maj. Gen. Denison, I sent to Dunstable eighteen men for to enlarge their garrison, and to Chelmsford twelve men, and to Groton twelve men." (2.)- This force was continued for their protection du- ring the whole of the year, and an attack pre- vented.
Sept. 8, 1675, instructions were given by the Governor and Council (3.) to Capt. Thomas Brat- tle and Lt. Thomas Henchman, to take various measures for the better security of the settlement. They were ordered,
First : To draft fifty men and form garrisons at Dunstable, Groton, and Lancaster.
(1.) Gookin's Praying Indians. 2 Am. Antiq. Coll. 413.
(2.) Original letter. Military Records, Mass. 1675.
(3.) Military Records, Mass. 1675, page 252. Gookin, 2 Amn. Ant. Coll. 162.
-
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Second : To appoint a Guardian over the friendly Indians, at each of their towns, who should oversee them, and prevent all difficulties or dangers which might occur up- on either side :
Third: To "send a runner or two to Wannalancet, Sa- chem of Naamkeak, (1.) who had withdrawn into the woods from fear," and to persuade him "to come in again " and live at Wamesit :
Fourth : To inform the Indians at Penacook and Naticook that if they will live quietly and peaceably, they shall not be harmed by the English.
These instructions were immediately and strict- ly obeyed. The garrison at Dunstable was strengthened. Lt. Henchman took charge of the Indians at Wamesit. Runners were sent out to Wannalancet, but they did not prevail upon him to return until the close of the war the next sum- mer. Capt. Mosely, with his choice company of one hundred men, making Dunstable his place of rendezvous, marched up to Naticook and Pena- cook to disperse the hostile Indians who were said to be gathered there for the purpose of mis- chief. "When the English drew nigh, whereof they had intelligence by scouts, they left their fort, and withdrew into the woods and swamps, where they had advantage and opportunity enough in ambushment to have slain many of the English soldiers, without any great harm to themselves, and several of the young Indians in- clined to it, but the Sachem, Wannalancet, by his authority and wisdom restrained his men, and suffered not an Indian to appear or shoot a gun. They were very near the English, and yet though they were provoked by the English, who
(1.)Pawtucket falls and vicinity. Amoskeag, properly Namaskeak, is the same word. It is said to mean "the great fishing place," and was a favorite of the Indians. The Merrimac received this name for some distance around the Falls, as it did other names at other places, or as is quaintly expressed by an Indian in a letter of May 1685 to the Governor : " My place at Malamake River, called Pannukkog (Pen- scook,) and Natukhog (Naticook,) that river great many names." 1 Belknap, appendix, 503.
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burned their wigwams and destroyed some dried fish, yet not one gun was shot at any English- man."(1.) Wannalancet is said to have been restrained by the dying speech of Passaconaway, his father.
The Indians who dwelt at Naticook (2.) were alarmed at their hostile movements, and gather- ing their corn hastily, prepared to leave their homes. This created new suspicion and alarm among the settlers, and nearly all of them de- serted the town, although companies of scouts were constantly traversing the wilderness for the protection of the frontiers.
The winter of 1675 was a time of fear and of trial. Never had "the Indian enemy " been more active or dreaded. Even the "Christian Indians " had communications with their hostile brethren, and the whites began to suspect them of treachery. 'The alarm increased to such a degree that every settler left Dunstable except Jonathan Tyng.(3.) With a resolution which is worthy of all praise, and of which we with diffi ... culty conceive, he fortified his house; and al- though " obliged to send to Boston for his food," sat himself down in the midst of his savage ene- mies, alone, in the wilderness, to defend his home. Deeming his position an important one for the defence of the frontiers, in Feb. 1676, he peti- tioned the Colony for aid. (4.)
" The Petition of Jonathan Tyng Humbly sheweth :
That yr Petitioner living in the uppermost house on Merrimac river, lying open to ye enemy, yet being so seat -
(1.) Gookin, in 2 Am. Antiq. Coll. 463.
(2.) The naine given by the Indians to the lands on both sides of the Merrimac, about Naticook brook and pond in Merrimac and in Litchfield.
(3.) Tyng's house probably stood not far from Wicasuck Falls, below Tyngsborough village.
(4.) See original petition. Mass. Military Records, 128.
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ed that it is as it were a watch house to the neighbouring towns, from whence we can easily give them notice of the approach of the enemy, and may also be of use to the pub- lique in many respects ; also are near unto the place of the Indian's flishing, from which in the season thereof they have great supplies, which I doubt not but we may be a great means of preventing them thereof; there being never an inhabitant left in the town but myself :-
Wherefore your Petitioner doth humbly request that your Honors would be pleased to order him three or four men to help garrison his said house, which he has been at great charge to ffortify, and may be of service to the pub- lique : your favour therein shall further oblige me as in duty bound to pray for a blessing on your Councils, and remain Your Honorables' humble servant,
JONATHAN TYNG."
Dunstable, Feb. 3, 1675-'6.(1.)
This petition was granted immediately, and a guard of several men despatched to his relief, which remained during the war. This planta- tion was never deserted, and he thus became the earliest permanent settler within the limits of Dunstable.
February 25, 1675-'6, an attack was made by the Indians upon Chelmsford, and several build- ings were burned. Colburn's garrison on the east side of the Merrimac was strengthened, but near- ly all the outer settlements were deserted. A few days later, March 20, another attack was made, and Joseph Parker wounded. (2.) There was no surgeon in the vicinity, and an express was sent to Boston to obtain one. The Council ordered Dr. David Middleton to repair forthwith to Chelmsford, from whence he writes, "We expect the Indians to attack us every hour," and he asks
(1.) What was called Feb. 3, 1675, when the year ended in March, is Feb. 3, 1676 if we consider the year as ending in Decem- ber, and in order to designate this, all dates occurring in the months of January, February, or March, previous to A. D. 1751, are describ- ed in the above manner. The true date is Feb. 3, 1676.
(2.) He was a settler of Dunstable, and constable from 1675 to 1682.
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that troops may be sent for their defence without delay, lest they should be cut off by the enemy. (1) Such is a specimen of life upon the frontiers dur- ing the heat of an Indian war.
A small garrison had been maintained at Lieut. Henchman's house from August, 1675, but in April, 1676, for the greater security of the fron- tiers, the Governor and Council ordered a fort to be built at Pawtucket falls, (2.) which was im- mediately done, and placed under the command of Lieut. James Richardson. In May, 1676, an additional force was stationed at the fort, under the command of Capt. Henchman, on account of "intelligence of the approach of the enemy." This was an effectual check to the incursions of the Indians ; and the death of Philip, which oc- curred soon after, (August, 1676,) with the de- struction of the greater part of his forces, put an end to the war. (3.) The settlers returned to their deserted homes, and the settlement received new life and vigor.
The General Court still retained their guardi- anship of the Indians, and in the summer of 1676, ordered those "that relate to Wannalancet," or Pawtuckets, or Wamesits, to remove to a place "near Mr. Jonathan Tyng's, at Dunstable." This was, perhaps, near Wicasuck falls and is- land, which were their property. Here they were placed, " with Mr. Tyng's consent, and un- der his inspection when at home, and in his ab- sence," says Gookin, "the care of them is un- der one Robert Parris, who is Mr. Tyng's vail." The whole number thus removed to Dunstable was about ten men and fifty women and chil-
(1.) Mass. Military Records, 1676, page 168.
2. Mass. Military Records, page 211.
(3.) 3 N. H. Hist. Coll., 99-100. 1 Holmes' Annals, 429.
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dren - "fifteen men and fifty women and chil- dren " having been " removed elsewhere," to va- rious places, and " bound out to service." For Indians who had ever been so true and friendly to the English, this would seem to be no very grateful or even kindly treatment.
These were Christian or "praying" Indians, and Dunstable was one of the "six places" at which they had a church and religious teachers. Here, says Gookin, one of their unvarying friends, who visited and comforted them, "they meet together to worship God, and keep the Sab- bath." (1.) Some of their teachers were Indians, their own brethren, who had been educated by Eliot, and here their prayers and praises went up to the common Father of the red man and the white man, who " hath made of one blood all na- tions of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth." Here, too, came Eliot, the noble "Apos- tle of the Indians," who had been their teacher at Wamesit, and who did not desert them when they were scattered abroad. Where his feet have trodden and his prayers ascended, we may "call it holy ground."
The treatment of the Indians by our forefa- thers generally, and of Wannalancet especially, was not Christian, and scarcely humane. They were ordered to move and remove at their will, imprisoned on the most unfounded suspicions, their hunting fields taken away, their fishing pla- ces and corn-fields encroached on with impunity, yet Wannalancet remained friendly to the end. They seemed to consider the Indians as "chil- dren of the devil," and that they, like the Jews, were raised up to destroy them. Even in their Covenant of Faith, the same feeling exhibits it-
(1.) Gookin's Christian Indians. 2 Am. Ant. Coll., 525.
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self, since they promise " not to lay a stumbling block before any, no, not even the Indians."
As a farther illustration of the spirit of those days, we quote the following from Dr. Increase Mather, the leading minister of the time. Speak- ing of "the efficacy of prayer," he says : "Nor could they cease praying to the Lord against Philip, until they had prayed the bullet into his heart." Again he adds, " We have heard of twenty-two Indian captives slain together all of them, and brought down to hell in one day." (1.)
A garrison was maintained at Mr. Tyng's, by a part of Capt. Mosely's famous company, and at the expense of the Colony, until August, 1676. The General Court allowed him £100 (2.) for his disbursements, as he was "put to great ex- pense, being obliged to buy his food in Boston," and after the departure of the Indians in 1683, granted him Wicasuck island in payment there- for. (3.) They also granted him a considerable sum for damage done by the Indians during the war, and also to " Thomas Wheeler and son, the latter of whom was wounded." (4.)
The war with the Narragansets was indeed end- ed, but the settlers had not escaped all danger or alarm. March 22, 1677, (5.) a party of Mo- hawks, always the enemy of the English, sud- denly appeared in Dunstable, at the mouth of the Souhegan. Their appearance is thus described in a letter from "James Parker," at " Mr. Hinch-
.) Gookin's History of the Praying Indians. 2 Am. Ant. Coll.
(2.) Pounds, shillings and pence were the currency of New Eng- land until the Revolution, when the Dollar and our decimal curren- cy were adopted instead. The pound containing twenty shillings was worth $3.33 ; shillings and pence are still used in reckoning.
(3.) Mass. Military Records, 1683.
(4.) Mass. Military Records, 1676, page 121.
(5.) Holmes' Annals, 429. 1 Belknap, 80. Allen's Chelmsford, 155.
1128685
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manne's farme ner Meremack," and forwarded " to the Honred Govner and Council at Bostown, HAST, POST HAST." (1.)
" Sagamore Wanalancet come this morning to informe me, and then went to Mr. Tyng's to informe him, that his son being one ye other sid of Meremack river over against Souhegan upon the 22 day of this instant, about tene of the clock in the morning, he discovered 15 Indians on this sid the River, which he soposed to be Mohokes by ther spech. He called to them ; they answered, but he could not un- derstand ther spech ; and he having a conow ther in the river, he went to breck his conow that they might not have ani ues of it. In the mean time they shot about thirty guns at him, and he being much frighted fled, and come home forthwith to Nahamcok, wher ther wigowames now stand."
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