Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
me. I told him I could not tell what to give him. I would [give him]
anything I had, and asked him what he would have? He said two coats
and twenty shillings in money, and half a bushel of seed corn, and some
tobacco. I thanked him for his love; but I knew the good news as well
as the crafty fox. My master after he had had his drink, quickly came
ranting into the wigwam again, and called for Mr. Hoar, drinking to him,
and saying, he was a good man, and then again he would say, "hang him
rogue." Being almost drunk, he would drink to him, and yet presently say
he should be hanged. Then he called for me. I trembled to hear him, yet
I was fain to go to him, and he drank to me, showing no incivility. He
was the first Indian I saw drunk all the while that I was amongst them.
At last his squaw ran out, and he after her, round the wigwam, with
his money jingling at his knees. But she escaped him. But having an old
squaw he ran to her; and so through the Lord's mercy, we were no more
troubled that night. Yet I had not a comfortable night's rest; for I
think I can say, I did not sleep for three nights together. The night
before the letter came from the council, I could not rest, I was so full
of fears and troubles, God many times leaving us most in the dark, when
deliverance is nearest. Yea, at this time I could not rest night nor
day. The next night I was overjoyed, Mr. Hoar being come, and that with
such good tidings. The third night I was even swallowed up with the
thoughts of things, viz. that ever I should go home again; and that I
must go, leaving my children behind me in the wilderness; so that sleep
was now almost departed from mine eyes.
On Tuesday morning they called their general court (as they call it) to
consult and determine, whether I should go home or no. And they all
as one man did seemingly consent to it, that I should go home; except
Philip, who would not come among them.
But before I go any further, I would take leave to mention a few
remarkable passages of providence, which I took special notice of in my
afflicted time.
1. Of the fair opportunity lost in the long march, a little after the
fort fight, when our English army was so numerous, and in pursuit of the
enemy, and so near as to take several and destroy them, and the enemy in
such distress for food that our men might track them by their rooting
in the earth for ground nuts, whilst they were flying for their lives.
I say, that then our army should want provision, and be forced to leave
their pursuit and return homeward; and the very next week the enemy came
upon our town, like bears bereft of their whelps, or so many ravenous
wolves, rending us and our lambs to death. But what shall I say? God
seemed to leave his People to themselves, and order all things for His
own holy ends. Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not
done it? They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, therefore
shall they go captive, with the first that go captive. It is the Lord's
doing, and it should be marvelous in our eyes.
2. I cannot but remember how the Indians derided the slowness, and
dullness of the English army, in its setting out. For after the
desolations at Lancaster and Medfield, as I went along with them, they
asked me when I thought the English army would come after them? I told
them I could not tell. "It may be they will come in May," said they.
Thus did they scoff at us, as if the English would be a quarter of a
year getting ready.
3. Which also I have hinted before, when the English army with
new supplies were sent forth to pursue after the enemy, and they
understanding it, fled before them till they came to Banquang river,
where they forthwith went over safely; that that river should be
impassable to the English. I can but admire to see the wonderful
providence of God in preserving the heathen for further affliction to
our poor country. They could go in great numbers over, but the English
must stop. God had an over-ruling hand in all those things.
4. It was thought, if their corn were cut down, they would starve and
die with hunger, and all their corn that could be found, was destroyed,
and they driven from that little they had in store, into the woods in
the midst of winter; and yet how to admiration did the Lord preserve
them for His holy ends, and the destruction of many still amongst the
English! strangely did the Lord provide for them; that I did not see
(all the time I was among them) one man, woman, or child, die with
hunger.
Though many times they would eat that, that a hog or a dog would hardly
touch; yet by that God strengthened them to be a scourge to His people.
The chief and commonest food was ground nuts. They eat also nuts and
acorns, artichokes, lilly roots, ground beans, and several other weeds
and roots, that I know not.
They would pick up old bones, and cut them to pieces at the joints, and
if they were full of worms and maggots, they would scald them over the
fire to make the vermine come out, and then boil them, and drink up the
liquor, and then beat the great ends of them in a mortar, and so eat
them. They would eat horse's guts, and ears, and all sorts of wild birds
which they could catch; also bear, venison, beaver, tortoise, frogs,
squirrels, dogs, skunks, rattlesnakes; yea, the very bark of trees;
besides all sorts of creatures, and provision which they plundered from
the English. I can but stand in admiration to see the wonderful power
of God in providing for such a vast number of our enemies in the
wilderness, where there was nothing to be seen, but from hand to mouth.
Many times in a morning, the generality of them would eat up all they
had, and yet have some further supply against they wanted. It is said,
"Oh, that my People had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my
ways, I should soon have subdued their Enemies, and turned my hand
against their Adversaries" (Psalm 81.13-14). But now our perverse and
evil carriages in the sight of the Lord, have so offended Him, that
instead of turning His hand against them, the Lord feeds and nourishes
them up to be a scourge to the whole land.
5. Another thing that I would observe is the strange providence of God,
in turning things about when the Indians was at the highest, and the
English at the lowest. I was with the enemy eleven weeks and five
days, and not one week passed without the fury of the enemy, and some
desolation by fire and sword upon one place or other. They mourned (with
their black faces) for their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced in
their inhumane, and many times devilish cruelty to the English. They
would boast much of their victories; saying that in two hours time they
had destroyed such a captain and his company at such a place; and boast
how many towns they had destroyed, and then scoff, and say they had done
them a good turn to send them to Heaven so soon. Again, they would say
this summer that they would knock all the rogues in the head, or drive
them into the sea, or make them fly the country; thinking surely,
Agag-like, "The bitterness of Death is past." Now the heathen begins to
think all is their own, and the poor Christians' hopes to fail (as
to man) and now their eyes are more to God, and their hearts sigh
heaven-ward; and to say in good earnest, "Help Lord, or we perish."
When the Lord had brought His people to this, that they saw no help in
anything but Himself; then He takes the quarrel into His own hand; and
though they had made a pit, in their own imaginations, as deep as hell
for the Christians that summer, yet the Lord hurled themselves into it.
And the Lord had not so many ways before to preserve them, but now He
hath as many to destroy them.
But to return again to my going home, where we may see a remarkable
change of providence. At first they were all against it, except my
husband would come for me, but afterwards they assented to it, and
seemed much to rejoice in it; some asked me to send them some bread,
others some tobacco, others shaking me by the hand, offering me a hood
and scarfe to ride in; not one moving hand or tongue against it. Thus
hath the Lord answered my poor desire, and the many earnest requests of
others put up unto God for me. In my travels an Indian came to me and
told me, if I were willing, he and his squaw would run away, and go home
along with me. I told him no: I was not willing to run away, but desired
to wait God's time, that I might go home quietly, and without fear. And
now God hath granted me my desire. O the wonderful power of God that I
have seen, and the experience that I have had. I have been in the midst
of those roaring lions, and savage bears, that feared neither God, nor
man, nor the devil, by night and day, alone and in company, sleeping all
sorts together, and yet not one of them ever offered me the least abuse
of unchastity to me, in word or action. Though some are ready to say I
speak it for my own credit; but I speak it in the presence of God, and
to His Glory. God's power is as great now, and as sufficient to save, as
when He preserved Daniel in the lion's den; or the three children in the
fiery furnace. I may well say as his Psalm 107.12 "Oh give thanks unto
the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever." Let the
redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of
the enemy, especially that I should come away in the midst of so many
hundreds of enemies quietly and peaceably, and not a dog moving his
tongue. So I took my leave of them, and in coming along my heart melted
into tears, more than all the while I was with them, and I was almost
swallowed up with the thoughts that ever I should go home again. About
the sun going down, Mr. Hoar, and myself, and the two Indians came
to Lancaster, and a solemn sight it was to me. There had I lived many
comfortable years amongst my relations and neighbors, and now not one
Christian to be seen, nor one house left standing. We went on to
a farmhouse that was yet standing, where we lay all night, and a
comfortable lodging we had, though nothing but straw to lie on. The
Lord preserved us in safety that night, and raised us up again in the
morning, and carried us along, that before noon, we came to Concord. Now
was I full of joy, and yet not without sorrow; joy to see such a lovely
sight, so many Christians together, and some of them my neighbors. There
I met with my brother, and my brother-in-law, who asked me, if I knew
where his wife was? Poor heart! he had helped to bury her, and knew it
not. She being shot down by the house was partly burnt, so that
those who were at Boston at the desolation of the town, and came back
afterward, and buried the dead, did not know her. Yet I was not without
sorrow, to think how many were looking and longing, and my own children
amongst the rest, to enjoy that deliverance that I had now received,
and I did not know whether ever I should see them again. Being recruited
with food and raiment we went to Boston that day, where I met with my
dear husband, but the thoughts of our dear children, one being dead, and
the other we could not tell where, abated our comfort each to other. I
was not before so much hemmed in with the merciless and cruel heathen,
but now as much with pitiful, tender-hearted and compassionate
Christians. In that poor, and distressed, and beggarly condition I was
received in; I was kindly entertained in several houses. So much love I
received from several (some of whom I knew, and others I knew not) that
I am not capable to declare it. But the Lord knows them all by name.
The Lord reward them sevenfold into their bosoms of His spirituals,
for their temporals. The twenty pounds, the price of my redemption,
was raised by some Boston gentlemen, and Mrs. Usher, whose bounty and