XXII. Depositions of Barefoote, Mason, &c. 1683 XXIII Employment of Seneca and Mohawk Indians, 1684 XXIV. Orders of Gov. Cranfield, 1684 XXV. Original Letter of Rev. Seaborn Cotton to Council of N. H. XXVI. List of the civil government of Massachusetts from 1630 to 1641, XXVII Extract from the Records of the House of Deputies, 1654 COLLECTIONS. Capt. Thomas Wheeler's Narrative of an Expedition with Capt. Edward Hutchinson into the Nipmuck Country, and to Quabaog, now Brookfield, Mass. first published 1675. [The following Narrative is very scarce,and must have been so when Gov. Hutchinson wrote his History of Massachusetts, as it does not appear, in giving an account of the Expedition, (Hist. Mass. Vol. I, 265,) in which his ancestor sustained such an important part and lost his life, that the historian has made any reference whatever to Capt. Wheeler's Narrative, which he would most likely have done had he known of its existence. The following is printed from a copy which appears to have belonged to Deputy Governor Danforth, of Cambridge, and which has been obligingly furnished the Publishing Committee by a Gentleman of Salem, Ms. who is known for his very minute and thorough researches in the early history of our country. A few notes have been handed the Committee by a member of the Society.] A TRUE NARRATIVE Of the Lord's Providences in various dispensations towards Captain Edward Hutchinson of Boston and my self, and those that went with us into the Nipmuck Country, and also to Quabaug, alias Brookfield: The said Captain Hutchinson having a Commission from the Honoured Council of this Colony to treat with several Sachems in those parts in order to the publick peace, and my self being also ordered by the said Council to accompany him with part of my troop for security from any danger that might be from the Indians: and to assist him in the transaction of matters committed to him. THE said Captain Hutchinson,* and myself, with about twenty men or more marched from Cambridge to Sudbury, July 28, 1675; and from thence into the Nipmuck Country, and finding that the Indians had deserted their towns, and we having gone until we came within two miles of New Norwitch, on July 31, (only we saw two Indians having an horse with them, whom we would have spoke with, but they fled from us and left their horse, which we took,) we then thought it not expedient to march any further that way, but set our march for Brookfield,whither we came on the Lord's day about noon. From thence the same day, (being August 1,) we understanding that the Indians were about ten miles north west from us, we sent out four men to acquaint the Indians that we were not come to harm them, but our business was only to deliver a Message from our Honoured Governour and Council to them, and to receive their answer, we desiring to come to a Treaty of Peace with them, (though they had for several dayes fled from us,) they hav [Capt. Hutchinson had a very considerable farm in the Nipmug country, and had occasion to employ several of the Nipmug sachem's men in tilling and ploughing the ground, and thereby was known to the face of many of them. The sachems sent word that they would speak with none but Capt. Hutchinson himself, and appointed a meeting at such a tree and such a time. The guide that conducted him and those that were with him through the woods, brought them to a swamp [as stated in the Narrative] not far off the appointed place, out of which those Indians ran all at once and killed sixteen [but 8, as in Narrative] men, and wounded several others, of which wounds Capt. Hutchinson afterwards died, whose death is the more lamented in that his mother and several others of his relations died by the hands of the Indians, now above 30 years since. Ms. Letter sent to London, dated Nov. 10, 1675, as quoted by Gov. Hutchinson, I. 266. Capt. Hutchinson belonged to Boston and had been one of its representatives, and considerably in publick life. He was son of William and the celebrated ANN Hutchinson, and was brother-in-law to Major Thomas Savage, of Boston, who married Faith, the sister of Capt. H. He was the father of the Hon. Elisha Hutchinson, one of the Counsellors of Massachusetts, who died 10 December, 1717, aged 77. The last was father of Hon. Thomas Hutchinson, born 30 January, 1674; died 3 December, 1739, whose son, Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, born 9 September, 1711, was the celebrated historian of Massachusetts. I Savage's Winthrop, 246. It is a little singular that the Gov. should not have met with a Narrative so particular respecting the fate of his great ancestor.] ing before professed friendship, and promised fidelity to the English. When the messengers came to them they made an alarm, and gathered together about an hundred and fifty fighting men as near as they could judge. The young men amongst them were stout in their speeches, and surly in their carriage. But at length some of the chief Sachems promised to meet us on the next morning about 8 of the clock upon a plain within three miles of Brookfield, with which answer the messengers returned to us. Whereupon, though their speeches and carriage did much discourage divers of our company, yet we conceived that we had a cleer call to go to meet them at the place whither they had promised to come. Accordingly we with our men accompanied with three of the principal inhabitants of that town marched to the plain appointed; but the treacherous heathen intending mischief, (if they could have opportunity,) came not to the said place, and so failed our hopes of speaking with them there. Whereupon the said Captain Hutchinson and my self, with the rest of our company, considered what was best to be done, whether we should go any further towards them or return, divers of us apprehending much danger in case we did proceed, because the Indians kept not promise there with us. But the three men who belonged to Brookfield were so strongly perswaded of their freedome from any ill intentions towards us, (as upon other bounds, so especially because the greatest part of those Indians belonged to David, one of their chief Sachems, who was taken to be a great friend to the English :) that the said Captain Hutchinson who was principally intrusted with the matter of Treaty with them, was thereby encouraged to proceed and march forward towards a Swampe where the Indians then were. When we came near the said swampe, the way was so very bad that we could march only in a single file, there be ing a very rocky hill on the right hand, and a thick swampe on the left. In which there were many of those cruel blood-thirsty heathen, who there way laid us, waiting an opportunity to cut us off; there being also much brush on the side of the said hill, where they lay in ambush to surprize us.* When we had marched there about sixty or seventy rods, the said perfidious Indians sent out their shot upon us as a showre of haile, they being, (as was supposed,)about two hundred men or more. We seeing our selves so beset, and not having room to fight, endeavoured to fly for the safety of our lives. In which flight we were in no small danger to be all cut off, there being a very miry swamp before us, into which we could not enter with our horses to go forwards, and there being no safety in retreating the way we came, because many of our company, who lay behind the bushes, and had let us pass by them quietly; when others had shot, they came out, and stopt our way back, so that we were forced as we could to get up the steep and rocky hill; but the greater our danger was, the greater was God's mercy in the preservation of so many of us from sudden destruction. My self being gone up part of the hill without any hurt, and perceiving some of my men to be fallen by the enemies' shot, I wheeled about upon the Indians, not calling on my men who were left to accompany me, which they in all probability would have done had they known of my return upon the enemy. They firing violently out of the swamp, and from behind the bushes on the hill side wounded me sorely, and shot my horse under me, so that he faultring and falling, I was forc *[It seems from a note in Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, that the Indians took a prisoner of the name of George, a christian Indian, who afterwards reported that Philip and his company of about 40 men, besides women and children, joined the Nipmuck Indians in a swamp, ten or twelve miles from Brookfield on the 5th of August. The Indians told Philip, at his first coming, what they had done to the English at Quabaog: Then he presented and gave to three sagamores, viz. John alias Apequinash, Quanansit, and Mawtamps, to each of them about a peck of unstrung wampum, which they accepted." Philip was conducted to the swamp by two Indians, one of whom was Caleb of Tatumasket, beyond Mendon.] |