the English would make more profit of the victory than they were willing they should, or else deprive them of that advantage that they desired in making the Pequots become tributaries unto them, or the like. For the rest of this tragedy, I shall only relate the same as in a letter from Mr. Winthrop to Mr. Bradford, as followeth:—

WORTHY SIR,

I received your loving letter, but straightness of time forbids me, for my desire is to acquaint you with the Lord’s great mercy towards us, in our prevailing against his and our enemies, that you may rejoice and praise his name with us. About fourscore of our men, having coasted along towards the Dutch Plantation, sometimes by water but most by land, met here and there with some Pequots, whom they slew, or took prisoners. Two sachems they took and beheaded; and not hearing of Sasacus, the chief sachem, they gave a prisoner his life to go and find him out; he went and brought them word where he was; but Sasacus suspecting him to be a spy, after he was gone, fled away with some twenty more to the Mohawks, so our men missed of him; yet dividing themselves, and ranging up and down, as the providence of God guided them, for the Indians were all gone, save three or four, and they knew not whither to guide them, or else would not; upon the thirteenth of this month, they lighted upon a great company, namely, eighty strong men, and two hundred women and children, in a small Indian town, fast by a hideous swamp, which they all slipped into, before our men could get to them.

Our captains were not then come together; but there was Mr. Ludlow and Capt. Mason, with some ten of their men, and Capt. Patrick, with some twenty or more of his, who, shooting at the Indians, Capt. Trask, with fifty more, came soon in at the noise. Then they gave order to surround the swamp, it being about a mile round; but Lieut. Davenport, and some twelve more, not hearing that command, fell into the swamp among the Indians. The swamp was so thick with shrubs, and boggy withal, that some stuck fast, and received many shot.

Lieut. Davenport was dangerously wounded about his armhole, and another shot in the head, so as fainting, they were in great danger to have been taken by the Indians; but sergeant Riggs and sergeant Jeffery, and two or three more, rescued them, and slew divers of the Indians with their swords. After they were drawn out, the Indians desired parley, and were offered by Thomas Stanton, our interpreter, that if they would come out and yield themselves, they should have their lives that had not their hand in the English blood. Whereupon the sachem of the place came forth, and an old man or two, and their wives and children, and so they spake two hours, till it was night. Then Thomas Stanton was sent to them again, to call them forth, but they said they would sell their lives there; and so shot at him so thick, as, if he had not been presently relieved and rescued, on his crying out, they would have slain him.

Then our men cut off a place of swamp with their swords, and cooped up the Indians into a narrow compass, so as they could easier kill them through the thickets. So they continued all the night, standing about twelve foot one from another, and the Indians, coming up close to our men, shot their arrows so thick, as they pierced their hat-brims, and their sleeves and stockings, and other parts of their clothes; yet so miraculously did the Lord preserve them, as not one of them was wounded, save those three who rashly went into the swamp as aforesaid. When it was near day it grew very dark, so as those of them that were left, dropped away, though they stood but twelve or fourteen foot asunder, and were presently discovered, and some killed in the pursuit. In the searching of the swamp the next morning, they found nine slain, and some they pulled up, whom the Indians had buried in the mire; so as they do think that of all this company not twenty did escape, for they afterwards found some who died in the flight, of their wounds received. The prisoners were divided, some to those of the river, and the rest to us of these parts. We send the male children to Bermuda, by Mr. William Pierce, and the women and maid children are disposed about in the towns. There have been now slain and taken in all, about seven hundred, the rest are dispersed, and the Indians, in all quarters, so terrified, as all their friends are afraid to receive them. Two of the sachems of Long Island came to Mr. Stoughton, and tendered themselves to be under our protection; and two of the Nepannet sachems have been with me to seek our friendship. Among the prisoners we have the wife and children of Mononotto, a woman of a very modest countenance and