1748.]

ROUTE OF THE INDIANS TO CANADA.

51

The route pursued by the Indians in reaching Crown Point on their way to Canada, is thus described by Sergt. Taylor, one of the captives: "They crossed the Connecticut at a place then called Catts-bane, two or three miles above the mouth of West River, which they fell in with at the lower fork; thence proceeded up that river, part of the way on the flats, over the ground where Capt. Melvin's affair happened, three or four miles below the upper fork; thence to the source of the river, and over the high lands to Otter Creek; thence down this creek several miles, and crossing, proceeded to Lake Champlain about twelve miles south of Crown Point, whence they proceeded in canoes to that post. The enemy carried several of their wounded, and were joined on the route by another body with a prisoner, Mrs. Fitch, taken at Lunenburgh. The Indians halted in the middle of the forenoon, at noon, and the middle of the afternoon-their march, twenty miles per day."*

The General Court of Massachusetts, in view of the services rendered, gave especial rewards to Sergt. Taylor, to the three of his companions who were the greatest sufferers, and to the representatives of those who were slain.

This calamity, and the others which had preceded it, aroused the attention of Massachusetts to the necessity of a more efficient defence of the frontier settlements. Brig.-Gen. Joseph Dwight wrote to Secretary Willard, of Massachusetts, on the

* Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 251. In the year 1739, John Fitch purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, situated about seven and a half miles above the meeting-house in Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, where he built a house and cultivated a farm. For a defence against the enemy, he afterwards erected a blockhouse, at which scouting parties were accustomed to rendezvous. On the 5th of July, 1748, there being but two soldiers with him, the enemy appeared, shot one of them, and drove Fitch and the other into the garrison. After besieging the garrison about an hour and a half, the other was shot through the porthole in the flanker. Fitch being left alone and unable longer to resist, was taken prisoner with his wife and five children. The Indians, after possessing themselves of such things as they wished, burned the house and garrison, and set out with their captives for Canada. It is probable that the party separated before reaching Crown Point, since Sergt. Taylor, in mentioning the arrival of Mrs. Fitch, makes no reference to her husband, who was probably in another company. The youngest of the children was not weaned, and two of the others, from want of provisions, became nurslings on the way. After a wearisome march, they reached their place of destination, but were not obliged to remain long in captivity, being allowed to return home early in the following fall. Having reached New York, they set out for Massachusetts by the way of Rhode Island; but Mrs. Fitch, wearied by the long journey she had just accomplished, and overcome by her sufferings, died at Providence.

16th of July, praying for a "thousand men to drive the woods and pursue the enemy to Crown Point;" also, for several troops of horse. He also proposed, that other means than those which had been heretofore used, should be tried to enlist soldiers, and that £1000 should be paid for every Indian killed, the scalp to be a sufficient order for the reward. Col. Israel Williams of Hatfield also wrote to Governor Shirley, on the 16th, advising that twenty or thirty of the Six nations of Indians should reside at Number Four and at Fort Massachusetts. Their presence, it was urged, would ward off the attacks of the enemy. Col. Josiah Willard, of Fort Dummer, in a letter written on the 19th, said: "Ever since Number Four above us has been so mantled,* they (the Indians) press exceeding hard upon Fort Dummer and Mr. Hinsdell's garrison, both which are very weak-handed. My business of procuring stores obliges us to go out, and having but sixteen men in ye fort, we are exceedingly exposed." His son, Major Josiah Willard, of Ashuelot, in a letter dated a few days previous, complained of the scarceness of provisions at Number Four.

In answer to these various communications, Governor Shirley ordered Col. Willard to detain twenty men of the garrison of Number Four at Fort Dummer, for a short time while the enemy were near; and it appears that Capt. Thomas Buckminster, with forty-seven men, was stationed there from the 6th to the 20th of August.

remainder of the On the morning

The incursions of the Indians during the year, were neither numerous nor extended. of the 23d of July, a little before sunrise, six Indians having attacked Aaron Belding, killed and scalped him on the main street in Northfield. The inhabitants were generally in bed, but on hearing the alarm arose as fast as possible, and hurried to the spot. The Indians had, however, made good their escape, and though they were hotly pursued, yet it was to no purpose.

An attack on Fort Massachusetts was the last hostile act of the enemy for the year. Suitable provision was made for maintaining the principal forts during the coming winter; and by the special advice of Governor Shirley, fifteen men were stationed at Fort Dummer, and five at Hinsdell's Fort, there to remain for seven months from the 20th of November.

*Covered, guarded or protected.

CHAPTER III.

FRONTIER LIFE.

Preparations for Defence-Life of the Frontier Settlers Soldiers' QuartersDiversions of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter—Effects of a Declaration of War-Grants of Townships on Connecticut River by Massachusetts--Number One or New Taunton-Conditions of a Grant-First Settlement of New Taunton, now Westminster-The place abandoned-Re-settled-Proposition to Settle the Coos Country-John Stark-Convention at Albany-Incursion at Charlestown-Birth of Captive Johnson-Inscription commemorative of the Circumstance-Other Depredations-Defences-The Great Meadow-Its Settlement-Partisan Corps-The Life of a "Ranger"-Continuation of Incursions-Attack on Bridgman's Fort-Captivity of Mrs. How-Attack near Hinsdale's Fort-Dispute as to the Maintenance of Fort Dummer-Death of Col. Ephraim Williams.

THE peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded on the 18th of October, 1748, and proclaimed at Boston in January, 1749, although it put an end to the war between England and France, did not immediately restore tranquillity to the colonies. Early in the next year, hostile Indians began as usual to hover around the frontier settlements, and on the 20th of June, a party of them in ambush shot Ensign Obadiah Sartwell, of Number Four, as he was harrowing corn in his house-lot, and took captive Enos Stevens, son of the renowned captain. About the same time Lieut. Moses Willard, in company with his two sons and James Porter Jr., discovered at the north of West river mountain five fires, and numerous Indian tracks; and as Mr. Andros was going from Fort Dummer to Hinsdell's garrison, he saw a gun fired among some cattle as they were grazing but a short distance from him. These indications were enough to awaken suspicions of a bloody season, and the General Court accordingly enlisted a force of fifty men to serve as scouts between Northfield and Number Four, having their head-quarters at Fort Dummer and Col. Hinsdell's garrison,

and being under the command of Col. Josiah Willard. They continued on this service from the 26th of June to the 17th of July, and were then dismissed, it appearing that the enemy had removed from that portion of the country. Although hostilities had ceased, and notwithstanding a treaty of peace was concluded with the Indians at Falmouth in the month of September following, yet the forces were not wholly withdrawn from the frontiers. A garrison of fifteen men, afterwards reduced to ten, was continued at Fort Dummer from September, 1749, to June, 1750, and the same number of men was stationed respectively at Number Four and Fort Massachusetts during the same period.

Throughout the whole of this war, the Indians were generally successful in their attacks upon the whites, and yet there were no instances in which deliberate murder was committed, or cruel torture inflicted on those who fell into their hands. On the contrary, their captives were always treated with kindness; blankets and shoes were provided to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, and in case of a scarcity of provisions the vanquished and victor shared alike.

Civilization in this part of the country, even if it had not retrograded during these struggles, had made but little advance, and many of the settlements which had been commenced before the war, were wholly abandoned during its progress. The people not belonging to the garrisons and who still remained on the frontiers, lived in fortified houses which were distinguished by the names of the owners or occupants, and afforded sufficient defence from the attacks of musketry. The settler never went to his labors unarmed, and were he to toil in the field would as soon have left his instruments of husbandry at home as his gun or his pistols. Often was it the case, that the woods which surrounded his little patch of cleared ground and sheltered his poor but comfortable dwelling, sheltered also his most deadly enemy ready to plunder and destroy.*

*The fortified houses were in some instances surrounded with palisades of cleft or hewn timber, planted perpendicularly in the ground, and without ditches. The villages were inclosed by larger works of a similar style. Occasionally, flanking works were placed at the angles of fortified houses, similar to small bastions. "A work called a mount was often erected at exposed points. These [mounts] were a kind of elevated block-house, affording a view of the neighboring country, and where they were wanting, sentry-boxes were generally placed upon the roofs of houses."-Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 185.

1749.]

LIFE OF THE FRONTIER SETTLERS.

55

Solitary and unsocial as the life might seem to be which the soldiers led in the garrisons-distant as they were from any but the smallest settlements, and liable at almost any moment to the attack of the enemy-yet it had also its bright side, and to a close observer does not appear to have been wholly devoid of pleasure. The soldiers' quarters were for the most part comfortable, and their fare, though not always the richest, was good of its kind. Hard labor in the woods or field, or on camp duty, afforded a seasoning to their simple repast, the piquancy of which effeminate ease never imagined. Those who kept watch by night, rested by day, and none, except in times of imminent danger, were deprived of their customary quota of sleep.

In the spring, when the ground was to be ploughed and the grain sown, with a proper guard stationed in different parts of the field, the laborers accomplished their toil. In the pleasant afternoons when the genial sunshine was bringing out "the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn," a game at ball on the well trodden parade, or of whist with a broad flat stone for a table, and a knapsack for an easy cushion, served either to nerve the arm for brave deeds, and quicken the eye with an Indian instinct, or to sharpen in the English mind that principle, which nowadays has its full development in Yankee cunning. Pleasant also was it to snare the unsuspecting salmon as he pursued his way up the river; exciting to spear him, when endeavoring to leap the falls which impeded his advance.

The grass ripened in the hot summer's day, and the crop was carefully gathered, that the "kindly cow" might not perish in the long winter, and that the soldier might occasionally renew his homely but healthful bed of hay. By and by, when the golden silk that had swayed so gently on the top of the tall stalk, turning sere and crinkled, told that the maize with which God had supplied the hunger of the Indian for ages, was ready to yield nourishment to his bitterest enemy the white, then for a while was the sword exchanged for the sickle, and the shouts of harvest-home sounded a strange contrast to the whoop of the foeman. And then at the husking, no spacious barn which had received the golden load, beheld beneath its roof the merry company assembled for sport as well as labor, but when gathered in knots of three or four, or it might be a half dozen, as they stripped the dried husk, and filled the basket with the full ears, or cast the dishonored nubbins in some ignoble corner, who doubts that their thoughts wandered back to the dear delights