Captivity and Restoration | Page 9

haste,
whereupon they took him upon their backs, and carried him, one at a
time, till they came to Banquaug river. Upon a Friday, a little after
noon, we came to this river. When all the company was come up, and
were gathered together, I thought to count the number of them, but they
were so many, and being somewhat in motion, it was beyond my skill.
In this travel, because of my wound, I was somewhat favored in my
load; I carried only my knitting work and two quarts of parched meal.
Being very faint I asked my mistress to give me one spoonful of the
meal, but she would not give me a taste. They quickly fell to cutting
dry trees, to make rafts to carry them over the river: and soon my turn
came to go over. By the advantage of some brush which they had laid
upon the raft to sit upon, I did not wet my foot (which many of
themselves at the other end were mid-leg deep) which cannot but be
acknowledged as a favor of God to my weakened body, it being a very
cold time. I was not before acquainted with such kind of doings or
dangers. "When thou passeth through the waters I will be with thee, and
through the rivers they shall not overflow thee" (Isaiah 43.2). A certain
number of us got over the river that night, but it was the night after the
Sabbath before all the company was got over. On the Saturday they
boiled an old horse's leg which they had got, and so we drank of the
broth, as soon as they thought it was ready, and when it was almost all
gone, they filled it up again.
The first week of my being among them I hardly ate any thing; the
second week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of
something; and yet it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but
the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would
turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat
such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste. I was at this

time knitting a pair of white cotton stockings for my mistress; and had
not yet wrought upon a Sabbath day. When the Sabbath came they bade
me go to work. I told them it was the Sabbath day, and desired them to
let me rest, and told them I would do as much more tomorrow; to
which they answered me they would break my face. And here I cannot
but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the
heathen. They were many hundreds, old and young, some sick, and
some lame; many had papooses at their backs. The greatest number at
this time with us were squaws, and they traveled with all they had, bag
and baggage, and yet they got over this river aforesaid; and on Monday
they set their wigwams on fire, and away they went. On that very day
came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of
their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give
them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so
great a mercy as victory and deliverance. If we had been God would
have found out a way for the English to have passed this river, as well
as for the Indians with their squaws and children, and all their luggage.
"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).
The Sixth Remove
On Monday (as I said) they set their wigwams on fire and went away. It
was a cold morning, and before us there was a great brook with ice on
it; some waded through it, up to the knees and higher, but others went
till they came to a beaver dam, and I amongst them, where through the
good providence of God, I did not wet my foot. I went along that day
mourning and lamenting, leaving farther my own country, and traveling
into a vast and howling wilderness, and I understood something of Lot's
wife's temptation, when she looked back. We came that day to a great
swamp, by the side of which we took up our lodging that night. When I
came to the brow of the hill, that looked toward the swamp, I thought
we had been come to a great Indian town (though there were none but
our own company). The Indians were as thick as the trees: