step in
there was a sudden outcry among them, and I must step back, and instead
of going over the river, I must go four or five miles up the river
farther northward. Some of the Indians ran one way, and some another.
The cause of this rout was, as I thought, their espying some English
scouts, who were thereabout. In this travel up the river about noon the
company made a stop, and sat down; some to eat, and others to rest them.
As I sat amongst them, musing of things past, my son Joseph unexpectedly
came to me. We asked of each other's welfare, bemoaning our doleful
condition, and the change that had come upon us. We had husband and
father, and children, and sisters, and friends, and relations, and
house, and home, and many comforts of this life: but now we may say, as
Job, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return:
the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the
Lord." I asked him whether he would read. He told me he earnestly
desired it, I gave him my Bible, and he lighted upon that comfortable
Scripture "I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord:
the Lord hath chastened me sore yet he hath not given me over to death"
(Psalm 118.17-18). "Look here, mother," says he, "did you read this?"
And here I may take occasion to mention one principal ground of my
setting forth these lines: even as the psalmist says, to declare
the works of the Lord, and His wonderful power in carrying us along,
preserving us in the wilderness, while under the enemy's hand, and
returning of us in safety again. And His goodness in bringing to my
hand so many comfortable and suitable scriptures in my distress. But to
return, we traveled on till night; and in the morning, we must go over
the river to Philip's crew. When I was in the canoe I could not but be
amazed at the numerous crew of pagans that were on the bank on the other
side. When I came ashore, they gathered all about me, I sitting alone in
the midst. I observed they asked one another questions, and laughed, and
rejoiced over their gains and victories. Then my heart began to fail:
and I fell aweeping, which was the first time to my remembrance, that
I wept before them. Although I had met with so much affliction, and my
heart was many times ready to break, yet could I not shed one tear in
their sight; but rather had been all this while in a maze, and like one
astonished. But now I may say as Psalm 137.1, "By the Rivers of Babylon,
t