alled him with greater
earnestness; but he stood reeling and wavering as if he knew not whither
he should stand or fall, or which way to go. Then they called him with
exceeding great vehemency, all of them, one and another. After a little
while he turned in, staggering as he went, with his arms stretched out,
in either hand a gun. As soon as he came in they all sang and rejoiced
exceedingly a while. And then he upon the deerskin, made another speech
unto which they all assented in a rejoicing manner. And so they ended
their business, and forthwith went to Sudbury fight. To my thinking they
went without any scruple, but that they should prosper, and gain the
victory. And they went out not so rejoicing, but they came home with as
great a victory. For they said they had killed two captains and almost
an hundred men. One Englishman they brought along with them: and he
said, it was too true, for they had made sad work at Sudbury, as indeed
it proved. Yet they came home without that rejoicing and triumphing over
their victory which they were wont to show at other times; but rather
like dogs (as they say) which have lost their ears. Yet I could not
perceive that it was for their own loss of men. They said they had not
lost above five or six; and I missed none, except in one wigwam. When
they went, they acted as if the devil had told them that they should
gain the victory; and now they acted as if the devil had told them they
should have a fall. Whither it were so or no, I cannot tell, but so it
proved, for quickly they began to fall, and so held on that summer, till
they came to utter ruin. They came home on a Sabbath day, and the Powaw
that kneeled upon the deer-skin came home (I may say, without abuse) as
black as the devil. When my master came home, he came to me and bid me
make a shirt for his papoose, of a holland-laced pillowbere. About that
time there came an Indian to me and bid me come to his wigwam at night,
and he would give me some pork and ground nuts. Which I did, and as I
was eating, another Indian said to me, he seems to be your good friend,
but he killed two Englishmen at Sudbury, and there lie their clothes
behind you: I looked behind me, and there I saw bloody clothes, with
bullet-holes in them. Yet the Lord suffered not this wretch to do me
any hurt. Yea, instead of that, he many times refreshed me; five or six
times did he and his squaw refresh my feeble carcass. If I went to their
wigwam at any time, they w