, and knew it
not. She being shot down by the house was partly burnt, so that
those who were at Boston at the desolation of the town, and came back
afterward, and buried the dead, did not know her. Yet I was not without
sorrow, to think how many were looking and longing, and my own children
amongst the rest, to enjoy that deliverance that I had now received,
and I did not know whether ever I should see them again. Being recruited
with food and raiment we went to Boston that day, where I met with my
dear husband, but the thoughts of our dear children, one being dead, and
the other we could not tell where, abated our comfort each to other. I
was not before so much hemmed in with the merciless and cruel heathen,
but now as much with pitiful, tender-hearted and compassionate
Christians. In that poor, and distressed, and beggarly condition I was
received in; I was kindly entertained in several houses. So much love I
received from several (some of whom I knew, and others I knew not) that
I am not capable to declare it. But the Lord knows them all by name.
The Lord reward them sevenfold into their bosoms of His spirituals,
for their temporals. The twenty pounds, the price of my redemption,
was raised by some Boston gentlemen, and Mrs. Usher, whose bounty and
religious charity, I would not forget to make mention of. Then Mr.
Thomas Shepard of Charlestown received us into his house, where we
continued eleven weeks; and a father and mother they were to us. And
many more tender-hearted friends we met with in that place. We were now
in the midst of love, yet not without much and frequent heaviness of
heart for our poor children, and other relations, who were still in
affliction. The week following, after my coming in, the governor and
council sent forth to the Indians again; and that not without success;
for they brought in my sister, and goodwife Kettle. Their not knowing
where our children were was a sore trial to us still, and yet we were
not without secret hopes that we should see them again. That which was
dead lay heavier upon my spirit, than those which were alive and amongst
the heathen: thinking how it suffered with its wounds, and I was no
way able to relieve it; and how it was buried by the heathen in the
wilderness from among all Christians. We were hurried up and down in our
thoughts, sometime we should hear a report that they were gone this way,
and sometimes that; and that they were come in, in this place or that.
We