the boat in case it should
be grappled by the fluke of his anchor. Having made these
arrangements, he again came running down before a brisk gale, and,
striking the boat again, tore open her side with his anchor, while at
the same moment he poured in a heavy discharge of buckshot upon the
terrified savages. Most of them, however, had plunged into the hold of
the little pinnace, and the shot effected but little execution. A
third time he ran down upon the pinnace, and struck her with such
force that five more, in their turn, leaped overboard and were
drowned. There were now but five savages left, and the intrepid Gallop
immediately boarded the enemy. Three of the savages retreated to a
small cabin, where, with swords, they defended themselves. Two were
taken captive and bound. Having no place where he could keep these two
Indians apart, and fearing that they might get loose, and, in
co-operation with the three savages who had fortified themselves in
the cabin, rise successfully upon him, Captain Gallop threw one of the
Indians overboard, and he was drowned. This was rough usage; but the
savages, who had apparently rendered it necessary by their previous
act of robbery and murder, could not complain.

The pinnace was then stripped of her rigging and of all the goods
which remained. The body of Captain Oldham was found, awfully
mutilated, beneath a sail. The rest of the crew, but two or three in
number, had been carried as captives by the savages on the shore.
Captain Gallop buried the corpse as reverently as possible in the sea,
and then took the pinnace in tow, with the three savages barricaded in
the cabin. Night came on, dark and stormy; the wind increased to a
tempest, and it was necessary to cut the pinnace adrift. She was never
heard of more.

Block Island, where these scenes occurred, belonged to the
Narragansets; but many who were engaged in the murder, as if fearful
of the vengeance of Canonicus, their own chieftain, fled across the
Sound to the Pequot country, and were protected by them. The Pequots
thus became implicated in the crime. Canonicus, on the other hand,
rescued the captives taken from the boat, and restored them to their
friends. The English now decided that it was necessary for them so to
punish the Indians as to teach them that such outrages could no longer
be committed with impunity. It was a fearful vengeance which was
resolved upon. An army of one hundred men was raised, commissioned to
proc