sely had been left in the garrison at Deerfield with seventy
men, intending to go the next day in search of the Indians. As he was
but five miles from the scene of the massacre, he heard the firing,
and immediately marched to the rescue of his friends. But he was too
late. They were all, before his arrival, silent in death. As the
Indians were scalping and stripping the dead, Captain Mosely, with
great intrepidity, fell upon them, though he computed their numbers at
not less than a thousand. Keeping his men in a body, he broke through
the tumultuous mass, charging back and forth, and cutting down all
within range of his shot.

Still, aided by the swamp and the forest, and being so overwhelmingly
superior to the English in numbers, the savages maintained the fight
with much fierceness for six hours. Captain Mosely and all his men
might perhaps also have perished, had not another party providentially
and very unexpectedly come to their relief.

Major Treat, from Connecticut, was ascending the river with one
hundred and sixty Mohegan Indians, on his way to Northfield, in
pursuit of the foe in that vicinity. It was so ordered by Providence
that he approached the scene of action just as both parties were
exhausted by the protracted fight. Hearing the firing, he pressed
rapidly forward, and with fresh troops fell vigorously upon the foe.
The Indians, with yells of disappointment and rage, now fled, plunging
into the swamps and forests. They left ninety-six of their number dead
by the side of the English whom they had so mercilessly slaughtered in
the morning. It is supposed that Philip himself commanded the Indians
on this sanguinary day. The Indians, though in the end defeated, had
gained a marvelous victory, by which they were exceedingly encouraged
and emboldened.

Captains Mosely and Treat encamped in the vicinity for the night, and
the next morning attended to the burial of the dead. They were
deposited in two pits, the English in one and the Indians in another.
A marble monument now marks the spot where this battle occurred, and a
slab is placed over the mound which covers the slain.

Twenty-seven men only had been left in the garrison at Deerfield. The
next morning the Indians appeared in large numbers before the
garrison, threatening an attack. They tauntingly exhibited the
clothes they had stripped from the slain, and shouted messages of
defiance and insult. But the captain of the garrison, making a brave
show o