f Simon Willard, aged about 42 years, saith: I being at
Saco, in the year 1689, some in Capt. Ed. Sargent's garrison were
speaking of Mr. George Burroughs his great strength, saying he could
take a barrel of molasses out of a canoe or boat, alone; and that he
could take it in his hands, or arms, out of the canoe or boat, and carry
it, and set it on the shore: and Mr. Burroughs being there, said that he
had carried one barrel of molasses or cider out of a canoe, that had
like to have done him a displeasure; said Mr. Burroughs intimated, as if
he did not want strength to do it, but the disadvantage of the shore was
such, that, his foot slipping in the sand, he had liked to have strained
his leg."

Willard was uncertain whether Burroughs had stated it to be molasses or
cider. John Brown testified about a "barrel of cider." Burroughs denied
the statement, as to the molasses, thereby impliedly admitting that he
had so carried a barrel of cider.

Samuel Webber testified that, seven or eight years before, Burroughs
told him that, by putting his fingers into the bung of a barrel of
molasses, he had lifted it up, and "carried it round him, and set it
down again."

Parris, in his notes of this trial, not in the files, says that "_Capt.
Wormwood_ testified about the gun and the molasses." But the papers on
file give the name as "_Capt. W^m Wormall_," and represents that he,
referring to the gun, "swore" that he "saw George Burroughs raise it
from the ground." His testimony, with this exception, was merely
confirmatory, in general terms, of another deposition of Simon Willard,
to the effect, that Burroughs, in explanation of one of the stories
about his great strength, showed him how he held a gun of "about seven
foot barrel," by taking it "in his hand behind the lock," and holding it
out; Willard further stating that he did not see him "hold it out then,"
and that he, Willard, so taking the gun with both hands, could not hold
it out long enough to take sight. The testimony, throughout, was thus
loose and conflicting, almost wholly mere hearsay, of no value,
logically or legally. All that was really proved being what Burroughs
admitted, that is, as to the cider.

But, in the statement made by him to Willard, at Saco, as deposed by the
latter, he mentioned a circumstance, namely, the straining of his leg,
which, if not true, could easily have been disproved, that demonstrated
the effort to have been made, and the feat accomplish