ent into every apartment
observing the number in each, and when all the people were asleep
arose and opened the gates, gave the signal agreed upon and the other
Indians came to them and, having received an account of the state of
the garrison, they divided their forces according to the number of the
people in each apartment and soon took or killed them all. Major
Waldron lodged within an inner room and when the Indians broke in upon
him he cried out: "What now! What now!" and jumping out of his bed
seized his sword and drove them before him through two or three doors,
but upon his turning about towards the apartment he had just left, an
Indian came up behind him and knocked him on the head with his
hatchet, which stunned him and he fell. They then seized him, dragged
him out, and setting him up on a long table in his hall, bade him
"judge Indians again." Then they cut and stabbed him and he cried out
"O Lord! O Lord!" They called for his book of accounts and ordered him
to cross out all the Indian debts, he having traded much with them.
Then one and another gashed his naked breast, saying in derision: "I
cross out my account." Then cutting a joint from a finger, one would
say: "Will your fist weigh a pound now?" This in allusion to his
having sometimes used his fist as a pound weight in buying and
selling. And so they proceeded to torture him to death with every
refinement of savage cruelty, after which they burned the garrison
post and drew off.

A few days after this tragic event a number of people were killed by
the Indians at Saco, and in the month of August the important post at
Pemaquid, midway between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers, was taken
and the adjoining settlement destroyed. According to Charlevoix a
large number of St. John river Indians participated in this exploit.
Among their prisoners was a lad named Gyles whose experience during
the nine years he lived in captivity on the St. John river is told in
his very interesting narrative published in Boston in 1736. We shall
have more to say about Gyles and his narrative further on, but it may
be observed in passing that we are greatly indebted to him for the
knowledge we possess of the life of the Indians of the River St. John
two centuries ago. As Doctor Hannay well observes: "By the light of
such a narrative we are able to perceive how wretched was the lot of
an Acadian Indian, even during the period when his very name carried
terror to the hearts of th