whose comment has just been quoted were probably safe from
all dangers except ague and sparking; but in the previous century women
and children daily faced possibilities that apparently should have kept
them in a continuous state of fright. Time after time mothers and babes
were stolen by the Indians, and the tales of their sufferings fill many
an interesting page in the diaries, records, and letters of the
seventeenth century and the early eighteenth. Hear these words from an
early pamphlet, _A Memorial of the Present Deplorable State of New
England_, inserted in Sewall's _Diary_:

"The Indians came upon the House of one Adams at Wells, and captived the
Man and his Wife, and assassinated the children.... The woman had Lain
in about Eight Days. They drag'd her out, and tied her to a Post, until
the House was rifled. They then loosed her, and bid her walk. She could
not stir. By the help of a Stick she got half a step forward. She look'd
up to God. On the sudden a new strength entered into her. She was up to
the Neck in Water five times that very Day in passing Rivers. At night
she fell over head and ears, into a Slough in a Swamp, and hardly got
out alive.... She is come home alive unto us."

The following story of Mrs. Bradley of Haverly, Massachusetts, was sworn
to as authentic:

"She was now entered into a Second Captivity; but she had the
great Encumbrance of being Big with Child, and within Six Weeks
of her Time! After about an Hours Rest, wherein they made her put
on Snow Shoes, which to manage, requires more than ordinary
agility, she travelled with her Tawny Guardians all that night,
and the next day until Ten a Clock, associated with one Woman
more who had been brought to Bed but just one Week before: Here
they Refreshed themselves a little, and then travelled on till
Night; when they had no Refreshment given them, nor had they any,
till after their having Travelled all the Forenoon of the Day
Ensuing.... She underwent incredible Hardships and Famine: A
Mooses Hide, as tough as you may Suppose it, was the best and
most of her Diet. In one and twenty days they came to their
Head-quarters.... But then her Snow-Shoes were taken from her;
and yet she must go every step above the knee in Snow, with such
weariness that her Soul often Pray'd _That the Lord would put an
end unto her weary life_!"

"...Here in the Night, she fo