these they must cut all their throats,
and it was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the
night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped he would run away, and
raise all the town, so they should have a whole army upon them. Again,
on the other hand, if they went away, and left those untouched (for the
people were all asleep), they could not tell which way to look for
the town.

However, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to leave those
houses, and look for the town as well as they could. They went on a
little way, and found a cow tied to a tree: this they presently
concluded would be a good guide to them; for they said the cow certainly
belonged to the town before them or the town behind them, and if they
untied her they should see which way she went: if she went back they had
nothing to say to her, but if she went forward they had nothing to do
but to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was made of twisted
flags, and the cow went on before them. In a word, the cow led them
directly to the town, which, as they reported, consisted of above two
hundred houses or huts; and in some of these they found several families
living together.

Here they found all silent; as profoundly secure as sleep and a country
that had never seen an enemy of that kind could make them. Upon this
they called another council to consider what they had to do, and in a
word they resolved to divide themselves into three bodies, and to set
three houses on fire in three parts of the town; and as the men came
out, to seize them and bind them; if any resisted, they need not be
asked what to do then, and so to search the rest of the houses for
plunder; but resolved to march silently first through the town, and see
what dimensions it was of, and consider if they might venture upon it
or no.

They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture upon them;
but while they were animating one another to the work, three of them
that were a little before the rest called out aloud, and told them they
had found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran up to the place; and so it was
indeed, for there they found the poor fellow, hanged up naked by one
arm, and his throat cut. There was an Indian house just by the tree,
where they found sixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians who had
been concerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them
wounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake, and talking
one to