ancommonly active, easily effected. The plan of Mr. Bracket had now its desired effect; as the old men, pursuing the negro, left him and his family guarded only by three squaws, whom, (being intoxicated,) he soon despatched, and returned the day following, with his family, to Casco, where the negro lad had arrived some hours before.

On the 15th, the Indians attacked the dwellinghouses of a Capt. Bonithon and Maj. Philips, situated on the east side of Casco river. Having seasonable notice of the hostile views of the enemy, the family of the former, as a place of greater safety, had resorted to the house of the latter a few moments previous to the attack. The savages first communicated fire to the house of Capt. Bonithon, and next proceeded furiously to attack the dwelling of Maj. Philips, in which there were about twenty persons, by whom it was most gallantly defended. The enemy had their leader and a number of their party killed by the fire of the English. Despairing of taking the house by assault, they adopted a new plan of communicating fire thereto. They procured a carriage, on which they erected a stage, in front of which was a barricade, rendered bullet proof, to which poles were attached nearly twenty feet in length, and to the ends were affixed every kind of combustible, such as birch rinds, straw, pitch pine, &c. The Indians were sheltered by the barricade from the fire of the English, while they approached the walls of the house with their carriage. The English were now on the eve of despairing, when fortunately one of the wheels being brought in contact with a rock, the carriage was turned completely round, which exposed the whole body of Indians to their fire. This unexpected opportunity was improved with the greatest advantage by the English, who, with a few rounds, soon dispersed the enemy with no inconsiderable loss.

The day following, the Indians set fire to the house of a Mr. Wakely, whom, with his whole family, they murdered. A company of the English, apprized of their dangerous situation, marched to their relief, but

arrived too late to afford assistance. They found the house reduced to ashes, and the mangled bodies of the unfortunate family half consumed by fire.

The savages, emboldened by their late success, on the 20th attacked a small settlement on the Piscataqua river, and succeeded in murdering a part, and carrying away the remainder of the inhabitants into captivity. As an instance of their wonted barbarity, it should be here mentioned, that after tomahawking and scalping one of the unfortunate women of the above place, they bound to her dead body her little infant; in which situation it was the succeeding day discovered by the English, attempting to draw nourishment from its mother's breast.

The governor and council of the united colonies, conceiving it their duty, if possible, to put a final stop to the ravages of the enemy in the east, and to prevent the further effusion of innocent blood, despatched Maj. Wallis and Maj. Bradford, with six companies under their command, to destroy, root and branch, the common enemy. On the 1st December, they arrived in the neighborhood of Kennebeck, near where they were informed the main body of the enemy were encamped. On the morning of the 3d, about the break of day, they fell in with and attacked them. The enemy, who were about eight hundred strong, appeared disposed to maintain their ground. They fought with all the fury of savages, and even assailed the English from the tops of lofty trees, which they ascended for the purpose. They were in possession of but few fire-arms, but hurled their tomahawks with inconceivable exactness, and checked the progress of the cavalry with long spears. Victory for a long time remained doubtful. 'The ground being covered with snow, greatly retarded the progress of the troops, who probably would have met with a defeat had not a fresh company of infantry arrived in time to change the fortune of the day These, having remained inactive, as a body of reserve, the commander found himself under the necessity of calling to his aid. The enemy, disheartened at the

unexpected arrival of the English, fled with precipitancy to the woods. But very few of them, however, escaped; more than two hundred of whom remained dead on the field of action, and double that number were mortally wounded. The loss of the English was fifty-five killed and ninety-five wounded. This engagement, which proved a decisive one, was of the greatest importance to the English. The great and arduous work was now completed. The few remaining Indians that inhabited the eastern country now expressed a desire to bury the bloody hatchet, and make peace with the English. Their request was cheerfully complied with, and they continued ever after the faithful friends of the English.

CHAP. V.

INVASION OF NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF SCHENECTADY BY THE FRENCH AND INDIANS.

In the year 1690, the Mohawks having made several successful expeditions against the Canadians, the Count Frontenac, to raise the depressed spirits of the latter, despatched several parties of French and Indians to attack the frontier settlements of New York and New England. A detachment of nearly five hundred French and Indians, under the command of Messieurs P. Aillebout, De Waulet, and Le Wayne, were despatched from Montreal for this purpose. They were furnished with everything necessary for a winter campaign. After a march of twenty-two days, they, on the 8th February, reached Schenectady. They had on their march been so reduced as to harbor thoughts of surrendering themselves prisoners of war to the English; but their spies, having been several days in

the village, entirely unsuspected, represented in such strong terms the defenceless state of the inhabitants, as determined them to make an immediate attack. They found the gates open and unguarded, which they entered about eleven o'clock at night; and the better to effect their hellish purpose, divided their main body into several parties of six or seven men each. The inhabitants were in a profound sleep, and unalarmed until the enemy had broken open their doors, and with uplifted tomahawks were surrounding their beds. Before they had time to rise, the savages began the perpetration of the most inhuman barbarities. No language can express the cruelties which were committed. In less than one hour, two hundred of the unfortunate inhabitants were slain, and the whole village wrapt in flames. A detail of the cruelties committed by the barbarians cannot be read without horror. They ravished, rifled, murdered and mutilated the inhabitants without distinction of age or sex; without any other provocation or excitement than brutal lust and wantonness of barbarity. Pregnant women were ripped open, and their infants cast into the fire or dashed against the posts of the doors. Such monsters of barbarity ought certainly to be excluded from all the privileges of human nature, and hunted down as wild beasts, without pity or cessation. A very few of the inhabitants escaped, who in their shirts fled to Albany in a severe and stormy night. Twenty-five of the fugitives in their flight perished with the cold. After destroying the inhabitants, the enemy killed all the horses and cattle they could find, with the exception of about thirty of the former, which they loaded with their plunder and drove off.

When the news of this horrid massacre reached Albany, a universal fear and consternation seized the inhabitants. The country became panic-struck, and many entertained thoughts of destroying the town and abandoning that part of the country to the enemy.

A second party of the enemy, which Count Frontenac had detached from the main body at the Three

Rivers, under the command of Sieur Hartel, an officer of distinguished character in Canada, on the 18th February fell upon Salmon Falls, a plantation on the river which divides New Hampshire from the province of Maine. This party consisted of about seventy men, more than half of whom were Indians. They commenced the attack at break of day, in three different places, and although the inhabitants were surprised, yet they flew to arms and defended themselves with a bravery that even their enemies applauded; but they were finally overpowered by numbers, when forty-three of them, consisting of men, women, and children, fell victims to savage barbarity.

The depredations of the French and Indians filled the people of the western country with fear and alarm. The assembly of New York conceived it necessary to make every exertion to prevent the settlement of the French at Albany. It was resolved that two companies, of one hundred men each, should be raised and sent forward for that purpose. For the defence of the frontier towns in New England, it was ordered that a constant watch should be kept in several towns; that all males above the age of eighteen and under sixty years should be kept in readiness to march at the shortest notice. On the 20th March, at a meeting of commissioners from New York and New England, a plan was proposed and adopted for invading Canada. Eight hundred men were ordered to be raised for the purpose, and the quotas of several colonies were fixed, and general rules adopted for the management of the army.

A small vessel was sent express to England; the beginning of April, carrying a representation of the exposed state of the colonies and the necessity of the reduction of Canada. A petition was also forwarded to the king for a supply of arms and ammunition, and a number of frigates to attack the enemy by water, while the colonial troops made an invasion by land. John Winthrop, Esq., was appointed major general and commander in chief of the land army, and ar