assignment

Part 1: Colo nial America (1582-1750)

they came unarmed i n to o u r h o uses, witho u t bows o r arrows, or other weapons, w i t h deer, turkey, fi s h , fur, and other provisions to sell and trade with us fo r glass, beads, and other trifles. Yet i n some places, they sat down at breakfast with o u r people a t the i r tables, whom immediately with their own tools and weapons either laid down, or standing i n their houses, they basely and barbarously murdered, not sparing either age or sex, man, woman, or child, so sudden i n their cruel execution that few or none discerned the weapon or blow that brought them to destructi o n . I n which manner they also slew many of our people then at their several work and husbandries in the fields, and without their houses, some in planting corn and tobacco, some in gardening, some i n making brick, building, sawing, and other kinds o f husbandry, they well knowing in what places and quarters each of our men were, in regard o f thei r daily fam iliarity and resort to us for trading and other negotiations, which the more willingly was by us contin­ ued and cherished for the desire we had o f effecting that great masterpiece of works, their conversion. And by this means that fatal F r iday morning, there fel l under the bloody and barbarous hands of that perfidious and inhu­ man people, contrary to all laws of God and men, o f na­ ture and nations, three hundred forty seven men, women, and children, most by their own weapons. And not being content with taking away life alone, they fell after again upon the dead, making as well as they could, a fresh mur­ der, defacing, dragging, and mangling the dead carcasses into many pieces, and carrying some parts away in deri­ sion, with base and brutish triumph . . . .

That the slaughter had been u niversal, i f God had not put it into the heart o f an Indian belonging to one Perry to disclose it, who living in the h o use of one Pace, was urged by another I ndian his brother (who came the night before and lay with him) to kill Pace. Tell­ ing further that by such an hour i n the morning a number would come from different places to finish the execution, who failed not at the time, Perry's Indian rose out of his bed and revealed it to Pace, that used him as a son. And thus the rest o f the colony that had warning given them by this means was saved. Such was (God be thanked for it) the good fruit of an i n fidel converted to Christianity. For though three hundred and more of o u rs died by many o f these pagan infidels, yet thousands o f o u rs were saved by the means of one of them alone which was made a Christian. Blessed b e God fo rever, whose mercy endureth forever. . . .

LESSONS OF THE MASSACRE

Thus have yo u seen the particulars o f this massacre, wherein treachery and cruelty have done their worst to us, o r rather to themselves; for whose understanding is so shallow, as not to pe rceive that this m us t needs be

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for the good of the plantation after, and the loss o f this blood to make the body more healthful, as by these rea­ sons may be manifest.

F i rst, because betraying i n nocence never rests unpunished . . . .

Secondly, because our hands, which before were tied with gentleness and fair usage, are now set at liberty by the treacherous violence o f the savages, not untying the knot, but cutting it. S o that we, who hitherto have had possession of no more ground than their waste, and our p urchase at a valuable consideration to their own content­ ment gained, may now, by right of war and law of nations, i nvade the country, and destroy them who sought to de­ stroy us. Whereby we shall enjoy their cultivated places, possessing the fruits of others' labors. Now their cleared grounds i n all their villages (which are s i tuated in the fruitfulest places o f the land) shall be inhabited by us, whereas heretofore the grubbing of woods was the greatest labor.

The way of conquering them is much more easy than of civilizing them by fair means,

for they are a rude, barbarous, and naked people.

Thirdly, because those commodities which the Indi­ ans enjoyed as much or rather more than we, shall now also be entirely possessed by us. The deer and other beasts will be in safety, and infinitely increase, which heretofore not only i n the general huntings of the King, but by each particular Indian were destroyed at all times o f the year, without any difference o f male, dame, or young.

There will be also a great increase o f wild turkeys, and other weighty fowl, fo r the Indians never put differ­ ence of destroying the hen, but kill them whether i n sea­ son or not, whether in breeding time, or sitting on their eggs, or having new hatched, it is all one to them . . . .

F o urthly, because the way o f conquering them is much more easy than o f civilizing them by fa i r means, for they are a rude, barbarous, and naked people, scat­ tered in small companies, which are helps to victory, but h i ndrance to civility. Besides that, a conquest may b e o f many, and a t once; but civil i ty i s i n particular and slow, the e ffect o f l o ng time, and great i n d ustry. M o reover, victory o f them may be gained many ways: by force, by surprise, by famine in burning their corn, by destroying and burning their boats , canoes, and houses, by breaking the i r fishing wares, by ass a i l i ng them in the i r huntings , whereby they get the greatest part of their sustenance in winter, by p u rs u i n g and

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V i e w p o i n t 4A A Puritan Missionary s Account of Indians (1 646)

John Eliot ( 1 604-1 690)

I N T R O D U C T I O N A Puritan who migrated to the Massa­ chusetts Bay Colony in 1 631, john Eliot was a minister at Roxbury, a community close to Boston. In the 1 640s he learned the Algonquian language from an Indian servant and began missionmy work among the Native Americans-work that he continued until his death. Widely known both in America and in England as the "Apostle to the Indians, " Eliot translated the Bible into the Algonquian language, founded numerous villages where "praying Indians " could learn English handi­ crafts and laws as well as Christian teachings, and wrote numerous pamphlets and tracts about his missionary work. The following viewpoint is taken from a pam­ phlet first published in London in 1 646 It provides his descriptions of Native Americans and his efforts to convert them to Christianity. Pan of the pamphlet's purpose was to gather financial support from England for his missionary work.

What assumptions about European and American cultures does Eliot demonstrate? What reasons does he give for optimism in his missionary work among the Indians?

Methinks now that it is with the Indians as it was with o u r New English ground when we first came over-there was scarce any man that could believe that English grain would grow, or that the plow could do

John Eliot, "The Day-Breaking, I f Not the Sun-Rising, of the Gospell with the Indians i n New-England." (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collectiom, Vol. 3.)

Contact and Conflict with Native Americans

any good in this woody and rocky soil. And thus they continued in this supine unbelief for some years, till experience taught them otherwise; and now all see i t to be scarce i n ferior to Old English tillage, but bears very good burdens. So we have thought of our Indian people, and, therefore, have been discouraged to put plow to such dry and rocky ground, but God, having begun thus with some few, i t may be they are better soil for the gospel than we can think.

I confess I think no great good will be done till they be more civilized. But why may not God begin with some few to awaken others by degrees? N o r do I expect any great good will be wrought by the English (leaving secrets to God, although the English surely begin and lay the first stones of Christ's kingdom and temple among them ) , because G o d i s wont ordinarily t o convert nations and peoples by some of their own countrymen who are near­ est to them and can best speak, and, most o f all, pity their brethren and countrymen . But yet, if the least beginnings be made by the conversion of two o r three, it is worth all our time and travails, and cause o f much thankfulness for such seeds, although no great harvests should immediately appear. . . .

We see the Spirit of God working mightily upon the hearts of these natives

in an ordinary way.

HOPEFUL BEGINNINGS

The observations I have gathered by conversing with them are such as these:

1. That none o f them . . . derided God's messenger: Woe unto those English that are grown bold to do that which Indians will not-heathens dare not.

2. That there i s need of learning i n ministers who preach to I ndians, m uch m o re [than] to Englishmen and gracious Christians, for these had sundry philosoph­ ical questions which some knowledge o f the arts must help to give answer to; and without which these would not have been sati s fie d . Worse than I n d i a n igno rance has blinded the i r eyes that renounce learning as an enemy to gospel ministries.

3. That there is no necessity of extraordinary gifts nor miraculous•signs always to convert heathens . . . for we see the Spirit o f God working mightily upon the hearts of these natives i n a n ordinary way, and I hope will, they being but a remnant, the Lord using to show mercy to the rem nant. For there be but few that are left alive from the plague and pox, which God sent i n to those

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parts; and, if one o r two can understand, they usually talk of it as we do of news-it flies suddenly far and near, and truth scattered will rise in time, for ought we know.

4. If Englishmen begin to despise the preaching of faith and repentance and h u m i liation for s i n , yet the poor heathens will be glad o f i t and i t shall do good to them; for so they are and so it begins to d o . The Lord grant that the foundation o f our English woe b e n o t laid i n the r u i n and contempt of those fundamental doc­ trines of faith, repentance, humiliation for sin, etc., but rather relishing the novelties and dreams o f such men as are s u rfeited with the ordi nary food of the Gospel o f Christ. Indians shall weep t o hear faith a n d repentance p reached, when Englishmen shall mourn, too late, that are weary of such truths.

5. That the deepest estrangements of man from God is no hindrance to His grace nor to the spirit of grace; for what nation or people ever so deeply degenerated since Adam ' s fall as these Indians, and yet the S p irit o f God is working upon them? . . .

CREATING A CHRISTIAN

INDIAN TOWN

We have cause to be very thankful to G o d who has moved the hearts o f the General Court to p u rchase so m uch land for them to make thei r town i n which the Indians are much taken with. And it is somewhat observ­ able that, while the court were considering where to lay out their town, the Indians (not knowing of anythi ng) were about that time consulting about laws for them­ selves, and their company who sit down with Waaubon [a local Christian Indian leader] . There were ten o f them: two of them are forgotten.

Their laws were these:

1 . That if any man be idle a week, at most a fortnight, he shall pay 5s [shillings] .

2. If any unmarried man shall lie with a young woman unmarried, he shall pay 20s.

3. AI f any man shall beat his wife, his hands shall be tied behind him and [he shall be] carried to the place of j ustice to be severely punished.

4 . Every young man, if not another's servant and if unmarried, he shall be compelled to set up a wigwam and plant for himself, and not live shifting up and down to other wigwams.

5 . If any woman shall not have her hair tied up but hang loose or be cut as men's hair, she shall pay 5s.

6 . I f any woman shall go with naked breasts, [she] shall pay 2s. Gd [2 shillings 6 pence] .

7. All those men that wear long locks shall pay 5 s . 8 . I f a n y shall kill their lice between their teeth, they

shall pay 5s. This law, though ridiculous to English ears, yet rends to preserve cleanliness among Indians.

It is wonderful i n our eyes to understand by these two honest Indians [helpers o f Eliot] what p rayers Waau­ bon and the rest of them use to make, for he that p reaches to them professes he never yet used any of their words i n his prayers, from w h o m otherwise i t m i g h t be thought that they had learned them by rote. One is this:

Amanaomen Jehovah tahassen metagh.

(Take away Lord my stony heart.)

Another:

Chechesom Jehovah kekowhogkew.

(Wash Lord my soul.)

Another:

(Lord lead me, when I die, to heaven.)

These are bur a taste. They have many more, and these more enlarged than thus expressed, yet what are these but the sp rinklings of the spirit and blood o f Christ Jesus i n their hearts?

And it is no small matter that such dry, barren, and long-accursed ground should yield such kind o f increase in so small a time. I would not readily commend a fair day before night, nor p romise much o f such kind o f beginnings, i n all persons, n o r yet in all o f these, for we know the profession of very many is b u r a mere paint, and thei r best graces nothing but mere flashes and pangs, which are suddenly kindled and as soon go out and are extinct agai n . Yet God, does not usually send His plow and seeds-man to a place b u t there is at least some li ttle piece of good ground, although three to one b e naught. And methi nks the Lord Jesus would never have made so fit a key for the i r locks, unless He had intended to open some o f their doors, and so to make way for His coming in. H e that God has raised up and enabled to p reach unto them is a man (you know) o f a most sweet, humble, loving, gracious, and enlarged spirit, whom God hath blessed, and surely will still delight in and do good by.

V i e w p o i n t 4 B A Puritan Captive 's Account of Indians (1 682)

Mary Rowlandson (ca. 1 637-ca. 1 7 1 1 )

I N T R O D U C T I O N Mary Rowlandson was the author of one of the most popular and widely read books published during the colonial era-an account of her three-month captivity by Indians in 1 676 She was captured during King Philip 's War, a conflict in which Metacom (called King Philip by the English) led the last major challenge to white settlement in New England.

Rowlandson was the wife of Joseph Rowlandson, a Puritan minister in Lancaster, a small village on the western frontier in Massachusetts. On February 1 0, 1 676, while her husband was traveling to Boston,

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a band of Indians attacked and burned the village and took many captives, including Mary Rowlandson and her three children. The youngest soon died of wounds sustained during the initial attack. For almost three months Rowlandson was held prisoner; on May 2 she was released for a sizable ransom. She was shortly thereafter reunited with her husband and surviving children. Little is known of her later life, aside from a second marriage after her first husband's death in 1 678.

Her book, first published in 1 682, was the first of many "captivity narratives ''-popular accounts of white settlers (often women) surviving against great odds the experience of being taken by "savage " Indians. It is noteworthy for its descriptions of capture and imprisonment, its ruminations on suffering and God's power and its descriptions of Indian life. ft also pro­ vides evidence of changing Puritan attitudes toward Native Americans. In the relatively peaceful decades before 1 675, many Puritans viewed the Indians as unbelievers who needed to be taught Christianity by missionaries such as john Eliot. After the shock of King Philip 's War, Indians-including those who professed Christianity and who lived in missionary-sponsored communities-came to be seen as enemies who needed to be exterminated.

How does Rowlandson describe the actions of the "praying Indians" she encounters? How did the expe­ rience affect her religious faith? What observations does she make concerning the English army sent to fight the Indians?

On the tenth of February 1 67 5 [ 1 676 in modern reckoning] came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster. Their first coming was about sunrising. Hear­ ing the noise o f some guns, we looked out; several houses were burning and the smoke ascending to heaven. There were five persons taken in one house; the father and the mother and a sucking child they knocked on the head; the other two they took and carried away alive . . . . Another there was who r u n n i ng along was shot and wounded and fell down; he begged o f them h i s l i fe, p r o m i s i ng them money (as they told m e) , but they would not hearken to h i m but knocked him in [the] head, stripped h i m naked, and split open his bowels . . . . Thus these murderous wretches went o n , burning and destroying before them . . . .

My eldest sister [Elizabeth] being yet i n the house and seeing those woeful sights, the infidels hailing mothers o ne way and children another and s o m e wallowing i n the i r blood, and her elder son telling her that her son Wi lliam was dead and myself was wounded, she said, "And, Lord, let me die with the m . " Which was no

From The Soveraignty a11d Good11m of God . . . Being a Narrative of the Captivity a11d Rma11ratio11 of Mrs. Mary Rowla11dso11 (Cambridge, 1 682).

Contact and Conflict with Native A mericans

sooner said, b u t she was struck with a bullet and fell down dead over the threshold. I hope she is reaping the fruit of her good labors, being faithful to the service o f God i n her place . . . . B u t to retu rn: the I n d ians laid hold o f us, pulling me one way and the children another, and said, " Co m e go along with us . " I told them they wo uld kill me. They answered, i f I were will i ng to go along with them they would not hurt m e . . . .

I had often before this said that i f the Indians should come I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, bur when it came to the trial, m y m ind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit that I chose rather to go along with those (as I may say) ravenous beasts than that moment to end my days. And that I may the better declare what happened to me during that grievous captiviry, I shall particularly speak o f the several removes we had up and down the wilderness.

THE FIRST REMOVE

Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures with our bodies wounded and bleeding and our hearts no less than our bodies. About a m ile we went that night up u p o n a hill within sight of the town where they i n tended to lodge. There was hard by a vacant house (deserted by the English before for fear of the Indi­ ans) . I asked them whether I might not lodge i n the house that night, to which they answered, "What, will you love English men still?" This was the dolefullest night that ever my eyes saw. Oh, the roaring and singing and dancing and yelling o f those black creatures i n the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell. And as mis­ erable was the waste so close unto my spirit that i t was easy for me to see how righteous it was with G o d to cut the thread of my life and cast me out of His presence forever. Yet the Lord still showed mercy to m e and upheld me, and as H e wounded me with one hand, so He healed me with the other. . . .

DEATH OF A CHILD

Nine days I sat upon my knees with my babe i n my lap till my flesh was raw agai n; my child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world, they bade me carry i t out to another wigwam (I suppose because they would not be troubled with such spectacles) , whither I went with a heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture of death i n my lap. About two hours i n the night my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 1 8 , 1 67 5 [ 1 676] , it being about six years and five months o l d . Ir was nine day from the first wounding in this miserable condi­ tion without any refreshing o f one nature or other except a little cold water. I cannot but take notice how at another rime I could not bear to be i n the room where any dead person was, b u r now the case is changed; I m ust and

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could lie down by my dead babe side by side all the night after. I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me i n p reserving m e in the use o f my reason and senses i n that distressed time that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable l i fe.

I n the morning when they understood that my child was dead, they sent for me home to my master's wigwam. (By my master in this writing must be understood Quano­ pin who was a sagamore and married [to) King Philip's wife's sister, not that he first took me, but I was sold to him by another Narragansett Indian who took me when first I came out o f the garriso n . ) I went to take up my dead child i n my arms to carry i t with me, but they bid m e let i t alone. There was no resisting, but go I must and leave it. When I had been at my master's wigwam, I took the first opportuniry I could get to go look after my dead child. When I came, I asked them what they had done with i t. Then they told m e it was upon the hill. Then they went and showed me where i t was, where I saw the ground was newly digged, and there they told me they had buried it. There I left that child i n the wilderness and must commit i t and myself also in this wilderness condi tion to Him who is above all. . . .

THE EIGHTH REMOVE

On the morrow morning we must go over the river, i . e . Connecticot, t o meet with King Philip . . . .

We traveled on till night, and i n the m o r n i ng we must go over the river to Philip's crew. When I was in the canoe, I could not but be amazed at the numerous crew o f pagans that were o n the bank on the other side. When I came ashore, they gathered all about me, I sitting alone in the midst. I observed they asked one another questions and laughed and rejoiced over their gains and victories. Then my heart began to fail and I fell a-weeping, which was the first time to my remembrance that I wept before them. Although I had met with so much affliction and my heart was many times ready to break, yet could I not shed one tear in their sight but rather had been all this while in a maze and like one astonished. But now I may say as Psal. 1 37: 1 , "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zio n . " There one o f them asked me why I wept: I could hardly tell what to say, yet I answered they would kill me. " N o , " said h e , " n o n e will h u r t yo u . " Then came one o f them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave m e half a p i n t o f peas which was more worth than many bushels at another time. Then I went to see King Philip. He bade me come i n and sit down and asked me whether I would smoke i t (a usual compli­ ment nowadays among saints and sinners), but this no way suited me. For though I had formerly used tobacco, yet I had left i t ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a

bait the devil lays t o make m e n lose their precious time. I remember with shame how formerly when I had taken two or three pipes I was presently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it i s . B u t I thank God He has now given me power over it; surely there are many who may be better employed than to lie sucking a sti nking tobacco pipe.

Now the I n d ians gather their forces to go against N o rthampto n . Overnight o n e wen t about yelling and hooting to give n o tice o f the design, whereupon they fell to boiling o f groundnuts and parching o f corn (as many as had it) for their provision, and i n the morning away they went. D uring my abode i n this place Philip spoke to m e to make a shirt for his boy, which I did, fo r which he gave m e a shilling. I offered the money to my master, but he bade me keep it, and with i t I bought a piece o f horseflesh. Afterwards he asked me to make a cap for his boy, fo r wh i ch he invited me to dinner. I went, and he gave me a pancake about as big as two fin­ gers; i t was made o f parched wheat, beaten and fried in bear's grease, b u t I thought I never tasted pleasanter meat i n my l i fe . There was a squaw who spoke to m e t o make a s h i r t f o r her san n up [husband] , f o r which he gave m e a p i ece o f bear. Another asked m e to knit a p a i r of stockings, fo r which she gave me a quart o f peas. I b o iled my p e a s and b e a r together and invited my master and mistress to dinner, but the proud gossip [ i . e . , compan i o n ] , because I served them both i n one dish, would eat nothing except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife . . . .

THE TREACHERY OF PRAYING

INDIANS

Then came Tom and Peter [Christian Indians) with the second letter from the [Massachusetts authorities] about the captives. Though they were Indians, I got them by the hand and burst o u t into tears; my heart was so full that I could not speak to them, but recovering myself, I asked them how my husband d i d and all my friends and acquaintances. They said they [were] all very well but melancholy . . . .

When the letter was come, the sagamores met to con­ sult about the captives and called me to them to inquire how much my husband would give to redeem me. When I came, I sat down among them as I was wont to do as their manner is. Then they bade me stand up and said they were the General Court. They bid m e speak when I thought he would give. Now knowing that all we had was destroyed by the Indians, I was in a great stra i t . I thought if I should speak o f but a l i ttle, i t would b e s l i ghted and h i nder the matter; i f o f a great s u m , I knew n o t where i t would be procured. Yet at a venture, I said twenty pounds yet desired them to take less, but they wo uld n o t hear o f that b u t sent that message to

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Boston that for twenty pounds I should be redeemed. I t was a praying Indian that wrote their letter for them . . . .

There was another praying Indian who, when he had done all the mischief that he could, betrayed his own father i n to the English hands thereby to purchase his own life . Another praying Indian was at S udbury fight, though, as he deserved, he was afterward hanged for it. There was another praying Indian so wicked and cruel as to wear a string about his neck strung with Christians' fingers. Another praying Indian, when they went to Sud­ bury fight, went with them and had his squaw also with him with her papoose at her back . . . .

O n Tuesday m o r n i ng they called their General Court (as they call it) to consult and determine whether I should go home or n o . And they all as o n e man did seemi ngly consent to i t that I should go home except Philip who would not come among them.

OBSERVATIONS

But before I go any further, I would take leave to men­ t i o n a few remarkable passages of providence which I took special notice of in my afflicted time.

1 . Of the fair opportunity lost i n the long march a little after the fort fight when o u r English army was so numerous and i n p u rs u i t of the enemy and so near as to take several and destroy them, and the enemy i n such distress fo r food that o u r men might track them by their rooting in the earth for groundnuts while they were flying for their lives. I say that then our army should want provision and be forced to leave their pursuit and return homeward. And the very next week the enemy came upon our town like bears bereft o f their whelps or so many ravenous wolves, rending us and o u r lambs to death. But what shall I say? God seemed to leave His peo­ ple to themselves and order all things for His own holy ends . . . .

4 . I t was thought i f their corn were cut down they would starve and d i e with hunger, and all their corn that could b e found was destroyed, and they driven from that l i ttle they had i n store into the woods i n the midst o f winter. And yet how to admiration d i d the Lord preserve them fo r His holy ends and the destruction o f many still amongst the English! Strangely did the Lord provide for them that I did not see (all the time I was among them) one man, woman, or child die with hunger. Though many times they would eat that that a hog or dog would hardly touch, yet by that God strengthened them to be a scourge to His people.

The chief and commo nest fo od was groundnuts. They eat also n u ts and acorns, artichokes, lily roots, groundbeans, and several other weeds and roots that I know not.

They wo uld pick up old bones and cut them to pieces at the joints, and i f they were full o f worms and

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maggots, they would scald them over the fi re to make the vermin come out and then boil them and drink up the liquor and then beat the great ends o f them i n a mor­ tar and so eat them. They would eat horses' guts and ears, and all sorts o f wild b i rds which they could catch; also bear, venison, beaver, tortoise, frogs, s q u i r rels, dogs, skunks, rattlesnakes, yea, the very bark o f trees, besides all sorts o f creatures and provision which they plundered from the English. I can but stand i n admiration to see the wonderful power o f God in providing for such a vast n u m b e r o f o u r enemies in the wilderness where there was nothing to be seen but from hand to mouth . . . .

5 . Another thing that I would observe is the strange providence of G o d i n turning things a b o u t when the Indians [were) at the highest and the English at the low­ est. I was with the enemy eleven weeks and five days, and not one weeks passed without the fury of the enemy and s o m e desolati o n by fi re and sword u p o n one place o r other. They mourned (with their black faces) fo r their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced i n their inhuman and many times devilish cruelty to the English. They would boast much o f their victories, saying that i n two hours' time they had destroyed such a captain and his company i n such a place, and boast how many towns they had destroyed; and then scoff and say they had done them a good turn to send them to heaven so soon. Again they would say this summer that they would knock all the rogues in the head, o r drive them into the sea, or make them fly the country, thinking sure­ ly Agag-like, "The bitterness of death is past." Now the heathen begins to think all i s their own, and the poor Christians' hopes to fa i l (as to man) , and now thei r eyes are more t o God, a n d their hearts sigh heavenward and to say in good earnest, " Help Lord, or we perish." When the Lord had bro ught H i s people to this that they saw no help i n anything but H imself, then He takes the quarrel into His own hand, and though they [the Indians) had made a pit i n their own imaginations as deep as hell fo r the Christians that summer, yet the Lord hurled themselves i n to it. And the Lord had not so many ways before to preserve them, b u t now He hath as many to destroy them.

FOR F URTHER REA D I N G

Christopher Castiglia, Bound and Determined: Captivity, Culture­ Crossing, and White Womanhood Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1 996.

Kathryn Derounian-Stodula, ed., Women '.r Indian Captivity Narra­ tives. New York: Penguin, 1 99 8 .

Pauline Turner Strong, Captive Selves, Captivating Others: The Politics and Poetics of Colonial American Captivity Narratives. Boulder, CO: Wesrview Press, 1 99 9 .

George E. Tinker, Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide. M i n neapolis: Fortress Press, I 993.

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