MAGNALIA CHRISTI AMERICANA;
or
THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF NEW-ENGLAND
by Cotton Mather (1663-1728)
“Now Reproduced from the Edition of 1852
and Published in 1967 by Russell & Russell
A Division of Atheneum House, Inc.”
From: Volume 2, Article XXV, pages 634-636
On March 15, 1697, the savages made a descent upon the skirts of
Haverhill, murdering and captivating about thirty-nine persons, and burning
about half a dozen houses. In this broil, one Hannah Dustan, having lain in
about a week, attended with her nurse, Mary Neff, a body of terrible Indians
drew near unto the house where she lay, with designs to carry on their bloody
devastations. Her husband hastened from his employments abroad unto the relief
of his distressed family; and first bidding seven of his eight children (which
were from two to seventeen years of age) to get away as fast as they could unto
some garrison in the town, he went in to inform his wife of the horrible
distress come upon them. Ere she could get up, the fierce Indians were got so
near, that, utterly desparing to do her any service, he ran out after his
children; resolving that on the horse which he had with him, he would ride away
with that which he should in this extremity find his affections to pitch most
upon, and leave the rest unto the care of the Divine Providence. He overtook his
children, about forty rod from his door; but then such was the agony of his
parental affections, that he found it impossible for him to distinguish any one
of them from the rest; wherefore he took up a courageous resolution to live and
die with them all. A party of Indians came up with him; and now, though they
fired at him, and he fired at them, yet he manfully kept at the reer of his
little army of unarmed children, while they marched off with the pace of a child
of five years old; until, by the singular providence of God, he arrived safe
with them all unto a place of safety about a mile or two from his house. But his
house must in the mean time have more dismal tragedies acted at it. The nurse,
trying to escape with the new-born infant, fell into the hands of the formidable
salvages; and those furious tawnies coming into the house, bid poor Dustan to
rise immediately. Full of astonishment, she did so; and sitting down in the
chimney with an heart full of most fearful expectation, she saw the raging
dragons rifle all that they could carry away, and set the house on fire. About
nineteen or twenty Indians now led these away, with about half a score other
English captives; but ere they had gone many steps, they dash'd out the brains
of the infant against a tree; and several of the other captives, as they began
to tire in the sad journey, were soon sent unto their long home; the salvages
would presently bury their hatchets in their brains, and leave their carcases on
the ground for birds and beasts to feed upon. However, Dustan (with her nurse)
notwithstanding her present condition, travelled that night about a dozen miles,
and then kept up with their new masters in a long travel of an hundred and fifty
miles, more or less, within a few days ensuing, without any sensible damage in
their health, from the hardships of their travel, their lodging, their diet, and
their many other difficulties.
These two poor women were now in the hands of those whose "tender mercies are
cruelties;" but the good God, who hath all "hearts in his own hands," heard the
sighs of these prisoners, and gave them to find unexpected favour from the
master who hath laid claim unto them. That Indian family consisted of twelve
persons; two stout men, three women, and seven children; and for the shame of
many an English family, that has the character of prayerless upon it, I must now
publish what these poor women assure me. 'Tis this: in obedience to the
instructions which the French have given them, they would have prayers in their
family no less than thrice every day; in the morning, at noon, and in the
evening; nor would they ordinarily let their children eat or sleep, without
first saying their prayers. Indeed, these idolaters were, like the rest of their
whiter brethren, persecutors, and would not endure that these poor women should
retire to their English prayers, if they could hinder them. Nevertheless, the
poor women had nothing but fervent prayers to make their lives comfortable or
tolerable; and by being daily sent out upon business, they had opportunities,
together and asunder, to do like another Hannah, in "pouring out their souls
before the Lord." Nor did their praying friends among our selves forbear to
"pour out" supplications for them. Now, they could not observe it without some
wonder, that their Indian master sometimes when he saw them dejected, would say
unto them, "What need you trouble your self? If your God will have you
delivered, you shall be so!" And it seems our God would have it so to be. This
Indian family was now travelling with these two captive women, (and an English
youth taken from Worcester, a year and a half before,) unto a rendezvous of
salvages, which they call a town, some where beyond Penacook; and they still
told these poor women that when they came to this town, they must be stript, and
scourg'd, and run the gantlet through the whole army of Indians. They said this
was the fashion when the captives first came to a town; and they derided some of
the faint-hearted English, which, they said, fainted and swooned away under the
torments of this discipline. But on April 30, while they were yet, it may be,
about an hundred and fifty miles from the Indian town, a little before break of
day, when the whole crew was in a dead sleep, (reader, see if it prove not so!)
one of these women took up a resolution to imitate the action of Gael upon
Siberia; and being where she had not her own life secured by any law unto her,
she thought she was not forbidden by any law to take away the life of the
murderers by whom her child had been butchered. She heartened the nurse and the
youth to assist her in this enterprize; and all furnishing themselves with
hatchets for the purpose, they struck such home blows upon the heads of their
sleeping oppressors, that ere they could any of them struggle into any effectual
resistance, "at the feet of these poor prisoners, they bow'd, they fell, they
lay down; at their feet they bow'd, they fell; where they bow'd, there they fell
down dead." Only one squaw escaped, sorely wounded, from them in the dark; and
one boy, whom they reserved asleep, intending to bring him away with them,
suddenly waked, and scuttled away from this desolation. But cutting off the
scalps of the ten wretches, they came off, and received fifty pounds from the
General Assembly of the province, as a recompence of their action; besides
which, they received many "presents of congratulation" from their more private
friends: but none gave 'em a greater taste of bounty than Colonel Nicholson, The
Governour of Maryland, who, hearing of their action, sent 'em a very generous
token of his favour.