So great a work, and mighty was it found, This high affront the tyrant deep resents, Who being met, the case to them relates, เ My noble captains and wise counsellers, You know how that of old our ancestors, Their gods always accepted their address, They preach there is no other God but one; Him whom your fathers worship'd, he is none. Their way of worship was a cursed way; They serv'd the devil in their antick play. 'Tis very like they now are all in hell, Where they in fire and brimstone roar and yell. • You 'You must not have so many handsome wives, 'Therefore forsake them, pity not their cries. Shall we yield them the empire we command, And humbly wait upon them cap in hand? 'Or shan't we rather curb them now betimes, 'And make them feel the folly of their crimes? 'Speak freely. On the honour of a prince, I'll hear as freely, and without offence. 'Then an old Panime rose, to ease his breast, The sacred name and mem'ry of the dead. No strangers yet, till conquest gave them cause, And you have kept them safely hitherto, As 'tis your duty and your praise to do. Suffer them not to keep insulting thus, • Nor put such impositions upon us. But arm your warriors; let us try the odds 'Twixt them and us, 'twixt theirs and our gods. For much I fear impending vengeance • Will ruin us, unless we drive them hence. This said, one of his chiefest warriors rose, • And thus his mind did to his prince disclose : "If they are so audacious while a few, 'When grown a multitude, what will they do? Therefore 'tis my advice to arm, and try The quarrel with them in their infancy. 'Sure now, if ever, we may well succeed, 'Whilst warlike Sasacus doth us lead; 'Whose very name and martial policy 'Has always gain'd us half the victory. To what he said, they all agreed as one: 'Now is the trumpet of defiance blown. War with the English nation is proclaim'd; "(Their priests their martial men greatly enflam'd). A bloody host is sent to Saybrook fort, To plunder, kill and cut the English short: 'Where they arriv'd, and diverse murdered; Then round the English fort beleaguered. Another army cross the land is sent, With fire and sword to kill the innocent. 'At Weathersfield they lay in ambuscade, 'And a sad slaughter of the people made. Others they took, and them in captive led Unto their forts, there to be tortured. Thus from our peace most suddenly we are So have I sometimes in the summer seen 'And now the clouds in tempest loud contend, And rain and dreadful lightning downward send; With which such loud and mighty thunders broke, 'As made earth tremble, and the mountains smoke; "And the convulsive world seem drawing on Apace to her own dissolution; • The awfulness of which amazing sight Greatly did earth's inhabitants affright. • E'en so those halcyon days, that were with us, Were soon turn'd into times tempestuous. 'Mischief 'Mischief on mischief every day succeeds, To murder us by force or treachery. 'No confidence in any we repose, "Our seeming friends we find our real foes. Only to the Most High in Heaven by prayer; Of broken hearts, and penitential cries. We must subdue the foe, or be subdued; And that the gangrene still would further stray, • "Till the infected limb be cut away. And thereupon they ordered and decreed, Ninety brave combatants in arms, appear'd. Yet scarce a tithe unto the enemy. And these are those whose names fame hath enrol'd, The army now drawn up: To be their head • Our valiant Mason was commissioned; (Whose name is never mentioned by me, Without a special note of dignity). The The leader march'd them to the river side, your bread). 'Twas here that Uncass did the army meet, With many stout Mohegans at his feet. 'He to the general goes, and doth declare, He came for our assistance in the war. He was that sagamore, whom great Sasacus' rage Had hitherto kept under vassalage. But weary of this great severity, He now revolts and to the English fly. With cheerful air our captain him embraces, And him and his chief men with title graces; Then down the river with their fleet they stood; But stranding often on the flats and mud. Uncass impatient of such long delays, Stood forth, and freely to the general says, 'Suffer me and my men to go on shore, "We are not us'd to shipping, sails and oar. I'll range the woods to find the enemy, Where they in their close ambushments may lie; And unto you at Saybrook will repair, 'And so attend your further orders there. 'Consented to, they land immediately, And marching down, soon met the enemy: 'And showers of arrows on them he bestows, Swifter than ever flew from Parthian bows. At length the Pequots left the field and fled, 'There leaving many of their fellows dead. The news of this our forces greatly cheers, Here captain Underhill with our army join'd, |