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under the command of Maj. Hertel de Rouville took advantage of the unfaithfulness of the guards, surprised the garrison, and took 300 citizens cap- tive, besides killing several, including two of Mr. Williams's children and a negro woman-servant. They then compelled him, his wife, and all his re- maining children, except one, who was absent from home, to begin on foot the march toward Canada, in which they were accompanied by their fellow- settlers. Mrs. Williams fell exhausted on the sec- ond day of their journey, and was at once de- spatched with a tomahawk. After travelling about 300 miles they reached their destination, and, al- though Mr. Williams suffered many cruelties from his captors, he was finally redeemed by Gov. Phil- ippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, and returned to Boston in 1706, leaving his daughter Eunice still in cap- tivity. He resumed his charge in Deerfield in the latter part of 1706 and remained there until his death. He also gave much time to scientific re- searches and left many manuscripts on these sub- jects. He published several sermons and a narra- tive of his captivity called " The Redeemed Cap- tive " (Boston, 1707). See a " Biographical Memoir of Rev. John Williams, with Appendix, contain- ing the Journal of his Son, Rev. Stephen Williams, during his Captivity," by Stephen W. Williams (Greenfield, Mass., 1837). This is in a great part a reprint of " The Redeemed Captive." — His son, Eleazer, clergyman, b. in Deerfield, 1 July, 1688 ; d. in Mansfield, Conn., 21 Sept., 1742, was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1708, and from 1710 until his death was pastor at Mansfield. He published sev- eral sermons. — Another son, Stephen, clergyman, b. in Deerfield, Mass., 14 May, 1693; d. in Long Meadow, Mass., 10 June, 1782, was taken captive by the Indians in his eleventh year, and, with the other Deerfield prisoners, marched on foot to Cana- da. After being detained for about fourteen months he was bought from the Indians by the governor of Canada, and in November, 1705, was returned to Boston. His minute account of this experience is incorporated in the " Memoir of John Williams " that has been mentioned. He was graduated at Harvard in 1713, ordained to the ministry in 1716, and was pastor at Long Meadow, Mass., for sixty- six years. In the course of his ministry he served as chaplain in three different campaigns against the French and Indians, accompanying Sir Will- iam Pepperrell to Cape Breton and Sir William Johnson to Lake George during the old French war. He aided in establishing the mission among the Stockbridge Indians in 1734, of which John Sergeant, of Yale, was subsequently in charge. Dartmouth gave him the degree of D. D. in 1773. He published a "Sermon on the Ordination of John Keep" (1772). — John's daughter, Eunice, b. in Deerfield, 17 Sept., 1696; d. in Canada in 1786, was carried captive to Canada when she was in her eighth year. When her father was redeemed she was left among the Indians and no money could subsequently procure her release. She forgot the English language, adopted the Roman Catholic re- ligion, married an Indian named John de Rogers, and conformed to Indian views and habits. She visited her relatives several times, but always re- fused to adopt English dress or civilized customs. The legislature of Massachusetts offered her a tract of land if she and her family would settle in New England; but she refused, saying that it would endanger her soul. — Her putative great- grandson, Eleazer, missionary, b. in Caughnawa- Sa, N. Y., probably in 1787; d. in Hoganstown, r. Y., 28 Aug., 1858, is supposed to have been ;i grandson of Ezekiel Williams, an English physician, and Eunice's daughter. Their son, Thomas, married an Indian woman named Mary Ann Kon- watewenteta on 7 Jan., 1779. Eleazer was sent to school at Long Meadow about 1800, and remained there nine years. He then studied three years un- der the Rev. Enoch Hale in Westhampton, Mass. At the beginning of the second war with Great Britain he be- came superin- tendent - general of the Northern Indian depart- ment. At the battle of Platts- burg, 14 Sept., 1814, he was se- verely wounded. He subsequently officiated as lay reader among the Oneida Indians and took orders in the Episcopal church. About 1820 this tribe

sold lands to the

state of New York and removed to Green Bay Wis., Mr. Williams accompanying them. In 1846 the Society for the propagation of the gospel among the Indians gave money for his support as a missionary, which was withheld at the end of two years, the reports of his service not being favorable. He left Wisconsin in 1850 and settled at St. Regis. In February, 1853, an article by the Rev. John H. Hanson, D. D., appeared in " Putnam's Magazine," entitled "Have we a Bourbon among us?" The author had seen a published paragraph to the effect that " Eleazer Williams was none other than Louis XVIL, the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, who was born at Versailles, 27 March, 1785, and supposed to have died in the Temple." Dr. Hanson sought an interview with Williams, who assured him that he was convinced of his royal descent. In an interview he told Dr. Hanson that until he was thirteen or fourteen years of age his mind was a blank ; but by a fall lie recovered his intellect, though not his memory. He then said that in 1841, on a steamboat, the Prince de Joinville urged him to sign a solemn "abdication of the throne of France," which he refused to do. Dr. Hanson issued a volume entitled " The Lost Prince " (New York, 1854), intending to prove the identity of Williams with Louis XVII. Hanson's arguments in favor of Williams's Bourbon descent are that his baptism was not registered and that his putative mother once admitted that he was an adopted son. Many physicians attested that Williams was not an Indian, and he had a remarkable resemblance to the Bourbon family. The belief was general that the Dauphin was removed from prison and brought to America. Skenondough, an Indian, had made oath that the youth was brought by two French gentlemen to Lake George. Other evidences are the money that was sent from an unknown source to educate him, the De Joinville interview, which Williams recorded in his diary, and the marks on his body, which the Dauphin also bore. On the other hand, many Indians denied Skenondough's story, and Bishop Charles F. Robertson. Williams's literary executor, refutes from Williams's own papers the statement that he was educated with funds that were supplied by unknown persons, he having original bills to