printed paper put forth by Capt. Wheeler, being a narrative of the matter, wherein he mentions nothing of those Indians' service, but yet gave them a certificate under his hand in these words.
"These are to certify that Joseph and Sampson, Indians, that were our guides in the Nipmuck country, behaved themselves courageously and faithfully, and conducted our distressed company in the best way from the swamp, where we were wounded and divers slain, unto the town of Brookfield, and all the time of our being with them, in the inn of Brookfield, when the enemy attacked us, those two Indians behaved themselves as honest and stout men.
"Witness my hand, the 20th of August, 1675.
Thomas Wheeler."
This certificate those Indians had, and I saw it, and took a copy of it, and I spoke with Captain Wheeler before his death,[1] and he owned it. Besides, James Richardson, now Lieutenant, belonging to the army and living at Chelmsford, and several others that were in that action and are yet alive, owned the same thing; and moreover, both Captain Wheeler and Lieutenant Richardson informed me that the two Indians beforenamed, told Captain Hutchison, before the Indians perfidiously assaulted their company, that they much doubted the fidelity of those Nipmuck Indians, and feared they would be treacherous, and earnestly persuaded Capt. Hutchison and the rest not to adventure to go to them at the swamp; and gave him some demonstrations of it, for there were two English there sent the day before the mischief, and they then observed that which was a ground of their fears. But the Captain, being a man of spirit and intent upon his trust, would proceed, and so lost not only his own life but others also, for though he was not killed upon the place, yet he died of his wounds soon after.[2] But this shows the prudence and fidelity of the Christian Indians; yet notwithstanding all this service they were, with others of our Christian Indians, through the harsh
