try. Also, the first adviser of them all, called David, was condemned to be sold, his crime alleged for suspicion of shooting an Irish boy at Marlborough, and for accusing the others falsely; but all the rest were discharged. Before the conclusion of the trial, God in his providence so ordered, that two prisoners of the enemy were taken at two distinct times, who both declared that the murder at Lancaster (for which those men were accused) was committed by some of Philip's party, and particularly the conductor of the party, (which consisted of about twenty Indians,) was named John with one eye,[1] a notable fellow, that did very much mischief to the English afterward; and this man did live near Lancaster before the war began, and was well acquainted with the place, and was a principal captain that conducted the Indians that burnt the town of Lancaster afterward; and the prisoners before mentioned heard this one-eyed John boast of this exploit in slaying the people at Lancaster, for which our praying Indians were accused. But before this business was fully examined and issued, the clamors of the people were very great upon this occasion, and all things against those praying Indians accused (as one of the most intelligent of the magistrates said) were represented as very great, as things appear in mist or fog. Some men were so violent that they would have had these Indians put to death by martial law, and not tried by a jury, though they were subjects under the English protection, and not in hostility with us; others had received such impressions in their minds, that they could hardly extend charity to the jurors and magistrates that acquitted them. And indeed God hath since, by his immediate hand, given testimony against some persons that were violent in it, to have them put to death, as I could instance in particulars,[2] but shall endeavour to avoid all personal reflections; but
- ↑ His Indian name was Monoco. — See Book of the Indians.
- ↑ "But so it was," says the author of the Letter to which we have so often referred, "that, by one and two at a time, most of these eight Indians (and four more sent afterwards on the same account) were let loose by night, which so exasperated the commonalty, that about the 10 Sept., at nine o'clock at night, there gathered together about forty men, (some of note,) and came to the house of Capt. James Oliver. Two or three of them went into his entry to desire to speak with him, which was to desire him to be their leader, and they should join together and go break open the prison, and take one Indian out thence and hang him. Capt. Oliver, hearing their request, took his cane and cudgelled them stoutly, and so for that time dismissed the company."
