Mary Rowlandson

“ What (says he) can you eat horse liver? I told him I would try, if he would give me a piece, which he did; and I laid it on the coals to roast, but before it was half ready, they got half of it away from me; so that I was forced to take the rest and eat it as it was, with the blood about my mouth, and yet a savory bit it was to me; for to the hungry soul every bitter thing was sweet. A solemn sight methought it was, to see whole fields of wheat and Indian corn forsaken and spoiled, and the remainder of them to be food for our merciless enemies. That night we had a mess of wheat for our supper. ”

“ I have been in the midst of those roaring lions, and savage bears, that feared neither God, nor man, nor the devil, by night and day, alone and in company; sleeping all sorts together, and yet not one of them ever offered the least abuse of unchastity to me, in word or action. Though some are ready to say, I speak it for my own credit; but I speak it in the presence of God, and to his glory. God's power is as great now, as it was to save Daniel in the lion's den, or the three children in the fiery furnace. ”

“ I remember how on the night before and after the Sabbath, when my family was about me, and relations and neighbours with us, we could pray and sing, and refresh our bodies with the good creatures of God, and then have a comfortable bed to lie down on; but instead of all this, I had only a little swill for the body, and then like a swine, must lie down on the ground. I cannot express to man, the sorrow that lay upon my spirit, the Lord knows it. Yet that comfortable scripture would often come to my mind, For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. ”

“ I cannot but admire to see the wonderful providence of God, in preserving the Heathen for further affliction to our poor country. They could go in great numbers over, but the English must stop: God had an overruling hand in all those things.
4. It was thought, if their corn were cut down, they would starve and die with hunger; and all that could be found was destroyed and they driven from that little they had in store, into the woods, in the midst of winter; and yet how to admiration did the Lord preserve them for his holy ends, and the destruction of many still among the English! ”

“ When we are in prosperity, Oh the little that we think of such dreadful sights, to see our dear friends and relations lie bleeding out their hearts' blood upon the ground. There was one who was chopt in the head with a hatchet, and stript naked, and yet was crawling up and down. It was a solemn sight to see so many christians lying in their blood, some here and some there, like a company of sheep torn by wolves. ”

“ They were many hundreds, old and young, some sick and some lame; many had Papooses at their backs; the greatest number at this time with us were Squaws, and they travelled with all they had, bag and baggage, and yet they got over this river aforesaid; and on Monday they sat their wigwams on fire, and away they went; on that very day came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance ”

“ When we came to the brow of the hill that looked toward the swamp, I thought we had been come to a great Indian town (though there were none but our own company) the Indians were as thick as the trees; it seemed as if there had been a thousand hatchets going at once. If one looked before one there was nothing but Indians, and behind one nothing but Indians ”

“ The things that my soul refuseth to touch, are as my sorrowful meat. Thus the Lord made that pleasant and refreshing, which another time would have been an abomination. Then I went home to my mistress's wigwam, and they told me I disgraced my master with begging, and if I did so any more, they would knock me on the head: I told them they had as good do that, as starve me to death. ”

“ To my thinking, they went without any scruple but that they should prosper, and gain the victory. And they went out not so rejoicing, but they came home with as great a victory. For they said they killed two captains, and almost an hundred men. One Englishman they brought alive with them, and he said it was too true, for they had made sad work at Sudbury; as indeed it proved. Yet they came home without that rejoicing and triumphing over their victory, which they were wont to shew at other times; but rather like dogs (as they say) which have lost their ears. ”

“ One hour I have been in health and wealth, wanting nothing, but the next hour in sickness, and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction. Before I knew what affliction meant I was ready sometimes to wish for it. When I lived in prosperity, having the comforts of this world about me, my relations by me, and my heart cheerful, and taking little care for any thing ”

“ When my foot slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. Going along, having indeed my life, but little spirit, Philip (who was in the company) came up, and took me by the hand, and said, “Two weeks more and you shall be mistress again.” I asked him if he spake true? he answered, “Yes, and quickly you shall come to your master again,” who had been gone from us three weeks. ”

“ We travelled about half a day or a little more and came to a desolate place in the wilderness where there were no wigwams or inhabitants before; we came about the middle of the afternoon to this place; cold, wet and snowy, and hungry, and weary, and no refreshing for man, but the cold ground to sit on, and our poor Indian cheer. ”

“ One hill was so steep, that I was fain to creep up upon my knees, and to hold by the twigs and bushes to keep myself from falling backward. My head also was so light that I usually reeled as I went: But I hope all those wearisome steps that I have taken, are but a forwarding of me to the heavenly rest. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. ”

“ I cannot but take notice, how at another time I could not bear to be in a room where a dead person was, but now the case is changed; I must and could lie down with my dead babe all the night after. I have thought since, of the wonderful goodness of God to me, in preserving me so in the use of my reason and senses, in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life. In the morning, when they understood that my child was dead, they sent me home to my master's wigwam. ”

“ As I was sitting once in the wigwam here, Philip's maid came with the child in her arms, and asked me to give her a piece off my apron, to make a flap for it; I told her I would not; then my mistress bid me give it, but I still said no. The maid told me, if I would not give her a piece, she would tear a piece off it; I told her I would tear her coat then; with that my mistress rises up, and takes up a stick big enough to have killed me, and struck at me with it, but I stept out, and she struck the stick into the mat of the wigwam. ”

“ A severe and proud dame she was; bestowing every day in dressing herself near as much time as any of the gentry of the land; powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with her necklaces, with jewels in her ears, and bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed herself, her work was to make girdles of wampom and beads. The third Squaw was a younger one, by whom he had two Papooses. By that time I was refreshed by the old Squaw, Wettimore's maid came to call me home, at which I fell a weeping. ”

“ ON the morrow morning we must go over Connecticut River to meet with King Philip; two canoes full they had carried over, the next turn myself was to go; but as my foot was upon the canoe to step in, there was a sudden outcry among them, and I must step back; and instead of going over the river, I must go four or five miles up the river farther northward. Some of the Indians ran one way, and some another. ”

“ When I was returned, I found myself as unsatisfied as I was before, I went up and down mourning and lamenting, and my spirit was ready to sink, with the thoughts of my poor children. My son was ill, and I could not but think of his mournful looks, having no christian friend near him, to do any office of love to him, either for soul or body. ”

“ After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on, they stopt: and now down I must sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me, with my sick child in my lap, and calling much for water, being now (through the wound) fallen into a violent fever. My own wound also growing so stiff, that I could scarce sit down or rise up, yet so it must be, that I must sit all this cold winter night, upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last of its life ”

“ One bitter cold day, I could find no room to sit down before the fire: I went out, and could not tell what to do, but I went into another wigwam, where they were also sitting round the fire; but the Squaw laid a skin for me, and bid me sit down, and gave me some ground-nuts, and bid me come again ”

“ Be still and know that I am God. Which stilled my spirit for the present: but a sore time of trial I concluded I had to go through. My master being gone, who seemed to me the best friend I had of an Indian, both in cold and hunger, and quickly so it proved. ”

“ Then I went to see King Philip; he bid me come in, and sit down; and asked me whether I would smoke it? (a usual compliment now a days, among the saints and sinners;) but this no ways suited me. For though I had formerly used tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken. It seems to be a bait the devil lays to make men lose their precious time. ”

“ God seemed to leave his people to themselves, and ordered all things for his own holy ends. Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, therefore they shall go captive, with the first that go captive. It is the Lord's doing, and it should he marvellous in our eyes.
2. I cannot but remember how the Indians derided the slowness and the dulness of the English army in its setting out. ”

“ And now could I see that scripture verified, there being many scriptures that we do not take notice of, or understand till we are afflicted, Mic. 6. 14. Thou shalt eat and not be satisfied. Now might I see more than ever before, the miseries that sin hath brought upon us. Many times I should be ready to run out against the heathen, but that scripture would quiet me again, Amos, 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? ”

“ Here one asked me to make a shirt for her Papoos for which she gave me a mess of broth, which was thickened with meal made of the bark of a tree; and to make it better, she had put into it about a handful of peas, and a few roasted ground-nuts. I had not seen my son a pretty while, and here was an Indian of whom I made enquiry after him, and asked him when he saw him? He answered me, that such a time his master roasted him, and that himself did eat a piece of him as big as his two fingers, and that he was very good meat. ”

“ Beers's fight; and was not able some time to go, but as they carried him, and that he took oak leaves and laid to his wound, and by the blessing of God, he was able to travel again. Then took I oak leaves and laid to my side, and with the blessing of God, it cured me also; yet before the cure was wrought, I may say as it is in Psalms 38. 5, 6. My wounds stink and are corrupt, I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long. I sat much alone with my poor wounded child in my lap, which moaned night and day, having nothing to revive the body, or cheer the spirits of her ”

“ THE morning being come, they prepared to go on their way, one of the Indians got upon a horse, and they sat me up behind him, with my poor sick babe in my lap. A very wearisome and tedious day I had of it; what with my own wound, and my child being so exceeding sick, and in a lamentable condition with her wound, it may easily be judged what a poor feeble condition we were in, there being not the least crumb of refreshing that came within either of our mouths from Wednesday night to Saturday night, except only a little cold water. ”

“ I opened my Bible to read, and the Lord brought that precious scripture to me. Jer. 31. 16. Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. This was a sweet cordial to me; when I was ready to faint, many and many a time have I sat down and wept sweetly over this scripture. ”

“ When all are fast about me, and no eye open, but his who ever awaketh, my thoughts are upon things past, upon the awful dispensations of the Lord towards us, upon his wonderful power and might in carrying of us through so many difficulties, in returning us in safety, and suffering none to hurt us. I remember in the night season, how the other day I was in the midst of thousands of enemies, and nothing but death before me. ”

“ I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down like the locust: My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness. ”