The history of King Philip's War

[46 ]
much intreating; but told him, They would go with him,
as long as there was an Indian left in the Woods. He
moved 323 & ranged thro' the Woods [46] to Pocajfet. It
being the latter end of the Week, he propofed to go on to
Rhode-IJland and reft until Monday. But early on the
Lords day Morning, 324 there came a Poft to inform the Cap-
323 He mull have left Plymouth about
Wednefday or Thurfday (6th or 7th
September), 1676 ? Hubbard fays he
had with him " but 5 Englifhmen and
20 Indians." [Narrative, 107.]
324 The queftion of the date of this
expedition is one of the moft perplexing
ones in the hiftory of the time ; ftrangely
enough, fo far as I can learn, no
record of it, or of any circumftance
which would exactly identify it, having
a place in any of the early hiftories or
cotemporaneous records. Mr. Drake,
in his fecond edition of this narrative
(1827, p. 142), is the firft to attempt to
fettle it. He does fo on the ftrength of
the fadfc that Annawon was taken on a
Monday night, when the moon was
mining, " not long after dark." He
ftates that the moon was at the full in
1676, on Saturday, the 26 Auguft,
whence he infers that Monday, 28 Au-
guft, was the date of the capture (fee
alfo note to Mr. Drake's ed., Mather's
Brief Hi/iory, 1862, p. 1S0), which
would throw back the date of the ftarting
of the expedition from Plymouth
to Wednefday or Thurfday, the 23d or
24th. Dr. Palfrey \_HiJi. N. E. iii
206] adopts this as the true date, and
Arnold \HiJi. R.-I. i: 417] ipeaks
vaguely of Annawon's capture as " a
:
154
few nights after the death of Philip."
But John Fofter's Almanac for 1676
gives the full moon of Auguft of that
year as being on " the 13 th day, at 26m.
paft 6 in the morn"; while Sherman's
Almanac for the fame year, ftates it as
on the " 13 th day, at 25m. paft 6 in the
morn." This was the Sabbath, the next
day after the day of the death of Philip.
Church (fee p. 152, ante) fays he ftaid
at Rhode - Ifland until Tuefday, the
15th, and then "ranged thro' all the
woods to Plymouth," which he could
fcarcely have reached before Friday or
Saturday, the iSth or 19th. Then he
was " a little while at Plymouth," a
phrale which might cover two or three
weeks, while it would fcarcely have
been ufed for a lefs time than one week
(which leffer time he would more likely
have ftyled "a few days"), before the
" poft from Rehoboth " came with news
of Annawon, and he was " fent for"
and " treated with " for " one expedi-
tion more " ; and began to gather fol-
diers to go out again. From all this,
it feems very clear that the Auguft
moon muft have difappeared long be-
fore he could have been ready to ftart
on this expedition. If this were fo, we
are thrown over into September for
the true date of this expedition ; and