History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

314 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1676.
the valley, seldom remaining more than a few days in any
camp. Small parties still continued to infest the county,
committing depradations in various quarters.
Outrages Committed
in Southern
amps ire.
On the 26"' of Marcli, a party of sixteen or
eighteen men, accompanied by women and
children, while on their way from Longmeadow
to attend church at Springfield, were waylaid by
seven or eight Indians. One man and a woman were
killed, and two men wounded. In the confusion, two
women and their babes were taken prisoners. Major
Pynchon immediately disiDatched a squadron in pursuit.
Sixteen men sent out by Major Savage, from Hadley,
joined them the next morning, and the enemy were soon
after discovered. While their pursuers were in sight, the
savages dashed out the brains of the infants and knocked
the women on the head. The Indians escaped in a swamp
which the English horsemen were unable to penetrate.
One man was killed in Springfield and two men killed and
two houses burned in Westfield, during the winter.
A Tragedy at About the first of April, some Hadley
Hockanum. farmers, under an escort from the garrison,
went to Hockanum to work. They were
ambushed by the Indians, Dea. Goodman ^ and two of the
soldiers killed, and Thomas Reed, another soldier, cap-
tured. ^
1 Hoyt says tliat some of the party " went to the summit of Mt. Holyoke to view
the surrounding country from the peak, and that Dea. Goodman proceeded some distance
in a different direction to view the enclosures of his field." Hubbard says they
ventured, contrary to express orders, "upon the top of a high hill near by, to take
a needless and unseasonable view of the country."
2 ' About this time they came yelping from Hadley, having there killed three Englishmen
and brought one captive with them, viz: Thos. Reed. They all gathered
about the poor man, asking him many questions. I desired also to go and see him,
and when I came he was crying bitterly, supposing they would quicklj' kill him.
Whereupon I asked one of them whether they intended to kill him ? he answered me
they would not—he being cheered a little with that, I asked him about the welfare of
mj' husband and he told me he saw him such a time in the bay and he was well but
very melancholy."—Mrs. Rowlandson's Nari-ative, p. 28.