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

1704.] QUEEN ANNE'S FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 483
The petitioners were to settle within three years, one family
on each of the sixty shares. This recommendation
passed the House of Deputies, Dec. 12'^, 1735, but there is
no record of any action by the Council, and the petitioners
failed to obtain the coveted township.
The March to Can- After the retreat of the English, de Rouada
begun. The ville, having Collected his prisoners, began
ap ives.
^-y^^ march to Canada. This tedious, heart
rending, and calamitous journey has been so frequently
and so minutely described, that there is little need of its
repetition here. Two men from Northampton, were captured
at this time—John Bridgman Jr. and Thomas Baker.
The former escaped before the march began, and the latter
was carried to Canada. The cold was intense, the snow
deep, and being encumbered by women and children, as
well as loaded with provisions and plunder, progress was
slow. Of the one hundred eleven captives, two escaped, and
twenty-two were slain or perished on the way. More than
half of the prisoners were under eighteen years of age
thirty-two of them less than twelve, and twelve not five
years old. Rev. John Williams and family were among
those carried off by the enemy. His wife and infant child
were killed on the fifth day of the march. He and all his
children but one, Eunice, who never came back, remained
in captivity two years. On his return he published an account
of the hardships he endured, under the title of the
"Redeemed Captive returning to Zion."
Reinforcements Soldiers wcre promptly sent to Deerfield
quickly For- from the Hampshire towns and from Connecticut.
On the first of March, one hundred
forty-seven men came up from Hartford. The snow
was so deep that it was impossible to pursue the enemy, as
the troops were without snow shoes. Later in the month,
Capt. Newberry, with sixty-two men arrived from Connecticut,
and they remained till Sej)tember. The remaining
inhabitants of Deerfield had serious thoughts of again de-
serting the place, but after consideration they resolutely determined
to maintain their plantation. About twenty-five
men and from fifty to sixty women and children were all
;