Soldiers in King Philip's war. Containing lists of the soldiers of ...

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and abettors [sic'] and unto all these things you shall require y er expr'sse answer
; & as soon as you have dispatched the affayre, you are to returne home
& give us an acct, so desiring the Lords pr r sence with you & in prosecution
of this affayre if you should meet with any Indians that stand in opposition
to you or declare y m selves to bee yo r enemies then you are ordered to ingage
with them if you see reson for it & endeav 1 to reduce y m by force of
Arms.
Such was the situation when, as we learn from Capt. Wheeler's
narrative above mentioned, he, with about twenty of his troop, reported
to the Council as commanded, and with Capt. Hutchinson marched
on July 28th from Cambridge to Sudbury, and thence the next three
days into the Nipmuck Country. They marched to within two miles of
New Norwich, and finding all the Indians had fled from their towns,
and meeting with but a few stragglers here and there, who fled from
them, they marched back to Brookfield, arriving there Sunday, August
1st, and hearing of Indians in great force about ten miles away,
they sent out four men to treat with them. One of these was Ephraim
Curtis (as I find by his testimony in the trial of the Wabaquassa
Indian, Poquahow, for being engaged in the assault upon Capt.
Hutchinson and the rest), two I think were Brookfield men, and
the fourth was probably one of the Indian guides. They met the
Indians about eight miles from Brookfield in a swamp, and after the
young warriors had blustered and threatened a long time, their sachems
agreed to meet Capt. Hutchinson and his party next day at
8 o'clock at a plain three miles from Brookfield. Capt. Hutchinson,
accompanied by the troopers, scouts and three of the "chief
men " of Brookfield went to the place appointed ; but no Indians
appeared. Whereupon the officers suspected treachery, and were
earnestly warned by the Indian guides not to go on ; but the Brookfield
men were so confident of the good faith of the Nipmucks, and
urged so hard, that at last they prevailed, and the party marched
on. They supposed the Indians to be in a swamp several miles
away, the approach to which was, at one point, narrow and difficult,
having an impassable swamp on one side and a steep rocky hill on
the other. 76 Here with their usual skill the Indians had placed their
ambuscade. The English were forced to ride along this narrow
pass single file. The entire company was allowed to pass the first
lines of the ambuscade, which then closed up to cut off a retreat ; and
when the foremost of the troopers had ridden forward some sixty or
seventy rods, the Indians, from their coverts on either hand along
the whole line, poured in upon them a sudden and terrible volley.
Eight men were killed on the spot, viz. : Zechariah Phillips of Bos-
76 The exact spot has not been fully identified, but a careful comparison of the best authorities
seems to establish the place in the narrow defile above the head of Wicknboag
Pond. Local tradition, reliably transmitted, still points out the graves of the fallen in
the old cemetery at West Brookfield, on the south shore of that pond. A gentleman of
critical judgment, who recently visited the spot, assures me that seven graves are yet plainly
visible there.