the opening was defended only by a long tree. There were flankers, it is true, and there was a blockhouse, but these could be passed with a rush, and here, therefore, the assault was delivered. Two Massachusetts companies those of Nathaniel Davenport and Isaac Johnson-led, and both were repulsed, losing their captains. The companies of Mosely and Joseph Gardiner, pressing to the rescue, were likewise repulsed. Perceiving the desperate nature of the resistance offered, Major Samuel Appleton, who commanded the Massachusetts men, now massed his entire column at the opening, and with the cry that the Indians were running, the column swept into the fort, capturing one of the flankers. The Massachusetts troops were promptly followed through the perilous defile by those of Connecticut, and, amid considerable fighting at close quarters, conducted by the Indians from the shelter of their blockhouses and lodges, the interior was for the most part mastered.

The total loss on the part of the Indians was great, but probably has been overestimated. The killed may have reached 100, possibly 150, and the wounded were in proportion. Besides, according to Captain James Oliver of Massachusetts, some 350 fighting men and 300 women and children were made captive.1 On the part of the English the loss was about 68 killed and 150 wounded. Of these the wounded were transferred to the island

1 Church's Narrative, (Dexter's ed.) p. 59.

2 Bodge's Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 190.

of Rhode Island, where they were assigned "good quarters" and given particular care.1 Major Peleg Sanford alone furnished quarters at Newport for a large body of wounded, supplying (besides many other things) "244 pounds of mutton, 66 pounds of butter, 74 pounds of sugar, and 28 gallons of rum"; and quarters were also furnished by Robert Carr and the heirs of William Brenton.

From the time of the defeat and consequent dispersion of the Narragansetts to the end of the war, Rhode Island in its Mainland area became part of the theatre of Indian devastation. On the one hand, the Indians were now freed from the necessity of even pretending to regard their treaty bonds; and on the other, the Quaker-dominated Rhode Island Government made but feeble effort to resist attack. On October 27, 1675, the General Assembly referred the whole matter of the colony defence to the "Council of Warr in each towne," and there left it for several months. In Providence the council was somewhat active as early as January, 1675-76, and this chiefly through the efforts of Roger Williams and Arthur Fenner.

At the beginning of February, 1676, the Nipmucs, Narragansetts, and other tribes confederated under Philip were gathered in large camps at Wenimesset (New Braintree), Squakeag (North

1 The author of the Old Indian Chronicle (Drake's ed., p. 211) says that while the Governor of Rhode Island (Wm. Coddington) received the wounded kindly, some churlish Quakers were not free to entertain them until compelled by the Governour."

VOL. II.-12.

46

field), and Mount Wachuset (Princeton), and from these points they made, on the 10th instant, an attack on Lancaster, and, on the 21st, on Medfield— the latter a point only twenty miles from Boston. These things, of course, were duly taken note of by the Providence Council of War, and during February Captain Arthur Fenner, profoundly disgusted at the neglect of the Mainland of Rhode Island by the Quaker Government at Newport, despatched a sharp note on the subject to Governor Walter Clarke. On February 28th Clarke replied to Fenner, remarking upon "your evil suggestions concerning us in authority, especially myself, as if not worthy to live." He then proceeded to explain that it had been through the financial inability of the colony that the towns of the Mainland had been left unprovided with garrisons, and to suggest a removal to the Island for safety. Evidently Fenner in his letter had hinted at an appeal to the United Colonies, for Clarke protested against such action as likely to result in "your being made a prey of." He concluded with the tender of the following provocative bit of moral philosophy: "We know the Lord's hand is against New England, and no weapon formed will or shall prosper till the work be finished by which the wheat is pulled up with the tares and the innocent suffer with the guilty."

On March 13th the General Assembly convened at Newport, and the critical situation of the Mainland towns became the leading question. Warwick had followed the example of Providence and sent

a forcible letter to the Governor. In view of the two letters, it was voted by the Assembly to advise the people of the Mainland "to repaire to this Island which is the most secureist." It was at the same time stated that such as should come and be unable to "procure land to plant for themselves and families would be supplyed with land by the townes of Portsmouth and Newport," and that "each family soe wantinge a libertye might have a cow kept upon the commons." An order was also made that every Indian servant in the colony, "from twelve years old and upward," should be provided with an attendant in the daytime and be locked up at night; but that "noe Indian in this collony shall be a slave," save only for debts, covenant, etc., "as if they had been countrymen not in warr."

The island of Rhode Island had already been made a place of refuge by the Swansea settlers, and by persons from the exposed shores of Plymouth Colony and Narragansett; but from this time forth it became likewise a Zoar or refuge for the Warwickites and for most of the inhabitants of Providence. Warwick, indeed, becoming ambulatory, completely abandoned its town site, and set itself up as a corporate entity upon the Island till the advent of peace should admit of its return. Providence was more tenacious in its hold upon the soil, and never altogether quitted the Mainland, some twenty-seven of the most valorous of its sons, including Roger Williams, remaining throughout the period of disturbance.

2

March 17th and 26th (1676) saw the bursting of the cloud of destruction over the Rhode Island Mainland, in the burning of the deserted houses of Warwick,' and in the annihilation at the river side, near Pawtucket Falls, of Captain Michael Pierce of Scituate, Plymouth Colony, with a force of seventy men, by a body of Narragansetts led, it is thought, by Canonchet. * It is a familiar tradition that, when the Indians approached Providence to destroy it,3 Williams, staff in hand, met the sachems and tried to change their purpose, but that they, while assuring him of personal regard in memory of the past, urged him not to expose himself, as their young men were much enraged, and rejected peremptorily all his overtures for a cessation of the war.1

Elizabeth C. Brenton-as remarked on a preceding page-records a tradition, that upon re

'Only one house - a stone structure - survived. About March 15th the garrison which had been left at Smith's trading house abandoned it, and on the day following it was burned by the Indians. The author of the Old Indian Chronicle calls Smith's place "one of the most delightful Seats in New England."— Chronicle (Drake's ed.), p. 216.

2 Bliss in his Hist. of Rehoboth (pp. 93, 97) suggests that Philip himself may have led the Indians in this conflict. The probabilities, however, point to Canonchet.

The Old Indian Chronicle (Drake's ed. p. 211) states that Pierce was decoyed into an ambuscade by four or five Indians who, pretending lameness, made what apparently were desperate efforts to get away from Pierce's men.

3 It is the tradition that when the house of John Smith, the miller and town clerk, was set on fire, the owner saved the Providence Records by throwing them into the mill-pond. The researches of Mr. Edward Field of Providence have brought to light evidence that these records were in the hands of the Indians. Daniel Abbott in 1678, and Benjamin Hernden in 1686, make allusion to "ye Indians they having [had] ye Books."

'Backus is authority for this tradition.-Hist. New Eng., vol. i., p. 424.