took his place, and
endeavored to single out his victim. It was agreed that not a gun
should be fired until the Indians should commence rising from their
sleep, and the morning light should give the colonists fair aim.

An hour of breathless and moveless silence passed away. In the
earliest dawn of the morning, just as a few rays of light began to
stream along the eastern horizon, the Indians, as if by one volition,
sprang from their hard couch. A sudden discharge of musketry rang
through the forest, and thirteen bullets pierced as many bodies.
Appalled by so sudden an attack and such terrible slaughter, the
survivors, unaware of the feebleness of the force by which they were
assailed, plunged down the precipitous hill, tumbling over each
other, and rolling among the rocks. The adventurous band eagerly
pursued them, and shot at them as they would at deer flying through
the forest. Many more thus fell. One keen marksman struck down an
Indian at the distance of eighty rods, breaking his thigh bone. In
this short encounter twenty-four of the Indians were slain. The
remainder escaped into the depths of the forest. The heroes of this
adventure all returned in safety to their homes, no one having been
injured. It was undoubtedly the intention of this prowling band to
have attacked and fired the town as soon as the inhabitants had been
scattered in the morning in their fields at work.

Soon after this, two English boys, who had been captured by the
Indians and taken to the upper waters of the Connecticut, escaped,
and, following down the river, succeeded in reaching the settlements.
They gave information that the Indians, in large numbers, were
encamped upon the banks of the river, just above the present site of
Deerfield. Supposing that all the energies of the colonists were
employed in endeavoring to arrest the ravages which were taking place
in the towns nearer the seaboard, they were indulging in careless
security.

The inhabitants of Hadley, Hatfield, and Northampton promptly raised a
force of one hundred and fifty mounted men to attack them. On the
night of the 18th of May they left Hadley, and, traveling as fast as
they could about twenty miles, through the dead of night, arrived a
little after midnight in the vicinity of the Indian encampment. Here
they alighted, tied their horses to some young trees, and then
cautiously crept through the forest about half a mile, when, still in
the gloom of the rayless morning, th