ad settled over the forest, the old
man again rose to resume the march. Captain Church said to him,

"Will you take a gun and fight for us?"

The faithful guide bowed very low, and nobly said, "I pray you not to
impose upon me such a thing as to fight Annawan, my old friend. I will
go along with you and be helpful to you, and will lay hands on any man
who shall offer to hurt you."

In the gloom of the wilderness it was now very dark, and all kept
close together, and moved cautiously and silently along. Soon they
heard a noise as of a woman pounding corn. All stopped and listened.
They had arrived at Annawan's retreat. Captain Church, with one
Englishman and half a dozen Indians, most of whom had been taken
captive that very day, were about to attack one of the fiercest and
most redoubtable of Philip's chieftains, surrounded by sixty of his
tribe, many of whom were soldiers of a hundred battles. Drake, in his
Book of the Indians, gives the following description of this noted
place:

"It is situated in the southeasterly corner of Rehoboth,
about eight miles from Taunton Green, a few rods from the
road which leads to Providence, and on the southeasterly
side of it. If a straight line were drawn from Taunton to
Providence, it would pass very nearly over this place.
Within the limits of an immense swamp of nearly three
thousand acres there is a small piece of upland, separated
from the main only by a brook, which in some seasons is dry.
This island, as we may call it, is nearly covered with an
enormous rock, which to this day is called Annawan's Rock.
Its southeast side presents an almost perpendicular
precipice, and rises to the height of twenty-five or thirty
feet. The northwest side is very sloping and easy of ascent,
being at an angle of not more than thirty-five or forty
degrees. A more gloomy and hidden recess, even now, although
the forest-tree no longer waves over it, could hardly be
found by any inhabitant of the wilderness."

Creeping cautiously to the summit of the rock, Captain Church looked
down over its precipitous edge upon the scene presented below. The
spectacle which opened to his view was wild and picturesque in the
extreme. He saw three bands of Indians at short distances from each
other, gathered around several fires. Their pots and kettles were
boiling, and meat was roasting upon the spits. Some of the Indians
w