ch
occurs the passage, "My virgins and my young men have gone into
captivity."

Thus they progressed, the life of the captives dependent in every case
upon their ability to keep up with the party. Here an innocent child
would be knocked upon the head and left in the snow, and there some poor
woman dropped by the way and killed by the tomahawk. Arriving at White
River, De Rouville divided his forces, and the parties took separate
routes to Canada. The group to which Mr. Williams was attached went up
White River, and proceeded, with various adventures, to Sorel in Canada,
to which place some of the captives had preceded him. In Canada, all who
arrived were treated by the French with great humanity, and Mr. Williams
with marked courtesy. He proceeded to Chambly, thence to St. Francis on
the St. Lawrence, afterward to Quebec, and at last to Montreal, where
Governor Vaudreuil accorded him much kindness, and eventually redeemed
him from savage hands.

Mr. Williams's religious experiences in Canada were characteristic of
the times. He was there thrown among Romanists, a sect against which he
entertained the most profound dislike--profound to the degree of
inflammatory conscientiousness, not to say bigotry. His Indian master
was determined he should go to church, but he would not, and was once
dragged there, where, he says, he "saw a great confusion instead of any
Gospel order." The Jesuits assailed him on every hand, and gave him but
little peace. His master at one time tried to make him kiss a crucifix,
under the threat that he would dash out his brains with a hatchet if he
should refuse. But he did refuse, and had the good fortune to save his
head as well as his conscience. Mr. Williams's own account of his stay
in Canada is chiefly devoted to anecdotes of the temptations to Romanism
with which he was beset by the Jesuits. His son Samuel was almost
persuaded to embrace the faith of Rome, and his daughter Eunice was, to
his great chagrin, forced to say prayers in Latin. But, for the most,
the Deerfield captives proved intractable, and were still aggressively
Protestant when, in 1706, Mr. Williams and all his children (except
Eunice, of whom we shall say more anon), together with the other
captives up to the number of fifty-seven, embarked on board a ship sent
to Quebec by Governor Dudley, and sailed for Boston.

A committee of the pastor's people met their old clergyman upon his
landing at Boston, and invited him to return