o look up
the Indian chief who had taken him prisoner, and exchange civilities
and hospitalities, now that the tables were turned.

We next find Putnam in charge of a Connecticut regiment, in a novel
field of warfare, on the coast of Cuba, in Lord Albemarle's attack
upon Havana, in 1762. He was in considerable danger in a storm, when
the transport in which he embarked with his men was wrecked on a reef
of the island; a landing was effected by rafts, and a fortified camp
established on the shore. He was again fortunate in escaping the
dangers of a climate so fatal to his countrymen. On his return home,
he was engaged in service against the Indians, with the title of
colonel. The war being now over, he retired to his farm, which he
continued to cultivate till he was again called into the field by the
stirring summons of Lexington.

In the preliminary scenes of the war, he fairly represented the
feeling of the mass of his countrymen, as it was excited by the
successive acts of parliamentary aggression. As a soldier of the old
French war, he had learned the weakness of British officers in
America, and the strength of a hardy, patriotic peasantry. "If," he
said, "it required six years for the combined forces of England and
her colonies to conquer such a feeble colony as Canada, it would, at
least, take a very long time for England alone to overcome her own
widely extended colonies, which were much stronger." Another anecdote
is characteristic of the blunt farmer. Being once asked whether he did
not seriously believe "that a well-appointed British army of five
thousand veterans could march through the whole continent of America,"
he replied, "no doubt, if they behaved civilly, and paid well for
everything they wanted; but--if they should attempt it in a hostile
manner, though the American men were out of the question, the women,
with their ladles and broomsticks, would knock them all on the head
before they had got half way through."

The news of Lexington--the war message--transmitted from hand to hand
till village repeated it to village, the sea to the backwoods, "found
the farmer of Pomfret, two days after the conflict, like Cincinnatus,
literally at the plough." He unyoked his team and hastened in his rude
dress to the camp. Summoning the forces of Connecticut, he was placed
at their head, with the rank of Major-General, and stood ready at
Cambridge for the bloody day of Bunker's Hill. He was in service in
May, in the