The Indians, after their final defeats in attacking the Massachu-
setts towns of Deerfield, Springfield, Hadley and Haljfield, fled in
various directions and in bands of different numbers to their na-
tive shores of the Narragansett Tradition says that the last of the
Wampanoags made Quinsniket a resting place in their retreat
from Massachusetts*

It was near Quinsniket, which point probably formed the base
of operations for the Indians, that Pierce's fight took place. The
precise locality can still be pointed out between Valley Falls and
Central Falls, on territory then known as the Attleborough Gore.
Capt. Pierce was at Rehoboth, with sixty-three English soldiers
and twenty friendly Indians, when he learned that there were
Indian enemies in the neighborhood of Pawtucket Falls, and
determined to attack them.' He wrote a letter to Capt Andrew
Edmunds, of Providence, to meet him at a spot on the Pawtucket
river and assist him in this attack. The messenger who carried
the letter attended divine service (for it was Sunday) before deliv-
ering the letter. Thus left to his fate, Capt. Pierce slowly and
steadily pushed his company forward until the advance had crossed
to the west side of the Blackstone river at the point before desig-
nated. Here he discovered a few Indians, who fled at his approach
into the woods, limping as they ran. This led Pierce's men to
suppose them to be some band of infirm stragglers. They accord-
ingly gave chase, and the entire company fell into an ambush, with
the river in their rear and a thousand savage and enraged Indians
encompassing them on all other sides. The fight was on Sunday
morning, March 26, 1676, almost two hundred years ago. It was
of short duration, scarcely more than a couple of hours. Capt.
