This invitation they accepted and sailed six or
seven miles, the other Indians accompanying
them, running on the banks. They saw on the
western shore large corn-fields, and in the midst
of the river an island, upon which was situated
the house of the Indian who was with them, and
which was also thickly covered with corn. The
Indian treated them kindly, and showed them
his wife and children, to whom they made suita-
ble presents. The other Indians invited them
further up the river to their houses, and accom
panied them for some distance in a canoe.
Some suspicious circumstances in their deport-
ment led the English to apprehend that all was



276 \MI:RICAN BIOGRAPHY.
not right, and to provide for the worst, especially
when they perceived that they were followed by
seven or eight canoes full of armed men. They
were not long left in suspense, for they were
suddenly attacked by two or three hundred men,
from each side of the river, who discharged ar-
rows at them as fast as they could draw their
bows. Those in the canoes also shot at them ;
but they returned so galling a fire from their
muskets, that most of them leaped overboard, and
swam to the shore. The English soon fell down
the stream, till they reached a position, where the
arrows of the Indians could not touch them, but
which was within musket-shot of their foes, and
a few discharges made them retire behind the

\i3

trees. The Englisb then seized upon their de
serted canoes, and moored them in the stream.
