As We Went From The Hill, And Were Come Into The
Plain, We Were Greatly Troubled To Pass For The Grass And Woods, That
Grew There Higher Than Any Man.
On the left hand we had the sea, and
upon the right hand great woods, so that of necessity
We must needs
pass on our way westward through those marshes, and going thus,
suddenly we were assaulted by the Indians, a warlike kind of people,
which are in a manner as cannibals, although they do not feed upon
man's flesh as cannibals do.
These people are called Chichemici, and they used to wear their hair
long, even down to their knees; they do also colour their faces green,
yellow, red, and blue, which maketh them to seem very ugly and terrible
to behold. These people do keep wars against the Spaniards, of whom
they have been oftentimes very cruelly handled: for with the Spaniards
there is no mercy. They, perceiving us at our first coming on land,
supposed us to have been their enemies the bordering Spaniards; and
having, by their forerunners, descried what number we were, and how
feeble and weak, without armour or weapon, they suddenly, according to
their accustomed manner when they encounter with any people in warlike
sort, raised a terrible and huge cry, and so came running fiercely upon
us, shooting off their arrows as thick as hail, unto whose mercy we
were constrained to yield, not having amongst us any kind of armour,
nor yet weapon, saving one caliver and two old rusty swords, whereby to
make any resistance or to save ourselves; which, when they perceived
that we sought not any other than favour and mercy at their hands, and
that we were not their enemies the Spaniards, they had compassion on
us, and came and caused us all to sit down. And when they had a while
surveyed, and taken a perfect view of us, they came to all such as had
any coloured clothes amongst us, and those they did strip stark naked,
and took their clothes away with them; but they that were apparelled in
black they did not meddle withal, and so went their ways and left us,
without doing us any further hurt, only in the first brunt they killed
eight of our men. And at our departure they, perceiving in what weak
case we were, pointed us with their hands which way we should go to
come to a town of the Spaniards, which, as we afterwards perceived, was
not past ten leagues from thence, using these words: "Tampeco,
tampeco, Christiano, tampeco, Christiano," which is as much (we think)
as to say in English, "Go that way, and you shall find the Christians."
The weapons that they use are no other but bows and arrows, and their
aim is so good that they very seldom miss to hit anything that they
shoot at. Shortly after they had left us stripped, as aforesaid, we
thought it best to divide ourselves into two companies, and so, being
separated, half of us went under the leading one of Anthony Goddard,
who is yet alive, and dwelleth at this instant in the town of Plymouth,
whom before we chose to be captain over us all. And those that went
under his leading, of which number I, Miles Phillips, was one,
travelled westward - that way which the Indians with their hands had
before pointed us to go. The other half went under the leading of one
John Hooper, whom they did choose for their captain, and with the
company that went with him David Ingram was one, and they took their
way and travelled northward. And shortly after, within the space of
two days, they were again encountered by the savage people, and their
Captain Hooper and two more of his company were slain. Then again they
divided themselves; and some held on their way still northward, and
other some, knowing that we were gone westward, sought to meet with us
again, as, in truth, there was about the number of five-and-twenty or
six-and-twenty of them that met with us in the space of four days
again. And then we began to reckon amongst ourselves how many we were
that were set on shore, and we found the number to be an hundred and
fourteen, whereof two were drowned in the sea and eight were slain at
the first encounter, so that there remained an hundred and four, of
which five-and-twenty went westward with us, and two-and-fifty to the
north with Hooper and Ingram; and, as Ingram since has often told me,
there were not past three of their company slain, and there were but
five-and-twenty of them that came again to us, so that of the company
that went northward there is yet lacking, and not certainly heard of,
the number of three-and-twenty men. And verily I do think that there
are of them yet alive and married in the said country, at Sibola, as
hereafter I do purpose (God willing) to discourse of more particularly,
with the reasons and causes that make me so to think of them that were
lacking, which were with David Ingram, Twide, Browne, and sundry
others, whose names we could not remember. And being thus met again
together we travelled on still westward, sometimes through such thick
woods that we were enforced with cudgels to break away the brambles and
bushes from tearing our naked bodies; other sometimes we should travel
through the plains in such high grass that we could scarce see one
another. And as we passed in some places we should have of our men
slain, and fall down suddenly, being stricken by the Indians, which
stood behind trees and bushes, in secret places, and so killed our men
as they went by; for we went scatteringly in seeking of fruits to
relieve ourselves. We were also oftentimes greatly annoyed with a kind
of fly, which, in the Indian tongue, is called tequani; and the
Spaniards call them musketas.
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