Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/255

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THE ISLAND IN THE SWAMP
239

with bound hands, was plainly a prisoner. With few words the visitors seated themselves, following the example of Philip and his captains, and pipes were lighted. Then Quanansit spoke.

They had fought with the English and had killed many. The English were retreating to the garrison at Brookfield, pursued by nearly two hundred Quaboags. This man, Memecho, they had taken prisoner. He had guided the enemy and fought on his side. They made a present of him to the Great Sachem of the Wampanoags. It had happened thus. The English at Brookfield had sought a parley with the Quaboags, wishful of exacting a promise from them of friendship. The Indians had thereupon agreed to meet a company of the English, headed by Captain Wheeler and Captain Hutchinson, at a certain place three miles from the village that morning. The English had sought the locality, and not finding the Quaboags, who knew better than to expose themselves on the plain, had set forth toward Wickabaug Pond, guided by three Christian Indians, amongst them this Memecho. When their way had led them between a swamp on one side and a high bluff on the other, the