loudly declaimed against. William Vernham came over with the first authentic account of the Swansea attack, which, it seemed, had begun with the plundering of one or two houses by a force of six or eight of Philip’s men from Mount Hope. Aid was summoned from Plymouth and an attack by the Indians in force was prevented by the assembling of some forty of the English at the Swansea bridge. The Indians retreated again to Mount Hope, but subsequently preyed on the settlement in small bands, killing eight persons and cutting off their feet and hands as well as scalping them. They also fired at least one house. The inhabitants were forced to abandon the town, removing themselves and their household goods and live-stock to Rehoboth and there fortifying themselves in three dwellings. The Indians then burned Swansea to the ground.
“Both the Narragansetts and Nipmucks have joined with King Philip,” added Master Vernham, “though both had promised to take no sides in the matter. ’Twill not be long, I doubt, ere the war-cries ring in our ears even here, for, an I mistake not, Philip has laid his plans well and ere the summer be
