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��BAKER'S RIVER.
��held the title of Lieutenant, and went di- rectly by the old carrying place with which he was familiar to the Coos or Cowass intervales in Haverhill and New- bury. There he halted and following the lead of the Indian guide up the Oliverian Brook to the height of land south of and in plain sight of Moosilauke and then followed a small brook down to the In- dian Asquamchumauke in Warren and thence through Wentworth, Rumney and Plymouth to the mouth of -the river.
When Baker and his men, who had kept on the west and south side of the river, came near its mouth, the guide sig- nified that it was now time for every man to be on the lookout, and so every one moved with the utmost circumspec- tion, and when nearthejunction of this riv- er with the Pemigewassett, they discov- ered the Indians on the north bank of the Asquamchumauke, sporting among their wigwams in great numbers, secure as they supposed from the muskets and the gaze of all "pale-faces." This was in fact, their principal village or settle- ment, where they deposited their booty and stoi'ed their furs.
Baker and his men chose their posi- tions and opened a tremendous fire upon the Indians, which was as sudden to them as an earthquake. Many of the sons of the forest fell in death in the midst of their sports; but the living dis- appeared in an instant and ran to call in their hunters. Baker and his men lost no time in crossing the river in search of booty. They found a rich store of furs, deposited in holes, dug in the bank of the river horizontally— in the same manner that bank swallows dig their holes.
Having destroyed their wigwams and captured their furs, Baker ordered a re- treat, fearing that they would soon re- turn in too large numbers to be resisted by his single company. And it seems that the Indians were fully up to his ex- pectations or apprehensions, for not- withstanding, Baker retreated with all expedition, the Indians collected and were up with them, when they had reached a poplar plain in Bridgewnter; a little south of where Walter Webster
��formerly kept tavern, here a severe skir- mish ensued, but the Indians were re- pulsed and many of them killed— several skulls have been since found on this plain by the early settlers, some of which had been perforated by bullets, which were supposed to have belonged to those who fell in this engagement.
The leader of the Indians in these en- gagements was Walternumus, a distin- guished sachem and warrior, and in one of these engagements and possibly in this one at Bridgewater, he was slain. It is said that he and Baker fired at each other the same instant; the ball of the Indian grazing Baker's left eyebrow, while his passing through the Indian's heart, he leaped in the air and fell dead. The Indian warrior was royally attired, and Baker hastily seizing his blanket, which was richly ornamented with silver, his powder horn and ..other ornaments, has- tened on with his men.
But notwithstanding the Indians had been repulsed, the friendly Indian ad- vised Baker and his men to use all pos- sible diligence in their retreat, for he as- sured them that the number of the Indi- ans would increase every hour and that they would surely return to the attack. Accordingly Baker pushed on the retreat with all possible dispatch, and did not wait for any refreshment after the bat- tle. But when they had reached New Chester now Hill, having crossed a stream his men were exhausted, through absti- nence, forced marches and hard fighting and they concluded to stop and refresh themselves at whatever risk, concluding that they might as well perish by the tomahawk as by famine.
But here again was a call for Indian strategem. The friendly Indian told every man to build as many fires as he could in a given time; as the pursuing Indians would judge of their numbers by the number of their fires. He told them also that each man should make him four or five forks of crotched sticks, and use them all in roasting a single piece of pork, then leave an equal number of forks round each fire, and the Indians would infer, if they came up, that there were as many of the .English as there
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