Who is wounded at the beginning of rowlandson’s narrative

Rowlandson writes that a Nipmuck brought her a Bible from the Medfield plunder. She also records meeting a Mary Thurston, from whom she borrowed a hat.

Mary, the year-old daughter of Thomas Thurston, was captured during the raid on Medfield, in which her mother was wounded and two of her six siblings died. A true survivor, Mary outlived two husbands, dying in For the less adventurous, or for those too distant, Internet Archive has made an edition available online.

Accordingly, in her last paragraph, Rowlandson explicitly connects her captive experience with the idea of affliction. Rowlandson believes that the punishment that God had inflicted on the colonists via the Indians was a manifestation of his love: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Rowlandson While she positions herself as thankful for her relationship with God throughout her captivity, Rowlandson argues that she and other Puritans should view their past pain as a blessing.

As Rowlandson surveys her home after the attack by the Indians, she credits the destruction not to the Indians, but to God by quoting Psalm , Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth Rowlandson When pondering the escape of the Indians, weighed down with the burden of their wounded captives from the English army, Rowlandson concludes that God strengthened [the Indians] to be a scourge to His people Rowlandson She reinforces her conviction that God punished her people through the Indians, believing our perverse and evil carriages in the sight of the Lord have so offended Him that, instead of turning his hand against [the Indians], the Lord feeds and nourishes them Rowlandson Rowlandson's Puritan-centered perception of her captivity reveals that she perceives the Indians as mere instruments used by God to punish his people for breaking their special covenant as his chosen people.

Rowlandson trusts God brought great misfortunes onto the lives of the Puritans to stress His unparalleled sovereignty. According to Rowlandson, when the Indians were successful, this success came not from the merit of the Indians but from the sins of the colonists. Rowlandson believes her eventual redemption and reunification with her surviving children and husband affirms her belief of the providence and sovereignty of God. For example, Rowlandson writes that the savage Indians eat coarse food such as horse and bear meat, live in wigwams, and spend their days traveling through treacherous forests and swamps Rowlandson As a result, Rowlandson and other Puritans view the Native Americans as a primitive culture because they do not reflect the Puritan lifestyle.

Later, however, similarities between the Indians and the settlers become more apparent when Rowlandson begins to recognize her own capacity for uncivilized behavior. At first, she views civilization as that which is far from the wilderness, in which many believed the Natives dwelled in. However, she realizes that the savage Native American way of life connects to the English, and in being so, challenges Indian stereotypes believed by the Puritans.

For example, according to Deborah J. Dietrich, Her examination of the Indians against the colonial stereotype finds them innocent of the charges of sexual abuse of their captive women, and she observes only one instance of drunkenness in all the time she is with them Dietrich Similarities between the Indians and the settlers become more apparent, for example, as Rowlandson witnesses Praying Indians who claim to have converted to Christianity.

Furthermore, Rowlandson also recognizes her own capacity for uncivilized behavior, as she too dines on half raw horse meat and bear Rowlandson According to Jesper Rosenmeier, [The farther Rowlandson is dragged through the wilderness], the greater her subconscious identification grows with her Indian captors. Also, by the final remove, even when the Indians dance together, Rowlandson no longer views them as one mass of dancing black creatures in the night as she had in the second remove Rowlandson While pre-captivity Rowlandson could only view the Indians through the Puritan paradigm, she now occupies a position that allows her to explore the difference between the actual Indian and the Puritan stereotype.

No longer are civilization and savagery so distinct. Within her narrative, Rowlandson describes the extent of her captivity and the dire circumstances under which she is subjected.

This idea of uncertainty is most notable when Rowlandson undergoes a subconscious shift that allows her to occupy a position to explore the difference between the actual Indian and the Puritan stereotype.

The house stood upon the edge of a hill; some of the Indians got behind the hill, others into the barn, and others behind anything that would shelter them; from all which places they shot against the house, so that the bullets seemed to fly like hail, and quickly they wounded one man among us, then another, and then a third. About two hours, according to my observation in that amazing time, they had been about the house before they prevailed to fire it, which they did with flax and hemp which they brought out of the barn, and there being no defence about the house, only two flankers at two opposite corners, and one of them not finished; they fired it once, and one ventured out and quenched it, but they quickly fired it again, and that took.

Now is the dreadful hour come that I have often heard of in time of the war, as it was the case of others, but now mine eyes see it. Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in blood, the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody heathen ready to knock us on the head if we stirred out.

Drew , hers to go forth and leave the house, but as soon as we came to the door and appeared, the Indians shot so thick that the bullets rattled against the house as if one had taken a handful of stones and threw them, so that we were forced to give back.

We had six stout dogs belonging to our garrison, but none of them would stir, though at another time if an Indian had come to the door, they were ready to fly upon him and tear him down. The Lord hereby would make us the more to acknowledge his hand, and to see that our help is always in him. But out we must go, the fire increasing, and coming along behind us roaring, and the Indians gaping before us with their guns, spears and hatchets, to devour us.

No sooner were we out of the house, but my brother-in-law being before wounded in defending the house, in or near the throat fell down dead, whereat the Indians scornfully shouted and hallooed, and were presently upon him, stripping off his clothes. The bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same, as would seem, through the bowels and hand of my poor child in my arms.

Thus were we butchered by those merciless heathens, standing amazed, with the blood running down to our heels. There were twelve killed, some shot, some stabbed with their spears, some knocked down with their hatchets.

There was one who was chopped in the head with a hatchet, and stripped naked, and yet was crawling up and down. I had often before this said, that if the Indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than taken alive, but when it came to the trial my mind changed; their glittering weapons so daunted my spirit that I chose rather to go along with those as I may say ravenous bears, than that moment to end my days.

And that I may the better declare what happened to me during that grievous captivity, I shall particularly speak of the several removes we had up and down the wilderness. The First Remove. About a mile we went that night, up on a hill within sight of the town where we intended to lodge. There was hard by a vacant house, deserted by the English before, for fear of the Indians.

Oh, the roaring and singing and dancing and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell! And miserable was the waste that was there made of horses, cattle, sheep, swine, calves, lambs, roasting pigs, and fowls which they had plundered in the town , some roasting, some lying and burning, and some boiling, to feed our merciless enemies; who were joyful enough, though we were disconsolate. To add to the dolefulness of the former day, and the dismalness of the present night, my thoughts ran upon my losses and sad, bereaved condition.

All was gone, my husband gone at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and, to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward ; my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home, and all our comforts within door and without—all was gone except my life, and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

There remained nothing to me but one poor, wounded babe; and it seemed at present worse than death, that it was in such a pitiful condition, bespeaking compassion, and I had no refreshing for it, nor suitable things to revive it.

Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy, those even that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands. The Second Remove. It is not my tongue or pen can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit, that I had at this departure; but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail.

One of the Indians carried my poor wounded babe upon a horse. At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms, till my strength failed and I fell down with it. After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on they stopped. And now down I must sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me, with my sick child in my lap, and calling much for water, being now, through the wound, fallen into a violent fever; my own wound also growing so stiff that I could scarce sit down or rise up.

The Third Remove. One of the Indians got upon a horse, and they sat me up behind him, with my poor sick babe in my lap. A very wearisome and tedious day I had of it; what with my own wound, and my child being so exceeding sick, and in a lamentable condition with her wound, it may easily be judged what a poor, feeble condition we were in, there being not the least crumb of refreshing that came within either of our mouths from Wednesday night to Saturday night, except only a little cold water.

This day in the afternoon, about an hour by sun, we came to the place where they intended, viz. Hearing, I say, that I was in this Indian town, he obtained leave to come and see me. Then took I oak leaves and laid to my side, and with the blessing of God it cured me also. This was the comfort I had from them; miserable comforters were they all.

Thus nine days I sat upon my knees, with my babe in my lap, till my flesh was raw again. My child being even ready to depart this sorrowful world, they bid me carry it out to another wigwam, I suppose because they would not be troubled with such spectacles; whither I went with a very heavy heart, and down I sat with the picture of death in my lap.

About two hours in the night, my sweet babe, like a lamb, departed this life, on Feb. I went to take up my dead child in my arms to carry it with me, but they bid me let it alone. There was no resisting, but go I must, and leave it. When I came I asked them what they had done with it.

They told me it was on the hill. Then they went and showed me where it was, where I saw the ground was newly digged, and where they told me they had buried it. There I left that child in the wilderness, and must commit it and myself also in this wilderness condition to Him who is above all. God having taken away this dear child, I went to see my daughter Mary, who was at the same Indian town, at a wigwam not very far off, though we had little liberty or opportunity to see one another.

She was about ten years old, and taken from the door at first by a praying Indian, [10] and afterwards sold for a gun. When I came in sight she would fall a-weeping, at which they were provoked, and would not let me come near her, but bid me begone, which was a heart-cutting word to me. I could not sit still in this condition, but kept walking from one place to another; and as I was going along, my heart was even overwhelmed with the thoughts of my condition, and that I should have children, and a nation that I knew not ruled over them.

Whereupon I earnestly entreated the Lord that he would consider my low estate, and show me a token for good, and if it were his blessed will, some sign and hope of some relief. And, indeed, quickly the Lord answered in some measure my poor prayer; for as I was going up and down mourning and lamenting my condition, my son Joseph came to me and asked me how I did. I had not seen him before since the destruction of the town; and I knew not where he was, till I was informed by himself that he was among a smaller parcel of Indians, whose place was about six miles off.

With tears in his eyes he asked me whether his sister Sarah was dead, and told me he had seen his sister Mary, and prayed me that I would not be troubled in reference to himself. Now the Indians began to talk of removing from this place, some one way and some another. There were now, besides myself, nine English captives in this place, all of them children except one woman. I got an opportunity to go and take my leave of them, they being to go one way and I another.

I asked them whether they were earnest with God for deliverance. They told me they did as they were able, and it was some comfort to me that the Lord stirred up children to look to Him.

The woman, viz. The Fourth Remove. Here I parted with my daughter Mary, whom I never saw again till I saw her in Dorchester, returned from captivity; and from four little cousins and neighbors, some of which I never saw afterwards; the Lord only knows the end of them.

We travelled about a half a day or a little more, and came to a desolate place in the wilderness, where there were no wigwams or inhabitants before. We came about the middle of the afternoon to this place, cold, wet, and snowy, and hungry and weary, and no refreshing for man, but the cold ground to sit on, and our poor Indian cheer.

The Fifth Remove. Then they made a stop, and chose out some of their stoutest men, and sent them back to hold the English army in play while the rest escaped; and then, like Jehu, they marched on furiously with their old and young.

Some carried their old, decrepit mothers; some carried one, and some another. Four of them carried a great Indian upon a bier; but, going through a thick wood with him, they were hindered, and could make no haste; whereupon they took him upon their backs, and carried him, one at a time, till we came to Baquaug River. Upon Friday, a little after noon, we came to this river. When all the company was come up and were gathered together I thought to count the number of them, but they were so many, and being somewhat in motion, it was beyond my skill.

In this travel, because of my wound, I was somewhat favored in my load. I carried only my knitting-work and two quarts of parched meal. Being very faint, I asked my mistress to give me one spoonful of the meal, but she would not give me a taste. They quickly fell to cutting dry trees to make rafts to carry them over the river, and soon my turn came to go over. By the advantage of some brush which they had laid upon the raft to sit on, I did not wet my foot, while many of themselves, at the other end, were mid-leg deep, which cannot but be acknowledged as a favor of God to my weakened body, it being a very cold time.

I was not before acquainted with such kind of doings or dangers. A certain number of us got over the river that night, but it was the night after the Sabbath before all the company was got over. The first week of my being among them I hardly eat anything; the second week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of something, and yet it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet they were pleasant and savory to my taste.

I was at this time knitting a pair of cotton stockings for my mistress, and I had not yet wrought upon the Sabbath day. When the Sabbath came they bid me go to work. I told them it was Sabbath day, and desired them to let me rest, and told them I would do as much more work to-morrow; to which they answered me they would break my face. And here I cannot but take notice of the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen.

They were many hundreds, old and young, some sick, and some lame; many had papooses at their backs; the greatest number at this time with us were squaws, and yet they travelled with all they had, bag and baggage, and they got over this river aforesaid; and on Monday they set their wigwams on fire, and away they went.

On that very day came the English army after them to this river, and saw the smoke of their wigwams, and yet this river put a stop to them. God did not give them courage or activity to go over after us. We were not ready for so great a mercy as victory and deliverance; if we had been, God would have found out a way for the English to have passed this river as well as for the Indians, with their squaws and children and all their luggage.

The Sixth Remove. It was a cold morning, and before us there was a great brook with ice on it. Some waded through it up to the knees and higher, but others went till they came to a beaver-dam, and I among them, where, through the good providence of God, I did not wet my foot. We came that day to a great swamp, by the side of which we took up our lodging that night. When we came to the brow of the hill that looked towards the swamp I thought we had been come to a great Indian town, though there were none but our own company; the Indians were as thick as the trees; it seemed as if there had been a thousand hatchets going at once.

The Seventh Remove. The swamp by which we lay was, as it were, a deep dungeon, and an exceeding high and steep hill before it. Before I got to the top of the hill I thought my heart and legs and all would have broken and failed me. What with faintness and soreness of body, it was a grievous day of travel to me.

As we went along, I saw a place where English cattle had been. That was a comfort to me, such as it was. Quickly after that we came to an English path, which so took me that I thought I could there have freely lain down and died. That day, a little after noon, we came to Squaheag, where the Indians quickly spread themselves over the deserted English fields, gleaning what they could find.

Some picked up ears of wheat that were crickled down, some found ears of Indian corn, some found ground-nuts, and others sheaves of wheat that were frozen together in the shock, and went to threshing of them out. Myself got two ears of Indian corn, and, whilst I did but turn my back, one of them was stole from me, which much troubled me.

There came an Indian to them at that time with a basket of horse-liver. I asked him to give me a piece. A solemn sight methought it was to see whole fields of wheat and Indian corn forsaken and spoiled, and the remainder of them to be food for our merciless enemies.

That night we had a mess of wheat for our supper. The Eighth Remove. Two canoes full they had carried over. The next turn myself was to go; but, as my foot was upon the canoe to step in, there was a sudden outcry among them, and I must step back; and instead of going over the river, I must go four or five miles up the river farther northward.

Some of the Indians ran one way, and some another. The cause of this route was, as I thought, their espying some English scouts, who were thereabouts.

In this travel up the river, about noon the company made a stop and sat down, some to eat and others to rest them. As I sat amongst them, musing on things past, my son Joseph unexpectedly came to me…. When I was in the canoe I could not but be amazed at the numerous crew of pagans that were on the bank on the other side.

When I came ashore they gathered all about me, I sitting alone in the midst. I observed they asked one another questions, and laughed, and rejoiced over their gains and victories. Then my heart began to fail, and I fell a-weeping; which was the first time, to my remembrance, that I wept before them. There one of them asked me why I wept.

I could hardly tell what to say; yet I answered, they would kill me. Then I went to see King Philip. He bade me come in and sit down, and asked me whether I would smoke—a usual compliment nowadays among the saints and sinners; but this noway suited me; for though I had formerly used tobacco, yet I had left it ever since I was first taken.

It seems to be a bait the devil lays to make men lose their precious time. I remember with shame how, formerly, when I had taken two or three pipes, I was presently ready for another, such a bewitching thing it is; but I thank God He has now given me power over it. Surely there are many who may be better employed than to sit sucking a stinking tobacco pipe.

Now the Indians gathered their forces to go against Northampton. Over night one went about yelling and hooting to give notice of the design. Whereupon they went to boiling of ground-nuts and parching corn—as many as had it—for their provision; and in the morning away they went. During my abode in this place Philip spake to me to make a shirt for his boy, which I did; for which he gave me a shilling.

I offered the money to my mistress, but she bid me keep it, and with it I bought a piece of horse-flesh. Afterwards he asked me to make a cap for his boy, for which he invited me to dinner.

There was a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her sannup; for which she gave me a piece of beef. Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas. I boiled my peas and beef together, and invited my master and mistress to dinner; but the proud gossip, because I served them both in one dish, would eat nothing, except one bit that he gave her upon the point of his knife.

Hearing that my son was come to this place, I went to see him, and found him lying flat on the ground. I asked him how he could sleep so. He answered me that he was not asleep, but at prayer, and that he lay so that they might not observe what he was doing. I pray God he may remember these things now he is returned in safety.

At this place, the sun now getting higher, what with the beams and heat of the sun and smoke of the wigwams, I thought I should have been blinded. I could scarce discern one wigwam from another. There was one Mary Thurston, of Medfield, who, seeing how it was with me, lent me a hat to wear; but as soon as I was gone the squaw that owned that Mary Thurston came running after me and got it away again.

Here was a squaw who gave me a spoonful of meal; I put it in my pocket to keep it safe, yet notwithstanding somebody stole it, but put five Indian corns in the room of it; which corns were the greatest provision I had in my travel for one day. The Indians, returning from Northampton, brought with them some horses and sheep and other things which they had taken.