History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

irai.i FOURTH FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 247
gun was not a foot from it. A little nearer was an elder cut off by the
ball in a line to where Higgins says he stood, and in the line to his
breeches. This experiment was tried. The spot where he said he
stood was in the middle of the cart path, where there was nothing
standing to hang his trousers on, so that if he did it himself he must
have managed with great art and design hardly possible. His breeches
were not blacked.
" The people in the field say ho came to them as soon after they heard
the gun as was possible for a man to come, and his gun was then loaded
with two balls ; he appeared in the utmost consternation. His brother
soldiers proposed to go to the spot but he said '
for the Lord's sake don't
go there.' The soldiers and laborers all immediately fled from the field
at the opposite part to the nearest house that way. The fellow appears
innocent and is uniform in his account. No persons had been where
the tracks were discovered. The most considerate are satisfied the
enemy was there. The people of Southampton will be together today
and therefore not exposed. I hope to send a suitable number of men
tomorrow early to Southampton (today is the Sabbath) to secure those
parts, and a party west where they may be most likely to come across
the Indians, or their tracks if they are returning. ^
Joseph Hawley."
Eseitemeut in South- A few (lays previous to tliis alarm the peo-
'^^p^""- pie of Southampton were considerably ex-
cited, and were evidently ready after the
adventure of Higgins as Mr. Hawley suggests, to come
together, concentrating within and about the fortifications
for safety. On Sunday, September 1'^, while good Parson
Judd was preaching, his audience suddenly left him.
" The assembly," he records in his diary, "broke up in sermon
time by a gun shot at a bare." Whether the " bare"
escaped and the congregation returned to the "improvement
" of the remainder of the discourse, the diary saith
not. The next day he made the following entry : —
" The
scout came in who went out yesterday ; people began to
move together." On the 9'", Mr. Judd " rid to Hatfield and
obtained orders to Major Hawley for 10 soldiers," and the
next day he records "the soldiers enlisted and came to my
house." This seems to have been the origin of the order
for the guard at Southampton, though Mr. Judd does not
mention that any Indians had been seen there on Sunday,
the 8"', the inference being that the " bare" incident of the
previous week had been sufficient to call for the presence
of ten soldiers.
1 The above letter in its abridged form is foimd in the Judd 3ISS.