1689.] CAPTURE OF PEMAQUID. 225 



appear to have been absent at the time of the 

 attack. 1 The Indian assailants were about a hun- 

 dred in number, all Christian converts from mission 

 villages. By a sudden rush, they got possession 

 of a number of houses behind the fort, occupied 

 only by women and children, the men being at 

 their work. 2 Some ensconced themselves in the 

 cellars, and others behind a rock on the seashore, 

 whence they kept up a close and galling fire. On 

 the next clay, Weems surrendered, under a promise 

 of life, and, as the English say, of liberty to him- 

 self and all his followers. The fourteen men who 

 had survived the fire, along with a number of women 

 and children, issued from the gate, upon which some 

 were butchered on the spot, and the rest, except- 

 ing Weems and a few others, were made prisoners. 

 In other respects, the behavior of the victors is 

 said to have been creditable. They tortured no- 

 body, and their chiefs broke the rum barrels in the 

 fort, to prevent disorder. Father Thury, a priest 

 of the seminary of Quebec, was present at the 

 attack ; and the assailants were a part of his Abe- 

 naki flock. Eeligion was one of the impelling forces 

 of the war. In the eyes of the Indian converts, it 



1 Andros in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., I. 85. The original commanding 

 officer, Brockholes, was reputed a " papist." Hence his removal. An- 

 dros Tracts, III. 35. Andros says that but eighteen men were left in the 

 fort. A list of them in the archives of Massachusetts, certified by 

 Weems himself, shows that there were thirty. Doubt is thrown on this 

 certificate by the fact that the object of it was to obtain a grant of 

 money in return for advances of pay made by Weems to his soldiers. 

 Weems was a regular officer. A number of letters from him, showing 

 his condition before the attack, will be found in Johnston, History of 

 Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid. 



2 Captivity of John Gyles. Gyles was one of the inhabitants. 



15 



