proposed to send for them, that they might have fair play and hear
of what faults they were accused. They came, accompanied by the
High Sheriff of Barnstable County, the Hon. J. Reed of Yarmouth, and
several other whites, who were invited to take seats among us. The
excitement which pervaded Cape Cod had brought these people to our
council, and they now heard such preaching in our meeting-house as
they had never heard there before; the bitter complainings of the
Indians of the wrongs they had suffered. Every charge was separately
investigated by our people, who gave the entire day to the work. The
white persons present seemed very uneasy; often getting up, going out
and returning, as if apprehensive of some danger. The ground work of
their fears, if they had any, was this: Three of our people, who had
been out in the morning, hunting deer, had brought their guns into the
meeting house, and this circumstance was thought, or pretended to be
thought by a few of our neighbors to portend violence and murder. Also
the Counsellor had brought a letter from the Governor, indicating that
he had been led, by wrong reports, to believe that something of the
kind was likely to take place.[2]

This letter was read to the people, and was to them as a provocation
and a stimulus. They thought it grievous that the Governor should
think they had put him in mind of his oath of office, to secure the
Commonwealth from danger, and given him cause to call out perhaps
fifty or sixty thousand militia; especially when the great strength
and power of the Marshpee tribe was considered. To this supposed great
demonstration of military power they might, possibly, have opposed
a hundred fighting men and fifteen or twenty rusty guns. But it is
written, "One shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand
to flight;" so there might have been some reason for persons who
believe the Bible to fear us. Who can say that little Marshpee might