Our first century . off into thewilderness, usually under the leadership of their pastors,and there to risk destruction in an endeavor to estab-lish homes for themselves and for those who shouldcome after them. Among these straggling and undefended settlementswas the village of York in Maine. There the peoplewere attacked during the winter of 1692 by the Frenchand Indians, and desolation ensued. More than half thepeople were either killed or taken into captivity. Allthe houses were burned, and all the farms lying roundabout were destroyed. The farm dwellings were reduced SLAUGHTER AND DESTRUCT
Our first century . off into thewilderness, usually under the leadership of their pastors,and there to risk destruction in an endeavor to estab-lish homes for themselves and for those who shouldcome after them. Among these straggling and undefended settlementswas the village of York in Maine. There the peoplewere attacked during the winter of 1692 by the Frenchand Indians, and desolation ensued. More than half thepeople were either killed or taken into captivity. Allthe houses were burned, and all the farms lying roundabout were destroyed. The farm dwellings were reduced SLAUGHTER AND DESTRUCTION 1 / / to ashes, the barns with their precious contents werelooted, and all the agricultural implements in use inthe fields were destroyed. Two years later the Indians, with French officers lead-ing them, attacked the little village of Durham in NewHampshire, but they were successfully beaten off so faras the village itself was concerned, for the reason thatthe people there had built palisades around their homes. Colonial plow with wooden mold-board, 1706. (Agricultural Museum,Albany, N. Y.) and were prepared to defend themselves resolutely. Butall around the village, as was usual at that time, therewere scattered farmsteads where single families dweltwith only such defence as their owners, and the sons oftheir owners, could provide, with the assistance of theirwives and daughters—for women, as well as men, in thosedays knew how to use a gun and were valiant in their useof it for self-defence. These farmsteads resisted with alltheir might, but that might was insufficient to prevent L 178 OUR FIRST CENTURY their destruction and desolation. The men, women andchildren occupying them were massacred or carried offinto captivity. Let us not forget, as we enjoy the freedom and securityof that land which these pioneers built up for us—letus never forget the dangers and the hardships they en-countered in creating it, or the superb courage they dis-played in doing so. Thus for eig
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