So fiercely had the fire seconded the efforts of the English that the whole conflict only lasted one hour.  In that brief space of time, between five and six hundred Indians—­young and old, men and women—­ were destroyed by fire and sword; and the small remainder were made prisoners of war by the English, or carried off as prizes by the hostile natives.  Only two of the British soldiers were slain, but many were wounded; and the arrows remaining some time in the wounds, and the want of necessary medicine and refreshment, added greatly to their sufferings The medical attendants attached to the expedition, and the provisions, had all been left in the boats, and a march of more than six miles through their enemies’ land was necessary, in order to reach them.

Litters were therefore constructed and, in these, the wounded were sent off under the charge of the Mohicans, while the able-bodied men, whose number was reduced to little more than forty, prepared to follow as a rear-guard.  The whole party were still near the smoking ruins of the fort, when they were startled by perceiving a large body of armed natives approaching.  These were a band of more than three hundred Pequodees, sent by Sassacus to aid the garrison of Fort Mystic.  Happily, they did not discover the small number of the English who were in a condition to oppose them, and they turned aside, and avoided a re-encounter.  The white men took advantage of this mistake on the part of their enemies, and hastened forward with all the speed that circumstances would allow.

But they had not proceeded far when their ears were assailed by the most discordant yells from the Pequodees.  They had reached the scene of devastation; and, when they beheld the ruined fort, and the ground strewn with hundreds of mangled corpses and expiring friends, their fury knew no bounds.  They stamped and howled with rage and grief, and madly tore their hair; while they gave vent to their excited feelings in that fearful and peculiar yell, at the sound of which the stoutest hearts might quail.  Then, with a wild and desperate effort at revenge, they rushed down the bill in pursuit of their cruel enemies.  The rear-guard turned, and met the onset bravely.  The savages were received with a shower of bullets, which checked their furious assault; but they hung on the rear of the English, and harassed them during the whole of their retreat.  They, however, reached their vessels in safety, and arrived in triumph at Hartford, from which port they had sailed three weeks before.

This discomfiture proved a death-blow to the pride and power of the redoubted Sassacus.  Disgusted alike by his arrogance, and by his recent defeat, many of his own warriors deserted him and attached themselves to other tribes; and the Sachem then destroyed his second fortress, end carried off his treasure to the land of the Mohawks, near the river Hudson, and, with his principal Chiefs, joined that warlike race.