savage foe.  In 1689, John Bishop, and Nicholas Reed a servant of Edward Putnam; and, in 1690, Godfrey Sheldon, were killed by Indians in Salem.  In the year 1691, about six months previous to the commencement of the witchcraft delusion, the county of Essex was ordered to keep twenty-four scouts constantly in the field, to guard the frontiers against the savage enemy, and to give notice of his approach, then looked for every hour with the greatest alarm and apprehension.

Events soon justified the dread of Indian hostilities felt by the people of this neighborhood.  Within six years after the witchcraft delusion, incursions of the savage foe took place at various points, carrying terror to all hearts.  In August, 1696, they killed or took prisoners fifteen persons at Billerica, burning many houses.  In October of the same year, they came upon Newbury, and carried off and tomahawked nine persons; all of whom perished, except a lad who survived his wounds.  In 1698, they made a murderous and destructive assault upon Haverhill.  The story of the capture, sufferings, and heroic achievements of Hannah Dustin, belongs to the history of this event.  It stands by the side of the immortal deed of Judith, and has no other parallel in all the annals of female daring and prowess.  On the 3d of July, 1706, a garrison was stormed at night in Dunstable; and Holyoke, a son of Edward Putnam, with three other soldiers, was killed.  He was twenty-two years of age.  In 1708, seven hundred Algonquin and St. Francis Indians, under the command of French officers, fell again upon Haverhill about break of day, on the 29th of August; consigned the town to conflagration and plunder; destroyed a large amount of property; massacred the minister Mr. Rolfe, the commander of the post Captain Wainwright, together with nearly forty others; and carried off many into captivity.  On this occasion, a troop of horse and a foot company from Salem Village rushed to the rescue; the then minister of the parish, the Rev. Joseph Green, seized his gun and went with them.  They pursued the flying Indians for some distance.  So deeply were the people of Haverhill impressed by the valor and conduct of Mr. Green and his people, that they sent a letter of thanks, and desired him to come and preach to them.  He complied with the invitation, spent a Sunday there, and thus gave them an opportunity to express personally their gratitude.  On other occasions, he accompanied his people on similar expeditions.

These occurrences show that the fears and anxieties of the colonists in reference to Indian assaults were not without grounds at the period of the witchcraft delusion.  They were, at that very time, hanging like a storm-cloud over their heads, soon to burst, and spread death and destruction among them.

There was but little communication between the several villages and settlements.  To travel from Boston to Salem, for instance, which the ordinary means of conveyance enable us to do at present in less than an hour, was then the fatiguing, adventurous, and doubtful work of an entire day.