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[318] or only an indraught of the sea, we had no time to discover; for we had commandment to be out but two days. Here, also, we saw two canoes,—the one on the one side, the other on the other side. We could not believe it was a canoe till we came near it. So we returned, leaving the further discovery hereof to our shallop, and came that night back again to the freshwater pond; and there we made our rendezvous that night, making a great fire, and a barricade to windward of us, and kept good watch with three sentinels all night, every one standing when his turn came, while five or six inches of match was burning. It proved a very rainy night. In the morning, we took our kettle, and sunk it in the pond, and trimmed our muskets, for few of them would go off because of the wet, and so coasted the wood again to come home, in which we were shrewdly puzzled, and lost our way. As we wandered, we came to a tree, where a young sprit1 was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said it had been to catch some deer. So as we were looking at it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came, looked also upon it; and, as he went about, it gave a sudden jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. It was a very pretty device, made with a rope of their own making, and having a noose as artificially made as any roper2 in England can make, and as like ours as can be; which we brought away with us. In the end, we got out of
Boston, 1877. Lee and Shephard.
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