Next morning in many places the Indians were
sitting at breakfast with the settlers and their families when
suddenly, as at a given signal, they sprang up, and, seizing the
settlers own weapons, killed them all, sparing neither men, women
nor children. So sudden was the onslaught that many a man fell dead
without a cry, seeing not the hand which smote him. In the workshops,
in the fields, in the gardens, wherever they were, wherever their
daily work took them, they were thus suddenly and awfully struck
down.
For days and weeks the Indians had watched the habits of the
settlers until they knew the daily haunts of every man. Then they
had planned one swift and deadly blow which was to wipe out the
whole colony. And so cunning was their plot, so complete and perfect
their treachery, that they might have succeeded but for the love
of one faithful Indian. This Indian, named Chanco, lived with one
of the settlers named Pace, and had become his servant. But Pace
treated him more as a son than as a servant, and the Indian had
become very devoted to him. When, then, this Indian was told that
his chief commanded him to murder his master he felt that he could
not do it. Instead, he went at once to Pace and told him of the
plot. Pace then made ready to defend himself, and sent warnings
to all the other settlers within reach. Thus a great many of the
colonists were saved from death, but three hundred and fifty were
cruelly slain.
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