Edited by Brianna Mackey
But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate wilderness1, I knew not whither. It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure: but God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail. One of the Indians carried my poor wounded babe upon a horse; it went moaning all along, “I shall die, I shall die.” I went on foot after it, with sorrow that cannot be expressed. At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms till my strength failed, and I fell down with it. Then they set me upon a horse with my wounded child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse’s back,2 as we were going down a steep hill we both fell over the horse’s head, at which they, like inhumane creatures, laughed, and rejoiced to see it, though I thought we should there have ended our days, as overcome with so many difficulties. But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of His power; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it.
After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on, they stopped, and now down I must sit in the snow,3 by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me, with my sick child in my lap; and calling much for water, being now (through the wound) fallen into a violent fever. My own wound also growing so stiff that I could scarce sit down or rise up; yet so it must be, that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick child in my arms, looking that every hour would be the last of its life; and having no Christian friend near me,4 either to comfort or help me. Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning.5
Cited:
Cao, Shuo, and Xu Cao. “Conflict between Self-Discovery and Salvation in Mary Rowlandson’s the Sovereignty and Goodness of God.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, 2012, pp. 298-303.
Farrell, Molly. “‘Beyond My Skil’: Mary Rowlandson’s Counting.” Early American Literature, vol. 47, no. 1, 2012, pp. 59–87.
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Footnotes:
This was a time when “imperial control demanded an accurate account of human habitation and human reproduction, and this newly numerical social discourse revolves centrally around the bodies of women and children- bodies that have the potential to alter the count” (Farrell 62). Captivity Narratives can sometimes alter this account. ↩
She was on the horse bareback, meaning that there was no saddle, bridle, reins, and so on. ↩
Winter in Boston is notoriously cold. January and February are the coldest months of the year (Rowlandson was taken captive in February, which is also the snowiest month of the year), snow expanded well into March sometimes. ↩
Although there were some Indigenous peoples who had converted to Christianity with her on the journey, she refused to recognize them, as they were not ‘real’ Christians, but “Heathens”. ↩
Using references of God bringing her to Salvation is not uncommon for Rowlandson: “Mary Rowlandson relied on her faith in the providence of God to sustain herself during her period of captivity” (Cao and Cao 299). ↩