It seemed that the three strange vessels appeared off the point, at Rancocus Island, early on the morning of the preceding day.  It was supposed that they had run across from the volcano in the darkness, after having been lost sight of from the Peak.  Much prudence was observed by the colonists, as soon as light let them into the secret of their having such unknown neighbours.  Bigelow happening to be there, and being now a man of a good deal of consideration with his fellow-citizens, he assumed the direction of matters.  All the women and children ascended into the mountains, where secret places had long been provided for such an emergency, by clearing out and rendering two or three caves habitable, and where food and water were at hand.  Thither most of the light articles of value were also transported.  Luckily, Bigelow had caused all the saws at the mill, to be taken down and secreted.  A saw was an article not to be replaced, short of a voyage to Europe, even; for in that day saws were not manufactured in America; nor, indeed, was scarcely anything else.

When he had given his directions, Bigelow went alone to the point, to meet the strangers, who had anchored their vessels, and had landed in considerable force.  On approaching the place, he found about a hundred men ashore, all well armed, and seemingly governed by a sort of military authority.  On presenting himself before this party, Bigelow was seized, and taken to its leader, who was a sea-faring man, by his appearance, of a fierce aspect and most severe disposition.  This man could speak no English.  Bigelow tried him in Spanish, but could get no answer out of him in that tongue either; though he suspected that what he said was understood.  At length, one was brought forward who could speak English, and that so well as to leave little doubt in Bigelow’s mind about the stranger’s being either an Englishman or an American.  Communications between the parties were commenced through this interpreter.

Bigelow was closely questioned touching the number of people in the different islands, the number of vessels they possessed, the present situation and employments of those vessels, the nature of their cargoes, the places where the property transported in the vessels was kept, and, in short, everything that bore directly on the wealth and movable possessions of the people.  From the nature of these questions as well as from the appearance of the strangers, Bigelow had, at once, taken up the notion that they were pirates.  In the eastern seas, piracies were often committed on a large scale, and there was nothing violent in this supposition.  The agitated state of the world, moreover, rendered piracies much more likely to go unpunished then than would be the case to-day, and it was well known that several vessels often cruised together, when engaged in these lawless pursuits, in those distant quarters of the world.  Then the men were evidently of different races, though Bigelow was of opinion that most of them came from the East Indies, the coasts, or the islands.  The officers were mostly Europeans by birth, or the descendants of Europeans; but two-thirds of the people whom he saw were persons of eastern extraction; some appeared to be Lascars, and others what sailors call Chinamen.