Captives among the Indians: Firsthand Narratives of Indian Wars, Customs, Tortures, and Habits of Life in Colonial Times contains the firsthand accounts of famous settlers like Mary Rowlandson, James Smith, and Mercy Harbison. Firsthand accounts of white captives taken in battle and their will to survive. The cruelty of the Indians to their captives is difficult to comprehend, not alone to white people, but to other Indian tribal peoples. The first settlers in our country experienced suffering to a degree that we moderns can hardly understand. The Indians fought by their traditional methods for the land they considered theirs with a violence that eventually destroyed themselves.