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ANCIENT INDIAN INSCRIPTION AT MACHIASPORT.
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THE INDIANS OF MAINE. 67
19. In the earliest days of English settlements when an Indian signed a treaty, deed or other writing, it was usually by a rude figure of some animal,-as a deer, beaver, tortoise, snake, heron, hawk, or eagle. This was called the totem and was the family "coat of arms"; and in some tribes they seemed to believe that they had descended from these animals. It was often the case that a great hunter or warrior received a name descriptive of his character or exploits; therefore we may conclude that these "totems" only represented some remarkable ancestor, whose distinguishing title had become the name of a numerous clan.
Under what general name are the Indians of Maine classed ? What does this name signify ? What were the distinctive names of the Indian tribes of Maine ? Where did each dwell? What remarkable mounds are found on the Damariscotta River? What became of the Wawennocks? Of what materials did they make their weapons ? What vegetable did they raise ? How did they boil their food before they had kettles? What sports and games had the Indians ? What is said of the diseases of the Indians ? By what means did their pow-wows pretend to cure diseases ? Did the Indians believe in good and evil spirits ? What were the titles of their chiefs? Which was superior in authority ? By what means were important matters decided ? What was their practice in speaking and conversation ? Did they have any letters or written words ? By what means did they sometimes convey infor- mation? What are "Totems" ?
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CHAPTER IX.
1. I have now given you an account of the Indians as they were when the English first came to the coun- try; but from that time their habits and customs be- gan to change. The traders soon supplied them with domestic utensils, cloths and guns; so that they were able to obtain game and cook their food with more case, and to dress themselves more comfortably. The French mingled with the natives like brothers; and some of them, with their usual easy habit, even took Indian women for their wives. Very soon, French Jesuits were in all their villages; and before the year 1720 they had nearly all become Roman Catholics. Therefore, in any war that arose between the English and the French, the Indians, if they took any part, were sure to be on the side of the French. Neither did the Jesuits confine themselves to the religious instruction of the natives, but were the ever willing agents of the French government to incite the In- dians to hostility against the English settlers.
2. The authorities of the colonies were quite aware of their danger, and made prudent laws to restrain the settlers and natives from wronging each other. None were allowed to settle or to hunt and fish upon the territory of the natives unless the right. was first ob- tained of them; and the sale of intoxicating liquors was forbidden, according to the wish of the chiefs. Yet the English made crafty bargains for their land, obtaining deeds of extensive tracts before the ignorant savages understood fully the effect of such writings. Often, too, the traders would sell them rum; for this yielded a large profit, and they could also make better bargains for furs when their owners were a little in
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drink. The natives, at long intervals, sometimes revenged their wrongs by killing cattle or burning buildings; yet the tribes in most cases were quite ready to pay the damages when the acts were traced to their members.
3. Doubtless a principal reason for the continued peaceable conduct of the natives toward the English was found in the wars among themselves, and the pestilences with which they were often visited.
In 1614, when Captain Smith visited the coast, the native population of Maine must have been nearly thirty thousand. In the war which happened soon after, the Wawennocks had been almost destroyed, and the Tarratines also lost severely. Then the plague came, working fearful havoc from Penobscot to Cape Cod. Following these were the wars with the Mohawk Indians, which raged at intervals for above half a century; while the small pox became a frequent scourge. From these causes their number had fallen before the year 1675 to about twelve thou- sand.
4. Some of the tribes did not at first join in the hostilities against the English. Among these were the Penobscot Indians, and all those at the castward, and the Pennacooks in New Hampshire. Passaconaway, & sachem of the Pennacooks, was noted for his sagac- ity and cunning. He made his Indians believe that he could restore the ashes of a burnt leaf to their orig- inal form, raise a live serpent from the skin of a dead one, and change himself into a flame of fire. When he became old he called his tribe to a great feast, and there made to them his farewell address. "Hearken," said he, "to the last words of your father and friend. The white men are the sons of the morning. The Great Spirit is their father. His sun shines bright about them. Never make war with them. Sure as you light the fires the breath of Heaven will turn the flames upon you, and destroy you. Listen to my ad-
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vice. It is the last I shall be allowed to give you. Remember it and live."
5. Wonnolancet, his son, was now sachem of the tribe; and as long as he lived their friendship with the English remained unbroken.
Rowles, the sagamore of the Piscataqua Indians, likewise saw that the white men would become the masters of the country. He lived in Berwick on inti- mate terms with the settlers. When he became old, and could no more go out of his dwelling, he sent to the principal men of the town this petition : "Being loaded with years, I had expected a visit in my infirmi- ties,-especially from those who are now tenants on
the land of my fathers. Though all these plantations are, of right, my children's, I am forced in this age of evils humbly to request a few hundred acres of land to be marked out for them and recorded as a public act in the town books; so that when I am gone they may not be perishing beggars in the pleasant places of their birth. For I know a great war will shortly break out ' etween the white men and Indians over the whole country. At first the Indians will kill many and pre- vail; but after three years they will be great sufferers, and finally be rooted out and utterly destroyed."
6. But Squando, sachem of the Sokokis, had never been friendly to the English ; and about this time an incident took place which made him a most bitter enemy. His squaw with her little child was crossing the Saco River in a canoe, when a party of sailors saw them and determined to have some sport. They had heard that Indian children swam from instinct; so they upset the canoe, tumbling the poor mother and her infant into the water. The child sank to the bot- tom ; the mother dived after it, and succeeded in bringing it up alive. Soon after this affair it sick- ened and died. Squando believed that its death was owing to the cruel treatment of the white men; and he vowed to be revenged. This chieftain was the
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most remarkable Indian of his time. Sometimes his conduct was quite humane and generous toward the settlers, and at other times very barbarous. He was not only the sachem, but the pow-wow of his tribe, and made his people believe that he had revelations from the spirit world. At one time when he wished to incite them to war against the English he said to them: "An angel of light has commanded me to wor- ship the Great Spirit, and to stop hunting and laboring on the Sabbath; and God himself tells ine he has left the English people to be destroyed by the Indians."
You perceive that the prophecies of these sachems did not agree; but it was not then so easy to decide which was false.
7. At length the alarm sounded. In July, 1675, the first blow of King Philip's war was struck. The Massachusetts authorities immediately sent the news to those of Maine, with the advice that the Indians should be deprived of their guns and knives. Some of the leading residents of Sagadahoc, or Lower Ken- nebec, immediately visited the Indians near them, and prevailed upon them to give up a few of their guns. They gave them many presents, and so won their favor that Mo-ho-tiwormet, the old Canibas sachem, made a dance in honor of the agreement of peace be- tween them. The Androscoggins acted differently. They had for a long time felt very revengeful towards Thomas Purchas, who was a trader at the head of New Meadows River in Brunswick, because they be- lieved that he had cheated them in trade. One of their sagamores declared that he had paid an hundred pounds for water from Purchas' well. His Indians must have drunk much rum to have the water in it reach that amount. It is no wonder that they wasted away.
S. It happened one day early in September that Mr. Purchas and his boys went off, leaving the
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women unprotected. While they were gone a party of Indians came to the house, pretending that they wanted to trade; but as soon as they found the men were away, they fell to plundering the store and build- ings of whatever they wanted. While they were thus engaged one of the boys was seen returning on horse- back. Before reaching the spot he discovered the In- dians, and halted. A stout fellow started out towards him with his gun under his blanket; but the boy, per- ceiving his purpose, wheeled his horse about and fled. He carried the alarm to the coast; and a party went up the river with a sloop and two boats to bring away whatever the Indians had left. Mrs. Purchas some- how escaped; but the men with the vessel found more Indians at the settlement, and were driven off with loss.
9. On the twelfth of September the savages burned the house of John Wakely, near the mouth of the Presumpscot River, in Falmouth. The smoke and flames were seen at Casco Neck (Portland); and a party started at once for their relief. They were too late. The bodies of seven persons lay among the smoking ruins, half burned and shockingly mangled. It proved that two others, a girl of eleven years and a young child, had been carried away. None knew what became of the child; and the poor girl, (whose name was Elizabeth) now left without father, mother, brother or sister, was forced to traverse the wilderness through long and tedious months in company with the · murderers of her relatives.
10. Soon after this bloody affair, a friendly Soko- kis came to John Bonython at Saco and said to him privately, "A strange Indian from the westward and several Anasagunticooks have been at my wigwam, and are persuading all our brothers to lift the toma- hawk against the white people." Bonython warned his neighbors; and that very night they all retired for safety to the house of Major William Phillips, on the
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Biddeford side of the river, near the falls. The next morning the attack was made. The first notice was Bonython's house in flames; then an Indian was seen skulking behind a fence. Major Phillips had been looking at the flames, and as he turned from the win- dow a bullet pierced his shoulder. The savages were ambushed all around the house ! When Major Phil- lips disappeared so suddenly from the window the In- dians, supposing him to be killed, set up a great shont. The English were watching from every side of the house, and instantly fired at the shouters ; and several of them fell badly wounded. At dark the savages set fire to a small house, and to Phillip's mill; then they came up crying, "Come now, you English coward dogs; come put out the fire, if you dare." The Eng- lish didn't come; but they sent out their leaden mes- sengers wherever an Indian exposed himself.
11. At four o'clock the moon set; and then the savages contrived another mode of attack. They built up on the forward end of an ox-cart a tier of lumber, then filled the body with shavings, birch bark and sticks. A number of them took hold of the tongue, where they were protected by the screen of lumber, and pushed the cart toward the house. They meant to set the house on fire, and kill the people as they ran out ! Fifty persons were crowded into this building,-most of them women and chil- dren. The cart was steadily approaching -nearer and nearer it came. Already the tiny tongues of flame gleamed upward through the mass; and the voices of the besieged grew hushed with fear, or some excited girl screamed in frenzy. But the cart comes steadily on,-one wheel drops into a gutter, and the cart swings about. The savages who hold the tongue are in view ; and the muskets of the English ring out in the still night. Several of the assailants dropped to the ground, and the remainder ran away, leaving their load of burning sticks to light up the fields.
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The savages were discouraged; for they had killed none, while six of their number were dead, and fif- teen, including their leader, badly wounded. In the morning not an Indian was to be nd; and a day or two after, Major Phillips and h ipany reached the settlement at Winter Harbor in safety.
12. When it was known at Newichawannock (South Berwick) that the Indians had attacked Saco, Captain Wincoln and sixteen volunteers, with noble spirit, set out for Winter Harbor to render all the aid possible. They had just landed at the mouth of the river, and were proceeding towards the village, when a large body of savages rushed out of the woods upon them. Wincoln and his company took refuge behind a huge pile of shingle blocks, firing with such effect that they kept at bay a hundred and fifty savages. The report of the guns was heard at the village, and a party of nine men started out to join the reinforcement,-for such they knew it must be; but the savages am- bushed their path and shot down every man.
13. The next attack was at Newichawannock, on the house of John Tozier, who had gone with Captain Wincoln, leaving his family unprotected. ITis was one of the outermost houses of the settlement; and in it were gathered at that moment fifteen women and children. A young lady of eighteen was the first to discover the Indians. She had only time to warn the family, when the savages reached the house. Fearful that the weak door fastenings would give away, she staid and held them until the hatchets of the savages had broken through. They dashed in the door; but the family had escaped from the other side of the house, and were running towards the garrison. part of the Indians pursued them, catching two chil- dren who were hindmost. One of these, only three years old, they killed on the spot; and the other they kept in captivity six months. But the heroic girl at the door,-the savages were so angry at finding the
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house empty that they beat her to death, as they thought. After they had gone she revived, and lived to recover from her wounds. I wish I knew her name, for no personage in this history would more brightly ornament its pages.
14. The next day the Indians appeared again, and . burned the dwelling and storehouse of Captain Win- coln, then escaped in the darkness of night. It was now the golden month of October; but in Maine much of the crops remained ungathered; and the scarlet forests seemed to the affrighted settlers but tokens of fire and blood. October 7th was observed as a day of fasting and prayer on account of the great calami- ties. The Indians celebrated it at Newichawannock by shooting a man off his horse, and robbing two boys of their guns and clothing. Again on the sixteenth they assailed it in force, killing Richard Tozier, and making his son a prisoner. The commander of the garrison, Lient. Roger Plaisted, perceiving Indians in the distance, sent out nine men to reconnoiter. The savages saw them coming, and hiding themselves, shot down three of the party before they could es- cape. Lieut. Plaisted, with twenty men and a team, started to bring in the bodies of their slain compan- ions. They went silently past the house where Tozier had been killed, and reached the place of the ambush; the corpses were placed in the cart, and they turned toward the garrison with a feeling of security; for they supposed their numbers had frightened the sav- ages away. Vain thought ! A multitude of dusky figures rushed into view from behind fences, logs and bushes, pouring a volley of bullets upon the startled company. The oxen ran toward the garrison, and most of the men followed; but Lieut. Plaisted with his son and another valiant soldier disdained to fly. Repeatedly the Indians called upon Plaisted to sur- render,-for savages as they were, they greatly re- spected courage; but the intrepid man refused to
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yield, and he was literally cut in pieces by their hatchets.
15. The savages soon after went farther down the river, burning and killing wherever they dared. As they were making an attack upon a house at the mouth of the river, a cannon was fired at them from the Portsmouth battery, on the opposite side, causing them to run off in great alarm. A light snow had just fallen, and a force in pursuit was able to follow them very rapidly. In a few hours the savages were over- taken on the borders of a great swamp, which, loaded as they were, they could not pass. They dared not venture on a fair fight; so they threw off their plun- der, and plunged through the swamp. In passing through Wells they killed three men and burned a house; but it was their last depredation in Maine this year.
16. Three months had passed since this savage slaughter and destruction began, and in that brief time eighty persons had been killed between the Pis- cataqua and Kennebec. Yet the Indians had lost a larger number, though they had every advantage. They never fought in open battle, but chose their own time and place for attack; and, being familiar with the country, their scattered bands could easily elude pursuit. A large force was now raised to assail the hostile tribes in their winter fastnesses. The soldiers were not ready to march until the tenth of Decem- ber; but the snow had then fallen to four feet in depth, and the campaign was abandoned. The In- dians now desired peace in order that they might hunt; for on account of the war they had raised less corn than usual, and had nothing else to live upon. So a treaty was made with the Sagamores, by which the Indians agreed to return all the captives without ransom. Between this time and the next summer many were restored; and among the rest Squando brought in Elizabeth Wakely, the poor girl who was
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made an orphan by the massacre at Presumpscot River.
What nation mingled familiarly with the Indians? In the wars between the English and French which side did the Indians always take? Did the English colonies endeavor to deal justly with the Indians ? What was the number of the Indians in Maine in 1675 ? What great sachem warned his tribe not to war against the Eng- lish ? In what year did King Philip's war begin ? What settle- ment was first attacked in Maine? Where did the Indians commit shocking barbarities? How long did the siege of Major Phillip's garrison in Biddeford continue ? What took place at Winter Har- bor ? What noble action was performed by a young lady in Ber- wick ? What brave officer was cut in pieces by the savages a few days after? How many persons were killed in Maine by the Indians this year ? What was the loss of the Indians ?
CHAPTER X.
1. If the English had been magnanimous toward the Indians it is quite possible that the war in Maine would have closed in the same season it began. Though a treaty had been made, and a few prisoners returned, yet the fears of the settlers all the winter filled the air with rumors of treachery and bloodshed. Perhaps some incidents occurred to make these ru- mors plausible; for Major Waldron, one of the Indian commissioners, issued general warrants by which every man who held one could seize any Indian who might be accused of killing a white man, or who had conspired against the peace, or refused to obey the authorities. Among others, several shipmasters ob- tained copies of these warrants, and began to seize Indians all along the coast. One came to Pemaquid for this purpose, where the peace had never been
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broken. The English besought him to depart, but he would not; and they warned the Indians against him. Yet he finally caught several, and carried them away to a foreign port and sold them for slaves. Of course the natives were very angry at these outrages. To pacify them Abraham Shurte and Capt. Sylvanus Davis met the chiefs in council at Teconnet (Wins- low). Mr. Shurte was a noble and venerable man, who had long been the chief magistrate at Pemaquid; and it was mostly owing to his judicious course that the natives at the castward had remained peaceable. The Indians demanded that their brothers who had been stolen away should be restored to them, and that the English should sell them sufficient ammunition to procure game for food. These were reasonable de- mands, but the agents were unable to comply with them; and the council broke up without profit.
2. On August 12th, 1676, King Philip was killed, which ended the war in Massachusetts and Connecti- cnt; but many of his tribe escaped and mingled with the Indians of Maine. These brought with them an intense hatred of the English; and, joining with the most violent of the Abnakis, they quickly excited the hesitating tribes to renewed hostilities. Early in August one of the refugees known as "Simon, the Yankee-killer," made himself familiar at the house of Anthony Brackett, at Back Cove in Falmouth, now Portland. A few days after, Mr. Brackett lost one of his cows. When Simon was informed of the mis- fortune, he said, "I can show you the fellows that killed the creature;" and very soon he went away. Mr. Brackett suspected treachery; and the settlers at once sent messengers to Major Waldron at Dover for aid. Before their return Simon came back at the head of a party of savages, saying to Mr. Brackett, "Here are the Indians that took your cow." They immediately fell upon the family, consisting of Brackett, his wife, five children and a negro servant.
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Having bound these, they went to the other houses in the vicinity, killing and taking captive thirty-four per- sons. The remainder of the inhabitants escaped to Munjoy's garrison on the hill, and from here they soon removed to Bang's Island. . Two days after this attack a party of natives came at nightfall to the house of Richard Hammond at Stinson's Point in Woolwich, who gave the squaws permission to lodge on the kitchen floor. A girl of the family became so alarmed by certain tokens of malice and treachery among the squaws that she ran out of the house; but some of them brought her back and tried to allay her fears. A little after, she escaped again from the dwelling and hid in the cornfield. By and by she heard a great tumult in the house,-heavy blows, shrieks, and the yells of warriors, whom the squaws had let in. At this the girl left her hiding place and fled to the near- est settlement on the mainland, twelve long miles away.
3. From Hammond's a party of savages went up the river, where they took several prisoners, while an- other party crossed to Arrowsie, and concealed them- selves near the fort of Messrs. Clark and Lake. It was Sunday morning ; and when the sleepy sentinel left his post and entered the gate, the lurking savage was at his heels. The sentinel was struck down, and the Indians were quickly masters of the fort. Mr Lake, Captain Davis and two others, who were in an upper room, got out through a back passage, and rushing to their boat, made for an island on the east The savages followed swiftly, firing upon them and wounding Captain Davis. On reaching the shore he crept up the cliff, and hid among the rocks; where the sun, shining in the faces of his pursuers, dazzled their eyes so that they could not see him. Lake was overtaken and killed, but the other two escaped. Davis laid in his hiding place two days; then crawling to the water's edge, he rolled himself into a canoe, and
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drifted away unseen. All the shore from the Kenne- bec to Pemaquid was now alive with savages, and the inhabitants got away in boats and vessels as best they could,-first to Monhegan and other islands, thence to Boston and neighboring towns. Soon the smoke of burning dwellings arose on every hand, and few buildings were left unharmed. The cattle of the set- tlers roamed untended in the great pastures, affording the Indians plenty of meat; but above all they pre- ferred horse-flesh.
One day Francis Card, who had been captured in Woolwich, was sent with another prisoner to find & horse and drive him in to be killed ; but they found a canoe instead of a horse, and quickly made their es- cape. Simon, the Yankec-killer, had gone to other scenes of violence, leaving the family of Anthony Brackett to follow, not supposing that they could by any means escape ; but they found on the shore, a leaky birchen canoe; and Mrs. Brackett repaired it so well that they all embarked, and reached Scar- borough in safety.
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