USA > Maine > A brief history of Maine > Part 9
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10. In 1713, peace was made between England and France, by the celebrated treaty of Utrecht ; and now no longer incited and aided by the French, the Indians sought peace in earnest. Accordingly on the eleventh of July, the governor, with twenty councilors and many other gentlemen, met the delegates of the hos- tile tribes at Portsmouth in New Hampshire. The Indians acknowledged their offence, and begged for the pardon and favor of the English. Then a written treaty was made, by which the Indians agreed to yield
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to the English settlers all the lands occupied by them, and to observe the regulations which had been made by former treaties in regard to trading, hunting and fishing. Each sagamore signed the document by making the figure of the quadruped, bird or fish, which was the totem of his family.
When the ceremonies were over, some of the au- thorities went to Casco Bay, where they found Moxus, a Penobscot sagamore, with a large body of Indians waiting to learn about the treaty. It was read aloud to them by the English, and explained by the interpre- ters; and when the reading was finished the Indians huzzaed in approval. Then the English authorities distributed to them the usual presents. The next day Moxus came to the English desiring more ; saying that the young Indians had stolen the presents away. This
was very strange; for the Indians, especially the younger men, always treat their sagamores with the greatest respect. Yet Moxus did not sign the treaty, though he pretended to be chief sagamore of the tribes from Penobscot to St. Croix ; but the English knew him to be a very subtle Indian, and did not believe his statements at all.
Upon what places did the Indians make a simultaneous attack ? What treacherous attempt did they make at Fort Loyal ? What afterward happened at Scarborough ? Who were the next year stationed for the defense of Berwick ? Where was Colonel Church sent the next year ? Where was Capt. Hilton sent the next winter ? What was done by the French and Indians in the two years following ? What was the result of Colonel March's expedition against Acadia? Who commanded the expedition against Acadia in 1710? How long thereafter did the country remain in possession of the English ?
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CHAPTER XV.
1. As soon as Queen Anne's war was over there was a rush of settlers to Maine; and mills began to be built and villages to spring up all along the coast from Piscataqua to Penobscot. This was very pleasing to the English; but the Indians watched with jealousy the damming up of the rivers and the destruction of the woods, by which their hunting and fishing grounds were continually narrowed. The French Jesuits, who resided among the natives, were ever watchful for the interests of France, and used every occasion to cm- bitter the minds of Indians against the English. The natives did not understand the nature of the writings called "deeds," believing that their forefathers, in giv- ing them, had intended only to convey the use of the lands during their own lifetime; therefore the Jesuits easily persuaded them that every new fort, mill, or dwelling was an intrusion upon their rights.
2. An English society for the education of the heathen had before attempted to give the Indians some religious instruction; and the General Court of Massachusetts now voted to pay seven hundred and fifty dollars annually for missions to the Indians, with board and lodging for the missionaries. So there were at various times missionaries on the Androscog- gin river at Brunswick, at Fort Halifax on the Ken- nebec, at St. Georges and Penobscot; while provision was also made for a school master to reside at Bruns- wick, and fifty dollars were voted for books and re- wards for the young Indians who might become his pupils. It was thought best as a matter of duty to remove, if possible, the false teaching of the Jesuits; and it was also believed that this would be the best
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method of pacifying the Indians. According to Bomazeen, a sachem of Norridgewock, the priest of that place had instructed the Indians that "the Virgin Mary was a French lady, and that her son, Jesus Christ, was murdered by the English, but had since risen and gone to Heaven; and that all who would gain his favor must avenge his blood." Perhaps the wily chief spoke falsely, but the English believed him.
3. This provision for missionaries was made in 1717; and the next year Governor Shute with his council met the natives at Arrowsic. The governor presented the sagamores with an English Bible, and another translated into the Indian tongue, telling them that they contained the true religion.
"All people love their own ministers," said the chief speaker, in reply. "Your bibles we do not care to keep. God has given us teaching, and if we go from that we offend God."
It was found that they could not be moved from their devotion to the Jesuits; and the remainder of the discussions was on the land rights of the English and Indians. A part of the Indian talk made on this occasion was nearly as follows :-
4. "Indians and white men have one Great Father. He has given every tribe of us a goodly river, which yields us fine salmon and other fish. The borders of our rivers are wide and pleasant. Here, from ancient time, our people have hunted the bear, the moose and the beaver. It is our own country, where our fathers died, where ourselves and our children were born ;- we cannot leave it. The Indian has rights and loves good as well as the Englishman ;- yes, we have a sense, too, of what is kind and great. When you first came over the waters of the morning we took you into our arms. We thought you children of the sun, and we fed you with our best meat. Never went a white man cold and starving from the cabin of an Indian. Do we not speak truth? But you have returned us
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evil for good. You put the burning cup to our lips; it filled our veins with poison; it wasted the pride of our strength. Ay, and when the drunken fit was on us, you took advantage-you made gains of us. You made our beaver cheap, then you paid us in watered rum and trifles. We shed your blood; we avenged your affronts. Then you promised us equal trade and good commodities. Have Christian Englishmen lived up to their engagements ?
They asked leave of our fathers to live in the land as brothers. It was freely granted. The earth is for the life and the range of man. We are told that our country, spreading far away from the sea, is passing away to you forever,-perhaps for nothing, because of the names and seals of our sagamores. Such deeds be far from them. They never turned their children from their homes to suffer. Their hearts were too full of love and kindness,-their souls were too great. Whither shall we go ? There is no land so much our own,-none can be half so dear to us. Why should we flee before our destroyers ? We fear them not. Sooner, far, will we sing the war song, and again light up our council fires. So shall the great spirits of our sires own their sons."
5. Yet the old men and many others were opposed to war at this time; for they feared to be driven away from their cornfields and their pleasant villages, to undergo the sufferings of a wandering life. So they promised to inquire into the injuries committed by their brethren, and presented the English with a lot of beaver skins, as a pledge of their fidelity. They also placed four young Indians in their hands to be held as hostages for the good behavior of the tribes; and these were taken to Boston and educated.
Three years later ninety canoes of Indians came early in the month of August to Sagadahock. They bore the French flag, and were well armed and clad. There were also several Frenchmen with them, among
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whom were Castine, the younger, and the Jesuit, Ralle. The leaders of this company visited Arrowsic and delivered to Captain Penhallow, in the name of the tribes, a message warning the settlers on that river that if they did not remove in three weeks the Indians would come and destroy their cattle, burn their houses and kill them all; "for," said they, "you have taken away the lands which the Great God has given to our fathers and us."
6. This, no doubt, meant war; and immediate measures were taken for defence. The Indians did not immediately come to put their threat into execu- tion, but, as usual, watched for a favorable moment. In December a force was sent under Colonel West- brook to Norridgewock, to capture Ralle, who was the chief instigator of the savages against the English. They reached the place undiscovered, for the braves were mostly away on their winter hunt; but before the soldiers could surround the village, Ralle had es- caped to the woods. No blood was shed or captive taken by this expedition; but the troops brought away a dictionary of the Abnaki language, written by the Jesuit, the result of many years of study.
7. Castine, the younger, having been in the com. pany which made the threats against the Sagadahock settlements, was soon after seized and carried to Bos- ton, where he was kept a prisoner several months; but as no evidence could be found against his peaceful character, he was set at liberty in the spring. The government at this time sent presents and peace- ful messages to the tribes, in the hope of softening their feelings toward the English, in order to avert, if possible, the threatened destruction of the settlements.
All means proved useless; for in June, 1722, the savages fell upon the settlement on the northern shore of Merrymeeting Bay, killing or carrying away into captivity nine entire families. They soon after attempted to surprise the fort at St. George's River
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but only succeeded in burning a sloop and taking a few prisoners. In July another attack was made on the same fort, under the lead of a Romish priest. This time they undermined a portion of the walls; but a rain caused the banks of the trench to fall in npon them; and, having lost twenty of their number, while the garrison lost only five, they gave up the siege and retired. The savages were now on the war path in all directions; and vessels were captured, houses burned, and settlers murdered or carried into captivity from every quarter.
S. About the middle of July, 1722, Fort George, in Brunswick, was attacked, and the village burned. The news reached the mouth of the Kennebec within a few hours, and Captain Harmon with thirty-four men immediately started up the river in pursuit of the perpetrators. Late in the night they discovered fires on the western shore of Merrymeeting Bay, in'what is now the town of Topsham. They happened to land at the very spot where eleven canoes were drawn ashore. They ran directly to one of the fires, and, blinded by the light, actually stumbled over the sleep- ing savages. They had been torturing a prisoner, and had kept up their dancing and carousing until a late hour, and were now in a drunken, stupid sleep; and the whole number were killed on the spot without the loss of a man to the English. Another party, lying at a little distance from the first, were aroused by the tumult; but after firing a few guns, they fled into the woods and escaped.
9. In September four or five hundred warriors, chiefly St. Francis Indians from Canada, and Mic- macs from Nova Scotia, made a sudden descent upon Arrowsic. The garrison was prepared for them, and in a few days drove them from the island; but in the meantime they had killed fifty head of cattle and burned twenty-six houses.
In August, 1723, sixty-three Mohawks, including
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many principal inen, came to Boston in response to numerous invitations from the authorities, to make a treaty against the eastern Indians. They were re- ceived by the Lieutenant Governor, who presented them with a belt of wampum; and they, in return, gave him pieces of plate curiously engraved with the figures of a turtle, bear, wolf, hatchet and other fig- ures -totems of their several tribes. The authorities also gave the Indians a fat ox, which they killed with their arrows; and then they held a feast, which closed with songs and dances.
10. The tribes could not be induced to take up the hatchet, but gave their young men liberty to enter the service of the English; yet only two accepted the offer. These were sent to Fort Richmond, on the Kennebec. A few days after their arrival they were sent out on a scout in company with a small party of English. They had gone scarcely three miles when the two Mohawks said they smelt fire, and refused to go further without a reinforcement. A messenger went back to the fort and brought thirteen more men; and, again advancing, they came upon thirty of the enemy. In the brief conflict that ensued, two of these were killed; while the remainder retreated to their canoes in such haste as to leave their packs on the ground. The English lost their leader, Sergeant Colby, killed, and two others, wounded. But the Mo- hawks had already become sick of the service, and soon after this afair returned to Boston.
11. In September, 1723, Colonel Westbrook was sent eastward with two hundred and thirty men in search of the enemy. He ascended the Penobscot river in boats to the vicinity of Marsh Bay, where he landed, and continued up the river through the woods. After four or five days they came upon a large fort not far from the present site of the city of Bangor. They entered it without resistance, finding it abandoned, and every article of value removed.
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The fort was found to be seventy yards in length by fifty in breadth; the walls, which were fourteen feet high, consisting of stockades, or strong wooden stakes driven into the ground. Inside the walls were twenty- three good wigwams, the dwelling of the priest, and a chapel twenty by sixty feet in size, and handsomely furnished. Committing these to the flames, they re- turned down the river, and searched other parts of the coast with no better success.
12. The next year the Indians killed and carried into captivity from twenty to thirty persons; four men and three children being captured at one time while engaged in picking berries in the town of Scarbor- ough. There were skirmishes at Casco Neck, and on the Kennebec; and the Indians made another fruitless attack on the fort at St. George's River.
In the winter a third expedition was sent to Nor- ridgewock under Captain Moulton to capture Ralle. Again he escaped them; but they secured his books and papers, and retired without doing any further injury. Among these papers were letters from the governor of Canada directing the Jesuit "to push on the Indians with all imaginable zoal against the English."
13. The fort on St. George's River, being the most advanced post of the settlers received the par ticular hatred of the savages, and the attacks it suffer- ed during the war were both frequent and severe. It was on a beautiful May morning in 1724 that Captain Josiah Winslow, the young commander, set out from the fort with sixteen men in two whale boats,-pro- ceeding down the river, and thence to the Green Isl- ands in Penobscot Bay. It was the season for fowl- ing, and they expected to find Indians somewhere on the ronte, snaring or shooting sea-fowl. None were discovered, however; and the party returned the next day to St. Georges'. But the wary savages had seen their hunters, and now lay in ambush along the bank
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1724
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of the river. Captain Winslow's boat was near the middle of the river, and some distance in advance, the other having lingered, against the request of Winslow, to look for ducks along the shore. Suddenly the In- dians opened fire upon the imprudent crew, but it was briskly returned. Captain Winslow, seeing that the crew was outnumbered and in great danger, turned back to their assistance.
14. Thirty canoes containing ninety savages im- mediately shot out from the shore, and with a terrible whoop fell upon the devoted crews. The English saw that there was no hope of escape, and every man determined to sell his life dearly. In a brief time nearly all were dead or mortally wounded. Wins- low's boat had floated ashore, and he sprang upon the bank, though his thigh was shattered by a ball. An Indian met him, and for a few moments they fought hand to hand; but Winslow beat off his foe. By this time the savages were pressing upon him from all sides; but the brave young soldier killed another, sup- porting himself on one knee, before they could dis- patch him.
Did the natives fully understand how their lands had become the property of the English ? What threat did a party of sav- ages make at Arrowsic ? What did the government do the next spring ? How many families did the Indians take captive on . Merrymeeting Bay? At what date was Brunswick burned ? Where did Capt. Harmon find the Indians? What tribes made an attack on Arrowsic in September? What did Col. Westbrook find near the present site of Bangor ? What was accomplished by the third expedition to Norridgewock ? Give an account of the fight on St. George's River.
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DESTRUCTION OF NORRIDGEWOCK.
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CHAPTER XVI.
1. In the summer of 1724 another and final expe- dition was sent against Norridgewock. It was led by Captains Moulton, Harmon, Bourne and Banc; and consisted of two hundred and eight men. This force left the fort at Richmond on the nineteenth day of August, ascending the river in seventeen whale boats. The next day they arrived at Teconet, where they left their boats with a guard of forty men. The remain- der of the journey must have been made on the east- ern bank of the river, and they consequently passed the site of the village of Skowhegan in the forenoon of the twenty-second day of the month. At a little past noon they discerned the smoke of the Indian set- tlement. Captain Harmon with sixty men made a detour towards the cornfields opposite and above the mouth of Sandy River, while Captain Moulton with the residue of the troops went directly towards the village. They moved in the utmost stillness, noting the wigwams, the chapel, the dwelling of the priest, the trees marked by hatchets, the broad stones tossed by the Indians in their sports; but there was not a human being in sight. They were within pistol shot of the cabins, when an Indian looked out and saw them. Instantly he gave the war whoop, and sixty warriors sprang out to meet the English.
2. The first volley of the savages did not harm a man, but the guns of the English made fearful havoc. The Indians stayed only to fire a second volley, then rushed to the river. Some jumped into the canoes, in which they tried to escape, using their guns for pad- les, while others attempted to ford or swim across. Still from two wigwams shots continued to be fired
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upon the soldiers. One of the two Mohawks withthe expedition fell, and his brother rushed forward and broke in the door whence the shot came. Within was an old sagamore named Mogg, who, scorning to fly, devoted the remnant of his strength to destroy the foes of his race. In the other wigwam was Ralle, the Jesnit; and he also fell fighting at his post, being shot through the head by Lieutenant Jaques.
3. Thus died the zealous and intrepid missionary of the Abnakis. He was in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and had lived at this village nearly thirty-five years. In this solitary place his hours, he writes, were crowded with employment. Mass was held every morning, and following this the children and others were instructed in the catechism. His own household labors occupied a large portion of the re- maining hours until evening; when the dusky congre- gation again gathered for vespers. The scene is well described by Whittier in these lines :-
"Well might the traveler stop to see The tall, dark forms that take their way From the bireh canoe on the river shore, And the forest paths, to that chapel door ; And marvel to mark the naked knees And the dusky foreheads bending there, While in coarse white vesture, over these In blessing or in prayer, Stretching abroad his thin, pale hands, Like a shrouded ghost the Jesuit stands."
4. To him came the Indians, old and young, to make their complaints, to tell of their joys and sor- rows, or to receive his advice -which they always heeded; for they loved him as a father. Their affee- tion for him is shown by this incident, narrated by him- self: - Once when encamped with a party of the tribe at a long distance from the village, there came tidings that the English were near; and all immedi-
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ately startel for home. A few hours later another Indian came to warn the party. Finding the camp deserted, he concluded that the English had captured them; and he, also, started for the village, leaving on the way information of the supposed calamity for those who might come after. He did this by fastening to a stake a piece of white birch bark, on which he had drawn with charcoal a rude picture of some English- men surrounding a priest, one of whom was in the act of cutting off his head -hats signifying that the wear- ers were English, and the long robe indicating the priest. Shortly after, a party of Indians passing up the river, saw the bark on the top of the stake.
"There is a writing," said one; "let us see what it is."
5. As soon as they looked at it they cried out, "Ah! the English have killed them who were quartered with our father, and cut off his head." Immediately they began to pluck out their long hair; and, sitting down on the spot, remained motionless and silent until morning. This was their customary form of mourning when suffering the severest affliction. The next day they resumed their journey. When within half a league of the village they halted, and sent forward one of their number to see if any English were in the neighborhood
"I was reading my breviary by the river side," says Ralle, "when the messenger appeared upon the oppo- site bank. As soon as he saw me he cried out: 'Ah! my father, how glad I am to see you. My heart was dead, and now that I see you, it revives. The writing told us that the English had cut off your head. How rejoiced I am that it told us false.'"
When the Indians urged him to retire to Quebec till the war was over, he replied, "What do you think of me? Do you take me for a cowardly deserter ? Alas, what would become of your religion, should I abandon you ? Your salvation is dearer to me than life."
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6. Notwithstanding all his piety, he could coolly deceive them to secure their devotion to his religion. My young friends will remember what the old chief said the priest taught them about the Virgin Mary being a French woman, and about our Saviour being put to death by the English. On another occasion Ralle pretended to have received a letter from an In- dian who was dead, in which he wrote that he was burning in the most horrible fire; and he showed them a letter written in the Indian tongue. . The cor- ner where the signature should have been was torn off; for if the name of a deceased relative of any member of the tribe had been given, there would have been trouble between the priest and that family.
In regard to this remarkable character, Mr. Sparks says, "So far as the patient toils of the missionary and love for the darkened soul of the Indian are concern- ed, we may place the names of Eliot and Ralle in a fellowship, which, indeed, both would have rejected, but which we may regard as hallowed and true; for they both belonged to the goodly company of those who have given their lives to the beautiful labors of pious benevolence.
7. "Whoever has visited the pleasant town of Nor- ridgewock, as it now is, must have heard of "Indian Old Point," as the people call the place where Ralle's village stood ; and perhaps curiosity has carried him hither. If so, he has found a lovely, sequestered spot in the depth of nature's stillness, on a point around which the waters of the Kennebec sweep in their beautiful course, as if to the music of the rapids above; a spot over which the sad memories of the past, with- out its passions, will throw a charm; and where, he will believe, the ceaseless worship of nature might blend itself with the aspirations of christian devotion.
HIe will find that vestiges of the old settlement are not wanting, in the form of hatchets, glass beads, and broken utensils, turned up by the plough, and pre-
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served by the people of the neighborhood; and he will turn away from the place feeling how hateful is the mad spirit of war in connection with nature's sweet retirements."
MONUMENT OF RALLE, NORRIDGEWOCK.
8. But I must return to my narrative, though feel- ing as if I should ask pardon of my gentle readers, for bringing them again to the horrors of the bloody bat- tle field. Captain Harmon and his party, who had gone in the direction of the cornfields, did not join the other troops until near evening, when the fighting was quite over. That night the English slept in the wigwams of the Norridgewocks. In the morning, after the troops had left the village, the vengeful Mo- hiwk turned back; and soon chapel and wigwam Were wrapped in flame.
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