USA > Maine > Ancient dominions of Maine : embracing the earliest facts, the recent discoveries, of the remains of aboriginal towns, the voyages, settlements, battle scenes, and incidents of Indian warfare, and other incidents of history, together with the religious developments of society within the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid precincts and dependencies > Part 11
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" Melted pewter-charred corn and peas" are found,- vestiges of an ancient and agricultural people :- also stones, brick, and lime in the ancient cellars-relics indicating surprise of the fugitive dwellers, or such haste as forced the inhabitants to flee for their lives, leaving their pewter plates and basins, their household stuff, their goods, their all, as it was. A gold " signet-ring " taken from an old cellar on the southern extreme of the peninsula, would lead us to infer that some did not escape with their lives in the terrible scene :- some fond mother, some doating wife, some loving sister, some timid, terror-stricken maiden !
ANCIENT CHRONICLES OF STONE.
A mile to the eastward is the ancient "Mill Creek," on which are the relics of a mill, whose broken stones have been there antecedent to the record of human recollection. The site must have been anterior to the advent of its ancient European occupants. A race antecedent to all historical data must have dwelt and had an interest there,-an inter- est of importance to the future, whose messages, wrapped
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in the mysteries of a medium of communication prior to a knowledge of letters-inscribed in hieroglyphics on stone, have been transmitted to our day. For it is said, such " stones with curious inscriptions," 1 in the southern part of this peninsula, have been found. But alas! what vandal- ism ! it is added, " some of these stones were used in build- ing the cellars of modern settlers, and still remain in the walls"! What secrets of history are covered here ? A thread of the long lost past may here be found, which shall lead us back to adventures-a race of which rumor alone has any recollection in the quite forgotten traditions of the north !
Is it indeed a fact that Monhegan, Damariscove, and Sheepscot are stored with unexplored treasures of a history on their enduring, stone-inscribed monuments ? The fact is worth the investigation of the curious and the learned as a tribute to literature alone.
The ancient site of Sheepscot is rationally presumed from its geological features to have once been an island. Within twenty years of Popham's abortive attempt to found and rear a town at the mouth of the Kennebec, it was the cen- ter of an agricultural community called the "Sheepscot farms." In a half a century from that disastrous event, it had grown to a village " a mile or more in length," densely settled, and was made a shire town of the county of " Corn- wall," by the name of New Dartmouth ; and now having passed through desolating changes and scenes of agonizing interest, two centuries and a half having elapsed, it is the simple village of Sheepscot on the western boundary of the town of Newcastle, the changes of so considerable a period not having as yet removed it, as a central, thrifty point in the midst of the meadows and fertile bottoms of the ancient Sheepscot. The present city-like villages of Newcastle and Damariscotta, at the falls of the river of that name, at the
1 Rev. D. Cushman, Me. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 212.
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date here given were hardly a hamlet of two houses on the eastern and three on the western bank, and with no street but a cart path to Sheepscot.
ANCIENT TRADING POST OF SHEEPSCOT.
Except at Cape Newagen, history has left us no record of ancient trading posts on the Sheepscot ; and gives the names of but two of that speculating development of humanity in our early history, termed " truckmasters," -" Coke" 1 of Cape Newagen, mentioned by Levett, and Walker, a man of influence with the natives, mentioned by Hubbard, the location of whose trading establishment is not known.
SHEEPSCOT SETTLERS.
It is probable that the original occupants of the banks of the Sheepscot commanded their subsistence as " lords of the soil " rather than in the more doubtful issues of native trade. They were farmers and not speculators.
1 Levett's Voyage, p. 87. Hubbard, p. 265.
CHAPTER IV.
INDIAN WARS.
NATURAL CAUSES.
We have now reached the epoch particularly char- acterized by collision between the races originally 1667. occupying and those seeking a new home from a foreign soil.
This issue follows the great laws of nature, in that econ- omy which forces the old to give place to the new, thus perpetuating a renovating energy throughout her domain.
Disturbance is a natural consequence of the influx of population, ( especially where the elements are not homo- geneous ) when it flows in with a force and fullness suffi- cient to displace original races.
Decay, change, renovation, are the constantly recurring phases of nature ; and of human society as a subject of natural law, as marked and decided in the succession of races, states, and nations as in the succession of generations or of vegetation. It ever has been, it ever will be, that the fresh and new, with its excess of life and energy, will in its season appear to replace the decay and waste of the old.
MORAL CAUSES.
The Puritans 1 of Massachusetts detected a source
1 Annals of Salem, No. iii. p. 250.
.
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of public calamities in the social customs of the day, which may excite the admiration of this.
The General Court publish what they consider twelve evils, which brought on the country the burning and depop- ulation of several hopeful plantations, and the murdering of many people by the Indians-viz : "Long hair, like women's hair, is worn by some men, either their own or other people's hair, made into periwigs ; and by some wom- en wearing borders of hair, and their cutting, curling, and immodest laying out their hair ; which practice dotha prevail and increase, especially among the younger sort."
Another evil, proclaimed by the General Court at Salem, was, " pride in apparel, both for costliness in the poorer sort, and vain new strange fashions, both in poor and rich, with naked breasts and arms ; or as it were pinioned with the addition of superfluous ribbons, both on hair and apparel."
But a more rational source of trouble was the conduct of the early voyagers and the resident fishermen, by which all respect for the superiority of the white race, conceived on a first and superficial acquaintance, was dissipated, and savage resentments provoked, till gradually a fearful and terrible climax was reached.
Gorges, in his plea at the bar of the House of Commons, complained, " that the mischief already sustained by these disorderly persons is inhuman and intolerable ; being worse than the savages in their manners and behaviour : impu- dently and openly lying with their women : teaching their men to drink drunk ; to swear and blaspheme the name of God. 1
IMPRUDENCE OF THE WHITES.
The herds and cornfields and meadows of Hadley 1675. on the Connecticut river had suffered from savage depredation. Conjecture pointed to the natives of
1 Gorges' Narrative, M. H. Coll., vol. ii. p. 38.
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the remote east as the perpetrators of the mischief.
Mo-ho-tiwormet or Robinhood, the aged sachem of the lower Sheepscot or Sagadahoc waters, was threatened with vengeance, in a message demanding redress for damages alleged to have been done.
This wanton disturbance of the natives of Maine excited the wildest alarm. Rumor had lent wings to the exciting intelligence, which, in a thousand distorted forms of exag- geration, was flying through the wilds of Maine, disturbing, exasperating, and dissipating all the elements of mutual con- fidence between the red and white races. The planters and residents of the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc became greatly disquieted.
The great Mo-ho-tiwormet, -the aboriginal lord of the soil where he dwelt, one of the most powerful native chief- tains, on whose friendship their lives and fortunes depended, had been wantonly and unreasonably provoked. The white residents called a public meeting at the dwelling house of Capt. Patishall, ( Paddishall ?) probably at his island-home in the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, within the town of Phipsburg. Various plans were devised to avert the impending storm-cloud.
The peril was common and imminent. It was finally resolved to visit and disarm the savages,-a plan, all the features of which could not have been considered, or it never would have been adopted.
Volunteers for the delicate and dangerous service came forward, who directed their efforts toward the natives of the Kennebec and its tributaries, proposing to make reconnois- sances or fight, as necessity and expediency might suggest. Walker, an ancient Sheepscot truckmaster, who, by his probity and experience with the savages, had acquired influ- ence over them, was successful in persuading some of them to give up their arms and ammunition, as a guarantee of their pacific intentions. The plan was deemed feasible and
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expedient, as a measure of safety to the planters. But a savage of the Androscoggin, at an interview had with Lake, Patishall, and others, who had gone out to execute the pro- cess of disarming the Indians, sprang on one of the party with his up-raised battle-axe, and aimed a blow at the head of Hosea Mallet, a Frenchman. The blow was averted from its fatal effects, but Sowen, the daring savage, was seized, bound, and immured in a cellar.
The Sanops and aged men of the tribe deplored the aspect of affairs, declared Sowen worthy of death, and offered to redeem his life with " forty beaver skins." Some of their number were pledged as sureties. By the dawn of the succeeding day the wild woods of Sagadahoc rang with the shouts and echoed with the savage notes of Mo-ho- tiwormet and his braves, who made the great dance and sang the song of peace at the doors of the terror-stricken white man. Sowen was released. But the hostages soon made good their escape, defying the vigilance of their keep- ers, and the beaver skins were never paid.
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
King Philip's war had been raging in Massachusetts. This fire, kindled by the natives to consume the whites, had turned back with devouring fury, till Philip and his braves had fallen and been consumed.
The hostile bearing of the eastern savages was undoubt- edly assumed under the influence of fugitives from the scene of Philip's disaster, with a hope of exterminating the whole race of white men, which the brave and patriotic Philip had inspired.
In the dance of peace, the embers of war had not been extinguished. Smothered in the savage breast, a most brutal outrage on the wife and child of Squando rekindled them into quenchless flames.
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OUTRAGE ON A SAVAGE MOTHER.
As the wife of Squando, the lord of the native Sekokis, paddled her fragile bark canoe across the waters of the Saco, some frolicksome seamen overturned or cast the infant savage into the water. It sank to the bottom. The mother, urged by the instincts of the maternal heart, plunged to rescue her darling from death. She at length rose to the surface with the child alive, but so injured by the wanton act as to die soon after.
The exasperated father, -the fierce chieftain- was pro- voked to vengeance.
ASSAULT ON THE PURCHASE PLANTATION.
In September, the store-houses of Thomas Purchase, a Merry Meeting planter, near the head of New Meadows River, were sacked. Twenty painted savages plundered the liquor, seized the ammunition, ripped up the feather beds for the sake of the ticking, butchered the calves, and slaughtered the sheep- leaving the females,-the only members of the family at home, unmolested, but warned that " other savages were coming who would deal far worse with them."
The Indians had taken a great aversion to Purchase, who had amassed great wealth, and much of it by hard dealing with the natives in trade, one of whom charged " that for the water he had drawn out of Purchase's well he had paid an hundred pounds ! "
Retaliation followed. A party of twenty-five neighboring planters manned a sloop and two boats, and at once pro- ceeded to the scene of recent outrage, by way of Casco Bay and New Meadows River, with a view to gather and secure the growing crops, as well as to reconnoitre. As the party drew near the deserted premises, the sound of blows therein gave warning of the enemies' presence within the ransacked
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buildings. Very soon three savages were espied. The sloop and boats lay moored below ; and by a circuitous route the party sought to cut off the savages and intercept their flight to the neighboring thickets by throwing them- selves between the enemy and the woods. Perceiving their retreat to the forest to be cut off by the hostile white man's forces, the savages made for their canoes at the water-side. They were pursued, and the first volley brought one to the ground and wounded a second, who succeeded in gaining his canoe and escaping with his life. The third savage, in the confusion, under cover of the smoke of the blazing fire arms, gained the covert of the woods, and reached his com- rades, who immediately formed an ambuscade, while the unwary planters scattered to gather their harvest.
Busied here and there, reckless of their peril, they gath- ered their corn and laded their boat. At this juncture, the ambushed savages, with their accustomed yells and whoops of war, rose from their concealment, and fired on the scat- tered workmen. Fortunately some of the company were in a state of readiness for defense ; and under cover of their fire, the dispersed planters gained the sloop. Several were wounded, but no one was killed. All escaped. But the corn-laden boats became a prey to the Indians, who burned the one and plundered the other.
Thus worsted in the battle-the first battle-scene of the terrible drama now opened-the settlers fled, and the vic- torious red-men, in small bands, more bold and presump- tuous, sought trophies for the tomahawk and scalping knife, in every direction, at the door of every plantation.
Sylvanus Davis, the agent of Clark and Lake, resident at the newly laid-out town on Arrowsic, enlivened with mills and trading houses, and defended by fortified works, dispatched a messenger to secure the arms and ammunition of a trading post up the Kennebec, near the site of the capital of Maine. Encountering the Kennebec natives, he
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menaced them " with death," if they did not yield to the policy of the white-man, come in and deliver their arms. Exasperated at such bravado, the savages of the Kennebec waters sent runners to those of the Penobscot under Modock-a-wando, and the St. Johns River. A conference was held at the fortress of Baron de Castine. The tomahawk was dug up, the scalping knife unsheathed, and the pipe of peace was flung away. Every forest wild echoed the note, and every camp-fire glowed with the blood-red visage of Death. All was commotion. Every heart was shaken with gloomy forebodings.
The venerable Shurt of Pemaquid, the chief magistrate of the East, a man of age, discretion, and probity of char- acter, as well as experience, finally secured an interview with the disaffected sagamores, at the eastern metropolis. Public indignation burned with reckless zeal, and blindly turned against every one who counseled peace. Multitudes were bent on violence, utterly indifferent to the fearful issues of savage warfare. They maligned the motives and misinterpreted the acts of those who would restore confi- dence and preserve peace. But Shurt persisted in his peace- ful overtures, and in defiance of opposition and false accusation, he obtained a hearing at Pemaquid.
The natives complained of "wrongs done them on the Kennebeck," 1 the depot of the Puritan trading houses of Plymouth. Shurt gave assurance that their wrongs should be redressed. By his assurances a prospect of con- tinued tranquility was preserved. 2 In the promise of being " righted " in their wrongs, the savages were diverted from their purposes of blood.
SLAVE TRADERS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Evil surmisings, jealousies, and whispers of evil worked
1 Hubbard, p. 302.
2 Williamson, vol. i. p. 526. Hubbard, p. 293-303.
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their way into the cars of the Massachusetts government. Maj. Waldron, one of its officers, issued under authority of the Bay, "general warrants" for seizing every native known to be a " man-slayer."
The precepts of Waldron falling into the hands of unprincipled seamen, were used as authority for kidnap- ping the natives to sell for slaves.
A vessel lurked in the by-places about the harbors of Pemaquid, with a view to this traffic. With the master, Shurt remonstrated-importunately desiring him to leave the region- assuring him that peace now reigned which might be disturbed.
But these remonstrances were unavailing. What was the peace of a community, the lives of women and children, the value of the prosperity of these infant settlements of the distant East compared with the profits of slave trading ?
In Massachusetts and Maine, slaves were bought 1676. and sold-" born in their houses and bought with their money." Why should not the red man, as well . as the black, be made a subject of gainful speculation ? The muscles and sinews of the Indian, as well as the Negro, could be turned into gold. Furs were becoming scarce. The fisheries required diligence and perseverance to give a slow but sure return. The slave mart promised good pay, great profits, and little labor. The shrewd Yankee, with an eye to the benefit of himself and owners, had no scruples in turning kidnapper, and his sloop into a slaver on the coasts of Maine !
Several natives were seized, carried into foreign parts, and sold. 1 Incensed at this new and strange outrage, before attempting. to meet out retribution for the atrocious wrong, the Indians returned to Abraham Shurt at Pema-
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 531.
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quid, whose kind offices had won their confidence as an upright magistrate, and complained that " many of their brothers were missing-and were possibly miserable slaves in foreign lands."
DESTRUCTION OF THE ARROWSIC TOWNS.
King Philip was dead. With him, the hopes
of his race had expired. To the East, in their Aug. 12. disappointment, were borne the embers of war ; which were scattered through the wilds of Maine, kindling anew the resentments of the excited savages, now burning with enthusiasm to revenge their fallen chief.
A terrible blow was struck in the heart of Sag- adahoc, whose reverberations wakened echoes Aug. 13. whose horrors have thrilled through generations, till they have reached the ears of our own.
DEVASTATION OF HAMMOND'S TOWN.
About Spring Cove on Stinson's Point, jutting into the western margins of Hockomock Bay, along the great thor- oughfare from Pemaquid, Hammond, an Indian trader, had established his post, planted the nucleus of a town, and reared a fort.
His hamlet, the earliest of the settlements of Georgetown, and one of the chief within the limits of our region, was the first object of attack. Prejudices had grown up between the truckmasters and the natives, on account of fancied or real wrongs, which made them conspicuous objects of ven- geance. The hope of booty may also have stimulated the savage desires.
During the evening of Saturday, many Indians gathered at Hammond's Town ; and some of the women sought shel- ter for the night in Richard Hammond's dwelling-house, desiring to lodge on the kitchen floor. The appearances, conversation, or intimations of the savages, inspired the
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kitchen maid, yet in early girl-hood, with presentiments of evil. She left the house to seerete herself abroad. Per- ceiving her trepidation, the natives, to conceal the better their purposes and allay suspicion, sought, found, and brought her home again.
Another band of painted red-men meanwhile joined their fellows within this devoted hamlet. Fully persuaded of their treacherous and bloody designs, the girl again left the house, and made good her escape to a neighboring field of ripening corn. There sheltered by the darkness, in close concealment eluding the search of the Indians, she was soon startled by the noise of violence, the yells of death, and the piercing shrieks and cries of the dying and wounded inmates of her master's house. These terrible monitions added speed to her flight. Crossing the tides of Hock- omock, she fled to Shicepscot, and by morning reached the Davis plantation at Wiscasset. The warning was timely. No intelligence had come from the scene of death, till pass- ers-by discovered the dead and mangled bodies lying naked on the beach,- no one out of sixteen souls surviving death or captivity save the girl who had fled to the Sheepscot plantation, twelve miles distant. It was afterward ascer- tained that the savage women who lodged in the kitchen opened the fastenings of the garrison house, and let the warriors in to surprise the unconscious inmates above ; and Richard Hammond, Samuel Smith, and Joshua Grant were slain at once.
SACKING OF LAKE AND CLARK'S VILLAGE.
The savage band now divided. Eleven canoes turned into the Kennebec and up that river. The house of Francis Card of Woolwich was attacked, and himself and family led into captivity. The other party crossed to Arrowsic Island, after rifling and burning Hammond's village. The home of a settler in their war path was left unmolested.
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Turning adrift his canoes, before break of day on Sunday morning, the party were concealed behind " a great rock," near the walls of the fort which defended the settlement of Lake and Clark. The sentinel retired earlier than he was wont from his post. On entering the gate, he was uncon- sciously followed by the stealthy tread of an ambushed foe. The sentinel was silenced. The fortifications were secured. The port-holes were occupied, and all who passed or repassed were shot down without warning. The savages were soon masters of the place.
Mr. Lake, the partner of Clark, was above, asleep. Roused by the noise and struggles of Aug. 14. death below, with his agent, Capt. Sylvanus Davis, and two more, he escaped through a back passage to the water-side. Here, seizing a canoe, they made for a neighboring island. Lake, Davis, and their companions were at once pursued. The savages had the advantage in the pursuit with their light bark canoes; and on coming within range, fired on the fugitives. Davis was wounded. By extraordinary exertion, all reached the shore, overcome with fatigue, terror, and surprise.
The savages also landed and continued the pursuit. Un- able to fight or fly, Davis crawled into the cleft of a rock under a sheltering cliff. The sun had now risen, and look- ing over the tree-tops of Reskeagan, poured his beams in dazzling luster on the cliff-side shelter of Davis, blinding the eyes of his pursuers.
For two days Davis crouched within his hiding place; and then dragging himself along by the water's edge, he fortu- nately reached a canoe, into which he rolled his body and drifted away and thus escaped detection.
The companions of Lake and Davis gained the northern extremity of the island, and fled to the plantations above .. Lake, left alone, attempted still to fly, but a swift-footed savage outstripped him, and attempted to capture him.
11
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Then Lake, turning on his pursuer, presented his pistols ; but before he could shoot, the unerring aim of the savage laid him dead at his feet. Seizing the hat of his victim, he bore it on his own head as a trophy of his success.
Lake was an enterprising and excellent man, and it is said the savages had intended to save him alive, if possible. Nor was it certainly known that Lake had been slain, until he who did the bloody deed confessed it to Capt. Davis. A Sagamore Sam was seized and sentenced to death in retalia- tion of the murder of Lake, which sentence was executed.1
Seven months elapsed, and the body of Lake was found where it fell, in a state of good preservation, recognized by a leathern jacket he used to wear. It was taken to Boston for interment. The May previous to his melancholy decease, this gentleman had been appointed to the office 2 of Associate
1 From J. W. Thornton Esq., Boston.
15.221.
Boston, yº 15th of Septembe 1676. To yo hon'd Govenor & Councill setting at Boston.
The humble petition of John Lake.
Whereas there hath been & is a common fame of my brother Thomas Lake being captive among ye Indians, & hearing nothing to ye contrary, gives some hopes y& it may be so, & hearing ye Sagamore Sam is to receive a sentence of Death (as it is supposed) if so, yº fame thereof may go to those Indians wth whom my broth" is, weh may provoke them to proceed w4h him to ye same sentence of death. Wherefore my humble request is yt you would be pleased to suspend his sentence or at least ye execution thereof for about twenty or thirty dayes ; in web time if ye said Sam can be instru- mentall to procure ye return of my brothe y' you then would be pleased to spare his life, and for y® effecting of this, y' you would be pleased, to let him have ye choice of some Indians whome he knows may have most influence upon them, and whom he can best trust for their return in yt it may con- cern his own life, so y' upon their return we may certainly know how it is w" my broth", weh will oblige yo' humble petitione in duty bound to pray &c.
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