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 5
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He then departed on an expedition inland, in his ship's boat. After he had gone from the ship, 5 o'clock, at night- fall, those remaining on ship-board espied three canoes coming toward the ship ; which touched and landing on an island opposite the ship's anchorage quickly made a fire, about which the savage boat's crew stood beholding her in wonder ; as if in vision they had
" Seen the great canoe with pinions, Seen the people with white faces, Seen the coming of the bearded People of the wooden vessel."
The ship's company with their hands and hats signalized a friendly mission, " weffing unto them to come unto us," says the narrator, "because we had not seen any of the people yet."
Then a canoe with three men put off for the ship, and when near to her, one of them " spake in his language, very loud and very boldly," as if he would know "why she was here ? " and pointing his oar toward the sea, motioned, " that she should be gone."
An exhibition of knives and their use, combs and glasses, on board the ship, drew the " canoe close aboard," to the evident delight of her company, who gladly received the bracelets, rings, and peacocks' feathers, with which they adorned " their hair and tobacco pipes " and then returned to their savage companions on shore.
DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIVES.
With bodies painted black, - their faces, some red, some black, and some blue, -" not very tall nor big "-they were a symmetrical and comely people, clothed with beaver and deer skin mantles, fastened at their shoulders, hanging to
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their knees, and most without sleeves - shod with leather buskins, and their nakedness covered with a beaver flap. They wore no beard ; while the hair on the top of the head, " very long and very black," was tied up from behind into a long knot. Of quick perception and good understanding, they exhibited a courteous demeanor, mingled with kindness and gratitude.
" Their canoes are made without any iron, of the bark of a birch tree, strengthened within with ribs and hoops of wood."
Very early the canoe came along side, and the three natives were easily induced to come on board the ship and pass below, where they freely ate of the May 31. ship's provisions, but of nothing raw. The kettles, the armor, all excited their wonder; and at the report of fire-arms the savages fell flat on their faces, exhibit- ing the greatest terror. It was given them to understand that the great object of the ship's visit to their shores was the exchange of knives &c. for beaver skins and furs ; on learning which, with evident satisfaction, all departed.
DISCOVERY OF A RIVER.
It was now ten o'clock, and to the surprise of the ship's com- pany, within twenty-four hours of her departure, the shallop was descried on her return; and as she neared the ship, in token of her good news and success, she came "shooting volleys of shot ; " and when within musket range, adds the narrator, " the shallop's company gave us a volley and hailed us ; then we in the ship gave them a great piece and hailed them ; and so soon as we espied them we certainly conjectur- ed our captain had found some unexpected harbor, further up toward the main, to bring the ship into, or some river."
ABORIGINAL BOAT .- The following description will present a good idea of the canoe of the aboriginal construction and use :
" Of the birch bark the savages make delicate canoes, so light that two
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Here we have in the text a decisive indication that Captain Weymouth, in his explorations of the harbor, had made an inland egress from the harbor northward, through which he had passed up into the main ; and following the tides, had unexpectedly fallen on his new discoveries, in the course of this passage. The north-west head of Boothbay Harbor terminates in such a passage by a deep, narrow gorge, in the native language called a gate-way, as part of the trail from the east to the Kennebec, sufficiently deep to swim any ship-through which the ocean-tides rush up the broad and deep Sheepscot channel into Wiscasset Bay, and around the head of Westport through Monseag, and around Hocko- mock head into the Sagadahock opposite the city of Bath, the course from the harbor trending constantly to the west.
To resume the narrative, the chronicler adds, " our captain had in this small time discovered up a great river, trending alongst into the main about forty miles. * For by the length, breadth, depth, and strong flood, imagining it to run far up into the land, he with speed returned, intending to flank his light horse-men for arrows, &c. " leaving at the point on the river's banks where he had debarked, in a trail
men will transport one of them over land, and it will carry ten or twelve men by water. Sometimes canoes are made of pine trees, which, before the natives became acquainted with edge tools, they burned hollow, scrap- ing them smooth with clam and oyster shells, trimming their outsides with stone hatchets. These boats are not above a foot and a half or two wide, and twenty foot long. Thin birchen rinds, close ribbed on the inside with broad thin hoops, like hoops of a tub, very light, are the material for the other kind of canoes.
" In these cockling fly-boats, wherein an Englishman can scarce sit with- out a fearful tottering, the natives will venture to sea where an English · shallop dare not bare a knot of sail, scudding over the overgrown waves as fast as a wind-driven ship, being driven by their paddles, being much like battledoors ; and if a cross wave turn her keel upside down, they by swim- ming free her, and scramble into her again." Young's Chronicle, see note, p. 135.
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of human footsteps, a knife, a pipe, and a broach, all which, on his return, he found had been taken away."
Mutual congratulation was exchanged on the one hand for unexpected and successful discoveries ; and on the other, " in meeting kind civilities in a people where any spark of humanity was so little expected."
NATIVE TRADE.
The forenoon of the first of June was spent in trade on shore, where eight and twenty natives appeared, " and for knives, glasses, combs, and other trifles, June 1. we had forty good beaver skins, otter skins, sables, and other small skins which we know not how to call." The trade ended.
The natives now assured of the pacific disposition of their strange visitors, cast off reserve, and became free and fear- less, accompanied the fishermen who drew the net, and won- dered at the result ; admired the process of writing, and would " fetch fish and fruit bushes, and stand by me to see me write their names," says the chronicler of the voyage.
A source of the greatest wonder was the galvanic power of the point of the captain's sword electrified by the touch of a loadstone, " which would take up a knife and hold it fast when they plucked it away, or make it turn when laid on a block of wood, and lift a needle."
DEPORTMENT OF THE NATIVES.
Two were invited by the captain to sup with him and attend evening service on board, who -behaved themselves with great decorum ; " but desired pease to carry on shore to their women," which were given them in " pewter dishes," " all of which were carefully brought again."
At their departure, some of the ship's company were in- duced to visit those on shore, where they found deer skins spread by the fire, for them to be seated on. To their guests
5
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they offered tobacco, " which was excellent, being the simple leaf, strong, and of sweet taste."
Rosier took from one of their canoes, one of their bows and arrows, and drew it, finding it strong, able to carry an arrow five or six score strongly. One of the natives also took up a bow and drew it, and it was observed that he drew his bow after the manner of the English, and "not like the Indians."
Their arrows were headed with the long shank bone of the deer, made very sharp, with two fangs in the manner of an harping iron. They likewise had darts headed with like bone, " one of which I darted among the rocks, and it brake not."
On the return of the party to the ships, Owen Griffin was left on shore, while three of the savages slept on board, who lodged in an old sail on the orlop, and were kindly treated ; " and because they much feared our dogs," says the writer, " these were tied up whensoever any of them came on board." On the Sabbath, five or six canoes hovered about the ships ; but at a signal that they should depart till the next rising sun, all left, -some in their canoes, coursing about the island, and others directly toward the main.
On Monday, early, the natives came about the ship, by signs earnestly desiring that we would go with them June 3. to the main, where they had furs and tobacco for traffic.
They would (by pointing to one part of the main eastward) signify that their Bashaba, i. e. King, " there had great plen- ty of furs and much tobacco." Wherefore our captain man-
SPEED OF NATIVE CANOE.
ned the "light-horse man" with as many men as he well could, fifteen rowers in all. This we noted as we went along, that their canoe with three oars would at will go ahead of us and about us, when we rowed with eight oars strong.
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SUSPICIONS OF TREACHERY.
When we came " near the point" where we saw their fires, and intended to land, the guiding canoe sped away to their fellows on shore, after carefully and frequently having num- bered the ship's company.
This circumstance aroused suspicions of treachery in the mind of Weymouth, who determined not to follow, unless " he who at their first sight of them seemed to be of most respect among them-the kinsman of Nahanada, a chief- and being then in the canoe, would stay as a pawn."
But when the canoe came up, "he utterly refused; but would leave a young savage, in whose place Griffin was sent in the canoe while the captain's boat lay hulling a little off."
GRIFFIN'S STORY.
Griffin returned, and reported two hundred and eighty- three savages assembled, " every one with his bow and arrow, their dogs and tamed wolves," with nothing at all to ex- change, but seeming desirous to draw the company "further up into a little nook of a river, for their furs as they pretend- ed,"-called " Little River" to this day, and which longitudi- nally divides the point of Linikin's neck.
The ship's company took cod and haddock with hooks by the ship's side this day, and lobsters very great, which they had not before tried to do at her anchor- June 4. age off this island, where they had found " good wholesome, clear water in a great empty cask," which was left there as a well, and " a fit place, convenient to set to- gether a pinnace which had been brought in pieces out of England." Great muscles abounded among the rocks ; and in some of them many small pearls; and in one of them " was fourteen pearls, whereof was one of pretty bigness and orient."
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NATIVES KIDNAPPED.
It was now resolved to capture some of the natives and leave Pentacost Harbor, whose confidence having been se- cured, would make them an easy prey.
Two canoes soon boarded the ship, containing three natives each ; of whom, two went below to the fire, the others re- mained in their canoes about the ship, but could not be al- lured on board. A plate of pease was tendered to those still in the canoes, which was received by them, and with which they hasted to an adjacent island, there to eat them. Having finished the repast, one of the savages, young, comely and brisk, returned with the can to the ship ; and joined his com- rades on board below. The small ship's boat was now man- ned with seven or eight men, and dispatched to the shore, as if for traffic. As the boat's crew landed, one of the sav- ages " withdrew into the wood," but the other two met the party at the shore-side and received another can of pease, with whom the surprising party " went up the clift. to their fires," and sat with them by it. They then suddenly seized on the savage group; and it was as much as five or six of the sailors could do to get them into the light horseman, for they were strong and so naked that the best hold was by the long hair on the top of their heads.
" Thus," says the chronicler of the voyage, "we shipped five savages, two canoes with all their bows and arrows."
DESCRIPTION AND EXPLORATION OF THE HARBOR.
The harbor was thoroughly explored this day ; and " the Captain diligently searched the mouth of the har- June 8. bor, and about the rocks which shew themselves at all times, and are an excellent breach of the water, so as no sea can come in to offend the harbor"-a harbor that can be entered "most securely in water enough by four several passages."
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Soon after shipping the captured natives, who had come from their home at Pemaquid to visit the ship, as she lay in her anchorage still, about one o'clock, " came from the east- ward two canoes aboard us," says Rosier, " wherein was he that refused to stay with us for a pawn; and with him six other savages which we had not seen before, who had beauti- fied themselves after their manner very gallantly with newly painted faces, very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes of excellent blue over their upper lips, nose, and chin. One of them wore a coronet about his head, made very cunningly, of a substance like stiff-hair colored red, broad and more than a handful in depth."
This costume indicated the royal relationship of the wear- er, the hair work being a part of the royal vesture, which the savage wearer so much esteemed that nothing could induce him to part with it. " Others wore the white feathered skins of some fowl, round about their heads, jewels in their ears, and bracelets of little white round bone."
This body of savages seem to have been a deputation ac- companying the Royal Ambassador, sent from the Bashaba to Captain Weymouth, desiring, says Rosier, "we would bring up our ship," or Quiden, as they call it, to his house, being, as they pointed, upon the main, towards the east from whence they came.
But Weymouth declined the Royal courtesy, and turned from the place of the Royal abode, and weighing anchor for the first time since he entered Penta- June 11. cost Harbor, made all sail, and with the kidnapped subjects of the Bashaba under hatches, residents of Pema- quid, the kinsman of one of whom the Royal messenger seems to have been, steered out of the harbor " and passed up into the newly discovered river about six and twenty miles."
Before leaving the harbor, a boat's crew landed on one of the islands of this harbor anchorage, " having a small sandy
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cove for small barks to ride in, and hard by the shore a pond of fresh water, which flowed over the banks, somewhat overgrown with little shrub trees, fed by a strong run." 1
MAGNIFICENCE OF THE SAGADAHOCK.
All were struck with the beauty of its head-lands and grandeur of aspect, as the ship winged her way up this river "for the river itself, as it runneth up into the maine very nigh forty miles toward the great mountains, beareth in breadth a mile, sometimes three-quarters, and half a mile at the narrowest, when you shall never have under four and five fathoms water hard by the shore, and on both sides every half mile very gallant coves." After a sail of about twenty-six miles, the ship reached her river anchorage.
APPEARANCE OF THE SITE OF THE CITY OF BATH.
With the light horseman, or gig, the Captain, with seven- teen men, left the Archangel riding at her anchor- June 12. age, opposite the "Gut," or the entrance to the inland "passage to Boothbay Harbor, from the Sagadahock, and rowed up the river to the " cod thereof," where all landed but six to guard the boat. Ten of them, with a boy to carry the powder and match,2 some armed, marched up into the country toward the high mountains descried at their first falling in with land, and which had seemed very near, within a league, but after travelling a
1 In Prince's N. E. Chronology, it is asserted " that Captain Weymouth first entered the Pemaquid" (which he must necessarily have done, it he approached Boothbay Harbor, by Liniken's neck sound) " and then sail- ed up the Sagadahock," the harbor lying about midway between the two rivers-and, it is added, that Weymouth brought from these rivers five na- tives, of whom were " Manida, Sketwarroes and Tisquantum." N. E. Chron. p. 15.
2 The fire-arms were the old fashioned match-lock musket; the flint-lock and modern percussion being unknown.
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league and a mile they passed only three hills. In their march, the party " passed over very good ground, pleasant and fertile, fit for pasture, for the space of some three miles, having but little wood, and that oak, like stands left in the pastures of England, good and great, fit timber for any use."
" And surely it did all resemble a stately park, wherein appear some old trees with high withered tops, and other flourishing with living green boughs. Upon the hills grew notable high timber trees, masts for ships of four hundred ton." Such was the aboriginal forest aspect of the peninsula, on which the present city of Bath is located, when its land- scape in native wildness was first opened to the admiring gaze of the adventurous white man, whose foot for the first time trod its virgin soil, and sought rural delights amid its clusters of mighty pasture oaks. How grand and refreshing must have been the view, as the ship's boats rowed up that magnificent reach on the margins of which the city stands !
REAPPEARANCE OF THE BASHABA'S MESSENGERS.
On return of this river exploring party, in rowing back to their ship, " they espied a canoe coming from the further part of the cod of the river eastward, (i. e. from the harbor they had just left, by the gut 1 ) which" says the narrator, " hasted to us, wherein with two others was he who refused to stay for a pawn."
NOTE .- If Capt. Weymouth's Pentacost harbor be identical with Booth- bay, near and in sight from Pemaquid, north-easterly, where lived his cap- tured natives, the Archangel may have followed the flood tide, leaving the harbor by its inland passage, bearing west up the Sheepscot, by way of Wiscasset to the Sagadahock, entering the Kennebec opposite Bath. By the inland route, it would be from twelve to fourteen miles to Wiscasset, and twelve miles from thence to her anchorage, near where the city of Bath now stands, making about twenty-six miles.
1 Is this the ancient by-river Sasana ?
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Discovery of the treachery of their white visitors had now been made; and the very day after the Archangel had left the harbor below, the savage Prince, who had become known by his authority, dignity and cautious bearing, costume and frequent appearance in behalf of his Sovereign, at the ship, with his people in the harbor, had followed her to the new an- chorage in the river, from the east ; and was now just emerg- ing into sight between the opening head-lands of bold shores, where the Kennebec yawns to swallow in the Sheepscot tide waters opposite Bath. With the haste and earnestness of affection and solicitude, these savages endeavored to secure one of the ship's company as an hostage for the safety of his brother or kinsman, now a prisoner in that ship, having been of the number of those abducted, in the harbor below, belong- ing to Pemaquid, and immured in the Archangel's hold.
EXPLORATIONS OF THE RIVER.
A company, well armed and provided, again embarked in the small boat, and went up from the ship to that June 13. part of the river which trended westward into the main, to search that, and carried with them a cross to erect at that point, which they left on shore till their return, where it was set up in like manner as the former had been, on the island.
ARCHANGEL TOWED TO THE SEA.
Having fallen in with so bold a coast, found so excellent and secure a harbor, " discovered a river above report nota- ble," up which he rowed from his anchorage, by estimation, twenty miles, making less than three-score miles from the place of his ship's riding in the harbor, observing-" that from each bank of this river are divers branching streams into the main, and that here was great store of fish, some great, leaping above water, which were judged to be salmon" - Weymouth made all expedition for his return to England.
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Before the gray dawn of morning had broken over the head-lands of Arrowsic, with the tide in his favor, and two boats ahead, the Archangel was unmoored, June 14. and towed down the Sagadahock, and anchored be- fore noon.
The remainder of the day was consumed in sounding out the entrance to this river from the sea., On Saturday, with a breeze off land, anchor was once more weighed, and the ship ran back to the harbor to her watering place, when the Captain, upon a rock in the midst of the harbor, observed the height, latitude, and variation upon his nautical instru- ments, and found the Lat. 43 deg. 20 min., and on Sunday, the wind fair, the ship finally put to sea, June 16. homeward bound for England.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE HARBOR.
Such is a sketch of the account of Rosier, the chronicler of this important voyage. We have been thus full in noting all the important facts in detail, as it is believed modern received history is utterly at fault and founded on mere as- sumption, in reference to the location of the scene of Wey- mouth's explorations.
Strachey, a cotemporaneous writer, has thrown much light on this expedition, in giving us the aboriginal names of the rivers entered and explored by Weymouth, which from motives of state policy were withheld in Rosier. Strachey expressly fixes the localities, saying of Wey- mouth, that among other discoveries made, was that of the " little river of Pemaquid, and that most excellent and beneficial river Sagadahock-up which he searched for sixty miles." 1
In the account transcribed are sketched many physical features which will ever mark the island under which, and
1 M. H. C. vol. 3, p. 287. Mass. H. C. vol. 5, 2d series, p. 12.
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the harbor in which Weymouth moored his storm tossed ship. No course being given in the text, as to their show- ing, or any other indication, but the fact that there were " very high mountains, very far up into the main-discern- able from the anchorage under Monhegan Island"-the legit- imate inference is that Weymouth stood in for the main in the line of vision of the summit of Mount Washington, in the White Mountain group, discernable in the distant west and north; and the islands about three leagues distant, adjoining to the main, in the " road directly to these moun- tains," must have been some of the inner islands of the Damariscove group which land-lock Boothbay Harbor. So the course of Weymouth from his anchorage under Monhe- gan was westward and not castward. It would seem to one familiar with the localities, that the ship passed into the harbor, by Pemaquid point, through the sound, between Liniken's Neck and Fisherman's Island ; and then coming too, anchored between it and Squirrel Island. The northern extremity of Fisherman's Island (ancient Hippocras ?) is a rounded swell or cliff shore, under which, on the west side, a cove makes in, convenient for landing to wood and water. A cable's length from the shore of this island, and off the cove on the harbor side, is good fishing ground by the side of the ship where she lay, a circumstance peculiar in itself to the waters on the harbor side of this island, and where doubtless the Archangel lay at anchor. Entering at the point of Liniken's Neck, dividing it like a great fissure, is the " little nook of a river," immediately off " Fisher- man's Island," landward, north, a mile distant, into which the natives sought to decoy Weymouth, under pretense of trade. Nearly parallel to Fisherman's Island, a mile distant within the outer harbor, is Squirrel Island, with "a pleasant sandy cove for small barks to ride in," on the west side, into which the swamp of Weymouth's "pond of fresh water" still empties its runlet to the sea; and it was withcut
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doubt, on the beach of this island, over against the ship's anchorage, that the natives at first showed themselves stand- ing about their fires, gazing on the ship; while on the cliff side of Fisherman's Island, near to the ship and her water- ing place, two of the five captured natives were taken ; and the naked reef of bare rocks, called the "Hipocrits" off the northern and eastern slope of this island, together with the " four" well known ship channels, entering from the east, south east, south and north, all clearly identify Bootlı- bay with the Pentacost harbor of Weymouth, discovered in 1605, and which alone is capacious enough to hold the naval fleets of any nation at once.
The newly constructed shallop, framed in England, built and launched in the rock sheltered haven of Fisherman's Island, probably made her first excursion from the harbor, by the inland passage north-westerly across or up the waters of the Sheepscot and the bay of Hockomock, through to the Sagadahock, opposite Bath ; where Weymouth " discovered" to his surprise, " a great river," which he imagined ran " far up into the land, by the breadth, depth and strong flood ;" and following the broad reach of the mouth of the Androscoggin, which trends west into the main and flows from the White Mountains, he explored that river as a part of the Sagadahock.1
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