History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 4

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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The Sokokis, or Saco Indians, were a numerous people till the first Indian war. The immediate residence of their sagamores was upon Indian Island, just above the lower falls. Two of them, Fluellen and Capt. Sunday, conveyed lands, but when their successor, Squando, died, the glory seemed to depart from the tribe, and it gradually wasted away. In 1615 there were two branches of the tribe and two principal villages. One was within the great bend of the river, at Pegwacket, or Fryeburgh ; the other fifteen or twenty miles below, on the banks of the Great Ossipee. Here, before King Philip's war, they employed English engineers and carpenters, and built a strong fort of timber, fourteen feet in height, with bastions, intending it as a pro- tection against the Mohawks .* The Mohawks and their associates of the Five Nations were at this time a terror to all the tribes of New England as far east as the Kennebee River. They had carried their conquests into Canada, sub- jugating the onee powerful nation of the Hurons; had conquered and placed under tribute the tribes on Long Island and on the Connecticut ; had subdued the Eries and Neutral Nation in Western New York, driven the Adiron- ducs from their strongholds across the St. Lawrence, con- quered the Andastes of the Susquehanna, the Delawares on the bay and river of that name, and had carried their victorious arms into the valleys of the Ohio and the Missis- sippi. Smith, in his " IIistory of New York," says that all the surrounding tribes had been conquered by them, and that they acknowledged their subjection by paying them tribute. The Five Nations were enemies of the French and allies of the English, and were a very important factor in determining which nation should hold permanent pos- session in North America.

There is one instance related in the history of New Hampshire in which the powerful aid of the Mohawks was invoked against the French Indians from Penobscot, the Tarratines, who were pushing their depredations as far west as the settlements in that region. In 1677 two messengers, Majs. Pinchon and Richards, were sent to the country of the Mohawks io secure their aid in driving out the Tarratines. They were kindly received, and promised to render the assistance sought. Accordingly, some parties of them came down the country about the middle of March, and the first alarm was given at Amoskeag Falls, where the son of Wonnolancet, being hunting, discovered fifteen In- dians on the other side, who called to him in a language he did not understand; upon which he fled, and they fired nearly thirty shots at him without effect. Presently they were discovered in a woods near Cochecho. Maj. Waldron sent out eight of his Indians, whereof Blind Will was one, to make further discoveries. They were all surprised to- gether by a company of Mohunicks ; two or three escaped, the others being all killed or taken prisoners. Will was dragged away by his hair, and, being wounded, perished in the woods on a neck of land formed by the confluence of Cochecho and Isinglass Rivers, which still bears the

name of Blind Will's Neck.+ This was evidently a mis- take on the part of the Mohawks, supposing that the friendly Indians sent out by Maj. Waldron, for purposes merely of inspection, were a band of the enemy. Blind Will had been a brave ally of the English in King Philip's war.

No people ever defended their native country with more valor and obstinaey than did the Sokokis theirs, especially in Lovell's war. A number of them, relinquishing the French interest in 1744 for the ranks of the English, at the siege of Louisbourg distinguished themselves among the bravest soldiers. Afterwards they could muster only about a dozen fighting men, and before the capture of Quebec the tribe had become extinct.]

The Anasagunticooks, or Amarascogins, as they are called by Mather, Hubbard, and some others, were origi- nally a numerous and powerful tribe, inhabiting the coun- try upon the waters of the Androscoggin, from its source to Merrymeeting Bay, and on the west side of the Ken- nebee to the sea. At Pejepscot, or Brunswick Falls, they had their usual encampments or place of resort. This was one of the great trails or passes between the eastern and western tribes, where the savages met in council to plan expeditions against the English. §

The Anasagunticooks were a warlike people. A short distance above the Great Falls they had a fort, which was destroyed by the English in 1690. " No tribe," says Wil- liamson, " was less interrupted in their fishing and fowling, and yet none were more uniformly and bitterly hostile to- wards the colonists." There were two reasons for this: the first was that the early European explorers, particularly the Portuguese and the English, had been treacherous towards them, decoying them into their vessels and kidnap- ping their chief men of rank, and taking them away to foreign countries ; | and in the second place they were under the influence of the French, who taught them to hate and distrust the English. The venal and mercenary character of some of the early traders also destroyed their confidence, and they wreaked their first revenge upon those of that class nearest to them. At the first sound of Philip's war they fell upon the plantation of Thomas Purchase, the original settler, killed his cattle, and carried away most of his effects. Tarumkin, Worumbo, and lagkins, their sag- amores, were brave men, but the tribe wasted away during the wars, and in 1744 they were able to muster only one hundred and sixty fighting men. Warumbo and five other sagamores sold the lands between Sagadahoc and Maquoit, to the sea and the islands, July 7, 1683.T These Indians were the earliest whom the French drew off to the St. François settlement in Canada.

+ Belknap's Ilistory of New Hampshire, i. 125.

Į Massachusetts Letter-Book, p. 114; Douglas, p. 158. ¿ Sullivan, p. 178.

|| Casper Cortereal, the Portuguese navigator, in 1500, coticed fifty- seven of the natives (men and boys) on board his ship, and luring them below deck, closed the hatchways upon them, and carried them off to sell them as slaves in Spain.

Weymouth, the captain of the " Archangel," in 1605, kidnapped in a similar manner five natives, all men of rank, and took them, with their canoes, bows, and arrows, to England. One of them, Squantum, after his return, was the first Indian who visited the l'ilgrims on their arrival at Plymouth. See Life of Miles Standist,

" Kennebec Claims, p. 7.

# Sce La Ilontan ; Gorges, p. 85; Ilnbbard's Indian Wars, p. 389. 3

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

When the Revolution commenced, there were only about forty of the tribe, who made the shores, the ponds, and the islands of the Androscoggin their principal home. Philip Will, who afterwards became a chief of this tribe, was in the siege of Louisbourg at the age of fourteen, and was taken prisoner by the French. Remaining with the rem- nant of his tribe, he was brought up in the family of Mr. ('rocker, where he was taught to read and write the Eng- lish language, and arithmetic. He was six feet three inches in height and well proportioned. The tribe made him chief, and for many years he was instrumental in preventing their utter extinction .*

The Prjepscot Indians were, in all probability, a sub-tribe of the Anasagunticooks. They had customary places of resort, if not permanent places of residence, at the Bruns- wick Falls, at Maquoit, and at Mare Point. It is now con- sidered probable, from the remains and relies found there, that the latter was the place of one of their villages in the sixteenth century. The plague which broke out among them about the year 1615 or 1616 so reduced them that, in the latter year, they numbered only fifteen hundred war- riors. They were still further reduced in number by war- fare and other causes, so that there were, according to one authority, on Nov. 24, 1726, only live Indians in the tribe over sixteen years of age. John Hegon was their sachem at this time. Twenty-five years later there were one hun- dred and sixty warriors in the tribe. This was a large increase, but yet it shows how weak the tribe had become.

The settlement of the region occupied by this tribe, sub- scquent to the time of King Philip's war, presents contin- ual scenes of earnage and destruction, midnight massaeres and conflagrations, until the tribe itself became extinct.

The language of the Abenaki nation has been carefully studied by many competent students, but the difficulties in the way of thoroughly understanding the different dialeets are so great that much uncertainty still exists, both as to the correct pronunciation and derivation, and also as to the meaning of very many of the names formerly applied to localities.

The Canihas had their residence on the Kennebec River, where, Hubbard says, " were great numbers of them when the river was first discovered." The tribe consisted of two or three branches; for while Monquine, Kennebis, Abba- gadussett, between 1648 and 1665, in the capacity of chief Ragamores, conveyed to the English all the lands (ten miles in width) on each side of the river from Swan Island to Wessarunsett River, Elderumken, another sagamore, made conveyances on Steven's and Muddy Rivers in 1670; and Essemenosque certified in 1653 that the region of Teconnet belonged to him and the wife of Watchogo. The principal residence of Kennebis, the head-chief, and of his predeces- sors of the same rank and title, was on Swan Island, in a most delightful situation, and that of Abbagadussett be- tween a river of his name and the Kennebec, on the north- ern borders of Merrymeeting Bay. The territories which the tribe claimed extended from the sources of the Kenne- bre to Merrymeeting Bay, and included the islands on the castern side of the Sagadahoe to the sea.

Hutchinson, p. 266.

While Jeffreys, Charlevoix, La Houtan, and others eall this tribe the Canibas, the name of " Norridgerocks" is given them by Mather, Douglass, and most modern Eng- lish writers, -- evidently from the name of their famous vil- lage. This was the residence of the French missionaries, who early taught the tribe the forms of worship and doctrines of the Roman Catholic religion. The derivation of the name Norridgewock has been given as follows : " ' Norridge' (falls), and ' wock' (smooth water), i.c., little falls and intervals of smooth water above and below."} This old village of the Indians was a very pleasant site opposite the mouth of Sandy River. It was the general and almost the only resort of the tribe immediately after their ranks be- came thinned, and a spot consecrated to them by every sacred and endearing association.

The Warrenocks inhabited the country cast of the Ken- nebee to and including the St. George River. Capt. Smith, while in the harbor of the latter river, in 1608, was urged by the natives to pay court to the great Bashaba, the ruling prince or superior chief. The early colonists also, at the mouth of the Kennebee, were urged by the natives to pay their respeets to this great chief. Moxus, Wegunganet, Wivourna, and succeeding sagamores sold lands to the English at Woolwich, Damariseotta, and other places in that quarter.

The habitation of the Bashaba was near Pemaquid. But subsequent to his death the principal headquarters of the tribe was on the westerly side of the Sheepseot River, near the lower falls. From this circumstance Hubbard speaks of them as the "Sheepscot Indians."

Broken and wasted by the disasters of the great war in which the Bashaba was slain, they were never afterwards either powerful or numerous. In 1747 there were only two or three families of them remaining, and in a few years after all of them were induced by the French to join the St. François settlement in Canada. They were a brave, active people. Capt. Franeis said the name Warenocks signifies "very brace, fearing nothing." According to Capt. Smith they were strong, beautiful, and very witty. The men had a perfect constitution of body ; were of comely proportion and quite athletic. They would row their canoes faster, he says, with five paddles than his own men could their boats with eight oars. They had no beards, he says, and thought ours counterfeits. Their women, though of lower stature, were fleshy and well formed,-all habited in skins, like the meu. This tribe was always in alliance with the Canibas, unchanging in peace and in war, and appear in this character till their last treaty with the English.

The other division of the aboriginal people of Maine,- the Etchemins, -- inhabiting the eastern portion of the State, we can only briefly mention. The geographical ter- ritory of the tribes of this division is placed by Hermon Moll, upon his map of the English Empire in America, along the banks and at the heads of the rivers Penobscot and St. John, eastwardly to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and southwardly to the Bay of Fundy. The charter of Nova Scotia to Sir William Alexander, 1620, mentions the Bay of Fundy as dividing " the Etechemins on the north from

+ Capt. Francis, quoted by Williamson, i. 467.

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

the Souriquois, or Mickmacks, on the south." This great tribe, or nation, of Indians was divided into the Tarratines, the native inhabitants of the Penobscot ; the Openagos, or Quoddy, Indians, who had their residence on the Schoodic and Passamaquoddy Bay ; and the Marechites, who inhab- ited the great River St. John, called by them the Ouy- gondy.

Of the Tarratines, Williamson says, "They were a numerous, powerful, and warlike people, more hardy and brave than their western enemies, whom they often plun- dered and killed." According to Hubbard and Prince, they kept the sagamores, between the Piscataqua and the Mystic, in perpetual fear. After the conquest and glory achieved in their battles with the Bashaba and his allies, they were not, like their enemies, wasted by disease and famine. They retained their valor, animated by success and strengthened by an early use and supply of' firearms, with which they were furnished by the French. Less dis- turbed than the western tribes in the enjoyment of their possessions, and also more discreet, they were always re- luetant to plunge into hostilities against the English, and hence were neutral, and were even supplied with provisions by Massachusetts during the first Indian war .*

The most notable fact in the history of these Indians was the settlement among them of the Baron Vincent de St. Castine, who married four or five wives of their nation, one the daughter of Madokawando, chief sagamore of the tribe. Born at Oleron, a province in France, Castine ac- quired an early taste for adventure. Ile was of noble birth, well educated, and of good abilities, all of which obtained for him an appointment of colonel in the King's Body- Guard, from which office he was transferred to the command of a regiment called the " Corignan Salières." Afterwards, through the influence of the Governor-General, the baron and his troops were transferred to Canada. At the close of the war the regiment was disbanded, and he himself dis- charged from the service. Taking umbrage probably at the treatment he received, and actuated by motives never fully divulged, as LI Houtan says, " he threw himself upon the savages."

llis settled abode was on the peninsula where D'Aulney had resided, and where be found means to construct a com- modious house for trade and habitation. Ile was a liberal Catholie, though devout and punctilious in his religious observances, having usually in his train several Jesuit mis- sionaries. He learned to speak with ease the Indian dialect ; he supplied the Indians with firearms, and taught them the art of war; he traded with them, made them presents, and, being a man of fascinating manners and address, he soon gained a complete ascendency over the whole tribe. Ile lived in the country about thirty years, and, as Abbé Rey- nal says, " conformed himself in all respects to the manners and customs of the natives." Castine had several daughters, to whom " he gave liberal portions and married handsomely to Frenchmen, and one son, ' Castine the younger,' who was a man of distinction and excellent character.

" The Governors of New England and of Canada, ap- prised of his influence, wealth, and military knowledge,

were, for obvious reasons, the courtiers of his friendship and favor."t

NOTED CHIEFS AND SACHEMS.

Madokawando, the great chief of the Penobscot tribe, was the adopted son of a chief called Assiminasqua. " Ile was not an enemy, nor do we learn that his people had committed any depredations until after some English spoiled his corn and otherwise did him damage."} The English, seeing that a stormn was gathering, sent agents to try to conciliate the Indians. The latter in the course of the interview said, " We were driven from our corn last year by the people about Kennebec, and many of us died. We had no powder and shot to kill venison and game with to prevent it. If you English were our friends, as you pretend you are, you would not suffer us to starve as we did." A council was agreed upon at Taconnet. Mugg was sent as a messenger to Squando, and divers Andros- coggin sachems had repaired to the place. On the arrival of the English they were honored with a salute, and con- ducted into the council-house. Madokawando presided over the negotiations ; with him were associated Assimin- asqua, Tarumkin, Hopehood, Mugg, and many attendants. Assiminasqua was the chief speaker, who said, " It is not our custom when messengers come to treat for peace to seize upon their persons, as sometimes the Mohawks do ; yea, as the English have done, seizing upon fourteen Indians, our men, who went to treat with you,-setting a guard over them and taking away their guns. This is not all, but a second time you required our guns, and demanded us to come down unto you, or else you would kill us. This was the cause of our leaving both our fort and our eorn, to our great loss.'

This speech caused great embarrassment to the English, who could not but disapprove of the conduet complained of, and they told the Indians that the parties who did these things could not be punished, as they were beyond the reael of their jurisdiction. The Indians were not satisfied with this answer. In the afternoon Tarumkin was the orator. Ile said, "I have been to the westward, where I have found many Indians unwilling to make peace ; but for my own part I am willing," which he confirmed by taking the English by the hand, as did seven or eight of his men, among whom were Mugg and Robinhood's son. The English had now, as they supposed, got matters under good progress, but Ma-

+ Williamson gives the following table, showing the number of In- dian warriors in Maine in 1615, or before they hegan to be reduced by wars with the whites :

Abennynes estimated thus,-

Warriors.

Sukokis

900

Anasugunticooks.

1500

l'anibas.

1500

Warenocks.

1100

5,000

Etechemins thus,-

Turratines

2400

Openagus.

1400

Marechites

2200

6,000

Total 11,000

The whole population of Indians at this time in Maine was esti- mated at thirty-seven thousand.

# Drake, Book of the tn lins, iii , p. 104.

# 4 Massachusetts Records, pp. 50, 60.

IIISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

dokawando interposed : " What are we to do for powder and shot when our corn is consumed ? What shall we do for a winter's supply ? Must we perish, or inst we abandon our country and fly to the French for protection?" The Eng- lish replied that they would do what they could with the Governor. "Some might be allowed them for necessity." Madokawando added, " We have waited a great while al- ready, and now we expect you will say yes or no." The English rejoined, " You say yourselves that many of the western Indians would not have peace, and therefore, if we sell you powder, and you give it to the western men, what do we but cut our own throats ? It is not in our power, without leure, if you should wait ten years, to let you have powder." llere, as might reasonably have been expected, ended the negotiation, and massacre and bloodshed soon after desolated that part of the country. The firmness of Madokawando in adhering to the interests, and what he conceived to be the undoubted rights of his people, decided the fate of the English settlements. At the close of the war of 1675, this sachem's people had among them about sixty English captives. The historians of the war have all observed that his prisoners were remarkably well treated. A sister of this chief was taken prisoner by Major Waldron, at Pemaquid, in 1677, the sachem himself' being absent on a long hunting tour. Madokawando planned and carried into execution the expedition against York, which, early in the morning on the 5th of February, 1692, laid the settle- ment in ashes, all except three or four garrisoned houses. About seventy-five of the inhabitants were killed and eighty taken prisoners. The wretched captives were hurried into the wilderness, and many of them died by the way. Rev. Shubael Dummer, the minister of the place, was one of the first victims ; he was shot as he was mounting his horse at his own door. His wife was among the captives, and died in captivity. In this destruction of York some French were with Madokawando and his Indians, and it is believed that Baron Castine, his son-in-law, took part in the expedition.

In November, 1691, Madokawando and other eastern chiefs had signed a treaty with the English, in which they had agreed to surrender the English captives at Wells, in the spring. The time came, and the Indians were not there, being afraid, as was supposed, of the warlike appear- ance of the English. After waiting a while Capt. Converse surprised some of them and brought them in by force to the garrison at Storer's house, which he strengthened by the addition of thirty-six men. "These," says Mather, " were not come half an hour to Storer's house, on the 9th of June, 1691, nor had they got their Indian weed fairly lighted, and into their mouths, before fierce Moxus, with two hundred Indians, made an attack upon the garrison, but were repulsed, and soon drew off. Madokawando was not here in person, but when he knew of the disaster of his chief captain, he said, ' My brother Mocus has missed it now, but I will go myself the next year, and have the dug, Converse, out of his hole."

The old chief was as good as his word. He appeared before the garrison, June 22, 1692. With him were Moxns, Egeremet, and Worumbo, and two French officers, Portneuf and Labroere. Ilis men had incautiously alarmed the inhabitants by firing upon some cattle they met in

the woods, which, running in wounded, gave them timely notice to escape to the garrison. Converse had bnt fifteen men on duty, but fortunately two sloops with about as many more had arrived the day before. Disappointed in their attempt to take the garrison, the Indians attacked the vessels, setting fire to one of them by means of fire-arrows, but it was extinguished, and with their ammunition spent and General Labrocre slain, they retired in the night after a two days' siege, leaving several of their dead behind. They took one Englishman, John Diamond, whom they tortured in a most barbarous manner.

Ou the 9th of May, 1694, Madokawando conveyed to Sir William Phips the traet of land, on both sides of the St. George's River, bounded east by Wessamesskek River, west by Hatthett's Cove Island, thence by a line to the upper falls of St. George's River; also Mastomquoog and St. George's Islands. He died in 1698, and was suceceded by Wenamowet. Before his death he had written to the Governor of Massachusetts to send a vessel to Sagadahoc with goods to redeem the captives. It was accordingly sent, and Atkinson, his wife, and about forty others were redeemed.

In 1690, Tobias Oakman was taken by the Indians at Black Point, at which time he says ]:e personally knew Eg- eremet, who was then chief sachem of Kennebee ; Squando, who was then chief sachem of Saco; Moxus, who was then chief sachem of Norridgewock ; Sheepseot John, who was then chief sachem of Sheepseot ; and Orumby ( Worumbo), who was then chief sachem of Pejepscot.

Madokawando and Squando were the most powerful sachems with whom the early English colonists had to deal. They are described by Hubbard as " a strange kind of mor- alized savages ; grave and serious in their speech, and not without some show of a kind of religion. It is also said they pretend to have received some visions and revelations by which they have been commanded to worship the great God and not to work on the Lord's day." These notions are attributed to their intercourse with Catholic priests. These two celebrated persons held in their hands for a time the destinies of the eastern country. Mugg was the prime minister of the Penobscot sachem, an active and shrewd leader, but who, by his intimacy with English families, had worn off some of the ferocities of the savage character.

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 4

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780