History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 10

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100

USA > Maine > Penobscot County > History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 10

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According to tradition, the Tarratines took part in the war between the New England Indians and the fierce Mohawks, which raged for six or seven years; and, after the decisive battle in 1669, in which the former were de- feated, the Tarratine allies were followed even to the Penobscot by their terrible enemies, who burned their villages, and otherwise did them great harm. Following this came the small-pox and other destructive diseases, which caused the death of many of the Eastern and Canadian Indians, and greatly interrupted the trade in furs. By these successive calamities the Tarratines were reduced to a mere handful. So early as November, 1726, Captain John Gyles, who professed to make an enumeration of the savages in this region, could find but one hundred and thirty, "or there about," of the Pe- nobscot Indians, above the age of sixteen years, and but three hundred and eighty-nine natives of adult age in all Maine. The trustworthiness of his census, however, is very much to be doubted.

In 1675, the year of the opening of King Philip's war, an attempt was made to involve the Etchemin and Abenaki tribes also, which was happily frustrated. The Canibas Indians had a fort. at Teconnet Falls, on the Sagodahoc, to which they had retired with their families, and remained quiet there until after the burning of Scar- borough. The people then became greatly excited against the Indians, both friendly and hostile, and the settlers on Monhegan island went so far as to offer a bounty of five pounds upon every Indian head brought in. The natives at Teconnet were naturally aroused and fearful; and to quiet their fears, as well as to remove the contents of the trading-house, Captain Davis, who was in charge of an establishment some miles distant, near Arrowsick, sent a messenger with a promise that, if the Indians would remove to his settlement, they should have every needed supply at the fairest prices. The messenger proved treacherous, and told them instead that, "if they did not go down and give up their arms, the Englishmen would come and kill them." This fur-

ther awakened their fears, and they abandoned the fort, but, instead of going to Davis, they fled to Penobscot and sent a runner to the Eastern tribes with a summons to a council of war at the residence of Castine, who very likely prompted the Indians to this step. Before the council could be brought about, however, Abraham Shute, of Pemaquid, chief magistrate, and a citizen of uncommon sense and usefulness, succeeded in getting a meeting of the alarmed sagamores at that place, where a truce was agreed to, and the Indians promised "to live in peace with the English, and prevent, if possible, the Anasagunticooks from committing any more depreda- tions, either upon the settlers or traders."

MORE OF THE WARS.

It may be noted here that Iberville, with two ships and two companies of soldiers, made his expedition in 1694, to effect the reduction of Fort William Henry, at Pemaquid. He took on board Villebon with fifty Mickmacks at St. John's, and Castine with two hundred Indians in canoes joined him at Penobscot. They ap- peared before the fort July 14th, and the next day intim- idated the commander of the garrison into a surrender. The fort was then plundered, demolished, and aban- doned.

The next month Major Church reappeared in the Pe- nobscot waters, and was informed by his pilot, John York, whom he took on board when abreast of the Ma- thebestuck Hills (Camden Heights), that the Indians had told him of a' fort they had built upon a little island at the falls fifty or sixty miles up the stream-supposed to have been the Island Lett, now (probably) Oldtown- and that near by they "planted a great quantity of corn." Church pushed up the river in his boats to "the Bend " (Eddington), and there took to the west shore on foot for two or three miles. He passed several places where the Indians had once dwelt, killed several of the natives, and took another prisoner, who told him that the men of his tribe had gone to Canada. Church then returned, observing on his way more abandoned habitations, with corn-fields and turnip-patches and pumpkins, especially in the Isle of Penobscot, now Orphan Island. Below this he took to his ships again, and sailed for the Bay of Fundy.

October 14, 1698, after the peace of Ryswick had been concluded between England, France, and other nations involved with them in the war, the commission- ers of Massachusetts met six of the eastern saga- mores at Penobscot, with a great body of Indians, and arranged preliminaries of a treaty which was fully con- cluded at Mare Point the following January, ratifying the convention of August 11, 1693, with additional articles. The sagamores of Penobscot were not ex- pressed, but yet were included, in the new pacification.

THE THREE-YEARS' (OR LOVEWELL'S) WAR.

This was the fourth Indian war waged in New Eng- land, and lasted from 1722 to 1725. It takes one of its names from Captain John Lovewell, or Lovell, of Dunstable, Massachusetts, hero of the famous fight near Pegwacket, at the water since called from

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

him Lovewell's pond. The inhabitants, white and red, of Maine, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia, were mainly involved in it, the French in Canada not taking part, through fear of breaking the peace then ex- isting between England and France. Their intrigues and secret incitement of the Indians to make war were not wanting, however; and in June, 1722, hostilities be- gan by a war-party of the Canibas and Anasagunticook tribes seizing nine white families settled on Merrymeet- ing bay.

We give only such incidents of the war as pertain to Penobscot county. All the Maine tribes were involved in the outbreak; and on the twenty-fifth of July the governor and council solemnly passed a resolution that "the Eastern Indians are traitors and robbers," and de- clared war upon them and their confederates as enemies of the king. The General Court met on the eighth of August, confirmed the declaration of war, and proceeded to make provision for the fight. Among other prep- arations for the fight, "a large scout of three hundred was appointed to destroy the Indians' strongholds and habitations at Penobscot, and a body of four hundred to range perpetually, by land or water, through the Eastern country, especially upon and between the rivers Kenne- bec and Penobscot." The ferocious and vindictive character of the warfare proposed may be seen from the offer of a bounty of fifteen pounds for every scalp taken from a male Indian of twelve or more years, and eight pounds for every woman or child captured.

Early in February, 1723, the Penobscot expedition was set on foot, under Colonel Thomas Westbrook, com- mander of the Eastern forces. On the eleventh he left Kennebec with two hundred and thirty men, in whale- boats and small sailing vessels, and scoured the coast to Mount Desert, proceeding thence up Penobscot bay and river, anchoring, it is thought, in Marsh bay, March 4th.

Disembarking his men, they marched five days through the forest, but apparently near the river, when they arrived at the supposed site of the Indian fort they sought, upon one of the several islands opposite them. The Colonel further reports :

Being obliged here to make four canoes to ferry from island to is- land, I dispatched fifty men upon discovery, who sent me word on the 9th that they had found the fort and waited my arrival. I left a guard of 100 men with the provisions and tents, and proceeded with the rest to join the scouting party. On ferrying over, the Indian fort appeared in full view, yet we could not come to it by reason of a swift river, and because the ice at the head of the islands would not permit the canoes to come around; therefore, we were obliged to make two more, with which we ferried over. We left a guard of 40 men on the west side of the river, to facilitate our return, ond arrived at the fort, by 6 of the clock in the evening. It happened to have been deserted in the autumn preceding, when the enemy carried away every article and thing except a few papers. The fort was 70 yards in length and 50 in breadth, walled with stockades 14 feet in height, and enclosed 23 "well-finished wig- wams," or, as another calls them, "houses built regular." On the south side was their chapel, in compass 60 feet by 30, handsomely and well finished, both within and on the outside. A little farther south was the dwelling-house of the priest, which was very commodious. We set fire to them all, and by sunrise next morning they were in ashes. We then returned to our nearest guards, thence to our tents; and on our arrival at our transports, we concluded we must have ascended the river abont 32 miles. We reached the fort at St. George on the 20th, with the loss of only four men, Rev. Benjamin Gibson and three others, whose bodies after our arrival here we interred in usual form.

Mr. Williamson inquires, as to the point where Colo- nel Westbrook halted: "Was not this place the lower Stillwater, in Orono, six miles above Kenduskeag ?" and, in a subsequent foot-note, discussing the question of the site of this important fortress and village, he says:

Some suppose it might have been the ancient Negas, a village on Fort Hill, situate a league above the mouth of Kenduskeag stream; for when could that have been destroyed unless at this time? Yet Col. Church makes no mention of the latter when he and his troops, in Au- gust, 1696, scoured the river, nor Maj. Livingston, who traveled up the river in November, 1710, on his way to Canada. It must have been built after the latter date, and before or during the present war. It could not have been very ancient, because the plough has turned out, since the American Revolution, many articles of iron, steel, and lead, of modern form and structure; yet, if it were quite modern, there would be some tradition of it. All that we can learn is that it was called by the first settlers in Bangor "the old French and Indian set- tlement" on Fort Hill. This could not be thought 32 miles from the place of Westbrook's anchorage, short as seamen's miles are over wild lands. Nor are there islands here corresponding with those he men- tions. The alrernative then is, the site must have been Oldtown, or the ancient Lett mentioned by Livingston. That is situated on a beautiful island, and below it are falls and a small island. Lieut. Gov. Dummer (speech, May, 1723) says: "We have demolished the fort and all the buildings at Penobscot." The village at Fort Hill was proba- bly destroyed by Capt. Heath [in 1725].

In October of this year (1723), the Indians surprised and captured Captain Cogswell and the crew of his ves- sel, as they landed upon the shore of Mount Desert. After this the theatre of war was chiefly upon the St. George's and further to the southwest. In the fall of . 1724, Colonel Westbrook led a new regiment of three hundred men upon a scouting expedition from the Ken- nebeck to the Penobscot, which got entangled in the wilderness and had to'return with its object but partly accomplished. Captain Heath and his company reached the latter river the same autumn; but effected nothing of account.

The next year, however, the scene of action returned to the beautiful valley of the Penobscot. Mr. William- son will tell the principal story of the year :

After Colonel Westbrook and his party had destroyed the principal Indian village at Penobscot, between two and three years since, the French and natives had, with a diligence unusual for them, established and built another, three leagues below, on the westerly bank of the same river. It was a pleasant, elevated, and well-chosen site, a few rods from the water, and easily fortified by stockades. It was easier of access from the salt water than the former, and was a league above the mouth of the Kenduskeag stream, which an enemy could ford with convenience only in time of drought. Hearing of this vil- lage, reputed to consist of six or seven cottages which had cellars and chimneys, a chapel, and between forty and fifty wigwams, Captain Joseph Heath, commanding at Fort Richmond, proceeded with his company in May, from Kennebeck across the country to Penobscot fell upon the deserted village of about fifty Indian houses, and com- mitted them to the flames. The Tarratines, who were a wary people, probably had some intimation of the expedition, for the party saw none of the native inhabitants. It was a bold enterprize; but it be- ing ascertained on their return to the garrison at St. George's river that a conference had been proposed by the Indians, the particulars were never made topics of any considerable remark. The village de- stroyed, situate on Fort Hill, as the English have always called it, is supposed to have been the ancient Negas. It was never repaired, the Indians afterwards returning and reseating themselves at Oldtown.

This place, as is generally known, was within the present limits of Bangor township. Mr. Williamson says in a foot note :

Being so near the head of the tide and bend of the river, above which is quick water, it was a resting-place and resort of the Indians before the village were built. The appearances of Indian cornfields in

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

the vicinity was apparent, when the place was first settled by some of the oldest present settlers.

The sole remaining incident of the war, relating to the Penobscot county or any of its residents, is thus related by the same author :

Castine the younger was in a small bark, at anchor near Naskeag Point, (viz., the southeast point of Sedgwick), and had with him on board an Indian boy, perhaps his own son, and an English lad, by the name of Samuel Trask, belonging to Salem, whom he had redeemed from the Indians. Though he was thoughtless of evil, the moment the crew of an approaching English sloop were near enough, they fired upon him, and obliged him and the boys to quit the bark and flee into the woods for the safety of their lives. The master of the sloop, now changing his conduct and hoisting a white flag, called unto him loudly to return, offered him a safe conduct in writing, and declared he only desired to have a free trade and intercourse with him. Yet, shortly after he had ventured to go with the lads on board of the sloop, the master first threw him a bag of biscuit, and then took from him the young captive, exclaiming: "Your bark and all it contains are in fact lawful prize, and yourself might be made a prisoner ; so you may now think yourself favored to go without molestation or further loss." This insult, which was duly felt, was presently aggravated by one of the crew, who, after going with them ashore, suddenly seized the Indian boy and held him fast. Castine, perceiving the clinch to be violent and unprovoked, shot the sailor dead, and escaped with the boy into the woods. The conduct of these mariners was a great reproach to them, and in every respect the height of impolicy; for the Indians were now entertaining thoughts of peace, and Castine, who still pos- sessed great influence among them, had more than once attested his magnanimity by instances of friendship and a forbearing spirit towards the English.

The following incident succeeding one of the wars is also related by Mr. Williamson :

But the most memorable engagement of any hitherto since the war happened, May Ist, at the St. George river. It being an inviting morning, April 30th, Captain Josiah Winslow, commander of the fort, selected sixteen of the ablest men belonging to the garrison, and in a couple of staunch whale-boats proceded down the river, and thence to the Green Islands in Penobscot bay, which at this season of the year were frequented by the Indians for fowling. Though Winslow and his companions made no discovery, their movements were watched by the wary enemy; and on their return the next day, as they were as- cending the river, they fell into a fatal ambush of the Indians, cower- ing under each of its banks. They permitted Winslow to pass, and then fired into the other boat, which was commanded by Harvey, a sergeant, and was nearer the shore. Harvey fell. A brisk discharge of musquetry was returned upon the assailants, when Winslow, ob- serving the imminent exposure of his companions, though he was himself out of danger, hastened back to their assistance. In an in- stant he found himself surrounded by thirty canoes and threefold that number of armed savages, who raised a hideous whoop and fell upon the two boat-crews with desperate fury. The skirmish was severe and bloody; when Winslow and his men, perceiving inevitable death to be the only alternative, resolved to sell their lives at the dearest rate. They made a most determined and gallant defence ; and, after nearly all of them were dead or mortally wounded, himself having his thigh fractured and being extremely exhausted, his shattered bark was set to the shore. Here being waylaid, he fought a savage hand to hand with the greatest personal courage, beat off the foe, and then, resting on his knee, shot one ere they could dispatch him. Thus fell the in- trepid Winslow and every one of his brave company, except three friendly Indians, who were suffered to escape and communicate particu- lars to the garrison. The Tarratines, who were rather a valiant than a cruel people, composed the Indian party ; and their loss, though never known, is supposed to have doubled ours. In this action, inconsider- able as were the numbers engaged, there was a remarkable display on both sides of boldness and good conduct. The death of Captain Winslow was severely felt and lamented. He was a young officer of military talents and great worth, a late graduate of Harvard college, and a descendant of one of the best families in the province.

ANOTHER INTERESTING NARRATIVE,

somewhat related to the Penobscot country, but dating back more than two hundred years, to the fall of 1676, is also derived from Williamson's History :

The story of Thomas Cobbet, one of the captives taken the last au- tumn at Richmond Island, who returned home with Captain Moore, is worthy of particular mention. His father was the minister of Ipswich. After being wonnded by a musket-shot, his hands were fast tied, and in the division of the captives it was his most unfortunate lot to be as_ signed to an Indian of the worst character. Young Cobbet's first duty was to manage the captured ketch of Fryer, in sailing to Sheepscot, and from that place to paddle a canoe, carrying his master and himself, to Penobscot, and thence to their hunting ground at Mount Desert. He suffered the extremes of cold, fatigue, and famine; and because he could not understand the Indian dialect, the savage often drew his knife upon him, threatening him with instant death. In hunting on a day of severe cold, he fell down in the snow, benumbed, famished, and sense- less. Here he must have perished, had not the more humane hunters conveyed him to a wigwam and restored him. At another time his sav- age master was drunk five successive days, in which he was fearfully raving like a wild beast. To such an alarming degree did he beat and abuse his own squaws, that Cobbet, who knew himself to be much more obnoxious than they to his fury, fled into the woods to save his life; where he made a fire, formed a slender covert, and the squaws fed him.

At the end of nine weeks the Indians had a great powwow, and his master sent him to Mons. Castine for ammunition to kill moose and deer. He arrived at a most opportune hour, just before Mugg's de- parture to Teconnet, who readily called him by name. "Ah," said Mugg, "I saw your father when I went to Boston, and I told him his son should return. He must be released according to treaty." "Yes," replied Madockawando, " but the captain must give me the fine coat he has in the vessel; for his father is a great preach-man, or chief speaker, among Englishmen." This request was granted, and young Cobbet saw his demoniac master no more. 1225188

GYLES'S CAPTIVITY AMONG THE PENOBSCOTS.

In the early part of August, 1689, an attack was made by a war-party from Penobscot upon the fort at Pema- quid, which was captured. Judge Thomas Gyles, chief justice of the district, was seized upon his farm, three miles from Jamestown, and tomahawked, while most of his family were carried off into captivity. One of the sons, taken into the Penobscot country, left a narrative of the massacre and his subsequent adventures, from which Mr. Rufus King Sewall has made an abridgment in his Ancient Dominions of Maine. We extract the following :

At Mattawamkeag, up the Penobscot, they encountered a lodge of dancing women. Young Gyles was flung into the midst of the circle. An old squaw led him into the ring, when some seized him by the hair of the head and others by his hands and feet, with great violence and menaces of evil. At this moment his master entered and bought the child off from the horrors of the gauntlet dance, by flinging down a pledge.

Gyles, the second year of his captivity, was sent toward the sea, with other natives, to plant corn near the fort.

On reaching the village of wigwams, he was greeted by three or four Indians, who dragged him to the great wigwam, where, with savage yells and dances, the warriors were leaping about a James Alexander, recently captured at Falmouth. Two families of Sable Indians, whose friends had been lost by the attacks of English fishermen, had reached this point, on a scout westward, to avenge the blood of their slaugh- tered friends. These savages were thirsting for the blood of an Eng- glishman. They rushed upon Gyles and tossed him into the ring. He was then dragged out by the hair of his head, his body bent forward by the same painful process, when he was cruelly beaten over his head and shoulders. Others, putting a tomahawk into his hands, bid him "sing and dance Indian." The Sable Indians again rushed upon him in great rage, crying, "Shall we who have lost relatives by the English suffer an English voice to be heard among us?" He was beaten with an axe. No one showed a spark of humanity save a Frenchman, whose cheeks were wet with tears of pity at the sorrows of the captive white man.

The trials of this scene lasted a whole day. Another dance was pro- jected. Gyles had been sent out to dress a skin for the manufacture of leather. A friendly Indian sought him at his place of labor, and warned him that his friend Alexander had fallen into the hands of his enemies again, and they were searching for him. His master and mis- tress bade him fly and hide himself till they both should come and call

HISTORY OF PENOBSCOT COUNTY, MAINE.

him, which they would do when the peril was ended. Gyles retired and sought concealment in the fastnesses of a neighboring swamp, and had scarcely attained his refuge when deafening whoops, mingled with threats and flatteries, told him that the savages were on his track. They sought him till evening, and then called-'Chon, Chon !' But Chon would not trust them. Thus he escaped till the company had dispersed ; when he went forth from his covert, assured of his safety by the appearance of his master and mistress.

Onerous and servile duties were required of captives. One of these, in the case of Gyles and Alexander, was that of "toting" water from a cool and distant spring to the village lodge.

Wearied with toil, in the language of Gyles, "being almost dead, James and I continued to relieve our toil by frightening the Indians."

At this period the Mohawks were a great source of alarm to the Eastern tribes, the rumor of whose alliance with the English had now generally obtained. The traditions of this race were a commentary of deeds of daring and success, handed down from remote periods in the history of the aborigines. of the American coast.

The two prisoners adroitly turned this infirmity of their savage masters to good account, on a dark night.

Alexander having been sent out for water, set his kettle on the brow of the declivity, ran back to the lodges and told his master he feared there were Mohawks lurking near the spring below, which, by the way, was environed with stumps.

The braves of the tribe, with the master, accompanied the captive Alexander on a reconnoisance. Approaching the brow of the hillside, whereon the kettle sat, James, pointing to the stumps, gave it a kick with his foot, by which his toe sent the iron vessel down the declivity toward the spring; and every turn of the revolving bucket reared a Mohawk on every stump, the clatter of whose arms was the signal of preparation for battle; and he who could run fastest was the best fellow! The result was a regular stampede of 30 or 40 warriors into the interior forests, beyond the reach "of strange Indians."

Natural admiration is excited in view of acts of personal courage and physical prowess, and this would seem to be a spontaneous devel- opment of the human mind.

At one time Gyles, during his captivity, encountered an ill-natured savage. He had been cutting wood, which was bound up with thongs and borne in bundles to the wigwam. While thus engaged, a stout, ill-natured young fellow pushed him upon the ground backwards, sat upon his breast, pulled out his knife and menaced him with death, saying, "he never had yet killed one of the English."

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History of Penobscot County, Maine; with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 10

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co. Number of Pages: 1100

Author: Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland (Ohio)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams, Chase & Co.
Number of Pages: 1100