History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 12

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 730

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It was necessary in those days to proceed with great cau- tion in forming new plantations, on account of the known danger from the Indians. In the spring of 1685 they dis- closed unusual restlessness and symptoms of malignity. Francis Hook this year sent a letter to Capt. Barefoot, at Portsmouth, saying there were just grounds for apprehend- ing an outbreak, "for the Indians have been guilty of affronts in the vicinity of Saco, threatening the people, and killing their dogs, and within the last three days they have gathered all their corn, and moved off pack and baggage. A word to the wise is sufficient. Myself and the rest in commission with us are settling ourselves in a posture for

* Mass. Hist. Coll., p. 300.

+ 3 Maine Hist. Coll., p. 154: Southgate, Hist. Scarborough.

# Greenleaf's Ece. Hist., p. 240.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.

defense, and to-morrow our council meet to consider what is needful to be done." By the timely and energetic measures which resulted in a treaty, the anticipated mischief was averted. On the 8th of September, 1685, the treaty was concluded, and signed by Lieutenant-Governor Walter Barefoot and three of his Council, on the part of New Hampshire, and Francis Hook and John Davis, two of the Councilors of Maine. It was signed on the part of the In- dians, at different times, by twelve sagamores and chiefs, from Penacook, Saco, Androscoggin, and Kennebec.

Massachusetts had partly kept up her colony government since the vacation of her charter. May 12, 1686, only thirty-six deputies took their seats in the General Court, and the arrival of a commission from the king, appointing Joseph Dudley governor, put an end to that body on the third day of the session. Mr. Danforth was now removed from the presidency of Maine, and a court substituted, which was composed of Hon. William Stoughton, Judge ; John Usher and Edward Tyng, Esqs., Assistants ; and a justice was appointed in each town. The court sat at York in October.

Governor Dudley's administration lasted only four months and twenty-six days, when he was superseded by Sir Edmund Andros, who arrived in Boston on the 20th of December. Sir Edmund, between 1674 and 1682, had been ducal governor of New York and Sagadahock, and had displayed an imperious and arbitrary temper. For his ad- herence to the prerogatives of the crown, his grateful master, James II., had now made him governor-general over all his colonies and dominions in New England.

CHAPTER XII.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-1688-92.

Policy of Governor Andros - Indignity Offered to Baron Castine- War De ared between France and England-Savages let Loose upon the Frontiers -Conquest of Acadia - Expedition against Quebec-Capture of Fort Loyal-Assault upon the Garrison at Wells -- Destruction of York.

GOVERNOR ANDROS entered upon his administration with more vigor than prudence. Determined upon the en- largement of his dominion as well as upon the unlimited exercise of power, he resolved to seize upon the country lying between the Penobscot and the St. Croix, which, though included in the ducal patent, was nevertheless claimed, and to some extent occupied, by the French. The Baron de St. Castine had his establishment upon the pen- insula of Bagaduce, where he had lived for some time on the most intimate terms with the Penobscot Indians, into the family of whose chief he had married, and whose mode of life he had in a great measure adopted.

Andros proceeded to Pemaquid, where he fitted out an expedition under Capt. George, of the frigate " Rose," and, joining with his sloop and barge, they made sail for Baga- duce. Arrived in the harbor, near the fort and habitation of the baron, the Governor sent a lieutenant with a notice of his arrival and readiness for an interview, if the baron

desired. But the baron, too wary to be made a prisoner by surprise, had already taken his family and retired to the woods, leaving all to the will of the expected visitors. They found household furniture, firearms, ammunition, and coarse cloth, all of which they put on board the frigate, in nowise injuring his Catholic altar, chapel service, pictures, ornaments, or buildings. Having done this, they embarked and returned to Pemaquid.

The treatment which Castine thus received gave him great umbrage. He considered the plunder of his house a wanton outrage, being fully able, as he believed, to justify all his conduct towards the English ; and he fully deter- mined never to submit to their domination. Nor had he any great regard for the government of France, with which he became offended on account of being deprived, as he thought without just reasou, of an honorable military com- mand which he once held. He preferred to be the ruler of the Indians, with whom his friendship and address had rendered his influence supreme.

Castine had a terrible power to turn against his adver- saries,-no less than the savage foe who had a few years before spread desolation and death along the whole frontier, -- nor was he slow to invoke the renewed vengeance of these murderous hordes.

In August the Indians commenced hostilities. Imme- diately every fort between the Piscataqua and the Penobscot was repaired and put in the best posture for defense, and in September soldiers were enlisted and detached for an eastern expedition. But when Governor Andros returned to Boston he wholly disapproved of the measure and utterly refused to have war declared. He issued a proclamation, October 20th, ordering all the Indian prisoners to be dis- charged, commanding the Indians to set at liberty every one of his Majesty's subjects, and strongly recommending the tribes, if they desired peace and safety, to dwell near the English settlements. The savages paid no regard to his mandates or encouragements. The prisoners held by the English, being released, returned to their tribes, while the English prisoners among the savages were retained to be tortured or put to death in their barbarous frolics.

Perceiving that war was inevitable, he rushed to the op- posite extreme, determined now to subdue the savages or frighten them into terms. Although it was late in Novem- ber, he collected a force of eight hundred men and led them into the eastern country. No Indians were to be seen, for at this season of the year they were usually upon their hunting-grounds in the interior. The expedition, as could easily have been foretold, proved an utter failure. Indeed, it had been opposed by all the more wise and considerate, who saw the folly of such an undertaking at that season. To cover his defeat, however, he set a force at work build- ing garrisons ; eleven of these structures were erected and manned, but this was done with injudicious haste and bad judgment as to the proper places and distribution of the men. At Pemaquid he placed Col. Edward Tyng and Capt. Minot, with one hundred and eighty militia and thirty-six regulars; at New Dartmouth he placed twenty- four of the regular soldiers under Lieut. Jordan, and Capt. Withington's company of sixty militia; at Pejepscot he placed forty regulars and two militia companies of sixty

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

each ; at Fort Loyal, Falmouth, sixty men under command of Capt. George Lockhart ; at Saco, Capt. Lloyd with his company of sixty, and twenty-eight drawn from the com- mands of Maj. Henchman and Capt. Bull; at Kennebunk, Capt. Puddington was to draw in an emergency from Saco; the garrison at Wells was to be relieved in the same man- ner.

What Governor Andros would have done further had he remained in power is not easy to conjecture. But an ad- ministration of sixteen months closed his career in New England. The people had too much independence, too high a sense of liberty, and too much practical wisdom in the management of affairs which they understood better than any inexperienced foreigner to submit tamely to his domineering spirit, his arbitrary measures, or his repeated blunders, which were rapidly involving the affairs of the colonies in confusion and ruin. Hence they put an end to his government in a revolution at Boston in April, 1689, and reinstated the Danforth government over Maine.

Meantime, on the 12th of December preceding, James II., succumbing to the revolution in England, had abdi- cated the throne and fled to France ; and on the 16th of February, William, Prince of Orange, and Mary, daughter of James, had been proclaimed king and queen of England.

This affair embroiled England and France, so that war was declared between the two nations; and extending to Canada and Acadia, enlisted the French of these provinces and their Indian allies in a desnltory and barbarous war against the English colonies, in which the province of Maine suffered most severely.

On the 15th of May, 1689, the Danforth government was fully established, the former councilors of the province being confirmed, viz., Charles Frost, Francis Hook, Edward Tyng, John Davis, Joshua Scottow, Samuel Wheelwright, and John Wincoln.

Madockawando, chief of the Penobscots, at this time visited Boston with several of the leading men of his tribe. He represented tlfe grievances of Castine, and how highly he was affronted at the plunder of his house by the Eng- lish. The authorities sent the baron a conciliatory address, assuring him that the outrage had been committed by a party now out of power, and for whose conduct the present government was not responsible ; neither did it approve the act. They sent also presents and conciliatory messages to the Indians; but in the present state of affairs between England and France it was impossible successfully to secure their peace and friendship. The French on this side of the Atlantic began aggressions with eager haste and pursued them with malignant fury, those of Canada taking the lead in instigating the Indians to join them and fall with exter- minating ferocity upon the outer settlements of New Eng- land, particularly those of New Hampshire and Maine.

As soon as war was declared in Boston, December 7th,* the General Court resolved upon measures for regaining Nova Scotia and reducing Quebec The first of these ob- jects was successfully accomplished by an expedition under Sir William Phips, who completed the conquest of Acadia without resistance. Phips also sailed to Quebec with an

army, landing thirteen hundred effective men on the Isle of Orleans; but his note to Frontenac demanding a sur- render being treated with haughty disdain, and learning the great strength of the fortifications, he considered it discreet to re-embark, and hasten away as precipitately as possible. His fleet, overtaken by a violent tempest in the St. Lawrence, was dispersed ; two or three of the vessels were sunk, one was wrecked, others were blown off to the West Indies, and the remainder were more than a month on their way home.

Thus the expedition ended in disaster and defeat. Maj .- Gen. Winthrop, who had marched with an army to the head of Lake Champlain, intending a descent on Montreal, and a junction with Sir William at Quebec, was also dis- couraged, and returned without crossing the lake.

These disasters only rendered the French more bold and insolent. The Indians, encouraged by the sympathy and assistance rendered them, especially by the Baron de St. Castine, had begun their work of plunder and destruction upon the frontier settlements.

The first blood in this war was shed at Dartmouth, near Pemaquid, early in September, 1688. A few days after, Capt. Walter Gendall and his servant were killed at North Yarmouth. Towards winter two families in Kennebunk, of the names of Barrow and Bussy, were murdered. In April, 1689, the savages began hostilities at Saco, but no lives appear to have been lost. Two or three months later four young men of Saco, going to seek their horses for the purpose of joining a military party under Capt. Wincoln, were surprised and killed. A company of twenty-four men were immediately raised to search for the bodies of the slain, who, falling in with the savages, pursued them into a vast swamp, probably the Heath, but were obliged to retire with the loss of six of their number.

The year 1690 was signalized by the destruction of the settlement at Salmon Falls (Berwick), and the capture of Fort Loyal, at Falmouth, by two parties of French and Indians. The garrisons in Cape Elizabeth and Scarbor- ough were so discouraged at these events that they drew off immediately to Saco, and from Saco, in a few days, to Wells.t

There were at this time in Wells, between the present highway and the beach, several houses constructed of hewn timber, with flankers, and on each a watch-tower,-all of which were fortified, and might be occupied and used as garrisons. One of the largest and strongest was Mr. Storer's, situated near the old meeting-house, which was considered at this period a public fortification.

Scouting-parties were employed during the summer be- tween Portsmouth and Falmouth, by reason of which the Indians were restrained from further depredations of any magnitude. In September, Col. Church was sent into the province with a considerable force, partially of friendly natives of the Old Colony. They landed at Pejepscot, where the fort built by Governor Andros was in possession of the Indians, who hastily fled upon their approach, leaving be- hind them several women and children ; these were seized and all put to death, except the wives of two chiefs, whose

+ Mather's Magnalia.

* It had been declared in England May 7th.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, MAINE.

influence was wanted to obtain a restoration of prisoners. From that place Col. Church sailed to Winter Harbor. The next morning they discovered some smoke arising towards Scamman's garrison. Church immediately sent in that di- rection a scout of sixty men, and presently followed with his whole force .*

" This garrison," says Folsom, "was about three miles below the Falls, on the eastern side of the (Saco) river; when the detachment approached it they discovered the Indians on the opposite side. Three of them, however, had crossed the river, and seeing our men, ran with great speed to their canoes : in attempting to recross, one who stood up to paddle was killed by a shot from the party, and falling upon the canoe caused it to break to pieces (says Church), so that all three perished. The firing alarmed the other savages, who abandoned their canoes and ran from the river. 'Old Doney,' a noted Indian, was at the Falls, together with a prisoner, Thomas Baker (of Scarborough), and hearing the guns, came down the river in his canoe ; but on per- ceiving Church's meu, ran his canoe ashore, and leaping over the head of Baker, escaped to the other Indians. Col. Church afterwards went to Casco Bay, and from thence hack as far as Wells, where the chiefs whose wives had been spared 'came and said three several times that they would never fight against the English any more, for the French made fools of them.'"+

The chiefs referred to in the above extract were two saga- mores who had been taken at Pejepscot. They came to Wells in October, 1689, where their wives were retained, and agreed to enter into a treaty at any place the English might appoint. It seems that the appointment was made for a conference at Sagadahock ; for, on the 29th of November, the commissioners of Massachusetts met six sagamores at that place and a truce was signed between them for the suspension of hostilities till the 1st of May following, when they agreed to repair to Storer's garrison in Wells, bring in the captives and there conclude a lasting peace. Ten English captives were released, with one of whom, Mrs. Hall, they parted very reluctantly, because she was a good writer and had served them as a secretary .;

This was almost the only good fortune which bad thus far been attained in the war. Never had Maine witnessed a darker season. Only four towns survived the ravages of the Indians, viz., Wells, York, Kittery, and Appledore, or the Isles of Shoals. These the enemy had evidently marked out for utter and speedy destruction.

Col. Church, having collected and buried the mouldering bodies of the people slain in the capture of Falmouth, re- turned home in the autumn, leaving one hundred of his men at Wells under Capt. Converse and Lieut. Plaisted. He kindly collected a considerable contribution in Plymouth Colony, which he transmitted to the eastern sufferers, ac- companied by a letter to Maj. Frost, John Wheelwright, Esq., and others, encouraging their expectations of still further relief.

At the time appointed, May 1, 1691, President Dan- forth, attended by several members of the Council and guarded by a troop of horse, arrived in Wells for the pur- pose of meeting the Indians and forming the expected treaty. Not one of them appeared,-being evidently de- terred through French influence. A few who were in the neighborhood were brought in by order of Capt. Converse, who said they had forgotten the time, but promised to

bring in the rest in ten days, and in proof of their sincerity gave up two captives. To try their faith and honor, they were dismissed, but nothing more was seen of the Indians. President Danforth and his associates returned to York, promising to send Capt. Converse a reinforcement of thirty- five soldiers from the county of Essex, which arrived on the 9th of June.

In half an hour after the arrival of these troops the gar- rison was furiously beset by Moxns and two hundred In- dians. Being repulsed, they presently withdrew, and pro- ceeded to Cape Neddick, in York. Here they attacked a vessel and killed a greater part of the crew, set the little hamlet on fire, and then scattered in different directions. Madockawando is said by a captive to have remarked, " Moxus miss it this time ; next year I'll have the dog Con- verse out of his den."

Four companies of troops were dispatched late in July into the eastern service, commanded by Capts. March, King, Sherburne, and Walton, the first being the senior officer. They landed at Maqnoit and proceeded to Pejepscot Falls. Returning to their vessels they had a sharp engagement with a large body of Indians, in which Capt. Sherburne was killed. Nothing was effected by this expedition, except to deter the Indians from their contemplated attack upon the Isles of Shoals.

The Indians, with their usual craftiness, delayed their attack upon York till the dead of winter, at which time they well knew it was the habit of the place to be less on their guard than common. Early in the morning of Mon- day, Feb. 25, 1692, at the signal of a gun fired by the enemy, the town was furiously assaulted at different places by two or three hundred Indians, led by several Canadian Frenchmen, who had crossed the country on snow-shoes. Although several houses were strongly fortified, the sur- prise of the town was complete, and the attack consequently more fatal. " A scene of fearful carnage and capture in- stantly ensued, and in one half-hour more than a hundred and sixty of the inhabitants were expiring victims or trem- bling suppliants at the feet of their enraged enemies. The rest had the good fortune to escape with their lives into Preble's, Harmon's, Alcock's, and Norton's garrisoned houses, the best fortifications in town. Though well se- cured within the walls, and bravely defending themselves against their assailants, they were several times summoned to surrender. " Never," said they ; " never till we have shed the last drop of blood."

About seventy-five of the inhabitants were killed ; the savages, despairing of securing the other victims by capitu- lation, set fire to nearly all of the unfortified houses on the northeast side of the river, which, with a large amount of property, besides the plunder taken, were laid in ashes. The savages then hastened away with their booty and their prisoners, " near an hundred of that unhappy people," says Dr. Mather. " Nay, it was now their hard destiny to enter upon a long journey amidst a thousand hardships and suf- ferings, aggravated by severe weather, snow, famine, abuse, and every species of wretchedness."

Rev. Dr. Dummer, who had long been their able and be- loved minister, now in his sixtieth year, was found by some of the survivors fallen dead upon his face near his own door,

* Church's Wars, p. 117. + Saco and Biddeford, p. 194. ¿ 1 Williamson, p. 627.

CONTINUATION OF INDIAN HOSTILITIES.

having been shot as he was about starting on horseback to make a pastoral visit. Ilis house was on the sea-shore, not far from the Roaring Rock. He was a graduate of Har- vard College in 1656, and married not long after the daughter of Edward Rishworth, Esq. She was among the captives, and heartbroken and exhausted with fatigue, soon sank in death.

A party instantly rallied at Portsmouth and pursued the enemy, but it was too late either to give battle to the In- dians or to rescue the prisoners. So fatal was the blow to York that but for the timely aid and encouragement of Massachusetts, the remnant of the inhabitants would have abandoned the place during the war.

Wells was next singled out as the objeet of attack. Ma- dockawando had not forgotten his threat to " have that dog Converse out of his den." Hence a formidable force, cousisting of five hundred French and Indians, including the chief sagamores, under command of the French officer Portneuf, invested the place on the 10th of June. The in- habitants were dispersed among the fortified houses. Con- verse and fifteen soldiers were iu Storer's garrison. On the 9th two sloops, which had been sent to supply the distressed and suffering inhabitants with provisions and ammunition, had arrived under command of Samuel Storer and James Gouge, having on board fourteen men. The first evidence of the presence of an enemy in proximity to the settlement was given by the cattle, which hurried in bleeding from the woods and put the inhabitants upon their guard. The next morning, before daybreak, John Diamond, a passenger who had arrived on one of the vessels, on his way to the garri- son, was seized by Indian spies and dragged away by his hair. He was taken into the presence of the French offi- cers, who were attended by Madockawando, Egermet, Moxus, Warumbo, and several other sagamores. They closely examined him to obtain all the information they could about the place. Either by mistake or design, he said there were in the garrison with Capt. Converse thirty brave men well armed. To show how certainly the enemy anticipated success, it is stated that they proceeded to " ap- portion the soldiers, the inhabitants, Mr. Wheelwright by name, the women and children, the sailors, and the plunder among the officers, the sagamores, and the army. Then one habited like a gentleman made a speech to them in English, exhorting them to be active and fearless." All being in readiness, they raised a hideous shout, and assaulted the garrison with great fury. The assault was continued throughout the day without suceess. A party also con- structed a breastwork in front of the sloops, from behind which they fired guns and blazing arrows, setting fire to the vessels. The crews extinguished the flames by wet mops attached to the ends of poles, and fired with such precision and rapidity that the enemy were compelled to abandon their works. They next attempted to set fire to the sloops by means of an engine rolled on wheels, containing flaming materials, which they succeeded in bringing within a few rods of the vessels, but could not get near enough to be effective. In these operations several Indians and French- men were killed.

The French and Indians, combining their forces, on the next morning moved the whole body towards the garrison.

It was at this time that one of Converse's soldiers proposed a surrender. " Utter the word again," said the captain, " and you are a dead man." Continuing his orders, " All lie close," said he, " and fire not a gun till it will do execu- tion." As the besiegers with firm steps approached they gave three hideous shouts, one crying out in English, " Fire and fall on, brave boys !" The whole body then, opening into three ranks, discharged their guns all at once. A blaze of fire was returned both from the small arms and the eannon, some two or three of which were twelve- pounders ; women heroically supplied ammunition, and in several instanees acted as gunners. It was a crisis of life and death, and the English were victorious. The repulse was so complete that the attack was not renewed.

The Indians made another attack on the vessels, having constructed a fire-boat eighteen or twenty feet square, which they towed towards the vessels and in the current of the tide left it to float in flames directly against them. This would have inevitably proved their destruction had not a counter-breeze sprung up just at the opportune moment, which carried the flaming magazine to the opposite shore, where it split and filled with water.

At about ten o'clock in the evening the enemy retired, discouraged and mortified at their ill success. " A siege of forty-eight hours prosecuted by a host against a handful," says a historian, " was in the sequel no less a disgrace and a discouragement to the one than animating and glorious to the other." To retaliate for the death of one of the French officers, the savages put their only captive, John Diamond, to the torture. They stripped, scalped, and maimed him ; slit his hands and feet between the fingers and toes; cut deep gashes in the fleshy parts of his body and stuck the wounds full of lighted torches, leaving him to die by piece- meal in the agonies of consuming fire .*

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History of York County, Maine, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 12

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 730

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 730