USA > Maine > Somerset County > Skowhegan > History of the old towns, Norridgewock and Canaan, comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks, Skowhegan, and Bloomfield, from their early settlement to the year 1849; including a sketch of the Abnakis Indians > Part 2
USA > Maine > Somerset County > Canaan > History of the old towns, Norridgewock and Canaan, comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks, Skowhegan, and Bloomfield, from their early settlement to the year 1849; including a sketch of the Abnakis Indians > Part 2
USA > Maine > Somerset County > Bloomfield > History of the old towns, Norridgewock and Canaan, comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks, Skowhegan, and Bloomfield, from their early settlement to the year 1849; including a sketch of the Abnakis Indians > Part 2
USA > Maine > Somerset County > Starks > History of the old towns, Norridgewock and Canaan, comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks, Skowhegan, and Bloomfield, from their early settlement to the year 1849; including a sketch of the Abnakis Indians > Part 2
USA > Maine > Somerset County > Norridgewock > History of the old towns, Norridgewock and Canaan, comprising Norridgewock, Canaan, Starks, Skowhegan, and Bloomfield, from their early settlement to the year 1849; including a sketch of the Abnakis Indians > Part 2
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There is great difficulty in obtaining proper materials to illustrate their career among the Abenakies. The Indian history of this State for the seventeenth century would be very im- perfect without a historical sketch of those self-sacrificing laborers in the cause of Christ, who, from the beginning of the second quarter of the seventeenth century to the year 1725, made the wilderness and the solitary place glad for their presence. And yet the opportu- nities for a full account are very meagre. The
* Rev. W. I. Kip.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
late Gov. Lincoln, who took great interest in this subject, and who has left enduring monu- ments of his research and labor, has recorded this testimony. " On the suppression of Jes- uitism, which had been in some respects a valuable variety of enthusiasm, the manu- scripts were carried from Quebec to France ; and the efforts I have made have not enabled me, through favor or reward, to obtain copies."* The writer of this work has applied to a distin- guished bishop, now living, for such facts as might be essential to a full account; but he has, as yet, received no answer. There seems to be an unwillingness, on the part of those who are best acquainted with the facts in the case, to communicate those facts to the public. The refusal of the possessor of records to sub- mit documents to the inspection of the his- torian, is a circumstance which excites the suspicion in the mind, that the facts related are of such a character as would prove detrimental to the reputation of the institution, if made public.
Poutrincourt, the French colonist, had been laboring for some time in Acadie, when, about 1610, the infant settlement found itself weak, and in need of aid. They accordingly sent to the parent country for assistance. The mother of the then infant King, Louis XIII., more re- gardful of the spiritual than of the temporal condition of the new world, instead of dis- patching food and clothing, sent two Jesuit
* Hist. Coll. Maine, p. 310.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
Priests, in the persons of the fathers Biart and Massé. The authorities would not receive them, unless they would maintain themselves, and 2,000 crowns, charitably given them in France, enabled them to make the journey.
These Jesuits, like the most of their colabor- ers, the world over, had an eye to the peltries as well as to the souls of their heathen chil- dren, and this contribution enabled them to traffic in both commodities to great advantage. On their arrival at Acadie, however, they found Poutrincourt indisposed to allow them temporal rule, and they were forced to confine themselves to their spiritual measures. Father Biart went to Kennebec, where, says Gov. Lincoln, "he exchanged the light and knowl- edge of his doctrines for provisions for the in- habitants of Port Royal." He was well treated however, and succeeded prosperously. Massé is not known to have arrived at Kennebec.
Soon after the arrival of these, namely, in 1613, Quentin and Gilbert du Thet were sent over, and all seemed promising for great suc- cess, when Argal, a settler in Virginia, attacked the settlement where the Du Thets were, killed one of the brothers, and entirely destroyed their prospects. The forementioned priests be- long to the history of this region only from the occasional visits they paid to the Canibas .*
* The entire Indian population of Maine in 1615 was probably about 37,000, including 11,000 warriors. The Abenaques num- bered 17,000, including 5,000 warriors. Of these probably about 1,500 warriors, or an entire number of about 5,000, lived on the Kennebec, and were known as Kennebecs or Canibas.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
The first regularly settled evangelist among the - Kennebecs, was
GABRIEL DREUILLETTES. /
With that spirit of self-sacrifice and implicit obedience, which characterizes the Jesuit, and which sends him without a murmur of complaint, at the request of his superior, from all the luxuries and ad- vantages of civilized life, to the inclemencies of polar snows or tropic suns, to undergo hard- ships and privations for the good of souls, and the advancement of supposed truth, this apos- tle of Christ left his home in the year 1646, and stationed himself on the lonely Kennebec. Here he built a chapel of fir trees, in the same year, and commenced his work at Norridge- wock. It was the first church ever built on the Kennebec river. So faithful had the good Father Biart been, and so well had he illus- trated his teachings in his life, that Dreuillettes found the fallow ground broken up, ready to receive the seed of the gospel, on his arrival. He succeeded in converting great numbers of the Kennebecs, and he impressed them all with a love for the Catholic religion, which the English, thirty years previous, had sought in vain to do for the Protestant. He taught the natives the Catholic creed, taught them to pray, and rendered many old hymns into their lan- guage, * and set them to music, which often woke strange and unwonted echoes in the for- est solitudes of the Kennebec. The news of his success obtained the establishment of a
* " Day of Judgment, day of wonders," was one.
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mission. He possessed great influence among the Kennebecs, and negociated for their pro- tection against their foes. The Catholic ver- sions of his labors are adorned with many wonderful miracles, and his name ranks among the saints of the new world. Whenever a sick person was brought to him, he made the sign of the cross, uttered some holy phrase, and administered a little medicine, and thus very often performed a miracle. Whether the same result would not have followed, had the medicine been used, and the sign and phrase dispensed with, history does not declare. The English were fully acquainted with the power and influence of the Catholic apostle, and they made him many overtures. But the faithful priest, with an "eye single to the glory" of Catholicism, continued to convert the Indians to his religion, excite them against the English, give them the bread of life for the meat that perisheth, or in other words, what he deemed gospel truth for beaver skins and moose meat, until he was called away to another field of labor further north. The chapel he had erected was destroyed in 1674, by English hunters, and was rebuilt in 1687, by English workmen sent from Boston, according to treaty stipulations. It was of hewn timber, and for the day and country, was a good building. The next mis- sionaries were the brothers
VINCENT AND JAQUES BIGOT. - These fathers were of the Barons Bigot, among the nobility of France. They left all the temporal luxuries of their estate in civilized life, and abode
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INDIAN HISTORY.
among the Abnakies. " Their domicil was a rude hut of bark, their bed, bear-skins spread upon the earth, their dishes were taken from the birch tree, and their food, the sagamite and the game which the savages furnished them."* Vincent dwelt usually on the Penobscot, but Jaques was on the Kennebec.
Governor Andross made great efforts to obtain the Canibas as allies, but Mons. De- nonville affirms that they would not desert the French, and attributes their faithfulness to the fathers Bigot. Jaques went to Montreal in 1699, at the time when the English were endeavoring to negociate with the Indians on the Kennebec. Such were his representations, that the Canadian Governor would not inter- fere. In reply to the advances of the English, the Kennebecs declared that they would not allow English houses to occupy their soil, but that they would cleave to the French, and live and die in the light of their religion.
On a certain occasion, the elder brother, Vin- cent, f went with the red men against New England, and on their return homewards, they were pursued. Vincent entreated them to flee, as the force was more numerous than their own, but they refused, and marched very leisurely. They were overtaken, and a hard battle was fought, in which not a Kennebec was slain, while the English retreated, leaving the ground covered with the dead bodies of their companions. This great victory is one
* Enoch Lincoln.
+ Charlevoix.
3
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INDIAN HISTORY.
of the Catholic miracles, - materially accom- plished, however, by hard fighting. Besides those previously mentioned, the Jesuit Thury resided at Penobscot, and was possessed of great influence among the Abnakies. After the conquest of Acadie in 1687, the French, and especially the Priests, saw the soil they had won, and the converts they had made, sliding from their grasp, and their efforts to regain and retain were desperate. Thury was very zeal- ous. Said he : " By the religion I have taught ; by the liberty you love, I exhort you to resist them " (the unsparing New Englanders.) " The hatchet must be cleaned of its rust, to avenge God of his enemies, and to secure to you your rights. Night and day a continual prayer shall ascend to him for your success ; an unceasing rosary shall be observed, until you return covered with the glory of triumph." The capture of fort Pemaquid followed this language, and such as this. Thus the priests
of the New World excited miniature crusades, and caused blood to flow, out of love to Christ.
The Abenakies seem to have been most peaceably inclined to the whites, on the original settlement of New England, but repeated acts of the most violent and grossest wrong, and the advice of the priests, and the hypocritical pretensions of the French, roused all the vengeful passions that dwell in the red man's breast. Marauding parties of pilgrims,
* " During fifty years, the planters and traders of Maine had great intercourse with the natives, undisturbed by any open rupture. - Williamson, vol. i., p. 498.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
under the sanction of the broad seal of the State, surprised Indian villages, and carried into abject slavery, men, women, and children, and in the larger settlements, as Boston and elsewhere, compelled them to the most menial offices. As early as 1614, Capt. John Smith's companion, Thomas Hunt, remained behind Smith, who sailed for England, July 8. Smith says: "Hunt purposely tarried behind, to pre- vent me from making a plantation, to monopo- lise the trade, and to steal savages." Squanto was one whom Hunt captured. He was a Wampanoag. Besides these, other minor out- rages, as the devastation of fields, and the destruction of their wigwams, fully convinced the Indians that cupidity and love of conquest were darling passions in the souls of the English, and at length they began to seek revenge. It is believed that the first instance of aggression on the part of a Kennebec Indian has yet to be recorded by the pen of history. Blame is not attached exclusively to either the French or English nation. The latter made every effort to obtain the alliance of the Eastern Indians in vain, while the former succeeded. The English were successful with the Massachu- setts. Both were unscrupulous.
Many of the settlers along the Kennebec, having fire-arms and ammunition, which the English had prohibited the Indians, drove away the Indians from the the land they had culti- vated, and left them to suffer, and in many cases to perish for want of food. Accordingly, on the breaking out of King Philip's war, many.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
of the Eastern Indians were found ready and willing to join against the English. The latter, conscious of their wrong-doing, endeavored to pacify them, and a great council was held at Taconnet, at which Madokawando, Assimi- nasqua, Hopewood, Mogg, and other distin- guished Chiefs, were present. Complaints were offered by the Indians, and the English promised a sort of redress. Madokawando, however, wishing for something definite, asked : "Must we perish, or fly to the French for protec- tion ?" The English virtually answered, fly to the French, for they assured them that if they waited ten years, they could not have powder. The French were resorted to, and they gave what the English refused, and the scenes of war and massacre that succeeded were natural results.
Mogg was soon after enticed on board of a vessel, and carried to Boston. On his release, he used all his influence against the whites.
Major Waldron, in February, 1677, came suddenly upon a party of Indians, at Pemaquid, by whom the English were invited to a treaty, but as they found arms among them, they inferred that they were enemies, and fired upon them. A bloody fight ensued, in which many were killed, and several Indians taken prison- ers. Among the rest was a sister of Madok- awando.
The treaty of Casco, in 1678, at the end of King Philip's war, was considered disgraceful to the English. The Eastern Indians dictated the following terms: 1. All captives were
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INDIAN HISTORY.
to be released. 2. All inhabitants were to enjoy their possessions unmolested. 3. The English were to pay a quit-rent to the Indians for their lands, of a peck of corn for each English family .* This latter exaction was just, for lands had been taken from them im- properly ; but the success which they met with in Philip's war emboldened them to dictate as they did.
It was a party under Madokawando, that, February 5, 1692, laid waste York. Seventy- five people were slain, and eighty-five taken prisoners. Madokawando led his braves in other attacks upon white settlements, and gained himself much renown. He died in 1698.
Hannah Swarton, who was carried captive from Falmouth, in 1690, by the Indians, to Canada, after incredible hardships, tarried a short time on her journey at Norridgewock.t
About the year 1675, the contemporary sachems of the tribes of Abenakies were these : Squando of the Sokokis ; Tarumkin of the Anasagunticook's ; and Robinhood of the Cani- bas. They were considerably attached to each other, and the great war of 1675, known as King Philip's war,# may be ascribed to the
* Neal's New England, p. 407.
+ Mather's Magnalia, p. 306 - 12.
¿ In Williamson's History of Maine, we find the following list of the wars and principal treaties with the Eastern tribes : - Mugg's treaty, November 6, 1676. - 2 Neal's New England, p. 403 - 5.
1. King Philip's war, from June 24, 1675, to the treaty of Casco, April 12, 1678. - Massachusetts Records. Treaty of Portsmouth, Sept., 8, 1685. - Belknap's New Hampshire, p. 348.
2. King William's war, from August 13, 1688, to the treaty of Marepoint, Brunswick, January 7, 1699. - 2 Mather's Magna- 3*
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INDIAN HISTORY.
affronts which the Indians had received, and the part which they took, grew out of their own wrongs. Tarumkin and Robinhood were fast friends. The latter was very unwilling to join in any hostilities, and would do so only when the wrongs which his friends suffered obliged him to fear for his country and race. " Hope- hood, his son, was a young warrior, who panted for glory ; and the tribe became active in the war before it closed." *
On the arrival of the news of the outbreak of Philip's war, the scattered settlers of Maine were filled with alarm, and a party of men went up the Kennebec, to ascertain the dispo- sition of the Indians. They met with five Anasagunticooks, and seven Canibas, all of whom surrendered their arms. While the con- ference was going on, Sowen, a Canibas Indian,
lia. p. 556-7. Treaty of Pemmaquid, August 11, 1693. - 2 Mather's Magnalia, p. 542-3, entire.
3. Queen Anne's war, from Angust, 1703. to the treaty of Ports- mouth. July 11, 1713. - Penhallow's Indian Wars. 1 Collection New Hampshire Historical Society, p. 83 - 6.
4. Lovewell's War, from June 13. 1722, to Dummer's treaty, December 15, 1725. - Secretary's Office, Boston.
5. Spanish, or five years' Indion war, from July 19, 1745, to the treaty of Falmouth, October 16, 1749. 9 Collection Massachusetts Historicni Society, p. 220 - 3. Treaty of Halifax, August 15, 1749. - Secretary's Ofice, Boston.
6. French and Indian war, from April, 1755, to the treaty of Halifax, February 22, 1760; and Pownal's treaty, April 29. - Secretary's Office.
* Williamson, vol. i., p 517. In all of these six Indian wars, the Kennebecs, and in all but the last, the Norridgewogs espe- cially, were actively engaged. Sometimes they were led by an Abenaque chief, and sometimes by a Penobscot, or Etechemin, but they were untiring in seeking revenge. A complete history of the Canibas would be a recital of all the Indian wars of the East. Let it suffice to state thus much generally, and glance at the leading particulars.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
struck at one of the whites, Hosea Mallet, and endeavored to take his life. He was instantly seized, and confined in a cellar, and his com- panions confessed that he deserved death, but offered a ransom of forty beaver skins for his life. He was at length released, and his companions were regaled with tobacco and a feast, and Robinhood, to commemorate the occasion, celebrated it in a dance, and songs and shouts .* He who reads the records of these times, cannot avoid believing that the Kennebecs were most peaceably disposed.
The affront which Squando, the sagamore of the Sokokis, received, undoubtedly awakened the sympathy of his friends on the Kennebec. His squaw was passing along on the Saco, in a canoe, with an infant child, when some rude sailors met her, and having heard that Indian children could swim naturally, they overturned the canoe. The child sunk, and the mother, diving after it, brought it up, and swam to the shore. The child soon after died, and the parents very properly attributed its death to the injuries it received. Squando thereafter used all his efforts to unite and exasperate the Eastern Indians against the English, and whatever acts of violence the well-disposed Kennebecs afterwards committed, may be attributed to this act, and such as these. ¡
The villages on the frontiers, and the few scattering, hardy settlers, suffered from the Norridgewocks in all the Indian wars. Hal- lowell was depopulated in the first Indian war.
*Williamson, vol. i., p. 519. + Hubbard, Indian Wars, p. 330 - 1.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
The last and greatest of the Jesuits in Amer- ica was
SEBASTIAN RALE, who was born in Franche- Comté, France, in the year 1657. He was educated a priest of the Jesuit order, and em- barked at Rochelle, July 23, 1689, for America, * filled with ardor and zeal to convert the hea- then to the Christian faith. He arrived Octo-
ber 13th of the same year. When he first came over, and for two years after, he resided in a small Abnaki village near Quebec, and at different periods he visited probably nearly all of the northern tribes. He succeeded in learn- ing the Abnaki language, in preparing a dic- tionary, and also in learning other Indian tongues. He lived with the savages as one of them, and succeeded in devoting them all to his person in a surprising manner. They regarded him as a superior being. And what- ever fault may be found with his theology, candor must reverence the beauty of that life and those teachings, which the Red Man so admired. He "pointed them to heaven, and led the way." In the words of a sachem of the times : " The Friars taught them to pray to their God, which the English never did." He was recalled by his superiors, after two years, and ordered to the Illinois. He spent three months at Quebec, learning the Algonquin language, and embarked August 13, 1692, for his station. He abode among the Hurons and Iroquois for a short season, spent two years
* Mass. Hist. Collection, 1819, p. 250.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
among the Illinois, and then resorted, as he styles it, to Kinibiki, to devote the rest of his days to the "service of the Abnakis." His or- thography of our river, together with the sim- ilar word, Kenebeca, used by Capt. John Smith, seems to indicate that Kenebeca may have been the proper name of the country originally ruled by Kenebis.
It was about the beginning of the year 1689 that he came to Norridgewock. He immedi- ately commenced his duties, and began to pre- pare himself for the great work which he designed to accomplish. He learned the lan- guage, customs, and habits of the Abnakis ; and with that deep insight into human nature which he possessed, he laid his plans to pro- mote success. He commenced a dictionary, which was taken at his death, and which con- tains some five hundred pages of words and definitions, quarto. The manuscript is now in Harvard Library, at Cambridge. On a fly leaf are these words : "Il y a un an que je suis parmi les sauvages je commence a mettre en ordre en forme de dictionaire les mots que j'apprends." *
He found the Indians acquainted with the art of making candles ; for, he says, that with twenty-four pounds of the wax of the bayberry, and twenty-four pounds of tallow, he made one hundred candles, one foot in length, which he used for the purpose of illuminating his chapel,
" I have been about a year among the savages, and now begin to arrange, in the form of a dictionary, the words that I learn." - 1 Mem. Am. Academy, vol. iv., p. 358.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
which was at first a mere hut. In 1697 or '98, however, a more convenient one was erected. Gov. Villebon, in a letter to Stoughton, claimed all the land as far west as the Kennebec, from the lake to the sea. He proposed leaving the course of the river free to both nations, and the Indians on both sides free.
Râle's success was astonishing. In a very short period of time he had so impressed the Indians, that they were thoroughly Catholic ; and whatever may be said by partisans, they were milder and kinder, and more like Chris- tians, and their conduct was better towards their enemies, than that of their Indian neigh- bors ; - nay, was not wanting, when weighed in the balance with that of the English Chris- tians.
Both Catholics and Protestants seem to have been desirous of making Religion the hand- maid of Trade. They sought to make con- verts, to lower the price of furs. To this rule there were honorable exceptions ; and among those who labored for the good of souls, exclu- sively, and whose minds were pure and honest, Râle must, by impartial history, be placed high.
The English looked with great disgust on the Catholic conquests, and sought to counter- act them. Accordingly King William estab- lished, about 1700, the "Society in England, for propagating the gospel in foreign parts." It received great contributions, sent forth many missionaries, but so much more captivating were the manners and teachings of the Jesuits
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INDIAN HISTORY.
than those of the Protestants, that they could not "win to Christ" the unsophisticated sons of nature. The seed dispensed by Râle fell on congenial soil; and in less than six years he beheld the tribe at Narrantsoak obedient as children to his wishes, and ready, in the spirit of the church militant, to say masses to the souls of departed saints, or slay living and ob- stinate heretics.
Nov. 29, 1690, a truce was consummated at Sagadahock, by commissioners from Massa- chusetts, and six Sagamores, among whom were Egeremet alias Moxus, Toqualunt, and Watombamet of Kennebec .* At this time the condition of Maine was truly deplorable. Wells, York, Kittery, and the Isle of Shoals only remained, and the people at each of these posts were fearfully looking for that destruction which seemed to threaten them every moment. The Indians made repeated attacks on these places, and seemed bent on the extirpation of the white race in the eastern portion of the continent. The treaty was not kept. Contin- ual outbreaks were occurring, and again, Aug. 11, 1692, a treaty was formed at Pemaquid. Among the sachems who agreed to it were Wassambomet and Ketteramogis, of Norridge- wock, and Bomazeen and Wenobson, of Ta- connet.
This treaty was no better observed than the one previous, for Sieur de Villieu, an agent of Frontenac, assisted by Râle, instigated t a com-
* Williamson, vol. i., p. 626.
+ Fit instruments to effect his purpose, were the French mis- sionaries, all of whom were ready, with tearful eye, to preach
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INDIAN HISTORY.
pany of twenty Indians, under Madockawando, Bomazeen and Toxus, to march against and destroy Dover, N. H., which they did, July 18, 1693. They also attacked many other places in Maine.
Soon after this gross violation of the treaty, several Indians were seized and imprisoned, among whom was Bomazeen, who Nov. 19, visited the fort at Pemaquid, under command of Captain March, pretending to be a stranger from Canada, ignorant of the recent outbreak. He and those with him were seized, and sent to Boston. They would have been ransom- ed but for the great * poverty and misery of the Indians. Still they were incited by the French, and constantly made petty attacks on the whites.
Sheepcot John was sent to the Abnakies to arrange a negociation of prisoners. He obtain- ed a flotilla of fifty canoes, which met a de- tachment of Englishmen, May 20, 1695, at Fort William Henry, Rutherford's Island. A truce was entered into for thirty days, and a confer- ence was held; but the English commissioners refused to treat, because the white prisoners were not produced. This offended the Indians, and they angrily inquired, " Where are Boma- zeen, Robin Doney, and others? We will talk no more." The conference, thereupon,
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