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 4
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 4
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 4
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 4
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 4
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" 'Tis morning over Norridgewock - On tree and wigwam, wave and rock. Bathed in th' autumnal sunshine, stirred At intervals by breeze and bird, And wearing all the hues which glow In heaven's own pure and perfect bow, That glorious picture of the air, Which summer's light-robed angel forms On the dark ground of fading storms, With pencil dip'd in sunbeams there - And stretching out on either hand, O'er all that wide and unshorn land, 'Till weary of its gorgeousness, The aching and the dazzled eye
Rests, gladden'd, on the dark blue sky, -
Slumbers the mighty wilderness ! The oak upon the windy hill Its dark green burden upward heaves - The hemlock broods above its rill, Its cone-like foliage darker still,
While the white birches' graceful stem, And the rough walnut bough receives The sun upon their crowded leaves ; Each colored like a topaz gem ;
And the tall maple wears with them The coronal which autumn gives, The brief, bright sign of ruin near, The hectic of a dying year." - MOGG MEGONE.
" To Quebec was a distance of more than five days of painful travel, and it was a journey of two days to the dwellings of the English. The country around, in every direction, was a wil- 5*
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INDIAN HISTORY.
derness, inhabited only by savages. In this situation, the missionary determined to conse- crate his life to the political and spiritual ser- vices which he had been appointed to render ; and began by building a church, supplied with all the decorations and implements calculated to engage the imagination in the pompous cer- emonies, and imposing worship of the Catho- lic faith. The women contended with a holy emulation in the embellishment of their sanctu- ary, by all the finery they possessed, and the chapel and the church were illumined by bril- liant lights from the wax of the bayberries, gath- ered upon the islands of the sea. Such was the machinery of the holy office, among the rude people of Nanrantsouak ; and multitudinous processions, symbolical images, paintings, and mysterious rites were combined to arrest the eye and catch the fancy of the savage neophytes.
" Dictator of the consciences of his flock, where no envious rival, no jealous competitor, no heretical teacher, could break into the fold, the temporal concerns of their mortal welfare could not be kept from his hands; and they looked to him for advice at the council fire, on the policy and arrangements for war, not less than for edification in the principles of the re- ligion of peace. Dependence and devotedness were never more perfect, and never was a system adopted, better calculated to obtain and preserve them. The Christianizing of these savages, their regularity of observances, their unreservedness of belief, were perfect ; yet what was the state of their civilization ? They
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were hunters and savage warriors still." Bel- knap states,* that he always unfurled a stand- ard, on which was pictured a cross, surrounded by bows and arrows, whenever he gave them absolution, as they were about departing on a warlike excursion. He thus excited them with religious phrenzy, and was sure that his con- verts would fight to the last.
Râle refused to go to Nova Scotia on its cession, and declared against the establishment of a line of forts. The English told the natives that mills and dams were only fortifications ! that they prevented the ascent of fish never occurred to them. Their anger when they discovered the fraud, may be imagined.
Williamson gives a synopsis of the conduct of the English and French towards the Indians, in expressions which they uttered from time to time. "Frenchmen never take away our lands. No ; but their kind missionaries come and tell us how to pray, and how to worship the Great Spirit. When the day is darkened by clouds, our French brothers give us counsel. In trade with them we have good articles, full weight and free measure. Indians and white men have one Great Father .; When you first came from the morning waters, we took you into our open arms; - we thought you children of the sun ; - we fed you with our best meat. Never went a white man cold and starving from the cabin of an Indian. Do we not speak truth ? " But you have returned us evil for good.
* 2 Hist. New Hampshire, p. 41.
+ Vol. ii., p. 112.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
You put the flaming cup to our lips ; it filled our veins with poison; it wasted the pride of our strength. Ay, and when the fit was on us, you took advantage - you made gains of us. You made our beaver cheap; then you paid us in watered rum and trifles. We shed your blood ; - we avenged your affronts. Then you promised us equal trade, and good commodities. Have Christian Englishmen lived up to their enagements ? Never."
At the time Norridgewock was destroyed, it presented a singular spectacle to all observers. The French Jesuits, Biart, Massi, Vincent, Jaques Bigot, and Sebastian Râle, with all the zeal that ever actuated a member of their sect, had gone forth in the spirit of their religion, and sounded the " silver trumpet of the gospel" through the silent forests of these northern wilds, and had planted the cross of Christ, and so adorned it, that it was rendered attractive to the simple red men, and they had become initiated into the principles of Christianity. The spot they occupied was one of the most delightful in nature. On a beautiful level plat of land, gently circumscribed by the blue windings of the river, they had made their village. Sudden acclivities defended them from the northern and eastern storms, while the beautiful river's banks lined with forest trees, gave a charming finish to the picture. The rude huts of the Indians, that of good Father Râle undistin- guished from the rest, the spring, (yet visible,) the two chapels, and on Sundays the quiet stillness of nature, broken but not disturbed by
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the sound of the chapel bell mournfully steal- ing through vale and wood, and the hymn and prayer of the pale priest or red worshipper, pre- sent us with a view possessing the highest poetic beauty. The romance of the scene surpasses the best picture of fancy in works of imagination. The wigwams of the Norridge- wogs were placed in two parallel rows, run- ning north and south ; a common road skirted the bank of the river, while between the rows of cabins there was a fine street two hundred feet wide. At the northern extremity of the street stood the church, with the principal entrance toward the east, with a vacant space between it and the river. Râle's house joined the sacristy.
The New England poet, Whittier, has graph- ically described the probable appearance of the Indian village.
" On the brow of a hill, which slopes to meet The flowing river, and bathe its feet, - The bare washed rock and the drooping grass, And the creeping vine as the waters pass, - A rude and unshapely chapel stands, Built up in that wild, by unskilled hands ; Yet the traveller knows it a place of prayer, For the holy sign of the Cross is there ; And should he chance at that place to be, Of a Sabbath morn, or scme hallowed day, When prayers are made and masses are said, Some for the living and some for the dead, - Well might the traveller start to see The tall dark forms that take their way From the birch canoe on the river shore, And the forest paths to that chapel door ; And marvel to mark the naked knees And the dusky foreheads bending there, - And stretching his long, thin arms over these, - In blessing and in prayer,
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INDIAN HISTORY.
Like a shrouded spectre, pale and tall, In his coarse white vesture, Father Ralle."
- MOGG MEGONE.
The good Father declares that alewives are so plenty, (in 1723,) that if a man had strength to endure the labor, he could gather 50,000 barrels in a day. The territory of Old Point has been suffered to pass from the town of Norridgewock, and it is now in Madison. It is very singular that the proposition was allowed to prevail. There ought to have been an uni- versal outcry on the part of the people of Norridgewock against the movement.
At the lower end of the village, near the Bomazeen falls, there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, while at the upper end of the village, at the Old Point, was another chapel in which they worshipped, dedicated to the guardian angel of the tribe. Daily worship was celebrated in the humble temple. Mass was observed each morning, and hymns and prayers in the Indian tongue were chanted each day. At night the churches were splen- didly illuminated, by candles made of bayber- ries, and forty Indian youths, in sacred cas- socks, officiated around the venerable priest. Râle wrote concerning his situation as follows: " Here I am in a cabin in the woods, where I find both crosses and religious observances among the Indians. At the dawn of the morn- ing I say mass in the chapel made of the branches of the fir tree. The residue of the day I spend in visiting and consoling the sav- ages."
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INDIAN HISTORY.
· He wrote a letter to his nephew,* dated at " Nanrantsouak, this 15th of October, 1722," in which he details the habits, manners and cus- toms of his disciples. He says, " I have erected a church there, which is neat and elegantly ornamented. I have indeed thought it my duty to spare nothing, either in the decoration of the building itself, or in the beauty of those articles which are used in our holy ceremonies. Vestments, chasubles, copes and holy vessels, all are highly appropriate, and would be es- teemed so, even in our churches in Europe. I have also formed a little choir of about forty young Indians, who assist at Divine Service in cassocks and surplices. They have each their own appropriate functions, as much to serve in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as to chant the Divine Offices for the consecration of the Holy Sacrament, and for the processions which they make with great crowds of Indians, who often come from a long distance to engage in these exercises ; and you would be edified by the beautiful order they observe, and the devo-
tion they show." He relates the account of the two chapels, the method of making bay- berry candles and maple sugar, the emulation of the Indian women in adorning the chapel, and other things, connected with his duty and their habits, elsewhere related. He then adds : " After the Mass, I teach the Catechism to the children and young persons, while a large number of aged persons who are present assist
* Kip's " Jesuits in America."
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and answer with perfect docility the questions which I put to them. The rest of the morn- ing, even to mid-day, is set apart for seeing those who wish to speak with me. They come to me in crowds, to make me a participator in their pains and inquietudes, or to communicate to me causes of complaint against their coun- trymen, or to consult me on their marriages, and other affairs of importance. It is, there- fore, necessary for me to instruct some, to con- sole others, to re-establish peace in families at variance, to calm troubled consciences, to cor- rect others by reprimands, mingled with soft- ness and charity ; in fine, as far as it is possi- ble, to render them all contented." He relates that his engagements among them are so great, that he had not time to recite his Office. So attached were they to the new religion, that when they went to the sea-shore in summer to hunt sea-fowl, they erected a temporary church on an island, and observed the regular wor- ship.
" As soon as they reach the place where they are to pass the night, they fix up stakes at intervals in the form of a chapel; they sur- round them with a large tent made of ticking, which has no opening except in front. It is
all finished in a quarter of an hour. I always carry with me a beautiful board of cedar about four feet in length, with the necessary supports, and this serves for an altar, while above it they place an appropriate canopy. 1 ornament the interior of the Chapel with very beautiful silk cloths; a mat of reeds dyed and admirably
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INDIAN HISTORY.
made ; a large bear skin serves for a carpet. They carry this always prepared, and no sooner are they settled down, than the Chapel is ar- ranged. When the Indians have reached their destination, the very next day they occupy themselves in raising the church, which they dress up with their bark cloths. I carry with me my plate, and every thing which is neces- sary to ornament the choir, which I hang with silk cloths, and beautiful calicoes. Divine ser- vice is performed there as at the village, and in fact they form a kind of village, with all their wigwams made of bark, which are all prepared in less than an hour." * From corn-planting until the middle of August, and from Nov. 1st till Feb. 1st, it was the custom of the tribe to dwell on the sea-shore and fish, - all but the hunters, who were securing and preparing game. He relates that nothing could induce the Indians to perform an act which could en- danger their enjoyment of the Catholic faith or its advocates. They even resisted the temp- tation to trade with the English, and steadily adhered to the French, through good and evil report. He relates many of the wiles of the English to circumvent the French, and the faithfulness of the Indians. He speaks at some length of their attempt to capture him, and of the attacks made both by the English and Indians. After recounting various incidents herein recorded, and particularly mentioning the request of the Indians that he would retire
* Early Jesuits, p. 60.
6
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INDIAN HISTORY.
to Quebec, he winds up with the words of the apostle : " I do not in the least fear the threats of those who hate me without a cause, 'and I count not my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.' "
Oct. 12, 1723, he addressed a letter * to " Monsieur, my very dear brother," dated at Nanrantsouak, in which he details at great length the manners, customs, habits, etc. of the Indians, and his own progress in their savage arts. He had many narrow escapes, one of which he relates. He was crossing the river St. Lawrence in a birch canoe, with two In- dians, when he was immediately wedged in with ice. The large cakes borne by the swift current threatened them with destruction, and the Indians cried, " We are lost !" But they made an effort to leap on the ice, and dragging the canoe after them, they ran from one cake to another, until they were out of danger.
He had found it very difficult to eat with the Indians after their gross manner, and they in- quired the cause. He replied that he could not overcome his former habits. " We too," was the answer, " have difficulties to overcome, in order to have faith in what we cannot see !" This answer, significant indeed, overcame the scruples of the good Father, and he conformed to their habits.
He relates his adventures among the western
* Kip's "Jesuits in America," p. 23. Translated from " Let- tres Edifiantes et Curieuses, Ecrites des Missions Etrangeres."
-
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INDIAN HISTORY.
Indians during the two years of his absence from Kinibiki, and says to his brother, "You will not require from me, my dear brother, that I should enter into detail with regard to all that has happened to me during the many years that I have been in this mission. My occupa- tions are always the same ; and I should expose myself to wearisome repetitions. I will there- fore only relate to you certain facts, which seem to me most worthy of your attention. I feel authorized to assert, in general, that you would find it difficult to restrain your tears if you should find yourself in my church when our Indians are assembled there, and be a wit- ness of the piety with which they recite their prayers, chant divine offices, and participate in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. When they have been enlightened by the faith, and sincerely embraced it, they are no longer the same persons, and the greater part pre- serve undimmed the purity they have received
at baptism. It is this which fills me with the deepest joy, when I hear their confessions, which are frequent ; no matter what questions I put to them, I often can with difficulty find materials to render absolution necessary." Thus in patriarchal simplicity this faithful man labored among the uncultivated savages.
But the fierce zeal of the Jesuit against her- esy, coupled with the wrongs which the East- ern Indians were continually receiving at the hands of the English, infused a hatred into them which they sought to wreak in vengeance on the foe. Accordingly, like lightning on the
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INDIAN HISTORY.
horizon's edge, they hovered on the frontier, and became the most dangerous foe of the English. Their depredations, as has been seen, were many and serious. It is not probable that there were many incursions into English set- tlements, of any importance, which did not include the Abnakies.
As was quite natural, Sebastian Râle, the Jesuit, was supposed by zealous puritans to be the mainspring of all the savage movements. Before the final attack in 1724, a reward was offered for his head, and in 1721 a body of troops was ordered by the Government of Mas- sachusetts to break up the village at Norridge- wock, and take Râle if possible. They par- tially succeeded in their efforts, and seized the papers of the priest, including his correspond- ence with the governor, by which his plans were fully developed. When these papers were taken, they were found enclosed in a "strong box." This box was very singular in its construction. It contained a secret drawer, so contrived that it was with the greatest diffi- culty that access could be had to the contents without breaking the box. It is evident that the artfully contrived box was to conceal pa- pers from the English in case of a sudden sur- prise. It could also have been easily slung to the back, and transported from place to place. It had two rude engravings on the lid, of the scourging of Jesus, and the crowning with thorns. The cunning box, and its contents, which were among other things letters of cor- respondence with the Marquis de Vaudreuil,
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Governor of Canada, revealed the plans of the Jesuit. The governor, through the priest, en- deavored to excite the Indians against the English. The box contained a complete dic- tionary of the Abnaki language, which has been deposited in the library of Harvard Uni- versity. " It is a quarto volume, in Râle's own handwriting. The work is divided into two parts. The first is a dictionary of the Abnaki dialect, in French and Indian, the French word or phrase being given first, and then the corresponding Indian expression, gen- erally, though not uniformly, in distinct col- umns. Two hundred and five leaves, a com- paratively small part of which have writing on both sides, and the remainder on one side only, make up this part. The second part has twen- ty-five leaves, both sides of which are filled with writing." Besides the papers, was found Râle's inkstand. The dictionary has since been published under the superintendence of John Pickering. - Memoirs American Academy, New Series, vol. i., p. 377. See also Harris' Life of Râle, Massachusetts Historical Collection, vol. viii. Third Series, p. 250. The box is in the pos- session of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
The letters found were of great value. Messrs. Dudley and Thaxter, of Massachusetts, and Colonel Atkinson, of New Hampshire, were appointed to treat with the Governor of Cana- da, and when, in reply to their accusations, he denied that he had endeavored to stir up strife among the Indians, his letters to Râle, taken at Norridgewock, were, to his great confusion,
6*
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produced. The mission was a fortunate one, and peace soon followed.
In this "strong box" a letter was found, in which Father Rale rejoiced very much over the victories of his savage votaries, though his glee seems to have been tinged with forebod- ings .* " My people returned in the spring, having learned what had passed in the winter, and made a party of forty men, against the English, not with a design to kill, but to put them in mind of their word, and make them draw off. In one night they ravaged near ten leagues of the country where the English had settled, broke into their houses, &c. . At break of day, ten Englishmen coming out of their stone fort, with their arms, seven of my people set upon them, killed some, &c .; and these 600 miserable Englishmen saw all this without daring to come out ; and as for myself, to pleasure the English, I made my appearance, and showed myself to them several times, which perhaps increased their fury against me, while they saw me, but dare do nothing to me, although they knew that the Governor had set my head at a thousand livres sterling. I shall not part with it, nevertheless, for all the sterling money in England. The Indians have quitted, being persuaded that the English, to avenge themselves for the damage we have done, will come and burn Norridgewock." His prediction was speedily fulfilled.
* Massachusetts Hist. Coll., 2d Series, vol. viii., p. 260.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
Westbrook's expedition, however, unques- tionably produced Lovewell's war, which rag- ed during the following summer; for the anger of the Indians at the attempt to seize Râle, vented itself on the frontiers, and Love- well's expedition was to make reprisals. The different tribes, about this time, came together from all quarters, and assembled at Nanrant- souack, where around the great council fire, kindled in that sacred vale, they chanted the war song with the Hurons and Iroquois, and vowed the destruction of the palefaces.
It seems to have been the scheme of Râle, to make the Catholic Faith the means of uniting the Indian race in one great party against the Protestant English, and thus to give them power, aided by the French, to destroy the English. But though Râle escaped, his capture was almost accomplished. Colonel Westbrook, the commander of the English forces, found the village deserted, and was only able to burn the empty wigwams. Râle was the last one to leave. He secured the sacred vases, relics, and ornaments, and secreted him- self behind a neighboring tree, for, having had both legs broken, he could neither travel fast nor far. The strictest search was made for him, and though the soldiers were sometimes within eight feet of him, he escaped. Two Indians first discovered the approach of West- brook, and hurrying on, they gave the alarm. Râle says, "They were scarcely a gunshot distant when we perceived them, and all I could do was to hide myself with precipitation
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in the depths of the forest. They penetrated even to within eight paces of the tree which concealed me .* They were repelled by an unseen hand."
This attack upon their beloved priest aroused the Norridgewocks to redoubled fury, and the attack on Brunswick, and other atrocities which immediately followed. induced the government of Massachusetts to send out a force which would destroy Râle and his Indian allies. These threats moved the Indians to beg his removal to Quebec, but he steadily refused, preferring to die with the harness on. His warm friends remained with him. Mourning over their many losses, their gloomy prospects, and their feeble condition, they made a last stand above the bones of their fathers, among the sacred haunts at Norridgewock. With the desperation of a hunted deer, turning to meet its pursuers, they awaited their fate.
In describing this event, we tread on classic ground. The touch of genius has hallowed it, and we give its representation.
" In one lone village hem'd at length, In battle shorn of half their strength. Turned like the panther in his lair, With his fast flowing life blood wet, For one last struggle of despair, Wounded and faint, but tameless yet !
" Unreaped, upon the planting lands, The scant, neglected harvest stands - No shout is there, no dance, no song - The aspect of the very child
* Early Jesuits, p. 16.
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INDIAN HISTORY.
Scowls with a meaning sad and wild,
Of bitterness and wrong. The almost infant Norridgewock Essays to lift the tomahawk ; And plucks his father's knife away To mimic in his frightful play,
The scalping of an English foe - Wreathes on his lip a horrid smile,
Burns like a snake's, his small eye, while Some bough or sapling meets his blow. The fisher, as he drops his line, Starts when he sees the hazels quiver,
Along the margin of the river, Looks up and down the rippling tide,
And grasps the firelock at his side. For Bomazeen from Taconnock,
Has sent his runners to Norridgewock,
With tidings that Moulton and Harmon of York, Far up the river have come ;
They have left their boats, they have entered the wood, And filled the depths of the solitude
With the sound of the ranger's drum."- MOGG MEGONE.
The final and successful effort was made in August, 1724. On the 19th day of the month, a detachment of four companies, consisting of two hundred and eight men, in seventeen whale boats, under command of Captains Moulton, Harman, Bourne, and Bane, left fort Richmond. They were guided by three Mo- hawk Indians. Having arrived at Taconnet, they left the boats under a guard of forty men, and the remaining one hundred and sixty- eight proceeded along the river, through the woods, to the devoted village. They had hardly started when they met the distinguished Bomazeen, whom they shot as he was crossing the river. A little further up his wife and daughter were taken.
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