USA > Maine > Pioneers on Maine rivers, with lists to 1651 > Part 31
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Several years later Andre Thevet, companion of Villegagnon and official historiographer for the French king, who had trav- ersed the Maine coast in 1556, wrote his impressions of Penob- scot River and asserted that "upon its banks the French formerly erected a little fort about ten or twelve leagues from its mouth, which was surrounded by fresh-water, and the place was named the Fort of Norumbegue." This was the station of Villegagnon .*
Eleven years later Rene Laudonniere, who had served as an officer under Ribault in 1565, began a plantation at Saint Mary's River, in the present state of Florida.
November 8, 1603, Henry Fourth, of France, granted land on the Bay of Fundy to Sieur de Monts, who took possession of Dochet Island in Saint Croix River in 1604, but due to general dissatisfaction with that situation transferred his colony across the bay to Port Royal, now known as Annapolis, the next spring.
From Port Royal emanated other settlements, which re- occupied the island in the Saint Croix, in 1611, and soon after began a new plantation at Saint Sauveur on Mount Desert Island. The pioneers alluded to their province as "Nova Francia," a name
* Me. Doc. Hist., 1-416.
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
which had been assigned by Jacques Cartier upon discovery. However, French plans for expansion were interrupted by Vir- ginians who were fishing on the coast during the summer after the southerly post at Mount Desert had been established. The English fishermen learned of the existence of the colony at Saint Sauveur from the Indians and, under leadership of Sir Samuel
-
DOCHET ISLAND, SAINT CROIX RIVER
Argal, proceeded to disrupt that and all neighboring settlements about the Bay of Fundy. The victorious fleet sailed for Virginia November 9, 1613. The captives were extradited, but refugees secured protection among the natives with whom they after- wards lived and intermarried.
Due to intimate relations with them, the disbanded colonists became expert dealers in furs and traded arms and ammunition with the Indians at exorbitant prices. In 1614, Captain Smith reported that the eastern natives stood in such great fear of the French that they importuned him to locate among them, suggest- ing as an inducement that he and a dozen assistants could regu- late the whole northern trade.
September 10, 1621, Sir William Alexander became inter- ested in the decadent fortunes of New France and obtained a grant of that territory which he renamed New Scotland, or Nova
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Scotia. There occurred, however, an interim of several years before colonization of his Western Province could be undertaken.
In the meantime, a memorial was presented to the English monarch by Count de Tillieres, the French ambassador, in 1624, in which demands were revived for the peaceable restitution of New France on the grounds of original discovery and colonization.
The answer of the respondents, which was dictated by Gorges at the king's request, contained the gist of the contention and was expressed in the following paragraph: "It is argued that the pre- tensions of the French can only date from the discoveries made by Jacques de Cartier, and the foundation of a plantation at a place called Tadousac, by Champlain. Sir William Alexander's patent is also quoted and the right of Mons. Poutrincourt to the possession or settlement of any of those parts disputed." The colonies "planted by M. M. Villegagnon and René Loudonnière, from which they were expelled by the Spaniards," were declared to have been ineffectual to subvert English Claims .;
Gorges, who was recognized by the king and parliament as the highest authority on foreign relations, complimented himself upon the completeness of his answer and the resultant fact that for many years no further argument was advanced. Indeed, when the contention again arose it was only possible to settle it by a resort to arms.
According to Gorges, it was only at the urgent solicitation of his sovereign that he had been induced to part with his own rights in Northern Maine, then recognized as Canada County. Hence, it was with his acquiescence that the elder Alexander, in 1627, completed the organization of an English association, styled "The Merchant Adventurers of Canada," and began to recruit volunteers to found a colony in the New World. About one hun- dred of both sexes had been enlisted for the enterprise when King Charles issued the "pass," or commission, for the settlement of New Scotland. The royal edict was signed March 26, 1628.
At the call to embark some of the subscribers failed to respond for transportation privileges and were penalized subsequently, but the remainder amounting to about seventy were put in charge of William, son of the proprietor, and conveyed to Port Royal, where they constructed a fortification on the Granville shore.
In England the experiment of the Canada Adventurers and
+ Sainsbury's Col. Pap., 1-61, 119.
-
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
the departure of the ship were attended with much publicity and followed with interest. Like Alexander himself the colonists, principally of Scotch extraction, expected to acquire wealth in the fur industry as well as agriculture.
For many years British fishing vessels had passed and re- passed the Acadian shores without taking the time to investigate their resources; but at this particular juncture merchants of Bristol, who were operating in the vicinity of Monhegan, did not favor the establishment of a Scottish plantation in the East, be- cause they had been accustomed to seine for herring and mackerel in Penobscot waters and to trade with the Etechemins about the Bay of Fundy.
Accordingly, it was not surprising that in April, of the year that the Scotch colony arrived at Port Royal, Edward Ashley should be sent from Bristol to Penobscot and furnished by mer- chants and relatives of that port with merchandise to be sold to the natives on a commission basis. One of these Bristol mer- chants was Thomas Wright.
The new trader adopted the French methods of living with the Indians and dealing in contraband articles. Such practices had been forbidden by royal edict, but Ashley excused his con- duct on the ground that he had found eastern tribes already in possession of arms and ammunition, which they had obtained from French merchants.
Ashley's claim of French lawlessness was supported by a contemporary authority who, writing in 1628, deplored the fact that "Those Indeans to ye east parts, which had comerce with ye French, got peces of them, and they in ye end made a commone trade of it; and in time our English fisher-men, led with ye like covetoussnes, followed their example, for their owne gaine; but upon complainte against them, it pleased the kings majestie to prohibite ye same by a stricte proclamation, commanding that no sorte of armes, or munition, should by any of his subjects be traded with them."}
Although Ashley was associated with Bristol trading inter- ests at Monhegan far to the west, the proximity of the Scotch on the other side gave him some sense of security. At Port Royal, however, Alexander's colonists found the Indians adverse to trade, on account of the prejudice which had been created by their
# Bradford, 2-158.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
predecessors, and advised the adventurers in England to that effect. The result was that, early in the year following the ar- rival of the new colony, Admiral David Kirke appeared off the Northern Coast with an armed fleet. By this means all alien op- position in the country was soon reduced and, due to losses of war and extradition, a surrender of Canadian territory to the English was effected July 19, 1629.
During the fall of this year Ashley returned to Bristol, either with, or in the wake of, the victorious squadron. In a deposition, dated February 11, 1631-2, he testified that "about 4 years past he first went to New England to inhabit, and stayed ther about sixteen monethes." This would fix the time of his departure at some time in August.§
Bradford reported that during the sojourn of this eastern trader he had "lived amonge ye Indeans as a savage, & wente naked amongst them, and used their maners (in wch time he got their language)." Ashley's own version of the experience was that he had been located "among the Indyans about three score myles from the Englishe," at a place called Machabitticus.
Ordinarily, two months were required for passage to Eng- land and Ashley remained there five months, in which interval he induced the Council of Plymouth, despite much opposition from Salem interests, to grant a concession at Muscongus, which extended as far west as the river of that name and included Machabitticus. The patent was issued March 13, 1629-30, but not in Ashley's name; it was ceded to John Beauchamp, of Lon- don, and Thomas Leverett, of Boston, England.
Beauchamp was associated with Richard Andrews, Timothy Hatherly and James Sherley, all of London. Leverett repre- sented the Salem partners, including Matthew Cradock, John Humphrey, Isaac Johnson and John Winthrop .*
March 19, 1629-30, Sherley wrote to their associates at New Plymouth: "We have thought good to joyne with one Edward Ashley (a man I thinke yt some of you know) ; but it is only of yt place wherof he hath a patente in Mr. Beachamps name."+
The Salem contingent had insisted upon participation in the enterprise because they were convinced that Ashley would "strip them of all trade in those parts." Relatives of Ashley and mer-
§ Ford's Bradford. 2-179, note.
Mass. Hist. Col .. 3-72.
¡ Bradford, 2-169.
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
chants of Bristol, including Thomas Wright, who had been inter- ested in his former venture, were also anxious to refinance him in anticipation of large profits. However, only William Peirce, who had agreed to transport the company's employes and pro- visions, and New Plymouth, which was already engaged in east- ern trade, were admitted to the commercial undertaking.
Thomas Willett was chosen by the colony to represent its interests and the rest of the company, besides Ashley, consisted of a carpenter and four or five laborers. They took with them from Bristol a new boat and materials to construct another.
Peirce who was bound for Salem, but had promised to "bend his course," landed Ashley's party at Penobscot late in May.
After their arrival a substantial house was built near the margin of the river and supplied with merchandise for sale or exchange. This was the only building constructed by these traders at Machabitticus, and they relied solely upon small arms for defence.
Isaac Allerton was not merely a partner, but the chief advo- cate for the company's plan to establish Ashley and keep him stocked with goods for trading purposes. He came from Bristol with Peirce in the Lyon and after the colonists had been landed at Penobscot proceeded thence to New Plymouth. On his way westward Allerton engaged Captain John Wright, who then was quartered at Monhegan, to transport supplies in his shallop from New Plymouth to Ashley at Penobscot. This action was in ac- cord with the request of Sherley, that the colony should furnish all the aid it could "either by men, commodities, or boats."
Wright was interested also in the arrival of the Swift at the Eastward. That vessel, which belonged to his brother Thomas Wright, of Bristol, had been dispatched by the owner, in com- pany with Allerton and Vines, with passengers and provisions for Saco and Casco, where it was instructed to relade with fish and train oil.
Allerton, who had just traversed the eastern fishing grounds, accompanied Wright in his shallop as a passenger for Pemaquid, where there appeared to be the best prospect of securing a return cargo for the Swift. June 12, they were leaving Salem harbor just as Winthrop arrived and held a consultation on board the latter's ship. June 25, Allerton, Wright and Stephen Reekes, master of the Swift, witnessed the certificate of possession which
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
was executed at Saco by Vines. Soon after, the Swift was taken at Monhegan as a prize of war.
Bradford reported that, as soon as Ashley had been landed at Penobscot, he wrote "& afterwards came" to New Plymouth, "to be supplyed with Wampampeake, corne against winter, and other things." His first supply was bound for Machabitticus about the middle of September, when Wright's shallop left passengers at Pullin Point on its way eastward.}
With the resumption of trade at the Eastward Ashley was confronted with new competition. Sir William Alexander had not been inactive and April 30, 1630, had conferred upon Claude La Tour, a French Protestant, a large concession of territory ex- tending eastward from the "Cloven Cape" about Cape Sable. Upon the premises thus acquired La Tour established a fort and settlement that year. The site is still distinguishable in the name of Port Latour in Barrington Bay.
The new French colonists sponsored by Alexander and the members of the first settlement about the Bay of Fundy, some of whom had lived among the natives and traveled inland with them, retained a monopoly of trade with the Indians. The fur- ther fact that French dealers were not prohibited from bartering weapons with the warlike tribes was in their favor.
Ashley, on account of previous experience, undertook to match such competition in kind. For this purpose he had im- ported rapier blades, guns, powder and lead. The result was soon apparent, for, to quote Bradford, "Ashley, being well supplyed, had quickly gathered a good parcell of beaver, and like a crafty pate he sent it all home, and would not pay for ye goods he had had of ye plantation hear, but lett them stand still on ye score, and tooke up still more." The complaint of the colony was that the London partners, on account of Ash- ley's larger volume of business with the natives and the advice of Allerton, "cast more how to supplie him then ye plantation."
The same historian added: "They were forct to buy him a barke allso, and to furnish her wth a mr. & men, to transporte his corne & provissions (of which he put of much) ; for ye Indeans of those parts have no corne growing, and at harvest, after corne is ready, ye weather grows foule, and ye seas dangerous, so as he could doe litle good with his shallope for yt purposs."§
# Mass. Col. Rec., 1-61.
§ Bradford, 2-174.
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
The scarcity of cereals in Northern Maine was explained by Pory at Damariscove in 1622. He reported that as for "Corne they set none in their parts toward the north, and that is the cause why Indian corne, pease and such like is the best trucke for their skinnes, and then in winter especiallie when hunger doth most pinch them, which is the season when the French do use to trade with them."
The bark provided for Ashley was the White Angel, pur- chased in 1631 from Alderman Aldworth, one of the Pemaquid proprietors, at Bristol, but early in May, before that vessel had arrived in New England, he was apprehended for selling danger- ous weapons to the Indians.
Depositions of Plymouth employes at Castine, relating to his offence, were taken before Governor Walter Neal and Henry Keyes, master of the Pide Cow and deputy of the governor. The first hearing was conducted before Neal at Saco, July 19, 1631, and disclosed the names of Oliver Callow, John Deacon, James Downs, Thomas Richards, a servant who had died before the in- vestigation, Henry Sampson and George Watson, as the earliest English residents of Machabitticus.
Isaac Allerton, who shortly before had arrived with a cargo of cattle at that port, was an interested observer, but was dis- charging his vessel in Boston Harbor three days later. Ambrose Gibbons, of Pascataqua, Vines and Lewis, of Saco, and Leonard Yeo, of Virginia, witnessed the proceedings.
A second hearing appears to have been conducted by Cap- tain Keyes at Castine, in the presence of Vines, on July 30. There the deponents were William Phipps and Thomas Willett, the New Plymouth factor. Captions of proceedings described Ashley as a "late inhabitant of new England," and the deposition of "a servaunt" alleged that the respondent had been "fore- warned and Advised by Captayne Neale and the governour of new Plymouth not to trade either armes or munition yett not withstanding since that time he traded with some Indians pow- der and shott."*
From the evidence adduced at the trial it was apparent that, "not long before Christmas when Edward Ashley went to New Plymouth," he had been admonished by the two governors to re- frain from trading dangerous commodities with the natives.
* Mass. Hist. Proc., 45-493.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Only eleven days before the holiday Neal was in Boston in con- ference with the authorities.i
Some of the testimony was to the effect that "not long before Christmas" and "since Christmas," 1630, the trader had openly persisted in trucking contraband at the Eastward. With this express object in view he had imported prohibited articles since his first advent in the country.
After his arrest local authorities, of whom Neal was chief, undertook to confiscate a thousand pounds of beaver, from Ash- ley's accumulated stock, as a penalty for malfeasance, but finally acceded to the claims of Plymouth Colony and released the prop- erty.
According to the statement of the New Plymouth historian, the outcome of the investigation was that the respondent "was taken in a trape * for trading powder & shote with ye In- deans; and was ceased upon by some in authoritie, who allso would have confiscated above a thousand weight of beaver; but ye goods were freed, for ye Govr here made it appere, by a bond under Ashleys hand, wherin he was bound to them in 500 li. not to trade any munition with ye Indeans, or other wise to abuse him selfe; it was allso manifest against him that he had comited uncleannes with Indean women (things that they feared at his first imployment, which made them take this strict course with him in ye begining) ; so, to be shorte, they gott their goods freed, but he was sent home prisoner."}
Ashley testified that he was deported in October following his arrest. Where he was confined during the interim was not indicated, nor is it known who was his bailiff but, probably, he was imprisoned on some fishing vessel off the coast. At the in- stance of the President and Council for New England, he was tried before a commissioner in England, where he was released under bonds, but never revisited America. He is reported to have died while returning from Russia, where he had been en- gaged in a similar employment by another trading company.
At the end of 1631 Allerton and Peirce sold their interests at Machabitticus to Plymouth Colony and the other partners with- drew from active participation in trade. The station, afterwards maintained wholly at the expense of agents of the colony and
៛ Winthrop, 1-38.
Bradford, 2-179.
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
in charge of Thomas Willett, was regarded as the sole property of New Plymouth.
Soon after the subjugation of Canada by Kirke the English king was importuned to restore Port Royal to the One Hundred Associates, and on account of his marital and religious connec- tions with France the foreign influences prevailed. In the case of Quebec there was some excuse for such compliance with inter- national rules of comity, since the treaty of peace between Eng- land and France had been concluded April 24, and the conquest had not been completed until July 19, 1629, when the two nations had ceased to be belligerents.
Port Royal, however, presented different legal aspects, for it had been occupied by Scotch immigrants in time of war as a vacuum domicilium. July 4, 1631, after special consideration, the king agreed to transfer all sovereignty in that colony to French claimants, and six days later he ordered the Scotch settlers to evacuate the premises under the direction of Andros Forrester, the commander of the garrison at Granville. At the same time he requested Sir William Alexander to instruct Sir George Home "to demolish the Fort that was builded by your son there, and to remove all the people, goods, ordnance, ammunition, cattle and other things, belonging unto that colonie, leaving the bounds thereof altogether waste and unpeopled, as it was at the time your son landed first to plant there, by virtue of our com- mission."§
The royal orders were not executed that year, but the French assumed an attitude of supremacy in the territory forthwith. The premises at Machabitticus, however, were not molested until 1632, and trading continued to prosper there in the meantime. The location was ideal for that purpose. Cammock, writing to Trelawney from Richmond Island, drew a comparison in this re- spect between the western and eastern sections of Maine. His complaint was: "As for trade heer itt doth decay every yeare more and more * All the good that is to bee done in thes partes, for trade, is towards the Eastwarde * allmost to the Scotts plantation."
March 27, 1632, the One Hundred Associates made arrange- ments with Isaac de Razilly, as their attorney, "to go and receive restitution at the hands of the English and put the company of
§ Murdoch's Nova Scotia, 1-80.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
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PENOBSCOT RIVER
the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Razilly's commission "to make the Scotch and other subjects of Great Britain withdraw" was signed May 10, and he embarked soon after for Canada in a vessel which had been provided by the French Government.
The Hundred Associates, who had been active agents in French development, still claimed the coast as far south as the forty-third degree of latitude by virtue of the original grant from Henry Fourth. Charles d'Aulnay, as lieutenant for Razilly, stated that when his superior first came to New France, to take possession of the country, he had orders "to clear the coast unto Pemaquid and Kenebeck of all persons whatever, and to cause them to withdraw, if there were any habitation seated on this side."*
It is evident that one of Razilly's vessels preceded him on the northern coast that spring and had been given special instruc- tions to locate and displant the English settlements to the west of Cape Sable. The advance party fixed its headquarters at La Have and secured preliminary information about the English trading posts from countrymen in the vicinity, who were anxious to eliminate competition.
It did not seem wise to interfere with the tranquillity of Saint George or Pemaquid, because Massachusetts merchants, who visited the Indian resorts, and Bristol fishing masters, who fre- quented the region annually, would not permit retention for more than one season. On the other hand, an open act of war by known combatants might provoke direct retaliation from the British Government. Since it was nearest and contained a large assortment of merchandise which was readily convertible into needed funds, the New Plymouth post was made the objective.
June 14, 1632, it was reported at Boston that "The French came in a pinnace to Penobscot, and rifled a trucking house be- longing to Plimouth, carrying thence three hundred weight of beaver and other goods. They took also one Dixy Bull and his shallop and goods."+
The account of the Plymouth historian was more explicit and described the method of operation. The Scotch accomplice was the sole survivor of Alexander's colony at Port Royal, which was about to be transferred to the French. The name of the "false
* 3 Mass. Hist. Col .. 7-94.
+ Winthrop, 1-79.
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PIONEERS ON MAINE RIVERS
Scott" may have been William Hart, who advised Abraham Shurt of the French plans to seize Pemaquid three years later.
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