USA > Maine > The history of Maine, from the earliest discovery of the region by the Northmen until the present time; including a narrative of the voyages and explorations of the early adventurers, the manners and customs of the Indian tribes, the hardships of the first settlers, etc > Part 14
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2 Hutchinson's Collections of State Papers, p. 386.
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The commissioners visited Kittery in June, 1665. The peo- ple were assembled, and were informed that if they persisted in adhering to the government of Massachusetts they would be punished with the utmost severity, as rebels and traitors. We have not space to enter into the details of the measures which were adopted. They were arbitrary and tumultuous. It was a reign of terror. Oaths were administered, and many were induced to petition the king for a new colony charter. But still the measures of the commissioners were exceedingly un- popular. The people generally were well satisfied with the virtual republic which they enjoyed. The commissioners seemed disposed to gather all power into their own hands.
George Cleaves of Casco, whose name is sometimes spelled Cleve and sometimes Cleeves, was one of the most distinguished men of these days. He was an ardent royalist, and was warmly attached to the Church of England. But he was very ambi- tious and self-reliant. The' despotic course pursued by the royal commissioners was offensive to him. He enjoyed a higher degree of liberty under the institutions of Massachusetts, than under the iron rule which the commissioners would introduce. He therefore, with twenty-one of his neighbors, drew up a petition to the king. This petition is one of the most import- ant documents of the times, as it throws so much light upon the political aspect of affairs. The petition, slightly abbrevi- ated, was as follows : -
" The humble petition of the inhabitants of Casco, in the State of Maine, represents, agreeably to your Majesty's command, our several reasons why we could not submit to Mr. Gorges.
" But first, to our most gracious father, we, your humble subjects, in- habiting a wilderness in the northern parts of your dominions, would return our most dutiful and hearty thanks for your princely care of us and of our children. Required by your Majesty to render submission to Mr. Gorges, or assign our reasons for declining it, we are frank to say we have no dis- position to oppose his government, whenever our obedience is expressly com- manded by your Majesty.
" In our union, however, with Massachusetts, we all pledged our alle- giance to her government, till our royal sovereign should otherwise determine and direct. Yet we have found by happy experience, as your Majesty very justly intimates, that her maxims of policy, prudence, and moderation, and her principles of amity and justice, so much the causes of her own eminence,
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have, since our short connection with her, been the means of our content- ment and prosperity, far beyond what we have enjoyed during any former period of the same length.
" The commissioners, nevertheless, forbid our submission to her govern- ment and likewise to Mr. Gorges. And in return she (the Massachusetts government) withholds our allegiance from them. So unhappily situated, we humbly entreat your Majesty not to believe us disloyal because our names are not found on the petition for a change of government or rulers, as we have no just complaint either against Mr. Gorges or Massachusetts, being taught by the best authority, that 'obedience is better than sacrifice,' and contentment is our duty wherever the allotment of God in his provi- dence, and your Majesty's commands, shall cast us.
" Threatened as we are for not signing the petition, and submitting to the commissioners, we beseech your Majesty to take these reasons and our case under your fatherly eye, and give us directions; for it is the design of our hearts to act correctly and uprightly, and we would rather submit to whatever government may be appointed over us, than to contend or direct what it should be." 1
The commissioners spent about two months, mostly at York, Scarborough, and Falmouth, making energetic efforts to revo- lutionize the government. They then followed along the coast to the Duke of York's territory at Sagadahoc, or, as it was then frequently called, New Castle. About this time several Dutch families moved from New York, and settled upon the banks of the Sheepscot and the Damariscotta.2
The commissioners opened their court on the 5th of Septem- ber, 1665, at the house of John Mason, on the east bank of the Sheepscot River. They organized the territory into a county, which they called Cornwall. The inhabitants were summoned to appear and take the oath of allegiance to the new govern- ment. But twenty-nine presented themselves. The county of Cornwall was limited on the west, by the Sagadahoc. It, how- ever, included twenty or thirty families upon the island.
It seems to have been the decision of all subsequent jurists, that the commissioners proved themselves utterly incapable of
1 Hutchinson's Historical Collections, p. 397.
2 "The government under the duke had never much energy or force in it, and would very soon have been subverted by the Massachusetts, if the measures pur- sued in England in order to take away the colony charter, and the hostility of the natives in this country, had not prevented it." - History of the District of Maine, by James Sullivan, p. 29.
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discharging the duties which had devolved upon them. No provision was made for the enactment of laws, for the imposi- tion of taxes, for education or religious instruction, or for the public defence.
It is supposed that there were about three hundred families within the county, and some of the settlements were forty years old. The commissioners spoke of the settlers in very contempt- uous terms, underrating their numbers, and describing them as mere fishermen and fugitives from justice, who were entirely unaccustomed to the restraints of government.1
In justice to the commissioners, it should be stated that they entered into a very judicious treaty with the chiefs of the neighboring tribes. The Indians had been atrociously wronged by vagabond and unprincipled white men. It could not be con- cealed that these wrongs were goading them into a hostile attitude.
It was agreed between the commissioners and some of the Indian chiefs, that, if any wrong were inflicted upon an Indian by one of the English, the Indian, instead of taking private revenge, should appeal to the courts for redress. If, on the other hand, an Englishman were injured or defrauded by an Indian, he should make his appeal to the Indian chiefs.
Contemptuously as the commissioners spoke of the settlers in the region of the Sagadahoc, they gave a very glowing account of the attractiveness of the country.2
" The islands, harbors, and outlets upon the coast," they wrote, "are richly stored with great fish, oysters, and lobsters. The interior abounds with ducks, geese, deer, and other game, and also with strawberries, rasp- berries, gooseberries, barberries, and several sorts of bilberries, in their sea-
1 This report may be found in full in Thomas Hutchinson's Collection of State Papers, p. 424.
2 "In its native wildness the peninsula of Sagadahoc must have been a spot of singular beauty. An open forest of mighty towering pines below, and hilltops of overgrown beech and oak above, and on either side fringed with a clear, broad, and grassy margin, terminating in a sand beach, sweeping from point to point on its landward and sheltered northern point, must liave commended the place as a favorite camping-ground to the savages, as well as a site to the earliest English colonists as a home. The indications are decisive that this peninsula was ever a place of distinguished attraction to the natives." - Address of Rufus K. Sewall, Esq., at the Popham Celebration, p. 137.
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son. We found also many kinds of oaks and pines, and the chestnut and walnut trees, sometimes for four or five miles together." 1
Soon public attention was absorbed on both sides of the At- lantic, by the war which broke out between France and Eng- land. Very extensive preparations were made by the British cabinet, for the conquest of Canada.2 Massachusetts was not reluctant to engage in this enterprise. The militia of Massachu- setts, at this time, amounted to four thousand foot and four hundred horse. The enlistments for the conquest of Canada were not made until October. It was then deemed too late in the season to attempt a northern campaign. The war was short, and mostly waged in other regions. But, in its results, it was very unsatisfactory to New England. The treaty of Breda was concluded on the 31st of July, 1667, with both France and Holland. England received the Dutch colony on the Hudson, but resigned Nova Scotia to the French.
The English Protestants brought with them to this New World a very strong antipathy to that bigoted Catholicism which had been the bane of the Old World. They did not love their French neighbors, and they were greatly annoyed at the recession of the Acadian provinces to France. The troubled times very speedily obliterated all the traces which the king's commissioners had left behind them.
England was far away. The attention of her contemptible king, Charles II., to the remote colonies, was spasmodic and transient. It was to Massachusetts alone, that the widely scat- tered inhabitants of Maine could look for sympathy in time of peace, or for aid in war.
There were no bonds of union between the Catholic French of Nova Scotia, and the Puritans of New England. They dif- fered in language, religion, and in all the habits of social life. Those very traits of character, which admirably adapted the French to win the confidence of the Indians, excited the repug- nance of the English. The pageantry of their religious wor- ship, which the strong-minded Puritans regarded as senseless
1 Hutchinson's Collections of State Papers.
2 American Annals, by Abiel Holmes, vol. i. p. 489.
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mummery, was well adapted to catch the attention of the child- ish savages. The Frenchman would build him a wigwam, marry an Indian wife, perhaps two or three; adopt the dress of the tribe, and, in all the habits of his life, step at least half way down to meet the savage. Thus the French and the Indi- ans lived far more harmoniously together than did the Indians and the English.
In illustration of these views we may mention the case of Jean Vincent, Baron of St. Castin or Casteins, as some spell the name. He was a gentleman of wealth and rank, born in Béarn, at the foot of the Pyrenees. Naturally fond of adven- ture, he had entered the army, and had served with distinction against the Turks.1 When about twenty-one years of age he came to this country, and joined a tribe of Indians called the Abenakis.2 He lived with them twenty years, adopting their dress, and apparently conforming in all respects to their savage habits. But his superior intelligence, his tact, and his adapta- tion of himself to all their prejudices, so won their regard, that they considered him as more than human, or, to use the lan- guage of his biographer, " comme leur Dieu tutelaire."
He acquired their language perfectly, and married the daugh- ter of Madokawando, one of the most distinguished chiefs. Some say that, according to the Indian custom, he took several wives. He seemed perfectly contented with his lot, declaring that he greatly preferred the forests of Acadia to the valley of Pyrenees, where he was born. His French biographer writes, -
" For the first years of his abode with them, he lived in such a manner as to secure their esteem to a higher degree than words can describe. They made him their grand chief, which constituted him sovereign of the nation. By degrees he accumulated a fortune, which any other person would have appropriated to his own benefit, by retiring with two or three hundred thou- sand dollars in solid gold coin.
" Nevertheless Casteins made no other use of this wealth than to buy merchandise, which he presented as gifts to his brother savages, who, return- ing from their hunting expeditions, presented him with beaver skins of triple
1 Martin's History of France, vol. i. p. 263.
2 We give the name as spelled by the French. It was often spelled by the English, Abenaquis. It is said that they belonged to broken tribes who had with- drawn from Saco, the Androscoggin, and the Kennebec to Canada.
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their value. The governor-generals of Canada courted his favor, and the rulers of New England feared him. He had many daughters. They were all advantageously married to Frenchmen, and each one received ample dowries.
" He never changed his wife. By this he wished to teach the savages that God does not love inconstant people.1 It is said that he endeavored to convert these poor natives, but that his words were without effect. It was, then, of no avail that the Jesuits preached to them the Christian religion. But these fathers were not discouraged, for they considered the baptism of a single dying child worth many times more than the pain and the suffering of dwelling with this people." 2
The Indians, who were under the influence of the French, readily imbibed their dislike for the English. There was, con- sequently, a growing animosity between the eastern and the western tribes. There were no very definite boundary limits to most of the territories portioned out in those days. In the ces- sion of "all Acadia " to France, mention was made of St. Johns, Port Royal, La Heve, Cape Sable, and Pentagoet, as the French then called Penobscot.3 The French took possession of the whole country, from Cape Breton to Penobscot, and erected stockaded forts at the most important points.
The political affairs of Maine fell into lamentable confusion. By the action of the commissioners, the Province was sundered
1 This certainly seems to indicate that Casteins had but one wife; but Drake writes, "We do not apprehend that this amounts to a denial that he had but one wife. His not changing his wife might be true in the plural, if he had several, as some authors state." -Drake's History of the Indians, book iii. p. 104.
2 Memoirs de l' Amérique par Lahontan, 1. ii. p. 29.
"The site of the town of Castine is one of as much natural beauty as exists anywhere in New England. With its beauty is connected a harbor of great capa- city, and entire security for ships of any supposable size. This town was the first in the State that received permanent settlers, on the eastern shore of Penobscot Bay.
"It had been occupied in the seventeenth century by Baron Castine, a French gentleman, through thirty or forty years, as a temporary place of traffic with In- dians, by exchanging some cloths and trinkets of small value, for beaver and other furs. By means of this business he became very rich, and left the fort, which had been erected by liim at large expense, and which had protected him against hostile attacks of Indians when drunk, as well as against plunderers of his goods and moneys at other times." - History of the Law, the Courts, and the Lawyers of Maine, by William Willis, p. 189.
It will be perceived, that, while there is a slight discrepancy in the statement of the details of this man's career, there is none as to the prominent facts.
8 British Empire in America, vol. i. p. 22.
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from its connection with Massachusetts. And then, without any sufficient government being organized, it was virtually abandoned. Gorges became interested in other matters, and the people generally doubted the validity of the justices ap- pointed by the commissioners. For three years no representative from Maine appeared in the General Court of Massachusetts. The General Court did not hesitate to denounce the action of the commissioners in the following severe terms : -
" While the inhabitants were choosing to be under our charter, they were deprived of their invaluable privileges, and thrown into the depths of dis- order by commissioners who were rather the destroyers than promoters of his Majesty's interests and the people's good; men who have cast malignant aspersions on our government, and have been the authors of transactions for which they had, in fact, no lawful authority."
Under these circumstances the General Court issued a procla- mation, declaring, that, as the people of Maine were in peril of being reduced to a confused state of anarchy, the court counted it its duty to God to extend its jurisdiction over the county of York as formerly. The transfer was easily made. The last court held under the authority of the king's commissioners sat in Saco on the 29th of May, 1668.1
Col. Richard Nichols, governor at New York, was greatly disturbed by these proceedings. It will be remembered that he had been appointed deputy governor at New York and Sagada- hoc, under His Royal Highness the Duke of York. He wrote an angry letter to the governor of Massachusetts. The follow- ing extracts will show its spirit : -
" I am not a little surprised to find that you are preparing to usurp again the government of Maine. You possess power enough, it is true, to compel a submission of your weaker neighbors. And you may feel in duty bound to re-establish your courts of law, in answer to the petition of a few unquiet spirits, and under a plausible pretence of restoring order and peace. But I ought not to be silent in view of measures so directly contrary to the injunc- tions of his Majesty's letter.
" Do you presume so much upon his forbearance and clemency as to sup-
1 Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. 432.
"Saco may have contained a hundred and fifty inhabitants when the first court ever duly organized on the soil of Maine was held within its limits." - Bancroft, vol. i. p. 337.
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pose that he will never stretch forth an arm of power to defend his subjects from usurpation ? Unable myself to visit you before I leave these parts, I must express to you my fearful apprehensions, that if you compel an altera- tion of government in the Province of Maine, by subverting the present establishments, you may, and probably will, be the cause of bitter quarrels and even bloodshed. For it is a dictate of reason, it is nature's law, for men to defend their rights against all officious invaders.1
This letter produced no change in the measures adopted by the Government.2 Four commissioners were sent to restore the County of Yorkshire to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.8 A military escort accompanied them to York, which place they reached on the 6th of July, 1668. Here some officers, who had been appointed by the king's commissioners, met them with a remonstrance. They stated that there were not more than four or five men in a town, of any character, who were in favor of a return to Massachusetts, and that they were resolved to main- tain the authority with which they had been invested.
The Massachusetts commissioners, who, according to some accounts, "entered the Province in a hostile manner, with horse and foot," replied, -
" All your papers and powers our General Court have too thoroughly considered to require any re-perusal by us. Those under whom you aspire to act, never lawfully possessed the authority which they assumed to exer- cise. His Majesty directed Massachusetts either to resign the Province to Mr. Gorges, or to assign to him our objections. It is well known we have chosen the latter alternative.
" The cause is still under his royal consideration. And when have we been required by our common sovereign, to surrender the administration of justice to your commissioners ? By the returns we shall soon ascertain what is the public sentiment; and, according to our ability, we shall discharge the trust committed to us. If we are opposed, we shall advise upon meas- ures which will not be inefficient."
The commissioners repaired to the meeting-house, where they read their commission to the assembled people, and explained
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. i. p. 212 ; Chalmers' Political An- nals, p. 386.
2 See the letter in full in Thomas Hutchinson's Collection of State Papers, p. 484.
8 The commissioners appointed were Major John Leverett and Mr. Edward Ting, with Mr. Richard Waldron and Major Robert Pike as assistants. - Hub- dard's New England, p. 593.
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the purposes of their visit. There was some slight opposition manifested by the justices appointed by the royal commission- ers.1 The returns were brought in from five towns. It was said that two towns had been prevented from voting by the jus- tices. The antagonism between the two parties caused great excitement, and several persons were arrested by the Massachu- setts officers ; and at length quite angry feelings were elicited, and the justices, who had become noisy in their opposition, were driven out of the house by an armed force.2
In the afternoon they re-appeared, and again entered into conference with the commissioners. They requested permission to read a letter from the king, dated April 10, 1666, in which the king gave directions to his commissioners as to what they were to do until further commands were received from him. The commissioners replied, -
" We are commissioned to hold a court, and settle the peace and order of the Province. What we have begun, God willing, we shall finish. We are fully aware of the irregularities occasioned throughout these eastern towns and plantations, in 1665, by the king's commissioners, who were so bold as to charge Massachusetts with treachery and rebellion, and to threaten her, before the year's end, with the dreadful retributions of our sovereign's severity. But through the divine assistance, and his Majesty's power, she yet possesses authority, by royal charter, to assert her rights of government; and we fear not to compare her acts of justice and clemency with the words of those who can make words only their boast."
The government was then organized, and the commissioners returned to Massachusetts with their report. They received a vote of thanks, and ample remuneration for their services.3 In May, 1669, three deputies from Maine took their seats in the General Court of Massachusetts, and the restoration of the Province seemed to be permanently settled. Gorges made but slight if any efforts to recover his inheritance. Williamson says that the eastern planters, being generally republican and Puritan in their principles, were well satisfied with the change.4
1 See the details in Hubbard's History of New England, p. 597.
2 Hutchinson's Collection of State Papers, p. 526.
8 The Report will be found in Hubbard's New England, p. 596.
4 Williamson, vol. i. p. 440.
11
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But in this world there is no end to troubles. Scarcely was this question settled, when a new and portentous difficulty arose. The French, being in full possession of Nova Scotia, and the territory now of Maine as far as the Penobscot, laid claim to the region as far west as the Kennebec River. It was suspected that the Duke of York, who was an intense Catholic, and who detested the political and religious principles of the Puritans, favored these claims.1
It was seriously apprehended in Massachusetts, that the crown might sell the entire eastern patent to the French. A new sur- vey was ordered. The most popular measures were adopted to win the cordial support of the inhabitants of the Province. The surveyors reported that a line running due east from the most northern source of the Merrimac, to which, by the patent, three miles still farther north was to be added, would cross the Kennebec or Sagadahoc near where Bath now is, and that it would strike White Island in Penobscot Bay.
But again war was declared between England and Holland. The two angry nations were clutching each other by the throat. The Dutch, in July, 1673, recovered the fort at New York. With renewed activity, and with boldness ever characteristic of Massachusetts, the government re-organized the militia, and endeavored, in all ways, to consolidate the inhabitants of the Province, that they might not be sold to Papal France.
In 1674 a new treaty of peace was signed between England and Holland, and New York was restored to the British crown. Again prosperity seemed to dawn upon the inhabitants of Maine, scattered along the seacoast from Piscataqua to the Penobscot. The French occupied the eastern side of the Pen- obscot Bay. The English, in large numbers, had reared their dwellings, and were improving their lands, upon the western banks of the bay, and westerly to the River Sagadahoc.
Capt. John Jocelyn, in the year 1670, visited the Province of Maine. The next year he published a record of his voyage. It contains by far the most minute account of the condition of the Province at that time, which has descended to us. From this narrative we make the following interesting extracts : 2-
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 441.
2 See Jocelyn's Voyages, pp. 200-212.
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" Towns there are not many in this Province. Kittery, not far from Pas- cataway, is the most populous; next to that, eastward, is Gorgeana (York),1 Farther to the eastward is the town of Wells. Cape Porpus is eastward of that, where there is a town of the same name, the houses scatteringly built. 2 All these towns have store of salt and fresh marsh, with arable land, and all well stocked with cattle.
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