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 15
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" About eight or nine miles to the eastward of Cape Porpus is Winter Harbor, a noted place for fishers.8 Here they have many stages. Saco adjoins to this, and both make one scattering town of large extent, well stored with cattle, arable land and marshes, and a saw-mill. Six miles to the eastward of Saco, and forty miles from Gorgeana, is seated the town of Black Point (Scarborough).4 It consists of about fifty dwelling-houses, and a magazine, scatteringly built. They have store of neat (cattle) and horses ; of sheep near upon seven or eight hundred ; much arable and marsh salt and fresh, and a corn-mill. To the southward of the point, upon which are stages for fishermen, lie two small islands. Beyond the point, north- eastward, runs the River Spurwink.
" Four miles from Black Point, and one mile from Spurwink River, east- ward, lieth Richmond Island. It is three miles in circumference, and hath a passable and gravelly ford on the north side, between the main and the sea at low water. Here are found excellent whetstones, and here, likewise, are stages for fishermen.
" Nine miles eastward of Black Point lieth scatteringly the town of Cas- co,5 upon a large bay. It is stored with cattle, sheep, swine, abundance of marsh and arable land, a corn-mill or two, with stages for fishermen. Far-
1 " Actuated by these generous designs, he (Gorges) determined now to erect the borough into a city, and accordingly executed another and more perfect char- ter, March 1, 1642, by which he incorporated a territory of twenty-one square miles, and the inhabitants upon it, into a body politic, which he, evidently in com- pliment to his own name, called Gorgeana. The whole lay in the form of a paral- lelogram, on the northern side of the River Agamenticus, extending up seven miles from its mouth, and one league upon the seashore." - Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. p. 288.
2 Cape Porpoise, or Porpus as Jocelyn spells it, was but two and a half miles from Wells. - Williamson, vol. i. p. 26.
8 The celebrated place called Winter Harbor, so called after an ancient inhabit- ant there by the name of Winter, is at the head of the tide, six miles below Saco Bridge. See Williamson, vol. i. p. 21.
4 "After passing the plantations of Kittery, York, Wells, and Saco, we come to Scarborough, which has never changed its name since its first incorporation. It extends towards the east, six miles in width on the coast, to the mouth of Spur- wink River, which seems to cut off, as it bounds, the eastwardly corner of the town. This part is called Black Point." - Williamson, vol. i. p. 29.
5 What is now called Portland was first called Cleeves' Neck, then Munjoy Neck, and sometimes Casco, or Old Casco, from its position on Casco Bay. The first settlement was made by George Cleeves and Richard Tucker, who settled near the mouth of Spurwink River, in the year 1630. - History of New England, by Coolidge and Mansfield, vol. i. p. 267.
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ther eastward is the town of Kennebec, seated upon the river. Farther yet eastward is Sagadahoc, where there are many houses scattering, and all along stages for fishermen. These, too, are stored with cattle and corn land.
" From Sagadahoc to Nova Scotia, is called the Duke of York's Prov- ince. Here are Pemaquid, Montinecus, Mohegan, Capeanawhagen, where Capt. Smith fished for whales; all are filled with dwelling-houses and stages for fishermen, and have plenty of cattle, and arable land, and marshes ..
" The people of the Province of Maine may be divided into magistrates, husbandmen or planters, and fishermen. Of the magistrates, some be royal- ists, the rest perverse spirits. The like are the planters and fishers. They have a custom of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, sitting long at meals, sometimes four times a day, and now and then drinking a dram. The fisher- men take yearly upon the coast many hundred quintals of cod, hake, had- dock, and pollock." 1
Capt. Jocelyn speaks of the inhabitants as indolent, and many of them as very intemperate. Having earned a little money, they eagerly spent it for strong drink, and could not be again induced to work as hired laborers until their money was ex- pended.
It is estimated that the whole white population scattered along the coast of Maine, between Piscataqua and the Penob- scot, amounted to between five and six thousand souls.2 Chal- mers, in his Political Annals, states that the population of all New England comprised about a hundred and twenty thousand souls. Hutchinson places the number as high as a hundred and fifty thousand. There were, in the year 1675, a hundred and fifty-six families east of the Sagadahoc, and about a hundred fishing vessels.3
In the year 1675, the deplorable war commenced between the Indians under King Philip and the Plymouth Colony, - a war fraught with woes beyond all computation. Through the im-
1 Mr. Williamson spells the name Joscelyn, and says that his account ends in 1673. Mr. William Willis, one of the most accurate of men, spells the name in his History of Portland as we have given it in the text. He says that the period to which Jocelyn's narrative relates is 1670, and that Jocelyn returned to England in 1671. - History of Portland by William Willis, p. 882.
2 Williamson, vol. i. p. 447. He estimates that the whole Province, including the Duke of York's domain, could furnish about a thousand soldiers.
3 Statement to the Massachusetts Assistants in 1675, by Sylvanus Davis. Mr. Willis estimates that there were then four hundred families in Falmouth.
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prudence of well-meaning men, and the wickedness of the reck- less and the vile, the Indians of Maine were soon induced to unite with those of Massachusetts in the attempt to extermi- nate the white man. Before entering upon the details of the dreadful war which ensued, we will give a brief description of the Indians of Maine.
The generic name, given to the several tribes between the Penobscot River and the vicinity of the Piscataqua was Aben- agues.1 The Indians, dwelling in the valley of the Penobscot, are called by most of the ancient historians, Tarratines. Though the Abenagues and the Tarratines had lived on friendly terms until about the year 1615, a deadly war then broke out between them. Each tribe of the Abenagues had its chiefs, though there was one sovereign chief, called the Bashaba, who seemed to wield a sort of imperial authority over the confederate tribes.2
His principal abode was near Pemaquid; his extended do- mains were called Moasham,3 and he could lead to the field several thousand warriors. There were four tribes of the Abenagues : -
1. The Sokokis, dwelling in the valley of the Saco River.
2. The Anasagunticooks,4 a powerful tribe, who claimed the territory and waters of the Androscoggin, from Merrymeeting Bay upwards, and on the west side of the Sagadahoc to the sea. Their headquarters were at Brunswick Falls, called then Pejepscot. This spot became the central rendezvous, where the eastern and western tribes held their councils, and conspired for the extermination of the English. They had a large fort near the falls. By fishing, hunting, and the culture of their fields, they obtained an ample supply of food. But the early injuries they had received from the whites had so exasperated them,
1 There is much diversity with regard to the spelling of these Indian names by the annalists of those days. The Abenagues are called Abenakis, Wabenakies, and Wapanachkis. There is the same diversity in the spelling of the names of nearly all the tribes.
2 See Smith, Purchas, Winthrop, Prince, and Hubbard.
8 Gorges' Description of New England, pp. 17, 54. Belknap calls his domains Mavooshen, Biog. 149. Purchas writes it Maivooshen, p. 939.
. 4 Hutchinson gives this tribe the name of Aresagunticooks; Douglass, Arouse- gunticooks; Hubbard, Amerascoggan ; Smith, Amarascoyen.
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that they were never cordially friendly, and at the first sound of war they eagerly grasped both gun and tomahawk.
3. The Canibas. This tribe was found quite numerous upon the Kennebec when the river was first discovered. It seems to have been a conglomerate tribe, consisting of several branches or families. The chief sachem, Kennebis, occupied a delightful situation on Swan Island. The territory claimed by this tribe extended from the sources of the Kennebec River to Merry- meeting Bay, and included the islands on the eastern side of the Sagadahoc River to the sea.1
One of the favorite locations of this tribe was at Norridge- wock, opposite the mouth of the Sandy River. Here the first French missionary, Gabriel Dreuillettes, was stationed. It seems difficult to imagine any motive sufficiently powerful to induce a gentleman of refinement and culture to spend his days in the wigwams of the savages, endeavoring to teach them the religion of Jesus, but a sincere desire to serve God.
4. The Wawenocks 2 possessed the region east of the Sagada- hoc, as far as St. Georges River. Their territory was small in its limits, and the tribe not large. The headquarters of the tribe were on the westerly side of the River Sheepscot, near the falls. Hubbard, in his History of the Indian Wars, speaks of them as the Sheepscot Indians.3 The personal appearance and habits of these Indians are thus described by Capt. Smith : -
" The name of Wawenock signifies fearing nothing. They were of comely proportion, and quite athletic. They would row their canoes faster with five paddles than my own men could their boats with eight oars. They had no beards, and thought ours counterfeits. Their women, though of lower stat- ure, were fleshy and well favored; all habited in skins like the men." 4
There was another powerful tribe, called the Etechemins, occupying the region between the Penobscot and the St. Johns,
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 466. Drake writes, "Kennebis was a sachem from whom it has been supposed that the Kennebec River derives its name. But whether there were a line of sagamores of this name from whom the river was so called, or whether sachems were so called from their living at a certain place upon it, is uncertain." - Book of the Indians, b. iii. p. 98.
2 This name is also written by different annalists, Waweenecks, Weweenocks, and Wewenocks.
3 Hubbard, p. 301.
4 Journal of Thomas Smith, p. 19.
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including the valleys of both those rivers. There is some diver- sity of statement in reference to the definite boundaries of this tribe. Williamson represents them as composed of three tribes, - the Tarratines, the Openangos, and the Marechites. They could bring six thousand warriors into the field. The Abena- gues he estimates could bring five thousand. This would fur- nish them with an army of eleven thousand men.1 Probably all were accustomed to the musket, and were good marksmen. They could obtain ample supplies of ammunition from the French. This was a terrific power to be brought against the settlers scattered through the forests of Maine.
The above estimate of the number of Indian warriors is given for the year 1615, when it is supposed that the whole Indian population of Maine amounted to about thirty-seven thousand.
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 483.
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST INDIAN WAR.
The Indians -Their Manners and Customs-Fondness for Intoxicating Drinks -Scenes in the Wigwam - The Catholic Missionaries - Adventures of Rasle - Indian Intelligence - Population - Philip's War -Commencement of Hostilities - Awful Scenes of Blood and Woe -The Truce - Efforts of Mr. Shurte -The War Renewed - The Ambuscades - Folly of the English - Desperation of the Indians.
TT is important to perpetuate a correct idea of the numbers, condition, and character of the native inhabitants of Maine. They have nearly all passed away. The few remnants which remain have lost all resemblance, in character and habits of life, to their ancestors of two centuries ago.
The Indians of Maine were of ordinary stature, very erect, and of great muscular strength. Their hair was long, very black, and coarse. Their complexion was peculiar, with a red- dish tinge, which, at a glance, enabled one to distinguish them from the negro, the mulatto, or the most dark-skinned European. Though, in the South, a corpulent Indian was sometimes found, it is said that none such were seen in Maine, neither was a de- formed Indian, or one dwarfed or cross-eyed, ever met with.1
The men were beardless. But, strange as it may appear, the question is not yet settled whether this were a provision of nature or the effect of art. Smith, in his history, says that they had no beards; others have said that the young men plucked out their beards until the roots were entirely destroyed. Still others say that the Indians anointed their bodies with an unc- tion, as a protection against flies and vermin, which prevented the growth of the beard.
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 484.
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Trained from infancy to acute perceptions, the Indian could traverse the most dense and intricate forests without the slight- est fear of losing his way. Notwithstanding their hardships, many of them lived to extreme old age.
Both men and women were fond of gay colors in their cloth- ing. Their dress consisted of furs in winter, and in summer of skins from which the fur had been removed. Many were very slightly clad in summer, and not unfrequently one was met entirely naked. They were all exceedingly fond of ornaments, and decorated their persons with gorgeously colored plumes, shells, beads, and wings. An Indian chieftain, in full dress, would outshine any of his brother lords in Windsor or Ver- sailles.
Among themselves the Indians were remarkably honest. They had no locks, bolts, or bars. In trade they were fair, and often expressed astonishment at the mean tricks to which the white trader would resort. They were proverbial for their hos- pitality, being ever ready to share their last morsel of food with the stranger who entered the wigwam. They were grave and taciturn in their ordinary demeanor, and seemed never to forget a kindness or an injury.
With no ambition to acquire property, no stimulus to exertion, with nothing to rouse their energies but the chase and the occa- sional excitements of war, they were generally indolent. With but little thought of the morrow, they were content with the food and clothing of to-day. The atrocities of Weymouth, Harlow, and Smith, in kidnapping the Indians, the cheating practised by unprincipled traders, and the infamous conduct of getting chieftains drunk, and then obtaining a deed of exten- sive territories for mere trifles, were sufficient to rouse the indignation of the most patient people. The Indians have had no historians. But, according to the testimony of white men, their wrongs were unendurable, and their savage natures were goaded, by the crimes of individual white men, to the most dreadful acts of retaliation.
Their thirst for ardent spirits seemed to be an irrepressible appetite. They would drink the strongest rum, unmixed, until roused to the most dreadful degree of frenzy. They then
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appeared more like demons than men, and were capable of any crime.
The Indians generally lived in small villages. The writer spent many an hour, sixty years ago, in the wigwams of the Penobscot Indians. To his boyish eye, in a cold winter day, the interior often presented an aspect peculiarly attractive. The hut, built of boughs of trees and of bark, was always in the majestic forest. It was sometimes circular, enclosing a space about fifteen feet in diameter. Again, it was oblong in shape, and about thirty feet in length and ten iu width.
The floor was always carpeted with the green and fragrant twigs of the hemlock. The walls generally afforded ample pro- tection against both wind and rain. From a bright fire, burn- ing in the centre, the smoke would generally rise through a hole in the roof, leaving the atmosphere within the hut quite pure. The indolent men would be lying around, sleeping or dozing. The women were always busy. They sat easily upon the floor, braiding their baskets, and chatting in low, musical, monotonous tones, with rarely a smile.
As one day I came near sitting down upon an apparent cushion, which proved to be a cradle in which a babe enveloped in furs was sleeping, it excited a general smile from the squaws seated around, but not a sound was heard. I always took with me, as a gift, some tobacco, which insured me a warm welcome. The emotions excited in my young mind during those silent hours, in the wigwam of the friendly Indian, can never be forgotten.
Nothing like what we call furniture was ever seen in the hut. There was neither chair, stool, nor table. They had no regular meals. They ate when hungry. One great and revolting de- fect of the Indians was their utter want of cleanliness. Appar- ently they never washed even their faces or hands, or their clothes and cooking utensils. But, to my eye, the interior of their cabins always appeared neat and alluring. Still in a dark, easterly storm, with drenching rain and moaning wind, filling the cabin with suffocating smoke, the interior must have been extremely dismal.
The young girls were graceful in figure, and often possessed
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pleasing countenances. Had they been cleanly, many of them would have been deemed quite beautiful. All domestic and farm labor devolved upon the women. They planted and hoed the corn, gathered in the harvest, took care of the fish and game, and cooked the food.
Christianity was first taught the Indians by the Catholic mis- sionaries from France. As early as 1608, Biard and Masse com- menced their self-denying labors at Mt. Desert.1 Gabriel Dreuillettes was the first missionary who settled upon the banks of the Kennebec. In 1646 he built a chapel at Old Point, Norridgewock, and for many years taught the Indians, win- ning their highest regard. In the French war of 1674, the British laid his station in ashes. Upon the return of peace, the Massachusetts government sent workmen to replace the rude chapel which was destroyed, by another, far better, of hewn timber. Dreuillettes was a highly educated and eloquent man.
Dreuillettes, or Dreuelettes as some spell the name, was suc- ceeded in the mission at Norridgewock by two brothers, Vin- cent and Jaques Bigot. They were of illustrious lineage, being the sons of Baron Bigot of France. These young men, cradled in ancestral halls, and educated in the universities of Europe, forsook all the attractions of cultured society, luxurious homes, and ambitious aspirations, to spend their whole lives in savage wilds, toiling to lift up the ignorant and the degraded to the knowledge of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
They lived in a state of comfort but little above that of the savages around them ; with a wigwam of bark for their home, with a bear-skin for a bed, and with only such food as the coarse fare of the Indians could supply.2
Sebastian Rasle 3 succeeded the Bigots in the mission to Nor- ridgewock. He was a gentleman by birth, education, and cul-
1 This was in 1609. It is supposed the place of residence selected by the mis- sionaries was on the western side of the Pool. Here they constructed a habita- tion, planted a garden, and dwelt five years. With never-failing zeal they entered upon the lifelong work of teaching the natives the principles of Christianity. See Williamson, vol i. p. 206.
2 The History of Norridgewock, by William Allen, p. 28.
3 The name is variously spelled, Rasle, Rasles, Ralle, Rale. We give it as in- scribed upon his monument by Bishop Fenwick.
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ture. Religious zeal incited him, also, to leave the endearments of a home of opulence and congenial companionship, and to spend thirty-five years in the then unbroken wilderness of Maine. His remarkable character deserves more particular notice.
He sailed from Rochelle, in France, in the summer of 1689, and, after a three-months' voyage, landed at Quebec. Having a well-disciplined mind, and writing Latin with classical purity, he found but little difficulty in acquiring the simple languages of the natives. After spending several months in the diligent study of the Indian tongue, he was first stationed in a village of the Abenagues nation, in Maine. Here he found about two hundred Indians, who, from the labors of previous missionaries, were professing Christianity.
After spending two years in this village, he received an order from his ecclesiastical superiors, to go far away into the depths of the savage wilderness, to a mission among the Indians of Illinois. Without a murmur, in August of 1691, he prepared for this journey of two thousand four hundred miles, through trackless wilds, towards the setting sun. Repairing to Quebec, he there, with a few companions and Indian guides, set out on his long and perilous journey, in the birch canoe.
They ascended the winding and rapid current of the St. Law- rence ; carried their canoe and its freight on their shoulders, around the portages by which they passed the rapids. After traversing the whole length of Lake Ontario, and threading the forest around Niagara Falls, they again launched their canoe upon Lake Erie. Weary days and nights of storm and sun- shine passed as they paddled along the shores of this inland sea, through the straits, expanding in their centre into Lake Clair, traversed Lakes Huron and Michigan, crossed the portage to the upper waters of the Illinois River, and descended that stream, to their destination amidst the thronged villages of the Indians, situated upon its banks.
Every night they landed, built their camp-fire, cooked their supper, performed their devotions, while the silent forest echoed their vespers ; and, commending themselves to God, they enjoyed that sleep which he gives to his beloved. Often, when it
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rained, the upturned canoe afforded them their only shelter. Fre- quently they suffered from hunger, and eagerly devoured the lichens which grew upon the rocks. Here Sebastian Rasle spent two years in teaching the Indians. He was then recalled by his superior, and stationed at Norridgewock on the Ken- nebec. We shall often have occasion to refer to this extraordi- nary man in the progress of this narrative.1
It can hardly be said that the Indians had any religious opin- ions. There were vaguely floating through their minds some shadowy and inoperative ideas of a Great Spirit, and of hunt- ing-grounds beyond the grave. They had perhaps a more prac- tical faith in an evil spirit than in God. The machinations of this malignant demon they greatly feared. The Catholic mis- sionaries gave them much more elevated views of religion and of personal responsibility. Their teachings put an end to the horrid orgies of the Indian pow-wows.2
Their government was of the simplest form. The authority of the chiefs seems to have been mainly that which superior intelligence and energy give. It was like the power which is exerted over a New England village by a prominent man of education, wealth, and enterprise. When the first settlers reached the coast of Maine, there was one sovereign chief of the Wawenoc tribe. These Indians occupied the valleys of the Sheepscot, the Pemaquid, and the St. George's Rivers.
The Bashaba, as he was called, extended his nominal sway over the western tribes as far as Agamenticus or York.3 Each
1 " Father Rasle lived among this people over thirty years. His influence was very extensive, and deserved, not less for his zeal and entire devotion to their ser- vice, than for his learning and talents. The French writers place him among the saints, while his English contemporaries give him a place the very opposite." - History of Portland, by William Willis, p. 349.
2 Williamson writes, "So often had his (Rasle's) malignity, pride, and officious interference awakened among the Indians new complaints, that the people of the Province, for good reasons, regarded him 'among the most infamous villains,' and would have given more for his head than for a hundred scalps of the natives." - History of Maine, vol. ii. p. 106.
Williamson also writes, "He was a man of talents and learning; and by his condescending manners, religious zeal, and untiring perseverance, he had greatly endeared himself to the tribe. He had resided with them, and been their tutelar father, thirty years, and many of them he had taught to read and write." - His- tory of Maine, vol. ii. p. 102.
8 Mr. Williamson suggests that the Camden Hills were the probable boundary of Bashaba's dominions on the east. - Vol. i. p. 95.
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tribe had a head chief called a sagamore, and subordinate chiefs, like the secondary nobility in Europe, called sachems. The chiefs were chosen by the men of the tribe, and the office continued for life. The successful candidate was often inducted into office with great barbaric pomp. Representatives from other tribes generally assisted at the ceremonies.
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