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 25
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During the summer of 1705, French privateers and English cruisers were continually running up and down the coasts of Maine. The French succeeded in capturing seven of the Eng- lish vessels. It will be remembered that the garrison at Port Royal had driven off their English assailants. And, though the English ravaged all the region around, the banners of the French still floated from the ramparts of the strong fort. Small war-
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bands of savages, sometimes united with a few French, con- tinued to prowl about, killing, capturing, and burning, as they could find opportunity.
In Kittery, five were killed, and a number of captives were taken. Among these was Mrs. Holt, an accomplished lady of high connections. For such a person to be a prisoner in the hands of brutal savages must be awful beyond conception. There were several cases of the utter ruin of families in assas- sination and capture. A band of eighteen Indians, rushing from the forest near York, seized four little children belonging to the family of Mr. Stover. One, being too young to travel, they knocked in the head. As one of their own warriors had been shot in their retreat with the children, these demoniac men took vengeance by putting a little boy to death with awful tortures.
On the 29th of April, a party sprang from ambush, at Kit- tery, and seized Mr. Shapley and his son. The wretches, to gratify their love of cruelty, gnawed off the first joint of each finger and thumb of the unhappy young man, and stopped the bleeding by inserting the mangled stumps into the bowl of tobacco-pipes, heated red hot. This seems to have been one of their favorite modes of torture. Much havoc was perpetrated this year, in the unprotected settlements of Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
The war had continued three years; and the Indians, ever fickle, never persistent, began to grow weary of it. Terrible as had been the suffering they had caused, they had reaped but little benefit for themselves. The French, in Canada, proposed neutrality. While the courts of France and England continued to carry on the war, they proposed that the French and English colonies, struggling against the hardships of the wilderness in this new world, should stand aloof from the conflict.1
From this peace-offer, Gov. Dudley, we must think very un- wisely, dissented. He thought and said that the only way to secure a permanent peace was to drive the French entirely out of Acadia, and to take possession of the whole country in the name of the Queen of England.2
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 53.
2 Histoire de la Nouvelle France, par Charlevoix, vol. ii. p. 313.
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Thus the dreary year of 1706 passed away, with continued burnings, assassinations, and captures. In January, 1707, Col. Hilton was sent in a vessel to Casco, with supplies for the garri- son there. There were two hundred and twenty men stationed at that point, with orders to range the country as they could, in pursuit of Indians. This was necessary but inglorious warfare. One day a party struck upon an Indian trail, which they fol- lowed until they came upon a wigwam, where there were four Indian men, with a middle-aged woman and a babe. They shot the men, and took the woman and child captives. They then compelled the woman, by threats of death, to conduct them to a spot where eighteen of her companions were encamped. They were all asleep, unsuspicious of danger. It was just before the. dawn of the morning. A well-aimed volley of bullets instantly killed all but one, and he was captured.
This event caused great rejoicing. The Indians were so wary, that it was with the utmost difficulty that any of them were caught. In the spring of 1707 another naval expedition, of more than a thousand men, was fitted out against Port Royal. Col. March was placed in command. Numerous transports and whale-boats were convoyed by a well-armed vessel of war.1
But to attack a scientifically-constructed French fort, defended by veteran French soldiers, with formidable cannon frowning through the portholes, was a very different undertaking from that of burning the cabins of poor settlers, and shooting Indians, either asleep in their encampments, or running in terror before their foes. A thousand men were disembarked. The inhabit- ants around all fled into the fort for protection. A council of war decided that the fort was too strong to be taken by the raw troops encamped before it.
The troops were re-embarked in haste, and returned to several of the English garrisons along the coast. The chagrin of Gov. Dudley manifested itself in undignified violence of speech. He denounced March as unfit for command, and declared, that, if another vessel of the squadron should return to Boston, he would put to death every man who should step on shore.
1 "He (Gov. Dudley) was exceedingly anxious to see Port Royal reduced, as such an event would complete the entire conquest of Nova Scotia, and convert it into an English province." - Williamson, vol. ii. p. 53.
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Another armament was speedily organized. Gov. Dudley was encouraged, in this operation, by the promise that England would send an efficient fleet to co-operate with him in the com- plete conquest both of Nova Scotia and Canada. Col. March was so popular, notwithstanding the tirades which had been launched against him, that the governor did not venture to supersede him. He, however, appointed three members of his council to be the colonel's associates in command.
These troops relanded before the fort at Port Royal, on the 10th of August, 1707. In the mean time, the French had been strengthening their works, and increasing their numbers. Sick- ness had invaded the little army of Col. March. Even inexpe- rienced soldiers could see that the works presented an impreg- nable front against any force they could bring against it. All were alike disheartened. In ten days, having accomplished nothing, the troops returned to their vessels, and sailed back to Casco, Boston, and other English ports.
The French took advantage of this signal defeat to rouse the Indians to new endeavors to drive the invading English from their hunting-grounds. There were now but six English settlements surviving in Maine, - those of Kittery, Berwick, York, Wells, Casco, and Winter Harbor. Towards all of these the Indians marched in wolfish bands. They fell upon a house in Kittery, and massacred all the inmates. Four men, with a lady, Mrs. Littlefield, were caught on the road between York and Wells. They were probably hastening to some garrison-house. Mrs. Littlefield had two hundred dollars in money with her. A volley from savages in ambush shot them all down but one man. He escaped. The dead were scalped and plundered, and left in their blood.
The Indians in their canoes lurked around all the spots to which fishing-vessels were likely to resort. These vessels had usually two or three men and a boy on board. Half a dozen canoes, filled with armed savages, and darting out like arrows from the land, easily captured them.
On the 21st of September, 1707, a hundred and fifty Indians made an attack upon Winter Harbor. They came in a fleet of fifty canoes, three warriors in each canoe. Two shallops were
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in the harbor, manned by eight very determined men. They knew that the vessels would be first attacked. Unintimidated by the fearful odds of one hundred and fifty to eight, they made preparations for a desperate defence. Concealing them- selves behind bulwarks of plank, they made every gun ready for rapid discharges. The fleet came swarming on, while the savages rent the air with their hideous yells.
The English waited till the canoes were so near, that every bullet was sure to strike its target. All then fired at once. A few canoes were disabled, and their inmates thrown into tem- porary confusion ; but the rest pressed undaunted on. They would soon surround the small vessels, and in resistless num- bers be leaping over their sides. The English abandoned one, - and, entering the other, cut the cables, spread a sail, and en- deavored to put out to sea. The Indians seized the forsaken shallop, and, raising her mainsail, commenced the pursuit.
A slight breeze caused both vessels to move, though they crept along slowly. The English had taken the best vessel ; and the Indians were unskilled mariners. When the savages saw that they were falling astern, they placed a dozen canoes ahead to tow their vessel along, with fishing-cords for tow-lines. The English, also, got out oars. The pursuers and the pursued were often so near each other, that the Indians endeavored to grapple the blades of the oars of the English. A perpetual firing of musketry was kept up. Both parties were ingenious in devices to avoid exposure to the bullet. This singular en- gagement was continued for three hours. The Indians lost, in killed and wounded, about thirty. Only one man, Benjamin Daniel, was killed on board the vessel. His last words were, " I am a dead man ; but give me a gun to kill one more before I go." The loaded gun was placed in his hand, but he had no strength to fire it.
The people around, warned of the approach of the Indians by a cannon fired at the fort, hurried to the garrison. The savages, disheartened by their losses, did not venture an attack.1
Soon after this, two men at Berwick, returning from public
1 Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i. p. 55; Bourne's History of Wells and Kennebunk, p. 266.
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worship, were shot down by the Indians. The neighbors pur- sued and overtook them, and, by an unexpected fire, threw them into such consternation, that they dropped their packs, and fled. Some plunder was regained, and three scalps.
This was a year of great suffering throughout Maine. The inhabitants, often with a very small supply of food, were very inconveniently crowded into narrow garrison-houses. No man could pass a few rods from the door of the garrison, without danger of being shot down. Not a rod of land could be safely tilled beyond reach of the sentry-box. As to lumbering and fishing, those pursuits had to be entirely abandoned. Thus passed the fifth summer of this desolating war, in which man's inhumanity inflicted untold misery upon his fellows.
The next year, 1708, was, in Maine, a season of general paralysis. No industrial pursuits could be undertaken. The settlers kept carefully huddled together in the garrisons. Scouts and spy-boats were continually vigilant. The French made an effort to unite all the northern tribes to exterminate the English ; but various obstacles thwarted their plans. Gov. Dudley also endeavored to organize another expedition against Port Royal ; but it proved an entire failure.1
In February of 1709, Gov. Dudley sent a scout of one hun- dred and fifty men to visit all the old settlements of the Indians, and see that they were laid utterly desolate. He said that it was his object to teach the Indians that the French, whom they had so zealously served, were unable to protect them from the punishment they so richly merited, from the avenging hands of the English. " We shall never," the governor added, " be long at rest, until Canada and Nova Scotia constitute a part of the British empire."
In the summer of this year, the Indians of the Kennebec sent a flag of truce to Boston to sue for peace. But it is quite evi- dent that the English were not in favor of peace with France, until, at least, Nova Scotia should be wrested from the French crown. The sufferings of a few hundred poor emigrants in Maine they deemed too trivial to be thought of in these great national issues.
1 Massachusetts Records, vol. vii. p. 426.
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In 1710 a new effort was made for the conquest of Port Royal, in which the British Government took an active part. A fleet of thirty-six sail, warships and transports, conveyed a for- midable armament and twelve hundred men to the Bay of Annapolis. The troops were landed safely on the 24th of September, excepting one transport, containing twenty-six men, which was wrecked, and all were drowned.
The French governor, Subercase, had but two hundred and sixty men in garrison. The assailing batteries were soon raised, and a heavy cannonading commenced. The next day Subercase found himself compelled to capitulate. The fortress and all its stores were surrendered to the crown of England. All the inhabitants within a league of the fort, four hundred and eighty- one in number, were to be protected, upon condition of their taking the oath of allegiance to the British Government. The soldiers taken in the garrison were to be sent to France, or to be permitted to remove to Canada.1
In honor of Queen Anne, the name of the place was changed from Port Royal to Annapolis Royal. Thus Nova Scotia passed into the hands of the English. Col. Samuel Vetch was appointed governor of the conquered Province; and a garrison of four hundred and fifty men was left under his command.
Major Levingston and young Castine were sent as English commissioners to Gov. Vaudreuil, in Canada, to inform him that Acadia, as they termed it, had fallen into the hands of the English ; that, consequently, all the French inhabitants of that region, excepting those who had taken the oath of allegiance, were prisoners-of-war; and that any barbarities practised by savages under the control of the French would be followed by severe reprisals upon the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia.
It was nearly midwinter when the commissioners set out on their arduous journey through the wilderness, to Quebec. They crossed the Bay of Fundy to the Penobscot, and remained several days at Castine's beautiful residence at Biguyduce (Cas- tine). Here Mr. Levingston received from the attractive family of his host the most hospitable and warm-hearted attentions.
1 Penhallow's Indian Wars ; Hutchinson's History, vol. ii. p. 167; Hallibur- ton's Nova Scotia, vol. i. p. 88.
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On the 1st of November, they took a canoe, and, with three Indian guides, paddled up the Penobscot River. About eight miles above the present city of Bangor, they came to an island called Lett. Here, probably where the village of Oldtown now stands, they found a cluster of Indian wigwams, containing about one hundred inhabitants, with fifty canoes upturned upon the greensward.
The Indians were not disposed to let them go any farther. They detained them for several days. Mr. Levingston would undoubtedly have lost his life, but for the interposition of Mr. Castine, whom the savages regarded as an adopted Indian, the child of the daughter of one of their most illustrious chiefs, and their friend.
The journey was resumed on the 4th of November ; the com- missioners, with several Indian guides, still ascending the river in two canoes. On the second day Levingston's canoe was overset, an Indian guide was drowned ; and he lost his gun and all his personal effects. The ice was making fast. The other canoe soon became torn and leaky, so that it had to be aban- doned.
For forty days these hardy men travelled through the wilder- ness on foot, guided by the compass alone. The weather was so stormy, or they were enveloped in such dense fogs, that, for nineteen days, they did not see the sun. They waded through snow, knee deep, crossed as they could unbridged and icy torrents, forced their way through swamps encumbered with almost impenetrable entanglements of spruces, cedars, and underbrush. A week before they reached any human habita- ยท tions, they had consumed all their food. They then lived upon the rinds of trees, and such dried and withered berries as the wintry gales had not yet torn from the branches.
They reached Quebec on the 16th of December, where they remained about two months, accomplishing but little. Indeed, their mission seemed to be one rather to utter threats than to propose terms of peace. The governor of Canada, in response to the menacing letter sent him by the English authorities, replied, -
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" Never have the French, and seldom have the Indians, treated their English captives with inhumanity. The French are, in no event, accounta- ble for the behavior of the Indians. A truce, and even a neutrality, might long ago have terminated all these miseries of war, had the English been willing to accept such neutrality. If the English adopt any retaliatory measures, they will be amply avenged by the French."
The conquest of Nova Scotia settled many disputed questions as to boundaries. Though the ravages of war were slackened, there still was no confirmed peace. More than a year before, the sagamores had sent a flag of truce to Boston, supplicating peace. But the English, intent upon seizing Nova Scotia, and perhaps still hoping to gain Canada, were certainly not eager to accept the olive-branch : consequently, a desultory warfare was kept up; marauding bands of savages inflicting occasional deeds of awful individual suffering, while nothing of victorious result was accomplished. In August a man and woman were shot in the vicinity of York, and two men were carried away captive. In Saco three persons were killed, and six captured. There were two cases of barbarity, which should be recorded. One was on the part of the Indians. They wantonly skinned one of the English, whom they had killed, and cut up his skin into belts.
The other was on the part of the English. Col. Walton, with one hundred and seventy men on a reconnoitring tour, had reached Sagadahoc. By a decoy he seized a sagamore, with his wife, and several other Indians. Because the sagamore was not, as he thought, sufficiently communicative in betraying his friends, Col. Walton allowed the savages, who were of his own party, to amuse themselves in cutting him to pieces with their tomahawks.
Soon after this, Walton captured, at one time three, and again five prisoners. It is not known whether he killed them, or carried them away as captives. On the other hand, the Indians, having captured a man by the name of Ayres, treated him kindly, and sent him, with a flag of truce, to Fort Mary, again soliciting that peace which had so long been denied them.1
While Nova Scotia . was in the hands of the French, they
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 62.
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claimed possession as far west as the Kennebec, and actually held the country as far as the Penobscot. This dispute, as to boundaries, being now settled, the English were intensely desirous of extending their conquest over the whole of Canada. In this design, the men in power were not to be thwarted by the moans ascending from a few log-cabins in the wilderness of Maine : consequently the appeals, both of the Canadian French and the Indians, for peace, were alike unheeded.
Col. Nicholson, returning to Boston triumphant from the con- quest of Nova Scotia, repaired to England to solicit the efficient aid of the government for the new enterprise. He took with him five Mohawk sagamores. These plumed and painted war- riors, the bloodhounds of the human race, were allies of the English. They were ready to fight on any side which would pay them the highest wages.
In England these barbaric chieftains, in their gorgeous ap- parel, attracted great attention. Immense crowds followed them whenever they appeared in the streets of London. The highest of the nobility called upon these their brother aristo- crats. Queen Anne's husband, Prince George, had recently died ; and the court was in mourning. At the royal charge, the Indian chiefs were all richly clad in robes of black broadcloth, with scarlet cloaks edged with gold fringe.
Thus prepared for presentation to royalty, they were con- ducted to the palace of St. James, in two regal coaches, with - all the emblazonry of courtly splendor. The lord-chamberlain introduced them to her Majesty the queen. One of the saga- mores, addressing Anne, and speaking in behalf of his com- panions, said, -
" Should you capture the Canada country, and put the French under your feet, it would give us great advantage in hunting and in war. Let your princely face shine upon us. We are your allies. We will never turn our backs. We will all stand firm. Nothing shall move us."
CHAPTER XVI.
BRITISH AND INDIAN DIPLOMACY.
Enthusiasm of the British Government -The Fleet for the Conquest of Cana- da- Utter Failure of the Enterprise -Daily Perils -The Bridal Party - Treaty of Utrecht - The Ravages of War-Character of the Younger Cas- tine - State of the Ministry - The Pejepscot Purchase - Ancient Dominions - Rearing the Forts - The Council at Arrowsic - Gloomy Prospects - Character of Father Rasle.
T HE English Government, cheered by the conquest of Nova Scotia, and animated by the presence of the Mohawk chiefs, who, it was said, could bring a large number of warriors into the field, engaged with enthusiasm in fitting out an expedi- tion for the conquest of Canada. A fleet was speedily equipped, consisting of fifteen ships-of-war, forty-three transports, and six store-ships. Seven veteran regiments of the Duke of Marl- borough's army were placed on board, with a fine train of heavy artillery. Admiral Walker, an officer of established reputation, was intrusted with the command. When this powerful arma- ment arrived in Boston, six hundred and fifty provincial troops were added to the force.
On the 30th of July, 1711, the fleet sailed from Boston for the capture of Quebec. But God seemed to frown upon the enterprise. In entering the mouth of the St. Lawrence, eight transports were wrecked, and a thousand men sank beneath the waves. It was an awful spectacle as viewed from the other vessels of the fleet. The loss was so terrible, both of men and the munitions of war, that the energies of officers and crew seemed alike paralyzed. Overwhelmed with disappointment and chagrin, they, with one accord, abandoned the enterprise. Returning to Boston, they were greeted only with condemna- tion and obloquy.
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Expeditions were still sent out from the Massachusetts colo- nies, to cruise along the shores of Maine in pursuit of Indians ; but the savages were on their guard, and could not be found. Prowling bands of Indians succeeded in shooting a few of the English who had here and there ventured into the fields. Dur- ing the next summer (that of 1712), twenty-six of the English settlers were killed or captured in the vicinity of York, Kittery, and Wells. The settlers were completely disheartened. They could not move without danger of assassination. A child could not play upon a doorsill without being exposed to seizure by some burly savage, and dragged screaming, before the eyes of its agonized parents, into the forest. The Indians became increasingly bold in these petty acts of warfare.
Still England, intent upon the conquest of Canada, did not wish for peace. And, while there was war between France and Eng- land, it could not but be that the savages would be enlisted on the one side or the other. The Indians, though invisible, seemed to be everywhere. Not a movement escaped their notice. A scouting-party was marching from the garrison at York towards Cape Neddock. It was on the 14th of May, 1712. Suddenly, from the silent wilderness, a band of thirty savages sprang up, and poured in upon them a deadly fire. One, the leader, Ser- geant Nalton, was instantly killed : seven others, probably struck down and crippled by wounds, were captured. The survivors fled precipitately, and, with the utmost difficulty, suc- ceeded in regaining the fort. Mr. Pickernel, at Spruce Creek, alarmed by the rumor of the vicinity of the Indians, was leaving his door, with his family, to take refuge in the garrison, when a bullet from a concealed savage struck him dead. His wife was also wounded, and his little child scalped. The poor child, left for dead, recovered from the dreadful wound. There were several similar individual acts of suffering and death.
A very exciting event took place at Wells, on the 16th of September. There was a large bridal party held at the garri- son. Elisha Plaisted, a young man of Portsmouth, was to be married to Hannah Wheelwright, a beautiful girl of eighteen, a daughter of one of the first families. The family connection was large, and the acquaintance extensive. Prominent guests
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were invited from Portsmouth and other adjacent settlements. Some came by water ; others, in well-armed bands, on horseback. Plaisted was accompanied by quite an escort of his young friends from Portsmouth.
A band of nearly two hundred Indians came uninvited to the wedding. Threading their way in the dark, with the stealthy tread of the tiger, through the obscurities of the forest, they placed themselves in ambush to cut off all the divisions of the bridal party, by whatever paths they might set out on their return to their homes. It was evident that they were not only perfectly familiar with all the region, but that, in some way, they had gained an acquaintance with the number of the guests, and with the general arrangements for the occasion.
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