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 32
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" Here is a river which belongs to us. You have lately built a new gar- rison here. We now only ask that you will be contented to go no farther up the river than this fort. We live wholly by this land, and live but poorly. The Penobscot Indians hunt on one side of us, and the Canada Indians on the other. Therefore do not turn us off this land. We are willing that you should hold possession of all the lands from this fort downward to the sea."
The governor exhibited deeds, signed by Indian chiefs, in proof that the English had purchased the lands. Ongewasgone replied, and without doubt very truthfully, -
"I am an old man, and yet I never heard any of my ancestors say that these lands were sold. We do not think that these deeds are false; but we apprehend that you got the Indians drunk, and so took advantage of them, when you bought the lands."
At the close of this conference one of the chiefs said, "I would add one word more. Our young men are very apt to get drunk. We entreat you to give orders to Capt. Lithgow, not to let any one of them have any more rum than one quart in two days." 1
The question as to the title to the lands, the English decided in their own favor, declaring that they had been deeded to them by the Indians. Of course the Indians felt deeply aggrieved. The first town incorporated, within what was called the territory of Sagadahoc, was Newcastle, so named from the Duke of New- castle, who was secretary of the king, and was deemed friendly to the colonies.
There were increasing dissatisfaction and murmurs with in- dividual Indians. It was also asserted that the French were endeavoring to incite them to renew hostilities. The most con- venient route from Quebec to the eastern provinces of Maine, was to follow up the Chaudière about a hundred miles, then to cross the unbroken wilderness through an Indian trail, a dis- tance of about fifty miles, to the Kennebec, near the mouth of Dead River. This point was about fifty miles above the Indian settlement at Norridgewock. It was apprehended that the Indians far away upon these upper waters of the river, gather- ing from Maine and Canada, and aided by the French, might
1 Journal of the Rev. Thomas Smith, pp. 153, 154.
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establish a general rendezvous, and make raids upon the lower settlements. No such attempt was, however, undertaken, and there is no evidence that such was ever contemplated. Subse- quent events render it much more probable that the rumor was started by designing men, as an excuse for taking possession of the lands on the upper waters of the river, by erecting forts.
The governor ordered six companies to be organized ready to march at the shortest notice. He also issued the severe com- mand, that, should any Indians of Norridgewock be guilty of any mischief, the troops should advance upon their village, utterly destroy it, and either kill or capture every member of the tribe.1 The government ordered a very strong fort to be built at Teconnet, on the eastern bank of the Kennebec, at the junction between that river and the Sebasticook. This was making an advance from Fort Richmond, thirty-five miles up the river, into the territory which the Indians claimed as their own, and from which they had so earnestly entreated that they might not be driven. This fort was garrisoned by eight hun- dred men. In anticipation of another war with the French and Indians, an alliance was formed by the English with the Mohawks, the fiercest warriors on the continent.
The great and terrible struggle was approaching between the two most powerful kingdoms on the globe, France and England, for the possession of this continent. France was beginning to rear her forts from the Lakes to New Orleans, intending to hold control of the majestic valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and to shut up the English upon the narrow border east of the Alleghanies. England was resolved to drive the French from Canada, and to take possession of the whole country. In the awful conflict which ensued, not only the poor Indians were doomed to be crushed, but thousands of humble European emi- grants suffered woes the very recital of which tortures the soul.
1 History of Maine, by William Williamson, vol. ii. p. 297.
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CHAPTER XX.
THE OLD FRENCH WAR, AND THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION COMMENCED.
The Upper Kennebec explored - New Forts built- War with the Indians Renewed -- English Atrocities - War between France and England - Feeble- ness of the Indians - Incorporation of Towns - Efforts of England to En- slave America- The Stamp Act -The Tea Tax - Battle of Lexington - Patriotism of the People of Maine -Scenes in Falmouth - Visit of the British Sloop-of-War -Capture of Capt. Mowatt - His Threats.
F 1 IVE hundred troops were sent up the Kennebec River to explore the carrying-places between that river and the Chaudière. It was ascertained that no fort had been attempted in that region, by either the French or the Indians. The site selected by the English for the new fort was beautiful. It was three-quarters of a mile below Teconnet Falls. It was built of solid timber, twenty feet in height, and sufficiently capacious to accommodate a garrison of four hundred men. The name given this structure was Fort Halifax.
Two other forts, quite similar in strength, were built farther down the river, each of them on the eastern side. One was at Cushnoc,1 now Augusta, near the eastern end of the present bridge. They gave it the name of Fort Western. The other was about a mile above the northern end of Swan Island. It was called Fort Shirley.2 From Fort Western to Fort Halifax was a distance of eighteen miles, through a pathless and unin- habited wilderness. The governor ordered a road to be cut through the forest suitable for wheel carriages. Arrangements
1 This name is sometimes spelled Cushenoc.
2 As this was situated in the plantation of Frankfort, it was sometimes called Fort Frankfort.
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were also made, so that an express might be sent, by means of whale-boats and videttes, from Falmouth to Fort Halifax, in twenty-four hours.
On the 6th of November, 1754, couriers reached Falmouth with the tidings that a band of Indians had assailed some men from the garrison of Fort Halifax, who were cutting timber, and killed one man, and carried away four others as captives. Also a rumor had reached the fort, that five hundred French and Indians were about to march from Quebec to make an attack upon the fort. A re-enforcement of a hundred men was immediately sent to strengthen the garrison. Six companies of minute-men, in Maine, were ordered to be ready to march at the shortest notice.
It soon appeared that this hostile outbreak was perpetrated by the Canada Indians of St. François.1 Public opinion was greatly aroused against these Indians. Many demanded that they should be utterly exterminated. A hundred pounds was offered by the General Court, for the scalp of any one of them, and ten pounds more for an Indian taken alive. There were mutual recriminations and retaliations by which France and England gradually drifted into the deplorable "French war," without war having been formally declared by either party. Awful tragedies ensued, which could scarcely have been exceeded in Pandemonium.
We have no space here to enter into the details of the conflict. We can only briefly allude to the events which transpired in Maine. The most awful scenes of distress were witnessed. The civilized combatants, in their rage, proved that savages could not exceed them in cruelty. Several months lapsed before there were any acts of violence in Maine. It is very evident
1 It will be remembered that the governor of Canada had invited the fragments of tribes, broken by war, to settle on lands which he had assigned to them on the two small tributaries of the St. Lawrence, Besancourt and St. François. Here they were aided in building their houses. A church and a parsonage were erected, and a missionary and interpreter furnished them. They were called the St. Fran- çois Indians, and were, of course, entirely devoted to the French, who had treated them with such brotherly kindness .- Williamson, vol. ii. p. 40; Jeffrey's History of the French Dominions, p. 9; Topographical Description of Canada, by Joseph Bon- chette, p. 67.
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that the Indians there were exceedingly reluctant to be drawn into the war. During the summer of 1755, five or six men, in different localities, were shot, several houses were burned, and eight men were carried in captivity to Canada. It is probable that all this was done by straggling bands from Canada; still on the 11th of June, 1754, the General Court, in retaliation for these acts, declared war against all the Indians in Maine, except- ing those on the Penobscot. Two hundred pounds were offered to volunteers for every Indian scalp. It was known that the feeble and disheartened Indians could make no show of battle. They were to be hunted down like bears and wolves. The Indians were struck with dismay. "They retired back," writes. Mr. Williamson; " and we hear, after this, of no more mischief perpetrated by them this season, on our frontiers." 1
As a general rule, the English settlers hated the Indians, and were anxious to get entirely rid of them. They made but little distinction between friends and enemies. If. a Canadian Indian engaged in any act of aggression, the English were prompt to take vengeance upon any Indians they might chance to meet, no matter how inoffensive in conduct or how friendly in heart.
Capt. James Cargill, of Newcastle, was commissioned to raise a scouting company. He chanced to meet a band of Indian hunters, peaceful men, who had no thought of any hostile act. He shot down twelve, and took their scalps. They were worth to him and his party two thousand four hundred pounds. Soon after they met a friendly Indian woman, Margaret ; she was well known, and was returning from a visit to the garrison, with her babe in her arms. They shot her down. With dying breath she entreated them to protect her child. They killed the babe before its mother's eyes.2
Cargill was apprehended for murder : as usual, no verdict could be found against him, though there was no denial of the facts ; but there were many good men whose hearts were filled with grief by such atrocities. The General Court offered all the Indians who would enlist in the public service, the same pay as other soldiers had. Nine of the chiefs were invited into
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 312.
2 Eaton's Narrative, pp. 12, 13, as quoted by Mr. Williamson, vol. ii. p. 315.
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St. George's Fort to confer upon this matter. They were all seized as prisoners, and were assured that they would not be liberated until they enlisted. Dreadful was their embarrass- ment. The Canadian Indians were their friends and brethren. The French had ever treated them with the utmost kindness ; and yet they were informed, that, unless they would enlist to fight these their friends, a war of extermination would be waged against them. On the 5th of November war was declared against this Penobscot tribe, and large premiums were offered for their scalps.1
It was not until June, 1756, that England published a declar- ation of war against France. Gov. Shirley, whose administra- tion had lasted sixteen years, became very unpopular, and was withdrawn. Several months passed before a successor was ap- pointed. The Indians, goaded to desperation, on the 24th of March, 1756, killed two men and wounded a third, near Fort George's. On the 3d of May one man was shot in Harpswell, and two escaped by flight. There were but three Indians, who, in ambush, attacked these three well-armed white men. They carried their captive to Canada, where, in about a year, he obtained his liberty. On the 14th of May two men, in Wind- ham, were shot and scalped by a party of Indians in ambush. One Indian was shot and another wounded. At the head of Arrowsic Island, in Georgetown, Mr. Preble and his wife were killed, as they were planting corn, and their three children were carried to Canada.
The Indians treated these little orphans with great tenderness, carrying them upon their backs when they were fatigued, and sharing liberally their food with them. These children became so much attached to their Indian parents that they wept bitterly when, being ransomed, they were taken from them to be restored to civilized life. Their mother's father, Capt. Harnden, of Woolwich, went to Canada for them, and such is his testimony respecting their treatment. At Fort Halifax two men fishing were shot and mortally wounded.
Such was the character of this needless war. Though but
1 Journal of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, vol. ix. p. 248.
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few in Maine were killed, the alarm was universal. The lonely settlers did not dare to cultivate their fields. No one could move from his house without danger of being shot at. The Indians were despondent. Gloom was everywhere. There was famine in the land. To add to the woes, the small-pox broke out, and raged in garrison, cabin, and wigwam. The Penobscot Indians, who had been so ruthlessly assailed, appealed in piteous tones for peace, to Capt. Bradbury, who commanded the garri- son at St. George's. Very truthfully does Mr. Williamson write, -
" No other eastern tribe had treated the English with so much forbearance and honor. And the good man's heart must be touched with sympathy for - their melancholy condition, when he reflects, that, in the present war upon them, our own people were the first and principal aggressors." 1
The Indians were deemed so powerless, that, during the year 1757, only two hundred and sixty men were employed to hunt them down, besides those in garrison. Early in June, Mrs. Hall, a lady of remarkable beauty and many accomplishments, was captured, with her children, after her husband had been killed. They were carried to Canada, where they were separated. Mrs. Hall was eventually ransomed. But this unhappy woman, not- withstanding her lifelong endeavors, could never obtain the least knowledge of the fate of her children.
It was difficult to find the Indians. They very generally abandoned the frontiers. In 1758 Harpswell was incorporated. Its atmosphere was even then deemed so salubrious that it was resorted to by the sick. There were, during this year, only two or three acts of violence, on the part of the Indians in Maine. In other portions of our extensive country, the struggle between France and England raged with great violence. In August an attempt was made by a party of French and Indians from Can- ada, upon Fort St. George's. It is estimated that the band con- sisted of about four hundred. Re-enforcements were promptly sent to the place, and the assailants were driven off after butcher- ing about sixty cattle in the vicinity. Soon after an attack was
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 324.
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made upon Meduncook, now Friendship, where eight men were either killed or captured.
" These," writes Mr. Williamson, " so far as our knowledge extends, closed the scenes of massacre, plunder, and outrage by the Indians, during the present war and forever."1
During the next year, Quebec, Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Crown Point fell before the valor of British armies; and the banners of France, not long after this, were driven from this continent.2 It was a great achievement; but it was accom- plished through woes to humanity which no tongue can ade- quately tell.
The Indians were no longer to be feared. A military force was sent to Penobscot to take possession of that magnificent valley. A site was selected for a fort, about three leagues below Orphan Island, in the present town of Prospect. It was both fort and trading-house. Though the Indian tribes were greatly broken, and were crumbling to decay, there were still many thousand Indians in that region, eager to sell their furs for the commodities which the English offered in exchange. A gentle- man who visited the fort soon after its erection, wrote, " I have seen one of its rooms as full as it could be well stowed, with the first quality of furs, beaver, otter, and sable."
The structure was called Fort Pownal. It cost five thousand pounds, and was garrisoned by a hundred men. The governor, in his message to the legislature, said that he had taken military possession of a large and fine country, which had long been a den for savages, and a lurking-place for renegado Frenchmen. In October, 1759, the plantation of Nequasset, sometimes called Nauseag, was erected into a town, by the name of Woolwich. The Indians were compelled to confess their rebellion, and that consequently they had forfeited all their lands, and to take the oath of allegiance to the king of England. The once powerful Penobscot tribe had dwindled to five chiefs, seventy-five warriors, and five hundred souls. The English granted the Indians per- mission to hunt through the unoccupied forests, and to rear their villages upon such spots as might be assigned to them.
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 333.
2 Quebec, the capital of New France, capitulated on the 5th of October, 1759. - Smollett, vol. iii. p. 475.
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At this time nearly all the houses at St. George's River were of logs. They were very humble structures. Nine were built in one day. It was twenty miles to the nearest mill. There were no carts or cart-roads. Bears and wolves were numerous in the forests. Moose and deer were abundant. At one time, when the snow was deep and covered with a crust, seventy moose were taken in one winter.
On the 13th of February, 1760, Pownalborough was chartered as a township. It embraced the three present towns of Dres- den, Wiscasset, and Alna, and also Swan Island. Two new counties, Cumberland and Lincoln, were also established.1 Upon the retirement of Gov. Pownal this year, Thomas Hutchinson, . a graduate of Harvard, was placed in the gubernatorial chair. From a valuation taken in the. year 1761, it is estimated that the population of the State then amounted to about seventeen thousand five hundred souls.
Sir Francis Bernard was soon appointed governor by the crown. Maine was then regarded as a remote but important district of Massachusetts. The new governor was an English- man by birth, a graduate of Oxford University, and a thorough aristocrat. In heart he was probably strongly opposed to the republican views prevailing in the colonies, and his great desire was to increase the ascendancy of the crown. He became unpopular from his evident efforts to curtail the influence of the people. The rich valley of the Penobscot was fast drawing settlers. The General Court made Gov. Bernard a present of the far-famed island Mount Desert. It is said that this gift was probably intended to secure his influence with the crown in obtaining its consent to the establishment of thirteen townships in the Penobscot region. These townships would send represen- tatives to the General Court. This would increase the popular power. The governor had therefore opposed the measure.
There was still an immense amount of ungranted land in the eastern portion of the State. Commissioners were appointed to
1 There were consequently, at this time, three counties. York contained eight towns, Cumberland seven, and Lincoln five. There were perhaps as many more small and scattered settlements, called plantations. The Neck, now Portland, contained a hundred and thirty-six dwelling-houses. - Smith's Journal, p. 74.
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run the dividing line between Maine and Nova Scotia. In 1762 Windham, Buxton, and Bowdoinham were incorporated. This last town was named in honor of Dr. Peter Bowdoin, a Protes- tant, who had fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. On the 10th of February, 1763, a general treaty of peace was signed at Paris, between France and England. France renounced to Great Britain all her northern dominions in America. At this time there was not a settler in the valley of the Penobscot above Orphan Island.
The Indians were no more successful than the English in pre- venting acts of murder and robbery on the part of lawless vaga- bonds. An Indian was hunting and trapping near Fort Pownal. Four Englishmen killed him, and stole his traps and furs. The villany escaped unpunished, and the Indians attempted no revenge. There were several such cases which the Indians bore with wonderful forbearance.
This year the census was taken, but it is thought not very accurately. According to the report made, there remained but thirty warriors of the Norridgewock tribe, sixty of the Penob- scot, and thirty of the Passamaquoddy Indians. The whole pop- ulation of Maine amounted to about twenty-four thousand.
In the year 1764, three plantations of considerable note, Topsham, Gorham, and Boothbay, were incorporated. Tops- ham was named from a town in England ; Gorham was so called in honor of Capt. John Gorham, a revered ancestor of one of the grantees. The first settler in that plantation was Capt. John Phinney, who reared his lonely cabin in that wilderness in the year 1734. Boothbay was the ancient Cape Newagen settlement. The plantation was settled in the year 1630, soon after the first adventurers landed at Pemaquid. A century of earth's crimes and woes had since passed away, and dreadful were the ravages those settlers had experienced during the Indian wars.
The next year two more towns were incorporated, Bristol and Cape Elizabeth. These were the twenty-second and twenty-third towns of the district of Maine. Bristol embraced the ancient and renowned Pemaquid. A settlement was com- menced here as early as 1626. The name was given from the
TICONIC FALLS, WATERVILLE AND WINSLOW, ME.
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city of Bristol in England. Cape Elizabeth was taken from the old town of Falmouth. The first inhabitants settled upon a neck of land to which we often have had occasion to refer as Purpooduck Point. Nearly all the inhabitants of the place were, at one time, massacred by the Indians.
On the eastern side of Salmon Falls River, above Berwick, there had long been a plantation of considerable note, called by its Indian name, Tow-woh. In the year 1767, it was incorporated as a town, by the name of Lebanon. The tide of emigration was flowing rapidly towards the fertile and beautiful banks of the Kennebec. In the year 1771, four towns were incorporated upon that river, embracing an area of three hundred and twenty- five square miles. These were Hallowell, Vassalborough, Wins- low, and Winthrop, They constituted the twenty-sixth, twenty- seventh, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth corporate towns of the State.
Hallowell was so called from a distinguished English family of that name. It embraced the present territory of Augusta. There had been occasional inhabitants in this region, which was called Cushnoc and the Hook for more than a hundred years. Vassalborough, which then included also Sidney, was named from the Hon. William Vassal, a prominent citizen of Mass- achusetts.
Winslow was also incorporated this year, including the present town of Waterville. Here was the famous Teconnet of the Indians ; and it was at this point, on the neck of land formed by the union of the Sebasticook and the Kennebec, that Fort Hali- fax was reared. As early as 1754, eleven families built their cabins at this frontier fort in the wilderness.
Winthrop also was incorporated, embracing territory which was subsequently set apart as Readfield. The territorial plan- tation established here was called the Pond Town Plantation. There were forty-four lakes of rare beauty, within limits now comprising Winthrop, Readfield, and a part of Wayne. It is a beautiful region, commanding sites for villas, as the country shall increase in wealth and population, which perhaps no por- tion of our extensive domain can surpass. This beautiful chain of lakes was the great water-course over which the canoes of
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the Indians were paddled as they passed from the Kennebec to the Androscoggin.1
On the shores of these lakes, the Indians, with a high appre- ciation of landscape beauty, reared their villages. One of these lakes, Cobbosseconte, is twelve miles long and two wide. The outlet of these lovely sheets of water is into the Kennebec, at what is now Gardiner, by a stream which the Indians called Cobbossecontecook. All the names the Indians gave appear to have had some particular significance. It is said that Cobbosse meant sturgeon, conte, abundance of, and cook, place.2
In the year 1764, Timothy Foster, with his wife and ten chil- dren, wandered through the trails of the forest to the margin of Cobbosseconte Lake. Here he reared his log cabin, and obtained what he probably considered an abundant and luxuri- ous livelihood, by hunting, fishing, trapping, and cultivating a small patch of corn. The farm granted him by the proprietors was a hundred rods on the shore of the lake, running back à mile. The conditions were simply that he should build a house twenty feet square and ten feet stud, should reside, himself or heirs, on the premises three years, and clear five acres of land fit for tillage.
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