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 6
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This was indeed an untoward termination of Gilbert's visit to Sebenoa. The shallop immediately withdrew to the opposite side of the river. In this misadventure the natives certainly appear to great advantage. It is recorded, -
" A canoe followed to excuse the hostile bearing of the natives. Gilbert kindly entertained the messages of peace, but made the best of his way back to the settlement and the fort."
These events took place on the 26th of September, 1607. Capt. Gilbert expresses his admiration of the magnificent spruce-trees he passed on the way, suitable " to mast the great- est ship his majesty hath." Clusters of ripe grapes hung upon the vines which festooned the trees, and the waters seemed to abound in fishes of great variety. The next day, in a dismal storm of rain and fog, the shallop returned to Fort George.
CHAPTER IV.
THE FAILURE OF POPHAM'S COLONY, AND ITS ATTENDANT RESULTS.
Indian Etiquette - Virtues of the Indians-Scenes in the Colony - Popham's Death - Ruin in the Colony - Atrocious Cruelty - Revenge of the Indians - The Explosion - Fears of the Indians -The Colony Abandoned - Private Adventures - Infamy of Poutrincourt - The Scenery of Mount Desert - Mon- hegan in its Glory -Harlow the Kidnapper - Valor of the Indians - Fate of the French Colonies - Adventures of Epenow - His Escape - The Battle on Martha's Vineyard.
A WEEK passed away. On the 3d of October, Skitwarroes came to the fort in a canoe, with two or three other Indians. The native princes seem to have had their rules of courtly etiquette, quite as distinctly defined as those which pre- vail at Windsor Castle or Versailles. It would seem that there were, in that region, several tribes under one head chief, who was recognized as supreme, and was called Bashaba.
Skitwarroes and his companions had come as envoys from the Bashaba, to inform Gov. Popham that their sovereign had sent his brother (Williamson says his son) as an ambassador to visit the chieftain of the white men, and that he was on the other side of the river, awaiting the white chieftain's pleasure. The envoy was immediately invited over, and was received with the distinction due to one of his rank. He spent the sabbath at the fort, and with his retinue attended public worship, both morning and evening. It is recorded that they all conducted reverentially, and with much decorum.
The object of this mission was to establish friendly relations with the new-comers, and to open a trade which might be exceedingly beneficial to both parties. It would seem that Nahanada and Skitwarroes had made such representations to
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the Bashaba, that he generously overlooked the infamous con- duct of Weymouth, and presented the hand of reconciliation and friendship to these new-comers. Every historian has ad- mitted that the conduct of the Indians in this respect was very noble. There is no authentic record, thus far, of any act of treachery, violence, or deceit on their part. The Indian wars, which eventually ensued, were the undeniable result of outrages inflicted by individual white men, who were beyond the re- straints of law, and who, in utter godlessness, had no more regard to future retribution than had the wolves and the bears. The Indians were honest in their dealings, and manifested much gratitude for any favor conferred upon them.
On one occasion a straw hat and a knife were given to an Indian, by the name of Ameriguin, as a present. He immedi- ately, in return, presented the giver with a rich beaver mantle, which was then worth from ten to fifteen dollars in London.
The works in the settlement were driven so vigorously, and the style of architecture was so simple, that by the 6th of October, only seven weeks from the time of landing, the fort was completed, intrenched, and twelve cannon were mounted. The storehouse was also finished, and fifty log-cabins were reared. With such imposing ceremonies as the occasion could furnish, the town was named St. George.1
Winter came early, and with unusual severity. Storms of sleet and snow swept the bleak expanse which had been so unwisely selected for their home. Discontent arose, and, with the discontent, quarrels among the colonists. Many cursed the day in which they left their cottages in England, for abodes so chill and drear and comfortless. They had made no suitable preparation for winter. They had only green wood to burn. Their cabins were frail, and filled with smoke.
It was a miserable winter to all. With wise foresight, and a Christian spirit, the months of snow and wind and rain might have passed even agreeably away. Their cabins might have been warm and cheerful. Wood was abundant. They could have laid in ample stores, and quite well seasoned. An abun- dant supply of furs could have been obtained of the Indians for
1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 268.
·
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clothing and bedding, and couches around the brightly blazing fireside. The Indians wished to be friendly. They would gladly have brought in stores of corn and fish and game, had they been kindly treated. But sin reigned in the camp; and where there is sin there must be sorrow.
Gov. Popham died. It was, perhaps, fortunate for him. His heart would have broken, could he have lived to witness the ruin of his colony. As the world was receding from his view, and the sublimities of eternity opening before him, he said, cheered by the hope that he had planted a colony which would last while time endures, -
" I die content. My name will be always associated with the first planting of the English race in the New World. My remains will not be neglected away from the home of my fathers and my kindred."
His expectations were not realized. His colony perished. No friendly hand conveyed his remains to England, that they might repose amidst the graves of his fathers. No monument has ever been reared to his memory. We now search in vain for the spot, amidst the sands of the ocean shore, where his body awaits that judgment trump at whose peal the dead shall rise. The wail of the tempest, and the dash of the surge, have been for two hundred years his mournful requiem.
There was no one left in the colony capable of filling the place of Popham. His death was followed by that of three other of the most prominent men. Comparative anarchy reigned. The Indians were grossly and wantonly maltreated. They have not been able to tell their own story; but the records of the white man's historians testify fully to this fact. The colonists seem to have been selected, or accepted, without any reference to moral character. In those days, there prob- ably could not have been found on earth a more fiendlike set of men than the average crew of a British man-of-war. Ap- parently many of the colonists were reckless seamen, picked up from the wharves of the seaports of England. One of their outrages would seem incredible ; but we know not that the story has ever been contradicted.
· It is said that a large number of natives landed on one occa- 5
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sion, at the little settlement, with a few furs and skins for sale. They wandered peacefully around, gazing with much interest upon the new objects which everywhere met their eyes. They were new-comers from the interior, and every thing was strange to them. Some of the men thought they would amuse them- selves in seeing how the Indians would be astonished and terri- fied at the report of one of their cannons. They loaded one of the largest almost to the muzzle, but with powder only. They attached two drag-ropes to the heavy gun, and requested the Indians, as a favor, to help them draw the ponderous weapon from one part of the grounds to another.
Joyously, with shouts and merriment, the obliging natives manned the two ropes, in lines directly before the muzzle of the gun. As they were rushing it along, one of these colonists applied the match to the touch-hole. A terrible explosion, with lightning flash and thunder peal, took place. Several of the natives were killed outright; others were horribly burned and mangled.
The survivors returned to their homes, scattering in all di- rections the story of the horrible outrage. This was a fitting sequel to the kidnapping crimes of Weymouth. It is not strange that the heathen Indians should have thought that the Christian white men were fiends. Universal indignation was excited. The Indians met in large numbers, resolved to exter- minate the colonists who had thus brought blood and misery and death to their lowly homes. They made an attack - the " treacherous Indians," as they were called - upon the settle- ment. They captured the storehouse which contained all the merchandise and provisions of the colony.
They drove the garrison, which was greatly diminished by sickness and death, out of the fort. One man was killed ; the others took refuge in a sort of citadel at some distance from the magazine. As the ignorant Indians were rioting through the captured fort, they knocked open some barrels containing some kind of grain, of small, dark kernels, such as they had never seen before. It was not corn ; it was not wild wheat, nor rye. It was powder. The grains were scattered over the floor. Ac- cidentally they were ignited. A terrific explosion of the whole
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magazine ensued. It was a phenomenon of thunder roar, and of volcanic ruin, which would have appalled any community. Timbers, cannons, merchandise, and the mangled bodies of the Indians, were blown high into the air, but to fall back into a crater of devouring flame.
The ignorant, superstitious Indians were appalled beyond all conception by this carnage. Had fiends come to the aid of their brethren the white men? Was the Great Spirit angry with the Indians for their attack upon the colony ? and had he, in consequence, sent this terrible punishment upon them ? They were bewildered, terrified.
They had not been struck down by bullet or arrow or club. It was a supernatural, miraculous power, which had assailed them. They had conquered the white man ; and then this new, invisible, resistless ally had overwhelmed them with destruction. They could not contend against thunderbolts, and upheaving earthquakes, and bursting flames. It mattered not to them, whether these tremendous energies were wielded by bad spirits or good : their only safety was in immediate flight. They took to their canoes, and paddled swiftly from the settlement, with no disposition to approach it again.
Such is the story which has descended to us. It may not be true in all its details. It unquestionably is true in its essential features. We have found no historian who discredits it. "It is certain," Williamson says, " that it was believed to be true by the ancient and well-informed inhabitants on Sagadahock River." 1
The colonists, who had thus sown the wind, were now, in the righteous judgment of God, reaping the whirlwind. There were, doubtless, good men among them, men of philanthropy and piety, who mourned and wept over these calamities. But sin is a far more potent agent of action than holiness. A few drops of poison will destroy the most vigorous frame. The life which God's love has gradually developed through the long years of infancy, childhood, and youth, to mature manhood, the dagger of the assassin may destroy in an instant. The city which the industry of a century has reared, the torch of the incendiary may lay in ashes in a few hours.
1 See Supplement to King Philip's War, 1675, p. 75.
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There may have been even a majority of the colonists good men. But, were one-third of their number thoroughly bad, they could have thwarted all the measures of the good. They could cheat the Indians, rob them, shoot them, insult their wives and daughters, and thus inflict an amount of injury which all the efforts of the true Christians could not repair. One kidnapping Weymouth can arouse an hostility which many honest voyagers may vainly endeavor to appease.
The colonists were now freezing, starving, and quarrelling among themselves. In those dreary log-cabins there was no happiness. Frowns were upon every brow, murmurs upon all lips, gloom in every heart. It is to be inferred from the brief narrative we have, that the two vessels which had conveyed the colonists to the Sagadahock had returned to England. These ships could have carried back only the tidings of the successful landing of the colony. The Plymouth Company promptly fitted out another ship, with supplies. Early in the spring this ship cast anchor before the already dilapidated, impoverished, decay- ing town of St. George. The colonists, instead of landing the supplies, rushed on board the ship, determined with one accord to return to England.
The Indians, bitterly hostile, could not be induced to venture into their settlement with any provisions. It was only at the imminent peril of their lives that the English could leave their rampart of logs, to penetrate the interior on foraging expedi- tions. Their storehouse was burned. They had no articles left for traffic. Whatever they obtained they would be com- pelled to grasp with robber hands.
Thus influenced, they all abandoned the colony. Their return to England excited the surprise and the deep regret of the Plymouth Company. They carried back the most deplora- ble report of the character of the country, its climate, its soil, and especially of its inhabitants. "The native Indians," they said, " are the outcasts of creation. They have no religion, but are merely diabolical. They are the very ruins of mankind ; the most sordid and contemptible part of the human species."
On the other hand, the French, who, not many years after, established a settlement among the Indians of the upper Ken-
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nebec, and who lived with them not only on terms of peace, but of strong personal friendship, wrote of them, -
" The Indians are docile and friendly, accessible to the precepts of religion, strong in their attachment to their friends, and submissive to the rites and ceremonies of the Catholic faith." 1
The disastrous issue of this attempt to establish a settlement in Maine checked the spirit of colonization for several years. There were still many private expeditions to these waters for the benefits of the fishery, and to purchase furs of the natives along the coast. Lord Popham, the most prominent member of the Plymouth Company, died ; but his son, Sir Francis Popham, for several years sent a ship annually to the coast of Maine, for fishing and traffic. He, however, was not suc- cessful, and at length abandoned such operations. But it is confidently asserted that other adventurers were frequently visiting the coast, though no record was made of these private voyages.2
The French were in Canada prosecuting a very successful fur- trade with the Indians. There was a strange sort of telegraphy by which the Indians conveyed tidings of important events to the remotest tribes. Unquestionably the Indians of Massachu- setts had heard accounts of the conduct of the English in Maine.
A Frenchman, by the name of Poutrincourt, was in command of the French trading post and mission at Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. It must be remembered that at that time there were no distinct territorial lines drawn. The whole of this region was called Acadia. Poutrincourt seems to have been a very reckless, passionate man, with but little regard for Christian principle. He quarrelled with his clergy, and said fiercely to them, " It is my part to rule you while on earth, and it is your part to guide me to heaven."
The clergy had a difficult part, in this respect, to perform, if all reports are true respecting the conduct and character of Poutrincourt. He went on an exploring and trading tour, along
1 History of Norridgewock, by William Allen, p. 12. .
2 Hubbard's New England, p. 37; Prince's Annals, p. 25.
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the coasts of what are now Maine and Massachusetts, as far south as Cape Cod. There he fell into an altercation and a fight with the natives. We know not who was the aggressor, or what was the cause of the conflict. Poutrincourt does not inform us, and the Indians had no one to tell their story. Two of the Frenchmen were killed, and others wounded. What slaughter was inflicted upon the Indians we know not. Pou- trincourt continued his cruise several leagues farther, until he cast anchor where the natives had not heard of his battle with the Indians. Five of these innocent, unoffending men came confidingly on board his vessel, and offered some furs for sale. He seized them, and put them all to death, probably hanging them at the yard-arm. This was his retaliation. There is implanted in the bosom of most men a sense of justice, which leads them, in view of such crimes, to find some degree of com- fort in the thought, that there is a day of judgment to come, and that the wicked shall not go unpunished. It is recorded that this circumstance led Poutrincourt to form a very unfavor- able opinion of the disposition of the Indians.
After such an occurrence it is not strange, that when, a few years later, our Pilgrim Fathers landed upon Cape Cod, they should have been attacked by the natives.1 It is thus that one bad man can inflict an amount of injury which many good men cannot repair. Poutrincourt returned to Port Royal, where he and his companions lived in such revelry, probably outraging the Indians in various ways, that the clergy, who were sincerely devoted to the welfare of the natives, refused to remain in the settlement. Biencourt, the son of Poutrincourt, was even worse than his father. Ruling in the place of his father, who had gone to England, his conduct was infamous, Annoyed by the rebukes and remonstrances of the missionaries, he threatened them with corporal punishment. They abandoned Port Royal, and removed to Mount Desert, where they were received by the natives as friends and brothers. The names of these two good men, Messrs. Biard and Massè, deserve to be perpetuated.2
Mount Desert is the largest, and certainly the most beautiful
1 See narrative of the first encounter in the Life of Miles Standish.
2 Baird's Relation, L'Escarbot's Histoire, Charlevoix's Histoire.
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island on the coast of Maine. It has, indeed, but few rivals on this globe. The island is fifteen miles long, and seven miles in average breadth, containing sixty thousand acres. The scenery is surpassingly beautiful. The towering mountains of the interior raise their forest-crowned brows so high, that they can be discerned at the distance of sixty miles at sea. Separated from the main land but by narrow serpentine creeks, which were sheltered from winds and waves, and were abounding with fin and shell fish, it had been, for centuries which no man can count, a favorite resort for the Indians.
The sublimity and loveliness of the scenery pleased the eye of the natives. Here they reared their comfortable cabins, and lined them with furs. Wood was abundant for their winter fires. There was a great amount of game in the mountains, consisting of bears, raccoons, foxes, rabbits, and fowls of various kinds. The marshes and meadows were stocked with beaver, otter, and musquash. The sunny valleys, walled in by moun- tains and forests, were rich in verdure, and blooming with flowers. They often waved with harvests of golden corn. Over the placid waters of numerous creeks and inlets and bays, the buoyant canoe of the native could glide in perfect safety. There were many lakelets open to the sea, to which the ale- wives in the spring resorted in enormous numbers, to deposit their spawn. It has been well said, -
" Mount Desert is remarkable for its size, its singular topography, its bold and wild scenery, and still more for its wilder and stranger history. Who- ever visits it, if he is familiar with its earliest records and legends, will, as he sits upon some bold pinnacle of its mountains, and glances over its sea- cradled islands, its sun-burnished creeks, its mountain lakes, and its Alp- like ravines, almost expect to see the savage emerge from some glen, or to see, lying at anchor, the rude shallop of two hundred years ago ; or, stranger still, to behold some wanderer from England, France, or Spain, in the habil- iments of his time, with steeple hat, peaked beard, slashed doublet, and sword by his side, climbing the sea wall thrown up by the ocean, to seek his rude cabin on the shore." 1
There is a large cluster of islands here, separated but by narrow channels, the intricacy of whose waters it would be
1 History of New England, by Coolidge and Mansfield.
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difficult to describe. These islands, Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry, Lancaster, and Duck, contain from fifty to six hun- dred acres each. Several families now reside upon them. Be- tween Great Cranberry and Lancaster Islands there is a fine harbor called The Pool, which affords excellent anchorage. Here, it is supposed, Messrs. Biard and Massè located themselves in the year 1609. The ruins of an old settlement at this place are still visible.1 In the solitudes of this profound wilderness, those self-denying men reared their lowly huts, cultivated their little garden, and, uncheered by the presence of wife or child, living upon Indian fare, and conforming to Indian customs, labored with untiring zeal for five years, to instruct the Indians, and to lead them to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. These men were Christians. It matters not to what denomination they belonged. "By their fruits shall ye know them."
The disastrous result of Popham's colony seemed, for a time, almost entirely to extinguish the desire to form settlements in this part of the New World. But Sir Ferdinando Gorges soon recovered from the blow. Probably his investigations convinced him that the failure was entirely owing to the folly of the colonists, and that Maine was a goodly land, yet destined to be the abode of wealth and culture. He wrote, -
" As to the coldness of the climate, I have had too much experience in the world, to be frightened with such a blast. Many great kingdoms and large territories more northerly seated, and by many degrees colder, are plentifully inhabited; divers of them being stored with no better commodi- ties than these parts afford, if like industry, art, and labor be used." 2 1
Gorges purchased a ship, employed Richard Vines as captain, but sought in vain for colonists. The region was now in such bad repute that none wished to seek in it a new home. There was much solicitude in the English court, lest the enterprising French should plant their settlements along the coast, and obtain the entire control of the country. Their colony at Port
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 79. The Cranberry Islands were so called because those berries were so abundant there. Duck Island swarmed with those birds. 2 Gorges' Narrative, p. 22.
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Royal was for a time quite successful. The colonists were carrying on a very profitable trade with the Indians in furs, and were supplied by them with an abundance of corn and venison.
Gorges seems to have found but little difficulty in hiring men as sailors, to visit the coast for the purposes of fishing, and purchasing furs of the natives. Many such voyages were made by the agents of Gorges and others. Some of these enterprises proved very successful. These adventurers, the common sailors, were generally rude, unprincipled men, more brutal far than the natives whom they contemptuously called savages.
Monhegan became the prominent point for traffic on the coast of Maine. At this island the vessels first made the land. Here they cast anchor, and established their rendezvous. In the quaint language of the times, this was described as, -
" The remarkablest isle and mountains for landmarks, a round high isle, with little Monas by its side, betwixt which is a small harbor, where our ships can lie at anchor."
A man by the name of Abraham Jennings claimed to have purchased this island of some Indians. It is not probable that his title-deed would bear any very close investigation. He was a fish-merchant from Plymouth, Eng., and was in partner- ship with Abner Jennings of London. They had opened quite a lucrative trade in this coast, employing many vessels annually in cod-fisheries and the purchase of furs. These men had stations on the neighboring mainland of Pemaquid, and probably also on some of the islands which encircle and thus create Boothbay Harbor.
These stations amounted merely to points which they period- ically visited in the summer months, to dry their fish, and to trade with the Indians. Thus Monhegan became not only the prominent landmark for voyagers, but the important depot for all the fishing and trading vessels.
In the year 1611 Samuel Argal, who subsequently became governor of South Virginia, while on a voyage to that colony was driven, by a series of gales, far away to the north. Find- ing himself near the coast of Maine, he decided to visit the
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