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 7
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fishing-grounds of Monhegan, of which he had heard much. He first made the land in the vicinity of Penobscot Bay : there he found a small island so abounding in seals that he called it Seal Rock. This name it still retains. He was in the vicinity of Mount Desert. We know but little more respecting this voyage ; but the familiarity he thus gained with these waters enabled him, three years later, successfully to prosecute one of the most important expeditions of the times, whatever may be the verdict as to its justification. We shall soon allude to this enterprise.
About the same time Capt. Edward Harlow was sent to explore Cape Cod and its surroundings. He directed his course first to Monhegan, and took shelter in its snug harbor. The natives were now in the habit of visiting the island in large numbers, eager to traffic with the newly-arrived ships. This. man, without any provocation whatever, villanously enticed three Indians on board his ship, and seized them as captives. One of the three, Peckmo, being a very strong man, after a desperate struggle broke away, and, plunging overboard, swam to the shore.
Immediately he aroused all the Indians around to the rescue. The valiant men, with arrows alone for their weapons, put off in their canoes to rescue their friends thus treacherously im- prisoned in the oak-ribbed ship. Their heroic efforts were, of course, unavailing. The long-boat of the ship was floating at its stern. The Indians, sweeping the deck with a shower of arrows, succeeded in cutting away the boat, and carrying it ashore. As they knew that Harlow would make an effort to recover it, they filled it with sand, having placed it in a position where with their arrows they could defend its approaches.
Harlow sent an armed band on shore to recover the boat. The exasperated natives fought with desperation. We know not how many Harlow succeeded in killing ; but we are happy to know that the natives drove Harlow off without his boat. In this conflict, so disgraceful to Harlow, three of his men were sorely wounded. The kidnapper, however, carried off two of his captives, Monopet and Peckenine. Then, spreading his sails for Cape Cod, the miscreant repeated the crime there. Three
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unoffending Indians, who had come from a distance to the anchorage, were lured to ascend his deck, with offers of traffic. The unsuspecting victims were enticed into the cabin, and the oaken doors were locked against them. Escape was as impossi- ble as from the stone and iron dungeons of the Tower. These three unhappy victims of villany were called Sackaweston, Coneconum, and Epenow.
All five were carried to London. Harlow exhibited Epenow as a show, as if he had been a monkey or a gorilla. The Cape Cod Indians and the natives from Monhegan, with abodes so widely apart, could not understand each other's language. Upon their arrival in England they were distributed in dif- ferent places. Some of them found Christian friends who sympathized deeply with them in their wrongs. Sir Ferdinando Gorges interested himself in their welfare. He rescued Assa- comet, one of the victims of Weymouth's perfidy, who had then been seven years in England; and it would seem that he and Epenow were both taken under his protection.1
According to the narrative which has descended to us, Epenow was a very shrewd man. Perceiving in what high estimation gold was held by the English, he thought, that, if he could make the English believe that he knew of a gold-mine in his own country, he might be employed to accompany a party to his native land, that he might guide them to the pretended mine. He communicated his plan to Assacomet. We know not why this man had been detained in England so long, when vessels were every year sailing to the North-American coast. Both of these men agreed in their story about the gold-mine. Thus a decided impulse was given to the interest in the region from which they came. The reader will be interested in the account which Sir Ferdinando Gorges gives of Epenow.
" While I was laboring, by what means I might best continue life in my languishing hopes, there came one Harlow unto me, bringing with him a native of the island of Capawick, a place seated to the southward of Cape Cod, whose name was Epenow. He was a person of goodly stature, strong and well proportioned. This man was taken upon the main, by force, with
1 Prince's Annals, p. 73; Belknap's Biography, p. 356.
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some twenty-nine others,1 by a ship of London, which endeavored to sell them as slaves in Spain. But it being understood that they were Ameri- cans, and unfit for their uses, they would not meddle with them. This Epenow was one of them whom they refused; wherein they expressed more worth than those that brought them to the market.
" How Capt. Harlow came to be in possession of this savage I know not ; but I understood by others how he had been shown in London for a wonder. It is true, as I have said, that he was a goodly man, of a brave aspect, stout and sober in his demeanor, and had learned so much English as to bid those that wondered at him, ' Welcome, welcome !' "'
In the mean time the English were watching, with great jealousy, the advance of the French colony at Port Royal, now Annapolis. There was a French lady of deep religious feel- ing, Madame de Guercheville, who was strongly moved with the desire to send the glad tidings of the gospel to these benighted Indians. She was a lady of wealth, and of influence at court. Having obtained from De Monts a surrender of his royal patent, which it will be remembered granted him the whole territory called Acadia, extending from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of north latitude, she had the title of this truly imperial territory confirmed to her by a charter from the French monarch.
Thus this lady became nominally the possessor of the whole seacoast, from the latitude of Philadelphia to the distance of more than a hundred miles north of Halifax. The region extended indefinitely into the interior. It had no limits but the Pacific Ocean.2 In the spring of 1613 Lady Guercheville sent her agent, M. Suassaye, to take possession of the land in her name, and to set up her arms. He made a visit to Port Royal, and thence sailed for Mount Desert. Here he landed, with twenty-five colonists, and built a small fort and several log-cabins. The crew of the vessel which brought over this colony consisted of thirty-five men. They all co-operated with great energy in rearing the habitations. They planted a cross, and named the place St. Saviour.
1 It is supposed that Gorges here confounds those stolen by Harlow with those soon after seized, with equal villany, by Hunt, in the region of the Sagadahock.
2 The whole of this remarkable grant, or patent, will be found, in French, in Hazard's Historical Collection, vol. i. p. 45.
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It is uncertain whether this settlement was on the eastern or southern portion of the island. The lonely missionaries, Biard and Massè, had reared their huts, as it will be remembered, upon the southern shore. The intelligence of this movement was speedily communicated to the magistrates of the Virginia colony. They determined to expel these Frenchmen, as intrud- ers upon soil which the English claimed. Eleven vessels were equipped, manned by sixty soldiers, and with an armament of fourteen pieces of cannon. It was a formidable army for such an enterprise, and entirely resistless by the feeble colony.
The French were taken quite by surprise, as this war-fleet entered their harbor. Their cannon were not in position ; and most of the men were absent, engaged in the various industrial employments their situation demanded. There were two French vessels riding at anchor. They were both taken without resist- ance. The English landed. In the confusion, one of the French missionaries was shot; a few others were wounded. The small number who were in the fort escaped through a private passage, and fled into the woods. The victors tore down the French cross, and erected another, upon which they inscribed the name and the arms of the King of England. The next day all of the French colonists came in, and surrendered themselves and their stores to the English.
Terrible must have been their disappointment in finding their anticipations thus suddenly and unexpectedly blighted. Capt. Argal allowed his prisoners their choice, either to return to France in the French vessels, or to go with him and join the colony in Virginia. Fifteen decided to go with him, including one of the missionaries.
Argal, thus victorious, directed the course of his fleet east- ward, and, having crossed the Bay of Fundy, cast anchor in the harbor of Port Royal. Here again the French, unconscious of any danger, were found unprepared for any conflict. They were busily employed in felling trees, rearing buildings, and preparing the soil for crops. The sight of eleven war-vessels suddenly entering their harbor astounded them. No resistance was attempted. Argal sent his armed boats ashore, applied the torch, and in two hours the whole flourishing village was in
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ashes. The colonists, impoverished and utterly ruined, were left to starve, or to find their way back to France as best they could. Argal took a French pinnace, which was in the harbor, and loading his vessels with the cattle, the provisions, and such other articles of value as he had rescued from the flames, returned to Virginia.
There was, at that time, no war between France and Eng- land. There seems to have been no effort to settle the disputed claims by friendly conference. The only reason assigned for these deeds of violence, conflagration, and blood, was, that the French were trespassing upon territory which England claimed. Many condemned the transaction as not only inflicting need- lessly great suffering, but as contrary to the law of nations.1
The next year (1614) Captain Hobson, in the employ of Gorges, set sail in June for Cape Cod. He took with him Epenow and Assacomet, as guides to the gold-mine of which they had spoken. There was a third Indian captive, who accompanied them, by the name of Wanope, who died on ship- board.
It would seem, from Gorges' narrative, that Epenow and Assacomet were held as prisoners. When the ship arrived at the harbor to which Epenow guided them, they were carefully watched, lest they should make their escape. As soon as the anchor was dropped, the principal inhabitants came crowding on board. Some of the brothers of Epenow were with them. The captain treated them all kindly, but kept a vigilant eye upon his captives that they should not go on shore. In the evening the little fleet of canoes left the ship; the natives promising to return the next day, and to bring articles for trade. Gorges the younger, who accompanied this expedition, writes, -
" But Epenow privately had contracted with his friends how he might make his escape without performing what he had undertaken. For that cause I gave the captain strict charge to endeavor, by all means, to prevent his escape. And for the more surity, I gave order to have three gentlemen, of my own kindred, to be ever at hand with him ; clothing him with long garments fitly to be laid hold of, if occasion should require.
1 This subject is quite fully discussed in Prince's Annals, Smith's History, Belk- nap's Biography, British Dominions in North America.
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" Notwithstanding all this, his friends being all come at the time ap- pointed, with twenty canoes, and lying at a certain distance with their bows ready, the captain calls to them to come on board. But, they not moving, he speaks to Epenow to come unto him where he was in the forecastle of the ship. Epenow was then in the waist of the ship, between the two gentle- men that had him in guard. Suddenly he starts from them, and, coming to the captain, calls to his friends in English, to come on board. In the interim he slips himself overboard.
" And although he were taken hold of by one of the company, yet, being a strong and heavy man, he could not be stayed. He was no sooner in the water, but the natives, his friends in the boats, sent such a shower of arrows, and came, withal, desperately so near the ship, that they carried him away in despite of all the musketeers, who were, for the number, as good as our nation did afford. And thus were my hopes of that particular voyage made void and frustrate."
It cannot be denied that this was an heroic achievement of the Indians, in rescuing one of their friends from the kidnap- pers. We learn, from other sources, that the musketeers killed several of the natives, and wounded more. How great their loss in this action so unjust on the part of the English, we do not know; but it is distinctly stated that Capt. Hobson and many of his men were wounded.1
It is supposed that Capoge, the native place of Epenow, was what is now called Martha's Vineyard, and that the events here recorded took place there. It may be well to state, in this con- nection, that five years after this, in 1619, Capt. Dermer, in the employ of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, visited this island. He met Epenow, who could speak English, and who rather triumphantly told him of the manner of his escape. Dermer had come on shore with a well-armed boat's crew. Epenow and his friends, in some way, had received the impression that Dermer's object was again to seize him, and carry him back to England. A bat- tle ensued. The captain was severely wounded, and, with his crew, was driven back to the ship. This was the last conflict which took place upon that beautiful island, between the native inhabitants and the adventurers from the Old World. It is said that Squantum, whom Weymouth had stolen and carried to England, and who the next year became the friend and inter-
1 Smith's New England; Morton's New England Memorial, pp. 58, 59.
4
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preter of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, was with Capt. Dermer on this occasion, and saved his life. The captain writes, -
" The Indians would have killed me, had not Squantum entreated hard in my behalf. Their desire of revenge was occasioned by an Englishman who, having many of them on board, made great slaughter of them with their murderers and small shot, when, as they say, they offered no injury on their parts." 1
Drake's Book of the Indians, book ii. pp. 8-18.
CHAPTER V.
EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS.
John Smith's Career -Exploring the Coast -England and France at War- The War of the Natives, and the Plague - Zeal of Gorges - Vines's Expedi- tion -Conflicting Claims - Damariscotta and its Surroundings - Levett's Expedition - Views of Matrimony- Saco - General Lawlessness - Laconia Company - Various Trading Posts -Pemaquid- Tact of the French ~ The Sack of Bagaduce-Scene in the Kennebec - Testimony of Gov. Bradford.
P ROBABLY all our readers are in some degree familiar with the history of Capt. John Smith, whose life was saved by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian chief Pow- hatan. In the year 1614 Capt. Smith sailed from England for the Sagadahock, with two vessels, a ship and a bark. The object of his voyage was to explore the country, and to engage in the whale-fishery, and in traffic with the natives.
Smith was but thirty-five years of age. He had already obtained much renown as a traveller. Six years before this time, he had been president of the colonial council of Virginia. The two vessels sailed from London on the 3d of March, 1614, car- rying but forty-five men. Smith commanded the ship, and Capt. Thomas Hunt the bark. The two vessels reached Mon- hegan the latter part of April, and soon after continued their course to the mouth of the Kennebec. Making this anchorage his central station, he sent out his boats in all directions, to fish and trade. In Penobscot Bay one of his boats came into col- lision with the natives. We know not what introduced the strife. Several of the English were slain, and probably many more of the natives. The voyage proved profitable. Capt. Smith says, -
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" We got, for trifles, eleven thousand beaver, one hundred martens, and as many otters. We took and cured forty thousand fish, corned or in pickle." 1
The net proceeds of this expedition, to the proprietors, amounted to about seven thousand dollars. This was a very handsome sum in those days, when a dollar was worth as much as several now. Capt. Smith says that he made these purchases with mere " trifles." It is a suggestive fact, that he states that his "trifles " were not much esteemed in the region of the Penobscot; and the reason assigned was, that the French traders there paid the Indians much more liberal prices for their furs.
The captain himself engaged in these trading excursions, in a boat with eight men. It was lovely summer weather. The climate of the sea-coast of Maine at that season is delight- ful. The magnificent headlands and Eden-like islands were crowned in all their glory. I have wandered much over this world, but I have seen no region which, in picturesque beauty, surpasses the islands, bays, and promontories of Maine, when glowing with the verdure of June and July.
Capt. Smith visited along the coast, between the Sagadahock and what is now the southern part of Massachusetts, forty Indian villages. He enumerates twelve somewhat distinct tribes. They all, however, differed but little in language, cus- toms, and condition. The treachery of the white men had inspired them generally with dread. They were in continual fear of being shot or kidnapped, and consequently conducted the traffic with the utmost caution. On one occasion there was a skirmish, in which several of the Indians were killed.
In July, 1614, Capt. Smith returned with his well-freighted ship to England. He left the bark at the mouth of the Ken- nebec, under the command of Capt. Thomas Hunt. He was instructed, as soon as he had freighted his vessel with fish and furs, to sail for Spain, and to dispose of his cargo there. Hunt proved to be a consummate villain. Capt. Smith seems to have been a very worthy man, and to have done every thing in his
1 Description of New England by Capt. John Smith. London, 1616.
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power to win and to merit the confidence of the natives. He writes, -
" One Thomas Hunt, the master of this ship, when I was gone, thinking to prevent the intent I had to make a plantation there, and thereby to keep this abounding country still in obscurity, that only he and some few mer- chants might enjoy wholly the benefits of the trade and profit of this country, betrayed four and twenty of those poor savages aboard his ship, and most dishonestly and inhumanly, for their kind treatment of me and all our men, carried them with him to Malaga, and sold them."
These poor creatures were caught, in small numbers, at different points ; several of them were taken on the Kennebec. They were all sold in Spain for one hundred dollars each. Capt. Smith, in his history of his adventures, gave the country the name of " New England." It was supposed to comprehend the whole region between the Hudson River and Newfoundland.
The pecuniary success of these enterprises to the coast of New England revived a general interest in the country. The zeal of Gorges was roused anew. The next year (1615) he and some of his friends equipped two ships for these shores. They were placed under the command of Capt. Smith. He took with him sixteen colonists, with directions to establish a settlement on some favorable point which he might select.
But in this sad world war had again broken out. The mil- lions of England and the millions of France were grappling each other. They were killing, burning, and destroying as best they could. Smith and his companions were captured by a French ship, and carried prisoners to France. The savages were no better than the Christians. They also decided to summon all their energies to destroy one another.
The Penobscot Indians were arrayed against the Kennebec Indians. Of the origin of this war we know nothing; of its details, very little. The Indians had no historians. We simply know that murderous bands prowled through all the forests. The hideous war-whoop resounded far and wide. Tomahawks gleamed, barbed arrows tore their way through quivering nerves, villages blazed, blood flowed, and women and children shrieked beneath the war-club. Now the waves of
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ruin and woe surged in one direction, and again in another. Everywhere misery and death held high carnival.
"'Tis dangerous to rouse the lion, Deadly to cross the tiger's path; But the most terrible of terrors Is man himself in his wild wrath."
This desolating war almost depopulated the realms of New England. No seeds were planted ; no harvests were gathered. The men could neither hunt or fish. All their energies were employed in attack or defence. Their families, driven from their blazing cabins, wandered in wretchedness through the forests. Nearly all the warriors, on both sides, were slain.
Famine and pestilence, as is frequently the case, followed the ravages of human passion. A fearful plague, one of the most dreadful recorded in history, swept over the whole region. Many tribes were quite annihilated. This terrible scourge flapped its malarious wings from the Penobscot River to Narra- ganset Bay. There were not enough left living to bury the dead. For many years their bones were seen bleaching around the ruins of their homes. No one knows what this disease was. Many have supposed it to have been the small-pox, since it was described as very loathsome. Others have believed it to have been something like the yellow fever, as it was said that the sick and dead, in color, resembled saffron. Morton writes, respecting this almost miraculous destruction of the Indians, -
" A short time after, the hand of God fell heavily upon them, with such a mortal stroke that they died in heaps. As they lay in their houses, the living, who were able to shift for themselves, would run away, and let them die, and leave their carcasses above ground without burial. In places where many inhabited, there hath been but one left alive to tell what became of the rest ; the living being not able to bury the dead. They were left for crows, vermin, and kites to prey upon; and the bones and skulls, upon the several places of their habitations, made such a spectacle, after my coming into those parts, that, as I travelled in that forest, it seemed to me a new- found Golgotha." 1
1 Morton's New English Canaan. Amsterdam, 1837. (He came over to this country in 1622.)
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It so happened that Capt. Richard Vines, with a vessel's crew, passed this winter near Saco. He had been bred a physician, and was in command of one of Gorges' trading vessels. It is singular, that, while the natives were dying all around him, his ship's company enjoyed perfect health.
" Though the mortality," Gorges writes, " was the greatest that ever happened within the memory of man, yet not one of them ever felt their head to ache, so long as they staid there." 1
Capt. Vines named the place Winter Harbor. He had been directed by Gorges to pass the winter there, that he might report respecting the climate. Gorges had no faith in the gloomy accounts of Popham's colonists, who represented Maine as unfit for human habitation. It is manifest that Vines was well pleased with both the country and the climate, for he sub- sequently took up his residence there. His dwelling was reared upon a beautiful location on the west side of Saco River, in what is now the town of Biddeford.
In the year 1620 the Pilgrims from England landed upon Plymouth Rock, and commenced their colony, now world- renowned, and whose fame can never die. That same year seven English ships made voyages to the coast of Maine, for fish and furs. The limits of the territory granted to the Plymouth company by the crown had not been very clearly defined. Through the influence of Gorges, a new patent was obtained, increasing the powers and privileges of the company.
The new charter was issued Nov. 3, 1620. Forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen constituted its corporate members. The territory conferred upon them consisted of the whole sea- coast extending from the fortieth to the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and running back " from sea to sea," that is, from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores. Thus their domain extended, according to this grant, from the latitude of Philadel- phia to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and swept across the whole breadth of the continent, about three thousand miles.2
1 America Painted to the Life, by Ferd. Gorges, Esq. 4to. London, 1659.
2 Hubbard's History of New England, p. 620; Williamson's History of Maine, 1 vol. i. p. 222.
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The breadth of the continent was, however, at that time, entirely unknown.
It was well known that France laid claim to a large portion of this territory, and had many flourishing trading posts within its limits. Perhaps on this account it was stipulated that no Catholic should be permitted to settle here. The company had the exclusive right to trade and to the fishery within these ter- ritorial limits, and the power to expel all intruders.1
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