USA > Maine > The history of Maine > Part 24
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" They agreed with the French in their aversion to the English, and in a hatred of their free politics and religious sentiments. And when such pas- sions, in minds undisciplined, are influenced by fanaticism, they know neither restraints nor limits. All their acquaintance with the arts of civil- ized life seemed rather to abase than elevate their character.
"They made no advancements in mental culture, moral sense, honest industry, or manly enterprise. Infatuated with the notion of Catholic indul- gences, they grew bolder in animosity, insolence, and crime. Their enmity was more implacable, their habits more depraved; and a keener appetite was given for ardent spirits, for rapine, and for blood. Dupes to the French, they lost all regard to the sanctity of treaty obligations. Indian faith, among the English, became as proverbially bad as Punic among the ancient Ro- mans." 1
M. Callieres, governor at Montreal, whatever may have been his motives, in fact adopted a very different policy from that of the English. He sent envoys to the broken and despairing remnants of the tribes in Maine, inviting them to emigrate to Canada. He set apart for them large and inviting tracts of land on the banks of the Becancourt and the St. François, - streams which flow into the St. Lawrence, from the south, eighty or ninety miles above Quebec. On each of these rivers, clusters of wigwams arose. The villages were pleasantly situ- ated, each with a church and a parsonage house. A ferry was also established for the convenience of the Indians in crossing the St. Lawrence to Trois Rivières, on the opposite shore.2
With such different treatment, there can be no question as to the side to which the Indian would incline in case of hostilities. The remnants of four tribes repaired to the spot to which they
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 40.
2 History of the French Dominions in North and South America, by Thomas Jeffreys, pp. 9-11; Topographical Description of Canada, by Joseph Bouchette, p. 338.
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were thus hospitably invited, and blended into a new tribe, called the St. François Indians. It is interesting to see how differently precisely the same facts may be presented according to the views of the writer. The very candid Mr. Williamson writes, and perhaps with truth (for who can read the human heart ?), " At these places, designed to be the rendezvous of the natives, the French intended to command their trade and plunder, to plan their excursions, and direct their motions against the English frontiers." 1
Baron Castine had returned to France from his extensive landed estate on the Penobscot. He had left behind him, in possession of the large property, his son and heir, called Castine the Younger. He was the child of Castine's Tarratine wife, who, it will be remembered, was the daughter of the renowned, and at least partially-civilized, sagamore, Madokawando. A riotous band of worthless Englishmen met at the house of young Castine, under pretence of making him a friendly visit.
Regarding their host as half Indian, they treated him with every indignity. Rioting through his house like veritable savages, they plundered it of every thing which they deemed worth carrying away. It was one of the basest acts of treachery, and was so regarded by all respectable men.2 The government denounced it in severe terms, promising M. Castine restitution, and assuring him that the offenders, if they could be arrested, should be severely punished. The event was the more deeply deplored, since there were indications of another war between France and England. Such a war would inevitably involve the colonies ; and Indian warriors, led by French officers, might inflict an incalculable amount of injury.
Soon France and England again grappled in what was called " Queen Anne's War," and, in the New England colonies, the " Third Indian War." All over the world, Frenchmen and Englishmen deemed themselves enemies, who were bound to do each other all the injury in their power. A special effort was
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 40.
2 " Outrageous, however, as it was, the well-minded sufferer only complained and expostulated, without avenging himself; for, in policy and sentiment, he was the friend of tranquillity." -. Williamson, vol. ii. p. 42.
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to be made in the New World, by the English, to wrench colonies from the French, and, by the French, to wrest them from the English. Unfortunately, the savages were far more ready to rally beneath the banners of France than beneath those of Great Britain.
Early in August, 1703, a body of five hundred French and Indians entered upon the eastern frontiers of Maine. These well-armed troops had but feeble foes to encounter. They divided into six or seven parties, of about seventy-five men each, to attack the infant settlements, where scarcely any resist- ance was to be anticipated. On the same day, the 10th of August, Wells, Cape Porpoise, Saco, Scarborough, Spurwink, Purpooduck, and Casco were assailed. The consternation and destruction were such, that no detailed record was made of the awful scenes which ensued. In Wells, thirty-nine of the inhabitants were either killed, or carried into captivity.1 This is all we know of the terrible tragedy. What dwellings were burned, what scenes of individual anguish and suffering oc- curred, must remain untold, till, at the day of judgment, all the secrets of this fearful drama of time and sin shall be revealed.
Mr. Bourne, in his valuable " History of Wells and Kenne- bunk," after tireless research, has collected a few interesting traditionary narratives, which are probably founded in fact, and which are but a repetition of those scenes of horror with which the reader is already familiar.
A few fishermen only resided at Cape Porpoise. The demo- niac assailants plundered their humble homes, laid them in ashes, and carried the inmates, all whom they could seize, off as prison- ers. At Winter Harbor 2 there was a small garrison. They fought for a short time bravely ; but after having several killed
1 " The horrors of that day cannot be depicted, -families broken up, hus- bands, wives, or children taken from the home circle. Almost every one had lost a friend dear to his heart. Many were wounded, barely escaping death or cap- tivity. Valuable citizens, on whom reliance was placed for protection and support in this terrible crisis, were either killed, or carried away, exposed to the relentless cruelty of the savage enemy." - History of Wells and Kennebunk, by Edward E. Bourne, p. 245.
2 " The celebrated place called 'Winter Harbor,' after an ancient inhabitant there by the name of Winter, is above Wood Island, six miles below Saco bridge, and the head of the tide." - Williamson, vol. i. p. 26.
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and wounded, and being overpowered by numbers, the survivors were compelled to surrender themselves to captivity. Eleven .
were killed, and twenty-four were captured.
The people of Scarborough seem to have received some inti- mation of the approach of the foe; and all, hurrying into the garrison, prepared to defend themselves to the last extremity. A flag of truce was sent to the fort by a captive. The bearer was detained, and no answer returned. After a "long siege," when the men were completely exhausted, and were on the point of capitulating, re-enforcements arrived, and the baffled foe retired. Undoubtedly every thing outside of the garrison was destroyed.
In Spurwink,1 twenty-two were killed, or taken captive; and the little settlement was laid entirely desolate. Purpooduck contained but nine log-cabins. The families were taken entirely by surprise. It so happened that all the men were away. Only women and children were left behind. The savages, allies of men who called themselves Christians, burned down the dwell- ings, butchered twenty-five of the helpless inmates, and carried away eight as prisoners. The horrid spectacle of mangled bodies which they left behind is too revolting to be recorded.
The little settlement at Casco, 2 where there was a garrison, was the most remote eastern frontier. A new fort had been constructed here, which was placed under the command of Major John March, with a garrison of thirty men.3 The three Indian chiefs who led the assailing party were Moxus, Wanun- gonet, and Assacombuit, all sagamores of great renown. The last will be remembered as the chief who was knighted by Louis XIV., and received a present of an elegant sword.
1 Scarborough extends toward the east, six miles in width on the coast, to the mouth of Spurwink River, which seems to cut off, as it bounds the eastwardly corner of the town." - Williamson, vol. i. p. 24.
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2 "The old Indian name 'Casco' continued to be used all the first century after the settlement, notwithstanding the town had received from Massachusetts the corporate name 'Falmouth,' as early as 1638. The plantation upon the Neck, and, indeed, all others in the bay, were called by the general name of 'Casco' or ' Casco Bay.' No boundaries were defined; but, when a particular spot was designated, the local terms, borrowed principally from the Indians, were used." - History of Portland, by William Willis, pp. 49-96.
3 The site of this fort was not on Casco Neck, where Portland now stands, but at what was called New Casco, on the shore of the bay, in the present town of Falmouth. The Neck had been lying desolate since 1690. and was known as Old Casco in distinction from the New Casco which had sprung up on the shore of the bay .- ELWELL.
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It is said, we know not by what authority, that the three sagamores sent a flag of truce, inviting Major March to a con- ference. Though he suspected treachery, he went out upon the plain to meet them, unarmed, and taking with him only two very aged and infirm men. The chiefs saluted him with civility, and then, drawing their tomahawks from beneath their robes, the three fell furiously upon Major March ; while his two com- panions, Messrs. Phippen and Kent, were shot down by Indians in ambush.1 March, being a very strong man, wrested a toma- hawk from one of his assailants, and valiantly defended himself against the three. All this could scarcely have occupied one single minute of time; and yet, at that very minute, Sergeant Hook arrived, with a file of ten men, from the fort, and rescued the major from his peril. This story seems so very improbable, that it is impossible to give it full credence.2
The siege continued six days and six nights. There was no repose for the inmates of the garrison, as every moment an assault was expected from overpowering numbers. At the close of the six days, the enemy received a re-enforcement, increasing their number to about five hundred.3 The new arrivals con- sisted of detachments flushed with victory. M. Bobassin, a French officer, then assumed command. He brought with him a sloop and two shallops, which he had captured, and also much plunder. Scientifically he went to work in an attempt to undermine the fort on the water-side. As the fort was situ- ated on a high bank, this could be done without exposure to any fire from the garrison. Their force was so superior to that of the English, that they had nothing to fear from a sally.
They were advancing in this engineering very rapidly and prosperously, and were on the eve of the capture, when an armed vessel, commanded by Capt. Cyprian Southack, came to the aid of the despairing garrison. Probably the vessel was armed with cannon, which the assailants, having muskets only, could not resist. The tide of victory was turned. The French
1 Penhallow, in his history of Indian wars, writes, " Phippen and Kent, being advanced in years, were so infirm, that I might say of them, as Juvenal said of Priam, ' They had scarce blood enough to tinge the knife of the sacrifice.'"
2 Willis's History of Portland, p. 314.
8 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 42.
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and Indians, abandoning every thing, fled precipitately. This magnificent bay was full of indentations, into which the canoes of the savages could glide. Capt. Southack recaptured the sloop and two shallops ; but the French and Indians, having a flotilla of two hundred birch canoes, effected their escape.
The soldiers of the garrison now came out to view the deso- lations which this savage warfare had caused. Every thing which would burn was reduced to ashes. Nothing remained but shapeless ruins. When Major March was appointed to the com- mand of this post, he moved there with his family. Being a gentleman of considerable means and great energy, he was soon in possession of a very thrifty farm. He wrote to the General Court, that he had lost, by the attack, a sloop and its furniture, eighty-nine head of sheep and cattle, five acres and a half of wheat, six acres of excellent pease, and four acres and a half of Indian corn. His whole loss exceeded five hundred pounds.1 It is estimated, that, in this brief campaign, the enemy killed or captured one hundred and fifty of the inhabitants of Maine.2
1 Bourne's History of Wells and Kennebunk, p. 314.
2 "To arm a force sufficient to repel their cruel invaders, government deemed it necessary to call to its aid the avarice of the people; and they offered a bounty of forty pounds for every Indian scalp that should be brought in. This excited a spirit of enterprise in the inhabitants, which made them endure incredible hard- ships in pursuing the enemy through the forests, in the depths of winter, to procure this valuable merchandise." - History of Portland, by William Willis, p. 319.
CHAPTER XV.
THE RIVAL CLAIMS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
Jocelyn's Visit - The Destruction of Black Point - The Vicissitudes of War -- A Naval Expedition - Merciless Ravages - Destruction at Port Royal - The Expedition to Norridgewock - Exchange of Prisoners - Treason suspected - Incidents of the Conflict - A Renewed Attack upon Port Royal - Rage of Gov. Dudley - The Third Attack and its Failure -- Naval Battle at Winter Harbor - The Conquest of Nova Scotia -The Commission to Quebec - Exchange of Menaces.
T HIS sudden outburst of savage violence threw the whole region into a state of terrible confusion. Many fled ; others assembled their families in the crowded and consequently com- fortless garrison-houses, and went armed, and in bands, to their work. Massachusetts, with her customary energy, sent prompt aid. A troop of horsemen was quartered at Wells. Three hundred and sixty men were marched to Pegwacket,1 which was one of the principal resorts of the Indians. Another well-armed band was sent to Ossipee Ponds.2
The hostile bands of French and Indians continued to ravage the seacoast, apparently resolved to destroy every garrison, to lay every settlement in ruins, and entirely to depopulate the country of its English inhabitants. There was a region called Black Point, then quite noted, which was a portion of the
1 "Between Fryeburg Academy and Saco River is the celebrated Lovell's Pond, half a league in length, though less than a mile in width at any place. This beautiful section of country was anciently called Pegwacket (Peckwalket, Pe- guawett), one of the principal and most favorite lodgements of the Sokokis tribe, and also the theatre of a desperate battle with the Indians. Here are curious mounds of earth, one sixty feet in circumference, artificially raised by them, of which no tradition nor conjecture can give any satisfactory account." - William- son, vol. i. p. 28.
2 The Ossipee River, one of the principal tributaries of the Saco, takes its rise among these ponds, a few miles across the line in New Hampshire.
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present town of Scarborough. Capt. Jocelyn, to the record of whose voyages we have before referred, touched at this place, in the year 1638, to visit his brother Henry, who then resided there. In his journal he writes, -
" Having refreshed myself for a day or two at Noddle's Island, I crossed the bay in a small boat to Boston, which was then rather a village than a town, there being not above twenty or thirty houses. The 12th of July I took boat for the eastern part of the country, and arrived at Black Point, in the Province of Maine, which is a hundred and fifty miles from Boston, the fourteenth day; the country all along, as I sailed, being no other than a mere wilderness, here and there, by the seaside, a few scattered plantations with as few houses." 1
Here the families were collected in the garrison-house. On the morning of the 6th of October, 1703, most of the men, nineteen in number, all well armed, went out together to work in the meadows. Lieut. Wyatt and eight men were left to guard the garrison. Two hundred Indians rose from ambush upon the working-party, and either killed or captured all but one. The victors then attacked the fort. There chanced to be two small vessels in the harbor. The crews, alarmed by the report of the guns, hastily repaired to the aid of the garrison. They made a bold resistance. At length, seeing evidence that the fort must fall into the hands of the overpowering assailants, they all succeeded in escaping to the vessels.
The savages, with hideous yells, applied the torch to all the dwellings, and, like fiends, danced around the flames. The ves- sels bore their melancholy freight, many of them widows and orphans, to some place of safety, where they could be fed and clothed by the hand of charity. A gang attacked Arthur Brag- don's house in York, and tomahawked himself, his wife, and five children. Mrs. Hannah Parsons (a widow) and her daughter were carried into captivity. It is said, that, returning to Canada, the savages came near starvation. In this great extremity, they were about to kill the child, and built a fire to roast and eat her, when a dog fell in their way, and supplied the place of the little girl.2 At Berwick, two houses were burned, one man was killed,
1 Jocelyn's Voyages, pp. 18, 20.
2 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. ii. p. 149.
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one wounded, and three carried into captivity. They attacked the garrison, but were repulsed. In their rage they bound one of their prisoners, Joseph Ring, to a stake, and tortured him to death with every device of demoniac cruelty. They danced around their victim, responding to every groan with shouts and yells of delight.
Major March of Casco, with three hundred men, pursued a band of the retiring foe as far as Pegwacket, where he suc- ceeded in killing six, in capturing six, and in recovering consid- erable plunder. It is said that this was the first loss which the savages experienced in this desolating campaign. The liberal reward offered by the legislature for Indian scalps, which in- cluded a bounty of twenty pounds for every Indian child under ten years of age, induced Capt. Tyng and several others to organize hunting-parties to traverse the wilderness on snow- shoes, in mid-winter, to hunt down the savages ; but all these expeditions were unsuccessful.
During this melancholy winter, the government expended nearly a thousand dollars in establishing a strong garrison near the falls in Saco. Spring came, with its sunny skies and swell- ing buds, only to renew the terror of the people. This was the season for the savages to re-open their campaigning. The French, in Canada, had furnished their allies with ample sup- plies.
Major Mason, with nearly a hundred friendly Indians, belong- ing to the Pequods and Mohegans of Connecticut, was stationed at Berwick. Still the prowling savages succeeded in shooting several persons, and, in expression of their hatred, horribly mangled their remains. In addition to these marauding-parties, plundering, burning, and murdering on the land, French pri- vateers swept the coast. Not a fishing-boat could leave a bay or inlet without danger of capture. It is often said that an offensive is the best defensive war. It was decided to be expe- dient to attack the French in Canada and Nova Scotia. Thus the desolations of war would be removed from Maine into the regions of the enemy, and the French would be constrained to retain their forces at home for the protection of their own fire- sides.
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An expedition was intrusted to Major Benjamin Church, who had obtained much renown in Indian warfare. He was invested with the title of colonel ; and five hundred men were placed under his command. Three vessels-of-war convoyed his little fleet of fifty-one boats, of various sizes. One of the war-ships carried forty-eight guns, the other thirty-two. The third was a province galley. The fleet sailed from Boston the 21st of May, 1704.
The vessels first cast anchor at the Island of Metinicus, just out of Penobscot Bay. Two armed boats were sent to a neigh- boring island, where they captured a French family and a Canadian Indian. The captives were not disposed to be com- municative. But threats extorted from them the information that there were several other cabins along the shores in the vicinity, and that some French officers were building a fort at Passamaquoddy. The prisoners were compelled to act as pilots in conducting several armed boats to the dwellings of their ' friends.
These were not days of forbearance and mercy. The atro- cities which had been perpetrated by the French and Indians were such, that the avengers were ready to shoot down men, women, and children as pitilessly as if they had been so many wolves. Still it was expedient to take as many captives as pos- sible, that they might be used as ransom for English prisoners.
Quite a number of both French and Indians were killed ; and several captives were taken. Among the latter was a daughter of Baron Castine with her children, we know not how many. Her husband, a gentleman of wealth and culture, was then on a visit to France.
Again the fleet spread its sails. After a brief tarry at Mount Desert, the party proceeded to Passamaquoddy Bay, in whose lonely waters a secret place of anchorage was sought.1 A squadron of whale-boats was despatched, led by Col. Church
1 "Passamquoddy Bay lies partly in the State of Maine, and partly in the British Province of New Brunswick. It is six miles wide, and twelve miles long. It has a sufficient depth of water for the largest vessels, and is never closed by ice. It abounds with cod, mackerel, herring, and other fish. The boundary of the United States passes through it, on its west side, into St. Croix River, which enters its north-west part." - McCulloch's Geographical Dictionary.
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himself, to explore the shores. That the settlers in the lonely cabins might not be apprised of his approach, and thus escape into the woods, he rowed by night, and kept concealed by day. Orders were given, that not a gun should be fired, even to shoot an Indian, if he could possibly be killed, or taken, in any other way.
Thus he succeeded in capturing, one after another, four French emigrant families. They were all poor, and there was but little plunder in their log-cabins worth taking ; but, such as it was, it was seized, and placed in the boats. One of the captures consisted of the family of a poor French widow, with her orphan-children. Col. Church was energetic and merciless. The scenes of horror he had witnessed had roused. his soul to the highest pitch of rage, and had hardened his heart. The readiness with which he would retaliate upon helpless ones, no matter how innocent, the wrongs which demoniac men had in- flicted upon the dwellers in Maine, drew down upon him severe censure, and has materially dimmed the splendor of his other- wise great exploits. He then ravaged the surrounding region with the indiscriminate mercilessness of the tornado. The widow and the orphan were alike the victims of his fury.1
From Passamaquoddy Bay, the armament sailed out into the Bay of Fundy, that immense sheet of water which separates New Brunswick from Nova Scotia, and renders the latter prov- ince so nearly an island, that it is entered by a neck of land only about twenty miles wide. Here the avenging squadron divided. The ships, with several of the boats, crossed the bay, a distance of about sixty miles, to Port Royal (Annapolis).
The day before the arrival of the fleet, Castine the Younger, with about sixty Canadian soldiers, had re-enforced the garrison in their strong works. The fort was deemed too formidable to be attacked.2 But the troops in garrison could not venture beyond the protection of their ramparts.
Col. Church made terrible havoc of all the settlements around. Many persons were killed; and utter desolation took the place
1 Collections of New Hampshire Historical Society, vol. i. p. 32-35; Hutchin- son's History of Massachusetts, vol. ii. p. 133.
2 Universal History, vol. xl. p. 152.
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of peaceful homes and smiling fields. Gov. Dudley, in his ad- dress to the legislature, proposing a vote of thanks as a reward for these services, said, " Col. Church has destroyed all the set- tlements in the vicinity of Port Royal, and taken a hundred prisoners and a large amount of plunder, with the loss of only six men."
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