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Thus prepared for presentation to royalty, they were con- ducted to the palace of St. James, in two regal coaches, with all the emblazonry of courtly splendor. The lord-chamberlain introduced them to her Majesty the queen. One of the saga- mores, addressing Anne, and speaking in behalf of his com- panions, said, -
" Should you capture the Canada country, and put the French under your feet, it would give us great advantage in hunting and in war. Let your princely face shine upon us. We are your allies. We will never turn our backs. We will all stand firm. Nothing shall move us."
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CHAPTER XVI.
BRITISH AND INDIAN DIPLOMACY.
Enthusiasm of the British Government -The Fleet for the Conquest of Cana- da - Utter Failure of the Enterprise -Daily Perils -The Bridal Party - Treaty of Utrecht - The Ravages of War -Character of the Younger Cas- tine- State of the Ministry - The Pejepscot Purchase - Ancient Dominions - Rearing the Forts - The Council at Arrowsic - Gloomy Prospects - Character of Father Rasle.
T THE English Government, cheered by the conquest of Nova Scotia, and animated by the presence of the Mohawk chiefs, who, it was said, could bring a large number of warriors into the field, engaged with enthusiasm in fitting out an expedi- tion for the conquest of Canada. A fleet was speedily equipped, consisting of fifteen ships-of-war, forty-three transports, and six store-ships. Seven veteran regiments of the Duke of Marl- borough's army were placed on board, with a fine train of heavy artillery. Admiral Walker, an officer of established reputation, was intrusted with the command. When this powerful arma- ment arrived in Boston, six hundred and fifty provincial troops were added to the force.
On the 30th of July, 1711, the fleet sailed from Boston for the capture of Quebec. But God seemed to frown upon the enterprise. In entering the mouth of the St. Lawrence, eight transports were wrecked, and a thousand men sank beneath the waves. It was an awful spectacle as viewed from the other vessels of the fleet. The loss was so terrible, both of men and the munitions of war, that the energies of officers and crew seemed alike paralyzed. Overwhelmed with disappointment and chagrin, they, with one accord, abandoned the enterprise. Returning to Boston, they were greeted only with condemna- tion and obloquy.
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Expeditions were still sent out from the Massachusetts colo- nies, to cruise along the shores of Maine in pursuit of Indians ; but the savages were on their guard, and could not be found. Prowling bands of Indians succeeded in shooting a few of the English who had here and there ventured into the fields. Dur- ing the next summer (that of 1712), twenty-six of the English settlers were killed or captured in the vicinity of York, Kittery, and Wells. The settlers were completely disheartened. They could not move without danger of assassination. A child could not play upon a doorsill without being exposed to seizure by some burly savage, and dragged screaming, before the eyes of its agonized parents, into the forest. The Indians became increasingly bold in these petty acts of warfare.
Still England, intent upon the conquest of Canada, did not wish for peace. And, while there was war between France and Eng- land, it could not but be that the savages would be enlisted on the one side or the other. The Indians, though invisible, seemed to be everywhere. Not a movement escaped their notice. A scouting-party was marching from the garrison at York towards Cape Neddock. It was on the 14th of May, 1712. Suddenly, from the silent wilderness, a band of thirty savages sprang up, and poured in upon them a deadly fire. One, the leader, Ser- geant Nalton, was instantly killed : seven others, probably struck down and crippled by wounds, were captured. The survivors fled precipitately, and, with the utmost difficulty, suc- ceeded in regaining the fort. Mr. Pickernel, at Spruce Creek, alarmed by the rumor of the vicinity of the Indians, was leaving his door, with his family, to take refuge in the garrison, when a bullet from a concealed savage struck him dead. His wife was also wounded, and his little child scalped. The poor child, left for dead, recovered from the dreadful wound. There were several similar individual acts of suffering and death.
A very exciting event took place at Wells, on the 16th of September. There was a large bridal party held at the garri- son. Elisha Plaisted, a young man of Portsmouth, was to be married to Hannah Wheelwright, a beautiful girl of eighteen, a daughter of one of the first families. The family connection was large, and the acquaintance extensive. Prominent guests
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were invited from Portsmouth and other adjacent settlements. Some came by water ; others, in well-armed bands, on horseback. Plaisted was accompanied by quite an escort of his young friends from Portsmouth.
A band of nearly two hundred Indians came uninvited to the wedding. Threading their way in the dark, with the stealthy tread of the tiger, through the obscurities of the forest, they placed themselves in ambush to cut off all the divisions of the bridal party, by whatever paths they might set out on their return to their homes. It was evident that they were not only perfectly familiar with all the region, but that, in some way, they had gained an acquaintance with the number of the guests, and with the general arrangements for the occasion.
The nuptials were celebrated ; and in feasting and frolic the hour of midnight had passed, and it is probable that the morn- ing had dawned. Some of the friends were preparing to leave, when it was found that two of the horses were missing. Three young men- Joshua Downing, Isaac Cole, and Sergeant Tucker - went out to find them, apparently without any thought of Indians. They had not proceeded far, when, from the perfect silence and solitude of the forest, a volley of musketry assailed them. Two fell dead. Tucker, severely wounded, was cap- tured by the ambushed savages.
The report of the guns instantly conveyed the terrible tidings to the garrison. The most able and the bravest men of the region were there, and nearly all with military titles. Totally unaware of the number of their foes, with singular imprudence, but with chivalric bravery, they rushed out to grapple with them. They sprang upon their horses, and, in small bands, rode in different directions to cut off the retreat of the Indians.
But the wily savages had placed themselves in ambush on each of these paths, and were quietly awaiting the approach of their victims. The bridegroom, a very heroic young man, led one of these parties of seven or eight men on horseback. Soon they fell into an ambush. At one discharge, every horse was shot down ; one man was killed; and young Plaisted, in his bridal attire, was seized by the savages leaping from their con- cealment : the others, in the darkness, escaped.
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The savages seemed to understand perfectly the enterprise in which they were engaged. Plaisted was, in their view, the son of a rich father. They wished, if possible, to capture him, that they might extort a heavy ransom. It was this desire which probably led them to shoot down the horses, instead of the men. In their great eagerness to secure him, the others were allowed to escape.
The Indians, having accomplished their purpose, rapidly fled. A party of seventy soldiers was immediately mustered to pursue them. They came up with the foe in a forest, where every Indian could take his station behind a tree. The English soon found that they were outnumbered by the Indians more than two to one. After a brief skirmish, in which one only was killed on each side, the English ceased firing, and sent forward Lieut. Banks, with a flag of truce, to ascertain on what terms young Plaisted could be ransomed. Six Indian chiefs met the flag. Among them was the noted Bomaseen, of whom we have before spoken.1
The chiefs were not prepared to make an immediate arrange- ment. They wished for more time to consider the matter. They promised to bring their captives, in five days, to Richman's Island, where they would be ready to settle the question. Not- withstanding the large force at the Indians' disposal, they at- tempted no further raids, but immediately retired. Plaisted was finally redeemed ; his father being compelled to pay a ran- som estimated in value at three hundred pounds, equivalent to about fifteen hundred dollars.2
On the 30th of March, 1713, the celebrated Treaty of Utrecht was signed. There was now peace between France and Eng- land. Nova Scotia, the ancient Acadia, was formally surren- dered to the English. Thus this dreadful and wicked war was ended. The Indians had long desired peace. Great was their
1 It will be remembered that Bomaseen was one of the Norridgewock sachems. Upon visiting Pemnaquid with a flag of truce, he had been treacherously seized by the English, and carried a captive to Boston. The savage could now have easily retaliated; but he did not.
2 Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. iii. p. 140; see, also, the account of this affair as given by Williamson, vol. ii. p. 66, and also by Bourne, in his History of Kennebunk and Wells, p. 280.
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Joy. Promptly they sent envoys to Casco to establish friendly relations. The English were haughty, and domineering in their exactions. They demanded of the Indians a humiliating con- fession of their offences, compelled them to take the oath of allegiance to the British crown, to promise to sign whatever articles the governor and council might dictate, to give hostages for the faithful performance of these stipulations, and to main- tain these hostages at their own expense.
For the ratification of these severe terms, a council was held at Portsmouth on the 11th of July. Eight sagamores from the Rivers St. John, Penobscot, and Kennebec, met the governor with twenty councillors and a large number of attendant gen- tlemen. The Indians were crushed in spirit, and pliant to the will of their conquerors.1
The war had lasted ten years. During that time, more than a fourth part of the inhabitants of Maine had been either killed or captured. Hutchinson, in his History of Massachusetts, estimates, that, in the thirty-eight years between 1675 and 1713, six thousand of the youth of New England had perished from the casualties of war.2 Many families had become extinct. Nearly all mourned some members lost. In Maine, the desola- tion was awful. The log-cabins were crumbling to decay. The fields, long uncultivated, presented a revolting aspect of briers and thorns, and all wild shrubs.
The fur-trade had become entirely extinct. Lumbering and fishing were at an end. Maine was in a state of impoverish- ment scarcely conceivable. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, who had been captured, were far away in the wilds of Canada ; and no one knew whether they were living or dead. There were no facilities for travelling, in those days, or for com- municating intelligence. Nearly a year passed before a ship was sent to Quebec to bring home the captives ; and then they were found so widely dispersed, that it required four months to collect them. Many were lost, and never were heard from.
During this ten-years' war, it is estimated that one-third of
1 The articles of this treaty are given entire in the Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, vol. i. pp. 82-86.
2 Hutchinson's History, vol ii. p. 183.
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the Indian warriors of Maine perished, and probably as many more of their women and children, from the bullet, exposure, and starvation. Several tribes had become so enfeebled as to have lost their individual character. The terms of the treaty which the English exacted were so abasing, that the Indians never would have accepted them, had they not been compelled to do so by poverty, suffering, and helplessness.
Castine the Younger, the son of Baron Castine, and whose mother was the honored daughter of one of the most illustrious and powerful of the sagamores, was, by universal admission, a very extraordinary man. The blood of two lines of nobles flowed through his veins. From his father, he inherited the courteous manners of the French noblesse; and he became a man of intelligence and culture. From his excellent mother, he inherited sympathy for her race, and was ever heroically dis- posed to cast in his lot with that much injured people. His intelligence taught him that the Indians were gaining nothing, and losing every thing, by the wars; and he was the most zeal- ous of all the chieftains in urging peace. Mr. Williamson pays the following well-merited and beautiful tribute to the memory of this excellent man : -
" He appeared to be entirely free from the bigoted malevolence of the French, and the barbarous, revengeful spirit of the savages. He was a chief sagamore of the Tarratine tribe; and he also held a commission from the French king. By his sweetness of temper, magnanimity, and other valua- ble properties, he was held in high estimation by both people. Nor were the English insensible of his uncommon merit. He had an elegant French uniform which he sometimes wore; yet, on all occasions, he preferred to appear in the habit of his tribe. It was in him both policy and pleasure to promote peace with the English. And, in several instances where they had treated him with abuse, he gave proofs of forbearance worthy of a philoso- pher's or Christian's imitation." 1
The perfect confidence which the English reposed in his honor was manifested in their trusting him, as a friend and companion, to conduct Major Levingston through the wilder- ness from Port Royal to Quebec.
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 70. For further particulars of this remarkable man see Universal History, vol. xl. p. 180.
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A new era of peace and prosperity, it was hoped, was now about to dawn upon Maine. A stable government began slowly to be organized. Institutions for education and religion began to arise. Earnest endeavors were made to promote purity of morals.
For thirty-eight years, the inhabitants of Maine had been engaged in an almost incessant conflict with the Indians. But for the wickedness of man, these might have been happy years, in which beautiful villages would have been reared, and gardens would have bloomed, and parents and children would have lived happily together, with ever-increasing prosperity. But they were years of general impoverishment and woe. The war had suspended all the meetings of the Superior Court of Maine. In answer to petitions from Maine, the General Court of Massa- chusetts, on the 5th of June, 1711, ordered the Superior Court to hold an annual session at Kittery.
On the 9th of June, 1713, the town of Berwick was incor- porated. This was the ninth town in the State. The other towns were Kittery, York, Wells, Cape Porpoise, Saco, Scar- borough, Falmouth, and North Yarmouth. The village rapidly increased ; for the soil was good, and the original settlers highly respectable. It speaks well for this people, that, as early as 1702, a church was organized there. John Wade was its first pastor. He was succeeded by Rev. Jeremiah Wise, a man eminent for his scholarship and his piety. For forty-eight years the community was blessed with his ministrations.
Kittery was divided into two parishes. The new one was called Eliot. Rev. John Rogers was settled here in 1715. The stable character of the people may be inferred from the fact that he continued to fill the pulpit for fifty-eight years. In the old parish at Kittery, the people, as early as 1669, built a par- sonage, and supported a faithful pastor for fifteen years. In the year 1714, there was a church there of forty-three members. Rev. John Newmarch, a scholarly man, and a graduate from Harvard University, was the faithful preacher to an affectionate people for thirty-five years. In York, Rev. Samuel Moody ministered, with untiring fidelity, for forty-seven years. He was a man of many eccentricities, but highly esteemed for his accomplished scholarship and his many virtues.
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The eastern provinces of the State presented, at the close of the war, truly a melancholy aspect. More than a hundred miles of coast, along which had been scattered the comfortable dwell- ings of the settlers with their cultivated fields, were laid utterly desolate. Not a dwelling remained. Title-deeds and records were all lost. In re-settling the region, it was deemed expedi- ent that the people should gather in small villages of twenty or thirty families, with home lots of but four or five acres. For the sake of the fisheries, these little settlements were generally on the seacoast.
Emigrants began slowly to return to the demolished towns of Saco, Scarborough, Falmouth, and North Yarmouth. In the year 1714 there were about twenty families in Falmouth ; and these families, notwithstanding their great impoverishment, at once commenced building a meeting-house. North Yarmouth was one of the last of the dilapidated towns which was re-settled.
Upon the death of Richard Wharton, the proprietor of the Pejepscot purchase, the whole immense territory included in that purchase was sold to a company for one hundred pounds. The boundary line, it will be remembered, as then understood, ran from five miles above the Upper Falls,1 in a north-east direc- tion, to the Kennebec River. Four miles west of the falls, it took a strip of land, four miles wide, to Maquoit Bay ; and thence down the Kennebec, and through Merrymeeting Bay, to the mouth of the Sagadahoc. Such, in general, were the boun- daries of this purchase.
The proprietors laid out three townships ; those of Bruns- wick, Topsham, and Harpswell. The two first were six miles square ; one on the north or east side of the river, the other on the southern side. The third town, Harpswell, included a peninsula running down into the bay, and two islands. Fort George was built near the falls at Brunswick. Settlers came very slowly to these towns. In the year 1718 there was not a single dwelling in Brunswick excepting the fort at the falls, and a
1 "At Lewiston, twenty miles above Brunswick, the cataract is called the Upper Falls of Pejepscot, where the water tumbles over massy rocks, and rushes through narrow passes about one hundred feet perpendicular from the surface above to the bed below." - Williamson's History of Maine, vol. i.p. 45.
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block-house at Maquoit Bay. Three families had settled in Topsham. It was not until about 1720 that any families en- tered Harpswell.1
Gradually families began to return to the utter desolation which reigned at the mouth of the Sagadahoc. A Boston gen- tleman erected at Arrowsic Island 2 a large brick dwelling, which remained there for more than half a century. In the year 1715 there were twenty-six residents on the island. In answer to a petition from the inhabitants, it was incorporated, together with Parker's Island,3 in the year 1716, by the name of Georgetown. Fifteen new settlers immediately repaired to the place ; and the governor of Massachusetts sent a sergeant's guard of twenty men to protect the inhabitants for six months.
This was then the most; remote settlement on our eastern frontier. The Sagadahoc plantations have been appropriately called the " Ancient Dominions " of Maine. In the early his- tory of the State, this region had more celebrity than any other, with perhaps the exception of York and Falmouth. Here a colony was established as early as 1607, thirteen years before the commencement of the Plymouth Colony. In 1623, but three years after the landing of the Pilgrims, there were eighty- four families residing in this region; and quite a fleet of fisher- men annually visited those waters.
There were two patents, which embraced all the land in this vicinity. The one was the Pejepscot, to which we have just referred. The other was called the Plymouth or Kennebec patent. The proprietors of each of these territories offered such families as would remove there, one hundred acres of good land, and promised to pay the expenses of their removal. As an additional inducement they offered to contribute liberally
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 89. See also Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 141.
2 Arrowsic Island is about five miles long with a mean breadth of about one mile. It contains, according to Williamson, four thousand acres of land. Coolidge and Mansfield say twenty thousand acres. There is much marsh land and many ledges, which in the estimate of acres, perhaps the one writer discards and the others reckon. - Williamson, vol. i. p. 53 ; Coolidge and Mansfield, p. 34.
8 "Parker's Island lies north-easterly of Arrowsic, and is separated from it by Back River. It is nine miles long, and on an average a mile and a half in width, containing about ten thousand acres." - Williamson, vol. i. p. 53.
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towards the support of a minister of the gospel. Soon a strong stone fort was built at Augusta, then called Cushnoc or Cush- enoc. It was the strongest fortress in the eastern country, and was for some time maintained at the public expense. In refer- ence to the encouragement given to emigrants, Penhallow writes, "Several towns, as of Brunswick, Topsham, Georgetown, and Cushenoc began to be settled. A great many fine build- ings, with saw-mills, were erected. Husbandry began to thrive, and great stocks of cattle were raised." 1
The sturgeon-fishery was then deemed a very important branch of industry. In some seasons more than twenty vessels were engaged in this employment. All sorts of timber were also sent to Boston, and even to foreign ports. During the winter of 1716, the fort of Pemaquid was repaired, and a garri- son was established there. The Indians were alarmed in view of the strong forts which the English were raising at important points. Again there were rumors of another war between France and England. It is said that the French endeavored to fan the flames of Indian jealousy, by pointing to the encroach- ments of the English, as evidence that the English claimed all their lands, and intended to take possession of the whole coun- try. The Catholic missionaries, by identifying themselves with the Indians, and becoming incorporated into their tribes, had obtained a wonderful ascendancy over them. The Indians had ceased to regard them as foreigners, and looked upon them as the wisest and best of their own people.
The English authorities had tried in vain to drive the French missionaries from Norridgewock. They now decided to make the endeavor to supplant their influence by establishing English missions among the tribes.2 By previous appointment the governor and his council met a large number of the Indian chiefs at Arrowsic. It was in August, 1717. The governor was a haughty man, and was not inclined to be conciliatory in speech or manner. He presented the sachems with the Bible,8
1 Penhallow's Indian Wars was printed in the year 1726.
2 The General Court offered to pay any minister one hundred and fifty pounds annually who would reside at Fort George (Pemaquid), learn the dialect of the tribe, and become their instructor. - Williamson, vol. ii. p. 92.
3 In the year 1683, the second edition of the Indian Bible, by Mr. Eliot, was "completed. .- Drake's Book of the Indians, book ii. p. 57.
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in the Indian language, and said to them, " This book contains the true religion. Mr. Baxter, who has accompanied us, will remain with you, and teach you its principles."
One of the sagamores promptly replied,." All people have their own religious teachers. Your Bible we do not care to keep. God has given us teachers. Should we abandon them, we should offend God."1
The chiefs then turned to the political questions which were creating trouble ; and, in the conference which ensued, they showed themselves to be men of remarkable strength of mind, and good common-sense. Their principal speaker said, " We admit that the land west of the Kennebec River, the English have a claim to regard as theirs ; but certainly no sale has ever been made to them, of the country east of that river."
The governor, with dogmatism and discourtesy which those dignified chieftains keenly felt, instead of arguing the point at all, exclaimed, " You may be assured that we will never part with one inch of our lands in that quarter."
There was for a moment silence; and then these chieftains simultaneously rose, and, without uttering a word, left the council, repaired to their canoes, and paddled to another island.
1 According to the account given in the "Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses écrites des Missions Etrangeres," one of the chiefs gave the following answer to the proposition that they should dismiss their missionary, and take an English- man in his stead: -
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