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"You astonish me by the proposition you make. When you first came here you saw me a long time before I saw the French; but neither you nor your min- isters spoke to me of prayer, or of the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my skins of beaver and elk. Of these only they thought. These they sought with the greatest eagerness. Iwas not able to furnish them enough. When I carried them a large quantity, I was their great friend, but no farther.
"One day, my canoe having missed its route, I lost my way. After wan- dering a long time I landed near Quebec. Scarcely had I arrived when one of the Black Robes came to see me. I was loaded with furs; but the French Black Robe scarcely deigned to look at them. He spoke to me at once of the Great Spirit, of heaven, of hell, and of prayer which is the only way to reach heaven.
"I heard him with pleasure, and remained a long time in the village to listen to him. I demanded baptism, and received it. At last I returned to my country, and related what had happened to me. My friends envied my happiness, and wished to participate. They departed to find the Black Robe, and demand of him baptism. It is thus that the French have acted towards me. Thus I tell you that I hold to the prayer of the French. I shall be faithful to it until the world is burned up."
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They had brought with them to the council an English flag, as indicative that they were the friends and allies of the English. This flag they left behind them, the silent token of their dis- pleasure.
The English claimed the land belonging to the Indians, east- ward of the Kennebec River, on the ground that the king of France had ceded those lands to them by the Treaty of Utrecht. The sagamores, as usual, appealed to their revered friend and advocate, Father Rasle, for advice.1 He immediately wrote to the governor of Massachusetts, that the king of France had never conceded to the English, lands which belonged to the Indians. He had merely withdrawn the French flag from those lands where he had been the protector of the Indians, and had surrendered to the English the right of purchasing and coloniz- ing their lands. And the king of France, he said, would feel bound to protect those Indians, should the king of England assume that France had given England authority to seize upon their territory.
Armed with this letter, the sagamores, probably on the even- ing of the next day, returned to Arrowsic.2 The conference was renewed. The governor did no't conceal his indignation at what he pronounced to be " the insolent interference of the Jesuit." Knowing full well that the Indians had suffered so severely, that they would submit to almost any indignity, rather than consent to the renewal of the war, he assumed a menacing attitude, and threatened again to draw the sword. This brought the sagamores almost to their knees. They said, through their principal speaker, -
" It is our desire to live in peace. We wish to open friendly trade at fair prices. And we are willing to relinquish, for the present, all talk about boundary lines; and we give our consent that the English should settle un- molested wherever their fathers had settlements. But we are very much disturbed in seeing so many forts going up."
1 The name of this man, according to our English authors, was Ralle; but ac- cording to his own historian, Charlevoix, it was Rasle.
2 Mr. Williamson says, on the evening of the same day. But it was impossi- ble for the chiefs, in that time, to have sent to Norridgewock, and have obtained a . return. It is, however, not impossible that Father Rasle may have accompanied the sagamores to their encampment on a neighboring island; but we have no intimation to that effect.
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The governor had conquered. New articles of agreement were entered into, such as he dictated. The humiliated saga- mores returned to their homes, feeling that the English were their enemies, and that the French were their friends.1
Energetic efforts were made to extend the settlements east- ward of the Kennebec River. Several families reared their log cabins on the Damariscotta.2 It is said that at that time there was not a house between Georgetown and Annapolis, with the exception of a single fisherman's hut on Damariscotta Island. A strong and capacious fort, much to the annoyance of the Indians, was built on the easterly bank of St. George's River, near where Thomaston now stands. At a short distance from that, a block-house was erected. The large area between was enclosed by palisades. This fortress, which could bid defiance to all Indian assailments, afforded ample accommodation for a garrison of two hundred and fifty men. Another strong fortress was built on the east side of the Kennebec River, opposite Swan Island. It was called Fort Richmond.3
The spring of 1721 opened gloomily. The Indians were much dissatisfied in view of the encroachments of the English. The strong forts they were building indicated that the English were determined to hold possession of the country. In these views the Indians unquestionably had the sympathy of Father Rasle.4
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. ii. p. 199 ; Collections of New Hampshire Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 89.
2 "The Damariscotta River issues from the Damariscotta fresh ponds, which are in Jefferson and Nobleborough, and which are three or four leagues in length from north to south. The river is navigable for ships of any burthen, about four leagues from the sea to the lower falls, and is, on an average, half a mile in width." - Williamson, vol. i. p. 56.
8 "The site of Richmond Fort was not far from the margin of the river, on ground twelve or fifteen feet above the water; from which the land gradually ascends. There was thereabouts, in 1820, a liamlet of fifteen or twenty houses, a few stores, and two or three wharves." - Williamson, vol. ii. p. 98.
4 Father Rasle, in one of his official communications found in the "Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses," writes, -
"At the time that the war was about to be rekindled between the European powers, the English governor (Dudley), who had lately arrived at Boston, re- quested a conference with our Indians by the seashore, on an island which he designated. They consented, and begged me to accompany them thither, that they might consult me with regard to any artful propositions which might be made to them, so that they could be assured their answers would contain nothing
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THE HISTORY OF MAINE.
At the eastern extremity of Nova Scotia there is a narrow strait called Canseau, which separates the peninsula of Nova Scotia from the island of Cape Breton. This large island, embracing an area of four thousand square miles, the English asserted, was included in the surrender of Nova Scotia. This claim the French denied, and prepared to make it the depot for their future fisheries. The English also, in maintenance of their claim, established a post on the southern extremity of the island. The Indians of that region attacked the English post, and plundered it of its fish and merchandise. The Indians of Maine had nothing to do with this, remote transaction.
But the Legislature of Massachusetts assumed that Father Rasle had instigated the movement, and that he was endeavor- ing to inspire the Indians to enter upon a new war with religious fanaticism. A vote was passed that a detachment of a hundred and fifty soldiers should be sent to Norridgewock, with a reward of five hundred pounds offered, if the body of Rasle were brought to Boston dead or alive. The council, however, did not agree, as it was thought that two hundred pounds was a sufficient reward to offer.
In this gloomy state of affairs there was a general apprehen- sion that another war was about to open its horrors. Many of the settlers in Maine began to abandon their homes.1 The governor was angry, and issued a decree forbidding it. But the fathers of young families had more fear of the tomahawk of the Indians than of the displeasure of the government of Mass- achusetts. The chiefs frequently visited the forts, and always with sincere protestations of their desire for peace. At the same time they made no attempt to disguise their sense of the wrongs which were inflicted upon them. In addition to the encroachments constantly made, the English were grossly vio- lating the terms of the treaty which they themselves had dictated.
The Indians had pledged themselves not to purchase any
contrary to their religion or the interests of the king's service. I therefore fol- lowed them, with the intention of merely remaining in their quarters to aid their councils without appearing before the governor."
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. ii. p. 236.
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goods excepting at established trading-houses. But no trading- houses had been established ; consequently they could have no trade. The Indians had been dependent upon the French for the repairing of their arms and tools. The English, depriving them of this, had promised to send smiths and armorers among them ; but none had been sent. Private adventurers, prowling around, had grossly defrauded them ; and there was no redress.
There were, at this time, two French Catholic missions in Maine, the one at Norridgewock and another on the Penobscot. It would seem that these missionaries had succeeded in winning, to a very extraordinary degree, the love of the Indians. They very naturally associated the Catholic religion with French pro- tection, and the Protestant religion with British encroachments. There had been some individual acts of outrage on the part of vagabond young Indians, which the sachems deplored, but which they could not prevent.
There was a large meeting of the sachems at Norridgewock, in the year 1721, to choose a new chief in the place of one who had died. These veterans in the miseries of war were so anxious to prevent a renewal of hostilities, that they sent an envoy to Boston with a present of two hundred beaver-skins as a pledge of their desire for peace. The messenger was also instructed to offer them four hostages for the future good behavior of their young men, and to promise that ample reparation should be made for all the damage they had caused.
When the governor of Canada was informed of this, it is said that he felt that the sachems had humiliated themselves, and that he wrote as follows to Father Rasle : -
" The faint hearts of your Indians, in giving hostages for damages done those who would drive them from their native country, have convinced me that the present is a crisis in which a moment is not to be lost. Therefore I have applied to the villages of St. Francois and Beaucourt, and prevailed upon them to support with vigor their brethren at Norridgewock, and to send a deputation to the place appointed, for negotiating the proposed treaty, who dare let the English know they will have to deal with other tribes than the one at Norridgewock if they continue their encroachments " 1
1 I give this important letter upon the authority of Mr. Williamson, though he does not state the source from which he derives it. He is generally very accu- rate, though perhaps not ready to make full acknowledgment of that British intolerance which goaded the savages into war.
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According to Mr. Williamson, the governor of Canada invited the Indian sagamores and sachems, from the Kennebec and the Penobscot, to meet on Padeshal's Island, near Arrowsic, for a general council. On the 1st of August, 1721, ninety birch canoes bore to that island two hundred Indians. Father Rasle accompanied the Kennebec Indians, and young Castine accom- panied those from the Penobscot. We are not informed as to the results of this council. According to Mr. Williamson, a letter was sent to Capt. Penhallow, who commanded the gar- rison at Arrowsic, stating that, if the English settlers did not remove from that region within three weeks, the Indians would come and kill them all, and burn their houses, and kill their cattle. It is hardly possible that such a menacing letter could have been sent by the sachems there convened. It is univer- sally admitted that the sagamores were very anxious to avoid the renewal of hostilities. The Kennebec Indians convened at Norridgewock, where the influence of Father Rasle was para- mount, had just sent to Boston proposals for peace, couched in the most humble and imploring terms. It is universally known that young Castine, by far the most potent chief among the Penobscots, was the constant advocate of peace; and, more- over, the three weeks passed away, and there was no hostile movement whatever among the Indians. Not an Englishman was killed, not a house was burned, not an act of plunder took place.
The general feeling of the British towards Father Rasle was that of the most intense hostility. Mr. Williamson undoubtedly expresses the popular feeling, when he writes of this Catholic missionary, -
. "So often had his malignity, pride, and officious interference awakened among the Indians new complaints, that the people of the province, for good reasons, ranked him among the most infamous villains, and would have given more for his head than for a hundred scalps of the natives." 1
1 In reference to these events, Charlevoix, the French historian, writes, " Après plusieurs tentatives d'abord pour engager ces sauvages, par les offres et les promesses les plus séduisantes, à le livrer aux Anglais, ou du moins à la renvoyer à Quebec, et à prendre en sa place un de leurs ministres; ensuite pour le sur- prendre et pour l'enlever, les Anglais resolut de s'en defaire, quoiqu'il leur en dut conter, mirent sa tête à pris, et promirent mille livres sterling à celui qui la leur porterait." - Charlevoix, t. ii. p. 380.
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We think the statement of Messrs. Coolidge and Mansfield, in their admirable " Description of New England," far more in accordance with the facts. They write, - 1
" In all the ulterior designs of the English upon the Indians, whether in wresting their territory from them, or in cheating them in trade, they were held in check by their dread of this tribe (the Norridgewocks). Under these circumstances only one remedy remained, which was the destruction of the village, and the murder of Rasle and his Indians."
The following additional passage, from their candid and accu- rate history, explains truthfully the reason why the French had so much more influence over the Indians than the English had : --
" It may seem strange to some, that the Indians were always found on amicable terms with the French, while they were ever making inroads upon the settlements of the English. But the means used by the two nations were entirely opposite. While the French, with their social fascination and flexibility of character, used every method of conciliation towards them, giving them warlike implements, accompanying them on their hunting ex- cursions, and becoming intimately identified with them by marriage, the English looked upon them with detestation and horror, taking every oppor- tunity for their extermination, and using every means to annoy and exasper- ate them." 1
The threatening aspect of affairs greatly alarmed the Indians. They had no opportunity of purchasing those arms and that ammunition which had now become indispensable to them in hunting, unless, in violation of the treaty, they repaired to their French friends in Canada. On the other hand, they saw strong garrisons rising on territory which they deemed their own, and crowded with soldiers who could set all their efforts to reclaim the lands at defiance.
The Indian hostages, who had voluntarily surrendered them- selves, were rather loosely guarded on an island in Boston Har- bor. They made their escape. This was considered by the English a very hostile act. Expresses were sent immediately to all the fortresses on the eastern frontiers of Maine, ordering all to be ready for war, and to arrest any Indian huntsmen they
1 History and Description of New England, by Messrs. Coolidge and Mansfield, vol. i. p. 233
a
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could find, and hold them in custody until the hostages were surrendered. A special meeting of the General Court was con- vened at Boston, on the 23d of August, 1721; and it was decided to pursue and punish the Indians for the crime of Rebellion against the English government.
Three hundred soldiers were enlisted to prosecute the war. A proclamation was issued, demanding of the Indians that they should deliver up to the English Father Rasle and every other French missionary. They were also required to make ample reparation for all past injuries. If these terms were not promptly complied with, the soldiers were commanded to seize the Indi- ans wherever found, and send them captives to Boston.
It is not to be supposed that these stern measures were adopted without opposition. Many good men remonstrated against them. They declared that the stipulations made in the treaty of Arrowsic had never been fulfilled, that the Indians had been atrociously wronged without having any opportunity to obtain redress, and that they had been guilty of nothing which warranted a resort to such measures of violence. These loud remonstrances, together with the recapture of the hostages, caused a slight relaxation of the war movement, but no relaxa- tion in the uncompromising spirit of those in power.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE VICISSITUDES OF WAR.
The War Renewed - Resolve of the British -Westbrook's Attempt on an :Indian Village - An Indian Fort - Expedition to Oldtown - Attempt upon Norridgewock - Beauty of the Village - Savage Depredations - Father Rasle and his Chapel - His Letters - Murder of Bomaseen - Slaughter at Norridgewock - Death of Rasle-Tribute to His Memory - Capt. Love- well's Achievement - Drake's Narrative.
T HE English had seized many peaceable Indians, who were guilty of no crime and charged with no act of hostility, and were holding them as hostages for the good behavior of the tribes. On the 13th of June two parties of Indians, the one from the Androscoggin and the other from the Kennebec, met at Merrymeeting Bay. There were twenty canoes in all, containing sixty men. By way of reprisal they seized nine families. All were treated humanely. They soon liberated the women and children, and all the men excepting four. These they held as indemnities for the safety of the four Indian hos- tages in the hands of the English.
It was now again war, mad, deadly, ruinous war. Each party struck blows as fast and heavy as possible. The Indians en- deavored to surprise Fort George, near Thomaston. They burned a sloop, and killed several prisoners, but they were com- pelled to retire before obtaining a surrender. The attack was soon renewed, but with equal want of success. The British lost five men, and the Indians, according to the English account, lost twenty. This fortress was built by the individual proprie- tors of what was called the Waldo Patent. The government adopted it as a public garrison, sent to it a re-enforcement of forty-five men, with a sufficient supply of ammunition. Col. 300
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Thomas Westbrook was placed in command. Two or three Englishmen were captured from a boat which landed from a vessel in Passamaquoddy Bay. One Englishman was killed at Casco, and several Indians were pursued and shot down.
Capt. John Harman ascended the Kennebec in pursuit of Indians. His boats conveyed thirty-five well-armed men. He saw the gleam of camp-fires in the woods. Silently he landed his troops, and, in the darkness, crept through the forest. They reached the encampment. The Indians were asleep without any guard. Deliberate aim was taken. There was one deadly volley. There remained only the corpses of fifteen Indians. We know not. that one escaped. The victors gathered up the guns, the ammunition, and the blankets of the Indians, and returned triumphantly to their boats.
In July, 1722, the governor and council proclaimed that the Indians were " traitors and robbers," and declared war against. them as the king's enemies.1
The Indians were feeble. They could no longer inflict any extensive injury. They could not wander far. All that they could accomplish was occasionally to shoot an Englishman, cap- ture a boat, and burn a cabin, tomahawking or capturing the inmates. The British prepared to prosecute the war with great. vigor, being apparently resolved to exterminate the race. Several armed vessels were employed, with a fleet of whale- boats, sufficient to cruise along all the coasts, and penetrate all the rivers where Indian villages could be found. An army of a thousand well-armed men was employed upon the various expeditions now undertaken. A hundred soldiers were stationed at York, thirty at Falmouth, twenty at North Yarmouth, ten at Maquoit, twenty-five at Arrowsic, and twenty-five at Fort Richmond.
A detachment of three hundred men was sent to the Penob-
. 1 " Both in and out of the legislature there were men who doubted whether a war upon the natives would be justifiable. 'We have been,' they said, 'derelict both as to moral and stipulated duties. We have not performed our engagements towards the Indians in the establishment of trading-houses, and the prevention of frauds and extortions, according to treaty promises. The measures of strong drink dealt to them are a scandal to our religion, and reproach to our country '" - Williamson, vol. ii. p. 117.
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scot, with orders utterly to destroy every thing there belonging to the Indians. Four hundred sailors and soldiers were de- . spatched to ravage the coast between the Kennebec River and the Penobscot, and sweep away every vestige of Indian habita- tion. We blush to add that a bounty was offered of fifteen pounds for the scalp of every Indian boy of twelve years of age. Soon after, the government encouraged the adoption of a sort of land-privateering in pursuit of scalps. To all volunteers who, without pay or rations, would embark, at their own ex- pense, in the search for scalps, a bounty of a hundred pounds was offered for each one taken.1
A sloop of war was sent to Nova Scotia against the Canseau Indians ; thus the Canadian, the Nova Scotian, and the Maine Indians were all involved. A large party of Indians made an attack upon the flourishing settlement at Arrowsic, which, it will be remembered, was then called Georgetown. It was early in the morning of the 10th of September, 1722. The inhabit- ants all took refuge in the garrison, after having killed one of the Indians and wounded three others.
The Indians attacked the fort ; but, finding that they could make no impression upon it, they killed fifty head of cattle, and laid twenty-six houses in ashes. One Englishman only was shot, through a porthole. The Indians ascended the Kennebec as far as Fort Richmond; but, finding these works also too strong for them to carry, they retired up the river.
On the 11th of February, 1722, Col. Thomas Westbrook embarked from the mouth of the Kennebec River, with a detachment of two hundred and thirty men, to ravage the coast as far as the Penobscot. He had several small vessels well armed, and a good supply of whale-boats. They apparently found nothing to employ them until they reached Mt. Desert, where they made a short stop. They then ascended the river, and cast anchor, as is supposed in Marsh Bay.2
There they left their vessel and boats, and commenced a march
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 118.
2 Marsh Bay is an expansion of the Penobscot River a few miles above Bucks- port. Here the majestic stream is more than a mile wide. The pleasant village of Frankfort is situated on the western banks of this bay, at the head of winter navigation. See Williamson, vol. i. p. 69; Coolidge and Mansfield, p. 127.
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through the forest, still ascending the river in search of an important village and fort of the Indians which were known to have been in that region. At length they reached a spot which is supposed to have been the lower Stillwater in Orono, about six miles above Kenduskeag River.1 Here Col. Westbrook left a guard of a hundred men to protect the provisions and tents, while he selected fifty veterans in Indian warfare to go in search of the fort. It was soon found, without the scouts being dis- covered by the Indians.
Forty men were left on guard on the west side of the river. The whole of the remaining force was then ferried across in canoes hastily prepared. Rapidly traversing the trails on the eastern bank, they reached a point opposite the fort and village, about six o'clock in the evening of the same day. It was about the 10th or 11th of March. It was dark. The fort was on an island. The winter had been remarkably open, and the stream was not frozen over; still immense blocks of ice were swept along by the black current.
But not a camp-fire was burning; not a torch glimmered through the darkness ; not a sound was heard to disturb the wintry silence of the drear scene. The morning light revealed only desolate and abandoned habitations. The wary Indians, apprehending such a visit, had in the previous autumn retired, taking with them every thing of the least value. The English, after their long voyage and painful march, found nothing, not even a poor scalp to reward them.
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