USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. I > Part 51
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One of the most peculiar men of this age was Squando, Saga- more of the Sokokis. He possessed great strength of mind, his manners were grave, and his address impressive. In the super- stitious devotions of the Indians, he was a leader and enthusiast, He made them believe, he had intercourse with the spirits of the invisible world, who imparted to him revelations of future events, An angel of light, said he, ' has commanded me to wor- ' ship the Great Spirit, and to forbear hunting and laboring on ' the Sabbath ; and God himself tells me, he has left the English ' people to be destroyed by the Indians.' A man of such rare knowledge and abilities necessarily acquired great influence among other tribes, as well as unlimited ascendancy over his own. His conduct towards the settlers was full of change, being alternately humane and malevolent.||
* 2 Math. Magnal. p. 499,-Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 300,
t Mather, in 2 Magnal. p. 499, says, ' there were at this time many fing settlements in Maine and Cornwall.
Hub. Indian Wars, p. 68-110-329. § 1 Belk. N. H. p. 119 -- 125. Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 862-389-391,
=
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The Anasagunticook Sagamore was Tarumkin,-a man of A. D. 1675. less intellect and less weight of character. Strongly attached to Indian Sag- his country, and jealous of its rights, he foresaw the advantages amores. of union, and always acted in concert with other Abenaques chieftains, both in war and peace. His great friend, Robinhood, who was principal Sagamore of the Canibas tribe, made pre- tensions of reluctance to take arms in this war; and celebrated the settlement of a subsequent difficulty in a carousal and great dance. But Hopehood, his son, was a young warrior, who pant- ed for glory ; and the tribe became active in the war, before it closed .*
Another celebrated chief of his time was Madockawando, the adopted son of the great prince and orator, Assiminasqua, and present Sagamore of the Tarratines. He was a man of great sagacity, " grave and serious in his speech and carriage," and like Squando, pretended to have 'supernatural visions and revelations.' His daughter is supposed to have been the wife of Castine, who was then engaged in a profitable traffic with the tribe, which he was unwilling to have interrupted; and the Sagamore himself, unmolested by the English, in the enjoyment of his possessions, could perceive no inducements to join in the war. His principal minister was Mugg, who, by living in Eng- Mugg. lish families, had become acquainted with their language and habits, and qualified to negotiate with the colonial authorities.
This war has been ascribed to various causes. It has been Causes of represented with some spleen as well as truth, that the English the war. were the aggressors. The generous treatment and welcome they first received from the natives had been repaid, as accusers say, by kidnapping their benefactors, by disturbing their hunting grounds and fisheries, and by ' a shameful mismanagement of the fur and 'peltry trade.'t In the gradual encroachments of the white peo- ple, the Indians foresaw the danger of being totally exiled from their native country. They complained of impositions ;- for in- stance, an Anasagunticook said, 'he had probably given £100, ' for water drawn out of Purchas' well.'}
To nothing European were the natives more passionately at- tached, than the hunting gun ; as it afforded them the necessary
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 302-347-366-386.
+ 2 Math, Magnalia, p. 493 -- 9.
# Suppt. to Philip's War, p. 77.
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A. D. 1675. means of procuring a subsistence. Still, they said, ' the English 'refused to sell them firearms and ammunition, though they ' were at times ready to starve and perish ; whereas the French ' were free and cheerful to supply them with whatever they wish- ' ed.' Nay, the Sagamores knew the English looked upon them and their tribes with a distrustful eye, and considered them as an inferior order of beings ; while they themselves believed, the Great Spirit, who gave them existence, had also given them ab- solute rights in the country of their birth, and the land of their fathers.' Many traditional stories of injuries they had received, were recollected, [for Indians never forget,] and often rehearsed in a manner calculated to arouse and inflame their resentments.
The Indians armed and insolent.
Though England and France were at this period in close alli- ance, the Indians had obtained of the French traders in Canada and at Penobscot, a supply of arms and ammunition, and had gen- erally become acquainted with the use of them. These greatly emboldened their courage and revenge, and hastened them to acts of hostility. On their return from hunting, in the spring of 1675, their insolence was peculiar, and their violent conduct ex- cited fearful apprehensions. They took into custody several set- tlers, about Piscataqua, and then set them at liberty through a pretence of friendship, though really in consequence of the pres- ·ents made to them.
Eastern committee of war.
In these appearances of rupture, the General Court appointed Captains Lake, Patteshall, and Wiswell, at Sagadahock, ' a com- ' mittee, and entrusted them with the general superintendence ' and military power over the eastern parts.' The court also gave them directions to furnish themselves with all necessary munitions of war, for the common defence, and to sell neither gun, knife, powder nor lead, to any other Indians, than those whose friendship was fully known .*
Hostilities commenced. July 11.
When the news of king Philip's war reached York, July 11, from the colony of Plymouth, Henry Sawyer, one of the towns- men despatched a messenger to Sagadahock, with the alarming intelligence. In his letter, he mentioned the expedient proposed, of taking from the Indians, along the coast, their firearms and ammunition. Immediately the committee of war met upon the subject, at the house of Mr. Patteshall, attended by several of
* 4 Mass. Rec. p. 29 .- Hub. Indian Wars, p. 301.
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the settlers ; and Mr. Walker, a trader at Sheepscot, induced a A. D. 1675. part of the Indians about him, to surrender their guns and knives.
To ascertain more fully, the true disposition of the natives, a party of volunteers proceeded up the Kennebeck river, and pres- ently met with five Anasagunticooks, and seven of the Canibas tribe, all of whom came in and delivered their arms. Amidst the conversation however, one Sowen, a Canibas Indian, struck at Hosea Mallet, a by-stander, and could hardly be prevented from taking his life. The assailant was instantly seized and confined in a cellar. The Indians confessed his crime deserved death, yet requested his discharge; offering a ransom of 40 beaver skins for his release, and several hostages for his future good behav- ior ;- all giving their hands in pledge of their sincerity. The proposal was accepted, and Sowen was released .- To secure their future friendship and fidelity, Capt. Lake then refreshed them with the best of victuals, supplied them with tobacco, and repeated to them the most solemn promises of protection and favor, if they would continue peaceable and quiet. This was the occasion of the great dance mentioned, which Robinhood made the next day, when he celebrated the peace with songs and shouts.
But the far-famed Squando,* who had long cherished a bitter Squando's antipathy towards the English, had recently been affronted, in a affront» manner which greatly provoked. his resentment. As his squaw was passing along the river Saco in a canoe, with her infant child, she was accosted by several rude sailors, who having heard that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of irra- tional animals, approached her, and in a fit of inconsiderate humor, overset the canoe to try the experiment. The child sank, and though the mother, diving, brought it up alive, it soon after died ; and the parents imputed its death to the ill-treatment received. So highly did this exasperate Squando, that he resolved to use all his arts and influence to arouse and inflame the Indians against the settlers.
News of hostilities in the colony of Plymouth, t without doubt, greatly encouraged him in his malevolent schemes and embolden-
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 330-1.
t In Philip's war, it is said there were 3,000 fighters, " exclusive of the " eastern Indians."-1 Trumbull's Conn. p. 350.
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The house of Purchas plundered.
A. D. 1675. ed his friends. The Anasagunticooks had conceived a great aversion to Thomas Purchas, who had dwelt at the head of Stevens' river, two leagues below Brunswick falls, thirty or forty years ; and by trading with them had acquired a large estate. Though he had courted their friendship, and in 1639, had put himself and possessions under the protection of Massachusetts, he was the earliest eastern sufferer in the war.
Sept. 5th.
On the 4th or 5th of September, a party of twenty Indians, among whom were the hostages that liad a few weeks before escaped from the English, came to the house of Purchas, and began a parley with his wife, under pretence of trade. But as soon as they ascertained that her husband and sons were absent, they threw aside the disguise, and hastened to rob the house ; taking such weapons, ammunition and liquor as they could find, killing a calf and several sheep near the door, and making them- selves merry with the booty. In the midst of the scene a son of Purchas suddenly returning home, on horseback, was an eyewit- ness of the mischief. To interpose was unsafe,-therefore, when discovered, he fled for his life ; being pursued closely an hundred rods, by a sturdy fleet-footed Indian, with a gun secreted under his blanket. The assailants offered no personal violence to the people of the house, but told them-' others would soon come and treat them worse.'
The fatali- ties of Mr. Wakefield and family. Sept. 12.
There dwelt at Presumpscot-river in Falmouth, one Thomas Wakely, an old man, with his family consisting of nine persons .* Unsuspecting evil, and remote from neighbors, they were attack- ed by the savages, September 12 ;+ when several were killed, viz. the old man and his wife, his son John and wife, and three of their children,-two made captives,-and the house reduced to ashes. The flames and smoke brought to the place from Casco neck, Lieut. George Ingersoll, and a military party, too late, how- ever, to do more than see the ruins and relics of this ill-fated family. The body of the aged man, the fire had half consumed. -The only remains of his wife and son were their bones burnt to cinder. His daughter-in-law, near confinement, was pierced
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 305 .- They removed hither from Cape Ann, in 1661 ; his daughter was the wife of Matthew Coc, the names of his sons were, John and Isaac.
t Sullivan, p. 199, supposes it was in July. But it was after Purchas' house was plundered .- Hub. Indian Wars, p. 303-5.
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and mangled in a manner too horrid to be described ; and three A. D. 1678. of her children, whose brains had been beaten out, were partly hidden under some oaken plank .* The other, if surviving and made a captive, probably soon sunk into the arms of death, through fatigue and want, nothing afterwards being heard of the little sufferer. Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Mr. Wake- ly, about 11 years old, was carried into captivity. Full of an- guish and fears, the distressed girl was compelled to take up a long and tedious march with these murderers of the family ; hav- ing nothing but the warmth of the season to mitigate her woes, amidst the hunger, fatigue, and most painful recollections, which attended her steps all the way through a gloomy wilder- ness. Once she went as far south as Narragansett ; and this indu- ced a supposition, that some of these savages might be from that quarter. However, in June, after a captivity of nine months, she had the inexpressible joy of being restored to Major Waldron, at Cocheco ; Squando, to his great honor, being her deliverer ;- a Sagamore whose conduct exhibited at different times such traits of cruelty and compassion, as rendered his character difficult to be portrayed. After this a son of Lieut. Ingersoll was killed, and his house and those of his neighbors burnt.
The Indians, having thus began the war, and been guilty of The skir- shedding the first blood in it, now dispersed themselves in small mish at parties through the country, from Piscataqua to Androscoggin ; ow's river. improving every chance to rob and murder the people in the scattered unguarded settlements of Maine. The English, on the other hand, turned their attention to the places first attacked. A party of twenty-five proceeded in a sloop and two boats, to the head of New-Meadows or Stevens' river, in the neighborhood of Mr. Purchas ; where they found an equal or greater number of Indians rifling the houses of the settlers. In their endeavors to attain the ground between the savages and the woods, they aroused three spies ; one ran towards the river and was shot to the ground ; another fled across a branch of water in a canoe, wounded; and the third escaped to the woods unhurt, shouting an alarm. Yet the Indians, instead of flying or advancing, cow-
New-Mead-
* It seems this event happened at the house of John Wakely, who lived on the easterly side of Presumpscot river, where the parents were then visiting or residing.
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A. D. 1675. ered down and watched the movements of the English, while gathering the corn and loading their boats : then suddenly spring- ing up, and at the same time, raising their usual yell, ho ! ho ! ho ! rushed forward, wounded several in their retreat to the sloop, and carried off the boat-loads of corn with triumphant shouts. This was to the English a most unfortunate incident ; the savages afterwards being more fatally bent on mischief and revenge.
Attack on Saco. Sept. 18.
The next attack was Saturday morning, September 18, upon the dwellinghouses of John Bonython and Maj. William Phillips, at Saco. That of the former stood on the eastern side of the river, half a mile south of the Lower Falls, and 60 rods from the water; the other was on the opposite side, near the present bridge ; and both of them had been tolerably fortified .* A So- kokis native, friendly to Bonython, came to his house and pri- vately said to him,-' a strange Indian, from the westward, and ' several Anasagunticooks of my acquaintance have been at my ' wigwam, persuading all our brothers to lift the tomahawk against ' the white people ; and they will soon come back from the east 'with many more.' The story alarmed Bonython, and induced him to spread the report, and forthwith to retire with the settlers and their families to the house of Maj. Phillips, which was better garrisoned. Their suspension was short ;- they being the same, or the next day, eyewitnesses to Bonython's house in flames, while a sentinel espied a lurking Indian under the fence.
Assault on the house of lips.
As Phillips turned from the view, at his chamber-window, he Major Phil- was wounded in the shoulder by an Indian marksman, and must have been killed, had he retained his position. The ambuscade about the house, supposing him slain, gave a savage shout, and incautiously exposed themselves in sight. At this instant, they were fired upon from the house and flankers in all directions ; several were severely wounded, particularly their leader who was able to retreat only three or four miles, before he died. An hour's obstinate resistance, regardless of every proffer and every threat, convinced the assailants, that the place could not be car- ried except by stratagem. That they might therefore draw the men out of the fortification, or induce them to capitulate, they set fire to a tenant's slender habitation, and then to the mill ; ex-
* Sullivan, p. 221-324
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claiming, come now, you English coward dogs, come put out the A. D. 1675. fire-if you dare. Both the artifice and challenge failing of suc- Sept. cess ; the firing was continued till the moon set, about four in the morning : when the savages taking a cart, hastily constructed a battery upon the axletree and forks of the spear forward of the wheels, to shelter them from the musquetry of the fort, and filled the body with birch-rinds, straw and fire-matches. This engine, they run backward within pistol shot of the garrison-house, in- tending to communicate to it by means of long poles, the flaming combustibles. But in passing a small gutter, one wheel stuck fast in the mud ; when a sudden turn was given to the vehicle, ex- posing the whole party to a fatal fire from the right flanker, which was quickly improved. Six fell and expired ; fifteen then and before were wounded ; and the survivors, about 60 in number, sick of the assault and mortified at the repulse, withdrew .* Dur- ing the siege, there were fifty persons in the house, of whom only ten were effective men, five others could do no more than partially assist, and one or two besides Maj. Phillips, were actu- ally wounded.
Phillips, on Sunday, informed the settlement at Winter-harbor, called the town, of his exposed situation and distress ; telling them his ammunition was nearly exhausted, and his people were so much dismayed, that they would leave him in a few days, unless timely succors prevented. But as none could be spared him, he removed to town on Tuesday, leaving his house un- occupied, which was, in about a fortnight, given to the flames by the infuriated savages. They also, soon after destroyed all the houses above Winter harbor, and carried into captivity a Mrs. Hitchcock, who never returned. They said she ate in the win- ter, some poisonous root, instead of groundnuts, which killed her. About this time, they slew five travellers, overtaken by them upon the banks of Saco river.
A party of the enemy, September 20th,t entered Scarbo- rough, and killed several at Blue-point ; a woman and six chil- rough burnt. Scarbo- dren being among the sufferers. At Black-point, John Alger, lieutenant of the company, and his two companions in their ex-
* Assailants were " computed at not less than an hundred."-Folsom's Saco and Biddeford, p. 155.
t Sullivan, p. 215, says 1676, a misprint probably.
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A. D. 1676. cursion of discovery, were encountered by spies ; and in skir- mishing with them, Alger received a mortal wound, and his brother Arthur was shot down soon after at the same place,* In the two settlements, twenty-seven houses lately inhabited, were burnt to the ground ; and probably a still greater number of fami- lies reduced to suffering and misery, About the same time, Am- brose Boaden was killed, and Robert Jordan's house with its contents was consumed, at Spurwink,
Wincoln's expedition to Saco,
To defend or relieve the distressed inhabitants of Saco, Capt, Wincoln of Newichawannock, and sixteen volunteers, proceeded with exemplary valor and alertness, to the mouth of Winter-harbor, But unfortunately they were discovered by several prowling sav- ages, who firing upon them killed two or three ; and then sound- ed the alarm through the woods. Consequently, the brave band, while landing on the beach near that harbor, was met by 150 Indians well armed and equiped. A warm skirmish ensued, in which Wincoln and his men, overpowered by numbers, retired and took shelter behind a pile of shingle bolts. Protected by this breastwork, they were enabled to fire with a precision so fa- tal to their antagonists, as to induce them with the loss of several to leave the ground, t
The report of the guns drew from the town a party of nine men, joined on the way by two more; all of whom falling into an ambush, near the place where Wincoln was first attacked, were shot down in a single charge upon them, and presently ex- pired, The enemy in the next place, marked the settlements about the Piscataqua for destruction ; and in marching thither, killed several people in Wells.
On the New-Hampshire side, at Oyster river, they burned the dwellinghouses of the Messrs. Chesleys, and five or six others, killed and carried into captivity four men, and, waylaying the road between Hampton and Exeter, shot down three passengers, and made another their prisoner.
At Newichawannock [now South Berwick] the dwellinghouse
* The Algers, or Augers, lived in Dunston parish ; they purchased 1000 acres in 1650-1, of a Sagamore ; Arthur dying childless, John, a son of Lt, John, inherited the property, and transmitted it to five daughters, one of whom, married John Milliken, who purchased out other heirs-and hence the " Milliken Claim."
t Hubbard's Indian Wars, p, 310, 323-4,
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of John Tozier, 150 rods above the garrison* and mills at Sal- A. D. 1675. mon Falls, was at this time, a frontier habitation. He himself, Sept. 24. Disasters at
and the men of his neighborhood, were absent with Wincoln ; Newicha- having left his household unguarded, consisting of fifteen persons, wannock. who were all women and children. Against his family an attack was led on by one Andrew of Saco, and Hopehood of Kenne- beck, two of the boldest warriors in their tribes. Their ap- proach was first discovered by a young girl of eighteen, who shut the door and held it fast, till it was cut in pieces with their hatchets, and the family had escaped, Madly disappointed in finding the house empty, some of the savages inflicted repeated blows upon the heroic maid, till she was apparently expiring ; and the rest, in pursuit of the family, overtook two of the children ;--- one, three years old, being too young to travel, they at once dispatched, and the other they took and kept with them six months. The young heroine revived after their departure, and repairing to the garrison, she was healed of her wounds and lived many years. Her name, if known, would adorn the brightest page of history.
A larger party, the next day, set fire to the dwellinghouse and Sept. 25. buildings of Capt. Wincoln, which were standing near the upper. mills, and reduced them and their contents to ashes ; one of his barns containing more than 100 bushels of corn. The incendi- aries were followed closely till night by the men from the garri- son, who exchanged with them several shots ; the darkness put- ting an end to the pursuit. In the morning, they appeared on the western shore, and fired several guns across the main river at the laborers in the mill ; then shewing themselves more con- spicuously at twilight, were heard to utter loudly, many insolent speeches, calling the people "English dogs," and " cowards."
In returning eastward, we find great exertions had been Affairs at employed to keep the Indians quiet, and likewise to for -; Sagada- hock. tify the people against their attacks. On the easterly bank of Sagadahock, at Stinson's point [in Woolwich,] Richard Ham- mond had erected a trading house and fortification; and, two miles distant, t upon Arrowsick, not far from the present meeting- house in Georgetown, Clark and Lake had built another, which was stronger and considerably larger. They had also in the
* This was in the parish of Unity, in Kittery .- Sull. p. 243-4.
+ 1 Hutchinson's History, p. 311.
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A. D. 1675. vicinity a mansion-house, mills, out-buildings, and cultivated fields ; and over their whole establishment they had appointed Capt. Syl- vanus Davis their resident and general agent. They had, besides, a trading house in the neighborhood of the Indian fort, at Tecon- net-falls ;- whither the Canibas Indians had retired with their families, receiving supplies principally from that house, and shew- ing no symptoms of rupture, till after the burning of Scarborough .*
Imprudence of the set- lers.
In the great excitement against the Indians, many people acted with shameful indiscretion ; threatening with violence some of the most benevolent promoters of peace, and accusing others of sell- ing, for the sake of gain, firearms and ammunition to kill their neighbors. Nay, the Monhegan Islanders offered a bounty of £5, for every Indian's head, that should be brought to them.
Jealousies of the Indians.
The jealousies of the Indians were daily increasing ;- to allay which, and to bring home the guns, powder and other articles from the trading house near Teconnet-falls, Capt. Davis sent a mes- senger, charging him to assure them all, if they would remove and live near him, down the river, they should be furnished with every supply needed, at the fairest prices. But, either to over- awe them, or to do mischief, the messenger violated his instruc- tions, and told them, ' if they did not go down and give up their ' arms, the Englishmen would come and kill them.' This so alarmed their fears that they presently forsook their fort; and going to Penobscot, sent a runner to the other two Etechemin tribes, requesting them to meet in council, at the peninsular residence of Baron St. Castine :- Possibly he himself was the instigator of the measure.
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