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 52
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Shurte's truce with the Indians.
But Abraham Shurte, chief magistrate of the plantation at Pemaquid, who was a man of good sense, and well acquainted with the Indian character, left no efforts unessayed, till he had succeeded in having a parley with the disaffected Sagamores ; for which purpose they were persuaded to meet him at his own vil- lage. In this interview, he said to them,-' I have urged our ' committee of war to issue orders, forbidding every body to 'harm or even threaten a peaceable Indian ;- being determined " to see all the wrongs you have suffered, fully redressed.'-The discussion resulted in a truce, by which they engaged to live in peace with the English, and to prevent, if possible, the Anasa-
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 341, 352 .- Sullivan, p. 31, 169, 173.
CHAP. XX.]
OF MAINE.
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gunticooks from committing any more depredations, either upon A. D. 1675. the settlers or traders.
An uniform perseverance in these conciliatory measures, it was Measures of believed, might revive and secure the amity of the natives ; and government. therefore, in October, the General Court, acquainted with their dispositions and circumstances, ordered monies to be disburs- ed from the public treasury, for the relief of those Indians who would become the subjects or allies of the colony ; and appointed Major Richard Waldron of Dover, and Capt. Nicholas Shapleigh of Kittery, to negotiate a treaty with the friendly tribes, upon terms congenial to their wishes. The Court also directed the eastern trading houses to be discontinued ; and made provision for an expedition into Maine,-to be prepared under the purvey- ance of Maj. Clark. A vessel was therefore procured, and laden with military stores and provisions ; having also on board, when she sailed from Boston, a force of fifty soldiers, commanded by Lieut. Scottow .* It was a gloomy autumn ; and on account of the public calamities, a day of fasting and prayer, Oct. 7, was observed throughout Massachusetts and Maine.
On that day a man was shot from his horse, in Newichawan- Newicha- nock, and soon died ; and two youngsters, a mile off, experienced again at- wannock the same fate. From these were taken their guns and upper gar- tacked. ments.+ Indeed, this ill-fated settlement seemed to be more than any other, the object of savage vengeance and utter destruc- tion. Saturday, Oct. 16, about a hundred Indians assailed the house of Richard Tozier, killed him and carried his son into cap- tivity. Lieut. Roger Plaisted, the commander of the garrison, who was an officer of true courage, and a man of public spirit, having a partial view of the massacre, about 150 rods distant, despatched nine of his best men to reconnoiter the movements of the enemy, who falling into an ambush, three were shot down, and the others with difficulty effected their escape alive.
A lettert addressed unto two gentlemen at Cocheco, [Dover] communicates the distresses of the place.
" Salmon Falls, Oct. 16, 1675.
" To Mr. Richard Waldron and Lieut. Coffin-These are " to inform you, that the Indians are just now engaging us with at
* 4 Mass. Rec. p. 49, 66.
# Sullivan, p. 249.
+ Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 318.
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[VOL. I.
A. D. 1675. " least one hundred men, and have slain four of our men already, "-Richard Tozier, James Barrey, Isaac Bottes, and Tozier's " son ; and burnt Benoni Hodsdon's house. Sirs, if ever you " have any love for us and the country, now shew yourselves with " men to help us, or else we are all in great danger to be slain, " unless our God wonderfully appears for our deliverance. They " that cannot fight, let them pray. Nothing else, but rest yours " to serve .-
" Roger Plaisted. "George Broughton."
To bring in for interment, the bodies of his slain companions, Plaisted ordered out a team, and led twenty of his men into the field. Placing first in the cart, the body of Tozier, which was most remote, they returned to take the others; when a party of 1.50 savages, rising behind a stone wall amidst logs and bushes, fired a well-aimed volley upon the soldiers, and pursued the as- sault. The oxen took fright and ran to the garrison. The en- gagement instantly became fierce, though unequal. Plaisted and his men withdrew a few paces, to a more eligible spot of ground, and being greatly overmatched by numbers, the most of them returned. But he, disdaining either to fly or yield, though urged again and again to surrender, fought with desperate courage, till literally hewed down by the enemy's hatchets. A fellow soldier and Plaisted's oldest son, unwilling to leave the intrepid man, sought their retreat too late and were slain. Another son, a few weeks after, died of his wounds :- Such being the fate of this Spartan family-whose intrepidity deserves a monument more durable than marble. The father had represented Kittery four years in the General Court, and was highly respected for his un- common valor, worth, and piety. He and his sons were buri- ed on his own land, near the battle ground, full in view from the highway, leading through Berwick ; whose lettered tombstone tells succeeding ages,-" Near this place lies buried the body of " Roger Plaisted, who was killed by the Indians, Oct. 16, 1675, " aged 48 years :- Also the body of his son Roger Plaisted, who " was killed at the same time .*
Before the Indians left the neighborhood, they set fire to three houses, two barns, and a mill, belonging to Mr. Hutchinson of Boston; and then proceeded to Sturgeon-creek, where they
* Sullivan, p. 250.
Death of Plaisted and his sons.
529
CHAP. XX.] OF MAINE.
burned a dwellinghouse and killed two men. In this hamlet, the A. D. 1675. house of Capt. Frost,* being a little remote from neighbors and Attack upon unfortified, was marked out by them for destruction. He was at creek. Sturgeon a short distance from it when attacked, and narrowly escaped the fatal effect of ten shots aimed at him, ere he entered his door. There were only three boys with him in the house, yet he had the forethought and prudence to give out audible words of com- mand, as if a body of soldiers was with him ;- load quick ! fire there ! that's well ! brave men !- A stratagem which saved them- selves and the house.
The next day, on the eastern beach opposite to Portsmouth battery, the Indians killed a householder ; and while plundering and setting fire to his habitation, the terror of a cannon shot dis- persed them. They made a precipitate retreat, yet by means of a light snow just fallen, they were tracked into the wilderness, and overtaken near a great swamp, into which they threw them- selves, leaving their packs and plunder to their pursuers.
The last acts of bloodshed and mischief, committed in Maine Depreda- this season by the savages, were at Wells. Here they killed Mr. Wells. Cross, Isaac Cousins and the servant-man of William Symonds, whose house also they reduced to ashes. Being a man of influ- ence, he was an object of their greater vengeance ; but fortu- nately, before this, he had removed his family to the garrison, which was in the more compact part of the town.
The prominent actors in this year's war were the Sokokis, the Anasagunticooks, and a part of the Canibas tribe ; and never did the war. the wars carried on by the clans of the northern hive against the Romans, partake of a more predatory character. Within the short period of three months, the settlements between Piscataqua and Kennebeck sustained a loss of eightyt lives, a large number of dwellinghouses and of domestic animals, and an unknown amount of other property. The savages had every advantage. They had no buildings to lose-no fields to be destroyed :- They were actuated by desires of revenge and rapine ; they fought for plunder ; and they were gratified. As tenants of the wilderness, they traversed the rugged country with facility-appalled at no privations ; for hunger, fatigue and hardships were their habits of
* Afterwards Major Frost.
t Hubbard says, " fifty ;"-but by actual enumeration eighty. VOL. I. 54
Affairs of
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A. D. 1675. life. Unequalled by the inhabitants in numbers, they chose their time, place and manner of attack; though, as they afterwards acknowledged, their loss of men was twice that of the white people. Business was suspended. Every individual was seek- ing for his own safety and the security of his family ; the pro- ductions of the earth were not gathered ; dwellinghouses were deserted ; and men, women and children were huddled together in small garrisons, or the larger houses, fortified by timber-walls and flankers ;- generally constructed with sentry-boxes upon the roofs, and guarded by watchmen day and night.
To subdue the Indians in their fastnesses, or winter-quarters, into which it was supposed they were retiring, at Pegwacket, Os- sipee, and Pejepscot ; the General Court ordered considerable de- tachments to be detailed from the New-Hampshire and Yorkshire regiments, and gave the command to popular and meritorious of- ficers. But the soldiers were not prepared to march till the 10th of December, at which time the snow had fallen to the depth of four feet upon a level ; and they, being unfurnished with snow- shoes, could not travel a day's journey into the woods without great hazard of their lives ;- therefore the enterprize was aban- doned .*
A truce.
No event, as it proved, could have had a happier tendency ; for the Indians, having been diverted from their ordinary pursuits, had no provisions on hand, nor means of buying them,-their ammunition and plunder were consumed,-the snow was too deep for hunting,-and they perceived, that without peace, they must suffer extreme famine. The Sagamores therefore requested of the Commissioners, Messrs. Waldron and Shapleigh, an armistice, and then entered into a treaty for " the whole body of Indians eastward ;"+ engaging to be the submissive subjects of the gov- ernment, and to surrender all captives without ransom. These were happily from time to time restored, and their lives saved.
The dying embers of war, kept smothered through seven succeeding months, might never have been disturbed, had the people, uninfluenced by private gains, and personal animosities, been governed by maxims of exact justice and prudence.
* About twenty families removed from Saco, Falmouth, and the neigh- borhood, to Salem.
+ This could include only the Indians from Piscataqua to Casco .- Hub- bard's Indian Wars, p. 346.
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CHAP. X. ] OF MAINE.
But during the winter the community was filled with whispers A. D. 1676. and jealousies. The eastern traders were charged in Boston with selling to the Indians firearms and ammunition; when it was provable, they were procured of the French. It was also re- ported, that the Sagamores and their confidents were engaged in a deep conspiracy against the inhabitants ; and so fully was this believed, that Major Waldron was induced to issue general General warrants for seizing every Indian known to be a manslayer, warrants. traitor or conspirator.
These precepts, which afforded every man a plausible pretext Indians kid to seize suspected savages, were obtained by several shipmasters napped. for the most shameful purposes. One with his vessel lurked about the shores of Pemaquid, when Mr. Shurte, acquainted with his errand, importunately entreated him to depart; assuring him, the English and the natives in the vicinity, were in a state of profound peace, and warning the Indians likewise to beware of his wiles. Yet he treacherously caught several,-and carrying them into foreign parts, sold them for slaves .* Another, by the name of Laughlin, with one of Mr. Waldron's warrants, seized several Mickmaks at Cape Sable, for the same wretched purpose. These people, who had hitherto been altogether dis- tinct and separate from the other eastern tribes, were in this manner provoked, to make the injuries done the natives a com- mon cause of resentment.
Greatly incensed by these fresh and unprovoked affronts, the Complaints Indians complained to Mr. Shurte, whose sincerity and kind of- dians. of the In- fices had won their confidence ; stating that many of their bro- thers were missing,-possibly miserable slaves in foreign lands. ' Yes, (added they,) and your people frightened us away last fall ' from our cornfields about Kennebeck,-you have since with- ' holden powder and shot from us ; so that we have been unable ' to kill either fowl or venison, and some of our Indians, too, the ' last winter, actually perished of hunger.'
To conciliate them and preserve their temper, Mr. Shurte told them, that their friends, if transported, should be returned to their homes, and the transgressors arrested and punished ; and that Maj. Waldron had entered into a happy peace with the Sokokis and other Indians, which might become general, provided the
* Hub. Indian Wars, p. 332-344.
.
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A. D. 1676. Anasagunticooks and the Canibas tribe would accede to it. Much gratified, apparently, with this parley, as they called it, they presented him with a belt of wampam in token of amity, delivered to him a captive boy, and, a short time after, sent a foot-post, or " runner" to him from Teconnet," inviting him to meet the Sagamores in council at that place.
A parley at Teconnet.
The committee, or council of war, whose advice he sought, associated with him in the mission, Capt. Sylvanus Davis, and gave them instructions. On their arrival at Teconnet, the Indians saluted them by a discharge of guns; and conducted them respectfully into the great wigwam, or camp, where they found seated Assiminasqua, Madockawando, Tarumkin, Hope- hood, Mugg and a large assemblage from their tribes. Squando, whose attendance, they were informed, was expected, had not yet arrived.
Assiminasqua, their chief speaker, first addressed them :-- Brothers, keep your arms, it is a point of honor. Be at liberty. It is not our custom, like Mohawks, to seize the messengers com- ing unto us, Nay-certainly we never do, as your people once did with fourteen of our Indians, sent to treat with you ; taking away their guns and setting a guard over their heads .- We now must tell you, we have been in deep waters .- You told us to come down and give up our arms and powder, or you would kill us. So to keep peace, we were forced to part with our hunting guns ; or to leave both our fort and our corn. What we did, was a great loss-we feel its weight.
' Our reply to you,' said the agents, ' is good, Our men, who ' have done you wrong, are always greatly blamed. Could they ' be reached by the arm of our rulers, they would be punished. ' All the Indians know how kindly they have been treated at " Pemaquid, We come now to confirm the peace, especially to ' treat with the Anasagunticooks. We wish to see Squando,- " and to hear Tarumkin speak.
He then remarked :- I have been westward, where I found three Sagamores, wishing for peace ;- many Indians unwilling. I love the clear streams of friendship, that meet and unite. Cer- tain, I myself, choose the shades of peace. My heart is true ;
* Sullivan, p. 171 .-- Hereabouts were evidences of ' ancient settle- ments,'
+ Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 340,
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CHAP. XX. ]
and I give you my hand in pledge of the truth .- Seven of his A. D. 1676 tribe, also Hopehood and Mugg, offered the same token of their sincerity. Had Squando been present, Shurte and Davis might have effected a treaty with the Anasagunticooks. But Madocka- wando, becoming impatient of the distrust and jealousy, which the agents discovered, enquired :- Do we not meet here on equal ground ? Where shall we buy powder and shot for our winter's hunting, when we have eaten up all our corn ? Shall we leave Englishmen and apply to the French ? or let our Indians die ? We have waited long to hear you tell us, and now we want, yes ! or no !
' You may,' said the Agents, ' have ammunition for necessary ' use ; but you say yourselves, there are many western Indians, ' who do not choose peace. Should you let them have the pow- " der we sell you, what do we, better than cut our own throats ?- ' This is the best answer we are allowed to return you, though " you wait ten years.'
The reply gave an unfortunate turn to the parley or negotia- tion. The chiefs taking umbrage, declined any further talk; and the Agents returned home,* apprehending a speedy renewal of hostilities.
The death of King Philip, August 12, 1676, which occasion- Death of ed a jubilee among the colonists of his vicinity, was an event in Aug. 12. its consequences, truly calamitous to the eastern people. His surviving most notorious adherents, strolling away, dispersed His adhe- themselves among the Penacooks and Abenaques. Though their Maine. language was radically the same, and some of them could speak English, they were easily distinguished by their dialect, and the cut of their hair. The maddened passions of these visitors or emigrants, were in correspondent tone with those of Squando. He took fresh courage. His angel, without doubt, revealed to him anew, the utter destruction of the English ; and he was im- patient to see the work renewed.
Three of the most noted fugitives, who had taken or acquired Andrew, the English names, of Simon, Andrew and Peter, escaping to Peter. Merrimack river, a short time before the downfall of their prince, killed one Thomas Kimball, an inhabitant there, and took captive his wife and five children. They then endeavored to conceal
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 331-2.
king Philip.
rents fly to
Simon and
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[VOL. 1.
A. D. 1676. themselves among the Penacooks, who had been neutrals in the
war. But as they were murderers, undeserving hospitality, they were surrendered,-seized on one of Maj. Waldron's warrants, and closely confined at Dover, till July; when they effected their escape, and went to Casco bay. They were all adepts in villainy and Simon, surnamed "the yankee-killer," boasted, that he had shot at many a white man, and never failed but once of bringing his object to the ground .*
Early in August, he made himself familiar at the house ed at Casco. of Anthony Brackett, an inhabitant of Back Cove, (Falmouth) People kill- who in a few days after, lost one of his cows .- ' I can shew you,' said Simon, 'the fellows that killed the creature,'-and then went away. Suspecting his fidelity, Brackett and his neighbors des- patched two messengers to inform Major Waldron, at Dover, of the circumstance and their fears. But before their return, a party of savages came to Brackett's, August 11, led by Simon, who exclaimed, ' here are the Indians that took your cow,' and forth- with seizing all the weapons in sight, proceeded to bind Mr. Brackett, his wife, their five children, and a negro servant ; when her brother, Nathaniel Mitten, in resisting their violence, was in- stantly killed. Next they despatched with their tomahawks, his neighbors, Robert Corbin, Humphrey Durham, and Benjamin Atwell, residents at Presumpscot,t and hurried away their wives and families with the other prisoners, towards the water ; only one woman escaping with her children in a canoe. An alarm was given by two men in a boat, who had fortunately escaped the shots aimed at them; while two others, coming at this juncture to labor for Brackett, likewise fled away unhurt ; and the surviving inhabitants made a hasty retreat to Mountjoy's garrison on the hill. Another laborer, hiding in the bushes, was eye- witness to the death of Thomas Brackett, and the capture of his wife and children, he being killed near his own house, on the southerly side of the peninsula.
Attack on Casco. Aug. 11.
At convenient times, Messrs. Pike, Wells, Lewis, Felt and the returning messengers, with others, aware of their exposure to certain death or captivity, if the fort were taken, took their re-
* Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 335, 344, 350.
t They also shot John Mountjoy, son of George, and Isaac Wakely, on the Neck, as they crossed over to Purpoodic, and took James Ross, his wife and children prisoners.
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CHAP. XX.]
spective families and removed to Andrews' or Bangs' Island, as a A. D. 1676. place of greater safety. Recollecting, however, the powder left in different places, the men associated, and, on the night of the 13th, went and brought off about two barrels, and some other ar- ticles. The peninsula of Casco-neck was, during a subsequent period, wholly deserted ;* thirty-four persons being killed in this surprisal, or carried into captivity, and a considerable property destroyed ; though most of the houses were left standing.}
At the same time, August 13, a blow was struck at the life Woolwich and possessions of Richard Hammond at Stinson's point [Wool- destroyed. wich]. He had been for a long time a trader with the Indians ; and they complained, (as they were wont to do), of his cheating them. Once, they said, he filled them with strong drink, and took away their furs from them by stealth. Remembering his offences, a vindictive party of them, visited the place, whose looks and airs so frightened a young maid, that she started to run away :- But an Indian brought her back, and told her she had nothing to fear. Still more terrified by the arrival of a larger number of them, she escaped and travelled over land ten miles to Sheepscot plantation, and told the story to the people there ; adding, that she heard, when at a distance. from the house, a great bustle and heavy blows. It was true, the Indians, in the first onset, killed Samuel Smith, Joshua Grant, and also Ham- mond himself, setting fire to his house, and making sixteen per- sons, captives.
Before the assailants started away, they divided themselves Arrowsick into two bands. One ascended the river, and took into custody burnt. Francis Card and his family ; the other proceeded by water, the same night, to Arrowsick, 'and landed in great silence on the south-easterly point of the Island, near the settlement and fort. A part of them cowered down under the walls of the garrison, and others secreted themselves behind a large adjoining rock ;- all being able to see every movement of the sentinel. As he retir- ed from his post, before the usual hour, without being relieved, he was unconsciously followed through the fort-gate by the sav- age-spies in quick succession ; who instantly closed the port-holes
* Probably the inhabitants did not return generally till the peace in April, 1678 .- Willis, p. 152. t Namely, 12 men, 6 women, and 16 children. Į Hubbard's Indian Wars, 339-40-369.
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A. D 1676, and assumed to be masters of the garrison. Never, perhaps,
Aug. 14.
was consternation greater. The English and Indians fought hand
to hand. Aroused from sleep, Capts. Lake, Davis, and others, soon finding resistance vain, fled through a back-door, and jump- ing into a canoe, strove to reach another Island. Overtaken, however, by their pursuers, just as they were stepping on shore, Lake was killed by a musket-shot, and Davis so wounded that he could neither fight nor flee. Able now only to creep, he hid himself in a cleft of the rocks ; and the beams of the rising sun, in the eyes of the assailants, prevented a discovery. Neverthe- less, two days elapsed before he could, even in a light canoe, paddle himself away to the shores of the main.
About a dozen other persons, escaping to the further end of the Island, found means to get off in safety. Lake was an enter- prizing, and excellent man ;* and it is said, he would not have been killed, had he asked quarter, and not presented his pistol to his antagonist. So proud was the savage of his bloody exploit, that he took the hat of his fallen foe, and wore it as a trophy, upon his own head. The number killed and carried into captivity, was thirty-five persons. In the general conflagration, the whole of this large and beautiful establishment-the mansion-house, the fortification, the mills, and the out-buildings-collectively the works of years, and the cost of several thousand pounds, forming yesterday the hamlet of the Islands, exhibit to-day only a smoul- dering heap of ruins.
Brackett's wife and family es- cape.
News of the event rendered Simon and his bloody companions impatient to be partakers of the spoils, or the glory of the siege ; and, therefore, as they were burdened with their prisoners, they left Anthony Brackett's wife and family-probably on Great Se- bascodegan. Here she fortunately found a leaky birchen canoe, in which, after she had mended it, she and lier negro servant, rowed them all safely to Black-point, from whence a vessel gave them a passage to Piscataqua.
The people east of Sag- adahock flee to the Islands.
The inhabitants eastward of Arrowsick became now so much dismayed, that they durst no longer abide in their own houses. Those of Sheepscot, listening to the story of the fugitive girl, made an early retreat to the fort at Cape-newagen. The peo- ple of Pemaquid fled on board their vessels ; but being prevent-
* Capt. Lake was the ancestor, perhaps father, of Sir Biby Lake.
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