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 62
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Four towns
Wells' gar-
A. D. 1691.
628
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[VOL. 1.
A. D. 1692. then dismissed ; yet nothing more was seen of the Indians .-
June 9.
Hence, President Danforth and his associates, thus disappoint- ed, and despairing of a negotiation, soon returned to York ; prom- ising as he departed, to send a reenforcement to Converse, consisting of 35 soldiers, from the county of Essex. They ar- rived June 9th; and in one half hour afterwards, the garrison was furiously beset by Moxus and two hundred Indians. Being repulsed, they presently withdrew and proceeded to Cape Ned- dock, in York. Here they attacked a vessel and killed the greater part of the crew, set the little hamlet on fire, and then scattered in different directions. Madockawando remarked, as related by a captive, 'Moxus miss it this time,-next year I'll ' have the dog Converse out his den.'
Cape Ned- dick burnt.
July. Four com- panies pro- ceed to Pe- jepscot.
Four companies, commanded by March, King, Sherburne, and Walton, the first being the senior officer, were despatched, late in July, into the eastern service, who landed at Maquoit and proceeded to Pejepscot-falls. Returning to their vessels, they had a sharp skirmish with a large body of Indians, in which Capt. Sherburne was killed. Nothing was effected by this ex- pedition-it only deterred the Indians from their premeditated at- tack upon the Isles of Shoals. Unassisted now by the French, they diverted themselves in roving through the country, during the autumn,-shooting individuals when alone, *- and robbing or burning solitary houses.
York assail-
ed.
Their attempts upon the village of York, in the last and the present war, had been remarkably delayed. Spread along the eastern side of Agamenticus river, near the margin of the salt water, it was in some degree sheltered from the enemy, by the frontier settlements. It had been, for many years, one of the provincial seats of government and justice, and since A. D. 1673, had been favored with the able and pious ministry of Rev. Shubael Dummer. Several houses were strongly fortified, and the people kept a constant and vigilant watch, excepting in the heart of winter. Unfortunately this was the season, ascertained by the enemy, to be most favorable for effecting its destruction
Early in the morning of Monday, Feb. 5, 1692, at the signal
* Dr. Mather, (2 Magnalia, p. 530,) says, " on Sept. 28th, seven persons « were murdered or captured at Berwick ;"-engaged, probably, in tak- ing some of the remains from that place.
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CHAP. XXIII. ]
of a gun fired, the town was furiously assaulted at different places, A. D. 1692. by a body of two or three hundred Indians, led on and embold- Feb. 5. ened by several Canadian Frenchmen ;- all of them having taken up their march thither upon snow-shoes. The surprise of the town was altogether unexpected and amazing, and conse- quently the more fatal. A scene of most horrid carnage and capture instantly ensued; and in one half hour, more than an hundred and sixty of the inhabitants were expiring victims or trembling suppliants, at the feet of their enraged enemies. The rest had the good fortune to escape with their lives into Preble's, Harman's, Alcock's and Norton's garrisoned houses, the best for- tifications in town. Though well secured within the walls, and bravely defending themselves against their assailants, they were several times summoned to surrender :- Never, said they, never, till we have shed the last drop of blood. About 75 of the people were killed ; yet despairing of conquest or capitulation, the vin- dictive destroyers set fire to nearly all the unfortified houses on the north-east side of the river, which with a large amount of prop- erty left, besides the plunder taken, were laid in ashes .- Appre- hensive of being overtaken by avenging pursuers, they hasten- ed their retreat into the woods; taking with them as much booty as they could carry away, and, as Doct. Mather says,* " near an hundred of that unhappy people," prisoners. Nay, it was now their hard destiny, to enter upon a long journey, + amidst a thousand hardships and sufferings, aggravated by severe weather, snow, famine, abuse, and every species of wretchedness.
About one half of the inhabitants, it has been supposed, were either slain or carried away captive. Mr. Dummer was found Rev. Mr. by some of his surviving neighbors, fallen dead upon his face, near killed. Dummer his own door ; being shot, as he was about starting on horseback to make a pastoral visit. He was a well educated divine, now in his 60th year; greatly beloved by his charge ; and so eminent a man of God, that Doct. Mather supposes, an appropriate emblem in his coat of arms would have been, a lamb in a flaming bush.}
* 2 Magnal. p. 530-1. t It is supposed they were carried to Sagadahock. ¿ His house was by the seashore, not far from the " Roaring Rock." He was a graduate of Harvard College, A. D. 1656, and married the same year. He was, one says, "not only well descended, well tempered and well educated,"-but settled among a people strongly attached to him; whose faithful ministry had been greatly blessed among them. By reason
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A. D. 1692. His wife, the daughter of Edward Rishworth, Esq. was among the captives, who being heart-broken, and exhausted with fatigue, soon sunk in death. But truth and fidelity require the writer to mention in this place, an instance of Indian gratefulness, among several of a kindred character, occurring at other times in our wars with the natives. To recompense the English for sparing the lives of 4 or 5 Indian females, and a brood of their children at Pejepscot, they dismissed some elderly women, and several chil- dren between the ages of three and seven years, and returned them safely to one of the garrison-houses ;*- a circumstance which also confirms the opinion, that the Penacooks and the Anasagunticooks were concerned in this attack. A party in- stantly rallied at Portsmouth, as soon as the news reached the place, and went in pursuit of the enemy ; too late, however, to effect a rescue of the prisoners, or to give the savages battle. In derision of the puritan ministers, towards whom the Indians, full of Romish prejudices, entertained the greatest antipathy ; one of them, on a Suuday of their march through the wilderness, dressed himself in the ministerial attire of Mr. Dummer, and in mock dignity, stalked among the prisoners, several of whom were members of his church ;- ' a demon,' according to Mr. Mather's view of him, ' transformed into an angel of light.'
The massacre in York and burning of the town, were the more deeply and extensively lamented, because of the antiquity and pre- eminence of the place, and especially the excellent character of the people. " Many," says an eminent cotemporary writer, " were the tears, that were dropped throughout New-England on " this occasion." It had experienced so fatal a blow, that the remaining inhabitants entertained, afterwards, serious thoughts of abandoning it altogether, while the war continued. But Massa- chusetts, in her generosity, administered to the people, by the hands of Captains Converse and Greenleaf, immediate relief,
of their distresses, he " spent much of his patrimony" in his own support. When settled, he preached the ordination discourse from Psal. 80 c. 14 v. He was succeeded, A. D. 1700, by Rev. Samnel Moody-who continued in the ministry 48 years ; and whose fame equalled that of any gentleman of the clergy in that age .- Hon. D. Sewall .- 3 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. p. 10. -Greenleaf's Ecc. Hist. p. 9.
* One of them was the famous Col. Jeremiah Moulton, who died, A. D. 1765 .- 1 Coll. Maine Hist. Soc. p. 104 .- Sce ante, A. D. 1690.
The melan- choly con- dition of York
631
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CHAP. XXIII.]
with such full encouragements of protection, as determined them A. D. 1692. to abide and risque future events. Major Elisha Hutchinson was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the provincial militia, and of the three companies in the eastern service, under Captains Converse, Floyd, and Thaxter ; by whose united and prudent conduct, the frontiers were so well guarded, and the posts so read- ily corresponded with each other, through the medium of ranging parties, that it became impossible for the enemy to attack, in the usual way by surprise. Several of the captives taken at York, were recovered in the course of the spring, by a vessel sent for the purpose to Sagadahock.
Wells was next the object of attack by the Indians. The in- Wells de- habitants were dispersed among the fortified houses,-in neces- fer ded by Converse sitous circumstances ; while Capt. Converse and fifteen soldiers and 15 men, were all the fensible men then in Storer's garrison. To supply them and the people with ammunition and provisions, two sloops, commanded by Samuel Storer and James Gouge, attended by a shallop, well laden, arrived in the harbor, Friday, June 9th, hav- June 9. ing on board 14 men. About the same hour, the cattle, much affrighted, ran bleeding into the settlement, from the woods ; for- tunately giving the aların of an approaching enemy. Captain Converse instantly issued commands to the vessels, and to the people in all quarters, to be on their guard ; and the whole night was passed in anxious and trembling watchfulness.
Next morning, before break of day, John Diamond, a passen- June 10. ger in the shallop, on his way to the garrison, distant from the Assailed by sloop a gunshot, was seized by Indian spies and dragged away and Indians. 500 French by his hair. An army of about 500 French and Indians pres- ently appeared, under Burneffe, their superior officer, who was chief in command at the capture of Falmouth-Labrocree, an- other French General, of some military reputation-and a few other Frenchmen of rank ; attended by Madockawando, Egere- met,* Moxus, Warumbee, and several other Sagamores. They closely examined Diamond, who told them what he knew ; only, by mistake, or design, he said there were in the garrison with Capt. Converse, thirty brave men, well armed. Flushed with the certainty of conquest, they apportioned the soldiers, the in- habitants, Mr. Wheelwright by name, the women and the children
* Egeremet was from Machias or Passamaquoddy.
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A. D. 1692. of the town, the sailors, and the plunder, among the officers, the Sagamores, and their host; when one habited like a gentleman, made a speech in English to them, in which he exhorted them to be active and fearless ; assuring them, if they courageously at- tacked the English fortresses, all would be theirs-the heretics must surrender.
June 10.
Instantly raising a hideous shout, they assailed the garrison with great fury, and continued the assault during the day. A party constructed, in the meantime, a breastwork of plank, hay, posts and rails, over which they fired upon the vessels, secured only by a high bank, too far distant for men to spring on board. Being only a dozen rods from the sloops, they were able to set them on fire several times with fire-arrows ; the crews extinguish- ing the flames, by wet mops upon the ends of poles, and firing also with an aim and briskness, which at length compelled them to with- draw. One of the Indians, more daring than his fellows, then approached with a plank for a shield, whom a marksman by a single shot brought to the ground. Next, a kind of cart, rigged and trimmed, with a platform and breastwork shot-proof, was rolled forward from the woods, till within fifteen yards of the sloops ; when one of the wheels sinking into the oozy earth, a Frenchman stepped to heave it forward with his shoulder, and was shot dead, and another taking his place, shared the same fate. The firing was continued upon the sloops with the repeated demand, sur- render ! surrender !- which was only retorted by loud laughter. At night they called out, who's your commander ?- " We have, (said they,) a great many commanders." You lie,-cried an Indian,-You have none but Converse, and we'll have him before morning.
June 11.
A scout of six men, sent by Capt. Converse, towards Newich- awannock, a few hours before the enemy first appeared, return- ing about the dawn of day, being Sabbath-morning ; were un- warily exposed, on their arrival, to certain death. But with great presence of mind, the corporal loudly bespoke Captain Converse, as if near him, wheel your men around the hill and these few dogs are ours. The enemy supposing Converse was at their heels, hastily fled, and the scout entered the gates unhurt.
The French and Indians, now embodied themselves, and be- gan to move with great regularity towards the garrison ; when
CHAP. XXIII.]
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633
one of the Captain's soldiers sighed a surrender :- utter the A. D. 1692. word again, said he, and you are a dead man :'-" all lie close- Attempts " fire not a gun, till it will do execution." As the besiegers with garrison. upon Wells a firm step approached, they gave three hideous shouts-one crying out in English, fire and fall on, brave boys ;- and the whole body opening into three ranks, discharged their guns all at once. A blaze of fire was returned, both from the small arms and the cannon, some two or three of which were 12 pound- ers ; the women in the garrison handing ammunition, and several times touching off the pieces at the enemy. It was a crisis of life or death, and the repulse was so complete, that the attack was not renewed.
One farther attempt, however, was made upon the vessels, which were still lying lashed together in the best posture possible for defence. The enemy now constructed a fire-float, 18 or 20 feet square, and filling it with combustibles, and setting them on fire, towed it as far as was safe, directly towards the sloops, in the current of the tide, and left it to fleet in flames against them. To avoid or to extinguish this burning magazine, appeared im- possible, and their fate inevitable. But by the interposition of Divine Providence, as the anxious mariners viewed it, a fresh counter breeze was breathed upon them, which drove it aground on the opposite shore, where it split and filled with water.
Completely worsted in every effort made, and unable by rea- Repulse son of the levelness of the ground to undermine the garrison, the of the enemy despaired of forcing or inducing a capitulation ; having enemy. killed none in the fort, and no more than a single one of the mariners. Some of the enemy, however, after this proceeded over the river and made havock among the cattle ; while the leaders sent a flag of truce, and began a parley ; offering Captain Converse the most seducing terms, if he would surrender. 'No,' said he, ' I want nothing of you.' A short dialogue ensued," after
* The dialogue was of this purport .- Converse told them, ' I want noth- ing but men to fight.' Then if you, Converse, are so stout, why don't you come out, and fight in the field like a man, and not stay in a garrison, like a squaw ?- ' What fools are you! Think you, (said he,) my thirty are a ' match for your five hundred? Come upon the plain with only thirty, and ' I am ready for you.'-No, no, we think English fashion, (cried a grim In- dian), all one fool: you kill me-me kill you ;- Not so,-better lie some- Voz. I.
67
and retreat
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A. D. 1692, which the Indian bearing the flag, threw it upon the ground, and fled. A few scattering guns were at intervals discharged till dusk, and about ten in the evening, the enemy all withdrew.
Incidents of the siege.
The good management and great bravery of Capt. Converse and his men, and of the shipmasters and their crews, were not exceeded during the war. A siege of forty-eight hours, prosecuted by a host against a handful, was in the sequel no less a disgrace and discouragement to the one, than animating and glorious to the other. Several of the enemy fell-one was Labrocree, who had about his neck when found, a satchel inclosing Romish re- liques, and a printed manual of indulgences. To avenge his death, the savages put their only captive, John Diamond, to the torture. They stripped, scalped and maimed him ; slit his hands and feet between the fingers and toes ; cut deep gashes in the fleshy parts of his body, and then stuck the wounds full of lighted torches ; leaving him to die by piecemeal in the agonies of con- suming fire .*
Gov. Phips' administra- tion. It was this spring, in which the new administration commenced under the charter of William and Mary ; Sir William Phips, being commissioned the royal Governor. To the first legislature, June 8. which convened June 8, eight representatives were returned from the late Province of Maine. Sir William, in his speech to the two branches, stated that monies necessary to defend their Majesties' eastern subjects must be raised; and that the war against the French and Indians ought to be prosecuted with more A board of system, and with renewed vigor. A board of war was established, consisting of three military men, for whom a stipend or salary was provided of £100 by the year. The Governor was author- ized by the charter, and advised by the legislature, to march the militia, if it were necessary, against the common enemy.i
war.
The eastern coast at this time was infested with piratical sea- rovers and freebooters, who were committing depredations with fearful boldness. Nor was this the only trouble. The French, it is well known, were eager to attain a repossession of the ex- tensive territory between Sagadahock and Nova Scotia, now em-
wheres and shout e'm Englishman, when he no see, that's the best soldier .- Another exclaimed. D-n you, we'll cut you small as tobacco, before morn- ing. 'Haste then,' retorted Converse, ' I want business.'
* 2 Math. Mag. p. 532-6 .- 2 Hutch. Hist. p. 67.
+ 5 Mass, Rec. p. 232 .- Prov. Laws, p. 734.
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CHAP. XXIII.]
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braced in the new charter and overrun by the triumphant sav- A. D. 1692. ages.
To fight the enemy, and keep possession of the eastern coun- B Church's try, the Governor detached several companies from the militia, tion, 3d expedi- issued orders for some enlistments, and commissioned Benjamin Church, July 5, Major-commandant of the forces ; who himself July 5. enlisted a company of volunteers and a party of friendly or pray- ing Indians. There was another enterprize, which the Gover- nor had in view, and for accomplishing which, he had the king's special instructions ; this was the erection and establishment of a strong public fortress at Pemaquid.
The Governor in person, attended by Major Church and 450 August. men, embarked early in August, at Boston, for that place ; touch- liam Hen- Fort Wil- ing at Falmonth and taking off the great guns .* In examining Pemaquid. the ground, he determined upon a site near the old stockade- fort, built by order of Edmund Andros, and destroyed three years before, by the Indians. The plat selected was twenty rods from highwater mark,f on the east side of the river, a league above Pemaquid point. The form adopted was quadrangular,} in compass 747 feet, measuring around the exterior contemplated wall ; the inner square, including the citadel, being 108 feet across.
The building of the garrison was committed to the superin- tendance and direction of Captains Wing and Bancroft, and was finished under Captain March ; two companies being retained to do the work. Major Church was despatched, August 11, with the rest of the troops, on a cruise to Penobscot and other places in quest of the enemy; and the Governor himself returned to Boston.
The walls were constructed of stone,§ cemented in lime-mor- tar. Their height on the south side fronting the sea, was 22 feet, on the west 18, on the north 10 and on the east 12 feet; and the great flanker, or round tower, at the south-western cor- ner, was in height 29 feet. || Eight feet from the ground, where the walls were 6 feet in thickness, there was a tier of 28 port-
* Church's 3d Expedition, p. 133.
t Here the tide rises from 14 to 16 feet.
Brit. Dom. in Amer. says, p. 166 " triangular."
¿ It is said to have taken 2,000 cart-loads of stone.
[ 2 Neal's N. E. p. 489,-2 Math. Mag. p. 536-7.
ry built at
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A. D. 1692. holes. The garrison was finished in a few months ;- the whole cost of which is said to have been £20,000. Between 14 and 18 guns were mounted, six of which were 18 pounders; it was manned with 60 men, and called FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
The charge of building this fortification and keeping it garri- soned, caused much dissatisfaction, and even complaints among the people. It was thought by many, not to be a convenient post for ranging parties, nor a well chosen asylum for the retreat of frontier settlers, in times of rupture. Remotely situated, it was liable to be captured, and might in war, become a strong hold of the enemy. If the establishment answered no other purpose than to protect a single harbor, and keep nominal possession of the country, the expenses were altogether disproportionate. But, as it was entirely designed for the public good, many, on the other hand, thought the objections arose from a reprehensible parsimony and shortsighted policy.
Excursions of Major Church at Penobscot and Kenne- beck.
The expedition was immediately known by the Indians; for Major Church, on landing with a party of his men on one of the Islands in Penobscot bay, now called " seven hundred acre Isl- and," was informed by two or three French residents, who were living with Indian wives and had families ; that a " great company" of Indians, were on a neighboring Island [evidently Long Isl- and] and, having descried the vessels, had hastened away in their canoes. Unable, without whale-boats, to pursue them be- yond the vicinity of the peninsula ; he took five Indians, also a quantity of corn, beaver and moose-skins, and returned to Pema- quid. Afterwards, in ascending the Kennebeck waters, he had a skirmish with a party of Indians, some of whom he drove to the woods, while others fled away in their canoes, up the river to their fort at Teconnet. As soon as they discovered him and his men in pursuit, they set fire to their huts in the fort, and ran away, burying themselves in the thickets. Whatever was not already on fire, particularly some cribs of corn, he committed to the flames ; and returning to Boston, concluded his third ' East- ern Expedition ;** rendered memorable by no exploit of any great moment.
The Sagamores were highly exasperated by these enterprizes ; and at the same time, greatly dissatisfied with the meagre aid
* Church's 3d Expedition, p. 131-137.
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CHAP. XXIII.]
and recompense, they were receiving from the French. Madock- A. D. 1692; awando, in August, made a journey to Quebec. In an interview French and with Count Frontenac, he presented him with five English pris- Indians conspire oners, and received in return the reward expected. It was also against Maine. agreed between them, that the Governor should send two ships of war and 200 Canadians to Penobscot, and there be reenforced by 2 or 300 Indians under Madockawando; and that the whole force, when conjoined, should proceed to destroy Wells, the Isles of Shoals, the plantations of Piscataqua, including Kittery, likewise the town of York, and then demolish Fort William Henry.
This enterprize was a topic of too much conversation to be Nelson kept a secret. John Nelson,* appointed after the conquest of Nova Scotia by Phips, the Governor or commander of the Pro- vince, but being taken prisoner on, or after his passage thither, from Boston, was now detained in Quebec. Having oppor- tunity to talk with Madockawando, he amused him with the pro- ject of settling a trading house at " Negas," [possibly Kendus- keag] ' up the Penobscot,' and drew from him some information. To communicate intelligence, Nelson bribed two Frenchmen and sent a letter by them to Boston, in which he informed the govern- ment that a French frigate of 34 guns, l'Envieux, and a Dutch cap- tured ship of 38 guns, le Poli, were about to be sent, under Iberville, to Port-Royal and Penobscot, for the purpose of sweeping the eastern waters of all the vessels they could find ; and that he ex- pected, in his undertaking and movements, to have the coopera- tion and assistance of the Chevalier Villebon, the French Gov- ernor of Nova Scotia. The two French messengers, on their return, being detected, were for their perfidy afterwards shot; and the patriotic Nelson, for sending the letter, was transported to France and imprisoned in the Bastile five years. At the close of the war, and not before, he returned home, after ten years' absence.
* He was the son of William Nelson, and devisee of Sir Thomas Temple, former proprietor of Nova Scotia .- 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. p. 136, 3d series. John Nelson was one of the high republicans, who required Edmund An- dros to surrender his administration. His letter to the Court of Massa- chusetts, was dated August 26th, 1692. He was made an eyewitness to the execution of his two French messengers, and expected the same fate. After he was transported, he was released from the Bastile, through the influence of Sir Purbec Temple, (Eng.)-Eliot's Biog. p. 332,
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