USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 8
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Massachusetts sent over to London as her agents William Stoughton, who had been a judge and afterward was lieutenant governor, and Peter Bulkley, then speaker of the house of
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deputies. These agents, being examined by the Lords of the Committee for Trade and Plantation, denied for the most part the statements of Randolph as given above. They admitted, however, that in 1652 the Massachusetts colony were necessi- tated to coin money for the support of their trade, and that this was never objected to before. They admitted also that some Quakers were put to death, having come again into the colony after banishment. They added "that there are many Quakers now living amongst them." Also they declared the law against the keeping of Christmas to have been made in the late troubles, but that, to their knowledge, it is not put in execution.
The Lords of the Committee for Trade and Plantation recommended that a letter be sent to the government of Massa- chusetts and that two other agents be sent over to England, in place of Stoughton and Bulkley, who were desirous of returning to Boston. The proposed letter was approved by his Majesty's Council, and a letter from the king to the Massachusetts govern- ment, dated July 24, 1679, read some plain and easily understood lessons to the religious oligarchy at Boston. It commends them for requiring subjects to take the oath of allegiance, which duty had been formerly neglected. It declares the expectation of the king that henceforth there shall be allowed in the colony freedom of conscience, so that those of the Church of England and others who do not wish to worship in the Congregational way may be unhindered and not "subjected to ffines or ffor- feitures or other incapacities for the same, which is a severity the more to be wondered at, when as Liberty of Conscience was made one principal motive for your first transportation into those parts." Then notice was given, which must have caused the Bostoners to wince, that "Wee have appointed our Trusty and wellbeloved Subject, Edward Randolph Esqr, to be our Collector Surveyor and Searcher, not only for that Colony, but for all other Our Colonies in New England," and he was recommended to their help and assistance in the discharge of his duties. The letter goes on to express disapproval for the purchase of the Province of Maine from the heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges for twelve hundred pounds (The price paid was £1250) and asks that upon reimbursement of what had been paid out there be a surrender of all deeds and writings pertain- ing thereto, "for as much as Wee were sometime in treaty for the said province and doe disapprove what you have done
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therein." The conclusion blasted all their hopes of extension of territory and political power. "And as for that part of the province of Newhampshire lying Three miles Northward of Merrimack River, which was granted unto Mr. Mason, and whereof the Government still remains vested in Us, you are not to expect (according to the desire of your Agents) that the same should be annexed to your Government, ffor Wee have it under Our consideration, how to establish such method there as may be of most benefit and satisfaction to Our good subjects of that place. And therefore Our will and pleasure is that you doe recall all Commissions granted by you for Governing within that province, which Wee do hereby declare to be void, and doe require that you doe in all things for the future conforme your selves unto the Resolution which Wee have taken in this behalf. And soe not doubting of your Duty and Obedience herein Wee bid you farewell."
Disappointed, snubbed, checked in their chosen path of ambition, forced to be tolerant in religion, reprimanded for craftiness, shorn of their assumed prerogatives, why did not Massachusetts then rebel and not wait another century? Simply because they were not strong enough, were divided in opinions among themselves, had not the support of the other American colonies, and were not of the thrice-armed who have their quarrel just. Therefore they submitted with what grace they could, while the clericals poured out their spite upon Edward Randolph. Vaulting ambition had o'erleaped itself. The dream of an ecclesiastical oligarchy, called a theocracy, had vanished.
A report had been made to the king, July 2, 1679, that "the Corporation of the Massachusetts Bay had no right either to soil or Government beyond 3 miles to the Northward of Merri- mack River, nor to the Soil nor Proprietie of any lands lying between the rivers of Naumkeck and Merrimack, and that all grants, titles and alienations of the said lands made by them or by any authoritie derived from them to bee absolutely void and declared illegall." It was also decided by the best legal authority that the title to land must be tried on the place, there being no court in England that had cognizance thereof, and thus a new jurisdiction had to be established in New Hampshire in order to try the Masonian claims, while the settlers between the Naumkeag and three miles north of the Merrimack rivers
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were left to defend their titles in Massachusetts courts, evi- dently prejudiced against Mr. Mason and his heirs. The futility of any attempt to recover lands there was so apparent that the heirs of Mason never made an effort to collect quit-rent or oust the tenants of Cape Ann and vicinity. Mason's legal claim to land there was just as good as it was in New Hampshire, but his enemies had jurisdiction. His heirs hoped that with the aid of king and judges in old England and with a new government set up by the king in New Hampshire they might get recognition of the justice of their claim and thus gain something for the twenty-two thousand pounds, that, as they asserted, had been spent in the development of the colony. That was an extravagant estimate, even if the expense of the planta- tion at Newichawannock were taken into account.
In order to smooth the way for an agreement, between Robert Mason and the settlers of New Hampshire royal authority had so composed matters with Mason that up to the twenty-fourth day of June, 1679, he relinquished all claim or demand for "any rent, dues, or arrears whatsoever, and for the future he, his Heirs or Assigns shall receive only Six pence in the Pound yearly of every Tenant by way of Quit Rent according to the true & just yearly value of what is improved by Any of the Inhabitants."
Chapter IV FIRST CONFLICT WITH THE INDIANS
Chapter IV FIRST CONFLICT WITH THE INDIANS.
King Philip's War-Encroachments of the Settlers-Indian Atrocities- Savagery versus Civilization-Passaconaway and Wonalancet-First Blow Struck at Oyster River-John Robinson of Exeter Slain-Attack on Salmon Falls-Four Slain in Hampton-Sham Fight at Cochecho- Indians Sold into Slavery-Condemnation of the Treachery-The Indi- ans Simon and Andrew-Expedition against Eastern Indians-Scruples about Employing Mohawks as Allies-Treaty of Casco-What Nine Indians Say-How Indians Got Arms-Losses and Cost of the War- The Praying Indians of Natick Cruel Fighters of the English.
T HE story of King Philip's War has been told too many times to be repeated here at length. Most of its events had little or nothing to do with the history of New Hampshire. Much must be left to the historians of Massachusetts and of Maine. The settlers of New Hampshire lived at peace with the Indians, traded with them and bought land of them for over half a century before any trouble arose. There were acts of injustice on the part of individuals here and there. Wars result from the crimes and ambitions of the few rather than of the masses. The Indians were cheated in trades and in purchase of lands, as the ignorant are generally cheated by those who have superior knowledge. They sold whole townships and counties for a few trifles that might well have been given to them in token of friendship. In such sales they did not imagine that they would be excluded from the lands sold, and sometimes they stipulated in deeds that the old privileges of hunting and fishing should remain to them. They parted with tons of beaver skins and other valuable peltry for a blanket, a gun, a string of beads, and some fire-water. Thus the white traders grew rich at the expense of the Indians. Gradually the eyes of the redmen were opened to see that their ancient possessions were taken from them and enclosed by fences; that villages sprung up on their old corn- fields; that saw-mills drove the fish from their waterfalls; and that the clearing of the forests chased their deer away. They were pushed back further into the woods and crowded upon hos-
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tile tribes. Both French and English stirred them up to war upon one another. Rough and rascally fishermen and hunters committed outrages upon their women and children, the report of which traveled far and was remembered long. England and France carried their quarrels into the wilds of the new world, furnished weapons to the redmen and led them as allies to the burning of houses and the massacre of men, women and children. The Indians were not more cruel than the white men. At that very time atrocities were being committed in Ireland, between religious factions, that would put to shame the Indians for their lack of refined barbarity, for there noses and ears were cut off, men and women were stripped naked and turned out in the winter cold, and the road to Dublin was lined with corpses. The Indians sometimes tortured their captives in the spirit of retalia- tion, especially when crazed by the white man's drink, but they never invented such instruments of torture as were used by the Inquisitors. The Indians never forgot an injustice and they were equally mindful of a kindness. To their honor it should be said that there is no record that in the treatment of captive women they ever violated the laws of chastity. It was French gold that persuaded them to take away women and children.
On the other hand it is foolish to contend that the scanty tribes of Indians owned the soil and forests of all New England, yea, of all the continent, as some affirm. The principle stated by ·some rulers in Massachusetts, that the Indians had a valid claim only to the land that they improved, seems to be sound and just. Savagery ought to give way to civilization. They who utilize the soil should have it. Men are entitled to the fruits of their labors, and that which exists and grows without labor is the common property of all.
Old Passaconaway, chief of the Penacook tribe, saw that the white men must become the conquerors and cautioned his people to let them alone and live peaceably with them. His son, Wonalancet, followed his advice. Sagamore Rowls, of Newich- awannock, was a friend to the settlers. These were not strong enough to prevent others from digging up the hatchet. King Philip's War served to unite the tribes all along the frontier in an effort to exterminate the pale faces. A common love of home and native land and a common desire for fighting and plunder made them act just like Europeans, when moved by the same impulses.
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It is unfortunate that no history of the early Indian wars was written by an Indian. What a heartrending and frightful story an Indian Hubbard would have told of the aggressions of the Yengees-how they fell upon the sleeping bands of redmen and shot them before they had an opportunity to resist, how squaws and papooses were sometimes killed without mercy, how many wigwams and entire villages were burned, how much plunder the enemy carried off, how many were captured through treachery and hanged in Boston or sold into slavery in the West Indies, never to return. Detailed reports, exaggerated by all the arts of rhetoric, we may now read of the bad deeds of the Indians ; no sachem has left a record of the equally numerous and cruel deeds of the whitemen. Civilized warfare was then as un- known as it is now among Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbians, Austrians and Germans, when they are bent on vengeance and conquest. When hatred is aroused civilized people forget the art of concealing that they are savages. Especially "the heathen" have no rights that men only veneered with Christian civilization feel bound to respect, and sacred books are quoted to make murder and robbery in time of war appear as duties. War under any conditions is the worst thing imaginable except slavery ; between ignorant and savage tribes it is hate and cruelty intensified; when waged by religious bigots it is worse than Dante's Inferno.
The first blow struck in New Hampshire was in September, 1675, at Oyster River. The Indians burned two houses and killed two men, William Roberts and his son-in-law.1 Roberts lived on the south side of the river, about two miles below the falls. There is no record that any of his neighbors were dis- turbed, and Roberts might have been away from home at the time. Soon after William Beard, a very good old man, was slain outside of his garrison, on the north side of the river, half a mile from the Falls. The Indians cut off his head and set it up on a pole in derision ; or this may have been done in retaliation. Hub- bard says that the queen of Pacasset was found naked and dead
1 This is on the authority of the Rev. Jabez Fitch of Portsmouth, who left in manuscript a brief history of New Hampshire, from which Belknap drew all that was of any value. The son-in-law above mentioned is more likely to have been William Roberts Jr. The two bound volumes of Fitch's manuscript are in the possession of the Mass. Hist. Society, through whose courtesy the author was permitted to read them.
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by the waterside. "Her head being cut off and set upon a pole in Taunton was known by some Indians then prisoners, which set them in a horrid lamentation." So perhaps good man Beard had to suffer because of the evil deeds of whitemen in Massachu- setts. Two houses belonging to the Chesley family were burned, and two men sailing along the river were killed. An old Irish- man and a young man were captured at the same time, but they soon found a way of escape.
In November, 1675, John Robinson of Exeter, blacksmith, who had removed to that place from Haverhill, Massachusetts, and his son were waylaid by three Indians, while they were on their way to Hampton. The father was shot dead; the son ran into a neighboring swamp and, although pursued, succeeded in reaching Hampton at midnight. The next day Lieutenant Ben- jamin Swett with about a dozen soldiers searched the woods and found the body of the murdered man, shot in his back. Captain Benjamin Swett afterward led a company of soldiers in the de- fense of the fort at Black Point, Scarborough, and in a fight was cut down by tomahawks after having been wounded twenty times. Probate records show that the above named John Robin- son was killed the tenth of the ninth month, 1675. About the same time Charles Randlet, or Rundlet, of Exeter, was captured and soon escaped. There was a plot to burn the house of Thomas Sleeper, on the easterly frontier of Hampton, but the sculking Indian was shot in the act of setting the fire. The at- tack on Tozier's garrison at upper Newichawannock has been often told-how a maiden held the front door while fifteen per- sons were escaping by the rear and how she was knocked on the head with a tomahawk and left for dead, only to recover and live many years, unknown by name to fame-how Lieutenant Roger Plaisted and son lost their lives in an unequal fight with many savages-all these details may be seen in histories of Maine.
Late in 1675 peace was concluded with the Indians, only to be-broken the following year. Some captives were restored to their homes. On the sixteenth of April, 1677, the house of John Kenniston was burned at Greenland and he was slain. Two months later, June 13th, the enemy again appeared in Hampton and killed four men, Edward Colcord, Jr., Abraham Perkins, Jr., Benjamin Hilliard and Caleb Towle. All the people of the four towns of New Hampshire flocked to garrisons, whence issued
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parties of volunteers, who sometimes surprised the Indians in return. One such party from Dover came upon five Indians gathering corn and roasting it. Two of the Indians were knocked on the head with muskets and the other three ran away.
It was in September, 1676, that four hundred Indians as- sembled at Cochecho about the residence of Major Richard Wal- derne, on a peaceful errand, under the leadership of the friendly Sagamore, Wonalancet. Mixed with them were some Indians from the south, who had committed offenses, and it was the wish of the Massachusetts authorities to bring them to justice-to justice as interpreted by the whitemen, whose rules of warfare were somewhat different from those of the redmen. Captain William Hathorne, of Salem, and Captain Joseph Sill, of Cam- bridge, were sent to Cochecho with two companies of soldiers, and Major Charles Frost, of Kittery, was present with his force. The Indians considered themselves safe under the protection of Major Walderne, even those who had been in the campaign with King Philip. But Hathorne and Sill had orders from the Massa- chusetts government to seize all southern Indians wherever they might be found. Major Walderne thought that any attempt to do so would result in much bloodshed, and so he proposed what has been called a stratagem, since "all is fair in love and war," a doctrine very popular with the unscrupulous. He arranged with the Indians to have a sham fight, as some writers say, although the historians of that time say nothing about a sham fight, but make mention of a training. One writer says that the dread of the Mohawks from the west drove the eastern Indians to confer with Major Walderne, and it is well known that the English at that time and later tried to induce those wild and relentless sav- ages to make war on the Indians of the east. In the midst of the sham fight or training, when the Indians had discharged their guns, the white forces surrounded and captured the Indians and disarmed them, before the latter were aware of designs against them. The friendly Indians under Wonalancet were soon set at liberty, but the rest, to the number of about two hundred, were sent to Boston, where six or seven were tried and hanged for past offenses, while many others were sold into slavery, some going to the Fayal Islands. Some escaped and found their way back to New England, and the narration of their experiences did not help to preserve peace and create good will among the Indians.
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Thirteen years later they had their balances of justice properly adjusted.
Among the colonial papers recently copied from the English archives are some articles of high misdemeanor charged against Major Richard Walderne by Robert Mason. One is as fol- lows :- "The said Waldern hath caused many Indians to be bar- barously and perfidiously slain in time of peace, whereby many English were killed." This charge was made November 13, 1681. In another paper it is said that "the said Waldern, about the year 1677, after the peace concluded with the Indians, did invite the Indians that lived in the said province to settle near his house, professed great kindness toward them, built them a ffort, and entertained them about fourteen days, with victuals and strong drink. In the meantime he got 200 Souldiers and seized them all, whereof seven of the principall were hanged and about 200 sold for slaves (whereof many had never been in arms) to the great scandall of the Christian religion, which was the occasion of many English being killed." Here we have the testimony and opinion of a man who had every opportunity of learning the facts in the case. To be sure Mason was writing about his opponent, but he stated only what was well known and admitted by Wal- derne's friends. The only excuse ever offered was military neces- sity, the need of getting the better of the enemy at any sacrifice of honor and moral principle. It has been said also that Walderne and Frost were subordinate to the commands of the General Court of Massachusetts, thus trying to shift the responsibility. The whole scheme is perfectly in harmony with Major Walderne's character as shown in his treatment of the Quakers. The per- fidious manner of arrest was his own device, and Hathorne, Sill and Frost aided in its execution. The historian Hubbard has no word of moral reproval for the deed. As a Puritan minister he was well acquainted with casuistry, "the art of quibbling with God." To him any course seemed justifiable that punished the enemy and protected the settlers. When Indians were slain or enslaved, it was the righteous retribution of God. It mattered little that this foul act was perpetrated after peace had been agreed to.
What ought to be said about such an act? Shall the old motto be followed, De mortuis nil nisi bonum? Shall the silent robe of charity be thrown over the misdeeds of the past? Shall
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we lightly conclude with Hubbard that these two hundred In- dians, captured by fraud while under a flag of truce, "were sent into other Parts of the World, to try the Difference between the Friend- ship of their Neighbors here and their Service with other Masters elsewhere"? Shall we say with the Puritans of that time that it was the judgment of God upon the cruel savages and appeal to the Old Testament for justification? Shall we excuse treachery in retaliation for treachery? Shall we expose to view the sins of the fathers? If not, how shall the sons learn to do better ?
We must conclude that it was a base and wicked act. The conscience of the Indian was acute enough to see that, and he never interpreted it in any other way. It was a foolish and dan- gerous act. The subsequent retaliations prove this. New England got rid of a few bad Indians, and many good Indians were made enemies by this act of injustice and betrayal. They pursued the policy of "watchful waiting" till they cut Major Walderne into pieces upon his own table and shot Major Frost as he rode home from meeting, at Ambush Rock. There was no city of refuge to which they might flee and be safe from the avenger. The Indians never transferred the responsibility to the Massachusetts authorities, and they seem to have been the best judges in this case. All the honor in this event belongs to them. They turned about the saying of a modern general and acted as though they believed that "the only good pale-face is a dead pale-face."
A little later Indians, named Simon and Andrew, were con- cerned in the killing of Thomas Kimball, of Bradford, Massa- chusetts, and carried away his wife and five children. The wife and children, for some unknown reason, were returned within six weeks, perhaps to thus pave the way for peace. Simon and Andrew were put into prison at Dover, whence they made their escape, fearing worse punishment. They joined the Androscog- gin and Kennebec Indians and did all the injury they could to the settlers in Maine. This, from the Indian point of view, was honorable warfare, but they were "heathen." Hubbard relates that Simon and Andrew later came into Portsmouth and burnt a house within four or five miles of the town and took a maid and a young woman captive, one of whom had a young child in her arms. She was permitted to leave the child with an old woman, "whom the Indian Simon spared because he said she had
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been kind to his grandmother"-not a very bad Indian after all. Soon after three more were slain by Indians in the woods near Portsmouth, one of whom was riding to alarm the town. Simon next surprised six of the friendly Indians, whom he found drunk in the woods. It was this same Simon who took captive Anthony Brackett and family at Casco and spared them all, yet Hubbard calls him "an arch traitor."
Belknap says that the perfidious act of Walderne and com- pany in capturing the Indians in the sham fight "was highly ap- plauded by the general voice of the colony." We wish the Quakers had handed down their opinion of the act. Two days afterward the forces under Walderne and Frost proceeded east- ward against the Indians, who were causing alarm everywhere. Blind Will, a Sagamore, who lived near Cochecho, and eight of his men acted as pilots or guides through the forests. They found the settlements destroyed or deserted and so returned home.
The Sagamore Mogg gave out the report that many Indians were at their fort near the Ossipee ponds, and an expedition was sent against them. Some English carpenters had built a fort for the Indians as a defense against the dreaded Mohawks. The ex- pedition returned after nine days, not having seen an Indian. It was the first of November, but the snow was deep, the ponds were frozen and the way was rough.
In 1677 an expedition, consisting of two hundred men, sixty of them being Natick Indians, sailed from Boston, under com- mand of Major Richard Walderne, against the eastern Indians. He had a skirmish at Casco, built a fort on the Kennebec, and had a narrow escape from, capture at Pemequid, where he thought he discerned treachery at a conference with the Indians. A fight ensued and seven Indians were killed, among them being the sagamore "Matthando with an old Powaw, to whom the Devil had revealed, as sometime he did to Saul, that on the same day he should be with him; for he had a little before told the Indians that within two days the English would come and kill them all, which was at the very same time verified upon himself," as Hubbard says. On this marauding expedition the English took much plunder from the Indians, a thousand pounds of dried beef and between thirty and forty bushels of good wheat, one or two great guns and some anchors from Sagadahock, and a hun-
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