USA > New Hampshire > Register of officers and members of the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New Hampshire, 1724-1725 > Part 5
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(In the hand of the Minister is written :)
Approved.
The intendant of Canada, Monsieur Begon, also wrote to France an account of the visit of the English, which is printed in the same volume (Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y. ix), page 941, viz. :
M. Begon to Count de "Maurepas.
Extract of a letter written to the Court by Mons" Begon, In- tendant in Canada, dated the twenty-first of April, one thou- sand seven hundred and twenty-five, on the subject of the war between the Abenakis and the English.
I have the honor to inform you that the Marquis de 22Vaudreuil was advised on the twelfth of March last-the day on which he arrived at Montreal-by a letter from the commanding officer of Chambly that three English Deputies had arrived at that post on the preceding evening, viz, Mr &Dudlay, son of the late governor of Boston, Colonel 2ªTaxter, member of the Council, both deputies from the Boston Gov- ernment, Mr 1Atkinson, deputy from the government of *Pesadoue, and
* Piscataqua.
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SOCIETY OF COLONIAL WARS.
Mr *Schult, merchant of Orange, who stated that he came only as a companion to those gentlemen.
These delegates arrived at Montreal on the thirteenth of the same month, and delivered to the Marquis de 22Vaudreuil a letter from the Governor of Boston, containing only a vague answer to that addressed to him last October on the subject of the English expedition against +Narantsouak of the preceding August, and a justification of the death of Father 21 Rasle, the Missionary of that village, who was killed by the English on that occasion. This governor also added, that reliance might be placed on the representations these delegates may make, whom he had furnished with instructions, without explaining the matters on which they were to speak.
At their first conference, on the sixteenth of said month, they de- manded the restitution of the prisoners whom the Abenakis had taken, &a.
In a second conference they demanded that M. de 22Vaudreuil should cease assisting the Abenakis with munitions of War and with provi- sions; as such conduct was contrary to the Treaty of Utrecht, which prohibited them favoring the enemy, and as the Indians were Rebels.
M. de 22Vaudreuil answered them, that the aid he furnished the Abe- nakis consisted in the yearly presents the King made them since the foundation of the Colony, as they are under his Majesty's protection. And if they employed these presents in making war against the Eng- lish, the latter could blame only themselves, as they had impelled these Indians, who had never been either their allies or subjects, to wage it for the possession of their country from which they would expel them.
And in reference to the English denying that they were not attached to us, 'twas said, that they had been for full eighty years united with us against the English when we were at war with the latter; since which time they have always styled the Governor of New France their father ; received from him commissions confirming the elections of their chiefs, and have hoisted the French flag in their villages.
That, on the contrary, they had been almost always at war with the English, even when the two crowns were at peace; and the Governor of Boston having since the Treaty of Utrecht, and previous to the com- mencement of hostilities between the Abenakis and the English, gained over Abemesnie, the nephew of Raxou, Chief of Narantsouak, and having given him, after his uncle's death, an English flag to be carried to the village of Narantsouak, and a commission of Chief to command there, this Indian was so badly received there by the people of his village, that they tore the commission and the English flag, and said that they did not receive any except from the government of New France.
That for about eighty years that they have French Missionaries, and profess the Catholic religion, these had never been troubled by the English until the last war, and that the Indians have never been willing to receive Ministers, and have always vindicated their freedom of reli- gion and the possession of their territory, independent of the English.
* Schuyler.
t Norridgewock.
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In the third conference the English maintained that the lands of the Abenakis were theirs; that the Indians had sold those lands to them. They submitted some unsigned and informal papers, which, they pre- tended, were deeds of the purchase that they had effected. They added, that the Indians had in divers meetings given in their submission to the Crown of England, and had taken the oath of allegiance; that they submitted the matter to M. de 22Vaudreuil, and made him judge of the justice of their claim, and handed him copies of these pretended dona- tions made to them.
He answered them, that the Indians had always told him they had never sold their country to the English, nor had ever submitted to them; that he knew nothing about the papers they presented; that the Indians had always assured him they were forgeries; that they must be brought and convinced in his presence of the genuineness of the docu- ments.
The English said, that credit ought to be attached to their word, as they were not people who were in the habit of imposing on others. They consented, with difficulty, that the Indians of St Francis and Becancourt should be brought to Montreal, saying they had no power to treat with them.
They were asked what was the object of their voyage, if they had not authority to treat of this peace? They answered, they had come only to recover their prisoners, communicate to M. de 22Vaudreuil the justice of their cause against the Abenakis, and learn some news of this war. that these Indians had been brought to Montreal at the request made Mr 28Texter would remain at Montreal for the purpose of conferring with the Deputies from the Abenakis.
These having arrived at Montreal on the twenty-third of April last, to the number of seven of the most ancient of the entire Nation, the English announced their intended return home, as they had nothing to say to the Abenakis.
They were told that "one of their party, an interpreter of the Abe- nakis language, who had gone to St. Francis, Becancourt and Three Rivers for the purpose of recovering the English prisoners at these places, and his own niece who was with the Ursulines of Three Rivers, had given the Abenakis to understand that the English had come to Montreal to negotiate a peace with them. They were likewise informed that these Indians had been brought to Montreal at the request made by the English to M. de 22Vaudreuil.
They said that their interpreter had spoken without their authority ; they were, notwithstanding, obliged to admit that they had requested M. de 22Vaudreuil to make them come, and finally they consented to confer with these Indians, which conference did not take place until the twenty-ninth of April, as they were awaiting the return of that Inter- preter of the Abenakis language.
They employed this interval to advantage, for they made use, in the meanwhile, of all the practices they could contrive to induce the Abe- nakis Deputies to go and speak to them at their tavern.
Sieur Schul, their emissary, went also in the course of the night to see the Indians, who would not listen to him, and told him that they would speak only at M. de 22Vaudreuil's house.
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The Interpreter having arrived, the English and Abenakis Deputies assembled at M. de Vaudreuil's.
The English, at the outset, objected to speak first, saying that they had nothing to say to the Abenakis. The latter asked them, why they had brought them hither if they had nothing to say to them? M. de 22Vaudreuil having exhorted' the one and the other of them not to get angry, and to converse peaceably-
The English began and said to the Indians:
That they had come only with good intentions; that they had selected M. de Vaudreuil, as he is the friend of both parties and the father of the Abenakis, to be their mediator, and to arrange their differences justly.
The Abenakis answered, that they were very glad that the English had come only with a friendly disposition, and that they, too, had re- quested their father, M. de "Vaudreuil, to be their mediator. They said, that they complained that the English should seize their lands con- trary to right and reason; that some Abenakis were unjustly detained as prisoners of war at Boston and Port Royal; that they had been attacked also in their religion, their Church having been thrown down and Father 27Rasle, their Missionary, killed. That they had demanded - satisfaction on these three points, and the English, therefore, had to quit their lands, restore their prisoners, rebuild their church, and indem- nify them for the wrong they had done them by killing Father "Rasle, and for the expenses of the war.
The English having asked them to explain what land they required them to quit :
The Abenakis answered, that their land commenced at the River *Gounitogon, otherwise called the Long River, which lies to the West beyond Boston ; that this river was formerly the boundary which sep- arated the lands of the Iroquois from those of the Abenakis; that according to this incontestable boundary, Boston and the greater part of the English settlements east of it are on Abenakis lands; That they would be justified in telling them to quit these; that they had, however, considered that these settlements were established, and that they were still inclined to. tolerate them; but they demanded as an express condi- tion of the peace, that the English should abandon the country from one league beyond (au dessus) Saco river to Port Royal, which was the line separating the lands of the Abenakis from thos of the Micmaks.
Sieur Dudelay told them derisively that they ought to demand Port Royal, also.
The Abenakis replied, they asked only the lands that belonged to them; that they heared it said that the English boasted that they (the Abenakis) had given themselves up to them, which was a falsehood, and they defied them to prove it.
The English, who had, some days before, given M. de Vaudreuil a copy of this pretended grant, did not dare tell the Indians that they had a title to them, and said, on the contrary, that they had never boasted of it, and had merely handed M. de Vaudreuil some deeds of the purchase of one of the west banks of the River Narantsouak, to the depth of about eighteen leagues.
* Connecticut.
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AUTHORITIES AND OFFICIAL SOURCES.
The Abenakis answered that as they had acquired only the West side of the Narantsouak river, they must admit that they had no title to the East bank.
The English admitted the fact, and said that they did not claim the East bank.
The Abenakis told them that the English had, notwithstanding, erected two forts there; one on the island of Manaskong, and the other on the River St George.
The English made no answer as regarded Fort Manaskong, and said that the one erected on the River St George had not been constructed by them, and that they had not meddled with it, as it did not belong to the government of Boston, but to that of Port Royal.
The Abenakis said also, in regard to the pretended purchase by the English of the lands from the mouth of the Narantsouak towards Bos- ton, that it was false that these lands had ever been sold by their ancestors; that the deeds produced were forged, and that they could not be attributed to people like them who could neither read nor write; that the English could not prove with what they had paid for them; that there were among them, the Abenakis deputies, some men eighty years of age, who had never heard of any contract, or convention with the English to cede them their land.
The English replied, that they had been in possession of it at least eighty years, since they began settling at Boston, and ever if they had not purchased it, their possession gave them title.
The Abenakis rejoined-We were in possession before you, for we hold from time immemorial. They admitted that the English had, for eighty years, been desirous to seize these lands, but that the Abenakis had since that time been always at war with them, to prevent them taking possession; that, independent of this consideration, the other forts which number eight or ten, and are the subject of the present war, have, with the exception of that at Saco, which may date as many as forty years back, been all built since the peace of Utrecht, in 1713.
The English made no reply to this article. To the complaint of the Indians respecting the detention of their brethren at Boston, they said they knew not precisely their number, and that they had set two at liberty.
The Abenakis said, these two Indians were set at liberty only on condition that they would conduct a detachment of four or five hundred English, both against Narantsouak and *PanaSamske to aid in surprising those of their nation, and that they were aware these two Indians had been carried back to Boston where they were still detained; and they were not bound to believe that any had been sent back, until they had caused the men to be conducted into their Villages.
The English having asked the Indians to explain themselves regard- ing the indemnity they claimed for the destruction of their Church, the killing their Missionary, and for the expenses of the War-The Abe- nakis answered, that they demanded that their French Missionaries should for the future be unmolested; that no proposal should be made them to receive Ministers; and that suitable presents should be made to
*There is no Roman letter adequate to express the sound which the Indians use here .. Ordinarily, a numeral 8 is used for the purpose.
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atone for Father "1Rasle's death, the destruction of their Church, and the injuries done them during the War.
The English promised to report to Boston what they had heard.
Thus we obtain a moderately clear view of the his- torical aspect of the deputation. Its influence developed into good and extensive effects and brought both whites and Indians into a consideration of equitable terms. In November following, Sagamores from Norridgwock, Penobscot, and other representatives of various Indian tribes in Maine and in Nova Scotia came to Boston, and, after long discussion, arranged with Governor 38Dum- mer the preliminaries of a treaty, which was accepted by the General Court of Massachusetts. In the summer of 1726 ratifications were exchanged by the contracting parties, August 6, at Casco Bay, and Dummer's Treaty, dated December 15, 1725, went into effect. It closed the Indian wars for ten years, in spite of the French efforts to renew them. Truck houses for trade were opened at various points, convenient to the Indians. Till war was renewed between the English and the French, the Indians were quiet. They strictly observed the terms and spirit of the engagement they made, which the white man had craftily entitled : "Submission and Agree- ment of the Delegates of the Eastern Indians, namely the Penobscot, Norridgewock, St. John, Cape Sable, and other tribes inhabiting within his Majesty's Territories of New England and Nova Scotia." Its text can be found at the close of Penhallow's "Indian Wars."
The bugle is silent, the war whoop is dead : There's a murmur of waters and woods in their stead. The voice of the hunter is loud on the breeze ; There's a dashing of water, a rustling of trees : For the jangling of armor hath long passed away, No gushing of life blood is seen here today. [Upham.
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Appendix
1. Theodore Atkinson, son of councillor Theodore Atkin- son, was born at New Castle, December 20, 1697, died Sep- tember 22, 1779, was graduated at Harvard college, 1718; m. (1) Hannah Wentworth, born July 4, 1700, a daughter of Lieut .- Gov. John 8Wentworth and widow of Samuel Plaisted (who died March 20, 1732). She died at Portsmouth De- cember 12, 1769. Upon leaving college he was commissioned lieutenant and ordered on duty at Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth harbor. In 1720, he was appointed clerk of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1725, he went to Canada as a commissioner to the governor of Canada. In 1741, he was appointed secretary of the province, and became a colonel in the militia of the province, where he continued till 1750, when he was commissioned to the Albany congress of 1754. He was appointed chief justice in 1754 and in 1769 reappointed pro- vincial secretary, which offices he held at the outbreak of the Revolution.
2. John Wainwright, born at Ipswich, June 10, 1677, died there September 1, 1739, was a son of Col. John and Elizabeth (Norton) Wainwright; was graduated at Harvard college, 1709 ; became town clerk of Ipswich and represented the town in the General Court, 1720-'38, serving as clerk of the House for twelve years ; and was colonel of the Essex regiment. His sister Lucy was wife to Paul Dudley.
3. John Jekyll, collector of the port of Boston, a much re-
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spected crown official, was an Englishman, a son of Rev. Thomas Jekyll, D. D. He was collector from 1707 to his death in 1731. He had previously been in the British diplo- matic service.
4. Jacob Wendell was born at Albany, August 5, 1691, and died at Boston, September 7, 1761. He was a prominent and prosperous merchant on Merchants' Row, Boston, and overseer of the poor for more than twenty-five years. He was a coun- cillor, 1734-'60; a special justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1736; a director, in 1733, in the first Boston bank ; captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery in 1735 and in 1745; lieutenant-colonel of the Boston regiment of militia, 1733 ; colonel in 1736, and continued in that commission till 1743. His residence was at the corner of School and Tremont streets, now (1905) occupied by the Parker House.
5. The route was that of the old Bay Path, established in 1673. It led from Boston through Sudbury, Marlborough, Shrewsbury to Worcester; thence through Charlton and Brookfield to Springfield; thence through Westfield, Great Barrington and Kinderhook, on a high plain, a few miles from the Hudson river. From Kinderhook, then a village, where refreshments, solid and liquid, were obtainable of the Dutch settlers, the road ran northwesterly, to the ferry landing, oppo- site Albany. This bridle path became in portions cart paths ; and, as civilization advanced, carriage roads-ultimately stage routes ; for population settled and built homes on the old Bay Path, which was earlier an Indian trail, with blazed trees, over hills and through the forest, a lonesome, tedious way.
6. William Dudley was born at Roxbury, October 20, 1686, where he died August 10, 1743 ; son of governor Joseph Dud- ley and his wife, Rebecca Tyng. He was graduated at Har- vard college in 1707; represented Roxbury in the General Courts of 1718-'20, 1722-'29; was speaker, 1724-'28; coun- cillor, 1729-'40, '42, '43 ; sheriff of Suffolk county, 1713 and 1715 ; and judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 1727-'43;
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was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery com- pany, and major in 1710; he was colonel of the First Suffolk regiment, and died in that position. He served on several em- bassies to Canada.
7. This was Thomas Richardson, born at Woburn, April 15, 1687, died at Leicester, where he settled in 1717 with rela- tives of his wife, Elizabeth Green, of Malden. He and his brother-in-law established a corn mill, a sawmill and a tavern in the south part of the town, now known as Greenville.
8. John Wentworth was a son of Samuel and Mary ( Ben- ning) Wentworth, of Portsmouth (and a grandson of elder William Wentworth, the ancestor of the race in New Hamp- shire), born January 16, 1671 ; was a shipmaster and merchant at Portsmouth. From his fortieth year he was active and influential in the politics of the province, was councillor, 1712. He died in office as lieutenant-governor, December 12, 1730. His wife was Sarah, a daughter of Mark Hunking.
9. Martin Kellogg, born at Deerfield, October 26, 1686, and died at Wethersfield, November 13, 1753. He was a cap- tive at the sack of Deerfield, February, 1704, from which he escaped in 1705. He was again captured in 1708, from which he was ransomed in 1712. These years spent with Indians familiarized him with their languages, habits and modes of life. As captain of scouts he became very useful. In 1714 he accompanied the Massachusetts commissioners to Montreal to recover captives. As late as 1751 he was sent as agent of the colony to the chiefs of the Mohawks.
10. Edward Taylor was a native of Coventry, Warwick- shire, England, where he was born in 1642, of an armigerous family. He came to Boston in the summer of 1668, and en- tered as a scholar at Harvard college, where he was a class- mate, roommate and bedfellow of Judge Samuel Sewall. He was graduated in 1671. Early in the following December, Mr. Taylor went to Westfield, where he performed the duties of a preacher and of a physician to the small population on
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that side of the Connecticut river. In 1679, Mr. Taylor was ordained and settled as the first minister of the town. The congregation assembled at beat of drum. He was devoted to the study of botany and natural history; was a voluminous writer, both in prose and in poetry, and left a hundred manu- script volumes, bound in parchment by himself. He died June 29, 1729. President Ezra Stiles of Yale college was a grandson.
11. Spectacle ponds are in the eastern part of the present town of Otis, on the confines of Berkshire county. These two bodies of water, chief sources of the head waters of the Farm- ington (Connecticut) river, are now known as Great Pond and
. Rand's Pond. What was then the Great Road from Boston to Albany crossed at this spot the divide between the Housa- tonic and the Westfield rivers. By this route General Bur- goyne and his army were marched in October, 1777, toward Boston.
12. Housatonack alias Westonhook, now Great Barrington, was the location of the "Great Wigwam," formerly an Indian habitation. It was granted by the General Court in 1722, and was the subject of a purchase from Indians in 1724.
13. The Crailo, the Van Rensselaer mansion at Greenbush, was built by Hendrick Van Rensselaer on the six-mile tract purchased of the Shaghticoke Indians, and named after the seat of the family in Holland. The house still stands and ranks as one of the most interesting and well-preserved relics of the provincial aristocracy. A centennial tablet was placed on the house in 1886, which states that in a camp, located in the grounds east of the mansion, Dr. Shuckburg composed the words and tune of "Yankee Doodle." Mrs. Hendrick Van Rensselaer was Catrina, a daughter of Johannes Petersen and Catrina (Rodenburgh) Van Brugh. She died December 6, 1730, and her husband July 2, 1740.
14. John Schuyler was born at Albany, April 5, 1668, and died there , 1747. He was the youngest son of
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APPENDIX.
Philip and Margarita (Van Slichtenhorst) Schuyler. In 1692 he was appointed a lieutenant in the cavalry. In 1697 he was a bearer of dispatches to the governor of Canada, and thereafter was active in Indian affairs. As colonel and a mer- chant of Albany he became widely known; and as patron of some tribes and the master of others, his influence yearly in- creased ; his presence with the deputation of 1725 was deemed of great importance. He was the grandfather of Gen. Philip Schuyler of the Revolutionary army.
15. Henry Holland, an Englishman, was captain of the garrison in Fort Orange, at Albany, from 1719 to 1732, when he was incapacitated "by the providence .of God." From 1721 to his decease he was a member of the commission on Indian affairs. In 1739 he was high sheriff of Albany county. His son, Edward Holland, was mayor of Albany, 1733-'41; com- missioner of Indian affairs, 1738 ; councillor, 1748; and mayor of the city of New York, 1749-'53. He died in 1756.
16. The Koek Sackie, long used in the Dutch churches for gathering the offerings of the faithful.
17. In 1709 the provincial authorities of New York decided to construct a road from the capital of the province to Lake Champlain. It was to commence on the east side of the Hud- son river and following it northerly to the present town of Fort Edward, in Washington county, where the Indian "great carrying place" commenced. This was a portage overland to the waters of the Lake Champlain, a distance of twenty-four miles. In the near vicinity of the Hudson river a fort was erected which was named Nicholson, in compliment to the commander of the disastrous military expedition of 1711. Another, at the other end of the portage, on the west bank of Wood Creek, was named Fort Anne, in compliment to good Queen Anne, then the reigning sovereign. Fort Nicholson was abandoned, and in the times of King George II a work was erected in a better location, but substantially defending the same section, and named Fort Edward. The atrocious
So
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APPENDIX.
murder of Miss Jane McCrea, during the Revolutionary war, took place in this vicinity, and added sentiment to the his- toric interest in the locality. The portage, under the protec- tion of these garrisons, was of great importance for transit be- tween the waters of the Hudson and the lake. It has been utilized in modern days for the route of the Champlain canal.
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