USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire. Comprehending the events of one complete century and seventy-five years from the discovery of the River Pascataqua to the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety, Vol 3 > Part 19
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And now came on the feafon when the Indians begun to prepare for a winter's hunt. I was order- ed to return my poor child to thofe of them, who ftill claimed it as their property. This was a fevere trial. The babe clung to my bofom with all Kk
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its might ; but I was obliged to pluck it thence, and deliver it, fhrieking and fcreaming, enough to penetrate a heart of ftone, into the hands of thofe unfeeling wretches whofe tender mercies may be termed cruel. It was foon carried off by a hunting party of thofe Indians, to a place called Meffifkow, at the lower end of Lake Champlain, whither, in about a month after, it was my fortune to follow them. I had preferved my milk, in hopes of fee- ing my beloved child again. And here I found it, it is true, but in a condition that afforded me no great fatisfaction ; it being greatly emaciated, and almoft ftarved. I took it in my arms, put its face to mine, and it inftantly bit me with fuch violence, that it feemed as if I muft have parted with a piece of my cheek. I was permitted to lodge with it that, and the two following nights ; but every morning that intervened, the Indians, I fuppofe on purpofe to torment me, fent me away to another wigwam, which ftood at a little diftance, though not fo far from the one in which my diftreffed infant was confined, but that I could plainly hear its inceffant cries, and heart rending lamentations. In this de- plorable condition I was obliged to take my leave of it, on the morning of the third day after my ar- rival at the place. We moved down the Lake fev- eral miles the fame day ; and the night following was remarkable on account of the great earthquake*, which terribly fhook that howling wildernefs. Among the iflands hereabouts we fpent the winter feafon, often fhifting our quarters, and roving about from one place to another ; our family confifting of three perfons only, befides myfelf, viz. my late mother's daughter, whom therefore I called my fifter, her fanhop, and a pappoofe. They once left me alone two difinal nights; and when they returned to me again,
* Nov. IS, 1755.
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perceiving them fmile at each other, I afked what is the matter ? They replied, that two of my chil- dren were no more : One of which, they faid, died a natural death, and the other was knocked on the head. I did not utter many words, but my heart was forely pained within me, and my mind exceed- ingly troubled with ftrange and awful ideas. I oft- en imagined, for inftance, that I plainly faw the na- ked carcafes of my deceafed children hanging upon the limbs of the trees, as the Indians are wont to hang the raw hides of thofe beafts which they take in hunting. It was not long, however, before it was fo ordered by kind Providence, that I fhould be re- lieved in a good meafure from thofe horrid imagina- tions ; for as I was walking one day upon the ice, obferving a fmoke at fome diftance upon the land, it muft proceed, thought I, from the fire of fome In- dian hut, and who knows but fome one of my poor children may be there. My curiofity, thus excited, led me to the place, and there I found my fon Ca- leb, a little boy between two and three years old, whom I had lately buried, in fentiment at leaft ; or rather imagined to have been deprived of life, and perhaps alfo denied a decent grave. I found him like- wife in tolerable health and circumftances, under the protection of a fond Indian mother ; and more- over had the happinefs of lodging with him in my arms one joyful night. Again we fhifted our quar- ters, and when we had travelled eight or ten miles upon the fnow and ice, came to a place where the Indians manufactured fugar which they extracted from the maple trees. Here an Indian came to vifit us, whom I knew, and could fpeak Englih. He
afked me why I did not go to fee my fon Squire. I replied that I had lately been informed that he was dead. He affured me that he was yet alive, and but two or three miles off, on the oppofite fide of the
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Lake. At my requeft he gave me the beft directions he could to the place of his abode. I refolved to embrace the firft opportunity that offered of endeav- oring to fearch it out. While I was bufy in con- templating this affair, the Indians obtained a little bread, of which they gave me a fmall fhare. I did not tafte a morfel of it myfelf, but faved it all for my poor child, if I fhould be fo lucky as to find him. At length, having obtained of my keepers leave to be abfent for one day, I fet off early in the morning, and fteering, as well as I could, according to the directions which the friendly Indian had given me, I quickly found the place, which he had fo accurate- ly marked out. I beheld, as I drew nigh, my little fon without the camp ; but he looked, thought I, like a ftarved and mangy puppy, that had been wal- lowing in the afhes. I took him in my arms, and he fpoke to me thefe words; in the Indian tongue : ' Mother are you come ?' I took him into the wig- wam with me, and obferving a number of Indian children in it, I diftributed all the bread which I had referved for my own child, among them all, otherwife I fhould have given great offence. My little boy appeared to be very fond of his new moth- er, kept as near me as poffible while I ftaid, and when I told him I muft go, he fell as though he had been knocked down with a club. But having recom- mended him to the care of Him that made him, when the day was far fpent, and the time would per- mit me to ftay nolonger, I departed, youmay well fup- pofe, with a heavy load at my heart. The tidings I had received of the death of my youngeft child had, a little before, been confirmed to me beyond a doubt, but I could not mourn fo heartily for the de- ceafed as for the living child.
When the winter broke up, we removed to St. John's ; and, through the enfuing fummer our prin-
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cipal refidence was at no great diftance from the fort at that place. In the mean time, however, my fif- ter's hufband having been out with a fcouting party to fome of the Englifh fettlements, had a drunken frolic at the fort, when he returned. His wife, who never got drunk, but had often experienced the ill effects of her hufband's intemperance, fearing what the confequence might prove, if he fhould come home in a morofe and turbulent humour, to avoid his infolence, propofed that we fhould both retire, and keep out of the reach of it, until the ftorm abat- ed. We abfconded accordingly, but fo it happened, that I returned, and ventured into his prefence, be- fore his wife had prefumed to come nigh him. I found him in his wigwam, and in a furly mood ; and not being able to revenge upon his wife, becaufe fhe was not at home, he laid hold of me, and hurried me to the fort ; and for a trifling confideration, fold me to a French gentleman, whofe name was Sacca- pee. 'Tis an ill wind certainly that blows no body any good. I had been with the Indians a year lack- ing fourteen days ; and, if not for my fifter, yet for me, 'twas a lucky circumftance indeed, which thus at laft, in an unexpected moment, fnatched me out of their cruel hands, and placed me beyond the reach of their infolent power.
After my Indian mafter had difpofed of me in the manner related above, and the moment of fo- ber reflection had arrived, perceiving that the man who bought me had taken the advantage of him in an unguarded hour, his refentments begun to kin- dle, and his indignation rofe fo high, that he threat- ened to kill me if he fhould meet me alone, or if he could not revenge himfelf thus, that he would fet fire to the fort. I was therefore fecreted in an upper chamber, and the fort carefully guarded, un- til his wrath had time to cocl. My fervice in the
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family to which I was now advanced, was perfect freedom, in comparifon of what it had been among the barbarous Indians. My new mafter and mif- trefs were both as kind and generous towards me as I could any ways expect. I feldom afked a favor of either of them, but it was readily grant- cd : In confequence of which I had it in my pow- er, in many inftances, to adminifter aid and re- frefhment to the poor prifoners of my own nation, who were brought into St. John's during my abode in the family of the above-mentioned benevolent and hofpitable Saccapee. Yet even in this family fuch trials awaited me as I had little reafon to ex- pect, but ftood in need of a large ftock of prudence, to enable me to encounter them. Muft I tell you then, that even the good old man himfelf, who con- fidered me as his property, and likewife a warm and refolute fon of his, at that fame time, and un- der the fame roof, became both exceffively fond of my company ; fo that between thefe two rivals, the father and the fon, I found myfelf in a very critical fituation indeed, and was greatly embarraffed and perplexed, hardly knowing many times, how to be- have in fuch a manner as at once to fecure my own virtue, and the good efteem of the family in which I refided, and upon which I was wholly dependent for my daily fupport. At length, however, through the tender compaffion of a certain Englifh gentle- man,* the Governor de Vaudreuil being made ac- quainted with the condition I had fallen into, im- mediately ordered the young and amorous Sacca- pee, then an officer in the French army, from the field of Venus to the field of Mars, and at the fame time alfo wrote a letter to his father, enjoining it upon him, by no means to fuffer me to be abuf- ed, but to make my fituation and fervice in his fam-
Col. Peter Schuyler, then a prisoner.
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ily as eafy and delightful as poffible. I was more- over under unfpeakable obligations to the Gover- nor upon another account. I had received intelli- gence from my daughter Mary, the purport of which was, that there was a profpect of her being fhortly married to a young Indian of the tribe of Saint Francois, with which tribe fhe had continued from the beginning of her captivity. Thefe were heavy tidings, and added greatly to the poignancy of my other afflictions. However, not long after I had heard this melancholy news, an opportunity prefented, of acquainting that humane and gener- ous gentleman, the commander in chief, and my illuftrious benefactor, with this affair alfo, who in compaffion for my fufferings, and to mitigate my forrows, iffued his orders in good time, and had my daughter taken away from the Indians, and convey- ed to the fame nunnery where her fifter was then lodged, with his exprefs injunction, that they fhould both of them together, be well looked after, and carefully educated, as his adopted children. In this fchool of fuperftition and bigotry, they continued while the war in thofe days between France and Great-Britain lafted. At the conclufion of which war, the Governor went home to France, took my oldeft daughter along with him, and married her then to a French gentleman, whofe name is Cron Lewis. He was at Bofton with the fleet under Count de Eftaing, [1778] and one of his Clerks. My other daughter ftill continuing in the nunnery, a confiderable time had elapfed after my return from captivity, when I made a journey to Cana- da, refolving to ufe my beft endeavors not to return without her. I arrived juft in time to prevent her being fent to France. She was to have gone in the next veffel that failed for that place. : And I found it extremely difficult to prevail with her to quit the
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nunnery and go home with me. Yea, fhe abfolute- ly refufed, and all the perfuafions and arguments I could ufe with her, were to no effect, until after I had been to the Governor and obtained a letter from him to the fuperintendant of the nuns, in which he threatened, if my daughter fhould not be immedi- ately delivered into my hands, or could not be pre- vailed with to fubmit to my parental authority, that he would fend a band of foldiers to affift me in bringing her away. Upon hearing this fhe made no farther refiftance. But fo extremely bigoted was the to the cuftoms and religion of the place, that af- ter all, fhe left it with the greateft reluctance, and the moft bitter lamentations, which fhe continued as we paffed the ftreets, and wholly refufed to be comforted. My good friend, Major Small, whom we met with on the way, tried all he could to con- fole her ; and was fo very kind and obliging as to bear us company, and carry my daughter behind him on horfeback.
But I have run on a little before my ftory, for I have not yet informed you of the means and man- ner of my own redemption, to the accomplifhing of which, the recovery of my daughter juft mention- ed, and the ranfoming of fome of my other chil- dren, feveral gentlemen of note, contributed not a little ; to whofe goodnefs, therefore, I am greatly indebted, and fincerely hope I fhall never be fo un- grateful as to forget. Col. Schuyler in particular was fo very kind and generous as to advance 2700 livres to procure a ranfom for myfelf and three of my children. He accompanied and conducted us from Montreal to Albany, and entertained us in the moft friendly and hofpitable manner a confider- able time, at his own houfe, and I believe entirely at his own expenfe.
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I have fpun out the above narrative to a much greater length than I at firft intended, and fhall con- clude it with referring you, for a more ample and brilliant account of the captive heroine, who is the fubject of it, to Col. Humphrey's hiftory of the life of Gen. Ifrael Putnum, together with fome remarks upon a few claufes in it. I never indeed had the pleafure of perufing the whole of faid hiftory, but remember to have feen, fome time ago, an extract from it in one of the Bofton newfpapers, in which the Colonel has extolled the beauty and good fenfc, and rare accomplifhments of Mrs. Howe, the per- fon whom he endeavors to paint in the moft lively and engaging colours, perhaps a little too highly, and in a ftyle, that may appear to thofe who are ac- quainted with her at this day, romantick and ex- travagant. And the Colonel muft needs have been inifinformed with refpect to fome particulars that he has mentioned in her ftory. Indeed, when I read the extract from his hiftory to Mrs. Tute, (which name fhe has derived from a third hufband, whofe widow fhe now remains) the feemed to be well pleafed, and faid, at firft, it was all true, but foon after contradicted the circumftance of her lover's being fo bereft of his fenfes when he faw her moving off in a boat at fome diftance from the fhore, as to plunge into the water after her, in confequence of which he was feen no more. It is true, the faid, that as fhe was returning from Montreal to Alba- ny, fhe met with young Saccapee on the way. That fhe was in a boat with Col. Schuyler, that the French officer came on board the boat, made her fome handfome prefents, took his final leave of her, and departed, to outward appearance, in tolerable good humour. .
She moreover fays, that when fhe went to Canada for her daughter, the met with him again, that he fhow-
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ed her a lock of her hair, and her name likewife, printed with vermilion on his arm. As to her be- ing chofen agent to go to Europe, in behalf of the people of Hinfdale, when Col. Howard obtained from the government of New-York a patent of their lands on the weft-fide of Connecticut river, it was never once thought of by Hinfdale people until the above-mentioned extract arrived among them, in which the author has inferted it as a matter of un- doubted fact.
No. XI.
AT THE COURT AT ST. JAMES's, The 20th Day of July, 1761, PRESENT THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,
Lord Howard,
Earl of Sandwich,
Earl of Halifax,
Earl of Hillsborough, Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, Gilbert Elliot, Efq.
Earl of Porvis,
James Ofweald, Efq.
Earl of Harcourt,
WHEREAS there was this day read at the Board a report made by the Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Council for Planta- tion Affairs, dated the 17th of this inftant, upon confidering a Reprefentation from the Lords Com- miffioners for Trade and Plantations, relative to the difputes that have fome years fubfifted between the Provinces of New-Hampfhire and New-York, con- cerning the Boundary Line between thofe Provin- ces. His Majefly taking the fame into confidera- tion, was pleafed, with the advice of his Privy Coun- cil, to approve of what is therein propofed, and
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doth accordingly hereby Order and Declare, the weftern banks of the river Connecticut, from where it enters the Province of the Maffachufetts Bay, as far North as the forty-fifth degree of Northern Lat- itude, to be the Boundary Line between the faid two Provinces of New-Hampfhire and New-York. Whereof the refpective Governors and Command- ers in Chief of his Majefty's faid Provinces of New- Hampfhire and New-York, for the time being, and all others whom it may concern, are to take notice of his Majefty's pleafure hereby fignified, and gov- ern themfelves accordingly.
W. BLAIR.
No. XII.
Copy of a Report of a Committee of both Houses of the Massachusetts As- sembly, respecting the New-Hampshire Line, December 1766.
THE committee to whom was referred the affair of the line between the province of Maine, now a part of the Maffachufetts Bay, and that of New-Hampfhire, beg leave to reprefent the facts as they appeared to them.
The commiffioners appointed by his late Majefty, King George the fecond, to fettle the line between the two governments aforefaid, A. D. 1737, report- ed the fame to begin in the middle of the mouth of Pafcataqua harbor, and up the river Newichawan- ock, a part of which is called Salmon fall, and through the middle of the fame to the fartheft head thereof ; and from thence north two degrees weit, until one hundred and twenty miles be finifhed, from the mouth of Pafcataqua harbour aforefaid, or until it meets with his Majefty's other governments. Governor Belcher, who was then at the head of
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both provinces, in the winter of the year 1740-1, moved tothe Affembly of the Maffachufetts to appoint a committee to join with thofe of New-Hampshire, in order to run out and mark the aforefaid line, agreeable to the determination of the commiffion- ers aforefaid. But the Affembly, after feveral mo- tions made to them, referred the confideration of this affair to the then next May feffion. Governor Belcher foon after met the Affembly of New-Hamp- fhire, who, upon a motion made to them of running the line aforefaid, complied, and in the month of March 1741, proceeded on the affair exparte, begin- ning at the head of the eafternmoft and finalleft branch of the aforefaid river, and run twenty-five or thirty miles into the country ; this was perform- ed by Walter Bryant, by order from Governor Bel- cher ; and however imperfect this furvey was, that government have returned it, together with a plan thereof ; but the royal approbation in Council is had in the words of the commiffioners' report, abovementioned, without having any regard to the furvey aforefaid, and it has been found, by the moft careful examination, that the river is much larger than the branch from whence the faid Bryant then ; took his departure ; and this appears by his own evidence, together with Capt. Gowing's and War- ren's. And your committee beg leave further to ob- ferve, that, by the plan taken by Bryant, and by the government of New-Hampshire lodged with the board of trade, a copy of which we have received from that Province, it appears that the eafternmoft branch of the River aforefaid, which the furveyor then took, runs about north and by eaft ; and by the plan fent home by the commiffioners, taken by Mr. Jeffrey, and which accompanied their report of the fettlement of the line, in 1737, it appears that the river, there laid down, runs north northweft, (a
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copy of which is here authenticated) which exactly agrees with the middle or main branch, and is what this Province claims to ; fo that by comparing the two plans, it appears Mr. Bryant was miftaken in taking a pond at the head of the eaft branch, which he called Lovell's pond, when he fhould, agreeable to the commiffioners' report, have taken the middle or main branch of the river, where was a pond then called, and many years before and fince, known by the name of Lovell's pond, and to this pond Mr. Bryant himfelf carried our committee, in 1766, and declared that was always called Lovell's pond, which lies at the head of the river, and as thofe two bran- ches are at fix or feven miles diftance, at right angles at the head, a large tract of land near fix miles wide, and fixty or feventy miles in length, was taken into New-Hampfhire government, that ought to have re- mained to the Maffachufetts. Upon the whole it evidently appears to your committee that there was a miftake made in the commencement of the line, in part pretended to be run by Mr. Bryant in the year 1740-1, and that the fame was not then run out is as evident. And from the year 1763, all pof- fible care has, by this government, been taken to rectify this miftake. Committees have once and again been appointed by this Court to join with New-Hampfhire in order thereto, but without fuc- cefs. However, as to the propriety of this Court's purfuing the controverfy under its prefent circum- ftances, your committee having reported the facts, fubmit to your honors confideration.
BENJA. LINCOLN, per order.
TYY IRYY
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No. XIII.
A Letter from WALTER BRYENT Esq. to the Author, on the sume subject.
Mix-Market, Oct. 9, 1790.
REV. SIR,
YOURS of the 27th ult. received, and in anfwer to your requeft, I can inform you, that about 1766, the Maffachufetts General Court ap- pointed a committee (Col. Lincoln, Col. Bagley, and Efq. Livermore) to inquire and examine into a miftake, which fome in that government fuppofed I had made, in running the Province Line from the head of Salmon-falls river, which committee appli- ed to the then Governor, Benning Wentworth, of New-Hampfhire, to join in fuch examination, who accordingly requefted me to attend the committee, and alfo appointed Col. John Wentworth of Somerf- worth, a juftice of quorum, to take my depofition on the fpot, if neceffary, to give the committee full fat- isfaction. Accordingly the faid committee, with Col. Wentworth, myfelf, and about five or fix affift- ants, went up Salmon Falls river to where the branches met, and viewed it well, and from thence we went up the wefterly branch to the head there- of ; and from thence croffed over to the head of the eaftermoft branch, and found to the committee's fatisfaction, that the eafterly branch was much the largeft of the two ; vented much more water, and proceeded from a larger pond than the wefterly branch. At the pond at the head of the eafterly branch, called in the commiffioners' plan, Love- well's pond, I fhewed them the tree from which I formerly run the Province line, well fpotted, with the letters on it, according to my return of the Province line, and the line well fpotted from it. Some of
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the committee thereupon fuggefted, that poffibly that might be the line I run fome years afterwards, in laying out the patent for the Mafonian proprie- tors. .
I replied I was ready to make oath that that was the identical line I run for the province line, and of the certainty of which they might then cafily be convinced by examining the fpots ; for it having then been twenty-fix years fince I run the Province line, and but feven years fince I had run the Mafo- nian patent, if they would cut into a fpot on a growing tree, they might then examine whether there was feven years growth, or twenty-fix years growth over the fpot. Accordingly we marched on the line till we found a large bafs tree fpotted, and one of the company cut fquare into the tree againft the fpot to the dead wood, and Col. Bagley began at the laft years growth, and counted aloud twenty- four years growth in the grain of the wood above or outfide the dead wood of the fpot. Col. Bagley then turning to me faid, 'Bryent, I'll fwear for you, that this tree was fpotted more than twenty years ago ;' Col. Wentworth then afked the com- mittee if they defired my depofition to be taken, they anfwered 'No, we are all well fatisfied with- out it'-and therefore we returned. I can add no more refpecting that line, only, being once at York, during the fitting of the Superior Court, fome of the Judges being informed that I was the Surveyor that run the Province line, fent for me to come to their lodgings. I attended, and after fome converfation Mr. Trowbridge, then Attorney-General, being prefent, afked me what variation was allowed in running that line ; I told him ten degrees ; he re- plied, you allowed too much ; and obferved to Governor Hutchinfon, then Chief-Juftice, that the line ought to be run anew ; Governor Hutchinfon
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replied, that it would be attended with coft, and that it was not likely New-Hampshire would con- fent and join. I told them Now-Hampfhire would readily enough join to run anew with lefs variation, if requefted. They all feemed furprifed, and de- fired to know what reafon I had to think New- Hampfhire would confent, inafmuch as it would take off a large tract of Pigwacket Intervales. I told them New-Hampfhire would gain much more, at Dunftable and the other towns on the weft line, for the fame variation was allowed on both lines. On which there was a great laugh in the company, and nothing further faid about the matter.
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