USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 13
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In March of the next year, Capt. Phineas Ste- CHAP. vens came with a company of thirty rangers and VIII. took possession of the fort at Number Four. Bel- knap, 292. Scarcely had he entered, when he was attacked by a party of French and Indians. They had come undiscovered, and lay in wait, watching a favorable moment to begin the attack. But the faithful dogs of the garrison gave notice of their concealment. Finding that they were discovered, the Indians rose and commenced a fire from all sides at the fort. They now determined to set fire to the fences and log houses. The wind rose, and the fort was surrounded with the flames. Stevens immediately ordered trenches to be dug
under the walls. Through these the men crept, and extinguished the fires that caught outside the walls. The flaming arrows, which the Indians shot incessantly at the fort, took no effect ; and at length, after two days of firing, accompanied with hideous shouts and yells, finding no effect had been produced, they prepared a wheel carriage loaded with combustibles. This was to be pushed before them against the walls, and then to be set on fire. Before putting it in motion, they de- manded a cessation of arms, till the rising of the sun. This was granted.
In the morning, Debeline, their commander, came forward with fifty men and a flag of truce. A French officer, with a soldier and an Indian, then 1747. advanced and proposed terms of capitulation- April 4. which were, that the garrison should lay down their arms and be conducted prisoners to Montreal. It was agreed that the two commanders should meet, and Stevens' answer should then be given.
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CHAP. VIII. When they met, the Frenchman, without waiting for an answer, began to enforce his first proposal, by threatening to storm the fort and put every man to the sword. Stevens replied that he had been entrusted with the defence of the fort, and should maintain it to the last. " Go then," replied the Frenchman, "and see if your men dare to fight
any longer." Stevens returned and put to his men the question, " Will you fight or surrender?" With one voice they replied, " We will fight!" This response was immediately made known to the enemy, and both parties resumed their arms. On the morning of the third day they requested another cessation of two hours. Two Indians came up with a flag, and proposed new conditions of sur- render. These were promptly refused. The Indians again resumed their arms, fired a few guns, and then sullenly retired.
Such was the defence of the rangers. No lives were lost in the fort, and only two were wounded. But the cool intrepidity of the rangers entitled them, in the estimation of their countrymen, to all the applause of victory. The news of their success was received in Boston with public demonstrations of joy. Commodore Sir Charles Knowles, struck with the gallantry of Stevens, presented him with a sword ; and from this Number Four took the name of Charlestown.
Through the summer and autumn, the Indians continued their ravages, hovering about the settle- ments, and lying in ambush for the men at work in the fields. At Rochester, at Penacook and Winchester, at Hinsdale, Suncook and Notting-
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ham, they appeared, and again at Number Four CHAP. in the winter. VIII.
May 1. June 16. July 14. 1749.
The next year, depredations were committed at 1748. Rochester, on West River, and between fort Hinsdale and fort Dummer. The year 1749 was not entirely exempt from Indian hostilities. But throughout this whole scene of devastation, the Indians had forborne to exercise those arts of tor- ture and cruelty which in former years had re- doubled the horrors of captivity. Roasting their prisoners by a slow fire, cutting out their tongues, and maiming and disfiguring them, had all been discontinued. Even the custom of making them run the gauntlet had been omitted. The returning captives exhibited in their appearance the good treatment they had received, and bore unusual testimony in favor of the humanity of their captors. When feeble, they had been assisted to travel. When sick, they had been allowed to halt. When 1749. famine overtook them on the slow steps of their dreary marches, the Indians had shared their pro- visions with them in equal proportion, even to the last morsel which remained to the captors them- selves, in the most pinching scarcity.
By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, peace had 1748. been re-established between England and France. Oct. This was quickly followed by a treaty with the Indians, concluded at Portland. Cape Breton, " won by Americans, was given up by England."* Prisoners were restored without ransom. Con- quests made during the war were given up, and all the warriors of the eastern tribes solemnly prom- ised to be at peace. Though not susceptible of
* Dunlap's Hist. New York, vol. I., p. 364.
24
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CHAP. the finer feelings of humanity, and averse to the VIII. more humane maxims of civilized warfare, yet, while in the service of France, the blood-thirsty savage had been forbidden to flay his prisoner alive, and was often compelled to surrender the victim whom he was preparing to bind for torture.
Thus ended, in 1749, another Indian war. The promise of the natives not to resume the hatchet, so often renewed and so frequently disregarded, was kept but five years. But even that interval seemed long to the class of military men, who had grown up to a considerable number, by the neces- sities of the colony. The industry of peace was burdensome, and to them this short interval seemed long.
1749.
The population of New Hampshire had doubled within eighteen years, and now amounted to thirty thousand. The tide of emigration rolled rapidly northward ; and among those who were projecting new settlements, many turned their eyes to the rich lands on the west bank of the Connecticut, in the present state of Vermont. It was not then foreseen that on these lands there would rise, at no distant day, a vigorous and powerful state.
These lands were claimed by New York; and she contended that her eastern boundary extended to the Connecticut. It was true that she had permitted the provinces of Massachusetts and Con- necticut to extend to a line drawn twenty miles eastward of the Hudson. But this she viewed in the light of a voluntary concession to those pro- vinces, which they had no right to claim; and if they had no right, neither had New Hampshire ; so that nothing but a voluntary concession could
!
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give New Hampshire a right to the lands west- CHAP. ward, beyond the Connecticut; and that, as no such VIII. concession had been made, there was no reason why the territory of New York should not extend to the limit prescribed by the charter. On the other hand, New Hampshire contended that " the king Whiton p. 94. allowed her southern line to extend to the west, till it met his majesty's other provinces ; and that there was no reason for permitting Massachusetts and Connecticut to pass westward to within twenty miles of the Hudson, which did not apply with equal force to the claims of New Hampshire."
The profits of granting lands were grateful to the unbounded appetite of Wentworth for wealth and splendor, and he accordingly made a practical assertion of the claim of New Hampshire to the Vermont lands by granting the township of Ben- nington. Other grants followed, at short intervals, for three years ; until the French war, breaking out, interrupted the progress of new settlements, and drew the attention and resources of the colo- nies to the conquest of Canada and the expulsion of the French.
The war, which closed in 1749, had absorbed all other contests ; and internal dissensions had either been checked or wholly silenced during its con- tinuance. There were, however, existing contro- versies between the governor and the people, which only awaited the return of peace to break out with new virulence and accumulated fury. The gov- ernor had resolved upon the maintenance of fort Dummer ; * and to ensure a majority in the house in favor of the measure, he had issued writs to towns
* N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 143-145.
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CHAP. known to be friendly to the project, leaving other VIII. towns of equal or greater population unrepre- sented. When the new members appeared, the house refused them their seats ;* and, though Wentworth had once yielded the point to the house, when pressed by the exigencies of the war, and the new members were excluded, yet now, being supported by fresh instructions from the king, and finding that a yielding policy did not meet royal approbation, he resolved to con- test it with the house. This led to an open rupture ; the house refused to recede, and the governor was equally obstinate. Each side was strongly supported by precedent. It appeared that all additions to the house had been made by au- thority of their own. On the other hand, the right of sending representatives was founded on the royal commission and instructions. But the people were already, at this early day, jealous of strengthening the prerogatives of the crown. On the other hand, the governor represented the king, and in- clined to abridge rather than enlarge the privileges
of the people. The governor and house contented themselves for three years with writing violent mes- sages to each other, and meanwhile wholly neglect- 1749.
ed the public business. The treasurer's accounts were unsettled-the soldiers unpaid-the recorder's office closed. Confusion and clamor were the con- sequence, and the voice of complaint came loudly from the people. The neglected soldiers gained sympathy everywhere when they told their tale of service unrequited and hardships endured.
The opponents of the governor, eager to com-
* Prov. Rec., Jour. Council and Assembly, 1742-1750. J. H., 1747-1755.
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pass his removal and raise William Pepperell to CHAP. his place, seeing his popularity severely shaken, at VIII. once transmitted a complaint against him to Eng- land. But so decided was the opposition which it met from the English ministry, that it was not presented to the king, and was never renewed.
A new assembly* was called in 1752. Mode- 1752. ration prevailed-the new members were admitted to their seats, by mutual concession. Meshack Weare, whose rising popularity commended him equally to the governor and the house, was elected speaker. A liberal distribution of offices and military commissions softened the resentment of the governor's opponents, and the public business once more claimed the attention of the assembly. In the course of this controversy, the governor had negatived the choice of Richard Waldron as speaker of the house; 'nor could the peremptory and severe messages of Wentworth compel them to choose a new speaker. These altercations between two co-ordinate branches of a colonial govern- ment, aside from the disastrous consequences to public business,} would be of little consequence to the history of the state, were it not that the governor represented the king ; and therefore the determined resistance of the house was in fact but the manifestation of a growing jealousy of the royal prerogative-a growing desire for self-rule -the germ of a republic-the dawning hope of LIBERTY and INDEPENDENCE.
The war being over, the scattered settlers returned to their homes. Some came bringing
* Prov. Rec., Jour. Council and Assembly, 1750-1765. J. H., 1747-1755. + P. R., J. H., 1747-1755. C. and A., 1750-1765.
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CHAP. accessions to their numbers-others with increased VIII. families ; and so the wilderness began to bloom once more. It was feared that the French were about to encroach upon the rich meadows of Haverhill and . Newbury, and a few persons re- solved to plant a settlement as a barrier against 1752. them. In pursuance of this resolution, a party passed northward in the spring, to view the inter- vals and lay out the proposed townships. The tribes of the St. Francis observed them with jeal- ousy, and suspected their design. An embassy, composed of warriors, soon appeared at Number Four, with a flag of truce, and complained of the encroachment. They averred that they had not heard of the late treaty, reproached the English for craving more land than they could cultivate, and threatened hostilities. The warlike remains of the tribes once planted in New Hampshire were united to the Aresaguntacooks,* and the fugitives from western Maine had planted revenge and re- sentment in the bosoms of the Canada warriors. Besides, they knew the value of their lands, they felt themselves the rightful lords of the soil, and they still clung, with the pride of Indians, to the hunting-grounds of their fathers. Captain Stevens gave them little satisfaction. With their jealousy aroused, and the remembrance of ancient injuries rankling in their breasts, they crossed the moun- tains and pursued their way eastward into the present township of Rumney. Four hunters, in quest of game, had wandered northward along the course of Baker's river, and were met by the war- riors of the St. Francis. Immediately, on per-
Another name for the St. Francis Indians.
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ceiving the hunters, they rushed upon them with their tomahawks. One escaped* by flight-one was killed-and the remaining two taken prisoners.
CHAP. VIII.
Me- moirs of Gen. Stark, p. 175.
The Indians, returning, proceeded up the Con- necticut, and down Lake Memphremagog, to the head-quarters of their tribe. When they arrived at St. Francis, the captives perceived, from the signs and motions of the captors, that they were to run the gauntlet, according to savage custom. This consists in passing through two parallel files of warriors, each of whom is privileged to give the prisoners a blow. The elder of the prisoners passed through first, and suffered little less than death. The younger and remaining one was a lad of sixteen years. When his turn came, he marched forward with a bold air, snatched a club from the nearest Indian, and attacked the warriors as he advanced along the lines, dealing the blows right and left with a merciless and almost deadly force. Nothing in the conduct of a prisoner so charms the savage mind as a haughty demeanor and con- tempt of death. The old men were amused and delighted, the young warriors were struck with admiration, at the gallant bearing of the youthful captive. They next ordered him to hoe corn. He cut it up by the roots, declaring that such work was fit for squaws, but unworthy of warriors. From that moment he became their favorite. They adopted him as a son, and gave him the title of Young Chief. They dressed him in the highest style of Indian splendor, and decorated him with . wampum and silver. It was not long after, that Captain Stevens was despatched on an embassy to
* A brother of the youngest of the prisoners.
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CHAP. VIII. Canada, to redeem the English captives. The first one offered him was their favorite Young Chief. Captain Stevens received him at their hands with delight. But no one of the rude warriors recognised, in the young chief of their adoption, the future American general, JOHN STARK.
1753.
Another event soon occurred, which furnished aliment to the already sharpened resentment of this hostile tribe. Two of their warriors, Sabatis and Plausawa, came to Contoocook, and lodged at the house of a man who killed them the next day. By the road-side, on the bank of the Merrimac river, Bowen, the murderer, on the morning after these two Indians had lodged at his house, plunged a tomahawk into the head of Sabatis, and, drawing it out, went back to meet Plausawa, who, seeing the fate of his companion, pointed his gun at Bow- en's breast ; but it flashed. Plausawa now fell on his knees and begged for his life. He pleaded his innocence, and his former friendship for the English ; but in vain. Bowen buried in his skull the tomahawk still reeking with the blood of Sabatis, and hid them both under a bridge. Their bodies were dragged forth by the wild beasts of the woods, and the bones scattered on the ground.
By the treaty of peace it had been stipulated that each party should punish its own offenders. The murderer of Sabatis and Plausawa was appre- hended and brought to Portsmouth. But on the night preceding the day for his trial, an armed mob, with axes and crow-bars, entered the pri- son and bore him off in triumph. Rewards for his discovery were of no avail. Public opinion
- F. Bel- knap, p. 307, note.
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pronounced the rescue meritorious. The murders CHAP. committed by the Indians were remembered-the VIII. treaty was forgotten. Thus the plighted faith of the treaty was broken. But what could the feeble tribes of the St. Francis do? They received a handsome present, and made answer, that "the blood was wiped away"-then ratified the treaty of 1749. But the desire for revenge grew from reflection ; and afterwards, when a conference was held with several tribes at Portland, the St. Fran- cis refused to be present, and sent a message pur- porting that the blood was not wiped away.
By the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, the island of Cape Breton was restored to France, and all things were placed "on the footing they were before the war." But the limits of the French and English territories on the continent were still undetermined. The avarice and ambition of two mighty nations were still left to make the colonial territories the theatre of a war for conquest-the game of kings. Both parties agreed to submit their pretensions to a board of commissioners, mutually chosen. The commissioners met at Paris, but determined nothing. France resolved to connect her distant settlements of Canada and Louisiana. These colonies, so widely separated, could be joined by a chain of forts stretching from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. To command navi- gation in the winter, it was also necessary to extend the limits of Canada eastward, far south of the great river St. Lawrence. These claims of territory encroached upon the English colonies of Nova Scotia, New York, and Virginia. When it was foreseen that no arbiter but the sword could 25
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CHAP. decide the controversy, the Earl of Holderness, VIII.
secretary of state, recommended to the colonies a union. The first object was their mutual pro- tection and defence-the second, extending the British settlements in North America. Dele- gates * of the several colonies accordingly met in 1754. general congress, at Albany ; and on the fourth day of July, twenty-two years before the decla- ration of American independence, a plan of union was agreed to. It provided for a general govern- ment, consisting of a grand council of delegates from the several colonial legislatures, subject to Bel- knap, p. 309. the control of a president-general, to be appointed by the crown, with a negative voice. The dele- gates of Connecticut immediately entered their dissent to the plan, on account of the negative voice of the president-general. It was viewed in America with disapprobation, and rejected, be- cause it gave too much power to the king ; and with distrust in England, because it left too much power with the colonies.
At the first alarm of expected hostilities, the Indian tribes in the French interest resumed the hatchet, and fell upon the frontier settlements of New Hampshire. Though careful to preserve the lives of their prisoners, now made valuable on 1754. account of the high price paid for them in Mont- real, yet, in the heat of actual contest, they still slaughtered women t without pity.
1755.
The campaign of 1755 opened, on the part of the English, by three expeditions destined to attack
* Province Records, Journal House, 1747-1755. Council and Assembly, 1750-1765.
+ Penhallow-N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 13-132.
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the French forts ; one against fort Du Quesne, CHAP. VIII. on the Ohio, led by General Braddock-another against Niagara, by Governor Shirley-and a third against Crown Point, by General Johnson. For this expedition New Hampshire raised five hun- dred men; and Colonel Blanchard, of Dunstable, distinguished as a land surveyor, was appointed to the command. Johnson reached the shores of lake George, and encamped, posting the New Hamp- shire regiment at fort Edward. Early in Septem- ber, on the eighth, Johnson was attacked in his Sept. 8. camp, by the Baron Dieskau, at the head of a formidable body of French Canadians and Indians. On the morning of that day a scouting party from fort Edward discovered some wagons burning in Bel- knap, p. 313. the road. Col. Blanchard immediately detached Captain Nathaniel Folsom with eighty of the New Hampshire regiment, and forty of the New York, under Captain M'Gennis. They came to the place, and found the wagoners dead, but no enemy was there. Hearing the report of guns in the direction of the lake, they directed their march thither, and when within two miles of the shore, they came upon the baggage of the French army, under a guard. They attacked and dispersed the guard, but had scarcely seized the booty, when the army of Dieskau came in sight, retreating. Folsom posted his men behind trees, and com- menced a galling fire. The enemy retired with great loss, and Folsom returned to his camp. In this well-timed engagement, but six men were lost on the side of the English, and all the ammunition and baggage of the French fell into their hands. After this, the New Hampshire regiment joined the
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CHIAP. army, and were employed as scouts. After this VHI. battle, when it became necessary to reinforce the army, another regiment was raised in New Hamp- shire, commanded by Colonel Peter Gilman ; and they also acted as scouts. Alert, indefatigable, accustomed to savage warfare, inured to danger and fatigue, acquainted with the enemy's hiding- places, they continued to render essential services till the army was disbanded and returned home, late in autumn.
These three expeditions against the French all signally failed. Braddock was overwhelmed with defeat, and slain on the banks of the Monongahela. Washington, calm and collected amidst the con- sternation and uproar of this dreadful rout, rallied the faithful " Virginia Blues,"* when the English gave way, led them on to the charge, killed num- bers of the enemy, who were rushing on with tom- ahawks, checked their pursuit, and brought off the shattered remains of the British army. "Provi- dence," it was said, even at that early day,- " Providence has preserved that heroic youth for some great service to his country."
Davis' Sermon on Brad- dock's defeat.
Shirley accomplished nothing ; and the expedi- tion of Johnson against Crown Point served only to provoke the fury of the Indians against the fron- tiers of New Hampshire, now wholly exposed and unprotected. The tribes of the St. Francis, not yet revenged, having established an easy commu- nication between the Connecticut valley and the head-quarters of their nation, made frequent incur- sions eastward, up the Ashuelot, and into Walpole, 1756. Hinsdale, and Number Four. The next year,
* Trumbull's Indian Wars, p. 120.
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Shirley, who rose to the post of commander-in- CHAP. chief, on the death of Braddock, planned another VIII. expedition against Crown Point. New Hampshire, that never failed in her quota of men, sent a regi- ment into the field, led by Colonel Meserve. But, in the midst of the campaign, Shirley was super- seded by the Earl of Loudon. From that moment the war languished. The summer passed in fruit- less marches and labor. The French besieged and took the English fort at Oswego, and sent the regiments of Shirley and Pepperell prisoners to France.
Then were formed from the New Hampshire troops, by the express desire of Lord Loudon, those famous companies of Rangers, who proved to be the most terrible band of partisan warriors in America. They were commanded by Rogers, and by the two brothers, John and William Stark. They were accustomed to the signs of the forest, and could read the slightest indications of ap- proaching danger. To scour the woods ; to pro- cure intelligence; to skirmish with detached parties of the enemy ; to hang on the wings of a retiring army and harass them; to issue suddenly from their lurking-places, fall upon foraging parties, and retreat into inaccessible places-these were some of the duties of the rangers. On the most diffi- cult, hazardous and dangerous enterprises they were sent. When it became necessary for Gen- eral Amherst to send orders from Albany to Gen- eral Murray, at Quebec, Rogers was commanded to select four of his rangers, " who could be re- lied upon, and were used to scouting in an enemy's wilderness," to carry the orders. They were all,
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Dun- lap's N. Y., vol. I., p. 404, note.
CHAP. to a man, fit for the crisis, and there was no diffi- VIII. culty in finding the four men. Shute, and three others, were commissioned, and undertook the per- ilous enterprise. They were landed at Missisqui Bay, and directed their course to the river St. Francis, by a route previously known to them. This river, after some days and nights of suffering, they crossed on rafts ; but not without losing two of the party, who were carried over the rapids. The remaining two pursued their route, procured supplies by robbing the French planters on the way, until they reached an English encampment on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Here they were received as friends, and forwarded to Quebec, where they arrived in a few days, and delivered their despatches to General Amherst.
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