USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 2
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+ Bancroft, I. 24.
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. I. The paganism of the natives had allured to the invasion a few of the old bigots of Spain ; and it is sadly instructive to mark these champions of the cross, trampling, in the name of religion, upon the most sacred rights, and giving glory to God, amidst the destruction of life and the desolation of empire. The expeditions of Cortez and Pizarro terminated in the conquest of Mexico and Peru. The simple natives had been nearly exterminated. But a golden harvest had fallen into the lap of Spain. Ignorant of political science, the Spanish monarchy greeted this accession of treasure as the fruition of hope and the strength of empire. His- tory celebrated the achievements of the adven- turers, and the poetic genius of Spain invested them with a romantic interest. They knew not how weak is a throne resting upon golden pillars. They had not seen how strong may be a govern- ment enthroned in the hearts of the people.
From the golden seed that was sown in Europe time ripened a bitter harvest. When it expand- ed to fruit, liberty, prosperity and industry died in Spain. The Cortes ceased to assemble ; public virtue expired ; and long before a century had run its round, it was apparent that the glory of ancient Castile was but a name.
Far different was the effect of English and French colonization on the northern shores of America. The action of the United States and the Old World upon each other forms the noblest fea- ture in their history and ours. We have trans- planted arts, manners and languages. They are transplanting liberty and the art of government.
The history of colonization has always been a
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dark history. Whatever may have been the pro- CHAP fessed motives of the founders of colonies, their I. progress has been destructive to the native inhabi- tants. It is not improbable that the early voyagers to the North American coast possessed much of the rapacious spirit which deluged Peru with blood. Portugal had long since decided that human flesh was an article of traffic ; and in conformity with this, the natives were sometimes kidnapped. Here and there an instance is recorded in history. But there were causes operating to restrain the rapac- ity of the northern voyagers within very narrow limits. First, there was a dearth of gold in all the northern regions. Secondly, the natives of the North were strong and warlike ; those of Mexico and Peru were comparatively languid and effem- inate. Like all the inhabitants of the torrid zone, they yielded their independence with but a feeble struggle. Cortez confessed that he relied on noth- ing so much as the weakness of his enemies. But the natives of the north were men of robust con- stitutions. They were hostile and jealous. When they were first induced to traffic in their furs, they demanded, in exchange, knives and weapons of steel .* They remembered injuries, and cancelled them in blood. The northern Indian never forgot to tell the story of his wrongs to his children, and they told it again to theirs, to the latest generation. But among the northern tribes there were marked distinctions. While the Mohawks, the Pequots, and the Tarateens of the far east were fierce, and courted war, the Delawares, and the Penacooks of the Merrimack, refused to shed the blood of
Bancroft, I. 17.
,
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. I. Englishmen. The Indians of New Hampshire were generally inclined to peace. Even when cheated of their lands, and insulted, they, in many cases, forbore to resent it, and often retired quietly before the advancing waves of emigration.
1614.
Conspicuous among the northern voyagers to America, was Captain John Smith-a name that will be forever associated with the noblest achieve- ments in navigation. He was the founder of colo- nies-the father of states. It was he who first explored the coast of New Hampshire and the beautiful harbor of the Piscataqua. With two ships he ranged the shore from Penobscot to Cape Cod, and, returning to England, presented a map of the country to the young prince Charles. Though it is certain that European vessels had visited the coast before, though, for thirty years at least, European traders and fishermen had coasted along the whole line of New Hampshire, for the sake of its furs and its fish, yet nothing remains, even in tradition, to show that they ever entered the mouth of the Piscataqua, or landed upon the banks, or the shores of the sea.
While. history retains a record of the generous affection of Pocahontas, the name of Smith can- not be lost ; and if we search the annals of the world, there are few whose adventures would lend greater charms to history or to fiction. Though born to a competence, he is found at a very early age embarking on the ocean. From his childhood he was a rover. When but thirteen years of age he sold his school books and satchel to obtain money to go privately to sea ; and from that time his whole career was one continued romance.
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Whether we view him embarking for Italy, with CHAP. "a rabble of pilgrims," mounting the deadly I. ~ breach at Regal, fighting hand to hand with the Turks in the armies of Austria, wandering in the deserts of Circassia, conducted a prisoner in the country of the Cambrian Tartars, passing over into Africa, and visiting the Court of Morocco, or surveying the wild coast of New Hampshire, he appears everywhere to be equally remarkable for his eccentric genius, and his strange fortunes. After passing through a variety of military ser- vice, we find him, in 1607, in Virginia. The desponding minds of the colonists are turned to him as the only man who can extricate them from impending danger. He instantly adopts the only plan which can save them from destruction. He repels the hostile savages, and obtains for the colony the most abundant supplies .* When sur- prised, and taken captive, his eminent faculties do not desert him. He desires to speak with the Sa- chem. He presents him with a mariner's com- pass. He points out to the admiring savage the magical play of the needle. He expatiates on the shape of the earth, the vastness of the sea, the course of the sun, and the order of the seasons. Subdued by the influence of wonder, the Indians suspend their purpose. Opecancanaugh gazes with amazement, and, holding up the compass in his hand, gives the signal of reprieve. From that moment the Indians regarded Capt. Smith with a superstitious awe; and when the Great Spirit " shut up the clouds," they sent to Jamestown to entreat that he would pray for rain. But though
* Grahame's History United States, I., 50, 53.
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. he delayed his fate by this stratagem, it did not I. procure his release. Yet they regarded him as an illustrious prisoner ; and it was resolved to refer his destiny to Powhatan. This ferocious king in- stantly adjudged him to suffer death,* and ordered that his head be beat to pieces with clubs. His self-possession did not forsake him. He had dis- covered that Pocahontas, the favorite daughter of Powhatan, regarded him with affection. When the appointed hour of death arrived, a large stone was placed before the king, and the executioners stood round it with clubs in their hands.t Captain Smith was then conducted to the spot, his head laid upon the stone, and the men prepared with their clubs to beat out his brains.į Amidst these dreadful preparations, Pocahontas stood with the crowd of women that surrounded the executioners. When she saw him dragged, defenceless and bound, but still struggling, to the place of execution, she gave way to loud lamentation. But the savage king was inexorable, and the chief executioner began to lift his club to strike, when Pocahontas rushed with mournful distraction to the stone, and clasping the victim's head in her arms, proffered her own to re- ceive the blow.§ At this gush of feeling, Pow- hatan relented. He dismissed the executioners, and pronounced the prisoner's pardon. Twice had
death been strangely deferred ; but Captain Smith now gained from Powhatan, not only his life, but a quantity of provisions sufficient to keep the colony from starving. When charged with sedition by the Virginians, it appeared, on investigation, that
* Smith's Hist. Vir., fol. ed., I., p. 49. + Campbell's Hist. Vir., p. 39.
Burk's Hist. Vir., I., p. 113, 114. § Smith's Hist. Vir., fol. ed., I., p. 49.
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his only offence consisted in "the possession of CHAP. I.
enviable qualities."*
It was from the story of this remarkable naviga- tor, that the northern shore of America first attracted the notice of the unfortunate Charles. He bestowed upon it the name of New England. But while Smith was returning to his sovereign with the fruits of his discoveries, an act of perfidy was consummated by his lieutenant, which planted the sting of resentment deep in the savage heart. Thomas Hunt, who remained in charge of a ship which Smith left behind him on his return to Eng- land, far from conciliating the natives by acts of hospitality, decoyed twenty of them on board, cautiously hoisted his sails before they were aware, hurried out to sea, and sold them for slaves in Malaga. Thus, without an injury to provoke him, or a show of hostility, the white man hurled at the Indian all the horrors of slavery and the slave trade. In vain would history seek to apologize for so perfidious a deed. It could spring only from that fierce and cruel avarice which has robbed Africa of her children, and entailed upon America the curse of slavery and the scoffs of the world.
The country discovered by Captain Smith soon became of importance. Rumor magnified its ad- vantages, and greedy credulity deemed none of its wonders too extraordinary for belief. Its lofty mountains, its forests of timber, its lakes, its nu- merous rivers and enchanted isles, dimly appearing in the distance, caught the eye of adventure and invited many, even of the nobility, to take active measures to promote its settlement.
* Bancroft, History United States, vol. I., page 125.
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HISTORY OF
Farm- er's Bel- knap, p. 8.
CHAP. I. Forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, were constituted, by the sole authority of the king of England, a council " for the planting, ruling, and governing of New England in America."* Among these were Ludowick, duke of Lenox, the mar- quises of Buckingham and Hamilton, and the earls of Pembroke, Arundel, Bath, Southampton, Sal- isbury, and Warwick. Various and strange were the motives which, at that day, led these noblemen to project settlements in the New World. Vision- ary ideas ever mingle with the spirit of discovery. They were made a corporation with perpetual suc- cession, by election of the majority ; and their territories extended from the fortieth to the forty- eighth degree of northern latitude. The patent, or charter, which the king gave this company, was their warrant of authority, and was the foundation of all the grants made, of the country of New England, until by its odious monopoly it was com- plained of as " a grievance of the kingdom," and surrendered to the crown Thus the first govern- ing power exercised over New England was that CORPORATE power, which has often given a spring to enterprise, and as often threatened to overthrow those principles of civil liberty which first led the fathers of New England to her rocky shores.
In the council of Plymouth there were two men whose fame belongs to New Hampshire. These were Ferdinando Gorges, and Capt. John Mason. Gorges was a man of active genius and dauntless enterprise. He had been at the court of Eliza- beth,t and was a companion of Sir Walter Raleigh
* Hubbard's New England, p. 80. Hume's History of England. + Hume.
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-one of the most renowned and attractive names CHAP. in English story-admitted to be a universal genius, I. ~ a warrior both on land and sea, an orator, a phi- losopher, an historian, a poet, an architect, an elegant courtier, a bold projector, a founder of colonies-equally active and great in all-distin- guished for the most enviable success and the most pitiable reverses of fortune ; raised to the highest pinnacle of favor by the greatest female sovereign of England,* and perishing at last on the scaffold ; yet appearing upon the historian's page in glorious association with the most illustrious names of England. No man of that age exhibited so much vigor of mind, with so much versatility of talent. Nature seemed to have fitted him equally well for study or for action. There was hardly a subject which his pen did not touch, or a field of enterprise, however hazardous, which his adventurous foot did not enter. Gorges was full of the restless spirit of his great companion. After the peace of 1604, the king had appointed him governor of Plymouth, in England. He soon grew weary of the quiet round of official duty. He had heard vague stories of the new world, and was burning to embark on a voyage of discovery, when accident flung in his way a new cause of excitement. A captain in search of a northwest passage, brought into Ply -. mouth five natives of America.t Gorges eagerly seized threet of them, and kept them in his service three years. He listened with enthusiasm to their
* Queen Elizabeth. + Gorges, p. 21.
# "These I seized," says Gorges. "Their names were Manida, Skettwar- roes, and Tasquantum. They were all of one nation, but of severall parts, and severall families."-Gorges' description of New England, p. 2.
le
ch
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. half articulate tales of a country abounding in I. rivers, islands, fisheries, and stately woods. He* learned from them the number, force, disposition, and government of the natives, their customs, and modes of warfare. He made them trace in rude outline on the sand, the figure of the country ; what mountains rose in it; what great rivers ran up into the land; what tribes and chieftains dwelt upon their banks. Naturally sanguine, his imagin- ation kindled at the tales they told, and he began to estimate the profits of discovery. In Captain Mason, he found a kindred spirit; his inferior in acquirements, his equal in credulity, courage, and selfishness. Mason was a London merchant, but his roving fancy led him to enter the navy. After the peace, he was made governor of Newfoundland, and came out to America. On his return to Eng- land, he was elected a member of the Plymouth Council. From the cold island of Newfoundland he had looked with covetous desire towards the more southern lands of New England, and con- ceived the most extravagant ideas of the facilities they afforded for immediate wealth. He was not 1621. long in procuring from the Council a grant of all the land from the river of Naumkeag, now Salem, round Cape Ann, to the river Merrimac, and up each of those rivers to the farthest head thereof; then to cross over from the head of the one to the head of the other ; with all the islands lying within three miles of the coast. This was called the dis- trict of Mariana. But circumstances had now brought Mason and Gorges together; for the former had become secretary, and the latter presi-
* Gorges, p. 4.
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dent of the Council. They resolved to unite their CHAP. fortunes. Accordingly, the next year, a grant was I. 1622. procured, by Gorges and Mason jointly, of the province of Laconia. This comprised all the land between the rivers Merrimac and Sagadahock, extending back to the great lakes and the river of Canada .*
They now set to work, with characteristic vigor, to people the vast region they had bought. Will not after events show that in this their courage an resolution were more conspicuous than their gain? In the spring of the following year, they sent over 1623. some fish-mongers of London, with "a number of other people in two divisions." These were to establish a colony and fishery at the mouth of the Pascataqua. They arrived in safety. They had brought with them tools of various kinds and were well supplied with provisions. One party landed on the southern shore, and called the place Little Harbor.+ From the name of Strawberry Bank, which they gave to the spot where Portsmouth now stands, a late historian infers that they touched the shore before mid-summer, and that a profusion of strawberry-blossoms, or fruit, welcomed their arrival.į They hastily erected salt-works, and one§ rude house was quickly prepared. The other party of emigrants went eight miles farther up the river and sat down at Dover.||
Thus came the first fathers to New Hampshire. It is now to be seen with what spirit they will bear up against the rugged poverty of the soil, the in-
* The St. Lawrence. + F. Belknap, p. 4.
§ Adams's Annals of Portsmouth, p. 10.
[] At first named Northam, afterwards Dover.
# Whiton, p. 1.
e
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HISTORY OF
CHAP.
I. hospitable severity of the climate, and the opposi- tion of the surrounding Indians. Five thousand rude tenants of the woods then sufficed to inhabit a state which civilization has since peopled with nearly three hundred thousand souls. A small tribe dwelt at Exeter, another at Dover, and a third, the Pascataquas, on the banks of that river. The Ossipees roamed round the Winnipissiogee* and Ossipee lakes, and the Pequawkets dwelt on the upper branches of the Saco. The Penacooks lived on the beautiful lands around Concord, along the banks of the Merrimac; and the hunting- grounds of the Coos Indians extended through Grafton county and upward, over from the meadows of Lancaster, } to the head waters of the Connecticut. These confederated nations were distinguished by the general name of Pawtuckets, and were subject to the mild sway of the sachem Passaconaway. He was old, had never seen a white man before, and was reverenced as the father and supreme head of the people. Peaceful and happy tribes ! How soon you are destined to perish! You will fall, like leaves scattered by an autumnal blast. Civilization and barbarism have met together. Is it doubtful that the former will gain the mastery? Civilization and barbarism! How mighty are the energies of the one ; how poor and powerless the other ! At the mention of civilization, the tri- umphs of science rise before the mind, and all nature is seen made tributary to the wants and the fancy of men. At the mention of barbarism, the mind is transported to the solitudes of the forest. Woman is the slave of the wigwam, and man, far from * Whiton, p. 8.
¡ On Israel's river.
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being the conqueror of nature, is only left free to CHAP. follow her and appears to be her simple child. Art I. binds him with no shackles. Society imposes no restraints. He consults no adviser but inclination. He roams or reposes at will.
The simple natives received the little band of emigrants with friendship. It would have been easy to exterminate them; but they welcomed them with hospitality, for the children of the woods looked not to consequences. The Indians have now disappeared, and every memorial of them is lost, save when the ploughshare or the water- course dishumes some skeleton form or buried implement of the hunter, and reminds the present generation of their ill-fated predecessors. Thus a whole peculiar people have perished forever.
The first years of the little colony at Pascataqua furnish few events of interest, until 1628; when 1628. the colonists were surprised at meeting Indians in the woods of Dover, hunting with fire-arms. The sale of them had been forbidden and had not been suspected. It was soon discovered that they pur- chased guns and ammunition of a trader in the Massachusetts colony. The vendor was seized at
Weymouth, and sent prisoner to England. But the Indian had already learned, with fatal skill, the use of fire-arms. He was charmed with an instru- ment of destruction so potent, when compared with his feeble arrow and bow. These weapons he soon learned to despise, and freely gave the richest products of the chase for a rifle. The colonists were made to rue, to the latest day, the dire con- sequences of the traffic at Weymouth.
Near the close of the next year, Laconia was 1629.
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. divided, probably* by mutual agreement,t between I. Mason and Gorges. The wild region east of the Pascataqua was relinquished to Gorges, and took the name of Maine; while the tract west of this river and extending back into the country sixty miles, was confirmed to Mason. The county of Hampshire, in England, had been the place of his residence, and to his extensive grant in the New World, he gave the name of New Hampshire.
The Pascataqua settlement now advanced slowly. A part of Mason's associates in the "Company of Laconia," for the better security of their inter- ests, obtained a grant of the township of Dover, while Mason himself procured a charter of Ports- mouth. Thus early the colonists were divided into two distinct communities, and were familiarly called the Upper and Lower Plantations. They were subject to different regulations, were carried on under different auspices, and were afterwards two distinct governments, like independent states. The Dover plantation was under the patronage of the "west countrie" adventurers, and they ap- 1631. pointed Thomas Wiggin, their superintendent and agent. The lower plantation was under the pat- ronage of the London adventurers, and the first superintendent of Portsmouth, was Walter Neal. The enterprise of the lower plantation soon whit- ened the harbor with a little fleet of shallops, fish- ing-boats, and skiffs; and while the English were busy with their lines, the Danish emigrants among them sawed lumber and made potash. The few pieces of cannon which the proprietors sent over to terrify the Indians, were placed at the northeast
* F. Belknap, p. 8. + Whiton, p. 10.
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point of the Great Island, on a high rock, about a CHAP. bow-shot from the shore. It was thought that "the I. - redoubling noise of these great guns, rolling in the rocks, would cause the Indians to betake themselves to flight." But the colonists were soon in dan- ger of turning this artillery against each other; for when the agent of Dover took possession of a point of land at Newington, the agent of Portsmouth claimed it, and both parties, heated by dispute, prepared to appeal to arms. But at length they were persuaded to refer the dispute, for arbitration, to their employers ; and thus, without bloodshed, the place acquired the name of Bloody Point.
Shortly after the termination of this dispute Neal 1632. was summoned to an expedition against the far- famed pirate, Dixy Bull. This daring marauder had appeared upon the coast and raised an alarm by taking several boats and rifling the fort at Pemaquid. Neal equipped four pinnaces and shallops, and being joined by twenty more from Boston, proceeded to Pemaquid to meet the enemy. But a storm arose, and the winds that separated his own barques drove the pirates beyond the reach of pursuit. He was obliged to put back in a shattered condition, and the Boston forces returned home.
When the plantations appointed their agents, they declared their " severall businesses" to be, trade, fishery, salt-making, building and hus- bandry. These common pursuits, however, were not all. The meagre profits of the fisheries and salt-making were not sufficient to satisfy the desires of such men as Mason and Gorges. To search for gold was the great object of their errand
4
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. to America. Mason believed the country to be I. full of the precious metals concealed in mines. In this opinion he was not alone.
Ever since the discovery of the New World was proclaimed in Europe, the strangest delusions filled the minds of men. America became at once the region of romance. Descriptions of it appeared in rapid succession, each presenting a new ac- cumulation of wonders. By these the people of Europe were completely infatuated. To them the western world was enchanted ground. Every island and lake were such as mankind had never dreamed of before. Every tree, and plant, and animal, assumed extraordinary forms and differed from those of the ancient hemisphere. Old Europe began to be despised, as too narrow, and seemed to offer to the heated imagination nothing above me- diocrity. Columbus himself, a man of sound understanding, declared that in America he had found the seat of paradise; and Ponce de Leon ranged, with his followers, through the Lucayo islands, in search of "the fountain of youth." The old were to become young, by bathing in its salutary waters. " Why do you quarrel," said a young cazique to the Spaniards, "about such a trifle as gold ? I will conduct you to a region where the meanest utensils are made of it."
It was true that the natives of South America ignorantly wore the material from which the most precious jewels of Europe were made. The plun- derers of Mexico and Peru had actually returned laden with gold. Montezuma had exhausted his treasures to glut their rapacity. Their success had surpassed the wildest vision of the boldest
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