USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 6
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* See "The Apology of the Bloody Persecutors." Sewall, I., p. 460. This was one of the crimes of the Quakers. Sewall, I., p. 596. # Idem, p. 597.
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CHAP.
III. Allen, an officious priest was near, whose business it was to make the martyr odious ; and instantly interrupted him. " People!" cried Allen, "I would not have you think it strange to see a man so will- ing to die." The hangman was commanded to make haste with Leddra, " and so he was turned off, and finished his days." But his friends, with pious solicitude, gathered around the foot of the gallows, caught the body in their arms, as it fell, bathed it with tears, and having waited until the hangman had stripped it of the clothes, laid it decently in a coffin. Thus intolerance had another victim.
1661. Sept. 9.
When the news of this bloody work was carried to England, and reached the king, an order was forthwith issued to Governor Endicot, to suspend all executions, and send the Quakers to England, for trial *- a privilege which they had claimed, when brought before the courts of Massachusetts.
1662. Dec. 22.
The next year, three Quaker women were pub- licly whipped in New Hampshire. In the depth of winter, the constables were ordered to strip them and tie them to a cart; then to drive the cart and whip these three tender women through eleven towns, with ten stripes apiece in each town. The route lay through Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Lynn, Boston, Roxbury, and Dedham; a distance of near eighty miles. They were whipped at Dover and Hampton, and then carried, "through dirt and snow half the leg deep," in a very cold day, to Salisbury ; and there whipped again. They would probably have perished long before reaching
* Sewall, I., p. 475.
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the end of the route, but at Salisbury they were CHAP. happily released. Walter Barefoot persuaded the III. constable to make him his deputy, and having received the warrant, set them at liberty, and they returned to Dover .*
The Quakers were accused of courting perse- cution. It was said that " they rushed upon the point of the sword." It would be difficult per- haps to reconcile all their conduct with that prin- ciple of common law and common justice which requires every man so to use his own rights as not to interfere with the rights of others. Actuated by a mistaken sense of duty, they sometimes violated this salutary maxim. But so long as the errors of an honest faith inflict no great evil upon society, enlightened reason will regard them rather as the harmless eccentricities of misguided zeal, than as offences deserving the extreme vengeance of the law.
* Sewall, I., p. 563.
CHAPTER IV.
WAR with the Indians-Passaconaway-His character-His dying speech-
The Penacooks refuse an alliance with king Philip-Indian depredations -Fall of Philip-Waldron seizes the refugees by stratagem-The Mo- hawks instigated to attack the eastern Indians-Union with Massachu- setts dissolved-New Hampshire made a royal province-President Cutts.
CHAP. IV. 1660.
AT the restoration of Charles II., Tufton, who now took the surname of Mason, determined to make one more attempt to recover the vast pos- sessions of his ancestor. The family of Mason had been too strongly attached to the royal cause to look for favor to the Protector. But when Charles II. ascended the throne, it was hoped that a ray of royal favor might beam from the mind of
the besotted king. The monarch received his pe- tition favorably, and referred it to the attorney general, Sir Geoffrey Palmer. That officer re- ported that Mason had a good title to the province of New Hampshire. But the English government, being at this time involved in difficulties at home, nothing of importance was done relative to this title ; and while it lay in supense an Indian war burst upon the colony. Suddenly, the towns and settlements were filled with alarm. Business was suspended, and the inhabitants, deserting their dwellings, were seen flocking together into the for- tified houses, or hastily throwing up entrench- ments. Behind these they awaited, in terror, the approach of the savages.
1675.
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HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
At this time the far-famed sachem Passacon- CHAP. away dwelt at Penacook. He was now old ; and
IV. his reputation for wisdom and cunning had become 1675. celebrated amongst all the eastern Indians. His authority extended over the Penacooks, and over all the tribes on the Pascataqua and its branches, and around the environs of lake Winnipiseogee. But he was famed not less for his duplicity and cunning, than for his moderation and love of peace. He had, also, the reputation of a sorcerer. The Indians believed that he held secret intercourse with the mysteries of nature; that it was in his power to make water burn and trees dance. They supposed he had power to change himself into flame; that he could darken the sun and moon ; that in winter he could raise a green leaf from the ashes of a dry one, and a living serpent from the skin of one that was dead .* With the Indians, such at- tributes give their supposed possessor a boundless influence. Passaconaway had always been an ad- vocate for peace. From the first landing of the English, this savage seemed to have a presentiment that they were destined to exterminate his race.
A few years before, the Indians held a great 1660. dance and feast. On such occasions the elderly men, in songs or speeches, recite their histories, and deliver their sentiments and advice to the younger. At this solemnity, Passaconaway was present, and made his farewell speech to his chil- dren. The warriors and chiefs were gathered from all the tribes, and sat reverently to hear the last words of their great father. Passaconaway was gifted with all the natural eloquence of the Indian.
* Hutchinson, vol. I., p. 474. F. Belknap, p. 66.
+ F. Belknap, 66.
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CHAP. IV. He rose deeply affected, and spoke as a dying man to the dying. He described the happy hunting- grounds, once theirs, with the stores of fish and ani- mals which the Great Spirit had made for his red children ; and placed in mournful contrast their past independence and power, with their present weak- ness and decay. He explained the superior powers of the white man, and told the Indians plainly that the day would come when the English would be tenants of all the pleasant lands of their fathers. He prophesied that a war would shortly break out all over the country ; and that it was only by standing aloof from it that they could hope to pre- serve a small seat, so that they might not be beggars in the pleasant places of their birth. " Hearken," said he, "to the last words of your father and friend. The white men are sons of the morning. The Great Spirit is their father. His sun shines bright about them. Never make war with them. Sure as you light the fires, the breath of heaven will turn the flames upon you and destroy you. Listen to my advice. It is the last I shall be allowed to give you. Remember
it and live."*
When this recital was ended, Passaconaway sat down, and a cloud of sorrow passed over the brow of the venerable savage. The Indians remained for some time musing in silence upon his words. His speech had deeply agitated them, during the whole recital. His aged frame, loaded with years, his deeply plaintive voice, his sad and altered tones, when he spoke of the hunting-grounds once theirs,
* Williamson's Hist. of Maine, vol. 1., p. 461. Hubbard's Indian Wars, pp. 67-8, and 329. Hist. New England, p. 60.
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strongly agitated the whole assembly. When he CHAP. drew the picture of their melancholy decay, and IV. compared them to the snows of winter dissolving, the Indians bowed their heads and gave way to loud lamentation.
His counsels made a deep impression upon all ; but upon none more than Wanalonset, his son. With the exception of the Pequot war, in Connec- ticut, the settlers of New Hampshire had lived in peace with the Indians for nearly fifty years. Yet the Indians were not too blind to see, without concern, the growing power of the English. Their favorite hunting-grounds were growing narrower, and their game fled at the repeated sound of the woodsman's axe. The wilderness around them was falling. What would be the end of this in- trusion ? Their minds began to be haunted with melancholy forebodings of eventual dispossession. Philip, the far-famed warrior of Mount Hope, per- ceived the discontent of his brethren, and resolved to take immediate advantage of it to foment a war. He had long sought a pretext for hostilities. Philip was an artful, ambitious, warlike chief ; and if patriotism be the love of one's own country and people, he was a patriot. He foresaw that his people must eventually be destroyed, unless they could equal the whites in civilization, or vanquish them in battle. The former was impossible ; and he resolved upon the latter. His old men approved it, and his zeal was seconded by the rash ardor of his young warriors. In pursuance of his design he went from tribe to tribe, exhorting the Indians to a war of extermination. He sent out his run- ners in all directions, always selecting men of ad-
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Whiton, p. 26. Bel- knap, p. 71.
CHAP. IV. dress, to urge on the bloody enterprise. A fortu- nate incident, happening at this time, brought into his alliance the Tarrateens and most of the eastern Indians. It was one of those accidents which was well fitted for his purpose. As the wifeof Squando, sachem of the Pequawkets, was passing on Saco river, with her infant child in her frail birch bark canoe, she was met by some thoughtless sailors. They had heard that Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of brutes, and wantonly overset the canoe. The child sunk ; the mother F. Bel- knap. instantly dived and recovered it; but the child died soon after, and the Indians ascribed its death to this brutal treatment. Squando was a noted sa- chem, a leader in the superstitious devotions of the 1675. Indians, and pretended to a familiar intercourse with the invisible world. Such an indignity, offered to a man of such distinguished character, was sufficient to make the tribes of Maine and Massa- chusetts allies of Philip.
His next care was to enlist the Mohawks. This he resolved to do by an artful and cruel stratagem. With his own hand he slew some Mohawks, and left them unburied in the woods. His intention was that their brethren should discover their man- gled bodies, and ascribe the deed to the English. But this proved abortive. One of the number, left for dead, unexpectedly recovered and disclosed his cruel perfidy to the tribe. The Mohawks were ever afterwards his implacable enemies. He found no difficulty in bringing into his plans the Ossipees, (in Stratford County,) the Indians at the mouth of the Pascataqua, at Squamscot Falls, and at Ne- wichwannock. The Penacooks were the only
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tribe that resisted his solicitations. No arts of per- CHAP. suasion could move them. In vain did he strive IV. 1675. to win over the young Wanalonset by artful ap- peals to his pride and his remembrance of wrongs. In vain, with well-timed eloquence, did he seek to arouse the ambition of the young chieftain for war and glory ; and in vain did he try to play upon the superstitious reverence of the Indian for the bones of his dead. The dying advice of Passaconaway, his father, had sunk deep into the heart of the youthful sachem, and he drew off his men to a dis- tant part of their hunting-grounds, that they might escape the infectious influence of Philip.
Foiled in his attempts to enlist the Penacooks, Philip now determined to rest his hopes of success on the support of the other tribes. He saw ranged under his banner the warriors of many powerful nations. He put himself at their head and gave the signal for hostilities. His first attack was upon Swansey, in Massachusetts ; where several of the inhabitants fell victims to the tomahawk. From this point the flames of war spread rapidly. The eastern and northern Indians, rushing from their coverts in small bands, fell upon the scattered inhabitants at unawares, and killed many. In September they extended their incursions into New Hampshire, and spread destruction through Somersworth and Dur- ham,* and along the road between Exeter and Hampton. They passed on, burning houses and slaying the inhabitants, to the borders of Maine, and came to attack a house in Berwick. In this house were huddled together fifteen women and
June, 1675.
1675. Whi- ton, 26.
Sept.
* N. H. Hist. Coll., vol. V., pp. 129-153.
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CHAP. children, amongst whom was a girl of eighteen IV. years. Discovering the Indians approaching, she closed the door and stood firmly against it, while F. Bel- the savages chopped it to pieces with their hatchets,
knap, p. 72. and then, rushing in, knocked her down and left her for dead. Meanwhile the other inmates had all escaped to a safe distance, except two of the children, who, being unable to scale the fence, were overtaken and slain. The adventurous heroine recovered from her wounds, but neither history nor tradition has preserved her name.
1675.
Oct. 16.
'On the sixteenth of October the enemy made an attack upon Berwick. Lieut. Roger Plaisted im- mediately detached a party of seven from his garri- son to search for the Indians. They scoured the woods, finding no trace of them, until they suddenly fell into an ambush. Three were instantly killed, and the remainder retreated. Plaisted now des- patched an express to Major Waldron for assist- ance; which he was not in a situation to afford. Plaisted resolved to do his utmost with the means in his hands. The next day he ventured out with twenty men and a cart drawn by oxen to bring in the dead bodies of the slain. Unhappily, they fell into another ambush. The cattle, affrighted, ran back. At this juncture Plaisted's men deserted him. Being a brave man, and disdaining to yield or fly, he was killed on the spot, with his eldest son and one more, while another son was mortally wounded fighting at his side. The gallant behavior of Plaisted and his sons caused the enemy to re- treat to the woods. They next made an assault upon Frost's garrison. This little garrison consist- ed of Mr. Frost and three boys. But they kept
F. Bel- knap, p. 73.
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CHAP. IV. 1675. Oct.
up a constant fire, and Frost gave orders to load, as if to bodies of men marching and counter- marching. The stratagem completely succeeded, and the house was saved. Emboldened by suc- cess, the Indians soon appeared opposite to Ports- mouth, and threatened to attack the town; but were easily dispersed by a few cannon shot. They showed themselves at Dover, Lamprey River and Exeter, killing and plundering ; and thus passed the autumn, till near the end of November, when Nov. the number of slain amounted to more than fifty. The inhabitants began to find the necessity of vigorous action, and resolved upon an expedition against the winter quarters of the Indians around Winnipiseogee and Ossipee lakes. But at this Whi- ton, p. 27. crisis winter set in with uncommon severity, and wrapped the earth in a deep snow. This circum- stance inclined the Indians to peace. Pinched by famine, they came to Major Waldron with profes- sions of sorrow and promises of amity. A peace was easily concluded with the eastern Indians and with those of the north. The joyful return of peace brought with it a welcome deliverance to many captives. In the mean time, Philip, at the head of the southern tribes, was spreading death and deso- lation throughout Massachusetts. He burnt, in rapid succession, the towns of Brookfield, Deer- field, Mendon, Groton, Rehoboth, Providence and Warwick. He laid waste Lancaster, and car- 1675. ried Mrs. Rowlandson captive into the wilderness. At Northfield he defeated Capt. Beers and slew twenty of his men. At Muddy Brook, in Deerfield, he surprised Capt. Lothrop and his company, while gathering grapes, and with him slew more than
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CHAP. seventy young men, the flower of Essex County. IV. At Sudbury, Captains Wadsworth and Brockle- beauke sustained a disastrous defeat, and fell, with fifty of their men, after maintaining the action with great gallantry and killing one hundred and fifty of the enemy.
These bloody reverses overspread the whole country with gloom. It was apparent that, unless a speedy check could be given to the career of Philip, the utter extermination of the English must follow. The colonists aroused themselves to a last effort at self-preservation, and the campaign of 1676. 1676 opened with a plan at once bold, perilous, and successful.
1675. Philip had retired, glutted with blood, to the heart of a great swamp in Rhode Island. Thither he was attended by his warriors, with a multitude of old men, women, and children. He had carried with him large quantities of provisions, and had built more than six hundred wigwams. These he placed so that the whole of them formed a camp, fortified in a manner far superior to the rude no- tions of his tribe. To render them bullet-proof, he caused baskets of corn to be piled one above the other around the inside of the wigwams. His supplies were abundant, and he thought himself secure. But the troops of Massachusetts, Ply- 1675. Dec. mouth, and Connecticut, hearing of his position, resolved to attack him in his winter quarters. They approached the place, forced an entrance, after a fierce conflict, and set the wigwams on fire. A thousand Indians perished by the sword and the flames. This disaster proved a death-blow to the 1676. power of the southern Indians. The next spring
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they were able to renew the war but feebly. The CHAP. English scoured the woods in all directions, killing IV. large numbers ; and at length brought them to a general battle on the west bank of Connecticut river. Overtaken by surprise, a large number were killed. Others threw themselves into the river to escape their pursuers ; and some, rushing panic-struck to their canoes, were unable to seize the paddles, and, when they reached the current of the river, were borne down over the falls. The affairs of Philip had now become desperate. His warriors, accustomed to victory, could not bear defeat. His allies and dependents forsook him, and he was at last surprised, with a few followers, and slain by Captain Church.
Thus perished this savage warrior, whose name had so long filled the colonies with terror. After his fall, his tribes were unable to renew the war, and New England happily found rest. But the joyful return of peace in southern New England, was quickly followed by the renewal of hostilities at the north.
Numbers of the southern Indians, at the death 1676. of Philip, fled and took refuge with the Penacooks, the Ossipees and the Pequawkets. It was chiefly by these refugees that the war was fomented. All the inhabitants west of Portland, abandoned their plantations and retired westward. But the settlers of New Hampshire were now prepared to prosecute the war vigorously. They had become accustomed to Indian warfare. Massachusetts, freed from the terror of Philip, could send powerful reinforce- ments ; and, accordingly, two companies marched from Boston to Dover. Here they found a great
Sept. 6.
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CHAP. number of Penacooks at Major Waldron's, who IV had come to confirm a peace. But there were amongst them many known to have been the con- federates of Philip. They were disguised in their looks and behavior. But it was not easy for them to escape the discernment of those who had met them in combat. After much deliberation, and some misgivings as to the morality of the proceed- ing, it was finally resolved to seize all the refugees. Waldron himself, was averse to the measure. But the Boston companies had brought with them orders to seize all the Indians who had been en- gaged in the war. Eager to avenge the slaughter of their friends, they were desirous to fall upon them at once. Waldron dissuaded them from this, and contrived the following stratagem. He invited the Indians to have a sham-fight and a training, after the fashion of the English. To this they readily assented; and it took place the next day. Waldron's men, with the Boston companies, formed one party, and the Indians the other. While en- gaged in this diversion, by a dexterous movement, the whole body of Indians were surrounded before they could form a suspicion of what was intended.
F. Bel-
knap, p. 75. They were immediately seized and disarmed, with- out the loss of a man on either side. A separation was then made. Wonolanset and the Penacooks were peaceably dismissed. The " strange Indians" were sent prisoners to Boston. Seven of them were proved to have killed Englishmen, and were hanged. The rest were sent to Africa and sold into slavery. Africa was destined to return the boon with usury. This was an act of deliberate treachery, for which there is no sufficient justifica-
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tion. Had not the Indians come to treat for peace? CHAP. IV.
Were they not entertained for that purpose? To~ attack them under such circumstances was a wanton breach of good faith, and a violation of the laws of nations. Such the Indians deemed it, and with their accustomed remembrance of injury, they treasured it up against the day of vengeance.
Does the responsibility of this act rest wholly upon Major Waldron? His judgment was averse to the measure. Did he yield, without reluctance, to the rash counsels of the Boston troops? Did he fail, after every effort, to dissuade them from the attack, and then interfere and substitute a strata- gem only to save the lives of the Indians? If the latter was his position, the whole blame rests upon the companies from Boston. They could plead nothing in extenuation of their conduct, except the general orders of their government. Did the gen- eral orders of their government excuse them? These were " to seize all who had been concerned with Philip in the war." But no orders of gov- ernment imply the necessity of breaking over that immemorial custom and universal law which gives full protection to all individuals of the enemy actually engaged in treating for peace. The laws of war forbid firing upon a flag of truce, and pro- tect every one who goes to an enemy's camp to ask for a suspension of arms. It is true that the cruelty and treachery of a barbarous foe make it impossible to conduct a war with him strictly according to the usages of civilization. As a measure of retaliation, therefore, it must be justified,
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. if at all. Unhappily for the country, as the sequel IV.
will shew, it cost Waldron his life .*
Having sent to the government at Boston a cargo of slaves, as well fitted for the market of Africa as her own sable sons were for America, the troops 1676. took eight Indian pilots from Cocheco, and pro- ceeded eastward. But they found only deserted settlements. No enemy was to be seen, and the companies returned from their fruitless march, to
Pascataqua. They next undertook a winter expe- dition to lake Ossipee ; for it was reported that the Indians had constructed a strong fort on the west- Nov. 1. ern shore. Four days they marched through the wilderness, and crossed several rivers. On arriving at the spot, they found the fort entirely deserted. Not an Indian had been seen in all the march. The weather, in the meantime, had become severe, and the snow was deep. Finding it impracticable to proceed farther, the main body halted and sent forward a select detachment. They proceeded eighteen miles, and saw nothing but frozen ponds and snowy mountains. After an absence of nine days, they returned to Newichwannock, and found that the story of Indians assembling at Ossipee had been invented by a Penobscot. A third incur- 1677. sion into the Indian country was led by Major Waldron, the next year. But he returned after a few unimportant skirmishes.
Having been long harrassed by the alarms of war, the people sought for some expedient by which they might effectually guard against them. They remembered the inveterate enmity of the Mohawks to the New England tribes, and that
* N. H. Hist. Coll., II., p. 46.
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the Penacooks still trembled at the mention of CHAP. IV.
their formidable enemies. They imagined that if they could incite the Mohawks to make a hostile 1677. incursion eastward, it would terrify all the hostile Indians. Agents were about being despatched to further the project, when a doubt arose as to the morality of the proceeding, and it became a subject of debate. It was said that the Mohawks were " heathen." The colonists, however, had an easy way to settle the question. The Bible was strait- way produced, and therein it was found that Abra- ham had entered into a league with the Amorites to recover his kinsman Lot from a common enemy. This argument was conclusive; the most scru- pulous were satisfied ; and the Mohawks were brought down to Amoskeag early in the spring. They appeared at the falls, to the son of Wanolan- set, and killed several friendly Indians in the neigh- borhood of Dover. But this incursion of the Mohawks failed of its object. It produced no other effect than to pour suspicion into the minds of the peaceful Penacooks, and irritate the more warlike tribes of the east. The next summer was passed in continual apprehension and alarm. The Indians were hovering about the precincts of the settlements, murdering and carrying into captivity. 1678. Early the next year they discovered an inclination for peace, and a treaty was negotiated at Casco .* Three years of ceaseless anxiety had passed over the colonists. The flower of the young men had fallen in battle. But all this was now happily terminated. The captives returned with joy, and gentle peace succeeded the storms of battle.
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