USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 8
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* N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 269.
14
106
HISTORY OF
CHAP and seized. Andros, hoping to conciliate those
V. whom he had so wantonly and cruelly offended, commands the captured to be set free. He trusted that the enemy, in return for this mildness, would liberate their prisoners. But this had not the desired effect. The Indians retained their prisoners, and put them to death with the most cruel tortures. Andros now changed his mild policy, and led into their country an army of seven hundred men. They saw not an Indian in their whole march.
Meanwhile the Indians were preparing for hos- tilities in New Hampshire. Some of those whom Major Waldron sent to Boston to be sold into slavery, had returned, and would not let their brethren rest unrevenged. It required but little time to concert an attack upon Dover; for Waldron was there. The Penacooks, the Pe- quawkets, and the Ossipees, are called into the league. And now, all things being ready, the Indians set forward. It is the evening of the twenty-seventh of June. Waldron sleeps in one of the garrisoned houses. Two of the squaws apply at each of the houses and ask leave to lodge by the fire. They are welcomed; as is also the chief, Mesandowit, who went to the Major's house and supped with him in the evening. " Brother Waldron," said the crafty savage, with jocular and usual familiarity, " what would you do, if the strange Indians should come ?" "I can assemble an hundred men," replied the vete- ran, " by lifting up my finger." In this unsus- pecting confidence the family retired to rest. The red men have "trapped the lion in his lair."
1689.
June 27.
107
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Night advances. At the moment of deepest sleep, CHAP. the gates are softly opened by the squaws, and a V. shrill whistle breaks the silence of night. It is the signal agreed upon for attack. Instantly the In- dians rush in to take their long-meditated revenge. Aroused by the noise, Major Waldron starts from his sleep, seizes his sword, and, though bowed with the weight of eighty years, drove the assailants back through two doors. But in doing this, unluckily an Indian darted behind him and stunned him with the blow of a hatchet. The Indians immediately raise him up from the floor, and setting him in a chair on the table, they begin the work of torture. They cut off his nose and ears, and gash his breast with their knives ; each one exclaiming, with fiendish mirth, "I cross out my account."* Faint from the loss of blood, he was falling from the table, when an Indian held his own sword under him and pierced him through. Thus fell this gallant and venerable man. In this closing scene of his existence he displayed the same determined valor which had made him, through life, the terror and admiration of the Indians.
After attacking other houses, and killing many, the Indians effected a speedy retreat, and sold their prisoners in Canada. Aroused by these barbarities, the government sent a party, under Capt. Noyes, to attack the Penacooks. But they could only destroy their corn. Another party, under Capt. Wincol, were sent to Lake Winnipiseogee, but they killed only one or two of the enemy. Instigated by the French, who were now at war with England, the Indians continued
* N. H. Hist. Coll., II., 46.
108
HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAP. their depredations. The Count de Frontinac, V. governor of Canada, eager to distinguish himself 1690. in the cause of his royal master, the king of France, detached three parties of French and Indians from Canada. These murderous bands, pursuing different routes, spread devastation along their whole march. Many are the affecting inci- dents mingled in the history of this war. Women, with babes at their breasts, were carried captive in the depth of winter, and when their infants became burdensome, they were taken from their arms and dashed against the nearest tree. Some- times, in mid-harvest, the husbandman was shot in the field, and the crops burned on which the subsistence of a desolate family depended. Young children were marched through the dreary winter snows to Canada,* and in these protracted journeyings suffered a thousand deaths.
Amidst these barbarities, an instance of Indian gratitude now and then occurs, to brighten, by its dim lustre, the gloomy recital. Here and there, among their captives, they would discover some one who had befriended them; and such were invariably set at liberty. In the voice of some feeble woman, crying out under her tor- tures, the quick ear of the Indian would discover his former benefactress, and he would spare her life. Though gentle pity seemed never to inhabit the breast of the North American Indian, he was proud to remember favors, and never forgot to revenge an injury.
* N. H. Hist. Coll., V., 199.
CHAPTER VI.
CONQUEST of Canada attempted-It fails-Governor Allen-Union with Mas- sachusetts dissolved-Sir William Phipps-The small-pox first imported into New Hampshire-Peace with the Indians-The war resumed-Mado- kewando-Usher-Durham destroyed-Peace-The return of the captives -The Earl of Bellomont-His character-His death-Death of Allen- War between France and England-Dudley-His conference with the In- dians-Indian depredations-Expedition against Port Royal-It fails- Congress of delegates-Second expedition against Port Royal-It is suc- cessful-Death of Hilton-Expedition to Quebec-The fleet wrecked in the St. Lawrence-One thousand men perish-Peace-The captives return- Vaughan-John Wentworth-Industry revives-Monopoly resisted -- Gov. Shute holds a conference with the Indians on an island in the Ken- nebec-The Scottish emigrants-Their character.
THE people of New England now regarded CHAP. Canada as the source of their calamities, and VI. resolved to carry the war into the enemy's country. With but feeble resources, they formed the bold design to subject that province to the crown of England. For this object, an army of two thou- sand men, under the command of Sir William Phipps, sailed from Boston for Quebec. Winter met them on their arrival. The troops became dispirited, sickness prevailed in the camp, and this enterprise, which promised so much, and involved the colonies deeply in debt, ended, having effected nothing. Fortunately, however, at this time the Indians ceased hostilities, and remained 1691. June 9. quiet till the summer of 1691.
An important political revolution conferred the 1692.
110
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VI. appointment of governor upon Samuel Allen, of London, and that of lieutenant-governor upon his son-in-law John Usher, of Boston. With un- feigned regret the people saw the dissolution of their second brief union with Massachusetts. Al- len had purchased of the heirs of Captain Mason their title to the soil of New Hampshire. It was sufficient to make this announcement received with coldness, that the inhabitants apprehended a 1692. revival of Mason's claim.
Whiton, p. 48.
About the same time a new form of government, under the second charter, was established in Mas- sachusetts. This raised to the governor's chair an obsure boy, born on the banks of the Kenne- bec. He was of a poor family, and at the age of twenty-two could not read. But he discovered, and drew up from the depths of the sea, the treasures of an old Spanish vessel. This gave him wealth. Wealth commanded influence ; and thus was appointed to the post of governor that remarkable child of fortune, Sir William Phipps.
To the calamities of the war, now raging, were superadded the horrors of the small-pox ; a disease then little understood, and its treatment imperfect. Its importation in cotton bales from the West In- dies to Portsmouth and Greenland, was an event which, from the nature of the disease and its well- known fatality among the Indians, was calculated to fill the colony with alarm. As if the intellect were destined to be affected simultaneously with the body, the public mind at this time was most strongly infected with witchcraft .*
Some good, however, was now to be mingled
* See page 65.
111
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAP. VI.
with the ills of fortune. Wearied with the contest, and some of their chief men being in captivity, the Indians became, in their turn, advocates for peace. 1693. They longed for the time to come when they could remain idle in their wigwams ; and they needed a space to recruit. Though their animosity still burned against the English, they came into the fort at Pemaquid, and there entered into a solemn covenant of amity. They acknowledged their subjection to the crown of England-engaged to abandon the French interest-promised perpetual peace-to forbear private revenge-to restore all captives-and they delivered hostages for the per- formance of their engagements.
To the people of New Hampshire this peace gave a grateful respite. They were dispirited and reduced. The war had broken up their trade and husbandry, and weighed them down with a heavy burden of debt. The earth also was less fruitful than before ; as if the kindly skies withheld their gifts at such an exhibition of the follies and cruel- ties of man. The governor was obliged to impress men to guard the outposts ; and sometimes these were dismissed for want of provisions .* In this situation, they applied to Massachusetts for assist- ance. Their application found that colony over- whelmed with witchcraft, and rent with feuds about the charter. Superstition and party spirit had usurped the place of reason, and the defence of themselves and their neighbors was neglected for the ghostly orgies of the witch-finder and the quarrels of the old and new chartists.
* F. Belknap, p. 136. See also Province Records, Journal House and Assembly for 1692-1716, in the office of the Secretary of State at Concord.
1693.
112
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VI.
July 17.
The peace, which they had so recently hailed with joy, was destined to be of short continuance. 1694. The spirit of Madokawando was abroad amongst the Indians, for the plundering of Castine yet rankled in the breast of his father. Villieu, at the head of two hundred and fifty Indians, collected from the tribes of St. John, Penobscot, and Nor- ridgwock, marched to Oyster river. Durham* is the object of attack. It has twelve garrisoned houses ; but the inhabitants dream not of danger, The and are scattered in their own dwellings. Indians approach the place undiscovered, and halt at the falls. It is the evening of the seventeenth of July. They are formed in two divisions, and proceed on both sides of the river. These divi- sions are now subdivided into small parties, and they plant themselves in ambush near every house, that the destruction of the town may be sudden, overwhelming, and complete. They are to be ready for the attack at the rising of the sun. The firing of the first gun is to be the signal. Happily, it was fired too early, and a part of the inhabitants escaped. Five houses were destroyed, and an hundred persons carried captive. The next year, 1695. the enemy remained inactive, but in 1696, a body 1696. of them, coming from the eastward in canoes, made an attack at Portsmouth plain, and took nineteen prisoners. A company of militia, under Captain Shackford, was immediately detached in pursuit. They came upon the Indians at Break- fast Hill,t while they were cooking their morning repast, and, by a sudden onset, retook all the pris-
* N. H. Hist. Coll., V., pp. 129-153.
+ Between Greenland and Rye. Mather's Magnalia, lib. 7., p. 86.
1
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
oners. At Dover and Exeter many of the settlers CHAP. were killed or captured ; and before the close of VI. 1697. 1698. 1697, the widow of President Cutts, was among the number of victims .* Madokawando was now revenged. He gathered up all the scalps taken in the war, and carried them to Canada-a fit offering to be made to Count Frontenac. Thus the base deeds of Governor Andros were visited upon the innocent and unoffending. The Indian refuses to discriminate. To his mind, the guilt of the race is involved in the crime of each individual offender; and when he imbrues his hands in the blood of a guiltless child, it is because his code of justice visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the chil- dren.
During the war, Ushert continued to administer the government, and to alienate the affections of the people. He had amassed a fortune by specu- lation, and, like many others who have been sur- prised to find themselves suddenly rich, he became bloated to a size corresponding with his fortune. He assumed the airs of authority, and affected a tone of despotic severity.
The airs of such a man as Usher could only excite the contempt of the hardy colonists, who had faced too many real dangers, and grappled with too many real horrors, to be awed by the pomp of ignorance, or terrified at the wrath of a fool. He was profoundly illiterate and weak-minded ; and seemed to be decked with authority and crowned with success, only to illustrate to the world that fortune and merit are not inseparable companions.
* F. Belknap, p. 141.
+ Province Records, Journal House and Assembly, 1692-1716.
15
114
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VI. He was soon superseded by the appointment of
William Partridge, as lieutenant-governor and
Jan.
June. commander-in-chief, in the absence of Allen. The counsellors whom Usher had suspended, resumed their seats, and he returned to Boston .*
The peace of Rys- wick. 1698.
The news of peace, coming at this time, equally surprised and rejoiced the inhabitants. The gov- ernor of Canada signified to the Indians that he could no longer aid them in the war. He advised them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives. Many of them, however, had long since despaired of release. The woes of exile did not silence the affections and passions. Some of the young cap-
tives learned to love the life they led. They intermarried with the Indians, and preferred to make their homes and their graves in the forest. Even when invited to return, they refused, to the poignant regret of their friends. But in the path- less wilderness through which they travelled to reach Canada, an inhuman massacre took place, as often as the sick and aged became a burden. The infant, whose feeble cry irritated the sullen Indian, was dashed against a rock or a tree, before the eyes of its mother, with a wanton indifference which indicated almost a total want of parental affection and sympathy in the savage breast. Those who were spared were compelled to pass, unclad and almost unfed, over mountains and through swamps and interminable forests, often wading in deep snows. But the pious benevolence of the French missionaries often met them in their dreary marches and soothed the sorrows of exile.
It is difficult, at this day, to estimate fully the * Province Records, Journal Council, 1696-1722.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
discouraging circumstances under which the fa- CHAP. thers carried on this war. They were not fighting VI. on a broad theatre, where their achievements would be the theme of a world's admiration ; but with a wily, lurking foe, who never felt the force of that noble maxim of Tacitus, that " victory is most honorable when mercy spares the vanquished .* " If they should be taken prisoners, their lives would be spared only to protract their tortures ; or they must be led at the heels of their captors, until slavery should consummate the rights of the victors over the conquered.
Early in the summer, Allen came to America. 1698. Six years had elapsed since the date of his appoint- ment. The people knew that the Earl of Bello- mont,f a nobleman of accomplished manners and liberal views, a friend of the late revolution, had received the appointment of governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Allen's commission, however, remained in force till the arrival of his successor. His administration lasted a year, and was one continued scene of alterca- tion.į At the end of that time, Bellomont arrived, and was received by the people with the greatest cordiality. The counsellors, who had refused to sit at the board with Usher, resumed their places,§ and Partridge, who had been removed to make way for Usher, was restored. From this time onward, through a period of forty-two years, New Hampshire and Massachusetts were placed under the same governor. Each state had its own
1699. July 31.
* Annals of Tacitus, b. 12, s. 19. + N. H. Hist. Coll., IV., 251.
# Prov. Rec., Jour. Council and Assembly, 1692-1716. Jour. Council, 1696-1722.
§ Prov. Rec., J. C. and A., 1692-1716.
3
116
HISTORY OF
CHAP. council,* its own assembly of representatives, and VI. its own laws. The council having been con- stituted in accordance with the popular wishes, the next care of the people was to reorganize the courts. This they did by selecting all the judges from the decided opponents of the Masonian claim. When things had been thus happily arranged, the 1701. Earl of Bellomont died at New York. He was a
March 5. man of superior talents and of an energetic charac- ter. He had always been the defender of popular rights ; and when he was removed by death, the people mourned the loss of a nobleman, who, though faithful to the king, never oppressed the people. In his short administration, he had swept from the seas the pirates who had so long harassed the commerce of the colonies. Captain Kidd and his daring followers, whose adroitness had eluded the most vigilant search, were captured by Bello-
mont, and sent to England in chains.
Before the
1715.
Earl's death, Allen had begun to agitate the Ma- sonian claim. Tired of controversy, the people proposed to him terms of compromise. Allen himself, advanced in age and failing in health, de- sired to pass the remainder of his days in quiet, and sought an accommodation with the people. A settlement was on the point of being agreed to, when his death presented a result so desirable. His son revived the controversy, but without success. The death of the son relieved the inhab- itants from the fear of being disturbed in their possessions. At the death of Bellomont, Joseph
1702.
July 13. Dudley was appointed governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Favorably disposed to the
* P. R., Jour. Council, 1696-1722.
117
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
interests of the colonists, and opposed to the Ma- CHAP. sonian claim, he was received with cordiality. VI. The next year Usher was commissioned Lieut. Governor. His rival, Partridge, being thus super- 1703. seded, retired from the province.
The peace that followed the treaty of Ryswick, was of short duration. The seeds of war had been sown in Europe ; and while England and France were engaged in hostilities at home, it was natural for them to make their American possessions the theatre of warlike operations. The English claimed the territory as far as the St. Croix. French ships of war had driven the English fishermen from the banks of Nova Scotia, and France had attempted to prevent the English from settling east of the Kennebunk.
Such was the posture of affairs, when Dudley* entered upon his administration. Fearful of an outbreak, he immediately sought a conference with the Indians. They had solemnly agreed to be at peace. He was met by delegates from the Nor- ridgwocks, the Penobscots, the Pequawkets, the Penacooks and Ameriscogins. They presented him with a belt of wampum in token of their sin- cerity, and led him to two heaps of stones that stood in the valley. These had been raised years before, and, as a pledge of peace, were named the Two Brothers. To these they now added other stones, in token of ratifying ancient friendship. " High as the sun is above the earth," exclaimed the savages, in the plenitude of their professions, " so far distant from us is the least design to break the peace." Yet, in less than six weeks, a
1702. July 13.
1703. June 20.
* Prov. Rec., Jour. C. and A., 1692 -- 1716.
118
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VI. August 10.
body of French and Indians laid waste all the settlements from Casco to Wells, killing and carrying captive one hundred and thirty persons. Scarcely had another week elapsed, when they at- tacked Hampton village and killed five.
The whole frontier, from Deerfield on the west, to Casco on the east, was now thrown into con- fusion and alarm. The women and children re- tired to the garrisons-the men went armed into the fields. Few of the lurking foe were taken, though the government offered a bounty of forty pounds for scalps.
With the return of spring, hostilities were resumed afresh, and Indian vengeance fell heavily upon the settlements on Oyster and Lamprey rivers. They were pursued to Haverhill, in Coos, and one or 1705. two were killed. Early the next year, Col. Hilton led two hundred and seventy men on snow-shoes to Norridgwock, to attack them in their winter quarters. It was a fruitless march. But an ex- 1706. ploit was performed the next year, which made up in some degree for the failure of that expe- dition. It was the defence of a house in Durham* by a few women. These heroines, in the absence of their husbands, heard the war-whoop, and saw the Indians approaching to attack the house. What was to be done ? It was impossible to re-
treat. Should they surrender ? Without a moment's hesitation, they resolved to defend the house. Throwing on their husbands' hats, and disguising themselves as much as possible, they assumed the resolute action of men, and com- menced a smart fire. The deception was com-
* F. Belknap. N. H. Hist. Coll., V., pp. 129-153.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
plete. The Indians, supposing the house to be CHAP. defended by a strong garrison, fled. Thus did VI. these women, with a quickness of invention, courage, and decision of character, worthy of the most distinguished heroism of ancient or modern times, successfully devise a plan, with the utmost presence of mind, in the midst of danger, which saved their lives and those of their husbands and families.
After killing twenty Indians at the eastward, 1707. the colonists resolved to attack Port Royal, the capital of the French settlements .* New Hamp- shire united with the other colonies and sent thither a considerable army. Under convoy of two men- May 18 -26. of-war, the forces approached the place. At their landing, they were received into the midst of an ambuscade. The Indians were hidden amongst the sedge. Walton and Chesley,t at the head of the New Hampshire troops, who were already on shore, pushed up the beach, and attacked the ene- my in flank. The Indians fled. But the advan- tages of victory could not be reaped, for there were operating here, on a smaller scale, the same jealousies and bickerings amongst officers, which · have ruined the prospects of the most splendid military enterprises. A quarrel broke out between the military and naval officers. Nothing could reconcile differences, or inspire union. The army was finally put under the direction of three super- visors, and the whole affair came to a wretched end .¿ The army returned, sickly, disheartened, August.
* Pennhollow-Charlevoix. + F. Belknap, p. 174.
į F. Belknap, p. 175. P. R., J. C. and A., 1692-1716.
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. and ashamed. They had lost sixteen killed, and VI. as many wounded.
The colony at this time was in a dismal state. The best warriors were abroad in pursuit of the enemy. Those at home were harassed more than ever by the cruel foe. Not an acre of land could be tilled, except within sight of the garrisoned houses. Their lumber trade and fisheries were declining, taxes increasing, and there was no pros- pect of an end to the war. Besides, the Indians had killed one hundred and thirty, between Casco and Wells-five at Hampton, twenty-four at Oys- ter River, five at Exeter, two at Dover, one be- tween Exeter and Kingston.
Under these discouragements, great and over- 1708. whelming as they were, the people had preserved their fortitude. They maintained all their garri- 1709. sons, so that not one of them was cut off in New Hampshire during the war .*
1709.
In autumn, a congress of delegates, of all the colonies, met at Rhode Island, and determined upon an expedition against Canada. The British ministry approved of the proposal, and the imme- diate reduction of Port Royal was agreed upon.
1710. Aug. 1.
Accordingly, an English force came over in five frigates, and a bomb-ketch. They were joined by the colonial troops, and sailed from Boston on the
Sept.
18. eighteenth of September. On the twenty-fourth
they arrived at the place. The governor, despair- ing to hold out against so formidable a force, sur- Oct. 5. rendered, after the firing of a few shots.
At the moment of organizing this expedition, and before the appointment of officers, the people
* F. Belknap, p. 175.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
of New Hampshire were called upon to mourn the CHAP. loss of their favorite son, and bravest defender, VI. Col. Winthrop Hilton. He fell into an ambush, and was slain by the Indians. They had long July 22. thirsted for his blood, and waited patiently to take him. At length they saw him go out with a party of men to peel the bark from some trees which had been felled. While engaged in the work, they rushed upon them, and killed two ; one of whom was Hilton. Their guns were wet, and they could make no defence. Thus died Col. Hilton, univer- sally lamented. On the west bank of Lamprey river, in his own field, by the side of his American ancestors, where the descendants of four gene- rations have since been gathered around him, the remains of the gallant man repose. He was buried with honors due to his rank and charac- ter. The inscription upon his moss-covered monu- ment shows where the remains of a man, who sin- cerely loved and faithfully served " both God and his country," have long since mouldered into dust .*
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