USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 11
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When the first settlements were made, the remains of two tribes had their habitations on the several branches of the river Pascataqua ; one of their sachems lived at the falls of Squamscot, and the other at those of Newichwannock; their head quarters being generally seated in places convenient for fishing. Both these, together with several inland tribes, who resided at Paw- tucket and Winnipiseogee, acknowledged subjection to Passacon- away the great sagamore of Pannukog, or (as it is commonly pronounced) Penacook. He excelled the other sachems in sa- gacity, duplicity and moderation ; but his principal qualification was his skill in some of the secret operations of nature, which gave him the reputation of a sorcerer, and extended his fame and influence among all the neighboring tribes. They believed that it was in his power to make water burn, and trees dance, and to metamorphose himself into flame ; 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."4
An English gentleman, who had been much conversant among the Indians, was invited in 1660, to a great dance and feast ; on which occasion, the elderly men, in songs or speeches recite their histories, and deliver their sentiments, and advice, to the younger. At this solemnity, Passaconaway, being grown old, made his farewell speech to his children and people; in which, as a dying man, he warned them to take heed how they quarrelled with their English neighbors ; for though they might do them some damage, yet it would prove the means of their own destruction. He told them that he had been a bitter enemy to the English, and by the
(1) Smith's Voyage. (2) Gorges's Narrative, p. 17, 54. Prince's An- nals. (3) Gorges, page 12. (4) Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. i. p. 474.
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arts of sorcery had tried his utmost to hinder their settlement and increase ; but could by no means succeed. This caution per- haps often repeated, had such an effect, that upon the breaking out of the Indian war fifteen years afterwards, Wonolanset, his son and successor, withdrew himself and his people into some re- mote place, that they might not be drawn into the quarrel.1
Whilst the British nations had been distracted with internal convulsions, and had endured the horrors of a civil war, produced by the same causes which forced the planters of New-England to quit the land of their nativity ; this wilderness had been to them a quiet habitation. They had struggled with many hardships; but providence had smiled upon their undertaking ; their settle- ments were extended and their churches multiplied. There had been no remarkable quarrel with the savages, except the short war with the Pequods, who dwelt in the south-east part of Con- necticut. They being totally subdued in 1637, the dread and terror of the English kept the other nations quiet for near forty years. During which time, the New-England colonies being confederated for their mutual defence, and for maintaining the public peace, took great pains to propagate the gospel among the natives, and bring them to a civilized way of living, which, with respect to some, proved effectual ; others refused to receive the missionaries, and remained obstinately prejudiced against the English. Yet the object of their hatred was at the same time the object of their fear ; which led them to forbear acts of hostility, and to preserve an outward shew of friendship, to their mutual interest.
Our historians have generally represented the Indians in a most odious light, especially when recounting the effects of their ferocity. Dogs, caitiffs, miscreants and hell-hounds, are the politest names which have been given them by some writers, who seem to be in a passion at the mentioning their cruelties, and at other times speak of them with contempt.2 Whatever indulgence may be allowed to those who wrote in times when the mind was vexed with their recent depredations and inhumanities, it ill becomes us to cherish an inveterate hatred of the unhappy natives. Religion teaches us a better temper, and providence has now put an end to the controversy, by their almost total extirpation. We should there- fore proceed with calmness in recollecting their past injuries, and forming our judgment of their character.
It must be acknowledged that human depravity appeared in these unhappy creatures in a most shocking view. The principles of education and the refinements of civilized life either Jay a check upon our vicious propensities, or disguise our crimes ; but among them human wickedness was seen in its naked deformity.
(1) Hubbard's printed Narrative, page 9, 31. (2) Hubbard's Narrative and Mather's Magnalia.
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Yet, bad as they were, it will be difficult to find them guilty of any crime which cannot be paralleled among civilized nations.
They are always described as remarkably cruel ; and it cannot be denied that this disposition indulged to the greatest excess, strongly marks their character. We are struck with horror, when we hear of their binding the victim to the stake, biting off his nails, tearing out his hair by the roots, pulling out his tongue, boring out his eyes, sticking his skin full of lighted pitchi-wood, half roasting him at the fire, and then making him run for their diversion, till he faints and dies under the blows which they give him on every part of his body. But is it not as dreadful to read of an unhappy wretch, sewed up in a sack full of serpents and thrown into the sea, or broiled in a red hot iron chair ; or mang- led by lions and tigers, after having spent his strength to combat them for the diversion of the spectators in an amphitheatre ? and yet these were punishments among the Romans in the politest ages of the empire. What greater cruelty is there in the Ameri- can tortures, than in confining a man in a trough, and daubing him with honey that he may be stung to death by wasps and other venomous insects ; or fleaing him alive and stretching out his skin before his eyes, which modes of punishment were not inconsistent with the softness and elegance of the ancient court of Persia ? or, to come down to modern times ; what greater misery can there be in the Indian executions, than in racking a prisoner on a wheel, and breaking his bones one by one with an iron bar ; or placing his legs in a boot and driving in wedges one after another ; which tortures are still, or have till lately been used in some European kingdoms ? I forbear to name the torments of the inquisition, because they seem to be beyond the stretch of human invention. If civilized nations, and those who profess the most merciful religion that ever blessed the world, have practised these cruelties, what could be expected of men who were stran- gers to every degree of refinement either civil or mental ?
The Indians have been represented as revengeful. When any person was killed, the nearest relative thought himself bound to be the avenger of blood, and never left seeking, till he found an opportunity to execute his purpose. Whether in a state, where government is confessedly so feeble as among them, such a con- duct is not justifiable, and even countenanced by the Jewish law may deserve our consideration.1
The treachery with which these people are justly charged, is exactly the same disposition which operates in the breach of sol- emn treaties made between nations which call themselves chris- tians. Can it be more criminal in an Indian, than in an Europe- an, not to think himself bound by promises and oaths extorted from him when under duress ?
(1) Numbers, ch. 35, v. 19. Deuteronomy, ch. 19, v. 12.
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Their jealousy and hatred of their English neighbors may easily be accounted for, if we allow them to have the same feel- ings with ourselves. How natural is it for us to form a disagree- able idea of a whole nation, from the bad conduct of some indi- viduals with whom we are acquainted ? and though others of them may be of a different character, yet will not that prudence which is esteemed a virtue, lead us to suspect the fairest appear- ances, as used to cover the most fraudulent designs, especially if pains are taken by the most politic among us, to forment such jealousies to subserve their own ambitious purposes ?
Though the greater part of the English settlers came hither with religious views, and fairly purchased their lands of the In- dians, yet it cannot be denied that some, especially in the eastern parts of New-England, had lucrative views only ; and from the beginning used fraudulent methods in trade with them. Such things were indeed disallowed by the government, and would always have been punished if the Indians had made complaint : but they knew only the law of retaliation, and when an injury was received, it was never forgotten till revenged. Encroachments made on their lands, and fraud committed in trade, afforded suf- ficient grounds for a quarrel, though at ever so great a length of time ; and kept alive a perpetual jealousy of the like treatment again .*
Such was the temper of the Indians of New-England when the first general war began. It was thought by the English 1675. in that day, that Philip, sachem of the Wompanoags, a crafty and aspiring man, partly by intrigue, and partly by example, excited them to such a general combination. He was the son of Massassoit, the nearest sachem to the colony of Plymouth, with whom he had concluded a peace, which he maintained more through fear than good will, as long as he lived. His son and immediate successor Alexander, preserved the same external show of friendship ; but died with choler on being detected in a plot against them. Philip, it is said, dissembled his hostile pur- poses ; he was ready, on every suspicion of his infidelity, to re- new his submission, and testify it even by the delivery of his arms, till he had secretly infused a cruel jealousy into many of the neighboring Indians ; which excited them to attempt the recover- ing their country, by extirpating the new possessors. The plot, it is said, was discovered before it was ripe for execution : and as he could no longer promise himself security under the mask of friendship, he was constrained to shew himself in his true charac-
* Mons. du Pratz gives nearly the same account of the Indians on the Miss- issippi. " There needs nothing but prudence and good sense to pursuade " these people to what is reasonable, and to preserve their friendship without " interruption. We may safely affirm, that the differences we have had with " them have been more owing to the French than to them. When they are " treated insolently, or oppressively, they have no less sensibility of injuries
" than others." History of Louisiana, lib. 4, cap. 3.
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ter, and accordingly began hostilities upon the plantation of Swanzey, in the colony of Plymouth, in the month of June, 1675.
Notwithstanding this general opinion, it may admit of some doubt, whether a single sachem, whose authority was limited, could have such an extensive influence over tribes so remote and unconnected with him as the eastern Indians ; much more im- probable is it, that those in Virginia should have joined in the con- federacy, as it hath been intimated. The Indians never travelled to any greater distance than their hunting required ; and so ig- norant were they of the geography of their country, that they imagined New-England to be an island,1 and could tell the name of an inlet or strait by which they supposed it was separated from the main land. But what renders it more improbable that Philip was so active an instrument in exciting this war, is the constant tradition among the posterity of those people who lived near him, and were familiarly conversant with him, and with those of his Indians who survived the war : which is, that he was forced on by the fury of his young men, sorely against his own judgment and that of his chief counsellors ; and that as he foresaw that the English would, in time, establish themselves and extirpate the In- dians, so he thought that the making war upon them would only hasten the destruction of his own people. It was always a very common, and sometimes a just excuse with the Indians, when charged with breach of faith, that the old men were not able to restrain the younger from signalizing their valor, and gratifying their revenge, though they disapproved their rashness. This want of restraint was owing to the weakness of their government ; their sachems having but the shadow of magistratical authority.
The inhabitants of Bristol shew a particular spot where Philip received the news of the first Englishimen that were killed, with so much sorrow as to cause him to weep ; a few days before which he had rescued one who had been taken by his Indians, and privately sent him home.2 Whatever credit may be given to this account, so different from the current opinion, it must be own- ed, that in such a season of general confusion as the first war oc- casioned, fear and jealousy might create many suspicions, which would soon be formed into reports of a general confederacy, through Philip's contrivance ; and it is to be noted that the prin- cipal histories of this war, (Increase Mather's and Hubbard's) were printed in 1676 and 1677, when the strangest reports were easily credited, and the people were ready to believe every thing that was bad of so formidable a neighbor as Philip. But as the fact cannot now be precisely ascertained, I shall detain the reader no longer from the real causes of the war in these eastern parts.
There dwelt near the river Saco, a sachem named Squando,
(1) Hubbard's Narrative, page 12. Neal's Hist. N. E. vol. i. p. 21. (2) Cal- lender's Century Sermon, p. 78.
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a noted enthusiast, a leader in the devotions of their religion, and one who pretended to a familiar intercourse with the invisible world. These qualifications rendered him a person of the high- est dignity, importance and influence among all the eastern Indians. His squaw passing along the river in a canoe, with her infant child, was met by some rude sailors, who having heard that the Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of the brutal kind, in a thoughtless and unguarded humor overset the canoe. The child sunk, and the mother instantly diving fetched it up alive, but the child dying soon after, its death was imputed to the treatment it had received from the seamen ; and Squando was so provoked that he conceived a bitter antipathy to the English, and employed his great art and influence to excite the Indians against them.I Some other injuries were alleged as the ground of the quarrel ; and, considering the interested views and irregular lives of many of the eastern settlers, their distance from the seat of government, and the want of due subordination among them, it is not improbable that a great part of the blame of the eastern war belonged to them.
The first alarm of the war in Plymouth colony spread great consternation among the distant Indians, and held them awhile in suspense what part to act; for there had been a long external friendship subsisting between them and the English, and they were afraid of provoking so powerful neighbors. But the seeds of jealousy and hatred had been so effectually sown, that the crafty and revengeful, and those who were ambitious of doing some ex- ploits, soon found means to urge them on to an open rupture ; so that within twenty days after Philip had begun the war at the southward, the flame broke out in the most northeasterly part of the country, at the distance of two hundred miles.2
The English inhabitants about the river Kennebeck, hearing of the insurrection in Plymouth colony, determined to make trial of the fidelity of their Indian neighbors, by requesting them to deliv- er their arms. They made a show of compliance ; but in doing it, committed an act of violence on a Frenchman, who lived in an English family ; which being judged an offence, both by the En- glish and the elder Indians, the offender was seized ; but upon a promise, with security, for his future good behaviour, his life was spared, and some of them consented to remain as hostages ; who soon made their escape, and joined with their fellows in robbing the house of Purchas, an ancient planter at Pegypscot.
The quarrel being thus begun, and their natural hatred of the English, and jealousy of their designs, having risen to a great height under the malignant influence of Squando and other leading men ; and being encouraged by the example of the western Indians,
(1) Hubbard, [Wars with the Eastern Indians, p. 61.] Magnalia, lib. 7, p. 55. (2) Hubbard, [Indian Wars] page 13.
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who were daily making depredations on the colonies of Plymouth, and Massachusetts ; they took every opportunity to rob and mur- der the people in the scattered settlements of the province of Maine ; and having dispersed themselves into many small parties, that they might be the more extensively mischievous, in the month of September, they approached the plantations at Pascataqua, and made their first onset at Oyster river, then a part of the town of Dover, but now Durham. Here, they burned two houses belong- ing to two persons named Chesley ; killed two men in a canoe, and carried away two captives ; both of whom soon after made their escape. About the same time, a party of four laid in ambush near the road between Exeter and Hampton, where they killed one,* and took another,f who made his escape. Within a few days an assault was made on the house of one Tozer at Newich- wannock, wherein were fifteen women and children, all of whom, except two, were saved by the intrepidity of a girl of eighteen. She first seeing the Indians as they advanced to the house, shut the door and stood against it, till the others escaped to the next house, which was better secured. The Indians chopped the door to pieces with their hatchets, and then entering, they knocked her down, and leaving her for dead, went in pursuit of the others, of whom two children, who could not get over the fence, fell into their hands. The adventurous heroine recovered, and was per- fectly healed of her wound.1
The two following days, they made several appearances on both sides of the river, using much insolence, and burning two houses and three barns, with a large quantity of grain. Some shot were exchanged without effect, and a pursuit was made after them into the woods by eight men, but night obliged them to return without success. Five or six houses were burned at Oyster river, and two more men killed.į These daily insults could not be borne without indignation and reprisal. About twenty young men, chiefly of Dover, obtained leave of Major Waldron, then com- mander of the militia, to try their skill and courage with the In- dians in their own way.2 Having scattered themselves in the woods, a small party of them discovered five Indians in a field near a deserted house, some of whom were gathering corn, and others kindling a fire to roast it. The men were at such a dis- tance from their fellows that they could make no signal to them without danger of a discovery ; two of them, therefore, crept along
(1) Hubbard, [Wars with Eastern Indians] p. 19. (2) [Hubbard, Eastern Wars, 20.] (3) Hubbard, [Eastern Wars] page 21.
* [Goodman Robinson, of Exeter, who, with his son, was going to Hampton. He was shot through his back, the bullet having pierced through his body. The son escaped by running into a swamp, and reached Hampton about mid- night. Hubbard, Wars with Eastern Indians, 19, 20.]
t [Charles Ranlet, who escaped by the help of an Indian. Ibid. 20.]
# [William Roberts and his son-in-law. Ibid. 21]
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silently, near to the house, from whence they suddenly rushed upon those two Indians, who were busy at the fire, and knocked them down with the butts of their guns; the other three took the alarm and escaped.
All the plantations at Pascataqua, with the whole eastern coun- try, were now filled with fear and confusion. Business was sus- pended, and every man was obliged to provide for his own and his family's safety. The only way was to desert their habitations, and retire together within the larger and more convenient houses, which they fortified with a timber wall and flankarts, placing a sentry-box on the roof. Thus the labor of the field was exchang- ed for the duty of the garrison, and they, who had long lived in peace and security, were upon their guard night and day, subject to continual alarms, and the most fearful apprehensions.1
The seventh of October was observed as a day of fasting and prayer ; and on the sixteenth, the enemy made an assault upon the inhabitants at Salmon-falls, in Berwick. Lieutenant Roger Plaisted, being a man of true courage and of public spirit, imme- diately sent out a party of seven from his garrison to make dis- covery. They fell into an ambush ; three were killed, and the rest retreated. The Lieutenant then despatched an express to Major Waldron and Lieutenant Coffin at Cochecho, begging most importunately for help, which they were in no capacity to afford, consistently with their own safety. The next day, Plaisted ven- tured out with twenty men, and a cart to fetch the dead bodies of their friends, and unhappily fell into another ambush. The cattle affrighted ran back, and Plaisted being deserted by his men, and disdaining either to yield or fly, was killed on the spot, with his eldest son and one more ; his other son died of his wound in a few weeks .* Had the heroism of this worthy family been imitated by the rest of the party, and a reinforcement arrived in season, the enemy might have received such a severe check as would have prevented them from appearing in small parties. The gal- lant behaviour of Plaisted, though fatal to himself and his sons, had this good effect, that the enemy retreated to the woods; and the next day, Captain Frost came up with a party from Sturgeon creek, and peaceably buried the dead. But before the month had expired a mill was burned there, and an assault made on Frost's garrison, who though he had only three boys with him, kept up a constant fire, and called aloud as if he were command- ing a body of men, to march here and fire there : the stratagem succeeded, and the house was saved. The enemy then proceed-
(1) Ibid. 22.
[Soon after this, they assaulted a house at Oyster River, which was gar- risoned. Meeting with a good old man without the garrison, whose name was Beard, they killed him upon the place, and in a barbarous manner cut off his head and set it on a pole in derision. Hubbard, Eastern Wars, 22.]
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[1675.
ed down the river, killing and plundering as they found people off their guard, till they came opposite to Portsmouth ; from whence some cannon being fired they dispersed, and were pursued by the help of a light snow which fell in the night, and were overta- ken by the side of a swamp, into which they threw themselves, leaving their packs and plunder to the pursuers. They soon af- ter did more mischief at Dover, Lamprey river* and Exeter ; and with these small, but irritating assaults and skirmishes, the au- tumn was spent until the end of November ; when the number of people killed and taken from Kennebeck to Pascataqua amount- ed to upwards of fifty.1
The Massachusetts government being fully employed in de- fending the southern and western parts, could not seasonably send succors to the eastward. Major General Denison, who comman- ded the militia of the colony, had ordered the majors who com- manded the regiments on this side of the country, to draw out a sufficient number of men to reduce the enemy, by attacking them at their retreat to their head-quarters at Ossipee and Pequawet.t But the winter setting in early and fiercely, and the men being unprovided with rackets to travel on the snow, which by the tenth of December was four feet deep in the woods, it was impossible to execute the design. This peculiar severity of the season how- ever proved favorable. The Indians were pinched with famine, and having lost by their own confession about ninety of their number, partly by the war, and partly for want of food, they were reduced to the necessity of suing for peace. With this view, they came to Major Waldron, expressing great sorrow for what had been done, and promising to be quiet and submissive. By his mediation, a peace was concluded with the whole body of eastern Indians, which continued till the next August ; and might have continued longer, if the inhabitants of the eastern parts had not been too intent on private gain, and of a disposition too un- governable to be a barrier against an enemy so irritable and vin- dictive. The restoration of the captives made the peace more pleasant. A return from the dead could not be more welcome than a deliverance from Indian captivity.
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