USA > New Hampshire > The history of New-Hampshire > Part 20
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140
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1694.
next to the garrison, to which he with his family, taking advan- tage of the shade of some trees, it being moonlight, happily escap- ed. Still defeated, they attacked the house of John Davis, which after some resistance, he surrendered on terms ; but the terms were violated, and the whole family was either killed or made captives. Thomas Bickford preserved his house in a singular manner. It was situated near the river, and surrounded with a palisade. Being alarmed before the enemy had reached the house, he sent off his family in a boat, and then shutting his gate, betook himself alone to the defence of his fortress. Despising alike the promises and threats by which the Indians would have persuaded him to surrender, he kept up a constant fire at them, changing his dress as often as he could, shewing himself with a different cap, hat or coat, and sometimes without either, and giv- ing directions aloud as if he had a number of men with him. Finding their attempt vain, the enemy withdrew, and left him sole master of the house, which he had defended with such admirable address. Smith's, Bunker's and Davis's garrisons, being season- ably apprised of the danger, were resolutely defended. One Indian was supposed to be killed and another wounded by a shot from Davis's. Jones's garrison was beset before day; Captain Jones hearing his dogs bark, and imagining wolves might be near, went out to secure some swine and returned unmolested. He then went up into the flankart and sat on the wall. Discerning the flash of a gun, he dropped backward; the ball entered the place from whence he had withdrawn his legs. The enemy from behind a rock kept firing on the house for some time, and then quitted it. During these transactions, the French priest took pos- session of the meeting-house, and employed himself in writing on the pulpit with chalk ; but the house received no damage.
Those parties of the enemy who were on the south side of the river having completed their destructive work, collected in a field adjoining to Burnham's garrison, where they insultingly showed their prisoners, and derided the people, thinking themselves out of reach of their shot. A young man from the sentry-box fired at one who was making some indecent signs of defiance, and woun- ded him in the heel : Him they placed on a horse and carried away. Both divisions then met at the falls, where they had part- ed the evening before, and proceeded together to Capt. Wood- man's garrison. The ground being uneven, they approached without danger, and from behind a hill kept up a long and severe fire at the hats and caps which the people within held up on sticks above the walls, without any other damage than galling the roof of the house. At length, apprehending it was time for the people in the neighboring settlements to be collected in pursuit of them, they finally withdrew ; having killed and captivated between ninety and an hundred persons, and burned about twenty houses,
141
PROVINCE. JOHN USIIER.
1694.]
of which five were garrisons." The main body of thein retreat- ed over Winnipiseogee lake, where they divided their prisoners, separating those in particular who were most intimately connected, in which they often took a pleasure suited to their savage nature.+
About forty of the enemy under Toxus, a Norridgewog chief, resolving on farther mischief, went westward and did execution as far as Groton. A smaller party having crossed the river Pascata- qua, came to a farm where Ursula Cutt, widow of the deceased president, resided, who imagining the enemy had done what mis- chief they intended for that time, could not be persuaded to remove into town till her haymaking should be finished. As she was in the field with her laborers, the enemy fired from an ambush and killed her, with three others.1 Colonel Richard Waldron and his wife, with their infant son, (afterward secretary) had almost shared the same fate. They were taking boat to go and dine with this lady, when they were stopped by the arrival of some friends at their house ; whilst at dinner they were informed of her death. She lived about two miles above the town of Portsmouth, and had laid out her farm with much elegance. The scalps taken in this whole expedition were carried to Canada by Madokawando, and presented to Count Frontenac, from whom he received the re- ward of his treacherous adventure.
There is no mention of any more mischief by the Indians with- in this province till the next year, when, in the month 1695. of July, two men were killed at Exeter. The following year, on the seventh day of May, John Church, who had been taken and escaped from them seven years before, was 1696. killed and scalped at Cochecho, near his own house. On the twenty-sixth'of June, an attack was made at Portsmouth plain,
(1) Magnalia, lib. 7, page 86.
* Charlevoix, with his usual parade, boasts of their having killed two hun- dred and thirty people, and burned fifty or sixty houses. He speaks of only two forts, both of which were stormed. [The Rev. John Pike, in his manu- script Journal, says they " killed and carried away 94 persons and burnt 13 houses." As he then lived in Dover and made a record of the event near the time it occurred, we can probably depend upon the accuracy of his statement.]
t Among these prisoners, were Thomas Drew and his wife, who were new- ly married. He was carried to Canada, where he continued two years and was redeemed. She to Norridgewog, and was gone four years, in which she endured every thing but death. She was delivered of a child in the winter, in the open air, and in a violent snow storm. Buing unable to suckle her child, or provide it any food, the Indians killed it. She lived fourteen days on a decoction of the bark of trees. Once, they set her to draw a sled up a river against a piercing north-west wind, and left her. She was so overcome with the cold that she grew sleepy, laid down and was nearly dead, when they returned ; they carried her senseless to a wigwam, and poured warm water down her throat, which recovered her. After her return to her hus- band, she had fourteen children ; they lived together till he was ninety-three, and she eighty-nine years of age ; they died within two days of each other, and were buried in one grave.
*** These particular circumstances of the destruction at Oyster river were at my desire collected from the information of aged people by John Smith, Esq. a descendant of one of the suffering families.
142
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. [1696.
about two miles from the town. The enemy came from York- nubble to Sandy-beach in canoes, which they hid there among the bushes near the shore. Some suspicion was formed the day before by reason of the cattle running out of the woods at Little- harbor ; but false alarms were frequent, and this was not much regarded. Early in the morning, the attack was made on five houses at once. Fourteen persons were killed on the spot; one was scalped and left for dead, but recovered, and four were taken. The enemy having plundered the houses of what they could carry, set them on fire, and made a precipitate retreat through the great swamp. A company of militia under Captain Shackford* and lieutenant Libbey pursued, and discovered them cooking their breakfast, at a place ever since called Breakfast-hill, in Rye. The Indians were on the farther side, having placed their captives between themselves and the top of the hill, that in case of an at- tack they might first receive the fire. The lieutenant pleaded to go round the hill, and come upon them below to cut off their re- treat ; but the captain fearing in that case that they would, ac- cording to their custom, kill the prisoners, rushed upon them from the top of the hill, by which means they retook the captives and plunder, but the Indians, rolling down the hill, escaped into the swamp and got to their canoes. Another party, under another commander, Gerrish, was then sent out in shallops to intercept them as they should cross over to the eastward by night. The captain ranged his boats in a line, and ordered his men to reserve their fire till' he gave the watchword. It being a calm night, the Indians were heard as they advanced ; but the captain, unhappily giving the word before they had come within gun-shot, they tacked about to the southward, and going round the Isles of Shoals, by the favor of their light canoes escaped. The watch-word was Crambo, which the captain ever after bore as an appendage to his title.1 On the twenty-sixth day of July, the people of Dover were waylaid as they were returning from the public worship, when three were killed, three wounded, and three carried to Penobscot, from whence they soon found their way home.2 +
The next year, on the tenth of June, the town of Exeter was remarkably preserved from destruction. A body of the enemy
1697. had placed themselves near the town, intending to make
an assault in the morning of the next day. A number of women and children contrary to the advice of their friends went
(1) Judge Parker. (2) Magnalia, lib. 7, p. 89.
* [William Shackford was of Dover, and one of the grand jury in 1682.]
t [The persons killed were Nicholas Otis, Mary Downs and Mary Jones ; those wounded were Richard Otis, Anthony Lowden and Experience Heard; those captured were John Tucker, Nicholas Otis, jr., and Judith Ricker. On the 25th August following, Lieutenant Lock was slain by the Indians at San- dy Beach, and soon after Arnold Breck, &c. was shot at betwixt Hampton and Greenland. Rev. John Pike, MS. Journal.]
143
PROVINCE. JOHN USHER.
1697.]
into the fields, without a guard, to gather strawberries. When they were gone, some persons, to frighten them, fired an alarm ; which quickly spread through the town, and brought the people together in arms. The Indians supposing that they were discov- ered, and quickened by fear, after killing one, wounding another, and taking a child, made a hasty retreat and were seen no more there. But on the fourth day of July, they waylaid and killed the worthy Major Frost* at Kittery, to whom they had owed re- venge ever since the seizure of the four hundred at Cochecho, in which he was concerned.1
The same year, an invasion of the country was projected by the French. A fleet was to sail from France to Newfoundland, and thence to Penobscot, where being joined by an army from Cana- da, an attempt was to be made on Boston, and the seacoast rav- aged from thence to Pascataqua. The plan was too extensive and complicated to be executed in one summer. The fleet came no further than Newfoundland, when the advanced season, and scantiness of provisions obliged them to give over the design. The people of New-England were apprized of the danger, and made the best preparations in their power. They strengthened their fortifications on the coast, and raised a body of men to de- fend the frontiers against the Indians who were expected to co- operate with the French. Some mischief was done by lurking parties at the eastward ; but New-Hampshire was unmolested by them during the remainder of this, and the whole of the following year.t
After the peace of Ryswick, Count Frontenac informed the Indians that he could not any longer support them in a war 1698. with the English, with whom his nation was then at peace.
He therefore advised them to bury the hatchet and restore their captives. Having suffered much by famine, and being divided in their opinions about prosecuting the war, after a long time they were brought to a treaty at Casco; where they ratified 1699.
their former engagements; acknowledged subjection to the crown of England ; lamented their former perfidy, and
Jan. 9.
(1) Mag. lib. 7, page 91. MS. Journal.
* [Major Charles Frost, was the representative of Kittery in the General Court of Massachusetts in the years 1658, 1660 and 1661, and was long an active and useful officer in the Indian wars. He is named by Hubbard in his Wars with the Eastern Indians, p. 28. Under the charter of William and Mary, at the first election of counsellors, in 1693, he was selected for one of those to be chosen for Maine. He was probably related to the Frosts of New- Hampshire, where the name has continued with reputation from an early period to the present time.]
t [It was in 1697, on the 15 of March, that the town of Haverhill, in Massa- chusetts, was attacked by the Indians, and some of the prisoners there taken were brought into New-Hampshire, among wliom was the intrepid Hannah Duston, whose story is well known. It was on a small island at the mouth of Contoocook river, about six miles above the State House in Concord, that she destroyed her captors. She and her coadjutors killed two men, two wo- men, and six others, and having scalped them, carried their scalps to Boston.]
144
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
[1699.
promised future peace and good behaviour in such terms as the commissioners dietated, and with as much sincerity as could be expected.1 At the same time, they restored those captives, who were able to travel from the places of their detention to Casco in that unfavorable season of the year; giving assurance for the return of the others in the spring ; but many of the younger sort, both males and females, were detained; who, mingling with the Indians, contributed to a succession of enemies in future wars against their own country .* 2
(1) Mag. lib. 7, page 94. (2) Hutch. vol. 2, page 110.
* [I have endeavored to collect from various authorities, but principally from a MS. Journal of the Rev. John Pike, of Dover, a summary account of the depredations committed by the Indians in the Eastern part of New-Eng- land, during what Cotton Mather calls " Decennium Luctuosum, or the long War with the Indian Salvages," which is presented below in a tabular form, and so far as was practicable, in chronological order. Other depredations doubtless were committed of which no account is preserved.
Time. Places attacked. No. Killcd. Wounded. Capt'd.
1689. 28 June, Dover,
23
29
August, August,
Oyster River, (Durham)
18
-
-
1690.
2 February,
Schenectady, N. Y.
60
27
18 March,
Salmon-Falls,
27
52
22 August,
York, Me.
-
1
4 July,
Lamprey River,
8
1
5 July,
Exeter,
8
6 July,
Wheelwright's pond, (Lee) 16
3
21 September,
Maquoit, (near Casco)
8
24
1692.
25 January,
York, Me.
48
18 July,
Lancaster, Ms.
6
1
1 August,
Billerica, Ms.
6
29 September,
Sandy Beach, (Rye)
21(2)
-
1693.
10 May,
Dover,
1(3)
1694.
18 July,
Oyster River,
94(4)
21 July,
Portsmouth,
4
27 July,
Groton, Ms.
22
13
20 August,
Spruce Creek and York,
5
24 August,
Long Reach, (Kittery)
8(5)
4 September,
Pond Plain, Ms. (6)
2
1695. 28 March,
Saco Fort, Me.
1
1
6 July,
Kittery, Me.
1
7 July,
York, Me.
1
-
July,
Exeter,
2
1
Q
5 August,
Billerica, Ms.
10
5
August,
Saco Fort, Me.
1
(1) Four from Andover died the same year in the war at the Eastward .- Abbot, Hist. Andover, 43.
(2) This number includes those who were killed and carried away. Pike, MS. Journal.
(3) This was Tobias Hanson, who is not named by Dr. Belknap.
(4) Killed and carried away.
(5) Killed and captured.
(6) Between Amesbury and Haverhill, Ms.
1
1
July or Aug. Maquoit, Me.
Fox Point, (Newington)
14
6
7 July,
Amesbury, Ms.
28 September,
Newichwannock,(S.Berwick)2
-
-
Lancaster, Ms.
Haverhill, Ms.
Andover, Ms. 2(1)
145
PROVINCE. JOHN USHER.
A general view of an Indian war will give a just idea of these distressing times, and be a proper close to this narration.
The Indians were seldom or never seen before they did exe- cution. They appeared not in the open field, nor gave proofs of a truly masculine courage ; but did their exploits by surprise, chiefly in the morning, keeping themselves hid behind logs and bushes, near the paths in the woods, or the fences contiguous to the doors of houses ; and their lurking holes could be known only by the report of their guns, which was indeed but feeble, as they were sparing of ammunition, and as near as possible to their object before they fired. They rarely assaulted an house unless they knew there would be but little resistance, and it has been after- ward known that they have lain in ambush for days together, watching the motions of the people at their work, without daring to discover themselves. One of their chiefs, who had got a woman's riding-hood among his plunder, would put it on, in an evening, and walk into the streets of Portsmouth, looking into the windows of houses, and listening to the conversation of the people.
Their cruelty was chiefly exercised upon children, and such aged, infirm, or corpulent persons as could not bear the hardships of a journey through the wilderness. If they took a woman far
Time.
Places attacked.
No. Killed. Wounded. Cap't.
1695. 9 September,
Pemaquid, Me.
4
6
7 October,
Newbury, Ms.
-
1
9
1696. 7 May,
Dover, (or near it)
1
-
1
24 June,
York, Me.
2
1
26 June,
Sagamore's Creek, (Ports.)
24
1
26 July,
Dover,
3
3
13 August,
Andover, Ms.
2
15 August,
Haverhill, Ms.
25 August,
Oxford, Ms.
5
25 August,
Sandy Beach,
1
-
27 August,
Lubberland.(1)
1
13 October,
Saco Fort, Me.
5
1
1697.
15 March,
Haverhill, Ms,
40(2)
20 May,
York, Me.
1
3
10 June,
Exeter,
1
1
10 June,
Salisbury, Ms.
-
-
4 July,
Kittery, Me.
1
29 July,
Dover,
3
1
7 August,
Saco Fort, Me.
3
9 September,
Damariscotta, Me.
12
12
11 September,
Lancaster, Ms.
21
2
15 November,
Johnson's Creek,
1
1698.
22 February, February,
Haverhill, Ms.
2
9 May,
Spruce Creek, Me. York, Me.
1
-
-
1
1
(1) This place was in New-Hampshire.
(2) This was the number killed and taken. Mr. Saltonstall in his Hist. of Haverhill, p. 8, says that, " In 1697, fourteen persons were killed, [in Haver- hill] eight of them children." These he makes in addition to the above 40 killed and taken when Mrs. Duston was captured, the time of which he er- roneously places under 1698.]
21
9 May,
Andover, Ms.
5
-
1 3 3 conocerme 0. 1 col Inom
4 3 5 CT/ cial
1
Groton, Ms.
146
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
advanced in pregnancy, their knives were plunged into her bow- els. An infant, when it became troublesome, had its brains dash- ed out against the next tree or stone. Sometimes to torment the wretched mother, they would whip and beat the child till almost dead, or hold it under water till its breath was just gone, and then throw it to her to comfort and quiet it. If the mother could not readily still its weeping, the hatchet was buried in its skull. A captive wearied with a burden laid on his shoulders was often sent to rest the same way. If any one proved refractory, or was known to have been instrumental of the death of an Indian, or re- lated to one who had been so, he was tortured with a lingering punishment, generally at the stake, whilst the other captives were insulted with the sight of his miseries. Sometimes a fire would be kindled and a threatening given out against one or more, though there was no intention of sacrificing them, only to make sport of their terrors. The young Indians often signalized their cruelty in treating captives inhumanly out of sight of the elder, and when inquiry was made into the matter, the insulted captive must either be silent or put the best face on it, to prevent worse treatment for the future. If a captive appeared sad and dejected he was sure to meet with insult ; but if he could sing and dance and laugh with his masters, he was carressed as a brother. They had a strong aversion to negroes, and generally killed them when they fell into their hands.
Famine was a common attendant on these doleful captivities. The Indians when they caught any game devoured it all at one sitting, and then girding themselves round the waist, travelled without sustenance till chance threw more in their way. The captives, unused to such canine repasts and abstinences, could not support the surfeit of the one, nor the craving of the other. A change of masters, though it sometimes proved a relief from mis- ery, yet rendered the prospect of a return to their homes more distant. If an Indian had lost a relative, a prisoner bought for a gun, a hatchet, or a few skins, must supply the place of the de- ceased, and be the father, brother, or son of the purchaser ; and those who could accommodate themselves to such barbarous adoption, were treated with the same kindness as the persons in whose place they were substituted. A sale among the French of Canada was the most happy event to a captive, especially if he became a servant in the family ; though sometimes, even there, a prison was their lot, till opportunity presented for their redemp- tion ; whilst the priests employed every seducing art to pervert them to the popish religion, and induce them to abandon their country. These circumstances, joined with the more obvious hardships of travelling half naked and barefoot through pathless deserts, over craggy mountains and deep swamps, through frost, rain and snow, exposed by day and night to the inclemency of
147
PROVINCE. JOHN USHER.
the weather, and in summer to the venomous stings of those num- berless insects with which the woods abound ; the restless anxiety of mind, the retrospect of past scenes of pleasure, the remem- brance of distant friends, the bereavements experienced at the beginning or during the progress of the captivity, and the daily apprehension of death either by famine or the savage enemy ; these were the horrors of an Indian captivity.
On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that there have been instances of justice, generosity and tenderness during these wars which would have done honor to a civilized people. A kindness shewn to an Indian was remembered as long as an in- jury ; and persons have had their lives spared, for acts of human- ity done to the ancestors of those Indians, into whose hands they have fallen .* They would sometimes " carry children on their " arms and shoulders, feed their prisoners with the best of their " provision, and pinch themselves rather than their captives should " want food." When sick or wounded, they would afford them proper means for their recovery, which they were very well able to do by their knowledge of simples. Iu thus preserving the lives and health of their prisoners, they doubtless had a view of gain. But the most remarkably favorable circumstance in an Indian captivity, was their decent behaviour to women. I have never read, nor heard, nor could find by inquiry, that any woman who fell into their hands was ever treated with the least immodesty ; but testimonies to the contrary are very frequent.+ Whether this negative virtue is to be ascribed to a natural frigidity of con- stitution, let philosophers inquire : The fact is certain; and it was a most happy circumstance for our female captives, that in
* Several instances to this purpose have been occasionally mentioned in the course of this narrative. The following additional one is taken from Capt. Hammond's MS. Journal. " April 13, 1677. The Indians Simon, Andrew " and Peter burnt the house of Edward Weymouth at Sturgeon creek. They " plundered the house of one Crawley but did not kill him, because of some " kindness done to Simon's grandmother."
t Mary Rowlandson who was captured at Lancaster, in 1675, has this pas- sage in her narrative, (p. 55.) " I have been in the midst of these roaring lions and savage bears, that feared neither God nor man nor the devil, by day and night, alone and in company ; sleeping all sorts together, and yet not one of them ever offered me the least abuse of unchastity in word or action."
Elizabeth Hanson who was taken from Dover in 1724, testifies in her nar- rative, (p. 28) that " the Indians are very civil toward their captive women, not offering any incivility by any indecent carriage."
William Fleming, who was taken in Pennsylvania, in 1755, says the In- dians told him " he need not be afraid of their abusing his wife, for they would not do it, for fear of offending their God (pointing their hands toward heaven) for the man that affronts his God will surely be killed when he goes to war." He farther says, that one of them gave his wife a shift and petticoat which he had among his plunder, and though he was alone with her, yet " he turned his back, and went to some distance whilst she put them on." (p. 10.)
Charlevoix in his account of the Indians of Canada, says, (letter 7) "There is no example that any have ever taken the least liberty with the French women, even when they were their prisoners."
148
HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE.
the midst of all their distresses, they had no reason to fear from a savage foe, the perpetration of a crime, which has too frequently disgraced, not only the personal, but the national character of those, who make large pretences to civilization and humanity.
CHAPTER XI.
The civil affairs of the Province during the administrations of Usher, Part- ridge, Allen, the Earl of Bellomont and Dudley, comprehending the whole controversy with Allen and his heirs.
JOHN USHER, Esquire, was a native of Boston, and by profes- sion a stationer. He was possessed of an handsome fortune, and sustained a fair character in trade. He had been employed by the Massachusetts government, when in England, to negotiate the purchase of the province of Maine, from the heirs of Sir Ferdin- ndo Gorges, and had thereby got a taste for speculating in land- ed interest. He was one of the partners in the million purchase, id had sanguine expectations of gain from that quarter. He bad rendered himself unpopular among his countrymen, by ac- opting the office of treasurer, under Sir Edmund Andros, and vining with apparent zeal in the measures of that administration, and he continued a friendly connexion with that party, after they were displaced.1
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