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ANCIENT
DOMIjSK
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THE K • FACTS, THE 1; 'S OF TB"-' RS'Al/axa
OP ABORIGINAL TOWNS, THE VOYAGES, SETIX^ .T-
TLE SCENES, AND INCIDENTS OP INDIAN WARFARE, AND
OTBi^K INCIDENTS OF HISTORY, TOGETHER WITJI
THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS OF SOCIETY
WITHIN THE ANCIENT SAGADAHOC,
SHEEPSCOT AND 1
CINCTS AND
BATH: CLARK AND COMPANY ASS.: CROSBY AND NICHOL"^
'"-: >ANBORN AND CARTER.
18 5 9.
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ANCIENT
DOMINIONS OF MAINE,
EMBRACING
THE EARLIEST PACTS, THE RECENT DISCOVERIES OP THE REMAINS OP ABORIGINAL TOWNS, THE VOYAGES, SETTLEMENTS, BAT- TLE SCENES, AND INCIDENTS OP INDIAN WARP ARE, AND OTHER INCIDENTS OP HISTORY, TOGETHER WITH THE RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS OP SOCIETY WITHIN THE ANCIENT SAGADAHOC, SHEEFSCOT AND PEMAQUID PRE- CINCTS AND DEPENDENCIES.
By RUFUS king SEWALL,
AUTHOK OF SKETCHES OF THE CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE.
BATH:
ELISHA CLARK AND COMPANY.
BOSTON, MASS.: CROSBY AND NICHOLS,
PORTLAND: SANBORN AND CARTER.
185 9.
- h O (-a I;' ^ *a
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, by K . K . S E W ALL, In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the District of Maine.
STKREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY B. TIIURSTON, TOETLAND, ME.
• • • • • • .
• •• . . ,'
• • : » . . ; ./ . .
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD.
Historical remains — Location — Pedcokegowake — Antiquity of the relics — Remains of Nekrangan — Local features — Human remains — Observations — Exhumations — White Mountain views — Colonial ves- tiges — Suggestive features of the remains — Ruins accounted for — Norumbegua — Historical view of the name — Locality — Personal ap- pearance of the ante-colonial inhabitants — Weapons — Capital of the country — Court costume — Weymouth's treachery — Whale fishery at Pemaquld — Damariscotta, seat of ante-colonial empire — Aboriginal names — Arambec — Menikuk — Race inhabiting these cities — Succes- sion of races — Druidical su22;estions — The Bashaba — His enemies — Wawennocks — Their end, 13
CHAPTER IL
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY.
Gosnold at Kennebec — Bark Shallop — Wreck in Sheepscot Bay — Pring's voyage — Weymouth's voyage — Discovery of Monhegan — Anchorage and observations of the mainland — Pentacost Harbor — First view of the natives in Pentacost Harbor — Discovery of the Saga- dahoc — Native trade — Native deportment — Native canoe — Griffin's story — Natives kidnapped — Description and exploration of Pentacost Harbor — Bashaba's envoys — Primitive aspect of Long Reach — River explorations — Archangel towed to sea — Identification of tlie harbor anchorage — Summary — Discovery of fishing ground — Archangel's return to Europe — EfTect of the discoveries on the public, . 55
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT.
Gilbert and Popham's voyage — Extracts from journal of the voyage
— Spanish shallop and natives — BoothSay and Kennebec — Landing at Pemaquid — Sabbath services on shore — Hostility of the natives — Desertion of Skitwarroes — The gale — Entrance to Sagadahoc — Se- lection of the site of a town — Possessory rites and ceremonies — Break- ing of ground for intrenchments — Explorations and adventures in the river — Face of the country — Altercation with river Indians — Over- tures of the sovereign of the country — First ship, the Virginia of Saga- dahoc — Death of Popham — Traditionary reminiscences — Conflict with the natives — Abandonment of colony — Monhegan settlements — Reckless voyagers — Harlow — Smith — Rocroft — Hunt — Dermer — Samosset at Boothbay Harbor — Damariscove — Sagadahoc — Sheep- scot — Pemaquid — Levett's voyage to Sheepscot — Acquisition of title to Bristol — State of society — Wreck at Boothbay Harbor — Plymouth estabhshment at Kennebec — Aldworth and Eldridge at Pemaquid — Description of Pemaquid — Lawlessness — Pirate Dixy Bull — Abraham Shurt's adventures at Piscataqua — Imprudence of the settlers — Plantations — ^Murder at Kennebec — Original price of the town of Woolwich — Robinhood, the sagamore of Sheepscot — Export of cattle
— Condition of settlements — First death by drowning — Name of the State — Jolm Parker's settlement — Original purchase of Westpdrt — Birthplace of Phi ps, the Sheepscot ship-builder — His adventures and success — Population and staples of trade — Travel — Transfer of land- ed titles — John Mason, the Sheepscot proprietor — Civil condition of the settlements — First court organized at Merry Meeting — Price paid for the town of Bristol — Hamlets of Brown, Philips, Lake and Clark — Price paid for the town of Phipsburg — Hamlet of Rev. Robert Gutch at Long Reach — Death of Robert Gutch — Dukedom established — Newcastle a shire town — Convention of the people in the dukedom — Dissenters to ducal government — Purchase of Boothbay — Claims of Massachusetts — New Dartmouth — Vestiges of ancient occupancy — Ancient chronicles of stone — Sheepscot settlements, ... 81
CHAPTER IV.
INDIAN AVABS.
Natural causes — Moral causes — Robinhood disturbed — King Philip's •war — Outrage on an Indian mother — Assault on the Purchase planta- tion— Slave traders in Massachusetts — Destruction of the Arrowsic
CONTENTS. T
towns — Devastation of Hammond Town — Sacking of Lake and Clark's village — Plantations abandoned — Incidents of the retreat — Card's escape — Abbott's adventures and escape from Damariscove — Wal- dron's expedition — Fortifications erected — Waldron's fight at Pema- quid — Return of the inhabitants — Return of Sheepscot planters — New Dartmouth re-occupied — Civil regulations — Pemaquid fostered^ Temperance enforced bylaw — Laws of trade — Dongan's administra- tion — Military despotism — Andros' measures to recover the country — Indications of fresh violence — Irregularities at the capital — Earliest appearance of existing family names — Dukedom merged in Massachu- setts— Andros restored to power — Recklessness of the Governor — Change of metropolitan interests from Pemaquid to Boston — Remon- strance of eastern citizens — Forts rebuilt — Effects of the English Rev- olution — New ports of entry demanded — Conference of Colonial Gov- ernors — Treachery of Andros — Complaints of the people — Points of defense — Renewal of hostilities — Destruction of New Dartmouth — Battle at Pemaquid — Death of Judge Gyles and capture of his family — Fall of Jamestown — Trials of captivity — The bear hunt — Gaunt- let dance — The fright — The chastisement — Savage cruelties, . 151
CHAPTER V.
■WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED.
Major Church — Fall of Annawon — Condition of country — Erec- tion of garrisons — Building of Fort "W'm. Henry at Pemaquid — Condi- 'tion of the natives — Converse — French influences — Mission of Sheep- scot John — Iberville's expedition — Investiture of Fort Wm. Henry — Naval demonstration at Pemaquid — Surrender of the fort — ]\Iarch in command — Battle of Damariscotta — Peace of Ryswick — Piracies — Queen Anne's war — Dudley's administration — Death of Ar-ru-hawlk- wabemt — Fall of Nova Scotia — Re-settlement of the country — Build- ing of Augusta — Land Speculations — Rebuilding of Pemaquid — Im- migration— Ancient remains of Phipsburg — Cambel's cellar — Rest- lessness of the natives — Pirate ship Widah — Blasphemy of Bellamy — Bellamy at Mechisses — Shipwreck and death of Bellamy - — George- town incorporated — Conference at Georgetown — Response of Wiwur- na — Letter from Ralle — Disgust of the Governor — Beginning of the American Revolutionary issues — Desolation of the coimtry — Scotch- Irish immigration — Increase of population — Loron's remonstrance — Norridgewock expedition — Devastation of Merry Meeting — Damans-
VI CONTENTS.
cotta laid waste — St. George attacked — Tllton's adventures at Dama- riscove — A scene of horror — Exasperation of the public — Battle of Arrowsic — Storming of the garrison — Temple and Penhallow's night attack — Westbrook's expedition — Battle of St. George's River — Capt. Winslow's death — Savage fire-ships — Arrowsic invested — Battle of Norridgewock — Death of Bomaseen — Death of Father Rall^ — Effects of Lovewell's war — Samuel Trask's adventures — Damariscove attack- ed — Dummer's peace — Effects of the war — Truck-houses — Dagget's castle — Duck hunting — Hockomock — Great earthquake, . 205
CHAPTER VI.
ANTK-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Closing scenes of savage alarms — Dunbar emigration — Opposition of proprietors — Influence of the Scotch-Irish element — Dunbar towns — Walpole — Harrington — Townsend — Battle of Enniskillen and siege of Lonilonderry — Vaughn's enterprise — Wiscasset — Garrison house — • Waldo immigration — Waldoboro' founded — Mrs. Porterfield's adven- tures — Shirley's administration — Spanish or triangular war — Fall of Louisburg — Frontier home — Georgetown — Closing events of the pe- riod — Encounter with a Sheepscot bear — Death of the Albees — McNear's adventures — Cargill's escape — Long Edmund's perfidy — Resolute planter — Dresden plantation — City of Stirling in Bristol — Thomaston hamlet — Condition of the settlers — Sufferings of Waldo's colonists — Widow Blackledge's prayer — Sagacious cat — Mrs. Rines's reUef — Cargill's inhumanity — Murder of Margaret Moxa — Hugh Paul's adventures — Hostilities renewed — Casualties — Defenses of Wiscasset — Heroic soldier of St. George — McFarland's misfortunes — Murder at Wiscasset — Captive Fanny — Dresden assaulted — Expe- dition acainst ^^'^iscasset — Battle of Wiscasset — Haunted gully — Mrs. Delano's escape — Death of Boynton — Planters massacred at Pema- quid — Topsham — Death of Rutherford — Preble's massacre — ■ Attack on Harndcn's garrison — Capture at Long Reach — Twenty Cow par- ish — Kellock's achievement — Perils of frontier life — Final defeat of French and Indians — Wolfe's \-ictory — Breaking up of garrison life — Lincoln County organized — State of society — Frontier missionary — Pownalboro' — Naval eminence of Bath — Abandonment of military defenses — Nobleboro' — Incorporation of Topsham — Incorporation of BrUtol, 259
CONTENTS. Vn
CHAPTER VII.
AMKRICAX REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
Question of property In white pines of Maine — Adventure of Com- modore Knowles — Riot in Boston — Lumbermen's controversy — Early religious developments — Freedom of opinion — Maine originally an Episcopal establishment — Congregationalism introduced — Rob't Gutch and his church — Death of Gutch — Religious institutions extinguished
— Congregational proclivities of Sheepscot planters — Episcopal serv- ice at Pemaquid — Baxter and Gibson — Presbyterianism Introduced — Rev. Robert Rutherford — Religious influence of the Dunbar emigration
— Religious habits of the Presbyterians — Thomas Plerpont — McLana- than — Revival of Episcopacy in the valley of the Kennebec — Scotch Presbyterian piety -— John Murray — Murray's favor with the people — Murray's departure — Action of the Boothbay people — Murray's return to Townsend — Organization of the church — Ordination of deacons and elders — First Communion — The great revival — Its eflfects on so- ciety— Murray's ministrations — Close of religious period, . 327
INTRODUCTION.
OUTLINES OF THE WORK.
Nature and the Bible are the great text books, of which History is a running commentary of Providence.
In History, the forces and principles of cause and effect, in their bear- ings on the state of man as developed in human actions, in the distribution of good and evil, are, or ought to be, illustrated. No study, therefore, is more full of interest or better fraught with more important instruction, giving so varied a scope to the exercise of the moral and intellectual pow- ers in a discipUne so well adapted to store the head with useful and enter- taining knowledge, and train the life to natural and truthful impulses, as the studies of History ; and a taste for such studies is no mean indication of the intellectual and moral attamments of any people.
History has a natural division into three views. The first relates to discovery ; the second treats of settlement and occupancy of the country ; and the third embraces an account of the accidents, disturbances, and disasters incident to the establishment of the homes of a new race.
The Ancient Dominions of ]\Iaine in the Virginia of the North exhibit the vestiges of three grand convulsive epochs, growing out of the struggle of races in the collision of those seeking a new home with those in possess- ion of the soil ; the conflicts of rival states ; and the revolutionary issues in England, on the displacement of the reigning dynasty of the House of Stuart, and the elevation of the Prince of Orange to the throne.
The Ancient Dominions of Maine, beginning in a series of European plantation hamlets on the Kennebec and Sheepscot waters, and around in the vicinage of the magnificent harbor of Boothbay — the Pentecost Har- bor of Geo. Weymouth's expedition, which in his account of discoveries became a center of attraction — at length were created a Dukedom ; eind
X INTRODUCTION.
then transformed Into a Province ; and finally consolidated Into a County aa the Integrant part of a State.
The phases and facts of these several changes we shall endeavor to sketch ; and shall follow more particularly the development of these changes In the facts detailed than In the more latent and philosophical exhibit of causes ; designing to give but a narrative of events according to the measure of our means and abilities — with a view to amuse and Instruct, as well as to preserve what Is fast going into oblivion.
The view we shall take, therefore, within the " Ancient Dominions " of Maine, will embrace the facts written on the Earth's surface, found among the newly explored remains of the ruins of the ancient Arambec and Menlkuk, towns of aboriginal existence on the Damariscotta and Sheep- scot waters during the ante-colonial period ; the voyages of discovery and settlement; Indian battle scenes; massacres and other historical details and incidents In the Social, Religious, and Civil development of the population •within the ancient Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and Pemaquld precincts.
ISIuch more might be done, which must be left to other and abler pens, and shaped to meet a different aim than the purpose we have.
R. K. SEW ALL. WiscASSET, July 13th, 1858.
A X C I E N T
DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
CHAPTER I.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD.
HISTORICAL REMAINS.
History has its pliilosophy, as well as philosophy its history. By the simple deductions of its philosophy, facts are gathered and grouped in their natural relations, and when this grouping suggests a rational solution, then the truth of history is manifested.
Maine has a history — a past, hoary with age — pregnant with interest. To this interest we propose to add some natural and remarkable features, developed in a class of historic remains, exhumed at the vestibule of extensive ruins discovered in a section, in aboriginal days, called " Mavoosken,^' ^ and in the colonial period, known as the Province of Sag-adahock, where lie buried the ancient " Dominions of Maine."
In the general method of this investigation, we shall go back to facts, and follow them up, and out, and through the tortuous and misty windings of the past, into the natural sun-light of historic truth.
The remains have locality within the precincts of Pema- quid and Sheepscot, of the ancient Sagadahock Province, points of the " Virginia of the North," so called two-and- one-half centuries ago, which, in the ante-colonial periods of
1 Gorges' Narrative, vol. 2, p. 62, M. H. Coll.
14 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
North American History, glowed along our wild shores, with surpassing attraction in England, as centers of interest to the colonial enterprises of the age.
The relics to be exhibited are not the fragmentary re- mains of crumbling walls of deserted palaces — are not found under piles of sculptured granite and marble — in broken columns, prostrate arches, gigantic architectural wastes, but in a series of facts disposed in natural order.
These facts, appear, first, in vestiges of human life and human homes, now traceable on the earth's surface ; and second, in rumors floating in tradition, wafted by voices of the remotest antiquity, whose echoings from the depths of a wild and unexplored interior, have fallen on the ear of the earliest voyagers shaped into names out of aboriginal sounds ; and third, in the disclosures of an imagery peculiar to the conception of the aboriginal mind, painting everywhere, in the names of persons and places, a legible significancy.
When laid bare in naked detail, these facts all seem to sympathize in their more important features, indicative of a common origin and a cotcmporaneous existence ; and when grouped in their natural relations to cotcmporaneous events, expose in clear and full relief on the shadowy past, traces of humanity, in towns, cities, centers of human aggregation and resort, which resolve the shadows that have long glided before the vision of the antiquary on the outmost verge of our historic perspective, into a people — a race and their homes, in the heart of Lincoln County, at our very doors, long since gone and forgotten from the scenes of human life and action. " Shadows indeed we are, and shadows we pursue ;" yet "life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal." Hence, those departing leave behind them footsteps on the sands of time. It is in these footprints of life on the past of our own river banks, hill-tops, head-lands and islands, filling in our own landscape, we would trace the history of the past.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. lb
LOCALITIES OF ANCIENT REMAINS.
In the exploration of the localities of the facts, the head- waters of the Damariscotta River demand our first atten- tion. The topography of the place is peculiar. The head- waters of this river are received and emptied from two res- ervoirs, at different elevations. In the times of the earliest European dwellers there, Walter Philips and the Taylors, the upper reservoir was called the "//•esA," ^ and the lower " the salt pond," in the aboriginal conveyances at that time.
Over the rocky rim of the upper reservoir, the redundant waters are precipitated by a fall of fifty feet, into the salt pond below. Amid the primeval wildness and solitude of this region, the o'er leaping volume of water formed a cascade, whose roar merged and softened with the distant rumble of the tides through a gorge over the falls of the salt pond below, where the commingled waters are lost in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the savage mind laid foundation for the use of an expressive aboriginal term descriptive of the place, called " Ped-coke-gowake," ^ meaning " the place of thunder," as weU as from the fact the forest trees thereabout were often scarred with lightning strokes, in early days. ^ The margins of the lower reservoir, overhung with a forest fringe of stately, sheltering oaks and pine — a land-locked expanse, whose bosom swelled with rounded islands of invit- ing loveliness, heaving also, with aquatic life — a basin, whose walls and floors were inlaid with beds of the luscious oyster,^ — must have combined attractions as a center of human resort unsurpassed, unless we except the " Coont^ islands," environed with oyster beds and mullet shoals, near the Everglades of Florida. This is a natural and obvious deduction.
1 Walter Philips' deed, Commissioners' Report on L. Co. 2 French or- thograpliy " Ped-aug-lii-ouk."— Ralle. 3 j. G. Huston, Esq.
4 The neighborinnr Shecpscot and the water beds thereabout, still afibrd this delicious shell-fish, though nearly destroyed by the mill dust.
16 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
REMAINS OF PEDCOKEGOWAKE.
In conformity with this view, on the margins of this very basin, where the grandeur of primeval forest shadows, and the subUme echoings of the voices of nature combine to invite — wliere, witli lavish hand, she has stored inex- haustible resources for human subsistence, we find those facts and features, ivhich usually mark the sites of human homes and populousness, in the accumulation of deposites of the offal of a vast horde of human eaters.
Opportunities of personal observation, in a passage inland, through the lagoons of the coasts of eastern and southern Florida, from the mouth of the St. Lucia to the bar of St. Augustine, have given practical views of shell-deposits on the margins of water-courses, as the offal of human subsist- ence. The general features are alike, north and south; and the deposites of shell offal about the head-waters of the Damariscotta resemble those marking the points of favorite resort and habitation to the savage Seminole, or earlier Calos tribes, of Florida, in the oyster-bearing sections of that land of flowers and flies.
The rim of the lower basin of the head-waters of the Damariscotta, whose regurgitating tides receive and empty the over-leaping waters of the fresh pond above, suggesting to the mind of the simple native, the place of thunder, in detached places, is wharfcd off (in the expressive language of the Hon. Ebenezcr Farley) by the successive aggregation of the sliclls of the oyster, exhibiting different stages of de- composition.
1654. ANTIQUITY OF THE RELICS.
Two centuries ago, the deposites here were noted in the records of the earliest European residents, as " the great ^ bank of oyster shells — and oyster shell neck;" and were
1 Pierce's deposition, Commissioners' Reports, L. C. records.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 17
then remarkable features on the face of the earth. The basin margins on the west side are heaped, covering an area of several rods, "twelvemo fifteen feet deep;" while the east bank margins bear a less depth, but fall back in more extended superficies, so much less decomposed as to render the soil sterile and useless for cultivation.
Below the basin and its marginal deposites described above, nearer the sea, a bold and picturesque head-land, terminating a tongue of land, stretching northward, exhibits a soil largely intermixed with the remains of the common species of the "mya," or clam, whose banks fronting the river's channel, in many places, seem to have been shingled with the offal re- mains of this shell-fish, the surface soil being thoroughly sifted in with the same in a pulverulent state. This new deposite of a different species of edible shell-fish is not above three miles below the oyster deposites.
OCCASION OF THESE EELICS.
Such is the common aspect of these obviously ancient superficial remains of two species of edible shell-fish, as resources of human food. Dr. Jackson, our State Geologist, has given a description of the same remarkable vestiges, as viewed by science.
He found " the shells (of the oyster) disposed in regular layers, perfectly preserved, whitened with the action of the weather, but where most exposed to the action of the frost, crumbled into a fine shell marl." "The general belief," he adds, is " that the shells were heaped up there by the ancient Indians, who formerly frequented the spot." This gentleman gives no opinion beyond the popular idea, as to the causes or manner of these deposites ; but simply remarks "that the stratiform position and perfection of the shells are an objection, and their comparatively recent deposition, and the fact that a diluvial soil is their bed, are a support to the common opinion."
I Letter of Hon. E. Farley. 2
18 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Mr. Jackson concludes his observations by a further account, descriptive of other relics, more remarkable and suggestive of facts, found in these deposites, connecting them with human agency, saying, " that arrow-heads, ^ bone stilettoes, and human bones, have been found in the beds of shells near the surface." We may therefore consider the fact as well authenticated by the severe tests of scientific observation, that human remains, fragments of human art, and of weapons of war of bone manufacture, have been ex- humed from these deposites. "On Tapin's Island, - (Tap- lino) in the Bay or Basin, — the lower reserA'oir of the Damariscotta described, a mile or less above the village bridge, a half acre of gneiss-rock, covered with yellow loam, mixed with a shell detritus, human ^ skeletons have frequent- ly been exhumed at a depth of eighteen inches to two feet below the surface."
In the presence of our Geologist, (who is the authority for the facts, ) a skeleton was dug up from its burial place here. The uniform position is a sitting posture, the knees drawn up, facing the cast toward the rising sun. " Pieces ^ of copper sometimes covered the head of the exhumed body ; and one skeleton had a copper knife-blade, set in a handle of bone ;" and it was the judgment of our Geologist and his medical assistant, that for two centuries, no burial had been made in this Island cemetery of an extinct, but peculiar people. The facts can leave no doubt, that the deposition of shell offal, above described, was the work of himian hands ; and that the locality of these deposits must have been a center of vast populousness, more than two centuries ago, when the same features marked this site of ancient ruin. Such are the facts, distinguishing the myste- rious vestiges of the aboriginal " Ped-coke-gowake."
^ Jackson's Report, Geology of Maine, vol. 3, p. 57-58.
2 Jackson's Report, vol. 3, p. 57-58.
3 Head pieces of copper were angular and breast plates were square.
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ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 19
REMAINS OF NEKRANGAN.
Leaving this remarkable locality, and crossing tlie penin- sula formed by the Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters, some fifteen miles south-westerly, we reach the sea near the west head of Townsend harbor, at the mouth of the Sheep- scot. At this point is the only ingress and egress, by an inland passage, to the magnificent harbor below. The physical features of this entrance are very peculiar ; which in the felicitous, expressive sounds of the aboriginal tongue, are described as the " Ne-kran-gan" — our "gate-way." Here, enters the great shore trail from Pemaquid, by " Winneganne," (meaning carrying place, or portage to the harbor,) for the Merrymeeting and Casco travel, of which Cape Ne-wagen, (doubtless an English corruption of the aboriginal Nekrangan,) forms the western wall. Here is another remarkable locality of deep, unexplored, histor- ical interest.
LOCAL FEATURES.
The ruins near to Ped-coke-gowake of the cataract, at the head-waters of the Damariscotta, would seem to have been reproduced here, on a more magnificent scale if possi ble, within sound of the " thunder of the sea."
The " Krangan," ^ or gate-way, to the harbor passage, is a deep, narrow water-way of bold shores ; and at its point of junction with the Sheepscot, expands into an elongated pool of cone-like outline, whose base, resting on the over-looking slopes of Sawyer's Island, stretches its apex some three or four miles south-westerly, into the upper end of Cape Ne- wagen Island, making what is now known as Ebenecook Harbor.
The western outlines of this body of water are shaped at its base by the shores of " Swett's Island," swollen into a sandy cliff-side ; and then, sweeping back into the usual
1 Ralle's vocabulary, p. 100, M. H. Coll. vol. 4.
20 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE,
margins of coarse, sea-girding granite, letting into view Boston and Green Islands. Rocky shores running np into the rounded evergreen eminences of " Indian Town" Island, shape the left and eastern view, so as to merge each line of vision in the head of Ebenecook harbor.
HUMAN REMAINS.
The islands environing this body of water, skirted with southern and land-ward slopes and margins falling back in gentle declivities, sheltered on every side fi'om bleak winds, bear remarkable vestiges of human occupancy antecedent to the periods of European colonization on our shores.
These island-lawns are covered witli the remains of a vast primitive population, whose bones, blackened, broken and decayed, are everywhere diffused in the offal of their sub- sistence ; and the soil of their planting grounds, where clustered their lodges, is full of the fatness of the ashes of the unnumbered and forgotten dead !
The margins of each of these land-locking islands, and which, in relation to the body of water described, present a concentric aspect, have a superficies of shell-soil on an under-laying granite, or clay basis, ranging from eight inches to many feet, or yards in depth, where the surface has been leveled by the process of cultivation ; but where it remains in primitive condition, tliere the shell-offal lies in hummocks. The original method of deposition here, would seem to have been like that on the margins of the reservoirs of the Ramariscotta, viz : by successive aggregation of de- posits along the water margins, which have fallen back in thinner layers, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty rods, as the slopes of the sheltering back ground may favor.
At the base of the watery cone, the chief deposits lie back from the shore margins altogether, exhibiting a surface rolled into liillocks of more than five feet depth.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 21
The entire deposites are estimated to cover an area of some ten acres of soil, consisting of the debris of the bony struct- ure of man, beast, fish and fowl, in every stage of decom- position, from the dusty outline of crumbling earth-crusted bones, to perfect skulls, joints and teeth, in good preserva- tion. The remains of the " mya edulis," or common clam, constitute the great deposite here; and the entire superin- cumbent mass of animal matter has generally reached a stage of decay, in which it has become a very productive dark colored soil.
The slopes of Sawyer's Island, broken to the plow some thirty years ago for the first time, interspersed with the layers of the common clam, (which here is the prevailing deposite,) disclosed patches of oyster shells of large size in a good state of preservation. Antlers of the red deer, bones of the cod, skulls of the canine, and teeth of large gramin- ivorous animals were found, mingled with the teeth, ball and socket, skull-bones and sections of the vertebral col- umn of the human frame.
Indeed, it would appear that the ashes of the human dead were everywhere strewn throughout the mass of decomposing superficies, which the hoe and the plow-share everywhere discover.
INDICATIONS OF HUMAN AGENCY.
In each deposite, below as well as on the surface, we find decisive indications of the agency of man in the accumula- tion of these remains, as well as of the character of the remains themselves, in the abundance of various sized rocks, from one to three pounds weight disposed throughout the mass, witli the fragments of charred wood and coal. The rocks bear marks of igneous and aqueous action, as if used for culinary purposes, in the process of boiling food, some of the stones exhibiting marks of volcanic fires, like pumice stone.
22 ^ ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Weapons of war, implements of art — the workmanship of rude but skillful hands, have been abundantly foimd. Brok- en from the dykes and veins of green-stone and horn-blend injected into the structure of Emerald Island, ^ a bare, bald surface of rock, intruded into the entrance of the harbor passage, these articles are wrought out of the bed of native material in locality there.
Stone axes, arrow-heads of jasper and flint rock, stone- headed spears, a variety of stone and earthen pipes, and an ornament of copper, the size and shape of a Spanish quarter, with perforations in three several places, have been found. Among the pipes, was picked up one, the bowl of which was of the size and shape of an ordinary tea-cup — possibly, the calumet of the tribe — with walls an inch and one-half thick, having a perforated stem ten inches long, all wrought out of the solid rock, in a single piece. The material of this gigantic pipe was of fine grained sand-stone. Frag- ments of pottery, of a coarse iron hue, or dingy, pale burnt brick color, ornamented with devices of plants, pricked into the fresh moulded clay, are not infrequent.
Such are the discoveries made in the track of the plow, among the offal remains of shell-fish consumed centuries ago, and strewn over the slopes and margins of Sawyer's Island, and which woidd appear to have been the central and principal site of the lodges of this aboriginal town.
AETIFICIAL EXCAVATIONS.
There arc remarkable indications of permanency in the abode of this extinct race, at this point. A narrow cove penetrates Sawyer's Island from the north — dividing it nearly through to its southern slopes, across the mouth of which lies a ruined wall covered with long-grown sea weed. Near the head of this cove, an island-shaped, soil-clad rock
1 Alex. Johnson, Esq.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 23
strikes off in a lateral spur, from the eastern shore-side. The rock is of a very coarse granite. Sunk into the bed of this solid rock, with the perfect circles and shape of an iron pot, near three feet deep by two feet five inches in diameter, are the remains of several perfectly shaped and truly cut perforations, just at the line of high-water mark. The outlines of two similarly shaped openings, are traced imme- diately above the more perfectly excavated ones at the tidal margin ; and the whole mass of this rocky bed seems to be affected by a process of chemical decomposition, like to calorific agency of heated water, so that on its lower side, this rock-embedded stone-carved kettle has partially sloughed off.
The indications are entirely in favor of artificial and designed construction ; and adverse to the view of their being the product of any natural and accidental causes, like the '■'■pot holes " created by attrition, in the rush and fall of water, of geological interest.
On the opposite western shores of the Sheepscot, at an elevation of sixty feet above the sea, two like excavations are said to be found, near the mouth of Robinhood's cove, but of larger capacity, ( one of eight feet deep by four feet in diameter, and the other six feet deep by three feet in diameter,) ^ and evidently a work of art.
There would seem to be some relationship between the excavations on those opposite shores, the one set, at the entrance of the " goose rock passage" to Bath, and the other set — at the "Krangan" of the harbor passage to Boothbay.
SUMMARY OP OBSERVATIONS.
These excavations are obviously the results of artificial agencies by all ordinary rules of judgment ; and what pur- pose were they to serve ? If a culinary use, where are the
1 Sewall's Bath, vol. 2, M. H. Coll. p. 19.
24 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
offal remains — the indications of such a use? True, the boiling of clams and lobsters, and the flesh of fowl and fishes, deer and bear may have been done here, and when cooked borne away to the lodges below ; or here may have been the kitchen of the king, and these excavations sunk to serve a public use in the preparation of food for a people who, history tells us, " would eat nothing' raw.^^ ^ Do these excavations mark favorite camping grounds and resting plac- es ? and are they indications of hospitality, in provision made for the comfort and convenience of strangers and trav- elers at the public expense, from the resources of the Ba shaba, who was the great sovereign of the country ? Oi were they designed for religious and festive occasions, in the bloody rites of druidical worship ? Echo answers what ?
EXHUMATIONS.
The margin of " Sweet's Island," back of Spectacle Is- land, a low spectacle shaped mass of rocks and sand, rises in a sand cliff, over-looking the basin of the harbor passage, land-ward, whose face presents a bank of about thirty feet high. From the face of this bank, a few feet below the soil- surface, the protruding remains of a hiunan body led to the discovery of an imbedded skeleton, in a sitting posture, facing the rising sun. In the subsequent explorations, a sarcopha- gus of double wrappers of birchen bark, enclosing the skull and frame of a human body, was exhumed. The mass had become flattened, from the falling in of the frame, which, on being exposed, discovered a winding sheet of delicate furs, in several thin wrappers, enclosing the skull and a mass of greenish colored bones, and the debris of the human frame, and which, under the influence of atmospheric action, were speedily converted into an impalpable dust. The re- mains of a sash or belt, like a fisherman's comforter, fringed
' Rosier's Narrative of the savages of Pentacost Harbor.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 25
and curiously ivrought of plaited hair, was found with the mass, which was also soon dissipated in tlie air. Stone axe blades lay cross-wise the body, with arrow-heads above. A further examination disclosed a few feet north, a structure of clayey fabric, slightly hardened by igneous action, in a vertical position, oval-shaped, some three feet high, the locality of Avhicli was not indicated from the surface soil. The blow of an axe, alas, that vandal stroke ! broke in the tumulus, and discovered it to be a charnel house, about which vestiges of ancient fires were distinctly traceable. The facts above narrated have but recently transpired ; and were gathered on the spot by an eye-witness of the exhuma- tion,
WHITE MOUNTAIN VIEWS.
The locality has long borne the traditional name of In dian Town, now exclusively applied to designate the most central and conspicuous of the group of islands, land-locking the body of water, on the margins of which these relics of an extinct people are disposed ; and whose rock-crowned heights command grand views of the White Mountains along the valley of the Androscoggin River in the distant north west.
The prospect of these inland mountain views from the sea is so peculiar, that from off Monhegan,^ they have ever been taken as notable land-marks. In nearly a west north- west aspect, a vast gorge, or geological feature in the earth's surface, termed " a fault," opens a deep inland view, run- ning back by a very gentle elevation from the sea, subtend- ing laterally a cone-shaped outline of vision, some miles in diameter. In the line of the axis of this view, against the
1 Levett's voyage to Cape Ne-wagen, 1623-24.
The Cryntiil Hill is to be seen at the sea side. And there is no ship arrives m New England, either to the west so far as Cape Cod, or to the east so far as " Monhegan" but they see this Mountain, the first laud, if the weather be clear. — M. II. Coll. vol. 3, p. 84.
26 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
horizon of the distant west, filhng the entire space to the very clouds, is projected a rounded mountainous outhne — a huge, dark-swollen mass, which reappears above the cloud- capt surface, in a symmetrical summit outline of dazzling brightness, whose lustre in the beams of an ante-meridional sun-light, must certainly eclipse the eye. It is this feature which early gave the appropriate descriptive name of the " Crystal Mountains."
These grand outlines, showing in distant relief against the western horizon, especially from the eminences of " Sweet's Island," as well as from the heights of Indian Town, in a favorable state of the weather and atmosphere, add much to the romance of the site of this ancient settlement, at the " Krangan" of the great aboriginal thoroughfare from the east.
The western slope of Indian Town Island exhibits a hiatus, between the elevated back-ground, and the rocky bluff of its extreme western verge, injected with a nearly right-angular plain of sand of some two or three acres. To this spot, tradition has pointed from the earliest European recollection, as the site of an Indian garden, wherein grew strange and peculiar plants and herbs of reputed medicinal virtue, and where snake-root is said still to abound.
COLONIAL VESTIGES.
There too, are vestiges of civilized life, among the barba- rian remains of this interesting spot. "When the plow-share was first driven through the soil of these deposits of decaying shell and bones, the point, a fragment of an ancient two- edged sword was turned out in the furrow, from its burial place in a mass of the bones of a human frame just under the surface, where the body would seem to have fallen. The hilt, the blade, from which the point would seem to have been broken off wliile in the hands of him who drew and wielded the weapon, have no where been recovered.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 27
Near the bones of the body in which the broken and blood-rusted sword point was plunged, the same plow-share discovered the remains of six other bodies lying promis- cuously about. The blade of a long-bitted iron axe, the head of one of smooth hard stone, bearing a grooved neck swollen into a knob, in place of an eye ; the fragments of an ancient saw-plate ; piece of a chain ; with a table knife of ancient fasliion and peculiar make, having a right-angular depression surmounted with a button shaped point on the upper side of the blade, were all turned out together in the furrow, near the group of dead men's bones ; and near by, was an eartli- dug opening, indicative of an early civilized Imman home.
These relics, from the broken blade to the knife, have a history of their own, a liistory distinct from that which those of barbaric life more remote and extensive, indicate here. And it is a history of blood, valor and death, detailing a conflict, marking a new and more recent period, shaken with the collision of savage and civilized life in a struggle for supremacy of the soil, in a contest of races for a home ! They mark a later epoch in our history — the epoch of the colonial development, when in the scenes of frontier life inscribed in the blood written tokens of this fragment of a sword, the symbol of civilized life and European power, read we the heroism, desperation and success of some fond father, some loving husband, in the defense and rescue of his wife and children from tlie death grasp of wild and savage men, whose insidious approach had surprised his forest-sheltered retreat, but whose yells of savage delight were to be silenced in the dust tliey were made to bite, or choked with their own blood, as it fol- lowed the thrusts and cuts of the keen edged steel ? — Have we here a tale of the horrors of the battle field, where the tomahawk and scalping knife wielded a poor defense to the strokes of the skillful sword-man's battle blade ?
28 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE,
SUGGESTIVE FEATURES OF THE REMAINS.
It is a remarkable and significant fact, that tlie remains described liave a surface locality, reached by the plow-share, and are commingled with the debris of the offal of a mighty horde of eaters, whose bodies seem never to have had sepul- ture, but have mouldered away where they fell !
Such are the facts, bearing on scenes of a remote antiqui- ty, lost to tradition, forgotten of history, and now existing in conjecture alone ! But they are eloquent facts. Every relic, each ruin, has a tongue !
More eloquent they, and louder spoken, than the earth covered remains of the supposed sites of Nineveh and Baby- lon. They tell us that the head-waters of the Damariscotta in the interior, and the lower waters of the Sheepscot, at the sea-side, have been points remarkable in human history, as centers of vast populousncss to an early race, more than commonhj expert in all the arts of barbaric life I
They assert the existence and agency of a people addicted to permanency of abode, a home-loving race, high in the scale of savage eminence, and go far to identify the two sites described, as homes of one people — resorts of the same nation, central points in the same aboriginal state !
The facts suggest tliat a common fate, the same sudden and terrible catastrophe, over-swept each liamlet of these island homes ! Therefore, the unburied bones of this an- cient people are left to bleach, moulder away and mingle with the offal of then- food, till their lodging places and planting grounds have become a golgotha of ghastly re- mains ! Surprise, consternation, violence and death are the great features of the unsolved problem of the extinction of this people and the desolation of their homes !
As will have been perceived, the facts detailed relate to events and were co-existent with a state of things anterior to the advent of the European, or white race, to our shores ;
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 29
and refer us to the existence here, of a primitive people of vast antiquity, and great density, who held original posses- sion of the soil to which we have succeeded, where our homes are planted, a people eminent among their kind ; peculiar in their distinctive characteristics, now utterly ex- tinguished from the face of the earth, and as early as the period of our first settlements here, two centuries or more ago ! The facts exhibited, in the traces we have of them, on the earth's surface, show them to have been a mighty people to have left such permanent vestiges behind them, " such foot-prints on the sands of time ! "
These facts demand and admit of a rational solution. In solving them, the realization of the vision of lagoo, in the Song of Hiawatha, the historical epoch of the myth of which we have now reached, may help out the mysteri- ous riddle of life and death in our midst.
Now it was, that o'er the water, to the wondering children of our native forests —
" Came a great canoe with pinions,
A canoe with wings came fl) ing,
Bigger than a grove of pine trees,
Taller than the tallest tree tops.
From its mouth he said to greet him,
Came Way-was-simo, the lightning,
Came the thunder, An-ne-meekee.
In it, said he, came a people,
In the great canoe with pinions,
Painted white, were all their faces,
And with hair their chins were covered ! "
In this wondrous vision, were opened to this aboriginal seer —
" All the secrets of the future, Of the distant days that shall be ; Were beheld the westward marches Of the unknown and crowded nations.
30 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
In the wood-lands rang their axes ; Smoked their towns, in all the valleys. Over all the lakes and rivers, Rushed their great canoes of thunder ! Then a darker, drearier vision Passed before him, vague and cloudlike ! Saw the remnants of his people Sweeping westward, wild and woeful Like the cloud-rack of a tempest, Like the withered leaves of autumn."
EUINS ACCOUNTED FOR.
In tracing the facts we have above explored, in their natural localities, up through the dark recesses of the past, into the liglit of historic truth, we must, at the outset, be guided by the natural and rational indications to which their relations to recorded events and other circumstances lead. Entering, and taking our stand, therefore, on the very threshold of the colonial epoch, at the opening of the scenes of New England history, as proposed in the premises of our second proposition, we think we may there gather data for their solution, in the historic recollections of the earliest voyagers Avho swept our shores, or in the rumors of that day, wafted to us from a remote antiquity, and put on public record, as they were caught.
NORUMBEGUA.
Amid the fog-banks of more than two centuries and one- half, a mist of history, indeterminate in shape and locality, has appeared to puzzle the antiquary and appall the historian, whose outlines have been preserved in the sounds of aborig- inal articulation pronounced " Norumbcgua," but more simply and truly expressed, as " Arambec," as in the sequel will appear.
Let no one be startled ! There is good evidence that we have here but one shape, and that it is no gliost. " Norum-
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 31
begua," cotemporaneoiis with the aboriginal Mavooshen, is one of the earhest of ancient names on our shores. While central Maine has seemed to be its most definite locality, yet, from the non-existence of vestiges and remains, tradi- tional and topographical evidences, corresponding to the prevailing accounts and description, this subject of historical speculation has by some, been set down as a fiction of the early age in which it became known. Ready, as this meth- od of solving the problem presented in the facts, may seem to have been, it will be perceived that it is all assumption founded in ignorance of facts, still traceable on the face of the earth's surface in this region of country ; and would appear to have had its origin in the suggestions of French authority. Such is a brief summary of the historical atti- tude of this celebrated name, which, by general consent, in face of the facts and reasoning of De Monts, has latterly attached to some undetermined locality on the water banks of the Penobscot.
HISTORICAL VIEW OP THE NAME.
Sullivan, the historian of Maine, has embodied the most perfect accounts in fullest detail, which assure us, " that Norumbegua was a province or country lying between Nova Scotia on the north and New England on the south, whoso people were supposed to be an ancient people, — that they lived on the Penobscot, near which, as it was imagined, a great city once stood, called by the name of Norumbegua." Such is one view. Another, in more definite detail, on the same authority, locates Norumbegua, so that the " Pemaquid and Sheepscot," ^ (then called Chevacovett), made its west- ern boundaries, and were within its domain.
The character of this historic subject seems to have been as indeterminate as its locality ; i. e. as to whether it was
1 Sullivan, p. 270.
32 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
a town or province. " Some supposed it to be a collection of Indian huts ; others, an ancient town."
The early historian, Ogilby, described Norumbegua to be " the ruins of an ancient town, which the natives called Arambec, and had deserted."
We shall cite one more authority, yet more clearly mark- ing and defining the locality and character of Norumbegua, and then proceed with our investigation.
Cotemporaneously with the appearance of a town 1 ('07* ^^ ^^^y houses on the west bank of the Sagadahock at its mouth, defended by a fort, adorned with a church, echoing with the hum and clatter of saws and maul, in the hands of busy artisans, on the frame of the Virginia of Sagadahock, there was published at Doway, the " Universal History of the West Indies." This book, of two and a half centuries ago, describes Norumbegua " as a city toward the north, which is known well enough by reason of a fair town and a great river." In a further description, it is affirmed, that at the mouth of the river, " is an island very Jit for fishing ***** and the reg-ion that g-oeth along the sea, doth abound ^ in fish J^ This is the fullest, and probably the most authentic account we have, — it likely being the summa- ry of all that was known about " Norumbegua" at that date.
W^ith this description, out of tlie summary of fact and fiction, we may pick the truth. It would appear that the reminiscences wafting to our day, all the knowledge we have of the then unexplored interior, refer to the existence of a town and river situated within, or near to the rivers Pema- quid and Sheepscot, then as now, well known localities, and unless we utterly discard the weight of all historic prepon- derance, the early existence of the place, as Province or Town in ruins, can be no fiction.
The name was on the tongue of every native, and in the
1 Purchas, vol. 4, pp. 1620-1625.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 33
ear of every early voyager, so continually and forcibly, tliat it has left an indelible impress on the historic page !
But, if of inland location, Norumbegua was never seen by early navigators, no one of whom ever ascended beyond the mouth of the Penobscot Bay, or the harbor of Townsend, prior to the voyage and explorations of George Weymouth, in the ship Archangel.
LOCATION OF NORUMBEGUA.
The waifs of history, in concurrence with the pecul- iar physical features of our coast and its waters, may aid us in determining the locality of this ancient and re- nowned spot. Natural and peculiar features and facts, yet traceable off our coast, in the notable fishing island of Damariscove, we think are rational, as well as natural indi- cations, of the entrance to the river's mouth, on whose margins the " fair town" of Norumbegua may have stood. It is not a little remarkable, that the significant fact should have been overlooked in all investigations as to the location of the traditional Norumbegua, that the aboriginal term used to designate the principal island of an inland group at the mouth of a river bearing the same name, should literally mean the '■'•Jish place^'' — being a compound aboriginal word " na-maas and covet," pronounced in the English tongue, Damariscove ; and the river's mouth, opening inland to the north-cast of this island, called Damariscotta, meaning the river where the fishes ^ flock, or rush, bearing in its name the great natural feature of its waters in the vast shoals of the ale-wive tribe, rushing to their breeding haunts above the falls, in the upper reservoir of this remarkable river.
At the mouth of the Damariscotta, then, we have the "island very fit for fishing;" and "the region that goeth along the sea, there, doth abound in fish ;" in all which, it
1 Illustration of the meaning of aboriginal Tvords. — Hon. William Willis, M. H. Coll. vol. 4, p. 190.
3
3-1 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
seems to me, there is a literal correspondence with each of the peculiar features drawn in the historical records left us, giving the local characteristics, marking the site of the ancient Norumbcgua, of aboriginal notoriety and import- ance.
On this hypothesis, based on the fact that Damariscove, or Monhegan Island, lying east and west of each other, and oflf the mouth of the Damariscotta River — islands remarkable for their advantages in fishing, from before the days of the colonization of Plymouth and the settlement of Boston, till now — each bearing the characteristics of that, which history alleged, lay off the mouth of the river, on the margins of whose waters the fair town of Norumbegua stood, — or the ruins of the deserted Arambec lay — then, may not the pre- cise location, marked with every historic feature, in rational solution of every remarkable vestige, have an intimate con- nection with the enormous oyster offal deposites we have described in the remains of these edible bivalves, at the head-waters and along the margins of the lower basins of Damariscotta River?
The traces of vast and ancient populousness — evidence recorded on the face of the earth, anterior to the recollec- tion even of tradition for more than two centuries, still jremarkable there, we have already given in detail.
We may assume, that no body of water, no arm of the 5sea, than that shut in at its mouth by the Pemaquid point on the east, and by the harbor-environing lands of Booth- bay on the west, now called the Damariscotta River, afTorded ever, a more ample and ready supply of human food for the -subsistence of a permanent and concentrated population, •in the resources of its ale-wive fisheries and ancient oyster sbeds, — (the members of this distinguished world-renowned shell-fish, still surviving in isolation, there amid the deadly accumulation of saw-dust and mill offal iipon them,) than
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 35
this remarkable river, at the point where the head-waters of the neighboring and oyster-bearing Sheepscot approach so near, as to give easy access from one river to the other, and a natural site for the concentration and permanent abode of human beings and the support of life. Between the two points at the place designated, was the great Indian trail of " Ped-coke-gowake, " which," in Walter Philip's day, " the natives used to carry their canoes over," and which was given as a land mark ^ in his original conveyances.
EVIDENCE FROM HISTORY.
That Norumbegua of our aboriginal history was a fair town and not a Province, here located, is more fully confirmed, from facts recorded, of the observation in the earliest know- ledge we have, of the natives resident in this region. These facts are gathered from the public reports of the earliest navigators along our shores ; and in their collation and exhibition, we have at once, not only a solution of the problem of the enormous oyster shells and other deposites of the refuse of human food we have described in locality, but light is shed on the scenes of the narratives of the earliest voyagers who sailed in our waters.
Three years had passed, after the shallop vision of Gos-
nold's voyage had first greeted European eyes off our strange
coast, and exhibited to their wondering view this earliest
sketch of life, in the strange inhabitants of this unknown
land, when the ship of Capt. George Weymouth,
1605. the Archangel,^ lay at her moorings in Pentacost
May 30. harbor, under an island in the capacious and newly
discovered haven.
ORNAMENTS OF COPPER.
In continuation of the narrative of this voyage, Rosier
1 Philip's Deed to Tappan, L. Commiss. reports.
2 Belknap. John MeKeen, Esq.
36 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
goes on to say, " here we saw four of their women, who stood behind them as desirous to see us, but not wiUing to be seen. They were very well formed in proportion of countenance, though colored black, low of stature, and fat ; bare headed as the men, wearing their hair long; they had two little male children of a year and a half old as we judged, very fat and in good countenances, which they love tenderly, all naked except their legs, which were covered with their leather buskins tewed, fastened with straps to a girdle about their waists, which they gird very straight, and is decked round about with little round pieces of red copper.^"
PERSONAL ASPECT.
They were not naturally a beardless race. No hair was suffered to grow on their faces ; " but on their heads, very long and very black, which those that have wives bind up with a leather string in a long, round knot." They were civil, merry and thankful — of quick understanding — great capacity and ingenious.
WEAPONS OP BONE.
This quick-witted people had arrows headed with "the long shank bone of the deer, made very sharp, with two fangs, in the manner of an harping iron." Other offensive projectiles they had, as " darts headed with the bone of the deer," " which," says Rosier, " I darted among the rocks and it brake not;" " and which," he adds, "they use very cunningly, to kill fish, fowl and beasts." Their bows were peculiar, carved out of the witch-hazel and beech, in fashion much like those of European make.
FONDNESS FOR TOBACCO.
They were fond of tobacco, as well as cultivators of the 1 Mass. H. Coll. p. 140, series 3d, vol. 8.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 37
Virginia weed. At one time, they welcomed the ship's company on shore, taking them by tlie hands, and leading them to seats by their fires, where thirteen of them sat togetlier in social and friendly intercourse. Their tobac- co pipe was filled — which then was the short claw of the lobster — and says the narrator, "we drank of their ex- cellent tobacco as much as we would, w4th them ; but we saw no great quantity to truck for, it seeming they had not much left of old, for they spend a great quantity yearly by their continual drinking, and they would sign unto us that it was grown yet but a foot above ground, and would be aoove a yard high, with a leaf as broad as both their hands." The process by which the narcotic luxuries of the tobacco plant are described to have been enjoyed in native purity and wildness, by drinking, undoubtedly refers to the com- mon method of the inhalation of the gases and fumes of the consuming weed, as quaffed from the bowl of the pipe — a barbarian custom, now thoroughly domesticated, as a cliief virtue among the enjoyments of civilized life.
DIRECTION OF THE NATIVE CAPITAL FROM THE SHIP'S
ANCHORAGE.
As the ship still lay at anchor in Pentacost harbor, west- ward from Pemaquid, the home of a constantly reappearing chieftain, whose kinsman was subsequently captured and abducted from that home, " by pointing to one part of the main, eastward," the natives about the ship gave Commo- dore Weymouth, (whom tlicy called a Bashaba) to under- stand there was the place of the Royal residence^ the great mart of trade, " where their sovereign had plenty of furs and much tobacco !"
Here then, as a center of trade and the abode of their sovereign, must have been the Capital of this people.
COURT COSTUME.
Only the day before leaving Pentacost harbor, to enter
38 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
a newly discovered river, swept by strong tides, and enliv- ened with fish, some of which were seen "great leaping above water," about noon, " two canoes boarded the ship, laying still at her anchorage there, coming from the east- ward. They bore seven natives, beautified very gallantly after their manner, with newly painted faces, very deep, some all black — some red, with stripes of excellent blue over their upper lips, nose and chin. One of their number wore a ' coronef made very cunningly of a substance like stiff hair, colored red — broad, more than a handful in depth. Others had the white-feathered skins of some fowl round about their heads, and jewels in their ears, and bracelets of little round bones." Such was the courtly array of this envoy group, in their persons representing the Royal author- ity of their sovereign, bearing a message from their king to Commodore "Weymouth, as his ship lay under Fisherman's Island, west of Pemaquid, in Boothbay harbor ; for, con- tinues the narrative of the incidents of the voyage, " by their speech and signs, tlicy signified that the ' Bashaba,' (i. e. their king,) sent tlicm with an invitation, that Capt. Weymouth should bring his ' Quiden,'' (as they called it,) or ship, up to the Bashaba's house, being as they pointed, up on the main, toward the east, from whence they came."
TREACHERY OF WEYMOUTH.
But George Weymouth, in violation of all obl'gations, natural and moral, in utter subversion of all the rights of hospitalities shown him, and of confidence he had won in the hearts of these simple nature's children, had converted his ship into a prison house, and the subjects of the Bashaba into slaves. Two, confiding in the white man's faith, as they sped their light and fragile bark about the monster ship, were enticed on board, secured below, and their canoes " of so good a fashion, made with such excellent and ingen- ious art," were disposed on the orlop of the ship's deck, as
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 39
extraordinary curiosities. Three more, decoyed to the cliff side of the harbor-sheltering island, near which the ship rode, by tempting food and proposals for trade, with much ado, had been seized by their top-nots, and dragged aboard. m
Five natives of Pemaquid, and one a Sagamore, a resi- dent there, all subjects of the Bashaba, were at this moment immured in the Archangel's hold, unbeknown to the king's envoys, and in violation of the rights of the state, whose officers had now presented themselves, in execution of the behests of a courtly hospitality, desiring to lavish its favors on the treacherous stranger. " Conscience," it is said, " makes cowards of us all."
Weymouth declined the courtesies of the sovereign, whose subjects he had forcibly abducted, and made all haste from Pentacost harbor — Pemaquid, the home of the bow men, of their outraged chief, Nahanada, being too near, and in sight in the east.
FURTHER IDENTIFICATION OF LOCALITY.
De Laet ^ wrote, " that four leagues in the direction of the coast, to the north of Kenncbeck," (a course and dis- tance making the harbor of Boothbay,) " there is a bay having in its bosom a large number of islands."
The natives of this locality, he adds, are in some respects unlike the other aborigines of Maine. They shave tlreir heads to the crown * * * but suffer the hair to grow on the back part, confining it in knots, interweaving feathers of various plumage. They paint their faces black or red. Th;y differ, in that these natives plant corn and beans together, on which the vines run up. Besides, these sava- ges are said to have permanent abodes.
Of the natives visiting the Archangel, it was particularly noted " that nothing raw would be eaten by them, either flesh or fish."
1 "Williamson, vol. 1, p. 486, note.
40 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
We have been thus minute in descriptive detail, to bring out certain facts and chcumstances, estabUshing a relation- ship between the natives visiting Weymouth's ship, and the features and facts of the localities we have heretofore de- scribed. In the narratives above extracted, it will at once be seen that there are most striking and peculiarly concurring circumstances, coincident facts and features, unequivocally establishing a connection between the aboriginal people who stood on the decks of the Archangel in Pentacost harbor, two and one-half centuries ago, with those who were and have been dwellers about the head-waters of the Damaris- cotta, near whose mouth, west from Pemaquid, Weymouth's ship must have laid at anchor.
On her arrival at Plymouth, in England, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the commandant at that station, took from the Archangel three of the captured savages — found them all of the same nation, but different families and social condi- tion. He says they were from Pemaquid; ^ gives the names of those he had in charge, and drew out of them a full account, during a long and intimate acquaintance, " of the goodly rivers, stately islands and safe harbors" of their homes.
From the information thus derived, this nobleman dates his interest in Maine.
The misfortunes, the intelligence, the patriotism of these aboriginal children of the forests of Pemaquid, seem to have laid foundation in England of an interest in this part of the New World, which commanded the patronage, the power, and the wealth of her highest nobility, from the Lord Chief Justice up to the heir to the throne, which was absorbed in a series of movements, to secure the soil, develop the resour- ces, people the wild forest wastes of the so goodly region of Sagadahock ; which embraced the home of these five forlorn
» M. n. Col. p. 1 7, vol. 2.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 41
captives, of what was esteemed the most successful voyage of the Archangel in these waters. Tlie interest thus excited developed itself through a period of about a century and one half, in vast expenditures of means and influence, to found aiid rear a Royal State, in the wilds of old Lincoln.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the earliest and most reliable his- toriographer of Maine, relates " that the coasts were very populous, the inhabitants stout and warlike, in the place he and his friends first seated in," which was Sagadahock. He also tells us " the native government was Monarchical, the king bearing the title of Bashaba, whose own chief abode was not far ^ from Pemaquid."
pemaquid's whale fishers.
Rosier, the chronicler of the Weymouth expedition, tells us the Pemaquid captives, whose prison ship the Archangel was, on ship board, showed themselves " peaceable, kind hearted, generous, truthful and honest."
They were a people trained to orderly, dignified, and respectful deportment, but were a bold and fearless race, who were whalemen by profession, often pursuing and capturing this mammoth fish in our waters.
In this perilous sport, an army of boats gathered, in the foremost of which sailed their Bashaba, or king, heading the flotilla. In this array, they followed the wake of the snorting water-monster, till the Royal hand could reach him with " a bone made in fashion of an harping iron, fastened to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of trees, and veer out after him, as tlie stricken fish plunges into the watery abyss, in the vain hope of eluding his pursu- ers. As he seeks tlie surface to take breath, in his flight from death, the pursuing army of boats gather aboiit the opening he makes on emerging from the deep, and shoot the king-stricken fish to death."
'o
1 M. H. Coll. vol 2, p. C2.
42 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
DAMARISCOTTA THE SEAT OF ANTE-COLONIAL EMPIRE.
The facts we have grouped in these details, derived from the Pemaquid captives and their captors, must be reliable and authentic, as any historical data can well be, and are certainly remarkable indications of the origin and peculiar character of the ante-colonial dwellers here, and most cer- tainly point to the conclusion as a summary of these indica- tions, that the Archangel of the Weymouth expedition, must have had her anchorage Avhen the five natives visited her and were captured and abducted from their homes at Pemaquid, west from that point, near the lower waters of the Sheepscot, with the head-waters of the Damariscotta, (of whose mouth, Pemaquid is the eastern main land mar- gin,) bearing north-easterly, distant some fourteen miles, up a deep, broad inlet of tide waters, where ships of more than one thousand tuns have often swam to the sea !
I leave it for common sense to decide, whether these facts are not unequivocally suggestive, that up this inlet, above Pemaquid, to the eastward of Townsend harbor inland, was the abode of their king, whom they called Bashaba, to which the royal, crowned and feathered envoys invited George Weymouth to bring up his " Quiden," when they pointed him up on the main toward the east from whence they came ? and which would be the course up the river he should steer to reach the Royal abode ?
But more specific coincidences gather, as we review the details given, to shed light on the scenes of our ante-colonial
days.
The bone-made darts and javelins, and offensive weapons of this manufacture, the knowledge and use of copper ornaments and utensils, together with the use of tobacco in such extravagant forms ; the costume and array of their persons ; the mode of dressing the hair of their heads ; or- namental hair work as a part of the Royal vesture, or court
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 43
costume of the great officers of state ; the evidences of per- manency of abode and of a people " who would eat nothing raw ;" eminently a people of culinary tastes and habits, discoverable in the sites of ancient and eloq\ient ruin at the head-waters of the Damariscotta and on the Sheepscot at the entrance of the harbor of Boothbay, connect the people who visited the Archangel of Commodore Weymouth's ex- pedition in Pentacost harbor, as the dwellers there at that date.
The bone daggers, darts or " stilettoes," and the orna- ments of copper, which excited the admiration of our State Geologist in his exhumation of the bodies and remains of the ancient dead of Damariscotta, from the offal of their subsistence there — the little round pieces of perforated cop- per, in shape of Spanish coin of the size of a quarter, found as relics among the ruins of the Nekrangan, and the hair- wrought scarf, the badge of royalty, exhumed with the remains of the chieftain's body there dug up, together with the presence of the oyster ofHxl among the shell deposits here, where the oyster does not grow nearer than the head- waters of the Damariscotta and Sheepscot above — clearly and palpably establish an identity between the barbaric abo- riginal inhabitants of the lower waters of the Sheepscot, and the upper water settlements of the Damariscotta, together with the women and children of the people visiting Wey- mouth's ship, and the residents of the island dwellers on the Sheepscot, if not also with the savages of Gosnold's shallop vision!
The offensive weapons of bone manufactured above, and the perforated copper ornaments exhumed among tlie ashes of the dead below, with which the savage mother decked her savage babes, described by Weymouth, as seen on the persons of those who visited his ship at her anchorage in Pentacost harbor, are all rationally explained.
44 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
It can leave no doubt where the anchorage of Weymouth's ghip was, and from whence the people visiting her came.
"We think we have the best of ^ historic authoritij in proof that the Capital of the native Sovereign of Lincoln was with- in the precinct, not far from, but not at Pemaquid. Connect- ed with the natural features which we have traced, as mark- ing the locality of the historic Norumbegua, it seems to us there is strong presumptive evidence, that the royal abode of the Bashaba and Norumbegua were identical ; and that the ruins at the head-waters (and the only ruins that would be likely to survive an ancient vast aboriginal city, even of the material now used by us in building) of the Damaris- cotta, near the aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake — mark the seat of ancient empire — of wdiich the island city of lodges on the Sheepscot, at the "Ne-krangan" of native travel through the harbor below, was a sea-board town. Such is the con- clusion to which we are led by the facts.
ABORIGINAL NAMES.
We have reached the final stage in the investigation, in which we find that the analysis of our aboriginal names afford remarkable confirmation of the view taken.
The native Mexicans gave an account of the appearance of the Spaniards on the coast, by sending to Montezuma " a large cloth, on which they painted ^ what they had seen."
This fact is a type of the action of the native mind, in the expression of its perceptions.
It usually seizes on some leading physical characteristic, whose prominent features shape the sounds, articulated into the names of persons or places. Therefore, every sound entering into a name, in the aboriginal tongue, is rounded to fullness with significancy. The name is in fact
1 See Sir F. Gorges' account and statement.
2 Sullivan, p. 99.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 45
and was designed to be, a painting of the subject to which it was applied, taking strong impression from the moulding of the highly figurative cast of the savage conception.
It was not from letters, but '■'■ sonans voce,^'' that the names we have, were shaped from aboriginal lips, and dropped into the ear of history ; and hence it is not out of the orthography, but combination of sounds, we must pick the meaning.
Light has been shed on the darkness of aboriginal nomen- clature, from the pen of Hon. Wm. Willis, in the valuable and laborious research he has made into the meaning of Indian terms and the composition of the language, in the vocabulary he has gathered.
SIGNIFICANCY OF NAMES.
Guided by this light, in applying the principle we have developed, as a rule of interpretation, we reach the conclu- sion that Norumbegua is a series of words, and not a proper name, having in combination the possessive pronoun "N" of the native tongiie — the adjective " ourim," and the noun " pik," and represents three words; the pronoun "N," meaning our, the adjective "ourim," g'ood, in the sense of delightsome, pleasant, or excellent to the senses ; and the noun "pik," meaning a place of residence or home. To- gether, the words signify, our excellent residence ; more perfectly expressed, as our chief pleasant city !
Norumbegua and Arambec, are therefore of the same import, as names of the same aboriginal city. Cutting off the possessive prefix N as used in the Indian tongue, we have left, the suffix " orumbegua," all the sounds of which are fully expressed in Arumbec, as the great descriptive element in the body of the word.
ARAMBEC.
Arambec is therefore the true name, meaning chief city
46 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
or capital — residence of the king, place of the palace, as more freely and fully expressed in English ideas.
Not understanding the composition of their language, as the sounds reached the unaccustomed ears of the early voy- agers, who listened to the calls of native courtesy, to visit their sovereign at his capital, as they swept along our shores, pointing in the direction, the savages would say "Norumbe- gua ;" and sometimes in the earnestness of the invitation, only Arambec, i. e. to our chief city.
Tluis out of the ignorance of the narrators, grew up the confusion of names, as applied to the designation of their principal town, which confusion has left its impress on the page of history.
MENIKUK.
The ruins distinguishing the island settlement of the sear shore men, have a site, whose true aboriginal name, proba- bly, as heard by the earliest European settlers on the lower waters of the Sheepscot, was written " Me-ni-kuk," as hand- ed down by tradition, it may be from natives themselves. In this aboriginal word, every one will at once recognize our Ebenecook.
The patches of oyster shells dispersed in the offal of the clam — at Menikuk the main deposite — the manner of bury- ing their dead, the use of copper found in children's orna- ments there, and the vestiges of royal attire wrought in cun- ning work of hair, found among the remains of the exhumed body of a royal personage, prove that JMenikuk and Aram- bec were sister cities ; and of the residents in both places, were the ancient people visited and outraged by George Weymouth in the spring and summer of 1605.
The coalescence of the aboriginal sounds, articulated in "Menahan," meaning an island, and "Pik," a home, and " Auke," a place, so as to express " Menikuk," all will see, gives us for the name of the ancient city at the mouth of the
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 47
Sheepscot, " the island home,''^ or the place of the island home, as more fully expressed.
How expressive ! how graphic ! how appropriate ! Aram- bee, the good ; and Meuikuk, the island home! .
RACE INHABITING THESE CITIES.
At a period so remote from the scenes of the earliest European acquaintance with a people which like their forest wilds, have vanished in two centuries and a half, leaving on- ly the ruins of their homes, and the ashes of their unnum- bered dead, to mark the places which knew them, it is diffi- cult to identify the race, who, with their Arambec, delightful inland capital, had also their Menikuk, or island city on the coast.
Were they of that race called east-land men, known in history as the " Wa-wen-nocks," whose very name endows them with the highest excellences of humanity — "as a peo- ple very ^ brave, fearing nothing"? a people characterized as strong, active, healthful and witty ? the immediate subjects of the Bashaba, the grand sovereign of the east — the sway of whose scepter from its center near Pemaquid, to the boundaries of Massachusetts, was all potent? to whose court all the subordinate tribes paid savage homage, from the banks of Penobscot to the shores of the Merrimac? whose prowess the fierce Tarratine alone dared to brave ?
SUCCESSION OF RACES.
It was a race eminent in many important particulars, in the savage wilds of New England ; and the indications are in favor of the view, that the original stock here, at some very remote age, was supplanted, and their favorite places usurped by a new and stranger people — a victorious, all con- quering people — more elevated in the scale of intellectual
^ Williamson, vol. 1.
48 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
gradation, unique in character and polity, who subdued and expelled the native race, and reared upon their ruin a monarchical state founded in feudal power.
Unless vestiges of the bloody orgies and superstitious horrors of Druidical worship are here, where dark recesses of sheltering groves of oak, thick clustering on the margins of the water-courses, hill-tops and head-lands of Sagadahock, in the aspect of the primeval grandeur and solitudes, fur- nished fit temples in which its white-robed priests ever celebrated the rites of the Druidical religion, the excavat- ed, rock-embedded kettle-bottoms, found at or near Me-ni- kuk, are the work of an earlier race than that which greeted Gosnold in these waters. These people were a sea-going people, skilled in navigating the deep in sailing vessels, sloop-rigged craft, and had vessels of copper for culinary uses. The people here residing when Weymouth's ship, the Archangel, lay in Boothbay harbor, were mariners also, and pursued the Avhale for food, as a pastime.
These facts indicate, that a foreign and peculiar people now occupied the sites of Mcnikuk and Arambec of Pema- quid and Sheepscot.
During what vast migratory period, in the impulses of human existence, could this irruption have taken place ? Wliat epoch of the upheavings and outgoings of humanity, do the vast offal deposits of eating thousands described, mark in human history ?
From what shore did this overbearing tide of life set in ? Shall we look to the coasts of Norway ? or to the home of the Carib, near the fountains of the Gulf stream ? '
They were whalemen, and as experts in the practice of European fishers, in all the details of the methods of cap- turing this mighty fish by the process of harpooning, wor- rying and destroying the ocean monarch, we perceive the rudiments of the tastes and habits of life, on the northern shores of Europe ; and in the dress of their heads, weapons
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 49
of bone, knowledge and use of gold-colored ornaments of copper, and their love for tobacco and its culture, we find vestiges of the habits, tastes and peculiarities of a southern origin.
Did the vast copper-bearing mountains of the distant west, from the sources of Lake Superior, under some mighty throes of humanity pour out a stream of life from its teeming hordes in wild and tumultuous torrents upon our shores ?
But this is contrary to the analogies of past experience. The great flux of life is so exactly conformed to the centrif- ugal forces of the earth's motion — so palpably, that it has passed into a historic fact as a great migratory feature, that " west-ivard ho! the star of empire holds its way."
That such an irruption has at some period broken in, centering at the heart of Lincoln County, leaving there an exotic race from some distant shore, seems more than prob- able. In the distant echoings of ages, we seem to catch the voices of an earlier day in the cries of a receding people, forced from their homes in a concussion of races, calling to us and saying,
They i waste us ; ay, like April snow In the warm noon, we shrink away ; And fast they follow as we go
Toward the setting day, Till they shall fill the land, and we Are driven into the western sea.
The head-waters of the Damariscotta, as we have shown on strong circumstantial evidence, being the site of the capital of a race of sovereigns — the state residence of the great Wa-wennock Bashaba, not only solves the mystery of the vast ruins of a mighty race there, but also, the unex-
1 Drake's Book of the Indians.
50 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
plained historical reminiscences floating tlirough the distant past, over the aboriginal scenes of Lincoln County.
It will be perceived in this view, we have not ventured on entirely unsupported conjecture destitute of evidence in historic data, or vestiges still traceable on the earth's surface. We have the facts. We have traced the ruins. These cir- cumstances concur to drive us from the banks of the Penob- scot, to the head-waters of the Damariscotta, in search of the " Xorumbcgua," — the ruined Arambec of ancient fame.
SUGGESTIVE FEATURES.
Our explorations are eminently suggestive in the pregnant facts discovered.
The human remains, mingled with the offal of human subsistence, having a surface position, indicate that the hu- man bodies were left to rot where they fell, till buried in their own decay.
The circumstances thus marked with melancholy peculiar- ity in the history of savage life and times are full of meaning.
It is a point of heroism \>dth the savage brave, to rescue and bury the body of his fallen comrade ; and the remarkable non-observance of the custom here, clearly points to sur- prise, consternation and death at the hands of une:^pccted enemies, or by visitation of the rod of God, in a pestilence so dire and sweeping, as to give the living no time to bury the dead, but sought safety in flight from the scene of the dead and dying.
BASH ABA — HIS POWER AND ENEMIES.
Both these agencies may have operated. To the east and north-east of the dominions of the Bashaba, dwelt the peo- ple of the Tarratines,^ enemies of the Bashaba, wiio had
1 Gorges. M. H. Soc. vol. 2, p. 61.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 51
many. The Wawcunocks, ^ his subjects, dwelt on the Sheep- scot and Peniaquid ; but the fierce Tarratines occupied and held the waters of the Penobscot.
The Bashaba of the Wawennocks had powerful auxiliary subjects, western Sagamores, commanding " some a thou- sand— some fifteen hundred bowmen."
Mavooshen was the name of the territory, wherein was the seat of his dominion, which therefore was the aboriginal designation of the country watered by the Sheepscot and Pemaquid ; and on account of the proximity and facil- ities of water passage, the wild and ferocious Tarratine made forays into the Bashaba's country.
Thus the embcis of war were sown between the two sections.
A protracted border war grew up, and ripened into a cruel and exterminating conflict, within ten or twelve years after Weymouth's visit to Pentacost harbor. Varied success marked the progress of the contest, till the Tarratine by treachery, secured an opportunity to surprise the Wawen- nock sovereign, sacked his capital, and made captive his women and escaped.^ Pestilence trod hard on the heels of war, till the utter desolation of the Bashaba's dominions was completed. Arambec and Menikuk may have been the chief towns of the Wawennock race, the ruins of which, in ghastly grandeur mock our curiosity and baffle our research,
1 Me. Hist Soc. vol. 4, p. 97.— Willis.
2 " And also for that we have been further given certainly to know, that within these late years, there hath by God's visitation reigned a wonderful plague, together with many horrible slaughters and murders, committed amongst the savage ami brutish people there, ( i. e. Sagadahock, ) hereto- fore inhabiting, in a manner to the utter destruction, devastation, and depopulation of that whole territory, so that there is none left for many leagues together." — Extract from second Plymouth Patent, p. 105, Hazard's State Papers, vol. 1. King James' renewal and enlargement of Plymouth Patent, of Gilbert and Popham's Expedition.
52 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
tliougli a niglit of greater age, the shadows of a more hoary past gather over the scenes of their desolation.
ABORIGINAL NAME OF LINCOLN COUNTY.
We have reached the epoch of the dawn of the colonial existence of " Mavooshen," the aboriginal euphoneous name of Lincoln County, described as " a high country, full of great woods, goodly groves, and sundry sort of boasts; whose waters teemed with sea-foul, plenty of salmon, lob- sters, and other fishes of great bigness;" a region which two hundred and fifty years ago, was of surpassing interest and attractions, to the European fisher and furrier, as a source of speculation. The center of the earliest colonial projects from the proximity of its coasts to the waters of the best fishing grounds in the newly discovered continent, em- bracing a section of the coast-wilds of the new world, early remarkable for the attraction of the public interest, as well as for its deep bays, safe harbors, and magnificent river inlets, indenting its rock-bound and sea-girt shores, as we have shown, is no less remarkable now, for its ante-colonial historic interest and importance.
Hoary centuries in mournful succession bend in solemn
grandeur over the ashes of aboriginal kings and conquerors,
amid the unburied ruins of a race departed — a nation lost ! The silent, simple, unsculptured monuments of life and
death, in the places of their homes, are the most eloquent
mementoes of their being.
The earth's surface still bears the scars of the struggle
where " the silver cord was loosed, and the g-olden bowl
ivas hrokeny
" With the wan moon o'erhead, There stands, as in an awful dream The army of the dead ! White, as the sea-fog landward bound, The spectral camp is seen.
ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 53
" No other voice nor sound is there, No drum, nor sentry's pace — The mist-like banners clasp the air, As clouds with clouds embrace ; Encamped beside life's rushing stream, In fancy's misty light, Gigantic shapes and shadows gleam, Portentous through the night."
The historical interest of these scenes among the islands, bays, harbors, hills and valleys of this section, runs back of those in the historical data of Massachusetts. This very antecedence may account for the meager outlines of our earliest history, which have survived the ravages of war and the tooth of time, the importance of which has been hereto- fore overlooked, in the overshadowing greatness of our me- tropolitan neighbor.
But the historic reminiscences of Maine in interest and importance, begin to gather and glow over the early dawn of her day, with rising effulgence ; and we submit if it is too much to assume, that the day is not far distant, when the history of New England will have to be re-written, beginning with the records of the earth's surface in Maine ; and when, in the field of historic observation, as in the con- stellation of States, Maine will take her natural position, bearing aloft the motto of her escutcheon, "Dirigo — I lead."
CHAPTER 11.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY.
The first adventurers in search of a new home within the boundaries of these United States, were fugitives from scenes of bloody persecution in the horrors of St. Bartholo- mew's day, which the revocation of the edict of Nantz opened in the heart of Europe. Tliey sought an asylum and made a lodgment amid the wilds of America, allured by the hope of freedom to worship God, in the sunny south, and on the banks of the rivers of A. D. Florida. These were Frenchmen by birth and 1564. Protestants in faith. June 30.
GOSNOLD'S voyage to the VIRGINIA OP THE NORTH.
But the enterprise of commercial adventure, in the mean- while, had discovered and opened new sources of wealth in the fisheries of the coast of Maine — the ^ "Virginia of the northeril parts of America."
An entire generation had passed from the scene of human existence and action, and the dawnings of a new one had just began to break over the adorning hamlets on the banks of the rivers of Florida, when Bartholomew Gosnold, as he swept along our shores, in view of its 1602. deep bays and magnificent head-lands, from the deck of the Concord, "hailed a shallop of ^ European build,
Hackluyt papers, Mass. 11. Col. vol. viii, 3d series, p. 73-86.
56 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
manned with eight savages, the head man of whom was clad in a vesture of European fabric and costume. At early- dawn on Friday, having passed ' Savage Rock,' westward bound, (so called because the natives here first showed themselves,) land was seen, full of fair trees, the land some- what low — certain hummocks or hills lying into the land, — and the shore full of white sand and very stony.
" At noon, anchor was cast, when a barque ^ [bark] shal- lop with masts and sails and grapple and a copper Lat.43° kettle, came boldly aboard — one of the savages wearing a waist-coat and breeches of black serge, made sea-fashion — hose and shoes on his feet. The others were naked ; loose deer skins cast about their shoulders ; and on their waists, seal skins tied fast like Irish diminie trousers. Coming near, the savages were hailed from the ship, and they hailed back again.
" Incolor these people were swart, — their hair long, up- tied in a knot behind the head, — tall of stature, — broad and grim of visage, — their eye-brows painted white, — their weap- ons, bows and arrows."
A few years before, the largest ship of Gilbert's fleet, southward bound, in the latitude of Wiscassct, struck and was lost ; and through the recklessness of her company, near one hundred souls perished in the waters ^ of Shccpscot bay ; and near this scene of disaster without doubt, or " the river of the Kennebec," ^ Gosnold's colony could not be persuaded to remain, but returning with him to the back side of Cape Cod, began their " plantation at the Vine- yard."^
1 Bancroft, vol. 1, p. 91.
2 Sullivan, p. 272.
3 Strachey.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 57
■v»/-i'
PRING S VOYAGE.
Martin Pring, under patronage of merchantmen of Bris- tol, with two vessels following the track of Gosnokl, " found good anchorage among the islands in the 1603. Penobscot or Pemaquid Bay, — ^ Monhegan and Pem- aqiiid being in sight." He examined more in detail, the bays, harbors and rivers of our coast, carrying back a glow- ing account to England, of " the very goodly groves and woods and sundry sorts of beasts," which fairly started the energies of the old world into vigorous enterprises for set- tling the new, by colonizing her children there, lest some other people should forestall the purposes of England in this particular. Mons. de Monts, a protestant, but a Frenchman, with his fragments of a colony planted on the island St. Croix — where "hoary snow farther being come caught and held them fast till spring," had entered the Kennebec, reared a cross, and planted the arms of his sovereign.
The enthusiasm and interest of England being now thor- oughly aroused by the repeated glowing pictures of our wild and distant shores, — " distance lending en- 1605. chantment to the view," — drawn by every new voy- ager on his return, stimulated the public mind to new zeal and enterprise.
Weymouth's voyage.
Noblemen enlisted both fortune and influence in efforts to explore and secure to the enjoyment of their country the El Dorado of the west. Under the patronage of Lord Arundel, a voyage of deep interest and most important results to the Geographer and Historian was pro- jected. Two and one half centuries have elapsed Mar. 5,
1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 21.
58 . ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
10 A. M. since George Weymouth set sail at Ratcliff in the Archangel ^ for our shores.^ Running close by the wind, one month after his departure from England, urged by necessities of wood and May 6. water, to make the nearest land, in the forenoon he " came to a rippling" ahead of the ship — " a breach of water," caused by a fall or by some meeting of currents, " the weather being very fair, and a small gale of wind" — soundings were made, but no bottom with an hund- red fathoms.
Alarmed at a sudden change in the aspect of the water, soundings again made, gave but five fathom, and May 13. no land in sight. A man at mast-head, soon how- ever " descried a whitish sandy cliff, bearing W. S. W. with many breaches of the sea near to land" — and be- coming embayed with shoals on a most uncertain ground, " where was found a great store of most excellent cod fish and many whales were seen," the ship stood off all night, and the next day the wind S. S. W. and W. S. W.
Thus Weymouth, when he first made land and became embayed among shoals and sand, escaped the perils of Cape Cod.
MONHEGAN DISCOVERED.
It was on Friday, during evening twiliglit, that land was
again descried, bearing N. N. E. in the midst of a May 17. gale of wind and raging sea, which forbade an
approach to the unknown coast. The ship was put about and stood off till two o'clock on the morning of
Saturday, when she stood in toward what appeared May 18. " a mean ^ high land," but was found to be an
" island, six miles in compass, of a thousand acres"
1 John MeKeen, Esq. Belknap.
2 Mass. Hist. Col. 3cl series, vol. viii.
3 Some high land of the main. — Hubbard, p. 12.
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PERIOD OP DISCOVERY.
69
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PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 59
— oblong in shape, as fair a land to fall in with as could be desired — free from sands, rocks and shoals — of bold shore and good land fall — well stocked with sea-fowl, and the waters with large cod and haddock.
At noon, a league from the sliore on the north side of the island, whose margins were fringed with the gooseberry, strawberry, and wild rose, Weymouth anchored his ship. A boat's crew landed for wood and water, and discovered vestiges of human life in the remains of a recent fire. The main land from their anchorage here was seen trending from the W. S. W. to the E. N. E.
OBSERVATIONS, COURSES, AND DISTANCE OP THE ARCHANGEL IN SAILING IN TO THE MAIN.
Says the chronicler of this voyage, — "from hence we might discern the main land from the west-south-west to the east-north-east, and a great way ( as it then seemed and we after found it ) up into the main we might discern very high mountains though the main seemed but low land."
The text implies a distant inland prospect of mountain views, as land-marks, which " might" be discerned from the anchorage, under what is conceded to be Monhegan Island, though it is not positive that they could be fully seen, as they were only discerned, which implies dimness, as well as distance, of vision ; and the AVhite Mountains, showing in their magnificent outlines, terminating the view in the hori- zon of the distant west, along the valley of the Androscog- gin, would seem to answer the object of the narrator as well as the description he gives, which was, so to shade the local- ity of the exploration and discoveries as to lead foreign voyagers, who might follow, astray. " The ship riding too open and exposed to the sea and winds weighed anchor about twelve o'clock" (it being Sunday) May 19. and made sail for the main, — " coming along to the other islands more adjoining to the main and in the road
60 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
directly with the mountains, about three leagues from the first Island where we had anchored " — writes Rosier. Having run in about three leagues, which brought the Archangel near to islands more adjoining to the main " she came to in the offing and a boat was sent under command of Thomas Cam the mate, to discover and sound out a passage up between the islands. The Arch-angel lay off and on till the boat should give " a token to " wefife in the ship if a con- venient harbor were found" — which, in the language of the narrator, " it pleased God to send us, far beyond our expec- tation, in a most safe berth, defended from all winds, in an. excellent depth of water for ships of any burden, in six, seyen, eight, nine, and ten fathom, upon a clay ooze, very tough, and which was named Pentacost Harbor."
VESTIGES OF HUMAN LIFE.
By four o'clock the ship was anchored and well moored under an island, on which, as on St. George,^ the first-dis- covered and so named by them, now called Monhegan, it was found where a fire had been made ; and near by " the shells of very great eggs, bigger than goose eggs" — together with the bones of fishes and beasts. Tliesc evidences of the presence of human existence excited the curiosity of the ship's company ; and having discovered a place on the island suitable to build their shallop and fill their water, every way to their wishes, in their search they " espied cranes stalking on the shore of a little island adjoyning where it was afterward found this bird had its haunt, to breed and rear its young "; and to this day one of the islands off Boothbay Harbor is known to every fisherman as well as to tradition as " Heron Island," derived undoubtedly from the facts here given.
The material for the new boat was now taken on shore, and her frame set up, while the ship's crew digged for water,
1 Gilbert and Popham's voyage.
« "x^'j*
■^ f.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERT.
and finding a spring, in: make it well np, and in the lent clay for brick and ■
OCrTTP^TTOV
Yards and s|.ia:.-s lor boring forrst by so-~ Otbr- - : -■• ■ ^ '
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empty cask to found excel-
61
May 20.
•PAN-Y.
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V 1^at was but the crust
..d of the main land.
'i and ^^ atering finished, " fourteen muskrfr>r'r5
ive men embarked to explore the neighbor- ing "slands in the harbor ; landed on two of them Mav 24. and marched' over them ; one of which was a miL broad and four or five miles in compass, " — undoubtedly '■'■ Sr<nirr^'l Island and ( ivwagen "— the Nekrantran of
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tlie age, in marking ^ oarticularly witli ( •'setupci iorations liere."
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moored, witu J'ourteen men of her crew, re, while Commodore "Wev ■ nen, explored the new-dis- jSUy '60. ral approaches, finding
' • liuamson, p. 192, vol. i. note.
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PERIOD OF DISCOVERT. 61
and finding a spring, inserted an empty cask to
make it well up, and in their digging found excel- May 20.
lent clay for brick and tile."
OCCUPATION OF SHIP's COMPANY.
Yards and spars for the ship's use were cut from the neigh- boring forest by some — ^'the shallop hastened forward by others, — and great lobsters, rock-fish, and plaice were fished, — " all the fish being well-fed, fat, and sweet to the taste."
The soil of this island was broken with the spade and hoe for the first time ; and various garden seeds committed to the virgin earth, " which in sixteen May 22. days grew eight inches," in what was but the crust and much inferior to the mould of the main land.
Their wood and watering finished, " fourteen musketeers and Pike men embarked to explore the neighbor- ing islands in the harbor ; landed on two of them May 24. and marched over them ; one of which was a mile broad and four or five miles in compass, " — undoubtedly " Squirrel Island and Cape Ne-wagen" — the Nekrangan of the aborigines.
" To-day the new-built sliallop was launched, and a cross set up on the shore-side among the rocks," in accordance with the custom of the age, in marking May 29. new-discovered lands, and particularly with Com- modore "VTeymouth's policy, wlio " set up crosses ^ in several places, marking his explorations here."
FIRST VIEW OF THE NATIVES.
Tlie ship well moored, with fourteen men of her crew, was left at her anchorage, while Commodore Wey- mouth, with thirteen men, explored the new-dis- May 30. covered harl)or and its several approaches, finding
1 Holmes's Annals, p. 150. Williamson, p. 192, vol. i. note.
62 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
four entrances for ship passage and good anchorage in the sounds between its land-locking islands.
He then departed on an expedition inland, in his ship's boat. After he had gone from the ship, 5 o'clock, at night- fall, those remaining on ship-board espied three canoes coming toward the ship ; which touched and landing on an island opposite the ship's anchorage quickly made a fire, about which the savage boat's crew stood beholding her in wonder ; as if in vision they had
" Seen the great canoe with pinions, Seen the people with white faces, Seen the coming of the bearded People of the wooden vessel."
The ship's company with their hands and hats signalized a friendly mission, " weffing unto them to come unto us," says the narrator, " because we had not seen any of the people yet."
Then a canoe with three men put off for the ship, and when near to her, one of them " spake in his language, very loud and very boldly," as if he would know " why she was here ? " and pointing his oar toward the sea, motioned, " that she should be gone."
An exhibition of knives and their use, combs and glasses, on board the ship, drew the " canoe close aboard," to the evident delight of her company, who gladly received the bracelets, rings, and peacocks' feathers, with which they adorned " their hair and tobacco pipes " and then returned to their savage companions on shore.
DESCRIPTION OP THE NATIVES.
"With bodies painted black, — tlieir faces, some red, some black, and some blue, — " not very tall nor big" — they were a symmetrical and comely people, clothed with beaver and deer skin mantles, fastened at their shoulders, hanging to
PERIOD OP DISCOVERY. 63
their knees, and most without sleeves — shod with leather buskins, and their nakedness covered with a beaver flap. They wore no beard ; while the hair on the top of the head, " very long and very black," was tied up from behind into a long knot. Of quick perception and good understanding, they exhibited a courteous demeanor, mingled with kindness and gratitude*
" Their canoes are made without any iron, of the bark of a birch tree, strengthened within with ribs and hoops of wood."
Very early the canoe came along side, and the three natives were easily induced to come on board the ship and pass below, where they freely ate of the May 31. ship's provisions, but of nothing raw. The kettles, the armor, all excited their wonder ; and at the report of fire-arms the savages fell flat on their faces, exhibit- ing the greatest terror. It was given them to understand that the great object of the ship's visit to their shores was the exchange of knives &c. for beaver skins and furs ; on learning which, with evident satisfaction, all departed.
DISCOVERY OF A RIVER.
It was now ten o'clock, and to the surprise of the ship's com- pany, within twenty-four hours of her departure, the shallop Avas descried on her return ; and as she neared the ship, in token of her good news and success, she came " shooting volleys of shot ; " and when within musket range, adds the narrator, " the shallop's company gave us a volley and hailed us ; then we in the ship gave them a great piece and hailed them ; and so soon as we espied them we certainly conjectur- ed our captaiji had found some unexpected harbor, further up toward the main, to bring the ship into, or some river."
Abokiginal Boat. — The following description will present a good idea of the canoe of the aboriginal construction and use :
" Of the birch bark the savages make delicate canoes, so light that two
64 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Here we have in the text a decisive indication that Captain Weymouth, in his explorations of the harbor, had made an inland egress from the harbor northward, through which he had passed up into the main ; and following the tides, had unexpectedly fallen on his new discoveries, in the course of this passage. The north-west head of Boothbay Harbor terminates in such a passage by a deep, narrow gorge, in the native language called a gate-way, as part of the trail from the cast to the Kennebec, sufficiently deep to swim any ship — through which the ocean-tides rush up the broad and deep Sheepscot channel into Wiscasset Bay, and around the head of Westport through Monseag, and around Hocko- mock head into the Sagadahock opposite the city of Bath, the course from the harbor trending constantly to the west.
To resume the narrative, the chronicler adds, " our captain had in this small time discovered up a great river, trending alongst into the main about forty miles. * * * Por by the length, breadth, depth, and strong flood, imagining it to run far up into the land, he with speed returned, intending to flank his light horse-men for arrows, <fec. " leaving at the point on the river's banks where he had debarked, in a trail
men will transport one of them over land, and it will carry ten or twelve men by water. Sometimes canoes are made of pine trees, which, before the natives became acquainted with edge tools, they burned hollow, scrap- ing them smooth with clam and oyster shells, trimming their outsides with stone hatchets. These boats are not above a foot and a half or two wide, and twenty foot long. Thin birchen rinds, close ribbed on the inside with broad thin hoops, like hoops of a tub, very light, are the material for the other kind of canoes.
" In th'ese cockling fly-boats, wherein an Englishman can scarce sit with- out a fearful tottering, the natives will venture to sea where an English shallop dare not bare a knot of sail, scudding over the overgrown waves as fast as a wmd-driven ship, being driven by their paddles, being much like battledoors ; and if a cross wave turn her keel upside down, they by swim- ming free her, and scramble into her again." Young's Chronicle, see note-, p. 135. /
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 65
of human footsteps, a knife, a pipe, and a broach, all which, on his return, he found had been taken away."
Mutual congratulation was exchanged on the one hand for unexpected and successful discoveries ; and on the other, " in meeting kind civilities in a people where any spark of humanity was so little expected."
NATIVE TRADE.
The forenoon of the first of June was spent in trade on shore, where eight and twenty natives appeared, " and for knives, glasses, combs, and other trifles, June 1. we had forty good beaver skins, otter skins, sables, and other small skins which we know not how to call." The trade ended.
The natives now assured of the pacific disposition of their strange visitors, cast off reserve, and became free and fear- less, accompanied the fishermen who drew the net, and won- dered at the result ; admired the process of writing, and would " fetch fish and fruit bushes, and stand by me to see me write their names," says the chronicler of the voyage.
A source of the greatest wonder was the galvanic power of the point of the captain's sword electrified by the touch of a loadstone, " which would take up a knife and hold it fast when they plucked it away, or make it turn when laid on a block of wood, and lift a needle."
DEPORTMENT OF THE NATIVES.
Two were invited by the captain to sup with him and attend evening service on board, who behaved themselves with great decorum ; " but desired pease to carry on shore to their women," which were given them in " pewter dishes," " all of which were carefully brought again."
At their departure, some of the ship's company were in- duced to visit those on shore, where they found deer skins spread by the fire, for them to be seated on. To their guests
5
6Q ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
they oflfered tobacco, " which was excellent, being the simple leaf, strong, and of sweet taste."
Rosier took from one of their canoes, one of their bows and arrows, and drew it, finding it strong, able to carry an arrow five or six score strongly. One of the natives also took up a bow and drew it, and it was observed that he drew his bow after the manner of the English, and " not like the Indians. ^^
Their arrows were headed with the long shank bone of the deer, made very sharp, with two fangs in the manner of an harping iron. They likewise had darts headed with like bone, " one of which I darted among the rocks, and it brake not."
On the return of the party to the ships, Owen Griflin was left on shore, while three of the savages slept on board, who lodged in an old sail on the orlop, and were kindly treated ; " and because they much feared our dogs," says the writer, " these were tied up whensoever any of them came on board." On the Sabbatli, five or six canoes hovered about the ships ; but at a signal that they should depart till the next rising sun, all left, — some in their canoes, coursing about the island, and others directly toward the main.
On Monday, early, the natives came about the ship, by signs earnestly desiring that we would go with them June 3. to the main, where they had furs and tobacco for traffic.
They would {by pointing- to one part of the main eastivard) signify that their Bashaba, i. e. King, " there had great plen- ty of furs and much tobacco." Wherefore our captain man-
SPEED OF NATIVE CANOE.
ned the " light-horse man" with as many men as he well could, fifteen rowers in all. This we noted as we went along, that their canoe with three oars would at will go ahead of us and about us, when we rowed with eight oars strong.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 67
SUSPICIONS OF TREACHERY.
When we came " near the point" where we saw their fires, and intended to land, the gniding canoe sped away to their fellows on shore, after carefully and frequently having num- bered the ship's company.
This circumstance aroused suspicions of treachery in the mind of Weymouth, who determined not to follow, unless " he who at their first sight of them seemed to be of most respect among them — the kinsman of Nahanada, a chief — and being then in the canoe, would stay as a pawn."
But when the canoe came up, " he utterly refused ; but would leave a young savage, in whose place Griffin was sent in the canoe while the captain's boat lay hulling a little off."
griffin's story.
Griffin returned, and reported two hundred and eighty- three savages assembled, " every one with his bow and arrow, their dogs and tamed wolves," with nothing at all to ex- change, but seeming desirous to draw the company '•'■ further up into a little nook of a river, for their furs as they pretend- ed,"— called " Little River" to this day, and which longitudi- nally divides the point of Linikin's neck.
The ship's company took cod and haddock with hooks by the ship^s side this day, and lobsters very great, which they had not before tried to do at her anchor- June 4. age off" this island, where they had found " good wholesome, clear water in a great empty cask," which was left there as a well, and " a fit place, convenient to set to- gether a pinnace which had been brought in pieces out of England." Great muscles abounded among the rocks ; and in some of them many small pearls ; and in one of them " was fourteen pearls, whereof was one of pretty bigness and orient."
68 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
NATIVES KIDNAPPED.
It was now resolved to capture some of the natives and leave Pentacost Harbor, whose confidence having been se- cured, would make them an easy prey.
Two canoes soon boarded the ship, containing three natives each ; of whom, two went below to the fire, the others re- mained in their canoes about the ship, but could not be al- lured on board. A plate of pease was tendered to those still in the canoes, which was received by them, and with which they hasted to an adjacent island, there to eat them. Having finished the repast, one of the savages, young, comely and brisk, returned with the can to the ship ; and joined his com- rades on board below. The small ship's boat was now man- ned with seven or eight men, and dispatched to the shore, as if for traffic. As the boat's crew landed, one of the sav- ages " withdrew into the wood," but the other two met the party at the shore-side and received another can of pease, witli whom the surprising party " went up the clifl to their fires," and sat with them by it. They then suddenly seized on the savage group ; and it was as much as five or six of the sailors could do to get them into the lig^^t horseman, for they were strong and so naked that the best hold was by the long hair on the top of their heads.
" Thus," says the chronicler of the voyage, " we shipped five savages, two canoes with all their bows and arrows."
DESCRIPTION AND EXPLORATION OF THE HARBOR.
The harbor was thoroughly explored this day ; and " the Captain diligently searched the mouth of the har-
June 8. bor, and about the rocks ivhich sheia themselves at all times, and are an excellent breach of the water,
so as no sea can come in to offend the harbor" — a harbor
that can be entered "most securely in water enough hy four
several passages."
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 69
Soon after shipping the captured natives, who had come from their home at Femaquid to visit the ship, as she lay in her anchorage still, ahout one o'clock, " came from the east- ward two canoes aboard us," says Rosier, " wherein was he that refused to stay with us for a pawn ; and with him six other savages wliicli we had not seen before, who had beauti- fied themselves after their manner very gallantly with newly painted faces, very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes of excellent blue over their upper lips, nose, and chin. One of them wore a coronet about his head, made very cunningly, of a substance like stiff-hair colored red, broad and more than a handful in depth."
This costume indicated the royal relationship of the wear- er, the hair work being a part of the royal vesture, which the savage wearer so much esteemed that nothing could induce him to part with it. " Others wore the white feathered skins of some fowl, round about their heads, jewels in their ears, and bracelets of little white round bone."
This body of savages seem to have been a deputation ac- companying the Royal Ambassador, sent from the Bashaba to Captain Weymouth, desiring, says Rosier, " we would bring up our ship," or Quiden, as they call it, to his house, being, as they pointed, upon the main, towards the east from whence they came.
But Weymouth declined the Royal courtesy, and turned from the place of the Royal abode, and weighing anchor for the first time since he entered Penta- June 11. cost Harbor, made all sail, and with the kidnapped subjects of the Bashaba under hatches, residents of Pema- quid, the kinsman of one of whom the Royal messenger seems to have been, steered out of the harbor " and passed up into the newly discovered river about six and twenty miles."
Before leaving the harbor, a boat's crew landed on one of the islands of this harbor anchorage, " having a small sandy
70 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
cove for small barks to ride in, and hard by the shore a pond of fresh water, which flowed over the banks, somewhat overgrown with little shrub trees, fed by a strong run."^
MAGNIFICENCE OF THE SAGADAHOCK.
All were struck with the beauty of its head-lands and grandeur of aspect, as the ship winged her way up this river " for the river itself, as it runneth up into the maine very nigh forty miles toward the great mountains, beareth in breadth a mile, sometimes three-quarters, and h\ilf a mile at the narrowest, when you shall never have under four and five fathoms water hard by the shore, and on both sides every half mile very gallant coves." After a sail of about twenty-six miles, the ship reached her river anchorage.
APPEARANCE OF THE SITE OF THE CITY OF BATH.
With the light horseman, or gig, the Captain, with seven- teen men, left the Archangel riding at her anchor- June 12. age, opposite the " Gut," or the entrance to the inland " passage to Boothbay Harbor, from the Sagadahock, and rowed up the river to the " cod thereof," where all landed but six to guard the boat. Ten of them, with a boy to carry the powder- and match ,^ some armed, marched up into the country toward the high mountains descried at their first falling in with land, and which had seemed very near, within a league, but after travelling a
1 In Prince's N. E. Chronology', it is asserted " that Captain Weymouth first entered the Pemaquid" (which he must necessarily have done, if he approached Boothbay Harbor, by Liniken's neck sound) " and then sail- ed up the Sagadahock," the harbor lying about midway between the two rivers — and, it is added, that Weymouth brought from these rivers five na- tives, of whom were " Manida, Sketwarroes and Tisquantum." N. E. Chron. J). 15.
2 The fire-arms were the old fashioned match-lock musket ; the flint-lock and modern percussion being unknown.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 71
league and a mile they passed only three hills. In their march, the party " passed over very good ground, pleasant and fertile, fit for pasture, for the space of some three miles, having but little wood, and that oak, like stands left in the pastures of England, good and great, fit timber for any use."
" And surely it did all resemble a stately park, wherein appear some old trees with high withered tops, and other flourishing with living green boughs. Upon the hills grew notable high timber trees, masts for ships of four hundred ton." Such was the aboriginal forest aspect of the peninsula, on which the present city of Bath is located, when its land- scape in native wildness was first opened to the admiring gaze of the adventurous white man, whose foot for the first time trod its virgin soil, and sought rural delights amid its clusters of mighty pasture oaks. How grand and refreshing must have been the view, as the ship's boats rowed up that magnificent reach on the margins of which the city stands !
REAPPEARANCE OP THE BASHABA'S MESSENGERS.
On return of this river exploring party, in rowing back to their ship, " they espied a canoe coming from the further part of the cod of the river eastward, (i. e. from the harbor they had just left, by the gut ^ ) which" says the narrator, " hasted to us, wherein with two others was he who refused to stay for a pawn."
Note. — If Capt. Weymouth's Pentacost harbor be identical with Booth- bay, near and in sight from Pemaquid, north-easterly, where lived his cap- tured natives, the Archangel may have followed the flood tide, leaving the harbor by its inland passage, bearing west up the Sheepscot, by way of Wiscasset to the Sagadahoek, entering the Kennebec opposite Bath. By the inland route, it would be from twelve to fourteen miles to Wiscasset, and twelve miles from thence to her anchorage, near where the city of Bath now stands, making about twenty-six miles.
1 Is this the ancient by-river Sasana ? ,
72 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Discovery of the treachery of their white visitors had now been made ; and the very day after the Archangel had left the harbor below, the savage Prince, who had become known by his authority, dignity and cautious bearing, costume and frequent appearance in behalf of his Sovereign, at the ship, with his people in the harbor, had followed her to the new an- chorage in the river, from the east ; and was now just emerg- ing into sight between the opening head-lands of bold shores, where the Kennebec yawns to swallow in the Sheepscot tide waters opposite Bath. With the haste and earnestness of affection and solicitude, these savages endeavored to secure one of the ship's company as an hostage for the safety of his brother or kinsman, now a prisoner in that ship, having been of the number of those abducted, in the harbor below, belong- ing to Pemaquid, and immured in the Archangel's hold.
EXPLORATIONS OF THE RIVER.
A company, well armed and provided, again embarked in the small boat, and went up from the ship to that
June 13. part of the river ivhich trended westward into the main, to search that, and carried with them a cross
to erect at that point, which they left on shore till their
return, where it was set up in like manner as the former had
been, on the island.
ARCHANGEL TOWED TO THE SEA.
Having fallen in with so bold a coast, found so excellent and secure a harbor, " discovered a river above report nota- ble," up which he rowed from his anchorage, by estimation, twenty miles, making less than three-score miles from the place of his ship's riding- in the harbor, observing — " that from each bank of this river are divers branching streams into the main, and that here was great store of fish, some great, leaping above water, which were judged to be salmon" — Weymouth made all expedition for his return to England.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 73
Before the gray dawn of moruing had broken over the head-lands of Arrowsic, with the tide in his favor, and two boats ahead, the Archangel was unmoored, June 14. and towed down the Sagadahock, and anchored be- fore noon.
The remainder of the day was consumed in sounding out the entrance to this river from the sea. On Saturday, with a breeze off land, anchor was once more weighed, and the ship ran back to the harbor to her watering place, when the Captain, upon a rock in the midst of the harbor, observed the height, latitude, and variation upon his nautical instru- ments, and found the Lat. 43 deg. 20 min., and on Sunday, the wind fair, the ship finally put to sea, June 16. homeward bound for England.
IDENTIFICATION OP THE HARBOR.
Such is a sketch of the account of Rosier, the chronicler of this important voyage. We have been thus full in noting all the important facts in detail, as it is believed modern received history is utterly at fault and founded on mere as- sumption, in reference to the location of the scene of Wey- mouth's explorations.
Strachey, a cotemporaneous writer, has thrown much light on this expedition, in giving us the aboriginal names of the rivers entered and explored by Weymouth, which from motives of state policy were withheld in Rosier. Strachey expressly fixes the localities, saying of Wey- mouth, that among other discoveries made, was that of the ■' little river of Pemaquid, and that most excellent and beneficial river Sagadahock — up which he searched for gixty miles." ^
In the account transcribed are sketched many physical features which will ever mark the island under which, and
1 M. 11. C. vol. 3, p. 287. Mass. II. C. vol. 5, 2d series, p. 12.
74 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
the harbor in which Weymouth moored his storm tossed ship. No course being given in tlie text, as to their show- ing, or any other indication, but tlie fact that there were " very high mountains, very far up into the main — discern- able from the anchorage under Monhegan Island" — the legit- imate inference is that Weymouth stood in for the main in the line of vision of the summit of Mount Washington, in the White Mountain group, discernable in the distant west and north ; and the islands about three leagues distant, adjoining to the main, in the " road directly to these moun- tains,^^ must have been some of the inner islands of the Damariscove group which land-lock Boothbay Harbor. So the course of Weymouth from his anchorage under Monhe- gan was westward and not eastward. It would seem to one familiar with the localities, that the ship passed into the harbor, by Pemaquid point, through the sound, between Liniken's Neck and Fisherman's Island ; and then coming too, anchored between it and Squirrel Island. The northern extremity of Fisherman's Island (ancient Hippocras ?) is a rounded swell or cliff shore, under which, on the west side, a cove makes in, convenient for landing to wood and water. A cable's length from the shore of this island, and off the cove on the harbor side, is good fishing ground by the side of the ship Avhcre she lay, a circumstance peculiar in itself to the ivaters on the harbor side of this island, and where doubtless the Archangel lay at anchor. Entering at the point of Liniken's Neck, dividing it like a great fissure, is the " little nook of a river, ^^ immediately off " Fisher- man's Island," landward, north, a mile distant, into which tlie natives sought to decoy Weymouth, under pretense of trade. Nearly parallel to Fisherman's Island, a mile distant within the outer harbor, is Squirrel Island, with " a pleasant sandy cove for small barks to ride in," on the west side, into which the swamp of Weymouth's " pond of fresh water" still empties its runlet to the sea ; and it was withcut
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 75
doubt, on the beach of this island, over against the ship's anchorage, that the natives at first showed themselves stand- ing about their fires, gazing on the ship ; while on the cliff side of Fisherman's Island, near to the ship and her water- ing place, two of the five captured natives were taken ; and the naked reef of bare rocks, called the " Hipocrits" off the northern and eastern slope of this island, together with the " four" well known ship channels, entering from the east, south east, south and north, all clearly identify Booth- bay with the Pentacost harbor of Weymouth, discovered in 1605, and which alone is capacious enough to hold the naval fleets of any nation at once.
The newly constructed shallop, framed in England, built and launched in the rock sheltered haven of Fisherman's Island, probably made her first excursion from the harbor, by the inland passage north-westerly across or up the waters of the Sheepscot and the bay of Hockomock, through to the Sagadahock, opposite Bath ; where Weymoitth " discovered" to his surprise, " a great river," which he imagined ran " far up into the land, by the breadth, depth and strong flood ;" and following the broad reach of the mouth of the Androscoggin, which trends west into the main and flows from the White Mountains, he explored that river as a part of the Sagadahock.^
Near the center of Boothbay Harbor, Burnt Island, a rocky eminence, lifts its bare bald surface above the waters of tlie bay and harbor, on which the United States Govern- ment has reared a harbor light. Here, doubtless, or on Tumbler Island, Weymouth erected the observatory for his nautical observation.
The natural features thus enumerated, which neither time nor decay can efface from the earth's surface, and which are in no way dependent on mere hypothesis, but exist now as
1 John McKeen, Esq.
76 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
they did then, as facts, to one famihar with the locahties, can leave no doubt that the Pentacost Harbor of Weymouth is the Townsend or Boothbay Harbor, situated at or between the waters forming the entrance to Sheepscot and Dam- ariscotta rivers. It is two and one half centuries since Weymouth, escaping from the embaying shoals and quick sands of Cape Cod, touched at Monhegan Island a month and one half after leaving England. In three days " more, steering directly in the road with the very high mount- ains, showing a great way up the main, at noon he came along to the other islands more adjoining to the main, about three leagues distant" from the first, under which he had anchored, wlien his ship entered among these islands, was safely moored in a harbor " defended from all winds, in an excellent depth of water for ships of any burthen — where was good mooring even near the rocks by the cliff side."
He had now fallen in with a land most prolific in all the resources of life — peopled with a numerous, courteous, ingenious and confiding race — the fairest specimens of abo- riginal humanity, as yet unsullied by the white man's touch, untainted by the approach of civilized life. Their inter- course, auspiciously begun, was clouded by acts of treachery, of which the white man seemed most capable, as he was the most adroit and successful in executing. A party of four natives of Pemaquid, of whom three were decoyed on board, (one of whom being made a victim to his own honesty,) were secured below, and two were seized by force and dragged from the cliff top of the island, almost in sight of their Sovereign's Capital, by the hair of their heads, and immured on shi|>board. They were all persons of more or less distinction among their fellows and one was a chief- tain. Their names were Nahanada, Sagamore ; Skitwarrocs, Assecoinct,* Tisquantum, Dehamida, all of whom Avcrc
1 John McKeen's Voyage of Weymouth, p. 332.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 77
taken to England, fell into the hands and became objects of interest to the nobility, lived there about three years, and acquired the English language, gave a full account of their people and country, exciting a deep public interest in them- selves and their home, and returned as guides and interpret- ers to succeeding voyagers ; and thus all were restored again to their people and country.
The return of Weymouth closed the era of discovery ; fully confirming the public interest in efforts to secure so desirable a land of magnificent harbors, rivers and goodly forests, introducing and opening the period of settlement.
Thus we have given the main incidents, facts and circum- stances as they transpired in the earliest explorations of this region, together with the personal appearance of the aborig- inal settlers on the waters of the Pemaquid, Shcepscot and Kennebec, at their first introduction to the white race ; and also the primitive aspect of our harbors, rivers, and head- lands, making up the landscape of the " Ancient Dominions of Maine," when its primeval forests in hoary grandeur towered on its hill-tops and shaded its dells, — realizing to our eyes, visions of rural magnificence, overspreading our naked landscapes, now in strange contrast, shorn and marred by the wood-man's axe — which two hundred and fifty years ago, excited the admiration of Europe, and made Pemaquid, Sagadahock and Sheepscot the most attractive of all the localities of New England, in the eyes of the nobility of old England.
SUMMARY.
Note. — 1. All the most reliable and best informed cotemporaneous history locates the scene of Weymouth's discoveries at and near Pema- quid, and in the Kennebec or Sagadahock section thereof.
2. The main incidents and facts indicative of the course steered from under Monhegan all lay -west from Pemaquid, the home of the captured natives.
78 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
DISCOVERY OF FISHING GROUNDS.
Weymouth in his passage homeward bound, having run some thirty leagues from land, by his lead found the water shoaling from one hundred to twenty-four fathoms. While laying with sails furled, becalmed, the boatswain, Thomas King, " cast out a hook ; and before he jiidged it at ground, was fished and hauled up an exceeding great and well fed cod ; and then there were cast out three or four more ; and the fish were so plentiful and so great, some playing witli the hook they took by the back, and two at a time. It was now perceived they were on a ' fish-bank.' " The waters of Maine had been frequented by continental fishermen at a very early period. The island of Monhegan, together with the Damariscove group, land-locking the harbor of Booth- bay, soon became noted depots for tlicir fisheries.
INTEREST EXCITED IN EUROPE.
The section of country embracing the new discovered harbor and rivers of Pemaquid and Sagadahock by Wey- mouth— the home of his captive aborigines — had become a point of absorbing interest and speculation to the old world.
All eyes were directed to it, and all commercial enterpris- es and colonial adventures were shaped to secure that land of magnificent harbors, rivers and forests, now opened in the west.
Two years had elapsed since Weymouth's return. Under the freshened impulse of his discoveries, the Chief Justice
3. The distant White [Mountain views arc more in accordance with the expressed purpose of Rosier, as land-marks, obscurity being his design in the description he gives — the Camden hilU as land-marks would tlierefore have made the locality too palpable.
4. The occupancy of the Kennebec by the colony, for whose settlement the exploration was made, rather than the Penobscot.
PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 79
of England, Lord Popham, organized an expedition to col- onize the goodly land. The narrative of the expedi- 1606. tion and the details of the voyage, we have. In the quaint style of the pure Anglo-Saxon, a record of the voyage, taken probably from the log-book of the expedition, has been preserved ; and gives to our eyes a most graphic picture of the natural features of the Kennebec, when her banks and unshorn head-lands were cloaked with mighty primeval forests of oak and pine, ere the white man's axe had cleared, or liis hoe had broken the virgin soil.
CHAPTER HI.
SETTLEMENT.
ADVENTURES OP GILBERT AND POPHAM AT THE MOUTH OF THE
KENNEBEC.
Strachey, the historian of this voyage, was a man of intelligence, and as secretaiy of the company, must have had access to the most authentic material. Sir John Popham " prepared a ' tall ship,' well furnished, belonging to Bristoll and the river Severn, with many planters, which sett out from Plymouth about Maye" * * * "to settle a plantation in the river Sagadahock." Thus the narrator begins his story, after noticing the interest excited in the- public mind by the account of the islands and attractive- harbor, and of the rivers Pemaquid and Sagadahock, then first explored by the voyagers of Weymouth just returnecL with several of the natives. But the " tall" ship of Popham. sailhig in the path of a Spanish fleet, whose commander learning her destination and the object of the voyage, was made a prize and taken to France.
This disaster did not discourage the Chief Justice of England, nor lead him " to give over his determination to plant a colony within the aforesaid so goodly a country upon the river of Sagadahock."
82 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
JOURNAL EXTRACTS FROM THE VOYAGE.
The next year he fitted out a good ship " called the Mary and John of London, and " a fly boat called the 1607. Gift of God," wherein George Popham commanded, and Raleigh Gilbert in the other, with more provis- ions and a larger company of " one hundred and twenty planters," who set sail from Plymouth in June.
Always keeping their course to the westward as much as wind and weather would permit, on the 25th, fell in with islands, where they took in wood and water, and then again put to sea and ran " a course to the west and west- nor-west, as the wynd would give leave," till the July 27. lead brouglit ground in twenty and twenty-two fathom upon a bank near the 43d parallel. Here, in the language of the narrative, they fished some three hours ; " and tooke neere two hundred cod, very great fish, and where they might have laden their ship in little tyme." From hence, they again made sail, and stood for the main, the wind south-west ; and as they ran for the land from this bank, a north-west course, some thirty-six miles, soundings gave an oozy black bottom in sixty fathom. The wind .was scant, and our voyagers were forced to haul further south- ward in their course, and steering south-west, away, sound- ings gave them thirty fathom, on fishing ground of small
stones and white shells. 29th. They held a west course till noon ; when sound- ings gave black oozy bottom and one hundred and sixty fathom. 30th. In the morning, bearing north west, land hove in sight, thirty miles distant ; and one hundred fathom, black oozy bottom was brought by the lead.
They stood for the land, and as they could not fetch in before dark, they about ship, and lay " a hull, all that night," finding abundance of fish, " very large and great ; "
SETTLEMENT. 88
water, eighteen to twenty fathom deep — "hard abourd the shore."
THE SPANISH SHALLOP.
After mid-day, still running toward land, they found the coast full of islands — water deep hard aboard of them — safe passages for shipping round them ; under 31st. one of which they cast anchor. In two hours after anchorage, a Spanish shallop pushed off from the shore towards the ships, containing eight savages, and a native boy. They rowed about the ships ; but ventured not to board at first, though tempted by a display of knives, food, beads and trinkets.
Having satisfied their curiosity, the natives made a feint to depart ; but soon turned back ; when three of them came boldly into the vessel, while the others made for the shore, with intimations of a return next day.
The same natives returned in another shallop, laden with beaver skins, accompanied by their wo- Aug. 1. men. Their purpose now was trade.
At midnight, the moon shining brightly, and with the wind fair to the north-east, our voyagers set sail, 2d. standing along the range of the coast south-westerly.
BOOTHBAY AND KENNEBEC.
In the morning, very early, within three miles of land, they discovered many islands, with navigable 3d. sounds betwixt ; but " they made proof of none of tlicm."
This morning found the ships off a cape or head- land, " The cape is low land, shewing white, like 4th. sand, but yet is all white rocks — and a strong tyde goeth there."
The head-land thus described may have been Cape Small Point, the terminus of the peninsula of the town of Phips-
"54 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
■burg on the west, and bounding the bay of Sagadahock ; the flux and reflux of whose waters created the " strong
tyde which goeth there." 6 & 7th. The ships were brought to anchor under the lee
of an island ; which, on finding Weymouth's cross still erect, in memorial of his visit the year before, they knew was St. George.
Their anchorage lay inside Monhegan toward Pemaquid, " four leagues" distant ; and about midnight Capt. Gilbert caused his ship's boat to be manned with fourteen of liis crew, together with Skitwarrocs, wlio had been kidnapped by "Weymouth near Townsend Harbor, but now returned to liis people and home, as a guide and interpreter.
LANDING AT PEMAQUID.
Tliis company embarked in tlie boat, rowing westward, from where the ships lay, for Pemaquid river, where the party landed on the main.
Skitwarrocs, undoubtedly entirely liimiliar with all the localities of his birth place, conducted them at once to the " salvages houses, of a hundred men, women and children."
ADVENTURES ON THE MAIN.
There they found Nahanada (who had been a fellow captive with Skitwarrocs, under tlie decks of Weymouth's ship,) the chief man of the settlement.^ On tlie first appearance of Gilbert's boatmen, the natives seized their weapons, exhibit- ing a hostile attitude ; but Skitwarrocs and Nahanada meeting each other, and the party being discovered to be English- men, the natives relaxed their hostile aspect, and their chiefs embraced and welcomed them. Two hours were spent in cheerful and happy greetings, when the party of Gilbert " returned abourd again."
.; 1 See Popham's letter, Me. Hist. Col. — Latin.
SETTLEMENT. 85
SABBATH SERVICES.
The Sabbath dawned. The chiefs of each ship with most of their company, landed on the island ; and Mr. 9th. Seymour, their chaplain, delivered a sermon ; and re- ligious worship was celebrated under the cross of Weymouth.
HOSTILITY OF THE NATIVES.
Capt. Popham manned his shallop and Gilbert his boat, the company numbering fifty persons, and 10th. embarked for the mouth of Pemaquid. Skitwarroes accompanied them. On reaching land, Nahanada with his braves received them with distrust ; and as the boat party came opposite and in front of their homes, the natives would not " willingly have all the boats' people come on shore."
DESERTION OF THEIR GUIDE.
An hour was spent in negotiations, when the whole body of natives suddenly withdrew to the woods, and Skitwarroes with them. Their distrust is not to be wondered at, when it is remembered the treachery of Weymouth two years before must have been yet fresh in their minds, and the wrong still rankling in their hearts ; and some demonstrations must have been made, which inspired Popham's company with apprehension, " for he rowed to the other side of the river," — probably to the Bootlibay shore near Hodgdon's Mills — " and there remained for the night."
On the eleventh, toward evening, the whole party returned to their ships, " which still rode under St. George's island" — after having undoubtedly entered and explored the mouth of the Damariscotta river, to the western mar- gins of which it would seem they had retired from before the menacing bowmen of Nahanada at Pemaquid.
DEPARTURE FOR SAGADAHOCK.
" They weyed anchors and sett saile to goe for the river of Sagadahoc." 12th.
86 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
They were south off Seguin island, a league dis- 13th. taut — " but they did not take it to be Sutquin."
THE GALE.
" Soe the weather being very fair, they sought the islands further to the westward," — became soon becalmed, and were forced to remain at sea, having overshot their island mark. At midnight a mighty storm arose, and bore them on a lee shore, and in danger of being wrecked, — "by reason they were so neere the shoar and could not gett off, — the wynd all the while south, and yt blew very stiffe, soe as they were compelled to turn yt to and agayne" — i. e. — to stand off and on.
" Soe soon as the daye gave light," finding themselves
hard " abourd the lee shore" in the bay they were 14th. in the day before, — (Broad Bay?) — they looked
for a place to " thrust in the sliipp to save their lives." In towing their boat, " yt laye suncke at the sterne two howers and more." Then putting up the helm, they stood in for the shore ; " when anon they perceived two little islands," for which they made, and finding good anchorage, ( George's Island harbor ? ) there rode out the gale. Here they freed their boat. Upon one of the islands they found "four natives — one a female," — the "islands all rockye and full of pine trees."
The storm ceased, and the wind came fair for them to
go to Sagadahock, — the river whither they were 15tli. bound. The wind was off shore, and running in
under Seguin, they could not get into Sagadahock. The ship then came to anchor, but the fly-boat worked into
the river. 16th. In the morning, Popham sent out his shallop to
help in the ship. It being calm, the ship weighed anchor and was soon towed up " and anchored by the Gift's side."
SETTLEMENT. 87
ENTRANCE AND DEBARKATION AT THE MOUTH OP THE SAG- AD AHOCK.
Popliam in his pinnace, and Gilbert in his long boat — the one carrying thirty, and the other eighteen men, at morning light rowed from the ship into the river 17th. Sagadahock, in search of a place to found the home • of their colony. They sailed up far into the interior, and " found yt a very gallant river," very deep, and seldom less water than three fathoms ; and returning the same day, they observed many " goodly islands therein, and many branches of other small rivers falling therein."
SELECTION OF A TOWN SITE.
All went on shore, and there made choice of a place for their plantation, " at the mouth or entry of the river on the west side, (for the river bendeth yt self to- 18th. wards the nor-east and by east,) being allmost an island of a good bigness, in a province called by the Indians Sabino, so called of a Sagamore, or chief commander, under the grand Bashaba."
MEETING WITH THE NATIVES.
This day gave the company their first view of the aborig- inal inhabitants of the Kennebec. " Three canoes full of Indians came to them ; but would not come neere ; but rowed away up the river." These undoubtedly were river natives and strangers ; and not of the tribe to which Naha- nada and Skitwarroes, the captives of Weymouth belonged, who were residents and natives from about the mouth of the Damariscotta, near Pemaquid, and of the tribe of the Wa- wemiocks.^
1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 28.
88 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
POSSESSORY SERVICES AND RITES.
Formal rites and ceremonies were this day performed in taking possession of the site of their plantation by a 19th. solemn consecration of the spot, in acts of public religious worship, the civil organization of their body and the promulgation of their laws. A sermon was preached (the second on New England shores,) and George Popham was chosen Governor ; Capt, Gilbert, James Davis, Rev. Richard Seymour, Richard Davis, and Capt. Harlow were sworn assistants.
BREAKING OF GROUND.
Possession having been thus acquired, and the place of their choice consecrated and made secure by all the forms which Religion and Law could suggest, the company re- turned to their ships.
All were summoned to the work of breaking 20th. ground in the erection of a town ; and on reaching their previously selected site, they " there began to entrench and make a fort and to build a store house." For the eight succeeding days all labored diligently in raising the fort ; and the carpenters in stretching the keel of the first vessel launched on the waters of New England, which was from the banks of the Kennebeck, the President over seeing and directing all.
EXPLORATIONS. ^
To-day Capt. Gilbert departed on a voyage of dis- covery westward, sailing by " many gallant islands." 28th. At night the shallop anchored under a " head-land — the wynd comyng contrary — called by the Indians Semiar mis " — now Cape Elizabeth — " the land exceedingly good and fertile, as appeared by the trees growing thereon being goodly and great." Native canoes passed, but would not come near the shallop ; and having entered Casco Bay and sailed
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SETTLEMENT. 89
through some of its magnificent sounds, on the 30th " they returned homeward before the wynd, sayhng by many goodly and gallant islands." To the 5th of Sept. all were engaged in erecting their new homes and completing their fortified works.
RETURN OF SKITWARROES.
" About noon, there came into the entrance of the river Sagadahock and soe unto the fort " — where the people were at work — •' nine canoes with forty savages in them, men, women, and children," Skitwarroes and the Pemaquid chief Nahanada, with Sasanoa among them. They were kindly and hospitably entertained by President Popham, and re- mained some two or three hours, when they withdrew to the opposite shore, while Skitwarroes and others remained at the fort till night, when Gilbert, Jas. Davies, and Elias Beast visited the encampment and there tarried during the night. Early in the morning the natives embarked for the eastward and returned to the river of Pemaquid.
UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR PENOBSCOT.
The labor on the fortified works still employed all Sept. hands. On the 8th Capt. Gilbert and twenty-two 6 & 7. others eml)arked in the shallop for Penobscot river.
Early in the morning of the 11th, they reached Pema- quid, found their savage friends had gone before them ; " and all that day, as likewise the 12th and 13th, they sayled and searched to the eastward, yet by noe means could find the river." To the 22d all were engaged on the fort and store-house.
ADVENTURES UP IN THE INTERIOR.
It would seem Capt. Gilbert was the explorer of the
Note. — Why did not Capt. Davis, a companion of Weymouth, know where to find the Penobscot ?
90 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
expedition, and on his return from his fruitless search for the Penobscot, an examination of the Kennebec to its navi- 23d. gable head was projected. So on the date here given, Gilbert and nineteen of the expedition embarked in the sliallop, " to goe for the head of Sagadahoc." On the after- noon of the 24th, the party reached a champaign country, very fertile. Early in the morning of the 2Cth, they em- barked and sailed along until reaching a low, flat inland, where a great cataract or downfall or water — " which run- neth by both sides of this island very shold and swift " — stayed their progress. It is quite probable that the explorers had followed the broad reach of the Androscoggin to the westward, instead of the more tortuous and latent stream of the Kennebec, where both rivers unite in Merry-meeting Bay, and had now reached the falls at Brunswick.
FACE OF THE COUNTRY AND DISCOVERIES.
Grapes, hops, garlic &c. abounded on this island. They forced their boat through the downfall by hauling her with a strong rope, and advanced a league further up the river. Here they encamped for the night. In the early evening, in broken Englisli, savage voices were heard calling from the opposite shore — to which our voyagers replied.
In the morning a canoe approached, in which a sag- 2Gth. amore and four iiatives visited their encampment.
The chief's name was " Sebenoa," who said ho was " lord of the river of Sagadahock."
THE ALTERCATION WITH THE NATIVES.
The chief entered Gilbert's boat, after a friendly inter- view, but required that one of Gilbert's men, " as a pawn of safety," should be put on board the canoe. Immediately ih\e canoe hasted away with all the speed it could make, up the river. The shallop pursued ; and great care was taken that the hostage chief should not leap overboard. The
SETTLEMENT. 91
canoe landed, and the white man was hurried to their abodes, " neere a league on the land from the river's side." In the pursuit, the shallop soon reached a second downfall of water — " so shallow, so swift " as to forbid any further progress by water. Gilbert landed with nine men and the hostage chief, and after a good tedious march, overtook the savages, and found " neere fifty able men, very strong and tall, such as their like before they had not seen ; all newly painted and armed with bows and arrows." Notwithstand- ing these hostile indications, peaceful overtures prevailed, and proposals for trade were made. Gilbert departed ; but was followed by a body of sixteen natives in less than half an hour ; and the articles found in the canoes for barter clear- ly indicating other objects than trade, he re-embarked all his company with a view to leave the region.
The natives suspecting the purpose of Capt. Gilbert, and fearing his firelocks, attempted to extinguish his fires, so as to prevent the lighting of the matches. Witli this view, a native sprang into the shallop, seized the fire-brand from liim who held it for use, flung it into the water, and leaped from the shallop. Gilbert commanded his men to seize their fire- arms, and the targitiers too. Ue " bad one of the men before with his target on his arm, to go on shore for more fire." ^ The natives resisted, and held the boat by its rope, " that the shallop could not put off." The musquetiers then presented their pieces, when the natives seizing their arms, fled for the woods, " knocking their arrows, but did not shoot." Gilbert and his men withdrew to the opposite shore. A canoe followed to excuse the hostile bearing of the natives. Gilbert kindly entertained the messages of
1 Fire-arms had but recently been invented, and only the ancient ^^ matchlock" used, with which (iilbert's men were now armed. This cum- bersome weapon was rested on a support, and discharged by a match or fire-brand, and was called matchlock in contra-distinction to our ancient but more perfect firelock — now being replaced by our modern caplock.
92 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
peace, but made the best of his way back to the settlement and fort, seeing as he passed abundance of spruce trees, " such as are able to mast the greatest ship his majestie hath " — fish in abundance — " great store of grapes — and also found certain codds in which they supposed the cotton wool to grow, and also upon the banks many shells of pearl." Having reared a cross, they continued homeward bound, " in the way seeking the by river of some note, called Sasa- noa."
On the 27tli of September, " the weather turned fowle and full of fog and rain." The party gave up their search, and in two days more reached the fort on theb return.
OVERTUEES FROM THE NATIVE SOVEREIGN.
On the 3d of October, Skitwarroes appeared and advised them that a brother of the Bashaba waited their pleasure on the opposite shore. The savages remained the guests of Popliam through the sabbath, and the President took them to the place of public prayer, " which they attended both morning and evening with great reverence and silence."
About the 6th of October, the fort was entirely finished, intrenched, and mounted with twelve cannon, and the town was called " St. George." ^ A church was erected, and fifty houses besides the store-house were reared within the
FIRST SHIP BUILT IN NEW ENGLAND.
fortification. The material for a small ship of about ^ fifty tons was gathered and put up by the carpenters, under charge of a master-builder — the first on the Kennebec — Digby by name, of London. This vessel was launched into the waters of the Kennebec, and was called the " Virginia of Sagadahoc."
1 Bancroft, vol. i. p. 268.
2 F. Miss. p. 240.
SETTLEMENT. 93
DEATH OP THE PRESIDENT.
Popliam and some others died, and the remainder of the colonists awaited the return of Capt. Davis from Eng- land. The fortifications, the church, the public store- house with fifty dwelling houses, the ship yard and Virginia on the stocks, must have exhibited an imposing and busi- ness-like town at the mouth of the Sagadahock, in October, 1607, which in the dim distance of two centuries and a half, brings up visions of the past strangely in contrast with the present. Where is the grave of Popham ? Where is the monument of this early adventurer to the shores of the Kennebec ? Who celebrates the remembrance of these hardy scions of the Anglo-Saxon stock, which sought root amid the primeval forests of Sagadahock ? None but those who have imbibed the spirit of naval architecture, with which these adventurous artisans inspired the waters of the Kennebec and the forests of Sagadahock, where it has lingered from that day until now, and made the banks of this river the great naval mart of the United States of America.
TRADITIONARY REMINISCENCES.
Cotemporary history and tradition* have handed down some additional details of interest connected with Popham's colony, throwing fviUer light on the causes of its abandonment. On the decease of their President, it is natural to suppose that less circumspection marked the intercourse of the new set- tlers with the natives, and that a degree of lawlessness pre-
l " It is reported by an ancient mariner, yet living in these parts as a person of good credit, that being in tlie eastern parts about Kennebec, he heard an old Indian say, that when he was a youth there was a Fort built about Sagadahoek, the ruins of which were then seen, and supposed to be that called St. George. * * * Upon some quarrel that fell out between the Indians and English, some were killc<l by the Indians, and the rest driven out of the Fort." — Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75. Appendix.
94 • ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
vailed, which may have begotten a spirit of recklessness, sure to bring forth the fruits of disaster. Popham, who with diligence and skill had overseen and directed all, was gone. An equally skillful pilot, probably, was not to be found at the helm. Freedom and friendliness of intercourse with the well-disposed and magnanimous Wewannocks of Fen- tacost Harbor, had lulled suspicion and engendered a reckless- ness, inconsistent with peace and safety in their intercourse with the fierce stranger savage inhabitants on the upper waters of the Kennebec. The lord of Sagadahock probably had not lost all recollection of the interview with Gilbert upon his inland voyage, in which his painted braves were outwit- ted and defeated in their hostile purposes. The friends of Skitwarroes and Nahanada, eastern natives and dwellers about Pemaquid and Boothbay, though they had been out- raged by the treachery of George Weymouth two years before, in the forcible abduction of five of their number, with much frankness and forbearance sought the friendship of the colonists.
" Sasanoa," representing the Royal authority, liad warmly invited the European strangers to visit his sovereign ; and on their failure to execute a purpose to do so, from adverse circumstances, yet the attempt was received as evidence of good faith on the part of the white man ; and a member of the Royal family with a number of attendants came to the settlement to open and legalize trade. The terms were agreed to ; and under generous auspices a trade was begun, the savage chief, Amenquin, ^ with bold and generous spirit stripping off his beaver coat, and giving it in exchange for a straw hat and knife.
COLLISION WITH NATIVES.
With the stranger natives above, it is probable matters
1 Ainonquin — Is this Mon-quine, the chieftain who sold to Bradford and others his Kennebeck purchase ?
SETTLEMENT. 96
did not go so smoothly — Stracliey's account clearly indicates their hostile proclivities.
Being gathered at the fort for traffic, the savages were trained to draw a small cannon by its drag ropes. When thus exposed, the gun was discharged, killing some and wounding others, and as we may presume, filling all with madness. An altercation took place. In the issue, a colonist was slain ; and the survivors fled from the fort, leav- ing arms and ammunition exposed. The powder scattered about the opened casks — now the dangerous sport and plun- der of the victorious and ignorant natives, dancing and rioting in their success — became ignited, and in the terrific explosion which followed, blew up the fort and destroyed many of the savages.
COLONY ABANDONED.
Overwhelmed with the crashing thunders of the report and disaster, half dead with fear, the natives in their sim- plicity interpreted it as an exhibition of the anger of the Great Spirit at the wrongs done the strangers. These appre- hensions wrought repentance which issued in pacific over- tures, and led to a restoration of friendly intercourse. Such is the story of tradition. If it be all as rumor has handed it down, w^e have a sufficient reason for the early departure of Popham's colonists, and abandonment of their homes amid the rocky ramparts of the ocean at the mouth of the Kennebec, which was thus made the scene of abortive colonial adventure in 1607. ^
During tlie next four years no important incident occurred, within the ancient dominions of Maine, if 1611. we except the kindling of those embers of civil strife among the natives, whose flame consumed the great Bash-
1 Supplement to King Philip's war, p. 75. Williamson, vol. i. pp. 200, 201.
96 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
aba and scattered the people of the Wawennocks. There was nearly an annual return of various ships from England, attracted still by the public interest centering in these west- ern wilds.
MONHEGAN SETTLEMENTS.
From the period of Popham's enterprise on the Saga- dahock, from the date of "Weymouth's discovery — Monhe- gan (a corruption of the aboriginal Menahan, " an island ") in the panorama of sea life exhibiting " the remarkablest lies and Mountains for land-marks," — " a round high isle,^ Avith tlic little " Monas " by its side, " betwixt which is a small harbor, where their ship was anchored," — says Smith, — became a place of general resort, as it was a way station for trade and supplies.
" Abraham Jennens," * a fish merchant of Plymouth concerned in trade with Abner Jennens of London, employ- ing a large tunnage in the cod-fisheries and trade on the coast, acquired the original ownership of this island.
Here and on the neighboring main land at Pcmaquid, and without doubt, on the islands land-locking Boothbay Harbor, were stages or posts for trading and fishing. Indeed, " Mon-
RECKLESS VOYAGERS. — HARLOW.
began " had now become a noted depot for trade with the natives, as well as a land-mark for voyagers, wlien Harlow, by acts of rapacity and outrage, disturbed the peaceful cur- rent of events.
On a voyage from Europe, sent to make examination of Cape Cod, his ship had touched and taken shelter under the island of Monhegan.
The natives ha\ang learned the advantages, were stimu- lated by the excitement of trade, and visited the lagging
1 Thornton's Pemaquld, p. 38.
SETTLEMENT. 97
ship to " truck." But Harlow, under the mask of friend- ship, seized tliree whom he had enticed into his ship. One of his victims leaped back into the sea, and made good his escape to the land, when gathering the bowmen of his tribe, he assailed Harlow with desperate fury — cut away his stern boat, and taking her to the beach, filled her with sand, — suc- cessfully beating off the force sent from the ship with showers of barbed arrows, " sorely wounding some of the ship's crew," ^ retaining the boat in defiance of all efforts to recover her !
smith's adventures.
Capt. John Smith, whose life in southern Virginia had been spared at the solicitation and intercession of Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, next visit- 1614. ed our waters with a flotilla of fishermen at Sag- adahock, to fish and trade, as well as explore the coun- try. With two vessels, a ship and bark. Smith sailed from England bound for Sagadahock, the "El Dorado" of the new world, and now the central point of western attraction to the crowded communities of the old. In the month of April he arrived at Monhegan, and sailed for Sagadahock. Building a number of boats, he circulated among the islands, bays and river mouths, east and west, adding to discoveries already made and beating up trade with the natives of the coast.
Whales, at that period, were found in our waters ; and more recently these monsters of the deep have showed them- selves off Cape Newagen and sported in the waters of the Sheepscot. His men pursued the fishing of the whale here, where the Royal head of the W^awennocks had fished before him ; but found it profitless, as the fish taken yielded neither the " fins nor oil" of commerce. Gold and copper could
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 207.
98 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
not be found to mine upon the land. Off Monhegan and about the waters of Penobscot Bay, he came in coUision with the natives ; and in the conflict some of his men had fallen ; where also he found a ship of Sir Francis Popham, which for " many years" ^ had visited the waters of St. George's
river only. On the conclusion of his explorations July 18. he sailed for England ; and although the voyage
yielded no fruits of special interest in the success of any colonial movement, yet it was of great service to sci- ence in the diffusion of a knowledge of the geography of this section, and to the patrons of the expedition in the profits of the voyage.
WAWENNOCKS DISPERSED.
' But a constant and natural increment of population ap- peared about the islands, bays, harbors and rivers, in trading posts, fishing stations, and " truck houses," from every expedi- tion, by desertion from ships and otherwise. A bloody and exterminating warfare between the Bashaba of the Wawen- nocks of the ancient regal race dwelling about the Sheep- :8&ot and Damariscotta and Pemaquid waters, in which this people with their kingly pride and power, became ex- 1615- tinct, now raged in the height of its ravages, render- ing all intercourse with the main land for trade and settlement hazardous in the extreme. For two years, the tide of blood and carnage rolled on, bearing with it and leav- ing everywhere the dark image of death and pestilence in •the houses of the aboriginal race.
rocroft's voyage.
The voyager Rocroft next appeared off Monhegan to take
fish, and lade his ship with the sun-dried cod ; and
1618. on his arrival, detecting a French bark, sheltered in
a creek, where she traded and made her fish, for some
■I. Prince's New England Chronology, p. 15.
SETTLEMENT. 99
affront given by her commander, Rocroft seized and made her his prize. His crew however mutinied ; and on discovery of their purposes he landed the disaffected ones on the main — (probably the crew of the captured bark) — who, to escape the desolation and exposure of a winter, houseless on the banks of the Saco, reached Monhegan and wintered there in the deserted cabins of a former population which had now retired to Pemaquid.^
The treachery and cupidity of the whites had exasperat- ed the surviving native race, still under the excitement of a civil war, to such a degree, that the interests of commerce began to suffer by the interruption of trade and settlement.
hunt's perfidy.
Hunt, a subordinate in command, under Smith, who had been left to complete his voyage and sail for Spain, following the example of his predecessors, had kidnapped a number of the natives, particularly on the back side of Cape Cod.
A French ship, two years previously, had been wrecked there ; and the survivors of this shipwreck were watched and dogged by the savages till nearly all were slain. Three or four were saved, " treated worse than slaves, and sent from sachem to sachem to make sport." It was one of this ship- wrecked company who forewarned their savage tormentors that the wrath of God would ere long overtake them for their barbarity, rebuking them for their " bloudy deede," to which they ever replied they were " too many for God." Disease soon over-swept the whole region, and left it without an in- habitant, the unburied corpses, and bleaching bones, and ghastly skulls of the unnumbered dead filling the forest wilds with hideous visions of death and depopulation.
I J. W. Thornton, Esq.
100 ancient dominions of maine.
dermer's adventures.
Captain Thomas Dermer was despatched on a mis- sion of peace to the savage wilds of our coast with a 1619. • view to restore the settlements scattered and broken up by the ruthless civil wars among the natives, and to al- lay the irritation occasioned by the treachery of Harlow and Hunt. He commanded a ship of two hundred tons, with orders from Gorges to join Rocroft, who, having gone to southern Virginia with the French prize, as he was about to return northward, met the newly appointed Governor, Sir Geo. Yeardly, inward bound. The Governor ordered Ro- croft to board his ship. This Rocroft did, leaving his own vessel with less than half her crew, at anchor. But a storm arising, Rocroft was forced to remain for the night, during which his own bark was driven on shore and sunk. By the aid of the Governor, Rocroft recovered his bark, but while refitting her for the voyage to Virginia of the north, in a quarrel with one of the Virginia planters, he was slain and his vessel lost.
Dermer, learning the fate of his associate at Monhegan, sailed in an open pinnace of five tons for the south. In passing around Cape Cod, by the inland passage, he heard of the fate of the wrecked crew of the French ship, and seeking out the survivors, redeemed them 1620. from their savage captors. On his return voyage, June 30. the savage Squanto, of Plymouth notoriety, (and it is also said, Samoset)^ accompanied Dermer ; who had each been taken to Europe by the perfidious Hunt, the one from about Pemaquid, near to Monhegan ; and the other from Cape God, Reaching Long Island Sound, southward bound, by way of the inland passage, having accomplished liis peaceful mission in restoring confidence to the natives,
1 Williamson's Hist. vol. i. pp. 213, 218. Prince, p. 99.
SETTLEMENT. 101
and reviving the settlements about Sagadaliock, Dormer landed to refresh himself and company. But the savage in- habitants deeply provoked by the barbarous conduct of Hunt, visited on the noble I)ermer the retribution due to the kid- napper. The crew on shore and the boat on the beach were assailed by the infuriated savages.
Dermer fought his way to the boat, and was badly wound- ed, a native seized him and threw him on the cuddy ^ deck, and attempted to sever his head from the body, when the only survivor of the boat's crew, a redeemed Frenchman, came to his rescue with a drawn sword. His savage attend- ants earnestly interceding in his behalf, further violence was stayed, the boat surrendered, and Dermer with one man es- caped to Virginia where he soon died.
These facts afford a probable solution of the presence of Samoset and Squanto among the Plymouth Pilgrims.
SAMOSET.
Samoset was a native of Pemaquid — the Lord of Monhe- gan — an eastern prince — the great chief and original pro- prietor of the town of Bristol, whose conveyance of the same to John Brown is the first landed ^ title by deed ac- knowledged, ever given to a white man.
An effectual lodgment had now been made at several points within the territory of New England. Prior 1620. to the date of the visit of Rocroft and Dermer, the Dec. 21. settlers on Monhegan had removed to the neigh- boring main, and erected new houses at Pemaquid. A hamlet had also sprung up on the sands of Plymouth har- bor, where the Puritan refugees had established their homes and founded a colony. Sagadaliock, and probably the islands
1 Prince, p. 68. Williamson's Hist. vol. i. p. 219. Young's Chron. p. 182.
2 July 15th, 1625. Report Com. Lincoln Co., Me., pp. 106—7.
102 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
land-locking Boothbay Harbor, if not the harbor itself, under its aboriginal Kame of " Cape Ne-wagen," — a corrup- tion of the Indian Ne-krangan — were now occupied by " truck-masters " and fish makers.
Samoset, or Summarset, ( as spelled in a con- veyance to Parnell, Way, and England, under his Mar. 16. autograph, of Soggohannago, near to Pemaquid,) was the first native of the New World, an inhabitant of the remote East, who, to the astonishment of the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth, walking boldly and alone into their streets, greeted the forlorn colonists with " Much welcome. English- men," in a broken dialect of their own tongue. He w^as a man free of speech and of seemly carriage, — " stark naked, only a leathern girdle about his waist," " with a fringe a span long or little more — armed with a bow and two arrows, tne one headed and the other unheaded." " He was a tall, straight man, — the hair on his head black, long behind, only straight before, and none on his face at all." How hap- pened it that this Pemaquid chieftain should have been at Cape Cod at this juncture ? The presumption that he was the companion of Squanto, and with him, had accompanied Dermcr on his fatal inland passage, and was left with Squanto at the time of the assault and rescue of Dermer on Cape Cod, explains all. Embarking at Monhcgan, he was present at Cape Cod when Dermer was attacked ; and on the flight of Dermer, Samosset was left there. For he tells the Plymotheans that he was a sagamore from Morattigon, now conceded to be Monhcgan ; that he had been in their coun- try " about ei^ht months,^^ — that the natives in their imme- diate neighborhood were ve?'7/ hostile, — and eig-ht months be- fore had slain " three Englishmen, tivo others with difficidty escaping, — the men being Sir F. Gorges\" ^ Such being the state of facts, " Sommarset " or Samosset, and Squanto,
1 Prince's N. E. Chronology, p. 68.
SETTLEMENT. 108
having aidod in the rescue of Dermer and seen him safely ofi", remained, and in the autumn and spring, after the arrival of the Mayflower, were found among tlieir savage brethren near Cape Cod Harbor, having possibly descried the approach of the vessel from tlie sand cliffs about the cape, and followed it to the place of final debarkation. The natives fearing and hating the new comers, of course shun- ned them ; but Sommarset, ascertaining that tliey were Euro- peans — countrymen of his friend Dermer, — with fearless intrepidity sought an acquaintance by walking into their midst and extending an " English Welcome," which as a matter of course greatly surprised the colonists. Tluis was prepared the way for a peaceful and friendly introduction of the Puritan Fathers of New England to the aborigines of the wilds of their adopted home, in the misfortunes of the truly noble and beneficent Dermer — a victim to the reckless and wanton conduct of wicked white men.
SAMOSSET AT BOOTHBAY HARBOR.
Having fearlessly served his friend Dermer and welcomed the forlorn voyagers who were seeking a home on the bleak shores and barren sands of Cape Cod from the decks of the Mayflower, " Sommarset," " the Lord of Pemaquid," re- turned to his eastern dominions ; and in the waters of the Sheepscot, at Cape Ne-wagen, met Capt. Levett ^ two years after, of whom as a " chief sagamore " Levet speaks, (doubt- less referring to his agency in Dermer's behalf,) as " one that hath oeen found very faithful to the English, and hath saved the lives of many of our nation ; some from killing and others from starving."
The domain of the town of Bristol, this chieftain with another sold to John Brown ; and in its vicinity a second
1 Levett 's Voyage, Me. Hist. Col. Mass. Hist. Col. vol. viil. p. 170, 3d series.
104 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
parcel of land soon after to Parnell, Way, and England. Samosset, the magnanimous cliieftain of the East, who, fore- most of his race, frank, generous, and fearless — welcomed the forlorn and sea-worn Pilgrims — appears in a novel and attractive light.
In the person of this savage, the Lord of Pemaquid, the great Bristol Sachem, we see Maine on the sands of Cape Cod, at the very dawn of the existence of New England history, standing with outstretched arms and generous greetings to receive and introduce, under auspicious circumstances, the embryo state of Massachusetts, from the decks of the May- flower, to her wild home on the shores of the New "World !
From Monhegan and Pemaquid, the attractive harbors of the Main had even now drawn pioneer 1621. settlers ; for on the margins of Broad Bay,^ in Bris-
NOTE.
" § Thes Presents Obbelly-gacion handed mee Captaine Sommarset of M "
" ( Miscongus ? ) have sold unto Thomas Way, William Parnell and "
" William England one thousand hakkers of land in Saggohannago, being "
" quiet Possed by William Parnell and Thomas Way and William Eng- "
" land th st day of July, 1653."
"his
" Capt. John Somerset,"
MARK.
The above is from the original draft furnished the author by the kindness of J. Wingate Thornton, Esq., Boston, and in his possession — the mark itself bearing the evidence of a trembling hand, indicative of the great age of this chief at the date it was made.
SETTLEMENT. 105
tol, we find Jolin Pierce had "made a clearing and founded a new home.
DAMARISCOVE.
Thirty sail this year entered at Damariscove — 1622. which was now the granary of the embryo settle- ments of New England — whose name (an English corruption of words signifying a " fish place ") indicates its early importance as a fishing depot. The ship Swallow from here sent her shallop to Plymouth ; and to Damariscove came "Winslow of the Plymouth plantation, (the Goyernor of the colony,) to draw supplies for his settlement, famishing on the shores of Cape Cod, — who says, " I found kind enter- tainment and good respect, with a willingness to supply our wants — which was done so far as able — and would not take any bills for the same, but did what they could ^ freely," — which certainly indicates that the inhabitants of Damaris- cove were a thrifty and generous people. The Jennens firm of Plymouth and London had at Monhegan, the Abraham of Plymouth, of the burden of two hundred and twenty tons, together with the Nightingale of Portsmouth, of one hundred tons. ^
The friends of Hakluyt, Robert Aldworth, and Gyles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, " hearing that Jennens was about to break up his plantation at Monhegan, autliorized Abraham Shurt to purchase for them the island." The dis- solution of this plantation " excited no little interest among the hamlets — ' Embryo Sovereignties,^ now dotting the New England coasts ; and Gov, Winslow tooke a boat and some hands and went thither, learning that the plantation was to then break up and diverse goods to be sould." - The plunder of a French ship lost at Sagadaliock had passed into the hands
1 Young's Chronicle, p. 293.
2 Thornton's Pemaquid, pp. 38, 52—3.
106 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of the fishermen wrecking her, at Monhegan and Damaris- cove — "Biscaie riiggs " — "a parcell of goats &c. " — all which made up Bradford's purchase.
Dainariscove, in the early history of the " ancient domin- ions of Maine," is a remarkable point.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND.
In the south-western extremity of this island, a very deep, narrow cove enters between bold rocks and pi-ecipitous shores, opening into the island like a wedge between mount- ain clitfs, where a small but secure harbor is afforded for fishing vessels. Tiiis island, the principal of the group land- lockh)g Boothbay Harbor, derives its name imdonbtedly from its early importance as a fishing place — the '•'• namas- cotta^^ or covet, of the aboriginal iidiabitants signifying a " fish place."
ANTIQUITIES THERE.
On tlie south-eastern slope, which is sometimes called wood end, it is said the remains of an ancient fortification — an earth-work — were traceable ten years ago ; and lifting the covering of the shallow soil, a smooth rock appears, whereon the washing of the sea has laid bare numerous inscriptions, in writing apparently cut by human art in characters from one to four inches long, one-eiglith of an inch deep, and covering a surface of ten feet. ^ The local- ity of the inscriptions is assigned to the summit of the cliff, on the right of the harbor, as it is entered, by Thos. Cun- ningham, U. S. Collector, Wiscasset.
POPULOUS AND CENTRAL POINTS.
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Sagadahock, Shecpscot, and Pcmaquid were now the radiating centers to the settlement of the circumjacent region.
I Dr. B. S. Cushman of Wiscasset.
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SETTLEMENT.
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SAGADAHOCK.
From the Sagadahock, population flowed upward and onward, till Phipsburg, Bath, Georgetown, and Woolwich became populous towns.
SHEEPSCOT .
From Sheepscot have sprung the offshoots, Wiscasset, Dresden, Alna, Newcastle, Edgecomb, Westport, Boothbay, and Southport.
PEMAQUID.
From Pemaquid have grown Bristol, Nobleboro',Damaris- cotta, and perhaps the more eastern towns of Waldoboro', Warren, Thomaston, and St. George.
INFLUX OF POPULATION.
The various points of occupancy, in favorable locations, which became the nucleus of these several towns, now rapidly appear in the historic scene, filling in with busy life and enterprise, which have beautified our landscape with cities, villages, hamlets, and homes of refinement and lux- ury. Titles had become attached to favorite localities, creating claims which were subjects of legal transfer, in the forms of deeds, charters, and patents.
levett's visit to sheepscot.
The mouth of the Sheepscot has been made par-
1623. ticularly conspicuous by the narrative of Levett's
voyage and visit to Cape Ne-wagen — the present
towns of Boothbay and Southport^ — where nine ships fished
at the time.
levett's narrative. Says Levett, " I like it not for a plantation, for I could
1 Me. Hist. Soc, vol. ii. p. 86. Levett's Voyage.
108 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
see little good timber and less good ground." There he remained four nights, and was visited by many of the natives, their wives and children, — Somerset or Samosset, Menawormet, father of E,obinhood, and Cogawesco, the Sagamores of Sheepscot and Casco, — were among the chiefs who paid their respects to Levett, while tarrying at Cape Ne-wagen and exploring the Sheepscot. One Coke had a stage or store for truck there, with whom Levett formed an intimate acquaintance. It was ascertained that the Sagamores " had some store of Beaver coats and skins," which they were taking to Witherage, a ship master and spar dealer at Pemaquid. Coke was desirous the furs should not be taken out of the harbor. To aid Coke in securing the beaver robes, Levett sent for the Sagamores, giving them to understand he would " truck " with them for their beaver coats. The savages at first declined all over- tures, till Somerset " swore there should be none carried out of the harbor, but his cousin Levett should have all."
Levett, thus supported, prevailed ; but two coats of beaver were stolen from the Indians. The Sagamores complained grievously. Cabins and chests were ransacked and searched ; but the beaver was not found. Appreciating Levett's inter- est, as exhibited in his efforts to recover the stolen furs, the magnanimous chiefs thanked him, and desired him to for- bear, saying the " rogues had carried them into the woods where he could not find them."
The natives also informed Levett that no good place for trade now remained in the neighborhood, as the place he was in — Pemaquid and Monhegan — was in the possession of others. " The next day the wind came fair," says Levett, " and I sailed for Quack or York with the king, queen and prince, bow and arroAvs, dog and kitten, in my boat ; his no- ble attendants rowing by us in their canoes."
On hearing that Capt. Levett was about to depart from
SETTLEMENT. 109
the country, the Sagamores gathered about him, among whom were Samosset, Cogawesco, Conway and others, and asked him " why he woiikl be gone out of their country ?" Levett answered — " his wife would not come thither except he went to fetch her." The chiefs retorted — " pox on her hounds," and told the captain "to heather." " But," re- plied Levett, " God will be angry." " Then let her alone and take another," returned the savages ; Samosset adding the additional plea, " that his new-born son and Levett's should be brothers," if the captain would remain, and that there should be ^^ mouchicke leg-amatche — i.e. friendship — be- tween them, till Tanto carried them to his wigwam " — 1. e. till death ! These people, it would seem, had two Deities. " Tanto " is the god they hate, because to him is ascribed all their ill-fortune. When any are sick, hurt, or die, they say — "Tanto is hoggery " — i. e. angry. Squanto is be- loved of them, because he is the source of all good fortune to them. When asked where is his abode, they say, " we cannot tell," and pointing up, add — " on high," but Tanto " far in the west ; " and no one sees either, but their Pow- wos or medicine men when they dream, which they do by placing a marten skin under their heads.
These savages are very subtile, slow of speech and quick and keen of apprehension ; and when they meet a great talker, as an object of contempt and derision they point to him and say — " /te is mechecum^^ — i. e. a fool! Very aristocratic — they will hardly speak to a ordinary man, but point and say — " Sanops must si^eak to Sanops, and Saga- mores to Sagamores."
They are polygamists and believe that he that hath the most wives is the bravest fellow ; and their wives are their slaves, — a feature of all barbaric life, where the influence of the Bible is not felt. Levett told them " it was no good fashion, having so many wives;" and the chieftain replied by asking " how many wives King James had ?"
110 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
Tliey were clad in skins, wearing the hair side inwards in winter and outwards in summer. They wear a piece of skin about their loins as a girdle ; " and between their legs goes another, made fast to the girdle before and behind, which covers their nakedness." " They go bare-headed, with long hair, and sometimes you shall not know the men from the women but by their breasts."
When their children are born, they bind them to a board and set it upright, either against a tree or other place ; and thus do them till three months old. They are entirely na- ked till from five to six years of age ; and their little ones the parent often buries in snow, all but the face, to harden them, and when two years old will cast them into the sea, like a little dog or cat to learn to swim.
ACQUISITION OF A TITLE TO BRISTOL.
Fifty skins of beaver paid by Brown of New-Har- bor to the Pemaquid Sagamore, Sommerset, pur- 1625. chased tlie present territory of the towns of Bristol and Damariscotta. Edward Ashley, agent, and William Pierce, assistant, in right of a grant under the Muscongi].s Patent, took possession of the eastern margin of the St. George's river, five miles below the head of tide water. There they erected a truck-house, and established a trading post, employing five persons and a small new-made vessel in the trade. Thus the site of the present thrifty and popu- lous town of Thomaston was selected and improved.
CONDITION OF SOCIETY.
The state of society in these newly settled plantations was chiefly distinguished for its lawlessness. Every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes, and rapine, vio- lence and crime prevailed. The royal commissioners tell of the most unblushing immoralities, alleging that the fisher- men had as many shares in a woman as they did in their
SETTLEMENT. Ill
boats ; probably an exaggeration of a prejudiced and parti- zan report.
MEASURES TO CORRECT ITS ABUSES.
The rumor of such a state of things at length reached England, and moved the Plymouth company to attempt the reduction of society to a state of law and order. An admiral was appointed ; and Robert Gorges commissioned lieuten- ant general, with instructions to prevent and reform abuses committed by the fishermen and others, who not only fre- quented the coast without leave, " but when there, brought reproach upon the nation by tlieir lewdness and wickedness among the savages, abusing their women openly, and teach- ing their people drunkenness, with other beastly demeanors. i " While the Pilgrims were struggling for life at Plymouth, and Conant founding Massachusetts at Cape Ann," says Thornton, " Pemaquid was probably the busiest place on the coast."
WRECK AT BOOTHBAY HARBOR.
A small vessel sent from Plymouth to fish, on reaching the harbor of Boothbay, near Damariscove, where " ships used to ride," met many ships there from England. While at anchor, a fierce storm drove the Plymouth ship ashore, where she was wrecked and sank, and the crew came near being lost.
The ship-masters, however, aided the Plymotheans in rais- ing their sunken vessel by casks lashed at low water to the hulk. Thus floated on the beach, she was recovered, refitted, and did good service to her owners. ^
ACQUISITION OF LANDED ESTATE.
The head waters of the Sheepscothad now received a con-
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v, p. 86, 2d series.
2 Prince's Chron., p. 145.
112 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
siderahle accession to its population ; and it is believed that the Mary & John and the fly-boat Gift of God, of the Pophani immigration, furnished original European planters here, as well as at the mouth of the Sagadahock, some of whose col- onists may have made explorations and began clearings near Sheepscot Falls, which subsequently grew into what was called the " plantation of the Sheepscot Farmsy ^ Har- vest being ended around the margins of Plymouth Harbor, the full garners of the Puritans suggested a system of gain- ful commerce with the eastern savages ; and a sloop laden with corn was dispatched to the Kennebec, which returned with a cargo of furs of great value, at immense profit ; and this circumstance led to the subsequent acquisition of an immense landed territory on both banks of the Kennebec, by charter and patent rights, and the establishment of a trading station at Cushnoc, on its upper waters, called the Plymoutli purchase.*
The tide of emigration naturally flowed inland and up tlie more frequented and accessible water- 1626. courses to those localities most fertile and secure, as well as to those most favorable for native trade, and had now begun to set strongly in, and favorite points had acquired intrinsic value, and become desirable for possess- ion. Acquisition and transfer of titles were indeed a great feature of this period.
i Controversy Pejepscot and Plymouth Proprietors, p. 12.
*XoTE. — " Monquine," alias Matalianada, "son of old IMatawormet, sagamore of Kennebeck river, in consideration of two hogsheads of pro- visions, one of bread and one hogshead of pease, two coats of cloth, two gallons of wine and a bottle of strong waters," conveyed to William Brad- ford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prince, Thomas Wil ett, and William Paddv. from Cusenock up to Wcsserunskick^ for the New Plymouth Corn- pan v. — Copy of Deed, Register's office, Lincoln Co., vol. i. p. 6.
SETTLEMENT. 113
THE PLYMOUTH ESTABLISHMENT AT KENNEBEC.
The Plymotheans, allured by the profits of their 1628. trade, sought and secured large landed interests on the margins of the Kennebec, covering each bank ; and having perfected their arrangements for occupancy, erected a trading house and established a post up the river, and named the settlement New Plymouth, where was deposited a store of corn and merchandise. With the natives this company bartered their goods for furs, and introduced the article of " wampum peag," — " strings and bracelets of blue and white periwinkle shell," — afterwards replaced with glass beads, which at length served the use and possessed the value of coin, in trade with the savages. ^
ALDWORTH AND ELBRIDGE AT PEMAQUID.
The wilds of Mavooshen now began to excite the 1631. interest and absorb the capital of land speculators in the Old World. Pemaquid, now the property of Bristol merchants — Aldworth and Elbridge — under titles from the President of the Council of New England, on con- dition that they have and will transport, and do undertake to transport at their own cost and charges divers persons into New England, and there erect and build a town and settle inhabitants, at once became a noted place. Abra- ham Shurt, agent for the Bristol merchants, represented their interests there, and received the transfer of title and possession from Walter Neal, the agent of the Council.
This acquisition and the conditions thereof laid the foun- dation for the existence and importance of Pemaquid, where Thomas Elbridge subsequently resided and held a court, to which the residents on Monhegan and Damariscove " re- paired and continued their fishing." ^ Thus Pemaquid
1 Young's Chronicle, p. 14.
2 Shurt's depo. pp. 39, 40. L. Records.
8
114 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
became the chief center of trade, law, and authority — a larger and more important settlement than Quebec, the cap- ital of Canada. Eighty-four ^ families besides fishermen, embracing a population of more than five hundred souls, now occupied Pemaquid and its vicinage ; and at the harbor entrance on the east margin of the Damariscotta, formed by Pemaquid point, four years before a fortress, whose walls of mud and timber trees of pine enclosed a small brick-])uilt castle, for the defense of Boston Harbor, a castle at Pemaquid frowned over the waters of Johns Bay.
DESCRIPTION OF PEMAQUID.
Pemaquid, the nearest and most eligible mainland site to Monhegan, is a romantic and picturesque site. Imagine a gentle river winding its way to the sea, and gathering its waters into a nearly circular basin before mingling with those of the bay, through a passage one hundred and fifty feet wide and many fathoms deep, — a basin rimmed and shut out from the sea by a spur or projection of rocks from the main on the west, encircling it like an arm, with a soli- tary clump of trees on its outmost point, and on the east traced by a peninsula (parallel to the main, and with which it is joined at the lower extremity,) flat and worn, of light and fertile soil, and it will afford some idea of Pemaquid harbor ; opposite the entrance to which on the east shore, are still to be seen the outlines of its fortified works.
The west shore of this basin is a rugged, rocky eminence, terminating in the narrow, rocky, extended, arm-like point, shutting in the harbor's mouth, anciently called the " Barbi- can ;" and on this the first settlements were made. The peninsula, which was the site of the ancient town and for- tress of Pemaquid, is oval shaped, and obviously made by the sands and debris of the river, brought down and accu-
1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65.
SETTLEMENT. 115
mulated by its tides, in the rotary motion given by the interposing and curved shores of the Barbican point on the west, and immense projecting strata of inclined gran- ite forming the eastern shore. The peninsula has evi- dently, at some period, been entirely circumvallated with water, and thus separated from the main, with which it prob- ably connected by an artificial way. It has also been walled in ; the outline of its defenses can still be traced. Its streets were paved with pebble stones ; and many of its buildings were of like material. The principal street, pass- ing longitudinally between the extremes of this peninsula, north and south, was paved, and is still to be traced, though nearly overgrown with grass or covered with earth. The outlines of the fort, and the position of its tower in the soutli-westerly extreme of the peninsula, and immediately fronting the harbor's entrance, are in distinct detail, trace- able in every curve and square, amid mouldering lime and rock, — the fragments of its masonry.
It is a most interesting spot, not only in its historical re- mains and associations, but in its physical aspect — its stern and rock-bound shores — its gentle curves and sunny slopes and level approaches from the east.
The whole peninsula is now converted into a mowing field, except a small enclosed parcel, where are gathered the ashes of the ancient dead.
About this devoted spot armies have gathered like eagles to the carcass, and the din of war, in all its accumulated horrors of blood and carnage, has raged. The ships of con- tending nations have tinged its waters with human gore, and poured their iron hail in destructive broadsides upon its fortified places, till the ruthless storm has swept its streets, and crushed out at once the life and energy of its defenders. Here the red man, with a howl of defiance, and the white man, with the subdued voice of prayer, have bitten the dust together, amid the shrieks of forlorn women and helpless
116 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
children, when not drowned by the terrible whoop of saA'age war. The details of the scenes here sketched we shall give as fully as circumstances will allow, in weaving out the thread of history.
Pemaquid, Monhegan and their dependencies had now passed from the title of the original occupants, to the pos- session of two Bristol merchants. The section began to fill up with rapidity from a class very different from the ship-dis- charged and deserting seamen and fishermen. Agriculturists and artisans had come in ; and wealth began to accumulate. Abraham Jennings, an original occupant of Monhegan, had sold his right to the purchasers of Pemaquid. Having thus acquired the titles to the most desirable localities in this now important and attractive section, with true business tact, these merchants sought to turn their purchase to the most valu- able account, by concentrating there both trade and the tide of emigration.
TRADE AT PEMAQUID.
A brisk trade had opened between the colonists of Plym- outh and the settlements within the ancient dominions of Maine, where provisions, at first sought to supply the Mas- sachusetts settlers, were finally sent in exchange for furs. Corn by the shallop load, within six years of its settlement, was sent from Plymouth up tlie Kennebec river, for which beaver skins and other furs were traded.
As centers of trade, money or valuable furs and mer- chandise, accumulated at Pemaquid and Monhegan ; and this circumstance, together with their isolated position, ex- posed them to plunder. The commercial enterprise of the period had spawned the ocean with sea-faring life ; and much of it developed in lawlessness, freebooting and pira- cy. Pemaquid had become a place of so much importance,
I Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65.
SETTLEMENT. 117
that, as a measure of safety, fortifications were erect- 1631. ed to cover the entrance to its harbor.^
Allerton, a Plymouth renegade, early this year, *' set up a company of base fellows,"- and made 1632. them traders along the coast, at Kennebec with other places east. The French seized the shallop of Dixy Bull, one of these fellows, greedy of illicit trade, and made it a prize. Bull, gathering to himself a companionship of kin- dred spirits, hoisted the black flag, and went prowling over the waters of the main, as the first New England pirate. He captured several vessels at sea, and plundered the plant- ers on shore.
The rumors of piracy disturbed the planters all along the coast ; and in the west, Hilton and Neal, from Piscataqua, equipped four pinnaces and shallops, enrolled a crew of for- ty men, and sailed for Pemaquid. Arrived there, for four weeks wind-bound, this naval force — these battle ships, the earliest afloat on the waters of New England — rode at anchor in Pemaquid harbor.
LAWLESSNESS OF THE PLACE.
The inhabitants of Pemaquid, many of whom were strangers, speculators, and transient persons, with a consid- erable admixture of sea-faring adventurers, were without a local government. Lawlessness overrode all order, a fea- ture of all new settled places — the product of commercial adventure.
The town, therefore, became much disturbed by scenes of rapine and plunder. De Bull, with an English crew of free- booters, like birds of prey, lighted on the place and plun- dered its shipping.
DE BULL, THE PIRATE.
Dixy Bull and his followers were resisted in their descent
1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65.
2 Thornton's Pemaquid.
118 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
on Pemaquid, and a ringleader was shot from the palisade. Their success gave them boldness. Though temperate in the use of intoxicating drink, their sense of moral responsi- bility was deadened by infidel sentiments. " When others have prayers," said they, " we will have a story or a song." This bandit crew hovered around the new settlements on the coast, a year or thereabouts, till the inhabitants were aroused by their atrocities — the excitement became so great against them that four vessels were armed and manned, and the pirates pursued till driven out of the eastern waters. Dixy Bull was subsequently brought to justice in England, and his crew were scattered forever. Shurt was still the chief man of tlie East, whose intelligence, integrity, and prudence entitled him to the respect and esteem of the whole community ; and under his administration the inter- ests of the colony and its patrons throve.
shurt's perils in the piscataqua.
An untoward event came near depriving Pemaquid 1633. plantation of the life and services of Abraham Shurt, the agent of the proprietors and a magistrate of the peace. With Capt. Wright he embarked in June for Bos- ton. On nearing the harbor of Piscataqua, as they were entering the river's mouth, a seaman, addicted to smoking, in attempting to light a pipe of tobacco, fired a cask of pow- der. The vessel was blown to atoms, and the reckless sailor was afterward seen only in the mangled and scattered re- mains of his blackened body. The others escaped with their lives, and Shurt among them.
imprudence op the settlers.
The still infant settlements at Pemaquid, Sheepscot, and Sagadahock, though striking their roots and spreading their branches abroad, were made to feel the force of many a storm, which now began to brood in the savage wilds about
SETTLEMENT. 119
them. A brisk and profitable trade with the peaceful wild men of this region had begotten a presumptuous security — a recklessness and temerity of intercourse — a wantonness of gain, sure to disturb amicable relationship.
NAMES OF EARLY PLANTATIONS AND LOCATIONS.
From the settlements at Pemaquid, thrifty off- shoots had started along the Damariscotta ; at Saga- 1634. dahock, on the islands to the eastward adjoining ; and upon the banks of the Sheepscot, " were many scattered planters." Above Wiscasset, the fertile water-courses and bottoms of this considerable river had already a population of fifty families, numbering probably some two hundred souls. " Newtown," gn the southern extreme of the Arrow- sic Island, had already begun its existence. At the entrance of the Kennebec into the sea, — at Richmond's landing,-— near the junction of Eastern river with the waters of the Kennebec, — and the site of our capital — trading houses were opened, and in full and profitable operation, within thirty years after l^opham's decease at the mouth of the Kennebec. The St. George's river had at this early date become attractive to lumber-men, on account of its mighty bordering forests and stately spar timber. Commerce sent her ships thither for masts, among which the ship Hercules of Dover loaded there.
MURDER AT KENNEBEC.
The Plymotheans, impatient of competition 'for the profits of their newly opened trade on the Kennebec waters, became involved in a quarrel with an agent of " Lord Say and Brook," the commander of whose vessel entered these waters for trade with the natives. Capt. Hocking forced his way up the river, and " because he would not come down again," three men were sent in a canoe to cut his cables. On cutting one, Hocking presented and threatened
120 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
to slioot him who should cut the other. "Do it if you dare," said the boatman, and hfted his axe for the fatal sundering stroke, when Hocking shot him dead. The exas- perated Pljmotheans, from their pinnace riding near, fired on Hocking in return, who fell. These homicides originated the reproachful adage, that " they cut one another's throats for beaver," ^ on the Kennebec.
" A worthy gun-smith, ^ of Bristol city, in England 1638. — a young man, found employment at his trade at Pemaquid." During the excitement for acquiring landed estate, which the influx of population created, and in the consequent migratory movements of the population, to secure eligible locations, the father of Wm. Phips sought a new home and established his plantation on a peninsular margin of the Sheepscot waters, forming the eastern and northern boundaries of Hock-omock bay at the lower outlet of "Monseag" — the meaning of which would seem to be the place of ^^ island-ivaters" a native term — in the south- eastern extreme of Woolwich, near which a hamlet grew up where a ship was built by his distinguished son. At this point, the great inland water-way from Pemaquid to the Kennebec reaches a plateau, whose waters are broached by the Nequaseag passage into Kennebec on the west, and the Goose rock entrance below, and Monseag passage by way of Wiscasset above, which was, in early days, de- scribed under the name of " Cross River." Along the mar- gins of this water way, the earliest white settlers took up residence and made their plantations, dotting with their clearings the whole line of travel from Pemaquid to Kenne- bec. Phips, Hammond, Brown, and Bateman occupied the more conspicuous points.
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 167, 2d series.
2 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 91.
SETTLEMENT. 121
ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WOOLWICH.
A hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins^ paid the vahie of a title to the town of Woolwich, " a seat 1639. or savage-homestead consisting of one Wigwam or Indian house," called Nequaseg, (meaning the clear-water- place residence of the native Sagamore, Moiv-ho-ti-wor^et^') to John Brown and Edward Bateman, planters of Pemaquid.
Less than thirty years had gone hy, the site of this town passing from Brown to Bateman, and from Bateman to Cole, when Cole and James Smith were dwellers in the town of Woolwich, on the banks of a streamlet draining the mead- ows above, and which emptied the superfluous waters over a rocky declivity into a shallow bay, latterly discharging into the Kennebec opposite Bath.
EOBIN-HOOD.
A deep narrow inlet filling a considerable indentation, southward into the heart of Georgetown, where the waters of Sheepscot Bay receive those of the " by river," (Sasanoa?) the thoroughfare from Sheepscot to Bath — still bears the name of Robinhood's cove ; and was probably a favorite resi-
1 Register's Office, Lincoln Co., Lib. 1, p. 12.
"Mow-ho-tiwormet, son of Mony-wormet, deceased, conveyed to Edward Bateman and John Brown, lately of Pemaquid, planters, a seat or place, commonly called Nequaset, lying between the bounds of Sa-ca-dl-ock river on the west and Shepscooke river on the east, and the river commonly called Nequaseg on the south-west, with one wigwam, or Indian house, for divers causes and considerations and especially for one hogshead of corn and thirtj' pumpkins."
Nov. 1, 1630. Signed with the mark and signum of Bobinhood.
" Signum of
MOWHOTIWORMET
or
ROBINUOOD."
122 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
deuce of the great native chieftain, from whom is derived most of our landed titles, on the lower waters of the ancient " iShepscooke ; " and who ruled over, and owned as tlie orig- inal native lord, a territory embracing Bootlibay harbor on the south-east, the ancient Cape Newagen of Levett ; the bordering territory on the ancient Sacadiock, westward ; and to Wiscasset above.
The father of this chieftain was known to Capt. Levett, the voyager, and met him at Cape Newagen fifteen years before with Somarset, of Pemaquid, with whom he must have been a cotemporary. Ma-na-wormet, Cog-a-wesco and Somarset, as we have heretofore seen, all were with Levett, at Cape Newagen ; and were undoubtedly cotemporary cliief- tains, earliest known to the earliest European settlers of the " ancient Dominions of Maine."
3Iuw-ho-ti-ivormet, the son of deceased Mony-wormet Da- mariau of Sewall's history, (the Ramegin of Drake's) nick- named Robiuhood by the English settlers of the Sheepscot, appears to have been well disposed to the whites.
EXPORT OF CATTLE.
The colonists of Massachusetts constantly ex- 1640. tended their trade with the east ; and from the furs and peltries gathered of the natives in exchange for corn, attention was turned to the import of neat cattle from Pemaquid. Joseph Grafton ' in a forty-ton vessel sailed from Salem to Pemaquid, where shipping twenty cows and oxen, he returned in four days.
Longer settled and more populous, the raising of stock in the pastures of Pemaquid had created an excess and opened a source of gainful traffic — a fact, wliich speaks well for the enterprise and thrift of the early colonists in the east, and
^Annals of Salem, p. 528.
SETTLEMENT. 123
illustrates their agricultural character aud habits and taste, in favorable contrast with the trading propensities of the Mas- sachusetts colonists.
CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENTS.
Eight men bound to Pemaquid embarked at Pis- cataqua in the winter of this year ; but driven into 1641. Monhegan by a storm, sheltered themselves in the unoccupied cabins of the fishermen till rescued ; where four of their number perished. The general character of the population was still darkly shaded — made up " largely of fishermen." Josselyn classifies the population in a period a little subsequent to this date, " as magistrates, husbandmen and fishermen. Of the magistrates, some be Royalists, the rest perverse-spirits, the like are the planters and fishers, of which some be planters and fishers both — others mere fishers. There are but few hand-craftsmen and no shopkeepers, English goods being kept by Massachu- setts merchants, here and there on the coast, at a profit of cent per cent, in exchange for fish.
They have a custom of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, sitting long at meals, sometimes four times a day. Every Shallop has four fishermen, a master, a midship-man and a fore-mast-man, and a shore-man ; who washes it out of the salt and dries it upon hurdles, pitcht upon stakes, breast high and tends to the cookery ; and often they share eight to nine pound a man, which doth them but little good, for then comes in a walking tavern, — a Bark laden with the rich blood of the grape." We may judge somewhat correctly of the recklessness of habits among settlers, and it is a wonder more accidents did not occur.
FIRST DEATH BY DROWNING.
The earliest recorded accidental drowning occurred in the waters of the Kennebec in September of this 1646.
124 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
date, in the person of William Waldron. This gentle- man was cultivated in his mind and manners, and held the office of Clerk of Courts in Saco, under Gorges' jurisdiction. For intemperance, he had become an ex-communicant from the church in Dover, and moved his residence into Maine, and was drowned in crossing the Kennebec. But the de- sire to acquire permanent homes and a title in the soil extended itself among the fishermen, as well as among the artisans, agriculturists, and colonial population of Maine.
THE NAME OF OUR STATE.
With great energy of purpose, untiring persever- 1647. ancc, and from motives benevolent and patriotic — not to deny the existence of those more latent which originate in the selfishness of the human heart. Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges prosecuted schemes of colonization, till through the favor of Charles I. of England, he secured a provin- cial charter, by which the wilds of North-Eastern America were constituted a body politic to become endowed with all the forms and forces of civil society ; and which was desig- nated the province of " Maine."
It was thus the protege of the indefatigable Gorges found a name, in the royal State paper of April 3, 1639, which has become the pass-word of authority, and is the title of our State to this day. Having effectually excited public interest in opening and developing its resources, and started a series of colonial movements for the enlargement of its population, till he had given to our State a name. Gorges died, without reaping any considerable benefit, other than empty titles, as a reward for his labors and sacrifices.
JOHN Parker's settlement.
A title to the great island, on the east side and
1649. forming the east bank of the ancient Sagadahock,
(and probably the ancient " island of Sagadahock,")
SETTLEMENT. 125
of wliich, " Sebenoa," the native chieftain, who, on meeting Capt. Gilbert, of Popham's colony, proclaimed himself the " lord," was now acquired by John Parker. At the date of the purchase, the island went by name of Res-keagan. The fisherman, John Parker, of Boston, within thirty years of Popham's colonial adventures at the moutli of the Kenne- bec, engaged in the fisheries between there and Monhegan; and is said to have occupied the southern extreme of this is- land, where are still to be seen the remains of an ancient town. 1
THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WESTPORT.
" Jeremy Squam," an island in the Sheepscot, now the town of Westport, the aboriginal name of which seems to have been " the island of Jeremy, who lives by the water, meaning the island of water creeks," ^ became the prop- erty of John Richards, who, with a Thomas Webber, lived on the upper end of Res-keagan or Parker's island opposite, and who purchased it of the Sagamore Damarine or Robin- hood. From the settlement of Parker, grew near the sea- side the ancient " New Town ; " while, from the Popham site, the colony revived by Dermer, or at the elbow, on the headland, the site of the ancient church where the Kennebec turns into " Long Reach," grew up a hamlet on the western margin of the river, together with the plantations of Merry Meeting above.
BIRTH PLACE OF WILLIAM PHIPS.
Not far from Wiscasset on the lower margin of Monseag Bay, near the mouth of a rivulet of tlie 1650. same name, a peninsula of arable land strikes out from the south-eastern extreme of the purchase of Bate-
1 Williainson, vol. i, p. 53. Me. H. Col., vol ii, p. 192. 2 Hon. S. Taisons.
126 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
man and Brown (Woolwicli) into a body of water, formed by the junction of the waters of the bay above in their pas- sage to the sea, with those flowing from Slieepscot Bay be- low into the Kennebec, opposite the city of Batli.
This body of water encircling the base of a mountainous headland of nearly perpendicular steeps and cliffs, called Hockomock, where it receives, as a reservoir, the waters of three tides, opens into an expanse, or magnificent basin ; from tlie indented rim of whicli, as well as through its center, wind navigable cliannels.
Bold shores, precipitous headlands, picturesque islands, low extended land-falls and fertile margins, give here a land- scape of surpassing beauty.
WILLIAM PHIPS, THE SHIP BUILDER.
On this peninsula, commanding this lovely scene of land and water, in the direct track of the great inland thorough- fare between Pemaquid and Kennebec, (and near to the rock, which ancient tradition affirms, has turned, from time immemorial, " three times round whenever it hears the cock crow," rising from the deep like a hay-stack at the point, where the salt sea-water meets and mingles with the fresh) was born on the 2d of February, William Phips. — To tliis peninsula, as the precise locality of his birtli, tradi- tion to this day points the traveler, and calls it " Phips' point." Near his birth place, in the head of the cove made by tlie point on one side and Hockomock on the other, grew up a hamlet. Tliis son of Shccpscot subsequently became one of the most renowned worthies of New England ; whose mother was one of its most noted matrons; who, it is said, gave to her country twenty-one sons and five daughters. — William learned the trade of shi{)-wright. He then learned to read and write, in Boston. In Boston, he contracted to
SETTLEMENT. 127
build a ship on the Sheepscot — she was built and launched successfully.
PHIPS' ADVENTURES.
He had provided for this ship a cargo of lumber, which he had nearly completed, when disturbed by Indian hostilities, the settlers fled in her to Boston, and thus escaped the savage tomahawk.
A Spanish silver-laden galleon, from the mines of Peru, had been wrecked on the Bahamas. Pbips fitted out an ex pedition, found the sunken hulk, and therefrom raised " thirty-two tons of silver, a bushel of pieces of eight, and vast riches of pearls and jewels ; in value, all amounting to three hundred thousand pounds sterling."
" Phips' ship-yard was on or near the Sheepscot waters not far from his birth place, according to the most authentic tra- dition, and not at the Sheepscot farms," ^ in Newcastle. Phips' wealth procured for him a knight-hood ; and he be- came invested with the authority of Governor of Massachu- setts, which office he filled with dignity and executed with success.
POPULATION AND STAPLES OF TPvADE.
At the period of the birth of Phips, a considerable com- munity had reared their cabins along the margins of the Sheepscot and Damariscotta, which had acquired something of the permanence and value of homes. Furs, fish, and lumljer were the great staples of trade. The noble pine — the growth of centuries — the stately spruce, sufficiently large for masts and spars to ships of war, towering above all the surrounding forests, covered the river banks and invited the sturdy woodman's axe. Hence the deep waters of the
1 Hon. S. Parsons, Greenleaf s act. — Greenleaf, an early resident on Oak island.
128 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Sheepscot, with the magnificent harbor of Boothbay at its mouth, attracted artisans, ship-wrights, carpenters, and com- merce, as well as fur traders and fishermen ; while the fer- tile bottoms at and about the upper Sheepscot fringed with vast meadows of salt marsh, no less powerfully drew thither early agriculturists. It is estimated five hundred souls had their homes on and about the Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and Damariscotta at this time.
" TRAVEL."
The water-courses were the highways of travel. Hence the river banks were first occupied by settlers. This solves the problem of ancient ruins and remains of long-forgotten homes, everywhere found in the cellars, brick, and pottery along the eastern shores of the Sheepscot ; of which the author has himself visited five or six within a distance of less than two miles.
TRANSFER OF TITLES.
It was at this period the second-hand titles to landed estate were made, out of which, confusion, litigation, and much wrong resulted. " The Pemaquid patent was resolved into what afterward became known as the Drowne claim," and grievoiisly oppressed and disquieted the citizens of Bristol, Nobleboro', and part of Newcastle. One of the sons of the firm of Aldworth and Elbridge became the pos- sessor of its title to the Pemaquid purchase. This son mort- gaged Monhcgan and Damariscove to one Russel, who, with a Mr. Davison, purchased the balance. Russel sold out to Davison ; and one of Davison's daughters married Sliem Drowne. The " Brown right" was derived from the con- veyance of the sagamore Somerset to John Brown, who resided near to Pemaquid, at New Harbor. These facts indicate such an increase of population as to render the soil valuable as an acquisition in the estimation of the early
SETTLEMENT. 129
planters ; and that their character had undergone a change from that of an adventurous cast to that of a stable, indus- trious, and home-like people, who were seeking the comforts of life in the products of the soil rather than in the uncer- tain issues of trade and speculation. It is to be presumed tliat thrift now began to appear, as the settlements had reached that stage of development when the stubbornness of nature had been suhdued, and the embarrassments of the unlDroken soil so far overcome as to yield profitable returns in the comforts and luxuries of life.
So far as the opening of the channels of industry, and the establishment of a home were concerned, the settlements had become developed ; but the full organization of society, in the local application of law and order, was yet incomplete.
JOHN MASON, SHEEPSCOT PROPEIETOR.
A distinguished name among the settlers and orig- inal proprietors of Sheepscot was John Mason. 1652. From Damarin by purchase he had acquired a title to a considerable body of land, commencing at Sheepscot falls, running easterly, and embracing the " Great Neck." By the claim of Stephen Calef, exhibited before the Com- missioners, Mason's purchase extended from Sheepscot falls in Newcastle southward and eastward to a freshet called "Oven's Mouth," — a well known inlet of the waters of Sheep- scot river, opening eastward and separating between the southern boundary of Edgecomb and the northern boundary of Boothbay, caused by a narrow gorge between rocks and precipitous cliffs, through which the tide ebbs and flows with a deep and rapid current, to fill and empty a shallow inte- rior basin, receiving the waters of a considerable freshwater pond from Boothbay on the south, and of "Wild-cat Meadow'* on the north-cast, — the margins of which rise in a gentle: slope or swell of light and fertile soil, which must have been
9
130 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
covered in early days with a heavy growth of maple, pump- kin pines, and spar timber.
Mason must therefore have owned originally the banks of the Sheepscot in the town of Edgecomb ; and the Sheepscot " Great Neck " must have been the peninsula beginning at Sheepscot falls on the north, and terminating at " Oven's Mouth," between the Sheepscot and Cross rivers, on the south, a section some five miles long by a mile and a half broad.
CIVIL CONDITION OF SETTLEMENTS.
As before stated, except the municipal administration at Pemaquid, at this period no legal organization, no body pol- itic, no application of law had been made to the settlements within the ancient dominions of Maine. True, " rules and regulations of a stringent character " for governing their intercourse with the natives had been applied to the settlers on the Kennebec, within the territory of the Plymouth colony. Notwithstanding an arrangement had been made between the Kennebec sagamores and settlers there to establish a court in Avhich all complaints should be heard, (by the sag- amores, if the natives were in fault, and by the court, if the settlers were in the wrong), evil complications had grown up between the settlers 'and savages, as well as among the' settlers themselves.
ORGANIZATION OP A COURT AT MERRY MEETING.
At the house of Thomas Ashley, a resident at 1654. " Merry Meeting," " the Englisli inliabiting upon May 23. and near to the river commonly called the Kenne- bec, who, by their paucity and fewness of numbers and their remoteness, have not hitherto enjoyed the benefit of government, ^ for the purpose of settling a government
1M.IL CoU. vol. ii, pp. 193
SETTLEMENT. 131
upon the said river of Kennebec," in pursuance of a sum- mons and warrant issued to the Marshal of New Plymouth, requiring the inhabitants on said river to make their personal appearance, said inhabitants " did generally assemble," viz : Thomas Purchase, residing on the southwesterly margin of the bay at the " foot ^ of the falls," where the Androscoggin enters, — John Stone, Thomas Ashley, John Richards of Jeremy Squam and Arrowsic, James Smith, William James, Thomas Parker, residing at the mouth of the river, together with John Parker on the southern extreme of the island of the same name, and whose hamlet was the nucleus of the ancient " New^ Town," a settlement or village which there arose ; John White, John Brown, resident at Nequasset, William Davis, Thomas Webber, Thomas Atkins, residing at the mouth of the river on the west margin, James Coale, Edmund Hughes, Alex. Thwait, residing at Winnegance near Long Reach. Tliis assemblage of the pioneer settlers was sworn to faithfulness to government and to one another in the administration of law and regulations applicable to their state and circumstances. The common law was rec- ognized as binding ; and the reparation of its wrongs was provided for. Drunkenness was prohibited ; and the sale of intoxicating drink to the^natives was forbidden under pen- alties. Trade was regulated with the Indians — trial by jury secured — Purchase was appointed as presiding justice, and Ashley was chosen constable — when the assembly adjourned to meet in court at the same place on the year ensuing.
PRICE OF THE PURCHASE OF BRISTOL.
John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Har- bor, and the original settler, who by his interest with 1654. the chieftain Somarset, the native lord of the soil,
1 John McKoen, Esq. Me. Hist. Coll., vol. iii.
2 1668, Clark arid Lake laid out a town on the south side of Arrowsic in ten acre lots. Me. H. Coll., p. 192. , /-
132 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
occupied and became the chief proprietor of the town of Bristol, " for fifty skins of beaver," ^ now resided on what was assumed to be his father's land at Damariscotta, at the lower or salt water falls, on the east margin at the point, — the site of Damariscotta village.
HAMLETS OF BROWN AND PHILIPS.
His residence was nearly opposite the site of the house of Jas. Smith, the son-in-law of Walter Philips, who lived on the west margin of these falls ; while Robert Scott occupied a plantation above Brown's on tlie same side of the river, and opposite Taylor's, the neighbor of Walter Philips. Brown and his neighbors were forced to flee with Philips, during the outbreak of the savages in tlic first Indian war ; at which time Walter Philips, James Smith, and John Taylor, on the west margin of the Damariscotta at the lower falls, and John Brown, Jr., and Robert Scott on the east were the sole residents where the villages of Newcastle and Damaris- cotta now stand. ^
CLARK AND LAKE.
Clark and Lake of Boston having purchased Ar- 1658. rowsic Island, (the land of rest amid the waters — or quiet-water land), on the southern extreme laid out a town in ten-acre lots, intersected at right angles with streets of ample width. Major Clark and Capt. Lake were Boston merchants ; and on the site of the new town erected a warehouse, several large dwelling-houses, and many other buildings, together with a fort near the water-side. Many immigrants had here established their homes. ^
1 Commiss. Reports.
2 Deed from Samasset, L. R.
3 Hubbard, p. 247.
SETTLEMENT. 183
PURCHASE PRICE OF THE TOWN OF PHIPSBURG.
John Parker, not satisfied with the acquisition of his Island territory, now infected with the 1659.
spirit of land speculation, so rife in the wilds of June 14. Maine, for the consideration of " one beaver skin and the yearly rent of one bushel of corn and a quart of liquor to be paid unto Robinhood, or his heirs forever, at or before every ( Christmas) 25th ^ day of December, at the dwelling house of said Parker," (reserving to himself and heirs the right to fish, fowl, and hunt — also to set otter traps without molestation) acquired a possessory right in a tract of land on the " west side of Sagadahoc River," begin- ning at the " high head," six miles up to Winnegance Creek, and southwestwardly unto the eastern part of Casco Bay, — embracing the principal portion of the territory of the present town of Phipsburg, — in presence of Henry Jocelyn, Richard R. Foxwell, and Roger Spencer. In the meanwhile trouble had grown up between the natives and pioneers of the Kennebec. In the progress of differences, violence had been developed — " some of the savages having been killed — some carried away — and their hunting interrupted, and the trade in furs depreciated." These circumstances, evils of the lawless state of society, at length arrested tlie legislative attention, ^ and acts were passed relating thereto, for the restraint of lawlessness in trade, and regulating intercourse with the native population.
A fort had also been constructed on " Stinson's
r
Point," near the margins of Hockomock Bay, where 1060. a trading establishment had grown up under the enterprise of Hammond, an Indian " truck master," who had selected a position for his traffic on this great inland
1 Original paper, in archives of M. H. Soc. MSS. Files, Me. H. Soc. archives.
2 Pejepscot and Plymouth controversy, p. 40.
134 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
thoroughfare from the East. At this point there exist the remains of a very ancient and considerable settlement ; for on the margins of " Spring Cove," within forty years have been traced very considerable ruins and pavements of brick work.
ORIGINAL DEED OF THE PURCHASE OF BATH.
'•'■ Robert Gutch's Deed from severall Sagamoors for Land in Kennebeck River — May 2dth IGGO.
"This Indenture made this twenty ninth of May 16G0 Between Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Terrumijnin "Wesomonaseoa Seawque Abumheanenoon y' : one party & Robert Gutch on y" other party witness- eth y' we y* above s* Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Wesomonascoe & Terumquin Sagamores and we y' Rest above mentioned for divers consid- erations to theirunto moveing have given granted & delivered over & by these presents Do give grant & deliver over & forever alinese quit Claime from unto y' s* Robert Gutch his heirs Exec : administrators & assignes to our selves — our heirs Exec" administratoi-s & assignes all y' tract of Land lying and being in Kenebecke River and Right over against tuesslcke y* Beginning of y* Lower part of y' Bounds Thereof. Being a Cove Run- ning by y' upper Side of a point having Som Rocks lying a little from y' s'* point into y' s* River & from y' s"* Cove to run upwards by y" waters Side — towards James Smiths unto a point and Being Right over against winslows Rock Commonly known and Called by y' name together with all y' woods underwood & all other previledges their unto beloning as also y' one half of all y* meadow y' Either is or may be made and lyeth within y' Land from y' waters Side part behind y* aboves** tract of Land. & a part Behind a tract of Land granted unto Alexander Thwait & lyeth near a Little pond & further y' aboves* Sagamores and we y* rest abovenamed have also Given granted & delivered over half y* meadow y' is and may be made by y' Rivers Sides commonly known and called by y* name of Wen- nigansege all w"*" abovcs'' tract of Land to Run into y' Land Three Miles To have cV To hold to him y* s*" Robert Gutch bis heirs Exec" & adminis- trators & assignes y' aboves'' tract of Land with y' privileges aboves* as al- so all hawking hunting fishing &c. forever without any mollestations or Alter demand whatsoever and hereby do bind ourselves our heirs Exec" Ad- ministrators & assignes forever any more from this day forward to make any more Claime Challinge or pretence, of tittle unto y" aboves Tract of Land and to maintain this against all other Claimes Tittles Challiuges
settlement. 135
gutch's hamlet on long EEACH.
Rev, Robert Giitch, a dweller on Sagadaliock west bank, an emigrant from Salem, purchased of several 1661. Sagamores, among whom was Mow-ho-ti-wormet, the present site of the city of Bath, which he occupied as a plantation. " Long Reach " was the primitive name of the city. Some twenty families resided on the west shore of the Sagadahock at this date. Robert Gutch, " a man of God" to the pioneer inhabitants and fishermen of Sagadahock, was drowned, probably while prosecuting his labors on some missionary tour, it may be at remote stations from his home, over tlie water, leaving four daughters. His plantation must have been a central and probably a populous point, at the Reach, when Walter Philips, of Damaris- Feb. 15. cotta, acquired from the savages " Gosle" and Erie Dugles a guarantee of peaceable possession and enjoyment of a body of land " beginning at the lower end of the salt pond at Damariscotty, called Ped-coke-gowake — meaning the place of thunder, so tending right over to Cavesisix river,
and Intrests whatsoever. In witness whereof we y" aboves* parties. Saga- mores and we y' rest of y' aboves"* Indians have hereunto set our hands & Seals y' day and year above written.
" Sealed Signed & Delivered in y° " The Marke X Robin Hoode presence of us Alexander Thwat [x) " The IMarke ><{ Terrumquin Mary Webber ^ John Verine f^ " The jNIarke X "Weasomanascoe Alexander Tressell. " The Marke \^ Scawque
" The Marke >^ Abunhamen
" Robin Hoode and Terrumquin acknowledged this to be their Act and Deed, before me Nicholas Renallds Jus. Peace
" A true Coppy of this deede above written transcribed out of y' origi- nal and their with compared this 27 October G7 P Edw : Richworth Re- corder.
" Vera Copia as of Record Exm : Jos. Hamond Reg."
136 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
due west north west,"^ — undoubtedly an aboriginal name of some branch of the Sheepscot.
DEATH OF ROBERT GUTCH.
The Rev. Robert Gutch,^ the original proprietor and one of the first settlers of the city of Bath, resided on the prem- ises near the present abode of Levi Houghton, in that city, for seventeen years. That he was a " preacher to the fishermen," and had "been disowned at an early date," (1679), is the only record of his life, labors, and end, history has left us ; and for this we are indebted to tradition.
At the date of his death, at Wliisgig — or " Whisgeag " — lived Edward Cammel ; and near the same time at Winne- gance dwelt Alexander Thwoit. It is probable that this hamlet escaped the general conflagration and massacre of the savages, who sacked the Arrowsic towns in King Philip's war. It is possible, as he was no " truck-master," no mili- tary chieftain, no man conspicuous in the community, except as a " servant of the most high God," and in no way obnox- ious to savage resentment, that he may have lived there unmolested. His life and character may have been a pro- tection to himself and hamlet, because they brought him within the circle of well-known superstitious fears and vene- ration of savage men. At any rate, there is no record of any slaughter and biirning, assaults and barbarities, at or near the abode of this " holy man of old," and which, fol- lowing the usual laws of aggregation, must have made the nucleus of a village, as a center of missionary labor.
Richard Paddishall, (Pates-hall, who afterwards was shot at the Barbican near Pemaquid ?), a coaster by occupation, planted an island (opposite Butler's cove) in the Kennebec, on which he lived for many years. It was an ancestral pos-
1 Commlss. Reports, p. 13.
2 Se wall's History of Bath.
SETTLEMENT. 137
session, his father having lived there before him, and was called " Paddishall's island." This island, mentioned as the place of rendezvous of the several tribes at a conference in George- town, must have been on the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, and nearly opposite the Watts settlement at Butler's cove, on the lower end of Arrowsic. Paddishall subsquently re- moved his family to Pemaquid,^ where he was slain.
On Damariscove, Trick, Hunnewell, Soward, and Richard Reading were old inhabitants, where seven boats fished ^ at this date.
Walter Philips must have been an original settler at Damariscotta, on the Newcastle side of the village, and the earliest of whom we have any record. When he went in and planted at " Ped-coke-go-wake," the natives only were his neighbors. Philips first settled at a point on the river below, called " Winnagane :" — meaning the portage, — prob- ably at Hodgdon's Mills, the portage from Pemaquid to the harbor, from whence he removed to Ped-coke-go-wake above, occupied the hill and point below the falls, and cleared and planted an orchard, making great improvements.
The possessions of Philips at " Ped-coke-go-wake " em- braced the carrying place, which the natives used in passing over to a branch of the Sheepscot ; and he opened a cart-path, (the route of the present highway) along the trail of this car- rying place, between the proximate tide-waters of the Dama- riscotta and Sheepscot, whose branch was called " Cavesisix river."
After Philips had been driven off from his plantation by savage viol/)nce, " escaping," we arc told, " only with his life, and with the loss of all his goods," the remains of his dwell- ing, chimney still standing — the orchard in bearing — soli- tary monuments of former thrift and opulence — eloquent
I Joha Cook's testimony, Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105.
138 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ruins of pioneer life — were seen for many years. During the desolation of the next generation, consequent on the ravages of savage barbarities, apples were gathered from the orchards of Philips here by the dwellers at Pemaquid below. The ruins and cliimney remaining, marked the site of the pio- neer home of Philips, long after his departure and decease. He appears to have been an intelligent and thrifty and pub- lic spirited planter, — an agriculturist and not a trader, — who enjoyed the fruits of his labor, in the products of the soil newly cleared and virgin, many years, on the west bank of the Damariscotta — the site of the village of Newcastle then being the improved portion of his estate. Above his place, resided another early planter — John Taylor ; and near by, Robert Scott ; ^ and these three families were the earliest and original occupants of the soil and residents there, in the midst of a howling wilderness and savage homes.
DUKEDOM ESTABLISHED.
The section of country watered by the Sheep-
1664. scot and Damariscotta to the Pemaquid had now Mar. 12. become the western limits ( whatever claims may
have been set up for territory from tlie west) of a royal grant to the Duke of York and the property of this Prince. For the next quarter of a century the Duke fos- tered his claim to the " territory of Sagadahoc ;" and until it passed into his possession no local government existed.
Commissioners to represent the government in a local organization of civil power were appointed, viz : Col. Rich- ard Nichols, Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick.
1665. The Commissioners assembled on the eastern Apr. 15. banks of the Sheepscot, on the " Great Neck,"
" half a league westerly from Damariscotta lower Sept. 5. falls," at the dwelling house of John Mason.
1 See Depositions, Commiss. Reports.
SETTLEMENT. 139
NEWCASTLE A SHIRE-TOWN.
Nichols, the acting governor of New York, was not pres- ent, the newly acquired province of Sagadahoc being an appendage to the colonial government established on the Hudson. " Walter Philips," a land-holder and resident on the west bank of the Damariscotta, at the lower falls, was appointed the clerk. Thus organized, the commission "erected" the territory under the Duke's jurisdiction into a county, and called it " Cornwall ; " and the Sheepscot settlement, where the .session was holden, was constituted a shire-town, and called " New Dartmouth." ^ Thus the ancient dominions of Maine became a Dukedom.
CONVENTION OF THE RESIDENTS OF THE DUCAL TERRITORY.
The residents at various points within the Duke's territory were summoned to appear and submit to the newly inaugu- rated government. Sagadahoc sent in William Frieswell, and Richard Hammond — undoubtedly the trader near Hocko- mock at Stinson's Point, on the margin of the Cross river to Bath — a resident ; John Miller, Robert Morgan, Thomas Parker, Marcus Parsons, Thomas Watkins, John White, — all probably neighbors of Hammond and residents at the mouth of Sheepscot River.
Sheepscot sent in William Dale, William Dyer, Christo- pher Dyer, Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Gent, William James, William Marks, John Mason, Thomas Mercer, Walter Philips, Moses Pike, Robert Scott, A. Stolger, John Taylor, John White. There appeared from Pemaquid Thomas Elbridge, Edmund Arrowsmith, George Buckland, Henry Champness, Thomas Gardiner, — and Nicholas Raynal from Arrowsic.
These are the only names of the early planters who came forward to give in their allegiance to Royal authority —
iMe. H. Col., vol. iv, p. 221.
no ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINL!.
early indicative of the existence of the republican spirit, subsequently developed in the tory and whig parties. Raynal of Sagadahoc, Gardiner of Pemaquid, and Dyer of Sheepscot were commissioned as magistrates ; while Richard Simons was authorized as constable.
DISSENTERS TO DUCAL AUTHORITY.
It is a singular circumstance, that no one from the settle- ment at Wiscasset Point was there ; and yet it is certain George Davie had planted a hamlet on his hill near the gaol, where he resided and owned land. Four years preceding he purchased of the natives a body of land a " mile and more in width," fronting on the Wiscasset Bay, and covering the site of the shire town of Lincoln county, the present village of Wiscasset. He also acquired a title to a considerable section of land on the eastern and opposite shore of the bay — Edgecomb side — a portion of which is still occupied by the same name and probably remote descendents. ^ Dama- rin, the Sheepscot sagamore, conveyed to one John 1666. Davis a plantation on the north-west side of " Wistas- sek bay, north into the woods half way to Kennebec.'*
A Mordaci Crafford ( Clifford ? ) sold a neck of land on Sheepscot river, and probably was a resident there and on the east shore near this date. On the north-cast side of Sheepscot river, at a place called " Wichcassick," in New Dartmouth, Richard Pattishall claimed a four-hundred acre lot.
John Tucker ^ of Sheepscot river, a fisherman at Cape Newagen, owned " all the land on the north side of Mons- eag river, up along the main river as far as Cowsegan — being as far as Thomas Cleaves's lease runs down to the
1 Alias Mohotiwormet.
2 1662. Purchased by Checkley and Prout of Boston. Me. II. Coll. vol. ii. p. 235 — 6.
SETTLEMENT. 141
river, and so to run four miles due north from the main river of Cowsegan." Thomas Cleaves, fisherman of Cape Newagen, " bought of Robmhood proprietor and sagamore of said river," a tract of land on Sheepscot river, containing four miles more or less, bounded on the river southeasterly, extending in breadth from the lowermost to the uppermost narrows, and thence four miles into the country back.
Nathaniel Draper ^ owned a parcel of land bought of a Sheepscot sagamore. Jack Pudding, lying between the " Bute Falls," the great bay over against the parting guts which lie between Nathaniel Draper, Thomas Mercer, and the house to the river.
Jacob Clark, i as grandson by marriage of Alice, the grand-daughter of John Davis, aho had a claim to land in Wiscasset. These acquisitions of title were chiefly derived i from Damarin, about this period. Davie and Davis owned the site of the village of Wiscasset, if not also the land opposite in Edgecomb. '' Crafford" or Clifford settled and occupied probably the neck, embracing what is now called the " Eddy," on the Edgecomb side of Sheepscot. Patti- shall owned and occupied above the Davis tract, also on the Edgecomb side opposite Wiscasset. Thomas Cleaves owned and occupied the land south of the village of Wiscasset, to the narrows, entering Monseag bay. John Tucker owned between Cleaves's house and lease to Monseag river. Nathaniel Draper and Tliomas Mercer probably resided and ownad to the north of the Davis tract and the village of Wiscasset above the bay, beginning at the narrows — known now as Woodbridge's narrows ; and may have lived on the headland overlooking the bay below.
Thomas Gent built a house at Damariscotta on land given him by his father-in-law Taylor, who owned and occupied a tract of land beginning at the three coves and running
1 Me. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. ii.
142 ANCIENT DOIVHNIONS OF MAINE.
on a straight line into the fresh meadows to a point of land lying on the north side of " Walter Philips' cart path " on the west side of Damariscotta river. Taylor's possess- ions embraced the oyster-shell banks above the bridge. Walter Philips was the neighbor of Taylor and Gent, on the west side margin of the Damariscotta, at the falls. John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Harbor, owned a house on the opposite bank, the eastern shore of Damaris- cotta, at the falls, — owning and occupying a large tract of land there. Robert Scott lived a neighbor to Brown, and northwesterly from Brown's dwelling-house, opposite the oyster-shell banks. We have thus located the homes of the principal persons present at the Commissioners' court held at the house of " John Mason," a resident of Sheepscot and a land owner in Edgecomb and Newcastle on the 5th of September, 1665. It will be seen that no settlers at and about Wiscasset Point were there ; and for the reason prob- ably that the sympathies of the residents at Wiscasset Point were with Massachusetts rather than with the royal author- ity of the Duke of York. It is well known that the author- ity of the Duke's commissioners often came into collision with that of the Massachusetts government which liad now undertaken to extend its jurisdiction into Maine. Pema- quid, Sheepscot, and Sagadahoc had remained in a state of natural freedom ; and by the Commissioners' court above described, the territory was erected into the " County of Cornwall."
PURCHASE OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR.
At the harbor of Boothbay, Henry Curtiss was
1666. probably an original and considerable planter ;
and from his position, his influence with the aged
Note. — A widow Willcot olaimefl land on the west side of Sheepscot river below tlie falls, whiih was owned by Thomas Mercer, and improved by him for years. See Me. li. Col. vol. iv. p. 233.
SETTLEMENT. 143
" Maua-wor-met " (father of Robiuliood ?) was sufficient to secure the conveyance of the land, embracing the liarbor. by an instrument giving Curtiss a home there — "a parcel of land lying on the northwest side of the northwest passage, and the Pond joining into tlio head of the northwest passage unto the Gut of the Back River, with all the islands and inlets and marshes, containing unto the same, — granting unto the said Henry Curtiss, his heirs and assigns, full power and possession to set down, there.y
The instrument was witnessed before Henry Joslin by 1 Daniel Benether and William Cliffe, who, it may fairly be presumed, were neighbors to Curtiss, and may be enumer- ated among the earliest settlers of tliis ancient place, more than half a century after its discovery by Weymouth. The consideration is a damnatory clause, " in the forfeiture of twenty g-ood beaver skins" by which Sylvanus Davis, the year before, had been quieted in possession of the other moiety of the Boothbay territory, lying on the Damariscotta near its mouth, probably from the savages Gosle and Witta- f iiois, and John Cotta, the first of whom had conveyed to Walter Philips his homestead at the head waters of the same
river. ^
CLAIMS OF MASSACHUSETTS ASSERTED.
Massachusetts had indeed begun a series of movements to establish her sovereignty here. An organization erecting the " Coiyity of Devonshire," was attempted at Pemaquid, as the capital. Eighty-four inhabitants there congregated. Richard Oliver of Monhegan was made clerk, and Thomas Gardiner Treasurer of the county. Thomas Humphrey of Sagadalioc was created marslial, who, with Robert Gam- mon of Cape Newagen were constables. Pattishall, Gardiner, Gammon, and John Palmer were authorized commissioners
1 Commiss. Reports, original deeds.
144 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
" to legalize marriages, acknowledge deeds, and hold a commissioners' court." A panel of jurors was made, viz : Robert Emmons and Ambrose Hanwell of Sagadahoc ; John Wifford, Elias Trick, and John Prior of Damariscove ; George Bickford and Reynald Kelly of Monhegan ; John Call of Pemaquid. Damariscove at this period must have been a place of some population and importance. A mili- tary organization was also perfected. Companies were enrolled at Sagadahoc, Damariscove, Pemaquid, and Cape Newagen. Pattishall ( Paddishall ?) of Sagadahoc, and Gardiner of Pemaquid were appointed commanders-in-chief. Houses of public entertainment were authorized to be open- ed at Sheepscot, Pemaquid, Damariscove, and Sagadahoc. — Cotemporary ^ history assures us, that now, in the " Ancient Dominions," — the English in great numbers had settled — having a large country cleared and under improvement : — " stored with cattle and corn fields : " — Pemaquid, Mon- hegan, Cape Newagen — " where Capt. Smith fished for whales'" — all filled with dwelling houses and stages for fish- ermen."-
Immediately on the erection of our territory into a Ducal
State, it became an appendage to New York : and the an- cient hamlet of the " Sheepscot Farms," became the shire town of the new county of Cornwall, by name of New Dart- mouth ; and the Governor of New York, Dongan, to fill up his master's newly acquired Province, introduced many Dutch families and thrifty farmers, to the banks of Ijie Sheep- scot waters, who secured the agricultural sites on the head waters, and along the river margins, Avhcre the vestiges of this influx of population are still traceable in broken pipes, pottery, and domestic utensils, ancient cellars, and remains of former homes.
Pemaquid continued still to be the great radiating center,
1 Deny's and Joi-elyn's act.
2 Williamson, vol. i, p. 446.
SETTLEMENT. l4o
in the diffusion of population throughout the Dukedom, which continued to flow up our water-courses, planting it- self in forest clearings and hamlets, on the banks and mar- gins, at every desirable point. Nequaseag and Phips' point, in the aboriginal " clear-water and island-waterplaces^'' to- gether with the site of Hammond's village, a trading station on the Cross-river, or gut passage to Bath, were now all occupied.
It will have been seen that a considerable population not represented before the Duke's convention for the organiza- tion of his newly acquired province, were inhabitants of the ancient dominions of Maine two centuries ago. The Davises, the Tuckers, the Cleaves of Wiscasset Point — the Craffords, ( Cliifords ? ) and Pattishalls of Edgecomb ; Brown of Damariscotta, and many more from Pemaquid, Sagadahoc, and about Boothbay, or Cape Newagen, were not there.
Thirty-four years prior to the events which at John Mason's house converted this community into a body politic, the locality was known as the " Sheep scot Farms, ^^ with a population of fifty families, making some two hundred and fifty souls.
EXTENT OF NEW DARTMOUTH.
This fact is a proof of the early appreciation of the fertile meadows and bottom lands of the ancient " Che-va-ve- covett." A considerable village had now grown Tip. The point at or below Sheepscot Bridge was the site of this village, now invested with the dignities and importance of a metropolitan center of the new-created Dukedom. The length of the peninsular site was more than a " mile ; " its width, from a " third to one half; " and it lies between twO' branching prongs of the waters of the Sheepscot, which strike off, the one above, the other below ; the one running, easterly and northerly, and forming the mouth of Dyer's-
10
146 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
river ; the other bending easterly and southerly into the salt marshes below, towards the Damariscotta, and into the " heart " of the town of Newcastle. A street called the " king's highway," still the great thoroughfare of travel, divided the peninsula longitudinally east and west. This street, on " both sides," ^ was lined with dwelling and other houses, proven by the " numerous cellars" found there, on a re-settlement after the Indian troubles had ended, and peace and safety were promised to the returning heirs of the slaughtered inhabitants. Nearly opposite the " falls/' some " ninety rods" in the line of the street southward, the peninsula rises by gradual ascent into a hill, whose summit commands the whole locality ; and which was crowned with a fortified work of timber. The place of the dead there, now occupies three sides of this fortified work, for the rea- son probably that the land was public property ; and in those perilous times the ancient people ventured not far from the garrison to bury their dead, there being no surety of life but under the protection of its guns, or within its stockade. The iron hail which was showered from this fortified hill top on a savage and ruthless foe is still turned out by the furrow of the plowman in the shape of cannon balls " of moderate size," - in the neighboring fields.
VESTIGES OP ANCIENT OCCUPANCY.
To the north of the fort, some forty rods, on the east side ef the street, "a pavement of flat stones — a floor some 'twenty feet square " — compactly laid with joint nicely fitted to joint, was discovered only a few inches under the ground. " Some forty rods further south, on the opposite side of the street," says the Rev. Mr. Cushman, whose eloquent and graphic description I beg leave to borrow, — "stood that
1 Cushman, Me. H. Coll., p. 211.
a Rev. Mr. Cushman, M. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 213.
SETTLEMENT. 147
important appendage of every settlement . . . the black smith's shop." With a select party an exploration was made by excavating the spot. On digging through the debris and new-made soil some " eight inches," " we came," he adds, " to a hard pan," the floor of the shop. " Here was the Birmingham of the whole country ; and here too the honest yeomanry met on a stormy day to talk, discuss, and project enterprises. On this floor we found the cinders and slag which fell from the furnace — bits of iron — the bolt of a lock, and a piece of work partially finished, in the shape and of the size of a large latch. It might have been the last work" of the smith, which in attempting to finish, he let fall, " as the Indian war-whoop was heard from the distant hills, and the unprotected inhabitants were compelled to flee for their lives."
" Melted pewter — charred corn and peas" are found, — vestiges of an ancient and agricultural people : — also stones, brick, and lime in the ancient cellars — relics indicating surprise of the fugitive dwellers, or such haste as forced the inhabitants to flee for their lives, leaving their pewter plates and basins, their household stuff, their goods, their all, as it was. A gold " signet-ring " taken from an old cellar on the southern extreme of the peninsula, would lead us to infer that some did not escape with their lives in the terrible scene: — some fond mother, some doating wife, some loving sister, some timid, terror-stricken maiden !
ANCIENT CHEONICLES OF STONE.
A mile to the eastward is the ancient " Mill Creek," on which arc the relics of a mill, whose broken stones have been there antecedent to the record of human recollection. The site must have been anterior to the advent of its ancient European occupants. A race antecedent to all historical data must have dwelt and had an interest there, — an inter- est of importance to the future, whose messages, wrapped
148 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
in the mysteries of a medium of communication prior to a knowledge of letters — inscribed in hieroglyphics on stone, have been transmitted to our day. For it is said, such " stones vdi\\ curious inscriptions," ^ in the southern part of this peninsula, have been found. But alas ! what vandal- ism ! it is added, " some of these stones were used in build- ing the cellars of modern settlers, and still remain in the walls" ! What secrets of history are covered here ? A thread of the long lost past may here be found, which shall lead us back to adventures — a race of which rumor alone has any recollection in the quite forgotten traditions of the north !
Is it indeed a fact that Monhegan, Damariscove, and Sheepscot are stored with unexplored treasures of a history on their enduring, stone-inscribed monuments ? The fact is worth the investigation of the curious and the learned as a tribute to literature alone.
The ancient site of Sheepscot is rationally presumed from its geological features to have once been an island. Within twenty years of Popham's abortive attempt to found and rear a town at the mouth of the Kennebec, it was the cen- ter of an agricultural community called the " Sheepscot farms." In a half a century from tliat disastrous event, it had grown to a village " a mile or more in length," densely settled, and was made a shire town of the county of " Corn- wall," by the name of New Dartmouth ; and now having passed through desolating changes and scenes of agonizing interest, two centuries and a half having elapsed, it is the simple tillage of Sheepscot on the western boundary of the town of Newcastle, the changes of so considerable a period not having as yet removed it, as a central, thrifty point in the midst of the meadows and fertile bottoms of the ancient Sheepscot. The present city-like villages of Newcastle and Damariscotta, at the falls of the river of that name, at the
iRov. D. Cushman, Me. H. Coll., vol. iv. p. 212.
SETTLEMENT. 149
date hei^ given were hardly a hamlet of two houses on the eastern and three on the western bank, and with no street but a cart path to Sheepscot.
ANCIENT TRADING POST OF SHEEPSCOT.
Except at Cape Newagen, history has left us no record of ancient trading posts on the Sheepscot ; and gives the names of but two of that speculating development of humanity in our early history, termed " truckmasters," — " Coke" ^ of Cape Newagen, mentioned by Levett, and Walker, a man of influence with the natives, mentioned by Hubbard, the location of whose trading establishment is not known.
SHEEPSCOT SETTLERS.
It is probable that the original occupants of the banks of the Sheepscot commanded their subsistence as " lords of the soil " rather than in the more doubtful issues of native trade. They were farmers and not speculators.
1 Levett's Voyage, p. 87. Hubbard, p. 265.
CHAPTER ly.
INDIAN WARS.
NATURAL CAUSES.
We have now reached the epoch particularly char- acterized by collision between the races originally 1667. occupying and those seeking a new home from a foreign soil.
Tliis issue follows the great laws of nature, in that econ- omy which forces the old to give place to the new, thus perpetuating a renovating energy throughout her domain.
Disturbance is a natural consequence of the influx of population, ( especially where the elements are not homo- geneous ) when it flows in with a force and fullness suffi- cient to displace original races.
Decay, change, renovation, are the constantly recurring phases of nature; and of human society as a, subject of natural law, as marked and decided in the succession of races, states, and nations as in the succession of generations or of vegetation. It ever has been, it ever will be, that the fresh and new, with its excess of life and energy, will in its season appear to replace the decay and waste of the old.
MORAL CAUSES.
The Puritans ^ of Massachusetts detected a source J Annals of Salem, No. iii. p. 250.
152 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
of public calamities in the social customs of the day, wliich may excite the admiration of this.
The General Court publish what they consider twelve evils, which brought on the country the burning and depop- ulation of several hopeful plantations, and the murdering of many people by the Indians — viz : " Long hair, like women's hair, is worn by some men, either their own or other people's hair, made into periwigs ; and by some wom- en wearing borders of hair, and their cutting, curling, and immodest laying out their hair ; which practice doth prevail and increase, especially among the younger sort."
Another evil, proclaimed by the General Court at Salem, was, " pride in apparel, both for costliness in the poorer sort, and vain new strange fashions, both in poor and rich, with naked breasts and arms ; or as it were pinioned with the addition of superfluous ribbons, both on hair and apparel."
But a more rational source of trouble was the conduct of the early voyagers and the resident fishermen, by which all respect for the superiority of the white race, conceived on a first and superficial acquaintance, was dissipated, and savage resentments provoked, till gradually a fearful and terrible climax was reached.
Gorges, in his plea at the bar of the House of Commons, complained, " that the mischief already sustained by these disorderly persons is inhuman and intolerable ; being worse than the savages in their manners and behaviour : impu- dently and openly lying with their women : teaching their men to drink drunk ; to swear and blaspheme the name of God. 1
IMPRUDENCE OF THE WHITES.
The herds and cornfields and meadows of Hadley
1675. on the Connecticut river had suffered from savage
depredation. Conjecture pointed to the natives of
1 Gorges' Narrative, M. H. Coll., vol. ii. p. 38.
INDIAN WARS. 153
the remote east as the perpetrators of the mischief.
Mo-ho-tiwormet or Robinhood, the aged sachem of the lower Sheepscot or Sagadahoc waters, was threatened with vengeance, in a message demanding redress for damages alleged to have been done.
This wanton disturbance of the natives of Maine excited the wildest alarm. Rumor had lent wings to the exciting intelligence, which, in a thousand distorted forms of exag- geration, was flying through the wilds of Maine, disturbing, exasperating, and dissipating all the elements of mutual con- fidence between the red and white races. The planters and residents of the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc became greatly disquieted.
The great Mo-ho-tiwormet, — the aboriginal lord of the soil where he dwelt, one of the most powerful native chief- tains, on whose friendsliip their lives and fortunes depended, had been wantonly and unreasonably provoked. The white residents called a public meeting at the dwelling house of Capt. Patishall, (Paddishall ?) probably at his island-home in tlie lower waters of the Sagadahoc, within the town of Phipsburg. Various plans were devised to avert the impending storm-cloud.
The peril was common and imminent. It was finally resolved to visit and disarm the savages, — a plan, all the features of which could not have been considered, or it never would have been adopted.
Volunteers for the delicate and dangerous service came forward, who directed their efforts toward the natives of the Kennebec and its tributaries, proposing to make reconnais- sances or fight, as necessity and expediency might suggest. Walker, an ancient Sheepscot truckmaster, who, by his probity and experience with the savages, had acquired influ- ence over them, was successful in persuading some of them to give up their arms and ammunition, as a guarantee of their pacific intentions. The plan was deemed feasible and
154 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
expedient, as a measure of safety to the planters. But a savage of the Androscoggin, at an interview had with Lake, Patishall, and others, who had gone out to execute the pro- cess of disarming the Indians, sprang on one of the party with his up-raised battle-axe, and aimed a blow at the head of Hosea Mallet, a Frenchman. The blow was averted from its fatal effects, but Sovven, the daring savage, was \ seized, bound, and immured in a cellar.
The Sanops and aged men of the tribe deplored the aspect of affairs, declared Sowen worthy of death, and offered to redeem his life with " forty ])eaver skins." Some of their number were pledged as sureties. By the dawn of the succeeding day the wild woods of Sagadahoc rang with the sliouts and echoed with the savage notes of Mo-ho- tiwormet and his braves, who made the great dance and I sang the song of peace at the doors of the terror-stricken white man. Sowen was released. But the hostages soon made good their escape, defying the vigilance of their keep- ers, and the beaver skins were never paid.
KING Philip's war.
King Philip's war had been raging in Massachusetts. This fire, kindled by the natives to consume the whites, had turned back with devouring fury, till Philip and his braves had fallen and been consumed.
The hostile bearing of tlie eastern savages was undoubt- edly assumed under the influence of fugitives from the scene of Philip's disaster, with a hope of exterminating the whole race of white men, which the brave and patriotic Philip had inspired.
In the dance of peace, the embers of war had not been extinguished. Smothered in the savage breast, a most brutal outrage on the wife and cliild of Squando rekindled them into quenchless flames.
INDIAN WARS. 155
OUTRAGE ON A SAVAGE MOTHER.
As the wife of Squando, the lord of the native Sckokis, paddled her fragile bark canoe across the waters of the Saco, some frolicksome seamen overturned or cast the infant savage into the water. It sank to the bottom. The mother, urged by the instincts of the maternal heart, plunged to rescue her darling from death. She at length rose to the surface with the child alive, but so injured by the wanton act as to die soon after.
The exasperated father, — the j&erce chieftain — was pro- voked to vengeance.
ASSAULT ON THE PURCHASE PLANTATION.
In September, the store-houses of Thomas Purchase, a Merry Meeting planter, near the head of New ]\readows River, were sacked. Twenty painted savages plundered the liquor, seized the ammunition, ripped up the feather beds for the sake of the ticking, butchered the calves, and slaughtered the sheep — leaving the females, — the only members of the family at home, unmolested, but warned that " other savages were coming who would deal far worse with them."
Tlie Indians had taken a great aversion to Purchase, who had amassed great wealth, and much of it by hard dealing with the natives in trade, one of whom charged " tliat for the water he had drawn out of Purchase'' s well he had paid an hundred pounds ! "
Retaliation followed. A party of twenty-five neighboring planters manned a sloop and two boats, and at once pro- ceeded to the scene of recent outrage, by way of Casco Bay and New Meadows River, with a view to gather and secure the growing crops, as well as to reconnoitre. As the party drew near the deserted premises, the sound of blows therein gave warning of the enemies' presence within the ransacked
156 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
buildings. Veiy soon three savages were espied. The sloop and boats lay moored below ; and by a circuitous route the party sought to cut off the savages and intercept their flight to the neighboring thickets by throwing them- selves between the enemy and the woods. Perceiving their retreat to the forest to be cut off by the hostile white man's forces, the savages made for their canoes at the water-side. They were pursued, and the first volley brought one to the ground and wounded a second, who succeeded in gaining his canoe and escaping with his life. The third savage, in the confusion, under cover of the smoke of the blazing fire arms, gained the covert of the woods, and reached his com- rades, who immediately formed an ambuscade, while the unwary planters scattered to gather their harvest.
Busied here and there, reckless of their peril, they gath- ered their corn and laded their boat. At this juncture, the ambushed savages, with their accustomed yells and whoops of war, rose from their concealment, and fired on the scat- tered workmen. Fortunately some of the company were in a state of readiness for defense ; and under cover of their fire, the dispersed planters gained the sloop. Several were wounded, but no one was killed. All escaped. But the corn-laden boats became a prey to the Indians, who burned the one and plundered the other.
Tims worsted in the battle — the first battle-scene of the terrible drama now opened — the settlers fled, and the vic- torious red-men, in small bands, more bold and presumi> tuous, sought trophies for the tomahawk and scalping knife, in every direction, at the door of every plantation.
Sylvanus Davis, the agent of Clark and Lake, resident at the newly laid-out town on Arrowsic, enlivened with mills and trading houses, and defended by fortified works, dispatched a messenger to secure the arms and ammunition of a trading post up the Kennebec, near the site of the capital of Maine. Encountering the Kennebec natives, he
INDIAN WARS. 157
menaced them " with deatli^'' if they did not yield to the policy of the white-man. come in arid deliver their arms. Exasperated at such bravado, the savages of the Kennebec waters sent runners to those of the Penobscot under Modock-a-wando, and the St. Johns River. A conference was held at the fortress of Baron de Castine. The tomahawk was dug up, the scalping knife unsheathed, and the pipe of peace was flung away. Every forest wild echoed the note, and every camp-fire glowed with the blood-red visage of Death. All was commotion. Every heart was shaken with gloomy forebodings.
The venerable Shurt of Pemaquid, the chief magistrate of the East, a man of age, discretion, and probity of char- acter, as well as experience, finally secured an interview with the disafiected sagamores, at the eastern metropolis. Public indignation burned with reckless zeal, and blindly turned against every one who counseled peace. Multitudes were bent on violence, utterly indifferent to the fearful issues of savage warfare. They maligned the motives and misinterpreted the acts of those who would- restore confi- dence and preserve peace. But Shurt persisted in his peace- ful overtures, and in defiance of opposition and false accusation, he obtained a hearing at Pemaquid.
The natives complained of " wrongs done them on the Kennebeck," ^ the depot of the Puritan trading houses of Plymouth. Shurt gave assurance that their wrongs should be redressed. By his assurances a prospect of con- tinued tranquility was preserved. - In the promise of behig " righted " in their wrongs, the savages were diverted from their purposes of blood.
SLAVE TRADERS OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Evil surmisings, jealousies, and whispers of evil worked
1 Hubbard, p. 302.
2 Williamson, vol. i. p. 526. Hubbard, p. 293—303.
158 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
their way into the ears of the Massachusetts government. Maj. AVaidron, one of its officers, issued under autliority of the Bay, ^'- general warrants'''' for seizing every native known to be a " man-slay er.^^
The precepts of Waldron falling into the hands of unprincipled seamen, were used as authority for kidnap- ping the natives to sell for slaves.
A vessel lurked in the by-places about the harbors of Pemaquid, with a view to this traffic. With the master, Shurt remonstrated — importunately desiring him to leavB the region — assuring him that peace now reigned which might be disturbed.
But tiiese remonstrances were unavailing. What was the peace of a community, the lives of women and children, the value of the prosperity of these infant settlements of the distant East compared with the profits of slave trading ?
In Massachusetts and Maine, slaves were bought 1676. and sold — "born in their houses and bought with their money." Why should not the red man, as well as the black, be made a subject of gainful speculation ? The muscles and sinews of the Indian, as well as the Negro, could be turned into gold. Furs were becoming scarce. The fisheries required diligence and perseverance to give a slow but sure return. The slave mart promised good pay, great profits, and little labor. The shrewd Yankee, with an eye to the benefit of himself and owners, had no scruples in turning kidnapper, and his sloop into a slaver on the coasts of Maine !
Several natives were seized, carried into foreign parts, and sold. ^ Incensed at this new and strange outrage, before attempting to meet out retribution for the ati-ocious wrong, tlie Indians returned to Abraham Shurt at Pema-
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 531.
INDIAN WARS. 159
quid, whose kind offices had won their confidence as an upright magistrate, and complained that '" many of their brothers were missing' — and were possibly miserable slaves in foreign lands."
DESTRUCTION OF THE ARROWSIC TOWNS.
King Philip was dead. With him, the hopes of his race had expired. To the East, in their Aug. 12. disappointment, were borne the embers of war ; which were scattered through the wilds of Maine, kindling anew tlie resentments of the excited savages, now burning with enthusiasm to revenge their fallen chief.
A terrible blow was struck in the heart of Sag- adahoc, whose reverberations wakened echoes Aug. 13. whose horrors have thrilled through generations, till they have reached the ears of our own.
DEVASTATION OF HAMMOND'S TOWN.
About Spring Cove on Stinson's Point, jutting into the western margins of Hockomock Bay, along the great thor- oughfare from Pemaquid, Hammond, an Indian trader, had established his post, planted the nucleus of a town, and reared a fort.
His hamlet, the earliest of the settlements of Georgetown, and one of the chief within the limits of our region, was the first object of attack. Prejudices had grown up between the truckmastcrs and the natives, on account of fancied or real wrongs, which made them conspicuous objects of ven- geance. The hope of booty may also have stimulated the savage desires.
During the evening of Saturday, many Indians gathered at Hammond's Town ; and some of the women sought shel- ter for the night in Richard Hammond's dwelling-house, desiring to lodge on the kitchen floor. The appearances, conversation, or intimations of the savages, inspired the
160 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
kitchen maid, yet in early girl-hood, with presentiments of evil. She left the house to secrete herself abroad. Per- ceiving her trepidation, the natives, to conceal the better their purposes and allay suspicion, sought, found, and brought her home again.
Another band of painted red-men meanwhile joined their fellows within this devoted hamlet. Fully persuaded of their treacherous and bloody designs, the girl again left the house, and made good her escape to a neighboring field of ripening corn. There sheltered by the darkness, in close concealment eluding the search of the Indians, she was soon startled by the noise of violence, the yells of death, and the piercing shrieks and cries of the dying and wounded inmates of her master's house. These terrible monitions added speed to her flight. Crossing the tides of Hock- omock, she fled to Sheepscot, and by morning' reached the Davis plantation at Wiscasset. The warning was timely. No intelligence had come from the scene ol death, till pass- ers-by discovered the dead and mangled bodies lying naked on the beach, — no one out of sixteen souls surviving death or captivity save the girl who had fled to the Slieepscot plantation, twelve miles distant. It was afterward ascer- tained that the sayage women who lodged in the kitchen opened the fastenings of the garrison house, and let the warriors in to surprise the unconscious inmates above ; and Richard Hammond, Samuel Smith, and Joshua Grant were slain at once.
SACKING OP LAKE AND CLARK'S VILLAGE.
The savage band now divided. Eleven canoes turned into the Kennebec and up that river. The house of Francis Card of Woolwich was attacked, and himself and family led into captivity. The other party crossed to Arrowsic Island, after rifling and burning Hammond's village. The home of a settler in their war path was left unmolested.
INDIAN WAUS. 161
Turning adrift his canoes, before break of day on Sunday morning, the party were concealed behind " a great rock," near the walls of the fort which defended the settlement of Lake and Clark. The sentinel retired earlier than he was wont from his post. On entering the gate, he was uncon- sciously followed by the stealthy tread of an ambushed foe. The sentinel was silenced. The fortifications were secured. The port-holes were occupied, and all who passed or repassed were shot down without warning. The savages were soon masters of the place.
Mr. Lake, the partner of Clark, was above, asleep. Roused by the noise and struggles of Aug. 14. death below, with his agent, Capt. Sylvanus Davis, and two more, he escaped through a back passage to the water-side. Here, seizing a canoe, they made for a neighboring island. Lake, Davis, and their companions were at once pursued. The savages had the advantage in the pursuit with their light bark canoes ; and on coming within range, fired on the fugitives. Davis was wounded. By extraordinary exertion, all reached the shore, overcome, with fatigue, terror, and surprise.
The savages also landed and continued the pursuit. Un^ able to fight or fly, Davis crawled into the cleft of a rock, under a sheltering cliff. The sun had now risen, and look-- ing over the tree-tops of Reskeagan, poured his beams in dazzling luster on the clifif-side shelter of Davis, blinding- the eyes of his pursuers.
For two days Davis crouched within his hiding plac« ; and' then dragging himself along by the water's edge, h& fortu-- nately reached a canoe, into which he rolled his body and drifted away and thus escaped detection.
The companions of Lake and Davis gained the northern, extremity of the island, and fled to the plantations above. Lake, left alone, attempted still to fly, but a swift-footed: savage outstripped him, and attempted to capture him..
11
162 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
Then Lake, turning on his pursuer, presented his pistols ; but before he could shoot, the unerring aim of the savage laid him dead at his feet. Seizing the hat of his victim, he bore it on his own head as a trophy of his success.
Lake was an enterprising and excellent man, and it is said the savages had intended to save him alive, if possible. Nor was it certainly known that Lake had been slain, until he who did the bloody deed confessed it to Capt. Davis. A Sagamore Sam was seized and sentenced to death in retalia- tion of the murder of Lake, which sentence was executed.^
Seven months elapsed, and the body of Lake was found where it fell, in a state of good preservation, recognized by a leathern jacket he used to wear. It was taken to Boston for interment. The May previous to his melancholy decease, this gentleman had been appointed to the office ^ of Associate
1 From J. W. Thornton Esq., Boston.
15.221. Boston, y' IS* of Septemb' 1676.
To y' hon'd Gov'nor & Councill setting at Boston. The humble petition of John Lake.
Whereas there hath been & is a common fame of my brother Thomas Lake being captive among y' Indians, & hearing nothing to y* contrary, gives some hopes y' it may be so, & hearing y* Sagamore Sam is to receive a sentence of Death (as it is supposed) if so, y' fame thereof may go to ihose Lidians w"" whom my broth' is, v;'^ may provoke them to proceed w"" bim to y* same sentence of death. Wherefore my humble request is y' you ■would be pleased to suspend his sentence or at least y* execution thereof for about twenty or thirty dayes ; in w'='' time if y* said Sam can be instru- mental! to procure y' return of my broth' y' you then would be pleased to spare his life, and for y' effecting of this, y' you would be pleased, to let hira have y* choice of some Indians whome he knows may have most influence lupon them, and whom he can best trust for their return in y' it may con- cern his own life, so y' upon their return we may certainly know how it is Mr"" my broth', w"*" will oblige yo' humble petition* in duty bound to I pray &c-
Denye'd: IS** of Septemb 1676.
E. R. S.
^ Original Commission in hands of J. W. Thornton Esq.
INDIAN WARS. 163
Judge, with Humphrey Davie and Richard Coleycote, (Col- licot?) iu holding courts in the county of Devonshire, under jurisdiction of the Government of Massachusetts Bay. Law- rence Hunnewell was his assistant.
By this savage incursion, the large and beautiful estab- lishment of Messrs. Lake and Clark — the mansion house — the mills — the out buildings — the entire village was re- duced to ashes ! Such was the fate of the Arrowsic towns of more than half a century's growth.
THE PLANTATIONS ABANDONED.
Filled with dismay, the planters on the Sheepscot, on learning the fate of Hammond and Lake, deserting their fields of ripening corn, leaving their herds and homes, at once fled. John Dale, ' a fugitive from the massacre of the Arrowsic Towns, reached the dwelling house of Thomas Gent on Sheepscot Great Neck, and gave him warning of the hostility of the savages. Thence he hasted to the house of Walter Philips, "which stood on the great hill" overlook- ing the Damariscotta from the west, at the " lower falls,'* bearing the terrible tidings, giving his family the earliest and timely notice of their peril. Thus warned. Philips, leaving his home in the midst of a thriving orchard, (from which apples were gathered nearly a century after,) and great improvements, gathered his family and neighbors and fled to Salem, Mass., escaping " only with his life and the loss of all his goods."
John Dale continued his flight to Pemaquid, heralding the approach of savage calamities.
Among - the English emigrants to Maine, was James Gyles, a brother of Judge Gyles, slain at Pemaquid. Gyles had landed at the Kennebec, and taken up his abode at
1 Dale's deposition — Lincoln Com. Reports, pp. 98, 100, 15.
2 Gyles' MSS. Narrative, from John McKeen, Esq.
164 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Merry Meeting ; and was an interested spectator of the open- ing scenes in this drama of death and devastation. In the Merry Meeting plantation he had taken up his abode at the " Whisgeag House," and purchasing of the natives a home- stead, finally built at " Muddy River." These localities all were within the marginal circuit of the same body of water.
The outbreak of the Indians forced him with his neigh- bors to desert their homes, and go into the garrison house of Samuel York. Thirty days these refugees of Merry Meeting were crowded in this strong hold.
Every day the savages became more violent. The cattle and swine were slaughtered, and the deserted homes were burned. But nine persons remained to defend the place, the " faint hearted" having left their garrisoned neighbors. So about the middle of September all retired to the " Row- sick House," down the rivel" — the main defense of the region. From hence, the frontier men were accustomed to visit their clearings and plantation sites, to sow and reap. This was the year preceding the massacre described. One of these planting expeditions brought the settlers in collision with a body of natives. A skirmish ensued. Sev- eral savages were slain and the remainder put to flight, which gave peace for the winter ensuing. Crowded in their strong hold at the " Rowsick House," the planters, five fam- ilies, and Gyles among them, crossed to the west shores of the Sagadahoc opposite, and occupied the house of Sylvanus Davis the balance of winter. Peace, the result of the Pemaquid conference, being in good promise, cheered these pioneers of the Kennebec with strong hopes of a safe and speedy return to their deserted planting grounds.
But Gyles removed still further down the river, and occu- pied the empty house of Mr. Wiswell, and planted his crop for the season. " Early ^ in the morning, when no English-
Gyles gives the date as Aug. 9, instead of that given in history.
INDIAN WARS. 165
mauliad a thouglit of war," like an avalanche from the sides of a sleeping volcano — the savages fell on "Rowsick" — "killing and destroying all in their way." Fifty people fell a sacrifice to savage barbarities in death and captivity.
Gyles seized a canoe, lading his family therein, leaving all else to the mercy of the Indians, fled for Damariscove, where were congregated the fugitives from " Sheepscot," Pemaquid, and all the surrounding regions.
Three hundred souls, the fragments of the neighboring plantations, now broken up, had made this island at the mouth of Boothbay Harbor their refuge.
INCIDENTS OF THE RETREAT.
For a week they made ineffectual attempts to reach the plantations on the main and recover something for subsist- ence from their former homes.
The entire circuit of the main, landward, was alive with savages. Every point of approach was ambuscaded; and the hardy and suffering fugitives were beaten back to their island retreat.
By night, two days after the sacking of Arrowsic, an express reached Pemaquid. The residents of the place, at the story of Dale, at once took to the shipping in the har- bor, designing to fly to Monhegan. Adverse winds com- pelled them to turn aside into Damariscove, where Wiswell and Collicott had gathered with the Kennebec refugees.
The first attention was given to the fortifications of the island. Forty days the people labored at the works. But difficulties arose, and a mutinous disposition, consequent on the want of food, from the sudden accession of forlorn and destitute fugitive men, women, and children, soon made it apparent nothing effectual could be done to secure the island against savage incursion.
It was therefore abandoned as a place of refuge. The larger portion of the fugitives continued their flight to Mon-
166 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
hegan ; aiuV scarcely had the refugees from the Main and Damariscove reached their sea-girt retreat, and removed from tlieir deserted houses at Pemaquid a portion of their household stuff, when the whole circle of the horizon land- ward was darkened and illumined by the columns of smoke and fire rising fi'om the burning houses of the neighboring Main and adjacent islands ! The entire perspective was a scene of conflagration ! Richard Padishall abandoned his island home — an ancestral abode — and with his family and coasting sloop made good his escape to the better protected neighborhood of Pemaquid. Worn out and discouraged, all but the Pemaquidders yielded to the necessities of their condition, and scattered to remote parts westward.
The planters of the Davis hamlet near Wiscasset and on the Sheepscot waters, first warned by the intelligence of the tragedy at Stinson's Point, by the tale of the maid servant who fled on the night of the massacre, retired to the fort at Cape Newagen.
Proposing to maintain their position till succor could be received from Boston, a guard of twenty-five men was kept out, and measures of defense were organized. Biit the peo- ple were panic-stricken, and all hope of speedy relief beii\f crushed out by the sad recollections and gloomy aspect of their state, the newly launched ship of Wm. Phips became to them an ark of salvation. Embarked in the unfinished hulk, they put to sea for a port westward, leaving the entire region to desolation and solitude !
card's escape.
Francis Card, the captive of the savages who had destroyed Hammond's Town, was taken near to the planting grounds of the Kennebec Indians, up the river.
Card had been set to threshing out corn in a barn. These savages preferred horse-flesh to the best of beef. A captive was employed to catch the horses of the planters,
INDIAN WARS. 167
now wild in the woods, to be butchered to satisfy the mor- bid longings of his masters' appetite. Card was permitted to aid him ; and while thus engaged in a horse hunt, the two captives sent word to the lodge that their return at a given time could not be expected, on account of ill-success. Thus finding the coast clear, the prisoners seciired a canoe, swept down the river with the tide, crossed Casco Bay, and in two or three days reached the fort at Black Point in Scarboro'.
It was a full fortnight after the sacking of the Arrowsic towns that the Norridgewock Indians, numbering eighty warriors, returned from their retreat up the Kennebec, to destroy the herds and burn the deserted houses of the plant- ers on the Main. Reaching Damariscove, they put fire to the village on that island, killed two men, and captured their shallop and ketch. Thomas Gobbet, the son of the Ipswich minister, ( a captive at the date of these events, and because, said the savages, " his father was a great preach-man," he could be redeemed only with a coat,) relates that fifty to sixty captives from the Kennebec and Sheepscot plantations were held in bondage ; — the women being compelled to make up garments out of the plundered fabrics of Hammond's and Lake's store-houses. These for- lorn men and women he met in December, on the Sheep- scot, where he was taken to navigate for his captors a small vessel they had seized, and there he was compelled to walk over land to Damariscotta five miles, and thence paddle a canoe fifty miles to Penobscot, where his redemption was secured.
abbot's adventures.
John Abbot, the master of the vessel in which Gobbet had been captured, was also employed on the Sheepscot waters. After Gobbet's departure for Penobscot, the vessel in use by the natives lay moored for the winter, probably in the harbor of the ancient Me-ni-kuk.
168 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
It was now the month of February. With their usual improvidence, the savages had consumed both food and ammunition. The shallop was a thirty-ton craft. They required Abbot to fit her for sea, on a voyage to Penobscot for supplies. Ten savages embarked with Abbot. Hardly had he put to sea when a storm arose, with wind ahead. It was a dead beat against a heavy sea, and Abbot so man- aged as to increase the perils of the sea, and strike terror to the hearts of his sea-sick masters, who begged for land. The nearest point. Cape Newagen, was reached, and eight savages landed. Two remained. Persuading these that their anchorage was perilous, Abbot made sail for Damar- iscove.
On the passage he so used the helm as to ship a sea, wash his decks, and thoroughly frighten his savage companions and guardsmen, who, as soon as the vessel reached the Har- bor, hasted on shore.
Two native children had died on board, and their bodies were taken to land for burial. With the plea of the neces- sity of his presence on board to save the ship. Abbot per- sisted in remaining ; but soon as the Indians were landed, greasing the mast of his sloop with the pork taken for food, he ran up the sails with his own hand, and with no living soul save himself and a child some tliree years old, he pushed off with a free sheet and stiff northeaster in his rear, which speedily wafted him to the " Isle of Shoals," beyond the reach of his masters.
WALDRON's EXPEDITION.
These outrages on the eastern frontiers roused 1677. Government to action. Major Waldron, the chief Feb. 17. commander in this section, was dispatched with a force deemed adequate to recover the lost planta- tions and chastise the lawless savages, reduce them to subordination and rescue the captive citizens of Sheepscot
INDIAN WARS. 169
and Kennebec. Waldron embarked for that riyer. Here was the center of the Massachusetts interest. Two hundred and fifty men accompanied his command. Cold and adverse winds, an icy and perilous ocean, embarrassed his progress eastward. The waters of Casco Bay, being free from ice, invited the fleet bearing the little army to discharge its liv- ing freight on the shores of the plains of Brunswick.
Bivouacked on " Mare Point," ^ amid the snows and frosts of mid-winter, " Squando," the head of the Sekokis, and " Simon, the Yankee-killer," from the broken forces of King Philip, met Waldron in a confereitce. A proposal for the recovery of the captives was made. Suddenly a flotilla of fourteen canoes shot up the bay toward a projecting headland. The parley was ended. It had been Waldron's design to surprise the enemy ; but the fleet-footed, sharp- sighted Indian had long followed the fleet, tracing the pro- gress of the voyage from the headlands of Cape Elizabeth.
The flames bursting from the roof of a solitary dwelling on the point of landing clearly indicated the hostile pur- poses of the savage flotilla. Shouts of mutual defiance went up. The scouts came in. Captain Frost was detached to cut off" the enemy's retreat. Detecting this movement, the savages fled. The whole command opened their fire, and several were supposed to fall. The fire was returned, but without disaster : " though," it is added, " some of their bullets hit some of our men," — the spent shot failing of their design.
A flag of truce ended further violence. A parley opened with mutual recrimination, but closed with the assurance on the part of Simon, the Yankee killer, that the project to surrender the captives, under discussion when the skirmish began, should be carried out in good faith.
Disheartened with the prospect of meeting the enemy
1 The residence of a Mr. Mare.
170 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
■wliere he was, "Waldron set sail for Kennebec. At sunset the same day, he anchored under the " Clitfs of Parker's Head," — the southern point of Arrowsic Island, in the mouth of the river.
The next day he pushed his way up the river ; and on reaching Merry Meeting, within twelve miles of " Abagadus- set Point," the ice barred his progress.
The troops were landed and marched to the Peb. 22. fort ; and at eight in the evening the force entered the works, to find them deserted. Here the little army quartered for the night. Bewildered by the numerous trails of nie enemy crossing in every direction, the scouts returned from their pursuit.
A council of war determined to push on to the Penob- scot, with a portion of the troops, and fortify a position near the river's mouth with the remainder.
During the march of the troops around the bay, numer- ous fires shot up their flames in the horizon, and a burning dwelling-house below indicated the proximity of the enemy.
FORTIFICATIONS ERECTED.
The next morning the commander-in-chief embarked and examined the grounds, with a view to an eligible site for a fort. Near the abode of John Parker, at a point on the Main opposite the lower end of Arrowsic Island, in a cove convenient for a harbor, easy of access, where water for the supply of the garrison abounded, a site was chosen. Here were moored the transports ; and a large portion of the command was detached to build the works.
WALDRON AT PEMAQUID.
The Major witli sixty men, while the remainder of his force was thus engaged, sailed for Penobscot.
Off " Gyobscbt Point," appeared an Indian canoe ; and by the waving of the boatman's cap, it was understood
INDIAN WARS. 171
an interview was desired. The ship's boat soon return- ed, bearing the intelligence that a considerable body of Indians with captive English people were then at Fem- aquid. The fortress had survived the universal confla- gration, or Capt. Gardiner had returned and had erected another defense. At all events, he was then in com- mand ; and the village may have been spared. Thomas Gardiner had been made chief of the military forces of Pemaquid, ^ in the county of Devonshire, under a commis- sion of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, two years before ; and although in the general conflagration of the deserted houses of the planters, on the first startling intelli- gence of savage barbarities, "Pemaquid, New Harbor, Corbin's Sound, and Widgin's were all seen on fire within the same two hours," ^ yet the " castle," whose existence was prior to that in Boston Bay and its appendages, may have and probably did escape destruction. Waldron moored his transports in the bay. Descrying a canoe speeding her way up the river, bearing a white captive, with whom it was not permitted to communicate, a party was landed for
reconnoissance.
Word was returned that Modockawando, the native lord
of the Penobscots, and other sagamores, " and sundry sorts of Indians" were encamped near the place. Modocka- wando sent specific messages to Major Waldron. Captain Davis and a volunteer ventured on shore, and three saga- mores visited the transport ships. Thus an interview was secured, and the pledges of good faith exchanged to prepare the way for pacific overtures. The commander-in-chief, with six unarmed men, next went on shore, where suspicions of treacherous dealing were roused. Finding Waldron in force, under the cogency of this argument, though the proj- ect of the treaty was acknowledged, yet no captive was suf-
1 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 249. M. H. Soo.
2 Hubbard. •
172 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
fered to go on ship-board ; and delay in executing the treaty on various pretenses was contrived. Waldron and his attejidants were searched on landing. The emergency required promptitude and decision. Waldron was peremp- tory and energetic. He demanded immediate compliance with treaty stipulations, in the surrender of the captive Sheepscot and Kennebec planters — and the enrollment of a company of auxiliaries, to fight the savages on the Andros- coggin, The auxiliary force was declined ; and " twelve beaver skins apiece," with " plenty of liquor," were re- quired as a ransom for the captives. The ransom was paid. William Chadbourn, John AVannick, and Warwood were secured and set free.
Suspicions of foul play augmented. On ship-board, it was determined to secure the release of the captives, and then surprise the savages and fight them. In pursuance of this design, Waldron, with but five men, with the ran- som went on shore, proposing, after careful reconnoissance, to return to the ships, and prepare for the encounter. But the plot thickened faster than his calculations matured.
The swing of the commander's cap was the signal of alarm agreed upon, as a call for succor, should any emer- gency require it. Waldron reached the place of conference, and cautiously observing the ground and the arrangement of things, with a \'iew to ascertain the purposes of the sav- ages, discovered the exposed point of a lance and other con- cealed weapons of war. He grasped the point, and drew the lance from its hiding place, and with the weapon in hand, went to the savages, charging them with treachery. The warriors threw off all disguise — rushed on Waldron to wrest from his liold the tell-tale weapon of death.
His resolute bearing, determined attitude, and the fearful brandishing of the lance in his hand, kept the savages at bay, till the signal cap called succor to his side from the fleet. The devoted band were driven to the wall, and de-
INDIAN WARS. 173
struction menaced them at every turn, from the overwhelm- ing force of the constantly increasing numbers of the Indians. The squaws mingled in the strife. One of the women seized a " bundle of guns," and like a deer bounded away with her load, into the thickets. Many of the Indians, at the outset, taken by surprise, and filled with consterna- tion, took to flight and deserted their comrades. It was a hand-to-hand struggle. Capt. Frost sprang on the Saga- more Me-gun-na-way, a notorious and bloody barbarian. Aid- ed by his Lieutenant Nutter, Me-gun-na-way was dragged to the ship's boat, and forced into the hold. Waldron had fallen on a pile of fire arms, with which his men now armed, suc- cessfully assailed the enemy; and at this juncture, the land- ing of the force from the ships turned the tide of battle. The Indians fleeing on all sides, some made for the forest coverts, and others to their canoes. The fire of the whites strewed the whole course of their flight with dead and dying. Those fleeing to their canoes, encountered a boat's company from the ships just as they were putting off from shore, whose deadly aim riddled one birchen canoe with her living freight, burying five savages in a watery grave, and many others were so disabled they could not paddle away. The chieftain, Matahando, and with him a Powwow, or Med- icine man of the tribe, were slain. The sister of Modoca- wando and three others were made captives. Me-gun-na- way, hoary in years and crime, was shot at once, whose bones and blood have mingled with the soil of Pemaquid. Much booty was taken, and the enemy received a blow from the hand of Waldron they never forgot. His agency in this transaction, and the Dover sham-fight, where he again outwitted the crafty red men, was never forgiven, till the savage with his battle axe and knife, crossed out the bloody account in the quivering flesh of this early and distinguished hero pioneer of the east !
Sheepscot was not visited by the returning fleet. At the
174 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
mouth of the Kennebec, after a four days' absence, it again cast anchor. An expedition was here organized, to proceed to Siieepscot, under Capt. Fisk. It consisted of forty men. The store houses of the Sheepscot planters remained ; and forty bushels of undamaged wheat were recovered. Two pieces of heavy ordnance were taken away from Sagadahoc, and an hundred thousand feet of boards at Arrowsic, the native " Tuessicke" ? *
In exploring tlie ruins of the recently sacked towns, the remains of Judge Lake were found. Two savages, incau- tiously paddling to the shore, were shot. One was killed. The other, too, must have died, as the canoe, all bloody and torn, was found the next day without an occupant.
Stationing Capt. Sylvanus Davis with a force of forty men, at the garrison on the Main, near the mouth of the Kennebec River, Major Waldron returned to Boston with- out the loss of a man. A captive squaw had been released and sent to the Kennebec Indians. A week had elapsed since the sailing of the fleet westward. A detachment from the garrison on the Main crossed over to bury the dead on Arrowsic, whose bodies and mangled remains had lain where they fell, for more than half a year. Unconscious of danger, unsuspicious of peril, the detachment proceeded, perhaps incautiously, to execute the last sad offices of humanity. But the savage had made the place of the dead his lair for the living prey. Hanging on the path of the burial party, its retreat was intercepted by an ambuscade. The woods of Arrowsic and the rock-bound shores of the lower Saga- dahoc once more mingled the whoops of war, with the echoes of musketry, and the scream of tlie leaden messen- ger of death ! Nine of the burial party were laid dead in their track.
Panic stricken, and reduced by this unexpected blow, the
1 Deed to Robert Gutch.
INDIAN WARS. 175
survivors, disheartened, deserted the garrison, and the re- gion of the Sagadahoc was left to the mercy of the savages, without an inhabitant, where towns and villages of half a century's growth had caused the wilderness to bud and blos- som.
RETURN OF THE INHABITANTS.
Aiidros ^ had been appointed to the office of Gov- ernor of the Ducal Territory in America. Half a 1677. year had elapsed since the occurrence of the sad events above narrated. Fearing that his master's estate, the Dukedom of the east, might be lost, if permitted to remain void of inhabitants, in June, a military organization was dispatched from New York, the seat of Gubernatorial au- thority, to rebuild the fortifications and restore Pemaquid.
This was the first movement towards recovering the lost foothold of the English settlements.
Cassar Knapton ^ commanded the expedition. Landing on the margins of John's Bay, the fortress at Pemaquid was rebuilt, a Custom House erected, and a considerable body of troops stationed there. The place thus revived rapidly filled up with population ; and was called Jamestoion. Tranquility reigned throughout the region ; and the Indians, disposed to peace, entered into arrangements for trade. Prisoners and captured vessels were brought into Pemaquid and surrendered to Captain Knapton.
Boston, Salem, Piscataqua, were visited by Government transports, " to invite and bring as many of the inhabitants, particularly fishermen driven from the Duke's Territory, as will come." ^
Andros soon succeeded in reviving the settlements about Pemaquid by facilitating the return " of y" ffbrmer inhabit- ants." Many fishing vessels, recovered from .the natives,
1 Williamson's History, vol. i. p. 552.
2 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 9, 11.
176 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
were restored to their owners. Stringent regulations of trade and intercourse among the citizens and Indians were adopted ; and Captains Knapton and Brockholls, with fifty men and a ship of war were stationed at Pemaquid, which force overawed the savages and secured the peace.
" No one on any pretence whatever," it was ordained in council, " doe range or goe into the woods or creeks : " " Pemaquid and no where else should be the place for trade." Fishing stages were allowed on the fishing islands ; hut none on the Main, except at Pemaquid, near the fort.
No Indian could visit the fishing islands ; and no rum could be " drunk on the side where the fort stands."
Trading houses, or stores, were ordered to be erected under command, but at convenient distances from the fort, landward, so that a street of good brcadtli be left directly from the fort to the narrowest part of the neck, going to the great neck, toward Ncav Harbor.
" No buildings could be reared end-wise to the street," obstructing the water view from the fort ; " but broadways, with all the doors opening on the street ; — none elsewhere." It was ordained that all trade should be in the street and in front of the houses between sun and sun ; " and at the opening and closing of the hours of trade, " a bell should ring or a drum beat, every morning and ^ evening." Drinking and drunkenness were prohibited, both to the " Christians and among the natives." All persons were forbidden " to lye ashore in the night, upon the neck or point of land the fort stands upon ; " and no one, at any time, was to be admitted to the fort, except some few on occasion of business below ; " but none to goe up into the redoubt."
These regulations were decreed by the Governor 1 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 20 — 24.
INDIAN WARS. 177
in Council as measures of safety in the municipal 1678. arrangements of the city of Jamestown, to be en- forced by Csesar Knapton, commandant of its newly erected Fort Charles.
The Massachusetts traders, however, attempted to set at defiance the authority of the Duke of York ; and one Alden of Boston, in violation of the regulations of trade at Pemaquid, guided by one Roads, entered St. George's river to beat up trade with the Indians. But Commander Knap- ton made a prize of the " Ketch and cargo."
In a quarrel on board the Ketch Cumberland, Israel Dymot, master, in the waters of Pemaquid, 1680. Samuel Collins was knocked overboard and perished. The master of the Cumberland and a confederate, John Rashly, were charged with the homicide, arrested, and tried before a special commission to the Court of Sessions at Pemaquid. Thomas Sharp, the officer now in command, presided over the commission, John Joselyn sitting as Just- ice-in-chief.
The Duke of York extended his authority into Sagada- hoc ; and at New York orders in Council were passed in. June, regulating magisterial jurisdiction there.
The fugitive planters on the Kennebec must, therefore^ at this date, have returned to their former homes. But Pemaquid, with its city of Jamestown and Fort Charles^ was the legal center of all intercourse with the natives, and all the rest of the world ; and was the only port of entry and clearance. Thus population, trade, and wealth were concentrated under her protection ; and Pemaquid becam© the metropolis of the East ; and was invested with an influ- ence and importance, as the mart of eastern trade, never- before attained. It was at this date that buildings of stone- rose along her paved streets to replace those of wood, whicli. gave to her land-locked harbor, bristling with cannon at its entrance, enlivened with commerce — ships of war riding in.
12
178 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
its waters — a city-like aspect from the Bay below. Her courts, arms, and trade, with legal and warlike appendages of Judges, naval and military men, all conspired to make Jamestown of Pemaqiiid a place of aristocratic importance. It was the climax of her power and pride as the Queen City of the East.
A change in the military arrangements of the
1681. force stationed at Jamestown of Pemaquid, assigned Francis Skinner to the chief command.
This officer was required in genera,! orders " to be very carefiill to Prevent any disorders or Trouble amongst the Indians and others — to see that they be Civilly used as for- merly." Apprehension of further hostilities now became rife. The public mind was excited, and government began to strengthen the frontier defenses.
RETURN OP THE SHEEPSCOT PLANTERS.
The return tide of population had now fairly set
1682. and flowed freely in to the eastern frontiers.
The deserted farms of Sheepscot began to draw back their ancient cultivators ; and the Ducal Province was swollen with the influx of population. All the fishermen and old inhabitants were, by order of Government, " to be restored and protected." *■
An extraordinary movement was this day made Aug. 19. in behalf of the interests of New Dartmouth. At the abode ^ of Robert Gibbers, Fort Hill, Boston, .assembled according to previous notice and arrangement, John Alyen,Thomas Gent, Christopher Dyer, Thomas Mener, Robert Scott, William Lowering, John Whit, Daniel Gent, William Willcutt, John Brown, John Dyer, Caleb Ray, Eliza- beth Phyps, Daniel Ranisford, with " sevcrall other of y* fformer inhabitance of Shippscutt River, who did joyntly
* Pemaquid Papers, p. 15 ; pp. 49 — 50.
INDIAN WARS. 179
Bind themselves to stand to severall articles of Agreement ffor y" settling of a township on a neck of Land surveyed, and a town laid out thereon, generally known and called by y* name of Mason and Jewett's neck — lying and being in Shippscutt River."
Such were the preliminary proceedings to a re-settlement of New Dartmouth and Edgecomb, embraced within the ancient out-laid town of Mason and Jewett's Neck. Pre- paratory to a resumption of their homes and improve- ments, articles of agreement were drawn, by which their future government at Sheepscot was to be administered.
With the exception of " fruit trees, their barns and fenc- ing stuff," the previous inhabitants agreed for the common good " to relinquish all former rights, titles, and privileges." Each settler, within a twelve-month, should resume his improvements, or forfeit all right and title to a settlement, minors and apprentices excepted.
CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS REGULATIONS.
It was resolved, " a tract of land be laid out for A. Min-is-tree, with a convenient place to set a meeting house to y^ best advantage for y^ town ;" — and that they should have a man of their own free choice ; and such a man " as y' mager part of y^ town Like^
" Noe person or persons whatsoever shall build any ves- sels, cut or carry away any timber, spars, fencing stuff, hay, thatch, &c., without the Leave, Licence and Approbation" of the settlers. It was further voted — "that every man, housekeeper, and single persons, att ^ y" Agge of sixteen years, should provide three pounds of good powder and twelve pounds of lead bullets and swan shot — and keep a good Jier Loke muscet (musket) and ffowling gonne ^
This body of Sheepscot immigrants would seem, from the schedule of their articles of agreement, to have been con-
1 Full act, P. Papers, pp. 49 - 57.
180 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
firmed republicans in their religious and civil proclivities, thoroughly imbued with the sentiments and views of the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay.
It would appear that this body and their friends
1684. repaired immediately to the occupancy of the Mason
and Jewett's Neck township on the Sheepscot River.
Their original articles of settlement were put on record at Pemaquid — were there examined by "William Shurt; and the subscribing witnesses made their certificate at New Dart- mouth, on the 16th September of this year.
At' this date, therefore, the head waters of the Sheepscot and the ancient clearings of the " Sheepscot farms," must have been re-occupied, and these early plantations recovered from the waste and solitude of nearly an entire decade. The sounds of the hammer, the axe, and the hoe — tlie ring of the blacksmith's anvil, the voice and bustle of busy life, once more enlivened the resuscitated town of New Dartmouth, in the County of Cornwall. It is not certain, however, that the Massachusetts emigration of the Fort Hill gathering did not locate on the point on the south side of Sheepscot falls whicli was the head of the neck of the Mason and Jewett claim, where, subsequent to this period, we have mention of a small fortification. Tlie probabilities of a neio location here, are much confirmed by the vestiges of ancient and ^populous occupancy, still traceable on the earth's surface, as well as from a petition ^ made shortly after this emigration, to the Ducal authorities, to have the rights of the emigrants and their possessions there secured and quieted against adverse claimants.
By the energy of the Ducal Governor, Andros, the plans for efifecting a recovery of the wasted plantations Sept. 8. of the desolations of King Philip's war in the east- ern frontiers, were executed with success.
* See Petition in Pemaquid Papers.
INDIAN WARS. 181
A royal mandate issued through the council at New York, to the residents of " Jamestown," the capital of Pemaquid, to revive the ancient " Merry Meeting" plantations. The inhabitants of Pemaquid erected a block house fort, at that point. A file of soldiers, under command of John Rowden, was detached from Fort Charles, to occupy the wooden defenses of this renowned Kennebec hamlet ; and thus resus- citated, " Merry Meeting" became a central and principal point in the settlement of the interior Kennebec precinct, but as an appendage to Pemaquid. ^
All the central points within the ancient dominions were now re^occupied.
FRESH INDICATIONS OF SAVAGE VIOLENCE.
As the return tide of population rushed in full and free, a restlessness, foreboding renewed hostilities, was developed, especially on the Kennebec.
Depositions, showing the actual state of feeling, were taken, and put into the hands of government. • One Defines, a resident on the Kennebec, swore, " that he heard one counted a captain among the Indians, say, that his heart would never be well, till he had killed some of the English again." This blood-thirsty savage, Capt. Antonie, further said, "he would burn the English houses and make the English slaves as tliey were before."
John Hornibroke testified, that, on a certain occasion, " four natives lay one night at his house." One threatened to stab the English with his knife ; another said, " that the hatchet hung over their heads," and " that he was weary of keeping the Indians from falling out with the English, who did threaten to burn English houses, and make them slaves, as they were before."
^ Pemaquid Papers, p. 205.
182 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
John Voarny and Will Bacon swore, that, in behalf of their neighbors, " to search out y^ truth of y" Ingen news y' was going, we did take our viage ffrom Kenybecke to Casco." At the house of James Andrews, they learned from a native who was in the habit of visiting at Andrews' house, and had received much kindness at his hands, " that y' Indones was minded to rise in rebellion again, and cut off y* English;^' and that when the time had been determined on among them, " he would send them a burch vine, as though he had brought tliem a letter."
John Molton " testifyeth and saith, that, while working in his field chopping, good wife Cutery called to him, to luke to himself, for there was an Indeon would do him a mischief." On looking up, he saw a savage approaching across Mrs. Cutery's field. Not saying a word, the Indian rushed on Molton with a drawn knife in his hand, and attempted to stab " y* s*^ John Molton w' y" same, twice." But Molton so fiercely defended himself witli the axe, " threatening y' said Indon, to cut out his braynes with y' same,^^ tliat the savage took to his heels, persuaded that discretion was, to him, the better part of valor.
These facts would indicate tliat, despite the remembrance of treachery and wrong, a degree of intimacy of intercourse, somewhat remarkable, existed between the natives and the pioneer settlers of the eastern frontier, whose roofs sheltered and whose bounty often fed the weary and hungry son of the forest.
IRREGULARITIES AT THE CAPITAL.
Joslyn, the head of the Judiciary at Jamestown of Pema- quid, as well as the venerable Shurt, had now gone to the grave. Irregularities had grown up at Jamestown, under the mal-administration of military rule. The rumor of this state of aflairs reached the ears of the Governor at New
INDIAN WARS. 183
York, and led to a sharp reproof. Francis Skinner was admonished " that * the looseness and carelessness of his command, gave strangers occasion to notice his extravagan- cies and debaucheries ; that, for the future, " swearing^ drinking and profaneness, too much practiced and suffered, should be wholly surpressed.'" Such were the sharp words of Captain Brockholls, to Francis Skinner, commander of Fort Charles. ^
PEMAQUID FOSTERED BY GOVERNMENT.
The residents of Jamestown at Femaquid were chiefly of the New York emigration. Being the capital of the Ducal Province in the east. Governor Andros fostered the growth and importance of the place. All native trade, all commer- cial transactions, were required to be done at Jamestown. Under the guns of Fort Charles, safety was assured to those who bought and sold with the Indians. Here was the port of entry and clearance, and the custom house ; and here resided Alexander Woodrop, as siib-collector and receiver of the public revenue. John Allen was the commissioned Justice and Sheriff of Femaquid and its dependencies.
TEMPERANCE PRINCIPLES LEGALLY ENFORCED.
It was unlawful to sell ardent spirits, except under speci- fied limitations. Strong drink had become a public evil ; and undoubtedly was feared as a source of public calamity and savage outrage. Therefore, bum-boats were forbidden to trade from harbor to harbor. An ordinary was to be
1 Femaquid Papers, p. 74.
2 Fort Charles was a redoubt, " with two guns aloft, and an out-work about nine feet high, with two bastions in the opposite angles, in each of which were two great guns and another at the gate-way. There were fifty soldiers, and sufficient ammunition, stores of war, and spare arms and provisions for about eight months." — Thornton's Ancient Femaquid, p. 127.
184 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
opened on every island or fishing place, by an approved man of the place, for the benefit of fishing crews, who should not suffer " any man belonging to a boafs creiv, to sit and tipple to excessive drinking, or unseasonable hours."
LAWS OP TRADE AND TUNNAGE DUES.
A vessel not of the Dukedom could not make a voyage unless her crew owned property in or resided at Jamestown in Pemaquid.
One dog only was allowed to a family. The circle of trade was enlarged, and two places were now opened to the natives : one at the Block House of the Merry Meeting set- tlement, and one at Pemaquid. All vessels trading or fishing in the eastern waters, were required to give an account of their voyage and take a clearance at the Custom House at Pemaquid. No lands located on any river, creek, or on the sea-board could have more than four acres front, and in that proportion for every fourscore acres. Religious duties and habits were fostered by the government. " Far the promotion of piety it was ordered that a person be appointed to read prayers and the Holy Scriptures." The rites and services of the Church of England would, there- fore, appear to have been the established denominational feature of the religious character of the population of Jamestown at Pemaquid.
All vessels^ not of the Ducal state were ordered to pay into the public revenue — if a decked vessel — "/owr quin- tals,and if an open boat, two quintals of merchantable fish."
No vessel could enter the Kennebec or any of its waters which did not clear at Jamestown.
DONGAN'S ADMINISTRATION.
The Ducal interests had now fallen into the liands of the recently appointed Governor of New York, — " Tliomas Don-
1 Pemaquid Papers.
INDIAN WARS. 185
gan, ^ Yice- Admiral under his Royall High"'' of New York and Dependencies in America," after a short interregnum, under Lieut. Col. Brockholls.
The residents in the Ducal Territories had petitioned their lord " to permit the people to have a share in the Gov- ernment." The Duke of York granted the prayer so far as to establish the popular branch of an House of " Assembly," chosen by the people.
" A man of integrity, moderation, and genteel manners, though a professed Papist," Dongan, was instructed to call an " Assembly." ^
" The free-holders of Pemaquid and Dependencies met," and made election of Gyles Goddard ^ to represent the Ducal province of the East, in the Assembly at New York.
West and Palmer were commissioned to aid in the admin- istration of the affairs of the Eastern Dukedom ; and in the execution of the duties of their commission, they visited Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, and Sheepscot, to make and confirm grants of laud — to correct abuses — to quiet his majesty's estates and possessions — to see that garrison duty was faithfully done — to empower civil officers and appoint justices of the peace and quorum — to let and establish excise and customs for revenue. *
Such were the extraordinary powers of John West and John Palmer, Royal Commissioners of the Duke of York, the abuse of which made tliem odious to the citizens.
MILITARY AND CIVIL DESPOTISM.
The inhabitants of the Dukedom complained of the evils of their condition, growing out of their subjection to the will and pleasure of military authority, often exercised in a
1 Pemaquid papers, p. 95.
2 Holmes' Am. Annals, vol. i. p. 461, note 3.
3 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 131.
* Pemaquid Papers, see Commission, pp. Ill — 113.
18b ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
most reckless and arbitrary manner. It was matter of com- plaint to the Governor at New York, that it had been the practice of the Commander at Pemaquid to threaten the dissolution of their courts at his pleasure, — to threaten the Justices with imprisonment and with irons, and to apprehend by force of arms the King's Justices. The fishermen of " Sagadahoc Island" had, as was supposed, at the instance of Ricliard Patishall, been forbidden to build on the portion of the island used for making their fish, and were required to remove their warehouses and salt stores. A considerable population must have concentrated there at the date of this order, so that the place must have been crowded ; and though it is not easy to identify the island at this period, yet it undoubtedly was an ancient and well known locality, — the terra Sagadahoc having possibly been used to designate the group of islands at the mouth of the Kennebec, separating between it and Sheepscot Bay.
NEW PORTS OF ENTRY DEMANDED.
At the same time the petitioners of Pemaquid requested the Governor to assign, as ports of entry and clearance, two places in addition to that at Pemaquid : one at " New Dart- mouth in Ships-Gutt river," where it was alleged a consid- erable population had settled, " and many more coming " — promising a considerable trade in shipping " ffor maste and lumber ;" and " an office," or some person at Sagadahoc in Kennebec river, " ffor entering and clearing."
At each point public defenses had been erected, at the cost and by the enterprise of the new-comers, against the savages, " who had begun to menace war," with a view to cut off the new race of white men, before they should become too many for them.
CONFERENCE OF THE COLONIAL GOVERNORS.
The Governors of New York, New Hampshire, and Mas-
INDIAN WARS. 187
sacliusetts, Dongan, Cranfield, and Dudley, with a Mr. Shrimptou, held a conference in New York at " fort James," to discuss and concert measures of defense against the east- ern savages, whose restlessness and menaces foreboded another scene of savage war. Dongan urged pacific meas- ures, and cherished confidence in the overtures that had been made, and in the success of a rigid enforcement of the regulations made to guard the intercourse between the red and white men in the Dukedom, and was adverse to all measures offensive to the natives. No definite concerted plans were agreed on.
FIRST APPEARANCE OF EXISTING FAMILY NAMES.
For the first time, the names of Parsons, Gyles, Cook, Johnson, Neal, and others, whose descendants still live in and about the heritage of their fathers, on the banks of the Sheepscot, are found among the early inhabitants of the Dukedom, as petitioners for the public good, or remonstrants against existing public evils. Foot, Lovering, Ray, Gunni- son, and Paine were now dwellers at New Dartmouth. Nicholas Manning was put in commission as commander of a company of foot soldiers, and Gyles Goddard as Lieuten- ant ; John AUyen, John Dolling, Lawrence Denni, Thomas Giles, Alex. Watrop, Thomas Sharp, Richard Patishall, as Commissioners and Justices for the County of Cornwall. At New Town, Sagadahoc, John Beattery was commissioned as a Captain of foot.
Nicholas Manning was appointed surveyor, sub- collector, and searcher of his Majesty's customs, 1686. under stringent instructions and with great powers.
DUKEDOM MERGED IN MASSACHUSETTS.
The ancient plantations had now become generally re-oc- cupied, many families from the banks of the Hudson having removed into the Duke's Territories of the Eastern Prov- ince of Pemaquid. At this juncture the decease of
188 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1685. Charles II. elevated James II. to the vacant seat Feb. 16. of the throne of England. His views were arbi-
traiy, and his rule despotic. Dongan, whose com- mission was renewed, was instructed " to allow ^ no print- ing press^'' in New York. Sir Edmund Andros
1686. was commissioned Governor of New England, Dec. 24. and had arrived in Boston ; landing at Pools'
Wharf, escorted by sixty " red-coats," he marched "to Gibbs' house on Fort Hill." ^ Andros was instructed to give toleration in religious sentiments, but to encourage the establishment of the Church of England. ^ Accord- ingly he applied for one of the Boston churches for religious services, on the day of his arrival. ^ The old South was selected, but the proprietors protested against its use, because it was private property, " and they could not ivith a good conscience consent that their meeting-houses should be made use of for the Common Prayer worship^ ^
A Royal order ■* of this date directed that for Sept. 19. the future the '•'■ ffort and country of Pemaquid, loith the Greate Gunns ammunicon and stores of war^"* be delivered unto Sir Edmund Andros, and annexed to and continued under the government, territory, and dominion of New England.
Such was the aspect of the revived state of affairs, exhib- iting all the varied phases of a fresh population, now fully re-occupying the wild wastes of King Philip's war, in the East.
ANDROS RESTORED TO POWER.
Sir Edmund Andros, in virtue of his office as the Guber- natorial head of New England, once more ruled the eastern.
1 Holmes' Am. Annals, pp. 467 — 8.
2 Ju.lge Sewall's MSS. Diary.
3 Holmes' Annals, p. 468.
4 Pemaquid Papers, p. 131.
INDIAN WARS. 189
territory of this Ducal State, now merged in Massachusetts, as the " District of Blaine,'' — the Dukedom ceasing forever.
The act of annexation did not pass unnoticed or without opposition by remonstrances from the inhab- 1687. itants of the late Ducal State. The citizens of " New Harbor," of the town of Bristol, an ancient suburban pre- cinct of Pemaquid, convened in town meeting, ordered that a petition should be forwarded to the " Hon. Governor and Councell of Assembly at New York," in which the plea was urged, — " that Pemaquid may still remain the metro- politan of these parts, because it ever have been so before Boston ivas settled^ ^ But tlie prestige of the ancient capital of New England had gone. The plea of hoary life and honors could avail nothing. Pemaquid fell, and on her ruins Boston climbed to her position and emoluments, as the capital of New England. , Andros made Boston the seat of his administration, and determined on seizing the French possessions on the Penobscot, to swell the bulk of his domin- ions.
RECKLESSNESS OF ANDROS.
The frigate Rose, Commander George, at Pema- quid, was ordered to be held in a state of readiness 1688. for the Governor's use. Embarking in a sloop at Boston, Andros sailed among the islands of Casco Bay, eastward bound. He entered and ascended the Kennebec river. Thence cruising along shore, he joined the frigate at Pemaqiiid.
From thence he set sail for the Penobscot, and was soon safely moored under the Promontory of " Big-uy-duce," the site of the French and Indian town of the Baron de Castine.
The wild nobleman was too wary to be surprised. Hav- ing descried the fleet winging its way from afar down the
iM. H. Coll. vol. V. p. 137.
190 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
magnificent bay, lie liad fled and secured liimself and family in the sheltering depths of the forests.
Andros landed. He entered the works: — viewed the deserted premises, where all had been left as it was — house- hold stuff, fire-arms, ammunition and cloths — the chapel with its altar and pictures. The church was held sacred. The booty was secured. Andros returned to Pemaquid, met the natives, and distributed presents.
The bay, the harbor, the situation of Pemaquid made a great and favorable impression on the mind of the Royal Governor. It struck him that Pemaquid might become the great mart of the East. Portland, Bath, and Bangor had no existence in the wildest visions of the most distant fore- shadowings of the Governor's speculations, as his imagina- tion peered into the distant future !
FORTS REBUILT.
Decay and time had reduced the fort to a ruinous state. Andros ordered it rebuilt. Receiving the congratulations and listening to the complaints of tlie eastern people, Andros returned to Massachusetts. But his unceremonious visit to the establishment of the " Baron de Castine " was deemed a wanton outrage, to revenge which Castine excited his savage retainers to prepare for war.
Great elTorts were made to heal the wounded honor of the semi-Gaelic chieftain of Penobscot, and conciliate his dusky and barbarous hordes. Modockawando was sent back from Boston, laden with presents for himself and his braves. Peace was promising.
ENGLISH REVOLUTION.
But William and Mary having ascended the throne of England, vacated by the fugitive James Stuart, who had taken refuge from the fury of his exasperated subjects in the heart of France, opened a new scene, and touched new springs of action in our blood-stained history.
INDIAN WARS. 191
As a natural consequence of these facts, war ensued between France and England, whose people were in a revo- lutionary state. Rival religions organizations. Popery and Protestantism, the one a religion of forms, the other a relig- ion of faith — the one sympathizing with prerogative and power — the other, with the rights of conscience and human- ity— met in a desperate struggle for the supremacy in Eng- land.
French priests lashed into fury the savage hordes of New England, till a wave of fire and blood swept witli extermin- ating fury over the fair reviving prospects of the eastern frontiers.
Col. Tyng and Capt. Minot, with one hundred and fifty- six men, were detached for the eastern service, and Capt. Brockholls and Lieut. Weems were left in command of Fort Charles.
The collision in England between the rival houses of the Stuart dynasty and the Prince of Orange gave a shock which was felt in the remotest hamlets and rudest cabins of the frontiers of New England.
TREACHERY OF GOV. ANDROS.
A partisan warfare raged. The sympathies of all the office-holders, appointees of the Stuart dynasty, were in the interests of James, and, of coiirse, sided with the French influence and the assumptions of Popery, which had espous- ed the cause of the fugitive James.
Andros was suspected, — indeed, was charged ivith giving aid and comfort to the enemy. While at Pemaquid, it was said he was visited by two squaws ( one tlie sister of Modoc- awando, the native lord of Penobscot, ) who " remained with him two days in the fort : leaving it half drunk under an escort — a file of soldiers : and that they carried with them baskets and bundles of gunpowder and bullets^
This story, taken in connection with Andros' expedition
192 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
in the fj-igate Rose ^ to the fort of Castine, wears an aspect of improbability, to say the least. But everything fore- boded evil. The heavens above glowed with unnatural and portentous omens, " very terrible in appearance." A blaz- ing star showed its little head through the clouds, but flung a tail thirty degrees in length to the zenith ; " growing con- tinually broader and broader, and brightest on its ^ sides."
The administration of Andros had become odious ; 1689. and on the report that the Governor's guards were Apr. 18. to "massacre^ the citizens of Boston," the yeo- manry round about Boston poured in, seized Capt. George of the Rose frigate, surrounded the defenses on Fort llill, which were surrendered, and Andros captured therein. The Governor was imprisoned ; and the revolu- tion in favor of the Prince of Orange was completed in New England. Tlie consequences were most disastroiis to the frontier plantations of Maine.
Anarchy ensued. This state of things encouraged the savages to renew their barbarities.
A considerable village had grown up at '' New Harbor," a suburb of the capital at Pemaquid. The effacement of the ancient landmarks disturbed titles and disquieted the returning inhabitants, who complained that having been at great charge in rebuilding their houses, as yet they had " no assurance of house lots nor bounds of placed
The " customs" were onerous. They desired they should be taken off, " because it never used to be paid by any ITish- ermcn in the world, as we know of," say they, in a petition to Government. "*
1 Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 474, note. * Hutchinson's Hist. vol. i. p. 313, note. 3 Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 475. 4M. H. Coll. vol. v. p. 137.
INDIAN WARS. 193
CENTRAL POINTS OF DEFENSE.
At Dartmouth, Captain Witliington, with a company of sixty men, had been stationed. A detachment of twenty- four men under command of Lieut. John Jordan was assigned to garrison duty. Tlie small fort on the eastern Sheepscot shore — (the defense of the township on Mason and Jewett's Neck) — was to be occupied by a weekly relief from New Dartmouth.
Newtown on the Sagadahoc, a Fort at Sagadahoc, a Redoubt on the Damariscotta, Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, and Sheepscot were all occupied as points for military defense.
But the excitement of the revolutionary changes in the English government had pervaded the eastern settlements.
The partisans of William and Mary became suspicious of the crown officers. The appointees of the Stuart family were suspected. Commander Brockholls ^ was denounced as a Papist, and as is alleged, was ordered from Pemaquid, which order he disobeyed ; and being suspected of a design to desert to the French, was seized by the inhabitants of New Dartmouth, and sent to Boston, Lieut. Weems being left in command at the request of the people of Pemaquid.
The soldiery became demoralized. Desertion ensued, and the forces distributed by Andros at favorable points to over- awe the hostile natives, were dispersed.
The state of things must have been known to the Indians.
OPENING' OF HOSTILITIES.
The first blow was struck at North Yarmouth, which was entirely broken up.
The northern margins of Merry Meeting were next swept by the war trail of the infuriated savages, and the houses of the settlers there were burned, while those who made a.
1 Answer to Andros, M. H. Soc. Coll. vol. v. p. 394.
13
19i ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
show of defense were slain, and the remainder made cap- tives, many of whom were most barbarously murdered in a drunken carousal soon after. Nine persons were spared from the island settlements and mouth of the river below, to be led into captivity. The mutinous proceedings at New Dartmouth had left the defenses there unprotected, and the community exposed in the height of its greatest peril to the fury of an excited, ruthless, and barbarous foe, amid all the horrors of a religious and partisan warfare !
DESTRUCTION OF NEW DARTMOUTH.
These circumstances invited assault. A war party passed from the bloody horrors and savage orgies of the sacking of the Merry Meeting towns over to the thriving and populous plantations of the Sheepscot, " called the garden of the East:'
Cautiously approaching from the eastward to Sept. 5. the attack, the Indians surprised and secured Henry Smith and his family. The next day Ed- ward Taylor and family fell into their hands. By this time the alarm had roused the entire population ; and panic- stricken, all had fled into the forts, and secured their retreat before a general onslaiiglit could be made.
Very soon tlie surrounding forests echoed with the whoops and yells of disappointed rage. Tiie prey had escaped. The entire village of New Dartmouth was consigned to the flames, with here and there a solitary house left as a monu- ment of mercy, standing alone amid the blackened ruins of a general conflagration ! The garrisoned inhabitants had vainly sought to treat with the enemy for the security of their lives and property. The messenger, with his life in his hand, who had gone from the fort on this mission, was maltreated and murdered in the presence of his friends, who were powerless to save.
How long the savages were held at bay, or by what means
INDIAN WARS. 195
those who had made the fort a refuge finally escaped, is not stated. ^ It is related, however, that the German popula- tion retired from the scene of such desolation, never more to return ; and the villages, so lately flourishing and so long inhabited, were consigned to waste and solitude for a whole generation.
The forts were destroyed ; and to these ancient plant- ations the catastrophe was a fatal and final overthrow ; and ■ to this day New Dartmouth, the Newcastle of the present, has not recovered the position of influence and importance of her ancient fame.
OVERTHROW OP PEMAQUID.
Pemaquid, the ancient capital of New England, had not yet lost the prestige of Jier position in the 1689. native mind ; and had become an object of special offense, as the point at which a death-blow might be struck at the English interest in the East. It was therefore deter- mined to blot out the capital of the Ducal territory, which, though shorn of its importance and power by the revolu- tionary issues of the British Empire, still was a centi-al bar- rier to the barbarism of the East.
The anarchical condition of civil authority had left it as defenseless and exposed as was its suburban village. New Dartmouth above. As we have before said, Lieut. Weems, alone with fifteen men, a stipendiary of the Government of the Massachusetts Bay, held the post and defenses of Jamestown.
Thomas Gyles, a large landed proprietor and chief justice
( of the Pemaquid district, resided at this date in town.
This eminent pioneer of the East at first had entered the
Kennebec, and settled at Pleasant Point in Merry Meeting,
prior to King Philip's war. At the opening of its tragic
1 Tradition says they were suffered to construct a small vessel, and retire in her, by agreement with the Indians.
196 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
scenes, Gyles had been made a prisoner, and his wife slain in her garden picking beans. ^ Redeemed or escaping, he returned to England ; but attracted back to his wild eastern home, on reaching America, savage hostilities had again broken out, and he took up his abode on the shores of Long Island.
The bleakness of the climate there disturbed him ; and by the overtures of Gov. Dongan, abandoning his Merry Meeting estates. Gyles made a new home at Pemaquid, and held the chief seat of the Judiciary there. He encountered much difficulty in the discharge of his official duties, " from the immoralities of a people who had long lived in lawless- ness."
A descendant of Judge Gyles, made a captive at the time of the sacking of Jamestown, has left a narrative of the terrible scenes of blood enacted on this occasion. The sav- •ages, numbering about one hundred warriors, had lurked in iihe suburbs of the town some days. A wayfaring man, Starkie by name, passing from Jamestown of Pemaquid to New Harbor, was seized by them, from whom, with too much truth, they learned the weakness of the public defens- es ; that no suspicions of peril existed, and that Gyles had gone with his workmen, fourteen in number, to his farms at the falls above.
The savages divided, — the one party to follow Gyles, and the other to assault the town. It was early in August. Those who were assigned to attack tlie town finally gained a street and effected a lodgment. Ten or twelve houses of stone were occupied, from which the Indians securely assailed the garrison till dark.
The fort was summoned to surrender. To this the defend- ers replied with much sang froid, — " we are now weary and must sleepy ! ^ Daylight dawned, and the fort still held
1 Vinton's MSS. Narrative, Archives M. H. Soc.
2 Williamson's Hist. vol. i.
INDIAN WARS. 197
out. Two days the assault was persistently continued, and as vigorously repelled. But the assailants could not be dis- lodged from their coverts of stone, and had great advantage in the fight. Weems was at length picked out and wounded by the sharp shooters of the enemy, and the bravest of his force disabled.
A capitulation was therefore concluded, on condition that Patishall's sloop should be restored, and the garrison with their captives and arms should be suffered to depart without molestation. The reduction of the place was thus effected, and it is said the articles of capitulation were faithfully observed, and that Weems and his handful of men retired in safety. Captains Skinner and Farnham returning from the islands, as they leaped on shore, were shot dead ; and Captain Patishall of " Paddishall's Island near the mouth of the Kennebec," ^ whose sloop lay at the Barbican, was taken therefrom and slain,
DEATH OF GYLES.
Meanwhile the party, some forty in number, led by Moxus, pursuing Gyles, came up with him at the farm some three miles from town, where he, with two of his sons, were overseeing the workmen, some of whom were gathering the harvest of hay in one field, and nursing the young growing shoots of corn in another. The Indians came upon them about noon. Gyles and his sons were still at the farm house, where dinner had just been served, when the roar of cannon — the alarm guns of Fort Cliarles — arrested their attention, and awakened the solicitude of all.
The elder Gyles remarked, " that the alarm guns, he trusted, were harbingers of good," — the announcement of aid from abroad. From the crest of a hillock near the barn, the savages immediately appeared, heralded by their
1 Clark's Deposition. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105, note.
198 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
•wild whoops of war. Simultaneously with their appear- ance, the flash of their fire-arms revealed their purposes of blood and violence. Their demoniac yells mingled with the scream of bullets through the air, and the wail of the dying workmen, opened a scene under the lurid and sul- phurous cloud of smoke, which hung heavily over the bloody field, both grand and awful ! m
John Gyles and his brother James sought safety in flight, at the first onset. Thomas, an elder brother, reached the Barbican opposite tlie Fort, gained a fishing boat, and sailed away the same night. ^ All who had not fallen sought safety in flight. Pursued by the stout and painted red-men, with upraised tomahawk and unsheathed scalping knives gleaming in the smoky sunlight, all were scattered. The younger Gyles in his haste had fallen to the earth, and was seized and bound hand and foot. The captive boy was taken to a neighboring stack of liay. He passed his aged father who had been shot, pale and bloody, still tottering on his feet.
In the hayfield the men lay where they were shot down ; and others, tomahawked, still called upon God in their agony for mercy ! The Indians gathered with their cap- tives, preparatory to their departure for the East. Not long after, the elder Gyles was brought in ; and in answer to the taunts of Moxus said, " I am a dying man, and ask no favors but to pray with my sons " ! The boon was granted. The captive boys were confided to the merciful protection of God Almighty. He gave tliem a father's counsel, and took an affectionate farewell with the hope of meeting them in that " better land," where the wicked cease from troub- ling. With a cheerful voice he bade his children farewell, having now become faint from loss of blood, " which gushed out of his shoes." The savages led him aside ; and adds
1 Drake's Tragedies of the Wilderness.
INDIAN WARS. 199
the narrator, his own son, " I heard the hloivs of the hatchet, hut neither shriek nor g-roan." His body, pierced with bul- lets, was covered where it fell with the branches of trees. Such was the melancholy fate of Judge Gyles, a distin- guished resident of Jamestown at Pemaquid.
FATE OF THE TOWN.
Within a mile and one half of the town, all the captives were now gathered, in full view of the smoke and flash of the musketry and cannon of the contending parties. Am- buscades between the dwelling places and farms, and near the more frequented by-paths to the town, had surprised, captured, and killed most of the out-settlers. A dozen houses or more adorned the hamlet of Brown at New Har- bor, the occupants of which generally escaped. Another remove concentrated the captives in the heart of a swamp, three-fourths of a mile distant from town, — where the lurid clouds of battle and the din of war, from burning homes and butchered friends — the sacrifices to the orgies of war — only greeted the forlorn victims of this savage demon- stration. Tlie fortifications had now fallen into tlie hands of the assailants, and very soon the works, the dwelling houses, and shops of Jamestown of the Virginia of the North, the capital of the eastern Dukedom, were reduced to a heap of smouldering remains and ruins. Such was the catastroplie wliich inflicted irreparable desolation on Pema- quid at the hands of the warriors of Penobscot, who had been consecrated to this work by the benedictions of Mother Church of Rome, and who went from her confessional and altars of hallowed sacramental rites to the work of butchery and the blood of heretics, while their wives and children performed the same holy rites, and raised their pure liands to heaven in aid of their fathers and brothers in battle with the heretics. ^
1 Charlevoix, Williamson's note.
200 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
THE captives' EXPERIENCE.
In the swamp to which they had been taken, the captive boys met their mother and their two little sisters, also cap- tives. Many of their town's people were there gathered in sorrow and dismay. From the lips of her boy the wife learned the fate of her husband. The natural burst of grief provoked their savage masters. The captive son was removed and tied to a tree, out of reach of his mother. Once more he looked on her who gave him life, and heard her voice as they all embarked for the East. '^' Poor babe," said she, " we are going into the wilderness, the Lord knows where ! " Their canoes now parted, and with bursting hearts and swimming eyes the mother and child were separ- ated forever ; — the mother and sisters to be redeemed, and the child to wander in hopeless captivity.
At Mata-wamkeag, up the Penobscot, they encountered a lodge of dancing women. Young Gyles was flung into the midst of the circle. An old squaw led him into the ring, when some seized him by the hair of the head, and others by his hands and feet, with great violence and menaces of evil.
At this moment his master entered, and bought the child off from the horrors of the gauntlet dance, by flinging down a pledge.
THE BEAR HUNT.
The flesh of the bear is much coveted, and is the favorite game in the winter hunts of the natives of the Penobscot. This animal burrows in the caves and dens of the earth in autumn, with no store of food to break his long winter fast. During the period of hibernation, it neither waxes nor wanes in flesh. If fat and well fed when it seeks its wintry repose, it will appear the same in spring, the tear and wear of life being stayed in the suspended activity of its mechanism.
INDIAN WARS. 201
" I have seen some," says Gyles, " which have come out with four whelps, and all very fat."
The plunder of a bear's nest makes a merry lodge. An old squaw and a captive are stationed without the wigwam, who stand shaking their hands and bodies as in a dance, singing — " Weg-ag-e oh nelo woh I " — fat is my eating !
THE GAUNTLET DANCE.
Gyles, the second year of his captivity, was sent toward the sea, with other natives, to plant corn near the fort.
On reaching the village of wigwams, he was greeted by three or four Indians who dragged him to the great wigwam, where, with savage yells and dances, the warriors were leap- ing about a James Alexander, recently captured at Fal- mouth. Two families of Sable Indians, whose friends had been lost by the attacks of English fishermen, had reached this point, on a scout westward, to avenge the blood of their elaughtered fnends. These savages were thirsting for the blood of an Englishman. They rushed upon Gyles and tossed him into the ring. He was then dragged out by the hair of his head, his body bent forward by the same painful process, when he was cruelly beaten over his head and shoul- ders. Others, putting a tomahawk into his hands, bid him " sing and dance Indian.''^ The Sable Indians again rushed upon him in great rage, crying — " Shall we who have lost relatives by the English suffer an English voice to be heard among us ? " He was beaten with an axe. No one showed a spark of humanity, save a Frenchman, whose cheeks were wet with tears of pity at the sorrows of the captive white- men.
The trials of this scene lasted a whole day. Another dance was projected. Gyles had been sent out to dress a skin for the manufacture of leather. A friendly Indian sought him at his place of labor, and warned him that his Iriend Alexander had fallen into the hands of his enemies
202 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
again, and they were searching for him. His master and mistress bade him fly and hide himself, till they both should come and call him, Avhich they would do when the peril was ended. Gyles retired and sought concealment in the fast- nesses of aneigliboring swamp, and had scarcely attained his refuge, when dealcning whoops mingled Avith threats and flatteries told him that the savages were on his track. They sought him till evening, and then called — " Clion., Chon ! " But Clion would not trust them. Thus he escaped till the company had dispersed ; when he went forth from his cov- ert, assured of his safety by the appearance of his master and mistress.
THE FRIGHT.
Onerous and servile duties were required of captives. One of these, in the case of Gyles and, Alexander, was that of toting water from a cool and distant spring to the village lodge.
Wearied with toil, — in tlie language of Gyles — " being almost dead, James and I contrived to relieve our toil by frightening the Indians."
At this period, the Mohawks were a great source of alarm to tlie eastern tribes, the rumor of whose alliance with the English had now generally obtained. The traditions of this race were a commentary of deeds of daring and success, handed down from remote periods in the history of the abo- rigines of the American coast.
The two prisoners adroitly turned this infirmity of their savage masters to good account, on a dark niglit.
Alexander, having been sent out for water, set his kettle on the brow of the declivity, ran back to the lodges and told his master, he feared there were Mohawks lurking near the spring below, which, by the way, was environed with stumps.
The braves of the tribe, with the master, accompanied the
INDIAN WARS. 203
captive Alexander on a reconnoissance. Approaching the brow of the hillside, whereon the kettle sat, James, pointing to the stumps, gave it a kick with his foot, by which his toe sent the iron vessel down the declivity toward the spring ; and every turn of the revolving bucket reared a Mohawk on every stump, the clatter of whose arms was the signal of preparation for battle ; and he who could run fastest was the best fellow ! The result was a regular stampede of thirty or forty warriors into the interior forests, beyond the reach " of strange Indians."
THE CHASTISEMENT.
Natural admiration is excited in view of acts of personal courage and physical prowess, and this would seem to be a spontaneous development of the human mind.
At one time. Gyles, during his captivity, encountered an ill-natured savage. He had been cutting wood, which was bound up with thongs, and borne in bundles to the wigwam. While thus engaged, a stout, ill-natured young fellow pushed him on to the ground backwards, sat upon his breast, pulled out his knife and menaced him with death, saying — "/te never had yet killed one of the English.''^
Gyles replied — " he might go to war^ and that would be more manhj than to kill a poor captive vjho was doing their drudgery.'''' But the savage began to cut and stab him on the breast, in defiance of all expostulation. Provoked to desperation. Gyles seized the Indian by the hair of liis head, and tumbling liim off, followed up the movement with his knees and fists, till copper-skin cried enough. On feeling the smart of his wounds, and seeing the blood which fell from his bosom, " Gyles at him again ;" bade him get up, and not lie there like a dog ; reproaclied him with his barbarities and cowardly cruelties to other poor captives ; and put him on his good behavior hereafter, in the peril of a double dose of fist and foot cuffs.
204 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Gjles was never after molested, and was commended by the tribe for inflicting the merited chastisement.
Metallic vessels for culinary use were not required by the natives among whom Gyles was a captive. A birchen buck- et filled with water, heated by the immersion of red hot stones, would speedily boil the toughest neck-pieces of beef.
The necessity of lucifer matches was forestalled by rapid- ly revolving the sharpened point of an upright piece of wood in the socket or cavity of a horizontal base, till a blaze was kindled.
The incantations of the pow-wow, among the unchristian- ized natives, prevailed. For the dead great ^^ourning was made. In the shadowy and somber stillness ( evening twi- light, a squaw breaks the silence, wandering o r the highest clifT-tops, near her lodge, crying in mournful a long-drawn numbers, — " Oh haive haive ! "
But the season of mourning being ended, the relatives of the dead end their sad memories in a feast ; and the be- reaved is permitted to marry again. Purchased by a French trader, during the eastern expedition of Col. Hawthorne, Gyles, after a servitude of nine years, was restored to his home and surviving friends ; and for many years, served his government in the capacity of an Indian interpreter, and in the army.
SAVAGE CRUELTIES.
Their captives were sometimes cruelly treated and barba- rously murdered. The elder brother of this captive Gyles, after tliree years of captivity, attempted to escape and was re-taken. On the heights of Castine, overlooking the waters of Penobscot Bay, he was tortured by fire at the stake : his nose and ears were cut off and forced into his mouth, which he was compelled to eat ; and then he was burnt as a diver- sion to enliven the scene of a dance.
CHAPTER V.
WAR OF TxxE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED.
;C MAJOR CHURCH.
■ '(
The rene.j^l of savage barbarities in the East roused Mass chiisetts to arms. Chastisement and 1690. the recovery of the captives were the great purposes of the contemplated military operations. Major Church, the hero of King Philip's war — the terror as he had been the scourge of savage men — was designated to command the expedition.
Next to Miles Standish of Plymouth, the name of Benja- min Church, as an early successful military leader, stands out in boldest relief on the annals of New England. The arena of his glory and success was the field of frontier serv- ice. A native of Plymouth, too, endowed with great benev- olence of heart, fortified with natural sagacity and fortitude, of reputed piety and a high sense of honor as a frontier man — a volunteer — or backwoodsman — he entered the ranks at the commencement of King Philip's war.
His fortitude, perseverance, and tact, together with great personal prowess, gave him eminence. Indeed, he put to shame the movements of the regular army, and, in fact, subdued the hordes of Philip, breaking down in regular succession all his great captains, and scattering all the com- binations of savage power.
206 ancient dominions of maine.
annawon's fall.
To-to-son, Tis-pa-quin, and the great An-na-won, Philip's confederates and friends, all were out-generalled by Church. An-na-won, the last of the trio of savage heroes of King Philip's reign of terror, was at length made prisoner by Church. On the night of his capture, by the light of the moon beams, rising from his dewy couch under the open canopy of heaven, An-na-won approached his conqueror with a fearless and stately mien. Falling on his knees before him, — " Great Captain, " he cried, " you have killed Philip and conquered his country ! I and my company are the last ! Therefore, these," ( holding out to him Philip's in- signia of royalty) " belong unto you." The shoulders of the hero of Pliilip's fall were at once invested by the hands of An-na-won with robes of wampum curiously wrought in figures and flowers of the forms of birds and beasts, with black and white, edged with human hair dyed in scarlet colors. The vdiole was girded with a belt ornamented with a pendant star, from the shoulders reaching to the ancles. But the magnanimous and fearless Annawon, in defiance of the entreaties and remonstrances of his brave captor, was slain by the Plymotheans after his surrender.
Having successfully encountered the enemy at Casco, who retired from the field, Churcli next appeared on the plains of Brunswick, and in the heart of the enemy's coun- try on the Androscoggin, forcing the very doors of his slrong-holds.
Foremost in the fight, stripped to his shirt and jacket, Church plunged into the water, crossed the river, and rushed into the south gate, while the Indians fled out at the north. Some took to the water ; others ran under the falls ; and most perished, cither under the deadly aim of the fero- cious frontiers' men, or while struggling for life against the current, were swept under the waters of the rushing An- droscoggin !
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 207
To the fugitives, Church sent a message, telling the Indians who he was, and whence he came. The captives who had been taken were summarily " knocked on the head'' as an example.
Fresh from the blood-stained swamps of Philip's conquest, Church came like the Angel of Death across the war-path of the red-man of the East, his portentous name filling all with dismay, from the papoose in the wigwam to the tawny brave on the scout.
The presence and movements of Church disconcerted the savages, dissipated their combinations, scattered .their con- federacies, and broke up their projected enterprises.
Passing the Kennebec with Gov. Phips, Church landed at Pemaquid, and from thence ranged the Penobscot. Return- ing, he entered the Kennebec, and ascended that river. In the ascent of this expedition, his boats encountered the enemy in their canoes. After a sharp but successful engage- ment, he routed the savages, and pursued them so fiercely up the river that they abandoned their canoes, and took to the woods.
Church pursued them on shore, and gave them no rest in their forest shelter. The chase continued to " Ticonnet," the site of their homes. Their lodges, their fort, all were consigned to the flames by the panic-stricken braves, who, leaving their stores of corn^for plunder, continued their flight into the dense and impenetrable swamps of the unex- plored interior. From Pemaquid as a center, he scoured the country in all directions, carrying devastation and dis- may, fire and sword, to the homes of the savages.
CONDITION OF COUNTRY.
Many panic-stricken surviving settlers, crouching amid the ruins of this war-wasted section, were met 1692. by Major Church in the course of these expeditions, who besought him to procure their removal from the scene
208 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of their sorrows and peril, whose prayers he could not heed. Left thus to their own resources, the remaining inhabitants adopted a system of defense, founded in the structure of " Garrison Houses.''^
The garrison house was a structure of timber, rectangular in shape — bullet-proof — pierced with port-holes from angu- lar projections, coverts and sentry posts surmounting the corner elevations, which commanded every approach. The garrison house, often stockaded, usually crowned some height, or crested some land-swell in the center of a consid- erable clearing, so that the environing thickets and copses of wood could not be made a covert to the prowling savage within musket range.
Here the families of a hamlet gathered on hearing the report of the alarm guns, under the guard of their fathers, brothers, and neighbors : — the women often acting the part of guardsmen, day and night — while the males in detach- ments went to their clearings to sow and reap, one of whom usually stood sentinel, while the others wrought by turns, every man armed.
Thus the surviving inhabitants endeavored to maintain their foothold in these wilds amid savage alarms, determined to fight rather than to fly.
The adoption of this mode of life at length made the frontier-man of the East more than a match for his wily foe. This adjustment of the homes of the frontier iuliabitants to the emergencies of their condition finally worried out the savage ; and the mode of defense being aptly suited to meet the peculiarities of savage warfare, the pioneer became as wary and resolute, more fearless and successful than the Indian, which made it very difficult, if not impossible, for him to attack and destroy the settler in his usual covert way, by surprise.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 209 BUILDING OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY AT PEMAQUID.
Sir William Phips, a native of the Sheepscot, and early schooled in the discipline and perils of a frontier life, had become a British nobleman, and had been appointed to the head of gubernatorial authority in the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay. He took special interest in the welfare of his native section.
Major Church having in charge the military operations within the eastern frontier, in August, with an army of near five hundred men, made his rendezvous among the ruins of the dismantled fortress of Pemaquid, with orders to rebuild it with stone and lime, according to the most approved arts of war. But Church was no engineer, and looked on such defenses as worse than useless — as " only nests for destruc- tions.^^
But Governor Phips, detaching Church to beat up the haunts of the enemy in their forest strong-holds, with two companies, rebuilt the defenses of Pemaquid. Twenty rods from high-water mark, on the eastern shore a league above the point of Pemaquid, on the margin of the inner harbor,, — a land-locked basin made by the river's mouth at its- deboucher into the bay — a site was chosen. A quadrangular wall was reared, whose perimeter measured seven hundreds and forty-seven feet, and one hundred and eight feet between the exterior walls across. These walls founded in lime and mortar, were built of stone, under the direction of Captains Wing and Bancroft, engineers. The wall facing seaward was twenty- two feet high on the south front ; on the harbor side to the west, eighteen feet high ; on the north, facing the river and village, ten feet ; and on the east, fronting the main land at the point of its junction with the penin- sula, where once was a causeway, twelve feet ; the whole surmounted with a round tower, rising from the angle in the south-western bastion, near thirty feet. 14
210 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Eight feet from tlie ground, the walls were six feet thick, pierced with ports for a tier of twenty-eight guns, and some eighteen were mounted. Thus defended, the work was named Fort William Henry, This work was a formidable barrier against the incursions of the eastern savages, and a center of safety to a considerable circle of surrounding territory. The indefatigable Church continued his terrify- ing pursuit of the savages, throughout the fastnesses of their forest wilds, who fled before him, leaving their corn, " bea- ver and moose skins," to become a prey.
CONDITION OF THE NATIVES.
Up to this period, great vicissitudes had checkered 1696. the historic scene at Pemaquid and Sagadahoc ; which also deeply marked the condition of the exas- perated and forlorn natives, who began to realize terrible visions of want and death in the bloody footprints of war all over their wilderness home, and to find there were blows to take as well as to give.
CONVERSE.
Converse, the friend and subordinate of Church, a brave and faithful officer, became an object of dread as a scourge of the marauding red-men. His brave and successful defense of the garrison at Wells was a memorable act of intrepidity. To the overtures to him for capitulation, he replied, — " I want nothing of you but men to fight?'' As commander-in-chief of the eastern forces, he was at Sheep- scot and Pemaquid pursuing the wild savage with so much persistence and success that, feeling themselves " hunted to the mountains by the terrifying Converse," thirteen saga- mores repaired to Pemaquid, suing for peace ; in the nego- tiations therefor, John Wing, Nicholas Manning, and Benja-
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 211
min Jackson were commissioners. ^ The conditions of a perpetual peace were arranged, and hostages given as pledges of good faith.
FRENCH INFLUENCES.
But the interests of the French Government, which had espoused the cause of James, in sympathy with Romish Church purposes of hostility to the reign of William and Mary in England, demanded the violation of this treaty. The Church of Rome, in the great civil contest between the partisans of James and the government of William and Mary, had an eye to her own supremacy in England. Jes- uit priests, therefore, exerted their influence over the savage mind to re-open the sluices of war. Of the ecclesiastical emissaries, Sebastian Ralle of the Norridgewock Mission on the Kennebec, Thuray and Bigot on the Penobscot, were the most influential and conspicuous. It was the theme of their Sabbath service, to persuade their native hearers " that it was no sin to break faith with heretics'''' ! " that Jesus Christy the blessed^ was murdered by English- men^^ ! Religion was thus made a torch of war. Modock- awando, the sachem of Penobscot, and Bomaseen, the sachem of the Kennebecks, " whose residence was at the ancient seat of their sagamores, Norridgewock," - summoned tlieir braves to gather fresh trophies of blood in revenging on the perfidious white man the death of Jesus, as well as the wrongs of their country. To ascertain the effects of recent violence done to neighboring settlements, Bomaseen and two other natives, presuming that at Pemaquid no suspicion of their agency in the bloody transactions at Dover, York, and Piscataqua had reached, visited the fort, then under command of March, disguised as " travelers from Canada."
1 Williamson, vol. i. p. 640.
2 Drake's Book of Indians, p. 110.
212 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
But being known, the party was seized, and tlie chieftain, Bomaseen, was sent a captive to Boston, where, with Sheep- scot Jolin, one of the hostages of the late treaty, all were held in confinement.
MISSION OF SHEEPSCOT JOHN.
To negotiate an exchange of prisoners and effect a recon- ciliation, John was sent east. At Rutherford's Island, in the mouth of Damariscotta river, a league from Fort Wm. Henry, by his influence a body of natives was gathered. They came in a flotilla of fifty canoes ; and a cessation of hostilities for thirty days was arranged.
The armistice was understood to be a prelude to a treaty of peace ; but in arranging the preliminaries, differences ar®se, and the captious savages departed in disgust.
From the conference of peace, they rushed with unsheath- ed scalping knife and gleaming tomahawk into war.
A detachment of ten men from the fort at Pemaquid, who were rowing a flat boat around a high rocky point above the Barbican opposite, were shot, four being killed and six wounded. It was the act of the disaffected savages, who had left the conference at Rutherford's Island in disgust, and had thus defeated the pacific mission of Sheepscot John.
RETRIBUTION.
Some of the eastern sagamores visited the fort. 1696. Fort Wm. Henry was now in command of Capt. Feb. 16. Chubb. The avowed object of the visit was to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. But the anguish of hLs soldiers, whose wounds, yet unhealed, ren- dered them unfit for duty, together with the recollection of their fallen comrades, fired Chubb's resentment and the vengeance of his command to such a degree that an assault was made on the unsuspecting and unarmed Indians. Two chieftains were slain. The others were captured, excepting
WAE OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 213
Toxus and some of his more athletic friends, who broke through their restraint, and escaped " to scatter fire-brands, arrows, and death," till the wilds of the whole coast were enkindled in the jQames of war. Pasco Chubb, the author of the perfidy, was never forgotten, nor was he forgiven till blood washed out his guilt, and from savage hands was meted out the vengeance by them kept in store for him against a day of retribution that overtook him at Andover, as he and his wife returned homeward from public worship.
Iberville's expedition.
The reduction of Fort Wm. Henry at Pemaquid had become a matter of settled policy with the French. At Quebec an expedition had been projected, and placed under the conduct of Iberville as chief in command. Two ships of war and two companies of soldiers, to be re-inforced by Castine from Penobscot and Indians of the St. John's river, were selected for the expedition. As Iberville approached the scene of his operations, the English ship Newport, Capt. Paxen, with the Province Cutter, on their passage to the Bay of Fundy to intercept French stores, together with the ship Sorlings, Capt. Eams, encountered him.
A battle ensued. The Newport struck her colors and became a prize, the other vessel escaping under a fog-bank. Thus encouraged and re-inforced, Iberville pressed all sail for Pemaquid. Off Penobscot, Castine joined the expedi- tion with a flotilla of canoes, bearing two hundred warriors, among whom presents were distributed to stimulate their valor.
The harbor of Pemaquid was soon swarming with men- of-war, while fleets of native craft, whose shuttle forms everywhere cut and curved the peaceful waters of the bay, discharged hordes of savage and war-clad men to invest the place.
On the first assault, four men of the invading force were
214 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
slain. The place was summoned to surrender. Mounted with fifteen guns, the fortress was held by about one hund- red men, with ammunition and food in abundance. The summons was rejected. The first day was consumed by the investure of the town. On the night ensuing, fortified redoubts were constructed on the adjoining and command- ing heights, where a mortar battery was planted.
Tliis battery opened its fire on the town and Aug. 15. fortress with shell and round shot. The effects of the shell were such as to fill the soldiery with dismay. At the same time the overtures for a surrender were renewed, and a missive under the hand of Castine intimated that if taken by storm, the captives and the place would be given up to plunder and the mercy of the savages. This menace had the desired effect. The fears of the defenders triumphed over their valor. The "Chamade" was beaten, and the gates of the fortress were opened ; and to save the garrison and captives from savage violence, they were hurried to a neighboring island, and guarded by a strong detachment of French marines.
Thus a second time fell Pemaquid to the com-
Aug. 18. bined forces of tlie French and Indians, by the
cowardice of its defenders. Motives of humanity
may have had their influence. The town was plundered,
and the fort dismantled.
Col. Gedney of Salem immediately marched with five hundred men through the eastern country to the scene of the desolation of Pemaquid, in quest of the enemy, who liad long before departed. Chubb was arrested for coward- ice, and cashiered. ^ A shallop with prisoners from the eastward reached Boston, and brought the first intelligence of the fall of Pemaquid, together with the capture of the English man-of-war, off Mt. Desert. Major Church was in
I Annals of Salem, vol. iv. p. 325.
WAR OP THE ENGLISH EEVOLUTION CONTINUED. 215
Boston at the time, and was conimissioiied to-visit again the wilds of the frontiers of Maine. An expedition was pro- jected to pursue the French naval force, and engage the enemy on land, if possible. Church touched at York, east- ward bound, and sent his scouts through the neighboring forests to beat up the savage haunts. But no success attend- ing the movement, no enemy appearing, he sailed for Mon- hegan Island. Col. Gedney, from York as a center, with detachments of friendly Indians and volunteers penetrated the country by a system of operations called scouting ; and thus filled the enemy with alarm, and subjected him to perpetual surprise. The combined movements of the enemy were all thus defeated ; and breaking up into small bands, they only prowled in the neighborhood of the garrisons to surprise and cut off the unwary.
Mooring his transport ships in the island harbor of Mon- hegan, Church embarked his forces under cover of darkness in whaleboats for the main. Hard rowing brought him to the beach of Owls-head at daybreak. The boats were con- cealed, and the scouts sent out, who only traced a trail a week old. At night all re-embarked, prosecuting their voy- age up the bay and among the islands, till in Camden, at the base of the Mathebestuck mountains, day again dawned on them, when all landed, and concealed their boats. Tiius night was turned into day for labor, till entering the river and ascending to a fall, some of the savages, as they paddled their boats down to the sea, were surprised, and were shot from the river banks, while those who escaped alarmed the whole region, and the enemy fled to the wild interior beyond reach.
FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE FRENCH FLEET.
The Arundel, the Orford, and Sorlings, with a fire-ship and tender, also scoured the ocean off Pemaquid, but the French fleet had escaped, and the expedition was abortive.
216 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Church continued to ravage the coasts, destroying and desolating the native settlements, without reaching the enemy or bringing him to action, till superseded in the command ; and had he been well sustained by his govern- ment in the execution of his purposes and plans, he no doubt would have made the fate of King Philip the experience of the eastern braves. From a negro captive, it was ascertained that the savages, learning of Church's con- templated movement, by a prisoner who had escaped from liis confinement in Boston, had all retired from the sea- board an hundred miles into the interior, and therefore no chastisement could be meted out to them for the destruction of Pemaquid and its precincts.
MARCH IN COMMAND.
Major March, being entrusted with the eastern 1697. defenses after the unsuccessful operations of Col. Hawthorn, who had superseded Church, with five hundred men entered on his arduous duties with commend- able energy.
A " prudent and popular officer," he adopted the plan of scouring the country from post to post, (a cordon of which enclosed the frontiers,) by ranging parties, which had been the favorite movements of Major Church.
BATTLE OP THE DAMARISCOTTA.
In the prosecution of this system, early in the
Sept. 9. autumnal month of the first year of his command,
heading a small detachment of his troops, March
entered the waters of the Damariscotta, which happened to
fall in the line of his coast range.
Ever on the alert, the Indians descried the fleet of whale- boats from the heights of Walpole ; and the fleet-footed runners had correctly detailed the progress of March up the river, and learned the point of his debarkation, near which
WAR OF THE ENGLISH KEVOLUTION CONTINUED. 217
an ambuscade was arranged. On touching the shore, spring- ing suddenly from their covert, the tall-grown forests far and near echoing the fatal death-cry, the Indians poured on March and his men a shower of leaden hail, whose fire flashed the white man's death-welcome on every side.
But the undaunted March immediately rallied his waver- ing troops, and led them to the charge in the face of the mtirderous fire.
With fixed bayonets his men plunged into the thickets, routing the savages at every point, who retreated to the woods and to their canoes, leaving their dead behind them !
It was a bloody and desperate encounter. Twenty-five men lay dead or wounded in their track at the place of debarkation, showing the unerring certainty with which each warrior marked his man, while the gory body of the fallen brave, torn by the white man's steel, was left to the gaze of his foe, in attestation of the terrific death-struggle by which the intrepid March and his devoted band had won the day.
The battle of the Damariscotta closed the scenes of King William's war, during which want and famine had multi- plied the horrors of the desolation. '' Many, ^ both Indians and English prisoners, were starved to death:" — "and some eating their dogs and cats, died horribly ^ famished."
The peace of Ryswick hushed the voice of war, and gave promise of tranquility to the contending Sept. 11. nations. As the songs of peace began to be heard amid the wilds of the " Ancient Dominions of Maine," projected treaty engagements were renewed to quiet the remnants of the savage race. Public measures for assuring safety to the frontiers were not abated. Garrisons, stockade
1 Williamson's Hist. vol. i. p. 646, note.
2 Mather's Magnalia, p. 556.
218 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
forts, fortified houses constructed of massive timber, bullet- proof with flankers jutting from opposite angles, now rose in all the settled sections of the East, affording a tolerable asylum to the distressed inhabitants of the eastern frontier.
These fortified strong-holds, usually points of concentra- tion, had served to draw the attention of war parties away from the more common abodes, so that more of the farm houses than usual remained unconsumed. Many planters abandoned their possessions to the destroyer, and departed, no more to return. Desolation, decay, and solitude reigned over the half-opened clearings, which everywhere met the eye and saddened the prospect. Such were the vestiges of a conflict originating mainly in the revolutionary issues of a struggle between power and prelacy on the one hand, the sovereignty of the people and the rights of conscience on the other.
The partisans of the fugitive monarch were papists ; while those who supported the authority of William and Mary were protestants. Hence the zeal and cruelty of big- oted priests, and the frenzy and fanaticism that marked the progress of the war.
PIRACIES.
The Treaty of Brunswick ^ gave new promise
1699. of repose to Maine. Apprehensions of savage June 7. alarms gradually subsided, and gave fresh impulse
to those engaged in promoting the re-settlement of
Maine. ^ ra
Kid and Bradisli, wliose buccaneering had greatly
1700. disturbed the coast settlements, were now captured. Summoned before the Legislature in Boston to give
an account of his conduct. Kid was remanded to England
1 Annals of Warren, pp. 28—33.
2 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 31
"WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 219
for trial, where he was condemned and executed. Sum- mary proceedings relieved the eastern waters of these scourges of the sea.
The deep bays, bold headlands, and numerous harbors of the ancient dominions of Maine afforded peculiar facilities for freebooters, and a favorite resort, whose early visits yet linger in the traditions of our day, and have left impressions in the public mind, so deep that they are traced in the gen- erations past, whose successive explorations of the bowels of the earth in search of hid treasure mar our soil, and afford a clew to that mysterious movement in the popular mind which brings men from distant places to expend their time and toil in " money digging."
The bed of the Sheepscot, below the site of the ancient
New Dartmouth, for a whole summer was dragged and
drawn, in hope of raising one of Kid's chests of treasure,
by men who went down in submarine armor, a year or two since.
QUEEN ANNE's WAR.
William, the head of the House of Orange, by his decease prepared the way for the ascension of 1702. Anne, the daughter of James, and the sister of Mar. 8. Queen Mary. James II., the fugitive heir of the ho'^se of Stuart, was also dead. But a reputed sou of the deceased ex-monarch, known in English history as " the Pretender," aspired to the vacant seat of authority. The crown of France supported the pretension ; and to make good these pretensions, the dogs of war were again loosed on the defenseless frontiers of New England. Government had justly become alarmed at the malign influence of the clergy of the Romisli Church, almost entirely represented among the natives by French priests. A prominent object with Government was, the breaking down of this ghostly
220 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
power by separating the savage heart from the hold of his rehgious teacher.
These undisguised efforts to sunder the ties binding the shepherd to liis flock became a fruitful source of envyings, jealousies, and irritation.
Says Penliallow, "I asked one of their chief sachems wherefore it was that his people were so much bigoted to the French, considering their traffic with them was not so advantageous as witli the English." The savage gravely answered, " that the Friars taught them to pray, but the English never did'' I There was too much truth in this reply. The Indian had met the Englishman only to know him, and to suffer at his hands from his insatiable desire of gain and skill in the subtilities of trade. The Frenchman came to his pagan soul with the knowledge of his faith and of his God, and showed more zeal to gain his confidence and affection than to secure his furs.
The exuberance of a virgin soil, the value of the fisher- ies, the vast resources of mast and spar timber, still strongly attracted the returning tide of population.
Dudley's administration.
A commission from Queen Anne sent Dudley into Boston harbor, as head of the Government of Massachusetts Bay. The foundations of Fort William Henry remained unbroken. The walls were also entire. The entrenchments were per- fect. Governor Dudley proposed the rebuilding of the Pemaquid fortress. War between France and England had actually been renewed, in consequence, of the move- ments of the Pretender.
French ])ricsts, emissaries of Rome, became active and zealous fomenters of the strife, and excited, if they did not plan, a fierce border war. The colonial government was not idle. It actively endeavored to counteract the power and defeat the machinations of the French clergy and
WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 221
Popish missions. But the deep, dark storm-cloud still gathered ; and its distant mutterings waxed louder and louder, as the horizon darkened.
No measures of courtesy, no presents, nor the renewal of treaty obligations could avert the evil. 1703. The whites were not faultless in the agitating causes of the perils of the day. At Penobscot a party of lawless men visited and despoiled the residence of the Baron de Castine, while the Indians began their mischief on the waters of the Kennebec.
But the desolation of former wars had left the ancient dominions of Maine quite a wilderness. The paucity of its inhabitants may have been its best protection ; for excepting a skirmish or two on the Kennebec, no action of interest occurred. Major March, Church, and Col. Walton scoured the country, , and kept the enemy in a state of perpetual alarm, driving the savages to seek asylum in the deep inte- rior forests bordering on the St. Lawrence river.
DEATH OF AR-RU-HAWIK-WABEMT.
Col. Walton struck a severe blow at the enemy in Sagadahoc. He had made his bivouac, during a 1710. scout, on one of the islands of the Sagadahoc waters. His camp fires allured a company of savages, who had vis- ited the coast in search of food from the neighboring clam banks. Misled by appearances, the camp fires were taken for a lodge of their tribe. The Indians, approaching the camping grounds, fell into the power of Walton's troops ere their mistake was discovered.
The savages took to flight, but were surrounded, and their retreat cut off. Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of tho Norridgewocks, of undaunted spirit, active, bold, and reso- lute, together with his wife and family became prisoners of Walton. Tlie Indians had eluded all efforts of the scouts to discover their secret places of retreat. When questioned
222 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
as to the hiding places of his braves and friends, the bold chieftain answered not. When menaced with death for his contumacy, " a laugh of contempt^' was his only reply. He was inflexible, and at once was turned over into the hands of the savage allies of Walton for torture and death. Per- ceiving the perilous extremity to which her spouse was reduced, the affection of the wife triumphed over her patri- otism ; and to avert the impending fate of her husband, she discovered all she knew. It was, however, too late. The phantom of hope had cruelly mocked her love ! Ar-ru- hawik-wabemt was put to the torture, after the approved manner of the savage tastes ; and the blood and ashes of the Norridgewock brave were mingled with the soil, or poured out into the waters of Sagadahoc. m
The condition of the Indians was forlorn in the extreme. Cold, hunger, sickness, the battle-ax and scalping-knife, had wasted one-third ^ part of the aborigines of Maine. The old men had become weary of the war, and anxious for peace.
FALL OF NOVA SCOTIA.
The inhabitants of New England resolved to make the ■war offensive as well as defensive. Nova Scotia, as one of the most accessible points of French and Indian aggression, was singled out for conquest. Col. Nicholson, with an ade- quate naval and land force, had invested Port Royal, the capital of Nova Scotia, reduced the place, and captured the French armies ; and with the fall of its capital, Nova Scotia became an English province.
Hostilities between the crowns of England and 1713. France now ceased, and by the Treaty of Utrecht, Oct. 5. Acadia became henceforward a British possession.
1 Penhallow, p. 60.
WAR OP THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 223 RE-SETTLEMENT OP THE COUNTRY.
The success of the British arms had its effect on the sav- age mind, and tended to detach it from the interests of the French nation. Tiiis result would seem to have been consummated by the Treaty of Portsmouth. July 13. The public mind became assured of unwonted security, which contributed powerfully to the re-population and revival of the desolated homes of the ancient dominions of Maine. Sad was the picture of waste. " More than one hundred miles of sea-coast, once interspersed and adorned with flourishing settlements, improved estates, and comfort- able habitations, ^ now lay devastated." Title deeds, rec- ords, all were burnt or lost ; and so long a time had elapsed since the waste of many places, that the sites of the towns, clearings, and plantations had resumed the aspect of orig- inal solitudes.
To adjust conflicting titles and quiet claimants. Govern- ment created " a Committee of eastern claims and settle- ments.^^ It was recommended in the revival of the wasted towns, that the plan of concentration of population should be adopted. Hence twenty or thirty families were settled on three and four acre lots at the sea-side, with outlands to suit their desires. This village system of re-planting the desolate townships was a most fortunate expedient. Mutual aid, combination of strength for defense and in making pro- vision for public safety, by the erection of strong-holds, " Garrison houses," were all secured thereby. Government dictated the number as well as mode of settlements to be resumed, and designated the localities.
LOCALITIES.
The mouth of Sagadahoc, probably on the Shecpscot 1 Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 81.
224 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
shore, and Arrowsic Island, were the only points permitted to be re-occupied within our domain. John Watts 1714. of Boston, by marriage a grandson of Major Clark, in right of his wife a proprietor of the estate on Arrowsic, removed to this island ; and on the lower part, near a cove, raised a large brick house, and added flank- harts on which he mounted cannon. ^ The material was imported from Massachusetts ; the brick, it is said, from Medford. Land-holders and Government stimulated the return of the inhabitants and the increase of population, by affording facilities for return, and creating inducements thereto, in making provision for a perfect organization of society.
BUILDING OF AUGUSTA.
Georgetown was now resuscitated ; and the new town of Augusta, in the south-western corner of Phipsburg, at " Small Point," laid out. Here a great many fine buildings were erected, with several saw-mills. - George the I. had succeeded to the throne, and been proclaimed King of England ; and Samuel Shute and William Dummer were appointed to the Provincial Executive. In the published liistory of our State, the site of the ancient Augusta of Maine has been mislocated ; and the thrifty and vigorous namesake of our capital, about Small Point Harbor, has been entirely overlooked, and its reminiscences .buried under its ruins, now overgrown and nearly lost amid the decay of a century and a half. The ancient town of Augusta " was a project of the Pejejfscot proprietors." ^ Lots, sev- enty and one hundred feet wide, were surveyed and laid out, at Small Point Harbor. " A cart way was cut to the Sagadahock, opposite Arrowsic." " Dr. Noyes, one of the
1 Sewall's Hist. Bath. Me. H. Coll. p. 201.
2 Penhallow, p. 82.
3 Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 225
proprietors, seems to have been the principal director and patron of the settlement ;" ^ and a fishery, it is said, " was established by the ingenious Dr. Noyes, in which twenty vessels were employed at a time." ^ He built a gar- rison of stone at his own charge, the best in the 1716. East ; and which was maintained at the public expense. He also erected a convenient mansion house. Lots, for a church and a place of sepulture for the dead, were set apart for public use. The interest in the resusci- tation of the ancient settlements augmented daily ; and the tide of immigration flowed freely into the long abandoned wastes and wilds.
SPECULATION OF PROPRIETARY ASSOCIATIONS.
Edward Preble had now reared a home on the head of Arrowsic. For near a generation, the Sagadalioc, Pema- quid, and probably Sheepscot plantations had lain a waste, over whose early clearings wild hordes of savage men roamed in free and undisputed sovereignty, but which now " opened a wide field for speculation." ^ The sloop Pejep- scot regularly plied between Boston and the newly erected town at Small Point Harbor. " Vast quantities of pipe staves, boards, plank, and timber were exported to foreign ports as well as to Boston." Agriculture began to thrive, and a large stock of cattle to be raised. The fishery, ^ also, was revived, particularly in sturgeon, near Brunswick, which had been carried on nearly a century before by Thomas Purchase, and " many ^ thousand keg-g-s were cured for export every season^ Capt. John Penhallow and Dr. Noyes were residents of the town ; and to Mr. Mountfort,
1 Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick.
2 Penhallow, p. 82.
3 WilHamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 91.
4 J. McKeen, Esq.
5 Penhallow, p. 82.
15
220 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
was set off and assigned within that town two hundred and fifty acres of land " adjoining Dr. Noyes' Harbor ^ Farm."
EEBUILDING OP PEMAQUID.
An order was also passed to repair the fort and re-estab- lish the garrison at Pemaquid ; and the ancient dominions of Maine, embracing the whole eastern territory, were annexed to the county of which York was the capital, and the ancient Dukedom of the county of Cornwall, the early Devonshire of Massachusetts, all was now merged in the county of " Yorkshire." The curing and export of fish and lumber, the erection and running of saw-mills, gave employ- ment for labor and capital.
EMIGRATION FROM THE WEST.
The aspect of society was busy and thriftful ; and at this period emigrated from Salem to the margin of the Kenne- bec, the Halls, Jeremiah Springer, Nicholas Rideout, John Owen 2 and others ; and on each side of the road eight rods wide, opened from " Augusta Harbor," at Small Point, now so called, Edmund Mountfort was authorized by the propri- etors to lay out farms of '' ninety-five acres each." ^
ANCIENT REMAINS OF PHIPSBURG.
The Augusta of the ancients, embraced within the domain of the modern town of Phipsburg, adorned the margins of Casco Bay, near the mouth of New Meadows river.
Within the same territory, in the extreme east, nestled the first settled town in New England, the ancient " St. George " of Pophara's colony, where was laid the first keel and launched the first ship of New England ; and although
1 See Augusta Town Records, MSS.
2 MSS. letter to Noyes, from J. Clark. •3 Records of Town Meeting, Augusta.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 227
under the accumulated disasters of climate and savage hos- tilities, it sunk where it stood, yet, in a century more, the tliriftful Augusta arose in the west, to meet the same fate, and if possible, to sink into deeper oblivion.
" cambel's cellar."
There has been much doubt as to the site of Popham's town. The author, with an intelligent guide, explored the Peninsula of Hunnewell's Point to search for any remains of entrenched and ancient works that might be there found.
Hubbard ^ had written that an ancient mariner, then liv-. ing in those parts about Kennebec, heard an old Indian tell the story, that when he was a youth, " there was a fort built about Sagadahoc^ the ruins of which were then shoivn the relator, supposed to be that called St. George, in honor of Capt. George Popham, the President of the Company sent over in 1607." The ruins of Popham's town were trace- able then, seventy years after the fort had been destroyed. Popham's people begun " by entrenching and making a fort amd building a store house. ''^ On the margins of Atkins Bay, west side of the Peninsula of Hunnewell's Point, at the mouth of the river of Kennebec, in a swamp land sur- rounded by young cedars, a mile or more from and in the: line of " Horseketch Point," so called from its having been a catching place for the horses of the settlers, gone wild in the neighboring marshes in ancient time, the author discov- ered and traced the outlines of an ancient earth-work, enclosing a rectangular excavation fifty by forty feet. Tho outlines indicated that the place had been entrenched accord- ing to the forms of ancient Spanish strategic arts:, being surrounded with a ditch, its entrance protected by a circular bastion, and having a covered way to the water, where was a living fountain at the shore-side. Tradition of the neigh-
1 Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75.
228 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
borliood gives no definite and settled explanation of iiis extraordinary and ancient ruin, some calling it the reunins of the house of the " Old Indian-killer, Hunnewell,''^ and others calling it " Cambers cellar,^'' about either of whom nothing is known.
A more intelligent aged resident ^ during early boyhood had the place shown to him irj the aged people of that day as " the spot where the Indians had been persuaded to draw a cannon by its drag ropes, which was fired off by the Eng- lish, and killed many of them," and another, ^ eighty-six years of age, who had always been acquainted with the locality, said it was a strange place when he first saw it, having a covered way to the water, and surrounded with embankments, and that the old people of his childhood called it " Geo. Popham's Fort ; " and he had always heard of and known it as sucli. A sketch of the outline remains is given ; the encircling ditch being two hundred and thirty- five feet.
RESTLESSNESS OF THE NATIVES.
The rapid influx of white population to re-occupy 1717. the early clearings in a region so long depopulated ; the revivified towns, phoenix-like, fresh and thriftful springing up on every side from the ashes of a former gen- eration ; the forts and improvements of civilized life — ex- cited the fears and roused the slumbering jealousies of the natives.
Moreover a foreign, insidious, and designhig foe to Prot- estantism and the English race, moved by rancorous national and religious antipathies, the priesthood of Rome, became an element of fearful activity in the hearts of the savage hordes of Maine.
1 Dea. Hutchins of Phipsburg.
2 Greenlaw.
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OUTLINES OF AN EARTHAVORK ON EAST MARGINS OF ATKINS BAY, SUPPOSED LOCATION OF POPIIAM's FORT ST. GEORGE, MOUTH OF KENNEBEC, 1607.
No. 1. Bastion on north side.
No. 2. Outlines of Ditch.
No. 3. Central excavations of the enclosed work.
No. 4. Traces of covered way to the water.
No. 5. Traces of the drain.
A. Space between drain and covered way, sloping towards the shore.
B. Shores of Atkins Bay.
WAE OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 229
" French missionaries eagerly inflamed the prejudices of the savages, by telling them the English ^ had invaded their rights."
Added to these exciting circumstances, piracy again dis- turbed our waters. Favorite and secure retreats were found by these freebooters within the deep bays and creeks of our unfrequented shores.
PIRATE SHIP WIDAH.
Bellamy of the Widah, six of whose crew were taken and hung in Boston, " excited general and anxious ^ concern." Bellamy began his career with one confederate and two sloop-rigged vessels. From an unsuccessful search for the wrecked hulk of a Spanish ship, he turned to piracy. The galley-built ship Widah, Capt. Prince, homeward bound with a cargo of gold dust, elephants' teeth, and costly mer- chandise from India, was made the first prize. This ship was manned with one hundred and fifty men, and mounted with heavy guns, and at once put on the track of trade. On their cruise in the Gulf, a terrific storm overtook and almost submerged them. It was a Gulf tempest. The heavens lowered and flashed, while the storm-tossed deep reflected the vivid lightnings through a darkness that might be felt, accompanied by the most awfully crashing thunder.
BLASPHEMY OF BELLAMY.
In presumptiious defiance of Him whose voice the thun- der was, Bellamy shouted — "that the gods were at their cups ;" and added tliat he was sorry he could not run out his guns to answer back their thunder, by giving a salute" ! The ship survived the tempest only to be tossed on the shoals and buried in the sands of Cape Cod.
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 92.
2 Annals of Salem, p. 364.
230 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE,
BELLAMY AT MECHISSES.
When off this point, a vessel laden with wines was cap- tured. The sea-rover then put away for the coasts of Maine, touched near Pemaquid in search of a harbor of refuge, till reaching the " Me-chisses River," up which they ascend- ed some two and a half miles, where the Widah and her prize were moored by the shore. Huts were here con- structed, the captives from the prize ship were landed, and fortified works erected. By excavating the earth and roof- ing it over, a magazine was formed, to which the powder was removed by the prisoners, wlio were driven like slaves to their task. The ship's guns were landed and mounted. Here the " Widah" was careened, cleaned, and refitted for a cruise. After putting to sea again, she encountered a French ship of war of thirty-six guns ; and during a run- ning fight of two hours, the Widah, shattered and torn, with difficulty escaped.
SHIPWRECK AND DEATH OF BELLAMY.
In the flight, Bellamy espied a Boston bound vessel, of which he made a prize ; and ordering her captain to lead the way with a light by which the Widah should make her course, the ship's company gave themselves up to their cups, and the Boston skipper purposely ran his vessel among the shoals and sands of Cape Cod, while the pirate ship, follow- ing recklessly in her track, was decoyed among the break- ers, and precipitated upon the sand reefs, where she struck and was lost.
GEORGETOWN INCORPORATED.
But while such perils of the sea were dissipating in the West, more terrible dangers were gathering in tlie East. The ancient plantations were not yet entirely revived. At " Long Reach," the site of Bath, a Mr. Elkins ^ had erected
1 Sewall's Bath.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 231
a house, and Joseph Heath was his neighbor above ; and the territory now embracing Bath, Woolwich, and a section of Phipsburg was incorporated as Georgetown. The only dwelling houses on Arrowsic were those of the Watts ham- let and that of Mr. Preble on the upper end of the island opposite " Long Reach."
The dangers of savage hostilities increased. Government endeavored to allay the excitement by winning the confi- dence of the Indians, quieting their fears, and undermining their prejudices.
A conference was held. The aid of religious instruction and the power of the book of God was invoked.
CONFERENCE AT GEORGETOWN.
His Majesty's ship, the Squirrel, bearing his Excellency the Governor of Massacluisetts and his 1717. suite, sailed from Boston and anchored off the Aug. 9, lower end of Arrowsic, in the lower waters of Sag- adahoc, witliin the cove at the head of which Mr. Watts had erected his new brick house. Eight sagamores and chief- tains, headed by Moxus and Bomaseen, with many of their tribes, had gathered on a neighboring island, called " Pud- dlestone," (Padishall's ?) A vast tent was spread near the mansion of Mr. Watts, and the British flag hoisted, beneath which the conference was to be held.
A fleet of canoes, headed by one bearing the flag of Great Britain, at the appointed hour crossed over to the place of conference. Capt. John Gyles and Samuel Jordan had been designated as interpreters, and were publicly sworn by his Honor, Samuel Sewall, Esq., one of the Supreme Judges of the Province. Saluting the chiefs, and announcing tho object of the interview, " holding up a Bible, the Governor said that the great and only rule of life, faith, and worship is in this book, which is the word of God. This contains our holy religion, and we would gladly have you of tho
232 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
same religion with us ; therefore, we have agreed to be at the charge of a Protestant Missionary among you, who will reside here or hereabouts."
RESPONSE OF WI-WUR-NA.
"Wi-wur-na, a chieftain of the Kennebecks, then rose and replied that " he was to speak in the name of his people : — but would not be ready to answer his Excellency before to-morrow." An ox was given to the savages for dinner, and the conference adjourned. On the morrow the conference was resumed. Wi-wm--na appeared and said, — " We have considered what his Excellency said yesterday, and we speak first for love and unity ^'' which his people admired and believed to be pleasing to God ; and hoped his Excellency would endeavor to realize it. The Governor assured it, " if they were obedient to King George ^ Wiwurna answered, " We will be very obedient to the King, if we like his offers and if we are not molested in the improvement of our lands " .' " This place was formerly settled and is now set- tling at our request. We will embrace the English in our bosoms that come to settle on our lands." " They must not call it their land," retorted the Governor. Wiwurna re- sumed,— " We pray leave to proceed in our answer. We desire no further settlements be made. We shall not be able to hold them all in our bosom and to shelter them if bad weather and mischief be threatened. All people love their ministers ; and it would be strange if we should not love them that come from God. As to Bibles, we desire to be excused. Go^XiSi^ gwaw us teaching already J'^ The sav- ages then adroitly turned the conversation by adding, " we were sick yesterday to see the man-of-war ashore — so faint we could not speak out with strength. We are now glad the ship is well — shall be very glad when we have con- cluded, that your Excellency may have good winds and weather — get safe down the river and hoine."
WAR OF THE ENGLISH EEVOLUTION CONTINUED. 233 LETTER FROM RALLE.
In the course of the discussion, undisguised opposition was made to the construction of fortified works. " We should be pleased with King George," said Wiwurna, " if there never was a fort in the eastern parts J^ The natives yielded a reluctant consent " that the Eng-lish mig-ht occupy all they had before ; " and then in an abrupt and hasty manner, without the accustomed formalities of leave-taking, the Indians rose and withdrew, leaving the English flag behind thera. In the evening a letter was brought from Sebastian Rall^, their priest, in which the power of France was menaced, and the position of Wiwurna sustained.
DISGUST OP THE GOVERNOR.
The movements of the natives were now explained, but the letter was rejected with disdain by the Governor, who retired to the man-of-war — ordered the fore topsail loosed, and was about to put to sea, when a canoe with two natives put off from the island, hastened to the ship, apologized for the rudeness of yesterday, and sought a renewal of the negotiations. It was granted ; Wiwurna discarded, and the sachem of the Penobscots now led the conference, and spoke for the savages. Wiwurna of the Kennebecks did not appear at all.
Satisfactory explanations having been made, a treaty of peace and amity was concluded, presents exchanged, the articles signed, and the conference dissolved, the ratification of the treaty having been sealed in a " dance of peace," in presence of the Governor and suite.
BEGINNING OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY ISSUES.
The eastern forests of spar timber and oak were objects of interest with Government, and not less so 1718. to commerce. Since the earliest discovery and set- tlements on the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc waters — even
234 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
from the days of Witheredge, the spar-dealer of Pemaquid — the lumber-trade had been attractive. Tlie protection of the interests of the Crown in these forests had now become a cause of irritation between the representatives of the Royal authorities and the people. The hardy pioneer, the rough backwoodsman, often proved more than a match for the King's surveyor.
Bridger, commissioned as the Royal surveyor of the King's forests, had been sent out with Lord Bellamont, twenty years before this date, accompanied with Royal naval com- missioners, to investigate tlie capacity of the country for tlie production of naval stores. The idea of extensive and prof- italde culture of hemp and flax for cordage and duck, and the running of tar and turpentine, had widely obtained.
Bridger liad these interests in charge ; and the property in the white pine trees of Maine became at once an occasion of deep and lasting differences between the struggles of power and privilege in Royal prerogative, and popular rights.
The reservation of all pines for tlie use of the Crown, of given dimensions, under severe penal prohibitions, was fre- quently set at naught. The pine trees were often felled and cut up into twenty-foot logs for boards, despite the offi- cers of the crown and the guardian presence of the capital R. Tliese acts brought the Crown officers and the lumber- men into frequent collision ; and as will hereafter appear, initiated a controversy which finally overcame the prestige of Royal prerogative.
Desolation had possessed the whole region. At 1719. this time, between Georgetown and Annapolis in the remote East, it is affirmed there was not a house left, except a fish house on Damariscove Island : ^ a statement we can hardly credit as entirely correct. But the inflowing population soon spread itself over the waste places. At
1 Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 97.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 235
Damariscotta Falls, Michael Thomas, tenant of Christopher Tappan, re-occupied the planting grounds of Walter Phil- ips, and there was no other resident there save the Indians, who, drawn to this spot by recollections of the past, or the traditions of their race, loved to linger where the ashes of their fathers reposed.
Richard Pierce, William Hilton, and John Brown, Jr., returned to the ancient plantations of Broad Cove in Bris- tol, Muscongus, and New Harbor. ^ Many natives at this period visited at Thomas's house, which stood on the point a little below the lower falls of the Damariscotta, among whom was Ne-wor-met and a very aged squaw, ^ who said she formerly lived at this place, and that her husband was the son of him who sold the land.
Hilton had greatly enlarged and improved his settlement ; and in the then remote eastern frontier settlement on George's River, near the residence of the Revolutionary hero. Gen. Knox, parties interested in the Muscongus patent erected block houses of great strength, and built a covered way to the river. The space between these structures of massive timber was enclosed in palisadoes. A double saw mill was put up, and about thirty dwelling houses. A sloop was there owned, with other coasting vessels, and many laboring men were employed. Such was the aspect and condition of the nucleus of the thriving and important town of Thomaston.
During the process of laying out the Thomaston hamlet, the Indians daily resorted to the scene of labor in large numbers, and by various stratagems, with menaces of vio- lence, sought to deter and discourage the workmen from clearing the lands and the rearing of dwelling houses. In consequence of these demonstrations, cannon were mounted,
1 Eaton's Annals, p. 82.
2 Lincoln Commis. Reports.
236 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
and a detachment of twenty men under Col. Thomas West- brook was assigned to the defense of the place.
At the elbow formed by an abrupt curve of the St. George's River to the westward, at the head of ship naviga- tion, was the site of the newly out-laid town and its fortifi- cations, now in command of Westbrook, a Scarboro' mast- shipper. ^ Near Swan Island, on the west bank of the Ken- nebec River, was made another fortified clearing called Fort Richmond, which became the nucleus of the thriving village of the same name, which to this day is noted for tlie enter- prise of its inlial)itants as a ship-building community.
SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION.
The Politico-Religious agitation consequent upon 1720. the accession of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain had excited popular and civil commo- tion in that country, which injected a new element into the re-peopling tide which now flowed in from England to fill up the Ancient Dominions of Elaine.
An exodus of Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland reached our shores. Robert Temple was the patron of the new movement. Himself from the north of Ireland, Col. Temple, - late an ofhccr in the Irish army, three years before this date, chartered a shij) lying at Plymouth, commanded by James Luzmore of Tops ham, England ; and M'ith his domestic retinue, had landed in Boston. He came seeking a new home. Immediately on his debarkation, he explored the Connecticut valley, and then, at the instance of Dr. Noyes, Col. Winthrop, and Minot, he sailed for the Kenne- bec. Pleased with the result of his observations here, he took an interest in the Lawson purchase ; and near " Whis-
i Hist. Scarboro', p. 227.
2 Hutcliinson. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 98. Controversy Plymouth and Pejepscot Proprietors, p. 21.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 237
geag," liG laid out an estate. It was the site of the ancient "Whisby" plantation^ of King Philip's times. Here he erected a new town, and called it Cork. He now chartered three ships, and laded them with the children of the Kirk of Scotland, and steering for New England, planted several hundred colonists of the Scotch-Irish on the Kennebec ; and the Cork of Maine flourished in rivalry with that of the Emerald Isle across the Atlantic. Robert Temple, in the colonization of Scotch-Irish emigrants at " Merry Meeting," introduced a most eventful and auspicious era in the final re-peopling of this section of Maine. Temple's movements on the Kennebec in the West laid the foundations or initia- ted the beginnings of the far more extensive and successful policy of Gov. Dunbar, ten years subsequently, in the East. The plantation of Temple at Whisgeag, undoubtedly, in accordance with the custom and policy of the times, in those days of surprise and peril, had its garrison — the cas- tle of the town — erected and occupied by the Patron of the colony himself ; and the location of the colonial Cork plan- tation, by the old residents of " Long Reach" is recognized to this day by the familiar name of " Ireland ; " and the original settlers were never entirely dispersed, as prominent names in the city of Bath now well attest.
EFFECTS OF THE INCREASE OF POPULATION.
The restlessness of the savages at the influx of population and the advance of fortified places and new settlements within their domain on the Kennebec and beyond Pemaquid — the ancient limits of eastern colonization — began to make demonstrations of violence.
LORON's REMONSTRANCE.
The savages claimed the land as their own, and viewed the white settlers as intruders. " We desire," said Loron,
1 Narrative of James Gyles.
238 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
" that no houses or settlements be made to the eastward of Pemaquid, or above Arrowsic ; that the houses at St. George shoukl be removed to Pemaquid ; and that at Richmond, to Arrowsic ; and that both be converted into trading houses." " We don't remember of any settlements at St. George," continued he. " We remember a pretty while ; and as long as we remember, the place where the garrison stands was filled with great long grown trees." ^
But the reasoning of Loron was of no avail. The hand of enterprise clutched at more, as the foot of civilization and the tread of power advanced steadily on.
The Romish Church fostered the discontent by the influ- ence and suggestions of French priests. Their emissaries fanned the smothered fires of resentment in the savage heart.
At Norridgewock the hatchet was dug up, and tlic Indians sung the song of war. The tide of re-settlement was stayed. Alarm and despondency succeeded. Cattle were killed and property devastated.
SATISFACTION DEMANDED.
Col. Walton, with Captains Moody, Harmon, Penhallow, and Wainwright, were dispatched to the chiefs to demand reparation for the mischief done. It was promised ; and in the latter part of July ninety canoes gatliered in the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, at Puddlestone's ( Padishall's ? ) island opposite Arrowsic, and demanded an interview with Penhallow, commandant at Arrowsic.
One hundred and fifty Indians, headed by Delachass^, Rall^, Castine, and others, landed on Arrowsic, bearing a missive to the Governor of Massachusetts, notifying him *' that three weeks were allowed the settlers to remove and
1 M. Hist. Coll. vol. iii.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 239
quit their lands, or suffer the loss of their cattle, the destruc- tion of their dwellings, and the sacrifice of their lives.^'
Castine was seized, sent to Boston, and at the bar of the Supreme Court interrogated and acquitted. It v/as resolved to seize also Sebastian Ralld, and have him too, in Boston " a prisoner or a corpse."
NORRIDGEWOCK EXPEDITION.
Col. Westbrook was detached with his command to attack Norridgewock and secure the person of Father Ralle. He readied the settlement undiscovered, but ere his command could surround his house, Ralle made good his escape, leav- ing behind his books and papers, which fell into the hands of the invaders. These gave ample proof, it is said, of the treacherous and dangerous influence of the man, whose power over the savage mind was little short of superhuman.
DEVASTATION OF MERRY MEETING.
In June twenty canoes bearing sixty braves shot across the waters of Merry Meeting Bay, and lit up 1722. its margins with the burning homes of nine families. A portion of the captured were released, but Hamilton, iiove, Handson, Trescot, and Edgar were taken prisoners to Canada.
DAMARISCOTTA LAID WASTE.
Another war-party appeared on Walpole heights. The home of the Hustons was destroyed. The mother * and daughter were slain, and the father dragged into captivity. On the Newcastle side, near the seat of the Hon. E. Farley, Mrs. Gray and six children were cut off. At Muscongus and Broad Cove in Bristol, Wm. Hilton was killed, while
1 Penhallow's Indian Wars, p. 84. Lincoln Co. Commis. Reports, Hus- ton's Depo. p. 151.
240 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
John Pearce took a vessel and thirty men with his aged father and family, and thus escaped by water.
Dr. Kenelem Winslow was seized at his garrison, on the Newcastle margin of Damariscotta, taken to Loud's Island near Round Pond, and there cruelly put to death.
The ancient Walter Philips plantation was now a second time reduced to a state of solitude and desolation.
ST. George's assailed.
Tlic Indians now appeared before the hamlet June 15. on St. George's River, two hundred strong. The saw mills were fired. The newly-framed houses and the proprietors' sloop were all burned together. One man was killed and six made prisoners. The assault on the garrison, however, was repelled. Three months after, a yet larger force, with an attendant priest and Frenchmen, re- newed the attack. Five men were surprised and slain. Twelve days and nights the place was stormed, during which a surrender was urged and rejected. " Good quarter and transportation to Boston" were otfcred the besieged. The overtures could not induce a surrender. Maddened with taunts of defiance, an attempt to undermine the fort was made. Heavy rains had softened the earthy walls of the excavation, which caved in, and the savages, disheartened, retired, leaving twenty of their number behind, the victims of their discomfiture.
tilton's adventures at damariscove.
Lieut. Tilton had anchored his fishing boat under Damar- iscove, where he and his brother were taking fish. Led by a Kennebec sagamore, Capt. Samuel, the friend of Boma- seen, a savage of great bravery and duplicity, five Indians boarded Tilton, seized, pinioned, and beat both him and his brother most barbarously. Under this savage castigation, one of the brothers freeing himself, released the other, and
WAE OF THE ENGLISH EEVOLUTION CONTINUED. 241
together they fell on the savage band with the fury of des- peration, mortally wounded two, and tossed overboard another. The rest were glad to escape. Capt. Harmo^i with his company, from the lower waters of the Kennebec, made an expedition up the river. It was a night excursion. Descrying the light of camp fires on shore, Harmon turned his prow toward it. When landed he found eleven canoes moored to the bank.
Wearied with their carousal, and satiated with the bloody orgies of recent successes, before him lay the dark forms of the savages about their camp fires, fast locked in deep sleep. Over the bodies of the sleepers he stumbled as he dispatched them together to that land whose dread silence knows no waking. A considerable party lay near, which, roused by the startling death-cry of their comrades, rushed to arms, but firing random shots, fled.
A SCENE OF HORROR.
*
Fifteen guns were taken by the victors ; and on the stunip of a tree, near the place of the savage bivouac, lay a white man's hand, severed from his trunk, his body, barbarously mutilated — the tongue torn out — the privates cut off — and without the nose ! These were the remains of Moses Eaton of Salisbury.
PUBLIC EXASPERATION.
All were panic-stricken at these outrages, and the clamor for war rang fiercely from hamlet to hamlet. War was declared. A thousand men were enrolled, and three hund- red were detached to break up the enemy's strong-holds on the Penobscot ; and a body of four hundred were sent to range perpetually by land and water between Penobscot and Kennebec. Bounties were offered by Government for In- dian scalps and captives. Cols. Westbrook and Walton, were chief in command.
16
242 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
BATTLE OF ARROWSIC.
Peiihallow's command occupied the lower end Sept. 10. of Arrowsic, probably the Watts settlement at Butler's Cove. At the dawn of morning light, a small escort was sent out to aid and protect the farmers in securing their crops. This escort came by surprise on a body of four or five hundred Indians, which had stealthily approached and lay in the woods, prowling about the village to surprise and destroy it.
Finding the discovery to be inevitable, the savages fired on the scout as it retreated to the fort. One fell dead, and three were wounded ; but the report of their fire-arms alarmed the entire settlement. The inhabitants, not yet scattered in their fields, hastily, gathered their subsistence, and fled into garrison. The Indians raised the usual whoop of war, and pursued. As they approached witliin range of vision, their appearance, gliding among the tall surrounding forest pines, painted, and terrible in the trappings of savage array, was truly terrific.
GARRISt)N STORMED.
The whole savage host at once assailed the garrison at every point. Through one of the port-holes, Samuel Brook- ing was shot dead. The assault was unsuccessful. No impression could be made on the garrison, which effectually shielded the defenders from the storm of shot and balls poured upon it. Discouraged, the Indians wreaked their wengeance on the cattle of the island, and set fire to the vvillage of twenty-six houses.
During the night ensuing. Col. Walton and Capt. Harmon in whale-boats re-enforced the garrison with thirty men. Col. Robert Temple also joined his force to that of Pcnhal- low. Temple, from his service as captain in the Irish army, had acquired an experience which showed him to be on this
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 243
occasion brave, prompt, and efficient. Tlie report of the morning tiglit, or the alarm of Penhallow's guns below, had reached his ears, in the garrison plantation of Cork above, and drew him to the aid of Penhallow. Temple and Pen- hallow, making up a force of seventy men, led out a night attack. They assailed the savage hordes at their camp fires. But greatly out-numbered and out-flanked, and likely to be cut off from retreat by environing hosts of sav- ages, Temple and Penhallow retired from the conflict ; and the Indians took to their canoes in the darkness of the night, apparently satisfied with what they had already received.
As they paddled away. Captain Stratton of the Govern- ment sloop fell into their hands, and was mortally wounded. Insulting the garrison at Richmond in their passage up the Kennebec, the Indians returned to their head-quarters at Norridgewock ; and Georgetown, after six years resuscitated thrift, was once more desolated, and the region filled with dismay and despondency.
WESTBROOK's EXPEDITION.
Col. Westbrook, appointed commander-in-chief, now detached a body of two hundred and thirty men, 1723. who, embarking at Kennebec, ranged the coast east- ward, and penetrated the upper Penobscot by water and land- till he reached the principal Indian settlement, a village of twenty-three houses, enclosed with a stockade, and orna- mented with a chapel, all of which being abandoned, he committed to the flames. Col. Westbrook returned to the fort at St. George's with the loss of his chaplain, Rev. Benj. Gibson, and three of his command.
Capt. Harmon led another detachment up the Kennebec against Norridgewock, numbering one hundred and twenty men. Encountering the fierce snows and frosts of Febru- ary in their march through the wilderness of the Great-bend of the Androscoggin, an abandonment of the expedition was forced.
244 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Many discouragements overwhelmed this devoted section, consequent on the ill-success of the military operations. "No settlement, no vessel at anchor, no dwelling-house" escaped assault or destruction.
ST. GEORGE ATTACKED.
Fort George again was invested. Two prisoners were secured, and the place subjected to a siege of thirty days, without any successful result. Kennedy commanded, and repelled the invading force till relieved by Col. Westbrook's return.
BATTLE OF GEORGE'S RIVER.
Josiah TVinslow, a native of Plymouth, a graduate
1724. of Harvard College, yet a youth, and connected with
May, the most respectable families of Massachusetts, had
been assigned to the command of the fort on George's
River, at the site of Tliomaston.
One pleasant morning, early in ^lay, invited by the fresh- ness and beauty of Spring-time, with a select company in two whale-boats, Capt. Winslow embarked for an excursion to the islands, a favorite haunt with the savages for taking fowls, probably at the mouth of the river, called " the green islands." The party concealed themselves and their boats during the night and the succeeding day of their arrival, in expectation of an approach of the enemy. Shortly before the setting of the sun, disappointed in meeting the savages, as anticipated, the party re-embarked for a return to tlie fort.
It would seem that the enemy had discovered the boat party, and had placed considerable numbers in ambush, on each shore of the narrow river. As the boats rowed leis- urely up the river, homeward bound, unsuspicious of evil, a flock of water-fowl drew the fire of one of the company. Contrary to the counsel of Winslow, who was in advance,
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 245
Sergeant Harvey, in command of the rear boat, giving no heed to the warnings of his superior, " to keep close to him," turned in pursuit of the wounded bird, saying, — " Go easy on your oars, and I will presently be up with you." In pursuit of the poor bird, struggling for life in the despera- tion of its flight, the party were drawn toward the western bank of the river, when from copse-wood and thicket fire was opened on the boat by a body of savages there in con- cealment. Three of the crew fell dead, and the savages, hasting to their canoes, attempted to surround the party and cut off all retreat.
Harvey returned the fire ; but to escape overpowering numbers, the boat made with all expedition for the shore on the opposite side. Harvey had fallen. Winslow, alarmed and warned by the frequent discharge of musketry that his forebodings had been realized, although considerably in advance and out of peril, turned back to succor his men. Before he had reached a position to relieve the devoted band in his rear boat, now contending for their lives, he was him- self suddenly surrounded by a flotilla of thirty canoes with ninety braves, who rushed in upon him from each bank of the river, heralded by terrific yells of defiance, and attempt- ed to seize the boat and capture the men. The savages had approached very near when a sudden and murderous fire from the boats sent its death-flashes on all sides to greet them. Nothing daunted, the savage host pressed ouAvard till from the gunwales of the whale-boat they were so fiercely repulsed and beaten off with clubbed muskets that they retired and dropped astern, maintaining the fight at a distance. The first boat in the fight, but the rear boat of , the detaclunent, had reached the shore, wlien, encountering another party of savages as the shattered fragment of the boat's company landed, and selling their lives as dearly as possible, every soul was slain except three Christian Indians, who alone escaped to tell the tale !
246 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
CAPT. WINSLOW'S DEATH.
Thus the recklessness of the gallant Harvey cost the lives of himself and comrades. Winslow, perceiving the case to be desperate, fovight with a resolution death itself could not damp. In admiration of his courage and bravery, the sav- age foe offered him quarter, but rejecting all overtures, he fought on till night drew her somber shadows over the scene of carnage. In the dusk of evening, most of his company being slain, Winslow sought the shore, wliere tlie survivors landed, only to be shot down in detail. Capt. Winslow fell ■with his thigh broken to tlie ground ; on seeing the hero thus disabled, the Indians rushed on him, when rising from the ground and recovering himself on the other knee, the dying Winslow brought the foremost of his savage pursuers to the dust before they could slay him. Thus every white man fell in this bloody encounter, a gallant band whose heroism deserved a better fate. The brave Winslow was thus cut off, heroically faithful to his trust at the head of his intrepid men, against feai'ful odds disputing every inch of ground, and holding at bay till dark the ferocious savage horde. He fell greatly beloved, universally lamented, accomplished and brave, in the first buddings of his opening manhood ; and it has never been known whether the bodies of that gallant band were given sepulture, or left to be devoured of beasts of prey. It is, however, more than probable that their bones bleached in the sun where their blood was shed to mingle in the dust of mother earth, or tinge the briny tide of the St. George, till they were covered with autumnal leaves or buried beneath the oozy bed of the river, there to wait the gathering of the resurrection morn- ing. What alternations of hope and fear, what deeds of personal valor, what incidents of startling interest, did the eleventh of May weave into the closing scene of the history of fifty human beings who began that morning with bright hopes and joyous anticipations ! The records of Eternity
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 247
can only reveal in full and melancholy detail, the blood- stained colorings of the tragic end of the youthful Winslow and his brave conn-ades, under the hoary oaks and pines of the St. George River, — where naught now but,
" The winds that through the vernal showers,
Or autumn's leafless branches moan, Pass sif^hing o'er their place of rest,
To all surviving friends unknown."
SAVAGE FIRE-SHIPS.
Fully determined to destroy the fort, a party of savages passed up the river, and seizing and packing small vessels with combustible matter, they ignited the mass, converting them into lire-ships, and urged the burning pile forward so near as to endanger the block-houses. Untiring vigilance and exertion prevented the catastrophe, defeated the sav- age purposes, and thus discouraged from further attempts, all withdrew.
ARROWSIC AGAIN INVESTED.
The garrison at Butler's Cove on Arrowsic, still com- manded by Penliallow, was again assailed, but with no better success. The discomfited savages retired, securing three of the settlers, who were taken while driving their cows to pasture. Deserting the Island, they left the tokens oi their vengeance behind them, in tlie carcasses of the butchered herds, every where slain in their way. Thus foiled in their movements on the land, the Indians turned toward the sea. Gathering a fleet of fifty canoes, they steered for Monhegan. The fishermen who had put in for wood and water along the coast, were captured. Eight vessels and forty men, twenty of whom were slain, fell into their hands.
Fourteen vessels subsequently were taken, and the savages became at once a scourge and terror to all who went down to the sea to do business on the great waters.
248 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
To repel this new mode of warfare, so unusual in Indian tactics, Jackson and Lakeman fitted out an expedition to meet the enemy at sea. No considerable result followed. Jackson was wounded ; and the Indians driven into Penob- scot Bay, sought shelter under the Fort of the Baron de Castine, on the heights of Bagaduce. But the sea was no field for the skill or policy of the Indians, in war, who soon tired of so toilsome and perilous a scene of warlike adven- ture.
BATTLE OF NORRIDGEWOCK.
It had been ascertained beyond reasonable doubt that Romish and priestly influence was the chief exciting cause of savage hostilities, and that Father Rall^, the spiritual teacher of the Norridgewocks, had become a conspicuous and active agent in fomenting the strife.
Norridgewock was therefore marked for destruction ; and Ralld, the missionary, had become an object of public detest- ation to the English, though esteemed for his zeal and learn- ing by the distinguished men of his own nation, and vener- ated and loved by his charge, whose rights and interests he seemed to have at heart.
To effect the destruction of Norridgewock and the capture of Ralld, and to chastise the savages on the Kennebec, Captains Harmon, Moulton, Brown, and Bene were sent with two hundred men and seventeen whale-boats, up the Kennebec.
DEATH OF BOMASEEN.
Bomaseen, the Sachem of the Kannabas, whose hands still reeked with the warm blood of a victim to his scalping knife, near to Brunswick, was met by this force. Taking to the water to elude his pursuers, he was shot, and sank beneath the tide, where it was empurpled with his blood. His daugh- ter, too, shared her father's fate under the aim of the sharp-
WAR OP THE ENGLISH REYOLUTION CONTINUED. 249
sliooting white man, while the mother and wife was made a captive.
Encouraged by her story to prosecute their design, the detachment now debarked, and marched^ for Norridgewock.
Approaching the place of their destination, the force divid- ed within two mile« of the village, the one part to range the fields of growing corn, and the other to invest the town.
DEATH OF FATHER RALLE.
The several squadrons had reached within pistol shot before it was known at the village. A sanap, yielding to the necessities of nature, had come alone out of his wigwam, and made the first discovery of the presence of the invading force, whose whoop, as he sprang in for his gun, gave the alarm. But the soldiery had environed the village, and were yet concealed from view.
Surprise and consternation seized the residents of this for- est-embosomed town of half-christianized men. In the panic many seized their weapons of war, whose random firing did no execution. Others fled only to fall on the bayonets of ambushed white men, and many plunged into the waters of the Kennebec only to perish there ; and some took to their birchen boats to be precipitated over the falls below. The rout was terrible and complete. The body of Rall^, covered with the corpses of his fallen flock, was found near the cross in the center of the town, pierced with bullets, his scalp torn*^ off, his skull broken in, his mouth and eyes filled with mud, and his limbs fractured.
The village, the church, all were consigned to the flames. It was a stroke as terrible as it was unexpected ; and it broke the hearts of the Kannabas tribe of Indians. The ])ride of their power and their spirit as a people were subdued for- ever.
1 Penhallow, p. 105.
2 French account, Charlevoix, p. 120.
250 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The body of ^ Rall6 was buried in the ashes of his church by his converts ou their return to their war-blasted homes.
EFFECTS OF LOVEWELL'S WAR.
The heroic and desperate encounter between Love- 1725. well, Paugus, and Wahwa, at the mouth of Battle May 8. Brook, near Pegwacket Tillage, on the margin of Lovewell's Pond, in Fryeburg, completed the deso- lation of the tribe of the Sekokis, who were left in much the same condition as the Kannabas, after the death of Ralle and the sacking of Norridgewock.
The natives became anxioiis for peace. To palliate recent violent acts on their part, " the encroachments of the ivhites upon their lands at Cape-neiva^en, where two of their friends had been beaten to death" were the causes alleged. Doubt- less, allusion was had 'to the affair of Capt. Tilton, off Dam- ariscove.
But these successes only increased the exasperation of the whites ; and it became so deep, that not unfrequently acts of gross outrage and wrong were perpetrated.
A small band of Indians repaired to St. George's under a flag of truce. A scouting party fell on them, and a sharp engagement followed, in which one white man was killed and another was wounded.
1 " Father Ralle was regarded by the English as a most infamous villain, and liis scalp would have been esteemed worth a hundred scalps of the Indians.
The French esteem him as a hero and a saint. Forty years he spent in
missionary toil and deprivation among the savages who loved and idolized him.
Up, was a man of superior natural powers, master of the learned lan- guages— pure classical and elegant in his Latin. lie tati'j;ht many of both eexes to write in their own tongue among his flock ; and in zeal, learning, and ability, might have ranked with Cotton, Mitchel, and others." — Hutch. Hist. Mass. vol. it. p. 239.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 251 SAMUEL TRASK'S ADVENTURES.
Samuel Trask, when a boy, had been stolen from Salem by the Indians, and an appropriation for the purchase of his redemption was made by vote of the town. As no traces of him could be discovered, the money was applied to the pur- chase of a bell.
But Trask was a captive among the eastern Indians, and resided near the abode of the Baron de Castiue on the Pe- nobscot. "While a captive, a season of great scarcity occur- red, which drove the Indians to the cranberry beds for sub- sistence. While engaged in gathering cranberries, a flock of wild geese alighted, to feed near by. The birds were eagerly souglit for food, and Trask ^ proving more success- ful in the capture of the birds than the natives, it com- mended him to his master's favor as a skillful huntsman. This skill and his seamanship brouglit him into the notice of Castine, who purchased him of his captors, and employed him on board his sloop. Lying at anchor off the southeast point of Sedgewick, an English sloop ran in and fired on Castine, who, deserting his vessel, fled with Trask and a native lad to the shore.
But the English commander ran up a white flag inviting and assuring Castine a safe return. Duped by the false pre- tences, Castine and the lad returned to their vessel. But Trask was seized by the Englishman, who declared the ves- sel a prize and Castine a prisoner, but permitted as a special favor his return to his people. Castine landed, leaving his property to the English freebooter. On being pursued by an English sailor, who seized the native boy, Castine shot him dead, rescued the lad and escaped.
The buccanier sloop set sail, with Trask, and departed. From this craft he was transferred to the companionship of Captain Kid, with whom he had been accustomed to visit the
1 R. Sewall's Narrative.
252 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Slieepscot and cut ^ spars from the head-laud on the north shore of Oven's Mouth, and who often careened his ships within the deep creeks and coves of this river. On the cap- ture of Kid, and the dispersion of his crew, Trask retired to his haunts on the Sheepscot, and made his clearing within eye-shot of an alleged deposit of Kid's treasure on the east margin of FoUey Island, within the precincts of the early " Free-town," now incorporated as Edgecomb.
His experience among the Indians gave him celebrity as one skilled in the curative art ; and hence he was recognized among the early settlers of Free-town, as Dr. Trask. But he had acquired a relish for strong drink ; and an early set- tler of Free-town, Cunningham by name, whose tippling-shed Trask frequented, wormed out of the old man, while in his cups, the secret of the " pot of money ; " and it is asserted on good authority, as coming from an eye-witness, that under cover of night, lighted by the moon-beams, the " seller of grog" visited Folley Island in a canoe, and forestalled Trask, by digging up and securing the buried gold.
DAMARISCOVE ATTACKED.
"While peace was sought by most, occasional mischief was perpetrated by roving bands of savages.
As Stephen Hunwell- and Alex. Soaper lay in the haven of Damariscove, a war-party paddled to sea, and there seized their vessels and burned them, and made prisoners of the ship's company. These unfortunate fishermen were taken into the Kennebec ; and at Winnegance were put to death in cold-blooded barbarities, olfered pi'obably in sacrifice to the manes of slaughtered clansmen, as faggots to the fires which lighted the dance of victory, or set as marks to the flying tomahawk and life-drinking scalping knife.
1 Hon. S. Parsons.
2 Penhallow's Indian Wars.
war of the english revolution continued. 253 dummer's peace.
These atrocities were preludes to tlie celebrated pacific overtures of Lieut. Gov. Dummer, which had so long been maturing, and were completed in " Dummer's Treaty," rat- ified at Falmouth. This celebrated treaty gave hope of enduring repose to this distracted and desolate sec- tion, in whose bonds the leading chiefs from Penob- 1727. scot to Canada joined, and which was confirmed Aug. 3. by a solemn dance of peace, in which all Uie most sacred tokens of savage faith were plighted.
EFFECTS OF THE WAR.
If the savages had been great sufferers, the damage they had done to the reviving settlements of the " Ancient Dominions " was enormous. Georgetown had been made deeply to drink of affliction. Openings in the forest wilds that had begun to bud with promise of civilization, and become attractive as centers of business, were blasted for- ever.
The town of Augusta at Small Point Harbor with its fortified works of stone, projected, fostered, and built up by Dr. Noyes, had been utterly depopulated ; the houses with the fort were all destroyed and burnt ; ^ and although an attempt was subsequently made to revive and rebuild the place by the Rideouts, Hales, Springers, Owens, and others from Falmouth, it failed.
At the military posts, according to treaty, stores with goods supplied by Government in charge of its own agent, termed a/' Truck-master," were opened for trade, where, in exchange for peltries and furs, the Indians could obtain the commodities of civilized life.
TRUCK-HOUSES.
These public establishments greatly facilitated the inter- course of Government with the savages, and fostered the
1 John McKeen, Esq.
254 ANCIENT DOxMINIONS OF MAINE.
measures of peaceful repose to the couiitiy. The action of Govenimeiit in these premises greatly interfered with the operations of speculators, who had battened on ill-gotten, gains as " Indian traders ; " and who resorted to every device to elude responsibility and prosecute illicit traffic.
dagget's castle,
A precipitous steep on the western banks of the Sheepscot still bears the name of " Dagget's Castle," marking the point where an " Indian trader " or sea-rover was accus- tomed to moor his sloop, and beat up " truck " with the savages. " Dagget's Castle " is nearly a perpendicular wall of granitic gneiss, whose face rises more than a hundred feet above the surface of the waters, about whose base the channel of the river winds and curls in eddying tides. Moored in one of these deep tide pools, to this lofty steep, the savage could only approach on one side in his fragile birchen canoe ; and out of it with imstcady foot-hold on the capricious bottom, swayed to and fro by the sweeping cur- rents, carry on trade. Thus protected in his sloop l)y the towering cliff-side, "Dagget" called it liis castle; and at the top of his sloop's mast is said to ^ liave painted his hand as a sig-n on the face of the rock. From the summit of this lofty steep, it is also said tliat spars and mast timber liave been cut ; and in the fall of the mighty trees, as they broke from the stump on the brow of these giddy height?, tliey were accustomed to make a clean leap into the w.'ltery depths below, where, till a late day, submerged and fastened in the oozy bottom by their tops, the butts have iippeared swaying in the tide.
DUCK-HUNTING.
Other traditional incidents, explanatory of familiar local names and points of interest, are given on the same author-
1 Hon. S. Parsons.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 255
ity. An ancient planter on " Jewonke IJ^eck," wlio had been often a captive, and well understood the native dialect, both of the Penobscot and Kennebec tribes, said the aborig- inal name of the Sheepscot signified '•' many duck waters," which taken with the fact given by Peuhallow ^ of the immense multitude of this fowl there hunted and slain with billets of wood and canoe paddles according to an annual custom, renders the appellation exceedingly appropriate to the ancient waters of the Sheepscot as a haunt for the wild duck, where were favorite feeding grounds for their young.
HOCK-OMOCK.
" Hockomock Head," which thrusts its bold steeps and rears its rocky cliffs amid the waters of the bay, whose east- ern and western outlets are through lower and upper " hurl- gate," by the inland passage between the Sheepscot and Kennebec, took its name from the following circumstance, as given on the authority of the ancient men who lived and died near the spot about a century and a half ago.
At the head of the bay formed by " Phips' Point " on the east and Hockomock Neck on the west, in the southeastern corner of the present town of Woolwich, was early built a settlement or hamlet of the first planters and probably the artisans in Phips' shij>yard. Among the first indica- tions of hostility, the visit of a war party to this hamlet, which they subsequently plundered and burned, alarmed the residents, who, seeking the strong-holds of this precip- itous promontory among its cliffs and steeps, in flying over the neck, were pursued by the savages. A Scotchman, less fleet of foot than his fellows from age or corpulence, his head protected with a wig of antique size and fashion, brought up the lagging rear, and soon fell within grasp of the pursuing red-man, whose outstretched hand laid hold
1 Penhallow, p. 84.
256 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
on the flowing wig for a head of hair which promised a magnificent trophy to the scalping knife.
But, to the surprise and consternation of the savage, the '■'■ periling ^^ clave to his hold, while the apparently headless body still ran on, leaping from steep to steep, utterly indif- ferent to what had been left behind. The astonished sav- age, believing he had been running a race with the devil, suddenly stopped, and dropping the wig in superstitious horror, turned to fly in the opposite direction, crying to his comrades, ^ " Hockomock I Hockomock ! " the Devil ! the Devil !
LIBERALITY OF GOVERNMENT.
The exchanges at the truck-houses were conducted on the most liberal principles ; and although they yielded no reve- nue to the public treasury, they tended greatly to assure the public tranquility.
THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE.
On a clear, serene, and cool Sabbath evening, near 1727. midnight, the last of October, a deep, hollow sound, like the roaring of a chimney on fire, the rattling of ten thousand coaches over rocky pavements swelling into distant thunder echoes, roused the dwellers in New England from their sleep with startling intimations of dan- ger.
The terrific reverberations rising iji the northwest and rolling toward the southeast, accompanied with a tremor of the earth's surface, was preceded by a running flash of blu- ish flame at each shock. The sea roared as the earth trem- bled ; and opening in some parts of New Hampshire, " cast up a very fine, bluish sand, ^ followed by out-gushing wa- ters."
1 Hon. Stephen Parsons, tradition of Greenleaf of Oak Island.
2 White's Hist. Now England, p. 49.
WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 257
Beasts ran howling to the fields as if in great distress. The earth heaved. The houses rocked and creaked. Chim- neys were riven. Doors, windows, and walls were broken ; the glass ware clattered, and, in some instances, with a crash, fell to the floors. All nature was in commotion. Men, with surprise and terror, trembling with the earth on land, and on the sea tossed with their ships, which plunged along as if grating over shoals of ballast-stone, began to wonder at the power of Him " who will yet once more shake both the land and the sea," till their place shall no more be found.
Such were the effects of the second memorable earth- quake in New England, within the recollections of Euro- pean history.
Peace still reigned within the borders of the ancient dominions of Maine, now merged into a county of which York was the capital, and Yorkshire the civil name.
But population flowed slowly in to re-occupy the wasted plantations. The lands between the Kennebec and St. George's Rivers were most attractive ; and more than a cen- tury had passed since the first occupancy and improvement thereof, during which they had been planted and re-planted for three generations, and as often devastated ; and now only about one hundred and fifty families occupied the
entire section.
17
CHAPTEE VL
ANTE-RE VOLUTION ARY PERIOD.
We have reached an epoch marked with the closing scenes of the sanguinary conflicts with the aboriginal 1729. inhabitants, and the opening incidents of the final re-settlement of the country on a peaceful and permanent basis, in which the existing social development received its cast ; and in which, also, those causes first began to move which have shaped our existing social, civil, and religious organizations.
George 11. sat on the throne of England, under whose administration was sent out a most efficient agent in the re-settlement of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, and who laid and shaped the foundations of our existing social and religious structure,* and who introduced a new and vigorous element in the final re-population of this part of Maine.
We have alluded to the colonial influx of the Scotch-Irish to this region under Robert Temple. David Dunbar, a military officer — (it is said a Colonel in the Irisli army,) — armed with a commission from tlie Crown of England, as " Surveyor General of the King's Woods and Governor of Sagadahoc," now appeared.
On reaching the shores of Sagadahoc, Governor Dunbar repaired to the fortress at Femaquid. He rebuilt its walls, restored the breaches and decay of Fort Wm. Henry.
260 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
Thus renovated, he named this ancient strong-hold, Fort Frederick. Here, on the site of the ancient Jamestown, he took up his abode, planting the Presbyterian church, whose services were administered according to the religious faith and forms of the " Kirk of Scotland," by Rev. Robert Ruth- erford.
DUNBAR EMIGRATION.
The Provincial Governor, Dunbar, by Royal order was required " to settle ^ as well as to superintend and govern Sagadahoc." This order was made known by proclamation from the Throne. His first movements were directed to the locating and laying out of cities and towns ; and on the Shecpscot and Damariscotta waters, at the most eligible sites, he projected three ; viz., Townscnd, Harrington, and "Walpole. Townsend embraced the aboriginal Cape Ne-wa- gen, about the head water margins of the harbor, where had been tlie scene of the explorations of George "Weymouth's expedition, Harrington and Walpole were witliin the Pem- aquid and Damariscotta sections of Bristol, whose earliest planters, from the city of Bristol, England — many of them the shipwrecked voyagers of the Angel Gabriel — had given the name of the city of their father-land to the spot misfortune liad compelled them to clear, plant, and colonize.
Col. Dunbar with zeal and energy applied his extraordi- nary powers to fill up the country with emigrants from Europe. To afford adequate defense, he procured a detach- ment of Royal troops, and re-occupied Fort Frederick.
In pursuance of the great end of his mission, he employed agents, and stimulated their activity by land grants ; and to each settler a liomestead lot of ten ^ to twelve acres was given, with proportionate and adequate lots of an hundred acres back.
1 Depositions, Commiss. Reports, L. Co.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 261
McCobb and Rogers, as agents of Dunbar, were by him granted a section of the newly laid-out Towns- 1730. end, on condition that they should fill up the town- ship by introducing emigrants from Europe. Dunbar also assigned portions of Walpole and Harrington to Montgom- ery and Campbell on the same conditions.
The settlers were procured ; and the descendants of these emigrants to this day form most of the inhabitants of Booth- bay. 1 Ten and twelve acre lots were assigned for home- steads in the Dunbar towns, and the inhabitants held and supposed they were to hold their lands under the Dunbar title, 1 under which impression the men of Bristol fought the battles of the Revolution in defense of their lands, till by land or sea " one-quarter part of the able-bodied men of the town fell " !
The countrymen of these parties, agents and principal, were of the Scotch-Irish stock, as their names sufficiently indicate. The sympathies of this race were therefore enlisted, and their interest stimulated by attractive visions of a home of their own ; and multitudes of that vigorous people were allured to the rock-bound shores of Sagadahoc, which were thus planted with a people radically Presbyte- rian in all their proclivities, and uncompromising enemies of the Church of Rome in every age, since the days of Wickliff and John Knox.
The sympathies of Dunbar were strongly and naturally allied to the Crown, and adverse to the jurisdiction of Mas- sachusetts. Representing Royal authority, his own interests and ambition coincided with the Royal prerogatives. Act- ing with the vigor of precise military habits, accustomed as he had been to command, Dunbar made good success indeed in executing his plans, but acquired a reputation for arbi-
1 McCobb's Deposition, Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 157. Boyd's Deposition, Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 158.
262 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
trary conduct which aroused deep and wide-spread preju- dices.
Dunbar soon removed his residence from Peraaquid to the site of his newly-projected city of Walpole, and on Bel- videra Point, at the head of the lower bay, he had marked out the plan of the city, and began it by building himself a house. Armed with a royal commission, in the midst of a sympathizing exotic population, whose duty it was for him to govern, as well as people the land as the King's Surveyor, forest and lands were subject to his control ; and the lands were parceled out to the emigrants introduced by himself and his agents, as part of the policy of his administration. In the execution of this policy, his position necessarily brought him in collision Avith the interests of the original proprietors and non-resident claimants, as well as with tres- passers on the public domain, — a class of rough, hardy men, who would not shrink from a trial of rights, in " the appli- cation of swamp law." Bridger's experience was Dunbar's. As a matter of course, great clamor was raised against the Royal Governor, to his prejudice.
OPPOSITION OP THE PROPRIETORS.
In this clamor, Waldo Avas conspicuous and persistent. The interest and sympathies of the proprietors were with Massachusetts, where they chiefly had a residence ; and by their influence the local government was soon enlisted against Dunl)ar, The combination, at length, effected his removal to the Province of New Hampshire, leaving the people planted by him and his agents entirely exposed to the rapacity of the proprietary claimants, whose oppressive acts finally compelled Government to interfere to prevent civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted in the augmentation of a thrifty agricultural population by creating a personal interest in the land they miglit occupy. The proprietors were interested in this increase of population, but only so
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 263
far as it made a market for the sale of their lands. But Dunbar could no longer protect ; and the Drown, the Brown, the Tappan, and the Plymouth companies over-rode all local rights and interests of the occupants of the soil, the barrier being now broken down between them and the proprietors.
On his departure, Gov. Dunbar delivered his homestead at Belvidera into the custody of his religious teacher. Rev. Mr. Rutlierford ; and the city contemplated at Walpole became an abortion. At the falls of the Damariscotta and the site of the ancient New Dartmouth on the Sheepscot, as at that of the embryo city at Belvidera Point in Walpole, a considerable population had begun to concentrate.
The Jones, the Hustons, the Hiscocks, the Kennedys, had become fixed in their residence at these points.
The garrison system still prevailed ; and there can be no doubt that the advent of Col. Dunbar to the gubernato- rial seat in Sagadahoc constitutes an important era in the history of this region ; and the movements of this officer, though viewed with suspicion and denounced as oppressive by the Massachusetts proprietary claimants, were eminently successful in re-peopling our wastes, and are still felt in the character of the population by him introduced. A more intelligent, enterprising, fearless, thrifty, peaceful, and vig- orous race cannot be found on earth than the descendents of the Dunbar emigration, who still hold and occupy the Dunbar towns.
The entire section received a revivifying impulse from Gov. Dunbar's well-planned, liberal, and wise policy ; and the chief detractors of Dunbar's merited fame and his most successful opponents were the proprietors of antiquated claims to larg-e bodies of landed estate, ivho in the end became the real oppressors of the people, and were the favor- ites of Massachusetts, because they were men of wealth and influence.
264 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
INFLUENCE OP THE SCOTCH-IRISH ELEMENT.
The Scotch-Irish immigration, introduced under 1730. Dunbar's policy, now began to set freely in upon our shores, urged hither by the commotions consequent upon the Revolution in England, which the Popish procliv- ities of James, the last of the Stuart dynasty, seem to have excited. This influx of a new race from the Emerald Isle was borne on one of those vast surges following the throes of the religious clement in human nature, Avhich often in the history of our race has tossed and shaken empires and the world to its center !
On this surge came Protestantism, also driven by ghostly power, seeking an asylum on our shores, where the blood- red tracks were traced indeed in the frontier homes along our river margins and through our forest wilds, but where the hand of persecution could not reach.
This tide of life from the hills and valleys of Ulster, forced westward by the treacherous breath of the bigoted Tyrconnel, the representative of the interest of James Stu- art in Ireland, rolled over the desolate clearings and wasted hamlets of the " Ancient Dominions," re-peopling our bor- ders with a pious and zealous civilization.
Fresh and fervid from the siege of Londonderry and the battle-fields of Enniskillen, came the children of the Kirk, nursed on the bosom of Presbyterianism, full of faith, hope, and zeal, panting for freedom to worship God. Such were the people who planted the ancient clearings of Bristol, Cape Newagen, and the Arrowsic towns, with seed from the best stock of Europe. Such were the sources whence these wastes were filled in the final re-settlement of this region. Bristol, Boothbay, Georgetown, and Piiipsburg were re- planted. The fireside tale, the thrilling story of a winter evening's gatliering around the hearth-stone of venerable age, perpetuating the remembrance of the deeds and daring,
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 265
the hopes and faith of a chivalrous ancestry, were graphic details of the events of the siege of Londonderry, on which the aged and pious Joseph Beath ^ of Townsend was wont to dwell, while the tears ran down his furrowed cheeks as he rehearsed the wrongs and deliverances of that memora- ble act in the glory and shame of England.
The Temples, Beaths, Miirrays, all figured in the scenes of that siege, of which the living center was " Black Wil- liam,^^ the familiar designation of the husband of Queen Mary, the daughter of the fugitive James, now called to the English Throne by the voice of Protestantism. And the events, scenes, and issues of that day may well be remembered, for they marked the ages to come, while yet in embryo, as well as the age in which they lay.
Over the scenes of the siege of Londonderry Joseph Beath wept as he rehearsed the thrilling story in the ears of the rising generations of Townsend, the perils, fortitude, faith, and zeal of their ancestry, who had sought a home on the margins of the magnificent harbor of Townsend, and in the wilds of Maine. The simple faith of this emigrant race is well illustrated in the following anecdote of Andrew Heed, the uncle of the Rev. John Murray, and a principali settler of Townsend. During the war of the last savage- conflict, the residents at the harbor withdrew to the west-- V ward for safety. But Mr. Reed would not leave, and in defiance of all persuasion, persisted in remaining in his sim- ple shelter of a " log cabin." Contrary to expectation, the- returning fugitives found him alive and unharmed in the Spring ; and to their excited inquiries he calmly replied that he had felt neither solitude nor alarm: — for why should he ? " Had I not mi/ Bible with me ? ^' ei'ied' the^ old man. ^
1 Mrs. We)'mouth of Boothbay Harbor.
2 Mrs. Weymouty €&.^ c^V* rV\ C . ^ •
266 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The neighboring groves of beech and oak and the ready hand-sled — and the coaster's sloop — were the great resour- ces of commerce at this date ; and this pious and aged fron- tier's man, during the long and solitary winter, piled the cord-wood on the landing, and in the book of God wore out its dreary solitudes in drawing out its Christian consolations.
Vaughn's enterprise.
"William Vaughn, extensively engaged in the fish- 1730. eries at Monhegan Island, at the head waters of the Damariscotta, now erected large milling establish- ments for grain and the manufacture of lumber. Here a large and thrifty village started into existence, and grew in wealtli and importance so long as lumbering resources remained.
He had now removed his residence and built a mansion house near his mills, which not long after was consumed, and the Dunbar grants and land titles, it is supposed, were destroyed therewith ; and the village which grew up, to this day, as the capital of the town of Nobleboro', is known as " Damariscotta Mills," the vast, unappropriated water- powers of the site of which will ere long lay the founda- rtious of a city which will become the Lowell of Maine.
WiSCASSET.
Seventy years prior to these events, within the precincts of the aljoriginal Ped-coke-gowake, * on an eminence half a mile north of the point in Wiscasset Bay, on the Sheepscot, nfty rods from the water-side, George Davis, his brother, and two others had made their plantation in the heart of a for- est, beneath the sheltering branches of mighty beech trees and tall pines. This was the original European plantation, on the west margins of Wiscasset Bay, and the first begin- nings of the shire town of Lincoln County.
1 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. vii. p. 163.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 267
At the close of Philip's war, this plantation was broken up ; and the families left their clearings crowning the heights which shade the beautiful landscape environing the bay, to desolation and solitude. The portrait of one of the matrons of this pioneer liamlet of the Sheepscot, the widow of one of the Davises, who died in Newton at the age of one hundred and sixteen years, adorns the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.
By transfer and inheritance, the lands of George Davis of Wiscasset passed into the title of several wealthy men of Boston, who were associated as the " Boston Company."
Robert Hooper was the earliest re-settling resident at this conspicuous point. He entered half a mile south of the' early and original Davis plantation ; and reared his log. house by the side of a large rock, some three rods from the water. The site of his home was romantic and conspicuous. The point is broken into a considerable eminencCj, rolling back from the shore margins, bold in outline on its eastern front ; and in its original vesture of oak and pines, present- ing the aspect of a noble headland, rising from the depths of the bay, at the confluence of three tides, which feature " Wichcasset," an aboriginal name, is said to describe. It must have been a conspicuous landmark in the early navi- gation of these waters, on the upper margins and land-falls of which the ancient " Sheepscot Farms " smiled in fertility and freshness.
On the dispersion of the earliest occupants, the Davis families, for half a century the clearings lay waste, without an inhabitant ; and the original hamlet sank where it rose, amidst its own ruin and decay.
Its revival at the point under Hooper gave to the locality a pre-eminence it lias ever since maintained as a center of trade, in its earlier history, in the exportation of spar tim- ber to Europe. Hooper subsequently removed from the
268 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
point to the peninsula under " Cushman's Mountain," as a
place of greater security from savage alarms.
Foye and Lambert followed Hooper, and Robert
1731. Hodge re-occupied the Patishall grant on the east- ern and opposite shore. Two miles below the point,
1734. the Boyntous, Taylors, Youngs, and Chapmans took up their homes.
THE GARRISON HOUSE.
On the crown of the headland at the point, was erected the garrison of the hamlet, the defense from savage attack, and the asylum of the planters. Emigrants from England swelled the re-peopling current at the point in Wiscasset Bay. Capt. Jonathan Williamson was the leading spirit of the English emigration, and eminent among the first settlers at the point, who established his home on the peninsula south of Hooper's, known as " Birch Point."
Probably some of the Dunbar emigration from Scotland and Ireland found their way to this settlement, which con- sisted of members of the English Episcopal Church, some Presbyterians, and largely of Massachusetts Puritans. Th<» Congregational element prevailed ; and the community finally settled down in their religious organization, under the polity of that denomination, and Thomas Moore was called to be their religious teacher.
Dunbar's influence was not controling at the point Those in sympathy with his movements were unquestionably- absorbed in the paramount interest of the Massachusetts* proprietors ; and Wiscasset Point, from that day to this, has been the only locality where the Congregationalism peculiar to Massachusetts has retained its features.
A considerable population had returned to Arrowsic, and occupied the southern end of the island, so that for two miles in extent, every ten acres of land had a dwelling
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 269
house, ^ whose inhabitants were made up chiefly of Irish emigrants.
Col. Dunbar having been removed to New Hampshire, the re-occupancy and population of the country went slowly on. Nevertheless, new openings were made at various points, pushing into the wilderness as the old clearings were filled up ; and the natural resources of the country began to be opened. ^ Robert Mclntyre discovered the properties of the lime-rock formation of St. George's River, and erect- ed a kiln for the manufacture of quick-lime.
WALDO IMMIGRATION.
Waldo now adopted Dunbar's policy, and a con- siderable population was introduced by Alexander 1740. McLean, Mclntyre, Howard, and Spear, in the east, from Europe. These agents visited the Kennebec and Pem- aquid, as well as the St. George's River, and were so " struck with the advantages of that river as at once to give its sec- tion the preference."
WALDOBORO' FOUNDED.
Companies were enrolled, and all the outlines of a more perfect military organization were traced. Wal- 1740. do had become a resident of Maine. From Bruns- wick and Saxony forty families were drawn into Maine by his efforts. They left Massachusetts Bay and sailed east ; and reaching " Broad Bay," planted about its head-waters the thrifty town of " Waldoboro'."
At " Long Reach," in the west, Jonathan Philbrook, from Greenland, New Hampshire, cleared and occupied the island on whicli arc now located the Custom House, 1741. Banks, and principal business center of the city of Bath.
1 MSS. Papers of Hon. Mark L. Hill.
2 Eaton's Annals, p. 48 — 55. ,
270 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
MRS. PORTERFIELD's NARRATIVE.
The stimulus imparted to emigration by Dunbar 1741. and his coadjutors in filling up the depopulated plan- tations of the ancient Ducal Province, continued to draw from their homes in Ireland ship-loads of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. In the course of these voyages, accidents of peculiar and distressing interest have tinged the history of this region with long-remembered sorrows.
The story of a Mrs. Portcrfield of Georgetown has left a recorcj of one of the most distressing casualties of the kind, which we will give in detail, * as it illustrates the character of some of the early settlers of the region, and shows how far selfishness can go to extinguish humanity.
A large ship's company set sail from London- Aug. 28. derry with propitious gales and hopeful prospects, under Commander Rowen. A majority of the emigrants were men of piety, and zeal of that bold, marked, and decided stamp which has ever invested Presbytcrianism with a character of vigor and force.
" The ship's company daily assembled on the quarter deck, for prayers, conducted by some of the passengers." A vio- lent storm, ten weeks out, drove the ship from her course, and carried her masts by the board. Provisions were ex- hausted. Land was made on the eastern coasts : Oct. 28. — an itsland or neck inhabited only by savages. On these desolate shores one hundred human , beings were landed, Avithout provisions or shelter. Some twenty or thirty persons of this unfortunate company went out in search of inliabitants, but never more returned. The captain, officers, and crew, in the ship's boats, in a few days made land about New Harbor, near the Kennebec. In the meantime, the ship, driven upon a small island, was broken up, and with two small vessels obtained at the har-
1 White's New England, p. 203.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 271
bor, the ship's company returned to secure the plunder. Collecting what plunder they could, the captain and his company returned to New Harbor, taking witli them such of the passengers as they could sell for servants, the others being left to their fate under circumstances the most dis- tressing and hopeless. Muscles from the beach, dulce from the rocks, and sea-kelp were seethed in a pot for food, and served out to the remnant of these shipwrecked voyagers. For two mouths, life was thus sustained. Daily, Death multiplied his victims around, and thinned out their num- bers— the males sinking sooner than the females, as though less capable of endurance. The savages at length discov- ered this shipwrecked company, and plundered them of all they had left. Snow came ; and their blankets, suspended from neighboring tree-tops to shelter their bodies from the storm, were taken away by the ruthless free-booters.
Their boiling vessel having been carried off, Mrs. Porter- field, searching among the dead, found a sauce-pan, in which they continued to cook their meager and unsavory morsel. In her mess were nine persons, and the scene about her was shocking in the extreme. There lay an infant child and its boy brother, whose parents had died on ship-board, locked in each other's embrace in death ; and heaps of dead had fallen one on the other, from cold and starvation ; and as the crowning horror, near by sat a youth, as he had died, infatuated with the promise of his faithless commander to return and take him off, still gazing sea-ward witli a book in hand, and fixed in liis strange attitude by the icy stroke of death !
At length the whole company lay about fallen in groups of ghastly corpses over the desolate and unknown place, excepting Mrs. Porterfield, her mother, and sister. In a fierce snow storm their fire was lost ; and with nothing to cover themselves but the heavens, no food but frozen mus- cles, their extremity had become one of desperation. The
272 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
next day the mother died ; and there was none to bury her. Shoeless, houseless, and famislnug, exposed to the full, bleak, fierce, cutting winds of December, the sisters gave themselves up to die, when they were discovered by three men who had come to search for plunder among the dead, and who were much surprised there to meet the living, where it was expected to find only the dead ! Listening to the story of these forlorn and wo-begone females, they proposed to take them as servants if they preferred it to starvation. The overture was joyfully accepted, and these wreckers from New Harbor, taking away a bundle of cloth- ing containing her Bible, received Mrs. Porterfield and her sister on board their vessels, and plundering the ship and stripping the dead, sailed away. To repay themselves for receiving these distressed and shipwrecked survivors, the sisters were sold into service, and the proceeds pocketed by the heartless ruffians. What a commentary on human nature !
At length discovered by a fellow-countryman, — " a kind and pitiful Irishman " — the hapless women were befriended by him. His assurance of protection against the extortion- ate and oppressive demands of their heartless salvors, was made good. He proved to be a man who feared God. By Christian counsel and kindness he soothed their sorrows and calmed their fears, taking them to his own house, and hos- pitably entertaining them there ; and when recovered from their depression and disease, he procured for each of them
good places, the one in Boothbay and the other in 1741. Georgetown ; and at this time there was a general
manifest attention to religion, " the professors of religion being greatly animated by the good work which was going on." Destitute of the preached word, without a min- ister, " the people met together every Sabbatli, and fre- quently on other days," to worship God in public, " by prayer, singing psalms, and reading instructive books."
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 273
Georgetown became the home of the subject of the above narrative, where she finally settled, reared a large family, died, and was buried.
DISTURBING EFFECTS ON THE SAVAGES.
The encroachments of European immigration upon the forests of the East, where the touch of civilized 1742. life caused hamlets in clustering villages to gather about the head-waters and along the river-banks and har- bors, under the shadow of forts where the rush of pent-up waters and the clatter of mills sent their echoes through the dense old forest trees, which fell and faded from exist- ence, perpetually annoyed the fretted red-man. He com- plained of Waldo and his people, "• that Indian lands and rights had been encroached upon ; and that they could no longer endure the sight of such flagrant wrongs."
But these complaints were stifled by the hand of power, and savage jealousies glowed in unextinguished fervor. Ten years' repose from war had not cooled savage resent- ment, nor allayed his fears. Unfortunate occurrences heightened these resentments. An Indian woman had be«ii arraigned at the capital of Yorkshire for murder ; and the frequent report of fire-arms through the forests, and the " bones and hoofs of an ox purloined from the white man's herd, found in an adjacent swamp among the ashes of a sav- age camp-fire," all foreboded approaching hostilities.
Shirley's administration.
The fort at St. George was rebuilt, reinforced, and placed in command of Capt. Jabez Bradbury. Shir- 1743.. ley had replaced Gov. Belcher in authority. The blood-red clouds of war still lowered.
THE SPANISH WAR — A TRIANGULAR STRUGGLE.
The able-bodied men were enrolled as minute men. An army of four hundred was organized, and each man required
18
274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
to have in readiness a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a good liatcliet, an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a pair of snow-slioes. ^ Old wounds of honor, old sores of prejudice, were opened afresh. France, England, and Spain
were all involved together. The savages were stir- 1744. red up to waste the exposed frontiers, and war wa?
proclaimed against them in Boston. From Brunswick to St. George, a tier of block-houses had been reared along the outskirts of the forests, to each of which was appended a body of troops for scouting par-* ties, which ranged from post to post, forming a cordon of sentinels around the frontiers.
BLOCK-HOUSES.
Block-houses were reared at Brunswick, Topsham, Rich- mond, Wiscasset, with Vaughn's block-house on Damaris- cotta, at Broad Bay, and St. George's, all of massive timber. Vaughn of Damariscotta became a most important actor in the scenes now opening.
FALL OF LOUISBURG.
Col. Vaughn was a man of intrepid character, keen per- ception, and great enterprise. He had become familiar with the situation of Louisburg, tlie French capital of the •East, believed to be the nest where savage war parties were hatched to swarm over the adjacent English frontiers.
Information gathered from his fishermen had suggested to Vaughn the idea of the capture of this strong-hold. He conceived that a surprisal was feasible. The Governor list- ened to his suggestions. Vaughn's project was adopted, and Louisburg fell under a combined movement of the col- onial naval and land forces, led by Tyng, Peppcrell, Wal- do, and Moulton. Vaughn accompanied the expedition, commissioned as Colonel, Pepperell being chief in com-
1 Williamson's Elst. vol. ii. p. 214.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 275
mand, whose success in the capitulation of the ca}> 1745. ital of French Acadia gave great renown to the arms Jan. of New England, as well as relief to the perils of the eastern frontier.
A FRONTIER HOME.
Each period of settlement has been marked by the style of buildings used for human habitations, and has had its natural development in characteristic features. In the vestiges of these primitive homes along our river-margins, we may trace the agiR of the settlement. The rivers were the high- ways ; and at the outset, not even a line of spotted trees indicated a land-track. Roads and streets are the product of time, wealth, civilization, and populousness. On the banks and margins of water-courses, in the first openings of a new country, will be found the vestiges of the pioneer- homes. A simple structure of logs was reared from the butts of the ancient trees, fallen by the pioneer axe on the spot where they were cut down for a clearing. The walls of a rectangular structure thus built were covered with bark or thatch. The enclosed earth was excavated for a cellar, which was unwalled. The excavation is then planked over with riven logs of pine ; and a trap-door in the center of the flooring let you into the bowels of the primitive struc- ture, consisting of a single room below and a garret above, to which a ladder led the ascent.
In one corner of the log-walled room, a large fire-place opened its cavernous depths. The back and one side was built of stone, while a wooden post set the opposite jamb, supporting a horizontal beam for a mantelpiece. Through the bark thatch or slab roof, or outside and up the back wall the building, was reared a cob-work of cleft wood, whose interstices were filled with mortar-clay, which in place of brick and mortar, was called " cat and clay." On the hearth, usually a flat stone, an ample store of wood was
276 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
heaped, which was felled at the door, while the capacious fire-place, glowing with light and heat from the blazing hearth-pile, not only illumined the whole interior, but afforded a snug corner for the indiscriminate stowage of a bevy of little ones. On the margins of the Sheepscot, now can be distinctly traced in the old farm sites, each develop- ment of the architectural stage of its popiilation, from the rude primitive shelter of the pioneer planter, to the walled, framed, and neat cottage structure of the present gener- ation.
On the water's brink remains the half-filled, earth-built cellar, along the water way, where stood the log home of the first settler. But as the forest was opened before his axe, and the clearing extended back, we find the stone- walled cellar of a more permanent and luxurious abode on a higher elevation, by the ancient bridle path of spotted trees, leading to his remote next neighbor's door ; and finally, along the rounded, leveled, and well-beaten carriage road, still further back and more elevated to the crest of the river's valley, we meet the fine brick and wood cottage structure, adorned with architectural art, and well-to-do aspect of a higher developed civilization in a more refined and luxurious age, the exponent of more refined and culti- vated taste. Such is the gradation of the domestic devel- opment of some two centuries and a half.
GEORGETOWN.
In the Sagadahoc precinct, by act of incorporation, George- town had become the metropolis of the valley of the Ken- nebec, as it had been the scene of the ancient plantation sites, from Popham and Gilbert to Lake and Clark. Sam- uel Denney, an English emigrant, distinguished for his remarkable decision of character, industry, and the superi- ority of his attainments, took up his residence at Butler's Cove, where he built a block-house, in accordance with the
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 277
custom of the age. He became a magistrate ; and the stocks in which were executed many of his own sentences — perhaps by his own hands — till lately were remembered as a terror t\> evil doers. Here, also, the early manhood of Governor Sullivan was spent in the study and practice of law ; and Butler's Cove on Arrowsic Island must have exhibited all the legal and executive importance of a shire- town village.
On the banks of the Sagadahoc, opposite the site of Phipsburg Center, resided James, the ancestor of the Mc- Cobbs ; and the Donnels had succeeded to the possessions of Robert Gutch, at " Long Reach " above. Indeed, the final re-peopling of the Ancient Dominions had become established ; and Governor Belcher made a tour through the eastern country, visiting Pemaquid, Damariscotta, and Sheepscot ; and at Pemaquid he met the Indians of the East in conference.
Yorkshire, heretofore embracing but one, now was broken into two regiments, and Samuel Waldo, the eastern Patroon, was assigned to the command.
CLOSING EVENTS OF THE PERIOD.
On the re-settlement of the country, the denizens of the forest had become numerous and bold, particularly the black bear of New England ; and under provocation, it became a dangerous foe. The eastern shores of the Sheep- scot are curved into a basin called the " Eddy," occasioned by a considerable reflex action of the tides, pressing through a gorge between the points of Squam and Folley Islands, at the Narrows entering Wiscasset Bay. The margins of this eddy were the site of the plantation clearings of the pioneers of the ancient precinct of New Dartmouth, then called Free-town, now Edgecomb by act of incorporation. Here was the Trask settlement, and not far back lived the Albees. The young men of these families, in early spring, were
278 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
accustomed to go down to the sea and eke out a subsistence by fishing and duck-hunting. The lioUowed trunk of a hoary pine moulded into graceful water-lines, called a canoe, was the great vehicle of locomotion.
John, ^ the son of Samuel Trask, an original settler of the place, and two young Albees, in April embarked in a canoe, on the usual fowling and fishing excursion to the lower waters of the Sheepscot. A bear was descried makiug its way from shore to shore, as they swept with the tide toward the sea, midway between Barter's and Squam Island.
In defiance of remonstrances, the two Albees persisted in seeking a conflict with Bruin while he could be assailed to advantaiie in the water. Tlie canoe was headed for the bear, whose head and face, water-borne, offered a tempting chanqe for sport to the inexperienced huntsmen. On a near approach, the attitude and the aspect of Bruin suddenly changed. Bristling with rage, he faced his pursuers, when a charge of small shot was fired into it. This act neither disabled the animal nor stayed his progress, but maddened liim. With augmented ferocity he turned upon the canoe. As the bear raised his shaggy form over the prow to enter the canoe, Albee, clubbing his musket, aimed a blow at his head to beat him back. Tlie next moment the gun was seen flying in one direction and the lacerated body of Albee in another, by a stroke of the beast's paw, when both dis- appeared under the water. Having cleared his way at the bow of the boat, Bruin made another attempt to board her. Then the brother Albee seized an axe, and making a stroke at the animal's head, the blow was warded off", and tlie axe sent after the gun. Albee sprang for an oar, which was broken like a pipe-stem, and himself knocked bleeding into the water after his brother. The bear then mounted, and sat shaking himself on the cuddy deck, wiping his shot
1 Narrative of Trask, R. Sewall, Esq.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 279
broken face, and in complacent attitude, surveying the scene of his strife.
Wlien Trask saw that the bear would enter the boat at the bows, he leaped out at the stern, and swam for his life. Turning to look for his companion, who, although an expert swimmer, was seen struggling in the water, all bloody and torn, he perceived that the bear, having cleared the canoe and rested from the fight, had left his seat in the boat, and taken again to the water. Securing a fragment of the oar, Trask turned back to the boat, but Albee had disappeared.
Gaining the canoe, lie soon paddled to the shore, and seeking the camp of some wood-men, all started in search of the enemy, and found Bruin stretched out dead upon the beach.
OCCASIONAL OUTRAGES.
Lawless savages, in small parties, continued to hover about the white man's path, lurking for prey. They were usually isolated and irresponsible, acting independently of their chiefs, from motives of revenge, or habits of cruelty and thirst for blood, as occasion offered and in defiance of the peace.
MCNEAR'S ADVENTURE.
McNear was an early settler near the " ancient Sheepscot farms." ^ Three times he had been dragged into captivity by savage hands. On one occasion, as he threshed out his wheat alone in the barn, a grim savage sprang in and stood before him. Advancing upon him with upraised tomaliawk, he cried, " Quick me walk you to Canada.^' McNear, start- ing forward, his flail still flying over his head, answered, " Til bet you half a ton of thatch of that ; " and at a blow, laid the Indian dead at his feet !
1 Joseph Cargill, Esq.
280 ancient dominions of maine.
cargill's escape.
Cargill, whose sawmill stood on the stream near the resi- dence of his descendant, Joseph Cargill, Esq., while sawing one day in early spring, improving a freshet, as he stooped to adjust a log on its car, was surprised by the visit of a sav- age, who, raising his tomahawk, and looking to see where he could best inflict a fatal stroke, did not observe the relax- ing form of the sturdy lumberman as he suddenly rose from his inclined position, and by a back-handed stroke of his bar, made to revolve about his head, took the savage under the chin and across the throat, by which, in the twinkling of an eye, he was hurled out of the tail of the mill into the race below, and disappeared forever.
LONG Edmund's perfidy.
About this time, " Long Edmund," an Indian loafer about the settlement at Wiscasset Point, who frequented the log house of a Mr. Albee, treacherously betrayed the whole family to death.
Albee had gone with a grist, ^ probably over to Vaughn's mill at the Damariscotta Falls. Long Edmund also departed. Soon after his reappearance in the evening, a rush was heard at the door, while the lone wife and mother, gather- ing her infant in her arms, crouched in the corner, full of fear. In vain did Long Edmund strive to induce her to unbar their cabin door. Tbe savage then rose to open it himself. It was summer. No light discovered her move- ments, and as the Indians were let into the room, hugging her infant close to her bosom, from behind the opening door the mother slipped out into the darkness ; and by an unfre- quented way, hastened to warn her husband, who, returning by another path, unfortunately missed her.
1 Mrs. Holbrook's tradition.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 281
The wife took refuge with a neighbor ; but the husband arrived at his home, deposited his meal-bags at tlie door, and led his horse to pasture. As he stooped to lock the fetters to his horse's feet, he was shot by an unseen foe and wounded. After a stout resistance, the disabled man was killed ; and in the account of the death-struggle, given to his friends, Long Edmund, who was present, said, " He fight all like one devil.^'
Albee's house and sleeping children were burned together, except the infant son who escaped in his mother's arms, and who in maturer years vowed terrible vengeance on the treacherous Long Edmund and his race, who suddenly dis- appeared in his old haunts at the Point, from among the living, never more to be seen.
THE RESOLUTE PLANTER, n
Defeated in their purposes to destroy Wiscas- set, the Indians broke up into parties, with a view 1750. to ravage Georgetown. The garrisoned village Sept. 25. of " Parker's Island " ^ was an object of peculiar offense. On their way to the attack of this strong-hold, within call of the garrison, they passed the dwelling-place of a planter. The house was fiercely assailed ; but the mas- ter maintained his ground till the savages had actually cut their way in through the door, which they had hewn down with their battle-axes.
In this extremity the defender of his home leaped from a back window and took to the water as the most feasible
1 John Parker, whose original settlement on the soutliern extreme of this island gave to it this name, and " who was the first of the English nation that began to subdue the Land and undertook in the fishing Trade," was, ■with his son James, driven from his home at Kennebec to Casco Bay, and both killed at the fort which was then taken. See Wharton's Deed to Par- ker. Deposition of John Phillips, 1 748. MSS. Papers, Hon. Mark L. HiU.
282 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
method of escape, swimming over toward Arrowsic. Deter- mined to cut him off, his pursuers seized a canoe ; and as they swiftly came up with him in their shuttle-bark, leaping Timder the influence of their well-plied paddles, their victim turned upon them, and seizing the birchen vessel, in a moment turned lier upside down, precipitating the Indians headlong into the water ! In the enduing life-struggle, the blood-thirsty sons of the forest were forced to let their vic- tim escape, who gained tlie shore, and eluded their pursuit. The war-party, foiled and chagrined at their ill-success, returned by another route to the north, and from the western sections of the State led into captivity some twenty or thirty persons.
Charles Gushing was the commandant of the military defenses of this section of Maine. Capt. Jonathan William- son, who was also a sheriff of Yorkshire, ^ resident at Wis- casset, and Capt. Nicliols at Hheepscot were subordinates in command, with whom were deposited the public arms and ammunition.
The territory embracing the site of the " Shcep-
1753. scot Farms," the ancient capital of the ducal June 19. county of Cornwall, was now incorporated by the
name of Newcastle, which it still bears. Its cor- porate existence was honored by a gratuity of the laws of Massachusetts Bay, from the treasury of the State.
PLANTATION OF DRESDEN.
The savages continued to annoy the newly-opened
1754. settlements, whose clearings emigration and enter- prise continually piished into their ancient hunting
grounds, being particularly irritated by the fires of the backwoodmcn, which often spread from their clearings, and burned with ravaging fury the forests far and near.
1 Original writ of service, MSS. papers, Hon. M. L. Hill.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 283
Their restlessness roused the fears of Government, which hasted to put the frontier posts in a state of preparation for war.
An influx of Germans to the shores of Massachusetts Bay had suggested the project to the Plymouth proprietors of planting that race upon their eastern lands. Won by the advances of that company to its interests, a settlement was made on the waters of the Kennebec, opposite Fort Rich- mond, near and upon Swan Island, called " Frankfort." Such was the origin of Dresden. The hamlet received accessions from French Huguenots, who, on the revocation of the edict of Nantz, came with the Protestant Germans to the newly-colonized Frankfort on the Kennebec, from the banks of the Rhine. Swan Island, the homestead of the Sachem Kennebis, delightful for situation, at the confluence of the Mun-doos-cotook and Kennebec, opened its rural prospect, a mile distant from the defenses of Frankfort below. •
FORT SHIRLEY.
Two hundred feet square ^ were enclosed witli pickets of timber, called a stockade. This work lay on the river mar- gins. Two block-houses of sqiiared hemlock and pine tim- ber interlocked, were raised within, bearing aloft projecting stories of twenty-four feet square, and walls ten inches thick, surmounted with watch towers.
Barracks were also built, and the work named Fort Shir- ley. This was the first settlement of the town of Dresden ; and Samuel Goodwin held the military command of the place.
Transported to a region whose winters wore long and rig- orous, and obliged to fell the enormous timber trees ere the earth could bring forth her fruit, or tliey could gather of her increase, this colony became much straitened. Fifty
1 Williamson, vol. ii. p. 302.
284 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
German families ' had been led to the valley of the Kenne- bec by Maj. Goodwin to plant this hamlet. The habitations were reared along the bank of the river. No roads were opened till long after, the interior being a dense forest, a howling wilderness, between settlement and settlement, with nothing to guide the uncertain traveler from clearing to clearing save a line of spotted trees.
CITY OF STIRLING LAID OUT IN BRISTOL.
While these new establishments were going up in the west, Waldo had induced a considerable emigration from near Stirling in Scotland to re-people the east. A city was laid out on Broad Bay in Bristol ; and half-acre lots set off in close contiguity, on a street half a mile long, on which each settler reared his log hut ; and the name of Stirling was given to the embryo city. Patrician as well as plebeian blood mingled in the flow of this re-peopling tide from Scot- land. Mrs. Dickie was the daughter of " a laird." ^ But discouragement and disappointment overwhelmed the newly- settled town. "Strange sights and sounds assailed" the residents of Stirling. " Fire-flies glowed in the dark woods. Frogs croaked in every swale, and loons screamed in the evening twilight." Contending long with hunger and cold, " witches and warlocks" — every superstition of their father- land quickened ten-fold amid their wild New England homes — the settlement at length yielded to the fears of sav- age irruption, and was broken up.
THE THOMASTON HAMLET.
At this date Thomaston, the site of St. George's fort, was a quadrangular structure of one hundred feet on each face, sixteen feet high, built of hewn timber twenty inches square, and barracks of timber, built against each wall, were con-
1 Frontier Miss. p. 248.
2 Annals of Warren, p. 85.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 285
strncted for family use. In the center of all was a good well of water ; and a covered way of stout timber led to the block-house at the river's brink ; and twelve to fifteen can- non were mounted. The settlers, at their own cost, in par- allel lines had reared block-houses above the fort, and sur- rounded all with a palisado ten feet high. At Pleasant Point was Henderson's garrison ; and in the site of the pres- ent town of Gushing, a stone block-house, enclosed with pickets, was Burton's fortification. On the St. George's river, further down, were four others, each of which accom- modated sixteen families, who had their several plantations, occupied with huts, probably of logs, and covered with bark.
CONDITION OF THE EARLY SETTLERS IN THE EAST.
The circumstances of the inhabitants, made up so largely of foreign emigration, unused to the perils and privations of a sparsely settled frontier, were often distressing in the extreme. One family in the Broad Bay precinct of Bristol subsisted a whole winter on frost-fish and four quarts of meal. Many ^ a German woman was glad to plant and hoe all day long for a quart of meal, or eight pence in money, or a quart of buttermilk ; and buttermilk and roasted pota- toes was a common as well as healthful repast. A patch of ground for potatoes was manured with rockweed carried on hand-barrows by men and their wives from the beach, aided by all the cliildren who could labor ; and all who labored in the field still went well armed ; and when the alarm guns from the fort were heard, all fled to the neighboring garrison.
SUFFERINGS OF WALDO'S EMIGRATION AT BROAD BAY.
Some twenty or more families, under the representations and influence of Waldo, landed at " Pleasant Point" on St. George's, from various parts of Germany. Here, packed in a sloop, they were transferred to Broad Bay, and distrib-
A Eaton's Annals, p. 89.
286 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
uted among the planters there, or crowded together in a shed erected for their slielter. It was in the month of Sep- tember. The bleak winds of autumn already had begun to sigh tlirough the surrounding forest tops, anticipating the rigors of approaching winter. This shed, sixty feet long, had no chimneys. Here the destitute emigrants in utter neglect were left, eitlier to perish or to drag out a winter of unutterable suffering. Many froze to death. Many per- ished of hunger and privation, and their graves were not long since seen near the bridge. ^
WIDOW BLACKLEDGE.
The story of this woman is full of interest and instruc- tion. The extreme northern point of Westport was early settled and fortified with the garrison of a Captain Decker, the ancient site of the Delano plantation, which had descend- ed to Decker by heirshij). It stood on the point overlooking the gorge through which the deep waters of the Sheepscot expand into Wiscasset Bay, between the island of the ancient Jeremy Squam and Folley Island, which passage, from the flux and reflux of the tides, has ever since been called " Decker's Narrows." Decker was a man of wealth and eminence in his day, having a store there, where the ruins of his wharf and warehouses were till recently seen on the waters of the Sheepscot shore ; and where ships from Eng- land were wont to lade their spars and masts for export.
The AVidow Blackledge, ^ during these perilous and pincliing times, lived on the neighboring main. During a somewhat severe and protracted winter, she and her little ones were reduced to the greatest extremity of want ; and on a particular occasion, driven from her usual resort to the clam banks by a fierce and freezing fall of snow, on a cold wintry night, having cleaned the bones of her last herring.
1 Eaton's Annals, p. 82.
2 MSS. papers, Rev. S. Sewall.
ANTE-REVOLUTIOXARY PERIOD. 287
and divided all among her children, with neither bread nor meal in her store, while they were locked in sleep, the for- lorn widow betook herself to the widow's God in prayer.
In utter despair of any human help, she cast herself on her knees before Him " who hears the young ravens' cry," and in defiance of the mockery of the bleak winds and snows, which went with a rush and howl by her door, she made known her want.
That night Capt. Decker retired to his pillow for repose in the midst of comfort and plenty. The moaning of the storm only lulled to a deeper sleep. But at midnight a vis- ion of want stood by his pillow and passed into his dreams. The anguish of a widow disturbed his repose, which this phantom of a night vision vividly sketched. Pie rose from his bed — looked out on the storm, whose fierce and biting blasts still swept the troubled waters of the bay. He re- turned to his pillow again, solaced with the purpose of pay- ing an early morning visit to the lone Widow Blackledge. But the banished vision, gaunt and horrible, returned and drove him once more from his bed to the window — nor would it leave him till he filled a bag with meal and meat, and paddled his canoe over the storm-tossed tide, and bore relief to the praying mother and lier famished babes ; and his raps at her door raised her from her knees to receive the bounty thus furnished by Him who delights to be known as the " widow's God and the Father of the fatherless " !
SAGACIOUS CAT.
On the island of Jeremy Squam, a Mr. Rines had made his plantation. The husband and father had been drafted and sent to the wars, and was tiius forced to leave his little one's to the mercies of a lone wintry abode in the savage wilds of Westport. It was a season of great scarcity and distress in this war-wasted region, as we have seen. Soon the deep snows of winter shut out all resources from the
X.
288 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
store of roots and herbs in the forest, and the hoar frosts had fast locked up the hitherto open clam banks, and wrap- ped in ice-bound depths " the treasures there hid in the sand for the poor." Gaunt famine now pressed at the door of the absent warrior's home till his wife and little ones began to feel the pinchings of hunger.
At this juncture, ^ a favorite cat, bounding over the froxen waters of the bay to Monseag River, watched the crevices and openings in the icy floor of the bay, and thence plucked and dragged the little frost-fish playing up in search of air from their watery home, and day by day, brought them in for food till the ice was broken up ! Then the mother, seek- ing food by the shore-side one Sabbath morning, descried a dark body making for the land, which proved to be a large fat bear. Her neighbors were called ; and when Bruin had reached the land, and emerging from the waters, began to shake his shaggy and dripping form, with well directed blows the hungry mother felled him to the earth. Thus was eked out a scanty subsistence, till the warmth of the returning sun again opened the resources of nature for the support of life.
Such was the physical condition of the early planters in
our frontiers, when repeated acts of savage aggression called
for the vigorous interposition of the arm of Gov-
1755. ernment, and war was declared against all the
June 10. Indians except the tribe of the Penobscots.
French priests, notwithstanding the fearful ex- ample that had been made of Ralld, persisted in pressing their way into their ancient haunts, and savage ears were found ready still to listen to their treacherous counsel.
Peter An-dr-o-u, from the ancient seat of Norridgcwock, visited the new settlement of Frankfort, to seduce there the French residents to the interests of the Romish Church ;
1 Hon. S. Parsons' Narrative.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 289
and M. Bunyon accompanied the Jesuit to his home above Cushnoc. At the distance of half a mile from the eastern shore, he found a house environed with wigwams. ^
The exemption of the Penobscots from the calamities of war by proclamation, gave offense to the undiscriminating populace, who, remembering the wrongs suffered by their fathers and themselves at savage hands, thought only of violence and revenge ; and the acts of irresponsible parties, or isolated individuals, were charged on the entire race of red-men.
The inhabitants would not remain at peace with the In- dians. Every rumor, every alarm, went to the account of the perfidy of the natives ; and every occasion was improved with avidity which afforded a pretext for revenge of the white man's wrongs. Especially were these occasions sought by the volunteer chieftains and citizen soldiery, whose acts were often marked with great recklessness and irresponsi- bility, characteristic more of a band of lawless freebooters than freemen.
cargill's inhumanity.
James Cargill of Newcastle held a commission to raise a scouting company as its chief. A party was organ- ized among his neighbors and led to the east, either 1755.. to suppress a presumed trade between the Penob- July 1.. scots and white men, or with a view to enrich him- self with booty and scalps. ^ He bivouacked on the shores of Broad Bay. In the morning he marched through the forest around St. George's Fort. Some rangers of Capt. Nichols' company, with three men of St. George's, joined, his scout.
With thirty-one men he marched to Burton's garrison
1 Frontier Miss. p. 76.
2 Eaton's Annals, p. 94.
19
/- 290 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
below. Pressing still to the eastward, he crossed the river here, where a lone savage with his squaw and her infant papoose of sixty days lay by their camp fires.
MURDER OF MARGARET MOXA.
The valorous white men concentrated their fire on the defenseless and unwarned family group, and the death tale of thirty-one bullets reported a sanop slain, the squaw mor- tally wounded, and the papoose unscathed ! This done, the force rushed on to secure the plunder of their bleeding vic- tims, encountered the dying mother, still holding her babe, anxious only for its life, and in tlie silent but eloquent appeal of her condition to the white man's mercy, uttering the request that " her little nit might be taken to St. George's and delivered to Capt. Bradbury." One of the crew, more ruffianly than his fellows, civilized and Christian in name, but barbarous and brutal in fact, replied to the dying mother, " every nit will make a louse," and at a blow, dashed out the infant's brains before her eyes ! Such was the cruel fate of Margaret Moxa — a savage — but a woman and a mother, as she returned from the fort, on one of her accustomed errands of good will, to save her neighbors — the more savage white man — from impending perils.
Seizing the canoe to make sure his retreat, Cargill pushed on from this scene of atrocities to " Owl's Head," where at sunset, discovering a body of natives, he shot nine of their .number, tore off" their scalps, and returning to the fort, exhibited them as trophies of his valor and success ! Car- gill was apprehended and tried for murder, but was acquit- ■ted by the jury.
The cruel fate of Margaret Moxa was deeply deplored at ,the garrison. " Never shall I forget the deep and unappeas- able grief of the women of the fort," said one, " when they saw the scalp of her whom they had long regarded as a delivering angel ; " and the more humane and considerate
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 291
loudly condemned the act of Cargill, and confidently pre- dicted tliat its perpetrators " would never die in their beds." The prediction was realized in the history of. those in the company from about St. George's river. ^
HUGH Paul's adventure.
The Pauls ^ were cotemporary with the Drowns at Pem- aquid, and were in Drown's service while surveying out his claim. Hugh Paul was a burly Irishman. On his return to Bristol from a visit to Robert Hodge, on the Sheepscot shore, accompanied by Hodge as guide to the trail of spotted trees, through the dense forests of Ped-coke-go-wake, on the top of a hill over which their route lay, they encoun- tered a black bear, whose huge proportions encouraged a saucy demeanor. Bruin, rising upon his haunches, faced the travelers as if to dispute their progress by that'path. Hodge, taking counsel of his fears, thought discretion the
ietter part of valor ; but Hugh Paul, nothing daunted, larched boldly up to Bruin, saying, — "sure he never turned out of the way for any man yet, nor faitli would he for the baste." Hereupon drawing his jack-knife, which he carried between his teeth, and grasping a stone in each hand, he advanced, admonishing the unterrified brute of his duty to strangers, and the imprudence of his menacing attitude, saying, as he walked up, — " Get out of the way, you avil baste ; get out of the way ! An' faith sure, if ye don't, ye'll be sorry for it, ]\[isther ! " Bruin, heedless of the admonition, reckless of his personal safety, only bristled up the more, when Paul let fly a rock, which, hurled as from a cannon's mouth with force and precision, rebounded from Bruin's nose, and in the recoil brought the beast helpless to the ground. Paul, springing to the back of his prostrate
1 Eaton's Annals, p. 94, 95.''
2 L. Commiss. Reports, p. 59.
292 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
enemy, grasping the long hair of his shaggy neck for a bri- dle, mounted the bear, which, recovering his senses, thought it time to make good a retreat by taking to his heels. The wild Irishman ' astride, Bruin bolted for the bottom of the hill, wliile the knife of the rider, driven to the hilt in his throat, soon laid him breathless and lifeless on the ground, no more to rise. Such were the perils of a journey to Bris- tol by way of Newcastle, and the horsemanship of a believer in St. Patrick's power to shield, " becase he had drove all the toads, snakes, and frogs out of ' swate Ireland.' "
HOSTILITIES RENEWED.
All efforts to allay savage excitement proved unavailing. 'Out of the distant east, emerging from the smoke and driven by the thunder of war from under the walls of Louisburg, the savages broke in upon the St. George's river towns. The fort was attacked. Defeated in their efforts to capture it, they succeeded in firing the garrison house, the mills and dwelling-houses, destroying the cattle, and securing one cap- tive. The expedition against Louisburg had drained the country of its fighting men, who were wanted in defense of their homes.
Garrisoned houses were still the prevailing architectural style of human abodes ; and for more than a generation, having proved a refuge, these structures of massive timber trees presented insurmountable barriers to the success of savage arts in war. All went armed. All were skilled in the knowledge and interpretation of savage tokens. All had acquired habits of great vigilance ; and it was with the iitmost difficulty to effect a surprise.
Scouts of armed white men coursing the deep forest recesses gave no chance to the wary, skulking savage in a war-path beset with such perils.
R. SewaU, Esq.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 293
No inhabitant dared to venture unarmed far from his for- tified home, nor into remote parts of the town, unless in companies. While some wrought, others stood guardsmen ; those who went to the house of God bore their loaded mus- kets ; " those who remained at home kept guard." ^ The rapid, successive report of three muskets was the usual sig- nal of alarm.
CASUALTIES.
At Damariscotta, the Hustons, aunt and grandmother of John Huston, earliest among the re-settling planters there, were slain, and Mr. Huston was led into captivity. Fort Frederick at Femaquid was then assailed by July 19. the war party, which, approaching by stealth, de- scried a lone woman some three hundred yards distant. The opportunity of securing her scalp overcome all pruden- tial considerations. She was shot ; but the report of their fire-arms and the shrieks of their victim gave timely notice, and the returning crash of the shotted cannon and clouds of burning gunpowder from the embrasures and ports of the fort, soon enveloped all in darkness and consternation ; and amidst the confusion, the wounded woman cleared her keepers, rushed to the gates, and was saved.
But Lieut. Proctor met the war party with his force, and in the attack he slew two chieftains and Sept. 5. captured another.
Scalping parties prowled in the neighborhood of the white man's home, and hung about the by-ways an'd pasture- grounds of the white man's herds. At Sheepscot three men in their cornfields fell victims to the aim of more than a dozen Indians. Death leaped from every thicket, and lurked in every field.
Extermination was the watchword ; and especially was
I Sullivan, p. 189.
29-i ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
savage fury vented on the newly-opened clearings and advanced settlements, which were regarded as wanton inva- sions of their rights, holding that, by treaty stipulations, the English could dwell only '^ so far as the salt water flowed."
A large party fell upon the newly-colonized hamlet of Waldoboro' ; and this protegd of the Brigadier General was consigned to ruin. Unprepared for the onset, the poor Germans were slain and captured, and all were dispersed, some escaping to St. George's Fort, and others to Fort Fred- erick at Pemaquid.
The abandoned homes were reduced to ashes ; and the settlement lay a waste till the close of the war.
The herds about Pemaquid were wantonly slaughtered. A party of five persons, on their return from public worship at Sheepscot, fell into an ambush. Leisurely wending tlieir way homeward, unsuspicious of evil, a murderous fire was opened from the thickets upon tlicm. One fell dead. Another was mortally wounded, and facing the grim savage, who rushed out to secure his bleeding scalp, the woumled planter rose before liim, and by a well-directed shot, laid his tawny foe dead in his track. Tiu-ee escaped.
DEFENSES OF AVISC ASSET POINT.
On the rocky eminence projecting its spur into the waters of the Sheepscot, known as Wiscasset Point, stood the fort, a quadrangular structure of timber, surmounted with quad- rangular corner sentry posts, ' projecting from the upper stories, where the settlers of the Hooper plantation took refuge in times of peril. Covering a yet higher elevation back, overlooking the waters of the bay from the west, a garrison of massive timber commanded the approaches southward, and afforded the Williamson plantation an asy-
' Hon. S. Parsons.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 295
lum. Captain Williamson was a man of eminence at Wis- casset Fuint. As a military and as a civil officer, his posi- tion made him conspicuous and well known to the Indians. Going with others to hunt and drive home their cattle from their range, his two companions were suffered to pass an ambuscade unmolested, while he was taken captive. His captors treated him with much courtesy, alleging that they had been sent by the Governor of Canada to take some one to Quebec who could give him information as to the movements of the English. He was carried to Canada, but soon re- stored by an exchange. Many cattle of the herds about the point were slaughtered at the time ; and the settlement here, in the journal of a Mr. How, who at the same time was held in prison at Quebec, is spoken of as the " New Town on Sheepscot River," from which Capt. Jonathan Williamson had been taken and brought to prison. ^ About the same period James Kinlade, James and Samuel Ander- son, and a Mr. Adams were led from Sheepscot as captives to Canada.
HEROIC ACTION OP A SOLDIER AT ST. GEORGE.
A detachment of thirteen men left the fort at St. George, and entered the forests half a gun-shot distant to peel bark to cover the whale-boats of the garrison, and secure them from the weather. The party scattered, and some of them incautiously laid aside their arms, and strayed apart from their companions.
While thus dispersed, the Indians came upon them, and sprang in between them and their fire-arms, which were thus secured. They killed one man, wounded four, and captured the sixth. The remnant of the party rallied and stood their ground, and were soon supported by the entire garrison, and a retreat to the fort was successfully executed.
1 Drake's Tragedies, p. 138.
296 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
During the skirmish an incident of great coobiess and brav- ery occurred.
One of the soldiers, whose age retarded the progress of his flight, was liotly pursued. In the extremity of his case, the old man suddenly wheeled in the race, and bringing his musket to his eye, sent a leaden message of death just in time to arrest the upraised arm of his pursuer, while in the act of burying the keen-edged tomahawk in the brain of his victim ! The fire of the garrison held the savages at bay, and the old man seized and tore otf the scalp of his tawny foe as he lay bleeding at his feet, and took with him the bloody trophy of his valor into tlic fort.
McFARLAND'S MISFORTUNES.
John McFarland had made his plantation remote from the protecting guns of Fort Frederick. His fruitful and attract- ive plantation enamored liis heart, and he determined to enjoy its rural delights in defiance of the perils of his iso- lated position.
But the destroyer came. His herds were butchered in their feeding grounds. His fields were wasted. His habi- tation was burned down, and himself and his son, pierced with wounds, were left half-dead.
The savages continued their depredations, and hunted the life of the white man with the persistence and ferocity of despair ; for " the Indians killed every person that came in their way." ^
The fortified settlement at St. George's and Fort Freder- ick at Femaquid, often the objects of attack, the Indians liad determined to destroy. At break of day, one September morning — the usual time of attack — sixty painted braves, with a French commander, silently, slowly, and by stealthy approaches reached tlie vicinage of the fort at Pemaquid.
^ Wm. Bums's Deposition, L. Co. Commiss. Report.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 297
Unfortunately five men were descried at a distance from the protection of the guns. The prey was too tempting for the prudence of savage calculations, and these unwary men became the target for sixty bullets, which brought every ono to the ground dead and wounded. Assault was made on the fort, the surprisal having been defeated. For more than two hours the place was stormed. But the massive walls of stone, were impregnable, and could neither be scaled nor breached. Despairing of success, the assailants, repulsed and disheartened, retired to seek a more hopeful issue against the timber ramparts of St. George, but with no better suc- cess.
We have now reached a period in our history closing the dark, bloody, and continuous scene of savage strife, covering nearly three generations of human beings, in wliich the entire native race, under the shock of each conflict, had been forced to recede more and more, till tlicir ancient places had been made void. The entire race had become permanently displaced ; and nothing remained to disturb and oppose the intrusive white man but the convulsive reac- tion of its members, like the recoil of a quivering muscle, tenacious still of life though torn from its native trunk.
A solitary savage, burning with the resentments of his wasted people, occasionally lurked at the white man's door, or cowered in the thicket by his home, or prowled in the adjoining forests to take his life. The savage did not at once forget his wrongs, nor the white man his fears. The people generally dwelt in their garrisons, and occasional murderous outbreaks kept alive the public alarm.
MURDER AT WISC ASSET POINT.
A party of Kennebec Indians at "Wiscassct * came in collision with some of the residents at the Point. Dec. 2. From some unexplained cause a quarrel arose, and
• About 1750. Smith's Journal.
298 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
in its issue one Indian was slain and two were wounded. The parties, Obadiali Albee and Richard and Benjamin Hol- brook, were arrested on charge of murder. The circum- stances excited general apprehension and public concern. While confined at Falmouth, the criminals escaped, either by riotous measures or collusion of their custodians. A reward was offered for the arrest of the fugitives ; and Harnden, who made the arrest, and Wilson, the jail-keeper, were subjected to a legal investigation. The fugitives finally surrendered for trial on the charge of murder at York. Obadiah Albee Avas transferred to Salem for safe keeping, and an order was issued to the Essex justices " to have the jail guarded by six men, three of whom to be on constant watcli, lest Albee should escape and thus involve the Prov- ince in a war with the Indians." ^
From Salem Albee was sent back to York, where he was tried and acquitted of murder, but condemned for a feloni- ous assault. Government was disappointed and displeased, and the others Avcre taken to Massachusetts for trial. The chiefs of the Kennebec Indians, the relatives of the deceased, were solicited to be present at the trial. Thirteen Indians appeared, but tlie trial was deferred, the prisoners remanded to Yorksliire, and they probably escaped unwhipt of justice.
The aspect of affairs continued to lower and settle into deeper and darker gloom, wliich the Wiscasset homicide rendered more portentous and foreboding. Measures of retaliation and revenge were meditated. One Sept. 11. hundred warriors, heralded by ten thousand ter- rible rumors, emerged from the deptlis of the northern wilderness, and fell with fury upon the fort at Riclunond. Bleeding cattle came running for protection under the guns of the block-house, while many lay butch- ered around, a prey to the hungry savages.
1 Annals of Salem, vol. v. p. 439.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 299
The day was consumed in devastating the adjoining plantations. But the Indians let the favorable moment for decisive and successful action slip, and under cover of night, Capt. Goodwin and his command gained the fort. This circumstance disheartened the assailants, and they aban- doned the assault, and breaking up into small parties, scat- tered along each bank of the Kennebec, murdering and destroying all in their way.
SWAN ISLAND DESTROYED.
A portion of this war party fell on Swan Island, slaugh- tered the cattle, ravaged the fields, burned the habitations of the residents, and led some thirteen into bondage. James Whidden owned and occupied a portion of this fertile and romantic island. Its insular location at the confluence of the two rivers rendered " Swan Island " an important and conspicuous location as a desirable depot for trade with the aborigines.
At this time the daughter of Whidden, who was married to Lazarus Noble of Portsmouth, resided with her father. A garrisoned hamlet adorned this islet, which had from time immemorial been a favorite resort. ^ About the break of day, two lads went out of the block-house, and left open the gates ; and a number of Indians, watching the opportunity, rushed into the fort, and secured its unarmed occupants. "Whidden and his wife took to the cellar and escaped. Noble and his workmen, at tlie head of tlie stairway, de- fended the passage by firing upon the Indians as they forced their way up in defiance of the murderous discliarge. They pushed on without waiting to return the fire, and seized Noble and his wife and seven children, with Timotliy Whid- den and Mary Holmes. The prisoners were conducted to the water-side, where they were fast bound together. This
1 Tragedies of the Wilderness, p. 165 — 7.
300 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
done, the Indians returned and fired the premises, burning the storehouses and plundering the dwelling-places. Pom- roy, an aged shingle weaver, was captured in the neighbor- ing wood. Ha\'ing secured their plunder and captives, all marched for Canada ; but the aged and burdensome Pom- roy was shot, and the other captives safely delivered and sold at Quebec.
Fanny, a child of Noble, a year and one month old, was taken to the city of Montreal, where she became the prop- erty of the lady of St. Augd Charl^, a merchant of that city. To the kitchen of this*merchant the little Fanny had been taken by her Indian master.
The servant called Mdme. St. Xngd Chart's attention to the infant captive, which in rags and dirt crept over the tiles of the kitchen floor, in pursuit of the fallen crumbs and cooking offal lodged in the cracks.
The emotions of the maternal heart were at once stirred, when on noticing the famished child, it seized the lady's dress to hide its nakedness, and burst into tears. The appeal was irresistible. Mdme. St. Augd embraced the child. It clung to that embrace, and repaid the kindness with fond and childlike caresses. This lady had recently been made childless by the visitation of death.
The little Fanny was purchased, cleansed, and arrayed in the vestments of the deceased little one, and laid in her couch, while with infantile prattle and affection she endeav- ored to repay the debt she owed her benefactress. She was reared as a daughter, and the affection of the foster parents was heartily returned.
In the sequel, Fanny reached womanhood under genial influences, became attractive in person and acquirements, but public authority at length severed the ties between the foster parents and the child, and forced her return to her home, where she became a teacher of youth, and subse- quently married a gentleman of wealth. Her brother
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 301
Joseph, however, adopted the life and habits of the Indians, among whom he Hved and died as a member of the St. Francois tribe.
DRESDEN ASSAULTED.
From Swan Island a band of Indians passed up the east- ern river, and lurked about the outskirts of the Frankfort plantation. At sunrise, Poniroy was waylaid on his return from milking, and shot dead at his door ; but a Mr. Davis, who occupied a room in the same house, roused from his slumber by the report of the gun, sprang to the door, when the Indian thrust in his musket barrel. Davis seized the weapon, and with the aid of his women, wrested it from the Indian's grasp, who thereupon snatched up an infant child in the outer kitchen, and made off with it, while his fellow, from a covert in the neighboring field, shot Mr. McFarland, when the war party departed, carrying two men prisoners to Canada.
EXPEDITION AGAINST WISCASSET.
The main force of this body of northern Indians, leaving Fort Richmond, re-embarked and paddled down the Ken- nebec. At Long Reach it divided, one party diverging to the eastward by Hockomock, to destroy Wiscasset and the Sheepscot towns, and the other menacing Georgetown below. The dwelling-houses along the route were burned, and two prisoners were taken ; and the whole region would have been wasted, had the Sheepscot expedition succeeded in sur- prising the block-house at Wiscasset. A Mr. Hilton, an. emigrant from Dover, New Hampshire, was slain, and his son made captive.
BATTLE AT WISCASSET.
The whole country had become alarmed, and the settlers ran to their fortified places. Susan Colby was in her girl-
302 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
hood, and had gone with her mother into the garrison, whose sheltering stockade crowned a considerable eminence overlooking the bay and narrows, and commanding the Wil- liamson settlement below. The slope of the eastern front cleared for planting grounds, ran down to the shore margins of the bay in a well cultivated lawn, which encircled the hill-top south and west, and then fell off into a rocky and uncleared ravine on the north and cast.
A flotilla of canoes shot with the rays of early dawn around the head of Jeremy Squam Island, by Delano's gar- rison, and sped across the bay toward Hooper's plantation on the point above. The painted savages debarked near this point, and glided through the alder-swamps, around the Hooper's garrison toward that of Williamson on the more distant hill-top south.
Two small iron cannon were a part of the munitions of this defense. The party destined to surprise and sack the block-house crept from the swamp into the ravine and up the intervening steep to storm the place. As they lurked for an opportunity to begin the assault, Obadiah Albee ' and Andrew Florence went out to stretch their pigeon nets on the western slope in rear of the garrison. They had hardly accomplished their design ere the report of their fire-arms and the shout of battle revealed the proximity of the sava- ges. Florence fell dead, and Albee, wounded, retreated toward the garrison gates, facing the pursuing Indians with his fire-lock presented, which held theln at bay till he had entered and was safe.
Meanwhile the alarm had been given, and the garrison roused to arms for defense. The cannon were charged heavily with musket balls, scraps of iron, and other deadly missiles, and trained to bear on the thickets, where were seen gliding the bodies of the savage foe. The match was
1 Mrs. Ilolbrook. Mrs. Colebj's Narrative.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 303
applied, and amid the roar of their discharge and the crash of faliiug limbs and tree-tops, the death yells and whoops echoing long and loud througli the deep forests, told that it was not without effect. A reception as unlooked for as it was fatal filled the savages with dismay.
HAUNTED GULLY.
Tlie noise of battle borne on the wings of the still morn- ing drew a scouting party from its patrol between Dresden and Sheepscot toward the scene of conflict, which, coming suddenly up in the rear, cut off the retreat of the Indians to their canoes. They then fled toward Woolwich, so hotly pursued that a warrior was left to the white man's burial in the ravine where he fell, on the brink of the gully to the nortli of the garrison, whose headless trunk, in ghastly and gory aspect, was wont to hold nightly vigils near the spot, and watch over the bloody grave in mute and terrible silence, beckoning to tlie terror-stricken traveler ; and in the traditions of a superstitious age, on account of these night visions of this horrible phantom savage, the passage was called the " Haunted Gully." Delano's garrison ^ com- manded the point of the upper extremity of Westport, in early times a central and conspicuous position, and which afforded a safe retreat to the settlers on " Je-won-ke Neck," below the Hooper and Williamson plantations. On the Woolwich bank of Monseag river, midway in the angle formed by tlie old and new intersecting Bath roads, stood the Hilton garrison.
MRS. Delano's escape.
Mrs. Delano and her daughter were wont to pass over by /vater to their plantation on the neck below, near where the burial place of the primitive settlers on Je-won-ke, ( now a
1 Mrs. Cushman.
304 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
dense forest of tall grown pines along the river banks ) is found.
On one occasion, the daughter became terror-stricken with evil presentiments, while she and her mother plucked the weeds from tlieir homestead garden. It was the custom with the Indians to lie in wait near the white man's haunts for days together to secure a victim. Like wolves they prowled about his door, or laid in his path. Urged by what then seemed the unreasonable fears of her child, the mother consented to depart, and they had hardly put off beyond bullet distance when a sava<»;e rose under the river's bank and fired. Mrs. Delano and her daughter escaped.
DEATH OF BOYNTON.
But Hilton, his son, son-in-law, and a Mr. Boynton, resi- dents of the Monseag plantation, were less fortunate. Leav- ing the garrison for the scene of their labor, they crossed to the opposite bank of the narrow river, where they were clearing land. A party of Indians lurked in a barn, near their place of labor, and as soon as the men had scattered in the prosecution of their toil, they were fired upon. The elder Hilton fell wounded to his knees, in which attitude he fought with the utmost desperation, till overcome by fatigue, loss of blood, and numbers, lie was at length slain ^ out- right. His son was killed at the first fire. Boynton, un- harmed, fled and sought concealment under a log covered with brush heaps. While thus hid from view, his dog, at- tracted to the spot by the scent of his master's body, stood over the place of his concealment, whining. The circum- stance discovered his master's retreat to those who sought his blood. Boynton was tomahawked. The whole transac- tion was in view of the garrison, where Mr. Gray, an aged but resolute man, defended the women and children ; and
1 Mi"s. Cushman and Boynton.
ANTE-RE VOLUTIO NARY PERIOD. 305
as the savages re-crossed the river near to the garrison, and passed near to it with one of the Hiltons a prisoner, he recklessly rushed out, leaving the garrison gates open, to get a shot at the murderers. He succeeded in cutting through the belly of the tallest savage by a well-directed musket ball, who, gathering his broken stomach in his hands, ran with savage yells into the forest near, and whose bloody trail indicated that he had received a fatal wound.
WISCASSET PLANTERS MASSACRED AT PEMAQUID.
The abundance of alewives in Pemaquid River was a source of subsistence to the neighboring settlers. It was a custom to visit this point to obtain a supply of these fish in their season. From the Hooper settlement a party ^ of five men went to Pemaquid by way of the Sheepscot on a fishing excursion. The fish-place was above Fort Frederick. On reaching it, while busied in the catch, the party were sud- denly attacked by the Indians, and all slain but one, who managed to escape, and eluding his pursuers, slipped under the roots of a mighty hemlock upturned, where in close con- cealment he lay till the savages departed. As he crouched in his hiding-place with breathless anxiety, he could hear the tread of the savage panting above him, till foiled, he withdrew from the pursuit.
The survivor crawled from his hiding-place, and returned to Wiscasset by way of Damariscotta ; and a body of armed men immediately visited the scene of slaughter, where they found the decaying corpses of their slaughtered neighbors, to which they gave sepulture on the spot where tliey fell.
Captain Williamson was again captured. The men at Hooper's garrison had left for Vaughan's mills, and William- son remained to guard the women and children. Ventur- ing out a short distance to an alder swamp, not far from the^
I R. Sewall, Esq.'s, Narrative.
20
306 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
site of the Episcopal cliurch in Wiscasset, a scout of Indians seized and led him away. His cry alarmed the garrison, which now occupied alone by resolute women, was by them successfully defended by stratagem. To deceive their cred- ulous enemies, disguised in the attire of their husbands and fathers, the women exhibited themselves to view in military array as men mustering for battle ! Alarmed by these movements, the savages Avould know of their captive the force of the place, when Williamson ' held up all his fingers in such countless array as to persuade them that discretion was the better part of valor. The alarm guns recalling the men on their way to Sheepscot, their unexpected appearance added speed to their flight toward Canada.
TOPSHAM.
A garrison was now constructed near the site of • 1756. Topsham, one of the Merry Meeting towns which had grown up from the early clearings at Pleasant and Fulton's Points and the mouth of Muddy River, where some eighteen families now resided ; and the defense of the place was in charge of Capt. Lithgow.
The triangular conflict between France, England, and Spaui involved the frontiers of New England by exciting the ancient allies of France to active and violent measures. Burton's garrison was attacked, two men scalped, and one wounded. Coasting vessels were captured and burnt, and fishing vessels on the coast with their crews were destroyed. During these conflicts the warrior Poland was shot at Wind- ham, by the aim of the noted Manchester ; and his body, blackened and pierced, was buried beneath the roots of an upturned pine bent from its place, so that the return should make both his grave, and do the rites of sepulture to the .fearless chieftain.
1 Mrs. Cuahman.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 307
DEATH OF RUTHERFORD.
In the midst of these commotions, Rev. Robert Ruther- ford, the religious teacher of Gov. Dunbar, the father of the poUcy and faith of tlie Kirk of Scotland, here died at his post, sixty-eiglit years of age, whose pious sympathy and counsel were now lost to the distressed and war-worn inhab- itants on the river of the St. George, — the pioneer herald of the cross in the East, whose ashes yet repose on its banks, and over whose now peaceful and thrifty homes of a gener- ation then unborn, his sanctified spirit, with those of the ancient dead, there may hover.
Preble's massacre.
Arrowsic was again menaced. Its northern extremity had become a central point, on account of the garrison house of Preble, one of the earliest re-settling inhabitants of tlie Arrowsic towns. A ferocious band of savages landed at Preble's Point, and shot Mr. Preble while at work in his planting grounds. Mrs. Preble, busied in her household, duties at a table near the wooden window, the shutter of plank ajar, caught a glimpse of the shadow of a savage on the wall. She turned and sprang for the firelock hanging above the manteltree, and while in the act of grasping it with her arms outstretched toward the piece, a ball from the unerring Indian's aim through the opened shutter pierced her heart, ^ and she fell dead on the hearth-stone.
The children, a son and two daughters, were spared for captivity ; and they were treated with unwonted affection and kindness during their perilous traverse of the pathless wilderness to Canada. But the inhumanity of their savage captors was fully attested, although the children were often carried in savage arms, and made the participants of every savage luxury.
1 Narrative of the widow of Rev. Samuel Sewall.
308 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ATTACK ON HARNDEN'S GARRISON.
At a point called " The Ferry," oij the Kennebec, stood the garrison of Harnden, about which clustered the chief settlement of the Nequaseag purchase by Bateman and Brown, now known as Woolwich.
In the attack of this party of savages. Miss Motlierwell, eighteen years of age, happening beyond the gates, was seized. She was related to tlie children of the Preble fam- ily, now captives of tliis war party. Annoyed by the cries of the infant child of the murdered Trebles, the Indians put it to the breasts of the captured girl, and bade her give it suck. With a heart full of pity for the famished babe, with tears she replied, " I am not a mother." Snatching •the little one from her embrace, her savage master dashed its head against a rock, and at one blow ended its complaints and its life ! The garrison, however, was not taken ; and the savages retired, after having met a like result in an attempt on the garrison on tlie lower end of Arrowsic, and turned their fury against the herds and cattle of the inhab- itants, doing all the mischief in their way.
But Commander Lithgow, of the Topsham fort, 1757. did not escape unscathed. An ambusli surprised his small command. Two were wounded at the first fire ; but in the skirmish Avhich followed the debt was paid by the fall of two of the Indians. Disheartened at length, the savages withdrew, carrying off the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, but meeting an opportunity, retaliated the injury by slaying two white men on their passage up the river.
THE CAPTURE AT LONG REACH.
The homestead of Robert Gutch, " Long Rcacli," seems to have been peculiarly exempt from the casualties of savage assault. But Philbrook, one of the earliest re-settling occu-
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 309
pants of this ancient plantation, with his Irishman Maloon, were surprised at their plow, and captured by a scout. Hav- ing crossed "Whisgeag"on their way northward, before they were suffered to rest, the Irishman suddenly roused from his apparently lethargic state, with marked indifference to his state, coolly asked of his master, " And who will take care of the oxen to-night?" "And sure, I'll soon do it myself," he added, in reply to the echoes of his own voice, on perceiving the offense his apparent levity had given his master.
Reaching the St. Lawrence, Maloon was sold to a ship, about setting sail. At the mouth of the river this ship was captured, and taken into Boston, where Maloon was released, and in less than six weeks after his capture, reached his old home at " Long Reach."
" TWENTY cow PARISH."
The plantation, now stirred with the movings of a self- reliant independence, petitioned, and was set off from the metropolis of the Kennebec on Arrowsic, as a separate ecclesiastical existence. The new parish was the nucleus of a new town. The movement was viewed with suspicion and treated with contempt by its metropolitan parent, and in derision called the " Tive,nty Cow Parish " by the self-com- placent residents of Georgetown on Arrowsic.
We have now sketched the last acts of savage aggression that have tinged the history of settlements on the Sagadahoc, and while horrible visions of barbarism have afflicted our view in the repeated desolation of the Arrowsic towns, adorning the east bank of the Sagadahoc, the ancient mis- sionary home of Robert Gutch — " Long Reach" — then the " Twenty Cow Parish" — now the "City of Bath" — appears to have had a happy exemption from tlie scenes of blood and devastation which have overwhelmed the adjoining eastern plantations.
310 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ASPECT OP THE EAST.
In the east the spirit of savage resentment lingered still for vengeance on the encroaching white man. Government was anxious to cultivate amicable relations with the Penobscots, and under its commanders at George's, was accustomed to hold friendly interviews under the protection of a wliite flag.
KELLOCK'S ACHIEVEMENT.
A body of about forty Indians had concentrated in the neighborhood of Tliomaston. A scout of eighteen men per- sisted in following their trail. In an hour the scout return- ed with a single scalp, under the following circumstances.
The Indians had been into the fort, and when they de- parted were warned to beware of the block-house men. Their departure was known to Alexander and David Kellock, wlio started in pursuit with their men, in close Indian file. The night was dark. A mile distant, a solitary pack lay by the path side. Arrested by this, the pursuing party discovered the Indians a little off the road. Interpreting the pack to be set for a decoy, each man gave his file-leader a grip. Thus the party were brought to a silent halt. A second elapsed, and the loud snore of a sleeping savage betrayed liis place of repose, wlien tlie flash of a musket, and the passage of its ball, revealed the unconscious sleeper, in a prodigious leap, falling back into the arms of death !
Him they scalped. At once, on both sides of the way, the flash of fire-arms and the rattle of musketry unmasked an ambuscade. The whoops of the Indians, the shouts of the white men, and the flashes of musketry were the only marks of the contending races, till the darkness forced a separa- tion.
The garrison house of Elwell at Meduncook was attacked. The father and two sons held the door. The place was lighted with port-holes morticed tlirough the timber, in place of windows. The wife and mother stationed at the port-holo
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 311
with the pistol of her hiishand, fired at the shadows darken- ing her hght, and very soon the yells of a wounded Indian wakened the echoes of the forests, and called his comrades to his succor, when the party withdrew.
PERILS OF FRONTIER LIFE.
The house of a Mr. Piper, at Broad Bay, was, hefore the morning light had fairly dawned, made the point of an am- buscade. On opening his door, Piper, coming out for wood, was shot dead. His wife, in the greatest consternation, seized her sick infant, and fled to the cellar through a trap door, which was closed upon her. The outside door was securely barricaded. Returning to guard the door, which resisted the efforts of the Indians to break down, her infant left in its place of concealment below, tlie heroic mother was shot from without through the door. Thus securing entrance, the war party plundered the house, but the infant was left undiscovered and unharmed in its retreat.
While defending the laborers engaged in hauling wood to a coasting sloop,' Capt. Kent, Remely with his scout at Broad Bay were alarmed by the report of fire-arms a mile north of then- position. Rumor shortly after announced that a woman had been slain on the east shore at the narrows. In the sloop's boat a detachment was sent to the scene of the murder, where " the.body of a man was found at tlie edge of a wood, and the woman at the house, shot, scalped and stabbed and mangled. The axe was lying by the man, and the Indian hatchet was left where it had been struck, buried in the woman's skull."
It seems the man and his wife and son had left the garri- son for their plantation. The man went to his field. The wife and son remained at the house. Having killed the husband and father, an Indian came into the house and set
1 Remely's Journal.
312 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
his gun at the heart of the sick child, which missed fire. The mother then sprang on the Indian, pitched him out of doors and fastened tliem against him. But through a crevice the Indian got sight of his victim, and killed the mother, "while the son crept into the cellar and escaped.
We have here an unvarnished picture of the perils of frontier life in the new settlements of the Ancient Dominions in the days which tried men's souls.
FINAL DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH AND INDIANS.
Governor Pownal had succeeded Shirley, and the
1758. long projected expedition of a combined French and Indian movement upon St. George's Fort, for the ut- ter destruction of all the eastern settlements, began its dem- onstrations. The activity and energy of Pownal, however, forestalled its movements ; and by throwing into the eastern defenses a large supply of men and subsistence, and going in person to receive the enemy, he thwarted their plans.
Within thirty-six hours after, a force of four hundred French and Indians appeared. An assault was made, but no impression on the place, the defenders of which no menaces could intimidate. Disheartened and foiled, the besieging force withdrew, and venting their rage upon the inoffensive herds, which were butchered in merciless profusion, the body retired.
wolfe's victory.
Such was the issue of the last attempt of the savage
1759. and his allies to expel the English race from their homes, in these ancient hunting grounds. The in- trepid Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham under the walls of Quebec, had now forever settled tlie question of the suprem- acy of Prance on American soil in a pitched battle, the issue of which, with the life of the hero, extinguished the power of France in the western world. The ties of sympathy
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 313
which had hitherto swayed the savage hordes bordering on our north-eastern frontiers, by this great event were effect- ually loosened. It paralyzed forever the hand that had so long trained barbarian men to a cruel and bloody service.
The northern hive still swarmed, but was at once emptied of the evil spirit which had so long and so successfully brooded over dark designs, in which fanaticism, superstition, and bigotry had fostered their purposes of blood.
The effects of the fall of Quebec placed the Canadas in the hands of the government of England. Simultaneously with this mighty military achievement of Wolfe in tbe north, Gov. Pownal puslied the most formidable frontier defenses up Penobscot Bay in tlie east. On a crescent-sliaped eleva- tion, overlooking the west margins of this magnificent body of water, near its head, in the town of Prospect, a block- house and barracks, environed with strong earth-works, were so constructed as to command the ingress and egress to the river above from the bay below. The newly erected works were called Fort Pownal, and effectually restrained and overawed the eastern Indians, now disheartened and de- serted of their ancient allies. Permanent peace began now to dawn, and tlie European race was left unmolested to secure a permanent foothold on the soil where it had so long contended for a new home, at a sacrifice of generations of blood and peace. New towns sprang up rapidly, as changes in the civil organizations of the ancient dominions of Maine, and the increase of its population warranted.
Tlic ancient Nequaseag, the home of Mohotiwormet, the purchase of the early Pemaquid planters, Bateman and Brown, the birth-place of Sir William Phips, was incorpo- rated as Woolwich, a name derived and suggested from the relation of its locality to the Reach in Sagadahoc, like to that of a town in England of the same name on the river Thames.
Tlie rapid and mighty changes now sketched had over-
314 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
1760. whelmed the remnants of the aboriginal race with utter despair, in its efforts to stay or turn back the tide of civilization by force. The spirit of resistance was cowed and crushed ; and the aborigines, worn out and wasted, left to their fate by the power that had so long pampered their prejudices for selfish and sinister ends, now sought tlie protection and the fruits of peace under the shadow of the people they had so long and so ruthlessly sought to destroy.
Peace was made. General Preble at Fort Pownal ^ was visited by the Penobscots, who said they wished to dwell near the fort, and enjoy the protection, neighborhood, and friendship of the English. k>ockaiteon, Sockebasin, with two other chiefs went to Boston, and entered into Apr. 29. a treaty with the Governor of Massachusetts, which has remained to this day.
BREAKIXa UP OF UARUISON LIFE.
The necessity having ceased, garrisoned homes were deserted. Tiie inhabitants returned to their farms and dwelling-places, and the block-houses, grim and unsightly monuments of dangers past, were left to solitude and decay.
Captives returned to homes, no more to be disturbed with the howl of the war-whoop and the gleam of the battle-axe. Yorkshire became bloated with life, struggling to extend its domain for a more independent exercise of its civil functions, and was broken in two.
LINCOLN COUNTY ORGANIZED.
The territory within which the scene of o\ir
June 19th. narrative is laid, the eastern fragment of the
sundered Yorkshire, was at once organized into
a new civil division, and called Lincoln County ; and the
1 Williamson's Hist, vol ii. p. 344.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 315
precincts of Frankfort setttlement, on the " Man-doos-co- took," and that of the Hooper plantation at " Wissacas- sick " Point, were incorporated as " Fovvnalboro '," and made the shire-town or metropolis of the new county. Thus the ancient Sagadahoc, Slieepscot, and Pemaquid plantations of the colonial period — the ducal State of James II. of England — were, in the revolutions of time, merged again into one body, which continues to the present day, an embodiment of what was the ancient dominions of Maine, if we except the recently projected fragment, hardly yet fixed in its own orbit on the west, and still a satellite of Lincoln from which it has been struck off, appropriately named Sagadahoc County.
ASPECT OF SOCIETY.
The circumstances of peril and the protracted scenes of barbarian life, through which the entire generation had struggled, of course had imparted to the population of this region a wild and barbaric character.
Unused to any of the luxuries of civilized life, or indeed the comforts of home, the hope of securing tlie enjoyment of simple existence undisturbed by rude alarms — safe from savage assault, — was an acquisition in which all other inter- ests merged, and which was the great end and aim of enter- prise and effort.
FRONTIER MISSIONARY.
The details of Mr. Bailey's experience, the missionary at Pownalboro', ought not to excite our surprise so much as our regret.
Few roads had been opened, and along the banks of the rivers and sea-board, the settlements — or plantations as then called — were accessible only by water.
" In summer, the canoe held the place of the wheeled car- riage ; while in winter, the icy surface of the frozen river
316 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
formed the priiicii^al highway for the sleigh and even for the ox-sled with its heavy load." ^ Of course, the inhabitants were poor and ignorant, " without the means of religious or secular instruction."
POWNALBORO'.
Pow-nal-boro', a town perpetuating the remembrance of the administration of Governor Powiial, now was peopled by " one hundred and fifteen families ; " and its western in- habitants were in danger of " losing all sense of religion," or of becoming tlie dupes of " Popish missionaries." They were frontier men. " Barred from the advantageous culture of the soil by their exposure to the incursions of a barbarous race — a terrible foe — their poverty was extreme." ~ The site of the fort at Richmond embraced a chapel, and its clearings, " a farm ; " and this military depot afforded Mr. Bailey a home, and was the scene of his official duties as a center, at the outset ; and this opening, though a frontier military station, is said to have " peopled very fast."
Mr. Bailey had now congregations at Pownalboro' 1762. and Georgetown, the ancient metropolis of the valley of the Kennebec, numbering more than " fifty com- municants ; " ^ and the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Planta- tions were reckoned among tlie " new settlements ; " while the valley of the Kennebec, within the range of Mr. Bailey's parochial labors, embraced a population of " seven tliousaud souls ; " ^ and thougli a resident of Richmond Fort, and of- ficiating in its chapel, the most of liis parishioners were res- idents on the opposite side of tlic river, and in Pownalboro.
The aborigines of the land still lingered near the places of their ancient and favorite resorts, barbarism lagging in
1 F. Miss. p. 78.
2 F. Miss. p. 256, note E.
3 F. Miss. p. 81.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 317
its retreat, retarded by the instincts and associations of af- fection.
" A great number of Indians " frequented the neighbor- hood. They were the remains " of the ancient and formid- able Norridgewock tribe," still leading " a rambling life" ; very savage in dress and manners ; eking out a precarious subsistence entirely " by hunting," having a language of their own, but universally speaking French ; devoted child- ren of the Romish church, tlieir aversion to the English was implacable, whom they " would extirpate because French missionaries had taught them to believe they were the mur- derers of the Savior of mankind ! " Such is a graphic sketch of the fragments of a broken and fast-receding race, who were the neighbors of the early inhabitants of Wiscasset and Dresden.
The picture drawn of the population of this then frontier section is full of interest and instruction. The people were thinly settled along the river banks, " were in general so poor, not to say idle, that their families almost suffered for necessary food and clothing. They lived in miserable huts which scarce afforded them shelter from the inclemency of the weather. Their lodgings were worse than tlieir food, clothing, or habitation. j\IuUitudes of children were obliged to go barefooted the whole winter, with clothes hardly cover- ing tlieir nakedness ; half their houses were without chim- neys ; many had no beds but heaps of straw, and whole families subsisted, for months together, on potatoes roasted in the ashes." ^ This certainly is a sorry picture of the primi- tive squalidness and misery of the inhabitants of the metrop- olis of Lincoln County. They were residents, liowever, still of a " wilderness country," whose physical condition was deeply tinged with the hues, and darkly sliaded with the wildness of a wilderness home in every feature of life and character.
1 F. Miss. p. 88.
318 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
The religious aspect of the people was equally dark in its lights and shadows. " Eight ditfereiit religious persuasions" filled up the outlines of the religious view. " Multitudes could neither read nor write — some had very gross and imperfect notions of a future state, and fancied that they should enjoy their wives and children in another world ; and those born and educated in these remote parts were so little acquainted with any religious worship, and had so long enjoyed their native ignorance, that they discovered hardly any inclination for rational and moral improvement." ^
The heathen, at that day, could not have commanded the yearnings of humanity, or roused the sympathy of Christian organizations as now, or the woods of Pownalboro' would have rung with echoings from the cliff-tops of Old England and the sand hills of Plymouth — " Ye Christian heroes, go proclaim ! "
A church missionary did at length penetrate this wild, and such was the result of his observation. The French and Dutch residents of Frankfort, the history of whose col- onization we have given, he tells us " he found in general a sober, honest, and industrious set of people."
Mr. Bailey's experience here, in the varied and fatiguing incidents of missionary service, will give us a view of the nature of that service, and of the trials, fiitigucs, perils, and accompaniments of frontier life in the primitive state of this and the adjoining towns. He writes, — "I officiate at Georgetown every third Sunday ; " to do which "he had to travel by Avatcr eighteen miles," sometimes without any- thing to eat or drink, lost in the woods, where he was all night exposed in the open air to a most severe storm of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.
In the east, especially in the towns re-peopled by the Scotch-Irish of the Dunbar emigration, greater thrift, more
1 F. Miss. p. 89.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 319
intelligence, and a better religious state seemed to obtain, the result of greater intelligence, more religious principle, decision of character, and habits of industry.
bogg'8 adventure.
Sheep, from the older settled agricultural regions of the Pemaquid, were now first introduced to the banks of St. George and Penobscot rivers. A Mr. Boggs, an amateur in this branch of husbandry, had gathered a flock from the pastures of Pemaquid on the deck of his sloop ; and while leisurely wafted over the waters of the intervening bay, bound for St. George's, as he sat on the windlass, became drowsy, and began to nod, when the father of the flock — a pugnacious ram — mistaking the captain's nods for a chal- lenge, drew up, and with a well-directed blow, butted the sleeping owner headlong from his seat. Boggs, thoroughly roused by the concussion, sprung to his feet in a rage, and seizing the ram, precipitated him into tlie sea ; and in an instant, the flock, following their leader, were floating in the ocean around him ! ^
LONG reach.
" Long Reach," the newly incorporated second parish of Georgetown, had begun ^ the erection of a house of relig- ious worship, on the spot where, a century before, Robert Gutch made his plantation, and preached Christ. The banks of the Sagadahoc, at " Long Reach," were still embow- ered with the primeval forests of white oak, hoary pines and spruce, tall and large, sufficient to mast and spar "• ships of four hundred ton," which made the landscape so strongly to resemble the " pastures of England" in the eyes of the ship's company of the Archangel a century and a lialf before.
1 Eaton's Annals, p. 112. 9 M. II. Coll. vol. ii. p. 208.
320 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
SOURCES OF THE NAYAL EMINENCE OF BATH.
The great abundance of material adapted to the structure of ships laid the foundation there for the present eminence of Bath, as a place for naval architecture. ^ Shipwrights, from Digby of London, the builder of the " Virginia," to William Phips, son of the gunsmith of Pemaquid, down to William Swanton, the Louisburg soldier, all appreciated in " Long Reach" the peculiar facilities for the building of ships, in the material of its forest oaks and pines. The place at once became a center of interest to artisan ship- wrights. Swanton " was a shipbuilder by trade, industrious and skillful," though Jonathan Philbrook had preceded him in the structure of smaller vessels.
The " Earl of Bute," for a merchant of Scotland, was the first ship built witliin the limits of the city of Bath — the keel stretched — the frame set up — the structure com- pleted, whose mammoth hull was launclied by Swanton the first year of his residence at Long Reach. The " Rising Sun," the " Moon," the " Black Prince," followed in nearly annual succession the " Earl of Bute," into the waters of Sagadahoc, from the yard of this gentleman, and out of the forests on the margin of Long Reach.
It was undoubtedly tlie abounding primeval bordering forests of white oak — the remains of whose forests lie scat- tered along the ancient Ncquaseag and Sagadahoc rivers to this day — that laid the foundations of the pre-eminence of Bath, as a center of interest and success, and a conspicuous mart for naval architecture in tlie United States, if not in the Avorld, which lately has distinguished it as the " Queen City of Ship-yards." Some dozen dwelling-houses now clustered on the margins of " Long Reach," in the midst of which the rudimentary structure of a village church began to lift its spire ; and Joseph Berry, Samuel Brown, Joshua
1 M. H. Coll. vol. ii. p. 208.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 321
Pliilbrook, Benjamin Thompson, and Joseph White were the official parish personages ; ^ while Lieut. James Springer, the innholder, Isaiah Crooker, Lieut. John Lemont, Capt. Nathaniel Donnells, Moses Hodgkins, David Trufant, and Brient Robinson, at Winnegance, were the principal citizens.
ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES.
The garrison at George's was now dismissed, and the pub- lic property sold off at auction, except the fort, tlie guns, and the ammunition, which were left in charge of the late commander. Justice North ; and the Scottish settlers, who had till now remained in the pay of garrison service ^ — "a pious and exemplary people" — were dispersed through the region.
The metropolitan character of Pownalboro' as a shire town had infused among the crude elements of society there, an official aristocracy, by tlie residence of county officers and gentlemen in the legal profession, which exercised a controlling inflnence over the poor native population of the town. The center of this aristocracy had its seat on the eastern bank of the Kennebec, opposite Richmond, within the western precincts of the town.
A feature growing out of this circumstance, Mr. Bailey has disclosed, which finally became a terrible source of annoyance to this gentleman. The isolation of the place, and its great remoteness from the influence of communities of higher elevation in the social grade fav^ored " great abuses of power." " Amid the poverty which so generally pre- vailed, few would dare to oppose in any way the wishes of men of wealth and influence, to whom, perhaps, many were indebted for supplies for their families, and wlio, having a part in the administration of the law, might harass and even ruin an obnoxious individual."
1 M. H. Coll. vol. ii. pp. 211, 212.
2 Eaton's Annals, pp. 120, 122.
21
322 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
"It was Mr. Bailey's misfortune to incur the ill will of some of these officials," says his narrator. Two in partic- ular trave to the self-denying, laborious missionary their spe- cial official displeasure, and " sought to ruin him and break up the church in that region ; " and it is a great pity the blot of their names on their official position has not been left on the page of history to public execration, that the children of such unwortliy sires, though founders of the county, miglit make some atonement to civilized society and Christian profession, by pointing tlie finger of scorn to the plague spot of their fame, as a warning to the dastardly spirit of a self-complacent but too often mean and cowardly official egotism. Under the mask of a " Dissenter," one of these official dignitaries would visit the place of prayer, *' where lie would beluive with great indecency," contriving, " by a multitude of boyish tricks, to make the women smile," in contempt of the presence and worship of God ; and when sacred offiirings were solicited, tliis official clown in the sanctuary " used often to put into the contribution box, soap, and, on one occasion, a pack of cards." ^
It is with just pride and commendation to the historian, that the character and conduct of the " common people " — the early yeomanry of the sliire-town of Lincoln County — though poor, yet honest and true to the instincts of human- ity, can be sketched in perfect contrast, " as never disposed to follow the example of tlie gentlemen of Pownalboro'." On the contrary, the citizens at large " were more kind and generous" to the persecuted man of God, and more constant on his sacrod ministrations, as it became more apparent it was the purpose of tlio official gentlemen " to drive away the mission from Pownalboro'."
In the east, a precinct of the same town, a hamlet had grown up, washed by the waters of the bay formed by a
I F. Miss. p. 94.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 323
point of land designated bj the aboriginal name of " "Wis- sa-casset," whose rock-bound margins shear the tides of the upper Sheepscot through narrows seaward.
This precinct, embracing the point in the south-east ex- treme of Pownalboro', gave sixty-four names to the peti- tion for an act of incorporation ; and by the interest of its wealthy Boston proprietors, it became the depot of the com- merce and export trade of the valley, and " the sea-port of the Kennebeck ; " and at this date, Wiscasset was the only place of commercial importance ^ east of Portland, from which all foreign export, after passing down the Ken- nebec as far as Bath, went into the " Cross river " to Sheep- scot, and thence to Wiscasset for shipment. Thomas Rice, Esq., was the first representative of Pownalboro' to the Gen- eral Court ; and Rowland Cushing — " a very personable man " — practiced law as a resident at the Wiscasset village.
NOBLEBORO'.
Vaughn, the original occupant of the site, and the founder of the Damariscotta Mills village, had now deceased ; and Jonas Fitch, an officer under Gov. Winslow in the erection of Forts Halifax and Western, a Lieut, under Maj. Good- win, and a commandant of the rangers between Brunswick and St. George, had now taken up his abode there on Vaughn's interest, beginning at Winslow's garrison, and extending to a place called " Indian Hill," on the west side, a place not embraced within any township, having seven cot- tages, two double saw-mills, and one grist-mill. James Noble had succeeded to tlie rights of Vaughn, now deceased, and was the master spirit of the Vaughn settlement. He laid the foundations of a town Avhich bears to this day the name of Nobleboro'. The site of Noblcboro', covering an eight miles square tract of land, was originally the property
1 M. H. Coll. vol. iv.p. 45. R. H. Gardiner, Esq.
324 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
of John Brown of New Harbor. But Vaughn had entered and acquh'ed possession under the Dunbar titles, and his right thereto he maintained at law, against the rights by purchase of the aborigines, as decided by the Common Pleas and Superior Court at York, in an action of ejectment brought^ by Tappan. The titles by Dunbar grants were thus sustained.
ABANDONMENT OP MILITARY DEFENSES.
The process of dismantling the public works at 1764. St. George's and Pemaquid, as public confidence in the prospects of continued peace became confirmed, ■was now completed. But the military organization of the arms-bearing pviblic was continued under a body called the militia, of which the Regimental Muster was a chief feature. The first military display of citizen soldiery in a muster field was on " Limestone Hill," Thomaston, under command of Col. Cargill of Newcastle, who headed the regimental display in the simple costume of a " pea-jacket and com- marny cap." ^
Thomas Goldthwait succeeded General Preble in the com- mand of Fort Pownal in the east, and Wm. Lithgow, Fort Halifax in the west.
INCORPORATION OF TOPSHAM.
The west shores of Merry Meeting Bay on its south-west- ern margin had become adorned with a liamlet, which had grown up from the site of the ancient Gyle's Plantations. Distinguished by a church, a development of the faith and zeal of the early Scotch-Irish immigration under the patron- age of Robert Temple, wliich centered here as 1764. one of its principal points, this hamlet became the
1 Lincoln Commiss. Reports, p. 106. York Records, Judgment of Vaughn vs. Tappan, A i.
2 Eaton's Annals, p. 130.
ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, 325
micleus of a new town, and was incorporated as Tops- ham.
The scene of Levett's \nsit, the ancient Cape Ne-wagen, the Townsend of Gov. Dunbar's administration, was also incorporated as Boothbay ; and the ancient Jamestown of the Ducal State, New Harbor of Pemaquid, Walpole, and Harrington, of the Dunbar Settlements, were consolidated and incorporated into one town, by the name of Bristol, in commemoration of the English home of its earliest settlers, the ship-wrecked voyagers of the Angel Gabriel, which was stranded in the waters of Pemaquid Bay, a century and more than a generation before.
CHAPTER YIL
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.
We have noticed the disturbances growing out of the question of property in the white pines of Maine, 1764. and the initial differences which had consequently arisen, as to the rights of royal prerogative and the privi- leges of the lumbermen of Maine. m
A question as to the salary of the Royal Governor had also now begun to agitate the popular branch of the Legis- lature of the Colonial Government of Massachusetts Bay.
To discover, punish, and crush out the rising spirit of dis- loyalty, and enforce the dependence of colonial existence on royal authority, Parliament resolved to force these differ- ences to an open issue. Acts of various taxation were im- mediately passed. These coercive measures only augmented the resistance, and opened more deeply the sources of irrec- oncilable alienation. We cannot discuss the moral aspects of the causes, or sketch the phases of the great controversy. Suffice it to say it was a struggle between power and privi- lege. We shall, therefore, simply trace out the incidents which developed themselves in natural order, and followed in the train of that struggle which finally sundered the nation, and moulded the trans-atlantic fragment into a new State, which has become distinguished as a great political fraternity in unity.
The most insignificant causes led to these results. The
328 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
great issue began in the forests of Maine, in the contests of her Lumbermen ivith the King^s Surveyor, as to the right to cut, and the property in ivhite pine trees.
Bridger declared the prerogative of the royal sovereignty over these forest monarchs to be paramount to all other rights. Into these views he would coerce the reluctant lum- bermen. Power, precedent, and law were with him, but the necessities and instincts of humanity — the dictates of com- mon sense — the principles of equity, were against him ; and under the " application of swamp-law " in the wilds of Maine, the lumbermen were too hard for the King's officers.
Here initiated, the controversy was transferred to the court circles of Massachusetts. The prestige of Royalty would have more efficiency within the metropolis and at tlie bar of the General Court, than in the lumber swamps of Maine. But Boston had already given unequivocal intimations that royal prerogative had no place in her sympathies when pop- ular rights were jeoparded.
ADVENTURES OF COMMODORE KNOWLES.
Commodore Knowles, with his men-of-war, rode at anchor in Nantasket Roads. His sailors deserted to the shore. The Commodore thought it very reasonable tliat Boston should make good the loss of men. Early in the morning of the 17th of November, he sent his boats to town, and surprised and seized, not only as many seamen as could be found on board the vessels outward bound, but swept tlie wharves, taking ship carpenters, apprentices, and laboring landsmen.
The whole city was moved with excitement. The lower classes " were beyond measure enraged," and rushed togeth- er, armed with sticks, clubs, and pitch-mops. An unfortu- nate and innocent lieutenant on shore, on other business, was seized. The intercessions of the Speaker of the House at length saved him. But the mob increased, and on learn- ing that several naval officers were guests of the Governor,
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 329
it gathered about the Governor's house, demanding satisfac- tion. The house was surrounded. The court in front was filled with the excited and exasperated populace. The naval officers, with loaded carbines, took station at the head of the stairway, resolved to secure their liberty or lose their lives in the attempt. A deputy sheriff was sent into the midst of the crowd to secure the peace. This officer was seized, carried away in triumph, and set in the stocks. The pre- dicament of this officer of the law excited the mirth of the rabble, diverted their rage, and resulted in their quiet dis- persion at the dinner hour. But at night-fall many tliousands re-assembled in King's street " below the town-house," where the General Court was in session. The council chamber was assailed with brick-bats and stones, and the glass broken in at the windows. The Governor and several gentlemen of the council harangued the multitude from the balcony, to no purpose, the seizure and restraint of the officers of the Royal Navy in town, being persistently determined upon.
A boat reached the shore from a ship at anchor, which, being mistaken for a barge from a man-of-war, was seized, and dragged through the streets as if she were floating in her native element, to the Governor's house, where prepara- tion was made to burn her before his door. But the peril of setting lire to the town diverted the mob, and the boat was burned in a more private place, when it was ascertained that she belonged to a Scotch ship in the harbor. The militia was ordered out. But the drummers were interrupt- ed, and the citizen soldiery refused to appear. The Gover- nor repaired to the castle, and deserted the town. Com- modore Knowles was unyielding ; refused all accommodation till the naval officers on shore were released from restraint, which, if not done, bombardment was menaced. The ^ as- sembled representatives of the colony at length took the
1 Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., vol. ii. pp. 386-9.
330 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
matter in hand, and resolved to sustain public authority at all hazards, and exert themselves by every means to secure for the people a redress of grievances, ordering Capt. Erskine, of his Majesty's ship Canterbury, and all other naval officers, to be forthwith enlarged. This action cooled the public re- sentment. A town-meeting was called, but the influence of legislative action prevailed there.
lumbermen's controversy.
The contest between the Royal Surveyor and the lum- bermen of Maine, now transferred to the General Court, roused Elisha Cooke, who with zeal and fortitude espoused the cause of the lumbermen, and resisted the assumptions of the Crown. The popular view of the question was sus- tained in the popular branch of the General Court ; and in this dispute were laid the foundations of a partisan strife between popular rights and royal prerogative, which ever aft- er developed a factious opposition to the royal measures on all questions of popular rights and expediency, perpetually drawing in new points of difference from time to time, and widening the breach. Thus the struggle was changed to meet every new phase of royal requirement in the exaction of money, whether in the salaries of the royal governors, or in a revenue from the taxation of paper and tea ; and in each struggle the popular view made new acquisitions, and the popular will gained new advantages. Foremost in the conflict with royal prerogative, stood Elisha Cooke of Bos- ton, the guiding spirit of the popular cause in all its issues wdth monarchical power. But the right ^ of the lumbermen of Maine to property in their white pine trees was the enter- ing wedge to a struggle between power and privilege, which finally sundered all national ties, and ended in the grand and glorious issues of the American Revolution.
1 Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., vol. ii. p. 201.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 331
The struggles of the people with power in the mainte- nance of their rights had diffused wide-spread disaffection in the minds of the masses of Maine and Massachusetts ; and the popular sympathy was turned against the rights and prerogatives of the Crown and its supports ; and in this pojD- ular dislike, the Episcopal Clmrch, as a creature of the State and a support of the Crown, was involved, and became obnoxious to the popular prejudices. Out of such differen- ces grew the popular commotion which for several years disturbed the entire social and civil structure, till the prin- ciple of self-government became fully developed and organ- ized in a new civil constitution.
EARLY RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS.
The colonization and settlement of Maine was rather a commercial and patriotic movement, than the result of a religious exodus. Tlie first settlers within the " Ancient Dominions " were not refugees from religious intolerance, and of course were neither enthusiasts nor bigots,- to one of which extremes, unbridled religious excitement ever leads.
No traces of the blood-red hand of persecution have ever been found on the early colonial records of our State.
The fact that the colonial enterprises for the settlement of Maine were the developments of a commercial, rather than a religious element, may account for this pleasing fea- ture in the earlier character of our plantations, contrasted with those sterner, darker, and more doubtful shades in the colonial history of Massachusetts.
FREEDOM IN RELIGIOUS VIEWS.
The Baptists were left free to live and die on our soil, fol- lowing the bent of their own inclinations, in seeking their salvation under the water or on the land, as best suited their tastes. No Quaker, writhing under the scourge of our magistracy, at the tail of the carts of Maine, either in or out
332 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of the DuTcedom, was ever there forced to honor the dictates of his mind and the emotions of his heart as to the way they called him to worship God ; and no one burdened with any moral mania, no dupe of a religious hallucination, no witches were hung within the precincts of the ancient Sheep- scot, Sagadahoc, or Pemaquid. To these early and favorite points of human aggregation in the eastern wilds, the Devil, so busy in Plymouth among the Puritans, granted a happy exemption from the perils of witchcraft, priestcraft, and the ferocity of bigots.
And yet these original plantations were not destitute of religious ordinances, nor did the early settlers depreciate the importance and value of religious institutions.
MAINE AN EPISCOPAL ESTABLISHMENT.
The great patron of all colonial adventures to the wilds of Maine, the founder of our name and state, Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges, was a member of the Episcopal Church.
Moreover, it had been promulgcd from the Throne, that it was the " will and pleasure of his Sovereign," " that the Religion professed in the Church of England, and the eccle- siastical government used in the same, shall ever hereafter be professed, and with as much convenient speed as may be, settled and established in and througliout the said Prov- ince." ^ Such were the purposes of Government, as ex- pressed in the royal state paper authorizing the colonial acts of Gorges in founding the State of Maine.
Under such instructions intimating the purposes of the royal mind, Sir Ferdinando shaped the basis of his new western State. In this respect, the colonial history of our State opens in contrast with that of the Massachusetts, whose jealous eye watched for, and whose all-grasping hand ■was ready to seize every opportunity, both by a liberal con-
1 Ecclesiastical Sketches.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 333
structioii of her charter powers, and in stretching to the utmost bound her charter limits. Tlie plea of self-preserva- tion may have been the solace to the conscience of the authorities of the Bay Province, in grasping and grasping beyond her right, with a view to strangle the embryo " Church and State " with a strong Puritanical hand.
Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that the hallowed rites of the Christian Church were first celebrated amidst the wilds of Maine before Massachusetts had an English existence, on the island of Monhegan, under the St. George's cross there set up by George Weymouth, or at the mouth of the River Kennebec, on almost an island in the aborig- inal province of Sabino, of the territory of Sebanoa, the lord of Sagadahoc, and according- to the services of the English Episcopal Church ; and that the Rev. Richard Sey- mour of the Church of England was the earliest regularly inducted minister of the Gospel whose voice broke upon the solitary wilds of New England, in echoes of holy prayer and praise ; and that his church at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, on the margins of Atkins Bay, was the earliest temple of worship whose heaven-lit shrine glowed with the light of a life to come amid the Pagan gloom of our 1607. wild New England shores. Two centuries and a half have passed since an English town, with its fortress and church, stood at the mouth of the Sagadahoc, where Rich- ard Seymour, for a twelve-month, led the voice of prayer and praise in celebrating the worship of the living and true God.
But the wilds of Maine already echoed to the sol- emn chants of the rites of the liturgy of the Latin 1646. tongue in the services of the Roman Church, whose missionaries had penetrated its depths with a self-sacrifice and devotion worthy of a better cause. Gabriel Druillets, in the wilderness of the Kennebec, had planted the cross of the Church of Rome, and about it gathered the nucleus of
334 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
a settlement, to wiiicli, as the heads of the religious estab lishmeiit, succeeded the two Bigots, ^ father and son, fol- lowed by the indefatigable Father Ralle, whose melancholy end has tinged the history of the Kennebec with sad memo- ries of blood and ferocity. Thus were the foundations of the town of Norridgewock laid in the early history of our State.
CONGREGATIONALISM INTRODUCED.
u
A half century had elapsed when Robert Gutcli 1661. appeared some twelve miles above Popham's Town, at a place called " Long Reach," the site of the pres- ent city of Bath, where he lived, preached, and perished. Twenty years prior to his appearance as a public religious teacher in the clearings of the lower waters of the Kenne- bec, Robert Gutch was a resident of Salem in Massacluisetts, and had united himself in membership with the first church there, where his name is enrolled in the annals of that ancient town. But Gutch was an original occupant of the soil at the Reach, and had become the owner thereof by purchase of the Shecpscot sagamore, Damarin, or Robin Hood.
To the new clearings, settlements of the pioneer popula- tion, and fishers' hamlets on the islands and river-banks, which had at this period begun to open the primeval forests along the margins of tlie Sagadalioc, and adorn its banks ■with civilized life in the rude habitations of the early fron- tier-men, Robert Gutch came as a man of God, a preacher of righteousness.
His own plantation on the Reach probably was a central point, — the nucleus of a considerable hamlet as the center of missionary labor, according to the ordinary and natural laws of human aggregation. A man in humble life, of
1 Charlevoix, p. 435. Williamson, vol. i. p. 369.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 335
deep religious cast of mind, not endowed with literary at- tainments— a type of that class of men who subsequently have appeared as pioneers and foundation-builders in the establishment of Evangelical Congregationalism in Maine, — Robert Gutch, a Congregationalist of the ancient faith and order, moved by the wants of the newly-settled clear- mgs upon the Sagadahoc waters, probably circulated from point to point as a missionary. Tradition has presumed him to have been a Presbyterian. But every indication is against such a presumption. The forms of faith and wor- ship among the early Congregationalists of New England were, to say the least, in strong affinity with Presbyterian- ism, if indeed those forms and that faith were not taken therefrom as the parent stock — of which Congregationalism, as a slip plucked from this root, has been, ])y unskilled hands, set out to grow up an unpruned shrvib in another j&eld of the same soil, whose fruit, deprived of the natural sap, becomes bitter or sweet, according to circumstances. The absence of ecclesiastical forms and sanctions, so per- sistently adhered to by Presbyterian judicatures, is pretty good presumptive proof that Robert Gutch was a simple Congregationalist — an unlettered, pious man, whose gifts and graces commended him to the people as a religious teacher.
THE SITE OF ROBERT GUTCH'S CHURCH.
Near the head of Arrowsic Island, opposite the city of Bath, a liouse of worship was traceable in its decaying ruins for many years, and had been seen while standing by ancient men who knew the place where it stood after the house itself had been destroyed, and which was reputed to be one of Mr. Gutcli's meeting-houses.
Mr. Gutch's abode on the Reach was, without doubt, the nucleus of a town midway between the Arrowsic towns on the south and east, and the Merry Meeting plantations on
836 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
the north and west. Here, with pious zeal and fortitude, as the first missionary herald of the Cross in Maine for some years, Mr. Gutch preached the unsearchable riches of the love of Jesus to the early adventurous dwellers of this region, who, with their lives in their hands, stoutly con- tested with savage wilds and tempestuous seas the resources of the deep, as well as the dominion of the untamed and virgin soil.
DEATH OF GUTCH.
As he thus circulated from hamlet to hamlet, he was cut off by being drowned, precisely when or where is not stated, but probably while crossing to or from some of his preach- ing stations. That he was a preacher of righteousness, and was drowned at an early period, and that the peninsula of Long Reach, the site of the city of Bath, was his home and possession, is the principal record of his life, labors, end, and history we have.
The hamlet of Robert Gutch, at Long Reach, on the Sag- adahoc, it would seem escaped in the sacking of the Arrow- sic towns in the war of King Philip. As he was no " truck- master" — no military chieftain — no man conspicuous ex- cept as a servant of the most high God, and therefore in no way obnoxious to savage resentment, he probably remained Tinmolested. His life and character may have been a shield, not only to himself and household, but to the villagers of his hamlet on the Reach ; for l)eing known only as a man of God, he was brought within a circle of well-known sav- age veneration, Penhallow having asserted " that it was remarkably observable that among all the settlements and towns of figure and distinction, not one of them has been utterly destroyed wherever a church was gathered."
Robert Gutch was therefore one of the earliest 1669. missionaries, and the site of the city of Bath one of the earliest stations in Maine.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 837
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS EXTINGUISHED.
S\ibseqiient to the decease of Mr. Gutch, the destruction and depopulation as a consequence of savage warfare, broke up all the organizations of society. The institutions of education and religion were utterly neglected, and the ordi- nances of religion were not administered, and the altars thereof were broken down ; " and in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants ; and for a long time the whole land lay without a teaching priest and without the law."
EARLY ARRANGEMENTS FOR RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION BY THE RETURNING SETTLERS.
On the return of the fugitive inhabitants to re-peo- ple the wastes of Philip's war, provision for religious 1683. instruction and the administration of its holy ordi- nances entered into the original plans and organizations of those who went in to re-possess the land and repair its breaches.
CONGREGATIONAL PROCLIVITIES OF THE RETURNING SHEEPSCOT
PLANTERS.
Within the Dukedom, those who organized to return and revive the Sheepscot plantation, on " Mason and Jewett's Neck," the ancient town of New Dartmouth, at their original meeting on Fort Hill in Boston, previous to embarkation, ordained " that there shall be spcshall and speedy order taken that there may bee a convenient place as a tract of land laid out for a Ministree, Avith a convenient place to sett a meeting house to ye best advantage for ye towne ; and also, that we may have a minister of our own ffree choyce, and such a man as ye raager parte of ye towne shall Like and Approve of ffor that end."
22
838 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MALNE.
EPISCOPAL SERVICE AT PEMAQUID.
At Jamestown, in the Pemaquid precinct of the Dukedom, it was ordained in council that — "for the forwarding of piety it is requisite that a person be appointed by the com- missioners to read prayers and the holy scriptures." Thus was early provision made for religious instruction, at both capitals of the Dukedom, Congregational forms prevailing at New Dartmouth ( now Newcastle) on the Sheepscot, and Episcopal forms prevailing at Jamestown, the capital at Pemaquid. ^ The two forms were in accordance with the views and polity of the two settlements. At New Dart- mouth, Massachusetts emigrants re-occupied the wastes of Sheepscot, and the principle of the majority, the voice of freemen, gave law to the settlement ; while at Jamestown military rule overrode all rights and voice of the people, becoming so oppressive at length as to force complaint and petitions for redress to the Governor at New York, from the inhabitants, — Pemaquid, subsequently to Philip's war, hav- ing been largely rc-settled from New York, ^ the residence and seat of authority of the ducal governor.
SAVAGE HOSTILITIES DISASTROUS TO RELIGION.
But the ruthless and bloody hand of war soon extin- guished these kindlings of religious interest. The tread of war, the image of death, the besom of destruction, soon obliterated every foot-print of religion, and swept away every vestige. The voice of prayer and praise was heard only in camp, surrounded with soldiery and trappings of war ; and as the incense of Mars, it went up as an official offering from the lips of those who as chaplains were attached to expeditions for the chastisement and subjection of the sav- .age foe.
Apart from the army arrangements for religious instruc-
1 Pemaquid Papers, pp. 51, 70, 80.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 339
tion, the voice of the man of God had ceased, and the peo- ple were without a teaching priest.
REJECTION OP BAXTER.
Mr. Baxter, a chaphiin and missionary under ap- pointment to tlie Kennebec Indians, was set apart by 1717. Gov. Dumnier, and introduced to them as their relig- ious teacher of the Protestant faith, whose services the sav- ages were reluctant to receive, and finally rejected, saying to the Governor, as he exhibited the Bible as the symbol of Protestant faith and authority, and Mr. Baxter as its ex- pounder, in the treaty conference, — " all people have a love for their ministers, and it would be strange if we did not love them that come from God. God has given us teaching already ; and if we should go from that, we should displease God. We are not capable to make any judgment about religion."
BENJAMIN GIBSON.
Such also was Benjamin Gibson at St. George's, who perished in the expedition of Col. Westbrook up 1723. Penobscot River, in the bitter cold of a February campaign, in which was destroyed the chief village of the Penobscot tribe, together with their church.
PRESBYTERIANISM INTRODUCED.
Rev. Robert Rutherford was an Irishman and a Presbyterian, the religious teacher of the Dunbar 1729. emigration. Under the patronage of the Royal Gov- ernor of Sagadahoc, he was introduced to Bristol, and sta- tioned at Fort Frederick of'Pemaquid. It is quite probable he officiated at first as a chaplain to Dunbar, and then preached as a missionary. The relations between Dunbar and this divine were of the most intimate and confiding char- acter. Upon leaving liis gubernatorial seat in Maine, Gov.
340 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
Dunbar committed his property in charge and possession to Rev. Mr. Rutherford, his spiritual guide. Rutherford is represented to have been a man of amiable and excellent
disposition. This early herald of the Cross preached 1743. in Bristol, Brunswick, and Georgetown. ^ Dunbar
died, and his widow married Capt. Henderson of St. George. Rutherford followed to St. George, where he died and was buried near the tomb of the late Gen. Knox of Thomaston, where his ashes still repose.
Dunbar's religious proclivities.
It would appear, from the interest of Col. Dunbar in Mr. Rutherford, that his own religious sympathies were with the Presbyterian sentiments ; whose forms of faith and church order he undoubtedly did much to introduce and establish within the boundaries of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, by bringing into the country emigrants of this belief to re-people and fill up its war-wasted towns and hamlets. Hence the foundations were laid for religious organizations of this ancient establishment throughout the region ; the blessed fruits of whose faith and virtue appear to this day in the general purity of doctrine, zeal, and piety which char- acterize the orthodox communities of this whole region, whose churches are scions from this ancient stock, and whose root and fatness still impart freshness, verdure, and fruitfulness.
Thus it will be seen that on the re-settlement of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, under that efficient office** ot the Crown, Dunbar, a new race was introduced, and new
foundations for the administration of religious ordi 1730. nances were laid ; and 0:-om this period and froir
these causes we may date the beginnings of perma nency and prosperity in religious influence here.
1 Mar. 19, 1743. • Voted to raise £20 for Mr. Rutherford. MSS. rec ords, ch. in Georgetown, M. L. Hill, Esq.
AMERICAN REYOLUTIOXART PERIOD. 341
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION.
The Scotch-Irish emigrants of Dunbar and his coadjutors brought with them their peculiar religious views, sympa- ' thies, and proclivities ; and through them the Church of Scotland sent out her roots, and Presbyterianism started up on every side, here and there, in the community, upon which, as the parent stock, most of the Evangelical Congre- gational churches of this region were afterward grafted ; and to the devoted and intelligent zeal and piety of a learned and faithful ministry here introduced by the Church of Scot- land, and set to watch, train, and rear her distant sons and daughters in their wild New England homes, the present generation is greatly indebted for a pure faith and precious gospel ordinances, administered according to the ancient covenant engagements of the church of Christ.
RELIGIOUS HABITS OF PRESBYTERIANS.
The religious character and proclivities of the peo- ple, in the Dunbar settlements, soon developed a 1741. state of deep religious interest. Destitute of the stated means of grace, " the people ^ met together every Sabbath, and frequently on other days, for the purpose of worshipping God in a public manner, by prayer, singing of Psalms, and reading instructive books ; " and " a happy revival of religion " followed. Such was the state of public feeling and interest in religion when Mrs. Porterfield, escap- ing from shipwreck, found an asylum among the inhabitants of Townsend, which facts happily illustrate the character of the newly-planted colonists, for religion and piety, within the Dunbar towns.
THOMAS PIERPONT.
Thomas Pierpont preached at St. George's as chaplain of 1 Mrs. Porterfield's Narrative, White's New England, p. 209.
342 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
1731. the garrison there, receivmg his compensation Aug. 10. from the public treasury. The religious views and standing of this gentleman are unknown ; but he unquestionably was one of the earliest ministers of Thomaston.
Rev. Robert Dunlap, a native of the county of 1737. Antrim, Ireland, and a graduate of Edinboro' Uni- versity, embarking with a numerous emrigration for America, escaping the perils of shipwreck in the long-boat, when ninety-six of his companions were engulfed, took up his residence at Nobleboro'. ' IIow long he remained at this then thriving village is not known. He repaired 1747. to Boothbay, and finally settled at Brunswick. Rob- ert Dunlap was a Presbyterian of the Scotch-Irish faith, and undoubtedly an acquisition from the Dunbar emi- gration.
EARLY CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN GEORGETOWN.
Seven years before, the organization of a church had been made in the revived and re-peopled Arrowsic plantations, now incorporated as Georgetown. This church ^ was organ- ized in the faith and order of the gospel as held by Presby- terians, with a membership of no less than thirty males. But a considerable portion of the early settlers were Con- gregationalists, and much attached to its forms of church organization. " Hence dissension early arose."
McLANATHAN.
William McLanathan was employed to preach ; and 1734, for ten years he there performed ministerial labor.
His ecclesiastical relationship is not clearly defined. 1745. The probability is that at first he was Presbyterian,
and when dismissed, he acqiiired Episcopal procliv-
1 MSS. from John McKeen, Esq.
2 Greenleaf 's Ecclesiastical Sketches, pp. 73, 75.
AMERICAN EEVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 343
ities, and officiated at the several points on the Sagadahoc and Kennebec waters, in the service of the Church Mission- ary Society, as a minister of the Episcopal Church. He seems to have been a man of popular address and attractive talents, but selfish and unscrupulous in character, as well as in the means adopted to accomplish his designs and advance his interests. At Georgetown there early existed the nucleus of an Episcopal church and society, which may indeed have been only tlie product of the change of eccle- siastical relationship in the officiating clergyman, and which never appears to have had a full development in that neigh- borhood.
REVIVAL OF EPISCOPACY ON THE KENNEBEC.
The Kennebec river runs in a very direct course by the present city of Bath, which feature gave the peculiar and appropriate name of " Long Reach " to this portion of the Sagadahoc and its margins on the west bank. " At some distance below tlic city, a sudden turn of the river at right angles, which immediately resumes its previous southerly course, leaves the bank a rounded headland, of bold shores and conspicuous position. It was at this point an Episcopal church was erected." ^ The Lithgow family reared near the church a spacious and elegant mansion. The sacred edifice stood a few rods from the river, at a distance from any settlement. Its position undoubtedly was suggested by the fact that the exigencies of the times and the customs of the inhabitants made the river the great highway of travel, and the light canoe the vehicle of locomotion.
The church is described as having been a low building, with a double floor, without traces of pews — simple, with- out ostentation in architectural finish. Tiie building hnally was appropriated to housing cattle, and the churchyard, con-
I Frontier Miss. p. 281.
844 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
verted into a barnyard, was turned up by the plowshare.
PARAMOUNT RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DUNBAR TOWNS.
But the great center of religious interest and influence appears to have opened in one of the communities of Col. Dunbar, in the newly laid-out settlement of Townsend — a modern appellation for the ancient Cape Newagen — since called Boothbay.
In the piety of its inhabitants recently introduced, of Scotch-Irish descent and Presbyterian church relationship, the foundations were laid for a wide-spread and deeply mov- ing religious power, through the whole region.
PURITY AND POWER OF SCOTCH-PRESBYTERIAN PIETY.
The light and power of their religious zeal and holy liv- ing kindled on all sides the latent sparks of piety which lay smoldering and smothered beneath the ruins and decay of more than a generation wasted and broken by savage war. Imbued with the spirit of the gospel, as breathed out in that summary of faith embodied in the Westminster Assembly's Catechism, these colonists became as lights in i our newly settled wilds, whose radiance illumined the darkness of the whole region, and quickened, in a heterogeneous and pio- neer population, a very general desire to enjoy the gospel ordinances, which developed shortly the most grand and precious results. These results, traced in connection with their causes, merit a conspicuous place on the page of his- tory, and a detailed narration in the annals of the past, as a guide to the future explorer into the mysteries of religious power.
This is our only apology for making copious selections from the manuscript records of the first church in Boothbay, whose date is anterior to the incorporation of 1763. that town, the church being the first body pohtic Dec. 22. there organized according to Presbyterian princi- ples.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 345
HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM THERE,
Rutherford and Duulap ^ had each labored prior to this date ill Boothbay. " The inhabitants of the ancient Cape Newagen, long harassed and distressed by the natural diffi- culties of settling a new country, and particularly by the frequent wars with the savages," — by whom the settlement was repeatedly broken up, and the whole place laid waste — had, at this date, hardly gathered strength enough to settle the gospel among them. Long had the land languished under " the heavy affliction of silent Sabbaths." Various itinerant preachers had occasionally afforded the inhabitants the privilege of hearing the word there and in other places ; and from time to time, api)lication had by them and by set- tlers in other places, been " made to the Rev. Presbytery of Boston for supplies,"
JOHN MURRAY INTRODUCED.
The neglect of the Presbytery to relieve their religious necessities left the people in a state of despondency. But, as the darkness of religious destitution gathered over these revived plantations in defiance of their efforts to roll back the cloud, a star of hope dawned in " the arrival of Mr. John Murray, a probationer from Ireland, drawn hither by repeated invitations^ from one of the principal settlers" of Townsend, The Rev, Jonathan Adams, a native of the place and present incumbent of the ancient puli)it where the Rev. John Murray officiated, and a lineal descendant of this distinguished servant of the most high God, has informed the author that the name of the " principal settler," whose invitations at this early date drew Mr. Murray, the Irish probationer, to Boothbay, was " Andrew Reed," also an emi-
1 MSS. records, Sess. Book, p. 8.
2 Sess. records, MSS. p. 8.
346 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
grant from Ireland, and a native of the same town there with Murray, whose uncle he was by marriage.
Murray's favor with the people.
The ministrations of the young Irish prol)ationer, after preaching some time, were found generally acceptable. At Mr. Bcath's house, the people of the place gathered, " where they unanimously voted to give Mr. Murray an invitation to be the stated pastor of the town."
As an encouragement for him to remain among them, ninety pounds per annum were subscribed at once ; and in addition thereto, the settlers engaged to give him two hund- red acres of land, to build him a house, " to clear and labor his said lot," provide, cut, and haul his firewood annually. A subscription was started to secure these promises ; and in the language of the record, — " the Lord si)irited up the inhabitants, so that it was quickly filled up."
PROMISE extorted.
Mr. Murray proposing to return again to Ireland, and feeling disinclined to remain in the newly-settled Townsend at Boothbay, left in February. Determined to " push his call to a final result," the inhabitants chose and sent a com- mittee to Boston to secure the influence of the ministry there in their behalf. All was found to be unavailing. But, after meeting all his objections with perseverance and an importunity that always conquers, a promise was finally extorted from the candidate, " that, if he returned to settle in America, should the application be renewed, Townsend should be the place of his settlement." Elated with this promise of success, the commissioners returned to the east- ward, and Murray pursued his journey westward.
Murray's departure. Importuned at New York and Philadelphia, he was divert-
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 347
ed from his purpose of an immediate return to Ireland by a call to the pastoral charge of a church in the latter city, which circumstances seemed to require him to consider. He thereupon informed his friends in Boothbay ; and though they replied by vigorous and repeated renewals of their suit, "it would seem their wishes never reached his ear." He was ordained by Presbytery over the cliurch in Philadelphia.
ACTION OF THE PEOPLE OF BOOTHBAY.
On learning this event, the inhabitants of Boothbay, cling- ing to the promise made to their commissioners, resolved to prosecute their cause in the judicature of the Presbyterian Churcli ; and solicited Capt. Andrew Reed to communicate with Mr. Murray on their purposes in this particular, who closes the correspondence in behalf of the people by saying, " We are firmly resolved to insist upon your promise to the uttermost, as we believe they have got you settled there [in Philadelphia] by fraud and treachery — by stopping both your letters and ours." We here have a clew to this singular position of matters in relation to these parties.
SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION OF THEIR CLAIMS.
The appeal of the people to the Presbytery of Philadel- phia passed unheeded. Not discouraged, the prosecutors carried up their cause before the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, by petition of the town, setting forth a state- ment of facts, supported by documentary evidence, not doubting their success " if once they came before so con- scientious a coiirt as the Synod." Andrew Reed was at the head of the prosecuting commission. In conclusion, the papers were all returned by the same hands by which tliey were sent on ; and with them the minutes of Presbytery,
Note. — Rev. John Murray of Boothbay used to be called "Damnation Murray," in distinction from the Universiili?t Rev. John Murra)- of Cape Ann, who was known aa " Salvation Murray." — /. W. T/iornlon of Boston.
348 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
whereby Mr. Murray " was liberated in manner and form as full as was desired."
Murray's return to boothbay — public proceedings.
Three months nearly elapsed ere Mr. Murray reached Boothbay, where he arrived to the great joy of the inliabi- tants, though in a state of great physical prostration. The inhabitants were gathered by the town officers under the frame of their newly-erected meeting-house. Fully attend- ed, the meeting was opened with prayer. Mr. Murray pro- ceeded to narrate to the assembled town all their transac- tions with him from first to last. The town clerk read all the votes and papers, which being approved, Mr. Murray read to the assembled town his dismission — " opened at large the history of his education and degrees at the univer- sity ; his license to preach, and certain difficulties wliicli had arisen between him and some ministers in Ireland, respecting a certificate, which he expressed great sorrow for attempting to support, after having discovered the error of its authors — (begging pardon of God and man ) — together with the pretended censures which had appeared in the pub- lic prints, and were attempted to be fixed on him." Mr. Murray also read the minutes of the Presbyteries of New York and Philadelphia, relating to himself — the correspond- ence (fee. relating to tlie matter ; and when all was con- cluded,— "he called the meeting to testify, by the usual sign, if any were dissatisfied with anything written or said, or if any abatement of their desires for liis immediate settle- ment had been occasioned ? " A unanimous answer in the negative relieved his solicitude. He then demanded, as a final test, if there " was any who did not then expressly renew the call to him to settle in the pastoral office, or who did not promise all that subjection to his ministrations in every pas- toral duty which is due to ministers of the gospel, and to every ordinance of the gospel, it should be signified." To
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 349
all which the answers were in the negative, unanimously. Whereupon Mr. Murray declared his cheerful acceptance of the call, gave a short exhortation, and closed the scene with prayer. The following Sabbath he entered on his duties as pastor of this newly-organized people of his ciiarge, in the services of a public dedication of their newly-erected house of worship, while it was still very likely in a primitive and naked condition.
ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.
To exhibit more fully the religious views and cus- toms prevailing at this remote period, and which the 1766, Presbyterian Church, in its official administration of the duties of the pastoral relation among a people, required of its clergy, we shall extract a further detailed account of forms, facts, and circumstances, so fully recorded under the direction of tlie body of the Session, usually consisting of the pastor, elders, and deacons, of which body the pastor, ex officio, is moderator, chairman, or president.
PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE CHURCH ORGAN- IZATION.
Mr. Murray proceeded to organize a church among this newly-colonized people, on the ground " tliat their relation to God as a church, for the full enjoyment of the word and ordinances of the gospel, is the greatest beauty and glory of a people." In the solemn transaction the whole town en- gaged, the inhabitants thereof being obliged to acknowledge the great goodness of God in a very wonderful series of mercies, deliverances, and gifts of bounty from their first naked settlement. That God may be glorified, Christ's visi- ble kingdom enlarged, and their own and the souls of their posterity be daily built up in the knowledge and love of God, this people " adventured to set their public hand to the Lord's work." Such were the purposes and motives of tills
350 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
people as set forth in the public records, by which, add they, " we do, tberefore, pursuant to a legal vote of this town, in town meeting assembled, this day unite and incorporate our- selves and all who shall from time to time join with vis, into an organized branch of the visible church," upon certain fundamental articles, viz. " that the town of Boothbay sliall be deemed to be under the ecclesiastical constitution of the Presbyterians as to worship, ordinances, discipline, and gov- ernment ; that the Westminster Confession of Faith, Longer and Shorter Catechism," be their public confession of faith ; that pastors, ruling elders, and deacons be always used in said church ; that no person shall be received to fellowship with this church in any sealing ordinance, as baptism for himself and infant children, or Lord's Supper, whose relig- ion, faith, or practice is found not conformed to the received standard, i. e. who are not in judgment of rational Christian charity, visible Christians.
PECULIAR FORMS OF PRESBYTERIANS.
It will be a novelty at least, if it do not show a wide and perilous departure from ancient usage in the practice of our churches at this day, — in which they are shorn of much of their glory and power, on account of which " Zion lan- guishes, because few come to her solemn feasts," — to nar- rate the formal rites of induction into office, as performed in this church, of its minor officers.
The result of the election and examination of the indi- viduals to be set apart to these offices in the church, was publicly declared, when it was unanimously agreed that ordination be solemnly attended in the meeting-house in tlio forenoon.
ORDINATION OF ELDERS.
A bench was set in the broad alley of the house, where the officers took their seats during the preparatory services.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 351
Then the pastor, calling on the congregation to 1767. look on the persons set before them, explained the Sept. 20. duties, authority, and institution of the offices of ruling elders and deacons — exhibited the warrant and necessity for such officers in every church of Christ. Their choice and election by the church, and " their acceptance of the call" were recited, together with the fact that they had been publicly propounded before the congregation three sev- eral Sabbaths, and that they had satisfactorily sustained examination, privately by the pastor, and then pviblicly before the church, as to knowledge, their creed, experience, and practice in religion. The pastor " then solemnly ad- jured all those present, as before the living God, to signify, by holding up the hand, if they knew anything against their being set apart to these offices." No objection being made, the church was called on to renew their confidence in and their call to these persons by the same token ; which being unanimously and publicly given, " the officers el^ot were called to stand forth," and publicly interrogated as to their experimental acquaintance with the way of salvation through free grace in Christ Jesus, their resolutions of Christian practice, and their adhesion to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and as to the essential articles of religion and dis- cipline, hi all these particulars, " having made such pro- fessions as were fully satisfactory," signified their acceptance of the call given them by the church, and indicated their purposes in such acceptance, " they solemnly covenanted and with uplifted hands did publicly swear to Almighty God the faithful and constant performance of the duties of their several offices, when by prayer ( with fasting) they were solemnly set apart, ordained, and dedicated to their respective offices." " The minister, coming down from the pulpit, gave to each of them the right hand of fellowship, with the express form of their admission to their respective powers and trusts." This being done, " members appointed
352 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
as commissioners for the church," coming up, " did, by giv ing the right hand, receive them as officers of the church, and stipulate to them as such, in the church's name, all due subjection, assistance, and encouragement in the Lord." The minister then returned to the pulpit, " and publicly recognized them by name, on his own and the church's behalf, as duly vested with the powers of their respective offices." A solemn charge then followed, a psalm was sung, and the great transaction was closed.
Thus constituted and endowed as a church estate, the people of this recently colonized and instituted town, char- acterized in all their acts by the stern virtues of their noble ancestry, animated with the spirit of WicklifT and Knox in the decided principles of a bold and earnest piety, publicly proclaimed their estimate of the value of the gospel, and endeavored to forestall covenanted mercies to the enjoyment of themselves and their posterity, in that they would seek the Lord after " due order."
William Moore, Robert Murray, ^ John Beath, Nehemiah Harrendon, were thus invested as Ruling Elders ; and Israel Davis, Samuel Adams, and Epliraim McFarland as Deacons.
RELIGION A BUSINESS.
The church, thus perfected in its organization, began, like " the leaven hid in tliree measures of meal," to develop its power in the community where it was constituted, and work out those results for which its Great Head had ordained it on earth, by bringing to bear on the popular mind and heart those restraining, reformatory, and saving influences which affect human welfare here and hereafter.
Monthly meetings of the Session for prayer, fasting, and mutual consultation and conference were instituted, each member of the Session making it " his care to know the
1 Father of Rev. John Murray. — Rev. Jonathan Adams.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 353
general state of the flock — to visit them in their families by two and two, and examine into their religious state every quarter." In the execution of this design, the field was divided into districts, and an elder and a deacon were as- signed to the charge of each district. The western, embrac ing Oven's Mouth, Menikuk, Damariscove, Cape Newagen, and the other islands, was given in charge to Harrendon and Davis. From the pond and meeting-house to Cross River, Murray and Adams were placed in charge, which embraced the northern district. From the bounds of the settlement called '' Free Town," (now Edgecomb) and Pleasant Cove to Liniken's Neck, was made the eastern dis- trict, which was assigned to Beath and McFarland.
In this methodical manner, in accordance with the spirit of that organization of ecclesiastical polity termed Presby- terianisra, the church by it animated sought in " due order" to cultivate the vineyard which the Lord had given her to
THE FIELD OF LABOR.
Mr. Murray's private journal will give an idea of the
nature of his field of labor, and of the religious condition
of the people prior to the organization of the church ; while
a further extract from the manuscript records of the Session
Book will sliow his abundant labors and fidelity as a pastor.
A course of pastoral visitation was immediately instituted,
in which " all the inhabitants at their houses were visited,
catechised, and conversed with, every one separately, old
and young, concerning the state of their souls and the great
work of salvation it was necessary all should experience in
order to their final welfare. The remarks of each day's
visit, the names of all the persons in each family, with all
the observations made of the state in which he found them,
were entered on a book, and every visit concluded with
prayer."
23
354 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
STATE OP Murray's mind.
After one of these visits, Mr. Murray writes thus, — " Alas ! alas ! What shall I say ? I now fear the success of my ministry more than ever. Oh, my God, enable me to be found faithful. Make thy strength perfect in my great weak- ness. Oh, pour out thy Spirit on these poor families that they may not forget the promises this day made in thy sight — that thy worship shall be daily morning and evening main- tained in their houses, and they shall never rest until they have received thy Christ into all their hearts. ^ A dismal prospect truly ! All prayerless — all ignoi-ant of God and of themselves, — all determined to cherish their hopes, though I have found but two who can rationally profess any expe- rience of the power of religion, — some of the English Church, some separatists — most of them nothing at all. Arise, 0 Lord, or this people perish ! 0 show thy salvation to them, revive thine own work, or we are an undone people ! "
Again he writes : " Now this week's visits are finished, what have I done ? Have I been faithful ? 0, if so in any measure, praise to my rock — my strength ! All have prom- ised to be in earnest about salvation. 0 Lord, I commit the whole to thee. Breathe on my poor feeble attempts — grant the success — 'tis all of thee ! 0 come among this blind, hardened, perishing people ! Show them thy salvation. Lord, arise, arise and save ! Open, great God, the ear and heart of this people. 0 what triumphs would grace gain if such sinners were brought home ! Every house prayerless save one ! Every heart as adamant. 0 Lord, for a life-giv- ing word ! "
But the scene began gradually to assume a more hopeful aspect to the eye of this man of God, as he made his weekly circuit of the field in search of sheaves.
Greenleaf's Eccles. Sketches, p. 134.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 355
RELIGIOUS INTEREST AWAKENING.
" Some comfort to-day, blessed be God. Three prayerful families — four professors — two communicants. But false hopes have slain their thousands ! Woful is the security of fig-leaves ! Very hard and painful work to bring any to con- viction of duty, sin, or danger. Prayerless, and yet self- condemned ! Christless, confessedly, and yet easy and se- cure ! Ignorant, and pleading that as a righteousness ! I have had sad views of ignorance and carelessness in every house. Youth wrapt in slumber, and old age by practice saying, Sleep on ! Conscience in a corner inaccessible. What shall I say ? inveterate habits of vice, and no remorse ! It gives me some comfort that I have one prayerful family and a humble professor at the head of it ; and in another, one struck off from false hope and under conviction. Lord, fasten it, and increase the number! ^ Amen ! Amen!" Such were Mr. Murray's observations on the field of his labor, and such was the state of his mind in view thereof.
RELIGIOUS INTEREST DEEPENING.
Weekly prayer meetings were established from house to house ; and every family in each division of the town so classed as that every person was catechised once in three months, and the catechism completed with each class once a year. ^ The legitimate fruits of such a dissemination of gospel tputh soon appeared. The field began to whiten for the harvest ; and the laborers, as they returned rejoicing with sheaves, said, — " We have abundant reason to say that this exercise has been often remarkably blessed with the most evident tokens of the Divine presence and the out- pouring of his Spirit, some manifest tokens of wliich were observed in the winter and spring." ^
1 Greenleaf 's Eccles. Sketches, pp. 134 — 6. 2MSS. records of Session, p. 18.
356 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
INDICATIONS OF KEVIVAL.
This " sound of a going in the tops of the mul- 1767. berry trees," indicative of the coming of the Lord to Zion, soon developed itself in one of the most remark- able, as it was the first of revival scenes within the precincts of the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Femaqiiid planta- tions, throughout the bounds of which it prevailed. The Lord first stirred up his people, who like " clouds and as doves to their windows," began to flock from every point. Of various names and denominations, scattered and living like sheep without a shepherd — gathering here and there from the distant mountain-tops and valleys of the newly-set- tled wilds, under the quickening influences of the word — it became a delicate and responsible work to embody them into church estate, out of elements so heterogeneous.
But to this task Mr. Murray applied himself with great fidelity and success.
APPLICATION FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP.
Eleven men and twenty women, from the circumjacent settlements and plantations, " members of other churches," made application to be incorporated in the church. It is eminently desirable that original forms ( and the form is often essential to the successful execution of a duty ) should not be forgotten, if permitted to pass into desuetude. There ever has been a " due order" to be observed in the church service, which, if not essential as a guarantee of Divine favor, yet, when neglected, it has been the precursor of the Divine displeasure. A spirit of innovation, begetting neg- lect and depreciation of ancient rites, duties, and forms of faith and service, now prevails, foreboding the utter efface- ment of " ancient landmarks" in the church, and the entire abandonment of those metes and bounds whereon she was accustomed to "lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes."
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 357
Is it, therefore, matter of surprise that weakness, insta- bility, leanness, and looseness should be marked features of the church ? This view is offered as our only apology for a detailed account of the rites, ceremonies, and practice of the church in Boothbay, at this early period, while in the freshness and fervor of her zeal.
FORMS OF ADMISSION.
The persons seeking the enjoyment of sealing ordinances in the bosom of this church were first " privately examined by the pastor as to their faith and knowledge of the princi- ples of religion ; as to their experience of a work of grace in their souls, and their ends in seeking, as well as their knowledge of the nature of the ordinances they would enjoy ; and as to their practice of religion in their lives and conver- sation." Being found, in the judgment of charity, visible members of the visible church, it was decided to receive them to the enjoyment of " sealing ordinances." But, as these persons had not been under the watch of their own churches, having lived remote, before a public recognition of their newly-created relationship should be made, it was deemed as a condition of their admission to sealing ordinan- ces, that " they should first be propounded before the con- gregation."
This was done " by adjuring the assembly in tho name of the Most High (rod, on three Lord's days in time of public worship, as they should answer at his awful bar, — as they would not conspire for his dishonor, and overthrow the church of Christ, — as they would not be found guilty of the blood of souls, — if they knew any matter of just ol)jec- tion against any of the persons propounded, they should freely declare it." Such was the solemn and impressive ceremony preliminary to a recognition of membership in the body of Christ. An appointed day was assigned, when at the pastor's lodgings, in the presence of all, objections, if
358 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OP MAINE.
any, would be heard. No one appeared against any one of the candidates. Here the terms of the covenant of grace were made known ; and each, with uphfted hand, having adopted it and promised compUance with divine ordinances, was incorporated.
PUBLIC ESPOUSALS.
A sabbath was now announced, in which the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be celebrated ; and a free invi- tation was extended to " all of such and such qualifications as were there mentioned, to come and welcome to the sacred feast." In prospect of this sacred festival, many came for- ward to join therein, to which those only were admitted on examination and approval, as before described in manner and form — " for several persons applied whom it was thought necessary to discourage and debar." On Tuesday before the preparation Sabbath, tlie approved communicants assem- bled for public worship according to previous appointment ; when a large congregation besides gathered at the place of meeting, " and evident tokens of God's gracious presence were seen and felt by many."
PREPARATION FOR COMMUNION.
The preparation Sabbath at length dawned, and the entire day was spent in considering the nature of the Lord's Sup- per,— the qualifications of wortliy communicants, — the per- ils of unworthily communicating were plainly set forth in an exposition of the inquiry, " Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? " and " the ends proper to have in view in coming, and the business proper at the Lord's Table." The following Wednesday was ap- pointed as a day of public humiliation and fasting in town. The congregation met. All were summoned to unite in the solemn transaction. A solemn confession was made before Almighty God. Their iniquities, as they stood " particu-
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 359
larly opposed to each of the ten comaiandraents of the law, and to all the articles of the gospel with their peculiar aggra- vations, were spread out hefore the Lord" — as the narrator records, " accusing, judging, and condemning ourselves for them — by which our hearts were rendered unlit and our- selves unworthy to make so near an approach to him as we had the prospect of attempting the ensuing Sabbatli." And then the benefits of redemption were opened, " as leading the way of the congregation over to a solemn and particular covenant with God, in which we all were given away for- ever"— and the whole concluded by charging every one with the " great work of self-examination, and secret per- sonal renewing their covenant by word or writing that day."
DISTRIBUTION OF TOKENS.
The Saturday afternoon preceding the great festival Sab- bath was occupied in a preparatory sermon on the dying love of Christ, and on this occasion, the pastor, " before dis- missing the congregation, came down from the pulpit, and standing before the Communion table, declared the qualifi- cations of snch as should be welcome to approach the ordi- nance in view ; publislied a free invitation addressed to par- ticular characters ; and then poured out on the table a great number of small square pieces of lead, on which the initial letters of his name were stamped in capitals." The congre- gation were informed that it was a custom of Presb}'terians to distribute these, as tokens of admission to the privileges of Christ's disciples, before the administration of the Lord's supper, liy which the church intends to guard against the approach of persons not approved ; no one being permitted to sit down at that table without delivering his token into the hands of the elder, who is to be stationed at the end of the table for that purpose ; and to give every communicant a previous opportunity of knowing all his fellow communi- cants at that feast, both that they may have the more partic-
360 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
ular inducement to sit together in the bonds of love, and that time may be given them to object to any person who has broken the law of charity, and that this token may be a perpetual monitor to him that takes it of his great obliga- tions— reminding him of his high privileges, and need of preparation and self-examination.
Before the delivery of these tokens, solemn prayer was made ; and then an exhortation given, during which the communicants were desired, one by one, to come up and receive their tokens from the pastor's hand, and then return to their seats. Thus was made the distribution.
SACRAMENTAL FESTIVAL.
On the morning of the sacramental Sabbath, the congre- gation convened at nine o'clock, attracted by the auspicious event, so long looked forward to with deep and tender inter- est by all the inhabitants of the circumjacent region.
SPREADING THE TABLES.
The tables then were set in form of a triangle, extending to the three principal alleys of the house, " allowing room for the communicants to sit on each side of each table, and for the serving officers to pass at the communicants' back. The tables met and joined in the midst, just before the pulpit. In the center was set a small table, on which the elements were placed, where also the minister was to stand during the administration. All the tables were spread with clean linen. Six platters were set in two rows par- allel to each other ; and on each platter a communion cup, and " fronting each table a flagon full of red wine, the only sort used by Presbyterians in this ordinance."
Between the two rows of cups, were set in the middle three large dishes covered with a fine napkin, the central one containing a large common loaf of bread, pared and scored so as to be easily broken by the minister's hands.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 361
The serving officers were stationed, one at the door to receive the contribution of the assembling congregation, an elder and a deacon were stationed at each table, the former to receive the tokens as the communicants sat down, and both to aid in sending the bread and wine along the table, and an elder was stationed at the store or closet under the pul- pit, where the elements were kept, to supply any deficiency in the elements served.
FENCING THE SACRAMENTAL TABLES.
Appropriate services of worship were performed on the Sabbath ; but were concluded by an exercise peculiar to the occasion, called " Fencing- the table.'" This was a formu- lary debarring in various particulars all those characters supposed to be comprehended under the terms described " as the ignorant, the unbelieving, and profaned
The act of fencing ended, the communicants were invited to be seated, to give opportunity for which a hymn was sung ; and during the singing, the minister descended from the pulpit, and took his seat at the " Element table " in the cen- ter. Then, as the tokens were taken up by the elders, the minister arose and spoke ; and as he begun, the officers uncovered the bread and vessels on the table before him. The tables were then served, and the elements distributed to the communicants. A solemn thanksgiving was then offijred to God, and a conclusion of the sacred scene was had in the benediction ; and on the Monday following, at eleven o'clock, a thanksgiving sermon was preached, " and the solemn work was closed."
THE FIRST GREAT REVIVAL.
It will not seem strange that the narrative should proceed to relate " that it had been very observable 1767. through the whole of tlie winter that a very iinusual seriousness and solemnity appeared amongst the generality
362 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
of the people, accompanied with an insatiable desire after the word." Several persons were awakened to an anxious concern for their souls, but nothing remarkable until the sacramental season described. Then there were such symp- toms of the powerful and special presence of the God of grace as every one might discern. It was a solemn, sweet, and glorious season. Many of God's children were filled with the joy of their Lord, and many poor souls brought in to sec their need of that Savior they had shamefully neglects ed. The facts were evident the ensuing week, and on the next Sabbath.
RAPID SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS INTEREST.
Immediately the pastor, at the call of several of the neigh- boring towns, visited them on the gospel errand. " Begin- ning with Squam [now Westport] and Freetown, [now Edgecomb] he visited Pownalboruugb, [Dresden and Wis- casset] Sheepscot, the head of tlie tide, [ Alna] Walpole, Harrington, etc." During this tour, Mr. Murray preached every day for two weeks which it consumed. The work of God was glorious. Every day it appeared some were awak- ened. Many souls, old and young, were pricked to the heart, many obliged to cry out in their distress : some were clearly brought into the light of the gospel. " It seemed in all these places that the Almighty hand was displayed with such power as if the Lord was resolved to make his word bear down every tiling before it."
REMARKABLE FEATURES OF THE REVIVAL.
On Mr. Murray's return from his extended round of labor in the neighboring towns on this glorioiis occasion, he told the wonderful works of God, both from the pulpit and at the society and the Wednesday exercise. The news was very joyful to all who had ever tasted anything of religion — very alarming to the sinner — and it confirmed greatly tlie
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 363
convictions of such as had been awakened. Religion became the cojiversation of all companies. Tlie voice of opposition was struck dead. Upon almost every occasion of public worship (which then was more frequent than usual ), the congregation was drowned in tears, and some new instances of conviction or comfort appeared. Tlie pastor's lodgings were then daily crowded with poor wounded souls, that knew not what to do, with whom he often found sweet em- ployment day and night, sometimes till three o'clock in the morning, and often till midnight. The intermission seasons on the Sabbath were taken up entirely in the works of piety. Some would repair wherever they saw any person deemed an experienced Christian ( all of whom were found greatly quickened at that time ) to lay their cases open to ; some to the minister, some to secret prayer, and great companies would retire to the woods to sing hymns of praise, so that one might almost all the time hear the wilderness singing hosannas ! It seemed sometimes as if heaven was come down to dwell on earth. The Wednesday exercises were also greatly l)lessed, especially on the young people ; and the children's days, in some of which we could see the dear little babes, by forty in a company, crying and weeping on account of their state, while their tender parents, with bursting liearts and streaming eyes, stood by, and in some — particularly once in the west end of the town — the whole congregation seemed to be taken hold of. After the bless- ing was pronounced, their hearts were so wounded that near thirty persons, men and women, cried out, whilst a goodly number of God's children were overcome with joy at the sight.
Thus it continued all that summer. " "What fruits may appear, what numbers were brought home, we presume not to guess," says the narrator ; " but for the sake of fol- lowing ages, into whose liands these records may fall, we cannot help leaving this our joint public testimony to the
364 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
glory of God, that there has been an evident, powerful, and glorious work of God's Spirit carried on in this and the neigliboring Towns." ^
Such are the original records of the causes, fruits, and agencies of the first and most extensive and glorious revival that ever occurred within the precincts of tlie ancient Sheep- scot, Pemaquid, and Sagadahoc ; for it appears that Mr. Murray, at this time, and from the midst of these scenes of deep and thrilling interest and importance, " was called to visit Pemaquid, Muscongus, Broad Cove, Walpole, and Har- rington, consuming two weeks, in which he jjrcached every day ; and it appeared that the work of God was not small in any of them, especially at Broad Cove." At the call of the town of Bristol, on another visit a church was organized and elders ordained by him. ^
This revival must have worked deeply among the elements of society, insinuating its saving power into the adjoining towns, where a thin and scattered population had recently planted themselves. ^ The heterogeneous mass developed many interesting features under the ferment of this grand religious impulse, made up as society was of Quakerism, formalism, and error. " Mary Allen of the district of Free- town (Edgecomb) and certain others, her family," Quakers by education and profession, became awakened and con- verted, and soon after connected with the Presbvterian Church, publicly renouncing their former views, and enter- ing into covenant with God and his church. How pungent, then, must have been this truly great and glorious work !
This great revival spread throughout the Dunbar towns in the Province of Sagadahoc ; and at the ancient central points it concentrated its life-giving power, and lingered in the hearts and memories of that generation till it left inef-
1 Records of Session Book, Boothbay, pp. 23, 24.
2 Greenleaf 's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 138.
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 365
faceable impressions on the age. Georgetown ^ shared largely in this wonderful effusion of the Spirit of God.
As an illustration of the religious enthusiasm of the day, and the zeal of Presbyterian matrons, and the influence of Murray as a religious teacher, a fact in the history of Mrs. Miller, an early settler of the town of Warren, is here given. She is represented to have been an amiable and godly wom- an, and in plain attire — always scrupulously clean and neat — ^^she would always attend church, walking bare-footed thither, after the fashion of her country, but putting on her shoes and taking off her bonnet when she reached the place of worship. During the revivals attendant on the preach- ing of the Rev. John Murray of Boothbay, whenever he held meetings at Damariscotta, with others of her country- women, Mrs. Miller would foot it thither, through the almost pathless woods, to hear him. ^
BROAD BAY PLANTATIONS.
The German colonists, though destitute at first of regular preaching, constantly sustained religious worship, led by a Mr. Ulmer. Such was their habit till the settlements were broken up, as we have before related. After the return of the colonists, this personage combined in himself the offices of priest, prince, and general. ^
John M. Schaffcr followed. A great singe;r and smart preacher, he led the hearts of the people captive. 1762. His moral character was clouded ; his heart was self- ish and destitute of virtue. A woman of great personal charms, the wife of another, was too powerful for his virtue. He seduced and eloped with her to this country, abandoning his own wife in the father-land. He gained wealth and fame
1 la Georgetown about this time (1765) there was a great revival of religion. — Hon. M. L. Hill.
2 Eaton's Annals, p. 122.
3 Annals of Warren, p. 115.
366 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE.
as physician of both soul and body. Inspection of urine, blood-letting, and nostrums made up his practice ; and a sloop's hold of wood often went to pay his poor parishioner patieiits' bills.
Profane, intemperate, and extortionate, he can be viewed in no other light by the historian than a wolf in sheep's clothing, who, recognizing his own monstrous double char- acter, was wont to excuse and explain, or apologize, by say- ing,— " When I have my plack coat on, den I ain a minis- ter, and you must do as I say : but when I have my green coat on, den I am a toctorT '
A Moravian from Germany, by the name of Cilley, 1768. visited the Broad Bay plantations. Spiritual and
devoted in his services, many were converted to his views. His flock with himself, two years after, emigrated to and settled in North Carolina. Three hundred families thus departing, left a void in the heart of tlie Ancient
Dominions. The vacant fields and clearings were 1770. not left to solitude and decay, but soon were rcoocu-
picd liy colonists from Massachusetts ; and were again filled with busy life and labor.
1 Eaton's Annals, p. 117.
APP '> ^ 193C
\iYM)\ Library
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