A Half Century of Conflict Volume I Part 15

[236] This treaty is given in full by Penhallow. It is also printed from the original draft by Mr. Frederic Kidder, in his _Abenaki Indians: their Treaties of 1713 and 1717_. The two impressions are substantially the same, but with verbal variations. The version of Kidder is the more complete, in giving not only the Indian totemic marks, but also the autographs in facsimile of all the English officials. Rale gives a dramatic account of the treaty, which he may have got from the Indians, and which omits their submission and their promises.

[237] It was standing in 1852, and a sketch of it is given by Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, v. 185. I have some doubts as to the date of erection.

[238] Williamson, _History of Maine_, ii. 88, 97. Compare Penhallow.

[239] _Remarks out of the Fryar Sebastian Rale's Letter from Norridgewock, 7 February, 1720_, in the _Common Place Book_ of Rev.

Henry Flynt.

[240] Sewall's _Memorial relating to the Kennebec Indians_ is an argument against war with them.

[241] A full report of this conference was printed at the time in Boston. It is reprinted in _N. H. Historical Collections_, ii. 242, and _N. H. Provincial Papers_, iii. 693. Penhallow was present at the meeting, but his account of it is short. The accounts of Williamson and Hutchinson are drawn from the above-mentioned report.

[242] _Shute to Rale, 21 February, 1718._

[243] This pet.i.tion is still in the Ma.s.sachusetts Archives, and is printed by Dr. Francis in _Sparks's American Biography_, New Series, xvii. 259.

[244] This letter was given by Mr. Adams, of Medfield, a connection of the Baxter family, to the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, in whose possession it now is, in a worn condition. It was either captured with the rest of Rale's papers and returned to the writer, or else is a duplicate kept by Baxter.

[245] This curious paper is in the _Common Place Book_ of Rev. Henry Flynt, of which the original is in the library of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society.

[246] See Francis, _Life of Rale_, where the entire pa.s.sage is given.

[247] Rale wrote to the governor of Canada that it was "sur Les Representations qu'Il Avoit fait aux Sauvages de Sa Mission" that they had killed "un grand nombre de Bestiaux apartenant aux Anglois," and threatened them with attack if they did not retire. (_Reponse fait par MM. Vaudreuil et Begon au Memoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721._) Rale told the governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, on another occasion, that his character as a priest permitted him to give the Indians nothing but counsels of peace. Yet as early as 1703 he wrote to Vaudreuil that the Abenakis were ready, at a word from him, to lift the hatchet against the English.

_Beauharnois et Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1703._

[248] _Joseph Heath and John Minot to Shute, 1 May, 1719._ Rale says that these hostages were seized by surprise and violence; but Vaudreuil complains bitterly of the faintness of heart which caused the Indians to give them (_Vaudreuil a Rale, 15 Juin, 1721_), and both he and the intendant lay the blame on the English party at Norridgewock, who, "with the consent of all the Indians of that mission, had the weakness to give four hostages." _Reponse de Vaudreuil et Begon au Memoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721._

[249] _Eastern Indians' Letter to the Governour, 27 July, 1721_, in _Ma.s.s., Hist. Coll., Second Series_, viii. 259. This is the original French. It is signed with totems of all the Abenaki bands, and also of the Caughnawagas, Iroquois of the Mountain, Hurons, Micmacs, Montagnais, and several other tribes. On this interview, Penhallow; Belknap, ii. 51; _Shute to Vaudreuil_, 21 July, 1721 (O. S.); _Ibid., 23 April, 1722_; Rale in _Lettres edifiantes_, xvii. 285. Rale blames Shute for not being present at the meeting, but a letter of the governor shows that he had never undertaken to be there. He could not have come in any case, from the effects of a fall, which disabled him for some months even from going to Portsmouth to meet the Legislature. _Provincial Papers of New Hamps.h.i.+re_, iii. 822.

[250] Williamson, _Hist. of Maine_, ii. 119; Penhallow. Rale's account of the affair, found among his papers at Norridgewock, is curiously exaggerated. He says that he himself was with the Indians, and "to pleasure the English" showed himself to them several times,--a point which the English writers do not mention, though it is one which they would be most likely to seize upon. He says that fifty houses were burned, and that there were five forts, two of which were of stone, and that in one of these six hundred armed men, besides women and children, had sought refuge, though there was not such a number of men in the whole region of the Kennebec.

[251] Vaudreuil, _Memoire adresse au Roy, 5 Juin, 1723_.

[252] _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1716._

[253] _Extrait d'une Lia.s.se de Papiers concernant le Canada_, 1720.

(Archives du Ministere des Affaires etrangeres.)

[254] _Reponse de Vaudreuil et Begon au Memoire du Roy, 8 Juin, 1721._

[255] _Begon a Rale, 14 Juin, 1721._

[256] Some of the papers found in Rale's "strong box" are still preserved in the Archives of Ma.s.sachusetts, including a letter to him from Vaudreuil, dated at Quebec, 25 September, 1721, in which the French governor expresses great satisfaction at the missionary's success in uniting the Indians against the English, and promises military aid, if necessary.

[257] Wheeler, _History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell_, 54.

[258] Hutchinson, ii. 261. On these dissensions compare Palfrey, _Hist.

of New England_, iv. 406-428.

[259] _Sewall Papers_, iii. 317, 318.

[260] Palfrey, iv. 432, 433.

[261] Penhallow. Hutchinson, ii. 279.

[262] Penhallow. Temple and Sheldon, _History of Northfield_, 195.

[263] _Westbrook to Dummer, 23 March, 1723_, in _Collections Ma.s.s. Hist.

Soc., Second Series_, viii. 264.

[264] Hutchinson, ii. 283 (ed. 1795). Hutchinson had the story from Moulton. Compare the tradition in the family of Jaques, as told by his great-grandson, in _Historical Magazine_, viii. 177.

[265] The above rests on the account of Hutchinson, which was taken from the official Journal of Harmon, the commander of the expedition, and from the oral statements of Moulton, whom Hutchinson examined on the subject. Charlevoix, following a letter of La Cha.s.se in the Jesuit _Lettres edifiantes_, gives a widely different story. According to him, Norridgewock was surprised by eleven hundred men, who first announced their presence by a general volley, riddling all the houses with bullets. Rale, says La Cha.s.se, Tan out to save his flock by drawing the rage of the enemy on himself; on which they raised a great shout and shot him dead at the foot of the cross in the middle of the village. La Cha.s.se does not tell us where he got the story; but as there were no French witnesses, the story must have come from the Indians, who are notorious liars where their interest and self-love are concerned. n.o.body competent to judge of evidence can doubt which of the two statements is the more trustworthy.

[266] It is also said that Rale taught some of his Indians to read and write,--which was unusual in the Jesuit missions. On his character, compare the judicial and candid _Life of Rale_, by Dr. Convers Francis, in Sparks's _American Biography, New Series_, vii.

CHAPTER XI.

1724, 1725.

LOVEWELL'S FIGHT.

Vaudreuil and Dummer.--Emba.s.sy to Canada.--Indians intractable.--Treaty of Peace.--The Pequawkets.--John Lovewell.--A Hunting Party.--Another Expedition.--The Ambuscade.--The Fight.--Chaplain Frye: his Fate.--The Survivors.--Susanna Rogers.

The death of Rale and the destruction of Norridgewock did not at once end the war. Vaudreuil turned all the savages of the Canadian missions against the borders, not only of Maine, but of western Ma.s.sachusetts, whose peaceful settlers had given no offence. Soon after the Norridgewock expedition, Dummer wrote to the French governor, who had lately proclaimed the Abenakis his allies: "As they are subjects of his Britannic Majesty, they cannot be your allies, except through me, his representative. You have instigated them to fall on our people in the most outrageous manner. I have seen your commission to Sebastien Rale.

But for your protection and incitements they would have made peace long ago."[267]

In reply, Vaudreuil admitted that he had given a safe-conduct and a commission to Rale, which he could not deny, as the Jesuit's papers were in the hands of the English governor. "You will have to answer to your king for his murder," he tells Dummer. "It would have been strange if I had abandoned our Indians to please you. I cannot help taking the part of our allies. You have brought your troubles upon yourself. I advise you to pull down all the forts you have built on the Abenaki lands since the Peace of Utrecht. If you do so, I will be your mediator with the Norridgewocks. As to the murder of Rale, I leave that to be settled between the two Crowns."[268]

Apparently the French court thought it wise to let the question rest, and make no complaint. Dummer, however, gave his views on the subject to Vaudreuil. "Instead of preaching peace, love, and friends.h.i.+p, agreeably to the Christian religion, Rale was an incendiary, as appears by many letters I have by me. He has once and again appeared at the head of a great many Indians, threatening and insulting us. If such a disturber of the peace has been killed in the heat of action, n.o.body is to blame but himself. I have much more cause to complain that Mr. Willard, minister of Rutland, who is innocent of all that is charged against Rale, and always confined himself to preaching the Gospel, was slain and scalped by your Indians, and his scalp carried in triumph to Quebec."

Dummer then denies that France has any claim to the Abenakis, and declares that the war between them and the English is due to the instigations of Rale and the encouragements given them by Vaudreuil. But he adds that in his wish to promote peace he sends two prominent gentlemen, Colonel Samuel Thaxter and Colonel William Dudley, as bearers of his letter.[269]

Mr. Atkinson, envoy on the part of New Hamps.h.i.+re, joined Thaxter and Dudley, and the three set out for Montreal, over the ice of Lake Champlain. Vaudreuil received them with courtesy. As required by their instructions, they demanded the release of the English prisoners in Canada, and protested against the action of the French governor in setting on the Indians to attack English settlements when there was peace between the two Crowns. Vaudreuil denied that he had done so, till they showed him his own letters to Rale, captured at Norridgewock. These were unanswerable; but Vaudreuil insisted that the supplies sent to the Indians were only the presents which they received every year from the King. As to the English prisoners, he said that those in the hands of the Indians were beyond his power; but that the envoys could have those whom the French had bought from their captors, on paying back the price they had cost. The demands were exorbitant, but sixteen prisoners were ransomed, and bargains were made for ten more. Vaudreuil proposed to Thaxter and his colleagues to have an interview with the Indians, which they at first declined, saying that they had no powers to treat with them, though, if the Indians wished to ask for peace, they were ready to hear them. At length a meeting was arranged. The French governor writes: "Being satisfied that nothing was more opposed to our interests than a peace between the Abenakis and the English, I thought that I would sound the chiefs before they spoke to the English envoys, and insinuate to them everything that I had to say."[270] This he did with such success that, instead of asking for peace, the Indians demanded the demolition of the English forts, and heavy damages for burning their church and killing their missionary. In short, to Vaudreuil's great satisfaction, they talked nothing but war. The French despatch reporting this interview has the following marginal note: "Nothing better can be done than to foment this war, which at least r.e.t.a.r.ds the settlements of the English;" and against this is written, in the hand of the colonial minister, the word "_Approved_."[271] This was, in fact, the policy pursued from the first, and Rale had been an instrument of it. The Jesuit La Cha.s.se, who spoke both English and Abenaki, had acted as interpreter, and so had had the meeting in his power, as he could make both parties say what he pleased. The envoys thought him more anti-English than Vaudreuil himself, and ascribed the intractable mood of the Indians to his devices. Under the circ.u.mstances, they made a mistake in consenting to the interview at all. The governor, who had treated them with civility throughout, gave them an escort of soldiers for the homeward journey, and they and the redeemed prisoners returned safely to Albany.

The war went on as before, but the Indians were fast growing tired of it. The Pen.o.bscots had made themselves obnoxious by their attacks on Fort St. George, and Captain Heath marched across country from the Kennebec to punish them. He found their village empty. It was built, since Westbrook's attack, at or near the site of Bangor, a little below Indian Old Town,--the present abode of the tribe,--and consisted of fifty wigwams, which Heath's men burned to the ground.

One of the four hostages still detained at Boston, together with another Indian captured in the war, was allowed to visit his people, under a promise to return. Strange to say, the promise was kept. They came back bringing a request for peace from their tribesmen. On this, commissioners were sent to the St. George, where a conference was held with some of the Pen.o.bscot chiefs, and it was arranged that deputies of that people should be sent to Boston to conclude a solid peace. After long delay, four chiefs appeared, fully empowered, as they said, to make peace, not for the Pen.o.bscots only, but for the other Abenaki tribes, their allies. The speeches and ceremonies being at last ended, the four deputies affixed their marks to a paper in which, for themselves and those they represented, they made submission "unto his most excellent Majesty George, by the grace of G.o.d king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the Faith," etc., promising to "cease and forbear all acts of hostility, injuries, and discord towards all his subjects, and never confederate or combine with any other nation to their prejudice." Here was a curious anomaly. The English claimed the Abenakis as subjects of the British Crown, and at the same time treated with them as a foreign power. Each of the four deputies signed the above-mentioned paper, one with the likeness of a turtle, the next with that of a bird, the third with the untutored portrait of a beaver, and the fourth with an extraordinary scrawl, meant, it seems, for a lobster,--such being their respective totems. To these the lieutenant-governor added the seal of the province of Ma.s.sachusetts, coupled with his own autograph.

In the next summer, and again a year later, other meetings were held at Cas...o...b..y with the chiefs of the various Abenaki tribes, in which, after prodigious circ.u.mlocution, the Boston treaty was ratified, and the war ended.[272] This time the Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, taught wisdom by experience, furnished a guarantee of peace by providing for government trading-houses in the Indian country, where goods were supplied, through responsible hands, at honest prices.

The Norridgewocks, with whom the quarrel began, were completely broken.

Some of the survivors joined their kindred in Canada, and others were merged in the Abenaki bands of the Pen.o.bscot, Saco, or Androscoggin.

Peace reigned at last along the borders of New England; but it had cost her dear. In the year after the death of Rale, there was an incident of the conflict too noted in its day, and too strongly rooted in popular tradition, to be pa.s.sed unnoticed.