Ancient Dominions of Maine, Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1600-1750) ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************************************ Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE, Embracing The earliest facts, the recent discoveries of the remains of aboriginal towns, the voyages, settlements, battle scenes, and incidents of history, together with the relicious developments of society within the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot and Pemaquid precincts and dependencies. By Rufus King Sewall, author of Sketches of the City of St. Augustine. BATH: Elisha Clark and Company, Boston, Massachusetts: Crosby & Nichols. Portland: Sanborn & Carter, 1859. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, by R. K. Sewall, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine. Stereotyped and Printed by B. Thurson, Port- land, Maine. INTRODUCTION. OUTLINES OF THE WORK. Nature and the Bible are the great textbooks, of which History is a running commentary of Providence. In History, the forces and principles of cause and effect, in their bearings on the state of man as developed in human act- ions, 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 instruct- ion, giving so varied a scope to the exercise of the moral and intellectual powers in a discipline so well adapted to store the head with useful and entertaining 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 attainments 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 Maine in the Virginia of the North, exhibit the vestiges of three grand convulsive epoch, grow- out of the struggle of races in the collision of those seek- a new home with those in possession of the soil; the con- flicts 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 Harbor of George Weymouth's ex- pedition, which in his account of discoveries became a center of attraction - at length were created a Dukedom; and X. INTRODUCTION. then transformed into a Province; and finally consolidated into a County as 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 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. ANCIENT SAGADAHOC, SHEEPSCOT AND & PEMAQUID PRECINTS. The view we shall take, therefore, within the "Ancient Dom- inions" 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 Menikuk, towns of the aboriginal existence on the Damariscotta and Sheepscot waters during the ante-colonial period; the voyages of dis- covery and settlement; Indian battle scenes; massacres and other historical details and incidents of Social, Religious, and Civil development of the population within the ancient Sagadahock, Sheepscot and Pemaquid precincts. Much 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. K. W. SEWALL. Wiscasset, July 13th, 1858. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. CHAPTER I. ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. HISTORICAL REMAINS. p.13 History has its philosophy, 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 mani- fested. THE EXTENSIVE RUINS OF MAVOOSHEN OR PROVINCE OF SAGADAHOCK. 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 "Mavooshen,"1 and in the colonial period, known as the Province of Sagadahock, 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 tort- uous and misty windings of the past, into the natural sun- light of historic truth. The remains have locality within the precincts of Pemaquid 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 Footnote. Georges' Narrative, Vol. 2, p. 62, Massachusetts Historical Collections. p.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 re- mains of crumbling walls of deserted palaces - are not found under piles of sculpured granite and marble - in broken col- umns, prostrate arches, gigantic architecural 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 unex- plored 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. A PEOPLE - A RACE, AND THEIR HOMES. When laid bare in naked detail, these facts all seem to sym- pathize in their more important features, indicative of a common origin and a cotemporaneous existence; and when group- ed in their natural relations to cotemporaneous events, ex- pose 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 and 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. INSERT. HENRY WADSWORTH Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! — For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day. Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act, — act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead! Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time; Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ p.15 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. LOCALITIES OF ANCIENT REMAINS. DAMARISCOTTA RIVER. INSERT. The Lovely Rivers And Lakes Of Maine by George B.Wallis O, The lovely rivers and Lakes of Maine! I am charmed with their names, as my song will explain; Aboriginal muses inspire my strain, While I sing the bright rivers and lakes of Maine- From Cupsuptic to Cheputmatticook From Sagadahock to Pohenegamook- 'gamook, 'gamook, Pohenegamook, From Sagadahock to Pohenegamook. For light serenading the "Blue Moselle", "Bonnie Doon" and "Sweet Avon" may do very well; But the rivers of Maine, in their wild solitudes, Bring a thunderous sound from the depth of the woods: The Aroostook and Chimmenticook, The Chimpanaoc and Chinquassabamtook- 'bamtook, 'bamtook, Chinquassabamtook, The Chimpassoc and Chinquassabamtook, Behold how they sparkle and flash in the sun! The Mattewamkeag and the Mussungun; The kingly Penobscot, the wild Woolastook, Kennebec, Kennebago and Sebasticook; The pretty Presumpscut and gay Tulanbic; The Ess'quilsagook and little Schoodic- Schoodic, Schoodic; The little Schoodic; The Ess'quilsagook and little Schoodic. Yes, Yes, I prefer the bright rivers of Maine, To the Rhine or the Rhone or the Saone or the Seine; These may do for the Cockney, but give me some nook, On the Ammonoosuc or the Wytopadiook. On the Umsaskis or the Ripogenis, The Ripogenis or the Piscataquis- 'aguis, 'aguis, The Piscataguis. "Away down South," the Cherokee Has named his river the Tennessee, The Chattahoochee and the Ocmulgee, The Congaree and the Ohoopee; But what are they, or the Frenchy Detroit, To the Passadumkeag or the Wassatoquoit- 'toquoit, 'toquoit, The Wassatoquoit, To the Passadumkeag or the Wassatoquoit- Then turn to the beautiful lakes of Maine To the Sage of Auburn be given the strain, The statesman whose genius and bright fancy, makes The earth's highest glories to shine in its lakes); What lakes out of Maine can we place in the book With the Matagomon and the Pangokomook ''ommok, 'ommok, The Pangokomook, With the Matagomon and the Pangokomook? Lake Leman, or Como, what care I for them, When Maine has the Moosehead and Pangokwahem, And, sweet as the dews in the violet's kiss, Wallahgosqueqamook and Telesimis; And when I can share in the fisherman's bunk On the Moosetuckmaguntic or Mol'tunkamunk? And Maine has the Eagle Lakes, Cheppawagan, And the little Sepic and the little Scapan, The spreading Sebago, the Congomgomoc, The Milliemet and Motesoinloc, Caribou and the fair Anmonjenegamook, Oquassaac and rare Wetokenebacook- 'acook, 'accook Oquassac and rare Wetokenebacook. And there are the Pokeshine and Patquongomis; And there is the pretty Coscomgonnosis, The Pemadumook and the old Chesuncook, Sepois and Mooseleuk; and take care not to miss The Umbazookskus or the Sysladobsis. 'dobsis, 'dobsis, The Sysladobsis. O, Give me the rivers and lakes of Maine In her mountains or forests or fields of grain, In the depth of the shade or the blaze of the sun, The lakes of Schoodic and the Basconegun, And the dear Waubasoos and the clear Aquessuc, The Cosbosecontic and Millenkikuk- 'kikuk, 'kikuk, The Millenkikuk, The Cosbosecontic and Millenkikuk! Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth In the exploration of the localities of the facts, the head- waters of the Damariscotta River demand our first attention. The topography of the place is peculiar. The headwaters of this river are received and emptied from two reservoirs, at different elevations. In the times of the earliest European dwellers there, Walter Philips and the Taylors, the upper reservoir was called the "fresh,"1 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 over 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,"2 mean- ing "the place of thunder," as well as from the fact the forest trees thereabout were often scarred with lightning strokes, in early days.3 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,4 - must have combined attractions as a center of human resort unsurpassed, unless we except the "Coonte' Islands," environed with oyster beds and mullet shoals near the Everglades of Florida. This is a naturl and obvious deduction. Footnotes. 1. Walter Philips' deed, Commissioners' Report on L. Co. 2. French orthography "Ped-aug-hi-ouk." - Ralle. 3. J. G. Huston, Esquire. 4. The neighboring Sheepscot and the water beds thereabout, still afford this delicious shell- fish, though nearly destroyed by the mill dust. p.16 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 sublime echoings of the voices of nature combine to invite - where, with lavish hand, she has stored inex- haustible rescources for human subsistence, we find those facts and features, which usually mark the sites of human homes and populousness, in the accumulation of desposites of the offal of a vast horde of human eaters. Opportunities of personal observation, in a passage in- land, 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 subsistence. 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 Honorable Ebenezer Farley. The rim of the lower basin of the head-waters of the Damara- riscottta, 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 wharfed off (in the expressive language of the Honorable Ebenezer Farley) by the successive aggre- gation of the shells of the oyster, exhibiting different stages of decomposition. ANTIQUITY OF THE RELICS. 1654. Two centuries ago, the deposites here were noted in the records of the earliest European residents, as "the great1 bank of oyster shells - and oyster shell neck;" and were Footnote.1 Pierce's deposition, Commissioner's Report, L. C. Records. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. p.17 then remarkable features on the face of the earth. The basin margins on the west side are heaped, covering an areas of several rods, "twelve1 to fifteen feet deep;" while the east bank margins bear a less depth, but fall back in more extend- ed 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, termina- ting 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 RELICS. Such is the common aspect of these obviously ancient super- ficial remains of two species of edible shell-fish, as re- sources of human food. Dr. Jackson, our State Geolist, 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 of manner of these deposites; but simply remarks "that the stratiform position and perfection of the shells are an objection, and their comparatively re- cent deposition, and the fact that a diluvial soil is their bed, are a support to the common opinion." Footnoted. 1. Letter of the Honorable E. Farley. p.18 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. INSERT. SEASHELLS. Source: The Annals of Lynn, Mass. p.309 All the shells which came upon the Nahang beaches, were sold by the town to Daniel Brown and William Gray for thirty shillings. They were not to sell the sea shells for more than eight shillings a load, containing forty-eight bushels, heaped measure. The people were permitted to dig and gather the clams as before, but they were re- quired to open them on the beach, and leave the shells. The house in which (author, Lewis) I was born was plastered with lime made from these shells. p.368 Lynn - Seashells. 1807. The town having determined that no person who was not an inhabitant of Lynn, should have the privi- lege of taking any sand, seashells or sea manure from the Lynn beaches. The decision of the Court established the right of the town of Lynn to pass such a vote and left it in legal possession of all the natural treasures which the sea might cast upon its shores. - transcribed by Janice Farnsworth. p. 18 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. INDIAN ARROW-HEADS. 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,1 bone stilettoes and human bones, have been found in the beds of shells near the surface." HUMAN REMAINS. We may therefore consider the fact as well authenti- cated 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,2 (Taplino) in the Bay or Basin - the lower reservoir of the Damariscotta described, a mile or less above the village bridge, a half acre of gneiss-rock, cover- ed with yellow loam, mixed with a shell detritus, human1 skeletons have frequently been exhumed at a depth of 18 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 positon is a sitting posture, the knees drawn up, facing the east toward the rising sun. "Pieces"3 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 judge- ment 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 human hands; and that the locality of these deposits must have been a center of vast populousness, more that two centuries ago, when the same features marked this site of ancient ruin. Such are the facts, distinguish- ing the mysterious vestiges of the aboriginal "Ped-coke- gowake." Footnotes. 1. 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. p.19 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE REMAINS OF NEKRANGAN. THE ABORIGINAL TONGUE. NEKRANGAN - OUR GATE-WAY ABORIGINAL TONGUE. Leaving this remarkable locality, and crossing the 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 Sheepscot. At this point is the only ingress and egress, by an inland passage to the magnificent harbor below. The physical feat- ures of this entrance are very peculiar; which in the fel- icitous, expressive sounds of the aboriginal tongue, are described as the "Ne-kran-gan" - (our "gate-way"). "winneganne" - portage to the Harbor. 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 as English corruption of the aboriginal Nekrangan,) forms the western wall. Here is another remarkable locality of deep, unexplored, histor- ical interest. LOCAL FEATURES. PEDCOKEGOWAKE. 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 possible, within sound of the "thunder of the sea." SAWYER'S ISLAND. EBENECOOK HARBOR. 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 Newagen Island, making what is now known as Ebenecook Harbor. SWEET'S ISLAND. The western outlines of this body of water are shaped at its base by the shores of "Sweet's Island," swollen into a sandy cliff-side; and then, sweeping back into the usual Footnote. 1. Ralle's Vocabulary, p.100. Massachusetts Historical Collection, Vol.4. p.20 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. INDIAN TOWN ISLAND. EBENECOOK HARBOR. margins of coarse, sea-girding granite, letting into view Boston and Green Islands. Rocky shores running up 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 the 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 from bleak winds bear remarkable vestiges of human occupancy ante- cedent to the periods of European colonization on our shores. THE INDIAN UNNUMBERED AND FORGOTTEN DEAD. These island-lawns are covered with the remains of a vast primitive population, whose bones, blackened, broken and decayed, are everywhere diffused in the offal of their subsistence; and the soil of their planting grounds, where clustered their lodges, if 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, there 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 Damariscotta, viz: by successive aggre- gation of deposits 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 background may favor. At the base of the watery cone, the chief deposits lie back from the shore margins altogether, exhibiting a surface rolled into hillocks of more than five feet depth. p.21 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. The entire deposites are estimated to cover an area of some ten acres of soil, consisting of the debris of the bony structure of man, beast, fish and fowl, in every stage of decomposition, from the dusty outline of crumb- ling earth-crusted bones, to perfect skulls, joints and teeth, in good preservation. The remains of the "mya edulis," or common clam, constitute the great deposite here, and the entire superincumbent mass of animal matter has generally reached a stage of decay, in which it has become a very productive dark colored soil. SAWYER'S ISLAND. 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 pre- vailing deposit,) 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 graminivorous animals were found, mingled with the teeth, ball and socket, skull bones and sections of the vertebral column 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 discovered. 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, with 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. p.22 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. WEAPONS OF WAR. Weapons of war, implements of art - the workmanship of rude but skillful hands, have been abundantly found. Broken from the dykes and veins of green-stone,1. 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 & FLINT ROCK. 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 the size and shape of an ordinary tea-cup - possi- bly, 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. Fragments 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 would appear to have been the central and principal site of the lodges of this aboriginal town. ARTIFICAIL EXCAVATIONS. There are 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, vovered with long-grown sea- weed. Near the head of this cove, an island-shaped, soil clad rock Footnote. 1. Alexander Johnson, Esq. p.23 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. GRANITE. 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 ine of high-water mark. The outlines of two similarly shaped openings, are traced immediately 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 calorfic agency of heated water, so that on its lower side, this rock-embedded stone-carved kettle has partially slough- ed off. The indications are entirely in favor of artificial and designed construction; and advers 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 excava- tions 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,)1 and evidently a work of art. There would seem to be some relationship between the excations 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 OF OBSERVATIONS. These excavations are obviously the results of arti- ficial agencies by all ordinary rules of judgement; and what purpose were they to serve? If a culinary use, where are the Footnote. 1. Sewall's Bath, Vol. 2, Massachusetts Historical Collections, p. 19. p.24 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE INDIANS WOULD EAT NOTHING RAW. 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 exca- vations sunk to serve a public use in the preparation of food for a people who, history tells us, "would eat nothing raw."1 Do these excavations mark favorite camping grounds and resting places? And are they indi- cations of hospitality, in provison made for the comfort and convenience of strangers and travelers at the public expense, from the resources of the Bashaba, who was the great sovereign of the country? Or 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 Island, a low specacle shaped mass of rocks and sand, rises in a and 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 human body led to the discovery of an imbedded skeleton, in a sitting posture, facing the rising sun. In the subsequent explorations, a sarcophagus of double wrappers of birchen bark, enlosing the skull and frame of a human body, was exhumed. The mass had become flatten- ed, from the falling-in of the frame, which, on being ex- posed, discovered a winding sheet of delicate furs, in several think 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 remains of a sash or belt, like a fisherman's com- forter, fringed Footnote. 1. Rosier's Narrative of the Savages of Penta- cost Harbor. p.25 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. and curiously wrought of plaited hair, was found with the mass, which was also soon dissipated in the 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 which 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. INDIAN TOWN. The locality has long borne the traditional name of "In Indian 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,1 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, running back by a very gentle elevation from the sea, subtending laterally a cone shaped outline of vis- ion, some miles in diameter. In the line of the axis of this view, against the Footnotes. 1. Levett's voyage to Cape Ne-wagen, 1623-24. The Crystal Hill is to be seen at the sea side. And there is no ship arrives in New England, either to the west so var as Cape Cod, or to the east, so far as "Monhegan" but they see this Mountain, the first land, if the weather be clear. Massachusetts Historical Coll. Vol. 3, p.84. p.26 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. horizon of the distant west, filling the entire space to the very clouds, is projected a rounded mountain- ous outline - a huge, dark-swollen mass, which re- appears 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 certain- ly eclipse the eye. It is this feature which early gave the appropriate descriptive name of the "Crystal Mount ains." 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 atmos- phere, add much to the romance of the site of this settlement at the "Krangan" of the great aboriginal thoroughfare from the east. AN INDIAN GARDEN. MEDICINAL PLANTS AND HERBS. 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 was said to still abound. COLONIAL VESTIGES. THE BONES OF A HUMAN WITH AN ANCIENT TWO EDGED SWORD, DISCOVERED IN PLOWING. There too, are vestiges of civilized life, among the barbarian 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 while in the hands of him who drew and wielded the weapon, have no where been recovered. p.27 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 promiscuously 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; a piece of a chain; with a table knife of ancient fashion and pe- 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 nearby, was an earth-dug opening, indicative of an early civil- ized human home. (A Report on the Archæology of Maine By Warren King Moorehead - full book online with Google Books.) A HISTORY OF BLOOD, VALOR AND DEATH. These relics, from the broken blade to the knife, have a history of their own, a history distinct from that which those of barbaric life more remote and extens- ive, 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 suprem- acy 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 fron- tier life inscribed in the blood written tokens of this fragment of a sword, the symbol of civilized life and European power, we read the heroism, desperation and success of some fond father, some loving husband, in the defense and rescue of his wife and children from the death grasp of wild and savage men, whose insid- ious approach had surprised his forest-sheltered re- treat, but whose yells of savage delight were to be silenced in the dust they were made to bite, or choked with their own blood, as it followed 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? p.28 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SUGGESTIVE FEATURES OF THE REMAINS. It is a remarkable and significant fact, that the re- mains described have 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 sepulture, but have mouldered away where they fell! Such are the facts, bearing on scenes of a remote anti- quity, 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 Babylon. They tell us that the head-waters of the Damari- scotta in the interior, and the lower waters of the Sheeps- cot, at the sea-side, have been points remarkable in human history, as centers of vast populousness to an early race, more than commonly expert in all the arts of barbaric life! 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 that a common fate, the same sudden and terrible catastrophe, over-swept each hamlet of these island homes! Therefore, the unburied bones of this an- cient people are left to bleach, moulder away and mingle Insert. European diseases (especially smallpox) really decimated the Indian nation, killing at least 75% of the population. with the offal of their food, till their lodging places and planting grounds have become a golgotha of ghastly remains! 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-existant with a state of things anterior* to the advent of the European, or white race, to our shores; p.29 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. and refer us to the existence here, of a primitive people of vast antiquity, and great density, who held original possession 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 extinguished 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 Iagoo, in the Song of Hiawatha, the historical epoch of the myth of which we have now reached, may help out the myst- erious 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 flying, 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-moekee, 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. p.30 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINS. 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." RUINS ACCOUNTED FOR. In tracing the facts we have above explored, in their natural localities, up through the dark recesses of the past, into the light 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, there- fore, on the very threshold of the Colonial epic, at the opening of the scenes of New England history, we think we may there gather data for their solution, in the historic recollections of the earliest voyagers who 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 local- ity, has appeared to puzzle the antiquary and appall the historian, whose outlines have been preserved in the sounds of aboriginal articulation pronounced "Norumbegua," 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 ghost. "Norumbegua," p.31 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. contemporaneous with the aboriginal Mavooshen, is one of the earliest of ancient names on our shores. While central Maine has seemed to be its most definite local- ity, yet, from the non-existence of vestiges and remains, tradional 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 method 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 attitude of this celebrated name, which, by general consent, in face of the facts and reasoning of De Mons, has latterly attached to some undetermined locality on the water banks of the Penobscot. HISTORICAL VIEW OF 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, whose 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 Norumbegus, so that the "Pemaquid and Sheepscot,"1 (then called Chevacovett), made its western 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 Footnote. Sullivan, p.270. p.32 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. NORUMBEGUA. 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. A.D. 1607. Cotemporaneously with the appearance of a town of fifty 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 Sagada- hock, 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 fit for fishing ...and the region that goeth along the sea, doth abound1 in fish." This is the fullest, and probably the most authentic account we have - it likely being the summary of all that was known about "Norumbegua" at that date. With this description, out of the 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 the rivers Pema- quid and Sheepscot, then, as now, well known localities, and unless we utterly discard the weight of all historic preponderance, 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 Footnote. 1. Purchase, Vol. 4, pp. 1620-1625. p.33 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. ear of every early voyager, so continually and forcibly, that it has left an indelible impress on the historic page! But, if of an 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. THE LOCATION OF NORUMBEGUA. The waifs of history, in concurrence with the peculiar 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 indications, 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 in- vestigations as to the location of the traditonal Norum- begua, 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 "fish 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-east of this island, called Damariscotta, meaning the river where the fishes1 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 Footnote. 1. Illustration of the meaning of aboriginal words. The Honorable William Willis, Massachusetts Historical Coll- ection, Vol. 4, p. 190. INSERT. Penobscot-Abenaki Word Set English (Français) Abenaki-Penobscot One (Un) Bazegw Two (Deux) Niz Three (Trois) Nas Four (Quatre) Yaw Five (Cinq) Nôlan Man (Homme) Zanôba or Gizôba Woman (Femme) Behanem Dog (Chien) Alemos or Adia Sun (Soleil) Gizos Moon (Lune) Gizos Water (Eau) Nebi White (Blanc) Wôbi Yellow (Jaune) Wizôw Red (Rouge) Mekwi Black (Noir) Mkazawi Eat (Manger) Micimek See (Voir) Namito Hear (Entendre) Nodam Sing (Chanter) Linto Leave (Partir) Ngadôzig p.34 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. DAMARISCOVE - MONHEGAN ISLAND 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 Norumbegua; of aboriginal notoriety and import- ance. On this hypothesis, based on the fact that Damariscove, or or Monhegan Island, lying east and west of each other, and off 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 charactoristics 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 ration- al solution of every remarkable vestige, have an intimate connection 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 re- corded on the face of the earth, anterior to the recollec- tion even of tradition for more than two centuries, still remarkable there, we have already given in detail. We may assume, that no body of water, no arm of the sea, than that shut in at its mouth by the Pemaquid point on the east, and by the harbor-environing lands of Boothbay on the west, now called the Damariscotta River, afforded ever, a more ample and ready supply of human food for the subsist- ence of a permanent and concentrated population, in the resources of its ale-wive fisheries and ancient oyster beds, (the members of this distinguished world-renowned shell-fish, still surviving in isolation, there amid the deadly accumu- lation of saw-dust and mill offal upon them,) than p.35 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 mark1 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 knowledge 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. 1605. 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 Captain George Weymouth, the Archangel,2 lay at her moorings in Pentacost Harbor, May 30, 1605, under an island in the capacious and newly discovered haven. ORNAMENTS OF COPPER. In continuation of the narrative of this voyage, Rosier Footnotes. 1. Philip's Deed to Tappan, L. Commissioners' reports. 2. Belknap. John McKeen, Esq. p.36 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. MAINE INDIAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN. goes on to say, "here we saw four of their women, who stood behind them as desirous to see us, but not will- ing to be seen. They were very well formed in prop- ortion of countenance, low of stature, 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, of good countenances, which the women love tenderly, all naked except their legs, which were covered with 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.1" PERSONAL ASPECTS. They were not naturally a beardless race. No hair was allowed to grown on their facres; "but on their heads, very long and very black hair, which those that have wifes bind up with a leather string, in a long, round knot." There were civil, merry and thankful - of quick understanding - great capacity and ingenious. WEAPONS OF 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 a harping iron." Other offens- ive projectiles they had, as "darts headed with the bone of the deer," "which," says Rosier, "I darted among the rocks and it break 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 the European make. FONDNESS FOR TOBACCO. They were fond of tobacco, as well as cultivators of the Virginia weed. Footnote.1. Massachusetts Historical Coll. p. 140, series 3rd, Vol. 8. p.37 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. At one time, they welcomed the ship's company on shore, taking them by the hands, and leading them to seats by their fires, where thirteen of them sat together in social and friendly intercourse. Their tobacco pipe was filled - which then was the short claw of the lobster - and, says the narrator, "we smoked of their tobacco as much as we would with 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 above 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 common method of the inhalation of the gases and fumes of the consuming week, as quaffed from the bowl of the pipe - a barbarian custom, now thor- oughly domesticated, as a chief virtue among the en- joyments of civilized life. DIRECTION OF THE NATIVE CAPITAL FROM THE SHIP'S ANCHORAGE. As the ship still lay at anchorage in Pentacost harbor, westward from Pemaquid, the home of a con- stantly re-appearing chieftain, whos kinsman was sub- sequently captured and abducted from that home, "by pointing to one part of the main, eastward," the nat- ives about the ship gave Commodore Weymouth (whom they called a 'Bashaba') to understand there was the place of 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 sov- ereign, must have been the Capital of this people. COURT COSTUME. Only the day before leaving Pentacost harbor, to enter p.38 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. a newly discovered river, swept by strong tides, and en- livened with fish, some of which were seen "great leap- ing above water," about noon, "two canoes boarded the ship, laying still at her anchorage there, coming from the eastward. 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 'coronet' 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 authority of their sovereign, bearing a message from their king to Commodore Weymouth, as his ship lay under Fisher- man's Island, west of Pemaquid, in Bootbay harbor; for, continues the narative of the incidents of the voyage, "by their speech and signs, they signified that the 'Bashaba,' (i.e., their king,) sent them with an invita- that Captain 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." THE TREACHERY OF WEYMOUTH. But George Weymouth, in violation of all obligations, 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 con- verted his ship into a prison ship, 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 in- genious art," were disposed on the orlop of the ship's deck, as p.39 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 to-nots, and were dragged aboard. Five natives of Pemaquid, and one, a Sagamore, a resi- dent there, all subjects of the Bashaba, were at this moment immured in the ship Archangel's hold, unbeknown to their 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, de- siring 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 Laet1 wrote, "that four leagues in the direction of the coast, to the north of Kennebeck," (a course and dis- tance making the harbor of Boothbay,) "there is a bay having its bosom a large number of islands. The natives of this locality, he adds, are in some re- spects unlike the other aborigines of Maine. They shave their heads to the crown*** but suffer the hair to grow on the back of the head, confining it in knots, inter- weaving feathers of various plumage. They paint their faces black or red. They differ, in that these natives plant corn and beans together, on which the vines run up. Besides, these savages are said to have permanent abodes. THE INDIANS WHO VISITED THE ARCHANGEL. Of the natives visiting the ship, Archangel, it was particularly noted "that nothing raw would be eaten by them, either flesh or fish." Footnote. 1. Williamson, Vol. 1, p.486, note. p.40 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. We have been thus minute in description detail, to bring out certain facts and circumstances, establishing a rela- tionship between the natives visiting Weymouth's ship, and the features and facts of the localities we have heretofore described. 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 abori- ginal people who stood on the decks of the Archangel in Pentacost harbor, two and a half centuries ago, with those who were and have been dwellers about the head-waters of the Damariscotts, 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 ship, Archangel, three of the captured savages - found them all of the same nation, but different families and social condition. He says they were from Pemaquid;1 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 of the throne, which was absorbed in a series of movements, to secure the soil, develop the resources, people the wild forest wastes of the so goodly region of Sagadahock; which embraced the home of these five forlorn Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll. p. 17, vol. 2. p.41 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. captives, of what was esteemed the most successful voyage of the Archangel in these waters. The interest thus ex- cited developed itself through a period of about a century and a half, in vast expenditures of means and influence, to found and rear a Royal State, in the wilds of old Lincoln, Maine. THE INDIAN KING, BASHABA. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the earliest and most reliable his- toriographer of Maine, relates "that the coasts were very populated, 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 Indian king bearing the title of Bashaba, whose own chief abode was not far1 from Pemaquid." PEMAQUID'S WHALE FISHERS. Rosier, the chronicler of the Weymouth expedtion, tells us the Pemaquid captives, whose prison ship the Arch- angel 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 Bashable, 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 a harp- ing iron, fastened to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of trees, and veer out after him, as the stricken fish plunges into the watery abyss, in the vain hope of eluding his pursuers. As he seeks the sur- face to take breath, in his flight from death, the pur- suing army of boats gather about the opening he makes on emerging from the deep, and shoot the stricken fish to death." Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll. Vol. 2, p. 62. p.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 pecul- iar character of the ante-colonial dwellers here, and most certainly point to the conclusion as a summary of these in- dications, that the Archangel of the Weymouth expedition, must have had her anchorage when 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 mainland margin,) bearing north-easterly, distant some fourteen miles, up a deep, broad inlet of tide waters, where ships of more than one thousand tons have often sailed to the sea! THE INDIAN KING, CALLED BASHABA. 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; ornamental hair work as a part of the Royal vesture, or court p.43 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. "A PEOPLE WHO EAT NOTHING RAW." THE ENTRANCE OF THE HARBOR OF BOOTHBAY. costume of the great officers of state; the evidences of permanency of abode and of a people "who eat nothing raw;" eminently a people of culinary tastes and habits, discov- erable in the sites of ancient and eloquent 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 ship, Archangel of Commodore Weymouth's expedition 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 the remains of the ancient dead of Damariscotta, from the offal of their subsistence there - the little round pieces of perforated copper, in shape of Spanish coin of the size of a quarter, found as relics among the ruins of 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 offal among the shell deposits here, where the oyster does not grow nearer than the headwaters of the Damariscotta and Sheepscot above - clearly and palpably establish an identity between the barbaric aboriginal 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 Weymouth's ship, and the resi- dents 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 the 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. p.44 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. NORUMBEGUA. It can leave no doubt where the anchorage of Weymouth's ship was, and from whence the people visiting here came. We think we have the best of 1 historic authority in proof that the capital of the native sovereign of Lincoln was within the precinct, not far from, but not at Pema- quid. Connected with the natural features which we have traced, as marking the locality of the historic Norum- begua, it seems to us there is strong presumptive evid- ence, 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 Damariscotta, near the aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake, mark the seat of the ancient empire - of which the island city of lodges on the Sheeps- cot, at the "Ne-krangan" of native travel through the harbor below, was a sea-board town. Such is the conclus- ion 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 painted2 what they had seen." This fact is a type of the action of the native mind, in the expression of its perceptions. 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 and places. Therefore, every sound en- tering into a name, in the aboriginal tongue, is rounded to fullness with significancy. The name is in fact, Footnotes. 1. See Sir Fernando Gorges' account and statement. 2. Sullivan, p.99. p.45 ANTE COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 ortho- graphy, but combinations of sounds, we must pick the mean- ing. Light has been shed on the darkness of aboriginal nomen- clature, from the pen of the Honorable William Willis, in the valuable and laborious research he has made into the meaning of Indian terms and the composition of the lang- uage, 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 con- clusion that Norumbegua is a series of words, and not a proper name, having in combination the possessive pro- noun "N" of the native tongue - the adjective "ourim," and the noun "pik," and represents three words; the pro- noun "N," meaning our, the adjective "ourim," good, in the sense of delightsome, pleasant or excellent to the senses; and the noun, "pik," meaning a place of residence or home. Together, the words signify, our excellent resi- dence; 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 language, we have left, the suffix "orumbegua," all the sounds of which are fully expressed in Arambec, as the great de- scriptive element in the body of the word. ARAMBEC. Arambec is therefore the true name, meaning chief city p.46 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. or capital - residence of the king, place of the palace, as more freely and fully expressed in English ideas. NORUMBEGUA OR, ARAMBEC. Not understanding the composition of their language, as the sounds reached the unaccustomed ears of the early voyagers, 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 "Norumbegua;" and sometimes in the earnestness of the invitation, only Arambec, i.e., to our chief city. Thus, 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 OR, EBENECOOK. The ruins distinguishing the island settlement of the sea- 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 handed down by tradition, it may be from the natives them- selves. In this aboriginal word, everyone will at once re- cognize 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 cunning work of their hair, found among the remains of the exhumed body of a royal personage, prove that Menikuk and Arambec 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 p.47 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. SHEEPSCOT - MEANING, THE ISLAND HOME. Sheepscot, "the island home," or the place of the island home, as more fully expressed. How expressive! How graphic! How appropriate! Arambec, the good; and Menikuk, the island home ! THE 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 only the ruins of their homes, and the ashes of their unnumbered dead, to mark the places which knew them, it is difficult to identify the race, who, with their Arambec, delightful inland capital, had also their Menikuk, or island city on the coast. EAST-LAND MEN, THE WA-WEN-NOCKS." 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 people very1 brave, fearing nothing"? A people character- ized 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 the Penobscot to the shores of the Merri- mac? 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 conquering people - more elevated in the scale of in- tellectual Footnote. 1. Williamson, Vol I. p.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 re- cesses of sheltering groves of oak, thick clustering on the margins of sheltering groves of oak, thick clust- ering on the margins of the water-courses, hill-tops and head-lands of Sagadahock, in the aspect of the primeval grandeur and solitudes, furnished fit temples in which its white-robed priests ever celebrated the rites of the Druidical religion, the excavated, 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 whale for food, as a pastime. These facts indicate, that a foreign and peculiar people now occupied the sites of Menikuk and Arambec of Pema- quid and Sheepscot. During what vast migratory period, in the impulses of human existence, could this irruption have take place? What 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 capturing this mighty fish by the process of harpooning, worrying 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 p.49 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 peculiarites 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 torr- ents upon our shores? But this is contrary to the analogies of past exper- ience. The great flux of life is so exactly conformed to the centrifugal forces of the earth's motion - so palpably, that it has passed into a historic fact as a great migratory feature, that "west-ward ho! the star of empire holds its way." That such an irruption has at some period broken in, centuring at the hear of Lincoln County, leaving there an exotic race from some distant shore, seems more than probable. In the distant echoings of ages, we seem to catch the voices of an earlier day in the cries of a receding peole, forced from their homes in a concussion of races, calling to us and saying - They1 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 GREAT WA-WENNOCK BASHABA. 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 resi- dence of the great Wa-Wennock Bashaba, not only solves the mystery of the vast ruins of a mighty race there, but also, the unex- Footnote. Drake's Book of the Indians. p.50 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. WE HAVE THE FACTS. WE HAVE TRACED THE RUINS. plained historical reminiscences floating through 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 circumstances concur to drive us from the banks of the Penobscot, to the head-waters of the Damaris- cotta, in search of the "Norumbegus," - 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 sub- sistence, having a surface position, indicate that the human bodies were left to rot where they fell, till buried in their own decay. The circumstances thus marked with melancholy peculiarity in the history of savage life and times are full of mean- ing. It is a point of heroism with 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 unexpected enemies, or by visitation of the rod of God, in a pestil- ence so dire and sweeping, as to give the living no time to bury their dead, but sought safety in flight from the scene of the dead and dying. BASHABA - HIS POWER AND ENEMIES. Both these agencies may have operated. To the east and north-east of the dominions of the Bashaba, dwelt the people of the Tarratines,1 enemies of the Bashaba, who had many. Footnotes. 1. Gorges. Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 2, p. 61. p.51 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. The Wawennocks,1 his subjects, dwelt on the Sheepscot and Pemaquid; 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 thous- and, and some fifteen hundred bowmen." Mavooshen was the name of the territory, wherein was the seat of his dominion, which therefore was the abori- ginal 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 embers 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, until the Tarratine, by treachery, secured an opportunity to sur- prise the Wawennock sovereign, sacked his capital, and made captive his women, and escaped.2 Pestilence trod hard on the heels of war, until 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, Footnotes. 1. Maine Historical 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 and brutish people there, (i.e. Sagadahock) hereto- fore inhabiting, in a manner to the utter destruction, deva- station, 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. p.52 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. though a night of greater age, the shadows of a more hoary past gather over the scenes of their desolation. THE ABORIGINAL NAME OF LINCOLN COUNTY. MAVOOSHEN - LINCOLN COUNTY, MAINE. 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 beasts; whose waters teemed with sea-foul, plenty of salmon, lobsters, 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 proxi- mity of its coasts to the waters of the best fishing grounds in the newly discovered continent, embracing 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 magni- icent 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 conquer- ors, 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 more eloquent mementoes of their being. The earth's surface still bears the scars of the struggle where "the silver cord was loosed, and the golden bowl was broken." "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. "No other voices 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." p.53 ANTE-COLONIAL PERIOD. 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 earl- iest history, which have survived the ravages of war and the tooth of time, the importance of which has been heretofore overlooked, in the overshadowing greatness of our metropo- litan neighbor. MAINE, HER MOTTO - "DIRIGO - I LEAD." But the historic reminiscences of Maine in interest and im- portance, 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, be- ginning with the records of the earth's surface in Maine; and when, in the field of historic observation, as in the constellation of States, Maine will take her natural posi- tion, bearing aloft the motto of her escutcheon, "Dirigo - I lead." p.54 CHAPTER II. PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. A.D. 1564. 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. Barth- olomew's day, which the revocation of the edict of Nantz opened in the heart of Europe. They 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 Florida. These were Frenchmen by birth and Protestants in faith. GOSNOLD'S VOYAGE TO THE "VIRGINIA OF 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 1"Virginia of the northern 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 deep pays and magni- ficent head-lands, from the deck of the ship Concord, "hailed a shallop of1 European build, Footnote 1. Hackluyt Papers, Massachusetts Historical Coll. Vol. viii, 3d series, p. 73-86. p.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 them- selves,) 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 barque1 shallop with masts and sails and grapple and a copper Lat.43 deg. 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 hail- ed from the ship, and they hailed back again. "In color, these people were swart, (brown skinned, brown colored, olive skinned) - their hair long, uptied in a knot behind the head, tall of stature, broad and grim of visage, their eye-brows painted white - their weap- ons were bows and arrows." A few years before, the largest ship of Gilbert's fleet, southward bound, in the latitude of Wiscasset, struck and was lost; and through the recklessness of her company, near one hundred souls perished in the waters1 of Sheepscot bay; and near this scene of disaster without doubt, or "the river of the Kennebec,"2 Gosnold's colony could not be per- suaded to remain, but returning with him to the back side of Cape Cod, began their "plantation at the Vineyard."3 Footnotes. 1. Bancroft, Vol. 1, p.91 2. Sullivan, p.272. 3. Strachey. p.57 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. PRING'S VOYAGE. MONHEGAN AND PEMAQUID. Martin Pring, under patronage of merchantmen of Bristol, with two vessels following the track of Gosnold, "found good anchorage among the islands in Penobscot or Pema- quid Bay,1 - Monhegan and Pemaquid being in sight." He examined more in detail, the bays, harbors and rivers of our coast, carrying back a glowing 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 settling the new, by colonizing her children there, lest some other people should forestall the purposes of England in this parti- cular. 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 until 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 enchantment to the view," - drawn by every new voyager 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 re- sults to the Geographer and Historian was projected. Two and one half centuries have elapsed, March 5, Footnote. 1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 21. p.58 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 10 a.m. Since George Weymouth set sail at Ratcliff in the ship, Archangel1 for our shores.2 Running close by the wind, one month after his departure from England, urged by necessities of wood and water (May 6) 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 hundred fathoms. Alarmed at a sudden change in the aspect of the water, sound- ings again made, gave but five fathom, and (May 13) no land in sight. A man at mast-head, soon however, "descried a whitish sandy cliff, bearing W.S.W. with many breaches of the sea near to land" - and becoming 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. MAY 17TH. It was on Friday, during evening twilight, that land was again descried, bearing N.N.E. in the midst of a gale of wind and a 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 18th. "a mean3 high land," but was found to be an "island, six miles in compass, of a thousand acres" Footnotes. 1. John McKeen, Esq. - Belknap. 2. Massachusetts Historical Society, 3d Series, Vol. VIII. 3. Some highland of the maine - Hubbard, p.12. p.59 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 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. GOOSEBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES AND WILD ROSES. At noon, a league from the shore 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 trend- ing from the W.S.W. to the E. N. E. OBSERVATIONS, COURSES, AND DISTANCE OF THE ARCHANGEL IN SAILING TO THE MAIN. Says the chronicler, of this voyage, - "from hence we might discern the mainland 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." MONHEGAN ISLAND. This 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 White Mountains, showing in their magnificent outlines, terminating the view in the horizon of the distant west, along the valley of the Androscoggin, would seem to answer the object of the narrator as well as the description he gives, which was, so to shade the locality of the exploration and dis- coveries 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 19th, and made sail for the main - "coming along to the other islands more adjoining to the main and in the road p.60 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. MONHEGAN. covered and so named by them, now called Monhegan, it was found where a fire had been made; and nearby "the shells of very great eggs, bigger than goose eggs" - together with the bones of fishes and beasts. These evidences of the presence of human existence excited the curiousity 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 taken on shore, and her frame set up, while the ship's crew digged for water, Footnote. 1. Gilbert and Popham's Voyage. p.61 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. and finding a spring, inserted an empty cask to make it well up, and in their digging found excellent clay for brick and tile." OCCUPATION OF THE SHIP'S COMPANY. Yards and spars for the ship's use were cut from the neighboring forest by some - the shallop hastened for- ward by others - and great lobsters, rock fish, and plaice were fished, - "all the fish being well-fed, fat, and sweet to the taste." MAY 22ND. The soil of this island was broken with the spade and hoe for the first time - and various garden seeds commit- ed to the virgin earth, "which in sixteen days grew eight inches," in what was but the crust and much inferior to the mould of the main-land. MAY 24TH. Their wood and watering finished, "fourteen musketerrs and Pike men embarked to explore the neighboring islands in the harbor; and landed on two of them, May 24th, 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. MAY 29th. "Today the new built shallop was launched, and a Cross set up on the shore-side among the rocks," in accordance with the custom of the age, in marking new-discovered lands, and particularly with Commodore Weymouth's policy, who "set up Crosses1 in several places, marking his explorations here." THE FIRST VIEW OF THE NATIVES. The ship well moored, with fourteen men of her crew, was left at her anchorage, while Commodore Weymouth, with thirteen men, explored the newly discovered harbor and its several approaches, finding Footnote. 1. Holmes's Annals, p. 150. Williamson, p. 192, Vol. I. Note. p.62 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. four entrances for ship passage and good anchorage in the sounds between its land-locking islands. Weymouth then departed on an expedition inland, in his ship's boat. After he had gone from the ship, 5 o'clock, at nightfall, 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 (waving) 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 peacock's feathers, with which they adorned "their hair and tobacco pipes" and then returned to their savage companions on shore. DESCRIPTION OF THE NATIVES. With bodies painted black - their faces, some red, some black and some blue - "not very tall or big" - they were a symmetrical and comely people, clothed with beaver and deer skin mantles, fastened at their shoulders, haning to p.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 their heads, "very long and very black," was tied up from behind into a long knot. Of quick perception and good understanding, they exhibited a courteous demeaner, 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 ship's provisions, but of noth- ing raw. The kettles, the armor, all excited their wonder; and at the report of fire-arms, the savages fell flat on their faces, exhibiting the greatest terror. It was given to them to understand that the great object of the ship's visit to their shores was the exhange of knives etc., for beaver skins and furs; on learning which, with evident satisfaction, all de- parted. 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 was 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 conjectured our Captain had found some unexpected harbor, further up toward the main, to bring the ship into, or some river." Footnote. Aboriginal Boat - The following description will present a good idea of the canoe of the aboriginal construct- ion and use: "Of the birch bark the savages make delicate canoes, so light that two (see footnote continued below) p.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 in- land egress from the harbor northward, through which he had passed, up into the main; and following the tides, had un- expectedly fallen on his new discoveries; in the course of this passage. The north-west head of Boothbay Harbor termin- ates in such a passage by a deep, narrow gorge, in the native language called a gate-way, as part of the trail from the east 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 Hockomock head into the Sagada- hock, opposite the city of Bath, the course from the harbor tending 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. *** For by the length, breadth, depth, and strong flood, imagining it to run far up into the land, he, with speed returned, intend- ing to flank his light horse-men for arrows, etc." leaving at the point on the river's banks where he had debarked, in a trail Footnotes continued from previous page.... 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, scraping 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 feet long. Thin birchen rinds, close ribbed on the in- side with broad thin hoops, like hoops of a tub, very light, are the material for the other kind of canoes. "In these cockling fly-boats, wherein an Englishman can scarce sit without 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 wind- driven ship, being driven by their paddles, being much like battledoors; and if a cross wave turn her keep upside down, they, by swimming free her, and scramble into her again." Young's Chronicle, see note, p.135. p.65 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 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. JUNE 1. 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, 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 specific disposition of their strange visitors, cast off reserve, and became free and fearless, accompanied the fishermen who drew the net, and wondered 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 voy- age. 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 dear skins spread by the fire, for them to be seated on. To their guests p.66 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. they offered tobacco, "which was excellent, being the simple leaf, strong, and 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 a harping iron. They likewise had darts headed with like bone, "one of which I darted among the rocks, and it brake not." OWEN GRIFFIN. On the return of the party to the ships, Owen Griffin 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 write, "these were tide up whensoever any of them came on board." On the Sabbath, 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 eastward) signify that their Bashaba, i.e. King, "there had great plenty of furs and much tobacco." Wherefore our Captain SPEED OF NATIVE CANOE. manned 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. p.67 SUSPICIONS OF TREACHERY. GRIFFIN. When we came "near the point" where we saw their fires, and intended to land, the guiding canoe sped away to their fellows on shore, after carefully and frequently having numbered the ship's company. This circumstance aroused suspicions of treachery in the 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 exchange, but seeming desirous to draw a company "further up into a little nook of a river, for their furs as they pretended," - called "Little River" to this day, and which longitudinally 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 anchorage - June 4. 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 together 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 one of pretty bigness and orient." p.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 secured, 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 remained in their canoes about the ship, but could not be lured on board. A plate of pease was tend- ered to those still in their canoes, which was received by them, and with which they hasted to an adjacent is- land, their to eat their pease. Having finished their repast, one of the savages, young, comely and brisk, returned with the can to the ship; and joined his comrades on board below. The small ship's boat was now manned with seven or eight men, and dispatched to the shore, as if for traffic. As the boat's crew landed, one of the savages "withdrew into the woods," but the other two met the party at the shore-side and received another can of pease, with whom the surprising party "went up the cliff 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 sail- ors could do to get them into the light 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. JUNE 8. The harbor was thoroughly explored this day; and "the Captain diligently searched the mouth of the harbor, and about the rocks which show themselves at all times, and are an excellent breach of water, so as no sea can come in to offend the harbor" - a harbor that can be entered "most securely in water enough by four several passages." p.69 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. CAPTURED PEMAQUID NATIVES. Soon after shipping the captured natives, who had come from their home at Pemaquid to visit the ship, as she lay in her anchorage still, about one o'clock, "came from the eastward, two canoes aboard us," says Rosier, "wherein was he that refused to stay with us for a pawn; and with him six other savages which we had not seen before, who had beautified themselves after their manner, very gallantly with newly painted faces, very deep, some all black, some red, with stripes of ex- cellent 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 wearer, the hairwork 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 accompanying 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. JUNE 11. 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 Pentacost Harbor, made all sail, and with the kidnapped subjects of the Bashaba under hatches, residents of Pemaquid, the kins- man 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 for anchorage, "having a small, sandy p.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, some- what overgrown with little shrub trees, fed by a strong run."1 THE MAGNIFICENCE OF THE SAGADAHOCK. All were struck with the beauty of its head-lands and the 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 half a mile at the narrowest, when you shall never have under four and five fathoms water hard by the shore, and on both sides eveery 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. JUNE 12. With the light horseman, or gig, the Captain, with seven- teen men, left the Archangel riding at her anchorage opposite the "Gut," or the entrance to the inland "pass- age 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,2 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 THE INDIANS, MANIDA, SKETWARROES AND TISQUANTUM. Footnotes. 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 sailed up the Sagadahock," the harbor lying about midway between the two rivers - and, it is added, that Weymouth brought from these rivers, five natives, of whom were "Manida, Sketwarroes and Tisquantum" New England Chronicles, p.15. 2. The fire-arms were the old fashioned match-lock musket; the flint-lock and modern per- cussion being unknown. PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. OAK TREES LIKE IN THE PASTURES OF ENGLAND. p.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 timb- er for any use." THE CITY OF BATH. "And surely it did all resemble a stately park, wherein appear some old trees with high withered tops, and others flourishing with living green boughs. Upon the hills grew notable high timber trees, masts for ships of four hundred tons." Such was the aboriginal forest aspect fo the penin- sula, on which the present city of Bath, Maine, is located, when its landscape 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 oak trees. 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 OF 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 gut1) which, says the narrator, "hastened to us, wherein with two others was he, who refused to stay for a pawn." WISCASSET, MAINE. Footnote. If Captain Weymouth's Pentacost harbor be identical with Boothbay, near and in sight from Pemaquid, north-easterly, where lived his captured natives, the ship Archangel may have followed the flood tide, leaving the harbor by its island pass- age, bearing west up the Sheepscot, by way of Wiscasset to the Sagadahock, entering the Kennebec opposite Bath. By the inland route, it would 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. Footnote 1. Is this the ancient by-river Sasana? p.72 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The Indian named Prince. 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 the ship to her new anchor- aged in the river, from the east, and was now just emerging into sight between the opening head-lands of bold shores, where the Kennebec yawns to swallow in the Sheepscot tide waters opposite Bath, Maine. With the haste and earnestness of affection and solicitude, these savages endeavored to secure one of the ship's company as a 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, be- longing to Pemaquid, and immured in the ship's (Archangel) hold. JUNE 13th - EXPLORATIONS OF THE RIVER. A company, well armed and provided, again embarked in the small boat, and went up from the ship to that part of the river which trended westward into the main, to search that, and carr- with them a cross to erect at that point, which they left on shore until their return, where it was set up in like manner as the former had been, on the island. SHIP 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. p.73 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. Before the gray dawn of morning had broken over the head- lands of Arrowsic, with the tide in his favor, and two boats ahead, the ship Archangel was unmoored, June 14, and towed doen the Sagadahock and anchored before 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 in- struments, and found the latitude 43 deg. 20 min., and on Sunday, the wind fair, the ship finally put to sea on June 16th, homeward bound for England. IDENTIFICATION OF 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 assumption, in reference to the location of the scene of Weymouth's explorations. Strachey, a co-temporaneous writer, has thrown much light on this expedition, in giving us the aboriginal names of the riveres entered and explored by Weymouth, which from motives of state policy were withheld by Rosier. Strachey expressly fixes the localities, say of Weymouth, that among the other discoveries made, was that of the "a little river of Pemaquid, and that most excellent and beneficial river, Sagadahock - up which he searched for sixty miles."1 In the account transcribed are sketched many physical features which will ever mark the island under which, and Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll. Vol.3, p. 287. Massachusetts Historical Coll. Vo. 5, 2nd Series, p. 12. p.74 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. the harbor in which Weymouth moored his storm-tossed ship. No course being given in the text, as to their showing, or any other indication, but the fact that there were "very high mountains, very far up into the main - discernable from the anchorage under Monhegan Island" - the legitimate inference is that Weymouth stood in for the main in the line of vision of the summit of Mount Washington, in the White Mountains 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 mountains," 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 Monhegan was westward and not east- ward. 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. LINIKEN'S NECK. 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 where she lay, a circumstance peculiar in itself to the waters on the harbor side of this island, and where, doubtless, the Archangel lay at anchor. Entereing at the is the "little nook of a river," immediately off "Fisher- man's Island," landward, north, a mile distant, into which the natives sought to decoy Weymouth, under pretense of trade. Nearly parallel to Fishermen's Island, a mile dis- tant 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 without p.75 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. FISHERMAN'S ISLAND. BOOTHBAY. 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 "Hipocrite" 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 Boothbay with the Pentacost harbor of Weymouth, discoverd 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 Weymouth "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.1 TUMBLER ISLAND. Near the center of Boothbay Harbor, Burnt Island, a rocky eminence, lifts its bare bald surface above the waters of the bay and harbor, on which the United States Government 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 Footnote. 1. John McKeen, Esq. p.76 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE SHEEPSCOT AND DAMARISCOTTA RIVERS. WEYMOUTH AT MONHEGAN ISLAND. they did then, as facts, to one familiar with the localities, 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 Damariscotta rivers. It is two and one half centuries since Weymouth, escaping from the embaying shoals and quicksands 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 mountains, 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, when 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." "A LAND MOST PROLIFIC IN ALL THE RESOURCES OF LIFE" CAPTIVATED INDIANS NAMED: NAHANADA, SAGAMORE; SKITWARROES, ASSESCOMET1 TISQUANTUM, AND DEHAMIDA. He had now fallen in with a land most prolific in all the resources of life - peopled with a numerous, courteous, in- genious and confiding race - the fairest specimens of abori- riginal humanity, as yet unsullied by the white man's touch, untainted by the approach of civilized life. Their inter- course, suspiciously 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 town honesty,) were secured below, and two were seized by force and dragged from the cliff-topl of the island, almost in sight of their Sovereign's capital, by the hair of their heads, and immured on ship-board. They were all persons of more or less distinction among their fellows and one was a chief- tain. Their names were: Nahanada, Sagamore; Skitwarroes, Assecomet,1 Tisquantum, Dehamida - all of whom were Footnote: 1. John McKenn's Voyage of Weymouth, p.332 CAPTIVATED AND TAKEN TO ENGLAND. p.77 PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. taken to England, fell into the hands and became objects of interest to the nobility of England, lived there about three years, and learned the English language, gave a full account of their people and country, exciting a deep public interest in themselves and their home, and returned as guides and in- terpreters to succeeding voyagers; and thus all were restored again to their people and country. PEMAQUID, SHEEPSCOT AND KENNEBEC. Maine - Rural Magnificence. The return of Weymouth closed the era of discovery; fully con- firming the public interest in efforts to secure so desirable a land of magnificent harbors, rivers and goodly forests, in- troducing and opening the period of settlement. Thus we have given the main incidents, facts and cirucumstances as they transpired in the earliest explorations of this region, to- gether with the personal appearance of the aboriginal settlers on the waters of the Pemaquid, Sheepscot and Kennebec, at their first introduction to the white race; and also the primitive as- pect of our harbors, rivers, and headlands, making up the land- scape of the "Ancient Dominions of Maine," when its primeval for- ests 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 locatlities of New England, in the eyes of the nobility of old England. SUMMARY. Note - 1. All the most reliable and best informed cotemporan- eous history locates the scene of Weymouth's discoveries at and near Pemaquid, and in the Kennebec or Sagadahock section there- of. 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. p.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 judged 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 with the hook they took by the back, and two at a time. It was now perceived they were on a 'fish-bank.' " THE ISLAND OF MONHEGAN. The waters of Maine have been frequented by continental fisher- men 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 their fisheries. INTEREST IN MAINE IS EXCITED IN EUROPE. The section of the country embracing the new discovered harbor and rivers of Pemaquid and Sagadahock by Weymouth - the home of his captive aborigines - had become a point of absorbing in- terest and speculation to the old world. MAINE'S MAGNIFICENT HARBORS, RIVERS & FORESTS. All eyes were directed to it, and all commercial enterprises and colonial adventures were shaped to secure that land of magnificent harbors, rivers and foreests, now opened in the west. Two years had elapsed since Weymouth's return - Under the freshened impulse of his discoveries, the Chief Justice Footnotes, continued. 3. The distant White Mountain views are more in accordance with the expressed purpose of Rosier, as land-marks, obscurity being his design in the description he gives - the Camden hills as land-marks would therefore have made the locality too palpable. 4. The occupancy of the Kenne- bec by the colony, for whose settlement the exploration was made, rather than the Penobscot. p.79 THE PERIOD OF DISCOVERY. 1606. of England, Lord Popham, organized an expedition to colonize the goodly land. The narrative of the expedition and the de- tails 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 primitive forests of oak and pine, ere the white man's axe had cleared, or his hoe had broken the virgin soil. p.80 CHAPTER III. SETTLEMENT. ADVENTURES OF GILBERT AND POPHAM AT THE MOUTH OF THE KENNEBEC. HISTORIAN, STRACHEY. Strachey, the historian of this voyage, was a man of intelli- gence, and as secretary of the company, must have had access to the most authentic material. Sir John Popham "prepared a 'tall ship,' well furnished, belonging to Bristol and the river Savern, with many planters, which set out from Plymouth, about May." *** "to settle a plantation in the river Sagada- hock." 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 voyages of Weymouth just returned with several of the natives. But the "tall" ship of Popham sailing in the path of a Spanish fleet, whose command- er, 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. p.81 a blank page. p.82 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. JOURNAL EXTRACTS OF THE VOYAGE. THE SHIP MARY & JOHN. 1607. GEORGE POPHAM AND RALEIGH GILBERT. The next year he fitted out a good ship "called the Mary & John, of London, and "a fly boat called the "Gift of God," wherein George Popham commanded and Raleigh Gilbert in the other, with more provisions and a large company of "one hundred and twenty planters," who set sail from Plymouth, England 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-north-west, as the wind would give leave," till the (July 27th) lead brought ground in twenty and twenty-two fathoms upon a bank near the 43rd 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, soundings gave them thirty fathom, on fishing ground of small stones and white shells. 29th. They held a west course till noon; when soundings gave black oozy bottom and one hundred and sixty fathom. 30th. In the morning, bearing north west, land hove in sight, 30 miles distant; and one hundred fathom, black cozy 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 might," find- ing abundance of fish, "very large and great; p.83 SETTLEMENT. 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. AUGUST 1st The same natives returned in another shallop, laden with beaver skins, accompanied by their women. Their purpose now was trade. At midnight, the moon shining brightly, and with the wind fair to the north-east, our voyagers set sail, 2nd. standing along the range of the coast south-westerly. BOOTHBAY AND KENNEBEC. 3rd. In the morning, very early, within three miles of land, they discovered many islands, with navigable sounds be- twixt; but "they made proof of none of them." 4th. This morning found the ships off a cape or headland. "The cape is low land, shewing white, like 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 Phipsburg p.84 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SAGADAHOCK. on the west, and bounding the bay of Sagadahock; the flux and reflux of whose waters created the "strong tyde which goeth there." 6th & 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 it was St. George. CAPTAIN GILBERT. The Indian, Skitwarroes, is returned home. Their anchorage lay inside Monhegan toward Pemaquid, "four leagues" distant; and at about midnight, Captain Gilbert caused his ship's boat to be manned with fourteen of his crew, together with Skitwarroes, who had been kidnapped by Weymouth near Townsend harbor, but now returned to his people and his home, as a guide and an interpreter. LANDING AT PEMAQUID. This company embarked in the boat, rowing westward, from where the ships lay, for Pemaquid river, where the party landed on the main. Skitwarroes, undoubtedly entirely familiar with all the localities of his birth-place, conducted them at once to "savages' houses, of a hundred men, women and children." ADVENTURES ON THE MAIN. There they found Nahanada (who had been a fellow captive with Skitwarroes, under the decks of Weymouth's ship,) the chief man of the settlement.1 On the first appearance of Gilbert's boatmen, the natives seized their weapons, exhibiting a hostile attitude; but Skitwarroes and Nahanada meeting each other, and the party being discovered to be Englishmen, the natives relax- ed 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 aboard again." Footnote. 1. See Popham's letter, Massachusetts Historical Collection - Latin. p.85 SETTLEMENT. SABBATH SERVICES. 9th. The Sabbath dawned. The Chiefs of each ship, with most of their company, landed on the island; and Mr. Seymour, their chaplain, delivered a sermon; and religious worship was cele- brated under the Cross of Weymouth. HOSTILITY OF THE NATIVES. 10th Captain Popham manned his shallop and Gilbert his boat, the company numbering fifty persons, and 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 re- membered 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 Booth- bay 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 margins of which it would seem they had retired from before the menacing bowmen of Nahanada at Pemaquid. DEPARTURE FOR SAGADAHOCK. 12th. "They weyed anchors and sett saile to goe for the river of Sagadahoc." p.86 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 13th. They were south off Seguin Island, a league distant - "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 yet blew very stiffe, soe as they were com- pelled to turn yt to and agayne" - i.e. - to stand off and on. 14th. "Soe soon as the daye gave light," finding themselves hard "abourd the lee shore" in the bay they were in the day before, (Broad Bay?) they looked for a place to "thrust in the shipp to save their lives." In towing their boat, "yt lave suncke at the sterne two hours 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 they 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." 15th. The storm ceased, and the wind came fair for them to go to Sagadahock - the river whither they were 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." p.87 SETTLEMENT. Entrance and Debarkation at the Mouth of the Sagadahock. 17th. Popham 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 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. 18th. 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 itself towards the nor-east and by east,) being almost 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." FIRST 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 Nahanada and Skitwarroes, the captives of Weymouth belonged, who were residents and natives from about the mouth of the Damaris- cotta, near Pemaquid, and of the tribe of the Wawennocks.1. Footnote.1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 28. p.88 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. POSSESSORY SERVICES AND RITES. 19th. Formal rites and ceremonies were this day performed in taking possession of the site of their plantation by a solemn con- secration 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 sermon on New England shores,) and George Popham was chosen Governor; Capt. Gilbert, James Davis, Reverend Richard Seymour, Richard Davis and Captain Harlow were sworn Assistants. BREAKING THE GROUND. Possession having been thus acquired, and the place of their choice consecrated and made secure by all the forms which Re- ligion and Law could suggest, the Company returned to their ships. 20th. THE FIRST VESSEL LAUNCHED ON THE WATERS OF NEW ENGLAND. All were summoned to the work of breaking 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 dili- gently 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. 28th. Cape Elizabeth - which the Indians called Semiamis. To-day, Captain Gilbert departed on a voyage of discovery west- ward, sailing by "many gallant islands." At night the shallop anchored under a "head-land - the wynd comying contrary - called by the Indians Semiamis" - now Cape Elizabeth - "the land ex- ceedingly 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 p.89 SETTLEMENT 30th. through some of its magnificent sounds, on the 30th "they returned homeward before the wynd, sailing by many goodly and gallant islands." To the 5th of September, all were engaged in erecting their new homes and completing their fortified works. THE RETURN OF SKITWARROES. with Indian Chief Nahanada & Sasonoa. "About noon, there came into the entrance of the river Saga- dahock and, so into unto the fort" - where the people were at work - "nine canoes with forty savages in them, men, women and children," Skitwarroes and the Pemaquid Indian Chief Nahanada, with Sasanoa among them. They were kindly and hospitably enter- tained by President Popham, and remained some two or three hours, when they withdrew to the opposite shore, while Skitwarroes and others remained at the fort until night, when Gilbert, James 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. THE UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR PENOBSCOTT. SEPTEMBER 6TH AND 7TH. The labor on the fortified works still employed all hands. On the 8th, Captain Gilbert and twenty-two others embarked in the shallop for Penobscot river. Early in the morning of the 11th, they reached Pemaquid, found their savage friends had gone before them; "and all that day, as likewise the 12th and the 13th, they sailed and searched to the eastward, yet no means could find the river." To the 22nd all were engaged on the fort and store- house. ADVENTURES UP IN THE INTERIOR. It would seem Captain Gilbert was the explorer of the Footnote. Why did not Captain Davis, a companion of Weymouth, know where to find the Penobscot? p.90 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The 23rd. expedition, and on his return from his fruitless search for the Penobscot, an examination of the Kennebec to its navigable head was projected. So on the date here given, Gilbert and nineteen of the expedition embarked in the shallop, "to goe for the head of Sagadahoc." On the afternoon of the 24th, the party reached a 'champaign' country, very fertile. Early on the morning of the 25th, they embarked and sailed along until reaching a low, flat island, where a great cataract or donwfall or water - "which runneth by both sides of this island very sure 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, etc., abounded on this island. They forced their boat through the downfall by hauling her with strong rope, and advanced a league further up the river. Here they encamped for the night. In the early evening, in broken English, savage voices were heard calling from the opposite shore - to which our voyagers replied. 26th. THE INDIAN CHIEF'S NAME WAS "SEBENOA" In the morning a canoe approached, in which a sabamore and four natives visited their encampment. The chief's name was "Sebenoa," who said he was "Lord of the river of Sagadahock." THE ALTERCATION WITH THE NATIVES. The chief entered Gilbert's boat, after a friendly interview, but required that one of Gilbert's men, "as a pawn of safety," should be put on board their canoe. Immediately the canoe hastened 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. p.91 SETTLEMENT. The canoe landed, and the white man was hurried to their abodes, "neere a league on the land from the river's side." In the pur- suit, 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 Indian 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." Notwithstanding these hostile indications, peace- ful 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 clearly indicating other objects than trade, he re- embarked all his company with a view to leave the region. The natives, suspecting the purpose of Captain Gilbert, and fearing his firelocks, attempted to extinguish his fires, so as to prevent the lighting of the matches. With this view, a native sprang into the shallop, seized the fire-brand from him 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. He "had one of the men before with his target on his arm, to go on shore for more fire." 1. The natives resisted, and held the boat by its rope, "that the shallop could not put off." The musquetiers then presented their guns, 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 Footnote. 1. Fire-arms had but recently been invented, and only the ancient "matchlock" used, with which Gilbert's men were now armed. This cumbersome weapon was rested on a support, and dis- charged by a match or fire-brand, and was called 'matchlock' in contra-distinction to our ancient but perfect firelock - now being replaced by our modern caplock. p.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 Sasanoa." SEPTEMBER 27TH. On the 27th 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 their return. OVERTURES FROM THE NATIVE SOVEREIGN. On the 3d of October, Skitwarroes appeared and advised them that a brother of Bashaba waited their pleasure on the oppos- ite shore. The savages remained the guests of Popham 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." OCTOBER 6th. ST. GEORGE. About the 6th of October, the fort was entirely finished, intrenched and mounted with twelve cannon, and the town was called "St. George"1 A church was erected and fifty houses besides the store-house were reared within the THE FIRST SHIP BUILT IN NEW ENGLAND. The "Virginia" of Sagadahoc. fortification. The material for a small ship of about2 fifty tons was gathered and put up by the carpenters, under the charge of a master-builder - the first on the Kennebec - his name being Digby, of London, England. This vessel was launched into the waters of the Kennebec, and was called the "Virginia of Sagadahoc." Footnotes. 1. Bancroft, Vol I. p. 268. 2. F. Miss. p. 240. p.93 THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT. 1607. MAINE BECAME THE GREAT NAVAL MART OF THE U.S.A. Popham and some others died, and the remainder of the colonists awaited the return of Captain Davis from England. The fortifi- cations, the church, the public storehouse with fifty dwelling houses, the ship-yard and ship, Virginia, on the stocks, must have exhibited an imposing and business-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. Contemporary history and tradition1 have handed down some additional details of interest connected with Popham's colony, throwing fuller light on the causes of its abandonment. On the decease of Popham, it is natural to suppose that less circumspection marked the intercourse of the new settlers with the natives, and that a degree of lawlessness pre- Footnote. 1. "It is reported by an ancient mariner, yet living in these parts, as a person of good credit, that being in the eastern parts about Kennebec, he heard an old Indian say that when he was a youth, there was a fort built about Sagadahock, 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 the English, some were killed by the Indians, and the rest driven out of the fort." - Hubbard's Indian Wars, p.75. Appendix. p.94 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. prevailed, 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 skilled pilot, probably, was not to be found at the helm. Freedom and friendliness of intercourse with the well-disposed and magnanimous Wewannocks of Pentacost Harbor, had lulled suspicion and engendered a recklessness, incon- sistent 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 in- land voyage, in which his painted braves were outwitted and defeated in their hostile purposes. The friends of Skitwarr- oes and Nahanada, eastern natives and dwellers about Pema- quid and Boothbay, though they had been outraged by the treachery of George Weymouth, two years before, in the forc- ible abduction of five of their number, with much frankness and forbearance sought the friendship of the colonists. "Sasanoa," representing the Royal authority, had warmly in- vited 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 sav- age chief, Amenquin,1 with bold and generous spirit stripping off his beaver coat, and giving it in exchange for a straw hat and a knife. COLLISION WITH NATIVES. With the stranger natives above, it is probable matters Footnote. 1. In this, Monquine, the chieftain who sold to Bradford and others his Kennebeck purchase? p.95 SETTLEMENT. did not go so smoothly. Strachey's account clearly indi- cates 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, leaving arms and ammunition exposed. The powder scattered about the open casks - now the dangerous sport and plunder of the victor- ious 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 the disaster, half dead with fear, the natives in their simplic- ity interpreted it as an exhibition of the anger of the Great Spirit at the wrongs done the strangers. These apprehensions wrought repentance which issued in pacific overtures and led to a restoration of friendly intercourse. Such is the story from tradition. If it be all as rumor has handed it down, we have a sufficient reason for the early departure of Popham's colonists, and abandonment of their homes amid the rocky ram- parts of the ocean at the mouth of the Kennebec, which was thus made the scene of abortive colonial adventure in 1607.1 1611. During the next four years no important incident occurred, within the ancient dominions of Maine, if we except the kindling of those embers of civil strife among the natives, whose flame consumed the great Bash- Footnote. 1. Supplement to King Philip's War, p.75. Williamson, Vol. I. pp. 200, 201. p.96 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 western wilds. MONHEGAN SETTLEMENTS. From the period of Popham's enterprise on the Sagadahock, from the date of Weymouth's discovery - Monhegan (a corrup- tion of the aboriginal Menahan, "an island") in the panora- ma of sea life exhibiting "the remarkablest Iles and Mount- ains for land-marks," - "a round high isle," with the 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. "Abraham Jennens,"1 a fish merchant of Plymouth, England, con- cerned in trade with Abner Jennens of London, England, 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 mainland at Pemaquid, and without doubt, on the islands land-locking Boothbay Harbor, were stages or posts for trading and fishing. Indeed, "Monheban" RECKLESS VOYAGERS - HARLOW. had now become a noted depot for trade with the natives, as well as a land-mark for voyagers, when Harlow, by acts of rapacity and outrage, disturbed the peaceful current 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 having learned the advantages, were stimulated by the excitement of trade and visited the lagging Footnote. 1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 38. p.97 SETTLEMENT. ship. to "truck." But Harlow, under the mask of friendship, seized three 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, - sucessfully beating off the force sent from the ship with showers of barbed arrows, "sorely wounding some of the ship's crew,"1 retaining the boat in defiance of all efforts to recover her! SMITH'S ADVENTURES. 1614. POCAHONTAS & JOHN SMITH. Captain John Smith, whose life in southern Virginia had been spared at the solicitation and intercession of Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, next visit our waters with a flotilla of fishermen at Sagadahock, to fish and trade, as well as explore the country. With two vessels, a ship and bark, Smith sailed from England, bound for Sagadahock, the "El Dorado" of the new world, and not 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 themselves 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 Wawennocks had fished before him; but he found it profitless, as the fish taken yielded neither the "fins nor oil" of commerce. Gold and copper could Footnote. 1. Williamson, Vol. 1, p. 207. p.98 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. not be found to mine upon the land. Off Monhegan and about the waters of Penobscot Bay, he came in collision 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"1 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 science 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. THE WAWENNOCKS DISPERSED. But a constant and natural increment of population appeared about the islands, bays, harbors and rivers, in trading posts, fishing stations, and "truck houses," from every expedition, by desertion from ships and otherwise. A bloody and extermin- ating warfare between the Bashaba of the Wawenocks of the ancient regal race dwelling about the Sheepscot and Damariscotta and Pemaquid waters, in which this 1615. people with their kingly pride and power, became extinct, now raged in the height of its ravages, rendering 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 leaving everywhere the dark image of death and pestilence in the houses of the aboriginal race. ROCROFT'S VOYAGE. 1618. The voyager Rocroft next appeared off Monhegan to take fish, and lade his ship with the sun-dried cod; and on his arrival, detecting a French bark, sheltered in a creek, where she traded and made her fish, for some Footnote. Prince's New England Chronology, p.15. p.99 SETTLEMENT. 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.1 The treachery and cupidity of the whites had exasperated the surviving native race, still under the excitement of a civil war, to such a degree, that the interests of comm- erce began to suffer by the interruption of trade and settle- ment. 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, re- buking them for their "bloody deede," to which they ever re- plied they were "too many for God." Disease soon over-swept the whole region and left it without an inhabitant, and the unburied corpses, and bleaching bones, and ghastly skulls of the unnumbered dead filling the forest wilds with hideous visions of death and depopulation. Footnote.1. J. W. Thornton, Esq. p.100 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. DERMER'S ADVENTURES. 1619. Captain Thomas Dermer was despatched on a mission of peace to the savage wilds of our coast with a view to restore the settlements scattered and broken up by the ruthless civil wars among the natives, and to allay the irritation occasioned by the treachery of Harlow and Hunt. ROCROFT SLAIN BY VIRGINIA PLANTER. He commanded a ship of two hundred tons, with orders from Gorges to join Rocroft, who, having gone to southern Virgin- ia with the French prize, as he was about to return northward, met the newly appointed Governor, Sir George Yeardly, inward bound. The Governor ordered Rocroft 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 re- covered 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 vessell lost. 1620. 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 from their savage captors. On his return voyage, June 30th, the the savage, Squanto, of Plymouth notoriety, (and it is also said, Samoset)1 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 Cod. INSERT. THE INDIAN, SQUANTO. Squanto has captured the imagination of a great many writers over the years. This Indian may have been the subject of more literary speculation than any of his contemporaries. Yet, the facts of his life are anything but certain. No one historical source gives the complete story of Squanto's life, which means it must be pieced together from a wide variety of historical accounts. At various times, this Indian has been called Tisquantum, Squantum and Squanto. The name Tisquantum made its first appearance in historical records in 1605. In March of that year, Capt. George Weymouth, an Englishman, set out on a voyage to explore the coasts of Penobscot, Maine and Massachussets. He was sent by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who had hopes of settling colonists in that region. [NOTE: In 1596 Sir Ferdinando Gorges was commissioned "captain and keeper" of the castle and fort at Plymouth, England. In 1603, on the accession of James I, he was suspended from his post at Plymouth, but was restored in the same year and continued to serve as "governor" of the forts and island at Plymouth until 1629. About 1605 he became interested in the New World with special attention to the New England area.] Capt. Weymouth had instructions to look at the resources of North America, particularly the Canadian and New England areas, and to gather information for some merchant adventurers in England who were members of the Newfoundland Company. While in the New England region, Capt. Weymouth had his men capture several Indians, thinking his financial backers in England would be interested in seeing some natives from the region. Capt. Weymouth had his men kidnap two Indians in a very brutal manner. Weymouth wrote, "we used little delay, but suddenly laid hands upon them. . .For they were strong and so naked as our best hold was by their long hair on their heads." Then he kidnapped three more Indians to take back to England, but he used bribery with them: In his account we are told "...we gave them a can of peas and bread, which they carried to the shore to eat. But one of them brought back our can and presently staid aboard with the other two; for he being young, of a ready capacity, and one we most desired to bring with us into England, had received exceeding kind usage at our hands, and was therefore much delighted in our company." The names of the five Indians captured by Weymouth's men were Manida, Skidwarres/Skettawarroes, Nahanada/Dehanada, Assacumet and Tisquantum. Here we find the first mention of Tisquantum, which was probably the Squanto who became such an important figure in the Pilgrim story. Capt. Weymouth returned to England in late July, 1605, with the five Indians he had captured, and presented them to Sir Ferdinando Gorges. [NOTE: From all available accounts, it would appear Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his associates treated the five Indians well and returned them to their native homes. Of the five Indians Capt. Weymouth took back to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, we know of two who were returned early to their homeland for their names are recorded in the accounts of voyages made under Gorges' sponsorship. In 1606 a ship under the command of Capt. Thomas Hanham, assisted by Capt. Martin Pring, visited the region of the Kennebec River in what is now Maine. They brought with them the Indian Nahanada. We learn more of Nahanada from the accounts of Capt. George Popham and Capt. Raleigh Gilbert in 1607 when they visited the same region and brought with them the Indian Skidwarres, to whom they refer as "our Indian." During the 1607 exploration of the region, Skidwarres led the Englishmen to the summer dwelling place of Nahanada, who was chief of a group of some one hundred Indians (men, women and children). When Skidwarres explained the Englishmen had come in peace, Nahanada came forward and embraced the visitors. Over the next few weeks Nahanada and his people visited and parleyed with the Englishmen as they established their fort at Sagadahoc on the Kennebec River.] Historical records between the years 1605 to 1614 do not reveal what was occurring in Squanto's life. We can only speculate on the basis of information which has come down to us concerning the interests and activities of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his associates, such as Sir John Popham and Capt. John Smith, during that period of time. On October 30, 1605, Sir John Zouche and Capt. George Weymouth entered into an agreement for setting a private plantation in northern Virginia (New England). Under the leadership of Sir John Popham there was a strong movement against private plantations and in favor of public plantations by large incorporated companies: Popham's influence prevailed. As we shall see, Popham had some plans of his own for the region. In 1606 Gorges became a member of the newly formed Plymouth Company for New England, becoming its most influential member. He labored zealously for the founding of Sir John Popham's Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River (then known as the Sagadahoc) in 1607. For several years following the failure of that enterprise in 1608, Gorges continued to fit out ships for fishing, trading and exploring with colonization uppermost in his mind. It is assumed that Gorges and his associates taught Squanto (and perhaps the other Indians) English so he could question them and learn of their native lands. Gorges wanted information about names of tribes, chiefs, parties to tribal wars, who would ally with whom when trouble threatened, harbors, fishing, animals for skins, rivers, what foods the Indians grew, and which crops might be grown by English settlers. To that end, Squanto was trained to be a guide and interpreter for the sea captains who were exploring the New England coasts. It is possible Squanto accompanied some of the expeditions to New England prior to 1614. If so, we have no specific references. By 1614 Capt. John Smith had entered the employ of Marmaduke Rawden and his associates, Capt. George Langham, Master John Bulley, and Master William Skelton. These men were not members of the Plymouth Company. They were simply merchant adventurers who were seeking financial gain. Their stated objective was whaling, although one can wonder since Rawden was a cloth worker with side interests in wine and sugar, and Skelton was a merchant adventurer interested in cloth. Squanto met Capt. John Smith through some uncertain connections (probably contacts with the Newfoundland Company or the Plymouth Company for New England), and was promised a return to his people at Pautuxet (now Plymouth, MA). The "fleet" of two ships left the Downs on 3/13 March 1614 with Capt. Smith in charge of one ship, and Capt. Thomas Hunt in command of the other. Squanto was a passenger on Smith's ship. The crew totaled forty-five men and boys, and the final plan was to "make trials of a mine of gold and copper," as well as "to take whales." ("Gold" may have been the catch word Capt. Hunt used in stirring an interest on the part of the four merchant adventurers who were financing the voyage.) If they failed in these, Smith and his company were to save the cost of the voyage in any way they could—perhaps with fish and furs. The lack of expertise among the "whalers" aboard soon became evident, and Capt. Smith realized that fish and furs were their only way to save them from financial failure. Smith left about thirty-five men with half a dozen locally built fishing boats to keep fishing, while he set out with eight or nine men in one small boat to range the coast. There is some evidence that Squanto was with Smith. While the men were fishing, Smith began to explore and map the region. Smith then explored southward where he visited the Cape Cod region and landed Squanto at Patuxet which was his native home. Then Smith turned northeastward, intent on completing a cargo. Capt. Hunt remained behind to cure a load of dried fish. He was under instructions to sail for England as soon as he had loaded his cargo of fish and traded for a cargo of beaver skins with the Indians. Apparently, Squanto had remained with Hunt as an interpreter. Through the promise of trade, Hunt lured a number of Indians aboard and they were promptly captured and bound. Squanto was among the twenty Patuxets kidnapped. Squanto, himself, confirmed the fact that he was one of several Indians who were kidnapped by Capt. Thomas Hunt and sold into slavery in the year 1614. The story is also confirmed by statements found in Sir Ferdinando Gorges' report: A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Planatation of New England. Seven of the Nauset were also kidnapped, thus incensing the warlike Nauset tribe of Cape Cod. The captives were carried off to Malaga, Spain, where Hunt tried to sell them as slaves at 20 pounds each. Some of the local monks discovered what was happening and took the remaining Indians from Hunt in order "to instruct them in the Christian faith." thus "disappointing this unworthy fellow of the hopes of gain he conceived to make by this new and devilish plot." Apparently, Squanto had lived with the monks a year or two when he attached himself to an Englishman who was traveling back to Bristol or London. While in London, Squanto met and lived with Sir John Slaney in Cornhill. Sir John Slaney was a wealthy merchant and Treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. In 1617 John Slaney sent Squanto to Newfoundland, probably as an interpreter and guide on one of the expeditions. There he was recognized by Capt. Thomas Dermer who had worked for Sir Ferdinando Gorges in the past. Capt. Dermer wrote a letter to Gorges, stating he had found "his Indian" in Newfoundland and asked what he should do with him. The reply must have been a request for Squanto's return because Dermer took Squanto back to England. Once again, Sir Ferdinando Gorges organized an expedition to explore the natural resources of New England. On that voyage Capt. Dermer and Squanto were to explore the natural resources of New England and to re-initiate trade with the Indians along that coast. At the end of this expedition, Squanto was to be returned to his home at Patuxet. In 1619 Squanto sailed with Capt. Dermer, landing at Monhegan, one of the more important fishing stations in Maine waters. There, Samoset was taken on board. Together they set sail southward and dropped anchor in Plymouth Harbor about one year before the Pilgrims arrived. Squanto found that every man, woman and child at his home of Patuxet had been wiped out by the plague since he had visited in 1614. Squanto was the only Patuxet known to be alive. [NOTE: Before the Great Plague of 1616-17 had finally run its course, it killed between one-third to perhaps as much as eighty per cent of the Indians of southern New England, located between Narragansett Bay and the Penobscot River. The disease has never been identified. "The savages died like rotten sheep, and their bodies before and after death were exceedingly yellow." Europeans were apparently immune to the plague's ravages, and not all tribes in the area were affected by the Great Plague, as the Massachusetts tribe to the north of the Patuxets seems to have escaped unscathed.] Later, Samoset would confirm the destructive effects of the plague on Patuxet. He told the Pilgrims how the Patuxets had been hostile to white men and had been wiped out just four years before. As a result, the Indians believed the area to be haunted by evil spirits. Therefore, no one remained at the site to contest the land when the Pilgrims decided to settle there. Capt. Thomas Dermer and Squanto worked together mapping resources of the New England coast. Squanto was the Indian interpreter during Capt. Dermer's excursion into Pokanoket Country (now Bristol, RI). Since his own people were gone, Squanto decided to remain with the Pokanokets—where Massasoit, the Grand Sachem of the Wampanoag Federation, resided. Capt. Dermer continued on to Cape Cod, where he and his crew were attacked by the Nausets who had become extremely rebellious due to the capture of some of their men by the infamous Capt. Thomas Hunt. Dermer and his men were attacked, captured and taken hostage. When word of Dermer's capture reached Squanto he went to his friend's aid and negotiated his safe release. Later Dermer was attacked by the natives living near Martha's Vineyard. Although he and one other member of his group escaped, Dermer was seriously injured and later died in Virginia—possibly of the wounds he suffered at Capowak. A little more than a year after Squanto returned to his homeland, a shipload of English families arrived on the Mayflower and settled at Patuxet which had once been occupied by Squanto's people. On Samoset's third visit to Plymouth, on March 22, 1621, he brought along the Indian called Squanto, who spoke better English than he. Squanto carved a prominent place for himself in the history of the early settlement of New England, becoming a valuable assistant, guide, interpreter and ambassador of sorts for the early settlers, whom he served from the time of his appearance until his death two years later. He befriended the Pilgrims and taught them how to plant Indian corn, where to catch fish and eels, where to find the best berries and nuts, and many other things which would insure the successful establishment of the new colony. During the month of August in the year 1621, while the Indian Hobbomock and Squanto were visiting friends at Nemasket they were attacked by Chief Corbitant, sagamore of the Mattapoinset and Pocasset Tribes. Hobbomock managed to escape and (having last seen Squanto struggling for his life at the hands of Corbitant) ran fifteen miles to Plymouth where he rallied Miles Standish and his army, who speedily set out for Nemasket to "rescue him if he were alive or to punish Corbitant if he had been killed." Upon arriving at Nemasket, the English learned that Squanto was alive and had been threatened only. His assailant had run away into the woods toward his own country at Mattapoinset (now Gardiner's Neck near Swansea, MA). Corbitant later appeared before the English at Plymouth in September, 1621, to make amends for his conduct. We know Squanto acted as guide on many of their expeditions and explorations. On September 28, 1621, he was the Pilgrim's guide when a group of them left under the leadership of Miles Standish for a trip to Boston Harbor, then known as Massachusetts Bay; "to discover and view that bay and trade with ye natives. . . .partly to see the country, partly to make peace with them, and partly to procure their trucke, or barter." In June 1622 the young Pilgrim lad, John Billington, became lost. When Massasoit was contacted for help in the search that followed, he sent an Indian named Tokamahamon to go along with Squanto to serve as guides to the search party and serve as interpreters. On 11/21 June a group of Pilgims set out for Nauset territory. With the assistance of Squanto and Tokamahamon, friendly relations with the Nausets were established and the boy was recovered. Squanto did not help the Pilgrims solely because of his caring. By late 1621 he was using his position with the Pilgrims for his own good. As Squanto traveled about the region, he spoke English, and his fellow Indians accepted his pronouncements on the ways of the white man as authoritative. Squanto was well aware of the great fear the Indians had of the plague, and his prestige grew as he spread the story that the English had buried the plague in barrels under their storehouse. Squanto warned the Indians that if they did not do as he told them, he would have the Pilgrims release the plague. The fear was reinforced by the fact that the Pilgrims stored their gunpowder underground in this manner. Squanto told them the Pilgrims would release the plague if they were unhappy with their relations with the Indians. Of course, his stature in the Indian community grew immensely—as did the Indians' fear and respect of the Pilgrims. When the Pilgrims learned of this, they said they had no such power, and added, "But the God of the English had it in store and could send it at His pleasure, to the destruction of his and our enemies." With this uncertain reply, the Indians remained in awe of the Pilgrims. A few months after this episode, the Indian Hobbomok (who had taken permanent residence at Plymouth) confided to the settlers that he had heard rumors indicating the Massachusett and Narragansett Federations were endeavoring to secure the Wampanoag's assistance in plotting against the English. He cautioned the settlers against leaving for a proposed exploration, since the Indians intended to take advantage of Miles Standish's absence and strike at the settlers. He said he had received word that Squanto was in sympathy with the plotters. As a result of this information, the Governor decided to send both Squanto and Hobbomock along on board the shallop. Hardly had the group set sail, than an Indian messenger appeared on the scene bringing news confirming Hobbomok's intelligence, and the boat was recalled. The Indian messenger said it was believed that all of Massasoit's people were planning to participate in the Massachusett/Narragansett scheme. Hobbomok vehemently objected to this intelligence, saying he was certain his Sachem would not become involved in such action without first consulting his council, of which Hobbomok was a Panseis and a Sagamore. As proof of his contention, Hobbomok dispatched his wife to Sowams country, where she privately learned all was quiet, and Massasoit was not involved in any such conspiracy. Massasoit finally received word of this rumor of conspiracy and was so greatly shocked that he personally appeared at Plymouth to clear himself of all the rumored charges. When Squanto was formally accused of participating in spreading this rumor of conspiracy, he offered no denial and placed himself at the mercy of Governor Bradford and, having a "friend in court," was spared punishment. Learning that Squanto assisted in spreading the rumor, Massasoit requested Governor Bradford to forfeit Squanto to his jurisdiction in accordance with the Pilgrim/Wampanoag Treaty. This was denied by the Governor because he knew, according to Indian law, Squanto would be put to death as a traitor. After repeated entreaties by Massasoit for Squanto's custody, the demands were finally dropped. Both Squanto and Hobbomock were residents at Plymouth until their deaths. Along with Massasoit, they were of great value to the colonisits during their early struggles for survival. After the Pilgrims learned of Squanto's ambition, they seem to have taken advantage of his jealousy toward Hobbomok in order to gain better services from both Indians—playing one against the other. Governor Bradford appears to have depended on Squanto while Standish trusted Hobbomock. In early January, 1623, the Pilgrims were again searching for corn to see them through the winter because the second corn harvest had been disappointing. Fort-building had caused neglect of the crop, and much of the meager harvest had been stolen. With Squanto as guide, pilot and interpreter, Bradford led a trading expedition around Cape Cod in order to trade with the now friendly Nausets for corn and beans. They were eventually successful in procuring the food which helped them through another hungry winter, but at a tragic cost and an irreplaceable loss. In November 1623, while on a trading expedition to the Massachusetts Indians, Squanto came down with Indian fever. Squanto died suddenly, "attended with bleeding much at the nose." Before his death, Squanto talked with Governor Bradford and asked him "to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen's God in heaven, and bequeathed sundry of his things to sundry of his English friends as remembrances of his love, of whom they had a great loss." Bradford's appreciation of Squanto was expressed in his history, Of Plimoth Plantation, when he says: ". . .Squanto continued with them (the Pilgrims) and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died." Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. (continued) p.100 (continued) DERMER. On his return voyage, June 30, 1620, the savage, Squanto of Plymouth notoriety, (and it is also said, Samoset)1 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 Cod, Massachusetts. Reaching Long Island Sound, southward bound, by way of the inland passage, having accomplished his peaceful mission in restoring confidence to the natives, Footnote. 1. Williamson's Hist., I. pp. 213,218. Prince, p.99. p.101 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SETTLEMENT. Dermer & Crew Attacked by the Indians. and reviving the settlements about Sagadahock, Dermer landed to refresh himself and his company. But the savage inhabitants deeply provoked by the barbarous conduct of Hunt, visited on the noble Dermer the re- tribution due to the kidnapper. 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 wounded, a native seized him and threw him on the cuddy1 deck, and attempted to sever his head from his body, when the only survivor of the boat's crew, a redeemed Frenchman, came to Dermer's rescue with a drawn sword. His savage attendants earnestly interceding in his behalf, further violence was stayed, the boat surrendered, and Dermer, with one man escaped to Virginia, where he soon died. THE INDIANS, SAMOSET AND SQUANTO. These facts afford a probable solution of the presence of Samoset and Squanto among the Plymouth Pilgrims. SAMOSET. 1620. THE FIRST TITLE EVER GIVEN TO A WHITE MAN. BRISTOL. Samoset was a native of Pemaquid. The Lord of Monhegan. An eastern prince - the great chief and the original pro- prietor of the town of Bristol, whose conveyance of the Bristol to John Brown, is the first landed2 title by deed acknowledged, ever given to a white man. DECEMBER 21, 1620. An effectual lodgment had now been made at several points within the territory of New England. Prior to the date of the visit of Rocroft and Dermer, the settlers of Monhegan had removed to the neighboring main, and erected new houses at Pemaquid. A hamlet had also sprung up on the sands of Plymouth harbor, where the Pilgrim refugees had established their homes and founded a colony. Sagadahock, and probably the islands Footnotes. 1. Prince, 68. Williamson's Hist. Vol. I, p. 219. Young's Chronicles, p. 182. 2. July 15th, 1625. Report Com. Lincoln, Maine, pp. 106-107. p.102 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. land-locking Boothbay Harbor, if not the harbor itself, under the aboriginal name of "Cape Ne-wagen," - a cor- ruption of the Indian Ne-Krangan - were now occupied by "truck-masters" and fish makers. THE INDIAN, SAMOSET OR SUMMARSET. MARCH 16TH. THE INDIAN SAMOSET GREETS PILGRIMS IN THEIR OWN TONGUE. Samoset, or Summarset (as spelled in a conveyance to Parnell, Way and England, under his March 16th auto- graph, of Soggohannago, near 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. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIAN, SAMOSET. He was a man free of speech and of seemly carriage - "stark naked, except for a leathern girdle about his waist," "with a fringe, a span or little more - armed with a bown and two arrows, the one headed and the other unheaded." "He was a tall, straight man - the hair on his head was black, and was long, and none (hair) on his face at all." How it happened that this Pemaquid Chieftain should have been at Cape Cod at this juncture? The presumption that he was the companion of Sqanto and with Sqanto had accom- panied Dermer 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. SAMOSET WAS SAGAMORE TO MONHEGAN. Embarking at Monhegan, 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 Monhegan. And that he had been in their country "about eight months," that the natives in their immediate neighborhood were very hostile - and that eight months before had slain "three Englishmen, two others with difficulty escaping - the men being men of Sir Ferdinando Gorges'."1 Such being the state of the facts, "Sommarset" or Samosset, and Squanto. Footnote. 1. Prince's N. E. Chronology, p. 68. p.103 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The Indian, Somerset extends an "English Welcome." having aided in the rescue of Dermer and seen his safely off, remained, and in the autumn and spring, after the arrival of the Mayflower, were found among their savage brethren near Cape Cod Harbor, having possibly descried the approach of the vessel from the sand cliffs about Cape Cod, and followed it to the place of final debarka- tion. The natives fearing and hating the new-comers, of course shunned them; but Sommarset, ascertaining that they were Europeans - countrymen of his friend, Dermer, with fearless intrepidity sought an acquaintance by walk- ing into their midst and extending an "English Welcome," which as a matter of course, greatly surprised the colon- ists. Thus 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 mis- fortunes 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," returned to his east- ern dominions; and in the waters of the Sheepscot, at Cape Newagen, he met Captain Levett1 two years after, of whom as a "chief sagamore" Levet speaks, (doubtless referring to his agency in Dermer's behalf,) as "one that hath been 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 Footnote. 1. Levett's Voyage, Maine Historical Collections. Massachusetts Historical Collections Vol. viii. p. 170, 3rd Series. p.104 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SAMOSSET, FOREMOST OF HIS RACE, FRANK, GENEROUS AND FEARLESS. parcel of land soon after to Parnell, Way, and England. Samosset, the magnanimous chieftain of the East, who, foremost of his race, frank, generous and fearless - welcomed the forlorn and sea-worn Pilgrims - appears in a novel and attractive light. THE EMBRYO STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 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 suspicious circumstances, the embryo state of Massachusetts, from the decks of the ship, Mayflower, to her wild home on the shores of the New World ! 1621. From Monhegan and Pemaquid, the attractive harbors of the Main had even now drawn pioneer settlers; for on the margins of Broad Bay,2 in Bris Footnotes. These Presents Obbelly-gacion (obligition) handed me Captaine Sommarset of M (Miscongus?) have sold unto Thomas Way, William Parnell and William England one thousand hakkers of land in Saggohannago, being quiet possessed by William Parnell and Thomas Way and William England the first day of July, 1653." His Mark - "Capt. John Somerset." (pictured) 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, indica- tive of the great age of this chief at the date it was made. p.105 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. JOHN PIERCE. tol, we find John Pierce had made a clearing and founded a new home. DAMARISCOVE. 1622. The Ship, Swallow. Thirty sail (ships) this year entered at Damariscove - 1622. Which was not the granary of the embryo settle- ments of New England - whose name (an English corrupt- ion of words signifying a "fishing place" indicates its early importance as a fishing depot. The ship Swallow here, sent her shallop to Plymouth. And to Damariscove, came Winslow of the Plymouth plantation (the Governor of that colony), to draw supplies for his settlement, famishing on the shores of Cape Cod - who says, "I found kind entertainment and good re- spect, 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 1 freely," - which certainly indicates that the inhabi- tants of Damariscove were a thrifty and generous people. THE SHIP, ABRAHAM, OF PLYMOUTH The Jennens firm of Plymouth and London had, at Mon- hegan, the Abraham of Plymouth, of the burden of two hundred and twenty tons, together with the ship, The friends of Hakluyt, Robert Aldworth, and Gyles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, England, "hearing that Jennens was about to break up his plantation at Monhe- gan, authorized Abraham Shurt to purchase for them, the island." The disolution of this plantation "excited no little interest among the hamlets - "Embryo Sovereignties" now dotting the New England coasts; and Governor Winslow tooke a boat and some hands and went thither, learning that the plantation was to then break up and diverse goods to be sold."2 The plunder of a French ship lost at Saga- dahock had passed into the hands Footnotes. 1. Young's Chronicle, p. 293. 2. Thornton's Pemaquid, pp. 38, 52-53. p.106 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. of the fishermen wrecking her, at Monhegan and Damariscove - "Biscaie ruggs" - "a parcell of goats, etc." - all which made of Bradford's purchase. DAMARISCOVE. Damariscove, in the early history of the "ancient dominions 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 precipitous shores, opening into the island like a wedge between mountain cliffs, where a small but secure harbor is afforded for fishing vess- els. This island, the principal of the group land-locking Boothbay Harbor, derives its name undoubtedly from its early importance as a fishing place - the "namascotta" or covet, of the aboriginal inhabitants signifying a "fish place." ANTIQUITIES THERE. On the 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, whereupon the wash- ing of the sea had laid bare numerous inscriptions, in writing apparently cut by human art in characters from one to four inches long, one-eighth of an inch deep, and covering a surface of ten feet.1 The local of the inscriptions is assigned to the summit of the cliff, on the right of the harbor, as it is entered, by Thomas Cunningham, U. S. Collector, Wiscassett. POPULOUS AND CENTRAL POINTS. SAGADAHOCK, SHEEPSCOT AND PEMAQUID. Sagadahock, Sheepscot and Pemaquid were not the radiating centers to the settlement of the circumjacent region. Footnote. 1. Dr. B. S. Cushman of Wiscasset. p.107 SETTLEMENTS. SAGADAHOCK. From the Sagadahock, population flowed upard and onward, until 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 the busy life and enterprise, which have beautified our landscape with cities, villages, hamlets and homes of refinement and luxury. 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. 1623. The mouth of the Sheepscot has been made particularly con- spicuous by the narrative of Levett's voyage and visit to Cape Ne-wagen - the present towns of Boothbay and Southport1 where nine ships fished at the time. LEVETT'S NARRATIVE. Says Levett, "I like it not for a plantation, for I could Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Society, Vol II, p. 86 - Levett's Voyage. p.108 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE INDIAN CHIEFS, SAMOSSET, MENAWORMET & COGAWESCO. WITHERAGE, A SHIP MASTER & SPAR DEALER AT PEMAQUID. see little good timber and less good ground." Levett. There he remained for four nights, and was visited by many of the natives, their wives and their children - Somerset or Samosset, Menawormet, the father of Robin- hood, and Cogawesco, the Sagamores of Sheepsoct and of Casco, were among the Indian chiefs who paid their re- spects 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 acquaintance. It was ascertained that the Sagamores "had some store of Beaver coats and skins," which they were taking to Wither- age, 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 overtures, until 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 possessiion of others. "The next day the wind came fair," says Levett, "and I sailed for Quack or York with the king, queen and prince, bows and arrows, dogs and kitten, in my boat; his noble attendants rowing by us in their canoes." On hearing that Captain Levett was about to depart from p.109 SETTLEMENT. "Mouchicke legamatche" - Friendship. the country, the Sagamores gathered about him, among whom were Samosset, Cogawesco, Conway and others, and asked him "why he would be gone out of their countr?" And Levett an- swered - "his wife would not come thither except that he went to fetch her - "pox on her hounds," and told the Captain "to beat her." "But," replied Levett, "God would be angry." "Then let her alone and take another wife," re- turned 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 legamatche - i.e. friendship - between them, till Tanto carried them to his wigwam" - i.e. till death! These people, it would seem, had two deities. "Tanto" was the god that they hated, because to him is ascribed all their mis-fortunes. When any were sick, hurt or died, they say, "Tanto is hoggery" - meaning, angry. Squanto is be- loved of them, because he is the source of all good fortune to them. When asked where was his abode, they said, "we cannot tell," and pointing up, added - "on high," but Tanto "far in the west;" and no one sees either - but their Powwos or medicine men, when they dream, which they do by placing a marten skin under their heads. Mechecum - Indian word for "a fool". 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, "he is mechecum" - i.e., a fool.! Very aristocratic - they will hardly speak to an ordinary man, but point and say, "Sanops must speak to Sanops and Sagamores to Sagamores." The Indians 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 did King James have?" p.110 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. They 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 girlde "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 until three months olde. They are entirely naked until from five to six years of age; and their little ones the parent often buries in the 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. 1625. Fifty skins of beaver paid by Brown of New Harbor, to the Pemaquid Sagamore, Sommerset, purchased the present terri- tory of the towns of Bristol and Damariscotta. Edward Ashley, agent, and William Pierce, assistant, in right of a grant under the Muscungus Patent, took possess- ion of the eastern margin of the St. Geoge'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 popular town of Thomaston was selected and improved. 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 where she was wrecked and sank, and the crew came near being lost. The ship-masters, however, aided the Plymotheans in raising 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.2 ACQUISITION OF LANDED ESTATE. The headwaters of the Sheepscot had now received a con- Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll., Vol.V, p. 86, 2nd series. p. 112 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. siderable accession to its population; and it is believed that the ship, Mary & John and the fly-boat, Gift of God, of the Popham immigration, furnished original planters here, as well as at the mouth of the Sagadahock, some of whose colonists may have made explorations and began clearings near Sheepscot Falls, which subsequently grew into what was called the "plantation of Sheepscot Farms." Insert. Passengers of 1630 Ship Mary and John. A passenger list for the Mary and John 1630 has never been discovered. Passenger lists for 17th century ships sailing from England to New England can sometimes be difficult to locate. Some passenger lists are never found. If you are looking for a passenger list of your English ancestors who came from England to New England between 1620-1643, you may find your English passenger list on this web site, especially if the passenger list you are looking for includes passengers who sailed from the West Country of England to New England you may find it in our Volume 20 of the Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John 1630 series. The staff of the Mary & John Clearing House has been searching for the passengers of the Mary and John for nearly two decades. After many errors were found in the "synthetic" lists of passengers aboard the Mary and John by authors Charles E. Banks (1930) and Maude Pinney Kuhns (1943), we hastily published a revised list for our volume - one in the Search Series in 1985, in preparation for the first Mary and John tour to England in May of 1985. In 1990, after collecting more information, we published a second list of passengers. In 1993, as more materials were discovered, we have come to the conclusion that it is presumptuous to any list with any degree of accuracy greater than 50 to 70 percent. However, we have attempted to compile a new list of possible passengers and then rate them as follows: Our "A" List - Certain or highly probable passengers on the Mary and John 1630 Our "B" List - Probable passengers aboard the ship, Mary and John 1630 Our "C" List - Possible passengers aboard the Mary and John 1630 We will continue to search for new material that sheds light on who was probably aboard in 1630. We will continue to search wills and parish registers in the West Country to seek people from the areas around the Dorset towns of Dorchester, Bridport, Crewkerne, Somerset and Exeter, Devon where most of the passengers appear to have originated. Mary and John Criteria for Identifying Possible Passengers Passengers were listed in Roger Clapp's memoirs and appear to have come in 1630. Some of the people he named came later. Passengers first appeared in New England in 1630, such as applying for freemanship on 19 Oct. 1630 or appearing on a jury, etc., however, only a small percentage of the 1630 population can be found on such lists. Passengers appeared first in New England in Dorchester, MA. They came from either the English counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon or maybe Wiltshire, particularly from the areas in and around Dorchester and Bridport, Dorset, Crewkerne and Taunton, Somerset or Exeter, Devon. Passengers moved to Windsor, CT between 1635 and 1640, as supposedly two-thirds of the passengers did. Passengers appeared in Windsor, as single adults, and married there between 1635 to 1642. They may have come as servants or relatives of the other families and were too young to be found in the records until they came of age. Possibly 20 to 25 percent of all the passengers (28-35) may have come as servants or young relatives. There may have been 10 to 30 passengers aboard who either died or returned to England before they left any traces in New England. If this is true, then we can only hope to identify from 110 to 130 people at most, of the 140 passengers. Name Approx. Age From (in England) CLAPP, ROGER 21 Salcombe Regis, Devon COGAN, ELIZABETH wife of John Endicott 23 Chard, Somerset COOK, ARRON 14 Dorchester, Dorset DENSLOW, NICHOLAS 57 Bridport, Dorset Elizabeth Doling, wife a. 56 Bridport, Dorset Temperance Denslow, daughter 21 Bridport, Dorset Joan Denslow, daughter 15 Bridport, Dorset DYER, GEORGE a. 51 Dorchester, Dorset Elizabeth _____, wife a. 50 Dorchester, Dorset Elizabeth Dyer, daughter a. 15 Dorchester, Dorset Mary Dyer, daughter a. 10 Dorchester, Dorset FORD, THOMAS a. 42 Dorchester, Dorset Elizabeth Chard, second wife a. 41 Dorchester, Dorset Mary Ford, daughter 17 Dorchester, Dorset Joan Ford, daughter 12 Dorchester, Dorset Abigail Ford, daughter 10 Dorchester, Dorset Hepzibah Ford 4 Dorchester, Dorset FILER, ANNE probably widow a. 40 Probably Dorset Katherine Filer a. 12 Probably Dorset Walter Filer a. 11 Probably Dorset GALLOP, JOHN a. 35 Bridport, Dorset GAYLORD, JOHN a. 30 Probably Somerset GAYLORD, WILLIAM a. 39 Crewkerne, Somerset ____, wife a. 37 Crewkerne, Somerset Elizabeth Gaylord, daughter a. 14 Crewkerne, Somerset William Gaylord, Jr., son 12 Crewkerne, Somerset Samuel Gaylord, son 10 Crewkerne, Somerset GILLETTE, JONATHAN a. 24 Chaffcombe, Somerset HOLMAN, JOHN 28 Dorchester, Dorset HOSKINS, JOHN a. 45 Probably Dorset Thomas Hoskins, son a. 10 Probably Dorset LOMBARD, THOMAS 49 Thorncombe, Dorset ____, wife a. 47 Thorncombe, Dorset Barnard Lombard, son a. 22 Thorncombe, Dorset Thomas Lombard Jr., son 12 Thorncombe, Dorset Joshua Lombard, son 9 Thorncombe, Dorset Margaret Lombard, daughter 6 Thorncombe, Dorset LUDLOW, GEORGE 33 Dinton, Wilts LUDLOW, ROGER 40 Dinton, Wilts MARSHFIELD, THOMAS a. 30 Exeter, Devon ____, wife a. 28 Exeter, Devon Sara Marshfield, daughter a. 3 Exeter, Devon Samuel Marshfield, son a. 2 Exeter, Devon Mercy Marshfield, daughter a. 1 Exeter, Devon MAVERICK, REV. JOHN 51 Awliscombe, Devon Mary Gye, wife 51 Awliscombe, Devon Elias Maverick, son a. 26 Awliscombe, Devon Mary Maverick, daughter 24 Awliscombe, Devon Moses Maverick, son 21 Awliscombe, Devon Abigail Maverick, daughter 17 Awliscombe, Devon Antipas Maverick, daughter a. 12 Awliscombe, Devon John Maverick Jr., son a. 11 Awliscombe, Devon PHELPS, WILLIAM a. 35 Crewkerne, Somerset Ann Dover, wife a. 33 Crewkerne, Somerset William Phelps Jr., son 11 Crewkerne, Somerset Samuel Phelps, son 10 Crewkerne, Somerset Nathaniel Phelps, son 5 Crewkerne, Somerset Joseph Phelps, son 1 Crewkerne, Somerset ROCKWELL, WILLIAM 39 Dorchester, Dorset Susan Capen, wife 28 Dorchester, Dorset Joan Rockwell, daughter 5 Dorchester, Dorset John Rockwell 2 Dorchester, Dorset ROSSITER, EDWARD a. 55 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ____, wife a. 53 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Nicholas Rossiter, son a. 31 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Ann ___, wife of Nicholas R. a. 29 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, child of Nicholas a. 4 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, child of Nicholas a. 2 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Bray Rossiter, son a. 20 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Jane Rossiter, son a. 16 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Hugh Rossiter, son, a. 15 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset Joan Rossiter, daughter a. 14 Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, possible relative or servent - - Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, possible relative or servent - - Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, possible relative or servent - - Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset ___, possible relative or servent - - Combe St. Nicholas, Somerset SANFORD, FRANCES, widow a. 42 Dorchester, Dorset Henry Smith, son a. 20 Dorchester, Dorset SOUTHCOTE, RICHARD a. 40 Devon TERRY, STEPHEN 21 Dorchester, Dorset UPSALL, NICHOLAS a. 30 Dorchester, Dorset Dorothy Capen, wife a. 25 Dorchester, Dorset WARHAM, REV. JOHN a. 34 Exeter, Devon Susanna Gallop, wife a. 32 Exeter, Devon WAY, HENRY a. 47 Bridport, Dorset Elizabeth Batchelar, second wife a. 43 Bridport, Dorset Henry Way Jr., son 19 Bridport, Dorset Aaron Way, son 16 Bridport, Dorset George Way, son a. 15 Bridport, Dorset Hanna Way, daughter 15 Bridport, Dorset Susanna Way, daughter 9 Bridport, Dorset Richard Way, son 5 Bridport, Dorset WILTON, DAVID 21 Beanminster, Dorset WOLCOTT, HENRY 51 Lydiard St. Lawrence, Somerset Elizabeth Saunders, wife 44 Lydiard St. Lawrence, Somerset Henry Wolcott Jr., a. 20 Lydiard St. Lawrence, Somerset George Wolcott, son a. 15 Lydiard St. Lawrence, Somerset Christopher Wolcott a. 12 Lydiard St. Lawrence, Somerset BRANKER, JOHN a. 22 Honiton, Devon Abigail Searle, wife 18 Honiton, Devon BARTOLE, JOHN 29 Crewkerne, Somerset Parnell Hodder, wife a. 27 Crewkerne, Somerset CHUBB, WILLIAM a. 23 Crewkerne, Somerset FRENCH, STEPHEN a. 29 probably Misterton, Somerset Mary ____, wife a. 27 probably Misterton, Somerset Sara French, daughter a. 7 probably Misterton, Somerset GALLOP, HUMPHREY a. 24 probably Dorset GRANT, MATTHEW 28 probably Dorset or Somerset Priscilla ____, wife 28 probably Dorset or Somerset Priscilla Grant, daughter 3 probably Dorset or Somerset HOLCOMBE, THOMAS a. 25 probably Dorset or Somerset HULBERT, WILLIAM a. 20 probably Chippenham, Wilts HULL, GEORGE a. 40 Crewkerne, Somerset LOVELL, WILLIAM a. 25 probably Dorset or Somerset Wyborough ____, wife a. 23 probably Dorset or Somerset MOORE, JOHN a. 20 probably Dorset or Somerset PARKMAN, ELIAS a. 20 Sidmouth, Devon PEACH, JOHN SR. a. 22 probably Symondsbury, Dorset PEACH, JOHN JR. a. 17 probably Symondsbury, Dorset PHELPS, GEORGE a. 20 probably Dorset or Somerset PHELPS, RICHARD a. 11 probably Dorset or Somerset SAMWAYS, RICHARD a. 15 probably Dorset SMITH, LUCY (w/ Frances Sanford?) a. 10 probably Dorset SILVESTER, RICHARD a. 22 probably Dorset or Somerset STRONG, JOHN a. 20 Chardstock, Devon WILLIAMS, ROGER a. 24 probably Dorset or Somerset __, Elizabeth, m. Thomas Holcombe a. 20 probably West Country "C" List Our "C" List of those who were POSSIBLE passengers aboard the ship the Mary and John 1630. Our "A" List - Certain or highly probable Our "B" List - Probable Our "C" List - Possible Name Approx. Age From (in England) ALLEN, MATTHEW a. 38 possibly West Country brother of Samuel ALLEN, SAMUEL a. 42 possibly West Country brother of Matthew ALSOP, ELIZABETH 16 Crewkerne, Somerset ALVORD, BENEDICT a. 14 Whitestaunton, Somerset BAKER, JEFFREY a. 7 possibly West Country BAULSTON, WILLIAM a. 29 possibly Dorset Elizabeth_____, wife a. 27 possibly Dorset Elizabeth Baulston, daughter a. 3 possibly Dorset BIRGE, RICHARD a. 12 possibly West Country BUCKLAND, THOMAS a. 16 possibly Dorset or Somerset BUELL, WILLIAM a. 14 possibly West Country CARTER, JOSUA a. 18 possibly West Country CRAB, JOHN a. 30 possibly Dorset FILLY, WILLIAM a. 10 possibly West Country FOUKS, HENRY a. 30 possibly Dorset Jane ____, wife a. 28 possibly Dorset FYLER, GEORGE ? possibly Dorset FYLER, SAMUEL ? possibly Dorset GILLETT, JEREMIAH a. 22 Chaffcombe, Somerset GILLETT, NATHAN a. 23 Chaffcombe, Somerset GREENWAY, JOHN a. 45 possibly West Country Mary ____, wife a. 43 possibly West Country Ann Greenway, daughter a. 16 possibly West Country Elizabeth Greenway, daughter a. 15 possibly West Country Susanna Greenway, daughter a. 14 possibly West Country Katherine Greenway, daughter a. 13 possibly West Country GUNN, THOMAS a. 18 possibly West Country HANNUM, WILLIAM a. 18 possibly West Country HART, EDMUND a. 17 possibly West Country HAYDEN, JOHN a. 17 possibly West Country HAYDEN, WILLIAM a. 18 possibly West Country JOHNSON, DAVEY ? possibly West Country PIERCE, JOHN a. 25 possibly West Country SMITH, JOHN ? possibly West Country Dorothy ____, wife ? possibly West Country John Smith Jr., son ? possibly West Country Lawrence Smith, son ? possibly West Country SOUTHCOT, THOMAS ? possibly Devon THRALL, WILLIAM a. possibly West Country WARHAM, MARY a. 2 Exeter, Devon daughter of Rev. John Warham WAY, ROBERT a. 12 possibly Dorset http://www.maryandjohn1630.com/passengerlist_c.html p.112 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE continued. considerable accession to its population; and it is believed that the ship, Mary & John and the fly-boat Gift of God, of the Popham immigration, furnished original European planters here, as well as at the mouth of the Sagadahock, some of whose colonists may have made explorations and began clearings near Sheepscot Falls, which subsequently grew into what was called "the plantation of the Sheepscott Farms." 1. Harvest being ended around the margins of Plymouth Harbor, the full garners of the Puritans suggested a system of gainful 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 Plymouth purchase.* THE TIDE OF EMIGRATION. 1626. The tide of emigration naturally flowed inland and up the more frequented and accessible water-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. Footnotes. 1. Controversy Pejepscot and Plymouth Proprietors, p.12. *Note. "Monquine," alias Matahanada, "son of old Matawormet, sega- more 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 Bradford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Prince, Thomas Willett, and William Paddy, from Cusenock up to Wesserrunstick; for the New Plymouth Company. - Copy of Deed, Register's Office, Lincoln County, Vol. i, p.6. p.113 SETTLEMENT. THE PLYMOUTH ESTABLISHMENT AT KENNEBEC. 1628. The Plymotheans, allured by the profits of their trade, sought and secured large landed interests on the margins of the Kenne- bec, 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 de- posited 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 peri- winkle shell," - afterwards with glass beads, which at length serv- ed the use and possessed the value of coin, in trade with the savages.1 ALDWORTH AND ELBRIDGE AT PEMAQUID. 1631. The wilds of Mavooshen now began to excite the interest and absorb the capital of land speculators in the Old World. Pema- quid, now the property of Bristol, England merchants - Aldworth and Elbridge - under titles from the President of the Council of New England, on condition that they have and will transport, and do undertake to transport at their own cost and charges divers per- sons into New England, and there erect and build a town and settle inhabitants, at once became a noted place. Abraham Shurt, agent for Bristol, England merchants, represented their intersts there, and received the transfer of title and possession from Walter Neal, the agent of the Council. THE FOUNDATIONS OF PEMAQUID. THOMAS ELBRIDGE. This acquisition and the conditions thereof laid the foundation for the existence and importance of Pemaquid, where Thomas El- bridge subsequently resided and held a court, to which the resi- dents on Monhegan and Damariscove "repaired and continued their fishing."2 Footnotes.1. Young's Chronicle, p.14. 2. Shurt's deposition, pp. 39, 40. L. Records, 8. p.114 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. PEMAQUID, THE CHIEF CENTER FOR TRADE WITH 500 SETTLERS. WITH ITS CASTLE, JOHNS BAY. Thus Pemaquid became the chief center of trade, law and author- ity - a larger and more important settlement than Quebec, the capital of Canada. Eighty four 1. 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-built castle for the defense of Boston Harbor, a castle at Pemaquid frowned over the waters of Johns Bay. A 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 waters 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 "Barbican;" and on this, the first settlements were made. The peninsula, which was the site of the ancient town and fortress of Pemaquid, is oval shaped, and obviously made by the sands and debris of the river, brought down and Footnote. 1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 65. p.115 PEMAQUID - SETTLEMENT. accumulated 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 granite, forming the eastern shore. The peninsula has evidently, at some period, been entirely circumvallated with water, and thus separated from the main, with which it probably conn- ected by an artificial way. It has also been walled in; the outline of its defense can still be traced. Its streets were paved with pebble stones; and may of its buildings were of like material. The principal street, pass longitudinally between the extremes of this penin- sula, 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 south-westerly extreme of the penin- sula, and immediately fronting the harbor's entrance, are in distinct detail, traceable 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 remains 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 enlosed 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, until the ruthless storm has swept its streets, and crushed out at once, the life and enerty 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 to- bether, amid the shrieks of forlorn women and helpless p.116 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. children, when not drowned by the terrible whoop of savage 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 possession of two British merchants. The section began to fill up rapidly from a class very different from the ship-discharged and deserting seamen and fishermen. Agriculturists and artisans had come in; and wealth began to accumulate. ABRAHAM JENNINGS, AN ORIGINAL OCCUPANT OF MONHEGAN. 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 import- ant and attractive section, with true business tact, these merchants sought to turn their purchase to the most valuable account, by concentrating there both trade and the tide of emigration. TRADE AT PEMAQUID. A brisk trade had opened between the colonists of Plymouth and the settlements within the ancient dominions of Maine, where provisions, at first sought to supply the Massachusetts settlers, were finally sent in exchange for furs. Corn, by the shallop load, within six years of its settlement, was sent from Plymouth, Massachusetts, up the Kennebec River, for which beaver skins and other furs were traded. As centers of trade, money or valuable furs and merchandise accumulated at Pemaquid and Monhegan; and this circumstance, together with their isolated position, exposed 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 piracy. Pemaquid had become a place of so much importance, Footnote. Thornton's Pemaquid, p.65 p.117 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SETTLEMENT. that, as a measure of safety, fortifications were erected to cover the entrance of its harbor.1 1632. DIXIE BULL. THE FIRST NEW ENGLAND PIRATE. Allerton, a Plymouth renegade, early this year, "set up a company of base fellows,"2 and made traders along the coast, at Kennebec, with other places east. The French seized the shallup of Dixy Bull, one of these fellows, greedy of illicit trade, and made it a prize. Dixie Bull, gathering to himself a companionship of kindred spirits, hoisted the black flag, and went prowling over the waters of the main, as the first New Eng- land pirate. He captured several vessels at sea, and plundered the planters 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 forty 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, specu- lators and transient persons, with a considerable admixture of sea-faring adventurers, were without a local government. Lawless- ness overrode all order, a feature of all new settled places - the product of commercial adventure. The town, therefore, became much disturbed by scenes of rapine and plunder. DeBull, with an English crew of free-booters, like birds of prey, lighted on the place and plundered its shipping. DIXY BULL, THE PIRATE. Dixy Bull and his followers were resisted in their descent Footnotes. 1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p.65 2. Thornton's Pemaquid. p.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 in- toxicating drink, their sense of moral responsibility was dead- ened 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, until 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 until 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 the East, whose intelligence, integrity and prudence entitled him to the respect and esteem of the whole community; and under his administration the interests of the colony and its patrons thrived. 1633. SHURT'S PERILS IN THE PISCATAQUA. An untoward event came near depriving Pemaquid plantation of the life and services of Abraham Shurt, the agent of the prop- rietors and a magistrate of the peace. With Captain Wright, he embarked for Boston. 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 powder. The vessel was blown to atoms, and the reck- less sailor was afterward seen only in the mangled and scatter- ed remains of his blackened body. The others escaped with their lives, and Shurt was among these. IMPRUDENCE OF THE SETTLERS. The still infant settlements at Pemaquid, Sheepscot and Sagada- hock, though striking their roots and spreading their branches abroard, were made to feel the force of many a storm, which now began to brood in the savage wilds about p.119 SETTLEMENT. them. A brisk and profitable trade with the peaceful wild men of this region had begotten a presumptuous security - a reck- lessness and temerity of intercourse - a wantonness of gain, sure to disturb amicable relationship. NAMES OF EARLY PLANTATIONS AND LOCATIONS. 1634. From the settlements at Pemaquid, thrifty off-shoots had started along the Damariscotta; at Sagadahock, 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 al- ready a population of fifty families, numbering probably some two hundred souls. "Newtown," on the southern extreme of the Arrowsic Island, had already begun its existence. At the en- trance 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 Popham's decease, at the mouth of the Kennebec. The St. George's river had at this early date become attract- tive 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 with a quarrel with an agent of "Lord Say and Brook," the commander of whose vessel entered these waters for trade with the natives. Captain 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 p.120 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. "They cut one anothers throats for beaver." to shoot him who should cut the other. "Do it if you dare," said the boatman, and lifted his axe for the fatal sundering stroke, when Hocking shot him dead. The exasperated Plymoth- eans, from their pinnace riding near, fired on Hocking in re- turn, who fell. These homicides originated the reproachful adage, that "they cut one another's throats for beaver,"1 on the Kennebec. 1638. WILLIAM PHIPS. WOOLWICH. PHIPS, HAMMOND, BROWN AND BATEMAN. "A worthy gun-smith,2 of Bristol City in England - a young man, found employment at his trade at Pemaquid." During the excite- ment for acquiring landed estate, which the influx of population created, and in the consequent migratory movements of the popu- lation, to secure eligible locations, the father of William Phips sought a new home and established his plantation on a peninsular margin of the Sheepscot waters, forming the eastern and north- ern boundaries of Hock-omock Bay at the lower outlet of "Monseag" the meaning of which would seem to be the place of "island-waters" a native term - in the south-eastern extreme of Woolwich, near which a hamlet grew up, where a ship was built by his distinquish- ed 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 Monseaq passage by way of Wiscasset above, which was, in the early days, described under the name of "Cross River." Along the margins of this water-way, the earliest white settlers too up residence and made their plantations, dotting with their clearings, the whole line of travel from Pemaquid to Kennebec. Phips, Hammond, Brown and Bateman occupied the more conspicuous points. Footnotes. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll., Vol V. p. 167. 2d series. 2. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 91. p.121 SETTLEMENT. THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WOOLWICH. 1639. John Brown and Edward Bateman. A hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins1 paid the value of a title to the town of Woolwich, "a seat or savage-homestead consisting of one wigwam or Indian house," called Nequaseg, (meaning the clear water place, residence of the native Sagamore, Mow-ho-ti- wormet, to John Brown and Edward Bateman, planters of Pemaquid. Less than thirty years had gone by, the site of this town 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 meadows above, and which emptied the superfluous waters over a rocky declivity into a shallow bay, latterly discharging into the Kennebec opposite Bath, Maine. ROBIN HOOD. A deep narrow inlet filling a considerable indentation, south- ward into the heart of Georgetown, where the waters of Sheeps- cot 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 residence Footnotes. 1. Register's Office, Lincoln Co., Lib. 1, p. 12. "Mow-ho-tiwormet, son of Monywormet, deceased, conveyed to Edward Bateman and John Brown, lately of Pemaquid, planters, a seat or place, commonly called Nequaset, lying between the bounds of Sacadiock River on the west and Shepscooke river on the east and the river commonly called Nequaseg on the south- west, with one wigwam, or Indiand house, for divers causes and considerations and especially for one hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins." November 1, 1639. Signed with the mark and signum of Robinhood. "Signum of Mowhotiwormet, or, Robinhood." p.122 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. of the great native chieftain, from whom is derived most of our landed titles, on the lower waters of the ancient "Shepscooke;" and who ruled over, and owned as the original native lord, a territory embracing Boothbay 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 Captain Levett, the voyager, and met him at Cape Newagen, fifteen years before, with Somarset, of Pemaquid, with whom he must have been a contemorary. Ma-na-wormet, Cog-a-wesco and Somarset, as we have heretofore seen, all were with Levett, at Cape Newagen; and were undoubtedly co- temporary chieftains, earliest known to the earliest European settlers of the "ancient dominions of Maine." MOW-HO-TI-WORMET. Mowhotiwormet, the son of deceased Monywormet Damarian of Sewall's history, the Ramegin of Drakes, nick-named Robinhood by the English settlers of the Sheepscot, appears to have been well disposed to the white settlers. EXPORT OF CATTLE. 1640. Joseph Grafton. The colonists of Massachusetts constantly extended their trade with the east; and from the furs and peltries gathered of the natives, in exchange for corn, attention was turned to the im- port of cattle from Pemaquid. Joseph Grafton1 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, which speaks well for the enter- prise and thrift of the early colonists in the east, and Footnote.1. Annals of Salem, p. 528. p.123 SETTLEMENT. illustrates their agricultural character and habits and taste, in favorable contrast with the trading propensities of the Massachusetts colonists. CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENTS. 1641. Eight men bound to Pemaquid, embarked at Piscataqua in the winter of 1641. Monhegan, by a storm, sheltered themselves in the unoccupied cabins of the fishermen, until rescued; where four of their number parished. The general character of the population was still darkly shaded - made up "largely of fish- ermen." Josselyn classifies the population in a period a little subsequent to this date, "as magistrates, husbandmen and fisher- men." 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 shop-keepers, English goods being kept by Massachusetts 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 ship 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, ptcht upon stakes, breast high and tends to the cookery; and often they share eight to nine pounds 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 correct- ly of the recklessness of habits among settlers, and it is a wonder more accidents did not occur. THE FIRST DEATH WAS BY DROWNING. 1646. WILLIAM WALDRON. CLERK OF COURTS AT SACO. The earliest recorded accidental drowning occurred in the waters of the Kennebec in September of this p.124 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. date, in the person of William Waldron. This gentleman was cultivated in his mind and in his 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 he moved his residence into Maine, and was drowned in crossing the Kennebec. But the desire to acquire permanent homes and a title in the soil extended it- self among the fishermen, as well as among the artisans, agri- culturists, and colonial population of Maine. THE NAME OF OUR STATE. 1647. With great energy and purpose, untiring perseverance, and from motives benevolent and patriotic - not to deny the existence of more latent which originate in the selfishness of the human heart, Sir Ferdinando Gorges prosecuted schemes of colonization, till through the favor of King Charles I of England, he secured a provincial 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 designated: "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 be- come the pass-word of authority, and is the title of our State to this day. Having effectually excited public interest in open- ing and developing 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. 1649. A title to the great island, on the east side and forming the east bank of the ancient Sagadahock, (and probably the ancient "island of Sagadahock,") p.125 SETTLEMENT. JOHN PARKER OF BOSTON. of which "Sebenoa," the native chieftain, who, on meeting Captain 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-keagen. The fisherman, John Parker of Boston, within thirty years of Popham's colonial adventures at the mouth of the Kennebec, engaged in the fisheries between there and Monhegan; and is said to have occupied the southern extreme of this island, where are still to be seen the remains of an ancient town.1 THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WESTPORT. John Richards and Thomas Webber. "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,"2 became the property of John Richards, who, with 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 of 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, to- gether with the plantations of Merry Meeting above. THE BIRTH-PLACE OF WILLIAM PHIPS. 1650. Not far from Wiscasset on the lower margin of Monseag Bay, near the mouth of a rivulet of the same name, a peninsula of arable land strikes out from the south-eastern extreme of the purchase of Bateman and Brown (Woolwich) Footnotes. 1. Williamson, Vol. i, p.53. Maine Historical Coll., Vol. ii, p. 192. 2. Hon. S. Parsons. p.126 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. into a body of water, formed by the junction of the waters of the bay above in their passage to the sea, with those flowing from Sheepscot Bay below into the Kennebec, opposite the city of Bath. 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 the indented rim of which, as well as through its center, wind navigable channels. Bold shores, precipitous headlands, picturesque islands, low ex- tended land-falls and fertile margins, give here a landscape 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 thoroughfare between Pema- quid and Kennebec, (and near to the rock, which ancient tradition affirms, has turned, from time immemorial, "three times round when- ever it hears the cock crow," rising from the deep like a hay-stack at the point, where the sald sea-water meets and mingles with the fresh water) was born on the 2nd of February, William Phips. To this peninsula, as the precise locality of his birth, tradition to this day, points the traveler, and calls it "Phips' Point." Near his birth place, in the head of the cove made by the point on one side and Hockomock on the other, grew up a hamlet. This son of Sheepscot, subsequently became one of the most renowned worthies of Newe 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 Phips learned the trade of ship-wright. He then learned to read and write in Boston. In Boston, he contracted to p. 127 SETTLEMENT. build a ship on the Sheepscot - she was built and launched success- fully. 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 in the Bahamas. Phips fitted out an expedition, 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, amounting to three hundred thousand pounds sterling." "Phips' shipyard was on or near the Sheepscot waters, not far from his birth-place, according to the most authentic tradition, and not at the Sheepscot farms,"1 in Newcastle. Phips' wealth procured for him a knigh-hood; and he became invested with the authority of Governor of Massachusetts, which office he filled with dignity and executed with success. INSERT. Lancaster, Mass. & Sir William Phips' expedition to Canada 1690 Subject: Lancaster, Massachusetts in the year 1690 Source: Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts. 1643-1725. by Henry S. Nourse, A.M. Lancaster, 1884. p.127-128 1690. Lancaster was represented among the sufferers in Sir William Phips' mismanaged and disastrous expedition against Canada. Endorsed on a list of Phips' captains in Massachusetts Archives, XXXVI, 134, is: "Lt. Willard of Lanchaster" [Benjamin], and the names of five soldiers are known from a petition of their heirs, in 1738, for land grants, viz: Joseph Atherton Jonathan Fairbank John Pope Samuel Wheeler Timothy Wheelock See also: PHIPS' SHIP FOUND Sunken ship in the St. Lawrence River has been identified as one of four vessels from Massachusetts lost after an ill-fated attack on Quebec City in 1690. Found half-buried in sand near the town of Baie Trinitie, Quebec, the ship is believed to have carried soldiers from Dorchester, Massachusetts. See also, National Geographic Sir William Phips featured in this month's National Georgraphic Vol 198 No. 2 August, 2000: "Missing for 304 years, the failed battle of October 1690 - French vs English at Quebec, the rivals: Comte de Frontenac and Sir William Phips. One of Sir Phips's ships, the Elizabeth and Mary was found at Baie-Trinite with muskets, silver and other historical treasure on Christmas eve, 1994 by Marc Tremblay near his cottage there, after a strong storm. Maps and photos of relics throughout the article. Phips of course was born in Maine. When his father died his mother remarried and a direct descendant is shown with oil portrait of Sir Phips. Four ships never made it back to MA and Massachusetts which had invested heavily in the expedition 1689-1690 was brought to near bankruptcy. Great coverage with beautiful photography shown. * Twenty years after the expedition, Ezra Clap made provisions in his will for his son, Edward Clap, lost with Phips's fleet, should he everreturn. "he never did" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. P.127 continued. POPULATION AND STAPLES OF TRADE. At the period of the birth of William Phips, a considerable community had reared their cabins along the margins of the Sheepscot and Damari- scotta, which had acquired something of the permanence and value of homes. Furs, fish and lumber were the great staples of trade. The noble pine tree - the growth of centuries - the stately spruce trees, sufficiently large for ships' masts and spars to ships of war, tower- ing above all the surrounding forests, covered the river banks and invited the sturdy woodman's axe. Hence, the deep waters of the Footnote. 1. Honorable S. Parsons, Greenleaf's Act - Greenleaf, an early resident on Oak Island. p.128 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Sheepscot, with the magnificent harbor of Boothbay at its mouth, attracted artisans, ship-wrights, carpenters and commerce, as well as fur traders and fishermen; while the fertile 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, Sheeps- cot 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 dist- ance of less than two miles. TRANSFER OF TITLES. THE DROWNE CLAIM. SHEM DROWNE. 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 grievously 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 possessor of its title to the Pemaquid purchase. This son mortgaged Monhegan and Demariscove to one Mr. Russel, who, with a Mr. Davison, purchased the balance. Russel sold out to Davison; and one of Davison's daught- ers married Shem Drowne. JOHN BROWN. The "Brown right" was derived from the conveyance 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 plant- ers; p.129 SETTLEMENT. and that their character had undergone a change from that of an ad- venturous cast to that of a stable, industrious, and home-like people, who were seeking the comforts of life in the products of the soil rather than in the uncertain issues of trade and speculation. It is to be presumed that thrift now began to appear, as the settlements had reached the stage of development when the stubborness of nature had been subdued, and the embarrassments of the unbroken 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 esta- blishment of a home were concerned, the settlements had become devel- oped; but the full organization of society, in the local application of law and order, was yet incomplete. JOHN MASON, SHEEPSCOT PROPRIETOR. 1652. A distinguished name among the settlers and original proprietors of Sheepscot was John Mason. 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 Commissioners, John 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 Sheepscot river, opening eastward and separating between the southern boundary of Edgecomb and the north- ern 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 interior basin, re- ceiving the waters of a considerable fresh water pond from Boothbay on the south, and of "Wild-cat Meadow" on the north-east - the margins of which rise in a gentle slope or swell of light and fertile soil, which must have been p.130 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. covered in early days with a heavy growth of maple, pumpkin pines, and spar timber. Mason must therefore have owned originally, the banks of the Sheep- scot 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 files 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 politic, no appli- cation 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 terri- tory of the Plymouth colony. Notwithstanding an arrangement had been made between the Kennebec sagamores and the settlers there to establish a court in which all complaints should be heard, (by the sagamores, if the natives were in fault, and by the Court, if the settlers were in the wrong), evil complications had grown up between the settles and the savages, as well as among the settlers themselves. ORGANIZATION OF A COURT AT MERRY MEETING. 1654. May 23rd. At the house of Thomas Ashley, a resident at "Merry Meeting," "the English, inhabiting upon and near to the river commonly called the Kennebec, who, by their paucity and fewness of numbers and their re- moteness, have not hitherto enjoyed the benefit of government,1 for the purpose of settling a government Footnote. 1. M. H. Collection, Vol. ii, pp. 193-4. p.131 SETTLEMENT. THOMAS PURCHASE. upon the said river of Kennebec," in pursuance of a summons and warrant issued to the Marshal of New Plymouth, requiring the in- habitants on said river to make their personal appearance, said in- habitants "did generally assemble," viz: Thomas Purchase, residing on the southwesterly margin of the bay at the "foot1 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 "New2 Town," a settlement or village which there arose; John White John Brown, a 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. This 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 recognized as binding; and the reparation of its wrongs was provided for. Drunkeness was prohibited, and the sale of intoxica- ting drink to the natives was forbidden under penalties. Trade was regulated with the Indians - trail 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. 1654. John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Harbor, and the original settler, who by his interest with the chieftain Somarset, the native lord of the soil, Footnotes. 1. John McKeen, Esq. Maine Hist. Coll. Vol. iii. 2. 1668, Clark and Lake laid out a town on the south side of Arrowsic in ten acres lots. Maine Historical Coll., p. 192. p.132 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. occupied and became the chief proprietor of the town of Bristol, "for fifty skins of beaver,"1 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. THE 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 the 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 the 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 Damariscotta now stand.2 CLARK AND LAKE. 1658. Clark and Lake of Boston, having purchased Arrowsic Island, (the land of rest, amid the waters - or quiet-water land), on the southern ex- treme laid out a town in ten-acre lots, intersected at right angles with streets of ample width. Major Clark and Captain Lake were Boston merchants; and on the site of the new town, erected a ware- house, several large dwelling-houses, and many other buldings, to- gether with a fort near the water-side. Many immigrants had here established their homes.3 Footnotes. 1. Commissioner's Reports. 2. Deed from Samasset, L.R. 3. Hubbard, p. 247. p.133 SETTLEMENT. JOHN PARKER. June 14, 1659. Henry Jocelyn, Richard R. Foxwell & Roger Spencer. John Parker, not satisfied with the acquisition of his Island terri- tory, now infected with the spirit of land speculation, so rife in the wilds of 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 Chistmas (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 Sagada- hoc River," beginning at the "high head," six miles up to Winne- gance 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, Rich- ard R. Foxwell, and Roger Spencer. In the meanwhile, trouble had grown up between the natives and the 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 the legislat- ive attention,2 and acts were passed relating thereto, for the restraint of lawlessness in trade, and regulating intercourse with the native population. 1660. HAMMOND, AN INDIAN TRUCK MASTER. A fort had also been constructed on "Stinson's Point," near the margins of Hockomock Bay, where 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 Footnotes. 1. Original paper, in the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society. MSS. Files, Maine Historical Society Archives. 2. Pejepscot and Plymouth controversy, p.40. p.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 con- siderable ruins and pavements of brick work. BATH, MAINE. 1660. Original Deed of the purchase of Bath. "Robert Gutch's Deed from severall Sagamoors, for Land in Kenne- beck River - May 29th, 1660. "This Indenture made this twenty ninth of May, 1660, between Robin Hoode alias Rawmeagon Terrumquin Wesomonascoa Scawque Abumheaneneon ye one party, and Robert Gutch on ye other party Witnesseth that we ye above said Robin Hoode, alias Rawmeagon Wesomonascoe & Terumquin sagamores and we ye rest above mention- ed, for divers considerations to thereinto moving have given, granted and delivered over & by these presents do give, grant and deliver over & forever alinese quit-claime from unto ye said Robert Gutch his heirs, etc., administrators & assignes to ourselves - our heirs, Executive administrators & assignes, all ye tract of land lying and being in Kennebeck River and Right over against tuessicke ye beginning of ye lower part of ye bounds thereof. Being a cove running by ye upper side of a point having some rocks lying a little from ye said point unto ye said River & from ye said Cove, to run upwards by ye waters side - towards James Smiths unto a point and being right over against Winslow's Rock, commonly known and called by ye name together with all ye woods underwood & all other priviledges, their unto belonging as also ye one-half of all ye meadow that either is or may be made and lyeth within ye land from ye waters' side part behind ye above's tract of land & a part behind a tract of land granted unto Alexander Thwait & lyeth near a little pond & further ye above said Sagamore's and the rest abovenamed have also given, granted & delivered over half ye meadow that is and may be made by ye rivers sides commonly known and called by ye name of Wen- nigansege, all with above's tract of land to run into ye land three miles - to have & to hold to him, he said Robert Gutch, his heirs, Executive & administrators & assignes ye aboves' track of land with ye privileges abovesaid as also all hawking, hunting, fishing, etc. forever without any molestations or future demand whatsoever and hereby do bind ourselves, our heirs, Executors, Administrators & Assignes forever any more from this day forward to make anymore claime, challenge or pretence, of title unto ye above's Tract of Land and to maintain this against all other claimes, titles, challenges. p.135 SETTLEMENT. GUTCH'S HAMLET ON LONG BEACH. 1661. BATH, MAINE. Rev. Robert Gutch, a dweller on Sagadahock west bank, an immi- grant from Salem, purchased of several Sagamores, among whom was Mow-ho-ti-wormet, the present site of the city of Bath, Maine, which he occupied as a plantatiion. "Long Reach" was the primi- tive 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 fisher- men of Sagadahock, was drowned, probably while prosecuting his labors on some missionary tour, it may be at remote stations from his home, over the water, leaving four daughters. His plantation have been a central and probably a populous point, at the Reach, when Walter Philips, of Damariscotta, acquired from the savages, "Gosle" and Erle Dugles, a guarantee of peaceable possession and enjoyment of a body of land "beginning at the lower end of the salt pond of Damariscotty, called, Ped-coke-gowake - meaning, the place of thunder, so tending right over to Cavesisix River, Footnotes, continued - and interests whatsoever. In witness where- of we ye above parties. Sagamores and we ye rest of ye aboves4 Indians have hereunto set our hands & Seals ye day and year above written. "Sealed, Signed & Delivered in ye presence of us: Alexander Thwat. Mary Webber John Verine. Alexander Tressell. Robin Hoode - His Marke. Terrumquin - His Marke. Weasomanasco - His Marke. Scawque - His Marke. Abunhamen - His Marke. "Robin Hoode and Terrunquin acknowledged this to be their Act and Deed, before me, Nicholas Renallds, Justice of the Peace. "A true Coppy of this deede above written transcribed out of ye original and therewith compared this 27th October, 1667 P Edward: Richworth, Recorder. "Vera Copia as of Record exm: Joseph Hamond, Register." p.136 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. due west north west," 1. undoubtedly an aboriginal name of some branch of the Sheepscot. THE DEATH OF ROBERT GUTCH. LEVI HOUGHTON. The Reverend Robert Gutch,2 the original proprietor and one of the first settlers of the city of Bath, Maine, resided on the premises near the present abode of Levi Houghton, in that city, for seventeen years. That he was a "preacher to the fisher- men," and had "been drowned at an early date," (1679), is the only record of his life, labors, and end, that history has left us; and for this we are indebted to tradition. EDWARD CAMMEL. ALEXANDER THWOIT. At the date of his death, at Whisgig, or "Whisgeag" - lived Edward Cammel; and near the same time at Winnegance, dwelt Alexander Thwoit. It is probable that this hamlet escaped the general conflagation & massacre of the savages, who sacked the Arrowsic towns, in King Philip's war. It is possible, as he was no "truck-master," no military chieftain, no man conspicuous in the community, except as a "servant of the most high God," and in no way obnoxious to savage resentment, that he may have lived there unmolested. His life and character may have been a protection to himself and hamlet, because they brought him within the circle of well-known superstitious fears and veneration of savage men. At any rate, there is no record of any slaughter and burning, assaults and barbarities, at or near the abode of this "holy man of old," and which, following the usual laws of aggregation, must have made the nucleus of a village, as a center of missionary labor. RICHARD PADDISHALL. 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- Footnotes. 1. Commiss. Reports, p. 13. 2. Sewall's History of Bath. p.137 SETTLEMENT. 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 Georgetown, 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 subsequently removed his family to Pema- quid,1 where he was slain. On Damariscove, Trick, Hunnewell, Soward and Richard Reading were olde inhabitants, where seven boats fished1 at this date. WALTER PHILIPS. 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 settle at a point on the river below, called "Winnagane:" - meaning the portage, probably 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" embraced the carry- ing place, which the natives used in passing over to the branch of the Sheepscot; and he opened a cart-path, (the route of the present highway) along the trail of this carrying place, between the proxi- mate tide-waters of the Damariscotta and Sheepscot, whose branch was called, "Cavesissix River." After Philips had been driven off from his plantation by savage violence, "escaping," we are told, "only with his life, and with the loss of all his goods," the remains of his dwelling, chimney still standing - the orchard in bearing - solitary monuments of former thrift and opulence - eloquent Footnote.1. John Cook's testimony, Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105. p.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 chimney remaining, marked the site of the pioneer home of Philips, long after his departure and his death. JOHN TAYLOR & ROBERT SCOTT, OTHER EARLY PLANTERS. He appears to have been an intelligent and thrifty and public- spirited planter - and agriculturist and not a trade, - who en- joyed the fruits of his labor, in the products of the soil newly cleared and virgin, many years, on the west bank of the Damaris- cotta - the site of the village of Newcastle, then being the im- proved portion of his estate. Above his place, resided another early planter, John Taylor; and near by, Robert Scott;1 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. 1664. March 12th. The section of country watered by the Sheepscot and Damariscotta to the Pemaquid had now become the western limits (whatever claims may have been set up for the territory from the 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 fostered his claim to the "territory of Sagadahoc;" and until it passed into his poss- ession no local government existed. Commissioners to represent the government in a local organization of civil power were appointed, viz: Colonel Richard Nichols, Carr, Cartwright and Maverick. 1665. April 15th. The Commissioners assembled on the eastern banks of the Sheepscot, on the "Great Neck," "half a league westerly from Damariscotta lower September 5th. falls," at the dwelling hous of John Mason. Footnote. 1. See Depositions, Commissioners Reports. p.139 SETTLEMENT. NEWCASTLE, A SHIRE TOWN. Nichols, the acting governor of New York, was not present, 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 Clerk. Thus organized, the comm- ission "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."1 Thus the ancient dominions of Maine, be- came 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 inaugurated govern- ment. WILLIAM FIRESWELL & RICHARD HAMMOND. JOHN MILLER, ROBERT MORGAN, THOMAS PARKER, MARCUS PARSONS, THOMAS WATKINS AND JOHN WHITE. Sagadahoc sent William Frieswell, and Richard Hammond - undoubtedly the trader near Hockomock 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 Christopher 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 Nicholas Raynal from Arrowsic. These are the only names of the early planters who came forward to give their allegiance to Royal authority - Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Coll. Vol IV, p. 221. p.140 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. early indicative of the existence of the replublican 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. George Davie. WISCASSET. It is a singular circumstance, that no one from the settlement at Wiscasset Point was there; and yet it is certain that 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," front- ing on the Wiscasset Bay, and covering the site of the shire town of Lincoln county, the present village of Wiscasset. 1666. JOHN DAVIS. 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. 1 Damarin, the Sheepscot sagamore, conveyed to one John Davis, a plantation on the north-west side of "Wis- tassek Bay, north into the woods half way to Kennebec." MORDACI CRAFFORD (or Clifford?) Richard Pattishall. A Mordaci Crafford (Clifford?) sold a neck of land on Sheepscot River, and probably was a resident there an on the east shore, near this date. On the north-east side of Sheepscot river, at a place called "Wichcassick," in New Dartmouth, Richard Pattishall claimed a four-hundred acre lot. JOHN TUCKER. THOMAS CLEAVES. John Tucker 2, of Sheepscot River, a fisherman at Cape Newagen, owned "all the land on the north side of Monseag River, up along the main river, as far as Cowsegan - being as far as Thomas Cleaves's lease runs down to the Footnotes. 1. Alias Mohotiwormet. 2. 1662. Purchased by Checkley and Prout of Boston. Maine Historical Coll. Vol II. p. 235-236. p.141 SETTLEMENT. river, and so to run four miles due north from the main river of Cowsegan." Thomas Cleaves, fisherman of Cape Newagen, "bought of Robinhood, 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. JACK PUDDING, Sagamore. Nathaniel Draper1 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 Nathan- iel Draper, Thomas Mercer, and the house, to the river. JACOB CLARK. Jacob Clark1 as grandson by marriage of Alice, the grand-daughter of John Davis, also had a claim to land in Wiscasset. These acquis- itions of title were chiefly derived 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 to Wiscasset, to the narrows, entering Monseag Bay. John Tucker owned between Cleaves's house and lease to Monseag River. Nathaniel Draper and Thomas Mercer probably resided and owned to the north of the Davis tract and the village of Wiscasset above the bay, beginning at the narrows - known now as Wood- bridge's narrows; and may have lived on the headland over- looking 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 Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Coll. Vol. ii. p.142 ANCIENT DOMINIONS 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 Damariscotta, at the falls, - owning and occupying a large tract of land there. Robert Scott lived a neighbor of 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 resi- dent 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 probably that the sympathies of the residents at Wiscasset Point were with Massachusetts rather than with royal authority of the Duke of York. It is well known that the authority of the Duke's commissioners often came into collision with that of the Massachusetts government which had now undertaken to extend its jurisdiction into Maine. Pemaquid, Sheepscot and Sagadahoc had remained in a state of natural free- dom; and by the Commissioner's Court above described, the terri- tory was erected into the "County of Cornwall." THE PURCHASE OF BOOTHBAY HARBOR. 1666. At the harbor of Boothbay, Henry Curtiss was probably an ori- ginal and considerable planter; and from his position, his in- fluence with the aged Footnote. A widow Willcot claimed land on the west side of Sheepscot river below the falls, which was owned by Thomas Mercer, and improved by him for years. See Maine Historical Coll., Vol IV, p.233. p.143 SETTLEMENT. "MANA-WOR-MET" (the father of Robinhood?) was sufficient to secure the conveyance of the land, embracing the harbor, 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 the 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 possess- ion to set down there." The instrument was witnessed by Henry Joslin, by Daniel Bene- ther and William Cliffe, who, it may fairly be presumed, were neighbors to Curtiss, and may be enumerated among the earliest settlers of this ancient place, more than half a century after its discovery by Weymouth. The consideration is a damnatory clause, "in the forfeiture of twenty good 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 Wittanois, and John Cotta, the first of whom had con- veyed to Walter Philips his homestead at the head-waters of the same river.1 CLAIMS OF MASSACHUSETTS ASSERTED. Massachusetts had indeed begun a series of movements to esta- blish her sovereignty here. An organization erecting the "County of Devonshire," was attempted at Pemaquid, as the capital. Eighty-four inhabitants there congregated. Richard Oliver & Thomas Gardiner. Richard Oliver of Monhegan was made clerk, and Thomas Gardiner mad Treasurer of the county. Thomas Humphrey of Sagadahoc was created Marshal, who, with Robert Gammon of Cape Newagen were Constables. Pattishall, Gardiner, Gammon and John Palmer were authorized commissioners Footnote. 1. Commiss. Reports, original deeds. p.144 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. "to legalize marriages, acknowledge deeds, and hold a commiss- ioners 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 import- ance. A military 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 opened at Sheepscot, Pegaquid, Damariscove, and Sagadahoc - Con- temporary1 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, Monhegan, Capt Newagen - "where Captain Smith fished for whales" - all filled with dwelling houses and stages for fishermen."2 Immediately on the erection of our territory into a Ducal State, it became an appendage to New York: and the ancient hamlet of the "Sheepscot Farms," became the shire town of the new county of Cornwall, by name of New Dartmouth; 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 Sheepscot waters, who secured the agri- cultural sites on the head waters, and along the river margins, where the vestiges of this influx of population are still trace- able, in broken pipes, pottery and domestic utensils, ancient cellars, and remains of former homes. Pemaquid continued still to be the great radiating center, Footnote. 1. Deny's and Jocelyn's Act. 2. Williamson, Vol i, p. 446. p.145 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. in the diffusion of population throughout the Dukedom, which continued to flow up our water-courses, planting itself in forest clearings and hamlets, on the banks and margins, at every desirable point. Nequaseag and Phips' Point, in the aboriginal "clear-water and island-waterplaces," together 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 organization 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 (Cliffords?) 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 local- ity was known as the "Sheepscot 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 up. The point at or be- low Sheepscot Bridge was the site of this village, now in- vested with the dignities and importance of a metropolitan center of the new-created Dukedom. The length of the penin- sular 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 form- ing the mouth of Dyer's p.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 High- way," still the great thoroughfare of travel, divided the pen- insula longitudinally east and west. This street, on "both sides," was lined with dwelling and other houses, proven by the "numer- ous 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 south- ward, 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 reason, probably, that the land was public property; and in those peri- lous times, the ancient people ventured not far from the garri- son, 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 till turned out by the furrow of the plowman, in the shape of cannon-balls "of moderate size,"2 in the neighboring fields. VESTIGES OF ANCIENT OCCUPANCY. To the north of the fort, some forty rods, on the east side of 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 Reverend Mr. Cushman, whose eloquent and graphic description I beg leave to borrow, - "stood that Footnotes. 1. Cushman, Maine Historical Coll. p. 211. 2. Rev. Mr. Cushman, M. H. Collection, Vol. iv. p. 213. p.147 SETTLEMENT. important appendage of every settlement...the blacksmith's shop." With a select party, an exploration was made by exca- vating 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 to project enterprises. On this floor we found the cinders and slag which fell from the furnaces - bits of iron - the bolt of a lock, and a piece of work partially finished, in the shape and 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 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 doting wife, some loving sister, some timid, terror- stricken maiden ! ANCIENT CHRONICLES OF STONE. A mile to the eastward is the ancient "Mill Creek," on which are 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 interest of im- portance to the future, whose messages, wrapped p.148 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 with curious inscriptions,"1 in the southern part of the peninsula have been found. But alas! what vandalism! It is added, "some of these stones were used in building the cellars of later settlers, and still remain in the walls! What secrets of history are covered here? A thread of the long 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 ! It is indeed a fact that Monhegan, Damariscove, and Sheepscot are stored with unexplored treasures of a history on their en- during, stone-inscribed monuments? The fact is worth the in- vestigation of the curious and the learned as a tribute to literature alone. THE ANCIENT SITE OF SHEEPSCOT. NEW DARTMOUTH. 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 center of an agricultural community called the "Sheepscot farms." In a half a century from that disastrous event, it had grown to a village "a mile or more in length," densely settled, and was made a shire town of the country of "Cornwall," 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 village 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 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 Footnote.1. Reverend D. Cushman, Maine Historical Coll. vol.iv, p.212. p.149 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SETTLEMENT. date here given were hardly a hamlet of two houses on the east- ern 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"1 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. p.150 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. Footnote. 1. Levett's Voyage, p. 87. Hubbard, p. 265. CHAPTER IV. INDIAN WARS. NATURAL CAUSES. 1667. We have not reached the epoch particularly characterized by collision between the races originally occupying and those seeking a new home from a foreign soil. This issue follows the great laws of nature, in that econ- omy which forces the old to give place to the new, thus per- petuating a renovating energy throughout her domain. Disturbance is a natural consequence of the influx of popu- lation, (especially where the elements are not homogeneous) when it flows in with a force and fullness sufficient to re- place original races. p.151 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 genera- tions 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. Footnote. 1. Annals of Salem, No. iii. p. 250. MORAL CAUSES. THE PURITANS OF MASSACHUSETTS. p.152 The Puritans1 of Massachusetts detected a source of public calamities in the social customs of the day, which may excite the admiration of this. The General Court publish what they consider twelve evils, which brought on the country, the burning and depopulation 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 peri- wigs; and by some women wearing borders of hair, and their cutting, curling and immodest laying out their hair, which practice doth prevail and increase, especially among the young- er sort." Another evil, proclaimed the General Court, at Salem, Mass., 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 addi- tion 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 reach- ed. 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: impudently 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. 1675. The herds and cornfields and meadows of Hadley on the Connecticut river had suffered from savage depredation. Conjecture pointed to the natives of Footnote. 1. Gorges' Narrative, Maine Historical Coll., vol. ii, p.38. p.153 INDIAN WARS. the remote east as the perpetrators of the mischief. MO-HO-TIWORMET, OR ROBINHOOD. Mohotiwormet, or Robinhood, the aged sachem of the lower Sheeps- cot, 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 wild- est alarm. Rumor had lent wings to the exciting intelligence, which, in a thousand distorted forms of exageration, was flying through the wilds of Maine, disturbing, exasperating and dissipating all the elements of mutual confidence between the red and white races. The planters and residents of 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 friendship their lives and fortunes depended, had been wantonly and unreasonably provoked. The white residents called a public meeting at the dwelling house of Captain Patishall (Padd- ishall?) probably at his island-home in the lower waters of the Sagadahoc, within the town of Phipsburg. Various plans were de- vised 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 reconnoissances or fight, as necessity and expediency might suggest. Walker, an ancient Sheeps- cot truckmaster, who, by his probity and experience with the sav- ages, had acquired influence over them, was successful in persuad- ing some of them to give up their arms and ammunition, as a guar- antee of their pacific intentions. The plan was deemed feasible and p.154 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 process 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 Sowen, 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 beaver skins." Some of their number were pledged as sureties. By the dawn of the succeeding day, the wild woods of Sagadahoc rang with the shouts and echoed with the savage notes of Mo-ho-tiworm- et and his braves, who made the great dance and 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 keepers, 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, until Philip and his braves had fallen and been consumed. The hostile bearing of the eastern savages was undoubtedly 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 King Philip had inspired. In the dance of peace, the emgers of war had not been extinguished. Smothered in the savage breast, a most brutal outrage on the wife and child of Squando rekindled them into quenchless flames. p.155 INDIAN WARS. THE OUTRAGE OF A SAVAGE MOTHER. As the wife of Squando, the Lord of the native Sekokis, paddled her fragile bark canoe across the waters of the Saco, some frol- ickssome seamen overturned or cast the infant savage into the water. It san to the bottom. The mother, urged by the instincts of the maternal heart, plunged to rescue her darling from death. She at last rose to the surface with the child alive, but so in- jured by the wanton act as to die soon after. The exasperated father, - the fierce chieftain - was provoked to vengeance. ASSAULT ON THE PURCHASE PLANTATION. In September, the store-houses of Thomas Purchase, a Merry Meeting planter, near the head of the New Meadows River, were sacked. Twenty painted savages plundered the liquor, seized the ammunition, ripped up the feather beds for the sake of the tick- ing, 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." The Indians had taken a great aversion to Purchase, who had ammassed great wealth, and much of it by hard dealing with the natives in trade, one of whom charged "that for the water he had drawn out of Purchase's well he had paid a hundred pounds!" Retaliation followed. A party of twenty-five neighboring planters manned a sloop and two boats, and at once proceeded 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 re- connoitre. As the party drew near the deserted premises, the sound of blows therein gave warning of the enemies' presence within the ransacked p.156 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. buildings. Very 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 themselves 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 firearms, gained the covert of the woods, and reached his comrades, who immediately formed an ambuscade, while the unwary planters scattered to gather their harvest. Busied here and there, reckless of their peril, they gathered their corn and loaded their boat. At this juncture, the ambushed savages, with their accustomed yells and whoops of war, rose from their concealment, and fired on the scattered 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. Thus worsted in the battle - the first battle-scene of the terrible drama now opened - the settlers fled, and the victorious red-men, in small bands, more bold and pre- sumptuous, 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 p.157 THE INDIAN WARS. The Indian, Modock-a-wando. menaced them "with death," if they did not yield to the policy of the white-man, come in and 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 was unsheathed, and the pipe of peace was flung away. Every wild forest 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 characher, as well as experience, finally secured an interview with the disaffected sagamores, at the eastern metropolis. Public indignation burned withy reckless zeal and blindly turned against everyone who counseled peace. Multitudes were bent on violence, utterly in- different to the fearful issues of savage warfare. They malign- ed the motives and misinterpreted the acts of those who would restore confidence and preserve peace. But Shurt persisted in his full overtures, and in defiance of opposition and false accusation, he obtained a hearing at Pemaquid. The Indians complained of "wrongs done them on the Kennebec,"1 the depot of the Puritan trading houses of Plymouth. Shurt gave assurance that their wrongs should be addressed. By his assur- ances, a prospect of continued tranquility was preserved.2 In the promise of being "righted" in their wrongs, the savages were diverted from their purposes of blood. (revenge) Footnote 1. Hubbard, p. 302. 2. Williamson, vol. i, p. 526. Hubbard, p. 293-303. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. p.158 THE SLAVE TRADERS OF MASSACHUSETTS. Major Waldron. Evil surmisings, jealousies and whispers of evil worked their way into the ears of the government of Massachusetts. Major Waldron, one of its officers, issued under authority of the Massachusetts Bay, "general warrants" for seizing every native know to be a "man-slayer." The precepts of Waldron falling into the hands of unprincipled seamen, were used as authority for kidnapping natives to sell as slaves. INDIAN SLAVE TRAFFIC. A vessel lurked in the by-places about the harbors of Pemaquid, with a view to this Indian-slave traffic. With the master, shurt remonstrated - importunately desiring him to leave the region, assuring him that peace now reigned which might be disturbed. But these 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, com- pared with the profits of slave trading? 1676. IN MASSACHUSETTS AND MAINE, INDIAN SLAVES WERE BOUGHT & SOLD. In Massachusetts and Maine, slaves were bought and sold - "born in their houses and bought with their money." Why should not the Indian red man, as well as the black man, 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 market 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 sloops into a "slaver" on the coasts of Maine ! Several Indians were seized, carried into foreign parts, and sold.1 Incensed at this new and strange outrage, before attempting to meet out retribution for the atrocious wrong, the Indians returned to Abraham Shurt at Pemaquid Footnote. 1. Williamson, vol. i. p. 531. p.159 THE INDIAN WARS. whose kind offices had won their confidence as an upright Magistrate, and complained that "many of their brothers were miss- ing - and were possibly miserable slaves in foreign lands." DESTRUCTION OF THE ARROWSIC TOWNS. August 12th. The Indian, King Philip was dead. With him, the hopes of his race had expired. To the East, in their disappointment, were borne the embers of war, which were scattered through the wilds of Maine, kindling anew, the resentments of the excited savages, now burning with enthusiasm to revent their fallen chief. August 13th. A terrible blow was struck in the heart of Sagadahoc, whose rever- berations wakened echoes, whose horrors have thrilled through genera- tions, until they have reached the ears of our own Richard Hammond, the Indian Trader. About Spring Cover on Stinson's Point, jutting into the western margins of Hockomock Bay, along the great thoroughfare from Pemaquid, Hammond, an Indian trader, had established his post, planted the nucleus of a town, and reared a fort. Hammond's hamlet, the earliest of the settlements of Georgetown, and one of the chief settlements within the limits of our region, was the first object of attack. Prejudices had grown up between the truckmasters and the Indians, on account of fancied or real wrongs, which made them conspicuous objects of vengeance. 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 shelter for the night in Richard Hammond's dwelling-house, desiring to lodge on the kitchen floor. The appearances, conversation, or intimations of the savages, in- pired the p.160 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. kitchen maid, yet in early girl-hood, with presentiments of evil. She left the house to secret herself abroad. Perceiving her trepi- dation, 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 treacher- ous 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. THE DAVIS PLANTATION AT WISCASSET. RICHARD HAMMOND, SAMUEL SMITH & JOSHUA GRANT SLAIN BY THE INDIANS. These terrible monitions added speed to her flight. Crossing the tides of Hockomock, she fled to Sheepscot, and by morning reached the Davis plantation at Wiscasset. The warning was timely. No intelligence had come from the scene of death, till passers-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 Sheepscot plantation, twelve miles distant. It was afterward ascertained that the savage women who lodged in the kitchen opened the fastenings of the garrison house, and let the Indians in, to surprise the unconscious inmates above, and Richard Hammond, Samuel Smith and Joshua Grant were killed at once. THE SACKING OF CLARK & LAKE'S VILLAGE. FRANCIS CARD. The savage band now divided. Eleven canoes turned into the Kenne- bec 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 the Arrowsic Island, after rifling and burning Hammond's village. The home of a settler in their warpath was left unmolested. p.161 THE INDIAN WARS. 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 enter- ing the gate, he was unconsciously followed by the stealthy tread of an ambushed foe. The sentinel was silenced. The fortificatons were secured. The port-holes were occupied, and all who passed or repassed were shot down without warning. The savages were soon the masters of the place. AUGUST 14TH. Mr. Lake, the partner of Clark, was above, asleep. Roused by the noise and struggles of death below, with his agent, Captain Sylvanus Davis, and two more, he escaped through a back passage to the water-side. Here, seizing a canoe, they made for a neigh- boring island. Lake, Davis and their companions were at once pur- sued. 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 by fatigue, terror and surprise. The savages also landed and continued the pursuit. Unable to fight or fly, Davis crawled into the cleft of a rock, under a sheltering cliff. The sun had now risen, and look over the tree-tops of Reskea- gan, poured its beams in dazzling luster on the cliff-side shelter of Davis, blinding the eyes of his pursuers. For two days Davis crouched within his hiding-place; and then dragging himself along by the water's edge, he fortunately 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 to escape, but a swift-footed savage outstripped him; and attempted to capture him. p.162 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Then Lake, turning on his pursuer, presented his pistols; but before he could shoot, the unerring aim of the savage laid Lake dead at his feet. Seizing the hat of his victim, he bore it on his own head as a trophy of his success. Lake had been an enterprising and excellent man, and it is said that the savages had intended to take him alive, if possible. Nor was it certainly known that Lake had been slaim, until he who did the bloody deed confessed it to Captain Davis. A Saga- more, Sam, was seized and sentenced to death in retaliation for the murder of Lake, which sentence was executed.1 Seven monthys had elapsed when the body of Lake was found, where he fell, in a state of good preservation, recognized by a leather 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 office2 of Associate.... 1 From J. W. Thornton, Esq. Boston. INSERT - J. W. THORNTON, BOND'S WATERTOWN James Brown Thornton b. at Saco, Maine, Sept 26, 1794; studied at the Berwick Academy and entered Bowdoin College in 1809. But before graduating, he entered the United States Navy. He then engaged in mercantile pursuits in Saco, Maine and became largely interested in navigation. He retired from business and resided in Saco. He m. January 30, 1817, Eliza Gookin, b. July 23, 1795, p.604 a daughter of the Honorable Daniel Gookin of North Hampton, N.H. (for her lineage see "The Family of Gilbert, Wells, Thornton and Belcher by J. W. Thornton, Esq." Also see Genealogical Register, I. 345, and II. 167) Children: 1. John Wingate Thornton b. Aug 12, 1818; preliminary studies at Saco, Maine; LL.B. at Harvard Univ., 1840; a lawyer of Boston, Mass. married May 31, 1848, Elizabeth Wallis Bowles, a dau. of Stephen Bowles of Machias, Maine and of Roxbury, Mass., and descended, through a respectable line from John Bowles, an early settler of Roxbury, Mass. 2. Sarah Cults Storer Gookin Thornton b. July 22, 1820, m. J. G. Chase and died March 10, 1847. 3. Daniel Gookin Thornton, b. Sept 20, died Sept 26, 1822. 4. Thomas Gilbert Thornton b. Aug 25, 1823, grad. Bowdoin College 1844; studied law with Bradley & Haines of Saco, Maine; was a lawyer of Biddeford, Maine. 5. James Brown Thornton b. July 6, 1825; grad. Bowdoin College, 1846; was the Pastor of the Congregational Church, Scarboro, Maine. He m. Dec. 17, 1851, Catherine Wolcott the only daughter of Wyllys Stoughton of Windsor, Conn. 6. Albert Gookin Thornton, b. Dec. 25, 1827; grad. Bowdoin Coll, 1848; studied law with Bradley & Haines and was admitted to the York, Maine Bar in May, 1851. 7. Charles Cutts Gookin Thornton b. May 11, 1830 was a merchant of Boston. He married Nov 27, 1851, Hannah Bartlett a dau. of Josiah Calef Bartlett, Esq. of Saco, Maine. 8. Henry Thornton b. Aug 8, 1832, a merchant with his brother Charles Cutts Gookin Thornton. 9. Eliza Gookin Thornton b. June 9, 1835. 10. Frances Anne Dudley Thornton b. Aug 1, 1837. 11. Frank Thornton born and died young. 1 From J. W. Thornton, Esq. Boston. Ancient Dominions of Maine. Letter from J. W. Thornton, Esq., Boston. Massachusetts. Boston, ye 15th of September, 1676 To ye Honored Governor and Councill setting at Boston. The humble petition of John Lake. Whereas there hat been & is a common fame of my brother, Thomas being captive among ye Indians & hearing nothing to ye contrary, gives some hopes that it may be so, & hearing ye Sagamore Sam is to receive a sentence of death (as it is supposed), if so, ye fame thereof may go to those Indians with whom my brother is - which may provoke them to proceed with him to ye same sentence of death. Wherefore my humble request is that you would be pleased to suspend his sentence or at least ye execution thereof for about twenty or thirty days; in which time if ye said Sagamore Sam can be instru- mentall to procure ye return of my brother that you then would be pleased to spare his life, and for that effecting of this, that you would be pleased to let him have ye choice of some Indians whome he knows may have most influence upon them, and whom he can best trust for their return in that it may concern his own life, so that upon their return, we may certainly know how it is with my brother, which will oblige your humble petitioner in duty bound to pray, etc. Denied: 15th of September, 1676. E. R. S. The original Commission in the hands of J. W. Thornton, Esq. p.168 THE INDIAN WARS. Judge, with Humphrey Davie and Richard Coleycote (Colicot?) in holding courts in the county of Devonshire, under juris- diction of the Goverment of Massachusetts Bay. Lawrence 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,1 a fugitive from the massacre of the Arrowsic towns, reached the dwelling house of Thomas Gent on Sheepscot Great Neck, and gave him warn- ing of the hostility of the savages. Thence he hasted to the house of Walter Philips, "which stood on the great hill" overlooking 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, gather- ed his family and his 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, herealding the approach of savage calamities. James Gyles, brother of Judge Gyles. Among2 the English emigrants to Maine, was James Gyles, a brother of Judge Gyles, who was slain at Pemaquid. Gyles had landed at the Kennebec and taken up his abode at Footnotes. 1. Dale's deposition. - Lincoln Com. Reports, pp. 98, 100, 15. 2. Gyles' Manuscript Narrative from John McKeen, Esquire. p.164 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. ...abode at Merry Meeting; and was an interested specator of the opening scenes in this drama of deathh 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 neighbors, to desert their homes and go into the garrison house of Samuel York. Thirty days these refugees of Merry Meeting were crowded in this stronghold. Every day the savages became more violent. The cattle and swine were slaughtered and the deserted homes were burned. Only 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 "Rowsick House," down the river - 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 pre- ceding the massacre described. One of these planting expeditions brought the settlers in collision with a body of natives. A skirmish ensued. Several savages were slain and the remainder were put to flight, which gave peace for the winter ensuing. Crowded in their stronghold, at the "Rowsick House," the planters, five families and Gyles among them, crossed to the west shores of the Sagadahoc, opposite, and occupied the house of Sylvanus Davis the balance of that 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. THE HOUSE OF MR. WISWELL. But Gyles removed still further down the river, and occu- pied the house of Mr. Wiswell, and planted his crop for the season. "Early1 in the morning, when no English- Footnote. 1. Gyles gives the date as August 9th, instead of that given in history. p.165 THE INDIAN WARS. man had a thought 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 in 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 planta- tions on the main and recover something for subsistance, 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 the suffering fugitives were beaten back to their island re- treat. WISWELL AND COLLICOTT. 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 harbor, designing to fly to Monhegan. Adverse winds compelled them to turn aside into Damariscove, where Wiswell and Collicott had gather- ed with the Kennebec refugees. The first attention was given to the fortifications of the island. Forty days the people labored at the works. But diffi- culties arose and a mutinous disposition, consequent on the want of food, from the sudden accession of forlorn and destitute fugi- tive men, women, and children, soon made it apparent nothing effectual could be done to secure the island against savage in- cursion. It was therefore abandoned as a place of refuge. The larger portion of the fugitives continued their flight to Monhegan; p.166 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. and scarcely had the refugees from the Main and Damariscove reached their sea-girt retreat, and removed from their desert- ed houses at Pemaquid, a portion of their household stuff, when the whole circle of the horizon landward was darkened and illumin- ed by the columns of smoke and fire rising from the burning houses of the neighboring Main and adjacent islands! The entire perspect- ive was a scene of conflagration! Richard Padishall abandoned his island home - an ancestral abode - and with his family and coast- ing sloop, made good his escape to the better protected neighbor- hood of Pemaquid. Worn out and discouraged, all but the Pema- quidders yielded to the necessities of their condition and scattered to remote parts westward. THE DAVIS HAMLET NEAR WISCASSET. 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. But the people were panic-stricken, and all hope of speedy relief being crushed out by the sad recollections and gloomy aspect of their state, the newly launched ship of William 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 desola- tion and solitude! FRANCIS CARD'S ESCAPE FROM THE SAVAGES. 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 sav- ages preferred horse-flesh to the best of beef. A captive was employed to catch the horses of the planters, p.167 THE INDIAN WARS. now wild in the woods, to be butchered to satisfy the morbid longings of his master's 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 secured 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'. Thomas Cobbet. It was a full fortnight after the sacking of the Arrowsic towns that the Norridgewock Indians, numbering eighty warr- iors, returned from their retreat up the Kennebec, to de- stroy the herds and burn the deserted houses of the planters on the Main. Reaching Damariscove, they put fire to the village on that island, killed two men, and captured their shallop and ketch. Thomas Cobbet, the son of the Ipswich minister, (a captive at the date of these events, and be- cause, said the savages, "his father was a great preacher- 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 com- pelled to make garments out of the plundered fabrics of Hammond's and Lake's store-houses. These forlorn men and women he met in December, on the Sheepscot, where he was taken to navigate for his captors a small vessel they had seized, and there he was compelled to walk overland to Dama- riscotta, 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 Cobbet had been captured, was also employed on the Sheepscot waters. After Cobbet'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. p.168 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. It was not 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 managed as to increase the perils of the sea, and strike terror to the hearts of his sea-sick Indian masters, who begged for land. The nearest point, Cape Newagen, was reached and eight savages land- ed. Two remained. Persuading these that their anchorage was peril- ous, Abbot made sail for Damariscove. On the passage he so used the helm as to ship a sea, wash his decks and thoroughly frighten his savage companions and guards- men, who, as soon as the vessel reached the harbor, hasted on shore. Two of the native children had died on board, and their bodies were taken to land for burial. With the plea of the necessity of his presence on board to save the ship, Abbot persisted 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 three years old, he pushed off with a free sheet and stiff northeaster in his rear, which speedily wafted him to the "Isle of Shoals," behond the reach of his Indian masters. WALDRON'S EXPEDITION. 1677. February 17th. These outrages on the eastern frontiers roused Government to action. Major Waldron, the chief commander in this section, was dispatched with a force deemed adequate to recover the lost plantations and chastise the lawless savages, reduce them to subordination and rescue the captive citizens of Sheepscot p.169 INDIAN WARS. and Kennebec. Waldron embarked for that river. 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, slowed his progress eastward. The waters of Casco Bay, being free from ice, invited the fleet bearing the little army to discharge its living freight on the shores of the plains of Brunswick. Bivouacked on "Mare Point,"1 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 conference. 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 progress of the voyage from the headlands of Cape Elizabeth. CAPTAIN FROST. The flames bursting from the roof of a solitary dwelling on the point of landing clearly indicated the hostile purposes 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. De- tecting 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 discussiion when the skirmish began, should be carried out in good faith. Disheartened with the prospect of meeting the enemy Footnote. 1. The residence of Mr. Mare. p.170 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. where he was, Waldren set sail for Kennebec. At sunset the same day, he anchored under the "Cliffs 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 reach- ing Merry Meeting, within twelve miles of "Abagadusset Point," the ice barred his progress. February 22nd. The troops were landed and marched to the fort; and at eight in the evening, the force entered the works, to find them deserted. Here the little army quartered for the night. Be- wildered by the numerous trails of the enemy crossing in every direction, the scouts returned from their pursuit. A council of war determined to push on to the Penobscot, with a position of the troops, and fortify a position near the river's mouth, with the remainder. During the march of the troops around the bay, numerous 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 the 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 with sixty men, while the remainder of his force was thus engaged, sailed for Penobscot. Off "Gyobscot Point," appeared an Indian canoe; and by the wav- ing of the boatman's cap, it was understood p.171 INDIAN WARS. THOMAS GARDINER. an interview was desired. The ship's boat soon returned, bear- ing the intelligence that a considerable body of Indians with captive English people were then at Pemaquid. The fortress had survived the universal conflagration, or Captain Gardner had returned and erected another defence. At all events, he was then in command; and the village may have been spared. Thomas Gardin- er had been made chief of the military forces of Pemaquid,1 in the county of Devonshire, under a commission of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, two years before; and although in the general conflagation of the deserted houses of the planters, on the first startling intelligence of savage barbarities, "Pema- quid, New Harbor, Corbin's Sound, and Widgin's were all seen on fire within the same two hours,"2 yet the "castle," whose exist- ence 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. MODOCKAWANDO. Word was returned that Modockawando, the native lord of the Penobscots, and other sagamores, "and sundry sorts of Indians" were encamped near the place. Modockawando sent specific mess- ages to Major Waldron. Captain Davis and a volunteer ventured on shore and three sagamores visited the transport ships. Thus an interview was secured, and the pledges of good faith exchang- ed to prepare the way for pacific overtures. The commander-in- chief, with six unarmed men, next went on shore, where suspic- ions of treacherous dealing were roused. Finding Waldron in force, under the cogency of this argument, though the project of the treaty was acknowledged, yet no captive was suffered Footnotes. 1. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 249. Maine Historical Soc. 2. Hubbard. p.172 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. WALDRON. William Chadbourn, John Wannick and Warwood were secured and set free. to go on ship-board; and delay in executing the treaty on vari- ous pretenses was contrived. Waldron and his attendants were searched on landing. The emergency required promptitude and de- cision. Waldron was peremptory and energetic. He demanded immed- iate compliance with treaty stipulations, in the surrender of the captive Sheepscot and Kennebec planters - and the enroll- ment of a company of auxiliaries to fight the savages on the Androscoggin. The auxiliary force was declined; and "twelve beaver skins apiece," with "plenty of liquor," were required as a ransom for the captives. The ransom was paid. William Chadbourn, John Wannick and Warwood were secured and set free. Suspiciouns of foul play augmented. On ship-board, it was de- termined 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 ransom, 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 emergency require it. Waldron reached the place of conference, and cautiously observ- ing the ground and the arrangement of things, with a view to ascertain the purposes of the savages, discovered the exposed point of a lance and other concealed weapons of war. He grased the point and drew the lance from its hiding place, and with the weapon in had, went to the savages, charging them with treachery. The warriors threw off all disguise - rushed on Waldron to wrest from his hold 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, until the signal cap called succor to his side from the fleet. The devoted band were driven to the wall, and destruction p.173 INDIAN WARS. Captain Frost and Lieutenant Nutter. menaced them at every turn, from the overwhelming force of the constantly increasing numbers of the Indians. The sqaws 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 consternation, took to flight and deserted their comrades. It was a hand to hand struggle. Captain Frost sprang on the Sagamore Me- gun-na-way, a notorious and bloody barbarian. Aided by his Lieut. 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, successfully assailed the enemy; and at this juncture, the landing of the force from the ships turned the tide of battle. The Indians fleeing on all sides, some made for the forest co- verts, and others to their canoes. The fire of the whites strew- ed 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 INDIAN CHIEF, MATAHANDO WAS SLAIN. ME-GUN-NA-WAY, SHOT AND BURIED AT PEMAQUID. The chieftain, Matahando, and with him, a Powwow, or Medicine- man of the tribe, were slain. The sister of Modcocawando and three others were made captives. Me-gun-na-way, hoary in years of 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 trans- action, 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 p.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 Sheepscot, under Captain 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"?1 In exploring the ruins of the recently sacked towns, the remains of Judge Lake were found. Two savages, incautiously 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 Captain 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 without 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 Sagadahoc once more mingled the whoops of war, with the echoes of musketry, and the scream of the leaden messenger of death! Nine of the burial party were laid dead in their tracks. Panic stricken, and reduced by this unexpected blow, the Footnote.1. Deed to Robert Gutch. p.175 THE INDIAN WARS. 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. 1677. Andros1 had been appointed to the office of Governor of the Ducal Territory in America. Half a 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 Guber- natorial authority, to rebuild the fortifications and to re- store Pemaquid. CAESAR KNAPTON. JAMESTOWN. This was the first movement towards recovering the lost foot- hold of the English settlements. Caesar Knapton2 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 Jamestown. 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 trans- ports, "to invite and bring as many of the inhabitants, particularly fishermen driven from the Duke's Territory, as will come."2 Andros soon succeeded in reviving the settlements about Pema- quid by facilitating the return "of ye fformer inhabitants." Many fishing vessels, recovered from the natives, Footnotes. 1. Williamson's History, vol. i. p. 552. 2. Pemaquid Papers, pp. 9, 11. p.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; but not 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 breadth be left directly from the fort to the narrowest part of the neck, going to the great neck, to- ward New Harbor. "No buildings could be reared end-wise to the street," obstruct- ing 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 and1 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 go up into the redoubt." These regulations were decreed by the Governor Footnote. 1. Pemaquid Papers, pp. 20-24. p.177 THE INDIAN WARS. 1678. FORT CHARLES. in Council as measures of safety in the municipal arrangements of the city of Jamestown, to be enforced by Caesar Knapton, the commandant of its newly erected Fort Charles. 1680 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 Mr. Roads, entered St. George's river to beat up trade with the Indians. But Commander Knapton made a prize of the "Ketch and cargo." In a quarrel on board the ketch, Cumberland, Israel Dymot, master, in the waters of Pemaquid, Samuel Collins was knocked overboard and perished. The ship's master, of the ship 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. JOHN JOSELYN, JUSTICE. Thomas Sharp, the officer now in command, presided over the comm- ission, John Joselyn sitting as Justice-in-Chief. The Duke of York extended his authority into Sagadahoc; 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 became the metropolis of the East, and was invested with an in- fluence and importance, as the mart of the eastern trade, never before attained. It was at this date that buildings of stone rose along her paved streets, to replace those of wood, which gave to her land-locked harbor, bristling with cannon at its entrance - enlivened with commerce - ships of war riding in p.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 Pema- quid a place of aristocratic importance. It was the climax of her power and pride as the Queen City of the East. 1681. FRANCIS SKINNER. A change in the military arrangements of the force stationed at Jamestown of Pemaquid, assigned Francis Skinner to the chief comm- and. This officer was required in general orders "to be very carefull to prevent any disorders or trouble amongst the Indians and others - to see that they be civilly used as formerly." Apprehension of further hostilities now became rife. The public mind was excited, and government began to strengthen the frontier defenses. RETURN OF THE SHEEPSCOT PLANTERS. 1682. The return tide of population had now fairly set 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 in- habitants, were, by order of Government, "to be restored and pro- tected."1 AUGUST 19TH. ROBERT GIBBERS, FORT HILL, BOSTON. An extraordinary movement was this day made in behalf of the interests of New Dartmouth. At the abode1 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 Elizabeth Phyps Daniel Ranisford, with "severall other of ye fformer inhabitants of Shippscutt River, who did jointly Footnote.1. Pemaquid Papers, p. 15; pp. 49-50. p.179 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. TOWN OF MASON AND JEWETT'S NECK. bind themselves to stand to severall articles of Agreement ffor ye settling of a township on a neck of land surveyed, and a town laid out thereon, generally known and called by ye 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. Preparatory to a resumption of their homes and improvements, 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 fencing 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 improve- ments, 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 Ministree, with a convenient place to set a meeting house to ye best ad- vantage for ye town;" - and that they should have a man of their own free choice; and such a man "as ye major part of ye town would like." "No person or persons whatsoever shall build any vessel, cut or carry any timber, spars, fencing stuff, hay, thatch, etc., with- out the leave, license and approbation" of the settlers. It was further voted - "that every man, housekeeper and single persons, at1 ye age of sixteen years, should provide three pounds of good powder and twelve pounds of lead bullets and swan shot - and keep a good fire locke musket and ffowling gonne (gun)." This body of Sheepscot immigrants would seem, from the schedule of the articles of agreement, to have been con- Footnote. 1. Full act. P. Papers, pp. 49-57. p.180 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. firmed republicans in their religious and civil proclivities, thoroughly inbued with the sentiments and views of the colon- ists of the Massachusetts Bay. 1684. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. It would appear that this body and their friends repaired immediately to the occupancy of the Mason and Jewett's Neck township on the Sheepscott River. Their original articles of settlement were put on record at Pemaquid - were there examined by William Shurt; and the sub- scribing witnesses made their certificate at New Dartmouth, on the 16th of 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- the 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 Corn- wall. It is not certain, however, that the Massachusetts emi- gration of the Fort Hill gathering did not locate on the pooint on the south side of Sheepscot falls, which was the head of the neck of the Mason and Jewett claim, where, subsequent to this period, we have mention of a small fortification. The proba- bilities of a new location here, are much confirmed by the vesti- ges of ancient and populous occupancy, still traceable on the earth's surface, as well as from a petition1 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. SEPTEMBER 8th. By the energy of the ducal Governor, Andros, the plans for effecting a recovery of the wasted plantations of the desola- tions of King Philip's war in the eastern frontiers, were execut- ed with success. Footnote. 1. See Petition in Pemaquid Papers. p.181 THE INDIAN WARS. JAMESTOWN, THE CAPITAL OF PEMAQUID. 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 the command of John Rowden, was detached from Fort Charles, to occupy the wooden defenses of this renowned Kennebec hamlet; and thus resuscitated, "Merry Meeting" became a central and principal point in the settlement of the interior Kennebec precinct, but as an appendage to Pemaquid.1 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 feelings, were taken, and put into the hands of government. One Dennes, a resident on the Kennebec, swore, "that he heard one counted a captain among the Indians, say, that his heart would never be well, until he had killed some of the English again." This blood-thirsty savage, Captain Antonie, further said, "he would burn the English houses and make the English slaves as they were before." John Hornibroke. 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." Footnote. 1. Pemaquid Papers, p.205. p.182 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The House of James Andrews. John Voarny and Will Bacon swore, that, in behalf of their neighbors, "to search out ye truth of ye Ingen news that was going, we did take our fiage from Kenybeck to Casco." At the house of James Andrews, they learned from a native who was in the habit of visiting at Andrew's house, and had received much kindness at his hands, "that ye Indians was minded to rise in rebellion again, and cut off ye English;" and that when the time had been determined on, among them, "he would send them a 'burch rine', as though he had brought them a letter." John Molton "testifyeth and saith, that, while working in his field chopping, good wife Cutery called to him, to look to himself, for there was an Indian would do him mischief." On looking up, he saw a savage approaching across Mrs. Cutery's field. Not saying a word, the Indian rushed on Molten with a drawn knife in his hand, and attempted to stab "ye said John Molton with ye same, twice." But Molton so fiercely defended himself with the axe, "threatening ye said Indian, to cut out his braines with ye same," that the savage took to his heels, persuaded that discretion was, to him, the better of valor. These facts would indicate that, despite the remembrance of treachery and wrong, a degree of intimacy of intercourse, some- what 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 Pemaquid, as well as the venerable Shurt, had now gone to the grave. Irregu- larities had grown up at Jamestown, under the mal-administration of military rule. The rumor of this state of affairs reached the ears of the Governor at New p.183 INDIAN WARS. York, and led to a sharp reproof. Francis Skinner was admon- ished "that1 the looseness and carelessness of his command, gave strangers occasion to notice his extravagancies and de- baucheries; that, for the future, "swearing, drinking and pro- faneness, too much practiced and suffered, should be wholly suppressed." Such were the sharp words of Captain Brockholls, to Francis Skinner, commander of Fort Charles.2 PEMAQUID FOSTERED BY GOVERNMENT. The residents of Jamestown at Pemaquid were chiefly of the New York emigration. Being the capital of the Ducal Province in the east, Governor Andros fostered the growth and import- ance of the place. All native trade, all commercial trans- actions, 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 sub-collector and receiver of the public revenue. John Allen was the commissioned Justice and Sheriff of Pema- quid 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, rum-boats were forbidden to trade from harbor to harbor. An ordinary was to be Footnotes. 1. Pemaquid 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." - Thorn- ton's Ancient Pemaquid, p.127. p.184 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 boat's crew, to sit and tipple to excessive drinking, or unseasonable hours." LAWS OF TRADE AND TUNNAGE DUES. Ownership of dogs. 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 settlement, 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. "For 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, therefore, appear to have been the established denomination feature of the religious character of the population of Jamestown at Pemaquid. All vessels1 not of the Ducal state were ordered to pay into the public revenue - if a decked vessel - "four quintals, 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 hands of the re- cently appointed Governor of New York, - "Thomas Dongan Footnote. 1. Pemaquid Papers. p.185 INDIAN WARS. THE DUKE OF YORK. "Thomas Dongan,1 Vice Admiral under his Royal Highness, of New York and dependencies in America," after a short interregnum, under Lieutenant Colonel Brockholls. The resendents in the Ducal territories had petitioned their lord "to permit the people to have a share in the govern- ment." The Duke of York granted the prayer so far as to establish the popular branch of a 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."2 GYLES GODDARD. "The free-holders of Pemaquid and dependencies met," and made election of Gyles Goddard3 to represent the Ducal province of the East, in the Assembly at New York. West and Palmer were commissioned to aid in the administra- tion of the affairs of the Eastern Dukedom; and in the execu- tion of the duties of their commission, they visited Pemaquid, New Dartmouth and Sheepscot, to make and confirm grants of land, to correct abuses - to quiet his Majesty's estates and possess- ions - to see that garrison duty was faithfully done - to em- power civil officers and to appoint Justices of the Peace and Quorum - to let and establish excise and customs for revenue.4. Such were the extraordinary powers of John West and John Palmer, Royal Commissioners of the Duke of York, the abuse of which made them 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 pleas- ure of military authority, often exercised in a Footnotes. 1. Pemaquid Papers, p. 95. 2. Holmes' American Annals, Vol. i, p. 461, note 3. 3. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 131, 4. Pemaquid Papers, see Commission, pp. 111-113. p.186 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. most reckless and arbitrary manner. It was a matter of complaint to the Governor at New York, that it had been the practice of the commander at Pemaquid to threaten the dissolution of the Courts, at his pleasure - to threaten the Justices with imprisonment and with irons - and to apprehend by force of arms the King's Just- ices. The fishermen of "Sagadahoc Island" had, as was supposed, at the instance of Richard Patishall, been forbidden to build on the portion of the island used for preparing their fish, and were required to remove their warehouses and salt stores. A con- siderable population must have concentrated there, at the date of this order, so that the place must have been crowded; and although it is not easy to identify the island at this period, yet it undoubtedly was an ancient and well-know locality, the term 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 Dartmouth in Ships- Gutt river," where it was alleged a considerable 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 clear- ing." 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 Massachusetts: DONGAN, CRANFIELD AND DUDLEY. p.187 THE INDIAN WARS. Dongan, Cranfield and Dudley, with a Mr. Shrimpton, held a conference in New York at "Fort James," to discuss and con- cert measures of defense against the eastern savages, whose restlessness and menaces foreboded another scene of savage war. Dongan urged pacific measures, and cherished confid- ence 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 men and the white men in the Duke- dom, and was adverse to all measures offensive to the natives. No definite concerted plans were agreed on. FIRST APPEARANCE OF EXISTING FAMILY NAMES. PARSONS, GYLES, COOK, JOHNSON, NEAL, etc. For the first time, the names of PARSONS, GYLES, COOK, JOHNSON, NEAL and others, whose descendants still live in in and about the heritage of their fathers, on the banks of the Sheepscot, are found among the early inhabitants of Dukedom, as petitioners for the public good, or remonstrants against existing public evils. FOOT, LOVERING, RAY, GUNNISON AND PAINE. Foot, Lovering, Ray, Gunnison and Paine were now dwellers at New Dartmouth. NICHOLAS MANNING. Nicholas Manning was put in commissiion as Commander of a company of foot soldiers. GYLES GODDARD. Gyles Goddard as Lieutenant; John Allyen, John Dolling, Lawrence Denni, Thomas Giles, Watrop, Thomas Sharp, Richard Patishall, as Commissiioners and Justices for the County of Cornwall. JOHN BEATTERY. At New Town, Sagadahoc, John Beattery was commissioned as a Captain of Foot. NICHOLAS MANNING. Nicholas Manning was appoointed 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-occupied, many families from the banks of the Hudson having removed into Duke's Territories of the Eastern Province of Pemaquid. At this juncture, the decease of p.188 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. February 16, 1685. King Charles II. elevated James II to the vacant seat of the Throne of England, his views were arbitrary, and his rule was despotic. Dongan, whose commission was renewed, was instructed "to allow1 no printing press in New York. 1686. Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned Governor of New England, December 24th and had arrived at Boston; landing at Pools' Whart, escorted by sixty "red-coats," he marched "to Gibbs' house on Fort Hill."2 Andros was instructed to give tolera- tion in religious sentiments, but to encourage the establish- ment of the Church of England.3 Accordingly he applied for one of the Boston churches for religious services, on the day of his arrival.2 The Old South (church) was selected, but the propriet- ors against its use, because it was private property, "and they could not, with a good conscience consent that their meeting- houses should be made use of for the Common Prayer worship."2 September 19. A Royal order4 of this date directed that for the future the "ffort and country of Pemaquid, with the Greate Gunns, ammu- nition and stores of war," be delivered unto Sir Edmund Andros, and annexted 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 Footnotes. 1. Holmes' Am. Annals, pp. 467-8. 2. Judge Sewall's MSS. Diary. 3. Holmes' Annals, p. 468. 4. Pemaquid Papers, p. 131. p.189 INDIAN WARS. territory of this Ducal State, now merged in Massachusetts, as the "District of Maine," - the Dukedom ceasing forever. 1687. The act of annexation did not pass unnoticed or without opposition by remonstrances from the inhabitants of the late Ducal State. The citizens of "New Harbor," of the town of Bristol, an ancient suburban precinct of Pemaquid, convened in town meeting, ordered that a petition should be forwarded to the "Honorable Governor and Councell of Assembly at New York," in which the plea was urged, - "that Pemaquid may still remain the metropolitan of these parts, because it ever have been so before Boston was settled."1 But the pres- tige of the ancient capital of New England had gone. BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BECOMES THE CAPITAL OF NEW ENGLAND. The plea of hoary life and honors could avail nothing. Pemaquid fell, and on her ruins Boston climbed to her position and emolu- ments, as the capital of New England. Andros made Boston the seat of his administration, and he deter- mined on seizing the French possessions on the Penobscot, to swell the bulk of his dominions. THE RECKLESSSNESS OF ANDROS. 1688. The frigate Rose, Commander George, at Pemaquid, was ordered to be held in a state of readiness for the Governor's use. Embark- ing 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 Pemaquid. 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 of Castine. That wild noble- man was too wary to be surprised. Having descried the fleet winging its way from afar, down the Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Coll. vo. v. p. 137. p.190 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. magnificent Bay, he had fled and secured himself 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 - household stuff, fire-arms, ammuni- tion and clothes - the Chapel with its altar and pictures. The church was held sacred. The booty was secured. Andros re- turned 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 foreshadowings of the Governor's speculations, as his imagination peered into the distant future! THE 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 the eastern people, Andros returned to Massachusetts. But his unceremonious visit to the establishment of the "Baron de Castine" was deemed a wanton outrage, to re- revenge which Castine excited his savage retainers to prepare for war. MODOCKAWANDO. Great efforts 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 to Boston, laden with presents for himself and his braves. Peace was promising. ENGLISH REVOLUTION. But when William and Mary, having ascended the throne of England, vacated by the fugitive, King James Stuart, who had taken refuge from the furty of his exasperated subjects in the heart of France, opened a new scene, and touched new springs of action in our blood- stained history. p.191 INDIAN WARS. As a natural consequence of these facts, war ensued between France and England, whose people were in a revolutionary state. Rival religious organizations, Popery and Protestantism, the one a religion of forms, the other a religion of faith - the one sympathizing with prerogative and the other with power - the other with the rights of conscience and humanity - met in a desperate struggle for the supremacy in England. FRENCH PRIESTS. INCITE THE INDIANS TO BLOODSHED. French priests lashed into fury, the savage hordes of New England, until a wave of fire and blood swept with extermin- ating fury over the fair reviving prospects of the eastern frontiers. COLONEL TYNG & CAPTAIN MINOT. Colonel Tyng and Captain Minot, with one hundred and fifty-six men, were detached for the eastern service and Captain Brock- holls 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 the rudest cabins of the frontiers of New England. THE TREACHERY OF GOVERNOR ANDROS. A partisan warfare raged. The sympathies of all the office- holders, appointees of the Stuart dynesty, were in the inter- ests of King James, and, of course, sided with the French in- fluence and the assumptions of Popery, which had espoused the cause of the fugitive James. Andros was suspected, indeed, was charged with giving aid and comfort to the enemy. While at Pemaquid, it was said he was visited by two squaws (one the sister of Modocawando, the native lord of Penobscot,) who "remained with him two days at the fort: leaving in half drunk under and 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 p.192 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. in the frigate Rose1 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 blazing star showed its head through the clouds, but flung a tail thirty degrees in length to the zenith; "growing continually broader and broader, and brightest on its sides."2 1689. APRIL 18TH. The administration of Andros had become odious; and on the report that the Governor's guards were "to massacre3 the citi- zens of Boston," the yeomanry round about Boston poured in, seized Captain George of the Rose frigate, surrounded the de- fenses on Fort Hill, which were surrendered, and Andros captured therein. The Governor was imprisoned; and the revolution in favor of the Prince of Orange was completed in New England. The consequences were most disastrous to the frontier planta- tions 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 suburg of the capital at Pema- quid. 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 place." The "customs" were onerous. They desired they should be taken off, "because it never used to be paid by any fishermen in the world, that we know of," say they, in a petition to Government.4 Footnotes. 1. Holmes' Annals, vol. i, p. 474, note. 2. Hutch- inson's Hist. vol. i, p. 313, note. 3. Holmes' Annals, vol i., p.475. 4. Maine Historical Coll. v. p. 137. p.193 THE INDIAN WARS. CENTRAL POINTS OF DEFENSE. At Dartmouth, Captain Withington, with a company of sixty men, had been stationed. A detachment of twenty-four men under the command of Lieutenant John Jordan was assigned to garrison duty. The 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. Newtown on the Sagadahoc, a Fort at Sagadahoc, a redoubt on the Damariscotta, Pemaquid, New Dartmouth, and Sheepscot, were all occupied as points of military defense. COMMANDER BROCKHURST DENOUNCED AS A PAPIST. 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 Brock- holls1 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 the French, was seized by the inhabitants of New Dartmouth, and sent to Boston - Lieutenant 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 overawe the hostile natives, were dispersed. The state of things must have been known to the Indians. The 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 were burned, while those who made a Footnote.1. Answer to Andros, Maine Historical Coll. vol v. p. 394. 13 p.194 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. show of defense were slain, and the remainder made captives, many of whim were most barbarously murdered in a drunken car- ousal, soon after. Nine persons were spared from the island settlements and the 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 parti- san warfare! THE DESTRUCTION OF NEW DARTMOUTH. SHEEPSCOT, CALLED THE GARDEN OF THE EAST. These circumstances invited assault. A war party passed from the bloody horrors and savage orgies of the sacking of the Merry Meet- ing towns over to the thriving and populous plantations of Sheeps- cot, "called the garden of the East." SEPTEMBER 5TH. HENRY SMITH & HIS FAMILY. EDWARD TAYLOR & HIS FAMILY. Cautiously approaching from the eastward to the attack, the Indians surprised and secured Henry Smith and his family. The next day Edward Taylor and his 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 onslaught could be made. Very soon the surrounding forests echoed with the whoops and yells of disappointed rage. The prey had escaped! The entire village of New Dartmouth was consigned to the flames, with here and there, a solitary house left as a monument 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 p.195 THE INDIAN WARS. those who had made the fort a refuge finally escaped, is not stated.1 It is related, however, that the German population retired from the scene of such desolation, never more to re- turn; and the villages, so lately flourishing and so long in- habited, were consigned to waste and solitude for a whole generation. The forts were destroyed; and to these ancient plantations the catastrophe was a fatal and final overthrow; and to this day, the Newcastle of the present, has not recovered the posi- tion of influence and importance of her ancient fame. THE OVERTHROW OF PEMAQUID. 1689. Pemaquid, the ancient capital of New England, had not yet lost the prestige of her position in the 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 there- fore determined 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 central barrier to the barbarism of the East. LIEUTENANT WEEMS. The anarchical condition of civil authority had left it as de- fenseless and exposed as was its suburban village, New Dartmouth, above. As we have before said, Lieutenant Weems, alone with fifteen men, a stipendiary of the Government of the Massachusetts Bay, held the post and defenses of Jamestown. THOMAS GYLES. Thomas Gyles, a large landed proprietor and Chief Justice of the Pemaquid district, resided at this date in town. This eminent pio- neer 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 Footnote.1. Tradition says they were suffered to construct a small vessel, and retire in her, by agreement with the Indians. p.196 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. scenes, Gyles had been made a prisoner, and his wife slain while in her garden, picking beans.1 Redeemed or escaping, he re- turned 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 over- tures of Governor 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 lawlessness." 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 savages, numbering about one hundred warriors, had lurked in the 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 defenses; 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 the town finally gained a street and effected alodgment. 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 defenders replied with much san froid, - "we are now weary and must sleep."!2 Daylight dawned and the fort still held out. Footnotes. 1. Vinton's MSS. Narrative, Archives Maine Historical Society. 2. Williamson's Hist. vo. i. p.197 THE INDIAN WARS. Two days the assault was persistently continued and as vigorously repelled. But the assailants could not be dislodged 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 en- emy, and the bravest of his force were disabled. A capitulation ws therefore concluded, on condition that Pati- shall's sloop should be restored, and the garrison with their captives and arms should be suffered to depart without molesta- tion. 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 & FARNHAM SHOT DEAD. CAPTAIN PADDISHALL TAKEN AND SLAIN. Captains Skinner and Farnham returning from the islands, as they leaped on shore, were shot dead; and Captain Patishall of "Paddi- shall's Island near the mouth of the Kennebec,"1 whose sloop lay at the Barbican, was taken therefrom and slain. THE 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 nurs- ing 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 Charles - 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 Footnote. 1. Clark's Deposition. Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 105, note. p.198 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. wild whoops of war. Simultaneously with their appearance, 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 sulphurous cloud of smoke, which hung heavily over the bloody field, both grand and awful! John Gyles and his brother, James, sought safety in flight, at the first onset. Thomas, an older brother, reached the Barbican opposite the Fort, gained a fishing boat, and sailed away the same night.1 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 smokey 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 hay. He pass his aged father who had been shot, pale and bloody, still tottering on his feet. In the hayfield the men lay where they had been shot down; and others tomahawked, still called upon God in their agony for mercy! The Indians gathered with their captives, 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"! This request was granted. The captive boys were confided to the merci- full protection of God Almighty. He gave them a father's counsel, and took an affectionate farewell with the hope of meeting them in that "better land," where the wicked cease from troubling. With a cheerful voice he bade his children farewell, having now become faint from the loss of blood, "which gushed out of his shoes." The savages let him aside; and adds Footnote. 1. Drake's Tragedies of the Wilderness. p.199 THE INDIAN WARS. the narrator, his own son, "I heard the blows of the hatchet, but heard neither shriek nor groan." His body, pierced with bullets was covered where it fell, with the branches of trees. Such was the melancholy fate of Judge Gyles, a distinguished 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 muske- try and cannon of the contending parties. Ambuscades 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 Harbor, 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 demonical demonstration. The fortifications had now fallen into the hands of the assailants, and very soon, the works, the dwelling houses and the shops of Jamestown of the Virginia of the north, the capital of the eastern Dukedom, were reduced to a smouldering remains and ruins. Such was the catastrophe which inflicted irre- parable desolation on Pemaquid at the hands of the warriors of Penobscot, who had been consecrated to this work by the benedict- ions of Mother Church of Rome, and who went from her confessional and her alters 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 hands to heaven in aid of their fathers and brothers in battle with the heretics.1 Footnote. 1. Charlevoix, Williamson's note. p.200 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 captives. 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 the 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 separated 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 brought 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. p.201 INDIAN WARS. "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 - "Wegage oh nelo woh! - fat is my eating! THE GAUNTLET DANCE. JAMES ALEXANDER OF FALMOUTH. 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 hells and dances, the warriors were leaping about a man named James Alexander, recently captured at Falmouth. 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 slaughtered friends. 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 shoulders. 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 then 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 friend Alexander had fallen into the hands of his enemies p.202 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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, which they would do when the peril was ended. Gyles retired and sought concealment in the fastnesses of a neigh- boring swamp and had scarcely attained his refuge when deafening whoops mingled with threats and flatteries told him that the savages were on his track. They sought him till evening and then called - "Chon Chon!: But Chon would not trust them. Thus he escaped till the company had dispersed; when he went forth from his covert, 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 the 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 the 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 re- mote periods in the history of the aborigines of the American coast. The two prisoners adroitly turned this infirmity of their savage masters to good account, on a dark night. 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 p.203 THE INDIAN WARS. the 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 cour- age and physical prowess, and this would seem to be a spontan- eous 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 en- gaged, a stout, ill-natured young fellow pushed him on to the ground backwards, sat upon his chest, pulled out his knife and menaced him with death, saying - "he had never yet killed one of the English." Gyles replied - "he might go to war and that would be more manly than to kill a poor captive who 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 his head, and tumbling him off, followed up the movement with his knees and fists, until 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; reproached 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. p.204 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Gyles 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 bucket 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 rapidly revolving the sharpened point of an upright piece of wood in the socket or cavity of a horizontal base, until a blaze was kindled. The incantations of the pow-wow, among the unchristianized natives prevailed. For the dead, great mourning was made. In the shadowy and somber stillness of evening twilight, a squaw breaks the silence, wandering over the highest cliff-tops, near her lodge, crying in mournful and long-drawn numbers, -"Oh hawe hawe!" But the season of mourning being ended, the relatives of the dead end their said memories in a feast; and the bereaved is permitted to marry again. Purchased by a French trader, during the eastern expedition of Colonel Hawthorne, Gyles, after a servitude of nine years captiv- ity, was restored to his home and his 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 barbarously murdered. The elder brother of this captive Gyles, after three years of captivity, attempted to escape and was re-taken. Indian torture of captives. On the heights of Castine, overlooking the waters of Penobscot Bay, he was tortured by fire at the stake: his nose and his ears were cut off and forced into his mouth, which he was compelled to eat; and then he was burnt as a diversion to enliven the scene of a dance. CHAPTER V. p.205 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - CONTINUED. MAJOR CHURCH. 1690. The renewal of savage barbarities in the East roused Massa- chusetts to arms. Chastisement and 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. MILES STANDISH OF PLYMOUTH. BENJAMIN CHURCH. Next to Miles Standish of Plymouth, the name of Benjamin Church as an early successful military leader, stands out in bold re- lief on the annals of New England. The arena of his glory and success was the field of frontier service. A native of Plymouth, too, endowed with great benevolence 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 hords of the Indian, King Philip, breaking down in regular succession all his great captains, and scattering all the com- binations of savage power. p.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 the 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 statley 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 King Philip's in- insignia of royalty) "belong unto you." The shoulders of the hero of Philip'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 scar= let colors. The whole was girded with a belt ornamented with a pendant star, from the shoulders reaching to the ankles. But the magnanimous and fearless Annawawon, in defiance of the entreaties and remonstrances of his brave captor, was slain by the Plymotheans after his surrender. p.206 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE continued Having successfully encountered the enemy at Casco, who retired from the field, Church next appeared on the on the plains of Brunswick, and in the heart of the enemy's country on the Andro- scoggin, forcing the very doors of his strong-hold. 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, either under the deadly aim of the ferocious frontiers' men, or while struggling for life against the current, were swept under the waters of the rushing Androscoggin! p.207 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. 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 confederacies, and broke up their projected enterprises. Passing the Kennebec with Governor Phips, Church landed at Pema- quid, and from thence ranged the Penobscot. Returning, he entered the Kennebec, and ascended that river. In the ascent of this ex- pedition, his boats encountered the enemy in their canoes. After a sharp but successful engagement, he routed the savages, and pur- sued 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 impene- trable swamps of the unexplored interior. From Pemaquid as a center, he scoured the country in all directions, carrying devastation and dismay, fire and sword, to the homes of the savages. CONDITION OF COUNTRY. 1692. Many panic-stricken surviving settlers, crouching amid the ruins of this war-wasted section, were met by Major Church in the course of these expeditions, who besought him to procure their removal from the scene p.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 angular 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 considerable 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 men in detachments went to their clearings to sow and reap, one of whom 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 front- ier-man of the East more than a match for his wily foe. This adjustment of the homes of the frontier inhabitants to the emergencies of their condition finally worried out the savage; and the mode of defense being aptly suited to meet the peculiari- ties 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. p.209 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - Continued. THE BUILDING OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY AT PEMAQUID. SIR WILLIAM PHIPS. 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 Massachu- setts Bay. He took special interest in the welfare of his native section. Major Church having in charge, the military operations with- in the eastern frontier, in August, with an army of near five hundred men, made his rendezvous among the ruins of the dis- mantled 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 defense as worse than useless - as "only nests for destructions." 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 easter 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 guadrangular wall was reared, whose perimeter measur- ed seven hundred 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 sea- ward 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 peninsula, 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. p.210 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THEY NAMED IT FORT WILLIAM HENRY. Eight feet from the 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 terrifying pursuit of the savages, through- out the fastnesses of their forest wilds, who fled before him, leaving their corn, "beaver and moose skins," to become a prey. 1696. Up to this period, great vicissitudes had checkered the historic scene at Pemaquid and Sagadahoc; which also deeply marked the con- dition of the exasperated and forlorn natives, who began to real- ize 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 faith- ful officer, became an object of dread as a scourge of the maraud- ing 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 eatern forces, he was at Sheepscot and Pemaquid pursuing the wild savage with so much per- sistence and success, that, feeling themselves "hunted to the mountains by the terrifying Converse," thirteen sagamores repair- ed to Pemaquid, suing for peace; in the negotiations therefor, John Wing, Nicholas Manning and Benjamin p.211 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. Jackson, were commissioners.1 The conditions of a perpetual peace were arranged and hostages given as pleges 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. Jesuit 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 in- fluential 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"! and that Jesus Christ, the blessed, was murdered by Englishmen"! Religion was thus made a torch of war. Modockawando, the sachem of Penobscot and Bomaseen, the sachem of the Kennebecks, "whose residence was at the ancient seat of their sagamores, Norridgewock,"2 summoned their 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 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 the command of March, disguised as "travelers from Canada." Footnotes. 1. Williamson, Vol. i. p. 640. 2. Drake's Book of Indians, p. 110. p.212 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. But being known, the party was seized and the chieftain, Boma- seen, was sent a captive to Boston, where, with Sheepscot John, one of the hostages of the late treaty, all were held in confine- ment. MISSION OF SHEEPSCOT JOHN. To negotiate an exchange of prisoners and effect a reconcilia- tion, John was sent east. At Rutherford's Island, in the mouth of Damariscotta river, a league from Fort William Henry, by his influence, a body of natives was gathered. They came in a flot- illa 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 arose, and the captious savages departed in disgust. From the con- ference of peace, they rushed with unsheathed 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 Barbi- can, opposite, were shot, four being killed and six wounded. It was the act of the disaffected savages, who had left the con- ference at Rutherford's Island in disgust, and had thus defeated the pacific mission of Sheepscot John. RETRIBUTION. 1696. February 16th. Some of the eastern sagamores visited the fort. Fort William Henry was now in command of Captain Chubb. The avowed object of the visit was to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. But the anguish of his soldiers, whose wounds, yet unhealed, rendered 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 un- suspecting and unarmed Indians. Two chieftains were slain. The others were captured, excepting p.213 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. RETRIBUTION - TO PASCO CHUBB & WIFE. Toxus and some of his more athletic friends, who broke through their restraint, and escaped "to scatter fire-brands, arrows and death," until the wilds of the whole coast were enkindled in the flames of war. Pasco Chubb, the author of the perfidy, was never forgotten, nor was he forgiven until 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 WILLIAM HENRY. THE FRENCH - IBERVILLE. The reduction of Fort William Henry at Pemaquid had become a matter of settled policy with the French. At Quebec an expedi- tion had been projected, and place under the conduct of Iber- ville 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 expedi- tion. As Iberville approached the scene of his operations, the English ship, Newport, Captain Paxon, with the Province Cutter, on their passage to the Bay of Fundy to intercept French stores, together with the ship, Sorlings, Captain Eams, encountered him. A battle ensued. The Newport struck her colors and became a prize, the other vessel escaping under a fog-bank. Thus en- couraged and re-inforced, Iberville pressed all sail for Pema- quid. Off Penobscot, Castine joined the expedition with a flot- illa 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 slain. p.214 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The place was summoned to surrender. Mounted with fifteen guns, the fortress was held by about one hundred men, with ammunition and food in abundance. The summons was rejected. The firts day was consumed by the investure of the town. One the night en- suing, fortified redoubts were constructed on the adjoining and commanding heights, where a mortar battery was planted. AUGUST 15th. This battery opened its fire on the town and fortress with shell and round shot. The effects of the shell were such 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 fear of the defenders triumph- ed 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 marines. August 18th. Thus, a second time, fell Pemaquid to the combined forces of the 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. Colonel Gedney of Salem, immediately marched with five hundred men through the eastern country to the scene of the desolation of Pema- quid, in quest of the enemy, who had long departed. Chubb was arrest- ed for cowardice and cashiered.1 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 Footnote. 1. Annals of Salem, vol. iv. p.325. p.215 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION CONTINUED. Boston at the time, and was commissioned to visit again the wilds of the frontiers of Maine. An expedition was projected to pursue the French naval force, and engage the enemy on land, if possible. Church touched at York, eastward bound, and sent his scouts through the neighboring forests to beat up the savage haunts. But no succ- ess attending the movement, no enemy appearing, he sailed for Mon- hegan Island. Colonel Gedney, from York as a center, with detach- ments of friendly Indians and volunteers, penetrated the country by a system of operations called scouting, and thus filled the enemy with alarm, and subjected the eneny to perpetual surprise. The combined movements of the enemy were all thus defeated; and breaking up into small bands, they only prowled in the neighbor- hood of the garrisons to surprise and cut off the unwary. Mooring his transport ships in the island harbor of Monhegan, 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 concealed, and the scouts sent out, who only traced a trail a week old. At night all re-embarked, prosecu- ting their voyage up the bay and among the islands, until at Camden, the base of the Mathebestuck mountains, day again dawned on them, when all landed and concealed their boats. Thus 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 a tender, also scoured the ocean off Pemaquid, but the French fleet had escaped, and the expedition was abortive. p.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 sus- tained by his government 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 contemplated movement, by a prisoner who had escaped from his confinement at Boston, had all re- tired from the sea-board an hundred miles into the interior, and therefore no chastisement could be meted out to them for the de- struction of Pemaquid and its precincts. MAJOR MARCH. 1697. Major March, being entrusted with the eastern defenses after the unsuccessful operations of Colonel Hawthorn, who had superseded Church, with five hundred men, entered on his arduous duties with commendable 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 move- ments of Major Church. THE BATTLE OF THE DAMARISCOTTA. September 9th. In the prosecution of this system, early in the autumnal month of the first year of his command, heading a small detachment of his troops, March entered the waters of the Damariscotta, which happen- ed 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 learn- ed the point of his debarkation, near which p.217 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. an ambuscade was arranged. On touching the shore, springing 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 welcom on every side. But the undaunted March immediately rallied his wavering troops, and led them to the charge in the face of the murderous 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 multiplied the horrors of the desolation. "Many,1 both Indians and English prisoners, were starved to death:" - "and some eating their dogs and cats, died horribly famished2." SEPTEMBER 11TH. The peace of Ryswick hushed the voice of war, and gave promise of tranquility to the contending 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 Footnotes. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol i., p. 646, note. 2. Mather's Magnalia, p. 556. p.218 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 concentration, 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 Indian destroyer, and departed, no more to return. Desola- tion, 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 bigoted priests, and the frenzy and fanaticism that marked the progress of the war. PIRACIES. June 7, 1699. The Treaty of Brunswick1 gave new promise of repose to Maine. Apprehensions of savage alarms gradually subsided and gave fresh impulse to those engaged in promoting the re-settlement of Maine.2 1700. Kidd and Bradish Kid and Bradish, whose buccaneering had greatly disturbed the coast settlements, were now captured. Summoned before the Legis- lature in Boston to give an account of his conduct, Kidd was re- manded to England Footnotes. 1. Annals of Warren, pp. 28-33. 2. Williamson, Vol. ii. p. 31. p.219 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. for trial, where he was condemned and executed. See also, Captain Kidd, Univ. Massachsuetts - http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/kidd.html Summary 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 impress- ions in the public mind, so deep that they are traced in the generations past, whose successive explorations of the bowels of the earth in search of hidden treasure mar our soil and afford a clue 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 the hope of raising one of Captain Kidd's chests of treasure, by men who went down in submarine armor, a year or two since. QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 1702. William, the head of the House of Orange, by his decease, pre- pared the way for the ascension of Anne, the daughter of James and the sister of Queen Mary. King James II, the fugitive heif of the House of Stuart, was also dead. But a reputed son of the deceased ex-monarch, known in English history as "the Pretender," aspired to the vacant seat of author- ity. The Crown of France supported the pretension; and to make good these pretensions, the dogs of war were again loosed on the de- fenseless frontiers of New England. Government had justly become alarmed at the malign influence of the clergy of the Romish Church, almost entirely represented among the natives by French Catholic priests. A prominent object with Government was, the breaking down of this ghostly p.220 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. power by separating the savage heart from the hold of his religious teachers. These undisguised efforts to sunder the ties binding the shep- herd to his flock became a fruitful source of envyings, jealous- ies and irritation. Says Penhallow, "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 with the English." The savage gravely answered: "that the Friars taught them to pray but the English never did"! 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 the Indian's pagan soul with the knowledge of his faith and of his God, and showed more zeal to gain his con- fidence and affection than to secure his furs. The exuberance of a virgin soil, the value of the fisheries, 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 perfect. Governor Dudley proposed the re- building of the Pemaquid fortress. War between France and England had actually been renewed, in consequence of the movements of the Pretender. French priests, emmissaries 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 p.221 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. Popish missions. But the deep, dark storm-cloud still gathered; and its distant mutterings waxed louder and louder, as the hori- zon darkened. 1703. No measures of courtesy, no presents, nor the renewal of treaty obligations could avert the evil. 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 Colonel Walton scoured the country, and kept the enemy in a state of perpetual alarm, driving the savages to seek asylum in the deep interior forests bordering on the St. Lawrence river. THE DEATH OF AR-RU-HAWIK-WABEMT. 1710. COLONEL WALTON. Colonel Walton struck a severe blow at the enemy in Sagadahoc. He had made his bivouac, during a scout, on one of the islands of the Sagadahoc waters. His camp fires allured a company of savages, who had visited the coast in search of food from the neighboring clam banks. Mislead 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. Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of the Norridgewocks. The savages took flight, but were surrounded, and their retreat cut off. Ar-ru-hawik-wabemt, chief of the Norridgewocks, of un- daunted spirit, active, bold and resolute, together with his wife and family became prisoners of Walton. The Indians had eluded all efforts of the scouts to discover their secret places of retreat. When questioned p.222 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. as to the hiding places of his braves and friends, the bold chief- tain answered not. When menaced with the 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. Perceiving the perilous extremity to which her spouse was re- duced, the affection of the wife triumphed over her patriotism; and to avert the impending fate of her husband, she disclosed 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 tort- ure, 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. The condition of the Indians was forlorn in the extreme. Cold, hunger, sickness, the battle-ax and scalping-knife, had wasted one-third1 part of the aborigines of Maine. The old men had be- come weary of the war, and anxious for peace. THE FALL OV NOVA SCOTIA. The inhabitants of New England resolved to make the war offens- ive as well as defensive. Nova Scotia, as one of the most access- ible points of French and Indian aggression, was singled out for conquest. Colonel Nicholson, with an adequate naval and land force, had in- vested 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. 1713. OCTOBER 5TH. THE TREATY OF UTRECHT. Hostilities between the Crowns of England and France now ceased, and by the Treaty of Utrecht, Acadia became henceforward a British possession. Footnote. 1. Penhallow, p. 60. p.223 RE-SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. JULY 13. The success of the British arms had its effect on the savage mind, and tended to detach it from the interests of the French nation. This result would seem to have been consummated by the Treaty of Portsmouth. 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 settle- ments, improved estates and comfortable habitations,1 now lay devastated." Title deeds, records - 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 original solitudes. To adjust conflicting titles and quiet claimants, Government created "a Committee of eastern claims and settlements." 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 provision for the 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. THE LOCALITIES. The mouth of Sagadahoc, probably on the Sheepscot shore, Footnote. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii, p.81. p.224 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1714. JOHN WATTS OF BOSTON. and Arrowsic Island, were the only points permitted to be re-occupied within our domain. John Watts 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.1 The material was imported from Massachusetts; the brick, it is said, from Medford. Land-holders and Government stimulated the return of the in- habitants and the increase of population, by affording facili- ties for return, and creating inducements thereto, in making provision for a perfect organization of society. THE BUILDING OF AUGUSTA. SAMUEL SHUTE AND WILLIAM DUMMER. 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.2 King George the first had succeeded to the throne, and had been proclaimed King of England; and Samuel Shute and William Dummer were appointed to the Provincial Executive. In the published history of our State, the site of the ancient Augusta of Maine had been mislocated, and the thrifty and vigorous namesake of our capital, about Small Point Harbor, has been entirely over- looked, and its reminiscences buried under its ruins, now over- grown and nearly lost amid the decay of a century and a half. The ancient town of Augusta "was a project of the Pejepscot proprietors."3 Lots, seventy 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 Footnotes. 1. Sewall's Hist. Bath. Maine Historical Coll. p. 201. 2. Penhallow, p. 82. 3. Bath Tribune, Sept. 4th, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick. p.225 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. 1716. proprietors, seems to have been the principal director and patron of the settlement;"1 and a fishery, it is said, "was established by the ingenious Dr. Noyes, in which twenty vessels were employed at a time."2 He built a garrison of stone at his own charge, the East; and which was maintained at the public expense. He also er- ected a convenient mansion house. Lots, for a church and a place of sepulture for the dead, were set apart for public use. The in- terest in the resuscitation 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 Sagadahoc, Pemaquid and probably Sheepscot had lain a waste, over whose early clearings wild hords of savage men roamed in free and undisputed sovereignty, but which now "opened a wide field for speculation."3 The sloop Pejepscot regularly plied between Boston and the newly erected town at Small Point Harbor. "Vast quantities of pipe=staves, boards 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,4 also, was revived, parti- cularly in sturgeon, near Brunswick, which had been carried on nearly a century before Thomas Purchase, and "many5 thousand keggs were cured for export every season." Captain John Penhallow and Dr. Noyes were residents of the town; and to Mr. Mountfort Footnotes. 1. Bath Tribune Sept 4, 1856. John McKeen, Esq., of Brunswick. 2. Penhallow, p. 82. 3. Williamson's Hist. vol.ii, p. 91. 4. J. McKeen, Esq. 5. Penhallow, p. 82 p.226 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. was set off and assigned within the town two hundred and fifty acres of land "adjoining Dr. Noyes' Harbor 1 Farm." REBUILDING OF PEMAQUID. An order was also passed to repair the fort and re-establish 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 employment for labor and capital. EMIGRATION FROM THE WEST. The Halls, Jeremiah Spring, Nicholas Rideout & John Owen. Edmund Mountfort. The aspect of society was busy and thriftful; and at this period emigrated from Salem to the margin of the Kennebec - the Halls, Jeremiah Springer, Nicholas Rideout, John Owen2 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 proprietors to lay out farms of "ninety-five acres each."3 THE ANCIENT REMAINS OF PHIPSBURG. CASCO BAY. 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 Popham's Colony, where was laid the first keel and launched the first ship of New England; and although Footnotes. 1. See Augusta Town Records, MSS. 2. MSS. letter to Noyes from J. Clark. 3. Records of Town Meetings, Augusta. p.227 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. under the accumulated disasters of climate and savage hostili- ties, it sunk where it stood, yet, in a century more, the thrift- ful 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 Penin- sula of Hunnewell's Point to search for any remains of en- trenched and ancient works that might be found there. Hubbard1 had written that an ancient mariner, then living in those parts about Kennebec, heard an old Indian tell the story that when he was a youth, "there was a fort built about Sagada- hoc, the ruins of which were then shown 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 traceable then, seventy years after the fort had been destroyed. Popham's people begun "by entrenching and making a fort and building a store house." On the margins of Atkins Bay, west side of the river of Kennebec, in a swamp land surrounded by young cedars, a mile or more from and in the line of "Horse- ketch 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 discovered and traced the outlines of an ancient earth-work, enclosing a rectangular ex- cavation fifty by forty feet. The outlines indicated that the place had been entrenched according to the forms of ancient Spanish strategic arts, being surrounded with a ditch, its en- trance 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- Footnote 1. Hubbard's Indian Wars, p. 75. p.228 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. borhood gives no definite and settled explanation of this extra- ordinary and ancient ruin, some calling it the remains of the house of the "Old Indian-Killer, Hunnewell," and others calling it "Cambel's cellar," about either of whom nothing is known. A more intelligent aged resident1 during early boyhood had the place shown to him by 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 English, and killed many of them," and another,2 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 child- hood called it "George Popham's Fort;" and he had always heard of and known it as such. A sketch of the outline remains is given; the encircling ditch being two hundred and thirty five feet. RESTLESSNESS OF THE NATIVES. 1717. The rapid influx of white population to re-occupy 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 generation; the forts and improvements of civilized life - excited the fears and roused the slumbering jealousies of the natives. Moreover, a foreign, insidious and designing foe to Prostestant- ism and the English race, moved by rancorous national and relig- ious antipathies - the priesthood of Rome, became an element of fearful activity in the hearts of the savage hordes of Maine. Footnotes. 1. Dea. Hutchins of Phipsburg. 2. Greenlaw. p.229 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. "French missionaries eagerly inflamed the prejudices of the savages by telling them the English1 had invaded their rights." Added to these exciting circumstances, piracy again disturged our waters. Favorite and secure retreats were found by these freebooters within the deep bays and creeks of our unfrequented shores. THE PIRATE SHIP WIDAH. BELLAMY. Bellamy of the Widah, six of whose crew were taken and hung in Boston, "excited general and anxious2 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, elephant's teeth and costly merchandise 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, accom- panied by the most awfully crashing thunder. THE BLASPHEMY OF BELLAMY. In presumptuous defiance of Him whose voice the thunder was, Belamy shouted - "that the gods were at their cups;" and added that 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. Footnotes. 1. Williamson, vol ii. p. 92. 2. Annals of Salem, p. 364. p.230 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. BELLAMY AT MECHISSES. When off this point, a vessel laden with wines was captured. The sea-rover then put away for the coasts of Maine, touched near Pemaquid in search of a harbor of refuge, till reaching the "Mechisses River," up which they ascended some two and a half miles, where the Widah and her prize were moored by the shore. Huts were here constructed, the captives from the prize ship were landed and fortified works erected. By excavating the earth and roofing it over, a magazine was formed to which the powder was removed by the prisoners, who 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 puttint to sea again, she encountered a French ship of war of thirty-six guns, and during a running fight of two hours, the Widah, shattered and torn, with difficulty, escaped. THE 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, following recklessly in her track, was decoyed among the breakers, and precipitated upon the sand reefs where she struck, and was lost. GEORGETOWN INCORPORATED. LONG REACH, THE SITE OF BATH, MAINE. But while such perils of the sea were dissipating in the West, more terrible dangers were gathering in the East. The ancient plantations were not yet entirely revived. At "Long Reach," the site of Bath, A Mr. Elkins1 had erected Footnote. 1. Sewall's Bath. p.231 WAR OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION - continued. JOSEPH HEATH. 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 dwell- ing houses on Arrowsic were those of the Watts hamlet and that of Mr. Preble on the upper end of the island opposite "Long Reach." The dangers of savage hostilities increaed. Government en- deavored to allay the excitement by winning the confidence 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 SQIRREL. 1717. August 9th. His Majesty's ship, the Squirrel, bearing his Excellency, the Governor of Massachusetts and his suite, sailed from Boston and anchored off the lower end of Arrowsic, in the lower waters of Sagadahoc, within the cove at thehead of which, Mr. Watts had erected his new brick house. Eight sagamores and chieftains, headed by Moxus and Boma- seen, with many of their tribes, had gathered on a neigh- boring island, called, "Pudlestone," (Padishal's?) A vast tent was spread near the mansion of Mr. Watts, and the British flag was 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. Captain 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 the object of 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 glady have you of the p.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." THE 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-wur-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 obed- ient 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"! "Your people must not call it their land." "This place was formerly settled and is now settling 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. Indian reply: God has given us teaching already" Wiwurna resumed, - "We pray leave to proceed in our answer." "We desire no further settlements to 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 mini- sters; and it would be strange if we should not love them that come from God. As to Bibles, we desire to be excused. God has given us teaching already." The savages then adroitly turned the conversation by adding, "We were sick yesterday, to see the man-of-war ashore. So faint that we could not speak out with strength. We are now glad the ship is well- we shall be very glad when we have concluded - that your Excellency may have good winds and weather - get safe down the river and home." p.233 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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." The natives yielded a re- luctant consent "that the English might 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 them. In the evening a letter was brought from Sebastian Ralle, their priest, in which the power of France was menaced, and the position of Wiwurna sustained. THE DISGUST OF THE GOVERNOR. The movements of the natives were now explained, but the letter was rejected with disdain by the Governor, who then retired to the man-of-war - and ordered the foretopsail loosed, and was about to put to sea, when a canoe with two Indians put off from the island, hastened to the ship, apolo- gized 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 Indians. Wiwurna of the Kennebecks did not appear at all. Satisfactory explanations having been made, a treaty of peace and amity was concluded, presents were exchanged, the articles signed and the conference was dissolved, the ratification of the treaty having been sealed in a "dance of peace," in the presence of the Governor and suite. BEGINNING OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY ISSUES. 1718. The eastern forests of spar timber and oak were objects of interest with government and no less so to commerce. Since the earliest discovery and settlements on the Sheepscot and Sagadahoc waters - even p.234 THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. from the days of Witheredge, the spar-dealer of Pemaquid, the lumber trade had been attractive. The protection of the inter- ests ofthe Crown in these forests had now become a cause of irritation between the representatives of the Royal authori- ties and the people. The hardy pioneer, the rough backwoodsman, often proved more than a match for the King's surveyor. BRIDGER, ROYAL SURVEYOR OF THE KING. 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 commissioners, to investigate the capacity of the country for the production of naval stores. The idea of extensive and profitable culture of hemp and flax for cordage and duck, and the running of tar and turpentine, had widely obtained. Bridger had 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 the 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 officers of the Crown and the guardian presence of the capital R. These acts brought the Crown officers and the lumbermen into frequent collision; and as will hereafter appear, initiated a controversy which finally overcame the prestige of Royal prerogative. 1719. Desolation had possessed the whole region. At this time, be- tween Georgetown and Annapolis in the remote east, it is affirmed there was not a house left, except a fish house on Damariscove Island:1 a statement we can hardley credit as entirely correct. But the inflowing population soon spread itself over the waste places. At Footnote. 1. Williamson's History, vol. ii, p. 97. p.235 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. MICHAEL THOMAS, CHRISTOPHER TAPPAN & WALTER PHILIPS. Damariscotta Falls, Michael Thomas, tenant of Christopher Tappan, re-occupied the planting grounds of Walter Philips, 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 & JOHN BROWN, JR. Richard Pierce, William Hilton & John Brown, Jr. returned to the ancient plantations of Broad Cove in Bristol, Muscongus and New Harbor.1 Many natives at this period visited at Thomas's house, which stood on the point a little below the falls of the Damariscott, among whom was Ne-wor-met and a very aged Squaw,2 who said she had 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, General Knox, parties 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 num- bers, and by various stratagems, with menaces of violence, sought to deter and discourage the workmen from clearing the lands and the rearing of dwelling houses. In conse- quence of these demonstrations, cannon were mounted, Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p.32 2. Lincoln Commission Reports. p.236 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Colonel Thomas Westbrook. and a detachment of twenty men under Colonel Thomas Westbrook 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 navigation, was the site of the newly out- laid town and its fortifications, now in the command of West- brook, a Scarboro' mast-shipper.1 Near Swan Island, on the west bank of the Kennebec 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 the enterprise of its inhabitants as a ship-building commu- nity. SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION. 1720. The politico-religious agitation consequent upon the access- ion of William and Mary to the throne of Great Britain had excited popular and civil commotion 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 Maine. An exodus of Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland reached our shores. Robert Temple was the patron of the new move- ment. Himself from the north of Ireland, Colonel Temple,2 late an officer in the Irish army, three years before this date, chartered a ship lying at Plymouth, commanded by James Luzmore of Topsham, England; and with his domestic retinue, had landed at Boston. He came seeking a new home. Immediately on his debarkation, he expored the Connecticut Valley, and then, at the instance of Dr. Noyes, Colonel Winthrop and Minot, he sailed for the Kennebec. Pleased with the result of his observations here, he an interest in the Lawson purchase; and near "Whisgeag," Footnotes. 1. Hist. Scarboro, p. 227. 2. Hutchinson. Williamson's Hist. Vol ii. p. 98. Controversy Plymouth and Pejepscot Proprietors. p. 21. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. p. 237 THE SCOTCH-IRISH ON THE KENNEBEC. he laid out an estate. It was the site of the ancient "Whisby" plantation1 of King Philips' times. Here he erected a new town and he called it Cork. He now chart- ered 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 Kenne- bec in the West, laid the foundations or initiated the beginnings of the far more extensive and successful policy of Governor Dunbar, ten years subsequently, in the East. TEMPLE'S PLANTATION AT WHISGEAG. 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 castle of the town - erected and occupied by the Patron of the colony himself; and the location of the colonial Cork plantation, by the old residents of "Long Beach" is recog- nized to this day by the familiar name of "Ireland;" and the original settlers were never entirely dispersed, as promin- ent names in the city of Bath now well attest. EFFECTS OF THE INCREASE OF POPULATION. The restlessness of the savages at the influx of the popu- lation and the advance of fortified places and new settle- ments within their domain on the Kennebec and beyond Pema- quid - 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, Footnote. 1. Narrative of James Gyles. p.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 should be removed to Pemaquid; and that at Richmond, to Arrowsic; and that both be converted into trading houses." "We dont remember of any settlements at St. George," con- tinued 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."1 But the reasoning of Loron was of no avail. The hand of enter- prise clutched at more, as the foot of civilization and the tread of power advanced steadily on. The Romish Church fostered the discontent by the influence and suggestions of French priests. Their emmissaries fanned the smothered fires of resentment in the savage heart. At Norridgewock the hatchet was dug up, and the 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, cAPT. Moody, Capt. Harmon, Capt. Penhallow & Capt. Wainwright. Colonel Walton, with Captains Moody, Harmon, Penhally and Captain 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 gathered 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 Delachasse, Ralle, 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 Footnote. 1. Maine Historical Coll. vol. iii. p.239 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. quit their lands, or suffer the loss of their cattle, the destruction of their dwellings, and the sacrifice of their lives." Castine was seized and sent to Boston, and at the bar of the Supreme Court, interrogated and acquitted. It was re- solved to seize also, Sebastian Ralle' and have him too, in Boston, either "a prisoner or a corpse." NORRIDGEWOCK EXPEDITON. Colonel Westbrook was detached with his command to attack Norridgewock and secure the person of Father Ralle. He reached 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. 1722. Hamilton, Love, Handson, Trescot & Edgar, prisoners taken to Canada. In June, twenty canoes bearing sixty braves shot across the waters of Merry Meeting Bay and lit up its margins with the burning homes of nine families. A portion of the captured were released, but Hamilton, Love, Handson, Trescot and Edgar were taken prisoners to Canada. DAMARISCOTTA LAID WASTE. WILLIAM HILTON WAS KILLED. Another war-party appeared on Walpole heights. The home of the Hustons was destroyed. The mother1 and daughter were slain, and the father dragged into captivity. On the Newcastle side, near the seat of the Honorable E. Farley, Mrs. Gray and six children were cut off. At Muscongus and Broad Cove in Bristol, William Hilton was killed, while Footnote. Penhallow's Indian Wars, p. 84. Lincoln County Commissioners' Deposition, p. 151. p.240 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. JOHN PEARCE. John Pearce took a vessel and thirty men with his aged father, and family, and thus escaped by water. DR. KENELEM WINSLOW, CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH. Dr. Kenelem Winslow was seized at his garrison, on the New- castle 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. JUNE 15TH. The Indians now appeared before the hamlet on St. George's River, two hundred strong. The saw mills were set afire. The newly framed houses and the proprietor's 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 surprises and murdered. Twelve days and nights the place was stormed, during which a surrender was urged and rejected. "Good quarter and transportation to Boston" were offered the besieged. The overtures could not induce them to 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, left, leaving twenty of their number behind, the victims of their discomfiture. TILTON'S ADVENTURES AT DAMARISCOVE. Lieutenant Tilton had anchored his fishing boat under Damar- iscove, where he and his brother were taking fish. Led by a Kennebec sagamore, Captain Samuel, the friend of Bomaseen, a savage of great bravery and duplicity, five Indians boared 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 brother and p.241 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. together they fell on the savage band with the fury of des- peration, killed two and tossed overboard another. The rest were glad to escape. Captain Harmon 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 campfires, 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-cries of their comrades, rushed to arms, but firing random shots, they fled. A SCENE OF HORROR. MOSES EATON OF SALISBURY, BRUTALLY MUTULATED. Fifteen guns were taken by the victors; and on the stump of a tree, near the place of the savage bivouac, lay a white man's hand which had been severed from his body, barbarously mutilated, his tongue torn out and his privates cut off, and without his 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 de- clared. A thousand men were enrolled and three hundred were detached to break up the enemy's strong-holds on Penobscot, and a body of four hundred were sent to range perpetually by land and by water between Penobscot and Kennebec. Bounties were offered by Government for Indian scalps and Indian capt- ives. Colonels Westbrook and Walton were chief in command. p.242 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. BATTLE OF ARROWSIC. SEPTEMBER 10TH Penhallow's command occupied the lower end 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 to 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 their usual whoop of war and pursued. As they approached within range of vision, their appearance, gliding among the tall surrouding forest pines, painted and terrible in the trappings of savage array was truly terrifically horrid. THE GARRISON STORMED. SAMUEL BROOKING WAS SHOT DEAD. The whole savage host at once assailed the garrison at every point. Through one of the port-holes, Samuel Brooking 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 vengeance on the cattle of the Island and set fire to the village of twenty-six houses. During the night ensuing, Colonel Walton and Captain Harmon, in whale-boats re-enforced the garrison with thirty men. Col. Robert Temple also joined his force to that of Penhalow. Temple, from his service as Captain in the Irish army, had acquired an experience which allowed him to be on this p.243 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. occasion brave, prompt and efficient. The report of the morn- fight, 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 Penhallow, making up a force of seventy men, led out a night attack. They assailed the savage hordes at their campfires. But greatly out-numbered and out-flanked and likely to be cut off from retreat by en- vironing hosts of savages, 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 achieved. As they paddled away, Captain Stratton of the Government sloop fell into their hands, and was killed. Insulting the garrison at Richmond in their passage up the Kennebec, the Indians returned to their head-quarters at Norridge- wock; and Georgetown, after six years resuscitated thrift, was once more desolated and the region filled with dismay and despondency. COLONEL WESTBROOK'S EXPEDITION. 1723. Colonel Westbrook, appointed commander-in-chief, now de- tached a body of two hundred and thirty men, who, embark- ing at Kennebec, ranged the coast east-ward and penetrated the upper Penobscot by water and land until he reached the principal settlement, a village of twenty-three houses, en- closed with a stockade, and ornamented with a chapel, all of which being abandoned, he committed to the flames. Colonel Westbrook returned to the fort at St. George's with the loss of his chapalin, Reverend Benjamin Gibson and three in his command. Captain Harmon led another detachment up the Kennebec against Norridgewock, numbering one hundred and twenty men. Encountering the fierce snow and frost of February, in their march through the wilderness of the Great-bend of the Androscoggin, an abandonment of the expediton was forced. p.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 Geroe again was invested. Two prisoners were secured, and the place subjected to a siege of thirty day, without any successful result. Kennedy commanded and repelled the invading force until relieved by Colonel Westbrook's re- turn. BATTLE OF GEORGE'S RIVER. May, 1724. JOHN WINSLOW, HARVARD GRADUATE. Josiah Winslow, a native of Plymouth, a graduate of Harvard College, yet a youth, and connected with the most respectable families of Massachusetts, had been assigned to the command of the fort on George's River, at the site of Thomaston. One pleasant morning, early in May, invited by the freshness and beauty of spring-time, with a select company in two whale- boats, Captain 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 the 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 leisurely 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, p.245 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 desperation of its flight, the party were drawn toward the western bank of the river, when from the copse wood and thicket, fire was opened on the boat and a body of savages there in concealment. Three of the crew fell dead and the savages, hastening to their canoes, attempt- ed 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 himself suddenly surrounded by a flotilla of thirty canoes with ninety indians, who rushed in upon him from each bank of the river, heralded by terrific yells of de- fiance, and attempting 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 onward until from the gunwales of the whale- boat they were so fiercely repulsed and beaten off with clubbed muskets that they retired and dropped astern, main- taining the fight at a distance. The first boat in the fight, but the rear boat of the detachment, had reached the shore, when, 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! p.246 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. CAPTAIN WINSLOW'S DEATH. Thus the recklessness of the gallant Harvey cost the lives of himself and comrades. Winslow, perceiving the case to be desperate, fought with a resolution death itself could not dampen. In admiration of his courage and bravery, the savages offered him quarter, but rejecting all overtures, he fought on till night drew her somber shadows over the scene of carnage. In the duske of evening, most of his company being slain, Winslow sought the shore, where the survivors landed, only to be shot down in detail. Captain Winslow fell, with his thigh broken, to the 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 fear- ful odds disputing every inch of ground, and holding at bay until 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 by 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, until they were covered with autumnal leaves or buried beneath the oozy bed of the river, there to wait the gathering of the resurrection morning. What alternations of hope and fear, what deeds of personal valor, what incidents of startling interest, did the 11th of May weave into the closing scene of the history of fifty human beings who began that morning with bright hopes and anticipations! The records of Eternity p.247 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. can only reveal in full and melancholy detail, the blood- stained colorings of the tragic end of the youthful Winslow and his brave comrades, 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 sighing 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 fire-ships and urged the burning pile forward so near as to endanger the block-houses. Untiring vigilance and exertiion prevented the catastrophe, defeated the savage purposes, and thus discouraged from further attempts, all withdrew. ARROWSIC AGAIN INVESTED. The garrison at Butler's Cove on Arrowsic, still commanded by Penhallow, 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 of their vengeance behind them, in the carcasses of the butchered herds, everywhere 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. p.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 Penobscot 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 warfare adventure. BATTLE OF NORRIDGEWOCK. It has been ascertained beyond reasonable doubt that Romish and priestly influence was the chief exciting cause of savage hosti- lities, and that Father Ralle, the spiritual teacher of the Norridgewocks, had become a conspicuous and active agent in formenting the strife. Norridgewock was therefore marked for destruction; and Father Ralle', the missionary, had become an object of public detest- ation to the English, though esteemed for his zeal and learning by the distinguished men of his own nation, and venerated and loved by his charge, whose rights and interests he seemed to have at heart. The effect the destruction of Norridgewock and the capture of Ralle', and to chastise the savages on the Kennebec, Capt. Harmon, Capt. Moulton, Capt. Brown and Capt. 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 daughter, too, shared the father's fate under the aim of the sharp shooting p.249 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. white Englishmen, while the mother of and wife was made a captive. Encouraged by her story to prosecute their design, the detachment now debarked and marched1 for Norridgewock. Approaching the place of their destination, the force divid- ed within two miles of the village, the one part to range the fields of growing corn, and the other to invest the town. THE DEATH OF FATHER RALLE. The several squadrons had reached within pistol shot before it was known at the village. A sanap, yielding to the necessi- ties 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 forest embosomed town of half-christianized men. In the panic, many seized their weapons of war, whose random firing did no exe- cution. Others fled only to fall on the bayonets of ambushed Englishmen, and many plunged into the waters of the Kennebec only to perish there; and some took to their birch boats to be precipitated over the falls, below. The rout was terrible and complete. The body of Ralle, covered with the bodies of his fallen flock, was found near the cross in the center of the town, pierced with bullets, his scalp2 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 pride of their power and their spirit as a people were subdued forever. Footnotes. 1. Penhallow, p. 105. 2. French account, Charlevoix, p.150 p.250 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE BODY OF RALLE. The body of Ralle1 was buried in the ashes of his church by his converts on their return to their war-blasted homes. EFFECTS OF LOVEWELL'S WAR. 1725. The heroic and desperate encounter between Lovewell, Paugus and Wahwa, at the mouth of Battle Brook, May 8, 1725, near Pegwacket Village, on the margin of Lovewell's Pond, in Frye- burg, completed the desolation 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 anxious for peace. To palliate recent violent acts on their part, "the encroachments of the whites upon their lands at Cape Newagen, where two of their friends had been beaten to death," were the causes alleged. Doubtless, allusion was had to the affair of Captain Tilton, off Damariscove. INSERT. Subject: The Ballad of Lovewell's Fight. N.H. Historical Collections Source: Gathered Sketches from the Early History of New Hampshire & Vermont Adventures of Our Forefathers, Original & Selected by Francis Chase, M. A., Claremont, N.H., Tracey, Kenney & Co., 1856. p.32 On the 18th of April, 1725, Capt. John Lovewell of Dunstable, Mass., & 50 men, fought a famous Indian Chief named Paugus, at the head of about 80 savages near the shores of a pond in Pequawkett, the Indian name of a considerable tract of country including Conway, N.H., Fryeburg, Maine, and the adjacent towns. The scene of this desperate and bloody action, which took place in the town which is now called Fryburg, is often visited with interest to this day, and the names of those who fell and those who survived are yet repeated with emotions of grateful exultation. The Ballad of Lovewell's Fight p.33 What time the noble Lovewell came, With fifty men from Dunstable, The cruel Pequatt tribe to tame, With arms and bloodshed terrible. Then did the crimson streams, that flowed, Seem like the waters of the brook, That brightly shine, that loudly dash Far down the cliffs of Agiochook. With Lovewell brave John Harwood came; From wife and babes 'twas hard to part; Young Harwood took her by the hand, And bound the weeper to his heart. "Repress that tear, my Mary dear," Said Harwood to his loving wife; "It tries me hard to leave thee here, And seek in distant woods the strife. "When gone, my Mary, think of me, And pray to God that I may be Such as one ought that lives for thee, And come at last in victory." p.34 Thus young Harwood babe and wife; With accent wild, she bade adieu; It grieved those lovers much to part, So fond and fair, so kind and true. Seth Wyman who in Woburn lived, A marksman he of courage true, Shot the first Indian whom they saw; Sheer through his heart the bullet flew. The savage had been seeking game; Two guns and eke a knife he bore, And two black ducks were in his hand; He shrieked, and fell, to rise no more. Anon, there eighty Indians rose, Who'd hid themselves in ambush dread; Their knives they shook, their guns they aimed, The famous Paugus at their head. Good heavens! they dance the powwow dance; What horrid yells the forest fill! The grim bear crouches in his den, The eagle seeks the distant hill. p.35 "What means this dance, this powwow dance?" Stern Wyman said. With wondrous art He crept full near, his rifle aimed. And shot the leader through the heart. John Lovewell, captain of the band, His sword he waved, that glittered bright, For the last time he cheered his men, And led them onward to the fight. "Fight on, fight on," brave Lovewell said; "Fight on, while Heaven shall give you breath!" An Indian ball then pierced him through, And Lovewell closed his eyes in death. John Harwood died all bathed in blood, When he had fought till set of day! And many more we may not name Fell in that bloody battle fray. When news did come to Harwood's wife, That he with Lovewell fought and died, Far in the wilds had given his life, Nor more would in their home abide - Such grief did seize upon her mind, Such sorrow filled her faithful breast, On earth she ne'er found peace again, But followed Harwood to his rest. 'Twas Paugus led the Pequa'tt tribe; As runs the fox would Paugus run; As howls the wild wolf would he howl; A large bear skin had Paugus on. But Chamberlain of Dunstable, One whom a savage ne'er shall slay, Met Paugus by the water side, And shot him dead upon that day. Good Heavens! Is this a time for prayer? Is this a time to Worship God? When Lovewell's men are dying fast, And Paugus'tribe hath felt the rod? The chaplain's name was Jonathan Frye; In Andover his father dwelt, And oft with Lovewell's men he'd prayed, Before the mortal wound he felt. p.37 A man was he of comely form, Polished and brave, well learnt and kind; Old Harvard's learned halls he left, Far in the wilds a grave to find. Ah, now his blood-red arm he lifts, His closing lids he tries to raise, And speak once more before he dies, In supplication and in praise. He prays kind Heaven to grant success, Brave Lovewell's men to guide and bless, And when they've shed their heart blood true, to raise them all to happiness. "Come hither, Farwell," said young Frye, "You see that I'm about to die; Now for the love I bear to you, When cold in death my bones shall lie, "Go thou and see my parents dear, And tell them you stood by me here; Console them when they cry, Alas! And wipe away the falling tear." Lieutenant Farwell took his hand His arm around his neck he threw, And said, "Brave Chaplain, I could wish That Heaven had made me die for you. p.38 The chaplain on kind Farwell's breast, Bloody and languishing he fell; Nor after this said more, but this: "I love thee soldier, fare thee well." Ah, many a wife shall rend her hair, And many a child cry, "Woe is me," When messengers the news shall bear, Of Lovewell's dear-bought victory. With footsteps slow shall travellers go, Where Lovewell's Pond shines clear and bright, And mark the place where those are laid Who fell in Lovewell's bloody fight. Old men shall shake their heads and say, "Sad was the hour and terrible When Lovewell brave against Paugus went, With fifty men from Dunstable." footnote: Of the men who belonged to Lovewell's party, but nine returned unhurt. Eleven came back wounded, and three had to be left behind on account of their severe wounds. Among these three was Ensign Robbins, who desired to have his gun charged and left by his side, that he might kill one more of them, should they return. The Indian that Seth Wyman killed, was no doubt placed there as a decoy. Suspecting this, the men concealed their packs and advanced with great caution. Meantime Paugus and Wahwa, with two parties of Indians followed their trail till they found their packs. About these they placed themselves in ambush, and when the Englishmen returned, rose and commenced the attack. The death of the celebrated Indian happened in this manner: Paugus and John Chamberlain had been foes, and had met in bloody fray before this battle. Towards the close of the day, the guns of each had become foul from constant firing, and they came at the same time to the water's edge for the purpose of washing them. Paugus was up stream and Chamerlain below. They immediately recognized each other."Now, Paugus, said Chamberlain, "It is you or I." "Yes," answered the warrior, "It is you or I." Both of them sprang to the water and commenced cleaning their guns. Each strained every nerve, conscious that to be last would be death. Almost with the rapidity of lightning the guns were washed out and dried. They began loading at the same instant. The muskets were primed, the powder rammed home, the bullets thrown into their muzzles and who could tell the issue? But now appeared the advantage of Chamberlain's position. Paugus standing above Chamberlain was obliged to follow his ball with a wad to prevent its rolling out. Chamberlain dropped the ball down the muzzle of his gun, his eye glanced along the barrel and with a yell the Indian chief leaped into the air and fell headlong into the brook. Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. But these successes only increased the exasperation of the whites, and it became so deep, that not infrequently 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 t hem and a sharp engagement followed, in which one white man was killed and another was wounded. Footnotes. "Father Ralle was regarded by the English as a most infamous villain, and his scalp would have been esteemed worth a hundred scalps of the Indians. The French esteemed Father Ralle as a hero and a saint. Forty years he spent in missionary toil and deprivation among the savages who loved and idolized him. He was a man of superior natural powers, master of the learned languages - pure classical and elegant in his Latin. He taught many of both sexes 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. ii. p. 239. p.251 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 freedom was made by the vote of the town. As no traces of him could be discovered, the money was applied to the purchase of a bell. But Trask was a captive among the eastern Indians, and resided near the abode of the Baron de Castine on the Penobscot. While a captive, a season of great scarcity occurred, which drove the Indians to the cranberry beds for subsistence. While engaged in gathering cranberries, a flock of wild geese alighted to feed near- by. The birds were eagerly sought for food, and Trask1 proving much success in the capture of the birds than the natives, it commend- ed him to his mastor's favor as a skillful huntsman. This skill and his sea-manship brought him into the notice of Castine, who purchased him from 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 pretences, Castine and the lad returned to their vessel. But Trask was seized by the Englishman, who declared the vessel a prize and Castine a prisoner, but permitt- ed 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 sloopl 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 Footnote. 1. R. Sewall's Narrative. p.252 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Sheepscot and cut1 spars from the head-land 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 capture of Kid, and the dispersion of his crew, Trask retired to his haunts on the Sheep- scot, and made his clearing within eye-shot of an alleged deposit of Kid's treasure on the east margin of Folley 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 settler of Free-town, Cunningham, by name, whose tippling-shed Trask freqented, 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 perpe- trated by roving bands of savages. As Stephen Hunwell2 and Alexander 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 fish- ermen were taken into the Kennebec; and at Winnegance were put to death in cold-blooded barbarities, offered probably 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. Footnotes. 1. Hon. S. Parsons. 2. Penhallow's Indian Wars. p.253 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. DUMMER'S PEACE. AUGUST 3, 1727. These atrocities were preludes to the celebrate pacific over- tures of Lieutenant Governor Dummer, which had so long been maturing, and were completed in "Dummer's Treaty," ratified at Falmouth. This celebrated treaty gave hope of enduring repose to this distracted and desolate section, in whose bonds the leading chiefs from Penobscot to Canada joined, and which was confirmed by a solemn dance of peace, in which all the 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 the promise of civilization, and become attractive as centers of business, were blasted forever. 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;1 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 intercourse of Government with the savages, and fostered the Footnote. 1. John McKeen, Esq. p.254 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. measures of peaceful repose to the country. The action of Government 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 accustomed to moor his sloop, and beat up "truck" with the savages. "Dagget's Castle" is nearly a perpendicular wall of granite 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 un- steadu foot-hold on the capricious bottom, swayed to and fro by the sweeping currents, carry on trade. Thus protected in his sloop by the towering cliff-side, "Dagget" called it his castle; and at the top of his sloop's mast is said to 1 have painted his hand as a sign on the face of the rock. From the summit of this lofty steep, it is also said that spars and mast timber have been cut; and in the fall of the mighty trees, as they broke from the stump on the brow of these giddy heights, they were accustomed to make a clean leap into the watery depths below, where, till a late day, sub- merged and fastened in the oozy bottom by their tops, the butts have appeared swaying in the tide. DUCK HUNTING. Other traditional incidents, explanatory of familiar local names and points of interest, are given on the same authority Footnote. 1. Hon. S. Parsons. p.255 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. An ancient planter on "Jewonke Neck," who had often been a captive, and well understood the native dialect, both of the Penobscot and Kennebec tribes, said the aboriginal name of the Sheepscot signified "many duck waters," which taken with the fact given by Penhallow1 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 exceed- ingly 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 eastern and west- ern outlets are through lower and upper "hurlgate," by the in- land 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 ham- let of the first planters and probably the artisans in Phips' ship-yard. Among the first indications of hostility, the visit of a war party to this hamlet, which they subsequently plunder- ed and burned, alarmed the residents, who, seeking the strong- holds of this precipitous promontory among the 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 corpulance, 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 Footnote. 1. Penhallow, p. 84. p.256 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. on the flowing wig for a head of hair which promised a magnifi- cent trophy to the scalping knife. But, to the surprise and con- sternation of the savage, the "periwig" clave to his hold, while the apparently headless body still ran on, leaping from steep to steep, utterly indifferent to what had been left behind. The astonished savage, 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,1 "Hockomock! 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 revenue to the public treasury, they tended greatly to assure the public tran- quility. THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 1727. On a clear, serene and cool Sabbath evening, near 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 dwell- ers in New England from their sleep with startling intimations of danger. The terrific reverberations rising in the northwest and rolling toward the southeast, accompanied with a tremor of the earth's surface, was preceded by a running flash of bluish flame at each shock. The sea roared as the earth trembled; and the opening in some parts of New Hampshire, "cast up a very fine, bluish sand,2 followed by out-gushing waters." Footnotes. 1. Honorable Stephen Parsons, tradition of Greenleaf of Oak Island. 2. White's Hist. New England, p. 49. p.257 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Beasts ran howling to the fields as if in great distress. The earth heaved. The houses rocked and creaked. Chimneys 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 earthquake in New England, within the recollections of European 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 the 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 century had pass- ed 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. ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 1729. We have reached an epoch marked with the closing scenes of the sanguinary conflicts with the aboriginal inhabitants, and the opening incidents of the final re-settlement of the country on a peaceful and permanent basis, in which the existing social de- velopment received its cast; and in which, also, those causes first began to move which have shaped our existing social, civil and religious organizations. King George II sat on the throne of England, under whose adminis- tration 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-popu- lation of this part of Maine. ROBERT TEMPLE - DAVID DUNBAR. 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 Irish army,) armed with a commission from the 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 Pemaquid. He rebuilt its walls, restored the breaches and decay of Fort William Henry. FORT WILLIAM HENRY RENAMED FORT FREDERICK. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. p.260 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 to the religious faith and forms of the "Kirk of Scotland," by Rev. Robert Rutherford. DUNBAR EMIGRATION. The Provincial Governor, Dunbar, by Royal order was reqiored "to settle1 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 Sheepscot and Damariscotta waters, at the most eligible sites, he projected three; viz., Townsend, Harrington and Walpole. Townsend embraced the aboriginal Cape Ne-wa-gen, about the head water margins of the harbor, where had been the scene of the explorations of George Weymouth's expedition. Harrington and Walpole were within the Pemaquid 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 that misfortune had compelled them to clear, plant and colonize. Source: History of New England from 1630 to 1649 by Governor John Winthrop Ship: The Little James - companion ship to the Angel Gabriel lost off Pemaquid as well. p.196 The year 1635. A storm blew with much violence and abundance of rain that blew down many hundreds of trees near the towns; overthrew some house and drove ships from their anchors. The ship Great Hope of Ipswich being about four hundred tons, was driven on ground at Mr. Hoffe's Point and brought back again presently by a north-west wind and ran onshore at Charlestown. This tempest was not so far as Cape Sable but to the south more violent and made a double tide all that coast. Ship James of Bristol. In this tempest, the ship James of Bristol having one hundred passengers - honest people of Yorkshire,being put into the Isle of Shoals, lost there - three anchors; and setting sail, no canvas nor ropes would hold, but she was driven within a cable's length of the rocks at Pascataquack, when suddenly the wind coming to the north-west, put them back to the Isle of shoals and being there ready to strike upon the rocks, they let out a piece of their mainsail and weathered the rocks. In the same tempest, a bark of Mr.Allerton's was cast away upon Cape Ann, and 21 persons were drowned; among the rest, one Mr. Avery, a minister of Wiltshire. footnote, p.197: The Angel Gabriel was lost at Pemaquid. We know this ship sailed from Bristol, but last sailed from Milford Haven June 22, preceding in company with the ship James (Mather called the ship James, the Angel Gabriel in his Journal) He says of her - "she was of 240 tons with 14 guns; and mentions her lostt with "most of the cattle, and other goods, with one seaman; and 3 or 4 passengers did also perish therein, besides two of the passengers that died by the way." (evidently he names the lost as the Angel Gabriel's when it was the loss of the Little James). Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Colonel Dunbar, with zeal and energy applied his extraordinary powers to fill up the country with emigrants from Europe. To afford adequate defense, he procured a detachment 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 homestead lot of ten1 to twelve acres was given, with proport- ionate and adequate lots of a hundred acres back. Footnote. Depositions, Commissioner's Reports, L. Co. p.261 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1730. McCobb and Rogers, as agents of Dunbar, were by him granted a section of the newely laid-out Townsend, on condition that they should fill up the township 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 Boothbay.1 Ten and twelve acre lots were assigned for homesteads 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 SCOTCH IRISH. The countrymen of these parties, agents and principal, were of Scotch-Irish stock, as their names sufficiently indicate. The sym- pathies of this race were therefore enlisted, and their interest stimulated by attractive visions of a home of their own; and multi- tudes of that vigorous people were allured to the rock-bound shores of Sagadahoc, which were thus planted with a people radically Pres- byterian 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 Massachusetts. Represent- ing Royal authority, his own interests and ambition coincided with the Royal preogatives. Acting 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- Footnotes. 1. McCobb's Deposition, Lincoln Co. Rep. p. 157. 2. Boyd's Depositions, Lincoln County Rep. p. 158. p.262 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. trary conduct which aroused deep and wide-spread prejudices. Dunbar soon removed his residence from Pemaquid to the site of his newly projected city of Walpole and on Belvidera 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 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 with the interests of the original proprietors and non-resident claimants, as well as with trespassers on the public domain - a class of rough, hardy men, who would not shrink from a trial of rights, in "the application 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 OF THE PROPRIETORS. In this clamor, Waldo was conspicuous and persistent. The interest and sympathies of the proprietors were with Massachusetts, where they chiefly had residence; and by their influence the local government was soon enlisted against Dunbar. The combination, at length, effect- ed 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 Govern- ment to interfere to prevent civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted in the augmentation of civil war. Dunbar's policy resulted in the augmentation of a thrifty agricultural population by creating a personal interest in the land they might occupy. The proprietors were interested in this increase of population, but only so p.263 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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, Governor Dunbar delivered his homestead at Belvi- dera into the custody of his religious teacher, Reverend Mr. Ruther- ford; 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 at Belvidera Point at Wal- pole, a considerable population had begun to concentrate. THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Jones, the Hustons, the Hiscocks, the Kennedys, had become fixed in their residence at these points. The garrison system still pre- vailed; and there can be no doubt that the advent of Colonel Dunbar to the gubernatorial seat at 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 sucessful in re- peopling our wastes, and are still felt in the character of the popu- lation by him introduced. A more intelligent, enterprising, fearless, thrifty, peaceful and vigorous race cannot be found on earth than the Dunbar towns. The entire section received a revivifying impulse from Governor Dun- bars 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 large bodies of landed estate, who in the end became the real oppressors of the people, and were the favorites of Massachusetts, because they were men of wealth and in- fluence. p.264 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION. 1730. THE SCOTCH-IRISH IMMIGRATION. The Scotch-Irish immigration, introduced under 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 King 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 element in human nature, which 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 west- ward by the treacherous breath of the bigoted Tyrconnel, the repre- sentative of the interest of James Stuart in Ireland, rolled over the desolate clearings and wasted hamlets of the "Ancient Dominions," re- peopling our borders with a pious and zealous civilization. PRESBYTERIANISM. Fresh and fervid from the siege of Londonderry and the battlefields of Enniskillen, came the children of the Kirk, nursed on the bosom of Presbyterianism, full of faith, hope, and zeal, panting for free- dom 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 Phipsburg were planted. The fire- side tale, the thrilling story of a winter evening's gathering around the hearth-stone of venerable age, perpetuating the remembrance of the deeds and daring, p.265 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. JOSEPH BEATH. 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 Beath1 of Townsend was wont to dwell, while the tears ran down his furrowed cheeks as he rehearsed the wrongs and deliver- ances of that memorable act in the glory and shame of England. THE TEMPLES, BEATHS & MURRAYS. The Temples, Beaths, Murrays, all figured in the scenes of that siege, of which the living center was "Black William," the familiar designation of the husband of Queen Mary, the daughter of the fugi- tive James, now called to the English Throne by the voice of Protest- antism. And the events, scenes, and issues of that day may well be re- membered, 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 Towns- end, and in the wilds of maine. The simple faith of this emigrant race is well illustrated in the following anecdote of Andrew Reed, the uncle of Reverend John Murray, and a principal settler of Townsend. During the war of the last savage conflict, the residents at the harbor withdrew to the west-ward for safety. But Mr. Reed would not leave, and in defiance of all per- suasion, persisted in remaining in his simple 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 re- plied that he had felt neither solitude nor alarm; for why should he? "Had I not my Bible with me?" cried the old man. Footnotes. 1. Mrs. Weymouth of Boothbay harbor. 2. Mrs. Weymouth. p.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 resources of commerce at this date; and this pious and aged frontier'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 Christ- ian consolations. VAUGHN'S ENTERPRISE. 1730. William Vaughn, extensively engaged in the fisheries at Monhegan Island, at the head waters of the Damariscotta, now erected large milling establishments for grain and the manufacture of lumber. Here a large and thrifty village started into existence, and grew in wealth 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 vill- age which grew up, to this day, as the capital of the town of Noble- boro, is known as "Damariscotta Mills," the vast, unappropriated water-powers of the site of which will ere long lay the foundations of a city which will become the Lowell of Maine. WISCASSET. GEORGE DAVIS. Seventy years prior to these events, within the precincts of the aboriginal Ped-coke-gowake,1 on an eminence half a mile north of the point in Wiscasset Bay, on the Sheepscot, fifty rods from the water- side, George Davis, his brother, and two others had made their planta- tion in the heart of a forest, 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 beginnings of the shire town of Lincoln County. Footnote. 1. Massachusetts Historical Coll., vol vii, p. 163. p.267 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. At the close of King 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 hamlet of the Sheepscot, the widow of one of the Davises, who died at Newton at the age of one hundred and sixteen years - adorns the rooms of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Mass. 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. "WICHCASSET," AN ABORIGINAL NAME. Robert Hooper was the earliest re-settling resident at this con- spicuous point. He entered half a mile south of the early and ori- ginal 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 emin- ence, rolling back from the shore margins, bold in outline on its east- ern front; and in its original vesture of oak and pines, presenting 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 navigation 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-emin- ence it has ever since maintained as a center of trade, in its earl- ier history, in the exportation of spar timber to Europe. Hooper sub- sequently removed from the p.268 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1731. point to the peninsular under "Cushman's Mountain," as a place of greater security from savage alarms. 1734. THE BOYNTON, TAYLOR, YOUNGS & CHAPMAN FAMILIES. Foye and Lambert followed Hooper and Robert Hodge re-occupied the Patishall Grant on the eastern and opposite shore. Two miles below the point, the Boyntons, Taylors, Youngs and Chapmans took up their homes. THE GARRISON HOUSE. CAPTAIN JONATHAN WILLIAMSON HEADED THE ENGLISH EMIGRATION. On the crown of the headland at the point, was erected the garri- son 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. Captain 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 pen- insula south of Hooper's, known as "Birch Point." THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION FROM SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. THOMAS MOORE. Probably some of the Dunbar emigration from Scotland and Ireland found their way to this settlement, which consisted of members of the English Episcopal Church, some Presbyterians and largely of the Massachusetts Puritans. The 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. Dunbar's influence was not controling at the Point. Those in sym- pathy with his movements were unquestionably absorbed in the para- mount interest of the Massachusetts proprietors; and Wiscasset Point, from that day to this, has been the only locality where the Congre- gationalism peculiar to Massachusetts has retained its features. ARROWSIC. 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 ofland had a dwelling p.269 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. house,1 whose inhabitants were made up chiefly of Irish emigrants. COLONEL DUNBAR. ROBERT MCINTYRE. Colonel Dunbar having been removed to New Hampshire, the re-occup- ancy 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.2 Robert McIntyre discovered the prop- erties of the lime-rock formation of St. George's River, and erect- ed a kiln for the manufacture of quick-lime. THE WALDO IMMIGRATION. 1740. Waldo, now adopted Dunbar's policy, and a considerable population was introduced by Alexander McLean, McIntyre, Howard and Spear, in the east, from Europe. These agents visited the Kennebec and Pema- quid, as well as the St. George's River, and were so "struck with the advantages of that river as at once to give its section the preference." THE FOUNDING OF WALDOBORO. 1740. Companies were enrolled, and all the outlines of a more perfect military organization were traced. Waldo had become a resident of Maine. From Brunswick 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." 1741. At "Long Reach," in the west, Jonathan Philbrook, from New Hampshire, cleared and occupied the island on which are now located the Custom House, banks and principal business center of the city of Bath. Footnotes. 1. MSS. Papers of the Honorable Mark L. Hill. 2. Eaton's Annals, p. 48 to 55. p.270 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. MRS. PORTERFIELD'S NARRATIVE. 1741. THE SCOTCH IRISH PRESBYTERIANS. The stimulus imparted to emigration by Dunbar and his coadjutors in filling up the depopulated plantations of the ancient Ducal Prov- ince, 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. MRS. PORTERFIELD OF GEORGETOWN. The story of Mrs. Porterfield of Georgetown has left a record of one of the most distressing casualties of the kind, which we will give in detail,1 as it illustrates the character of some of the early settlers of the region, and shows how far selfishness can to to extinguish humanity. AUGUST 28TH. A large ship's company set sail from Londonderry with propituous 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 Presbyterianism with a charact- ter of vigor and force. OCTOBER 28TH. "The ship's company daily assembled on the quarted deck for prayers, conducted by some of the passengers." A violent storm, ten weeks out, drove the ship from her course, and carried her masts by the board. Provisions were exhausted. Land was made on the eastern coasts; an island or neck inhabited only by savages. On these desolate shores, one hundred human beings were landed, with- out provisions or shelter. Some twenty or thirty persons of this un- fortunate company went out in search of inhabitants, 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 harbor, Footnote. 1. White's New England, p. 203. ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. p.271 the ship's company returned to secure the plunder. Collecting what plunder they could, the Captain and his company returned to New Harbor, taking with them such of the passengers as they could sell for servants, the others being left to their fate under circumstances the most distressing 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 ship-wrecked voyagers. For two months, life was thus sustained. Daily, Death multiplied his victims around, and thinned out their numbers - the savages at length discovered this ship-wrecked comp- andy and plundered them of all they had left. The snows came and their blankets, suspended from neighboring tree-tops to shelter their bodies from the storm, were taken away by the ruthless free- booters. MRS. PORTERFIELD. Their boiling pot having been carried off, Mrs. Porterfield, searching among the dead, found a sauce-pan, in which they con- tinued to cook their meager and unsavory morsels. In her care were nine persons and the scene about her was shocking, in the extreme. There lay an infant child and its brother, a boy, whose parents had died on ship-board - locked in each others' 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, sitting as he had died, infatuated with the promise of his faith- less commander to return and take him off, still gazing sea-ward with a book in hand, and fixed in his 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, except Mrs. Porter- field, her mother and a sister. In a fierce snow storm, their fire was lost, and with nothing to cover themselves but the heavens, no food but frozen muscles, their extremity had become one of despera- tion. The p.272 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. next day the mother died; and there was none to bury her. Shoeless, homeless and famishing, exposed to the full bleak, fierce winds of December, the sisters gave themselves up to die, when they were dis- covered by three men who had come in 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 joy- fully accepted, and these wreckers from New Harbor, taking away a bundle of clothing, containing her Bible, received Mr. 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 were pocketed by the ruffians. What a commentary on human nature! 1741. 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 extortionate 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 hospitably en- tertaining them there; and when recovered from their depression and illnesses, he procured for each of them good places, the one in Booth- bay and the other in 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 minister - "the people met together every Sabbath and frequently on other days," to worship God in public, "by prayer, singing psalms and reading instructive books." p.273 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Georgetown became the home of the subject of the above narrative, where she finally settled, reared a large family, there died and was buried. DISTURBING EFFECTS ON THE SAVAGES. 1742. The encroachments of European immigration upon the forests of the East, where the touch of civilized life caused hamlets in clustering villages to gather about the head-waters and along the river-banks and harbors, under the shadow of Forts where the rush of pent-up waters and the clatter of mills sent their echoes through the dense forest trees, which fell and faded from existence, per- petually annoyed the red-man. He complained of Waldo and his people, "that Indian lands and their 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 resentment, nor allayed his fears. Unfortun- ate circumstances heightened these resentments. An Indian woman had been arraigned at the capital of Yorkshire for murder; and the fre- quent 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 ad- jacent swamp among the ashes of a savage camp-fire" all foreboded approaching hostilities. SHIRLEY'S ADMINISTRATION. CAPTAIN JABEZ BRADBURY. 1743. The fort at St. George was rebuilt, reinforced and placed in the command of Captain Jabez Bradbury. Shirley had replaced Governor 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 was required p.274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SNOW SHOES. to have in readiness, a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a good hatchet, and an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a pair of snow-shoes.1 INSERT - SNOW SHOES - WIKIPEDIA Snowshoes were slowly adopted by Europeans in what became Canada and the United States, with the French voyageurs well in advance of British settlers. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, French Voyageurs were primarily 18th and 19th century French Canadian fur traders who explored the frontier waterways by canoe. Superior French snow shoeing skill almost turned the French and Indian War, a conflict that saw two engagements named the Battle on Snowshoes, to their favor. But the British were quick learners. The Oxford English Dictionary reports the term being used by the English as early as 1674. Sixteen years later, after a French-Indian raiding party attacked a British settlement near what is today Schenectady, New York, the British took to their own snowshoes and pursued the attackers for almost 50 miles (90 km), ultimately recovering both people and goods taken by their attackers. The "teardrop" snowshoes worn by lumberjacks are about 40 inches (1 m) long and broad in proportion, while the tracker's shoe is over 5 feet (1.5 m) long and very narrow. This form, the stereotypical snowshoe, resembles a tennis racquet, and indeed the French term is raquette de neige. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ p.274 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1744. BOSTON DECLARES WAR AGAINS THE SAVAGES. to have in readiness a good gun, sufficient ammunition, a good hatchet, an extra pair of shoes or moccasins, and a pair of snow shoes.1 Old wounds of honor, old sores of prejudice, were opened afresh. France, England and Spain, were all involved to- gether. The savages were stirred up to waste the exposed front- iers, and war was 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 parties, which ranged from post to post, forming a cordon of sentinels around the frontiers. BLOCK HOUSES. VAUGHN. Block-houses were reared at Brunswick, Topsham, Richmond, Wis- casset, with Vaughn's block-house on Damariscotta, at Broad Bay, and St. George's, all of massive timber. Vaughn of Damariscotta became the most important actor in the scenes now opening. THE FALL OF LOUISBURG. Colonel Vaughn was a man of intrepid character, keen perception, and great enterprise. He had become familiar with the situation of Louisburg, the French capital of the East, believed to be the nest where savage war parties were hatched to swarm over the ad- jacent 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 listened to his instructions. VAUGHN, TYNG, PEPPERELL, WALDO AND MOULTON. Vaughn's project was adopted, and Louisburg fell under a combined movement of the Colonial Naval and Land forces, led by Tyng, Pepperell, Waldo and Moulton. Vaughn accompanied the expedi- tion, commissioned as Colonel, Pepperell being chief in command Footnote. 1. Williamson's Hist. vol. ii. p. 214. p.275 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1745. in the capital of French Acadia, gave great renown to arms of New England, as well as relief to the perils of the eastern frontier. (Sir William Pepperell was the only native of New Eng- land who was created a Baronet during our connection with the mother country - England). THE ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. A FRONTIER HOME. p.276 Each period of settlement has been marked by the style of build- ings used for human habitations, and has had its natural devel- opment in characteristic featurs. In the vestiges of these primi- tive homes along our river-margins, we may trace the age 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 popul- ousness. On the banks and margins of water-courses, in the first openings of a new country, will be found the vestiges of the pion- eer 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 en- closed 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 structure, 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 horiz- ontal 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..... Insert. There is a website still online - which might be of inter- est. How To Build A Log Cabin http://www.2020site.org/cabin/ p.276 THE 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 development of the architectural stage of its population, from the rude primitive shelter of the pioneer plant- er, to the walled, framed, and neat cottage structure of the pres- ent generation. On the water's brink remains the half-filled, earth-built cellar, along the water way, where stood the log home of first settler. But as the forest was opened before his axe, and the clearing ex- tended back, we find the stone-walled cellar of a more permanent and luxurious abode on a highter 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 civilization in a more refined and luxurious age, the exponent of more refined and cultivated taste. Such is the gradation of the domestic development of some two centuries and a half. GEORGETOWN. SAMUEL DENNEY. In the Sagadahoc precinct, by act of incorporation, Georgetown had become the metropolis of the valley of the Kennebec, as it had been the scene of the ancient plantation sites, from Popham and Gilbert, to Lake and Clark. Samuel Denney, an English emi- grant, distinguished for his remarkable decision of character, industry and the superiority of his attainments, took up his residence at Butler's Cove, where he built a block-house, in accordance with the p.277 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 to evil do- ers. Here, also, the early manhood of Governor Sullivan was spent in the study and practice of law; and Butler's Cove on Arrowsic Is- land must have exhibited all the legal and executive importance of a shire-town village. James McCobbs and Robert Gutch. On the banks of the Sagadahoc, opposite the site of Philsburg Center, resided James, the ancestor of the McCobbs; 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, Dam- ariscotta, and Sheepscot; and at Pemaquid he met the Indians of the East in conference. SAMUEL WALDO. Yorkshire, heretofore embracing but one, now was broken into two regiments and Samuel Waldo, the eastern patron was assigned to the Command. CLOSING EVENTS OF THE PERIOD. BLACK BEARS On the re-settlement of the country, the denizons 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 Sheepscot 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 pion- eers 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 p.278 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The Canoe. accustomed to go down to the sea and eke out a subsistence by fishing and duck-hunting. The hollowed trunk of a hoary pine moulded into graceful water-lines, called a canoe, was the great vehicle of locomotion. SAMUEL AND JOHN TRASK. John,1 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 Sheepscot. A bear was descried making its way from 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 seek- ing a conflict with Bruin while he could be assailed to to ad- vantage in the water. The canoe was headed for the bear, whose head and face, water-borne, offered a tempting chance for sport to the inexperienced huntsmen. On a near approach, the attitude and the aspect of the bear 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 him. With augmented ferocity he turned upon the canoe. As the bear raised his shaggy form over the prow to enter the canoe, Albee, clubing his musket, aimed a blow at his head to beat him back. The next moment the gun was seen flying in one direction and the lacerated body of Albee in another, by a stroke of the bear's paw, when both disappeared under the water. Having cleared his way at the the bow of the boat, the bear made another attempt to board the boat. Then the brother of Albee seized an axe and making a stroke at the animal's head, the blow was warded off, and the 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 broken face, Footnote. 1. Narrative of Trask, R. Sewall, Esq. p.279 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. TRASK & THE BEAR. and in complacent attitude, surveying the scene of the strife. When Trask saw that the bear would enter the boat at the bow, 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 frament of the oar, Trask turned back to the boat, but Albee had disappeared. Gaining the canoe, he soon paddled to the shore and seeking the camp of some wood-men, all started in search of the enemy and found the bear 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." 1Three 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 tomahawk, he cried, "Quick, me walk you to Canada." McNear, starting forward, his flail still flying over his head, answered, "I'll bet you half a ton of thatch of that;" and at a blow, laid the Indian dead at his feet! Footnote. 1. Joseph Cargill, Esq. p.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 freshnet, as he stooped to adjust a log on its car, was surprised by the visit of a savage, who, raising his tomahawk, and looking to see where he could best inflict a fatal stroke, did not observe the relaxing 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 twink- ling of an eye, he was hurled out of the tail of the mill into the race below, and disappeared forever. LONG EDMUND'S PERFIDITY. 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,1 probably over to Vaughn's mill at 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, gathering her infant in her arms, crouched in the corner, full of fear. In vain did Long Edmund strive to induce her to unbar the cabin door. The sav- age then rose to open it himself. It was summer. No light dis- covered her movements, and as the Indians were let into the room, hugging her infant close, from behind the opening door the mother slipped out into the darkness; and by an unfre- quented way, hastened to ward her husband, who, returning by another path, unfortunately missed her. Footnote.1 Mrs. Holbrook's tradition. p.281 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. The wife took refuge with a neighbor; but the husband arrived at his home, deposited his meal-bags at the 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 Ed- mund, who was present, said, "He fight like one devil." Albee's house and his 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 treacher- ous Long Edmund and his race, who suddenly appeared in his old haunts at the Point, from among the living, never more to be seen. THE RESOLUTE PLANTER. SEPTEMBER 25, 1750. PARKER'S ISLAND. JOHN AND JAMES PARKER. Defeated in their purposes to destroy Wiscasset, the Indians broke up into parties, with a view to ravage Georgetown. The garrisoned village of "Parker's Island"1 was the 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 master 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 Footnote.1 John Parker, whose original settlement on the south- ern 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 the fishing trade," was, with his son, James Parker, driven from his home at Kennebec, to Casco Bay, and both were killed at the fort which was then taken. See Wharton's Deed to Parker. Deposition of John Phillips, 1748. Manuscript papers, the Honorable Mark L. Hill. p.282 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. method of escape, swimming over toward Arrowsic. Determined to cut him off, his pursuers seized a canoe; and as they swiftly came up with him in the shuttle-bark, leaping under the influe- ence of their well-applied paddles, their victim turned upon them, and seizing the birdhen vessel, in a moment, turned the vessel upside down, precipitating the Indians headlong into the water! In the ensuing life-struggle, the blood-thirsty sons of the for- est were forced to let their victim escape, who gained the 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 CUSHING. CAPTAIN JOHN WILLIAMSON. CAPTAIN NICHOLS. Charles Cushing was the commandant of the military defenses of this section of Maine. Captain Jonathan Williamson, who was also a sheriff of Yorkshire,1 resident at Wiscasset, and Captain Nichols at Sheepscot, were subordinates in command, with whom were deposit- ed the public arms and ammunition. JUNE 19, 1753. NEWCASTLE. The territory embracing the site of the "Sheepscot Farms," the ancient capital of the ducal county of Cornwall, was now incorp- orated by the name of Newcastle, which still bears this name. Its corporate existence was honored by a gratuity of the laws of Massachusetts Bay, from the treasury of the State. PLANTATION OF DRESDEN. 1754. The savages continued to annoy the newly-opened settlements, whose clearings emigration and enterprise continually pushed into their ancient hunting grounds, being particularly irri- tated by the fires of the backwoodsmen, which often spread from their clearings, and burned with ravaging fury the for- ests far and near. Footnote. 1. Original writ of service, Manuscript papers, Honorable M. L. Hill. p.283 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. Their restlessness roused the fears of Government, which hast- ed to put the frontier posts in a state of preparation for war. INFLUX OF GERMANS TO MASSACHUSETTS BAY. THE SETTLEMENT NAMED FRANKFORT. 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 Richmond, near and upon Swan Is- land, called "Frankfort." FRENCH HUGUENOTS. 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 Prostestant 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 for situation, at the conflu- ence 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 square1 were enclosed with pickets of timber, called a stockade. This work lay on the river margins. Two block-houses of squared hemlock and pine timber interlocked, were raised within, bearing aloft projecting stories of 24 feet square, and walls ten inches thick, surmounted with watch towers. SAMUEL GOODWIN. FORT SHIRLEY. Barracks were also built and the work named Fort Shirley. 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 were long and rigorous, and obliged to fell the enormous timber trees ere the earth could bring forth her fruit, or they could gather of her in- crease, this colony became much straitened. Footnote. 1. Williamson, vol. ii, p.302. p.284 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Fifty German families1 had been led to the valley of the Kennebec by Major Goodwin, to plant this hamlet. The habita- tions were reared along the bank of the river. No road were opened until 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 clear- ing, save a line of spotted trees. CITY OF STIRLING LAID OUT IN BRISTOL. WALDO. THE EMIGRATION FROM STIRLING IN SCOTLAND. THE CITY IN MAINE IS NAMED STIRLING. 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 were set off in close conti- guity, on a street half a mile long, on which each settler rear- ed his log hut; and the name of Stirling was given to the embryo city. Patrician as well as plebian blood mingled in the flow of this re-peopling tide from Scotland. Mrs. Dickie was the daughter of a "laird"2 But discouragement and disappointment overwhelmed the newly settled town. "Strange sights and sounds assailed"3 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 savage irruption, and the settlement was broken up. THE HAMLET OF THOMASTON. 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 Footnotes. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 248. 2. Annals of Warren, p. 85. p.285 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. constructed 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 cannon were mounted. The settlers, at their own cost, in parallel lines, had reared block houses above the fort, and surrounded all with a palisado ten feet high. At Pleasant Point was Henderson's garrison; and in the site of the present town of Cushing, 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 accomodated 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 ex- treme. One family in the Broad Bay precinct of Bristol sub- sisted a whole winter on frost-fish and four quarts of meal. Many1 a German woman was glad to plant and hoe all day long for a quart of meal, or eight pence in money, or for a quart of buttermilk; and buttermilk and roasted potatoes 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 children 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 neighbor- ing garrison. SUFFERINGS OF WALDO'S EMIGRATION AT BROAD BAY. Some twenty or more families, under the representations of 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 distributed 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 89. p.286 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. among the planters there, or crowded together in a shed erected for their shelter. It was in the month of September - the bleak winds of autumn already had begun to sigh through the surrounding forest tops, anticipating the rigors of approaching winter. This shed, sixty feet long, had no chimneys. Here the destitute emi- grants in utter neglect, were left, either to perish or to drag out a winter of unutterable suffering. Many froze to death. Many perhished of hunger and privation, and their graves were not long since seen near the bridge.1 THE WIDOW BLACKLEDGE. The story of this woman is full of interest and instruction. The extreme northern point of Westport was early settled and forti- fied with the garrison of a Captain Decker, the ancient site of the Delano plantation, which had descended to Decker by heirship. 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 Jeramy Squam and Folley Island, which pass- age from the flux and reflux of the tides, has ever since been called "Decker's Narrows." Decker was a man of wealth and emin- ence in his day, having a store there, where the ruins of his wharf and warehouses were until recently seen on the waters of Sheepscot shore; and where ships from England were wont to lade their spars and masts for export. The Widow Blackledge,2 during these perilous and pinching times, lived on the neighboring main. During a somewhat severe and pro- tracted winter, she and her little ones 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, Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 82 2. MSS papers, Reverend S. Sewall. ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 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 Captain 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 vision 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 sketched. He rose from his bed - looked out on the storm, whose fierce and biting blasts swept the troubled waters of the bay. He returned to his pillow again, solaced with the purpose of paying 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 until 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 her 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 thus forced to leave his little ones 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 p.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 wrapped 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 until his wife and little ones began to feel the pinchings of hunger. At this juncture,1 a favorite cat, bounding over the frozen waters of the bay to Monseag River, watched the crevices and the 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 until the ice was broken up! Then the mother, seeking 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 fell- 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. 1755. JUNE 10TH 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 government, and war was declared against all the Indians except the tribe of the Penobscots. French priests, notwithstanding the fearful example that had been made of Ralle', persisted in pressing their way into their ancient haunts, and savage ears were found ready still to listen to their treacherous counsel. Peter Androu, from the ancient seat of Norridgewock, visited th New settlement of Frankfort, to seduce there, the French resi- ents to the interests of the Roman Church; Footnote. 1. Honorable S. Parsons' Narrative. p.289 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. and M. Bunyon, accompanied the Jesuit to his home above Chushnoc. At the distance of half a mile from the eastern shore, he found a house environed with wigwams.1 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 them- selves 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 Indians. 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 chief- tains and citizen soldiery, whose acts were often marked with great recklessness and irresponsibility, characteristic more of a band of lawless freebooters than freemen. JAMES CARGILL OF NEWCASTLE* 1755. July 1st. James Cargill of Newcastle held a commission to raise a scouting company as its chief. A party was organized among his neighbors and led to the east, either to suppress a pre- sumed trade between the Penobscots and white men, or with a view to enrich himself with booty and scalps.2 He bivouacked on the shores of Broad Bay. In the morning he marched through the forest around St. George's Fort. Some rangers of Captain Nichols' company, with three men of St. George's, joined his scout. With thirty-one men he marched to Burton's garrison Footnotes. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 76. 2. Eaton's Annals, p. 94. p.290 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. below. Pressing still to the eastward, he crossed the river there, where a lone savage with his squaw and her infant pap- oose of sixty days, lay by their camp fires. MARGARET MOXA MURDERED. The various white men concentrated their fire on the defense- less and unwarned family group, and the death tale of thirty- one bullets reported a sanop slain, the squaw mortally wounded and the papoose left unscathed! This done, the force rushed on to secure the plunder of their bleeding victims, encountered the dying mother, still holding her baby, anxious only for its life, and in the silent but eloquent appeal of her condition to the white man's mercy, uttering the request that "her little none might be taken to St. George's and delivered to Captain Bradbury." One of the crew, more the ruffian 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 one 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 inpending perils. Seizing the canoe to make sure his retreat, Cargill pushed on from this scene of atrocities to "Owl's Head," where at sun- set, discoverhing a group of Indians, he shot nine of their number, tore off their scalps, and returning to the fort, exhibited them as trophies of "valor and success.!" Cargill was apprehended and tried for murder, but was acquitted by the jury. The cruel fate of Margaret Moxa was deeply deplored at the garrison. "Never shall I forget the deep and unapeasable grief of the women of the fort," said one, "when they saw the scalp of whom they had long regarded as a delivering angel;" and the more humane and considerate p.291 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. loudly condemned the act of Cargill, and confidently predict- ed that its perpetrators "would never die in their beds." INSERT. Source: History of Boothbay, Maine. JAMES CARGILL. Colonel James Cargill of Newcastle, lived near Sheepscot bridge, and the house built by him, on the old Cargill home- stead, is still pointed out as one of the historic landmarks of that ancient locality. He was a good fighter, a natural fighter, and did excellent service, but he hand an imperious and unreasoning temper which detracted much from an otherwise strong temper. A statement is found on file in the Massachusetts Archives, by Colonel Andrew Reed of Boothbay, illustrates Car- gill's weakness. "To the Honorable, the Great and General Court at Water- town. "I beg leave to inform your Honors that James Cargill, whom the Honorable Court, last year appointed a Colonel in the County of Lincoln, on the 23d day of March, came to this town of Boothbay and in my presence and hearing began to rail at ye Reverend John Murray, calling said Mr. Murray a lier and a maker of mischief. Then found fault with the Regulating Bill, calling it a Tory Bill. Then proceeded to damn the General Court in the next place, said Cargill, as far as his words could, he damned all officers who had taken commissions under said Honorable General Court, and in particular, Sir William Jones, and myself, for reasons unknown to me, nor were his speeches in private, but in public company, there- fore pray your Honours, to give some directions concerning said Cargill, as his language may lead many weak-minded out of the path of duty. These are, Gentlemen, from your most obedient Humble servant, Colonel Andrew Reed. (full book online with Google Books Online - The History of Boothbay, Southport and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. p.291 continued. The prediction was realized in the history of those in the company from about St. George's River.1 HUGH PAUL'S ADVENTURE. The Pauls2 were contemporary with the Drowns at Pemaquid, 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 a 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 en- countered a black bear, whose huge proportions encouraged a saucy demeanor. The bear, rising upon its haunches, faced the travelers as if to dispute their progress by that path. Hodge, taking counsel of his fears, thought 'discretion the better part of valor', but Hugh Paul, nothing daunted, marched boldly up to the bear, saying, "sure he never turned out of the way for any man yet, nor faith would he for the baste." Hereupon drawing his jack- knife, which he carried between his teeth, and grasping a stone in each hand, advanced, admonishing the unterrified brute of his duty to strangers, and the impudence of his menacing attitude, saying, as he walked up, "Get out of the way, you evil beast; get out of the way!" And faith sure, if ye dont, you'll be sorry for it, Mister!" The bear, 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 pre- cision, rebounded from the bear's nose, and in the recoil brought the bear helpless, to the ground. Paul, springing onto the back of his prostrated Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 94, 95. 2. Commissioner's Reports, p. 59. p.292 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. enemy, grasping the long hair of his shaggy neck for a bridle, jumped on top of the bear, which, recovering his senses, thought it time to make good a retreat by taking to its heels. The wild Irishman1 astride the bear, bolted for the bottom of the hill, while 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 Bristol by way of Newcastle, and the horsemanship of a believer in St. Patrick's power to shield, "because he had drove all the toads, snakes and frogs out of 'sweet 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 Indians 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 dwell- ing houses, destroying the cattle, and securing one captive. 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, hav- ing 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 utmost difficulty to effect a surprise. Scouts of armed white men coursing the deep forest re- cesses gave no chance to the wary, skulking savage in a war-path beset with such perils. p.293 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. No inhabitant dared to venture unarmed far from his forti- fied 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 muskets; "those who remained at home kept guard."1 The rapid, successive report of three muskets was the usual signal of alarm. CASUALTIES. JOHN HUSTON. 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. JULY 19. Fort Frederick at Pemaquid was then assailed by the war party, which, approaching by stealth, descried a lone woman, some three hundred yards distant. The opportunity of securing her scalp overcome all prudential considera- tions. 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 shooted cannon and clouds of burning gunpowder from the embrasure and ports of the fort, soon enveloped all in darkness and consternation; and amidst the confusion, the wounded woman escaped her keepers, rushed to the gates, and was saved. LIEUTENANT PROCTOR. SEPTEMBER 5. But Lieutenant Proctor met the war party with his force, and in the attack he slew two Indian chieftains and capt- ured another. Scalping parties prowled in the neighborhood of the white man's home, and hung about the by-ways and 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 espec- ially was Footnote. 1. Sullivan, p. 189. p.294 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. savage fury vented on the newly-opened clearings and ad- vanced settlements, which were regarded as wanton inva- sions of their rights, holding that, by treaty stipu- lations, the English could dwell only "so far as the salt water flowed." WALDOBORO ATTACKED. ESCAPE TO ST. GEORGE'S FORT AND TO FORT FREDERICK. A large party fell upon the newly-colonized hamlet of Waldoboro; and this protege of the Brigadier General was consigned to ruin. Unprepared for the onset, the poor Germans were slain and/or captured, and all were dispersed, some escaping to St. George's Fort, and others to Fort Frederick at Pemaquid. The abandoned homes were reduced to ashes; and the settlement lay a waste until 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 their way homeward, unsuspicious of evil, a murderous fire was opened from the thickets upon them. One fell dead. Another was mortally wounded, and facing the grim savage, who rushed out to secure his scalp, the wounded planter rose before the Indian, and by a well-directed shot, laid his tawny savage foe dead in his tracks. Three escaped. DEFENSES AT WISCASSET 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,1 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 comm- anded the approaches southward, and afforded the Williamson plantation an asylum. p.295 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON. Captain Williamson was a man of eminence at Wiscasset Point. As a military and as a civil officer, his position 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 capt- tors 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 restored by an exchange. May 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 pris- on at Quebec, is spoken of as the "New Town on Sheepscot Riv- er," from which Captain Jonathan Williamson had been taken and brought to prison.1 About the same period, James Kin- kade, James and Samuel Anderson, and a Mr. Adams were led from Sheepscot as captives to Canada. THE HEROIC ACTION OF 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 pell bark to cover the whale-boats of the garrison, and to secure them from the weather. The party scattered, and some of them in- cautiously 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 ex- ecuted. Footnote. 1. Drake's Tragedies, p. 138. p.296 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. During the skirmish an incident of great coolness and bravery occurrred. One of the soldiers, whose age retarded the progress of his flight, was hotly pursued. In the extremity of his case, the old man suddenly wheeled in the race, and bring- ing 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 off the scalp of his tawny foe, as he lay bleeding at his feet, and took with him the bloody trophy of his valor, into the fort. McFarland's Misfortunes. JOHN MCFARLAND. John McFarland had made his plantation remote from the protecting guns of Fort Frederick. His fruitfull and attractive plantation enamored his heart, and he determ- ined to enjoy its rural delights in defiance of the perils of his isolated position. But the destroyer came. His herds were butchered in their feeding grounds. His fields were wasted. His habitation 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."1 The fortified settlement at St. George's and Fort Freder- ick at Pemaquid, often the objects of attack, the Indians had 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 the vicinage of the fort at Pemaquid. Footnote.1. William Burns's Deposition, L. Co. Commiss. Report. p.297 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 one 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 success We have now reached a period in our history closing the dark, bloody, and continuous scene of savage strife, cover- ing nearly three generations of human beings, in which the entire native race, under the shock of each conflict, had been forced to recede more and more until their 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 reaction of its members, like the recoil of a quivering muscle, tenacious still of life though torn from its nat- ive 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 occasionally murderous outbreak kept alive the public alarm. MURDER AT WISCASSET POINT. December 2nd. A party of Kennebec Indians at Wiscasset1 came in collision with some of the residents at the Point. December 2nd. From some unexplained cause a quarrel arose, and Footnote 1. About 1750. Smith's Journal. p.298 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. OBADIAH ALBEE AND RICHARD HOLBROOK AND BENJAMIN HOLBROOK. in its issue one Indian was slain and two were wounded. The parties, Obadiah Albee, Richard & Benjamin Holbrook, were arrested on the charge of murder. The circumstances 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 fin- ally surrendered for trial on the charge of murder, at York. OBADIAH ALBEE. Obadiah Albee was 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 con- stant watch, lest Albee should escape and thus involve the Province in a war with the Indians."1 From Salem, Albee was sent back to York, where he was tried and acquitted of murder, but condemned for a felonious assault. Government was disappointed and displeased, and the others were 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 the trial was deferred, the prisoners re- manded to Yorkshire, and they probably escaped unwhipt of justice. The aspect of affairs continued to lower and settle into deeper and darker gloom, which the Wiscasset homicide rend- ered more portentous and foreboding. Measures of retaliation and revenge were meditated. SEPTEMBER 11TH. One hundred warriors, heralded by ten thousand terrible rumors, emerged from the depths of the northern wildern- ness, and fell with furty upon the Fort at Richmond. Bleeding cattle came running for protection under the guns of the block-house, while many lay butchered around, a prey to the hundry savages. Footnote. 1. Annals of Salem, Vol. v. p. 439. p.299 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. The day was consumed in devastating the adjoining planta- tions. But the Indians let the favorable moment for de- cisive and successful action slip, and under cover of night, Captain Goodwin and his command gained the fort. This cir- cumstance disheartened the assailants, and they abandoned the assault, and breaking up into small parties, scattered 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, slaughter- ed the cattle, ravaged the fields, burned the habitations of the residents and led some thirteen residents into bondage. JAMES WHIDDEN. 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. LAZARUS NOBLE. 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.1 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 the head of the stairway, de- fended the passage by firing upon the Indians as they forced their way up in defiance of the murderous dis- charge. They pushed on without waiting to return the fire, and seized Noble and his wife and seven children, with Timothy Whidden and Mary Holmes. The prisoners were conduct- ed to the water-side where they were fast bound together. This Footnote. 1. Tragedies of the Wilderness, p. 165-167. p.300 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. done, the Indians returned and fired the premises, burning the storehouses and plundering the dwelling-places. Pomroy, an aged shingle weaver, was captured in the neighboring woods. Having secured their plunder and captives, all marched for Canada; but the aged and burdensome Pomroy was shot, and the other captives safely delivered and were sold at Quebec. FANNY NOBLE. Fanny, a child of Noble, a year and one month old, was taken to Montreal, Canada, where she became the property of the lady of St. Auge Charle, 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. Auge Charle'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 cracsk. The emotions of the maternal heart were at once stirred, when on noticing the famished child, it seized the lady's dress and burst into tears. The appeal was irresistible. Mdme. St. Ange 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. Little Fanny was purchased, cleaned and arrayed in the clothes of the deceased little one, and laid in her cradle, while with infantile prattle and affection she en- deavored to repay the debt she owed her benefactress. She was reared as their 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 subsequently married a gentleman of wealth. Her brother p.301 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Joseph, however, adopted the life and habits of the Indians, among whom he lived and died as at member of the St. Francis tribe. DRESDEN ASSAULTED. From Swan Island a band of Indians passed up the eastern river and lurked about the outskirts of the Frankfort plantation. At sunrise, Pomroy was waylaid on his return from milking, and was 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. THE EXPEDITION AGAINST WISCASSET. The main force of this body of northern Indians, leaving Fort Richmond, re-embarked and paddled down the Kennebec. 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 surprising the block-house at Wiscasset. A Mr. Hilton, an emigrant from Dover, New Hampshire, was slain, and his son made captive. BATTLE AT WISCASSET. SUSAN COLBY. The whole country had become alarmed, and the settlers ran to their fortified places. Susan Colby was in her girl- p.302 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. hood, and had gone with her mother into the garrison, whose sheltering stockade crowned a considerable emin- ence overlooking the bay and the narrows, and command- ing the Williamson 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 east. A flotilla of canoes shot with the rays of early dawn around the head of Jeremy Squam Island, by Delano's garrison, and sped across the bay toward Hooper's planta- tion 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 inter- vening steep to storm the place. As they lurked for an opportunity to begin the assault, Obadiah Albee 1 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 savages. Florence fell dead and Albee, wounded, retreated toward the garrison gates, facing the pursuing Indians with his fire-lock presented, which held them at bay until 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 gliding, the bodies of the savage foe. The match was Footnote.1 Mrs. Holbrook. Mrs. Coleby's Narrative. p.303 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. applied, and amid the roar of their discharge and the crash of falling limbs and tree-tops, the death yells and whoops echoing long and loud through 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. The noise of battle borne on the wings of the still morning drew a scouting party from its patrol between Dresden and Sheepscot toward the scene of conflict, which, coming sudden- ly 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 north 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 the terror-stricken traveler; and in the traditions of a superstitious age, on account of these night visions of this horrible phan- tom savage, the passage was named the "Haunted Gully." Delano's garrison1 commanded the point of the upper ex- tremity of Westport, in early times a central and con- spicuous position, and which afforded a safe retreat to the settlers on "Jewonke Neck," below the Hooper and Williamson plantations. On the Woolwich bank of Monseag River, midway in the angle formed by the old and new inter- secting Bath roads, stood the Hilton garrison. MRS. DELANO'S ESCAPE. Mrs. Delano and her daughter were wont to pass over by water to their plantation on the neck below, near where the burial place of the primitive settlers on Je-won-ke, (now a Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman. p.304 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 their 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 savage rose under the river's bank and fired. Mrs. Delano and her daughter es- caped. DEATH OF BOYNTON. But Hilton, his son, son-in-law, and a Mr. Boynton, resi- dents of the Monseag plantation, were less fortunate. Leaving 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, until overcome by fatigue, loss of blood, and numbers, he at length died1 outright. His son was killed at the first fire. Boynton, unharmed, fled and sought concealment under a log covered with brush heaps. While thus hidden from view, his dog, attracted to the spot by the scent of his master' body, stood over the place of his concealment, whining. The circumstance discovered his master's retreat to those who sought to kill him. Boynton was tomahawked. The whole trans- action happened in view of the garrison, where Mr. Gray, an aged but resolute man, defended the women and children; and Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman and Boynton. p.305 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 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 stomach of the tallest savage by a well-direct- ed musket-ball, who, gathering his broken stomach in his hands, ran with savage yells into the near forest - 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 party1 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 suddenly attacked by the Indians, and all were slain but one, who managed to escape, and eluding his pursuers, slipp- ed under the roots of a mighty hemlock upturned, where in close concealment he lay until 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 they died. Captain Williamson was again captured. The men at Hooper's garrison had left for Vaughan's mills, and Williamson re- mained to guard the women and children. Venturing out a short distance to an alder swamp, not far from the Footnote. 1. R. Sewall, Esq's Narrative. p.306 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. site of the Episcopal church at Wiscasset, a scount of Indians seized and led him away. His cry alarmed the garri- son, which now occupied alone by resolute women, was by them successfully defended by stratagem. To deceive their credulous enemies, disguised in the clothes of their hus- bands and fathers, the women exhibited themselves to view in military array, as men mustering for battle! Alarmed by these movements, the savages would know of their captive the force of the place, when Williamson1 held up all his fingers in such countless array as to persuade them that discretion was the better part of valor. The alarm guns re- calling the men on their way to Sheepscot, their unexpected appearance added speed to their flight toward Canada. TOPSHAM. 1756. CAPTAIN LITHGOW. A garrison was now constructed near the site of 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 re- sided; and the defense of the place was in charge of Captain Lithgow. The triangular conflict between France, England and Spain 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 were 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 Windham, 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. Footnote. 1. Mrs. Cushman. p.307 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE DEATH OF RUTHERFORD. In the midst of these commotions, Reverend Robert Ruther- ford, the religious teacher of Governor Dunbar, the father of the policy and faith of the Kirk of Scotland, here died at his post, sixty-eight years of age, whose pious sympathy and counsel were now lost to the distressed and war-worn in- habitants 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 generation 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 be- come a central point, on account of the garrison house of Preble, one of the earliest re-settling inhabitants of the 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,1 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. Footnote. 1. Narrative of the widow of Reverend Samuel Sewall. p.308 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. ATTACK ON HARNDEN'S GARRISON. LATER KNOWN AS WOOLWICH. At a point called "The Ferry," on the Kennebec, stood the garrison of Harnden, about which clustered the chief settle- ment of the Nequaseag purchase by Bateman and Brown, now known as Woolwich. In the attack of this party of savages, Miss Motherwell, eighteen years of age, happening beyond the gates, was seized. She was related to the children of the Preble family now captives of this war party. Annoyed by the cries of the infant child of the murdered Prebles, the Indians put it to the breasts of the captured girl, and bade her give it milk. With a heart full of pity for the famished baby, 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 re- tired, after having m et a like result in an attempt on the garrison on the lower end of Arrowsic, and turned their fury against the herds and cattle of the inhabitants, doing all the mischief in their way. 1757. But Commander Lithgow, of the Topsham fort, did not escape unscathed. An ambush surprised his small command. Two were wounded at the first fire; but in the skirmish which follow- ed, the debt was paid by the fall of two of the Indians. Dis- heartened at length, the savages withdrew, carrying off the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, but meeting an opport- unity, retaliated the injury by slaying two white men on their passage up the river. THE CAPTURE AT LONG REACH. ROBERT GUTCH. The homestead of Robert Gutch, "Long Reach," seems to have been peculiarly exempt from the casualties of savage assault. But Philbrook, one of the earliest re-settling occupants p.309 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. of this ancient plantation, with his Irish-man Maloon, were surprised at their plow, and captured by a scout. Having crossed the "Whisgeag" on their way northward, be- fore they were suffered to rest, the Irishman suddenly roused from his apparently lethargic state, with marked in- difference to his state, coolly asked of his master, "And who will take care of the oxen tonight?" "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 to set sail. At the mouth of the river, this ship was captured and taken to 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 eccles- iastical 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 "Twenty Cow Parish" by the self-complacent residents of Georgetown and Arrowsic. We have now sketched the last acts of savage aggression that have tinged the history of settlements on the Sagada- hoc, 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 miss- ionary home of Robert Gutch - "Long Reach" - then the "Twenty Cow Parish" - now the City of Bath, appears to have had a happy exemption from the scenes of blood and devastation which have overwhelmed the adjoining eastern plantations. p.310 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE ASPECT OF 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 white flag. KELLOCK'S ACHIEVEMENT. A body of about forty Indians had concentrated in the neigh- borhood of Thomaston. A scout of eighteen men persisted in following their trail. In an hour the scout returned with a single scalp, under the following circumstances. The Indians had been into the fort, and when they departed, were warned to beware of the block-house men. Their depart- ure was known to Alexander and David Kellock, who 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 his place of repose, when the 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! They scalped him. 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, until the darkness forced a separa- tion. The garrison house of Elwell at Meduncook was attacked. The father and his two sons held the door. The place was lighted with port-holes morticed through the timber, in place of windows. The wife and mother stationed at the port-hole p.311 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. with the pistol of her husband, fired at the shadows darken- ing her light, 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 Mr. Piper, at Broad Bay, was, before the morning light had fairly dawned, made the point of an ambuscade. On opening his door, Piper, coming out for wood, was shot dead. His wife, in the greatest constern- ation, seized her sick infant and fled to the cellar through a trap door, which was closed upon her. The out- side 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, the 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,1 Captain Kent, Remely with his scout at Broad Bay were alarmed by the report of fire-arms a mile north of their 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 the edge of a wood, and the woman at the house, shot, scalped, 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 garrison 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 Footnote. 1. Remely's Journal. p.312 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 them 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 Domin- ions in the days which tried men's souls. THE FINAL DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH AND INDIANS. 1758. Governor Pownal had succeeded Shirley and the long pro- jected expedition of a combined French and Indian movement upon St. George's Fort, for the utter destruction of all the eastern settlements, began its demonstrations. 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. Dis-heartened and foiled, the besieging force withdrew, and venting their rage upon the inoffensive herds - which they butchered in merciless profusion, the body retired. WOLFE'S VICTORY. 1759. THE POWER OF FRANCE IN THE WESTERN WORLD EXTINGUISHED. Such was the issue of the last attempt of the savage and his allies to expel the English race from their homes, in these ancient hunting grounds. The intrepid Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham, under the walls of Quebec, had now for- ever settled the question of the supremacy of France 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 p.313 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. which had hitherto swayed the savage hords bordering on our north-eastern frontiers, by this great event were effectually 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, susper- stition, and bigotry had fostered their puposes 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 the north, Governor Pownal pushed the most formidable frontier defenses up Penobscot Bay in the east. On a crescent-shaped 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 deserted of their ancient allies. Permanent peace began now to dawn, and the European race was left unmolested to secure a permanent foot- hold 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 organiza- tions of the ancient dominions of Maine, and the increase of its population warranted. The ancient Nequaseag, the home of Mohotiwormet, the purchase of the early Pemaquid planters, Bateman and Brown, the birth-place of Sir William Phips, was incorporated 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. The rapid and mighty changes now sketched had over- p.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 the 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. THE PENOBSCOTS WISHED FOR THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE ENGLISH. 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 the friend- ship of the English. APRIL 29TH. Sockaiteon, Sockebasin, with two other Indian Chiefs went to Boston and entered into a treaty with the Governor of Massachusetts, which has remained to this day. BREAKING UP OF GARRISON LIFE. The necessity having ceased, garrisoned homes were deserted. The 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. 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. JULY 19TH. LINCOLN COUNTY ORGANIZED. The territory within which the scene of our 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 Footnote. 1. Williamson's History, vol. ii, p. 344. p.315 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. precincts of Frankfort settlement, on the "Mun-doos-co-took," and that of the Hooper plantation at "Wissacasick" Point, were incorporated as "Pownalboro", and made the shire-town or metropolis of the new county. Thus the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot and Pemaquid planta- tions 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 embodi- ment 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 the 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 carriage; while in winter, the icy surface of the frozen river p.316 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. formed the principal highway for the sleigh and even for the ox-sled with its heavy load."1 Of course, the inhabitants were poor and ignorant, "without the means of religious or secular instruction." POWNALBORO. Pownalboro, a town perpetuating the remembrance of the administration of Governor Pownal, now was peopled by "one hundred and fifteen families;" and its western inhabitants were in danger of "losing all sense of religion," or of becoming the dupes of "Popish missionaries." They were front- ier 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."2 The site of the fort at Richmond embraced a chapel and its clearing, "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." 1762. Mr. Bailey had now congregations at Pownalboro' and at George- town, the ancient metropolis of the valley of the Kennebec, numbering more than "fifty communicants;"3 and the Sheepscot and Damariscotta Plantations were reckoned among the "new settlements;" while the valley of the Kennebec, within the range of Mr. Bailey's parochial labors, embraced a population of "seven thousand souls;"3 and though a resident of Richmond Fort, and officiating in its chapel, the most of his parish- ioners were residents on the opposite side of the river, and in Pownalboro. The aborigines of the land still lingered near the places of their ancient and favorite resorts, barbarism lagging in Footnotes. 1. F. Miss. p. 78. 2. F. Miss. p. 256, note E. 3. Miss. p. 81. p.317 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. its retreat, retarded by the instincts and associations of affection. "A great number of Indians" frequented the neighborhood. They were the remains "of the ancient and formidable Norridge- wock 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 children of the Catholic church, their aversion to the English was implacable, whom they "would extirpate because French missionaries had taught them to be- lieve they were the murderers 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 inhabit- ants 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 inclem- ency of the weather. Their lodgings were worse than their food, clothing or habitation. Multitudes of children were obliged to go barefooted the whole winter, with clothes hardly covering their nakedness; half their houses were without Chimneys; many had no beds but heaps of straw, and whole families subsisted, for months together, on potatoes roasted in the ashes."1 This certainly is a sorry picture of the primitive squalidness and misery of the inhabitants of the metropolis of Lincoln County. They were residents, however, still of a "wilderness country," whose physical condition was deeply tinged with the hues, and darkly shaded with the wildness of a wilderness home in every feature of life and character. Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p.88. p.318 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The religious aspect of the people was equally dark in its lights and shadows. "Eight different 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 en- joyed their native ignorance, that they discovered hardly any inclination for rational and moral improvement."1 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 the 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 coloni- zation 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, fatigues, 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 water eighteen miles," sometimes without anything 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. THE SCOTCH-IRISH OF THE DUNBAR EMIGRATION. In the east, especially in the towns re-peopled by the Scotch- Irish of the Dunbar emigraton, greater thrift, more Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p. 89. p.319 ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 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'S ADVENTURE. Sheep, from the older settled agriculture 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, be- came drowsy, and began to nod, when the father of the flock, a putnacious ram - mistaking the captain's nods for a challenge, 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, precipated him into the sea; and in an in- tant, the flock, following the leader, were floating in the ocean around him ! 1. LONG REACH. "Long Reach," the newly incorporated second parish of Georgetown, had begun2 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 embowered 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 half be- fore. Footnotes. 1. Eaton's Annals, p. 112. 2. M.H. Coll. vol. ii, p.208. p.320 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SOURCES OF THE NAVAL EMINENCE OF BATH, MAINE. WILLIAM PHIPS. 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. 1 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 apprreciated 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 shipwrights. Swanton "was a shipbuilder by trade, industrious and skill- ful," 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 within the limits of the city of Bath - the keel stretched - the frame set up - the structure com- pleted, whose mammoth hull was launched 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 the abounding primeval bordering forests of white oak - the remains of whose forests lied scattered along the ancient Nequaseag 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 the United States, if not in the world, which lately has distinguished it as the "Queen City of Ship- yards." Some dozen dwelling-houses now clustered on the mar- gins 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 Philbrook, Footnote. 1. M. H. Coll. vol ii. p. 208. p.321 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Benjamin Thompson, and Joseph White were the official parish personages;1 while Lieutenant James Springer, the innholder, Isaiah Crooker, Lieut. John Lemont, Capt. Nathaniel Donnells, Moses Hodgkins, David Trufant, and Brient Robinson at Winne- gance, were the principal citizens. ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES. The garrison at George's was now dismissed, and the public property sold off at auction, except the fort, the guns, and the ammunitiion, which were left in charge of the late comm- ander, Justice North; and the Scottish settlers, who had un- till now remained in the pay of garrison service2 - "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 the residence of county officers and gentlemen in the legal profession, which exercised a controlling influence 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 annoy- ance to this gentleman. The isolation of the place, and its great remoteness from the influence of communities of high- er elevation in the social grade favored "great abuses of power." "Amid the proverty which so generally prevailed, 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 who, having a part in the administration of the law, might harass and even ruin an obnoxious individual." Footnotes. 1. M. H. vol. ii. pp. 211, 212. 2. Eaton's Annals, pp. 120, 122. p.322 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. "It was Mr. Bailey's misfortune to incur the ill will of some of these officials," says his narrator. Two in partic- ular gave to the self-denying, laborious missionary their special official displeasure, and "sought to ruin him and break up the church in that region;" and it is a great pity the blot on their names on their official position has not been left on the page of history to public execration, that the children of such unworthy sires, though founders of the county, might make some atonement to civilized society and Christian profession, by pointing the 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 he would behave 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 offerings were solicited, this official clown in the sanctuary, "used often to put into the contribution box, soap, and, on one occasion, a pack of cards."1 It is with just pride and commendation to the historian, that the character and conduct of the "common people" the early yeomanry of the shire-town of Lincoln County - though poor, yet honest and true to the instincts of humanity, can be sketched in perfect contrast, "as never disposed to foll- ow the example of the "gentlemen" of Pownalboro'" On the contrary, the citizens at large, "were more kind and gener- ous" to the persecuted man of God, and more constant on his sacred ministrations, as it became more apparent it was the purpose of the official 'gentleman' "to drive away the miss- ion 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 Footnote. 1. F. Miss. p. 94. p.323 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. point of land designated by the aboriginal name of "Wissa- 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 commerce and export trade of the valley, and "the sea-port of the Kennebeck;" and at this date, Wiscasset was the only place of commercial importance1 east of Portland, from which all foreign export, after passing down the Kennebec as far as Bath, went into the "Cross river" to Sheepscot, and thence to Wiscasset for shipment. Thomas Rice, Esquire, was the first representative of Pownalboro' to the General Court; and Row- land Cushing - "a very personable man" - practiced law as a resident at the Wiscasset village. NOBLEBORO. JONAS FITCH. Vaughn, the original occupant of the site, and the founder of the Damariscotta Mills village, had now deceased; and Jonas Fitch, an officer under Governor Winslow in the erect- ion of Forts Halifax and Western, a Lieutenant under Major Goodwin, 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 cottages, two double saw-mills and one grist mill. James Noble had succeed- ed to the rights of Vaughn, now deceased, and was the master spirit of the Vaughn settlement. He laid the foundations of a town which bears, to this day, the name of Nobleboro'. The site of Nobleboro', covering an eight miles square tract of land, was originally the property Footnote. 1. M. H. Coll. vol. iv, p. 45. R. H. Gardiner, Esq. p.324 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. of John Brown of New Harbor. But Vaughn had entered and acquired possession under the Dunbar titles, and his right thereto he maintained at law, against the rights by pur- chase of the aborigines, as decided by the Common Pleas and Superior Court at York, in an action of ejectment brought1 by Tappan. The titles by Dunbar grants were thus sustained. ABANDONMENT OF MILITARY DEFENSES. 1764. The process of dismantling the public works at St. George's and Pemaquid, as public confidence in the prospects to con- tinued peace became confirmed, was now completed. But the military organization of the arms-bearing public was contin- ued 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 Colonel Cargill of Newcastle, who headed the regimental display in the simple costume of a "pea-jacket and commarny cap."2 Thomas Goldthwait succeeded General Preble in the command of Fort Pownal in the east and William Lithgow, Fort Halifax in the west. THE INCORPORATION OF TOPSHAM. THE SCOTCH-IRISH. 1764. The west shores of Merry Meeting Bay on its south-western margin had become adorned with a hamlet, 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 patronage of Robert Temple, which centered here as one of the principal points, this ham- let became the (see end of book for the Scotch-Irish - Maine) p.325 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. nucleus of a new town and was incorporated as Topsham. The scene of Levett's visit, the ancient Cape Ne-wagen, the Townsend of Governor Dunbar's administration, was also in- corporated 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. INSERT. Passengers of the Angel Gabriel Passenger List for the Angel Gabriel 1635 On the last Wednesday in May, 1635 (May 27th), the ship "Angel Gabriel" a strong ship of 240 tons, and carrying a heavy armament of 16 guns swung at her moorings in the King's Road, four or five miles distant from the city. Her destination was Pemaquid. On her deck was "a company of many Godly Christians", some from other ships, bound for New England. The wreck of the bark, Angel Gabriel, a major disaster in the middle of the "Great Migration". It was wrecked in a great storm, probably a hurricaine, in August 1635 off Pemaquid Pt. Maine. According to the "Lighthouses in Maine" site one of the passengers was a man who left his wife behind planning to send for her after he became established. Although he survived the wreck, his wife was afraid to follow him after what had happened to the Angel Gabriel. He was unable to face the journey back to England, so they never saw each other again. A visitor to this site has sent me information that the man who was seperated from his wife was John Bailey who also left behind his son, Robert, and one or more daughters. What follows is a partial list of some of the ships passengers that I have compiled from the internet and other sources. There is, I understand, a complete list on a plaque at Pemaquid Maine. I intend to complete this when I obtain the full list. If you have any additions or corrections to this list please drop me a note. Follow this link for some notes concerning Capt. Andrews and his three Burnham nephews Capt. ROBERT ANDREWS Ship's Master Ipswich, Mass JOHN BAILEY , Sr. contact a weaver from Chippenham, Eng. Newbury John Bailey, Jr. b.1613 Johanna Bailey (poss. came on a later ship soon after) HENRY BECK (Dea.) John Burnham Thomas Burnham Robert Burnham RALPH BLAIDSDELL of Lancashire York, Maine Mrs. Elizabeth Blaidsdell Henry Blaidsdell WILLIAM FURBER JOHN COGSWELL 43 Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire Ipswich, Mass. Mrs. Elizabeth (Thompson) Cogswell abt 41 " Mary Cogswell abt 18 " William Cogswell abt 16 " John Cogswell abt 13 " Hannah Cogswell abt 11 " Abigail Cogswell abt 9 " Edward Cogswell abt 6 " Sarah Cogswell abt 3 " Elizabeth Cogswell infant " SAMUEL HAINES abt 24 Apprentice to J. Cogswell prob. Ipswich Later Dover Point WILLIAM HOOK HENRY SIMPSON JOHN TUTTLE Dover Ipswich later Dover NH Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. p.326 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 1764. We have noticed the disturbances growing out of the question of property in the white pines of Maine, 1764, and the in- itial differences which had consequently arisen, as to the rights of royal prerogative and the privileges of the lumber- men of Maine. A question as to the salary of the Royal Governor had also now begun to agitate the popular branch of the Legislature 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 immed- iately passed. These coercive measures only augmented the re- sistance, and opened more deeply the sources of irreconcilable 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 privilege. We shall, therefore simply trace out the incidents which developed them- selves 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 p.328 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. great issue began in the forests of Maine, in the contests of her lumbermen with the King's Surveyor, as to the right to cut, and the property in white pine trees. SWAMP LAW. OUTRULED THE KING'S OFFICERS. 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 lumbermen. Power, precedent and law were with him, but the necessities and instincts of humanity - the dictates of common 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. THE GENERAL COURT. Here initiated, the controversy was transferred to the Courts of Massachusetts. The prestige of Royalty would have more efficiency within the metropolis and at the Bar of the General Court, than in the lumber swamps of Maine. BUT. BOSTON SIDES WITH MAINE LUMBERMEN. But Boston had already given unequivocal intimations that that Royal Prerogative, had no place in her sympathies when popular rights were in jeopardy. THE 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 that 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 the wharves, taking ship carpenters, apprentices and laboring lands- men. The whole city was moved with excitement. The lower classes "were beyond measure - enraged" ! They rushed together, armed with clubs and pitch-mops. An unfortunate and innocent Lieut- enant on shore, there on other business, was seized. The intercessions of the Speaker of the House, at length, saved him. But the mob increased - and on learning that several naval officers were guests of the Governor, p.329 AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. it gathered about the Governor's house, demanding satis- faction. They surrounded the house. 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 predicament of this officer of the law excited the mirth of the rabble, diverted their rage, and resulted in their quiet dispersion at the dinner hour. BUT. But at night-fall, many thousands re-assembled in King's Stret "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 at all 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, be- ing 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 it were floating on water, to the Governor's house, where preparation was made to burn it be- fore his house! But the peril of setting fire to the town diverted the mob, and the boat was burned, but in a more private place, when it was ascertained that she belonged to a Scotch ship in the harbor. THE GOVERNOR DESERTS BOSTON. The militia was ordered out. But the drummers were interupted and the citizen soldiery refused to appear. The Governor re- paired to the castle and deserted the town. Commodore Knowles was unyielding - refused all accomodation until the naval officers on shore were released from re- straint, which, if not done, bombardment was threatened. The1 assembled representatives of the Colony at length took the Footnote. 1. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol ii, pp 386 - 389. p.330 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 Captain Erskine, of his Majesty's ship, the Canterbury, and all other naval officers, to be, forthwith enlarged. This action cooled the public sentiment. A Town meeting was called, but the in- fluence of of legislative action prevailed there. LUMBERMAN'S CONTROVERSY. THE LUMBERMEN OF MAINE RESIST THE CROWN. The contest between the Royal Surveyor and the lumbermen of Maine, now transferred to the General Court, roused Elisha Cooke, who with zeal and fortitude espoused the cause of the lumbermen of Maine, and resisted the assumptions of the Crown. The popular view of the question was sustained 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 after 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 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 of the people gained new advantages. ELISHA COOKE OF BOSTON. Foremost in the conflict with Royal prerogative stood Elisha Cooke of Boston - the guiding spirit of the popular cause in all its issues with monarchical power. But the right1 of the lumbermen of Maine to property in their white pine trees was the entering 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 p.331. AMERICAN REVELOTUON ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The struggles of the people with power in the maintenance 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 popular dislike, the Episcopal Church, as a creature of the State, and a support of the Crown, was involved, and became obnoxious to the popu- lar prejudices. Out of such differences grew the popular commotion which for several years disturbed the entire social and civil structure, until the principle of self-government became fully developed and organized in a new civil constitu- tion. EARLY RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS. The colonization and settlement of Maine was rather a commer- cial and patriotic movement, than the result of a religious exodus. The 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 Maine - 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 feature 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, following the bent of their own inclinations, in seeking their salvation under the water or on the land, as best suited their tastes. No Quaker, writing under the scourge of our magistracy at the tail of the carts of Maine, either in or out p.332 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THERE WERE NO RELIGIOUS HALLUCINATIONS WITHIN THE PRECINCTS OF ANCIENT SHEEPSCOT, SAGADAHOC OR PEMAQUID. of the Dukedom, 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 Sheepscot, Sagadahoc, or Pemaquid. To these early and favorite points of human aggregation in the eastern wilds, the devil, so busy in Plymouth among the Pilgrims, granted a happy exemption from the perils of witchcraft, priest- craft and the ferocity of bigots. And yet these original plantations were not destitute of re- ligious ordinances, nor did the early settlers decpreciate 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 our state, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, was a member of the Episcopal Church. Moreover it had been promulated from the Throne, that it was the "will and pleasure of his Sovereign," "that the religion professed in the Church of England, and the ecclesiastical government used in the same, shall ever hereafter be profess- ed, and with as much convenient speed as may be, settled and established in and throughout the said Privince."1 Such were the purposes of Government, as expressed 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 wester State. In this respect, the colonial history of our State opens in contrast with that of the Massachusetts, whose jealous eye watched for, and whos all-grasping hand was ready to seize every opportunity, both by a liberal construction Footnote. 1. Ecclesiastical Sketches. p.333 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. of her Charter powers, and in sketching to the untmost bound her Charter limits. The plea of self-preservation 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 of "Church and State" with a stong Puritanical hand. 1607. 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 aboriginal province of Sabino, of the territory of Sebanoa, the Indian lord of Saga- dahoc, and according to the services of the English Episcopal Church; and that the Reverend Richard Seymour 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 light of a life to come amid the pagan gloom of our 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 Richard Seymour, for a twelve-month, led the voice of prayer and praise in celebrating the worship of the living and true God. CONGREGATIONALISM INTRODUCED. 1661. A half century had elapsed when Robert Gutch appeared some twelve miles above Popham's town, at a place called "Long Reach," the site of the present 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 Kennebec, Robert Gutch was a resident of Salem, in Massachusetts, and had united him- self in membership with the first church there. But Gutch was an original occupant of the soil at the Reach, and had become the owner thereof by purchase of the Sheepscot saga- more, Damarin - or, "Robin Hood." To the new clearings, settlements of the pioneer population, and fishers' hamlets on the islands and river banks, which had at this period begun to open the primeval forests along the margins of the Sagadahoc, and adorn its banks with civil- ized life in the rude habitations of the early frontier-men, Robert Gutch came as a man of God, a preacher of righteous- ness. His own plantation on the Reach probably was a central point- the nucleus of a considerable hamlet as the center of mission- ary labor, according to the ordinary and natural laws of human aggregation. A man of humble life, of Footnote. 1. Charlesvoix, p. 435. Williamson, vol. i., p. 369. p.335 AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. deep religious cast of mind, not endowed with literary attain- ments, a type of that class of men who subsequently have appear- ed 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 clearings 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 worship among the early Congregationalists of New England, were, to say the least, in strong affinity with Presbyterianism, if indeed those forms and that faith were not taken therefrom as the parent stock - of which Congre- gationalism, as a slip plucked from this root, has been, by unskilled hands, set out to grow up an unpruned shrub in another field of the same soil, whose fruit, deprived of the natural sap, becomes bitter or sweet, according to circum- stances. The absence of ecclesiastical forms and sanctions, so persistently 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. SITE OF ROBERT GUTCH'S CHURCH. Near the head of Arrowsic island, opposite the city of Bath, a house 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. Gutch'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 p.336 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. the north and west. Here, with the 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 contested with savage wilds and tempestuous seas, the resources of the deep, as well as the dominion of the untamed and virgin soil. THE 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 preaching 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 poss- ession, is the principal record of his life, labors, his end, and the history we have. The hamlet of Robert Gutch, as Long Reach, on the Sagadahoc, it would seem escaped in the sacking of the Arrowsic towns in the war of King Philip. As he was no "truckmaster" - no military chieftain - no man conspicuous except as a servant of the most high God, and therefore in no way obnoxious to savage resentment, he probably remained unmolested. 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 being known only as a man of God, he was brought with-in a circle of well-known savage 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." 1669. Robert Gutch was therefore one of the earliest missionaries, and the site of the city of Bath one of the earliest stations in Maine. p.337 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS EXTINGUISHED. Subsequent 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 ord- inances 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. 1683. On the return of the fugitive inhabitants to re-people the wastes of Philip's war, provision for religious instruction, and the administration of its holy ordiances 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 origin- al meeting on Fort Hill in Boston, previous to embarkation, ordained "that there shall be special and speedy order taken that there may bee a convenient place as a tract of land laid out for a Ministree, with a convenient place to set a meeting house to ye best advantage for ye towne; and also, that we may have a minister of our own free choyce, and such a man as ye major parte of ye towne shall life and approve of ffor that end." p.338 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 commissioners to read prayers and the holy scriptures." Thus was early provision made for religious instruction, at both capitals of the Dukedom, Congregational forms pre- vailing at New Dartmouth (now Newcastle) on the Sheepscot, and Episcopal forms prevailing at Jamestown, the captial at Pemaquid.1 The two forms were in accordance with the views and polity of the two settlements. At New Dartmouth, Massa- chusetts 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 complain and petitions for redress to the Governor of New York, from the inhabitants - Pemaquid, sub- sequently to Philip's war, having been largely re-settled from New York,1 the residence and seat of authority of the ducal governor. SAVAGE HOSTILITIES DISASTROUS TO RELIGION. But the ruthless and bloody hand of war soon extinguished these kindlings of religious interest. The tread of war, the image of death, the besom of destruction, soon obliter- ated every foot-pring 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 savage foe. Apart from the army arrangements for religious instruction Footnote. 1. Pemaquid Papers, pp. 51, 70, 80. p.339 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. the voice of the man of God had ceased and the peopler were without a teaching minister. THE REJECTION OF BAXTER. 1717. Mr. Baxter, a chaplain and missionary under appointment to the Kennebec Indians, was set apart by Governor Dummer, and introduced to them as their religious teacher of the Protestant faith, whose services the savages were reluct- ant to receive, and finally rejected, saying to the Govern- or, as he exhibited the Bible as the symbol of Protestant faith and authority, and Mr. Baxter as its expounder, 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. 1723. Such also was Benjamin Gibson at St. George's, who perhished in the expedition of Colonel Westbrook up 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. 1729. REVEREND ROBERT RUTHERFORD. Reverend Robert Rutherford, was an Irishman and a Presby- terian, the religious teacher of the Dunbar emigration. Under the patronage of the Royal Governor of Sagadahoc, he was introduced to Bristol, and stationed at Fort Frederick at 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 character. Upon leaving his gubernatorial seat in Maine, Governor p.340 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1743. Dunbar committed his property in charge and possession to Reverend 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 in Bristol, Brunswick and Georgetown.1 Dunbar died, and his widow married Captain Henderson of St. George. Rutherford followed to St. George, where he died and was buried near the tomb of the late General Knox of Thomaston, where his ashes still repose. DUNBAR'S RELIGIOUS PROCLIVITIES. It would appear from the interest of Colonel 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 organi- zations 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 characterized the orthodox communi- ties of this whole region, whose churches are scions from this ancient stock, and whose root and fatness still im- part freshness, verdure and fruitfulness. 1730. Thus it will be seen that on the re-settlement of the Ancient Dominions of Maine, under that efficient officer of the Crown, Dunbar, a new race was introduced, and new foundations for the administration of religious ordin- ances were laid; and from this period and from these causes we may date the beginnings of permanency and prosperity in religious influence here. Footnote. 1. March 19, 1743. Voted to raise £20 for Mr. Rutherford. MSS. records, church in Georgetown, M. L. Hill, Esq. p.341 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The Scotch-Irish emigrants of Dunbar and his co- adutors brought with them their peculiar religious views, sympathies and proclivities; and through them the Church of Scotland sent out her roots and Pres- byterianism started up on every side, here and there, in the community, upon which, as the parent stock, most of the Evangelical Congregational churches of this re- gion were afterward grafted; and to the devoted and in- telligent zeal and piety of a learned and faithful min- istry here introduced by the Church of Scotland, 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. THE RELIGIOUS HABITS OF PRESBYTERIANS. 1741. The religious character and proclivities of the people, in the Dunbar settlements, soon developed a state of deep religious interest. Destitute of the stated means of grace, "the people1 met together every Sabbath, and frequently on other days, for the purpose of worshipp- ing 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, escaping from shipwreck, found 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 Footnote. 1. Mrs. Porterfield's Narrative, White's New England, p. 209. p.342 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 1731. August 10th the garrison there, receiving his compensation 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. 1737. Reverend Robert Dunlap, a native of the county of Antrim, Ireland, and a graduate of Edinborough University, em- barking with a numberous emigration for America, escap- int the perils of shipwreck in the long-boat, when ninety- six of his companions were engulfed, took up his residence at Nobleboro'.1 How long he remained at the then thriving village, is not known. He repaired 1747 to Boothbay, and he finally settled at Brunswick, Maine. Robert Dunlap was a Presbyterian of the Scotch-Irish faith, and undoubtedly an acquistion from the Dunbar emigration. THE EARLY CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN GEORGETOWN. Seven years before, the organization of a church had been made in the revived and re-peopled Arrowsic planta- tions, now incorporated as Georgetown. This church2 was organized in the faith and order of the gospel as held by Presbyterians, with a membership of no less than thirty male members. But a considerable portion of the early settlers were Congregationalists, and much attached to its forms of church organization. "Hence dissension early arose." WILLIAM MCLANATHAN. 1734. William McLanathan was employed to preach; and for ten years, he there performed ministerial labor. His ecclesi- astical relationship is not clearly defined. 1745. The probability is that at first he was Presbyterian and when dismissed, he acquired Episcopal provclivities Footnotes. 1. MSS from John McKeen, Esq. 2. Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches. pp. 73, 75. p.343 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. He 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 ad- vance his own interests. At Georgetown there early ex- isted the nucleus of an Episcopal church and society, which may indeed have been only the product of the change of ecclesiastical relationship in the officiating clergyman, and which never appears to have had a full development in that neighborhood. 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 the 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."1 THE LITHGOW FAMILY. 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 inhabi- tants 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, without ostentation in architectural finish. The building was finally appropriated to house cattle and the church- yard, was converted Footnote. 1. Frontier Miss. p. 281. p.344 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. into a barnyard - was turned up by the plowshares. THE PARAMOUNT RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE DUNBAR TOWNS. CAPE NEWAGEN, THEN RENAMED BOOTHBAY. But the great center of religious interest and influence appears to have opened in one of the communities of Colonel Dunbar, in the newly laid-out settlement of Townsend - a modern appelation for the ancient Cape Newagen - since then 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 moving religious power, through the whole region. THE PURITY AND POWER OF SCOTCH-PRESBYTERIAN PIETY. The light and power of their religious zeal and holy living, 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, and breathed out in that summary of faith embodied in the Westminster Assem- bly's Catechism, these colonists became as lights in our newly settled wilds, whose radiance illumined the darkness of the whole region, and quickened, in a heterogeneous and pioneer 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 history, and a detailed narration in the annals of the past, as a guide to the future explorer into the mysteries of religious power. DECEMBER 22, 1763. This is our only apology for making copious selections from the manuscript records of the first church of Boothbay, whose date is anterior to the incorporation of that town, the church being the first body politic there organized according to Presbyterian principles. p.345 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM THERE. Rutherford and Dunlap1 had each labored prior to this date in Boothbay. "The inhabitants of the ancient Cape Newagen, long harassed and distressed by the natural difficulties 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, application had, by them, and by settlers in other places, been "made to the Rev. Presbytery of Boston for supplies. THE INTRODUCTION OF JOHN MURRAY. 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 invitations2 from one of the principal settlers" of Townsend. THE REVEREND JONATHAN ADAMS. ANDREW REED. The Reverend Jonathan Adams, a native of the place and the present incumbant of the ancient pulpit 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 emigrant Footnotes. 1. MSS records, Sess. Book, p.8. 2. Sess. records, MSS. p. 8. p.346 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 probationer, after preaching some time, were found generally acceptable. At Mr. Beath's house, the people of the place gathered, "where they unanimously voted to give Mr. Murray an invita- tion 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 hundred acres of land to build him a house, "to clear and labor his said lot," provide, cut and haul his firewood annually. A sub- scription was started to secure these promises; and in the language of the record - "the Lord spirited up the inhabi- tants, so that it was quickly filled up." PROMISE EXTORTED. Mr. Murray proposing to return again to Ireland, and feel- ing 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 committee to Boston to secure the influence of the ministry there, in their behalf. All was found to be unavailing. But, after meet- ing 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 succ- ess, the commissioners returned to the eastward and Murray pursued his journey westward. MURRAY'S DEPARTURE. Importuned at New York and Philadelphia, he was diverted p.347 ANCIENT REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 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 at Boothbay; and though they replied by vigorous and repeated renewals of their suite, "it would seem their wishes never reached his ear." He was ordained by Presbytery over the church 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 Church, solicited Captain 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 clue 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 Philadelphia passed unheeded. Not discouraged, the prosecutors carried up their cause before the Synod of New York and Philadelph- ia, by petition of the town, setting forth a statement of facts, supported by documentary evidence, not doubting their success, "if once they came before so conscientious a court as the Synod." Andrew Reed was at the head of the prose- cuting commission. In conclusion, the papers were all re- turned by the same hands by which they were sent on; and with them the minutes of Presbytery, Footnote. Reverend John Murray of Boothbay used to be called "Damnation Murray," in distinction from the Universa- list Rev. John Murray of Cape Ann, who ws known as "Salvation Murray." - J. W. Thornton of Boston. p.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 Booth- bay, where he arrived to the great joy of the inhabitants, though in a state of great physical prostration. The in- habitants 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 trans- actions 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 uni- versity; his license to preach, and certain difficulties which 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 public 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 correspondence, etc., relating to the matter; and when all was concluded, - "he called the meeting to testify, by the usual sign, if any were dissatisfied with anything written or said, or if any statement of their desires for his immed- iate settlement had been occasioned?" A unanimous answer in the negative relieved his solicitude. He then demanded, as a final test, if there "was anyone who did not then ex- pressly renew the call to him to settle in the pastoral office, or who did not promise all that subjection to his ministrations in every pastoral duty which is due to mini- sters of the gospel, and to every ordinance of the gospel, it should be signified." To all which the answers were in the negative, unanimously. Whereupon Mr. Murray declared his cheerful acceptance of the call, gave a short exhorta- tion and closed the scene with prayer. The following Sabbath he entered on his duties as pastor of this newly-organized people of his charge, in the ser- vices of a public dedication of their newly-erected house of worship, while it was still very likely a primi- tive and naked condition. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 1766. To exhibit more fully the religious views and customs prevailing at this remote period and which the Presbyter- ian 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 the body of the Session, usually con- sisting of the pastor, elders and deacons, of which body the pastor, ex officio, is moderator, chairman or presi- dent. PRINCIPLES OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE CHURCH ORGANIZATION. Mr. Murray proceeded to organize a church among this newly colonized people, on the ground "that 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 settlement. That God may be glorified, Christ's visible 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 this p.350 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE TOWN OF BOOTHBAY. people as set forth in the public records, by which, add they, "we do, therefore, pursuant to a legal vote of this town, in Town Meeting assembled, this day unite and incorp- orate our-selves and all who shall from time to time join with us, into an organized branch of the visible church," upon certain fundamental articles, viz. "that the town of Boothbay shall be deemed to be under the ecclesiastical constitution of the Presbyterians as to worship, ordinances, discipline and government; 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 re- ceived to fellowship with this church in any sealing ordin- ance, as baptism for himself and infant children, or Lord's Supper, whose religion, faith, or practice is found not con- formed to the received standard, i.e., who are not in judgment of rational 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 languishes, because few come to her solemn feasts," to narrate the form- al rites of induction into office, as performed in this church, of its minor officers. The result of the election and examination of the individ- uals to be set apart to these offices in the church, was publicly declared, when it was unanimously agreed that ord- ination be solemnly attended in the meeting-house in the forenoon. THE ORDINATION OF ELDERS. A bench was set in the broad alley of the house, where the officers took their seats during the preparatory services. p.351 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. SEPTEMBER 20, 1767. Then the pastor, calling on the congregation to look on the persons set before them, explained the duties, author- ity 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 several Sabbaths, and that they had satisfactorily sustained ex- amination, privately by the pastor and then publicly before the church, as to knowledge, their creed, experience, and practice in religion. The pastor "then solemnly adjured 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 elect were called to stand forth," and publicly in- terrogated 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 discipline. In all these parti- culars, "having made such professions as were fully satis- factory," signified their acceptance of the call given them by the church, and indicated their purposes in such accept- ance, "they solemnly covenanted and with uplifted hands, did publicly swear to Almighty God, the faithful and constant per- formance 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 p.352 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. as commissioners for the church," coming up, "did, by giving the right hand, received them as officers of the church, and stipulate to them as such, in the church's name, all due sub- jection, 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 be- half, 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, characterized in all their acts by the stern virtues of their noble ancestry, animated with the spirit of Wickliff 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." RULING ELDERS. William Moore, Robert Murray,1 John Beath, Nehemiah Harrendon DEACONS. Israel Davis, Samuel Adams, Ephraim McFarland. RELIGION A BUSINESS. The church, thus perfected in its organization, began, like "the leaven hid in three measures of meal," to de- velop 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 Footnote. 1. Father of Rev. John Murray. Reverend Jonathan Adams. p.353 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 assigned to the charge of each district. The western, embracing 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 district, which was assigned to Beath and McFarland. In this methodical manner, in accordance with the spirit of that organization of ecclesiastical polity termed Presbyterianism, the church by it animated sought in "due order" to cultivate the vineyard which the Lord had given her to order. 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 condi- tion of the people prior to the organization of the church; while a further extract from the manuscript records of the Session Book will show 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, catachised 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." p.354 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. THE STATE OF 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 weakness. 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 mornig and evening maintained in their houses and they shall never rest until they have received thy Christ into all their hearts.1 A dismal prospect truly! All prayerless - all ignorant of God and of themselves - all determined to cherish their hopes, though I have found but two who can rationally profess any experience of the power of religion- some of the English Church, some Separatists - most them nothing at all. Arise, O Lord, or this people shall perish. O show they 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? O, if so in any measure, praise to You, my rock, my strength!" All have promised to be in earnest about salvation. O Lord, I commit the whole to Thee. Breathe on my poor feeble attempts - grant the success - 'tis all of Thee! O come among this blind, harden- ed, perishing people. Show them thy salvation. But the scene began gradually to assume a more hopeful aspect in the eyes of this man of God, as he made his weekly circuit of the field in search of sheaves. Footnote. 1. Greenleaf's Eccles. Sketches p, 134. p.355 APPLICATION FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Eleven men and twenty women, from the circumjacent settle- ments and plantations, "members of other churches," made application to be incorporated in the church. It is emin- ently desireable 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 neglect and depreciation of ancient rites, duties and forms of faith and service, now prevails, foreboding the utter effacement of "ancient landmarks" in the church, and the entire abandon- ment of those metes and bounds whereon she was accustomed to "lengthen her cords and strengthen here stakes." p.357 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. Is it, therefore, matter of surprise that weakness, inablity, leanness and looseness should be marked features of the church? This view is offered as our only apology for a de- tailed account of the rites, ceremonies and practise of the church at Boothbay, at this early period, while in the fresh- ness and fervor of her zeal. 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 principles 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 conversation." 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 ordin- ances, that "they should first be propounded before the congregation." This was done "by adjuring the assembly in the name of the Most High God, 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 objection against any of the persons propounded, they should freely declare it." Such was the solemn and impressive ceremony preliminary to a recogni- tion 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 p.358 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF 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 uplifted hand, having adopted it and promised compliance 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 invitation 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 forward 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, the approved communicants assembled for public worship according to pre- vious appointment; when a large congregation besides gather- ed 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 Supper - the qualifications of worthy communicants - the perils 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 appointed 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- p.359 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. larly opposed to each of the ten commandments of the law, and to all the articles of the gospel with their peculiar aggravations, were spread out before the Lord" - as the narrator records, "accusing, Judging and condemning our- selves for them - by which our hearts were rendered unfit and ourselves unworthy to make so near an approach to Him as we had the prospect of attempting the ensuing Sabbath." 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 forever," and the whole concluded by charging everyone with the "great work of self-examination, and secret personal renewing their covenant by word or writing that day." DISTRIBUTION OF TOKENS. The Saturday afternoon preceding the great festival Sabbath was occupied in a preparatory sermon on the dying love of Christ, and on this occasion, the pastor, "before dismissing the congregation, came down from the puplit and standing be- fore the Communion table, declared the qualification of such as should be welcome to approach the ordinance in view; pub- lished a free invitation addressed to particular 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 congregation were in- formed that it was a custom of Presbyterians to distribute these, as tokens of admission to the privileges of Christ's disciples, before the administration of the Lord's supper, by 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 communican a previous opportunity of knowing all his fellow communicants at that feast, both that they may have the more particular p.360 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. 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 desire, 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 congra- gation convened at nine o'clock attracted by the suspic- ious event, so long looked forward to with deep and tender interest 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 con- taining a large common loaf of bread, pared and scored so as to be easily broken by the minister's hands. p.361 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. The serving officers were stationed, one at the door to receive contribution of the assembling congretation, an elder and a deacon were stationed at each table, the form- er 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 pulpit, where the elements were kept, to supply any defic- iency 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 formulary debarring in various particulars all those characters supposed to be comprehended under the terms described as "the ignorant, the unbelieving and the pro- fane." 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 center. Then, as the tokens were taken up by the elders, the minister arose and spoke; and as he began, 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 offer- ed 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. 1767. It will not seem strange that the narrative should pro- ceed to relate "that it had been very observable through the whole of the winter that a very unusual seriousness and solemnity appeared amongst the generality p.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 symptoms of the powerful and special presence of the God of grace as every one might discern. It as 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 see their need of that Savior they had shamefully neglected. The facts were evident the ensuing week, and on the next Sabbath. RAPID SPREAD OF RELIGIOUS ITEREST. Immediately the pastor, as the call of several of the neighboring towns, visited them on the gospel errand. "Beginning with Squam (now Westport) and Freetown (now Edgecomb) he visited Pownalborough, (Dresden and Wiscasset) Sheepscot, the head of the tide, (Alna) Walpole, Harring- ton, etc." During this tour, Mr. Murray preached every day for two weeks which it consumed. The work of God was glori- ous. Every day it appeared some were awakened. 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 everything before it." THE REMARKABLE FEATURES OF THE REVIVAL. On Mr. Murray's return from his extended round of labor in the neighboring towns on this glorious 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 the p.363 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. convictions of such as had been awakened. Religiion became the conversation of all companies. The 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. The pastor's lodgings were then crowded with poor wounded souls, that knew not what to do, with whom he often found sweet employment day and night, sometimes until three o'clock in the morning, and often till midnight. The inermission 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 blessed, especially on the young people; and the children's days, in some of which we could see the dear little babes, by forty in company crying and weeping on account of their state, while their tender parents, with bursting hearts 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 blessing was pronounced, their hearts were so wounded that near thirty persons, men and women, cried out, whilst a goodly number of God's child- ren 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 following ages, into whose hands these records may fall, we cannot help leaving this our joint public testimony to the p.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 neighboring Towns."1 Such are the original records of the causes, fruits and agencies of the first and most extensive and glorious re- vival that ever occurred within the precincts of the ancient Sheepscot, 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 Harrington, consuming two weeks, in which he preached 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.1 This revival must have worked deeply among the elements of society, insinuating its saving power into the adjoin- ing towns, where a thin and scattered population had re- cently planted themselves.2 The heterogeneous mass de- veloped many interesting features under the ferment of this grand religious impulse, made up as society of Quakerism, formalism, and error. "Mary Allen of the district of Freetown (Edgecomb) and certain others, her family," Quakers by education and profession, became awakened and converted, and soon after connected with the Presbyterian Church, publicly renouncing their former views, and entering 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 the memories of that generation till it left Footnotes. 1. Records of Session Book, Boothbay, pp. 23, 24. 2. Greenleaf's Ecclesiastical Sketches, p. 138. p.365 ANCIENT DOMINIONS OF MAINE. faceable impressions on the age. Georgetown1 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. THE REVEREND JOHN MURRAY OF BOOTHBAY. She is represented to have been an amiable and godly woman, 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 preaching of the Reverend John Murray of Boothbay, whenever he held meetings at Damariscotta, with others of her countrywomen, Mrs. Miller would foot it thither, through the almost path- less woods, to hear him.2 BROAD BAY PLANTATIONS. THE GERMAN COLONISTS. 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 office of priest, prince and general.3 1762. John M. Schaffer followed. A great singer and smart preacher, he held the hearts of the people captive. His moral charact- er was clouded; his heart was selfish and destitute of vir- tue. 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 Footntoes. In 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. p.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 parish- ioner patient's bills. Profane, intemperate and extorionate, 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 saying, "When I have my plack coat on, then I am a minister, and you must do as I say: but when I have my green coat on, then I am at Doctor." 1 1768. A Moravian from German, by the name of Cilley, 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 the Ancient Dominions. The vacant fields and clearings were not left to solitude and decay, but soon were reoccupied by coloniest from Massachusetts; and were again filled with busy life and labor. End. Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth