France and England in N America, Part VII, Vol 1: A Half-Century of Conflict

237

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

238

Williamson, History of Maine, ii. 88, 97. Compare Penhallow.

239

Remarks out of the Fryar Sebastian Rale's Letter from Norridgewock, 7 February, 1720, in the Common Place Book of Rev. Henry Flynt.

240

Sewall's Memorial relating to the Kennebec Indians is an argument against war with them.

241

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

242

Shute to Rale, 21 February, 1718.

243

This petition is still in the Massachusetts Archives, and is printed by Dr. Francis in Sparks's American Biography, New Series, xvii. 259.

244

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

245

This curious paper is in the Common Place Book of Rev. Henry Flynt, of which the original is in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

246

See Francis, Life of Rale, where the entire passage is given.

247

Rale wrote to the governor of Canada that it was "sur Les Représentations qu'Il Avoit fait aux Sauvages de Sa Mission" that they had killed "un grand nombre de Bestiaux apartenant aux Anglois," and threatened them with attack if they did not retire. (Réponse fait par MM. Vaudreuil et Bégon au Mémoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721.) Rale told the governor of Massachusetts, on another occasion, that his character as a priest permitted him to give the Indians nothing but counsels of peace. Yet as early as 1703 he wrote to Vaudreuil that the Abenakis were ready, at a word from him, to lift the hatchet against the English. Beauharnois et Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1703.

248

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

249

Eastern Indians' Letter to the Governour, 27 July, 1721, in Mass., Hist. Coll., Second Series, viii. 259. This is the original French. It is signed with totems of all the Abenaki bands, and also of the Caughnawagas, Iroquois of the Mountain, Hurons, Micmacs, Montagnais, and several other tribes. On this interview, Penhallow; Belknap, ii. 51; Shute to Vaudreuil, 21 July, 1721 (O. S.); Ibid., 23 April, 1722; Rale in Lettres Édifiantes, xvii. 285. Rale blames Shute for not being present at the meeting, but a letter of the governor shows that he had never undertaken to be there. He could not have come in any case, from the effects of a fall, which disabled him for some months even from going to Portsmouth to meet the Legislature. Provincial Papers of New Hampshire, iii. 822.

250

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

251

Vaudreuil, Mémoire adressé au Roy, 5 Juin, 1723.

252

Vaudreuil au Ministre, 6 Septembre, 1716.

253

Extrait d'une Liasse de Papiers concernant le Canada, 1720. (Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères.)

254

Réponse de Vaudreuil et Bégon au Mémoire du Roy, 8 Juin, 1721.

255

Bégon à Rale, 14 Juin, 1721.

256

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

257

Wheeler, History of Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, 54.

258

Hutchinson, ii. 261. On these dissensions compare Palfrey, Hist. of New England, iv. 406-428.

259

Sewall Papers, iii. 317, 318.

260

Palfrey, iv. 432, 433.

261

Penhallow. Hutchinson, ii. 279.

262

Penhallow. Temple and Sheldon, History of Northfield, 195.

263

Westbrook to Dummer, 23 March, 1723, in Collections Mass. Hist. Soc., Second Series, viii. 264.

264

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

265

The above rests on the account of Hutchinson, which was taken from the official Journal of Harmon, the commander of the expedition, and from the oral statements of Moulton, whom Hutchinson examined on the subject. Charlevoix, following a letter of La Chasse in the Jesuit Lettres Édifiantes, gives a widely different story. According to him, Norridgewock was surprised by eleven hundred men, who first announced their presence by a general volley, riddling all the houses with bullets. Rale, says La Chasse, Tan out to save his flock by drawing the rage of the enemy on himself; on which they raised a great shout and shot him dead at the foot of the cross in the middle of the village. La Chasse does not tell us where he got the story; but as there were no French witnesses, the story must have come from the Indians, who are notorious liars where their interest and self-love are concerned. Nobody competent to judge of evidence can doubt which of the two statements is the more trustworthy.

266

It is also said that Rale taught some of his Indians to read and write,—which was unusual in the Jesuit missions. On his character, compare the judicial and candid Life of Rale, by Dr. Convers Francis, in Sparks's American Biography, New Series, vii.

267

Dummer to Vaudreuil, 15 September, 1724.

268

Vaudreuil à Dummer, 29 Octobre, 1724.

269

Dummer to Vaudreuil, 19 January, 1725. This, with many other papers relating to these matters, is in the Massachusetts Archives.

270

Dépêche de Vaudreuil, 7 Août, 1725. "Comme j'ai toujours été persuadé que rien n'est plus opposé à nos intérêts que la paix des Abenakis avec les Anglais (la sureté de cette colonie du côté de l'est ayant été l'unique objet de cette guerre), je songeai à pressentir ces sauvages avant qu'ils parlassant aux Anglais et à leur insinuer tout ce que j'avais à leur dire."—Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Mai, 1725.

271

N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 949.

272

Penhallow gives the Boston treaty. For the ratifications, see Collections of the Maine Hist. Soc., iii. 377, 407.

273

See the inventory, in Kidder, The Expeditions of Captain John Lovewell, 93, 94.

274

Other accounts say that eight of the ten were killed. The headstone of one of the number, Thomas Lund, has these words: "This man, with seven more that lies in this grave, was slew All in A day by the Indiens."

275

Penhallow puts their number at seventy, Hutchinson at eighty, Williamson at sixty-three, and Belknap at forty-one. In such cases the smallest number is generally nearest the truth.

276

The tradition is that Chamberlain and Paugus went down to the small brook, now called Fight Brook, to clean their guns, hot and foul with frequent firing; that they saw each other at the same instant, and that the Indian said to the white man, in his broken English, "Me kill you quick!" at the same time hastily loading his piece; to which Chamberlain coolly replied, "Maybe not." His firelock had a large touch-hole, so that the powder could be shaken out into the pan, and the gun made to prime itself. Thus he was ready for action an instant sooner than his enemy, whom he shot dead just as Paugus pulled trigger, and sent a bullet whistling over his head. The story has no good foundation, while the popular ballad, written at the time, and very faithful to the facts, says that, the other officers being killed, the English made Wyman their captain,—

"Who shot the old chief Paugus, which did the foe defeat,

Then set his men in order and brought off the retreat."

277

The town, however, was not named for the chaplain, but for his father's cousin, General Joseph Frye, the original grantee of the land.

278

Rev. Thomas Symmes, minister of Bradford, preached a sermon on the fate of Lovewell and his men immediately after the return of the survivors, and printed it, with a much more valuable introduction, giving a careful account of the affair, on the evidence of "the Valorous Captain Wyman and some others of good Credit that were in the Engagement." Wyman had just been made a captain, in recognition of his conduct. The narrative is followed by an attestation of its truth signed by him and two others of Lovewell's band.

A considerable number of letters relating to the expedition are preserved in the Massachusetts Archives, from Benjamin Hassell, Colonel Tyng, Governor Dummer of Massachusetts, and Governor Wentworth of New Hampshire. They give the various reports received from those in the fight, and show the action taken in consequence. The Archives also contain petitions from the survivors and the families of the slain; and the legislative Journals show that the petitioners received large grants of land. Lovewell's debts contracted in raising men for his expeditions were also paid.

The papers mentioned above, with other authentic records concerning the affair, have been printed by Kidder in his Expeditions of Captain John Lovewell, a monograph of thorough research. The names of all Lovewell's party, and biographical notices of some of them, are also given by Mr. Kidder. Compare Penhallow, Hutchinson, Fox, History of Dunstable, and Bouton, Lovewell's Great Fight. For various suggestions touching Lovewell's Expedition, I am indebted to Mr. C. W. Lewis, who has made it the subject of minute and careful study.

A ballad which was written when the event was fresh, and was long popular in New England, deserves mention, if only for its general fidelity to the facts. The following is a sample of its eighteen stanzas:—

"'T was ten o'clock in the morning when first the fight begun,And fiercely did continue till the setting of the sun,Excepting that the Indians, some hours before 't was night,Drew off into the bushes, and ceased awhile to fight;"But soon again returnèd in fierce and furious mood,Shouting as in the morning, but yet not half so loud;For, as we are informèd, so thick and fast they fell,Scarce twenty of their number at night did get home well."Our worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die;They killed Lieutenant Robbins, and wounded good young Frye,Who was our English chaplain; he many Indians slew,And some of them he scalped when bullets round him flew."

Frye, as mentioned in the text, had engaged himself to Susanna Rogers, a young girl of the village of Boxford, who, after his death, wrote some untutored verses to commemorate his fate. They are entitled, A Mournful Elegy on Mr. Jonathan Frye, and begin thus:

"Assist, ye muses, help my quill,Whilst floods of tears does down distil;Not from mine eyes alone, but allThat hears the sad and doleful fallOf that young student, Mr. Frye,Who in his blooming youth did die.Fighting for his dear country's good,He lost his life and precious blood.His father's only son was he;His mother loved him tenderly;And all that knew him loved him well;For in bright parts he did excelMost of his age; for he was young,—Just entering on twenty-one;A comely youth, and pious too;This I affirm, for him I knew."

She then describes her lover's brave deeds, and sad but heroic death, alone in a howling wilderness; condoles with the bereaved parents, exhorts them to resignation, and touches modestly on her own sorrow.

In more recent times the fate of Lovewell and his companions has inspired several poetical attempts, which need not be dwelt upon. Lovewell's Fight, as Dr. Palfrey observes, was long as famous in New England as Chevy Chase on the Scottish Border.

279

See Chapter I.

280

Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi, in N. Y. Col. Docs., ix. 885.

281

Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi.

282

This paper is printed, not very accurately, in the Collection de Documents relatifs à la Nouvelle France, i. 623 (Québec, 1883).

283

"Cri horrible, dont la terre trembla."—Dubuisson à Vaudreuil, 15 Juin, 1712. This is the official report of the affair.

284

According to the paper ascribed to Léry it was only the eighth.

285

The paper ascribed to Léry says that they surrendered on a promise from Vincennes that their lives should be spared, but that the promise availed nothing.

286

Dubuisson à Vaudreuil, 15 Juin, 1712. This is Dubuisson's report to the governor, which soon after the event he sent to Montreal by the hands of Vincennes. He says that the great fatigue through which he has just passed prevents him from giving every detail, and he refers Vaudreuil to the bearer for further information. The report is, however, long and circumstantial.

État de ce que M. Dubuisson a dépensé pour le service du Roy pour s'attirer les Nations et les mettre dans ses intérêts afin de résister aux Outagamis et aux Mascoutins qui étaient payés des Anglais pour détruire le poste du Fort de Ponchartrain du Détroit, 14 Octobre, 1712. Dubuisson reckons his outlay at 2,901 livres.

These documents, with the narrative ascribed to the engineer Léry, are the contemporary authorities on which the foregoing account is based.

287

Henri de Tonty à Cabart de Villermont, 11 Septembre, 1694 (Margry, iv. 3).

288

Mémoire sur le Projet d'establir une nouvelle Colonie au Mississippi, 1697 (Margry, iv. 21).

289

Iberville au Ministre, 18 Juin, 1698 (Margry, iv. 51).

290

Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 72).

291

Journal d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 131).

292

This letter, which D'Iberville gives in his Journal, is dated "Du Village des Quinipissas, le 20 Avril, 1685." Iberville identifies the Quinipissas with the Bayagoulas. The date of the letter was evidently misread, as Tonty's journey was in 1686. See "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," 455, note. Iberville's lieutenant, Sugères, commanding the "Marin," gives the date correctly. Journal de la Frégate le Marin, 1698, 1699 (Margry, iv.).

293

Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Roy la Renommée en 1699 (Margry, iv. 395).

294

Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane (1846), i. 69. Bénard de la Harpe, Journal historique (1831), 20. Coxe says, in the preface to his Description of Carolana (1722), that "the present proprietor of Carolana, my honour'd Father, … was the author of this English voyage to the Mississippi, having in the year 1698 equipp'd and fitted out Two Ships for Discovery by Sea, and also for building a Fortification and settling a Colony by land; there being in both vessels, besides Sailors and Common Men, above Thirty English and French Volunteers." Coxe adds that the expedition would have succeeded if one of the commanders had not failed to do his duty.

295

Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane (1846), i. 69.

296

Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 348).

297

Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Roy la Renommée, 1699, 1700.

298

Mémoire de la Junte de Guerre des Indes. Le Ministre de la Marine au Duc d'Harcourt (Margry, iv. 553, 568).

299

Iberville wrote in 1701 a long memorial, in which he tried to convince the Spanish court that it was for the interest of Spain that the French should form a barrier between her colonies and those of England, which, he says, were about to seize the country as far as the Mississippi and beyond it.

300

Nicolas de la Salle au Ministre, 7 Septembre, 1706.

301

"Il est clair que M. de Bienville n'a pas les qualités nécessaires pour bien gouverner la colonie." Gayarré found this curious letter in the Archives de la Marine.

302

Dépêche de Bienville, 12 Octobre, 1708.

303

D'Artaguette in Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane. This valuable work consists of a series of documents, connected by a thread of narrative.

304

La Mothe-Cadillac au Ministre, in Gayarré, i. 104, 105.

305

"Que si M. de Lamothe-Cadillac lui portoit tant d'animositié, c'étoit à cause du refus qu'il avoit fait d'épouser sa fille."—Bienville in Gayarré, i. 116.

306

Mémoire du Curé de la Vente, 1714.

307

The earlier cargoes of girls seem to have been better chosen, and there was no difficulty in mating them. Serious disputes sometimes rose from the competition of rival suitors.—Dumont, Mémoires historiques de la Louisiane, chap. v.

308

Prominent officials of the colony are said to have got wives from these sources. Nicolas de la Salle is reported to have had two in succession, both from the hospitals. Bénard de la Harpe, 107 (ed. 1831).

309

Lettres patentes en forme d'Édit portant établissement de la Compagnie d'Occident, in Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, i. 47.

310

Règlement de Régie, 1721.

311

Saint-Simon, Mémoires (ed. Chéruel), xvii. 461.

312

De Chassin au Ministre, 1 Juillet, 1722, in Gayarré, i. 190.

313

A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in the name of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom it had granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was John Law himself, who had the grant of large tracts on the Arkansas.

314

Bénard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831).

315

Lettre du Père le Petit, in Lettres Édifiantes; Dumont, Mémoires historiques, chap. xxvii.

316

"Nos soldats, qui semblent être faits exprès pour la colonie, tants ils sont mauvais."—Dépêche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730.

317

Mémoire de Bienville, 1730.

318

For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see Le Page du Pratz, iii. 304.

319

Dépêche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740. Compare Le Page du Pratz, iii. chap. xxiv.

320

Rameau, Notes historiques sur la Colonie Canadienne du Detroit.

321

See "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," 315.

322

"Ce poste, le premier de tous par droit d'antiquité."—Journal historique, 403 (ed. 1744).

323

The old parish registers of Kaskaskia are full of records of these mixed marriages. See Edward G. Mason, Illinois in the Eighteenth Century.

324

The two other members were La Loire des Ursins, director of the Mississippi Company, and Michel Chassin, its commissary,—he who wrote the curious letter to Ponchartrain, asking for a wife, quoted in the last chapter, pp. 317-318.

325

Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Septembre, 1714.

326

Idem, 2 Octobre, 1723.

327

N. Y. Col. Docs., v. 65.

328

Mémoire présenté au Comte de Ponchartrain par M. d'Auteuil, procureur-général du Roy, 1708.

329

Marest à Vaudreuil, 21 Janvier, 1712.

330

Vaudreuil et Bégon au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1713.

331

Vaudreuil au Ministre, 16 Septembre, 1714.

332

"Les Renards [Outagamies] sont placez sur une rivière qui tombe dans la Baye des Puants [Green Bay]."—Registre du Conseil de la Marine, 28 Mars, 1716.

333

"Où il y a des François et des sauvages, c'est un enfer ouvert."—Registre du Conseil de Marine, 28 Mars, 1716.

334

Le Page du Pratz.

335

Louvigny au Ministre, 14 Octobre, 1716. Louvigny's account of the Outagamie defences is short, and not very clear. La Mothe-Cadillac, describing similar works at Michilimackinac, says that the palisades of the innermost row alone were set close together, those of the two other rows being separated by spaces of six inches or more, through which the defenders fired from their loopholes. The plan seems borrowed from the Iroquois.

336

Dépêche de Vaudreuil, 14 Octobre, 1716.

337

Vaudreuil au Conseil de Marine, 28 Octobre, 1719.

338

Paroles des Renards [Outagamies] dans un Conseil tenu le 6 Septembre, 1722.

339

Réponse du Ministre à la lettre du Marquis de Vaudreuil du 11 Octobre, 1723.

340

Mémoire sur les Renards, 27 Avril, 1727.

341

Mémoire concernant la Paix que M. de Lignery a faite avec les Chefs des Renards, Sakis [Sacs], et Puants [Winnebagoes], 7 Juin, 1726.