Volume I Part 15 (1/2)

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

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

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

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

Henry Flynt.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Archives du Ministere des Affaires etrangeres.)

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

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

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

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

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

of New England_, iv. 406-428.