Part 16 (2/2)
”Where,” exclaimed Madockawando, earnestly and impatiently, ”shall we buy powder and shot for our winter's hunting e have eaten up all our corn? Shall we leave Englishmen and apply to the French, or shall we let our Indians die? We have waited long to have you tell us, and noant yes or no”
To this the English could only reply, ”You admit that the Western Indians do not wish for peace Should you let them have the poe sell you, what do we better than to cut our own throats? This is the best anse can return to you, though you should wait ten years”
At this the chiefs took ue, declined any farther talk, and the conference was broken up angrily War was soon resuust a nues made an incursion upon Casco Neck and swept it of its inhabitants Thirty-four of the colonists were either killed or carried into captivity On the 14th of August, two days after King Philip was slain in the swamp at Mount Hope, a party of Indians landed from their canoes upon the southeast corner of the island of Arrowsic, near the spot where the fort stood
They concealed the, notwithstanding the sentinels, succeeded in creeping within the spacious inclosure which constituted the fortress They then opened a sudden and siarrison, thus taken by ht surprise, were in a state of terrible consternation A hand to hand fight ensued of the utmost ferocity The Indians, however, soon overpowered their opponents and applied the torch Captain Davis, as in command of the fort, with Mr Lake, as one of the owners of the island, escaped with two others fro to the water's edge, sprang into a canoe and endeavored to reach another island The savages, however, pursued the to the opposite shore, killed Mr Lake, and wounded Mr Davis, so as to render hi upon the shore The savages then took a canoe and crossed in pursuit of their victi himself in the cleft of a rock, and eluded their search Here he rees had left, and then, finding an old canoe upon the beach, he succeeded in paddling himself across the water to the main land, where he was rescued The other tere not wounded, plunging into the forest, also effected their escape
The exultant savages rioted in the destruction of the beautiful establishment upon Arrowsic The spacious mansion house, the fortifications, the round Works which had cost the labor of years, and the expenditure of thousands of pounds, were in an hour destroyed, and the whole island was laid desolate Thirty-five persons were either killed or carried into captivity The dismay which now pervaded the plantations in Maine was terrible The settlers were very much scattered; there was no place of safety, and it was impossible, under the circumstances, for the court in Massachusetts to send them any effectual relief Most of the inhabitants upon the Sheepscot River sought refuge in the fort at Newagen The people at Pemaquid fled on board their vessels; some sailed for Boston; others crossed over to the island of Monhegan, where they strongly fortified the little village of Pees were there, and that their homes were in a blaze In one month, fifty miles east of Casoby were laid utterly desolate The inhabitants were either massacred, carried into captivity, or had fled by water to the settlements in Massachusetts
Many of the beautiful islands in Casoby had a few English settlers upon them The Indians paddled froenerally fell easy victiathered upon Jewell's Island, in a fortified house On the 2d of September a party of Indians landed upon the island for their destruction Several of the men were absent from the island in search of Indian corn, and feere left in the garrison excepting women and children A man was in his boat at a short distance fro clothes by the river side, surrounded by her children Suddenly the savages sprang upon them, and took them all captives before the eyes of the husband and father, who could render no assistance One of the little boys, shrieking with terror, ran into the water, calling upon his father for help An Indian grasped hie held up the child as a shi+eld, and thus prevented the father froarrison shot three of the Indians frohboring islands, and the Indians were driven to their canoes, after having killed two of the inhabitants and taken five captives
In this state of things, Massachusetts sent two hundred men, with forty Natick Indians, to Dover, then called Cocheco, from whence they were to march into Maine and New Hampshi+re, wherever they could be most serviceable Here they met unexpectedly about four hundred Indians, who had come from friendly tribes professedly to join thelish had offered to receive all who in good faith would become their allies Many, however, of these men were atrocious wretches, whose hands were red with the blood of the English Others were desperate felloho had ravaged Ply Philip, and, upon his discomfiture, had fled to continue their barbarities in the remote districts of New Hampshi+re and Maine
Major Waldron, who had coreat perplexity Many of the Indians of this heterogeneous band had co upon his honor and fidelity But the English soldiers, ree cruelties of perhaps the majority, were iun and bayonet In this dileem, which was by some applauded, and by others censured
He proposed a shaht, in which the Indians were to be upon one side and the English upon the other In the course of the rand discharge At thatvictims, and took them all prisoners, without the loss of a man on either side He then divided them into classes with as much care as, under the circuh doubtless so Philip's band, and all the Indians in the vicinity who had been recently guilty of bloodshed or outrage, were sent as prisoners to Boston Here they were tried; seven or eight were executed; the rest, one hundred and ninety-two in number, were transported to the West Indies and sold as slaves
This measure excited very earnest discussion in the colony Many condemned it as atrocious, others defended it as a necessity; but the Indians universally were indignant Even those, two hundred in nuood faith, declared that it was an act of infaive The next day these troops proceeded by water to Fal at important points by the way
On the 23d of Septe party of seven visited Mountjoy's Island An Indian party fell upon them, and all were massacred These men were all heads of families, and their deaths occasioned wide-spread woe Two days after this, on the 25th, a large party of Indians ravaged Cape Neddock, in the town of York, and killed or carried into captivity forty persons The cruelties they practiced upon the inhabitants are too revolting to be described
Winter now set in again with tres An Indian chieftain by the naacity and his mercilessness, now calish were eager to accept any reasonable terms On the 6th of November the treaty was concluded Its terms were these:
1 All acts of hostility shall cease
2 English captives and property shall be restored
3 Full satisfaction shall be rendered to the English for daes received
4 The Indians shall purchase aovernor shall appoint
5 Certain notorious lish
6 The sacheainst Indians who should still persist in the war
Notwithstanding this treaty, the aspect of affairs still see was very suspicious, threats of the renewal of hostilities were continually reaching the English, and but few captives were restored Appearances continued so alar that, on the 7th of February, 1677, a party of one hundred and fifty English and sixty Natick Indians sailed for Casoby and the mouth of the Kennebec, to overawe the Indians and to rescue the English captives who ht be in their hands On the 18th of February, Captain Waldron, who commanded this expedition, landed upon Mair Point, about three miles below Maquoit, in Brunswick They had hardly landed ere they were hailed by a party of Indians After a feords of parley, in which the Indians appeared far froht for them in vain About noon the next day a flotilla of fourteen canoes was discovered out in the bay pulling for the shore The savages landed, and in a few lish party hastened to the rescue, fell upon the savages fro of truce was presented, which produced another parley
”Why,” inquired Captain Waldron, ”do you not bring in the English captives as you proain the war?”
”The captives,” the Indians replied, ”are a great way off, and we can not bring theh the snow; and your soldiers fired upon us first; the house took fire by accident These are our answers to you”
Captain Waldron, unwilling to exasperate the Indians by useless bloodshed, and finding that no captives could be recovered, sailed to the adahock Here he established a garrison on the eastern bank of the river, opposite the foot of Arrowsic Island With the remainder of his force he proceeded in two vessels to Pe to the of truce, which they respected, the two parties entered into a conference The Indians, under the guise of peace, were plotting a general reed to es had concealed a nurasp
Captain Waldron, suspecting treachery, was looking around with an eagle eye, when he saw peering fro directly to the spot, he saw a large number of weapons concealed He i,
”Perfidious wretches! You intended to massacre us all”