Acadiensis/Volume 2/Number 4/A French Account of the Raid upon the New England Frontier in 1694
A French Account of the Raid Upon the New England Frontier in 1694.
N the Parliamentary Library at Ottawa is a MS. bearing the title "Relation du Voyage fait par le Sieur De Yillieu, Captaine d'un detachment de la Marine, a la tete des Sauvages Kanibats et Malecizite (sic) de l'Arcadie pour faire la guerre aux Anglais, au printemps del' au 1694."
This document bears internal evidence of having been prepared by Villieu, or copied from his journal, and is interesting for the evidence it yields of the means through which the French gained the assistance of the Wapanaki[1] Indians, in the effort to drive the English from the eastern frontier of New England and regain the territory for the French crown. (The English claimed the country to the St. Croix, while the French placed the boundary of Acadia at the Kennebec.) The document proves also that the major share of the responsibility for breaking the treaty of 1693 should be taken from the Indians and cast upon their French leaders.
To understand the question clearly it will be necessary to recall some of the events of the preceding years. In 1689 the Count de Frontenac, then in his seventieth year, yet vigorous and alert, was despatched to Canada to fill for the second time the dual post of Governor and Commander in Chief, and charged by Louis XIV with a scheme for the reduction of New York and the subsequent conquest of New England.
The designs upon New York were frustrated almost at their inception. The ships intended for the expedition were disabled, while the Iroquois, who had been reckoned upon for assistance in the land attack, declined to be imposed upon by the Count's smooth words and artifices, and, in spite of his strenuous efforts, concluded an alliance with the English.
Frontenac was more successful with the Wapanakis, partly because their feelings toward the colonists at that time moved them to yield the more readily to his overtures.
The year before, in 1688, Andros, then Governor of Massachusetts, had foolishly broken the ten years' peace, which began shortly after King Philip's war, by the unprovoked and unjustifiable destruction of Baron St. Castine's establishment at the mouth of the Penobscot. Castine had married the daughter of the Penobscot sachem Madokawando, at that time one of the most influential chiefs of the Wapanaki League, and by sympathizing with the Indians and adopting their mode of life the Frenchman had gained their loyal attachment. The tribes were enraged at Andros' action and were eager to avenge it. At this juncture the seizure of sixteen Indians at Saco, in retaliation for the killing of a few cattle at Yarmouth, started into life the smouldering fire and opened what Cotton Mather styled "the melancholy decade"—the ten years' war. In June, 1689, came the destruction of Dover, where Major Waldron repaid so terribly for his treachery of some thirty years before, and this was followed by the capture of Pemaquid and the massacre of the people. John Gyles has told the gruesome story of that transaction.
During the autumn of that year—1689—Frontenac organized the bands for those offensive operations against the English, which have gone into history as the "winter raids." The Indians who were engaged in these exploits were drawn from the mission stations near Quebec. From Lorette were taken the Mohawks who had been converted by the Jesuits, and these were put in the band which was sent against Schenectady. In two other bands, destined for services in Maine and New Hampshire, were exiles from various Wapanaki tribes, gathered at St. Francis, who had sought refuge under the French flag at the close of Philip's war. Besides the Indians in each band were an equal number of Canadian Bush Rangers—Courier-de-bois—who were quite as wild and savage as their red-skinned allies. The leaders of these bands of marauders were French officers of rank.
In February of that winter the settlement at Schenectady was totally wiped out with torch and tomahawk, and the Colonists had not recovered from the shock this occasioned when they were again terrified by a similar report from Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and later by the downfall of Casco and an aftermath of smaller depredations. From all the doomed hamlets came the same horrifying tale—houses burned; men, women, and children slaughtered or carried into captivity. Frontenac had decided that he could only succeed in holding Canada for the French crown by enlisting the aid of the savages, and to secure that aid he must permit them to make war in their own savage way.
The Colonists were incensed against the French for their participation in this unrighteous warfare and determined upon retaliation. A conference was held at New York in May, 1690, at which it was agreed that an army organized by Connecticut and New York, and including Mohegan and Iroquois Indians, should attack Montreal by land, while Massachusetts made an assault on Quebec from the sea. A squadron of Massachusetts vessels, under command of Sir William Phips, had already, in May of that year, forced the French garrison at Port Royal to capitulate, and elated by this success the New Englanders deemed the conquest of Quebec and Montreal quite within possibility. Phips was selected to command the Quebec forces, and with a fleet of armed vessels and transports sailed from Boston early in August.
The New York and Connecticut forces, under command of General Winthrop, assembled at Albany and proceeded in canoes and on foot toward Montreal, but their expedition was a failure. The bulk of the men advanced no farther than Lake Champlain, where smallpox and hunger and factional disputes left them stranded and thoroughly demoralized. Captain John Schuyler, with a small company of volunteers, made a raid on La Prairie, and continued to harass the French outposts for a short time, but, while they kept the country in alarm, they were at no time a serious menace to Montreal.
Frontenac happened to be in Montreal when Winthrop's advance was reported to him. He had just concluded an alliance with some five hundred Indians from the upper lakes—Ojibwas, Hurons, Ottawas, Nipissings and others, who had come to Montreal with furs for sale—and he readily induced these braves to join him in a fight with the English and their traditional foes, the Iroquois, whom the scouts had seen on Lake Champlain. The English and their allies eluded Frontenac, but he had gained the friendly support of these Western tribes, to his great advantage.
Winthrop's army having retired, Frontenac, being apprised of Phips' departure from Boston, was enabled to reinforce the garrison at Quebec and to strengthen that city's defenses before the Colonial fleet arrived. Phips had reckoned upon a weak garrison and fortifications of little consequence, but found himself confronted by a force which was more than a match for his command, while his guns made no appreciable effect upon the forts that crowned the great cliff. After several days of fighting and bombarding, in which the New England yeoman who attempted to storm the citadel proved that they lacked neither courage nor endurance, Phips decided that he had undertaken a task beyond his accomplishment, discreetly withdrew, and returned to Boston.
While Phips was on his way to Quebec the Massachusetts authorities despatched Church with some three hundred men to punish the Wapanakis. He burned Pejepscot, on the Androscoggin, killed a few men, and captured some women and children, but accomplished little toward teaching the Indians to have a wholesome respect for English wrath. Early in 1691 the Wapanakis were again on the war path and assisted the French in the destruction of York. Later a band of French and Indians Maliseets from the St. John, Micmacs from Nova Scotia, Sakokokis, Penobscots, and Kennebecs some four hundred strong, led by Portneuf and St. Castine, made a vigorous attack on Wells, but were repulsed by the townspeople under the brave leadership of Converse.
The war had been conducted in a desultory fashion, but enough had been accomplished to keep the Colonists of the outlying settlements in a constant state of anxiety and unrest. They became depressed and discourged, and many advocated removal to the towns. That was precisely the result for which Frontenac had been plotting. He hoped by constant harassment to drive the English from their settlements and open the country for French occupation. (At a later date the Massachusetts authorities put a check upon proposed removals from the frontier by enacting a law prohibiting the desertion of farms on penalty of forfeiting the property thus deserted.) Relief came to the Colonists at last in the assurance from the authorities that they had secured permanent peace. Many of the Indians were disposed to resume friendly relations. The prompt and vigorous action of the Colonists in answering recent attacks; the failure of the assault on Wells; the rebuilding of Pemaquid; the erection of a strong fort on the Saco; the failure of a French squadron sent by Frontenac to reduce the coast defenses; the possibilities for large and lucrative barter which the English colonies offered to the Wapanakis; the desire for the return of their people who had been captured and were held at Boston as hostages; all these, combined with a suspicion that their French allies were using them for purely selfish purposes, had a subduing effect on the red men. They were ready to lay down their arms. At a conference held at Pemaquid in August, 1693, representatives of the tribes who claimed sovereignty over the land lying between the Merrimac and the St. John signed a treaty of peace with the Massachusetts Colony. They promised to aid the French no longer and to be loyal subjects to the British King.
Frontenac's plans were in danger, and, though he appears to have had no knowledge of the consummation of the treaty, he made strenuous efforts to break off the negotiations between the Indians and the Colonists, which had been reported to him, and which he feared would end in disaster to French interests. In the Indian camps were two men who were willing to serve him the missionaries, Bigot and Thury. These priests had won the confidence and affection of their flocks by sympathy and devotion, and they used their influence to incite the Indians against the English. In this they were supported by Moxus (sometimes written Taxous), chief of the Penobscot village at Castine, who was of sufficient importance and influence to be placed later at the head of the tribe. Opposed to the priests and Moxus in this contention were the majority of the Wapanakis, led by Modokawando, the sachem of the Penobscots, an old man of marked ability as a leader, who had also the reputation of a brave and skillful warrior. There were many vehement debates in the councils of the tribes during the months that followed the Pemaquid conference, and war upon the Colonists was the question at issue. But the Colonists knew naught of this. They slept in security, reckoning that the Indians were at last content to be at peace.
It was at this period that the Sieur De Villieu, a Captain of Marines, who had won some distinction during Phips' attack on Quebec, was sent to Acadia to take charge of the Indian contingent of the French force in that colony,[2] succeeding Portneuf, who had been displaced for bad conduct. In the autumn of 1693 he arrived at Fort Natchouat, at the mouth of the Nashwauk, opposite Fredericton, at that time the headquarters of Villebon, Governor of Acadia. Villieu's story of what followed reads thus:—[3]
In order to fulfil the orders which he had received from the court to put himself at the head of the savages of Acadia to go against the English, and the orders given him by Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac, both at his departure from Quebec in the month of October, 1693, and by the letters which he had the honor of writing to him, the said Sieur de Villieu, after having passed the winter at Fort Natchouat,[4] on the St. John River, where the Chevalier de Villebon was in command, left there on the first of May, 1694, to go to Pentagouet to put an end to the parleys which the savages had been holding with the English for a year, and to incite them to recommence the war. On the third he arrived at Fort Medauktek,[5] where he assembled the old men of the savages to tell them the object of his journey. In the course of his address he begged them to hold themselves in readiness to go in company with those of Pentagouet, declaring to them that he had been sent from France to put himself at their head and make war upon the English.
They put off until the next day the giving of their reply, and held a council to deliberate as to what they should do. They reached no conclusion, but on the morrow they assembled, and, after having taken their resolution, replied that they had never entered into the parleys which their brethren had held with the English, and that they only awaited an opportunity to make war upon them; that their weakness had prevented them from continuing it; that they were ready to join forces with him and would not leave him until they had broken many heads. He testified to them the joy he had in seeing them in that disposition, and made a feast, at which he assured the savages that he would inform Monsieur le Comte of their good will.
On the fifth of May he left Medauktek, and arrived on the ninth at Fort Madaoumkik,[6] where he found Taxous, one of the great chiefs of those savages, to whom he told the motive of his journey; and, having engaged him to descend to the village of Panaoumkik,[7] where the largest part of the savages of that river live, they arrived together on the tenth, at midnight. They found there Father Bigot, a Jesuit missionary, accompanied by three savages, of whom one announced himself as sent from the Kanibats[8] to tell the old men of that village that the Kanibats intended to make war upon the English.
On the eleventh this envoy spoke at a feast where was Sieur de Yillieu, who told also the object of his journey and the reasons which ought to persuade them to break off the parleys which they had had with the Governor of Boston, who sought only to entrap them. He endeavored to the best of his ability to unite with the Kanibat envoy in assuring them that they could not fail to make a good stroke, in which they would acquire a great deal of both reputation and plunder. In order to engage them the more, he invited them at the same time to go to Natchouat to get the presents which the King had sent to them during the past year. They replied to him that they would be ready to march against the enemy as soon as they had received their presents, which they needed in order to make war. They also undertook to carry those which were destined for the Kanibats, and agreed upon a rendezvous at which to meet on the twenty-second day afterward, to march from there against the enemy.
On the sixteenth those savages left who were to fetch the presents. Sieur de Villieu accompanied them for the purpose of asking Sieur de Villebon for some soldiers for his company. On the twenty-second they arrived at Fort Natchouat, where M. de Yillebon regaled them upon that which the King had sent to them as a present, and he distributed to them a part of the surplus. Sieur de Villieu had afterwards a particular feast for the chiefs, and another one for all the savages, in order to incite them to war.
On the twenty-fifth Sieur de Villieu left Naxouat with those savages and two Frenchmen, all M. de Villebon would give him, being dissatisfied with the enterprise. Even this small number was not contributed with sincerity, for, two days after arriving at Fort Medoktik, the two Frenchmen left the party to return to Fort Natchouat without notifying Sieur de Villieu. He remained thə only Frenchman with the party, and was without provisions, M. de Villebon having refused to give him any in spite of the petitions he had made for some. He urged M. de Villebon to consider the urgency of the enterprise in the state of affairs, and the impossibility of his being able to subsist on the journey over lakes and rivers and through woods if he did not carry with him the necessary provisions.
This extremity seemed to put Sieur de Villieu out of condition for marching, nevertheless he resolved to live with the savages, and set out in one of their canoes. They left Medoktek on the twenty-eighth of May and arrived at Pentagouet on the third of June, where the savages made the division of their presents, but noticing that only a part had been given them, having learned through M. de Champigny and the savages who had returned from the French what had been sent to them by the King, that thought disturbed the friendly disposition in which they were. They murmured audibly, and, for a finishing touch, Mataquando, one of their chiefs, who returned from Pemaquid two days later, assured them that the Governor of Boston would produce the prisoners on the fifth of July, which abated so much their desire for war that they determined before proceeding further to prove if they were deceived by the English, or if the promise were made in good faith. It was only after prolonged discussion that they decided to attack the English, during which Sieur de Villieu occupied himself strenuously to parry the stroke which would wreck his designs. He represented to them that this delay was suggested to them by the Governor of Boston, and was only to seek an opportunity to entrap them, since he had sent word of his intention to give up but seven or eight prisoners, which concerned only some of those present. He also assured them that the Governor had asked for delay only to gain time, as he knew it was impossible to return to them their children. These had been sent, for the most part, to Europe by officers, who, to all appearances, had given them to their kinsfolk or to some of the grand siegneurs, and that thus it would be difficult to recover them. These reasons, though good, did not persuade the Indians. Mataquando stoutly protested, and, having some influential followers, started a cabal to prevent the enterprise resolved upon against the English, and so far succeeded that Villieu had the chagrin of seeing the ardor abate in all. M. de Thury, their missionary, who was working arduously for the success of the Sieur de Villieu's plans, found himself not less embarrassed than Villieu, for he learnt that a minister had been sent to the Fort by the English to teach the little savages to read and write.
Affairs continued in that condition until the ninth, when the relatives of the prisoners and hostages urged that messengers be sent to Boston to learn if the prisoners were actually there. Sieur de Villieu, in order to prevent them from having any interviews or parleys with the English, for fear of seeing all his plans overthrown which would have happened, for the English, on learning his designs, would not have failed to put everything in operation to overthrow them and make peace with the Indians proposed two expedients by which to recover their friends supposed to be at Boston. The first was to go at once and make a strong attack upon the place and force the English to surrender their prisoners in exchange for those that might be captured in the attack. Second, that, in case the attack was not successful, they would assemble those that were in the hands of the savages already, and, with the consent of M. le Comte, give them to the Governor of Boston in exchange for fhe savages he had in his hands. Lastly, he made clear to the Indians that, if they did not proceed in that manner, the English would never restore the prisoners, inasmuch as they had only demanded hostages in order to be assured of their fidelity. They pleaded that this slowness would result in the death of their people. He replied, in order to remove that objection, that he proposed to send a message to the Governor of Boston by the least important of the prisoners which they held stating that the Governor was to treat well all the savages of which he was master if he wished the English prisoners to be well treated.
It seemed that this statement had removed all difficulty and conciliated their minds, and that they were all disposed to execute the orders of Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac, when an obstinate fellow urged that it was absolutely necessary to send a canoe to Boston before undertaking anything in order to learn for certain if their friends had been brought back from Europe. He agreed to go himself and to be back again in twenty days. The great affection he had for a twelve-year-old daughter induced him to make the offer in the hope of seeing her again. This proposition gave pleasure to those who had an interest in the prisoners and to the band of Mataquando, who did not wish for war. Sieur de Villieu, seeing in this the overthrow of his enterprise, presented again what he believed might deter them, but finding them determined to follow that plan he prepared to depart from them and return to the river St. John.
On the next day. the eighth, he beguiled a savage with materials for smoking and with drink, who informed him of the fact that Edgaremet and Mataquando had sold the lands and the rivers of their nation. In order to get at the particulars, he learned from the savage that, having gone with the English on board a frigate of twenty-four pieces, in which was M. Phips, Governor of Boston, they had been received extremely well and feasted. Then the governor led the chiefs into his room, followed by his officers and an interpreter, and two hours later came out and the two savages, approaching the side of the vessel threw their hatchets into the sea, in order, they said, that it might be impossible for them and their posterity ever to get them out again. Afterwards the governor shook hands with them as a sign of friendship, and then they drank each others' health and returned to the room where they had supped. This caused Sieur de Villieu to believe that peace had been concluded. He communicated this to M. Thury; the latter could hardly believe it.[9]
In the meantime, a canoe arrived from Kanibak which brought a letter to Sieur de Yillieu from Father Bigot which confirmed in some degree the news he had discovered, which caused him to press M. Thury to go to Taxous and incite him against Mataquando for having made peace without his consent. The effect was marvellous. Taxous declared that Mataquando had made peace, but as for himself he wished for war. He at once prepared to set out. On the twelfth day they dispatched a canoe to make known in haste to those of Medauktek the resolution taken the preceding day. On the same day, Sieur de Villieu descended to the sea shore determined to seize an Englishman named Aldin, who had gone there on a thirty ton vessel for the purpose of carrying on parleying. He hoped to take him with the help of Sieur de Saint Castin, the Indians having declined to join forces with Sieur de Villieu in this affair. But he arrived twelve hours too late, and saw the vessel three leagues from the fort sailing in the direction of Boston.
He remained with Sieur de Saint Castin until the sixteenth, when he left there to go to Panaoumskek. On the eighteenth, while ascending the river, his canoe was overturned above a rapid which he had shot holding to the canoe until in the whirlpools, where he was wounded in the head by striking against a rock, which caused him to let go. The crew saved themselves by swimming as soon as they were overturned. Sieur de Villieu was thrown by the whirlpools upon the edge of a second rock. In this condition his head broken, his stomach full of water, bruised all over his body, the canoe broken, his luggage and his arms lost he was seized with a fever which lasted until the twenty-third.
On the twenty-sixth, a canoe arrived at Panaoumskek from Medauktek, which brought information that the Malecizites, to the number of sixty, had been detained by Father Simon Recolet, under orders from Monsieur de Villebon, but that sixteen had scorned the order, and would arrive on the following day.
On the twenty-seventh, a council was held to deliberate concerning the place at which they should make the attack, but it broke up without anything being decided upon. The next day the same thing happened. In the evening, Sieur de Villieu gave a feast of dogs to the savages, at which they sang the war song, excepting about thirty of the band of Mataquando, who were jeered and taunted during the feast. After the feast Mataquando, won over by the prayers and the presents which had been made to him by Sieur de Villieu and Thury, begged the former to put off the departure for a day and he would then accompany him. Every one was delighted with this, he having acquired the reputation of a brave in the preceding wars. On the thirtieth, Sieur de Villieu, Thury, one intrepid Frenchman, and one hundred and five savages, started for the mouth of the river Ranibeki to unite with the Kanibats who were to meet them there.
On the ninth, Sieur de Villieu, with three savages, he being disguised like them, approached Fort Pemakuit, and having given some peltries to the savages for a pretext of having come to trade at the fort, he reconnoitered the situation of the place, the entrance to the harbor and the anchorage, of which he very successfully drew the plan. On the tenth, they went to the rapid of Ammio-Kangen, but the savages had departed. On the same day forty Kanibats arrived from Nauantchouan; the remainder, with those from Fort Anmessoukkenti having taken another route to join them further on. On the eleventh, thirty arrived from Fort Neuakamigo, who had waited with the others. They marched until the sixteenth when they found forty more Kanibats while crossing a lake.
On that day a council was held to deliberate concerning the place against which they were to carry the war, but nothing was concluded at that council, opinions being divided. The same thing happened at another council, which was held three days later at the place where they then found themselves. Some wished that part be sent above Boston while others went below to attack the English at the same time in different places. On the next day the old men gave way to the young men, and their opinions having prevailed, they took upon themselves the guidance of the party.
On the twenty-second, after having made about ten leagues by land, the greater part, having been in want of food for several days, murmured against going on, though only a forenoon's journey from the enemy. Some said that they would turn back if the plan was not changed, and this necessitated the holding of a second council, where they resolved to advance.
On the twenty-third, after having made twelve leagues, they assembled at the prayers of those who were dying of hunger, of which number Sieur de Villieu was one, and as the necessity of attacking the enemy who were near at hand was very pressing, the leader sent ten scouts on the next day to reconnoiter, arid the party made about four leagues in following them. On the twenty-fifth, they made three leagues and met two of the scouts who reported that the enemy were not upon their guard. On the twenty-sixth, three scouts, who had advanced much farther, made a similar report. They therefore continued the march in order to arrive there that evening. In three hours the remainder of the scouts joined the party.
At a league from the dwellings of the English, council was held to determine in what way they should make the assault. It was resolved to separate into two parties to attack from both sides of the river, and begin the attack at dawn the following day. They separated at sunset to spread out during the night along the side which was most thickly settled. Each party was divided into several little groups all to make the attack at the same time.
They captured two small forts that were without garrison, to which the seigneurs of the place and some of the inhabitants had retired. They killed one hundred and four persons and took twenty-seven prisoners. Sixty houses were pillaged and burned. There was also a number of animals killed. They then retired to the place where the separation had been made the preceding evening. When all had arrived they proceeded to go to sleep upon a naturally fortified rock with the intention of waiting there if the enemy pursued them.
On the twenty-eighth, they departed rather late but made more than fifteen leagues during the day. On the twenty-ninth, the band arrived at the place where they had left the canoes, in which the greater part of the people embarked without provisions.
Thirty of the savages of Pantaguoet were piqued at not having taken as many prisoners and as much booty as those from Kanibeki, because they had not found sufficient opportunity in the place upon which they had fallen At the solicitation of Sieur de Villieu and of Taxous, about fifty others detached themselves to follow those who were piqued at the little they had taken, and the party was joined also by some of the bravest of the Kanibats. They determined to go below Boston, and then, dividing into small parties of four or five, to surprise people and knock them on the head, which could not fail to produce a good effect.
On the same day, Sieur de Villieu questioned the prisoners who told him that on the twenty-fifth, the seigneur of the place had assembled the inhabitants to tell them that peace had been made with the Indians; that they could work with safety upon their lands; that they should not oppose uniting with the aid which King William had sent them in order to make themselves masters of Canada; that the aid consisted of two large ships, which in leaving the harbor had been met by the French who had sent one of them to the bottom; that the other had escaped under the cover of night and had arrived safely in port; that they had already commenced to levy soldiers to supply their armament; that as fast as they were assembled they were taken to some islands. They were told that on one of the islands there were already one hundred waiting until everything should be ready in order to set out, and that a considerable number of little cedar boats had been made.
This news was considered of sufficient importance by Sieur de Villieu to hasten him to notify Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac. He departed on that errand on the thirty-first of July, and marchiug day and night, crossed five lakes, made twenty-three portages, and arrived on the fourth day of the following month at Fort Ammissoukauti,[10] where Father Bigot was. The attendants of the said Sieur de Villieu were so tired and sick that he was obliged to take others in order to get to Quebec, where he arrived on the twenty-second. Not finding Monsieur Frontenac there, he left the Indians who were conducting him to take fresh men in order to get to Montroyal, where he arrived on the twenty-sixth of August.
Note.—The settlement attacked, as described by Villieu, was at that time known as Oyster river but later the name has changed to Durham. It is in New Hampshire, about twelve miles from Portsmouth. Villieu's statement of its destruction agrees practically with that given by the New England writers, though the numbers who were killed vary from 80 to 100. The number of houses that were destroyed is usually recorded as 20.
After Moxiis and his band separated from the main body, they made a wide detour and struck a savage blow at Groton, then the centre of the most thickly settled portion of Massachusetts. From that point homeward they avoided the larger settlements but left ghastly records of visits to several small hamlets.
The audacity of this performance and the savage ferocity with which it had been executed terrified the entire country, and the yeomen armed to subdue both French and Indians. But the war went on for many a long day after that went on and on, with some few pauses, until Wolfe met Montcalm at Quebec, and French hopes for the sovereignty of America were crushed. Then Wapanaki hostilities ceased.
- ↑ Spelled also Abenaki.
- ↑ Villieu was afterward made Commandant of Pentagoet, now Castine.
- ↑ In translating the MS., which is written in old French, I have had the kind assistance of Mr. M. Le N. King, of Harvard, and Miss Bella M. Grossman, of Bryn Mawr.
- ↑ In the MS. this word is spelled both Natchuat and Naxouat.
- ↑ Meductic.
- ↑ Mattawamkeag.
- ↑ Panawampskik, now called Indian Island, near Old Town.
- ↑ Kennebecs.
- ↑ Villieu was correct in supposing that peace had been concluded. The meeting described by him, between Edgaremet and Modokawando, may have been that at which the Indians made their first appeal for a truce. But more followed for at the Pemaquid Conference, in 1693, a formal treaty was signed. Moxus knew of this, for, though he does not appear to have been present, he was represented by Wenobson, who signed the treaty "in behalf of Moxus." That Thury should have been ignorant of the signing of this treaty seems incredible.
Possibly the conference described by Villieu's informant may have been that at which Madokawando sold certain lands on St. Georges River. The deed of transfer bears date of May 9, 1694. It is signed by Madokawando, with Edgaremet and two other Indians as witnesses. The performance with the tomahawk may have been enacted by way of confirmation of the Pemaquid treaty. Whatever may be the explanation, it is plain that the red men were masters of finesse and were using it against their long-time comrades. French artifice had overreached itself. - ↑ Amonoscoggin, some thirty miles from the mouth of the Androscoggin river.