Glimpses of the Past Part 38

"Pd. Acmobish for 3 Beaver Traps stolen last year by the soldiers, 1 10 0.

"Pd. Charles Nocout ten dollars to make up for an Englishman's beating of him.

"To sundrys delivered to aged and infirm people, viz. Magdalen Katpat, Magdalen La Porte, Marie Barishe & others, 13 10 0."

Quite a number of the white settlers and several Acadians were engaged by Francklin in various capacities while the negotiations with the Indians were in progress. Gervas Say and Capt. Quinton received 7 for going to Aukpaque and attending the Indians coming down to Fort Howe.

Daniel Leavitt, Lewis Mitchel, John Hartt, Louis Goodine, Augustin LeBlanc and Messrs. Peabody and Brawn acted as couriers, express messengers and negotiators under direction of Francklin, Studholme and James White.

The general result of the grand pow-wow was considered exceedingly fortunate for the Province of Nova Scotia under the circ.u.mstances then existing. Sir Richard Hughes, the lieutenant-governor, writing to Lord Germaine, expresses his great satisfaction at the result of the conference and praises the talents, zeal and diligence of Francklin "to whose discreet conduct and steady perseverance," he says, "a.s.sisted by Major Studholme and M. Bourg, the priest, we owe the success of this treaty." Francklin, on his part, seems disposed to award the meed of praise to Studholme and writes Sir Henry Clinton: "In justice to Major Studholme, commanding at Fort Howe, I am obliged to say that his constant zeal and singular address and prudence has been a great means of keeping the Indians near his post quiet." But while both Francklin and Studholme are deservedly ent.i.tled to credit for the success of their negotiations, there is not the least doubt that the man to whom even greater credit is due is James White, the deputy agent of Indian affairs at the River St. John. Mr. White, although acting in a subordinate capacity, was in direct contact with the savages at the time they were most unfriendly, and it was his tact and fearlessness that paved the way for the subsequent negotiations.

For six months he devoted his time and energies to the task of conciliating the Indians, receiving from government the modern sum of one dollar for each day he was so employed.[108] Most potent of all perhaps in the ultimate result of the conference, was the presence of the French missionary Bourg. It was this that inspired the Indians with confidence in the good intentions of the government of Nova Scotia, and when the missionary accompanied them on their return to Aukpaque their satisfaction was unbounded.

[108] In Col. Franklin's memorandum of expenses incurred in negotiating the Indian treaty the following item appears: "To cash pd. to James White, Esq'r, for services among and with the Indians from the 2d. April, 1778, to the 20th October inclusive, part of which time he ran great risques both of his life & being carried off Prisoner, 50.10.0.

The Indians of the River St. John still possess a traditionary knowledge of the treaty made at Fort Howe in September, 1778, and refer to it as the time when the Indian and the Englishman became "all one brother." Some of the Indians claim that when the treaty was made it was understood that an Indian should always have the right to wander unmolested through the forest and to take the bark of the birch tree for his canoe or the splints of the ash tree for his basket-making regardless of the rights of the white owner of the soil. In many parts of the province there is an unwritten law to this effect, and the Indian roams at pleasure through the woods in quest of the materials for his simple avocations and pitches his tent without let or hindrance.

In order to cultivate friendly relations with the Indians and to guard against the insidious attempts of the people of Machias to wean them from their allegiance it was decided to establish a trading house for their accommodation at the landing place above the falls at the mouth of the St. John. This locality still bears the name of Indiantown, a name derived from the Indian trading post established there in 1779.

In old plans Main street, Portland, is called "Road to ye Indian House."

On the 8th of December, 1778, Colonel Francklin sent instructions to James White to proceed with the building of the Indian House which was to cost only 30. He says in his letter, "The ground should be very well cleared all about or the Brush will sooner or later most a.s.suredly burn it. The boards required may be sawed from the Spruces on the spot if you have a whip-saw. The Shingles can be made by any New England man in the neighborhood." The house was built in the course of the next few months by James Woodman, who was by trade a shipwright. For some reason the sum of 30 voted by the Council of Nova Scotia for the erection of the building was never paid, and it remained the property of Hazen, Simonds and White. The three partners not long afterwards cleared a road to the Indian House, the course of which was nearly identical with that of the present "Main street."

They also built a wharf at the landing and a small dwelling house which was occupied by one Andrew Lloyd, who has the distinction of being the first settler at Indiantown.

Not many weeks after the signing of the treaty at Fort Howe, Col. John Allan of Machias sent Lieut. Gilman and a band of Pen.o.bscot Indians to make a demonstration at the River St. John. They captured a small vessel about sixty miles up the river and plundered one or two of the inhabitants but the only result was to create an alarm amongst the settlers without producing any effect upon the Indians. Pierre Tomah and most of his tribe were at this time encamped at Indian Point on the north side of Grand Lake.

To offset the influence of Father Bourg, Col. John Allan induced the American Congress to obtain a missionary for the Indians at Machias and Pa.s.samaquoddy and he hoped by this means to seduce the Indians remaining on the St. John from their allegiance and draw them to Machias. Never in their history did the Maliseets receive such attention as in the Revolutionary war, when they may be said to have lived at the joint expense of the contending parties. The peace of 1783 proved a dismal thing indeed to them. Their friendship became a matter of comparative indifference and the supplies from either party ceased while the immense influx of new settlers drove them from their old hunting grounds and obliged them to look for situations more remote.

After the alliance formed between France and the old English colonies in America was known to the Indians of Acadia, Francklin's task of keeping them in hand became more difficult and as regards those on the River St. John he might have failed but for the powerful influence of the Abbe Joseph Mathurin Bourg.

The Indians resisted every temptation held out to them by the Americans during the year 1779, and welcomed Colonel Francklin and the Missionary Bourg in their princ.i.p.al villages with great rejoicing.

Major Studholme's post at Fort Howe was rendered more secure at this time by the capture of Castine, at the mouth of the Pen.o.bscot River.

The place was then known by its Indian name of Megabagaduce. Had there been a little more energy and foresight on the part of Admiral Collier, Machias would have shared the same fate, and the result might have been greatly to the advantage of the maritime provinces today.

The importance of such a move was self-evident. It was seriously discussed both in England and America, and a plan was very nearly adopted that might have altered the map of America to the advantage of the Canadian dominion. This plan was nothing less than to divide the colony of Maine, giving to that part extending from Saco to the River St. Croix the name of New Ireland and settling it with Loyalists who had been driven from the other colonies in rebellion. The project is believed to have been countenanced by the King and the ministry, but eventually it was abandoned in consequence of the opinion of Wedderburne, the English attorney-general, that the whole of Maine was included in the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts and that the charter of that colony should be respected.

There is extant a very interesting letter, written at New York in 1780 by the Rev. Wm. Walter to his friend, the Rev. Jacob Bailey, then in Nova Scotia, which shows that the project was seriously discussed in America as well as in England. Mr. Walter writes:

"If you have not already heard it permit me to acquaint you that there is a plan in considerable forwardness to erect the Province of Maine into a Province by itself, to extend from Saco to St.

Johns river, making Falmouth [now Portland] the capital;[109] to secure this new Province by strong Forts and Garrisons; to invite the Refugees from the other Provinces in rebellion to settle in this, and by liberality of its const.i.tution to show to the other Provinces the great advantages of being a portion of the Empire and living under the protection of British Government. Sir William Pepperrell is talked of as Governor. The large tracts of land belonging to companies and individuals, which are not forfeited, will be purchased and the whole distributed in farms of 200 acres to every settler. These distributions and appointments are to be in the management and recommendaton of a respectable Board of Refugees [Loyalists] which is now forming under the auspices of Government in this city [New York]."

[109] Lorenso Sabine in his Loyalists of the American Revolution credits William Knox, of Georgia, with proposing the formation of the eastern part of Maine into the Province of "New Ireland," with Thomas Oliver for governor and Daniel Leonard as chief-justice.

It is a curious fact that a little after the close of the Revolutionary war an attempt was made of a very different character to erect this territory into the "Free and Independent State of New Ireland." A const.i.tution and frame of government were prepared by a committee for the consideration of a convention of delegates. In the preamble of their report the Loyalists are termed "the Sons of Slavery and Dregs of the human species in America." The committee evidently entered upon their work of const.i.tution making with great gusto as will appear from the following:

"Agreeable to the trust reposed in us by the good People of New Ireland, We, antic.i.p.ating the glorious morning of American Freedom, which will shortly shine upon them with a l.u.s.tre superior to any other spot on the terraqueous Globe, after cons.l.u.ting with the sagest Politicians of the Age, and carefully examining the several frames of Government already erected in this new Empire, and particularly all the advantages which Divine Revelation affords; have drawn up the following Frame of Government for New Ireland, which, from the knowledge we have of the dispositions of our Const.i.tuents we have ground to believe will be very acceptable to them, and calculated to render them and their posterity the happiest People on the earth."

Among the provisions of the Const.i.tution were several that may be mentioned for their oddity. Not only were all tavern keepers debarred from holding office "lest spirituous liquors should influence the choice," but the legal fraternity were viewed with suspicion and it was ordained that "Practising Lawyers or Attornies shall not be eligible for any office of profit or trust in the State whilst they continue such."

In order still further to keep the morals of the people pure and uncorrupted, and for the encouragement of piety and virtue and the suppression of vice and immorality, it was provided that "no Stage Plays, Horse-racing, c.o.c.k-fighting, b.a.l.l.s and a.s.semblies, Profane swearing and cursing, Sabbath-breaking, Drunkenness, nocturnal revelling, wh.o.r.edom, Cards, Dice, and all other games whatsoever, commonly called Games of Chance (Lotteries ordered by the Legislature to raise money for public uses excepted) shall be permitted."

The would-be founders of New Ireland close their report by expressing their hope that Europeans, panting after the sweets of Liberty and Independence will flock thither. "Here," say they, "are no griping and racking Landlords to oppress you; no avaricious Priests to extort from you the Tenth of all your increase and labors and whom you must pay for the liberty to come into the world, of being married, of having children and likewise of leaving the world. * * * Send here the frugal and industrious; no half Gentlemen with long pedigrees from Nimrod and Cain, nor any who expect to make their fortunes by any other methods than the plain beaten paths of honest industry, for idle indolent people, unwilling to work, ought not to eat but to live in all places miserable."

But to return from this digression; it is clear that if the British forces had routed John Allan and his Indians out of Machias in 1779, as they might easily have done if a serious effort had been made, the American congress would then have had no foothold east of Saco, so that Portland and all the coast to the St. Croix would have been, at the close of the war, as firmly in the possession of the English as any part of Nova Scotia. The American writer Kidder, in his interesting account of the military operations in eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution, says: "It is now generally conceded that our present boundary was fixed mainly on the ground of occupation, and had we not been able to hold our eastern outpost at Machias, we cannot say what river in Maine would now divide us from a British province."

CHAPTER XXVI.

WHITE CHIEFS AND INDIAN CHIEFS.

In the year 1779 many of the Indians at Machias and Pa.s.samaquoddy began to waver in their adherence to the Americans and to imagine they would fare better by withdrawing from John Allan and returning to their old haunts on the River St. John. Allan wrote in the autumn of this year, "The unsteady conduct of the Indians has obliged me to use every means to prevent their going to St. Johns. I have not met with such difficulty previous to this summer." He managed to keep them a little longer, but in July of the next year came the great defection which had been so long impending. The immediate cause of this defection it will be of interest now to consider.

Sir Guy Carleton, not long after his appointment to the command at Quebec, secured the allegiance of the princ.i.p.al Indian tribes of Canada, and at his instigation messages were sent to Machias early in April 1779, desiring the Indians there to have no further connection with the Americans, adding that the Indians of Canada were coming across the woods, as soon as the leaves were as big as their nails, to destroy the settlements on the Pen.o.bscot and the Kennebec. In order to impress the Indians with the importance of the message the delegates who bore it were furnished with an immense belt of wampum of 1500 pieces. "We send you this Great Belt," say the Canadian Indians, "for every one of you to see and think of, and to show it to the St. Johns and Micmac Indians, and then to return the belt to us immediately."

The message contained a further a.s.surance that nine thousand Indians were ready to execute any orders they might receive from the British general in Canada. The arrival of this message made a great impression on the Indians, and occasioned in them "a fluctuating and unsteady conduct," but John Allan was able, with the help of Mon. de la Motte, a French priest, to keep them in control.

Curiously enough at this crisis the old St. John river chieftain, Pierre Thoma, arrived at Machias in quite an indignant frame of mind.

His annoyance was caused by General McLean's ordering Major Studholme not to furnish any more provisions to the Indians. Francklin considered this order a mistake, and at once represented to the secretary of state the necessity of keeping the Indians in good humor as the cutting of masts and timber for the Royal Navy, the safety of the English settlers on the River St. John and communication with Canada might all be endangered by losing their good will. His statements were strongly supported by Sir Richard Hughes, the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. The next spring Col. Francklin invited the Indians at Pa.s.samaquody and Machias to a conference at Fort Howe.

Two English schooners arrived at Pa.s.samaquody on the 1st of June. John Allen at once issued an order to the Indians not to hold any intercourse with unwelcome visitors, but, he adds, "Pierre Tomma the chief of St. John, always considered a Tory, and Lewis Neptune of Pen.o.bscot went on board and received presents." They were told that Col. Franklin and Father Bourg were at Fort Howe with presents and supplies and desired a conference with them. Soon after three special messengers arrived from Father Bourg desiring the Indians to attend him immediately on business of the church. The result of these invitations we shall presently see, but in the meantime an important conference was being held at the River St. John.

There are many references to this conference but we shall first consider a letter which Col. Franklin wrote from Windsor to Sir Henry Clinton, 21st August, 1780. In this letter Franklin states, "A meeting was held the 24th June about ninety miles above Fort Howe attended by upwards of 900 Indians. Deputies from the Ottawas, Hurons, Algonkins, Montanagais, Abenakies and Canabas attended and made the speech inclosed."

This speech was addressed to the Malecete, Pa.s.samaquoddie and Mickmack Indians and was in substance as follows:

"Our dear Brothers, We come to warn you that the Boston people, having destroyed several of our villages, killed our wives and children and carried off our young women by force, we to revenge ourselves for these outrages have declared war against them. If there are yet remaining among them [i. e. the Americans] any of your people, let them withdraw immediately, for they will be treated like the enemy if they remain with them. Therefore our dear Brothers we tell you to remain quiet and in peace. We have 13,000 men a.s.sembled, who are allied against the Boston people and they have already taken twenty-seven villages larger than Three Rivers in Canada, and to burn their villages they sent more than 300 lighted arrows which instantly destroyed their houses, great part of the Inhabitants were burnt and those who attempted to escape were put to death. Now we demand your answer."

The Micmacs and Maliseets presented belts of wampum and replied that so long as the King of England should continue to leave them free liberty of hunting and fishing and to allow them priests sufficient for the exercise of their religion they promised to keep quiet and peaceable.

This grand Indian pow-wow seems to have been brought about largely by Franklin's diplomacy. He was not himself present at the meeting but the interests of the English were well looked after by Major Studholme, James White and the Missionary Bourg. The conference with the visiting delegates was held at Aukpaque and 300 warriors were present besides 600 women and children. A considerable quant.i.ty of presents and supplies had been sent from Windsor to Fort Howe by the schooner Menaguash, Peter Doucet, master, to be given to the Indians--blankets, shirts, blue and scarlet cloth, beaver bats, ribbons, powder and shot, and lastly, "one cask of wine sent by Mr.

Francklin for the squaws and such men as do not drink rum."[110]

[110] The receipt of these articles at the hands of James White was acknowledged at Aukpaque, June 26, 1780, by Francis Xavier, and five other chiefs.

The arrival of the messengers sent by Studholme to the Indians of Machias and Pa.s.samaquody, a.s.suring them that if they would give their attendance at Fort Howe they would be well treated and receive handsome presents, made them extremely anxious to at least have a look at the presents; at the same time urgent invitations from Father Bourg gave them a good excuse for going. For two days John Allan exercised all his powers of persuasion to keep them, but in vain; go they would. They a.s.sured him "that they only meant to see the priest, their souls being heavy and loaded with burthens of sins, and that they acted upon a duty commanded in their church which they could not neglect."

On the 3rd July nearly all the Indians, some women and children excepted, set out for Fort Howe. In a letter to the Ma.s.sachusetts Congress Allan mournfully observes: "I am very unhappy in being obliged to acquaint you of this, after the success I have experienced in disappointing the Priest and Mr. Francklin these three years."

The substantial results of Francklin's policy of conciliation were the inducing of the Indians who had acted with enemy to return to their former villages and live peaceably there, second the opening of a safe route of communication via the St. John river with Quebec and thirdly protection of the King's mast cutters.

Colonel Francklin wrote to Lord Germaine on the 21st November, 1780, that the disposition of the Indians during the summer and autumn had been very tranquil and he attributed the fact largely to the conference held on the River St. John on the 24th of June, when the deputies of the Ottawas, Hurons and other nations of Canada required the Micmacs and Malissets to withdraw from the Americans and to remain quiet.

The situation of Gilfred Studholme, as commandant at Fort Howe, was at times a difficult and uncomfortable one. His garrison was none too large at the best, and, although the majority of his soldiers displayed remarkable fidelity, there were occasional desertions. John Allan naturally used every means in his power to render the post untenable. In August, 1778, he sent Nicholas Hawawes, an Indian chief, with a small party to the mouth of the St. John with orders to destroy the cattle around the Fort, that were intended for the use of the troops[111], to take prisoners and encourage desertion. The Indians were provided with letters, written by deserters who had already come to Machias, which they were instructed to convey secretly to the soldiers of the garrison.

[111] The requirements of the garrison insured a ready market for all the beef Hazen, Simonds & White and their tenants could furnish, indeed at times it was necessary to send to the settlements up the river for a supply. When the garrison was first fixed at Fort Howe, James White made a trip to Maugerville and purchased nine yoke of oxen for their use from Asa Perley, Thomas Barker, Daniel Jewett, Henry Miller, John Esty, Nathan Smith, David Dow, Peter Mooers and Richard Barlow. The agreement in each case was similar to the following:

"Maugerville, November 16, 1777.

"I promise to deliver to Mr. James White, or his order, two oxen coming five years old, when the ice is strong sufficient to bear them to drive to the mouth of this River, said White paying me on delivery fifty-five dollars. Witness my hand--