282 ASHPELON-STOCKWELL'S CAPTIVITY. [BOUR III taken at Hatfield escaped, and returned soon after, and reported that the company of Indians that attacked Hatfield consisted of 23 men and four women, and were some of those who had belonged to Philip's party, but had taken up their residence in Canada, from whence they made this expedition.* Another party left Canada at the same time, who, after separating from the former, directed their course towards Merrimack, and this was the company who persuaded or compelled Wannalancet to go with them. That he went not by compulsion is very probable; for the party with whom he went off "were his kindred and relations, one of them was his wife's brother, and bis eldest son also lived with the French" in Canada. † While at Pawtucket, and not long before his final departure, Wannalancet went to the Reverend Mr. Fiske of Chelmsford, and inquired of him concerning the welfare of his former acquaintances, and whether the place had suffered much during the war. Mr. Fiske answered that they had been highly favored in that respect, and for which he thanked God. "Me next," said the chief, thereby intimating that he was conscious of having prevented mischief from falling upon them. ‡ In 1659, Wannalansit was thrown into prison for a debt of about £45. His people, who owned an island in Merrimack River, three miles above Pawtuckett Falls, containing 60 acres, half of which was under cultivation, relinquished it, to obtain his release. About 1670, he removed to Pawtuckett Falls, where, upon an eminence, he built a fort, and resided until Philip's war. He was about 55 years of age in 1674; always friendly to the English, but unwilling to be importuned about adopting their religion. When he had got to be very old, however, he submitted to their desires in that respect. Upon that occasion he is reported to have said, "I must acknowledge I have all my days been used to pass in an old canoe, and now you exhort me to change and leave my old canoe and embark in a new one, to which I have hitherto been unwilling, but now I yield up myself to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter." Reverend John Eliot thus writes to the Honorable Robert Boyle § in England, together but half an hour before the former was killed, and by appointment were to have met again. But when Speen came to the place, he could find nothing of his friend. They were brothers-in-law. * It seems from the narrative of Quintin Stockwell, that the party who committed this depredation was led by a great and magnanimous sachem called ASHPELON, of whom, further than the events of this famous expedition, I have learned nothing. "Sept. 19, 1677, about sunset," says Stockwell, "I and another man being together, the Indians with great shouting and shooting came upon us, [at Deerfield,] and some other of the English hard by, at which we ran to a swamp for refuge; which they perceiving, made after us, and shot at us, three guns being discharged upon me. The swamp being miry I slipt in and fell down; whereupon an Indian stept to me, with his hatchet lifted up to knock me on the head, supposing I was wounded, and unfit for travel. It happened I had a pistol in my pocket, which though uncharged, I presented to him, who presently stept back, and told me, if I would yield I should have no hurt; boasted that they had destroyed all Hatfield, and that the woods were full of Indians; whereupon I yielded myself." He was then taken back to Deerfield, where he was pinioned, and with other captives marched into the wilderness. Their sufferings, as usual in Indian captivity, were most cruel and severe; for many nights together they were "staked down" to the cold ground, in this manner: The captive being laid upon his back, his arms and feet were extended, and with cords or withes lashed to stakes driven into the ground for that purpose. Besides lashing the arms and legs, the neck and body were also secured in the same way, and often so tight as to cause swellings and the most excruci ating pains. While on their march, the captives had frequent opportunities of escaping singly, but would not, for fear of endangering the lives of the rest; but at length Benjamin Stebbins, in a journey with his Indian master to Wachuset hill, made his escape. When the rest knew this, they were for burning the remaining captives, but some being opposed to the measure, they agreed to have a court and debate the subject. Ashpelon told the English not to fear, for he would speak last, and would frustrate the design of burning, for he would show that it was not Stebbins's fault for running away, but the fault of the Indian who had him in charge; and he brought it to pass, as he had promised. Having at length arrived among the French, Stockwell was pawned to one of them, and in the end sold for 21 beaver skins, and some time the next year got home again. Remarkable Providences. Blome's America, 221. † Gookin's MS. History. Allen's Hist. Chelmsford, 157. For many years at the head of the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians. He was a great benefactor of N. England, and one of the founders of the Royal Society of London. He was by birth an Irishman, out settled finally at Oxford, Englar:1. He died in Lon in 1677:—"We had a sachem of the greatest blood in the country submitted to pray to God, a little before the wars: his name is Wanalauncet: in the time of the wars he fled, by reason of the wicked actings of some English youth, who causelessly and basely killed and wounded some of them. He was persuaded to come in again. But the English having plowed and sown with rye all their lands, they had but little corn to subsist by. A party of French Indians, (of whom some were of the kindred of this sachem's wife,) very lately fell upon this people, being but few and unarmed, and partly by persuasion, partly by force, carried them away. One, with his wife, child and kinswoman, who were of our praying Indians, made their escape, came in to the English, and discovered what was done. These things keep some in a continual disgust and jealousy of all the Indians." * It may be proper to add a word upon the name of the place which we have often mentioned in this life, as the same word, differently pronounced, was applied to a great many places by the Indians, and is the same word which Dr. I. Mather and some others made many believe was made up of two Hebrew words, to prove that the Indians were really the descendants of the dispersed Jews; but for which purpose, if we are not misinformed, any other Indian word would answer the same purpose. The doctor writes the name Nahumkeik, and adds that Nahum signifies consolation, and keik a bosom, or heaven; and hence the settlers of places bearing this name were seated in the bosom of consolation. He points out this etymological analogy in speaking of the settlement of Salem, which was called by the Indians Naumkeag, Namkeg, Naamhok, Naumkuk, or something a little somewhat like it. A sad bosome of consolation, did it prove in the days of Tituba, (to say nothing of some more modern events,) and even in Dr. Mather's own days. [Though a digression, we shall, I doubt not, be pardoned for inserting here Dr. C. Mather's account of a curiosity at Amoskeag Falls, which he gave in a letter to London, and which afterwards appeared in the Philosophical Transactions: "At a place called Amnuskeag, a little above the hideous § falls of Merimack River, there is a huge rock in the midst of the stream, on the top of which are a great number of pits, made exactly round, like barrels or hogsheads of different capacities, some so large as to hold several tuns. The natives know nothing of the time they were made; but the neighboring Indians have been wont to hide their provisions in them, in their wars with the Maquas; affirming, God had cut them out for that use for them. They seem plainly to be artificial." It could certainly have required no great sagacity to have supposed that one stone placed upon another in the water, so as to have been constantly rolled from side to side by the current, would, in time, occasion such cavities. One quite as remarkable we have seen near the source of this river, in its descent from the Franconia Mountains; also upon the Mohawk, a short distance below Little Falls. They may be seen as you pass upon the canal. Early purchases of lands bring to our notice a host of Indians, many of don, 1691, aged 64 years. The following lines are no less well conceived by the poet than deserved by this benevolent philosopher : How much to BOYLE the learned world does owe, The learned world does only know. He traced great nature's secret springs; What strange elastic power the air contains, What mother earth secures within her secret veins. * 1 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. iii. 179. Athenian Oracle, i. 67. Relation of the Troubles, &c. 20. Dr. Increase Mather was the author of a great many works, chiefly sermons, many of which have become curious for their singularity, and some others valuable for the facts they contain. His sermons, like many others of that day, had very little meaning in them, and consequently are now forgotten. He was son of Richard Mather, preached in Boston above 60 years, died in 1723, aged 84 years. See hi. life, by his son, Dr. Cotton Mather, who was born 12 Feb. 1662—3, died 13 Feb. 1727-8, aged 65. See his life by Samuel Mather. Vol. v. of Jones's Abridgement, part ii. 164. We cannot say what they were in those days, but should expect to be laughed at if we should call them hideous at the present time. 284 WEHANOWNOWIT.-ROBINHOOD. [BOOK III. whom, though sachems, but for such circumstances of trade, would never have come to our knowledge. There are some, however, of whom we shall in this chapter take notice, as such notices assist in enabling us to judge how the natives regarded their lands, and the territories of their neighboring countrymen. WEHANOWNOWIT was a New Hampshire sachem, whose name has been considerably handled within a few years, from its being found to the much-talked-of deed conveying lands in New Hampshire to the Reverend John Wheelwright, and others, 3 April, 1638. If Wehanownowit were sachem of the tract said to have been by him conveyed, his "kingdom" was larger than some can boast of at this day who call themselves kings. It was to contain 30 miles square, and its boundaries were thus described: "lying and situate within three miles on the northerne side of ye River Meremoke, extending thirty miles along by the river from the sea side, and from the sayd river side to Pisscataqua Patents, 30 miles up into the countrey northwest, and so from the falls of Piscataqua to Oyster River, 30 miles square every way." The original is in possession of Mr. John Farmer, of Concord, N. H. TUMMADOCKYON was a son of Wehanownowit, and his name is also to the deed above mentioned; and another Indian, belonging to that tract of country, named Watchenowet: these Loth relinquished their title to, or concurred in the sale of said tract. ROBINHOOD was the father of a more noted chief, whose Indian name was Wohawa, but commonly known among the English as Hopehood. His territories, as will appear, were upon the Kennebeck River in the first settlement of N. England. Our first notice of Robinhood runs as follows: "Be it known"—" that I, Ramegin, soe called by my Indian name, or Robinhood, soe called by English name, sagamore of Negusset, [or Neguasseag,] doe freely sell vnto James Smith," "part of my land, beginning att Merry-meeting Cove, and soe downward the maine riuer vnto a rocke, called Winslowe's Rocke, in the longe reach, and in breadth eastward ouer the little riuer, runinge through the great mersh, with the priuilidges [reserved to me] as hunting, fowlinge, fishing, and other games." Smith was to pay him or his heirs, on the 1 November annually, "one peck of Indian corn." This deed bears date 8 May, 1648, and is signed and witnessed as follows:-§ NEGWINIS his mark. T SONGREEHOOD his mark ROBINHOOD his mark. The next year, 1649, he sold the island of Jeremysquam, on the east side of the Kennebeck, and in 1654 we find him selling his place of residence, which was in what is now Woolwich, to Edward Bateman and John Brown. In 1663, Robinhood is mentioned as one of the principal chiefs among the eastern Indians. || In 1667, the inhabitants upon Connecticut River, about Hadley, sustained some injury from Indians, in their lands and domestic animals, and satisfaction therefor was demanded of Robinhood; at the same time threatening him with the utmost severity, if the like should be repeated. But whether his people were the perpetrators we are not told; but from the following facts it may be thought otherwise. "To promote amity with them, license was at length given to the traders in fur and in peltries, to sell unto Indian friends * MS. communication of that gentleman. This name was adopted, I have no doubt, as it came something near the sound of his Indian name, as was the case in several instances which we have already recorded: the old English robber of that name, or fables concerning him, are among the first in the nursery. Even at this day, the curious adult will dispense with Mr. Ritson's collections of legends conterning him with peculiar regret. The same, I suppose, called in Sullivan's Hist. Rogomok. From a manuscript copy of the original deed. B Josselyn, who visited the country at this time. See his Voyages. guns and ammunition.” * Hence these friends could see no reason, after. wards, why arms were prohibited them, as we shall again have occasion to notice. On the breaking out of Philip's war, Robinhood was in no wise inclined to join in it, and when a party of English was sent at that time to learn the feelings of his people in that respect, he made a great dance, and by songs and shouts expressed his satisfaction that the English were disposed to maintain peace. MONQUINE, "alias Natahanada, the son of old Natawormett, sagamore of Kennebeck River," sold to William Bradford and others, all the land on both sides of said river, "from Cussenocke upwards to Wesserunsicke." This sale bore date 8 August, 1648. The signature is "Monquine, alias Dumhanada." Then follows: "We, Agodoademago, the sonne of Wasshemett, and Tassucke, the brother of Natahanada, † do consent freely unto the sale to Bradford, Paddy, and others."‡ KENNEBIS was a sachem from whom it has been supposed that the Kennebeck River derived its name. But whether there were a line of sagamores of this name, from whom the river was so called, or whether sachems were so called from their living at a certain place upon it, is uncertain. It is certain, however, that there was one of this name residing there, contemporaneously with Robinhood, who, besides several others, deeded and redeeded the lands up and down in the country. He was sometimes associated in his sales with Abbigadasset, and sometimes with others. In 1649, he sold to Christopher Lawson all the land on the Kennebeck River up as high as Taconnet falls, now Winslow, which was the residence of the great chief Essiminasqua, or Assiminasqua, elsewhere mentioned. About the same time, he sold the same tract, or a part of it, to Spencer and Clark. The residence of Kennebis was upon Swan Island, "in a delightful situation, and that of Abbigadasset between a river of his name and the Kennebeck, upon the northern borders of Merry-meeting Bay."§ Swan Island was purchased of Abbigadasset in 1667, by Humphry Davie, and afterwards claimed by Sir John Davy, a serjeant at law. || We shall proceed to notice here one, of another age, whose melancholy fate has long since commanded the attention of writers. Some time previous to the settlement of Burton, N. H., that is, previous to 1766, there resided in that region a small tribe of Indians, among whom was one named CHOCORUA, and he was the last of the primitives of those romantic scenes. This region was attracting to them on account of the beaver which were found in its pellucid waters, and its cragged cliffs afforded safe retreats to a plentiful game. It is handed to us by tradition, that Chocorua was the last of this region, and that he was murdered by a miserable white hunter, who, with others of his complexion, had wandered here in quest of game. This solitary man had retired to a neighboring mountain, and was there discovered and shot. The eminence to which it is said this Indian had retired, is the highest mountain in Burton, and commands a beautiful view of a great extent of surrounding country. One of the most superb engravings that has appeared in all our annuals, is that representing Chocorua in his last retreat. It is a fact well known in all the neighboring parts of the country, that cattle cannot long survive in Burton, although there appears abundance of all that is necessary for their support. They lose their appetite, pine and * Williamson's Maine, i. 428, from 3 Mass. Rec. + It appears from the "Answer to the Remarks of the Plymouth Company," that ESSEME NOSQUE was also one that consented to the sale. He is the same whom we shall notice as Assiminasqua in our next chapter. People of Plimouth.-William Paddy died at Boston. His gravestone was dug out of the rubbish under the old state-house in 1830. 1668. Williamson, i. 467. Williamson, i. 331. Dr. Holmes, in his Annals, places the sale of Swan Island under 286 SQUANDO. BURNING OF SACO. [BOOK III. die. It is said that Chocorua cursed the English before he expired, and the superstitious, to this day, attribute the disease of cattle to the curse of Chocorua. But a much more rational one, we apprehend, will be found in the affection of the waters by minerals. SQUANDO, Sachem of Saco-Attacks the town of Saco-Singular account of him by a contemporary-The ill treatment of his wife a cause of war-His humanity in restor ing a captive-MADOKAWANDO-Causes of his hostility-ASSIMINASQUA-His speech-Speech of TARUMKIN-MUGG-Is carried to Boston to execute a treaty-Is Madokawando's ambassador-Release of Thomas Cobbet-Madokawando's kindness to prisoners-Moxus attacks Wells and is beaten off-Attacked the next year by the Indians under Madokawando and a company of Frenchmen-Are repulsed with great loss-Incidents of the siege-Mons. Casteins—A further account of MoxusWANUNGONET-ASSACOMBUIT-Further account of Mugg-His death-SYMON, ANDREW, JEOFFREY, PETER and JOSEPH-Account of their depredations—Life of KANKAMAGUS-Treated with neglect-Flies his country-Becomes an enemySurprise of Dover and murder of Maj. Waldron MASANDOWET-WOROMBOHis fort captured by Church-Kankamagus's wife and children taken-HOPEHOODConspicuous in the massacre at Salmon Falls-His death-MATTAHANDO— MEGUNNEWAY. THE first chief which will here be properly noticed is Squando, a Tarratine, sachem of the Socokis, commonly called sagamore of Saco. He is mentioned with a good deal of singularity by the writers of his times. And we will here, by way of exordium, extract what Mr. Mather, in his BRIEF HISTORY, &c., says of him. “After this, [the burning of Casco,] they [the Indians] set upon Saco, where they slew 13 men, and at last burnt the town. A principal actor in the destruction of Saco was a strange enthusiastical sagamore called Squando, who, some years before, pretended that God appeared to him in the form of a tall man, in black clothes, declaring to him that he was God, and commanded him to leave his drinking of strong liquors, and to pray, and to keep sabbaths, and to go to hear the word preached; all which things the Indian did for some years, with great seeming devotion and conscience, observe. But the God which appeared to him said nothing to him about Jesus Christ; and therefore it is not to be marvelled at, that at last he discovered himself to be no otherwise than a child of him that was a murderer and a liar from the beginning." Mr. Hubbard says that he was "the chief actor or rather the beginner" of the eastern war of 1675-6; but rather contradicts the statement, as we apprehend, in the same paragraph, by attributing the same cause to the "rude and indiscrete act of some English seamen," who either for mischief overset a canoe in which was Squando's wife and child, or to see if young Indians could swim naturally like animals of the brute creation, as some had reported. The child went * to the bottom, but was saved from drowning by the mother's diving down and bringing it up, yet "within a while after the said child died." "The said Squando, father of the child, hath been so provoked thereat, that he hath ever since set himself to do all the mischief he can to the English." The whites did not believe that the death of the child was owing to its immersion; still we must allow the Indians to know as well as they. As the most memorable exploit in which Squando was engaged was the burning of Saco, it will be proper to enter here more in detail into it. The two principal inhabitants of the place were Captain Bonithon and Major Phillips, whose dwellings were situated on opposite sides of Saco River; the former on the east and the latter on the west. On 18 September, 1675, Captain Bonithon's house was discovered to be on fire, but himself and family had just They can swim naturally, striking their paws under their throat like a dog, and not spreading their arms as we do.' Josselyn's Voyage to N. E. 142. |