"Eastport--which we will presently visit," began Captain Raymond,
"is on Moose Island, in Passamaquoddy Bay. At the time of our last
war with them the English claimed it as belonging to New Brunswick,
under the treaty of 1783. Early in July, 1814, Sir Thomas Hardy sailed
secretly from Halifax for that place, with quite a force of men for
land and sea service. On the 11th the squadron entered Passamaquoddy
Bay and anchored off Fort Sullivan, at Eastport. Major Perley Putnam
was in command of the fort, with a garrison of fifty men and six
pieces of artillery. Hardy demanded an instant surrender, and gave
only five minutes' time for consideration. Putnam promptly refused to
surrender--but the inhabitants of the island were greatly alarmed and
not disposed to resist, so entreated him to yield, which he did on
condition that private property should be respected.
"When the agreement was signed, the British took possession of the
fort, the town of Eastport, and all the islands and villages in and
around Passamaquoddy Bay, landing a thousand armed men, with women
and children, fifty or sixty pieces of cannon, and a battalion of
artillery."
"And did they stay there, papa?" asked Elsie. "Oh, I hope they are not
there now!"
"I have no doubt that nearly, if not all of them, are in their graves
by this time, daughter," replied the captain; then went on: "The
British made declaration that these islands were in their permanent
possession, and ordered all the inhabitants to take an oath of
allegiance within seven days, or leave the territory."
"Allegiance to the King of England, papa?" asked Elsie; "and did any of
them do it?"
"Yes, that is what was meant, and about two-thirds of the people
took it. They, the English, took all the public property from the
custom-house, and tried to force the collector to sign unfinished
treasury notes to the value of nine thousand dollars. But he refused,
saying, 'Hanging will be no compulsion.'"
"Did that mean that he wouldn't do it even if he knew they would hang
him if he refused?" asked Elsie.
"Yes, that was just it," said her father. "Having accomplished what
he wished to do at Eastport--securing it to his country, as he
thought--leaving eight hundred troops to hold it, Hardy sailed away
along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, spreading alarm as he
went. But the people prepared to meet his expected attack--manning
their forts and arming them. When Sherbrook and Griffith sailed, they
intended to stop at Machias and take possession of it; but falling in
with the brig _Rifleman_, and being told by its commander that the
United States corvette _John Adams_ had gone up the Penobscot, they
made haste to the mouth of that river to blockade her. They passed up
the Green Island channel and entered the fine harbor of Castine on
the morning of the 1st of September. On the edge of the water south of
the village was the half moon redoubt called Fort Porter, armed with
four twenty-pounders and two fieldpieces, and manned by about forty
men under Lieutenant Lewis, of the United States army. At sunrise
Lewis was called upon to surrender. He saw that resistance would be
impossible, so resolved to flee. He gave the enemy a volley from his
twenty-pounders, then spiked them, blew up the redoubt, and with the
fieldpieces he and the garrison fled over the high peninsula to its
neck and escaped up the Penobscot. Then the British took possession of
the town and control of the bay.
"The _John Adams_ had just come home from a successful cruise, and
coming into Penobscot Bay in a thick fog had struck a rock and received
so much injury that it was found necessary to lay her up for repairs.
They did their best to take her out of harm's way, but it was with
difficulty they could keep her afloat until she reached Hampden, a few
miles below Bangor. Some of her crew were disabled by sickness, and so
she was almost helpless.
"Sherbrook, the commanding officer of the British vessels, was told all
this as soon as he landed at Castine, and he and Griffith, commander
of the fleet, at once sent a land and naval force to seize and destroy
the _John Adams_. The expedition sailed in the afternoon of the day of
the arrival at Castine. The people along the Penobscot were not at all
inclined to submit to the British if they could possibly escape doing
so. On the day the British sailed up the river word was sent by express
to Captain Morris, and he at once communicated with Brigadier-General
John Blake, at his home in Brower, opposite Bangor, asking him to call
out the militia immediately. Blake lost no time in assembling the
tenth Massachusetts division, of which he was commander. That evening
he rode down to Hampden, where he found Captain Morris busy with his
preparations for defence. He had taken the heavy guns of his ship to
the high right bank of the Soadabscook, fifty rods from the wharf, and
placed them in battery there so as to command the river approaches from
below.
"The next morning he and Blake held a consultation on the best methods
of defence, citizens of Bangor and Hampden taking part in it. Captain
Morris had little confidence in the militia, but expressed his
intention to meet the enemy at their landing-place, wherever that might
be, and also his resolution to destroy the _Adams_ rather than allow it
to fall into their hands.
"Belfast was taken the next morning by General Gosselin, at the head of
six hundred troops. At the same time another detachment marched up the
western side of the Penobscot unmolested, and reached Bald Hill Cove at
five o'clock in the evening. The troops and eighty marines bivouacked
there that night in a drenching rain. During that day about six hundred
raw militia, who had never seen anything more like war than their own
annual parade, had gathered at Hampden and been posted by General
Blake in an admirable position on the brow of a hill. Lieutenant
Lewis and the forty men who had fled from Castine had joined him. The
artillery company of Blake's brigade was there also, with two brass
three-pounders, and an iron eighteen-pound carronade from the _Adams_
was placed in battery in the road near the meeting-house in charge of
Mr. Bent of the artillery. Many of the militia were without weapons or
ammunition, but Captain Morris supplied them as far as he could.
"While these arrangements were being made Captain Morris had mounted
nine short eighteen-pounders from the _Adams_ upon the high bank over
Crosby's wharf, and placed them in charge of his first lieutenant,
assisted by the other two. With the rest of his guns he took his
position on the wharf, with about two hundred seamen and marines
and twenty invalids, ready to defend his crippled ship to the last
extremity.
"The next morning all that region was covered by a dense fog. The
different British detachments joined together, and by five o'clock
were moving on toward Hampden--moving cautiously in the mist, with a
vanguard of riflemen, and on the flanks detachments of sailors and
marines with a six-pound cannon, a six and a half inch howitzer, and a
rocket apparatus. The British vessels at the same time moved slowly up
the river within supporting distance.
"Blake had sent out two flank companies to watch and annoy the
approaching foe, and between seven and eight o'clock they reported them
as coming up the hill to attack the Americans. The fog was so thick
that they could not be seen, but Blake pointed his eighteen-pounder
in that direction, his fieldpieces also, and fired away with a good
deal of effect, as he learned afterward; but the fog was too thick for
him to see it at the time. His plan was to reserve his musket firing
until the enemy should be near enough to be seriously hurt; but his
men, being raw militia and without the protection of a breastwork in
front, lost courage while standing there awaiting the approach of the
enemy, and when it came suddenly into view, marching at double-quick
and firing volleys in rapid succession, they were panic-stricken, broke
ranks, and fled in every direction, leaving Blake and his officers
alone. Lieutenant Wadsworth saw it all from the upper battery where he
was, and sent word immediately to Morris, who was on the wharf.
"The flight of the militia had left Morris' rear and flank exposed,
and he saw that it would be impossible to defend himself against such
a force as was about to attack him. He therefore ordered Wadsworth to
spike his guns and retreat with his men across the bridge over the
Soadabscook, while it was yet open, for the stream was fordable only at
low water, and the tide was rising.
"Wadsworth obeyed, his rear gallantly covered by Lieutenant Watson
with some marines. At the same time the guns on the wharf were spiked,
the _John Adams_ was set on fire, and Morris' men retreated across
the Soadabscook, he being the last man to leave the wharf. Before
he reached the bridge the British were on the bank above him; but
he dashed across the stream, armpit deep in the water, and under a
galling fire from their muskets, unhurt, joined his friends on the
other side--Blake and his officers and a mere remnant of his command
among them--and all retreated to Bangor. Morris did not stay there,
however, but soon made his way overland to Portland."
"Did the British harm the people in that town, papa?" asked Elsie.
"They took possession, and there was no further resistance," replied
the captain. "Then they sent some vessels, with about five hundred men,
to Bangor. A mile from the town they were met by a flag of truce from
the magistrates, who asked terms of capitulation. The answer was that
private property would be respected. It was about ten o'clock when
they reached the town, and Commodore Barrie gave notice that if the
people would cheerfully send in the required supplies they should not
be harmed in person or property. But he had hardly done so before he
gave his sailors to understand that they might plunder as much as they
pleased."
"And did they, papa?" asked Elsie.
"Yes," he said, "history tells us that almost every store on the
western side of the creek, which there empties into the Penobscot,
was robbed of all valuable property. Colonel John, however, did all
he could to protect the inhabitants. The British forced the people to
surrender all their arms, military stores, and public property of every
kind, and to report themselves prisoners of war for parole, with a
promise that they would not take up arms against the British.
"Having robbed the people of property worth twenty-three thousand
dollars, destroyed, by burning, fourteen vessels, and stolen six, which
they carried away with them, they left Bangor for Hampden, which they
treated in the same way. There they desolated the church--tearing up
the Bible and psalm-books, and demolishing the pulpit and pews. Lossing
tells us that the total loss of property at Hampden, exclusive of the
cargo of the _Commodore Decatur_, was estimated at forty-four thousand
dollars. And in a note he adds that Williamson's 'History of Maine'
says, 'In the midst of the rapine a committee waited on Barrie, and
told him that the people expected at his hands the common safeguards
of humanity, if nothing more; to which the brutal officer replied, "I
have none for you. My business is to burn, sink, and destroy. Your town
is taken by storm, and by the rules of war we ought to both lay your
village in ashes and put its inhabitants to the sword. But I will spare
your lives, though I don't mean to spare your houses."'"
"Oh, what a cruel wretch!" said Evelyn.
"A perfect savage, I should call him!" exclaimed Lucilla hotly.
"I entirely agree with you, ladies," said Mr. Lilburn, "and am sorry
indeed to have to own him as a countryman of mine."
"Well, Cousin Ronald," returned Mrs. Travilla pleasantly, "there are
plenty of Americans of such character that I should be loth indeed to
own them as relatives."
"And there were plenty such in the days of our two wars with England,
as any one must acknowledge, remembering the lawless bands of
marauders called Cowboys and Skinners," said Violet; "they were more
detestable than the British themselves--even such as that Barrie,
Tarleton, and others too numerous to mention."
"Will they ever come here again, papa?" asked Ned.
"I think not, son," replied the captain; "most, if not all of them, are
now dead."
"Yes, it must have been a long, long while ago," remarked the little
lad reflectively.
"We are going now to Passamaquoddy Bay, aren't we, papa?" asked Elsie.
"Yes," he said, "and hope to reach there early this afternoon."
"And I hope we will see all that Lossing tells about," said Grace.
"I think you may feel reasonably certain of that," her father
responded, in his kindly, pleasant tones.
"We pass Machias on the way to Passamaquoddy Bay, don't we, father?"
asked Grace.
"Yes," he replied, "we are nearing it now."
"Oh, I remember something about what occurred there in the Revolution;
but won't you please tell us the story again?" she exclaimed.
"I will," he said. "We had then an exposed coast many miles in extent,
and not a single armed vessel to protect it, while Britain was the
first naval power of the world. A few of our planters and merchants
had been trained in the royal navy, and so had a good many American
seamen, to some extent, in helping England in her wars with the French
in the twenty years preceding our Revolution; but our wise men who
were directing public affairs could see no material for organizing
a marine force, so devoted themselves to the business of raising an
army. Immediately after the battle of Lexington the British began
depredations along the New England coast, and soon private vessels were
gotten out by patriot volunteers, who armed them as well as they could,
and did their best to defend the coast.
"You know news did not fly so fast in those days as it does now, but
when at length the people of Machias heard of the affair at Lexington
it of course caused great excitement, and a desire to defend their
country against the foe. There in their own harbor lay a British armed
schooner called the _Margaretta_. She had two sloops with her, and the
three were busied in getting lumber for the British army in Boston. A
party of the young men of the town determined to try to capture her
while her officers were at church on shore. They seized one of the
sloops, chased the schooner out of the harbor, and after a severe fight
compelled her to surrender.
"It was the first naval engagement of the Revolution. There were
forty of the Americans, commanded by Jeremiah O'Brien, and about
twenty of them, and as many of the British, were killed in the fight.
The captain of the cutter was one of the mortally wounded. Soon
afterward O'Brien captured two small English cruisers, making their
crews prisoners, and carrying them to Watertown, where the Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts was in session. That body then took measures
to establish a coast marine to intercept English transports bringing
supplies for the British troops, and gave O'Brien employment in that
service, with a captain's commission.
"The British force under Sherwood and Griffiths, after their raid up
the Penobscot, went back to Machias. They landed at Buck's Harbor,
three miles below the town, and marched against the fort, which the
garrison deserted and blew up."
"Are we going to Machias now, papa?" asked Ned.
"No," said his father, "we are nearing Passamaquoddy Bay now. We will
spend a little time there, then turn and go back to the Penobscot, to
visit historical scenes along its course. You perhaps remember that
the British went there shortly after having taken Eastport and Fort
Sullivan on Moose Island in Passamaquoddy Bay. They were taken on the
11th of July, 1812; Castine on September 1 of the same year."
"And about a year after came the fight between the _Enterprise_ and
the _Boxer_, which occurred September 5, 1813," observed Max.
"Yes," said his father, with a smile, "and of course you remember the
notable victory vouchsafed us by Providence five days later on Lake
Erie?"
"Perry's victory, sir? Yes, indeed! Also Macdonough's on Lake
Champlain, which was given him on the 11th of the next September, 1814."
But they were now entering the bay, and historical reminiscence gave
place to talk of the beauty of the scenery, Captain Raymond, who had
been there before, pointing out and naming the different islands and
villages. They did not land, but steamed slowly about the bay, finding
so much to interest them that they lingered there until nightfall. They
then steamed out into the ocean, taking a westward course. It was a
beautiful moonlight evening, and all gathering together on deck, passed
the time in cheerful chat concerning the scenes just visited and those
they expected to visit in the near future. At length there was a pause
in the conversation, presently broken by little Ned.
"Oh, dear!" he sighed, "I'm just hungry for a little fun. I don't see
what's the use of having ventriloquists along, if they don't make some
fun for us once in a while."
"Now, Master Ned, do you call that a polite speech?" asked a strange
voice that seemed to come from a short distance in his rear.
Ned sprang to his feet and turned toward it.
"I--I didn't mean to be rude, Cousin Ronald or Brother Max, whichever
you are; but I am ever so hungry for a bit of fun."
"And you consider that a healthful appetite, do you?" queried the voice.
"Yes, sir; for 'Laugh and grow fat' is an old saying, so I've heard."
"Well, well, well! I have understood that you rather objected to being
considered fat," laughed the invisible speaker.
"Oh, well, I don't believe a bit of fun once in a while would do much
harm in that way," returned the little fellow. "At any rate, I'm more
than willing to try it."
"Well, suppose we try it with the understanding that if you get too fat
you are to be reduced to your present suitable size by a low and spare
diet?"
"No, indeed!" cried Ned. "I won't consent to that. Don't you know that
boys need to eat plenty, if they are to grow up into big, strong men?"
"Enough, but not too much, Neddie," laughed his cousin, Dr. Percival,
sitting near.
"Uncle Harold, you know all about it, for you're a good doctor," said
Ned, appealing to Dr. Travilla; "oughtn't little boys to have plenty to
eat?"
"Yes, Ned; plenty, but not too much."
"Well, that's just what I want," laughed Ned. "Oh, what was that?" as
a cry, "Help! help, or I shall drown!" came from the water not far
from the side of the vessel. Cousin Ronald and Max exchanged inquiring
glances, and the latter rose hastily to his feet.
"Throw him a rope, my men!" he called to a group of sailors at the
farther end of the vessel.
The words had hardly left his lips ere the order was obeyed, and the
next moment the dripping figure of a young lad in a bathing suit was
drawn up and landed upon the deck.
"Thanks, thanks, gentlemen," he panted; "you've helped me to a narrow
escape from a watery grave. I ventured out too far--alone in the
moonlight and----"
"Don't try to talk, my man; you are too much exhausted," interrupted
Dr. Travilla, for he, Captain Raymond, Max, Mr. Lilburn, Chester, and
Dr. Percival had all hurried to the spot to see and assist the rescued
stranger.
"Thanks! I'll do," he said, "if you'll kindly help me to rub down, and
lend me some things till these can be made dry."
"Certainly," replied Captain Raymond, and at once gave directions that
the stranger be taken to a comfortably warm stateroom, provided with
everything needful, and his wet garments dried and returned to him as
quickly as possible. Then turning to his brother-in-law, "I leave the
rest to your care, Harold," he said.
"Oh, Brother Max," cried Ned, as the gentlemen rejoined the ladies and
children, "I thought it was you or Cousin Ronald calling for help just
for fun, and it was a real drowning man, after all."
"A mere lad, Ned, and I am very glad we were able to give him help in
season."
The incident had created quite a little excitement, and all eagerly
awaited Harold's report. He rejoined them in a few minutes, looking
so undisturbed that they at once felt that his new patient was in no
danger.
"He will be all right presently," he said, in answer to their eagerly
inquiring looks and questions. "When we heard his cry for help he had
hardly more than just realized his danger. He is somewhat ashamed of
his venturesomeness, and anxious to get back to his friends without
letting them know of the peril he was in."
Turning to Captain Raymond, "He will be very glad and grateful if you
will go a little out of your way and land him at the spot where he
entered the water, so that he may be able to steal up to the house of
his friends without arousing their suspicions concerning the danger he
has been in."
"I think we may do that," the captain said, in his kindly tones. "It
will probably not delay us more than an hour or so, and we are not so
hurried for time that we need decline to submit to that."
Max at once gave the necessary orders, the course of the vessel was
changed, and ere long the young stranger was landed at the spot where
he had entered the water. Then the _Dolphin_ proceeded on her westward
way, and when her passengers awoke in the morning they were nearing
Penobscot Bay.