THE SETTLEMENT OF MAINE AND DISCOVERY OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
Although the southern part of North America became very well known to
Europe almost immediately after its discovery, yet many years passed
away before the whites knew very much about the lands farther north.
This was because in settling America the settlers thought more of
finding gold and silver than any thing else. Gold and silver had been
found in such quantities in Mexico and Peru, and Spain had grown so rich
by conquering those countries, that no one thought it worth while to go
to any place that had neither gold nor silver nor precious stones to
offer. And then, besides this reason, the northern part of America did
not have such a warm, delightful climate as the southern. In Florida one
could live for the greater part of the year on the fruit, that was so
abundant, and one scarcely needed a house where the summer lasted so
long; but up in the north one must be well protected from the icy winds,
must have heavy fur clothing and warm comfortable houses, and above all,
must spend the spring and summer months in planting corn and grain for
use in the long, cold winter; and so, as men knew living would be very
hard work, and the chance of getting rich very small up there on those
northern coasts, they stayed away, and long years passed before white
settlers came to live among the beautiful mountains and valleys of New
England.
The first people who came were the fisher-folk. They came from France,
and spent the warm months in tossing on the waters around the coast of
Newfoundland and Maine, taking in large cargoes of fish which they sold
readily in European markets. When they went back home again they told
very entertaining stories about the northern lands; of their great
rivers that came rushing down from the north, and of the beautiful
forests of pine and spruce, and of the pleasant inland lakes whose
waters were so clear that one could see the pebbles on the bottom, and
which were filled with delicious trout.
By and by these fishermen's stories attracted other people to those
regions, and men began to go there not only to fish, but to trade with
the natives; and gradually it came to be quite a general custom for the
traders and fishermen to build a few warm huts and pass the winter on
the shores of some sheltered bay, instead of going back to France at the
first sign of cold weather. And here they learned many interesting
things about the new country, and which made it seem quite worth living
in. They learned how the Indian could start from the coast in his bark
canoe, and, by means of those large streams, the Kennebec, and the
Penobscot, and the lakes that they formed, reach easily the smaller
rivers of Canada and so float down to the great Hochelaga or St.
Lawrence; thus going from the Atlantic coast, through hundreds of miles
of dense forest, to the large Indian villages of Hochelaga or Stadacona.
Sometimes the traveller would have to carry his canoe from one lake to
another, always a short distance, or around the rapids or waterfalls of
the narrowing river; but with these exceptions the journey was made
entirely by water. And as the Indians of Canada and those of Maine were
constantly trading with one another, the whites soon saw that a country
where distant places could be so easily reached, and whose fine forests,
and rich furs, and excellent fisheries could be had for the taking, was
not so poor after all, and that perhaps they might as easily draw gold
from the sea, or find it in the sweet-scented woods, as by wandering
through the marshes of Florida, or on the banks of the Mississippi.
And so, little by little, the French king began to believe that it would
be a very good thing for France to own and settle Maine and Canada, or,
as all the northern part of America was then called, New France; and in
1604 Sieur De Monts, a Huguenot nobleman, sailed from Havre de Grace for
the purpose of making a French settlement in Acadia. With De Monts came
his friend Jean de Biancourt, Baron de Poutrincourt, also a Huguenot,
who wished to find a new home in America, where he would be free from
all the religious troubles that were constantly vexing him in France.
Samuel Champlain was also one of the company, and as he had been on
several voyages before, and knew the country and people better than the
others, he was looked upon as a very important member.
The ships reached Nova Scotia without any mishaps, and Poutrincourt, who
was delighted with the country, got permission to settle here, and began
the foundation of his new home. He had chosen a delightful spot, and for
many years lived there peacefully and happily, cultivating the rich
soil, and showing the Indians how to improve their own way of farming.
And although Poutrincourt was a loyal Frenchman, still he never looked
back regretfully to France, for he found, amid the pleasant meadows and
blossoming orchards of Acadia, a greater peace than he had ever known in
his old home. The Indians all loved him, and the little Indian children
came and went freely through the halls of his stately mansion, often
lying at his feet while he was dining, and catching in their little
dark hands the nuts and raisins which he threw them as their part of the
dessert.
Very pleasant indeed would the settling of Maine have been if all
Frenchmen had possessed as good and true hearts as Poutrincourt; but
when De Monts, who had settled first at the mouth of the St. Croix, went
sailing around the coast of Maine to find a better place, he found that
the white visitors before him had left a bad name among the Indians, who
came down to his ship with scowling faces and angry gestures; and so,
although De Monts saw many pleasant spots up among the deep sheltered
bays, and would have been very glad to settle there and hunt and fish,
yet the natives seemed so unfriendly that he gave up the idea and went
back to St. Croix for awhile, and then finally sailed across the bay and
settled at Port Royal, in Acadia, the home of Poutrincourt.
But Champlain could not remain content with the idle life that was led
there. He was constantly making expeditions into the great forests, and
learning all that he could about the country; he went back to France
too, and while there a company of merchants employed him to explore the
country from Maine to the St. Lawrence. He started off on his travels as
soon as he returned to America, and pushing through the forests of Maine
and Canada, travelling for the greater part of the way in an Indian
canoe, came at last to the St. Lawrence, and floating down the mighty
stream to Stadacona, the old resting place of Jacques Cartier, built
there a fort in July, 1608. Here he remained for many months, visiting
all the country round, going up and down the St. Lawrence, and learning
its islands and tributaries, and giving names to rivers, islands, and
lakes which they keep to this day. In the spring the men laid out garden
plots and planted them carefully, so that they would have corn and
vegetables for the next winter; and as soon as the planting was done,
and everything in good order, Champlain started off on one of his trips,
which proved to be the most interesting he had ever undertaken.
He was accompanied by a large party of his men, and in his journey met,
as agreed upon, the Indians of Canada in an expedition against the
Iroquois, the tribes of what is now known as New York State. He met his
Indian friends at the mouth of the Iroquois River, now called the
Richelieu; they were very glad to see him and his men, for they knew
that they would be of great help in the coming battle, and probably be
the means of their defeating the Iroquois. Champlain noticed the beauty
of this river, which he had never sailed on before, and asked his guides
where it came from. They told him it came from a beautiful lake not very
far away, and which he could easily reach with his vessel. But he soon
found that this was not true: the river grew narrower and narrower, and
the bed became so rocky and steep that the Indians at last confessed
that they had deceived him in the hope that he would join in the coming
battle. But as soon as Champlain saw that he could not reach the lake in
his own vessel, he sent it back to Quebec, only being able to persuade
two of his men to go on with him. The rest of the journey was made in
the canoes, and although there were many dangerous places in the
river--falls and rapids and immense boulders that almost blocked the
way--still, by landing and carrying the canoes around the worst places,
they at last came to smooth water without having lost a single boat. And
then Champlain saw, as they floated into this shining stretch of water,
that of all the lakes he had seen in Maine or Canada none was so
beautiful as this. For miles and miles ahead its waves glistened in the
July sunlight, and everywhere lovely islands appeared; the shores were
bordered with magnificent trees and covered with luxuriant vines; on one
side rose the wooded heights of Vermont, and on the other the white
peaks of the Adirondacks, and as the admiring party slowly coasted
along, visiting the little bays and islands, and gathering the wild
flowers and strawberries that grew in abundance, they felt well rewarded
for their difficult journey.
Champlain gave the lake his own name, which it bears to this day in
honor of its great discoverer.
Two or three days passed very peacefully, and it seemed they had only
come to that beautiful place for quiet and enjoyment; but one evening,
just as the dusk was creeping over the lake, they saw the dark faces of
the Iroquois looking down at them from the leafy heights above. The
Canadian Indians gave a shrill cry at the sight, and all that night the
two tribes shrieked defiance at one another, and waited impatiently for
the sunrise, which was to be the signal for the battle to begin. At
break of day the Iroquois stood ready for battle, awaiting the attack of
the Canadians, who all this time had kept Champlain and his friends
hidden from the sight of their enemies. Now they formed in ranks, still
keeping their white friends concealed, and marched slowly toward the
Iroquois, who were eager for the fight. But before a single arrow was
shot the ranks of the Canadians opened, and Champlain came coolly to the
front and fired his gun. The Iroquois were terrified, having never
before seen such a weapon, and when they saw that two of their number
were wounded, they became still more afraid; and thinking that Champlain
was a god, and held a magic instrument in his hand against which it
would be useless to fight, they turned and fled into the woods, pursued
by the Canadians, who were delighted at the success of their trick, and
shrieked out their joy over their easy victory. But the Iroquois went
on, not heeding their enemies' triumphant cries, and did not consider
themselves safe until they reached their own peaceful valleys, hidden
away among the Adirondacks; and years and years after that the children
of the tribe, as they gathered the water-lilies from the beautiful
mountain lakes, or wandered among the woods plucking dainty flowers and
waxen Indian pipes, would tell with wonder and awe the story of the
great white god and his magic weapon, and how by his aid the brave
Iroquois, always before victorious in battle, had been defeated on the
shores of that distant lake which lay beyond the slopes of their
snow-capped mountains.
But the Canadians went home rejoicing, and Champlain went back to
Quebec, and told of his discovery, and placed the new lake on his maps
with much pride, and wrote in his journal an account of his journey
thither, which, when the French people at home read it, pleased them so
much that they were more determined than ever that the whole of that
beautiful region should belong to France, and to no other country. And
Champlain lived in honor at Quebec until his death, in 1635; but his
name will never be forgotten, for it is heard year after year, and
echoed again and again, among the trees that fringe the shores, and the
mountains that overlook the beautiful lake that he discovered.
But in the meantime the English had not been idle. The year after De
Monts left France the English also sent an expedition to the northern
part of what they then called Virginia. The leader was George Weymouth,
and the name of the vessel was the Archangel. After a pleasant voyage
they landed in May on Monhegan Island, south of Maine, near Pemaquid
Point. After the long sea voyage the men were glad to get on land again,
and delighted with the island, which had fine shade trees, cool streams
of fresh water, and was covered with gooseberries, strawberries, roses
and violets, which grew down to the water's edge. But pleasant as this
was, they made only a short stay here, and went on along the coast and
up some of the large rivers to find a good place for a settlement. They
sailed in and out among the many bays, and everywhere found the country
as pleasant as their first view of it. Everywhere were good harbors,
forests full of deer and other game, trees for ship-building, acres and
acres of fertile ground for raising crops, and miles of meadow land,
through which ran the brooks that had come rushing down from the high
lands. The men declared that the peas and barley grew half an inch a
day, and said that it was impossible to describe the beauty and goodness
of the land.
The Indians, too, were of orderly and peaceful habits, the different
tribes living for the most part very quietly. The principal tribe was
the Abnakis, and it was their custom to dwell in villages and to till
the soil. The principal villages were on the banks of the Kennebec, the
Androscoggin and the Saco. They were all enclosed with high palisades
for defence against enemies, and the wigwams were very comfortable,
being built of bended poles and covered with bark and moss. These
Indians had gardens well laid out in regular manner, and raised corn and
peas and beans. They prepared the ground as soon as the snow melted, and
planted their corn early in June, making holes in the ground with their
fingers or with little sticks.
The Abnakis were also fond of ornamenting their dress with fringes of
feathers and shells and stones, and always wore a great number of rings,
bracelets, necklaces, and belts embroidered with shells and pearls. But
the English never could win the Indian hearts as the French could. They
never trusted them as they trusted the French, and when trouble arose
between the English and French for the possession of Canada, the Indians
always were ready to join with the French against the English, and
showed their hatred and distrust in very cruel and savage ways. One
reason for this was, that the French tried to win the Indians by
kindness; they did not show that contempt for them which the English
nearly always showed, and they tried in every way to be just in their
dealings with them. They learned the different Indian languages so that
they could talk easily with the natives, and in naming rivers and bays
and islands, they kept many of the poetical Indian names, which the
English would never take the trouble to learn to pronounce. And then,
too, it was always very easy for the French to adopt the habits of the
Indians. Frenchmen would sleep in wigwams and eat Indian bread, and wear
the Indian dress, travel in birch-bark canoes, and hunt Indian fashion.
All this was very different from the English, who, wherever they went,
changed the names of places for English names, and insisted on the
Indians learning the English way of doing things.
And so the Indians grew to love the French, who were always kind to them
in health, and whose gentle priests nursed them carefully in sickness;
and by and by they came to learn many useful things, and to adopt many
French customs, which linger among their descendants to this day.
But all this made it very much harder for the English who tried to
settle that part of the country, and Weymouth and his friends soon found
that the natives looked upon them with distrust and dislike; and very
good reason they had for this, as the English captain, the first chance
he got, kept five Indians who had come on board his vessel and carried
them off to England.
Here they were looked upon as great curiosities. Great crowds followed
them about the streets, as they walked through London wrapped in their
skin mantles, and with their strange head-dress of quills and feathers;
and none the less curiously did the Indians look at the Londoners, and
at the fine buildings and palaces which adorned their famous city.
The returned seamen reported that the coast of Maine would be an
excellent place for an English settlement, and gave wonderful
descriptions of the fine climate, rich soil, and good fishing, and
praised the country so much that from their accounts, and from the
stories of the kidnapped Indians, some English gentlemen decided to
begin a settlement there at once. There were plenty of men willing to
go to a place where the sailors said one could gather pearls on the
beach, and where the trees oozed gum as sweet as frankincense, and very
soon a ship was sent out to explore the country still farther, and take
Nahanada, one of the captive Indians, back to his tribe at Pemaquid.
In 1607 two other ships left England also, and on one of them was the
Indian Skitwanoes, who was to act as guide and interpreter.
They landed in July, and immediately received visits from Indians on the
coast who came to trade; and after spending a week in visiting the
islands near, a boat was sent up the river to an Indian village in
Pemaquid. Skitwanoes went with this party to show them the way, and had
it not been for his presence the English would have been met with a
shower of arrows, for as soon as they came in sight of the village the
Indians started up, and snatching up their bows, would have begun
fighting at once, had not Skitwanoes stepped in front of the party and
called the angry chief by name. It was Nahanada, the Indian who had
been sent back from England the year before; as soon as he recognized
Skitwanoes and saw that his friends were Englishmen, he dropped his
weapons and went up to his visitors, and welcomed them and kissed them
in true Indian fashion. After a pleasant visit of some hours they
returned to the ship, and in a few days, after choosing a good spot on
the banks of a river, built a fort and some houses, and the place soon
looked like a thriving little settlement. Some timber was cut and
seasoned for the building of a ship, which was named the Virginia, the
first vessel ever built by English settlers in America.
The Indians looked on all these preparations with wonder. For the first
time they saw substantial houses that would protect the inmates from
snow and cold; and the fort, with its twelve mounted guns, looked as if
the new-comers meant to stay, and if need be fight for the new homes
that had been made with such trouble. But there was one thing the
natives could not understand, and that was what right these white men
had to come and take away one of their favorite spots, and make it their
own without paying for it, or even asking for it. It seemed to them very
unfair that they must lose their property in this way, and they soon
began to show the settlers that they were very much displeased. They
became very troublesome, refused to trade with the English, and showed
their ill-will in many ways; and this was very discouraging to the
English, who wanted to get along peaceably; and so many of them, before
the winter was over, became disheartened at the thought of living in
such a cold, dreary region, surrounded by bitter foes, and sailed back
to England again in the Virginia, on her first voyage to the old
country.
As time went on the Indians grew more and more troublesome, sometimes
even coming inside the fort; and once the settlers became so angry that
they set the dogs on them and drove them back to the woods. But this
only made matters worse, and when a party went up the river to explore
the country, they found that the other tribes were just as unfriendly,
and that, excepting the chief Nahanada, they had not a friend among the
natives.
The second winter was as severe as the first, and quite discouraged the
colonists, who could get very little to eat, as their storehouse had
been burned by the Indians; and so when spring came and they had a
chance to leave Maine they all went back to England, and the settlement
of Maine by the English was given up for many years. The next attempt to
settle this coast was made by the French, who, not satisfied with
claiming Acadia and Canada, wanted also to get possession of Maine,
which had been so often described as a good place for settlement. In
1613 Madame la Marquise de Guercheville, a wealthy Catholic, and some
French priests sailed from France to make a settlement at Kadesquit on
the Penobscot; but, arriving at the coast in a heavy fog, they did not
reach the mouth of the Penobscot, and, after waiting two days for the
fog to lift, found themselves near Mt. Desert island. The grand and
beautiful scenery of this island pleased them so much that they sailed
up into Frenchmen's Bay, and made a landing on the coast, intending to
stay there awhile before going on.
A number of Indian villages were scattered over the island, and as soon
as the French landed they saw smoke arising, and knew by that that the
natives had seen them, and that the smoke was meant for a signal; so
they built a fire in answer, and the Indians soon came flocking down to
the beach in great haste to see the strangers. One of the priests,
Father Biard, had met some of these Indians before on his former visit
to the Penobscot, and he now asked them the way to Kadesquit. But the
cunning Indians did not want their white visitors to go on to Kadesquit;
they wanted them to stay there with them, so they told them that their
own island was a much better place than Kadesquit. They pointed to the
mountains covered with spruce and pine, and to the sparkling brooks,
fringed with delicate wild flowers, and to the moss-covered rocks, and
clusters of dainty ferns, and said that this fair spot was as healthful
as it was beautiful, and that all the neighboring tribes sent their sick
to them to be cured by the pure air and delightful waters. But Father
Biard was quite determined to go on to Kadesquit, and the Indians,
seeing this, gave up coaxing and instead begged of him to visit their
sick chief, who, they feared, was going to die. Kind Father Biard
consented very willingly to go and see the sick man, and when he reached
his home, which was on a bay in the eastern part of the island, he found
the place so beautiful that he quite gave up Kadesquit, and decided to
stay there.
So they raised a cross, built some huts, and planted corn, for it was in
the early summer, with many long months of warm weather still to come.
But the settlement that was begun in such pleasant weather, and with
such good will from the natives, came soon to a sad end; for an English
captain from Jamestown, who was sailing along the coast, was very angry
when he found that the French had begun a settlement, and asked the
Indians to show him the way thither; and they, thinking that the English
and French were friends, and that the captain wanted to get provisions
from the priests, led the way, and, as most of the French were away
from the camps, the captain had no difficulty in seizing the place, and
in two days he had plundered it of everything, and, driving some of the
men away in a boat, took Father Biard and the rest with him to
Jamestown; the English governor there said that the captain had done
quite right, and sent him back to destroy all the French settlements in
Acadia too. The captain was very glad to do this, and landing first at
Mt. Desert, he cut down the French cross, and then went on his way to
Port Royal, where Poutrincourt's son, Biencourt, was ruling; and here
the English did as they had done at other French settlements on their
way, for Biencourt had few men and could make no resistance. The English
destroyed Port Royal, its fort and monuments and church, and even
chiselled out the name of De Monts that was engraved in a stone column,
and so the French were driven out of Acadia, and not a single cross
remained upon the coast of Maine to show they had ever been there.
The English themselves did not make any permanent settlement there till
1629.