KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
There lived at Quebec in the latter part of the seventeenth century
one Charles le Moyne, seigneur de Longueil, who is called by
Charlevoix the Baron de Becancourt; he was of Norman extraction, but
his sons were natives of New France. As was the custom with the French
noblesse each son adopted a surname derived from some portion of the
ancient family estate. At least five of Becancourt's sons were
prominent in the affairs of Acadia; they are known in history as
Menneval, Portneuf, Villebon, d'Iberville and des Isles.
In 1687 Menneval replaced Perrot as governor of Acadia, and as the
conduct of Perrot had given rise to grave dissatisfaction his
successor received elaborate instructions concerning his duties. He
was to rebuild the defences of Acadia, to resist the encroachments of
the English, to suppress the lawless trade of the Coureurs de bois, to
deal kindly and honestly with the savages, taking care to promote
their conversion to the Christian faith, and to restore to the crown
all seigniories and granted lands that had not been occupied or
improved.
The year that followed Menneval's appointment was notable for the
outbreak of the most dreadful Indian war in the annals of Acadia. All
the tribes east of the Merrimac took part in it, including the
Maliseets and Micmacs. This war is known in history as King William's
war, from the name of the English monarch in whose reign it occurred.
It lasted with little intermission for ten years, and during its
progress the settlers of eastern New England suffered the most fearful
outrages at the hands of the infuriated savages. Every settlement in
Maine save Wells, York, Kittery and the Isle of Shoals was over run,
and a thousand white people killed or taken prisoners.
As in the case of other wars which the Indians have waged with the
whites, the latter were responsible for its origin. About twelve years
before it broke out, Major Waldron treacherously seized a band of
Indians at Dover in New Hampshire and sent them to Boston, where
several of them were hanged for alleged complicity in Philip's war[5]
and others sold into slavery. This despicable act the Indians never
forgot nor forgave.
[5] This war broke out in 1675 and was confined chiefly to the
tribes of Massachusetts. It was of short duration; the Indian
Sagamore Philip was slain.
The immediate cause of King William's war, however, was the ill
considered act of Governor Andros of pillaging the trading post of
Baron de St. Castin, at Penobscot. St. Castin had formerly served in
the Carignan Salieres regiment under Frontenac, but for twenty years
had lived in this region, where he had married a daughter of the
Maliseet chieftain Madockawando and was highly esteemed by the
savages.
It was at the instigation of St. Castin and Madockawando that the
Indians determined to take the war path. The first notable incident of
the war was the destruction of Dover, where Major Waldron and
twenty-two others were killed and twenty-nine taken prisoners. This
occurred in June, 1689, and the story of the affair, as told by the
St. John river Indians to their English captive, John Gyles, is in
substance as follows:--
There was a truce with the Indians for some days, during which time
two squaws came into the garrison. They told Major Waldron that a
number of Indians were not far away with a considerable quantity of
beaver and would be there to trade with him the next day. The weather
was inclement and the women begged leave to lodge in the garrison.
Some of the people were much opposed to this, but the major said: "Let
the poor creatures lodge by the fire." The defences of the place were
of the weakest kind, the gates had no locks but were fastened with
pins and the garrison kept no watch. The squaws had a favorable
opportunity to prosecute their design. They went into every apartment
observing the number in each, and when all the people were asleep
arose and opened the gates, gave the signal agreed upon and the other
Indians came to them and, having received an account of the state of
the garrison, they divided their forces according to the number of the
people in each apartment and soon took or killed them all. Major
Waldron lodged within an inner room and when the Indians broke in upon
him he cried out: "What now! What now!" and jumping out of his bed
seized his sword and drove them before him through two or three doors,
but upon his turning about towards the apartment he had just left, an
Indian came up behind him and knocked him on the head with his
hatchet, which stunned him and he fell. They then seized him, dragged
him out, and setting him up on a long table in his hall, bade him
"judge Indians again." Then they cut and stabbed him and he cried out
"O Lord! O Lord!" They called for his book of accounts and ordered him
to cross out all the Indian debts, he having traded much with them.
Then one and another gashed his naked breast, saying in derision: "I
cross out my account." Then cutting a joint from a finger, one would
say: "Will your fist weigh a pound now?" This in allusion to his
having sometimes used his fist as a pound weight in buying and
selling. And so they proceeded to torture him to death with every
refinement of savage cruelty, after which they burned the garrison
post and drew off.
A few days after this tragic event a number of people were killed by
the Indians at Saco, and in the month of August the important post at
Pemaquid, midway between the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers, was taken
and the adjoining settlement destroyed. According to Charlevoix a
large number of St. John river Indians participated in this exploit.
Among their prisoners was a lad named Gyles whose experience during
the nine years he lived in captivity on the St. John river is told in
his very interesting narrative published in Boston in 1736. We shall
have more to say about Gyles and his narrative further on, but it may
be observed in passing that we are greatly indebted to him for the
knowledge we possess of the life of the Indians of the River St. John
two centuries ago. As Doctor Hannay well observes: "By the light of
such a narrative we are able to perceive how wretched was the lot of
an Acadian Indian, even during the period when his very name carried
terror to the hearts of the settlers of Maine and New Hampshire.
Modern civilization may have degraded him in some respects but it has
at least rescued him from the danger of starvation and also from the
cruel necessity of abandoning his kindred to perish when unable longer
to supply their own wants or endure the constant journeys necessitated
by the nature of their nomad life."
Early in 1690 Count Frontenac dispatched an expedition from Quebec
to ravage the New England settlements; their leader was Portneuf,
brother of Menneval and Villebon. There were fifty French and
seventy Indians in the original party, which was afterwards joined by
thirty-six French and a large band of Maliseets from the St. John,
also by the Indians of Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, making a war
party of five hundred men. On the 26th of May they attacked the town
of Falmouth--now Portland. The inhabitants fled for protection
within the ramparts of Fort Loyal. At the expiration of four or five
days the garrison was obliged to surrender and Portneuf promised the
vanquished quarter and a guard to the nearest English town. The
terms of surrender were shamefully violated, Fort Loyal and Falmouth
were reduced to ashes and over one hundred men, women and children
murdered by the savages. From May to October their bodes lay
exposed to the elements and wild beasts but were finally buried by
Major Benjamin Church as he passed on an expedition to the eastward.
To revenge themselves on the French, whom they regarded as the
instigators of this savage warfare, the New Englanders fitted out an
expedition under Sir William Phips which captured Port Royal and
carried Menneval, the governor, away a prisoner. His brother Villebon,
who suceeded to the command, concluded to abandon Port Royal and to
re-establish the post at the mouth of the Jemseg on the River St.
John.
Villebon, with all his faults, is one of the most picturesque
characters in the history of Acadia. He was greatly admired by the
savages who deemed him to be every inch a chief. Diereville, the poet
historian, saw him at St. John in 1700 and describes him as "a great
man of fine appearance and full of energy." Having served for several
years in a subordinate capacity at Port Royal he was now called upon
to fill a difficult position and it must be confessed he acted with
zeal and ability. Adverse fortune embittered him at the outset. Two
pirate vessels came to Port Royal while he was absent preparing for
his removal to the St. John river. These marauders burned the houses
and killed the cattle; they even hanged two of the inhabitants and
burned a woman and her children in her own dwelling. What was still
worse for Villebon they captured the ship Union, just arrived from
France with merchandize, provisions, ammunition and presents for the
savages.
Villebon was well fitted for such an emergency as this; he assembled
his dusky allies, explained the loss of their presents and offered
himself to go to their great father, the King of France, for more. The
Indians pledged their fidelity and promised him one hundred and fifty
warriors the next spring to aid him in his designs against the
English.
At the court of France Villebon was favorably received and returned
with a commission from the king to command in Acadia. Soon after he
abandoned the Jemseg Fort and moved up the river to the mouth of the
Nashwaak where in the upper angle formed by the junction of that river
with the St. John he built in 1692 a new fort which he called Fort St.
Joseph. It was an ordinary palisaded fort about 120 feet square, with
four bastions, and had eight cannon mounted. In the old French
documents of the period it is usually called Fort Nachouac, with many
varieties of spelling, such as Naxoat, Naxouac, Natchouak, etc. The
older French maps place the fort on the south, or Fredericton side of
the river, but there can be no doubt as to its proper location in the
upper angle formed by the junction of the River Nashwaak with the St.
John. The greater portion of the site has been washed away, but traces
of the ramparts were visible within the memory of those yet living and
many cannon balls and other relics have been found in the vicinity.
Villebon had now been some years in Acadia, for Bishop St. Vallier
says that he was in command of the garrison at Port Royal at the time
of his visit there in 1686. He had ample opportunity of becoming
familiar with the country and its native inhabitants, and was in this
way fitted to second the ambitious designs of the French, which
embraced the destruction of New York and the conquest of New England.
When Count Frontenac came out to Quebec in 1689, to fill for the
second time the position of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of New
France, he was in his seventieth year, yet his old time vigor and
determination were unabated. It was part of his plan to avail himself
of the hostility of the savages to wear down and discourage the
English settlers and so to pave the way for French supremacy. He had
no abler lieutenants in the work he had undertaken than the sons of
Charles le Moyne, of whom Villebon, Portneuf and d'Iberville were
particularly conspicuous in the Indian wars. Immediately after his
arrival, Frontenac encouraged the savages to begin those operations
against the English settlements known in the history of New England as
the "winter raids." Montague Chamberlain tersely describes the
situation thus: "Frontenac 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, and so from all the doomed hamlets came the same
horrifying tale--houses burned, men, women and children slaughtered or
carried into captivity."
It is difficult at this distant day to conceive the horrors of the
savage warfare that prevailed at this time on the New England
frontiers. The Indians roamed over the country like wolves, and the
white settlers never knew when their appalling war whoop would ring in
their startled ears. It was an age of cruelty and the outrages
perpetrated provoked reprisals on the part of the New Englanders. The
close alliance between the Indians and the French, and the fact that
in several of the raids the savages were led by French officers, led
to a bitter race hatred and mutual distrust between the descendants of
the Saxon and the Gaul, which lasted for generations.
In the course of the desultory warfare that followed the destruction
of Falmouth, more than 200 houses were burned in various parts of the
country, and Frontenac himself speaks of the ravages of the savages as
"impossible to describe." On the 5th February, 1692, they raided the
frontier settlement of York, which they left in ashes after killing
about seventy-five persons and taking 100 prisoners--among those
killed was the venerable Mr. Dummer, the minister of the place.
With the opening of the spring time Villebon received a delegation of
100 warriors of the Kennebec and Penobscot tribes at his fort. The
visitors were welcomed with imposing ceremonies; there was the usual
interchange of compliments and speeches by the chiefs and captains,
presents from the king were distributed and the inevitable banquet
followed with its mirth and revelry. It was agreed at this conference
to organize a great war party. Couriers were dispatched to summon all
the tribes of Acadia and the response was general. The site of what is
now the village of Gibson, opposite Fredericton, was dotted with the
encampments of the Indians, and as the warriors arrived and departed,
arrayed in their war paint and feathers, the scene was animated and
picturesque. The Maliseets of the St. John sent their delegation from
Medoctec, the Micmacs of the Miramichi arrived a few days later, and
then came another band of Micmacs from Beaubassin (or Chignecto),
accompanied by Father Baudoin, their priest. Speeches of welcome,
presents and feasts were made in turn to all, and each band proceeded
by the old and well known route[6] to the rendezvous on the Penobscot,
near Oldtown (Maine.) Here there gathered a war party of at least 400
men, including a score of Frenchmen. Their first attack was made on
the little village of Wells, where there were only some thirty men to
resist the attack, but they were led by Captain Converse, a very
courageous and determined officer, who had already tried the mettle of
the savages and who was not to be overawed even by overwhelming
numbers. The attacking party advanced with hideous yells, firing and
calling on the English to surrender, but the bullets of the defenders
was the only answer they received. Even the women of the settlement
took part in the fight, passing ammunition to the men, loading their
guns, and sometimes themselves firing on the enemy.
[6] The route was up the St. John to the Medoctec village, thence by
Eel river and the chain of lakes to the Mattawamkeag and down
that river to the Penobscot.
The savages became discouraged and offered favorable terms to the
garrison, Converse replied: "We want nothing but men to fight with."
An Indian, who could speak English, shouted, "Don't stay in the house
like a squaw, come out and fight like a man!" Converse replied: "Do
you think I am fool enough to come out with thirty men to fight five
hundred?" The Indians at length abandoned the attack and retired
greatly crest fallen. Thus a few determined men foiled one of the most
formidable bands that ever took the war path in Acadia.
Same of the horrors of Indian warfare almost pass description and if
Villebon did not sanction he at least did little to hinder the
atrocities of his savage allies. He writes in his journal, "An English
savage was taken on the lower part of the St. John river; I gave him
to our savages to be burned, which they did the next day; one could
add nothing to the torments that they made him suffer."
From time to time the Indians appear to have grown weary of fighting.
Their failure at Wells, the rebuilding of Fort Pemaquid and the
erection of other fortifications by the now thoroughly aroused New
Englanders, the desire for the ransom of relatives held by the enemy
as hostages, and a suspicion that the French were making use of them
in their own interest inclined them to make peace with the English.
Villebon was obliged to exert all his influence to keep them on the
war path. He flattered and feasted the chiefs, made presents to the
warriors, provided powder and shot for their hunting and finally
adopted Taxous, one of their most famous chiefs, as his brother and to
honor the occasion gave him his own best coat.
The journals and correspondence of Villebon are full of interest to
the student of affairs on the St. John. At this time there came
annually to St. John harbor--then known by its Indian name,
Menagoesche--a French man of war with supplies for Fort Nachouac and a
variety of articles for the Indians. An inventory now in the Boston
Public Library, dated 1693, shows that in that year the frigate
"Suzanne" brought out for the "Malecites" a supply of powder, lead,
guns, bayonets; also shirts, blankets, laced hats, etc. The arrival of
the annual warships was eagerly looked for by the Indians and Villebon
was able to make good use of the articles he received. The reference
made by John Gyles in his narrative to the arrival of the ships from
France is of interest. "There came annually," he says, "one or two men
of war to supply the fort which was on the river about 34 leagues from
the sea. The Indians (of Medoctec) having advice of the arrival of a
man of war at the mouth of the river, they about forty in number went
on board, for the gentlemen from France made a present to them every
year, and set forth the riches and victories of their monarch, etc. At
this time they presented the Indians with a bag or two of flour with
some prunes as ingredients for a feast.
"I, who was dressed up in an old greasy blanket without cap, hat or
shirt, (for I had no shirt for six years, except the one I had on at
the time I was made prisoner) was invited into the great cabin, where
many well-rigged gentlemen were sitting, who would fain have had a
full view of me. I endeavored to hide myself behind the hangings, for
I was much ashamed, thinking how I had once worn clothes and of my
living with people who could rig as well as the best of them.... This
was the first time I had seen the sea during my captivity, and the
first time I had tasted salt or bread. My master presently went on
shore and a few days later all the Indians went up the river."
In connection with Villebon's endeavors to keep the savages loyal to
the king of France there are items in the accounts transmitted by him
to the French minister that are quite interesting and suggestive, as
for example the following:
"To the wife of Nadanouil, a savage, for making two pairs of snowshoes
for the King, tobacco 2 lbs."
"Jan., 1696. To 2 savages come from the river of Medoctic to bring
some letters of Father Simon to Mon. de Villebon, flour, 12 lbs.;
tobacco, 8 oz.
"July 10, 1696. M. Thury, missionary, having arrived with Taxous,
chief of the Canibas and other savages from Pentagouet; brandy, 1
gallon; tobacco, 2 lbs."
The garrison at Fort Nashwaak was always small, comprising only about
forty soldiers besides an armorer, gunner and surgeon. There was also
a chaplain of the Recollet order, Father Elizee, who is described as a
man so retiring by nature as to meddle with nothing outside his
ministerial duty. This was not the case with the other missionary
priests, however, who influenced by patriotic motives and encouraged
by the French authorities took quite an energetic part in helping on
the warfare against New England. The French owed much of the aid
afforded their cause, including the co-operation of their Indian
allies, to the zeal of the missionaries settled on the different
rivers, Ralle on the Kennebec, Thury on the Penobscot and Simon on the
St. John. The only woman who lived within the ramparts of Fort
Nashwaak seems to have been the wife of the armorer. She was deemed
one of the garrison and received her daily allowance with the rest.
In spite of Villebon's energy and ability and of his zeal in the
service of his country very serious complaints were made against him
by some of the French people living on the St. John river. They
asserted that his threats and ill usage had caused several of the
settlers to abandon their habitations and remove to Quebec with their
families; that he tried to monopolize the fur trade, sending his
brothers Portneuf and des Isles into the woods to engage in unlawful
traffic with the Indians; that the former was guilty of gross
immorality and the latter traded the peltry obtained from the savages
with one John Alden, an Englishman, by whom it was carried to Boston.
This John Alden was, by the way, the eldest son of the famous John
Alden of the "Mayflower," the Plymouth magistrate, by his wife
Priscilla, the Puritan maiden immortalized by Longfellow. He made many
trading voyages to the Bay of Fundy and on several occasions narrowly
escaped capture by the French.
That there was some ground for the charges preferred against Villebon
seems likely from the fact that most of the missionaries censured him
and confirmed the reports of the inhabitants concerning the misconduct
of his brothers. The chaplain at Fort Nachouac, however, spoke
favorably of Villebon, although he was silent with regard to Portneuf.
In his letters to the authorities in France, Villebon vigorously
replies to his accusers and brings counter charges; he is seemingly
very indignant with the d'Amour brothers of whom we shall hear more in
another chapter.
In consequence of the charges preferred against him Portneuf was
superseded by Villieu, an officer of reputation whom Count Frontenac
sent to Acadia in October, 1693, to lead the savages against the
English. This new lieutenant spent the winter at the Nashwaak fort and
as soon as the ice was out of the river went in a canoe to Medoctec,
where he assembled the chiefs who promised to assist him. He then
proceeded to Penobscot resolved to put an end, if possible, to the
parleys that the savages had been holding with the English and to
incite them to renew the war. After a week's negotiation, in which he
was aided by the powerful influence of the missionaries Bigot and
Thury, he returned to Fort Nachouac with a delegation of the Indians
to receive the presents which the King of France had sent to them, and
at the same time to secure the assistance of some of Governor
Villebon's soldiers. The governor, however, piqued by the dismissal of
Portneuf, contented himself with entertaining the delegates. He
declined to furnish provisions or supplies, and kept his soldiers from
joining the expedition. Father Simon, the Recollet missionary on the
St. John, also displayed little sympathy with Villieu and kept many of
the Indians from joining him. However, with the help of the Penobscot
and Kennebec tribes a band of 250 warriors was at last collected and
Villieu placed himself at their head arrayed in the war paint and
feathers of an Indian chief. It was decided to strike a blow at the
settlement of Oyster River, twelve miles from Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. The English settlers, having been informed that peace had
been made with the Indians and that they could now work with safety on
their farms, were totally unprepared for an attack. Among their
unprotected houses the carnage was horrible. One hundred persons,
chiefly women and children, half naked from their beds, were
tomahawked, shot, or killed by slower and more cruel methods, twenty
seven were kept as prisoners.
After engaging in some minor depredations Villieu proceeded to
Montreal accompanied by several of the chiefs where they presented a
string of English scalps to Count Frontenac as a token of their
success and received his hearty congratulations. Villieu thus summed
up the results of the campaign: "Two small forts and fifty or sixty
houses captured and burnt, and one hundred and thirty English killed
or made prisoners." He had done his work all too well and had sown
such seeds of distrust between the English and the Indians as to
render it almost impossible to re-establish peace between them. The
enmity lasted for generations and almost every year witnessed some act
of hostility even though the crowns of France and England were
themselves at peace.
In the midst of their triumphs an appalling pestilence swept away
great numbers of the Indians. On the River St. John more than one
hundred and twenty persons died, including some of the most noted
warriors and their chief. The pestilence scattered the savages in all
directions and for a time their town of Medoctec was abandoned. A
party of warriors who went with Montigny, an officer of Villebon's
garrison, to assist their brethren to the westward was sent back to
Medoctec on account of the contagion that had broken out among them.
The nature of the disease it is impossible at this distance of time to
determine. It could scarcely have been smallpox, according to the
description of John Gyles, who says: "A person seeming in perfect
health would bleed at the mouth and nose, turn blue in spots and die
in two or three hours." The first outbreak of the pestilence was in
the autumn of 1694. A year later Mon. Tibierge, agent of the company
of Acadia, writes that "the plague (la maladie) had broken out afresh:
there had died on the river more than 120 persons of every age and
sex."
The pestilence, however, did not put a stop to the Indian warfare.
In June, 1695, Villebon assembled at his fort a general representation
of the tribes of Acadia, including fourteen chiefs and their
attendants; the conference lasted three days and the proceedings are
reported at length in his journal. After the customary feasting
and distribution of presents a standard of prices for the purchase and
sale of goods was agreed upon more favorable to the natives than
heretofore. The chiefs departed firmly resolved to continue the war
against the English. Their opportunity did not come until the
following summer when a combined effort on the part of the French
and Indians resulted in the destruction of Fort William Henry at
Pemaquid. This fortification had just been rebuilt by the colony of
Massachusetts at a cost of L20,000 and was the strongest work the
English colonists had up to that time erected in America. The walls
had a compass in all of 747 feet and were of solid masonry, varying
from 10 to 22 feet in height. Eight feet from the ground, where the
walls had a thickness of six feet, there was a tier of 28 port
holes. At one corner was a round tower 29 feet high. The fort was
well manned and provisioned and was thought to be impregnable.
The leader of the enterprise, which resulted in the destruction of
Fort William Henry, was Villebon's brother d'Iberville, whose romantic
career has earned for him the description of "the Cid of New France."
D'Iberville's Indian auxiliaries included Micmacs from Cape Breton, a
large band of Maliseets and many of their kindred of Passamaquoddy,
Penobscot and Kennebec. Two warships lately arrived from Quebec,
accompanied the expedition.
Villebon left his fort on the 18th June to go to "Menagoesche" to
await the coming of the French ships. On his arrival there he
discovered the British ships Sorlings of 34 guns and Newport of 24
guns cruising near the harbor and sent information to d'Iberville in
order that he might guard against surprise. Soon after entering the
Bay of Fundy the French vessels sighted their antagonists and an
engagement ensued in the course of which d'Iberville in the Envieux
dismasted the smaller English vessel, the Newport, and obliged her to
surrender. Favored by night and fog the Sorlings managed to escape
after a combat with the Profond lasting three hours. The next day,
July 15, 1696, the vessels put into St. John harbor, where they were
welcomed by Villebon and Father Simon and a band of Indians. Before
proceeding to the attack of Pemaquid an attempt was made to capture
John Alden at Port Royal but with his usual good luck he sailed thence
just before the arrival of the French. Villebon with Father Simon's
assistance contrived to collect 150 Indians--Maliseets and Micmacs--to
join the expedition under his brother, which was further reinforced by
a small vessel owned and commanded by the Sieur de Chauffours, an
inhabitant of the St. John river.
The start of the expedition was not a very auspicious one, for on
leaving the harbor of St. John (or "havre de Menuagoesche," as
Villebon calls it) at 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 2nd of August,
d'Iberville ran the Envieux upon a reef; however, the damage was not
serious as the ship floated when the tide rose. At Penobscot Baron St.
Castin joined the expedition with 130 Indians. The French priests
Simon and Thury, as the event proved, were no mere figure heads; they
actively assisted in the operations of the siege and at the same time
restrained the passions of the savages. Batteries were erected within
half cannon shot of the fort and it was summoned to surrender. Captain
Chubb, the commander, proved to be a weak man for so responsible a
position. He at first replied that though the sea were covered with
French ships and the land with Indians he would not surrender unless
compelled to do so, but the very next day ignominiously pulled down
his flag. D'Iberville sent the garrison to Boston in the vessel
belonging to the Sieur de Chauffours which he had brought from the St.
John river. The people of New England were greatly vexed at the
destruction of Pemaquid and enraged at the cowardly conduct of its
commander. Father Simon got back to Fort Nachouac on the 29th August
bringing the news of d'Iberville's success.