SEBASTIAN RALE 
 
 JOHN FRANCIS SPRAGUE 
 
SEBASTIAN RALE 
 
 A MAINE TRAGEDY OF THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
te little else tljan a picture 
 of fcuman crimes ana misfortunes," 
 
 VOLTAIRE 
 
I 
 
SEBASTIAN RALE 
 
 A MAINE TRAGEDY OF THE 
 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 BY 
 JOHN FRANCIS SPRAGUE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "PISCATAQUIS BIOGRAPHY AND FRAGMENTS," 
 " HISTORY OF DORIC LODGE," ETC. 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 PRINTED BY THE HEINTZEMANN PRESS 
 1906 
 
Copyright, 1906 
 By JOHN FRANCIS SPRAGUE 
 
PREFATORY. 
 
 A VERY wise man once averred that "there 
 is no new thing under the sun." The 
 student of history may be entirely familiar with 
 the principal facts appearing in the following 
 pages, and I do not claim to have discovered any 
 new evidence regarding the career of that re 
 markable character, Sebastian Rale, or the scenes 
 of his turbulent life. They are interwoven with 
 the early history of New England, and the truth 
 cannot be obliterated by sympathy or prejudice. 
 It has, however, long been my impression that 
 many of the writers who have attempted to il 
 luminate this subject have in a measure lost 
 sight of the paramount fact that Rale was sta 
 tioned upon territory the right of possession to 
 which was in controversy between two of the 
 great world-powers, each of whose discoverers, 
 adventurers and missionaries were in the van- 
 
 - 
 
 o 
 
[ 8 ] 
 
 guard of the brave men who established civili 
 zation in the New World. 
 
 Although considered and written from the 
 Protestant point of view, and in no wise from 
 that of the Roman Catholic Church, I have en 
 deavored to treat this matter in the full light of 
 what is impartial and just. 
 
 J. F. S. 
 
 MONSON, MAINE. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 THE KILLING OF SEBASTIAN RALE . . 1 1 
 THE PORTSMOUTH AND ARROWSIC TREATIES 55 
 How MUCH CONDONE ? How MUCH CON 
 DEMN? ...... 65 
 
 THE INDIANS OF MAINE AND THE TRA 
 DITION OF PAMOLA . . . . 77 
 
 LETTERS : 
 
 Rale to Captain Moody . . . 101 
 
 Rale to his Brother . . . . 104 
 
 Rale to his Nephew . . . . 117 
 The Governor of Massachusetts to "the 
 
 Governor of New France . . 129 
 
 RALE S DICTIONARY . . . . 137 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON RALE S CHURCH . . 145 
 
 HISTORICAL COMMENTS .... 147 
 THE TWELFTH ARTICLE OF THE TREATY 
 
 OF UTRECHT ..... 160 
 
 AUTHORITIES . 162 
 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 RALE S CHAPEL AT NORRIDGEWOCK Frontispiece 
 
 A STREET SCENE IN NORRIDGEWOCK, ME. . 31 
 
 TICONIC FALLS, WATERVILLE, ME. . . 39 
 
 THE RALE MONUMENT .... 53 
 
 BIG THUNDER ..... 79 
 
 INDIAN ISLAND, OLDTOWN, ME. . . 87 
 
 THE LATE REV. MICHAEL O BRIEN, V. G. 139 
 
 OLD FORT HALIFAX . . . . 149 
 
 10 
 
THE KILLING 
 OF SEBASTIAN RALE 
 
The Killing of 
 Sebastian Rale. 
 
 THE world s highway over which civili 
 zation has advanced has ever been 
 marked by blood and has ever been 
 the scene of carnage and suffering. 
 
 It is always the strong against the weak, who 
 are all unconscious participators in the eternal 
 struggle of the fittest for supremacy. In all his 
 tory no better illustration of this fact may be 
 found than in the story of the Anglo-Saxon and 
 the French pioneers in New England, Acadia 
 and New France in North America. 
 
 Their brave endurance of hardship and pri 
 vation, their fierce battle with the elements in a 
 boundless wilderness, their continual war with 
 savages, their constant conflict with each other, 
 and the ultimate triumph of the Anglo-Saxon, 
 read like the tales of romance. 
 
 13 
 
[ H] 
 
 That hardy mariner, Jacques Carrier, sailed 
 from the home of his nativity in St. Malo on 
 the twentieth day of April, 1534, steered for 
 Newfoundland, advanced up the St. Lawrence, 
 and upon his return to France infused that na 
 tion with a new spirit of discovery and aggran 
 dizement, a desire to compete with the Spaniard 
 and the conquering and gold-seeking English 
 man ; and on the seventeenth day of September, 
 1759, Quebec was surrendered to Wolfe, the 
 Anglo-Saxon possessed himself of New France, 
 and the history of the world was changed. 
 
 At the time of Cartier, the opposing forces 
 to the Catholic church set in motion by Luther 
 had convulsed Germany, and John Calvin, a 
 worse heretic than Luther, was infecting France, 
 so that devout Catholics under Francis the first 
 aspired not only to build up a new France across 
 the Atlantic but to convert the infidels of the 
 New World as well. 
 
 From Cartier to Wolfe covered a period of a 
 little more than two centuries, but for about fif 
 ty years after his time, France was so engaged 
 that New France was practically abandoned by 
 that government. 
 
 The religious and political ambition of the 
 
[ is] 
 
 French people revived about 1605, under Les- 
 carbot, Champlain, and other leaders, and New 
 France was born again. 
 
 From that time until the fall of Quebec, the 
 spiritual and temporal interests of France were 
 united, and the conversion of the Indians was 
 undertaken with a zeal that has never been sur 
 passed in the annals of religious movements. 
 
 That the scheme to Christianize the red men 
 embraced commercial and political as well as re 
 ligious interests, is undoubtedly a fact. 
 
 TheRecollet friars were the first to enter upon 
 the stupendous undertaking of rescuing from 
 the bondage of Satan a people living, as they 
 averred, " like brute beasts, without faith, with 
 out law, without religion, without God." But 
 this order not succeeding, the plan was supple 
 mented by the Jesuits in 1634, just a century 
 after Jacques Cartier had sailed up the St. Law 
 rence. 
 
 Thus the religious destinies of this part of 
 the New Continent passed into the hands of the 
 powerful Society of Jesus, the followers of Igna 
 tius de Loyola, who was born in 1491 under the 
 Spanish flag. He is among the immortals of 
 history, as he was the founder of the strongest 
 
[ 16 ] 
 
 and most potent religious order ever known in 
 the world. First embracing the profession of 
 arms, he was wounded in battle in the defense 
 of Pampeluna. While convalescing in the cave 
 of Mouresua he first indulged in reading ro 
 mance, but when these books were exhausted 
 he was thrown upon the only other available 
 reading, that of the lives of the saints. This 
 inspired and fired an ardent spirit, and the result 
 was that he, alone in that cave, evolved the out 
 lines for a plan that formed this mighty society. 
 
 Parkman says, "In the forge of his great in 
 tellect, heated but not disturbed by the intense 
 fires of his zeal, was wrought the prodigious 
 enginery whose power has been felt to the utter 
 most confines of civilization." 
 
 It was one of the bravest and most famous of 
 this great organization, Paul la Jeune, that was 
 selected to lead the hosts of Jesus against a con 
 tinent of savages, some of whom were cannibals.* 
 Father la Jeune wrote to his superior when he 
 first arrived at Quebec : " The harvest is plen 
 tiful and the laborers few." 
 
 * Some authorities have claimed this to be a fact, but the 
 writer now believes that a preponderance of evidence is 
 against it. 
 
[ 17] 
 
 Parkman in his fascinating work, " The Jes 
 uits of North America" (page 6), observes: 
 
 "These men aimed at the conversion of a 
 continent. From their hovel on the St. Charles 
 they surveyed a field of labor whose vastness 
 might tire the wings of thought itself; a scene 
 repellant and appalling, darkened with omens 
 of peril and woe. They were an advance-guard 
 of the great army of Loyola, strong in discipline 
 that controlled not alone the body and the will, 
 but the intellect, the heart, the soul and the in 
 most consciousness. The lives of these early 
 Canadian Jesuits attest the earnestness of their 
 faith and the intensity of their zeal." 
 
 Before the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, which 
 resulted in the cession of all of Acadia by the 
 French Government to England, the present 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and at least all of 
 that part of Maine that was east of the Kenne- 
 bec River were collectively called Acadia. 
 
 Article XII of this treaty declared that the 
 most Christian King of France ceded to the 
 Queen of England in perpetuity Acadia or Nova 
 Scotia entire, " according to its ancient bounda 
 ries," etc. 
 
 No one concerned in the making of this 
 
treaty appears to have had any intelligent con 
 ception of what the " ancient boundaries " of 
 Acadia were, and from the indefiniteness regard 
 ing them disputed questions of boundary im 
 mediately arose. The two governments once 
 agreed to settle the contentions by commis 
 sioners of the two powers, but their meetings 
 were delayed from time to time for forty years, 
 and then their discussion ended in the Seven 
 Years* War. 
 
 Parkman alleges that the claims of the rival 
 nations were so discordant that any attempt to 
 reconcile them "must needs produce a fresh 
 quarrel." 
 
 Thus it appeared that neither the treaty of 
 Utrecht or of Ryswick (1697) resulted in any 
 permanent adjustment of what was to the Bour- 
 born world of manifest insignificance, and yet 
 what was to both the subjects of England and 
 of France in Acadia of the utmost importance, 
 namely, where upon the face of the earth was 
 really the boundary line between the English 
 and French possessions under these treaties. 
 
 There was absolute certainty as to one fact 
 only, and that was that Acadia had passed to the 
 English. But what constituted Acadia? The 
 
[ 91 
 
 whole question turned upon what were its " an 
 cient boundaries." 
 
 It would have been difficult to have conceived 
 of a description more obscure or more pregnant 
 with causes for strife and misunderstanding. 
 
 Under the treaty of Ryswick the courts of 
 both governments had claimed all of the terri 
 tory between the Sagadahoc and the St. Croix. 
 
 Charles C. D. Roberts, in his " History of 
 Canada" (1897), in speaking of this period 
 says : 
 
 " Amid the icy desolation of Hudson Bay 
 and about the austere coasts of Newfoundland, 
 France and England were at each other s throats ; 
 while along between New England and Acadia 
 was a line of blood and fire. The French claimed 
 the line of the Kennebec as the western line of 
 Acadia;" and that "The New Englanders 
 claimed that Acadia s western border was the 
 St. Croix, which now divides New Brunswick 
 from Maine." 
 
 New England writers have generally conceded 
 that the English made many promises to the 
 Indians which were ruthlessly broken, and when 
 news came to the red men that the Governor of 
 New France had, by treaty with the English, 
 
[ ^o] 
 
 surrendered his right to protection over them, 
 the Indians of Norridgewock having heard of 
 these rumors and also beholding the English 
 building forts and encroaching upon their lands, 
 despatched deputies to the Marquis de Vau- 
 dreuil, Governor of Canada, to ascertain from 
 him whether it was true that the King of France 
 had disposed in favor of the Queen of England 
 of a country of which they claimed to be the 
 sole masters. 
 
 The Governor-General s reply was that the 
 treaty of Utrecht did not mention their country, 
 and this satisfied them. 
 
 Williamson and other English writers are in 
 accord with Charlevoix regarding the fact that 
 these representatives from the Norridgewock 
 tribe made this visit to Vaudreuil for this pur 
 pose. 
 
 After the treaty of Utrecht the Kennebec 
 River was generally claimed by the French to 
 be the dividing line between their possessions 
 and New England, and they were guarded by 
 the French and their adherents with watchful 
 care and jealousy ; so during much of the half- 
 century of conflict so comprehensively treated 
 in Parkman s history of this period, and what 
 
Julian Hawthorne in his " History of the 
 United States " describes as "fifty years of fools 
 and heroes," a large part of what is now the 
 State of Maine was territory about which there 
 was great strife and contention as to title and 
 ownership. Besides these larger contentions 
 there were many minor ones of a local nature 
 between the settlers and the Indians which re 
 lated to the titles of the home possessions of 
 some of the white men, the Indians often claim 
 ing that they were cheated and defrauded by the 
 English, who obtained some of their alleged hold 
 ings from their chiefs when they were in a state 
 of intoxication caused by the purchasers them 
 selves ; that they frequently acquired these titles 
 for mere trifles, such as a bottle of brandy, etc. 
 
 One of the complaints the Indians made 
 against the English, Charlevoix says, was the 
 wanton killing of their dogs, " dearer to them 
 than the oxen of the English." 
 
 One of the most important Jesuit outposts 
 was the Kennebec mission, which was estab 
 lished about the middle of the seventeenth cen 
 tury and which was destined to be the storm- 
 centre of warring factions and the scene of a 
 bloody and cruel tragedy. 
 
[20] 
 
 surrendered his right to protection over them, 
 the Indians of Norridgewock having heard of 
 these rumors and also beholding the English 
 building forts and encroaching upon their lands, 
 despatched deputies to the Marquis de Vau- 
 dreuil, Governor of Canada, to ascertain from 
 him whether it was true that the King of France 
 had disposed in favor of the Queen of England 
 of a country of which they claimed to be the 
 sole masters. 
 
 The Governor-General s reply was that the 
 treaty of Utrecht did not mention their country, 
 and this satisfied them. 
 
 Williamson and other English writers are in 
 accord with Charlevoix regarding the fact that 
 these representatives from the Norridgewock 
 tribe made this visit to Vaudreuil for this pur 
 pose. 
 
 After the treaty of Utrecht the Kennebec 
 River was generally claimed by the French to 
 be the dividing line between their possessions 
 and New England, and they were guarded by 
 the French and their adherents with watchful 
 care and jealousy ; so during much of the half- 
 century of conflict so comprehensively treated 
 in Parkman s history of this period, and what 
 
[21 ] 
 
 Julian Hawthorne in his " History of the 
 United States " describes as "fifty years of fools 
 and heroes," a large part of what is now the 
 State of Maine was territory about which there 
 was great strife and contention as to title and 
 ownership. Besides these larger contentions 
 there were many minor ones of a local nature 
 between the settlers and the Indians which re 
 lated to the titles of the home possessions of 
 some of the white men, the Indians often claim 
 ing that they were cheated and defrauded by the 
 English, who obtained some of their alleged hold 
 ings from their chiefs when they were in a state 
 of intoxication caused by the purchasers them 
 selves ; that they frequently acquired these titles 
 for mere trifles, such as a bottle of brandy, etc. 
 
 One of the complaints the Indians made 
 against the English, Charlevoix says, was the 
 wanton killing of their dogs, " dearer to them 
 than the oxen of the English." 
 
 One of the most important Jesuit outposts 
 was the Kennebec mission, which was estab 
 lished about the middle of the seventeenth cen 
 tury and which was destined to be the storm- 
 centre of warring factions and the scene of a 
 bloody and cruel tragedy. 
 
In 1694, Sebastian Rale was recalled from a 
 station among the Illinois Indians to take full 
 charge of this mission, which for a long time 
 had been located at Naurontsouk, now the town 
 of Norridgewock. Rale was born in Pontarlier 
 Doubs (formerly a part of Franche-Compte) 
 January 4, 1657. He was educated by the Jes 
 uits and entered the order at Dole, September 
 24, 1675. 
 
 In 1689 he was sent to the American Mis 
 sion, and arrived at Quebec on the thirteenth 
 day of October of that year. His first mission 
 was among the Abenaki Indians, that is, " men 
 of the east," a name once applied to all of the 
 Indians of the eastern coast of the American 
 continent, but later restricted to the tribes in 
 habiting a part of Canada, Nova Scotia and 
 Acadia. He had been nearly two years among 
 the Abenakis when he was ordered to the Illi 
 nois River. The journey was a perilous and 
 cheerless one, but he met it with a fortitude 
 characteristic of the Jesuit fathers. Before start 
 ing upon the journey he spent three months at 
 Quebec, studying the language of the Algon- 
 quins. In about two years he was ordered back, 
 as before stated, to the Abenaki country and 
 
[ 23 ] 
 
 the Norridgewock mission assigned to him, 
 where he remained continuously until the time 
 of his death. We may indulge in feelings of 
 pride that the Anglo-Saxon has for many cen 
 turies been at the head of the procession in the 
 march of civilization ; yet his errors have not 
 been few, and one of his gravest has been his 
 dealings with the American Indian. With a few 
 exceptions, notably that of William Penn, the 
 Quaker founder of the great commonwealth of 
 Pennsylvania, and John Eliot, a Protestant min 
 ister in Massachusetts in the seventeenth cen 
 tury, who was known as " Apostle of the In 
 dians," Jonathan Edwards, and possibly a few 
 others, the Anglo-Saxon s record in this respect 
 is generally one of failure and too often one of 
 selfish greed, treachery and cruelty. 
 
 My admiration for the stanch and noble qual 
 ities of the settlers of New England and for the 
 grand foundation which they laid for the erec 
 tion of a great empire of intelligence and liberty 
 is exceeded by none. I would not detract one 
 atom from all that the world owes them. But 
 when one studies their relations with the Indi 
 ans of North America he can but appreciate the 
 facetious remark once made by a noted son of \ \ 
 
Massachusetts, William M. Evarts, when he 
 said, " The Pilgrim Fathers were good men, and 
 when they landed at Plymouth Rock they 
 praised God, that is, they fell on their knees, 
 then they fell on the aborigines." 
 
 That the Jesuits were far more successful in 
 securing and holding the confidence of the In 
 dians, and by their methods making them loyal 
 and faithful friends, cannot be denied by the 
 candid student of history. 
 
 Among all the devoted followers of Loyola 
 in North America no one has achieved greater 
 fame in this respect than has Father Rale. 
 
 He became familiar with several Indian dia 
 lects and understood the language as well as he 
 did French or Latin. It was only by the most 
 persistent effort that he acquired this accom 
 plishment. 
 
 During the years when he was learning the 
 Indian language he spent a part of each year in 
 the wigwams of the Indians in order to catch 
 from their lips the peculiarities of their speech. 
 It necessarily required the closest attention to 
 distinguish the combinations of sound and to 
 perceive their meaning. This knowledge of 
 their language gave him an advantage with the 
 
[as] 
 
 savage which but few other teachers or mission 
 aries possessed. 
 
 He lived with them as a tribesman and be 
 came one of them in all of their interests, wants 
 and sympathies. He was brother, counsellor 
 and friend and won their sincere confidence. 
 As a result they loved him warmly, and amidst 
 all of the violent caprice of the savage character, 
 their affection for him seems never to have 
 wavered. Just as the people of Canada in our 
 day magnified the contentions, now happily 
 settled for all time, between themselves and the 
 government at Washington regarding the Alas 
 kan and other controversies, and viewed them 
 much more seriously than did the Crown author 
 ities ; so in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen 
 turies the people of New England naturally 
 made more fuss over, and regarded as much 
 more momentous, all of the questions of bound 
 ary lines between New England and Acadia 
 than did the English government itself. The 
 local strifes between the inhabitants of New 
 France and New England, which were ever alive, 
 and the continual outbreaks of hostilities be 
 tween the parent countries, which would always 
 involve the respective colonies, made it a period 
 
[a6] 
 
 of tragedy and atrocious scenes which sickens 
 the heart to contemplate. 
 
 Maine s geographical situation, as has been 
 observed, was such as to make it the dark and 
 bloody ground of these struggles. 
 
 From 1700 to 1713, the war, called by some 
 writers " Queen Anne s war," but what was 
 really the War of the Spanish Succession, raged 
 and was one of the most inhuman and devasta 
 ting of all of these contests between the pio 
 neers of France and England in Maine ; and we, 
 in our comfortable environments of to-day, can 
 not imagine the sufferings, privations and hard 
 ships endured by the inhabitants of the District 
 of Maine at that time, which were caused by 
 these wars. 
 
 One of the causes of this war was, that, in 
 1701, James II, the exiled king of Great Britain, 
 died at the court of Louis, and the king of 
 France had, in violation of the treaty of Rys- 
 wick, recognized the son of James as the right 
 ful sovereign of England. 
 
 Another, and probably the greater one, was 
 that, in the year 1700, Charles II of Spain died, 
 having named as his successor Philip of Anjou, 
 a grandson of Louis XIV. This aroused the 
 
jealousy of all Europe, as it pointed to a union 
 of France and Spain. The result was that an 
 alliance was formed between England, Holland 
 and Austria. The war soon extended to the 
 colonies, although none were greatly affected, 
 outside of New England, except South Caro 
 lina. 
 
 The English made an attempt to enter into 
 a compact with all of the Indian tribes to hold 
 aloof and maintain neutrality between the con 
 tending forces. This was generally successful 
 except with the Abenakis of Maine. The Jes 
 uit missionaries, of course, favored the French 
 and succeeded in preventing the Indians from 
 either remaining neutral or espousing the Eng 
 lish cause. 
 
 In 1698, Rale and his converted Indians, by 
 the assistance of his superior in Quebec, had 
 built a chapel at Norridgewock, and had erected 
 simple and comfortable houses, and a settlement 
 of civilization was well under way. Religious 
 bigotry and intolerance, however, ran riot under 
 the banners of both Loyola and John Calvin. 
 Three expeditions, as will be seen, were made 
 against Norridgewock, the first two proving un 
 successful. 
 
[30] 
 
 " the country appeared like a frozen lake." 
 When Hilton and his troops arrived at Nor- 
 ridgewock they found only a " deserted vil- 
 lage." 
 
 These soldiers set fire to " the large chapel 
 with a vestry at the end of it," and the wig 
 wams and homes of the Indians were utterly 
 destroyed. Whether they had received warning 
 of the approach of the Hilton party, which 
 seems very probable, or whether, as Rale after 
 wards asserted, they happened to go there 
 "when the Indians were absent from the vil 
 lage," has never been fully settled. 
 
 The Priest returned to mourn over the smok 
 ing ruins of the sanctuary, and soon entered 
 upon thetaskof rebuilding the churchand village. 
 
 Rale s account is, that for this purpose some 
 of his chiefs went to Boston, it being much 
 nearer than Quebec, to procure workmen ; that 
 the governor received them with a great show 
 of friendship and offered to rebuild at the ex 
 pense of Massachusetts, if they would dismiss 
 their French priest and take an English minis 
 ter in his place ; that the Indians rejected this 
 offer with scorn and said : " Keep your work 
 men, your money and your minister ; we will 
 
[33 ] 
 
 go to our father, the French governor, for what 
 we want." 
 
 Francis, in his life of Rale, does not find any 
 other authority than Rale s for this application 
 to the Governor of Massachusetts. 
 
 Rale s statement is that the church was erected 
 by the aid of the French governor ; yet Hut- 
 chinson, in 1724, asserted that it "had been 
 built a few years before by carpenters from New 
 England." 
 
 But, however obscure the fact may be in re 
 lation to who rendered assistance in restoring 
 the mission, a new church was erected and a 
 beautiful village sprang up upon the ruins of 
 what was burned by Colonel Hilton. Within 
 the limits of the present peaceful town of Nor- 
 ridgewock, the Kennebec curved around a piece 
 of meadow land surrounded by picturesque 
 hills of forestry. On this meadow, on ground 
 a few feet above the common level, stood the 
 village of N orridgewock, fenced with a stockade 
 of logs nine feet high. The enclosure was 
 square, each of its four sides measured one hun 
 dred and sixty feet, and each had its gate. 
 
 From the four gates ran two streets or lanes 
 which crossed each other in the middle of the 
 village. 
 
[34] 
 
 There were twenty-six Indian houses or cab 
 ins within the stockade, described as " built after 
 the English manner/ though constructed of 
 logs, round and hewn. The church was outside 
 the enclosure, about twenty paces from the east 
 gate. 
 
 A small bell, now preserved by the Maine 
 Historical Society at Portland, rang for mass in 
 the early dawn, and for vespers when the sun 
 was sinking among the wilderness hills. 
 
 Rale had but little time for leisure or recre 
 ation. His hours were mostly spent in the 
 duties of his priestly office. 
 
 Parkman says of him : " He preached, ex 
 horted, catechised the young converts, coun 
 selled the seniors for this world and the next, 
 nursed them in sickness, composed their quar 
 rels, tilled his own garden, cut his own firewood, 
 cooked his own food, which was of Indian corn, 
 or, at a pinch, of roots and acorns." When not 
 thus occupied he worked on his Abenaki Vo 
 cabulary and was preparing an Indian Dictionary 
 at the time of his death. Twice a year, summer 
 and winter, he followed his flock to the sea 
 shore, where they lived at their ease during 
 short vacations, on fish and seals, clams, oysters 
 
[35 ] 
 
 and sea-fowl. He was a skilful worker of wood, 
 and with his own hands carved many ornaments 
 for his church and chapels. He also found in 
 the woods a species of laurel, called bayberry, 
 from which he made a wax, which, mixed with 
 tallow, made excellent candles for his altars. 
 
 He organized among the young men of the 
 tribe a company of assisting clergy. About forty 
 of his young converts, arrayed in cassocks and 
 surplices, officiated at the sacrifice of the mass, 
 at the chants and in the processions on holy 
 days. At short distances from the village, the 
 Indians built two small chapels, one dedicated 
 to the Virgin, the other to the Guardian Angel. 
 The chapels were near the paths by which they 
 went to the woods or the fields, and Francis 
 says, " They never passed them without offering 
 their devotions." 
 
 Whittier, in Mogg Megone, has immortalized 
 this scene of worship in " God s first temples," 
 as follows : 
 
 " On the brow of a hill which slopes to meet 
 The flowing river and bathe its feet 
 The bare-washed and drooping grass, 
 And the creeping vine, as the waters pass 
 A rude, unshapely chapel stands, 
 
[36] 
 
 Built up in that wild by unskillful hands ; 
 Yet the traveller knows it s a place of prayer, 
 For the holy sign of the cross is there ; 
 And should he chance at that place to be, 
 Of a Sabbath morn, or some hallowed day, 
 When prayers are made and masses said, 
 Some for the living and some for the dead, 
 Well might that traveller start to see 
 The tall dark forms that take their way 
 From the birch canoe on the river shore, 
 And the forest paths to that chapel door ; 
 And marvel to mark the naked knees 
 And the dusky foreheads bending there, 
 And, stretching his long, thin arms over these 
 In blessing and in prayer, 
 Like a shrouded spectre, pale and tall, 
 In his coarse white vesture, Father Rale." 
 
 Rale claims that in 1721, the government of 
 Massachusetts offered a reward of a thousand 
 pounds sterling for his head. Parkman denies 
 this, but there is ample proof that a sum was 
 thus offered. In the records of the General 
 Court of Massachusetts appears a resolve that 
 was passed July 13, 1720, as follows : 
 
 Resolved, that a premium of one hundred 
 pounds be allowed and paid out of the Public 
 Treasury to any person that shall apprehend 
 
[37 ] 
 
 the said Jesuit within any part of this Province 
 and bring him to Boston and render him to 
 Justice/ 
 
 All branches of the government joined in 
 sending three hundred men to Norridgewock, 
 with a demand that the Indians should give 
 up Rale " and the other heads and fomenters 
 of their rebellion." In case of refusal they 
 were to seize the Jesuit and the principal chiefs 
 and bring them prisoners to Boston. In obe 
 dience to these orders, Colonel Westbrook 
 made an expedition ; but Rale had timely warn 
 ing of it, and, swallowing the consecrated wafers 
 and hiding the sacred vessels, fled to the woods 
 and was thus again saved from discovery. 
 Westbrook found papers in Rale s strong box 
 which proved that Rale had acted more or less 
 under the orders of the Canadian authorities, 
 and which subsequent writers have denominated 
 as " treason " on his part. 
 
 Finally, in 1724, under Governor Dummer, 
 the Massachusetts government was united in a 
 determination to seize or kill Rale and extermi 
 nate Norridgewock. Without considering the 
 immediate causes which led up to the last and 
 fatal expedition against Rale and his brave and 
 
[38 ] 
 
 faithful followers, suffice it to say that a body 
 of men under Captains Harmon, Moulton and 
 Brown and Lieutenant Bean, set out from Fort 
 Richmond in whaleboats on the eighth day of 
 August of that year. They left the boats at 
 Ticonic Falls in charge of a Lieutenant and a 
 squad of men, and, accompanied by three Mo 
 hawk Indians as guides, marched through the 
 forest for Norridgewock. Towards evening 
 they saw two squaws, one of whom they brutally 
 shot and captured the other, who proved to be 
 the wife of the noted chief Bomazeen. She gave 
 them a full account of the condition of the vil 
 lage, which they approached early in the after 
 noon of the 2jd. As to the number of men 
 under Captain Harmon and his associates, there 
 seems to be much doubt. Chasse and Charle- 
 voix placed it at eleven hundred white men and 
 Indians,* while the English authorities have 
 stated that there were only two hundred and 
 eighty men under Harmon, Moulton, Brown 
 and Bean. Charlevoix says that the English 
 stealthily crept through the thick woods sur 
 rounding the village, and the inhabitants knew 
 
 * In the latest edition of Charlevoix the editor admits that 
 this is an error as to the number of men. 
 
W 
 
 3 
 " 
 
 ^ 
 
 u 
 
 H o 
 
 13 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 (L> 
 
 ,c 
 pf 
 
nothing of their approach until it was announced 
 by a general discharge of fire-arms which sent 
 their shot through the wigwams. 
 
 It was a complete surprise to the dusky in 
 habitants of the little forest village and they 
 easily fell into the awful death-trap ruthlessly 
 set for them by the English there among the 
 pines and birches, under the evergreens dark 
 shade, and within sound of the joyous rhythm of 
 the waters of the river Kennebec. 
 
 Only fifty warriors were in the village at the 
 time. They seized their arms, rushed out, with 
 out preparation, for a fight, not hoping to de 
 fend the place against a foe already in possession, 
 but to protect the flight of their wives, children 
 and old men. Father Rale, who, as Charlevoix 
 says, was apprized of the peril of his people by 
 the shouts and tumult, hastened forth fearlessly 
 to present his person to the assailants, in the 
 hope of attracting their attention to himself, and 
 thus securing his flock at the risk of his own 
 life. La Chasse adds another motive, which 
 was the hope of delaying by his presence their 
 first attack. His expectation was realized. No 
 sooner had he appeared than the English sent 
 up a great shout which was followed by a shower 
 
[4* ] 
 
 of musket-shot. He fell dead, as some writers 
 say, near a cross which he had planted in the 
 central part of the village. Several Indians who 
 had gathered about him to protect him with 
 their bodies were slain by his side. Francis 
 says : " Thus died this affectionate pastor, giv 
 ing his life for the sheep, after a life of thirty- 
 seven years of suffering." 
 
 This is substantially the French version of 
 this terrible tragedy. Francis also gives the 
 English account of the affair, quoting Hutchin- 
 son, who gathered his information from the 
 journal of one, and from the oral statements of 
 another, of the officers who led the forces against 
 Rale ; also the statements of Penhallow, who 
 was living at the time, and a brief notice in the 
 " New England Courant," a newspaper printed 
 in Boston, a few days after the news of his death 
 and the destruction of his followers arrived there. 
 Summed up, the English account does not dif 
 fer materially from that of the French, except 
 in regard to the killing of Rale. These witnes 
 ses aver that Captain Moulton gave orders not 
 to kill the priest. But a wound inflicted upon 
 one of the soldiers by Rale, while firing from a 
 wigwam where he was, so exasperated Jaques, a 
 
[43 ] 
 
 lieutenant, that he burst open a door and shot 
 Rale through the head. Jaques explanation of 
 this deed was, that when he broke into the wig 
 wam, Rale was loading his gun, and declared 
 " that he would not give or take quarter." 
 Francis, in speaking of this, observes: "How 
 little confidence can be placed in this statement 
 of the lieutenant we learn from the fact that, 
 according to Hutchinson, Moulton himself 
 doubted its truth at the time." 
 
 The following is Charlevoix s description of 
 the death of Rale : " They found him pierced 
 with a thousand shots, his scalp torn off, his 
 skull crushed by hatchets, his mouth and eyes 
 full of mud, his leg-bone broken and all of his 
 members mutilated in a hundred different ways. 
 Thus was a priest treated in his mission at the 
 foot of the cross, by those very men who on all 
 occasions exaggerate so greatly the pretended 
 inhumanities of our Indians, who have never 
 been seen to use violence to the dead bodies of 
 their enemies. After the neophytes had raised 
 up and repeatedly kissed the precious remains 
 of the Father, tenderly and so justly beloved, 
 they buried him on the very spot where, the 
 day before, he had celebrated the holy myster- 
 
[44] 
 
 ies; that is to say, on the spot where the altar 
 stood before the church was burned." 
 
 Some of the New England writers have raised 
 doubts as to the truth of the statements regard 
 ing the mutilation of Rale s body. Their con 
 tention has been that Charlevoix must neces 
 sarily have obtained his information from the 
 surviving Indians, and that, as a rule, their 
 statements were unreliable. There cannot, how 
 ever, be any doubt but what his murderers took 
 his scalp and carried it in triumph to Boston. 
 
 In the first place they had a great incentive 
 to do this. The Massachusetts government paid 
 liberal rewards for the scalps of their enemies in 
 the French and Indian wars. 
 
 Penhallow (page 48) says : " The Colonial 
 rewards for scalps made it too rich a trophy to 
 leave. A volunteer without pay got fifty pounds 
 for a scalp ; if in service, twenty ; while regu 
 lars got ten." 
 
 William Allen s History of Norridgewock, 
 page 41, quoting from a manuscript in the hand 
 writing of Rev. William Holmes, under date 
 of August 30, 1724, says, in describing the 
 " battle," but what was really a massacre, when 
 Norridgewock was overwhelmed and Rale 
 
[45 ] 
 
 killed : " The scalps of twenty-eight of them 
 were brought to Boston ; of which number their 
 priest s and Bomazeen s were two." 
 
 Williamson also refers to this as follows : 
 "Harmon, who was senior in command, pro 
 ceeded to Boston with the scalps, and received 
 in reward for the achievement the commission 
 of Lieutenant Colonel." 
 
 When Captain Harmon returned to Boston 
 he made " solemn oath " that one of the twen 
 ty-eight scalps which he produced at a council, 
 held at the Council Chamber in Boston, was 
 that of " Sebastian Ralle, a Jesuit." And that 
 twenty-seven other scalps came from the heads 
 of "rebel or enemy Indians, which were slain at 
 Norridgewock." 
 
 After killing Rale and as many of the inhab 
 itants of the little village as possible, the victo 
 rious party at once commenced their march 
 toward the sea. The Puritan militia thought it 
 a meritorious act to destroy what they called the 
 "idols" in the church and carry off the sacred 
 vessels ; but the church itself and all of the 
 buildings within the village were not fired until 
 after the march homeward was begun, when, 
 Francis says, cc one of the Mohawks was sent, 
 
[46] 
 
 or voluntarily returned, to fire the wigwams and 
 the church, and then rejoined the company." 
 
 Thus ended the proud Norridgewock tribe ; 
 for, although it was not entirely obliterated from 
 the earth, it passed out on that lurid day from 
 its place among the nations of the red men. 
 At the same time all of the hopes, all of the 
 strivings, yearnings and aspirations and lofty 
 ideals of a great soul, having only one purpose 
 in view, living for that only who in the light 
 of to-day would be a fanatic whose life s path 
 way had so oft been obscured by the wild 
 storm-clouds, were in the grave, forever buried 
 with all that was earthly of Sebastian Rale. 
 
 That he exercised wisdom or ordinary dis 
 cretion in so long remaining where he believed 
 his God had stationed him, might well be 
 doubted. One less sincere, one less ascetic, one 
 more worldly, would have realized that he must 
 eventually be overwhelmed by the forces ar 
 rayed against him, which were increasing in 
 power and strength while his were declining; 
 that he was fighting for a " lost cause " and that 
 defeat was inevitable. But he beheld everything 
 in the halo of his own conception of what was 
 righteous, what was just, and its glitter blinded 
 
[47 ] 
 
 his eyes and he was unable to see clearly either 
 fairness in the claims of those who were oppos 
 ing him or his own imminent danger. Some of 
 the French writers say that his superior and 
 other friends in Canada, during the last months 
 of his life, warned him of the perils which beset 
 him and urged him to abandon his post ; but 
 that he scorned all such advice and deliberately 
 elected to be a martyr. Francis, in speaking of 
 this event, said : " Another sad chapter was 
 added to the history of the white man s inter 
 course with his forest brother." 
 
 u No wigwam s smoke is curling there ; 
 The very earth is scorched and bare ; 
 And they pause and listen to catch a sound 
 Of breathing life, but there comes not one, 
 Save the foxes bark and the rabbits bound." 
 
 From a careful study of all of the authorities 
 relating to this subject, including the exhaustive 
 work of James Phinney Baxter, "The Pioneers 
 of New France in New England," which is by 
 far the ablest defence of the English at Nor- 
 ridgewock that has ever been made, and the 
 strongest indictment against Rale that any one 
 has ever drawn, I am convinced of the fact that 
 
[48 ] 
 
 Rale acted so far as he was capable in the inter 
 est of his own government as well as of his 
 church, believing that he was fully justified in 
 so doing. Even after the treaty of Utrecht, the 
 French claimed all that part of Maine which 
 was east of the Kennebec River, and that was 
 during a long time debated territory ; and this 
 treaty left the whole question of bounds and 
 ancient limits entirely indefinite and open to 
 contention. The plan was, when this treaty was 
 ratified, to settle the matter of bounds by com 
 missioners of the two powers, as has already been 
 stated, but it was never done. This disputed 
 territory was therefore a bone of contention be 
 tween the inhabitants of the two provinces un 
 til the God of battles, on the Plains of Abraham, 
 wrested the whole of Acadia from the French 
 and delivered it over to the English. A century 
 later a part of the same controversy arose be 
 tween Canada and the State of Maine in relation 
 to our northeastern boundary, and the English 
 government and the United States settled it 
 forever by the famous Ashburton treaty. 
 
 The writers who have espoused the cause of 
 the English in the assassination of Father Rale, 
 for I cannot see how it can be truthfully de- 
 
[49 ] 
 
 scribed by any other term, have seemed to over 
 look the fact that his settlement and mission 
 were on territory claimed by the French ; that 
 it was his duty as a subject of the king of 
 France to be loyal to that side of the conten 
 tion ; that he was no more intensely partisan in 
 striving to promote the interests of his country 
 than were Baxter, Mather, and many ministers 
 of the Puritan faith who were equally as stead 
 fast to the English cause as he was to that of 
 the French. That he was ever loyal to the in 
 terests of his government and his church, that 
 he watched their welfare with vigilance and 
 faithfulness seldom equalled, is undisputed by 
 any; that some of his methods of supporting 
 the cause to which his life was pledged were 
 sometimes questionable and even deceptive, I 
 believe is in evidence which cannot be fully con 
 tradicted ; but I also believe that they were in 
 harmony with the spirit of the times in which 
 he lived, when men regarded a human life of 
 less value than a dogma, and that he was no 
 worse than many of his contemporaries within 
 the ranks of both of the contending forces. 
 That nearly three hundred soldiers acting under 
 the least semblance of military discipline could 
 
[ 50] 
 
 not have made him a prisoner and taken him a 
 captive to Boston is incredible. If this could 
 have been accomplished, then this act of our 
 forefathers was a travesty upon civilized war 
 fare and a black spot in the history of New 
 England. The fate of the Jesuit was undoubt 
 edly glad news to many of the Maine settlers, 
 who believed that it would end all of their 
 troubles. That he had for a long time prior to 
 his death been feared and hated by the New 
 Englanders is a fact. Parkman says that while 
 the latter ff thought him a devil, he passed in 
 Canada for a martyred saint " ; and he further 
 adds that cc he was neither the one nor the 
 other, but a man with qualities and faults of a 
 man fearless, resolute, enduring, boastful, 
 sarcastic, often bitter and irritating, and a vehe 
 ment partisan/ 
 
 Even James Phinney Baxter said of him, 
 " We can but admire the calm reliance of Rale 
 upon the protection of a higher power, and his 
 entire devotion to what he considered his duty." 
 
 Dr. Convers Francis, to whose " Life of 
 Rale " I have made reference, was a Unitarian 
 clergyman of renown in his day and a graduate 
 of Harvard. He was born in 1795 and died in 
 
1863. In 1842 he was appointed to the Park- 
 man professorship of theology in Harvard Col 
 lege, which he held during the remainder of his 
 life. He was the author of several other histor 
 ical and biographical works. When he wrote of 
 Rale he had canvassed carefully all the sources 
 of information relating to his career, and had 
 before him substantially what Parkman, Baxter 
 and subsequent writers have had. Documents 
 and papers which have been discovered since 
 Francis wrote, have not changed materially the 
 facts. Yet Francis, in his conclusion as to the 
 character and sincerity of purpose of Sebastian 
 Rale says : 
 
 " But, whatever abatements from indiscrimi 
 nate praise his faults or frailties may require, I 
 cannot review his history without receiving a 
 deep impression that he was a pious, devoted 
 and extraordinary man. He was a scholar nur 
 tured amidst European learning, and accustomed 
 to the refinements of the Old World, who ban 
 ished himself from the pleasures of home and 
 from the attractions of his native land, and 
 passed much of his life in the forest of an un 
 broken wilderness, on a distant shore, amidst 
 the squalid rudeness of savage life, and with no 
 
[ 52 ] 
 
 companions, during those long years, but the 
 wild men of the woods. With them he lived as a 
 friend, as a benefactor, as a brother. So far as the 
 patient toils of missionary and love for the dark 
 ened soul of the Indian are concerned, we may 
 place the names of Eliot and Rale in a fellow 
 ship, which they indeed would both haverejected, 
 but which we may regard as hallowed and true." 
 The spot where the Jesuit of Norridgewock 
 fell was first marked by a plain cross which was 
 years afterwards destroyed by hunters. The 
 place was designated in various ways until 1833, 
 when a movement was set on foot to erect a 
 permanent monument over his grave. The first 
 suggestion to do this, it is said, came from Dr. 
 Jonathan Sibley of Union, Me. The project was 
 supported by both Protestants and Catholics, 
 Mr. William Allen of Norridgewock and Edward 
 Kavanagh, afterwards governor of Maine, being 
 prominent in the matter. On the 23d day of 
 August, 1833, which was the anniversary of the 
 Norridgewock fight, a monument was erected 
 which stands there to-day. Bishop Fenwick of 
 Boston had charge of the ceremonies and deliv 
 ered an address. Delegations from the Penobscot, 
 Passamaquoddy and Canada tribes were present. 
 
THE RALE MONUMENT 
 On the spot where he was killed in Norridgewock, Me. 
 
THE PORTSMOUTH AND 
 ARROWSIC TREATIES 
 
The Portsmouth and 
 Arrowsic Treaties 
 
 WHAT is known in the history of New 
 England as the treaty of Portsmouth 
 was concluded and signed between 
 Governor Walter Barefoot and three of his 
 Council on the part of New Hampshire, and 
 Francis Hook and John Davis, two of the 
 Provincial Councillors of the District of Maine, 
 and twelve sagamores and chiefs representing 
 the Penacook, Saco, Androscoggin and Kenne- 
 bec tribes, on the eighth day of September, 1685. 
 The terms of this treaty were : 
 First: That there should be lasting friend 
 ship between the English and the Indians. 
 
 Second : That if either harm the other, the 
 English shall be tried and punished by a Jus 
 tice of the Peace, and the Indians by their sag 
 amore. 
 
 57 
 
[ 58 ] 
 
 Third: That whenever any Indian shall man 
 ifest designs of mischief, the other Indians in 
 habiting these provinces shall give notice to the 
 English and assist them. 
 
 Fourth : That all the tribes while in friend 
 ship shall be protected against the Mohawks. 
 
 Fifth : That whenever the Indians shall re 
 move with their wives and children without giv 
 ing timely notice to the English, they may be 
 apprehended or war made upon them, till the 
 sagamores render satisfaction. 
 
 These conditions did not bind the English to 
 anything very specific, while it did set forth 
 clearly defined limitations for the conduct of the 
 Indians; but the Indians believed, as it would 
 seem rightfully, that, when a few years later the 
 English began to erect forts, manifestly for hos 
 tilities against them, that the English were 
 breaking the spirit if not the letter of these 
 treaty obligations. This awakened the animos 
 ity of the tribes. These and other overt acts on 
 the part of both the English and Indians soon 
 stirred up a flame which threatened the peace 
 which had been established by the treaty of 
 Portsmouth, and in 1717 the General Court 
 of Massachusetts became alarmed about exist- 
 
[ 59 ] 
 
 ing relations with the Indians. It feared the 
 belligerent attitude which they were assuming 
 and was also jealous of the influence which Rale 
 and other Jesuits seemed to have. 
 
 The Indians pledged themselves not to pur 
 chase any goods except at trading houses estab 
 lished by the English. As time went on, the 
 English did not carry out their part of the 
 agreement. No trading houses were established, 
 no shops erected for the repairing of their tools 
 and arms, as had been agreed upon. The In 
 dians complained of adventurers, under protec 
 tion of the English, who were continually cheat 
 ing and defrauding them. 
 
 Naturally, under these conditions, they pre 
 ferred the French to the English to trade with. 
 Instead of building trading houses, the English 
 erected forts, which intensified the suspicions of 
 the Indians. 
 
 Nearly all historians agree that after the 
 treaty of Utrecht (1713) the Indians desired 
 peace with the English. They were exhausted 
 and tired of war. One of their first moves 
 toward establishing friendly relations with the 
 English was to send leading chiefs and saga 
 mores to Casco. 
 
[6o] 
 
 The English were arrogant, domineering and 
 dictatorial, and did not meet them in a fraternal 
 spirit. 
 
 Finally the English and the Indians met at 
 Arrowsic in August, 1717. The Governor was 
 haughty in manner and not inclined to be con 
 ciliatory. 
 
 He presented the sachems with the Bible, in 
 the Indian language, and said to them : " This 
 book contains the true religion. Mr. Baxter, 
 who has accompanied us, will remain with you, 
 and teach you its principles." 
 
 One of the sagamores promptly replied, cc All 
 people have their own religious teachers. Your 
 Bible we do not care to keep. God has given 
 us teachers. Should we abandon them, we 
 should offend God." 
 
 The chiefs then turned to the political ques 
 tions which were creating trouble, and Abbot 
 says : "In the conference which ensued they 
 showed themselves to be men of remarkable 
 strength of mind and common good sense." 
 Their principal speaker said : " We admit that 
 the land west of the Kennebec River, the Eng 
 lish have a claim to regard as theirs ; but cer 
 tainly no sale has ever been made to them of 
 the country east of that river." 
 
[61 ] 
 
 According to the account given in the "Let- 
 tres Edifiantes et Curieuses ecrites des Missions 
 Stranger es," one of the chiefs gave the follow 
 ing answer to the proposition that they should 
 dismiss their missionary and take an English 
 man in his stead : 
 
 " You astonish me by the proposition you 
 make. When you first came here you saw me 
 a long time before I saw the French, but neither 
 you nor your ministers spoke to me of prayer, 
 or of the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my 
 skins of beaver and elk. Of these only they 
 thought. These they sought with the greatest 
 eagerness. I was not able to furnish them 
 enough. When I carried them a large quantity, 
 I was their great friend, but no farther. 
 
 " One day my canoe having missed its route, 
 I lost my way. After wandering a long time I 
 landed near Quebec. Scarcely had 1 arrived 
 when one of the Black Robes came to see me. 
 I was loaded with furs ; but the French Black 
 Robe scarcely deigned to look at them. He 
 spoke to me at once of the Great Spirit, of 
 heaven, of hell, and of prayer, which is the on 
 ly way to reach heaven. 
 
 " I heard him with pleasure, and remained a 
 
[62 ] 
 
 long time in the village to listen to him. I de 
 manded baptism and received it. At last I re 
 turned to my country and related what had 
 happened to me. My friends envied my happi 
 ness, and wished to participate. They departed 
 to find the Black Robe, and demanded of him 
 baptism. It is thus that the French have acted 
 towards me. Thus I tell you that I hold to the 
 prayer of the French. I shall be faithful to it 
 until the world is burned up." 
 
 The result of these negotiations was that the 
 treaty of Portsmouth was renewed and ratified 
 by an exchange of wampum and other presents, 
 in accordance with the custom of those days 
 when the red man made treaties and agreements 
 with his pale-face brother. 
 
 The unfairness of these proceedings is appar 
 ent when one considers how little the Indians 
 could have understood or comprehended the 
 legal terms of the treaty of Portsmouth. 
 
 Hutchinson and other writers have admitted 
 that the treaty could not have been morally 
 binding upon the Indians, on account of their 
 ignorance of the translation. 
 
 This, and the capture of Baron de St. Castine, 
 whose mother was an Indian woman, and of 
 
[ 63 ] 
 
 several Indians who were taken to Boston and 
 held in captivity as hostages, contrary to treaty 
 obligations, the deception too often used in their 
 dealings and intercourse with the Indians, are 
 among the causes which prejudiced the Indians 
 against the English. 
 
 It is evident from the authorities upon this 
 subject, that the English violated their solemn 
 agreements with the Indians, which resulted in 
 so much bloodshed and suffering. 
 
 If the English had spent more energy in pla 
 cating the Indians by fair dealings and maintain 
 ing their integrity with them, and less f in con 
 tending about territorial lines and inciting their 
 own people against Rale, it would undoubtedly 
 have been far wiser and better for all concerned. 
 
 The strife and wrangling over these treaties 
 added to the contentions regarding the bound 
 aries of Acadia, which we have already consid 
 ered, are among the events of that time which 
 strengthened and stimulated Rale in persistently 
 pursuing the course which he had marked out 
 for himself. 
 
HOW MUCH CONDONE? 
 HOW MUCH CONDEMN? 
 
How much Condone? 
 How much Condemn? 
 
 IN undertaking to determine the truth re 
 garding Sebastian Rale, now that we have 
 passed the times of sectarian bitterness, we 
 find really no charges against him which in any 
 degree constitute a valid excuse for the English 
 colonists in transcending the methods of war as 
 conducted by civilized nations, by wantonly 
 murdering him instead of making him a pris 
 oner of war. 
 
 The improbable tale related by Lieutenant 
 Jaques, that he killed him contrary to orders 
 and in self-defence, has probably not been taken 
 seriously by any of the writers, and without any 
 further evidence to sustain it than has yet ap 
 peared, it should be disregarded. 
 
 Other than this mythical story, the two rea 
 sons which have been assigned by the advocates 
 
 67 
 
[68 ] 
 
 of his enemies as an apology for the course 
 which they pursued, are (a) y that he was a trai 
 tor and an inciter of rebellion against the Eng 
 lish Government ; and (b\ that in aiding and 
 abetting the French in their warfare against the 
 New England colonies, regarding this question 
 of territorial rights, he encouraged the Indians 
 to join the French and commit acts of cruelty 
 upon the innocent English in that part of Maine 
 that was in dispute. 
 
 To arrive at any reasonable conclusion as to 
 the charge that he was a traitor, it is well to 
 consider the claims of the French to Acadia. 
 Reference has already been made to the fact that 
 there was an attempt between the English and 
 French governments to settle the controversy 
 regarding its ancient limits. The result of these 
 efforts is found in " The Memorials of the Eng 
 lish and French Commissioners concerning the 
 limits of Nova Scotia and Acadia from 1750 to 
 1 7S3>" an exhaustive work, which was published 
 in London (1754), and comprises 777 pages. 
 It contains what might be called the "briefs" 
 of the advocates of the two governments. 
 
 In the twenty-third memorial on the British 
 side, it was asserted that : 
 
[ 69 ] 
 
 "Both nations having thus agreed that Pen- 
 tagoet was within the western limits of Acadia, 
 the French from this period omitted no oppor 
 tunity of endeavoring to extend by claim the 
 limits of that side even as far as the River Ken- 
 nebec." 
 
 The twenty-fourth memorial states that, in 
 1685, upon a complaint that some English ves 
 sels had fished upon the coast of Acadia, the 
 French Ambassador presented a memorial to 
 the King of England, on the i6th day of Jan 
 uary, wherein he claims that the western line of 
 Acadia extended as far west as "St. George s 
 Island, which lies at the mouth of the river St. 
 George "; that this was possessed by the French 
 until the year 1654, when it was taken by the 
 English, and in 1667 again restored to the 
 French, pursuant to the treaty of Breda. 
 
 In the twenty-ninth memorial they say : " It 
 results from these negotiations, as well as from 
 the alternatives proposed by the Ambassador 
 of France, in the year 1700, that the Court of 
 France judged that they had a right to extend 
 the western limits of Acadia as far as the river 
 of Kennebequi." 
 
 The French contended that the construction 
 
of the twelfth and thirteenth articles of the treaty 
 of Utrecht is very clear and precise ; that the 
 design of Great Britian in those articles was to 
 secure to the English exclusive fishery, and 
 that the English Commissioners, being unable to 
 support the claim of their government upon the 
 words in this treaty, " have reasoned upon evi 
 dence and argument foreign to the question." 
 
 To demonstrate that the English themselves 
 acknowledged that there was great doubt as to 
 what were the ancient bounds of Acadia, and 
 that the French possessions east of the Kenne- 
 bec River were at least established and held un 
 der what lawyers would denominate " a color of 
 right/ I also quote the following statement of 
 the case from the English arguments made to 
 support their claims : 
 
 " To show that these evidences by which the 
 English Commissaries have endeavored to en 
 force the true meaning of the twelfth article of 
 the treaty of Utrecht, from which the dispute 
 has taken its rise, and what is the nature of the 
 treaty of Utrecht, having ceded to Great Britain 
 all Nova Scotia or Acadia with its ancient 
 boundaries," etc. 
 
" Clear and precise as the French Commis- 
 sionaries now think the words of the treaty, a 
 difference of construction has by them been 
 raised upon them, and different limits are as 
 signed by the two crowns as the ancient limits." 
 
 The French in these memorials based their 
 claims upon ancient maps, charts, records of 
 French historians, and the terms of the treaty of 
 St. Germain-en- Laye, made March 29, 1632, 
 when the English ceded this same territory to 
 the French. As bearing upon the subject in 
 hand, all this is not important unless it tends to 
 absolve Father Rale from the charge of being a 
 traitor to the English crown, for he had a right 
 to assume that he was never its subject, but 
 owed his loyalty to the French government, so 
 long as it asserted sovereignty over the territory 
 east of the Kennebec, as certainly as did any of 
 the Protestant missionaries owe theirs to the 
 English. 
 
 The fact that ancient Acadia, by treaty and 
 conquest, passed nine times between England 
 and France in the period of 1 27 years, and that 
 none of these events conclusively decided what 
 were its actual boundary lines, would seem to 
 clearly demonstrate the general confusion and 
 
misunderstanding that existed during all of 
 Rale s time regarding the whereabouts of these 
 lines. 
 
 Neither is it surprisingly strange that a mis 
 sionary whose post chanced to be upon territory 
 the title to which was involved in such contro 
 versy between two great nations, should not 
 have possessed profound legal knowledge re 
 garding questions of such character, but naturally 
 gave his own government, by whose prerogative 
 he was placed there, the benefit of the doubt. 
 
 The Norridgewock mission was established 
 long before the treaty of Utrecht, when the en 
 tire world acknowledged Acadia as belonging to 
 the French. 
 
 The Mission was in a territory between the 
 Kennebec and the St. Croix, which the French 
 from the first to the last contended did not pass 
 to the English under this treaty. Rale was then 
 a subject of the king of France and had been 
 installed at his mission at Norridgewock by his 
 government and his church. 
 
 Did he not have a moral right to be loyal to 
 the French in their contentions with the Eng 
 lish about the territory where he was ? Did he 
 not have the right to sympathize with the 
 
[73 1 
 
 French and do whatever he could that was con 
 sistent with his priestly office to aid them in 
 holding, by force even, what he believed to be 
 theirs, against the encroachments of the Eng 
 lish ? That he may, in his zeal as a patriot, 
 have exceeded his duties as a priest, is very 
 likely, and there is more or less evidence in the 
 accounts of those times to substantiate this. 
 
 He was under no obligation of fealty to Eng 
 land, unless a fair construction of the twelfth 
 Article of the treaty of Utrecht transferred the 
 territory upon which he dwelt from France to 
 England. 
 
 The French government and the governor 
 of Canada were, during the storms of his life, 
 contending that this was not the fact. 
 
 Was he a traitor in not adopting the views of 
 the English in regard to this question ? Would 
 he not have been a greater traitor if he had 
 turned against France and become an adherent 
 to England ? 
 
 As to his alleged cruelty, it must be admit 
 ted that he espoused the cause of the French, 
 and it is strongly urged that he exerted his in 
 fluence with the Indians to fight the English 
 colonists whom he believed unlawfully encroach- 
 
[74] 
 
 ing upon territory that rightfully belonged to 
 the Indians and over which France had control. 
 In this did he differ from the customs of those 
 dark days? Were not the English and French 
 for a century fierce rivals in their efforts to se 
 cure the aid of the Indians in fighting each 
 other? And was it not well known to each of 
 the contending forces and to the home govern 
 ment, and to the entire civilized world as well, 
 that whenever or for whichever side the Indians 
 fought, their methods were the very height of 
 barbarous cruelty? 
 
 When either side was able, by threats, cajol 
 ery, bribery or kindness, to win over to them 
 selves the help of the Indian warriors, it meant 
 burning, pillage, scalping, murder and fiendish 
 torture to the other side. 
 
 In his designs, in this respect, Sebastian 
 Rale was no better and no worse than his com 
 peers in that time of religious fanaticism and 
 devilish intolerance. That he was an intense 
 and most strenuous partisan of his church and 
 the government to which he believed his alle 
 giance belonged, can never be truthfully denied, 
 and I believe that he was a natural, although 
 perhaps a ripely developed product of the times 
 
[75 ] 
 
 of blood and bigotry, cruelty and tyranny in 
 which he lived. Some writer has well said that 
 " the age and times in which men live must be 
 taken into consideration when we judge their 
 character "; and this is true, and the fact should 
 be fully realized before passing judgment upon 
 one whose sincerity cannot be doubted and who 
 has been condemned for acts which were mani 
 festly the result of an excessive zeal for the cause 
 to which he gave his life. 
 
 Then it seems very evident that the colonists 
 broke faith with the Indians and violated the 
 solemn agreements made with them at Ports 
 mouth and Arrowsic on many occasions and in 
 ways which provoked the antagonism of the 
 Indians and aroused their barbarous natures to 
 commit acts of torture which might easily have 
 been averted. 
 
 It is also undoubtedly true that many of the 
 cruelties and barbarities of the Indians were 
 caused by the brandy and rum sold to them by 
 the English, and about which Rale so often 
 bitterly complained. Rale was their friend and 
 counsellor and, it would seem, properly espoused 
 their cause. 
 
 One of the curious episodes in the life of 
 
Rale at Norridgewock was his controversy with 
 a minister of Boston, James Baxter, which, be 
 ginning about theology, finally ended in a quar 
 rel between them as to which was the most 
 learned in Latin. The correspondence discloses 
 only an absurd vein of vanity in both. 
 
 In closing this part of the subject I desire 
 only to add that, from the time of the landing 
 of the iron-hearted Northmen on our shores a 
 thousand years ago or more, until the last of 
 the cruel Indian wars were forever ended, the 
 early history of our grand old State of Maine 
 is replete with perilous adventures by sea and 
 land, of struggles against misery and hardships 
 of which we have no comprehension, of terrible 
 conflicts, devastation and disaster. Our past is 
 a wonderful one, rich in momentous historic 
 events and full of material for song and romance ; 
 but it seems to me that whatever view the reader 
 may take of his merits, his errors, his virtues 
 or his faults, there is no event in all this lore 
 more interesting and fascinating than the career 
 of Sebastian Rale at Norridgewock, one of the 
 bravest in the advance-guard in the forward 
 movement of Christian civilization on the 
 American continent. 
 
THE INDIANS OF MAINE AND 
 THE TRADITION OF PAMOLA 
 
BIG THUNDER 
 
 of the Penobscot tribe of Indians, in the garb of an ancient 
 Abnaki chief 
 
The Indians of Maine 
 
 THE pathetic history of the extermina 
 tion of the powerful Indian nations of 
 North America is fascinating and full 
 of interest, although it is a tale of cruelty and 
 of " man s inhumanity to man." 
 
 The Algonquins formed the most prominent 
 of the three aboriginal races that the French 
 pioneers found in the great basin of the St. 
 Lawrence and much of the territory adjacent 
 thereto. They were the veritable monarchs of 
 that vast forest and the lords of all the mighty 
 rivers and wonderful lakes which were revealed 
 to the astonished vision of the early explorers, 
 friars and Jesuits. 
 
 The tribes of the Abenaquis, or Abnikis, as 
 they are generally known in history, belong to 
 that nation, and when the first steps of Euro 
 pean civilization were made upon what is now 
 
 81 
 
[ 82 ] 
 
 the state of Maine, this branch of the Algon- 
 quins controlled the territory. 
 
 The principal tribes consisted of the Cana- 
 bis on the Kennebec ; the Etchenims, living 
 nearer the St. John ; the Pennacooks of the 
 Merrimac; the Sokokis further east, besides 
 smaller tribes like the Penobscots, Passama- 
 quoddys, Chesuncooks, etc. The name " Cana- 
 bis" undoubtedly gave rise to the idea that 
 some of the Maine Indians were cannibals. It 
 does not appear, however, from the most care 
 ful writers, that this was the fact. 
 
 The origin of the American Indian is involved 
 in complete obscurity and profound mystery. 
 The " red men " of Canada and the United 
 States differ in many respects from the Guronis 
 of Paraguay, and both from the wild tribes of 
 California ; but all writers have agreed that they 
 exhibit clear evidence of belonging to the same 
 great branch of the human family. 
 
 Most of the voyagers and discoverers, in 
 cluding Columbus, believed these aboriginals 
 were of Asiatic origin. This idea has never been 
 entirely abandoned, some modern writers still 
 adhering to the same theory. 
 
 Dr. Robert Brown, in his " Races of Man- 
 
[ 83 ] 
 
 kind/* upholds this view. In its support he 
 cites the fact that the " Eskimo of the Ameri 
 can, and the Tchuktchis on the Asiatic side, 
 understand each other perfectly. " 
 
 It is generally understood that the name In 
 dian was conferred upon them from their real 
 or fancied resemblance to the inhabitants of 
 India. 
 
 The aborigines of Maine were not unlike 
 others of their race in the North Atlantic coun 
 try. They were natural types of the Bow-and- 
 arrow family of men, and were from the earliest 
 times known as the Abenaki tribe. It is unfor 
 tunate that the early New England writers did 
 not give us much information regarding the 
 Indians. The greater part of what they wrote 
 of the red men related to their warfare with 
 them ; what victories they achieved in these 
 wars, and their versions of the cruelties of the 
 Indian. 
 
 As a result we are obliged to take our infor 
 mation from the French writers of that period, 
 who had radically differed from the English in 
 their treatment and dealings with this race, and 
 who were enthusiastic in their praise of them 
 and admittedly their partisans. 
 
These Indians were nomadic in their habits, 
 roaming over immense stretches of hunting 
 grounds and continually travelling from river 
 to river and lake to lake. It may properly be 
 said that their vocation was hunting, although 
 they possessed such passion for war that savage 
 warfare was at least an avocation with them, 
 which they apparently loved as intensely as they 
 did the chase. 
 
 No race on this earth has ever exhibited a 
 stronger desire for personal independence and 
 freedom of action or a greater hatred of restraint 
 of any kind than have they. Hence, when the 
 most shadowy and vaguest ideas of the func 
 tions of government began to dawn upon their 
 shrouded intellect, they were necessarily its nat 
 ural enemy. 
 
 A crude religious or spiritual strain was one 
 of their predominant characteristics. They be 
 lieved in a Great Spirit everywhere present, 
 ruling the elements, riding on the storm, his 
 voice in the awful thunder when angry, and 
 gleaming in the glad sunlight when pleased ; 
 that the good were rewarded and the bad pun 
 ished. They also believed in lesser spirits 
 some good, some bad. 
 
These spirits of both orders visited them on 
 earth. Evil dreams, diseases of all kinds, ene 
 mies, cheating pale faces, severe winters, starva 
 tion, a scarcity of game, ill luck in the chase, 
 the bad spirits were all responsible for; while, 
 on the other hand, the good spirits brought 
 sunshine, kind friends, peace, plenty and all the 
 creatures which they hunted. 
 
 The Rev. Eugene Vetromile, in his " History 
 of the Abnakis," published in 1866, denies the 
 statement of some historians that they were 
 idolaters. It is true that they in some manner 
 worshipped the sun, offering sacrifice to it; 
 but the Indians explain that the material lumi 
 nary was not the object of their worship, but it 
 only represented another luminary invisible to 
 our eyes ; and as the sun illuminating the whole 
 earth gives life and light to every object, so it 
 was representing an invisible Being who gives 
 light, animation, life and support to the whole 
 world. 
 
 They believed also in a great Evil Spirit who 
 was the cause of all trouble in this world and 
 the world of spirits. 
 
 The Evil Spirit recognized by the Penobscot 
 Indians was called by them Pamola (meaning 
 
[86 ] 
 
 that "he curses on the mountain"), and was 
 supposed to reside during the summer season 
 on the top of Mount Katahdin. They offered 
 sacrifices to him to appease him so that he 
 would not curse or injure them. Although they 
 hunted and fished in the woods and lakes around 
 Mount Katahdin, yet they never attempted to 
 go on the top of that mountain for fear that 
 they would never be able to return, but would 
 be either killed or devoured by Pamola. It is 
 only within recent years that the Indians have 
 been induced by sportsmen and visitors to act 
 as guides in ascending this mountain. 
 
 The medicine man served as priest, seer and 
 prophet, and mediated between them and the 
 spirit world. 
 
 This was substantially the gist of their reli 
 gious superstitions. As friends they were as 
 true as the magnet to steel, but as enemies they 
 were without forgiveness, and to avenge a wrong 
 was one of their highest aims. 
 
 The early Indians of Maine are said to have 
 been extremely hostile and revengeful. It would 
 seem, however, that the English had only them 
 selves to blame for this rapid development of 
 the Indian characteristics in these respects. 
 
[ 89 ] 
 
 They began their intercourse with them by 
 practising treachery and fraud. One of the first 
 English voyagers who visited the Maine coast, 
 Captain George Weymouth, in 1605, landed at 
 what is now known as the Island of Monhegan. 
 Later he visited the mainland, and after mak 
 ing presents to the Indians and treating them 
 with great kindness, he induced five of them to 
 visit his ship, the " Archangel/ forcibly kid 
 napped them and carried them as captives with 
 their canoes and bows and arrows to London. 
 
 This was the beginning which these men, pro 
 fessing to represent Him who came to bring 
 " peace on earth and good will to men," made 
 in their dealings with their savage brothers in 
 Maine. This was followed by many acts of 
 cruel treachery which space forbids me to cite. 
 
 Is it strange that such treatment should cause 
 the Abenakis with their fiery and revengeful 
 natures to hate the English and make them 
 their everlasting enemies ? 
 
 However widely we may differ from the Jes 
 uits in some matters, one fact is certainly firmly 
 established, and that is, that in their intercourse 
 with the Indians of Maine and Canada they 
 displayed not only a more Christian and frater- 
 
[90] 
 
 nizing spirit, but far superior wisdom, judg 
 ment and discretion. They first studied their 
 traits of character, habits and peculiarities, and 
 gained their confidence and esteem before at 
 tempting to convert them. Had the English 
 pursued such a policy, a century of untold suf 
 fering, horror, torture and cruelty endured by 
 innocent settlers in subsequent years would have 
 been averted. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the French, their gov 
 ernors, their friars and their priests maintained 
 such a strong influence over them for so long 
 a time ? 
 
 According to Vetromile, the following vow 
 was once taken by all of the Abenakis of Maine : 
 
 " Our Good Mother and very Beloved Mary: 
 Now the best offer that we can make is, that we 
 might give up our sins ; be willing that, through 
 reverence to our elder brother, they may ask 
 the forgivness of our sins. Accept now the 
 offer that we make of ourselves to you. We 
 now have more extensively come to the knowl 
 edge of who made us, and how he went to 
 work to save us by buying us. Oh, that we 
 might have known it before ! We feel ashamed, 
 we stop doing wrong, and we offer a reparation 
 
for our sins. He redeemed us while we were 
 in sin, by our mother. We do wrong, but it is 
 just now that we commence to be Christians. 
 We are coming thither because we have long 
 ago lost the Great Spirit. Five years ago our 
 eldest brothers, by praying, made us pure 
 Christians. Great, good Mother, Sangman 
 Mary, made powerful by Him, make the offer 
 for us for our sins ! It is by the instructions of 
 the Catholic religion that we come to the knowl 
 edge that we were in sin, and that we were com 
 mitting sin ; but we never knew it before that 
 time ; no, we never did. Now you know us, 
 O Mary, very good Mother. We are become 
 a little wiser, hence we feel ashamed of our bad 
 conduct while we were in the state of a savage, 
 wild life. Now we obey your Son what we 
 call your Son ; being baptized now, we want to 
 know whether we are your children. It is a 
 little thing, yet we offer it of good will for our 
 sins. Speak for us to our Father, the Sangman 
 Francis de Sales, whose body long time ago was 
 buried there. We offer ourselves to you for 
 ever ; and this wampum, which we give to you 
 forever, be an everlasting token between us 
 forever. Mary, good owner of the angels and 
 
[92] 
 
 of the Indians, one thing that we ask from you 
 that your Son Jesus may be safe in our 
 hearts as He was safe in your body. We love 
 you and your Son till we die, and forever. 
 Mary, accept this wampum forever. May you 
 accept our words and our offer by prayer for 
 ever ! May you own us forever ! We like to 
 obey you. Place in our hearts what we are ask 
 ing in this petition." 
 
The Tradition of Pamola 
 
 THE following is the legendary tale of 
 Pamola, who was the great Evil Spirit 
 or devil of the Penobscot tribe : 
 Several hundred years ago, while a Penob 
 scot Indian was encamped eastward of Mount 
 Katahdin in the autumn hunting-season, a severe 
 and unexpected fall of snow covered the whole 
 land to the depth of several feet. Being unpro 
 vided with snowshoes, he found himself unable 
 to return home. After remaining several days 
 in the camp, blocked up with drifts of snow, 
 and seeing no means of escape, he thought that 
 he was doomed to perish. In despair he called 
 several times in a loud voice upon Pamola. 
 Finally, in response to his despairing cries, Pa 
 mola made his appearance upon the mountain. 
 Taking courage upon beholding him, the In 
 dian offered to him a sacrifice of oil and fat, 
 
 93 
 
[94] 
 
 which he poured and cunsumed upon burning 
 coals from the camp. As the smoke was ascend 
 ing, Pamola was descending, but as the sacrifice 
 was consumed when the spirit was only halfway 
 down the mountain, the Indian took more oil 
 and fat and repeated the sacrifice till Pamola 
 arrived at the camp, where the Indian gladly 
 welcomed him, saying : " You are welcome, 
 partner." Pamola replied, " You have done 
 well to call me partner ; because you have called 
 me by that name you are saved, otherwise you 
 would have been killed by me. No Indian has 
 ever called on me and lived, having always been 
 devoured by me. Now I will take you on the 
 mountain, and you shall be happy with me." 
 Putting the Indian upon his shoulders, Pamola 
 bade him close his eyes, and in a few moments, 
 with a noise like the whistling of a powerful 
 wind, they were inside of the mountain. Here 
 in a comfortable wigwam, furnished with abund 
 ance of venison, and with all the luxuries of 
 life, lived Pamola with his wife and children. 
 Pamola gave the Indian his daughter to wife 
 and told him that after one year he might re 
 turn to his friends on the Penobscot, and that 
 he might go back to the mountain at any time 
 
[95 ] 
 
 that he pleased to see his wife, and remain as 
 long as he wished ; but he must not marry again, 
 for if he should he would be at once transported 
 to Mount Katahdin, with no hope of ever more 
 going out of it. At the end of the year the In 
 dian returned to Oldtown and related all that 
 had happened to him in Mount Katahdin, and 
 the circumstances through which he got into it. 
 At first he refused all the Indians persuasions 
 to marry again, but at last they prevailed upon 
 him to marry. Upon the morning after his 
 marriage he mysteriously disappeared, and as 
 nothing more was heard from him, they felt 
 sure that he had been taken by Pamola into 
 Mount Katahdin. 
 
 Filled with consternation, the Indians con 
 ceived a great fear for this evil spirit. One 
 young Indian woman, harder to be convinced 
 than the rest, constantly persisted in refusing to 
 believe even in the existance of Pamola, unless 
 she saw him with her own eyes. It happened 
 that one day while she was on the shores of the 
 Lake Ambocticus, Pamola appeared to her and 
 reproached her with incredulity. Taking her 
 by force he put her on his shoulders, and after 
 a few moments flight, with a great whistling of 
 
[ 96] 
 
 wind, they were in the interior of the mountain. 
 There she remained for one year and was well 
 treated but was got with child by Pamola. A 
 few months before her confinement Pamola told 
 her to go back to her relatives, saying that the 
 child that was to be born of her was to be great, 
 and would perform such wonders as to amaze 
 the nation. He would have the power to kill 
 any person or animal by simply pointing at the 
 object with the forefinger of his right hand. 
 Hence, that the child was to be watched very 
 closely till the age of manhood, because many 
 evils might follow from that power. But when 
 the child grew up he would save his nation from 
 the hands of its enemies, and would confer 
 many benefits on the people. If she should be 
 in need of any assistance, she had nothing to 
 do but to call upon Pamola in any place she 
 might be, and he would appear to her. He 
 warned her not to marry again, for if she should 
 remarry both she and the child would be at once 
 transported into Mount Katahdin forever. He 
 then put her on his shoulders in the same man 
 ner as he had done in taking her up to the 
 mountain, and left her on the shore of Lake 
 Ambocticus. Returning to Oldtown, she related 
 
[97 ] 
 
 all that had happened to her, and also that she 
 had seen in the mountain the Indian who had 
 been taken away by Pamola. 
 
 The child was born and she took great care 
 of him. Several times she called upon Pamola, 
 who always made his appearance to her in re 
 sponse to her summons. When in want of ven 
 ison, either in the woods or in the river, she 
 had but to take the child, and holding his right 
 hand she stretched out his finger and made it 
 point out a deer or moose, and it at once fell 
 dead. So also in a flock of ducks, she made 
 the child s finger single out one of the flock, 
 which likewise fell dead. The child grew and 
 was the admiration and pride of all. 
 
 It happened one day that while he was stand 
 ing at the door of the wigwam, he saw a friend 
 of his mother s coming. He announced it to 
 her, and at the same time with the first finger of 
 his right hand he pointed at him and the man 
 immediately fell dead. This fact caused great 
 consternation, not only in the mother of the 
 child, but also in the entire tribe, who looked 
 on him as a very dangerous subject among them. 
 Everybody fled from his company and even 
 from his sight. The mother called on Pamola 
 
[98 ] 
 
 and related to him what had happened, and also 
 the fear and consternation in which she and the 
 entire tribe were. Pamola told her that he had 
 already commanded her to watch the child, be 
 cause the power conferred on him might pro 
 duce serious evils. He advised her to keep the 
 child altogether from society till the age of man 
 hood, as he might be fatal with many others. 
 The Indians wanted her to marry, but she re 
 fused on the ground of it being forbidden by 
 Pamola, who was her husband, and in case of 
 marriage, she and the child would both be taken 
 up to Mount Katahdin. The Indians prevailed 
 upon her, however, and she married ; but on 
 the evening of the marriage-day, while all the 
 Indians were gathered together in dancing and 
 feasting for the celebration of the marriage, both 
 she and the child disappeared forever. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 RALE TO CAPT. MOODY RALE TO HIS BROTHER- 
 RALE TO HIS NEPHEW-THE GOVERNOR OF MASSA 
 CHUSETTS TO THE GOVERNOR OF NEW FRANCE 
 
Letters 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY RALE 
 TO CAPT. MOODY, FEB. 7, 1720. 
 
 "A | AHE Traders in Brandy to the Indians 
 had by their declarations in Canada a 
 fine set upon them of a thousand 
 Crowns, and he that could not pay it was con 
 demned to the Chain and to be whipped through 
 the Town. There is no Justice among st the 
 English, who have never given them any, Even 
 under this Governor, I think to do it myself. 
 
 " If Rum drinking continues, the drinker of 
 Rum shall find wherewithall to eat, by suffer 
 ing him to kill one of the cattle belonging to 
 him that shall have given him drink. And if 
 he won t kill it for fear of being refused it 
 another time, another that is not a drinker shall 
 kill it ; this I think to propose to the men, 
 when they come home, and I am sure they ll 
 hear me with pleasure. 
 
 101 
 
" I can t by my Character carry them forth to 
 war, I can absolutely hinder them when they 
 haven t solid reasons for it, but when they have 
 any, I sha n t hinder them, as for example, to 
 preserve their Land whereon depends their 
 prayers, or any considerable wrong that s done 
 to them, in these cases I ll tell them they may 
 make war. 
 
 " The views of your Governor are fine and 
 generous ; he desires war, and being a warrior 
 he must not wonder at it, but I m sure he would 
 be astonished at an Indian war, five forts and 
 many houses in Arrowsick were reduced to 
 ashes in one day. 
 
 "The English say it s the Fryer or Mr. 
 Vaudreuil that stirs up war, but twil be said at 
 the Conference (where I shall be and upon their 
 desire, perhaps, speak for the Indians) tis you 
 English, you seize our Lands against our will & 
 thereby take away our prayers, more valuable 
 than our Lands or bodies ; you will govern us ; 
 I desire your Governor may know this. I am 
 actually composing an ample writing about these 
 things to send to the King of France, that he 
 see what I do to preserve my Indians in their 
 Lands & prayers, which depend thereon ; here- 
 
in I heard the King s designs reported to me 
 by Mr. Vaudreuil, Last fall, and three years 
 before that I should assist the Indians to pre 
 serve their Lands & prayers; to move me he 
 has assigned me a considerable pension of 6,000 
 francs till my death ; all this goes away in Good 
 Works ; this I suppose comes because your 
 Governor has threatened he will have me taken 
 up, or cause me to quit by writing to his King 
 against me. The Indians told it to Mr. Vau 
 dreuil who wrote it to the Court, since which I 
 am more and more strengthened here . . ." 
 
EXTRACTS FROM RALE S LETTER TO HIS 
 BROTHER 
 
 " At Nanrantsouak, 
 this 1 2th day of October 1723. 
 " Monsieur and very dear brother : 
 
 " The peace of our Lord : 
 " I can no longer refuse the kind requests 
 which you make me in all your letters, to inform 
 you a little in detail of my occupations and of 
 the character of the Savage nations, in the midst 
 of which Providence has placed me for so many 
 years. I do it the more willingly, because in 
 conforming in this regard to wishes so urgent 
 on your part I satisfy yet more your affection 
 and curiosity. 
 
 " It was the 23 day of July of the year 1689 
 that I embarked at Rochelle ; and after three 
 months of a pleasant enough voyage, I arrived 
 at Quebec the I3th of October of the same year. 
 I applied myself at first to learning the language 
 of our Savages. This is difficult ; because it is 
 
 104 
 
[ 105 ] 
 
 not sufficient to study the terms and their sig 
 nification and to make a collection of words and 
 phrases, it is still necessary to know the turn 
 and the arrangement which the savages give 
 them, which one hardly acquires except by in 
 tercourse and association with these people. 
 
 " I went then to dwell in a village with the 
 Abnaki nation, situated in a forest, which is only 
 three leagues from Quebec. This was inhabited 
 by two hundred savages nearly all Christians. 
 Their cabins were arranged a little like the 
 houses in the towns ; an inclosure of stakes, 
 thick and high, form a kind of wall which shel 
 ters them from the incursions of their enemies. 
 
 "Their cabins are very soon set up; they 
 plant poles which they join at the top ; and 
 they cover them with great sheets of bark. The 
 fire is made in the middle of the cabin ; they 
 spread all round rush mats, on which they sit 
 during the day ; and take their repose during 
 the night. 
 
 " The clothing of the men consists of a cas 
 sock of skin, or else of a piece of red or blue 
 stuff. That of the women is a blanket ; which 
 hangs from the neck quite to the middle of the 
 legs and which they adjust quite properly. 
 
[ 106 ] 
 
 They put another blanket on the head, which 
 descends even to the feet and which serves them 
 for a cloak. Their stockings extend only from 
 the knee to the ankle. Socks made of elk s hide 
 and lined inside with hair or wool serve them 
 in place of shoes. This sock is absolutely neces 
 sary to them in order to be adjusted to the 
 snowshoes, by means of which they walk upon 
 the snow. These snow-shoes are made lozenge 
 shape, are more than two feet long and a foot 
 and a half wide. I did not believe that I could 
 ever walk with such machines ; when I made a 
 trial of them I soon found it so easy that the 
 savages could not believe that it was the first 
 time that I had made use of them. The inven 
 tion of these snow-shoes is of great use to these 
 savages not only to travel on the snow, with 
 which the ground is covered a great part of the 
 year, but also to go in pursuit of beasts and 
 above all of the moose ; these animals, larger 
 than the largest oxen of France, walk only with 
 difficulty upon the snow ; thus it is not difficult 
 for the savages to overtake them, and they often 
 kill them with a common knife attached to the 
 end of a stick, they feed upon their flesh and 
 after having well dressed their skins in which 
 
they are skillful they trade them with French 
 and English who give them in exchange cas 
 socks, blankets, kettles, guns, hatchets and 
 knives. 
 
 " To give you an idea of a savage, picture to 
 yourself a large man strong, agile, of a swarthy 
 tint, without beard, with black hair, and whose 
 teeth are whiter than ivory. If you wish to see 
 him in his acoutrements you will only find for 
 his whole adornment what is called beads ; this 
 is a kind of shell or stone which they fashion 
 into the form of little grains, some white and 
 others black, and which they string in such a 
 manner, that they represent divers very regular 
 figures which are agreeable to them. It is with 
 this bead that our Savages knot and plait their 
 hair above their ears and behind, make collars, 
 garters, belts, five or six inches wide and with 
 this sort of ornaments they estimate themselves 
 a great deal more than a European does with all 
 his gold and his jewels. 
 
 " The occupation of the men is hunting or 
 war, that of the women is to remain in the vil 
 lage and to make there out of bark baskets, 
 bags, boxes, dishes, plates, etc. They sew the 
 bark with roots and make of them various uten- 
 
sils very appropriately wrought, the canoes are 
 likewise made solely of bark, but the largest 
 can scarcely hold more than six or seven persons. 
 " It is with these canoes made of a bark which 
 has hardly the thickness of a crown, that they 
 cross the arms of the sea, and that they navi 
 gate the most dangerous rivers and lakes of 
 four or five hundred leagues around. I have 
 thus made many voyages without having run 
 any risk. Only once, that in crossing the river 
 Saint Lawrence, I found myself suddenly sur 
 rounded with masses of ice of enormous size, 
 and the canoe was wedged in them ; at once the 
 two savages who conducted me cried out, c We 
 are dead men ; it is done ; we must perish/ in 
 the meantime, making an effort, they leaped 
 upon the floating ice. I did like them, and 
 after having drawn up the canoe we carried it 
 to the extremity of this ice. Then it was 
 necessary for us to place ourselves again in the 
 canoe to gain another ice cake ; we arrived at 
 last at the bank of the stream without other in 
 convenience than being very wet and numb 
 with cold. Nothing equals the affection which 
 the savages have for their children. As soon 
 as they are born, they place them on a little 
 
[ 109 I 
 
 piece of board covered with cloth and a little 
 bearskin, in which they envelop them, and this 
 is their cradle. The mothers carry them on 
 their back in a manner convenient for the chil 
 dren and for them. Hardly do the children 
 begin to walk when they are trained to draw 
 the bow. They become so adroit in this, that 
 at the age of ten or twelve years they do not 
 fail to kill the bird that they shoot at. I have 
 been surprised at it, and I should have hardly 
 believed it if I had not been witness of it. 
 
 " That which I most revolted at when I be 
 gan to live with the savages was to find myself 
 obliged to take my repast with them ; nothing 
 is more disgusting. After having filled their 
 pot with meat they make it boil, at the most, 
 three-quarters of an hour, after which they take 
 it from the fire, serve it in bark porringers and 
 divide it with all those who are in the cabin. 
 Each one bites into his meat as he would into 
 a piece of bread. This spectacle did not give 
 me much appetite, and they very soon noticed 
 my repugnance. c Why dost thou not eat ? 
 they asked. I replied to them that I was not 
 accustomed to eat meat thus, without adding to 
 it a piece of bread. It is necessary to conquer 
 
[ no] 
 
 thyself/ they replied ; * is it so difficult as to be 
 a patriarch who knows prayer perfectly ? We 
 overcome a great deal to believe that which we 
 cannot see/ After this there was no more to 
 consider. It was best to bring one s self to 
 their manners and customs in order to merit 
 their confidence and gain them to Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Their meals are not regular as in Europe. 
 They live from hand to mouth ; whilst they 
 have somewhat from which to make good cheer, 
 they profit by it, without troubling themselves 
 about having anything to live on the following 
 days. 
 
 " They passionately love tobacco ; men, wo 
 men, children smoke almost continually. To 
 give them a piece of tobacco, is to give them 
 more pleasure than to give them their weight 
 in gold. 
 
 " In the beginning of June, and when the 
 snow is nearly all melted, they sow the scamgar. 
 This is what we call Turkey or Indian wheat. 
 Their style of sowing is to make with the 
 fingers or with a little stick, different holes in 
 the ground, and to throw in each eight or nine 
 kernels, which they cover with the same earth 
 which they have withdrawn to make the hole. 
 
[ I" ] 
 
 Their harvest takes place at the end of August. 
 " It is in the midst of these people, who pass 
 for the least coarse of our savages, that I passed 
 the apprenticeship of a missionary. My prin 
 cipal occupation was the study of their tongue ; 
 it is very difficult to learn, above all when one 
 has no other master than savages. They have 
 many sounds which they only utter from the 
 throat, without making any movement of the 
 lips ; ou y for example, is of this number, and 
 this is why in writing it, we make it by the 
 figure 8, to distinguish it from other sounds. 
 I passed a part of a year in their cabins and 
 heard them talk. It was necessary for me to 
 maintain extreme attention, to gather what they 
 said, and to conjecture the signification of it. 
 Sometimes I guessed right, more often I de- 
 cieved myself, because not very able to man 
 age their guttural letters. I repeated only part 
 of the word, and this made them laugh. At 
 last, after five months of continual application, 
 I reached the point of understanding all their 
 terms, but that was not sufficient for me to ex 
 press myself according to their taste. I had 
 still a good way to go to catch the scope and 
 genius of their tongue, which is altogether dif- 
 
ferent from the genius and scope of our Euro 
 pean languages. To shorten the time and to 
 put myself sooner in a state to exercise my 
 functions, I made choice of some savages who 
 had more wit and spoke better. I told them 
 roughly some articles of the catechism, and 
 they rendered them to me in all the delicacy of 
 their language. I put them at once on paper, 
 and by this means I made myself in a little 
 while a dictionary and a catechism which con 
 tained the principles and the mysteries of re 
 ligion. 
 
 " One cannot deny that the language of the 
 savages has true beauties, and I know not what 
 of energy, in the turn and manner in which 
 they express themselves. I am going to give 
 you an example of it. If I should ask you, 
 Why has God created you ? You would re 
 ply to me, that it is to know him, to love him, 
 and by this means to merit eternal glory. But 
 should I put the same question to a savage, he 
 would reply to me thus, in the terms of his lan 
 guage : The great Spirit has thought of us : Let 
 them know me, let them love me, let them 
 honor me, and let them obey me; for then I 
 shall make them enter into my glorious felicity. 
 
[ H3 ] 
 
 If I should wish to tell you in their style that 
 you would have much difficulty in learning the 
 savage tongue, see how it would be necessary 
 for me to express myself: I think of you my 
 dear brother, that he will find difficulty in learn 
 ing the savage tongue. The language of the 
 Hurons is the master language of the savages ; 
 and when one possesses it, in less than three 
 months one can make himself understood by 
 the five Iroquois nations. It is the most ma 
 jestic and the most difficult of all the savage 
 tongues. This difficulty does not come alone 
 from their guttural character, but still more from 
 the diversity of accents, because two words com 
 posed of the same characters have significations 
 quite different. Father Chaumont, who has 
 dwelt fifty years among the Hurons, has com 
 posed a grammar of it, which is very useful to 
 those who newly arrive in that mission ; never 
 theless a missionary is most happy when, with 
 those helps, after ten years constant labor, he 
 expresses himself elegantly in this language. . . 
 " This mission is about eight leagues from 
 Pentagouet, and they count it a hundred leagues 
 from Pentagouet to Port Royal. The river of 
 my mission is the greatest of all those which 
 
[ "4] 
 
 water the lands of the savages. It should be 
 marked on the chart, under the name of Kini- 
 beki ; which has brought the French to give to 
 these savages the name of kanibals. This river 
 empties into the sea at Sankderank, which is 
 only five or six leagues from Pemquit. After 
 having ascended forty leagues from Sankderank, 
 one arrives at my village which is on the height 
 of a point of land. We are only the distance 
 of two days at the most from the English habi 
 tation ; it takes more than fifteen days for us to 
 reach Quebec, and the journey is very painful 
 and difficult. It would be natural that our sav 
 ages should do their trading with the English, 
 and there are no advantages which the latter 
 have not offered them to attract and to gain 
 their friendship ; but all their efforts have been 
 useless, and nothing has been able to detach 
 them from alliance with the French. The only 
 tie which has so closely united us with them is 
 their firm attachment to the Catholic faith. 
 They are convinced that if they gave them 
 selves up to the English, they would very soon 
 find themselves without a missionary, without 
 sacrifice, without a sacrament, and nearly with 
 out any exercise of religion, and that little by 
 
[ "5 ] 
 
 little they would be plunged into their first in 
 fidelity. This firmness of our savages has 
 been put to all sorts of tests on the part of their 
 powerful neighbors, without their ever having 
 been able to gain anything. . . . 
 
 " It is only in the spring that they sow their 
 corn, and they only give it the last hoeing to 
 wards Corpus Christi Day. After which they 
 deliberate as to what place on the sea they shall 
 go to seek something to live upon till the har 
 vest, which is not ordinarily made until a little 
 after the Assumption. After having deliberated 
 they send to pray me to repair to their as 
 sembly. As soon as I have arrived there, one 
 of them speaks to me thus in the name of all 
 the others : ( Our Father, what I say to thee is 
 what all of those whom thou seest here would 
 say to thee. Thou knowest us, thou knowest 
 that we want food ; scarcely have we been able 
 to give the last hoeing to our fields, and we 
 have no other resource until the harvest, but to 
 go and seek food on the shore of the sea. It 
 will be hard for us to abandon our prayer ; that 
 is why we hope that thou wilt accompany us, 
 so that in seeking something to live upon we 
 shall not interrupt our prayer. Such and such 
 
[ "6 ] 
 
 persons will embark thee, and that which thou 
 wilt have to carry will be dispersed among the 
 other canoes. That is what I have to say to 
 thee/ I have no sooner replied to them Kekik- 
 berba (this is a savage term which means, I hear 
 you, my children, I agree to what you demand), 
 then all cry together our lour ie> which is an ex 
 pression of thanks. Immediately after they 
 leave the village." 
 
EXTRACTS FROM RALE S LETTER TO HIS 
 NEPHEW. 
 
 " Norridgewock 
 This 1 5th October, 1722. 
 " Monsieur, my dear Nephew. 
 The peace of Our Savior: 
 
 " During the more than thirty years that I 
 have lived in the heart of these forests with the 
 Savages, I have been so occupied in instructing 
 them and forming them to Christian virtues, 
 that I have but little leisure to write many let 
 ters, even to those who are most dear to me. 
 Nevertheless I cannot refuse the little details of 
 my various duties which you desire. I owe it 
 as an acknowledgment of the friendship which 
 makes you so strongly interseted in everything 
 that concerns me. 
 
 " I am in a district of that vast extent of land 
 
 which lies between Acadia and New England. 
 
 Two other Missionaries are occupied with me 
 
 among the Abnaki Savages, but we are far re- 
 
 117 
 
[ "8 ] 
 
 moved from each other. The Abnaki Savages, 
 beside the two villages which are in the centre 
 of the French Colony, have three others, each 
 villages of considerable size, situated on the bank 
 of a river. The three rivers empty into a sea 
 south of the Canada river between New Eng 
 land and Acadia. 
 
 " The village where I live is called Nanrant- 
 souak; it is situated on the bank of a river 
 which discharges itself into the sea about thirty 
 leagues hence. I have built a Church, which 
 is neat and very ornamental. I thought noth 
 ing ought to be spared either for its decoration 
 nor for the ornaments which are used at our 
 holy ceremonies : Vestments, chasubles, copes, 
 sacred Vessels, everything appropriate, and 
 would be so esteemed in our Churches of 
 Europe. I have formed a little Brotherhood 
 of about forty young Savages, who assist at di 
 vine Service, in their cassocks and surplices. 
 Each have their duties, so many to assist at the 
 holy Sacrifices of the Mass, & to chant the 
 divine Office for the Consecration of the Holy 
 Sacrament, & for the processions which they 
 make with a great crowd of Savages, who often 
 come from long distance to attend them. You 
 
would be edified at the great order which they 
 keep, & the piety which they show. 
 
 "They have built two Chapels at about three 
 hundred paces from the village ; the one dedi 
 cated to the most holy Virgin, & where may be 
 seen her Image in relief, is above the river ; the 
 other dedicated to the guardian Angel, is at the 
 lower end of the same river. Since they are 
 both on the road which leads either to the 
 woods or into .the open country, the Savages 
 never pass without offering their prayer. There 
 is a holy emulation among the women of the 
 Village as to who shall the better decorate the 
 Chapel, of which they have the care, when the 
 procession repairs thither. All that they have, 
 jewels, pieces of silk or calico and other things 
 of that kind are used to adorn it. 
 
 " The abundance of light adds not a little to 
 the beauty of the church and Chapels ; I have 
 no need to be saving of wax, as this country 
 furnishes it to me in abundance. The islands 
 of the sea are bordered with wild laurels, which 
 in autumn bear berries a little like those of the 
 Juniper. They fill their kettles with them and 
 boil them with water. As soon as the water 
 boils, the green wax rises & remains on the sur- 
 
[ 120 ] 
 
 face of the water. From a measure of three 
 bushels of this berry, one obtains nearly four 
 pounds of wax ; it is very pure and very good, 
 but neither soft nor manageable. After several 
 attempts I have found that by mixing as much 
 tallow, either of beef, mutton or moose as of the 
 wax, fine, hard & serviceable candles may be 
 made. With 24 pounds of wax and as much 
 tallow, one can make two hundred long candles 
 of more than a foot in length. One finds an 
 infinity of these laurels on the islands & along 
 the sea coast : A single person will easily pick 
 four measures in a day. The berry hangs like 
 grapes from the branches of the tree. I have 
 sent a branch to Quebec with a cake of wax ; it 
 has been found excellent. 
 
 " None of my neophytes fail to repair twice 
 a day to the Church ; in the early morning to 
 attend Mass, & in the evenings to assist at the 
 prayers which I offer at sunset. As it is neces 
 sary to fix the imagination of the Savages, too 
 easily distracted, I have composed suitable pray 
 ers to make them enter into the spirit of the 
 August Sacrifice of our Altars ; they chant them 
 or properly recite them in a loud voice during 
 Mass. Besides the sermons that I give them 
 
[ 121 ] 
 
 on Sundays and Holy Days, I scarcely allow a 
 week to pass, without giving a short exhorta 
 tion, to inspire horror of the vices to which 
 they are most inclined, or to strengthen them 
 in the practice of some virtue. 
 
 " After Mass I teach the Catechism to the 
 children and young people ; a large number of 
 old persons assist at this and reply with docility 
 to the questions which I ask them. The rest 
 of the morning until noon, is devoted to hear 
 ing all who wish to speak to me. It is then 
 that they come in crowds to make me share 
 their pains and inquietudes, or to communicate 
 to me subjects of complaint against their coun 
 trymen, or to consult me about their marriages 
 & other particular affairs. It is necessary for 
 me to instruct some, to console others, to re 
 establish peace in families at variance, to calm 
 troubled consciences, to correct others by re 
 proofs mingled with gentleness and charity, in 
 short, as much as it is possible, to render them 
 all contented. 
 
 " After noon I visit the sick and go around 
 among the cabins of those who have need of 
 particular instruction. If they hold a council, 
 a frequent occurrence among the Savages, they 
 
[ I" ] 
 
 depute one of the principal men of the assembly 
 to beg me to assist at the decision of their de 
 liberations. I go as soon as possible to the 
 place where the council is being held ; if I judge 
 that they are taking a wise course, I approve it ; 
 if on the contrary I find anything to say against 
 their decision, I declare to them my opinion, 
 which I support by solid reasons, & they con 
 form to it. My advice always fixes their reso 
 lutions. They do not even hold their feasts 
 without inviting me ; those invited bring each a 
 dish of wood or bark ; I give the benediction 
 on the food ; they put in each dish the portion 
 prepared. The distribution being made, I say 
 grace, & each retires ; because such is the order 
 and custom of their feasts. 
 
 "In the midst of these ceaseless occupations 
 you will not find it difficult to understand with 
 what rapidity the days slip by. There has been 
 a time when it was with difficulty that I found 
 time to recite my office, & to take a little re 
 pose during the night ; for discretion is not the 
 virtue of the Savages. But for some years I 
 have made it a rule to speak to no one, from 
 the evening prayer until after Mass the next 
 morning, & I have forbidden them to interrupt 
 
me during this time, unless it is for some im 
 portant reason, as for example, to assist a dying 
 person, or for some other affair which cannot 
 be put off. I employ this time to pray and to 
 repose from the fatigue of the day. 
 
 " When the Savages go to the seashore, to 
 pass some months hunting ducks, bustards and 
 other birds which are found there in great quan 
 tities, they build on an island a Chapel which 
 they cover with bark, near which they prepare a 
 little hut for my dwelling. I take care to carry 
 there part of the ornaments, & the service is 
 performed there with the same propriety and 
 the same crowds of people as at the village. 
 
 "You see, my dear nephew, what are my 
 occupations. For as to what regards me per 
 sonally, I will tell you that I only see, only 
 hear, only speak to Savages. My food is simple 
 and light. I was never able to adapt my taste 
 to the meat & to the fish smoked by the Sav 
 ages ; my only nourishment is maize, which 
 they pound and of which I make every day a 
 kind of pudding which I cook with water. 
 
 " The only sweetening which I have here, is 
 to mix with it a little sugar to correct the insip 
 idity. This is not wanting in these forests. In 
 
[ 
 
 the spring time the Maples hold in store a 
 liquid similar to that which the sugar cane of 
 the Islands contains. The women occupy them 
 selves in collecting it in bark dishes, when the 
 trees distil it ; they boil it and obtain from it a 
 fairly good sugar. The first distilled is always 
 the best. 
 
 "All the Abnaki Nation is Christian, & 
 very zealous to preserve their Religion. This 
 attachment to the Catholic Faith, has made 
 them up to this time choose rather our alliance, 
 to the advantages that they had drawn from 
 their alliance with the English their neighbors. 
 These advantages are very attractive to our 
 Savages ; the ease which they have of trading 
 with the English, from whom they are not far 
 ther away than a journey of one or two days, 
 the convenience of the road, the great market 
 which they find for the purchase of goods which 
 suit them ; nothing can be more capable of at 
 tracting them. Instead of which going to Que 
 bec, more than fifteen days are necessary to 
 get there, besides they have to provide pro 
 visions for the journey, while they have a num 
 ber of rivers to cross, and frequent portages to 
 make. They feel these inconveniences, & are 
 
not indifferent to their interests, but their faith 
 is infinitely more dear, and they think that if 
 they withdrew themselves from our alliance, 
 they would soon find themselves without Mis 
 sionary, without Sacraments, without Sacrifice, 
 without almost any exercise of Religion, and in 
 manifest danger of being plunged again into 
 their former infidelity. 
 
 "This is the tie which binds them to the 
 French. It has been tried in vain to break it, either 
 by traps which have been held out to their sim 
 plicity, or by acts of trespass, which could not 
 help irritating a Nation infinitely zealous of its 
 rights & of its liberty. These beginnings of 
 misunderstandings fail not to alarm me, & 
 make me fear the dispersion of the flock, which 
 Providence has confided to my care so many 
 years & for which I would willingly sacrifice 
 that which remains of my life. Observe the 
 various artifices which they employ to detach 
 them from our alliance. 
 
 " An Englishman asked permission of the 
 Savages to build on their river a kind of store 
 house, to trade there with them, & he promised 
 to sell them goods at a much greater bargain 
 than they had bought them even at Boston. 
 
[ 126 ] 
 
 The Savages who would find it to their profit, 
 & who would save the trouble of a journey to 
 Boston, consented to this willingly. Another 
 Englishman asked soon after the same permis 
 sion, offering conditions even more favorable 
 than the first. It was accorded him equally. 
 This readiness of the Savages emboldened the 
 English to establish themselves along the river, 
 without asking permission ; they built houses 
 there, & raised forts of which three were of 
 stone. This proximity of the English gave 
 at first pleasure enough to the Savages, who did 
 not perceive the trap which they laid for them, 
 & who only looked at the pleasure which they 
 had, in finding their new guests all that they 
 could desire. 
 
 " But at last, perceiving themselves, insen 
 sibly as it were, surrounded by the habitations 
 of the English, they began to open their eyes, 
 & to entertain distrust. They asked the Eng 
 lish by what right they had established them 
 selves upon their lands, and even built forts 
 there. The reply which was made them, that 
 the King of France had ceded their country to 
 the King of England, threw them into great 
 alarm, for there is no Savage Nation which 
 
[ "7 1 
 
 does not suffer impatiently what they regard as 
 subjection to any power whatever it may be ; 
 they will be called allies and nothing more. 
 This is why the Savages immediately sent some 
 of their number to M. le Marquis de Vau- 
 dreuil, Governor General of New France, to 
 learn if it were true, that in effect the King had 
 thus disposed of a country of which he was not 
 the master. It was not difficult to calm their in 
 quietude ; it was only necessary to explain to 
 them the articles of the treaty of Utrecht which 
 concerned the Savages, & they departed content. 
 "About this time a score of Savages entered 
 into one of the English houses, to trade or to 
 rest. They had been there but a short time, 
 when they saw the house suddenly surrounded 
 by a troop of nearly two hundred armed men. 
 c We are dead men] suddenly cried one of them. 
 Let us sell our lives dearly. y They prepared to 
 throw themselves upon this troop, when the 
 English, perceiving their resolution, and know 
 ing besides what the Savage is capable of in the 
 first access of fury, strove to pacify them, by 
 assuring them that they had no evil designs, 
 and that they had come only to invite some of 
 them to go to Boston, to confer there with the 
 
[ 128 ] 
 
 Governor, on the means of keeping peace and 
 good understanding, which should exist between 
 two Nations. The Savages, a little too credu 
 lous, deputed four of their fellow-countrymen 
 who repaired to Boston ; but when they arrived 
 there, the conference with which they were di 
 verted, ends in retaining them prisoners." 
 
LT. GOVR. DUMMER TO Gov. VAUDREUIL. 
 
 "Boston N. England January I9th 1725. 
 
 "Sir 
 
 " Your letter dated Quebec October 29th per 
 Henry Edgar, one of the English Captives, 
 came safe to me ; on perusal thereof I am 
 greatly Surprised at the matters Contained 
 therein, which are so unjustly represented, that 
 I cannot Satisfy my Self to pass them by un 
 answered. In the first place as to what you 
 say relating to the death of Monsr. Ralle the 
 Jesuit, which you set forth as so Inhumane & 
 Barbarous ; I readily acknowledge that he was 
 slain, amongst other of our Enemies at Nor- 
 ridgewalk ; And if he had Confined himself 
 unto the professed Duty of his function viz to 
 Instruct the Indians in the Christian Religion, 
 and kept himself within the bounds of the 
 French Dominions, and had not Instigated the 
 Indians to War & Rapine there might then 
 
 have been some ground of Complaint; But 
 
 129 
 
when instead of Preaching Peace, Love and 
 Friendship Agreeable to the Doctrines of the 
 Christian Religion, he has been a Constant and 
 Notorious Fomenter & Incendiary to the In 
 dians to kill, burn & Destroy, as flagrantly 
 appears by many original letters & manuscripts, 
 I have of his by me, and when in open Viola 
 tion of an Act of Parliament of Great Britain, 
 and the Laws of this Province strictly forbid 
 ding Jesuits to reside or teach within the British 
 Dominions, he has not only resided but also 
 once & again appeared at the head of great 
 numbers of Indians, in an Hostile manner 
 threatening and Insulting, as also publickly 
 assaulting the subjects of His British Majesty; 
 I say, If after all, such an Incendiary has hap 
 pened to be slain in the heat of Action, among 
 our Open and Declared Enemies, surely none 
 can be blamed therefor but himself, nor can 
 any safeguard from you or any other Justify 
 him in such proceedings : And I think I have 
 much greater Cause to Complain, that Mr. 
 Willard the minister of Rutland (who never 
 had been guilty of the Facts charged upon Mr. 
 Ralle, & applied himself solely to the preach 
 ing of the Gospel) was by the Indians you sent 
 
to Attack that Town Assaulted, slain and scalpt, 
 and his scalp carried in Triumph to Quebec. 
 
 " As to the next article you mention, That 
 St. Georges River was in the year 1700 by 
 order of the Two Crowns Marked as the 
 bounds of the English and French Lands where 
 by it appeared That Penobscot was given to 
 you, and that one La Fevre had a right to the 
 Land thereabouts, & that all Vessels paid a Duty 
 to him, And that Mr. Capon Envoy of Eng 
 land when King George came upon the Throne, 
 went to ask the Penobscot Indians to submit 
 themselves to England, which they refused. I 
 have no difficulty to Answer to each of the 
 aforesd Points ; And as to the last relating to 
 Mr. Capon you Labour under a very great 
 Mistake to mention him as Envoy of England, 
 he being far below any such Character, and 
 only an Inferior Officer, Comissary or Victual 
 ler to the Garrison of Annapolis, & sometime 
 after was taken & yielded up to the English, 
 sent by Lieutenant Govr. of that place to visit 
 the French settlements within that District & 
 to require an Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity 
 from them to Queen Anne ; but he had no oc 
 casion to Come and Entice the Penobscot Indi- 
 
[ 13* ] 
 
 ans to submit themselves to England, for they 
 as well as the Norridgewalk Indians & many 
 other Tribes had done that long before even in 
 the year 1693 at a Treaty of Sr. William 
 Phipps Governor of this Province, by which 
 Treaty, I can make it appear, that they not 
 only submitted themselves as subjects to the 
 crown of England, but also renounced the French 
 Interest & Limited Claim to the Lands bought 
 and possessed by the English ; But since King 
 George came to the Throne, Mr. Capon has 
 not been in those parts at all, as I am Informed 
 by the People of that Country. 
 
 " As to St. Georges River being the bounds 
 and La Fevre s pretended Right it seems very 
 wonderful you should make any mention of 
 those things or lay any weight upon them at 
 this time, when if the Case were formerly as you 
 now represent it, which I do not allow, all such 
 claim and pretension is wholly superceded and 
 at an end ; whereof you may soon and easily 
 satisfy yourself by consulting the Treaty of 
 Peace at Utrecht Concluded between the two 
 Crowns in the year 17 13, by the twelfth Article 
 whereof it is provided, ( That all Nova Scotia or 
 L Accadie with its Ancient Boundaries &c. to- 
 
[ 133 ] 
 
 gether with the Dominion property & posses 
 sion of the sd Islands Lands & places, and all 
 right to which the Most Christian King, the 
 Crown of France, or any the subjects thereof 
 have hitherto had to the Islands Lands & places, 
 and the Inhabitants of the same are Yielded & 
 made over to the Queen of Great Britain & to 
 her Crown forever/ Now by the aforesd Res 
 ignation, the French King Quitted all Right 
 not only to the Lands, but also to the Inhabi 
 tants whether French or Indians, or whatsoever 
 they were & transferred the same to the Crown 
 of Great Britain forever, whereby you are En 
 tirely Cutt off from any Claim to the subjection 
 of the said Indians, from thence forward; And 
 we are not ignorant how far the French King 
 understood the Countrey of L Accadie to Ex 
 tend Westward by his patent Granted to 
 Monsr. D Alney tho you seem to be a stranger 
 to it. 
 
 "As to the whole Nation of the Indians Ex 
 claiming against some of their Tribe, as pre 
 tending that they were suborned to give Deeds 
 for their Lands, if it be matter of Fact, that they 
 do so, which is hard to be Conceived, it is a 
 most unjust Imputation, & must Argue a won- 
 
[ 134] 
 
 derful Deceitfulness & self Contradiction in 
 them, since they have upon all Treatys when 
 the whole Tribes were together Constantly ac 
 knowledged and submitted to the English Titles 
 and possessions, which they had by honest and 
 Lawful purchase Acquired. 
 
 "As to the Building of Forts any where with 
 in the British Dominions I suppose that you 
 will not scruple to acknowledge that the King of 
 Great Britain has as good a right to Erect Fort 
 resses or places of Defence within His Do 
 minions, as the French King has in his And 
 therefore when you shall please to Give me 
 Instances of the French Kings Applying him 
 self to the Indians for leave to build a Fort or 
 Forts for the Defence of His Subjects I shall 
 then give you a further Answer to that Argu 
 ment. And in the meantime I must tell you 
 that we have always treated the Indians with 
 sincerity, & never thought it proper to make 
 Apologies for Building Forts within our own 
 Jurisdiction (as you Insinuate) but on the Con 
 trary in all our Treatys with them have As- 
 certed our undoubted right to do so. 
 
 " You likewise signify that we must Blame 
 no body but our selves for the Violence and 
 
Hostilities Committed against Our nation by 
 the Indians. But syr, If the blame must lye 
 where it ought I must Impute their Outrages, 
 falsness & 111 Conduct towards us, not so 
 much to their own Inclinations, as to the In 
 stigations of the Jesuit Ralle & others Under 
 your Government, whereof we have had suf 
 ficient Information from time to time, as also of 
 your own forcing the Indians against their 
 Wills upon our Frontiers to destroy & Cutt of 
 our People which Cannot be otherwise lookt 
 upon except as a direct & Notorious Violation 
 of the Treaty of Peace at Utrecht. 
 
 " Nevertheless Sir, After All, I have much 
 greater Inclination to Amity & good Corre 
 spondence with you than otherwise, And there 
 fore I have sent Collo. Samuel Thurber one of 
 His Majesties Council, and Collo. William 
 Dudley one of the House of Representatives 
 who are Commissioned to Confer with you 
 Pursuant to such Instructions as they have re 
 ceived from me ; And I Desire that you will 
 Give CREDENCE to them accordingly. 
 I am. Sir, 
 
 Your Most Humble & 
 Most Obedt Servant 
 
 Wm. Dummer." 
 
RALfi S DICTIONARY INSCRIPTION ON 
 RALE S CHURCH HISTORICAL COM 
 MENTSTHE TWELFTH ARTICLE OF 
 THE TREATY OF UTRECHT 
 
THE LATE REV. MICHAEL O BRIEN, V.G. 
 An authority on the language and dialects of the Indians of Maine. 
 
Rale s Dictionary. 
 
 THE Abenaki dictionary which was 
 being prepared by Rale, and which was 
 taken by Colonel Westbrook and after 
 wards published, is practically the foundation 
 of what knowledge scholars now have of the lan 
 guage of the Maine Indians. The late Rev. 
 Michael Charles O Brien, Vicar General of 
 Bangor, Maine, was probably the most pro 
 found student of Indian dialects and tribal his 
 tory that has ever lived in Maine. His re 
 searches in this respect attracted the attention 
 of men of letters and learning all over New 
 England, and especially were the late James 
 G. Blaine and the late Chief Justice John A. 
 Peters interested in his work. 
 
 On December 23, 1882, he read a most able 
 and entertaining paper before the Maine His 
 torical Society at Portland, which has been 
 
 141 
 
published in the " Collections of the Maine His 
 torical Society (Vol. IX, page 261), entitled, 
 " Grammatical Sketch of the Ancient Abnaki, 
 Outlined in the Dictionary of Father Sebastian 
 Rale, S. J." The following are extracts from 
 this paper: 
 
 " My principal sources of materials for the 
 study are the c Dictionary of the Abnaki/ 
 written by Father Sebastian Rale, S. J., and the 
 old Indian prayers and catechism, yet in use (in 
 a modified form) among the Penobscots and 
 Passamaquoddies, which probably are the work 
 of the same author. 
 
 " The field has been already traversed by 
 other students, but so little has been gleaned 
 from it that it may be said to be yet almost 
 untouched. 
 
 "The dictionary was in the hands of Dupon- 
 ceau and Pickering, and others of less note, but 
 it has hitherto remained a sealed book so far as 
 the grammatical outline of the aboriginal lan 
 guage of Maine, which may be read in its pages, 
 is concerned. The little catechism, which the 
 Indians call from its first question, the Aweni 
 Kisi hoskesa (Who made thee ) ? and the old 
 formulas of prayer have been published by 
 
[ 143 ] 
 
 Fathers Demilier and Vetromile, and are extant 
 in manuscript in the handwriting of the former. 
 These serve chiefly as illustrations, and supple 
 ment in several particulars some of the defi 
 ciencies of the dictionary, which is my main 
 authority. 
 
 " This dictionary consists of about 7,500 dis 
 tinct Abnaki words, with the meanings of nearly 
 all of them in French ; but on every page it 
 contains grammatical notes, examples and Indian 
 phrases. These phrases would fill a dozen or 
 more pages of foolscap paper. The grammati 
 cal notes consist not merely of marks of singular 
 and plural, indications of moods, tenses, and 
 persons, but also several short grammatical ob 
 servations in Latin. 
 
 " Scattered as all these bits of information are 
 up and down the pages, and applied to so many 
 different words, they at first only bewilder the 
 curious reader. But when the words to which 
 they are severally appended are classified and 
 compared, and the principles of grammatical 
 induction are introduced to complete the pro 
 cess, they furnish at least an outline more or 
 less distinct of the language to which they re 
 fer. Of a certain portion of the grammar, that 
 
[ 144 ] 
 
 especially to which this paper will extend, the 
 outline is very clear and full. Until such an 
 outline shall be studied, the language of the 
 Abnakis will continue to remain the puzzle it 
 has been hitherto, notwithstanding all that has 
 been written and published concerning it." * 
 
 * In this paper the author gives the, alphabet employed 
 by Father Rale of the following letters: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, 
 j, k, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, 8, z and n nasal, and the pause or 
 aspirate, . 
 
Rale s Inscription on the 
 Outer Door of his Church 
 
 Found by Colonel Thomas Westbrook when he 
 made his raid^ 1721-22. 
 
 " Englishmen. 
 
 " I that am of Norridgewock have had 
 thoughts that thou wil t Come and Burn our 
 Church and Our Father s House to revenge 
 thyself without cause for the houses I have 
 burnt of thine. It was thou that didst force 
 me to it, why didst thou build them upon my 
 Land without my Consent. 
 
 " I have not yet burned any, but what was 
 upon my land; Thou mayest burn it, because 
 thou knowest that I am not there, such is thy 
 Generosity, for if I were there, Assuredly thou 
 shouldst not burn it, although thou shouldst 
 Come with the number of many hundred Men. 
 
 " It is ill built, because the English don t 
 work well ; It is not finished, although five or 
 
 MS 
 
[ H6 ] 
 
 six Englishmen have wrought there during the 
 space of four years, and the Undertaker who is 
 a great Cheat, hath been paid in advance for to 
 finish it. I tell thee, Nevertheless, That, if thou 
 dost burn it in revenge upon my land, thou may- 
 est depend upon it, That I will Revenge my 
 self also, and that upon thy Land in such a 
 manner as will be more sensible and more dis 
 advantageous to thee for one of thy Meeting 
 houses or Temples is of more value beyond 
 Compare than our Church. And I shall not 
 be satisfied with burning one or two of thine, 
 but many ; I know where they are, and the 
 Effect shall make thee know that I have been 
 as good as my word. 
 
 " This shall Certainly be done sooner or 
 later, for the War is but just beginning ; And if 
 thou wouldst know where it will have an End 
 I tell thee it will not have an end but with the 
 world. If thou canst not be driven out before I 
 dye, Our Children and Nephews will Continue 
 it till that time, without thy being able to 
 Enjoy it peaceably. 
 
 " This is what I say to thee, who am of Nor- 
 ridgewock in the name of all the Nation." * 
 
 *From Baxter s "Pioneers of New France in New 
 England." 
 
COMMENTS OF HISTORICAL 
 WRITERS 
 
OLD FORT HALIFAX 
 Winslow, Me., near Ticonic Falls 
 
Comments of Historical 
 Writers 
 
 DURING these discussions the Indians, 
 who had been instigated by the French, 
 again gave cause for difficulties. The 
 chief villain in this scheme was Sebastian Rasles 
 (Rale), a Jesuit missionary, who had falsely ac 
 cused the New England colonists of encroaching 
 on territory belonging to the tribes." George 
 Lowell Austin s "History of Massachusetts." 
 
 " Sebastian Rasle (Rale) succeeded the bigots 
 in the mission to N orridgewock. He was a 
 gentleman by birth, education and culture. Re 
 ligious zeal incited him, also, to leave the en 
 dearments of a home of opulence and congenial 
 companionship, and to spend thirty-five years 
 in the then unbroken wilderness of Maine. His 
 remarkable character deserves more particular 
 
[ is* ] 
 
 notice." Abbot s " History of Maine " (2d Ed.) 
 page 171. 
 
 "At Norridgewock, on the banks of the 
 Kennebec, the venerable Sebastian Rale, for more 
 than a quarter of a century the companion and 
 instructor of savages, had gathered a flourishing 
 village, founded a church, which, rising in the 
 desert, made some pretentions to magnificence. 
 Severely ascetic, using no wine, little food ex 
 cept pounded maize, a rigorous observer of 
 the days of Lent, he built his own cabin, tilled 
 his own garden, drew himself wood and water, 
 prepared his own hominy, and, distributing all 
 he received, gave an example of religious pov 
 erty." Bancroft s "History of the Colonization 
 of the United States, Vol. j, p. 
 
 " Rale, the famous Jesuit, was deemed the 
 principal instigator of these insults. He was a 
 man of talents and learning ; and by his condes 
 cending manner, religious zeal and untiring per 
 severance, he had greatly endeared himself to 
 his tribe. He had resided with them and had 
 been their tutelar father thirty years ; and many 
 of them he had taught to read and write. To 
 
render their devotion an incentive to violence, 
 it is said, he kept a banner figured with a cross, 
 which was encircled by bows and arrows, and while 
 he was giving them absolution before they pro 
 ceeded to war or upon any hostile expedition, he 
 was in the habit of suspending the flag from a 
 tall standard at the door of his chapel ; aware of 
 the advantages gained, if he could give every bold 
 sally of the Indians the character of a crusade. 
 "Fond of epistolary correspondence, he kept 
 up a constant intercourse with Vaudreuil, the 
 Governor of Canada, giving him an account of 
 every settlement, fort or other enterprise com 
 menced by the English." Williamson s " His 
 tory of Maine" Vol. 2 ^ page 101. 
 
 A PART OF CHARLEVOIX S EULOGY. 
 
 " Father Rale was of good family in Franche- 
 Comte, and died in his sixty-seventh year ; he 
 was of a robust constitution, but fasting and con 
 tinual hardships had greatly enfeebled him, espe 
 cially after the accident which befell him nineteen 
 years before. 
 
 "In that long and tedious illness, I often ad 
 mired his patience, and we could not see how he 
 
[ 154] 
 
 could endure such a cruel operation without 
 uttering a single cry. 
 
 "He knew almost all the languages spoken 
 in this vast continent, and he had labored for the 
 salvation of almost all the nations that inhabit 
 it. 
 
 " Three years before his death, on his su 
 perior suggesting that it was time for him to 
 withdraw from the fury of England, who had 
 sworn to destroy him, he replied that his meas 
 ures were taken. c God has confided his flock 
 to me, I will follow its lot, too happy to lay 
 down my life for it/ He often repeated the same 
 thing to his Neophites." Charlevoix s " His 
 tory of New France" (1900), Vol. 5>$age 281. 
 
 " Rale was of a strong, enduring form and a 
 keen, vehement, caustic spirit, and of the genu 
 ineness of his zeal there is no doubt, nor of his 
 earnest and lively interest in the fortunes of the 
 wilderness flock of which he was the shepherd 
 for half of his life. The situation was critical for 
 them and for him. The English settlements were 
 but a short distance below, while those of the 
 French could be reached only by a hard journey 
 of twelve or fourteen days." "A Half Cen- 
 
[ 155 ] 
 tury of Conflict" by Francis Parkman, Vol. i y page 
 
 211. 
 
 " Father Rasles had been dead for almost half 
 a century when the papal suppression of the 
 Jesuits took effect. He must have become a 
 member of that order during its golden period, 
 when Jesuit professors and tutors were in their 
 greatest efficiency and most commanding repu 
 tation, when the youth under their direction were 
 candidates, not only for membership in what was 
 distinctly the most learned and influential order 
 in Christendom, but for special service under the 
 direction of that order, according to individual 
 character and ability. 
 
 " Rasles was, of course, trained in the old faith, 
 and in opposition to the reforming ideas. He 
 was of the Franche-Comte, the same department 
 to which our associate, Mr. Allen, traces the 
 Huguenot settlers in what is now Dresden. He 
 could not have failed to be deeply impressed with 
 the fact that the papal programme of his day an 
 nounced two leading aims, namely, the extirpa 
 tion of heresy, even by means of persecution, and 
 the conversion of the heathen in America, even 
 at the cost of martyrdom. No doubt Father 
 
[ 156 ] 
 
 Rasles was heartily in accord with both these 
 aims. 
 
 " The History of French and English coloni 
 zation in the New World, taken by itself, is not 
 an edifying story of peaceful competition. It is 
 very largely a military history ; but merged in 
 the history of Europe, of which it was a subor 
 dinate part, it offers the distressing spectacle of 
 adventurous and loyal subjects always exposed, 
 never adequately supported, harassed in their 
 common industries by savage incursions, or 
 turned aside into forlorn, if not futile, military 
 expeditions, while from time to time the petty 
 raiding is exchanged for something approaching 
 the dignity of civilized warfare, when the great 
 protagonists display their colors upon the field. 
 
 " From the year of Rasles arrival, at the be 
 ginning of what is called King William s War, 
 down to the surrender of Canada to the English, 
 settled by treaty in 1763, war between France 
 and England is the regular order, though there 
 was one breathing time of considerable duration, 
 for the contestants to recover their strength, after 
 the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, which ended what 
 here was c Queen Anne s War, and in Europe 
 the War of the Spanish Succession." F. C. 
 
[ 157 ] 
 
 CummingSy in the " Collections of the Maine His 
 torical Society" Series //, Vol. IV, page 146. 
 
 The following inscription is upon the South 
 side of the Rale monument : 
 
 " Rev. Sebastianus Rasles natione Galluse So- 
 cietate Jesu Missionarius, per aliquot annos II- 
 lionois et Huronibus primum evangelanus,deinde 
 per 34 annos Abenaquis, fide et charitate Christi 
 verus Apostolus, periculis armorum intenitus se 
 pro suis Ovibus mori paratum soepius testificans, 
 inter arma et cocdes ac Pagi Nantrantsouak Nor- 
 ridgewock, et Ecclesiae suae minas, hoc in ipso 
 loco, cecidit tandem optimus Pastor, die 23 Au- 
 gusti, A. D. 1724. Ipsi et films suis in Christo 
 defunctis Monumentum hoc posuit Benedictus 
 Fenwick, Episcopus Bostoniensis dedicavitque 
 23 Augusti, A. D. 1833. A - M - D - G -" 
 
 The English translation is : 
 
 " Rev. Sebastian Ralle, a French Jesuit mis 
 sionary, for many years the first evangelist among 
 the Illinois and Hurons, and afterwards for thirty- 
 four years a true apostle in the faith and love of 
 Christ, among the Abenakies, unterrified by 
 danger, and often by his pure character, giving 
 
C 158 ] 
 
 witness that he was prepared for death, this 
 most excellent pastor, on the 23 d day of August, 
 1724, fell in this place, at the time of the de 
 struction and slaughter of the town of Norridge- 
 wock, and the dangers to his church. To him, 
 and to his children, dead in Christ, Benedict Fen- 
 wick, Bishop at Boston, has erected and dedicated 
 this monument, this 2jd of August, A. D. 1833." 
 Hanson s " History of Norridgewock and Ca 
 naan" published in 1849, P a S e 47 
 
 Hon. Turner Buswell, of Solon, Maine, in a 
 letter to the author, describes this monument as 
 follows : 
 
 " The monument is a plain granite, pyramidal 
 shaft or obelisk, eleven feet in height, and three 
 feet square at the base, standing on a table stone 
 five feet in height and four feet square. An iron 
 cross, four feet in height, surmounts the shaft." 
 
 RALE S CHAPEL BELL. 
 
 " As the dim light of the lofty ceiled room 
 where it reposes in silence, but for the touch 
 of strange hands, falls upon it, visions of ascetic 
 vigil, savage tumult and massacre, yes, and mis 
 guided prayers are painted upon the bronze sides. 
 
" Every dent and scar upon its time-worn sur 
 face are epics of adventure and war panting to 
 be translated love lyrics too, and low-voiced 
 chants, and songs of triumph and defeat smoth 
 ered in the smokes of countless council-fires." 
 Herbert Milton Sylvester s " Casco Bay" 1904. 
 
 " He was a man of heroic courage, of an earn 
 est and self-sacrificing spirit, possessed indeed of 
 qualities, which, in spite of some of his miscon 
 ceptions of the real spirit of Christianity, entitle 
 him to a measure of respect and admiration." 
 James Phinney Baxter. 
 
THE TWELFTH ARTICLE OF THE TREATY OF 
 
 PEACE CONCLUDED AT UTRECHT ON THE 
 
 ELEVENTH DAY OF APRIL, 1713. 
 
 THAT the most Christian King shall take care 
 to have delivered to the Queen of Great Britain, 
 on the Same Day that the Ratifications of this 
 Treaty shall be exchanged, Solemn and authentic 
 Letters and Instruments, by Virtue whereof it 
 shall appear, that the Island of St. Christophers 
 is to be possessed alone hereafter by British Sub 
 jects; Likewise all Nova Scotia or Acadia with 
 its ancient Boundries; as also the City of Port 
 Royal, now called Annapolis- Royal, and all other 
 Things in those Parts which depend on the said 
 Lands and Islands ; together with the Dominion, 
 Property, and Possession of the said Islands, 
 Lands and Places, and all Right whatsoever by 
 Treaties, or by any other way obtained, which 
 the Most Christian King, the Crown of France 
 or any the Subjects thereof have hitherto had to 
 the said Islands, Lands and Places, and the In- 
 
 160 
 
[ 161 ] 
 
 habitants of the same are yielded and made over 
 to the Queen of Great Britain and to her Crown 
 forever as the most Christian King does at pres 
 ent yield and make over all the Particulars above- 
 said, and that in such Ample Manner and Form, 
 that the Subjects of the most Christian King shall 
 hereafter be excluded from all Kinds of Fishing 
 in the Seas, Bays and other Places on the Coast 
 of Nova Scotia, that is to say, on those which lie 
 towards the East within thirty Leagues, beginning 
 from the Island Commonly called Sable inclu 
 sively, and thence stretching along towards South- 
 West. 
 
AUTHORITIES 
 
 CHARLEVOIX S "History of New France"; 
 The Jesuit Relations; Parkman s works, and 
 especially "A Half Century of Conflict" and 
 " The Jesuits of North America " ; Francis " Life 
 of Rale " ; James Phinney Baxter s "Pioneers of 
 New France in New England"; Williamson s 
 "History of Maine"; Bancroft s "History of 
 the Colonization of the United States"; Ab 
 bott s "History of Maine"; Roberts "History 
 of Canada"; Collections of the Maine Histor 
 ical Society; La Chasse; Austin s " History of 
 Massachusetts"; "The Memorials of the Eng 
 lish and French Commissaries Concerning the 
 Limits of Nova Scotia or Acadia," 1 7 50 to 1 7 53 ; 
 "The Abnakis and Their History," by Rev. 
 Eugene Vetromile; Ridpath s, Hawthorne s and 
 other histories of the United States; collections 
 of Massachusetts Historical Society, etc. 
 
 162 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 RECCIRUUN17 
 
 LD 21-100m-9, 48_B399sl6)476 
 

 20619 
 
 M221478 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY