Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-02-12

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.


afternoon and evening. The meeting in
the afternoon was at the Court house. At
the hour appointed, the President being
absent, Hon. j. w. Bradbury, Vice Presi-
dent, called the meeting to order.
Mr. Bradbury said the investigations of
the Society the last year had been of a
very important character. They related
to the early settlement at Pemaquid, one
of the most important in American history.
The Investigations have thrown light upon
the early settlement of the English at
Pemaquid-one of the great chain of
events which prevented this country from
passing into the hands of the French. The
struggle was then being decided between
France and England for the possession OF
the continent. The French had secured
possession along the St. Lawrence and
the borders of the great Lakes to the Mis-
sissippi river, and at points on our Allan
tic coast to Penobscot Bay. 1t was by
the settlements at Pemaquid, Popham,
Plymouth and jamestown that the English
were enabled to resist the French and make
this an English colony. Of these, the i'm
portance of the settlement at Pemaquid in
its influence, cannot be overrated. Ply
mouth could not have withstood the
French alone Pemaquid was the extreme
outpost of the British power, one of the
great links by which its supremacy in
North America was secured and the
French compelled to withdraw from eff
forts to hold and colonize. The question
as to which power should colonize this
country was grave one. Had the French
succeeded it would be difficult to calculate
what might have been the effect upon the
civilization of the world. OF the early es
tablishment at Pemaquid there could be
no doubt. There the Indian Samoset
learned the words Of the English language
with which he welcomed the colony of
Plymouth.
Rev. Mr.. Ballard, Secretary of the So
ciety, then stated that the time of the
meeting would be fully occupied with
iAteiCstl5 iitittcio, 'iiu PicSOSuo wv iOa''
manuscript papers, of which the following
brief notice may give some idea:
IMPORTANT HIsToRICAL PAPERS.
The first paper read was letter from
Rev. Eugene Vetromil, in relation to the
habit of our Indians in celebrating the
summer solstice by kindling large fire in
the principal square of their settlements,
and dancing around it, with other marks
of festival. The day selected for this
festival now is St. Johns Day, indicating
a conneXion between this practice and the
Catholic religion, but the Indians had
these celebrations before they were con-
verted to Catholicism, and beside that
Catholics had no such observance. The
Phencians had such custom, and it is
found at the present time in parts of Eng
land, where it is acknowledged to have
been of Phenician origin. The question
is how came it among the aborigines, es-
pecially as it is known they could not
have got it from the English, since it is
known they practiced it in :he time OF
Father Rasle.
The second was letter from G.. E. En-
cry of Lynn, Mass, enclosing photo
graph OF an Indian image, found at Bosca-
wen, n. H., in the sand where a work
man was shoveling. This was the first
Indian idol found in New England. A
piece of one was found in Nova Scotia.
1t was made of stone, of selenite, and
picked up near the spot where Bowen
killed Sabatis and Christie, the two st.
Francis Indians, in 1853, and might have
been u "medicinen of theirs. Father
Rasle might have introduced such images.
Or, since mounds have been discovered in
Ossipee, n N, did it belong to some
mound builder who had strayed eastp
The letter then goes into an account of
idols and idol worship.
The third lecture was by DIR. N. T. True,
upon the radical au6 in the Algonhin
Language. This enters into the compo-
sition of large number of Indian words,
and its sound was heard over the most of
North America among the aborignes. 1t
has also become the origin of many
words in the English language. The liter
al meaning of it is the eye or circle Of light.
A long list of words into which it enters is
given, with their various Specifications.
The fourth was a communication from
Hon. Joseph Williamson of Belfast, ac-
companied by book entitled "The Ad-
ventures of a Revolutionary Soldier" The
author of this book was Joseph z. Martin,
late of Prospect, in Waldo county, who
was a soldier in the entire Revolutionary
War with the exception of a few months,
and who died at the age of 81 years, the
last of the Revolutionary stock in his Sec
ton of the country.
The fifth was an original Remonstlance
by the inhabitants of York county, to
Thomas Pownall, Esq, Governor of Mas
sachusetts, against the petition of Sylves-
ter Gardiner and others, proprietors of the