The Portland daily press., 1871-03-07
DAILY PRESS,

PORTLAND.
TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1871.

TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1871.
| History Correstsd.
To the Editor of the Press:
In your issue Of the 23d ult, correspond
ent notices sundry errors, under the caption
Of "History Corrected" in paper laid before
the Maine Historical Society at its late ses
sion at Augusta, furnished by Judge Godfrey
of Bangor, in relation to the Penebscot In
| dians, and their relation 10 the white settlers
of Maine. The paper in question, was one of
great interest, in its general scope. But, as 10
the fact OF the untversal loyalty of that peo-
pie to the whites, your correspondent, is un-
questlonably correct in his criticisms, and al
SO as to the assertion, that the first treaty
win them was made at Bangor in 1876. Be-
yond the dates and places indicated by your
correspondent, treaty transactions were made
between the Penobscots and the English,
| BEGINNINGS OF TROUBLES.
The first general disturbances, between the
natives and the residents of Maine grew out
| Of the cupidity of white Truck-masters, and
an attempt on the part of the whites, to dis.
arm the natives, on the Kennebec, prior to
King Philips war in 1875.
| Violence OF the whites at Saco, and violence
of the natives at Thomas Purchase planta-
ton at Brunswick, aid on New Meadows
river, early developed the antagonism of race,
and famed the embers of war.
Sylvanus Davis, agent of Lake and Clark
lumber manufactures of Arowsic and rep
resertative of the Massachusetts interest and
influences, "menaced the lKennebecs with
death,* if they did not yield to the policy of
the white man and come in and deliver sthelr
arms, A policy, the original planters of
Maine at Pemaquid disavowed and opposed
Massachusetts and Maine, clashed in the pol
icy of their intercourse with the natives, at
this early date. Out of the menaces OF the
Massachusetts men, evaporation followed,
and the. Kennebecs, sent runners to Penob-
scot, and Mo-dock-a- wando, the sachem OF
the Penobscots, met Ithe .Kennebecs in coun.
Gil on the site Of Castine. The conference
ended in combination to enter OH the war
path. The hatchet was dug up and war on
the whites determined. All was commotion.
Bitter and blind partizan strife among the
whites ruled the hour with madness.
But the venerable Abraham Shurt OF Pema-
quid, chief civil magistrate of the East, an
office he had born with honor, in the days of
Ssmasset, aud as early as 1865 .6-now a man
OF age and discretion, and of universal esteem
for well known probity, intervened in the in
terests Of peace, and secured an interview
with some Of the disafected Sagamores, at ,ol
near Pemaquid.
FIRST TREATY TRANSACTIONS ATPEMAQUID
Shurt was maligned and opposed by tht
blind zeal and partisan furies of the times
because be counselled peace. But Shurt sup
ported by his influence as the representative
of the Mayor of the city of Bristol, England
and his established character for rectitudt
and honorable dealing in the transactions Of
the firm he acted for in their business with
the natives in defiance of all opposition, OBJ,
tanned hearing at Pemaquid. The Penob-
scots gathered there in conference with the
Kennebecs. The natives set fortht to him
their complaints Of wrongs done them on the
Kennebec, the depot Of the Puritan and Ply
mouth trading houses.
Shurt listened and assured them that their
wrongs should be rectifed. The conference
ended in the stlpulations above, and the pros
pect OF continued tranquility was thus au
spiciously opened. The official records o.
this early treaty with the Latives of Maine, a
Pemaquid, are not now accessible; but the
facts and result are both we'll anthenti
Gated.
The fruits of this treaty were not of Ion
duration.
HOW RESPECTED BY THE NATIVES.
Prior to August 1876, and before inaugural
ing the awful des0lation and bloody butcher
les Of this year, the representatives Of th
native race, returned 10 Abraham Shurt a
Pemaquid, whose kind offices had so wol
their confidence in him as an upright magis
trate able and willing to redress their griev
aaces, and complained shat many of thei
brothers ,oere missing, possibly miserabl
sldues in foreign lands" They regarded th
force of their recent stipulations, and sougf
redress Hereunder.
CAUSES OF ITS ABRoGATIoN.
At that day Massachusetts held to the rigl
and policy OF slave dealing. Saves were Dor
in her households and bought with her mon
/. ey, and siezed without money and witbou
price, by her right of might.
General warrants for seizing every Indian
man known to be man slayer had been is
, sued from the Bay, and were used in th
East, as grants for kidnapping Indians to b
sold as slaves.
In this hefarious work vessel had lurket
about the harbors of Penaquid. Abraham
Shurt demonstrated, importuned, and befor
: the Yankee slave catcher could be forced ol
. he had secured Of these people enough to ex
cite anew, the animiosities of the race, an,
which transaction was the subject of the com
plant above described.
The faithlessness of the whites, not of th
resident emigrants and planters of Maine, bu
intruders and interlopers of Massachusett
under pretence of her authority, to treaty en-
gagements, led to its violent abrogation b
the natives, and on the 13 Aug. 1876, a blo'
was struck in Sagadahoc, whose reverber;
tions wakened echoes of horror, which hay
thrilled through generations, and reached OF
= ears.t
W1SCASSET AND HER PROJECTED r. r. SY
TEN.
Wiscasset lat the March meeting, to put h
shoulder to the Kennebec wheel of her projec
ed Railroad system with view at once, to ste
the trade and travel OF the valley of the Uppt
Kennebec, at Gardiner or Augusta, havin
put an article in her warrant, to see if th
Town will raise the funds for a beginnin:
The wherewithal will be voted, without doub
. We expect Bath also to take hold of this ea
terprise as the trade and travel by Rail .Roa
from Augusta to Bath via Wiscasset, wi
: be from ~ to IA miles the shortest route: S
sDOmniou of Maine, p. 1877.
tHuhbard's Indian War, p. 302.
tin the battle OF Maj. Waldron at Pemaquid in Fe
1877, led by the Penob5cot Indians, ModOck-awanG
and Mepun-i-way, were the native contestant
They held the capuves Of the attacks on the Sheep
cot and Kennebec plantations Of the previous yea
This tribe on that occasion, though worsted In III
fight, yet were the managers OF the whole natl,
battle programme such was their early loyalty
the whites. They sympathized with their race al
their fate that the Penobscots became the allies