Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-11-22
MAYFLoWER SOCIETY.
Continued from Page F1veD

| 1T must have been purely 3 trading
post for no attempt was made tc culti-
Vate the soil or attract settlers. In
| fact when the pest was turned over
:, by the associates there were but SIX
teen settlers and they appear 90 have
!, had no particular connection with the
! past Still, it was prosperous place
! for the Jesuit relations state that when
: Father Druillettes came there as mis-
= sionary there We're over five hundred
! Indians with a Catholic priest and II
/, neat little chapel ON a height overlook
ing the post probably what is now
| known Us Gushnoe Heights.
! with Catholicism abhorred and a
! Jesuit prescribed in Massachusetts,, the
little colony in Koussinoc lived in peace
| with its Indian neighbors and the good
Jesuit missionary and probably thanked
4 their lucky stars that tie good man
was there 10 promote peace and en-
| courage habits Of industry and pros
perity in their savage breasts =
/ They found the Ahnaki very
peaeea BILE and hospitable people; far
in advance of most of the Indian tribes.
/ They had fluent and musical lam
| guage and means of written communi-
l
| of legend and folk lore which they low
| ed to chant or recite. They made rude
| bits of pottery, wove rugs and main
| tanned neat wigwams with plenty OF
! birch bark and wooden utensils. What
| . pity il is there WAS no scholar among
| these trading folk to have taken down
and preserved their songs and stories
! but that it should all have been lost 10
! us. They were only savages and the
| day of folk lore had not yet arrived.
But oGr Pilgrim Fathers kept up
! their friendly relations with the say
| ages and the missionary priest during
/ all the wears they maintained their
| post. A magnificent record, for almost
| every other trading post in Maine had
| to be abandoned ON account IF trouble
| with the Indians and the cruel and de-
! eeitful treatment of these innocent
! people was practically the sole cause
| Of the bloody French and indian var
| which for SO many years dispepulated
the whole region.
"Thc Abnakis were the last TO draw
| tie tomahawk and then not until some
| years after this Post was abandoned,
| FOR a few years after tthe sale III
| 1861 the Post was maintained by the
| purchasers, but they had not tie sue
| cess of the Pilgrims, and the competi-
tion of other traders and the rise III
| prices consequent thereto caused the
! abandonment of the Post.
Fer some 50 years it was entirely
abandoned, the Indians scattered, the
| forest crept down on the little clear
! ines. he wild animals wandered among
| rn nf
| early settlement was lost.
/ Like the ancient cities of Troy or Of
| Habylon. in which explorers unearth
! city after city, each buried deep dhaef
| the ruins of the former. one might mere
find three Civilizations, the old Pilgrim
!! trading pest the later fort and settle
| ment. and the modern city.
/ 1T was not until 1854 that the heirs
| of the purcha sers again resumed pos
/ session and Fort Western, the perint-
nent stronghold was erected by the
! Kennebec proprietors. Then came Cap
| tain James Howard with 20 men ana
maintained the Post until its existence
as a fortifcation WIS no longer neees-
| sary. -,
Here Col. Benedict Arnold and his
| army of one thousand men rested on
that i'll fated journey to capture que
bec. and here Major General henry
Dearborn. Maine man, sone unie
| Secretary of War in President Jeifer-
I sons cabinet enjoyed the hosihtalltles
of CAPTAIN Howard's great house.
{ THE stoekades. the block houses All
semblance of a fort have v3nished' oul
the old fort house, the big TWO stol J
4 structure inside the stockades sam
/ stands. but alas, as tenement mouse
only in miserable repair and ahaia
1 so,1alid surroundings. Some patriotic
| society should certainly see that this
historic old structure be preserved pe-
/ fore IT'S destruction by fire from some
tonants.s stove or overturned lamp
/ c,ch 10 the history of this little bust
ness enterprise in Maine. OF net fiiueii
account YOU say. true pu'
Wien it took place -,,;si,-
! In 1924. when this post was eStsp !,
| oil they were hardly beginning .hs W,
/ original fort at Pemaquid' ana .no %
| william Henry, about Whlch fpei.
| ca much controversy ana Wiileh i''
| b.er, partially restored ana heio "' "
| chow place to which the summer 'o'i
| let and the scholar are attfacteo' W.
| not constructed until lb92, apout Do
~ Gears later The boy born wien
yinslow came to koussinoc To es.'o,
nsh his post could hardly have NV W
,nr enough to see the building OIL pois
| william Henry. .,,;at
In 1874. the colony at Popham' Wi'e,'
has been euIogized in page aiter pi7e
,f historical writing, had but l''s. 80
wined ont by a famine and the at.ae% ~
~ tbe indians as result OF 'iie 49, 49,.
tics heaped upon them by the see',e, 80 ,,
,i,+ta inelorious settlement oil N"o
| years at the most. - landed
The pilgrims had but just ianuJo p,a, :
three years before. DO, Boston on, haen rp,,@ set
ehia and Baltimore had not peeh -. -
,lod The Dutch had not come 10 -
zarle nor the Swedes to New 'ei9N
! and Delaware. The jamestown coiols
bad been established but seNeh'o''
vaars before. Champlain had just Fi9-
red Quebec and the lake which pe+'is ,
his name, and Sir Henry Hudson Iieo'
Int barely made his memorable uif