Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

THE STATE OF MAINE.    41

plundered. They next fell upon the settlers at Falmouth, burning their
buildings, and slaughtering the inhabitants with horrible barbarity.
At Biddeford, houses were burned and Major Philip’s garrison house, in
which the inhabitants had taken refuge, was besieged ; but all succeeded
in escaping to the settlement at Winter Harbor. Sixteen men from
South Berwick on the way to succor the inhabitants on Saco River, were
attacked by a large number of savages, and nine men from Winter
Harbor who sought to join their friends, were ambushed and every man
shot down. During this time, another band of savages attacked
Newichawannoek, secreting themselves in the vicinity several days, and
effecting much slaughter upon incautious persons, and the armed parties
who sought them. The hostilities of the first season lasted about three
months, during which time eighty persons were killed by the savages,
and several small settlements destroyed. The settlers now organized
a considerable force for an attack upon the Indians in their winter
quarters; upon which a number of the sagamores appeared and made
a treaty of peace with the English, and promised to restore captives.
The winter wore on, but few captives were brought in; and fears of a
renewal of the hostilities increased. There was good reason for it. Major
Waldron, one of the Indian commissioners, was so imprudent as to issue
general warrants by which any man holding the warrant could seize
any Indian who might be accused of killing a white man. Several
ship-masters secured warrants, and seized many Indians along the coast;
and carrying them to a foreign port, sold them for slaves. To pacify
the Indians, Abraham Shurte and Captain Davis met the chiefs in
council at Teconnet: The first was the noble and venerable chief
magistrate at Pemaquid ; and such was the respect of the Indians for
him, and such the good treatment they received from the settlers in his
jurisdiction that not a hamlet was attacked during the first year of the
w^rar. At the council, the chiefs demanded that their brothers who had
been stolen away, should be restored to them, and that the English
should sell them food and ammunition for their hunting. These were
reasonable requests, but the agents were unable to comply with them;
and the council broke up without profit. The death of King Philip, in
August, 1676, which ended the war in Massachusetts, only increased
the violence of the savages in Maine. The hostilities commenced by
an attack upon Falmouth at about the time of Philip’s death; and this
was followed in a few days by an attack upon Arrowsic. In a short
time all the settlements east of Falmouth were swept away. The
savages then swarmed about the few remaining settlements between
Falmouth and Piscataqua, killing and burning whenever they found
opportunity. As before, when the cold weather came on, the Indians
retired to their winter quarters ; and as before, the settlers prepared to
attack them ; hut on marching against them, not an Indian could he
found. In November, a noted Penobscot sagamore, named Mugg,
came to Piscataqua, and desired to make a treaty. He promised that
all acts of hostility should cease, that all English captives, vessels and
goods should be restored, and that his tribe should buy ammunition
only of those whom the governor should appoint, and that the Indians
of Penobscot should take up arms against the Androscoggins and other
eastern natives, if they persisted in the war. The only performance was
the buying of ammunition when they could get it, and the restoration
of some eighteen or twenty prisoners; though the tribes must have had