FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Et que passé cette rivière la côte tourne à l'Ouest et Ouest-Norouest plus de deux cens cinquante lieues," etc.
[2] The monk André Thevet, who professes to have visited Norumbega River in 1556, says it was called by the natives "Agoncy."
[3] According to the Abbé Maurault, Pentagoët, in the Indian vocabulary, signifies "a place in a river where there are rapids." On the authority of the "History of the Abenaquis," Penobscot is, "where the land is stony, or covered with rocks."
[4] It is curious that three Italians—Columbus, Cabot, and Verrazani—should lead all others in the discoveries of the American continent.
[5] Giambetta Ramusio, the Venetian.
[6] Champlain's map of 1612 is entitled "Carte Geographiqve de la Novvelle France Faictte par le Sievr de Champlain Saint Tongois, Cappitaine Ordinaire povr le Roy en La Marine. Faict len 1612." All the territory from Labrador to Cape Cod is embraced in this very curious map. Some of its details will be introduced in successive chapters as occasion may demand. There is another map of Champlain of 1632, fort detaillé, but of less rarity than the first.
[7] By Ben Perley Poore and John Romeyn Brodhead.
[8] "Massachusetts Archives, French Documents," vol. i., p. 269.
[9] Rev. B. F. De Costa's "Northmen in Maine."
[10] "Mass. Archives, French Documents."
[11] Ibid.
[12] "Champlain's Voyages," edit. 1613. Mount Desert was also made out by the Boston colonists of 1630. The reader is referred for materials of Mount Desert's history to Champlain, Charlevoix, Lescarbot, Biard, and Purchas, vol. iv.
[13] She was one of the queen's ladies of honor, and wife of the Duke of Rochefoucauld Liancourt.
[14] Champlain: Mr. Shea says he was only a lay brother.
[15] This has a resemblance to Kenduskeag, and was probably the present Bangor.
[16] Charlevoix says the landing was on the north side of the island.
[17] "History of Maine," vol. i., p. 80.
[18] See Williamson, vol. i., p. 79; "Resolves of Massachusetts," July and November, 1787; "New York Colonial Documents," vol. ix., p. 594. Mr. De Costa has given a summary of these in his pleasant little book.
[19] Lescarbot, vol. ii., p. 471.
[20] Named for General John Thomas, of the Revolution.
[21] Williamson's "History of Maine."
[22] Jefferson had his Monticello, Washington his Mount Vernon.
[23] Its Indian name was Passageewakeag—"the place of sights, or ghosts." It contained originally one thousand acres, which the settlers bought of the heirs of Brigadier Waldo at two shillings the acre. Belfast was the first incorporated town on the Penobscot. It suffered severely in the Revolution from the British garrison of Castine.
[24] In 1797 there were twenty vessels owned in Penobscot River, two of which were in European trade.
[25] The upper and larger part is called North Castine.
[26] Castine was not incorporated under its present name until 1796. The Indian name of the peninsula was Bagaduce, or Biguyduce.
[27] Gordon, vol. iii., p. 304.
[28] The man who destroyed Falmouth, now Portland.
[29] In 1759 Governor Pownall took possession of the peninsula of Castine, and hoisted the English flag on the fort. He found the settlement deserted and in ruins.—Gov. Pownall's Journal.
[30] "The clumsy, shapeless coinage, both of gold and silver, called in Mexico máquina de papa, lote y cruz ("windmill and cross-money"), and in this country by the briefer appellation of "cobs." These were of the lawful standards, or nearly so, but scarcely deserved the name of coin, being rather lumps of bullion flattened and impressed by a hammer, the edge presenting every variety of form except that of a circle, and affording ample scope for the practice of clipping: notwithstanding they are generally found, even to this day, within a few grains of lawful weight. They are generally about a century old, but some are dated as late as 1770. They are distinguished by a large cross, of which the four arms are equal in length, and loaded at the ends. The date generally omits the thousandth place; so that 736, for example, is to be read 1736. The letters PLVS VLTRA (plus ultra) are crowded in without attention to order. These coins were formerly brought here in large quantities for recoinage, but have now become scarce."—William E. Dubois, United States Mint.
I think the name of "cob" was applied to money earlier than the date given by Mr. Dubois. Its derivation is uncertain, but was probably either "lump," or from the Welsh, for "thump," i. e., struck money.
[31] On an old map of unknown date Castin's houses are located here.
[32] Sedgwick's Letter, Historical Magazine, July, 1873, p. 38.
[33] Williamson thinks the name of Cape Rosier a distinct reminder of Weymouth's voyage.
[34] Though Hutchinson says "about 1627," I think it an error, as Allerton, the promoter of the project, was in England in that year, as well as in 1626 and 1628, as agent of the colony. Nor was the proposal brought forward until Sherley and Hatherly, two of the adventurers, wrote to Governor Bradford, in 1629, that they had determined upon it in connection with Allerton, and invited Plymouth to join with them.
[35] "Archives of Massachusetts."
[36] Aglate la Tour, granddaughter of the chevalier, sold the seigniory of Acadia to the crown for two thousand guineas.—Douglass.
[37] Mr. Shea (Charlevoix) says this was John Rhoade, and the vessel the Flying Horse, Captain Jurriaen Aernouts, with a commission from the Prince of Orange.
[38] Estates are still conveyed in St. Louis by the arpent.
[39] Denonville, who succeeded M. De la Barre as governor-general, was maitre de camp to the queen's dragoons. He was succeeded by Frontenac.
[40] Denonville's and La Hontan's letters.
[41] Capuchin, a cowl or hood.
[42] Count Frontenac was a relative of De Maintenon.
[43] Cotton Mather.
[44] Isle au Haut is particularly renowned for the size and quality of these fish.
[45] This work is on an old map of the Kennebec patent. It was about twenty rods square, a bastion. A house now stands in the space it formerly occupied.
[46] "Purchas," vol. iv., 1874.
[47] In 1603 Gorges was deprived of the command, but had it restored to him the same year.
[48] "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," vol. vi., 3d series.
[49] See Lescarbot, p. 497.
[50] Strachey. Gorges says August 8th; Smith, August 11th.
[51] A fly-boat, the Gift of God, George Popham; Mary and John, of London, Raleigh Gilbert.
[52] Samoset, in 1625, sold Pemaquid to John Brown. His sign-manual was a bended bow, with an arrow fitted to the string. The deed to Brown also fixes the residence, at Pemaquid, of Abraham Shurt, agent of Elbridge and Aldworth, in the year 1626.
[53] "New York Colonial Documents," vol. iii., p. 256. Some primitive defensive works had existed as early as 1630, rifled in 1632 by the freebooter, Dixy Bull.
[54] It was of stone; a quadrangle seven hundred and thirty-seven feet in compass without the outer walls, one hundred and eight feet square within the inner ones: pierced with embrasures for twenty-eight cannons, and mounting fourteen, six being eighteen-pounders. The south wall fronting the sea was twenty-two feet high, and six feet thick at the ports. The great flanker, or round tower, at the west end of the line was twenty-nine feet high. It stood about a score of rods from high-water mark.—Mather, vol. ii., p. 537.
[55] "D'Iberville, monseigneur, est un tres sage garçon, entreprenant et qui scait ce qu'il fait."—M. Denonville.
[56] As it is inconsistent with the purpose and limits of these chapters to give the detail of charters, patents, and titles by which Pemaquid has acquired much historical prominence, the reader may, in addition to authorities named in the text, consult Thornton's "Ancient Pemaquid," vol. v. "Maine Historical Collections;" Johnston's "Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid;" Hough's "Pemaquid Papers," etc.
[57] While making his geological survey of Maine.
[58] Williamson mentions the heaps on the eastern bank, not so high as on the western, extending back twenty rods from the river, and rendering the land useless. The shell heaps of Georgia and Florida are more extensive than any in New England.
[59] Monhegan lies nine miles south of the George's group, twelve south-east from Pemaquid, and nine west of Metinic. It contains upward of one thousand acres of land. According to Williamson, it had, in 1832, about one hundred inhabitants, twelve or fourteen dwellings, and a school-house. The able-bodied men were engaged in the Bank fishery; the elders and boys in tending the flocks and tilling the soil. At that time there was not an officer of any kind upon the island; not even a justice of the peace. The people governed themselves according to local usage, and were strangers to taxation. A light-house was built on the island in 1824.
[60] A good many arguments may be found in the "Collections of the Maine Historical Society" as to whether Weymouth ascended the Penobscot or the Kennebec. All assume Monhegan to have been the first island seen. This being conceded, the landmarks given in the text follow, without reasonable ground for controversy.
[61] In 1607 Weymouth was granted a pension of three shillings and fourpence per diem. Smith was at Monhegan in 1614, Captain Dermer in 1619, and some mutineers from Rocroft's ship had passed the winter of 1618-'19 there. The existence of a small plantation is ascertained in 1622. In 1626 the island was sold to Giles Elbridge and Robert Aldworth for fifty pounds.
[62] This flag inspired the national lyric, "The Star-spangled Banner."
[63] Colonel Storer kept up the stockades and one or more of the flankarts until after the year 1760, as a memorial rather than a defense.
[64] This relationship is disputed by Mr. Joseph L. Chester, the eminent antiquary. Winthrop, it would seem, ought to have known; Eliot and Allen repeat the authority, the latter giving the full name of Mary Hutchinson.
[65] Both sides have been ably presented by Dr. N. Bouton and Hon. Charles H. Bell.
[66] Once, and much better, Arundel, from the Earl of Arundel.
[67] An old sea-chart says, "Saco River bear place at low water."
[68] "Massachusetts Historical Collections," 1792, vol. i.
[69] An Irishman, Darby Field by name.
[70] Purchas, vol. iv., 1647.
[71] In England there is a cockle called the purple, from the coloring matter it contains, believed to be one of the sources from which the celebrated Tyrian dye was obtained. The discovery is attributed in mythical story to a dog. The Tyrian Hercules was one day walking with his sweetheart by the shore, followed by her lap-dog, when the animal seized a shell just cast upon the beach. Its lips were stained with the beautiful purple flowing from the shell, and its mistress, charmed with the color, demanded a dress dyed with it of her lover.
[72] Situated on Stage Neck, a rocky peninsula connected with the main shore by a narrow isthmus, on which is a beach. There was formerly a fort on the north-east point of the Neck.
[73] Sir F. Gorges's own relation.
[74] About 1647 the settlements at Agamenticus were made a town by the name of York, probably from English York.
[75] Confederation of the colonies for mutual protection.
[76] Elizabeth died while Martin Pring was preparing to sail for America; and Essex and Raleigh both went to the block.
[77] The insertion of the lengthy title in full appears unnecessary.
[78] The celebrated commentator.
[79] We are warranted in the belief that the first services held in this plantation were those of the Church of England. The first, or borough, charter mentions the church chapel. Robert Gorges, in 1623, brought over an Episcopal chaplain, William Morrell, and with him also came, as is supposed, Rev. William Blackstone, the first inhabitant of Boston.
[80] Hutchinson says: "In every frontier settlement there were more or less garrison houses, some with a flankart at two opposite angles, others at each corner of the house; some houses surrounded with palisadoes; others, which were smaller, built with square timber, one piece laid horizontally upon another, and loop-holes at every side of the house; and besides these, generally in any more considerable plantation there was one garrison house capable of containing soldiers sent for the defense of the plantation, and the families near, whose houses were not so fortified. It was thought justifiable and necessary, whatever the general rule of law might be, to erect such forts, castles, or bulwarks as these upon a man's own ground, without commission or special license therefor."—"History of Massachusetts," vol. ii., p. 67.
[81] The name of Kittery Point is from a little hamlet in England. It is the first and oldest town in the State, having been settled in 1623. Gorgeana, settled 1324, was a city corporate, and not a town. Kittery first included North and South Berwick and Eliot.
[82] Captain Joseph Cutts was born in 1764, and died on his birthday anniversary, aged ninety-seven. He married a granddaughter of President Chauncy, of Harvard College. Sarah Chauncy, known to us as "Sally Cutts," was removed during her last illness to the house of her cousin, where she was kindly cared for. When near her end she became more rational, and was sensible of the attentions of her friends. She died June 30th, 1874. Her brother Charles was hopelessly insane forty-four years, and often so violent as to make it necessary to chain him. Joseph, the other brother, entered the navy: overtaken by his malady, he was sent home. Under these repeated misfortunes, added to the care of her father and brothers, Sally's reason also gave way. The town allowed a small sum for the board of her father and brothers, and her friends provided wood and clothing. Her house even was sold to satisfy a Government claim for duties, owed by her father. It has now been renovated, and is occupied by Oliver Cutts, Esquire.
[83] My appearance within Fort M'Clary caused a panic in the garrison. A few unimportant questions concerning the old works were answered only after a hurried consultation between the sergeant in charge and the head workman. The Government was then meditating war with Spain, and I had reason to believe I was looked upon as a Spanish emissary.
[84] The house was also occupied at one time as a tenement by fishermen. It exhibits no marks, either inside or out, of the wealth and social consequence of its old proprietor.
[85] Mr. Longfellow has, at Cambridge, a painting by Copley, representing two children in a park. These children are William Pepperell and his sister, Elizabeth Royall Pepperell, children of the last baronet.
[86] Both were made colonels in the regular British establishment; their regiments, numbered the Fiftieth and Fifty-first respectively, were afterward disbanded.
[87] Marshal Saxe, unable to mount his horse, was carried along his lines in a litter.
[88] The year 1745 was also signalized by the death of Pope in June, and of the old Duchess of Marlborough in October, who died at eighty-five, immensely rich, and "very little regretted either by her own family or the world in general."—Smollett.
[89] Mr. E. F. Safford, the proprietor, exercises watch and ward over this and other relics of the Pepperells with a care worthy of imitation all along the coast.
[90] Mr. Sabine notes in his "Loyalists" that the tomb, when entered some years ago, contained little else than bones strewed in confusion about its muddy bottom; among them, of course, the remains of the victor of Louisburg, deposited in it at his decease in 1759.
[91] The best biography of Sir William Pepperell is that by Dr. Usher Parsons.
[92] The relation in Purchas, vol. iv., p. 1935, of the voyage of Robert, earl of Essex, to the Azores in 1597, has a supplementary or larger relation, written by Sir Arthur Gorges, knight, a captain in the earl's fleet of the ship Wast-Spite. There is mention of a Captain Arthur Champernowne, who appears to have sailed with the admiral in this expedition.
[93] The father of James Anthony Froude, the historian, was rector of Dartington; the historian was born there.
[94] He is fully recognized as a personage of distinction in the beginnings of Kittery. Charles W. Tuttle gives him a touch of royal blood. I failed to find such a provision in his own draft of his will.
[95] They are, in descending the river, Badger's, Navy Yard, Trefethren's, or Seavey's, Clark's, and Gerrish's Island.
[96] In Pleasant, near Court Street.
[97] "Et en la connoissance et experience que vous avez de la qualité, condition et situation dudit païs de la Cadie, pour les diverses navigations, voyages, et frequentations que vous avez faits en ces terres et autres proches et circonvoisines."
[98] Williamson erroneously calls Champlain the pilot.
[99] A little book I have seen translates rather freely in making Champlain say "and on the west Ipswitch Bay." See p. 122 for Champlain's exact language.
[100] Pring came to the main-land in forty-three and a half degrees—his farthest point westward on this voyage—and worked along the coast to the south-west. I know of no other islands between Cape Ann and his landfall answering his description.
[101] De Monts sailed from Havre de Grace March 7th, 1604.
[102] Winthrop's "Journal."
[103] Star Island is three-fourths of a mile long and half a mile wide; White Island is also three-fourths of a mile in length. It is a mile and three quarters from Star Island. Londoner's is five-eighths of a mile in length, and one-eighth of a mile from Star Island. Duck Island is seven-eighths of a mile in length, and three miles from Star Island meeting-house. Appledore is seven-eighths of a mile from Star, and a mile in length. Haley's, or Smutty Nose, is a mile in length, and five-eighths of a mile from Star Island meeting-house. Cedar Island is one-third of a mile long, and three-eighths of a mile distant from the meeting-house. The whole group contains something in excess of six hundred acres.
[104] The term "Shoals of Isles" seems rather far-fetched, and scarcely significant to English sailors familiar with the hundred and sixty islands of the Hebrides. I can find no instance of these isles having been so called.
[105] Built in 1800, through the efforts of Dudley A. Tyng, of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Dedicated in November by Rev. Jedediah Morse, father of S. F. B. Morse. A school was for a time kept in it.
[106] For more than a century previous to the Revolution the islands were prosperous, containing from three to six hundred souls. In 1800 there were three families and twenty persons on Smutty Nose; fifteen families and ninety-two persons on Star Island, alias Gosport; eleven dwellings and ten fish-houses on the latter, and three decent dwellings on the former. At this time there was not an inhabitant on Appledore, alias Hog Island.
[107] 1691. A considerable body of Eastern Indians came down from the interior, with the intention of sacking the Isles of Shoals, but on August 4th came upon some English forces at Maquoit, under Captain March, and had a fight with them. This prevented their proceeding, and saved the Shoals.—"Magnalia," vol. xi., p. 611.
1692. Governor Fletcher examined three deserters, or renegadoes, as he calls them, from Quebec, who came before him September 23d. They said two men-of-war had arrived at Quebec, and were fitting out for an expedition along the coast, "with a design to fall on Wells, Isle of Shoals, Piscataqua, etc."—"New York Colonial Documents," vol. iii., p. 855.
1724. After the Indians had cut off Captain Winslow and thirteen of his men in the River St. George, encouraged by this success, the enemy made a still greater attempt by water, and seized two shallops at the Isles of Shoals.—Hutchinson's "Massachusetts," vol. ii., p. 307.
[108] Mountains seen off the coast: Agamenticus, twelve miles north of the entrance of the Piscataqua; three inferior summits, known as Frost's Hills, at a less distance on the north-west. In New Hampshire the first ridge is twenty or thirty miles from sea, in the towns of Barrington, Nottingham, and Rochester—the summits known as Teneriffe, Saddleback, Tuckaway, etc. Their general name is the Blue Hills. Beyond these are several detached summits—Mount Major, Moose Mountain, etc.; also a third range farther inland, with Chocorua, Ossipee, and Kearsarge. In the lofty ridge, separating the waters of the Merrimac and the Connecticut is Grand Monadnock, twenty-two miles east of the Connecticut River; thirty miles north of this is Sunapee, and forty-eight farther, Moosehillock. The ranges then trend away north-east, and are massed in the White Hills.
[109] John Ward Dean, of Boston, the accomplished antiquary, has elicited this and other facts relative to his namesake.
[110] On Boone Island it is said there is no soil except what has been carried there.
[111] 1670. The General Court being informed that there is a ship riding in the road at the Isle of Shoales suspected to be a pirat, and hath pirattically seized the sayd ship and goods from some of the French nation in amity with the English, and doeth not come under comand, this Court doeth declare and order that neither the sayd ship or goods or any of the company shall come into our jurisdiction, or be brought into any of our ports, upon penalty of being seized upon and secured to answer what shall be objected against them.—"Massachusetts Colonial Records," vol. iv., part ii., p. 449.
[112] After execution the bodies of the pirates were taken to the little island in Boston harbor known as Nix's Mate, on which there is a monument. Fly was hung in chains, and the other two buried on the beach. The total disappearance of this island before the encroachments of the sea is the foundation of a legend. Bird Island, in the same harbor, on which pirates have been executed, has also disappeared. It formerly contained a considerable area.
[113] A somewhat more authentic naval conflict occurred during the war of 1812 with Great Britain, when the American privateer, Governor Plummer, was captured on Jeffrey's Ledge by a British cruiser, the Sir John Sherbroke. The American had previously made many captures. Off Newfoundland she sustained a hard fight with a vessel of twelve guns, sent out to take her. She also beat off six barges sent on the same errand.
[114] 1686. Ordered that no shipps do unliver any part of their lading at the Isles of Shoals before they have first entered with the Collector of H. M. Customs, and also with the officer receiving his majs imposts and revenues arising upon wine, sperm, &c., imported either in Boston, Salem, or Piscataqua; and that all shipps and vessells trading to the eastward of Cape Porpus shall enter at some of the aforesaid Ports, or at the town of Falmouth in the Prov. of Maine.—"Massachusetts Council Records," vol. i., p. 43.
[115] Boston, 1850: original in possession of Dorchester Antiquarian Society.
[116] Mount Wollaston, Quincy, Massachusetts; present residence of John Quincy Adams, Esq.
[117] See "Massachusetts Historical Collections," vol. iii., p. 63.
[118] British State Papers, Calendars.
[119] Spanish ship Sagunto, Carrera, seventy-three days from Cadiz for New York, arrived at Newport on Monday, January 11th, out of provisions and water, and the crew frost-bitten. Cargo, wine, raisins, and salt. Saw no English cruisers, and spoke only one vessel, a Baltimore privateer.—Columbian Centinel, January 16th, 1813.
[120] Appledore, a small sea-port of England, County of Devon, parish of Northampton, on the Torridge, at its mouth in Barnstable Bay, two and a quarter miles north of Bideford. It is resorted to in summer as a bathing-place, and has a harbor subordinate to the port of Barnstable.—"Gazetteer."
[121] Levett says, "Upon these islands are no salvages at all."
[122] Mrs. Celia Laighton Thaxter.
[123] The Act of Corporation, though well preserved, appeared little valued; it hung by a corner and in a light that was every day dimming the ink with which it had been engrossed.
[124] The reader will do well to consult Belknap's admirable "History of New Hampshire," vol. ii.; Adams's "Annals," or Brewster's "Rambles about Portsmouth." Some sort of defense was begun here very early. In 1665 the commissioners of Charles II. attempted to fortify, but were met by a prohibition from Massachusetts. In 1700 there existed on Great Island a fort mounting thirty guns, pronounced by Earl Bellomont incapable of defending the river. Colonel Romer made the plan of a new work, and recommended a strong tower on the point of Fryer's (Gerrish's) Island, with batteries on Wood and Clark's islands. In December, 1774, John Langdon and John Sullivan committed open rebellion by leading a party to seize the powder here. The fort was then called William and Mary. Old Fort Constitution has the date of 1808 on the key-stone of the arch of the gate-way. Its walls were carried to a certain height with rough stone topped with brick. It was a parallelogram, and mounted barbette guns only. The present work is of granite, inclosing the old walls. The new earth-works on Jaffrey's Point and Gerrish's Island render it of little importance.
[125] Governor of New Hampshire from 1682 to 1685. The house is the residence of Mr. Albee.
[126] Odiorne's Point is in Rye, New Hampshire. The settlement began under the auspices of a company, in which Gorges and Mason were leading spirits. Their grant covered the territory between the Merrimac and Sagadahoc rivers. Under its authority, David Thompson and others settled at Little Harbor, and built what was subsequently known as Mason's Hall. Disliking his situation, Thompson removed the next spring to the island now bearing his name in Boston Bay. From this nucleus sprung the settlements at Great Island and Portsmouth. The settlement at Hilton's Point was nearly coincident.
[127] Peace with the thirteen colonies was proposed under the administration of Rockingham, about the last official act of his life. His name is often met with in Portsmouth.
[128] The house stands at the north end of Manning, formerly Wentworth Street, and is thought from its size to have been a public-house. The same house was also occupied by Lieutenant-Governor John, son of Samuel Wentworth. Samuel was the son of William, the first settler of the name. He had been an innkeeper, and had swung his sign of the "Dolphin" on Great Island. Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, is the biographer of his family.
[129] His second wife was Henrietta du Roy, daughter of Frederick Charles du Roy, generalissimo to the King of Denmark.
[130] Bennington, Vermont, is named from Governor Wentworth.
[131] Her grandfather, Hon. Richard Hilton, of Newmarket, was grandson of Edward, the original settler of Dover, New Hampshire, and had been a justice of the Superior Court of the Province.—John Wentworth.
[132] Frances Deering Wentworth married John just two weeks after the decease of her first husband, Theodore Atkinson, also her cousin, and in the same church from which he had been buried—matter for such condolence and reproof as Talleyrand's celebrated "Ah, madame," and "Oh, madame." Benning Wentworth's widow married Colonel Michael Wentworth, said to have been a retired British officer. He was a great horseman and a free liver. Once he rode from Boston to Portsmouth between sunrise and sunset. Having run through a handsome estate, he died under suspicion of suicide, leaving his own epitaph, "I have eaten my cake." Colonel Michael was the host, at the Hall, of Washington. In 1817, the house at Little Harbor was purchased by Charles Cushing, whose widow was a daughter of Jacob Sheaffe.
[133] "Paul Jones shall equip his Bonne Homme Richard; weapons, military stores can be smuggled over (if the English do not seize them); wherein, once more Beaumarchais, dimly as the Giant Smuggler, becomes visible—filling his own lank pocket withal."—Carlyle, "French Revolution," vol. i., p. 43.
[134] Mather and Hutchinson deal largely with it. Upham and Drake have compiled, arranged, and analyzed it.
[135] Exod. xxii., 18 (1491 b.c.): "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
[136] Abigail Williams, eleven; Mary Walcut, seventeen; Ann Putnam, twelve; Mercy Lewis, seventeen; Mary Warren, twenty; Elizabeth Booth, eighteen; Sarah Churchill, twenty; Susannah Sheldon, age not known.
[137] Account of Thomas Brattle.
[138] See his life, page 80.
[139] Endicott had a grant of three hundred acres on the tongue of land between Cow-house and Duck rivers. The site does justice to his discernment.
[140] Raised in 1837 to the memory of soldiers of Danvers killed in the battle of Lexington.
[141] The Queen's portrait by Tilt, the gold box and medal presented by the city of London and by Congress to Mr. Peabody.
[142] Considerable changes were necessary so long ago as 1674-'75, when it became the property of Jonathan Corwin, of witchcraft notoriety. In 1745, and again about 1772, it underwent other repairs, leaving it as now seen.
[143] A scene from life in the old Copp's Hill burial-ground at Boston.
[144] In the library of Harvard College is a book having the name of Parris on the fly-leaf.
[145] She approved Governor Phips's conduct, but advised the utmost moderation and circumspection in all proceedings for witchcraft.—"Manuscript Files."
[146] Samuel Sewall, afterward chief-justice of the Supreme Court of the province.
[147] Some of the pins said to have been thrust by witches into the bodies of their victims are still preserved in Salem.
[148] This incident appears in Hawthorne's "Seven Gables." The tradition is that Noyes was choked with blood—dying by a hemorrhage.
[149] The frame of the old First Church of Salem has been preserved. It is now standing in the rear of Plummer Hall, a depository of olden relics.
[150] Captain Goelet calls it an island.
[151] Treville was the man thought most worthy by Napoleon to lead his fleet in the long-meditated descent on England.
[152] "Address to the Electors of Bristol."
[153] "Philosophical Transactions," vol. lxiv., part ii.
[154] A headland of Boston Harbor is named for him, Point Allerton.
[155] "Moses Maverick testifieth that in the yeare 1640 or 41 the toune of Salem granted unto the inhabitants of Marblehead the land we now injoy, with one of Salem, to act with us, wh acordingly was acordingly attended unto the yeare 1648, in which yeare Marblehead was confirmed a toune, and to that time yt never knew or understood he desented from what was acted in layeing out land or stinting the Comons, and have beene accounted a Toune, and payd dutyes accordingly as it hath been required. Taken vpon oath; 19: 1mo 73/4.
"(Original Document.)
Wm. Hathorne, Affit.
Vera Copia, taken the 25 of May, 1674,
by me, Robert Ford, Cleric."
[156] Relics of Indian occupation have been found in Marblehead at various times. There is a shell heap on the Wyman Farm, on the line of the Eastern Railway, quite near the farm-house.
[157] A bill against piracy was ordered to be brought in March 1st, 1686; March 4th the bill passed.
[158] The first mention of Marblehead in the colony records I have seen is of two men fined there for being drunk, in the year 1633.
[159] "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," 1870, p. 57.
[160] I have seen the date of 1766 assigned for its building.
[161] Think of Copley painting these two canvases, eight feet long by five wide, and in his best manner, for £25!
[162] These portraits are now in possession of Colonel William Raymond Lee, of Boston.
[163] It is not settled who is entitled to the authorship of the word "Gerrymander," for which a number of claimants have appeared. The map of Essex, which gave rise to the caricature, was drawn by Nathan Hale, who edited the Boston Weekly Messenger, in which the political deformity first appeared.
[164] The old frigate Boston was captured at Charleston in 1780 by the British. In 1804 Tom Moore went over to England in her, she being then commanded by Captain J. E. Douglas.
[165] William P. Upham, of Salem, has written a memoir of Glover.
[166] Son of Major Stephen, of Newbury.
[167] See "Old Landmarks of Boston," pp. 162, 163.
[168] It has been erroneously stated that Bainbridge accompanied Lawrence to the pier and tried to dissuade him from engaging the Shannon. They had not met for several days.
[169] This fact was established by Geoffrey Crayon (Washington Irving) in one of his philippics against Great Britain, of which he so slyly concealed the authorship in the preface to his "Sketch Book."
[170] "Don't give up the ship."
[171] In possession of New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston. It is by Corné, a marine painter of some repute in his day.
[172] Other portraits are of Dr. James Thacher, by Frothingham, and of John Alden, great-grandson of John, of the Mayflower, who died at the great age of one hundred and two years. He was of Middleborough. Dr. Thacher, a surgeon of the old Continental army, deserves more space than I am able to give him. He has embodied a great deal of Revolutionary history, in a very interesting way, in his "Military Journal," having been present at the principal battles.
[173] "Pilgrim Memorial."
[174] John Newcomen.
[175] Jones's River.
[176] The Mayflower was only one hundred and eighty tons burden.
[177] Mourt.
[178] I do not find any exact authority for this.
[179] "This is to certify that I took the schooner Harmony, Nathaniel Carver, master, belonging to Plymouth, but, on account of his good services, have given him up his vessel again.
"Horatio Nelson.
"Dated on board H.M. ship Albemarle, 17th August, 1782."
[180] Governor Bradford's "History of Plymouth."
[181] Green's Harbor, perhaps.
[182] Followed as literally as possible, to preserve the style.
[183] Named by De Monts, and supposed to be Brant Point.
[184] "The south part of New England, as it is planted this yeare, 1634."
[185] "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society."
[186] See Popham's settlement on the Kennebec; the Episcopal service was doubtless the first religious exercise in New England.
[187] Captain John Smith, speaking of the town in 1624, says of this fortress, there was "within a high mount a fort, with a watch-tower, well built of stone, lome, and wood, their ordnance well mounted."
[188] During some excavations made on the hill, remains of the watch-tower of brick came to light, indicating its position to have been in the vicinity of the Judson monument. There also existed on the hill, until about 1860, a powder-house of antique fashion, built in 1770. It had an oval slab of slate imbedded in the wall, with a Latin inscription; and there were also engraved upon it a powder-horn, cartridge, and a cannon.—"Pilgrim Memorial."
[189] Robert Brown, the founder of the sect, after thirty-two imprisonments, eventually conformed. Henry Penay, Henry Barrow, and other Brownists, were cruelly executed for alleged sedition, May 29th, 1593. Elizabeth's celebrated Act of 1593 visited a refusal to make a declaration of conformity with the Church of England with banishment and forfeiture of citizenship; death if the offender returned into the realm.
[190] Sir Matthew Hale used to say, "Those of the Separation were good men, but they had narrow souls, or they would not break the peace of the Church about such inconsiderable matters as the points of difference were." In this country the Independents took the name of Congregationalists. They held, among other things, that one church may advise or reprove another, but had no power to excommunicate. The churches outside of Plymouth did, however, practice excommunication.
[191] Governor Bradford's Letter-book.
[192] The teacher explained doctrines; the pastor enforced them by suitable exhortations.
[193] These trees are said to have been planted in 1783, by Thomas Davis.
[194] Wife of Samuel Fuller. She gave the church the lot of ground on which the parsonage stood.—Allen.
[195] See Appendix to Bradford's History.
[196] In 1741, when it was proposed to build a wharf near the rock, it was pointed out as the identical landing-place of the Pilgrims by Elder Thomas Faunce, who, having been born in 1646, had received the fact from the original settlers.
[197] This party consisted of eighteen persons—viz., Miles Standish, John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, John Tilley, Edward Tilley, John Howland, Richard Warren, Steven Hopkins, and Edward Doten. Besides these were two seamen, John Alderton and Thomas English. Of the ship's company were Clark and Coppin, two of the master's mates, the master-gunner, and three sailors. This little band of discoverers left the ship at anchor at Cape Cod Harbor on the 16th of December. Mourt calls Alderton and English "two of our seamen," in distinction from the ship's company proper, they having been sent over by the undertakers, in the service of the plantation.
[198] On her return voyage the Fortune was seized by a French man-of-war, Captain Frontenan de Pennart, who took Thomas Barton, master, and the rest prisoners to the Isle of Rhé, plundering the vessel of beaver worth five hundred pounds, belonging to the Pilgrims. The vessel and crew were discharged after a brief detention.—"British Archives."
[199] First spelled Swansea, and named from Swansea, in South Wales.
[200] Squanto was one of the Indians kidnaped by Hunt, and the last surviving native inhabitant of Plymouth. He had lived in London with John Slany, merchant, treasurer of the Newfoundland Company.
[201] Winsor, "History of Duxbury," p. 26, note.
[202] See ante, also "Massachusetts Historical Collections," vol. ii., p. 5. First light-house erected 1763; burned 1801.
[203] Saquish is the Indian for clams. They are of extraordinary size in Plymouth and Duxbury.
[204] An anchorage near Clark's Island, so called from a cow-whale having been taken there.
[205] The following account of what straits light-keepers have been subjected to in coast-harbors during the past winter will perhaps be read with some surprise by those acquainted with Plymouth only in its summer aspect: "On Tuesday evening, February 9th, 1875, the United States revenue steamer Gallatin put into Plymouth harbor for the night, to avoid a north-west gale blowing outside. On the morning of the 10th, at daylight, when getting under way, Captain Selden discovered a signal of distress flying on Duxbury Pier Light. The light-house was so surrounded by ice that he was utterly unable to reach the pier with a boat; the captain, therefore, steamed the vessel through the ice near enough to converse with the keeper, and found that he had had no communication with any one outside of the light since December 22d, 1874; that his fuel and water were out; and that they had been on an allowance of a pint of water a day since February 6th, 1875. The steamer forced her way to within some fifty or seventy-five yards of the pier, when Lieutenants Weston and Clayton, with the boats, succeeded, after two hours' hard work cutting through the ice, in reaching the pier, and furnished the keeper and his wife with plenty of wood and water."
[206] There is tradition for it that Edward Dotey, the fighting serving-man, was the first who attempted to land on Clark's Island, but was checked for his presumption. Elkanah Watson was one of the three original grantees of the island, which has remained in the family since 1690. Previous to that time it belonged to the town. The other proprietors were Samuel Lucas and George Morton.
[207] Saturday, December 9th, Old Style.
[208] No reasonable doubt can be entertained that the Pilgrims' first religious services were held in Provincetown Harbor, either on board the Mayflower or on shore. They were not the men and women to permit several Sabbaths to pass by without devotional exercises.
[209] The first substance discovered was a quantity of barley, charred and wrapped in a blanket. Ashes, as fresh as if the fire had just been extinguished, were found in the chimney-place, with pieces of an andiron, iron pot, and other articles. There were discovered, also, a gun-lock, sickle, hammer, whetstone, and fragments of stone and earthen ware. A sword-buckle, tomahawk, brass kettle, etc., with glass beads, showing the action of intense heat, likewise came to light.
[210] I find that a Captain Standish, who is called a great commander, a captain of foot, was killed in an attack by Lord Strange on Manchester, England, dining the Civil War, 1642.
[211] This house has been stated to have been built in part of materials from the house of Captain Miles Standish.
[212] Baylies's "New Plymouth."
[213] "Massachusetts Archives."
[214] There is a well-defined line of demarkation between the almost uninterrupted rock wall of the north coast and the sand, which, beginning in the Old Colony, in Scituate, constitutes Cape Cod; and, if we consider Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island as having at some period formed the exterior shores, the almost unbroken belt of sand continues to Florida. This line is so little imaginary that it is plain to see where granite gives place to sand; and it is sufficiently curious to arrest the attention even of the unscientific explorer.
[215] "Lequel nous nommâmes C. Blanc pour ce que c'estoient sables et dunes qui paroissent ainsi."
[216] Named by Captain Gosnold, on account of the expressed fears of one of his company.
[217] Being the 21st of November, it would fall quite near to the day usually set apart for Thanksgiving in New England, which is merely an arbitrary observance, commemorative of no particular occurrence.
[218] One of De Monts's men ("un charpentier Maloin") was killed here in 1605 by the natives. In attempting to recover a kettle one of them had stolen, he was transfixed with arrows.
[219] Lescarbot adds that the natives, turning their backs to the vessel, threw the sand with both hands toward them from between their buttocks, in derision, yelling like wolves.
[220] Hubbard relates a terrific storm here. See "New England," p. 644. In 1813 there was a naval engagement at Provincetown.
[221] General Knox was interested in this project. Lemuel Cox, the celebrated bridge architect, was engaged in cutting it.
[222] Champlain confirms this.
[223] Prior was personally acceptable to Louis XIV., who gave him a diamond box with his portrait. He was also well known to Boileau.
[224] Captain David Smith and Captain Gamaliel Collins.
[225] In old times a decoction of checker-berry leaves was given to lambs poisoned by eating the young leaves of the laurel in spring.
[226] There is an authentic account of ice being found here on the 4th of July, 1741.
[227] When the English first settled upon the Cape there was an island off Chatham, three leagues distant, called Webb's Island. It contained twenty acres, covered with red-cedar or savin. The Nantucket people resorted to it for fire-wood. In 1792, as Dr. Morse relates, it had ceased to exist for nearly a century. "A large rock," he says, "that was upon the island, and which settled as the earth washed away, now marks the place."
[228] Amos Otis, in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," 1865.
[229] Purchas, iv.; reprinted in "Massachusetts Historical Collections," iii., viii. I can not give space to those points that confirm my view, but they make a strong presumptive case. It has been alleged that De Poutrincourt landed here after his conflict with the Indians of Cape Cod. So far from landing on the island they saw, Champlain says they named it "La Soupçonneuse," from the doubts they had of it. Lescarbot adds that "they saw an island, six or seven leagues in length, which they were not able to reach, and so called 'Ile Douteuse.'" The land, it is probable, was the Vineyard.
[230] By Sir F. Gorges.
[231] Nantasket, Namasket, Naushon, Sawtuckett, are Indian.
[232] In 1602 by the colony of Bartholomew Gosnold, already so often mentioned in these pages.
[233] Better known as Holmes's Hole.
[234] On the raising of the ice-blockade of the past winter seventeen mails were due, the greatest number since 1857, when twenty-five regular and two semi-monthly mails were landed at Quidnet.
[235] In 1837 its population was 9048; it is now a little more than 4000.
[236] The Dutch also whaled with long ropes, as is now our method.
[237] Weymouth also describes the Indian manner of taking whales: "One especial thing is their manner of killing the whale, which they call powdawe; and will describe his form; how he bloweth up the water; and that he is twelve fathoms long; and that they go in company of their King, with a multitude of their boats, and strike him with a bone made in the fashion of a harping-iron, fastened to a rope, which they make great and strong of the bark of trees, which they veer out after him; that all their boats come about him, and as he riseth above water, with their arrows they shoot him to death. When they have killed him and dragged him to shore, they call all their chief lords together, and sing a song of joy; and these chief lords, whom they call sagamores, divide the spoil, and give to every man a share, which pieces so distributed they hang up about their houses for provision; and when they boil them, they blow off the fat, and put to their pease, maize, and other pulse which they eat."—"Weymouth's Voyage."
[238] Nantucket in 1744 had forty sloops and schooners in the whale-fishery. The catch was seven thousand to ten thousand barrels of oil per annum. There were nine hundred Indians on the island of great use in the fishery.—Douglass, vol. i., p. 405.
[239] State papers.
[240] Gordon, vol. i., p. 463.
[241] Records of Congress.
[242] Of Macy it is known that he fled from the rigorous persecution of the Quakers by the government of Massachusetts Bay. The penalties were ordinarily cropping the ears, branding with an iron, scourging, the pillory, or banishment. These cruelties, barbarous as they were, were merely borrowed from the England of that day, where the sect, saving capital punishment, was persecuted with as great rigor as it ever was in the colonies. The death-penalty inflicted in the Bay Colony brought the affairs of the Friends to the notice of the reigning king. Thereafter they were tolerated; but as persecution ceased the sect dwindled away, and in New England it is not numerous. The Friends' poet sings of Macy, the outcast:
"Far round the bleak and stormy Cape
The vent'rous Macy passed,
And on Nantucket's naked isle
Drew up his boat at last."
[243] Thurloe, vol. v., p. 422.
[244] The nine were Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain, and William Pile, who afterward sold his tenth to Richard Swain.
[245] John Smith, Nathaniel Starbuck, Edward Starbuck, Thomas Look, Robert Barnard, James Coffin, Robert Pike, Tristram Coffin, Jun., Thomas Coleman, and John Bishop.
[246] Of three hundred and fifty-eight Indians alive in 1763, two hundred and twenty-two died by the distemper.
[247] Hutchinson.
[248] Zaccheus Macy, in his account of the island, written in 1792, says none had been taken up to that time—"a great loss to the islanders."
[249] The Indian name Tuckanuck signifies a loaf of bread.
[250] Rev. F. C. Ewer, of New York.
[251] Judah Touro, the philanthropist, was born here in Newport, in 1775, the year of American revolt. His father, the old rabbi, Isaac, came from Holland, officiating as preacher in 1762 in Newport. When still a young man, Judah Touro removed to New Orleans, where he acquired a fortune. He was a volunteer in the battle of 1815, and was wounded by a cannon-ball in the hip. Though a Jew, Judah Touro was above sect, generously contributing to Christian church enterprises. Bunker Hill Monument, toward which he gave ten thousand dollars, is a memorial of his patriotic liberality.
[252] At Naples the summer temperature is seldom above 73°; in winter it does not fall below 47°.
[253] Point Judith is named from Judith Quincy, the wife of John Hull, coiner of the rare old pine-tree shillings of 1652.
[254] Beaver Tail is a peninsula at the southern extremity of Canonicut Island, so named from its marked resemblance, on the map, to the appendage of the beaver.
[255] Fort Adams is situated at the upper (northern) end of a point of land which helps to form the harbor of Newport; it also incloses a piece of water called Brenton's Cove.
[256] By our American Grace Darling, Miss Ida Lewis.
[257] Goat Island was the site of a colonial fortress. During the reign of King William, Colonel Romer advised the fortification of Rhode Island, which he says had never been done "by reason of the mean condition and refractoriness of the inhabitants." In 1744 the fort on Goat Island mounted twelve cannon. At the beginning of the Revolution General Lee, and afterward Colonel Knox, marked out defensive works; but they do not appear to have been executed when the British, on the same day that Washington crossed the Delaware, took possession of the island. The Whigs, in 1775, removed the cannon from the batteries in the harbor. Major L'Enfant, the engineer of West Point, was the author of Fort Wolcott.
[258] There should be added to the detail of maps given in the initial chapter that of Jerome Verrazani, in the College de Propaganda Fide, at Rome, of the supposed date of 1529. This map is described and discussed, together with the detail of Giovanni Verrazani's letter to Francis I., dated at Dieppe, July 8th, 1524, in "Verrazano, the Navigator," by J. C. Brevoort. A reduced copy of the map or "Planisphere" is there given. The author adopts the theory, not without plausibility, that Verrazani passed fifteen days at anchor in Narraganset Bay. As I have before said, there is something of fact in these early relations; but if tested by the only exact marks given (latitude, distances, and courses), they establish nothing.
[259] Harrison, the first architect of his day in New England, was the author of many of the older public buildings in Newport, Trinity Church and Redwood Library among others. He also designed King's Chapel, Boston, and did what he could to drag architecture out of the mire of Puritan ugliness and neglect.
[260] He owned, besides his house and garden in Boston, lands at Mount Wollaston, now Quincy, Massachusetts. Coddington is mentioned in Samuel Fuller's letter to Bradford, June, 1630. "Mrs. Cottington is dead," he also says.
[261] It may be found at length in Hutchinson, appendix, vol. ii. Governor Hutchinson was a relative of the schismatic Anne.
[262] This was called an appeal to the country. A judge would hardly, at the present day, permit such an expression in court.
[263] William Wanton, 1732 to 1734; John Wanton, 1734 to 1741; Gideon Wanton, 1745 to 1746, and from 1747 to 1748; Joseph Wanton, from 1769 to 1775. The last named left Newport with the British, in 1780, and died in New York. His son Joseph, junior, commanded the regiment of loyalists raised on the island.
[264] One of the most curious chapters of Rhode Island's political history was the "Dorr Rebellion" of 1842, growing out of a partial and limited franchise under the old charter.
[265] A fund bequeathed by Abraham Touro, who died in Boston in 1822, secures this object.
[266] It was incorporated 1747: the same year Mr. Redwood gave five hundred pounds sterling, in books, or about thirteen hundred volumes. The lot was the gift of Henry Collins, in 1748; building erected 1748-'50; enlarged in 1758; and now (1875) a new building is erecting. Abraham Redwood was a native of Antigua. When the library sent its committee to Stuart, with a commission to paint a full-length portrait of Mr. Redwood, Stuart refused, for reasons of his own, to execute it.
[267] Dr. Ezra Stiles was librarian for twenty years.
[268] The discovery of any portion of the coast of New England by Northmen belongs to the realms of conjecture. It is not unreasonable to suppose that they may have fallen in with the continent; but what should have brought them so far south as Rhode Island, when Nova Scotia must have appeared to their eyes a paradise? The vine grows there. Champlain called Richmond's Island Isle de Bacchus, on account of its grapes.
[269] "Travels in New England and New York:" New Haven, 1822, vol. iii., p. 56.
[270] Among the records of Newport was found one of 1740, in which Edward Pelham bequeathed to his daughter eight acres of land, "with an Old Stone Wind Mill thereon standing and being, and commonly called and known as the Mill Field." The lane now called Mill Street appears to have been so named from its conducting up the hill to the mill. The wife of Pelham was granddaughter of Governor Benedict Arnold. In the governor's will, dated in 1677, he gives direction for his burial in a piece of ground "being and lying in my land in or near ye line or path from my dwelling-house, leading to my stone-built Wind Mill in ye town of Newport above mentioned."
[271] I incline to the opinion that the Indians had here, as at Plymouth, cleared a considerable area. There the carpenters had to go an eighth of a mile for timber suitable for building.
[272] Within five miles of Boston is standing an ancient stone windmill, erected about 1710. It had been so long used as a powder-magazine that no tradition remained in the neighborhood that it had ever been a windmill. They still call it the Old Powder-house.
[273] The keys are compound, and, though rude, are tolerably defined. No two are alike; they are generally of a hard gray stone, instead of the slate used in the structure.
[274] This building may have been mentioned by Church in his account of Philip's War, when, after some display of aversion on the part of a certain captain to a dangerous enterprise, he was advised by the Indian fighter to lead his men "to the windmill on Rhode Island, where they would be out of danger."
[275] Many of these so-called cottages cost from $50,000 to $200,000. For the season, $2000 is considered a moderate rental, and $5000 is frequently paid.
[276] "R. Goodloe Harper's Speeches, p. 275."
[277] By smashing their frigates, L'Insurgente, La Vengeance, Berceau, and making it generally unpleasant for them.
[278] Duke de Feltre, French minister of war.
[279] He afterward returned to France, and was made minister of war.
[280] Fort Morgan was constructed by him with twelve posterns, a statement significant to military engineers. General Totten closed six of them, and the Confederates, when besieged, all but two.
[281] Canonicut is about seven miles long, its longest axis lying almost north and south. It includes a single township, incorporated 1678, by the name of Jamestown. The island was purchased from the Indians in 1657. Prudence Island, six miles long, is also attached to Jamestown.
[282] At this time four British frigates and several smaller craft were destroyed. The French forced the passage on the west of Canonicut, and raised the blockade of Providence.
[283] The chasm is one hundred and sixty feet in length, with an average depth of about sixty feet.
[284] Smibert planned the original Faneuil Hall, Boston. Trumbull painted in the studio left vacant by Smibert.
[285] British ambassador at St. Petersburg, afterward Lord Malmesbury.
[286] Massachusetts Files.
[287] Heath then commanded at Providence: he was ordered to meet Rochambeau on his arrival, and extend any assistance in his power.
[288] The manner and matter of his reception of Mr. Adams were equally those of gentleman and king. Contrast him with the Prince Regent, and his remark to the French ex-minister, Calonne, during his father's sudden illness, in 1801: "Savez-vous, Monsieur de Calonne, que mon père est aussi fou que jamais?" (Do you know, Monsieur de Calonne, that my father is as crazy as ever?) Thackeray could not do him justice.
[289] The fellow-prisoner of Count Christian Deux-Ponts was an Irishman, named Lynch, who belonged also to Rochambeau's army. Fearful that his nationality might be discovered, he begged the count to be on his guard. When at table, and heated with wine, the secret was divulged by the count; but Nelson, as Ségur relates, pretended not to have heard it.
[290] That of Major Galvan, who pistoled himself on account of unrequited love.
[291] Rally, Auvergne! here is the enemy!
[292] William Ellery Channing, the pastor of "Old Federal Street," Boston, was one of the most gifted and eloquent men the American pulpit has produced. His mother was the old signer's daughter.
[293] The other faces of Commodore Perry's monument recite his age, birthplace, etc. He was born at South Kingston in 1785, and died at Port Spain, Trinidad, 1819. According to a resolve of Congress his remains were conveyed, in 1826, in an armed vessel to the United States.
[294] When appealed to by the United Colonies in 1657 to punish Quakers, Rhode Island objected that no law of that colony sanctioned it. The president, Benedict Arnold, however, replied that he (and the other magistrates) conceived the Quaker doctrines tended to "very absolute cutting down and overturning relations and civil government among men." He urged as a measure of public policy that the Quakers should not be molested, as they would not remain where the civil authority did not persecute them. This has, in fact, been the history of this sect in New England.—See Arnold's letter, Hutchinson, vol. i., appendix.
[295] George Fox was in Rhode Island in 1672. On arriving at Newport, he went to the house of Nicholas Easton, who was then governor, and remained there during his sojourn. A yearly meeting of all the Friends in New England was held while he remained in Newport.—"George Fox his Journal," London, 1709.
[296] Josselyn mentions the sect: "Narraganset Bay, within which bay is Rhode Island, a harbor for the Shunamitish Brethren, as the saints errant, the Quakers, who are rather to be esteemed vagabonds than religious persons." He also attributes to them dealings in witchcraft. Whittier, the Quaker poet, has depicted in stirring verse the persecutions of this people. Cassandra Southwick is from real life.
[297] Stones giving simply the name and date of decease are now allowed.
[298] In 1708 M. de Subercase solicited of his Government the means of attempting an enterprise against the island of Rhode Island. He says, "Cette isle est habitée par des Coakers qui sent tous gens riches."
[299] Here also is the grave of Governor Henry Bull, who died in 1693, and whose ancient stone house is now standing in Spring, near Sherman Street.
[300] Stuart was in Boston at the time of the battle of Lexington, and managed to escape a few days after Bunker Hill. His obituary in the Boston Daily Advertiser, a very noble tribute from one man of genius to another, was written by Allston.
[301] It was the fortress of the British left wing. Two large and elegant country houses at its base, included within the lines, were occupied by the officers.
[302] He was the son of John, the son of Godfrey Malbone.
[303] The first bridge spanning what was known as Howland's Ferry was completed in 1795. It was of wood, destroyed and swept to sea by a storm; rebuilt, and again destroyed by worms. The present stone structure was built in 1809-'10, and, though injured by the gale of 1815, stands firm.
[304] The battle was fought in the valley below Quaker, sometimes called Meeting-house, Hill. Sullivan commanded in chief, though Greene is entitled to a large share of the credit of repulsing the British attack. It was a well-fought action. Pigot, by British accounts, had six thousand regular troops. Lafayette was mad as a March hare at their fighting without him.
[305] Lechford, writing between 1637 and 1641, says: "At the island called Aquedney are about two hundred families. There was a church where one Master Clark was elder: the place where the church was is called Newport, but that church, I hear, is now dissolved. At the other end of the island there is another town called Portsmouth, but no church. Those of the island have a pretended civil government of their own erection without the king's patent."
[306] To be exact, the shores adjacent to the rock are in the town of Berkeley, formerly part of Dighton.
[307] A copy of the inscription, made by Professor Sewall, is deposited in the Museum at Cambridge. There is another copy, by James Winthrop; see plate in vol. iii., "Memoir American Academy," and description of method of taking it, vol. ii., part ii., p. 126. Many others have been taken, more or less imperfect; the best one recollected is in the hall of the Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts.
[308] Watch Hill, in the town of Westerly and near Stonington, is the south-western extremity of Rhode Island.
[309] Named from Captain Adrian Blok, a Dutch navigator. Its Indian name was Manisses. There are about twelve hundred inhabitants on this island, all native-born, of whom two hundred and seventy-five are voters. There are also six schools, two Baptist churches, and two windmills, a hotel, and several summer boarding-houses. Two hundred fishing-boats are owned by the islanders. In 1636 John Oldham, mentioned in our ramble in Plymouth, was murdered here by the Pequots. Block Island in 1672 was made a township, by the name of New Shoreham.
[310] The two forts, Trumbull and Griswold, are named from governors of Connecticut. They date from the Revolution. Fort Trumbull in its present form was completed in 1849, under the supervision of General G. W. Cullum, U. S. A. In passing through New London in April, 1776, General Knox, by Washington's direction, examined the harbor with the view of erecting fortifications, and reported, by letter, that it would, in connection with Newport, afford a safe retreat to the American navy or its prizes in any wind that blew.
[311] Son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts. He passed his first winter on Fisher's Island, which remained in his family through six generations. The valuable manuscript collection known as the Winthrop papers was found some years ago on the island, which belongs to New York in consequence of the grants to the Earl of Sterling and the Duke of York. The origin of its present name is uncertain, though so called as early as 1636. Governor Winthrop relates to Cotton Mather a singular incident which happened on Fisher's Island the previous winter. During the severe snow-storms hundreds of sheep, besides cattle and horses, were buried in the snow. Even the wild beasts came into the settlements for shelter. Twenty-eight days after the storm alluded to, the tenants of Fisher's Island, in extricating the bodies of a hundred sheep from one bank of snow in the valley, found two alive in the drift, where they had subsisted by eating the fleeces of those lying dead near them.
[312] In 1834 New London employed thirty-six vessels in whaling and sealing. A few are still engaged in the latter fishery, in the extreme navigable waters of the Arctic and Antarctic seas.
[313] During the unexampled cold of the past winter (1874-'75), the light-boat off New London was, in fact, carried away from her moorings by an ice-field, and many others all along the coast were stranded.
[314] At the light-houses I have visited in cold weather, the unvarying complaint is made of the poor quality of the oil furnished by the Light-house Board. One keeper told me he was obliged to shovel the congealed lard-oil out of the tank in the oil-room, and carry it into the dwelling, some rods distant, to heat it on his stove; sometimes repeating the operation frequently during the night, in order to keep his light burning.
[315] It is shown in the view of New London in 1813, at the head of this chapter.
[316] Bishop Seabury was born in 1728, and died in 1796, aged 68. In person he was large, robust, and vigorous; dignified and commanding in appearance, and loved by his parishioners of low estate. After consecration he discharged the functions of bishop of the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island.
[317] The months of January and February, 1875, will be long remembered in New England for the intense and long-continued cold weather. Long Island Sound was a vast ice-field, which sealed up its harbors. For a time navigation was entirely suspended, the boats usually plying between Newport, Stonington, New London, and New York being obliged to discontinue their voyages. Gardiner's Bay was completely closed. The shore of Long Island, on its ocean side, was strewed with great blocks of ice. An unusual number of disasters signalized the ice embargo throughout the whole extent of the New England coast.
[318] In all, the British destroyed one hundred and forty-three buildings, sixty-five of which were dwellings, and including the court-house, jail, and church.
[319] In the Wadsworth Museum, Hartford, the vest and shirt worn by Ledyard on the day of his death, are still shown to the visitor. Lafayette, when attacking the British redoubt at Yorktown, ordered his men, it is said with Washington's consent, to "remember New London." The continental soldiers could not or would not execute the command on prisoners who begged their lives on their knees.
[320] Soon after the surrender a wagon loaded with wounded Americans was set in motion down the hill. In its descent it struck with great force against a tree, causing the instant death of several of its occupants.—"Gordon's Revolution," vol. iv., p. 179.
[321] Captain Mason, with the Connecticut and Massachusetts forces, numbering in all only ninety men, together with about four hundred Narragansets and Mohegans, attacked the Pequot fortress on the morning of May 26th, 1637. His Indian allies skulked in the rear. Mason's onset was a complete surprise; but he would not have succeeded had he not fired the fort, which created a panic among the enemy, and rendered them an easy prey to the English and friendly Indians surrounding it. Between six and seven hundred Pequots perished.
[322] The English in these early wars fought in armor, that is to say, a steel cap and corselet, with a back and breast piece, over buff coats, the common equipment everywhere of that day for a horse or foot soldier.
[323] Mr. John Quincy Adams accompanied his father to France, and was placed at school near Paris.
[324] Miss E. S. Quincy's "Memoir."
[325] In 1835, when President Jackson demanded twenty-five millions of France on account of French spoliations, the claim of Beaumarchais was allowed, after deducting a million livres which had been advanced by Vergennes. Deane's heirs did not obtain an adjustment of his claims by Congress until 1842.
[326] Ledyard proceeded no farther than Cairo, where he died, in 1788, of a bilious fever.
[327] Decatur offered to match the United States and Macedonian with the Endymion and Statira. Sir Thomas declined the proposal as made, but consented to a meeting between the Statira and Macedonian alone.
[328] Nelson commended almost with his latest breath Lady Hamilton and his daughter as a legacy to his country. Lady Hamilton, however, died in exile, sickness, and actual want at Calais, France, in 1815.
[329] The falls were very beautiful, and have been celebrated by Trumbull's pencil and Mrs. Sigourney's verse. There still remain some curious cavities, worn in the rock by the prolonged rotary motion of loose stones. Lydia Huntley Sigourney, the most celebrated writer in prose or poetry of her day in New England, was a native of Norwich.
[330] Before the battle with the Narragansets, Uncas is said to have challenged Miantonimo to single combat, promising for himself and his nation to abide the result. Miantonimo refused. This chief, in his flight from the field, was overtaken by Mohegan warriors, who impeded him until Uncas could come up. When Uncas laid his hand on Miantonimo's shoulder, the latter sat down in token of submission, maintaining a sullen silence. Uncas is said to have eaten a piece of his flesh.
[331] The proprietors numbered thirty-five. Uncas received about seventy pounds for nine square miles. The settlement of Norwich is considered to have begun in 1660, when Rev. James Fitch removed from Saybrook to Norwich (town).
[332] The following inscriptions are from the royal burial-ground of the Mohegans:
"Here lies ye body of Pompi Uncas, son of Benjamin and Ann Uncas, and of ye royal blood, who died May ye first, 1740, in ye 21st year of his age."
"Here lies Sam Uncas, the 2d and beloved son of his father, John Uncas, who was the grandson of Uncas, grand sachem of Mohegan, the darling of his mother, being daughter of said Uncas, grand sachem. He died July 31st, 1741, in the 28th year of his age."
"In memory of Elizabeth Joquib, the daughter of Mahomet, great-grandchild to ye first Uncas, great sachem of Mohegan, who died July ye 5th, 1750, aged 33 years."
[333] The hereditary chieftainship was extinct as long ago as the beginning of the century. The Mohegans occupied a strip of land containing two thousand seven hundred acres, lying on the Thames between Norwich and New London, above the mouth of Stony Brook, and between the river and Montville. In 1633 the Indian population of Connecticut was computed at eight persons to the square mile; the earliest enumeration of the Mohegans made their number one thousand six hundred and sixty-three souls; in 1797 only four hundred remained. By 1825 the nation was reduced to a score or two, a portion having emigrated to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The Mohegan reserve was divided in 1790 among the remaining families of the nation. The Mohegans were probably a distinct nation, though Uncas was a vassal of the Pequots.
[334] On the Colchester road, or Town Street, near the junction of a street leading toward the Falls. The estate is now locally known as the Ripley Place.
[335] The general was appointed collector of New London by Washington. His first wife was a daughter of Governor Trumbull.
[336] The term "Brother Jonathan" originated with Washington, who applied it to Governor Jonathan Trumbull, of Connecticut. When any important matter was in agitation the general would say, "We must consult Brother Jonathan."
[337] General William Hart, an old soldier of the Revolution, was a wealthy and highly esteemed citizen of Saybrook. In 1795, with Oliver Phelps and others, he purchased the tract in Ohio called the Western Reserve. The Commodores Hull, uncle and nephew, married sisters belonging to this family. Commodore Andrew Hull Foote was also a nephew of Commodore Isaac Hull, whose widow was still living when I visited Saybrook in 1874.
[338] The eminence on which the fort stood, also called Tomb Hill, jutted into the river, being united to the shore by a beach, and bordered by salt-marshes. It was steep and unassailable from any near vantage-ground. In 1647 the first fort was accidentally destroyed by fire.
[339] In the British State Paper Office is a translation of part of a letter, dated at Fort Amsterdam, in 1633, from Gualtier Twilley to the governor of Massachusetts Bay, concerning the right of the Dutch to the river. The governor says that he has taken possession of it in the name of the States General, and set up a house on the north side, with intent to plant. He desires Winthrop will defer his claims until their superior magistrates are agreed. The word "[Hudson?]" is placed after "river" in the calendars, but the date and other given facts are probably allusions to the Connecticut attempt.
[340] Lieutenant Gibbons, Sergeant Willard, and some carpenters.—"Lion Gardiner's Account."
[341] See the correspondence in Hutchinson's "History of Massachusetts," appendix, vol. i., between John Cotton and Lord Say.
[342] There is nothing improbable in the story, either from the rank or political importance of the personages mentioned; the civil commotions in England rather give it a groundwork of probability. The authorities in support of the emigration are Dr. George Bates, the physician of Cromwell, in his "Elenchus Maluum Nuperorum in Anglia," William Lilly's "Life and Times" (London, 1822), Sir William Dugdale's "Troubles in England," Mather's "Magnalia," Oldmixon's "British Empire in America," Neal's "History of New England," and Hutchinson's "History of Massachusetts." Hume, Chalmers, Grahame, Hallam, Russell, Macaulay, and others repeat the story with various modifications; Aiken, Forster, Bancroft, Young, and others deny or doubt it. The arguments pro and con may be consulted in the "New England Historical and Genealogical Register for 1866."
[343] Lechford, in his "Plain Dealing," says, "There are five or six townes and Churches upon the River Connecticut where are worthy master Hooker, master Warham, master Hewet, and divers others, and master Fenwike, with the Lady Boteler, at the river's mouth in a faire house, and well fortified, and one master Higgison, a young man, their chaplain. These Plantations have a Patent; the Lady was lately admitted of Master Hooker's Church, and thereupon her child was baptized."
[344] Fenwick "played upon him" a little "with the great guns," which did gar him gang down more fool than he went up.—Carlyle. Hutchinson places his death in 1657. There was a Lieutenant-colonel Fenwick killed in one of the battles between Condé and Turenne, in Flanders, in 1658. The action occurred before Dunkirk. Fenwick's last request of Lockhart, the English commander, was to be buried in Dunkirk.—Thurloe, vol. i., p. 156.
[345] Lion Gardiner became the owner of the fertile island bearing his name at the east end of Long Island. It is seven miles long and a mile broad, with excellent soil. Some time ago its peculiar beauty and salubrity caused it to be called the Isle of Wight. The island, I believe, still remains in the possession of the Gardiner family. For many years it descended regularly from father to son by entail. The Indian name was Munshongonuc, or "the place of Indian graves."
[346] One sister married Commodore Hull, as related; another married Hon. Heman Allen, minister to Chili; and a third, Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of St. Paul's, Boston.