CHAPTER XXVI.
White Chiefs and Indian Chiefs.
In the year 1779 many of the Indians at Machias and Passamaquoddy began to waver in their adherence to the Americans and to imagine they would fare better by withdrawing from John Allan and returning to their old haunts on the River St. John. Allan wrote in the autumn of this year, “The unsteady conduct of the Indians has obliged me to use every means to prevent their going to St. Johns. I have not met with such difficulty previous to this summer.” He managed to keep them a little longer, but in July of the next year came the great defection which had been so long impending. The immediate cause of this defection it will be of interest now to consider.
Sir Guy Carleton, not long after his appointment to the command at Quebec, secured the allegiance of the principal Indian tribes of Canada, and at his instigation messages were sent to Machias early in April 1779, desiring the Indians there to have no further connection with the Americans, adding that the Indians of Canada were coming across the woods, as soon as the leaves were as big as their nails, to destroy the settlements on the Penobscot and the Kennebec. In order to impress the Indians with the importance of the message the delegates who bore it were furnished with an immense belt of wampum of 1500 pieces. “We send you this Great Belt,” say the Canadian Indians, “for every one of you to see and think of, and to show it to the St. Johns and Micmac Indians, and then to return the belt to us immediately.” The message contained a further assurance that nine thousand Indians were ready to execute any orders they might receive from the British general in Canada. The arrival of this message made a great impression on the Indians, and occasioned in them “a fluctuating and unsteady conduct,” but John Allan was able, with the help of Mon. de la Motte, a French priest, to keep them in control.
Curiously enough at this crisis the old St. John river chieftain, Pierre Thoma, arrived at Machias in quite an indignant frame of mind. His annoyance was caused by General McLean’s ordering Major Studholme not to furnish any more provisions to the Indians. Francklin considered this order a mistake, and at once represented to the secretary of state the necessity of keeping the Indians in good humor as the cutting of masts and timber for the Royal Navy, the safety of the English settlers on the River St. John and communication with Canada might all be endangered by losing their good will. His statements were strongly supported by Sir Richard Hughes, the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. The next spring Col. Francklin invited the Indians at Passamaquody and Machias to a conference at Fort Howe.
Two English schooners arrived at Passamaquody on the 1st of June. John Allen at once issued an order to the Indians not to hold any intercourse with unwelcome visitors, but, he adds, “Pierre Tomma the chief of St. John, always considered a Tory, and Lewis Neptune of Penobscot went on board and received presents.” 294 They were told that Col. Franklin and Father Bourg were at Fort Howe with presents and supplies and desired a conference with them. Soon after three special messengers arrived from Father Bourg desiring the Indians to attend him immediately on business of the church. The result of these invitations we shall presently see, but in the meantime an important conference was being held at the River St. John.
There are many references to this conference but we shall first consider a letter which Col. Franklin wrote from Windsor to Sir Henry Clinton, 21st August, 1780. In this letter Franklin states, “A meeting was held the 24th June about ninety miles above Fort Howe attended by upwards of 900 Indians. Deputies from the Ottawas, Hurons, Algonkins, Montanagais, Abenakies and Canabas attended and made the speech inclosed.”
This speech was addressed to the Malecete, Passamaquoddie and Mickmack Indians and was in substance as follows:
“Our dear Brothers, We come to warn you that the Boston people, having destroyed several of our villages, killed our wives and children and carried off our young women by force, we to revenge ourselves for these outrages have declared war against them. If there are yet remaining among them [i. e. the Americans] any of your people, let them withdraw immediately, for they will be treated like the enemy if they remain with them. Therefore our dear Brothers we tell you to remain quiet and in peace. We have 13,000 men assembled, who are allied against the Boston people and they have already taken twenty-seven villages larger than Three Rivers in Canada, and to burn their villages they sent more than 300 lighted arrows which instantly destroyed their houses, great part of the Inhabitants were burnt and those who attempted to escape were put to death. Now we demand your answer.”
The Micmacs and Maliseets presented belts of wampum and replied that so long as the King of England should continue to leave them free liberty of hunting and fishing and to allow them priests sufficient for the exercise of their religion they promised to keep quiet and peaceable.
This grand Indian pow-wow seems to have been brought about largely by Franklin’s diplomacy. He was not himself present at the meeting but the interests of the English were well looked after by Major Studholme, James White and the Missionary Bourg. The conference with the visiting delegates was held at Aukpaque and 300 warriors were present besides 600 women and children. A considerable quantity of presents and supplies had been sent from Windsor to Fort Howe by the schooner Menaguash, Peter Doucet, master, to be given to the Indians—blankets, shirts, blue and scarlet cloth, beaver bats, ribbons, powder and shot, and lastly, “one cask of wine sent by Mr. Francklin for the squaws and such men as do not drink rum.”[110]
The arrival of the messengers sent by Studholme to the Indians of Machias and Passamaquody, assuring them that if they would give their attendance at Fort Howe they would be well treated and receive handsome presents, made them extremely 295 anxious to at least have a look at the presents; at the same time urgent invitations from Father Bourg gave them a good excuse for going. For two days John Allan exercised all his powers of persuasion to keep them, but in vain; go they would. They assured him “that they only meant to see the priest, their souls being heavy and loaded with burthens of sins, and that they acted upon a duty commanded in their church which they could not neglect.”
On the 3rd July nearly all the Indians, some women and children excepted, set out for Fort Howe. In a letter to the Massachusetts Congress Allan mournfully observes: “I am very unhappy in being obliged to acquaint you of this, after the success I have experienced in disappointing the Priest and Mr. Francklin these three years.”
The substantial results of Francklin’s policy of conciliation were the inducing of the Indians who had acted with enemy to return to their former villages and live peaceably there, second the opening of a safe route of communication via the St. John river with Quebec and thirdly protection of the King’s mast cutters.
Colonel Francklin wrote to Lord Germaine on the 21st November, 1780, that the disposition of the Indians during the summer and autumn had been very tranquil and he attributed the fact largely to the conference held on the River St. John on the 24th of June, when the deputies of the Ottawas, Hurons and other nations of Canada required the Micmacs and Malissets to withdraw from the Americans and to remain quiet.
The situation of Gilfred Studholme, as commandant at Fort Howe, was at times a difficult and uncomfortable one. His garrison was none too large at the best, and, although the majority of his soldiers displayed remarkable fidelity, there were occasional desertions. John Allan naturally used every means in his power to render the post untenable. In August, 1778, he sent Nicholas Hawawes, an Indian chief, with a small party to the mouth of the St. John with orders to destroy the cattle around the Fort, that were intended for the use of the troops[111], to take prisoners and encourage desertion. The Indians were provided with letters, written by deserters who had already come to Machias, which they were instructed to convey secretly to the soldiers of the garrison.
Studholme was compelled to take stern and it may even seem terrible measures to repress desertion, as will be seen in the following note which he addressed to James White:
“Sir,—I shall esteem it as a favor if you will endeavour to get some Indians to bring in the three deserters, for each of which I will give Ten Guineas. Should the 296 soldiers make any opposition the Indians are to make use of force, and if compelled to kill them, they are to bring in their Heads, for each of which they will receive Ten Guineas.
“I am, Sir,
“Your most obedient servant,
“G. STUDHOLME.”
Among the important services which Major Studholme was able to accomplish while at Fort Howe should be mentioned the establishment of excellent communication between Halifax and Quebec by way of the St. John river. This had been the customary route of travel between Acadia and Canada during the final conflict between England and France for supremacy in North America (A. D. 1744–1759) and was well known to the French and their Indian allies; it now proved of equal service to the English.
In order to facilitate communication with Quebec, and at the same time to afford protection to the settlements on the St. John, a block house was built at the mouth of the Oromocto river and a few soldiers stationed there under command of Lieut. Constant Connor. The post was named Fort Hughes in honor of Sir Richard Hughes, the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia. A number of log huts, or post-houses were built, at intervals of about a day’s journey, from the block house at Oromocto to the St. Lawrence. Over this route important messages were carried between the civil and military authorities of Halifax and Quebec, and sometimes dispatches were sent from the Commander-in-chief of the forces at New York to Sir Guy Carleton and Sir Frederick Haldimand at Quebec. Indians were occasionally employed to carry the messages, but greater confidence was placed in the Acadians. The most famous couriers probably were Louis Mitchel and the brothers Louis and Michel Mercure. The couriers were aware of the value of their services, and they demanded, and generally received, one hundred dollars for each trip from Fort Howe to Quebec. This was regarded as extravagant by Major Studholme and General Haldimand, but they could do no better. They dared not trust the Indians with important dispatches, and when the Acadian couriers were not available messages were usually carried by officers accompanied by Indians as guides.
The route via the River St. John was used both in summer and winter. It is said that when the water was high the Indians were able to deliver letters from Quebec to the French commander at the mouth of the St. John in four or five days, a distance of 430 miles. This statement is made by John Allan and there is nothing impossible about it. The Messrs. Straton of Fredericton, some years since, paddled in a bark canoe from the Grand Falls to Fredericton, 133 miles, in 14 hours 46 minutes, making a short stop at Woodstock on the way. Short distances have been covered at much greater rates of speed. The Acadian couriers were usually a fortnight going from Oromocto to Quebec in the summer and about double that time in the winter.
Like others of their race the Indians of the St. John were fleet of foot and possessed of great endurance, qualities that are by no means wanting in their descendants. Some forty years ago a Maliseet Indian, named Peter Loler, gave a remarkable exhibition of speed and endurance, which is still talked of by the older residents of Woodstock. The circumstances, briefly stated, were these. One pleasant 297 summer morning Loler presented himself to the driver of the old four-in-hand stage coach which was just about leaving the hotel at Fredericton for Woodstock, the distance being rather more than sixty miles. The Indian desired a passage and offered the customary fare. The driver on the occasion was John Turner, one of the most accomplished whips of the old stage coaching days, and popular with all travellers. As the stage coach was pretty full and the day promised to be very warm Turner, after a brief consultation with the passengers, declined the Indian’s money and upon Loler’s remonstrating, told him in plain Saxon that the other passengers didn’t like the smell of him, that his room was better than his company. This angered Peter and he said, “All right, John! Me be in Woodstock first!”
At 8 o’clock, a. m., Indian and stage coach left Fredericton together, and together they proceeded and in spite of Turner’s endeavor to throw dust in the Indian’s face the latter was always a little in advance. He stopped at every place the stage stopped to change horses (this occurred four or five times on the route) and took his dinner with all the solemnity of his race in the kitchen of the “Half-way House” where the passengers dined.
As they drew near their destination the Indian’s savage nature seemed to assert itself; he ran like a deer, waving his cap at intervals as he passed the farm houses, and shouting defiantly. Turner now began to ply the whip, for he had no intention of allowing the red-skin to beat him out. The passengers began to wager their money on the result of the race and grew wild with excitement. The Indian village, three miles below Woodstock, was passed with Loler fifty yards in advance, but the village was not Peter’s destination that day. He saluted it with a war-whoop and hurried on. It was still early in the afternoon when the quiet citizens of Woodstock were aroused in a manner entirely unexpected. The stage coach came tearing into town at the heels of an Indian who was yelling like a demon and running as for his life, John Turner plying the whip in lively fashion, and four very hot and tired horses galloping at their utmost speed. The finish was a close one, but the Indian was ahead. As soon as he had regained his breath sufficiently to speak, Loler walked over to where Turner was standing and philosophically remarked, “John! me here first!” Turner’s answer is not recorded.
Our story should end here, but alas for poor human nature, it remains to be told that the Indian was soon surrounded by a crowd of friendly admirers, and before the close of the day was gloriously—or shall we say ingloriously—drunk.
From the year 1779 onward the cutting of masts for the navy became an industry of growing importance on the River St. John and Col. Francklin’s efforts were largely directed to the protection of the workmen so employed from being molested by the Indians. The consideration of the “masting” industry will be taken up in the next chapter.
Michael Francklin died Nov. 8, 1782, deeply lamented by all classes of society. His last general conference with the Maliseets was at Oromocto in the month of November, 1781, when he distributed presents to nearly four hundred Indians who had assembled there. On this occasion he settled amicably some jealousies that had 298 arisen about the election of chiefs. He tells us that the Indians were eager to go to the defence of the block house on the occasion of a recent alarm, that they were grateful for the continuance of their missionary Bourg and were resolved to again plant corn on the river. At the close of the conference they quietly dispersed to their hunting.
In spite of the interference of war the traffic in furs with the Indians was still very considerable, and about this time Hazen and White sent a consignment to Halifax in the ship Recovery, to be shipped to England for sale, which included 571 Moose skins, 11 Caribou, 11 Deer, 3621 Musquash, 61 Otter, 77 Mink, 152 Sable, 40 Fishers, 6 Wolverene, 11 “Lucervers,” 17 Red Fox, 6 Cross Fox, 9 Bear.
Michael Francklin continued to the last to cultivate the friendship of Pierre Thoma the old Maliseet chieftain whose descendants, it may be observed, are numerous at the present day. The name of this well known Indian family (variously spelled Thoma, Toma, Tomah, Tomer) is clearly of French origin, and was originally Thomas, which pronounced in French fashion sounds like Tomah. The name Pierre Thoma was very common among both the Micmacs and the Maliseets, so common indeed as to make it difficult to distinguish between individuals. A few observations will enable the reader to see what splendid opportunities there are for confusion with regard to those Indians who bore the name of Pierre Thoma.
In the month of August, 1827, the Lieut.-Governor of New Brunswick, Sir Howard Douglas, visited the historic Indian village of Medoctec, where he was introduced to an Indian name Pierre Thoma (or Toma Pierre) aged 93 years. The old warrior, who had lost an eye and an arm in the battle of the Heights of Abraham in 1759, was carefully provided for by the kindly hearted governor. Our first conclusion naturally would be—this is the old chieftain of Revolutionary days. But further investigation shows such a conclusion to be very improbable. If old Tomah, who greeted Sir Howard Douglas, were 93 years old in 1827, he must have been born in 1734, and in that case (supposing him to have been Francklin’s old ally) he would have filled the office of supreme sachem or head chief of the St. John river when about thirty years of age, which is very unlikely. But this is not all. In the sworn testimony submitted to the commissioners on the international boundary in 1797, John Curry, Esq., of Charlotte County says that when he came to the country in 1770 there was an Indian place of worship and a burial ground on St. Andrew’s Point at the mouth of the River St. Croix, and that among those whom he recollected to have been buried there were John Neptune (alias Bungawarrawit), governor of the Passamaquoddy tribe, and a “chief of the Saint John’s Tribe known by the name of Pierre Toma.” There can be little doubt that the latter was our old chief Thoma. His wife was one of the Neptune family whose home was at Passamaquoddy. The burial ground at St. Andrew’s Point was abandoned by the Indians when the Loyalists settled at St. Andrews in 1783. We may therefore conclude that Pierre Thoma did not long survive his old friend and Patron Michael Francklin. Their acquaintance began as early at least as the summer of 1768, when Governor Thoma and Ambroise St. Aubin had an interview with Lieut.-Governor Francklin and his council at Halifax. At that time the chiefs made a favorable 299 impression. They requested that their missionary Bailly, lately arrived might remain with them, complained that rum was much too common for the good of their people, desired lands for cultivation and that their hunting grounds should be reserved to them. Having completed their business they stated “We have nothing further to ask or represent, and we desire to return soon, that our people may not be debauched with liquor in this town.”
The previous summer (12th August, 1767) Rev. Thomas Wood officiated at a notable wedding at Halifax the contracting parties being a young Indian captain named Pierre Jacques and Marie Joseph, the oldest daughter of “old King Thoma.” An English baronet, Sir Thos. Rich, and other distinguished guests were present on the occasion. However this Thoma was not our old Maliseet chief, for Mr. Wood observes of him, “Old King Thoma looks upon himself as hereditary king of the Mickmacks.” Moreover the date is too nearly coincident with an interesting event at Aukpaque in which Pierre Thoma was concerned. The event was a christening at the Indian chapel the particulars concerning which we find in the old church register. The Abbe Bailly on two consecutive days baptized thirty-one Indian children, viz., sixteen boys on August 29th and fifteen girls on August 30th. Among the boys we find a son of Ambroise St. Aubin and Anne, his wife, who received the name of Thomas and had as sponsors Pierre Thoma, chief, and his wife Marie Mectilde. The following day the compliment was returned and Ambroise and his wife stood as sponsors at the christening of Marie, the daughter of Pierre Thoma.
The next year (June 5, 1768) there was a double wedding in the family of Governor Thoma at which the Abbe Bailly officiated and which no doubt was the occasion of great festivity at the Indian village. The old chief’s son Pierre Thoma, jr, wedded an Indian maiden named Marie Joseph, and his daughter Marie Belanger married Pierre Kesit. The younger Pierre Thoma was most probably his father’s successor as chief of the Maliseets. At any rate when Frederick Dibblee[112] made a return of the native Indians settled at Meductic in 1788 he includes in his list Governor Thoma, his wife and four children. The Indians were always migratory and two years later we find Governor Thoma living at the mouth of the Becaguimec and tilling his cornfield since become the site of the town of Hartland. This Governor Thoma, may be the same referred to in the following paragraph in the Courier of January 6, 1841:[113]
“Friday last, being New Years day, a large body of the Milicete tribe of Indians including a considerable number of well dressed squaws, headed by their old-old-chief Thoma, appeared at Government House to pay their annual compliments to the representative of their Sovereign, and were received by His Excellency with great kindness. His Excellency availed himself of the occasion publicly to decorate the worthy old chief with a splendid silver medallion suspended by a blue ribbon, exhibiting a beautiful effigy of our gracious sovereign on one side, with the Royal Arms on the reverse.”
Many of the Thoma family were remarkable for their longevity. When the writer of this history was a boy there lived at the Indian village, three miles below the Town of Woodstock, a very intelligent and industrious Indian, whose bent, spare figure was a familiar object to travellers along the country roads. It would be hard to count the number of baskets and moccasins the old man carried on his back to town for sale. He was born at Medoctec in 1789 and died at Woodstock not long ago at the age of nearly one hundred years. The old fellow was famous for his knowledge of herbs, which he was wont to administer to the Indians in case of sickness; indeed it was not an uncommon thing for the white people to consult “Doctor Tomer” as to their ailments. In the year 1877 “Tomer” came to pay a friendly visit to Charles Raymond, the author’s grandfather, who was then in his 90th year and confined to his room with what proved to be his first and last illness. The pleasure of meeting seemed to be mutual. The two had known one another for many years and were accustomed from time to time to compare ages. “Tomer” was always one year younger, showing that the old Indian kept his notch-stick well. He is believed to have been the last surviving grandson of the old chieftain, Pierre Thoma.
While speaking of the Maliseets and their chiefs, mention may be made of the fact that the Indians, as a mark of especial confidence and favor, occasionally admitted one of the whites to the order of chieftainship. This compliment the Maliseets paid to the French Governor Villebon, when he commanded at Fort Nachouac, and a like compliment was paid some sixty-five years ago to the late Moses H. Perley. In early life Mr. Perley was very fond of the woods and frequently visited the Indian villages on the upper St. John to buy furs, which he paid for in silver dollars. So great was the confidence reposed in him by the Indians that he became their agent with the provincial government, and was in the end adopted as their chief. In 1840 he visited England and was presented to Queen Victoria in the character of an Indian chief, wearing on the occasion a very magnificent costume of ornamental bead-work, plumes, and so forth. He received at the Queen’s hands a silver medal three inches in diameter, on the edge of which was engraved, “From Her Most Gracious Majesty to M. H. Perley, Chief Sachem of the Milicetes and Wungeet Sagamore of the Micmac nation. A. D., 1840.” This medal is still in the possession of Mr. Perley’s descendants.
It will be noticed that the St. John river Indians are termed “Milicetes” in the above description. The form Milicete, or Melicete, used by Dr. Gesner and Moses H. Perley, has been followed by the majority of our provincial writers. Dr. Hannay, however, in his history of Acadia, retains the spelling of Villebon and the early French writers, Malicite, which is almost identical with the Latin form, Malecitae, on the stone tablet of the chapel built by the missionary Jean Loyard at Medoctec in 1717. Either of these pronounced in French fashion is practically identical with Maliseet, the form adopted by modern students of Indian lore, and which the writer has followed in this history.