[938] On the French side we have Charlevoix (Shea’s ed., v. 280), and the Lettres Edifiantes, sub anno 1722-1724 (cf. Vol. IV. p. 316), with the Nouvelles des Missions; Missions de l’Amérique, 1702-43, Paris, 1827, both giving Father de la Chasse’s letter, dated Quebec, Oct. 29, 1724, which is also given in English by Kip, p. 69. Cf. Les Jésuites Martyrs du Canada, Montreal, 1877, p. 243. There is a letter of Vaudreuil in N. Y. Col. Doc., ix. 936. These and on the English side the letters of Rasle, edited by Thaddeus Mason Harris, in the Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. xviii., are the chief authorities; but Harmon’s journal and a statement by Moulton were used by Hutchinson (ii. 281). Upon this material the Life of Rasle, by Convers Francis in Sparks’s Amer. Biog., vol. 17, and that in Die Katholisches Kirche in dem Vereinigten Staten (Regensburg, 1864) are based.
The estimates of Rasle’s character are as diverse as the Romish and Protestant faiths can make them. The times permitted and engendered inhumanity and perfidy. There is no sentimentality to be lost over Rasle or his adversaries. Cf. Shea’s Charlevoix, v. 280; Palfrey’s New England, iv. 438; Hannay, Acadia, 320. Hutchinson (ii. 238) says the English classed him “among the most infamous villains,” while the French ranked him with “saints and heroes.”
Cf. further Dr. Shea, in Vol. IV. p. 273, with note; Williamson’s Maine, ii. 130; Bancroft, United States, final revision, ii. 218, etc.; Drake, Book of the Indians, iii. 127; Atlantic Souvenir, 1829; Murdoch’s Nova Scotia, i. 412; Mem. Hist. Boston, ii. 109; William Allen, Hist. of Norridgewock (1849); Hist. Magazine, vi. 63; Hanson’s Norridgewock and Canaan, with a view of the Rasle monument.
[939] An uncut copy was in the Brinley sale, no. 422. Cf. Haven in Thomas, p. 404; Hunnewell’s Bibliog. of Charlestown, p. 7.
[940] Brinley, i. no. 423; Harv. Coll. lib., 5325.27; Haven’s Bibliog. in Thomas, p. 404. Field (Indian Bibliog., no. 1,527) says the copy sold in the Menzies sale (no. 1,940) is the only perfect copy sold at public auction in many years, and this one had passed under the hammer four times, bringing once $175, and again $132.50 when it was last sold.
[941] Field, no. 1,527. This edition has a map of the scene of action which is repeated in Kidder and reproduced herewith. N. E. Hist. & Geneal. Reg., Oct., 1861, p. 354. Only extracts of the sermon are given.
[942] A small number of copies was printed separately.
[943] There were copies on large and small paper, and a few on drawing paper. Brinley, nos. 406, 407; N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., Jan., 1866, p. 93; also see Ibid., 1880, p. 382.
[944] Other accounts are in Penhallow, 107, and the edition of Dodge, app.; Niles in Mass. Hist. Coll., xxxv. 255, etc.; N. Hampshire Prov. Papers, iv. 168; Worcester Mag., i. 20; New Hampshire Book (1844); Williamson’s Maine, ii. 135; Davies’ Centennial Address (1825); Drake’s Book of the Indians, book iii. ch. 9; Belknap, New Hampshire, 209; Palfrey, iv. 440; Maine Hist. Coll., iv. 275, 290; Mason’s Dunstable; Fox’s Dunstable, p. 111; C. E. Potter, Manchester, N. H., p. 145; S. A. Green, Groton in the Indian Wars; Bay State Monthly, Feb., 1884, p. 80. Dr. Belknap describes a visit to Lovewell’s Pond in 1784 in Belknap Papers, i. 397-98; ii. 159. A list of the men making up Lovewell’s company is in the N. H. Adj. Genl. Rept., 1866, p. 46.
Various popular ballads commemorating the fight were printed in Farmer and Moore’s Hist. Coll., ii. 64, 94, and they are repeated in whole or in part in the Cincinnati (1859) edition of Penhallow, and in Kidder, Palfrey, etc.