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.