Sir,
Having seriously considered the great importance of your business with the French, we gave our answer to those whom you deputed to confer with us about the voyage to Penobscot. We showed our willingness to help, by procuring you sufficient men and ammunition. But as for money, we have no authority at all to promise, and should we do so it might be only to disappoint you. We also think it would be proper to seek the help of the other Eastern colonies; but that we leave to your own discretion. For the rest we refer you to your deputies, who can report further details. We salute you, and wish you all success in the Lord.
Your faithful and loving friend,
RICHARD BELLINGHAM, Deputy,
In the name of the rest of the Committee.
Boston, Oct. 16th, 1635.
Not only was this the end of their suggested co-operation, but some of the merchants of Massachusetts shortly after started trading with the French, and furnished them both with provisions and ammunition, and have continued to do so to this day. So it is the English themselves who have been the chief supporters of the French; and the colony at Pemaquid, which is near them, not only supplies them, but constantly gives them intelligence of what is passing among the English—especially among some of them. So it is no wonder that they still encroach more and more upon the English, and supply the Indians with guns and ammunition to the great danger of the English settlers, whose homes are scattered and unfortified. For the English are mainly occupied with farming, but the French are well fortified and live upon trade. If these things are not looked to and remedied in time, it may easily be conjectured what will result.
This year, on the 14th or 15th of August, a Saturday, there was such a fearful storm of wind and rain as none living hereabouts either English or Indians, ever saw. It was like those hurricanes and typhoons that writers mention in the Indies. It began in the morning, a little before day, and did not come on by degrees, but with amazing violence at the start. It blew down several houses and unroofed others; many vessels were lost at sea, and many more were in extreme danger. To the southward the sea rose twenty feet, and many of the Indians had to climb trees for safety. It took off the boarded roof of a house which belonged to the settlement at Manomet and floated it to another place, leaving the posts standing in the ground; and if it had continued much longer without the wind shifting it would probably have flooded some of the inhabited parts of the country. It blew down many hundred thousands of trees, tearing up the stronger by the roots, and breaking the higher pine-trees off in the middle; and tall young oaks and walnut trees of a good size were bent like withes,—a strange and fearful sight. It began in the southeast, and veered different ways. It lasted, though not at its worst, for five or six hours. The marks of it will remain this 100 years in these parts, where it was most violent. There was a great eclipse of the moon the second night after.
Some of their neighbours at the Bay, hearing of the fame of the Connecticut River had a hankering after it, as mentioned before. Understanding that the Indians had been swept away by the recent mortality, fear of whom was the chief obstacle to them before, they now began to explore it with great eagerness. The New Plymouth people there had most trouble with the Dorchester settlers about it; for they set their minds on the place which the New Plymouth colony had not only purchased from the Indians, but where they had actually built, and the Dorchester people seemed determined if they could not remove them altogether, at any rate to leave them only an insignificant plot of land round the house, sufficient for a single family. This attempt not only to intrude themselves into the rights and possessions of others, but in effect to oust them, was thought to be most unjustifiable. Many were the letters that passed between them about it.
I will first insert a few lines written from their own agent from there.
Jonathan Brewster at Matianuck to the Governor of New Plymouth:
Sir,