were sent out, and for sometime prowled in the vicinity of the town. In August, Thury was at Fort St. John and reported to Tibierge, that the savages of his mission and those of the Kennebec had been in several parties about Boston, and killed much people, "beaucoup de monde," and that one party had taken a prisoner and burned him “a la maniere des Iroquois," and that they had resolved to give no quarter to any of the English who fell into their hands.1 Such was the character of the war waged

que le Sieur Thury leur missionnaire." Memoire sur l'enterprise de Baston à Versailles, le 21st Avril, 1697.

MONSIEUR :

1AU FORT ST. JEAN.

le 20 Aoust, 1697.

Monsieur Thury est arrivé ce soir au fort venant de Pentagouët. Il dit que les Sauvages de sa mission et ceulx de Quinibiquy ayant esté cet esté en plusieurs parties autour de Boston, y avoient tué beaucoup de monde, et qu'un party, entr'aultres, ayant faict un prisonnier, ils lavoient interrogé pour avoir des nouvelles que les Sauvages avoient ensuitte bruslé leur prisonnier à la manière des Iroquois, (c'est le premier qu'ils ayent bruslé). Ils ont résolu de ne donner de quartier à aulcun des Anglois qui leur tomberont entre le mains."

Lettre du Sieur Tibierge a Monsieur le Comte de Frontenac. Collection de Manuscrits, etc., vol. 2, P. 286.

"as

by the French against the English, and which Charlevoix so complacently regards. Fortunately after raging for ten years, a "Decennium Luctuosum designated by Mather, it came to a close, a treaty of peace having been concluded between France and England at Ryswick, Sept. 20, 1697, and the New England settlers were again enabled to cultivate the arts of peace for a short season; but only for a short The French were not willing that the English should establish friendly relations with their savage neighbors even after the conclusion of peace, and made efforts to prevent them from so doing.

season.

Villebon was commended by the French minister for writing to the Jesuit fathers of the Maine missions, to notify the chiefs of the savages not to hold any communication with the English governor, nor any one representing him.1

In such a condition of affairs, peace could not long continue; indeed, the French began at once a careful study of the English towns and their means of de

1 "Vous avez bien fait d'écrire aux Pères Jesuites, qui sont en mission aux Sauvages de Quinibequi, d'avertir les chefs de ces Sauvages d'n'avoré aucune communication avec Monsieur le Comte de Bellamont, n'y personne de sa part." Lettre du Ministre a Monsieur Villebon. A Versailles, le 9o Avril, 1700. Collection de Manuscrits, etc., vol. 2, p. 334.

fense, with a view to future war, and careful calculations of the number of savages as well as of their own people, who could be sent against them, were forwarded to the French king. The boundaries between New England and Acadia, which had been ceded to the French, were still in dispute, and this in itself was a sufficient cause for conflict. The attitude of the French in preventing intercourse between them and the savages, was also irritating to the English, and increased their hostility to the French Jesuits, who, they knew, were instrumental in keeping alive the jealousy of the savages against them.

So intense did this feeling become, that the General Court of Massachusetts, in the summer of 1700, passed an act to expel the Jesuits from the province. And Governor Stoughton wrote to the Lords Commissioners: "I crave leave further to observe to yor Lord, the present repose and quiet of this his Matys Province after the late Alarm of troubles threatened to Arise from the Indians by a fresh Insurrection & breaking forth in open hostility. And how necessary it is in order to ye continuance of this quiet that the French Priests and Missionaries be removed from their residence among them, the Indians taking measures from their evil counsels and Suggestions, and are bigotted in their zeal to their

pernicious and damnable principles. But the removal of these Incendiaries is rendered difficult whilst the Claims and pretensions to the Boundaries of Territory and Dominion betwixt the English and French are depending undetermined, or at least the determination not known in the Plantation."1

Dudley, who succeeded to the government of Massachusetts in 1702, found sufficient cause for alarm, and at once sought to establish friendly relations with the savages. A conference was accordingly appointed at Casco, and, on June 20, 1703, a large body of savages assembled at the appointed place, led by their chief sagamores, viz.: Moxus and Hopegood from Norridgewock; Wanungunt and Wanadugunbuent from the Penobscot; Bomazeen and Capt. Samuel from the Kennebec. Besides these came Mesambomett and Wexar from the An droscoggin, with a flotilla of sixty-five canoes, con

1A still more stringent law was passed by the legislature of New York, namely, to hang every Popish priest who came into the province. Smith, the historian of New York, declares this law to be one which "ought forever to remain in force," being, says Bancroft, "wholly unconscious of the true nature of his remark." Vide Bancroft's History of the U. S., ed. 1841, vol. 3, p. 193, also Letter of Wm. Stoughton, Dec. 20th, 1700, in B. T. New England, vol. 11, 15, Office of the Public Records, London.

I.

taining two hundred and fifty painted savages, all armed, a formidable array of wild men, which caused some trepidation among the people of the vicinity.

Under a tent, near the fort at New Casco, surrounded by his officers, and the gentlemen who had accompanied him from Boston, Governor Dudley, arrayed in the brilliant uniform of a British officer, received the savage chiefs, and, after the proper salutations, he informed them, that being "commissioned by the great and victorious Queen of England, he came to visit them as his friends and brethren, and to reconcile whatever differences had happened since the last treaty."

To this the orator of the savages replied: "We thank you good brother for coming so far to talk with us. The clouds fly and darken, but we still sing with love the songs of peace. Believe my

words; so far as the sun is above the earth are our thoughts from war, or the least rupture between us."

In testimony of their sincerity, they presented the governor with a belt of wampum, and invited him to two heaps of stones which had been erected upon a former occasion, and which had been named the two brothers. Here both parties solemnly renewed their pledge of amity by adding more stones to these pillars of witness. This ceremony terminated, guns