to the effect that the English were trespassers upon the territory of the savages, having thrust themselves upon them against their wishes.

"This place," said Wiwurna, "was formerly Settled and is now Settling at our request; And we now return Thanks that the English are come to Settle here, and will Imbrace them in our Bosoms that come to Settle on our Lands." Again Shute interrupted, taking offense at the word "our," and exclaimed, They must not call it their Land, for the English have bought it of them and their Ancestors."

"We pray leave to proceed in our Answer, and to talk of that matter afterwards," replied Wiwurna, "We Desire there may be no further Settlements made, We shan't be able to hold them all in our Bosoms, and to take care to Shelter them, if it be like to be bad Weather, and Mischief be Threatened." This objection probably refers to new settlements in places which had not been occupied, for Shute does not appear to have taken notice of it. "All people have a love for their Ministers," continued Wiwurna, "and it would be strange if we should not love them, that come from God. And as to Bibles your Excellency mentioned, We desire to be Excused on that point. God has given us Teaching already, and if we should go from that, we should displease God. We

are not capable to make any Judgment about Religion." This last sentence shows the hand of Ralé, who was undoubtedly present but did not show himself to the English. Its counterpart may be found in his letter to Baxter a few days later. Having disposed of the Protestant missionary and his Bibles, Wiwurna skilfully sugared the disagreeable subject with regrets and compliments, like the adroit diplomat that he was.

"Your Excellency," he said, "was not sensible how sick we were yesterday to see the man-of-war ashore. We were so faint we could not Speak out with strength, and we are now very glad the Ship is well. We are very glad to wait on your Excellency and to tell you That we sent our young Men early this Morning to see if the Ship was well, and we were very glad to hear she was."

Shute, doubtless enjoying the humorous prevarication, thanked them for their respect for his majesty's ship, but when Wiwurna began to string together good wishes for fair winds and propitious weather for his return, and a safe passage down the river, Shute thought it time to bring the wily savage back to the main point, namely, the right of the English to occupy the lands purchased of former chiefs, whose deeds he had brought for their inspection,

and he pointed his demand with a complaint of their lawless acts. To all this Wiwurna gave no answer but gravely asked for time that the chiefs might consult and frame their reply, which Shute readily granted, but informed them that he should expect a positive answer in the afternoon in relation to the English right of settlement, and as their fierce dogs had done damage to the settlers' cattle, he demanded that they should muzzle them when in the neighborhood of cattle.

The conference reassembled at three o'clock in the afternoon, and Wiwurna gave the result of the deliberation of the chiefs, to the effect that they would cut off their lands "as far as the Mills and the coasts to Pemaquid."

"Tell them," said the governor, impatiently, that "we desire only what is our own, and that we will have it. We will not wrong them, but what is our own we will be Masters of."

Wiwurna, without replying to this, said that at the treaty at Casco it was promised that no more forts should be made, and Shute replied that forts were for their mutual protection, and that King George built forts wherever he pleased in his own dominions as the French king did. That all kings possessed that power, and the governors also whom they appointed.

Wiwurna, now pressed to the point, took up the delicate question of territorial rights, and said that the chiefs did not understand how the lands were purchased; that what lands had been alienated were by gift, whereupon the governor exhibited the Wharton deed, made by former chiefs, which was read to Wiwurna and his associates. To this Wiwurna replied that they had nothing to say about the west side of the Kennebec, but were sure nothing had been sold on the east side. The question of new forts, he said, troubled them. They were willing that the English should continue to possess what they held already, but disliked forts. To this Shute replied that wherever a new settlement was made, he should order the erection of a fort if he thought it proper, and that it was for the security of the savages as well as of the English. "Are any People," he asked, "under the same Government, afraid of being made too strong to keep out enemies?" and he repeated that the English would not take an inch of their land nor part with an inch of their

own.

Wiwurna asked if they were to have the privilege of fishing and hunting wherever they wished, and this being answered in the affirmative, the savages, who had grown restive under the sharp interchange

of conflicting views, arose abruptly and without tak ing their English colors left the assembly without the usual courtesies of leave-taking. In the evening, however, they returned bearing a letter from Père Ralé to the effect, that when Vaudreuil, the Canadian governor, was in France, he inquired of the French king if he had ceded the land of the savages to the English, and that he asserted that he had not done so, and would protect them against English encroachments. This was an artful method of influencing the savages against the English, and in view of the articles ceding Acadia to the English crown, was unfair in the extreme. Indignant at his interference in the negotiations between him and the savages, Shute prepared to leave without further attempt to complete a treaty, or as Baxter in his Journal says, he "resolved not to buckle to them, and on ye Lord's Day went aboard, & acted as if he were going away, whereupon the Indians quickly sent on board and desired to speak with ye Governor before he went away," to which the governor replied that he would do so "if they quitted their unreasonable Pretensions to the English Lands, and Complied with what he had said, but not otherwise," and upon receiving their promise to do so, he appointed a meeting on shore at six o'clock in the evening, and, upon their