of La Tour Boston. November. 1642. 1643. June 12. his ports and those of New England, and an arrangement by which he might import through New England Application commodities from Europe. The request for free for aid from trade was complied with; the others were rejected. D'Aulnay, in a letter to Winthrop, denounced La Tour as a rebel, and threatened to November. break up the trade, and to make prize of any Massachusetts vessel which he might intercept while engaged in it. After the confederation, but before the first meeting of the Commissioners, La Tour, blockaded in the harbor of St. John, escaped by night, and came to Boston, where in person he reiterated his request for military aid, and enforced it by showing a document, "under the hand and seal of the Vice-Admiral of France," which recognized him as "the King's Lieutenant-General in Acadie." His former misconduct at Machias, and a general distrust of his character and designs, operated against him. But there was a much stronger resentment against his enemy;2 and the trade which had been opened was thought to be valuable. The decision of the Magistrates was, that, though the obligations of Massachusetts as a member of the Confederacy forbade her to contribute the assistance desired, she might permit the chartering of vessels in her ports and the enlistment of volunteers.3 1 4 La Tour hired four ships, enlisted some seventy men," and set sail to encounter his enemy. The expedition obtained no decisive success, though D'Aulnay, John, was beaten, suddenly attacked before St. and pursued to Port Royal. August. He soon after sailed for the King in Council, February 21, 1642. 2 See Vol. I. 338, 540; comp. Winthrop, I. 117, 154; II. 126. Winthrop, 107–109. 4 Ibid., 127. — The charter-party of the vessels is in Hazard, I. 499. 1644. France to strengthen himself with new credentials; and in his absence a party of La Tour's men, assisted May. by some rovers from the eastern English settlements, burned his fort on the Penobscot, and carried off his cattle.1 Soon afterward, La Tour appeared again at July. Boston. He had "understood by letters from his lady, that D'Aulnay had prevailed against him in France, and was coming with great strength to subdue him; whereupon he came to desire some aid, if need should be." He produced proof "that the place where his fort was built" was his private property, having "been purchased by his father of Sir William Alexander;3 and he had a free grant of it, and of all that part of New Scotland, under the great seal of Scotland."4 This claim under the King of Great Britain gave La Tour's case a new aspect; and at first "most of the Magistrates and some of the Elders were clear that he was to be relieved, both in point of charity, as a distressed neighbor, and also in point of prudence, as thereby to root out, or at least weaken, an enemy or a dangerous neighbor." But, by reason of the absence of many Elders, and the dissent of 1 Winthrop, II. 135, 149, 178. * He came unexpectedly, in an armed vessel, which, with a crew of a hundred and forty men, had been sent to him at St. John from Rochelle, and which in the offing he had reached in his boat. Winthrop (II. 107-109) gives a vivid description of the alarm occasioned by his arrival, which, when it turned out to be groundless, it is plain the Governor did not regret, as it gave the General Court a lesson on their imprudence in suffering the works on Castle Island to go to decay. (Comp. Endicott's Letter to Winthrop, in Hutchinson, Collections, 135.) 3 Winthrop, II. 175, 179; comp. Vol. I. 234.—The information sent to La Tour from France by his wife was correct. March 6, 1644, the King in Council issued a peremptory order for him to present himself in Paris within three months. His wife was permitted to send a ship laden with provisions for the supply of his post; but it was to carry no munitions of war, and she was forbidden under pain of death to join him. If he disobeyed the summons, D'Aulnay was ordered to seize him and send him home. (MS. copies of Documents in the French Archives.) For the ground of this pretension, see Haliburton, I. 40 et seq.; Garneau, I. 73 et seq. It is irrelevant to the purposes of this history. assistance to some Magistrates, the matter was reserved for further consideration. At a later meeting, "the Gover- Discussions nor propounded the case, and it was brought to respecting the two formal questions: 1. Whether it were La Tour. lawful for true Christians to aid an Antichristian [for La Tour's anti-Romanist professions were not credited]; 2. Whether it were safe for us in point of prudence." Opinions appearing again to be divided, and the majority "not willing to conclude anything in this case without a full consent," it was resolved to do no more at present than to write to D'Aulnay, demanding satisfaction for his hostile behavior and language and the malpractices of his officers towards Massachusetts and her confederates; vindicating the course which had been taken in the last year in affording facilities to La Tour; and announcing a resolution to maintain the commercial relations which had been instituted with him.1 La Tour was dismissed with unprofitable respect. bands formed an escort. many others accompanied him to the wharf, Sept. 9. The train .. and "The Deputy-Governor and all the ships, namely, four, saluted him, each of them with three pieces." 2 1 Winthrop, II. 179, 180. For this letter and D'Aulnay's reply to it (Port Royal, October 21, 1644), see Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVII. 92, 99. 2 Winthrop, II. 189. Morton, of Merry Mount (see Vol. I. 231, 232), had appeared in Boston a year before, and been imprisoned for "his complaint against us at the Council Board." (See Vol. I. 364.) A characteristic letter which he had written to Mr. Jeffrey, boasting of that exploit, and filled with abuse of the Colony, was now produced. "He was fined a hundred pounds [no part of which could he pay] and set at liberty. He went to Agamenticus, and, living there poor and despised, he died within two years after." (Winthrop, II. 189-192, where Morton's letter to Jeffrey is inserted.) Morton, it seems, had been in Rhode Island on a mischief-making errand. Coddington writes to Winthrop, in the letter mentioned above (139, note 3): "For Morton, he was insinuating who was for the King at his first coming to Portsmouth, and would report to such as he judged to be of his mind he was glad to meet with so many cavaliers; and he had lands to dispose of in each Province, and from Cape Ann to Cape Cod was one. And that he had wrong in the Bay to the value of two hundred pounds, and made bitter complaints thereof. But • Visit of to Boston. A week after his departure, his wife arrived from London, having narrowly escaped capture by D'Aulnay, who fell in with her vessel on his return voyage from Europe.? She immediately brought an action in Boston against the master and the consignee of the ship which conveyed her, "for not performing the charter-party, having spent so much time upon the coast in trading, as they were near six months in coming, and had not carried her to her port as they ought and might have done. Upon a full hearing in a special court four days, the jury gave her two thousand pounds;" and, to satisfy this verdict in part, an execution was laid upon the cargo. The master petitioned the General Court for an allowance from the proceeds of the cargo for freight and wages. A majority of the Deputies would have granted it; but the Magistrates dissented. The master then brought an action before the Court of Assistants, and a jury decided against him. "This business made some difference between the merchants of Charlestown, who took part with the merchants and master of the ship, and the merchants of Boston, who assisted the lady, some of them being deeply engaged for La Tour. Those of Charlestown offered security for the goods, if upon a review within thirteen months the judg ment were not reversed, or the Parliament in England did not call the cause before themselves. This last clause was very ill taken by the Court, as making way for appeals, &c. into England." "The parties not agreeing, the lady took the goods, and hired three ships, which lay in Morton would let it rest till the Governor came over to right him; and did insinuate he knew whose roast his spits and jacks turned.” 1 La Tour, after his return to St. John, wrote a letter of acknowledgment (October 27, 1644), which is in the Massachusetts Archives, and has been published in Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVII. 96. He renewed his suit against D'Aulnay with large personal vituperation, and argued, from historical precedents, the right of neutrals to aid belligerents to the extent to which he had been aided by Massachusetts. He was apprised of D'Aulnay's having just sent a messenger to Boston. 2 Winthrop, II. 192; comp. 198. Dec. 8. the harbor, belonging to strangers, which cost her near eight hundred pounds, and set sail for her fort;" and the master got away clandestinely with his ship.1 D'Aulnay. Just after her arrival at Boston, an envoy had also come thither from the opposite party, "one Marie, supposed to be a friar, but habited like a gen- Embassy tleman." He produced three papers; namely, from "the King of France his commission [to D'Aulnay] under the great seal of France, with the privy seal annexed;" the verification of a sentence against La Tour "as a rebel and traitor;" and an order for his and his wife's arrest, and transportation to France. "He complained of the wrong done by our men the last year in assisting of La Tour, &c., and proffered terms of peace and amity." " "We answered to the first," says Winthrop, "that divers of the ships and most of the men were strangers to us, and had no commission from us, nor any permission to use any hostility, and we were very sorry when we heard what had been done. This gave him satisfaction. To the other proposition we answered that we could not conclude any league with him without the advice of the Commissioners of the United Colonies; but if he would set down his propositions in writing, we would consider further of them." In the sequel of the negotiation, the Magistrates agreed to present for the approbation of the Commissioners, at their next meeting, a 1 Ibid., 198–202. (I presume that the word “yet,” at the end of page 199, was, in the manuscript, yt, and that it should be read that.) Comp. Mass. Hist. Coll., XXVII. 98, 99. 2 Marie was followed by a letter from D'Aulnay to Endicott, dated at Port Royal, October 21, 1644, which is in the Massachusetts Archives, and has been published in the Collections of Oct. 8. the Historical Society (XXVII. 92). In it he justifies his taking possession of the post on the Penobscot, as belonging to the territory of his sovereign, and discusses other points of the controversy. The letter was in answer to one, in a conciliatory but firm tone, which had been addressed to him by the government of Massachusetts before his return from abroad. (Ibid., 99.) |