1722, and killed nearly all of them. They had retired to this place, where they supposed themselves safe, and, after a scene of rioting and drunkenness, had fallen asleep around their fires, when they were overtaken and killed. It was to one of these points of land that a deputation was sent from Brunswick to meet Ralle, to be informed as to his character and intentions, who returned and reported that they "believed him an incendiary of mischief." It was at the Chops, entering the bay on the east side, that Job Lewis and Arthur Noble and their associates erected a Fort, capable of defending the passage, and applied to Gov. Shirley in 1746 for soldiers to be placed there at the expense of the Colony. †

This Bay from being formerly deep and navigable for any vessels of that day, has long since become shallow; being filled up with sand brought down and deposited from the several rivers emptying into it. The channels through the bay from these rivers vary and change from year to year, with almost every freshet.

In going out of Merrymeeting Bay, the Quabacook of the Indians, westerly, we enter the ancient Pejepscot river. On the right bank, at Pleasant Point, Mr. Thomas Gyles lived.‡ He settled there some years prior to 1666. He was the father of Capt. John Gyles, who was for a long time in the service of the Government, as an interpreter to the Indians among whom he had been a prisoner many years. He built Fort George in

the Indians along our eastern shore; he was brought home and died in Harpswell. They came to Harpswell to York. Jacques family came from Newbury, Mass.

* Brunswick Records.

+ Pejepscot papers in Hist. Soc. Library.

This Thomas Gyles afterward lived at Pemaquid and was killed there by the Indians in 1689. His sons John and Thomas lived and died in Boston or immediate vicinity, their sister Mary married a Brewer and Margaret married a Webber. All lived and died in the vicinity of Boston.

Brunswick in 1715, and was commander of it, and was otherwise in public service for many years. At the commencement of King Philip's war, Mr. Gyles, the father, was taken prisoner and his wife was killed while in the garden picking beans. On the left side, in what is now called Brunswick, Mr. Thomas Stevens once lived. He was an ancient planter. He purchased of the Indians in 1675 from Robinhood, Eramket Daniels and Manessumet, Indian Sagamores,* also of Mr. Thomas Purchas previously. Mr. Stevens lived near the path or carrying place to the New Meadows river, which is an arm or creek making up northerly from Casco Bay, and which is not more than a mile across. Mr. Stevens was driven away and his house burnt in 1676. His widow Margaret Stevens lived afterward up the Kennebec river, near Swan Island. In going further up the Pejepscot, and passing by sundry small islands, we come to the lands of Jas. Thomast and Samuel York‡ who dwelt on the north side of the river, in what is now called Topsham. They purchased of Jeromkin Daniels and RobinHood, July 20, 1670. Their right extended up as far as Terrimugus cove, near where the Rail Road Bridge has been recently built. The above titles on both sides of the river are the only Indian deeds known to have been given. With the termination of these rights we may believe the Indians admitted the commencement of the much talked of Patent of Thomas Purchas, as we never hear of any other claims set up to any lands,

* Pejepscot papers.

+ Thomas lived subsequently in North Hampton, N. H. His heirs have lived in other places Benj. lived at Stonington, his daughter Abigail lived in Durham, N. H., and married a Leathers. Their brother Joseph lived in Durham, N. H.

He afterward lived in Cape Ann where his children also lived.

§ Topsham so named from the fact that Robert Temple brought emigrants there from Topsham, England.

supposed to have been embraced in the grant to Thomas Purchas and George Way, and which extended up the Pejepscot river eight or ten miles. Here the land on both sides of the river together with the river and falls went by the name of Pejepscot. At the lower part of the falls, on what might have been a point of land or rocks, now an Island, where the toll house of the Bridge now stands, tradition informs us that there were formerly what appeared to be the remains of a Fort, and that there were many Indian skeletons strewed over the ground. The explanation has been, that the original tribe residing there had been carried off by the plague, or some destructive pestilence, and that the remnant joined other tribes. In the middle of the falls are three or four islands, which, there is reason to believe, were formerly but one, with water running rapidly on both sides. The island would have contained four or five acres or more, and would have been almost covered with water in high freshets. Salmon and sturgeon were formerly very abundant in and about these falls the latter never went above, but were always in the vicinity below. This place was an Indian thoroughfare on their passage from Merrymeeting and Casco Bays, toward Canada, and to their settlements along the river and vicinity. When Abijah Young and Molly Phinney were taken prisoners, about Casco Bay, May 5, 1755, on their way to Canada, they passed so near to Fort George in the morning as to hear the cock crow in the Fort; they went to Sabattis's river, and over the pond of the same name toward the Canadas. It was at this place, then called Pejepscot, that Mr. Thomas Purchas settled and had his residence near the falls-on a tract of land not purchased from the Indians, but held under a grant or patent from the King, through the council of Plymouth, made to himself and Mr. Way of Dorchester, England. This patent conveyed the land and gave them its jurisdiction on both sides of the river. The existence of the patent has been doubted, but it has been

recognized in many ancient transaction, and especially from the fact that Mr. Purchas conveyed the jurisdiction to Massachusetts in 1639 in an indenture with John Winthrop, the Gov. of the State. At this early period the grant must have been known and recognized, or Gov. Winthrop would not have purchased it.

Under this right or patent, Mr. Purchas took possession in the third year of the reign of Charles I, 1628, and pitched his habitation near the foot of Pejepscot Falls. It is said of him, that he was a planter, and improved the soil; that he was a trader in fur and peltry, catching, curing and packing salmon and sturgeon for a foreign market. The house he first built and occupied was burned and the copy of his patent with it. He afterward built "a fair stone house." It is believed that he was the first and only settler for some years above the Sagadahock. And indeed we have no account of any settlement being made on the Kennebec, above Merrymeeting Bay, prior to the settlement at Pejepscot. Christopher Lawson, it is believed, was the first and the pioneer settler on the Kennebec, and he had been previously in the employ of Mr. Purchas. After the jurisdiction of his patent had been conveyed to Massachusetts, there was a meeting at the house of Thomas Ashley, at Merrymeeting Bay, when Mr. Purchas, with other inhabitants appeared and took the oath of allegiance to the temporary government established there by Massachusetts. He was one of the assistants. He was also a magistrate or commissioner under Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Mr. Rigby. There were a number of persons who settled around him at Pejepscot Falls, and a number about Maquoit Bay and Mare Point, who purchased their lands of Mr. Purchas, and the settlement began to assume considerable importance in this part of the country. When Sir Christopher Gardiner fled from Massachusetts to avoid deserved punishment for his misconduct, it is related in Morton's Memorial, that he

went among the Indians. It is certain that he came to Pejep. scot and took up his abode with Mr. Purchas; and it would seem from the Records of Court that he made no improvement in his character and reputation. Mr. Purchas continued at Pejepscot actively engaged in business until 1676 when he was driven away by the Indians in Philip's war. After peace was concluded with the Indians, he returned to reclaim his possessions. He continued here a short time, then concluded to return to England in quest of his patent. He went to Boston with Captain Richard Collicut in his coaster, and soon after embarked for England. Capt. Collicut states the fact, and that he never returned to this country after.†

The general appearance of the land, soil and growth presented a very different aspect at this early period from what it has been since-particularly at Pejepscot. Instead of pines and evergreens, indicating a barren soil, we have reason to believe that the land was more fertile and productive. Some

In Savage's gleanings, Mass. Hist. Col. 3d series, 320, is a letter from Thomas Wiggin, dated Aug. 1632, relating to Sir Christopher Gardner," who is lately arrived here in Bristol out of New England," which says that Gard ner had two wives in London :" "about two years and some odd months, he went from them both with a harlot into New England." Here he was found and arrested. The letter adds; " And there one Purchass, a man who liveth in the eastern part of N. E. cominge to the Massatusets, there did he marry with this Gardner's wench, and take her awaye and this Gardner both with him, which was done about a 12 month since, where this Gardner remained ever since, till the 15th of August last he appeared here in Bristol." In Young's Chronicles of Mass. P. 333, is a letter from Thomas Dudley of Boston to the Countess of Lincoln, which says that Gardner was no knight, and that the woman he lived with in this country, was named Mary Grove, and that her mother lived 8 miles from Boirdly in Salopshire. Dudley adds, "we have taken order to send her to the two wives in Old England to search her further." In the meantime Purchase probably stopped her and bore off the spoil.-[W.]

+ See Dep. of Richard Collicut among Pejepscot papers.