July 14.

fort at Pemaquid, with its strength in structure, armament, and ammunition, and its garrison of a hundred men, had been thought secure. The French governor of Quebec resolved to attempt it. He despatched from that place two men-ofwar, and two companies of soldiers, who on their way were reinforced at Port Royal and at the mouth of the Penobscot by some four hundred Indians. The French squadron met and engaged two English armed vessels, which were on the watch, and increased its strength by the capture of one of them. When summoned to surrender, Chubb returned a boastful reJuly 15. ply; the French landed and invested the place; and Castine, who had accompanied the expedition, sent in a message to the effect, that if there was further delay, the garrison would receive no quarter. Chubb capitulated, with the condition that his command should be protected from harm and insult, and be sent to Boston. The French could not enforce their agreement. The Indians fell upon the English and put many to death, while the rest were withdrawn under a French guard to an island out of their reach. The victors dismantled and blew up the fortification, and set sail for Penobscot

July 18.

River.

Chubb was tried for cowardice, and acquitted. The calamitous news created consternation at Boston. Five hundred men were immediately enlisted for a campaign at the eastward, and the

August 3.

Sept. 3.

Sept. 28.

lieutenant-governor gave the command to Benjamin Church, who, if his capacity did not equal his zeal, retained the advantage of a traditional reputation. Four armed vessels. were despatched from Boston to the Penobscot, but did not arrive there till the French squadron had sailed for St. John. Church. led his force up the Penobscot, finding some plunder, but no enemy. Returning he met the squadron, with Colonel Hathorne, who came to supersede him in the command. There seemed nothing to be done either by land or sea against an enemy by no means so hard to vanquish as to find, and both troops and ships came back to Boston. In an Address to the King the General Court represented "the exhausted state of the province through the languishing and wasting war with the French and Indians,” and prayed for orders to the several colonial governments to contribute their assistance for the settlement and fortification of Port Royal and St. John's; for a supply of ammunition, and the protection of a naval force; and for aid in the reduction of Canada,-"the unhappy fountain," they said, "from which issue all our miseries."

Sept. 24.

The winter, keeping the savages inactive, gave to the borderers its usual repose, and the approach of warm weather brought its accustomed calamities. Early in the spring the savages made 1697. a successful assault upon Haverhill. One March 15.

of the captives whom they took thence was Hannah Dunstan, who had borne a child only a week before. Her husband, with their other children, had escaped. Her captors dashed out the infant's brains. They proceeded a hundred and fifty miles on their retreat towards Canada, when they told her that on their reaching one of their own camps, she would have to be stripped and run the gantlet. This inspired her with a desperate resolution. She was, with the woman who had been nursing her, in the custody of an Indian party, consisting of two men, three women, and seven children, who had also in charge an English boy, taken prisoner a year or two before. She enlisted her companion and the boy in her scheme. When they were halted in a retired spot they watched the opportunity of their keepers being sound asleep, and then, with rapid blows, despatched with their own hatchets all but two, one of whom, a child who had been kind to them, they intentionally spared; while the other, a woman whom they supposed they had wounded mortally, revived and escaped. The heroine and her helpers found their way to her home before the end of spring, bringing the scalps of their ten victims. The General Court expressed their adJune 8. miration of the deed by a present of fifty pounds.

Exeter owed to an accident its preservation

from a well-laid plot for its destruction. A June 10. party of Indians were lying about it in

hiding-places one day, intending to fall upon it early the next morning, as was their habit. Some women, with their children, had gone a little way out of the town to gather strawberries. They had been told that it was imprudent, and some persons whose caution they had neglected fired alarmguns to frighten them. This caused a muster of the men, and the Indians, supposing themselves to be discovered, decamped in haste. Major Frost of Kittery, a counsellor of the province, and formerly colonel of the militia of York County, was going home from the Sunday worship with his wife and a servant, when the three were fired upon and killed by Indians, who lay in ambush for him behind a log. At York, at Wells, and at Saco, the old experience of stealthy murders was again and again renewed.

July.

But a greater anxiety of the time related to a different kind of operation. There was intelligence that the King of France was designing to send a strong fleet into Massachusetts Bay, and at the same time to bring fifteen hundred French and Indians into New England across the northern frontier. There was nothing improbable in the project, which was afterwards known to have been in fact entertained. The King of England was so circumstanced that he could not do much for his Massachusetts lieges, even if he cared more about them than in truth he did care. He was pressing for a peace, and, as things stood with

him, not a guinea nor an ounce of powder could be spared from his affairs in Europe. If Massachusetts was now to be taken care of, it must be by herself. The forts were repaired, manned, and provisioned. Companies of minute-men were enrolled. Five hundred men under Major March, an officer of the best reputation, were sent down to the Kennebec, which was thought likeliest of any place to be presently the seat of war. Landing at Damariscotta, he was attacked by a body of savages, whom he repulsed after a bloody fight, in which he lost twelve or thirteen men.

Sept. 9.

Sept. 20.

Dec. 10.

This was a few days only before the conclusion of the treaty of Ryswick, which made peace between France and England. Intelligence of that event, which gave such relief to New England, came early in the But though there were no more battles in this war, there was not yet a cessation ber. of murders, pillages, and burnings. At Lancaster a party of Indians massacred twenty

winter.

Septem

1698. or thirty people, with their minister. They February burned several houses at Andover, putting to death a number of the inhabitants, among whom was Chubb, the recent commander at Pemaquid, and carrying away others. One of the captives was the late governor's son, Colonel Bradstreet, who however escaped when the marauders were closely pursued.

But the Indians had been learning that by