Mount Desert; a history

Contents

CHAP, PAGE

Memoir of Dr. Street, hy Wilbert L. Anderson xi

Editor's Preface, by Samuel A. Eliot , . xvii

II

Beneath the westward turning eye A thousand wooded islands lie, — Gems of the waters ! with each hue Of brightness set in ocean's blue.

And there, beneath the sea-worn cliff, On which' the Father's hut is seen.

The Indian stays his rocking skiff.

And peers the hemlock-boughs between,

Half trembling as he seeks to look

Upon the Jesuit's Cross and Book.

There, gloomily against the sky

The Dark Isles rear their summits high ;

And Desert Rock, abrupt and bare.

Lifts its gray turrets in the air

Whittier.

The winter of 1605-6 was one of much suffering at Port Royal, though by no means so fatal as the experience at Saint Croix. It was manifestly impossible to maintain the colony without succor from home, and as midsummer approached and no ship appeared, Pontgrave grew anxious and finally embarked all his company in two big boats he had built and, leaving two bold volunteers to hold the fort, set out to coast along the shore, hoping to find some fishing craft that would carry them home. Hardly had they gone when the ship Jonas, with Poutrincourt in command, and bearing that remarkable chronicler and poet and all-round good fellow, Marc Lescarbot, with a considerable reinforcement and supplies, sailed into the basin. The ship had been two long months on the ocean voyage. Fortunately Poutrincourt had on his way detached a boat to explore the coast about Cape Sable, and this party met Pontgrave and his retreating colonists and turned them back ; so all were soon reunited at Port Royal. Then Pontgrave took the Jonas and sailed for home, and Champlain, this time with the indefatigable Poutrincourt for a comrade, made a third voyage along the shores of the Gulf of

Maine until again obstructed by the head winds and the shoals at Monomoy. On their return " near Mount Desert " on a stormy night, the rudder broke and they barely escaped wreck. " 1 will not," writes Lescarbot, " compare their perils with those of Ulysses, nor yet of JEneas, lest thereby I should sully our holy enterprise with things impure."

Lescarbot's breezy narrative tells the whole story of the next winter with its busy industries and its merry revels. Port Royal was beginning to wear the aspect of a thrifty settlement, but with the spring came bad news. De Monts's enemies had at last triumphed, and the exclusive right of trade granted to his company had been withdrawn. Religious bigotry, which could not endure that New France should be ruled by a heretic, had combined with the indignant jealousy of the merchants who had been shut out from the fur-trade to bring about this result. Without the revenue derived from the trade monopoly the colony could not be carried on, and with heavy hearts the Frenchmen said farewell to their palisaded fort, their blooming gardens, their mill and storehouses, and the friendly Indians, spread sail for France, and reached St. Malo in October, 1607.

De Monts, who still held his grant and his rights as viceroy, turned his attention to the St. Lawrence, whither Champlain led an expedition in the next summer to found Quebec. Poutriucourt obtained a confirmation of his grant of Port Royal and planned and worked for three vexatious years for a chance to return. Meanwhile the party of the Jesuits was growing strong at the French court, and that society was not slow to perceive the possibilities of New France as a missionary field. When at last Poutrincourt had settled his lawsuits and was ready to start with a new company, he found himself commanded to take a Jesuit, Father Pierre Biard, professor of theology at Lyons, with him. Now Poutrincourt was a good Catholic, but he had no love for the Jesuits, and when he sailed from Dieppe on February 10, 1610, he took with him one Father La Flesche, but left Father Biard behind.

But now the hardest blow of all befell the infant colony. On the 14th of May, 1610, Henry the Fourth fell under the assassin's knife ; and soon after, De Monts, deprived not only of his monopoly but also of his master's sympathy and support, surrendered the commission he held as viceroy of New France. The infant colony needed a more powerful friend ; and the Prince of Conde, the chief of the Huguenot party, was induced to lend his name to the enterprise. His leadership, however, was only nominal. The proprietary rights were soon, to all intents and purposes, lodged in the hands of the Jesuits. Antoinette de Pons, Marquise de Guercheville, a lady of honor to the queen, was a devout adherent of the Church of Rome, and an enthusiastic admirer of the Society of Jesus. The missions which tliat society had been carrying on with wonderful energy in Asia and in South America awakened her warmest interest, and she was glad to give her influence and wealth to further plans for similar work in New France. Biard's plight especially stirred her sympathy. She sought De Monts in his native town of Pons, to the government of which he had been reappointed, and offered to buy his patent. The moment was favorable to the success of her plan. De Monts stood in pressing need of money. Pons was one of the strong places secured to the Protestants by the Edict of Nantes, and great pains had been taken since the close of the civil war to repair its walls and fortifications. But Pons was poorly garrisoned ; and its citizens, sharing in the uneasiness that pervaded the Reformed body after the tragic death of Henry the Fourth, were anxious to augment their military force. ^ The bargain was made. The garrison of the little town, destined to be dismantled a few years later by the troops of Louis the Thirteenth, was strengthened ; and the title to the proprietorship of half the continent, save only the little seigneury of Port Royal, which was confirmed to Poutrincourt, passed from De Monts to Mme. de Guercheville.

^ Histoire des eglises reformees de Pons, Gemozac et Mortagne, en Saintonge, par A. Crottet, Bordeaux, 1841, pp. 101-107.

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The next summer, when Biencourt, the gallant son of Poutrincourt, returned to France he found himself obliged to take back with him to Port Royal not only Biard, but another Jesuit, Euemond Masse. On their arrival Poutrincourt returned to France to arrange for supplies. Masse went to live among the Indians to learn their language, and Biard in the autumn of 1611 ranged with Biencourt along the coast seeking a suitable site for his mission. They went as far as the Kennebec, where they found the Indians sullen and unresponsive because of the treatment they had received at the hands of the English who in 1607 and 1608 had made the disastrous attempt to plant a colony at the mouth of the river. In November the voyagers were back at Port Royal,^ and Biard had decided that Kadesquit on the Penobscot was the place for the Jesuits to begin their work. Then the winter settled down again, but this time there was none of the genial goodfellowship that made pleasant the winter of 1607. The colonists were quarrelsome, and there was constant friction between the unwelcome Jesuits and the young commander, Biencourt, and his friends. The black robe of the priest and the brown capote of the trader were not well matched. Larger elements of discord, too, brooded over

^ For this voyage of Biencourt and Biard see Biard's letter printed in Maine Hist. Soc. Coll. second series, v. ii, 418, and Biard's Relation, i, 32.

the settlement. National rivalries began to be talked about around the fires. Englishmen had planted a colony — no one knew how feeble it was — down on the James River, and Dutchmen had established a trading post on the end of Manhattan Island. The French claims were represented only by this shivering band among the snowdrifts at Port Royal and by another little group where " deep within the wild monotony of desolation, on the icy verge of the great northern river, the hand of Champlain upheld the fleur-delis on the rock of Quebec."

Before the winter had passed, the vessel sent by Poutrincourt arrived with provisions, but bringing also another Jesuit, a lay brother, who came as the business representative of Mme. de Guercheville, and bringing also the news that the devout lady of honor had won to her plans the support of the queen mother, Marie de Medicis, and many of the courtiers, " who found it a more grateful task to win heaven for the heathen than merit for themselves," and was preparing to send out her main expedition the following year.

It was on the 12th of March, 1613, that this expedition finally set sail from Honfleur. The ship Jonas, formerly in the service of De Monts, bore the new colony. She was a little vessel of about one hundred tons, and Charles Flory was master of her. The chief of the expedition was the Sieur de la Saussaye, and with him went another Jesuit,

Father Quentin, the lay brother Gilbert du Thet, and forty-eight settlers, artisans and laborers. They carried horses, goats, and all things deemed needful by the pious patrons of the enterprise. A voyage of two months brought them to La Heve, where they set up a cross and the shield of Mme. de Guercheville. At Port Royal they found that famine had scattered the settlers into the woods in the search for food. Fathers Biard and Masse were taken on board the Jonas, and all was ready.

" We were detained," says Father Biard, " five clays at Port Royal, by adverse winds, when a favorable northeaster having arisen, we set out with the intention of sailing up Pentegoet [Penobscot] River, to a place called Kadesquit, which had been chosen for our new residence, and which possessed great advantages for this purpose. But God willed otherwise, for when we had reached the southeastern coast of the Island of Manan, the weather changed, and the sea was covered with a fog so dense that we could not distinguish day from night. We were greatly alarmed, for this place is full of breakers and rocks, upon which, in the darkness, we feared our vessel might drift. As the wind did not permit us to put out to sea, we remained in this position two days and two nights, tacking sometimes one way, sometimes another, as God inspired us. Our tribulation led us to pray to God to deliver us from danger, and send us to some place where we might contribute to His glory. He heard us, in His mercy, for on the same evening we began to discover the stars, and in the morning the fog had cleared away. We then discovered that we were near the coast of Mount Desert, an island which the savages call Pemetic. The pilot steered towards the eastern shore, and landed us in a large and beautiful harbor. We returned thanks to God, elevating the Cross, and singing praises with the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We named the place and harbor Saint Sauveur." ^

As they lay at anchor a quarrel arose between the sailors and the colonists. It apj)eared that the agreement made in France was to the effect that the sailors were bound to put into any port in Acadia that should be designated by the Jesuits and remain there three montlis. The sailors maintained that they had thus arrived at a port in Acadia, and that the term of three months ought to date from this arrival. To this it was answered that Mount Desert was not the port designated, which was Kadesquit, and therefore that the time they were at anchor was not to be taken into account.

* The landfall cannot be exactly identified. It was on the "eastern shore " of the island, and in a "large and beautiful harbor." It was also, as the later narrative shows, some nine miles from the Indian village at the entrance of Somes Sound. It was therefore somewhere in the vicinity of Bar Harbor. The name of Saint Sauveur was transferred to the final settlement.

OTTKK CLIFF

" While this question was pending," says the Father, " the Savages made a fire, in order that we might see the smoke." On being assured that the Fathers from Port Royal were in the ship, Indians came alongside. Biard recognized them as some of those he had met on his journey of exploration two summers before. These savages asked the colonists to establish themselves at Pemetic (Mount Desert), urging that it was " quite as good a place as Kadesquit," but the Jesuits would not listen to them until they described how " Asticou, our Sagamore, is sick unto death, and if you do not come to our village, he will die without baptism and you will be the cause of his going to hell. He wishes to be baptized." No priest could withstand that appeal : so Father Biard and the interpreter and La Motte, the mate of the Jonas, got into the Indian canoes and were paddled along under the dark cliifs of Newport mountain, by the surf-beaten rocks of Schooner Head and Great Head, by fir-clad points and islands, " for three leagues," until they came to the Indian village on what is now Manchester's Point at the entrance of Somes Sound. Here they found that the illness of the chief was no more than a pretext by which the savages had induced them to view the spot where they wished the Jesuits to settle ; and their device was abundantly successful. The point opposite the Indian village seemed an ideal place for their colony, and so, as this settled all disputes, the ship was brought round and it was unanimously agreed to remain at Mount Desert.

Father Biard thus describes the chosen site : " Thi« place is a beautiful hillside sloping gently from the seashore, and supplied with water by a spring on either side. There are from twenty-five to thirty acres, covered with grass, which, in some places, reaches the height of a man. It fronts the south and east. The soil is rich and fertile. The harbor is smooth as a pond, being shut in by the large island of Mount Desert, besides sheltered by certain smaller islands which break the force of the winds and waves, and fortify the entrance. It is large enough to hold any fleet, and ships can discharge within a cable's length from the shore. It is in latitude forty-four and one half degrees north, a position more northerly than that of Bordeaux.^ . . . When we had landed in this place, and planted the Cross, we began to work, and with the work began our disputes, the omen and origin of our misfortunes. The cause of these disputes was that our Captain, La Saussaye, wished to attend to agriculture, and our other leaders besought him not to occupy the workmen in that manner, and so delay the erection of dwellings and fortifications. He would

' Father Biard's description so clearly identifies the site of Saint Sauveur that Parkman and all the other authorities agree that it must have been at Fernald's Point at the entrance of Somes Sound.

SAINT SAUVEUE 43

not comply with this request, and from these disputes arose others, which lasted until the English obliged us to make peace in the manner I am about to relate."

For the j)ious hopes of the originators of the enterprise and the activities of the pioneers were doomed to sudden and surprising extinction. Some Indians fishing in their canoes off the outer islands descried a vessel and, boarding her, made known to the captain that white men were building houses at Pemetic. Now the ship was the Treasurer^ of Jamestown in Virginia, com-

1 The ship Treasurer first appears in the annals of the Virginia trade in 1612, when she came out in command of Argall, who had previously made two voyages to Virginia, first in 1609 in command of a vessel sent by John Cornelius, one of the London Company, " to trucke with the Colony and fish for sturgeon " (Smith's Virginia, p. 88), and second in 1610 in command of the Delaware bearing Lord Delaware, the new governor. Lord Delaware returned to England on account of his ill health, in March, 1611, and soon after placed Argall in command of the Treasurer, a new vessel of about 250 tons which he and several noble associates had built for the Virginia business. John Pory, secretary of Virginia, in his letter to Sir Dudley Carleton {Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. fourth series, ix, 4) calls her a " man of warre," and says that Argall was part owner of her. Argall continued in command of this vessel for four years. In her he procured corn from the Indians for the starving settlers at Jamestown, and in her he effected the capture of Pocahontas, which secured the Virginia colony from the hostility of the Indians. In her in 1613 he made the expedition against the French colonies in Maine and the Dutch at Manhattan, and in her he returned to England in 1616 with Sir Thomas Dale, Pocahontas, and her husband, John Rolfe. Argall came back as deputy governor of the colony, and the Treasurer remained in the manded by Samuel Argall. From the mimic gestures of the Indians and the word " Norman " Argall guessed that the settlers at Pemetic could be none other than Frenchmen, and though ostensibly on a fishing voyage, he really bore a commission commanding him to expel Frenchmen and other interlopers from the territory of King James. Detaining one of the Indians as an unwilling guide, — for too late did the savages discover that these white men were foes to their new friends, — Argall set all sail, and soon was racing into the Western Way before the strong southwester, the British flag flying, and " ther drums and trumpets making a furious noise."

The French were utterly surprised. The pilot shoved off in the longboat to meet the incoming stranger, but discovering the evident hostile intent he hid behind Greening's Island. The mate and a dozen others tumbled aboard the Jonas, but they could do nothing for defense, nor could they escape, for the sails had all been unbent and rigged as an awning against the summer sun. The governor and most of the men stayed on shore. When they came within range of the Jonas the English fired a volley which the French in their consternation were unable to return, until Father Gilbert du Thet, hearing Captain Flory

service of the Company until in 1620, when being found " starke rotten and unserviceable," she was broken up at Bermuda and her guns used to equip the forts there.

order his men to fire, "took a match and caused our cannon to speak as loudly as the enemy's," only, as Father Biard adds, " the misfortune was that he did not take aim, if he had done so there mio'ht have been somethino^ more than noise." The Treasurer ranged alongside of the Jonas and fired another volley, by which the captain and three others were hurt, and the brave young priest, du Thet, fell mortally wounded across the helm.^ As the English boarded the ship the French threw themselves into the rowboat or into the water and made for the beach. Two more were killed as they swam,^ while the French on shore, seeing the fate of their comrades, fled into the woods or up the crags of Flying Mountain.

And now Argall proved himself as wily as he was prompt. In the half-finished fort he found the strong box of the governor, La Saussaye, and from this he took all the papers and credentials of the colonists. Gradually the French, finding nothing but starvation before them in the woods, came in and yielded themselves prisoners. La

1 He died the next day. "Thus," said Biard, "his prayers were granted, for, on our departure from Honfleur, he had raised his hands and eyes toward heaven, praying that he might return no more to France, but that he might die laboring for the salvation of souls, and especially of the savages. He was buried the same day at the foot of a large cross which we had erected on our arrival."

^ " They were both," says Biard, " promising young men, Le Moine from Dieppe and Nenen of Beauvais. Their bodies were found nine days afterwards and carefully buried."

Saussaye was brought before Argall, who charged him \\dth being a trespasser upon the territory of the king of England. This La Saussaye naturally denied, and claimed his rights under the grants of the king of France, but as he was unable to produce his commission, he and his comrades were held as prisoners and the French camp given to the pillage of the Virginians. " It is difficult," says Father Biard, " to believe how much sorrow we experienced during this time, for we did not know what was to be our fate. On the one hand, we expected either death or slavery from the English ; and on the other, to remain an entire year among the Savages seemed to us a lingering and painful death."

Argall's act has been censured as a mere buccanneering or piratical enterprise, undertaken in the course of a fishing voyage. Even Parkman says that it was utterly unauthorized.^ But the

^ Sir Samuel Argall was born in Bristol, England, in 1572 and died in 1639. He first came to Virginia in 1609 and was for ten years closely associated with the colony. His character has been almost uniformly execrated by writers on the history of Virginia. The chief accusations against him are contained in the letter of the Council of the London Company superseding him in the office of deputy governor of Virginia in 1618. The charges recorded in that letter have been accepted by the historians as if they were authentic. It should, however, be noted that these charges of greed and rapacity and fraudulent practices are indefinite and unaccompanied by proof. After his return to England Argall courted investigation, but the case was never pressed, and the suit instituted against him came to nothing. The records of the London Company show that the same men who signed the

Virginia records prove that his enterprise was an authorized one and was undertaken with the

letter of recall containing the charges showed him afterwards respect and friendship.

The deed by which Argall is best known, the capture of Pocahontas in 1612, has usually been denounced as an act of infamous treachery, but it was certainly defensible on grounds of public policy and its results were beneficial to the infant colony. The object of the capture of Pocahontas was set forth clearly by Argall himself (Letter to Hawes, Purchas, iv, 1765). He says that he had resolved to seize Pocahontas " for the ransom of so many Englishmen as were prisoners with Powhatan." This purpose was accomplished, for the English captives were restored and peace was established between the Indians and the colonists. Before a year had passed Pocahontas regarded her abduction as the happiest event of her life and refused to return to the Indians, declaring that she " would dwell with the English who loved her best." By an apparently legitimate stratagem Argall thus accomplished a ransom and a peace which Sir Thomas Dale had said would require an army of two thousand men, and put an effectual and permanent check upon the hostility of the Powhatans.

Between 1617 and 1619 Argall was the deputy governor of Virginia and proved himself harsh but efficient. The stringent regidations which he adopted for the government of the colony have been censured for their severity but appear to have been well adapted to the exigencies of the situation and to the unstable and motley character of the people under his government. His Sunday laws, which have been particularly condemned as acts of tyranny, were really gentler than the laws of Sir Thomas Dale which they superseded, while the outcry against his trade regulations was obviously raised by avaricious speculators whose illicit trade was interfered with.

After his return to England Argall served in 1620 as Captain of the Golden Phcenix in the expedition under Sir Robert Mansell against Algiers. In 1623 he was knighted by King James, and two years later, in the war with Spain, he was given command of a small fleet in the Channel which captured and sent in seven Spanish prizes. He then joined the unsuccessful expedition definite purpose of dispersing the French in Acadia. It is true, indeed, that no one in Vir-

under Sir Edward Cecil against Cadiz. Argall's ship, the Surprise, of six hundred tons, forty guns, and two hundred and fifty men, was made the flagship of the Earl of Essex, the vice-admiral of the fleet.

The unsparing obloquy which rests upon Argall's name seems, upon careful investigation, to be chiefly based upon the artful accusations of jealous detractors or vindictive enemies. It should be remembered that the early history of the Jamestown colony is a story of quarrels (Fiske, Old Virginia, p. 98). All the chroniclers had to take sides with one party or another in the controversies that darken the story of the beginnings of the settlement. In reading the accusations and vindications in the writings of Wingfield and Percy and Newport and Smith and Pory and Hamor and the rest of the original authorities, one has always to make allowances for the personal animosities. Further, it is well known that the short history of the London Company is a story of strenuous political controversy. There were two parties in the Company, one the " Court " party led by Sir Thomas Smith and the Earl of Warwick, the other the " Country " party led by the Earl of Southampton and Sir Edwin Sandys. The contemporary writers, upon whom the later historians depend, were earnest partisans, praising their friends and colleagues and condemning their enemies. Historic justice has decreed that the " Country " party represented the side of enlightenment and progress, and the modern historians naturally and legitimately incline to believe the reports of the writers who represent that side. Argall belonged to the " Court " party. He was a kinsman of Sir Thomas Smith and a close friend of the Earl of Warwick.

The first historical work about Virginia written in the modern spirit is Stith's History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia (1747), and all the modern histories are more or less based on that book. Now Dr. Stith, who was the learned president of William and Mary College, had before him when he wrote the record of the London Company transcribed by Sir Edwin Sandys and Nicholas Ferrar, and he naturally adopted their point of view. Stith's account of Argall thus reflects the censures of his enemies and is undoubtedly colored by their personal bitterness.

ginia knew about the arrival of La Saussaye's colony at Mount Desert, but the Virginia authorities could not but be aware of the earlier attempts at French colonization. Lescarbot's " France Nouvelle " was published in Paris in 1609 and Erondell's English translation in the same year. Sir Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale in Virginia undoubtedly knew this book and knew too that the colonies described by Lescarbot were planted within the territory comprehended in King James's patents. The charter of Virginia directed the governor "to repel and resist, as well by sea as by land, by all ways and means whatsoever, all and every person and persons . . . who shall attempt to inhabit within the said several precincts and limits." The "precincts," as defined in the same instrument, covered all the territory between the 34th and 45th parallels of latitude. The colonists were also authorized to " take and surprise " unlicensed ships found trading in any harbors within the same limits. Argall was, therefore, not only authorized but commanded to break up the French settlements at " Santa Cruz and Port Royal." As the nations were at peace it was given out that he was going

Argall was undoubtedly a bold, resolute, somewhat ruthless and unscrupulous man of action, but his exploits do not seem to deserve the superfluous condemnation bestowed on them. It would not be very difficult to rehabilitate his character and set him in the line of the English sea kings whose deeds, though quite as piratical as those of Argall, are extolled as heroic.

fishing, but his equipment, a " man of warre," armed with fourteen guns and manned by sixty musketeers, was hardly one for a peaceful fishing voyage. He was on his way to execute his orders when the information gained from the Indians led him first to the newer and nearer settlement at Mount Desert. There he discharged the duty laid on him vigorously and, in spite of the insinuations of Biard, without resorting to any stratagems that were not judicious and natural. The records of Virginia completely vindicate him from the common charge of piracy and mention that he was given a certificate, under the seal of the colony, declaring that he had in no way exceeded the commission given him.^ His exploit was the premonition of a great and inevitable conflict, not to be decided until, nearly one hundred and fifty years later, Wolfe climbed the Heights of Abraham.

What now was to be done with the prisoners ? Argall had no desire to take them to Virginia, and he could not leave them where they were. He treated them well and took the Jesuits to his own table. La Saussaye himself, and " at least ten others," testified that he committed upon them no act of cruelty, but showed them humanity and courtesy. Biard, writing after his return home, when he had nothing to gain by flattery, wrote