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The Pilgrim Fathers on the

Kennebec

By EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON

HERE is always a great charm in the beginning of things; and to trace to its origin a local tradition has untold fascination. But when, having followed one such story to its source, we find it to be veritable history, and not that only but the history of the founders of the Plymouth Colony, then we wonder why such a record was suffered to pass into the realm of the half-forgotten.

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The story of the Pilgrim Fathers on the Kennebec is one of the most interesting and important in the early annals of New England, yet it has lapsed into an almost legendary form, and today, many of the dwellers on the banks of the Kennebec are unaware that the Pilgrim Fathers were ever sojourners on its shores. Nevertheless it is true that more than a hundred years before the erection of old Fort Western which is still standing in the city of Augusta, there was a flourishing English trading-post in this locality; and here for thirty-four years the men of Plymouth dwelt beside the Abenaki Indians and carried on a profitable trade with the aboriginal inhabitants of Maine. Of this long period no consecutive record exists. We can only ask, Who came and went as the Pilgrim barque plied back and forth between Plymouth harbor and the Kennebec? Who were the successive commandants of the trading-post? How

did these men live in this remote region? What did they learn of the life, character and ancient traditions of that remarkable people whom the early voyagers called the "Gentle Abenakis," and what did they gain. from their traffic and intercourse with these Indians?

In order to answer these questions one must search carefully not only the writings of the early New England chroniclers and historians but also the works of the first French missionaries and voyagers, and especially the Jesuit records kept at Quebec and Montreal.

In the writings of the early New England historians the references to the coast of Maine and the Kennebec are comparatively few and brief, but every one is of inestimable value; and in these scanty records there are two facts which stand out with remarkable significance. The first is, that when the Pilgrim colonists were on the verge of starvation their lives were saved by supplies from Pemaquid and the adjacent islands. The second is, that when the Pilgrim Fathers were on the verge of despair and hopelessly discouraged in regard to their finances they were enabled through the profits of their trade on the Kennebec river to discharge their obligations to the London Company and thus establish their colony in the New World.

The students of New England

history have already recognized the fact that there were important settlements well established in Maine long before the landing of the Pilgrims, and that the early colony on the Maine coast was neither a daughter of Plymouth nor in any way dependent upon the Plymouth Colony. It is also known that there were profitable fishing and trading-posts at Pemaquid, New Harbor, Damariscove and Monhegan already existing in such a flourishing condition that they were able to send supplies to Plymouth at the time when the Pilgrims were dying of famine. In these fair havens on the Maine coasts an extensive trade had been carried on since 1607; and in 1622, when Edward Winslow came hither for supplies he found more than "thirty sail of ships" at anchor, or fishing, in the Pemaquid waters. Gov. Winslow himself tells us in his "Good News From New England" that "about the end of May, 1622, our store of victuals was wholly spent having lived long before with a bare and short allowance." Learning of the plenty that prevailed on the Maine coast Winslow was sent there by Gov. Bradford. "Here," writes Winslow, "I found kind entertainment with a willingness to supply our wants. * * They would not take any bills (of Exchange) for these supplies but did what they could freely * * and supplied our necessities for which they sorrowed, provoking one another to free gifts for the colony to the utmost of their abilities." "In the time of these straits," adds Winslow, "we must have perished unless God had raised up some unknown or extraordinary means for our preservation."

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But the years of plenty which foliowed the famine afforded little be

yond what was needed for the support of the colony at Plymouth and the leaders were overwhelmed by their debt to the London Adventurers. In the year 1626, this debt, which amounted to eighteen hundred pounds sterling with six hundred pounds additional due to other creditors, was assumed by Gov. Bradford, Myles Standish, Isaac Allerton, William Brewster, John Howland, John Alden and Thomas Prence. These men undertook the payment of the public debt, and this they accomplished by their fur trade with the Indians on the Kennebec.

To Edward Winslow belongs the honor of founding and establishing the ancient Kennebec trading-post. In the year 1625, accompanied by six comrades he came with a shallopload of corn to trade with the Indians at Koussinoc where the city of Augusta now stands. At this period the shores of the Kennebec were a primeval forest unbroken except here and there by small clearings where the Abenaki Indians built their villages and cultivated their fields of corn. It is said that there were at this time thirteen Abenaki villages on the banks of the Kennebec and along the coast of Maine, and numerous round stone hearths where the Indians had their council-fires may still be seen up and down the valley of the Kennebec. Winslow at once saw the possibilities for trade with the Indians of this river, for the Kennebec was the great water-way leading from Moosehead Lake and the forests of Canada. If a trading-post were established near the Indian village at Koussinoc, all the hunters would speedily learn of this market for their peltries. At the same time it would be so far from the sea that

it would not attract the attention of the fishing and sailing vessels that were always on the lookout for traffic with the Indians on the coast. The first voyage of the Plymouth men was very successful. As Gov. Bradford tells us, "It was made by Mr. Winslow and some of ye old Standards, for seamen had we none." These brave landsmen started out from Plymouth in a little vessel built for them by the house-carpenter of the colony. "They had laid a deck over her midships," writes Gov. Bradford, "to keep ye corne dry but ye men were fain to stand out in all weathers without shelter, and at this season of the year it begins to grow tempestuous, but God preserved them and gave them good success for they brought home 700 pounds of beaver besides. some furs, having little or nothing else but this corne which they themselves had raised out of the earth." Encouraged by this success the colony began life with new hope, and the Plymouth merchants at once determined to build a permanent trading-house on the Kennebec. "In 1627," continues Bradford, "having procured a patent for the Kennebec, they erected a house above in ye river in ye most convenient place for trade (as they conceived) and furnished the same with commodities for that end, both summer and winter, not only with corne but with such other commodities as ye fishermen had traded with them, as coats, shirts, rugs and blankets, pease, prunes, etc., and what they could not get out of England they bought of the fishing ships, and so carried on their business as well as they could." A little later the Pilgrims were able to secure a large amount of wampum which was made only by the

Narragansetts, Pequots, or other coast tribes, and which the Indians of the interior were very eager to obtain, and the control of this currency gave the Plymouth men a great advantage over any other traders who might wish to buy furs of the Kennebec Indians. The shipments of beaver from the Kennebec to England from 1631 to 1636 were very large, that of the year 1634 alone amounting to twenty hogsheads. These cargoes brought large profits to the Plymouth colony, especially since the whole expense of the business was defrayed by the sale of otter skins and other small peltries.

Considering these facts in regard to the early dependence of the Pilgrim Fathers upon the resources of Maine, it is surprising to learn how little the historians of Plymouth have to say of the Kennebec trading-post and the men who occupied it for so many years. It has even been intimated that the Pilgrim traders did not care to advertise this very profitable source of their supplies and were purposely reticent on the subject. It would, however, have been extremely interesting if Gov. Bradford had told us who those "old Standards" were who came on that first trip with Edward Winslow. Now we can only learn the names of the noted men who subsequently came to the Kennebec. Among them were Gov. Bradford, Myles Standish, John Alden, Thomas Prence, John Howland, Thomas Southworth and John Winslow; the three latter each being here for a term of years in command of the Plymouth trading-post.

What wonderful stories these men might have told us and what a remarkable volume of folk-lore they might have edited. Here was

an ancient people who claimed to be the first and only perfect creation of the Great Spirit. They had a wonderful and musical language. They had a system of writing and communication with other and distant tribes. They lived in villages; they cultivated the soil; they were gentle, unsuspicious and generous. They greeted the stranger kindly and shared with their white guests whatever they possessed, all of which was most cordially accepted; and yet how few and meager are the words which these early visitors to the Kennebec have left in acknowledgement of their debt to the Indians. We cannot plead that the men of Plymouth were ignorant, unlettered emigrants whose energies. were wholly absorbed in the struggle for existence. Edward Winslow was an educated, philanthrophic man; Gov. Bradford thought it worth while to keep the Log of the Mayflower and the records of Plymouth; Myles Standish was well versed in the Bible and the Commentaries of Caesar; while John Alden, as Longfellow writes, "was bred as a scholar" and "could say it in elegant language"; and yet these men came to these newly discovered shores where the air was scintillant with local color and the wigwams just overflowing with available material, and left us record whatever of their experience.

We cannot help wondering how these great and wise ancestors of ours did employ themselves during the long days and evenings, "both summer and winter," as Bradford writes; which for thirty-four years they passed in this remote region. They really could not have spent all their time trafficking with the Indians. And there must have been much of interest constantly tran

spiring before their eyes, for Koussinoc was the great rallying place of the Abenakis. Here the solemn councils were held every autumn before going on the great hunt to the Lake of the Moose, and here the spring-time feasts were celebrated when the braves returned laden with their trophies. Here were performed all the sacred rites and ceremonies of the tribe. At these celebrations there were games and dancing and feasting. The young braves exhibited their prowess in shooting-matches, foot races, wrestling, and ball playing. The medicine men performed their wonderful tricks in magic and jugglery, and after the feasts and games were ended the Indians gathered around their camp-fires and here the songs were sung and the tales re-told which their fathers had repeated from generation to generation.

Now we know from the valuable fragments of Abenaki of Abenaki folk-lore, which happily have been preserved to us, what a wealth of poetry and tradition these Indians once possessed. Their system of folk-lore was truly wonderful, and presented many legends which, for genial humor, poetic beauty and mythological significance, are comparable to those of any European folk-lore. Some of these tales possess a subtle sense of fun and sarcasm, others have a very curious psychological element showing that these Indians were dimly conscious of the old struggle between good and evil which is constantly going on in the human soul; and if the few legends gathered here and there at this late day from the scanty remnants of the Abenaki tribes are so wonderful, we can imagine what their folk-lore must have been in the palmy days of their tribal existence when every

village had its poet and story teller and the Men of the Dawn re-told all that their sires had taught them from the beginning of the world.

But of none of these things did the Pilgrim traders who came to the Kennebec make any record. We must therefore cease to sigh for the poetry and romance that we might have had, and content ourselves with the few historic facts which we are able to gather from English and French sources.

One of the first agents in command of the Plymouth trading-post was John Howland. Among all the notable men of the colony there was no one who bore a fairer record for bravery, efficiency and general usefulness than this sturdy youth from Essex County; and with his "military turn" and adventurous spirit Howland was well fitted for the administration of the business of the colony in this important location. He was, moreover, one of the company responsible for the public debt, and therefore especially interested in the success of the enterprise on the Kennebeck. We also find John Howland and John Alden frequently associated in the affairs of Plymouth; and in May of the year 1634, while Howland was in command at Koussinoc, John Alden came from Plymouth to bring supplies to the trading-post. The spring trade was just then opening with the Indians. One by one the great canoes glided down from the head waters of the Kennebec laden with the hunters' spoils, and a very profitable season was anticipated. It was at this time, at the height of prosperity of the Plymouth company, that the tragic Hocking affair occurred.

It seems that the Piscataqua Plantation had become very jealous of the success of the Pilgrim traders

who held complete and absolute jurisdiction over the territory in the vicinity of Koussinoc for fifteen miles up and down the river, thus controlling all the trade which came from Moosehead Lake; and having determined to secure a portion of this trade, Piscataqua sent John Hocking to intercept the Indian canoes as they came down from the lakes.

Hocking boldly sailed up the Kennebec and anchored above the Plymouth post. Howland at first went out in his barque and remonstrated with Hocking for thus infringing on the Plymouth rights, but receiving only abusive threats. in reply, he ordered Hocking to drop below the Plymouth limits. Hocking refused, and Howland sent three men in a canoe to cut Hocking's cables. The old Plymouth records state that these men were "John Irish, Thomas Rennoles and Thomas Savory." They cut one of Hocking's cables and then, as their canoe drifted down the stream, Howland ordered Moses Talbot to get into the canoe and cut the other rope. Talbot accordingly went "very reddyly," and brought the canoe back within range of Hocking's vessel. Hocking, standing on deck, carbine and pistol in hand, first presented his piece at Thomas Savory; but the canoe swung around with the tide, and Hocking put his carbine almost to Moses Talbot's head. Then Howland, springing upon the rail of his barque, shouted to Hocking not to shoot the men who were only obeying orders, but to take him for his mark, saying that he surely "stood very fayre." But Howland's bravery was in vain for Hocking would not hear, but immediately shot Talbot in the head. Whereupon, "a

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