Notes

York, was for many years the terror of the Eastern Indians. In one of his expeditions up the Kennebec River, at the head of a party of rangers, he discovered twenty of the savages asleep by a large fire. Cautiously creeping towards them until he was certain of his aim, he ordered his men to single out their objects.

The first discharge killed or mortally wounded the whole number of the unconscious sleepers.

83. For vengeance left his vine-hung isle. Wood Island, near the mouth of the Saco. It was visited by the Sieur de Monts and Champlain, in 1603. The following extract, from the journal of the latter, relates to it: 'Having left the Kennebec, we ran along the coast to the westward, and cast anchor under a small island, near the mainland, where we saw twenty or more natives. I here visited an island, beautifully clothed with a fine growth of forest trees, particularly of the oak and walnut; and overspread with vines, that, in their season, produce excellent grapes. We named it the island of Bacchus.'-Les Voyages de Sieur Champlain, liv. 2, c. 8.

He was supposed to have been killed by the Indians; but this is doubted by the able and indefatigable author of the History of Saco and Biddeford.-Part I. p. 115.

85. From the leaping brook to the Saco River.

bog, called the Heath,' in Saco, containing thirteen hundred acres. In this brook, and surrounded by wild and romantic scenery, is a beautiful waterfall, of more than sixty feet.

Foxwell's Brook flows from a marsh or

86. Where zealous Hiacoomes stood.

Hiacoomes, the first Christian preacher on Martha's Vineyard; for a biography of whom the reader is referred to Increase Mayhew's account of the Praying Indians, 1726. The following is related of him: One Lord's day, after meeting, where Hiacoomes had been preaching, there came in a Powwaw very angry, and said, I know all the meeting Indians are liars. You say you don't care for the Powwaws;" then calling two or three of them by name, he railed at them, and told them they were deceived, for the Powwaws could kill all the meeting Indians, if they set about it. But Hiacoomes told him that he would be in the midst of all the Powwaws in the island, and they should do the utmost they could against him; and when they should do their worst by their witchcraft to kill him, he would without fear set himself against them, by remembering Jehovah. He told them also he did put all the Powwaws under his heel. Such was the faith of this good man. Nor were these Powwaws ever able to do these Christian Indians any hurt, though others were frequently hurt and killed by them.'Mayhew, pp. 6, 7, c. I.

84. The hunted outlaw, Bonython. John Bonython was the son of Richard Bonython, Gent., one of the most efficient and able magistrates of the Colony. John proved to be 'a degenerate plant.' In 1635, we find by the Court Records that, for some offence, he was fined 40s. In 1640, he was fined for abuse toward R. Gibson, the minister, and Mary, his wife. Soon after he was fined for disorderly conduct in the house of his father. In 1645, the 'Great and General Court adjudged John Bonython outlawed, and incapable of any of his Majesty's laws, and proclaimed him a rebel.' (Court Records of the Province, 1645.) In 1651, he bade defiance to the laws of Massachusetts, and was again outlawed. He acted independently of all law and authority; and hence, doubtless, "The tooth-ache,' says Roger Williams his burlesque title of the Sagamore of in his observations upon the language and Saco,' which has come down to the present customs of the New England tribes, ‘is generation in the following epitaph:- the only paine which will force their stoute hearts to cry.' He afterwards Here lies Bonython, the Sagamore of Saco; remarks that even the Indian women He lived a rogue, and died a knave, and went to never cry as he has heard 'some of their Hobomoko.

By some means or other, he obtained a large estate. In this poem, I have taken some liberties with him, not strictly warranted by historical facts, although the conduct imputed to him is in keeping with his general character. Over the last years of his life lingers a deep obscurity. Even the manner of his death is uncertain.

87. Because she cries with an ache in her tooth.

men in this paine.'

kan, 'It is sweet.' Vide Roger Williams's 88. Wuttamuttata, 'Let us drink." WeeKey to the Indian Language, in that parte of America called New England.’— London, 1643, p. 35.

89. Wetuomanit,-a house god, or demon. They-the Indians-have given me the

names of thirty-seven gods which I have, tion de ce qui s'est dans le pays des Hurons, all which in their solemne Worships they 1640, C. 3, we have nothing but a miserinvocate!'-R. Williams's Briefe Observa-able piece of bark of a tree; for nourishtions of the Customs, Manners, Worships, etc., of the Natives, in Peace and Warre, in Life and Death: on all which is added Spiritual Observations, General and Particular, of Chiefe and Special use-upon all occasions to all the English inhabiting these parts; yet Pleasant and Profitable to the view of all Mene: p. 110, C. 21.

90. Which marks afar the Desert Isle. Mt. Desert Island, the Bald Mountain upon which overlooks Frenchman's and Penobscot Bay. It was upon this island that the Jesuits made their earliest settlement.

91. Half trembling, as he seeks to look. Father Hennepin, a missionary among the Iroquois, mentions that the Indians believed him to be a conjurer, and that they were particularly afraid of a bright silver chalice which he had in his possession. The Indians,' says Père Jerome Lallamant, fear us as the greatest sorcerers on earth.'

92. For Bomazeen from Tacconock.

Bomazeen is spoken of by Penhallow as 'the famous warrior and chieftain of Norridgewock.' He was killed in the attack of the English upon Norridgewock, in 1724.

93. Like a shrouded ghost, the Jesuit stands.

ment, a handful or two of corn, either roasted or soaked in water, which seldom satisfies our hunger; and after all, not venturing to perform even the ceremonies of our religion without being considered as sorcerers.' Their success among the natives, however, by no means equalled their exertions. Pere Lallamant says: 'With respect to adult persons, in good health, there is little apparent success; on the contrary, there have been nothing but storms and whirlwinds from that quarter.'

Sebastian Ralle established himself, some time about the year 1670, at Norridgewock, where he continued more than forty years. He was accused, and perhaps not without justice, of exciting his Praying Indians against the English, whom he looked upon as the enemies not only of his king, but also of the Catholic religion. He was killed by the English in 1724, at the foot of the cross which his own hands had planted. His Indian church was broken up, and its members either killed outright or dispersed.

In a letter written by Ralle to his nephew he gives the following account of his church and his own labors: 'All my converts repair to the church regularly twice every day: first, very early in the morning, to attend mass, and again in the evening, to assist in the prayers at sunset. As it is necessary to fix the imagination of savages, whose attention Père Ralle, or Rasles, was one of the is easily distracted, I have composed most zealous and indefatigable of that prayers, calculated to inspire them with band of Jesuit missionaries who at the just sentiments of the august sacrifice of beginning of the seventeenth century our altars: they chant, or at least recite penetrated the forests of America, with them aloud, during mass. Besides preachthe avowed object of converting the heathen. The first religious mission of the Jesuits to the savages in North America was in 1611. The zeal of the fathers for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith knew no bounds. For this they plunged into the depths of the wilderness; habituated themselves to all the hardships and privations of the natives; suffered cold, hunger, and some of them death itself, by the extremest tortures. Père Brebeuf, after laboring in the cause of his mission for twenty years, together with his companion, Père Lallamant, was burned alive. To these might be added the names of those Jesuits who were put to death by the Iroquois, Daniel, Garnier, Buteaux, La Riborerde, Goupil, Constantin, and Liegeouis. For bed,' says Father Lallamant, in his Rela

ing to them on Sundays and saints' days, I seldom let a working-day pass without making a concise exhortation, for the purpose of inspiring them with horror at those vices to which they are most addicted, or to confirm them in the practice of some particular virtue.'-Vide Lettres Edifiantes et Cur., vol. vi. p. 127.

94. Pale priest! What proud and lofty dreams.

The character of Ralle has probably never been correctly delineated. By his brethren of the Romish Church, he has been nearly apotheosized. On the other hand, our Puritan historians have represented him as a demon in human form. He was undoubtedly sincere in his devotion to the interests of his church, and not over-scrupulous as to the means of

advancing those interests. "The French,' the leader of the combined French and

says the author of the History of Saco and Indian forces which destroyed Deerfield Biddeford, after the peace of 1713, secretly and massacred its inhabitants, in 1703. promised to supply the Indians with arms He was afterwards killed in the attack and ammunition, if they would renew upon Haverhill. Tradition says that, on hostilities. Their principal agent was examining his dead body, his head and the celebrated Ralle, the French Jesuit.'-face were found to be perfectly smooth, p. 215. without the slightest appearance of hair or beard.

95. Where are De Rouville and Castine. Hertel de Rouville was an active and unsparing enemy of the English. He was

96. Cowesass?-tawhich wessaseen?
Are you afraid?-why fear you?

t

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST

THIS list follows the dates given with the poems. In the few cases where the dates have not been determined exactly, the poems are placed in the group with which they were published, when collected in volumes. The order is by years, and no attempt has here been made to preserve the exact order of composition under the year.