DOVER BURNED-MAJOR WALDRON.

209

XX

in the divine right of kings to rule, and denied the right CHAP. of a people to change their form of government. Louis had for years greatly abused his power, and all Europe had 1688. suffered from his rapacity. Religious feeling exerted its influence in giving character to the war, and Protestant Holland joined heart and hand with Protestant England in opposing Catholic France.

Though the colonies were thus involved in war by the mother countries, they had different ends in view. The New Englanders had an eye to the fisheries and the protection of their northern frontiers; the French wished to extend their influence over the valleys of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, and to monopolize the fisheries as well as the fur-trade. The latter object could be obtained only by the aid of the Indians, and they were untiring in their efforts to make them friends. They could never conciliate the Mohawks, nor induce them to join in an invasion of New York. On the contrary, fifteen hundred of them suddenly appeared before Montreal, and in a few days captured that place, and committed horrible outrages upon the people.

Thus stood matters when Frontenac, for the second 1689. time, appeared as governor of New France. To make the savages respect him as a warrior, he set on foot a series of incursions against the English colonies. The eastern Indians were incited to attack Dover in New Hampshire ;incited by the French, and also by a cherished desire for revenge. There, at the head of the garrison, was that Major Waldron who, thirteen years before, during King Philip's war, had treacherously seized two hundred of their friends, who came to him to treat of peace. He had proposed to these unsuspecting Indians a mock fight by way of entertainment; when their guns were all discharged he made them prisoners and sent them to Boston. Some of them were hanged, and others sold into slavery. The Indians in their turn employed stratagem and treachery.

CHAP. Two squaws came to Dover; they asked of the aged

XX. Waldron, now fourscore, a night's lodging. In the night

1689. they arose, unbarred the gates, and let in their friends, who lay in ambush. Their hour for vengeance had come; they made the pangs of death as bitter as possible to the brave old Waldron; his white hairs claimed from them no pity. In derision, they placed him in a chair on a table, and scored his body with gashes equal in number to their friends he had betrayed; they jeeringly asked him, "Who will judge Indians now? Who will hang our brothers? Will the pale-faced Waldron give us life for life?" They burned all the houses, murdered nearly half the inhabitants, and carried the remainder into captivity.

The

This was only the beginning of a series of horrors inflicted upon the frontier towns. The inhabitants of Schenectady, as they slept in fancied security, were startled at midnight by the terrible war-whoop of the savage, -the harbinger of untold horrors. The enemy found easy 1690. access, as the gates of the palisades were open. Feb, houses were set on fire, more than sixty persons were killed, and many helpless women and children were carried into captivity. A few escaped and fled half clad through the snow to Albany. This attack was made by a party of French and Indians from Montreal, who had toiled for twenty-two days through the snows of winter, breaking the track with snow-shoes, and using, when they could, the frozen streams as a pathway. At Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, and at Casco, similar scenes were enacted.

Such were the means the inhuman Frontenac, now almost fourscore, took to inspire terror in the minds of the English colonists, and to acquire the name of a great warrior among the Indians,-they would follow none but a successful leader. Among the early Jesuit missionaries who taught the Indians of New France, there were un

'New England History, C. W. Elliott.

EXPEDITIONS AGAINST CANADA.

211

XX.

doubtedly many good men. The priests of that generation CHAP. had passed away, and others had taken their places; these incited the recently converted savage, not to prac- 1690. tise Christian charity and love, but to pillage and murder the heretical English colonist.

King William was busy in maintaining his own cause in England, and left the colonists to defend themselves. Massachusetts proposed that they should combine, and remove the cause of their trouble by conquering Canada. Commissioners from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York met to deliberate on what course to pursue. They resolved to invade that province from New York, by way of Lake Champlain, and from Massachusetts by way of the St. Lawrence. The expedition from New York failed. Colonel Peter Schuyler led the advance with a company of Mohawks, but the ever-watchful Frontenac was prepared; his Indian allies flocked in crowds to aid him in defending Montreal. The Mohawks were repulsed and could not recover their position, as the army sent to support them was compelled to stop short; the small-pox broke out among the soldiers, and they were in want of provisions.

Meantime, the fleet of thirty-two vessels, and two thousand men, which had sailed from Boston, was endeavoring to find its way up the St. Lawrence. It was under the command of Sir William Phipps, to whose incompetency may be attributed the failure of the enterprise. An Indian runner cut across the woods from Piscataqua, and in twelve days brought the news of the intended attack to the French. Frontenac hastened to Quebec, where he arrived three days before the fleet. When it came in sight he was prepared to make a vigorous defence. A party landed, but after some skirmishing the enterprise was abandoned. While returning, the men suffered much from sickness, and storms disabled the fleet. The disappointment of the people of Massachusetts was very great;

CHAP.
XX.

1690

1694.

many
debt.

lives had been lost, and the colony was laden with

The Eastern Indians, in the mean time, were held in check by Captain Church, celebrated in King Philip's war. At one time, he so far forgot himself as to put to death his prisoners, some of whom were women and children. Such cruelty was inexcusable; and it was avenged by the savages with tenfold fury. Nearly all the settlements of what is now Maine were destroyed or abandoned. The enemy were continually prowling around the farms, watching an opportunity to shoot the men at their work. All went armed, and even the women learned to handle effectively the musket and the rifle. It was a great inducement for the Indians to go on these marauding expeditions, because they could sell for slaves to the French of Canada the women and children they took prisoners.

Peace was at length made with the Abenakis, or Eastern Indians, and there was a lull in the storm of desolation. It lasted but a year, the Indians broke the treaty. They were incited to this by their teachers, two Jesuits, Thury and Bigot, who even took pride in their atrocious work.

A

Heroic deeds were performed by men and women. small band of Indians attacked the house of a farmer named Dustin, near Haverhill. When in the fields he heard the war-whoop and the cry of distress. He hastened to the rescue, met his children, and threw himself between them and their pursuers, whom he held at bay by well-directed shots till the children were in a place of safety. His house was burned; a child only a few days old was dashed against a tree, and his wife, Hannah Dustin, and her nurse, were carried away captive. A toilsome march brought them to an island in the Merrimac, just above Concord, where their captors lived. There Mrs. Dustin, with the nurse and a boy, also a captive, planned an escape. She wished revenge, as well as to be secure

DEERFIELD DESTROYED-EUNICE WILLIAMS,

213

XX.

from pursuit. The Indians, twelve in number, were asleep. CHAP. She arose, assigned to each of her companions whom to strike; their hands were steady and their hearts firm; 1694. they struck for their lives. Ten Indians were killed, one woman was wounded, and a child was purposely saved. The heroic woman wished to preserve a trophy of the deed, and she scalped the dead. Then in a canoe the three floated down the Merrimac to Haverhill, much to the astonishment of their friends, who had given them up for lost. Such were the toils and sufferings, and such the heroism of the mothers in those days.

The friendly Mohawks had intimated to the inhabitants of Deerfield, in the valley of the Connecticut, that the enemy was plotting their destruction. The anxiety of the people was very great, and they resolved during the winter to keep a strict watch; sentinels were placed every night.

On an intensely cold night in February a company of 1704 two hundred Frenchmen, and one hundred and forty Indians, lay in ambush, waiting a favorable moment to spring upon their victims. Under the command of Hertel de Rouville, they had come all the way from Canada, on the crust of a deep snow, with the aid of snow-shoes. The sentinels, unconscious of danger, retired at dawn of day. The snow had drifted as high as the palisades, thus enabling the party to pass within the inclosure, which consisted of twenty acres. The terrible war-cry startled the inhabitants, the houses were set on fire, and forty-seven persons were ruthlessly murdered; one hundred and twelve were taken captive, among whom were the minister Williams, his wife, and five children. No pen can describe the sufferings of the captives on that dreary winter's march, driven, as they were, by relentless Frenchmen and savages. Eunice Williams, the wife, drew consolation from her Bible, which she was permitted to read when the party stopped for the night. Her strength soon failed;