156 NATANIS-SABATIS. [Book III. lands, cheating them in trade, &c. The committee returned an affectionate address; and although the groans of the dying, from the late terrible field of battle, were sounding in their ears, they say nothing about engaging the Indians in the war, but assured them that "as soon as they could take breath from their present fight," their complaints should receive attention. Some of the Penobscots did eventually engage in the war, but we have no particulars of them. We have said before,* upon authority which will generally be received, that Natanis and Sabatis were the first Indians employed by the Americans in the revolution, and we see no reason yet to form a different opinion, although our attention has been called again to the subject, and some facts stated for our consideration, which have elicited further investigations and comparisons, of which the following is the result. Of a chief named Swausen, or Swashan, well known on the borders of New Hampshire in the latter French wars, we have before given some notice; § at that time, or about the close of those wars, he retired to St. Francis. When the revolution began, he seems to have decided on taking the part of the Americans; and with a few followers marched to Kennebeck, and with some of the Norridgewoks rendezvoused at Cobbossee, now Gardiner, at the mouth of the Cobbosseeconta River. Over the Norridgewoks, or Pequawkets, or some of both, was a chief, named Paul Higgins, who, though a white man, had lived so long among Indians, that to all intents he was one of them. He was born at Berwick, but had been taken captive when quite young, and spent most of his days with them. This company set out for Cambridge, the head quarters of General Washington, about the beginning of August, 1775, under the direction of one Reuben Coburn. There were 20 or 30 of them, "and they were rowed down in canoes to Merrymeeting Bay by their squaws;" here they left them, and proceeded to Cambridge on foot, where they arrived about the 13 August. They tendered their services to the general, who gave them all the encouragement he could, consistently, but evidently advised them to remain neutral.¶ Swashan said half of his tribe was ready to join the Americans, and that four or five other tribes stood ready, if wanted, and that the Canadians were in favor of the Americans also; and this was the general opinion, and corresponds with accounts given by intelligent settlers on the frontiers. They say, "We have had positive accounts from many of the Indian tribes, who have been applied to by Governor Carleton to distress the settlements; but they say they have no offence from the people, and will not make war on them. The French, too, say it is a war of our own raising, and they will have no part in it." 17** We hear no more of Swashan. Of ASSACAMBUIT, an extended account has been given, and we should not again recur to him, but to correct the statement, that "nothing was heard of him from 1708 to the time of his death." We have since found that in 1714, he was at Portsmouth, upon a friendly visit with several other Indians. On the 10 May of that year, as the Indians were about to leave the place, "the council of N. H. ordered their treasurer to furnish him and his companions with necessary provisions and liquors to carry them to their several habitations." *Page 136, ante, of this Book. In a polite and obliging manner, by WM. S. BARTLETT, Esq., of Little Falls, N. Y. As early as May 19th, 1775, the provincial congress of Massachusetts "Voted, That Captain John Lane have enlisting papers delivered to him, for raising a company of Indians at the eastward." |