on the west side of the river might now have been subject to the President of the United States, and part have been doing homage to the Queen of England. On the one side of the river the fugitive slave would be liable to be returned to his master, while on the other he would be as secure as in Canada.

INDIANS.

There is no evidence that this was a place much resorted to by Indians, though the Wawenocks1 inhabited the country from Sagadahock to St. George's River. It is obvious, however, that they were here occasionally. It is said that during the French war several lived along Crawford's River, and between Seven-tree Pond and Round Pond, near the latter. Stone hatchets, chisels, and other Indian implements, have been found near the Upper Bridge, in the vicinity of which was a good place for fishing at the waterfall. About half-way between Nye's Corner and Sunnybec Pond, very near the spot where the school-house now stands, two Indian skeletons were ploughed up in repairing the road some twenty-five years since. Hatches, arrow-heads, &c. were found by the early settlers near the mouth of Crawford's River. A brass kettle, as large as a pail, was also found there. At the

P. De Charlevoix, ii. 236, 4to, Paris, 1744. [Jeffery's] Conduct of the French with Regard to Nova Scotia, p. 39, 8vo, Lond. 1754.

In this connection may be inserted an extract from a letter of the historian, William Gordon, to Arthur Lee, then in Congress. It is dated at Jamaica Plain, in Roxbury, Massachusetts, April 2, 1783. It is among the manuscripts of Arthur Lee, in the library of Harvard University:

"What may have been sent you from France, I know not; but you may DEPEND upon the following information.

"The British would not allow the boundaries of Nova Scotia to terminate at St. Croix, but demanded Kennebec at first, and afterwards insisted upon Penobscot as their ultimatum, until Mr. Adams produced the records of the Massachusetts, and the authorities of Shirley, Pownal, Bernard, and Hutchinson, as well as the original grant of Nova Scotia by James the First to Sir William Alexander, and invited the British minister to state a written claim of Kennebec or Penobscot as the boundary of Nova Scotia, that it might be answered in writing, which brought him to reason."

1 Williamson's Maine, i. 468.

present day, various Indian implements are occasionally turned up by the plough on the farm of Joseph Gleason. There are holes on the Robbins Neck, near the outlet of Round Pond, and on the ridge near the head of Seven-tree Pond on its east side, and in other places. By some it is conjectured that Indians dug them for the purpose of burying their provisions, and by others for concealing, as far as practicable, fires which might be wanted for cooking or for comfort. Another supposition is that they are Indian cellars.

In the archives of the State of Massachusetts 1 is a journal of a scouting party, which may contain an allusion to the place when a wilderness. It has been suggested that it was probably the journal of Capt. Matthias Remely.2 "Oct. 13, 1757, I went out myself to a place called Sterling,3 which is about nineteen miles up the river, divided my men into small scouts; some went up the river sundry miles, others towards the back of Broad Bay."

David Dické, of Warren, says that an Indian was

1 MS. vol. 38, A, p. 297.

2 For this suggestion, and for important information, the reader is indebted to Cyrus Eaton, Esq. of Warren; who, though laboring under the misfortune which called forth one of the most admirable apostrophes of Milton, has made a valuable collection of materials, which, by the assistance of a dutiful daughter in delicate health, have been put together so as to make an important work respecting the settlements on St. George's River, and particularly respecting the town of Warren.

In the American Quarterly Register, xiii. 162, is an account of Lutherans in Waldoborough. There are sketches of some of the towns in Maine in different "Historical Collections." There are no town histories which make separate volumes but the following: William White's History of Belfast, 12mo; Belfast, 1827, pp. 120. George Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford, 12mo; Saco, 1830, pp. 331. William Willis's History of Portland, 2 vols. 8vo; Portland, 1831 and 1833, pp. 243, 355. Jonathan D. Weston's History of Eastport and Vicinity, 8vo; Boston, 1834, pp. 61. Charles Bradbury's History of Kennebunk Port, 12mo; Kennebunk, 1837, pp. 301. Thomas Parker's History of Farmington, 8vo; Farmington, 1846, pp. 136. William Allen's History of Norridgewock, 12mo; Norridgewock, 1849, pp. 252. J. W. Hanson's History of Norridgewock and Canaan, 12mo; Boston, 1849, pp. 372.

3 The Sterling here alluded to was part of Warren.

buried on Seven-tree Island, some time before the settlement of the town; and because earth was scarce, or because he was an Indian of consequence, a mound or pile of stones, chiefly flat, was placed over the remains. The stones, he adds, were carried away, and used at South Union, in building a chimney or an oven, which was put up, either by the first or the second party of settlers, for the purpose of cooking. Phinehas Butler, of Thomaston, has no recollection of it, and thinks it certainly could not have been so.

Not any Indians were living here when the first settlers came. They often visited the town afterwards, "hunted along almost every year," and were on friendly terms with the inhabitants. "The white children and the pappooses slid down hill and played together like school children." The Indians sometimes solicited the whites to accompany them in hunting. Once, Philip Robbins went, in accordance with an Indian's request; and they killed two old bears and either one or two cubs, which they found under the root of a tree that had been blown down. In the year 1777, a company of six encamped between Philip Robbins's and the river. "One of the Indians punished his child for stealing (or carrying off from about the house where he had found it) the broken bowl of an iron spoon."2 Samuel Boggs had been to Sunnybec to make tree-nails, and there his mare died in foaling. The Indians were exceedingly straitened for food, and called the flesh very good moose-beef.3 They also brought away some of the foal, and it was all the food they had when they

came.

During one winter, some Indian families were encamped near the head of Seven-tree Pond; and during another there were several near the brook between Jessa Robbins and Moses Hawes. None, however, resided a long time in the town.

1 Mrs. Dunton.

H. True, M.D.

Jessa Robbins.

3

HART'S AND BOGGS'S ESCAPE.

There is a story that Stephen Hart, uncle of William Hart, when stationed at the fort in Thomaston, was in a float with Samuel Boggs, trapping in Crawford's Pond. They discovered Indians on Miller's Rocky Point at the north end of the Pond, and immediately directed their course homeward. The Indians, supposing they would naturally go down the St. George's, ran to intercept them on their way to Seven-tree Pond. The hunters, anticipating this movement, instead of taking the route, hastened towards the south end of Crawford's Pond. As they passed the point at the extremity of the island, they saw seven Indians on the western shore. They plied their paddles with increased vigor. Having thrown their traps overboard, they landed on the south shore, and, with the adroitness of hunters, fled towards their home. The Indians, having discovered their mistake, pursued them. The parties crossed each other's tracks two or three times. Hart and his companion, however, succeeded in getting safely into the fort, though they were fired upon just before they arrived there. This adventure may have occurred in the Old French or Seven Years' War; or it may have been later, as the Indians were jealous of the white hunters, and sometimes disposed, even in peace, to wreak vengeance on them as intruders.1

DICKE' AND THE COMET.

The only other incident, known to have occurred here before the settlement by the whites, was communicated in the following words: "In 1769, William Dické went up to Union alone to hunt for beaver. Night and storm coming on, he landed on Seven-tree Island, sheltered himself from the rain beneath his inverted float, and slept till the tempest abated and the clouds broke away. Then, looking out, he beheld for the first time the comet of that year, with its long, fiery, fan-shaped train, glaring in all its sublimity.

1 Fisher Hart and John F. Hart.

Being but seventeen years of age, quite illiterate, and wholly ignorant of the cause or even the existence of such phenomena, we may well imagine the surprise and terror it gave him. Being told it was a sign of war, and finding it verified by the revolutionary contest, he became unalterably fixed in the belief; and, when a similar one appeared in 1811, he confidently and successfully predicted the war with Great Britain, which followed the next year."

CHAPTER III.

PLANTATION HISTORY, 1772-1775.

1772, 1773, First Settlers.-The Anderson Party.-1774, Plan of Anderson's Lot. - Purchase of the Township by Dr. John Taylor; his Arrival with the Butlers and others. - First Public Act of Devotion.-Frightened Moose. Occupation of the Anderson Camp. Clearing commenced. High Words with the Anderson Party. - Taylor's Return to Massachusetts. - Deed to Taylor. 1775, Taylor in Congress. - Butlers again at Work. First Rye sowed. - Butlers go West. Taylor comes back and labors. Butlers return: are hired out to Benjamin Packard. Packard's Log-house. -- Timber for Taylor's Buildings. - Privations. Butler and the Bear.

1772, 1773.

THE first white people who located themselves in town, probably came in September or October, 1772. Archibald Anderson and James Anderson, from the part of Warren called Stirling;1 James Malcom, from

1 The name is derived from the Stirling in Scotland, from which the settlers originated. Although the records commonly spell Sterling, Sterlington, and Sterlingtown, with an e, it is evidently wrong, as the place in Scotland is spelt with an i. Lord Stirling, a general in the American army in the Revolution, who made claim to the earldom of Stirling (which he was believed to have legally established, but against which the House of Lords decided), spelled his name in the same way. See Sedgwick's Life of William Livingston, 214,