dren. Such were his views of riches, regions, sovereignty, and even glory, that he could not see how all of them combined could be any motive to so unnatural a warfare. Liberty, next to peace, was the sweetest sound that could salute Orono's ear. It was, to his experience, the gift and feeling of nature. In conference with his people, he declared it to be an inborn disposition of the heart, and natural habit of life, to strive against force and con-. trol, as against death. He felt it. He knew it. The wild creatures that rove through the woods he had seen happy though hungry, because they were under no ties that bound them. The brave little beaver fights a duel with a hunter-boy for the chance of escape. What being does not sigh and sicken in confinement? Does not even the spring-bird, then, forget its song?-the ermine its sports? All nature flourishes, when free. The Great Spirit gives us freely all things. Our white brothers tell us, they came to Indian's country to enjoy liberty and life. Their great sagamore is coming to bind them in chains, to kill them. We must fight him. We will stand on the same ground with them. For should he bind them in bonds, next he will treat us as bears. Indians' liberties and lands his proud spirit will tear away from them. Help his illtreated sons; they will return good for good, and the law of love run through the hearts of their children and ours, when we are dead. Look down the stream of time. Look up to the Great Spirit. Be kind, be valiant, be freethen are Indians the sons of glory.

Aroused and captivated by Orono's sentiments, his people generally became decided Whigs. He had also great influence with the sachems at Passamaquoddy, and even at the river St. John, though in each of the tribes there were Indian Tories, and party spirit ran high; human nature, whether cultivated or wild, exhibiting the same traits of character. At length, Orono and three of his colleagues started to go and tender their friendship and services to the government of Massachusetts, attended by Andrew Gilman, who could speak their language as well as his own. On their arrival at Portsmouth, money was liberally contributed to bear their expenses, and a carriage procured to help them on their journey. They met the

Provincial Congress at Watertown, June 21, 1775, and entered into a treaty of amity with that body, and of engagements to afford assistance; afterwards proving themselves to be among the most faithful allies of the American people. In return for their pledges of good faith and immediate aid, Massachusetts forbade, under severe penalties, all trespasses on their lands, six miles in width on each side of Penobscot River from the head of the tide upwards. On the 19th of July, 1776, the three tribes mentioned all acknowledged the independence of the United States, and engaged to withhold all succours from the British enemy. In fact, there were stationed near the head of the tide on the Penobscot a company of thirty (twenty white men and ten Indians), under the command of Andrew Gilman, a lieutenant, and Joseph Munsell, an orderly-sergeant, both previously mentioned; and at Machias, where Munsell was afterwards himself a lieutenant, there was a large company of one hundred Indians or more, commanded by Captain John Preble, all of whom had rations, and most of them were under pay. No man was more faithful to his engagements than Orono. From 1779, when the British took possession of the peninsula 'Biguydun (now Castine), and exercised an arbitrary command over all the settlements on each side of the river, that active, vigilant chief communicated with great despatch to our officers and government important and repeated intelligence; for which he once, if not more, received a tribute of special thanks, and also a pecuniary reward. He was wise in counsel, and his zeal to the last was inspiring to his tribe.

Orono was holden in equally high estimation after the war as before; and in 1785 and 1796, he entered into favorable treaties with Massachusetts, by which he and his tribe, for valuable considerations, assigned to her large tracts of land; and also agreed with her upon the limits and extent of the territory retained. This celebrated chief, after a very long life of usefulness and distinction, died at Oldtown, February 5, 1802; reputed to have been one hundred and thirteen years old. But Captain Munsell, who conversed with him in his last sickness, and asked him his

VOL. IX.

*

* See Alden's Epitaphs, Vol. I., No. 69.
12

age, thinks, according to his best recollection, Orono told him he was about one hundred and ten years of age at that time. He was exceedingly endeared to his tribe, and highly respected by all his English acquaintance. To a remarkable degree, he retained his mental faculties and erect attitude, till the last years of his life. As he was always abstemious, and as his hair in his last years -was of a milky whiteness, he resembled, in appearance, a cloistered saint. His wife, who was a full-blooded native, died several years after him, at an age supposed to be greater than his own. Of his posterity, it is only known that he had two children; one a son, who was accidentally shot, about 1774, in a hunting party, aged probably twenty-five; the other a daughter, who married old Captain Nicholar. So desirous were his English friends and neighbours to perpetuate his name and character, that, when the territory in the immediate vicinity of Oldtown was incorporated into a town, March 12, 1806, it was called " Orono," in compliment to the worthy old chief.

A few years after Orono's death, perhaps in 1806-7, the tribe chose AITTEON their chief sagamore. He was a very contemplative, sensible man. Having occasion, however, in the course of a few years, to transact some business for his tribe with the Massachusetts government, he and two other Indians took a water-passage to Boston. Oppressed with anxiety and care for his people, and perplexed with the business on hand, he fell into a state of derangement, and stabbed himself, in Boston, so badly that he soon died. This was about the year 1811, an event much lamented.

He was immediately succeeded by Jo LOLAN (in English, Joseph Loring). Of all the Tarratine sagamores, his abilities were the most slender, and his wisdom the least. He was wholly Indian; chosen more on account of his parentage than his capacities, his mother being noted for her wisdom, beauty, and amiableness. Lolan's period of ruling the tribe as chief was short, as he died about 1815. His son was more capable than he, and did the greater part of the father's business while he lived.

Next, JOHN AITTEON, son of the preceding sagamore

Aitteon, was chosen chief of the tribe; and on the 19th of September, 1816, was inducted into office with great formality. He is a man of light complexion, of a pleasant countenance, considerable abilities, and manifestly of a mixed extraction, French and Indian. He is the present sagamore. JOHN NEPTUNE is the lieutenant-governor or sub-sachem. He is a pristine native, as evinced abundantly by his features, eyes, hair, and complexion. FRANCis, the first captain, is the most intelligent, and speaks English the best, of any in the tribe. Neptune, he, and two other captains were inducted into office at the same time Aitteon was, and with the same ceremonies.

INDIAN TRIBES IN NEW ENGLAND.

BY WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.

TO REV. THADDEUS M. HARRIS, S. T. D., Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society.

SIR,As the Indian tribes in New England will probably in length of time become extinct, I have thought any facts in relation to them would be interesting to the curious and critical antiquarian ; therefore I have penned the following sketches, which I submit to your disposal. Yours, most respectfully.

Bangor, April 15, 1839.

WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.

AT the present period, there are three tribes of Eastern Indians remaining, that still retain their individual clanship and community of character. These are the Tarratines, on the Penobscot; the Openangos,* at Passamaquoddy; and the Marechites, on the river St. John. The modern names by which they are called are taken from the respective waters where they are resident. For more than thirty years, the writer of this sketch has had some particular knowledge of these tribes, and with several individuals, especially of the Tarratines, he has had a personal acquaintance.

According to their own traditions, in which they all agree, they proceeded from the same stock, and were originally, as they state the fact, children of the same parents; the Tarratines being the eldest, the Mare

* There is some doubt if "Openadyo" be the original name of this tribe.