362 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1694. 



wamkeag, where he found the chief Taxous, pad- 

 dled with him down the Penobscot, and, at midnight 

 on the tenth, landed at a large Indian village, at 

 or near the place now called Passadumkeag. Here 

 he found a powerful ally in the Jesuit Vincent 

 Bigot, who had come from the Kennebec, with 

 three Abenaki s, to urge their brethren of the Pen- 

 obscot to break off the peace. The chief envoy 

 denounced the treaty of Pemaquid as a snare ; and 

 Villieu exhorted the assembled warriors to follow 

 him to the English border, where honor and profit 

 awaited them. But first he invited them to go 

 back with him to Naxouat to receive their presents 

 of arms, ammunition, and every thing else that 

 they needed. 



They set out with alacrity. Villieu went with them, 

 and they all arrived within a week. They were 

 feasted and gifted to their hearts' content; and 

 then the indefatigable officer led them back by the 

 same long and weary routes which he had passed 

 and repassed before, rocky and shallow streams, 

 chains of wilderness lakes, threads of water writh- 

 ing through swamps where the canoes could 

 scarcely glide among the water-weeds and alders. 

 Villieu was the only white man. The governor, 

 as he says, would give him but two soldiers, and 

 these had run off. Early in June, the whole 

 flotilla paddled clown the Penobscot to Pentegeot. 

 Here the Indians divided their presents, which 

 they found somewhat less ample than they had 

 imagined. In the midst of their discontent, Ma- 

 dockawando came from Pemaquid with news that 



