THOMAS] Massachusetts' policy toward the Indians (109 



setts: " Whatever may liave been the failinj^s of the rtiritaii settlers, 

 they ('anuot be charged with wauton and ])riri)oseless enielty. Greed 

 iu despoiling the natives of their land, unreasonable and unjust sus- 

 picion in anticipating- attacks, harshness in punishing them, of none of 

 these can we acquit the New Engianders." 



As the province of Maine was abandoned by Gorges in 1G51, and by 

 consent of the jieople taken under control of Massachusetts in l(i52 

 and made a part of that (polony by the new charter of Ki'.tl, a brief 

 reference to some dealings with the Indians in regard to the lands of 

 that province is made here. 



The following items are from the Collections and Proceedings of the 

 Maine Historical Society. 



In a letter by Governor Shuts to the Lords Commissioners for Trade 

 and Plantations, March 13, ITl'l, it is stated that — 



Those lands which the French Goveininent calls the Indians' land, are lands which 

 the English have long since purchased of the Indians, and have good deeds vo 

 produce for the same, and have also erected some Forts thereupon. And that the 

 said lands have been at several gen', meetings of the Indians and English conlirmed 

 to them, and once since my being Governour of these Provinces; as will .appear by 

 the inclosed treaty of the 19"' August 1717. 



In another letter to Marques de Vaudreil (1722) he says : "Arowsick 

 is a small island at the mouth of one of our chief rivers, purchased by 

 good deeds from the natives near seventy j^ears agone, and settled 

 with a good English village about fifty years since.'' The following 

 important item relating to one point in the method of treating with the 

 Indians in this eastern province is also contained in the same letter: 

 "Now it is notorious that, at all times when this government accepted 

 the submission of, or treated with these eastern Indians, their delegates 

 or some of their chiefs were present and produced their ])owers or cre- 

 dentials from the tribe." 



In a letter from Governor Dunimer to the same party it is stated that 

 ''the Penobscot Indians, Norridgcwalk Indians, and many other tribes 

 had in the year 160.3 at a treaty of Sir AVilliam Pliipps governor of 

 this Province, not only submitted themselves as subjects to the crown 

 of England, but also renounced the French interest and quitted claim 

 to the lands bought and iiosscssed by the English." 



In volume IV, second series, page 303, of the collections cited occurs 

 this remark: "Levett's probity was as marked as his sagacity, and 

 instead of seizing upon the land by virtue of his English patent, he ijro- 

 cured from Cogawesco, the sagamore of Casco, and his wife, ])ermission 

 to occupy it, recognizing them as inhabitants of the country, and as 

 having 'a natural right of inheritance therein.' This is in marked 

 contrast to most other patentees of lands in New England." 



These items, to which others of similar import might be added, indi- 

 cate a just policy in regard to that part of the territory which came 

 under the authority of Massachusetts. They are sufficient to .show 



