Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/68

 32 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Almouchiquois by the Souriquois. Chouacoet (probably Saco) is noticed by Champlain as being the first place along the sea- shore w here there was any cultivation. The Indians of the mouth of the Kennebec planted nothing, and informed him, that those who cultivated maize lived far inland or up the river. These bland cultivating Indians were the well-known Abenakis, con- sisting of several tribes, the principal of which were the Penob- scot, the Norridgewock, and the Ameriscoggins. And it is not improbable that the Indians at the mouth of both rivers, though confounded by Champlain with the Etchemins, belonged to the same nation. The two Etchemin tribes, viz. the Passamaquoddies in the United States, and the St. John Indians in New Brunswick, speaking, both the same language, are not yet extinct. The vocabulary of the Passamaquoddies by Mr. Kellogg was ob- tained from the War Department. The vocabulary of the Abenakis is extracted from the valua- ble manuscript of Father Rasle, (the Norridgewock Missionary,) lately published, at Boston, under the care of Mr. Pickering, by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Penobscot tribe, consisting of about three hundred souls, still exists on the river of that name. The vocabulary of their language is extracted from two manuscripts, one taken by General Treat and obtained from Governor E. Lin- coln, the other in M. Duponceau's collection, taken by Mr. R. Gardiner of Maine. The dialects of those three eastern na- tions, the Micmacs, the Etchemins, and the Abenakis, have great affinities with each other, but, though evidently belonging to the same stock, differ widely from the Algonkin language. They were all early converted by the Jesuits, remained firmly attached to the French, and, till the conquest of Canada, were in an almost perpetual state of hostility with the British colonists. In the year 1754, all the Abenakis, with the exception of the Penobscots, withdrew to Canada; and that tribe was consider- ed by the others as deserters from the common cause. They, as well as the Passamaquody and St. John Indians, remained neuter during the war of Independence. The dividing line between the Abenakis and the New Eng- land Indians, which is also that of language, was at some place between the Kennebec and the River Piscataqua. Governor Sullivan placed it at the River Saco : and this is corroborated by the mention made by the French writers of a tribe called Sokokies, represented as being adjacent to l^ew England and to the Abenakis, originally in alliance with the Iroquois, but