Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/103

 THE TWO LAST SAGAMORES OF NEWICHAWANNOCK.

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��THE TWO LAST SAGAMORES OF NEWICHAWANNOCK

��sligo shore was his small and rudely cul- around him was a with game ; near his

��tivated cornfield : dense forest filled

��dwelling were several small moulded hills irrigated by pure, gushing springs, upon whose summit there clustered lus- cious grapes and sweet and nourishing nuts. At his fireside could be heard the gurgling waters of Assabumbadoc as they fell through the craggy chasm into the fathomless pool.

If he turned to the rising sun he saw old Agamenticus sitting upon the rim of the ocean, the pulpit of the Great Spirit, where their taaditions taught them He came down concealed in the great storm cloud to watch the angry moods of the ocean. If he turned to the

above the

��towering

��BY W. F. LOKD.

[This sketch, from the pen of the historian of Berwtck ami Somersworth, will be, we believe of sufficient interest to our readers dwelling in the eastern section of the state, as well as to all interest- ed in Indian history, to warrant its republication in the Gkanite Monthly.]

Rowles. a noted Sagamore of Newich- awannock, during its early settlement by the English, had his domicil on the easterly side of the river near Quamphea- gen falls. All the Indians from the up- per waters of the Newichawannock to the sea were his subjects, though he was under the great Passaconway. His sub- jects had been greatly diminished by the fearful plague that had flapped its ma- larious wings along the New England coast, a few years before permanent set- tlement had been made in Newichawan- nock.

He possessed the gift of prophesy and predicted to the early settlers the im- pending bloody conflicts between the Indian and white man. He said " at first the Indian will kill many and prevail but after a few years they will be great suf- ferers and finally be rooted out and de- stroyed."

The dwelling place of Rowles upon the banks of the Newichawannock was well chosen for sustenance and pictur- esque beauty. It was at the head of tide water ; the upper waters were not then as now yarded up to be daily parceled out and harnessed to a ponderous mech- anism and ladened with the filth of fac- tories and street sewers, but it flowed freely from the crystal lakes, dancing and laughing through the high mossy gorges to the tide water. In their sea- son, countless salmon and migratory fish sported in its crystal waters on their passage to its upper sources ; an hour in his light canoe upon a receding tide would take him to the broad Piscataqua which the early explorers found so crowded with delicious fish that they named it Piscataqua (fish water).

Near the soft green meadows on the

��long

��setting sun he saw forest, draped in hazy veils, the chain of mountains that brace up the valley of the Merrimack, the home of Passaconaway, his great lord and mas- ter,

"Who could change the seared and yellow leaf To bright and living green."

Ferdinando Gorges had by royal favor obtained a charter of all the laud in the western part of Maine, where he hoped to build up an empire for his prosperity. He founded the Agamenticus plantation in 1623 : within its limits was Newicha- wannock. He sent over scores and hun- dreds of tenants and' servants. Some having no taste for agriculture were early attracted by the excellent timber that grew upon the banks of the Newicha- wannock and its wonderful facilities for the manufacture and transportation of lumber.

In 1643 Humphrey Chadbourne, for a pittance, purchased the homestead of Rowles, the land on which the village of

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