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Title
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The Treaty of April 1678
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Description
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The English (represented by Major Shapleigh of Kittery and Captain Champernoon and Mr. Fryer of Portsmouth) conclude a peace treaty with Squando and other Eastern Indian Sachems at Casco. English settlers in Maine will pay the Indians one peck of corn annually for each family and one bushel to the proprietor Major Pendleton. Belknap considers this a necessary concession given the “advantages of trade and fishery [129].” English merchants had likely sold guns and ammunition to the Eastern Indians, which has been lawful since 1657. However, Belknap labels St. Castin as the culpable supplier of their arms and ammunition, which they “always husbanded…with much care [131].” The original treaty was apparently lost, and Belknap’s History of New-Hampshire is the best record of it.
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Transcription
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Treaty of Casco (1678)
[129] In the Spring [of 1678], Major Shapleigh of Kittery, Captain Champernoon and Mr. Fryer of Portsmouth, were appointed commissioners to settle a formal treaty of peace with Squanto and the other chiefs, which was done at Casco, whither they brought the remainder of the captives. It was stipulated in the treaty, that the inhabitants should return to their deserted settlements, on condition of paying one peck of corn annually for each family, by way of acknowledgment to the Indians for the possession of their lands, and one bushel for Major Pendleton, who was a great proprietor. Thus an end was put to a tedious and distressing war, which had subsisted three years. The terms of peace were disgraceful, but not unjust, considering the former irregular conduct of many of the eastern settlers; and the native propriety of [130] the Indians in the soil: Certainly they were now masters of it; and it was entirely at their option, whether the English should return to their habitations or not. It was therefore thought better to live peaceably, though in a sort of subjection, than to leave such commodious settlements and forego the advantages of trade and fishery, which were very considerable, and by which the inhabitants of that part of the country had chiefly subsisted.
It was a matter of great enquiry and speculation how the Indians were supplied with arms and ammunition to carry on this war. The Dutch at New-York were too near the Mohawks for the eastern Indians to adventure tither. The French in Canada were too feeble, and too much in fear of the English, to do any thing which might disturb the tranquility; and there was peace between the two nations. It was therefore suspected that the Indians had long premeditated the war, and laid in a frock beforehand. There had formerly been severe penalties exacted by the government, on the selling of arms and ammunition to the Indians; but ever since 1657, licenses had been granted to particular persons to supply them occasionally for the purpose of hunting, on paying an acknowledgment to the public treasury. This indulgence, having been much abused by some of the eastern traders, who, far from the seat of government, were impatient of the restraint of law, was supposed to be the source of the mischief. But it was afterward discovered that the Baron de St. Castine, a reduced French officer, who had married a [131] daughter of Madokawando, and kept a trading house at Penobscot, where he considered himself as independent, being out of the limits of any established government, was the person from whom they had their supplies; which needed not to be very great as they always husbanded their ammunition with much care, and never expended it but when they were certain of doing execution.
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Date
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18 April 1678
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Century
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17th Century
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Decade material covers
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1670s
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Subject
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Nicholas Shapleigh (Major)
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Francis Champernown (Captain)
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Brian Pendleton (Major)
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Mr. Fryer
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Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie de Saint-Castin
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Madockawando (Penobscot Sachem)
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Jeremy Belknap
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Penobscot Indians Wabanaki Indians
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Casco
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Type
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Treaty
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War
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King Philip's War
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Point of Departure
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Casco, ME
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Point of Arrival
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Casco, ME
