CHAPTER VIII. Samoset's deed to Brown, of New Harbor ance its import-its interest as a legal antiquity-Gov. Pownall's view-Abraham Shurt, the Father to American Conveyancing - business at Pemaquid- its relative importShurt's administration of affairs prosperity-Incidents of Pemaquid life-lawlessness no authority-Weston's vagabonds — population in 1630-fortification-trade-Shurt's good faith with the Indians his tact-Allerton from Plymouth; incidents of his voyage trouble to the adventurers the Patent- its advantages-military importance of Pemaquid — affected by European politics. In the summer of the year 1625, Brown, probably one of the planters sent to New England by Pierce or Jennens, had been so long here as to have ingratiated himself with the Indians, and to be commonly known as "John Brown, of New Harbour." The story of their dealings is told in SOMERSET'S DEED. “TO ALL PEOPLE whom it may concern. [Ah, my friends, it concerns, fatally, your people on the whole continent.] Know ye, that I, Captain JOHN SOMERSET and UNONGOIT, Indian Sagamores, they being the proper heirs to all the lands on both sides of Muscongus river, have bargained and sould to John Brown, of New Harbour, this certain tract or parcell of land, as followeth, that is to say, beginning at Pemaquid Falls and so running a direct course to the head of New Harbour,1 from thence to the South End of Muscongus Island, taking in the island, and so running five and twenty 1 New Harbour was a cove on the Eastern shore about two miles from Pemaquid, much frequented by the fishermen. miles into the Country north and by east, and thence eight miles northwest and by west, and then turning and running south and by west, to Pemaquid, where first begun. To all which lands above bounded, the said Captain JOHN SOMERSET and UNNONGOIT, Indian Sagamores, have granted and made over to the above said John Brown, of New Harbour, in and for consideration of fifty skins, to us in hand paid, to our full satisfaction, for the above mentioned lands and we the above said Indian Sagamores, do bind ourselves and our heirs forever, to defend the above said John Brown, and his heirs in the quiet and peaceable possession of the above said lands. In witness whereunto, I the said Captain JOHN SOMERSET and UNNONGOIT, have set our hands and seals this fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord God, one thousand six hundred and twenty-five. 2 The figure is a fac-simile of his mark, or sign, affixed to the paper of 1653, before given. Governor Pownall, one of the ablest statesmen in the provincial administration, remarks1 that "the European landworkers, when they came to settle in America, began trading with Indians, and obtained leave of them to cultivate small tracts, as settlements or dwellings. The Indians, having no other idea of property than what was conforma. ble to their transient, temporary dwelling-places, readily granted this. When they came to perceive the very different effect of settlements of land-workers creating a permanent property, always extending itself, they became very uneasy; but yet, in the true spirit of justice and honour, abided by the effects of concessions which they had made, but which they would not have made, had they understood beforehand the force of them." The conveyance from Somerset, and acquisition by Brown, marks the distinct legal boundary between barbarism and civility; the hunter, all unconscious of the nature and consequences of the legal formulas of the stranger, alienated his forests and hunting-grounds, and relinquished the streams which had yielded their treasures every summer; he admitted the tiller of the soil to a permanent abode on his ancestral domain, and now the earth, for the first time, consecrated by the hand of labor, will yield her increase; migratory life must disappear before the tenure of the fixed cultivator of the soil; and the ensuing struggle between these hostile conditions of life could end only in the destruction of the weaker. The savage state of vagrant liberty could not co-exist with individual permanent domain in the soil. Thus the life of the Pemaquid chief, Samoset or Somer 1" Administration of the Colonies."-Lond. 1765, 160, 161. set, must ever awaken the most tender and interesting reflections; and the generosity, the genuine nobility of soul, displayed by this son of the forest, must be allowed as a fairer index to the true character of the aborigines, than their deeds of resentment or cruelty in after days, when goaded to madness by the cunning, cupidity, and treachery of the European.1 Only the humanity of an Eliot, or the Christian zeal of a Mayhew, can be shown by us as a parallel to the generous and ingenuous Somerset. The worst portions of the Indian history must be charged, in truth, not to them, but to the French or English. There is no record of Brown's family" at the time of his purchase; but it is certain he was not a hermit; for Pemaquid and Monhegan already presented the busy scenes of trade, the bustle and excitement of coming and departing ships, whose holds were well filled with the homeward cargoes of fish and peltry, and on whose decks were mingled throngs of fishermen, planters and factors, of Indian trafficers, and Sagamores eager for the knives and hatchets of iron, trinkets and glittering baubles, most inviting to savage tastes, — the English stock in trade. At this period, Pemaquid was probably the busiest place on the coast, though Conant was then laying the foundation of Massachusetts at Cape Anne, and the Pilgrims at Plymouth were struggling for life. Weston, Thomson, and Gorges, were here. At the east and north, the French were diligent in their rival plantations, and each watched the other with a jealous eye. 1 The infamy of the French Jesuits and priests, in their relation to the aborigines is indelible, lurid. 2 An interesting sketch of Brown's life and family, and of his property might be gleaned from the Lincoln County Commissioners' Report, 1811. See also Barry's History of Framingham. |