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Show 58 THO-HAS] MASSACHUSETTS' POLICY TOWARD THE INDIANS 609 setts: " Whatever may have been the failings of the rnritan settlers, they cannot be charged with wanton and purposeless cruelty. Greed in despoiling the natives of their laud, unreasonable and unjust suspicion iu anticipating attacks, harshness in punishing them, of none of these can we acquit the New Englanders." As the province of Maine was abaudoued by Gorges in 1651, aud by cousent of the people taken under control of Massachusetts in 1652 and made a part of that colony by the new charter of 1691, 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, 1721, it is stated that- Those lands which the French Government calls the Indians' land, aro lauds which the English have long since purchased of the Iudiaus, and have good deeds to produce for the same, and have also erected some Forts thereupon. And that the said lands have been at several gen', meetings of the Iudiaus and English continued 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 years 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 iu 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 aud produced their powers or credentials from the tribe." In a letter from Governor Dummer to the same party it is stated that "the Penobscot Indians, Norridgewalk Indians, and many other tribes had in the year 1693 at a treaty of Sir William Phipps 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 possessed 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 procured from Cogawesco, the sagamore of Casco, and his wife, permission to occupy it, reeoguizing 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 bo added, indicate a just policy in regard to that part of the territory which came under the authority of Massachusetts. They are sufficient to show |