and forcible speech in March, 1831, when the Abolitionists had a hearing before a committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, left a deep impression at the time, and will be long remembered by those who were present on that occasion.

Dr. Bradford cherished a true and living interest in the Christian religion, both speculative and practical. The great questions it suggests to every thoughtful mind arrested his earnest attention, as questions reaching to the foundation of our being; and the importance of its sanctions to the true conduct of life was apprehended by him in all its extent. The progress of years years quickened his feelings and strengthened his convictions on this subject. In the latter part of his life, the highest truths became matters of a more searching and personal interest to him than ever. They made themselves felt in all his principles; and he would have deemed it a shallow folly to think of constructing a system of philosophy or ethics, without the religious sentiment at its centre.

On the whole, we may say that here was a true, enlightened, upright man, one who thought soundly and clearly, and kept the eye of his mind ever fixed on great principles, -a man of realities, not of devices. Those who knew him will always feel, that, in the remembrance of his fine talents and his unbending probity, they have that record of wisdom and virtue which gives forth an imperishable blessing. We are reminded of the very significant words of an ancient English drama: —

"I have ever thought

Nature doth nothing so great for great men,

As when she 's pleased to make them lords of truth:

Integrity of life is fame's best friend,

Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.""

* Webster's Duchess of Malfi.

VOL. IX.

11

NOTICE OF ORONO, A CHIEF AT PENOBSCOT.

BY WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.

To the Massachusetts Historical Society:

THE following original sketch is most respectfully presented by a corresponding member. WILLIAM D. WILLIAMSON.

Bangor, Me., March 12, 1838.

JOSEPH ORONO, the subject of this sketch, was, for a long time, the well known chief of the Tarratine Indians, on the river Penobscot. But, though he was only an Indian sagamore, his name, for the merits of his character, is worthy of remembrance and respect. His ancestry, as well as the exact number of his years, is involved in some doubt. For there are no family names among the natives, by which the lineage of any individual can be traced; as a son inherits no name of his father.

There has been a story, that he was a native of York in this State, born about the year 1688; that his paternal name was Donnel; and that he was one of the captive children taken in the winter of 1692, when that place was ravaged by the Indians. But this account is improbable; as the Northern Indians and those of the Merrimac and Androscoggin made the attack, and soon afterwards sent back to the garrison-houses the elderly women, and the children between the ages of three and seven years, in recompense to the English for previously sparing the lives of several Indian females and children at Pejepscot.

At that time, moreover, the Donnel family was one of the most distinguished in the province, Samuel being the same year one of the Council, and his brother a man of considerable note. So that, if a son of either of them had been taken captive, it is probable he was returned or recovered; or, at least, there would have been some traditional account of his being carried away. But no such report, even in York, has come down to this generation; and Captain Joseph Munsell, of Bangor, now in his eighty-eighth year, says the story has no foundation in fact, and has been treated by the intelligent Indians with derision.

Another account, equally amusing, and more evident, is, that Orono was the descendant of Baron de Castine, a French nobleman, who, soon after the treaty of Breda, in 1667, located himself on the peninsula of the town which now bears his name, and married a daughter of the celebrated Madockawando, a Tarratine chief of the age. It is true, that Castine resided many years at that place, and carried on a very lucrative trade with the natives; that he had three or four Tarratine wives, one being that sagamore's daughter; and that, of his several children, one was "Castine the younger," a very worthy man, and another, a beautiful daughter, who married a Frenchman, and was, with her children, in 1704, taken captive. One of these, it has been supposed, was Orono; * yet this rests too much on mere probability and conjecture, to deserve entire belief.

But whatever may have been the lineage or extraction of Orono, it is certain he was white in part, a half-breed or more; - such being apparent in his stature, features, and complexion. He himself told Captain Munsell, his father was a Frenchman, and his mother was half French and half Indian; but who they were by name, he did not state. Orono had not the copper-colored countenance, the sparkling eyes, the high cheek-bones, and tawny features of a pristine native. On the contrary, his eyes were of a bright blue shade, penetrating, and full of intelligence and benignity. His hair, when young, was brown, perhaps approaching to an auburn cast; his face was large,

*

Nickolar, his kindred, says, " Orono was some related to old Castine."

broad and well formed, of a sickly whiteness, susceptible of ready blushes, and remarkably sedate. In his person, he was tall, straight, and perfectly proportioned; and in his gait there was a gracefulness which of itself evinced his superiority. He did not incline his head forward, nor his feet inward, so much as Indians usually do. But what principally gave him distinction was his mind, his manners, and his disposition. For Orono was a man of good sense and great discernment; - in mood thoughtful, in conversation reserved, in feelings benign. Hence, he never allowed himself to speak, till he had considered what to say; always expressing his thoughts in short sentences, directly to the point. He had not much learning, being only able to read a little and write his name. But he could converse freely in three languages, the Indian, French, and English; perhaps, also, understand some Latin phrases in the Romish litany. To the Catholic religion he was strongly attached, and also to its forms of worship. Hence, the Rev. Daniel Little, of Kennebunk, a Protestant missionary to the tribe after the Revolution, unable to shake his faith, asked three times, before he could get an answer from the sedate chief, thus: "In what language do you pray?" With a gravity much more becoming than that of the missionary, he very reverently, raising his eyes a little, replied, "No matter what,Great Spirit knows all languages."

Orono's manners were both conciliating and commanding, and his habits worthy of all imitation. For he was not only honest, chaste, temperate, and industrious; his word was sacred, and his friendship unchanging. He was remarkable for his forethought and wisdom, - for his mild and equable disposition. Though he was not deficient in courage or any of the martial virtues, he was so fully aware how much wars had wasted his tribe, and entailed misery on the survivors, as to become, from principle, a uniform and persevering advocate of peace. He knew, and always labored to convince his people, that they flourished best, and enjoyed most, under its refreshing shades. At the commencement of the French and sixth Indian war, in 1754, Tomasus (or Tomer) was at the head of the tribe, when he, Osson, Orono, and other chief men, so

warmly espoused the policy of perpetuating peace, as to prevent the commission of any mischief by their people, till after the Cargill affair, and the declaration of war against them by the provincial government. The fact was, that Captain James Cargill, of Newcastle, commissioned to raise a company of volunteers, enlisted and led them on an excursion into the woods towards Owl's Head, in the vicinity of Penobscot Bay. Discovering a party of Indian hunters, Cargill and his company instantly fired upon them, shot down twelve on the spot, and took their scalps; the rest, fleeing for their lives to the tribe, carried to it the tidings of the bloody and wicked transaction. Cargill was generally and highly censured by the white people, it being believed he must have known the unhappy hunters belonged to the tribe of the friendly Tarra

tines.

Never were the feelings of the tribe put to severer trial. For the provincial governor, perplexed at the nefarious affair, sent a message to the sagamores, stating that it was impossible to distinguish between their Indians and others; and that they must, within eight days, according to the last treaty, send twenty men to join in the war against the common enemy, or their tribe would be treated as belligerent foes.

"What! take arms in aid of men who had themselves broken the treaty, -base men, whose hands are reeking with the blood of unoffending Indians? Aunt'-ah', auntah' [no! no!]," cried the chief speaker in a council met on the occasion. "Sound the war-whoop. Strike through the false-hearted white men. Burn to ashes their wives, -their wigwams, too. Take blood for blood. The spirits of our murdered brothers call to us for revenge. The winds how to us from the wilderness. Sister widows cry, orphans too. Do not Indians feel? Cut their veins, do they not bleed? The moose bellows over wasted blood. The bear licks the bleeding wounds of its cub. O Metunk-senah'! Metunk-senah! [our Father, our Heavenly Father] pity our mourners. Avenge ill-treated Indians. Our fathers told us, Englishmen came here, a great many, many moons ago. They had no lands, no wigwams,-nothing. Then our good fathers say,— Come,