he was a father and husband who made home happy, to the exclusion of all necessity of finding elsewhere the means of pleasing entertainment and diversion.

He was a man of refined taste, and devoted to the cultivation of art in its various branches. This led him to detect and to gain a quick perception of the grand and the beautiful in nature, a quality that always exhibited itself in his practical life and habits. In the wild scenery of "Lovers'-leap" * he realized a romance peculiarly pleasant to him, which induced him to select its neighboring cliffs as the locality of his successive residences, where he spent all the later years of his mature life. The natural wildness of the scenery, overlooking the calm waters of the Kenduskeag, flowing gently by the place, but far below the level of his domicile, had an attraction, which amply repaid him for all the additional labor which the distance from his place of business daily compelled him to overcome.

Fond of humor, he always enjoyed its exercise and the telling of and listening to anecdotes and reminiscences and agreeable conversations. At the same time he was ever on his guard on such occasions against all breaches of modesty and common sense. These characteristics always made him a favorite with the young of both sexes, for however old, he never failed to be as young in feeling and expression as were his auditors or companions on such occasions. Fond of society, they were equally fond of him and always enjoyed his presence for he was eminently a social man and particularly sought for in company.

He was, too, a man of remarkably industrious habits, always busy with some useful employment for the promotion of some good to the community at large or to individuals; and nothing more conduced to his happiness than to know or feel that he had helped to make the world better, or some of its inhabitants more comfortable and happy. Nor was his benevolence wholly expended on humanity alone, for the brute creation also shared in his benevolent efforts to improve its conditions and save, through the aid of societies, its members from unnecessary and cruel treatment.

On the 20th day of February, 1884, while in his usual health,

*A very high and almost perpendicular ledge forming the bank of Kenduskeag stream, about a mile from the main river, famed for its Indian legend.

and in the full enjoyment of life, and sportively playing with his little daughter, he suddenly threw up his hands with delight at something which she had done, and expired in the midst of his laughter, while his hands were thus uplifted. Thus without a single minute's notice or warning, in the bosom of his family, with his loved wife and daughter by his side, he suddenly passed away from earth, to meet those who had gone before.

The bar of his county and the Bangor Historical Society took appropriate notice of his death, and adopted resolutions and other proceedings fitting to the occasion. The press of the city and of the state generally, as well as of other places, noticed his decease in a becoming manner. This memorial of his life and character is placed on file with the Maine Historical Society, as a memento of his worth, and appreciation as a valued member and highly-prized associate, in its work of perpetuating the history of our state.

THE MISSION OF THE ASSUMPTION ON THE RIVER KENNEBEC, 1646-1652.

Read before the Maine Historical Society, May 15, 1879.

BY JOHN MARSHALL BROWN.

THE interesting episode in the early history of Maine to which I am about to refer, has either been entirely neglected by our earlier historians, or else referred to by them in terms which indicate their ignorance of its details.

The republication in 1858 of the "Relations of the Jesuits" has rendered that mine of historic wealth accessible to all, and the student may now read in the fervid language of men whose labors and suffering have scarcely a parallel the full story of their grand crusade. Much of all this, perhaps all that is of interest to the general reader, has been brought to light again in the fascinating pages of Mr. Parkman's volumes, but the local historian must go to the fountain-head and look at the facts from the standpoint of his own interest. I have ventured to do this and hope I shall not be thought arrogant in gleaning after such a harvest. Indeed I shall be disappointed if I do not convince those who are familiar with Mr. Palfrey's history and Mr. Parkman's eloquent work that the former is miserably inadequate and grossly unfair, and that even the latter has neglected to give proper prominence to the political significance of Druilletes' success and failure.

The two circumstances which more than any other contributed to destroy the independence of Maine and bring it into a dependent position and hinder its development were, first its adherence to the established church of England, which aroused the animosity of Massachusetts thus preventing it from joining the Confederation; and second the unprotected nature of its frontier and the bitter enmity of the Indians at the eastward and to the north of the settlements. How this last came about, and whose was the folly and the fault, will, I think, be made clear by a careful study of the contemporary accounts.

In 1640, one of the Algonquin Indians who had resided at the missionary settlement of Sillery on the St. Lawrence, and had occasioned the Jesuit fathers infinite trouble on account of his wayward manners, brought himself under discipline for his polygamous practices and to escape from the reprimands of the missionaries, deliberately ran away, taking with him two, at least, of his wives and their children. His place of refuge was the Kennebec, many leagues away to the southeast, and the painful journey he must have taken to reach it gives abundant evidence either of the happiness of his much-married life, or the terrors of the priestly discipline. His career, however, was short, for in the following winter he was killed in a drunken brawl by an Indian of the very tribe with whom he had sought a home and refuge. In the following summer of 1641, two Abnakis came to Quebec for the purpose of explaining matters and offering some expiation to the relatives of the murdered man. At first they narrowly escaped with their lives, but under the influence of two Christian Indians they were at last kindly received, the bereaved relatives satisfied and a lasting alliance established between the Indians of the St. Lawrence and those of the Kennebec. Previous to this date there had been but little communication between them and slight acquaintance. Thereafter the "Relations" make frequent mention of this amiable and powerful nation, destined to play a most important part in the history of the time.

Their home was on the Kennebec; they were the most powerful tribe of that great family, which, coming out of the northwest in the unknown past, had floated over the great lakes and down the St. Lawrence and crossed the highlands into Maine. This last migration was a comparatively recent tradition in 1642, for when in that year the Society of Notre Dame of Montreal celebrated their first Feast of the Assumption, and to crown the day ascended to the summit of the hill that gives its name to the city, two of the principal Indians in the party, stretching out their hands toward the hills which close up the horizon to south and east, exclaimed: "Here once were villages and very many people; here our fathers tilled the ground, but it is now deserted; all have vanished. Some have joined their conquerors and some have gone into the country of the Abnakis beyond the hills."

In 1613, a pious Indian from Sillery, under a vow, went to the