When John Alden Went to Jail
Let it be said at the outset that the
stay of John Alden in jail was a short one; that he was there
not as a convicted felon, but as the result of charges, and that
he was found absolutely blameless of these charges, which
involved nothing less than the crime of murder. This, for the
sake of the multitude of Americans who are proud to trace their
ancestry back to the stalwart youth of Plymouth, whose wooing
the demure Priscilla encouraged; also for the sake of the peace
of mind of that greater number who honor John Alden as one of
the noblest of that Pilgrim band which laid the corner-stone of
the nation.
But the imprisonment of John Alden in
Boston, as the result of a fatal shooting affair in the far-off
wilderness of Maine, is an event in his life which has been
ignored or lightly touched upon by most writers; and the tragic
affair itself is given such brief mention in most of the
chronicles of early New England that it almost seems to belong
to the misty realm of legend and tradition.
The reason for this is that the story of
the Pilgrim Fathers on the Kennebec has never been given its due
prominence. As a matter of fact, the Pilgrims maintained a
trading-post on the Kennebec, where Augusta now stands, from
1627 to 1661, and by the profits of this trade and only by these
profits, were they able to pay their burdensome debt in England,
and save the colony from ruin. For over a third of a century,
winter and summer, the leading men of Plymouth were in turn in
charge of the trading-post at Koussinoc, as it was called, and
were as familiar with that region as with Plymouth itself. Yet
so little emphasis has been placed upon this important chapter
of Pilgrim history that even the school-teachers of Maine, in
telling their pupils the ever new story of the "Mayflower,''
fail to mention that the head of the tide on the beautiful
Kennebec was visited, not once, but through many years, by Myles
Standish, John Alden, Edward Winslow, John Winslow, John
Howland, and the others whose names are usually associated only
with Plymouth Rock.
It was in the early spring of 1634 that John Alden sailed from
Plymouth to the Kennebec with supplies for the trading-post, of
which John Howland was then in charge. The extent of the trade
carried on with the peaceful Abnaki Indians may be imagined when
it is stated that in this year, 1634, no less than twenty
hogsheads of beaver skins, not to mention other furs, were
shipped to England. Rumors of this profitable business had
aroused the jealousy of the English on the Piscataqua, and they
sent John Hocking as their representative to claim a share of
the Kennebec.
Hocking's arrival at Koussinoc was bound
to precipitate trouble. John Howland at once ordered him to
return down-river, and a stormy colloquy followed. Hocking,
"with ill words," refused to leave, and in token of his assumed
rights, and also that he might intercept the fur-laden canoes
coming down to Koussinoc, he anchored his craft in the river
above the post. John Alden was a witness to what followed, but
does not appear to have had any part in the exciting drama.
With four men in boats, John Howland put
out into the stream and again ordered Hocking to depart. Again
there was a contemptuous refusal, and Howland directed his men
to cut the cables of the intruder's boat. As they were about to
do this, Hocking seized the gun which he had ready, and
threatened their lives.
"Shoot me, not them!" cried the intrepid
Howland, springing to the rail of his boat. "They are only
obeying my orders!"
But Hocking fired at short range at one of the men, Moses
Talbot, as he cut the rope, and Talbot fell dead in the boat.
Upon this one of the others promptly fired at Hocking, and he
also fell, shot through the head, and died without a word. The
old chroniclers discreetly fail to mention the name of the man
who thus avenged Talbot's death. In his brief account of the
affair, Governor Bradford simply says that it was "one of his
fellows that loved him well," and distinctly states that John
Alden, although present, "was no actore in ye business."
Naturally, when the news of the affair
reached the Piscataqua and Plymouth colonies, there was intense
excitement. Massachusetts Bay, moreover, felt called upon to
interfere in behalf of the Piscataqua plantation, and bitter
feeling was aroused between Boston and Plymouth. When John
Alden, having returned from the Kennebec, went to Boston on
business, he was seized by the authorities of that town and put
into prison. Capt. Myles Standish hurried to his rescue and
tried to secure his release, but the Boston magistrates insisted
on a hearing of the whole case. Winslow and Bradford appeared in
behalf of Plymouth, and Winthrop and Dudley in behalf of
Massachusetts Bay. The Piscataqua plantation did not even bother
to send a representative. It was finally made plain that the
Plymouth traders were on the Kennebec by virtue of a royal
patent covering that region, granted in 1672, and that the
shooting of Hocking had been an act of self-defense, after he
had killed Talbot. "Whereupon John Alden was allowed to depart
in peace to the anxious Mistress Priscilla and the children, and
the men of Plymouth enjoyed undisputed possession of Koussinoc
and the Abnaki trade until the game became so scarce and the red
hunters so few that the post was abandoned. Its decaying ruins
were visible a generation later.
It is from Father Gabriel Druillettes
and other Jesuit missionaries, who came down through the
wilderness from Quebec, and who maintained for many years a
mission on the Kennebec, a mile or two above the trading post at
Koussinoc, that we learn most about the life of the Pilgrims
there. Possibly one reason why the Pilgrims themselves wrote so
little about it is that they did not care to have the world of
that time know too much about the nature and extent of their
business on the Kennebec. They had no trouble with the Indians,
but they made no attempt to civilize or Christianize them. They
welcomed the Jesuit mission, and Father Druillettes and John
Winslow were particularly warm friends.
There is a story that one Englishman who
came to Koussinoc frequently worshiped at the little mission
chapel above the post. It is assumed that this was Myles
Standish, who came of a Catholic family in England, and who
never joined the Pilgrims in their church relations. It rather
upsets the popular notion of the bigotry of those times to read
that Father Druillettes went from Koussinoc to Plymouth and
Boston, where he was most cordially received. He was even
allowed to celebrate mass in a Puritan home, and was hospitably
entertained by John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians.
The precise spot upon which the Koussinoc trading-post stood has
been in dispute among historians. It was near an island at the
head of the tide, and most authorities have located it on the
plateau at the east end of the bridge at Augusta, where historic
Fort Western, which is still standing, was erected in 1754,
almost a century after the post was abandoned. There are many
things to support this idea. Others have located it a little
farther up the river, and although in the minority, they stoutly
maintain their position.
A few years ago an Augusta antiquarian,
Dr. W. Scott Hill, in exploring some of the many Indian graves
near the river, two or three miles above the city, came across
two graves close together, which were plainly different from the
others. Only a rusty discoloration of the soil remained of what
had once been human bodies; but there were strands and shreds of
cloth which quickly crumbled when exposed to the air, and a
number of shot, discovered by a minute examination, offered a
suggestion of tragedy. Moreover, in one of the graves there was
a pipe of peculiar make, of which there is an exact duplicate in
the collection of Pilgrim relics at Plymouth. These things
convinced Doctor Hill that the graves of John Hocking and Moses
Talbot had come to light after more than two centuries and a
half, and that the scene of the 1634 tragedy, and consequently
the site of the post itself, was thus definitely located at a
point several miles above old Fort Western. It is known,
however, that the shooting-occurred above the post, but how far
above can never be known.
Jo Jin Clair Minot
|