1713-1724.

SEBASTIEN RALE.

Boundary Disputes.--Outposts of Canada.--The Earlier and Later
Jesuits.--Religion and Politics.--The Norridgewocks and their
Missionary.--A Hollow Peace.--Disputed Land Claims.--Council at
Georgetown.--Attitude of Rale.--Minister and Jesuit.--The Indians
waver.--An Outbreak.--Covert War.--Indignation against Rale.--War
declared.--Governor and Assembly.--Speech of Samuel Sewall.--Penobscots
attack Fort St. George.--Reprisal.--Attack on Norridgewock.--Death of
Rale.

Before the Treaty of Utrecht, the present Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and a part of Maine were collectively called Acadia by the French; but
after the treaty gave Acadia to England, they insisted that the name
meant only Nova Scotia. The English on their part claimed that the
cession of Acadia made them owners, not only of the Nova Scotian
peninsula, but of all the country north of it to the St. Lawrence, or at
least to the dividing ridge or height of land.

This and other disputed questions of boundary were to be settled by
commissioners of the two powers; but their meeting was put off for forty
years, and then their discussions ended in the Seven Years' War. The
claims of the rival nations were in fact so discordant that any attempt
to reconcile them must needs produce a fresh quarrel. The treaty had
left a choice of evils. To discuss the boundary question meant to renew
the war; to leave it unsettled was a source of constant irritation; and
while delay staved off a great war, it quickly produced a small one.

The river Kennebec, which was generally admitted by the French to be the
dividing line between their possessions and New England,[228] was
regarded by them with the most watchful jealousy. Its headwaters
approached those of the Canadian river Chaudiere, the mouth of which is
near Quebec; and by ascending the former stream and crossing to the
headwaters of the latter, through an intricacy of forests, hills, ponds,
and marshes, it was possible for a small band of hardy men, unencumbered
by cannon, to reach the Canadian capital,--as was done long after by the
followers of Benedict Arnold. Hence it was thought a matter of the last
importance to close the Kennebec against such an attempt. The
Norridgewock band of the Abenakis, who lived on the banks of that river,
were used to serve this purpose and to form a sort of advance-guard to
the French colony, while other kindred bands on the Penobscot, the St.
Croix, and the