o avoid a rupture to permit the use of open
force, and would only promise plenty of ammunition to Indians who would
fight the English, directing at the same time that neither favors nor
attentions should be given to those who would not.[255]

The half-breed officer, Saint-Castin, son of Baron Vincent de
Saint-Castin by his wife, a Penobscot squaw, bore the double character
of a French lieutenant and an Abenaki chief, and had joined with the
Indians in their hostile demonstration at Arrowsick Island. Therefore,
as chief of a tribe styled subjects of King George, the English seized
him, charged him with rebellion, and brought him to Boston, where he was
examined by a legislative committee. He showed both tact and temper,
parried the charges against him, and was at last set at liberty. His
arrest, however, exasperated his tribesmen, who soon began to burn
houses, kill settlers, and commit various acts of violence, for all of
which Rale was believed to be mainly answerable. There was great
indignation against him. He himself says that a reward of a thousand
pounds sterling was offered for his head, but that the English should
not get it for all their sterling money. It does not appear that such a
reward was offered, though it is true that the Massachusetts House of
Representatives once voted five hundred pounds in their currency--then
equal to about a hundred and eighty pounds sterling--for the same
purpose; but as the governor and Council refused their concurrence, the
Act was of no effect.

All the branches of the government, however, presently joined in sending
three hundred men to Norridgewock, with a demand that the Indians should
give up Rale "and the other heads and fomenters of their rebellion." In
case of refusal they were to seize the Jesuit and the principal chiefs
and bring them prisoners to Boston. Colonel Westbrook was put in command
of the party. Rale, being warned of their approach by some of his
Indians, swallowed the consecrated wafers, hid the sacred vessels, and
made for the woods, where, as he thinks, he was saved from discovery by
a special intervention of Providence. His papers fell into the hands of
Westbrook, including letters that proved beyond all doubt that he had
acted as agent of the Canadian authorities in exciting his flock against
the English.[256]

Incensed by Westbrook's invasion, the Indians came down the Kennebec in
large numbers, burned the village of Brunswick, and captured nine
fam