Part 772

ALSO IN: _J. Burnet, Notes on the Settlement of the Northwest Territory, chapters 14-20._

_C. Atwater, History of Ohio, period 2._

_J. B. Dillon, History of Indiana, chapters 19-31._

_W. H. Smith, The St. Clair Papers, volume 1, chapters 6-9._

NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1790-1795. Indian war. The disastrous expeditions of Harmar and St. Clair and Wayne's decisive victory. The Greenville Treaty.

"The Northwestern Indians, at Washington's installation, numbered, according to varying estimates, from 20,000 to 40,000 souls. Of these the Wabash tribes had for years been the scourge of the new Kentucky settlers. So constant, indeed, was bloodshed and retaliation, that the soil of this earliest of States beyond the mountains acquired the name of 'the dark and bloody ground.' A broad river interposed no sufficient barricade to these deadly encounters. … What with their own inadmissible claims to territory, and this continuous war to the knife, all the tribes of the Northwestern country were now so maddened against the United States that the first imperative necessity, unless we chose to abandon the Western settlements altogether, was to chastise the Indians into submission. … Brigadier-General Harmar, who commanded the small force of United States regulars in the Territory, was … a Revolutionary veteran. Our frontier military stations extended as far as Vincennes, on the Wabash, which Major Hamtranck, a Canadian Frenchman, commanded. The British commandant was at Detroit, whence he communicated constantly with the Governor-General of the provinces, Lord Dorchester, by whose instigation the Northwestern Indians at this period were studiously kept at enmity with the United States. … A formidable expedition against the Indians was determined upon by the President and St. Clair [Governor of the Northwest Territory]; and in the fall of the year [1790] General Harmar set out from Fort Washington for the Miami country, with a force numbering somewhat less than 1,500, near three-fourths of whom were militia raised in Western Pennsylvania and Kentucky." Successful at first, the campaign ended in a disastrous defeat on the Maumee.

_J. Schouler, History of the United States, chapter 2, section 1 (volume 1)._

"The remnant of his army which Harmar led back to Cincinnati [Fort Washington] had the unsubdued savages almost continually at their heels. As a rebuke to the hostile tribes the expedition was an utter failure, a fact which was soon made manifest. Indian attacks on the settlers immediately became bolder. … Every block house in the territory was soon almost in a state of siege. … Washington was authorized to raise an army of 3,000 men for the protection of the Northwest. The command of this army was given to St. Clair. At the same time a corps of Kentucky volunteers was selected and placed under General Charles Scott. The Kentuckians dashed into the Wabash country, scattered the Indians, burned their villages and returned with a crowd of prisoners. The more pretentious expedition of St. Clair was not to be accomplished with so fine a military flourish. Like Harmar's army, that led by St. Clair was feeble in discipline, and disturbed by jealousies. The agents of the Government equipped the expedition in a shameful manner, delivering useless muskets, supplying powder that would scarcely burn, and neglecting entirely a large number of necessary supplies; so that after St. Clair with his 2,300 regulars and 600 militia had marched from Ludlow's Station, north of Cincinnati, he found himself under the necessity of delaying the march to secure supplies. The militia deserted in great numbers. For the purpose of capturing deserters and bringing up belated supplies, one of the best regiments in the army was sent southward. While waiting on one of the branches of the Wabash for the return of this regiment the main force was on the fourth of November, 1791, surrounded and attacked by the lurking Indians. At the first yell of the savages scores of the terrified militia dropped their guns and bolted. St. Clair, who for some days had been too ill to sit upon a horse, now exerted all his strength in an effort to rally the wavering troops. His horses were all killed, and his hat and clothing were ripped by the bullets. But the lines broke, the men scattered and the artillery was captured. Those who stood their ground fell in their tracks till the fields were covered by 600 dead and dying men. At last a retreat was ordered. … For many miles, over a track littered with coats, hats, boots and powder horns, the whooping victors chased the routed survivors of St. Clair's army. It was a ghastly defeat. The face of every settler in Ohio blanched at the news. Kentucky was thrown into excitement and even Western Pennsylvania nervously petitioned for protection. St. Clair was criticised and insulted. A committee of Congress found him without blame. But he had been defeated, and no amount of reasoning could unlink his name from the tragedy of the dark November morning. {2384} Every effort was made to win over the Indians before making another use of force. The Government sent peace messengers into the Northwest. In one manner or another nearly every one of the messengers was murdered. The Indians who listened at all would hear of no terms of peace that did not promise the removal of the whites from the northern side of the Ohio. The British urged the tribes to make this extreme demand. Spain also sent mischief-makers into the camps of the exultant red men. … More bloodshed became inevitable; and in execution of this last resort came one of the most popular of the Revolutionary chieftains—'Mad Anthony' Wayne. Wayne led his army from Cincinnati in October of 1793. He advanced carefully in the path taken by St. Clair, found and buried the bones of St. Clair's 600 lost, wintered at Greenville, and in the summer of 1794 moved against the foe with strong reinforcements from Kentucky. After a preliminary skirmish between the Indians and the troops, Wayne, in accordance with his instructions, made a last offer of peace. The offer was evasively met, and Wayne pushed on. On the morning of Wednesday the twentieth of August, 1794, the 'legion' came upon the united tribes of Indians encamped on the north bank of the Maumee and there, near the rapids of the Maumee, the Indians were forced to face the most alert and vigorous enemy they had yet encountered. The same daring tactics that had carried Stony Point and made Anthony Wayne historic were here directed against the Indian's timber coverts. … Encouraging and marshaling the Indians were painted Canadian white men bearing British arms. Many of these fell in the heaps of dead and some were captured. When Wayne announced his victory he declared that the Indian loss was greater than that incurred by the entire Federal army in the war with Great Britain. Thus ended the Indian reign of terror. After destroying the Indian crops and possessions, in sight of the British fort, Wayne fell back to Greenville and there made the celebrated treaty by which on August 3, 1795, the red men came to a permanent peace with the Thirteen Fires. From Cincinnati to Campus Martius Wayne's victory sent a thrill of relief. The treaty, ceding to the Union two thirds of the present State, guaranteed the safety of all settlers who respected the Indians' rights, and set in motion once more the machinery of immigration."

_A. Black, The Story of Ohio, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _A. St. Clair, Narrative of Campaign._

_C. W. Butterfield, History of the Girtys, chapters 23-30._

_W. H. Smith, The St. Clair Papers, volume 2._

_W. L. Stone, Life of Brant, volume 2, chapters 10-12._

NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1811. Harrison's campaign against Tecumseh and his League. Battle of Tippecanoe.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1811.

NORTHWEST TERRITORY: End--------

NORTHWESTERN OR OREGON BOUNDARY QUESTION, Settlement of the.

See OREGON: A. D. 1844-1846, and ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1871.

NORTHWESTERN OR SAN JUAN WATER-BOUNDARY QUESTION.

See SAN JUAN WATER-BOUNDARY QUESTION.

NORTHWESTERN PROVINCES OF INDIA, English Acquisition of the.

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

NORUMBEGA.

"Norembega, or Norumbega, more properly called Arambec (Hakluyt, III. 167), was, in Ramusio's map, the country embraced within Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, and a part of Maine. De Laet confines it to a district about the mouth of the Penobscot. Wytfleit and other early writers say that it had a capital city of the same name; and in several old maps this fabulous metropolis is laid down, with towers and churches, on the river Penobscot. The word is of Indian origin."

_F. Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World: Champlain, chapter 1, foot-note._

On Gastaldi's map, of New France, made in 1550, "the name 'La Nuova Francia' is written in very large letters, indicating probably that this name is meant for the entire country. The name 'Terra de Nurumbega' is written in smaller letters, and appears to be attached only to the peninsula of Nova Scotia. Crignon, however, the author of the discourse which this map is intended to illustrate, gives to this name a far greater extent. He says: 'Going beyond the cape of the Bretons, there is a country contiguous to this cape, the coast of which trends to the west a quarter southwest to the country of Florida, and runs along for a good 500 leagues; which coast was discovered fifteen years ago by Master Giovanni da Verrazano, in the name of the king of France and of Madame la Regente; and this country is called by many 'La Francese,' and even by the Portuguese themselves; and its end is toward Florida under 78° W., and 38° N. … The country is named by the inhabitants 'Nurumbega'; and between it and Brazil is a great gulf, in which are the islands of the West Indies, discovered by the Spaniards. From this it would appear that, at the time of the discourse, the entire east coast of the United States, as far as Florida, was designated by the name of Nurumbega. Afterwards, this name was restricted to New England; and, at a later date, it was applied only to Maine, and still later to the region of the Penobscot. … The name 'Norumbega,' or 'Arambec,' in Hakluyt's time, was applied to Maine, and sometimes to the whole of New England."

_J. G. Kohl, History of the Discovery of Maine (Maine Historical Society Collection, series 2, volume 1), pages 231 and 283._

"The story of Norumbega is invested with the charms of fable and romance. The name is found in the map of Hieronimus da Verrazano of 1529, as 'Aranbega,' being restricted to a definite and apparently unimportant locality. Suddenly, in 1539, Norumbega appears in the narrative of the Dieppe Captain as a vast and opulent region, extending from Cape Breton to the Cape of Florida. About three years later Allefonsce described the 'River of Norumbega,' now identified with the Penobscot, and treated the capital of the country as an important market for the trade in fur. Various maps of the period of Allefonsce confine the name of Norumbega to a distinct spot; but Gastaldi's map, published by Ramusio in 1556,—though modelled after Verrazano's, of which indeed it is substantially an extract,—applies the name to the region lying between Cape Breton and the Jersey coast. From this time until the seventeenth century Norumbega was generally regarded as embracing all New England, and sometimes portions of Canada, though occasionally the country was known by other names. {2385} Still, in 1582, Lok seems to have thought that the Penobscot formed the southern boundary of Norumbega, which he shows on his map as an island; while John Smith, in 1620, speaks of Norumbega as including New England and the region as far south as Virginia. On the other hand Champlain, in 1605, treated Norumbega as lying within the present territory of Maine. He searched for its capital on the banks of the Penobscot, and as late as 1669 Heylin was dreaming of the fair city of Norumbega. Grotius, for a time at least, regarded the name as of Old Northern origin and connected with 'Norbergia.' It was also fancied that a people resembling the Mexicans once lived upon the banks of the Penobscot. Those who have labored to find an Indian derivation for the name say that it means 'the place of a fine city.' At one time the houses of the city were supposed to be very splendid, and to be supported upon pillars of crystal and silver."

_B. F. De Costa, Norumbega and its English Explorers (Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 3, chapter 6)._

ALSO IN: _J. Winsor, Cartography of North East Coast of America, (N. and C. History of America, volume 4, chapter 2)._

NORWAY.

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES.

NOSE MONEY.

A poll-tax levied among the ancient Scandinavians seems to have borne this name because a defaulting tax-payer might suffer the loss of his nose, and the Danes in Ireland are thought to have imposed the same there.

_T. Moore, History of Ireland, volume 2, chapter 17._

NOTABLES, The Assembly of the.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1774-1788.

NOTIUM, Battle of (B. C. 407).

See GREECE: B. C. 411-407.

NOTTOWAYS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH.

NOVA SCOTIA: Start--------

NOVA SCOTIA: The aboriginal inhabitants.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ABNAKIS, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1000. Supposed identity with the Markland of Norse sagas.

See AMERICA: 10-11TH CENTURIES.

NOVA SCOTIA: 16th century. Embraced in the Norumbega of the old geographers.

See NORUMBEGA; also CANADA: NAMES.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1603-1608. The first French settlements, at Port Royal (Annapolis).

See CANADA: A. D. 1603-1605; and 1606-1608.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1604. Origin of the name Acadia.

In 1604, after the death of De Chastes, who had sent out Champlain on his first voyage to Canada, Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, took the enterprise in hand and "petitioned the king for leave to colonize La Cadie, or Acadie, a region defined as extending from the 40th to the 46th degree of north latitude, or from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal. … De Monts gained his point. He was made Lieutenant-General in Acadia. … This name is not found in any earlier public document. It was afterwards restricted to the peninsula of Nova Scotia, but the dispute concerning the limits of Acadia was a proximate cause of the war of 1755. The word is said to be derived from the Indian Aquoddiauke, or Aquoddie, supposed to mean the fish called a pollock. The Bay of Passamaquoddy, 'Great Pollock Water,' if we may accept the same authority, derives its name from the same origin, Potter in 'Historical Magazine,' I. 84. This derivation is doubtful. The Micmac word, 'Quoddy,' 'Kady,' or 'Cadie,' means simply a place or region, and is properly used in conjunction with some other noun; as, for example, 'Katakady,' the Place of Eels. … Dawson and Rand, in 'Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal.'"

_F. Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World: Champlain, chapter 2, and foot-note._

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1610-1613. The Port Royal colony revived, but destroyed by the English of Virginia.

See CANADA: A. D. 1610-1613.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1621-1668. English grant to Sir William Alexander. Cession to France. Quarrels of La Tour and D'Aulnay. English reconquest and recession to France.

"In 1621, Sir William Alexander, a Scotchman of some literary pretensions, had obtained from King James [through the Council for New England, or Plymouth Company—see NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1621-1631] a charter, (dated September 10, 1621) for the lordship and barony of New Scotland, comprising the territory now known as the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Under this grant he made several unsuccessful attempts at colonization; and in 1625 he undertook to infuse fresh life into his enterprise by parcelling out the territory into baronetcies. Nothing came of the scheme, and by the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, Great Britain surrendered to France all the places occupied by the English within these limits. Two years before this, however, Alexander's rights in a part of the territory had been purchased by Claude and Charles de la Tour; and shortly after the peace the Chevalier Razilly was appointed by Louis XIII. governor of the whole of Acadia. He designated as his lieutenants Charles de la Tour for the portion east of the St. Croix, and Charles de Menou, Sieur d'Aulnay-Charnisé, for the portion west of that river. The former established himself on the River St. John, where the city of St. John now stands, and the latter at Castine, on the eastern shore of Penobscot Bay. Shortly after his appointment, La Tour attacked and drove away a small party of Plymouth men who had set up a trading-post at Machias; and in 1635 D'Aulnay treated another party of the Plymouth colonists in a similar way. In retaliation for this attack, Plymouth hired and despatched a vessel commanded by one Girling, in company with their own barque, with 20 men under Miles Standish, to dispossess the French; but the expedition failed to accomplish anything. Subsequently the two French commanders quarrelled, and, engaging in active hostilities, made efforts (not altogether unsuccessful) to enlist Massachusetts in their quarrel. For this purpose La Tour visited Boston in person in the summer of 1643, and was hospitably entertained. He was not able to secure the direct cooperation of( Massachusetts; but he was permitted to hire four vessels and a pinnace to aid him in his attack on D'Aulnay. The expedition was so far successful as to destroy a mill and some standing corn belonging to his rival. In the following year La Tour made a second visit to Boston for further help; but he was able only to procure the writing of threatening letters from the Massachusetts authorities to D'Aulnay. Not long after La Tour's departure from Boston, envoys from D'Aulnay arrived here; and after considerable delay a treaty was signed pledging the colonists to neutrality, which was ratified by the Commissioners of the United Colonies in the following year; but it was not until two years later that it was ratified by new envoys from the crafty Frenchman. {2386} In this interval D'Aulnay captured by assault La Tour's fort at St. John, securing booty to a large amount; and a few weeks afterward Madame la Tour, who seems to have been of a not less warlike turn than her husband, and who had "bravely defended the fort, died of shame and mortification. La Tour was reduced to the last extremities; but he finally made good his losses, and in 1653 he married the widow of his rival, who had died two or three years before. In 1654, in accordance with secret instructions from Cromwell, the whole of Acadia was subjugated by an English force from Boston under the command of Major Robert Sedgwick, of Charlestown, and Captain John Leverett, of Boston. To the latter the temporary government of the country was intrusted. Ineffectual complaints of this aggression were made to the British government; but by the treaty of Westminster, in the following year, England was left in possession, and the question of title was referred to commissioners. In 1656 it was made a province by Cromwell, who appointed Sir Thomas Temple governor, and granted the whole territory to Temple and to one William Crown and Stephen de la Tour, son of the late governor. The rights of the latter were purchased by the other two proprietors, and Acadia remained in possession of the English until the treaty of Breda, in 1668, when it was ceded to France with undefined limits. Very little was done by the French to settle and improve the country."

_C. C. Smith, Acadia (Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 4, chapter 4)._

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1690-1692. Temporary conquest by the Massachusetts colonists. Recovery by the French.

See CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690; and 1692-1697.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1710. Final conquest by the English and change of name.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1702-1710.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1713. Relinquished to Great Britain.

See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714; NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713; and CANADA: A. D. 1711-1713.

NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1713-1730. Troubles with the French inhabitants—the Acadians. Their refusal to swear allegiance. Hostilities with the Indians.