Concord Register

From the Oxford Observer.

INDIAN JUSTICE.

The town of Livermore, in this county, was settled about the year 1775. It was formerly one of the favorite residences of the Indians, and the traces of their villages and burial-places were easily distinguished by the first settlers, as they were pointed out by a few Indians that remained; or by those who came annually from Canada for the purpose of hunting. The rich intervale bottoms of the Androscoggin afforded them beautiful positions, and that they were once thickly tenanted, is demonstrated from the frequent discovery of their various implements, and from the traditions of those solitary individuals that are still frequently seen travelling its banks and lingering around the few remaining traces of their former existence. Many of their peculiarities were noticed by the first settlers—one of which I will relate.

Among the Indians that frequently visited them, they noticed one uncommonly fierce in his disposition, and always controlling his comrades by his great strength and brutality. He had been in the French wars, and his person was hideously disfigured from the wounds he had received there, and the explosion of a barrel of gun-powder had obliterated from his visage nearly all the traces of humanity. It was noticed, that he always carried with him an aged female, that was a cripple, and who was ascertained to be neither his relation in law nor blood. He always displayed great anxiety in her welfare, and anticipated and relieved her wants with more than Indian courtesy. In their marches, he used frequently to carry her upon his shoulders; but was never seen to ill treat her, to complain of his lot, or solicit a division of his labor. Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that he was compelled to perform this, in accordance to a sentence of his tribe, dooming him to death, respited only upon the fulfilment of a condition—which was, that his own life should be spared, so long as he continued that of this female, provided for her wants, and safely transported her as she wished, in their migratory excursions.

The cause of that sentence, it seems, was this:—The tribe or party that he belonged to, at one time in passing over the mountains to Canada, to dispose of their furs in the French market, was overtaken by the severity of winter: and this Indian, owing to some infirmity that he had fastened upon him, he was obliged to encamp with his wife and child. The disease increased, and he was shortly unable to provide sustenance for himself and family. His appetite, however, became ravenous and intolerable; and after devouring every thing their slender stores afforded, and all that could be procured from the forest by the unremitted exertions of his wife, he laid his unhallowed hands upon his infant; and the mother with unutterable anguish saw him feasting upon its bloody and mangled limbs. She soon shared the same fate, principally, as he afterwards said, to silence her incessant moaning for the loss of her babe.

Early in the ensuing spring, he was discovered in his camp, nearly recovered from his disease, by the same party in their return. Upon inquiring as to his wife and child, he pointed with his finger to their mutilated remains, hanging up in the smoke of his wigwam.—The atrocity of his deed smote upon the feelings of a younger Indian, and his tomahawk was swiftly descending, when an older one interposed. The great strength, the skilfulness and the past services of the murderer saved his life. But the above sentence was passed upon him by the judges of his tribe, and which the culprit was observed most scrupulously to fulfil.

VIATOR.