[244] This letter was given by Mr. Adams, of Medfield, a connection of the Baxter family, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, in whose possession it now is, in a worn condition. It was either captured with the rest of Rale's papers and returned to the writer, or else is a duplicate kept by Baxter. [245] This curious paper is in the _Common Place Book_ of Rev. Henry Flynt, of which the original is in the library of the Massachusetts Historical Society. [246] See Francis, _Life of Rale_, where the entire passage is given. [247] Rale wrote to the governor of Canada that it was "sur Les Representations qu'Il Avoit fait aux Sauvages de Sa Mission" that they had killed "un grand nombre de Bestiaux apartenant aux Anglois," and threatened them with attack if they did not retire. (_Reponse fait par MM. Vaudreuil et Begon au Memoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721._) Rale told the governor of Massachusetts, on another occasion, that his character as a priest permitted him to give the Indians nothing but counsels of peace. Yet as early as 1703 he wrote to Vaudreuil that the Abenakis were ready, at a word from him, to lift the hatchet against the English. _Beauharnois et Vaudreuil au Ministre, 15 Novembre, 1703._ [248] _Joseph Heath and John Minot to Shute, 1 May, 1719._ Rale says that these hostages were seized by surprise and violence; but Vaudreuil complains bitterly of the faintness of heart which caused the Indians to give them (_Vaudreuil a Rale, 15 Juin, 1721_), and both he and the intendant lay the blame on the English party at Norridgewock, who, "with the consent of all the Indians of that mission, had the weakness to give four hostages." _Reponse de Vaudreuil et Begon au Memoire du Roy du 8 Juin, 1721._ [249] _Eastern Indians' Letter to the Governour, 27 July, 1721_, in _Mass., Hist. Coll., Second Series_, viii. 259. This is the original French. It is signed with totems of all the Abenaki bands, and also of the Caughnawagas, Iroquois of the Mountain, Hurons, Micmacs, Montagnais, and several other tribes. On this interview, Penhallow; Belknap, ii. 51; _Shute to Vaudreuil_, 21 July, 1721 (O. S.); _Ibid., 23 April, 1722_; Rale in _Lettres Edifiantes_, xvii. 285. Rale blames Shute for not being present at the meeting, but a letter of the governor shows that he had never undertaken to be there. He could not have come in any case, from the effects of a fall, which disabled him for some months even from going to Portsmouth to meet the Legislature. _Provincial Papers of New Hampshire_, iii. 822.