Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/163
"Windsor, 8 Dec'r, 1778.
"Dear Sir—I sent you via Annapolis the plan for the Indian House and Mr. Keliy's estimate. The sum voted by the Council for it is thirty pounds so that money must build it. The ground should be well cleared all about or the brush will sooner or later most assuredly burn it. The quantity of boards required I should apprehend for every purpose about it cannot exceed one thousand feet, which may be sawed from the spruces on the spot if you have a whip sawyer. The shingles can be made by any New England man in the neighborhood; however if any unforseen obstructions should arise, the place may be cleared and the body raised to the eaves and the rafters placed this winter, and the remainder finished in the Spring, which will show the Indians I have thought of them at least. When it is finished send me your certificate and one of Major Studholme's and I will obtain the money from the Treasury. * * * *
"It appears to me that Pierre Toma's encamping back of Maugerville with so many Indians indicates he is afraid he shall be insulted by Allan's people: if they do insult him they will pay for it in a way they little think of. I am very glad to find that Gilman and the Penobscot Indians made no impression on our Indians, and their withdrawing so quietly I hope proceeded from hints given by the St. John Indians who were with us at Fort Howe. * *
"Be so good as to let me hear from you by every conveyance how matters go on with the Indians.
"Your most obed't serv't,
"Mich. Francklin."
The Indian House was finished in the course of the winter by James Woodman. The correspondence of Francklin and White at this period is interesting, particularly when supplemented by John Allan's diary. After reading both sides of the story we are driven to the conclusion that the Indians never in all their history received such attention as was bestowed on them during the latter part of the revolutionary war. Indeed they may be said to have lived at the joint expense of the contending parties until the close of the war. For them the peace of 1783 was a very dismal thing indeed, for with it their supplies from either party ceased, and their friendship became a matter of comparative indifference, while the immense influx of new settlers drove them from their old hunting grounds and obliged them to look for situations more remote.