Abnaki Indians, Jesuits & Pilgrims

Nearly 350 years ago, a century and a half prior to the founding of the City of Augusta, a Jesuit priest established the first Catholic mission a few miles north of the Cushnoc/Plymouth trading post.

The Reverend Gabriel Druillettes, S.J. discovered the power and grace of God shortly after arriving in this country from Rochelle, France. Druillettes spent his first winter with the Algonquin Indians. During that winter of 1644, Druillettes completely lost his eyesight, only to have it restored one day while offering up a Mass for his recovery.

Druillettes was commissioned on August 28, 1646 by Charles Huault de Mortmagny, Governor of Quebec, to journey to the land of the Abnaki tribe and spread the word of God. Father Druillettes departed on September 1, accompanied by an Abnaki chieftain and a few braves. His journey would take him nearly two weeks through a challenging and vast wilderness. Father Druillettes would not return to Sillery, Canada, for ten months. The route taken was up the Chaudiere River for about 90 miles, portage across the rugged terrain, paddling down the chain of lakes, passing into the outlet at Dead River and down the Kennebec (Kinnibeki) River. This route is nearly the reverse of Benedict Arnold's 1775 expedition during the Revolutionary War.

Father Druillettes' native guides took him to Norridgewock (Narrantsouac) where a large Abnaki Village was located. After preaching and seeking converts for about a week, Father Druillettes journeyed down the river to Cushnoc, where he was well received by John Winslow (Winslau) at the Plymouth trading post. Father Druillettes' Abnaki guide, acting as interpreter, had brought John Winslow a bundle of beaver skins as a gift. A friendship quickly developed between the Pilgrim Englishman and the Jesuit Frenchman, neither of whom could speak a word of the other's language.

After leaving Cushnoc, Father Druillettes continued down river, stopping at various locations to tend to the sick and pray for those dying Abnakis en route. Although there are no precise records, he made visits to seven or eight English trading posts, probably in the area that now includes Damariscotta and Pemaquid. He was the first white man to travel the entire length of the Dead River and Kennebec River systems. He did continue, however, along the coast as far as Castine to greet the Capuchin Fathers, who already established a mission at the mouth of the Penobscot River.

To fully comprehend the enormous difficulty of Father Druillettes' mission, one must imagine the turbulent era of the mid-1600s. Both England and France were vying for territory in the New World. The French crown then owned Acadia and claimed that its western boundary was the Kennebec River. The Pilgrim trading post, at what is now Augusta, made the French suspect that the Abnakis were under the jurisdiction of the English. The Governor of Quebec was wary of sending anyone to the land of the Abnakis and kept the Indian delegation at the mission of St. Joseph of Sillery, Canada, for several months prior to granting approval for the expedition. Further complicating the first journey of Father Druillettes was the death of a fellow Jesuit priest, Saint Isaac Jogues, killed by the Iroquois in New York on October 13, 1646.

Upon returning from Castine, Father Druillettes commenced the construction of the "Mission of the Assumption." Timing inspired the name: the mission was originally requested on the Feast of the Assumption. The Abnakis built the "Small Chapel of Boards" on the east side of the Kennebec a few miles north of the Plymouth Trading Post.

After receiving a warm welcome from the Abnakis, who were known to be a docile people, Father Druillettes acclimated to the area. He took great care to learn the local dialect, which after a couple of months enabled him to converse with the Abnakis better than members of the nearby Algonquin tribe with whom they had established relations many years before.

It was here that Father Druillettes set out to instruct the Abnakis to do three things:

• To renounce intoxicating liquors
• To live in peace with their neighbors
• To give up medicine bags, drums, and other objects of superstition.

The Abnakis agreed to these and other teachings. They often asked to be baptized, but Druillettes seldom granted that particular wish, opting instead to reserve the sacrament for those who were dying.

Father Druillettes endured the hardships of missionary life and spent the winter with his Abnaki parishioners. The following May, Father Druillettes accompanied the Indians to Moosehead Lake on a hunting expedition. Along the way they were told by the medicine men that those who follow the teaching of this "Black Gown" would be captured by the Iroquois and find no deer. In fact, the opposite was true: they returned with plenty of venison.

It was upon their homecoming that Father Druillettes announced he would be returning to Canada. This caused great strife among the Indians, who wrote, "We must say that Father Gabriel does not love us: he does not care, though we shall die, as he abandons us." Nevertheless, he returned to Quebec on June 16, 1647, and reported the success of his mission to his superiors.

Druillettes returned in 1650 with a twofold mission. The first entailed visiting the missions at Norridgewock and Cushnoc as a diplomat to the governor of New England in Boston. The second goal was to enlist the help of the New Englanders against the Iroquois Indians and form reciprocal trade agreements. Again, in 1651, he journeyed as far as New Haven on another trip. Although these diplomatic missions eventually proved unproductive, this was one of the very few instances where a Jesuit priest undertook a commission of a political nature.

The Abnakis rarely wavered in their devotion to Druillettes and his teachings. Once, when an Englishman accused the Jesuit of speaking against his nation, the tribal leaders came to his aid, disputing the claim. As a sign of their devotion, they said, "Know that he is now of our nation; we have adopted him into the tribe, and regard him as the wisest of our chiefs; we respect him as the ambassador of Jesus. Whoever attacks him, attacks all the Abnaki tribe."

A decade after Father Druillettes' departure from the Kennebec, the Bishop of Quebec made his report to Rome that there were at least 200 Catholic families in the Mission of the Assumption, together with 200 Abnakis, baptized during the 1660-1663 period.

More than 30 years would elapse before another "Black Robe" missionary would arrive to serve the Abnakis at their chapel. During this period, the first Indian war, King Phillip's War, was fought from 1675 to 1678. This three-year conflict, between the Indians and the English, resulted in the deaths of 300 settlers in Massachusetts and the territory that would become Maine. The second war, King William's War, started in 1688 and lasted nine years. This hostility found the French and Indians opposing the English.

Father Sebastian Rale arrived in Norridgewock in November 1695 and made numerous trips to the Cushnoc Mission during his 29-year tenure as the "Resident Missionary on the Kennebec River." On August 23, 1724, the English attacked the Norridgewock Mission killing Father Rale and most of the Abnaki Indians. Those who survived fled to the St. Frances reservation in Canada. Although Father Jacques Sirene (Syresme) S.J. would return in 1730 to Norridgewock and probably spent most of his remaining 17 years with the Abnakis, Catholicism along the Kennebec River would lie dormant for the next 100 years.

English translation of Father Druillette’s Commission: Charles Huault de Montmagny, Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Governor and Lieutenant General for the King in New France, certifies to all whom it may concern that the Rev. Father Gabriel Druillette, Religious of the Company of Jesus, has departed from Quebec with our consent, to go to the country of the savage Abnakis, and other areas surrounding, in an attempt to give the savages a knowledge of the true God, this being the desire of his most Christian majesty, and following the rule of his order. We pray that all the Governors and Captains, whereby he should pass, to give all assistance and comfort, and to let him come and go at will. This order given at Fort St. Louis, Quebec, August Twenty-Eight, Sixteen Hundred Forty Six. By Order of the Governor.