The Jesuit mission under the charge of
Father Rale, or Rasles, at
Norridgewock, on the upper
Kennebec, was an object of suspicion in
Massachusetts for almost twenty years, for it was known that
Rale had accompanied the
French and
Indians in their forays in the early part of Queen Anne's War. The Eastern Indians were in a bad humor in 1720, on account of encroachments upon their lands, and there were signs of hostility on their part, which, it was believed, had been excited by the
Jesuit missionary.
Finally,
Father Rale was formally accused of stimulating the
Eastern Indians to make war, and in August, 1721, the governor and council of
Massachusetts agreed to send a secret expedition to
Norridgewock to seize him. The expedition moved in January, 1722, but did not succeed in capturing
Father Rale.
His papers, seized by the assailants, who pillaged the chapel and the missionary's house, confirmed the suspicion.
The
Indians retorted for this attack by burning
Brunswick, a new village recently established on the
Androscoggin.
The tribes in
Nova Scotia joined in the war that had been kindled, and seized seventeen fishing-vessels in the Gut of
Canso, July, 1722, belonging to
Massachusetts.
Hostilities continued until 1724, when, in August, an expedition surprised
Norridgewock, and
Rale and about thirty Indian converts were slain, the chapel was burned, and the village broken up.
