thirst, the distressed troops still maintained a weary and wavering defence, encircling the convoy in a yet unbroken ring. They were fast falling in their ranks, and the strength and spirits of the survivors had begun to flag. If the fortunes of the day were to be retrieved, the effort must be made at once; and happily the mind of the commander was equal to the emergency. In the midst of the confusion, he conceived a stratagem alike novel and masterly. Could the Indians be brought together in a body, and made to stand their ground when attacked, there could be little doubt of the result; and to effect this object, Bouquet determined to increase their confidence, which had already amounted to an audacious pitch. Two companies of infantry, forming a part of the ring which had been exposed to the hottest fire, were ordered to fall back into the interior of the camp, while the troops on either hand joined their files across the vacant space, as if to cover the retreat of their comrades. These orders, given at a favorable moment, were executed with great promptness. The thin line of troops who took possession of the deserted part of the circle, were, from their small numbers, brought closer in towards the centre, The Indians mistook these movements for a retreat. Confident that their time was come, they leaped up on all sides, from behind the trees and bushes, and, with infernal screeches, rushed headlong towards the spot, pouring in a most heavy and galling fire. The shock was too violent to be long endured. The men struggled to maintain their posts, but the Indians seemed on the point of breaking into the heart of the camp, when the aspect of affairs was suddenly reversed. The two companies who had apparently abandoned their position, were in fact destined to begin the attack; and they now sallied out from the circle at the point where a depression in the ground, joined to the thick growth of trees, concealed them from the eyes of the Indians. Making a short detour through the woods, they came round upon the flank of the furious assailants, and discharged a deadly volley into their very midst. Numbers were seen to fall; yet though completely surprised, and utterly at a loss to understand the nature of the attack, the Indians faced about with the greatest intrepidity, and boldly returned the fire. But the Highlanders, with yells as wild as their own, fell on them with the bayonet. The shock was irresistible, and they fled before the charging ranks in a tumultuous throng. Orders had been given to two other companies, occupying a contiguous part of the circle, to support the attack whenever a favorable moment should occur; and they had therefore advanced a little from their position, and lay close crouched in ambush. The fugitive multitude, pressed by the Highland bayonets, passed directly across their front, upon

which they rose and poured upon them a second volley, no less destructive than the former. This completed the rout. The four companies, uniting, drove the flying savages through the woods, giving them no time to rally or reload their empty rifles, killing many, and scattering the rest in hopeless confusion.

"While this took place at one part of the circle, the troops and the savages had still maintained their respective positions at the other; but when the latter perceived the total rout of their com rades, and saw the troops advancing to assail them, they also lost heart, and fled. The discordant outcries which had so long deafened the ears of the English soon ceased altogether, and not a living Indian remained near the spot. About sixty corpses lay scattered over the ground. Among them were found those of several prominent chiefs, while the blood which stained the leaves of the bushes showed that numbers had fled severely wounded from the field. The soldiers took but one prisoner, whom they shot to death like a captive wolf. The loss of the English in the two battles surpassed that of the enemy, amounting to eight officers and one hundred and fifteen men." 362-366.

pp.

We cannot follow the story of the war to its conclusion, and are conscious that the imperfect abstract already given of a portion of Mr. Parkman's work gives but a feeble idea of the spirit and fidelity with which he has executed his task. Our purpose is answered, however, if the passages here copied from it should direct general attention to a book which seems to furnish a more perfect sketch of the habits and character of the aborigines of this continent, and of a remarkable epoch in their history, than has yet appeared in print. As the curious materials which the author has amassed with, so much industry and zeal cannot yet be exhausted, we hope soon to learn that he is engaged upon the preparation of another and more elaborate work, to which the present one may be regarded only as an introduction.

ART. IX. CRITICAL NOTICES.

1.- A History of the Town of Union, in the County of Lincoln, Maine, to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century; with a Family Register of the Settlers before the Year 1800, and of their Descendants. By JOHN LANGDON SIBLEY, Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston: B. B. Mussey & Co. 1851. 12mo. pp. 540.

MR. SIBLEY has been known for many years, by all the frequenters of Harvard College Library, as a zealous bibliographer and antiquarian. He now appears before the public as the author of a local history, - - a history of his native town, Union, in the State of Maine. It is one of those towns that have grown up within the memory of man, and, in a single life, have witnessed the progress and the changes which, in other countries, slowly take place in the course of many centuries. Their foundations are shrouded in no mists of fable and antiquity. The hard realities of the early settler's condition are still remembered by living persons, who shared them. Every field, hill, and river, every tree, rock, and shrub, has, not its legend, but its history; every house and public building, and their builders, are known to everybody. This absolute certainty in our origines gentium forms the most striking peculiarity of the American Annals. Towns, cities, and sovereign States alike stand out in the light, of positive fact and well authenticated history. Towns are the germs of larger communities; town organizations train the people to manage more comprehensive affairs; until a whole nation, with its infinitely complicated politics, becomes a distinct subject of contemplation to the citizen in the remotest border hamlet. Thus the history of the early settlements becomes an important element in the history of the matured nation. It is fortunate for future annalists that so much attention is already given to these local minutiæ. Our literature is enriched by many valuable and deeply interesting contributions of this kind.

Of the town of Union nothing is to be said that can distinguish it particularly from hundreds of other towns in our land. But Mr. Sibley has wrought from its sober annals a history of a very attractive character. The caritas ipsius soli, doubtless, has sustained him in the wearisome toil and protracted investigations to which he was subjected in his labor of love. The vividness of early recollections and youthful associations has given liveliness to his narrative and picturesqueness to his descriptions. Nothing relating to the early fortunes of his native place has

escaped his scrutiny; no feature of the hard and homely life the fathers of the village led has been left undescribed; no characteristic of the manners and customs and rustic wisdom of the strong-hearted men and much-enduring women, who redeemed its acres from the wilderness and drove back the fierce tenants of the forest, has been omitted by his careful pen. We trace the history of the place from its very cradle its birth being coeval with the independence of the country to its present flourishing condition. The picture is one of great interest; the characters in it, though mostly of a plain and homely sort, are such as all of us, who are familiar with New England country life, have seen and talked with; and the incidents and scenes are those which almost every American of middle age has witnessed, or played a part in. No one among us, who has passed his youth in a New England village, can fail to find himself at home - among the scenes so graphically painted, and with such hearty sympathy, in this book.

In point of style, Mr. Sibley is a plain and unpretending writer. He never indulges in rhetorical flourishes, or highsounding sentences. He tells his story in the words that suggest themselves naturally; and the lifelike effect he produces is owing, in no small degree, to this simplicity and directness of manner. Sometimes he introduces the peculiar phrases that belong to Yankee common life; and, for one to whom these terms of expression are native, the Doric plainness they impart to style is not unpleasing. They have a racy significance, redolent of the soil from which they spring; and they seem the fitting forms wherewith to describe the manly homespun life of our rural societies.

After a brief geographical description, and an account of some of the more striking physical phenomena, Mr. Sibley relates the "Ante-Plantation History" and the "Plantation History" of Union, in a series of entertaining chapters; introducing many characteristic sketches, such as the log house, the bride's dower, and the like. After 1786, the annals of the place rise into the dignity of records of the affairs of an incorporated town. The resources of the region, in minerals, trees, and agricultural and garden products, receive their due attention. The introduction of the mechanic and manufacturing arts has its appropriate chapters. The municipal history, and the administration of town. affairs managed by the little primitive democracy are minutely and instructively described. Burying-grounds, with their sad and tender associations; churches, or meeting-houses, always among the earliest structures raised by our religious communities, are dwelt upon with a pleasant antiquarian fondness,

that loves to linger around these consecrated precincts. The ecclesiastical history of a New England town is always one of its most important, though not always one of its most agreeable, parts. The freedom of religious opinion, and the absolute control which the people have always exercised over their own ecclesiastical affairs, have not so generally as could be desired conduced to peace. The Rev. Mr. True seems to have had rather a hard time of it with some of his recusant parishioners, especially with one Samuel Hills, who appears to have been really a most unreasonable fellow. It appears from the Family Register, however, that he was very deaf, which may have been the cause why he was not much edified with his pastor's sermons. Mr. True had a good deal of trouble, sometimes, to get his salary; and, what with one complication and another, it was a long time before affairs were adjusted with him. The Rev. Oren Sikes was settled in 1831, and unsettled in 1832. cause of this short-lived connection is not stated; but perhaps. the history of Mr. True had begun to be reënacted.

The

We have not space to follow Mr. Sibley through the various divisions of his subject. The same minute fidelity to facts is everywhere observable; in the history of taxation, of highways, bridges, and other branches of municipal affairs. One of the most entertaining parts of the book is the sketches of the schools. We have never been in the town of Union; but we can take our corporal oath that every touch in this minute delineation is perfectly and exactly true. We pass over the very amusing chapters on the military history of Union-especially the description of a muster, so true to the life that we seem to have been

present at it a hundred times and come to the chapters on the zoological history, which are, perhaps, the most amusing things in the book. The chapter on bears, and the hunting anecdotes in it, are capital. The mighty Nimrods - Jessa Robbins, John Butler, Adam Martin, and Jason Ware's dog Sambo - have found a chronicler, who has recorded their deeds with as much gusto as they performed them. We give a short extract upon this topic.

"Jessa Robbins says, that, on a Sunday morning, John Butler, then a young man, living at the Mill Farm, called to him across the pond to bring him some fire, as he had none, and no gunpowder to enable him to get any. After he had gone over, and had begun to assist Butler in kindling it, an object was discovered swimming from Hill's Point towards the other shore. Taking an axe, they hastened to the boat, threw into it a few stones, and plied the paddles. At first it was thought it might be a loon; but, as they approached it, they discovered it to be a bear, swimming towards Philip Robbins's cow-pasture, which was on the south side of the river, where it enters the pond. Hogs were in