The Battle of Port La Tour occurred on July 18, 1677, at
Port La Tour
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
,
Acadia, as part of the
Northeast Coast Campaign during the
First Abenaki War (the Maine-Acadia theater of
King Phillips War) in which the
Mi'kmaq attacked New England fishermen. The New Englanders eventually overwhelmed them and many Mi'kmaq were enslaved.
Historical context
Prior to King Philip's War, there is no record of New England and the Mi'kmaq being in conflict.
During the First Abenaki War, Major
Richard Waldron captured natives for the slave trade. The most significant seizure of natives happened in
Dover
Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
on September 7, 1676. Later, Waldron gave a mandate to the merchant, Henry Lawton (or Laughton), of the
Piscataqua area, to seize all the Indians "of the East" who had been raiding the New England villages along the border with Acadia.
On November 9, 1676 (
o.s.), they hired a vessel, the ''Endeavor'', commanded by Captain John Horton. They stopped at
Machias Machias may refer to:
Places
* Machias, Maine, a New England town
** Machias (CDP), Maine, the main village within the town
* Machias Bay, in Washington County, Maine
* Machias River (Aroostook River tributary) in northern Maine
* Machias River ...
and nine natives were taken captive. Then they sailed to
Cape Sable Island where 17 Mi'kmaq were taken captive, including the local chief and his wife. They were taken to the
Azores and sold as slaves to the Portuguese.
[
A New England vessel in the Azores notified the authorities in Boston of this possible illegal activity and ''Endeavor'' was seized and taken to Boston. Mellanson was released when his mother, Prescilla Mellanson, bailed him. After this, he skipped bail, and went into hiding. He changed his surname to Laverdure to avoid detection and lived in ]Port Royal
Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and co ...
thereafter. Henry Lawton and William Waldron were kept in jail but were eventually acquitted.
The battle
The Mi'kmaw response came in July 1677, when about 80 natives attacked 26 New England fishermen who were in six fishing vessels at Port La Tour. The natives boarded one of the vessels, stripped the men of their clothing, tied them up and left them on deck until nightfall, when they commanded them to set sail towards the Penobscot River
The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...
in Maine, close to Castine. A few hours later, while in the harbor, the New England captain was able to overthrow the natives. Although some natives escaped, the New Englanders imprisoned the rest. They took the prisoners to Marblehead, Massachusetts, where they were tortured and stoned to death by a group of women.
Afterward
As an immediate response, some merchants from Salem, to whom most of the vessels belonged, armed a large ketch, transforming it into a warship. It was manned by forty men who sailed for southern Nova Scotia. They scanned the coast, scrutinized every port, but to no avail. The Indians had gone into hiding.
See also
* Treaty of Casco (1678)
* Military history of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia (also known as Mi'kma'ki and Acadia) is a Canadian province located in Canada's Maritimes. The region was initially occupied by Mi'kmaq. The colonial history of Nova Scotia includes the present-day Canadian Maritime provinces and th ...
Notes
References
*
* Dickason, ''Guerre navale'', 237
* Rawlyk, ''Nova Scotia's Massachusetts'', p. 43
* {{cite web , first=Clarence-J. , last=d'Entremont , url=http://www.museeacadien.ca/english/archives/articles/16.htm , title=They cut off the finger that tipped the scale and some more , work=Yarmouth Vanguard , date=April 18, 1989
Military history of Nova Scotia
1677 in North America
1677 in military history