During the summer, Sabatis and Plansawa, who had stolen the Negroes from Canterbury, made their appearance in Contoocook with furs for sale. After being in the vicinity for some time, they suddenly disappeared ; and rumor soon reported that Peter Bowen and John Morrill had killed them. Their bodies were found buried near Stirrup Iron brook. The Northern Railroad passes over the spot.
At the time of the construction of the road, in 1846, a small image was thrown up by the workmen, which is now in the museum of the Essex Institute, Salem, Mass. It undoubtedly was a “Medicine” or charm possessed by one of the Indians, and which usually carried in a bag gaily decorated with beads and colored porcupine quills. It is hardly probable that the image is the ideal of an Indian artist, but more likely that of a French Canadian priest. The Jesuits, in their Christianizing of the Indians, made use of various instrumentalities pandering to the superstitions of the aborigines ; and this image, in all probability, was a Jesuit ” Medicine.”
