77*^ 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELrVERKl) BEFORE 
 
 THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 6th, 1846. 
 
 BY GEORGE FOLSOM, 
 
 •' But I doubt not * * • it will prove a very flourishing place, and be replenished 
 with iiiany falre Towns and Cities, it being a Province both fruitful and pleasant." 
 
 F. Gorges. Description of the Province of Maine. 
 
 L 
 
 PORTLAND: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETY. 
 
 1847. 
 
DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE 
 
 THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 AT ITS ANNUAL MEETING, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 6th, 1846. 
 
 ' ♦ - . ».» ■; 
 
 BY GEORGE FOLSOM. 
 
 " But I doubt not * * * it will prove a very flourishing place, and be replenished 
 with many faire Towns and Cities, it beiriii a Province both fruitful and pleasant." 
 
 F. G0R8KS. Description of the Province of Maine. 
 
 PORTLAND: 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE SOCIETYi 
 
 1847. 
 
V■1^ 
 
 ' i 
 
► At a meeting of the Maine Historicai, Society, holden at Brunswick, Sept. 
 ^* 6th, 1846, 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. George 
 ^ FoLsoM, of New York, for his highly valuable and interesting Discourse, deliv- 
 
 ered before them this day, and that he be respectfully requested to furnish a 
 copy of the same for publication. 
 
 JOS. McKEEN, Recording Secretary. 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Histori- 
 cal Society : 
 
 Indifference to the past, considered as a na- 
 tional characteristic, is a mark of rudeness and inciv- 
 ihzation. A purely savage people live only in the 
 present moment. The satisfaction of immediate 
 wants, the enjoyment of the passing hour, make 
 up the sum total of their existence. They have no 
 monuments of former generations, and they leave 
 none of themselves. To them, the deeds of forefa- 
 thers, the exploits of other times, the good or evil 
 that marked an earlier day, afford no examples and 
 impart no instruction. It is as if none had lived 
 before them, and none were to come after. Equally 
 indifferent to the future, they make no provision for 
 a day beyond that which already dawns upon them, 
 and care as little for the next generation as the last! 
 Such are mankind in their natural and uncultivated 
 state. But as they emerge into the light of civiliza- 
 tion, a change comes over the scene. An enlarged 
 horizon exhibits new objects to the view. Their 
 gaze is no longer fixed, animal-like, upon the narrow 
 compass of earth that suffices for present indulgence ,• 
 but looking upward towards Heaven, as well a£ 
 around upon the outspreading landscape, they begin 
 
6 DISCOURSE. 
 
 to feel the sublimity of their intellectual nature, and 
 to call into exercise the faculties that God has endow- 
 ed them with, but of which they were before uncon- 
 scious. Now awakens the thirst of knowledge, — the 
 strong and insatiable desire to grasp at something 
 beyond mere existence. The well-spring of thought 
 bubbles up, stimulating and fertilizing the perceptions, 
 and a thousand imaginations and conceits pour forth 
 in undisciplined confusion. Reason and reflection 
 soon, however, assert their rights, and the plastic hand 
 of cultivation moulds all into shape and order. 
 
 The present moment is now no longer the limit of 
 of the mind's ken. It supplies too gross a material 
 for the exercise of the awakened powers, and the 
 imagination scorns to feed upon it. Stretching back 
 to the past, or diving deep into futurity, it delights 
 to take to itself the wings of fancy, and revel and 
 riot amid the scenes that bear it away from the sen- 
 sualities and follies, the cares and distractions, of the 
 fleeting moment. It conjures up the realities of a 
 by-gone age, and seeks to learn the motives, the 
 princi[)les, the habits, both of body and mind, and all 
 that was comprised in the career of those who once 
 lived and flourished, but have long slumbered in the 
 Valley of Silence. It was at this stage of progress, 
 that the Father of History unfolded his luminous page, 
 and recited to his assembled countrymen the glorious 
 deeds and chivalric achievements of their dc{)arted 
 sires, or traced the daring exploits of the half-fabulous 
 heroes who made Greece the arena for the display 
 of superhuman courage and unrivalled prowess. It 
 is needless to add that the land rung with praises of 
 the man, who had thus successfully jippealed both to 
 
DISCOURSE. 7 
 
 the new-born thirst for historic lore, and to that other 
 and scarcely less civilized sentiment, the love or 
 one's own native land. 
 
 Advancing improvement strengthens the desire to 
 converse with departed excellence, and national pride 
 leads to the erection of lasting monuments to perpet- 
 uate its fame. Memorials are sought on every hand, 
 but, alas ! it too olten happens that inattention or 
 neglect, on the part of contemporaries, occasions the 
 loss of what a subsequent age would be sure to prize as 
 the precious reliques of genius or distinguished merit. 
 How little is known, for instance, of the private his- 
 tory of England's great dramatist, and with what 
 eagerness are the faintest traces of his every-day hfe 
 sought and treasured up ! Yet with a little care ex- 
 ercised either in his own day, or by those of the next 
 succeeding generation, enough might have been pre- 
 served to enable his admirers, in all ages, to form a 
 correct conception of the life and personal character 
 of the man whose genius is the proudest boast of 
 English literature. 
 
 Great national events likewise often fail of a proper 
 appreciation from the want of due care in preserving 
 the memorials of their occurrence. To the historical 
 student many cases in point will suggest themselves. 
 The history of American discovery may be mention- 
 ed as singularly deficient in the requisite materials 
 for its elucidation. The important voyages of Sebas- 
 tian Cabot and Americus Vespucius are involved in 
 much obscurity from this cause, and the chart or map 
 drawn by the former to illustrate his discoveries, has 
 long been classed among the things " lost on earth." 
 Navarrete, in Spain, has done much to rescue from 
 
8 DISCOURSE. 
 
 oblivion the services rendered by his countrymen, in 
 the discovery of the New World ; but had the work 
 been commenced at an earlier period, the results 
 would doubtless have been far more satisfactory and 
 complete. 
 
 In this country, something has already been done 
 towards the preservation of the materials of history ; 
 and it is gratifying to find an increased interest awa- 
 kened in the subject, and a higher appreciation of its 
 importance entertained, at the present time, than at 
 any former period. It marks to some extent the cha- 
 racter of the age, and affords, according to the gene- 
 ral views just presented, an indication of progress, 
 a sis^n of intellectual jrrowth. in our social character. 
 The Documentar}^ Historj^, now in the course of pub- 
 lication under the auspices of the general government, 
 is a work of which any country might be proud ; 
 and if completed according to the plan of its intel- 
 lifjent editor,* it will be a noble monument to the 
 liberality and enlightened patriotism of our national 
 legislature. The states individually have also awa- 
 kened to the importance of collecting and preserving 
 their public records, and in some of the older com- 
 monwealths considerable appropriations have been 
 made of late years to defray the expense of arranging 
 and makimj secure what is too often rei^arded as the 
 useless lumber of antiquity. It is certainly desirable, 
 in every point of view, economical as well as histori- 
 cal, that a similar course should be pursued in the 
 public offices of all our states ; for often the preser- 
 vation of a single document may lead to results of 
 
 * Peter Force, Esq., late Mayor of the city of Washington. 
 
DISCOURSE. 9 
 
 greater value than all the labor and expense re 
 quired to effect this object. 
 
 The publications of the Enghsh Record Commis- 
 sions are an example of what may be accomplished 
 by a great and enlightened nation for the preservation 
 of its public records. The work was commenced in 
 the year 1800, and was continued nearly forty years, 
 during which time there were printed of the ancient 
 records of the kingdom, commencing with the reign 
 of William the Conqueror, one hundred and eleven 
 volumes, of which eighty-six are in folio ; and the 
 amount expended by the government in connexion with 
 this object, during that period, is estimated at nearly 
 a million of pounds sterling, or about five millions 
 of dollars. The same liberal and munificent spirit that 
 has led to the achievement of this great enterprise, 
 not satisfied with having provided for the security of 
 the documents contained in those massive volumes, 
 by their publication, has also governed their distribu- 
 tion ; for copies were sent to most of the colleges 
 and many other literary institutions of this country, 
 which certainly had no claim upon the liberality of 
 the British government. This great work has raised 
 another monument to the far-famed national spirit of 
 that monarchy, which ever seeks, by appropriate 
 means, to foster and sustain the reputation of her sons 
 and the glory of her ancient name. 
 
 The long connexion of the people of this country 
 with the European governments, of which they were 
 colonies, renders our own archives incomplete with- 
 out resorting to those abroad; and hence some of 
 the State Legislatures have so far interested them- 
 selves in this subject, as to send agents to the mother 
 1* 
 
10 DISCOURSE. 
 
 countries to procure copies of documents illustrative 
 of their early history. The Legislature of New York 
 appropriated about fifteen thousand dollars for this 
 purpose, and her Agent was employed three years 
 in the ])crformance of his labors, during which time 
 he examined the archives of London, Paris, and the 
 HafTue, and brought home an invaluable collection of 
 State Papers, and other documents of great value and 
 interest. Georgia, likewise, with commendable liber- 
 ality, has instituted a similar agency abroad, which re- 
 sulted in the acquisition of twenty-two folio manuscript 
 volumes, obtained from the English offices, and deposi- 
 ted by the direction of the Legislature with the Histor- 
 ical Society of that state. Massachusetts, distinguish- 
 ed for her enlightened Icaislation, and ever alive to 
 wliatevcr promotes the cause of learning and educa- 
 tion, has established a similar agency in London and 
 Paris ; and it is believed that many other States are 
 prepared to adopt the same course. 
 
 But the most striking evidence of the attention now 
 bestowed on the subject of historical investigation 
 m this country, is found in the organization of His- 
 torical Societies throus^hout the Union, havino- in view 
 the specific object of collecting and preserving the ma- 
 terials of history. The Massachusetts society was the 
 first in the field : it has already published twenty- 
 miic volumes of Collections, containing a prodigious 
 mass of iul'ormatioi), relating chiefly to the history 
 r)f New England. One of its founders, and its first 
 l^residcnt, was a native of this State ; I refer to the 
 late Ja3ij:s Sullivan, then a resident of Boston, and 
 alterwards Governor of Massachusetts. This gentle- 
 man also produced a history of this State, then the 
 
DISCOURSE. 11 
 
 District of Maine, which although far from being a 
 faultless work, was highly creditable to the industry 
 and patriotism of its Author. Associated with Sulh- 
 van in founding and sustaining that Society, were 
 Belknap, Eliot, Freeman, Minot, Tudor, Thach- 
 
 ER, KiRKLiND, WiNTHROP, DaVIS, QuINCY, SaVAGE, 
 
 Bradford, Harris, and others, who formed a pha- 
 lanx of intellectual strength and erudition not often 
 surpassed.* 
 
 The New^ York Historical Society was founded at 
 a somewhat later period than that of Massachusetts, 
 but was the next in order of time, and is now in the 
 forty-second year of its existence. Among those 
 who were among its earliest members, (but now de- 
 ceased,) may be named Egbert Benson, John Pintard, 
 Kufus King, De Witt Clinton, Dr. Hosack, Bishop 
 Hobart, Daniel D. Tompkins, Dr. Mitchell, Brockholst 
 Livingston, and Peter A. Jay. The President of this 
 society, at the present time, is the Hon. Albert Galla- 
 tin, who at a very advanced age finds solace in literary 
 pursuits, to which his time is chiefly devoted.t The 
 Library of this institution is large, andrichin American 
 history ; and is the resort of historical students from 
 
 * See an excellent sketch of the history of the Massachusetts Society, by the 
 Rev. William J£^'Ks, D. D., in the twenty-seventh vokune of its Collections 
 Dr. Jenks states, that the Rev. Dr. Belknap, author of a well known and highly 
 esteemed History of New Hanijjshire, " has been uniformly regarded as the prin- 
 cipal founder of that Society." 
 
 t This gentleman is also President of the American Ethnological Society, es- 
 tablished at New York. The first volume of the Transactions of that learned 
 association appeared last year, consisting chiefly of an elaborate essay upon the 
 languages, astronomy, &c. of the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Centrat 
 America, by Mr. Gallatin. This remarkable work, involving much abstruse 
 learning, and acute discrimination, is one of the greatest trophies of an intellec- 
 tual old age the world ever saw ; having been composed by the venerable author 
 in his eighty -fifth year. 
 
12 ' DISCOURSE. 
 
 all parts of the country. Its members are numerous, 
 and the papers read at its monthly meetings usually 
 attract a large concourse of persons of literary taste 
 and habits. Besides its volumes of Collections, this 
 Society publishes an anual report of its transactions, 
 containing the Papers read during the year. 
 
 I have spoken more particularly of the societies 
 of Massachusetts and New York, as being the oldest 
 in the country ; but there are many others of a more 
 recent date, which are equally efficient and useful. 
 They bring together much of the learning and talent 
 of their respective States, and afford to politicians a 
 neutral ground on which they can meet without dan- 
 ger of hostile collision ; for surely nothing is better 
 fitted to inspire proper feelings in the hearts of the 
 Jiving, than the contemplation of the virtues of those 
 who have preceded them on the stage of active life, 
 and patriotism itself is kindled by surveying the tro- 
 phies and memorials which a grateful country exhibits 
 to exalt the fame of her distinguished sons. We have 
 no Westminster Abbey to perpetuate the remem- 
 brance of valor, genius, or beneficence ; even 
 Washington sleeps in a common tomb with his kin- 
 dred, and of his distinguished associates in the field, 
 how few of us can tell where their remains now repose ! 
 If Historical Associations should do no more than 
 point out the resting places of departed merit, dis- 
 encumbering the humble tomb-stone of its moss, and 
 freshening the sod that lies upon the grave of genius, 
 they will perform a truly grateful though it may be 
 humble office, and be the means of holding up to 
 public view examples worthy of imitation. 
 
 The Society 1 have the honor to address was insti- 
 
DISCOURSE. 13 
 
 tuted in 1822, and numbered among its early friends 
 and founders some of the most eminent names in the 
 State. It has ah-eady rendered good service by the 
 pubheation of a volume that sheds much light on the 
 early history of a large portion of Maine ; and should 
 its organization give birth to nothing beyond that vol- 
 ume, so replete with the fruits of patient research, its 
 existence would be marked by no idle or unsatisfactory 
 result. But there is no reason it should stop here ; 
 there is much more work for it to perform before its 
 destiny be accomplished. There is no part of our 
 country whose history is more diversified, and in- 
 structive, than these Northern shores ; none less 
 known, or full of more exciting incident. The long 
 subjection of Maine to a rival colony, gave it less inter- 
 est and importance in the eyes of the general histori- 
 an than it deserved to possess ; but having at length 
 resumed its original independence, with the means of 
 developing its vast resources, and extending its 
 wealth and population, this State must hereafter oc- 
 cupy a prominent position in our country, and a con- 
 spicuous place on the page of liistory. 
 
 I propose in the remainder of this discourse to call 
 your attention to some of the facts connected with 
 the early discovery and settlement of Maine, and the 
 character of those who were most active in the work 
 of colonization. 
 
 To Columbus belongs the glory of having solved 
 the great problem, as to the existence of lands in the 
 west ; but in his estimation, the discovery owed its 
 chief importance to the supposed identity of those 
 lands with the opulent, but remote regions of Cathay, 
 or China, and the Indies. Impressed with this idea, 
 
14 DISCOURSE. 
 
 the great navigator, even in his last voyage, took with 
 him persons skilled in the Arabic language, for the 
 purj)ose of being enabled to hold intercourse with the 
 Khan of Tartary, as the Emperor of China was then 
 styled, whose dominions he expected to reach by sail- 
 ing west from Hispaniola. This voyage terminated 
 twelve years after the first discovery, and resulted 
 only in the exploration of the coast of Central Ame- 
 rica, from the bay of Honduras to the Spanish Main. 
 The same idea led to the discovery of the continent 
 of North America, by the Cabots in 1497. The ac- 
 count of the matter given by Sebastian Cabot, who 
 was the master spirit on that occasion, is that the 
 news of the discoveries made by Columbus, caused a 
 great sensation at the court of Henry VH., who then 
 reigned in England, and it was thought a wonderful 
 thing, " more divine than human, to sail by the west 
 to the lands in the east, where spices grow." The fame 
 of this achievement kindled a desire in his own mind 
 to attempt something of a similar character, and 
 " understanding," he says, " by reason of the sphere, 
 that if I should sail by the northwest, I should by a 
 shorter tract come into India, I thereupon caused the 
 king to be advertised of my device," &c. He after- 
 terwards adds, " I began therefore to sail towards the 
 northwest, not thinking to find any other land than that 
 of Cathay, and from thence to turn towards India ; 
 but after certain days, I found that the land ran towards 
 the north, which to me was a great displeasure." * 
 
 *Hakluyt. Thus Lord Bacon characterizes Cabot's discovery as " a memo- 
 rable accident," and the great navigator lie describes " as one Sebastian Gabato, 
 a Venelian, dwelling at i3ristol, a man seen and expert in cosmography and na- 
 vigation." Hint. Henry VII. 
 
DISCOURSE. 15 
 
 The accounts of this voyage, and of a second in 
 in the same direction, made by Sebastian Cabot the 
 following year, are extremely meagre ; no details of 
 them were published by the navigator himself, and 
 after his death, his original maps and papers disap- 
 peared in a mysterious manner. But there is suffi- 
 cient evidence to show that he first discovered land, 
 after pursuing a northwest course from Bristol Chan- 
 nel, on the coast of Labrador, in latitude about 56*^, 
 on the 24th of June, the day of St. John the Baptist. 
 In honor of the day, he gave the name of St. John to 
 a small island, on the same coast, which has latterly 
 disappeared from our maps. It is now supposed that 
 Cabot, after making this discovery, continued his 
 course to the north, as high as latitude 67^, and enter- 
 ed Hudson's bay ; finding the sea still open, he said 
 that he might and would have gone to Cathay, had it 
 not been for the mutinous conduct of the master and 
 mariners, who compelled him to retrace his steps. 
 The ship in which he sailed was called the Matthew, 
 of Bristol. 
 
 Obtaining a new patent from the king, he again 
 sailed the following year with several vessels and 
 about 300 persons, for the purpose, it is supposed, of 
 forming a colony. It was during this voyage that he 
 sailed along the whole coast of the United States, and 
 laid the foundation of the English claim to the country. 
 
 Some particulars of these voyages are given by 
 Peter Martyr, the celebrated Italian, a resident in 
 Spain at that period, who derived his information from 
 Cabot himself, when a guest at his house. According 
 to this writer, Cabot called the lands he had discov- 
 ered " Baccalaos, a name," says Martyr, " given by 
 
16 DISCOURSE. 
 
 the inhabitants to a large kind of fish, which appear- 
 ed in such shoals, that they sometimes interrupted the 
 progress of the ships." This word is now used in 
 several European languages, to denote the codfish, 
 either in its natural or dried state. It is found on 
 some of the oldest maps of North America, as applied 
 by Cabot to the countries he discovered, but is gene- 
 rally restricted to the island since called Newfound- 
 land.* 
 
 The name of Labrador is Portuguese, having been 
 given with some others by a Portuguese navigator, 
 Gaspar de Cortereal, who visited the same coast in 
 1501, and left his own name applied to an extensive 
 tract of country on the borders of Hudson's Bay, long 
 known as Terra Corterealis. 
 
 The name Norumbega was subsequently used to 
 designate nearly the whole of the Continent north of 
 Florida. This is supposed to be an Indian word, 
 with a Latin termination,t and was generally used by 
 the French, until it was superseded by another Indian 
 name, which the French wrote Cadic, or Acadie, and 
 sometimes with the Latin termination, as Cadia, or 
 Acadia, but which the English changed into a less 
 poetical word, by writing Qiioddy instead of Cadie.j[. 
 
 Norumbega, at a later period, Mas confined 
 to the country lying north of Virginia ; thus on a 
 
 * Thus Cortes, writing in 1524, proposes to explore "the northern coast of 
 Floridii as far as tlie Burullaos." Despatches, p. 417. 
 
 t Sometimes written Aramhec, or Aramheng. It is remarked by Sullivan 
 tliat the Indian word eag signifies land, and he thus accounts for its frequent oc- 
 currence in local names. Father Rale, in his Dictionary of the Abenaqui dialect, 
 gives the words hi and kik, (kee and keek,) as meaning land ; but Gallatin's 
 Synopsis of Indian languages, (Long L-^land Vocabulary,) has " keagli, or eage ;"' 
 the difference is, however, only in the orthography ; the words are the same. 
 
 % The bay of Passamaquoddy, is on the French maps named Pesmo-cadie. 
 
DISCOURSE. 17 
 
 map contained in Wytfliet's supplement to Ptolemy, 
 published as late as 1603, it has New France on the 
 north, and Virginia on the south. A city of the same 
 name is also laid down on this map, situated upon a 
 large river, supposed to be the Penobscot. A map 
 of North America, contained in the. Novus Orbis 
 of De Laet, published in 1633, distributes the country 
 into the following divisions, commencing on the 
 north : New France, Cadie, Norumbega, (comprising 
 the territory between the St. Croix and Kennebec,) 
 New England, New Netherland, Virginia, and Flor- 
 ida. Purchas in describing the coast of Maine, refers 
 to former accounts of " a great town and fair river 
 called Norumbega," and adds, that the French discov- 
 erers deny the existence of any such place, affirming 
 that there are only cabins, covered with bark or skins, 
 to be found in that region, and that the true name of 
 the village and river is Pentegoet, a name long ap- 
 plied by the French to the Penobscot. This more 
 accurate account of the matter was the result of visits 
 to that river, by the French, at the period of their 
 first settlements in Nova Scotia. 
 
 According to Hakluyt, and other writers, the In- 
 dians had a general designation for the territory com- 
 prised within the forty-third and forty-fifth degrees 
 of north latitude, almost the precise limits of the sea 
 coast of Maine, and extending forty leagues into the 
 interior. This territory they called Mavooshen, 
 " which," says Hakluyt, " was discovered by the Eng- 
 lish in the years 1602, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9," implying 
 that voyages were made to it by the English in each 
 of those years, a statement fully confirmed by evi- 
 dence from other sources. The government of all 
 2 
 
18 - DISCOURSe. 
 
 the Indians dwelling within these limits, and of others 
 as far south as Massachusetts, was in the hands of a 
 single Cacique, or Sachem, to whom the inferior 
 Sagamores of the various tribes owed allegiance. 
 His title as given by the English Navigators who 
 first visited the country, was Bashaba, and Dr. Bel- 
 knap remarks that " we have no account of any other 
 Indian chief in these northern parts of America, 
 whose authority was so extensive."* The place of 
 his residence was probably on the banks of the Pen- 
 obscot, and as it was also the seat of his government, 
 the fabulous accounts of a large city in that quarter 
 may have arisen from exaggerated descriptions of this 
 humble capital of the Bashaba's dominions. 
 
 Notwithstanding the discoveries of the Cabots, 
 with the exception of one or two expeditions from 
 Bristol, fitted out by the enterprising merchants of 
 that city, no subsequent efforts were made in Eng- 
 lai^d for a long period to follow up what had been so 
 well begun. During the protracted reign of Henry 
 VIIL, those important discoveries seem to have been 
 foro-otten ; nor was their memory revived in the 
 succeeding reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Mary. 
 The English merchants were satisfied with quietly 
 despatching their frail barks to the fishing grounds, 
 and drawing from the ocean-depths the more availa- 
 ble sources of commercial thrift. Sebastian Cabot 
 hnd <Tone into the service of Spain, and more than 
 seventy years elapsed before the attention of the Eng- 
 lish goverment was again directed to the American 
 coast. During all this long period, not an English 
 
 » 1 Am. Biog. 351. 
 
DISCOURSE. 19 
 
 colonist was landed upon any portion of the Ameri- 
 can continent, to mark the possession of the country 
 on the part of those who afterwards claimed an ex- 
 clusive right to every inch of the soil from Florida to 
 Greenland. The maxim in those days was, Veni, 
 Vidi, Hahui ; or in the language of the poet, 
 
 "The time once was here, to all be it known, 
 When all a man sailed by, or saw, was his own." 
 
 At length, towards the close of the sixteenth centu- 
 ry, Sir Humphry Gilhert, one of the most accom- 
 phshed men in England, undertook an expedition to 
 Newfoundland ; and his half brother, Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, despatched another for the discovery of land 
 to the north of Florida. But these efforts, however 
 honorable to their authors, proved disastrous in the 
 end. The wretched colonists planted by Sir Walter 
 on the meagre coast of North Carolina were finally 
 abandoned to their fate, and, cut off from all commu- 
 nication with the civilized world, are supposed to 
 have perished of hunger, or by the hands of savages. 
 The only result of any value or importance that 
 followed the spirited exertions of that gifted genius, 
 at whose private expense the attempt was made, was 
 the opening of the hitherto unexplored wilds of Vir- 
 ginia to the knowledge of the world, which led to 
 more successful efforts to colonize that portion of 
 our country at a subsequent date. 
 
 The French were equally unsuccessful during the 
 same century in all their enterprises to the new 
 world ; not a single permanent settlement was effec- 
 ted by them on any part of the American coast. 
 
20 DISCOURSE. 
 
 Although repeated commissions were issued for the 
 colonization of the country under the name of New 
 France, the whole of North America, with the excep- 
 tion of Florida and Mexico, continued an unbroken 
 wilderness, without a single European family in all 
 its extent, until the commencement of the seventeenth 
 century. This vast and dreary solitude was first 
 broken on the borders of this State, by the French 
 colony of De Monts, who passed the winter of 1603-4 
 on the island of St. Croix, situated in the river of 
 the same name, on the line separating Maine from 
 New Brunswick. 
 
 The spirit of colonization received a new impulse 
 hi England at the same period. The numerous fish- 
 ing voyages from the western ports, especially Bris- 
 tol, Exeter, and Plymouth, had divested the ocean ot 
 its terrors, and a visit to the American coast had 
 become no unusual occurrence. In the summer of 
 1G02, a small party of colonists embarked from Fal- 
 mouth, and arrived on the coast of Massachusetts ; 
 having selected a location upon a small island near 
 the southern shore of that State, to which they gave 
 the name of Ehzabeth island, they prepared to take 
 up their abode there ; but when the ship w^as about 
 to leave on its return to England, their hearts fiiiled 
 them, and they hastily abandoned the enterprise. 
 But the pleasing accounts these persons gave of the 
 country after their return, and the shortness of the 
 voyage, j)roduccd a favorable impression at home, 
 and encouraged other enterprises of a similar 
 character. 
 
 Richard Ilakluyt, the author of the well known 
 geographical work that bears his name, was at that 
 
DISCOURSE. 21 
 
 time a prebendary of St. Augustine's Church at Bris- 
 tol ; taking a hvely interest in promoting voyages of 
 discovery to different parts of the globe, he induced 
 the corporation of Bristol and some of the merchants 
 of that city, to unite in fitting out a small expedition 
 to America the following year. It consisted of two 
 vessels named the Speedwell and the Discoverer, 
 with a ship's company of about fifty persons, amongst 
 whom were several who had been in the expedition 
 of the previous year. The command was given to 
 Martin Pring, an experienced seaman. The vessels 
 were victualled for eight months, and provided with 
 various kinds of clothing, hardware and trinkets, to 
 trade with the natives. They sailed on the 10th of 
 April, 1603, a few days after the death of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and reached the American coast on the 
 7th of June, between the 43d and 44th degrees of 
 latitude, among those numerous islands with which 
 Penobscot bay is studded. There they found good 
 anchorage and fishing, and gave the name of Fox 
 islands to the group now bearing that name. 
 
 Leaving that part of the coast. Captain Pring ran- 
 ged to the southwest, and explored the inlets, rivers 
 and bays, as far as the southern coast of Massachu- 
 setts. Here he named a bay where they landed, " b}^ 
 the name of the Worshipful Master, John Whitson, 
 then Mayor of the city of Bristol, and one of the 
 chief adventurers." A pleasant hill adjoining they 
 called Mount Aldworth, " for Master Robert Wald- 
 worth's sake, a chief furtherer of the voyage, as well 
 with his purse as his travel." Aldworth was a wealthy 
 merchant of Bristol, who nearly thirty years after 
 2* 
 
22 DISCOURSE. 
 
 was one of the grantees at Pemaquid, in conjunction 
 with Giles Elbridge. 
 
 The object of this expedition having been accom- 
 phshed by a careful survey of the country, and the 
 vessels having received a full freight of sassafras and 
 furs, Pring returned to England, where he arrived 
 after a passage of five weeks. The whole voyage 
 was completed in six months. 
 
 The next visit to the coast of Maine was in 1605, 
 by Capt. George Weymouth, who having in view the 
 discovery of Virginia, came in sight of the American 
 coast on the 14th of May, in the latitude of 41^ 20' ; 
 but findino- himself in the midst of shoals and break- 
 ers, he made sail and at the distance of fifty leagues 
 discovered several islands, to one of which he gave 
 the name of St. George, which is still borne by a 
 group of islands near the entrance to Penobscot 
 river ; about three leagues from this island, Wey- 
 mouth came into a harbor which he called Pentecost 
 harbor, and sailed up a noble river, now supposed to 
 liave been the Penobscot. But the most important 
 cu'cumstance connected with tliis voyage is, that on 
 his return to England, Weymouth took with him 
 several Indians, three of whom on his arrival at Ply- 
 mouth he committed to the charge of Sir Ferdiuando 
 (lorges. Governor of the Fort at that place. " This 
 accident," says Gorges, in his Description of New 
 J'^ngland, " must be acknowledged the means, under 
 God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our 
 j)lantations." He adds, that he kept these Indians 
 lor three years, and endeavored to elicit from them 
 as much information as possible respecting their na- 
 tive country ; and that the longer he conversed with 
 
DISCOURSE. 23 
 
 them, the better hope they gave him of those parts 
 where they inhabited, as well fitted for the purposes 
 of settlement, " especially when he found what good- 
 ly rivers, stately islands, and safe harbors those parts 
 abounded with." 
 
 Thus encouraged, Sir Ferdinando despatched a ship 
 the following year, (1606), under the command of 
 Henry Challong, accompanied by two of the natives, 
 with directions to keep a northerly course to Cape 
 Breton, and then to run to the southward, following 
 the coast until he reached Penobscot bay. Instead, 
 however, of following these directions, the ship's 
 course was shaped for the West Indies ; this led to 
 their capture by the Spaniards, who carried them into 
 a Spanish port, where, says Sir Ferdinando, " their 
 ship and goods were confiscated, themselves made 
 prisoners, the voyage overthrown, and both the na- 
 tives lost." This was one of those unfortunate mis- 
 chances to which projectors of voyages were peculiarly 
 exposed at that period, and which served to discourage 
 enterprises of this character. 
 
 Soon after the departure of Challong, another ship 
 under the command of Capt. Thomas Hanham and 
 Capt. Pring, was despatched from Bristol by Lord 
 Chief Justice Popham, with instructions to meet 
 Challong at the Penobscot ;* but not finding him at 
 that place, they continued their course along shore, 
 and made, says Gorges, " a perfect discovery of all 
 
 * The Plymouth Company, in a relation or manifesto published by them at a 
 subsequent period, say of this voyage, that " it pleased the noble Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice, Sir John Popham, knight, to send out another ship, wherein Captain Thorn - 
 as Hanham went commander, and Martins Prinne of Biistow master, with all 
 necessary supplies, for the seconding of Captain Challons and his people ; who ar- 
 
24 DISCOLTRSE. " . 
 
 those rivers and harbors indicated in their instructions, 
 and brought with them the most exact discovery ol 
 that coast that ever came to my hands since." 
 
 In the meantime, new and extensive plans were 
 formed for the colonization of tlie country. Individ- 
 ual efibrts had been found insufficient for this purpose ; 
 it was necessary to awaken the attention of the gov- 
 ernment to its importance, and by securing tlie con- 
 currence of the king and persons of rank, to increase 
 the general interest in the undertaking. Sir John 
 Popham, the Lord Chief Justice of England, was at 
 this period in the zenith of his power and influence ; 
 venerable for his age, respected for his wise adminis- 
 tration of the law, and strong in the confidence of 
 the crown. He is accused by a recent writer* of 
 having displayed too great alacrity in passing sentence 
 upon Sir Walter Raleigh, when convicted of high 
 treason; but the conduct of the Chief Justice on that 
 occasion seems to have been marked by forbearance 
 throughout. Sir Walter was tried by a special com- 
 mission of eleven persons, consisting of several Peers 
 of the realm, the Chief Justice and three other 
 Justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas ; 
 the jury was composed of knights and gentlemen of 
 undoubted intcii-rity. It mioht be difficult to convict 
 
 riving at llie place appointed, and not tinding that Captain tiitjre, alter they had 
 made some discovery, and found the coasts, havens and harbors answerable to our 
 desires, they returned." " Upon whose relations," say the Company " afterwards, 
 the lord chief justice and we all waxed so confident of the business, that the year 
 following every man of any worth, formerly interested in it, was willing to join 
 in the charge for the sending over a competent number of people to lay the 
 ground of a hopeful plantation." 
 
 * Discourse on the Life and (Character of Sir Walter Raleigh, delivered by J. 
 Morrison Harris, before the Maryland Historical Society, May lU, 1846 ; an 
 able and eloquent production. 
 
DISCOURSE. ■ 25 
 
 a person on the same evidence at the present day, 
 and the trial was scandalously managed on the part 
 of the prosecuting attorney, Sir Edward Coke, even 
 for that period ; but Popham is not answerable for 
 the imperfect state of the rules of evidence nearly 
 two centuries and a half ago, nor for the brutal con- 
 duct of Coke towards the unfortunate prisoner. When 
 called upon to pronounce the judgment of the court, 
 the Chief Justice manifested feelings of regret and 
 sorrow, while at the same time he commented with 
 firmness upon the enormity of the offence of which 
 one so highly gifted, and so capable of serving the 
 state, had been found guilty. " I thought," said the 
 venerable judge, no doubt with tears in his eyes, " I 
 thought I should never have seen this day, to have 
 stood in this place to have given sentence of death 
 against you ; because I thought it impossible that one 
 of so great parts should have fallen so grievously." 
 Again he says, " Now it resteth to pronounce the 
 judgment, which I wish you had not been this day to 
 have received of me. * * * I never saw the like 
 trial, and hope I shall never see the like again." 
 
 The Chief Justice was a native of the west of 
 England, and at the period in question resided at 
 Wellington, in Somersetshire, where he passed much 
 of his time, and entertained with great hospitality and 
 splendor. An old writer says of him, that he was the 
 greatest housekeeper in England, and would have at 
 his seat of Littlecote four or five Lords at a time.* 
 
 In the same county, in the parish of Long Ashton^ 
 four or five miles from the city of Bristol, lived Sir 
 
 * Aubrey's 1 ivesof Eminent Men, &,c. Vol, 2d. p. 494. 
 
26 DISCOURSE. • ■ 
 
 Ferdinando Gorges, the founder of this State, and the 
 Lord Proprietor of the original Province of Maine. 
 Amonij all the friends of American colonization in 
 England, none displayed so much zeal, energy and 
 perseverance, as Gorges ; when others were discour- 
 aged hy unpromising results, he maintained his reso- 
 lution, and insisted upon the practicability of his plans. 
 Nor was his mind diverted from this great object of 
 his life, until the extremities to which the king was 
 reduced, demanded the entire services of his loyal 
 subjects. Gorges was then an old man ; full forty 
 years had elapsed since his attention had been first 
 directed to the shores of the New World, and he had 
 expended many thousand pounds in furthering its 
 discovery and settlement ; but when his services were 
 required by his sovereign, with all the instincts of 
 English loyalty, the old knight buckled on his sword, 
 and followed and shared the fortunes of his royal 
 master. 
 
 Such were the two master spirits, who, in 1606, 
 undertook the noble work of peopling these northern 
 shores from the English coast, and who actually plant- 
 ed, at that early period, a numerous and well-pro- 
 vided colony on a spot a few miles only from the 
 place whore we are now assembled. It was sneer- 
 ingly said by an old writer, in speaking of Chief 
 Justice Popham, that " he not only punished male- 
 factors, but provided for them, and first set up the 
 discovery of New England to maintain and employ 
 those that could not live honestly in the oM."* But 
 the object was generally acknowledged to be one of 
 
 * Lloyd's State Worthies, p. 4C. 
 
DISCOURSE. 27 
 
 great national importance in many points of view, and 
 Popham and Gorges succeeded in enlisting many of 
 the first names in England in behalf of the enter- 
 prise. The plan was to establish two plantations, one 
 in the north, and the other in the south, to be called 
 the first and second colony ; the first to be under- 
 taken by a London company, and the second, " by 
 certain knights, gentlemen, and merchants in the 
 west of England." The design received the appro- 
 bation of the king, by whom a charter was accord- 
 ingly issued, under which ihe first permanent colony 
 was planted in South Virginia, by the London com- 
 pany. The other associates of the second colony, 
 who took the name of the Plymouth company, suc- 
 ceeded in despatching two or three ships with a 
 hundred colonists to North Virginia, as this part of 
 the country was then called ; the expedition was com- 
 manded by Capt. George Popham, a brother of the 
 Chief Justice, and Capt. Raleigh Gilbert, a nephew 
 of the unfortunate Sir Humphry, who led a colony to 
 Newfoundland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Sir 
 John, a brother of Raleigh Gilbert, was also a prom- 
 inent member of the Plymouth Company. The ex- 
 pedition sailed from Plymouth on the last day of May, 
 in the year 1607, consisting of the ships called the 
 Gift, and the Mary and John, and arrived on the 
 coast of this State, near the island of Monhegan, 
 early in August ; thence they proceeded to the mouth 
 of the Kennebec, then called Sagadehock, where the 
 the colonists disembarked, and selected a site for their 
 future residence. There is some doubt as to the pre- 
 cise spot on which they erected their temporary 
 dwellings and defences, and organized the govern- 
 
28 DISCOURSE. . 
 
 meiit of tlie colony ; Stage Island, Parker's Island, 
 and a neighboring peninsula, have respectively en- 
 joyed the reputation of having received this band of 
 English exiles, who first sought a home on our 
 shores ; but time has probably left no traces of the 
 settlement. It is stated, however, by Purchas, on the 
 authority of a letter from Capt. George Popham to 
 Sir John Gilbert, cited by him, that " they chose 
 the place of their plantation at the mouth of Saga- 
 dehoc, in a westerly peninsida, where they heard a ser- 
 mon, read their patent and laws, and built a fort." * 
 The peninsula here mentioned was probably that now 
 known as Cape Small Point, on which it would seem 
 most probable that the colony was located, and Fort 
 St. George, as it was called, built for the protection 
 
 of the colonists. 
 
 Measures were immediately taken to explore the 
 
 neighboring country. For this purpose Raleigh Gd- 
 bert was despatched, attended by one of the Penob- 
 scot Indians that had been carried to England, two 
 of whom accompanied the expedition. Gilbert was 
 kindly treated by the natives with whom he met, and 
 was invited to their cabins. They expressed a desire 
 that the head of the colony should pay a visit to the 
 JJashaba, the great chief, who dwelt on the banks of 
 the Penobscot. Popham consented to go, and had 
 proceeded some distance on his journey, when con- 
 trary winds and bad weather compelled him to return. 
 The Bashaba afterwards sent his son to visit the 
 English chief, and o})en a trade in furs. Such was the 
 state observed by this Indian potentate, that he ex- 
 
 » This account was first published by Purchas in 161 G. 
 
DISCOURSE. 29 
 
 pected, says Gorges, " all strangers should have their 
 address to him, and not he to them." 
 
 The ships in which the colonists had arrived were 
 not ready to return until the 15th of December, when 
 a winter of great severity had set in. In England, as 
 well as America, that winter was long remembered 
 for its unusual degree of cold. The Thames at Lon- 
 don was frozen over, and rendered passable upon the 
 ice, a circumstance that is said rarely to occur. The 
 Sagadehock colonists, unused to such rigorous wea- 
 ther, attributed it to the fault of the climate, and 
 many of them, disheartened by the farther prospect of 
 being exposed to numerous privations on a strange 
 and inhospitable coast, resolved to return to England 
 with the ships. Of the whole number only forty-five, 
 less than one half, had the courage to remain. 
 
 In the meantime another ship with fresh supplies 
 for the colony, was on its way to their relief But 
 she bore at the same time the melancholy intelligence 
 of the death of Chief Justice Popham, which had oc- 
 curred soon after the departure of the first ships from 
 England, on the tenth of June, 1607. The Company 
 in their manifesto speak of this event in the following 
 manner : " In the meanwhile it pleased God to take 
 from us this worthy member, the Lord Chief Justice, 
 whose sudden death did so astonish the hearts of the 
 most part of the adventurers, [the members of the 
 Company in England,] as some grew cold, and some 
 did wholly abandon the business. Yet Sir Francis 
 Popham, his son, and certain of his private friends, 
 and others of us, omitted not the next year (holding 
 on our first resolution) to join in sending forth a new 
 supply, which was accordingly performed. But the 
 3 
 
30 DISCOURSE. 
 
 ships arriving there, did not only bring uncomfortable 
 news of the death of the lord chief justice, together 
 with the death of Sir John Gilbert, the elder brother 
 unto Captain Raleigh Gilbert, who at that time was 
 president of that council [the colony] ; but found that 
 the old Captain Popham was also dead ; who was the 
 only man indeed that died there that winter, where- 
 in they endured still greater extremities ; for that in 
 the depth thereof, their lodgings and stores were 
 burnt, and they thereby wondrously distressed." 
 
 It is not strange that amidst so many discouraging 
 circumstances, to which was added the necessity of 
 Raleigh Gilbert's return to England on account of his 
 brother's death, the remaining colonists should turn 
 their eyes wishfully towards their English homes, and 
 even resolve to abandon the enterprise. According- 
 ly, when the ship that had brought them supplies was 
 ready to sail, early in the spring of 1G08, they all 
 embarked and arrived safely in England. 
 
 In justification of this abandonment of the country, 
 it was of course denounced by the returning emigrants 
 as unfit to be inhabited by civilized beings ; as cold, 
 barren and inhospitable. And yet the letters first 
 received from the colony had represented it as 
 " stored w ith grapes, white and red, good hops, onions, 
 garlick, oaks, walnuts, and the soil good. They 
 found oysters nine inches in length, and heard of 
 others twice as great."* As to the climate, although 
 the winter was one of almost unprecedented severity 
 everywhere, it had produced no mortality among their 
 number, unless the death of old Capt. Popham may 
 
 * Purchaa. 
 
DISCOURSE. 31 
 
 be set down to that cause, who was the only one that 
 died amidst the hardships suffered by the colonists. 
 How superior was the spirit exhibited twelve years 
 after by the Pilgrim emigrants at Plymouth, nearly 
 half of whose number perished within four months af- 
 ter their landing, yet animated by a settled religious 
 purpose, no one of the survivors entertained a thought 
 of relinquishing their design. Had a tithe of their 
 energy and resolute spirit animated the Kennebec 
 colonists, whose resources were so much superior, a 
 more grateful task might have awaited the pen that 
 should relate the story of this enterprise.* 
 
 Nor did the colonists suffer to any considerable ex- 
 tent from collisions with the natives ; on the other 
 hand, they seem to have been treated by them with 
 much kindness and hospitality, owing probably to 
 favorable representations made by those of their num- 
 ber who had resided in the family of Gorges at Ply- 
 
 * The Massachusetts Colony, under the direction of the prudent Winthrop, 
 scarcely suffered a less mortality than the Pilgrims, although they arrived early 
 in summer. " Many died weekly, yea, almost daily," says one of them ; and 
 another writes that " almost in every family lamentation, mourning, and woe were 
 heard, and no fresh food to cherish them." This was chiefly during the few 
 weeks that the colonists remained at Charlestown, and was occasioned in a con- 
 siderable degree by the want of good water. After their removal in the same 
 summer (1630) to the peninsula on which the foundations of Boston were laid by 
 them, the sickness abated in consequence of a better supply of the pure element 
 found there. About two hundred died during the season. In the midst of these 
 troubles. Gov. Winthrop wrote to his wife, whom he had left in England for the 
 present, in the following words: " I thank God, I like so well to be here that I 
 do not repent my coming ; and if I were to come again, I would not have al- 
 tered my course, though I had foreseen all these afflictions. * * I praise 
 God, we have many occasions of comfort here, and do hope that our days 
 of affliction will soon have an end, and that the Lord will do us more good in the 
 end than we could have expected, that will abundantly recompense for all the 
 trouble we have endured." Winthrop's Journal, Savage's ed. vol. 1. p. 377. 
 Hist. Charlestown, by R. Frothingham, Jr. pp. 42, 43. 
 
32 DISCOURSE. 
 
 mouth, and now acted as guides and interpreters to 
 the Enghsh in their intercourse with the red men. 
 Purchas, who derived his information from Raleigh 
 Gilbert, and others of the Colony, thus speaks of the 
 Indians : " The people seemed affected with our men's 
 devotions, and would say, ' king James is a good king, 
 his God a good God, and Tanto nought ;' so they call 
 an evil spirit which haunts them every moon, and 
 makes them worship him for fear. He commanded 
 them not to dwell near or come among the English, 
 threatening to kill some, and inflict sickness on others, 
 beginning with two of the sagamore's children ; saying 
 he had power and would do the like to the English 
 the next moon, to wit, in December." Then follows 
 a story calculated to alarm the poor emigrants, and 
 which may have had some effect in unsettling their 
 resolution : " The people also told our men of can- 
 nibals near Sagadehock ivith teeth three inches long, 
 but they saw them not." One person, styled Master 
 Patterson, was killed in an encounter with the Tar- 
 rentincs, an unfriendly tribe, dwelling beyond the 
 Penobscot ; with this exception, nothing seems to 
 have arisen to disturb the relations of the colonists 
 with their uncivilized neighbors. 
 
 The only member of the Plymouth Company who 
 seems to have remained undiscouraged and unmoved 
 by the breaking up of this colony and the unfavorable 
 reports of the country, was Sir Ferdinando Gorges. 
 While he regretted, as he says, the loss of so noble 
 a friend as the Chief Justice, and his nation so wor- 
 thy a subject, he refused to be influenced by the idle 
 stories of the cold being so extreme as to render the 
 country unsuitable for settlement and cultivation* 
 
DISCOURSE. 33 
 
 " As for the coldness of the cHme," said he, " I had 
 had too much experience in the world to be frighted 
 with such a blast, as knowing many great kingdoms 
 and large territories more northerly seated, and by 
 many degrees colder than the clime from whence they 
 came, yet plentifully inhabited, and divers of them 
 stored with no better commodities from trade and 
 commerce than those parts afforded, if like industry, 
 art and labor be used." But the good sense of the 
 worthy knight was not capable of reanimating the 
 drooping energies of the Plymouth Company. 
 " There was no more speech of settling any other 
 plantation in those parts for a long time after," say 
 the Company in their Relation published at a subse- 
 quent period ; " only," they add, " Sir Francis Pop- 
 ham having the ships and provision which remained 
 of the company, and supplying what was necessary 
 for his purpose, sent divers times to the coasts for 
 trade and fishing ; of whose loss or gains himself is 
 best able to give account." 
 
 Sir Ferdinando pursued a similar course of private 
 adventure, at the same time keeping in view his great 
 object, the settlement of the country ; " finding," he 
 says, " I could no longer be seconded by others, I 
 became an owner of a ship myself, fit for that employ- 
 ment, and under color of fishing and trade, I got a 
 master and company for her, to which I sent Vines 
 and others my own servants with their provision for 
 trade and discovery. By these and the help of those 
 natives formerly sent over, I came to be truly inform- 
 ed of so much as gave me assurance that in time I 
 should want no undertakers, though as yet I was 
 3* 
 
34 DISCOURSE. 
 
 forced to hire men to stay there the winter quarter 
 at extreme rates." > 
 
 This state of things continued until the year 1614, 
 when Captain John Smitli, who had been governor 
 of the colony in South Virginia, but had retired in dis- 
 gust from its service, turned his attention to the 
 north. " I d jsired to see this country," he said, " and 
 spend somo lime in trying what I could find for all 
 those ill rumors and disasters." Having induced 
 four London merchants to join him in the enterprise, 
 he set sail on the third of March from the Downs, with 
 two ships and forty-five men and boys, talking with 
 him also an Indian named Tantum, and after a voy- 
 age of eight weeks arrived at the island of Monhe- 
 gan. Here he built seven boats, in which he sent 
 all bui eight of his men on a fishing voyage, while 
 with the remainder he embarked in a small boat, and 
 with his accustomed energy ranged the coast from 
 Penobscot to Cape Cod, exploring all its inlets, riv- 
 ers and bays, and trafficking with the Indians. The 
 commercial results of this voyage must have fully 
 satisfied the most sanguine expectations of his part- 
 ners in the enterprise ; for in his small boat, in ex- 
 chan2e for trithno; articles of little value, he ob- 
 tained nearly 11,000 beaver skins, 100 martens, 
 and as many otters, and the most of them, he says, 
 within the distance of twenty leagues. His fishing 
 was not equally successful, as he had lost the best of 
 the season in the vain pursuit of whales ; but his 
 men took and dried about 1,200 quintals of fish, 
 wiiich sold in Spain for five dollars per quintal. 
 
 On his return to England, after an absence of 
 about six months, Captain Smith made a highly fa- 
 
DISCOURSE. 35 
 
 vorable report of the country, to which he gave the 
 name of NEW ENGLAND. Having prepared a 
 written description of his discoveries, together with 
 a map of the coast, he presented them to Prince 
 Charles, afterwards Charles I., " humbly entreating 
 his Highness," he says, " to change their barbarous 
 names for such English as posterity might say " Prince 
 Charles was their godfather." The Prince com- 
 plied with this request, confirming the name of New 
 England, and substituting English names for those 
 which had been derived from the Indians, or that had 
 been given by former navigators. This experiment, 
 however, proved in the main unsuccessful, as it de- 
 served to be ; the names of Plymouth, Charles River, 
 and Cape Ann, being the only ones recommended by 
 Charles that have been sanctioned by general use ; 
 while the names of Massachusetts, Piscataqua, Aga- 
 menticus, Saco, Casco, Androscoggin, Kennebeck, 
 Pemaquid, Penobscot, Monhegan, Matinicus, and 
 others, of Indian origin, are still retained. 
 
 The success of this voyage in regard to its pecu- 
 niary returns, and the favorable report of the country, 
 infused new life into the spirit of colonial enterprise. 
 Gorges took the lead as usual, and in conjunction with 
 Dr. Sutchffe, Dean of Exeter, and other western gen- 
 tlemen, concerted the plan of a colony to be conduct- 
 ed by Capt. Smith to New England the following 
 year. Smith also endeavored to interest the London 
 merchants in this project, because, he remarks, " the 
 Londoners have most money ; " but he preferred sail- 
 ing from a western port, as he says it is nearly as 
 much trouble, but much more danger, to sail from 
 London to Plymouth, than from Plymouth to New- 
 
36 DISCOURSE. 
 
 foundland.* His plan was that the expedition should 
 consist of eight ships, four from London and the same 
 number from the west of England ; but in this he 
 proved unsuccessful, such was the jealousy of interest 
 among them. He finally sailed from Plymouth in 
 March, 1615, with only two vessels, one of 200 tons, 
 the other of 50 ; besides his ships' company, he was 
 attended by fifteen men and two boys, who had 
 agreed to remain in New England, and begin a plan- 
 tation. Smith gives the names of these persons, and 
 adds, " I confess I would have wished them as many 
 thousands, had all other provisions been in like pro- 
 portion, nor would I have had so few, could I have 
 had means for more ; yet if God had pleased we had 
 safely arrived, I doubted not but to have performed 
 more than I promised, and that many thousands had 
 been there ere now." 
 
 With the knowledge we possess of the resolute and 
 persevering character of this dauntless and excellent 
 man, as previously exhibited in the Virginia Colony, 
 and on other occasions, we have little doubt as to the 
 success of his eflJbrts to colonize New England, had 
 he been ])ermitted to reach its shores with his little 
 band of emigrants ; but a scries of cruel and almost 
 uni)aralled disasters awaited him on the ocean. The 
 vessels had proceeded 120 leagues to sea, when they 
 were overtaken by a gale that carried away all the 
 masts of the larger ship, which was compelled to re- 
 turn to Plymouth under jurymasts, the other vessel at 
 the same time parting company. Not discouraged 
 
 • To one familiar with the intricate and dangerous navigation of the river 
 Thames and the English Channel, this remark would scarcely seem an exaggera- 
 tion. 
 
DISCOURSE. 37 
 
 by this accident, Smith again set sail on the 24th of 
 June in another ship of only sixty tons ; but disasters 
 still awaited him. Falling in with an English pirati- 
 cal craft of vastly superior force, Smith refused to 
 yield to the entreaties of his officers who wished him 
 to surrender without striking a blow ; but assuming a 
 bold attitude he succeeded in making terms with the 
 enemy, and was permitted to continue his voyage. 
 
 Soon after he again fell in with two French pirates, 
 also of greatly superior force ; his officers refusing to 
 fight. Smith threatened to blow up his ship rather 
 than yield. He then opened his four guns upon the 
 enemy, and under the fire effected his escape. But 
 his next encounter proved fatal to his voyage and all 
 his plans. Four French men of w ar made the odds 
 too great for his little bark, and being summoned on 
 board the Admiral's ship to show his papers, he obey- 
 ed ; but although peace existed between England and 
 France at that time, the French commander detain- 
 ed him, and took possession of his ship, which was 
 then plundered by the French sailors, and his men 
 dispersed about their squadron, now increased to 
 eight or nine sail. At length these freebooters 
 consented to restore his ship and men; but after 
 regaining possession, a dispute arose as to continuing 
 the voyage, a portion of the officers and men being 
 disposed to put back to Plymouth, but Smith and the 
 rest were resolved to proceed. In the meantime, he 
 was again summoned on board the French admiral's 
 ship, and had no sooner reached the quarter deck, 
 than a sail hove in sight to which the Frenchman 
 gave chase. Thus was he unfortunately separated 
 from his command, of which the disaflfected part of his 
 
38 DISCOURSE. 
 
 officers and men took advantage during the night, 
 and directed the ship's course to Plymouth, where 
 they arrived in safety. 
 
 The French fleet continued to cruise for two 
 months, for the purpose of intercepting vessels from 
 the West Indies, of which they made several captures. 
 When they encountered Spanish vessels. Smith was 
 compelled to take part in the actions, and give them 
 the benefit of his military skill and experience ; but 
 when the prey was English, he was kept carefully out 
 of the way, and not allowed to come in contact with 
 his countrymen. On their arrival upon the French 
 coast near Rochelle, instead of fulfilling their promise 
 to make him double amends for his losses, to the 
 amount of 10,000 crowns of prize money, they kept 
 him a prisoner on board the ship, and threatened him 
 with further mischief unless he gave them a full dis- 
 charge before the Admiralty. A storm coming on, 
 Smith watched his opportunity and escaped in a 
 boat durino; the darkness of the night : but the cur- 
 rent took the boat out to sea instead of enabling him 
 to reach the shore. The wind and tide, however, 
 changing during the night, the boat at length drifted 
 upon a small island, where he was found in the morn- 
 ing by some fowlers, nearly drowned, and half dead 
 with cold and hunger. 
 
 Pawning his boat for means to reach Rochelle, he 
 was informed on his arrival at that place, that on the 
 night of his escape the man of war with her richest 
 prize had foundered, and the captain and half of the 
 ship's company were lost. At Rociiolle, Smith sought 
 justice in a court of admiralty, libelling the goods 
 saved from the wreck of the man of war ; and having 
 
DISCOURSE. 39 
 
 collected from the survivors the fullest evidence of the 
 losses to which he had been subjected, he left his case 
 in charge of Sir Thomas Edmonds, the British min- 
 ister at Bordeaux, and returned to England. 
 
 Such was the eventful and disastrous issue of the 
 second attempt to colonize New England. Yet it 
 was not without its good results. While detained on 
 board the French ship, Smith found time to write out 
 his previous adventures in New England, with a de- 
 scription of the country which was the most com- 
 plete and satisfactory that had been yet submitted to 
 the public. This work was published in June, 1616, 
 and contained his original map of New England, with 
 the English names suggested by Prince Charles. He 
 printed an edition of two or three thousand, he says, 
 and spent the summer of 1616, in visiting all the 
 larger towns in the west of England, and distributing 
 copies of this book and map. He also caused one 
 thousand copies to be bound up with a great variety 
 of maps, both of Virginia and New England, which he 
 presented to thirty of the principal companies in Lon- 
 don, at their Halls. Nearly a year was spent by him 
 in this way, with the hope of inducing another effort 
 to plant the wilderness of New England ; but all his la- 
 bors proved ineffectual, and he was compelled to aban- 
 don the project with the loss of the time and money 
 he had expended upon it There is no doubt, how- 
 ever, that the knowledge Smith diffused, did in the 
 end advance the settlement of the country ; and as 
 an acknowledgment of the value of his services, the 
 Plymouth Company bestowed on him the title of Ad- 
 miral of New England. 
 
 The unremitted exertions of Sir Ferdinando Gor- 
 
40 DISCOURSE. 
 
 ges were now directed to the formation of a new 
 company distinct from that of Virginia, whose atten- 
 tion should be exclusively devoted to the colonization 
 of New England. A liberal charter was granted to 
 this company by the sole authority of the king, con- 
 stituting them a corporation with perpetual succes- 
 sion, by the name of '* The Council established at 
 Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, 
 ruling, and governing of New England in America." 
 It consisted of forty noblemen, knights, and gentle- 
 men, among whom were the Duke of Lenox, the 
 Marquis of Buckingham, the Earls of Arundel and 
 Warwick, and others scarcely less distinguished in the 
 history of that period. The charter bears date No- 
 vember 3d, 1620 ; and as it conveyed to the Councd 
 the territory extending from the fortieth to the forty- 
 eighth degree of north latitude, one half of which was 
 comprised in the previous patent to the Virginia 
 compnny, objections were made to it at the outset 
 from that quarter. Not succeeding with the king 
 and the Privy Council, the complainants carried the 
 matter before the House of Commons, and Gorges 
 appeared three several times at the bar of the house 
 to answer objections ; on the last occasion he was at- 
 tended by eminent legal counsel. The result was un- 
 favorable, and the house in presenting to the king the 
 public grievances of the kingdom, included amongst 
 them the patent of New l^igland. The effect of this 
 movement was at first prejudicial to the company, for 
 it was the means of discouraging those who proposed 
 to establish plantations in this quarter, as well as 
 some of the Council. But James was not inclined to 
 have the propriety of his own acts disputed or deni- 
 ed on the floor of Parliament ; so that instead of car- 
 
DISCOURSE. 41 
 
 rying out the design of destroying the Patent, he dis- 
 missed the Parhament, and committed to the Tower 
 and other prisons the members who had been most 
 forward in condemning the charter, and most free in 
 questioning the prerogative of the Crown. 
 
 This charter to the Council of Plymouth was the 
 next great step towards the colonization of New 
 England, as it was the foundation of all the grants 
 that were made of the country upon which titles to 
 land now rest. One of the first of these was in favor 
 of the Pilgrims then settled at Plymouth. They 
 had previously obtained a patent from the old Ply- 
 mouth Company, which had been taken to Holland 
 for their inspection before their departure ; but this 
 not answering their purpose, they applied to the 
 Council of Plymouth for another after their removal 
 to New England. Gorges gives the following account 
 of the matter : — " After they had well considered the 
 state of their affairs, and found that the authority 
 they had from the Company of Virginia could not 
 warrant their abode in that place, which they found 
 so prosperous and pleasing to them, they hastened 
 away their ship with order to their sohcitor to deal 
 with me, to be the means that they might have a 
 grant from the Council of New England's Affairs to 
 settle in the place ; which was accordingly performed 
 to their particular satisfaction and the good content 
 of them all ; which place was after called New Ply- 
 mouth, where they have continued ever since very 
 peaceable, and in all plent}^ of all necessaries that 
 nature needeth, if that could satisfy our vain affec- 
 tions." Such was the liberal spirit of this worthy 
 man, that although differing in his religious notions 
 4 
 
42 DISCOURSE. 
 
 toto ccelo from the pilgrim fathers, he yet looked 
 with evident satisfaction upon the comfortable quar- 
 ters they had made for themselves within the limits 
 of the Council's Patent, although without having se- 
 cured a proper title to their lands ; and it seems he 
 did not hesitate to aid them in supplying this 
 deficiency.* 
 
 * The Pilgrims after their settlement at Plymouth found themselves without 
 a legal title to the soil ; hence their application to the Council for a patent, 
 which was granted in the name of John Pierce, a London merchant, who held 
 it in trust for them. It was dated June 1st, 1621. But not satisfied with this, 
 they procured another, in the name of William Bradford, through the influence 
 of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and the Earl of Warwick, dated January 13th, 1630, 
 on which their title finally rested. The Pierce patent simply granted to him 
 and his associates, (without naming them,) one hundred acres of land for each 
 person, if they should continue three years in the country ; the land to be taken 
 in any place not already inhabited by English people or selected by the Council 
 for other purposes. But the Bradford patent contained a general grant of the 
 territory of the Colony, with specific boundaries, constituting a separate jurisdic- 
 tion, that existed until the union with Massachusetts in 1691. This patent 
 likewise conveyed to Bradford and his associates an extensive territory lying on 
 both sides of the Kennebec, and an exclusive right to the trade on that river ; a 
 very liberal concession. The colony at that time contained, as the patent recites, 
 about three hundred people. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the Old Colony of Plymouth came near being annex- 
 ed to New York, instead of Massachusetts, in 1691. A strenuous opposition 
 was made by the agent of Plymouth, in London, to the connexion with Massa- 
 chusetts, which seems to have arisen from a feeling of jealousy towards the sister 
 colony. " All the frame of heaven," he says, " moves upon one axis, and the 
 whole of New England's interest seems designed to be loaden on one bottom, and 
 her particular motions to be concentric to the Massachusetts Irojiic ; you know who 
 are wont to trot after the hay horse," &.c. To such length was this opposition 
 carried, that when the commission of Governor Sloughter was made out for the 
 government of New York, Plymouth was actually included in it ; but it was 
 afterwards changed to meet the views of the Massachusetts agent. Some dis- 
 turbances that arose in two or three towns of the Old Colony about the same 
 time, were attributed by the authorities at Plymouth to the inlluencc of Sloughter, 
 who, however, had enough on his hands, during the three or four months that 
 intervened between his arrival at New York, and his death, without intermed- 
 dling with the affairs of a distant Colony. See Davis, in Appendix to Morton's 
 Memorial, pp. 361-3. Ibid. 473-5. 1 Hazard, State Papers, 298. Prince. 
 19y. note. 
 
DISCOURSE 43 
 
 The attention of the Council was soon directed to 
 the importance of estabUshing a general government 
 over their extensive territory, as complaints were made 
 by those who visited the country of disorders com- 
 mitted on the coast, which there was no power com- 
 petent to restrain or punish. Having determined on 
 the appointment of a Governor to superintend their 
 affairs in the country, Robert Gorges, Esq., a son of 
 Sir Ferdinando, was selected for this office, with 
 whom was joined a board of counsellors, one of whom 
 was to be the Governor for the time being of the Ply- 
 mouth colony. An extensive grant of territory was 
 made at the same time to Robert Gorges, containing 
 three hundred square miles, on Massachusetts Bay, 
 which he proceeded at once to occupy. He arrived 
 in the Bay about the beginning of the autumn of 
 1623, " with sundry passengers and families," and 
 gave immediate notice of his arrival to the govern- 
 ment of Plymouth. " He had a commission from 
 the Council of New England," says Bradford, who 
 was then Governor of Plymouth, and entitled by vir- 
 tue of that office to be one of his Council, " to be 
 general Governor of the country ; and they appoint 
 for his council and assistants, Capt. West, [who had 
 been previously commissioned as Admiral of New 
 England,] Christopher Levett, Esq., and the Governor 
 of Plymouth for the time being ; giving him author- 
 ity to choose others as he should find fit ; with full 
 power to him and his assistants, or any three of them, 
 (whereof himself was always to be one,) to do and 
 execute what to them should seem good in all cases, 
 capital, criminal, and civil, with divers other instruc- 
 tions, of which and his commission it pleased him to 
 
44 DISCOURSE. 
 
 offer the Governor of Plymouth to take a copy. He 
 gave us notice of his arrival by letter, and before we 
 could visit him sails for the eastward with the ship he 
 came in ; but a storm rising, they bore into our har- 
 bor, are kindly entertained, and stay fourteen days." 
 He adds, " Shortly after. Governor Gorges goes to 
 the Massachusetts by land, being thankful for his kind 
 entertainment. His ship staying here, fits for Vir- 
 ginia, having some passengers to deliver there." 
 
 The place selected by the Governor General for 
 the residence of the families that had accompanied 
 him, is situated on a branch of what is now called 
 Boston Bay, then known as Massachusetts Bay, in 
 the present town of Weymouth, about twelve miles 
 south of the city of Boston. The same place had 
 been settled the year previous by a band of English 
 emigrants under the auspices of a London merchant, 
 named Weston, who had provided them with all the 
 necessary supplies for establishing a plantation. The 
 same gentleman had been chic% instrumental in sup- 
 plying the P ymouth colonists with the means of 
 transportation to New England, but had undertaken 
 this neighboring settlement with a view to his private 
 advantage. He employed several vessels in trade and 
 fishincr on the coast, and the men who formed the 
 settlement, had been chosen as suitable for the fur- 
 therance of his designs, which were purely of a 
 mercantile character.* But owing to various causes^ 
 this settlement was broken up in less than a year 
 from the time it had been commenced, and when 
 Gorges arrived at the same place, with a considera- 
 
 • Morton, New English Canaan, p. 106. 
 
DISCOURSE. 45 
 
 ble reinforcement of men and supplies, Weston's peo- 
 ple seem to have wholly disappeared. 
 
 While Gorges was enjoying the hospitality of the 
 Pilgrims, Mr. Weston arrived there to look after his 
 affairs, when the Governor General called him to ac- 
 count for the disorderly conduct of his men, who had 
 scandalized the country by their riotous behavior ; 
 but as that gentleman had been a great sufferer from 
 the abuses that had been committed in his absence, 
 by the waste of his property and the frustration of 
 his plans, the matter was soon compromised, and 
 Gorges embarked in one of his ships for the east- 
 ward. He entered the mouth of the Piscataqua, and 
 visited the plantation of Mr. David Thompson, where 
 he met Christopher Levett, Esq., one of his Counsel- 
 lors, who had just arrived from England. The Gov- 
 erner there administered to Levett the oath of office, 
 in the presence of three more of the Council, and 
 thus duly organized his government. 
 
 The Council of Plymouth, in providing for the pro- 
 per administration of affairs in New England, did not 
 forget the religious interests of the country. They 
 sent over with the governor a clergyman of the church 
 of England, the Rev. WiUiam Morell, for the purpose 
 of superintending the estabhshment of churches, and 
 probably to counteract the efforts of the Puritans for 
 the spread of their peculiar views. He remained 
 about two years, chiefly at Plymouth, where his dis- 
 creet deportment seems to have conciliated the good 
 will of the colonists ; indeed, such was the condition 
 of the country, that he did not undertake to execute 
 his ministerial functions, nor was it known in the 
 colony that he had an ecclesiastical commission to 
 4* 
 
46 DISCOURSE. 
 
 oversee their religious concerns, until he was about 
 going away, when he spoke of it to some of the peo- 
 ple. During his abode in the country, Mr. Morrell 
 composed a Latin poem, descriptive of the natural 
 features of New England, which he dedicated to 
 Charles I. and published, together with an English 
 translation, after his return.* The following are the 
 introductory lines ; 
 
 NOVA ANGLIA. 
 
 Hactenus ignotam populis ego carmine primus, 
 Te nova de veteri cui conligit Anglia nomen, 
 Aggredior trepidus pingui celebrare Minerva. 
 For mihi numen opem, cupienti singula plectro 
 Pandere veridico, qutcnuper vidimus ipsi ; 
 Ut breviter vereque sonent modulamina nostra, 
 Temperiem cceli, vim terrce, munera ponti, 
 Et varies gentis mores, velamina, cultus. 
 
 The author's translation : 
 
 NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 " Fear not, poor Muse, cause first to sing lier fame 
 
 That's yet scarce known unless by map or name ; 
 
 A grandchild to earth's paradise is born, 
 
 Well limbed, well nerv'd, fair, rich, sweet, yet forlorn. 
 
 Thou blest director ! so direct my verse, 
 
 That it may win her people, friends, commerce ; 
 
 »<• Morrell, the clergyman who accompanied Gorges, notwithstanding his dis- 
 appointment, conceived a very favorable opinion of New England, which ho 
 expressed in an elegant Latin poem, descriptive of the country." Grahame, Hist. 
 U S. I. 202. It may be found reprinted in vol. I. Mass. Hist. Coll. Gra- 
 hame alludes to the well known lines in Iludibras, founded on an occurrence in 
 Weston's colony, where an innocent but bed-rid weaver was said to have been 
 hung instead of a guilty but useful cobbler, whom they could not so well spare. 
 In clearing the pilgrims of this charge, Grahame, with equal disregard of truth, 
 endeavors to fasten it upon the administration of Gorges. Ibid. 
 
DISCOURSE. 47 
 
 Whilst her sweet air, rich soil, blest seas, my pen 
 Shall blaze, and tell the natures of her men." 
 
 The poem concludes with an appeal to the Enghsh 
 people in behalf of the country : 
 
 " If these poor lines may win this country love, 
 Or kind compassion in the English move — 
 Persuade our mighty and renowned state 
 This pur-blind people to commiserate ; 
 Or painful men to this good land invite, 
 Whose holy works these natives may inlight : 
 If Heaven grant these, to see here built I trust. 
 An English kingdom from this Indian dust !" 
 
 Gorges remained in the country until the spring of 
 1624, when he returned to England, discouraged by 
 not receiving promised succor from home for his colo- 
 ny, and perhaps, as Bradford says, "not finding the 
 state of things to answer his quality." A portion of 
 his people remained, and were kindly assisted with 
 supplies from Plymouth ; but most of them went either 
 to Virginia or England. He was the oldest son of Sir 
 Ferdinando, and had married a daughter of the Earl 
 of Lincoln. He died not long after his return, and 
 was succeeded in his patent of lands on Massachu- 
 setts Bay by his brother John, who conveyed the 
 same to General Sir William Brereton, Bart., in 1629; 
 the latter is said to have sent over a number of fam- 
 ihes and servants, who possessed and improved sev- 
 eral large tracts of land comprised in this patent.^ 
 
 * 
 
 • This fact is derived from a MS. document recently discovered by Rev. Mr. 
 Felt, of Boston, in his indefatigable researches and labors to arrange the ancient 
 archives of Massachusetts. 
 
48 DISCOURSE. 
 
 One of the counsellors of Governor Gorges, Chris- 
 topher Levctt, Esq., soon after his return to England, 
 published an account of his voyage, from wliich it 
 appears that he first arrived at the Isles of Shoals, 
 and passed a month at the plantation of Mr. Thom- 
 son, at Piscataqua * Being there joined by his men, 
 who had come over in several ships, he left that 
 place in the autumn of 1623, with two boats, to ex- 
 plore the eastern coast for the purpose of selecting a 
 suitable place to form a settlement. He landed in 
 the course of his expedition at various points along 
 the coast until he reached what he calls Capeman- 
 wagen, now probably Cape Newagen, a few miles 
 east of the mouth of the Kennebec, where he says 
 nine ships were engaged in fishing during that year. 
 Here he remained four nights, " in which time," he 
 says, " there came many savages with their wives 
 and children, and some of good account among 
 them ;" of the latter description he mentions a sag- 
 amore named Somerset, " one that hath been found 
 very faithful to the English, and hath saved the lives 
 of many of our nation, some from starving, others 
 from killing [being killed.]" 
 
 Levett slates, that when he was about to depart 
 from this place, the Indians enquired where he inten- 
 ded to establish his plantation ; he answered, that he 
 intended to examine the coast farther to the east be- 
 fore making a decision. Thereupon they assured him 
 
 • Tliomson afterwards (about 1G26) removed to an island in Boston harbor, 
 still known by his name. See Christian Examiner, Sept. 1846. p. 282. Art. 
 Young's Mass. Chronicles. The settlement at Piscataqua, one of the first in 
 New Hampshire, was not, however, abandoned, as stated by Young, (Chron. 
 Mass. 21.) for it was assessed for certain expenses equally with Plymouth in 
 1628. 3 Mass. Ilist. Coll. 63. 
 
DISCOURSE. 49 
 
 there was no suitable place left for him in that quar- 
 ter, as Pemaquid and Monhegan, as well as Cape- 
 manwagen, had been already granted to others. 
 Thus discouraged from pursuing his voyage, Levett 
 accepted an invitation from the sagamore of Casco 
 to accompany him and his wife on their return to 
 Casco Bay ; where they assured him he should be 
 made welcome to as much land as he desired. Ac- 
 cordingly the next day he sailed, he says, " with the 
 king, queen, and prince, bow and arrows, dog and 
 kettle in my boat, his noble attendants rowing by us 
 in their canoes." Selecting a place for his planta- 
 tion, he gave it the name of York ; it had been the 
 property of " the queen's father, who left it to her at 
 his death, having no more children." " And thus," 
 he adds, " after many dangers, much labor, and great 
 charge, I have obtained a place of habitation in New 
 England, where I have built a house, and fortified it 
 in a reasonable good fashion, strong enough against 
 such enemies as are these savage people." 
 
 The rarity of Levett's book is probably the rea- 
 son that this voyage has not been heretofore noticed 
 by any of our writers.* What afterwards became of 
 hira, or his settlement, may be an interesting subject 
 of enquiry. His narrative is valuable as showing the 
 condition of the coast of Maine at the date of his 
 voyage ; he mentions no English settlement after 
 
 * It is entitled, " A Voyage into New England, begun in 1623, and ended in 
 1624. Performed by Christopher Levett, His Majesty's Woodward of Somer- 
 setshire, and one of the Council of New England. Printed at London, &c. 
 1628." A transcript was procured by Mr. Sparks from a copy in England, and 
 recently printed in Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. 28. A copy of the original edition 
 belongs to the New York Hist. Society, from which it is proposed to be reprinted 
 in the new volume of the Maine Historical Collections. 
 
60 DISCOURSE. 
 
 leaving Piscatqua, although the Indians informed him 
 that Pemaquid, Cape Newagen, and Monhegan, had 
 been granted to others. Sir Ferdinando Gorges had 
 a plantation at that period on the island of Monhe- 
 gan,* which had long been a place of resort for ves- 
 sels engajred in fishing on the coast. The other 
 places named were also used by fishermen for curing 
 their fish on ' stages ' erected by them, and gradually 
 increased into considerable settlements. There is 
 extant a deed from Somerset, the sagamore mention- 
 ed by Levett as particularly friendly to the English, 
 and another, to one John Brown of New Harbor, on 
 Pemaquid Point, covering a large tract of land in that 
 quarter, dated July 15th, 1G25. The next year, 162G, 
 two eminent merchants of the city of Bristol, who 
 had been long concerned in voyages to this coast, 
 Robert Aldworth and Giles Elbridge, sent over Mr. 
 Abraham Short to take possession of the island of 
 Monhegan, which they purchased at this time ; Short 
 remained in the country, as the agent of those gentle- 
 men, who soon after obtained a patent of lands at 
 Pemaquid from the Council of Plymouth, and estab- 
 lished a flourishing colony at that place, where may 
 still be found descendants of these early colonists, in 
 possession of the allotments of lands made to their 
 ancestors under this patent. 
 
 Robert vVldworth, one of these patentees, is still 
 remembered at Bristol, for his public spirit and mu- 
 nificent charities ; for many years he was one of the 
 aldermen of the city, and took a prominent part in 
 its allairs. A splendid monument in St. Peter's 
 
 » Prince. 127. 
 
DISCOURSE. 51 
 
 Church, near the altar, perpetuates his memory. 
 " He is entitled," says a writer of that city, " to dis- 
 tinguished notice as a merchant of the first rank of 
 the age in which he lived."* He was born in 1561, 
 and died in 1634. Having no issue, he bequeathed 
 all his estate to Giles Elbridge, Esq., his co-patentee 
 at Pemaquid, and also a merchant of Bristol, who had 
 married his niece. The town of Bristol, comprising 
 a portion of old Pemaquid, commemorates by its name 
 the origin of its early settlement and of many of its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The charter of the Council of Plymouth, as has 
 been already remarked, laid the foundation of all 
 grants of land in New England ; but the geographical 
 features of the country were but little understood by 
 the members of the Council, and great confusion con- 
 sequently ensued in their conveyances. Of all the 
 forty noblemen, knights and esquires named in that 
 instrument, only one, Raleigh Gilbert, had been on 
 this side of the water. The rivers had not been ex- 
 plored far beyond their mouths, and nothing was 
 known of the interior of the country except from the 
 uncertain and indistinct accounts of the Indians. It 
 is not strange, therefore, that much perplexity and 
 embarrassment arose upon the actual settlement of 
 so large a territory, under grants made in England by 
 those who had never seen any portion of it. Dr. Bel- 
 knap well remarks, that " either from the jarring in- 
 terests of the members, or their indistinct knowledge 
 of the country, or their inattention to business, or 
 some other cause which does not fully appear, their 
 
 * This monument was repaired and embellished as recently as 1807, at the 
 expense of a lady. Carry. Hist. Bristol, vol. 2, p. 258. 
 
62 DISCOURSE. 
 
 affairs were transacted in a confused manner from the 
 beginning ; and the grants which they made were so 
 inaccurately described, and interfered so much with 
 each other, as to occasion difficuUies and controver- 
 sies, some of which are not yet ended." 
 
 No part of New England has suffered more from 
 this cause than Maine, even at last to a complete de- 
 nial of the title of its proprietary by a neighboring 
 colony. The first grant by the Council that included 
 any portion of this State, seems to have been the pa- 
 tent of Laconia, to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John 
 Mason, in 1622. This comprised "all the lands 
 situated between the rivers Merrimack and Sagade- 
 hock, extending back to the great lakes and the river 
 of Canada ;" and was intended to embrace a region 
 in the vicinity of the lakes, of which highly colored 
 and romantic descriptions had been given. Both of 
 the patentees acted under this patent, although many 
 subsequent grants of the Council were made within the 
 same hmits. The first settlements in New Hamp- - 
 shire, and perhaps in this State, on the banks of the 
 Piscataqua, were made under it. After seven years 
 joint title, Mason, November 7th, 1G29, took out a 
 separate patent of that portion lying south and west 
 of the Piscataqua, to which he gave the name of New 
 Hampshire, being at that time Governor of Ports- 
 mouth in Hampsliire, England. * The remaining por- 
 tion became the exclusive property of Gorges, who, 
 however, had no separate title until 1G35, when he 
 gave the territory between the Piscataqua and Ken- 
 nebec the name of New Somersetshire, in compli- 
 
 « 2 CoU. N. H. Hist. Soc, 273. 
 
DISCOURSE. 53 
 
 ment to his native county ; and soon after sent over 
 his kinsman, Capt. William Gorges as Governor, with 
 commissions to several gentlemen residing there, as 
 Counsellors of the new Province. This was the first 
 general jurisdiction (1636) established in this State. 
 A portion of the records of New Somersetshire have 
 been preserved, from which it appears that a court 
 was held by the Governor and Commissioners at 
 Saco, in March, 1636, and at subsequent dates. 
 
 Gorges now flattered himself that his long cherish- 
 ed hopes were about to be realized by the speedy 
 settlement of the country, in which he had taken so 
 deep an interest. He had as yet experienced little 
 else than trouble and disappointment, the only return 
 for years of labor and many thousand pounds of ex- 
 pense. Before the date of his separate grant from 
 the Council, settlements had been made at many dif- 
 ferent points within his limits, and there was an en- 
 couraging prospect for the future. The flourishing 
 condition of the colonies of New Plymouth and Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay, had the effect of directing a greater 
 share of public attention towards New England, and 
 those who did not harmonize with the religious views 
 of the Puritans, sought new abodes under the more 
 tolerant sway of the lord proprietor. 
 
 When the Council of Plymouth resigned their 
 charter, in 1635, the resignation was accompanied by 
 a petition to the king for the estabhshment of a gen- 
 eral government in New England, and Sir Ferdinando, 
 then about three score years of age, was nominated 
 to be the General Governor. The design received 
 the approbation of Charles and his privy council, by 
 whom an order was issued, establishing the new 
 5 
 
54 DISCOURSE. 
 
 government, and appointing Gorges to the office of 
 Governor over New England; but the troubles at 
 home, both in England and Scotland, prevented the 
 completion of the scheme, which had excited the fears 
 of the Puritan colonists to a most intense degree. 
 The death of Mason, who had been a most active 
 prorhoter of this plan of a general government, 
 occurred at this period, and was another cause 
 of its abandonment. Governor Winthrop has the 
 following notice of this event in his journal : — " 1636. 
 The last winter Captain Mason died. He was the 
 chief mover in all attempts ngainst us ; and was to 
 have sent the General Governor ; and for this end 
 was providing ships. But the Lord, in mercy, taking 
 him away, all the business fell asleep." 
 
 In the Journal of Richard Mather, grand-father of 
 Cotton Mather, under the date of May 27th, 1635, 
 there is an interesting notice of a visit paid by Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges to a ship then lying at Bristol, in 
 which a number of I'uritans were about embarking 
 for New England.* At that time there was a great 
 probability of Sir Ferdinando's going over as Gen- 
 eral Governor of the New England Colonies, to which 
 he evidently alludes in his conversation with one of 
 the passengers. The passage is as follows :— " When 
 we came there, we found divers passengers, and 
 among thorn some lovely and godly Christians, that 
 were glad to see us there. And soon after we came 
 on board, there came three or four boats with more 
 passengers, and one wherein came Sir Ferdinando 
 Gortres, who came to see the ship and the people, 
 
 * This journal has been recently i)uMislied for the Hrst time, by Dr. Young, io 
 his valuable collection of documents relating to Massachusetts. 
 
DISCOURSE. 55 
 
 When he was come, he inquired whether there were 
 any people there that went to Massachusetts Bay- 
 Whereupon Mr. Maud and Barnabas Fower were 
 sent for to come before him. Who beino- come, he 
 asked Mr. Maud of his country, occupation, or cal- 
 hng of life, &c., and professed his good will to the 
 people there in the Bay, and promised that if ever he 
 came there, he would be a true friend unto them." 
 
 The truth is, an unreasonable jealousy existed to- 
 wards Sir Ferdinando, on the part of the leading col- 
 onists in Massachusetts, that was not justified by the 
 character of that distinguished patron of New Eng- 
 land, or by his conduct in reference to the Puritan em- 
 igrants. The active part he had taken from the 
 beginning, when the country first came into notice, 
 through a period of more than thirty years, in all 
 measures for encouraging its settlement, and promot- 
 ing its prosperity, is sufficient evidence of the sincere 
 interest he took in the welfare of New England. To 
 him the Puritans, both of Plymouth and Massachu- 
 setts, were in the main indebted for their charters, 
 and the former deserve the credit of having made a 
 grateful acknowledgment of his kindness, and of the 
 services he had rendered the country.* But in the 
 sister colony it was otherwise ; his name was seldom 
 mentioned there without symptoms of fear or distrust. 
 The real cause of this unfriendly feeling towards 
 Sir Ferdinando Gorges may, perhaps, be traced to his 
 
 * Thus in a letter to him from Governor Bradford and others, in 1628, they 
 say, — " Honorable Sir : As you have ever been, not only a favorer, but also a 
 most special beginner and furtherer of the good of this country, to your great 
 cost and no less honor, we whose names are underwritten, being some of every 
 plantation in the land, deputed for the rest, do humbly crave your Worship's help 
 and best assistance," &c. 3 Mass. Hist. Coll. 63. 
 
56 DISCOURSE. 
 
 prominent position as a member of the Council of 
 Plymouth ; the just claims of his family to lands on 
 Massachusetts Bay, by a grant prior to that of the 
 colony ; and the disgust excited in England among 
 the friends of the established Church, as well as per- 
 sons of moderation generally, by the intolerance and 
 fanaticism displayed in some of the first political acts 
 of the Massachusetts Company after their removal 
 to New England.* Sharing the common feehng 
 in England, Gorges was in a situation to exert a 
 powerful influence, if he chose, in opposition to the 
 interests of the colony ; but he uniformly befriended 
 them, until persons suspected of being in his interest 
 were imprisoned, or ignominiously thrust out of the 
 country, as in the case of Sir Christopher Gardiner, 
 who under the pretence of his " having two wives in 
 
 * Gorges, in liis description of New England, after stating that there were 
 several sorts of persons who did not altogether agree among themselves, yet all 
 were disaffected towards Episcopal jurisdiction, adds — " Some of the discreeter 
 sort, to avoid what they found themselves suhject unto, made use of their friends 
 to procure from the Council for the Affairs of Niw England to settle a colony 
 within their limits ; to which it pleased the thrice honored Earl of Warwick to 
 write to me, then at Plymouth, to condescend that a Patent might be granted 
 to such as then sued for it. Whereupon I gave my approbation so far forth as it 
 might not be prejudicial to my .«on Robert Gorges' interest, whereof he had a 
 Patent under the seal of the Council. Hereupon thiTe was a grant passed, as 
 was thought reasonable [the Mass. Patent] ; but the same was after enlarged by 
 his Majesty, and confirmed under the great seal of England ; by the authority 
 whereof the undertakers proceeded so effectually, that in a very short time num- 
 bers of people of all sorts flocked thither in .heaps, that at last it was specially or. 
 dered by the king's command, that none should be suffered to go without license 
 first had and obtained, and they to take the oath of sujjremacy and allciance 
 So that wliat I had long before prophesied, when I could hardly get any for 
 money to reside there, was now brought to pass. The reason of that restraint 
 was grounded upon the several complaints that came out of those parts of the 
 divers sects and schisms that were amongst them, all contemning the public gov- 
 ernment of the ecclesiastical stale. And it was doubted that they would, in short 
 time, wholly shake off the royal jurisdiction of the sovereign state." 
 
DISCOURSE. 57 
 
 England," was arrested while travelling among the 
 Indians, and finally brought back to Boston, where 
 he was thrown into prison. It is now admitted that 
 nothing criminal was proved against him ;* but when 
 the authorities of Massachusetts opened his letters, 
 which had been sent to Boston, one was found to be 
 from Sir Ferdinando Gorges, " who," says the gov- 
 ernor, " claims a great part of the bay of Massachu- 
 setts ;" and " it appeared," he adds, " from his letters 
 that he had some secret design to recover his pre- 
 tended right, and that he reposed much trust in Sir 
 Christopher Gardiner." 
 
 The case of Thomas Morton was one of, perhaps, 
 less undeserved rigor, though cruel and oppressive ; 
 and it is not strange that both he and Gardiner, on 
 their return to England, should have blazoned the 
 outrages that had been heaped upon them, and turned 
 the benevolent mind of even Gorges himself against 
 his favorite New England. Yet writing at a later 
 period, the worthy knight exonerates many of the 
 colonists from the charge of fanaticism, as well as 
 from the guilt of a treasonable disposition towards the 
 king's government ; " doubtless," he says, " had not 
 the patience and wisdom of Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Hum- 
 phreys, Mr. Dudley, and others their assistants, been 
 the greater, much mischief would suddenly have over- 
 whelmed them, more than did befall them. Notwith- 
 standing, amongst those great swarms there went 
 many that wanted not love and affection to the 
 honor of the king, and happiness of their native coun- 
 
 * Davis in Morton's Mem. 165. See also the sensible remarks of Savage, ed. 
 Winthrop's Journal. I. 54. 57. Young is less judicious. Chron. Mass, 334. 
 
 5* 
 
58 DISCOURSE. 
 
 try." Being at length called upon personally by the 
 government, as the author and supporter of the obnox- 
 ious proceedings in New England, he found it difficult 
 to avoid the imputations that were raised against him 
 on account of his agency in these matters ; and that 
 he mio-ht no longer suffer this reproach, he counselled 
 and urged upon the Council the expediency of sur- 
 renderinor their charter to the crown; which was 
 accordingly done, on the 2.3th April, 1635. It thus 
 appears that while Sir Ferdinando was an object of 
 suspicion and distrust in Massachusetts, he was com- 
 pelled to suffer imputations of an offensive character 
 at home, on account of the support he gave to the 
 fanatics and traitors of which that colony was believed 
 to consist. 
 
 The next event of general interest in the history of 
 the State, is the confirmation of the patent from the 
 Council of Plymouth to Gorges by a new charter 
 from the Crown, in which the territory is first styled 
 the Province of Maine, * of which he was made 
 Lord Palatine, with the same powers and privileges 
 as the Bishop of Durham, in the County Palatine of 
 Durham. This charter conferred upon the venerable 
 knio-ht a hish deoree of feudal authority, and he im- 
 mediately proceeded to reorganize his jurisdiction in 
 the pro\ ince by the appointment of a new board of 
 
 • Sullivan, Hist. Maine, p. 307, says that " the territory was called the Pro- 
 vince by way of a compliment to the queen of Charles I, who was a daughter of 
 France, and owned as her private estate a province there, called the Province of 
 Meyne," &.c. Such is the jjrevailing impression as to tlie origin of the name 
 finally given by Gorges to his province, but unfortunately for its accuracy, the pro- 
 vince of Maine in France did not appertain to Queen Henrietta Maria, but to 
 the crown ; nor is it discoverjible that she possessed any interest in that province. 
 Tlie biography of this queen recently published by Miss Strickland, is a work of 
 intense interest, and apparently drawn from original and authentic sources. 
 
DISCOURSE. 59 
 
 Commissioners, at the head of whom he first placed 
 Sir Thomas Josselyn, but that gentleman not coming 
 over, he substituted in his place his truly and well be- 
 loved cousin, Thomas Gorges, Esq., who arrived at 
 Boston in the summer of 1640. Governor Winthrop 
 speaks of him as " a young gentleman of the Inns of 
 Court ; * * * sober and well disposed ; he staid 
 a few days at Boston, and was very careful to take 
 advice of our magistrates how to manage his affairs." 
 He took up his residence at Agamenticus, which was 
 now incorporated into a city, by the name of Gorge- 
 ana, with a mayor and recorder, and seven aldermen.* 
 At this place also it was ordained by the charter that 
 Wednesday in every wxek should be market day, and 
 that there should be two fairs held every year, viz., 
 upon the feast days of St. James and St. Paul. 
 
 The plan of government for the Province was 
 based upon the Saxon forms existing in England, and 
 as old as the days of king Alfred. The province was 
 to be divided into eight counties, and these into six- 
 teen hundreds ; the hundreds to be subdivided into 
 parishes and tythings, as the people should increase. 
 In the absence of the Lord Proprietor, a Lieuten- 
 ant was to preside. A chancellor for the hearing of 
 civil causes ; a treasurer to receive the revenue ; a 
 marshal for the command of the militia ; a marshal's 
 court for criminal matters ; an admiral and court of 
 admiralty for maritime cases ; a master of ordnance, 
 and a secretary ; were severally constituted. These 
 officers were to be a standing council, together with 
 eight deputies to be elected by the people, one for 
 
 • On Smith's map this place is named Boston, at the instance of Prince Charles. 
 
60 DISCOURSE. 
 
 each county. One lieutenant and eight justices were 
 allowed to each county ; two head-constables to every 
 hundred ; one constable and four tythingmen to every 
 parish ; each tythingman to give an account of the 
 demeanor of the families within his tything to the 
 constable of the parish, who was to render the same 
 to the head constables of the hundred, and they to 
 the lieutenant and justices of the county, who were to 
 take coonizance of all misdemeanors ; and from them 
 an appeal lay to the governor and council. 
 
 Such was the system of government Gorges de- 
 sio-ned to introduce into his province of Maine ; but 
 it is hardly necessary to say that it was not fully car- 
 ried into effect. The civil war in England withdrew 
 the attention of the Lord Proprietor from his own 
 private affairs ; the governor was called home, and 
 in the distractions of the times, the colony of Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay undertook to set up a title to the 
 greater part of the Province, under color of which 
 they took possession of it, and excluded the heirs of 
 Gor*Tes from the exercise of their rights. Maine was 
 thus summarily annexed to Massachusetts Bay, but 
 not without a spirited resistance on the part of the au- 
 thorities of the province, and most of the inhabitants. 
 
 The pretext for this usurpation was found m the 
 terms of the Massachusetts patent, which established 
 the northern boundary on a line three miles north of 
 the river Morrimac, and the southern three miles 
 south of Cliarles river, the intermodiate space being 
 taken for the breadth of the grant. But when it sub- 
 sequently appeared that the course of the Merrimac 
 changed at a certain distance from the sea, and that 
 its head- waters were situated far to the north, the old 
 
DISCOURSE. 61 
 
 limits were abandoned, and a new line drawn for the 
 northern boundary of the patent, beginning at a point 
 three miles north of the head waters of the river, and 
 so running easterly to the sea. Both New Hampshire 
 and the greater part of Maine were found by this con- 
 struction to be within the bounds of the Massachu- 
 setts patent. 
 
 The New Hampshire towns, having been settled 
 chiefly from Massachusetts Bay, were not reluctant 
 to be brought within her jurisdiction ; * but it was 
 otherwise with the inhabitants of Maine. Commis- 
 sioners were sent " to treat with the gentlemen of the 
 eastward," in the language of the Massachusetts Re- 
 cords, in the summer of 1652. Edward Godfrey, of 
 York, was at that time Governor of Maine, and rep- 
 resented the interests of the heirs of Sir Ferdinando 
 Gorges, who was then dead. Called upon by the 
 commissioners of Massachusetts to submit to the 
 authority of that colony, Godfrey resolutely refused, 
 declaring that the bounds of Massachusetts had been 
 determined twenty years ago, since which time many 
 grants had been made in Maine,- a sum of £35,000 
 expended in promoting the settlement of the coun- 
 try, and a lawful jurisdiction exercised, which had 
 been acknowledged by Massachusetts and approved 
 by the English government. "We are resolved," 
 
 * The original settlers of New Hampshire, who planted themselves at the 
 mouth of the Piscataqua as early as 1623, under the auspices of Mason and Gor- 
 ges, were of the Church of England ; but after the death of Mason, (1635,) the 
 new settlers were almost entirely non-conformists. Miss Aikin, in her Me- 
 moirs of Charles I., recounting what had been done for the colonization of the 
 new world prior to the accession of that monarch, states that " a small band of 
 emigrant Puritans had established themselves in New Hampshire." Vol. 1. p. 29. 
 This statement is without doubt founded on a misapprehension of the character 
 of the settlements in that quarter at the period in question. 
 
62 DISCOURSE. 
 
 said the Governor, " to exercise our just jurisdiction 
 till it shall please the Parliament, the Common Weale 
 of England, otherwise to order, under whose power 
 and protection we are." 
 
 Gorges had taken care to encourage the settlement 
 of members of the church of England in his province, 
 and a considerable proportion of the inhal)itants 
 were of that faith ; hence there was a strong aversion 
 amono- them to cominir under the rule of the Puritans, 
 by this new process of annexation. But this was not 
 all ; a deep sense of the flagrant injustice of the claim 
 of Massachusetts to the soil of Maine, after the royal 
 confirmation of the grant to Gorges and his heirs, 
 produced an exasperated state of feeling throughout 
 the Province, and led in many instances to scenes of 
 open violence. As a matter of prudence, however, 
 the towns gradually decided to acquiesce in the 
 change until intelligence could be obtained from the 
 heir of Gorges, and there should be a prospect of 
 offering a successful resistance to such a palpable 
 usurpation. It must be admitted, likewise, that the 
 people were somewhat divided in their feelings, a por- 
 tion who sympathised with the religious views of the 
 claimants forming a party in their favor. The puri- 
 tan divines were of course on the side of Massachu- 
 setts, and when one of them upon the Lord's day had 
 exhorted the people to be earnest in prayer to the 
 Lord to direct them in respect they were under two 
 forms of government, one of the congregation started 
 up and angrily rebuked him, saying, that he " need 
 not make such a preamble, for tliey were under the 
 government of Gorges." An Episcopal clergyman, 
 whom the Massachusetts authorities had forbidden 
 
DISCOURSE. 63 
 
 to baptize children, and perform other duties of his 
 sacred office, was presented by a grand jury for 
 expressing his opinion of those in power with too 
 great freedom ; in saying " that the Governor of 
 Boston was a rogue, and all the rest thereof traitors 
 and rebels against the king." Such was the excited 
 state of feeling produced by the unjustifiable course 
 of Massachusetts at that period. 
 
 On the restoration of Charles II., Ferdinando 
 Gorges, Esq., a grandson of the old Lord Proprietor, 
 sent over his agent with letters from the king to the 
 Governor of Massachusetts Bay, requiring either a 
 restitution of his lawful inheritance, or that they 
 should show reason for the occupation of the Province 
 of Maine. The next step was the appointment of 
 Commissioners by the crown to visit New England, 
 and enquire into all existing grievances. They came 
 into Maine in the summer of 1665, and issued their 
 proclamation, in which they charge the Massachusetts 
 colony with having " refused by the sound of the trum- 
 pet to submit to his majesty's authority, looking upon 
 themselves as the supreme power in those parts, 
 contrary to their allegiance and derogatory to his 
 Majesty's sovereignty." They then proceed to ap- 
 point a number of gentlemen in the Province, known 
 to be friendly to the claims of Gorges, as magistrates 
 to exercise authority there until his Majesty's 
 pleasure be further known. These were Messrs. 
 Champernon* and Cutts, of Kitter}^; Rishworth and 
 Johnson, of York ; Wheelwright, of Wells ; Hook 
 and Phillips, of Saco ; Josselyn, of Black Point, now 
 
 * Francis Champernon was a relative of Sir W. Raleigh, whose mother was 
 a daughter of Sir Philip Champernon of Devonshire. 
 
64 ^ DISCOURSE. 
 
 Scarborough ; Jordan, of Richmond's Island ; Moun- 
 joy, of Casco, now Portland ; and Wincoll, of New- 
 ichawanock, afterwards Berwick. 
 
 Massachusetts did not long acquiesce in this ar- 
 rangement; for in July, 1668, four commissioners 
 escorted by a military force entered the Province and 
 proceeded to hold a court at York. The king's 
 magistrates were present and remonstrated, but to no 
 purpose. The account of the matter given by John ' 
 Josselyn, who was then residing with his brother at 
 Black Point, is, that " as soon as the commissioners 
 were returned from England, the Massachusetts men 
 entered the Province in a hostile manner with a 
 troop of horse and foot, and turned the judge and his 
 assistants off the bench, imprisoned the major or 
 commander of the militia, and threatened the judge 
 and some others that were faithhd to Mr. Gorges' 
 interest." * 
 
 At length both parties lo this exciting controversy 
 appeared by their agents before the king at the palace 
 of Whitehall, and his Majesty, upon a fair hearing of 
 their respective claims, " decided that the Province of 
 Maine was the rightful property of the heirs of Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, both as to soil and the govern- 
 ment." As soon as this decision was known, an 
 agent of Massachusetts made overtures to Mr. Gor- 
 ges for the purchase of his title, which he finally sold 
 to that colony, in March, 1677, for ihc sum of £1250 
 sterling, or about six thousand dollars. This trans- 
 action gave great offence to his friends in the 
 Province, who sent a remonstrance to England, but 
 
 * Josselyn's Two Voyages to New England, p. 198. London, 1G75. 
 
DISCOURSE. 65 
 
 it was too late. Such, however, was the continued 
 opposition to the authority of Massachusetts on the 
 part of the inhabitants, that it became necessary 
 to send an armed force into the Province to awe the 
 people into submission and prevent disturbances. 
 
 Maine was now fairly annexed to Massachusetts, 
 not in accordance with the wishes of the people, but 
 by a legal transfer of the soil and government for a 
 valuable consideration ; and in the act of taking 
 possession by that colony, the title of Gorges was 
 duly recited ; nothing further was heard of its being 
 embraced in their own patent. A separate govern- 
 ment was now organized for the Province, at the 
 head of which Thomas Danforth, Esq., of Cambridge, 
 was placed with the title of President of the Province 
 of Maine. This state of things continued without 
 interruption, except during the violent administration 
 of Sir Edmund Andros, until the revolution in Eng- 
 land, resulting in the deposition of James II. and the 
 elevation of William and Mary to the throne. A 
 new charter was then received, which united in one 
 province the colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts 
 Bay, the Province of Maine and the territory east of 
 it to the St. Croix, and Nova Scotia. Sir William 
 Phipps, a native of Maine, arrived at Boston with 
 this charter, on the 14th of May, 1692, at the 
 same time bearing a commission as Governor of the 
 " Province of Massachusetts Bay," — the name given 
 in the new charter to the several jurisdictions united 
 under it. 
 
 There are other topics to which I had proposed to 
 call your attention in connexion with a rapid review 
 of the leading events in the early history of this State ; 
 6 
 
G6 DISCOURSE. 
 
 but I have already trespassed too long upon the at- 
 tention of the society, and shall conclude my 
 remarks with a few words more in reference to the 
 brave old knight who devoted the best part of a long 
 life to efforts for the discovery and settlement of the 
 territory of which this state originally consisted. 
 Little is known of Sir Ferdinando Gorges before he 
 engaged in that great work, but there is no doubt 
 that he early distinguished himself in the public ser- 
 vice, and received in reward of his services the honor 
 of knighthood, which like other honors was sparingly 
 bestowed by Queen Elizabeth. The fanuly of Gor- 
 ges had an ancient seat at Wraxall in Somersetshire, 
 six miles and a half from Bristol ; in the church at 
 that place is a large altar tomb, with figures of Sir 
 Edmund Gorges, K. B., and Anne, his wife, daughter 
 of John Howard, the first Duke of Norfolk * In the 
 same neighborhood, in the parish of Long Ashton, was 
 the Manor of Ashton Phillips, belonging to Sir Fer- 
 dinando. The village of Long Ashton lies on the 
 southeast slope of an eminence called Ashton HilL 
 about five miles from Bristol, affording a fine drive 
 from the city, as the road through the parish com- 
 mands an extensive view of Bristol, Clifton, and a 
 number of villages on the opposite banks of the 
 Avon. In a valley to the southwest of the village is 
 
 » They residetl at Wraxhall as early as the year 12C0, when Ralph de Gorges 
 was governor of Sherburne Castle ; " Ironi whose time the ianiily hath been con- 
 tinued there, and is lately [about the year 1700] reduced to an issue-female." 
 Camden's Britannia, 2d edition. In 1350, one of the Russels of Gloucester- 
 shire, " being enriched," says Camden, " by marriage with an heir of the honor- 
 able family of the Gorges, assumed that name." This person was of the family 
 of Russels since raised to the peerage. Lord Edward Gorges, an active member 
 of the Council of Plymouth, and at one time its President, was evidently related 
 10 Sir Ferdinando ; he was of Wiltshire. 
 
DISCOURSE. 67 
 
 the manor of Ashton Phillips. The manor-house is 
 now in ruins ; it seems to have been a structure of 
 considerable extent and grandeur, but only a small 
 portion of the dwelling apartments, and the chapel 
 remain. 
 
 As early as 1597, we find him embarked in the 
 expedition of the Earl of Essex against the Spanish 
 islands, in the capacity of Serjeant Major, correspon- 
 ding to the rank of senioi: colonel in the army, at 
 the same time holding the office of Governor of the 
 Forts at Plymouth. We next hear of him as 
 a witness on the trial of the Earl of Essex for high 
 treason, in the year 1600. The course taken by 
 Gorges on that occasion must have been deeply 
 painful to his feelings, and has subjected his memory 
 to the reproaches of those writers who were more 
 moved by sympathy for the unhappy fate of that 
 illustrious nobleman, than governed by a strict regard 
 to the circumstances of the case. No one can doubt 
 on readinor the accounts of this matter, that the 
 designs of Essex were of a treasonable character, 
 and that relying upon his great popularity, he hoped 
 at least to overawe the queen, and drive his enemies 
 from court. Great discontent prevailed generally 
 among the nobility and gentry, of whom one hundred 
 and twenty were believed to be favorable to the in- 
 tended movement. In this number Gorges was 
 reckoned, but although disposed to aid that noble- 
 man in all lawful means for counteracting the ma- 
 chinations of his enemies, it does not appear that he 
 countenanced, or was even made acquainted with, 
 any designs against the Queen. When called upon 
 by the government in the course of the trial to state 
 
68 DISCOURSE. 
 
 more fully what had passed between hhn and the 
 conspirators, he was urged both by Essex and the 
 Earl of Southampton, (who was tried at the same 
 time,) to state fully what he knew of their plans ; 
 his reply was : — " Some delivered their minds one 
 way, and some another ; but by the oath I have 
 taken, I did never know or hear any thought or pur- 
 pose of hurt or disloyalty intended to her Majesty's 
 person by my Lord of Essex." 
 
 In his testimony in chief he admitted that Essex 
 had written to him, complaining of his misfortunes 
 and expressing a determination to free himself from 
 the malice of his enemies ; at the same time request- 
 ing Sir Ferdinando to come up to London, that he 
 might confer with him. Gorges accordingly repaired 
 to town, as he states, a week before the insurrection, 
 and had several interviews with the Earl, when he 
 endeavored to dissuade him from his imprudent de- 
 signs, but all to no purpose. He did not, however, 
 abandon him ; on the contrary, he was at Essex-house 
 when the insurrection took place ; a large number of 
 the conspirators, including several noblemen, were 
 assembled there, undecided it would seem for a long 
 time as to the course they should pursue. Li the 
 meantime. Sir Walter Raleigh, who was regarded by 
 Essex as his greatest enemy, sent a messenger to 
 Gorges at Essex-house, desiring to speak with him 
 on the river ; and taking a boat from the garden, 
 which appears to have extended down to the water's 
 edge, beyond the west gate of the city. Sir Ferdinan- 
 do, with the approbation of Essex, proceeded to meet 
 Sir Walter, who earnestly advised him to withdraw 
 from Essex house, as he valued his hfe. Raleigh 
 
DISCOURSE. 69 
 
 also testified on the trial, that Gorges assured him it 
 was likely to prove a bloody day's work, and desired 
 him to go to Court that measures might be taken to 
 prevent it. Gorges then returned to Essex house. 
 
 In the meantime, the Queen being apprised of the 
 assemblage at Essex house, resorted to an unusual 
 step ; for instead of despatching a military force to 
 disperse the conspirators, she sent four distinguished 
 personages, members of the privy council, among 
 whom was Chief Justice Popham, to Essex house to 
 use their personal influence as well as the authority 
 of their offices, to induce the malecontents to give 
 over their designs. " All four had been chosen," says 
 Southey, " not only because of their merit, but also 
 because they were persons whom he was supposed 
 both to respect, and to regard as friends." They 
 found the gates shut, but were admitted without their 
 attendants except the pursebearer with the great seal, 
 the Lord keeper being one of the four dignitaries, 
 who appear to have gone in their official robes and 
 badges of office. The leaders and their company 
 were assembled in the court-yard, and crowded 
 around the counsellors as they advanced towards the 
 Earl of Essex, to whom the Lord keeper in a loud 
 voice delivered the Queen's message, " that they 
 were sent to learn the cause of so great a concourse 
 of people, and let them know that they should be 
 heard if they complained of any grievances they 
 wished to have redressed." Essex replied in an 
 angry tone, reciting the causes of his disaffection ; 
 and the Earl of Southampton also addressed them 
 in a similar strain. The lord chief justice then pro- 
 mised that they would faithfully report their com- 
 6* 
 
70 DISCOURSE. 
 
 plaints to her Majesty. But a tumult arising among 
 the crowd, the Lord keeper commanded all upon 
 their allegiance to lay down their arms and depart. 
 Essex thereupon went into the house, followed by the 
 four counsellors, who desired a private interview 
 with him ; but when they had entered his library, the 
 Earl gave orders to fasten the doors, and committed 
 them as prisoners to the charge of three persons, 
 one of whom, named Salisbury, is said to have been 
 a notorious robber, who " bore a special spleen 
 against the lord chief justice." A guard was set by 
 these persons at the door of the library, with loaded 
 muskets and lighted matches. 
 
 Essex then Icavinir his house in the charo-e of Sir 
 Gilly Merrick, sallied forth with about 200 men, and 
 entered the city by Ludgate, (which was not far from 
 Essex-house,) uttering loud cries, the purport of which 
 was that the Queen was in danger, and that " Eng- 
 land was bought and sold to the Spaniards." Hasten- 
 ing along Chenpside, they came to the house of the 
 Sheriff", on whom they seem to have reckoned, but 
 that official made his escape by the back door of his 
 house, and repaired to the lord mayor. Thus check- 
 ed, and finding that not so much as one man of even 
 the lowest (juality joined them, Essex remained in the 
 sheriff's house undecided which way he should turn. 
 
 In the meantime, formal ])roclamation w as made in 
 another (juarter of the city, denouncing Essex and 
 his adherents as traitors ; who upon being informed 
 of it rushed again into the streets, calling upon the 
 citizens to arm ; but in vain. The only resource left 
 to the unliJippy Earl was to return to his own house, 
 and endeavor to obtain pardon by means of the four 
 
DISCOURSE. 71 
 
 members of the Council whom he had left there in 
 confinement. But on reaching Ludgate, he found it 
 guarded by a competent force, that refused to allow 
 him to pass ; whereupon he gave Gorges a token, 
 authorizing him to go alone to Essex-house and re- 
 lease the Lord Chief Justice, and by his means inter- 
 cede for pardon. Sir Ferdinando, finding that the 
 Chief Justice refused his liberty unless the Lord 
 keeper also were released, set all the four councillors 
 free, and went with them by water to the court. * 
 This prudent course on the part of Gorges probably 
 saved him from the consequences of having followed 
 the fortunes of Essex until they became desperate ; 
 to have gone farther would have been madness. 
 
 Meantime, after the sacrifice of several lives in 
 their efforts to escape from the city, Essex and his 
 followers succeeded in reaching his house, which they 
 at first proposed to defend, but finally surrendered, 
 and were committed to the Tower and other prisons. 
 In eleven days after the failure of this desperate en- 
 terprise, the earls of Essex and Southampton were 
 arraigned for high treason, and found guilty. A few 
 days after, five of their associates. Sir Christopher 
 Blount, Sir Charles Davers, Sir John Davis, Sir Gil- 
 ly Merrick, and Henry Cuffe, were also tried and 
 convicted of the same offence. They all suffered 
 death except the Earl of Southampton, who was final- 
 ly pardoned. 
 
 After these events Gorges appears to have return- 
 ed to his government at Plymouth, where we have 
 already seen that he was residing in 1605, when 
 
 * Camden. Annales Rerum Ang. et Hib. 610. 
 
72 DISCOURSE. 
 
 George Weymouth arrived at that port from his visit 
 to Penobscot river, bringing with him the five Indi- 
 ans who first turned the attention of Sir Ferdinando 
 to the American coast. He is again noticed in the 
 general histories of that period as the commander of 
 one of the ships sent to the aid of the king of France 
 in 1625 ; but as soon as it was suspected that they 
 were to be used against the French Protestants, there 
 was a general desertion of the oflicers and men, on 
 which occasion Sir Ferdinando is described as hav- 
 ing behaved with great spirit ; for abruptly breaking 
 away from the rest of the fleet, he returned at once 
 to England, at the hazard of incurring the displeasure 
 of the king and his favorite Buckingham. 
 
 It has already been stated that in the civil wars he 
 took up arms in defence of his king. Towards the 
 close of 1612, when hostilities had just commenced, 
 efforts were made by the royal party to introduce 
 troops into the city of Bristol, which had not yet ta- 
 ken sides in the contest. For this purpose Sir Fer- 
 dinando Gorges and Mr. Smith of Long Ashton, were 
 deputed to wait on tl.e mayor to obtain his consent ; 
 but the application failed. The city was then invest- 
 ed by a large force in the interest of the king, and 
 soon after surrendered. In 164.3, Cromwell recap- 
 tured it by assault ; and it is stated by Josselyn, a 
 contem})orary writer, that Sir Ferdinando was plun- 
 dered and thrown into prison. It is probable that he 
 died soon after, for in the same year the following or- 
 der was adopted by the court in his Province of 
 Maine : " it is ordered, that Richard Vines shall have 
 power to take into his possession the goods and chat- 
 tels of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and to pay such debts 
 
DISCOURSE. 73 
 
 as Sir Ferdinaiido is in any way indebted to any." At 
 the same time a public fast was ordered to be " sol- 
 emnly kept upon Thursday, 20th of November next, 
 through this Province." Vines had been for many 
 years the agent of Gorges in this country, before and 
 after its settlement, and for at least fifteen years a 
 resident on the west side of Saco river, on a patent 
 granted him by the Council of Plymouth, now con- 
 stituting the town of Biddeford. After the departure 
 of Thomas Gorges, he was elected governor of the 
 Province, and held that office until the death of his 
 patron and friend, when he sold his patent and remo- 
 ved to the island of Barbadoes. 
 
 A grandson of the Lord Proprietor, Ferdinando 
 Gorges, Esq., as we have already noticed, succeeded 
 to the proprietorship of the Province, some time 
 before the restoration of Charles 11. To him we 
 are indebted for the publication of his grandfather's 
 Brief Narration, a work evidently written with a 
 deep conviction of the future importance of these 
 western shores, and illustrating the indomitable spirit 
 of enterprise that distinguished its author to the 
 very close of a long and useful life. 
 
 I cannot, perhaps, more appropriately conclude 
 these remarks than with this imperfect notice of the 
 man who must ever be regarded as the most active 
 and persevering of all the friends of American colo- 
 nization, through periods of discouragement and 
 difficulty; and especially as the Founder of this 
 Commonwealth. In my humble opinion, Maine owes 
 some public acknowledgment to the memory of Sir 
 Ferdinando Gorges, for having laid the foundation of 
 its existence as a separate and independent commu- 
 
74 DISCOURSE. 
 
 nity. In ancient times, we are told, the founders of 
 colonies were deified by their successors ; this was 
 doubtless an exaggerated expression of the proper 
 feeling to be entertained for them. But it will not be 
 denied that their services merit a substantia] com- 
 memoration at the hands of their posterity. Nor 
 have our American republics altogether neglected to 
 pay tributes of gratitude and admiration to the great 
 and good men who had the forecast to scatter the 
 seeds of future growth and prosperity within their 
 borders. Bradford and Winthrop are names that will 
 never die amongst their successors at Plymouth and 
 Massachusetts Bay; Pennsylvania will never forget her 
 obligations to the illustrious Friend of humanity who 
 peopled her wilderness ; nor will Georgia sufier the 
 memory of the enlightened Oglethorpe to perish ; 
 Maryland has stamped the name of Baltimore upon 
 her brilliant commercial metropolis, and North 
 Carolina has her " city of Raleigh," although the 
 projected colony of Sir Walter proved a splendid 
 failure. And shall Maine do nothinaj to mark her 
 sense of the merits of the liberal patron and success- 
 ful abettor of the first settlements within her limits — 
 who expended a large fortune upon his projects of 
 discovery and colonization — who, when the country 
 was abandoned and denounced by others as too cold 
 and dreary for human habitation, actually hired men 
 to j)ass the winter here to prove the contrary — and 
 who died without reaping any substantial return for 
 all his labors and outlays, leaving only a legacy of 
 law suits to his descendants ? It is time that justice 
 was done to his memory. From the small be- 
 ginning he made this community has become a wide- 
 
DISCOURSE. 75 
 
 ly extended, populous and wealthy state — rich in 
 her resources, and not less distinguished for the active 
 enterprise and laborious industry of her population. 
 She can well afford to honor the memory of the man 
 who foresaw all this, and devoted the energies of a 
 long life to its consummation. 
 
 But the appeal is unneccessary ; for I address an 
 association that has in its keeping the historical rep- 
 utation of the State and its Founder, and that will 
 not suffer to perish a single existing memorial of the 
 services of those who led the way in planting religion 
 and civilization upon these northern shores. The 
 wilderness has budded and blossomed like the rose, 
 and those who are now living reap the benefits of its 
 changed condition. Let them not begrudge a hand- 
 ful of its floral treasures to deck the tomb of the 
 gallant old cavaher who sowed the seeds from which 
 have sprung so much beauty and fragrance. 
 
76 DISCOURSE. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
 
 Page 14. At the period of .he discovery of America, the Tartars had been driven 
 from China, and the Khans were of course no longer at the head of its govern- 
 ment. This rev(,lution took place A, D., 13GG. But this fact was then unknown 
 in Europe ; and the only available source of knowledge respecting that vast em- 
 pire seems to have been the travels of Marco Polo, whose visit to China preced- 
 ed the age of Columbus by a period of two centuries. Strictly, the northern 
 part of the country was then called Cathay, or Kathai, and the southern Mangi, 
 or Mangee. Had Columbus succeeded in reaching China, his Arabian interpre- 
 ters, would have been of course, useless to him. 
 
 Page 15. The island of .S". Joan is laid down on the map of Ortehus, in about 
 latitude 56 degrees north. This writer professes to have seen a map of the 
 world by Sebastian Cabot, which he cites among his authorities. " Sebastianus 
 Cabotus, Venetus. Univermlem Tahulam, qiiam impressam aneis furmis vidi- 
 mus, scd sine nomine loci et impressoris." No such map is now extant. 
 
 Pages 16 and 17. It appears that the first general name for all that portion of 
 North America extending to the north of Florida, was Baccalaos, meaning the 
 land or coast of codfish. Such was the interpretation given to the name by the 
 Breton and Norman sailors, " La Coste des Molues." De Bry. Americce Furs 
 
 Quarta. p. G9. 
 
 Next came the name of NoRtiMBEGA, at one time of an application equally ex- 
 tensive. This was followed by Capie, or Acauie, which, however, soon divided 
 the honor with Virginia. Virginia , in its turn, was cut up into North and South 
 Virginia, and afterwards was still furtlier limited to the country between Florida 
 and Delaware Bay, North Virginia taking the names of New England and New 
 
 Netherland. ,,•,,, 
 
 Page 22. An account of Weymouth's voyage was published the same year at 
 
 London, and attracted public attention to a considerable degree. This work has 
 been recently reprinted ill the Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society, Vol. 28th, 
 from a transcript procured in England by Mr. Sparks. The title of the book is 
 as follows:—" A True Itclatioii of the most prosperous Voyage made this pres- 
 ent year, 1605, by Captain George Weymouth, in the discovery of the Land 
 of Viii(iiNiA, where he discovered, sixty miles up, a most excellent river ; togeth- 
 er with a most fertile land. Written by James Rosier, a gentleman employed 
 in the voyage. London; Impcnsis Geor. Bishop. 1605." The chapter in 
 Purchas containing extracts from this work, has additional particulars of the voy- 
 
DISCOURSE. 77 
 
 age, derived doubtless from oral or other communications made to the author by 
 the navigators on their return to England. The patron of the enterprise was 
 Lord Arundel of Wardour, created Count of the Empire by Rodolph II. Em- 
 peror of Germany, for his gallant services against the Turks. 
 
 Pages 24. 25. " In the south chapel of this church [of Wellington] there is a 
 magnificent tomb, erected in honor of Sir John Popham, lord chief justice of 
 England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It is surrounded by a handsome 
 pallisado of wood and iron. On the table of the monument are the efRgies of 
 Sir John Popham and his lady. He is dressed in his judge's robes, chain, and 
 small square cap. He reclines with his head towards the west. On the lower 
 basement, at the head and feet, are four smaller figures of two men and two 
 women, kneeling face to face. On the north side are five boys and eight girls, 
 dressed in black, kneeling in a row. On the south side are nine women, kneel- 
 ing in the same manner. Over Sir John and his lady is a superb arched cano- 
 py, beautifully ornamented with the family arms, roses, paintings, and obelisks. 
 The whole is supported by eight round columns of black marble, five feet high, 
 with Corinthian capitals, green and gilt. On the west side of this canopy is the 
 following inscription : — 
 
 ' Sir John Popham, knighte, Lord Chief Justice of England; and of the hon- 
 ourable privie counsel to Queen Elizabeth, and after to king James ; died the 
 tenth of June, 1607, aged seventy-six, and is here interred.' 
 
 " It may not be improper to remark here, that Sir John Popham was one of the 
 most upright and able judges that ever sat upon the English bench. He was a 
 native of Huntwith, in this county [Somersetshire], and educated chiefly at Ba- 
 liol College, in Oxford. From hence he removed to the Temple, and was ad- 
 mitted barrister in 1568. He was afterwards successively Serjeant at law, solici- 
 tor-general, and attorney-general, previous to his ultimate promotion, which 
 took place in 1592. Sir John was a munificent patron to WeUington. Here he 
 built a large and elegant house, for his own residence, which was converted into 
 a garrison for the use of the parliamentary army, in the time of Oliver Cromwell. 
 It was soon after besieged by the royalists, and so completely ruined during the 
 contest, that it was never attempted to be repaired. He also erected an hospital 
 at the west end of the town, for twelve old and infirm persons, the one half being 
 men, and the other women. Two children were also to be educated here. It is 
 still standing [1813], and the charity applied. Sir John endowed it with an es- 
 tate in land, which is now vested in the governors." The Beauties of England 
 and Wales, &c. by Rev. J. Nightingale, vol. 13th, Art. SoMErvSETSniRE. 
 
 Aubrey, whose notices of Eminent Men are a repository of contemporary 
 scandal, says that for several years after Popham entered the legal profession, he 
 " addicted himself but little to the studie of the lawes, but profligate company, 
 and was toont to take a purse with them. His wife considered her and his con- 
 dition, and at last prevailed with him to lead another life, and to stick to the 
 study of the lawe ; which, upon her importunity, he did, being then about thirtie 
 years old. He spake to his wife to provide a very good entertainment for his 
 camerades to take his leave of them ; and after that day fell extremely hard to 
 his studie, and profited exceedingly. He was a strong, stout man, and could 
 
T8 DISCOURSE. 
 
 endure to sit at it day and night ; became eminent at his calling, had good prac- 
 tice, was called to be a Serjeant [at law], a judge." Vol, 2. p. 492. 
 
 Then follows a story of the judge having been bribed to save the life of a 
 man tried for infanticide ; but the manner in which he was able to effect such a 
 result, is not stated. The annotator remarks, that " Sir John Popham gave 
 sentence according to lawe, but being a great person and a favorite, he procured 
 a noli prnseqzii." 
 
 The author of the Discourse on Sir W. Raleigh, referred to in the text, in his 
 zeal to vindicate his hero, does not hesitate to charge the chief justice with 
 " taking purses on the highway, and bribes on the bench," on the sole authority 
 of the gossiping writer above cited. The reader will be able to satisfy his own 
 mind, probably, without much trouble, as to the probability of those charges 
 being well founded. 
 
 Grahame, Hist. U. S. is also disposed to treat the chief justice with some 
 harshness, for the same cause, namely, his supposed readiness to have Raleigh 
 convicted. But that author should have recollected that it was to one of his 
 own nation that Sir Walter owed all his misfortunes, namely, king James, the 
 Sixth of Scotland. 
 
 Picrs 5G. 57. Morton devotes a chapter of his " jSxin English Canaan" to 
 Sir Christopher Gardiner, whom he characterizes as " a knight, that had been 
 a traveller, both by sea and land ; a good judicious gentleman in the mathema- 
 ticks and other sciences useful for plantations, chimistry, &c. and also being a 
 practical Engineer ; he came into those parts intending discovery." p. 183. 
 Again, he says, " Sir Christopher was gone with a guide (a salvage) ijito the in- 
 laml parts for discovery ; but before he was returned, he met with a salvage that 
 told the guide, Sir Christopher would be killed," &,c. But he, " finding how 
 they had used him, with such disrespect, took shipping, and disposed of himself 
 for England, and discovered their practices in those parts towards his Majestie's 
 true-hearted subjects, whom they made wary cf their abode in those parts." 
 
 IMorton's testimony will of course pass for what it is worth. Sir Christopher 
 and liimself both incurred the displeasure of the puritan fathers, and joined com- 
 mon cause together in opposing their interests hi England ; but it is always best 
 to hear both sides of a case. It must be allowed that the treatment of these 
 gentlemen was rigorous in the extreme, considering that their chief offence con- 
 sisted in not harmonizing in sentiment with the people among whom they 
 were thrown. 
 
 Pages 50, C-1. Sir Thomas .TosseKm, named in the first charter of Maine at the 
 head of the Commissionersjto organize the govtrnment, was the father of Henry 
 Josselyn, Esq., of Black Point, (now Scarborough,) and of John Josselyn, Gent., 
 the traveller, whose two voyages to New England are often quoted in connexion 
 with its eariy Iiistorj'. Tliis appears from Morton, who speaking of the " Ero- 
 coise Lake," [Lake Champlain], says, " A more complete discovery of those 
 parts is (to my knowledge) undertaken by Henry Josoline, Esquire, son of Sir 
 Thomas Joseline, ot Kent, knight, by the approbation and appointment of that 
 tcroic and very good Commonwealth's man, Captain John Mason, Esquire, a 
 
DISCOURSE. 79 
 
 true foster-father and lover of virtue, who at his own charge hath fitted Master 
 Joseline, and employed him to that purpose," &c.- New English Canaan, pp, 
 98, 99. 
 
 Henry Josselyn resided many years at Black Point, and was highly respected 
 as a magistrate. He succeeded Mr. Vines as Governor of the Province, in 1645. 
 
 I cannot conclude this note without expressing my sincere acknowledgments 
 to Henry Brevoort, Esq., of the city of New York, for the loan of a copy of 
 Morton's New English Canaan, now a very rare book. 
 
 Page 65. The following Petition, signed by one hundred and fifteen inhabi- 
 tants of Maine, was transmitted to England about the year 1680. 
 
 " To the King's most excellent Majesty, the humble Petition of your Majes- 
 ty's freeborn subjects, the inhabitants of the Province of Maine in New England. 
 
 Humbly Sheweth, That your Majesty's Father, of ever blessed memory, by 
 his letters patent, bearing date at Westminster, in the 15th year of his reign, 
 did grant unto Sir Ferdinando Gorges, his heirs and assigns, that tract of land 
 called the Province of Maine, making the same equal with the Palatinate of 
 Durham, and to enjoy the like privileges to lay out and grant townships, to dis- 
 pose of lands not disposed of before, and that no laws be exercised in the Province 
 but such as were made and consented to by your Majesty's freeholders inhabiting 
 said Province. And that your petitioners, upon these invitations and encourage- 
 ments, did settle in the said Province in gi-eat numbers, and in short time increas- 
 ed unto several townships, having amongst us several Courts of Judicature and 
 Records, and for divers years were governed according to their laws, (agreeable 
 to the laws of England,) made by the Commissioners of Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
 and the freeholders therein. 
 
 That the Bostoners, under the pretence of an imaginary patent line, did invade 
 our right and privileges, erecting their own authority by causing the inhabitants 
 to swear fidelity to their government. That about the year 1661, upon our hum- 
 ble representation of these matters, your IMajesty was graciously pleased by your 
 royal authority, by your royal letters of 16G4 to that government, to require them 
 not farther to disturb nor meddle in the Province, which they then refused to 
 obey. 
 
 Whereupon your Petitioners representing their grievances to your Majesty's 
 Commissioners in 1665, they solemnly restored and re-established your Majesty's 
 authority amongst us, by which we administered the oaths of allegiance, and pro- 
 ceeded to govern and y to our former laws, and so continued till about 
 
 the year 1668, when Maj. Leveret, WalJron, and others, entered upon the Pro- 
 vince, and with force of anns disturbed the inhabitants, then at a Court holden 
 for your IMajesty, at York,* in your Majesty's Province of Maine, commanding 
 all proceedings for the future to be managed by their own authority and laws. 
 Since which time, notwithstanding the great loss sustained by tlie late Indian war, 
 we are still oppressed by heavy rates and ta.xes, imposing the sum of £3000, and 
 upwards, to be collected and paid by the inhabitants of three towns, (viz.) York, 
 Wells, and luttery. 
 
 * Previously called Agaraenticus, and, by its city charter, Gorgeana. 
 
80 DISCOURSE. 
 
 Your Petitioners humbly pray your Majesty to take the premises into your 
 royal consideration, and by' your gracious letters to re-esiablisli and confirm us 
 under your royal authority, granting liberty to tender consciences to empower 
 such whose names we here humbly represent to govern according to the laws and 
 constitutions of this your Majesty's Province, until your Majesty's pleasure bo 
 further known therein, to which we sluill in all readiness and duty submit. 
 
 And your Petitioners shall ever pray." 
 
 See the names of the petitioners, 1 Maine Hist. Coll. 303, 304. 
 
 The correspondence between Edward Godfrey and the Secretary of Massachu- 
 setts, is published in 1 Hazard's State Papers. In answer to what was said by the 
 Secretary respecting the favors to be conferred on the people of Maine by their 
 coming under the jurisdiction of that colony, Godfrey remarks — "As for showing 
 your favors to us, by your favor, gentlemen, we are loth to part with our precious 
 liberties for unknown and uncertain favors. We resolve to exercise our just ju- 
 risdiction fill it shall please the Parliament, the Common Weal of England, 
 otherwise to order, under whose power and protection we are." 
 
 See also a Report of a Committee of Reference on the petition of Robert 
 Mason, Edward Godfrey, and others, to the King, in IGCl, published in the ap- 
 pendix to Belknap's iVez« Hampslnre, No. 16. 
 
 Page 72. Roisier, in his description of Weymouth's voyage, has recorded the 
 names of the Indians carried to England, from the coast of Maine ; he say.s, 
 " The names of the five savages which we brought home into England, which 
 are all yet alive, are these : 
 
 1. Tahanedo, a sagamore or commander. 
 
 2. Amoket, '\ 
 
 2. Skicowakos, \ Gentlemen. 
 
 4. Maneddo, j 
 
 5. Safe ACOMOiT, a servant." 
 
 Gorges gives the following as the names of those among them that were com- 
 mitted to his charge : Manida, Skettwarrocs, and Tasquantum. Brief Nar- 
 ration, Chap. 2. 
 
 Pace 72. Admiral Pennington had the command of the ships that were to be 
 delivered to the French. On ascertaining, on his arrival at Dieppe, the destina- 
 tion of the ships, he returned to England ; but receiving fresh orders to the same 
 effect as before, " he went back to Dieppe," says Rushworth, " and put the Vant- 
 guard into the absolute power and comnuind of the French King, to be employed in 
 his service at pleasure, and commanded the rest of the fleet to the like surrender. 
 At the first, the Captains, Masters, and Owners refused to yield, weighed anchor,, 
 and were making away ; but when Pennington shot, they came in again, but 
 Sir Fcrdinando Gorges came away with the shiji called the Neptune." Rush-- 
 worth. Hist. Coll. 170. 
 
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