USA > Maine > A brief history of Maine > Part 2
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11. The men, probably, had not intended to do them any harm, but to impress them with a wholesome dread of their weapons; yet this action only tended to produce the very hostility they feared. In a quarrel which happened a little later, one of the English was killed and the others driven out of the fort, leaving the Indians in possession. In ransacking the store- house, which was within the fort, the Indians came upon a cask of powder; not being able to make out what it was, they scattered it about very freely. Pretty soon it caught fire, and then there was an explosion. I do not know how many of the Indians were killed, but all the others were quite overcome with terror. They thought the God of the English had done it because he was angry with them for killing the white stranger; and they besought the planters to forgive them and be their friends. But their peni- tenee did not last long, and they were soon more hos- tile than ever.
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1608 THE FIRST COLONY OF NEW ENGLAND.
12. The explosion had set the storehouse on fire, and all the provisions of the colonists and the furs they had bought were burned up; and for the remainder of the winter they were obliged to live on fish, a little lean game, and even dog meat. The season, too, was a terribly cold one; and their weak, little cabins could not keep out the doleful winds and biting frosts. With all these privations and misfortunes, it is no wonder that the men grew low-spirited, and longed to be in their native England again. Many became sickly; but the only one who died was their good presi- dent, George Popham. "I die content," said he; "for my name will be always associated with the first planting of the English race in the new world. My remains will not be neglected away from the home of my fathers and my kindred." You see that he did not suppose the plantation would be given up; and the belief that he had been useful to his country was a consolation to the last hours of this aged pioneer. Yet the spot of his burial remains unknown to this day.
13. The "Mary and John," and probably, the "Gift of God," had returned to England in the autumn; but in the spring a ship came with supplies. It brought the news of the death of chief justice Popham, and of Sir John, brother of Captain Gilbert. The death of the president had left Gilbert the chief in command; but, being his brother's heir, he determined to go back to England. In these men the colonists believed they had lost their best friends, and were altogether dis- couraged; so some returned to England with Captain Gilbert, while others went in the little vessel they had built to Jamestown in Virginia.
What company sent the first English colonies to America ? Where was the first colony sent ? In what year was the settlement made in Virginia? In what year was the first colony planted in Maine ? Who was the leader of this colony ? On what peninsula
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
1607
did they settle ? Where is Sabino ? What did they name their fort? What name did they give to the vessel they built ? Where was the first voyage of this vessel made ? What explorations did Captain Gilbert make ? What Indians often visited the colonists? What happened to their storehouse during the winter? What one of their number died during the winter? What ill news did they hear in the spring? What effect did these misfortunes have upon the colonists ?
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EARLY EVENTS ON THE COAST.
1613
CHAPTER III.
1. The next colony settled at Mt. Desert Island, which was then called St. Saviour. It was sent out in 1613 by the French Catholics, and consisted of twenty- five colonists, together with the Jesuits, Biard and Masse, who had come to the coast a few years before.
2. The Virginia magistrates soon heard of this set- tlement, and decided to remove the intruders at once ; for Mt. Desert was within the limits of the charter which the English king had granted to the North and South Virginia Company. Eleven fishing vessels with fourteen pieces of cannon and sixty soldiers, under the command of Captain Samuel Argal, were sent against them. The French had two vessels in the harbor and a small fortification on shore; but this attack took them by surprise, and the place was easily captured.
3. Several were wounded in this conflict, but the only one killed was a Jesuit named Gilbert Du Thet, who fell by a musket ball while in the act of aiming a ship's gun against the English. Argal treated his prisoners with kindness, giving them the choice to return to France by such vessels as they could find, or to go with him to Virginia. IIe also visited and captured Port Royal, where the French had again planted a small colony.
4. All who have read the history of the United States will remember about Captain John Smith and Pocahontas. The same Captain Smith came in 1614 to the coast of Maine. He had two ships and forty-five men, and meant on this or a later voyage to form a settle- ment. They touched at Monhegan first, then went to Sagadahoc. In this vicinity he built seven boats. Some of these were used by his men in fishing, while
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
1614
with others he explored the coast and rivers. The men spent the best part of the fishing season in catch- ing whales, and in search of gold and copper mines. They found no mines, and the whales were not such as vield much oil; thus a great deal of time was wasted. They had one skirmish with the savages, in which they killed several, but came off themselves without loss.
5. Late in the summer Smith returned to England with a valuable cargo of fish and furs; but the other vessel staid behind. Her master was Thomas Hunt. Smith indignantly says of him, "He purposely tarried behind to prevent me from making a plantation, and to steal savages." Hunt prowled along the coast as far as Cape Cod, capturing natives at several places. Finally he sailed away with twenty-seven of them; and going to Malaga, he sold them to the Spaniards for slaves.
6. The next year Smith started again for the shores of Maine; but on the way he was captured by the French, and his colonizing schemes broken up. He always made good use of his time, however; and soon after his liberation he published a map and a short history of the northeastern coast. It was in this work that the portion of our country called New England first received its name. Smith had explored the coast from Sagadahoc to Cape Cod, finding twenty-five har- bors and several large rivers, and visiting forty villages of the natives.
7. How the rough islands, jagged capes, and the many bays and snug little havens must have surprised him, as he paddled industriously among them; and how pleasing the numerous rivers, with their woody hills and grassy intervales ! Yet he did not see the lakes and the myriad ponds that held back the water from the sea, or the cataracts that throw it down; where, in after years, the ringing saws should cut up the for- est for house and ship, or larger mills spin and weave the wool and the cotton into cloth for the comfort of man.
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1614
EARLY EVENTS ON THE COAST.
8. The natives of Maine were at this time united in a confederation under a chief sachem, or king, called the Bashaba. They were divided into three nations; the Sokokis, who lived about the Saco river; the Abna- kis, on the Androscoggin, Kennebec, and several smaller rivers castward; and the Etechemins, who occupied the country from the Penobscot river to the St. John's, in Nova Scotia. The Bashaba belonged to the Wawennocks, a powerful tribe of the Abnakis, who dwelt upon the small rivers on the coast between the Kennebec and Penobscot.
9. Shortly after Captain Smith's visit, the Tarra- tines, or Penobscot Indians, who had become very nu- merous, rebelled against the Bashaba. They defeated the warriors sent to subdue them; and, invading the Wawennock territory, killed the monarch, burned his villages, and nearly destroyed the tribe. Then other quarrels happened among them, and many more were killed. After the war came a pestilence; and the Indians died in great numbers -even whole villages being swept away. The disease was so rapid and fatal that in some places none were left to bury the dead ; and their white bones were long after seen bleaching on the ground. The plague was the worst in the win- ter of 1616 and 1617; and a company of Englishmen spent this very season at the mouth of the Saco river.
10. They visited the sick, and spent many nights with them in their cabins; yet not one of the English had even so much as a headache. The leader of this company was Richard Vines, who had been educated a physician ; and probably it was the cleanly and whole- some habits which he enforced among his men, that saved them from the disease. Vines was in the employ of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and spent the winter on this shore by his request, to try if the climate was too severe for English folk to endure. The place was named Winter Harbor; and Vines must have been much pleased with it, for he soon after made the Saco river his permanent residence.
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
1619
11. Gorges now persuaded the Plymouth company to make another attempt at settlement; therefore in 1618 they sent out a vessel under Edward Rocroft. He was to find Captain Thomas Dermer, then at New- foundland, and proceed with him to form a plantation. Hle did not meet Dermer, but kept on to Monhegan. There he captured a French trading vessel and a large quantity of furs; sending the Frenchmen to England in his own vessel, which was smallest. His crew soon after formed a plot to murder him for the sake of the cargo. But he discovered the plot; and, running into Winter Harbor, set the conspirators ashore. Then he sailed away to Virginia, where he was killed in a quar- rel with a planter. Probably Vines and his company had gone from Winter Harbor, or would not allow the conspirators to stay with them; for they made their way to Monhegan, and spent the winter there.
12. Next came Captain Dermer, looking for Rocroft. He found the Indians very hostile, on account of the wickedness of Hunt and others in stealing away their people for slaves. Dermer had brought back two of Hunt's captives, Samoset and Squanto; and these gave him a great deal of assistance in pacifying the angry savages. Near Cape Cod he found and re- deemed a Frenchman, the sole survivor of the crew of a French ship which had been wrecked on the coast a few years before. The crew had escaped to the shore, where the savages prowled about them until they killed all but three or four. They made prisoners of these, sending them about from one tribe to another to be tortured for their sport. When the poor men reproached them for their babarity, and warned them that the wrath of God would come upon them, the savages laughed, and said scornfully that they were "too many for God." In less than two years after, great numbers of them died of the plague.
13. Among other places, Captain Dermer visited Martha's Vineyard; but the natives here, instead of lis-
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1621
EARLY EVENTS ON THE COAST.
tening to terms of peace, made a murderous assault upon a boat's crew which went ashore. They were nearly all killed; and an Indian had Captain Dermer down, and would have cut his head off had not the rescued Frenchman come to his aid. Dermer remained on the coast until midsummer of 1620; and in December the: Pilgrims came and founded their famous town. Though he had made peace with the natives to the northward, those about Cape Cod remained hostile, waylaying and killing the settlers whenever they could.
14. Just at the close of that first gloomy winter at Plymouth, the afflicted pilgrims were one day startled by the sight of a stately savage walking from the woods toward their cabins. But instead of the war-whoop, they heard from his lips, "Welcome, Englishmen ! welcome, Englishmen!" Yet they looked fearfully about, lest some stealthy followers might fall upon them unawares. Bow and arrows were in his hands, but he offered no one any harm. It was Samoset, native lord of Pemaquid. His captivity had saved him from war and pestilence; and he had been re- stored to his native shores to find his country desolate and his kindred perished.
15. The pilgrims entertained the chieftain with food and lodging. In return he told them about the plague which had carried away the people, and gave them much needful information in regard to the country. He went away the next morning, but returned a few days after, bringing other natives to visit them, among whom was the famous Massasoit.
16. When Captain Levett, in 1623, sailed along the roast in search of a place to settle, he met Samoset near Pemagnid, and received from him the same generous welcome. He aided Levett in obtaining furs, and introduced his squaw. Levett says, "The next day I sailed for Quack, or York, with the king,* queen and prince, bow and arrows, dog and kitten, in my vessel; his noble attendants rowing by us in their canoes."
* See close of chapter.
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
1635
17. Soon after this, Samoset sold to one John Brown a tract of land at Pemaquid, comprising the present towns of Bristol and Damariscotta. The deed of the sale was made in 1623, and is the first ever given by a native of America.
1S. The noble sachem lived for many years after at Pemaquid, always remaining the good friend of the English. He was remarkable for his love of truth and justice, and his generous confidence in others.
* The person taken on board his vessel, and spoken of by Levett as a king, was Cogawesco, sagamore of "Quack,", who had his lodge on Stroudwater river, in old Falmouth.
Who drove the Jesuits from Mt. Desert Island? In what year did Capt. Smith visit the coast of Maine ? How did his men waste much time? How many harbors did Smith explore ? How many villages of the natives did he visit ? What name did he give the northern country in his history ? Who stole natives of Maine for slaves ? What three nations of Indians occupied Maine at this time ? What happened among the ludians soon after ? In what years did Richard Vines spend a winter at Saco? Who made peace with the Indians on the coast soon after? What noted chieftain of Maine met the pilgrims with words of welcome? What was the character of Samoset ?
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1620
COLONIES AND COLONISTS.
CHAPTER IV.
1. Early in the year 1620 the Plymouth, or North. ern branch of the North and South Virginia Company gave up its charter. A new company was then formed, consisting of forty noblemen, knights, and gentlemen. It was described as "The Council estab- lished at Plymouth in the County of Devon, for plant- ing, ruling and governing New England in America;" but it was usually called the New England Company. The king granted to it the territory from a little south of the IIndson River to the Bay of Chaleur on the north, and from "sea to sea." Sir Ferdinando Gor- ges, who had been president of the old company, was made chief agent of the new one.
2. This gentleman was born in the year 1573, in the county of Somerset, in England. Before he was thirty years old he had won great honor in the war with Spain; and the king, to reward his services, made him governor of the fortified town of Plymouth, in the south-western part of England. Among his friends were Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Humphrey Gilbert ; and from these he, no doubt, imbibed that enthusiasm for America which made him through a long life the constant friend of the colonies.
3. The French, who had two or more colonies on the St. Lawrence river, were now attempting settlements further southward within the limits of the New Eng- land Company's patent. It was plain that this north- ern boundary was likely to cause trouble. Gorges, to relieve himself of the difficulty, procured for Sir Wil- liam Alexander, Secretary of State for Scotland, a grant of all the territory cast of the St. Croix, and .
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
northward on the line of this river to the St. Law All this region was at that time known as Canne the new proprietor named it Nova Scotia, o" Scotland. It was his intention to settle it with - who, it was thought, would prove an effectua! against the French.
4. Gorges was constantly on the watch for desirous of a home in the new world; and t! came to learn of a number of English families w removed to Leyden in Holland that they might liberty to worship God in the way which they be .. to be right. They at first chose the Hudson place for their plantation ; but, landing on the of Massachusetts, they concluded to make thai residence ; and Gorges obtained for them a gi. the place where they had settled. Thus were duced to the world the famous Pilgrims of Plymouth.
5. In its political action the English gover! always regarded Popham's colony as the settlement of New England ; though it was no' manently maintained. It is, however, quite (, that some points in Maine -as Monhegan, Pem: and Saco, had been occupied for several years pr. to the settlement of Plymouth ; but the inhabitant - fishermen, and probably few of them remained at : these places throughout the year. I think, ther that the pilgrims of the Mayflower must, in a - sense, be considered the first settlers of New Enel for in this colony were found man, woman and chil. the triple parts of the integer of human life.
In 1622 the New England Company grant Gorges and Captain John Mason the whole teri between the Merrimae river and the Kennebec. proprietors named this country Laconia. I: described as the paradise of the North, having a brious climate, fine scenery, bays and rivers swa. ! with fish, and forests full of game.
1623
1770012 COLONIES AND COLONISTS. 35
6. These gorgeous reports brought many good peo- ple to our shores; but there had come, also, many lawless adventurers. Complaints soon reached the proprie- tors that persons without right or license were carrying away timber, burning the forests, destroying the game and catching the fish. The Indians, too, were becom- ing enraged by these acts, and because the traders cheated them and made them drunken; and frequent bloody quarrels happened between them and the Eng- lish. So in 1623 the New England Company sent out Robert Gorges, a son of Sir Ferdinando, as governor. They also sent an admiral to regulate trade and fishery about the coasts, and a minister to oversee religious affairs. These three were to appoint civil officers, and to sit as judges on all cases which should arise in the province. But Parliament opposed the privileges of the company, and the governor was recalled; the min- ister found his office unwelcome; while the fishermen were so stubborn that the admiral could do nothing with them ;- so in a year or two all had returned to England.
7. Meantime many people who were oppressed at home sought refuge in this country; and the settle- ments increased all along the coast. The little band of pilgrims had been joined by others of their breth- ren, and were profitably engaged in fishing and in trade with the Indians; having a trading house on the Penobscot, and another at Sagadahoc near the site of Popham's fort. In order to favor this persevering colony and to aid in spreading christianity among the natives, the New England Company gave them a tract of land on the Kennebec, reaching from near Swan Island northward fifteen miles from each shore to the great bend of the river. In this territory they had exclusive rights of trade and fishery, and the legal power necessary for the protection of their property. Here they erected other trading houses,-one in the present town of Richmond, and another at Cushnoc. now Augusta.
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36
HISTORY OF MAINE.
1627
8. These houses were stocked with blankets, coats, shoes, iron implements, hard bread, and various sorts of ornaments and trinkets suited to the fancy of the savages. They had also wampum, which served the Indians for both ornament and money. This was a kind of bead made by the Indians west of Narragan- sett Bay from the inner part of the shells of the whelk and quahog. It was of two kinds, -- the purple and the white; white being valued at a farthing cach and the purple at two farthings; but later the value changed. In 1627 some Puritans in England received from the New England Company a grant of the land embraced between New Plymouth and the Merrimac river. These became the Massachusetts Bay Colony; and the king gave them a charter of their territory with the right of government within its limits. In 1629 a divi- sion of Laconia was made between Gorges and Mason. The latter took the part south of the Piscataqna, which he named New Hampshire; and thus was fixed the south-western boundary of the State of Maine.
9. The next notable patent was that of Lygonia, issu- ed in 1630, and sometimes called the "Plough Patent," from the name of the vessel which brought over the colonists. The vessel bore this name because the com- pany intended to plough the land and raise crops as their principal business, instead of trading with the natives and fishing, like the other plantations. Their territory extended from the Kennebunk to Royal's river; and they settled near Casco Bay. This colony was laughed at a great deal, because it broke up within a year; its members scattering among other plantations southward.
10. The same year the territory lying between Mus- congus Bay and Medomac River at the east was granted to some persons who had trading houses there. This was called the "Muscongus Patent ;" hut nearly a hundred years later it passed into the possession of the Waldo family, and was afterward known as the "Waldo
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1627
COLONIES AND COLONISTS.
Patent." The "Pemaquid Patent" was the last grant made by the New England Company within the limits of our State. It was issued in 1631, and comprised the territory between the Medomac and Damariscotta rivers. West of this was the Sheepscot plantation, called the "Garden of the East," for its fruitfulness; while the settlement at Cape Newagen was, probably, the most ancient of all. There was no patent issued for the region between the Damariscotta and Kenne- bec before the grant to the Duke of York; and the settlers held their lands by Indian deeds. Among other purchases made of the natives was that of the present town of Woolwich, of the sachem Robin Hood, for a hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins.
11. In 1625 King Charles, the new English sov- ereign, was betrothed to the Princess Henrietta Maria, daughter of the French king; and in the marriage treaty he ceded to France the whole of New Scotland. This territory, you remember, had been given by the New England Company to Sir William Alexander, who undertook to people it with Scotch. He did not suc- ceed in bringing in many settlers, and was now in con- stant fear that his province would soon be seized bv France; therefore he gladly sold the whole for a small sum to M. La Tour, a Huguenot, or French Protest- ant, who wished to plant a colony there. A condition of the sale was that La Tour should hold the country subject to the Scottish crown; but he quickly proved his dishonesty by secretly procuring from the French king a patent of a large tract of the same territory, to be held by him as a subject of France.
12. Thus the whole country eastward of the Peuob- scot became disputed territory; for Parliament denied the king's right to give away territory without its con- sent. But France took possession, naming the country Acadie; and the French thought themselves safe in plundering all the trading houses and vessels of the English which they could find within their limits. A
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HISTORY OF MAINE.
1632
French fishing vessel came to the trading station of the New Plymouth colony on the Penobscot, pretend- ing that they had put into harbor in distress, and beg- ged permission to repair leaks and refresh themselves. They were kindly received, and allowed to go about on shore as they liked. The villainous crew quickly learned that most of the men belonging to the station were absent; and they immediately seized the swords and muskets in the fort, and ordered the keepers to surrender on pain of instant death. Then they forced them at the point of the sword to carry the merchan- dise of the fort on board their vessel. But the spirited Puritans were not easily dismayed, and they soon after stocked their trading house anew, and the very next spring opened another at Machias. A year later La Tour himself attacked this one, killing two of the men, and carrying the remainder away prisoners to Port Royal.
13. Some English vessels, also, still ventured to trade with the Indians along the coast, as before ; and a few of them were caught. One belonged to a man named Dixy Bull. As the French had taken his cargo but left him his vessel, he decided to turn pirate. At this time many low, vagabond fellows were prowling about the coast, sometimes hunting and sometimes fishing for a subsistence ; and from these Bull soon made up a numerous crew of desperadoes. He then proceeded to rob his own countrymen, taking their furs, provi- sions, arms and ammunition, and sinking their vessels. In 1632 he stole into the harbor of Pemaquid and surprised the village. The villagers were at work in the fields and woods, and off on the water fishing ; and before they could rally for defense, the pirates had laden their boats with plunder from warehouse and dwelling. But the people made an attack upon them as they were embarking, and killed one of the leaders. At last the settlements at the westward were aroused ; and a force was fitted out at Piscataqua to capture the
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