History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 3

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780

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" On the 12th of the month, or probably on the 11th, because he says it was on Sunday and Sunday was on the 11th, the little band left ' Chouacoet.' They made some twenty miles to the westward, but contrary winds compelled them to anchor; on the mainland where they went ashore were meadow-lands of great extent, but only two natives were seen, who fled at their approach. They saw great quantities of starlings, whose song, like the blackbirds of their own country, doubtless brought many thoughts of France; and there were wild grapes also, and walnuts, and luxuriant verdure. The coast, he says, was sandy, as in- deed it had been since they left the Kennebec. The head- wind continuing, they retraced their route some six miles, and anchored at the harbor at Cape Porpoise, which Cham- plain calls ' Port aux Isles,' on account of the three islands which furnish shelter there. But his observing eye had noticed the entrance of the Kennebunk River, and he gives also a very correct description of this harbor, with such sailing directions as would make the passage easy to any navigator who might follow him. Ilis computation of the latitude of this point is correct to within five one hundredths of a degree. It was not until the 15th of the month that they were able to proceed upon their journey. By the long sea beaches of Wells and York and Hampton they coasted, but with no inducement to seek a harbor ; and so as the sun was setting they steered to the southward, passed the Mer- rimac and its surrounding marshes, which in the dim twilight seemed like a great bay, eaught a glimpse in the east of the Isles of Shoals, and at last anchored, under the shelter of Cape Ann, to await the day.

" We have no immediate interest in their explorations to the southward ; it is interesting to know that they crossed Massachusetts Bay, entered on the 18th of the month the harbor in which, fifteen years later, the Pilgrim Fathers found their home, rounded the sandy promontory of Cape Cod, and terminated their southward journey at what is now Nanset. Evidently no knowledge of Gosnold's expedition had reached our adventurers, for Champlain gives his own names to the places he visited, and to Cape Cod gives the

more appropriate designation of Cap Blanc, the White Cape.

" On the 25th of July, De Monts, finding his stores rapidly diminishing, decided to return to St. Croix. Ou his return he stopped again at Chouacoet and here had an interview with 'Marchim,' the Sagamo of Caseo Bay, ' who,' says Champlain, ' had the reputation of being one of the bravest men of his country, and he had a fine man- ner, and all his gestures and movements were grave and dignified, savage though he was.' They gave him pres- ents, and he in return gave them a young Etechemin from the eastward, an Indian boy whom he had made prisoner in some foray. From the Saco they proceeded to the Ken- nebee, arriving there on the 29th of July. Here they had an interview with a chieftain named Inassou.

" Again we quote from Champlain :

"' lle told us there was a vessel six leagues from the harbor which had been engage l in fishing, and the people on board hat killed five savages of this river, under the pretense of friendship, and according to his description we judge them to be English, and named the island where they were " Le Vef," because at a distance it had that appear- ance.'

" (That is, it looked like the hull of a ship.) This was Monhegan, and in these few lines are the only allusions by Champlain to contemporary English discoveries on the coast. The vessel was the ' Archangel,' under George Weymouth.

" From the Kennebee our adventurers steered for ' Isle Hante,' arriving on the last of July, where they anchored awaiting the dawn. August Ist they proceeded to Cup Corneille, where they passed the night; on the 2d they arrived at the old plantation at St. Croix, where they found a vessel with supplies from France.

" With reference to this second voyage of Champlain, a few points are to be noticed. The previous discoveries were passed by without further investigations ; the party did not even enter Penobscot Bay, but the exploration of the Sheep- scot and Kennebec was thorough.

" The Indians were in the interior, and while they ap- peared to have had some knowledge of Europeans, it was not of such a character as to warrant an opinion that, within their memory, there had been any white settlements on the coast. Chonacoet was the most important point discovered, and here appears to have been the only settlement of the aborigines which had a permanent character.

" Dissatisfied, both with his settlements at St. Croix, and his discoveries to the south and west along the coast, De Monts now determined to transplant his eolony to Port Royal. He himself returned to France. But Champlain could not leave his work unfinished ; he decided to remain, and his simple, modest narrative gives us a vivid picture of the preparations made for the ensuing winter. His hope, as he says, was to make new discoveries in the direction of Florida.

" On the Ist of March, 1606, the Sieur du Pont-Grave fitted out a vessel of about eighteen tons. Ou the 16th, all being ready, they set sail, but were obliged to seek a harbor on an island to the south of Grand Menan. On the following day they made some fifty miles to the west- ward, probably near Mount Desert, but a severe storm so buffeted them that, in the little harbor where they had au-

IHISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

chored, they were driven ashore. After repairing the frail bark they returned to Port Royal. On the 29th of April they made another attempt, ouly to meet with fresh disas- ters, for, at the entrance to Port Royal, they were again cast ashore, losing their vessel, and running imminent risk of their lives.

" Disheartened at these disasters, and the non-appearance of the vessels which were expected with supplies, Du Pont decided to return to France, and, on the 16th of July, they abandoned Port Royal, leaving two men who had bravely volunteered to remain and guard the property which was left behind. After having rounded Cape Sable, however, they were gladdened by the sight of a shallop, in which was Sieur Rallean, secretary of De Monts. He announeed the arrival of the ' Jonas,' a vessel bringing new aceessions, under the command of Poutriucourt, to the colony, among others the versatile advocate Lescarbot, the future historian of New France. So they gladly retraced their steps, and, on the 31st of July, arrived onee more at Port Royal. The new-comers set to work with commendable vigor, and the story of their daily avocations, as narrated by Lescarbot, is exceedingly entertaining ; but with this our limits will not permit us to dwell. Du Pont decided to return to France and take with himu all the company who passed with him the previous winter, with a few exceptions. Among these Champlain, who says, 'I remained also, with the Sieur de Poutrineourt, intending, by the grace of God, to finish and perfect the chart which I had commenced of the country and the coast.'

" After one ineffectual attempt, the party left Port Royal on the 5th of September, 1606. On the 7th they anchored in the St. Croix ; on the 8th they visited, in a small boat, the island where De Monts had spent the dreary winter of 1604-5. They found some traces of the gardens, still bear- ing some of the pot-herbs planted so long before, and some grain self-sown, and in excellent condition. Returning to their vessel, they coasted to the westward, to proceed directly to the extreme limit of the discoveries of the preceding year ; so to lose no time, on the 12th they turned towards Choua- evet, and reached the river on the 21st. Lescarbot gives svine details of this nine days' voyage.

" They were four days in reaching Penobscot Bay, hav- ing stopped en route to repair their little craft. Passing through the Fox Islands, they reached the mouth of the Kennebee, where they were again in peril on account of the ' great currents which are peculiar to the place.' It would appear also from Lescarbot that the party landed at Cape Elizabeth before reaching Saco, but upon this point there is some doubt. Champlain adds that the Indians at Choua- coet had finished their harvest, and that he did not fail to taste the grapes on the island of Bacchus, which were ripe and quite good. From this point they made Cape Ann, and so to the southward ; but the voyage was withont fruit. In a conflict with the natives they lost several of their com- pany. On the 28th of October they set sail from Mala- barre for the Isle Haute. On the 31st, between Mount Desert and the mouth of the Machias, they lost their rud- der and were in imminent peril. With much ingenuity they succeeded in reaching a harbor, but not until the 1 4th of November, after many dangers and disasters, did they

reach Port Royal Of their enthusiastic reception, the feasting and masquerading which followed, the long winter enlivened by Lescarbot's wit, and the bonhomme of their versatile and vivacious nation, our limits will not permit us to give any description. For the purpose of this hasty in- vestigation we have nothing to do with the future of the colony. So far as we know, the three voyages of Cham- plain are the first thoroughly intelligible contribution to the cartography of Maine."

A few remarks respecting the carliest French settlements on this coast will close the present chapter. On the 8th of November, 1603, De Monts received of Henry IV. of France, the charter under which the settlement at Port Royal, already referred to, was made. The charter of Aca- dia embraced all the country from the fortieth to the forty- sixth degrees of north latitude, although the territory was never practically claimed farther west than the Kennebec. De Monts having obtained a commission as Lieutenant- General of France, in 1604, fitted out the expedition of which we have already given an account in connection with the operations of Champlain. He sailed to the mouth of the St. Croix, where the company speut one winter, and theu proceeded to establish a colony on the other side of the Bay of Fundy, at a place called by them Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. From this place the Jesuit mission was established on one of the coast islands of Maine, called Mount Desert.

De Monts having retired from the colony at Port Royal, Poutrineourt, one of his companions, assumed command, and in 1608 sent Biencourt, his son, to France for supplies of men and provisions for the colony. Two Jesuit priests, Biard and Mossé, returned with the expedition to take charge of the spiritual interests of the plantation, and to extend their missionary labors among the Indians. Soon their ambition to rule also the civil affairs of the colony manifested itself, and a quarrel arose between them and the government. Biencourt, in the absence of his father in France, caused the priests to remove to Mount Desert, where they established a mission and erected a fort called St. Sauveur .* IIere they planted gardens, laid out grounds, and entered with zeal upon the work of their mission ; but they were not permitted long to enjoy this state of seclusion. The occupation of Port Royal, St. Croix, and Mount Desert, with a small post at the mouth of the Penobseot, the garrisoning of these posts, and the disposition of the French to extend their settlements still farther to the west, aroused the alarm of the government established by the first English settlers in Virginia, and, in 1613, they sent Capt. Argall to dislodge the French. In the summer of that year he seized the forts at Mount Desert, St. Croix, and Port Royal, and carried their ship and pinnace, together with their ordnance, cattle, and pro- visions, to Jamestown. The French power in this quarter was thus interrupted, and it was a number of years before it recovered from this disaster. The conflicting claims growing out of the respective French and English charters were never finally settled till the downfall of Canada, nearly a hundred and fifty years later.

* Sullivan, p. 156. Itute'sinson, xxiii., p. 3.

EXPLORATIONS AND TEMPORARY SETTLEMENTS.

The English occupied the country exclusively as far east as the Kennebee, and the French, except when dispossessed by treaty or actual force, had exclusive occupation as far west as the Penobseot. The country between these two rivers was debatable land, both parties continually claiming it, and each ocenpying it by intervals. In the commission to the French Governor before the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Acadia is described as extending to the Kennebec, and the whole was then ceded to the English. But in the construction of that treaty, the French restricted the ter- ritory to Nova Scotia.

CHAPTER II.

EXPLORATIONS AND TEMPORARY SETTLE-

MENTS BY THE ENGLISH.

Penobscot and Casco Bays Discovered by Martin Pring-Voyage of Captain Weymouth-Situation of Pentecost Harbor-Charter of King James I .- First New England Colony-Fort St. George-Cap- tain Smith-Sir Ferdinando Gorges-Varions Trading and Fishing Voyages to Maine.

Up to the beginning of the seventeenth century no at- tempt had been made by the English to plant a colony in North America. Exploring vessels had been sent out by the government, under the command of John and Sebastian Cabot, as early as 1498 and 1499, and had sailed along the northern coast of the United States, but nothing further was done in this direction for more than a century. In 1602, Gosnold sailed along the coast of Maine, and in 1603, Martin Pring discovered Penobscot and Casco Bays, and sailed six miles up the Saco River. The voyage of George Weymouth, in 1605, was the first attempt which had been made to sail due west from England to the coast of North America. ITis course brought him to Monhegan Island, eighteen miles from the main land at Boothbay. Ile an- chored three miles north of the island, which he named St. George, in honor of his patron saint, in a harbor which he called Pentecost Ilarbor. The vessel in which he arrived was named the " Archangel." He remained upon the coast for several weeks, proceeding in his pinnace sixty miles up a most excellent river, and carrying home with him five In- dians, whom he treacherously decoyed into his vessel, three of whom he gave to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, by whom one of them was sent back in 1607 with Capt. George Popham.

James Rosier, an English gentleman, who accompanied Capt. Weymouth as chronicler, wrote a glowing account of the newly-discovered country in 1605, but omitted all names and observations of latitude and longitude, in order to prevent navigators of other nations from seeking the same spot. The consequence has been that the river has been guessed to be the Hudson, the James, the Saco, and more recently the Penobscot, the Kennebec, and the arm of the sea north of Monhegan, running up to South Thomas- ton, and known as the St. George. Capt. George Wey- mouth also discovered the fishing-banks, which are still known as the George's banks ; and although his name has failed to displace the olden Indian name of Monhegan, there is a strong presumption that the nameless river which

he found may still wear, like the banks, the name of his patron saint. Dr. Belknap, the historian of New Hamp- shire, however, conjectured that Weymouth had ascended the Penobscot River, and this opinion was generally fol- lowed, until the late John McKeen, of Brunswick, sug- gested that Rosier's deseription better fitted the Kennebec, and a few years later the Rev. David Cushman, of Warren, contended that the St. George River was intended. All these conjectures were set at rest by the publication, in 1849, by the Hlakluyt Society (and afterwards by the His- torical Societies of Maine and Massachusetts) of William Strachey's account of the Popham settlement, written not later than 1618, and preserved in manuscript in the British Museum. Strachey was the secretary of the Virginia Com- pany, and was in Virginia from 1610 until 1612. 1le says, in so many words, that Capt. Weymouth made a search " sixty miles up the most excellent and beneficyall river of the Sachadehoc," and that Weymouth's report was the occa- sion of the expedition under Capt. Popham in 1607, when an attempt was made to found a colony on the Sagadahoc. But the Sagadahoe is only another name for the waters of the Kennebce below Merrymeeting Bay, including the waters which flow out through the passage opposite to Bath into the Sheepscot, and the Sheepseot itself, which may be regarded as one of the mouths of the Kennebee.

The expedition of Capt. Weymouth, together with the active movements of the French at this period, served to awaken an interest in England, and in April, 1606, a charter was obtained from King James for the whole ex- tent of country lying between the thirty-fourth and forty- fourth degrees of north latitude. This large tract was divided between two companies; the first, reaching to the forty- first degree of north latitude, was bestowed npon a London company, the founders of the settlement at Jamestown, Va. ; and the northern part was granted to a company of adventurers in the town of Plymouth. Under this charter the adventurers sent out colonies in 1607. With the colony destined for Virginia we have nothing to do iu this connection. The one from Plymouth, destined for the northern shores, consisted of two ships and one hundred men, under command of Capt. George Popham, as presi- dent, and Capt. Raleigh Gilbert, as admiral. They sailed from Plymouth on the 31st of May, and arrived at Mon- hegan, on the coast of Maine, August 11th, and thence continued on to the Kennebee, where they planted them- selves on the west bank of the river, npon the peninsula now known as ITunnewell's Point, called by the Indians Sabino. This was the first English colony, not merely in Maine, but upon the whole New England coast. llere they erected Fort St. George, on the site of which the United States government has built a fort called Fort Popham, in honor of the first governor or president of the colony .*

Although the ample preparations and other circum- stances attending the expedition show that the adven- turers intended to make a permanent settlement, yet a sue- cession of peculiarly unfavorable circumstances terminated

In August, 1862, the Maine Historical Society, and a very large concourse of people, assembled here to eclebrate the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the planting of the colony.

HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE.

the hopes and existence of the colony in one year from its commencement. They retired from the contest with savage and inhospitable nature with strong prejudices against the country, feeling, as Smith has said, that it was a " cold, barren, rocky, mountainous desert." Prince says that " they branded the country as over cold, and not habitable by our natives." " The colony," says Willis, " arrived late in the season, and had but little time to make those prep- arations which were necessary to protect them from the severities of our climate in an inhospitable wilderness."

From this time, for several years, little was done on the coast of Maine except fishing and trading with the natives. The two principal actors in this enterprise were Sir Francis Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the latter, as a future ruler and promoter of colonization, destined to play a very important part in the affairs of the colony. In 1614 an expedition was fitted out by these gentlemen, under com- mand of Capt. John Smith, " to take whales, and also to make trial of mines of gold and copper." If these failed, " fish and furs were then to be their refuge."* Smith adds, " We found this whale-fishing to be a costly conclu- sion ; we saw many and spent much time in chasing them, but could not kill any, they being a kind of jubartes, and not the whale that yields fins and oil, as we expected." They were also disappointed in the mines, and he thinks the representation was " rather the device of the master to get a voyage than any knowledge he had of any such matter." During this voyage Captain Smith left his vessel, and with eight men in a boat traversed the whole coast from P'enob- scot to Cape Cod. Ile describes Casco Bay as follows : " Westward of Kennebeke is the county of Aucocisco, in the bottom of a large, deep bay, full of many great isles, which divide it into many great harbors."t

In 1615, Capt. Smith was again employed by Gorges and others to visit New England, with a view of beginning a settlement there. For this purpose he was furnished with two ships, and a company of sixteen men to leave in the country. lle was driven back to port in a violent storm, which carried away his masts. On the second attempt he was captured by the French. It does not appear that this celebrated adventurer ever came to America after 161-1. He published his description of New England in London, in 1616, and died in that city in 1631.4

Every year after this vessels were sent to the coast to trade with the natives and to fish, many of which made profitable voyages. In 1615, Sir Richard Hawkins sailed from England with a commission from the Council of Plymouth§ to do what service he could for them in New England, but on his arrival here he found a destructive war prevailing among the natives, and he passed along the coast lo Virginia.'|

In 1616 four soips from Plymouth and two from London made successful voyages and obtained full cargoes of fish,

Smith's New England, p. 175.

| The same name is given to this bay by Jocelyn, and the natives about it me called the Imorecord by Gorges in his America Painted 1. 1 ir Life. p. F.1.

į Willis' History of Portland.

{ This connell consisted of theeteen members, appointed by the king.

for the management of the company. Pin e, 1. 4/: ; quo'r ] by Willis.

which they carried to England and Spain. Sir F. Gorges also, the same year, sent out a ship under the charge of Richard Vines, who afterwards became prominent in the carly history of Maine. He passed the winter at the month of' Saco River, from which circumstance the place received the name of Winter Harbor, which it still bears.

In 1618, Capt. Edward Rocroft was sent by Gorges in a ship of two hundred tous to fish upon the coast. Ile cap- tured a French brig lying in one of the harbors, sent her crew in his own ship to England, and retained the brig with a view to winter here, but some of his men couspiring to kill him and run away with the prize, he put them on shore at Sawguatock (Saco), and in December sailed for Virginia. The men who were thus left succeeded in getting to Mon- hegan Island, where they spent the winter, and were re- lieved in the spring by Capt. Desmer, in another of Gorges' ships. It is probable that at this time buildings or tem- porary shelters had been ereeted upon the island, as it had become a convenient resort for fishermen.

CHAPTER III.

ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

Tribal Divisions-Abenaques-Etechemins-Sokokis-Canibas-An- asagunticooks-Migration of the Tribes Eastward-Tarratines- Vineent de St. Castine-Tabular Statement of Indians in Maine- Noted Chiefs an.I Saehems.

THE Indians who inhabited this portion of Maine at the time of the advent of the first Europeans were undoubtedly all of one race or tribe,-the _Ibenaques, or " Men of the East." Farther to the eastward there dwelt the Eteche- mins, or " Eastland People," who were a tribe, or rather a number of tribes, belonging originally to the same general family. Williamson says, " They were all, without doubt, descendants of the same original stock, and for an unknown period after the discovery of America the tribes were prob- ably members of the same political family, differing little in language, looks, habits, or ideas of confederative union." It would appear from the testimony of Capt. Francis, of the Penobscot tribe, who is admitted to have been excellent authority on the subject, that the migration of the tribes was east ward from the Saco River, where the oldest of them had their ancient seat. He assured Mr. Williamson that all the tribes between the Saco and the St. John, both inclusive, were brothers; that the oldest lived on the Saco ; that each tribe was younger as we pass castward, like the sons of the same father; though the one at Passamaquoddy was the youngest of all, proceeding from those upon the rivers St. John and Penobscot. " Always," he says, " I could under- stand these brothers very well when they speak ; but when the Mickmacks or the Algonquins, or Canada Indians speak, I cannot tell all what they say.

The benaques were divided into four tribes, viz. : the Sokokis, or Sacoes, sometimes called Sockhigones, who lived on the Saco River; the Innsegunticsoks, who held dominion upon the Androscoggin ; the Canibus, or Keuabes, who had

‘ Drake's Book of the Indians, iii .. page 173.

ABORIGINAL INIIABITANTS.

their villages upon the Kennebec; and the Wawenocks, who inhabited the country eastward of Kennebec to and including the river St. George.

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History of Cumberland Co., Maine, Part 3

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 780

Author: Clayton, W. W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 780