USA > Maine > Waldo County > Belfast > History of the city of Belfast in the state of Maine v.I, 1770-1875 > Part 3
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1 Doubts have been lately thrown upon the subject of Verazzano and his voyages. See Proceedings of the American Geographical Society, 1874.
2 Bancroft's Hist. United States, I. 38; Palfrey's Hist. New England, I. 65.
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EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY.
long, deep, triangular inlet, filled with islands, extending directly north and south, and terminating at the north in a river. The lati- tude given to the mouth of this inlet corresponds to that of Owl's Head, being forty-four degrees north, while its longitude is about that of the Bermudas, which are located, however, only ten degrees further south. Dr. Kohl, in his valuable history of the discovery of our coast, suggests that the description " agrees nearly in every point with the broad, triangular Penobscot Bay, the largest inlet and river in New England," 1 and that the name of the neighbor- ing country was derived from Gomez, who " probably entered this inlet, and explored it more accurately than any other place." If his theory be correet, then a smaller recess in the north-western corner of the inlet, exactly one degree from its entrance, represents Belfast Bay. Other cosmographers of the sixteenth century give to this inlet similar prominence. An engraved map of the world, said to have been made by Sebastian Cabot, in 1544, entitles it " baya fernosa," probably an error for " baya fermosa," or " the beautiful bay." On another chart, printed fifteen years later, ap- pears a great river (rio grande), with the fabulous city of Norum- bega located on its eastern bank. The same river has a conspicuous position on the maps of John Dee (1580) and of Hakluyt (1589), with an indentation similar to that depicted by Ribero.
In 1556, André Thevet, a celebrated French traveller, sailed along the coast line of Florida, then comprising the whole east coast of North America, and in the course of the voyage visited also the shores of Norumbega. In his " Cosmography," he gives the following interesting description of his visit to this region :-
" Having left La Florida on the left hand, with all its islands, gulfs, and capes, a river presents itself, which is one of the finest rivers in the whole world, which we call . Norumbegue,' and the aborigines ' Agoncy,' and which is marked on some marine charts as the Grand River [meaning Penobscot Bay]. Several other beautiful rivers enter into it; and upon its banks the French formerly erected a little fort about ten or twelve leagues from its month, which was surrounded by fresh water, and this place was named the Fort of Norumbegue.
" Some pilots would make me believe that this country [Norum- begne] is the proper country of Canada. But I told them that this was far from the truth, since this country lies in 43 degrees
1 Collections Me. Hist. Soc., Second Series, I. 304.
.
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
north, and that of Canada in 50 or 52 degrees. Before you enter the said river appears an island [Fox Island] surrounded by eight very small islets, which are near the country of the green moun- tains [Camden Hills ?] and to the cape of the islets. From there you sail all along unto the mouth of the river, which is dangerous from the great number of thick and high rocks ; and its entrance is wonderfully large. About three leagues into the river, an island presents itself to you, that may have been four leagues in circum- ference [Long Island, now Islesboro'], inhabited only by some fishermen and birds of different sorts, which island they call ' Aiayascon,' because it has the form of a man's arm, which they call so. Its greatest length is from north to south. It would be very easy to plant on this island, and build a fortress on it to keep in check the whole surrounding country." 1
"Though Thevet is not esteemed as a very reliable author," says Dr. Kohl, " still I think this description is the best we have had, except that given by Gomez in his chart of 1525, and copied on the map of Ribero in 1529. If Thevet is right in his statement that his countrymen had, before his visit to Penobscot Bay in 1556, erected there a fort, this must have been the first settlement of Europeans ever made on the coast of Maine. It may have been a little French station for fishing, and for the fur trade."
At the commencement of the next century, voyages to this con- tinent were numerous. Early in 1605, an expedition, promoted by two English noblemen, and commanded by Captain George Waymouth, who, in search of the north-west passage twelve years before, had explored the coast of Labrador, was despatched from the Downs, ostensibly, perhaps, for a similar purpose, but really to discover " a place fit for any nation to inhabit." In a small ship, with a crew of twenty-eight men, Waymouth came in sight of Nantucket, on the 13th of May, after a passage of six weeks.2 Turning to the north, adverse winds compelled him to put again to sea ; but on the 18th of the same month he anchored about a league north of an island "some six miles in compass," having "a most excellent land fall." This he called St. George's Island, but it is now known by its Indian name of Monhegan, signifying " Grand Island." James Rosier, a French gentleman, accompanied Waymouth, and wrote a minute account of the voyage, which
1 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc., Second Series, I. 416, copying from "La Cosmographie Univer- selle," tom. 2, fol. 1008, 1009, Paris, 1575.
2 Bancroft, I. 114; Palfrey's Hist. N. E., I. 76.
1 1 3
1 1
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EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY.
was published in the same year.1 His narrative proceeds as fol- lows : -
" From hence [the island] we might discern the main land from the west-south-west to the east-south-east, and a great way (as it then seemed, and we after found it) up into the main we might discern very high mountains, though the main seemed but low land. . .. The next day, being Whitsunday ; because we rode too much open to the sea and winds, we weighed anchor about 12 o'clock, and came along to the other islands more adjoining to the main, and in the road directly with the mountains, about three leagues from the first island where we had anchored." Here they found " a convenient harbor, in a most safe berth de- fended from all winds, in an excellent depth of water for ships of any burthen, in six, seven, eight, nine, and ten fathoms, upon a clay ooze, very tough."
" We all with great joy praised God for his unspeakable good- ness, who had from so apparent danger delivered ns and directed us upon this day into so secure a harbor; in remembrance whereof we named it Pentecost Harbor; we arrived there that day out of our last harbor in England, from whence we set sail upon Easter day."
Landing upon these islands, "the bigger of which," continues the narrative, " we judged to be four or five miles in compass and a mile broad, we set together a pinnace, which we brought in pieces out of England." After enjoying for a few days " the pleasant fruitfulness of these islands, among the fragrant fir trees, out of which issneth turpentine in so marvellous plenty, and so sweet, as our chirurgeon and others affirmed they never saw so good in England ; with much gum, congealed on the outside of the bark, which smelled like frankincense," the captain, with thirteen men, at about ten o'clock on the 30th of May, departed in the shallop, or pinnace, " with all our prayers for their prosperous discovery, leaving the ship in a good harbor, well moored." The same day " we in the ship espied three canoes coming towards us, which went to the island adjoining, where they went ashore, and very quickly had made a fire, about which they stood beholding our
1 " A True Relation of the most Prosperous Voyage made this present year, 1605, by Captain George Waymouth, in the Discovery of the Land of Virginia, where he dis- covered, sixty miles up, a most excellent River; together with a most fertile Land. Written by James Rosier, a gentleman employed in the voyage. Londoni: impensis Geor. Bishop. 1605."
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
ship ; to whom we made signs with our hands and hats, weffing unto them to come unto us, because we had not seen any of the people yet. They sent one canoe with three men, one of which, when they came near unto us, spake in his language very loud and very boldly ; seeming as though he would know why we were there, and by pointing with his oar towards the sea, we conjectured he meant we should be gone. But when we showed them knives and their nse, by cutting of sticks, and other trifles, as combs and glasses, they came close aboard our ship, as desirons to entertain our friendship. To those we gave such things as we perceived they liked, when we showed them the use : bracelets, rings, pea- cock-feathers, which they stuck in their hair, and tobacco pipes. . . .
" Their clothing is beaver-skins or deer-skins, cast over them like a mantle, and hanging down to their knees, made fast together upon the shoulder with leather; some of them had sleeves, most had none; some had buskins of such leather sewed ; they have, besides, a piece of heaver-skin between their legs, made fast about their waist.
" They suffer no hair to grow on their faces, but on their head very long and very black, which those that have wives bind up behind with a leather string, in a long round knot.
"They seemed all very civil and merry, showing tokens of much thankfulness for those things we gave them. We found them then (as after) a people of exceeding good invention, quick under- standing, and ready capacity.
"Their canoes are made without any iron, of the bark of a birch tree strengthened within with ribs and hoops of wood, in so good fashion, with such excellent ingenious art, as they are able to bear seven or eight persons, far exceeding any in the Indies. . . . .
" They marvelled much and much looked upon the making of our can and kettle, so they did at a head-piece and at our guns, of which they are most fearful, and would fall flat down at the report of them. . . . Our captain bestowed a shirt upon him whom we thought to be their chief, who seemed never to have seen any be- fore; we gave him a brooch to hang about his neck, a great knife, and lesser knives to the two other, and to every one of them a comb and glass, the use whereof we showed them; whereat they laughed, and took gladly; we victualled them, and gave them aqua vitæ, which they tasted, but would by no means drink ; our bev- erage they liked well ; we gave them sugar candy, which, after they had tasted, they liked and desired more, and raisins, which
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EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY. 1
were given them ; and some of every thing they would reserve to carry to their company."
In the forenoon of the following day, within twenty-four hours after her departure, the shallop returned, to the surprise of the ship's company. "Our eaptain," says Rosier, "had, in this small time, discovered up a great river, trending alongst into the main about forty miles. The pleasantness wliereof, with the safety of the harbor for shipping, together with the fertility of ground and other fruits, which were generally by his whole company related, I omit till I report of the whole discovery thereinafter performed. For, by the breadth, depth, and strong flood, imagining it to run far up into the land, he with speed returned, intending to flank his light horseman 1 for arrows, least it might happen that the further part of the river should be narrow, and by that means subject to the volley of savages on either side out of the woods. . .
"Tuesday, the eleventh [21st N. S.] of June, we passed up into the river (i.e., from Pentecost Harbor) with our ship, about six and twenty miles, of which I had rather not write, than by my re- lation to detract from the worthiness thereof. . . . By judgment of our captain, and by opinion of others of good judgment in our ship, here are more good harbors for ships of all burthens than England can afford, and far more secure from all winds and weathers than any in England, Scotland, France, or Spain. For (besides without the river in the channel, and sounds about the islands ad- joining to the mouth thereof, no better riding can be desired for an infinite number of ships) the river itself, as it runneth up into the main very nigh forty miles toward the great mountains, beareth in breadth a mile, sometime three-quarters, and half a mile is the narrowest, where you shall never have under four and five fathoms water, hard by the shore, but six, seven, eight, nine, and ten fathoms all along ; and on both sides, every half mile, very gallant coves, some able to contain almost a hundred sail, where the ground is excellent soft ooze, with a tough clay under for anchor hold, and where ships may lie without either cable or anchor, only moored to the shore with a hawser.
" It floweth, by their judgment, eighteen or twenty feet at high- water.
" Here are made by nature most excellent places, - as docks to grave or careen ships of all burthens, secured from all winds; which
1 A large boat resembling a whale-boat.
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
is such a necessary, incomparable benefit, that, in few places in England, or in any part of Christendom, art, with great changes, can make the like.
" Besides the bordering land is a most rich neighbor, trending all along on both sides, in an equal plain, neither mountainous nor rocky, but verged with a green border of grass, doth make tender unto the beholder of her pleasant fertility, if by cleansing away the woods she were converted into meadow.
"The wood she beareth is not shrubbish, fit only for fuel, but goodly tall fir, spruce, birch, beech, oak, which, in many places, is not so thick, but may, with small labor, be made feeding ground, being plentiful, like the outward islands, with fresh water, which streameth down in many places.
" As we passed, with a gentle wind, up with our ship in this river, any man may conceive with what admiration we all con- sented in joy. Many of our company, who had been travellers in sundry countries, and in the most famous rivers, yet affirmed them not comparable to this they now beheld. Some, that were with Sir Walter Raleigh in his voyage to Guiana, in the discovery of the river Orenoque, which echoed fame to the world's ears, gave reasons why it was not to be compared with this, which wanteth the dangers of many shoals, and broken ground, wherewith that was incumbered. Others, before that notable river in the West Indies called the Rio Grande ; some before the river of Loire, the river Seine, and of Bordeaux, in France, which, although they be great and goodly rivers, yet it is no detraction from them to be ac- counted inferior to this, which not only yieldeth all the foresaid pleasant profits, but also appeared infallibly to us free from all in- conveniences.
"I will not prefer it before our river of Thames, because it is England's richest treasure; but we all did wish those excellent har- bors, - good deeps, in a continual, convenient breadth, -and small tide-gates, to be as well therein for our country's good, as we found them here (beyond our hopes) in certain, for those to whom it shall please God to grant this land for habitation; which, if it had, with the other inseparable, adherent commodities here to be found, then I would boldly affirm it to be the most rich, beautiful, large, and secure harboring river that the world affordeth,
" Wednesday, the twelfth of June [22d N. S.], our captain manned his light horseman with seventeen men, and ran up from the
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EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY.
ship riding in the river up to the codde 1 thereof, where we landed, leaving six to keep the light horseman till our return. Ten of us with shot, and some armed, with a boy to carry powder and match, marched up into the country towards the mountains, which we descried at our first falling with the land. Unto some of them the river brought us so near, as we judged ourselves when we landed to have been within a league of them ; but we marched up about four miles in the main, and passed over three hills, and, because the weather was parching hot, and our men, in their armor, not able to travel far and return that night to our ship, we resolved not to pass any further, being all very weary of so tedious and laborsome a travel.
"In this mareh, we passed over very good ground, pleasant and fertile, fit for pasture, for the space of some three miles, hav- ing but little wood, and that oak, like stands left in our pastures in England, good and great, fit timber for any use; some small bireh, hazle, and brake, which might, in small time, with few men, be cleansed, and made good arable land, but, as it now is, will feed eattle of all kinds with fodder enough for summer and winter. The soil is black, bearing sundry herbs, grass, and strawberries bigger than ours in England. In many places are low thicks, like our eopses of small, young wood. And surely it did all resemble a stately park, wherein appear some old trees with high, withered tops, and other flourishing with green, living boughs. Upon the hills grow notable high timber trees, - masts for ships of four hun- dred ton, and, at the bottom of every hill, a little run of fresh water; but the farthest and last we passed ran with a great stream able to drive a mill. . . .
"We were no sooner come aboard our light horseman, return- ing towards our ship, but we espied a canoe coming from the further part of the cod of the river, eastward, which hasted to us. . ..
" Thursday, the thirteenth of June [23d N. S.], by two o'clock in the morning (because our captain would take the help and ad- vantage of the tide), in the light horseman, with our company well furnished with armor and shot, both to defend and offend, we went from our ship up to that part of the river which trended westward into the main, to search that; and we carried with us a cross to erect at that point, which (because it was not daylight)
1 Codde is an old Saxon word which signifies a case or pod in which seed is enclosed, and means here, probably, a narrow bay or indenture into the land.
1
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
we left on the shore until our return back, when we set it up in manner as the former. For this (by the way) we diligently ob- served, that in no place, either about the islands, or up in the main, or alongst the river, we could discern any token or sign that ever any Christian had been before, of which - either by cutting wood, digging for water, or setting up crosses (a thing never omitted by any Christian travellers) - we should have perceived some men- tion left.
"But to return to our river, further up into which we then rowed, by estimation, twenty miles, the beauty and goodness whereof I cannot by relation sufficiently demonstrate. That which I can say in general is this : what profit or pleasure soever is described and truly verified in the former part of the river is wholly doubled in this; for the breadth and depth is such that any ship drawing seventeen or eighteen feet water might have passed as far as we went with our light horseman, and, by all our men's judgment, much further, because we left it in so good depth and breadth ; which is so much the more to be esteemed of greater worth by how much it trendeth further up into the main ; for from the place of our ship's riding in the harbor at the entrance into the sound, to the furthest part we were in this river, by our estimation, was not much less than threescore miles.
" From each bank of this river are divers branching streams into the main, whereby is afforded an unspeakable profit by the conveniency of transportation from place to place, which in some countries is both chargeable, and not to be fit, by carriages, or wain, or horseback.
"Here we saw great store of fish; some great leaping above water, which we judged to be salmons. All along is an excellent mould of ground. The wood, in most places, especially on the east side, very thin, chiefly oak, and some small, young birch, bordering low upon the river; all fit for meadow and pasture ground ; and in that space we went, we had on both sides the river many plain plots of meadow, some of three or four acres, some of eight or nine -so as we judged in the whole to be between thirty and forty acres of good grass, and where the arms run out into the main, there, likewise, went a space on both sides of clear grass, how far we knew not: in many places we might see paths made to come down to the watering.
" The excellency of this part of the river, for his good breadth; depth, and fertile bordering ground, did so ravish us all with
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EARLY VOYAGES TO PENOBSCOT BAY.
variety of pleasantness, as we could not tell what to commend, but only admired : some compared it to the river Severn (but in a higher degree) ; and we all concluded (as I verily think we might right) that we should never see the like river in every de- gree equal, until it pleased God we beheld the same again. For the farther we went, the more pleasing it was to every man, . . . but the tide not suffering us to make any longer stay (because we were to come back with the tide), and our captain better knowing what was fit than we, thought it best to make return; because whither we had discovered was sufficient to conceive that the river ran very far into the land, for we passed six or seven miles, altogether fresh water (whereof we all drank), forced up by the flowing of the salt; which, after a great while, ebb where we left it, by breadth of channel and depth of water, was likely to run, by estimation of our whole company, an unknown way farther, the search whereof our captain hath left till his return, if it shall so please God to dispose of him and us. .
" Friday, the 14th day of June [24th N. S.], early, by four o'clock in the morning, with the tide, our two boats, and a little help of the wind, we rowed down to the river's mouth, and there came to anchor about eleven o'clock."
The conjectures of historians respecting this river have been various. Oldmixon supposes it to have been James River, in Vir- ginia ; whilst Beverley, who aims to correct him, affirms it to have been the Hudson. In the latitude taken by Captain Waymouth, - 43° 20' north, - "no part of the American coast lies," says Dr. Belknap, "except Cape Porpoise, where is only a boat harbor. The rivers nearest to it are the Kennebunk on the south, - a tide river of no great extent, terminating in a brook; and the Saco on the north, the navigation of which is obstructed by a bar at its mouth, and by a fall at the distance of six or seven miles from the sea. Neither of those could be the river described in Waymouth's journal. His observation of the latitude, or the printed account of it, must have been erroneous." 1 In the first volume of his Ameri- can Biography, which was published in 1794, Dr. Belknap says, "This great river is supposed to be either Kennebeck or Penoh- scot ; "2 but before the appearance of his second volume, four years later, he had become satisfied, after careful examination and inquiry, that it was the Penobscot. This conclusion is based upon
1 Belknap's Am. Biog., II. 145.
2 Ibid., I. 41.
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HISTORY OF BELFAST.
the observations of Captain John Foster Williams, an experi- enced mariner, and commander of the revenue-cutter belonging to the port of Boston. In 1797, Dr. Belknap placed in his hands an abstract of Rosier's narration, with a number of queries relative to the points in doubt; which, after an examination along the coast, the captain answered as follows : -
" The land he [Waymouth] saw on the 17th [of May], I think, must be the island Monhegan, as no other island answers the de- scription. In my last cruise to the eastward, I sounded, and had thirty fathoms about one league to the northward of the island. The many islands he saw, and the main land, extending from west- south-west to east-north-east, agree with that shore : the mountains he saw bearing north-north-east were the Penobscot Hills or Moun- tains ; "1 for, from the place where I suppose the ship lay at anchor, the above mountains bear north-north-east.
" The harbour where he lay with his ship, and named Pentecost Harbour, is, I suppose, what is uow called George's Island Harbour, which bears north from Monhegan about two leagues, - which harbour and islands agree with his descriptions tolerably well ; and the name George's Islands seems to confirm it.
" When the captain went in his boat and discovered a great river extending far up into the main, I suppose he went as far as Two-Bush Island,2 about three or four leagues from the ship. From thence he could discover Penobscot Bay.
Distance from the ship to Two-Bush Island is about 10 miles.
From Two-Bush Island to Owl's Head 9 ", From Owl's Head to the north end of Long Island, 27 " From the north end of Long Island to old Fort Pownall . 6
From the old Fort to the head of the tide, or falls, in Penobscot River 30
82
" I suppose he went with his ship round Two-Bush Island, and then sailed up to the westward of Long Island, supposing himself to be then in the river; the mountains on the main, to the west- ward, extending near as high up as Belfast Bay. I think it prob- able that he anchored with his ship off the point which is now called the Old Fort Point.
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