USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 13
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their situation. Segocket is the next, then Nasconcus, Pemaquid and Sagadahock. Up this river, where was the Western planta- tion, are Aumuckcawgen, Kinnebeck and divers others, where there is planted some corn fields. Along this river, forty or fifty miles, I saw nothing but great high cliffs of barren rocks over- grown with wood ; but where the savages dwelt, there the ground is exceedingly fat and fertile. Westward of this river is the country of Aucocisco in the bottom of a large, deep bay, full of many great isles, which divide it into many good harbors. Sowo- cotuck is the next in the edge of a large sandy bay, which hath many rocks and isles, but few good harbors but for barks, I yet know. But all this coast to Penobscot, and as far as I could see eastward of it, is nothing but such high craggy cliffs rocks and stony isles, that I wondered such great trees could grow upon so hard foundations. It is a country rather to affright than delight one. And how to describe a more plain spectacle of desolation or more barren I know not. Yet the sea there is the strangest fish- pond I ever saw; and those barren isles so furnished with good woods, springs, fruits, fish and fowl, that it makes me think though the coast be rocky, and thus affrightable, the valleys, plains and interior parts may well (notwithstanding) be very fertile. But there is no kingdom so fertile hath not some part barren ; and New England is great enough to make many king- doms and countries, were it all inhabited. As you pass the coast still westward, Accominticus and Passataquack are two convenient harbors for small barks ; and a good country, within their craggy cliffs".1
One has little difficulty in following the writer in this descrip- tion of so large a part of the Maine coast. The obvious physical features of the country are mentioned in such a way as to be read- ily recognized. Of course distances are estimates only, and are easily exaggerated in the narrative, as is illustrated not infre- quently in the writings of the early voyagers upon the coast. The Androscoggin (Aumuckcawgen) and the Kennebec are
1 Smith, Description of New England, 41-43.
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clearly noted. So also are Casco (Aucocisco) bay and Old Orchard bay under the Indian name Sowocotuck; together with Accominticus (Agamenticus or York) and Passataquack (Piscata- qua). It has been doubted1 if Smith's map of New England, accompanying his Description, was drawn from his own surveys as he claims. However this may be, certainly there can be no doubt whatever that the above description of the Maine coast is Smith's own work. We have the narratives of the earlier explorers upon the coast except that of Pring or Hanham in 1606; but as they were obliged to cut short their work of exploration by reason of the approach of winter, and were on the coast only four weeks, as is conjectured from all the available facts in the absence of dates, it is probable that they could not have made any such extended examination of the coast as that made by Captain Smith, espe- cially as the explorations of Pring and Hanham determined the location of the Popham colony at the mouth of the Kennebec-a work that in the short period available for exploration would necessarily be confined to that part of the Maine coast that is in the vicinity of the mouth of the Kennebec, where the settlement was made.
In his mention of "The Landmarks" Captain Smith, referring to the islands, says: "The highest, or Sorico [is] in the bay of Penobscot; but the three isles and a rock of Matinnack are much further in the sea. Metinicus is also three plain isles and a rock, betwixt it and Monahigan; Monahigan is a round high isle; and close by it, Monanis, betwixt which is a small harbor where we ride. In Damerils isles is such another. Sagadahock is known by Satquin, and four or five isles in the mouth. Smith's isles [Isle of Shoals] are a heap together, none near them, against Accominticus." 2
Monanis here has its first recorded mention, and in connection therewith the location of Smith's two vessels during the summer
1 Brown, Genesis of the United States, II, 780.
2 Smith, Description of New England, Veazie reprint, 46, 47.
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of 1614 is definitely fixed. Here, also, we have the earliest men- tion of the Damariscove islands under the designation Dameril's isles. Humphrey Damerill of Boston, dying about 1650, claimed to own a part or all of this island. He or another of that name, fishing on the coast, may have used its harbor and shore privi- leges several years before 1614. Damaris Cove, as a variation of the name, appears among the various references to the island found in the writings of that century pertaining to matters on the coast of Maine.1
In his further description of the country, after referring to the mountains-"them of the Penobscot" (the Union and Camden mountains), the "twinkling mountain of Augocisco [Mount Wash- ington], and the great mountain of Sasanou" (Agamenticus), all indicated on his map, Captain Smith makes mention of the vari- ous kinds of trees, birds, fishes, animals, etc., that had come under his observation in ranging the coast. He also enlarges here and there on "the main staple" fish, alludes to the seasons favor- able for fishing, calls attention to the fertility of the soil2 and to the great value of its products and refers to many other matters indicating the suitableness of the country for plantation and development. In fact, he was so favorably impressed with what he saw during his summer on the American coast that he wrote : "Of all the four parts of the world that I have yet seen not inhab- ited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather live here than anywhere." 3
1 In the words, "In Damerils isles is such another", the reference is to the unique harbor in the outer island of the group. Thayer, Me. Hist. Society's Coll., Series II, 6, 80.
2 "The ground is so fertile, that questionless it is capable of producing any grain, fruits or seeds you will sow or plant . . . But it may be not every kind to that perfection of delicacy; or some tender plants may miscarry, because the summer is not so hot, and the winter is more cold in those parts we have yet tried near the sea side, than we find in the same height in Europe or Asia. Yet I made a garden upon the top of a rocky isle in 432, four leagues from the main [Monhegan] in May that grew so well as it served us for salads in June and July." A Description of New England, Veazie reprint, 34, 35.
8 Ib., 28.
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The summer passed-a summer that awakened in the adven- turous spirit of Captain John Smith bright visions of a New Eng- land, and the greater glory of the mother country by reason of England's expansion on this side of the sea. "Here nature and liberty", he wrote, "afford us freely which in England we want or it costeth us dearly."1 His mind aglow with this thought, and evidently with a purpose to impress it upon the hearts of his countrymen, Captain Smith sailed out of Monhegan harbor as the summer drew to a close. The date of his sailing he does not give, but he records the fact that he arrived in England "within six months" after his departure from the Downs",2 which was in the month of April. He landed at Plymouth, where he informed Gorges concerning his venture, and gave him such an enthusiastic report concerning the country and its capabilities that Gorges' interest in English colonization on the American coast was at once reawakened.3 Smith's report had the same effect upon other members of the Plymouth company. It was the general feeling of those interested in the territory of the northern colony that Cap- tain John Smith was the man for the task to which the Popham colonists proved unequal; and forthwith negotiations with him were opened with reference to a new colonial undertaking. “I was so encouraged and assured to have the managing their author- ity in those parts during my life, and such large promises", wrote Smith, "that I engaged myself to undertake it for them".4
Smith disposed of his cargo of fish readily. The other vessel, of which Thomas Hunt was master, tarrying awhile longer at Monhegan, at length sailed for Spain, and the cargo was sold at Malaga. Before Hunt left the coast, however, thinking to make it difficult for Smith to accomplish his purpose to establish a col- ony there,' he seized twenty-four Indians whom he had enticed on
1 A Description of New England, Veazie reprint, 56.
2 General Historie, London edition of 1629, Richmond, Va., 1819, II, 176.
8 A Description of New England, Veazie reprint, 66.
4 General Historie, II, 177, 178.
5 Ib., II, 176.
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board his vessel, and on his arrival at Malaga sold them" "for a little private gain". He received punishment in part, however, for as Smith says, "this vile act kept him ever after from any more employment to those parts":1 but the prejudicial effects of Hunt's treachery must have lingered long, embittering the Indians against the English and attaching them even more strongly than hitherto to their French rivals.
Having made an agreement with the Plymouth company to take the leadership in planting an English colony on the American coast, Smith proceeded to London to report to the adventurers at the metropolis the results of their undertaking under his super- vision. When on his arrival he announced his engagement with the Plymouth company, he found some who promised their assist- ance in this new enterprise; but there were others, and in all probability those who had fitted out the two ships with which he had summered at Monhegan, who evidently thought that they had a prior claim to his services because of existing relations; and they offered him employment in a similar undertaking. This added offer Smith was obliged to decline, on account of the agree- ment he had concluded with the Plymouth company. "I find my refusal hath incurred some of their displeasures, whose favor and love I exceedingly desire, if I may honestly enjoy it", he wrote ; but he added, "though they do censure me as opposite to their proceedings, they shall yet still in all my words and deeds find it in their error, not my fault, that occasions their dislike; for hav- ing engaged myself in this business to the west country, I had been very dishonest to have broken my promise".2 These words
1 General Historie, II, 176. The president and council for New England, in A Brief Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England, state that Hunt sold "as many as he could get money for" and add : "But when it was understood from whence they were brought, the Friars of those parts took the rest from them, and kept them to be instructed in the Christian faith ; and so disappointed this unworthy fellow of the hopes of gain he con- ceived to make by this new and devilish project." Reprint in Baxter's Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, I, 210. 2 Ib., II, 179.
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are exceedingly creditable to their author. The London adven- turers pressed their case with urgency ; and failing to move Smith from his position, they proceeded to fit out four ships which were placed under the direction of Captain Michael Cooper, and they were ready for sea before the Plymouth company "had made any provision at all", as Smith, in his disappointment over conditions at Plymouth, records.
Concerning Cooper's adventure only meager details have come down to us. The vessels sailed in January following Smith's return, and arrived at Monhegan in March. Here they remained until June, Cooper employing his men in fishing. The four ves- sels taking the place of Smith's two in the preceding season, the little harbor at Monhegan must have presented a busy scene day by day, boats moving out of the harbor on their fishing trips to the waters around the island, and later returning heavily laden with their abundant catches to be cured when landed on the sandy beaches of the harbor. One of the vessels, a ship of three hun- dred tons, was sent in June directly from Monhegan to Spain loaded with fish, but was captured by Turks on the way. Another vessel, also loaded with fish, was sent to the South Vir- ginia colony. A third vessel returned with fish and oil to Eng- land, probably to London. Concerning Cooper's fourth ship there is no information.1
In the same year, 1615, Richard Hawkins, who at that time was president of the Plymouth company, made a voyage to the New England coast, leaving England in October. Only a brief record of his undertaking has been preserved. In all probability he made his way to Monhegan, and anchored in its picturesque har- bor. He seems to have spent some time in fishing there. Thence, making explorations along the coast, he visited the South Vir- ginia colony, and returned to England by way of Spain, whither he went to sell his fish.2
Referring to Hawkins' voyage, Gorges says, "this was all that
1 Narrative and Critical History of America, III, 18I.
2 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, II, 25, 26.
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was done by any of us that year".1 In 1616, there were signs of activity. In his Description of New England, which was pub- lished in London, June 18, 1616, Captain John Smith (in the closing pages, which were probably added to his manuscript in the year of publication), says, "From Plymouth this year are gone four or five sail, and from London as many."2 He is careful to add, however, that they were not voyages with reference to colo- nization, but "voyages of profit'' only.
It was during this year, it is thought, that Gorges became owner of a vessel and sent it to the coast of Maine "under color of fishing and trade". Among those connected with the voyage was Gorges' trusted friend, Richard Vines.8 In his account of this voyage, Gorges is provokingly brief, but that he received some encouragement from the venture is indicated in the statement that from those connected with it, probably Vines, he came to be truly informed "of so much as gave him" assurance that in time "he should want no undertakers". Vines is said to have landed at the mouth of the Saco river, where he spent the winter in the wigwams of the savages, then so sorely afflicted with the plague "that the country was in a manner left void of inhabitants". Vines and his company happily were unaffected by it, "not one of them ever felt their heads to ache while they stayed there".
During the following year a voyage was made hither in the Nachen, a vessel of two hundred tons, commanded by Captain Edward Brawnde, whose account of his experience is contained in a letter addressed to "his worthy good friend Captain John Smith,
1 Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, II, 26.
2 A Description of New England, Veazie reprint, 77.
3 Vines is supposed to have made earlier voyages to the coast of Maine. Later we find him at the mouth of the Saco, where he established himself. Baxter says of him, "Richard Vines was a man of high character, but, being an Episcopalian, was antagonistic to the Puritan rule, which was finally extended over the Province of Maine, hence in 1645, he removed to Barba- does, where he was engaged in the practice of medicine until his death in 1651". Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, I, 132, note ; also II, 18, 19.
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admiral of New England". Brawnde is said to have sailed from Dartmouth, March 8, 1616, and to have reached Monhegan, April 20. In his letter, he makes mention of a difficulty with Sir Rich- ard Hawkins, who detained his boats ; but he has only good words concerning the country and the opportunities there afforded for fishing and fur traffic with the Indians, whom he describes as "a gentle natured people", well disposed toward the English.1
Meanwhile the lack of energy displayed by the Plymouth com- pany must have had a depressing effect upon Smith. "At last, however", he could write, "it pleased Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Master Dr. Sutliffe,2 Dean of Exeter, to conceive so well of these projects and my former employments, as induced them to make a new adventure3 with me in those parts, whither they have so often sent to their loss". A few gentlemen in London, friends of Smith, had a part in the enterprise, but mostly the adventurers were from the west country. A vessel of two hundred tons, and one of fifty, were secured and made ready for the voyage. Smith does not mention the date of his sailing from Plymouth, but he tells us that he had not proceeded one hundred and twenty leagues, when his own vessel not only lost all her masts in a storm but sprang aleak, and under a jury mast he returned to the harbor he had just left. While the smaller vessel, her captain not knowing of Smith's mishaps, was making her way to Monhegan, Smith secured a barque of sixty tons, in which June 24, with thirty men, he again set sail. But ill fortune a second time attended the undertaking, for he had not proceeded far when French privateers bore down upon him, and although the vessel returned to Ply- mouth, Smith himself was held as a captive, partly it would seem by the mutinous conduct of some of his subordinates.4 After
1 Narrative and Critical History of America, III, 181, 182. Brawnde's mention of Sir Richard Hawkins is an indication that the latter passed the winter of 1615-16 at Monhegan.
2 Captain John Smith, General Historie, II, 205-206.
8 He says it was in the year 1615. General Historie, II, 218.
4 A fuller account of the affair is given in Smith's General Historie, II, 209.
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various vicissitudes and brief delays in Rochelle and Bordeaux, he was finally liberated 1 and made his way back to Plymouth. An investigation of the circumstances attending the voyage was held at Plymouth, December 8, 1615. The result proved favorable to Smith, who, to use his own words, "laid by the heels" such "chieftains of the mutiny" as could be found.2
Unquestionably Smith's misfortunes in connection with his employment by the Plymouth company disheartened those who had discovered in him just such a leader as was needed in order successfully to plant a colony upon the American coast. Though he raised money in London for another venture, there was no enthusiasm at Plymouth for joining Smith's London friends in the proposed enterprise. However, he was not to be turned aside by the indifference of his former Plymouth associates, and he spent the summer of 1616 in visiting Bristol, Exeter, Barnstable, Bod- min, Penryn, Fowey, Millbrook, Saltash, Dartmouth, Absom, Totnes and the most of the gentry in Cornwall and Devonshire, giving them books and maps. By this help and information he had secured personally with reference to the fishing interests upon the New England coast, he endeavored to enlist support in further efforts. Such success attended him in this campaign of publicity, that, he says, a promise of twenty ships to go with him to the American coast in the following year was made to him; and he adds that the western commissioners in behalf of themselves and the rest of the Plymouth company, together with those who should join them, contracted with him, "by articles indented under our hands", that in the renewing of the company's let- ters patent he should be nominated "Admiral of that Country" during his life, while the profits were to be divided between the patentees and Smith and his associates. Smith claimed that the promise was not fulfilled. "I am not the first they have deceived",8 he wrote.
1 Smith tells us that he wrote his Description of New England while a captive at this time. See Veazie reprint, 72.
2 General Historie, III, 213.
8 Ib., III, 218.
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Yet notwithstanding these many discouragements, Smith did not cease his activities in new world enterprises ; and in 1617, he succeeded in securing three vessels for another attempt at colonial undertakings. But the ill fortune that had attended his efforts since his return from Monhegan in 1614 followed him still. When at length his vessels were ready for the voyage, he was detained by contrary winds with a hundred other sail in the har- bor of Plymouth three months, during which time the adventurers of the expedition seem to have lost heart to such an extent that the undertaking was wholly abandoned.1 Gorges makes no men- tion of Smith in any of his writings that have come down to us ; and now, upon this added discouragement, he evidently dismissed all hopes concerning the "Admiral's" availability in connection with English colonization upon the coast of Maine.2
Admirable qualities are easily discoverable in Captain John Smith's somewhat remarkable personality. He was resourceful, energetic, courageous, optomistic. He saw clearly, indeed much more clearly than many of his countrymen, that on this side of the Atlantic, England's opportunity for empire-building was large and inviting. But, on the other hand, he never lost sight of Captain John Smith. His own fortunes were ever held in full view. He found it difficult to abide long in harmonious relations with others unless the chief direction of affairs was given to him. Because of these defects in his temperament and character, not- withstanding his great services in connection with early American undertakings, he failed to obtain a place among the successful founders of states.
But Captain John Smith, notwithstanding the many discourage- ments connected with his attempts to promote English interests on the coast of Maine, kept a watchful eye in this direction; and
1 Purchas his Pilgrimes, IV, 1839.
2 In the Public Records Office, London, there is a letter of Captain John Smith to Lord Bacon, written in 1618, in which "he offered to adventure with five thousand pounds 'to bring wealth, honor and a kingdom' to the king's prosperity' ". Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine, I, 102.
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in his General Historie1 he makes mention of four good ships pre- pared at Plymouth in 1618 for voyages thitherward. Disagree- ments, however, attended the fitting out of the expedition, with the result that so much of the season was spent in discussing these differences that only two of the vessels crossed the Atlantic, one of two hundred tons, which made a successful voyage, returning to Plymouth within five months, and the other of eighty tons, which was equally successful, and disposed of her cargo of fish at Bilboa, Spain.
About the same time, evidently, Gorges sent Captain Edward Rocroft to Monhegan with a company he "had of purpose hired for the service", with instructions to await there the arrival of Captain Thomas Dermer, formerly associated with Captain John Smith in one of his unfortunate voyages, but who now was at Newfoundland. There he met the Indian Tisquantum, who, hav- ing been released from captivity in Spain, had succeeded in pro- ceeding thus far in an endeavor to return to his old home and his own people. His description of the country farther down the coast interested Dermer to such an extent that the latter pro- ceeded to make his way thither. While on the Maine coast, impressed by what he saw and by the knowledge he had gained concerning the great opportunities for English colonization that the country afforded, Dermer wrote letters to Gorges, in which he made mention of these impressions and suggested that a commis- sion should be sent to meet him there, promising to come from Newfoundland for a conference with such a commission if the suggestion should be favorably received. It was because of these letters that Gorges sent Rocroft to the coast of Maine in the hope that he would meet Dermer. On Rocroft's arrival or soon after however, he fell in with a French barque of Dieppe, engaged in fishing and trading within what were regarded as English sover- eignty rights. He accordingly seized the vessel, and placing the French captain and his crew on his own vessel, Rocroft trans- ferred his crew, provisions, etc., to the captured barque. The
1 Richmond, Va., edition 1819, II, 218.
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French captain, on his arrival at Plymouth, laid his case before Gorges, who acted with tact in his disposal of it. Referring to the French captain as "being of our religion", he wrote, "I was easily persuaded upon his petition to give content for his loss".1
Rocroft, in possession of the captured barque, concluded to remain on the coast that winter, "being very well fitted both with salt, and other necessaries" ; but he soon discovered that some of his men had entered into a conspiracy to take his life, seize the vessel and seek "a new fortune where they could best make it". Rocroft, however, proved equal to the emergency, and arresting the conspirators "at the very instant that they were prepared to begin the massacre", he put them ashore at a place called "Sawaguatock" (Saco) ; and though the barque was now weakly manned, and "drew too much water to coast those places that by his instructions he was assigned to discover", without waiting for Dermer, he set sail for Virginia, where in a storm the vessel was wrecked, and where also at length Rocroft, in a quarrel, was killed.2
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