USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 3
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
eries flourished. Fishing voyages were made to the coast of New- foundland, and Sir Walter Ralegh, who had sacrificed so much in the endeavor to plant an English colony on American soil, having watched the growth of the fishing interests of Bristol, Plymouth and other ports, voiced in Parliament, in 1593, a fact of recog- nized national importance, when he said that the fisheries of England on the American coast were the "stay and support" of the west counties of the kingdom. Indeed, when the century closed, it is estimated that there were about two hundred English fishing vessels around Newfoundland and in neighboring waters, giving employment to ten thousand men and boys.1 But English fishermen did not limit themselves to these waters. Possessing the spirit of daring adventure that now characterized maritime interests throughout the nation, they were ever seeking new scenes of busy endeavor and larger rewards of enterprise.
But the reports which English fishermen in American waters brought with them on their return voyages had reference not only to the employments in which they were engaged, but they also called attention in glowing words to the glimpses they caught of the new world to whose shores their voyages were made. Hak- luyt, in his Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, published in 1589, had made the scholars and statesmen of England familiar with the work of adventurers and explorers.2 The returning fishermen, on the other hand, told their tales in seaport towns to the merchants and men in their employ, who were easily inspired by the fair visions of wealth and em- pire which these reports awakened. People in all parts of the country were reached in this way, and when the century closed, England, as never before, was beginning to be stirred with high hopes of extending her growing power into the new and larger fields to which her discoverers and navigators had opened the way.
1 Sabine's Report, 40.
2 Hakluyt's monumental work was reprinted in London in 1809; also in Edinburgh, in 1890, in sixteen volumes "with notes, indices and numerous additions", edited by Edmund Goldsmid ; also in 1903-1905 by the Macmillan Company of New York and London, in a handsome edition in twelve vol- umes, with many illustrations.
CHAPTER II.
GOSNOLD AND PRING.
T HUS, when the seventeenth century opened, England had made a beginning in the endeavor to secure a foothold upon the Atlantic coast of North America. Further endeavor in this direction, however, was preceded by an added effort to discover a more direct route to India than that hitherto followed by way of Cape Good Hope. A northwest passage thitherward, as already indicated, had been the dream of English navigators in the preceding century. Such a route, if discover- able, would secure to England most desirable commercial advan- tages; and though the attempts already made by enterprising explorers had been attended by great hardships and ill success,- the icy barriers of the north closing as with adamant the water way,-the possibilities of achievement, strangely enough, were still alluring.
Among others, George Waymouth, of Cockington, a small vil- lage now a part of Torquay, on the southwest coast of England, not far from Plymouth, had caught the spirit of the new era, and was busy with considerations having reference to such an enter- prise. In a communication, dated July 24, 1601, addressed to the "Worshipful Fellowship of the Merchants of London trading into the East Indies," now familiarly known as the East India Com- pany, he presented his views with reference to an added search for such a route to the distant East. His suggestions met with approval, and Waymouth was placed in command of an expedi- tion for such added exploration. The interest of Queen Elizabeth was enlisted in the undertaking. Bearing a commendatory letter 1
1 This letter, written upon vellum, with an illuminated border upon a red ground and signed by the Queen, was found in London in the early part of
2
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
addressed by her to the "Right High, Mighty and Invincible Emperor of Cathaye", Waymouth, with two vessels, sailed from the Thames, May 2, 1602. In this quest, however, he was no more successful than his predecessors. Barriers of ice, in regions of intolerable cold, still closed the way ; and though on his return to England the Fellowship cleared him of all blame in connection with the expedition, and it was decided that he should be placed in command of a second venture, the proposed voyage was not made, and the Fellowship abandoned all further efforts in that direction.
But endeavors with reference to English colonization in the new world were not abandoned. Indeed, already, both in London and in seaport towns like Bristol and Plymouth, there were those who were thoughtfully pondering problems connected with American commercial and colonial enterprises. Spanish and French interests had long been permanently represented there. English fishermen, though not in large numbers, had verified the reports that reached them concerning the abundance of fish on the American coast; and English merchant adventurers were beginning to bestir themselves because of the prospect of the larger fish supplies their vessels could easily obtain in American waters. Also, there were those who still were animated with the high hope that England would avail itself of rights secured by Cabot's discovery, and seize, before it was too late, the vast empire to which the American coast opened the way.
This awakening of new interest in American concerns was in evidence even before Waymouth set sail on his ill-fated expedi- tion. Prominent among those who were busying themselves with
the last century, in tearing away an old closet in a house in which repairs were in progress. January 28, 1841, Sir Henry Ellis laid the letter before the Society of Antiquaries in London, and the letter, with a fac-simile of the Queen's signature and also of the seal attached, was printed in the proceed- ings of the Society's meeting. The original letter unfortunately has disap- peared, but a reprint from the published copy will be found in Rosier's Relation of Waymouth's Voyage to the Coast of Maine, 1605, printed by the Gorges Society, 17-20.
PARISH CHURCH AT COCKINGTON.
CockingEon Gh
1
1
:
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GOSNOLD AND PRING.
such concerns was Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.1 At that time, he was in prison for supposed connection with the con- spiracy of Essex.2 He seems, however, to have been thinking not so much of affairs in England, as of a new England across the sea. As a result of his efforts largely, an expedition was made ready having reference to the beginnings of a colonial enterprise on the American coast. Its command was given to Captain Bartholo- mew Gosnold, who is said to have seen service already with Sir Walter Ralegh in one or more expeditions to America. With him was associated Captain Bartholomew Gilbert, a son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. Details with reference to the preparation and plans of the voyage are lacking. Evidently they were not elab- orate. A beginning, however, was to be made, and for this pur- pose a small vessel, named the Concord, was secured for the purpose, and in it Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, March 25, 1602. Thirty-two persons, eight of them mariners, constituted the whole company. Of this number twelve purposed to return to England with the vessel at the close of the intended exploration, and the rest were to remain in the country for 'population".
The English voyagers of the preceding century made their way to the American coast either by the islands of Newfoundland and
1 Born October 6, 1573, he took his degree of bachelor of arts at Cam- bridge in 1589, he planned George Waymouth's voyage to the coast of Maine in 1605; in April, 1610, he aided in sending Henry Hudson to the Northwest; in 1614, he subscribed £100 toward sending Harley to the New England coast; Nov. 3, 1620, he became a member of the New England Council. He died Nov. 10, 1624.
2 The reference is to Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex. For many years he was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, and held high appointments, political and military; but his undertakings were not always successful. As Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1599, he was severely criticised, and on his return he was deprived of his dignities. His attempt to incite an insur- rection in London, in the hope that as a result the Queen would be com- pelled to take his part in his conflict with his enemies, led to his arrest, imprisonment and trial for high treason. He was condemned, but Elizabeth delayed to sign the death warrant in the hope that he would ask for pardon. He did not and was beheaded Feb. 25, 1601.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
Cape Breton, or by those of the West Indies. Gosnold, avoiding Cabot's course and also that of the Ralegh expeditions to "Vir- ginia", aimed by a more direct route to reach "the north part of Virginia". In the early days of the voyage, the wind was unfav- orable for his purpose, but he succeeded in reaching the American coast on May 14. Brereton, who was one of the company and wrote a narrative of the expedition,1 has little to say concerning the landfall, but states the important fact that it was "in the latitude of forty-three degrees", accordingly at some point on the southern coast of Maine. Archer, who also accompanied the expedition, and published a relation concerning it, 2 describes briefly the scene that met the eyes of Gosnold and his associates as they approached the coast. "The fourteenth, about six in the morning, we descried land that lay North, &c .; the northerly part we called the North Land, which to another rock upon the same lying twelve leagues West, that we called Savage Rock (because the savages first showed themselves there)". By some, the "North Land" and "Savage Rock" of Archer's narrative have been identified with Cape Porpoise and Cape Neddock, and this identification, as exceedingly probable, has received very general support. But identification from such meagre details is exceed- ingly difficult. It is enough, perhaps, to know that the fair pros- pect which burst upon Gosnold and his fellow voyagers as they caught their first glimpses of the American coast, and were thrilled with excited interest, was some part of Maine territory between Portland and Kittery.
Proceeding southward along the coast, Gosnold passed Cape Cod, taking there "great store of cod-fish"," says Archer, "for
1 Brereton's narrative is the earliest printed work relating to New Eng- land. Two editions of it were published in 1602, the first containing twenty- four pages and the second forty-eight. The first of these editions will be found in Early English and French Voyages, 329-340. The other is in the third series of the Mass. Hist. Society's Coll., VIII, 83-103, and in Win- ship's Sailors Narratives of New England Voyages.
2 Archer's relation is reprinted in Mass. Hist. Society's Coll., VIII, 72-81.
8 Brereton, in his narrative, says concerning the abundance of fish upon the American coast: "We had pestered our ships so with cod fish that we
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GOSNOLD AND PRING.
which we altered the name and called it Cape Cod." At length the voyagers came to an island which Gosnold named Martha's Vineyard. Here, turning in toward the main land, he brought the voyage to an end at an island which, in honor of the Queen, he designated Elizabeth's Isle. This is the present Cuttyhunk, the earlier name having become the designation of the group of islands to which Cuttyhunk belongs. Here preparations for a permanent colony were made by the erection of a storehouse and a fort. For the homeward voyage of the Concord such commodities were secured as sassafras, 1 cedar, and fur obtained by traffic with the Indians. But when these new-world products had been secured and were on board, and the vessel was ready to sail, those of the little company who had agreed to remain in the country as colonists refused to stay ; and the settlement which had been so happily founded, and represented on the part of Gosnold and some of his associates so much of heartfelt desire and hope, was reluc- tantly abandoned. This was the one great disappointment of the voyage.
Gosnold reached Exmouth, England, July 23. His failure to plant a colony at Elizabeth's Isle he keenly felt; but the reports he brought concerning the country and the great value of its coast fisheries furnished the needed proofs that the new world only awaited colonization in order to add to England's commercial
threw numbers of them over-board again; and surely, I am persuaded that in the months of March, April and May, there is upon this coast, better fishing, and in as great plenty, as in Newfoundland; for the sculles of mackerel, herring, cod and other fish that we daily saw as we went and came from the shore, were wonderful; and besides, the places where we took these cods (and might in a few days have laden our ship) were in seven fathom water, and within less than a league of the shore, where, in Newfoundland they fish in forty or fifty fathom water, and far off."
1 At that time sassafras was highly valued for its medicinal qualities. "The powder of sassafras in twelve hours cured one of our company that had taken a great surfeit." Archer's Relation of Gosnold's Voyage, Mass. Hist. Society Coll., 3rd Series, VII, 77, 78. This new world "commodity" now placed upon the market in such large quantity, greatly lowered the price. Hitherto it had sold in London as high as twenty shillings per pound.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
activity and wealth. The relations of Brereton and Archer, recording events connected with the expedition, were published soon after Gosnold's return. These narratives, with their inter- esting details, were eagerly caught up and widely read. Hak- luyt, 1 Prebendary of St. Augustine's Cathedral church in Bristol, was so strongly impressed in reading these glowing descriptions of new-world experiences, that he called the attention of the prin- cipal merchants of Bristol to the "many profitable and reasonable inducements" which America offered to English trade and coloni- zation; and so by his own noble spirit led the way to new and larger endeavors in which Bristol was to have a most honorable part.
This was not the first time in which Hakluyt had conferred with Bristol merchants concerning American interests. In 1582, Walsingham, Elizabeth's efficient Secretary of State, wrote to Thomas Aldworth, 2 then mayor of Bristol, informing him of Sir
1 Hakluyt was born in 1552 or 1553, and was educated at Westminster School, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree of A. B. in 1574. His interest in maritime enterprises was manifested early in his career. He published his Divers Voyages in 1582. In the following year he was made Chaplain of the English ambassador in Paris. His Discourse on Western Planting was written in 1584 at the request of Sir Walter Ralegh, but was first printed in 1877 as the second volume of the Maine Historical Society's Documentary History of Maine. His great work, The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, etc., was pub- lished in 1589, and an enlarged edition in three volumes in 1598-1600. He became Prebendary of Bristol Cathedral in 1585 and Prebendary of Westmin- ster in 1605. He died at Eaton, in Herefordshire, November 23, 1616, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, November 26, 1616.
2 Thomas Aldworth was mayor of Bristol in 1582, and again in 1592. He was one of the leading merchants of Bristol, and took an active part in what- ever concerned the prosperity of the community and of the nation. He died February 25, 1598, and was buried in St. Mark's, or the Lord Mayor's Chapel, originally the Chapel of Gaunt's Hospital, founded about 1325. The chapel contains a carved freestone Gothic arched tomb and monument to the memory of Thomas Aldworth and his son John, the two being represented in effigy, kneeling, the son behind the father, their hands uplifted in the attitude of devotion. Both are in the costume of the period, Thomas Aldworth in an alderman's gown. John Aldworth died December 18, 1615, aged fifty-
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GOSNOLD AND PRING.
Humphrey Gilbert's proposed expedition to the American coast, and suggesting Bristol's co-operation in an enterprise that prom- ised so much with reference to national expansion and national glory. He also suggested that Aldworth should consult with Hakluyt, already well-known on account of his deep, enthusiastic interest in western planting, and who was familiar with Gilbert's plans. Aldworth at once acted upon Walsingham's suggestion. Hakluyt's assistance was secured, and with his aid Aldworth obtained the approval of the merchants of Bristol in the proposed undertaking. In his reply to Walsingham, Aldworth wrote: "There was eftsoons set down by men's own hands, then present, one thousand marks and upward, which seem if it should not suffice we doubt not but otherwise to furnish out for this western discovery a ship of three score and a bark of forty ton to be left in the country."
Gilbert's failure at Newfoundland, and later the failure of Sir Walter Ralegh at Roanoke Island, lessened greatly, if they did not for the time entirely destroy, the interest of the merchant venturers of Bristol in American enterprises. But the return of the Concord with its cargo of merchantable commodities and the enthusiastic reports made by Gosnold and his companions con- cerning fishery interests in American waters, evidently awakened in these business men of Bristol new hopes concerning the advan- tages for commercial enterprise which the new world offered ; and Hakluyt easily succeeded in his effort to induce his Bristol friends to become "the chief furtherers" in a new expedition in which, because of lessons learned from the failures of the past, it might reasonably be expected that better results would follow.
For some reason unknown, the command of the expedition was not given to Gosnold. It is certain, however, that it was not because of any dissatisfaction with him on the part of the chief
one. That part of the chapel was in process of restoration in 1912, but was visited by the writer. Thomas Aldworth was the father of Robert Aldworth, who, with Giles Elbridge, was an early owner of Monhegan and secured large territorial interests on the main land.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
promoters of the venture. Gosnold's subsequent career furnishes the strongest possible evidence with reference to his fitness for important commands. But a competent navigator for the expedi- tion was found in Captain Martin Pring, who was born in 1580, probably near Awliscombe, Devon, and who at the time, accord- ingly, was only twenty-three years of age. Concerning Pring's earlier career we have no information; but the fact that at this early age he was regarded by the merchants of Bristol as "a man very sufficient for the place" is ample proof that already he had exhibited qualities as a seaman that attested his fitness for such service. Robert Salterne, who, as pilot, accompanied Gosnold in the successful voyage of 1602, was made Pring's assistant.
From Salterne's brief narration of the voyage1 we learn that Hakluyt's "inducements and persuasions" in connection with the new undertaking were influential with John Whitson, mayor of Bristol, who, with the assistance of the aldermen and "most of the merchants of the city," raised the one thousand pounds required for the equipment of the expedition. Two vessels were made ready for Pring's use, the Speedwell2 of about fifty tons and the Discoverer of twenty-six tons. Forty-three men and boys made up the ship's company. The vessels were loaded with "light merchandises thought fit to trade with the people of the country", and on April 10, 1603, Pring set sail from Milford Haven.8 His course across the Atlantic was probably suggested by Gosnold, and Pring's landfall in latitude 43, according to the narrative which Hakluyt secured from Pring, could not have been far from that of his immediate predecessor on the American
1 This narrative Captain John Smith inserted in his True Travels, Adven- tures and Observations, reprinted in 1819 from the London edition of 1629, I, 108, 109.
2 It is thought that the Speedwell may have been included in Drake's fleet in 1587, 1588, inasmuch as a vessel of the same name, and having the same tonnage, had a part in the fight in the harbor of Cadiz in 1587, and also in the conflict with the Spanish Armada in 1588. Many merchant vessels were in the national service at that time.
3 A haven on the southwestern part of the coast of Wales.
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GOSNOLD AND PRING.
coast. In that narrative mention is made of islands in connection with the landfall, and the relation adds : "One of them we named Fox Island, because we found those kind of beasts there- on." As the islands east of the southern part of Penobscot Bay have long been known as the Fox Islands, it has been inferred that Pring's landfall is to be found at this part of the Maine coast. The latitude of the landfall, however, is not favorable to this inference; but inasmuch as Pring, after proceeding in toward the mainland, ranged to the northward as far as latitude 43₺, it is probable that Pring passed up the coast as far as the Fox Islands. Certainly he must have sailed along a large part of the coast of Maine. Not finding sassafras in his northward progress, Pring turned about and shaped his course for Savage Rock "discovered the year before by Captain Gosnold", and later, bearing into the great "Gulf" which "Gosnold over-shot the year before", he landed in a certain bay which he named Whitson's Bay1 in honor of the mayor of Bristol. The Simancas map of 1610,2 which indicates a large part of the North American Atlantic coast line, attaches the designation "Whitson's Bay" to what is now known as Massachusetts Bay, and gives to the northernmost part of Cape Cod the designation "Whitson's Head". 3 Not far from his land-
1 Early English and French Voyages, 345.
2 This map, which has a place in Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States (I, facing 456), is said to have been prepared by a surveyor whom James I sent to Virginia for this purpose in 1610. It evidently embod- ies the English maps of White, Gosnold, Pring, Waymouth and others. Brown thinks it was compiled and drawn either by Robert Tyndall or by Captain Powell. It was discovered in the library at Simancas, Spain, by Dr. J. L. M. Curry, while he was envoy extraordinary and minister plenipo- tentiary of the United States at the Court of Spain, 1885-1888. The map had disappeared in England, and, as Mr. Brown says, "It is curious that it should be first published in the strange country which it attempted to delineate". The historical value of this map is very great.
8 John Whitson was worthy of this recognition by Pring and his associates. He was not only one of the most prominent of the merchants of Bristol, but exerted a strong influence in civic relations. He became mayor of Bristol in 1603, and held the office also in 1615. He was the member of Parliament from Bristol in 1605-11, 1616 and 1625. He died in Bristol and was buried
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
ing in Whitson's Bay, Pring and his companions in their explora- tion came to "a pleasant hill thereunto adjoining; we called it Mount Aldworth for master Robert Aldworth's sake, a chief fur- therer of the voyage as well with his purse as with his travail". This is an early mention of one who, at a later period, became closely connected with the beginnings of colonial Maine.
At his landing in Whitson's Bay, Pring, by the end of July, had secured as much sassafras as would "give some speedy con- tentment" to the Bristol adventurers; and the Discoverer, laden largely with this commodity, sailed homeward, leaving Pring to follow with the Speedwell when the other objects of the expedi- tion, such as conditions with reference to trade and colonization, had received that careful consideration which the promotors of the expedition desired. These final preparations for the return voyage of the Speedwell were completed about August 8, or 9, and Pring arrived in England October 2.1
The arrival of the Discoverer had already furnished general information concerning the success of Pring's expedition. The
March 9, 1628, in the crypt of St. Nicholas Church. On his monument in this church is the following inscription : "In memory of that great benefac- tor, to this city, John Whitson, merchant, twice Mayor and Alderman, and four times member of Parliament for this city ; who died in the seventy-sec- ond year of his age, A. D. 1629. A worthy pattern to all that come after him." Bancroft, in his History of the United States, following Belknap, identifies Whitson's Bay with the harbor of Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, having regard to the latitude mentioned in the narrative of the voyage. The narrative implies, however, that the bay is to be found in the southern part of the "great Gulf which Captain Gosnold over-shot the year before". Dr. B. F. DeCosta (Magazine of American History, VIII, 807-819) accordingly identified Whitson's Bay with the harbor of Plymouth, into which the May- flower brought the Pilgrims in 1620. This identification seems best to meet the requirements of the narrative.
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