USA > Maine > The beginnings of colonial Maine, 1602-1658 > Part 6
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Over summer seas and full of the joy which worthy achieve- ment always awakens, establishing on their way confidential rela- tions with their Indian captives, the voyagers returned homeward, anchoring the Archangel in Dartmouth Haven on July 18. Rosier's Relation of the voyage ends here. We are not told with what welcome Waymouth and his fellow explorers were received, or upon whose ears the story of their adventures first
1 The Maine Historical Society celebrated the tercentenary of Waymouth's voyage by services at Thomaston and St. George's harbor July, 1905. For a report of the proceedings see Me. Hist. Society's Coll., Series III, 2, 152-204.
ra COMMEMORATE THE VOYAGE OF
CAPTAIN
GEORGE WAYMOUTH
TO THE COAST OF MAINE
IN ISOF
HIS DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE
ST. GEORGES AIVER
AND MARTING A CHOÉS ON THE WORTHERLY SHORE OF THIS NAANO WHERE THE RIVER TRENDED WEET WARE
THE EARLIEST KNOWN CLAIN OF NICHT OF POSSESSION DY ENGLISHMEN ON NEW ENCLANO SON
MEMORIAL OF WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE, 1605. Thomaston.
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WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE.
fell. But it requires no stretch of the imagination to bring before us the scene as on that Thursday afternoon, about four o'clock, the Archangel came to her anchorage, and the members of the expedition were surrounded by eager questioners. Heroes they all were, but of what special, wondering interest were the five Indians whom Waymouth had brought with him as specimens of the inhabitants of the new world! It was a thrilling narrative that was told, first on the deck of the Archangel, and later in the lounging places of the town where the sailors mingled with a crowd ready to catch any word that might fall from their lips.
How long the Archangel remained in Dartmouth Haven was not recorded ; and it seems probable that Rosier, the historian of the expedition, leaving the vessel at Dartmouth Haven, hurried to London to place before the promoters of the voyage the tidings which they so eagerly awaited. According to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Waymouth brought the Archangel into the harbor of Plymouth, where Gorges was in command of the fort. This was after the arrival at Dartmouth Haven, for Rosier tells us that Dartmouth Haven was the first "harbor in England" entered by Waymouth and his fellow voyagers on their return.
While the Archangel was in Plymouth harbor, Waymouth deliv- ered into the care of Sir Ferdinando Gorges three of the Indians seized in Pentecost harbor.1 Gorges regarded the seizure of these Indians as a matter of prime importance in connection with new- world colonization schemes. In his Briefe Narration, referring to the Indians who came into his possession at this time, he says, "This accident must be acknowledged the means under God
1 Gorges (Baxter's Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Prince Society, II, 8) says the names of the three he received were Manida, Skettwarroes and Tasquantam. Manida is evidently the Maneddo of Rosier. Tasquantum is the name of an Indian captured by Thomas Hunt, master of a vessel in Capt. John Smith's voyage of 1614, and Gorges is in error in including his name here. In his Briefe Narration Gorges mentions one of these Indians under the name Dehamda. Evidently he is the same as the one called by Rosier Tahanedo, also known as Nahanada. The other two Indians seized at Pen- tecost harbor were assigned, it is supposed, to Sir John Popham.
4
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations". With ever deepening interest Gorges listened to the answers these Indians gave to his eager questionings. "The longer I conversed with them," he says, "the better hope they gave me of those parts where they did inhabit, as proper for our uses; especially when I found what goodly rivers, stately islands and safe harbors those parts abounded with, being the special marks I levelled at, as the only want our nation met with in all their navigations along that coast. And having kept them full three years, I made them able to set me down what great rivers ran up into the land, what men of note were seated on them, what power they were of, how allied, what enemies they had and the like."
There is no record of Waymouth's return to London and of his interview with the promoters of the expedition. Arundell had been elevated to the peerage, and only a month after the return of the Archangel he was appointed colonel of an English regiment raised for service in Holland. It is probable, therefore, that he was henceforth engaged in other enterprises than those on this side of the sea. The Earl of Southampton, however, continued his interest in American colonization, but in connection with the London Company of Virginia. In that company's second char- ter his name stands next to those of the high officers of state; and he remained at the head of its governing board until the second charter was taken away. So far as English colonization on the Maine coast was concerned, however, the loss of influence of men of such prominence was more than made good by the increased active interest of Sir John Popham. His vigorous personality, and commanding position as chief justice of England, made him forceful in any undertaking. Information concerning Way- mouth's voyage probably came to him from Waymouth himself ; also from Rosier's Relation, which was published in London soon after the return of the Archangel. Moreover two of Way- mouth's Indians came into his possession, and from them he must have received information that could hardly have failed to increase and deepen his interest in the country from which these Indians
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WAYMOUTH'S VOYAGE.
came. Doubtless Gorges, also, intensified this awakening interest manifested by the chief justice; and the mind of Sir John Pop- ham was soon busy with plans for taking possession of the terri- tory thus open to English occupation and trade relations. This, however, he would have undertaken and carried forward under royal authority. His plans as they ripened involved the forma- tion of colonies by chartered companies under license from the crown. Plainly in matters pertaining to new-world enterprises the chief justice saw more clearly the demands of the future than did his contemporaries.
CHAPTER V. ADDED ENDEAVORS AND EXPLORATIONS.
TN the added attention given to English colonization as the result of Waymouth's successful expedition, there was a stirring of private interests as well as of those of a public nature. Before Popham and the men in agreement with him had received the royal charter for which they asked, and which gave them authority to take possession of the country between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, thus shut- ting out private enterprise, certain merchants of Plymouth, William Parker, Thomas Love, - - Came and William Mor- gan, had entered into an agreement with Captain George Waymouth "to carry them with their shipping, and provisions" to Virginia, "there to fish, traffic, and to do what else shall be fitting for a merchant voyage". These Plymouth merchants lost no time in their effort thus to seize the opportunity for securing profitable returns in a business venture. For some reason, how- ever, this agreement was almost immediately annulled, evidently because of another and more liberal arrangement on the part of Waymouth; for October 30, 1605, he entered into a formal agree- ment with Sir John Zouche, of Codnor, in Derbyshire, "for and concerning a voyage intended to be made unto the land commonly called by the name of Virginia upon the continent of America." 1
On the part of Sir John, it was agreed that at his own cost he should set forth two ships fitted and furnished with "all necessa- ries of victual, provision, munition, and two hundred able and sufficient men ; that is to say, of such trades and arts as are fitting for a plantation and colony, before the last day of April next." Sir John also agreed to pay to Captain Waymouth within twenty-
1 This agreement will be found in Alexander Brown's Genesis of the United States, I, 33-35.
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ADDED ENDEAVORS AND EXPLORATIONS.
one days a hundred pounds "lawful English money . in consideration of his 'travell' and pains to be taken in and about the said voyage and for his own charge defraying". Sir John furthermore agreed to allow the merchants of Plymouth, whose contract with Captain Waymouth had just been annulled, liberty "to make their trade for what commodities soever without any hindrance or disturbance of his part, or any of his followers under his command, for the space of one whole year now next coming, and not after". It was also agreed that Sir John Zouche, "being Chief Commander", should give to Waymouth "the next place of command under himself as well at sea as at land".
Manifestly the purpose that lay at the foundation of this agree- ment was the English occupation and possession of that part of the American coast which Waymouth had visited and explored. How this territory was to be appropriated is indicated in the clos- ing paragraph of the agreement on the part of Sir John, which was as follows: "Item, if it so please God to prosper and bless the said intended voyage and the actions of the same, that thereby the land aforesaid shall be inhabited with our English nation, and according to 'Polliticque' estate of Government proportion of land be alloted to such as shall be transported thither to inhabit ; that then, after the said Sir John Zouche shall have made his choice and assumed into his possession in manner of inheritance such quantity of land as he, the said Sir John, shall think good; then he, the said Captain George Waymouth and his assigns, shall and may make his or their next choice of land for his or their posses- sion and plantation ; to hold the same in tenure of him, the said Sir John, as 'Lord Paramount'; which said land so by the said Captain Waymouth to be chosen shall descend to his heirs or assigns, or shall be upon reasonable considerations to his or their uses employed or disposed."
On Waymouth's part the agreement was that with his "best endeavor, council and advice", he should aid Sir John in the fit- ting out of the expedition; that he should be ready to go with him in the voyage "at such time as is limited or before, unless
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
hindered by sickness or other such visitation"; that on the arrival of the expedition he should assist in the planting of the colony, work of fortification, and whatever else should be thought fitting by Sir John; and finally that he should not aid, "by person or direction to any other in or for the said pretended land or voyage without the consent or allowance of the said Sir John". One of the witnesses to this agreement was James Rosier, who wrote the Relation of Waymouth's voyage.
Two days after the signing of this agreement, the Guy Fawkes gunpowder plot, which was to have been consummated on the assembling of Parliament, November 5, was made known to King James. The arrest, trial and execution of those connected with the plot followed, and for the time attracted public attention to such an extent that the plans and purposes of Sir John Zouche and Captain Waymouth could have received little attention.1
But that which of itself was sufficient to bring to naught the agreement between the two was the royal charter2 granted on April 10, 1606, to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, Thomas Hanham,8 Ralegh Gilbert, William Parker, George Popham and others, incorporating two companies for the purpose of promoting English colonization "in that part of Amer- ica commonly called 'Virginia'". This charter, prepared in its first draft by Sir John Popham as is supposed, was granted on petition ; but the petition has not come down to us, and its date and signers are unknown. As some time would be required for the work of drawing up the charter, as well as for its considera- tion by the various officers of the crown to whom it was submitted for examination, the petition was probably presented to the King
1 Sir John Zouche, notwithstanding his present failure, did not lose his inter- est in English enterprises in the new world. In 1631, he received an appoint- ment on "the commission for the better plantation of Virginia", and in 1634 he went to Virginia to visit his son and daughter, who were living there".
2 Genesis of the United States, II, 46-63.
8 The h in the name was adopted from the time of Sir John Hanham, old- est son of Thomas and Penelope (Popham) Hanam, and brother of Captain Thomas Hanham.
55
ADDED ENDEAVORS AND EXPLORATIONS.
as early as the last quarter of 1605. The petition was for the ter- ritory "situate, lying and being all along the seacoast" between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, "and in the mainland between, together with the islands thereunto adja- cent, or within one hundred miles of the coast thereof". The petitioners asked to be divided into two colonies or companies, the one, consisting of certain knights, gentlemen, merchants and other adventurers of London and vicinity, who wished to establish their plantation in some fit place between the thirty-fourth and fortieth degrees of north latitude, was generally known as the London Company; the other, consisting of sundry knights, gentlemen, merchants and other adventurers of Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and other places, who wished to establish their plantation in some fit place between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude, was generally known as the Plymouth Company. In the charter, the first colony was granted the territory between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees, also fifty miles south of this location, while to the second colony was granted the territory between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees, also fifty miles farther north. This overlapping of limits in grants of territory in the new world was not a matter of unfrequent occurrence, as an examination of later grants shows. In the charter, however, this wholesome provision was added, "That the plantation and habitation of such of the said colonies, as shall last plant them- selves as aforesaid, shall not be made within one hundred like English miles of the other of them, that first began to make their plantation as aforesaid." Furthermore, no others of the King's subjects were permitted to "plant or inhabit behind or on the backside of them, without the express license or consent of the council of the colony, thereunto in writing first had and obtained".
Although Sir John Popham's name does not occur in the char- ter, it is well known that he was one of the most active of those engaged in the movement for obtaining it. Evidently he saw very clearly the importance of government control in opening to
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
English colonization the vast territory of the new world, only glimpses of which had been obtained by the expeditions of Ralegh in the south, and those of Gosnold, Pring and Waymouth in the north. Private plantations had not been successful, and Sir John Popham, and those who agreed with him, had good reasons for their belief that public plantations had the best prospect of suc- cess. The Popham idea prevailed, and brought to an end private enterprises on the part of English adventurers like Sir John Zouche, who were ready to seize and to hold as much of Ameri- can territory as they could secure.
An expedition fitted out under this charter for the establish- ment of the "first colony in Virginia", sailed from London in three vessels December 20, 1606, with Captain Christopher New- port as commander of the voyage, and Captain Bartholomew Gos- nold as vice-admiral. But Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Sir John Pop- ham and those who were interested in the establishment of a col- ony in the territory discovered by Waymouth evidently deemed it a wiser course to engage in added exploration before colonization. Gorges seems to have been the inspiring spirit in this movement. A vessel, the Richard of Plymouth, was secured for the voyage, and under the command of Henry Challons as captain, with Nicholas Hine as master and John Stoneman as pilot, the Richard sailed from Plymouth harbor, August 12, 1606.1 The vessel was a small one, registering only fifty-five tons or thereabouts. In it were twenty-nine Englishmen and two of the five Indians cap-
1 An account of Challons' voyage, first printed in Purchas's Pilgrimes IV, 1832-1837, was reprinted in Brown's Genesis of the United States, I, 127-139. Another account entitled The Relation of Daniel Tucker Mer- chant being employed by divers adventurers of Plymouth to go as factor of a ship bound for Florida written by himself the 4th day of February A 1606, has a place among the Cecil Papers at Hatfield House. It was enclosed in a letter, sent at the time to Cecil by Gorges, and is included in the documents printed in the third volume of Baxter's Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Prov- ince of Maine, published by the Prince Society, 1890, III, 129-132. In the above, the writer has followed Stoneman's more extended, and apparently more carefully prepared, narrative, which in a few particulars differs from that by Tucker.
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ADDED ENDEAVORS AND EXPLORATIONS.
tured by Waymouth, namely "Maneddo and Assacomoit", or, as recorded by Rosier in his Relation, "Maneddo and Saffacomoit".
Why Waymouth was not placed in command of the Richard does not appear in the accounts of the voyage that have come down to
us. That he was ready to undertake such an expedition is made evident by the agreement into which he entered with Sir John Zouche. In all probability, his agreement to serve Sir John, in his endeavor to turn Waymouth's discoveries to personal advantage, brought him into disfavor with those who were interested in the northern colony.
Gorges says he gave Challons instruction to take a northerly course as high as the latitude of Cape Breton until the main land was sighted, and that then he was to sail southward, following the coast until, from the Indians who were with him, he was told that he had reached that part of the American coast "they were assigned unto". Challons, on the contrary, paid no attention to his instructions, and, following the course of earlier voyagers gen- erally, made the Canary islands the starting point of his expedi- tion. This course could not have been taken because of contrary winds, inasmuch as Stoneman, in his narrative of the voyage, makes no mention of such winds until after the Canary islands were reached. But leaving those islands, contrary winds baffled them. For six weeks they were driven in a southerly direction, and the voyagers found themselves at the end of that time at the island of Saint Lucia, one of the Lesser Antilles, twenty-nine degrees out of their way. After a delay of three days at that port the Richard was started northward. But there was further delay at Porto Rico, where "the captain went ashore for the recovery of his health, while the company took in water and such other provisions as they had present use of, expending some time there, hunting after such things as best pleased themselves". At length, leaving Porto Rico and proceeding northward one hundred and eighty leagues, Challons encountered a severe storm which con- tinued ten days. At its close, "in a thick fog of mist and rain", he found himself surrounded by eight Spanish ships, which bore
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
down upon the Richard and compelled her surrender. Among the wounded in Challons' company was Assacomoit,1 one of the two Indians the Richard was bearing homeward. Challons and his men, including the Indians, were taken to Spain as captives. Some of them at length were liberated, some escaped from prison, and others sickened and died.2 Gorges says, "The affliction of the captain and his company put the Lord Chief Justice Popham to charge, and myself to trouble in procuring their liberties, which was not suddenly obtained". So ended Challons' ill-fated expedi- tion from which Gorges had expected so much.3
Another vessel, fitted out by Sir John Popham for the purpose of co-operating with the Richard in the exploration of the coast visited by Waymouth, left England not long after Challons' departure. Of this vessel Thomas Hanham4 was commander, and
1 Gorges, in his Briefe Narration, at the opening of Chapter XII, says he "recovered Assacomoit" from Spanish captivity.
2 Thayer, The Sagadahoc Colony, page 11, says: "Stoneman was questioned closely respecting the Virginia coast and offered large wages to draw maps. His sturdy loyal refusal remanded him to prison, and when later enlarged on parole he learned he was in danger of the rack to extort the desired infor- mation, he made escape, and by the way of Lisbon reached Cornwall, November 24, 1607; sixteen months after embarkation at Plymouth." Chal- lons was not released until the following May.
3 Gorges, in a letter to Challons, dated Plymouth, March 13, 1607, wrote: "I rest satisfied for your part of the proceedinge of the voyage".
4 Little has come down to us concerning this associate with Pring in the voyage of 1606. As Sir John Popham's oldest daughter Penelope married a Thomas Hanham, Thayer (Sagadahoc Colony, 145) inclines to the view that the chief justice "selected his trusty son-in-law to be the controlling agent" in the expedition. Alexander Brown thought it probable that the Hanham of Pring's voyage was a son of the same name (Genesis of the United States, II, 909). It is now known that such was the fact, as the Thomas Hanham who married Penelope Popham died August 30, 1593 (History and Anti- quities of the County of Dorset, III, 230, 231), and so could not have accom- panied Pring to the American coast in 1606. From the same source it is learned that Thomas Hanham, who died in 1593, had a son, Thomas Hanham, of Wimborne Minster, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Robert Broughton, of County Somerset. To him the Dorset History (III, 232) makes reference as follows: "Thomas Hanham, Esq., second son of Thomas last mentioned, was one of the members of the Long Parliament that attended
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ADDED ENDEAVORS AND EXPLORATIONS.
Martin Pring, who commanded the expedition of 1603, was mas- ter. Gorges makes no mention of Hanham in his reference to the voyage, and it is evident that his position was a nominal one as a representative of Sir John Popham, the chief promoter of the expedition.
Unfortunately we have no record of this voyage. That a Rela- tion was prepared by Hanham is learned from Purchas,1 who mentions such a narrative. Purchas had a copy of it about the year 1624. Possibly it may have come into his possession with the Hakluyt papers, which were placed in his hands after Hak- luyt's death. Why he did not publish the record in his Pilgrimes, it is difficult to conjecture on account of the significance of the voyage from its connection with the fitting out of the Popham colony. Purchas might well have omitted many another narrative in order to give place to this.
Although we have no record of the date of Pring's departure for
the King at Oxford, and subscribed the letter for peace to the Earl of Essex. .
. In a grant of land in North America made to him (the reference is to the charter of April 10, 1606, authorizing two companies for colonizing North America) with Lord Chief Justice Popham, Sir Thomas Gorges, etc., he is styled Thomas Hanham, Esq., and also Captain Hanham. He was buried in Wimborne Minster, where see his monument." Unfortunately (probably because of a comparatively recent restoration of the edifice), this memorial of Captain Hanham is no longer to be seen. The 1868 edition of the Dorset History, however, contains the inscription of the memorial as printed in an earlier edition, with the statement that formerly, at the upper end of the south aisle of the Minster, was an altar tomb of gray marble. The inscription fol- lows : "Here lyeth the body of Thomas Hanham, late of Dean's Court, Eng., second son of Thomas Hanham Sergeant at Law and of Penelope his wife, the daughter of Sir John Popham, Kt., Lord Chief Justice of England, who departed this life the first day of August in the 76th year of his age, Anno D. Ni, 1652". Accordingly, Captain Thomas Hanham was about thirty years of age at the time of the voyage of 1606. The second son of Captain Thomas Hanham, and also named Thomas Hanham, died June 17, 1650. A mural monument of white marble, erected by Margaret "his loving and sad widow", and containing "his portraiture and her own, intending if God so please to be interred by him" (History, III, 218), has come down to us and is now at the west end of the north aisle of the nave of Wimborne Minster.
1 Pilgrimes, Ed. of 1624, IV, 1837.
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THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL MAINE.
the coast of Maine, Gorges says1 that Pring's vessel followed the Richard "within two months". Probably Pring sailed from Bristol, and the voyage, as may be inferred from Challons' instruc- tions, and what Gorges says concerning it, was a direct one to the American coast. St. George's harbor, the Pentecost harbor of Waymouth's anchorage in 1605, was doubtless the place of rendezvous agreed upon by Challons and Pring. Not to meet Challons there, or in the vicinity, was a matter of surprise and dis- appointment to those who followed him and expected to find the work of added exploration already well advanced. There may have been some little loss of time in searching for the co-operating vessel, but the favorable season for accomplishing satisfactory work was drawing to a close, and Hanham and Pring soon entered upon the task assigned to them. The coast was carefully exam- ined,2 and the explorations made by Waymouth the year before were considerably extended. Especially was attention given to that part of the coast lying west of the territory of Waymouth's discoveries. The Sagadahoc, now the Kennebec, was found to be a larger and more important river than that which evoked so much admiration from the explorers on the Archangel. It also afforded much larger trade facilities with the Indians and on this account offered advantages for a settlement that ought not to be over- looked. Accordingly, the location of the river and directions with reference to its entrance were carefully noted. Indeed all facts necessary in planning for the establishment of a colony in the explored territory were sought for and made available for use on the vessel's return.
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