USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Portsmouth > Early Portsmouth history > Part 2
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On November 8, 1603, based on vague claims on the part of France, Sieur de Monts obtained a patent. from Henry IV of France covering all that part of the New World between the 40th and 46th parallels of north latitude. 4, 24 This roughly corresponded to what King James of England, in 1606, granted to the so- called Plymouth Company. France, however, made the first known grant of what later was Maine and New Hampshire soil. This land granted de Monts was known as Cadie or Acadie.4 De Monts, who had been in Canada just before, under Chauvin, 31 attempted a colony on an island at the mouth of the St. Croix River. 31 Later, in 1613, two Jesuits and forty-five colonists planned to settle at what is now Bangor.6, 31 They changed their plan, however, when driven off their course by fog, and finally settled on Somes Sound, near the entrance, at Mount Desert. 31 The French settlers called this spot St. Sauveur. 20 Relying on a. clause in their charter giving them the right to remove by force any unauthorized persons who settled within their limits, the Virginia company, in the person of
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Samuel Argall, admiral of Virginia, in July, 1613, un- expectedly sailed in and attacked this Jesuit colony.31 Argall by some was called a freebooter. He was off the coast at the time, and had heard of the settlement from Indians. Argall was successful and removed the French from Mount Desert. 6, 31 This was the only serious attempt by the French at settlement in New England south of the St. Croix River.6
The basis of all effort in the New World, around 1600, was money profit. This effort found one expres- sion on March 26, 1602, when Bartholomew Gosnold, and with him Bartholomew Gilbert, son of Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert, sailed from Falmouth,7,8 England, on a voyage "to the north parts of Virginia,"8 as the middle North American coast was then known. This expedi- tion had the backing of a group of Englishmen, and was sent for speculative purposes. It was composed of not more than thirty-two persons, of whom twelve, it was proposed, should form a settlement.3 Gosnold was an excellent mariner,3 and is reported to have sailed in American waters previously.3
This expedition made first the Azores; then, sailing northwestward from the Azores, they made land on May 14, 1602, in about latitude 43º north. 3,7,8,12 Gos- nold and his men probably were not the first Euro- peans to anchor in this vicinity on the American coast, namely, that of 43º north latitude, but there is no definite record of others arriving earlier on the coast at this latitude. "Hakluyt mentions the landing of some of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's men upon some part of the continent, but it is probable that was farther eastward upon what is now called Nova Scotia." 4
Gosnold named the land which he discovered "Mavoshen." 4 As the party looked along the land in
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front of them, they saw savages on a conspicuous rock. 12 Because this was their first sight of savages they called the rock "Savage Rock." 12
Forty-three degrees north latitude runs through the Isles of Shoals, and reaches the mainland at Rye Harbor, New Hampshire. One writer places Savage Rock as the Nubble,8 just east of York Beach, Maine, but most authors agree, after studying the reports of Gosnold's voyage, that his landfall was on the Massa- chusetts coast, west of Cape Ann, and probably near Nahant. Captain Waymouth, who followed Gosnold in 1605 into New England waters, said that Gos- nold's chart was more than half a degree off the exact latitude, 11 which further confirms the statement made in "Navagantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca," Vol. II, that Gosnold reached these shores west of Cape Ann, and probably west of Gloucester Harbor, in latitude 42° and some minutes.3 Again, the account of Pring's voyage speaks of making for "Savage Rock," discovered the previous year by Captain Gos- nold. The account indicates that Pring sailed to the south of Portsmouth Harbor in making for this land- mark. 12
The story of that interesting morning when Gos- nold's party first anchored off what probably was near Nahant is found in a relation or account of the voyage written by John Brereton, who sailed with the expedi- tion. It begins: "To the Honorable Sir Walter Ra- leigh, Kt., Honorable Sir, Being earnestly requested by a deere friend to put down in writing some true rela- tion of our late performed voyage to the north parts of Virginia, at length I resolved to satisfy his request." 8 Relations of the voyage go on to say that after making land, on May 14, the expedition saw eight Indians
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who came out to meet them "in a Biscay shallop with mast, saile and oares, an iron grapple and a kettle of copper, who came boldly aboard, one dressed in wast- coat and breeches of black serdge, made after our sea fashion, hose and shoes on his feet," 8 "hat and band 12 on his head." "The rest were all naked;" "a people tall of stature, broad and grim visaged, their eye- browes paynted white." 8 "It seemed by some words and signs they made that some Basks or of St. John de Ley, have fished or traded in this place, being in the latitude of 43º. But riding here in no very good harbour, and doubting the weather, we weighed, and standing southerly off into the sea came to" 7 "a mighty headland," which Gosnold named Cape Cod.7,12 The account goes on to say that the expedition saw much sassafras,8 then worth three shillings a pound.8 A long list of trees, flowers, beasts, fish, fruits and metals met with, is included.8,12
Purchas, Vol. IV, London, 1625, publishes the fol- lowing account of Gosnold's arrival at Savage Rock: "The fourteenth, about six in the morning, we descried land that lay north etc. The northerly part we called the North land, which to another rocke upon the same side lying twelve miles west, that we called Savage Rocke, because the savages first showed themselves there. ... From the said Rocke came towards us a Biscay shallop with saile and oares, having eight per- sons in it, whom we supposed at first to be Christians distressed. But approaching us neere, wee perceived them to be savages. These coming within call hayled us, and wee answered. Then after signs of peace and a long speech by one of them made, they came boldly aboord us, being all naked, saving about their shoulders certaine loose Deere-skinnes, and neere their wastes
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seale-skinnes tyed fast like to Irish Dimmie Trouses. One that seemed to be their commander wore a waste- coate of blacke worke, a paire of breeches, cloth stock- ings, shooes, Hat and band. One or two more had also a few things made by some Christians. These with a peice of chalk described the coast thereabouts. They spake divers Christian words, and seemed to under- stand much more than we. These people are in colour swart, their haire long uptied in the part of behind the head. They paint their bodies. These much desired wee longer stay, but finding ourselves short of our proposed place we set saile west wards." 12
The Massachusetts Historical Society Collections review the report that Gosnold was welcomed at his first stopping place in latitude 43º north by eight sav- ages who came boldly aboard from one of their shal- lops, showing "that probably some beseamers 9 had been wrecked in fishing there." 9 The boldness of these savages is referred to, the thought being that they were used to Europeans. On this proof it is con- jectured that the coast in the vicinity of 43º north latitude had been visited by fishermen from France, Spain or elsewhere before 1602.5 If this conjecture is correct, so important a harbor as that of the Piscat- aqua very likely was not passed by and was also visited.
Captain Gosnold, not liking the weather at his first stopping place, as the account reads, weighed anchor, and the next morning, "finding himself drawing nigh a mighty headland, let fall his anchor neigh the shore, and then himself with four men went on shore." 7 The relation describes the headland as part of the mainland, and around the headland many islands. The Massachusetts Historical Society Collections point
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out that the hill Gosnold climbed was presumably on the south side of Cape Cod,7 and the islands, the Eliz- abeth Islands, 4 named by Gosnold for Queen Eliza- beth, who was still alive when he left England.4 While near the Cape, Gosnold's men "caught more codfish 12 than they knew what to do with, and this promon- tory hath ever since borne the name of Cape Cod, which he was not willing to exchange for the royal name that Capt. Smith or some other mariner hath given." 7 Gosnold explored the Elizabeth Islands and built a fort. 4
Mr. George Parker Winship, who has edited "Voy- ages Along the New England Coast," tells interestingly that Gosnold sailed to the north parts of Virginia, probably because he went without any license from Sir Walter Raleigh, to whom had been granted exclusive trading rights in Virginia. If the expedition had had such a license it would naturally have gone to the southward. It seemed probable that the operations of the expedition would be less likely discovered if the party sailed to the "north parts of Virginia," and so there they went; but Mr. Winship goes on to say that Gosnold's party got so much sassafras, then considered a panacea for all ills, that when they put it on the market in England on their return they broke the mar- ket, and the sudden drop in price attracted so much attention that the voyage was discovered. The ex- pedition made peace with Sir Walter Raleigh, and later made it out as if they had sailed with his full approval.8 Gosnold later died in Virginia, 1607, in the at first ill-fated colony at Jamestown. 18
As previously stated, there is no known description of the coast by early voyagers prior to the end of 1602 that tallies with the Piscataqua River or the short
Lower Harbor, Newcastle, Fort Point, Gerrish Island and the Sea
Published through the courtesy of Mr. J. W. Newell
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New Hampshire coast line.14 From then on, however, integral parts of the New England coast were more and more reported to the English public. These reports came, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, through attempts to gain wealth out of the New World. Adventuring in America was at that time a business proposition. A group of merchants would combine in a venture. They would license a ship or ships, fit them out and send them, under capable command, to bring back, if possible, gain to the original adventurers, who were merchants staying in the home country. It was on this basis that the New Hampshire coast was first officially reported in Europe.
The first description of the New Hampshire shore of which there is record is the result of an expedition headed by Martin Pring (also found spelled Pringe, 3 Pryne and Prin 7). This report is found in "Purchas His Pilgrimes," published in London in 1625. The account follows:
"Upon many probable and reasonable inducements used unto sundry of the chiefest merchants of Bristol by Master Richard Hakluyt, Prebendary of the Cathe- drall Church of the said city, they resolved to set forth a voyage for the further discoverie of the north part of Virginia. And first they sent the said Master Hakluyt to obtain permission of Sir Walter Raleigh (which had a most ample patent of all those parts from Queen Elizabeth) to enter, meddle and deal in that action. Leave being obtained from him under his hand and seal, they speedily prepared a small ship called the 'Speedwell', in burthen about fifty tunnes, manning the same with some thirty men and boys, wherein went for master and chief commander in the voyage
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one Martin Pring, a man very sufficient for his place, and Edmund Jones, his mate, and Robert Salterne (who had sailed with Gosnold the previous year 13) as their chief agent, with a barke called 'The Discoverer', of six and twenty tunnes or thereabout, wherein went for master William Browne and Samuel Kirkland, his mate, both good and skilful mariners, being thirteen men and a boy in all in that barke. The aforesaid ship and barke were plentifully victualled for eight monethes, and furnished with slight merchandizes thought fit to trade with the people of the countrey, as hats of divers colors, green, blue and yellow, stock- ings and shoes, saws, pick-axes, spades, shovels, axes, sizzers, hatchets, nailes, fish hooks, bels, bugles, look- ing glasses, thimbles, needles, pinnes, and such like."12 The expedition set sail from Kingrode the twentieth day of March, 1603.12 They passed by the Azores, and, as the account continues, "after we had runne some five hundred leagues, we fell with a multitude of small islands on the north coast of Virginia, in the latitude of 43º,3,12 the - day of June, which islands were found very pleasant to behold, adorned with goodly grasse and sundry sorts of trees. Heere we found excellent fishing for cods, which are better than those of Newfoundland, and with all we saw good and rockie ground fit to dry them upon; also we see no reason to the contrary but that salt may bee made in these parts, a matter of no small importance. We sailed to the southwest end of these islands and there rode with our ships under one of the greatest. One of them we named Foxeland because we found those kinds of beasts thereon. So, passing through the rest with our boates to the mayneland, which lieth for a good space northeast and southwest, we found very
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safe riding among them in six, seven, eight ten and twelve fathomes. At length, coming to the Mayne, in the latitude of forty-three degrees and a halfe, we ranged the same to the southwest. In which course we found foure inlets, the most easterly whereof was barred at the mouth, but having passed over the barre, wee ran up into it five miles, and for a certain space found very good depth, and coming out again, as we sailed southwestward, we lighted upon two other in- lets which, upon our search, we found to pierce not far into the land, the fourth and most westerly was the best, which we rowed up ten or twelve miles. In all these places we found no people but signes of fires where they had been." 12 The expedition reported seeing sundry sorts of beasts, and also that the party found no sassafras in this particular locality.12
The parallel of 43º north runs through the Isles of Shoals, between Duck and Appledore Islands. The mouth of the Saco River is approximately 43º 27' north. There is shoal water at the entrance of the Saco River today. The coast line from the Saco River runs southwestward. There are two inlets between the Saco and the Piscataqua which do not run far inland, one the Kennebunk River, and the other the York River. The broad estuary of the Piscataqua can be pursued twelve miles up. This report of the voyage of Martin Pring seems almost surely to identify the land which he first saw after leaving the Azores as the Isles of Shoals, and the most westerly of the four inlets to which he refers, as the Piscataqua. 18 This description of the coast is identical with the topog- raphy today. We do not know that Martin Pring and his men were the first Europeans to see the Piscataqua River, but this report of the Piscataqua is the first
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record that we have of any European visiting the Piscataqua or the New Hampshire shore.
On the trip up the Piscataqua, Pring's party is said to have landed at various points in search of sassafras. After leaving the Piscataqua, Pring and his men went well to the southward. They found a goodly supply of sassafras, then especially regarded as a cure for the French pox.12 They filled one ship and sent it home to England ahead of the other. The second vessel, also well laden, reached home about a fortnight after the other.3 The expedition reached England in Octo- ber, 1603.3 Pring was twenty-three years old 15 when he was given command of the "Speedwell." Later, in 1606, a Capt. Martin Pring, presumably the same, was sent by Chief Justice Popham, in command of a ship, to the Maine coast. Pring reached Monhegan, and made a careful reconnaissance of rivers and harbors along the coast. 19
In 1603, when Sieur de Monts secured his grant from Henry IV of France,5 he proposed to Samuel de Cham- plain to accompany him into the New World,20 and chose him to conduct the vessels of the expedition to Acadia.31 Champlain had already voyaged - 1599- 1602 - to the West Indies and Mexico. 20 He had
charm and an adventurous disposition: "He was remarkable, not only for his good sense, strong pene- tration and upright views, but for his activity, daring, enterprise and valor. He had a natural gaiety of spirit, which made him at all times a cheerful companion. His zeal for the interest of his country was ardent and disinterested. His heart was tender and compas- sionate, and he was thoroughly unselfish. He was a faithful historian, intelligent and observant as an ex- plorer, and an experienced seaman." 31 It is also stated
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that in 1603 a company of merchants at Rouen, France, formed a company to make profit out of Acadie, or France in America, and that this group of merchants put Champlain at the head of an expedi- tion.18 If this is true, the affairs of this expedition seem to have merged shortly into the larger plans of de Monts. Champlain went with de Monts, with the permission of the King of France, and under instruc- tions from the King to report back to him regarding his discoveries and adventures.20
As has been stated, de Monts, and his expedition on which went Champlain, founded a colony on an island in the St. Croix. Champlain explored the near-by coast, and on September 5, 1604, saw and named Mount Desert "Isle des Monts Déserts." 20 The party passed a miserable winter in 1604 at St. Croix, and the next fall, 1605, removed to Port Royal, now Annapolis. 31
On June 18, 1605, Champlain, serving under Sieur de Monts, and with de Monts and some gentlemen, twenty sailors and a savage named Panounias, sailed southward along the shore. The party also took Panounias' wife with them, whom Panounias was unwilling to leave behind. The two savages were taken as guides.20 Champlain has told simply, and with great charm, the story of this voyage. Champlain traveled southward along the shore until he came, on July 12, 1605,20 to what he called "Island Harbor," which was probably what is known today as Cape Porpoise Harbor. This he describes as follows: "At the entrance there are some dangerous reefs. This island harbor is in latitude 43° 25'."20 From this harbor, the account states, Champlain and his party sailed along the shore for twelve leagues, the account
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reading as follows: "On the 15th of the month [July] we made twelve leagues. Coasting along, we perceived a smoke on the shore which we approached as near as possible, but saw no savage, which led us to believe that they had fled. The sun set and we could find no harbor for that night, since the coast was flat and sandy. Keeping off and heading south, in order to find an anchorage, after proceeding about two leagues, we observed a cape on the mainland, south a quarter southeast of us, some six leagues distant. Two leagues to the east we saw three or four rather high islands, and on the west a large bay. The coast of this bay, reaching as far as the cape, extends inland from where we were perhaps four leagues. It has a breadth of two leagues from north to south, and three at its entrance. Not observing any favorable place for put- ting in, we resolved to go to the cape above mentioned with short sail, which occupied a portion of the night. Approaching to where there were sixteen fathoms of water, we anchored until daybreak. On the next day we went to the above mentioned cape, where there are three islands near the mainland. We named this place 'Island Cape,' near which we saw a canoe con- taining five or six savages, who came out near our barque, and then went back and danced on the beach. Sieur de Monts sent me on shore to observe them and to give each one of them a knife and some bis- cuit, which caused them to dance again better than before." 20
Champlain calls the bay referred to "Bay Longue," and gives the latitude of the cape as 43º and some minutes. Champlain names the cape "Island Cape," because of three islands just off it. Maps accompany- ing Champlain's report show the coast line according
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to his description. There is little doubt but that Champlain sailed down the coast to the southwest- ward from what is now Cape Porpoise Harbor, which coast survey charts place in latitude 43° 21' 43".20 The point from which he describes his observations is probably a point about four or five miles off Little Boar's Head. The "three or four rather high islands" are undoubtedly the Isles of Shoals, "Island Cape" (Cape Ann), and "Bay Longue" (Ipswich Bay). 20
That Champlain was in error as to the latitude of the Island Cape was probably in accordance with much of the navigation of the time. He had been at Cape Por- poise Harbor July 12 to 14, and he gave very exactly the latitude of this spot. The 15th was apparently smoky, and the day, seemingly, did not clear until toward sundown. Champlain very likely figured the latitude of the Island Cape from dead reckoning. Gosnold was reported at least half a degree off in his latitude, and there must have been many similar errors. Champlain himself made at least one known mistake in latitude.20 The science was crude. Longi- tude was still a mariner's dream. Seamen wanted to work it out, but they had no proper method. In 1598 Philip III of Spain offered a reward of one hundred thousand crowns to any one who would solve the problem of how to work out longitude correctly.21 In 1635 a Frenchman, John Morin, proposed to Cardi- nal Richelieu a method much like the lunar method used later, but it was not readily accepted.21
What is now Portsmouth Harbor is hard to pick up by a glance at the shore line from a point four or more miles at sea. Agamenticus stands out in clear weather, and the white sands of the Rye shore, but the reefs off the western end of Gerrish Island seem to make, with
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Wood Island, a solid wall of land, and the actual mouth of the Piscataqua sinks into the rocky and green shores that border and back it. Champlain apparently sailed along, that fifteenth day of July, with a faint haze over the water that did not clear until sundown. When the low sun, setting over Hamp- ton, lit the shores of Cape Ann and the remainder of the coast line, Champlain was able to take an estimate of the situation, but apparently not to his satisfaction previous to that moment on that day. Otherwise the Shoals would surely have been seen, and probably remarked on. It is to be noted that Champlain placed the Shoals to the east, which seems to imply that he was well beyond the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor before he saw them clearly, though they are only seven miles from shore, and he must have been within four miles or so of them.
Mrs. Celia Thaxter, who lived many years at the Isles of Shoals, wrote the following lines, which, per- haps, fit that long sail of Champlain and of Sieur de Monts, on July 15, 1605:
Lazily, through the warm grey afternoon, We sailed toward the land; Over the long sweep of billows soon, We saw on either hand Peninsula and cape and silver beach Unfold before our eyes.
From the Island Cape this expedition of Champlain sailed southward until July 25, when it turned and came back to the Island Cape, then headed north- east one-quarter east for fifteen leagues, until the party came to the coast again.
On September 5 of the following year Champlain
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sailed again southward along the coast in a barque of eighteen tons. The party got many mackerel as they went. The account reads: "Continuing our course, we proceeded to the Island Cape, where we encoun- tered bad weather and fogs." 20 Wishing a place to put in, Champlain states that he remembered that on his previous voyage he had seen a harbor which had looked suitable. As he puts it, this harbor was about a league back, but he does not make clear at what point he was when he described the direction of the harbor. He directed his party to this harbor, and, as Champlain's account reads, "We proceeded to anchor at the mouth, and went in next day. Sieur du Pon- traincourt landed with eight or ten men of our com- pany. They saw very fine grapes just ripe, peas, pumpkins, squashes and two hundred savages." 20 They also saw tuberous sunflowers, which the Indians cultivated for the roots, which were good to eat.15 Champlain was delighted with this little harbor and named it "Beauport," 20 drawing a map which accom- panies his report. Champlain gave the latitude of Beauport as 43º.20 Champlain says of Beauport: "This harbor is very fine, containing water enough for vessels, and affording a shelter from the weather behind the islands." 20
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