Pemaquid, its genesis, discovery, name and colonial relations to New England

Qass.
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PEHAQUID

ITS GENESIS, DISCOVERY, NAHE AND COLONIAL
RELATIONS TO NEW ENGLAND

BY RUFUS KING SEWALL

Read before the Lincoln County Historical Society
nay 22, 1896

PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY
1896

;., v'4

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PEMAOUID.

Its Gexesis, Discovery, Name and Colonial Relations to

New England.

BV RUFUS KING SEWALL.

Read before the Lincoln County Historical Society, Max 22, iSg6.

I

English records have preser\-ed the acts of the EngHsh race in
the discovery, survey, seizin and possession of New England, somewhat
scattered in detail, but easily collated, to be arranged in their natural
relations, in verification of the truth of history.

Many of these initial acts have never been fully analyzed and
combined in their natural order and relations, to the development of
New England history in Maine, but rather have been eclipsed in the
glamor of more ambitious local surroundings, foreign to Maine.

I now propose to lift the shadows, relieve the glamor, disclose
and trace the life threads of New England to rootlets at Pemaquid.

We have this summary of colonial facts by Major, in his intro-
duction to the Hackluit papers, original sources of the beginnings of
English homes in New England, viz : "that to the *northward in the
height [latitude] 44°, lyeth the country of Pemaquid — the Kingdom
wherein our western colony was sometime planted."

This summary connects Pemaquid with Sagadahoc in the colo-
nial possessions of the English there. The latitude given determines the
locus in quo to have been in New England, and at and about Pema-
quid and its dependencies.

The English discovery may be regarded as somewhat accidental,
in a marine novelty of a Captain Gosnold, as to his course across the
Atlantic, shaped due west from Falmouth, west of England, as the winds
would allow him to run. In seven weeks, fo" the 14th of May, 1602,
among floating seaweed and land wrack at sea, lured by the smile of

*Major's introduction, Hackluit papers, Tra. in Va. p. 27.
tArcher. Gosnold's voyage.

t^'

.*;

2 Lincoln County Historical Society.

land ahead, near sunrise, he made land bearing north : "an out point ol'
rising ground ; trees on it high and straight from the rock ; land some-
what low ; certain hummocks, or hills lying inland, with a shore full
of white sand, but very stony or rocky. Little round green hills above
the cliffs appearing east-northeast, from the sea-point of observation."

Such was the topography of the new land-fall, and of the shore
view of land about *Sagadahoc, a shore full of white sand, the first
English view of Maine.

Gosnold cast anchor near this remarkable land- fall, when a Span-
ish slcrop manned with eight Indian seamen — natives of the region,
soon came on board. Some were dressed in European cloth and
costume ; and one wearing a hat and shoes, fchalked a map of the
new discovered country, for the ship's company, and called it "Ma-
voo-shan."

This was an early view of a part of New England, within the 43°
N. L. ; and of a cape, now called "Small Point," in 43° 42' N ; and
of the shores of the Sagadahoc, eastward thereof, with its broad, white
sandy beaches, and rock fretted mouth of the Kennebec watershed.

It was the English //7/;/<z-z'/j-/(Z of New England; and in the car-
tography of this Indian Chalk, of the "Eastern parts," of a newly dis-
covered country, the name of "Pema-quid" was found, applied to a
little river of the eastern water-shed of Ma-voo-shan with that of
"Saga-da-hoc," in the west.

The name is apparently derived from a purely Indian source, viz :
yPci/ii", meaning oil, and %"■ Quidden,'' a ship ; and has ever been ap-
plied to the point of the main land west under Monhegan Island, a
promontory or cape, five miles long by three wide, in N. L. 43° 50'.
This point is the eastern main-land loop of the great Kennebec water-
shed, of which Cape Small Point is the western point of the crescent
shaped body of water called Saga-da-hoc bay, in latitude 43° 42' north,
of the coast of Maine.

It was here Weymouth found native whale-men at work, which
he describes, in 1605 ; and where Captain John Smith "fished for
whales," in 16 14; and being the place where whale oil was gathered,
may have given the name.

* Hutchinson's History, Mass., vol. i, chap, i, Strachey.
jHohnes Annals, vol. i, note 4. t fRaslc's Dictionary.
JRosier's Narrative.

Pemaijnid. 3

SURVEY OF A. D. 1605.

A new *survcy was projected, to verify the findings of Gosnold's
land-fall ; and to seek a fit and convenient place for English "seizin
and possession," A. D 1605.

In the month of June of that year, Capt. George Weymouth, in a
ship called the Archangel, her company made up in part of the Gos-
nold men of 1602, reached the Gosnold land-fall, in latitude N.
43° and 44° ; and in July returned, with a full report and favorable of
a new found capacious harbor and the rivers of Mavooshan — Pema-
quid and Sagadahoc with five Pemaquid Indians, natives.

COLONIAL CONTRACT.

April 10, A. D. 1606, the charter contract for colonial settlement
of the points designated in this survey, was drawn up by Chief Justice
Popham, between the Crown of England and leading noblemen there-
of, to seize and occupy the country at the fit and convenient and de-
sirable places indicated in the Weymouth surveys ; and in the summer
of 1607, two ships and a tender, from west of England and London,
under command of Captain George Popham and a company of one hun-
dred and twenty colonial volunteers, to settle the places aforesaid,
reached Monhegan island, and harbored there the 9th of August, 1607,
— spent that day, — a Sunday ashore, under an old cross found stand-
ing there, in the public worship of God, when and where was preached
a sermon, by the chaplain of the ship, Richard Seymour, of the fc^ng-
lish Episcopal church. The next day, a party of the colonial expedi-
tion were conducted by a Pemaquid Indian, a pilot on board, to the
neighboring main, westward, in the ship's boats, landed in a cove and
marched across the point and to an Indian town, the residence of an
Indian chief, Nahanada. Captain Popham thereafter, with fifty men
in the ship's barge, rowed round the point, into the river, and met Na-
hanada and his bowmen drawn up in battle array. The interview,
however, ended in amicable recognition ; and Captain Popham re-
tired to the opposite shore and slept his first night at Pemaciuid.
Thereafter both ships sailed for Sagadahoc, westward; and on the 20th
of August landed on the peninsula of "Sabino," entrenched a fort,
built a town of fifty houses, a store-house, a church with a fsteeple to
it, and a shipyard, and inaugurated a civil government.

♦.Strachey.

fHunt's sketch, Brown's Genesis of the United States.

4 Lincoln County Historical Society.

OUT GROWTH.

Out of this colonial movement, the Sheepscot and Pemaquid
settlements of the English race seem to have started. Indeed, our
earliest American authorities indicate that Sheepscot and Pemaquid
were designated as "fit, *convenient, and desirable /A? r^-^," to h^ seized
<z;;^//^v/{/f(;v/ by fPopham colonists. The fact is given in Hubbard's
summary of A. D. 1676, which says: — "Captain George Popham
and Gilbert, were sent over at the charge of Sir John Popham, to be-
gin a colony at Sagadahoc * * * and about Sheepscot Rive)- twenty
miles from Pemaquid. Toward Pemaquid is a considerable river, the
Sheepscot, upon the banks of which, were many scattered planters."

Hubbard further says : "The first place that was ever possessed by
the English in hope of making a plantation * * * was on the west side
of Sagadahoc river," and adds : '■'■ 0 the i- places adjoining were sc)0n after
seized and improved for trade and fishing."

"Notwithstanding the discouragement of the first planters. Sir
Francis Popham, son of Sir John, * * * having the ships and provis-
ions which remained of the abandoned colony, sent divers times to
the coast for trade and fishing." J

The protest of Sir Francis to the abandonment seems to have
sent his father's ship (the Gift of God and her tender) to Pemaquid, —
where she was found by Captain John Smith, of Pocahontas fame, in
1 6 14, in a %Port, on the main, over against Monhegan Island, having
many years used only that port, so that most of the trade there was
had by him. Sir Francis.

A PORT.

It is a commercial haven and has great significance in the dis-

♦Charter of April 10, 1606.

fCharter of 1620.

JGorges.

§The record is "Sir Francis Popham, son and lieir of the noble patriot his
father, the chief justice, chief author of the undertaking" [at Sagadahoc] "on the
break up there, would not wholly give over the design ; but did divers times after-
ward send to the same coast for trade and fishing, to which purpose he had great
opportunity, by the ships and provisions of the company, that remained in his hands."
[5 vol. Mass. Hist. col. 2 series p. 372.]

The out-growth was the Popham Port at Pemaquid, where we find the begin-
nings of the earliest English commercial industries in New England in the sole use
of the ships of the Popham estate and its heirs.

Penuxijiiid. 5

closures of Captain John Smith's Popham findings under Monhegan
Island. Pemaquid is the only main-land near Monhegan over against
its harbor, there being no main-land within reach east or north.

A port is a place of commercial business involving handling of
freight, delivering and receiving cargoes ; a place of imports and ex-
ports, foreign or domestic. Popham's Port at Pemaquid was a place
of foreign export and of freight there gathered, of fish there caught
and cured for market, and of furs and peltries, there bought and
stored.

The word port in 1614 meant all that it means to-day, in com-
mercial use and nomenclature. It is an epitome of facts, relat-
ing to business aggregation and incidents of commerce, by ships.

The above facts show that the Popham family were in occupancy
of Pemaquid as an exclusive commercial site for export trade to
England in 16 14 and had been so occupied for years prior to 1614.

This fact involves the existence then and there, of wharves for
the discharge and loading of cargoes and freight, store-houses for
goods, and outfits for the fisheries, and ware-houses for peltries,
dwelling houses for shoresmen and clerks, or agents and employees,
purchasing furs, curing and storing fish for back freight, all necessary
incidents of the business there described, and of a business of many
years growth : a business so extended and centralized, as to absorb
the entire inland trade of Indian supplies and customs.

Captain Williams was the Popham ship-master of 16 14, at the
Popham Pemaquid Port, loading and making up cargoes there for
P^ngland ; and if for six years before, it would make the opening of
Popham's Port an English settlement at Pemaquid, in 160S, and
cotemporaneous with the abandonment of Sagadahoc, which was on
or about October 8, 1608.

New Harbor to this day, shows the relics of very ancient
commercial use.

On the main, opposite Monhegan Island, a mill-stream from the
highlands of Pemaquid, has pushed its way into the sea between the
headlands by a double outlet, forming the only harbor of refuge, near
the point, known from the earliest periods of record, as " New Harbor."

The western margins are deeply marked with ancient cellars, and
have been from the earliest ])eriods of observation thus marked with

6 Lincoln County Historical Society.

the remains o{2iCompact commercial settlement. In the back ground well
defined outlines of an old fort, out of which tall grown oaks have been
cut. In the head of this harbor, fragments of ancient mill-stones, dug
out of the flats, are still to be seen, and leaden relics of European trade,
bearing the date of A. D. 1610, with other remarkable indications of a
very ancient and permanent place of business, as a trade center or
station.*

The fact of a port in the exclusive use of Popham's ships, in 16 14,
at or near this point, is an epitome of subordinate and correlative facts.
It was a port of export of fish and the storage of furs by the cargo and
for freight.

* DEPOSITION.
I, Joshua Thompson, of New Harbor, in the town of Bristol and State of Maine,
do make oath and say that I was born at New Harbor, in said Bristol, and have re-
sided there most of the time since; am forty-seven years of age. In the time of my
boyhood the land on the north side of New Harbor was covered with wood of large
growth, which has lately been cut away, bringing to light seventeen cellars or the
remains of them. These cellars are as large as good sized houses in the same vicin-
ity, and some are much larger than ordinary houses. On digging around these cel-
lars I have found various articles of household use, such as pipes, crockery, hatchets,
pincers, etc. These cellars had been stoned up with the same kind of stone as is
now abundant about New Harbor. All these cellars contain charred remains of
boards, planks, etc., seeming to show that the buildings had been burned. I have
found these remains in twelve or fifteen of these cellars. The houses seem to have
stood in two irregular rows, parallel to the shore of the Harbor. Neai one of these
cellars human bones which I judge to be the bones of a youth, were found just be-
neath the surface of the ground. On a small space near the shore I, and some
others, found, close to the water's edge, thirty-two pounds of shot, by weight, within
five years of this time. I know of fifty pounds having been found there varying in
size from a musket bullet to a No. 2 shot. I still have a part of this shot in my
house, but the greater part I allowed my boys to sell to pedlars not knowing the
value or interest that might attach to it. Found also about twenty-five pounds of
fragments of lead, of various shapes and sizes. This was scattered over a space from
four to six rods square. F'ound in the same locality less than four years ago, a piece
of lead of peculiar shape bearing a date "A. D. 1610" in the outer edge of a raised
circle, containing the letter ''H." On the reverse side is a stamp probably designed
as an ornament but which could not well be made out. It is in two parts connected
at one end by a leaden rivet, each part an inch long, or when open two inches long
or more. I sold this piece of lead to Mr. Loring Grimes of Rockport, Mass., for five
dollars. Found three other pieces of lead like the one sold to Mr. Grimes, but not
having legible dates. Found at the same time a hatchet, obviously of European
manufacture, the edge being about three inches wide. It was forged so as to be

Pemaquid. 7

Hubbard's narrative trecords : Pemaquid is a very commodious
haven, * * * and liath been found very advantageous for ships such
as use the coast for fishing voyages. There hath been for a long time,
seven or eight considerable dwellings about Pemaquid, a place well
suited to pasturage about the harbor, for cattle and fields for tillage.
All such lands are already taken up by such number of inhabitants."
In less than ten years after Captain Smith had described the exten-
sive Indian trade of Popham's Port on the east shores of Pemaquid
(1623-4) Christopher Levett an English navigator in the service of
Gorges, came into Boothbay Harbor, where he spent four or five days
and found nine ships there harboring, engaged in the fisheries. There
he encountered a fleet of Indian canoes laden with beaver coats and
peltries, on the way to Pemaquid. Sa-maa-set led the expedition ;
and Cogawesco of Casco, and Mena-wormet of Sasanoa river, were of
the Indian trading company. Levett coveted this Pemaquid truck;
and by the influence of Samaaset, diverted every beaver coat and
peltry, except a single one with two skins pledged to pay a debt at
Pemaquid, to his own trade and ship. The beaver laden canoes,

used in the right hand only, it has no pole and is not shaped like the axes used now
in this country. Among the scraps of lead I found a piece of silver money. The
date of this was obliterated, it was as large as a dime.

Besides the cellars of which I have spoken there appears the remains of what
looks like a fortitication. This is on the highest point of land on the north side of
the Harbor, and quite commands its approaches by land as well as by water. Its
size is as follows east and west 52 feet, north and south 51 feet. The entrance was
at the south-east corner. The walls are about live feet thick. F'rom time to time
the stone of these walls have been removed by the citizens to build cellars and stone
fences. All this was covered in my boyhood by oak wood of very large size which
has since been cleared off.

A mill-stone was dug out of the soil at the head of New Harbor some years ago,
and now lies in the water, where it can be seen.

I have lately seen the piece of lead referred to above, bearing date "A. D. 16 10"
in the possession of Mr. J. H. Hackelton of this town.

Bristol, Maine, May 12th, 1871.

JOSHUA THOMPSON.

Personally appeared Joshua Thompson and made oath that the above state-
ments are tme to the best of his belief and knowledge.

FRANCIS WHEELER,

J. Peace.

tHubbard's Indian Wars.

8 Lincobi County Historical Society.

had a great store of peltries for the Pemaquid market, whither they
were bound.

This *fact shows that Popham's Port, Pemaquid, held a firm grasp
of wide scope on the Indian trade of the country prior to 1625 ; and
further shows the existence there of the necessary adjuncts of import
and export trade, usual in foreign commerce and ship business, to sup-
port many years of such business. The wharf, the store house, dwell-
ings for shoresmen and employees, are all usual necessities ; with the
probable safe guard of a fort, to cover the business interest of the
port, which means more than a trade station and fishing place, — a
haven for ships : a nestling place for commerce. By Smith's account,
Popham's Port at Pemaquid, was the great fur market of the country ;
and if in addition, the Pophams dealt in fish, or engaged in its indus-
tries there, this Port must have had extensive stages and ware-houses
there for curing and storing cargoes for shipment. Fish and furs
were the staples of export trade thence to England, prior to 1614 for
years before. The gathering of freight, and handling of cargoes, and
making up foreign voyages with outfits involved many land's men in
care and labor. This port although under Monhegan, and in sight,
was on the main, accessible to the Indian canoemen.. and more favor-
able to trade in peltries, than Monhegan with the perils of a twelve
mile transit at sea in the fragile, laden, Indian canoe ; and therefore
used before Monhegan had become occupied.

Major in his t^ravels in Virginia, declares that the fisheries and
fur trade of the Popham voyages, gave considerable impulse to colon-
ization. In 1 6 14, they had created a commercial trade center at
Pemaquid, which controlled the business of the country, at a haven on
the east shore. The country and surroundings in Smith's graphic ac-
count, of his observations and experiences off Popham's Port, "showed
high craggy cliff rocks, stony isles and it was a wonder such great trees
could grow upon them. The sea there, too, was the strangest of fish-
pond. The coast all mountainous, and isles of huge rocks, over
grown with most sorts of excellent woods, for house building, the
building of boats, barks or ships, with an incredible abundance of
most sorts offish, much fowl and sundry fruits, and where the Indians

*Levett's Voyage M. His. Col. Vol. 11.
t.Major's Intro. Tra. in Va. p. 17.

Pemaqiiid. 9

take and kill most of their otter. A hundred fish of its waters were
in marketable worth, equal to two hundred of the eastern catch, with
half the labor in curing and a whole voyage in season earlier."

All these allegations relate to Smith's experiences and observa-
tions in and about Popham's Port at Pemaquid, and which had been
so long pre-occupied in the fur trade of the Popham estate on the
main under Monhegan, it was impracticable for Smith to make a di-
version in his favor.

DIVERSION OF TRADE.

Two years after, Smith projected a scheme to create a settlement
on the island adjacent to Pemaquid, to divide the business, or rival
the Port of Pemaquid. To assure success, he *says he made an ar-
rangement with a proud savage and one of their greatest Lords, Na-
hanada. Nahanada commanded the harbor at the mouth of the river,
on the Sagadahoc, or west side of Pemaquid Point. On his return to
England, he enlisted Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Dr. Sutcliff, a clergy-
man, to fit out two vessels, one of which was two hundred tons. It
was in 1616.

Smith commanded one, and Thomas Dermer the other ; and the
ships sailed together to secure a diversion and concentration of trade
on Monhegan. One hundred and twenty miles out in a storm, Smith's
vessel strained her masts, and was driven back to port. Dermer es-
caped the gale, executed his commission at Monhegan and started bus-
iness there with success. Smith never returned to aid the enterprise
further ; but the fruits of Dermer's success, were English homesteads
around Monhegan Island harbor, a dependency of Pemaquid ; and
from thence a diversion of trade and capital was made to the harbor
mouth of the little river of Pemaquid, where Aldworth and Elbridge es-
tablished their Plantation in 1625, and who bought of the Jennings of
London, their stock in trade on the island within less than a decade
after the Gorges establishment on Monhegan.

ixciDENis, 1622.

On the above facts of record, we leave it to the common sense, to
say, whether there was a settlement at Pemaquid prior to 1625 ; and
as to the importance, and continuity of business enterprise there ; and

*Sniith's Hist, of Virginia.

lo Lincoln County Historical Society.

whether or not it was an off shoot of the Popham colonial adventure
of 1607. Colonial beginnings usually have growth, and that growth,
is a fair exponent of the success and extent of the planting.

EXPANSION.

The natural trend of populous and industrial development of
the commercial interests and influence of Popham's Port at Pemaquid,
would be inland toward the beaver dams and otter haunts of the
marshes and ponds. The Sheepscot head waters being a net work of
marsh channels fringed with arable lands, made the Sheepscot attractive.
The farmers gathered there, and the traders, seamen, and emigrants,
were established twenty miles below at Pemaquid to handle the fish,
furs and truck in peltries, for the merchants of Bristol, England . Fifty
families had made the Sheepscot the garden of New England, in 1630.
In 1660 Maverick wrote: "Pemaquid was a river, west of Penobscot,
on which Alderman Aldworth of Bristol settled a company of people
in 1625. The Plantation hath continued ; and many families are now
settled there. A grant from the Crown gives to its holdings, Monhe-
gan, Damariscove, and other islands adjacent, commodious for fishing."

In 1664, the Pemaquid country was created a royal province,
made a crown estate thereafter organized into a county, Cornwall, and
two municipalities, Jamestown and New Dartmouth, the first at the sea-
side and the second inland among the beaver dams of the Sheepscot,
and is described "as richly stored with great fish, oysters and lobsters" ;
and by the French : that the whole coast of the sea, was studded
with English houses well built and in good condition. Hutchinson
says: the "sea-coast was well inhabited. The fisheries were in a flour-
ishing state. The English were settled in great numbers, and had a
large country cleared under improvement."

Jocelyn, who was in Maine in 1638 and after, wrote of the Duke's
territory — Pemaquid — "it is all filled with dwelling houses ; stages for
fishermen ; has plenty of cattle, arable land and marshes." As early
as 1640, hay and cattle were exported from Pemaquid to Massachu-
setts ; and in 1641, the *record shows that Pemaquid had the ordi-
nances of the gospel, making overtures for the supply of preaching to
its people, in hire of an Episcopal service of the church there half the

'Trelawny Papers.

Pemaquid. 1 1

time. Such is a bird's-eye view of the salient facts of the English his-
tory of Pemaquid i)rior to 1625 and up to 1676.

The detail of events to be woven in, make a web of history, full
of romance and tragedy, equal to any part of New England. The
root of all this flitness was Popham's Port. Supplementary to the fore-
going record, we subjoin the following public, published evidence from
various State papers, bearing on the continuity of the Popham
colonial holdings, and in support of the theory, that the protest of the
abandonment of Sagadahoc by the Pophams, was the English begin-
nings of Pemaquitl.

PUBLIC RECORDS.

Spain regarded the English movements to colonize New Eng-
land as an intrusion and invasion of her transatlantic rights and
titles.

Her spies were sent to every point and her ambassadors were
alert to catch every rumor. Every English colonial plantation, was
duly sketched to fill out detailed reports to Philip III, King of Spain.

Even the projected contract of April 10, 1606, was heralded at
Madrid, before its execution by Popham and Gilbert began, by Zuniga,
ambassador of Spain at the English court, who dispatched his master
on the 1 6th of March prior : "that the English people propose to send
a company to Virginia close to Florida ; and a year or so before they
had brought the natives to be instructed in aid of their possession,
and their *chief leader was Chief Justice Popham, a great Puritan."
"They have an agreement two vessels shall go." After the Popham
contracts were signed, the minister reported. He also entered a pro-
test to the King of England, saying — "it was publicly rumored, two
vessels had sailed ; two others, ready to go ; and he heard from
Plymouth, they (the English,) had settled another district near the
other, i. e. the first.

The above dispatches relate, we think, to the Popham colonial
undertakings of August, 1607, in Maine, and refer to Pemaquid be-
ginnings.

Zuniga, in Jan. 1609, reported to the King of Spain, "Chief Jus-
tice Popham's Colony has returned in sad plight." "Still there sails
now, a good ship and he?- tender^'; i. e. the Gift of God and her fly-boat

*Brown's Genesis of the U. S.

1 2 Lincoln County Historical Society.

of the Popham estate. "They proceed to Virginia * * * will make
themselves very strong." On the 5 th of March, 16 10, Zuniga reports
further : "I am told vessels are loading at Plymouth, with men, to
people the country they have taken ; and colonies from Exeter and
Plymouth are on two large rivers," meaning we think the Sagadahoc
and Pemaquid.

On the 27th of Sept. 161 2, the Minister of Spain, reported — "that
the colonies of Virginia have houses built already ; and have begun
another plantation in Terra Nova parts, where are the great fisheries."
This can be no where else than Pemaquid.

The English State papers furnish further facts growing out of
these complaints of Spain. In 1613, England replied to the Spanish
charges of intrusion, aforesaid, by Carleton, the Secretary of State,
who was directed to declare to Spain, "that she had no possession in
the premises ; that England by discovery and actual possession, had
paramount title, through two colonies, whereof the latter, [i. e. Pop-
ham's], is yet there remainins^y

The Sagadahoc fragment had abandoned its plant in October
1608, but the Popham interest had taken root at Pemaquid and was
in thrift of active commercial enterprise, out of which a port had be-
come an established place for trade in furs, in 1 6 1 4 ; and of sufficient
national importance to be regarded as continued colonial holding
under international law, and so used.

In March, 161 9, the heirs and successors to the original adven-
turers of the Popham colony, petitioned the Crown for a grant in ac-
cord, with a conditional promise of the land interest that colony had
acquired by its enterprize, under the contract of April 10, 1606. The
Attorney General investigated the claim of the petitioners, survivors and
successors of the grantees of the charter agreements of April 10, 1606,
and on his report, the privy council issued to them the charter of
November 3, 1620, known as the great New England charter. The
recitals of this public document, declare, that prior to 1619, the par-
ties to the Popham colonial transactions, had been at great expense
in seeking and discovery of a place ; "fit and convenient to found a
hopeful plantation :'' '^and in divers years before the issue had taken
actual possessesion of the continent and already settled Em^lish people in
places apreal'le to their desires in those parts."

Ft' ma quid. 13

Who then can honestly deny the fact, that the Popham colo-
ny founded the besjinnings of New England ; and that the continuity
of its holdings at Pemaquid and Sheepscot, were of international value
and importance to the success of the ?]nglish race in North America,
or loyally belittle or decry Pemaquid?

II.

It has been said, "God first prepares slowly and from afar, that
which he designs to accomplish," a truth, as rational, as it is obvious
and devout.

All beginnings have their exigencies, which, met and turned, are
preludes to, as well as conditions of success.

Plymouth and the Pilgrims of the colonial epoch of 1620, had
theirs.

That these beginnings had their life exigencies provided for in
Maine, in her "Pemaquid country," in the scheme of Providence, a
series of facts exist, which, marshaled in natural relations, we think will
show.

The history of the colonial life of Plymouth, has been fully de-
veloped, in minute detail in all the shadings and touches of the high-
est art in literature and eloquence which the memories of affection or
the resources of pride could suggest.

But the exigencies of that life now glowing in magnificent outlines
of a grand sweep, were pregnant with perils, critical periods, whose re-
lief came from Maine.

FIRST EXIGENCY OF EXTINCTION FROM SAVAGE HOSTILITIES RELIEVED.

A foothold on Plymouth rock had been secured in the month of
December, 1620.

The icy, wild and inhospitable surroundings rendered it most un-
certain ground, and the step into the new world, an exceeding slippery
footfall to the Pilgrim colonists.

Threading the shores of Cape Cod Harbor in search of shattered
debarkation, the emigrants of the Mayflower, on it, had made a land-
ing. Their first attempt had been greeted with "a great and strange
cry" out of the sand hills and thickets, supplemented with a cloud of
winged arrows of death headed with flint and bone to repel the in-
trusion of strangers. Pilgrim fire-locks and the scream of Christian

14 Lincoln County Historical Society.

bullets were Pilgrim death heralds, invisible and invincible, which
answered back.

It was the opening act in the conflict of races, here in New Eng-
land, for supremacy, in a drama of blood and depopulation, which has
ever since followed the white man's tread across the New World.

The foothold here gained, the intruding race stood appalled at
the inauspicious surroundings. Ninety days of shivering horrors had
only deepened the gloomy forebodings of their landing.

Not more than sixty survived the colonial debarkation ; nor of
these, more than six or seven, were able at times to wait on the sick,
the impotent, and dying.

The deep forests and *neighboring swamps howled for days to-
gether with savage incantations and curses against them in their dis-
tress and calamity. Peace and life were at stake. Their landing
place already heaped with new-made graves menaced betrayal of their
weakness in their hostile surroundings and savage neighbors, and had
to be leveled.

It was the i6th of March, 162 i ; and the opportunity of savage
hordes, most cruel and treacherous, "even like lions," lurking to make
the remnant of colonial life at Plymouth a prey, had fully dawned.

At this juncture in the emergency of their solicitude, — "a tall
straight man ; — the hair of his head black ; long behind only short be-
fore, none on his face at all, starke naked only a leather about his
wast with a fringe about a span long, or little more; having a bow and
2 arrowes, the one headed and the other unheaded ; free in speech and
of a seemely carriage," appeared, boldly walking among the Plymouth
cabins, crying as he went, '■'■Miich loclconic. Englishmen/'' '■'■Much 70cl-
conie, Eni^lishmen!'" It startled the colonists. Surprise and alarm
combined to cjuicken curiosity. The stranger was "Samoset" of Pur-
itan orthoaraphy — a savage lord from the "eastern parts," distant "a
dayes sayle with a great wind" from the Plymouth village. But the
"eastern parts" described, were on the coast of Maine and in the
Pemaquid country near the 44°.

First of the native races of New England in the person of this
tall straight man of her Pemaquid wilds, Maine intervened to relieve
the forlorn strangers. He frankly and intelligently informed the col-

*Morton's Memorial p. 32.

Pcmaquid. 15

onists of the country they had reached, its provinces, the several en-
vironing savage chieftans and their strength, fas well as with many
things in the state of the eastern country."

The Pilgrims were won over to confidence. Hope dawned with
promise of a peaceful future and deliverance from the perils of savage
surroundings. Moved to friendship and pity, the Pilgrims sought to
shield the shivering form of their savage benefactor from the keen March
winds, and gave him "a horseman's coat." He asked for "somebeere."
They gave him "strong water and biskit, and butter and cheese," and a
piece of wild duck. He liked it ; doubtless had eaten the like before at
EngHsh tables at Pemaquid, his home. He had been for some time in
Cape Cod region on account of the necessities and dangers before
the Plymouth colonists landed, having left the "eastern parts," eight
months before, which would be about the 19th of July, 1620. He
spent the day with the colonists ; and also determined to spend the
night.

Distrustful of his purposes the Pilgrims yielded with reluctance,
and would have him quartered in the hold of the "Mayflower" which
still lay at anchor in the bay, but actually lodged him in the house of
Stephen Hopkins, under guard.

In the early gray of the dawn of the next morning, however, he
left. Soon he returned leading in others of his race. It was Sunday.
Wearing a knife, a bracelet and ring, Pilgrim benefactions, with signs
of amity, he introduced "five tall proper men" — with hair cut short
before, but long behind, hung with foxtails and feathers and having
painted faces, their chief bearing a wild-cat's skin on one arm, and in
his hand parched corn powdered to"no-cake."

There were interchanged social and friendly greetings. The
savages were dismissed, to return with their sovereign ; but Samoset re
mained a Pilgrim guest. He received a hat, a pair of stockings, shoes
and a shirt, and continued with the Pilgrim colonists, till the arrival of
Massasoit, the king of that country, and the assurance of peace, by
treaty, to which his kind offices greatly contributed.

Thus introduced by the Pemaquid sagamore and prepared for a
peaceful conference, the king, with sixty braves, met Governor Carver

♦Tradition and Penobscot Indians pronounce as if spelled "Sa-aiaa-set."
tMourt's Relation, p. 26.

1 6 Lincoln County Hislorical Society.

of Plymouth, Captain Standish, Mr. Williamson, and six musketeers.
They came heralded with drum and trumpet. Negotiations were at
once entered upon, and an agreement for peace and amity, between
the colonists and environing savages, was concluded, with "kissing,
drinking and feasting." His majesty, Massasoit, meanwhile trembling
and sweating under sturdy draughts of the Pilgrim's strange "strong
waters," became an easy conquest to the colonial plan of an assured
state of amity. The repose and success of the colonial life at Ply-
mouth, having thus been covered, Samoset, in the glory of his bene-
ficient agency, in controlling the incidents of the cradling of an
embryo state and the infancy of Massachusetts passes forever from
Plymouth scenes, leaving the Pilgrims informed of the state of
the country, and also of "//;<? eastern pai-ts.'" The chief men of
the savage tribes in their neighborhood, their disposition and their
power, were detailed. Especially were they by him, informed of
the influence and power of King Massasoit within whose local jur-
isdiction, the Pilgrim lot had fallen ; and the peace he had helped to
comfirm for half a century covered and fastened an English common-
wealth in the heart of savage empire.

The result was a new lease of life to the apparently doomed
Pilgrim colony. History *records, that no incident could have dif-
fused greater joy into the hearts of the disconsolate and infirm, than
the intervention of the Pemaquid savage, at this crisis in Plymouth.

Thus, Pemaquid covered the young life of Plymouth with half a
century's peace, an*l probably, saved the quenching of its kindlings
among the sand hills of Cape Cod, where its flickerings were menaced
with extinction, by the terrible surroundings of savage wilds.

The life threads of Pilgrim existence, seem to have been held at
Pemaquid, in the hand of Samoset, its savage lord, whose appearance
at this crisis, at Plymouth, "to *the sick and dying seemed the mission
of an angelic herald."

RELIEF OF PILGRIM EXGENCIES.

Prior to the transactions of Aldworth at Pemaquid 1625, incidents
occurred at Plymouth, connecting that colonial beginhing with "Pem-
aquid and its dependices," in life saving — relief fMaverick, in 1660,

♦Thatcher's Hist. Plym. p. 34.
tMass. Hist. Soc. Coll. Vol. 21, p. 231.

Pema(]Hi(L 17

wrote of Plymouth ami says — "The tcnvn there settled being extreme-
ly hardy in great danger of Indians, could not long have sub-
sisted had not Plymouth merchants settled plantations about Monhe-
i^an by whom it was supplied, cr'c." In illustration of the fact here
suggested, I subjoin the incidents relating thereto, bearing on the
thrift and resources of Pemaquid prior to 1625.

EXIGENCY OF STARVATION.

Popham's Port, in 1622, was known as the "eastern parts," in the
history of the time, and covered all its island dependencies, Monhegan
and the Damariscove group.

We have seen that Captain John Smith's voyage of 16 14 dis-
covered the existence of the Popham holdings at Pemaquid to his dis-
appointment. In command of two London ships, with cargoes as-
sorted for Indian trade, he anchored in the little harbor of Monhegan
island in early summer. Eut his trade plans on shore were defeated,
and he was obliged to build boats for skirting the coast westward, and
also to go to gardening on the island, and do his business beyond
Pemaquid, and beat up trade outside the jurisdiction of Popham's
shipping port. The fact is as instructive as it was palpable, of its
business important e, and extent in 16 14. But in 1622, the growth
and importance of the Popham nucleus, had great expansion, and a
public notoriety, as the "eastern parts," and of great attraction to
English shipping, where, a fleet of thirty sail, harbored for trade and
freight. Besides, it is recorded — "a fleet of better class, or sorts of
ships than for trade and fishing — came for transportation of planters,
or supply of such as were already planted" in emigrant ships and
freighters.

In this fleet, Thomas Weston of London had a vessel, the Spar-
row, Captain Hudston. "Among the specks of struggling civilization
dotting the skirts of the green primeval forests," says Charles Francis
Adams in his history of Weymouth, "the little Colony of Plymouth, was
not the least."

Note. Sani'l Mavericks record p 20. New PlynKinth. settled I620. The
town there settled living extremely f(jr some years in great danger of Indians could
not long ha\'e subsisted liad not P. merchants settled plantntions about that time at
Monhegan and Piscata(iuay by whom they were supplied and Indians discouraged
from assaulting them."

Sam'l Maverick Mass. Hist. Col. Vol. 21 p p 231 1SS4.

1 8 Lincoln Coimty Historical Society.

It had reached a crisis in 1622. Tlie facts are as follows :

"This little colony had been established only about seventeen
months." They had struggled through their second winter, and now,
sadly reduced in numbers, with supplies wholly exhausted, the Pil-
grims were surely distressed.

"They were *entirely destitute of bread." They had subsisted
on clams and other shell fish, until they were greatly debilitated.
"When tplanting was finished, their victuals, were spent; and they
did not know at night, where to have a bit in the morning, having
had neither bread or corn, for three or four month's together."

The whole settlement was alive with anxious excitement.

"Suddenly," says Adams, "a boat was seen to cross the mouth of
the bay and disappear behind the next head-land." A shot was fired as
a signal. In response, the boat altered her course and headed for the
bay. It was a tender, or shallop, of the ship Sparrow of London, with
seven men, in the employ of a London merchant named Weston,"
from the eastern parts, Samoset's home where the ship had her anchor-
age, waiting freight. The men had a letter of sympathy from Cap-
tain Hudson, master of the Sparrow.

This waif from the coasts of Maine, had sailed some forty leagues,
from the depots of trade and freight, in the "eastern parts,"
where were many ships. The men who came in Spar-
row's shallop, were unacquainted with the Pilgrim plantation,
it being a new beginning ; but Hudson had heard of it through Wes-
ton, the owner of his ship, now at JDamorile's isles and of the Pema-
quid fleet. Weston had been an active agent of one John Pierce, in
promoting the Plymouth emigration. In Feb. 1620 he had visited
Leyden and informed the people of a grant in the "northern parts"
derived from the Virginia Patent, called "New England," and to
which the Pilgrims inclined to go, "for ye hope of present profit to be
made by ye fishing that was found in ye countrie."

The Sparrow's boat-men, it seems, landed at the Pilgrim hamlet
on Plymouth Rock in answer to the signal gun under a salute of three

♦Thatcher's Hist. Plymouth p. 52.
tWhite's N. E. P. Biaciford.
JMorton's Memorial p 40.

Pemaquid. 19

volleys of musketry, and seven men debarked, but with no provisions
to relieve the Pilgrim destitution.

The return of the shallop to her eastern service was speedily ar-
ranged, having no doubt informed the famished Pilgrims of stores of
food in the "eastern parts." Thereupon Gov. Bradford dispatched
the Plymouth shallop with Winslow, bearing an answer to Hudson's
letter and means to purchase food, which was piloted by the return-
ing shallop to the "eastern parts," and safely reached the anchorage
of the ships there harboring, and the colonists of Plymouth thus learn-
ed the way to that region.

The representatives of the hungry Pilgrims were kindly received
by the captain of the Sparrow, who not only did what he could, but
gave Winslow *letters of introduction to others, by which means a
good quantity of provisions was obtained.

This authority makes it certain, the provisions shipped back to
Plymouth, were furnished not by any one vessel, nor by the
fishermen at Damariscove alone, but by others in and about Pema-
quid or Popham's Port there.

The supply was considerable — ample to give each Pilgrim, a
quarter of a pound of bread day by day till harvest ; and consisted of
bread material, Indian corn, possibly, or meal.

Winslow's report was "I found kind entertainment and good re-
spect with willingness to supply our wants so far as able — would not
take any bills for same — did what they could freely." His-
tory avers this shallop load of provisions ^'■was a very seaso7iahle
blessing and supply, the Plymouth people being -fin a low condition for
ivant of food," the details of whose straits we have already sketched.
The emergency of starvation at Plymouth in 1622, was thus relieved
from the resources of the Pemaquid country. The obvious rational
and logical deduction of the record facts is, that fishermen alone did
not supply the bread to meet the Pilgrim extremity of famine in 1622.
Contribution from other than the Sparrow's resources must have been
made, for no fishing vessels could safely have reduced supplies of
bread to meet the draft necessary to yield the allowance taken to
Plymouth colony by Winslow, without more or less peril to the voy-
age, unless indeed, there were stores to be had on shore. Is it possi-
ble in this state of facts, there was no business settlement on shore ?

♦Morton's Memorial p 41.
fThatcher's Hist. Plymouth.

20 Lincohi Coiintx Historical Society.

INDUSTRIES OF I 623.

Another incident, showing the eminence of Pemaquid and its de-
pendencies, in resources of labor and commercial industries, prior to
1625, occurred in April of 1623.

An attempt had been made to colonize the environs of Massachu-
setts Bay by Thomas Weston, a merchant of London, within the con-
fines of which the Puritans of England afterward planted their homes.
He, it appears^ had been very active in bringing the Pilgrims into New
England from Leyden. He sent out two vessels, the Charity and
Swan, with "sixty stout men" to begin the settlement of "Massachu-
setts Bay" at a place called "Weymouth." I'he Bay Colony landed,
was furnished with supplies for the winter and left in charge of one
John Sanders. By the opening of the new year, the subsistence of the
"Bay Colony" had become exhausted. In their extremity, in the
month of February, they appealed to Plymouth and Capt. Standish
was sent to their relief. niie leaders had planned to go to the "fishing
stations,"* eastward, to buy provisions. 'i'hey lacked supplies, how-
ever, for the voyage. The "Swan," a thirty-ton vessel, had been left
for service in the Bay ; and Sanders had contrived to get himself away
to the "main fishing stations," leaving his comrades face to face with
famine behind. Standish proposed to protect the stay of the remnant
on the shores of the Bay, or take them home with him to Plymouth.
This proposition created a division of opinitjn among the Bay colonists.
Sanders had already gone east to the places of plenty. The abandoned
Bay colonists thanked Captain Standish, but told him if he would
furnish outfits for the voyage they preferred to go to the "Eastern
Parts" and there look out for themselves : — saying, they could work
with the fishermen, earn supplies there and passage to England."
Standish furnished the food for the voyage, for such as desired to go
to the Pemaquid region ; saw them safely embarked and out the Bay,
eastward bound. Thus Massachusetts was abandoned by its first
colony ; and the industrial regions of the Eastern parts drew a portion
of the colony to Pemaquid dependencies for the benefit of its labor and
commercial opportunities, which we believe and aver to have been an
expansion of the business and trade of the Popham settlement of Pem-
aquid Point. This incident shows that the Popham beginnings at
Pemaquid had wide sj^ead notoriety, as a center of English indus-

Peinaqtiid. 2 1

tries in fish and furs and commerce and were an outgrowth of the Pop-
ham colonial undertakings of 1607 in Maine.

CONCLUSION.

The foregoing facts show that "Popham's Port," Pemaquid, hail
expanded business openings, in attractive commercial industries, known
as the "eastern parts," in 1622 and 1623, and between these dates and
161 4, having growth into centers of labor and enterprize described as
"fishing stations" and "stages," environing the port on the main-land
of Pemaquid Point, at least eight years before Plymouth had a begin-
ning.

English associations at the home of Samoset had prepared the
savage Lord of Pemaquid for the very offices of kindness by him
shown at Plymouth.

A waif of the ship Sparrow from Damariscove, a dependency of
Pemaquid, informed the hungry Pilgrims that bread could be found in
Maine, to feed and save the famished colonists from starvation, and
led the way to the "eastern parts" for a generous supply, in 1622. In
1623, resources of supply of remunerative labor, incidental to the cure,
care and skill in making fish into cargoes for export and the gather-
ing, baling, storage and shipment of beaver coats, otter skins, and
other fur-bearing peltries, had made the "eastern parts," of which
Pemaquid was the center, attractive to toil in opportunities for earn-
ing money so that the abandoning colonists of Massachusetts bay,
preferred and sought these parts in the breaking up of the Weston
plantation there.

To enable Maine to feed the Pilgrims in their emergency of star-
vation and to succor the despondent colonists in their abandonment
of the Mass. Bay shores, with opportunities for escape from their perils
and proverty. Providence had already provided commerce a nestling
place on the main-land of Pemaquid in a port there with all its inci-
dental and necessary environments, of trade and labor to relieve and
foster the beginnings of English life and civilization in New England.

These incidents gleaned out of the shadows and glimpses of his-
tory, of a Massachusetts record, we submit to a fair honest and im-
partial consideration that Maine must have been the salvation of Ply-
mouth, and Pemaquid a storage of life resources in the beginnings of
of New England.

9 J