renowned river, this ancient Sagadahoc, -on the happy suggestion, to elevate into general notice, by a signal demonstration, one of the important events in the early annals of our State.

The English people, with their accustomed caution, were slow in improving the great advantage which their first discovery of the American continent, by Cabot, gave them. It was near a hundred years, before they made any attempt to plant a colony on any part of America. They took no interest in colonization, and little in commercial voyages for many years. They permitted the Spanish, the Portugese, and the French to engross maritime enterprises.

In 1524, twenty-seven years after Cabot's discovery, Verrazani, under the French, ranged the whole coast from Florida to Newfoundland. In 1534, James Cartier, with a commission from Francis I., coasted along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and took possession of them in the name of France; and the next year, he sailed up the St. Lawrence, and laid the foundation of a colony at Hochelaga, now Montreal.

The interest of these three commercial nations was kept up by the zeal with which they pursued their fishing voyages on the American coast. This branch of trade was of more consequence to Europe than any other. As early as 1506, vessels visited the coast from Biscay, Brittany, and Normandy, and within twenty years from the first voyage of Cabot, 1497, fifty vessels, from Spain, Portugal, and France, were engaged in the fisheries about Newfoundland.

It was not until 1548, that the English government passed their first act for the encouragement of the fisheries, after which they became active competitors in this profitable occupation. Before the close of that century, when the English had fifty vessels on the banks, Portugal had an equal number, Spain double, and France three times as many. These large enterprises led the English people to an increasing interest in

1

American adventure, and to a familiarity of the coast, which induced them to take measures for the enlargement and protection of their commerce in those regions. With this view, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 1578, obtained a charter for "places not possessed by any Christian Prince," 1 and in 1583, he fitted out an expedition of four vessels and two hundred and fifty men, with which he entered the harbor of St. John, in Newfoundland, erected the standard of England, and took possession of the country under the English Crown. This was the first actual possession taken by that nation this side of the Atlantic. Raleigh followed the next year with a large expedition to the coast of North Carolina.

But it was not until the beginning of the 17th century, that serious attention was turned to the shores of New England. Rrevious to that time, the English had been beguiled by the deceitful phantom of a northwest passage, and nearly all the voyages of the 16th century were made in that fruitless search. The scales have yet hardly fallen from their eyes. It was in pursuit of this open passage, that Cabot, to his great disappointment, lighted upon this continent. He says in a desponding tone," I began to sail toward the northwest, not thinking to find any other land than Cathay, and from thence to turn toward India. But after certain days, I found the land run toward the North, which to me was a great displeasure." The voyages of Frobisher, (1576), Davis, (1585), Gilbert and others, were all made in the same unsuccessful pursuit. Even Weymouth, whose voyage gave an immense impulse to English colonization, was seeking the same illusive vision, when, as Gorges says, "falling short of his course, he happened into a river on the coast of America, called Pemaquid."

But the French had the start of the English on the shores

"for

1 Gilbert's grant was dated June 23, 1579, according to Prince, but the copy in Hazard bears date June 11, in the twentieth year of Elizabeth. It was places not possessed by any Christian Prince."

of Maine as well as the St. Lawrence; for De Mont, the year before Weymouth made his exploration, planted a colony, in the summer of 1604, upon an island in the St. Croix, now a part of Maine, and constructed a fort, extensive buildings, and made all arrangements for a permanent settlement. But the location, like most of the early occupations, was unfortunate; the island was small, water difficult to be obtained, and no opportunity for adequate cultivation of soil. The next summer it was abandoned; and it so happened, that while Weymouth was making his examination between the Penobscot and Kennebec, De Mont was ranging the coast from St. Croix to Cape Cod, touching in at various points for a more favorable place of settlement, all lying within his patent from Henry IV., granted November 8, 1603. He looked into the Penobscot, he touched at Sagadahoc, he spent some time in Casco Bay and Winter Harbor, and was delighted with the "Isle of Bacchus," as he called Wood Island which lies at the mouth of Saco River.

The first really sensible movement on the part of the English towards colonization of any part of New England, was the voyage of Gosnold in 1602. He was wise enough to make a direct westerly course, instead of passing through the southern latitudes as was customary; his voyage was thus very much shortened; he made the land about Cape Elizabeth; cruised along the coast, landed at York, had a conference there with the Indians, and proceeded to Vineyard Sound; landed on one of the beautiful islands there, built a store-house, and made preparations to establish a colony. But when the vessel was about to depart with their friends, and put a wide ocean between them and their dear native land and civilized life, the courage of these few colonists failed them; they hastily abandoned their design, and returned home with their companions.

The next year, 1603, Martin Prinn, at the suggestion of Richard Hakluyt, the unwearied friend and patron of coloni

zation, made a successful trading voyage in two small vessels fitted out by some merchants of Bristol.

But the voyage of Weymouth, 1605, was so favorable, both in the flattering accounts which the adventurers gave of the country, it was in the beautiful month of June they saw it,and in the information as to the resources, furnished by the Indians, who were carried to England, that a fresh impulse was given to western adventure. It added a new patron and persevering friend, in Sir Ferdinando Gorges, then Governor of Plymouth, to whom three of the Indians were committed; who gave him such information in regard to the coast, the rivers, and other advantages which their country afforded, that he became deeply interested in making further discoveries, with a view to occupy, and improve these various sources of wealth.

For, after all, the profit was the grand stimulant, as Gorges himself frankly admits. He says, "I had no reason greatly to despair of means, when God should be pleased, by our ordinary frequenting that country, to make it appear that it would both profit and content, to as many as aimed thereat, these being truly the motives that all men labor, howsoever otherwise adjoined, with fair colors and goodly shadows."

In speaking of the "falling short" of Weymouth to find the N. W. Passage, and landing instead on the coast of Maine, Gorges says, "This accident must be acknowledged the means, under God, of putting on foot and giving life to all our plantations."

The first fruit of this new excitement was to secure the sanction of Government; and Sir John Popham, aided by Hakluyt, who not only promoted but recorded American enterprises, prevailed on several nobles and gentlemen to apply to the King for a charter of further privileges and immunities for the Adventurers. This was happily obtained and the grant which gave concerted, and more vigorous effort, to colonization

and trade, bears date April 10, 1606, by which, the whole country lying between North latitude 34,° which is that of Cape Fear, N. C., and 45,° which is that of Passamaquoddy bay, was conceded to eight persons, who were warmly engaged in Western adventure; four of them, viz: Sir Thos. Gates, Sir George Somers, Hakluyt and Wingfield, had the Southern portion, called Southern Virginia, assigned to them, and the other four, viz: Thomas Hanham, Raleigh Gilbert, Wm. Parker, and Geo. Popham, the Northern portion, called Northern Virginia. These persons, except Hakluyt, who was a Prebendary in the church, personally engaged in the adventures which followed-Popham and Gilbert leading the Northern colony, and Gates, Somers, and Wingfield, the Southern. The King recites in the charter the object of the petitioners to be, That wee would vouchsafe unto them our license to make habitation, plantation and deduce a colony of sundry of our people into that part of Virginia, and other parts of America."

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A council of fifty-two persons was appointed by the charter to manage all its affairs, at the head of which was placed the Earl of Southampton, and among them the Earls of Pembroke, Exeter and Lincoln, and Sir Francis Bacon. It is a striking fact, that the charter does not contain the names of Chief Justice Popham, or Sir Ferdinando Gorges, although Popham, certainly, was a chief instrument in procuring it.

The Southern colony was the first to move, and on the 20th December, 1606, they dispatched three ships, one of 100 tons, one of 40, and one of 10, with their colonists, who arrived and laid the foundation of Jamestown, May 31st, 1607, the very day that the 2d, or Northern colony, sailed from Plymouth, to occupy the Sagadahoc. The Jamestown became a permanent colony, and was the first of that character planted on American soil, North of Florida.

But Gorges and Popham, did not wait the movements of the adventurers under the charter. The corporation was slow to