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move, they were unwilling to embark their funds in so precarious a speculation. Popham and Gorges would not wait upon their doubts, so in August, 1606, they fitted out a vessel at their own expense, with all needed supplies and provisions, accompanied by two of the natives taken over by Weymouth. They put this expedition under command of Capt. Henry Challong, with orders to pursue a direct Westerly course, as Gosnold had done in 1602. But instead of this, he put away South, and was captured by the Spaniards, to the great loss of the adventurers and the interruption of their plans; for they had instructed Challong to leave as many men as he could spare to occupy the country. It was not until the return of Prinn, who was sent after Challong with fresh supplies, and who made intelligent and encouraging reports, that the corporation was roused to action.

All the voyages hitherto made, were undertaken by individuals on private account, and had been pursued with great loss. Gorges in a letter to Challong, after his capture, says, "You knowe that the journey hath bene noe small charge to us that first sent to the coast, and had for our returne but the five salvadges." It was more than a year after the grant, that the Northern company were ready to commence their voyage; on the 31st of May, 1607, O. S., sailed out of old Plymouth harbor, the "Gift of God," and the "Mary and John," with one hundred landmen to plant the first English colony that ever visited the coast of Maine.1 They were commanded by two of the patentees, the old and experienced George Popham and Raleigh Gilbert, as noble and gallant commanders as ever walked a quarter deck and worthy the command of an expedition of so grand an import. Gilbert was a son of Sir Humphrey.

These frail barks were freighted with the best hopes and anxious doubts of wise and earnest and noble men at home,

1 Strachey says "120 men for planters." Prince says "100 landmen."

who beheld through the mist of coming time, a new world of civilization and christianity, arising out of the dark forests and rock bound shores of this wild and desolate continent. Here, on this spot, that brave and hardy crew planted the banner of St. George, and gave to Old England, lawful and actual possession of a New England, which for one hundred and fifty years was the fairest jewel of her crown. And here lie the bones of the first President, Popham, the elder brother of the learned Chief Justice of England, who died about the same time.

But, Sir, the enterprise failed; death and the stars seemed against it, and there were "no more speeches," by the Northern company, says Gorges, "of settling any other plantation in those parts for a long time after." They were in search of gain, and found it not, in peopling a rude continent. It was essentially a commercial company; the principle that moved it was adverse to generous action; it required another sentiment, the religious element, to give patient endurance, indomitable resolution and final success, as was signally vindicated in the renowned colony of the Pilgrims. The Northern company made no other attempt at colonization, until they obtained their charter of 1620. We must not claim too much for this unsuccessful attempt to people a continent, but regard it as one of the steps in the grand march of colonization.

But I leave the details of these great movements to those who come after me, while I touch briefly on one or two other topics.

The ancient and perpetual rival of England, on the other side of the channel, did not willingly yield a prize of so much worth to "perfidious Albion." France interposed her claim to the whole continent from Hudson river to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She did not relinquish it until she was gradually driven from the soil by superior force, and conceded the territory to her rival by the peace of Paris, in 1763.

Her title was founded

1st. On the voyage of Verrazani, 1524.

2d. On the discovery and occupation of Canada, by James Cartier, 1535, and following years.

3d. The grant of Henry IV., 1603, to De Mont.

4th. The voyages and occupation of the country under Champlain and De Mont, 1603-4.

The English title is defended on the following grounds:

1st. The discovery by Cabot, 1497.

2d. The possession of Newfoundland by Gilbert, 1583. 3d. The voyages and landing by Gosnold, 1602; Prinn, 1603; Weymouth, 1605; and Popham, 1607.

4th. The Charter of 1606.

The English never denied the French title to Canada, but claimed to restrict it to what they first discovered and actually occupied. The French never had any possession of the coast, west of the Kennebec.

It is evident that these grants or concessions, as the French called them, could convey only a barren title, unless there was actual possession; or a well founded right to possession.

The Privy Council of England, in 1666, decided, in a question that arose under the Duke of York's grant of New York and New Jersey, That "by the law of nations if any people make discovery of any country of barbarians, the prince of that people who make the discovery, hath the right of soil and government of that place; and no people can plant there without the consent of the prince, or the persons to whom his right is conveyed."

This giving away continents by sovereigns, was ridiculed by Francis I., of France, when the Spaniards set up the right to them of the new world, by the Pope; he said, he "would fain like to see the clause in Adam's will which made the continent their inheritance."

These acts were something like the brilliant offer of the arch rebel, we read of, who offered "all the kingdoms of the earth”

as a bribe to submission to him, when the rascal had not a foot of land to give.

The truth is, and that was the practical result, he who could seize and hold, had the most effectual title, notwithstanding royal seals and broad parchment deeds.

I desire to call your attention, Sir, to one fact more,— and that is, the frail vessels in which the early adventurers to America crossed our stormy seas, and advanced to high northern latitudes. Not one of them that we have any account of, went up to 200 tons, and by far the largest number were under 100 tons. They were such vessels as your hardy fishermen would scarcely venture in to the Grand Banks.

The largest ship in which Columbus made his first voyage did not much exceed 100 tons, the other two were light barks of 30 or 40 tons, and not decked, except at the bow and stern. The largest of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's fleet of four vessels in which he sailed to Newfoundland in 1533, was but 120 tons, two others were 40 tons, and the fourth, the Squirrel, but 10 tons. It was in this little pinnace of ten tons, that this most brave and noble adventurer went down, in a gale of wind, as he was returning home from his great voyage in 1584, refusing to take the large vessel, saying that he was as near Heaven on the sea as on the land. And thus perished at the early age of forty-five, one of the most experienced and worthy of the early discoverers.

Prinn's two vessels fitted out in 1603 by Hakluyt and the Bristol merchants, were but 50 and 26 tons. The Caravel of Gomez, equipped by the Emperor Charles V., in 1525, for Northern adventure, was but 60 tons. Challong's ship, sent out in 1606, by Popham and Gorges, was but 55 tons, and lastly, the two little barks, which we see in imagination moored in yonder channel, were 60 and 40 tons. These vessels, gentlemen, fitted out by nobles and gentlemen of highest rank, to found a colony,-to lay the foundations of a new civilization

in the wilderness, laden with all the supplies supposed to be needed for these great purposes, and bearing one hundred and twenty souls, were not so large as the common coasters and fishing vessels which daily pass the mouth of this river!

And then the fort, Sir, built by these colonists, a mere stockade to repel Indian aggression, mounted by demi culverins of nine pounds, or sakers of six pounds, twelve in all.1

Compare these slight vessels with the noble ships of 1000 and 1500 tons, now built upon this river, larger than the largest commercial vessels which floated before the present century, and bearing burdens to all parts of the world!

And compare that humble stockade of earth and stakes, with the magnificent fortress which is now rising on the ancient site!

These glimpses at the past and present, mark the progress of our country from its feeble footsteps, two centuries and a half ago, when not a white man was to be found on its whole extensive line of coast, to the grandeur, the wealth, the resources, the dignity of the present hour. Nothing but itself,

in history, is its parallel.

Gorges, in 1640, when looking upon his work in this country, triumphantly exclaimed,-"I have not sped so ill; I thank God for it; but I have a house and home there, and some necessary means of profit by my saw mills, and corn mills, besides some annual receipts, to lay the foundation of greater matters."

These greater matters have come! Since the first colonization, the Anglo Saxon race has advanced with a firm and steady step, occupying, cultivating, civilizing, until they have made

1 Strachey says, "They fully finished the fort, trencht and fortefyed yt with 12 pieces of ordnance, and built 50 houses therein, besides a church and a store house; and the carpenters framed a pretty Pinnace of about some 30 tonne, which they called the Virginia; the chiefe shipwright being one Digby of London." 3 Me. Hist. Col., 308.

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