The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast, by Samuel Adams Drake This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast Author: Samuel Adams Drake Release Date: February 21, 2012 [EBook #38941] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOOKS, CORNERS--NEW ENGLAND COAST *** Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print archive. PIGEON COVE, CAPE ANN. NOOKS AND CORNERS OF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST. By SAMUEL ADAMS DRAKE, AUTHOR OF "OLD LANDMARKS OF BOSTON," "HISTORIC FIELDS AND MANSIONS OF MIDDLESEX," &c. WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Inscribed by Permission, AND WITH SENTIMENTS OF HIGH RESPECT, TO HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. NEW ENGLAND OF THE ANCIENTS. Norumbega River and City.—Early Discoverers, and Maps of New England.—Mode of taking Possession of new Countries.—Cruel Usage of Intruders by the English.—Penobscot Bay.—Character of first Emigrants to New England. —Is Friday unlucky? CHAPTER II. MOUNT DESERT ISLAND. About Islands.—Champlain's Discovery.—Mount Desert Range.—Somesville, and the Neighborhood.—Colony of Madame De Guercheville.—Descent of Sir S. Argall.—Treasure-trove.—Shell-heaps.—South-west Harbor.—The natural Sea-wall.—Islands off Somes's Sound CHAPTER III. CHRISTMAS ON MOUNT DESERT. Excursion to Bar Harbor.—Green Mountain.—Eagle Lake.—Island Nomenclature.—Porcupine Islands.—Short Jaunts by the Shore.—Schooner Head.—Spouting Caves.—Sea Aquaria.—Audubon and Agassiz.—David Wasgatt Clark.—F. E. Church and the Artists.—Great Head.—Baye Françoise.—Mount Desert Rock.—Value of natural Sea- marks.—Newport Mountain, and the Way to Otter Creek.—The Islesmen.—North-east Harbor.—The Ovens.—The Gregoires.—Henrietta d'Orleans.—Yankee Curiosity CHAPTER IV. CASTINE. Pentagoët.—A Fog in Penobscot Bay.—Rockland.—The Muscongus Grant.—Colonial Society.—Generals Knox and Lincoln.—Camden Hills.—Belfast and the River Penobscot.—Brigadier's Island.—Disappearance of the Salmon.— Approach to Castine.—Fort George.—Penobscot Expedition.—Sir John Moore.—Capture of General Wadsworth. —His remarkable Escape.—Rochambeau's Proposal.—La Peyrouse CHAPTER V. CASTINE—continued. Old Fort Pentagoët.—Stephen Grindle's Windfall.—Cob-money.—The Pilgrims at Penobscot.—Isaac de Razilly.— D'Aulnay Charnisay.—La Tour.—Descent of Sedgwick and Leverett.—Capture of Pentagoët, and Imprisonment of Chambly.—Colbert.—Baron Castin.—The younger Castin kidnaped.—Capuchins and Jesuits.—Intrigues of De Maintenon and Père Lachaise.—Burial-ground of Castine.—About the Lobster.—Where is Down East? CHAPTER VI. PEMAQUID POINT. New Harbor.—Wayside Manners.—British Repulse at New Harbor.—Porgee Factory.—Process of converting the Fish into Oil.—Habits of the Mackerel.—Weymouth's Visit to Pemaquid.—Champlain again.—Popham Colony.— Cotton Mather on new Settlements.—English vs. French Endurance.—L'Ordre de Bon Temps.—Samoset.—Fort Frederick.—Résumé of the English Settlement and Forts.—John Nelson.—Capture of Fort William Henry.— D'Iberville, the knowing One.—Colonel Dunbar at Pemaquid.—Shell-heaps of Damariscotta.—Disappearance of the native Oyster in New England CHAPTER VII. MONHEGAN ISLAND. Scenes on a Penobscot Steamer.—The Islanders.—Weymouth's Anchorage.—Monhegan described.—Combat between the Enterprise and Boxer.—Lieutenant Burrows CHAPTER VIII. FROM WELLS TO OLD YORK. Wells.—John Wheelwright.—George Burroughs.—On the Beach.—Shiftings of the Sands.—What they produce.— Ingenuity of the Crow.—The Beach as a High-road.—Popular Superstitions.—Ogunquit.—Bald Head Cliff.—Wreck of the Isidore.—Kennebunkport.—Cape Neddock.—The Nubble.—Captains Gosnold and Pring.—Moon-light on the Beach CHAPTER IX. AGAMENTICUS, THE ANCIENT CITY. Mount Agamenticus.—Basque Fishermen.—Sassafras.—The Long Sands.—Sea-weed and Shell-fish.—Foot-prints. —Old York Annals.—Sir Ferdinando Gorges.—York Meeting-house.—Handkerchief Moody.—Parson Moody.— David Sewall.—Old Jail.—Garrison Houses, Scotland Parish CHAPTER X. AT KITTERY POINT, MAINE. York Bridge.—Poor Sally Cutts.—Fort M'Clary.—Sir William Pepperell.—Louisburg and Fontenoy.—Gerrish's Island.—Francis Champernowne.—Islands belonging to Kittery.—John Langdon.—Jacob Sheaffe.—Washington at Kittery CHAPTER XI. THE ISLES OF SHOALS. De Monts sees them.—Smith's and Levett's Account.—Cod-fishery in the sixteenth Century.—Sail down the Piscataqua.—The Isles.—Derivation of the Name.—Jeffrey's Ledge.—Star Island.—Little Meeting-house.— Character of the Islesmen.—Island Grave-yards.—Betty Moody's Hole.—Natural Gorges.—Under the Cliffs.—Death of Miss Underhill.—Story of her Life.—Boon Island.—Wreck of the Nottingham.—Fish and Fishermen. CHAPTER XII. THE ISLES OF SHOALS—continued. Excursion to Smutty Nose.—Piracy in New England Waters.—Blackbeard.—Thomas Morton's Banishment.— Religious Liberty vs. License.—Custom of the May-pole.—Samuel Haley.—Spanish Wreck on Smutty Nose.— Graves of the Unknown.—Terrible Tragedy on the Island.—Appledore.—Its ancient Settlement.—Smith's Cairn.— Duck Island.—Londoner's.—Thomas B. Laighton.—Mrs. Thaxter.—Light-houses in 1793.—White Island.—Story of a Wreck. CHAPTER XIII. NEWCASTLE AND NEIGHBORHOOD. The Way to the Island.—The Pool.—Ancient Ships.—Old House.—Town Charter and Records.—Influence of the Navy-yard.—Fort Constitution.—Little Harbor.—Captain John Mason.—The Wentworth House.—The Portraits.— The Governors Wentworth and their Wives.—Baron Steuben. CHAPTER XIV. SALEM VILLAGE, AND '92. The Witch-ground.—Antiquity of Witchcraft.—First Case in New England.—Curiosities of Witchcraft.—Rebecca Nurse.—Beginning of Terrorism at Salem Village.—Humors of the Apparitions.—General Putnam's Birthplace.—What may be seen in Danvers. CHAPTER XV. A WALK TO WITCH HILL. Salem in 1692.—Birthplace of Hawthorne.—Old Witch House.—William Stoughton, Governor.—Witch Hill.—A Leaf from History. CHAPTER XVI. MARBLEHEAD. The Rock of Marblehead.—The Harbor and Neck.—Chat with the Light-keeper.—Decline of the Fisheries.—Fishery in the olden Time.—Early Annals of Marblehead.—Walks about the Town.—Crooked Lanes and antique Houses.— The Water-side.—The Fishermen.—How the Town looked in the Past.—Plain-spoken Clergymen and lawless Parishioners.—Anecdotes.—Jeremiah Lee and his Mansion.—The Town-house.—Chief-justice Story.—St. Michael's Church.—Elbridge Gerry.—The old Ironsides of the Sea.—General John Glover.—Flood Ireson's, Oakum Bay.— Fort Sewall.—Escape of the Constitution Frigate.—Duel of the Chesapeake and Shannon.—Old Burial-ground.— The Grave-digger.—Perils of the Fishery. CHAPTER XVII. PLYMOUTH. At the American Mecca.—Court Street.—Pilgrim Hall and Pilgrim Memorials.—Sargent's Picture of the "Landing."— Relics of the Mayflower.—First Duel in New England.—Old Colony Seal.—The "Compact."—First Execution in Plymouth.—Old "Body of Laws."—Pilgrim Chronicles.—View from Burial Hill.—The Harbor.—Names of Plymouth. —Plymouth, England.—Lord Nelson's Generosity.—Plymouth the temporary Choice of the Pilgrims.—The Indian Plague.—Indian Superstition.—Who was first at Plymouth?—De Monts and Champlain.—Champlain's Voyages in New England.—French Pilgrims make the first Landing.—Why the Natives were hostile to the Pilgrims of 1620.— Confusion among old Writers about Plymouth.—Among the Tombstones of Burial Hill.—The Pilgrims' Church-fortress. —What a Dutchman saw here in 1627.—Military Procession to Meeting.—Ancient Church Customs.—Puritans, Separatists, and Brownists.—Flight and Political Ostracism of the Pilgrims.—Their form of Worship.—First Church of Salem.—Plymouth founded on a Principle. CHAPTER XVIII. PLYMOUTH, CLARK'S ISLAND, AND DUXBURY. Let us walk in Leyden Street.—The way Plymouth was built.—Governor Bradford's Corner.—Fragments of Family History.—How Marriage became a civil Act.—The Common-house.—John Oldham's Punishment.—The Allyne House.—James Otis and his Sister Mercy.—James Warren.—Cole's Hill, and its obliterated Graves.—Plymouth Rock.—True Date of the "Landing."—Christmas in Plymouth, and Bradford's Joke.—Pilgrim Toleration.—Samoset surprises Plymouth.—The Entry of Massasoit.—First American Congress.—To Clark's Island.—Watson's House.— Election Rock.—The Party of Discovery.—Duxbury.—Captains Hill and Miles Standish.—John Alden.—"Why don't you speak for yourself?"—Historical Iconoclasts.—Celebrities of Duxbury.—Winslow and Acadia.—Colonel Church. —The Dartmouth Indians. CHAPTER XIX. PROVINCETOWN. Cape Cod a Terra incognita.—Appearance of its Surface.—Historical Fragments.—The Pilgrims' first Landing.— New England Washing-day.—De Poutrincourt's Fight with Natives.—Provincetown described.—Cape Names.— Portuguese Colony.—Cod and Mackerel Fishery.—Cod-fish Aristocracy.—Matt Prior and Lent.—Beginning of Whaling.—Mad Montague.—The Desert.—Cranberry Culture.—The moving Sand-hills.—Disappearance of ancient Forests.—The Beach.—Race Point.—Huts of Refuge.—Ice Blockade of 1874-'75.—Wreck of the Giovanni.— Physical Aspects of the Cape Shores.—Old Wreck at Orleans. CHAPTER XX. NANTUCKET. The old Voyagers again.—Derivation of the Name of Nantucket.—Sail from Wood's Hole to the Island.—Vineyard Sound.—Walks in Nantucket Streets.—Whales, Ships, and Whaling.—Nantucket in the Revolution.—Cruising for Whales.—The Camels.—Nantucket Sailors.—Loss of Ship Essex.—Town-crier.—Island History.—Quaker Sailors. —Thomas Mayhew.—Spermaceti.—Macy, Folger, Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin. CHAPTER XXI. NANTUCKET—continued. Taking Blackfish.—Blue-fishing at the Opening.—Walk to Coatue.—The Scallop-shell.—Structure of the Island.— Indian Legends.—Shepherd Life.—Absolutism of Indian Sagamores.—Wasting of the Shores of the Island.— Siasconset.—Nantucket Carts.—Fishing-stages.—The Great South Shoal.—Sankoty Light.—Surfside. CHAPTER XXII. NEWPORT OF AQUIDNECK. General View of Newport.—Sail up the Harbor.—Commercial Decadence.—Street Rambles.—William Coddington. —Anne Hutchinson.—The Wantons.—Newport Artillery.—State-house Notes.—Tristram Burgess.—Jewish Cemetery and Synagogue.—Judah Touro.—Redwood Library.—The Old Stone Mill. CHAPTER XXIII. PICTURESQUE NEWPORT. The Cliff Walk.—Newport Cottages and Cottage Life.—Charlotte Cushman.—Fort Day and Fort Adams.—Bernard, the Engineer.—Dumplings Fort.—Canonicut.—Hessians.—Newport Drives.—The Beaches.—Purgatory.—Dean Berkeley. CHAPTER XXIV. THE FRENCH AT NEWPORT. Behavior of the Troops.—Monarchy aiding Democracy.—D'Estaing.—Jourdan.—French Camps.—Rochambeau, De Ternay, De Noailles.—Efforts of England to break the Alliance.—Frederick's Remark.—Malmesbury and Potemkin. —Lord North and Yorktown.—George III.—Biron, Duc de Lauzun.—Chastellux, De Castries, Vioménil, Lameth, Dumas, La Peyrouse, Berthier, and Deux-Ponts.—The Regiment Auvergne.—Latour D'Auvergne.—French Diplomacy. CHAPTER XXV. NEWPORT CEMETERIES. Rhode Island Cemetery.—Curious Inscriptions.—William Ellery.—Oliver Hazard Perry.—The Quakers.—George Fox.—Quaker Persecution.—Other Grave-yards.—Lee and the Rhode Island Tories.—Coddington and Gorton.— John Coggeshall.—Trinity Church-yard.—Dr. Samuel Hopkins.—Gilbert Stuart. CHAPTER XXVI. TO MOUNT HOPE, AND BEYOND. Walk up the Island.—"Tonomy" Hill.—The Malbones.—Capture of General Prescott.—Talbot's Exploit.—Ancient Stages.—Windmills.—About Fish.—Lawton's Valley.—Battle of 1778.—Island History.—Mount Hope.—Philip's Death.—Dighton Rock.—Indian Antiquities. CHAPTER XXVII. NEW LONDON AND NORWICH. Entrance to the Thames.—Fisher's Island.—Block Island.—New London.—Light-ships and Light-houses.— Hempstead House.—Bishop Seabury.—Old Burial-ground.—New London Harbor.—The little Ship-destroyer.— Groton and Monument.—Arnold.—British Attack on Groton.—Fort Griswold.—The Pequots.—John Mason.—Silas Deane.—Beaumarchais.—John Ledyard.—Decatur and Hardy.—Norwich City.—The Yantic picturesque.—Uncas, the Mohegan Chieftain.—Norwich Town.—Fine old Trees.—The Huntingtons. CHAPTER XXVIII. SAYBROOK. Old Saybrook.—Disappearance of the Yankee.—Old Girls.—Isaac Hull.—The Harts.—Connecticut River.—Old Fortress.—Dutch Courage.—The Pilgrims' Experiences.—Cromwell, Hampden, and Pym.—Lady Fenwick.—George Fenwick.—Lion Gardiner.—Old Burial-ground.—Yale College.—The Shore, and the End. INDEX. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Pigeon Cove, Cape Ann. Map Head-piece Jacques Cartier Captain John Smith Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts Sir Humphrey Gilbert Fac-simile of first Map engraved in New England Tail-piece Mount Desert, from Blue Hill Bay Map of Mount Desert Island Samuel Champlain Head of Somes's Sound Echo Lake Cliffs, Dog Mountain, Somes's Sound The Stone Wall Entrance to Somes's Sound Professor Agassiz View of Eagle Lake and the Sea from Green Mountain Cliffs on Bald Porcupine Southerly End of Newport Mountain, near the Sand Beach Cave of the Sea, Schooner Head Cliffs at Schooner Head Devil's Den and Schooner Head Great Head The Ovens, Saulsbury's Cove Tail-piece Castine, approaching from Islesboro General Henry Knox General Benjamin Lincoln Fort Point View from Fort George Sir John Moore Fort Griffith Fort George Tail-piece Ruins of Fort Pentagoët Pine-tree Shilling Colbert Lobster Pot Tail-piece Old Fort Frederick, Pemaquid Point "The Land-breeze of Evening" Cotton Mather Ancient Pemaquid Charlevoix French Frigate, Seventeenth Century Hutchinson Monhegan Island Thatcher's Island Light, and Fog-signals, Cape Ann Graves of Burrows and Blythe, Portland Tail-piece (Burrows's Medal) Gorge, Bald Head Cliff Old Wrecks on the Beach The Morning Round What the Sea can do York Meeting-house Jail at Old York Pillory Stocks Old Garrison House Tail-piece Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from Kittery Bridge Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine Block-house and Fort, Kittery Point Sir William Pepperell's House, Kittery Point Sir William Pepperell Kittery Point, Maine Governor Langdon's Mansion, Portsmouth Tail-piece Whale's-back Light Portsmouth and the Isles of Shoals (Map) Shag and Mingo Rocks, Duck Island Meeting-house, Star Island The Graves, with Captain John Smith's Monument, Star Island Gorge, Star Island Tail-piece Cliffs, White Island Blackbeard, the Pirate Smutty Nose Haley Dock and Homestead Ledge of Rocks, Smutty Nose South-east End of Appledore, looking South Duck Island, from Appledore Laighton's Grave Londoner's, from Star Island Covered Way and Light-house, White Island White Island Light Tail-piece Wentworth House, Little Harbor Point of Graves Old House, Great Island Old Tower, Newcastle Gate-way, old Fort Constitution Sir Thomas Wentworth, Wentworth House, Little Harbor Marquis of Rockingham In the Wentworth House, Little Harbor Lady Hancock's Portrait in the Wentworth House Governor Benning Wentworth Baron Steuben Witch Hill, Salem Custom-house, Salem, Massachusetts Rebecca Nurse's House Procter House Birthplace of Putnam Putnam in British Uniform Endicott Pear-tree Tail-piece (Putnam's Tavern Sign) Washington Street, Salem Birthplace of Hawthorne Shattuck House Room in which Hawthorne was born The old Witch House Fragment of Examination of Rebecca Nurse Thomas Beadle's Tavern, 1692 Interior of First Church, Salem Ireson's House, Oakum Bay, Marblehead Great Head "The Churn" Drying Fish, Little Harbor Unloading Fish A Group of Antiques Lee Street Tucker's Wharf—the Steps Gregory Street Lee House Town-house and Square St. Michael's, Marblehead Elbridge Gerry The Gerrymander "Old North" Congregational Church Samuel Tucker General Glover Fort Sewall Powder-house, 1755 James Lawrence Glimpse of the Seamen's Monument and old Burial-ground Lone Graves "Sitting, stitching in a mournful Muse" The Hoe, English Plymouth Map of Plymouth Pilgrim Hall Brewster's Chest, and Standish's Pot Landing of the Pilgrims Carver's and Brewster's Chairs Mincing Knife Peregrine White's Cabinet Standish's Sword The Old Colony Seal Map of Plymouth Bay Champlain's Map.—Port Cape St. Louis Tail-piece The Pilgrims' first Encounter Building on the Site of Bradford's Mansion Site of the Common House The Allyne House The Joanna Davis House, Cole's Hill Plymouth Rock in 1850 The Gurnet Watson's House, Clark's Island Election Rock, Clark's Island Church's Sword Tail-piece Provincetown, from the Hills Cohasset Narrows Highland Light, Cape Cod Washing Fish Mackerel.—A Family Group Pond Village, Cape Cod Picking and sorting Cranberries—Cape Cod Sand-hills, Provincetown Life-boat Station.—Trial of the Bomb and Line Tail-piece (A "Sunfish") Nantucket, from the Sea Map of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard Approach to Martha's Vineyard A Bit of Nantucket—the House-tops Last of the Whale-ships Whaling in the olden Time Whale of the Ancients E. Johnson's Studio, Nantucket Tail-piece Nantucket.—Old Windmill, looking oceanward Captured Porpoise and Blackfish The Blue-fish Blue-fishing Homes of the Fishermen, Siasconset The Sea-bluff, Siasconset Hauling a Dory over the Hills, Nantucket Light-house, Sankoty Head, Nantucket Tail-piece Newport, from Fort Adams Old Fort, Dumpling Rocks Old-time Houses Residence of Governor Coddington, Newport, 1641 Newport State-house Commodore Perry's House Jewish Cemetery Jews' Synagogue, Newport Judah Touro The Redwood Library Abraham Redwood The Old Stone Mill The Perry Monument Tail-piece Boat Landing The Beach Cliff Walk The Cliffs A Newport Cottage Charlotte Cushman's Residence Spouting Rock The Dumplings Hessian Grenadier Coast Scene, Newport The Drive Purgatory Bluff Whitehall Washington Park, Newport D'Estaing Earl Howe Rochambeau Rochambeau's Head-quarters Louis XVI Military Map of Rhode Island, 1778 Lafayette Baron Vioménil Trinity Church, Newport Chastellux Lauzun Mathieu Dumas Deux-Ponts De Barras Latour D'Auvergne Tail-piece Graves on the Bluff, Fort Road Tombstones, Newport Cemetery Perry's Monument Oliver Hazard Perry Friends' Meeting-house George Fox Charles Lee Mount Hope The Glen A Rhode Island Windmill William Barton Silas Talbot Prescott's Head-quarters Agricultural Prosperity From Butts's Hill, looking North Quaker Hill, from Butts's Hill, looking North Battle-ground of August 29, 1778 King Philip, from an old Print Inscription on Dighton Rock Old Leonard House, Raynham New London in 1813 New London Harbor, north View New London Light New London in 1781 (Map) Old Block-house, Fort Trumbull A Light-ship on her Station Court-house, New London Bishop Seabury's Monument Groton Monument Benedict Arnold Storming of the Indian Fortress Silas Deane Stephen Decatur Rustic Bridge, Norwich Old Mill, Norwich Signatures of Uncas and his Sons Uncas's Monument Arnold's Birthplace Elm-trees by the Wayside General Huntington's House Mansion of Governor Huntington Congregational Church Tail-piece Peter Stuyvesant Isaac Hull A Moss-grown Memorial Tail-piece CHAPTER I. NEW ENGLAND OF THE ANCIENTS. "This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and with garments green, indistinct in the twilight, Stand like Druids of Old, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. Loud from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced neighboring ocean Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest." Longfellow. In many respects the sea-coast of Maine is the most remarkable of New England. It is serrated with craggy projections, studded with harbors, seamed with inlets. Broad bays conduct to rivers of great volume that annually bear her forests down to the sea. Her shores are barricaded with islands, and her waters teem with the abundance of the seas. Seen on the map, it is a splintered, jagged, forbidding sea-board; beheld with the eye in a kindly season, its tawny headlands, green archipelagos, and inviting harbors, infolding sites recalling the earlier efforts at European colonization, combine in a wondrous degree to win the admiration of the man of science, of letters, or of leisure. Maine embraces within her limits the semi-fabulous Norumbega and Mavoshen of ancient writers. Some portion of her territory has been known at various times by the names of Acadia, New France, and New England. The arms of France and of England have alternately been erected on her soil, and the flags of at least four powerful states have claimed her subjection. The most numerous and warlike of the primitive New England nations were seated here. Traces of French occupation are remaining in the names of St. Croix, Mount Desert, Isle au Haut, and Castine, names which neither treaties nor national prejudice have been quite able to eradicate. The name of Norumbega, or Norembegue, the earliest applied to New England, is attributed to the Portuguese and Spaniards. Jean Alfonse, the pilot of Roberval, the same person who is accredited with having been first to navigate the waters of Massachusetts Bay, gives them the credit of its discovery. It is true that Marc Lescarbot, the Parisian advocate whose relations are the foundations of so many others, was at the colony of Port Royal in the year 1606, with Pontgravé Champlain, and De Poutrincourt. This writer discredits all of Alfonse's statement in relation to the great river and coast of Norumbega, except that part of it in which he says the river had at its entrance many islands, banks, and rocks. In this fragment from the "Voyages Aventureux" of Alfonse, the embouchure of the river of Norumbega is [Pg 17] [Pg 18] JACQUES CARTIER. placed in thirty degrees ("trente degrez") and the pilot states that from thence the coast turns to the west and west- north-west for more than two hundred and fifty leagues.[1] The most casual reader will know how to value such a relation without reference to the sarcasm of Lescarbot, when he says, "And well may he call his voyages adventurous, not for himself, who was never in the hundredth part of the places which he describes (at least it is easy to conjecture so), but for those who might wish to follow the routes which he directs the mariner to follow." After this, his claim to be considered the first European navigator in Massachusetts Bay must be received with many grains of allowance. Champlain, who remained in the country through the winter of 1605, on purpose to complete his map, has this to say of the river and city of Norumbega; he is writing of the Penobscot: "I believe this river is that which several historians call Norumbegue, and which the greater part have written, is large and spacious, with many islands; and its entrance in forty-three and forty-three and a half; and others in forty-four, more or less, of latitude. As for the declination, I have neither read nor heard any one speak of it. They describe also a great and very populous city of natives, dexterous and skillful, having cotton cloth. I am satisfied that the major part of those who make mention of it have never seen it, and speak from the hearsay evidence of those who know no more than themselves. I can well believe that there are some who have seen the embouchure, for the reason that there are, in fact, many islands there, and that it lies in the latitude of forty-four degrees at its entrance, as they say; but that any have entered it is not credible; for they must have described it in quite another manner to have removed this doubt from many people." With this protest Champlain admits the country of Norumbega to a place on his map of 1612. In the "Histoire Universelle des Indes Occidentales" printed at Douay in 1607, the author, after describing Virginia, speaks of Norumbega, its great river and beautiful city. The mouth of the river is fixed in the forty-fourth and the pretended city in the forty-fifth degree, which approximates closely enough to the actual latitude of the Penobscot. This authority adds, that it is not known whence the name originated, for the Indians called it Agguncia.[2] It also refers to the island well situated for fishery at the mouth of the great river. On the map of Ortelius (1603) the two countries of Norumbega and Nova Francia occupy what is now Nova Scotia and New England respectively. The only features laid down in Nova Francia by name are "R. Grande Orsinora," "C. de Iaguas islas," and "Montagnes St. Jean." These localities answer reasonably well to as many conjectures as there are mountains, streams, and capes in New England; there is no projection of the coast corresponding with Cape Cod. Champlain names the River Penobscot, Pemetegoit. By this appellation, with some trivial change in orthography, it continued known to the French until its final repossession by the English.[3] Turning to the "painful collections of Master Hakluyt," the old prebendary of Bristol, we find Mavoshen described as "a country lying to the north and by east of Virginia, between the degrees of 43 and 45, fortie leagues broad and fifty in length, lying in breadth east and west, and in length north and south. It is bordered on the east with a countrey, the people whereof they call Tarrantines, on the west with Epistoman, on the north with a very great wood, called Senaglecounc, and on the south with the mayne ocean sea and many islands." In all these relations there is something of fact, but much more that is too unsubstantial for the historian's acceptance. The voyages of the Norsemen, of De Rut, and Thevet are still a disputed and a barren field. I do not propose here to indulge in speculations respecting them. Francis I. demanded, it is said, to be shown that clause in the will of Adam which disinherited him in the New World for the benefit of the Spaniards. Under his favor, the Florentine Verrazani put to sea from Dieppe, in Le Dauphine, in the year 1524.[4] By virtue of his discoveries the French nation claimed all the territory now included in New England. The astute Francis followed up the clew by dispatching, in 1534, Jacques Cartier in La Grande Hermine. Despite the busy times in Europe, near the close of his reign, Henry IV. continued to favor projects confirming the footing obtained by his predecessors. Until 1614, when the name of New England first appeared on Smith's map, the French had the honor of adding about all that was known to the geography of its sea-board. There can now be no harm in saying that Captain John Smith was not the first to give a Christian name to New England. The Florentine Verrazani called it, in 1524, New France, when he traversed the coasts from the thirty-fourth parallel to Newfoundland, or Prima Vista. Sebastian Cabot may have seen it before him; but this is only conjecture, though our great-grandfathers were willing to spill their blood rather than have it called New France. According to the "Modern Universal History," Cabot confessedly took formal possession of Newfoundland and Norumbega, whence he carried off three natives. In the "Theatre Universel d'Ortelius" there is a map of America, engraved in 1572, and very minute, in which all the countries north and south are entitled New France. "The English," says a French authority, "had as yet nothing in that country, and there is nothing set down on this map for them." [Pg 19] [Pg 20] [Pg 21] CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. In Mercator's atlas of 1623 is a general map of America, which calls all the territory north and south of Canada New France. New England does not find a place on this map. Canada is down as a particular province. Virginia is also there. Captain John Smith's map of New England of 1614 contains many singular features. In his "Description of New England," printed in 1616, the Indian names are given of all their coast settlements. Prince Charles, however, altered these to English names after the book was printed. The retention of some of them by the actual settlers might be accidental, but they appear much as if scattered at random over the paper. "Plimouth" is where it was located six years after the date of the map. York is called Boston, and Agamenticus "Snadoun Hill." Penobscot is called "Pembrock's Bay." The name of Cape Breton is said to occur on very early maps, antecedent even to Cartier's voyage. A map of Henry II. is the oldest mentioned. "Nurembega" is on a map in "Le Receuil de Ramusius"[5] tome iii., where there is an account of a Frenchman of Dieppe, and a map made before the discovery of "Jean Guartier." It is asserted that the Basque and Breton fishermen were on the coast of America before the Portuguese and Spaniards. Baron La Hontan says, "The seamen of French Biscay are known to be the most able and dexterous mariners that are in the world." It is pretty certain that Cape Breton had this name before the voyages of Cartier or Champlain. The Frenchman of Dieppe is supposed to be Thomas Aubert, whose discovery is assigned to the year 1508. The atlas of Guillaume and John Blauw has a map of America in tome i. There is a second, entitled Nova Belgica and Nova Anglica. New England extends no farther than the Kennebec, where begins the territory of Nova Franciæ Pars, in which Norumbega is located. The rivers Pentagouet and Chouacouet (Saco) appear properly placed. The map bears certain marks in its nomenclature, and the configuration of the coast, of being compiled from those of Champlain and Smith.[6] Researches made in England, France, and Holland, at the instance of Massachusetts and New York,[7] have resulted in the recovery of many manuscript fragments more or less interesting, bearing upon the question of priority of discovery. Of these the following is not the least curious. If credence may be placed in the author of the "Memoires pour servir à l'Histoire de Dieppe," "Recherches sur les Voyages et decouvertes des Navigateurs Normands," and "Navigateurs Français," the continent of America was discovered by Captain Cousin in the year 1488. Sailing from Dieppe, he was carried westward by a gale, and drawn by currents to an unknown coast, where he saw the mouth of a large river. Cousin's first officer was "un étranger nommé Pinçon ou Pinzon," who instigated the men to mutiny, and was so turbulent that, on the return of the caravel, Cousin charged him before the magistrates of Dieppe with mutiny, insubordination, and violence. He was banished from the city, and embarked four years afterward, say the Dieppois, with Christopher Columbus, to whom he had given information of the New World.[8] In the "Bibliothéque Royale" of Paris there is, or rather was, existing a manuscript (dated in 1545) entitled "Cosmographie de Jean Alfonce le Xaintongeois." It is undoubtedly from this manuscript that Jean de Marnef and De St. Gelais compiled the "Voyages Aventureux d'Alfonce Xaintongeois," printed in 1559, which includes an expedition along the coast from Newfoundland southwardly to "une baye jusques par les 42 degrés, entre la Norembegue et la Fleuride," in 1543. Of Jean Alfonse it is known that he was one of Roberval's pilots, in his voyage of 1542 to Canada, and that he returned home with Cartier. Roberval expected to find a north-west passage, and Jean Alfonse, who searched the coast for it, believed the land he saw to the southward to be part of the continent of Asia. His cruise within the latitude of Massachusetts Bay is also mentioned by Hakluyt. The claim of Alfonse to be the discoverer of Massachusetts Bay has been set forth with due prominence.[9] Alfonse and Champlain were both from the same old province in the west of France. It goes without dispute that the older French historians knew little or nothing of Hakluyt and Purchas. So little did the affairs of the New World engage their attention, that in the "History of France," by Father Daniel, printed at Amsterdam in 1720, by the Company of Jesuits, in six ponderous tomes, the discoveries and settlements in New France (Canada) occupy no more than a dozen lines. Cartier, Roberval, De Monts, and Champlain are mentioned, and that is all. When a vessel of the old navigators was approaching the coast, the precaution was taken of sending sailors to the mast- head. These lookouts were relieved every two hours until night-fall, at which time, if the land was not yet in sight, they furled their sails so as to make little or no way during the night. It was a matter of emulation among the ship's company who should first discover the land, as the passengers usually presented the lucky one with some pistoles. One writer mentions that on board French vessels, after sighting Cape Race, the ceremony known among us as "crossing the line" was performed by the old salts on the green hands, without regard to season. [Pg 22] [Pg 23] PIERRE DU GUAST, SIEUR DE MONTS. SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT. The method of taking possession of a new country is thus described in the old chronicles: Jacques Cartier erected a cross thirty feet high, on which was suspended a shield with the arms of France and the words "Vive le Roy." Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in 1583, raised a pillar at Newfoundland, with a plate of lead, having the queen's arms "graven thereon." A turf and a twig were presented to him, which he received with a hazel wand. The expression "by turf and twig," a symbol of actual possession of the soil and its products, is still to be met with in older New England records. Douglass, the American historian, speaking of Henry IV., says, "He planted a colony in Canada which subsists to this day. May it not long subsist; it is a nuisance to our North American settlements: Delenda est Carthago." The insignificant attempt of Gosnold, in 1603, and the disastrous one of Popham, in 1607, contributed little to the knowledge of New England. But the absence of any actual possession of the soil did not prevent the exercise of unworthy violence toward intruders on the territory claimed by the English crown. In 1613 Sir Samuel Argall broke up the French settlement begun at Mount Desert in that year, opening fire on the unsuspecting colonists before he gave himself the trouble of a formal summons. Those of other nations fared little better, as the following recital will show: Purchas relates that "Sir Bernard Drake, a Devonshire knight, came to Newfoundland with a commission; and having divers good ships under his command, he took many Portugal ships, and brought them into England as prizes. "Sir Bernard, as was said, having taken a Portugal ship, and brought her into one of our western ports, the seamen that were therein were sent to the prison adjoining the Castle of Exeter. At the next assizes held at the castle there, about the 27th of Queen Elizabeth, when the prisoners of the county were brought to be arraigned before Sergeant Flowerby, one of the judges appointed for this western circuit at that time, suddenly there arose such a noisome smell from the bar that a great number of people there present were therewith infected; whereof in a very short time after died the said judge, Sir John Chichester, Sir Arthur Bassett, and Sir Bernard Drake, knights, and justices of the peace there sitting on the bench; and eleven of the jury impaneled, the twelfth only escaping; with divers other persons." Captain John Smith says: "The most northern part I was at was the Bay of Penobscot, which is east and west, north and south, more than ten leagues; but such were my occasions I was constrained to be satisfied of them I found in the bay, that the river ran far up into the land, and was well inhabited with many people; but they were from their habitations, either fishing among the isles, or hunting the lakes and woods for deer and beavers. "The bay is full of great islands of one, two, six, eight, or ten miles in length, which divide it into many faire and excellent good harbours. On the east of it are the Tarrantines, their mortal enemies, where inhabit the French, as they report, that live with these people as one nation or family." If the English had no special reason for self-gratulation in the quality of the emigrants first introduced into New England, the French have as little ground to value themselves. In order to people Acadia, De Monts begged permission of Henri Quatre to take the vagabonds that might be collected in the cities, or wandering at large through the country. The king acceded to the request.[10] Again, in a memoir on the state of the French plantations, the following passage occurs: "The post of Pentagouet, being at the head of all Acadia on the side of Boston, appears to have been principally strengthened by the sending over of men and courtesans that his majesty would have emigrate there for the purpose of marrying, so that this portion of the colony may receive the accessions necessary to sustain it against its neighbors."[11] These statements are supported by the testimony of the Baron La Hontan, who relates that, after the reorganization of the troops in Canada, "several ships were sent hither from France with a cargo of women of ordinary reputation, under the direction of some old stale nuns, who ranged them in three classes. The vestal virgins were heaped up (if I may so speak), one above another, in three different apartments, where the bridegrooms singled out their brides just as a butcher does ewes from among a flock of sheep. The sparks that wanted to be married made their addresses to the above-mentioned governesses, to whom they were obliged to give an account of their goods and estates before they [Pg 24] [Pg 25] [Pg 26]