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[Illustration: Book Cover]
[Illustration: 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._
[Illustration]
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.
[Illustration: Map]
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? 17
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 27
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
Francoise.--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 40
CHAPTER IV.
CASTINE.
Pentagoet.--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 58
CHAPTER V.
CASTINE--_continued._
Old Fort Pentagoet.--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 Pentagoet, and
Imprisonment of Chambly.--Colbert.--Baron Castin.--The younger Castin
kidnaped.--Capuchins and Jesuits.--Intrigues of De Maintenon and Pere
Lachaise.--Burial-ground of Castine.--About the Lobster.--Where is Down
East? 73
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.--Resume 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 87
CHAPTER VII.
MONHEGAN ISLAND.
Scenes on a Penobscot Steamer.--The Islanders.--Weymouth's
Anchorage.--Monhegan described.--Combat between the _Enterprise_ and
_Boxer_.--Lieutenant Burrows 102
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 109
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 123
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 141
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 153
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. 175
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 196
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 208
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 220
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 228
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 261
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 283
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 304
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 324
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 343
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 356
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 373
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, Viomenil, Lameth,
Dumas, La Peyrouse, Berthier, and Deux-Ponts.--The Regiment
Auvergne.--Latour D'Auvergne.--French Diplomacy 386
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 398
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 407
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 420
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 441
INDEX 451
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Pigeon Cove, Cape Ann. _Fr'tispiece_.
Map _In Preface_.
Head-piece 18
Jacques Cartier 20
Captain John Smith 21
Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts 23
Sir Humphrey Gilbert 24
Fac-simile of first Map engraved in New England 25
Tail-piece 26
Mount Desert, from Blue Hill Bay 27
Map of Mount Desert Island 28
Samuel Champlain 29
Head of Somes's Sound 32
Echo Lake 33
Cliffs, Dog Mountain, Somes's Sound 37
The Stone Wall 38
Entrance to Somes's Sound 39
Professor Agassiz 40
View of Eagle Lake and the Sea from Green Mountain 43
Cliffs on Bald Porcupine 44
Southerly End of Newport Mountain, near the Sand Beach 45
Cave of the Sea, Schooner Head 46
Cliffs at Schooner Head 47
Devil's Den and Schooner Head 48
Great Head 51
The Ovens, Saulsbury's Cove 55
Tail-piece 57
Castine, approaching from Islesboro 58
General Henry Knox 61
General Benjamin Lincoln 62
Fort Point 63
View from Fort George 66
Sir John Moore 67
Fort Griffith 68
Fort George 69
Tail-piece 72
Ruins of Fort Pentagoet 73
Pine-tree Shilling 75
Colbert 79
Lobster Pot 85
Tail-piece 86
Old Fort Frederick, Pemaquid Point 87
"The Land-breeze of Evening" 88
Cotton Mather 94
Ancient Pemaquid 95
Charlevoix 96
French Frigate, Seventeenth Century 98
Hutchinson 99
Monhegan Island 102
Thatcher's Island Light, and Fog-signals, Cape Ann 103
Graves of Burrows and Blythe, Portland 107
Tail-piece (Burrows's Medal) 108
Gorge, Bald Head Cliff 109
Old Wrecks on the Beach 112
The Morning Round 119
What the Sea can do 123
York Meeting-house 134
Jail at Old York 136
Pillory 137
Stocks 137
Old Garrison House 139
Tail-piece 140
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from Kittery Bridge 141
Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine 142
Block-house and Fort, Kittery Point 144
Sir William Pepperell's House, Kittery Point 145
Sir William Pepperell 146
Kittery Point, Maine 148
Governor Langdon's Mansion, Portsmouth 150
Tail-piece 152
Whale's-back Light 153
Portsmouth and the Isles of Shoals (Map) 154
Shag and Mingo Rocks, Duck Island 158
Meeting-house, Star Island 163
The Graves, with Captain John Smith's Monument, Star Island 165
Gorge, Star Island 169
Tail-piece 174
Cliffs, White Island 175
Blackbeard, the Pirate 178
Smutty Nose 182
Haley Dock and Homestead 183
Ledge of Rocks, Smutty Nose 186
South-east End of Appledore, looking South 187
Duck Island, from Appledore 188
Laighton's Grave 190
Londoner's, from Star Island 191
Covered Way and Light-house, White Island 193
White Island Light 194
Tail-piece 195
Wentworth House, Little Harbor 196
Point of Graves 197
Old House, Great Island 198
Old Tower, Newcastle 199
Gate-way, old Fort Constitution 200
Sir Thomas Wentworth, Wentworth House, Little Harbor 201
Marquis of Rockingham 202
In the Wentworth House, Little Harbor 203
Lady Hancock's Portrait in the Wentworth House 204
Governor Benning Wentworth 206
Baron Steuben 207
Witch Hill, Salem 208
Custom-house, Salem, Massachusetts 211
Rebecca Nurse's House 213
Procter House 214
Birthplace of Putnam 217
Putnam in British Uniform 218
Endicott Pear-tree 218
Tail-piece (Putnam's Tavern Sign) 219
Washington Street, Salem 220
Birthplace of Hawthorne 221
Shattuck House 221
Room in which Hawthorne was born 222
The old Witch House 223
Fragment of Examination of Rebecca Nurse 224
Thomas Beadle's Tavern, 1692 225
Interior of First Church, Salem 227
Ireson's House, Oakum Bay, Marblehead 228
Great Head 229
"The Churn" 230
Drying Fish, Little Harbor 232
Unloading Fish 235
A Group of Antiques 237
Lee Street 239
Tucker's Wharf--the Steps 241
Gregory Street 242
Lee House 245
Town-house and Square 247
St. Michael's, Marblehead 248
Elbridge Gerry 249
The Gerrymander 250
"Old North" Congregational Church 251
Samuel Tucker 252
General Glover 253
Fort Sewall 255
Powder-house, 1755 256
James Lawrence 257
Glimpse of the Seamen's Monument and old Burial-ground 258
Lone Graves 260
"Sitting, stitching in a mournful Muse" 260
The Hoe, English Plymouth 261
Map of Plymouth 262
Pilgrim Hall 263
Brewster's Chest, and Standish's Pot 263
Landing of the Pilgrims 264
Carver's and Brewster's Chairs 265
Mincing Knife 265
Peregrine White's Cabinet 265
Standish's Sword 266
The Old Colony Seal 267
Map of Plymouth Bay 269
Champlain's Map.--Port Cape St. Louis 274
Tail-piece 282
The Pilgrims' first Encounter 283
Building on the Site of Bradford's Mansion 284
Site of the Common House 286
The Allyne House 287
The Joanna Davis House, Cole's Hill 288
Plymouth Rock in 1850 289
The Gurnet 296
Watson's House, Clark's Island 297
Election Rock, Clark's Island 298
Church's Sword 302
Tail-piece 303
Provincetown, from the Hills 304
Cohasset Narrows 305
Highland Light, Cape Cod 306
Washing Fish 309
Mackerel.--A Family Group 313
Pond Village, Cape Cod 315
Picking and sorting Cranberries--Cape Cod 317
Sand-hills, Provincetown 318
Life-boat Station.--Trial of the Bomb and Line 321
Tail-piece (A "Sunfish") 323
Nantucket, from the Sea 324
Map of Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard 325
Approach to Martha's Vineyard 326
A Bit of Nantucket--the House-tops 328
Last of the Whale-ships 332
Whaling in the olden Time 333
Whale of the Ancients 334
E. Johnson's Studio, Nantucket 341
Tail-piece 342
Nantucket.--Old Windmill, looking oceanward 343
Captured Porpoise and Blackfish 345
The Blue-fish 346
Blue-fishing 347
Homes of the Fishermen, Siasconset 352
The Sea-bluff, Siasconset 353
Hauling a Dory over the Hills, Nantucket 354
Light-house, Sankoty Head, Nantucket 355
Tail-piece 355
Newport, from Fort Adams 356
Old Fort, Dumpling Rocks 358
Old-time Houses 360
Residence of Governor Coddington, Newport, 1641 361
Newport State-house 363
Commodore Perry's House 364
Jewish Cemetery 365
Jews' Synagogue, Newport 366
Judah Touro 367
The Redwood Library 368
Abraham Redwood 369
The Old Stone Mill 370
The Perry Monument 371
Tail-piece 372
Boat Landing 373
The Beach 374
Cliff Walk 375
The Cliffs 376
A Newport Cottage 377
Charlotte Cushman's Residence 377
Spouting Rock 378
The Dumplings 380
Hessian Grenadier 381
Coast Scene, Newport 382
The Drive 383
Purgatory Bluff 383
Whitehall 384
Washington Park, Newport 385
D'Estaing 386
Earl Howe 388
Rochambeau 388
Rochambeau's Head-quarters 389
Louis XVI 389
Military Map of Rhode Island, 1778 390
Lafayette 391
Baron Viomenil 391
Trinity Church, Newport 392
Chastellux 392
Lanzun 393
Mathieu Dumas 394
Deux-Ponts 395
De Barras 395
Latour D'Auvergne 396
Tail-piece 397
Graves on the Bluff, Fort Road 398
Tombstones, Newport Cemetery 399
Perry's Monument 401
Oliver Hazard Perry 401
Friends' Meeting-house 402
George Fox 403
Charles Lee 404
Mount Hope 407
The Glen 408
A Rhode Island Windmill 409
William Barton 410
Silas Talbot 410
Prescott's Head-quarters 411
Agricultural Prosperity 412
From Butts's Hill, looking North 413
Quaker Hill, from Butts's Hill, looking North 414
Battle-ground of August 29, 1778 414
King Philip, from an old Print 415
Inscription on Dighton Rock 416
Old Leonard House, Raynham 419
New London in 1813 420
New London Harbor, north View 421
New London Light 421
New London in 1781 (Map) 422
Old Block-house, Fort Trumbull 423
A Light-ship on her Station 424
Court-house, New London 425
Bishop Seabury's Monument 426
Groton Monument 427
Benedict Arnold 429
Storming of the Indian Fortress 430
Silas Deane 431
Stephen Decatur 433
Rustic Bridge, Norwich 434
Old Mill, Norwich 435
Signatures of Uncas and his Sons 436
Uncas's Monument 437
Arnold's Birthplace 437
Elm-trees by the Wayside 438
General Huntington's House 438
Mansion of Governor Huntington 439
Congregational Church 440
Tail-piece 440
Peter Stuyvesant 441
Isaac Hull 444
A Moss-grown Memorial 446
Tail-piece 449
[Illustration]
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 Pontgrave 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 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.
[Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER.]
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."
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.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH.]
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 Franciae 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 a l'Histoire de Dieppe_," "_Recherches sur les Voyages et
decouvertes des Navigateurs Normands_," and "_Navigateurs Francais_,"
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 etranger nomme Pincon 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 "_Bibliotheque 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 degres, 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.
[Illustration: PIERRE DU GUAST, SIEUR DE MONTS.]
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.
[Illustration: 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]
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF FIRST MAP ENGRAVED IN NEW ENGLAND.]
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 were
allowed to make their choice in the seraglio." After the selection was
made, the marriage was concluded on the spot, in presence of a priest
and a notary, the governor-general usually presenting the happy couple
with some domestic animals with which to begin life anew.
When the number of historical precedents is taken into account, the
superstition long current among mariners with regard to setting sail on
Friday seems unaccountable. Columbus sailed from Spain on Friday,
discovered land on Friday, and returned to Palos on Friday. Cabot
discovered the American continent on Friday. Gosnold sailed from England
on Friday, made land on Friday, and came to anchor on Friday at Exmouth.
These coincidences might, it would seem, dispel, with American mariners
at least, something of the dread with which a voyage begun on that day
has long been regarded.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Et que passe cette riviere la cote tourne a l'Ouest et
Ouest-Norouest plus de deux cens cinquante lieues," etc.
[2] The monk Andre Thevet, who professes to have visited Norumbega River
in 1556, says it was called by the natives "Agoncy."
[3] According to the Abbe Maurault, Pentagoet, in the Indian vocabulary,
signifies "a place in a river where there are rapids." On the authority
of the "History of the Abenaquis," Penobscot is, "where the land is
stony, or covered with rocks."
[4] It is curious that three Italians--Columbus, Cabot, and
Verrazani--should lead all others in the discoveries of the American
continent.
[5] Giambetta Ramusio, the Venetian.
[6] Champlain's map of 1612 is entitled "CARTE GEOGRAPHIQVE DE LA
NOVVELLE FRANCE FAICTTE PAR LE SIEVR DE CHAMPLAIN SAINT TONGOIS,
CAPPITAINE ORDINAIRE POVR LE ROY EN LA MARINE. _Faict len_ 1612." All
the territory from Labrador to Cape Cod is embraced in this very curious
map. Some of its details will be introduced in successive chapters as
occasion may demand. There is another map of Champlain of 1632, _fort
detaille_, but of less rarity than the first.
[7] By Ben Perley Poore and John Romeyn Brodhead.
[8] "Massachusetts Archives, French Documents," vol. i., p. 269.
[9] Rev. B. F. De Costa's "Northmen in Maine."
[10] "Mass. Archives, French Documents."
[11] Ibid.
[Illustration: MOUNT DESERT, FROM BLUE HILL BAY.]