[1] This Letter is reprinted entire on page 10.
[THE LETTER REFERRED TO ON PAGE 7.]
BOSTON, Aug. 27, 1865.
MY DEAR SIR,--Your invitation to be present at the Popham Celebration
is at hand. The short notice will prevent me from being present to
take part in the interesting ceremonies. Without assenting to all the
claims made in your "Popham Memorial Volume," allow me to say, that I
think those who have spoken or written on that subject have overlooked
one of the most important results of that enterprise. In this
practical age, we must look to what was really effected by the
earliest colonists on these shores. Let us briefly try that at
Sagadahoc by this test; for, in my opinion, their works were far more
important than the formal acts recorded. They certainly erected
houses, a church, a fort; and, lastly, a vessel, the dimensions of
which are unknown, but fit to cross the ocean. Now we know, that, in a
forest, it is not a difficult thing to build log-houses, or a church
and a fort in the same way; but to construct a sea-going vessel is
quite a different affair. This requires artisans who are used to such
work; and there can be no doubt, that among the colonists there were
found a master-builder,[2] with the necessary journeymen and sawyers
(for there were no mills,) a smith, and also several laborers: for the
building of a vessel in a remote wilderness would then require three
times the amount of manual labor that would now effect the same
result--in these days when materials are so easily prepared,
transported and fitted, by the aid of machinery.
Looking, then, at what was certainly done by the Popham Colony, we
must allow that, during the short period they occupied the rugged
peninsula of Sabino, and making due allowance for a hard winter, the
destruction of their storehouse, and the sickness that followed, they
deserve credit for enterprise and industry in constructing a vessel
fit to encounter the storms of the Atlantic, and make a safe voyage to
England. There she must have attracted much attention, being the
pioneer ship built in North America. When, therefore, we consider the
value of Popham's enterprise, the building and voyage of the "Virginia
of Sagadahoc" is one of its most important results. It was not
equalled by the Plymouth colony in the first ten years of its
existence; and it was not till the third year of the existence of its
powerful neighbor of "Massachusetts Bay," that a ship, fit to cross
the ocean, was constructed.
Wishing you a pleasant day and a numerous company, I am,
Yours truly,