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diff --git a/42484-0.txt b/42484-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bdd1b4f --- /dev/null +++ b/42484-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2525 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42484 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + +The following Contents list was not present in the original. It has +been added for the convenience of the reader. + +Remaining transcriber's notes are at the end of the text. + + PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 3 + Boston Daily Advertiser, April 11, 1866. + THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS. 5 + Boston Daily Advertiser, April 21, 1866. + "THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS." 11 + Portland Advertiser, April 26, 1866. + "THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS." 18 + Boston Daily Advertiser, May 31, 1866. + POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY. 20 + Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866. + THE POPHAM COLONY, "FINALLY." 39 + Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866. + A RUNNING REVIEW OF THE "POPHAM AGAIN + AND FINALLY." 58 + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE POPHAM COLONY. 65 + + + + + THE POPHAM COLONY + + _A DISCUSSION OF ITS HISTORICAL CLAIMS_ + + WITH A + + BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT + + + [Illustration] + + + BOSTON + + J. K. WIGGIN AND LUNT 13 SCHOOL STREET + + 1866 + + + Edition, Three Hundred Copies. + + BOSTON: PRESS OF ALFRED MUDGE & SON. + + + + +PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. + + +In the following discussion, the arguments for and against the +historical claims of the English Colony that landed at the mouth of +the Kennebec River, August 19, (O. S.) 1607, are presented in an able +and comprehensive manner. The articles, when they appeared in the +columns of a daily newspaper, attracted much attention; and, as they +contain matter of permanent historical interest, we have deemed them +worthy of preservation in a collected form. + +The writers can have no further motive for withholding their names. We +therefore state that "P." is Mr. WILLIAM FREDERICK POOLE, Librarian of +the Boston Athenæum; that "Sabino" is Rev. EDWARD BALLARD, D. D., of +Brunswick, Me.; and that "Orient" and "Sagadahoc" are the signatures +of Mr. FREDERIC KIDDER, of Boston. + +Each year, since the first Popham Celebration in 1862, memorial +services have been held on the Anniversary of the Landing in 1607. +Public addresses have been delivered on these occasions, and these +have usually been printed. Mr. John A. Poor, of Portland, Me., +delivered the Oration in 1862; Mr. George Folsom, of New York, in +1863; Mr. Edward E. Bourne, of Kennebunk, Maine, in 1864; and Prof. +James W. Patterson, of Dartmouth College, in 1865. + +This discussion arose from a notice by Mr. Poole, in the Boston Daily +Advertiser of April 11, 1866, of Prof. Patterson's Address which +appeared about that time in print. In this notice the writer sharply +assailed the claims for the Popham Colony, as set forth by the orator, +and also by Mr. Kidder in a Letter which the Publishing Committee of +the Celebration had printed as an Appendix to the Address. Dr. Ballard +replied in the Boston Daily Advertiser of April 21; and Mr. Kidder in +the Portland Advertiser of April 26. From this point, the disputants +came into close quarters on the general merits of the question. + +As earnest historical discussion too often leads to bitterness and +estrangement, we are happy to state that such has not been the result +in this instance. "P.," whose notice brought on the discussion, +received an official invitation to attend the Popham Celebration in +August last, which he accepted. One of our firm, who was also present, +can state that the hospitality of the Maine gentlemen named in the +following extract from the report of the Celebration in the Boston +Daily Advertiser, of September 1, is not over-stated:-- + + "I see to-day, among the guests from Massachusetts, your + correspondent "P.," who has written of late some hard things + respecting this Popham Colony. He is receiving every personal + attention from Rev. Dr. Ballard, ("Sabino,") President Woods, + Hon. Chas. J. Gilman and others; and the merry peals of + laughter, that burst occasionally from the group, indicate + that difference of opinion on historical questions need not + disturb the harmony of social intercourse. As I finish this + report in Bath, I understand that Dr. Ballard and the other + gentlemen named have captured their friendly detractor, and + taken him home with them to Brunswick, where he will + doubtless receive good treatment." + +The Bibliography of the Popham Colony, which is appended, was +compiled, at our request, by Mr. Poole; and, so far as the newspaper +articles, and the minor pieces connected with the first Celebration, +are concerned, it was made chiefly from the collection preserved by +Mr. John Wingate Thornton, of Boston, who has kindly placed them in +our hands for that purpose. The list was then sent to Dr. Ballard, who +has contributed the articles in his possession which were not already +included. + + W. & L. + + + + +[_Boston Daily Advertiser, April 11, 1866._] + +THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS. + + +We find another contribution to the literature of Popham, in the +elegantly printed Address of the Hon. James W. Patterson, delivered at +the Peninsula of Sabino, on the 258th Popham Anniversary; which, as +all the world knows without our giving the information, was August 29, +1865. Thick, creamy paper, John Wilson and Sons' best typography, and +Mr. Wiggin's imprint, were among the least of the motives that induced +us to seize upon and devour the contents of this delectable pamphlet. + +We confess to a partiality for Popham literature. Its theory is so +original, so free from conventional trammels, so utterly at variance +with the accepted facts of history, that it is often difficult to +persuade one's self that its advocates intend anything more than +historical waggery. So we read on, as in other fiction, to be amused. + +A false theory zealously defended commonly finds more sympathy than +the truth feebly supported. The Pophamites have nailed their flag to +the mast, and ask for no favors from any quarter. We admire their +pluck, and, for their sakes, regret that they have so few historical +verities in their ammunition locker. We have read their "Memorial +Volume," from title-page to errata, as well as Mr. Poor's facetious +Addenda in "Vindication of Sir Ferdinando Gorges;" not shying either +at his Appendix of fifty-two solid nonpareil pages. Every other +Address on the subject, and every scrap of newspaper controversy +accessible, we have diligently perused; and yet the impression remains +on the mind that the facts to sustain this extraordinary theory have +not yet been developed. For some reason, (perhaps to surprise us the +more when it does come,) the stern logic of truth is withheld; and we +are served to empty assertion and vapid declamation in its stead. +Every new publication, therefore, of Popham origin, or from the Maine +Historical Society, is of interest, as possibly it may contain the +suppressed developments. Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay are waiting, +gracefully to yield the honors awarded them in history for more than +two hundred years to "the Church Colony" of Sagadahoc. Is the pamphlet +before us the coming document? Let us see. + +Mr. Patterson is well known as a gentleman and a scholar. He has been +Professor at Dartmouth College, and now is Representative in Congress +from New Hampshire. Of his early local affinities we know nothing; but +there was every reason to expect from him a valuable contribution to +this historical discussion. His opening sentence is sonorous and +impressive. "This [Fort Popham] is hallowed ground." Why "hallowed +ground?" we would detain the Professor for a moment, meekly to +inquire; but he hurries on to other glittering generalities. Is this +spot "hallowed ground," because a colony of convicted felons landed +here in August, 1607, more than half of whom deserted the next +December, and all abandoned the spot the following Spring, leaving +with the neighboring Indians the memory of the most shocking +barbarities committed upon them? (See Relations des Jésuites, 1858, +tom. i. p. 36; Parkman's Pioneers of France, p. 266.) Was it because +these sportive colonists enticed friendly Indians into this same Fort, +under the pretense of trade; and, causing them to take the drag-ropes +of a loaded cannon, fired off the piece when the Indians were in line, +and blew them to atoms? (See Williamson's Hist. of Maine, vol. i. p. +201.) "The lines of an eventful history," Mr. Patterson goes on to +say, "stretching through more than two centuries and a half, converge +to this beautiful promontory of Sabino." We think not. Heaven spare +the land from such a disgrace! Mr. Patterson devotes two pages to +general assertions of similar import, and then branches off into +another subject having no relation to the historical question. Into +this we do not propose to follow him. + +A curious feature in this pamphlet is an isolated Letter,[1] written +by a respectable Boston gentleman, found in the Appendix. This alone, +of the correspondence received by the Committee on Invitations, we are +told, was found worthy of preservation. It was certainly not so much +the name of the writer that rescued this letter from the oblivion of +the waste-basket, common to its fellows, as the impression on the +minds of the managers of the Celebration, that it contained historical +information tending to confirm their theory. + +The letter-writer finds that the "works" of the colonists, during the +few months they stopped at Sabino, "were far more important than their +formal acts recorded." The distinction he would make between "works" +and "formal acts" is not quite apparent. Among the "works" he +specifies, is "a vessel, the dimensions of which are unknown; but fit +to cross the ocean." Strachey tells us what we know about this vessel. +He says it was "a pretty Pynnace of about some thirty tonne." Whether +it was fit to cross the ocean, we will presently consider. The writer +claims for this fishing-boat the honor of being "the pioneer ship +built in North America." This claim is nothing new. Mr. John A. Poor +made it in Popham Memorial, (page 73,) and other writers of less +_weight_ have repeated it. The real fact, however, is that a vessel +was built in the harbor of Port Royal (now Hilton Head) forty-four +years before this, by Huguenot colonists, in which a party of more +than twenty crossed the ocean. But, leaving out of the account the +Huguenot vessel, a similar pinnace had been built at Sabino before +this. Strachey says, under the date of 28th of August: "Most of the +hands labored hard about the fort, and the carpenters about the +buylding of a small pinnace, the president overseeing and applying +every one to his worke." The other craft, called the "Virginia," for +which the above pretensions are set up, was not framed till after +Captain Davies had sailed for England,--that is, after the 15th of +December. + +The letter-writer further garnishes his theme by talking about this +fishing-boat's "safe voyage to England," and the curiosity she excited +in an English port. For the sake of these historical statements, the +Committee have thought proper to preserve this letter. Their theory +must be in a desperate condition to need such a confirmation. + +We have a word to say with regard to this vessel. Writers on New +England have generally stated that the departing colonists took this +craft with them. This, however, is very different from the statements +made above, that she was "fit to cross the ocean," that she made a +"safe voyage to England," _etc._ A part of the company were not over +anxious to revisit their native land. They had saved their necks once +by emigrating, and were not in haste to put them again into the +halter. With this "pretty pynnace" they could catch codfish, and cure +them along shore; barter them for other commodities with some of the +hundreds of vessels from Europe employed in the fisheries on the +coast; harass the Indians; and lead generally a wild and free life, +such as was congenial to their character and dispositions. The +vessels, doubtless, left Sabino at the same time. When the main body +of the colonists departed, it was necessary that all should leave; for +they had so incurred the enmity of the Indians by their barbarities, +that any left behind would have been murdered. Strachey's account is +entirely consistent with this. He says "they all ymbarqued in this new +arrived ship [the 'Mary and John'] and in the new pynnace, the +Virginia, and sett saile for England. And this was the end of that +northerne colony uppon the river Sachadehoc." Brief Relation, 1622, +says, "they built a pretty barke of their owne, which served them a +good purpose, as easing them in their returning." Certainly; but we do +not read that the "new pynnace" arrived in England, and was there an +object of admiration, as a specimen of naval architecture. + +The improbability that this "pynnace" was sea-worthy, and made a +voyage across the Atlantic, will appear from the following +considerations;-- + +1. There was not time between the 15th of December and Spring to build +a sea-worthy vessel. There were but forty-five persons left in the +colony, and this number was reduced before Spring by disease and +squabbles with the Indians. There were probably not ten carpenters in +the company. The Winter, we are told, was unseasonable and intensely +severe. Strachey says, that, "after Capt. Davies's departure they fully +finished the fort, trencht and fortified it with 12 pieces of ordnance, +and built 50 howses, besides a church and a storehouse,"--sufficient +work, we might suppose, to employ forty-five Old Bailey convicts till +Spring, without building a sea-going vessel. If Strachey does not tell +the truth in this matter, we know nothing at all about this vessel. + +2. They had no need of a sea-going vessel. These were furnished by the +English undertakers. What they needed was a small craft in which to +take fish along shore. The Huguenots built their vessel in 1563 to +return home in; it being their only means of escaping starvation. +There was no intention of abandoning the Popham settlement till Capt. +Davies returned in the Spring with the news that their patron saint, +Sir John Popham, surnamed "the hangman," was dead. + +3. We know that the Popham colonists were knaves; but it is not +necessary to infer that they were fools. Here was a good, stanch ship, +the "Mary and John," of London, Captain Davies, master, about to sail +for England. The whole company was now reduced to about forty souls. +This same ship had brought over, a few months before, more than double +that number. The graduates of penal institutions have usually as keen +a regard for their corporal safety as other persons. Cowardice is +commonly their ruling characteristic. Is it reasonable to suppose that +any of that godless company would have risked their lives to a voyage +across the Atlantic in that "pretty pynnace," built of green pine, in +midwinter, when they could have had safe and comfortable quarters in +the "Mary and John"? If the intention, on the part of the managers, +was to transport the colonists safely to England, there was no motive +nor excuse for putting any on board the new craft. If there was a +willingness on the part of some of the colonists to embark in it, they +must, we think, have had some other project in view than a trip across +the Atlantic. The assertion that the vessel made the voyage is purely +gratuitous. + + P. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[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, + + FREDERIC KIDDER. + +To Rev. EDWARD BALLARD, _Secretary, &c_. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Strachey says, "the chief shipwright was one Digby, of London." He +also speaks of "the carpenters."--Chap. x. + + + + +[_Boston Daily Advertiser, April 21, 1866._] + +"THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS." + + +_To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser_:-- + +By the courtesy of some unknown friend, I have received your paper of +the 11th inst., containing a notice of Prof. Patterson's Address at +the last Celebration at Fort Popham. As it presents some matters +needing amendment, I trust your greater courtesy will allow space in +your columns for a few observations. + +Your correspondent has confessed a partiality for the literature +growing out of the first colonial occupation of the soil of New +England under English enterprise; and forthwith, in a style of +pleasantry, bearing with it the edge of ridicule, speaks of the +efforts of its writers as scarcely better than advocates indulging in +"historical waggery," whose pages "we read," as in other fiction, "to +be amused." + +But without attempting to reply with smiles alone to such attempts at +smiling away the force of historic verities, it is pertinent to say, +that when your correspondent speaks of the "false theory" of the +believers in the Popham Colony, it would have been quite as lucid a +mode of treatment, if he had stated the "theory" itself. We had +supposed that we were dealing with _facts_; and were not responsible +for any deductions drawn therefrom, either by affection or prejudice. +And the _facts_, though prominent, may be comprised in a short +enumeration: That in 1607 an English colony, under President George +Popham, was founded at the mouth of the Kennebec;--was inaugurated and +continued with the sacred services of the Christian religion;--was an +actual possession of the region afterwards known as New England, under +a Royal Charter never denied nor abrogated;--and, though intended, as +the documents show, to be perpetual, it came to an end within a year, +by reason of the death of its two chief supporters;--and was followed +by a succession of occupancies, that proved title, as against the +former and never-renewed claims of France. + +Now, if these facts make the "extraordinary theory," which your +correspondent has not ventured to describe, we are ready to take it in +all its dimensions, and furnish your readers the proofs, as readily as +you will grant your columns. But we are not inclined to shut our +mouths, or stop our pens, by the terror of any such words as "false +and extraordinary theory," "empty assertion and vapid declamation." We +do not ask "Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay gracefully to yield the +honors of their exalted position," any farther than "the stern logic +of truth" may demand; and we shall not be unwilling to say, that the +claims of history are worthy of respect, even among the present +dwellers in those ancient and time-honored colonies. As to the remark +about "'the Church Colony' of Sagadahoc," that may pass as a piece of +pleasantry, though it was a fact. + +The question is asked, in regard to the opening sentence of Mr. +Patterson's Address, "Why is this hallowed ground?" We had supposed, +that any place where religion had held its services continuously, and +in connection with important events, might properly bear such a +designation. The orator evidently thought so; and his very large +audience, out of the thousands assembled on that day, did not once +think of a criticism upon the expression. But the question seems to +have been proposed, not so much for disputing the religious +associations connected with the undertaking, as to bring in _two_ +charges against the colonists, of no force whatever against the great +purposes of the settlement. + +The _first_ charge is, that "a colony of convicted felons landed here +in 1607." Now who believes this? We who live in the valley of the +Kennebec have always supposed, that faith is belief founded on +evidence; and that all other demands on faith, if answered, are +credulity. What is the evidence that the charge is true? Not a +particle. The only pretence of proof is the casual remark of Sir +William Alexander, who says of these colonists,--of course he means +the laboring part of their number, and not the ten in authority,--that +they went to these western shores, "as endangered by the law, or their +own necessities." But was there no other law than that against social +crime? Contemporaneous history shows that their _endangerment_ +proceeded from the statutes against vagrancy. At that time, in +consequence of the state of the country, a poor man could hardly avoid +their grasp. Surely poverty was no crime. Gorges sought persons of +this necessitous class to aid in carrying forward his noble purposes +of colonization.[3] While history is the best comment on language, the +five words of Sir William are entitled to its explanation. True +charity never requires us to give the worst interpretation, when the +circumstances allow the best. Here they require it. + +It is most unfortunate for the truth of the charge about the felons in +the colony, that Chalmers--than whom no man has had a longer and +better opportunity of searching the British State Papers of this +period, and who has the credit of being reliable as to facts--says the +law for the transportation of convicts was not enforced till 1619; and +Bancroft says, that, when they were enforced, "it must be remembered, +the crimes of which they were convicted were chiefly political. The +number transported to Virginia for social crimes was never +considerable; scarcely enough to sustain its pride in its scorn of the +laboring population; certainly not enough to affect its character."[4] +If there had been any convicts in the Kennebec Colony, it would be +fair to infer from this declaration, that they were "chiefly +political" offenders, and "certainly _not numerous enough to affect_ +its character." + +But Chalmers says there was no transportation of any class of the +guilty till 1619.[5] Therefore there was none to Sagadahoc; and for +the additional and better reason than his statement, that the law has +not yet been shown requiring transportation as a punishment for moral +guilt, during the time of the incipiency, continuance and end of the +Popham Colony. Convicts could not be transported without a law. Any +charge, therefore, as about the felons of the colony, is injuriously +brought against the memory of the helpless dead. + +The _second_ charge comes from the cannon story: that the men at the +fort induced the Indians to man the drag-ropes, and to stand in the +line of direction of the piece aimed for execution; and then fired off +the piece upon the whole body of the unfortunates, when thus "in +line, and blew them to atoms." This is a tale of woe rather tougher +than the quoted Williamson gives it,--who is inclined to discredit it. +But is even Williamson's reluctant account true? + +The best reply to this allegation of horror is to be found in the +narrative of the Jesuits, in 1611, who went to the Kennebec by the +inland passage, in quest of corn. The Indians met them. They gave them +an account of their treatment of the colonists, whom they represented +as having been defeated by them. They "flattered" the French, saying +that "they loved them well;" and, to gain their favor, told them how +the English drove them from their doors and tables with clubs, and +made their dogs bite them. All this might have been done for +protection, under a renewal of the hostile attitude assumed by the +natives on Gilbert's trip up the Androscoggin. The French were good +listeners to any charge against English Protestants. Now, if this +story about the cannon had been as true as its reality would have been +cruel, why should not these Indians have told its barbarities to such +good auditors? A cannon ball, with the explosion from the muzzle, +would have made a more damaging narrative than a club or a dog-bite. +Yet no syllable of the great event is recorded, while the little ones +are faithfully chronicled to the disparagement of the Protestants. It +is doubtful whether any cruelties did occur so utterly at variance +with the known kind treatment of them by the "worthy" President. For +the Jesuits say of these Indians, that they were "flatterers," and +"the greatest speech-makers (_harangueurs_) in the world." When they +had encouraged their visitors (_honied_ them, _emmieloyent_) with +promises of grain, they put them off by trucking in beaver.[6] Such +witnesses do not amount to much; and, if Mr. Parkman uses the language +of your correspondent in calling these uncertain incidents "the most +shocking barbarities," it might be well wished that so able and +interesting a historian as he, had given the brief narrative itself, +rather than to have derived such a "theory" from its statements. Were +there no "shocking barbarities" elsewhere against the natives? + +The first known utterance of this cannon story was made in +Massachusetts, about seventy years after its asserted occurrence. + +A few words may be allowed as to the letter in the Appendix, which +comes in for a large share of notice. It is intimated that other +letters were not worthy of preservation. The reason why they were not +printed was because they were notes of courtesy to the Committee, not +needing public expression. Mr. Kidder's letter was thought to have a +historical value, as illustrating the skillful and industrious +abilities of the colonists; and is certainly proved to be of some +importance, or it would not have received so much attention. + +The first criticism is verbal, on the non-apparent distinction between +"works" and "formal acts recorded." To us, who have drank water, if +not inspiration, from the still existent Popham well, beneath the +shadow of Sabino Head, it appears that "formal acts recorded," were +the acts of taking possession with chartered rights, placed on the +minutes by "John Scammon, Secretary." The "works" were the daily toils +of the laborers, in trenching, fortifying, building the storehouse and +church and the "pretty pynnace." + +We thank your correspondent for presenting the fact of a French vessel +built at Port Royal forty years before any naval architecture was +attempted at Sabino. We have been so much in the habit of thinking of +English colonization, that perhaps we have had too narrow a horizon. +But, better taught, hereafter we will be careful to put the patrial +adjective as the proper predecessor, and say "the _English_ 'pioneer +ship,'" and so again adhere to fact. + +As to another "pynnace," built before this one claimed as the first, +we are also glad to be assured of the fact for the first time. We had +supposed that the two mentions, made in the Popham journal as given by +Strachey, related to the one vessel,--in another writer called a +"pretty bark."[7] But, if there were two, so much the better for Mr. +Kidder's illustration touching the skill and energy of the colonists. +Strachey says, they all embarked in the ship that arrived with +supplies from England, "and in the new pynnace, the 'Virginia,' and +set sail for England." This word _all_, used also by Gorges and +Ogilby, and its equivalent by a contemporaneous writer, forbids +utterly the statement of your correspondent, that a considerable +portion of the colonists took the other "pynnace"--which we cannot yet +see was built--to fish, and "lead generally a wild and free life." + +It is also intimated that the "Virginia" did not reach England. But +the "Briefe Relation," 1622, gives as much information about its +arrival in England as about the arrival of the ship. A fair hearing of +the old writer is enough to show that both reached the expected haven; +and, doubtless, the first _English_ vessel built in these wild regions +did awaken curiosity in the beholders at home. But this may be +"theory." + +As to the improbability of the building of this vessel in the time +allowed, and in the unusually cold winter, with the few men, it is +enough to reply, that the "Briefe Relation" says this: "Having in the +time of their abode there (notwithstanding the coldness of the season, +and the small help they had,) built a pretty bark of their own, which +served them to good purpose, as easing them [_i. e._ in the other +vessel] in their returning." + +The application of the term "hangman" is made to the Chief Justice +Popham. But it is not easy to see what connection it has with the +purpose of the colony. If the laws of the land required criminals to +be hung, he cannot be blamed for their administration. Sad indeed will +it be for magistrates, if they are to be thus designated because they +execute the laws. It would not be difficult to place his character +in an honorable light, as he was seen by his contemporaries; and as to +his brother, George Popham, he has been truly styled by the historian +of ancient Pemaquid, the "worthy" President, whom "New England counts +as among the earliest, if not the very first, of her 'illustrious +dead.'" + + SABINO. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] Briefe Narration, Chap. ii. + +[4] Hist. U. S., Vol. ii. p. 191.--Ed. 1837. + +[5] Political Annals, p. 46. + +[6] Fuller information, gained from the military letters of Biard and +Masse, shows that the treatment referred to was connected with an +occupation of the same location, by the English, in the year _after_ +the Popham Colony had departed.--_Reports, edited by Carayon._ + +[7] Briefe Relation. + + + + +[_Portland Advertiser, April 26, 1866._] + +"THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS." + + +Under the above caption there was printed in the _Boston Daily +Advertiser_ of the 11th instant, over the signature of "P.," what +purports to be a review of Prof. Patterson's Address at the +Celebration of the two hundred and fifty-eighth Anniversary of the +Planting of the Popham Colony, at Sagadahoc. + +At the first reading of this somewhat curious review, I supposed the +writer had intended to throw ridicule on the Popham celebrations, and +all concerned in them; but, on a closer perusal, I concluded that he +has, to the extent of his abilities, really undertaken to overthrow +the whole history of that settlement, and all that has been written +about them, by the force of his arguments. + +He commences his theme by ridiculing the "Popham Memorial," the +"Vindication of Gorges," and some other publications; but without +attempting to reply to any part of them. He next goes on to tell us +that Mr. Patterson is a scholar, has been a Professor at Dartmouth +College, and is now a Member of Congress; and then commences his +onslaught by stating, that on that spot (Sabino) a colony of convicted +criminals landed in 1607, more than half of whom deserted the next +December, and the remainder left the next spring, after committing the +most shocking barbarities on the Indians; and refers to Williamson's +History of Maine, and Parkman's Pioneers,--neither of which +authorities justify any such statement; and, although trying to +ridicule some of Professor Patterson's sentiments, charges him with +branching off into a subject that has no relation to the question at +all. + +Leaving the thirty odd pages of the Address without any remarks, he +attacks a letter, written as a reply to an invitation to be present on +that occasion, in which the writer notices the building of a ship by +the colonists, as a fact of some importance, which, all the writers on +that expedition say, took part of the colonists to England. But let us +follow him through his many wild and unsupported assertions relating +to that vessel. And here it may be proper to say, that the letter does +not endorse the authors of the Popham Memorial, or any part of their +theory, but at the outset expresses a dissent to many of the claims +made by those writers, and refers almost entirely to the ship and its +history. This reviewer, after some grand denunciations, finally +concentrates his arguments into three stately propositions. + +First, that the vessel never was built, because there was not time, +and also that there was not over ten carpenters, or forty persons, in +all the colony to do it,--while we know that since that day vessels of +five times her size have been built with half that force, and in much +less time, in that immediate vicinity. Second, that there was no need +of a vessel; and third, that she was built of green pine, and no one +would wish himself in her; and so the idea that she made the voyage is +absurd. Now this is exactly the famous kettle argument over again, +with results just as conclusive. + +In reply to these three formal propositions, it is only necessary to +say, that the fact of the building of the vessel rests on as good +authority as any historical statement relating to that colony; that +there were sufficient men and full time to do it in; and that there +can be no doubt it was intended to build a ship when the expedition +left England, from the fact that they brought out a master +ship-builder and workmen. That she was built of "green pine" is an +assumption very improbable, when we know that the growth along that +shore was mainly hardwood, while pine predominates in the interior. +But his most severe tirades are poured out upon the poor colonists, +calling them felons, knaves, cowards, and almost exhausting the +vocabulary of Billingsgate. To this I will not attempt to reply, but +merely remark, that his language, style and logic, is as far removed +from the "pure well of English undefiled" as a _pool_ of stagnant +water is from a perennial fountain. + +A passing reader of his famous review would be at a loss to understand +why this terrible onset is made on this small pamphlet,--nine-tenths +of which he says does not refer to the Popham subject at all,--as +though he expected to conquer them, Chinese-like, by only making a +great noise. But a friend at my elbow says that this is a broadside in +advance, or, rather, the fire of his skirmish line, and only +preparatory to the advance of his big guns, which are to come in the +shape of a preface to a reprint, in which he intended to entirely +annihilate the Pophams, the Gorges, all their followers and +biographers, great and small, rich and poor, so completely that our +histories will have to be rewritten, and these old names that have +been so prominent in our early annals obliterated entirely; and +finally to destroy the granite walls of Fort Popham, memorial stone +and all, and by further displays of his cut-and-thrust logic prove +conclusively that it is all a myth, and nothing of the kind ever +existed. _Nous verrons._ + + ORIENT. + + + + +[_Boston Daily Advertiser, May 31, 1866._] + +POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY. + + +Our notice of Professor Patterson's Address, in the _Advertiser_ of +the 11th of April, has drawn from "Sabino" an extended reply, which +appeared ten days later. As our object in noticing the Address was not +controversy; and as "Sabino," skirmishing here and there, has made no +effective attack on any historical position taken in the criticism, we +have doubted the propriety of making a rejoinder. The world is not in +haste to become Pophamized. The memories and associations of more than +two centuries, grounded on historic truth, are not to be pushed aside +by the most absurd and baseless theory ever addressed to the human +understanding. + +"Sabino" has done us the honor of acknowledging, that we have +contributed to this discussion some historical facts that had not +before fallen under his notice, and he thanks us for the same. The +most courteous acknowledgment we can make is, confessedly, a +rejoinder. We shall therefore examine somewhat minutely several of the +positions taken by our Eastern friend, hoping still to deserve his +kind eulogium, by contributing other facts that may not have come +within his observation. + +We feel especially favored in having, as a disputant in this +discussion, no amateur nor journeyman Pophamite; but the +master-workman, the original inventor and patentee, the Magnus Apollo +of the theory; he who compiled the "Memorial Volume;" who arranges +annually those agreeable junketings, in midsummer, at Sabino Head; who +is perpetual manager of the controversy and overseer of the press for +all Popham publications. He kindly informs us (for no one knows so +well as himself) why Mr. Kidder's letter was printed, confirming the +impression expressed in our notice. Every fact and inference, favoring +his side of the question that "Sabino" is not master of, is not worth +knowing. + +It is unfortunate that one so profound in Pophamistic lore should not +express his ideas in clear and idiomatic English. Some of his +sentences, after careful study, we confess our inability to +understand; and he often makes use of words out of their ordinary +meaning. For instance, he says, "We who live in the valley of the +Kennebec have always supposed, that faith is belief founded in +evidence; and that all other demands on faith, if answered, are +credulity." How _demands_ on faith can in any event be _credulity_, is +to us as obscure as the metaphysical nomenclature in vogue in the +valley of the Kennebec. Faith is defined by the best lexicographer of +the language as "the assent of the mind to the truth of what is +declared by another, resting on his authority or veracity, without +other evidence." We, at the Bay, accept an older definition, running +after this fashion: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, +and the evidence of things not seen." We apprehend that if there is, +in the valley of the Kennebec, any faith in the Popham theory, other +than that held by our clerical friend and his copartners, it is +grounded solely on the assertion of "Sabino & Co.," (the corporate +style of the firm is the _Maine Historical Society_,) as something _to +be hoped for_, but the evidence for which _is not seen_. + +"Sabino," on the other hand, objects to our style, as not appropriate +for a grave historical discussion. He is shocked that we should speak +of his theorizing as "historical waggery, which we read, as we do +other fiction, to be amused." Style, after all, is greatly a matter of +taste, for which there is no accounting. We are now, however, to deal +with History; and we promise our friend that our style shall be as +rigid and matter-of-fact as he can desire. + +"Sabino" complained that we commented on the Popham theory without +"stating the theory itself." Our notice was written to be read only by +those who are conversant with the historical discussions of the day, +not one of whom, probably, is ignorant of what he and his Society have +been doing and printing for the past four years. He supplied what he +deemed an omission in our notice. We copy his carefully-prepared +statement in full, and insert numerals, for convenience in its +examination:-- + + "That in 1607 an English colony, under President George + Popham, was founded (1) at the mouth of the Kennebec;--was + inaugurated and continued with the sacred service of the + Christian religion (2);--was in actual possession of the + region afterwards known as New England (3), under a royal + charter never denied nor abrogated (4);--and, though + intended, as the documents show, to be perpetual, it came to + an end within a year, by reason of the death of its two chief + supporters (5);--and was followed by a succession of + occupancies, that proved title, as against the former and + never-renewed chums of France" (6). + +"These facts," "Sabino" says, "we are ready to take in all their +dimensions." "These facts," we, on the other hand, propose to submit +to a critical examination. + +1. Was an English colony _founded_ at the mouth of the Kennebec in +1607? An attempt was made then and there to found such a colony; but +the speedy result of the experiment was a disgraceful failure, and +proved a warning to all future undertakers. This warning comes to us +in the inimitable writings of Lord Bacon. His lordship was personally +conversant with the circumstances; and to him Strachey dedicates his +"Historie of Travaile," which contains the best contemporaneous +account we have of the affair. We quote from the first complete +edition of Lord Bacon's Essays, 1625, p. 199:-- + + "It is a Shamefull and Vnblessed Thing, to take the Scumme of + People, and Wicked, Condemned Men, to be the People with whom + you Plant: And not only so, but it spoileth the Plantation; + For they will euer liue like Rogues, and not fall to worke, + but be Lazie, and doe Mischief, and spend Victuals, and + quickly weary, and then Certifie ouer to their Country to the + Discredit of the Plantation." + +"Sabino" shuns the usual expression "planted" for the more pretentious +"founded," as if the affair was a reality, and had a foundation. A +thing may be planted, and that be the end of it. If the seed be bad, +it rots in the hill. Such was the fact, and fate of the Popham Colony. + +2. The religious history of the Popham Colony is the briefest +narrative of the kind on record. All that is known of it may be +comprised in one sentence. A sermon was preached on two occasions; and +some Indians were taken on a Sunday to the "place of public prayer," +when they listened "with great reverence and silence." This conduct +was highly commendable in the Indians; and, if the colonists, "the +wicked, condemned men," had behaved as well, something, after all, +might have come of the enterprise. + +3. How much of "the region afterwards known as New England" was this +Colony "in actual possession of"? A few acres of ground on the +Promontory of Sabino, where they intrenched themselves, and nothing +more! From this narrow foothold they were driven, on one occasion, by +the Indians, who took possession of their Fort, their stock of +provisions and military stores. Not understanding the nature of +gunpowder, the Indians blew themselves up; and the survivors--regarding +the explosion as an expression of disapproval on the part of the Great +Spirit for their rudeness in driving, with arrows and clubs, forty-five +Englishmen out of a Fort that was trenched, and mounted twelve pieces +of ordnance--restored the premises to its gallant defenders, and +proposed henceforth to live on terms of friendship. (See Williamson's +History of Maine, i. p. 200.) Why does "Sabino" limit their possessions +to New England? Why not give them North America, and the whole Western +Continent? + +4. The Popham theorists maintain, that King James's North Virginia +Charter of 1606 had some special virtue as a barrier to French +supremacy in New England. Both nations claimed the whole +territory;--the English on the ground of Cabot's discovery, and of +Gilbert's taking formal possession in 1583; and the French on the +ground of prior settlement. The question of supremacy was to be +determined by permanent occupancy, by enterprise, and by valor in +arms; not by royal proclamations and charters. No royal charter to a +trading company could strengthen the title England already possessed +by right of discovery and former occupation. The Plymouth Colony +landed in New England without a charter, and the event will never be +the less significant on that account. + +5. The Popham Colony "came to an end within a year, by reason of the +death of its two chief supporters." Did it ever occur to "Sabino," +that his Colony must have had a very slender _foundation_ to have +fallen in ruins at the death of two, out of a hundred and twenty, +persons engaged in it? The Plymouth Colony lost by death, in four +mouths after the landing, fifty-one out of one hundred and two, and +still the Colony lived. We neither accept nor deny "Sabino's" +statement as to the cause by which _his_ Colony came to its end. +Mourners, in doubtful cases, should be allowed to settle these +questions for themselves. It was a case of complicated diseases, any +one of which would have resulted in dissolution. Sworn testimony and a +coroner's jury would be necessary to determine the approximate cause. +The first question before such a tribunal would be whether the patient +could be said to have ever lived. Waiving this point, we should, if +pressed for a verdict, give--"Died by visitation of the Almighty." + +Who were the two persons whose lives were so intimately entwined with +that of the Colony? They were George Popham, who came over as +president, and his brother, Sir John Popham, who never came over--both +very aged persons. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was "interested in all +these misfortunes," and knew more of the end of the Colony than any +other person whose writings have come down to us, did not regard the +president's death as a matter of importance. He says, his death "was +not so strange, in that he was well stricken in years before he went, +and had long been an infirme man" (Briefe Narration, p. 10). Raleigh +Gilbert, a younger and more energetic man, "a man," says Gorges, +"worthy to be beloved of them all for his industry," was forthwith +appointed president; and the change was rather a benefit, than +otherwise, to the Colony, if anything could benefit what was _in +articulo mortis_. + +The death of Sir John Popham was a more serious matter. He was the +head and front of the enterprise; the brother was only his agent. It +was Sir John's Colony. He furnished the bulk of the capital, provided +the colonists, gave his name and his own personal infamy to the +undertaking. Who, then, was Sir John Popham? He was Lord Chief Justice +of England, and was seventy-six years of age. In his youth he had been +a highwayman, and probably a garroter. "He frequently sallied forth at +night from a hostel in Southwark, with a band of desperate characters, +and, planting themselves in ambush on Shooter's Hill, or taking other +positions favorable for attack and escape, they stopped travelers and +took from them not only their money, but any valuable commodities +which they carried with them. The extraordinary and almost incredible +circumstance is, that Popham is supposed to have continued in these +courses after he had been called to the bar, and when, being of mature +age, he was married to a respectable woman." (Lord Campbell's Lives of +the Chief Justices, 1849-57, i. p. 210.) Lord Campbell was not the man +to speak unadvisedly of one who had occupied the highest judicial +office, save one, in England. "Popham's portrait," he says, +"represented him as 'a huge, heavy, ugly man,' and I am afraid he +would not appear to great advantage in a sketch of his moral +qualities, which, lest I should do him injustice I will not +attempt."--Idem, p. 229. + +With regard to his law reports, Lord Campbell says "they are +wretchedly ill done, and they are not considered of authority. We +should have been better pleased if he had given us an account of his +exploits when he was chief of a band of freebooters." (p. 229.) "The +reproach urged against him was extreme severity to prisoners. He was +notorious as a 'hanging judge.' Not only was he keen to convict in +cases prosecuted by the government; but in ordinary larcenies, and +above all in highway robberies, there was little chance of an +acquittal before him."--Idem, p. 219. + +"He left behind him the greatest estate that had ever been amassed by +any lawyer. Some said as much as £10,000 a year; but it is not +supposed to be all honestly come by; and he is reported even to have +begun to save money when 'the road did him justice.'"--Idem, p. 229. + +His other biographers, Fuller, Aubrey, Lloyd, Wood and Foss, paint his +character in similar colors. They allude to, and several of them state +at large, the shocking details of the manner in which he came into +possession of Littlecote Hall, his estate in Wiltshire, by compounding +with felony. Foss, the latest biographer of the Judges of England, who +is disposed to soften the hard places in Popham's record, mentions +this dark story, and says, (vi. pp. 183-84,) "It is extraordinary that +no refutation should have been attempted; for, if any existed, it is +to be presumed that such a writer as Sir Walter Scott, while detailing +the charge [in Rokeby] would have noticed the answer." The "horrible +and mysterious crime" alluded to by Macaulay (Hist. of Eng., ii. p. +542) refers to this affair. Here is the man, who--the Maine Historical +Society would have us believe--planted civilization on this continent. +Let us see how he did it. + +His position as Chief Justice gave him a controlling influence in all +the jails and penitentiaries in the realm. Aubrey (Letters, iii. p. +495) says "he stockt or planted [Northern] Virginia out of all the +gaoles of England." Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses (Bliss's ed. ii. p. 22) +says, "he was the first person who invented the plan of sending +convicts to the plantations." The statement should have been limited +to Englishmen; for the French had practised this mode of colonization +many years before. Cartier in 1547, La Roche in 1598, and De Montes in +1604, all used this material for colonists. The permission which the +King of France gave Cartier to ransack the jails of Paris may be found +in Hazard, i. p. 21. Any sort of criminals he could take, except +those convicted of treason, or counterfeiting the King's currency. + +Thomas Fuller (Worthies of England, ii. p. 284) says "his [Popham's] +justice was exemplary on Theeves and Robbers." Wood quotes this +passage, adding, "whose wayes and courses he well understood when he +was a young man," and connects it with the fact of his sending +convicts to the plantations. Fuller, in his essay on Plantations, in +"Holy and Profane States," 1642, says: "If the planters be such as +leap thither from the gallows, can any hope for cream out of scum, +when men send, as I may say, Christian savages to heathen savages? It +is rather bitterly than _falsely_ spoken concerning _one_ of our +Western plantations, consisting of most dissolute people, that it was +very like unto England, as being spit out of the very mouth of it." +David Lloyd (State Worthies, 1760, ii. p. 46) gives a sketch of Chief +Justice Popham, in which, quoting the words of Fuller, already cited, +he goes on to say: "neither did he only punish malefactors, but +provide for them. He first set up the discovery of New England to +maintain and employ those that could not live honestly in the Old." +Lloyd also, in this connection, quotes the passage we have cited from +Lord Bacon (p. 23), showing that it was understood by the old English +historians as applying to the Popham Colony. + +The authorities seem to be conclusive as to the character of the +colonists sent to Sagadahoc, the person by whom, and the manner in +which, they were "prepared;"--for that is the expression Strachey uses +(p. 163) with regard to these very colonists. Popham had sent out the +year before (1606) a colony of one hundred persons destined to the +same place. The ship was captured by the Spaniards, and the persons +taken to Spain, and "made slaves in their gallions." The loss of the +ship and outfit was suitably lamented; but not one word of sympathy +was expressed by the old writers for the persons enslaved by the +Spaniards; nor did Popham, so far as we know, make any attempt to +rescue them from their hard fate; but he forthwith "prepared a greater +number of planters,"--that is, the one hundred and twenty persons who +afterwards landed at Sabino. If it is pretended that the first company +were honest, worthy men, the assumption carries with it the necessary +inference that Popham was a heartless wretch; but, assuming that they +also were criminals, it was natural that he should leave them to their +fate. + +The death of Popham, on the 10th of June, 1607,--only eleven days +after the Popham colonists sailed[8]--was of course fatal to the +original plan of the undertaking. There was no authority left to +"prepare" convicts,--colonists, we mean. A criminal colony needs +constant recuperation. Seventy-five of the hundred and twenty +abandoned the colony before the end of four months. Why they returned +to England on the first opportunity that offered, is not recorded. As +they were the majority, they probably entered into a conspiracy, and +deserted; or they behaved so badly, that the managers were glad to be +rid of them, expecting that the Chief Justice would "prepare" others. +But his Lordship was dead, though they knew it not; and with him died +all hopes of continuing the enterprise. The good ship "Mary and John" +returned in the spring with provisions, but with no recruits; and +wound up the concern, by taking back to England the managers, and such +of the wretched culprits as wished to return. + +Perhaps we may as well notice here, as in another place, the only +evidence "Sabino" brings forward to show that the Sagadahoc colonists +were not convicted criminals, only convicted vagabonds and political +offenders. It is this: "Chalmers says there was no transportation of +any class of the guilty till 1619. Therefore there was none to +Sagadahoc." Chalmers, we beg to submit, is not an original authority. +He died only about forty years ago; and our surprise is that +"Sabino" should quote him in the face of the old writers. Chalmers had +no means of information which writers to-day do not possess, and it +seems he did not even use what he had. He was so little acquainted +with the history of the Popham Colony as not to know the name of the +president who died at Sagadahoc. He gives the name of the person as +Gilbert. It is but justice to the name of Chalmers to state that he +made no such statement as "Sabino" attributes to him. He says simply +that the policy of sending convicts to the plantations originated with +King James; and, that in the year 1619, he issued an order to send one +hundred dissolute persons to Virginia. There is not an intimation in +Chalmers that "there was no transportation of any class of the guilty +till 1619." + +"Sabino" also finds much consolation "that the law has not been shown +requiring transportation as a punishment for moral guilt during the +time of the incipiency, continuance and end of the Popham Colony." +Will "Sabino" please point out the "law" under which James sent off +one hundred convicts in 1619 that did not exist in 1606? It seems +never to have occurred to "Sabino," that, under the impulse of +avarice, or baser motives, some things can be done without law. There +was no statute of the realm requiring John Popham to commit highway +robbery, yet he did waylay travelers at night, and relieve them of +their purses and other valuables. But there was a law in 1606, (39 +Elizabeth, ch. iv.) which, under Popham's construction, was +sufficiently ample to cover his plan of colonization. But we must +return to the examination of "Sabino's" theory. + +6. We confess our inability to understand the concluding clause of +"Sabino's" statement. The Popham Colony "was followed by a succession +of occupancies that proved title, &c." What occupancies, pray? There +was no later occupancy of New England till the Pilgrims arrived in +1620. No genuine Pophamite would, for an instant, admit that the +Plymouth Colony had any relation to English supremacy in New England. +"Regarded as a political event the Pilgrim settlement was not of the +slightest consequence or importance." (Mr. John A. Poor's Vindication +of Gorges, p. 72). The next event in New England history was the +occupancy of Massachusetts Bay. He cannot allude to this. "Puritan" is +a more distasteful word to the Maine theorists than "Pilgrim." +Besides, Puritan and Pilgrim have no relation to, or connection with, +Popham. We are evidently drifting away from the true interpretation, +and for the present must remain in blissful ignorance of the full +meaning of this Delphic utterance. + +The general intent of "Sabino" is not obscure. He would have his +readers understand that the Popham affair led to something that was +favorable to English supremacy. This we deny, and for proof, again +appeal to the record. Can "Sabino" name one of the Popham men that +ever took part in, or encouraged, any subsequent settlement? Does he +not know that they circulated the most unfavorable reports of the +country, and prevented for many years any attempt to occupy New +England? Judge Sullivan (History of District of Maine, p. 53) says, +"The sufferings of this [Popham] party, and the disagreeable account +which they were obliged to give to excuse their own conduct, +discouraged any further attempts by the English." Brief Relation, +1622, (in Purchas, iv. p. 1826,) says, "The arrival of these [Popham] +people in England was a wonderful discouragement to all the first +undertakers, insomuch as there was no more speech of setting any more +Plantations in those parts for a long time after." Gorges, (Briefe +Narration, p. 10) speaking of the return of the Popham colonists, +says, "by which means all our former hopes were frozen to death." +Among his misfortunes, which he goes on to enumerate,--for he was a +large holder of Popham stock,--was that the country was "wholly given +over by the body of the adventurers, as also that it self was branded +by the returne of the Plantation as being over cold, and in respect to +that, not habitable by our Nation." This statement he must have had +from the principal men of the Colony, avid shows that they were as +destitute of veracity, as the main body of the colonists were wanting +in the cardinal virtues enjoined in the Decalogue. Assuming Strachey's +account to be correct, we know that the winter of 1607-8, on the coast +of Maine, could not have been severe for that locality, whatever the +season was in Europe. After the 15th of December, they finished +trenching the fort, which shows that there was little or no frost in +the ground. The amount of work also performed in the winter would have +been absolutely impossible in a severe season. Gorges thus expressed +his disbelief in the reports he received, as to the severity of the +weather: "I have had too much experience in the World to be frighted +with such a blast." + +Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, the patentee of Nova Scotia, +(Description of New England, 1630, p. 30) thus describes what the +Popham Colony did for English supremacy in New England:-- + + "Those that went thither, being pressed to that enterprize, + as endangered by the Law, or their own necessities, (no + enforced thing prouing pleasant, discontented persons + suffering while they act can seldom haue good successe, and + neuer satisfaction) they after a Winter stay dreaming of new + hopes at home returned backe with the first occasion, and to + iustify the suddennesse of their returne, they did coyne many + excuses, burdening the bounds where they had beene with all + the aspersions that possibly they could deuise, seeking by + that meanes to discourage all others." + +"Our people abandoning the plantation," says "Brief Relation," +(Purchas, iv. p. 1828) "in this sort as you have heard, the Frenchmen +immediately took the opportunity to settle themselves within our +limits." So far, then, from keeping the Frenchmen out, the Colony +invited them in. In the face of such evidence "Sabino" asserts, that +the Popham affair "proved title as against the former and +never-renewed claims of France." Does he mean that the French claims +were never renewed after 1608? Would he wipe out from history the +French and Indian wars, and the bloody strife for supremacy between +the French and English, that went on for a century and a half, and +culminated in the overthrow of French power in 1760? + +We have thus with patience, and we trust with candor, examined in +detail "Sabino's" statement of the Popham theory; and, if in our +former article we slighted its historic claims, they have now, we +hope, received due attention. + +"Sabino" omitted from his formal statement--but inserted it in another +part of his paper--the claim which Popham writers usually bring into +the foreground, namely, that the Popham Colony was "the _first_ +colonial occupation of the soil of New England under English +enterprise." What rank will he assign to Bartholomew Gosnold's +occupation of Cuttyhunk, on the south shore of Massachusetts, in 1602? +Gosnold there and then made a settlement, which he intended to be +permanent. He and his men built a fort and a storehouse, and collected +a valuable freight to send home to England. The cellar walls of the +house they occupied can be identified at the present day. They planted +wheat, barley and oats. "Here," says Bancroft, (i. p. 112,) "the +foundations of the first New England colony were to be laid." We do +not claim that Gosnold founded a colony. He attempted it, and failed; +but he did all that the Popham people did, and even more. He made +American colonization an honorable enterprise, and showed that it +could be made profitable. Gosnold's men were not convicts. They each +had a share in the undertaking; and jealousy as to the distribution of +their gains led to the return of the whole company to England. The +sale of their freight made it a profitable adventure. They spread the +most favorable reports of the regions they had visited, and brought +the best evidence that it was a country worth possessing. The Popham +men, on the other hand, returned to England in penury and disgrace, +"burdening the bounds where they had beene with all the aspersions +that possibly they could deuise, seeking by that meanes to discourage +all others." The death of Queen Elizabeth prevented Gosnold's return +to the Elizabeth Islands; but his representations and cheerful energy +awakened an interest in America that resulted in the Charter of 1606, +under which the Northern and Southern Virginia settlements were +projected. When we compare what Gosnold and his men did in 1602, with +what Popham and his felons did in 1607, it requires a degree of +audacity rising to sublimity to assert, that "the Popham Colony was +the _first_ colonial occupation of the soil of New England under +English enterprise." + +Ex-Governor Washburn, of Cambridge, in a speech he made at the first +Popham Celebration in 1862, suggested that if they would set up the +claim that Noah's Ark landed on one of the adjacent hills, and arrange +a Celebration in honor of the event, he would volunteer to come and +take part in it, without doubting it was true (Pop. Mem., p. 157). The +suggestion is worthy of the serious consideration of the Pophamites. +The historical difficulties in the way are but mole-hills compared +with the Alpine absurdities of their present theory. Noah's Ark was an +important fact in the history of the human race. Noah and his family +were respectable persons. The only circumstance we know, to the +discredit of the old patriarch, is excusable on the ground that there +was then no "Maine Law," or even a "judicious license system." The +prejudice attached to the descendants of one of his sons, has been +neutralized by the Emancipation Proclamation, and the passage of the +Civil Rights Bill over the head of President Johnson. The coast is now +clear for Noah's Ark. Let the Celebration come off by all means. Why +is it more unreasonable to suppose that the Eastern Continent was +settled from the Western, than _vice versa_? Much as we hate +celebrations of all kinds, we also volunteer; and, if we cannot +attend, we promise to write a letter, developing still further the +theory; and "Sabino" shall have full permission to print it as an +Appendix to the public address. + +"Sabino" is evidently in trouble about the "cannon story," and well he +may be. He says "Williamson is inclined to discredit it." Williamson +has this inclination, not on the ground of lack of evidence that it +occurred; but on the ground of its shocking inhumanity, and the +discredit it throws upon the colonists. We are inclined to discredit +it, because of the disgrace it casts upon the human race. But the ugly +fact still remains (to use Williamson's words) that it was "believed +to be true by the ancient and well-informed inhabitants on the +Sagadahoc." Again "Sabino" would have us believe, that, whereas the +Indians, several years later, told the Jesuit missionaries some of the +outrages they had suffered from the Popham colonists, and did not tell +them this, therefore the story was invented in Massachusetts, seventy +years after it was alleged to have happened. The Jesuits, in their +Relations, were describing the friendly feelings of the Indians +towards themselves. They doubtless heard, with the other cruelties +mentioned, the cannon story; but they rightly judged, that, while it +would not contribute to the point they were illustrating, it would +appear to readers so inhuman, and hence so improbable, as to weaken +the credibility of their other statements. Besides, "Sabino's" +argument founded on an omission, if it proves anything, proves too +much for him. It proves that not one of the many propositions set up +by the Pophamites are true, for not one of them is mentioned in the +Jesuit Relations. The insinuation that the cannon story originated in +Massachusetts, is a curious and comical blunder. The District of +Maine, Fort Popham included, was at the date specified a part of +Massachusetts. "Sabino" sees this footnote in Williamson: "Supplement +to King Philip's Wars, A. D., 1675, p. 75," and he supposes that 1675 +was the date the statement was published, whereas it was the date when +King Philip's War commenced. The book was not printed till 1716. He +does not inform us how "the ancient and well-informed inhabitants on +the Sagadahoc" could have been misled by a statement invented in +Massachusetts in 1716. + +"Sabino" firmly holds, with Mr. Kidder, that the vessel of thirty +tons, built at Sagadahoc, made a voyage across the ocean. "Brief +Relation, 1622," he says, "gives us much information about its arrival +in England as about the arrival of the ship." But "Brief Relation" +says nothing about the arrival of either vessel. It records simply, +"the arrival of _these people_ here in England was a wonderful +discouragement," etc. The leaders, and the main body of these people, +we believe, returned safely to England in the "Mary and John;" and +this is sufficient to fulfil all the conditions of the narrative in +"Briefe Narration," Strachey and the other old chroniclers. "Sabino," +however, is ambitious that all (including those who left in the +"pretty pynnace") should arrive in England, and show up the new craft. +He says, "This word _all_ used by Gorges and Ogilby utterly forbids +the statement of your correspondent." Gorges's _all_ has no reference +to the arrival in England. His words are, "all resolved to quit the +place (Sagadahoc) and with one consent to away." That "Sabino" should +quote Ogilby as an authority, indicates an unfamiliarity in the +authentic sources of New England history which we regret to see. Mr. +John A. Poor (Popham Memorial, p. 73) says: "It is well known that the +Popham Colony, _or a portion of them_, returned to England in 1608." +It strengthens Mr. Poor's argument on the importance of the Colony in +maintaining English supremacy, to claim that a portion of the +colonists remained in the country. We have quoted the opinion of our +esteemed Portland friend for "Sabino's" benefit; and not because it +carries additional conviction to our mind. One who writes after this +fashion: "They finished their vessel of fifty (?) tons in the winter +and spring, called the Virginia, of Sagadahoc, in which they returned +to England,"--thus adding twenty tons to the size of the vessel, and +crowding all into the "pretty pynnace," leaving the "Mary and John" to +return in ballast,--is not amenable to the common code of literary and +historical criticism. + +The Popham Colony, in fine, was a scandalous and complete failure. The +thing, as an historical event, was dead and buried. The grass, for +more than two centuries and a half, had kindly grown over it, +obliterating even from the memory of man the spot where those +disgraceful scenes were enacted. In the year 1849, the Hakluyt Society +of London printed Strachey's narration, and furnished a clew to the +burial place. Nothing would satisfy a few excellent people in Maine +but to dig up the sickening remains, and flaunt them under the +nostrils of the community. Here was an offense against decency and +sanitary regulations, indictable at common law. In cholera times the +proceeding is insufferable. + +No one imagines that the Popham investigators commenced operations +with any other than the amiable motive of contributing to the historic +glories of their native State. But they knew not for what they were +digging. Their first mistake was, that, when they came to the putrid +mass, they did not carefully replace the sod, and say nothing about +it. Instead of this, every man shouted "Eureka!" They arranged a +monster gathering, and invited all creation to celebrate with them the +Two-hundred and Fiftieth Popham Anniversary. People came from the ends +of the earth; enjoyed a generous Eastern hospitality; "drank water, if +not inspiration, out of the existent Popham well" (Query--Is "Sabino" +quite sure that the inspiration came from the _well_?), believed as +much as they could, and had a good time generally. Perhaps history +manufactured in this way will stand; but we think not. + +Because historical writers have presumed to examine and question their +theory, they have grown sullen and morose. They abuse Massachusetts; +they spit at Plymouth Rock; they berate the Puritans; they eulogize +Sir John Popham; and they sigh for a system of mediæval barbarism +which Popham and Gorges could not plant on New England soil, because +God, in his mercy to the human race, had decreed otherwise. + +The true historic glory of the noble State of Maine seems to have been +lost sight of, in the antiquarian researches of her zealous +sons,--which is, that the State sprang from the loins of +Massachusetts. To this fact, the State to-day is indebted for every +one of those distinctive elements of general intelligence, enterprise +and thrift that make her what she is,--a New England State, instead of +a feudal Virginia or a South Carolina. The Massachusetts Puritans came +in early, and took possession of the land, under a technical +construction they gave to their own charter, organized municipalities, +set up their churches and schools, and put down with a strong hand all +opposition to their authority. The historian of New Hampshire has +given a faithful picture of the social condition of the Gorges +plantation on the Agamenticus (York) River, when the Puritans +commenced their missionary operations. + + "The people were without order or morals, and it is said of + some of them, that they had as many shares in a woman, as + they had in a fishing-boat.... No provision was made for + public institutions, schools were unknown, and they had no + ministers, till, in pity of their deplorable state, two went + thither from Boston on a voluntary mission." Belknap's + American Biography, i. p. 387-8. See also Hutchinson's + Collections, p. 424. + +The appearance of the Puritans among them did not to the Gorges men +seem joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yielded the +peaceable fruit of civilization and godliness unto them who were +exercised thereby. The territory was thus saved from the ethics of +Popham, the prelacy of Laud and the Stuarts, and the barbarism of a +colony of outlaws. The civilization of the District of Maine, during +the colonial period, was as essentially Puritan, as that of +Massachusetts Bay; and the District was represented in the General +Court at Boston, from the year 1653. This close political and social +union continued till the admission of the State into the Union in +1820. + +It is the privilege, therefore, of the historical writers of Maine, to +turn from the unpleasant topic that of late has engaged their +attention, to the more congenial theme we have suggested. Let them, +with filial affection, recount the virtues and deeds of their Puritan +ancestors; and, if they must have an event to celebrate, let it be the +landing on Plymouth Rock in 1620, or the arrival of Winthrop and the +Charter in 1630,--events which are theirs to celebrate, as well as +ours. + + P. + + P. S.--We ought perhaps to acknowledge Mr. Kidder's kindness + in sending to us a corrected copy of his article in the + Portland Advertiser, in reply to our notice of Prof. + Patterson's Address. The article still has so many literary + and historical errors, that it would be unkindness to its + author to review it in its present condition. We can imagine + the inconvenience of having one's writings printed so far + from home. If Mr. Kidder will furnish us with another copy, + still further revised, we promise to give it all the + attention it deserves. + + P. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[8] For the date of Popham's death, we have followed Foss rather than +Campbell. The latter fixes the date as June 1, 1607, only one day +after the colonists sailed. Campbell has fallen into a mistake in +making Popham's age seventy-two; for Campbell himself, and the other +authorities, give the date of his birth as 1531. + + + + +[_Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866._] + +THE POPHAM COLONY, "FINALLY." + + +_To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser_:-- + +Absences have prevented my notice of the article of your correspondent +"P.," as early as I could have wished. I now take it up for some +remarks on its most prominent positions. + +To his criticisms, both merited and unmerited, I desire to bow in meek +thankfulness. They are merited only as the imperfections were the +result of haste in writing on the eve of a journey. Though they may +injure the advocate, the cause stands as impregnable as ever. The +unmerited are to be attributed to the indistinctness of my rapid +penmanship. If our articles shall have the fortune to come to a second +edition, he will not be sorry to see that his sagacity has been made +useful in aid of my argument. + +As to the pervading personalities in the communication, I have but +little to say. Of my position and acts in connection with the +commemorations of the colony, it asserts matters which never existed, +and attributes to me motives which I have never entertained. These +allegations do not change the facts of history. It is because of this +_personal_ phase of the discussion, that I propose to make no farther +reply to your correspondent, even if he should attempt a +sur-rejoinder. I do not know him. But he seems to know me, in this +connection, more than well,--more than I know of myself, or any one +knows or can know of me. + +In ascribing to me the origination of the celebrations of the Popham +Colony, the communication ignores the fact, that the "founding" +thereof (and I use the word in its dictionary sense) was commemorated, +in "a bi-centenary celebration," by the Rev. Dr. Jenks, "with a party +of gentlemen, in 1807." So that, if there could be claimed any virtue +for an Episcopal origination of the commemorative visit to +Sabino,--which has never been claimed by any one acquainted with the +facts,--this early act by this lover of the olden days would take it +all away. Indeed, I have had nothing to do with the later +celebrations, as their "original inventor and patentee," in any sense +whatever. Its suggestion even was not Episcopal, but simply +historical. I have been only auxiliary. + +The communication has not a little to say about the bad traits of +character in Chief Justice Popham, as displayed in a portion of his +early manhood. But it wholly neglects testimony--elsewhere cited--to +traits of an opposite kind, appearing in his more matured years. This +evidence appears in the writings of his cotemporaries, who speak of +him in terms of high commendation. Whatever might have been his +earlier life, the path of repentance and amendment was open for his +entrance. After his marriage, he changed his early courses; and by his +diligence in his legal studies qualified himself for his later eminent +position. When Strachey, Smith, Croke and Mather, writing after his +death, and of course after his character was completed, call him "the +upright and noble gentleman," "that honorable pattern of virtue," "a +person of great learning and integrity," "the noble lord," with other +words of approval, and none of censure, a reader of the paper cannot +but wonder that the better part of his later life was not noticed as +well as the worse parts of his earlier. Fuller has placed him among +the "Worthies," and says: "If _Quicksilver_ could really be _fixed_, +to what a treasure would it amount! Such is _wild youth_ seriously +reduced to _gravity_, as by this young man did appear." + +The opinion of Lord Campbell in his favor should not be neglected by +an impartial seeker for truth. He is severe on most of the Chief +Justices, not sparing even the good Sir Matthew Hale. His +commendations are therefore the more valuable. In his "Life" of this +Chief Justice, he describes the particular traits to his discredit, +when, with other young men, he entered on his illegal acts on the +highway; and then says, "We must remember that this calling was not +then so discreditable as it became afterwards." He speaks of the +change in his purposes; his diligence as a student; and, after some +quotations, presented in this discussion, he says, "He held the office +(of Chief Justice) fifteen years, and was supposed to conduct himself +in it very creditably." "Many of his judgments in civil cases are +preserved, showing that he well deserved the reputation which he +enjoyed." "On the trial of actions between party and party, he is +allowed to be strictly impartial, and to have expounded the law +clearly and soundly." "I believe that no charge could justly be made +against his purity as a judge." + +And then, as to the reasons why censures were brought against him, +this biographer says, "Yet, from the recollection of his early +history, some suspicion always hung about him, and stories, probably +quite groundless, were circulated to his disadvantage." "Of these we +have a specimen" about "Littlecote Hall." It is "unfair to load the +memory of a judge with the obloquy of so great a crime, upon such +unsatisfactory testimony." A distinguished ruler--more exalted than +Popham, whom Palfrey calls "that eminent person"--once wrote, +"Remember not the sins of my youth." + +If he was called "the hanging judge," it was because criminals were to +be punished. Lloyd says, to his credit, that "the deserved death of +some scores preserved the lives and livelihood of some thousands; +travellers owing their safety to this judge's severity many years +after his death." Aubrey says the same. + +But, if all were true, as alleged to the disparagement of the Chief +Justice, is there so necessary a connection between him and the +colonists at Sabino as that they, except the ten men in office, must +therefore have been "villains and convicts"? He certainly has on all +sides the praise of having been the earliest and the most active +promoter of colonization on our wild New England shores. In this +relation he gained the distinct commendation of Hubbard, as "the first +that ever procured men or means to possess New England,"--"the main +pillar" of the enterprise, with not the remotest allusion to any such +acts in its accomplishment as are mentioned by your correspondent. His +statement leads one to think, that he regarded these early movements +as preparatory to the settlements in Massachusetts. He certainly has +said nothing that can lead us to suppose he connected "convicts" with +Popham's efforts. + +There is a statement made, derived from Strachey's use of the word +"prepared," in two instances, as though this _preparation_ consisted +chiefly in furnishing convicts for transportation to Sagadahoc. Where +is the proof? There is not a word in the context to warrant any such +application, and indeed no where else. One of the "prepared" +expeditions was captured by a Spanish fleet, and the men held in a +kind of piratical duress. The communication proceeds to say, in +condemnation of the old historians and Popham, that "no word of +sympathy was expressed by the old writers for the persons enslaved by +the Spaniards; nor did Popham, so far as we know, make any attempts to +rescue them from their hard fate." Alas! where is the proof of this +sweeping assertion? Exactly opposite was the fact. His humane regard +for the captives was forthwith put into action. It would have been +well for the furtherance of history, if one well versed in "the old +writers" against Popham had also seen and produced a single testimony +in his favor. Take one sentence from Gorges, relating to this Spanish +capture: "The affliction of the captain and his company put the Lord +Chief Justice to charge and myself to trouble in procuring their +liberties, which was not soon obtained." This citation is enough to +show his efforts for their release, and proves great humanity on the +part of this "noble patron of justice and virtue," as he has been well +described; and that he was not herein "a heartless wretch," as your +correspondent writes, and furnishes no proof of his allegation. + +The quotations from Lloyd--himself mostly valuable for _his_ +quotations--are prominently presented, as bearing on the character of +the colonists. He says that Popham "provided for malefactors." But +that is no certain proof that he sent them to Sagadahoc. The plan and +its completion are different things, and its completion was not +necessarily here. "He first set up the discovery of New England to +maintain and employ those that could not honestly live in the Old." +But this proposal, this "setting up," if made in regard to Sagadahoc, +does not _prove_ that the suggestion was ever carried out. With the +singularly imperfect knowledge of foreign geography, that has always +characterized English education, all Virginia seems to have been New +England, and _vice versa_. New England was North and South Virginia. +We admit the plan. We demand the proof that convicts were banished to +this region. Besides, where is the inhumanity of the proposal, or its +fulfilment? It was intended to save the lives of criminals, who +otherwise would have been hung, according to evidence and the laws of +their time; and doubtless the culprits condemned would have deemed +the provision merciful, that by banishment allowed them to live. + +The quotation from Sir William Alexander has been often made; and it +is valuable, as coinciding accurately with the views expressed in my +communications. His book is rare; and I take his words from your +columns:-- + + "Those that went thither being pressed to that enterprize, as + endangered by the Law, or their own necessities, (no enforced + thing prouing pleasant, discontented persons suffering while + they act can seldom have good success and neuer satisfaction) + they after a Winter stay dreaming of new hopes at home + returned back with the first occasion." + +Here we are accurately taught that the people--that is, the laborers +in the colony--went "as endangered by the law, or their own +necessities." How were they "endangered"? By what "law"? By what +"necessity"? A writer of that time furnishes the reply,--in the +crowded population, the poverty of the working class, and the +encroachments of their rich neighbors; and urges emigration as the +relief. He writes the following:-- + + "Look seriously into the land, and see whether there bee not + just cause, if not a necessity to seek abroad. The people do + swarme in the land as young bees in a hive in June: insomuch + that there is hardly room for one man to live by another. The + mightier, like old strong bees, thrust the weaker, as younger + out of their hives. Lords of manors convert townships, in + which were a hundredth or two hundredth communicants, to a + shepheard and his dog. The true laboring husbandman, that + sustaineth the prince by the plow, who was wont to feed many + poore, to set many people on work, and pay twice as much + subsidie and fifteenes to the king for his proportion of + earth, as his landlord did for ten times as much; that was + wont to furnish the church with saints, the musters with able + persons to fight for their soveraigne, is now turned laborer, + and can hardly scape the statutes of rogues and vagrants.... + The poore metall man worketh his bones out and swelteth + himself in the fire; yet for all his labor, having charge of + wife and children, he can hardly keep himselfe from the almes + box.... The poor man receiveth very neere four pence for + every sixepeny worth of work. The thoughtfull poore woman + that hath her small children standing at her side and hanging + on her breast, she worketh with her needle and laboureth with + her fingers, her candle goeth not out by night, she is often + deluding the bitterness of her life with sweete songs, that + she singeth to a heavy heart.... I warrant you her songs want + no passion; she never saith, O Lord, but a salt teare + droppeth from her sorrowfull heart, that weepeth with the + head for company with teares of sweetest bloud. And when all + the week is ended, she can hardly earn salt enough for her + water gruel to feede on upon the Sunday." + +Surely here is a picture of extreme poverty,--fully corroborated by a +document in Mather,--showing how "the land grew weary of her +inhabitants;" and how "children, neighbors and friends, especially the +_poor_, were counted the greatest burdens." It tells us how the honest +yeomanry and worthy laborers of that day were harassed by the +encroachments of their "mightier" neighbors, and the rigid oppression +of the civil law. They were "endangered" through no fault of their +own. One cannot but recall a part of the petition of Agur,--"lest I be +poor, and steal" to support life. But are we to consider such men as +"rascals and villains"? And were any such men, sentenced, as men of +guilt, to go forth as a part of the colony? Symonds here gives a full +and sufficient interpretation to the meaning of Lloyd and Alexander. + +Let us now see who had the power to sentence and fix the place of +exile. The Statute of 39 Elizabeth c. iv, 1597-8, to which your +correspondent refers as being ample enough to cover "the plan of +colonizing by banishment of convicts," authorizes this penalty for +"dangerous rogues," who "shall and may lawfully be banished out of +this Realme and all other the Domynions thereof." This was to be done +"by the Justices of the Peace" at the "Quarter Sessions." Not a word +is said about the Chief Justice. The place to which they were to be +sent was to be decided "by the Privie Council;" and thus, certainly, +not by Popham alone. So that, if there were shame in the transaction, +the most honored men of the nation were equally involved in the +disgrace. It is unfair and ungenerous to single him out to meet a +purpose, as the sole object of obloquy and rebuke. + +And now, as to the return of these persons to England. Your +correspondent, assuming that a part of them were convicts, truly says, +in agreement with his assumption, that they would not be "over-anxious +to revisit their native land. They had saved their necks once by +emigrating, and were not in haste to put them again into the halter." +And so he invents the story about a second pinnace, with which they +could "lead generally a wild and free life, such as was congenial to +their character and dispositions." This is a precious statement; but +it happens to be directly opposite to the citation fearlessly made +from Sir William Alexander, which declares that "Those that went +thither,--as endangered by the laws,--dreaming of new hopes of home, +returned thither with the first occasion." None were left behind. If +they had been convicts, they would have pursued some such plan as is +intimated by your correspondent, and not have gone back to the hazard +of certain death. For the statute last quoted enacts, "if any such +Rogues, so banished as aforesaid, shall returne againe into any part +of this Realme or Dominion of Wales without lawful Lycence or Warrant +so to do, that in every such case such offence shall be Fellony, and +the Party offending therein shall suffer Death as in case of Fellony." +This was but poor encouragement for convicts to seek their native +shores. The winter had been hard. But Captain Davies, who had borne +news of the "success" of the enterprise to England, had come back to +Sagadahoc in the spring, "with a shipp laden full of vitualls" and +other useful things, so that starvation had no horrors; and the +summer was at hand. Sir William testifies that they had "new hopes" +inviting them to go home. But, if they were condemned criminals, what +"new hopes" could have been cherished by men who had nothing to expect +but certain detection, by the letter R "branded in the left shoulder," +for identification, as soon as they stepped on their native shores; +and penal death as its sequel? These "hopes" must have been "new" +indeed, if they rested only on a halter, a hangman, and a gallows! +Here your correspondent and one of his chief witnesses entirely +disagree. The former says, they "were not over-anxious to revisit +their native land," fearing the halter. The witness says, that "they +returned back with the first occasion"--hasting, and hopeful of a +better condition than the one they had left. The one says, that, as +liberated jail-birds, they led a roving life here, fearing death at +home. The other, in effect, says they had a happy voyage to England, +with bright anticipations of a more prosperous life! + +We may now look at the kind of men who were to go as settlers to the +early colonies on our coast. The Charter of James, April 10, 1606, +under which this colony was formed, gives the information. It proves +that the specially enumerated patentees, "they and every one of them, +shall and may, at all and every time and times hereafter, have, take, +and lead in the said voyage, and for and towards the said Plantations, +and Colonies, and to travel thitherward, and to abide and inhabit +there, in every the said Colonies and Plantations, such and so many of +our subjects as shall willingly accompany them or any of them, in the +said voyages and Plantations." + +The reader will note the sole condition annexed, as to the persons +selected to go: "such and so many of our subjects, as shall WILLINGLY +accompany" any or all of the patentees. Can any language be plainer? +Force by the sentence of the civil law is not here thought of. The +"willingness" of the "honest," hard pressed yeomanry, seeking to +better their livelihood, is here provided for. The "willing" ones are +allowed to go, except such as, by the royal power might "be specially +restrained." So that the real rogues, however "willing" to go, might +thus be forbidden, lest they should contaminate the honest men, +described by Gorges, who, "not liking to be hired out as servants to +foreign states, thought it better became them to put in practice the +reviving resolution of those free spirits, that rather chose to spend +themselves in seeking a new world, than servilely to be hired out but +as slaughterers in the quarrels of strangers." The same provision +existed in the patents to Gilbert and Raleigh. Yet no one has supposed +that these leaders took convicts. + +Yet this is not all. The same Charter of 1606 expressly provides: +"that all and every the Persons being our subjects, which shall dwell +and inhabit within every or any of the said several Colonies or +Plantations, and every of their Children, which shall happen to be +born within any of the Limits and Precincts of the said several +Colonies and Plantations, shall HAVE and enjoy all Liberties, +Franchises and Immunities, within any of our other Dominions, to all +Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within +this our Realm of _England_, or any other of our said Dominions." Now, +if the Popham Colony was composed of convicts, how enviable their +condition! The sentence of the law did not touch them, except in +words! They still had all the "Liberties" of the most innocent +Englishman on his native soil! They were "subjects,"--"loving +subjects," as the same class of "willing" emigrants were called in the +Charter of 1609. What "convicts" ever had such "Franchises and +Immunities" since the world began? Their state was nothing less than +perfect freedom! They were, therefore, _no convicts at all_; and so +could return home safely, and with "new hopes," just as soon as they +deemed the change desirable. + +In double confirmation of this fact, we may go to the Charter of 18 +James, Nov. 3, 1620, which speaks of the efforts made in divers years +past, in the Northern Colony, by former grantees, who had "taken +actual possession of the Continent," and had "settled already some of +our People in Places agreeable to their Desires in those parts." This, +certainly, is very far from sustaining the opinion, that the occupants +of Sagadahoc were convicts. For they were settled in a place +"agreeable to their Desires," until calamities darkened all their +prospects. It is worth noting here, that Lord Campbell says nothing +about Popham in connection with convicts and the colony. This omission +is significant. + +A question is proposed, with an air of confidence, as if its answer +must demolish the positions of my former article. It is this: "Will +'Sabino' please point out the 'law' under which James sent off a +hundred convicts in 1619, that did not exist in 1606?" The demand is +adroitly made, but not pertinently. To make it touch the point, it +should have been 1607. My reply is readily given. + +The statute for the punishment of rogues by banishment, already noted, +(39 Eliz. ch. iv.,) expired by its own limitation, in 1601; when it +was renewed, to continue till the end of the first session of the next +Parliament, which was held in 1603-4. It was then re-enacted, (1 +James, ch. iv. and xxv.,) when the additional provision was made, that +persons condemned under its sanctions should be branded on the left +shoulder with "a greate Romane R," for their detection in case of +their unlicensed return, so as to secure the death of the offender, +"as in case of Felonie." This statute was to continue "until the end +of the first session of the next Parliament" (ch. xxv.). I have no +means at hand of knowing the precise date when this session closed; +but the Parliament itself ended on May 27, 1606, and the _statute was +not revived_. The temper of the king and that body was shown in the +statute (3 James ch. xxvii.) entitled, "An acte for the King's most +gracious generall and free Pardon." The next Parliament began Nov. 18, +1606, and ended July 4, 1607. Such was the forbearance of the supreme +legislature in relation to the transportation of condemned criminals, +that the session passed away, and the law, that had expired by its own +limitation, was allowed to remain in this state of its natural death. +Transportation seems not to have been in favor. + +Therefore, from "the end of the firste session" of the Parliament +whose final session was terminated May 27, 1606, till after the Popham +Colony sailed, May 31, 1607, there was no statute of transportation in +existence. + +A re-enactment of the law, or rather a law for punishing rogues by the +workhouse, and not by transportation, was not made until the +Parliament beginning Feb. 9, 1609. This was four days more than a year +after George Popham's death, and a year and a half after the death of +the Chief Justice. So that here was at least an interval of more than +two years and three-fourths, when there was no law for the exile of +convicts from the royal dominions. In this space of time, the Popham +Colony had its beginning, its continuance and its end,--beginning more +than a year after the law had died; continuing through the larger part +of the year; and ending nearly another year before it was revived, in +a very different form, and with a milder penalty. During this period, +no law appears in the "Statutes of the Realm" for the transportation +of convicts; and it is perfectly incredible that any persons were so +sentenced by the justices of the peace, and sent to Sagadahoc under +any sanction of the highest judicial authority in the realm, with the +specific designation of the place by the Privy Council. + +The preamble of the statute of 1609 for "punishing rogues" makes known +the inactivity of the magistrates in the enforcement of former +provisions, and the desuetude into which this law had fallen. It +declares that the earlier "Statutes had not been duly and severely +putt in execution." Therefore the requisitions are made stronger, to +bind the proper officers to their more stringent execution, in regard +to "Houses of Correction." Transportation is not even hinted at. This +previous easy state of affairs on this topic shows that the rigor of +expulsion, ascribed to Popham, is a thought of later times. + +It is also to be noted, that the Charter of 1606 is in strict harmony +with the fact that the expired law had not been revived. Among the +twenty-seven Acts of 3, 4 James, 1605-6, and the thirteen of 4, 5 +James, 1606-7, no one appears on the pages to authorize the +exportation of criminals. Those who went to either of the Virginias +were to go "willingly," and enjoy their "liberties." If, in any other +book of laws besides the "Statutes of the Realm," if there be such, or +by any new and singular interpretation of any provision there can be +found a rule requiring the transportation of convicts, it will not +thence follow that any were sent to Sagadahoc. For the Charter will +still say that only _volunteers_ were to go, who should be free men as +long as they remained in connection with the company. + +I did not refer to Ogilby and Chalmers as original authorities, but as +good investigators. The former has been long known. My favorable +opinion of the latter is drawn from the Preface to his "Introduction +to the History of the Revolt in the American Colonies." Your +correspondent seems to undervalue him. But to sustain my estimate, I +may quote the expressions of the American editor of the above-named +volumes. "His works are deemed to possess much merit as the result of +profound research and a discriminating judgment."--"His official +station gave him access to all state papers."--"He took advantage of +this opportunity, to investigate in its original sources the history +of the colonies."--"His work (Political Annals) has ever been quoted +with entire confidence and respect; and this circumstance speaks +clearly in favor of the author's candor and honesty." When he speaks +of no earlier transportation than 1619, I have been ready to give him +credit. Your correspondent refers to him as writing, "that the policy +of sending convicts to the plantations originated with King James, and +that in the year 1619 he issued an order to send a hundred dissolute +persons to Virginia." I am content with this statement. Bancroft +thinks "some of them were convicts: but it must be remembered that the +crimes of which they were convicted were chiefly political;" and +political felons, as well as those whom in the same volume he calls +"the Puritan felons that freighted the fleet of Winthrop," were +"endangered by the law;" and yet not for this reason to be regarded as +tainted in the least with moral guilt. His opinion, too, is that there +was never sent to South Virginia--for he seems not to have heard of +the accusations brought against the northern colony--any "considerable +number" of persons convicted of "social crimes;" "certainly not enough +to affect its character." This statement may be taken as a sufficient +reply to the charge that Popham "stockt" the plantations out of "all +the gaoles of England." Indeed, all that Bacon, nearly twenty years +after his colony had ceased, and other far later writers have said, on +the topic contained in the quotation from him, relates to the later +affairs in the southern colony; and can be connected with Popham only +as he was a prime mover in the enterprise of colonization, carried on +after his death. It cannot be shown that they had Sagadahoc in mind. +Weber, as "revised and corrected" by Professor Bowen, adheres to 1619. + +Against a remark of mine, the communication states, that there was "no +later occupancy of New England till the Pilgrims arrived in 1620." I +said "the Popham Colony was followed by a succession of occupancies, +that proved title." I say so still. I did not mean that all these +occupancies were colonies. They were at Monhegan, by Sir Francis +Popham and Captain John Smith; at Pemaquid, by the annual visits of +the English from Virginia; at Mount Desert, by Argall; at Saco, by +Vines; at Plymouth, by the Pilgrims and by numerous others, after that +great and memorable event in our national history. They were made +under the protection of the Charter of James in 1606; energetically +promoted in the outset by Popham, "the first to procure men and means +to possess New England;" and sustained for years at great expense by +Sir Ferdinando Gorges. In this connection I wish to supply an omission +noticed by your correspondent, where I said, that the colony "proved +title as against the former and never-revived claims of France." "West +of the Kennebec" was in my mind, but not written. I thank him for the +correction, as it strengthens my position. It would have been better +to have said, "the French never had any possession on the coast, west +of the Kennebec." + +As to the settlement of Gosnold, I have before shown that it was not a +"chartered colony." It was deserted on the day when its small house +was scarcely fitted for a permanent dwelling. It was "undertaken on +private account;" asserted no general claim; proved no title; and was +not renewed. + +The powder and cannon stories appear to be singularly confused by +Williamson. His misplaced footnote referring to the History of King +Philip's War has misled us both. It is made as authority for the +latter, when it should be for the former, and the tradition (I quote +from memory) is from "an ancient mariner." As it is unsupported, it +can hardly be claimed as history. As to the cannon story, one of our +best antiquarians thinks that it has had no earlier mention than is +found in Morse and Parish, about two centuries after its alleged +occurrence, as derived from the Norridgewock Indians. Such a tradition +is of very little account. If these stories had been true, it is +marvellous that the "speechifying" Indians round about Arrowsic should +not have told their prowess and their sufferings to the listening +Jesuits in 1611. It may be well to know that a valued New Hampshire +historian locates the narrative about the cannon at Dover, N. H., in +the time of Waldron, when a large number of Indians were captured by +stratagem. If the servants of the colony set dogs on the meddlesome +Indians, the wise men in council in a later colony in New England, as +Hazard gives it, decided to employ "mastiffe-dogs" to hunt down +Indians in 1656. Why not blame both? + +That portions of the population in Maine were corrupt, after +settlements were dotted along the coast, is true. Deterioration often +follows colonization. For all the influence for good that +Massachusetts has spread, here and elsewhere, all ought to be glad, +though here it was somewhat irregularly introduced. The celebrations +at Sabino Head are not intended to detract from the merits of Plymouth +Rock. They were many. It is no harm to wish that they had been more. + +The letter of Mr. Kidder relative to the "pretty pynnace of about +thirty tonne," is again referred to by your correspondent. What are we +to understand by the few notices of her history? Simply this, that on +"August 28," "the carpenters labored about the building of a small +pinnace." Their first act was to prepare the timber from the +surrounding forest,--not necessarily of "green pine," where the ridge +bears oak, maple and spruce now, and perhaps did then,--and put it +into shape for future use. It was left to season during the autumnal +months. Then, after Captain Davies returned to England, with an +account of the "forwardness of their plantation," on the 15th of +December, the seasoned timber was "framed," and the craft completed, +as the "Brief Relation" says, "notwithstanding the coldness of the +season and the small help they had." For reasons satisfactory to the +leaders of the colony, after Captain Davies returned to them, Strachey +says "they all ymbarqued in the new arrived shipp and in the new +pynnace, the Virginia, and sett saile for England." Gorges says they +"all resolved to quit the place, and with one consent to [go] away." +Sir William Alexander says, "Those that went thither ... returned back +with new hopes." The "Briefe Relation" says the news from home "made +the whole company to resolve upon nothing but their return with their +ships; ... having built a pretty bark of their own, which served them +to good purpose, as easing them in their returning;" and asserts "the +arrival of these people here in England,"--of course, the same +"people" who embarked, and in the same "ships" in which they +commenced the voyage. Any other interpretation will be a violent +perversion of language. As to any persons of the colony remaining to +be rovers on the coast in another supposed pinnace, it will be time +enough to consider that conjecture, when proof shall be brought to +change it into history. It will be "credulity" to answer such a +"demand" on our faith, as long as it is unsupported by evidence; and +we shall still believe that "The Virginia" was not, perhaps the first +craft of the Northmen, French, Basques, Dutch, or Indians, of whom we +were not thinking--but was the pioneer ship of the _English people_ in +the new world, and was a striking proof of the skill and enterprise of +the laboring colonists, with Digby, the London shipwright, as their +head in her construction. + +But, whatever may be said of the enterprise or its details, whether +favorable or unfavorable, the true and single point for grave +consideration is the prominent fact, that a colony was founded at the +mouth of the Kennebec under the charter of James, 1606, which Popham +"certainly was a chief instrument in procuring," and that this was the +_first_ thus laid in New England under English sway. + +No personalities, no imputation of sinister and never existing +motives, no disparagement of the character of the prime movers and +later advocates,--for Gorges has been blamed as well as Popham,--no +reproaches thrown upon the laboring colonists, and no finger of +derision pointed at the failure of their purpose, should turn the +reader of history away from this path. The leading minds in England, +with the King as their friend, were actuated by the desire to turn to +good account the discoveries of the early navigators; the reports of +fishermen returning from our coast, and the more systematic researches +of Gosnold, who, Strachey says, came "for discovery;" and Weymouth, +whose narrative, and Pring, whose exact description pointed out the +Kennebec as the place for speedy occupation. Emphasis was given to the +determination of the associates, by their bearing with them a charter +and a constituent code of laws, carrying out the principles of the +English Constitution. An expedition of that nature, and at that time, +required relatively much more of thought, energy and means than one of +ten times its numbers and power would do at the present day. The fact, +that it came directly to the Kennebec, shows that its course and +destination did not depend on any capricious views of its commander; +but were in accordance with a previously matured plan "for the seizing +such a place as they were directed unto by the council of the colony." +Its approach near to the claimed territory of France implies a +previous knowledge of the coast, and a purpose to take possession +within the chartered limits, fully up the undisputed boundary line. +This occupation, and those made in the few following years, were +called in the patent of 18 James, Nov. 3, 1620, the "actual possession +of the continent;" thus showing how exalted a value was placed on +these incipient, though feeble measures, by the highest authority in +the mother land. The commercial purposes of the undertaking at +Sagadahoc were not all. A religious purpose was connected therewith, +and carried on during its continuance. Its great purpose was to secure +title within the territory granted to the company. Signal disasters +attended the later part of its life; and, though it failed +commercially, Gorges "had no reason greatly to despair of means." In +its historic influence, and in its opening the way for immediate and +successive efforts, it was, in the words of Maine's most worthy and +distinguished living historian, "_one_ of the steps in the grand march +of civilization." + +As such, and as the _first_ chartered "step" on our rock-bound coast +by "English hearts and hands," we have thought it proper to do it +honor; and this too as persons united in no one single denomination of +Christians. We have taken pleasure in aiding to bring before the +appreciative mind of the community "this _initial point_ in the +history of the settlement of New England," and its bearing on +subsequent settlements along our shores. We have thought that the +Charter of 1606 gave life to this and other enterprises. It was in +harmony with its design and privileges, that "the King's Majesty and +the bishops consented" to the wishes of the people at Leyden to remove +to this land; and so far gave them the aid of the Church, which Mather +says was not possessed with the spirit of persecution against them, +though some of its members indulged that folly. The several documents +following this leading instrument of title and occupation, such as the +enlarged charters, "The First Plymouth Patent," and the patents issued +for the benefit of Maine and Massachusetts, are traceable to this +source, and to the able men concerned in its origination and +provisions. So that, in a pure and great historical fact and its +sequences, we have had enough to warrant our past commemorations. It +is no fault of ours, that other colonies came earlier and later, and +did not build a sea-going vessel in this northern latitude in the +first year of their stay. We rejoice where they were successful, +permanent, and a blessing to the world. But why cannot we be allowed +to celebrate an event, one of the greatest of its times, without being +taunted with sayings, which, while bearing bitterness, need the +support of evidence; and with words which, however amiably they may +have been intended, boldly represent us as culprits, "indictable at +common law"? + +In taking my leave of your columns, courteously allowed for this +discussion, I regret that I have been compelled to occupy so much +space. But much more would have been needed to rectify all the +applications of the quotations from the old writers, who, so far as +the colony of Sagadahoc is concerned, must be explained in harmony +with the Charter of 1606, which provided only for "willing" men to +join in the enterprise, and continued to them all the franchises of +Englishmen at home. I wish now only to add, that I stand not alone in +my opinions about the Popham Colony. Persons of the highest historical +authority in the State and elsewhere support the same view. One of +these, the late Bishop Burgess, had designed to write at length on +this debated subject. He had been in correspondence with the present +Duke of Somerset for information on one part of its history. He had +already said, and patriotically too, of the chaplain of the colony, +"Seymour was the first preacher of the Gospel in the English tongue, +within the borders of New England, and of the free, loyal and +unrevolted portion of these United States. Had he inherited all the +honors of his almost royal grandsire, they would have given him a far +less noble place than this, in the history of mankind." But the fatal +illness of this eminent historical scholar has prevented the intended +gift of his deliberate and final testimony in defence of the claims +here set forth in behalf of "that northerne colony uppon the +Sagadahoc." + + SABINO. + + + + +[_Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866._] + +A RUNNING REVIEW OF THE "POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY." + + +_To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser_:-- + +By referring to the Supplement of the _Daily Advertiser_ of the 31st +of May, I see that "pool" has again overflowed, and the result is a +wishy-washy everlasting flood of nearly four columns in small type, +some of which seem to be a reply to the fairly-written statements and +comments of "Sabino;" but the most of it reads very much like one of +Van Buren's old messages with which we were served annually, some +twenty-five years ago, while in barefaced effrontery it much resembles +the speeches of Jeff. Davis and Wigfall, at the commencement of the +late rebellion. Let us wade through this mass of matter which reaches +from the voyage of Noah to the latest raid on the Pophamites; and here +let me remark, that the writer handles that ancient navigator's +character very much as he does Chief Justice Popham's, looking only at +its worst side. Why does he not assert that his ark was built of +"green pine," and no one would embark in it, or, if they did, they +went a fishing, and never arrived at Mount Ararat; for there is just +as much evidence of this as there is in his assertions relative to the +vessel built at Sabino. But let us follow the writer, and see how he +replies to "Sabino." First, he finds great difficulty in understanding +what all others clearly appreciate, and this accounts for many of his +misstatements, for if a man cannot understand the truth, how can he +communicate it? Secondly, he gives us a short lesson on style; but +finally concludes "that, after all, it is greatly a matter of taste +for which there is no accounting." I agree with him on this point; +and, as evidence of what his taste is, let me make an extract from his +description of the discovery of the locality of the Popham Colony. +"Nothing would satisfy a few excellent people of Maine, but to dig up +the sickening remains, and flaunt them under the nostrils of the +community. Here was an offense against decency and sanitary +regulations, indictable at common law. In cholera times the proceeding +is insufferable. Their first mistake was, that when they came to the +putrid mass they did not carefully replace the sod." Does this read +like a review from a student of history? Does it not more likely +resemble the report of a city scavenger, when the cholera is expected? +Then, next, comes a quotation from Lord Bacon's essays on plantations +in general, published about twenty years after the Popham expedition; +and it is difficult to see what it has to do with the Popham Colony. +If it could be referred to any one in particular, it must have been +the then transporting of such people as he talks of to Virginia. Next, +he asserts that the Colony only occupied "a few acres of ground on the +promontory of Sabino." Will he tell how many more acres were really +occupied at Jamestown or Plymouth the first six months of their +existence? + +Then comes a repetition of the old traditionary story published +doubtingly by Williamson. A venerable New England writer says, +"tradition is the biggest liar in the world," and, in this case, I +certainly acquiesce in his assertion, and I doubt if any respectable +historian would think of repeating so questionable a tale. In speaking +of the end of the colony, by reason of the death of the two Pophams, +he says, "did it ever occur to 'Sabino' that his colony must have had +a slender foundation to have fallen into ruins at the death of two out +of a hundred and twenty persons?" Will he tell us how many more than +the death of the two most prominent persons at Plymouth would have +caused its abandonment during their extremity in the spring of 1621? +Certainly, not many. Then comes near a column of abuse on the Chief +Justice, with abundant extracts from his biographers which may all be +true; but, if so, his appointment and continuance on the bench was a +disgrace and shame to Queen Elizabeth and the leading men of her +reign. And then he comes to that cannon story again. Did it ever occur +to him, that, if the statement were true, the returning colonists +would have related it at home? For such things always come out; and +the Pophamites had as bitter enemies there as P. is, and so it would +have been a part of the authentic history of that expedition. Have +there not been much worse outrages on the poor Indian all over our +country since? And then he repeats his doubts about the arrival of +that pretty pinnace in England, of which there can be no more question +than of the return of many of the early emigrant ships which carried +back passengers who were known to have reached there, while there is +no mention of the ships. + +But he states "Brief Relation says nothing about the arrival of +_either vessel_: it records simply the arrival of _these people_ here +in England." Well that out-Herods Herod: how does he expect they got +there? He certainly knows they embarked in both vessels, for Strachey +says, "Wherefore they all ymbarqued in this new arrived ship and in +the new pynnace, the Virginia, and set saile for England." Now, I +advise this learned pundit to look among his mass of newspapers; and, +if he finds the London Shipping List of that time, he may be +enlightened. And if he still doubts let him ask the opinion of any of +our best writers on New England history, and my word for it he will +not find one to indorse his views. One, certainly, whose opinion is of +the greatest weight, and as anti-Popham as himself, has given a +decided negative to his assertions. + +And now comes a long dissertation on the blessings that have been +experienced in Maine, by Massachusetts extending its government over +it. Some of these moral reflections may be true, but many of the +inhabitants of that territory did not then see it. I certainly agree +with him in his appreciation of the energy and intelligence of the +settlers of Maine and their descendants. They are equal to, and very +much resemble, those of the other New England States; but what this +has to do with Popham, he don't tell us. And, finally, he undertakes +in a note to give the writer of that famous letter about the ship a +kick, by stating that a writer in a Portland paper has had his article +badly printed by having it done so far from home; and, when revised, +he will give it the attention it deserves. Very kind. + +Having made a somewhat rapid survey of his three or four heavy +columns, "a mighty maze, and yet without a plan," I will look at his +famous first attack, or, as the writer in the Portland Advertiser +calls it, "the fire of his skirmish line;" and will now give his +assertions there a passing notice, glancing over his attack on the +Memorial Volume, the defence of Gorges, and his abuse of their +authors, who are perfectly able to defend themselves, and may do so +hereafter. He talks strongly about "historical verities:" let us see +how fairly he treats authentic history. And first, will he tell us +where he finds the colonists called "convicted felons," "cowards, Old +Bailey convicts and knaves?" and that "they had saved their necks by +emigrating," etc., etc.? Can he point to the book and the page for +these "historical verities"? He may it is true quote a writer who +says "many of them were endangered of the law." So were many of the +Plymouth colonists,--to their honor, when we consider what law was, +and what protection human rights had under James I. + +Again, let us look at his assertions relative to that "pretty +pinnace." In his "first consideration," he argues that a sea-worthy +vessel was never built by the colonists; and, by inference, would make +us believe that it was not built at all, saying "there was not time +between the 15th of December and spring to build a sea-worthy +vessel,"--when not a person but himself who ever perused "Brief +Relation" or "Strachey" doubted the building and sailing for England +of such a ship. Next, "that they had no need of a vessel." As if they +did not know their own wants better than we do. Can there be much +doubt it was the intention of the projectors to have a vessel built, +and that for this purpose they sent over "Master Digby and the +carpenters"? And then he coolly states she was built of "green pine," +and repeatedly calls her a "fishing boat," and implies that she went a +fishing. Will he also give his authority for these statements? Every +reader of history knows these assertions are untrue; and till he can +clear himself of this charge, let him not undertake to lecture others +on "historical verities." + +It will be seen that I have not noticed his argument relative to the +craft built by the French at Port Royal, and which by almost a miracle +carried the survivors to their homes; for the reason that we were +considering English occupation of New England, and that alone. French +enterprise and colonization was an entirely different affair, and had +nothing to do with the subject under consideration; and the writer of +"the letter" could not fairly have anticipated that it could be made +to refer to any but Englishmen. It will also be noticed that I have +not undertaken to advocate or indorse the Popham enterprise and its +effects in general, but only to show up some of the errors of its +opponents. There is and will be a wide difference of opinion on that +point; but all will agree that it has been of great benefit to +printers, and that they have shed a larger quantity of ink in +elucidating these controversies than was lost in blood in "P.'s" +imaginary fights with the Indians at Sabino. + +Having made a running review of "P.'s" long columns, I would in +conclusion offer him some advice, which, I trust, he will receive in +the same kind way in which it is given. First, do not fear that Popham +history will ever in the slightest way overshadow the lustre of Old +Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay. They stand too firm to be shaken: +their true glories will continue to brighten and expand through ages +yet to come, till they are appreciated and acknowledged throughout the +world. Don't look on the very worst side of history: much of it is bad +enough at best; and we can hardly read some of the annals of our own +ancestors, written by themselves, without a blush. Do not write so +ferociously: people are not frightened by ink, particularly +Pophamites. "A kind word turneth away wrath." Don't ruin that preface +to the reprint which you have had some two years in process of +incubation, by bringing Popham and Gorges into it, when there is no +occasion for it. And, as a general amnesty, even for the deepest +crimes, is the order of the day, you had better accept it on the +following cheap terms, viz., as hot weather is approaching, and, if +you have not killed out the Pophamites entirely,--and I don't really +think you have even ruffled a feather,--they will in August have their +picnic celebration at Sabino as usual, now let us both attend. Then, +after partaking of their chowder, we will smoke the calumet of peace; +drink inspiration--if we can--from that ancient well, but certainly +good cool water, and something in it, if you say so; and finally bury +the hatchet in the remains of that old ditch, and pledge ourselves to +everlasting peace. + + JUNE, 1866. SAGADAHOC. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE POPHAM COLONY. + + +DOCUMENTS CIRCULATED BEFORE AND AT THE FIRST CELEBRATION, AUGUST 29, +1862. + +"English Colonization in America. | Public Celebration." A brief +sketch of the Colony, and of the proposed Celebration, by Mr. John A. +Poor; which was sent to invited guests. July, 1862. + +"Historical Celebration at Fort Popham, August 29, 1862." Programme of +the Celebration. + +"An Order for Morning Prayer" [read by Bishop Burgess]. 8vo, 8 pp. + +[Thirty-Four] "Toasts | for the | Historical Celebration. | To be +arranged hereafter in appropriate order." 8vo, 4 pp. + + +CARDS (4-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches):-- + +1. Latin Inscription for the Memorial Stone. On the reverse, an +English Translation. + +2. Latin Inscription as before. On the reverse, "The First Colony | on +the Shores of New England | was Founded here, | August 19th, O. S., +1607 | under | George Popham." + +A printed circular headed "Public Historical Celebration," dated +August 12, 1862; which was sent to invited guests, with a "Private +Explanatory Note," stating that the Celebration "is held under the +auspices of the Maine Historical Society, which proposes to print a +full report in the form of a Memorial Volume." + + +NEWSPAPER ARTICLES WITH REFERENCE TO THE FIRST CELEBRATION. + +_Bath Sentinel and Times_, July 10, 1862. Mr. B. C. Bailey recommends +calling a public meeting, to make arrangements for a Celebration. + +_The same_, July 22, 1862. The Mayor of Bath calls the meeting, for +Monday, July 28. + +_The same_, July 29. Report of the meeting. + +_Portland Press_, July 30. Report of the meeting, List of Committees, +etc. + +_Daily Evening Globe_, St. John, N. B., August 23, 1862. "The First +English Settlement in New England;" by John Wilkinson. + +_Portland Advertiser_, August 28, 1862. The Order of the Celebration. + +_The same_, August 30. 1862. An Account of the Celebration; with Mr. +John A. Poor's Oration. + +_The same_, September 3, 1862. Mr. Poor's Oration reprinted with +corrections. Mr. T. D. McGee's Address, and Mr. R. K. Sewall's +Response to a Toast. + +_Bath Times_, September 1, 1862. An Account of the Celebration. + +_Portland Press_, September 6. Mr. John Neal complains of the +arrangements of the Celebration. + +_Portland Advertiser_, September 8. Mr. Charles J. Gilman, the Chief +Marshal, replies. + +_Portland Transcript_, September 4. An account of the Celebration. + +_Brunswick Telegraph_, September 6. An Account of the Celebration. + +_Christian Mirror_, Portland, September 9. "A Sermon preached at +Phipsburg, Me., on the Sabbath after the Celebration, by Rev. Francis +Norwood." + +_The same_, September 16. Mr. John A. Poor reviews Mr. Norwood's +Sermon. + +_The same_, October 7. "Popham Discussion:" Mr. Norwood replies to Mr. +Poor; and "Popham Errata:" Mr. John Wingate Thornton reviews Mr. +Poor's article of September 16. + +_New York Journal of Commerce_, November 6. Report of the October +Meeting of the New York Historical Society. Remarks concerning the +Popham Celebration by Mr. George Folsom and Mr. J. R. Brodhead. + +_New York Christian Times_, November 20. Fuller report of the same. + +_Boston Evening Traveller_, November 21. Correspondence of Rev. +William S. Bartlett, of Chelsea, and Prof. Emory Washburn, of +Cambridge, concerning the Speech of the latter at the Popham +Celebration. + + +_Congregational Quarterly_, Boston, April, 1863, Vol. v., p. 143-160. +"Colonial Schemes of Popham and Gorges. By John Wingate Thornton, +Esq., Boston." A Speech at the First Popham Celebration, with twelve +and a half pages of "Notes and Authorities appended as proofs." + +A few copies of this article were printed, with the following title +page, as-- + +A PAMPHLET. "Colonial Schemes of Popham and Gorges. | Speech | of | +John Wingate Thornton, Esq., | at the | Fort Popham Celebration, | +August 29, 1862, | under the auspices of the | Maine Historical +Society. | Boston, 1863." 8vo, 20 pp. [This Speech is not contained in +the Popham "Memorial Volume."] + +The above was noticed and discussed in-- + +_North American Review_, July 1863, Vol. xcvii., p. 288. + +_Christian Examiner_, July 1863, Vol. lxxv., p. 143. + +_Historical Collections of the Essex Institute_, August, 1863, Vol. v. +pp. 175-192; by Mr. A. C. Goodell. + +_Boston Review_, November, 1863, Vol. iii, p. 641. + +_Historical Magazine_, New York, 1863, Vol. vii., p. 231. + +_Christian Mirror_, Portland, April 28, 1863. + +_Boston Journal_, August 11, 1863. + +_Boston Evening Transcript_, April 24, 1863. + +_Portland Transcript_, May 9, 1863. + + +A PAMPHLET. "The Connection | of the | Church of England | with Early +| American Discovery | and | Colonization. | By the Rev. William +Stevens Perry, M. A. | Portland, Maine. | 1863." 8vo, 7 pp. + + +Messrs. Bailey and Noyes, of Portland, Publishers, in April, 1863, +issued a circular Prospectus for the publication of the "Memorial +Volume;" soliciting Subscriptions. + + +"MEMORIAL VOLUME | of the | Popham Celebration, | August 29, 1862: | +commemorative of the Planting of the | Popham Colony on the Peninsula +of Sabino, | August 19, O. S., 1607, | establishing the Title of +England to the Continent. | Published under the direction of the | +Rev. Edward Ballard, | Secretary of the Executive Committee of the +Celebration. | Portland: | Bailey and Noyes. | 1863." 8vo, 368 pp. + +Bound with the same:-- + +"English Colonization in America. | A | Vindication of the Claims | of +| Sir Ferdinando Gorges, | as the | Father of English Colonization in +America. | By John A. Poor. | (Delivered before the Historical +Societies of Maine, and New York.) | New York: D. Appleton and +Company. | 1862." 8vo, [Address, 92 pp. Appendix, 52 pp.,] 144 pp. + + +"Popham Celebration | at | Sabino, | August, 1863." Programme in +broadside. + +The Popham Celebration of August 29, 1863, Mr. George Folsom, Orator, +was reported in-- + +_Portland Daily Advertiser_, August 31, 1863. + +_Portland Daily Press_, August 31, and September 3, 1863. + +_Brunswick Telegraph_, September 4, 1863. + +_Boston Witness and Advocate_, September 11, 1863. + +_Boston Courier_, September 2, 1863. + +_Portland Daily Press_, September 30, 1863: +"Popham--Settlement--Memorial and Celebrations." Signed "P." [Mr. +George Prince.] + + +A PAMPHLET. "The Beginning of America | A | Discourse | delivered +before the | New York Historical Society |on its Fifty-ninth +Anniversary | Tuesday November 17, 1863 | By | Erastus C. Benedict | +New York | 1864." 8vo, 64 pp. + + +_Portland Daily Press_, January 29, 1864. Notice of Meeting of the +Maine Historical Society, and of Judge Bourne's Reply to Mr. +Thornton's Pamphlet. + + +A PAMPHLET. "An | Address | on the | Character of the Colony | founded +by | George Popham, | at the | Mouth of the Kennebec River August +19th, [O. S.] 1607. | Delivered in Bath, | on the Two hundred and +fifty-seventh Anniversary | of that Event. | By Hon. Edward E. Bourne, +| of Kennebunk. | Delivered and Published at the request of the +Committee on the Commemoration. | Portland: | 1864." 8vo, 60 pp. + + +The above was noticed and discussed in-- + +_Christian Mirror_, Portland, February 21, 1865. + +_Boston Evening Transcript_, February 13, 1865; by Rev. George E. +Ellis, D. D. + +_Bath Daily Sentinel and Times_, August 30, 31, September 1, 1864. + +_The same_, March 16, 1865. "Fort Popham Colony." + +_The same_, March 16, 1865. "The Popham Settlement;" by Rev. Edward +Ballard. + +_The same_, March 30, 1865. + +_The same_, July 7, 1865. + +_The same_, September 1, 1865. + +_The same_, September 2, 1865; by Mr. George Prince. + +_Brunswick Telegraph_, September, 1864. + +_Boston Journal_, August 2, 1865. + + +_Bath Daily Sentinel and Times_, May 3, 1864. "The Fort Popham +Controversy," as to when and where Religious Services were first held +in New England. Signed "D. Q. C." [Rev. D. Cushman.] + +_The same_, May 5, 1864. "The First Worship in Popham Colony;" by Rev. +Edward Ballard. + +_The same_, September 2, 1864. "The First Sermon in New England." +Signed "Candid" [Mr. George Prince]. + +_The same_, September 8, 1864. Reply by Rev. Edward Ballard. + +_The same_, August 16, 17, 18, 24, 1865. "The Virginia Company's +Northern Plantation;" by Mr. J. Wingate Thornton. + +_The same_, August 23, 1865. Reply by Rev. Edward Ballard. + + +A PAMPHLET. "Remarks | on the | Popham Celebration | of the | Maine +Historical Society. | Read before the American Antiquarian Society, | +April 26, 1865. | By S. F. Haven. | Boston, | 1865." 8vo, 32 pp. [Mr. +Haven's Remarks previously appeared in the Proceedings of the American +Antiquarian Society, at the Semi-Annual Meeting held at Boston, April +26, 1865; pp. 31-60.] + + +The above was noticed and discussed in-- + +_Boston Daily Advertiser_, April 27, 1865. + +_The same_, August 2, 1865. "Popham Exhumed and Re-interred"; by Rev. +Edward E. Hale. + +_The same_, August 26, 1865: "The Popham Colony," by Mr. Charles F. +Dunbar. + +_The same_, same date: "The Popham Celebration;" by Rev. Edward +Ballard. + +_Portland Daily Press_, August 4, 1865. + + +The Celebration of August 29, 1865, was reported and discussed in-- + +_Portland Argus_, August 31, 1865. + +_Portland Daily Press_, August 21, 30, 1865. + +_Bath Daily Sentinel and Times_, August 23, 1865; by Rev. Edward +Ballard. + +_The same_, August 24, 1865. + +_The same_, August 30, 1865. + +_Boston Journal_, August 4, 1865. + +_Brunswick Telegraph_, September 1, 1865. + + +A PAMPHLET. "Responsibilities of the Founders of Republics: | An | +Address | on the | Peninsula of Sabino, | on the Two-Hundred and +Fifty-Eighth Anniversary | of the | Planting of the Popham Colony, | +August 29, 1865. | By Hon. James W. Patterson. | Delivered and +published at the request of the Committee on the | Commemoration. | +Boston: | John K. Wiggin, | 1865." 8vo, 38 pp. + + +The above was noticed and discussed in-- + +_Boston Daily Advertiser_, April 11, 1866: "The Last Popham Address;" +by Mr. William F. Poole. + +_The same_, April 21, 1866: "'The Last Popham Address,'" by Rev. +Edward Ballard, D. D. + +_Portland Advertiser_, April 26, 1866: "'The Last Popham Address;'" by +Mr. Frederic Kidder. + +_Boston Daily Advertiser_, May 31, 1866: "Popham Again and Finally;" +by Mr. William F. Poole. + +_The same_, July 28, 1866: "The Popham Colony, 'Finally;'" by Rev. +Edward Ballard, D. D. + +_The same_, July 28, 1866: "A Running Review of the 'Popham Again and +Finally;'" by Mr. Frederic Kidder. + +_Christian Era_, Boston, June 28, 1866; "The Popham Memorial;" by Rev. +J. D. Fulton. + +_The Episcopalian_, New York, May 19, 1866. + +_Boston Daily Advertiser_, August 4, 1866: Report of the Meeting of +the Maine Historical Society of August 2, containing a letter by Mr. +John A. Poor, with regard to new evidences found in Carayon's +Relations. + + +The Popham Celebration of August 29, 1866, was reported in-- + +_Boston Daily Advertiser_, September 1, 1866. + +_Boston Journal_, September 1, 1866. + +_New York Times_, September 4, 1866. + +_New York Christian Intelligencer_, September, 1866. + +_Brunswick Telegraph_, September 14, 1866. + + +A PAMPHLET. "The Popham Colony | A Discussion of its Historical Claims +| With a | Bibliography of the Subject | Boston | Wiggin and Lunt 13 +School Street 1866." 8vo, 72 pp. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious typographical errors were repaired, but older style spellings +retained. + +Hyphenation variants were resolved to most frequently used. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Popham Colony, by +William Frederick Poole and Rev. Edward Ballard, D.D. and Frederick Kidder + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42484 *** |