whether celebrated or not, the tercentennial of another "Pompeii of America," the Jamestown of New England, where relics of the past lie even more evident than on the famous site in Virginia, will be due in exactly the same year.

To Maine belongs the honor of possessing this place as well as of receiving the first colonizing expedition to New England. About forty miles south of the Penobscot, on a peninsula at the mouth of the Pemaquid river, are scattered the ruins, until recently buried, of the

town which began in the time of Popham, Gorges, Captain John Smith and the Pilgrims. "We cannot expect to find here the broken columns and heaped up ruins of some grand city. These are only the footprints of a nation's beginning." Summer cottages have arisen on these beautiful shores, and the whole region has become the Mecca of vacationists.

One of the greatest attractions is ancient Pemaquid, or Jamestown of Pemaquid, where have been and are being unearthed these many interesting facts of our early history. This section was very early visited by explorers and adventurers. The records of the voyages of Gosnold in 1602, Pring in 1603, and Weymouth in 1605 give long accounts of it, particularly of

the islands.

It is not pleasant to have to record that these early navigators did not keep faith with the Indians; but enticing them on board sailed away with them as captives to England. Good was brought out of this, however, for they were brought back and were useful as interpreters. In April, 1606, was established in England the Council of Virginia, which in two divisions. called companies proposed to set about the colonization of the great territory in America, then known as Virginia. The London company, which was to operate in the southern part, organized and sent out a company which made the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, in the spring of 1607. While the settlers at Jamestown were building their houses, a colony sent out from England by the Plymouth company, which was the division of the Council of Virginia designed to colonize the northern section, arrived in two ships, the "Mary and John" and the "Gift of God," off this coast of Maine, in August, 1607.

Probably the first land they saw was Monhegan, called then St. George's Island. Weymouth recorded the fact that he set up a cross at the harbor of Pentecost where his ship lay. This harbor has been supposed by some to be Monhegan; but there is no secure harbor at Monhegan, and as Weymouth states he found a harbor nearer the mainland, probably it was in one of the islands called the Georges near Monhegan.

The first Sunday after their arrival they landed on the island where Weymouth set up the cross and held a religious service, a sermon being preached. "Monday,"

(August 10, 1607) so runs the narrative, "Capt. Popham manned his shallop and Capt. Gilbert his boat with fifty persons in both, and departed for the river of Pemaquid, carrying with them Skidwares and arrived in the mouth of the river, there came forth Nahanada with all his company of Indians, with their bowes and arrowes in their handes." Skidwares and Nahanada had been captives and could speak English.

The narrator goes on to tell of their friendly reception by the Indians at Pemaquid, and of their landing on the other side of the Pemaquid river, probably opposite the site of the present ruins, where they passed the night, returning the next day to their ships. Thus we have an authentic record of the first landing, at Pemaquid on the mainland in 1607, of the first colony that ever came to New England.

It is out of our province to pursue further the fortunes of this company save to mention that "they weyed anchor and sett saile to goe for the river of Sachadehoc" to make the settlement which so soon however proved unsuccessful. This first company of colonists in New England numbered one hundred and twenty. It is interesting to note that it was the largest of the first three expeditions. The "Mayflower" brought one hundred and two persons, and there were one hundred and five in the first landing at Jamestown. While this attempt at a colony failed, Pemaquid was being settled; but by whom no one can tell. Perhaps some of the Popham colonists stayed or returned here. There was no Bradford to relate its beginning and progress, and tell of the happenings in the embryo town, as at Plym

outh. Records are meager, but enough are found to make it certain. that Pemaquid, very soon after the first landing in 1607, became of importance.

Spain, as well as France and England, claimed this territory of the North. The Spanish ambassador to England reported the plan of the Popham expedition in 1606. In March, 1610, he reports: "I am told vessels are loading at Plymouth with men to people the country they have taken; and colonies from Exeter and Plymouth and Plymouth are on two large rivers." There were but two, the Popham colony and Pemaquid.

In 1613, England by her Secretary of State replied to charges of Spain about this territory, "that England by discovery and actual possession had paramount title through two colonies where of the latter is yet there remaining." The Popham colony had been abandoned. Captain John Smith came to Pemaquid and the islands in 1614. plored the coast north and south and made an accurate map of it. At his request the Prince, afterward Charles I, named Pemaquid Johnstown, as well as Monhegan

He ex

Batties Island. But neither name seemed to stick to the place. His name clung to the bay however, which is to-day called John's Bay.

Early records declare that many ships entered and cleared from the harbors of Pemaquid and its dependencies between 1607 and 1622, and that in 1622 thirty ships were trading about Pemaquid. There are no harbors there which are capable of accommodating thirty ships except Pemaquid and Boothby.

J. Wingate Thornton, who is certainly reliable as tainly reliable as an historian of New England, says that "while the Pilgrims were struggling for life at Plymouth, and Conant was founding Cape Ann, Pemaquid was probably the busiest place on the coast." From the foregoing it appears that Pemaquid was the contemporary of Jamestown, Virginia, and fully as prosperous and important. Jamestown has been called the "Cradle of the Republic" and Thornton says that "to Pemaquid we must look for the initiation of civilization into New England."

It has been by some thought and advocated that Damariscove and Monhegan, the islands first settled, were superior to Pemaquid. But at

least two testimonies refute this. The first is a sworn statement by Abraham Shurte, magistrate and probably acting town clerk of Pemaquid as early as 1625. that "Damariscove with all the islands adjacent belonged to Pemaquid." Also in 1682 the people of this section petitioned the Governor of New York, under whom they then were, "that Pemaquid may still continue the metropolitan of these. parts, because it ever have been so before Boston was settled."

Everyone ought to know the part that Pemaquid and its dependencies were permitted to play in the history of the Pilgrims. In the spring of 1622, that second winter and spring at Plymouth when the little band were in danger of starving, it was from here, the largest town in New England and its adjacent islands, that help came sufficient to carry them through. The Pilgrims obtained more than a temporary

supply of food. They found out that here was a good opportunity for replenishing their treasury and discharging their obligations to the London company, under which they held their patent, by engaging in the business of fishing and the fur trade. They at once took advantage of this opening. It was the means of the establishment by the Pilgrims of a trading post on the Kennebec, called Konssinoc, at the present site of Augusta, which was maintained thirty-four years. Many of the Pilgrim fathers with whose names we are familiar acted as agent or governor there by turns. The ventures were financially successful. Thus did Maine furnish food and financial help for the first settlers of Massachusetts.

The first patentees of Pemaquid appear to have been Robert Aldworth and Gyles Elbridge, merchants of Bristol, England, who received a patent dated February 29,