ment concerning Rut, and thinks it more probable that Allfonsce-the discoverer of Massachusetts Bay-in 1542, and Thevet, 1556, may have visited the Maine shores and islands. But however that may be, there is no doubt but that Gosnold, Pring, Waymouth, De Monts, Champlain, Popham, Smith, and others, not only saw Monhegan, but many of them landed upon it. Soon after the beginning of the sixteenth century, fishermen plied their vocation on the North Atlantic coast, and doubtless some came into the neighborhood of Monhegan; before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth it "had become a noted fishing station," and it was "the seat of the first fishery in Maine."* According to Sewell, "Monhegan earliest appears in the panorama of the historic scene of English life and enterprise on New England shores when Pedro Menedez, Governor of Florida, in despatches forwarded by him to the Court of Spain, tells Philip II., that in July of the year (1588), the English were inhabiting an island in latitude 43°, eight leagues from land where the Indians were very numerous.' It was the story of Carlos Morea, a Spaniard, who had learned the facts in London, and communicated them to Menedez. There can hardly be a doubt that Monhegan island was the spot occupied by these English dwellers in the New World." Whether this surmise as to the occupation of this island be true or not,† certain it is that from Monhegan came the Indian chief Samoset, to Plymouth, March 16, 1621; "he very boldly came all alone and along the houses straight to the Randevous, where we intercepted him, not suffering him to goe in, as vndoubtedly he would, out of his boldnesse, hee saluted vs in English, and bad vs well-come, for he had learned some broken English amongst the English men that came to fish at Monchiggon [Monhegan], and knew by name the most of the Captaines, Commanders and Masters, that vsually come, he was a man free in speech, so farre as he could express his minde, and of a seemely carriage, we questioned him of many things, he was the first Savage we could meete withall; he sayd he was not of these parts, but of Moratiggon,‡ [Monhegan], and one of the Saga * Sabine's Report of the Principal Fisheries of the American Seas, pp. 42, 106. Pemaquid and Monhegan were very early favorite resorts of the fishermen, but the period of their first occupation lies far back of any record, and is as indefinite as the early geographical nomenclature of our coast, which, as Captain John Smith wrote in 1624, had “formerly been called Norumbega, Virginia, Muskoncus, Penaquida, Cannada, and such other names, as those that ranged the coast pleased." J. Wingate Thornton, in Ancient Pemaquid, p. 24. And Bradford, writing in 1623. says there were some scattering beginnings made in other places," mentioning "Paskataway" and "Monhigen." Monhegan has many spellings in these early chronicles; among them, besides those in the text, are: Monhigen, Monhagen, Monhiggan, Monhiggen, Monhiggon, Monahiggan, Monnahigan, Menhiggen, Menhiggin, Menhiggon, Munhiggon, Manheigan, and others, mores or Lords thereof, and had beene Eight moneths in these parts, it lying hence a dayes sayle with a great wind, and five dayes by land."* And from Monhegan, also, came succor to this same starving band of exiles, a year later, when, hearing of this resort of fishermen, Edward Winslow immediately started for that island for supplies. The fishermen refused to sell, having no surplus of provisions, but freely gave sufficient to relieve the pressing needs existing at Plymouth. And from these early days until the present time the quaint and picturesque old landmark off the "hundred harbored" coast of Maine has been well known to all "they that go down to the sea in ships," and "that do business in great waters." The first authentic narration of a landing on Monhegan occurs in Rosier's Journal of the voyage of Capt. George Waymouth, in 1605; wherein he says that the island, which he named St. George, was sighted on the 17th of May, but "because it blew a great gale of wind, the sea very high, and near night, not fit to come upon an unknown coast, we stood off till two o'clock in the morning, being Saturday: * * * It appeared a mean high land, as we after found it, being an island of some six miles in compass, but I hope the most fortunate ever yet discovered. About twelve o'clock that day, we came to an anchor on the north side of this island, about a league from the shore. About two o'clock our captain with twelve men rowed in his ship boat to the shore, where we made no long stay, but laded our boat with dry wood of old trees upon the shore side, and returned to our ship, where we rode that night. This island is woody grown with fir, birch, oak and beech, as far as we saw along the shore; and so likely to be within. On the verge grow gooseberries, strawberries, wild pease and wild rose bushes. * While we were at shore, our men aboard, with a few hooks got above thirty great cods and haddocks, which gave us a taste of the great plenty of fish which we found afterward wheresoever we went upon the coast." * * * Mourt's Relation, Dr. Henry M. Dexter's edition, pp. 83, 4.-It was the same Samoset, who, together with a brother sachem, Unongoit, gave the first deed of land in America made by an Indian to a white man. This was for a large part of the country around Pemaquid, which they sold to John Brown, July 25, 1625; and the deed was duly acknowledged before Abraham Shurt, a Justice of the Peace, whom Bowditch so pleasantly remembers in the dedication to his curious volume of "Surfolk Surnames": To the Memory of A. Shurt, "The Father of American Conveyancing ;" Whose name is associated alike with The fisheries of the North Atlantic coast were early developed, and became an incentive to much of the voyaging that took place after the time of the Cabots.* A French fishing voyage took place as early as 1504, and as in 1517 some fifty vessels of different nations were employed on the coast, coming from England, France, Spain and Portugal, it is safe to say that the fishing business had been pursued for several years previous to that date. England, commencing soon after the beginning of the sixteenth century, had increased her business to such an extent by the year 1600, that she employed annually two hundred vessels and ten thousand men and boys, going and returning to England the same season; but not until about this time did many of the fishermen venture so far west as the coast of Maine. Johnston, speaking of this period,§ says: "A very considerable business was now transacted on this coast, connected entirely with the fisheries and the fur trade, which centered chiefly at Monhegan and Pemaquid. At both places a very considerable and busy population was found in the summer season, and very possibly, also some in the winter, though we have no positive evidence of the fact." On the return voyage Waymouth evidently discovered the George's Bank, where "the fish was so plentiful and so great," says Rosier, that "one of the mates with two hooks at a lead, at five draughts together hauled up ten fishes; all were generally very great, some they measured to be five feet long, and three feet about." A very few days after Waymouth left the coast of Maine, the last of June, 1605, De Monts and Champlain arrived. They visited Monhegan, and Champlain named it La Nef, "for at a distance it had the appearance of a ship." In 1607, the short-lived Popham colony landed and began a settlement near the mouth of the Kennebec River. Before leaving England it was arranged that the two vessels in which they sailed, the " Mary and John" and the "Gift of God," in case of separation, should meet at Monhegan, which they did; and here on old Monhegan was held the first Thanksgiving service-popularly supposed to have been established at * Recent collations of the early historical narratives demonstrate that the progress of geographical discovery in America is to be credited to the fisheries more than to all other causes. Thornton, Ancient Pemaquid, p. 12. + According to Sabine, France had twelve vessels employed in fishing in St. John's harbor alone in 1527; and in 1577 there were no less than one hundred and fifty vessels thus employed on the coast; and in 1744 nearly 600 vessels, with 27,000 men. Spain had her fishermen on the coast among the earliest, employing a hundred vessels in 1577; and Portugal, it is estimated, had at least 50 vessels at that period. Sabine's American Fisheries, p. 40. § History of Bristol and Bremen, p. 47. Plymouth-ever observed in America, by these Church of England men, the Popham colonists, who landed on the island August 9, 1607 (0.S.), “ and under the shadow of a high cross, listened to a sermon by Chaplain Seymour, also 'gyving god thanks for our happy metinge and saffe aryvall into the contry.'"* In the summer of 1611, Captain Edward Harlow, while cruising in this neighborhood, called at Monhegan, and either from here or in the vicinity seized three natives who had come on board for the purpose of trading, two of whom he carried away, the other escaping. At Cape Cod he kidnapped three more, taking the five to England. Captain John Smith, in his "Description of New England," thus begins his narrative: "In the moneth of Aprill, 1614, with two ships from London, of a few marchants, I chanced to ariue in New England, a parte of Ameryca, at the Ile of Monahiggan, in 43 of Northerly latitude; our plot was there to take Whales and make tryalls of a Myne of Gold and Copper. If those failed, Fish and Furres was then our refuge." Further on, when describing "the remarkablest Iles and mountains for Landmarkes," he says: "Monnahigan is a rounde high Ile; and close by it Monanis, betwixt which is a small harbor where we ride." Of the commodities he says: "The maine staple, from hence to bee extracted for the present to produce the rest, is fish; which howeuer it may seeme a mean and base commoditie; yet who will but truely take the pains and consider the sequell, I think will allow it well worth the labour. * *He is a very bad fisher, cannot kill in one day with his hooke and line, one, two, or three hundred Cods." Monhegan was the Captain's rendezvous while he ranged the coast, and "got for trifles neer 1100 Beuer skines, 100 Martins, and neer as many Otters," and the information which enabled him to publish his map of New England, which he presented to Prince Charles, who gave names to several geographical points on the New England coast, some of which remain to this day. Monhegan he called "Barties Iles:" a name which did not long obtain. On Monhegan Smith "made a Garden," as he says, "upon the top of a Rockie Ile in 431, 4 leagues from the Main, in May, that grew so well, as it served us for sallets [salads] in June and July." * In 1618, Edward Rocroft, while on an expedition from Plymouth, had a quarrel with his men, and put three of them ashore at Saco. Late in the season they found their way to Monhegan, where they spent a most miserable winter, being rescued the next spring by Capt. Thomas Dermer, who had been sent out by the Plymouth Company on a voyage of conciliation among the natives, who, under continued ill-treatment, were becom *MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY, November, 1882, p. 759. ing hostile. Dermer stayed a few weeks at Monhegan, taking in a cargo of fish and furs, which he dispatched to England. This indicates that a considerable trade was transacted at Monhegan as early as the spring and summer of 1619, and probably it was permanently occupied from that time as a fishing-post and trading station, with now and then a temporary abandonment,* the one notable one being that during King Philip's war, in 1676, since which time it has maintained a thriving condition. The first owner of Monhegan was Mr. Abraham Jennens, a merchant of Plymouth, England, who bought it of the Plymouth Council in 1622.† He was largely engaged in the cod fisheries and trade on the coast, and, for these purposes, he established a plantation at Monhegan. In 1626, Messrs. Aldworth and Elbridge, of Bristol, learning that Mr. Jennens intended to break up his venture at Monhegan, authorized Mr. Abraham Shurt, of Pemaquid, to purchase it, which he did for £50 sterling, giving a draft on Messrs. Aldworth & Elbridge in payment. This is probably the earliest bill of exchange mentioned in our commercial history. The Plymouth colony hearing that Mr. Jennens was to abandon Monhegan, and understanding that "diverse usefull goods was ther to be sould," "the Gove' and Mr Winslow tooke a boat and some hands and went thither." They were joined in the expedition by Mr. David Thomson, of “Pascataway," and the purchases of both parties amounted to £400 sterling. In 1650 the island had come into the possession of Mr. Thomas Elbridge, who mortgaged it to Thomas Russell, of Charlestown. Winthrop's Journal gives an incident that took place in the fall of 1641, "about the beginning of the frost," when a shallop with eight men started from Piscataqua for Pemaquid; "they would needs set forth upon the Lord's day, though forewarned." A northwest storm arose, which drove them out to sea, and after fourteen days of suffering and trial they reached Monhegan. Four of them died from exposure to the cold, and the remaining four were rescued by a fisherman, who discovered them in their famished condition. In 1672, the inhabitants of "Kenebeck, Cape Bonowagon [Cape Newaggen, now Southport], Damares Cove, Shipscoate, Pemaquid and Monhegan," sent a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts, asking to be taken under its government and protection, as they had previously had "some kind of Government settled amongst us; but for these Several years have not had any at all." This petition was signed by twenty-one Rev. Richard Mather, who arrived in this country in August, 1635, makes a note in his Diary to the effect that " Munhiggin was an Iland without inhabitants." Thornton, Ancient Pemaquid, p. 38. Johnston, in Bristol and Bremen, p. 78. |