COLONIZATION OF NEW HAMPSHIRE. 329 IX. title' to the territory between the Merrimac and CHAP. Piscataqua, in terms which, in some degree, interfered with the pretensions of his neighbors on the south. This was the patent for New Hampshire, and was pregnant with nothing so signally as suits at law. The country had been devastated by the mutual wars of the tribes, and the same wasting pestilence which left New Plymouth a desert; no notice seems to have been taken of the rights of the natives; nor did they now issue any deed of their lands; but the soil in the 1630. immediate vicinity of Dover, and afterwards of Portsmouth, was conveyed to the planters themselves, or to 1631. those at whose expense the settlement had been made. A favorable impulse was thus given to the little colonies; and houses now began to be built on the "Strawberry Bank" of the Piscataqua. But the progress of the town was slow; Josselyn' described the whole coast as a mere wilderness, with here and there a few huts scattered by the sea-side; and 1638. thirty years after its settlement, Portsmouth made 1653 only the moderate boast of containing "between fifty and sixty families."5 3 When the grand charter, which had established the 1635. council of Plymouth, was about to be revoked, Mason extended his pretensions to the Salem River, the southern boundary of his first territory, and obtained of the expiring corporation a corresponding patent. There is room to believe, that the king would, without scruple, have confirmed the grant, and conferred 6 22. upon him the powers of government, as absolute lord and proprietary; but the death of Mason cut off all the Nov. 1 Hazard, i. 290-293. 2 Savage on Winthrop, i. 405, and ff. 3 Adams's Portsmouth, 17-19. VOL. I. 42 4 Josselyn's Voyages, 20. 6 Ibid. 431, and c. ii. 26. 330 COLONIZATION OF MAINE. CHAP. hopes which his family might have cherished of territoIX. rial aggrandizement and feudal supremacy. His widow 1638. in vain attempted to manage the colonial domains; the costs exceeded the revenue; the servants were ordered to provide for their own welfare; the property of the great landed proprietor was divided among them for the payment of arrears; and Mason's American estate was completely ruined. Neither king nor proprietary troubled the few inhabitants of New Hampshire; they were left to take care of themselves the best dependence for states, as well as for individuals. The enterprise of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, though sustained by stronger expressions of royal favor, and continued with indefatigable perseverance, was not followed by much greater success. We have seen a 1606. colony established, though but for a single winter, on the shores which Pring had discovered, and Weymouth had been the first to explore. After the bays of New 1615. England had been more carefully examined by the same daring adventurer who sketched the first map of the Chesapeake, the coast was regularly visited by fishermen and traders. A special account of the country was one of the fruits of Hakluyt's inquiries, and was published in the collections of Purchas. At Winter Harbor, near the mouth of Saco River, Englishmen, under Richard Vines, again encountered the 1616-7 severities of the inclement season; and not long after wards, the mutineers of the crew of Rocraft lived from 1618-9 autumn till spring on Monhegan Island, where the 1607. colony of Popham had anchored, and the ships of John 1614. Smith had made their station during his visit to New England. The earliest settlers, intent only on their immediate objects, hardly aspired after glory; from the COLLISION WITH FRANCE ON THE EASTERN FRONTIER. 331 IX. to few memorials which they have left, it is not, perhaps, CHAP. possible to ascertain the precise time, when the rude shelters of the fishermen on the sea-coast began to be 1623 tenanted by permanent inmates, and the fishing stages 1628 of a summer to be transformed into regular establishments of trade.' The first settlement was probably 1626 made" on the Maine," but a few miles from Monhegan, at the mouth of the Pemaquid. The first observers could not but admire the noble rivers and secure bays, which invited commerce, and gave the promise of future opulence; but if hamlets were soon planted near the mouths of the streams; if forts were erected to protect the merchant and the mariner,— agriculture received no encouragement; and so many causes combined to check the growth of the country, that, notwithstanding its natural advantages, nearly two centuries glided away, before the scattered settlements along the sea-side rose into a succession of busy marts, sustained and enriched by the thriving villages of a fertile interior. The settlement at Piscataqua could not quiet the ambition of Gorges. As a Protestant and an Englishman, he was almost a bigot, both in patriotism and in religion. Unwilling to behold the Roman Catholic church and the French monarch obtain possession of the eastern coast of North America, his first act with reference to the territory of the present state of Maine was, to invite the Scottish nation to become the 1 For the early history of Maine, the original authorities are in Purchas, vol. iv.; the Relation of the President and Council for New England; Josselyn's Voyages; and the Narration which Gorges himself composed in his old age. Materials may be found also in Sullivan's History; and far better in the elaborate and most minute work 332 COLLISION WITH FRANCE ON THE EASTERN FRONTIER. IX. CHAP. guardians of its frontier. Sir William Alexander, the ambitious writer of turgid rhyming tragedies, a man of influence with King James, and already filled with the desire of engaging in colonial adventure, seconded a design, which promised to establish his personal dignity and interest; and he obtained, without diffi1621, culty, a patent for all the territory east of the River Sept. 10. St. Croix, and south of the St. Lawrence.1 The whole region, which had already been included in the French provinces of Acadia and New France, was designated in English geography by the name of Nova Scotia. Thus were the seeds of future wars scattered broadcast by the unreasonable pretensions of England; for James now gave away lands, which, 1603. already and with a better title on the ground of dis covery, had been granted by Henry IV. of France, and which had been immediately occupied by his subjects; nor could it be supposed, that the reigning French monarch would esteem his rights to his rising colonies invalidated by a parchment under the Scottish seal, or prove himself so forgetful of honor, as to discontinue the protection of the emigrants who had planted themselves in America on the faith of the crown.2 Yet immediate attempts were made to effect a 1622. Scottish settlement. One ship, despatched for the purpose, did but come in sight of the shore, and then, declining the perilous glory of colonization, returned to the permanent fishing station on Newfoundland. 1623. The next spring, a second ship arrived; but the two vessels in company hardly possessed courage to sail to and fro along the coast, and make a partial survey of 1 The patent is in Hazard, v. i. p. 134-145; in Purchas, v. iv. p. 1871. See, also, Gorges' Narra tion, c. xxiv; Laing's Scotland, ùi 477. 2 Chalmers, 92. PASSION OF BUCKINGHAM FOR THE QUEEN OF FRANCE. 333 the harbors and the adjacent lands. The formation CHAP. of a colony was postponed; and a brilliant eulogy of the soil, climate, and productions of Nova Scotia, was the only compensation for the delay.1 IX. July The marriage of Charles I. with Henrietta Maria 1625 May. promised between the rival claimants of the wilds of Acadia such friendly relations as would lead to a peaceful adjustment of jarring pretensions. Yet, even at that period, the claims of France were not recognized by England; and a new patent confirmed to Sir William Alexander all the prerogatives with which he had been lavishly invested, with the right of creating an order of baronets. The sale of titles proved to the poet a lucrative traffic, and the project of a colony was abandoned. 2 12. The citizens of a republic are so accustomed to see the legislation and the destinies of their country controlled only by public opinion, as formed and expressed in masses, that they can hardly believe the extent in which the fortunes of European nations have, at least for a short season, been moulded by the caprices of individuals how often the wounded vanity of a courtier, or an unsuccessful passion of a powerful minister, has changed the foreign relations of a kingdom! The feeble monarch of England, having twice abruptly dissolved parliament, and having vainly resorted to illegal modes of taxation, had forfeited the confidence of his people, and, while engaged in a war with Spain, was destitute of money and of credit. It was at such a moment, that the precipitate gallantry of the favorite 1627. Buckingham, eager to thwart the jealous Richelieu, to whom he was as far inferior in the qualities of a 1 Purchas's Pilgrims, iv. 1872. Charlevoix, i. 274. De Laet. 62. 2 Hazard, i. 206, and ff. Biog. Brit. sub voce Alexander. |