with the land in the latitude of 43°1 on the north part of Virginia, as all the country was then called; from thence they ranged the coast along, till they came to a place which they called Whitson Bay. How long they tarried upon that coast, or when they returned, is not mentioned in Salterne's relation, yet it seems the report they carried back was not like that of the unbelieving spies, for it gave encouragement to the Right Honorable Thomas Arundel, Baron of Warder, to send forth another vessel in the year 1605, with twenty-nine stout seamen, under the command of Capt. Thomas Weymouth, with intent to have them make another discovery of the coast southward of 39 degrees; but by reason of cross winds they fell to the northward of 41° by 20 minutes, where they found themselves strangely embayed by shoals, so as in the running of six leagues they should come from an 100 fathom to five, yet see no land, then, at the next throw they should have 16 or 18,2 which constrained them to put back again to sea, though the wind and weather were as fair as they could desire; the want of wood and water made them take the best advantage of wind that came next, to fall in with the shore. On the 18th of May they cast anchor within a league of the shore, which proved an island, though at first it appeared as some high land on the main; and here they took five of the savages, as saith Capt. Smith, page 20, whom they found, like all of that sort, kind till they had opportunity to do mischief; but soon after found a harbor fitter for the purpose, which they called Pentecost Harbor, from Whit Sunday, on which they discovered it. The isles there abouts in the entry of the sound, it seems are those which are since known by the name of St. George's Isles. At this time they discovered a great river in those parts, supposed to be Kennibecke, 1 Purchas's Pilgrims (fol. Lond. 1625), iv. 1654. 2 Purchas, Iv. 1659; Smith, p. 19. — н. • Smith, p. 20. — ¤. H. [1878.] near unto Pemaquid, which they found navigable forty miles up into the country, and seven, eight, nine, or ten fathom deep, as Capt. Weymouth reports. It was one main end of all the forementioned adventurers, as well as those that first discovered it, to plant the Gospel there. The whole country from Florida to Nova Francia went at first under the name of Virginia, (yet distinguished by the Northern and Southern parts): that which is now famously known by the name of Virginia, (where, since the year 1605, have several English Colonies been planted,) is a country within the two Capes, where the sea runneth in two hundred miles north and south under the Deg. 37, 38, 39 of north lat., first discovered, as is generally believed, by Capt. John Smith, sometimes Governor of the country, into which there is but one entrance by sea, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly bay twenty miles broad between those two Capes, of which that on the south is called Cape Henry, that on the north Cape Charles, in honor of the two famous princes, branches of the Royal Oak. The first planting of that country was begun in the year 1606; and carried on by various changes and by sundry steps and degrees, as is described at large from the first beginning of the enterprise to the year 1627, by Capt. Smith, one of the first discoverers, and so a chief founder of the plantation from that time. That whole country, extending from the 34th to the 44th degrees of North lat. and called Virginia upon the accident mentioned before, formerly Norumbega, came afterwards to be divided into two colonies- the first and the second. The former was to the honorable City of London, as saith Capt. Smith, and such as would adventure with them, to discover and take their choice where they would, betwixt the degrees of 34 and 41: the latter was appropriated to the Cities of Bristol, Plymouth, and Exeter, and the west parts of England, and all those that would adventure and join with them; and they might take their choice anywhere betwixt the degrees of 38 and 44, provided there should be at least [1878.] a an hundred miles distance betwixt the two colonies, each of which had laws, privileges, and authority for the government, and advancing their plantations alike." After this time several attempts were made for the planting and peopling of this northern part of Virginia, called afterwards New England by Capt. Smith, in the year 1614, who took a draught of the coast, the same year, and presented it to his then Royal Highness, and afterwards our famous Prince Charles, of blessed memory, humbly entreating him to adopt it for his own, and make a confirmation thereof, by imposing Christian names upon the several places first discovered, many of which were ever after retained, the whole country upon that occasion being called New England to this day. In the year 1606, Sir John Popham, who was a principal undertaker, as saith Capt. Smith, and 1607, found men and means to make the beginning of a plantation about the mouth of a great river called Kennibeck, to the northward of 43 degrees, but with what success shall be seen afterward. In the years next following, other attempts of further discovery were made by the industry and endeavors of Capt. Edward Harlow, Capt. Hobson of the Isle of Wight, Mr. John Mathews, Mr. Sturton, and especially Capt. Henry Hudson,' who searched several rivers along the coast from Delaware Bay up towards the frozen ocean; in honor of whose memory, the great river where afterward the Dutch seated themselves and laid the foundation of their Novum Belgium, was called after his name, Hudson's river; as another place, the utmost bounds of his discoveries northward, is likewise called after the manner of elder times, Hudson's streight. Probably every year's experience might add something to a fuller knowledge of the havens, rivers, and most desirable places of the country, by such as came yearly to make fish upon the coast, eastward about the island of Monheggin, Damerille Cove, Casco Bay, Cape Porpoise, [and] 1 In the summer of 1609. H. [1878.] Accomenticus, although no colony was ever settled in any of those places till the year 1620, when New Plymouth was first planted within Cape Cod, of which more in what followeth, when there will be just occasion to mention the incredible success of those plantations of New England, that from so small and mean beginnings, did in so few years overspread so large a tract of land by the industry and diligent pains of a poor people, to which alone, next under the blessing of Almighty God, must the success of the whole business be ascribed: it being the declared intent of the adventurers and others that engaged in this design since Capt. Gosnold's voyage in the year 1602, as one Mr. Rosier,' that came along with Capt. Weymouth, doth expressly mention soon after, viz. 1605, to propagate God's holy church, by planting Christianity in these dark corners of the earth, which was the public good they aimed at, more than the advancing their own private or particular ends. CHAP. III. Of the Situation, Bounds, and Rivers of New England. NEW ENGLAND, at the first accounted no distinct country of itself, [so] as [to be] worthy of a proper name of its own, was taken only for a part of Virginia but is of late discovered to be a country of too large a compass any longer to lackey after any other sister, though elder than herself, and therefore deservedly accounted worthy of that adoptive name with which it is honored as one of the principal daughters of the Chief Lady of the European world, from whence she is descended. It is situate in the 315th degree of longitude, betwixt the degrees of 39 and 45 of north latitude, accounting from about Delaware Bay to the south of Nova Francia, the bounds 1 See his account of the voyage, in Mass. Hist. Coll. xxviii. 125–157. [1878.] -H. GENERAL HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND. * necessary for the supplies and comfort of man's residence * * * * * may have in that kind is not for us to determine. It seems to be the pleasure of the Almighty by the foresaid means to open the way for sending the light of the gospel amongst those dark parts of the earth for their conversion, as is hoped, and thus to leave the rest without excuse at the last day. The gospel must be preached to the nations for a testimony unto them; which it never was * * * it being an usual observation that the great Husbandman is not pleased to 7 |