GROWTH AND EXPANSION 73 



captured on the coast of Maine by the Indians. In the fight 

 that ensued, several men were killed and a score were 

 wounded. When news of the engagement reached Salem, 

 a large vessel was fitted out and sent to recapture the boats 

 and men; but the natives, plundering and abandoning 

 the ketches, left before their pursuers could do them harm. 1 

 * ' In the lapse of a few years, ' ' says Sabine, ' * the fishermen 

 at Cape Porpoise were either slaughtered or driven off, 

 and the settlement there laid desolate; a fishing smack 

 was intercepted near Portland, three of her crew killed, 

 and the remainder carried into captivity; eight fishing 

 vessels were captured at the Fox Islands; the coast for 

 more than a hundred miles was abandoned, and the 

 wretched men who depended upon the sea for support, 

 without shelter, and too scattered for concert and resistance, 

 were compelled to suspend their employments. ' ' 2 



It had now become evident to the thoughtful people of 

 New England that the only way to secure the peaceful 

 prosecution of their fisheries along the coasts of Maine 

 and Nova Scotia was by the expulsion of the French. The 

 accession of William and Mary to the throne of England 

 brought on war between that country and France. The 

 struggle was taken up by the colonists on this side. Sir 

 William Phipps, a native of Maine, led an expedition 

 against Nova Scotia in 1690, which he succeeded in cap- 

 turing from the French. The victory was fruitless, how- 

 ever, as the province was re-taken by the French the next 

 year. 



The French, realizing the importance of the American 

 fisheries, renewed their efforts to retain hold upon their 

 colonies. Under the leadership of Baron de Castin, a 

 trading fort was established at the mouth of the Penobscot, 

 now the town of Castine. The French officials and Jesuits 



1 Felt, Annals of Salem, p. 258. 



2 Sabine, p. 109. 



