48 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



Maine." 1 It was a task of exceptional difficulty, bravery 

 and perseverance to establish English civilization on the 

 New England shores. 



In 1624 the Dorchester Company sent over two vessels 

 but they met with little success. When the ships sailed 

 away for home thirty-two men were left behind in the 

 new country. In spite of the losses of the two previous 

 years three vessels were sent forth in 1625. With the hope 

 of better success a change was made in overseers. Roger 

 Conant, who had withdrawn from the Plymouth colony 

 because he did not sympathize with the Separatist views 

 there, had come to Cape Ann on his own account. He 

 was a man of good reputation, quiet and competent, and 

 he was appointed overseer of the Cape Ann plantation by 

 the Dorchester Company. But a change of management 

 did not result successfully as far as the fisheries were con- 

 cerned. To their own troubles at Cape Ann was added a 

 quarrel with their neighbors. The Plymouth people had 

 obtained a patent in 1623 to fish at Cape Ann. It has 

 been shown already how disastrously their first venture 

 at Cape Ann ended. Upon their return to the place in 

 1625, they found that the stage and other wgrks that 

 were built the summer before had been seized by the cap- 

 tain of an English vessel. He stoutly refused to give up 

 the stage, whereupon Captain Standish was ordered by 

 Governor Bradford to retake the works. The occupants 

 were strongly entrenched behind a barricade of casks when 

 Standish arrived, fully determined to carry out his orders. 

 The affair was at the point of collision and bloodshed, when 

 Conant and the master of another ship interposed their 

 good offices with the result that the high-handed captain 

 gave up his claim to the Plymouth works and used 

 another stage. 2 



1 Babson, p. 32. 



2 Bradford, p. 237. 



