14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that great lobsters — rock fish and plaice were fished — all the fish being 

 well fed, fat and sweet. ^' 



The natives, whom th6y found there inhabiting the seaboard, 

 obtained an easy and luxurious living from the ocean, and were 

 expert fishermen, as well as bold and skilful hunters. Rosier, the 

 historian of Weymouth's voyage describes those whom he (Wey- 

 mouth) basely kidnapped and carried with him on his return to 

 England, as peaceable, kind-hearted, generous, truthful and hon- 

 est" — as "expert whalemen by profession, often capturing this 

 mammoth fish(?) in our waters." The account which these cap- 

 tives gave of the resources of their native country in these things, 

 heightened the already roused excitement in England respecting 

 the newly discovered regions, and two years after (160Y) we find 

 Popham, with true British enterprise, planting a village of fifty 

 houses to accommodate his colony on the shores of the Kennebec, 

 and erecting a fort for their defence. The objects of this settle- 

 ment were principally fishing in the adjacent waters, and trade 

 with the natives. In all the early descriptions of our State, fishing 

 and fisheries always stood out in strong relief Speaking of " No- 

 rembega," it was described by Purchas as being an island at the 

 mouth of a goodly river,* "rerj/yi^ybr^s/im^r * * * and that the 

 region that goeth along the sea doth abound in fish." 



The death of Popham, and the hostilities of the Indians, exas- 

 perated probably by the imprudence of his men, brought his settle- 

 ment to an early destruction, but the inducements were too great 

 to allow the country and fishing grounds to remain unoccupied, 

 and accordingly we find the French settling Mount Desert in 1609, 

 and a few years after (1614) we find the celebrated Capt. John 

 Smith exploring along our coast with two ships. He, as did Wey- 

 mouth, anchored at Monhegan. This island had been more or less 

 a resort for fishermen since its discovery by Weymouth. 



S'nith made it the centre of his operations during the summer. 

 "Whilst the sailors fished," says he, "myself with eight others 

 ranged the coast in a small boat. We got, for trifles, 11,000 beaver 

 skins, 100 martins, and as many otters, and the most of them with- 

 in the distance of 20 leagues. We ranged the coast east and west 

 much further."! 



* Supposed to be Damariscotta, see Sewall's Ancient Dominions of Maine, p. 32. 

 t Sewall's Ancient Dominions, p. 175. 



