95 



diction that, ^^ forasmuch as merchants are diligent inquisitors after gains, 

 theij willsoon remove their trade from Ncufoundland''^ to New England, where 

 tliere is a better climate, greater security agauist the depredations of 

 pirates, and less expense for outfits, shorter voyages, and safer harbors. 

 The writer, anticipating that a colony would soon be founded, predicted 

 further, that the ships of all the nations that "have been accustomed to 

 repair unto the Newfoundland for the commodity of fish and oils alone, 

 will henceforth forsake" that island, "when once we have planted 

 people in these parts ; by whose industry shall be provided, for all com- 

 merce," the products of the sea, "and many commodities besides, of 

 good importance and value." Eighteen years elapsed; the Pilgrims 

 anchored off the same "Shoal Hope," and settled this very country. 



Pring followed Gosnold, and explored the waters of Maine, in 1603. 

 He saw and named the Fox islands, in Penobscot bay, and found good 

 mooring and fishing. Like Gosnold, he considered the fish which he 

 took there superior to those of Newfoundland. He made a second 

 voyage three years later; and Gorges remarks that his discovery of 

 the eastern part of New England was perfect, and his account of it 

 accurate. 



Waymouth, under the patronage of several English noblemen, and 

 other persons of rank, came in 1605. "A True Relation" of his ad- 

 ventures was written by James Rosier, "a gentleman employed in the 

 voyage," and printed in London in the same year. He agrees with 

 those who had preceded him in every essential particular. As they 

 departed for England, they caught very large fish; and he says that 

 those on board of the ship, who. were familiar with the business, "would 

 warrant, (by the help of God,) in a short voyage, tiJ^VA afcwgoodfshers, 

 to make a more profitable return from hence than from Ncivfoundland ; the 

 fish being so much greater, hetter fed, and ahmdance loith train,'''' &c.* 



Two years after Waymouth's return, Lord John Popham, chief jus- 

 tice of England, George Popham, his brother. Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 

 Sir John Gilbert, his brother Raleigh Gilbert, (who were nephews of 

 Sir Walter Raleigh, and, I suppose, sons of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the 

 original patentee of Newfoundland,) with other gentlemen of consid- 

 eration, determined to plant a colony in Maine, and near the fisiiing 

 grounds which, in the judgment of Pring and Rosier, promised so great 

 rewards to adventurers. George Popham was appointed the president, 

 and Raleigh Gilbert admiral of the expedition. The original design 

 was to settle in the immediate vicinity of the island of Monhegan, in 

 Penobscot bay; but, abandoning this plan, a small island was selected 

 at the mouth of the Kennebec, where Popham and his associates 

 landed and commenced a settlement. Soon removing, however, to 

 the main land, they built a fort, and erected a storehouse and dwellings. 

 The death of the two Pophams and of Sir John Gilbert, the return of 

 Raleigh Gilbert to England, the loss of the storehouse by fire, and 

 other disappointments, discouraged the colonists, and put an end to the 

 enterprise. 



* "With larger livers — of course affording more oil. 



