105 



admitted that bis purposes were entirely personal, and that he aimed 

 solely to acquire wealth ; but still, whatever were his motives, the 

 voyage of Challon, in 1606 ; the enterprise of the Pophams and the 

 Gilberts to the Kennebec, the following year, in which he had an inte- 

 rest ; the voyages for fishing and trade of Richard Vines, his agent, 

 steadily pursued for j^ears in a ship purchased wiih his own money; the 

 adventure of Dermer to the island of Monhegan, undertaken under his 

 auspices, in 1G19; the aid he afforded to Sii- William Alexander, in 

 1621, to procure the patent of Nova Scotia; the grant obtained by 

 John Mason and himself of the country between the Merrimack and the 

 Kennebec rivers, in 1622 ; and the subsequent grant, in his own indi- 

 vidual right, of the territory between the Piscataqua and the Kenne- 

 bec, which, in honor of Queen Henrietta,* he called Maine — were all 

 beneficial to New England, and hastened its settlement. Yet, for him- 

 self and his heirs, Gorges really accomphshed nothing. t Two centu- 

 ries ago one hundred thousand dollars was a large sum ; but he ex- 

 pended that amount of money in his various enterprises in America, 

 which was entirely lost, if we except the twelve hundred and fifty 

 pounds sterling received by the representative of his family, in 1677, 

 from Massachusetts, in the purchase, and in full payment for a quit- 

 claim deed of Maine. 



The immediate objects of Gorges were to establish fisheries, to erect 

 saw-mills, and to open a communication with the Indians. Fishing 

 and lumbering, indeed, continued to be the great branches of industry 

 for more than a century after his death. As late as the year 1734, 

 there were no more than nine thousand persons of European origin 

 between the Piscataqua and the St. Croix, and thence to the dividing 

 and disputed "higlilands," where royalty last contended f(;r the soil of 

 Maine. In truth, not a grant was made cast of the Penobscot previous 

 to 1762; and Machias, though the oldest town between that river and 

 the frontier, was not alienated prior to 1770, and had no corporate 

 existence until Massachusetts became an independent State. The 

 general condition of Maine, in fine, as the revolutionary controversy came 

 to a crisis, may be summed up thus: the whole number of inhabitants 

 was about equal to the present population of the cities of Portland and 

 Bangor; the supreme court held one term at Falmouth, (now Port- 

 land,) and one at York, annually; there were ten representatives to 

 \he general court, none of whom lived east of Brunswick or the An- 

 droscoggin river; the number of clergymen was thirty-ibur; the six 

 councillors or barristers at law were William Gushing, James Sulli- 

 van, David Sewall, Theophilus Bradbury, Caleb Emery, and David 

 Wyer, all of whom were whigs, except the last; of incorporated towns, 

 there were twenty -five ; the only custom-house was at Falmouth; the 

 patronage of the crown was confined to the officers of the revenue, to 

 a corps of civil functionaries by no means numerous, to a surveyor of 

 the king's forests, and his deputies. 



* She was a French priucess, and her estate in France was called " the province of Maine." 

 t Sir Ferdinando Gorges died before June, of the year 1647. lie suffered much for his de- 

 votion to the Stuarts. Maine, of which he became sole proprietor, was neglected by his son 

 John, to whom it descended; and was sold by his son Ferdinando, in 1677, to Massachusetts, 

 for the sum £1,250. The first Ferdinando was the author of tracts on American colonizatioa. 



