14 
missionary design, under the auspices of Madame de Guercheyille, of Paris. While they were tarry- 
ing at their first harbor, they were visited by a party of Indians who persuaded them to make 
their abode at the home of Asticou, their chief, on the west side of Soames’ Sound, at a place whose 
sloping surface toward the ocean renders it probable that this was the real Pemetiq. In the same 
summer Argoll, an English captain, with an armed vessel, had come from Virginia to procure the 
annual supply of cod-fish at the islands of Pemaquid. He there learned that the French had taken 
possession of territory claimed by the English under the charter of James, in 1606. He sailed 
thither immediately with authority from Governor Dale, of Virginia, for the purpose of their 
expulsion. With little resistance he captured the scarcely finished defenses and took all the com- 
pany prisoners; whom he treated with a severity not at all needed to vindicate the claims of his 
government for the sovereignty. Here was the first blood spilled in the long contest between these 
two nations for supremacy on the North American continent. 
The ocean views and the picturesque mountain scenery have made this island a favorite place 
of summer resort. : 
Its name in the Penobscot dialect is Ahbdsauk, which is the equivalent of Clam-bake Island. 
At the present day there are high banks of clam-shells near the mouth of Soames’ Sound, trom 
which the early settlers took away boat-loads to burn into lime. Similar banks are found at Hull’s 
Cove, Indian Point, and several other places; reminding one of the oyster-shell banks at Damaris- 
cotta. The living clams are plentiful in all the coves of the island; and a considerable business is 
carried on at Bar Harbor and Indian Point, during the spring and autumn, in digging them for 
sale.! 
The Indian tradition is that “long time ago, two, three hundred years or more,” their ances- 
tors gathered here for the purpose of feasting on this food. The facts in the case show their skill 
in fixing the name, which tells of their need and the enjoyment of their semi annual visits to the 
place of their ‘‘clam-bakes.” 
Movusam, an English local name of the Maguncook Qiver. 
Musconaus.—No explanation. Conjecture suggests Moose-kon-hkoos, or mosq, (a word for bear,) 
kon-koos. 
NAGUSSET, the name of the point now called Abagadusset, (p. 246.)—Nagusset, the name of the 
point in Merrymeeting Bay now called Abagadusset, from naaq, a corner, a point of land. 
NARRAGUAGUS.—The Indians do not explain this word. It may come from nar-ah-e, before, 
and begwatoos, the last g being changed to ¢, and the meaning may be Before the Bay, denoting 
Trafton’s Island at its mouth. 
NASKEAG, called by Smith? Nusket, which is probably a mistake for Nasket, as elsewhere writ- 
ten. As fishing was the employment of the Indians for half the year, it was natural for them to 
designate the places of their resort with the name of one of the principal means of their livelihood. 
Hence the frequent use of the word namas,? in the composition of words. Naskeag is abbreviated 
from Namaskeag, or kik, and Nasket from Namasket. and represents Fish-Point, on Blue Hill Bay. 
Namasket is also a place on Taunton River, in Massachusetts. 
Neppock.-—Hubbard gives it as Nidduck, and Jeffreys (Map 51) nearly follows him. It may 
be allied to nitauke, my place. In 1654 it was written Nuttake.’ But a better interpretation 
has been suggested by the late Judge Potter, from the compound word, cited from hale, nete- 
goorike, clear-land ; and confirmed by a leading Indian of the Penobscot tribe, in the word natuah, 
an intervale. Tf the name be written Net-ock, the meaning, cleared-land, well corresponds with this 
projection, and its back-lying portion, and the many native implements found in cultivation. The 
Indians here seldom or never named a cape as such. 
The large, irregularly shaped rock, separated by a narrow, navigable channel from the point 
of this cape, was noticed by Gosnold in 1602, when he saw here several Indians possessing articles 
of European manufacture ; such as a Biscay shallop, with mast and sail, an iron grapple, a copper 
1 Letter from Hon. E. M. Hamor, of Mount Desert. 
2On his map, Lowmonds, but in his list Nusket. 
3 Also written namaes, namohs, namaas, in different dialects. 
4So Williamson writes it. Vol. 1, 24. 
® Hon. E. B. Bourne, Kennebunk, MS. letter. 
