105 



admitted that his purposes were cntirel}^ personal, and that he aimed 

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

 voyage of Challon, in 1G06 ; the enterprise of the Poplianis and the 

 Gilberts to the Kennebec, the I'ollowing year, in wiiich he h;id an inte- 

 rest : tli(^ voyages for fisliing and trade of Richard Amines, his agent, 

 steadily pursued for years in a ship purchased with his own nione}'; the 

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

 auspices, in 1619 ; the aid he afforded to Sir WiUiam Alexander, in 

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

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

 Kennebec rivers, in 1622 ; and the su])sequent grant, in his own indi- 

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

 l>ec, 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 accomplished nothing. t Two centu- 

 ries ago one? iiun(h'ed thousand dollars was a large sum ; but he ex- 

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

 wliich was entirel}' lost, if we except the twelve hundred and fifty 

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

 from Massacliusetts, 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 "highlands," wdicrc royalty' last contended f()r the soil of 

 Maine. In truth, not a grant was made east 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 coiporate 

 existence until Massachusetts bf^came 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 

 tl)e general court, none of whom lived east of Brunswick or the An- 

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

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

 van, David SewaU, Theopliilus Bradbur}', Caleb Emery, and David 

 Wyer, all of whom were whigs, except the last; of incorj)orated towns, 

 there were twenty-five; the only eustom-iiouse was at Falmouth; the 

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

 a corps of civil functionaries by no means numerous, to a siu'vej^or of 

 the king's forests, and his deputies. 



• She wa8 a Frpnch princess, and her estate in Franco was called " the province of Maine." 

 t Sir Ft'rdiiiaiidi> Gorges died lifforc June, of tlic )<'ur IfVIT. lie KiifltMcd niiicli for liis de- 

 votion to the SiiiartH. .Miiinc, nf which he liccaiiif k(»1c proprietor, wiis iirijh'cli'd liy liis son 

 John, to whom it (K-Hct-ndfd ; und was f^ohl by Iuk ^i>h Ferdinundo, in 11)77, to Massachiisetta, 

 for the sum jCl,'i50. The first Ferdiuando was the author of tracts on American colonization. 



