15 



^eaty of fifty years. Fifty y«ars of peaoe do mu(;h to es- 

 tablish a colony. 



On page 59th we read^ "The Bost(Mi colony hnilt a 

 «hip the first year after its settle n:ient." That would he 

 in 1H31. VVhy print tbe fact ; unless to give the im- 

 pression that h-ere is the record of the first ship built on 

 this continent by the English? One surely gets that im- 

 pression especially when after diligently turning over the 

 leaves, he finds nothing said of the building (Vf any other 

 vessel The first English built ship was the "Virginia," 

 and Fort Popham in Maine was the place. Give the 

 Kennebec the glory, and Maine her due^ If either ves- 

 sel sh(Hild be specified, why not the one of the two con- 

 structed twenty-four years before the other? "It is the 

 first step that costs." Shall we mention the ordinary, 

 and shut out the extraordinar}^ ? Maine men are pleased 

 that tlie Kennebec, celebrated for its fine vessels, was the 

 pioneer in the art of American ship-building. 



On the same page, Sir William Phips is styled "royal 

 governor of Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia." 

 Who, from the book, would know him to be Maine-born 

 and bred? Was he the first and only native Ameri- 

 can ever knighted ill England? Or were there two oth- 

 ers — Maine Men? Isn't so strange an occurrence worth 

 recording? Was he a Kenuebecker? Were they? 



Four lines on page 29th will explain to you in italics : 

 '"Saint Augustine is the oldest town in the United States.''' 

 Lower down you read that Santa Fd "is the second oldest 

 town in the United States." The dates — I do not vouch 

 for them — differ by seventeen years — 1565, and 1582. 

 Now where are we to turn for a line or two about the first 

 incorporated city in America, the city of Gorgeana, 

 founded in 1641, a city of this county's past history? I 

 should not have presumed to ask. It was a Maine city ; 

 to be sure the first, but of no account. But why could 



