and present estate, those that desire may receive satisfaction of, by the information of those who have for a long time been conversant in the country; the other, by those of the west of England, whose endeavours were influenced chiefly by the interest and authority of the honourable patron of justice and virtue, Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, who found both men and means to possess it, about the year 1606, and 1607, when a small colony was by him sent out for that end: for beside the first ship sent in 1606, two more were sent after them in the year 1607, and some time after a third, as saith Capt. Smith, page 203. And then finding the situation of the place most commodious for fishing, (as having in sundry voyages made trial thereof,) intended to begin their first plantation about Monhiggon, an island not far distant from the mouth of a spacious river called Kennebeck, a place some where about the mouth whereof was then, and is still called Sagadahock, and there were the first company that intended to begin a new colony in the north of America, landed about a hundred in all, Anno 1606 or 1607. The gentlemen that undertook the business had shaped in their minds the idea of a large and flourishing commonwealth, sending persons of quality to reside there as Commanders in Chief, as Capt. George Popham for President, Capt. Rawley Gilbert for Admiral, Capt. Edward Harlow for Master of the Ordnance, Capt. Robert Davis for Sergeant Major, and for Marshal, Capt. Ellis Best, and for Secretary Mr. Seaman. Capt. James Davis was to be commander over the fort when it was built, Mr. Gome Carew was to be Searcher. All the forementioned gentlemen were to be of the Council, who with a hundred more as planters of the colony, were to stay in the country. By their endeavors was a foundation laid of a greater building than the adventurers ever found means to erect, the master builders too much imitating those, that laid out so much cost upon the gates, that they had not enough left to build a city proportionable thereunto. Experiences of this nature abundantly declare, that it is one thing, in an idea, to model the great affair of a commonwealth

and country, and another to bring materials, and frame them together into a flourishing state; for the hopes of this new colony, that blossomed so early were soon nipped in the bud by the sharpness of a cold winter following, wherein they lost the President, an ominous accident, which, with other solemn occurrences, blasted all that which, with so great shew of prosperity was there newly planted, especially being attended with the unwelcome news of the removal by death of the main pillar of the fabrick, Sir John Popham, happening, together with the loss of Sir John Gilbert, whose brother, Capt. Rawley Gilbert, designed Admiral of this puny plantation, upon the first bruit thereof, hasted over to enjoy the inheritance of his deceased brother. And indeed the seasoning of a hard winter in that barren, rocky, and mountainous desert, so discouraged all the rest, that they took the first advantage of shipping that next came to return home for England the following year, viz. Anno 1608. All the fruit of this their expedition, during the long winter and the after time of their abode there, was building a bark, which afforded them some advantage in their return. Yet did Sir Francis Popham, son and heir of that noble patriot, his father, the chief author of the undertaking, not wholly give over the design, but did divers times afterwards send to the same coast for trade and fishing, to which purpose he had great opportunity, by the ships and provision of the company, that remained in his hands; as likewise did the Earl of Southampton, and others of more publick spirits, that employed Mr. Edward Harlow soon after, to make further discovery of the southern parts of Cape Cod, where they resolved themselves that the said cape was no island, as was deemed before, but a part of the continent. In this enterprise they seized three of the savages, which, probably, were the three an old woman complained of afterwards to our neighbours of Plymouth, soon after the first planting of Patuxet, viz. in the year 1620; but one of them escaping, he enticed some of his consorts to take revenge of that unkindness, who cut away the boat from the stern of the ship, which they so guarded with their

bows and arrows, that the sailors were not able to get it again. At another place they, with two or three more, so filled their fellow Indians with a spirit of revenge, that they welcomed the English into the next harbour they entered, with such a shower of arrows, that they were glad to betake themselves to their artillery, to keep off the savages. At one of the islands at Cape Cod, (by Capt. Smith called Nohone,) they took in that voyage an Indian called Sakaweston, who, after he had lived divers years in England, went a soldier into the wars of Bohemia, as saith Capt. Smith. Thus the said Harlow returned for England with five of the savages, some of which they detained so long in England that they began to learn our language, and were able to inform our merchants sundry things concerning their country, which inspired them with a fresh resolution to attempt another plantation in the place formerly deserted, but with not much better success; for Capt. Smith having endeavoured to settle a plantation upon James River in Virginia, was not unwilling to set the design afloat for New England a second time. For such an end he was sent with two ships to take a farther view of the country, Anno 1614, at the charge of Capt. Marmaduke Royden, and the others, viz. Mr. Langham, Buley Skelton, and others, to make some further experiment of the commodities of the country, both by sea and land, in the waters of one to kill whales, in the bowels of the other to search for mines; but their best refuge was their common fishing and ordinary furs, those places use most to abound withal. Captain Smith returned the same year for England, well laden with furs, train oil, and core fish, and his mind as full fraught with hopes of great advantage the next return; but, as the wise man saith, "riches are not always to men of understanding, nor favour or prosperity to men of skill, for time and chance happeneth to them all." When the said Smith returned for England, he left one Thomas Hunt master of the bigger vessel, with order to sail directly with the fish he made upon the coast, for Malaga, but he, like a wicked varlet, having gotten twenty four of

the natives aboard his ship, from Patuxet, (who, in confidence of his honesty, had thus innocently put themselves into his hands,) clapped them under hatches, with intent to sell them for slaves amongst the Spaniards; but they not permitting him to make sale of the poor wretches in any of their ports, some of them found means to escape back to their own country: but in the year following, some that had conceived better hopes of good that might ensue by prosecuting the former honourable and pious work, having dispatched Capt. Hobson from the Isle of Wight, with some others, to make a farther attempt for planting the country, they carried with them two of the aforesaid natives to facilitate the work. These, contrary to expectation, find their design as good as overthrown, before it was well begun, by that treacherous practice of Hunt: for, the two natives coming ashore, and understanding what had befallen their countrymen in their absence, contracted such a hatred against the whole nation, that they studied nothing but how to be revenged of them; contriving secretly with their friends how to bring it to pass, which no doubt they might easily have done, had not one of them, Manowet by name, been taken away by death soon after the ship's arrival there : but the other, called Epenow, observing the good order and strong guard the people kept, studied only for the present how to free himself from the Englishmen's hands; and laid his plot so cunningly that he effected his purpose; although with so great hazard to himself and those his friends, who laboured his rescue, that the Captain and his company imagined he had been slain. Their design, not being well compassed, wrought the slaughter of some of their own people, as well as the hurt of some of the English, as appeared afterwards. This company, together with Capt. Hobson, looking upon the end of their attempt as wholly frustrate by the cross accident, resolved, without more ado, to return home, carrying back nothing with them but the news of their bad success. And a war now began between the inhabitants of these parts and the English. Thus was this little spark of their hopes, raked up in the embers of those long and

tedious delays, by this misfortune almost quite extinguished. But this is not all, for another occurrence fell in here, which was as disastrous in a manner as the former. The company of New England had in the return of the year 1615, found means likewise to set out Capt. Smith, with Mr. Dermer, Rocraft and others, with a ship from Plymouth; either to lay the foundation of a new plantation, or strengthen and second that of Capt. Hobson; but they being scarce free of the English coast, were suddenly attacked by a violent storm, shaking his mast overboard, which forced him back into the harbour, where the undertakers furnishing them with another ship, they put to sea a second time; but after they got to the height of the Western Islands, they were chased by a small pirate, who took them prisoners, and detained them so long that their voyage was wholly overthrown; nor do we find that ever Capt. Smith had an opportunity in his own person afterwards to visit these coasts of New England, though his inclination and purpose ran strongly that way. However, Capt. Dermer, meeting with some one or more of those natives transported by Hunt, and encouraged by Capt. Mason, at that time Governour of New England, carried them to Plymouth, from whence he was sent again to New England, where, about the year 1619, by his prudence and great diligence, he procured a peace between our men and the savages of the place, that had been so much exasperated against them by the wrongs formerly received. This industrious and prudent gentleman, having spent almost two years in searching the coast between New England and Virginia, the fruit of whose labours and hazards many others have since reaped, was at the last, in his return to Virginia, set upon by some malicious savages in some parts beyond Cape Cod, from whom he received fourteen or fifteen wounds, upon which occasion, retiring to Virginia, he there ended his days, about the year 1621. What expeditions were made by the English, or attempts to plant any part of the country between the year 1614 and 1620, may be seen more at large in Purchas, fol. 1778, and in Capt. Smith's General History of New England,