The Popham Colony. Ballard Edward
at Sabino before this. Strachey says, under the date of 28th of August: "Most of the hands labored hard about the fort, and the carpenters about the buylding of a small pinnace, the president overseeing and applying every one to his worke." The other craft, called the "Virginia," for which the above pretensions are set up, was not framed till after Captain Davies had sailed for England, – that is, after the 15th of December.
The letter-writer further garnishes his theme by talking about this fishing-boat's "safe voyage to England," and the curiosity she excited in an English port. For the sake of these historical statements, the Committee have thought proper to preserve this letter. Their theory must be in a desperate condition to need such a confirmation.
We have a word to say with regard to this vessel. Writers on New England have generally stated that the departing colonists took this craft with them. This, however, is very different from the statements made above, that she was "fit to cross the ocean," that she made a "safe voyage to England," etc. A part of the company were not over anxious to revisit their native land. They had saved their necks once by emigrating, and were not in haste to put them again into the halter. With this "pretty pynnace" they could catch codfish, and cure them along shore; barter them for other commodities with some of the hundreds of vessels from Europe employed in the fisheries on the coast; harass the Indians; and lead generally a wild and free life, such as was congenial to their character and dispositions. The vessels, doubtless, left Sabino at the same time. When the main body of the colonists departed, it was necessary that all should leave; for they had so incurred the enmity of the Indians by their barbarities, that any left behind would have been murdered. Strachey's account is entirely consistent with this. He says "they all ymbarqued in this new arrived ship [the 'Mary and John'] and in the new pynnace, the Virginia, and sett saile for England. And this was the end of that northerne colony uppon the river Sachadehoc." Brief Relation, 1622, says, "they built a pretty barke of their owne, which served them a good purpose, as easing them in their returning." Certainly; but we do not read that the "new pynnace" arrived in England, and was there an object of admiration, as a specimen of naval architecture.
The improbability that this "pynnace" was sea-worthy, and made a voyage across the Atlantic, will appear from the following considerations; —
1. There was not time between the 15th of December and Spring to build a sea-worthy vessel. There were but forty-five persons left in the colony, and this number was reduced before Spring by disease and squabbles with the Indians. There were probably not ten carpenters in the company. The Winter, we are told, was unseasonable and intensely severe. Strachey says, that, "after Capt. Davies's departure they fully finished the fort, trencht and fortified it with 12 pieces of ordnance, and built 50 howses, besides a church and a storehouse," – sufficient work, we might suppose, to employ forty-five Old Bailey convicts till Spring, without building a sea-going vessel. If Strachey does not tell the truth in this matter, we know nothing at all about this vessel.
2. They had no need of a sea-going vessel. These were furnished by the English undertakers. What they needed was a small craft in which to take fish along shore. The Huguenots built their vessel in 1563 to return home in; it being their only means of escaping starvation. There was no intention of abandoning the Popham settlement till Capt. Davies returned in the Spring with the news that their patron saint, Sir John Popham, surnamed "the hangman," was dead.
3. We know that the Popham colonists were knaves; but it is not necessary to infer that they were fools. Here was a good, stanch ship, the "Mary and John," of London, Captain Davies, master, about to sail for England. The whole company was now reduced to about forty souls. This same ship had brought over, a few months before, more than double that number. The graduates of penal institutions have usually as keen a regard for their corporal safety as other persons. Cowardice is commonly their ruling characteristic. Is it reasonable to suppose that any of that godless company would have risked their lives to a voyage across the Atlantic in that "pretty pynnace," built of green pine, in midwinter, when they could have had safe and comfortable quarters in the "Mary and John"? If the intention, on the part of the managers, was to transport the colonists safely to England, there was no motive nor excuse for putting any on board the new craft. If there was a willingness on the part of some of the colonists to embark in it, they must, we think, have had some other project in view than a trip across the Atlantic. The assertion that the vessel made the voyage is purely gratuitous.
My Dear Sir, – Your invitation to be present at the Popham Celebration is at hand. The short notice will prevent me from being present to take part in the interesting ceremonies. Without assenting to all the claims made in your "Popham Memorial Volume," allow me to say, that I think those who have spoken or written on that subject have overlooked one of the most important results of that enterprise. In this practical age, we must look to what was really effected by the earliest colonists on these shores. Let us briefly try that at Sagadahoc by this test; for, in my opinion, their works were far more important than the formal acts recorded. They certainly erected houses, a church, a fort; and, lastly, a vessel, the dimensions of which are unknown, but fit to cross the ocean. Now we know, that, in a forest, it is not a difficult thing to build log-houses, or a church and a fort in the same way; but to construct a sea-going vessel is quite a different affair. This requires artisans who are used to such work; and there can be no doubt, that among the colonists there were found a master-builder,2 with the necessary journeymen and sawyers (for there were no mills,) a smith, and also several laborers: for the building of a vessel in a remote wilderness would then require three times the amount of manual labor that would now effect the same result – in these days when materials are so easily prepared, transported and fitted, by the aid of machinery.
Looking, then, at what was certainly done by the Popham Colony, we must allow that, during the short period they occupied the rugged peninsula of Sabino, and making due allowance for a hard winter, the destruction of their storehouse, and the sickness that followed, they deserve credit for enterprise and industry in constructing a vessel fit to encounter the storms of the Atlantic, and make a safe voyage to England. There she must have attracted much attention, being the pioneer ship built in North America. When, therefore, we consider the value of Popham's enterprise, the building and voyage of the "Virginia of Sagadahoc" is one of its most important results. It was not equalled by the Plymouth colony in the first ten years of its existence; and it was not till the third year of the existence of its powerful neighbor of "Massachusetts Bay," that a ship, fit to cross the ocean, was constructed.
Wishing you a pleasant day and a numerous company, I am,
Yours truly,
To Rev. Edward Ballard, Secretary, &c.
[Boston Daily Advertiser, April 21, 1866.]
"THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS."
To the Editors of the Boston Daily Advertiser: —
By the courtesy of some unknown friend, I have received your paper of the 11th inst., containing a notice of Prof. Patterson's Address at the last Celebration at Fort Popham. As it presents some matters needing amendment, I trust your greater courtesy will allow space in your columns for a few observations.
Your correspondent has confessed a partiality for the literature growing out of the first colonial occupation of the soil of New England under English enterprise; and forthwith, in a style of pleasantry, bearing with it the edge of ridicule, speaks of the efforts of its writers as scarcely better than advocates indulging in "historical waggery," whose pages "we read," as in other fiction, "to be amused."
But without attempting to reply with smiles alone to such attempts at smiling away the force of historic verities, it is pertinent to say, that when your correspondent speaks of the "false theory" of the believers in the Popham Colony, it would have been quite as lucid a mode of treatment, if he had stated the "theory" itself. We had supposed that we were dealing with facts; and were not responsible for any deductions drawn therefrom, either by affection or prejudice. And the facts, though prominent, may be comprised in a short enumeration: That in 1607 an English colony, under President George
Strachey says, "the chief shipwright was one Digby, of London." He also speaks of "the carpenters." – Chap. x.