MAINE. History is, in more than one point of view, an instructor of mankind. It can be considered morally, as it teaches the connection of the virtues with domestic and national prosperity. By its statistics it enlightens the politician, animates the philanthropist, and warns the tyrant. It directs the efforts of art, science, and benevolence; connects distant times and places with our own period and abode; makes us denizens almost of a world; and kindles a glowing interest in the affairs of our whole race.

The “enlightened European” might disdain to look for lessons of wisdom to the comparatively obscure settlers of American wildernesses; but it may be successfully maintained that even from them he could be taught. A population laborious and sober, frugal yet free, possessing and consulting the sacred records of divine revelation, and unobstructed in the reduction of their precepts into practical life, must afford a development to the human faculties rarely seen. The old world presents the many as made subservient to the few; the new world has afforded the prospect of the multitude engaged in promoting their own benefit, and framing their institutions in such manner as to secure it.

Let a thoughtful reader peruse the history of the republics of Italy, as written by their enlightened and faithful historian Sismondi, and study the tablet it presents of lawless ambition, ruthless war, and keen suffering, of heartless oppression and wrong, and that for centuries; then let him turn over the records of our own American states, and institute a comparison. Will he not conclude that humanity has gained somewhat in the lapse of ages?

In Maine, for instance, an example has been set for the instruction of the world, in the single circumstance of the creation of its territory into a sovereign state, without the shedding of a drop of human blood, or the existence of angry debate. Peaceful and deliberate discussion, weighing critically the advantage or the injury, and honestly bringing each to the light for impartial examination, formed the prelude; and the consequent success of the measure has been between the sister states a subject of mutual congratulation, each of the parties having unquestionably gained.

It cannot be denied that in the circumstances of these two masses of population, amounting in the aggregate to 700,000 souls, the withdrawing of one third part might have furnished fuel for an extensive and ruinous conflagration. Causes of minor consequence often inflamed the ancient republics of Greece, and incited them to ruinous wars; and Italian history, before alluded to, is full of scenes of bloodshed where far less was at stake. But Massachusetts submitted to lose much of her weight and influence in the general union of the states, and Maine was content with the division of the public property. Each State has since advanced in opulence, and in all that distinguishes American society, without the slightest relic of any ancient grudge, or the traces of political jealousy or envy.

No enlightened lover of mankind can contemplate such a picture, it would seem, without emotion. How many bloody revolutions would have been prevented, how many precious lives been saved, had such a course been uniformly held! The wars of Holland with Spain, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that of Great Britain with the colonies in the eighteenth, would have had no place in history; and could the now remaining colonies pursue a similar course, it might be expected to issue in mutual benefit; as might, perhaps, the wasting desolations of Hungary and Italy, in our own day, have been prevented by it. Force and fraud have done for ambition the work of selfish aggrandizement too long already: we may hope that the time approaches when “the greatest good of the greatest number” is to be the acknowledged aim of the rulers of men.

Among the Eastern or New England States, extent of territory is the prominent distinction of Maine. So great is this, comparatively, that it early gave occasion to a significant toast from a tourist of South Carolina—“The District of Maine, the main district of Massachusetts!” But it rises to a higher consequence, for its area, which is now stated at 32,628 square miles, nearly equals the aggregate of all the other states comprised in the above-named division, and in population it stands among them the second only to Massachusetts.

Nor are these distinctions the sole recommendations of this state to our regard. Its lengthened sea-coast, indented with harbors almost innumerable, and extending more than 200 miles, point it out as offering advantages of navigation and commerce superior to any coast of equal extent possessed by any of the states of our broad confederacy-advantages which have been availed of by many of its adventurous and energetic citizens, who have for a long time frequented the West Indies, as well as our own ports, with lumber, cattle, and provisions of various kinds. This distinction occasioned a late President of the United States to express the opinion, that in process of time the peculiar facilities of Maine would inevitably raise her to a commercial prosperity greater than that of any state of the Union.

Her climate is, indeed, uninviting to the inhabitant of more southern regions. So great a portion of the year is occupied by the months which may be termed wintry, that a dread is felt of experiencing its rigor. But little reflection, however, is necessary to evince that such a climate is favorable to health, and promotive of vigorous action. An old inhabitant addressed a foreigner of distinction, who had taken up his abode in it after the revolution, saying, “I wonder how you, who had a choice of all the country, should seat yourself here.” “You have here,” he replied, “the better end of the whole region, with a pure, gravelly soil and clear springs." The inhabitants of the rich, alluvial soil of the western country, enriched indeed by the vegetable spoils of centuries, yet hardly admitting the construction of durable roads, and affording in its waters but the elements of fever and ague, can appreciate the observation. Maine is comparatively healthy. It has lost, however, a large number of its vigorous young men in the trade with the West Indies, as in fact has been the sad experience of most of the Northern States of our confederacy.

We may take a view of Maine, —

In its condition previous to the formation within it of any settlement from Europe. It was then inhabited by a rather numerous and formidable body, or, to speak more accurately, by several bodies, of Indians, as they were subsequently termed. Of their character and manners, as they were totally destitute of letters, we can form but a very inadequate judgment. as our opinions must be grounded on knowledge obtained concerning them at a later period. Their country was mostly covered with wood; yet it abounded in animals used for the support of human life, and the natives were clad in their skins. Well-shaped, athletic, accustomed to traverse the rivers and to frequent the islands and sea-coast in their light canoes, they seem to have enjoyed much of all that can fall to the lot of savage life.

Of their languages we are able at present to give but a meagre account. Vocabularies have, indeed, been formed, and particularly one by Ralle, a Jesuit priest, who was long with them, and lost his life in their defence; but it is believed no books were ever published in any of them, the celebrated Bible of their more western “apostle” Eliot having appeared in the dialect of the tribes inhabiting Massachusetts.

The late lamented Dr. Pickering, who had paid no little attention to the subject, has left, as the result of his labors, a lucid account appended to the translation of the “Conversations-Lexicon,” and an ample exhibition of the various opinions of different writers respecting the names and abodes of their several tribes appears in Williamson’s very elaborate History of Maine. But our limits will not permit us to pursue the subject far.

Not remotely from the mouth of the Penobscot, and up its waters, is placed by general consent the country called in the earliest English authorities Norumbega. Here, or at Pemaquid, it was supposed resided the most powerful chieftain of all the region now included in the boundaries of Maine. His title or name was Bashaba. His authority apparently reached westwardly as far as the Piscataqua; but when it originated is uncertain; it seems to have ended about 1617.

There remain at present but three tribes. These appear descended of the Etechemins, who had the Micmacs to the eastward of them, inhabiting what are now the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Remnants of the latter are also left, but it is believed their language has never been reduced to writing, at least that no books have been printed in it.

Two bodies of the Indians inhabiting Maine are the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes; the latter reckoned as Tarratines, the former as Openangoes. By an experiment related by the Hon. Mr. Williamson, it appeared that “not a word of their language was found in the Bible translated by Eliot.”

We cannot, perhaps, venture to assert that the coast had never been visited by Europeans before the voyage of Cabot, or those of the Spaniards, who, with the French, seem to have been upon it at an early date. But on a small island very near Monhegan was discovered, in 1808, an inscription of a rather curious kind, made on the side of a rock. It might possibly countenance the hypothesis, which has been of late entertained with so much approbation and interest by the Danish antiquaries, that America was visited by Scandinavians, or Icelanders, long before Columbus. Yet the inscription seems too simple to be resolved into Runic characters. We give it thus: —

On the top of the rock were found three holes, about one foot apart, rather deeply perforated, and calculated to accommodate a tripod. The island is called Mananas, or Menannah, and is described in Williams on; although, so far as is known to the writer, the above inscription has never before met the public eye. It is the only one of which he has heard as existing in Maine; and whether it were the result of mere idleness, or made to score a reckoning, or has a meaning of a different kind, we will not undertake to determine. The holes are an inch deep or more, and near three inches in diameter. The strokes are cut to the depth of nearly half an inch, and are about six inches in length, as our informant stated. A spring is near, and the shore about thirty rods off. The ledge of rock is near the centre of the little island, and runs about north-north-east and south-south-west.

The natives became known to Europe by an act of what we might term cruel treachery in an English captain, Weymouth. Yet it resulted in good. For an interest was excited on the sight of them, and new desires were aroused of colonizing their country. This was in 1605. Two or three years after, an actual attempt was made to settle at the mouth of the Sagadehoc or Kennebec River.

The Indians now remaining in the State of Maine are divided into three bodies. That division with which we are least acquainted is settled on the St. John’s River, at two places, 63 and 163 miles respectively above Fredericton, in the Province of New Brunswick. Schoolcraft gives their number at 300 souls, and calls them Souriquois. By Williamson they are termed Marechites, by Morse Melecites. They were once numerous and powerful, but have greatly declined; and, like the other two divisions, are chiefly, as they ever have been from the earliest English settlement, under the influence of Romish priests; although attempts have been made, and sometimes with apparent success, to induce individuals to adopt a purer faith. In 1811, one branch of them was visited at Old Town, under the authority of the Massachusetts government, with a view to induce them to cultivate their lands, and learn to depend on the productions of their soil, and not merely on hunting, fowling, and fishing. But the effort was frustrated by the ensuing war of 1812-15, in which the tribe determined on a strict neutrality between the two belligerent nations.

At a subsequent period, as is stated by Williams on, both these tribes had become “objects of public charity and protection," and one which suffered peculiarly was aided by a grant of provisions. This, however, was but a temporary relief, and at length an arrangement was made, by which the lands belonging to the Penobscot tribe, and which originally extended far up the river, and six miles in width on each side of it, were still further relinquished or disposed of to the government by a treaty, with exception of four townships six miles square, and the islands in Penobscot River above Old Town.

In consequence of this arrangement, effected in 1817, and ratified February 20, 1819, the government stipulated to deliver to the tribe yearly, in October, as long as it might exist, “500 bushels of corn, 15 barrels of wheat flour, and 7 of clear pork; one hogshead of molasses, 50 Indian blankets, 100 pounds of gunpowder, 400 of shot, and 150 of tobacco; 100 yards of broadcloth, alternately red and blue; 6 boxes of chocolate, and $50 in silver.” “Afterwards, $350 were appropriated by the government, as an annual stipend to their religious teacher.”

Such is the issue of a lingering and almost listless existence, that has been protracted during successive and obstinate wars, in which the devotion of the Indians to their Romish guides filled them with prejudice and hatred against the Protestant settlers of Maine, and apparently has prevented, and still prevents, their rising, by industrious, economical habits, to the enjoyment of blessings which they see multiplied all around them. These but convince them of their own degradation, and display, in a marked contrast, the effects of their idleness and improvidence. There are now, according to the last account reported at Washington, 277 souls in the Penobscot, and 379 in the Passamaquoddy tribe; and much the greater portion of these are women and children. The Passamaquoddy tribe are at “Pleasant Point,” with a territory of 90 acres; the other at Old Town, on an island of the Penobscot River.

We may contemplate Maine as claimed, and in part occupied, by French and English proprietors.

Compared with the other Eastern or New England States, it may be regarded as a peculiar feature of the history of Maine, that her first settlements of Europeans were made on principles of feudalism. Hence, in fact, the disappointments that attended them. This observation was made, virtually, by the respected historian of New Hampshire, the accurate and sagacious Belknap. He could not but mark the difference resulting from the influence of orders transmitted from a distant country, compared with the impulses of personal interest and independent adventure. In almost every instance, the lordly proprietor, who managed his estate by agencies, was forced to succumb to the lavish or indiscreet expenditures of his " servants;” and they who became successful were the men who hazarded their all in person. This has been noticed in the remarks introducing our Gazetteer of New Hampshire.

Sir Ferdinando Gorges was the most conspicuous and laborious of these proprietors of the territory. The portion he claimed within the present limits of Maine reached along the shore from Piscataqua to Sagadehoc, estimated at 60 miles, and 120 miles into the interior, embodying about 6000 square miles. For this he obtained a patent from “the Council for the Affairs of New England,” which had been formed by King James I., in 1606, into a company, divided into two parts, the one having South Virginia for its object, the other North Virginia. London and Plymouth gave name to these several divisions, which were united under one head, termed the “General Council of Virginia,” consisting of thirteen members appointed by the crown, and resident in England. In 1620, chiefly at the solicitation of Gorges, who was a leading member, the patent given originally to the Plymouth division was enlarged and renewed, and now embraced all New England, taking the above title. This measure was deemed necessary, in order to give a “definite extent of territory, with necessary power and privileges,” and “an exclusive right to the soil, fishing, and trade within its limits.

Gorges, whose attention had been early turned to America, as a field for colonization, and who had already made great efforts and expenditures, with but unsatisfactory results, being now strengthened by the zeal and intelligence of Captain John Mason, whose patent adjoined his own at the westward, and extended from Piscataqua to Merrimac, entered on the work with new vigor, although advanced in years and a pecuniary sufferer. He had, in 1623, invested his son Robert with ample powers, and furnished him with stores to aid the settlers already upon his lands; and at length, in 1635, gave the form and consistency of a Province to them, of which he bore the title, and to which he gave the name of Maine.

It is peculiarly affecting to read the simple and “Brief Narration” which this ardent adventurer has transmitted to posterity, and see with what perseverance he cherished the hope, for near forty years, that, although for himself he were a loser, others would yet obtain great benefits. “I dealt not,” says he, “as merchants are wont, seeking only to make my own profit, my ends being to make thorough the discovery of the country.”-“I opened the way for others to make their gain.”-“Thus much, I presume, will clear the objection made by my example, and give comfort and courage to the industrious to follow the precedents of those more able to act their own parts than I have been.” - For he had said, “I found it no mean matter to procure any to go there, much less to reside there; and those I sent knew not how to subsist but on the provisions I furnished them withal.”

But our space will not permit us to dwell longer on this detail. It has already carried our narrative beyond the period of the earliest European settlements, and we must return.

The rivalry of the two most powerful princes on the continent of Europe, Francis I. of France, and Charles of Spain, afterwards emperor, and 5th of that name, evinced itself in maritime affairs, as well as in efforts on land. One of the popes, himself a Spaniard, had “meted out” the heathen portion of mankind between the Portuguese and Spaniards, assigning to the latter, under the name of the West Indies, that “new world” of which Columbus had been the discoverer, in 1492; to the former, with Africa, the East Indies.

Francis, not brooking that his rival should be enriched with a possession so splendid, and roused by the efforts at discovery made by Henry VII. of England, who had patronized the Cabots, and claimed the northern part of the American continent, which they had seen in 1497, attempted to realize a share also. He therefore fitted out an expedition in 1523, under Verrazzano, who discovered Florida, and sailed along the coast from latitude 28° to 50°, denominating it New France. He, however, perished at sea, without effecting any colonization whatever.

In fact, the wars of Europe conspired with other causes to prevent, for more than a century after its discovery, the colonization of any part of North America. Attempts were indeed made by Sir Walter Raleigh within the patent of South Virginia, and had been made previously in Florida, by Admiral Coligny, but were both ineffectual. And it may be asserted, that, notwithstanding repeated voyages to different parts of the coast by both French and English, and repeated exertions to colonize, frustrated by untoward circumstances, the sixteenth century had closed before any permanent establishments were made.

In 1602, the shores of Maine were at least approached by Gosnold, an English navigator, and the following year actually visited by Martin Pring, who fell in with the coast at the mouth of the Penobscot River. The claim of England to Canada and Nova Scotia had been valid until 1600, when the French were in possession of both; and the mutual contentions of the mother countries thenceforward affected the inhabitants down to the peace of 1763.

But it will be useful to glance at the intermediate period, by retaining a few dates as landmarks and assistants of the memory.

1607. The colony of Sagadehoc was temporarily formed at the mouth of the River Kennebec. The time that had elapsed between Gosnold’s voyage and this period had been occupied by the visits of different navigators, who had greatly increased the interest felt in England with respect to America; and especially, as has been seen, in the bosom of Sir F. Gorges and his associates. And, as a result of the division of the royal patent, in 1606, already noticed, this attempt at Sagadehoc was made. But it was unhappily frustrated. The winter proved exceedingly cold, the colonists were poorly sheltered, and a part of their store was consumed by fire. Chief Justice Popham, a special patron of the enterprise, died; his brother also, George Popham, who was its president and leader, followed. Sir John Gilbert, elder brother of Raleigh Gilbert, admiral of the colony, had deceased, leaving this brother to be his heir. All these conspiring events urged the colonists to desist from their undertaking, and were effectual. The next year the survivors returned to England, “branding the country,"remarks Prince, “as over cold, and not habitable by our English nation.” This attempt embodied “a hundred emigrants, besides mariners.”

1613. This year is memorable as bringing with it the first open rupture between the subjects of England and France residing on these shores. On the northern bank of the St. Lawrence the city of Quebec had been founded five years before, and the country to the west and south-west of it explored by the French. On the shores of Acadia also a settlement had been made at Port Royal, now Annapolis; and two Jesuits, disagreeing with those who formed this settlement, had seated themselves on the Island of Mount Desert, near the mouth of the Penobscot, and were engaged in labors to convert the natives to their system of religion. But the circumstances of the colonists in Virginia requiring aid, vessels had been despatched to the Bermuda Islands for provisions, and to the fisheries on the northern coast. The latter service was assigned to Sir Samuel Argal, who, on hearing the state of the French settlements, and conceiving that they had encroached on the English patents, attacked and destroyed them, in repeated expeditions, carrying away several of the inhabitants. Yet this act, although in time of peace, was not followed by war between the two nations.

1615. Passing by the history of the previous voyages of Smith, the hero of Virginia, who visited Monhegan, the preceding year, for purposes of trade, this year is observable, as exhibiting the first attempt, since the failure of 1607, to colonize under his command; but it was frustrated.

1620, November 3. Date of new charter to the Plymouth Company, under which Mason, Gorges, Sir W. Alexander and others subsequently claimed lands, lying between 40° and 48° of north latitude.

August 10. Gorges and Mason obtain a patent for the lands between the Rivers Merrimac and Sagadehoc, " extending from the Atlantic unto the Rivers Canada and Iroquois, and including the savage nations towards the great lakes.” This was called “the Province of Laconia.” To give effect to this was formed “the Company of Laconia,” for fishing and the fur trade, discovery also and settlement. This year the Island of Monhegan is supposed to have received permanent inhabitants.

A permanent settlement commenced at Saco. The coast had been previously reconnoitred by Vines and others, sent out by Gorges in 1609. But now, settlers having been procured for the locality south of the River Piscataqua, who founded the colony of New Hampshire, others established themselves along the shore eastward, at Arowsic Island, on the main land at Sagadehoc, at Sheepscot, Damariscotta, Pemaquid, and St. George’s River.

An attempt was first made, this year, to establish a general governor over New England, in the person of Robert Gorges, son of Sir Ferdinando, but the project happily failed. Nevertheless, it became a favorite measure with the government, and in subsequent periods occasioned no little alarm and trouble to the colonies. Agamenticus, or York, settled.

1627. A patent is granted to the New Plymouth colonists who had traded to Monhegan, Damariscove, and the Penobscot previously, and now asked for the exclusive trade of the Kennebec; on whose bank they established, in the subsequent year, (during which the important patent of Massachusetts Bay was issued,) a trading-house.

Thomas Commock, or rather Camock, obtained a patent for land between the River Spurwink and Black Point, in Scarboro’, on which he settled subsequently, and died in 1643.

In this year was also granted, with enlargements, the Kennebec or Plymouth patent, intended as an express favor to New Plymouth, for the encouragement of trade and the fishery, and for the propagation of religion. The area included in it is stated to have been acres; but long disputes grew out of it, not settled before 1789.

Grants were made by the Plymouth Council to settlers at Saco; and another, much more extensive, being 40 miles square, and called Lygonia, in which Gorges was greatly concerned, but still unsuccessful. It extended from Cape Porpoise to Cape Elizabeth.

During this year was also granted the Muscongus patent, known at an after period as that of Waldo, which included a tract of about 30 miles square. It was not intended for a separate government, but only for purposes of trade with the natives.

This year the Pemaquid patent was granted, and seems to have closed the series. Of all these it may be said, probably, as of many if not most of the early grants, their boundaries could not be well defined, and therefore disputes would in time naturally arise concerning them. Two territories soon came into notice-the Kennebec, or Maine, and the Sagadehoc, the eastern part of which was Acadian, and claimed by the French. The history of all these claims is given elaborately by Williamson, to whom our limits compel us to refer. They were not settled until the charter given by King William and Queen Mary, in 1691, united them with Massachusetts under the same government.

That state had, however, in the year 1677, purchased the entire claim of the Gorges family to Maine, for £1250 sterling, and established a government over it. It had also assumed, in 1689, the government of Western Sagadehoc, and in 1690, Sir W. Phips subdued the remainder.

From this period the history of Maine is blended with that of Massachusetts; and although, as has been hinted, her sufferings from Canadian Indians had been peculiar, and so continued until the conquest of Canada by the British and provincial arms, and peace of 1763, yet the operation of the laws, customs, pursuits, and fortunes of Massachusetts was of the same character in “the district,” as in that state.

In 1820, after much previous discussion, of the most deliberate and prudent kind, however, a separation was effected by mutual arrangements, and a new state formed, taking the venerated name of Maine. The Hon. William King, one of its most distinguished citizens, and who had greatly exerted himself to benefit the country, was, with great unanimity, elected their first governor. For the succeeding thirty years, the affairs of the state have been managed with the regularity, consideration, and fidelity which a well-informed community require of those whom their free suffrages raise to office. The cause of education has been cherished with a wise care; and that of religious instruction has encountered no impediment in an officious legislation, but has been left to its own native energy, and the operation of the general laws of the land. It has, therefore, by the blessing of God, been in a flourishing state, under the management of different denominations. Of these, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Methodists are the principal; and there are Episcopalians, and a few churches of Romanists. They enjoy equal liberty and equal protection.

Under a separate head in this work will be found an account of the colleges, theological seminaries, academies, and schools; as also the statistics of the agriculture, commerce, manufactures, roads, canals, rivers, bays, harbors, cities, towns, and settlements of the state, which has commenced, and is pursuing, under the divine blessing, its high career of well-earned prosperity.