The Popham Colony

Оглавление

Ballard Edward. The Popham Colony

PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT

[Boston Daily Advertiser, April 11, 1866.] THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS

[Boston Daily Advertiser, April 21, 1866.] "THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS."

[Portland Advertiser, April 26, 1866.] "THE LAST POPHAM ADDRESS."

[Boston Daily Advertiser, May 31, 1866.] POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY

[Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866.] THE POPHAM COLONY, "FINALLY."

[Boston Daily Advertiser, July 28, 1866.] A RUNNING REVIEW OF THE "POPHAM AGAIN AND FINALLY."

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE POPHAM COLONY

Отрывок из книги

We find another contribution to the literature of Popham, in the elegantly printed Address of the Hon. James W. Patterson, delivered at the Peninsula of Sabino, on the 258th Popham Anniversary; which, as all the world knows without our giving the information, was August 29, 1865. Thick, creamy paper, John Wilson and Sons' best typography, and Mr. Wiggin's imprint, were among the least of the motives that induced us to seize upon and devour the contents of this delectable pamphlet.

We confess to a partiality for Popham literature. Its theory is so original, so free from conventional trammels, so utterly at variance with the accepted facts of history, that it is often difficult to persuade one's self that its advocates intend anything more than historical waggery. So we read on, as in other fiction, to be amused.

.....

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.

.....