The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-09-22
Weymouth and PemaQuid

Fl. S. B in his "H istory in HASTE" of your
w. G's historical accuracy, says,-"It is
Strachey's statement that Weymouth discov
cred that little River of Pemaquid and that this
is the only ground on which statement can be
based,'' that Weymouth was at Pemaquid":
and III. S. B. adds dogmatically chat if he,
Weymouth was at Pemaquid he did not visit it
in his ship"
Let us see. Strachey, Gorges, Smith were
contemporaries with Capt. Weymouth, Pop
ham, Gilbert. The record of. Strachey was
made within about decade of the occurrence
of the fact stated He was an officer, having
the proper custody of the papers relating to
settlements of the English race on the Virginia
coasts OF n. America as early as 1912, being APP
pointed secretary and recorder of the colonial
papers OF the Plymouth Co.'S transactions.
1t may be presumed he was eminent as to
his intelligence, skill and reliability, as public
officials of this character usually are among
their peers and had every facility for truthful
statement not only as to given fact, but as
to the legitimate lnferences from the manner
of the statement as well as the fact itself. He
knew the names of the rivers and places as Civ
en- by the natives which Weymouth in his mar
rative of the survey of 1908 says, were pur-
posely omitted to be reserved for the benefit of
following English voyagers together with a
statement of the exact latitude and longitude
of his discoveries; his clerk Roster, therefore,
made no record of any aboriginal name of is
land, river, harbor or place visited, or of the
savages he met. Strachey's record as histori-
cal authority is therefore of the highest credi-
bility, and when he says Weymouth with
''pains" he took in discovering the little River
of Pemaquid, with isles and rivers and con-
venient places upon the main," the natural
legitimate and conclusive suggestion. is that
he visited the Pemaquid River with his ship as
NM nc h0 hn 9th vi oil and mia
es mentioned.
This is the fair and honest deduction from
what Strachey has recorded of the Weymouth
surveys and we think supports the statement
both of Thornton and your w. g., were there
nothing else
But is the Strachey history the "only
ground" on which statement lean be based,
that Weymouth was at Pemaquid?" Historical
critics should not be rash in the exhibit of the
resources of their historical knowledge
Sir Ferdinando Gorges was not only cotem-
porary with Weymouth but promoter of the
surveys he made on the coast of Maine in 1906,
and must have been critically familiar with all
the facts OF place, name and description en-
braced in the survey. He expressly says: "Wey-
mouth happened into river on the coast of
North America called Pemaquid, from whence
he brought five natives, all of one nation, etc."
These natives were taken on board his ship
with their canoes.
We think this conclusive of the facts at issue
between ii. S. B. and W. G.. who we have
reason to know, is critical and exact collector
of historical truth.
The only evasion we can imagine in the
premises is for I'll. S. B. to deny the truth and
honesty of the authorities cited, or to say they
made a'mistake in the name and meant Gorges
River and Georges Island harbor, and not Penn
aquid and Sagadahoc, where the earliest histo-
rians say
Now, shall we believe the ancient and cotem-
poraneous and those who concur with them,
or mo1ern spectators in historical novelties.
COMMON SENSE.