Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-18
The PiIqrim Fathers on the Kennebec.

The Pilgrim Fathers on the kennebec.
Mrs. Emma Huntington Mason of this
city has done the cause of our local
history an invaluable service in her
article THE Pilgrim Fathers on the
Kennebec" which appears in the May
number of the New England Magazine.
As she says in the introduction to her
article, the story of the Pilgrim Fathers
on the Kennebec is one of the most in
teresting and important in the early
annals of New England, yet it has
lapsed into an almost legendary form,
and today, many of the dwellers on
the banks of the kennebec are I'M
aware that the founders of the colony
at Plymouth were ever sojourners on
its shores. Most of us are wont to look
upon old Fort Western as surviv-
ing landmark of the period when the
history of Augusta began. so far as the
white race is concerned, and yet more
than 100 years before Fort Western
was erected there was flourishing
English trading post in this vicinity.
very likely upon the identical spot
where the fort stands. And this does
not mean that the men of Plymouth
merely came here upon single ex-
pedition Of adventure and traffic, or
upon series of such expeditions. but
.L.x tlo +rod;por poct xyac nccupiad and
maintained for "a consecutive years
where the white men and the gentle
Abenaki Indians lived in peace togeth-
err. The trade which was carried on
with the aboriginal inhabitants of this
valley was very profitable to Plymouth
and it's returns tided the colony over
more than one financial crisis.
In the writings of the early New Eng
land historians the references to the
coast of Maine and the Kennebec are
comparatively few and brief. but
in these scanty records there are
two facts which stand out with
remarkable significance. The first
is. that when the Pilgrim colonists
were on the verge of starvation their
lives were saved by supplies from
Pemauuid and the adjacent islands.
The second is, that when the Pilgrim
Fathers were on the verge of despair
and hopelessly discouraged in regard to
their. finances they were enabled
through the profits of their trade on the
Kennebec river to discharge their obli-
cations to the London company and
thus firmly establish their colony in the
New World.
Mrs. Mason has most carefully
searched these records and also the
works OF the first French missionaries
and voyages, and especially the Jesuit
records kept at Quebec and Montreal,
and has made her article one which
we hope every reader Of the Journal
will have an opportunity to enjoy. Be-
ginning with the earlier English settle
ments on the Maine coast, it tells how
Edward winslow with six comrades
in a shallop first came from Plymouth
to the Indian village at Koussinoc in
1925: relates how the permanent trad
ing-house was built here in 1927 OF
which John Rowland, Thomas South
worth, Thomas Willett. and John
Winslow We're each in turn In command
for term of years; touches on the
visits Of Myles Stahdish, John Alden
and other famous men Of Plymouth to
this place: describes the tragedy which
followed the attempt of traders from
the Piscataqua colony to invade this
section in 1854, which resulted in the
arrest of John Alden upon his return
to Boston: and shows us the cordial
relations which existed between the
English traders and the French mis-
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