Incidentally, Samoset may have been responsible for the famous, or perhaps infamous, sobriquet "Yankee". According to the French Jesuit Maurault in his Histoire des Abenakis, the Maine sachem greeted the Pilgrims with "Welcome Engis". Samoset's poor pronunciation sounded more like "Welcome Yankees" (Calvert,420-421). Furthermore, Maine historian Louis Hatch says that Samoset and John Summerset were one and the same. Summerset and Unongoit hold the dubious honor of being the Indians who sold all the land between Pemequid and Round Pond or roughly 12,000 acres to John Brown of New Harbor. This sale in 1625 was Maine's first recorded land deed between the natives and the English.

The Native Americans were known to wander throughout the New England region so it does not seem impossible that Squanto and Samoset would live and travel between locations in Maine and Massachusetts. The innocence of the early stages of the relations between the Native Americans and the whites is far more remarkable. These men were stolen from their homes and carried across the ocean; Squanto more than once. In a world that, at the time, seemed impossibly large, they were lucky to find their way back, and yet they felt strongly enough about their captors to be supportive of their attempts to settle, uninvited, in the native homeland. Amazing! and certainly a short-lived moment in Native American/English relations!

Both men were guides and translators. A veritable wealth of information on New England, they were important allies for the group bent on bringing English colonization and trade to the New World. The Pophams, Christopher Leavitt, John Smith, Thomas Dermer, Ferdinando Gorges and even Hunt were actively in pursuit of the best location for a settlement and not just gold, fur or the Northwest Passage. We like to think that the Pilgrims came to New England for religious freedom, but they did not come on their own. They were taken on by the Plymouth Company to do the work of settling. Their sponsors were in business, and the Pilgrims had to produce. Big returns were expected. That is where Maine comes in. This lesser known Maine connection, just as vital to Plymouth Colony's survival, was the trading post at Cushnoc (now known as Augusta) on the Kennebec.

"In ye most convenientest place for trade..." - William Bradford

The Pilgrims needed to find a way to buy themselves out of debt. So far from a source of necessary goods, they were almost destitute of the most ordinary needs. Each supply ship from England barely provided any of these needs, but the colony's debt increased none the less. The interest rates were usurious, often as high as 50%. Regardless, the little colony had to borrow more and still weren't certain of their fate. After the first voyage, the Mayflower returned to England empty. The following year, 1621, the Fortune shipped a load of laboriously produced clapboards and some beaver pelts to England from the infant colony. This was a start at repayment that soon met with disaster when the little ship was captured by the French. The following spring, the Pilgrims sent emissaries to the English fishing fleet at Damariscove Island. They were reduced to begging for help which they fortunately received. This was their first venture Downeast, but as Bradford wrote, they learned the way.

Conditions at Plymouth very slowly improved over the next few years. In 1624, the Pilgrims again ventured into Maine with plans for fishing and trading. They lost their little pinnace in a violent storm but were again rescued by the local fishing fleet. The fishermen helped them salvage their boat by refloating it with empty barrels at low tide, but the mission was a failure. They gave up the idea of fishing but returned the following fall, 1625, and began trade in earnest using the corn from their first good harvest. The Pilgrims were going into business as poor men; they didn't have much with which to work. No matter, Maine was not as agriculturally supported as Massachusetts and the south; the corn was very desirable to the native populace. This little trading mission was the first to sail up the Kennebec; the results were a lucrative 700 pounds in beaver. Some of the proceeds from this trading trip were used to buy out the goods of the Monhegan trading post. The Pilgrims were hopeful that Maine trade would eventually buy them out of debt.

By 1628, the Pilgrim traders were facing two problems. They had renegotiated their debt with their London investors to 1800 pounds payable in annual payments of 200 pounds. The first installment was due in 1628. More important, the success of their Indian trade had not gone unnoticed; competition was growing. Various factions spoke of obtaining exclusive patent rights to the Kennebec. The Pilgrims immediately began patent negotiations of their own. They did not find their first patent for the Kennebec completely satisfactory, but the second made up for everything. Not only was it large enough ( from "the utmost limitts of Cobbiseconte" to "the Falls at Nequamkike" and the "space of fifteen Englishe miles on each side of the said river"), it granted control of the river itself even though it did not extend all the way to the ocean. "Free Ingresse, Egresse and Regresse with Shipps, Boats, Shallops and other vessels from the Sea" was specifically granted in the patent while free passage on the Pilgrim end of the river was denied to other trading parties. It was a cozy monopoly.

And so a trading post was established in the "convenientest place for trade" somewhere on or near the present location of Fort Western in Augusta at the time known as Cushnoc. The purpose of trade in Maine was to buy the Pilgrim's colony out of debt, and to that end, the Pilgrim fathers set up a communal trade organization to operate their Maine business interests. Eight men called the "Undertakers" were chosen to run things. These included William Bradford, William Brewster, Edward Winslow, Isaac Allerton, Thomas Prence, John Howland, Miles Standish and John Alden; most are familiar names in the Pilgrim mythology. Of the last three, John Howland figured prominently in the day to day, on the spot operations at Cushnoc as factor.

Miles Standish and John Alden, of course, have their own charming little piece of mythology and connection to Maine thanks to poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. "The Courtship of Miles Standish", Longfellow's classic poem, is totally fictional. John Alden did not propose to Pricilla Mullins in Miles Standish's behalf; Pricilla did not encourage Alden to speak for himself. The only kernel of truth in the story is that John and Pricilla married. Furthermore, neither Standish nor Alden were Pilgrims although both would figure large in the struggles of the little colony. Standish was hired military help. Alden was a cooper who hired himself out on the Mayflower and decided to stay on at Plymouth. Their connection to our story lies more with their part in the Maine fur trade than in Longfellow's poem. Both traveled frequently to Cushnoc in order to discharge their duties as Undertakers.

"Touch the other and death is your portion"
- John Hockings (or Haskins)

It was not long before this earliest version of the Kennebec Patent ran into trouble, and it wasn't with either the French or the Indians. At this early point, the Abenaki were anxious to trade for desirable goods, and beaver was readily available. The Pilgrims made no attempt to Christianize the native population. The French who operated a tiny mission only a few miles up river were on good terms with their English neighbors. Pilgrim leader John Winslow and Father Druillettes were reasonable friends; Druillettes visited both Boston and Plymouth. There is even a rumor that Miles Standish, who was a Catholic, visited the little mission upstream to attend mass. Considering what was on the horizon, this was a very opportune time for establishing trade; troubles with the French and Indians on the Kennebec were still a few years off.

The Pilgrims' problems arose with their English competitors who were not particularly happy with the Pilgrim blockade of the Kennebec. According to their patent the Pilgrims controlled not only both banks of the Kennebec but also traffic on the river. One clause even authorized the grantees "to take, apprehend, seize and make prize all such persons, there Shipps and Goods, as shall attempt to trade with the savage People of that Country within the several Precincts and Limitts of his and their several Plantacon".

In May 1634, John Hocking, the Piscataqua agent of Lords Say and Brooke and the Pilgrims' competitors in the Maine trade, sailed up the river and challenged Pilgrim authority. He proposed to sail beyond the Pilgrim trading post and set up operations of his own in a location that would be first in line to receive Indian traders coming down river. The Cushnoc factor, John Howland, protested citing the Pilgrims' patent rights. Hocking was insolent and provocative saying that he "would goe up and trade ther in despite of them an lye ther as long as he pleased". He sailed past the little trading post to an anchorage up river. "Lye" there he did ... forever.

Piety aside, the Pilgrims were businessmen, and strong action was required to protect their interests. Howland was no whimp; he set off in pursuit but was careful to order his men not to fire except on his orders. He made a last stab at reconciliation which was met with more verbal abuse from Hocking, Howland then sent (two to four) men in a canoe to cut Hocking's anchor. The cable was cut by one Moses Talbot who was then shot down by John Hocking either as or after John Howland protested that if any were to be shot it should be himself. After all, he was in charge and gave the order to cut the cable. Hocking immediately grabbed up another gun and was ready to further protect his interests. Before things progressed any further, one of the men in the canoe, a friend of Talbot's who "loved him well", disobeyed orders and abruptly shot and killed John Hocking.

James North in his History of Augusta is a little more colorful. He claims there were two cables anchoring the vessel. After the first was cut, Hocking took up a gun and threatened, "Touch the other and death is your portion!" The cable was cut and the shooting began. The problem with North's story is that the characters have different names. Hocking became Haskins, and John Howland was transformed into John Allen. The latter change will make a little more sense later in our story.

In another old account, local historian John Clair Minot tells of a late 19th century archaeological dig of sorts conducted by an "Augusta antiquarian Dr. W. Scott Hill". The man was exploring Indian grave sites near the river at a point two or three miles above the city of Augusta. He discovered two graves close together; nothing remained of the bodies except stained earth and a little crumbling cloth, some shot and a pipe that was a near duplicate to some "Pilgrim relics at Plymouth". Hill deduced that these were the graves of Talbot and Hocking. According to Minot, this could mean that the actual site of Cushnoc or Koussinoc, as he called it, might not have been at Fort Western but perhaps several miles upriver.

"Cutting one another's throats for beaver" - John Winthrop

Nothing ever happens in a vacuum; Hocking's death had repercussions even though the man had murdered another and brought about his own death. His crew quickly sailed down river. They were just as quick to report their side of the story at Piscataqua. Their information traveled across the Atlantic to Lords Say and Brooke and also made its way to Massachusetts Bay Colony. The news was soon "adapted to excite prejudices against the Pilgrims" according to historian Joseph Banyard. Massachusetts Bay Colony's Governor John Winthrop was equally quick to claim that not only the good reputations of all New Englanders but also the Puritan religion were threatened by the Pilgrims whose bad behavior would "bring them all and the gospel under a common reproach of cutting one another's throats for beaver."

A short time later, perhaps even on his homeward voyage from Cushnoc, John Alden (North's John Allen?) sailed into Boston Harbor and was promptly arrested on charges arising from Hocking's death. Now Alden was at Cushnoc when the fateful event took place; he may even have observed the incident. However, he did not fire the guns, was not in charge of the Pilgrim forces and was in no way, as far as we can tell at this late date, responsible for either death. It is true that the Bay colonists were operating only on the Piscataqua crew's story and had no way of knowing the Pilgrim side of the matter. However, they also had no authority to act as New England's policemen. The Pilgrim leadership was infuriated at this self righteous and self appointed interference, after all, Plymouth was a completely separate and independent colony from Massachusetts Bay. Twenty years later, Mainers would come to hold similar opinions to those of the Pilgrams, but that's another story.

Captain Miles Standish made his way to Boston with letters from the Plymouth leadership demanding Alden's release. This was accomplished, but Standish himself was put under bonds to appear at the next sitting of court on June 3, 1634. He was not at Cushnoc at all during the unhappy event! Standish was required to produce a certified copy of the Pilgrim patent to the Kennebec. It was becoming apparent that the Bay colonists had an ulterior motive and were presenting themselves to England as guardian of law and order.

Shortly, John Winthrop suggested that representatives of the three parties (including his own colony) meet "to consult and determine in this matter". (Burrage) The location for the conference was, no surprise, Boston, but only two parties were present: Plymouth and and the Bay Colony. The Piscataquis interests stayed home. In the end, a decision was made by only one of the parties involved and by a third unrelated party who had another completely different ax to grind. The decision was brought about by both magisterial and ministerial representatives from both colonies. One imagines they prayed a lot. They concluded "they all wished these things had never been, yet could not but lay ye blame & guilt on Hockins owne head". Nonetheless, the Pilgrims expressed a certain amount of guilt over the affair "in that they did hazard a man's life for such a cause, and did not rather wait to preserve their rights by other means." (Banyard) Nothing more was heard from Piscataquis, but, largely through the influence of the Bay leadership, the Lords Say and Brooke in England were made to understand the true chain of events regarding their agent.

Although the Pilgrims were said to have "imbraced with love & thankfulnes" (Burrage) the assistance of their Bay brothers, the whole affair was just the beginning of a souring of relations between the two colonies. As 19th century historian Goodwin tells it: "Plymouth was entirely independent of Massachusetts. The Hocking affair had occurred within her jurisdiction (her undisputed territory), and Massachusetts had no more right or excuse for interfering in it than she had with a case in Virginia or Bermuda. For such a wrong, forgiveness ought not to have been granted without an ample apology as public as had been the insolent offence; but of such atonement there is no evidence." The Pilgrims were not totally submissive to the judgments of the Bay colony in the Hocking affair; to this day the name of the man who loved Talbot so well that he shot John Hockings remains a secret.

"To prevente a worse mischeefe" - William Bradford

Cushnoc was not the only Pilgrim trading post in Maine; there was at least one other further downeast. It was not a rousing success and was undertaken more to prevent the mischief of competition. In 1629, their London investors engaged a certain Edward Ashley to establish a trading house in Penobscot Bay at the present day Castine. William Bradford had little good to say for Ashley; he was "a very profane younge man" but had "wite and abilitie enough to menage ye busines". The Pilgrims were afraid that Ashley might just be successful enough to pull business away from their Cushnoc trade or, at least, do it some harm. They took Ashley under their wing, joined him in business on the Penobscot and gave him supplies. Things soon went amiss; Ashley was arrested for selling ammunition to the Indians and was transported to England. Later, after he was freed from the Fleet by his influential friends, he was lost at sea on his return trip to America. Thus passed the Penobscot post into the hands of the Pilgrims.

Penobscot was a bit too far downeast and soon ran into problems with the French who had well established claims to the area. In 1631, Penobscot was robbed by a small band of Frenchmen while the factor was away fetching supplies. Claiming to be newly arrived from the sea, the French sailed into the harbor pretending to be in distress and in need of a place to repair leaks in their ship. They soon ascertained that the post was manned by only three or four servants. Bradford tells the story, "They fell of commending their gunes and muskets, that lay upon racks by ye wall side, and tooke them downe to look on them, asking if they were charged. And when they were possesst of them, one presents a peece ready charged against ye servants, and another a pistoll; and bid them not sturr, but quietly deliver them their goods". The Frenchmen sailed away but not without "this mocke, biding them tell their Mr when he came, that ye Ille of Rey (Canada) gentlemen had been ther." The Pilgrims had no recourse; they had to take their losses.

The French under d'Aulnay arrived again from Canada at the little Penobscot post in 1635; this time it was their intent to expel the Pilgrims. D'Aulnay took possession of the post, liberated the trade goods while declining to pay and then sent post inhabitants off to Plymouth in their own shallop. The Pilgrims consulted with their brethren in Massachusetts Bay Colony, believing that they would also be interested in the movements of the French in eastern Maine. The Bay Colony leadership gave their blessings, and the Pilgrims hired a ship at a cost of 700 pounds of beaver pelts to drive off the French. The ship, captained by a man named Girling, was accompanied by a Pilgrim vessel carrying not only the beaver payment but also Miles Standish and a force of twenty.

Upon entering the trading post's harbor, Girling began blasting away before he was in range. Standish complained to no avail; Girling was soon out of powder. Standish went off to fetch more. He was no fool in military matters even though Longfellow painted him as a fool in love. Standish heard that Girling planned to snatch the beaver on Standish's return. Consequently, Capt. Standish sent the powder to Girling by a different ship and returned home with the beaver. Girling, of course, did nothing, but Standish had acted to cut the Pilgrim's losses.

The whole fiasco was not over yet. The Pilgrims again placed the matter before their English brothers in Boston hoping for some real support this time. After all, certainly the French would strengthen their position on the Penobscot now that attack was not imminent. The Bay Colony promised to help but soon waffled. Before long, the Pilgrims discovered that their English brothers were, to quote Bradford again, "the cheefest supporters of these French". Boston was trading with the French supplying not only provisions but also ammunition. Before long it was evident that Pemequid was also furnishing the French with supplies and information and the Indians with guns and ammunition. The Pilgrims threw up their hands in exasperation and abandoned all attempts to retake Penobscot.

"Some of them, being loath it should be lost by discontinuance" - William Bradford

Penobscot aside, the beaver trade was very lucrative and accomplished for the Pilgrims just exactly what they hoped. Shortly after the Hocking affair, Edward Winslow accompanied 3,738 pounds of beaver pelts to England "a great part of it being coat beaver sould at 20s pr pound". The proceeds were applied to their debts. Bradford records that between 1631 and 1635, 12,530 pounds of beaver, most from the Kennebec, were shipped by the Pilgrims to England. Trade with the Indians for beaver pelts was largely responsible for clearing Plymouth Colony's debts.

This period of success was short lived; competition in the fur trade soon became fierce. Although the Pilgrims had a legal patent for their land on the Kennebec, other claims were encroaching upon their lands. The Indians, with their total inability to understand English land law, were selling off their hunting lands, sometimes more than once and sometimes overlapping other sales. The Pilgrims themselves negotiated land purchases with various Indians to either confirm areas of their patent or add territory to it. The Puritans of Boston broadened their interpretation of their own charter and were seeking trade opportunities in Maine including on the Kennebec.

In 1638, with their primary mission of solvency accomplished, the Pilgrim fathers decided to abandon their claims on the Kennebec. They probably would have been happier if they had done so. However, Bradford recorded that "Some of them, being loath it should be lost by discontinuance" offered to take over the trading post and pay the colony one sixth of the profits per annum. For the next twenty years, Plymouth continued to maintain civil control over their Kennebec patent and sometimes held authority over the areas down river from their patent where they justified "many excesses and wickednesses have been committed". Trade continued to drop off, there was trouble with the Indians, and things generally became worse not better.

In 1660, the General Court at Plymouth voted to sell all their interests on the Kennebec if they could just find someone who would pay them 500 pounds for it. A year later a group of buyers was found that included Antipas Boies, Edward Tyng, Thomas Brattle and John Winslow. These men ( and their heirs) held the patent for the next century attempting hardly more than trade in the area. However, it should be remembered that this was a period of violent upheaval and warfare with the French and the Indians; during these wars the Kennebec region and often the whole of Maine was largely abandoned by English settlers. In 1753, the General Court in Massachusetts incorporated the proprietorship under the title "The Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase from the late Colony of New Plymouth". Boundaries were confirmed, and settlers were sought. James and William Bowdoin, Sylvester Gardiner and Benjamin Hallowell became proprietors with new towns on the Kennebec named for them. Thomas Hancock and a succession of royal governors in Boston also speculated in Kennebec lands. The Pilgrims may have cleared their debts by laboring on the Kennebec, but real money was made a century later by men who seldom if ever visited Maine.

Sources:

Banyard, Joseph. Plymouth and the Pilgrims or Incidents of Adventure in the History of the First Settlers. Boston, MA: D.Lothrop and Company. Making of America < http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa >.

Burrage, Henry S. "The Plymouth Colonists in Maine." Collections of the Maine Historical Society. 3rd Series, Vol.1. Portland: Maine Historical Society, 1904.

Calvert, Mary R. Dawn over the Kennebec. Lewiston, ME: Twin City Printery, 1983.

Chandler, E.J. Ancient Sagadahoc. 2nd Printing. 1997.

Cline, Duane. The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, 1620. < http://

Goodwin, John Abbot. The Pilgrim republic; an historical review of the colony of New Plymouth. Boston: Ticknor and Company; 1888.

Hatch, Louis. Maine: A history. Somersworth, NH: New Hampshire Publishing Co.,1974.

John Alden in 17th Century Records. < http://www.pilgrimhall.org/aldenjohnrecords.htm >.

McIntyre, Ruth A. Debts hopeful and desperate; financing the Plymouth Colony. Plymouth, MA: Plimoth Plantation,1963.

Minot, John Clair. "When John Alden Went to Jail." Maine: My State. Maine Writers Research Club, 1919.

North, James W. The history of Augusta, Maine. Somersworth, N.H.: New England History Press, 1981.

Williams, Alicia Crane, ed."Biography: John Alden and Priscilla Mullins." Mayflower Families Through Five Generations < http:/ / www.alden.org/ genealogy/ aldenbiography.htm >.

c2001 Pat Higgins