the towns of the state are scarcely any which do not contain some mountain or lofty hill from which a delightful view can be obtained. The mountains are nearly all clothed with verdure from base to summit,

Newbury beside the Connecticut

and the name of the state, derived from two French words, Verd Mont, which mean Green Mountain, is very appropriate.

The state abounds in lakes, ponds, and little rivers, and is one of the most attractive of the nation's summer playgrounds.

Historic Maine

AN early English visitor to the Maine coast was Α

Captain Weymouth, who landed about the first of June, 1605, halfway between the Penobscot and Kennebec rivers, and explored the neighboring streams, harbors, and islands. The Indians brought many

furs to the English ship to exchange for trinkets. One day they took several of the crew who were on shore to where other Indians sat around some fires laughing and talking, while puffs of smoke rose from their mouths. Probably the sailors had never seen any one smoking before. Deerskins were spread for the white men to sit on, and a pipe, the bowl of which was made of a lobster's claw, was passed to them. They sucked the smoke into their mouths as they saw the natives doing, and called the operation "drinking tobacco."

When Captain Weymouth was nearly ready to sail away he had three Indians, who came to the vessel, seized and thrust below deck. Several sailors rowed ashore and caught two more savages. It was as much as they could do to grip the nearly naked Indians and get them into the boat. They had to drag them on The captives were taken as

board by their topknots.

slaves to England, but Captain Weymouth felt that he was conferring a benefit on them because they would be taught his language and religion.

Two years later, toward the end of August, an English colony arrived from their homeland in two vessels, and started a colony on the peninsula west of the Kennebec where the river joins the sea. The ships returned to England, and the settlers busied themselves building houses and a little vessel. By the time winter set in with its sleet and snow, they had finished a fort, a storehouse, one large dwelling, and a number of small

ones. But the storehouse burned with all their provisions and the furs they had bought from the Indians. They were obliged to live on fish and such game as they could shoot, and on dog meat. Their cabins could not keep out the searching winds and biting frost. Many of them were sick, and their leader, George Popham,

returned to England, or went in the little vessel they had built to Jamestown, Virginia.

For some time afterward only fishermen pitched their tents or built their huts along the rocky Maine coast.

In 1614 the famous Captain John Smith with two ships and forty-five men visited the region. He and his fellows built seven boats in the vicinity of the Kennebec, and used them in part for fishing, and in part for exploring with the hope of discovering gold and copper mines. No mines were found, but Smith

was presently able to sail to England in one of his ships with a valuable cargo of fish and furs. The master of the other ship tarried behind and prowled along the coast as far as Cape Cod, capturing natives at several places. Finally, he crossed the ocean with twentyseven of them whom he sold as slaves in Spain.

Maine's first permanent settlement was made in 1624 by emigrants from Plymouth Colony at what is now York, but which they gave the local Indian name of Agamenticus.

A few years later Sir Ferdinando Gorges was made proprietary lord of the country between the Piscataqua and Kennebec rivers, and as far north as Lake Umbagog. The region was given the name of Maine in honor of the English queen, who came from France, where her estate was the province of Mayne.

The settlements were increasing in number, and Gorges, who directed the affairs of the colony from his English home, foresaw a rich reward. He selected the plantation of Agamenticus for his capital, and presently made it a city, naming it for himself, Gorgeana. It comprised twenty-one square miles. The city had a mayor, aldermen, and councilmen, and there were policemen, each of whom carried a white rod. Yet Gorgeana never had as many as three hundred inhabitants, and at the end of ten years became the town of York.

In 1652 Massachusetts laid claim to Maine as far as Casco Bay, and administered this region as a county