History, whether it be human, natural or ecological, is neither a series of isolated events nor stories hung on unrelated pegs we call chronological dates. It might be compared with a stream rushing onward yet encountering rocks, roots and vegetation which affect both its flow and its course. Maine has a history, remembered and retold in the legends and folk stories of the Wabanaki (People of the Dawn) before European contact. It is uncertain as to when exactly that contact occurred. The first European contact may have been with Portuguese fishermen or perhaps earlier with the Vikings. European documentation, however, does certify that John Cabot, an Italian navigator, sailing the Matthew of Bristol, for Henry VII of England, arrived in Newfoundland in 1497.
       A report, by the Papal Legate at the time, about his conversation with Cabot’s son, Sebastian, would indicate that the elder Cabot certainly explored the Maine coast and probably went as far south as the Carolinas. Twenty-seven years later another Italian, Giovanni da Verrazano commissioned by Francis I, the King of France, visited the coast of Maine. The reception by the indigenous peoples, however, led him to think of Maine as The Land of Bad People. One year later in 1525 a Portuguese navigator Don Esteban Gomez was sent by Charles V of Spain. He was responsible for such names as the Bay of Fundy, Casco Bay, and Saco.
       Tales, tall ones indeed, told by David Ingram, an English sailor stranded at Vera Cruz, Mexico, who with two other English sailors almost unbelievably made his way to Maine hoping to find rescue added to the early and largely legendary understanding of Maine. He was able, by the way, to return to Europe on a French trading vessel. Norumbega was the name given to a supposedly wealthy city of fur-clad Indians living in dwellings with crystal pillars. They were indeed fur-clad to keep warm in winter, but the rest of the narratives told in English pubs and taverns were imaginary and designed to elicit food and lodging. Fishing and trading, nevertheless, had brought European trade goods, everything from luxuries to necessities, by the late 1500s and Basque type shallops with mast and sail were used by the Micmac along the Maine coast.
       In 1580 John Walker, an English adventurer, invaded a Penobscot village, stole furs from storage and looted the village. The French were also interested in the North American trade and colonization possibilities. Neither the English at Roanoke nor the French Huguenots at St. Catherine, Florida, had succeeded in a permanent settlement. The first successful French colonization attempt was in 1604 on St. Croix Island; this effort, however, led to being snow-bound in winter. This resulted in starvation and disease and the loss of almost half of the men.
       Such losses led Pierre Dugas, the Huguenot nobleman, patron and governor, to move the colony the following year to Port Royal in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. He was not a notable historical figure, whereas Samuel Champlain was better known and was his skilled navigator-cartographer. He charted the Maine coast and named many of the islands, e.g., Mount Desert Island (l’Île des Monts Desert) and Île au Haut. It was due to these rival claims that dynastic conflicts between England and France were carried to the North American continent.
       Many of those who gave of their talents and their possessions during the colonial period and their descendants continued to serve their country during the American Revolution; others–the Loyalists–felt called to support the Crown. It was both a tragic time and an heroic one; out of it, nevertheless, emerged the ‘special bond’ uniting two great nations whereby there are men eligible for membership throughout the English-speaking world.
       The focus of the Society of Colonial Wars, nevertheless, is by charter between 1607 and 1775. It is sometimes forgotten that Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 was the only one of two English attempts at colonization; the other was the Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine. It was here that the pinnacle-class ship, Virginia of Sagadahoc, was the first ocean-crossing vessel built in Maine and America. Three years earlier George Weymouth had explored the mouth of the Kennebec and, unfortunately, kidnaped five Native Americans. His report on Maine, nevertheless, did stimulate interest. George Popham, nephew of the Lord Chief Justice and Raleigh Gilbert both returned to England where Popham died. The loss of support and the fire which destroyed the storage warehouse caused the “Northern Virginia” colonization attempt to be abandoned just short of two years. It is in 1607, therefore, that the Maine Timeline begins. Click the Maine Timeline menu item to take a closer look.