Edward Ballard - The Popham Colony

This Letter is reprinted entire on page 10 [THE LETTER REFERRED TO ON PAGE 7.] Boston, Aug. 27, 1865. My Dear Sir, – Your invitation to be present at the Popham Celebration is at hand. The short notice will prevent me from being present to take part in the interesting ceremonies. Without assenting to all the claims made in your "Popham Memorial Volume," allow me to say, that I think those who have spoken or written on that subject have overlooked one of the most important results of that enterprise. In this practical age, we must look to what was really effected by the earliest colonists on these shores. Let us briefly try that at Sagadahoc by this test; for, in my opinion, their works were far more important than the formal acts recorded. They certainly erected houses, a church, a fort; and, lastly, a vessel, the dimensions of which are unknown, but fit to cross the ocean. Now we know, that, in a forest, it is not a difficult thing to build log-houses, or a church and a fort in the same way; but to construct a sea-going vessel is quite a different affair. This requires artisans who are used to such work; and there can be no doubt, that among the colonists there were found a master-builder, 2 2 Strachey says, "the chief shipwright was one Digby, of London." He also speaks of "the carpenters." – Chap. x. with the necessary journeymen and sawyers (for there were no mills,) a smith, and also several laborers: for the building of a vessel in a remote wilderness would then require three times the amount of manual labor that would now effect the same result – in these days when materials are so easily prepared, transported and fitted, by the aid of machinery. Looking, then, at what was certainly done by the Popham Colony, we must allow that, during the short period they occupied the rugged peninsula of Sabino, and making due allowance for a hard winter, the destruction of their storehouse, and the sickness that followed, they deserve credit for enterprise and industry in constructing a vessel fit to encounter the storms of the Atlantic, and make a safe voyage to England. There she must have attracted much attention, being the pioneer ship built in North America. When, therefore, we consider the value of Popham's enterprise, the building and voyage of the "Virginia of Sagadahoc" is one of its most important results. It was not equalled by the Plymouth colony in the first ten years of its existence; and it was not till the third year of the existence of its powerful neighbor of "Massachusetts Bay," that a ship, fit to cross the ocean, was constructed. Wishing you a pleasant day and a numerous company, I am, Yours truly, FREDERIC KIDDER. To Rev. Edward Ballard, Secretary, &c . .

Strachey says, "the chief shipwright was one Digby, of London." He also speaks of "the carpenters." – Chap. x.

Briefe Narration, Chap. ii.

Hist. U. S., Vol. ii. p. 191. – Ed. 1837.

Political Annals, p. 46.

Fuller information, gained from the military letters of Biard and Masse, shows that the treatment referred to was connected with an occupation of the same location, by the English, in the year after the Popham Colony had departed. — Reports, edited by Carayon.

Briefe Relation.