ch settlers were far from ready to defend themselves.
Argall, on a fishing voyage from the English colony at Virginia, had been told to keep alert for French settlements in the region. He learned of the colony from local Indians and was actually led to the site by a native who mistakenly presumed the French and English were friends. The English sailed into Somes Sound with "the banners of England flying and three trumpets and two drums making a horrible din," and after a few minutes of furious cannonade subdued the unprepared colonists. After sacking the settlement, Argall allowed about two-thirds of its inhabitants to make their way east along the coast, seeking passage from the French vessels plying the waters. He carried the Jesuits and other leaders to Virginia, then returned to destroy the settlement at Port Royal and the remains of the St. Croix Island colony. After this, the French abandoned all attempts at settlement in Maine for some time.
John Smith and the Promotion of New England
A year after Argall's foray, Maine was visited by one of the most colorful adventurers of the time: Captain John Smith. By the time he arrived in New England, John Smith's career as a colonizer was already well established. As a young man, he had performed heroic deeds in the religious wars against the Turks in eastern Europe, and later he kept the nascent Jamestown settlement from collapsing under the challenges imposed by the new land and its people. The trip to the northern shores of America was the beginning of still another phase in his remarkable career--historically, perhaps, the most important of all. When Smith returned from his North Atlantic adventures, he began a life-long promotion of the region he named New England, and it was largely his efforts that caused interest in the area to be revived in the late 1610s and 1620s.
Smith left for New England in April 1614. Sponsored by four London merchants, he was to hunt whales and look for gold and copper mines. After an uneventful voyage, Smith made landfall at Monhegan Island. Chasing the swift, powerful finback whales and searching for precious metals quickly proved frustrating, so Smith put most of his crew to fishing around Monhegan while he and eight others ranged along the mainland charting the coast and doing a little fur trading. Although the best season for both fishing and trading had already passed, Smith's thorough investigation resulted in a carefully drawn map of New England, with inlets, islands, harbors, soundings, sands, rocks, and other landmarks all meticulously recorded. Deeply impressed with the potential of the country, Smith sailed back to England fully determined to plan a new colony. Unfortunately, Thomas Hunt, whose vessel had accompanied the expedition, tarried after Smith sailed for England and captured twenty-four Indians, whom he sold as slaves. Outraged, Captain Smith reported that "this vile act kept him [Hunt] ever after from any more employment in these parts." Regrettably, this act would sour English-Indian relations for some time to come.
Upon his return Smith visited Sir Ferdinando Gorges, hoping for assistance in implementing his New World settlement plan. The old knight probably needed little convincing; with Gorges's backing, Smith left again in late spring 1615 with two ships, expecting to establish a small colony. He had gone but a hundred and twenty leagues when his ship "brake all her Masts, [and was] pumping each watch five or six thousand strokes," offering him no choice but to turn back. Smith reembarked on a smaller vessel, only to be captured by a French pirate shortly after leaving port. During the winter of 1615--16 he found himself sailing the Atlantic as the prisoner of a buccaneer.
Ironically, Smith probably did more to advance the settlement of New England by remaining at home than he would have in the New World. During his months of captivity, he occupied himself writing his Description of New-England, a thorough and convincingly laudatory discussion of his 1614 voyage and the territory he had explored and named New Engla