ettlement in the northern portion of America. Sailing from Falmouth, England, in March 1602, they reached land on May 14, probably somewhere between Cape Porpoise and Cape Neddick. They proceeded around Cape Cod to Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, where they erected a permanent storehouse and fort and loaded the vessel with sassafras, cedar, and furs obtained from the Indians. However, when Gosnold decided to return to England in late July, the twelve men who were to remain at the settlement refused to stay behind. The little colony was abandoned, and Gosnold, with his entire crew, returned to England. Despite these disappointments, Gosnold's reports and cargo renewed interest in colonizing the north Atlantic coast. In addition, his adventures resulted in the first known report of the excellent fishing along the New England coast, a matter that had important implications for the region's future.
By the next summer Raleigh had been imprisoned as a suspected foe of the newly crowned James I, but a number of merchants sent out Martin Pring with two vessels, the Discoverer and the Speedwell. Their ambitions were apparently scaled down somewhat by recent court events, for Pring was instructed merely to obtain sassafras and trade with the Indians; there was no mention of colonization. Pring struck the Maine coast somewhere near Gosnold's landing, ranged northeastward, then turned southwest into Massachusetts Bay. He probably landed at Plymouth or Provincetown and put up some sort of building with a palisade. Pring returned carrying a substantial cargo of sassafras and a glowing description of the soils, trees, fur-bearing animals, and fish awaiting European exploitation.
Though nothing very significant had come of Pring's 1603 voyage, the Earl of Southampton renewed his colonizing efforts the following year, interested this time in a New World home for discontented English Catholics (an idea that had been circulating since the 1580s). He enlisted the aid of his Catholic son-in-law, Sir Thomas Arundell, and by the spring of 1605, they had selected the experienced explorer George Waymouth to search out a location.
Waymouth's Archangel left London on March 5 and raised land in the vicinity of Nantucket Island on May 14. Since this was north of the proposed site, Waymouth turned back to sea and headed southward. The ship, however, was driven north for three days by strong winds, and on May 18 made landfall at Monhegan Island off the Maine coast. The next day Waymouth sailed to the Georges Islands and anchored in Pentecost (or St. George) Harbor. During an exploration of the nearby mainland, he used treachery to kidnap five Indians. On June 11, he sailed the Archangel up the St. George River to the site of the present ruins of Fort St. Georges. The river, he related was among the most beautiful he had ever seen. Waymouth and a troop of men marched inland seeking a mountain they had spotted while at sea, but hot weather and cumbersome armor sapped their strength and they returned to the ship. The next day they sailed farther up the river in his shallop and on the way back erected a cross (probably near Thomaston). The Archangel then returned to Pentecost Harbor and on June 16 set out for England. On July 18, Waymouth reached Dartmouth Haven with his cargo of sundry New World trade goods and the five captive Indians.
It is not clear exactly what took place when Waymouth returned. Arundell, the major backer, was off on another project and no longer interested. For some reason, Waymouth visited Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, commander of Plymouth Fort, giving to Popham two of the Indians he had captured and Gorges three. There is no evidence that either was especially interested in the New World, but both were related to other colonizers, and perhaps Waymouth was looking for support. If so, Waymouth's judgment was prescient: Popham and Gorges would become Maine's foremost English backers over the next few decades.
Their interest stirred by the captured Indians and Waymouth's reports, Popham a