g 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 and Gorges obtained a royal charter in 1606 incorporating two companies for the purpose of colonizing "in that part of America commonly called Virginia," a huge area covering most of the eastern seaboard north of Georgia. The London Company was to colonize the southern half of the region and the Plymouth Company the northern half. The two patents overlapped in the mid-Atlantic region, where either could establish colonies, as long as they were not closer than one hundred miles from each other.
The stage was set for an attempt at settlement. On December 20, 1606, the London Company sent three small ships to Jamestown in Virginia to begin the first successful English settlement in America. Not far behind, Popham and Gorges prepared for an expedition of their own. On May 31, 1607, the Gift of God, commanded by George Popham, nephew of the Lord Chief Justice, and the Mary and John, under Raleigh Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, left Plymouth, England. The Gift of God was delayed by an encounter with two Flemish vessels, and the Mary and John, continuing on, made landfall along the Nova Scotia coast on July 30. The colonizers crossed the Bay of Fundy to the Penobscot region and arrived at the Georges Islands in early August. Two days later they sighted a sail, and to their joy the vessel proved to be the Gift of God.
Having brought along Skidwarres and Dahanada, two of Waymouth's captives, the expedition decided to visit the Pemaquid region where the Indians had been abducted. Understandably, they received a cool reception from the captives' kin. With no reason to expect a change in temperament and with summer slipping away, the settlers left Pemaquid and sailed to the mouth of the Kennebec River to establish a base for the winter. To their credit (or perhaps as an investment in future diplomacy), the English allowed Waymouth's captives to remain with their people. The Gift of God slid up into the Kennebec on the morning of August 13, and the Mary and John, after a harrowing bout with a storm at sea, arrived on th