The “Company of New France,” which had purchased
Sir W. Alexander's rights to territory in
Nova Scotia through Stephen,
Lord of
La Tour, in 1630, conveyed the territory on the banks of the river
St. John to this nobleman in 1635.
Rossellon, commander of a
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French fort in
Acadia, sent a French manof-war to
Penobscot and took possession of the
Plymouth trading-house there, with all its goods.
A vessel was sent from
Plymouth to recover the property.
The
French fortified the place, and were so strongly intrenched that the expedition was abandoned.
The
Plymouth people never afterwards recovered their interest at
Penobscot.
The first permanent English occupation of the region of the
Penobscot—to which the
French laid claim—was acquired in 1759, when
Governor Pownall, of
Massachusetts, with the consent of the legislature, caused a fort to be built on the western bank of the
Penobscot (afterwards
Fort Knox), near the village of
Prospect, which was named Fort Pownall.
An armed force from
Massachusetts took possession of the region, built the fort, cut off the communications of the
Eastern Indians (the only ones then hostile to the
English), and so ended the contest for the
Penobscot region by arms.
In 1799 a British force of several hundred men from
Nova Scotia entered
eastern Maine and established themselves in a fortified place on the
Penobscot River.
Massachusetts sent a force to dislodge the intruders.
The expedition consisted of nineteen armed vessels (three of them Continental), under
Captain Saltonstall, of
Connecticut, and 1,500 militia, commanded by
General Lovell.
These were borne on the fleet of
Saltonstall, and landed (July 26) near the obnoxious post, with a loss of 100 men. Finding the works too strong for his troops,
Lovell sent to
General Gates, at
Boston, to forward a detachment of Continentals.
Hearing of this expedition,
Sir George Collins, who had been made chief naval commander on the American station, sailed for the
Penobscot with five heavy war-ships.
The
Massachusetts troops re-embarked, Aug. 13, when Sir George approached, and, in the smaller vessels, fled up the river.
When they found they could not escape, they ran five frigates and ten smaller vessels ashore and blew them up. The others were captured by the
British.
The soldiers and seamen escaped to the shore, and suffered much for want of provisions while traversing an uninhabited country for 100 miles.
