136. Le Port aux Isles. This Island Harbor is the present Cape Porpoise Harbor.
137. This harbor is Goose Fair Bay, from one to two miles north-east of Cape Porpoise, in the middle of which are two large ledges, "the dangerous reefs" to which Champlain refers.
138. This was the common red currant of the gardens, Ribes rubrum, which is a native of America. The fetid currant, Ribes prostratum, is also indigenous to this country. It has a pale red fruit, which gives forth a very disagreeable odor. Josselyn refers to the currant both in his Voyages and in his Rarities. Tuckerman found it growing wild in the White Mountains.
139. The passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, formerly numerous in New England. Commonly known as the wild pigeon. Wood says they fly in flocks of millions of millions.—New England Prospect, 1634; Prince Society ed., p. 31.
140. Champlain's latitude is less inaccurate than usual. It is not possible to determine the exact point at which he took it. But the latitude of Cape Porpoise, according to the Coast Survey Charts, is 43° 21' 43".
141. Cape Anne.
142. The point at which Champlain first saw Cape Anne, and "isles assez hautes," the Isles of Shoals, was east of Little Boar's Head, and three miles from the shore. Nine years afterward, Captain John Smith visited these islands, and denominated them on his map of New England Smith's Isles. They began at a very early date to be called the Isles of Shoals. "Smith's Isles are a heape together, none neere them, against Accominticus."—Smith's Description of New England. Rouge's map, 1778, has Isles of Shoals, ou des Ecoles. For a full description and history of these islands, the reader is referred to "The Isles of Shoals," by John S. Jenness, New York, 1875.
143. Champlain has not been felicitous in his description of this bay. He probably means to say that from the point where he then was, off Little Boar's Head, to the point where it extends farthest into the land, or to the west, it appeared to be about twelve miles, and that the depth of the bay appeared to be six miles, and eight at the point of greatest depth. As he did not explore the bay, it is obvious that he intended to speak of it only as measured by the eye. No name has been assigned to this expanse of water on our maps. It washes the coast of Hampton, Salisbury, Newburyport, Ipswich, and Annisquam. It might well be called Merrimac Bay, aster the name of the important river that empties its waters into it, midway between its northern and southern extremities.
144. It is to be observed that, starting from Cape Porpoise Harbor on the morning of the 15th of July, they sailed twelve leagues before the sail of the night commenced. This would bring them, allowing for the sinuosities of the shore, to a point between Little Boar's Head and the Isles of Shoals. In this distance, they had passed the sandy shores of Wells Beach and York Beach in Maine, and Foss's Beach and Rye Beach in New Hampshire, and still saw the white Sands of Hampton and Salisbury Beaches stretching far into the bay on their right. The excellent harbor of Portsmouth, land-locked by numerous islands, had been passed unobserved. A sail of eighteen nautical miles brought them to their anchorage at the extreme point of Cape Anne.
145. Straitsmouth, Thatcher, and Milk island. They were named by Captain
John Smith the "Three Turks' Heads," in memory of the three Turks'
heads cut off by him at the siege of Caniza, by which he acquired from
Sigismundus, prince of Transylvania, their effigies in his shield for
his arms.—The true Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine
John Smith, London, 1629.