1

About noon left Wasumkeag Point, and went in the Sloop Massachusetts to Pentaget, with Capt. Cargill and 20 men, Found the old abandon'd French Fort 2 and some abandoned Settlements. Went ashore into the Fort. Hoisted the King's Colours there, and drank the King's health. The Ship King George lying off the harbour, embark'd in her and came away for Boston-the Wind fair, got down that night to Matinnic3 in the Mouth of the Bay.

27th. Next day to Cape Ann. Next day, about Sunset, 28th to Castle William. 4

1 Penobscot, or the peninsula of Biguy dace, where the present village of Castine is situated. "To the east (of Long Island) is another Bay, called by the French, Pentagot, or Pentooskeag, where I saw the ruins of a French settlement, which from the scite and nature of the houses, and the remains of fields and orchards, had been once a pleasant habitation: one's heart felt sorrow that it had ever been destroyed. T. Pownall: Topographical Des*crip. British Provinces, 1776. p. 20.

2 This was the Fort built by St. Castin, in 1667, and subsequently occupied by his son, Castin the younger. It was abandoned by him about 1726. The ruins are distinctly visible to this day.

3 Metinic Island is seven miles east by north from Monhegan.

4 Last Monday, His Excellency our Governor returned from the Penobscot County, in the Province Ship King George, having happily succeeded in the object of his expedition by taking possession for the crown, in behalf of this province, of the Kings ancient rights, and establishing the same, by setting down a fort on Penobscot river. His Excellency, after having first reconnoitred the country to the head of the first falls, fixed upon a high point of land that runs across the river 3-4 of a mile, about seven miles above the old French Fort at Pentaget. And we hear the materials being already prepared and framed at Falmouth, the Fort will be compleated in three weeks or a month.

His Excellency lodged on Monday night at the Castle, and the next day at noon came up to this town in the castle barge, the guns at the castle and the batteries being discharged, when he put off, and when he landed. His Excellency upon his arrival was received and congratulated by his Honor the Lieut. Governor, the members of his majesty's Council, and a great number of the civil and military officers, and other gentlemen, who waited upon his Excellency to the Court House, being escorted by the Company of Cadets, under arms. Boston News Letter, May 31, 1759.

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The fort was completed July 6, 1759, at an expense to the Province of £5000. In his speech to the General Court, June 1, 1759, Gov. Pownall says: "Since the dissolution of the late assembly, (April 24) I have been to the Penobscot country, a large and fine tract of land in the dominions of the British crown belonging to this Province, but for many years a den of savages, and a lurking place for some renegado French. By the blessing of God I have succeeded in taking possession thereof, and established that possession by fixing a fort on Penobscot River, in a situation respectable for its own defence, being no where commanded, but more so for the command it holds of both branches of the River, and of the carrying-place therefrom: of Edgemoggin Reach, the outlet, and of Pentagoet, the rendezvous of the Eastern Indians when they come against our frontiers. This River was the last and only door that the enemy had left to the Atlantic-"now hopefully shut forever." The General Court highly approved of the measure, and on the tenth of June, voted to call the fortification FORT POWNALL, 1 in honor of the Governor."

1

A garrison was constantly maintained at Fort Pownall, until the Revolutionary War. Gen. Jedediah Preble, with a force of eighty-four men, was at first stationed there. On his resignation, in 1763,2 Col. Thomas Goldthwait took command, which he held until 1770, when John Preble,3 of Falmouth, son of Brigadier Preble, was appointed in his place. The following year, Gov. Hutchinson replaced Goldthwait. In 1775, Mowett, with a British man of war 1 Records of General Court.

2 Council Records, Jan. 14, 1764.

3 Smith's Journal, ed. by Wiliis, 218.

1

dismantled the fort, by removing all the guns and ammunition, and in July of the same year, Col. Cargill, of New Castle, burned the blockhouse and all the wooden works to the ground, fearing that they would be occupied by the enemy to the prejudice of the neighboring inhabitants.2 The ruins of Fort Pownal are now distinctly visible, and the remains of the breastworks are quite prominent.

1 Hist. Maine, ii. p. 426.

2 Pennsylvania Journal, Aug. 23, 1775, in Lib. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Davidson's Ms Narrative. The History of Maine says the destruction of Fort Pownal was not until 1779, which is a mistake.

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