Note 627 — Chapter IX · (continued 2)

“Maine” took its name probably from the early designation, by the sailors and fishermen, of the main land—that is, “the main,”—in distinction from the numerous islands on the coast. See Weymouth’s “Voyage,” in 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., viii. 132, 151; Palfrey, i. 525; Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., i. 371. The earliest use of the name, officially employed, that I have met with, is in the grant to Gorges and Mason of Aug. 10, 1622, which recites that the patentees, “by consent of the President and Council, intend to name it the Province of Maine.” See the Popham Memorial Volume, p. 122. This grant was never made use of, but the name was inserted in the royal charter to Gorges of April 3, 1639, which secured its future use. Sullivan’s Maine, Appendix, 399. The territory had been previously included in the European designations of Baccalaos and Norumbega. The Indian name was Mavooshen. See Purchas, iv., 1873; Maine Hist. Coll., i. 16, 17.