Not surprising.  I wouldn't be shocked to learn that the French were actually there first.  They seemed to be first in the Maritimes and way beyond.  Then the English kicked (and burned) them out.  Maine and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were kind of lumped into a big fur-trading "mall" for the French in the early 17th century and there was a lot of traveling back and forth.  (I've been immersed in a lot of that history this summer in Nova Scotia and have learned not to smile at the mention Samuel Argall, the "Sherman" of French Nova Scotia...)

--
Melinda C. P. Skinner


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Digital Heritage of Virginia <[log in to unmask]>
> In planning a late autumn vacation to Maine, I came across "Castine" Maine and 
> its environs, and was amazed to see that (1) some authorities call it the oldest 
> continuous English Settlement in New England, predating the good Pilgrims of 
> Plymouth by half a decade, and (2)  Ta Da!!!!!!!!  Our own Capt. John Smith 
> chartered the Castine pennsula in 1614.  A small world indeed.  (I wonder if he 
> had a trumpeter with him.)
> 
> Reading on, it looks like that area was later occupied by the Dutch and the 
> French, which raises some questions in my mind about "the oldest continuous..... 
> English...."  Any scholars out there know anything about all that?
> 
> Randy Cabell
> 
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--
Melinda Skinner
(Richmond & Tupperville)

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