his the case
to the south or seaward, the quarter from which attack might be
expected. The shape of the peninsula is seen. Very similar to the
peninsula on which Portland is situated, it is a large swollen
heart of land hung to the mainland by a cord from the north. To
the south the eye has a wide prospect, bounded in the distance by
the blue mountains of the Camden range. To the west is Brigadier’s
Island, and blue water where Belfast lies in the distance. To
the north Fort Point can be seen with the granite walls of the
never-completed Fort Pownall, begun by Governor Pownall in 1759.
North of east is more water and the distant solitary Blue Hill.

The military history of Fort George reflects no great credit on
American sagacity, though it throws into strong light the national
aggressive spirit. The first four years of the American Revolution
passed very peacefully in Maine (then a part of Massachusetts),
though its hardy seamen and backwoodsmen were not backward in
joining the fighting forces to the south. Then, in 1779, the
British powers in Halifax decided to carry the war into the
northern colonies. Accordingly, in June of that year, Colonel
Francis M’Lean was despatched from the aforesaid port with nine
hundred men to seize and fortify the well-known peninsula of
Castine or, as it was then known, Penobscot Peninsula. He landed
on the 12th of June, and with great energy commenced to establish
himself firmly in his position.

The news was immediately carried to the Massachusetts fathers at
Boston. Hancock was then Governor and General Gates commanded
the Eastern Department of the colonies, with headquarters at
Providence. With that cocksureness for which the Puritan colony
has been distinguished since its foundation, the rulers of
Massachusetts at Boston put their heads together without notifying
Gates, the Continental Congress, or the leaders of the war in this
country, and resolved to push an expedition against M’Lean. An
embargo of forty days was put upon vessels in Massachusetts ports,
so that trans