Part 37

=19=.--1780, May.--“Captain GEORGE LITTLE” who saw the animal, wrote “a letter” containing his observation to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, “but this letter is lost or mislaid” (Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts Sc. Vol. IV, P. 1.). When we consult SILLIMAN’S Am. Journ. of Sc. and Arts (Vol. II, 1820), we observe that Mr. ALDEN BRADFORD collected for truth’s sake some affidavits of eye-witnesses; he had learned that Capt. GEORGE LITTLE was an eye-witness, he asked him for an affidavit, which he received and forwarded to the corresponding Secretary of the Academy; after some trouble the letter was found back and published. It runs as follows:

“Marshfield, March, 13th., 1804.”

“Sir”,

“In answer to yours of 30th. of January last, I observe, that in May, 1780, I was lying in Round Pond, in Broad Bay, in a public armed ship. At sunrise, I discovered a large Serpent, or monster, coming down the Bay, on the surface of the water. The cutter was manned and armed. I went myself in the boat, and proceeded after the serpent. When within a hundred feet, the mariners were ordered to fire on him, but before they could make ready, the Serpent dove. He was not less than from 45 to 50 feet in length; the largest diameter of his body, I should judge, 15 inches; his head nearly of the size of that of a man, which he carried four or five feet above the water. He wore every appearance of a common black snake. When he dove he came up near Muscongus Island--we pursued him, but never came up within a quarter of a mile of him again.”

“I have the honor to be sir,

“Your friend and humble servant

“Geo. Little.”

It is evident that the animal moved away from the Captain, who thus saw only its occiput. As the head is thought to have nearly the size of that of a man, and the whole length to be 45 to 50 feet, it is evident that either the head is estimated too small, or the length too great; moreover it is clear that the captain saw nearly the whole length; this sometimes occurs; generally, however, only the foremost part is visible. Again it is mentioned that the sea-serpent held its head four feet above the surface of the water, and that the colour was black.

A letter from Mr. A. MC. LEAN to the Rev. ALDEN BRADFORD, printed in the same pages, contains a passage, running as follows:

“Another was seen in Muscongus Bay in time of the American war, two miles from the place where I lived then.”

I consider this passage as relative to Capt. GEORGE LITTLE’S observation.

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=20=.--1781?--In the same letter the above mentioned lines are followed by the words:

“and another soon afterwards off Meduncook”.

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=21=.--1782?--In a letter from the Rev. Mr. WILLIAM JENKS, of Bath, to the Hon. Judge DAVIS, of Boston, dated September 7, 1818, and published in the Report of 1817, we read:

“Mr. CUMMINGS observes, that the British saw him in their expedition to Bagaduse”...... “The British supposed the length of that which they saw to be three hundred feet, but this Mr. CUMMINGS imagines to be an exaggeration.”

I think Mr. CUMMINGS is right in this supposition.

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=22=.--1783? --In the same letter we read:

“People also of Mount Desert have seen the monster.”

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=23=.--1784?--In the same letter we find:

“June 28th., 1809. Mr. CUMMINGS observes that a Mr. CROCKET saw two of them together about twenty years since”....... “One of those seen by Mr. CROCKET was smaller than that seen by Mr. CUMMINGS, and their motion in the sea appeared to be a perpendicular winding, and not horizontal.”

This appearance is also mentioned in the Mem. Am. Acad. Arts Sc. (IV, I, 1818) where we read about the inhabitants of Fox and Long Islands:

“and one of them, a Mr. CROCKET, had seen two of them together about the year 1787.”

And in SILLIMAN’S Am. Journ. Sc. Arts (Vol. II, 1820) we read in a letter from Mr. ABRAHAM CUMMINGS to the Rev. ALDEN BRADFORD, written Jan., 1804:

“About twenty years since, two of those serpents, they say, were seen by one Mr. CROCKET, who then lived upon Ash Point.”