History The name Monhegan is a corruption of Monchiggon, the Abenaki language term for "out-to-sea island" used by Samoset, an Abenaki sagamore and the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, in his early contacts with the English. European explorers Martin Pring visited in 1603, Samuel de Champlain in 1604, George Weymouth in 1605 and Captain John Smith in 1614. The island got its start as a British fishing camp prior to settlement of the Plymouth Colony. Cod was harvested from the rich fishing grounds of the Gulf of Maine, then dried on fish flakes before shipment to Europe. A trading post was built to conduct business with the Indians, particularly in the lucrative fur trade. It was Monhegan traders who taught English to Samoset, the chieftain who in 1621 startled the Pilgrims by boldly walking into their new village at Plymouth and saying: "Welcome, Englishmen." On 28 January 1623 the Council for New England issued a commission for seizing the "Island of Mannahigan". Settlement by William Vengham and William Pomfret in 1623 caused William Bradford to include Monhegan among places that experienced "scattered beginnings" that year.
History The name Monhegan is a corruption of Monchiggon, the Abenaki language term for "out-to-sea island" used by Samoset, an Abenaki sagamore and the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, in his early contacts with the English. European explorers Martin Pring visited in 1603, Samuel de Champlain in 1604, George Weymouth in 1605 and Captain John Smith in 1614. The island got its start as a British fishing camp prior to settlement of the Plymouth Colony. Cod was harvested from the rich fishing grounds of the Gulf of Maine, then dried on fish flakes before shipment to Europe. A trading post was built to conduct business with the Indians, particularly in the lucrative fur trade. It was Monhegan traders who taught English to Samoset, the chieftain who in 1621 startled the Pilgrims by boldly walking in.to their new village at Plymouth and saying: "Welcome, Englishmen." On 28 January 1623 the Council for New England issued a commission for seizing the "Island of Mannahigan". Settlement by William Vengham and William Pomfret in 1623 caused William Bradford to include Monhegan among places that experienced "scattered beginnings" that year.