Excerpt from The Early History of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Maine The early history of the "Protestant Episcopal Church," in that portion of our country now known as the diocese of Maine, records many events of varied interest and value. It affords examples of perseverance against discouragement; of opposition, which might as truly be called by a severer name, in some cases, sadly successful for the hindrance of her progress. Yet as time passed lingering on, her features assumed a more cheerful aspect, and her present prosperity furnishes the assurance of a greater prosperity still in reserve. After the discovery of New England, its coasts were often visited long before the well known landing on Plymouth Rock. Some vessels came to perfect the discoveries; but more came attracted by the fisheries on its waters, and the peltry of its forests, and therein found a rich inducement to hazard the perils of a voyage to the newly found regions. As early as 1577, in one season three or four hundred fishing vessels came to the Banks of Newfoundland, among which the French and Spanish were more numerous than the Portuguese and English. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.