[20] Named for General John Thomas, of the Revolution. [21] Williamson's "History of Maine." [22] Jefferson had his Monticello, Washington his Mount Vernon. [23] Its Indian name was Passageewakeag--"the place of sights, or ghosts." It contained originally one thousand acres, which the settlers bought of the heirs of Brigadier Waldo at two shillings the acre. Belfast was the first incorporated town on the Penobscot. It suffered severely in the Revolution from the British garrison of Castine. [24] In 1797 there were twenty vessels owned in Penobscot River, two of which were in European trade. [25] The upper and larger part is called North Castine. [26] Castine was not incorporated under its present name until 1796. The Indian name of the peninsula was Bagaduce, or Biguyduce. [27] Gordon, vol. iii., p. 304. [28] The man who destroyed Falmouth, now Portland. [Illustration: RUINS OF FORT PENTAGOËT, CASTINE] CHAPTER V. CASTINE--_continued._ "Baron Castine of St. Castine Has left his château in the Pyrenees, And sailed across the western seas." LONGFELLOW. I confess I would rather stand in presence of the Pyramids, or walk in the streets of buried Pompeii, than assist at the unwrapping of many fleshless bodies. No other medium than the material eye can grasp a fact with the same distinctness. It becomes rooted, and you may hang your legends or traditions on its branches. It is true there is a class who journey from Dan to Beersheba, finding all barren; but the average American, though far from unappreciative, too often makes a business of his recreation, and devours in an hour what might be viewed with advantage in a week or a month. After this frank declaration, the reader will not expect me to hurry him through a place that contains so much of the crust of antiquity as Castine, and is linked in with the Old-world chronicles of a period of surpassing interest, both in history and romance. Very little of the fort of the Baron Castin and his predecessors, yet enough to reward the research of the stranger, is to be seen on the margin of the shore of the harbor, less than half a mile from the central portion of the town. The grass-grown ramparts have sunk too low to be distinguished from the water in passing, but are evident to a person standing on the ground itself. Not many years will elapse before these indistinct traces are wholly obliterated.[29] The bank here is not much elevated above high-water mark, while at the wharves it rises to a higher level, and is ascended by stairs. The old fort was placed near the narrowest part of the harbor, with a firm pebbly beach before it. Small boats may land directly under the walls of the work at high tide, or lie protected by the curvature of the shore from the heavy seas rolling in from the outer harbor. The high hills over which we were rambling in the preceding chapter ward off the northern winds.