seven to fifteen inclusive. The whole number of scholars in attendance during the school year of 1901 was 132,802, of whom 97,038 were in average daily attendance. In 1901 there were 1349 graded and 2896 ungraded schools. The average length of the school term in 1900 was 141 days. Secondary education was very generally provided for, even before public aid was extended to it, by a large number of private or denominational academies. In 1873 provision was made for State aid to towns which maintained schools fur free academic instruction. This proved a death blow to many of the old academies. In many instances the old academy buildings were occupied by the free high school. In 1889 towns were authorized to contract with any academy or high school for the tuition of their scholars, and to receive the same aid from the State as if they had established a free high school within the town. A large number of academies now receive State aid. In 1901 there were 211 free high schools receiving aid from the State, with a total attendance of 13,183. In 1900 the State employed 6445 teachers, of whom 5360 were women. State normal schools are maintained at Farmington, Castine, and Gorham. In 1895 the State authorized the State superintendent to hold three or more summer schools, each of two weeks' duration, for the benefit of teachers. In 1901, 1408 of the State's teachers had graduated from normal schools. The State has charge of the examination and certification of teachers. The total expenditure for schools in 1900 was $1,712,795, of which $1,229,004 was paid as salaries to teachers and superintendents. Higher education is provided for at the State University at Orono, and by the following denominational colleges: Bowdoin (Congregational) at Brunswick, Bates (Free Baptist) at Lewiston, and Colby (Baptist) at Waterville.
Charitable and Penal Institutions. There are insane hospitals at Augusta and Bangor, an orphan asylum in Bangor, the military and naval orphans' asylum at Bath, and the Maine General Hospital, a school for the deaf, and an eye and ear infirmary, all at Portland. The National Government maintains a soldiers' home at Togus and a marine hospital at Portland. The State prison is at Thomaston, the reform school is near Portland, and the industrial school for girls is at Hallowell. Convicts at the State prison are employed in the manufacture of carriages, harness, furniture, and brooms. At some of the county jails the prisoners make heels and inner soles for boots and shoes. In a few counties the jails are leased, together with the labor of the convicts. Farm labor and certain other lines of work are engaged in at the reform school.
History. Maine attracted the interest of explorers early in the sixteenth century. Giovanni da Verrazano sailed down the coast in 1524, Estevan Gomez followed him in 1525, and before the middle of the sixteenth century more than one navigator had sailed up the Penobscot River in search of splendid Norumbega (q.v.). with its columns of crystal and silver. In 1580 John Walker, sailing in the employ of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, led an expedition to Maine, but with no results. The voyages of Gosnold (1602), Pring (1603), and Weymouth (1605) were followed by that of John Smith (1614), who left an account of the country in his Description of New England. In 1604 a French expedition under De Monts (q.v.) planted upon Neutral Island, in the Saint Croix River, a colony which was abandoned in the following year. Maine fell within the limits of the grant made to the Plymouth Company by James I. in 1606, and in the following year an English expedition sent out by Sir John Popham and Sir Ferdinando Gorges effected a settlement at Sabino Point, at the mouth of the Sagadahoc or Kennebec River. In 1608 the settlement was abandoned and most of the colonists returned to England. French Jesuits landed on Mount Desert as early as 1608, and in 1613 they were joined by a number of fishermen; but Captain Argall (q.v.) broke up the colony within a short time. In 1622 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason received from the Council for New England a grant of the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers extending for sixty miles inland. The proprietors divided their possessions, the former taking the land east of the Piscataqua River. A colony of fishermen settled on Monhegan Island in 1623, but disappeared three years later. The first permanent settlement in Maine was made at Pemaquid in 1625-26; Agamenticum (York) was founded about the same time, and after 1630 Saco, Biddeford, Port Elizabeth, Portland, and Scarborough sprang up in rapid succession. In 1639 Gorges received a large accession of territory and was confirmed in his old possessions with the title of Lord Palatine, and established a provincial government at York. Before this time the Council for New England had issued many patents covering lands already granted to Gorges, and in the disputes that followed Massachusetts was called in as arbitrator. Taking advantage of the civil war that was then raging in England, the Massachusetts Government proceeded to bring Maine under its own authority. In 1652 it annexed all the towns as far east as Casco, basing its right on its charter, which granted it all lands three miles north of the source of the Merrimac. By 1660 all Maine west of the Penobscot was reduced, and it was retained in spite of royal orders from Charles II. and a grant made in 1664 to the Duke of York of all the territory between Pemaquid and the Saint Croix. In 1677 the claims of the Gorges heirs were bought by Massachusetts, and by the charter of 1691 Massachusetts was confirmed in possession of the territory. East of the Penobscot the French held the land and assiduously stirred up the Indian tribes against the English. In 1675 an outbreak of the Tarentine tribe marked the beginning of a long struggle in which most of the towns on the coast east of the Piscataqua were laid waste. The country suffered greatly, too, in the French and Indian wars. During King William's reign the inhabitants of Cocheco were massacred by the Penacook Indians. Pemaquid was taken, and the settlements east of Falmouth were abandoned. From 1722 to 1725 the tribes of Nova Scotia and eastern Maine waged a fierce warfare against the colonists, and security was not really established till the Treaty of Paris in 1763. During the Revolution Maine was active in the patriot cause. At the end of the war Massachusetts retained possession of the territory, exercising jurisdiction over it as the ‘District of Maine.’ Disputes with the mother State were frequent, and between 1783 and 1791 steps toward independence were taken. The tendency toward separa-
