Learning something every day
The reviews of Thomas A. Desjardin's 'Through A Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec' are a little mixed at Amazon. But the mark of a good book is that it tells you things you didn't already know. Twenty-one pages into the book, Desjardin casually mentions that Arnold's campaign began at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine, near the abandoned Popham Colony, the 1607 sister colony of the Jamestown Settlement. I thought to myself: Huh? Popham what? Sister colony to Jamestown? Now I know. The existence of the Popham Colony may have been embedded on a long dormant memory chip in my brain at some point. But for the life of me, I just can't recall ever hearing about it. ... Reminds me of the time I read Nathaniel Philbrick's 'Mayflower' and learned, to my surprise, that Samuel de Champlain once faught a series of skirmishes against the Monomoyick Indians on Cape Cod. I had a similar 'huh?' reaction: French fighting Indians in Chatham? What? Where? ... So much local history. So little time to read about it all. But I'll try. ... Perhaps a mini-review of Desjardin's book after I finish it. ...  ¶ 8:09 AM