Native Americans originally called the
Portland peninsula Machigonne. The first European settler was Capt. Christopher
Levett, an English naval captain granted 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) by King
Charles I of England in 1623 to found a settlement in Casco Bay. A member of
the Council for New England and agent for Ferdinando Gorges, Levett built a
stone house where he left a company of ten men, then returned to England and
wrote a book about his voyage to drum up support for the settlement. The
settlement failed, and the fate of Levett's colonists is unknown. The explorer
sailed from England to the
