HISTORY. OF DERRYFIELD. 8l 



closed, or which have been declined with thanks, to assume some 

 portion of our burdens, at a reduced rate of compensation. 



The range of cultivated food-products was generally limited 

 to corn, squashes, pumpkins, melons and kidney-beans. They 

 derived, however, a large part of their winter food-su])i)ly from 

 nuts, sweet acorns, dried fish, smoked meats, etc., prepared in 

 various unpalatable ways, but capable of supporting life. There 

 were no seasons throughout the year when fresh flesh food, of 

 fish, fowl or animal, could not be had in abundance, and if there 

 were times of scarcity the cause usually proceeded from indo- 

 lence or improvidence. 



We are unable to give the Nipmuck name of the Indian after- 

 wards known as Christian or Christo. This name is said to have 

 been bestowed upon him soon after his conversion to Christian- 

 ity by the Apostle Kliot, but this lacks probability. It is much 

 more likely that he had it from the Jesuits, or assumed it for pur- 

 poses of his own. Like St. Paul he was at times all things to 

 all men — a Nipmuck, an Arosagunticook ; a Puritan, a convert 

 to Catholicism. Christo is first heard of in company with a St. 

 Francis Indian called Plausawa, a not very good pronunciation 

 of Francois. They had sufficient intercourse with the settlers 

 to ascertain that white christians made slaves of black men, 

 and that the profits of the trade were large. Acting upon this 

 hint they stole two negroes in Canterbury and started with them 

 for Canada, one escaping^ upon the way and the other being sold 

 to a French officer. Christo seems to have had seasons of back- 

 sliding and repentance, such as the praying Indians generally 

 enjoyed, and after a series of apochryphal adventures he settled 

 at Amoskeag. His cabin or hut was near the mouth of Chris- 

 tian brook, which entered the Merrimack immediately west of 

 the Amoskeag Paper Mills. Here he lived in an outward show 

 of peace for some years, professing friendship for the whites, 

 by whom he was distrusted. At length he was suspected of 

 conveying intelligence and giving secret aid to the hostile St. 

 Francis or Arosagunticook Indians, whereupon, during his ab- 



