HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 83 



this war. The origin of this plague has never been satisfactorily 

 accounted for, or its nature clearly understood, but we hazard a 

 conjecture that the contagion was communicated by the Indians 

 of New France, who in turn received it from the whites then in 

 Canada in considerable numbers. At all events it was believed 

 the loss by battle and plague literally decimated the ranks of the 

 savages and brought the war to a close before the landing of the 

 Pilgrims at Plymouth. The early accounts must be received 

 with great caution, ample allowance made for the time in which 

 they were written, and due regard had to the sources of inform- 

 ation. " Broken English " is scarcely a fit vehicle for the trans- 

 mission of historical data. The skeletons of those who fell in 

 savage strife, or succumbed to plague and famine four centuries 

 ago, might as easily be clothed with life as could the details of 

 that distant scene be dug from their oblivion. 



Upon this middle ground, between the Plymouth Puritan and 

 the pioneer Jesuit of New France, there was another curious en- 

 counter, an episode in the struggle between two forces, whose 

 declaration of war ante-dated the discovery of America. When- 

 ever and wherever these met, in the long centuries, the hostile 

 lines were drawn. And so it came to pass that in a new world, 

 for the soil of which kings contended, the adherents of Pope and 

 Prostestant, in savage bands, the one inspired by a Mather, che 

 other by a Marquette, each in the name of a common Redeemer, 

 stood opposed in conflict. Thus, upon the virgin soil of New 

 Hampshire, in that first century of its occupation, was shed the 

 blood of religious hatred. Time has fortunately softened these 

 asperities, and in the new dawn of a wiser christian charity we 

 seem to see the promise of brotherhood and reconciliation. 



As the light of the fire-fly is illusive or intermittent, so Indian 

 lore and tradition lead us along a pathway sometimes overcast 

 with darkness and often difficult to follow. The time is distant, 

 the actors are defunct, and the record is becoming more indis- 



