HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD, 89 



these three years ; but least it should be, that I fear, it's being 

 seen by the World, I submit it to sight and Censure, So little 

 as I know you. Gentlemen, I heartily present it to you ; tho' all 

 the Reason that I intend to offer is, that we have fished upon 

 the same Banks. And tho' I know this will be no Bait, I am 

 fond of being esteemed, in the Affairs of Fishing. Gentlemen, 

 your most Obedient and very humble Servant. Fluviatulis 

 Piscator." 



This sermon was by the Rev. Joseph Secombe, a minister of 

 Kingston, New Hampshire, and was delivered before a mixed 

 assemblage of hunters, trappers, fishermen, settlers and Indians. 

 From the tone of the dedication it is evident that among his 

 hearers were a number of civil or military officers in the service 

 of King George the Second, together with other "gentry-folk," 

 from Portsmouth, Ancient Dover, and Exeter. The "some odd 

 Circumstances " alluded to probably had reference to preaching 

 in the open air, perhaps to the mixed quality of the congrega- 

 tion. The most significant statement, however, is that to these 

 fishing-grounds he had "taken an annual Tour for some Years," 

 and that the distinguished company, the Gentlemen of the ded- 

 ication, had "fished upon the same Banks." This very clearly 

 shows that the Amoskeag fisheries were not only known consid- 

 erably earlier than the spring of 1739, but that the sport cifforded 

 was more enticing than that offered at " Great Salmon Falls " in 

 Somersworth or the falls of the Cocheco at Dover. Otherwise 

 we should not hear of annual tours to Amoskeag, made by con- 

 siderable parties, involving a journey of from thirty-five to forty 

 miles through the wilderness. We shall be prepared to show 

 in another place that the reputation of Amoskeag as a great 

 hunting and fishing place was known to white men for much more 

 than a hundred years before Secombe's sermon was delivered. 



Our preacher chose his text from John 21-3, "Simon Peter 

 saith unto them, I go a Fishing." The discourse sets forth that 

 the Apostles were fishers, and that " fishing is innocent as Busi- 

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