HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. 95 



Massachusetts colony, and many from the settlements at Ports- 

 mouth or Dover. The wilderness was threaded with lines of 

 traps, running to and from depots of supplies, while to provide 

 necessary storage for fur or other commodities bark-cabins and 

 log-houses were built here and there at points of convenience. 

 With the anival of each vessel from the old world, there came 

 an accession of rough and turbulent spirits, many with nothing 

 to lose and all inspired by the hope of gain. Fabulous stories 

 of wealth and exaggerated accounts of mineral treasures found 

 ready acceptance, and the decks of vessels clearing for New 

 England were crowded with saints and swash-bucklers, dissen- 

 ters and desperadoes. To these, indiscriminately, some of our 

 genealogical cranks are crazy to trace their ancestry. 



Along all the avenues of exploration, on sea or land, by way 

 of lake or river, the wilderness was traversed ; some merely in- 

 spired by the strong lust of adventure, some inflamed by the 

 thirst for gold, others more soberly in search of homes. Out of 

 these early exploitations came the first definite information of 

 the character and topography of New England. Toiling through 

 dense forests, the sudden sight of a mountain was as welcome as 

 the first glimpse of land to the mariner, and afforded a landmark 

 to direct his steps. One by one these great natural boundary 

 marks were at least approximately located, lakes were plotted, 

 and the course of rivers roughly indicated, sketched perhaps up- 

 on birch-bark maps with pencils of coal. Sometimes accompan- 

 ied by friendly Indian guides, familiar with the territory, the 

 way was made easier; here a mountain or height of land, there 

 a swamp or thicket was avoided ; here he was led past a broad 

 lake or conducted to river shallows where the stream offered a 

 fording place. One by one names were given to mountains, 

 rivers and lakes, or other natural features, and it is one of the 

 astonishing facts of the time that these early pioneers gener- 

 ally accepted without question the names given by the Indians, 

 and that so many of these survive. 



