CONTRIBUTIONS 



TO THE 



HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD 



BY WILLIAM E. MOORE. 



CHAPTER X. 



EARLY OCCUPATION AND SETTLEMENT CONCLUDED. 



In the preceding chapter the attempt was made to present a 

 long-disrance view of the times preceding and immediately fol- 

 lowing the first permanent settlements in New England. Con- 

 tinuing the inquiry it will be our endeavor to ascertain and set 

 forth in order the dates of the first authorized expeditions into 

 New Hampshire. 



The first patent granted by the London Company to the May- 

 flower Pilgrims was applied for in 1617 and granted in 1619. 

 Landing and luncheon over, like cats in strange garrets, these 

 colonists sent out exploring parties in every direction, and were 

 not long in discovering the Merrimack, which they approached 

 in the neighborhood of Haverhill, the course of the river at that 

 point being nearly due east. Disregarding an earlier patent of 

 1606, under which some abortive attempts at colonization took 

 place, we come next to the Gorges and Mason patent of 1620, 

 superseded in 162 1 by what was then known as the " Mariana" 

 grant. It is only necessary for our purpose to remember that 

 the grantors were so ignorant of the territory granted that they 

 had supposed the east and west course of the Merrimack contin- 

 ued to its source, which was thought to be Lake Champlain. In 



