HISTORY OF DERRYFIELD. IO3 



Early in 1652 still another commission was appointed by the 

 General Court of Massachusetts, to establish the north head of 

 the Merrimack, and on the first of August, 1652, it was formally 

 fixed at 43° 40' 12" — namely, at the outlet of Winnepesauke, 

 with an allowance of three miles more north, " wch run into the 

 Lake." Thus, with rare forecast, the surveyors drove all other 

 contrary-thinking people into deep water. This was the famous 

 " Endicott Rock" expedition, concerning which there has been 

 much misdirected enthusiasm. Upon the soil of the Bay Slate 

 the shaft at Bunker Hill bears witness to the unselfish heroism 

 and self-sacrifice of the sons of New Hampshire ; the monument 

 at the Wiers commemorates an act of Puritan greed and perfidy, 

 committed against men of their own blood and lineage. The 

 heirs of Mason, the assigns of Gorges, the possessors by pur- 

 chase, and every claim of occupancy whatsoever was for years 

 stubbornly denied by Massachusetts. Forced construction of 

 charters, chicanery, indirection, falsehood and fraud failing to 

 be sufficient, the General Court resorted to threats of force, in 

 turn followed by arrest or banishment. The whole history of 

 this usurpation, however, is too black to be painted. 



All of these expeditions, with others set on foot by other par- 

 ties in interest, passed directly through Derryfield and around 

 Amoskeag Falls ; and yet we are soberly told that these were 

 first discovered in 1739, a hundred years later than the excur- 

 sion of the first Massachusetts committee. 



We should be glad to believe that the Apostle Eliot preached 

 and taught at Amoskeag. Potter labors to show that he came 

 here by invitation of Passaconaway a little later than 1650, and 

 asserts that here were a number of praying Indians who were 

 preached and prayed to, and that schools for the youth were also 

 established. In 1648 Eliot wrote, with undoubted reference to 

 Amoskeag, " There is another great fishing place about three 

 score miles from us, whether I intend (God willing) to go next 

 spring." In 1649 he again writes, " I had and still have a great 



