APPENDIX, 



87 



" According to your request, I send the enclosed sketch and memoranda of an 

 ancient fortification, supposed to have been the work of the Penacook Indians, a 

 once powerful tribe, whose chief seat was in the neighborhood of Concord, New 

 Hampshire. The original name of the town was derived from that of the tribe. 

 The last of the Penacooks long since disappeared, and with them have perished 

 most of the memorials of their race. Enough has come down to us, however, in 



tradition, added to the brief notes of our 

 historians, to show that the Penacooks were 

 once a numerous, powerful, and warlike 

 tribe. Gookin places them under the gen- 

 eral division of the Pawtucketts, which he 

 calls ' the fifth great sachemship of In- 

 dians.'* Under the name of Penacooks? 

 were probably included all the Indians in- 

 habiting the valley of the Merrimack, from 

 the great falls at the Amoskeag to the Win- 

 nepiseogee Lake, and the great carrying- 

 place on the Pemigewasset. That they were 

 one and the same tribe, is rendered proba- 

 ble from the exact similarity of relics, which 

 have been found at different places, and 

 from the general resemblance of the remains 

 of ancient fortifications, which have been 

 traced near the lower falls of the Winnepis- 

 eogee, in Franklin and Sanbornton, and on 

 the table-land known as the Sugar-Ball 

 Plain, in Concord. Tradition ascribes to 

 each the purpose of defence against a com- 

 mon enemy, the Maquaas or Mohawks of 

 the west. 

 " The accompanying sketch was taken in pencil, on a visit to the spot, in com- 

 pany with the Hon. James Clark and several friends in the month of September, 

 1822. The remains are on the west side of the Winnepiseogee, near the head of 

 Little Bay, in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. The traces of the walls were at that 

 time easily discerned, although most of the stones had been removed to the mill- 

 dam near at hand, on the river. On approaching the site, we called upon a gentle- 

 man (James Gibson) who had lived for many years near the spot, and of whom 

 we learnt the following particulars : He had lived in Sanbornton fifty-two years, 

 and had known the fort some time previous to settling in the place. When he 

 came to the town to reside, the walls were two or three feet high, though in some 

 places they had fallen down, and the whole had evidently much diminished in 

 height, since the first erection. They were about three feet in thickness, con- 



Gookin, in I, Mas?. Hist. Coll.. I., 149. 



