CHARACTER OF INDIAN DEFENCES. 89 



feet. Here was a great fishing-place for the Indians.' Mr. Bamford states that he 

 has heard his father and Mr. Gibson say, that on their first acquaintance with this 

 place, they have seen three hundred bark canoes here at a time. This may have 

 been in consequence of the number of bays and lakes near this place. Sanborn- 

 ton was laid out and surveyed in 1750 ; but Canterbury, adjoining the bay, was 

 settled as early as 1727. 



" The remains of a fortification, apparently of similar construction to that above 

 described, were some years since to be seen on the bluffs east of the Merrimack 

 River, in Concord, on what was formerly known as Sugar-ball Plain. The walls 

 could readily be traced for some distance, though crumbled nearly to the ground, 

 and overgrown with large trees."* 



CHARACTER OF INDIAN DEFENCES. 



The fortifications of the savage or hunter tribes of North America are uniformly 

 represented to have been constructed of rows of pickets, surrounding their villages, 

 or enclosing positions naturally strong and easy of defence. The celebrated 

 stronghold of the Narragansetts in Rhode Island, destroyed in 1676 by the New 

 England colonists under Winthrop and Church, was an elevation of five or six 

 acres in extent, situated in the centre of a swamp, and strongly defended by pali- 

 sades. It was of extraordinary size, and enclosed not far from six hundred lodges- 



Of like character was the fort of the Pequots, on the Mystic River, in Con- 

 necticut, destroyed by Captain Mason. According to Hackluyt, the towns of the 

 Indians on the St. Lawrence were defended in a similar manner. The first voyagers 

 describe the aboriginal town of Hochelaga, now Montreal, as circular in form, 

 and surrounded by three Hues of palisades. Through these there was but a single 

 entrance, well secured by stakes and bars ; and upon the inside of the defence, 

 were stages or platforms, upon which were placed stones and other missiles, ready 

 for use, in case of attack. The town contained about fifty lodges. — (Hackluyt, 

 Vol. III., p. 220.) 



* " A mound 45 or 50 feet in diameter is situated on the northern shore of Ossipee Lake, New Hamp- 

 shire. It is ten feet high, and was originally covered with timber. The earth is not Mke that of the 

 meadow in which it stands, but of the adjacent plain. A slight excavation was made in it a number of 

 years ago, in the course of which three entire skeletons were found, accompanied by two tomahawks and 

 some coarse pottery. On the suiTounding meadow were to be seen, when the ground was first cleared, 

 the hills where the corn had anciently grown." — Hist and Mis. Coll. of N. H., Vol. II., p. 47 : New 

 Hampshire Gazetteer, p. 207. 



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