As Late As 1724 There Was No House On The North Side Of The
Nashua, But Only Scattered Wigwams And Grisly Forests Between
This Frontier And Canada.
In September of that year, two men who
were engaged in making turpentine on that side, for such were the
first enterprises in the wilderness, were taken captive and
carried to Canada by a party of thirty Indians.
Ten of the
inhabitants of Dunstable, going to look for them, found the hoops
of their barrel cut, and the turpentine spread on the ground. I
have been told by an inhabitant of Tyngsborough, who had the
story from his ancestors, that one of these captives, when the
Indians were about to upset his barrel of turpentine, seized a
pine knot and flourishing it, swore so resolutely that he would
kill the first who touched it, that they refrained, and when at
length he returned from Canada he found it still standing.
Perhaps there was more than one barrel. However this may have
been, the scouts knew by marks on the trees, made with coal mixed
with grease, that the men were not killed, but taken prisoners.
One of the company, named Farwell, perceiving that the turpentine
had not done spreading, concluded that the Indians had been gone
but a short time, and they accordingly went in instant pursuit.
Contrary to the advice of Farwell, following directly on their
trail up the Merrimack, they fell into an ambuscade near
Thornton's Ferry, in the present town of Merrimack, and nine were
killed, only one, Farwell, escaping after a vigorous pursuit.
The men of Dunstable went out and picked up their bodies, and
carried them all down to Dunstable and buried them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 175 of 422
Words from 48095 to 48379
of 116321
