|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 21
Not only did the metal of such men as he commanded stand fire on the
seventeenth of June, 1775, at Breed's Hill, but when he followed up the
expulsion of the garrison of Boston by the equally aggressive
demonstrations at New York, he gave assurance of the thoroughness of his
purpose to achieve independence, and thereby inspired confidence at home
and abroad. The failure to realize a competent field force for the issue
with Howe, and the circumstances of the retreat and evacuation, do not
impair the statement that, in view of his knowledge of British resources
and those of America, the occupation and defence of Brooklyn and New
York was a military necessity, warranted by existing conditions, and not
impaired by his disappointment in not securing a sufficient force to
meet his enemy upon terms of equality and victory. It increases our
admiration of that strategic forethought which habitually inspired him
to maintain an aggressive attitude, until the surrender at Yorktown
consummated his plans, and verified his wisdom and his faith.
* * * * *
LOWELL.
Twenty-six miles northwest from Boston, on the banks of the Merrimack at
its confluence with the Concord, is situated the city of Lowell,--the
Spindle City, the Manchester of America. The Merrimack, which affords
the chief water-power that gives life to the thousand industries of
Lowell, takes its rise among the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, its
source being in the Notch of the Franconia Range, at the base of Mount
Lafayette. For many miles it dashes down toward the sea, known at first
as the Pemigewasset, until finally its waters are joined by the outflow
from Lake Winnipiseogee, and a great river is formed, which, in its fall
of several hundred feet, offers immense power to the mechanic. Past
Penacook the river glides, its volume increased by the Contcocook;
through fertile intervales, over rapids and falls, past Suncook and
Hooksett, it comes to the Falls of Amoskeag, where Lowell's fair rival
is built; thence onward past Nashua, to the Falls of Pawtucket, where
its waters are thoroughly utilized to propel the machinery of a great
city.
The men are still living who have witnessed the growth of Lowell from an
inconsiderable village to a great manufacturing city, whose fabrics are
as world-renowned as those of Marseilles and Lyons, or ancient Damascus.
[Illustration: LOWELL AS IT APPEARED IN 1840.]
With the dawn of American history, the Penacooks, a tribe of Indians,
were known to have occupied the site of Lowell as their favorite
rendezvous. Here the salmon and shad were caught in great abundance by
the dusky warriors. Passaconaway was their first great chief known to
the white man, and he was acknowledged as leader by many neighboring
tribes. He was a friend to the English. Before the coming of the
Pilgrims a great plague had swept over New England, making desolate
the Indian villages. Added to the terrors of the pestilence, which was
resistless as fate to the children of the forest, was the fear and dread
of their implacable enemies, the fierce Mohawks of the west. The spirit
of the Indian was broken. In 1644, Passaconaway renounced his authority
as an independent chief, and placed himself and his tribe of several
thousand souls under the protection of the colonial magistrates. The
Indian villages at Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack, and Wamesit Falls,
on the Concord, the Musketaquid of the aborigines, were first visited in
1647 by the Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians. In 1652,
Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward Johnson made their tour up the
Merrimack Paver to Lake Winnipiseogee, and marked a stone near the Weirs
as the northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The following
year the work of settlement swept onward, crowding in upon the
cornfields of the red men; and Eliot, caring for his charges, procured
the passage of an act by the General Court reserving a good part of the
land on which Lowell now stands to the exclusive use of the Indians.
[Illustration: MERRIMACK RIVER BELOW HUNT'S FALLS.]
The towns of Chelmsford and Billerica were incorporated May 29, 1655.
In 1656, Major-General Daniel Gookin was appointed superintendent of all
the Indians under the jurisdiction of the Colony. By his fair dealing he
won their entire confidence. They had good friends in Judge Gookin and
the Apostle Eliot, who were ever ready to protect them from
encroachments of their neighbors.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|