The Merrimack River: its source and its tributaries. Embracing a history of manufactures, and of the towns along its course; their geography, topography, and products, with a description of the magnificent natural scenery about its upper waters./ By J. W. Meader.

0 THE.XEPRI.MACK PI VER;
granted him a reprieve until his case should be laid before Powhatan, the king, and his fate definitely settled.
Although by this cunning stratagem, he had delayed the decision
of his fate, still he was not free; it is true he was held as an illustrious prisoner, and was regarded with superstitious veneration by
his captors, and it was believed he could act as mediator to appease
the wrath of the Great Spirit toward themselves.
Having several times escaped from the jaws of death, he lived to
return home, and carried with him such accounts of the country
he had explored as created the liveliest interest, and Charles complimented the country by calling it New England. Of Captain
John Smith, one of his biographers says: -
"Whether we view him embarking for Italy with'a rabble of
pilgrims,' mounting the deadly breach at Regal, fighting hand to
hand with the Turks in the armies of Austria, wandering in the
deserts of Circassia, conducted a prisoner in the country of the
Cambrian Tartars, passing over into Africa and visiting the court
of MAlorocco, or surveying the wild coast of New Hampshire,
he appears everywhere to be equally remarkable for his eccentric
genius and his strange fortune."
A grant was made of that portion of the territory which had been
christened New England, which was included between the fortieth and
forty-eighth parallel north latitude, to a company consisting of forty
distingilished gentlemen, some of whom had received the honor of
knighthood. The financial and governmental management and control of this territory were to be perpetual in the hands of this company, and a majority vote of the shareholders in the corporation
was to be a final and irrevocable decision on all subjects connected
with its prosperity and its progress.
Thus the charter of New England was the foundation on which
was based very many of the subsequent patents, grants, and charters
which were made, and by which New England became ultimately
csettled. The views, plans, schemes, and ideas of these individuals
were no doubt multifarious and varied, perhaps visionary. ilowever
that may be, the first influence that was felt, or which affected New
England, was corporate power,- a mighty power which, as experience
has proved, may be wielded with tremendous consequences for weal
or woe. But this corporation, like all irresponsible powers, at
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