Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - I CALL it an old town, but it is only relatively old.
When one reflects on the countless centuries that have
gone to the for-mation of this crust of earth on which
we temporarily move, the most ancient cities on its
surface seem merely things of the week before last. It
was only the other day, then - that is to say, in the
month of June, 1603 - that one Martin Pring, in the
ship Speedwell, an enormous ship of nearly fifty tons
burden, from Bristol, England, sailed up the Piscataqua
River. The Speedwell, numbering thirty men, officers
and crew, had for consort the Discoverer, of twenty-six
tons and thirteen men. After following the windings of
""the brave river"" for twelve miles or more, the two
vessels turned back and put to sea again, having failed
in the chief object of the expedition, which was to
obtain a cargo of the medicinal sassafras-tree, from the
bark of which, as well known to our ancestors, could
be distilled the Elixir of Life.