Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/134

 112 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

resort with them. It was also in the vicinity of good fishing ground, for the various branches of the Piscataqua, up to their first falls, must at that day (as they did long after and do now at some seasons,) have swarmed with fish, and there was no need of going far to cast the hook and obtain them.

It is not supposed that a party of three men, at the most, would go miles at sea to the great fishing grounds to obtain fish when there was an abundance of fish so near them, or that large and expensive stages were required for curing them. By the terms of the indenture the owners of the Jonathan were to pursue the fishing business independently of Thomson and his men, if he did not choose to bear part of the charge. It is probable that the vessels from England attended to the deep sea fishing, while the parties on shore confined their operations to the harbor and rivers.

If the Hiltons were never mentioned by visitors to Little Harbor in 1623 and 1624, the same may be said of the other men who were with Thomson. The name of no man who was with him — -and there were seven — is known, unless we accept the statement of Hubbard.

It may have been that the fishing and trading post at the Point was at the outset regarded rather as a temporary than permanent settlement — a place to which at first they resorted only during the day, returning at night to the com- mon rendezvous at the mouth of the river. But its advantages must have been soon seen and appreciated. The " whole country was open before them to go in and occupy where they would," and they could hardly have found a more inviting place than the Point, either for fishing, planting, or trading with the Indians — exchanging such articles as they brought with them from England for the beaver skins and other peltries of the Indians. For safety no resort could have been better than this narrow neck of land, and from which by their boats there were such immediate means of escape, if escape was at any time necessary. For planting also, in which they were to engage, so far at least as they could contribute to their own wants, the Point was of all places the spot which they would select, far preferable to any land nearer to Little Harbor.

Thomson's enterprise, it appears, was not a success. He abandoned it after about three years residence, (by some accounts " the next year,") and removed to Massachusetts, Hubbard says, " out of dislike either to the place or his em- ployers." He never set up any claim afterwards to the patent, nor does it ap- pear that his partners in England reaped any advantages from it. Thomson's men are supposed to have remained at Little Harbor after his departure but even this is uncertain. The only evidence that it was occupied is that there was a settlement somewhere at " Piscataquack," besides Hiltons in 1628, and that such settlement paid ;£i : 10 as its contribution for expelling Morton from Merry Mount. What is there more probable than that the Hiltons may have remained at the Point or in its vicinity, with some of the other men of the company, after TJiomson left?

If, as it is alleged, there is no authentic information of Edward Hilton's being in this vicinity previous to 1627 or 1628, the information which we get of him at that time is sufficient to show that he must then have been settled here for some years and that he had a considerable stake in the country. In 1628, as recorded by Bradford, he was assessed ^£1 towards the expense of the war upon Morton of Merry Mount, already alluded to, the whole expense of the campaign being ;^i2 : 07, of which the Plymouth colony paid ;^2 : 10, or but little more than twice the amount contributed by Hilton. Il is also evident, we think, that the Hiltons must have been among the men which the partners of Tliomson provided and sent over in 1623, from the fact that we find them settled so near to Little Harbor, on territory which must have been included within that which Thomson's patent covered, where they would not have been,

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