The Penacooks were one member of a large confederacy, more or less under Passaconaway's control, which, beside comprising several small tribes in Massachusetts, extended nearly or quite as far in the opposite direction as the northern extremity of Lake Winepissiogee. Among those who acknowledged subjection to him were the Agawams (at Ipswich,) the Naamkeeks (at Salem,) the Pascataquas, the Accomintas, and the Sachems of Squamscot, Newichwannock and Pawtucket,--the latter being also the National name of all the confederates. Passaconaway is supposed to have resided, occasionally, at what is now Haverhill (Mass.) but he afterwards lived among the Penacooks. He must have been quite advanced in life at the date of the earliest English settlements on the coast, for he is said to have died, about 1665, at the great age of one hundred and twenty years, though that statement indeed has an air of exaggeration. The first mention of him is in the celebrated Wheelwright deed of 1629--the authenticity of which it is not necessary to discuss in this connexion. In 1642, Passaquo and Saggahew, the Sachems of Haverhill (Mass.) conveyed that township to the original settlers, by deed sealed and signed,--the consideration being three pounds ten shillings, and the negotiation expressly "_wth ye consent of Passaconaway._" [FN] * * * * * [FN] The original is still in the possession of a gentleman in Haverhill. See Mirick's History of that town. It was about the time of this conveyance that the measures already mentioned were taken for "disarming" the old chieftain. That was clearly a most unexampled stretch of prerogative, especially as Passaconaway had hitherto maintained his independence equally with his apparent good will for the English. There is some apology for the outrage in the excitement of the period, which was so powerful, it appears, even with the well-informed and well-meaning citizens of Boston, that they hesitated not to entertain the Braintree Sachem, their most obedient servant on all occasions, in the town-jail. Even the report of a gun, in the night-time, in the neighborhood of the town, was now sufficient to rouse the good citizens far and wide; and the shouts of a poor fellow at Watertown, who, having lost himself in the woods, cried out somewhat lustily for _help!--help!_--against an apprehended assault of the wild-cats round about him, produced an alarm hardly less serious than would probably have followed an actual foray of the Mohawks.