It is not my purpose to pursue farther the history of ancient Agamenticus. The state of the settlement five years after its destruction by the Indians appears in a memorial to the French minister, prepared in order to show the feasibility of a thorough wiping out of the English settlements from Boston to Pemaquid: "From Wells Bay to York is a distance of five leagues. There is a fort within a river. All the houses having been destroyed five years ago by the Indians, the English have re-assembled at this place, in order to cultivate their lands. The fort is worthless, and may have a garrison of forty men." As a memorial of the dark days when settler fought with savage, the Junkins's garrison-house appeals for protection in its decrepit old age. Its frame is still strong. A few boards and a kindly hand should not be wanting to stay its ruin. I left it as for nearly two hundred years it has stood, "On its windy site uplifting gabled roof and palisade, And rough walls of unhewn timber with the moonlight overlaid." [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [68] "Massachusetts Historical Collections," 1792, vol. i. [69] An Irishman, Darby Field by name. [70] Purchas, vol. iv., 1647. [71] In England there is a cockle called the purple, from the coloring matter it contains, believed to be one of the sources from which the celebrated Tyrian dye was obtained. The discovery is attributed in mythical story to a dog. The Tyrian Hercules was one day walking with his sweetheart by the shore, followed by her lap-dog, when the animal seized a shell just cast upon the beach. Its lips were stained with the beautiful purple flowing from the shell, and its mistress, charmed with the color, demanded a dress dyed with it of her lover. [72] Situated on Stage Neck, a rocky peninsula connected with the main shore by a narrow isthmus, on which is a beach. There was formerly a fort on the north-east point of the Neck. [73] Sir F. Gorges's own relation. [74] About 1647 the settlements at Agamenticus were made a town by the name of York, probably from English York. [75] Confederation of the colonies for mutual protection. [76] Elizabeth died while Martin Pring was preparing to sail for America; and Essex and Raleigh both went to the block. [77] The insertion of the lengthy title in full appears unnecessary. [78] The celebrated commentator. [79] We are warranted in the belief that the first services held in this plantation were those of the Church of England. The first, or borough, charter mentions the church chapel. Robert Gorges, in 1623, brought over an Episcopal chaplain, William Morrell, and with him also came, as is supposed, Rev. William Blackstone, the first inhabitant of Boston.