ALONG THE JOHN STARK RIVER. 365
jNIassachusetts commissioners paid the ransoms of Stark and Eastman, and after five weeks among their captors they started for home by way of Lake Champkiin and Albany, guided by the same scout who captured them in the wikls of New Hampshire. Nothing daunted by his unfortunate Pemigewasset hunt, our adventurer sought the up country wikls again the next season, this time to procure furs with which to discharge the redemption debt of his former misadventure, and he did it. Besides obtaining a valuable lot of furs, he re- turned with additional knowledge of the country through which he had ranged, and which the government soon availed itself of, by employing him to lead a party in 1754, into the upper Coos country, to ascertain the truth of the reports that the French were trying to gain a foothold in that section, and were build- ing a fort in the vicinity. Capt. Peter Powers, of Plollis, was dispatched by Oov. Wentworth with thirty men on this expedition ; and John Stark, as guide, conducted them over the self-same route by which he had been led as captive two years previous, and they encamped at the mouth of John's river, on the identical camping-ground of the Indians during that return and hunt.
This party of protest found no French, or sign of a fort, out they were probably the first white adventurers who penetrated so far north as the inter- vales where are now the towns of Lancaster and Northumberland.
There is a tradition extant, and Capt. Powers refers to the same in his jour- nal of the 1754 expedition, that John Stark was twice captured by the Indians during his hunting days, once upon Baker's, and again upon John's river ; but his memoir, written by one of the immediate descendants of the General, makes no mention of but one, that of 1752. In connection with this unau- thenticated capture, is also related that of a spirited engagement at the mouth of this river between the Indians and a party of vrhite hunters, or adventurers, in which the latter were killed or taken prisoners ; and the old firearms found a few years since, near the spot, were supposed to have belonged to the ill- fated party.
To Capt. Powers is given the credit of attaching the name of New Hamp- shire's old military hero to this humble stream ; but whether it was from his own idea, or at the suggestion of the discoverer himself, may never be known. But we will insert an extract from the journal of the Powers expedition, as published a few years since by the Rev. Grant Powers, of Haverhill, N. H.
Sunday, June 30th — This morning exceeding rainy weather, and it rained all the night past, and continued raining until the twelve of the clock this day, and after that it was fair weather and we marched along up Connecticut river ; and our course, we made good this day, was about five miles east by north, and we there came to a large stream which came from the south-east. This river is about three rods wide, and 7C'c called- it Stark's river, l)y reason of Ensign John Stark being found by the Indians at the mouth of this river. This stream comes into the Connecticut at the foot of the upper interval, and thence we traveled up the interval about seven miles, and came to ' a large river which came from the south-east ; and it is about five rods wide. Here we concluded to go no further with the full scout ; by reason of our provisions being almost all spent, and almost all our men had worn out their shoes. This river we called '^Power's river, it being the camping place at the end of our journey, and there we camped by the river.
Tuesday, July 2d — This morning fair weather, and we tliought proper to mend our shoes and to return homeward, and accordingly we went about the same, and whilst the men were this way engaged, the Captain, with two of his men, marched up the river to see what further discoveries they could make, antl they traveled about five miles, and there they discovered where the Indians had a large camping place, and had been making canoes, and had not
�� �
