NEW HAMPSHIRE—SLIM PICKING—AN EFFECTIVE INDIAN POLICY—JOHN SMITH AGAIN COMES OUT STRONG.

New Hampshire was a sickly child from the first, and of somewhat uncertain parentage. It was claimed by many proprietors, who were continually involved in lawsuits. Its soil was not very fertile, and yielded little else than Indians and lawyers. The former were the most virulent of which any of the colonies could boast, and the latter were of the young and “rising” sort.
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A NEW HAMPSHIRE PLANTATION IN COLONIAL TIMES

These two elements managed to make it extremely lively for the average colonist, who was scalped upon the one hand and 61“skinned” upon the other. At first the horny-handed son of toil fondly hoped to raise corn, but owing to the poverty of the soil it was a day’s journey from hill to hill, and as much as a man’s scalp was worth to undertake to travel it. At harvest time there was an immense crop of cobble stones and no market for it.

Fortunately, in time the lawyers became starved out, but two great drawbacks to prosperity yet remained; sterility of soil and hostile Indians.

But the time was at hand when both these evils were to be remedied. His name was Smith—John Smith, of course—who readily und............