Twenty-six miles northwest from Boston, on the banks of the Merrimack at
its confluence with the Concord, is situated the city of Lowell,--the
Spindle City, the Manchester of America. The Merrimack, which affords
the chief water-power that gives life to the thousand industries of
Lowell, takes its rise among the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, its
source being in the Notch of the Franconia Range, at the base of Mount
Lafayette. For many miles it dashes down toward the sea, known at first
as the Pemigewasset, until finally its waters are joined by the outflow
from Lake Winnipiseogee, and a great river is formed, which, in its fall
of several hundred feet, offers immense power to the mechanic. Past
Penacook the river glides, its volume increased by the Contcocook;
through fertile intervales, over rapids and falls, past Suncook and
Hooksett, it comes to the Falls of Amoskeag, where Lowell's fair rival
is built; thence onward past Nashua, to the Falls of Pawtucket, where
its waters are thoroughly utilized to propel the machinery of a great
city.

The men are still living who have witnessed the growth of Lowell from an
inconsiderable village to a great manufacturing city, whose fabrics are
as world-renowned as those of Marseilles and Lyons, or ancient Damascus.

[Illustration: LOWELL AS IT APPEARED IN 1840.]

With the dawn of American history, the Penacooks, a tribe of Indians,
were known to have occupied the site of Lowell as their favorite
rendezvous. Here the salmon and shad were caught in great abundance by
the dusky warriors. Passaconaway was their first great chief known to
the white man, and he was acknowledged as leader by many neighboring
tribes. He was a friend to the English. Before the coming of the
Pilgrims a great plague had swept over New England, making desolate