An Old Town by the Sea by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I CALL it an old town, but it is only relatively old. When one reflects / on the countless centuries that have gone to the for-mation of this / crust of earth on which we temporarily move, the most ancient cities on / its surface seem merely things of the week before last. It was only the / other day, then -- that is to say, in the month of June, 1603 -- that one / Martin Pring, in the ship Speedwell, an enormous ship of nearly fifty / tons burden, from Bristol, England, sailed up the Piscataqua River. The / Speedwell, numbering thirty men, officers and crew, had for consort the / Discoverer, of twenty-six tons and thirteen men. After following the / windings of "the brave river" for twelve miles or more, the two vessels / turned back and put to sea again, having failed in the chief object / of the expedition, which was to obtain a cargo of the medicinal / sassafras-tree, from the bark of which, as well known to our ancestors, / could be distilled the Elixir of Life.

It was at some point on the left bank of the Piscataqua, three or four / miles from the mouth of the river, that worthy Master Pring probably / effected one of his several landings. The beautiful stream widens / suddenly at this place, and the green banks, then covered with a network / of strawberry vines, and sloping invitingly to the lip of the crystal / water, must have won the tired mariners.