Boston City (part 25 of 67)

' The authorities for this exploration are his own Description of Nctu Ent^lanil^ 161 6, of which there are copies in Harvard College Library; in the Prince Collection ( Boston l^iblic Library) ; in Charles Deane's Collection, &c It was reprinted at Boston - seventy-five copies - by Veazie in 1865, and is in 3 Muss. Hist. Coil. vi. 95 (the Prince copy being followed), and in Force's Tnuts,i\. It was afterwards included in his Cenerall Historic^ of which there arc copies of different editions in Harvard College Library, in the Prince Collection, and in Mr. Dcane's. Cf. also his Aik'ertisement to Phiutirs^ '^.l'* *>^ which there are co|)ies in the College Library and in Mr. Dcanc's Collection. I'his als<i was reprinted by Vcazic in 1865 ; and it is also included in 3 Mass. Hist. CoU. iii. I. Sinith*s letter to Lord Ilacon (161S), giving an account of New England, is printed in the Historical Ma^a-

WW, July, 1861. Mr. Deane says the body of the letter is not in Smith's hand ; but he thinks the signature al>ove given is. Cf. Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., January, 1867. Summarized accounts of this New England voyage will l)e found in llclknap's American Biography; llillard's Lift of John Smith ; Palfrey's New England^ where (i. p. 89) there is a note on the authenticity and veracity of Smith's books. Accounts of his published works are to be found in Allibone's Dictionary of Authors ; in Ilillard, p. 39S; and an estimate of their literary value in M. C. Tyler's Hist, of Avterican Literature^ i.

* His- language already quoted would seem to imply that he w.is in the bay when he descried its ** fairest reach," and we know he makes in another place Massachusetts Hay and Charles River one and the same. The question at issue seems to l)e what Smith saw and thought to Iki a river's mouth, - the lighthouse channel, or the passage between Long Island Head and Deer Island. I incline to the latter view.

ing itself " into so many fair branches as make forty or fifty pleasant islands within that excellent bay.'*^ Smith thence sailed across Massachusetts liay, made his draft of the Cape Cod peninsula, and then, rejoining his vessels to the eastward, set sail for England, and reached port in August. Smith was, or professed to be, well pleased with what he saw ; but as he next engaged in a project for settling the country, which first took from him the name of New England, his enthusiastic description may savor perhaps of self-interest. " Of all the parts of the world I have yet seen not inhabited," he said, " I would rather live here than anywhere."

The site of Boston before this had been successively found within a region variously designated. To the Northmen it was Vinland, In 1520 Ayllon could not have sailed much above 30° north latitude, yet in Ribero's map Tierra de Ayllon stretched up into New England. So again, a little later, the Tictra de los Bretones was extended west and south from the region where Cabot made his landfall. After Verrazzano and Cartier, Francisca^ Nova Francia^ La Terre Franqaise^ and Nouvelle France was stretched to the south over New England, and sometimes the Spanish Florida^ as in Ruscelli's map, 1561, came well up to the same latitude. The earliest native name to be applied to the country by Europeans was Norumbega^ which appears in the narrative of the French captain quoted in Ramusio, in 1537, and, by the time Mercator made his great chart in 1569, this name began to be general. It seemed at first to cover a territory stretching well along our eastern seaboard, but gradually became fixed on the region of the Penobscot* Smith, in 1620, makes Virginia a part of Norumbega. Virginia first appeared on maps in Hakluyt's edition of Peter Martyr's Decades^ 1587, and later Gosnold and his successor considered they were exploring the northern parts of Virginia, and so it was known to Smith before he gave it the designation it now bears, - New England. " My first voyage to Norumbega, now called New England, 1614," is his marginal note in his Advertisement to Planters, Hunt and other navigators called it Cannaday, Smith's designation did not wholly supplant the Dutch New Netherland in European maps (which began to be used also about this time), till the Hollanders were finally expelled from New York; and even after that the Dutch name vanished slowly.

To further his colonization scheme, Smith set sail from England again in March, 161 5, with two ships, one commanded by himself and the other by Dermer. The latter alone succeeded in reaching the coast, and returned after a successful business in August.® Meanwhile Smith's ship was dis- abled in a storm; returned to refit; again set sail, June 24, but only to be captured by a French cruiser. After many mishaps in his captivity, Smith got back to England late in 161 5, bringing with him the narrative of his first voyage, which he had written while a prisoner to the French. In June, 1616, he published it in London, as A Description of New England: or The Observations^ and Discoveries^ of Captain John Smith {Admirall of that Country) t in the North of America, in the year of our Lord, 1614. - London. Humfrey LowneSy for Robert Clerke, 1616. It was a little quarto volume, of a size and shape common to that day, of about eighty pages. A folding map of New England, extending from Penobscot Bay to Cape Cod, went with it. With this publication Smith sought to incite a movement for colonization. He journeyed about the western counties distributing it. " I caused/' he says, " two or three thousand of them [the book] to be printed ; one thousand with a great many maps, both of Virginia and New England, I presented to thirty of the Chief Companies in London at their halls." No immediate results came from Smith's efforts. He never again was on the coast, and his endeavors were but a part of the causes that finally worked together to establish the English race permanently upon Massachusetts Bay.

Smith's map, as the real foundation of our New England cartography, deserves particular attention. To the draft which he made he affixed the Indian names, or such as whim had prompted him to give while he surveyed the shores. There is rarely found in copies of the Description of New England a leaf, printed on one side only, which reads as follows : " Because the Booke was printed ere the Prince his Highnesse had altered the names, I intreate the Reader peruse this schedule; which will plainly shew him the correspondence of the old names to the new." Below this are two columns, one giving the old names, the other the new ones ; the latter such as Prince Charles, then a lad of fifteen, had affixed to the different points, bays, rivers, and other physical features, when Smith showed him the map. As engraved, the map has the Prince's nomenclature; the book has Smith's or the earlier; and this rare leaf is to make the two mutually intelligible.^

I. The original condition of the map bears in the lower left-hand comer, Simon Pasaus sculps it; Robert Gierke excudit ; and in the lower right-hand corner, London ^ plantations, enlarged the knowledge of the coast, copies in the British Museum, want it. CL Gorgcs's Narrative ; Palfrey's New England^ ^ In this study I make use of some memor-

Printed by Gcor: lunv. The title NEW ENGLAND is in large letters at the top, to the right of it the English anus, and beneath it, The most remarqncable parts thus flamed \ Ity the high and mighty Prince CHARLES, | /V//irtf of great Britaine. The latitude is marked on the right-hand side only : there are no marks of longitude. Tk)ston Harbor is indicated by a bay with eight islands, and a point of land extending from the southwest within it. The River Charles extends inland from the northwest comer of the bay, a short distance. A whale, a ship, and a fleet are represented upon the sea. There is no date beneath the scale. There are many names on later states not yet introduced, and some of the present names are changed in the later impressions, as will be noted below.

Of the names which the Prince assigned, but three became permanently attached to the localities, and these are, - Plimouth to the spot which Champlain had called Port St, Lofiis, which the natives called Accomack ^ and which the Pilgrims continued to call by this newer name, seven or eight years later ; Cape Anna, for which Smith had sacrificed the remembrance of his Eastern romance ; and The River Charles, which had been previously known as Massachusets River ; while the name Massachusets Mount, earlier applied to our Blue Hill, became, under Cliarles's pen, Cheuyot hills} Gosnold's Cape Cod proved better rooted than Charles's monument to his dynasty, Cape James, and so the Prince's Stnard's Bay has given place to Cape Cod Bay. Our own name, - Boston, - as is the case with many other well-known names of this day, appears in connection with a locality remote from its present application. It supplanted Smith's Accominticus, and stood for the modem York in Maine. Two of the Captain's names were suffered to stand, - New England as the general designation of the country, and Smitlis Isles, within ten years afterwards to be known among the lOnglish as the Isles of Shoals? London was put upon the shore about where Hingham or perhaps Cohasset is ; Oxford stood for the modem Marshfleld ; Poynt Sutiliff is adjacent, and does duty for Champlain's C de S, Louis and the present Brant Rock ; and Poynt George is the designation of the Gurnet.

Of the copies of the book known to be in America, but one has the map in this state, and that is the Prince copy, in which the map is unfortunately imperfect, but not in an essential part.* From this copy C. A. Swett, of Boston, engraved the fac-simile which appeared in Veazie's reprint of the Description of Neiu England, in 1865.*

In 1617, Hulsius, the German collector, translated Smith's Description for his Voyages, and re-engraved the map ; but the names in the lower comers were omitted, and Smith's title, the verses concerning him, and some of the explanations were given in Gennan. Hulsius's map, beside accompanying his Part XIV., first edition, 1617, and second edition, 1628, is often found in Part XHL (Hamor's Virginia), and is also given in Part XX. (New England and Virginia), 1629.*

* A monument to Smith was erected on can collections, - Harvard College Library, Star Island, one of the group, in 1864. It is Lenox Library, the Carter Brown Library, Chas. pictured in Jenness*s Isles of Shotils, and in S. Dcanc's collection, &c.

II. The date, 1614, is for the first time inserted under the scale, and the names P, Travers and Gerranis lis are put in near Pembrocks Bay (Penobscot). A copy of this second state is in the Harvard College copy of the Description of 16 16. We give a heliotype of a portion of it. A lithographic fac-simile of the whole, but without the ships, &c., is given in 3 Mass, Hist, Coll. iii., and in a reduced form by photo-lithography in Palfrey's Nciv England^ i. 95.* Mr. Lenox supposed that this state of the plate may have been first used in the 1620 edition of Smith's Nav England's Trials^ no copy of which was known to be in this country when Mr. Deane, in 1873, reprinted it* in the Proceedings of the Mass, Hist, Society, Feb. i873.'

III. Smith's escutcheon, but without the motto, was introduced in the lower lefthand corner. This state is found in Mr. Deane's copy of the Generall Historic, 1624, and in the Lenox copy of the Description of 1616. Mr. Lenox supposed this state may have been first used in the 1622 edition of New England's Trials,^

IV. The motto Vincere est vivere is put in a scroll to the left of Smith's escutcheon. The degrees of latitude and longitude are noted on all sides. Copies of this state are found in the Charles Deane and Carter Brown copies of the Description of 1616, and it was also in the Crowninshield copy, taken fi-om Boston to England some years since. Mr. Lenox supposed this state to have originally belonged to the first edition of the Generall Historic f 1624, in which Smith gathered his previous independent issues. There was no change in the several successive editions of this book (1624, 1626, 1627, 1632, the last in two issues) except in the front matter ; and, speaking of this book, Field, in his Indian Bibliography, p. 366, says of the original issue, " It is so commonly the case as almost to form the rule, that even the best copies have been made up by the substitution of later editions of some of the maps." Some of the copies were on large paper.*

V. The name Paynes lis is put down on the Maine coast. Cross-lines are made on the front of the breastplate in the portrait of Smith, in the upper left-hand corner, and the whole portrait is retouched. Robert Gierke's name is partly obliterated. This state is supposed to belong to the 1626 edition of the Geturall Historic, The edition of this date in Cornell University Library (Sparks Collection) has

- Also separately issued. tive of its state of ihsue. The Generall Historic < This second cdiliun was enlarged fitiui is reprinted in IMnkcrlon's /Vv<'.viJ, xiii., and in eight to fourteen leaves of text. Mr. Deane great part in Turchas's Pd^rims. It was tarehas a copy. The late John Carter Brown issued lessly reprinted in Richmond, Va., in 1819.

VI. The name of lames Reeue in the lower right-hand comer is siil)stituted for that of George Low. The name of the engraver is given with an additional s, - Passaus. This state is supposed by Mr. Lenox to belong to the 1627 edition of the Generall Historie^ of which there are copies in the Mass, Hist. Soc. Library, and in the Prince Library (with notes by Prince). This state is in the 1632 edition in Harvard College Library.

VII. The last line of the inscription at the top is changed to read : no7ve King of great Britaine, In the portrait the armor is figured. IVesfs Bay is placed on the outer side of Cape lames. P\ Standish corresponds to the modem Manomet Point. The word NEW is inserted above Plimouth. P. IVynihrop is put north of Cape Anna, P. Reeues is put near Ipsivuh. Salem is laid down just north of Cape Anna, Piillcrton lie is changed to Prauncis He;* Cary lis to Claiborne lis (off Boston Harbor) ; and P, Murry to P, Salionsiale (south of Boston Harbor). The bay (Tk)ston Harbor) is enlarged westward, a point of land within it erased, and the islands increased from eight to eighteen.'

Mr. Lenox held that this state first appeared in Smith's Adveriisemehts to Planters^^ 1 63 1, and it is found in the Carter Brown copy of this tract. The Harvard College copy, however, has the state X., and the Charles Deane copy has IX. Mr. Lenox has questioned if this state did not sometimes make part of Higginson's New England's Plantation ^ of which there were three editions printed in 1630, the first of twenty, and the second enlarged to twenty-six pages. The two copies of the book in Harvard College Library, the three editions in the Lenox Library, and the copy which was in the Brinley sale, all, however, want the map." Sparke, who printed the second edition of Higginson, probably owned the plate, as he printed the Generall Historie o{ 1624, 1626, and 1627, and the Hisioria Mundi of 1635, which all had the map. Yet, if it properly belongs to Higginson, it is strange that a map misplacing Saleniy where Higginson lived, should be used ; and the names Wynthrop and Saltonstale could liave been given only in anticipation of the arrival of those gentlemen.

VIII. Martins He is given in Penobscot Bay. Perhaps some of the changes named under IX. were made in this state (except the Plymouth Company's arms) ; for the only example of it which I have found is a fragment (two thirds) of the map belonging to Harvard College Library, the westerly third being gone. It belonged, perhaps, to the first issue of the 1632 edition of the Generall Historie,

IX. The arms of the Council for New England are given in the centre of the plate.* liie following changes may first have appeared in the preceding number.

* Tlic Harvard College copy of this date simile of the map by Vcazic, Boston, 1865, and (1626) wants the ma|)s. There is a copy in the is also included in 3 Afass, Hist. Colt. iii. Smith Mass. Hist. Society's library. died June 21, 1631, and this must have been the

* This is just north of the entrance to Bos- last state of the plate he was personally conton I larbor, and is supposed to be Nahant, re- cenied in.

' This was because of the reports of later - Mr. Charles Deane supposes these arms to visitors, which Smith, in his Advertisvments to be those of the Council. Sec his letter in Afass, Planters^ says had represented the "excellent Jfist. Soc. Proc^ March, 1867. Dr. Palfrey enbay" to have "forty or fifty pleasant islands." graves them as such on the title-page of his

Tlie name Charlton * is inserted just south of the mouth of The River Charles. Salem misplaced is obliterated, and the name is inserted m its proper place. Two unfinished arms of the sea, on the north of Talbotts Bay^ are extended inland, covering the position of a church in previous states. This may have l)elonged to the second 1632 issue of the Gmerall Historie^ and it appears in such copies in Harvard College Library and in Mr. Barlow's copy. It is in Mr. Deane's Advertisement to Planters of 1631.

X. The River Charles is extended to the left-hand edge of the plate, and symbols of towns with figures of men, animals, and representations of Indian huts are scattered near it. On its north bank the following names are inserted, beginning at the west : Watertowne^ Newtowne^ Medford^ Charles to7vn,^ and beyond the Fawmouth of the original plate Saugus is put in. The south bank shows Roxberry, Boston (represented as hwQ leagues up the river, by the scale), and JVinnisime. Cheuyot hills is erased and the name Dorchester is inserted along the eastern slope of the picture of the hill which still remains. London and Oxford still stand. A school of fish is delineated under the single ship. Under the compass these words appear : He that desyrcs to know more of the Estate of neio England lett him read a new Book of the prospecte of new England &* ther he shall have Sattisfaction, Although the old date, 1 6 14, is still kept on the plate, this inscription shows that this slate followed the publication of Wood's New England's Prospects^ 1634, and it seems to have been made for the following work : Historia Mundi, or Mercator's Atlas . . . Enlarged with new Mapps and Tables by the studious Industrie of yodocus Hondy. Englished by JF[ye] 5[altonstall]. London, Printed for Michaell Sparke and Samuel Cartwright, 1635, folio.*

The modem fac-simile, by Swett, of the first state was also altered for Veazie to suit this condition, but the engraver did not observe that a third s had been inserted in the name of Passccus. This altered engraving is found in J. S. Jenness's Isles of Shoals, New York, 1873.

A new element entered into the progress of New England cartography when the Dutch laid claim to her territory. We have already mentioned how Hudson, in 1609, came upon Cape Cod. He thought the promontory an island ; and, naming it Nienw Hollande, he sailed about within the bay, baffled in his efforts to find a passage to the south. Five years later from the settlements of the Dutch at Manhattan, Adrian Block, in the spring of 1614, sailing in the first vessel built in that region, - the yacht " Onrust," or the "Restless," - explored the Connecticut shores and inlets; passed by Tcxcl (Martha's Vineyard), Vlielande (Nantucket); rounded the southern point of the Cape Cod peninsula, which he called Vlacke Hoeck ; passed the easterly highlands on the back of the Cape, which he called Staten hocck ; rounded the Cape itself, naming it Caep Bevechier ; passed into the bay {Fuyck) ; named the southerly reach off the Barnstable shore Staten

The Figurative Map, 1614

* We shall find these names of Cratie Bay and " Little Crane," licensed by the States Genand Fox or Vos Ifaven clinging long to these eral, Feb. 21, 161 r, for exploring, ostensibly to

The Memorial History Of Boston

Bay, making it the northerly limit of the Dutch claim, based on his discoveries. Brodhead, the New York historian, found in 1841, in the archives at the Hague, a map, which is supposed to be the one mentioned by De Laet, in 1625, as "a chart of this quarter made some years since." It is conjectured that it was prepared in 1614 from Block's data, and was the " Figurative Map," covering the country from 40^ to 45^ north latitude, presented to their High Mightinesses at the time they granted the charter for this region, - Oct. 11, 1614, - in which they acknowledge the English claim below 40** and the French claim above 45,** and took to themselves the intervening territory. Thus it would seem that, at about the time Prince Charles was reaffirming the name New England, the Dutch dignitaries were assigning the name New Netherland to the same territory.^ This -* Figurative Map " gives a misshapen Cape Cod peninsula, and cuts it off from the main by a channel ; ^ the bay becomes the Noord Zee ; Boston is Vos haven, with the Charles stretching west to Irocoisia, lying east of what stands for our present Lake George; Salem Bay seems to be Graef Hendryck's Bay ; Smith's P. Wynthorp becomes Wyngaerds hoeck ; the Merrimac is Sant revier, emptying into Witte bay^

- fg^y^otck ^ laghan, after a copy in his possession.* It \yi/i^t>iff*^^^ corresponds nearly in outline (excepting the ^/ Tt^rct^fii^^^ channel that makes Cape Cod an island) and in names to the ** Figurative Map." The features common to the two were reiterated by the Dutch geographers for some time. Joannes De Laet issued the first edition of his Nieuwe Wereldt, Leyden, in 1625,^ which contained maps by Hessel Gerritz. A second edition, in 1630, had new maps ; and there were various later editions in Latin and in French.**

* Brodhead, Hist, of New York, gives a map with modern outlines, showing New Netherland according to the charters of Oct. 11, 1614, and June 3, 1621, covering what is now known as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.

^ There seem to have been passages through the peninsula at a later day, upon good evidence, and there were probably similar ones earlier. Captain Cyprian Southack, in his chart of the ** Sea of New England,'' giving the coast from Ipswich to Buzzard's Bay, makes a passage at the elbow of Cape Cod, and calls it " The place where I came through with a whale boat, l)eing ordered by y« Governm*t to look after y*= Pirate Ship, Whido liellanie, command', cast away y-' 26 of April, 171 7, where I buried one hundred and two men drowned." There is a similar passage shown in The English Pilot, London, 1794.

' Fac-similes of this map are given in Docutitents relative to the Colonial History of Ntio York, i. 13, and in O'Callaghan's Hist, of Nnv Netherland. According to F. Muller's Books on America, iii. 147, and his Catalogue of 1877, No. 2,270, a chromo-lithograph of it was issued by E. Spanier in i85o(?).

* Documents relating to the Colonial Hist, of N. Y. i. ; also given in Valentine's New York City Afanual, 1858, and in Pennsylvania Archives, second series, v. Muller, Books on America, iii. 143, and Catalogue of 1877, No. 3,484, describes the only other copy known.

Earliest Maps Of Massachusetts Bay

These works constitute an important step in the progress of cartographical knowledge. The Novus Orbis of 1633, however, shows two maps of our bay, which seem to divide the geographical honors between Champlain and Block. That of " Nova Francia ** gives the Frenchman's names ; and R, dii Gaz stands for the Charles. That of ** Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia" follows the Dutch reports, putting Vossen Havm for Boston Harbor; but, with further impartiality, it perpetuates Smith's designation of Stuarts Bay and Bristow (which proved singularly perennial for a nonexisting town about where Beverly is), while Tragabigzanda dragged after it the alias of Cape Anna}

In 163 1, an important series of Dutch atlases was begun at Amsterdam by W. J. Blaeu ; and they continued to be issued with Dutch, French, Spanish, and Latin texts till near the end of the century, - some purporting to be continuations of Mercator and Ortelius.* The map of " Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova." in his Niaiwe Atlas of 1635, repeats the general contours of the ** Figurative Map" of twenty years earlier; but Cape Cod peninsula is not severed, as in that. Boston is still Vos liavm; there are still some traces of Smith remaining, as in Tragabigzanda. As in the Champlain map, the Charles, or rather the Merrimac, leaves at its head-waters but a small portage to the Lacus IrocociensiSy or Lake Champlain. A new name comes in for the Gurnet Point, - C, Blanco Gallis, - which seems to be repeated in another form (C. Banco) in a map which appeared in Robert Dudley's Delia Arcano del Mare, Firenzc, 1647.^ Dudley, who seems to have followed the " Figurative Map " in general, has made a strange mixture of the names. To Block's nomenclature he has added various designations from Smith's map, like Bristow, Milford Haven (put outside the Cape). Some of the Dutch names are translated, like Henry's Bay; others are left, like P Vos along the Charles ; while Boston stands against the harbor of islands, and occasionally an Italian termination appears, - due, perhaps, to his engraver, A. E. Lucini.*

Before closing this section it may be well to trace the more immediate influence of Smith's map among the English. Dermer, who had sailed in company with Smith on his last unfortunate voyage, had been again on the coast in 1620, and seems to have landed at Nauset, and at the place "which, in Captain Smith's map, is called Plymouth." * This was in June ; and, in

* This map is given in fac-simile in the Lenox can Antiquarian Society's Proceedings, October, edition of Jogues*s Novum Belgium, prepared by 1873, that there arc in the Royal Library at J. G. Shea in 1862. Munich some of Dudley's drawings for the question is fac-similed in Documents relattt'e to region or tribe. the Colonial History of New York, vol. i., where * Cf. Bradford's Ffistory, p. 96.

November, the ** Mayflower," borne by the wind and the currents north of her destination, which had been somewhere on the Jersey coast or by the capes of Delaware, sighted the clifls of Cape Cod, and came to anchor in the harbor of Provincetown. The Pilgrims had declined, while in Holland, the offers of the Dutch to settle in New Netherland ; but, if they had seen Block's map, they must have known they were now in what Hudson had called New Holland. Smith's map they doubtless knew ; and, notwithstanding their exile, they had English sympathies. There were among the crew of the ship those who had been on the coast before in fishing-craft ; and one such advised them to make a settlement at Agawam, the modern Ipswich. That they went to Plymouth, however, is well known; and, almost at the same date with their arrival, James I. had challenged the Dutch on the one side and the French on the other, by granting to the Council of Plymouth in England the patent of Nov. 3, 1620, which confirmed to that Company the territory between 40° and 48° north latitude. Of these the Pilgrims sought to hold, and from them they received their patent

The next few years saw an increase in the visitors to the coast ; and of the large numbers of his maps which Smith had distributed in the country back of Bristol some doubtless found their way hither in the venturesome craft which came among these waters to fish and to barter for beaver.* Settlements were forming, too, - Weston at Wessagusset (Weymouth) in 1622; those at Nantasket in 1623-24, who removed to Cape Ann the next year; Morton at Merry Mount in 1625 ; Conant and others at Naumkeag (Salem) in 1626; and, when Higginson came in 1629, he spoke of those already settled at Cherton, or Charlestown, "on Masathulets Bay," - the Prince's name still governing the designation of the earliest settlement on the Charles, - and which the next year received the company of Winthrop. Somewhere in these few years must be fixed another excursion of the Plymouth people, when, on their way to visit their neighbors at Salem, they stopped in Boston

Harbor, and left names upon headland and island that still remain. One of their chief men, Isaac Allerton, gave his name to the bluff more frequently in these days called, by corruption, Point Alderton ; * and upon neighboring rocks and islets was bestowed the name of his wife's family. She was a daughter of the Pilgrim elder, Brewster.

Meanwhile, as Smith said in 1624,* the country was ** at last engrossed by twenty patentees, that divided my map into twenty parts, and cast lots for their shares." What Smith refers to is an abortive scheme of this time, by which the coast was to be parcelled out to prominent members of the Coun-

1630; Smith, Generalt Historie ; \4\ii\!t^Pla»Uer's map, 1634, the earliest giving details. PUa. ' In his TVue Travells^ cap. xxiii., p. 47.

Earliest Maps Of Massachusetts Bay

cil for Planting, Ruling, and Governing New England.* Smith's map was certainly not implicitly followed ; for the map thus cut up seems also to bear some traces borrowed from another, - perhaps from Lescarbot's of 1612. Sir William Alexander, to whom the King had granted a charter in 162 1, made this new map public in his Encouragement to Colonists, London, 1624 (some copies, 1625), and again in 1630 annexed it to a new edition of the tract, in which he had changed the name to The Mapp and Description of New England^

Some of the names which Prince Charles bestowed had a singular vitality, - cartographically speaking at least. Though there were no communities to be represented by them, geographers did not willingly let them die. De Laet and Blaeu, within the next score of years, used several of them. They got into the Carta II. of Robert Dudley's Arcano del Mare y published at Florence in 1647. Sanson used some of them through a long period of map-making, and even as late as 17 19; and during the latter part of the seventeenth century they constantly appear in the geographical works of Visscher, Homann, Jansson, De Witt, Sandrart, Danckers, Ottens, AUard, and others. They stood forth in the maps of Montanus's Nieuwe Weereld, and adorned the great folio translation known as Ogilby's America in 1670. Some of them are found so late as 1745, in a Dutch Atlas von Zeeimert, published at Amsterdam.^ It is curious to observe how the imaginary Bristow and London appear as Bristoinm and Londinum, in the Latin map of Crceuxius's book on Canada in 1664. In Visscher's and Jansson's maps, the intruding Cheviot Hills becomes Chenyothillis, - not readily recognized, / V except for the Mons Massachtisetts, given by their side. A strange migration occurs in one of Hennepin's maps. The Dutch claimed that Pye Bay (Nahant) marked their northern limit, and so the upper boundary of Nouveau Pays Bas runs westerly from Boston Harbor. It could hardly be denied, in Hennepin's time, that the English had a substantial hold upon Boston, and ought to have had upon Bristow and London, - which were English enough in name, if aerial in substance. So, to gov. winthrop's sketch.

* The tract is reprinted, with a fac-simile of the map, in E. F. Slafter's Sir William Alexander, published by the Prince Society. Harvard College Library has the 1630 tract without the map. The map was repeated in Purchas's Pilgrims, iv., and has been reproduced in S. G. Drake's Founders of Ne%v England, i860; in

David Laing's Royal Litters, &c., Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1867 ; and in part in J. W. Thornton's Landing at Cape Anne, It is also given, with documents appertaining, in the American Antiquarian Society* s Proceedings, April 24, 1867. * Ignorance in Holland in 1745 is certainly more pardonable than the English blunder of 1778, when the North American Gazetteer oi that year spoke of Bristol, R. I., as being famed "for cause no dispute, Boston is put down somewhere in the latitude of Portsmouth, where Prince Charles had placed it, and Bristow and London flank the mouths of what must be the Merrimac. This was not long before 1700.

It is interesting to note that Winthrop, in the " Arbella" in 1630, making the shore just south of Cape Ann, sketched on a blank leaf of his journal - as on preceding page - the earliest outline of the coast from Gloucester to Salem harbor, which is preserved to us in any original drawing. The same page bears a description of the islands and reefs about Cape Ann.^

ON the afternoon of Wednesday, the 29th of September, 1621, a large open sail-boat, or shallop, as. it was then called, entered Boston Harbor, coming up along the shore from the direction of Plymouth. In it were thirteen men, - ten Europeans, with three savages acting as their guides. The whole party was under the immediate command of Captain Miles Standish, and their purpose was to explore the country in and about Massachusetts Bay. as Boston Harbor was then called, and to establish friendly trading X^^C^^'^'^^^x-X ^J^TZ'T^^^lj relations with the inhabitants. They had started from Plymouth on the ebb tide shortly before the previous midnight, expecting to reach their destination the next morning ; but the wind was light and the distance greater than they supposed, so that the day was already old when they made the harbor's mouth. Passing by Point Allerton they laid their course for what appeared to them to be the bottom of the bay, and, finding good shelter there, came to anchor off what is now known as Thomson's Island.^ Here they lay during the night, which they passed on board their boat; though it would seem that Standish and others landed and explored the little island, even naming it Trevore, after one of their number, - William Trevore, an English sailor.

* The course of this exploring expedition has been differently surmised by the several an thorities. The words used in Mourt are : " We came into the bottom of the bay." Young supposes this to mean that they anchored off Copp*s Hill, at the north end of Boston [Chronicles of the Pilgrimsy p. 225, //., following, in this statement, Dr. Belknap in his American Biogra/fhy) ; while Dexter, in his edition of Mourt, says : "That is, run in by Point Allerton into Light-house Channel" (p. 125, «.)- Neither Dr. Young nor Dr. Dexter, it is fair to presume, were ])ractically very familiar with Boston I{arl>or. To one who has been in the custom of navigating it, however, the phrase " the lx>ttom of the bay " is, as a description, almost unmistakable. A lx>at coming from Plymouth would enter the harbor by the channel between Shag-rocks and Point Allerton ; and from there the view in the direction of Thomson's Island is wholly unobstructed, while the ship-channel to Boston and Copp's Hill is deviou.s, and masked by islands. Explorers would naturally go directly through the open water to Squantum near the mouth of the Neponset, - the apparent " l>ottom of the bay." «.

Early on the morning of the next day the party made ready to extend their explorations to the main-land. As they had come to establish relations with what remained of the once powerful tribe of the Massachusetts, ish made a deposition in relation to Thomson's Island, in which he stated that, in the year he came into the country, he visited this island, and then named it Island Trevore, - after William Trevore, who, as stated in the text, was with him (^V. E. HUt. and GeneaL Reg., ix. 248). This Trevore came over in the " Mayflower," hired to stay in the country one year. At the expiration of his year he returned to England. Standish and Trevore, therefore, could only have visited Thomson's Island together during the September expedition of 1621. (Mass. Hist. Sac. Prac., 1875-76, p. 373.)

This visit also could apparently have been made only on the evening of their arrival at the " bottom of the bay," or the morning after their arrival there, and before they crossed to the main-land. For it is clear that Obbatinewat did not live on this island, as Standish, in the deposition of 1650, particularly says that it was not only deserted, but that iJierc were no signs of its ever having been inhabited. After visiting the main-land, and setting out in search of Obbatinewat's place of abode, the whole time of the explorers is accounted for : they crossed the bay, passed the night off the main shore on its other side, and the next day made their excursion into the interior, getting back to their boat only in time to start for Plymouth by moonlight. Apparently, they were too much occupied to explore uninhabited islands.

It seems, therefore, fairly to 1)e inferred that they came to anchor off Thomson's Island on their arrival, and that their subsequent course was as described in the text. The //t'st. of Dorchester supposes that the first landing was at Nantasket, then at Squantum, and that it was on the Neponset that they made their explorations.

* Chronicles of Mass., p. 395 5 Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 226. [Mr. Everett, in his Dorchester oration, 1855 {Works, iii. 318), speaks of a solitary individual of the tribe still lingering within his recollection. - Ed.]

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harhor

the northern part of what is now the town of Quincy, and, almost surrounded by the swamps and marshes bordering on the bay and the Neponset River, was connected with the Squantum headland, opposite to which the party had anchored their boat, by a low neck of mingled marsh and beach. Crossing the narrow channel which divides Thomson's Island from this headland,

Standish landed at the foot of the bold rocky cliff which is still so striking and exceptional a feature of the shore, - a miniature Nahant deep within the recesses of the harbor.

* [The portrait which is here called that of Standish is from a photograph, taken from an old painting owned by Captain A. M. Harrison, U. S. Coast Survey, of Plymouth, which, through the friendly offices of B. Marston Watson, Esq., of that town, was kindly placed at my disposal by the owner. Captain Harrison has given an account of what is known of the picture, in a letter printed in the Mass, Hist, Soc. Proc.^ October, 1877, p. 324. The canvas stands in need of complete identification as a likeness of the redoubtable Tilgrim hero, and the leader of the first party of Englishmen of whom we have accounts as landing on any part of the ter- VOL. I. - 9.

ritory of Boston ; but, until positively disproven, it must have a certain interest. The portrait, which is painted on an old panel, was found in a picture shop in School Street, the legend /Etatis stta 38, A*^- 1625 being observable, - the year of Standish*s visit to England, when he was of the age noted. The name M, Standish was disclosed on removing the apparently modern frame. The previous owner, James Gilbert, stated that it was purchased by Roger Gilbert, his great-uncle, who was born in Portsmouth, Va., but then living in Philadelphia, of a branch of the Chew family in Germantown, Penn., shortly before the war of 1812. - Ed.]

Either the party had set out but slenderly provided, or they had not yet breakfasted ; for, finding a number of lobsters on the shore, collected there by the savages, they appropriated them, and on them made their morning's meal. This done, Standish, having posted two men as sentinels behind the cliff on the landward side, to secure the shallop against any attempt at surprise, took four other men, with Squanto as a guide, and went in search of the inhabitants. They had not gone far when they met a woman coming for the lobsters they had found on landing. They told her that they had taken them and gave her something in compensation, and she in return explained to them where her people were. Her sachem's name she gave as Obbatinewat. There is no record, other than this, either of him or of the place where he usually lived. He professed allegiance to Massasoit, though then in the territory of the Massachusetts, and at this particular time was in such terror of the dreaded Tarrentines that he did not dare remain long in any settled place. It would seem probable that he and his people were then tarrying somewhere on the shores north of the Neponset, perhaps at Savin Hill or near Dorchester Heights ; for, while Squanto went thither with the woman, probably in her canoe, the rest returned to the shallop and followed them by water, which they would scarcely have done had their destination been any point further to the south and accessible by land.

Rejoining Squanto and the Indian woman at the place she had indicated, Standish there found Obbatinewat, and, taking advantage of the terror in which he lived both of the Squaw-Sachem of the Massachusetts, the widow of Nanepashemet, and of the Tarrentines, he easily, by means of a promised protection, induced him to profess allegiance to King James. Obbatinewat then undertook to guide the party to the Squaw-Sachem, who lived somewhere on the Mystic, in the neighborhood, it is supposed, of the Wachuset. Going, therefore, presently on board their boat, they crossed

* [This sword came into the possession of the matchlock is also in the Society's cabinet, and is Mass. Hist. Soc. in 1798, where it now is. See given here as a specimen of the weapons with their Proceedings^ January, 1798, p. 115. The which Standish's men were armed. - Ed.]

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harbor

the bay, and, as they did so, they noted with admiration its broad expanse and the numerous islands dotting its surface, which, though then deserted by their inhabitants, were covered with trees and the remains of those savage plantations which Captain Smith had observed upon them seven years before.* It was night before the explorers reached the mouth of the Mystic and landed the savages, who, however, found no one. It being too late to go further that day, they anchored their shallop and again passed the night on board.

The next morning they landed, and, leaving two men to protect the boat, pushed forward up the country in the direction of Medford and Winchester.' It was the first of October, of the present style, and a bright clear autumnal day, with the wind, what little there was of it, from the west' Though encumbered by their arms, the explorers marched briskly on, following their Indian guides, until, having gone some three miles, they came to an abandoned village ; another mile brought them to the place where the Sachem Nanepashemet had lived. His wigwam they found still standing, though deserted. It was situated on the top of a hill, and consisted of a wide scaffolding of planks, raised some six feet from the ground and supported upon posts, and on this stood the hut. Still pressing forward, they next found in a swamp, not far distant from the hill, the dead sachem's stronghold, which consisted of a palisaded enclosure of about forty or fifty feet in diameter, and of the usual circular form. The single means of entrance was by way of a bridge crossing two ditches, which formed the chief protection for the place, one being within and the other without the palisade ; and " in the midst of this Pallizade stood the frame of an house, wherein being dead he lay buryed."

The party had now gone perhaps four miles from their starting-point, and one mile more brought them to their destination, - another and similar stronghold on a hill-top, in which, some two years before, Nanepashemet had been surprised and killed by the Tarrentines.* Here, on what is supposed to have been Rock-hill, in Medford, they halted. The stockade had not been occupied since the sachem's death, nor had they as yet seen any of his people. Indeed, the rumor of their approach had evidently gone before them, for at several points they had come upon the bare poles of recently dismantled wigwams, and once they had found a pile of Indian corn covered only with a mat. They now, therefore, stopped at the second of these stockades and sent two of their guides out to hunt up the savages. About a mile away some Indian squaws were found at the place where they had carried their corn, and thither the party went. It was not without difficulty that the terror of the women was appeased, but at last the friendly bearing of the strangers had its effect, and they recovered their courage sufficiently to prepare for them such an entertainment as they could of boiled cod and whatever else they had. No males had yet been seen. At length, however,

Smith's sailing into the inner harbor is examined course pursued by the explorers on this day. in Mr. Winsor's chapter, next preceding. - Ed] ^ Chronidts of the PU^ims^ p. 229.

after much sending and coaxing, one was induced to show himself, -* shaking and trembling for feare ; " but finally they satisfied him also that they came to trade and not to injure him, and then he promised them his furs. They could, however, get no information as to the whereabouts of the Squaw- Sachem. They were simply told that " shee was far from thence."

The day now being well spent the party prepared to return, and Squanto then took occasion to suggest the propriety of plundering the poor Indian women, who had just entertained them, of their furs; "for," said he, ** they are a bad people, and have often threatened you." Naturally the suggestion was not listened to, and the squaws, on the contrary, had by this time become so friendly that they accompanied the explorers the whole distance back to the boat. Then at last the spirit of trade proved so strong with them that they even "sold their coats from their backs, and tied boughs about them, but with great shamcfacedness, for indeed they are more modest than some of our English women." Their provisions growing scarce, the party now set sail, having a fair wind and a bright moon, and reached their homes at Plymouth before noon of the following day, the last of the week.

They had been most fortunate in the time of their expedition, for they had enjoyed a series of clear, windless days, during which they saw the harbor and its surrounding country under their most attractive aspect, - through the translucent September haze, when field and forest and hill-side glow with autumnal tints, and it is a pleasure to breathe and move in the pure New England air.^ Their explorations, it is true, had not gone far, and they saw apparently the mouth of one only of the rivers which empty into the harbor.* They had, however, in their going and coming, thoroughly traversed the bay, and taken in its great size and the number of its islands. It was, therefore, no occasion for surprise that they returned to Plymouth not without repining; and, as they made report of the pleasant places they had visited, they could not help " wishing they had been ther seated." ^ they really fixed that name upon the stream now the peninsula itself : - bearing it. They recognized that Smith had ap- "Yet I have seen thee a void place, apparently hardly more than looked into it, as he did not even ascertain the non-existence of the great river, a mouth for which he suggested in his map, and which the savages assured him pierced " many days journeys the entrails of that country." There is no question, however, that long before Standish's visit the harbor was well known to the traders and fishermen of all the maritime nationalities. Of the French, in particular, the traces are curiously distinct. Smith, for instance, mentions that, when he visited the bay in 161 4, a French ship had shortly before been there and remained six weeks, trading with the natives until, when he followed, they had nothing left to barter. A year or two later there is a passing record of another French vessel which entered the harbor to truck for furs ; and while she lay at anchor off Pettuck's Island the savages conspired to surprise her ; which they successfully did, killing or capturing all on board, and then plundering and burning the vessel. Years afterwards pieces of French money, which not improbably fell into the hands of the savages on this occasion, were dug up at Dorchester. There were traditions also of shipwrecked Frenchmen, most of whom ended a miserable existence as captives among the Indians, though one or two were rescued from them.* These passing traders, whatever their nation, left, however, no records of their visits ; and, though the harbor was familiar to many, no attempt at settlement had yet been made upon its shores. It is probable that, in consequence of Standish's expedition, some shelter necessary for the uses of an occasional tradingparty may have been erected by the Plymouth people at Hull the next year;' if so, it was but temporarily occupied, and had about it nothing of the character of a settlement.

It was not possible, however, that so advantageous a point upon the coast should long remain a wilderness; and in 162 1 its civilized occupation was already a question of time, and a very short time at that. The first attempt at a settlement was, in fact, made the very next year, at a place known by the Indians as Wessagusset, on the south side of the bay, and in that part of the present town of Weymouth locally known as Old Spain.

The advance party of those concerned in this attempt made their appearance in the bay less than eight months after Standish's visit, about the middle of May, 1622. Ten in number, they came from the northward in an open boat. They had been sent out by Mr. Thomas Weston, a London merchant, who had a design of establishing a trading-post somewhere on the coast, in the immediate vicinity of Plymouth. Weston was well known to the Plymouth people, and, indeed, had for a time been prominently connected with their enterprise. He, however, was interested only in its commercial aspect, being a pure adventurer of the Captain John Smith type, so common at that time. As such, he had very naturally looked upon the English exiles then at Leyden as convenient instruments for the establishment of a permanent trading-station on that New England coast of which Smith had given so glowing and so deceptive an account. Accordingly, he had been very instrumental in sending them out. But, as time went on and the Plymouth people sent little or nothing back to their English partners, Thomas Weston was disposed to attribute the unsatisfactory financial outcome rather to **weeknes of judgmente, than weeknes of hands ; ** and so he bluntly charged them with passing their time in discoursing, arguing and consulting, when they should have been trading. Wholly breaking with them, therefore, and selling out his interest in the Merchant Adventurers' Company, Weston now proceeded to organize an expedition of his own on what he regarded as the correct commercial plan. Though long concerned in trading voyages, he personally seems to have known nothing of New England. An inborn adventurer himself, he was persuaded that a settlement of able-bodied men could, as Captain Christopher Levett afterwards expressed it, " do more good there in seven years than in England in twenty;"^ and he regarded families as a mere encumbrance to any well-designed enterprise. Accordingly, in the winter of 1621-22, he was busy in London organizing his new company on this approved plan ; and he made it up of the roughest material possible, - the very scum, apparently, of the streets and docks of the English trading-ports, - *' rude fellows" . . . "made choice of at all adventures." ^ Before sending out his main expedition, Weston took the precaution to dispatch the smaller party, which has been mentioned, to explore the way and fix upon a place of scUlemcnt. Those composing it were shipped in a vessel named the ** Sparrow," bound to the fishing-grounds off the coast of Maine; and the plan was for them to leave the vessel near the Damariscove Islands^, and thence to find their way by sea to Plymouth, looking as they went along for some place suitable for their purpose. Their method of procedure was a curious exemplification of the reckless spirit of the times, as well as of the lack of forethought, which, throughout, seems to have characterized Weston's attempt. None of the advance party appear to have been familiar with the region to which they were going ; a portion of them were not even seafaring men, and they were wholly unprovided with outfit. Not until they were on the point of leaving the " Sparrow " for a voyage of 1 50 miles along the New England coast in an open boat do they seem to have fully realized the nature of their errand. Apparently commiserating their helplessness, and being himself an adven-

Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settle- can be accepted as authority only with very dcnient of Weymouth, The other chief contempo- cided limitations." It was Pratt who warned the rary and later writers to 1^ consulted are : Plymouth people. - Ed.]

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harbor

turous fellow, the mate of the ** Sparrow " volunteered to pilot the party, and under his guidance they skirted the shore to Cape Ann, whence they ran across to Jioston Harbor. Here they seem to have passed a number of days exploring, and fmally selected its southerly side as that most favorable for the proposed settlement, for the single reason that there were the fewest natives thereabout. Indeed, there would not seem at this time to have been more than a few score of the wretched remnant of the Massachusetts lingering in that vicinity.^ Making some arrangement for what land they needed with the local sachem, and growing uneasy at the vastness of the solitude and the smallness of their own number, they then left the bay and made their way to Plymouth. There they landed and were cared for; and, while their pilot returned to his vessel, they awaited the arrival of the main body of their enterprise.

This was already on the sea, having sailed from London during the previous month. It consisted of some sixty ** rude fellows," whose " profaneness" their own leader surmised might not improbably scandalize the voyage, on board of two small vessels, the ** Charity " and the " Swan," the former of one hundred and the latter of thirty tons measurement. They all landed at Plymouth towards the end of June, and there they remained, to the great annoyance of their hosts, until some time in August. The necessary preparations having by that time been made at VVessagusset, the healthy members of the party were then removed thither, and towards the end of September the larger vessel, the ** Charity," returned to England, leaving the smaller one for the settlers' use. Weston himself was not of the party, but had placed it in charge of his brotherin-law, one Richard Greene. Greene, however, had died during the summer at Plymouth, and a man named Saunders had succeeded him in control.

The wretched sequel of Weston's abortive attempt belongs rather to the history of Weymouth than to that of Boston. Organized on wholly wrong principles, and managed without judgment; unrestrained by any authority and controlled by no purpose ; at once reckless and cowardly, scantily supplied and utterly improvident, - it required but the first touch of a New England winter to develop its whole inherent weakness. Insufficiently clad and starving, the would-be settlers mixed freely with the neighboring Indians, first begging and then stealing from them, and thus incurring anger while they ceased to inspire fear. A number of them died, and by the month of March their affairs had come to such a pass that it seemed more than questionable whether any would survive. Meanwhile, the savages had become so incensed at the depredations committed upon them, that a conspiracy was formed to destroy not only the Wessagusset intruders, but the Plymouth colony also. Rumors of it reached the latter towards the close of March; and, after some anxious deliberation, it was determined to send an armed force to Wessagusset, there to meet the impending danger. Standish, accordingly, was authorized to take as many men as he deemed sufficient to hold his own against ail the Indians in that vicinity, and to proceed thither at once. Placing no high estimate apparently either on the number or the courage of his opponents, he selected but eight companions, and with these set sail on what is now the 4th of April. He reached his destination the next day, in wet and stormy weather, and proceeded energetically to the work he had in hand. Collecting the wretched stragglers from the woods where they were searching for nuts, and from the shore where they were digging clams, he gathered them into the stockade, and issued to them rations of corn taken from the store which the hard-pressed people of Plymouth were reserving for seed. Having thus provided for his allies, he prepared to deal with the savages ; and the next day, or the day after, seven of them who had come within the stockade were surprised and massacred. Among those thus summarily dealt with were Pecksuot and Wituwamat, - two warriors who had been special objects of dread to the Plymouth magistrates.

This was the end of Weston's settlement. On the following day it was wholly abandoned, every European leaving Wessagussct, excepting only three stragglers, who, in defiance of orders, had wandered off among the savages. All of these were subsequently put to death by the natives.' The remainder divided into two parties, one of which cast in their lot with the Plymouth colony, while the other and apparently larger body, supplied by Standish with enough corn for the voyage, went on board the ** Swan," and with their leader, Saunders, sailed for the fishing-stations on the coast of Maine. They felt no further desire to remain in New England. Weston himself, meanwhile, had already left London, and was now on the way to his plantation. At the Maine fishing-stations he heard of its abandonment, but nevertheless started in an open boat with one or two men for Wessagusset Less fortunate than his pioneer party of the year before, he was cast away upon the voyage, and barely escaped with his life. Though he recovered the " Swan," and remained some time longer on the coast, trading with the savages and in trouble with the authorities, he made no attempt to revive his plantation, or, if he did, it resulted in nothing.

During the very months that Weston's enterprise was thus dragging to its end, another and scarcely less ill-conceived undertaking was being matured in England. The design now was to establish a principality, rather than a trading-post, on the New England shore. The new enterprise was organised by no less a person than Sir Ferdinando Gorges; and his younger son, Robert,^ was in immediate charge of it. Robert Gorges had at that time recently returned to England, having seen some service in the Venetian wars ; and now, being apparently out of occupation, and not devoid of the prevailing spirit of adventure, he was ambitious of planting and ruling over a species of feudality or palatinate of his own in the New World. As a preliminary, a patent had been issued to him by the Council for New England. By its terms it vaguely covered a tract on the northeast side of what was then known as Massachusetts Bay, but which included only the waters inside of Nahant headland and Point Allerton. The territory thus conveyed had a sea-front of ten miles, and stretched thirty miles into tlie interior, - not much, perhaps, in those times for a royal grant of unclaimed wilderness, but covering, nevertheless, some two hundred thousand acres of what are now the most thickly-peopled portions of the counties of Essex and Middlesex. No portion of either Boston proper or Weymouth could, however, be included within its limits, which seemed rather to cover the region lying back of the coast-line between Nahant headland on the north and East Boston on the south. The patent bore date Dec. 30, 1622 ; and during the next few months Robert Gorges was busy organizing his company. It was part of a great scheme which, through sixteen years, had been maturing in the restless mind of his father. Sir Ferdinando. It looked to nothing less than the organized colonization of New England.

Though somewhat discouraged and greatly reduced in means by the poor results of his earlier attempts of a similar character on the coast of Maine, Gorges was not disposed to abandon for the future what seems to have been with him the dream of a long life. He simply, as he himself expressed it, waited for " better times." * In 1620 he \jad obtained from the Crown- a patent incorporating forty persons into what was known as the Council for New England, but which in fact was a private colonization and trading company.* The territory nominally ceded to it covered not only all of what is now New England, but also New York and New Brunswick as well, and extended across the continent from sea to sea. In this company Gorges had associated with himself a number of the most prominent characters in the kingdom. Indeed, no less than thirteen of them were noblemen, among whom were several dukes and quite a number of earls. Taught by experience. Gorges thus proposed to give his next attempt at colonization a broader basis of means and influence than he alone could command.

The patent of the Council for New England was issued Nov. 3, 1620; and the very next month the Plymouth Colony seated itself within the territory covered by it. This rather facilitated than interfered with Gorges' plans. It was a stroke of good fortune; for what he of all things wanted was something besides savages and wild animals to occupy his new domain. The application of the new settlers for a patent was accordingly at once complied witli, and a new life seems to have been infused into the projects of the Council. Just at this time, however, when all else seemed at last propitious, the Parliament of 162 1 was assembled, and Gorges at once found himself involved in new and serious difficulties. He was sharply called to account because pf the Council for New England, which was attacked as a monopoly, while its orders for the regulation of commerce were denounced as being in restraint of trade. Finally, when Sir Edward Coke, as Chairman of the Committee on Grievances, presented a list of things demanding redress, the patent for New England was first specified. The sudden dissolution of Parliament in January, 1622, relieved Sir Ferdinando from this difficulty; and the way now seemed to him clear once more. His sanguine spirit, however, again deceived him. Though Parliament was dissolved, the angry opposition of the Commons had, he found, produced an effect upon those he had thought to interest in the enterprise, which his utmost efforts failed to overcome. One by one they fell away from it, or failed to respond. A project for raising the large sum of one hundred thousand pounds among the London merchants had been one feature in his scheme ; but this had to be abandoned. A debt had been contracted for building a ship and pinnace for the trade it was proposed to carry on ; and there were no funds with which to discharge it. Finally, those who had taken shares in the venture failed to meet their engagements, on the ground that they did not know what their shares were.

Under these circumstances Sir Ferdinando seems to have determined on a supreme effort. A meeting of the Council was held at Greenwich on Sunday, June 29, 1623 ; and, in the presence of King James himself, the whole coast of New England from the Bay of Fundy to Narragansett was apportioned among twenty patentees.^ Their names included two dukes, - Buckingham and Richmond, - four carls, and numerous lords am\ gentlemen. The King drew for Buckingham. The plan was that each lot represented two shares, so that the person drawing it should introduce one other person into the enterprise, - making the whole number not less than forty .^ The success which attended this meeting seems to have decided both Sir Ferdinando and his son to go on at once ; and a few weeks later the latter sailed for America.

He was armed with a commission as Lieutenant of the Council, and was to exercise a jurisdiction, not only civil and criminal but ecclesiastical also, of the widest nature. With his civil and criminal power it was intended that he should correct the abuses incident to the wholly unregulated condition of the trade along the coast There was .certainly room, too, for reform in this respect ; for these abuses, as Sir Ferdinando Gorges truly told the Commons, tended not only to the dishonor of the government, but to the overthrow of trade, - for besides " beastly demeanors, tending to drunkenness" and debauchery, the reckless traders were freely selling arms and ammunition to the savages. But, in the mind of Sir Ferdinando, ** the advancement of religion in those desert parts " was also a matter of high concernment; so the new lieutenant was not only clothed with wide eccle-

* (.See an account of Uic map showing this Council for New Knglaml," in the Proceedin!^s oj division in Mr. Winsor's chapter. - ICn ] the Amcricatt Antiqitiirian Society for October, siastical powers, but he brought with him a clergyman of the Church of ]£ngland, having a commission conferring upon him, as Bradford after seeing it subsequently wrote, ** I know not what power and authority of superintendencie over other churches . . . and sundrie instructions for that end.** As at this time there was but one church - that at Plymouth - in all New England, the significance of the authority thus conferred is apparent.

It was no part of the present scheme to place the seat of the new government within the limits of either New Hampshire or Maine, though in both Gorges either then had or was planning settlements. The Plymouth colony was no enterprise of his ; but he now clearly proposed to absorb it, civilly and ecclesiastically, in his more ambitious scheme, - making of it a convenient instrument to his end. His son's destination, therefore, was fixed for a point in Massachusetts Bay, in close proximity to Plymouth, Though modesty itself, so far as titles and dignitaries were concerned, when compared with Gorges* previous short-lived settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec fourteen years before, the new government was organized on a scale sufficiently grandiose. At its head was the Lieutenant of the Council, with powers of life and death. He was further provided with a council of his own, of which the Governor of the Plymouth colony for the time being was ex officio a member ; as was also Francis West, who had already been commissioned as "Admiral for that coast during this voyage," and Captain Christopher Levett, - both of the two last-named being then in America or voyaging in American waters.* *

The Robert Gorges expedition, when it departed from Plymouth in the midsummer of 1623, represented, therefore, the whole power and dignity of the Council for New England. Specially favored by King James, it numbered among its patrons and associates the most powerful noblemen in England. It went out also in the full confidence of being the mere forerunner of a much larger movement of the same character, soon to follow. It was, also, as respects those who composed it, wholly different from Weston's party of the preceding year, for Robert Gorges took with him a number of his relatives and personal friends ; * and there is every reason to suppose that the Rev. William Morell, the ecclesiastical head of the new government, was accompanied by at least one Cambridge graduate, - William Blackstone. Among Gorges* other followers was a Captain Hanson and one Samuel Maverick, then a young man of means and education in his twenty-second year.^ As the design of the expedition was to effect a settle-

* An account of Lcvett's voyage was issued historical Society for June, 1878 (pp. 194-206). in London, 1628. Cf. 3 Mass, Hist, ColL^ viii., Detailed citations of the original authorities are and Maine Hist. Coll.^ ii. there given.

* The evidence upon which Blackstone, bution by Mr. Adams, and a most searching Maverick, Walford, Jeffrey, and Bursley have examination and collation of the accounts of been included in the Gorges ex|)editi on and these earliest settlers about the harbor. The settlement of 1623 is set forth in the paper en- previous writers who had glanced with more or titled "The Old Planters alx>ut Boston Ha rlwr," less care at the intricacies of the subject were mcluded in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts a writer in the Charlestown Records (copied in ment in an unbroken wilderness, care seems to have been taken to include in it a certain proportion of mechanics, among whom was probably Thomas Walford, the blacksmith. Other\vise it was composed of the usual traders and tillers of the soil, - respectable and well-to-do persons, some of them accompanied by their families; and among these may have been William Jeffrey and John Bursley, subsequently of Weymouth. They reached their destination about the middle of September. Although the grant covered by his patent lay upon the opposite side of the bay, Gorges, not improbably alarmed by the nearness of the winter and tempted by the shelter ready to his hand offered by Weston's deserted block-house, landed his party at Wessagusset. There they established themselves; and, as the place was never again wholly abandoned, the permanent settlement about Boston Harbor must be dated from this time, - September, 1623.

The residence of the new Governor-General within his jurisdiction does not seem to have been what he expected. Possibly, for he died not long after his return to England the next year, he was already in declining health. He seems, however, to have made some attempts to exercise his authority, first summoning the Governor of the Plymouth Colony to Wessagusset to consult with him, and then, before that dignitary could answer the summons, departing suddenly for the coast of Maine in search of Weston, whom he proposed to call to account for various trading misdemeanors. On his way thither he encountered a storm and put back, running into Plymouth, where he landed and passed a fortnight. Here he met Weston coming from the eastward, and a heated discussion seems to have followed ; which, however, resulted in nothing. Returning then by land to Wessagusset, his anger, after a time, seems to have gotten the better of his judgment, and he sent a warrant to Plymouth for Weston's immediate arrest and the seizure of his vessel. The arrest and seizure were made, and it would seem that Weston must have passed the winter of 1623-24 at Wessagusset,^ for during it he and Gorges went again, to the coast of Maine, this time together. Finally, towards the spring, they reached an understanding. Weston, his vessel having been restored to him with some compensation for its seizure, thereupon departed for Plymouth, whence he shaped his course to Virginia.

This angry quarrel with Weston appears to have been the principal incident in Gorges' New England life. His jurisdiction on paper was wide and complete ; practically he had no power to enforce it. The fishermen and traders were stubborn fellows. They had paid no attention to the orders of Francis West,^ though commissioned as Admiral of New England; and they paid none to Robert Gorges, though he was recognized as General Governor and was provided with a Council. Gorges accordingly sickened of his undertaking. Governor Bradford observed that he did not find " the

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harbor

State of things hear to answer his qualitie and condition." His father, Sir Ferdinando, was also in serious trouble. The difficulty was an obvious one. The enterprise in England was great only in the names and titles of its nominal projectors and patrons. The Council for New England was, after all, but another name for Sir Ferdinando Gorges ; and the high dignitaries whom he so strenuously endeavored to bring into prominence and active participation in it, though in no way reluctant to have their names recorded as the proprietors of vast tracts of territory, evinced little disposition to advance the funds necessary to quicken the settlement of their new domains. The meeting of the Council in the King's own presence, at Greenwich, in June, 1623, and the drawing of the lots, was, after all, but a stage effect, skilfully arranged. The whole burden of carrying forward the undertaking now, therefore, devolved upon Gorges ; and he was not equal to it He seems, nevertheless, during the months which followed the departure of his son, to have made every effort in his power to infuse something of his own zeal into his friends, even announcing his determination to go to New England himself with the party of the following year.^ It was, however, of no avail; and before the close of 1623 it seems to have become apparent, even to him, that no second party was to follow.

A reluctant intimation of this fact was at last sent to Robert Gorges, reaching him, probably by way of the fishing-stations on the coast of Maine upon the arrival there of the forerunners of the fleet, in the early spring of 1624. He decided at once to return to England. A portion of his followers returned with him. Others, however, among whom was Morell, remained at Wessagusset.

Beyond the fact of their receiving some assistance from Plymouth to enable them to overcome the hardships necessarily incident to every new settlement, the records contain no mention of those thus left at Wessagusset during the year which immediately succeeded the departure of Robert Gorges. The following spring - that of 1625 - he was followed by the Rev. Mr. Morell, who, having passed the intervening time among his own people, went to Plymouth for the purpose of taking ship from thence. It was then that he first informed the authorities there of the ecclesiastical powers which had been confided to him. He seems, during his residence in Massachusetts, to have passed his time in a quiet and unobtrusive way, attending to his own duties and giving trouble to no one. As the fruit of his New England sojourn he has left behind him a Latin poem, showing scholarly acquirements of a good order, in which he, in a genial and somewhat imaginative way, describes the country and gives his impressions of it.^ Notwithstanding his early departure, also, those impressions were extremely favorable. He was indeed as much charmed by the region about Boston Harbor as he was disgusted with its aboriginal inhabitants. Nevertheless, even before his departure, it had become apparent to the little settlement that a great mistake had been made when they had placed themselves at

Wessagusset ; and Morell speaks with something like feeling of the hard lot of men who are ** landed upon an unknown shore, peradventure weakc in number and naturall powers, for want of boats and carriages," being for this reason compelled, with a whole empty continent before them, " to stay where they are first landed, having no means to remove themselves or their goods, be the place never so fruitlesse or inconvenient for planting, building houses, boats, or stages, or the harbors never so unfit for fishing, fowling, or mooring their boats." The settlers at Wessagusset were in fact repeating on a smaller scale the experience of those of Plymouth. The great scheme of colonization having failed, they were there to trade; and for trading purposes Wessagusset was in every way unfavorably placed. The only means of communication with the interior, from whence came the furs they coveted, was by the rivers ; for- the region thereabouts was a wilderness devoid of natural ways and interspersed with swamps. Wessagusset was just below the mouth of the little Monatoquot, it is true; but the Monatoquot was hardly more than a brook, and could scarcely have been navigable for any distance, even by an Indian's canoe. Meanwhile the Charles, the Mystic, and the Neponset each commanded the interior for many miles. Nor was Wessagusset any more favorably situated so far as the ocean was concerned. Even then a fleet of no less than fifty vessels annually traded along the coast, and their appearance in Boston Harbor was a matter of such ordinary occurrence as to have long ceased to excite surprise among the Indians. Wessagusset, however, was accessible to these vessels only by a narrow and devious river channel, so inconvenient for navigation that almost from the outset Hull was regarded as its seaport. There the Wessagusset planters met the coasting traders. Accordingly there is some reason to suppose that, about the time Morell returned to England, the settlers he left behind him divided, - Jeffrey and Bursley, with some few others abiding at Wes- former establishing himself at Shawmut,^ opposite the mouth of the Charles, while Walford placed himself on the Mystic, and Maverick took up his abode on Noddle's Island,* at what

1 [Trumbull thinks Shawmut, or rather Mi- ton^ P* 45- It would seem the island had diminshawmut, meant a place to go to by boat. Cf. ished about one third in area from 1633, when it to have been granted by John Gorges (brother aswellashecan, the early Mavericks in New Engof Robert) to Sir William Urereton in January, land, and makes Samuel of Noddle's Island, born is now East Boston. The exact date of these removes cannot be fixed, but the probabilities would seem to be strong that they took place not later, certainly, than 1626, and very probably in 1625.'

In 1625, however, two additional settlements seem to have been made within the limits of the bay, - one at Natascot, as Hull was then called ; the other at Pasonagesset, since known as Mount WoUaston, in the town of Quincy. The Hull settlement was a singular aflair, arising out of certain incidents, both laughable and scandalous, which occurred at Plymouth. It has been stated,* though the authority for the statement is not now known to exist, that as early as 1622 - that is about the time of the arrival of Weston's party - three men, named Thomas and John Gray and Walter Knight, purchased Nantasket of Chickataubut,the sachem of the " Massachusetts Fields," and there settled themselves. If they did so, which, in view of the subsequent occurrences at Wessagusset, seems improbable, the next addition to their number was in the spring of 1625. John Lyford, a clergyman of doubtful moral character and a confirmed mischief-maker, and John Oldham, an energetic but self-willed and passionate private adventurer, had shortly before this time got into serious trouble with the Plymouth magistrates, and had been ignominiously expelled from the settlement. They then came to Hull, Lyford bringing his wife and children with him. It would seem that they must have found some few persons residing there, for Lyford is reported to have had an " auditory " for his preaching ; and, though the next year both Oldham and Lyford went elsewhere, those they left behind them were still able to contribute to the expense of an expedition sent up some two years later by the Plymouth authorities to put a stop to certain disorderly proceedings which had, meanwhile, occurred in the neighborhood of Wessagusset, and which will presently be described. A year later, In 1629, - the year which preceded the arrival of Governor Winthrop and his colony, - Bradford, having occasion to mention Nantasket in his history,^ described it as an ** uncoth place " with ** some stragling people,'* but scarcely, it would seem, deserving to be called a settlement.

The other settlement made in the summer of 1625 - that within the present limits of Quincy - was of a wholly different character. Like Weston's, it was a purely trading enterprise. At its head was a Captain WoUaston, of whom nothing is known except that among the Plymouth people he bore the reputation of being ** a man of pretie parts " and of " some eminencie." The party Wollaston brought with him consisted of three or four men, not without means, - his partners, apparently, in the venture, - and some thirty or forty servants, as they were called, or persons who had sold their services for a term of years, and during that period occupied towards

Among Woliaston's company was one Thomas Morton, a lawyer by profession, for he signed himself ** of Clifford's Inn, Gent," though the grave elders of the Plymouth colony contemptuously referred to him as " a petiefogger of Furnivall's Inn." There seems some reason for supposing that Morton had been one of Weston's company. If so, he came over with it in June, and may have gone back to England in the following September in the " Sparrow," on her return voyage, without passing the winter at Wessagusset or sharing in the wretched ending of the settlement there.^ In any event he carried back with him the most pleasing impressions of the country which no subsequent experience ever changed, and which he has himself recorded in glowing language. It was, in his eyes, a land of " delicate faire large plaines, sweete cristall fountaines, and cleare running streames, that twine in fine meanders through the meads " where " millions of Turtledoves one the greene boughes: which sate pecking of the full-ripe pleasant grapes." ^ It was Morton, therefore, who in all probability guided Wollaston to Boston Bay. On the arrival of the party, however, some time in the summer of 1625, Wessagusset was already occupied by the remnants of Gorges' colony, and they accordingly selected Pasonagesset as the site for their plantation. There they proceeded to establish themselves. Situated some two miles in a direct line from Wessagusset, and upon the other, or north, side of the Monatoquit, Pasonagesset, or Mount Wollaston, was a hill of moderate elevation, sloping gently on its eastern side towards the bay, and commanding an unobstructed view of the widest anchorage-ground of the harbor. For trading purposes its single draw-back was the absence of deep water from its immediate front.^ The spot had, however, the advantage of being cleared of trees, for previous to the great plague it had been the home of the Sachem Chickatabut, and there his mother had been buried.*

The adventurers had no charter and no grant of the soil on which they settled. They apparently troubled themselves little about questions of title. A season probably was passed in the work of laying out their plantation and erecting their buildings, at the close of which it would seem that Wol-

* Address on the 2yyth Anniversary of the mentions the book (Wood not leaving New Eng- Setiiement of Weymouth^ p. 8, n. land till Aug. 15, 1633), shows the 1632 date to be

* The New English Cattaan, p. 61. [Thia erroneous; and Lowndes* citing of a 1634 date is book of Morton's, describing his experiences, likewise wrong, certainly as regards the Gordonshas a curious history. It has been said that it toun copy. About twenty copies which have was issued in 1632, presumably at London, and come to my knowledge all pur|>ort to be printed the date is so given by White-Kennet and Mcu- at Amsterdam by Jacob Frederick Stam in 1637, sel. Force claimed to have reprinted it from such and Muller, the Amsterdam bookseller, contends a copy; but the Force copy is now without title, it was printed there, though the place has been and he probably copied the date from White- held to be falsely given for London. Cf. J/nr- Kennet. The Stationers* Kes^ster (Arber*s vard College Library Bulletin y\^o, \o^^. 2\j{. - Transcripts^ iv. 283) proves it was entered f«>r Kn.]

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harbor. 8 1

laston had become satisfied that there was little legitimate profit to be looked for in the enterprise* Accordingly he determined to go elsewhere. Leaving one Rasdell in charge of the plant«ition» and taking with him a number of the articled servants, he set sail, some time in the winter of 1625-26, for Virginia* He there disposed of those of his servants whom he brought with him to the planters on terms so satisfactory to himself that he at once sent back word for Rasdell to turn over the plantation to one Fitchcr, and to bring on to Virginia another detachment of servants. This was done, and they also were disposed of.

The number of those left at the plantation was now reduced to ten. The supplies had begun to run short, and a spirit of discontent prevailed. Taking advantage of this, Morton incited a species of mutiny, which resulted in Pitcher's being thrust out of doors, while he himself got control. He then changed the name of the place to Merry Mount, or, as he called it. Mare Mount, designating himself as " mine host" of the establishment; but the Plymouth people spoke of him as the " Lord of Misrule." According to his own account, he and his followers were a roystering, drunken set, trading with the savages for beaver-skins, and freely supplying them with spirits, arms, and ammunition, - holding most questionable relations with the Indian women, and leading, generally, a wild frontier life. On what is now the tenth of the month, in the year 1627, the anniversary of May Day was celebrated here by these people with revels and merriment, after the old English custom. Not only has Morton himself left us a minute description of the proceedings on this occasion, - declaring that the pole was " a goodly pine tree of 80 foote longe, . . . with a peare of buckshorns nayled one, somewhat neare unto the top of it," but Governor Bradford also says they " set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing aboute it many days togeather, inviting the Indean women fortheir consorts, dancing and frisking togither (like so many fairies, or furies rather), and worse practises." According to the evidence of both sides, therefore, it would seem there can be no question as to the nature of the proceedings at Pasonagesset during the year 1627.^

The number of Morton's followers was small as yet, but the danger Was great lest the place should become a refuge for loose and disorderly characters, whether runaway servants of the planters or deserters from the fishing-vessels. The practice, too, of bartering with the savages firearms for furs not only destroyed the value of all other commodities in exchange, but it added a new danger to a situation already perilous enough. The straggling settlers along the coast, therefore, impelled by a common sense of alarm, came together to consider the subject; but Morton would listen to no reason, and in strength was more than a match for all of them. The question, however, was one in which the whole region was interested. An appeal was therefore finally made to the authorities at Plymouth, and they sent a messenger to Mount Wollaston, bearing a formal letter, in which they, in a friendly and neighborly way, admonished Morton as to his evil courses, and called his attention to the fact that his dealings in firearms were in direct contravention of King James's proclamation of 1622. Their admonition was, however, treated with contempt. In fact they were plainly told to mind their own business, and the dangerous trade was about to be carried on upon a larger scale than ever, when, in the spring of 1628, it was decided to have recourse to more severe measures for its repression. Miles Standish was, accordingly, again sent to Wessagussct, with orders to arrest Morton. Acting, probably, on information received from the other settlers, this expedition started towards the end of May or early in June, when the larger portion of Morton's followers were in the interior looking for furs. He was found at Wcssagusset, and there captured. It was, however, either too late in the day, or no part of the plan, to carry him at once to Plymouth, and during the night which followed the prisoner succeeded in slipping away from his captors, and made his escape to his own house. Thither Standish followed him the next day, and finally succeeded in arresting him. This, however, was accomplished only after a followers as he had with him, which resulted in injury only to one of their number, who ** was so drunke y* he run his own nose upon y" pointe of a sword y* one held before him as he entred y* house; but he lost but a litle of his bote blood." *

Morton was taken to Plymouth by his captors, and thence subsequently sent to England. He returned, however, the next year with Isaac Allcrton, the agent of the colony; and, after hanging about Plymouth - acting as Allerton's clerk - for some time, he found his way back to Mount Wollaston. In the meanwhile, however, - on the 6th of September, 1628, just three months after his arrest by Standish, - John Endicott had landed at Salem; and the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, which included Merry Mount within its chartered limits, had come into existence. One of Endicott's first acts had been to visit Mount Wollaston, where he cut down the May-pole, and sternly admonished the remnants of the party who still lingered about the place. Whether any of them were yet there at the time of Morton's reappearance a year later, in the autumn of 1629, does not appear. He, however, repossessed himself of his old home, which he occupied until the arrival of Winthrop, a year later. He even seems to have been tolerated by Endicott, as he attended one or more of the earlier General Courts held at Salem. According to his own account, however, he was a thorn in the side of the authorities ; and he escaped a second arrest only by concealing himself in the woods.* history of the Merry Mount episode is uarrntcd Morton's trilnilations at the liands of the colonin detail in two articles in the AtLtntic Monthly ists in one of his letters to Ix»rd Clarendon. N.

The Earliest Settlement Of Boston Harbor

In addition to those already referred to, there was. at this time but one other plantation in the vicinity of Boston, - that of David Thomson, on what is now Thomson's Island. This man is referred to by Morton as a Scottish gentleman, - both a traveller and a scholar, - who had been quite observant of the habits of the Indians. Unlike Morton, who seems to have had no connection with the Gorges family until a subsequent period, Thomson was a distinct dependent of Sir Ferdinando and the Council for New England. In London he had been its agent or attorney, and seems to have represented it before the Privy Council. In November, 1622, a patent covering a considerable grant of land in New England was issued to him ; and early in the next year he seems to have come over to take possession of it, bringing with him his wife and a few servants. In the Robert Gorges grant of Dec. 30, 1622, he is mentioned as " David Thomson, Gent.,"^ and named as attorney to enter upon and take possession of the grant, with a view to its legal delivery to Gorges. In 1623, when Robert Gorges reached VVessagusset, Thomson was already at Piscataqua in New Hampshire; and there, later in the year. Gorges visited him, meeting Captain Levett, of his council. Subsequently, in 1626, Thomson removed to Massachusetts. He died in 1628, leaving a wife, who was one of those who contributed to the expense of Morton's arrest by Standish, and an infant son, to whom the island occupied by his father, and which has ever since borne his name, was subsequently granted by the General Court of Massachusetts.*