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XI.
POPULAR PURITAN LITERATURE

AN EARTHQUAKE IN BOSTON

On the Lord’s day, June 3, 1744, between ten and eleven o’clock, there was experienced at Boston, a violent earthquake, “which was felt for above an hundred of miles.” The matter, naturally somewhat startling and impressive, called forth from some unknown author, an elaborate poem, the purpose and spirit of which will be readily understood by a few extracts. It is printed on a sheet, about 12 by 20 inches, in three columns, and was “sold by Benjamin Gray, in Milk Street, 1744.” The first portion and some other parts of the poem are missing from the copy we have. Somewhere near the middle of the first column our quotations commence:—

 
“Again the Lord did shake the Earth,
While Christ was in the Tomb,
When from the glorious Heavenly World
A glorious Angel came.
Behold there was at that same Time
An Earthquake strong and great,
Which made the Watchmen at the Tomb
To tremble, shake and quake.
Again when Paul and Silas was
Once into Prison cast,
And cruelly the Keeper had
In stocks made their feet fast,
Like the dear Children of the Lord,
They to their Father sing,
They praises sing unto the Lord
Till all the Prison did ring.
When lo! immediately there was
A terrible Earthquake,
Which made the whole foundation of
The Prison-House to shake.
The Doors fly open by its Power
And now wide open stand,
’Till these dear Prisoners of the Lord
Are loosed from their Bands.
And thus we see in very Truth,
This wondrous Work is done,
By none but the eternal God,
And Israel’s holy One.
And that they’re tokens of his Wrath,
O, let not one gain-say,
For sure the Lord is much provok’d,
When he speaks in this way.
Be then excited, O, dear Friends
With vigorous accord,
And all the might and strength you have,
To turn unto the Lord.
For lo! on the last Sabbath day,
The Lord did plainly shew,
What in a single moment’s time
He might have done with you.
A solemn warning let it be,
To all with one accord
For their Souls precious Life to haste
Their turning unto God.
 

······

 
“Perhaps you’ll think the Danger’s past
That all is safe and sure
Because the mighty God hath said
He’ll drown the world no more.
But, oh! consider dearest Friends,
How vast his judgments are,
And if you are resolv’d to Sin
To meet your God prepare.
Who hath his Magazines of Fire,
In Heaven and Earth and Seas,
Which always wait on his Command,
And run where’er he please.
If God the awful word but speak,
And bid the Fire run,
The Magazines together meet,
And like a furnace burn.
Above our Head, below our Feet,
God Treasures hath in Store;
And when he gives out his Command,
The Volcano’s will roar.
Amazingly the Earth will quake,
The World a flaming be
When God, the great, the mighty God
Gives forth his just Decree.
 

······

 
“That man can’t be prevail’d upon
Tho’ with our strong desire,
To get prepar’d against the Day
When all the World on Fire
Shall burn and blaze about their Heads,
And they no Shelter have;
No Rock to hide their guilty Heads,
No, nor no watery Grave.
For Rocks will melt like Wax away
Before the dreadful Heat,
And Earth and Sea and all will flame
In one consuming Heap.
The Earth beneath abounds with Stores
Of Oils and Sulphurs too,
And Turfs and Coals, which all will Flame,
When God commands the blow.
The flaming Lightning which we see
Around the Heavens run,
Do livelily now represent
The Conflagration.
Those flaming magazines of God
Have fire enough in store,
And only wait their Lord’s commands
To let us feel their power.
When once receiv’d they then will run,
They’ll run from Pole to Pole,
And all the strength of Earth and Hell
Cannot their power controle.
Justly may we now stand amaz’d,
At God’s abundant Grace,
To think so base and vile a World
Is not all in a Blaze;
When far the greatest part thereof
Are poor vile Infidels,
Among the Christian part thereof
Are sins as black as Hell.”
 

In conclusion, these “precious souls” are entreated to join with one accord

 
“In praising of the Holy Name,
Of the Eternal God.”
 

Earthquakes were at one time rather common in New England, but nothing to be compared to their frequency in England. It is said that in what is called the “mobile district,” of Comrie, in Perthshire, during the winter of 1839 and 1840, they had one hundred and forty earthquakes, being at the rate of about one shock a day on an average; and it is added, “They seldom do much harm.”

The following is a memorandum, probably nearly correct and complete, of earthquakes experienced in Boston, between the years 1636 and 1817; and it may be considered fortunate that they were not all commemorated by Puritan poets.

1638. June 1. Great earthquake in Boston.

1639. Jan. 16. Another earthquake.

1643. March 5. Sunday morning another earthquake.

1658. A great earthquake.

1663. Jan. 26. Very great earthquake.

1669. April 3. An earthquake.

1727. Oct. 29. An earthquake.

1730. April 12. An earthquake.

1732. Sept. 5. An earthquake.

1737. Feb. 6. An earthquake.

1744. June 3. The earthquake commemorated.

1755. Nov. 18. A very great earthquake. About one hundred chimneys thrown down, and other damage.

1757. July 8. An earthquake.

1761. March 12. An earthquake.

1761. Nov. 1. An earthquake.

1782. Nov. 29. An earthquake.

1783. Nov. 29. An earthquake.

1800. March 11. An earthquake.

1810. Nov. 9. An earthquake.

1817. Sept. 7. An earthquake.

DEBORAH: A BEE

Another broadside sheet, some seven by twelve, is entitled as above, and divided into paragraphs, numbered from one to twenty, in prose. It is a sort of sermon in which the Christian is compared to the Bee, or perhaps placed in competition with the industrious and self-supporting insect. Its positions, omitting most of the applications, are these: The bee is a laborious, diligent creature; so is the Christian. The bee is a provident creature; so is the Christian. The bee feeds on the sweetest and choicest foods; so does the Christian. The bee puts all into the common stock; so is the Christian of a generous, communicative temper. The bee is always armed; so is the Christian with respect to his spiritual armor. Bees are a sort of commonwealth; so Christians are likened to a city that is compacted together. The bee, as it always has a bag of honey, has also a bag of rank poison; so has the Christian, with the grace of God, a body of sin and corruption, &c. Lastly, the bee lies dormant all winter; so the Christian sometimes slumbers, &c. “Yet the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall awake and come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; but alas, they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation!” Sold by Kneeland & Green, in Queen Street. Illustrated with a small fanciful engraving of a bee-hive, surrounded with horns of plenty and decorative carving.

PROPOSED POPISH INVASION

Every thing which occurred in England, or elsewhere, in fact, having any reference to Popery, however remote, was sure to interest the Puritans, and demand their attention; and, it would seem, was sometimes provocative of poetry. So when the “happy discovery of a cursed plot against the church of God, Great Britain and her King,” was announced by the King, on the 15th of February, 1743 (i.e., 1744), a large hand-bill was issued from the Boston press, to which the printer did not put his name, headed, “Good news from London, to the rejoicing of every christian heart.” This was the discovery of the plot “for bringing in a young Popish pretender.” The news was received by an arrival at Portsmouth, N.H., in twenty-six days from England, and included the message of the King to Parliament. The hand-bill contained the message in which the King declares that “having received undoubted intelligence that the eldest son of the pretender to his crown is arrived in France, and that preparations are making there to invade this kingdom, in concert with disaffected persons here,” &c., his Majesty acquaints the House of the matter in order that measures may be taken, &c.

This is followed by a long anonymous poem, beginning,—

 
“Behold the French and Spaniards rage,
And people with accord
Combine, to take away the life
Of George, our sovereign lord.
······
“When George the first came to the throne,
Their rage began to burn,
And now they fain would execute
The same upon his son.
 
 
“Their hellish breast being set on fire,
Even with the fire of Hell,
Nor Love, nor charms, nor clemency,
Can their base malice quell.”
 

······

And so on through three columns, and then comes the

CONCLUSION

 
“Let all that openly profess,
The ways of Christ our Lord,
Not spare to tell how much such things
Are by their souls abhor’d.
 
 
“Let every child of God now cry,
To the eternal one,
That George our sovereign lord and king
May ne’er be overcome.
 
 
“That all his Foes may lick the Dust,
And melt like Wax away,
That joy and peace and righteousness
May flourish in his day.”
 

The proposed expedition, it is well known, never landed in England. The combined fleet escaped an engagement, and the transports were wrecked and scattered by a storm in the English Channel.

THE SCOTTISH REBELLION

“A short history of the Grand Rebellion in Scotland, or a brief account of the rise and progress of Charles Stuart, the young pretender, and his associates; and his seasonable defeat by His Majesty’s Forces under the command of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.”

This remarkable production is printed on one side of a single sheet of paper, seven by twelve, in verse, three columns. It begins,—

 
“From Rome the proud Pretender’s come
Flush’d with conceits of Britain’s Crown,
Imagining, poor silly Lad,
Those glorious Kingdoms to have had,
And all the churches of the Lord,
They’ve roll’d in seas of Purple Blood;
His grand commission from the Pope
Was Fire, Faggot, Sword, and Rope,
Or Boots, or Scourges, Cord and Whips,
For all poor vile Hereticks.”
 

The poet proceeds with the landing in Scotland, where the Popish priest demised to him the land; the joining of the disaffected, the robbing of the people:—

 
“They range about and seek for prey
Nor spare aught comes in their way;
They murder, steal, rob and destroy,
And many a goodly Town annoy.”
 

Flushed with victory, they move toward England, “and now to London drive along.”

 
“Which brave Prince William quickly hears
And without any Dread or Fears,
Pursues the Rebels in full chase,
And lo, they fly before his Grace,
Who still pursues and overtakes,
And many a Highland captive makes.
 

······

 
The rest now fly, won’t stand to Fight,
But back to Scotland make their flight.
And there like Beasts who’ve furious grown
They range about from Town to Town.
 

······

 
But Heaven beheld these bloody men,
No longer now would bear with them,
Inspires the Duke of Cumberland
To take the work into his hand,
To scourge this cursed barbarous Brood
For all their Rapine, Stealth, and Blood.
Away he goes, post haste he flies,
To face the raging Enemies,
To Scotland, where the wretches fled,
When chas’d from Carlisle, full of dread,
Where being come, his troops combine,
And all in lovely Consort join,
And strong Desires do now express,
To slay these Sons of Wickedness.
Great Joy and Gladness now was shown,
When to the Folk it was made known
That Cumberland, the brave, was come
To save them from expected Ruin.”
 

The people joining the Duke, the enemy was pursued, when—

 
“A church in which their stores did lay,
They blow’d up ere they ran away,”
 

after they had bid the people enter in, and many “precious souls at one sad Blast, into eternity are cast.”

 
“But hard beset by British force
They dare not stay, or they’d do worse;
Some fly to mountains, some to dales,
When all their hellish Courage fails.
 

······

 
Flying I leave them, ’till we hear
The end of this most bloody war.
 

······

 
For which the thankful folk proclaim
Thanksgivings to the Almighty name,
And may we all now join with them,
And to their Thanks join our Amen.”
 

Sold by B. Gray, near the market. Without date; printed in 1744.

XII.
REVOLUTIONARY PROCLAMATIONS

Gen. Gage’s administration of less than a year and a half in the “Province of Massachusetts Bay,” for he never had any government over the province other than military, was prolific in proclamations, some of which are rather curious. On the 1st of June, 1774, by order of Parliament and the King, Boston Harbor was closed and possessed by ships of the British navy. Nothing could enter or leave the port: wood as fuel could not be brought from the islands, or merchandise or lumber removed from wharf to wharf by water; nothing whatever could be water borne within a circle of sixty miles, either to arrive or depart. At the same time British troops held the town; and the government, such as it was, was removed to Salem, where the General Court reassembled on the 7th of June. At this session, on the 17th, as the result of arrangements made by Samuel Adams and his fellow-patriots, five delegates were chosen to represent the colony in the proposed Continental Congress, at Philadelphia. As soon as these proceedings, while yet in progress, reached Gen. Gage’s ears by a tricky tory, who got out of the hall by feigning a call of nature, he issued his first proclamation, which Mr. Secretary Flucker, as he found the door locked and could not get into the chamber, had to read on the stairs, as follows:—

“Province of Massachusetts-Bay.

By the GOVERNOR

“a proclamation for dissolving the General-Court

“WHEREAS the Proceedings of the House of Representatives, in the present Session of the General Court, make it necessary, for his Majesty’s Service, that the said General Court should be dissolved:—

“I have therefore thought fit to dissolve the said General Court, and the same is hereby dissolved accordingly, and the Members thereof are discharged from any further Attendance.

“GIVEN under my Hand at Salem, the 17th Day of June, 1774, in the Fourteenth Year of his Majesty’s Reign.

“GOD save the KING.”

Gen. Gage’s next proclamation was against the existence of the famous “Committee of Correspondence,” which Samuel Adams had originated, and the “solemn league and covenant” “to suspend all commercial intercourse with the island of Great Britain,” &c. And “in tenderness to the inhabitants of this province,” he issued this proclamation of warning.

Then, as if to cap the climax of pretension and folly, not to say hypocrisy, on the 25th of July, while he relied upon the counsels and efforts of the tory party, issued what may be called a very curious proclamation, such as possibly, under some circumstances, might have been issued by Gov. Endicott, in the early days of New England Puritanism; but the Puritans had long before this time passed out of power. The following is the proclamation:—

MASSACHUSETTS BAY

By the GOVERNOR. A PROCLAMATION

For the Encouragement of Piety, and Virtue, and for preventing and punishing of vice, profanity and immorality

IN humble imitation of the laudable example of our most gracious sovereign George the third, who in the first year of his reign was pleased to issue his Royal proclamation for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for preventing of vice and immorality, in which he declares his royal purpose to punish all persons guilty thereof; and upon all occasions to bestow marks of his royal favor on persons distinguished for their piety and virtue:

“I therefore, by and with the advice of his Majesty’s Council, publish this proclamation, exhorting all his Majesty’s subjects to avoid all hypocrisy, sedition, licentiousness, and all other immoralities, and to have a grateful sense of all God’s mercies, making the divine laws the rule of their conduct.

“I therefore command all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, and other Officers, to use their utmost endeavors to enforce the laws for promoting religion and virtue, and restraining all vice and sedition; and I earnestly recommend to all ministers of the gospel that they be vigilant and active in inculcating a due submission to the laws of God and man; and I exhort all the people of this province, by every means in their power, to contribute what they can towards a general reformation of manners, restitution of peace and good order, and a proper subjection to the laws, as they expect the blessing of Heaven.

“And I do further declare, that in the disposal of the offices of honor and trust, within this province, the supporters of true religion and good government shall be considered as the fittest objects of such appointments.

“And I hereby require the Justices of assize, and Justices of the peace in this province, to give strict charge to the grand Jurors for the prosecution of offenders against the laws: and that, in their several courts they cause this proclamation to be publickly read immediately before the charge is given.

“GIVEN at the Council Chamber in Salem, the 21st day of July, 1774, in the fourteenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third by the Grace of GOD of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c.

“Thomas Gage.

“By his Excellency’s Command,

Thos. Flucker, Secry.

“GOD save the KING.”

The gist of the proclamation, which was specially intended for the people of Boston, for whose benefit the words “sedition and hypocrisy” were used, was in the phrase, “submission to the laws of God and man.” This proclamation was not like the previous one, directed to the sheriffs; nor was it ordered to be posted in the several towns of the province; nor was it ordered to be read from the pulpits of the churches; but the justices of the courts and grand juries were to see to its observance. It was, in fact, a mere piece of gasconade on the part of the governor, in imitation of his Majesty very likely; but, like the others, nobody either observed it or troubled themselves about it; and it has very rarely been spoken of since, if at all, by any historian. However it may be characterized, it simply had the effect to exasperate the minds of the people, owing to the insertion of hypocrisy among the immoralities.¹⁰ The proclamation itself, as they thought, was the boldest piece of political hypocrisy the government had yet perpetrated. It was much like every thing else which the king, ministry, or governor had done from the time of the stamp-act, and had a tendency to make matters worse instead of better.

Gen. Gage’s proclamation of the 12th of June, 1775, offering pardon to all who shall lay down their arms, &c., is well known. It begins,—

“Whereas the infatuated multitude who have suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well-known incendiaries and traitors in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional authority of the state, have at length proceeded to avowed rebellion,” &c. … “A number of armed persons to the amount of many thousands assembled on the 19th of April,” &c. “In this exigency I avail myself of the last effort,” and thereupon offers “a full pardon to all who shall lay down their arms, excepting Samuel Adams and John Hancock, whose offences are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment,” &c.

The proclamation was probably written by Gen. Burgoyne, and so little attention was paid to it that the army continued intact at Cambridge, and in exactly one week from its date occurred the battle of Bunker Hill, which proved so “fatal” to more than a thousand British soldiers. In less than four months after this time Gen. Gage “laid down his arms” and returned to England; and a few months later, in March, 1776, the army and the navy followed his example and left the country, taking the “Port Act” with them, but leaving for the use of the colony, arms, ammunition, provisions, and even medical stores.

XIII.
CURIOSITIES OF THE MARKET

 
“The turnpike road to people’s hearts, I find
Lies through their mouths, or I mistake mankind.”
 

[Peter Pindar.

After arriving at Mishawam, and voting the church and that the minister should be supported at the common charge, it became necessary to think of providing in some way for the sustenance of the party. Although Gov. Winthrop, when he arrived off the harbor, went up to Salem in a boat, and was handsomely entertained by Gov. Endicott, whom he came to displace, with a rich venison paté, such fare was not afterwards found to be very plenty; and the strawberries, which those he left on board the ships found on Cape Ann, were not always to be had, nor a very substantial food for the settlers. Of course, the party had a supply of provisions,—a market of their own which they brought with them; and, as nobody could become a freeman or have a vote in public affairs unless he was a member of the church, it is to be inferred that nobody would be allowed any thing to eat only on the same condition; and this, if Peter Pindar was right, was a facile method of conversion and making disciples of the most obdurate. Hunting and fishing were no doubt readily resorted to as rather promising pursuits, and possibly some thought may have been given to cornfields, though there was no great anxiety for work. At all events, however successful the hunting parties were, so much of their supply of provisions was bartered with the Indians for furs that a scarcity of food was soon experienced, and then they had to buy corn of them. Matters soon became serious: for whatever might have been the primary object of the Puritans in coming to this country, eating was not beyond a secondary consideration, to say the least of it; and a market of supplies for the material man became an important consideration then, and has been so ever since. Dr. Johnson, who loved a good dinner and rarely found it at home, thought “a tavern was the throne of human felicity;” but, of course, such a notion as that never entered the minds of the Puritans.

The first thanksgiving was for the safe arrival of the party, and the next was for the arrival of the “Lion,” or some other ship, with a supply of food; and this, it is supposed, was not bartered off for furs. Indian corn, which was a new thing to the settlers, was for a long time the principal diet, occasionally modified with fish; but the truth is, how the settlers managed to live through all this time, in such a climate, up to the times that we know something about, is a complete mystery.

Capt. Roger Clapp, who arrived at Hull on the 30th of May, 1630, about a fortnight before Gov. Winthrop arrived at Salem, and who died in 1690-91, described the state of things “in those days,” in the following words:—

“It was not accounted a strange thing in those Days to drink Water, and to eat Samp or Hominie without Butter or Milk. Indeed, it would have been a strange thing to see a piece of Roast Beef, Mutton or Veal; though it was not long before there was Roast Goat. After the first Winter, we were very Healthy; though some of us had no great Store of Corn. The Indians did sometimes bring Corn, and Truck with us for Cloathing and Knives; and once I had a Peck of Corn or thereabouts, for a little Puppy-Dog. Frost-fish, Muscles and Clams were a Relief to many.”

ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND FISHES

Wood, in his famous “New England’s Prospect,” gives some particulars about game and hunting among the early settlers in 1639:—

“Having related unto you the pleasant situation of the country, the healthfulness of the climate, the nature of the soil, with his vegetatives, and other commodities; it will not be amiss to inform you of such irrational creatures as are daily bred, and continually nourished in this country, which do much conduce to the well-being of the inhabitants, affording not only meat for the belly, but cloathing for the back. The beasts be as followeth:—

 
“The kingly Lion, and the strong arm’d Bear,
The large limb’d Mooses, with the tripping Deer;
Quill-darting Porcupines, and Raccoons be
Castel’d in the hollow of an aged tree;
The skipping Squirrel, Rabbet, purblind Hare,
Immured in the self same castle are,
Lest red-ey’d Ferret, wily Foxes should
Them undermine, if rampir’d but with mould;
The grim-fac’d Ounce, and rav’nous howling Wolf,
Whose meagre paunch sucks like a swallowing gulf;
Black glistering Otters, and rich coated Bever,
The Civet scented Musquash smelling ever.”
 

WHAT BEFELL A HUNTER

“Two men going a fowling, appointed at evening to meet at a certain pond side, to share equally, and to return home; one of these gunners having killed a Seal or Sea-calf, brought it to the pond where he was to meet his comrade, afterwards returning to the sea-side for more game, and having loaded himself with more Geese and Ducks he repaired to the pond, where he saw a great Bear feeding on his seal, which caused him to throw down his load, and give the Bear a salute; which though it was but with goose-shot, yet tumbled him over and over; whereupon the man supposing him to be in a manner dead, ran and beat him with the handle of his gun. The Bear perceiving him to be such a coward to strike him when he was down, scrambled up, standing at defiance with him, scratching his legs, tearing his cloaths and face, who stood it out till his six foot gun was broken in the middle; then being deprived of his weapon, he ran up to the shoulders into the pond, where he remained till the Bear was gone, and his mate come in, who accompanied him home.”

The author gives a peculiar description of the animals named. Of the lion, he says he had never seen one; but others “lost in the woods have heard such terrible roarings as have made them much agast: which must be either Devils or Lions;” so lions have it. The moose “is as big as an ox, slow of foot, headed like a Buck, with a broad beam, some being two yards wide in the head; their flesh is as good as beef, their hides good for cloathing.” He describes deer, rabbits, squirrels, &c. The small squirrel troubles the planters so, that they have “to carry their Cats into the corn-fields till their corn be three weeks old.” “The beasts of offence be Squncks, Ferrets, Foxes, whose impudence sometimes diverts them to the good Wives Hen-roost, to fill their paunch.” He gives a fearful account of the wolves, which set on swine, goats, calves, &c., and care nothing for a dog.

Equally curious with these are his descriptions of the “beasts living in the water,” as the otter, musquash, &c., and of “the birds and fowls, both of land and water.”

 
“The princely Eagle, and the soaring Hawk,
Whom in their unknown ways there’s none can chalk;
The Humbird for some Queen’s rich cage more fit,
Than in the vacant wilderness to sit;
The swift-winged Swallow sweeping to and fro,
As swift as arrows from Tartarian bow;
When as Aurora’s infant day new springs,
There th’ morning mounting Lark her sweet lays sings;
The harmonious Thrush, swift Pigeon, Turtle Dove,
Who to her mate does ever constant prove;
The Turkey-pheasant, Heathcock, Partridge rare,
The carrion-tearing Crow, and hurtful Stare.”
 

The raven, screech-owl, heron, cormorant, and so on to geese, gulls, mallards, teal, ducks, snipes, and many others. The fish also are rehearsed in verse:—

 
“The king of waters, the sea-shouldering Whale,
The snuffing Grampus, with the oily Seal;
The storm-presaging Porpus, Herring-Hog,
Line shearing Shark, the Catfish, and Sea Dog;
The scale-fenc’d Sturgeon, wry-mouth’d Hollibut,
The flouncing Salmon, Codfish, Greedigut;
Cole, Haddick, Hake, the Thornback, and the Scate,
Whose Slimy outside makes him seld’ in date;
The stately Bass, old Neptune’s fleeting post,
That tides it out and in from sea to coast;
Consorting Herrings, and the bony Shad,
Big-bellied Alewives, Mackrels richly clad
With rainbow colour, the Frostfish and the Smelt,
As good as ever Lady Gustus felt;
The spotted Lamprons, Eels, the Lamperies,
That seek fresh-water brooks with Argus eyes;
These watery villagers, with thousands more,
Do pass and repass near the verdant shore.”
 

KINDS OF SHELL-FISH

 
“The luscious Lobster, with the Crabfish raw,
The brinish Oyster, Muscle, Perriwig,
And Tortoise fought by the Indian’s Squaw,
Which to the flats dance many a winter’s jig,
To dive for Cockles, and to dig for Clams,
Whereby her lazy husband’s guts she crams.”
 

It was recommended to those who came over after Winthrop, to bring with them a hogshead and a half of meal, “to keep him until he may receive the fruit of his own labors, which will be a year and a half after his arrival, if he land in May or June.” Also, “malt, beef, butter, cheese, pease, good wines, vinegar, and strong waters;” and in addition, a variety of clothing, boots, shoes, implements, iron wares, stew-pans, warming-pans, fish-hooks, and every conceivable thing for use or labor, being assured that whatever they did not want, could be disposed of at a profit.

MARKET SUPPLIES

One of the earliest accounts of the market supplies in Boston is that written by a French refugee in 1687,—almost two hundred years ago. He says,—

“An ox costs from twelve to fifteen crowns; a Cow, eight to ten; Horses, from ten to fifty Crowns, and in Plenty. There are even wild ones in the Woods, which are yours if you can catch them. Foals are sometimes caught. Beef costs Two pence the Pound; Mutton, Two pence; Pork, from two to three pence, according to the Season; Flour, Fourteen shillings the one hundred and twelve Pound, all bolted; Fish is very cheap, and Vegetables also; Cabbage, Turnips, Onions, and Carrots abound here. Moreover, there are quantities of Nuts, Chestnuts, and Hazelnuts wild. These nuts are small, but of wonderful flavor. I have been told that there are other Sorts, which we shall see in the Season. I am assured that the Woods are full of Strawberries in the Season. I have seen Quantities of wild Grapevine, and eaten Grapes of very good Flavor, kept by one of my friends. There is no Doubt that the Vine will do well; there is some little planted in the country which has grown. The Rivers are full of Fish, and we have so great a Quantity of Sea and River Fish that no Account is made of them.”

It is pretty certain that these things have been so ever since.

FAMILY BILL OF FARE

A later account than this, however, and one with which some who are now living may be more or less familiar, or have heard of, is given as follows:—

“The ordinary food of the early settlers here, for both breakfast and supper, was bean porridge, with bread and butter. On Sunday morning there was coffee in addition. Brown bread, made of rye and Indian, was the staff of life, white bread being used only when guests were present. Raked pumpkins (in their season) and milk composed a dish said to be luxurious. [This dish is in common use among the country people at the present time.] For dinner, twice every week, Sundays and Thursdays, baked beans and baked Indian pudding, the latter being served first. [This last custom has gone wholly out of practice; but the Sunday dinner prevails to-day over the whole of New England, to a very large extent.] Saturdays, salt fish; one day in every week, salt pork and corned beef, and one day, also, when practicable, roasted meat was the rule.”

It is surprising how continuously some of these customs have been kept up and prevail.