came off with loss and Carilong. We took Fort Frontenac and in the fall of the year Dequesne by Gen" Forbs. S. Since it is upon your desire I have exposed myself by this mean performance, I hope you will receive it with candour. I have nothing but my memory to depend upon, which in a man advanced to the eighty-first year of his age is but a poor library. Yet I am confident the chronology and the facts are true and will be found so when inquired into. I have long wished for a History of New England and hoped Mr. Prince his Chronologie would have laid a good foundation for it, but he has left it unfinished. This small mite cast into this treasury is my whole substance, and if men of ability would out of their abundance cast in proportionally we might have a good History of the Colony and of New England, before it is too late to get materials. To Mr. President Clap. I am &c. R. WOLCOTT. Connecticut Historical Society, Collections (Hartford, 1895), III, 325-336 passim. 23. "Boston the Metropolis of North America" (1750) BY CAPTAIN FRANCIS GOELET Goelet was a New York merchant, whose diary bears testimony to his lightness of disposition and to the convivial habits of gentlemen of the time. - Bibliography: Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, II, ch. xvi, notes. For an earlier estimate of Boston, see Contemporaries, I, No. 146. OOSTON the Metropolis of North America Is Accounted The Largest in it, about two Thirds them Wooden Framed Clap Boarded &c. and some of them Very Spacious Buildings which togeather with their Gardens about them Cover a Great deal Ground they are for the most Part Two and three Stories high mostly Sashd. Their Brick Buildings are much better and Stronger Built, more after the Modern Taste all Sashd and Prety well Ornamented haveing Yards and Gardens Adjoyning Also. The Streets are very Erregular the Main Streets are Broad and Paved with Stone the Cross Streets are but Narrow mostly Paved Except towards the Outskirts the Towne. The Towne Extends ab' two Miles in Lenght North and South and is in some placesmile and Others mile Broad has One Main Street Run the whole Length The Towne from North to South and Tolerable broad the Situation is Vastly Pleasant being on a Neck Land The Tide Flowing on Each Side that Part the Towne may be termed an Island, the water which Parts it from the Main Contenant is about 20 Foot Over with draw Bridges and where the Tide Runs very Strong trough. The Harbour is defended by a Strong Castle of a Hundred Guns Built upon An Island where the Shipping must pass by and within Hale its Situation is Extroardenary as it Commands on Every Side and is Well Built and kept in Exceeding Good Order. The Tyde in the Harbour Flows about 12 or 13 Foot Perpendicular at the Full and Change moon its Very Inconvenient for Loaded Vessells, as they have not more then 12 Foot water at the End the Long wharf, which wharf is noted the Longest in North America being near half an English Mile in Lenght and runs direct out. One side whereof is full of whare Houses from One End to the Other. The Bostoniers Build a Vast Numb' Vessells for Sale from Small Sloops up to Topsail Vessells from a Hundred Tons to 3, 4 and 5 Hundred Tons, and are noted for Good Sailing Vessels, they Runn mostly upon keene Built and very strong Counted about 15 Saile upon Stocks, which they Launch in Cradills at the full and Change the Moon. This Place has about Twelve Meeting Houses and Three Curches which are all Very Indifferent Buildings of no manner of Architect but Very Plain at the North End they have a Ring of Bells, which are but Very Indifferent. They have but One Markett which is all Built of Brick about Eighty Foot Long and Arch'd on Both Sides being Two Stories heigh the upper part Sashd, which Comprehends Several The Publick Offices the Towne, at the Southermost End is the Naval Office The Middle The Surveyars the Marketts Offices They have Also a Town House Built of Brick, Situated in Kings Street, Its a very Grand Brick Building Arch'd all Round and Two Storie Heigh Sashd above, its Lower Part is always Open Designd as a Change, tho the Merchants in Fair weather make their Change in the Open Street at the Eastermost End, in the upper Story are the Councill and Assembly Chambers &c. it has a Neat Cupulo Sashd all round and which on rejoycing days is Elluminated, As to Government Boston is dependent and Subordinate to Englands for its Laws &c. being a Kings Government. The Governour is a Person appointed from Home who Represents his Majesty. The Governm' Laws are Compyld by the Councill and Great and General Assembly. the Former Represents the House of Loards and the Latter the Commons, and the Governour Signs them and then they Pass in a Law. In Boston they are very Strict Observers of the Sabath day and in Service times no Persons are allow'd the Streets but Doctors if you are found upon the Streets and the Constables meet you they Compell you to go either to Curch or Meeton as you Chuse, also in Sweareing if you are Catcht you must Pay a Crown Old Tenor for Every Oath being Convicted thereof without farther dispute the ths of the Inhabitants are Strict Presbyterians. 3 Extracts from Capt. Francis Goelet's Journal, in New-England Historical and Genealogical Register (Boston, 1870), XXIV, 62–63. Overweening Prejudice in Favor of New BY JOHN ADAMS John Adams, schoolmaster, lawyer, public man, member of the Continental Congress, diplomat, and later vice-president and president of the United States, was one of the keenest observers of his time. - Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, §§ 130, 136. TH HERE is in the human breast a social affection which extends to our whole species, faintly indeed, but in some degree. The nation, kingdom, or community to which we belong is embraced by it more vigorously. It is stronger still towards the province to which we belong, and in which we had our birth. It is stronger and stronger as we descend to the county, town, parish, neighborhood, and family, which we call our own. And here we find it often so powerful as to become partial, to blind our eyes, to darken our understandings, and pervert our wills. It is to this infirmity in my own heart that I must perhaps attribute that local attachment, that partial fondness, that overweening prejudice in favor of New England, which I feel very often, and which, I fear, sometimes leads me to expose myself to just ridicule. New England has, in many respects, the advantage of every other colony in America, and, indeed, of every other part of the world that I know anything of. 1. The people are purer English blood; less mixed with Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French, Danish, Swedish, etc., than any other; and descended. from Englishmen, too, who left Europe in purer times than the present, and less tainted with corruption than those they left behind them. 2. The institutions in New England for the support of religion, morals, and decency exceed any other; obliging every parish to have a minister, and every person to go to meeting, etc. 3. The public institutions in New England for the education of youth, supporting colleges at the public expense, and obliging towns to maintain grammar schools, are not equaled, and never were, in any part of the world. 4. The division of our territory, that is, our counties, into townships; empowering towns to assemble, choose officers, make laws, mend roads, and twenty other things, gives every man an opportunity of showing and improving that education which he received at college or at school, and makes knowledge and dexterity at public business common. 5. Our law for the distribution of intestate estates occasions a frequent division of landed property, and prevents monopolies of land. But in opposition to these we have labored under many disadvantages. The exorbitant prerogative of our Governors, etc., which would have overborne our liberties if it had not been opposed by the five preceding particulars. Charles Francis Adams, editor, Familiar Letters of John Adams and his Wife (New York, 1876), 120–121. CHAPTER IV-MIDDLE COLONIES 25. Pennsylvania, the Poor Man's Paradise (1698) BY GABRIEL THOMAS Gabriel Thomas, one of the most sprightly and individual of colonial writers, labored for seventeen years to build up the Quaker settlements in America. Bibliography: Tyler, American Literature, II, 228-229; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 242-245; Channing and Hart, Guide, § 108.- For previous Pennsylvania history, see Contemporaries, I, ch. xxiv. AND ND now for their Lots and Lands in City and Countrey, in their great Advancement since they were first laid out, which was within the compass of about Twelve Years, that which might have been bought for Fifteen or Eighteen Shillings, is now sold for Fourscore Pounds in ready Silver; and some other Lots, that might have been then Purchased for Three Pounds, within the space of Two Years, were sold for a Hundred Pounds a piece. Now the true Reason why this Fruitful Countrey and Florishing City advance so considerably in the Purchase of Lands both in the one and the other, is their great and extended Traffique and Commerce both by Sea and Land, viz. to New-York, New-England, Virginia, Mary-Land, Carolina, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Nevis, Monserat, Antego, St. Cristophers, Barmudoes, New-Found-Land, Maderas, Saltetudeous, and Old-England; besides several other places. Their Merchandize chiefly consists in Horses, Pipe-Staves, Pork and Beef Salted and Barrelled up, Bread, and Flower, all sorts of Grain, Pease, Beans, Skins, Furs, Tobacco, or Pot-Ashes, Wax, &c. which are Barter'd for Rumm, Sugar, Molasses, Silver, Negroes, Salt, Wine, Linen, Houshold-Goods, &c. However, there still remain Lots of Land both in the aforesaid City and Country, that any may Purchase almost as cheap as they could at the first Laying out or Parcelling of either City or Country.. ... the Countrey at the first, laying out, was void of Inhabitants (except the Heathens, or very few Christians not worth naming) and not many People caring to abandon a quiet and easie (at least tolerable) Life in their Native Countrey (usually the most agreeable to all Man |