Thus they commenced their state, with the maintenance of dignity, sobriety, good order, and honesty.

No accident of any moment occurred on board the Arabella. They saw one or two whales (one with a bunch on his back, about a yard above water!) and all the way were birds flying and swimming, when they had no land near, by two hundred leagues.

On the third of June, they approached near enough to the coast, to get soundings in eighty fathoms, and on the seventh, in thirty fathoms, they were regaling themselves with fresh fish of their own catching. On the eighth, they had sight of land, which they supposed Manhegan, but it proved to be Mount Desert. So pleasant a scene here they had, as did much refresh them, and there came a smell off the shore, like the smell of a garden and Noah could hardly have been more gratified to behold his dove, with the olive leaf in her mouth, than they must have been delighted, to receive a visit from a wild pigeon, and another small bird from the land.

All day on the eleventh, they stood to and again, within sight of Cape Ann. On Saturday the twelfth, at four in the morning, they gave notice of their approach, from two pieces of ordnance, and sent their skiff ashore. In the course of the day, passing through the narrow strait between Baker's isle and another little island, they came to an anchor, a short distance from Salem harbour.

Mr. Endicott and others went on board; and we that were assistants, and some other gentlemen, and some of the women and our captain, returned with him to Salem, where we supped on a good venison pasty and good beer. Next morning, many of the rest of the people went on shore, upon the other side of the harbour, and feasted themselves with strawberries, which they found in such abundance that they named the place Strawberry bank.

Early in the morning of Monday the fourteenth, we weighed anchor, and the wind being against us, and the channel so narrow that we could not well turn, we warped in our ship, and came to an anchor in the inward harbour. In the afternoon, we went with the most of our company on shore, and our captain gave us a salute of five guns.'

The other ships of the fleet fell in daily, and by the sixth of July, thirteen out of the fourteen had arrived safe in NewEngland, without the loss of more than fifteen lives by sickness or accident. A day of publick thanksgiving was therefore kept, on the eighth of that month, through all the plantations.

CHAPTER VI.

Whate'er in life may be my varied lot,

Boston, dear Boston, ne'er shall be forgot.

R. T. Paine.

Ir appears to have been the original design, that the principal part of this colony of fifteen hundred persons should have settled in one place, which they intended to call by the name of Boston. This design was frustrated by such circumstances as the following.*

They found the colony at Salem in a sad and unexpected condition. Above eighty deaths had occurred the winter before, and of those that remained alive, many were weak and sickly. All the corn and bread, amongst them all, was hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight; so that when the remainder of the great company of servants, sent over two years before, applied for sustenance, they found themselves wholly unable to afford it, by reason that the provisions shipped for them were taken out of the ship they were put in, and they who were trusted to ship them in another, failed us and left them behind. Whereupon necessity forced us, to our extreme loss, to give them all liberty, who had cost us about sixteen or twenty pound a person, furnishing and sending over.'

But bearing these things as we might, we began to consult about a place for our sitting down: for Salem, where we landed, pleased us not. So some were sent to the bay, to search up the rivers for a convenient place, who upon their return reported to have found a good place upon Mystick: but some others of us seconding these, to approve or dislike of their judgement, we found a place liked us better, three leagues up Charles river. Thereupon we unshipped our goods into other vessels, with much cost and labour, and brought them in July to Charlestown. But there receiving information (by some of the ships lately arrived) of some French preparations against us, we were forced to change our counsel; for many of our people were sick of fevers and the scurvy, and we were thereby weakened and unable to carry our baggage and ordnance so far up the river as we proposed. For our present shelter, therefore, we were obliged to plant dispersedly, (in various directions from Saugus to Dorchester.) This dis

* From Dudley's letter to the Countess of Lincoln. Mass. H. C. 1. viii. 38.

persion troubled some of us, but help it we could not, wanting ability to remove to any place fit to build a town upon, and the time being too short to deliberate any longer, lest the winter should surprize us before we had erected our houses. So ceasing to consult further, for that time, they who had health to labour fell to building.'

Governour Winthrop was among those who stopped at Charlestown. He and other publick officers were accommodated in a building, called the great house, on the westerly side of the present market square. The remainder resided in cottages, booths, and tents, where their lodgings were so cold and moist, as to cause a continued prevalence of disease among them, to such an extent as that there were not enough of the well, to take care of the sick. Dr. Samuel Fuller, a deacon of the church of Plymouth, appears to have spent several weeks in the neighbourhood in attendance upon them, but without doing much good (as he complained) for the want of drugs and things fitting to work with. Deaths spread around them, and almost every family was filled with lamentation for the loss of some of its members.

*

In consequence of this affliction, the Governour proposed to Mr. Johnson, that a day should be set apart for fasting and prayer. Accordingly, Friday, the 30th of July, was agreed upon, and devoted for that purpose. After the services of the day, it had been proposed, that such godly persons among them, as knew each other, should enter into a church covenant. Conformably to this arrangement, Governour Winthrop, Deputy Governour Dudley, Mr. Johnson, and the Rev. Mr. Wilson, on that day signed the following covenant :

"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance,

"We, whose names are here underwritten, being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ, our head, in such sort, as becometh all those, whom he hath redeemed, and sanctified to himself, do hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual love and respect to each other so near, as God shall give us grace."

* The first meetings of the congregation were held in the open air, under the shade of an oak tree, and probably continued to be so for some time; for here, says Roger Clap, I have heard Mr. Wilson and Mr. Phillips preach many a good sermon-they afterwards met in the great house.

On the Lord's day following, five more were added to the church, namely, Increase Nowell, Thomas Sharp, Simon Bradstreet, assistants, William Gager, a surgeon, and William Colburn.

At this time they had no other intention than that of making Charlestown the place of their permanent abode, and the Governour had ordered timber to be cut, and a house framed for himself there. But the sickness increasing, and the weather being hot, the people grew uneasy and discontented for the want of water. Strange as it may seem to those who now know that Charlestown abounds with. good water, yet they could then only find one brackish spring, and that upon the beach, on the west side of the northwest field, (near the present site of the state prison) which was not to be come at, but when the tide was down.* This spring could not supply half the necessities of the multitude, and the death of many was thought to be owing to the want of wholesome drink. Several persons were therefore induced to make excursions, for the discovery of some more heathful spot.

Besides the English who were located at Charlestown, when the Governour and his colony arrived, there lived on Noddle's island, one Mr. Samuel Maverick, a man of very loving and courteous behaviour, very ready to entertain strangers. The Governour lay a night at his house, while on the first exploring party. He had thrown up a small fort on the island, by the aid of Mr. Thompson, and had four cannon mounted in it to protect him from the Indians. Mr. Maverick was a man that made some figure in the history of after times, and had a grant or confirmation of the island from the general court.†

On the south side of the mouth of Charles river there also resided, in a small cottage, one Mr. William Blackstone. The spot upon which he had pitched, was near a point on the western side of a peninsula, which, at high water, appeared in those days like two islands, the north and south parts being connected only by a narrow isthmus. The Indian name of the place was Shawmut, and the English at Charlestown called it TRIMOUNTAIN.

Mr. Blackstone's self interest did not stifle his feelings of humanity, and though he might claim the peninsula for his property, as having been the first Englishman, that slept upon it, he communicated to the Governour the information that he had found an excellent spring on his side of the river, and urged him with pressing invitations to remove thither. This incident, and the fact of their being much pleased with the

* Johnson's W. W. P. ch. 17. and Dr. Bartlett's hist. sketch of Charlestown in M. H. Coll. 2. ii. 88. 165.

† August 20. The Gift, being the fourteenth and last vessel of the N. E. fleet, arrives with the loss of but one passenger, though she had been twelve weeks at sea.

plain neck (which then bore the name of Blackstone's neck,) at the south end of the peninsula, induced Mr. Johnson, who was a very influential and leading man, to remove with several others and begin a settlement. This took place in August.

On Monday the 23d of August, the first Court of Assistants, under the authority of the patent, was holden on board the Arabella, at Charlestown. The first question propounded, was, How shall the ministers be maintained ?—and it was ordered that houses be built for them at the public charge, and their salaries were established. The minister at Watertown, Rev. George Phillips, was to have thirty pounds a year, and Mr. Wilson twenty pounds a year till his wife came over, beginning from the tenth of July preceding. All this was at the common charge, excepting that the people at Dorchester and Salem were not to be taxed for this object. Governour Winthrop undertook to see the above orders carried into effect, at his plantation, which embraced Charlestown and Boston.

On Friday, the 27th of the same month, the congregation kept a fast, and chose Mr. Wilson for their teacher, Mr. Increase Nowel an elder, and Dr. Gager and Mr. William Aspinwall for deacons. These were all installed by the imposition of hands, with a solemn protest, that it was only by way of election and confirmation, and not designed to invalidate, or disparage Mr. Wilson's previous ordination in England.

At the second court of Assistants, which was also holden at Charlestown, an order was passed, that no person plant in any place within the limits of the patent, without leave from the Governour and Assistants, or a major part of them. At this court it was also ordered, that the town at Mattapan be called Dorchester, that upon Charles River, Watertown, and that Trimountain be called BOSTON. This was on the 7th day of September, 1630, and from that day we date the foundation of our city.

Whence originated the two latter of these three names, Shawmut, Trimountain and Boston, is matter of historical record. In regard to the signification of Shawmut we can only state conjecture. It seems to have been a universal custom, derived from the first fathers of mankind, to denominate places, from some peculiar excellences discovered in them and the names appropriated were generally drawn from fancied resemblances, in these peculiarities, to parts of the human body. Before the art of sinking wells was known, fountains or springs of water were of infinite value; and the practice of giving names to places from them, was prevalent among the aborigines of Massachusetts. It was very common with the Jews