QUINCY AND DORCHESTER. 395 XX. but a small village; yet it is very pleasant, and CHAP. healthful, very good ground, and is well timbered, and hath good store of hay-ground. It hath a very 1633. spacious harbour for shipping before the town, the salt water being navigable for boats and pinnaces two leagues. Here the inhabitants have good store of fish of all sorts, and swine, having acorns and clams at the time of year. Here is likewise an alewife river. Three miles to the north of this, is Mount Walleston,1 a very fertile soil, and a place very convenient for farmers' houses, there being great store of plain ground, without trees. This place is called Massachusetts Fields, where the greatest sagamore in the country lived, before the plague, who caused it to be cleared for himself. The greatest inconvenience is, that there is not very many springs, as in other places of the country; yet water may be had for digging. A second inconvenience is, that boats cannot come in at a low water, nor ships ride near the shore. Six miles further to the north lieth Dorchester, which is the greatest town in New-England,3 well of our people he had a power of superintendency over the churches here, but never showed it. And thus the second plantation at the Massachusetts ended." But "some few remain," he adds; and these may have been the nucleus of the subsequent permanent settlement. See p. 309; Savage's Winthrop, i. 43; Prince's Annals, pp. 204, 214, 221, 224; Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 297,342. This hill in Quincy, near the shore, and not far from President Adams's seat, still bears the name of Mount Wollaston. 2 Chickatabot. See page 305. CHAP wooded and watered. very good arable grounds, and bay-mond ár com-fells and pleasant gardens, 1433. with kitchen gardens. In this plantation is a great many cattle, as kine, goats, and swine. This plantation bath a reasonable harbour for ships. Here is no alewide river, which is a great inconvenience. The inhabitants of this town were the first that set upon the trade of fishing in the Bay; who received so much fruit of their labors, that they encouraged others to the same undertakings. A mile from this town lieth Razberry, which is a fair and handsome country-town, the inhabitants of it being all very rich. This town lieth upon the main, so that it is well wooded and watered, having a clear and fresh brook running through the town; up which, although there come no alewives, yet there is great store of smelts, and therefore it is called Smelt Brook. A quarter of a mile to the north side of the town is another river, called Stony river, upon which is built a water-mill. Here is good ground for corn, and meadow for cattle. Up westward from the town it is something rocky; whence it hath the name of Roxberry. The inhabitants have fair houses, store of cattle, impaled corn-fields, and fruitful gardens. Twenty years later, viz. in 1652, other cattle of that kind, about 450. Thus hath the Lord been pleased to increase his poor dispersed people, whose number in this flock are near about 150." See Savage's Winthrop, i. 112, and Mass. Hist. Coll. ix. 159, xii. 90. 1 This is probably the brook that divides Roxbury from Dorchester. 2 It is still called Stony Brook, and the water-mill, now called White's Mill, is yet at work near where the road to Brookline crosses the Providence rail-road. XX. Here is no harbour for ships, because the town is CHAP. seated in the bottom of a shallow bay, which is made by the neck of land on which Boston is built; so 1633. that they can transport all their goods from the ships in boats from Boston, which is the nearest harbour.1 BOSTON is two miles north-east from Roxberry. His situation is very pleasant, being a peninsula, hemmed in on the south side with the bay of Roxberry, on the north side with Charles river, the marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over; so that a little fencing will secure their cattle from the wolves. Their greatest wants be wood and meadow-ground, which never were in that place, being constrained to fetch their building 1 Compare with this Edward Johnson's description of the place in 1652. 66 Roxbury, situated between Boston and Dorchester, is well watered with cool and pleasant springs, issuing forth the rocky hills, and with small freshets, watering the valleys of this fertile town; whose form is somewhat like a wedge double pointed, entering between the two forenamed towns, filled with a very laborious people, whose labors the Lord hath so blest, that in the room of dismal swamps and tearing bushes, they have very goodly fruit trees, fruitful fields and gardens. Their herd of cows, oxen and other young cattle of that kind, about 350, and dwelling-houses near upon 120. Their streets are large, and some fair houses; yet have they built their house for church assembly destitute and unbeautified with other buildings. The church of Christ here is increased to about 120 persons. Their first teaching elder called to office is Mr. Eliot, a young man at his coming thither, of a cheerful spirit, walking unblamable, of a godly conversation, apt to teach, as by his indefatigable pains both with his own flock and the 2 The marshes were on the isth- 3 Mr. Wood was wrong in asserting that wood was never in this place.' It had doubtless been the favorite residence of the natives for many years, and a considerable portion had been cleared by burning, as was their custom, for the culture of corn. Hence it was sometimes called the plain neck; and compared with the surrounding country, covered with interminable forests, it might with propriety be called plain. There were, however, many large clumps left, sufficient for fuel and timber. The growth was probably similar to that of the islands. Had the peninsula been wholly denuded of trees, even the temptation of Mr. Blackstone's spring of fresh water could not have induced the first 333 THE HILLS OF BUSTIN. CHAP. timber and frewood from the islands in boats and XX their hay in lighters. It being a neck, and bare of 1633. wood, they are not troubled with three great anny ances, of wolves, rattlesnakes, and mosquitoes. These that live here upon their cattle, must be coastrained to take farms in the country, or else they cannot subsist; the place being too small to contain many, and fittest for such as can trade into England for such commodities as the country wants, being the chief place for shipping and merchandise. This neck of land is not above four miles in compass; in form almost square, having on the south side, at one corner, a great broad hill,' whereon is planted a fort, which can command any ship as she sails into any harbour within the still bay. On the north side is another hill, equal in bigness, whereon stands a windmill. To the north-west, is a high planters to settle at Shawmut at the At a Court held Nov. 7, 1632, 2 The peninsula on which Boston is built, contained originally about 700 acres. Its whole length, from Roxbury line to Winnisimet ferry is two miles and three-fourths and 238 yards. Its greatest breadth, from Foster's wharf to Barton's point, is one mile and 139 yards. See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 242. * This hill was originally called Corn Hill; but after the fort was built, it received the name of Fort Hill, which it still retains. It is situated at the eastern extremity of the city, directly opposite the har bour. The fortification was begun May 24, 1632, the people of Charlestown. Roxbury, and Dorchester working upon it in rotation; and in May, 1634, it was in defence, and divers pieces of ordnance mounted in it." See Winthrop, i. 77, 99, 132. 4 This hill at the north end of the city, opposite Charlestown, and which formerly rose to the height of 50 feet above the sea, was first called Windmill Hill, from the windmill on its summit, which was brought down from Watertown in August, 1632, "because it would not grind but with a westerly wind." On the map of Boston, printed in 1722, it is called Snow Hill About the time of the Revolution, in 1775, it bore the name, which it still retains, of Copp's Hill, after William Copp, the earliest proprietor of a portion of it. See Winthrop, i. 87; Snow's Boston, p. 105. THE TREMONT. 399 XX. mountain,' with three little rising hills on the top of CHAP. it; wherefore it is called From the top of this mountain a man may overlook The top of this beautiful hill, which was in the rear of the State House, was 138 feet above the level of the sea. With its two adjoining eminences it occupied about 100 acres of ground. The easternmost hill was where Pemberton Square now stands, and the westernmost occupied what is now called Mount Vernon, near Louisburgh Square. The central elevation received the name of Sentry and afterwards Beacon Hill, from the beacon which was placed on its summit to alarm the country in case of invasion, by setting fire to a tar-barrel fixed on the top of it. This beacon was blown down by the wind in Nov. 1789. The wood-cut represents the three hills as they appeared when seen from Charlestown. See 2 At a Court held Oct. 3, 1632, 3"BOSTON," says Johnson, writing in 1652, "is the centre town and metropolis of this wilderness work. Environed it is with the brinish floods, saving one small isthmus, which gives free access to the neighbour towns by land on the south side. On the north-west and north-east two constant ferries are kept for daily traffic thereunto. The form of this town is like a heart, |