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In 1651, the Penny Ferry was granted for a year to Philip Knight, who appears to have had the income of it for taking care of it, he agreeing "to attend the ferry carefully, and not to neglect it, that there be no just complaint."

In 1698, Judge Sewall makes the following entry in his diary: "February 19, I go over the ice and visit Mr. Morton, who keeps his bed. 21st, I rode over to Charlestown on the ice, then over to Stower's , so to Mr. Wigglesworth. The snow was so deep that I had a hard journey--could go but a foot pace on Mystic river, the snow was so deep. 26th, a considerable quantity of ice went away last night, so that now there is a glade of water along Governor's island, about as far as Bird island. 28th, a guard is set upon Charles River to prevent persons from venturing over on the ice for fear of drowning; and the ferrymen are put upon cutting and clearing the ice, which they do so happily, that I think the boat passeth once a day."

CHARLESTOWN FERRY.

The use of the ferry was confined to foot-passengers entirely at first; and afterwards, when larger boats were built, chaises were allowed, as the common riding or travelling vehicle of the time. It would seem that double tolls had been demanded on certain days; and in 1783, when the names of the ferrymen were presented to the town for approval, it was agreed, on their not taking double ferriage on those days, and their faithful promise to the same, to approbate them. It seems almost wonderful--but it is a fact--that this ferry was kept up as the sole means of communication, excepting the journey around through Roxbury and Cambridge, for more than one hundred and fifty years. It was over this ferry that the people came to Boston to assist in the fortification upon Corne Hill in May, 1632, and at other times for similar purposes. It was over this ferry also, on the 18th of April, 1689, that the troops came, in the time of the Andros Rebellion, to assist in maintaining the rights of the people at this early period in the history of the town. There were twenty companies in Boston, and it was said about fifteen hundred men at Charlestown that could not get over. Andros was imprisoned, the first charter of the colony dissolved, and Thomas Danforth came in as deputy-governor. On many other occasions during the long period of its continuance, and in cases of fire in Boston, the ferry had large duties to perform; and it is wonderful how it was ever made to answer its purposes for so long a time.

In 1763, April, the running of a stage-coach was commenced between Boston and Portsmouth, N.H., once a week,--out on Friday, and return on Tuesday. It is said, that, "owing to the trouble of ferrying the stage and horses over Charles River, they were kept at Charlestown, at the sign of the Three Cranes." The practice with this, and very likely other stage-lines, probably continued until the bridge was built.

The memorable night, April 18, 1775, when Paul Revere crossed Charles River, near the ferry, is of course well remembered. During the occupation of Boston Harbor by the British navy, the boats of the ferry were drawn up alongside the men-of-war every night at nine o'clock, and there was no passing after that hour; but it seems that Revere kept a boat of his own at the north end, and employed two men to row him across, "a little to the eastward where the 'Somerset' man-of-war lay." He landed at Charlestown below the ferry, and says, "I told them what was acting, and went to get me a horse," and then pursued his momentous ride to Lexington.

Imagine the continuance of this ferry, as the usual means of crossing the river between Boston and Charlestown, for a period of more than one hundred and fifty years! and all this time probably without the use of sails, as the stream at this point was very narrow and the currents very strong, and certainly without the power of steam, now so generally applied to ferries all over the country. There was, no doubt, in the winter season, a good deal of passing on the ice. The Winnisimmet Ferry, for many years prior to the introduction of steam, was operated by the use of large sail-boats for foot-passengers only.

It is said that the Indian name of Charles River was Quimobequin, and that on Capt. Smith's map of 1614, it is called Massachusetts; and Hutchinson says, "Prince Charles gave the name of Charles river to what had been before called Massachusetts river." Smith himself says he called it Charles River; still Hutchinson may be right.

THE BOSTON CORNFIELDS.

There can be no doubt that it became necessary, as early as possible, for the settlers to seek means for their future subsistence. The stock and supply of provisions brought over were, no doubt, for a time and under certain regulations, a common stock; and possibly some of Gov. Winthrop's party had supplies of their own in addition thereto. But, at all events, prudence and self-preservation required immediate attention to the cultivation of the soil and the raising of corn and other grains.

In 1628 , before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop and his company at Charlestown, the place had been occupied by the Spragues, from Salem, under the direction of Mr. Graves, an agent of the company; and one of the first things they did was "to model and lay out the form of the town, with streets about the hill," which was approved by Gov. Endicott. They next "jointly agreed and concluded that each inhabitant have a two acre lot to plant upon and all to fence in common." The same year Mr. Graves wrote to England, "The increase of corne is here farre beyond expectation," showing that it had been grown, and most probably in the common cornfield; for it is afterwards said that Thomas Walford "lived on the south end of the westermost hill of the East Field." Another vote was passed the next year, 1630,--probably before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop,--that each person "dwelling within the neck, shall have two acres of land for a house plot, and two acres for every male that is able to plant."

In the months of June and July, 1630, Gov. Winthrop and his party arrived at Charlestown, after a passage by some of the ships of seventeen or eighteen weeks, many of them sick of the scurvy. "The multitude set up cottages, booths and tents about the Town Hill;" and it is said "provisions were exceedingly wasted, and no supplies could now be expected by planting; besides, there was miserable damage and spoil of provisions at sea." Many of the party died,--some two hundred before December,--and others started out for other locations; and finally in September, 1630, by the invitation of Mr. Blackstone, the larger part of Gov. Winthrop's party crossed the river to Boston. This year there was a scarcity of corn, as will be seen by the following extract from Hutchinson's history:--

Almost as a natural consequence of what has now been said, in March, 1636, we find that provision was made "for having sufficient fences to the Cornfielde before the 14th of the next second month ; that for every defective rod then found, five shillings penalty;" and it was further provided, "The field toward Rocksberry to be looked into by Jacob Elyott and Jonathan Negoose; the Fort Hill, by James Penn and Richard Gridley; the Mylne field, by John Button and Edward Bendall, and the New Field by John Audley and Thomas Faireweather."

Thus it will be seen, if the rule adopted was carried out, that there were four or more large cornfields in Boston, and that the principal work of the people for a time was the raising of corn. At a later period parcels of corn were occasionally presented or sent to the governor by the Indians, who had their cornfields before the English people arrived. In fact, it is recorded in the next month after the arrival of Winthrop, that so much provision had been sold to the Indians for beaver, that food became scarce; and in October, 1630, a vessel was sent to the Narragansetts to trade, and brought home one hundred bushels of corn. In May, 1631, corn in Boston was ten shillings a bushel, as probably much was required for planting at this time. In August, 1633, a great scarcity of corn was reported; and in November, the next year, a vessel arrived from Narragansett with five hundred bushels of Indian corn. It is very clear that corn was very early, and for some time, the great dependence of the settlers.

In Plymouth Colony, in 1630, the salary of the messenger of the General Court was thirty bushels of corn. In 1685, the secretary's wages was fifteen pounds a year, payable in corn at two shillings per bushel. In 1690, "one third the Governor's salary ordered to be paid in money, the rest in corne."

In 1637, April 16, "all the fences and gates to be made up. Sargeant Hutchinson and Richard Gridley to look after the Fort Field; John Button, James Everett and Isaac Grosse, in the Mill Field; Wm Colburn and Jacob Elyott on the Field next Roxburie." Again, in 1640, March 30, "To look to the fences: Richard Fairbanks and William Salter the field towards Roxbury; Benj. Gillam and Edmd. Jacklyn, the Fort Field; Wm. Hudson and Edward Bendall the New Field; Mr. Valentine Hill and John Button, the Mill Field."

Dr. Shurtleff, in his "Topographical and Historical Description of Boston," enumerates five fields as follows, and speaks of them as ungranted lands: "The land around Copps' Hill, was known as the Mylne Field, or Mill Field; that around Fort Hill, the Fort Field; that at the Neck, the Neck Field, or the Field towards Roxbury; that where Beacon Hill Place now is, Centry Hill Field, and that west of Lynde Street, and north of Cambridge, the New Mill Field, or the New Field." And to show that these were not waste lands or pastures, the writer enumerates the various pastures for cattle, besides the privileges at Muddy Brook and Winnisimmet, as follows: "Besides the fields there were many pastures, so called: Christopher Stanley's was at the North End, covering the region of North Bennet Street, between Hanover and Salem Streets; Buttolph's was south of Cambridge Street; Tucker's, in the neighborhood of Lyman Street; Rowe's, east of Rowe Street; Wheeler's, where the southerly end of Chauncy Street is; Atkinson's, where Atkinson Street was a few years ago, and where Congress Street now is." And besides these he names Leverett's on Leverett Street; Middlecott's on Bowdoin Street; another on Winter and Tremont Streets, and, as he says, "a very large number of other great lots."

And strange to say, in all this history, contemporary or modern, in only a single instance, so far as we know, are these fields or any one of them spoken of as a "cornfielde," and that is in the order of 1636, above quoted. There is, however, one other reference to them made, in 1657, in the body of instructions prepared for the selectmen to guide them in the discharge of their duties: "Relying on your wisdom and care in seeking the good of the town, we recommend that you cause to be executed all the orders of the town which you have on the records," &c., "as found in the printed laws under the titles Townships, Freeman, Highways, Small Causes, Indians, Cornfields," &c., which would assuredly show that there were cornfields in the town, distinct from pastures or waste lands, undoubtedly laid out and divided among the people, as already indicated, for their special cultivation.

If, as we believe, the "fields" enumerated were cornfields, and cultivated in the manner suggested,--at first one field, and year by year, as necessity should require, a new field added,--there would naturally become, among a people situated as they were, a necessity for a granary for the storing and preservation of their crops. Consequently, in the enumeration of public buildings in Boston at a later period, we find mentioned "a public granary." The burying-ground on Tremont Street, known as the Granary Burying-Ground, was laid out on land taken from the Common in 1660, and, of course, took its name from the granary, which was built soon after on what was afterwards Centry Street, and now Park Street. Shurtleff says the land was first taken for the purpose, and "then, when the need came, a building, eighty feet by thirty feet, for a public granary, was erected, and subsequently, in 1737, removed to the corner, its end fronting on the principal street . It stood until 1809, when it gave place to Park Street Church." So that, though latterly for some years used for another purpose, the granary stood in Boston for more than one hundred and forty years. It is described as a long wooden building, and was calculated to hold twelve thousand bushels of corn.

In 1733, it would seem that corn or other grain continued to be grown in Boston, as in October of that year it was determined to erect a granary at the North End, "not to exceed ?100" in cost. In the records of the selectmen, it is called a meal-house, and John Jeffries, Esq., and Mr. David Colson, two of the selectmen, were to contract for the work on a piece of land near the North Mill, belonging to the town.

So that at what time the cultivation of corn ceased in Boston, it is impossible to tell; but it would seem, from the necessity for a new granary in 1733, that it must have continued for considerably more than a hundred years after the settlement of the town.

PURITAN GOVERNMENT.

The early government of the Puritans in Boston was a sort of extemporary government, or, as it has been described, "temporary usurpation,"--a government of opinions and prejudices, and in small sense a government of law. It had some of the features of a family government, without system or order. If the inhabitant offended, or did any thing which was not thought proper by the Church, the assistants, or anybody else, fine or punishment was pretty sure to follow. To be sure there was the Massachusetts Colony Charter somewhere; but it is singular that the copy of it found among Hutchinson's papers, and since printed, is certified to be a "true copy of such letters patents under the great seal of England," by John Winthrop, Governor, dated "this 19th day of the month called March, 1613-1644." This verbose and peculiar document gives authority to the company in the matter of government in the following elaborate form:--

"And wee do of our further grace, certaine knowledge and meere motion give and grant to the said Governor and Company and their successors, that it shall and may be lawfull to and for the Governour or deputy Governor and such of the Assistants and Freemen of the said Company for the tyme being as shall be assembled in any of their generall courts aforesaid, or in any other courts to be specially summoned and assembled for that purpose, or the greater part of them from tyme to tyme to make, ordaine and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, lawes, statutes and ordinances, directions and instructions not contrary to the lawes of this our realme of England, as well for the settling of the formes and ceremonies of government and magistracie fitt and necessary for the said plantation and the inhabitants there, and for nameing and styling of all sorts of officers both superiour and inferiour which they shall find needful for that government and plantation, and the distinguishing and setting forth of the severall duties, powers and limits of every such office and place, and the formes of such oathes warrantable by the lawes and statutes of this our realme of England as shall be respectively ministred unto them, for the execution of the said several offices and places, as also for the disposing and ordering of the elections of such of the said officers as shall be annuall, and of such others as shall be to succeed in case of death or removall, and ministring the said oathes to the new elected officers, and for imposition of lawfull fynes, mulcts, imprisonment or other lawfull correction, according to the course of other Corporations in this our realme of England, and for the directing, ruleing and disposeing of all other matters and things whereby our said people inhabiting there may be so religiously, peaceably and civily governed, as theire good life and orderly conversation may winne and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the onely true God and Saviour of mankind and the christian faith, which in our royall intention and the adventurers free profession is the principal end of this plantation."

The charter goes on to give authority to commanders, captains, governors, and all other officers for the time being, "to correct, punish, pardon, govern and rule all such the subjects of us, our heires and successors, as shall from tyme to tyme adventure themselves in any voyage thither or from thence, or that shall at any tyme hereafter inhabit within the precincts and parts of New England aforesaid, according to the orders, lawes, ordinances, instructions and directions aforesaid, not repugnant to the laws and statutes of our realme of England as aforesaid." And in order to make the laws of these officers known, it is provided, as printing would not be practicable, that they shall be "published in writing under theire common seale."

But it would seem, notwithstanding, that the authority exercised by the company was at first executive rather than legislative; and Mr. Savage remarks, that the body of the people "submitted at first to the mild and equal temporary usurpation of the officers, chosen by themselves, which was also justified by indisputable necessity." The first "Court of Assistants" was held at Charlestown, Aug. 23, 1630; and the first thing propounded was, "how the ministers shall be maintained," and it was determined, of course, at the public charge. Gov. Winthrop, Lieut.-Gov. Dudley, and the assistants were present; and this body carried on the government--what there was of it--"in a simply patriarchal manner," until "the first General Court or meeting of the whole company at Boston, 19 October," 1631, and this was held "for the establishing of the government." It was now determined that "the freemen should have the power of choosing assistants, and from themselves to choose a Governor and Lieut. Governor, who with the assistants should have the power of making laws and choosing officers to execute the same." This is the brief history of the origin of a local government in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, if it may be so called. It was autocratic for the first year and afterwards, although fully assented to by a general vote of the people.

John Legge, a servant, was ordered "to be whipt this day at Boston, and afterwards, so soon as convenient may be, at Salem, for striking Richard Wright." Richard Hopkins was ordered to be severely whipped, and branded with a hot iron on one of his cheeks, for selling guns, powder, and shot to the Indians. Joyce Bradwick was ordered to pay Alexander Beck twenty dollars for promising marriage without her friends' consent, and now refusing to perform the same. This was in 1632, and is undoubtedly the first breach-of-promise case that had occurred in the colony.

It was ordered if any one deny the Scriptures to be the word of God, to be fined fifty pounds, or whipped forty stripes; if they recant, to pay ten pounds, and whipped if they pay not that. A man, who had been punished for being drunk, was ordered to wear a red D about his neck for a year.

The case of one Knower, at Boston, 1631, is spoken of as curious, showing that the court, usurper and tyrant as it was, had no intention of being slighted, underestimated, or intimidated. "Thomas Knower was set in bilbows for threatening the Court, that if he should be punished, he would have it tried in England, whether he was lawfully punished or not." And for this he was punished.

In 1637, "a law was made that none should be received to inhabit within the jurisdiction but such as should be allowed by some of the magistrates; and it was fully understood that differing from the religions generally received in the country, was as great a disqualification as any political opinions whatever." On this subject Judge Minot says, "Whilst they scrupulously regulated the morals of the inhabitants within the colony, they neglected not to prevent the contagion of dissimilar habits and heretical principles from without.... No man could be qualified either to elect or be elected to office who was not a church member, and no church could be formed but by a license from a magistrate."

In 1640, in the case of Josias Plaistow for stealing four baskets of corn from the Indians, he was ordered to return eight baskets, "to be fined ?5, and to be called Josias, and not Mr. Josias Plaistow, as he formerly used to be."

A carpenter was employed to make a pair of stocks; and, it being adjudged that he charged too much for his work, he was sentenced to be put in them for one hour. A servant, charged with slandering the Church, was whipped, then deprived of his ears and banished. This punishment was deemed severe, and excited some remarks upon the subject.

A Capt. Stone was fined one hundred pounds and prohibited from coming into Boston without the governor's leave on pain of death, for calling Justice Ludlow a "just-ass." Another party, for being drunk, was sentenced to carry forty turfs to the fort; while another, being in the company of drunkards, was set in the stocks.

In addition to these, the code went still further in regulating the dress of women: "4th of 7th month , 1639, Boston. No garments shall be made with short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arm may be discovered in the wearing thereof;" and, where garments were already made with short sleeves, the arms to be covered with linen or otherwise. No person was allowed to make a garment for women with sleeves more than half an ell wide, and "so proportionate for bigger or smaller persons."

In the matter of currency, it was ordered, in 1634, "that musket balls of a full boar shall pass currently for farthings apiece, provided that no man be compelled to take above 12 pence at a time in them."

It would seem that some of these decisions, or the general character of the government, had caused some remark, as it was "ordered that Henry Lyn shall be whipt and banished the Plantation before the 6th day of October next, for writing into England falsely and maliciously against the government and execution of Justice here." "Execution of justice" is good, we should say.

Ward, in his "Trip to New England," a very coarse and abusive paper, published in London, in 1706, in a book called "London Spy," says, in Boston "if you kiss a woman in publick, tho' offered as a Courteous Salutation, if any information is given to the Select Members, both shall be whipt or fined." He relates, that "a captain of a certain ship, who had been a long voyage, happen'd to meet his wife, and kist her in the street, for which he was fined Ten Shillings, and forc'd to pay the Money. Another inhabitant of the town was fin'd Ten Shillings for kissing his own wife in his Garden, and obstinately refusing to pay the Money, endur'd Twenty Lashes at the Gun, who, in Revenge for his Punishment, swore he would never kiss her again either in Publick or Private."

John Dunton, in his famous work, "Dunton's Life and Errors," speaks of the government, when he was in Boston, in 1686. He says, "Let it be enough to say, The laws in force here, against immorality and prophaneness, are very severe. Witchcraft is punish'd with death, as 'tis well known; and theft with restoring fourfold, if the Criminal be sufficient.--An English woman, admitting some unlawful freedoms from an Indian, was forc'd twelve months to wear upon her Right arm an Indian cut in red cloath."

The "Body of Liberties," as it was strangely called, contained an hundred laws, which had been drawn up pursuant to an order of the General Court, by Nathaniel Ward, pastor of the church at Ipswich, who had been formerly a practitioner of law in England; and this book was printed by Daye, the first printer, at Cambridge in 1641.

Oldmixon mentions a singular law. He says, "The goodness of the pavement may compare with most in London: to gallop a horse on it is 3 shillings and four pence forfeit." This was more than a hundred years after the settlement of the town, and less than forty years before the commencement of the revolutionary war.

A letter from London, from Edward Howes to his relative, J. Winthrop, jun., dated April 3, 1632, says, "I have heard divers complaints against the severity of your government, especially Mr. Endicott's, and that he shall be sent for over, about cutting off the lunatick man's ears and other grievances" .

In respect to the levying of fines, Gov. Winthrop, who was accused of not demanding their payment in some cases, remarked, "that in his judgment, it were not fit in the infancy of a Commonwealth to be too strict in levying fines, though severe in other punishments."

This is the sum and substance of the Puritan government as long as it lasted. Under the charter, or without the charter, they made such laws as they pleased, before or after the occasion. They punished every thing which they thought to be wrong, or which did not conform to their notions of propriety or their practice, and this, too, without consistency or discrimination.

In 1639, Winthrop says, "The people had long desired a body of laws, and thought their condition very unsafe, while so much power rested in the discretion of the magistrates. Divers attempts had been made at former courts, and the matter referred to some of the magistrates and some of the elders, but still it came to no effect, for being committed to the care of so many, whatsoever was done by some, was still disliked or neglected by others." So that it is doubtful if they ever really had a set of laws that were relied upon; that limited the discretion of the magistrates, or was ever reasonably and impartially enforced. If the law failed to be adequate, it seemed to be proper for the magistrate to make it so; and he not only supplied the deficiency, but occasionally coined or misconstrued a law for his purpose. Such a government might well be considered "unsafe."

THE NARRAGANSETT INDIANS.

VISIT TO BOSTON.

The Narragansett Indians were one of the largest, if not the very largest, tribe in New England, at the time of the arrival of the Puritans; and they were especially friendly to the settlers. They lived along the coast, from Stonington to Point Judith, on Narragansett Bay. "They consisted," says Hutchinson, "of several lesser principalities, but all united under one general ruler, called the Chief Sachem, to whom all others owed some kind of fealty or subjection." The Nianticks were considered as a branch of the Narragansetts, having very likely been conquered by them, and brought under their subjection.

A letter of Roger Williams, who was intimate with, and a strong friend of, the Narragansett Indians, says they were "the settlers' fast friends, had been true in all the Pequot wars, were the means of the coming in of the Mohegans, never had shed English blood, and many settlers had had experience of the love and desire of peace which prevailed among them."

In October, 1636, after the murder of Mr. Oldham, Gov. Vane invited their sachem, Miantonomo, to visit Boston, which he soon after did, bringing with him another sachem, two sons of Canonicus, and about twenty men. The governor sent twenty musketeers to Roxbury to meet them and escort them into town. The sachems and their council dined together in the same room with the governor and his ministers. After dinner a friendly treaty was made with Miantonomo, and signed by the parties; and, although at this time the English thought the Indians did not understand it, they kept it faithfully; but the English, who were afterwards instrumental in the death of Miantonomo, did not. The Indians were subsequently escorted out of town, "and dismissed with a volley of shot;" and the famous Roger Williams was appointed to explain the treaty to the Indians.

In this treaty, Canonicus, who was the chief sachem of the tribe, and is said to have been "a just man, and a friend of the English," was represented by Miantonomo, his nephew, whom Canonicus, on account of his age, had caused to assume the government. The deputation that Gov. Vane sent to the Narragansetts in the matter of the murder of Mr. Oldham, speak of Canonicus "as a sachem of much state, great command over his men, and much wisdom in his answers and the carriage of the whole treaty; clearing himself and his neighbors of the murder, and offering assistance for revenge of it." Johnson represents Miantonomo "as a sterne, severe man, of great stature and a cruel nature, causing all his nobility and such as were his attendants to tremble at his speech."

INDIAN ART.--CURIOUS MARRIAGE.

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