Chapter XVII: Plymouth

At the American Mecca.--Court Street.--Pilgrim Hall and Pilgrim Memorials.--Sargent's Picture of the "Landing."--Relics of the _Mayflower_.--First Duel in New England.--Old Colony Seal.--The "Compact."--First Execution in Plymouth.--Old "Body of Laws."--Pilgrim Chronicles.--View from Burial Hill.--The Harbor.--Names of Plymouth.--Plymouth, England.--Lord Nelson's Generosity.--Plymouth the temporary Choice of the Pilgrims.--The Indian Plague.--Indian Superstition.--Who was first at Plymouth?--De Monts and Champlain.--Champlain's Voyages in New England.--French Pilgrims make the first Landing.--Why the Natives were hostile to the Pilgrims of 1620.--Confusion among old Writers about Plymouth.--Among the Tombstones of Burial Hill.--The Pilgrims' Church-fortress.--What a Dutchman saw here in 1627.--Military Procession to Meeting.--Ancient Church Customs.--Puritans, Separatists, and Brownists.--Flight and Political Ostracism of the Pilgrims.--Their form of Worship.--First Church of Salem.--Plymouth founded on a Principle 261

CHAPTER XVIII.

PLYMOUTH, CLARK'S ISLAND, AND DUXBURY.

Let us walk in Leyden Street.--The way Plymouth was built.--Governor Bradford's Corner.--Fragments of Family History.--How Marriage became a civil Act.--The Common-house.--John Oldham's Punishment.--The Allyne House.--James Otis and his Sister Mercy.--James Warren.--Cole's Hill, and its obliterated Graves.--Plymouth Rock.--True Date of the "Landing."--Christmas in Plymouth, and Bradford's Joke.--Pilgrim Toleration.--Samoset surprises Plymouth.--The Entry of Massasoit.--First American Congress.--To Clark's Island.--Watson's House.--Election Rock.--The Party of Discovery.--Duxbury.--Captains Hill and Miles Standish.--John Alden.--"Why don't you speak for yourself?"--Historical Iconoclasts.--Celebrities of Duxbury.--Winslow and Acadia.--Colonel Church.--The Dartmouth Indians 283

CHAPTER XIX.

PROVINCETOWN.

Cape Cod a _Terra incognita_.--Appearance of its Surface.--Historical Fragments.--The Pilgrims' first Landing.--New England Washing-day.--De Poutrincourt's Fight with Natives.--Provincetown described.--Cape Names.--Portuguese Colony.--Cod and Mackerel Fishery.--Cod-fish Aristocracy.--Matt Prior and Lent.--Beginning of Whaling.--Mad Montague.--The Desert.--Cranberry Culture.--The moving Sand-hills.--Disappearance of ancient Forests.--The Beach.--Race Point.--Huts of Refuge.--Ice Blockade of 1874-'75.--Wreck of the _Giovanni_.--Physical Aspects of the Cape Shores.--Old Wreck at Orleans 304

CHAPTER XX.

NANTUCKET.

The old Voyagers again.--Derivation of the Name of Nantucket.--Sail from Wood's Hole to the Island.--Vineyard Sound.--Walks in Nantucket Streets.--Whales, Ships, and Whaling.--Nantucket in the Revolution.--Cruising for Whales.--The Camels.--Nantucket Sailors.--Loss of Ship _Essex_.--Town-crier.--Island History.--Quaker Sailors.--Thomas Mayhew.--Spermaceti.--Macy, Folger, Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin 324

CHAPTER XXI.

NANTUCKET--_continued._

Taking Blackfish.--Blue-fishing at the Opening.--Walk to Coatue.--The Scallop-shell.--Structure of the Island.--Indian Legends.--Shepherd Life.--Absolutism of Indian Sagamores.--Wasting of the Shores of the Island.--Siasconset.--Nantucket Carts.--Fishing-stages.--The Great South Shoal.--Sankoty Light.--Surfside 343

CHAPTER XXII.

NEWPORT OF AQUIDNECK.

General View of Newport.--Sail up the Harbor.--Commercial Decadence.--Street Rambles.--William Coddington.--Anne Hutchinson.--The Wantons.--Newport Artillery.--State-house Notes.--Tristram Burgess.--Jewish Cemetery and Synagogue.--Judah Touro.--Redwood Library.--The Old Stone Mill 356

CHAPTER XXIII.

PICTURESQUE NEWPORT.

The Cliff Walk.--Newport Cottages and Cottage Life.--Charlotte Cushman.--Fort Day and Fort Adams.--Bernard, the Engineer.--Dumplings Fort.--Canonicut.--Hessians.--Newport Drives.--The Beaches.--Purgatory.--Dean Berkeley 373

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE FRENCH AT NEWPORT.

Behavior of the Troops.--Monarchy aiding Democracy.--D'Estaing.--Jourdan.--French Camps.--Rochambeau, De Ternay, De Noailles.--Efforts of England to break the Alliance.--Frederick's Remark.--Malmesbury and Potemkin.--Lord North and Yorktown.--George III.--Biron, Duc de Lauzun.--Chastellux, De Castries, Viomenil, Lameth, Dumas, La Peyrouse, Berthier, and Deux-Ponts.--The Regiment Auvergne.--Latour D'Auvergne.--French Diplomacy 386

CHAPTER XXV.

NEWPORT CEMETERIES.

Rhode Island Cemetery.--Curious Inscriptions.--William Ellery.--Oliver Hazard Perry.--The Quakers.--George Fox.--Quaker Persecution.--Other Grave-yards.--Lee and the Rhode Island Tories.--Coddington and Gorton.--John Coggeshall.--Trinity Church-yard.--Dr. Samuel Hopkins.--Gilbert Stuart 398

CHAPTER XXVI.

TO MOUNT HOPE, AND BEYOND.

Walk up the Island.--"Tonomy" Hill.--The Malbones.--Capture of General Prescott.--Talbot's Exploit.--Ancient Stages.--Windmills.--About Fish.--Lawton's Valley.--Battle of 1778.--Island History.--Mount Hope.--Philip's Death.--Dighton Rock.--Indian Antiquities 407

CHAPTER XXVII.

NEW LONDON AND NORWICH.

Entrance to the Thames.--Fisher's Island.--Block Island.--New London.--Light-ships and Light-houses.--Hempstead House.--Bishop Seabury.--Old Burial-ground.--New London Harbor.--The little Ship-destroyer.--Groton and Monument.--Arnold.--British Attack on Groton.--Fort Griswold.--The Pequots.--John Mason.--Silas Deane.--Beaumarchais.--John Ledyard.--Decatur and Hardy.--Norwich City.--The Yantic picturesque.--Uncas, the Mohegan Chieftain.--Norwich Town.--Fine old Trees.--The Huntingtons 420