Chapter XXVII: "I've gazed upon thy golden cloud (1)

Which shades thine emerald sod;

Thy hills, which Freedom's share hath plow'd,

Which nurse a race that have not bow'd

Their knee to aught but God.

And thou hast gems, ay, living pearls,

And flowers of Eden hue;

Thy loveliest are thy bright-eyed girls,

Of fairy forms and elfin curls,

And smiles like Hermon's dew.

They've hearts, like those they're born to wed,

Too proud to nurse a slave.

They'd scorn to share a monarch's bed,

And sooner lay their angel head

Deep in their humble grave."

Hugh Peters.

"Ye say they all have pass'd away,

That noble race and brave;

That their light canoes have vanish'd

From off the crested wave;

That mid the forests where they warr'd

There rings no hunter's shout;

But their name is on your waters,

Ye may not wash it out."

Mrs. Sigourney.

O the land of the Narragansets and Wampanoags--the land of Massasoit and Philip, of Canonicus and Miantonornoh--the land of Roger Williams and toleration--the Rhode Island and Providence plantations of colonial times, I next turned my attention. On a clear frosty evening, the moon in its wane and the winds hushed, I went up the Sound in the steam-boat Vanderbilt. We passed through October 19, 1848 the turbulent eddies of Hell Gate at twilight, and as we entered the broader expanse of water beyond Fort Schuyler, heavy swells, that were upheaved by a gale the day before, came rolling in from the ocean, and disturbed the anticipated quiet of the evening voyage. It was to end at Stonington * at midnight, so I paced the promenade deck in the biting night air to keep off sea- sickness, and was successful. We landed at Stonington between twelve and one o'clock, where we took cars for Providence, arriving there at three. Refreshed by a few hours' sleep, and an early breakfast at the "Franklin," I started upon a day's ramble with Mr. Peeks, of Providence, who kindly offered to accompany me to memorable places around that prosperous city. We first visited the most interesting, as well as one of the most ancient, localities connected with the colonial history of Rhode Island, the rock on which Roger Williams first landed upon its shores. It is reached

* Stonington is a thriving town, situated upon an estuary of Long Island Sound, and about midway between the mouths of the Mystic and Paweatuc Rivers. It was settled by a few families about 1658. The first squatter was William Cheeseborough, from Massachusetts, who pitched his tent there in 1649. It has but little Revolutionary history except what was common to other coast towns, where frequent alarms kept the people in agitation. It suffered some from bombardment in 1813, by the squadron under Sir Thomas Hardy, which drove Decatur into the harbor of New London. The enemy was so warmly received, that Hardy weighed anchor, and made no further attempts upon the coast of Connecticut.

Roger Williams's Rock.--"Water Lots."--Proposed Desecration.--Arrival of Roger Williams.--His Character

620from the town by the broad avenue called Power Street, which extends to the high bank of the Seekonk or Pawtucket River, and terminates almost on a line with the famous rock, some sixty feet above high water mark.

The town is rapidly extending toward the Seekonk, and the hand of improvement was laying out broad, streets near its bank when I was there. The channel of the Seekonk here is narrow, and at low tide broad flats on either side are left bare. I was informed that a proposition had been made to dig down the high banks and fill in the flats to the edge of the channel, to make "desirable water lots," the "Roger Williams' Rock" to be in the center of the public square, though at least thirty feet below the surface! Mosheim informs us that when the Jews attempted to rebuild Jerusalem, in the time of Julian, the workmen were prevented from labor by the issuing of fire-balls from the earth with a horrible noise, and that enterprise, undertaken in opposition to the prophecy of Jesus, was abandoned ** Should mammon attempt the desecrating labor of covering the time-honored rock on the shore of old Seekonk, who can tell what indignant protests may not occur?

Here is a mossy spot upon the patriarch's back; let us sit down in the warm sunlight and wind-sheltered nook, and glance at the record.

A few months after the arrival of Winthrop and his company at Boston, and before Hooker and Cotton, afterward eminent ministers in the colony, had sailed from England, there landed February 5, 1631 at Nantasket an enlightened and ardent Puritan divine, young in years (for he was thirty-one), but mature in judgment and those enlightened views of true liberty of conscience, which distinguish the character of modern theological jurisprudence from the intolerance of the seventeenth century. He was a fugitive from English persecution; but his wrongs had not clouded his accurate understanding. In the capacious recesses of his mind he had resolved the nature of intolerance, and he alone had arrived at the great principle which is its sole effectual remedy. He announced his discovery under the simple proposition of sanctity of conscience. The civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control opinion; should punish, guilt, but never violate the freedom of the soul. *** This was a wonderful discovery in modern science; too wonderful for the hierarchy of England, or the magistrates and ministers of the Puritan colony of America. They could not comprehend

* This view is on the left bank of the Seekonk, looking south. The point on which the figure stands is the famous rock, composed of a mass of dark slate, and rising but little above the water at high tide. The high banks are seen beyond, and on the extreme left is India Point, with the rail-road bridge near the entrance of the river into Narraganset Bay.

** Mosheim's Church History (external), part i., chap, i., sec. xiv.

*** Bancroft, i., 367.

Narrow Views of the old Puritans.--Zeal of Roger Williams.--Disturbance at Salem.--Williams arraigned for Treason.

621its beauty or utility; and as it had no affinity with their own narrow views of the dignity of the human soul, they pronounced it heresy, as soon as the discoverer began to make a practical development of his principles. Yet they perceived, with a yearning affection for the truth, that it would quench the fires of persecution, abrogate laws making non-conformity a felony, abolish tithes, and all forced contributions to the maintenance of religion, and protect all in that freedom of conscience to worship God as the mind should dictate, for which they had periled their lives and fortunes in the wilderness. Still, its glory was too brilliant it dazzled their vision; the understanding could not comprehend its beneficent scope; they looked upon it with the jealous eye of over-cautiousness, and, true to the impulses of human nature, what they could not _comprehend,_ they _rejected._ This great apostle of toleration and intellectual liberty was Roger Williams.

The New England Churches had not renounced the use of coercion in religious matters, and Williams, so soon as his tolerant views were made known, found himself regarded with suspicion by the civil and religious authorities. Disappointed, yet resolutely determined to maintain his principles, he withdrew to the settlement at Plymouth, where he remained two years, and by his charity, virtues, and purity of life, won the hearts of all. The people of Salem called him to be their minister, a movement which made the court of Boston marvel. Being an object of jealousy, and now having an opportunity to speak in the public ear, he was in perpetual collision with the clergy. The magistrates insisted on the presence of every man at public worship. Williams reprobated the law. To compel men to unite with those of a different creed he regarded as an open violation of their natural rights; to drag to public worship the irreligious and unwilling seemed only like requiring hypocrisy. This doctrine alarmed both magistrates and clergy, and they began to denounce Williams. In proportion to the severity of their opposition his zeal was kindled, and so earnest did he become in enforcing his tolerant views, that intolerance and fanaticism marked his own course. He denounced King James as a liar; declared that the settlers had no right to the lands they occupied, these belonging to the aborigines; raised a tumult about the red cross of St. George in the banner; (a) at last boldly denounced the Churches of New England as anti-Christian, and actually excommunicated such of his parishioners as held intercourse 1634 with them. The vision of that great mind which saw general principles of righteousness in a clear light, became clouded in his practical endeavors to bring the power of those principles to bear upon society. When weak and persecuted, the scope of his vision of intellectual liberty and Christian charity embraced the earth; when in power and strong, it contracted to the small orbit of his parish at Salem--himself the central sun of light and goodness. Such is the tendency of all human minds under like circumstances; and Roger Williams, great and good as he was, was not an exception.

The magistrates were greatly irritated; some of Williams's language was construed as treasonable and schismatic, and he was arraigned before the General Court at Boston on this charge. There he stood alone in defense of his noble principles; for his congregation, and even the wife of his bosom, could not justify all his words and acts. Yet he was undaunted, and declared himself "ready to be bound, and banished, and even to die in New England," rather than renounce the truth whose light illuminated his mind and conscience. He was allowed to speak for himself before the court, and also to dispute upon religious points with the Reverend Mr. Hooker. Every effort to "reduce him from his errors" was unavailing, and the court, composed of all the ministers, proceeded to pass sentence October, 1635 of banishment upon him. He was ordered to leave the jurisdiction of the colony

* The preaching of Williams warmed the zeal of Endicott, then one of the board of military commissioners for the colony, and afterward governor. The banner of the train-bands at Salem had the cross of St. George worked upon it. Endicott, determining to sweep away every vestige of what he deemed popish or heathenish superstition, caused the cross to be cut out of the banner. The people raised a tumult, and the court at Boston, mercifully considering that Endicott's intentions were good, though his act was rash, only "adjudged him worthy admonition, and to be disabled for one year from bearing any public office."--Savage's Winthrop, i., 158; Moore's Colonial Governors, i., 353.

Banishment of Roger Williams.--Flight to the Seekonk.--Landing at Providence.--Commencement of a Settlement

622within six weeks. He obtained leave to remain until the rigors of winter had passed, but, continuing active in promoting his peculiar views, the court determined to ship him immediately for England. He was ordered to Boston for the purpose of embarking. He refused obedience, and, hearing that a warrant had been issued for his arrest, set out, with a few followers, for the vast unexplored wilds of America, with an ambitious determination to found a new colony, having for its foundation the sublime doctrine of liberty of conscience in all its plenitude, and the equality of opinions before the law. In the midst of deep snows and bitter January, 1636 winds they journeyed toward Narraganset Bay. "For fourteen weeks he was 1636. sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean." * He describes himself, in a letter to Mason, "as plucked up by the roots, beset with losses, distractions, miseries, hardships of sea and land, debts and wants." He at last found refuge and hospitality from the Indian sachem Massasoit, whom he had known at Plymouth; and in the spring, under a grant from that sachem, commenced a settlement at Seekonk, ** on the east side of the Seekonk or Pawtucket River, just within the limits of the Plymouth colony. Many of the ministers in that colony wrote him friendly letters, for he was personally beloved by all. Winslow, who was then governor, wrote a letter to Williams, in which he claimed Seekonk as a part of the Plymouth domain, and suggested his removal beyond the jurisdiction of that colony to prevent difficulty. Williams heeded the advice of Winslow, June, 1636 and entering a canoe with five others, paddled down the Seekonk almost to its mouth, and landed upon the west side of the river, upon the bare rock, delineated on page 52. He crossed over to the west side of the peninsula, and upon that shore, at the head of the bay, commenced a new settlement. He obtained from Canonicus and Miantonômoh, principal chiefs of the Narragansets, a grant of land for the purpose. He named his new settlement Providence, "in commemoration of God's providence to him in his distress."

"I desired," he said, "it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." And so it became, for men of every creed there found perfect freedom of thought. Although every rood of land belonged to Williams, by right of deed from the Narraganset sachems, not a foot of it did he reserve for himself. He practiced his holy precepts, and "gave away his lands and other estates to them that he thought most in want, until he gave away all." *** Nor was there any distinction made among the settlers, "whether servants or strangers;" each had an equal voice in the affairs of government, and the political foundation of the settlement was a pure democracy. The Massachusetts people believed that the fugitives "would have no magistrates," and must necessarily perish politically, yet they thrived wonderfully. The impress of that first system is yet seen upon the political character of Rhode Island, for "in no state in the world, not even in the agricultural state of Vermont, have the magistrates so little power, or the representatives of the freemen so much." **** Such was the planting of the first and only purely democratic colony in America; and its founder, though persecuted and contemned, maintained, in the opinion of all good men, that high character which Cotton Mather and others were constrained to award him, as "one of the most distinguished men that ever lived, a most pious and heavenly-minded soul." (v)

The Christian charity of Roger Williams was remarkably displayed soon after his banishment from Massachusetts. In 1637, when the Pequots were attempting to induce the Narragansets to join them in a general war upon the whites, and particularly against the

* Massachusetts Historical Collections, i., 276.

** Seekonk is the Indian name for the wild or black goose with which the waters in that region originally abounded. The town is the ancient Rehoboth, first settled by William Blackstone, an English non-conformist minister, a few months previous to the arrival here of Roger Williams. Blackstone was the first white man who lived upon the peninsula of Shawmut, where Boston now stands. Williams's plantation was on the little Seekonk River, the navigable portion of which is really an arm of Narraganset Bay. Although Williams was the real founder of Rhode Island, Blackstone was the first white settler within its borders. He had no sympathy with Williams, and continued his allegiance to Massachusetts, though without its jurisdiction.

*** Backus's History of New England, i., 290.

**** Bancroft, i., 380.

(v) Callender's Historical Discourse.

Williams's Negotiations with the Indians.--Ingratitude of the Massachusetts Colony.--March of the French Army to Providence.

623Massachusetts people, Mr. Williams informed the latter of the fact. They solicited his mediation, and, forgetting the many injuries he had received from those who now needed his favor, he set out on a stormy day, in a poor canoe, upon the rough bay, and through many dangers repaired to the cabin of Canonicus. The Pequots and Narragansets were already assembled in council. The former threatened him with death, yet he remained there three days and nights. "God wonderfully preserved me," he said, "and helped me to break in pieces the designs of the enemy, and to finish the English league, by many travels and changes, with the Narragansets and Mohegans against the Pequots." This alliance we noticed in the last chapter. Notwithstanding this great service, the Massachusetts court would not revoke Williams's sentence of banishment.

Let us now close the volume for a time, and visit other places of historic interest.

Leaving the Seekonk, we walked to the site of the encampment of the French army in the autumn of 1782, while on its march to Boston for embarkation. It had remained in Virginia after the battle of Yorktown, in the autumn of 1781, until the summer of 1782, when it joined Washington and his army on the Hudson. The place of its encampment there was near Peekskill. The order and discipline of this army, and its uniform respect for property--the soldiers not even taking fruit from the trees without leave--were remarkable, and on their march northward Rochambeau and his officers received many congratulatory addresses. ** The army remained at Peekskill until October, when it commenced its march for Boston, going by the way of Hartford and Providence. Count de October 22, 1732 Rochambeau accompanied it to the latter place, where he took his leave of the troops and returned to Washington's head-quarters. The army had received orders to sail to the West Indies in the French fleet of fifteen sail of the line and four frigates, then lying in the harbor of Boston, in the event of the evacuation of New York or Charleston by the British. The Baron de Viomenil was ordered to accompany the troops as commander instead of Rochambeau. The latter, with several other officers, returned from Rhode Island to Virginia, and at Norfolk embarked for France.

* Roger Williams was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He became a minister in the Church of England, but his views of religious liberty made him a non-conformist, and he came to America. Bold in the annunciation of his tenets respecting the perfect liberty of mind and conscience, he was banished from Massachusetts, and planted a colony at the head of Narraganset Bay, now the city of Providence. In 1639 he embraced the doctrines of the Baptists, and being baptized by one of his brethren, he baptized ten others. Doubts as to the correctness of his principles arose in his mind, and he finally concluded that it would be wrong to perform the rite of baptism without a revelation from Heaven. The Chureh which he had formed was accordingly dissolved. He went to England in 1643, as agent for the colony, and obtained a charter, with which he returned in September, 1644. This charter was granted on the 14th of March, and included the shores and islands of Narraganset Bay, west of Plymouth and south of Massachusetts, and as far as the Pequot River and eountry, to be known as the Providence Plantations. He landed at Boston, but was not molested on account of being under sentence of banishment, for he brought with him recommendatory letters from influential members of Parliament. He went to England again for the colony in 1651, where he remained until 1654. He was chosen president of the government on his return, which office he held until 1657, when Benedict Arnold was appointed. In 1672 he held a dispute with the Quakers for three days at Newport, of whieh he wrote an account. * He died in April, 1683, aged eighty-four years.

** At Philadelphia, a deputation of Quakers waited upon Rochambeau, and one of them, in behalf of the others, said, "General, it is not on account of thy military qualities that we make thee this visit; those we hold in little esteem; but thou art the friend of mankind, and thy army conducts itself with the utmost order and discipline. It is this which induces us to render thee our respects."

* The title of the pamphlet containing the account (which was published in 167 G) was, "George Fox digged out of his Burrows," it being written against Fox and Burrows, two eminent Quakers. An answer to it was published in 1679, entitled "A New England Fire-brand Quenched."

The French Troops at Providence.--Site of the Encampment.--Remains.-- Departure of the French from Boston.

624The French troops arrived at Providence in November, and to give color to the pretext that they marched eastward to go into winter quarters, made excavations, in which to find protection from the cold, instead of pitching their tents, as a moving army would do. The object was to allow the expedition to the West Indies--where a brisk naval warfare was in progress between the French and British--to remain a secret even to the suspicions of the English. After remaining about a fortnight at Providence the troops marched toward Boston, where they arrived early in December. * On the 24th of that month the French fleet sailed from Boston for St. Domingo, with all the troops except Lanzun's legion, the army having been in the United States two and a half years. **

The place of the encampment at Providence is in a field of cold, wet land, rough and rocky, a mile and a half east-northeast from Market Square in the city. It lies on the northeast side of Harrington's Lane, at the head of Greene Lane, which latter runs parallel with Prospect Street. We passed on our way along the brow of Prospect Hill, whence we had a fine view of the city and surrounding country, including northward the spires of Pawtucket, and southward the blue waters of Narraganset Bay. The encampment was on the western slope of the northern termination of Prospect Hill. Several shallow pits and heaps of stones, with some charcoal intermingled (the remains of the temporary dwellings of the French soldiers), are yet to be seen. It was a sheltered position, and favorable for a The ground is full of small surface springs, which, with the wash from the cultivated hills above, will soon obliterate every trace of the encampment.

About a quarter of a mile westward of the camp ground is the "North Burying-ground," belonging to the city. It has been beautified within a few years by graveled foot-paths and carriage-ways, fine vaults, handsome monuments and inclosures. Its location is such that it may be made a beautiful cemetery, though small. Not far from the south entrance is a marble monument about nine feet high, erected to the memory of Stephen Hopkins, for a long time colonial governor of Rhode Island, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. On the southern side of the obelisk is the name of Hopkins in large letters. The inscriptions are upon three sides of the pedestal. ***

In the northeast part of the burial-ground is a granite ob-

* Soon after their arrival, Governor John Hancock and the Council gave a public dinner to the commanding general, Viomenil, and his officers, and to the commander of the fleet, Vaudreuil, and his officers.

** The Magnifique, a French seventy-four gun ship, one of the fleet, having been lost in Boston Harbor by accident, Congress, in testimony of their sense of the generosity of the French king, had resolved, more than three months before (September 3), to present the America, a seventy-four gun ship, to the French minister, the Chevalier de Luzerne, for the service of his king.--See Journals of Congress, viii., 343.

*** The following are the inscriptions: North side.--"Sacred to the memory of the illustrious Stephen Hopkins, of Revolutionary fame, attested by his signature to the Declaration of our National Independence. Great in council, from sagacity of mind; magnanimous in sentiment, firm in purpose, and good as great, from benevolence of heart, he stood in the first rank of statesmen and patriots. Self- educated, yet among the most learned of men, his vast treasury of useful knowledge, his great retentive and reflective powers, combined with his social nature, made him the most interesting of companions in private life." West side.--"His name is engraved on the immortal records of the Revolution, and can never die. His titles to that distinction are engraved on this monument, reared by the grateful admiration of his native state in honor of her favorite son." South side.--Born March 7, 1707. Died July 13, 1785." A biography and portrait of this venerated patriot will be found among those of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in another part of this work. The fac-simile of his signature here given is a copy of his autograph in my possession, attached to the commission of Captain Ephraim Wheaton, issued in June, 1761. Mr. Hopkins was then Governor of Rhode Island, and in that capacity signed the instrument. It is attested by Henry Ward, secretary. Mr. Ward was one of the delegates from Rhode Island to the "Stamp Act Congress" in 1765. This signature of Hopkins exhibits the same tremulousness of hand which is seen in that attached to the Declaration of Independence, written fifteen years afterward, and is a proof, if evidence were wanting, that it was not the effect of fear, but "shaking palsy," that makes the patriot's sign-manual to our National Document appear so suspiciously crooked.

Governor Cooke's Monument.--La Fayette's Head-quarters.--Roger Williams's Spring.

625elisk erected to the memory of Nicholas Cooke, who was Governor of Rhode Island from 1775 until 1778, and an active and efficient patriot until his death, which occurred before the independence of his country was secured by treaty.

His biography is briefly inscribed upon his monument in the following words:

"Nicholas Cooke, born in Providence, February 3d, 1717; Died September 14th, 1782. Unanimously elected Governor of Rhode Island in 1775, he remained in office during the darkest period of the American Revolution. He merited and won the approbation of his fellow-citizens, and was honored with the friendship and confidence of Washington."

This is the inscription upon the east side, immediately above which, in raised letters, is the name Cooke. On the west is the following:

"Hannah Sabine, relict of Nicholas Cooke, born in Killingly, Connecticut, March 13th, 1722; died in Providence, March 22d, 1792." This monument is about twenty feet high, composed of a single block. The sketch of it here given is from the cemetery, looking eastward, and includes in the distance the French camp-ground just mentioned. The most remote of the two fields seen between the trees on the right, is the one wherein the remains of the encampment are to be seen.

On the road leading from the cemetery to the town is a brick building, with a hip-roof, which La Fayette occupied as head-quarters, while in Providence a short time in 1778 He had been sent by Washington with two thousand men to assist Sullivan in the siege of Newport. The house is well preserved, but changed somewhat in its external appearance On our way into the town we passed along Benefit Street, on the east side of which, in a vacant lot, upon the slope of a steep hill, near the mansion of the father of Governor Dorr, is a living water-fountain, called _Roger Williams's Spring_. Tradition asserts that here, in the cool shade of sycamores (of which the huge trees that now overshadow it are the sprouts), Williams first reposed after his journey, and that here his first tent was pitched, at twilight, on a beautiful evening in June. It is a pleasant spot now, even with the pent-up city around it; it must then have been a delicious resting-place for the weary exile, for below him were the bright waters of the Narraganset, beyond which arose the gentle slopes and more lofty hills of the fair land of Canonicus, his friend and protector.

* Mr. Cooke was deputy governor in 1775. When the Assembly, or House of Magistrates of the colony, voted to raise an army of fifteen hundred men, Joseph Wanton, then the Governor of Rhode Island, his deputy, and others in the government, were opposed to the measure. The people were displeased, yet Wanton, who had been chief magistrate since 1769, was rechosen governor in May; but, failing to appear and take the prescribed oath, the Assembly directed that the deputy governor should perform the duties of chief magistrate. Mr. Cooke became convinced that the warlike measures of the Assembly were correct, and entered heartily into all their views. Wanton appeared in June, and demanded that the oath of office should be administered to him, but, as he had not given satisfaction to the Assembly, his request or demand was not complied with.

Old Tavern in Providence.--Its Associations.--Destruction of Tea in Market Square.--Rhode Island Historical Society

626Within the city, on the east side of Market Square, stands the old tavern, with moss-grown roof, where many a grave and many a boisterous meeting were held by the freemen of the Providence Plantations during the Stamp Act excitement, and the earlier years of the of the people; and many excited audiences have crowded Market Square, in front of it, to listen to patriotic speeches.

The people ol Providence, and particularly the matrons and maidens, cheerfully acquiesced in the demands made upon their self-denial by the non-importation agreements, and foreign tea was discarded as if it had been a poisonous drug. ** In 1773, when it was ascertained that the ships of the East India Company, heavily laden with tea, were about to sail for America, the people of Providence were among the first to express their disapprobation; and on one occasion the town crier, with a drum, patroled the streets in the evening, announcing that a bonfire of _tea_ would be made in Market Square at ten o'clock at night, and requesting those who possessed and repudiated the article to cast it upon the heap. At the appointed hour the square was crowded, and the old tavern front and its neighbors were brilliantly illuminated by the glow of the burning tea, aided by other combustibles, while shouts long and loud went up as one voice from the multitude. This was but a prelude to the united and vigorous action of the people when the war notes from Lexington aroused the country; and until the close of the contest Providence was a "nest of rebels against the king."

I concluded the labors and pleasures of the day by making the above sketch, and in the evening attended, by invitation, a meeting of the Rhode Island Historical Society, over which Albert G. Greene, Esq., presided, the venerable president, John Howland, then ninety-one years of age, being absent. Their rooms are in a small but convenient building near Brown University, and contain about five thousand volumes of books and pamphlets, many of them very rare. The meeting was one of much interest, especially to Rhode Islanders, for Professor Gammel, of the University, made a verbal communication on the subject of important manuscripts concerning the early history of New England, which are in the British colonial office. He imparted the gratifying intelligence that J. Carter Brown, Esq., of Providence,

* This view is from the market, looking north. The building stands on the east side of the square, and parallel with its front commences North Main Street. In the yard on the right is a venerable horse-chestnut tree, standing between the house and the Roger Williams' Bank. In former times, a balcony extended across the front. The door that opened upon it is still there, but the balcony is gone. The roof is completely overgrown with moss, and every appearance of age marks it.

** On the 12th of June, 1769, twenty-nine young ladies, daughters of the first citizens of Providence, met under the shade of the sycamores at the Roger Williams' Spring, and there resolved not to drink any more tea until the duty upon it should be taken off. They then adjourned to the house of one of the company (Miss Coddington), where they partook of a frugal repast, composed in part of the "delicious Hyperion," a tea of domestic manufacture--See note on page 481. There the Sons of Liberty met and planned their measures in opposition to the British ministry.

From the same balcony were read the proclamation announcing the accession of George III. to the throne in 1760; the odious Stamp Act in 1765; the bill for its repeal in 1766; and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. That balcony seemed to be the forum

Valuable Manuscripts.--A telescopic Peep at the Moon and Stars.-- Bryant's "Song of the Stars."--Voyage to Gaspeo Point

627with an enlightened liberality worthy of all praise, had made arrangements to have all the manuscripts in question copied at his own expense, under the direction of Mr. Stephens, the eminent agriculturist, then in Europe. * The manuscripts relate to New England history, from 1634 to 1720, and consist of more than four hundred pieces, about two hundred and fifty of which have special reference to the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Among them is a minute account of all the transactions relating to Captain Kidd, the noted pirate. Already two thousand four hundred pages of copies, beautifully written by one hand, on vellum foolscap, had been forwarded to Mr. Brown, a few of which were exhibited by Professor Gammel.

Moon and stars were shining brightly when we left the Society's rooms, and afforded a fine field of view through a large telescope that was standing under the porch of the college. The professor having it in charge kindly allowed me a glance at our celestial neighbors. The moon was gibbous, and brilliant as molten silver appeared its ragged edges. Saturn was visible, but the earth being upon the plane of its rings, they could not be seen. Some double stars, even of the seventeenth magnitude, were pointed out; and over the whole field of view, those distant worlds, that appear like brilliant points to the unaided vision, were seen glowing in all the beautiful colors of the emerald, the ruby, the sapphire, and the topaz While gazing upon them, it seemed to me as if

"Their silver voices in chorus rang,

And this was the song the bright ones sang.

"Away! away! through the wide, wide sky--

The fair blue fields that before us lie.

Each sun with the worlds that round it roll;

Each planet poised on her turning pole;

With her isles of green and her clouds of white,

And her waters that lie like fluid light.

"For the Source of Glory uncovers his face,

And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space;

And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides,

In our ruddy air and our blooming sides.

Lo! yonder the living splendors play;

Away on our joyous path, away!

"Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres,

To weave the dance that measures the years.

Glide on in the glory and gladness sent

To the farthest wall of the firmament--

The boundless, visible smile of Him,

To the veil of whose brow our lamps are dim."

Bryant's "Song of the Stars."

On the morning of the 21st, I procured a sort of pinnace, and a boatman to manage October, 1848it, and with a stiff, cold breeze from the northwest, sailed down the Narraganset Bay ** to Gaspee Point, a place famous in our Revolutionary annals as the scene of a daring act on the part of the people of Rhode Island. The Point is on the west side of the bay, about six miles below Providence, and consists, first, of a high jutting bank, and then a sandy beach stretching into the bay, almost uncovered at low tide, but completely submerged at high water. The bay is here about two miles wide, and the low bare point extends at least half a mile from the bank, its termination marked by a buoy. The navigation of this section of the bay is dangerous on account of the sand-bars, and also of submerged rocks, lying just below the surface at low water. Two of them, in the vicinity of Field's Point, are marked by strong stone towers about thirty feet high, both of which are

* Mr. Brown is a son of Nicholas Brown, whose liberal endowment of the college at Providence, and active influence in its favor, caused the faculty to give his name to the institution. It is called Brown University.

** The northern portion of the bay is quite narrow, and from the Pawtuxet to its head is generally called Providence River.

The Gaspee.--Conduct of her Commander.--Sketch of Gaspee Point--Governor Wanton

628above Gaspee Point. The tide was ebbing when we arrived at the Point, and anchoring our vessel, we sought to reach the shore in its little skiff--a feat of no small difficulty on account of the shallowness of the water. I waited nearly an hour for the ebbing tide to leave the Point bare, before making my sketch.

The historical incident alluded to was the burning of the Gaspee, a British armed schooner, in 1772. She first appeared in the waters of Narraganset Bay in March, having been dispatched thither by the commissioners of customs at Boston to prevent infractions of the revenue laws, and to put a stop to the illicit trade which had been carried on for a long time at Newport and Providence.

Her appearance disquieted the people, and her interference with the free navigation of the bay irritated them. Deputy-governor Sessions, residing at Providence, wrote in behalf of the people there to Governor Wanton * at Newport, expressing his opinion that the commander of the Gaspee, Lieutenant Duddington, had no legal warrant for his proceedings. Governor Wanton immediately dispatched a written message, by the high sheriff, to Duddington, in which he required that officer to produce his commission without delay. This the lieutenant refused to do, and Wanton made a second demand for his orders. Duddington, apparently shocked at the idea that a colonial governor should claim the right to control, in any degree, the movement of his majesty's officers, did not reply, but sent Wanton's letters to Admiral Montague at Boston.

* Joseph Wanton was a native of Newport, Rhode Island. He graduated at Harvard in 1751. In 1759 he was elected Governor of Rhode Island, which office he held by re-election until 1775. when his opposition to the views of the people, and his neglect to take the oath of office at the proper time, made the Assembly declare his place vacant. His deputy, Nicholas Cooke, performed the duties of governor. The confidence of the people in his attachment to American liberty was doubtless shaken by his appointment, under the great seal of England, to inquire into the affair of the Gaspee. But in that he acted as a conscientious man, and there was evidently a desire on his part that the incendiaries of that vessel should not be known, although he labored with apparent zeal to discover them. He was regarded as a Loyalist during the remainder of his life. He died at Newport in 1782.

** This view is from the bank of the cove just below the Point, looking northeast, showing its appearance at low water when the clam-fishers are upon it. The buoy is seen beyond the extreme end of the Point on the right. The bank is about fifteen feet high. In front of Pawtuxet, about a mile above, are the remains of breast-works, thrown up during the war of 1812. There are also breast-works at Field's Point, two miles below Providence, where is a flag-staff There is the quarantine ground.

Montague's insolent--Letter. Wanton's Rejoinder.--Captain Lindsey's Packet chased by the Gaspee.--Grounding of the Gaspee.

629That functionary, forgetting that the Governor of Rhode Island was elected to office by the voice of a free people--that he was the chief magistrate of a colony of free Englishmen, and not a creature of the crown--wrote an insulting and blustering letter to Governor April 6, 1772 Wanton in defense of Duddington, and in reprehension of his opponents. In it he used these insulting words: "I shall report your two insolent letters to my officer [Duddington] to his majesty's secretaries of state, and leave them to determine what right you have to demand a sight of all orders I shall give to all officers of my squadron; and I would advise you not to send your sheriff on board the king's ship again on such ridiculous errands." To this letter Governor Wanton wrote a spirited reply. "I am greatly May 8,1772 obliged," he said, "for the promise of transmitting my letters to the secretaries of state. I am, however, a little shocked at your impolite expression made use of upon that occasion. In return for this good office, I shall also transmit your letter to the Secretary of State, and leave to the king and his ministers to determine on which side the charge of insolence lies. As to your advice not to send a sheriff on board any of your squadron, please to know, that I will send the sheriff of this colony at any time, and to any place within the body of it, as I shall think fit." On the 20th of May, Governor Wanton, pursuant to a vote of the Assembly, transmitted an account of the matter to the Earl of Hillsborough; but, before any reply could be received, the Gaspee became a wreck, under the following circumstances:

On the 9th of June, 1772, Captain Lindsey left Newport for Providence, in his packet * at about noon, the wind blowing from the South. ** The Gaspee, whose commander did not discriminate between the well-known packets and the strange vessels that came into the harbor, had often fired upon the former, to compel their masters to take down their colors in its presence--a haughty marine Gesler, requiring obeisance to its imperial cap. As Captain Lindsey, on this occasion, kept his colors flying, the Gaspee gave chase, and continued it as far as Namquit (now Gaspee) Point. The tide was ebbing, but the bar was covered. As soon as Lindsey doubled the Point, he stood to the westward Duddington, commander of the Gaspee, eager to overtake the pursued, and ignorant of the extent of the submerged Point from the shore, kept on a straight course, and in a few minutes struck the sand. The fast ebbing tide soon left his vessel hopelessly grounded. Captain Lindsey arrived at Providence at sunset, and at once communicated the fact of the grounding of the Gaspee to Mr. John Brown, one of the leading merchants of that city. Knowing that the schooner could not be got off until flood-tide, after midnight, Brown thought this a good opportunity to put an end to the vexations caused by her presence. He ordered the preparation of eight of the largest long-boats in the harbor, to be placed under the general command of Captain Whipple, one of his most trusty ship-masters; each boat to have five oars, the row-locks to be muffled, and the whole put in readiness by half past eight in the evening, at Fenner's Wharf, near the residence of the late Welcome Arnold. At dusk, a man named Daniel Pearce passed along the Main Street, beating a drum, and informing the inhabitants that the Gaspee lay aground on Namquit Point; that she could not get off until three o'clock in the morning; and inviting those who were willing to engage in her destruction to meet at the house of James Sabine, afterward the residence of Welcome Arnold. The boats left Providence between ten and eleven o'clock, filled with sixty-four well-armed men, a sea captain in each boat acting as steersman. They took with them a quantity of round paving-stones. Between one and two in the morning they reached the Gaspee, when a June 9, 1772 sentinel on board hailed them. No answer being returned, Duddington appeared in his shirt on the starboard gunwale, and waving the boats off, fired a pistol at them. This

* This packet was called the Hannah, and sailed between New York and Providence, touching at Newport.

** Cooper, in his Naval History, i., 81, says that the Hannah was "favored by a fresh southerly breeze." The details here given are taken chiefly from a statement by the late Colonel Ephraim Bowen, of Providence, who was one of the party that attacked the Gaspee. Colonel Bowen says the wind was from the North. The circumstances of the chase, however, show that it must have been from the South.

Expedition against the Gaspee.--Her Destruction.--Efforts to discover the Incendiaries.--The Commissioners,

630discharge was returned by a musket from one of the boats. * Duddington was wounded in the groin, and carried below. The boats now came alongside the schooner, and the men boarded her without much opposition, the crew retreating below when their wounded commander was carried down. A medical student among the Americans dressed Duddington's wound, ** and he was carried on shore at Pawtuxet. The schooner's company were ordered to collect their clothing and leave the vessel, which they did; and all the effects of Lieutenant Duddington being carefully placed in one of the American boats to be delivered to the owner, the Gaspee was set on fire and at dawn blew up. ***

On being informed of this event, Governor Wanton issued a proclamation, ordering diligent search for persons having a knowledge of the crime, and offering a reward of five hundred dollars "for the discovery June 1 of the perpetrators of said villainy, to be paid immediately upon the conviction of any one or more of them." Admiral Montague also made endeavors to discover the incendiaries. Afterward the home government offered a reward of five thousand dollars for the leader, and two thousand five hundred dollars to any person who would discover the other parties, with the promise of a pardon should the informer be an accomplice. A commission of inquiry, under the great seal of England, was established, which sat from the 4th until the 2 2d of January, 1773. **** It then adjourned until the 26th of May, when it assembled and sat until the 23d of June. But not a solitary clew to the identity of the perpetrators could be obtained, notwithstanding so many of them were known to the people. (v) The price of treachery on the part of any accomplice would have been exile from home and country; and the proffered reward was not adequate to such a sacrifice, even though weak moral principles or strong acquisitiveness had been tempted into compliance. The commissioners closed their labors on the 23d of June, and further inquiry was not attempted. (vi)

* Thomas Bucklin, a young man about nineteen years of age, fired the musket. He afterward assisted in dressing the wound which his bullet inflicted.

** This was Dr. John Mawney. His kindness and attention to Duddington excited the gratitude of that officer, who offered young Mawney a gold stock-buckle; that being refused, a silver one was offered and accepted.

*** The principal actors in this affair were John Brown, Captain Abraham Whipple, John B. Hopkins, Benjamin Dunn, Dr. John Mawney, Benjamin Page, Joseph Bucklin, Turpin Smith, Ephraim Bowen, and Captain Joseph Tillinghast. The names were, of course, all kept, secret at the time.

**** The commission consisted of Governor Joseph Wanton, of Rhode Island; Daniel Horsmanden, chief justice of New York; Frederic Smyth, chief justice of New Jersey; Peter Oliver, chief justice of Massachusetts; and Robert Auchmuty, judge of the Vice-admiralty Court.

*(v) The drum was publicly beaten; the sixty-four boldly embarked on the expedition without disguise; and it is asserted by Mr. John Howland (still living), that on the morning after the affair, a young man, named Justin Jacobs, paraded on the "Great Bridge," a place of much resort, with Lieutenant Duddington's gold-laced beaver on his head, detailing the particulars of the transaction to a circle around him.

*(vi) See Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee, by the Honorable William R. Staples; Providence, 1845. In a song written at the time, and composed of fifty-eight lines of doggerel verse, is ingeniously given the history of the affair. It closes with the following allusion to the rewards offered:

"Now, for to find these people out. King George has offered very stout. One thousand pounds to find out one That wounded William Duddington. One thousand more he says he'll spare, For those who say the sheriff's were. One thousand more there doth remain For to find out the leader's name; Likewise five hundred pounds per man For any one of all the clan. But let him try his utmost skill, I'm apt to think he never will Find out any of those hearts of gold, Though he should offer fifty-fold."

Return to Providence.--Visit to Mr. John Howland.--His military Career in the Revolution

631After finishing my sketch of Namquit, or Gaspee Point (page 60), we embarked for Providence, the wind blowing a gale from the northwest. It was with much difficulty that we managed our vessel; and before we reached the harbor we were drenched with the spray that dashed over the gunwale from the windward. In company with Mr. Weeden I visited the fine library of the Athenium Association, * and afterward had the pleasure of a brief interview, at his residence, with the venerable Mr. Howland, president of the Historical Society. So clear and vigorous was his well- cultivated mind, that I regretted the brevity of my visit, made necessary by the near approach of the hour of departure of the steam- packet, in which I was to proceed to Newport. Mr. Howland passed his ninety-first birth-day a few days before I saw him. He was a soldier early in the war for independence, having been drafted as a minute man in the winter of 1775, to go to Newport. He was afterward attached to the Rhode Island regiment under Colonel Lippincott, and joined the Continental army under Washington at Kingsbridge, at the upper end of York or Manhattan Island. He was in the retreat to White Plains in the autumn of 1776, and was engaged in the skirmish at Chatterton's Hill. He related an amusing circumstance which occurred during that retreat. While the Americans halted upon Chatterton's Hill, the British, in close pursuit, rested, for a short time, upon another eminence close by. An Irishman, one of Colonel Lippincott's servants, who was called "Daddy Hall," seemed quite uneasy on account of the presence of the enemy. Pie had charge of the colonel's horse, and frequently exclaimed, "What are we doing here? Why do we stop here? Why don't we go on? I don't believe the colonel knows that the red-coated rascals are so near." Paymaster Dexter,2 seeing the perturbation of the poor fellow, said, "Daddy Hall, you're afraid! you're a trembling coward!" The Milesian's ire was aroused at these words, and looking the paymaster in the face with a scornful curl of his lips, he said, "Be jabers! no, Maisther Dexther, I'm not afeerd more nor yez be; but faith! ye'll find yourself that one good pair of heels is worth two of hands afore night; if ye don't, call Daddy Hall a spalpeen." And so he did; for before sunset the Americans were flying before their pursuers, more grateful to heels than hands for safety.

Mr. Howland accompanied Washington in his retreat across New Jersey, and was in the division of Cadwallader, at Bristol, which was to go over the Delaware on the night when Washington crossed that river, and surprised the Hessians at Trenton. The December 25, 1776 ice prevented; but they crossed the next day, and were stationed at Crosswicks for a day or two. Mr. Howland was among those at Trenton who were driven across the Assanpink by the British on the evening of the 2d of January, the night before the battle of Princeton. The bridge across the Assanpink was much crowded, and Mr. Howland remembers having his arm scratched by one of Washington's spurs as he passed

* Mr. Weeden was formerly librarian of the institution. It is situated in a handsome building on the east side of Benefit Street, and contains about five thousand volumes, among whieh is a copy of the great work on Egypt, arranged under the superintendence of Denon, and published by Napoleon at the expense of the government of France. This copy belonged to Prince Polignac, the minister of Charles X. Many of the plates were colored by his direction. It is a beautiful copy, bound in morocco.

** I was informed, after leaving Providence, that Mr. Dexter was yet living in the northern part of the town, at the age of ninety-two years.

Departure for Newport.--Appearance of Rhode Island.--Old Tower at Newport.--Mansion of Governor Gibbs

632by the commander in the crowd, who sat upon his white horse at the south end of the bridge. He performed the dreary night march through the snow toward Princeton, and was in the battle there on the following morning. His term of service expired while the American army was at Morristown, whither it went from Princeton. From Morristown, himself and companions made their way on foot, through deep snows, back to Providence, crossing the Hudson River at King's Ferry (Stony Point), and the Connecticut at Hartford. Gladly would I have listened until sunset to the narrative of his great experience, but the first bell of the packet summoned me away.