1643.] BOSTON IN 1643. 23 opportunity as we hope neither he nor any other shall ever have the like again." The castle, or fort, which was on another island hard by, was defenceless, its feeble garrison having been lately withdrawn, and its cannon might easily have been turned on the town. Boston, now in its thirteenth year, was a straggling village, with houses principally of boards or logs, gathered about a plain wooden meeting-house which formed the heart or vital organ of the place. The rough peninsula on which the infant settlement stood was almost void of trees, and was crowned by a hill split into three summits, whence the name of Tremont, or Trimount, still retained by a street of the present city. Beyond the narrow neck of the peninsula were several smaller villages with outlying farms; but the mainland was for the most part a primeval forest, possessed by its original owners, — wolves, bears, and rattlesnakes. These last undesirable neighbors made their favorite haunt on a high rocky hill, called Rattlesnake Hill, not far inland, where, down to the present generation, they were often seen, and where good specimens may occasionally be found to this day." Far worse than wolves or rattlesnakes were the Pequot Indians, a warlike race who had boasted 1 Winthrop, ii. 127. 2 Blue Hill in Milton. "Up into the country is a high hill which is called rattlesnake hill, where there is great store of these poysonous creatures." (Wood, New England's Prospect.) "They [the wolves] be the greatest inconveniency the country hath.” (Ibid.) |