within; others exclaimed, the mohawks are come! The assembly broke up, and a part of it followed this body of young men to Griffins'-wharf, (now called Liverpool wharf,) on the south side of the town.

Three different parties,* composed of trust-worthy persons, many of whom in after life were among the most respectable citizens of the town, had been prepared in conformity to the secret resolves of the political leaders, to act as circumstances should require. They were seventy or eighty in all, and when every attempt had failed to have the tea returned, and the final refusal of the governor to interfere was received, it was immediately made known to them, and they proceeded at once to throw the obnoxious merchandize into the water. This was done with as much good order and regularity, as if the tea had been discharged in the ordinary way. The chests were hoisted upon the decks, broken open, and their contents emptied over the side of the ship into the channel. A large crowd of people was collected, who were quiet spectators of the operation, which was completed in the course of the evening. Three hundred and forty two chests of tea were thus destroyed, and not the slightest injury was done to any individual, or to any property

* One, if not two, of these parties, wore a kind of Indian disguise. Two of these persons in passing over Fort-hill, to the scene of operations, met with a British Officer, who on oberving them, naturally enough, drew his sword. As they came nearer, one of the Indians drew a pistol, and said to the offcer: "The path is wide enough for us all; we have nothing to do with you. and intend you no harm-if you keep your own way peaceably, we shall keep ours,"

on board the vessels, except the unlucky* tea, and, after the work was finished, the actors and spectators calmly retired to their several homes.

One of the

shoes filled

Of all this tea, the whole quantity saved, is contained in a small phial still in existence. operators on his return home, found his with it; this he put into a bottle and Not a pound of the tea was purloined. One of the persons engaged in the business, who wished to preserve too large a specimen, was observed by some

sealed up.

* It merited this appellation for various reasons, and it was unfortunate for every one who had any connexion with it. There was in Boston, at that time, a shopkeeper by the name of Jolley Allen, whose advertisements have a very shewy appearance in all the newspapers of that day. He could accommodate his customers with almost every article "cheap for cash." He drove a very thriving trade, and in addition to his other dealings boarded many of the British officers in his house, and also kept "horses and chaises to let." He seems to have been a person of very exuberant loyalty, with a strong mixture of cockney simplicity and trading shrewdness. He had accumulated a considerable property, and was a staunch government man, mistaking in common with some abler men, the extent of the British power, which he and they thought unlimited. Having sided with the English altogether, he was obliged to share their fate, and left the town, with the evacuating army, and the unhappy fugitives, that accompanied it, in a moment of great confusion and distress. He hired a vessel to transport his family and property to Halifax: the man who made the bargain with him, was a knave, utterly ignorant of the management of a vessel, and the day after they sailed, being separated from the fleet, they arrived, not at Halifax, but at Cape Cod, where the property was confiscated and all hands imprisoned. Jolley Allen after many troubles reached England, and wrote a narrative to support his claims for relief. This journal still remains in manuscript, and is called, "an account of part of the sufferings and losses of Jolley Allen, a native of London." It begins thus; "sometime I think in the month of October 1772, I bought two chests of tea of governer Hutchinson's two sons, Thomas and Elisha, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon," &c. This purchase was the prime cause of all his misfortunes. There is a strong tinge of the ludicrous in the distresses of this individual; though he undoubtedly suffered much, after making allowance for exaggeration. His bad spelling, his cunning and his ignorance, all contribute to make the narrative characteristic.

of his companions to have the pockets of his coat a little distended. This was treated as an accident, which was remedied however, in a good natured way, without resistance, by the application of a knife across the waist of the coat, which left it a kind of garment, that has in later times been called a Spencer, and the part separated was thrown overboard to accompany its kindred tea. The most scrupulous care was taken that none of it should be secreted. The shores of the harbour at high water mark, were lined with it the next day, as with other worthless weeds. A chest containing a few pounds, floated into a creek in Dorchester, where it was discovered, brought into town, and publicly committed to the flames.

The motives of Hutchinson on this occasion were pitiful, and his conduct very deficient in foresight, A large part of the tea was consigned to his sons, and their small gain was a prevailing consideration in his mind. Though the public attention was alive on this subject throughout the colonies; though he knew the inhabitants of Boston had been watchful and anxious for near three weeks, and had determined with as much unanimity as energy, that the tea should not be landed; though the question of receiving this tea, had become the pivot, on which the whole great dispute about taxation turned at that moment; though a civil war might depend upon it, and did actually ensue, the commissions that would accrue to his sons preponderated against all other considerations, He thought himself safe. The Custom-house refused a

clearance, unless the tea was landed, the naval commanders refused to let the ships pass without a clearance, therefore it must be landed. He forgot, or never indeed seemed to understand, that he was acting against men, who, if they could not untie a knot, would cut it. The same difficulties did not occur in other places. At New-York and Philadelphia, the officers yielded to the force of public opinion, and prudently assisted in having the tea returned. The Admiral commanding in Boston, offered to receive it under his protection;* but the Governor determined that it should go into his sons' warehouses, and the people of Boston then resolved, that it should go into the sea. Every exertion was made by them to avoid the destruction of property, by this necessary act of violence. When nothing would avail, when neither remonstrances nor intreaties could move the Governor, they had no alternative but to destroy the ministerial and royal grocery, or abandon all the principles which they had been eight years contending for, and which, in a brief period after, they shed their blood to maintain.

* Admiral Montague then commanded on the Boston station. He had offered to receive the tea, which was refused. He probably anticipated its fate. On the evening of its destruction, he was visiting at a house in Atkinson street, which terminates near the spot where the tea ships laid. His secretary perceiving a great movement in the neighbourhood, came in a hurry to tell him, that something was in agitation. In reply, he was asked "to sit down and keep himself quiet, and not meddle with other people's business." When this officer returned to England, he gave such answers respecting the character of the people and their Governors, as prevented the ministry from ever consulting him farther, as they listened to no one who did not encourage them to persevere in their infatuated scheme.

Chapter XXTL.

The intercepted letters of the Governor and others-His recallCharacter of Governor Hutchinson.

In the summer preceding this affair of the tea, the famous letters already mentioned as transmitted by Dr. Franklin, which had been written by Governor Hutchinson and other officers, were published by order of the General Court, and it may be truly said, rendered his situation no longer tenable. These letters, written five or six years before, laid bare his hypocrisy, and exposed the odious counsels which he had given against the rights of his countrymen. His obstinacy in preventing the tea from being safely returned, and the mischievous consequences that might follow from its destruction, completed the exasperation of the public against him. When the legislature were in their winter session, he received his recall, of which he informed the Court, and soon after prorogued them. He was succeeded in the command of the province by General Gage, and sailed for England on the first of June, 1774.

There was, perhaps, no single officer of the British government in America, who contributed more to produce the separation of the two countries, than Governor Hutchinson. It is therefore a matter of some difficulty and delicacy, to delineate his character and administration; because those whe