7.  A body of soldiers came up Royal Exchange Lane, crying, “Where are the cowards?” and, brandishing their arms, passed through King Street.  From ten to twenty boys came after them, asking, “Where are they? where are they?” “There is the soldier who knocked me down,” said the barber’s boy; and they began pushing one another towards the sentinel.  He loaded and primed his musket.  “The lobster is going to fire,” cried a boy.  Waving his piece about, the sentinel pulled the trigger.

8.  “If you fire you must die for it,” said Henry Knox, who was passing by.  “I don’t care,” replied the sentry, “if they touch me, I’ll fire.”  “Fire!” shouted the boys, for they were persuaded he could not do it without leave from a civil officer; and a young fellow spoke out, “We will knock him down for snapping,” while they whistled through their fingers and huzzaed.  “Stand off !” said the sentry, and shouted aloud, “Turn out, main guard!” “They are killing the sentinel,” reported a servant from the customhouse, running to the main guard.  “Turn out! why don’t you turn cut?” cried Preston, who was captain of the day, to the guard.

9.  A party of six, two of whom, Kilroi and Montgomery, had been worsted at the ropewalk, formed, with a corporal in front and Preston following.  With bayonets fixed, they “rushed through the people” upon the trot, cursing them, and pushing them as they went along.  They found about ten persons round the sentry, while about fifty or sixty came down with them.  “For God’s sake,” said Knox! holding Preston by the coat, “take your men back again; if they fire, your life must answer for the consequences.”  “I know what I am about,” said he hastily, and much agitated.

10.  None pressed on them or provoked them till they began loading, when a party of about twelve in number, with sticks in their hands, moved from the middle of the street where they had been standing, gave three cheers, and passed along the front of the soldiers, whose muskets some of them struck as they went by.  “You are cowardly rascals,” they said, “for bringing arms against naked men.”  “Lay aside your guns, and we are ready for you.”  “Are the soldiers loaded?” inquired Palmes of Preston.  “Yes,” he answered, “with powder and ball.”  “Are they going to fire upon the inhabitants?” asked Theodore Bliss.  “They can not, without my orders,” replied Preston; while “the town-born” called out, “Come on, you rascals, you bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire, if you dare.  We know you dare not.”

11.  Just then, Montgomery received a blow from a stick which had hit his Musket; and the word “fire!” being given by Preston, he stepped a little to one side, and shot Attucks, who at the time was quietly leaning on a long stick.  “Don’t fire!” said Langford, the watchman, to Kilroi, looking him full in the face; but yet he did so, and Samuel Gray, who was standing next Langford, fell lifeless.  The rest fired slowly and in succession on the people, who were dispersing.  Three persons were killed, among them Attucks, the mulatto; eight were wounded, two of them mortally.  Of all the eleven, not more than one had any share in the disturbance.