stream of emigration brought over, for generations and for ever, thousands upon thousands of such men as came at the beginning.  The effects that would have been thus produced in America and in England, in accelerating the progress of society here, and sinking it into debasement there; and thereby upon the fortunes of mankind the world over, is a subject on which a meditative and philosophical mind may well be exercised.

But, although these men were lost, others are worthy of being enumerated, in forming an estimate of the elements that went to make the character of the people, a chapter in whose history, of awful import, we are preparing ourselves to explore.

Francis Weston was a leading man at the very beginning.  In 1634, with Roger Conant and John Holgrave, he represented Salem in the first House of Deputies ever assembled.  His land grant was some little distance to the west of the meeting-house of the village.  He must have been a person of more than ordinary liberality of spirit; for he discountenanced the intolerance of his age, and kept his mind open to receive truth and light.  He did not conceal his sympathy with those who suffered for entertaining Antinomian sentiments.  He was ordered to quit the colony in 1638.  For the same offence, his wife, who probably had refused to go, was placed in the stocks “two hours at Boston and two at Salem, on a lecture day.”  Weston, having ventured back, five years afterwards, was put in irons, and imprisoned to hard labor.  But, as he stood to his principles, and there was danger to be apprehended from his influence, he was again driven out of the colony.

Richard Waterman came over from England in 1629, recommended to Governor Endicott by the governor and deputy in London.  He was a noted hunter.  “His chief employment,” says the letter introducing him to Endicott, “will be to get you good venison.”  A land grant was assigned him near Davenport’s Hill.  But he, too, had a spirit that resisted the severe and arbitrary policy of the times.  He became a dissenter from the prevalent creed, and sympathized with those who suffered oppression.  In 1664, he was brought before the court, condemned to imprisonment, and finally banished.  Weston and Waterman subsequently were conspicuous in Rhode-Island affairs.  While residing in the village, the latter probably devoted himself to the opening of his land, and the pursuit of game through the forests.  I find but one notice of him as connected with public affairs.

For some years, the settlements were necessarily confined to the shores of bays or coves, and the banks of rivers.  There were no wheel-carriages of any kind, for transportation or travel, until something like roads could be made; and that was the work of time.  A few horses had been imported; but it was long before they could be raised to meet the general wants, or come much into use.  Every thing had to be water-borne.  The only vehicles were boats or canoes, mostly the