n except those of the members of the
congregation. All their religion consists in observing Sunday, by not
working or going into the taverns on that day; but the houses are
worse than the taverns. No stranger or traveller can therefore be
entertained on a Sunday, which begins at sunset on Saturday, and
continues until the same time on Sunday. At these two hours you see
all their countenances change. Saturday evening the constable goes
round into all the taverns of the city for the purpose of stopping all
noise and debauchery, which frequently causes him to stop his search,
before his search causes the debauchery to stop. There is a penalty
for cursing and swearing, such as they please to impose, the witnesses
thereof being at liberty to insist upon it. Nevertheless you discover
little difference between this and other places. Drinking and fighting
occur there not less than elsewhere; and as to truth and true
godliness, you must not expect more of them than of others. When we
were there, four ministers' sons were learning the silversmith's
trade.

[Footnote 434: This is to ignore the voyages of Gosnold, Pring,
Weymouth, etc., and the settlement at Fort St. George in 1607.]

[Footnote 435: The Connecticut.]

[Footnote 436: The reading is _eer_, but _heer_ was of course
intended. The control by the English king was much more real than is
here indicated. The next sentence alludes to the Navigation Acts and
their evasion. As to customs, Edward Randolph had in 1678 been
appointed collector for New England, and had begun his conflict with
the Massachusetts authorities, but with little success thus far.
Land-taxes did in fact exist.]

[Footnote 437: On Endicott's cutting of the cross from the flag, in
1634, see Winthrop's _Journal_, in this series, I. 137, 174, 182.
Since the decision then reached (1636), the cross had been left out of
all ensigns in Massachusetts except that on Castle Island.]

The soil is not as fertile as in the west. Many persons leave there to
go to the Delaware and New Jersey. They manure their lands with heads
of fish. They gain their living mostly or very much by fish, which
they salt and dry for selling; and by raising horses, oxen, and cows,
as well as hogs and sheep, which they sell alive, or slaughtered and
salted, in the Caribbean Islands and other places. They are not as
good farmers as the Hollanders about New York.

As to Boston particularly, it lies in latitude 42 deg. 20' on a very fine