bay. The city is quite large, constituting about twelve companies. It
has three churches, or meeting houses, as they call them.[438] All the
houses are made of thin, small cedar shingles, nailed against frames,
and then filled in with brick and other stuff; and so are their
churches. For this reason these towns are so liable to fires, as have
already happened several times; and the wonder to me is, that the
whole city has not been burnt down, so light and dry are the
materials. There is a large dock in front of it constructed of wooden
piers, where the large ships go to be careened and rigged; the smaller
vessels all come up to the city. On the left-hand side across the
river lies Charlestown, a considerable place, where there is some
shipping. Upon the point of the bay, on the left hand, there is a
block-house, along which a piece of water runs, called the Milk
Ditch.[439] The whole place has been an island, but it is now joined
to the main land by a low road to Roxbury. In front of the town there
are many small islands, between which you pass in sailing in and out.
On one of the middlemost stands the fort, where the ships show their
passports. At low tide the water in the channel between the islands is
three and a half and four fathoms deep, in its shallowest part. You
sail from the city southeasterly to the fort, by passing Governor's
island on the larboard, and having passed the fort, you keep close to
the south, then southeast, and gradually more to the east to the sea.
On reaching the sea we set our course due east, with the wind
south-southeast, and made good progress.

[Footnote 438: The meeting-houses of the First Church, North Church,
and South Church (built 1640, 1650, 1672).]

[Footnote 439: The battery at the foot of Fort Hill, north of which a
cove and creek then ran to the foot of Milk Street. The narrow isthmus
to Roxbury existed when the first settlers came.]

_24th, Wednesday._ The wind and our course continued the same; but it
is to be observed, the compass here is a point and a half
northwesting. We spoke an English ship bound to Virginia. We found our
latitude [42 deg.] 40' north, and the distance we had sailed 96 miles.

_25th, Thursday._ The wind became more southerly, but we held our
course the same as before, or east by south. Latitude 42 deg. 68'.
Distance reckoned to be 136 miles. The English ship which had remained
in company until now, left us. It began to blow so hard in the evening
t