here was great excitement. Despite the rigid New England
observance of the Sabbath, the selectmen immediately met, and remained
in session until nine o'clock in the evening, in the expectation of
receiving the promised proposal of the consignees. These gentlemen were
not to be found, and on the next day, bidding a final adieu to Boston,
they took up their quarters at the castle.

[Illustration: Signature, F. Rotch]

Hutchinson advised the consignees to order the vessels, when they
arrived, to anchor below the castle, that if it should appear unsafe to
land the tea, they might go to sea again, and when the first ship
arrived she anchored there accordingly, but when the master came up to
town, Mr. Adams and others, a committee of the town, ordered him at his
peril to bring the ship up to land the other goods, but to suffer no tea
to be taken out.

The committee of correspondence, who also held a session that day,
seeing that time was precious, and that the tea once entered it would be
out of the power of the consignees to send it back, obtained the promise
of the owner not to enter his ship till Tuesday, and authorized Samuel
Adams to summon the committees and townspeople of the vicinity to a mass
meeting, in Boston, on the next morning. The invitation read as follows:

"A part of the tea shipped by the East India Company is now
arrived in this harbor, and we look upon ourselves bound to
give you the earliest intimation of it, and we desire that
you favor us with your company at Faneuil Hall, at nine
o'clock to-morrow forenoon, there to give us your advice
what steps are to be immediately taken, in order effectually
to prevent the impending evil, and we request you to urge
your friends in the town, to which you belong, to be in
readiness to exert themselves in the most resolute manner,
to assist this town in its efforts for saving this oppressed
country."

The journals of Monday announced that the "Dartmouth" had anchored off
Long Wharf, and that other ships with the poisonous herb might soon be
here. They also contained a call for a public meeting, as announced in
the following handbill, already printed and distributed throughout the
town:

"Friends! Brethren! Countrymen! That worst of plagues, the
detested tea, shipped for this port by the East India
Company, is now arrived in this harbor; the hour of
destruction or manly opposition to the machinations